Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

President Obama Meets With Insurance Companies; Crack-Smoking Mayor Stripped of Some Power

Aired November 15, 2013 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, we have heard what they have said in public to the media. I can imagine what they're going to say in private to the president.

And that is because they feel undermined. They feel that they did everything they were supposed to do to comply with the Obamacare law, and now they're being told with 30 days they have to call everybody that they gave cancellation notices to because their policies didn't comply with the new law, saying, never mind.

It will be very interesting to see if the president is successful, because, again, what he announced is not a requirement, it's not mandatory. It's a request. He's going to have to do a lot of persuading among a lot of not-very-happy insurance executives.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: On the subject of persuading, there was this vote on the House floor on the Republican bill that would give people access to insurance. The president lost 39 Democrats here; 39 Democrats voted for the Republican plan here. What kind of a hit is that?

BASH: It's not good. But it is better than it would have been had the president not come out and made his announcement yesterday, not come out and tried to sort of mitigate this.

But, still, 39 Democrats is about a fifth of the House Democratic Caucus. That is not an insignificant number. I spoke to one of the Democrats who defied his leadership and voted for the Republican bill, Ron Barber of Arizona. Listen to the reason he gave for voting yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: As you know, your leadership says that your vote would undercut the entire Obamacare law.

REP. RON BARBER (D), ARIZONA: Well, I don't see it that way. I think any fix that we can make, particularly when a problem arises, is good for the people back home. And truth of the matter is, look, I'm accountable to the people who sent me here. I respect our leadership on both sides of the aisle, but leadership didn't elect me. My constituents did, and I'm going to make sure I listen to them and do what I can to support them when they have problems and concerns. That's what I'm doing in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: That is really illustrative, John, of why you saw so many Democratic defections, because they were getting panicked calls from their constituents. They were home last week. Everyone who has a canceled policy said, help me do something.

Especially people like him, who is in a competitive race next year, wants to go back and say, look, I voted to help you, despite the fact that Democratic leaders were saying over and over on the House floor in private to these rank and file members, don't vote for this because it doesn't just reinstate canceled plans. It allows people to get the plans that don't have the benefits that Obamacare requires, which would undermine the entire risk pool and the paradigm of the whole system.

BERMAN: They're listening to their voters and they're looking at the polls, no doubt. Dana Bash for us on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

BASH: Thank you.

ROSA FLORES, CNN ANCHOR: Now to more drama, but this time, north of the border and an item that the Toronto City Council debated today, motion to improve the decision-making environment at City Hall. Folks, that's polite Canadian-speak for trying to get rid of the crack-smoking mayor. Let's be honest here.

The 44-member council did what they could by law, since it cannot recall him altogether. It passed a motion that strips Rob Ford of all of his powers. The council has delegated the position in the past. And Ford understood where the council was coming from.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB FORD, MAYOR OF TORONTO, CANADA: If I would have had a mayor acting the way I have conducted myself, I would have done the exact same thing. I'm not mad at anybody. I take full responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, it's the latest move to convince the mayor of North America's fourth largest city to take a leave of absence. Ford has admitted to smoking crack, buying illegal drugs, and his latest gaffe, folks, using an out-of-nowhere vulgarity that went live nationwide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: Olivia Gondek says that I wanted to eat her (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Gondek. I have never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I'm happily married.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: And joining us now is Ashleigh Banfield.

(LAUGHTER)

FLORES: How do we even follow that, Ashleigh? ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do you even report it, honestly? We can usually get around any profanity by explaining it or describing it. I can't. All I can say is go to Google.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: I feel like as one of your resident Canadians, I should start the segment off by saying I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of this.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Is there a sense of shame?

BANFIELD: Yes, there is. Yes, it's mortifying.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: And now on top of everything else, Rob Ford and his brother Doug are getting a talk show. We actually spoke to the news executive who's running the show. It's kind of crazy.

BANFIELD: Oh, it's our proudest moment, though, isn't it? We used to have Bob and Doug McKenzie. Now we're going to have Rob and Doug.

Listen, it was billed kind of as a reality show, but he's now tempering that by saying it's not a reality show at all, and that they used to do this radio program and this is sort of a reincarnation of their radio program that is televised. It's going to be a ratings giant.

I also asked -- I know you have spoken -- I have spoke to him. I said, is this the right thing to do?

(CROSSTALK)

FLORES: Given his misfortune and his health.

BANFIELD: Exactly. Thank you for saying that, Rosa. And given the circumstances, is this the right thing to do? Does this man need more attention? I don't think we got the answer to that.

FLORES: Right. Is it ethical.

BERMAN: What about legal advice?

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Good one, John.

BERMAN: Is the mayor in any kind of legal jeopardy here?

BANFIELD: Look, from what I gather, there has been plenty of legal advice this mayor has been given.

Is he following it? I have got two answers for you. Either it's the worst lawyer in the world or the best lawyer in the world that he's ignoring because he's threatening to sue all those people, who -- former staffers who interviewed with the police and made complaints to the police. There's nothing illegal about that, but he's threatening to sue them. He's threatening to take them to court.

You can't do that. In both countries, you can't do that. But he's also threatening to take counsel to court for doing their job, voting to strip some of the powers. These are the least things they can do. These are things that they can do, but he's now threatening to take counsel to court. So, no, he's not a lawyer in my books and he's certainly not following a good lawyer's advice.

FLORES: It's unbelievable. And the really quickly about these powers, is this their way to piecemeal all of his duties so he's kind of just like a shell mayor?

BANFIELD: I call this death by 1,000 paper cuts. I don't know how many paper cuts they have in their kitty, but, yes, they're taking away some. You can't appoint this guy. You can't call an emergency. There's something they can do.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: It's whether they will do it. They don't want to set precedent by going to the next border up, the province, and saying, help us, help us, because then the province now has something to go on for future. It gets very political.

Can I tell you something? The guy behind the TV show used to work for the Canadian prime minister in communications.

FLORES: Oh, my goodness.

BERMAN: He knows what he's doing. He knows how to get people to listen.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Does he ever.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Have a good weekend, and we will be back on Monday, trust me, with more.

FLORES: Absolutely, and there is more. Catch Ashleigh Banfield's special on the mayor tonight at 1:00 a.m. right here on CNN.

BERMAN: All right, this just in. A nearly four-year mystery ends with a gruesome discovery. Four bodies found in the California desert are believed to be those of a family that disappeared in February 2010.

The remains of Joseph and Summer McStay have been identified, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff. Two other bodies are believed to be those of the couple's 3- and 4-year-old sons. Relatives reported the family missing after failing to hear from them for several days. There was no sign of trouble at their home in Fallbrook, California. Their SUV was found an hour away in San Ysidro. Skeletal remains were found Monday by a motorcyclist riding off-road in a remote area some 150 miles to the north.

Investigators found two shallow graves that contained other remains.

FLORES: And also coming up here on CNN, San Francisco is no longer the city of the bay. Take a look at these pictures. Today, it's Gotham City. A 5-year-old boy is getting his wish after a long battle with leukemia. We will take you there live.

Plus, a police officer finds out whether his job is safe after racing a civilian on the street. You will hear the decision and see the tape.

BERMAN: Also, Anderson Cooper defends CNN's coverage of the disaster in the Philippines after a local broadcaster makes a false accusation. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: Welcome back.

I'm so glad that we are able to share this story. A 5-year-old boy who loves Batman is having the superhero adventure of a lifetime, John.

BERMAN: This is the best thing ever.

FLORES: Take a look. He's riding around in the Batmobile in the city by the bay transformed into Gotham City. He also defeated the Penguin, we should add, and did a flip to celebrate.

Miles Scott has been fighting leukemia, folks, since he was 18 months old. Now he's in remission. That's what we're celebrating. And to celebrate, the entire city of San Francisco was transformed into Gotham City. The mayor, the police chief pitched in. You are probably seeing all those people there, lots of people in the crowd, all the city came together.

Let's take you there now to Gotham City. You will see there. You're seeing Batman.

BERMAN: There it is. He does it too, the roll, the Batman roll.

(CROSSTALK)

FLORES: And that Batmobile is actually a Lamborghini just some residents that decided to let them borrow the Lamborghini for a day. Why not, right, when they're trying to make this little boy's dream come true. And there you have it, there you see it.

I want to bring in Dan Simon. He's been tracking this city live in Gotham City.

Dan, how did this caped crusader adventurer come together? There's lots of people involved, the mayor and police chief and all the people just on the streets.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the coordination and logistics to pull this off is really unbelievable.

Let me explain where we are. We are at City Hall. This is where all this is going to come to an end. This is where Batkid is going to get a key to the city. And let me just sort of explain to you everything that's happened today. Let me just read this to you because the itinerary they put together is truly amazing.

So it began with a call from the police chief issuing the call that Batkid is needed. He's traveling by Batmobile and he's accompanied by Batman. The boy receives a distress call saying that there's a damsel in distress at the cable car tracks. He takes care of business. Then Batkid apprehends the Riddler, who is in the act of robbing a bank.

From there, this is what is going on right now. He's at Union Square in Gotham City, and basically, the Penguin has taken the San Francisco mascot hostage, Lou the seal, and they're now headed to AT&T Ballpark, where things are going to unfold there. And then finally, they're going to come back here to City Hall.

As I said, the coordination to pull this off is truly impressive. And this is what Batkid and his father had to say about all this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILES SCOTT, 5 YEARS OLD: because he's my favorite super hero.

NICK SCOTT, FATHER: It's really neat to see how many people have got together for a stranger they don't know and show support for. It's heartwarming. It's a big party at the end of a long road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: And it's really been so emotional for so many people out here. I have seen people with tears in their eyes. As we said, we're talking about a 5-year-old boy who had leukemia. Fortunately, it's in remission. Just last month, he had a tube taken out of his chest that was used to dispense medication. But, really, what a wonderful thing that the Make-A-Wish Foundation has done to make this little boy's wish come true.

BERMAN: Such great news that it is in remission. It's such a great showing by the city of San Francisco. I cannot believe the turnout on the streets there. It's got to be such a wonderful feeling to be a part of it.

FLORES: I know, just to be a part of it. I tell you what, the White House probably needs a bat call on this one. We're talking Obamacare, of course. Coming up right here on CNN, President Obama is meeting with insurance executives, and they're not happy. We could be hearing details from that meeting very soon.

BERMAN: But, next, the casualties from Super Typhoon Haiyan are growing. CNN's Anderson Cooper is on the scene. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The water was just as tall as that tree?

Janet Esmerto's (ph) two children slipped from her grasp and drowned. "I did all that I could," she says. "But I let them go."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Truly heartbreaking stories, and Anderson is also defending CNN's coverage of the tragedy. We will tell you why. We will have that for you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: In the Philippines, survival is a battle waged every single second. A wife keeps her husband alive by manually pumping air into his lungs at a hospital.

BERMAN: Amazing.

FLORES: His leg was amputated just days ago. These pictures are just gut-wrenching. They really pull at your heartstrings.

The hospital does not have electricity a week after Super Typhoon Haiyan slammed ashore. The husband is one of more than 12,000 people injured, many literally just clinging to life. In Tacloban, crews are still collecting bodies from the streets and rubble and putting them into truck, folks.

CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson has the latest from the ravaged city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The grim number of casualties as a result of the Philippines' killer typhoon grew. The official statistics now, more than 3,600 people dead and it's likely that that number will continue to grow.

There was some sign that the national effort to start to clear away the debris has improved significantly here in Tacloban, the shattered city of more than 200,000 people.

We saw road crews from the Metro Manila Development Agency. They had brought in heavy equipment by ferry boats and they were starting to clear away some of the rubble, open up some the roads a bit more. We saw other crews working on power lines and we have seen signs that the telecommunications grid, the cell phone networks have started to improve somewhat.

But, still, this is a city largely without any power whatsoever. There's been intermittent rain throughout the night, which you can just imagine how terrible that is for the hundreds and thousands of people whose homes were either demolished or at the very least their roofs were ripped off, leaving them without much shelter from the rain.

And we're heading into the monsoon, the rainy season, the winter months here. That's a major concern for some officials. The lift power has improved dramatically for the aid effort with U.S. cargo planes coming in as well as Australian cargo planes, more ships coming in and out evacuating many survivors from this area.

But it's still important to note that seven days after this typhoon swept through this region, there were still bodies in body bags on the streets here in Tacloban awaiting collection. This has been a grim, difficult, horrific week for the people of this region.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Tacloban, in the Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Ivan for that reporting.

And our thanks to Ivan and every one of the members of our team for simply being there.

CNN's Anderson Cooper is defending his reporting and the coverage of the typhoon disaster in the Philippines. In recent days, Filipino news anchor Korina Sanchez slammed Cooper, claiming that he said there was no government president in the hard-hit area of Tacloban.

Also, Sanchez said Cooper didn't know what he was talking about. Sanchez is married to the nation's interior secretary, who was part of the typhoon response effort. And here's Anderson's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I would actually say that all week long in every report we have done, we have shown how strong the Filipino people are.

The Filipino people, the people of Tacloban and Samar and Cebu and all these places where so many have died, they are strong not just to have survived this storm, but they are strong to have survived the aftermath of this storm.

They have survived for a week now often with very little food, with very little water, with very little medical attention.

Can you imagine the strength it takes to be living in a shack, to be living sleeping on the streets next to the body of your dead children? Can you imagine that strength?

I can't. And I have seen that strength day in and day out here in the Philippines. And we honor them with every broadcast that we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And Anderson's reporting has been inspiring and heartbreaking from the Philippines.

And, tonight, his show shows you the most emotional reunions in the Philippines. A family separated by the typhoon comes together again. "A.C. 360" airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

FLORES: And coming up, right here at home, a woman is saved just moments before her car sinks into the water. You will see the dramatic rescue.

BERMAN: Plus, are staffers inside the White House afraid to tell their boss bad news? How could the president not have known about the looming disaster of his health care rollout? We will discuss.

But, first, every year, more than 10,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Some of these kids miss their treatments because of lack of transportation. That's where this week's CNN hero comes in.

I want you to meet Richard Nares.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD NARES, CNN HERO: It's paralyzing when you hear those words "your child has cancer". I know what those families are going through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sun is coming up.

NARES: It's extremely difficult. My son, he was diagnosed with cancer. It was such a horrifying time. We were fortunate. We had rides to the hospital to bring Emilio. Many families don't have that support.

Good morning.

We find out that many of them were missing appointments.

My name is Richard Nares. No child should miss their cancer treatment due to lack of transportation.

Ready to go? All right. We give over 2,000 rides a year. Our furthest cancer patient is 120 miles. Ride With Emilio plays an important part of their treatment. We get them here in a nice, clean environment and on time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We live here. It's every day, treatment. We want to fight. We are in this together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all I care right now, my daughter's life.

NARES: When you're fighting for your child's life, nothing else matters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They pick us up in the morning and give us a ride back. Their help is every step of the way.

NARES: Seventy percent of our families are Spanish-speaking. Having a bilingual staff is extremely important. I feel like it's my obligation to help them navigate the system.

Take good care of yourself. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

NARES: From someone who has been there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

NARES: Even know he has passed away almost 13 years, he's the -- the main force of this. And I feel that I'm the right person to help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)