Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Mega Millions Jackpot; Tech Bosses at White House; Senate Budget Approval; Family Tries to Stop Life Support Removal; Beatles Tracks Released

Aired December 17, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

We are getting news just into CNN. 14 people, passengers and a crew member, have been taken to the hospital after a ferry ran aground. This was in North Carolina today. This is a 64-foot boat. It came to a sudden stop, hurling people all across the cabin, crashing into tables. A lot of questions at the moment, including the fact it's very unclear why this ship ran aground in the first place. Updates as soon as we get them.

Meantime, Mega Millions fever is growing by the hour as lottery players are lining up, looking for a little luck and a whole lot of cash. The jackpot jumped once again today. So it now stands at $686 million. This is the second largest mega purse ever. But it has the potential to go even higher. $1 billion possibly by Friday. But here's the thing, what if you don't pick tomorrow's six winning numbers? Does that mean you're a loser? Maybe not. Last Friday's drawing included nine $1 million winners. Matching only five numbers can still rake you in a cool million. That's, you know, not chump change, people. Believe it or not, people will pass up on the easy money and they don't even know about it.

That's what we want to focus on today because lottery officials say millions of dollars in winnings typically go unclaimed to the tune of $800 million each and every year. Unclaimed. What's that about? Joining me now, counting his tickets and thinking of his winnings, my friend Richard Quest.

I have to make an admission, I haven't even bought a ticket.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You're a loser.

BALDWIN: Apparently so. And you could be too tonight, my friend. We will see.

QUEST: All right. So, listen, $800 million a year they estimate according to gaming officials goes unclaimed.

BALDWIN: Unclaimed.

QUEST: Unclaimed. Now that is not the big one that, you know, 200 million, 100 million. What it is mainly is people who look at their things, their tickets, realize they didn't win the big one, so they rip them up. They don't look to --

BALDWIN: And they chuck - they chuck the ticket.

QUEST: Absolutely. Instead of checking online or running their numbers through a computer checker where they might find they've won $50, $100, $1 million. And then you've got all the people who just don't bother claiming those $1, $5, $10 prizes. It adds up over the years.

BALDWIN: But -- but what happens? I mean here's all this mini hundreds of millions each and every year that go unclaimed. I mean are the lottery officials like, hey, Richard Quest, you have yet to collect your million dollars, you need to come pick it up? QUEST: No. No. Absolutely -

BALDWIN: They don't do that, do that?

QUEST: No, of course not, because how do they know who you are? So what you need to do, of course, is, first of all, sign the back of your lottery ticket tonight. They all say the same thing. This is a negotiable instrument because it has value. Notice I'm holding it with the instructions, not the numbers. I'm not having anybody stealing my numbers for tonight's draw. Oh, no, no, no.

BALDWIN: Something tells me you will not be sharing if you win it.

QUEST: Right. So, first of all, you sign the back. Then, of course, you've got to look after the ticket. If you lose your ticket, you are out of luck. There is no going back. There's no discussion. There's no argument. If you win --

BALDWIN: What happens to the money? What happens to the money? Is it just gone?

QUEST: It goes -- no, it goes -- some of it will go back to the good causes that underline the lottery. Others of it will go into the next week's lottery or will go on to the next one. And, of course, some goes back to the costs of running the lottery. The each part of the Mega Millions syndicate has different rules for how the syndicate is run and how the payments should be made, whether it's for 29 and 30 (INAUDIBLE), the cash benefits, the cash payments.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. I'm talking to you - to my editorial team right now in Atlanta watching. I hear some of you went into an office pool. We're going to share, right, guys?

Richard Quest, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

QUEST: No, no, no. There's no -

BALDWIN: Yes, yes, yes.

QUEST: There's no sharing. These are mine!

BALDWIN: Yes. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the good people in Atlanta who will share with me. I hope -- I hope they're watching and nodding and saying, yes, Brooke, we will. Richard Quest, thank you very much and good luck to you. And, Jay, remind me to buy a ticket when I'm done. OK? Got it.

Now to this. Clear ruling by a federal judge vindicate NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Some of the biggest names in the technology industry just wrapping up this meeting with the president at the White House. And I'm talking Google, Yahoo!, Apple, Microsoft and Twitter. Keep in mind, this is a meeting scheduled after several of these companies sent this open letter to Washington asking them to reform the government's surveillance programs.

And then there's the times here. We talked about this yesterday. Edward Snowden releasing a statement now saying he feels vindicated by that federal court ruling that the collection of data by the NSA that he revealed to the world was most likely a violation of the Constitution. And the reporter who helped Snowden break the news told CNN he agrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN GREENWALD, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: How can it not vindicate him? Let's just use common sense for a minute. Here is an American citizen working inside of the government who discovers that the United States government is doing things without the knowledge of the American people that is so illegal, so against the core constitutional guarantees of the Constitution that a George Bush appointed judge today said that it's not even a close call. He said James Madison would be aghast if he knew that the U.S. government would be collecting extremely invasive data on every single American without any remote suspicion, let alone probable cause. And I think it's not only the right but the duty of an American citizen in Edward Snowden's situation to come forward, at great risk to himself, and inform his fellow citizens about what it is their government is doing in the dark that is illegal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's take you straight to the White House to Brianna Keilar, our senior White House correspondent there.

And let's talk really quickly here about this meeting with the tech bosses and the president. This was scheduled before this ruling and also was to do with the economy, healthcare.gov. But in light of, you know, what happened with the NSA and the developments, Brianna, what came out of this meeting?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the NSA really the most pressing issue.

I will tell you, Brooke, we don't know exactly what came out of the meeting because we're still waiting to hear from the White House and none of these executives came to the cameras here. But most pressing among the issues they wanted to discuss really was their bottom line when it comes to these NSA leaks because their systems, their networks, some of them anyway, some of the executives here, their company systems and networks have been used for this surveillance. So that's a big concern for them.

And then the other thing has to do with the federal health care website. Because, if anything, it's revealed that the federal government isn't so tech savvy, right? That they're not really good at managing projects like this. So when President Obama and administration officials are getting advice from top execs like Google, FaceBook, Twitter, Linkedin, even Etsy was here, that's invaluable insight for the administration.

BALDWIN: OK. We'll wait to see maybe if we get some sort of read out from the meeting.

KEILAR: And we will. We will. It's just not out yet.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. OK, we'll wait for it, Brianna Keilar.

Meantime, big announcement from the White House today. Talk to me about this new enlistment to take over healthcare.gov.

KEILAR: Yes, this is a really big deal. Kurt DelBene, former top exec at Microsoft, will be coming in to try to shepherd healthcare.gov to success. So through this rocky patch, shortly after the launch, Jeff Zients has been doing that, former administration official. He is, as initially planned, going to, in the new year, be one of the president's top economic advisers. So as he departs from that position, since things have started to run a little more smoothly, Kurt DelBene is going to be coming in. And we're told that he is going to be there through the first half of 2014. That just really goes to show you that even though some things have improved, this is very much a work in progress and the administration feels they really still need that kind of point person with a lot of tech background to try to shepherd this through.

BALDWIN: Thank you, my friend. Brianna Keilar at the White House for us. Brianna, thank you.

And let's stay in Washington because the landmark two-year budget deal, as of this moment, it's all but ready for the president's signature. Congress has actually done its work. How about this for a round of applause?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Not only are we going to right this wrong, we're going to remind people who you are, and any politician who wants to do this again is going to get the hell kicked out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hello, Lindsey Graham. South Carolina's Lindsey Graham threatens to kick some you know what. He is says, quoting here, folks, "we are screwing America's veterans with this budget." Hang on to that. We'll hit that in just a moment.

To Dana Bash we go, our chief congressional correspondent. Dana, quickly, the vote here in the Senate. This is not the absolute final vote. This was the procedural vote today on the budget. Can we say this is pretty much a done deal here?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we can say it's pretty much a done deal. The final vote is going to be tomorrow. And based on the fact that a dozen Republicans joined all Democrats in the key procedural vote today, probably won't get that high of a vote tomorrow, but it will be pretty comfortable, we understand.

BALDWIN: OK. We'll wait for that tomorrow.

Let's talk about the veterans because, keep in mind, we are still in deficit cutting mode, supposedly. The biggest part of the budget pie is still the military. And as Republican Paul Ryan himself points out, let me read this, this is a quote from him. He says this, "that the military provides an exceptionally generous retirement benefit, often providing 40 years of pension payments for 20 years of service." Ryan and a lot of others are saying, we have to reform military compensation. So this reform would cut the cost of living raise by 1 percentage point for veterans who served at least 20 years of active duty. Once they hit 60, you know, they get the full raise back.

BASH: Right.

BALDWIN: But it doesn't even start, just walking our viewers through this, it doesn't even start until two years from now, which leaves the door open for folks like Lindsey Graham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I promise everybody here we're going to win over time. Not only are we going to right this wrong, we're going to remind people who you are. And any politician who wants to do this again is going to get the hell kicked out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So again, Lindsey Graham is going to fight this. Has two years to do so. Getting the hill kicked out of him, to quote the southerner here. Do you foresee these veterans getting relief, the flip side being the adding that money then back to the deficit, Dana?

BASH: It is always possible. Look, this is something that Congress tends not to do because the military groups are really powerful and because so many members in the House and Senators have veterans in their districts and states and they are loathe to do anything to change the benefits that they get, given the sacrifice that they and their families make with their service. That is just the bottom line.

But the other bottom line, when you're talking about the hard core numbers, is what Paul Ryan had said, which is that this is a huge expense and it is only getting even more expensive to give these military retirees such a nice package basically, especially since a lot of them do retire pretty young, which is why they crafted this measure or this deal to kind of go down after they turn 40 and then go back up when they hit the more traditional retirement age, which is 62. But it really is costing a lot of money.

Will this go back into the Treasury, you know, or will they change this? I would certainly not rule that out given the opposition and given the power of these groups. But at the same time, we also should remember that a big concern among everybody in the military was the fact that you had these forced spending cuts in the Defense Department.

BALDWIN: Right.

BASH: A lot of that was fixed or changed also as part of this deal.

BALDWIN: OK, Dana, thank you. We talk to veterans next hour. We'll talk about unemployment benefits left out of this package. And some Democrats want to, you know, pull Lindsey Graham and fight for that maybe a little later down the road. So that's coming up next hour. We'll get into that.

Coming up, it has everyone talking, this collection of Beatles bootlegs released right now on sale. So we're going to ask a critic, how are they? How are the tunes? Are they any good?

Plus, a teenager goes in to have routine tonsil surgery and now she is brain dead. We'll talk about how it happened and why her parents may not be able to decide whether she remains on life support. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A 13-year-old girl went in for a tonsillectomy and now she is brain dead. And after her grieving family has now come out, they are fighting for her life, trying, they say, to keep the hospital from taking her off life support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMARI SEALEY, JAHI'S UNCLE: All these people right here got the same belief that we all have, that she could still wake up.

CROWD: Don't pull the plug. Don't pull the plug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Loved ones of Jahi McMath have been protesting against Oakland Children's Hospital. Right now they are waiting on test results to see if the eighth grader has any brain activity, proof to the hospital that doctors should not remove the ventilator. As they wait, the family has also presented the hospital with a court order to stop doctors from removing Jahi's life support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEALEY: That regardless of the results now, with this in place, they still can't move. This letter is going to buy us time. And that's all we've been asking for is time. This letter is going to buy us time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: An official told CNN, the hospital decides if Jahi should stay on life support because she technically died on Thursday. You see, Jahi underwent surgery back on December 9th to help with her sleep apnea. But afterward, she hemorrhaged. She suffered a heart attack and became brain dead. Her mother says she then pleaded to get a final brain scan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAILAH WINKFIELD, GIRL'S MOTHER: They are telling me straight up, the coroner is coming to get her, come say your last good-byes. And I went in there and cried to this man and said, just check her brain one more time. I asked him, do you have children? He said, yeah. Well then you should know how it feels. I won't give up on my daughter. Jahi with (ph) just a little bit of brain activity and they can keep her on one (ph). So pray for my daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you convinced him?

WINKFIELD: I did. I had to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How does this even happen? Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining me now.

You feel for this family without this power. What is the hospital saying in return?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the hospital issued a statement, Brooke, and so let me read part of it. What they said is, "whenever we see a medical or surgical complication, we are reviewing her case very closely. Our hearts go out to her family and we want to support them during this extremely difficult time." So that is what the hospital has to say.

Now, Brooke, of course, just like you said, the big question is, how in the world does this happen? You're talking about a tonsillectomy, right? I mean pretty much everybody knows someone who had them. They're so routine.

But the reality is, that even with a tonsillectomy, you can die. There was one study that looked at 15,000 tonsillectomies and one patient died. And out of those 15,000, five bled so badly that they needed a transfusion, just like this young girl did. So, out of 15,000, five needed a blood transfusion. A small number, but it's there. I mean those bad outcomes happen.

BALDWIN: Let's just play a little bit more. This is, again, Jahi's mother pleading with the hospital to not pull the plug.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINKFIELD: Nobody called the doctor until it was too late. That's the problem. My daughter drowned on her own blood.

God is going to help me find out the truth. And I don't even have any tears no more because I'm all cried out. I'm angry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Elizabeth, where does this go next? It's this back and forth here. What happens next potentially?

COHEN: You know, this is where lawyers get involved and it gets very -- it can get very messy and very ugly. And it can go on for quite a while. The way that this usually works is when there's no brain activity when you have so-called brain death, the patient is dead. And, you know, and that's usually the -- where that story ends. And when -- I asked a doctor once, especially with children, don't you have parents who beg you not to, you know, to pull the plug, so to speak. And they say, yes, but when we talk to them after a couple of days, they begin to understand what's going on, that their - that this child is no longer alive. But, you know, every so often you do get a case like this where the doctors and the parents just aren't going to see eye to eye. BALDWIN: And in the holiday season, I wish this family peace right now.

COHEN: Oh, it's so painful.

BALDWIN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

COHEN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Here's a question, does a judge's ruling against NSA intelligence gathering techniques change your mind about what Edward Snowden did? Snowden hailed a hero by so many for revealing how much the government has been spying on individuals. Others say he's a criminal. You'll hear the arguments in just a couple of minutes.

Plus, you can now get your hands on dozens of bootleg Beatles songs. Why is this happening now? We'll talk about that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Ah, yes, the music defined generations. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announcing its inductees for 2014. And here you have the inductees, the latest class.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER GABRIEL (singing): I'm your sledgehammer. Let there be no doubt about it.

HALL & OATS (singing): Private eyes, they're watching you. Private eyes, they're watching you.

KISS (singing): I wanna rock and roll all night and party everyday.

NIRVANA (singing): (INAUDIBLE). LINDA RONSTADT (singing): It's so easy to fall in love, it's so easy to fall in love.

CAT STEVENS (singing): Oh, peace train sounding louder. Glide on the peace train. (INAUDIBLE). Come on the peace train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Oh, don't you want to go to that ceremony? I know I do come April. I should mention, receiving the award for musical excellence, you have the E Street Band. Tickets for the induction ceremony to be held New York City in Brooklyn in April, go on sale next month. The public can go. Maybe I'll see you there. I hope to go as well.

And from one group of music legends to another, 50 years ago today, 50, the British invasion changed American music forever. This sounds -- the epic sounds here, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr transfixed America. From the moment "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was head on American radio. And now, half a century later, this collection of rare recordings has been released called "The Beatles Bootleg Recordings." They're from 1963. So here is one of the 59 tracks. You know it. "There's A Place."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEATLES (singing): There is a place, where I can go, when I feel low, when I feel blue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You can't hear that and not kind of b-bop along. The tracks are mostly recordings of BBC performances from 1963, along with demos, studio outtakes. The only issue for some of the fans around the world, some have missed the sale because in several countries the songs were taken down practically as suddenly as they had appeared on iTunes. And joining me here, host of VH1's "Top 20 Video Countdown," Jim Shearer.

So nice to meet you and to have you here.

JIM SHEARER, HOST, VH1'S "TOP 20 VIDEO COUNTDOWN": Yes, nice to meet you.

BALDWIN: And to talk music. This is so awesome. This is so, so awesome. But, first, let's talk about the real reason because everything I've read, this is really about like -- it's a copyright issue, right? I mean they were kind of covered for 50 years and this is about adding 20 more to it.

SHEARER: Yes, you should really have a European lawyer here because I heard that -

BALDWIN: We have you.

SHEARER: You have me. I heard that for an unreleased track, it's - there's only a 50-year window for copyright.

BALDWIN: Right.

SHEARER: And that 50-year window ends at the end of this year. So if they release track -

BALDWIN: Like, poof, even if it's for two hours.

SHEARER: There's a 70 year window.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SHEARER: So they get -- the record label gets 20 more years out of the recordings.

BALDWIN: Exactly.

SHEARER: So that might be it. Maybe they're trying to one up Beyonce.

BALDWIN: They tried using iTunes.

SHEARER: In a couple countries, they put them up and then they took them down. So we don't know how long we're going to get them here in the states.

BALDWIN: Here in the - here in the states. So far we're thinking maybe for - I mean if you hop on iTunes right now, they're there.

SHEARER: We're hoping - we're hoping forever. But that's the thing. With Beyonce's stunt last week, today we get the Beatles, tomorrow, do we still have the bootlegs on? We don't know. So that's why people are rushing to iTunes.

BALDWIN: OK.

SHEARER: Well, I guess rushing is this.

BALDWIN: Do, do, do, do.

SHEARER: Yes, they don't need to rush anywhere. I guess just to their computer.

BALDWIN: Let's listen - let's listen to more music, because that's really what this is about. This is "Bad To Me," also from the 59 bootleg songs.

SHEARER: Let's b-bop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEATLES (singing): The birds in the sky would be sad and lonely if they knew that I'd lost my one and only, they'd be sad if you're bad to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You, my friend, have listened to 30 of the 59. How are they?

SHEARER: They're good, but it's for the Beatles completist.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SHEARER: Because there's -- there's a lot of one songs, saying this is take five, this is take seven. "Love Me Do," there's a different harmonica sound on it. So it's nothing - I mean there are some - there are some songs we haven't heard before, but it's basically for the Beatles nerd.

BALDWIN: OK, Beatles nerd.

SHEARER: A lot of alternate takes.

BALDWIN: OK. If you -- for the Beatles nerd, though, I mean if we're talking outtakes, can you hear them talking or is it pure singing?

SHEARER: No, no, there's some - yes, you can hear some of them talking. You can hear them joking around.

BALDWIN: Fantastic.

SHEARER: Like I said, there are songs that we've heard on the radio for years and years and years and there's, you know, a different inflection on their vocals or a different guitar strum. You're like, oh, that's different.

BALDWIN: Uh-huh.

SHEARER: So it's nice to hear it. Some of the recordings are gritty, so you get kind of punk rock Beatles in a way.

BALDWIN: Punk rock Beatles.

SHEARER: Yes.

BALDWIN: OK. And here we are 50 years later and the fact that you and I are sitting here on national television and talking about this, that's not nothing, as they say.

SHEARER: They're the great -- they're the greatest ever and that's not hyperbole.

BALDWIN: And we end with that. Jim Shearer, VH1, "Top 20 Video Countdown," thank you so much.

SHEARER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Come back.

SHEARER: I will.

BALDWIN: We'll talk music.

All right, now to this, from health care to spy scandals. It has not been a great year for President Obama. Are there any bright spots among the plunging polls? We'll talk about that and go to Washington ahead.

But first, we are hearing that Edward Snowden has been reaching out to Brazil for possible asylum. We will go into his offer and how this could involve reveal even more U.S. secrets. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)