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Newtown 911 Calls Release Today; Gun Control Results; Obama Calls For Higher Minimum Wage; Obama Chides GOP Over Obamacare; Walker Autopsy Results Coming In; Stolen Truck Carrying Deadly Cargo; Radioactive Material Stolen; Bronx Train Accident; Reid Staff Gets Obamacare Pass

Aired December 04, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

We're only one hour away from the release of the 911 calls that marked one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. They capture the terrifying moments when a young gunman blasted his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and brutally massacred 26 people in cold blood, 20 of them little children, first graders.

The first anniversary of the tragedy is 10 days from today. Releasing the recordings from that morning of calls to the Newtown Police Department came only after a long and contentious lawsuit by several news organizations, including CNN. Many people are upset by that decision to release the tapes. They fear the 911 calls will reopen old wounds and trigger a relapse in the emotional trauma.

Deborah Feyerick is joining us from New York right now. Deb, so why did the judge order that these calls, the tapes, the audio tapes be made public?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the judge who decided and who upheld a lower court ruling essentially said that, yes indeed there was value to releasing the tapes and that they should be made public under the freedom of information act. So, that's why these calls will be released.

Just to give you a little bit of background, it's about 25 minutes worth of calls. Seven phone calls that were made from landlines inside Sandy Hook Elementary school by different people. The cell phone calls are not being released. Those are we'll in the custody of the Connecticut State Police. That's a different sort of request to have those released. But today, we're expecting to hear about 25 minutes, seven phone calls from inside the school. People who were there and who were calling for help while this rampage was taking place -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And the families of the victims, most of them, I take it, they're not very happy that we're going to be reliving this one more time this on the eve of the anniversary.

FEYERICK: And it's always a very difficult decision whether you release this kind of thing. But there was a feeling that in fact there was some value to releasing this. Again, all care is going to be taken to make sure that it's done in a way that maintains the dignity of both the families but also the integrity of the information on those tapes. Again, it wasn't a decision that was made lightly but it is one that right now will happen within the next hour -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And we'll go through the tapes and release here and air some of them here on CNN. I know you're going to be working with a team of folks to make sure that we do it in the appropriate way. All right, Deb, thanks very much.

At the bottom of the hour, by the way, I'm going to be speaking with a Newtown catholic priest on how the town is reacting to all of this. I spoke with him a year ago when I was in Newtown. I'm anxious to get his reaction to what's going on a year later.

The Sandy Hook massacre set off a fierce national debate over gun control. For a time, public sentiment leaned in favor of tougher new laws. That support has since tapered off. Right now, the country is almost evenly divided on the issue with 49 percent saying they support stricter laws. Compare that with 20 years ago when the Brady Bill was enacted. Back then, 70 percent of Americans surveyed said they favored tighter gun control.

Economic inequality between the richest and the poorest Americans is on President Obama's mind today. It will likely be the focus of his State of the Union address in January.

Just a little while ago, the president spoke about that, and he had a special message for Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you still don't like Obamacare, and I know you don't, even though it's built on market- based ideas of choice and competition in the private sector, then you should explain how exactly you would cut costs and cover more people and make insurance more secure. You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for. Not just what you're against.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us from the White House right now. Sounds, Jim, like the president was throwing down a little bit of a gauntlet to the Republicans. But what else did he say?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He really was, Wolf. You know, this was billed as a speech on the economy but as more and more details came out, there are a couple of things that we're going to emerge in this president speech. One is that he was really going back to his base trying to sort of enliven what has been a dispirited liberal base of the Democratic Party. We've been sort of disappointed with the way that this rollout has occurred with the Affordable Care Act.

But at the same time, you know, White House officials say there was something substantive going on in this speech and that the president was talking about income inequality and that is something that you're going to be hearing this president talk a lot about during the remaining three years that he has in office. He's going to be talking about it in the State of the Union speech, for example.

And so, he ticked off a number of things that he would like to see happen over the next several months. One is a hike in the minimum wage. Right now it's $7.25. He'd like to see that maybe around $10.00 which is a proposal right now pending in the Senate. He would also like to see an extension of unemployment benefits.

Both those measures, by the way, Wolf, Republicans are very cool to right now and they've indicated they're not going to support either one of those things. So, perhaps the president also at the same time drawing some battle lines for next year's midterm elections. Listen to how the president framed the debate over extending unemployment benefits during his speech. Here's what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Christmas time is no time for Congress to tell more than one million of these Americans that they have lost their unemployment insurance which is what will happen if Congress does not act before they leave on their holiday vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, sort of painting Republicans as Ebenezer Scrooge there, Wolf. And then, the other thing that you heard and you mentioned this as you were tossing it out to me, the president did offer again another stout defense of Obamacare. He said that Republicans owe it to Americans to say not just what they're against but what they're for.

And on that front, Wolf, we should also mention that a source familiar with enrollment numbers did confirm to CNN within the last couple of hours that they enrolled 29,000 people in the first two days since December 1st when the Web site was supposed to be working for the vast majority of people, 29,000 people. That's more than the number of people that enrolled in October. It's an indication the administration says now that they have the Web site working at least better, that that enrollment number is starting to accelerate rapidly and they feel like that's going to make up some of the ground they lost during the botched rollout of Obamacare -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we're going to be hearing a lot more from the president on all of these issues in the coming days. He's really on a major P.R. offensive right now. All right, Jim, thanks very much. Jim Acosta reporting from the White House.

Coming up later this hour, by the way, the autopsy results on the actor, Paul Walker, who died in a car wreck. They are just being released. We'll have a live report. That's coming up.

Also, a truck is stolen near Mexico City and its cargo has U.S. and international authorities very concerned. We're going to tell you why. That's coming up as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're learning new information about the fiery crash that claimed the lives of the actor, Paul Walker, and his friend, Roger Rodas. Autopsy results have just been released. Casey Wian has been reading those results. Casey, what will have we learned?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've learned a few things, Wolf. First of all, the L.A. County coroner's office saying that, in fact, as had been reported, Paul Walker was the passenger in the vehicle. His friend, Roger Rodas, was in fact the driver. In terms of the cause of death of the two. Roger Rodas, the cause of death listed as multiple traumatic injuries. Paul Walker, the combined effects of traumatic injuries and thermal injuries which means that explosion that occurred one minute after the initial impact as was revealed on some of that videotape that's been released was likely part of the cause of Paul Walker's death which means that some of the speculation that maybe he lived after that initial impact for at least a brief period of time possibly could be true.

How the injury occurred the coroner listing auto versus fixed object. Fairly obvious there. Both deaths determined to be accidental. No toxicology results released yet. Those are going to take six to eight weeks to be complete according to the coroner and he will release those details when the toxicology results are available -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It's such a -- such a sad story. Any memorial service plans been made public yet?

WIAN: The family has not released any details about any private memorial service, but there is a fan memorial service planned for this coming Sunday. Four thousand fans -- more than 4,000 fans have already said they'll be there on Facebook -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, I'm sure they will. All right, Casey, thanks very much. Casey Wian reporting from Los Angeles.

The engineer at the controls during a deadly train derailment suffered from highway hypnosis. That's how his lawyer is describing it. A union representative says he nodded off. We'll have the latest on the investigation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: U.S. and Mexican authorities are on alert after a truck carrying dangerous radioactive material was stolen in Mexico. It happened in the town of Tepojaco near Mexico City. The radioactive material was being taken to a storage site when it was stolen. The big concern here, that someone could possibly use that radioactive material to build what's called a dirty bomb. Brian Todd has been looking into this story for us.

Brian, what are U.S. officials saying about this case?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Department of Homeland Security has alerted all border crossings at the southern border and the agencies manning them of this theft. The alert's gone out because of the possibility you just mentioned, that someone could use the radioactive substance inside that truck, which is cobalt 60, to make a dirty bomb.

First now to the active search, however. The Mexican officials are looking for the stolen truck and they alerted the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, in Geneva, which put out an international advisory. U.S. law enforcement officials tell CNN, the government has sensors at border crossings to prevent radioactive materials from entering the country. Agents are also carrying portable devices which can scan vehicles.

Now regarding this truck. U.S. officials say it's not clear that the thieves were after the cobalt 60 inside. They say the truck also carried waste and scrap material which may have been the reason the truck was targeted, but it also may have been that the cobalt 60 was inside. Now, this material is used for brain imaging and to treat cancer, Wolf. It is highly radioactive.

BLITZER: How difficult would it be, Brian, to weaponize this material?

TODD: Well, experts are telling us it would be fairly difficult. It's usually in lead casing, which it is in this case, and it's not easy to remove it from that casing. Then you'd have to attach it to an explosive device with the intent to disperse it. But just handling cobalt 60, according to experts, outside its casing, is extremely dangerous. It's been known to make people very sick very quickly and it has killed people just from handling it.

BLITZER: A worrisome development indeed. Brian's going to have more at 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room." Brian, thanks very much.

TODD: Sure.

BLITZER: The engineer in the deadly New York train derailment was nodding off and caught himself too late. That's how a union representative describes what happened. A lawyer for the engineer, William Rockefeller, calls it "highway hypnosis." Today, train service resumed at the station in the Bronx near the accident site and investigators plan to continue interviews with the engineer. Those who know him say he's distraught.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish that it didn't happen to anybody, but I sure as hell don't want it happening to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Sunday's derailment killed four people, injured dozens more. It was the fourth serious accident in seven months for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. A former NTSB director says a GPS system that can control trains remotely would improve safety, but implementing it won't be easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB DIRECTOR: The U.S. has a very complex system in which you have multiple operators with different equipment running on the same rails. If we're going to having positive train control, the government has to be serious about it. And there's got to be resources applied so that this kind of system can be put in place where it's needed quickly. It's not really -- it's not something that can happen overnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Nic Robertson is joining us now with the latest on the investigation.

Nic, is the engineer expected potentially to face criminal charges?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that's still something that the DA is considering at the moment and a lot of attention will focus on the definition of this "highway hypnosis," being in a daze, nodding off. Does this really constitute fall asleep? Was he negligent in falling asleep? Certainly his lawyer has said, look, he had a good night's sleep the night before. He's got a clean track record leading up to this. So these are all going to be issues that will be under scrutiny.

But the potential is, because there were fatalities, yes, he could face charges. Interestingly, just in the last couple of minutes, we've talked with the engineer's lawyer. He says today the engineer not speaking with the NTSB, not answering more questions on their inquiry. Not clear because they haven't asked him. He's taking a break. We know that he was very emotional yesterday, Wolf.

BLITZER: Has he retained an attorney?

ROBERTSON: Yes. The lawyer -- the lawyer representing him at the moment was appointed by his union. The union stepped in when it was apparently on their advice that he took the lawyer. He's allowed one representative in with him when he meets with the NTSB and we understand that the lawyer has been close to him through this process, Wolf.

BLITZER: The head of the Federal Railroad Administration, Nic, says he has serious concerns about the safety on these New York rail systems. As we mentioned there have been, what, four serious accidents in seven months. What's being done to address those concerns?

ROBERTSON: Yes, Wolf, the MTA here is taking a lot of heat, not just from the FRA, but the NTSB as well, saying that it's recommended over the past 20 years for rail authorities, like the MTA, to institute better control of the track.

Now, what the MTA has said specifically in response to the Federal Rail Administration is that they are going to cooperate with the FRA, that they have - that they put the safety of employees and of passengers first, that they've - that they're reviewing their safety, that they will expedite measures to improve it and, they say, that they've instituted a hotline. They have a hotline system now so that if an employee or anyone else witnesses something that could breach safety, that people can call in and know that their call will be confidential, Wolf. So the MTA is really responding here to the FRA to try to say that they are -- that they're working towards improving safety, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson reporting from the Bronx, the scene of that horrible, horrible train derailment.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is one of Obamacare's biggest supporters, but he's giving some of his staff a pass on the new health care exchanges. We'll have that story straight ahead in a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Obamacare certainly will be a major issue in next year's midterm elections. It was a subject of a rather heated debate on CNN's "Crossfire." The heads of the Republican and Democratic National Committees squared off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CMTE. CHAIRWOMAN: If you're asking me whether or not our candidates are going to proudly run on delivering those things to the American people, absolutely. As opposed --

REINCE PRIEBUS (R), REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CMTE. CHAIRMAN: But which candidate in the Senate -

SCHULTZ: As opposed -

PRIEBUS: Which candidate that's running for U.S. Senate -

SCHULTZ: Reince, just give me one second because I let you finish.

PRIEBUS: Is going to run on it.

SCHULTZ: As opposed to - as opposed to the Republicans, who almost 50 times have tried to fully repeal or modify almost completely the Affordable Care Act and deny people all of those things.

NEWT GINGRICH, ANCHOR, "CROSSFIRE": But tell me -

PRIEBUS: Which candidate that's running for the United States -

SCHULTZ: That's the choice. And shut the government down.

PRIEBUS: Which candidate that's running for the United States Senate, Kay Hagan, Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Begich (ph)? Tell me which one of these candidates that's running in one of these big Senate races is going to run - is going to run on Obamacare? Who --

SCHULTZ: Any of our candidates will run on the fact that -

PRIEBUS: On Obamacare? SCHULTZ: A young adult can stay on their parents insurance until they're 26-years-old.

PRIEBUS: And Republicans have supported that.

SCHULTZ: You know what, Reince -

PRIEBUS: Insurance companies have already said they're going to provide it.

SCHULTZ: Reince, I've had -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Strong debate between the two chairs of the political parties here in the United States.

Don't forget, "Crossfire" airs weeknights, 6:30 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is one of the staunchest supporters of Obamacare. So why is he letting some of his staff opt out of buying insurance through the new health care exchanges? According to our Chris Frates (ph) from our CNN Investigations Unit, Reid is the only top congressional leader to grant exceptions to some of his staff. Our Capitol Hill reporter Lisa Desjardins, is joining us now. She's been tracking Congress' own health care decisions. She certainly helped with this story.

Lisa, so how's Harry Reid able to do what he's doing and why is he doing this? Why is he the only congressional leader that has made this decision?

LISA DESJARDINS, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Right. He is the only of the top four congressional leaders, the top Democrat and Republican, both the House and Senate, to making this exception. Why is he able to do it, Wolf? Well, frankly, it's because of wording in the Affordable Care Act to begin with. It's all semantics.

Let's look at exactly who is required to get on these exchanges. Got a graphic here. Essentially all members of Congress have to go on the exchanges if they want their job-related premium support, the money that comes from the federal government as their employer. And also the law says members and congressional staff. It uses just those two words. But the question is, who are those designated staff members and, frankly, Wolf, it is up to each member of Congress to determine that for themselves.

Is my member of staff someone who should qualify for this? And what we've seen here is a patchwork throughout both the House and Senate of some members exempting their staff from the Obamacare exchanges, others not. But Harry Reid is the only one of the top four leader who has exempted his own staff.

Now, he is able to do this under the law, but it really is a question of the wording and the intent. When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, it said members of Congress and congressional staff should be going on the exchanges if they want any help with their premium.

BLITZER: So has he issued a statement explaining his decision?

DESJARDINS: No. In fact, Chris and I both were tag teaming with the spokesmen for Harry Reid, Adam Jentleson, yesterday. He issued no statement except to say that they are following the law, which is, of course, is -- that's technically true. Harry Reid is able to do this under the law, but it's a question of what was the intent when Congress passed a law saying that congressional staff should go on the exchanges, are they following the intent? That's up for debate. But they certainly are following the law here, Wolf.

BLITZER: It's only been a little while since Chris broke this story.

DESJARDINS: Yes.

BLITZER: So here's the question. Is it giving ammunition to Republicans to further their attack against Obamacare as far as the Democrats in Congress are concerned?

DESJARDINS: Yes, as you say, this has just been broken in the last 12, 16 hours. But I think you can bet that Republicans will make hay out of this.

However, they have to be careful, Wolf, because there are some Republican who have done this same thing, not top leaders, not Speaker Boehner himself, but, for example, Darrell Issa. He's a very high profile Republican who I reported about a month ago has decided to exempt his own staff, both his committee staff and his personal staff from Obamacare from the exchanges. He says that's because he doesn't want anyone on the exchanges.

But, nonetheless, there are Republicans like Darrell Issa, also Tom Coburn in the Senate, who have done this same thing. So expect Republicans to make hay out of this, but carefully.

It definitely is a big topic of buzz around here today, Wolf. I was walking around. I ran into freshman Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina and I asked, hey, what are you doing for your own health care? He said, "All I know is, I think I should get a job with Harry Reid because then I wouldn't have to go on the exchanges." That, from a Republican.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. All right. We'll see what happens on that front.

Thanks very much, Lisa, for that.

DESJARDINS: You've got it.

BLITZER: And thanks to Chris for breaking that story here on CNN.