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Dem Voters Help GOP Senator Defuse Tea Party; Boehner May Sue Obama; Soccer's Mystery: When's The Match Over

Aired June 25, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, southern shocker, Thad Cochran winning the Mississippi primary, the Tea Party challenger refusing to concede this morning. Did Democratic black voters seal the Republican deal?

And was this little girl really kicked out of a Kentucky KFC because of the scars on her face or is it a hoax? Why some internet donors are feeling doped this morning?

Plus --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The verdict was that I am reinstated as an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church.

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COSTELLO: Back in the flock, a pastor defrocked for presiding over his gay's son's wedding has been reinstated. So what are his plans now? We'll ask him this hour. Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with bizarre politics and uneasy alliances in key political races overnight. The first sign came under this uncomfortable moment in Capitol Hill.

Yes, top Republicans and Democrats normally at war singing at peace to honor the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and maybe in a sign of color blind progress, a long time senator from the Deep South reaches across the aisle and color barrier and Republican Thad Cochran wins a shot at the 7th term after successful courting African- Americans and Democrats in Mississippi. His Tea Party challenger is furious in defeat.

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CHRIS MCDANIEL (R), MISSISSIPPI SENATE CANDIDATE: A bit unusual about a Republican primary that's decided by liberal Democrats. So much for bold colors. So much for principle.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: So let's talk about all of this. Chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash is in Jackson, Mississippi and our national political reporter, Peter Hamby, is in Washington. Welcome to you both. So Dana, talk about these African-American voters who decided to vote for Cochran. Why did they tell you they did?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lots of reasons. First is because many of them like him. They have voted for him, have known him for years. Have seen the benefits that many of them have had in their community that -- from him being in Washington, sending federal dollars to Mississippi, but the flipside is they voted for him because they were concerned about Chris McDaniel.

This is a state that tends to elect Republicans to the Senate, has for several decades, so they figured that he would likely be the senator and they were concerned about that. Listen to what many of these voters told me yesterday while they were voting.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted for Thad Cochran.

BASH: Have you ever voted in a Republican primary before.

MITZI PAIGE, MISSISSIPPI VOTER: I have nod not.

BASH: Why did you vote for Cochran?

PAIGE: I like Senator Cochran. I don't like what Senator McDaniel stands for.

BASH: Who did you vote for?

DARRELL DENTON, MISSISSIPPI VOTER: Thad Cochran.

BASH: Did you vote in the actual primary?

DENTON: No, I did not.

BASH: Why did you come and vote in the run-off?

DENTON: I feel he's the man to do the job for us here.

BASH: Who did you vote for?

GEORGE IRVIN SR., MISSISSIPPI VOTER: Thad Cochran.

BASH: Did you vote in the June primary?

IRVIN SR.: I did not.

BASH: What made you today vote for Senator Cochran?

IRVIN SR: I've known him all my life.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BASH: I've talk to those voters in Heinz County. That's where I am right now. It's where the state capital is. This county put out 7,000 more votes for Thad Cochran in the run-off than on the primary day. He won by 6,000 votes. McDaniel did get more votes as well, but it just shows you how critical the county is which in those particular areas which is largely African-American to Thad Cochran doing so well.

COSTELLO: I guess, the question now is will he remember these African-American voters when he begins his new term?

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's a really great question, Carol. Thad Cochran, has been in the center for over 30 years, has always avoided the spotlight. Behind the scenes operator, an appropriator, but you have to think that the Republican establishment led by Cochran, the Barber family, down in Mississippi, really made such an effort to court these African-American voters that maybe possibly he can go back to the Senate.

If they have the majority, talk to perhaps future majority leader, Mitch McConnell and let's have a conversation about ways we can perhaps stimulate growth with African-Americans in the Republican Party. You know, it's tough to tell if that's actually going to happen, but that, more than actually last night's elections might be a way that the Republican Party can engage with African-American voters.

But real quick, just to add to Dana's point, there was the message, also last night, the campaign really changed how politics and campaigns are run in Mississippi. They asked African-Americans to vote for them. They went into the neighborhoods, grew the electorate. They did it with door knocks, phone calls --

COSTELLO: But I should say that it makes you wonder why they weren't doing that all along because those African-Americans holding the Thad Cochran signs that's exactly what the RNC wants to see, right, Dana?

BASH: I think the reason why he was so successful is the volunteers or the paid get out the vote workers, weren't walking in stalking about a stranger. He is somebody they know. He is somebody who has had relations with the African-American community and many of them have voted for him in the general election which is why when you have people talking about whether or not this can be a template in growing the party on a national level.

It's unclear because he has a unique situation here in Mississippi, he has really worked to develop these relationships for a long time. The question is whether he will now take that and be more aggressive, more assertive on issues of race, voting rights issues, for example, in the Senate. That's unclear.

COSTELLO: I want to go back to this bizarre shot and get your -- because Dana I know you cover these people. I just want to get your impression because you don't really see this every day. Get a load of this once again. Lawmakers holding hands while singing we shall overcome at a ceremony honoring the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You can see House Speaker John Boehner holding hands with Senate Leader Harry Reid. He doesn't look that happy, Dana?

BASH: I have tell you this is the greatest race to cover in Mississippi. I was so bummed out that I did not get to witness that on Capitol Hill yesterday in person, I won have believed it when I saw it. The only thing if you have like a little pop-up video, Mitch McConnell would have been saying thank goodness my primary is over. Can you see him holding the hands with Nancy Pelosi?

COSTELLO: I asked my Facebook friends to put captions on. My favorite one was John Boehner must be thinking to himself I can't wait to get the hand sanitizer.

HAMBY: Yes. That's as close as you are going to see a Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell dance party. Their expressions never change, but they might have each gone to the men's room separately to wash their hands after that one.

COSTELLO: They totally disinfected themselves after that one.

Speaking of House Speaker John Boehner, he is noW considering a lawsuit against President Obama, arguing that our nation's chief executive is overusing his executive authority and side stepping the constitution. White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski is following that story. Good morning, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not a lot of hand holding going on here, this already complicates the difficult relationship between the president and Congress. We've been hearing repeatedly from this administration, we're not going to wait for Congress. We're going to use our pen. Don't have to wait for Congress.

Now, House Speaker John Boehner is saying well, Congress might not be able to pass much right now, but that doesn't mean you can just go and do it yourself. Now looking to sue President Obama to make that point.

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KOSINSKI (voice-over): Everyone made nice for an event at the White House, the president joking that House Speaker John Boehner is one of his favorite golfing buddies.

TIM FINCHEM, PGA TOUR COMMISSIONER: You've got criticized a couple times for playing the game of golf. You'll notice that one person who didn't criticize you was Speaker Boehner.

KOSINSKI: As this was happening, the news was spreading, that Boehner is consulting legal scholars for possibly suing President Obama for acting alone?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: America cannot stand still and neither will I. I've initiated over 20 executive actions to tighten up the rules and the law.

KOSINKSI: Those famous executive actions, dozens and dozens of tweaking regulations and making moves on some of the most controversial topics, things he knows Congress won't touch, gun control, climate change, minimum wage, gay marriage, power plants, health care, immigration.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We are not just going to be waiting for legislation. That's what I'm going to do with or without Congress. I've got a pen and I've got a phone.

KOSINSKI: That pen outraging Congress. Things for not consulting them on the deal releasing Bowe Bergdahl. Other modern presidents have not used executive actions over more legally binding executive orders. Boehner's spokesman says the president has a clear record of ignoring American people's elected representatives and exceeding his constitutional authority, which has dangerous complications for both our system of government and our economy. While moves to limit his authority have not made it through the Senate, Boehner feels a lawsuit might just do it.

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KOSINSKI: The White House hasn't responded to this directly, but they have repeatedly chastised Congress for failing to act on issues affecting the American people. If this were to work, if the leadership in the House approved it, if it were judged to be feasible, this would be the legislative branch suing for taking away some of its power.

COSTELLO: Michelle Kosinski from bad to worse, our best measure of the health of the economy had its worst first quarter since the depths of recession back in 2008. It fell by nearly 3 percent. Christine romans is here to explain further. Why did this happen?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Terrible weather. Remember how horrible that winter was? You had companies, businesses, stock sitting on the shelves, you had trucks couldn't move merchandise around the country, job interviews that couldn't take place. You had 2.9 percent the economy shrank in the first quarter. That is really ugly. It's nothing to be too worked up about.

They think it bounced back in the second quarter. The GDP number is a rear view mirror. It's what happened. It's not consistent with what's happening right now, which is business growth again. Economists are telling me 4 percent for economic growth in the second quarter many so our headline on CNN Money is basically it was a terrible quarter in the economy but don't freak out.

COSTELLO: We're so used to ups and downs in the economy right now, I don't think anybody freaks out anymore.

ROMANS: It's 2.9 percent shrinking the economy is not good, but we can tell you that things are looking better now the second quarter. Don't freak out, Carol. The stock market, if it was bad, the stock market would really be freaking out. Stocks are up today.

COSTELLO: I like that. Christine Romans, thank you. You can catch her interview with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson this Saturday at 2:30 PM Eastern on CNN. They are going to talk about the impact of climate change on our economy.

Still to come, soccer, sign of the time. You see that board on the World Cup sidelines and wonder what it is. Andy Scholes has a soccer 101 lesson.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: What is stoppage time and when do these games really end? I'm going to try to explain it the fan after the break.

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COSTELLO: It's a question that confounds not just soccer newbies, but even the players and coaches, when exactly is the game over, you can't look at a giant scoreboard clock. The game clock is on the referee's wrist. Really, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: You are exactly right. In America, we love to know our buzzer beaters, our time outs, the rest of the world doesn't subscribe to our way of clock management when it comes to the game of soccer. There's only one person who knows when the match is going to end, that's the head official in the middle of the field. We know each half is supposed to be 45 minutes.

There's this time that's added up at stoppage time or added time. A sideline official holds up this sound, that's when they tell us what the suggest time is going to be. They add stoppage for assessment and treatment for injured players and time wasting. Stoppage time in that game was going to be 4 minutes, Graham Suzie took his sweet time coming out on the field.

Because of that, that extra minute allowed Ronaldo to get the game in the net one more time. Now, Carol, that was likely Portugal's last chance at scoring because when the game is nearing the end in stoppage time, an official is not going to blow the whistle when the team is attacking the other team, he's not going to blow the whistle until they clear the ball out. Soccer officials have more power because they decide when a game is officially over.

COSTELLO: Wow. My head is going to explode. Thank you, Andy. I appreciate that lesson. One soccer mystery solved. Here's another we won't know the answer to for a while. Does soccer finally have a toe hold in the U.S. sports scene?

Yes, we know soccer fanatics are all in or whether the games in Brazil or at the bars in the USA. What happens if we get knock out later in the tournament or tomorrow? Will they still watch the World Cup or tune in for mls action?

Let's talk about that. Welcome. I don't know if you know my feelings on this, Rachel, but I just think that this is sort of like the Olympics to Americans, we'll watch until team USA is eliminated and then we'll go back to watching baseball.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean there's probably going to be some carryover. This past week a bunch of kids got out in their front yards, kick a soccer ball around and pretended to be Clint Dempsey. I think he will carry a few MLS fans with him. There will be a slight increase. The age factor is going to come in here.

A recent poll found out that from 12 to 24-year-olds, that group of people, soccer is the most popular sport behind of course American football. As those kids get older and control the television a little bit more, they expect ratings to increase.

There is no question, this is not huge sport that will become our national obsession starting next month. MLS ratings only did half a million people for a championship sporting event. Compared to the NFL event, Super Bowl, 150 million people.

COSTELLO: It was interesting, the ratings were higher in cities that actually have soccer teams. So maybe that's the difference.

MIKE PESCA, SLATE One of the reasons those city has soccer teams is because it's soccer cities. It's chicken-egg. It shows that soccer is ready to strike. When the U.S. is eliminated, if, when the U.S. is eliminated, fewer Americans are going to watch. When the South Korea is eliminated, fewer South Koreans will watch, that's true throughout the sport.

Demographics is a big part of it. The browning of America, 14 percent of our country is Latino, they come and love soccer, as they interact with everyone else, the love of soccer spreads. It's a really good game. It's pretty tight. It's good for television. There aren't television breaks. There's a lot to argue for soccer's ongoing popularity. Even if the U.S. team eliminated.

COSTELLO: Even when Andy's explanation I found myself going what?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: Americans do like scoring. They like to know when the game ends. I thought Andy's point we like last second shots, field goals, you don't have that sense of anticipation in soccer the way we do in a lot of our American sports. When European fans watch, American football, one of the reasons they have a trouble getting Europeans to watch, American football likes to huddle up, you got to think there's going to be some wave from the World Cup.

COSTELLO: We'll see, Rachels Nichols, Mike Pesca, got to go, but thank you. I've got breaking news. A ruling from the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court on video streaming. This is a blow to the internet. Brian Stelter joins me now as well as Jeffrey Toobin.

This involves Aereo, it's a streaming service. They wanted to be allowed to stream what was on broadcast networks for free and the U.S. Supreme Court didn't go for that, did it?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Its entire business was predicated on the idea if it put up a big array of TV antennas, and stream that to internet customers that would be a private performance under the U.S. copyright. This is a huge win for all the major broadcaster who got together and fled a number of lawsuits. It's a big win to have the Supreme Court say it's illegal.

COSTELLO: Is this a big loss to consumers? JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST (via telephone): It's hard to know. I mean, the argument has been that unless broadcasters have the exclusive right to broadcasts, and sell commercials and sell cable access, they won't have the money to produce programming. Aereo dismissed that argument, but the Supreme Court said copyright covers these broadcasts and Aereo in effect was trying to steal them. So the broadcasters and Time Warner is certainly our parent company, generally on this side have won this case, and Aereo's business is likely to disappear.

STELTER: If they want to remain alive, it would have to pay retransmission fees just like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and all other cable and satellite providers do. We don't know they will do that or not. That's why it is such a big win for the broadcasters. They will have to be paid retransmission fees if Aereo wants to stay online.

COSTELLO: I understand that because the networks pay for this content. It costs a lot of money. You don't want anyone taking and streaming it for anyone to watch because you go broke that way, right?

STELTER: They were trying to take an old fashioned idea, which is rabbit ears and apply it on a mass scale and make that available via the internet. There were others waiting in the wings that wanted to try this as well. There was even an idea that maybe cable operators would do the same things to the broadcaster if Aereo was legal. That would have taken away revenue from the broadcasters, made it much harder to stay in business and this ruling from the Supreme Court is very good news for the broadcasters because it says that will not be possible. In fact, several broadcaster's stocks already up 5 to 10 percent up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): I think it's moving the inevitable but these small types of entertainment providers are going to find some access to the major market using some type of technology in the near future.

COSTELLO: Gloria, I was going to introduce you. Gloria Brown Marshall is a constitutional scholar. I was going to ask you if you thought this ruling will have any ripple effect.

GLORIA BROWN MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR (via telephone): I think it will because they are biting around the edge and sooner or later they are going to find -- at some point, we see that there's a transition that's taking place here and it's leading toward these smaller entities finding their place in the market.

COSTELLO: It's interesting, I'm going to toss this question to you, Brian. I do think television watching is changing and there will soon be a day we're all going to be watching that's streaming on line, the cable companies and networks will figure out how to do that and make money.

STELTER: I wrote this earlier this week, the reason I was so intrigued was it was challenging the broadcasters to come up with a better way to watch TV. Right now, if I hold up my phone here, it's still pretty hard for me to live stream what is on NBC, ABC, Fox right now, it needs to be easier. Aereo presented one way to do that. The Supreme Court says that's not the legal way. Broadcasters will have tom come up with other ways. There's a lot of innovation going on around this right now, but it's not going to be Aereo that solves this problem.

COSTELLO: Times are changing.

TOOBIN: I just wanted to jump in here. I'm sorry so interrupt, there's another Supreme Court decision that came out that was announced after the Aereo decision that's an extremely important decision and we should report on that, which is about the privacy interests in cell phones.

The chief justice in the unanimous opinion held that when police arrest people, they have to get a search warrant if they want to search your phone. This was a unit mouse opinion, very unusual and controversial cases in this court and the court said that because cell phones contain so much information now, and are so -- so much private information, that it's not the same thing as just giving you a patdown and looking for a weapon.

It's -- you need to do a separate search authorized by a search warrant to search someone's cell phone and I think it's a really important decision about digital privacy, with the court unanimously said cell phones are different.

COSTELLO: Just to be clear, what this means if police place you under arrest, they can't grab your cell phone and begin scrolling through your information on there anymore?

TOOBIN: Correct. They can take your cell phone. They can isolate it. They can keep it away from you. They can make sure it's not a weapon, but if they want to start looking through it, they need to get a court order, a search warrant, and that's a big development in law enforcement.

COSTELLO: It certainly is and thanks for bringing that to our attention. Jeffrey Toobin, I appreciate it. Gloria Brown Marshall, thanks to you too as well as Brian Stelter.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, this 3-year-old Mississippi girl caught in middle of a controversy after KFC says there was no evidence she was actually kicked out of a KFC because of the scars on her face. So what about those thousands of dollars people have donated to this kid? I'm going to talk about that next.

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