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Political Images; Highway Heroes; Biggest Scandals of 2013
Aired December 26, 2013 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.
Happening now in the NEWSROOM, you hear the opening bell just rang. If you're going to invest in stocks ever, we'll tell you why today is the day to do it and why you'll probably see a nice return on your cash.
Plus this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just a matter of seconds. Another 10, 15 seconds, there just would have been too much fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: A tense rescue. A 72-year-old man clinging to life after his car careened into the dividers and burst into flames. The heart- stopping rescue all caught on tape.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God! Yeah!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: A Christmas to remember. An 11-year-old and an Auburn football ticket that made his day.
NEWSROOM continues now.
Here are this morning's top stories at 33 minutes past the hour.
Dozens of people spent their Christmas trapped in waters off Antarctica. Their cruise ship got stuck in some heavy sea ice yesterday. CNN's Diana Magnay says help may be at least a day away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Three vessels, they're on their way to rescue a ship stranded in ice in the Antarctic. The Russian flag vessel is carrying 74 people on board. We're hearing that they're safe. We know also this is a ship designed for polar exploration. The Australian Coast Guard, who's coordinating this mission, says that the ship is 100 nautical miles east of the French base of Dumont d'Urville in the Antarctic. They said on Wednesday that it could take some two days to reach the vessel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Luckily, passengers have plenty of food on board as they wait to be rescued.
The man accused of shooting and killing a TSA agent at LAX last month will be arraigned today in court. Paul Ciancia is facing 11 felony charges, including first degree murder. Three people were also wounded in that shooting rampage.
Opening bell, as I said, just rang on Wall Street. In celebration of the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium this weekend, the head coaches of Notre Dame and Rutgers are ringing this morning's bell. And with stocks rallying before the Christmas break, the markets are looking up this morning.
Surprise, surprise, surprise. You think the 2013 Congress is the worst ever. Check it out. According to the latest CNN/ORC poll, 67 percent say the 2013 Congress was the worst in their lifetime. Break it down. Sixty percent of Democrats say Congress was the worst, 71 percent of independents pile on and 68 percent of Republicans add their voices to the worst ever Congress.
Ah, but what are we going to do about it? With me now, Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic strategist, and Ron Christie, a Republican strategist.
Welcome to you both.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Great to be with you.
RON CHRISTIE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Merry Christmas, Carol.
ZIMMERMAN: Happy Boxing Day.
COSTELLO: Happy Boxing Day.
CHRISTIE: That's right.
COSTELLO: Fantastic. I hadn't realized, but thank you.
Establishment Republicans are already at work. According to "The Wall Street Journal," the powerful lobbying group, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is spending $50 million in 2014, quote, "our number one focus is to make sure when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates. That will be our mantra: no fools on our ticket."
Ron, by fools he means Tea Party candidates. The question is, will those candidates be so easily defeated?
CHRISTIE: Well, I don't know, Carol, if he's talking about Tea Party candidates. I think he's talking about candidates who are primarying, sitting incumbent Republican senators and Senate Republican House members who, while they might be popular to a certain extreme element of the base, they might not exactly win in the general election. So, I think what the important thing we need to do here is that we need to bring Republicans and Democrats and Independents to Washington who can work together rather than those that just sit in their ideological corners and just fight and kick sand in the sand box.
COSTELLO: Robert -
ZIMMERMAN: But, Ron, the problem - go - I'm sorry, Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. Go ahead.
ZIMMERMAN: OK. Ron, the problem is though, the individuals, who end up beating these conservative senators, are -- tend to be -- are always exclusively Tea Party candidates. You remember Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Engel (ph). And so, ultimately, as former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards (ph) said, as long as Rush Limbaugh can move more Republican primary voters in the Chamber of Commerce, the Republican Party is going to be doomed by this extreme fringe which has really captivated the Republican Party.
COSTELLO: But $50 million is a lot of money.
CHRISTIE: That's a lot of money, but I would say to my friend Robert, I think that the extremism exists in both parties and I think that's why across the board with Republicans, Independents and Democrats in this poll, people are saying, enough already. You have a number of people in the Democratic Senate who have really vetoed or had the opportunity to shut down sensible Republican bills coming over from the House dealing with energy, dealing with environment, dealing with health care and trying to find a way to move forward to make sure that people aren't harmed by the Affordable Care Act. So I think extremism exists in both parties.
ZIMMERMAN: But here's the -- here's the good news (ph) --
COSTELLO: Now wait a minute. Wait a minute, Robert, because Ron is right, Democrats are not exactly popular either.
ZIMMERMAN: Oh, look -
COSTELLO: In another CNN poll, Democrats no longer have the edge over Republicans in the midterm elections.
ZIMMERMAN: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: And you can't blame Obama and his health care rollout for that.
ZIMMERMAN: There's no -
COSTELLO: So, if Republicans push the fool's, quote, out, the Democrats are in trouble, aren't they? ZIMMERMAN: Well, here's the reality. I mean, I've said this on the air and I've gotten in some trouble with my own party. Were it not for the Tea Party candidates, there's no question the Republicans would have probably won the Senate in 2010 on certainly in 2012. And this poll is a powerful wake-up call that CNN released today because my party's been trying to claim, well, the Republicans are worse than us. At the end of the day, the country's stopped keeping score and they want to see a Congress that's delivering and producing.
But here's the good news, and it's not just a Christmas celebration hangover or extra egg nog this morning. Here's the good news. You see Republicans and Democrats in the Senate working together. Together they have produced an immigration bill, an infrastructure bill, a farm bill. So there's some breakthrough. And, ultimately, you see now John Boehner, as speaker, changing his tune and taking on the Tea Party because of the public outrage over the Republican shutdown of the government. And so as long as you have public participation and public outrage, you can bring about some resolution. And I think the Republican civil war really will tell the story.
COSTELLO: Well, if the Republican civil war really is over or actually is being won by establishment Republicans, Ron, then Democrats really may be in trouble. I mean, if people perceive that, and the midterms roll around, then, you know, what have Democrats done for me lately? They had a lousy healthcare.gov rollout and that's probably all people are going to remember.
CHRISTIE: Well, I think that's right, Carol. And I think if you look back at what President Obama said, he was going to cut the deficit in half in his first term and he didn't. The president said that if you liked your health care plan, you could keep it. If you liked your doctor, you could keep it. We've had millions of people now who have been thrown off their health care coverage this -- the last couple of months due to the Affordable Care Act, which isn't affordable. And I think heading into the midterm elections you find plenty of Democratic senators who are up for re-election who are really fleeing for the hills. They're now pushing for delays in the individual mandate.
ZIMMERMAN: But here's the good -
CHRISTIE: They're pushing for delays. And my thing is, I want to see what happens, Carol, when we get into the spring when small business employers are looking and saying, you know, I'd rather pay a penalty and throw my employers off many of the exchanges rather than keep them. I think that's where the winter of discontent for the Democrats is going to occur next - next fall in the midterms.
ZIMMERMAN: And, Ron - and, Ron, what I want to see is the Republicans - Ron, what I want to see is the Republicans offer alternatives. For example, now Democrats are going to run next -
CHRISTIE: Actually, Robert, we have offered alternatives.
ZIMMERMAN: Democrats -- excuse me, Ron. Democrats are going to run on the fact that they are, in fact, saving millions of people from being thrown off their health care because of pre-existing conditions or because they're being dumped because of illness or age.
CHRISTIE: But, Robert, I think -
ZIMMERMAN: Democrats are going to run over the fact that Obama has - the Obama administration has reduced the deficit almost by half at this stage. The deficit is going down and the cost of health care is also going down.
CHRISTIE: Robert, I would say to you -
COSTELLO: Well -
CHRISTIE: I would say to you that the Republicans have actually forced the president into reducing the deficit through the sequester, which the president wanted. And millions upon millions of people have lost their coverage due to the Affordable Care Act.
COSTELLO: Would you guys -
CHRISTIE: So, I don't think that you can say that millions of more people have gotten coverage when millions of people have been thrown off their coverage and only tens of thousands have signed up for it.
COSTELLO: No, no, no, 2 million have signed up now. That - those are the latest numbers from the White House. So millions have signed up.
CHRISTIE: So 2 million, Carol, have accessed the White House - Carol, that's incorrect. Two million have accessed the White House - have accessed the (INAUDIBLE).
COSTELLO: They've signed up. I didn't say they got their insurance. I said they signed up.
CHRISTIE: Thank you. That's right.
ZIMMERMAN: How about this, Ron, Pelosi -
COSTELLO: And then many millions more have signed up for Medicaid. So that seems to be working. So, you know --
ZIMMERMAN: That's right.
CHRISTIE: That's an entitlement program, Carol. That's not - that is not affordable, i's an entitlement program, actually -
ZIMMERMAN: And, by the way, Ron, how about -
COSTELLO: OK.
CHRISTIE: As opposed to saying that people were actually going to reduce their health care costs by (INAUDIBLE) the government. I don't think so.
COSTELLO: These millions of people are still voters -
ZIMMERMAN: That's right. COSTELLO: So you've got to take that into account too.
ZIMMERMAN: That's right. Let me also -
COSTELLO: I've got to end it there, guys. Thank you so much.
ZIMMERMAN: OK.
COSTELLO: Thank you so much, Robert Zimmerman and Ron Christie.
ZIMMERMAN: Thank you.
CHRISTIE: Always a pleasure.
ZIMMERMAN: Good to be with you.
COSTELLO: Still to - always a pleasure.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, highway horror. An elderly man trapped in a burning car. And as the seconds tick away, heroic motorists come to the rescue. You'll want to see more of this story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: In Los Angeles, flames shot from the crashed luxury car and black smoke covered the highway. And most horrific of all, the elderly driver was trapped inside and helpless. But in a twist not even Hollywood would try to sell, heroes in uniform just happened to be passing by. CNN's Miguel Marquez has this remarkable story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hard to tell, but that is a black Mercedes. It lost control on a major freeway in Los Angeles. Harder to believe, the man who was driving survived.
DON THOMPSON, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: It was just a matter of seconds. Another 10, 15 seconds, there just would have been too much fire.
MARQUEZ: Seconds to rescue the 72-year-old man whose car burst into flames after smashing into the center divider.
THOMPSON: I reached in there and I fumbled a bit more and thank goodness I found that button and popped the belt and grabbed him and pulled him out.
MARQUEZ: Adding to the miracle, Don Thompson, a 26 year veteran of the LAPD bomb squad, happened to be on his way to work. His shift started early. Diving into the flames, pulling the driver to safety.
THOMPSON: I'm just kind of singed, you know, hair here and some first degree on the side.
MARQUEZ: Thompson did have help. Miracles sometimes need company. A Los Angeles firefighter happened to be driving by, making the rescue seamless.
ERIK SCOTT, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: To be able to help to immediate patient assessment and get other resources on scene a lot quicker because he happened to be the commander of the dispatch center and called them directly to do so.
MARQUEZ: A horrible accident and an impromptu act of heroism.
THOMPSON: It makes me feel good to know that I've saved a life.
MARQUEZ: Understatement from a veteran cop, all in a day's work.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Amazing, right? The 72-year-old driver complained of neck and back pain, but somehow he escaped any serious injury.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: A cycling champ finally comes clean while the queen of southern cooking loses her throne amid a racial controversy. We can't leave out Toronto's crack-smoking Mayor, Rob Ford. Those are just some of the standout scandals of 2013. Joe Jones has a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Number 10 beam me up, baby. It's seldom you get the crack question of the year and the crack answer of the year in the same place. But it happened to the now notorious star of his own crack-smoking video.
ROB FORD, MAYOR OF TORONTO: Am I an addict? No.
JOHNS: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford when he got put on the spot in an open forum with the whole world watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you purchased illegal drugs in the last two years.
FORD: Yes, I have.
JOHNS: Ford was a trendsetter in 2013 -- leader of the pack in the category of mayors gone wild with honorable mention to number 9, San Diego's Mr. Smooth himself, Bob Filner, who resigned as mayor facing a tidal wave of sexual harassment allegations. Charges of unwanted advances including a former female employee who filed suit, Irene McCormick Jackson, alleging that Filner asked her, "Wouldn't it be great if you took off your panties and worked without them on?" He was eventually sentenced to 90 days home confinement and three years probation for assaulting women.
Number eight, also in the runoff for worst mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the former hip hop mayor of Detroit convicted of racketeering and extortion so pervasive that prosecutors said it helped pushed the Motor City into the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Kilpatrick finally got the term he wasn't elected to serve; 28 years in federal prison.
And speaking of elections, number seven on our list isn't a mayor, but he could have been. New York's former Congressman, Anthony Weiner a hit performer on the list from past years for the sexting controversy that made him leave Capitol Hill. Weiner made an encore running for the Big Apple's top job.
But when more explicit pictures surfaced that were sent to a 22-year- old woman under the alias "Carlos Danger", Weiner, who is married lost the primary with less than five percent of the vote. Magnanimous as always Weiner gave the media the universal "We're number one hand signal as a parting shot."
While we're on the subject of popularity, number six on the list is that agency everybody loves to hate -- the Internal Revenue Service. And in keeping with the season what might be described as one of the most notorious naughty list in recent U.S. history. It seems somebody at the IRS got bright the idea of singling out conservative groups, especially Tea Partiers, for extra special attention.
The practice attracted outrage from coast to coast. And an investigation by the other federal agency that gins up fear and anxiety everywhere, the Justice Department.
And speaking of spilling the goodies, there are some non-government players that must be mentioned for outstanding performances in 2013.
Number five on our list is the former man of steel, Lance Armstrong. Here is a guy who was master of the cycling world and the big lie, winning the Tour De France seven times, claiming repeatedly that he wasn't doping to enhance his athletic performance. But after being banned from the sport, he gave a tell-all, sort of, interview with Oprah, where else? He confessed and offered what may be remembered as the biggest understatement in the history of sport.
LANCE ARMSTRONG, CYCLIST: I'm not the most believable guy in the world right now.
JOHNS: Number four on our list was another kind of credibility problem -- that phony sign language interpreter who crashed the Nelson Mandela memorial service. It would be funnier if it weren't so creepy. This guy got within arm's length of the President of the United States, making meaningless gestures. It later came to light that he had once been accused of rape and murder but was found not guilty.
Number three is Paula Deen.
PAULA DEEN, CELEBRITY CHEF: My goodness.
JOHNS: What would possess a host of a popular cooking show that get herself embroiled in a lawsuit where somebody was actually going to ask her under oath whether she ever used the "n" word when she knew she did? Can you say settle the case already?
And speaking of legal problems, number two on our list is the not so secretive anymore NSA, the National Security Agency. Who would have thought that one government outfit that was supposed to be stealth city could manage to embarrass or anger just about everybody in the U.S., by letting a rogue former contractor named Edward Snowden download a busload of secrets, so-called signal intelligence, from its computer system, splash some of it to the media and then run off to Russia, of all places, while the goodies continue to be spilled item by item for maximum effect.
And finally on our list coming in dead even: tied for first place for the broken government award of the year, Congress, for the absolutely inexplicable government shutdown crisis of 2013 that featured an absurdist dramatic reading of a Dr. Seuss classic in the midst of a 21-hour senate talk-a-thon.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am.
JOHNS: And not to be overlooked, the Obama administration for the utterly disastrous bungled rollout of the healthcare.gov website. Which debacle was worst is entirely in the eye of the beholder. The futile attempts by a congressional minority to dismantle a law of the land upheld by the Supreme Court with the stated aim of getting rid of the President's signature achievement or the video replays of the leader of the free world promising that his signature achievement would allow anyone to keep the status quo only to find out, that well, it just wasn't true.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.
JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Oh, man. That was a good package. Thank you, Joe Johns.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM King James puts on a clinic with a couple of monster dunks. Awesome, Joe Carter.
JOE CARTER, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes good stuff. I'll tell you what if the NBA put together a top ten list like we just did, this would probably fall somewhere arguably maybe one, two or three. I mean they're that good. We'll show you those dunks, plus the reaction from a young Auburn fan who finds out he's going to the national championship -- that (inaudible) is great. Look at that oh my goodness it's a great dunk.
COSTELLO: Oh yes.
CARTER: The kid's reaction -- that little kid is priceless. We'll have that coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Best part of the NBA is the highlight jam that LeBron James had a couple of monster (inaudible) jams against the Kobe-less Lakers. Oh my God Joe Carter it was amazing. CARTER: It was -- it was pretty good. I mean it's the one day to do it too I mean obviously the NBA is just front and center to the nation on Christmas Day. You had all those games. You had the best teams and you got some of the best match-ups.
Obviously a lot of the stars were missing because a lot of those guys are injured, including Kobe Bryant. You know we didn't see him yesterday with the Lakers because obviously he is out with a fractured knee but LeBron -- LeBron delivered in such a good way. You see there was Kobe and LeBron embracing a little bit you know giving them well wishes. He will be back maybe in February.
But watch his first dunk it's so pretty. Nice alley hoop pass from Dwayne Wade and he finishes real nice, the reaction is great, just beast mode. This is the best one I've seen yet this year. Dwyane Wade passes it off the glass. Look at that. Magic Johnson -- obviously Lakers Legend Magic Johnson said it was one of the greatest plays that he's ever seen. The Miami Heat is going to win that game 101-95.
Miami likes to play on Christmas day because they've now won five years in a row on Christmas day. Not the match-up we were expecting but hey, it was still a good game.
Let's now go to college football. This was the last year of the BCS -- the last time that we will see a computer pick which two teams play for the national championship. Obviously, next year we'll move to a committee and they will select four-team playoff. The committee is made up of a lot of people.
So we did have a poll that just came in -- a new CNN/ORC poll and it said that 61 percent of people said the BCS got it right this year, that the computer was correct picking Florida State and Auburn playing for the national championship. Do you agree?
COSTELLO: You know, the whole thing is so confusing, I don't know what to believe. But I guess I agree.
CARTER: I think they had it right this year.
(CROSSTALK)
CARTER: You know, 16 years it's been around, I think most of the time they've gotten it right. Maybe one year is debatable they didn't.
Speaking of the national championship game it's coming up in January, this little fan's reaction is priceless when he opens up his Christmas present and finds out that mom and dad got him tickets to the big game. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tickets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tickets to what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tickets --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: So that's 11-year-old RJ Meyers. Mom and dad got him a great gift, obviously, getting tickets to go see his favorite team, Auburn, play Florida State in the national championship game in Pasadena coming up in a couple of weeks. But R.J. wrote a Christmas list out to Santa. He said he wanted things like Nikes, X-Box, that he wanted tickets to the national championship game. He said if he couldn't get any of that stuff, he still wanted Auburn to win the national championship game. That's how big of a fan he is -- that little guy.
COSTELLO: Well good for him. I don't think I've ever reacted in that way to a gift.
CARTER: It's the one gift -- yes.
COSTELLO: I know. Good for him.
CARTER: Don't you wish you got excited like that for Christmas?
COSTELLO: I know. I do. Well, I would over some stuff. Unfortunately I'm not getting that stuff. Thanks, Joe Carter.
CARTER: You bet.
COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
