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Dow Hits 16,000 For First Time; Disaster Declared After Deadly Tornadoes; Mayor's Brother In Toronto; Cheney Sisters Argue; Fighting Child Porn
Aired November 18, 2013 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR:Hello, I'm Jake Tapper in Washington in for Wolf Blitzer today.
Now to history being made on Wall Street. There you see the Dow Jones now at -- what is it? I'm blocking it right here, 16,002. It crossed over the 16,000 milestone for the first time ever. Let's put that in money numbers. If you had invested 10,000 bucks at the beginning of the bull market in 2009, you'd be pocketing more than 23,000 bucks today.
Zain Asher is watching this historic day from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for us. The market is obviously good news for people with market funds in their 401Ks, Zain, but do these milestones mean anything investors down in the trenches?
ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jake. Well, listen, these milestones, for the most part, are the purely psychological. They do give investors a reason to sort of take back -- take a step back and reassess market conditions. You've got to remember that a lot of this is to do with (INAUDIBLE.) But when the Dow reaches 16,000, what you're going to have is a lot of investors selling and taking profit off the table at that level. You're also going to have long-term investors buying in at that level as well.
I do have to say that we started off the year at 13,000 so the Dow has risen 3,000 points in 11 short months. Just to put that in perspective for you, it took seven years to go from 11,000 to 12,000. And as I mentioned, a lot of this is to do with (INAUDIBLE.) The good news, though, is for people's four -- people with a 401K plan. We are seeing record high balances with the 401Ks. The average balance is about $84,000.
But, yes, the fed has been holding the market down (ph) so far this year, we saw Janet Yellen testifying before the Senate Banking Committee last week. She says that, yes, even though the economy is healthier, it's not quite ready to be taken off the I.V. And if stimulus continues, we are bound to see more milestones and more record highs -- Jake.
TAPPER: Well, Zain, I don't need to tell you that there are people out there, skeptics who are saying, hey, we've seen this movie before. With such a quick run up in the markets, should we be worried that things have come too far too fast? ASHER: Yes, absolutely. Some analysts say there is reason to be worried. I mean, so far this year, you look the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ, they've all risen roughly between 22 to 32 percent. On a normal year, Jake, the S&P 500 rising roughly around eight percent. But, yes, some analysts are saying the -- you know, the sugar high is certainly a problem.
Our Christine Romans -- my colleague, Christine Romans, spoke to the CEO of PIMCO, Mohamad El-Erian, and take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, CEO, PIMCO: At some point, you need to get off this wave because this wave cannot last forever. Now, no one can tell you whether it's within the next few months or the next few years. But at these levels of evaluation, we think it's about time to take some money off the table and be more cautious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: So, there is some nervousness there, Jake, because the economy is still not on solid footing. Unemployment is still certainly high in this country, 7.3 percent. And even though corporate profits are rising, it is largely because of cost-cutting strategies. So, we are likely to see more stimulus and therefore more milestones in the foreseeable future -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Zain Asher, thank you so much.
The clean-up and recovery effort is just beginning after deadly storms hit the Midwest. Six people were killed. As many as 150 to 200 people were injured. Hundreds lost their homes. Some of the worst damage was in Illinois. Governor Pat Quinn declared disaster areas in seven counties. The storm turned houses into piles of splinters.
In the news conference just a short time ago, the governor talked about a little boy who urged his family to take cover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. PAT QUINN, ILLINOIS: He was only six years old. His name was Brevin Hunter. And he heard the sirens and he told his mother, we'd better get to the basement. At first, she was saying, well, we'll do it a little later. He insisted. He said, when we're in school, we are told when we hear the sirens, get to safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I hope no one's hurt. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. They kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The National Weather Service is investigating 68 reports of tornadoes. A CNN i-reporter recorded these pictures and prayed as you can hear as the tornado approached. Today some have started to pick up the pieces. But one woman says, there's almost nothing left of her home and her business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our house was just beyond the deck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's all this here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this was -- this was my business and we had -- we had bedrooms above the garage. So, above the car here were our bedrooms. And it -- yes, I mean, a lot of people have a pile of rubble still. And I -- I mean, I don't have anything. My whole -- it's gone. I don't know where it went.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Devastation and sadness, that's how the mayor of Washington, Illinois describes the aftermath of the tornado there. Just moments ago, officials confirmed the tornado that hit the city was an EF-4 with winds estimated at 170 to 190 miles per hour.
CNN "NEW DAY" Anchor Chris Cuomo is there. And he joins us live. Chris, good to see you. Give us a sense of what -- of what you're seeing and hearing there on the ground.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Well, it's interesting. There's been a lot of waiting for the National Weather Service to have the pronouncement on the strength of the tornado. And that's been of absolutely zero interest to people on the ground because, as you can see, this is all the proof they need in terms of calibrating loss. And the governor just finished speaking here, Pat Quinn. And he said the highest human calling is to help your neighbor.
And I think that's the big headline for me out of this. Tornadoes happen, the effect is devastating. We know that. They certainly know that here. But for the anomaly that was these late season tornadoes, I think the bigger force on the ground here has been the strength of the community to come together. And obviously, the governor was talking about that, but there was, like, immediate windfall of human support after this. All these reports started coming in of literally hundreds of people, the mayor was telling us this morning, came to help their neighbors. So many that they had to be turned away.
And now, as the sun came out, the sun is high, they're all going through their homes and really for the first time figuring out what is lost and pairing up with friends and staying.
We spoke to a father and son this morning named Zehr. It's their last name and the father's name was Curt. I want to play some sound for you from him. And he was just talking about the loss but what moved him was knowing that his wife and son were OK and that people came to his aid when they found out what had been lost. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURT ZEHR: And we've got insurance and we can rebuild a house but you can't rebuild lives. And, you know, it's going to be a -- you know, that is where our farm office was. And, you know, I think about all the records we had there. And --
CUOMO: Yes.
ZEHR: -- we found a couple computers. Hopefully maybe we can retrieve some of the data off the hard drives.
CUOMO: You know, we've been saying this morning, this is so hard whenever it happens but certainly heading into the holidays. But then, you think about it, especially as a prayerful community, what you want the holidays to be about, you know, you've got the biggest gift.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It puts things into perspective.
CUOMO: (INAUDIBLE.)
ZEHR: The lord is looking out for us. No question about it.
CUOMO: Thank God you're OK. I'm hoping that the farm is good. You get back up on your feet, that God pays that invoice.
ZEHR: Thank you.
CUOMO: And I hope you --
ZEHR: Thank you for telling us the people's stories. There's a lot of -- I mean, we're just one family of a lot of people who have a lot less than we do and are really devastated. So, keep us in your prayers.
CUOMO: Everybody's saying it and now we're seeing that it's true. This is a special community of good people and it's one of the opportunities we have to come here and make sure we tell the right stories and let people know that there's need.
ZEHR: Yes, there was -- within three hours, there was 75, 100 people at our house picking stuff up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really humbling.
CUOMO: It's good to know you have friends. I know you'd do the same thing for them and you have in the past.
ZEHR: You bet.
CUOMO: And this is a time when you show that you're strong and you're a strong community.
ZEHR: Yes.
CUOMO: So, God bless and thank you for being here with us.
ZEHR: Thank you.
CUOMO: All Right. Good luck going forward.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: And he literally had -- Jake, I mean, this man, Curt Zehr, he's a farmer. He had gone and helped people rebuild their houses after storms. And now, they are rebuilding him. And I think that spirit of community will really be the determining factor in how quickly they get through the situation.
TAPPER: Chris, how well did the warnings systems work? Did people have enough advance notice to get to safety? Is that why the death toll was so relatively low considering how horrible these tornadoes were and how many there were?
CUOMO: I think that's an important question. We asked Representative Schock who was here, and he's in the 18th District and this is part of him in Peoria. And he said it did work. That people were getting cell phone calls. There was a lot of anecdotal experience that it seemed to be very quick, that the sirens started and stopped. And then, the storm front came. It was moving at tremendous speed. I think one variable here that worked in people's favor on top of the warning system was something that you and I didn't see in Moore, Oklahoma which are the basements, the safe rooms. The structures here are all built with that savvy and people retreated to them. And I think that made a huge difference as well.
TAPPER: All right. Chris Cuomo in Washington, Illinois. Thank you so much, Chris. Good to see you. We'll see you later in the show.
To find out how you can help these victims of these tornadoes, go to CNN.com, slash, impact, for more information.
The issue of same-sex marriage is driving a wedge between two sisters who share a famous political last name. But will recent comments derail one of their political careers or help it? We'll talk about it with our Gloria Borger.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Doug Ford, the brother of controversial Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is speaking right now at Toronto City Council. Let's take a listen.
DOUG FORD, COUNCILMAN, TORONTO: Do you not agree?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not a question for me to agree with or not.
FORD: Then who is it to ask? The process of this council, if there's a code of conduct, should be going through the right process. It shouldn't be happening with --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)
FORD: I'm getting to my question, thank you. OK, counselor (INAUDIBLE)? You got your own issues.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Counselor Ford, -- FORD: So, I wouldn't be saying too much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- Counselor Ford, please direct the question to the chair, to the staff.
FORD: Again, who do I -- who do I -- who do I speak to about the proper code of conduct?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Counselor, matters with respect to code of conduct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor Ford, please stop disrupting the --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ballooning to one of the accountability officers is, probably the integrity commissioner. You can make inquiries of that office.
FORD: So, the proposal to suspend all of the existing council rules and procedures, and I'm reading this off, as you can see, and to strip the mayor of all his powers that he can't act as the CEO of the city by taking his staff away from him. He is not able to fulfill his duties as the CEO of the city. Do you agree or not agree?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm afraid that I have to disagree with the factual statements in your question. So, I can't answer yes or no. What is before you is not something that would strip him of all of his powers and take away all of his staff. What it does it is it revises the procedural rules and budget amounts. And as my colleague has explained to you, the wording that I believe is in front of you now would not impinge upon the statutory rights and duties of the mayor.
FORD: OK. Well, I'm glad you know how the mayor's office works because who is going to take care of the over 500 phone calls, 500 e- mails, his duties as the mayor, to represent the people? If you're thinking that he can delete his office staff, delete his salary, give him the same as a council, and represent 44 wards, you've got to be kidding. Obviously, you don't know the job of a mayor. It's very simple by your comments today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Councilor, this is not a staff recommendation in the first place.
FORD: The way you're answering is, he can still do his job. And that is not correct.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Councilor Ford -- please! Councilor Ford, you can - you can say that when you speak.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Councilor Ford, I would also ensure -- hopefully ensure that you read the amended version, because the amounts and numbers have been revised compared to what was before you in terms of the notice of special meeting. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Councilor Ford -- Councilor Ford, your -- Councilor Ford, your time is up.
FORD: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Councilor Ford, please -
FORD: (INAUDIBLE) fair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Councilor Ford, please, can you take your seat?
Councilor Pasternak (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, thank you. Thank you, madame speaker.
To the clerk's office. When official invitations come into the city of Toronto --
TAPPER: That's the Toronto city council meeting. They're debating stripping some more of Mayor Rob Ford's powers away and giving them to the deputy mayor. We'll continue to monitor that situation and, of course, this evening on "Anderson Cooper 360," Bill Weir's interview with the interesting Ford brothers coming up.
Something intensely personal between U.S. Senate candidate Liz Cheney and her sister Mary has suddenly become very public. The issue of same-sex marriage came up during an interview Liz gave to Fox News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIZ CHENEY (R), WYOMING SENATE CANDIDATE: I don't believe we ought to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. If people are in a same sex relationship and they want their partner to be able to have health benefits or be designated as a beneficiary on their life insurance, there's no reason we shouldn't do that. I also don't support amending the Constitution on this issue. I do believe it's an issue that's got to be left up to the states. I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your sister Mary, who is married to a woman, put out this post. She said, "for the record, I love my sister," you, "but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage."
CHENEY: Yes, and I -- listen, I love Mary very much. I love her family very much. This is just an issue on which we disagree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Mary took to FaceBook again and she did not mince words saying, quote, "Liz, this isn't just an issue on which we disagree, you're just wrong and on the wrong side of history." If nothing else, this puts their father in the middle to a degree. I asked the former vice president about this in our recent interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So one thing that she did that I thought was interesting was, she came out against same-sex marriage.
DICK CHENEY, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Uh-huh.
TAPPER: Obviously, your other daughter, Mary, married her longtime partner Heather last year.
CHENEY: Uh-huh.
TAPPER: I assume that Liz, you, the whole family was there and supportive. I know you've - you were, for many years, to the left of President Obama when it came to some of these issues. Is that going to be an awkward Christmas table conversation?
CHENEY: Well, I -- my position on that issue is well-known. I enunciated it in 2000, the debate with Joe Lieberman. It hasn't changed. And I'll let my daughters speak for themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And, boy, are they. Joining me now is CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.
Gloria, thanks for being here.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure.
TAPPER: As we know, this isn't a new issue for the Cheneys.
BORGER: No.
TAPPER: But this tension between the sisters is.
BORGER: Well, that's right. And what - and what kind of surprise me, just covering politics as I do, is that this is an issue they didn't figure out a way to deal with before the campaign. Running in the state of Wyoming and being against gay marriage in the state of Wyoming is not going to hurt you when you're running as a conservative Republican. So everybody knew that that was the position she was going to take. She says it should be left up to the states.
The question is why this kind of blew out into the open with her sister and FaceBook and all the rest. It shouldn't be as a surprise -- come as any surprise to them that this was her position. This is also her position. Her father believes it's up to the states. As he said to you, he's been talking about this since he debated Joe Lieberman in 2000.
TAPPER: Right, 13 years ago.
BORGER: Yes.
TAPPER: I asked Liz Cheney about it today. She had a response. She wrote back to me, we were e-mailing, saying, quote, "I love my sister and her family and have always tried to be compassionate towards them. I believe that is the Christian way to behave." So there seems to be at least something here of hate the sin, love the sinner. BORGER: Right. Yes.
TAPPER: The invocation of Christianity.
BORGER: There is, the invocation of Christianity. I mean, look, clearly she's trying to say, I love my sister. I disagree with her. I'm anti-gay marriage. And her sister has no give on that, says you either -- you know you either - you love my family as my family or you don't. And, look, Liz Cheney is running a very uphill battle in the state of Wyoming. She -- there are no real reliable polls but some of the polls that have been taken have her way behind, double digits behind. And I think she's really trying hard to catch up. Her bigger problem -- gay marriage is not the big issue there. Her bigger problem is that they consider her a carpetbagger.
TAPPER: Right.
BORGER: And that she really actually grew up here in the Washington, D.C., area and not in the state of Wyoming, although she now lives in Jackson.
TAPPER: All right, Gloria Borger, thank you so much. We'll discuss this more on my show "The Lead" at 4:00 Eastern.
Just ahead on NEWSROOM, two tech giants are teaming up to fight a dark Internet crime, child pornography and the effort will have a global impact. That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: A disturbing story now. Just last week, 348 people were arrested in Canada and 386 young kids were rescued in one of the largest child pornography investigations ever seen. This case is just one example of the dark side of the Internet. Authorities around the world are trying to find ways to stop people from distributing and buying child pornography on the web. And now Google is teaming up with Microsoft to try to tackle the problem. CNN Money tech correspondent Laurie Segall joins us now.
Laurie, thanks for being here. So what did Google and Microsoft announce today exactly?
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Essentially, I mean, it's a big deal that these two tech giants are actually kind of coming together and taking this problem on. But really they're trying to make it harder for people to search for child pornography online. Google has a team of 200 employees they've been working for the last three months and essentially they're working on tech that would block about 100,000 search terms that would end up resulting in child pornography. So really what it is, is just making it more difficult when you type in the types of search terms to actually yield those results.
And, also, another thing they did, people actually might get a warning if they are trying to type in these search results. And I think - I believe we actually have an image of this warning that people will get. And it essentially it says it's protecting children from sexual abuse. So if any bad actors (ph) going and trying to look up this kind of information, Jake, they might be met with something like what you're seeing right now on the screen.
And Microsoft will also say it's using an imaging technology. it's called Photo DNA. And it's essentially helped - it's kind of helped identify some of these images if they're illegal and take them down automatically. I talked to FaceBook earlier. They're on - you know, they're not working directly with them, but they're also supporting this. They also are using this Photo DNA technology. So, you know, the idea that these giants are really coming together now shows how important of a problem this is.
Jake.
TAPPER: And, Laurie, how big of an impact do you think this will make?
SEGALL: It will definitely have a huge impact. But I will say this. There's a whole dark net. I mean, people aren't just looking at Google and Bing to look for this and do these kind of illegal activities. They're going -- there are ways you can actually have hidden servers. There are ways that people can browse the web anonymously. We've done many stories on Silk Road (ph), which is - which used to be one of these sites. And people are changing child pornography left and right there. So this is something the feds need to keep an eye out for as well, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Laurie Segall, CNN Money tech correspondent. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
The Midwest is dealing with the aftermath of a deadly outbreak of tornados and we will take you there live coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
