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Obamacare Support Falls; New Safeguards After Target Hacking; Peyton Manning; NFL; Sports; 2013; Business; Lifestyle; Women

Aired December 23, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Happening right now in the "NEWSROOM", everyone, deadline day. If you want Obamacare by next year, today is the day. But enrollment may be clouded as the White House hopes are high its approval at a new low.

Plus, moving the bull's-eye, Target still in damage control mode this morning after that massive hack attack -- one big bank even limiting how much you can spend anywhere, just two days before Christmas.

And ducking cover, the dynasty's Phil Richardson (SIC) speaking out and not apologizing saying, he's a lover, not a hater.

"NEWSROOM" starts right now.

Good morning. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Kyra Phillips in for Carol Costello today.

For most people who want health insurance through Obamacare, today is the last day to sign up to have coverage by January 1st. The problem- plagued Web site, healthcare.gov is working better now even though it was down for just a bit this past Friday. More than half a million people have signed up for plans in the first three weeks of December but as a new CNN poll shows, support for the law has plummeted.

We start with our report this morning with Athena Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest poll by CNN/ORC shows the White House has a long way to go to convince the American public the president's signature domestic achievement, Obamacare, is working.

Support for the Affordable Care Act has dropped to a record low, just 35 percent approve of the law. A five-point drop in less than a month. Sixty-two percent oppose it, despite the president's efforts to defend it.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Despite the Web site problems, despite the messaging problems, despite all that, it's working.

JONES: The new poll numbers come as Republicans continue to rail against Obamacare. SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: The rollout and the ideas behind the fact that the federal government could manage appropriately one-sixth of the economy is proving itself erroneous.

JONES: And as members of the president's own party pushed a delay until 2015 fines for people who don't buy insurance by the end of March.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: This whole 2014 will be a transitional year to find out where our glitches are and our little nuances that we have to work for, and find out if the market can produce the products that we need to keep us -- you know, healthy.

JONES: The administration did offer a reprieve last week to people whose policies are being canceled and who haven't been able to find affordable plans on the exchanges. They'll be allowed to buy catastrophic coverage or be exempted from the fine.

While enrollment through the federal Web site is speeding up states running their own exchanges have seen mixed results. Making matters worse for the White House the drop in support for the law was driven by women. Sixty percent now oppose it compared to 54 percent in November.

OBAMA: Women oftentimes are the ones who are making the health care decisions in the family.

JONES: Just last week the president and first lady launched a renewed push aimed at moms hoping they will help sell the law. And in another sign of bad news, most poll respondents believe they're going to pay more, not less, under the new law. Sixty-three percent said their medical bills will increase. Just 7 percent expect them to fall.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And Athena Jones join me now from Honolulu where the president is spending his Christmas holiday.

Athena, the president mentioned another big enrollment number on Friday. Right? What is it?

JONES: That's right, Kyra. It's really interesting that we're getting these numbers directly from the president himself. He said on Friday that more than a million people had signed up for health insurance either via the state exchange or the federal exchange since October 1st when this all began.

Of course, that's still a long way away from the administration's goal of seven million people enrolling by the end of March -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We're going to talk more about that. That's for sure. Athena Jones, thanks so much.

Let's take a closer look at those numbers, OK, and the political impact. Of course we're bringing in John Avlon for that. He's a CNN political analyst and executive editor for "The Daily Beast." All right, so John, just days before the deadline the site was down for several hours on Friday and the note that came out was, whoops, sorry, scheduled maintenance. You know, this is not the time for routine maintenance, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, no, we're in crunch time. This is approving time. And the rollout has been so fundamentally screwed up as the president himself admits that when it's taken off line those are people who aren't coming on and that adds to the perception that things are still fundamentally broken.

This is a perception problem as well as a political problem for the president. These numbers are going in the wrong direction at precisely the wrong time.

PHILLIPS: Well, also, and if you look at the latest numbers, still more than half of our country doesn't agree with Obamacare for a variety of reasons.

AVLON: Yes, that's one of the really interesting things about this poll, Kyra. I mean, we've got 43 percent of Americans disagree with it because they say it's too liberal. Now that makes sense. Fifteen percent, the fastest growing number, say they disagree with it because it is too liberal. So the president is stuck in the middle somewhere here. But the trend is not his friend. And the fact that women seem to be driving this latest round of disapproval is a real problem for reasons the president explained. Women tend to be the health care decision makers in the household.

Here's the thing. Monday, today's the deadline, if you don't have insurance, if you want to have it by January 1 you've got to purchase it. The larger deadline is out in March. But the chronic confusion around this law, that's what adding to the negative perception.

There is still time before the midterm elections for the administration to try to rack up the numbers and make people see, according to their narrative, that the Republicans claim that this is end of freedom as we know it, aren't true and in fact it may be a good deal.

But the numbers, the initial results are very problematic. And for those who are self-employed folks, they're the ones who are being in the brunt of this and that's a driving factor in our society across the board right now.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about those numbers and how you rack up those numbers because we're far from hitting that seven million sign- up goal and that could be disastrous as we know. Plus we need enough healthy people to sign up to offset the sick folks. Right? So if that doesn't happen then medical costs could be brutal.

AVLON: That's exactly right. I mean, look, the marketplace argument behind this plan is that if you get enough healthy people to sign up, if they can be induced, the young people, that awful pajama boy ad was trying to induce young people to sign up, that that will create the balance within the marketplace within these exchanges to lower costs for everybody.

If you don't have enough young healthy people signing up, the market dynamic doesn't work. And already you're seeing a lot of health insurance companies push back and say, look, all these last-minute changes may work for politics but they hurt the practicality.

At the end of the day the impact this has on the midterm elections, there is still time for people to see. It's not like the current health care system is real popular in America. But the market dynamics that were supposed to work to bring down costs seem fundamentally flawed unless they can hit those benchmarks.

PHILLIPS: And also -- I mean, let's look at the law. I mean, constituents have been complaining.

AVLON: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Will continue to complain. Right? Then politicians got to get involved, they got to make a tweak, an amendment, whatever it is. And then the law isn't even the way -- it's not going forward the way it was intended. Then what?

AVLON: Well, this is -- look, I mean, there's always going to be a little bit of -- you want people in Washington to make adjustments based on facts on the ground. The problem is you have this deep ideological divide over this law, despite the fact it was originally a Republican plan. That is ancient history at the moment. Republicans are so ideologically invested in the defeat of this law that they are -- they're pumping it up.

Democrats, on the other hand, need to defend this as a core legacy, not just the Obama administration but of liberalism. Can government solve big complex problems? That's why this is such a fraught debate. That's why this is such intense politics as well as people's lives, as well as whether their health care at the end of the day becomes cheaper and whether they can -- have some of the benefits that are promised like no preexisting conditions.

Those elements are very popular. The Republican move ultimately is going to be, can they offer an alternative? Because if it's simply opposition, that is a difficult alternative to campaign on. It -- they can work but it's not sufficient ultimately. You need to propose a solution, not just oppose.

PHILLIPS: John, good to see you this morning. Thanks so much.

AVLON: You, too, Kyra. Be well.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

And just getting this in here to CNN. Live pictures now from Detroit where we're told a plane has apparently slid off the runway. It's Detroit Metro Airport. These pictures coming to us from our affiliate WDIV. We're told no one was hurt. That plane was a Delta flight, Flight 2283. It was en route to Atlanta. It has been rescheduled for 10:00 a.m. this morning. We'll keep you updated there from Detroit.

Well, the nation's largest bank is slapping some new safeguards in place after that massive security breach at retail giant Target. It affects shoppers who used a JPMorgan Chase debit card at Target during that three-week security failure. Now their holiday shopping with that compromised debit card now has new ATM and purchase limits.

We'll have those details in just a moment but, first, Target for its part is now offering a free credit monitoring service for the roughly 40 million customers who may have been exposed. And over the weekend, Target gave a store-wide discount of 10 percent for all shoppers on both Saturday and Sunday.

CNN's George Howell outside a Target store in Warrenville, Illinois.

So has that even impacted the shopping from where you are, George?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, look, you are finding some shoppers who are shopping elsewhere. Sales are reportedly down. There are also reportedly three class action lawsuits. The timing on this could not be worse when you consider it's right before the Christmas rush.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL (voice-over): Some last-minute Christmas shoppers may be frozen in their tracks because of the massive security breach at Target. JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank, has temporarily placed limits on those customers potentially impacted by the hacking.

Chase clients who shopped at U.S. Target stores between November 27th and December 15th can now only withdraw $100 a day from ATMs, their daily total spending now capped at $300.

With 40 million credit and debit card accounts now considered compromised, irate customers took Target to task online. One tweet reads, quote, "My bank account got hacked and now I can't finish Christmas shopping. @target, anything to help?" Another chimed in. "The moral of this story, Target hacking and Chase bankcard limits, have a backup plan, cash, paper checks, gift cards, one other bank card." And other hacked customers are asking why it wasn't noticed sooner.

ERICA EAKEN, HACKED TARGET CUSTOMER: They purchased six gift cards at $200 and as the person at the bank told me they went for a seventh and it was denied because I didn't have enough. And I just think that would have been suspicious.

HOWELL: U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chuck Schumer are now immediate federal investigations to prevent a breach like this from happening again.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: We can get to the bottom of how Target's in-store payment security was compromised in order to make sure that Target in the future and all other stores adequately protect consumers from this kind of devastating theft.

HOWELL: Some customers in California have already filed what could become a class action lawsuit against Target, saying the chain, quote, "failed to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices."

Target said on Sunday it notified millions of affected customers via e-mail and is working with the Secret Service and financial institutions to resolve the problem. They also offered customers 10 percent storewide discounts this weekend as well as free credit monitoring.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: So there's no doubt this incident has a lot of people furious. The question, could we see more of this sort of thing? According to the National Retail Federation, the answer to that is yes. Simply because of the magnetic strip on the back of these cards, technology that they say is similar to what we see on cassette tapes. It's easily compromised and, Kyra, can be easily copied.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh, cassette tapes. You just took us both way back, George Howell.

(LAUGHTER)

HOWELL: Yes. Mixed tapes.

PHILLIPS: All right, Yes, oh, yes. We could keep going. All right.

Well, ice, snow, rain, floods, even weirdly warm weather have hit different parts of the country now. The bizarre storm system comes as 94 million people are traveling for the holidays. On roads like these, even up to the skies. More than 100 flights now canceled across the U.S. and hundreds are delayed, according to flightaware.com.

Indra Petersons is live for us in New York.

So, Indra, what kind of holiday can travelers expect?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think you pretty much nailed it with weird weather. And we still have the remnants of everything that happened over the weekend. We saw over an inch of ice in upstate New York. Record-breaking heat in the east. And then a good 10 inches of rain and flooding concern across the Midwest and the southeast. And by the way, yes, this is only our first weekend of winter weather.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS (voice-over): It's just two days before Christmas and a powerful storm system is knocking most of the country into weather extremes, all on one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. Freezing rain and snow slammed in middle of the country, creating colossal sheets of ice on the roofs of these outlet shops in Oklahoma City, while in the northeast, a bizarre mix of winter weather and unseasonable warmth.

In upstate New York, an ice storm knocked out power, freezing branches and roadways. A stark difference just a few hours away in New York City which saw a record high of 71 degrees over the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love it. If feels like it's May in December.

PETERSONS: A dangerous mix of storms, flooding, snow, and ice threatens travel plans this week. And our neighbor to the north isn't immune.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, there it goes.

PETERSONS: Toronto, Canada, seeing one of its worst ice storms in recent memory. Severe storms swept across the south. In Arkansas, this damage was from 130-mile-per-hour tornado.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I threw my whole body weight over my 16-month- old child to save his life and then I found my daughter and I flung her towards the bathroom to save her life.

PETERSONS: In Nelson County, Kentucky, rushing flood water from this creek swept an SUV downstream killing three people inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew we had a terrible situation here. We were hoping to make some rescues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheets of rain and wind.

PETERSONS: In Charlotte, fans of the New Orleans/Carolina Panthers game endured drenching rain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about this guy right below the booth?

PETERSONS: This guy seemed to have the worse seat of the house as rain cascaded down from the upper desk.

Flooding in the Great Lakes had rescuers evacuating a retirement village in LaRue, Ohio. For nearly 94 million expected travelers, it's a wacky combo of weather.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Well, extreme weather still continues this morning. Let's talk about the icing first. Still seeing some in New England into the northeast. Only about a quarter of an inch potential still left. And it should diminish as the morning continues on.

Farther down to the south we're still talking about rain for some of the big metropolitan areas today. The light amount, generally one, maybe some three-inch areas. And we do have to have some flooding concerns in that region. It should be exiting offshore as we go through the evening especially through the Carolinas.

That's the kind of the slowest that we see it exit offshore. Keep in mind, it may be warm in the morning but we're actually going to cool off as the day goes on. Many places could see their highs as the overnight lows once that cold front kicks through.

So, we talk about the rain. We talk about the ice. How about the snow?

Still one to three inches of snow around the lakes. We'll be watching for that.

These temperature contrast, look at that 73 in Tampa right now, negative 3 -- or 23 in Bismarck. That would be a gap. So, pretty extreme temperatures are still in the forecast. One of the bigger things you'll notice, look how unusual the overnight lows are.

We should be in the 30s. D.C. was 59 degrees this morning. That's what I'm talking about. Some of our highs today could be from this morning. It will get cooler as we go through the afternoon and especially as we go throughout the week.

Talk about a good 40-degree temperature drop in 48 hours. So, by Christmas day, at least it will feel like Christmas for everyone, I don't know why, but if they were complaining with 70-degree temperatures in the Northeast, we'll see some 20s and 30s by Christmas Day.

I'm not excited. I'm OK with it if it's Christmas. I'll give you that, Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, come on. It gets you in the whole holiday spirit.

PETERSONS: I'm trying, I'm trying.

PHILLIPS: Go to Green Bay, Wisconsin. You will feel the spirit. Trust me.

PETERSONS: No, I'm good.

PHILLIPS: Indra, thanks.

All right: Still to come, Peyton Manning makes NFL history. What a ride he's had this season. Joe Carter in the house, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Check out our top stories.

A plane wing slices a building. You can actually see the Boeing 747 right here. The accident happened as the plane was taxiing at Johannesburg Airport. All 182 passengers are OK. The airline, British Airways, has now launched an investigation.

And today, the Denver City council will tackle the issue of punishing minors caught with pot. The council will vote on measures that would make marijuana possession by those under the age of 18 punishable by a small fine, but it will not be put on their permanent record. The council will also vote on a measure to ban marijuana businesses within 1,000 feet of a school. And for the third time this year, Dennis Rodman has returned from a highly publicized trip to North Korea, but this time, there was no meeting with the man he calls, quote, "a very good guy". Talking about Kim Jong-un.

Rodman was in town to help train a basketball team for an exhibition match in early January. The Worm says he's not worried about not seeing the North Korean leader this time around. He plans to return to the country in about a week.

And "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson says he's not -- he's a lover. He's not a hater. In an interview with "The Daily Mail", Robertson said he was just merely quoting the bible when he made those comments to "G.Q." that labeled homosexuality a sin. Those comments did get him suspended from the hit show, by the way.

Meanwhile, another politician is expressing public support for the family. Louisiana's lieutenant governor says "Duck Dynasty" is important for state tourism and he says he will help the Robertson family find new producer if they can't reach a deal with A&E. The new season of "Duck Dynasty" is set to air January 15th.

All right. Peyton Manning's magical year got even better on Sunday. The Denver Broncos quarterback set an NFL record with this 51st touchdown pass of the season.

Joe Carter here with all the hoopla, all action.

JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS: It's fun for me to watch. I'm a huge Denver Broncos fan.

PHILLIPS: That's where you're from. You're a Colorado boy. You have to be dedicated.

CARTER: Totally dedicated. It's not hard to follow. It's been a fun season. What's great about this back story is a few years ago, 2 1/2 years ago, Peyton had four neck surgeries. Many thought his career might be over forever. Maybe he would never be the same.

And here he is, two years later, at the age of 37, having arguably the greatest season of his entire NFL career. He's got a lot of records. Obviously, yesterday, he had the 51st touchdown pass which breaks Tom Brady's record of 50.

To think he could actually set two more records next weekend in the game against the Oakland Raiders. If the Broncos score 28 points, they will be the first team in NFL history to score 600 points. If Peyton Manning throws for 266 yards, he will be pass -- he'll pass Drew Brees for the all time passing yards record.

So, the man had the ability to have the touchdown record, yards record and points record all when people say his career might be over.

PHILLIPS: You know what's amazing? You mention Drew Brees. Same thing with Drew Brees, right?

CARTER: Comebacks. Don't count them out.

PHILLIPS: Everyone loves a comeback story. I mean, when you were describing Peyton, I was thinking about Drew Brees and, bam, you put it right in there. It's pretty awesome. They're good guys.

CARTER: They are good guys. Did you ever see the Manning documentary that was just on TV recently about his father, "The Book of Manning."

PHILLIPS: No. But I guess I'm going to have to.

CARTER: Very good. I recommend it. But yesterday, after the game, of course, Peyton Manning said, I love the record, love having it, but I'm certain it's going to be broken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEYTON MANNING, BRONCOS QUARTERBACK: I think it's a unique thing and a neat thing to be a part of NFL history, even though it may be temporary. I personally think all season records are going down, especially if they go to 18 game, and there won't be an asterisk to them.

So, Brady will probably break it again next year, if not the year after. So, we'll enjoy it as long as it lasts and hopefully the hall of fame will send the ball back once somebody throws for more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: Great headline today "USA Today" sports. Peyton is great but the Super Bowl is better.

So, OK, the Broncos are setting themselves up with all these records and, obviously, they have a great position to possibly be number one seed in the playoffs and have home field advantage throughout. That's where they were last year and they got one and done by the Ravens.

So, I think this could be all for nothing if Peyton doesn't get to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl. I know that's harsh to say but that's the expectations now. Could this be another season where Peyton has inflated, huge statistical number but doesn't win the big one.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what? We can really talk about the mind/body connection here, right? If you think about all these surgeries and all the injuries and he is so focus and mentally driven into the mission. I mean, look at what he's done. It's power, the power of the mind.

CARTER: And to see how the team is following him in this mission because obviously he's more than just a great quarterback. He's a great leader. Obviously his preparation going into each game, the way he handles practices, the way he handles media, the way he handles just off the field, grace and commercial ads and being a celebrity but yet not let that distraction carry over into his preparation and work and all the stuff that goes into his family. I mean, seeing that documentary as I mentioned, "The Book of Manning" really goes back to his father Archie and how Archie never pressured him to be a college quarterback, never pressured him to be in the NFL, and just said, you make your own choices. I'm not going to tell you where to go to college, I'm not going to tell you to be a quarterback. You do what you want to do, and I think that all plays into who he is now and how successful he is.

PHILLIPS: What a lesson for all of us who are parents. That's for sure.

Joe, thanks so much.

CARTER: You bet.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, still to come, she urged women across the country to lean in if they wanted to get ahead at work. Well, we have an in-depth look at Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and some of the other most talked about women of the year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: 2013 was an incredible year for women, big promotions, big jobs, bestselling books.

CNN digital correspondent Kelly Wallace and Carol Costello sat down and talk about some of the year's most talked about women, and should begin by asking about the criticism that Sheryl Sandburg received for her book "Lean In."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of women were saying, OK, Sheryl Sandberg, are you blaming us, are you blaming us for not being able to crack the glass ceiling? Is it all women's fault, right?

And are we not doing enough, are we not leaning in enough? So, that really did get people fired up. I will say that Sheryl Sandberg as she heard some of that criticism, she said, you know what, I'm not saying that everybody needs to be a CEO. I'm just saying that we can all potentially do a better job when it comes to doing more in our own careers, maybe not leaning back years before we decide to have kids but, you know, going really hard for years. And then when you have kids maybe making a different decision. So, she tried to clear up some of the controversy that erupted at the start.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Still her book was incredibly popular. It was a best seller. You have to wonder what her next move will be. A lot of people said she should run for public office.

WALLACE: I mean, it will be interesting because she struck such a chord. And I think women really responded to her. I know she's been talking a lot at the end of the year and maybe in 2014 about getting men as part of this equation, right? It's not just about women leaning in, it's about men doing more and the workplace and organizations around the country to both help women lean in, to support younger women. So, I think that is something we will probably see her talking more and more about in the early part of 2014.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about another woman who leaned in all of the way to the top, right?

WALLACE: Yes.

COSTELLO: General Motors named Mary Barra CEO. She's the first ever woman to head an American car company. It's so great to see this because it's a traditionally male industry, right? And here's a woman who grew up in the industry who is now leading General Motors.

WALLACE: It's a fantastic story. As you said, right, the first U.S. -- first woman to lead a U.S. automaker. She joins a small but, you know, somewhat growing list, right, of female CEOs. And that it is a heavily -- male dominated industry, speaks volumes. She's going to bring kind of her own expertise, her own sense of management style to the top.

At the same time, Carol, you know, and we've talked about this, the numbers are small. The number of, you know, executive officers at companies hasn't really changed over the past four years. The number of women on boards hasn't really changed over the past eight years. So, we have a long way to go. But when you see moments like this, you've got to stop and say, That's great news for women in the workplace.

COSTELLO: Okay. You say we have got a long way to go, and this next topic certainly illustrates that.