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Obamacare Web Site Setting Records; Last-Minute Shopping; Edward Snowden Opens Up

Aired December 24, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We're talking about a pope that brought homeless men to his apartment on his birthday. How unique of an approach is that?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Well, Kyra, we should remember that Pope Francis didn't bring just three homeless men to his apartment for a piece of birthday cake. They also brought their dog, Marley. So, it was a very inclusive birthday celebration.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to forget Marley.

(LAUGHTER)

ALLEN: Well, named for Bob Marley. One of the guys told me that, which is probably the first time the name Bob Marley has ever been voiced in precincts of the Vatican.

But, look, Pope Francis has brought many -- he has brought a lot of substantive changes. As you say, he's created a commission to deal with the sex abuse mess. He's issued tough new laws to clean up Vatican finances, try to avoid some of the scandals that have washed through this place in recent years.

He's overhauled the criteria by which Catholic bishops around the world are selected, trying to move the process in the direction of moderates and away from hard-liners and so on. But, look, I think the most significant achievement of Pope Francis over the course of 2013 is that he has completely changed the storyline about the Catholic Church. I mean, nine months ago, Kyra -- you remember this -- we were on CNN's air talking about scandals and controversies and meltdowns in the life of the church and bruising political fights.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

ALLEN: And, look, while none of that has gone away, the dominant storyline about the Catholic Church today is that there's this pope, this humble, simple pope of the people and pope of the poor who has captured the world's imagination and given the church a new lease on life.

If that's not a revolution in nine months' time, I'm not sure we have ever seen one.

PHILLIPS: And if he's listening to reggae, that could be a whole 'nother level of change and progressiveness.

Let's go back to what you just mentioned. We can't deny that so many followers, you know, have been disillusioned and devastated by the sex abuse scandal. For this pope, OK, while we're seeing a shift and we're seeing a focus on the poor, how much of a priority will the sex abuse scandal be?

ALLEN: Well, I think it's important to remember that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man who is now Pope Francis, comes from a part of the world that has not had the same kind of experience with the sex abuse crisis that, say, Americans or Europeans have had.

I think there is some getting up to speed that has had to go on. Now, that said, I think one of the important pieces of this puzzle is that Pope Francis has created this kitchen cabinet of eight cardinals from around the world who are his key advisers. One of them is Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, which was of course ground zero for the American crisis.

O'Malley, I think, has helped get Francis up to speed, which is where this decision to create a commission to deal with this has come from to make it clear this is a permanent priority of the church and of this pope. We're also expecting in fairly short order he's going to make an appointment of a key Vatican official to sort of spearhead the legal process on these issues.

So I think it's taken a little bit of time, but I think it is clear that Francis is committed to a reform agenda also on the sex abuse crisis.

PHILLIPS: So, you and I have been talking about popes together for about 15 years now. What is it about this pope that fascinates you?

ALLEN: Well, I mean, one thing, Kyra, is just how little time it's taken him to capture the world's imagination.

I mean, look, he was just named "TIME"'s person of the year. That's not the first time that's happened to a pope. It happened to John XXIII and John Paul II, but with John Paul II, it was 1994. That was 16 years into his papacy. With Francis, it only took nine months.

I think what it ultimately illustrates, Kyra, is that people are hungry for a moral authority and a voice of conscience on the world stage they can feel good about. They have been in short supply recently, but Francis has stepped into that role. And at least to date, he seems to be playing it magnificently.

PHILLIPS: John Allen, always a pleasure to see you and talk to you. Thanks so much.

And be sure to tune in for our live coverage of the pope's first ever Christmas -- Christmas mass, rather, that special tonight 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right, last-minute shopping, wrapping, getting ready for a holiday feast. And now it turns out that quite a few Americans have been interrupted by the holiday hustle and bustle to sign up for Obamacare. We have just gotten some numbers for you.

Dana Bash is in Washington, hosting "THE LEAD" next hour.

What's the word?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word from CMS, which runs healthcare.gov, is that volume on the site remains high, but not equal to yesterday.

Now, yesterday, healthcare.gov got two million page views, which was a record. The call center received more than 250,000 calls, a record for traffic altogether, calls and on the site. But this is all about a deadline tonight, Kyra. Midnight tonight, that's when people who want to be enrolled for insurance by January 1 have to sign up.

Now, CMS is saying they're seeing thousands of visitors complete enrollment online. The question, though, is going to be whether or not enough people can beat that deadline tonight, because there certainly is a lot of frustration still with the way that they are having to maneuver themselves online. They're having -- a lot of people are reporting trouble and lots of time on hold when they place those calls.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: So what happens if they can't beat the deadline? What was it, just last Friday they had to shut down the Web site for a couple hours for routine maintenance? It just seems sort of -- this is not the time to be worrying about routine maintenance.

BASH: That's exactly what.

What CMS is saying they're going to look at it on a case-by-case basis people who tried and couldn't beat the deadline. That sort of brings us to a whole 'nother potential set of problems once we do hit January 1. That is that people might not realize that just because you're on the Web site, just because you have enrolled, if you haven't paid for your insurance, that means you don't have it.

Or if you are on the site and maybe you think you're enrolled, but the insurance company didn't get the message, which speaks to your point, Kyra, that there still are problems with the site, that might be mean that you're not going to have health care.

That is a whole new set of problems and frustrations that officials are bracing -- bracing themselves for, rather, and certainly people who need that health coverage are worried about.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. We will be talking about this a lot. Dana Bash, thanks so much.

And a reminder, Dana is anchoring "THE LEAD" today. We will have more on this story coming up 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. See you then, Dana.

BASH: You too. PHILLIPS: All right. Two NASA astronauts spent more than seven hours this Christmas Eve making repairs to the International Space Station. The second in a series of space walks began this morning. That walk began just before 7:00 Eastern. They're actually trying to replace a pump that's not working.

At one point there was a bit of a glitch too when some ammonia residue seeped into their spacesuits, forcing the astronauts to air out the suits before actually reentering the station. A former astronaut told us last hour that the safety precaution is especially important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Now, it gets on their suits and, you know, needs to be baked out to make sure you don't bring that ammonia back into the cabin inside of the International Space Station and, you know, kind of release ammonia inside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the repairs should be done, we're told, by next Tuesday.

Well, don't look now, but you only have a few more hours of shopping time. Stores used big sales and longer hours to lure all of you in this holiday season. So did it work? And what can you still do to get the best deal tonight? We're talking to an expert.

And have you heard this? McDonald's' internal Web site tells workers not to eat fast food. Guess what? McDonald's is standing by the statement. We will explain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. I'm Major Tom Swuzik (ph) here at U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

I would like to say happy holidays, merry Christmas, and a happy new year to dad and Mary and all my family and friends in Toledo, Ohio. I love you guys and miss you very much. Have a blessed new year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures of two of the most spiritual and holy places in the world. The big Christmas tree, I bet you can guess, that is Bethlehem, correct, birthplace of Jesus, and also the Vatican, where the pope is getting ready for his midnight mass, beautiful settings, both spots.

Well, here in the U.S., less than nine hours to go until Christmas Day. It's all about the power to shop. Last-minute shoppers are rolling into stores looking for that perfect quick fix and retailers are definitely ready to let them in. They're slashing prices, extending store hours, hoping these holiday procrastinators can boost the bottom line.

One Best Buy customer told our Stephanie Elam just how much shopping he still has to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have the children's gifts. I'm going to have to get that gift for the special someone and then a couple of, you know, kind of industry, like, I appreciate you kind of gifts.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you going to do that all in here at Best Buy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, I was at Starbucks and I met the Google lady. She's like, oh, you got to come over and see the blah-blah. And I'm like, OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: See the blah-blah. I wonder if he bought the blah-blah.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: He might be one of the few with the really long list of gifts to buy as well.

Joining us now, finance expert and MoneyAnswers.com blogger Jordan Goodman.

Jordan, do you know what a blah-blah is?

(LAUGHTER)

JORDAN GOODMAN, MONEYANSWERS.COM: I think that's a pretty kind of broad term. You can apply that to almost anything.

PHILLIPS: Anything at Best Buy.

GOODMAN: At this point, people are so desperate at the last minute, they will get whatever they can get.

PHILLIPS: That's true. What do the latest retail numbers show?

GOODMAN: Well, there was actually a survey that came out from ShopperTrak which said retail sales and traffic is down 21 percent this week compared to same time last year.

I think what's really happening, Kyra, is a lot of the sales are going online. Online sales are up about 9 percent this week over the same week last year. Overall, sales are going to be about $600 billion for the entire holiday season, November and December, which will be up about 2 percent to 3 percent from last year. So it's OK, but the real action is going on online.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's easier too, right? You don't have to deal with all those crazy people that stomp you and throw things and get into fistfights.

GOODMAN: I would say it's a little late today. Right? This is Christmas Eve.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: No, you're right.

(CROSSTALK)

GOODMAN: But, overall, you're right. Online is where the action is.

PHILLIPS: Or you could...

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: .. gift certificates, OK? You could be really creative and just devise a nice little gift certificate.

GOODMAN: Yes, gift cards are huge.

PHILLIPS: There you go.

GOODMAN: There's going to be about $30 billion worth of gift cards sold, a lot of them today, because that's something you can still get today.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, overall, bad holiday considering?

GOODMAN: Well, I think overall it's not a huge growth. Last year, we had about a 5 percent growth. This year it'll be in the 2 percent to 3 percent range.

There are several factors are making that happen. Incomes have not really gone up that much for most Americans. At the upper end, those people are doing great. The stock market has soared to all-time record highs. House prices are up. Those people are feeling very confident. It's stores like Tiffany and Nordstrom and Michael Kors, those kind of places, they are having blowout sales.

But for most average Americans that are not feeling those income effects, sales are really kind of mediocre right now.

PHILLIPS: I didn't know that Tiffany's actually went on sale. You just taught me something.

GOODMAN: Oh, yes.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my goodness.

All right. So advice, I guess, to last-minute buyers, besides just a hug and a kiss and maybe a home-cooked meal?

GOODMAN: Well, there are some fantastic sales. Now you have some leverage as a buyer, because this is the last chance they're going to get something. And so 50 percent, you could even negotiate and possibly even can get lower deals on these things. They want to make their numbers. This is a chance for you to go out there and get the last-minute deals. They're going to stay open in many cases until midnight tonight. You still have a few hours to go to get these fantastic deals.

PHILLIPS: OK. The gift of -- or the art of negotiation comes into play tonight.

GOODMAN: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: Jordan, thanks.

GOODMAN: Thanks so much, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, more lawsuits are being filed against Target over the store chain's massive credit and debit card hacking. Shoppers in at least six states have launched federal class actions. Those suits allege that Target was negligent and didn't protect customers' card information; 40 million credit and debit account numbers were stolen, as you probably know.

Target says it's working with the Department of Justice and the U.S. Secret Service now on the investigation.

PHILLIPS: Well, McDonald's has some advice. Don't eat fast food. Huh? That's exactly what was posted on an employee Web site. It actually promotes raw vegetables and even says things like "pass on the pickles, less salt." But what's McDonald's without pickles? Great question.

Alison Kosik has more on the sort of bizarre advice -- Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

An internal McDonald's Web site that offers information to its employees is catching heat again. This time, it's basically telling its employees to stay away from fast food, saying fast food is typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt, and puts people at risk of becoming overweight.

There's even a picture of an unhealthy choice vs. a healthy choice, and McDonald's very own staple foods are in the unhealthy category, meaning the burger, fries and the soda. The site also gives some tips on how to eat healthy at a fast food restaurant. In a statement, McDonald's says, "Portions of this Web site continue to be taken entirely out of context. This Web site provides useful information from respected third parties, meaning an outside company, about many topics."

And McDonald's says it agrees with this advice. But this isn't the first time the Web site has gotten people talking. In other installments, there's been a financial planning guide, which allotted just $20 for health insurance and no money for food. Its advice for getting out of holiday debt included getting a second job. And it even offered a holiday etiquette guide on what to tip the pool boy, the au pair, and the masseuse. That left many thinking that McDonald's is out of touch with its employees, since most make minimum wage -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Alison, thanks.

Well, next, the man who leaked thousands of classified U.S. documents opens up in a tell-all interview. Edward Snowden says his mission is "already accomplished." He also reveals what his days are like in Russia.

Plus, Deepak Chopra, our holistic health expert, now offering us his advice on how you can turn the holidays into holy days for your body and soul. I will talk to him live next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I'm Janet Koglisinki (ph) with the new parent support program in Yokota Air Base, Japan.

I would like to wish a merry Christmas and happy new year to my cousin Linda, all her children in New York. Merry Christmas and happy new year in New York City and surrounding areas. Merry Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So he's in exile and on the run, even says he lives the life of an indoor cat. Yet, Edward Snowden says he still believes he won, claiming mission accomplished for leaking top-secret documents from the NSA, leaks that revealed systematic spying at the highest level.

This was all revealed in an interview with "The Washington Post."

Our Joe Johns, crime and justice correspondent, knows all about it.

He actually used the words mission accomplished. I think we all remember what that means.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we definitely do, but probably everybody would agree not in the same context.

So Snowden says he's already done what he set out to do. The quote from the article says, in terms of personal satisfaction for him, the mission's already accomplished. He said he already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that he'd been trying to do was validated.

Now, Barton Gellman, the author of the article in "The Washington Post," talked about this earlier today on CNN. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARTON GELLMAN, "THE WASHINGTON POST": What he means by mission accomplished is he wanted the public to know what was being done in its name and what was being done to it in terms of surveillance, and he wanted it to be possible that decisions be made outside the secret bubble that they had been made since 9/11.

To that extent, because he's had a lot a great deal of public attention, because many of his concerns have been validated by, for example, a federal judge, by the president's own study commission, he believes he has launched the public debate that he wanted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So, Joe, he also says that he started out raising issues that concerned him to people inside the NSA. How did that turn out for him?

JOHNS: Yes, that's pretty interesting. Beginning in October of last year, he said he brought his concerns about the amount of information being collected to two superiors in the NSA's technology directorate, two more in the NSA threat operations center at the regional base in Hawaii and up to 15 other co-workers detailing the volume of data ingested by NSA.

He says his colleagues were often astonished, his word, to learn, "We are collecting more in the United States on Americans than we're on Russians in Russia," he says. Many of them were troubled, but he said several said that they did not want to know anymore. He says he asked these people, what do you think the public would do if this was on the front page? So I think we know the answer to that too.

PHILLIPS: Joe Johns, thanks so much.

Well, Christmas, it's a merry time, but it also can be a very stressful time, right? We can all agree with that, but we have got a perfect solution for you. Deepak Chopra is here. He has got a unique take on how you can actually change your genes and become a much healthier person. I'm talking to him live next.

Plus, we never get tired of this. Two military parents make a bet to see who will cry first when they surprise their kids. Keep the Kleenex close. The emotional reunion is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So Obamacare had a pretty good day on Monday. As we reported, nearly two million visitors went to that Web site. And that is a record. But keep several things in mind here. Despite that rush to the Web site, we don't know yet how many new people did enroll. Also, they had a deadline looming, folks rushing in for coverage for January 1.

To make Obamacare work, the administration says they need seven million subscribers by the end of March. They're nowhere close to that.

Jason Johnson with us now from Washington, an HLN contributor. Jason, nearly two million visits to the Web site on Monday. Is that the kind of figure you think they were looking for? Would you see that as successful?

JASON JOHNSON, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think the Obama administration sees it as successful, but in all honesty, there's no chance they're going to have seven million people signed up by March.

But if they get on average 2, maybe even 3 million people to at least log on to the site over the next couple of months, I think the Obama administration would say that's a success, given how bad things were in October.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're also hearing that the White House is gearing up for some sort of P.R. push to get the numbers up by March.

I mean, looking ahead, would you expect, you know, perhaps a grand gesture by the president to encourage people to enroll? They could do all the P.R. they want, but it's got to be working and it's got to be understandable.

JOHNSON: Right. And those are the two biggest issues.

Yesterday, I had two friends who tried to sign up. One was my trainer. She said, the machine kept breaking. I couldn't get through. She couldn't sign up. Another friend of mine had a preexisting condition. She got on after about two hours. As long as, you know, only 50 percent of the people who are probably trying to get on can get access to health care, no matter how much P.R. push Obama puts on, it won't necessarily work.

But that's why he's got a couple months to see if he can make it happen.

PHILLIPS: Well, do you think that this time next year we're still going to be talking about problems like this just dogging the president's health care reforms?

JOHNSON: By this time next year, probably not, because the Republicans will have done much better in Congress and they will be talking about trying to overturn Obamacare.

I mean, I think that's why the mandate was pushed back. But in all honesty, it's just like Social Security. It took years for that to work out fine. We won't know if this is a success or failure for another five or six years.

PHILLIPS: That's actually a point well made. Jason, appreciate it. Thanks so much.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, we hear it all the time from doctors and scientists, that our destiny is written in our genes, you know, high blood pressure, weight gain, cancer, all kinds of illnesses. And if our parents had them, well, the odds are against us. But what if you could actually change those odds? What if a little meditation here or a little yoga there could actually change your genetic code and make not just your life better, but your future kids' lives better too?

Deepak Chopra thinks it can happen. And he's launching a huge project to actually prove that it's possible. He joins me live from New York with more.

So, Deepak, you're telling us that even if we have cancer or heart disease or obesity in our families that we can change our destiny and the destiny of our children?

DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR, "REINVENTING THE BODY, RESURRECTING THE SOUL": So, Kyra, we have to be very careful how we word this.

Dr. Rudy Tanzi, who's the director for research and genetics at Mass General Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, he and I have written a book called "Super Brain." And what we maintain based on current evidence is that you can change the activity of your genes. You can't change the actual structure of your genes or the sequence of DNA. But you can change the activity.