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Boeing Starliner Spacecraft Launch Scrubbed For Technical Issues; Repair To Atlanta Water Main Breaks Delayed Further; Texas Supreme Court Rules Against Women Group; Trump Airs Grievances After Being Convicted on 34 Felony Counts; Zero-Percent Down Mortgages Is Making a Comeback; Penguin Replaces Ring Bearer At British Wedding. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired June 01, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The mother of former first lady Michelle Obama passed away on Friday. In a statement, President Biden says, "We knew Mrs. Marian Robinson as a devoted mother and grandmother with a fierce and unconditional love of her family. With the blessing of friendship, we felt that love ourselves with every quiet smile or warm embrace she shared with us. The entire Biden family sends its deepest love to Michelle, Craig, Barack, Kelly, and the six irrepressible grandchildren whom she helped to raise and so loved, and in whom her kind and gentle spirit lives on."

Marian Robinson was 86.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CAMEROTA: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining me. I'm Alisyn Camerota in for Fredericka Whitfield today.

So we do have breaking news out of Florida. NASA officials are expected to speak soon. This will be the first time that they're speaking since scrubbing the launch of Boeing's historic Starliner test flight today.

An automatic hold stopped the countdown clock with less than four minutes to go. The two astronauts who were headed to the space station are now back at crew quarters after leaving the capsule a short time ago.

CNN space and defense correspondent Kristin Fisher is live from the Kennedy Space Center for us.

So, Kristin, as you explain to us, while we were all waiting and watching and hoping this would happen, this potential launch has been in the making for years.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: It has been NASA first awarded these contracts, dueling contracts to both Boeing and SpaceX back in 2014, and they said, hey, we essentially want to outsource the transportation of our astronauts to -- CAMEROTA: Kristin, hold that thought for a second. Here is the presser

that we've been waiting for from NASA officials to find out what happened.

STEVE STICH, MANAGER, NASA COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM: They started off. Busy day for NASA, the International Space Station. We had a progress docking, 88 progress this morning at 6:43 a.m. Eastern time. So the progress docked nominally and the station is doing well. At the same time as progress, of course, it's always busy. We got into the launch countdown today. It turned out the weather was a beautiful day to go launch. You know, we were worried about the onshore winds and those held within limits, they were right at about 14 knots. And so those were unacceptable for launch today.

We had a great chance to go look at the helium leak in the service module, what we call the P2D2 flange and the manifold three and the port dock house, manifold two in the port dock house. And we looked at that leak today and that leak looked like it was about half of what we saw before so, you know, we talked about it being on the order of 80 PSI per minute. And that manifold today, it looked like it was around 40 PSI per minute.

So that leak, you know, we think maybe the seal moved a little bit or the defect got sealed up a little bit. So that was good and that would have been no issue for launch. So we went through our whole troubleshooting procedure and that would have been just fine.

I would say that the launch vehicle did great. The Atlas and Centaur did great. The self-regulating valve that we talked about, we're worried about a little bit going into the countdown, performed well. We didn't see any resonance at all so that went really well. We did have a couple of items that we worked in the counting and (INAUDIBLE) talked more about those. We had -- we stopped in the topping phase on the Centaur.

We had a little bit of a failure on the ground side I would say in the command and control system for those valves that are on the ground. And the ULA team did a magnificent job working through that. We got into good configuration there. And then, you know, right before we got into the final phase of the count, went off of ground power on to spacecraft power. We saw a little bit of a swap in the cabin fan, a little voltage sag.

The ground team did a great job of troubleshooting that. We verified both fans were good. And we got those in a good config for launch. And then of course we got inside four minutes and then we had a problem with the ground launch sequencer and I know Tory will talk more about that.

I know it's a little disappointing. We were all excited. The Butch and Suni were excited to go fly. This is kind of the way spaceflight is. I've been -- this is my 37th year at NASA today. And I've been doing this human spaceflight for --

(APPLAUSE) STICH: Thank you. Long, long time. And every time you go to the pad for a crewed flight, or really any flight, you've got a chance of scrubbing. So the team did took the right steps. We weren't ready to go today. And Tory will talk more about that. And I'll turn it over to Mark Nappi now.

MARK NAPPI, VICE PRESIDENT AND PROGRAM MANAGER, BOEING COMMAND CENTER PROGRAM: All right. Well, thanks, everybody, for coming out this afternoon. The spacecraft and the launch team really did a great job today. The spacecraft performed extremely well.

[15:05:01]

Steve talked about the helium system. It turned out that the -- when the system was brought up, the team looked at the information really quickly. Got us the leak rates and ended up being no action required. So that's what we expected.

On the cabin -- on the suit fans, as we went from ground power to spacecraft power or slight increase in voltage, we have a fault detection system that picked that up. It did what it was supposed to do, and it turned the fans off. Our team reacted just like they're supposed to very quickly and they cycled them back on again. So that worked just as we would like it to.

For tomorrow or whenever we try our next launch attempt, we'll have that figured out and we'll either let the same thing happen and see if there's the same voltage or we'll just go in and turn them off and turn it back on again. So the team is working that and we're fine for the next attempt. We're in a 24-hour scrub turnaround and we're trying to preserve that opportunity and we'll stand by while ULA does their troubleshooting, and then we'll take either that opportunity or the next one to come.

Like Steve said, this is the business that we're in. Everything has got to work perfectly, like we've talked before. Today, we've got really close. It didn't work for us. The team is very professional. They're in their 24-hour scrub work turnaround right now and when we're ready to go, they'll be ready to go. So I'll turn it over to Tory.

TORY BRUNO, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ULA: Thanks, Mark.

Well, as Steve said, the vehicle performed beautifully and we really had nothing to talk about on the vehicle itself. I also felt that the NASA-ULA Boeing teams worked really well together, which is important as well during a count. We had two events on the ground system, specifically that system that is housed inside the shelter at the base of the pad. So when you see the rocket roll out to the pad and the P vans continue going into a building, it's in that building that we're talking about.

And these events are associated with the controllers. The large computers that are housed in that building. There's three of them. They're the same, they're redundant, so its triple redundant. The first event that we talked about had to do with the ground side topping valves that one of those three racks was not commanding them to be open when we want wanted them to be open. It is triple redundant, so we never had an issue with crew safety or with safety to the vehicle.

But we worked through it and we switched the primary control to a different of the three racks, which is acceptable for that system. And so topping continued and we'd never really deviated from that. As we get down to terminal count, then we do a health check of other systems and one of the key systems there is a different card in the three racks that controls what is referred to as the launch sequencer.

And that's a computer that controls -- things like retracting umbilicals and the pyro events that release the bolts at the base of the rockets so that when ignition happens, the rocket is, you know, free to fly away and do its job. And for that system, we do require all three systems to be running, triple redundancy, and to assure that each of those three big racks, those three big computers do a health check and they monitor to see that those cards came up when they were commanded to come up and begin doing their job.

Two came up normally, the third one came up, but it was slow to come up and that trip to red line that created an automatic cold because, although the health system did not note that it came up anomalously, it took longer, and so something is not correct. This is an instantaneous launch window for us because of the unique crew safety trajectory we fly. We're not able to use our famous ran steering like we do when we take cargo to the space station, and so as a result of that, that late in the count, that ended up scrubbing the mission.

What will happen next is to gain physical access to that computer and determine why that occurred. We can't get in there until we're done, you know, de-fueling the rocket which is followed by making sure there's no stray hydrogen inside that building so that it's safe for people to be there. Then we'll go in and we'll troubleshoot it. So we are probably not less than, say, three or four hours from understanding what occurred.

And if it's as simple as replacing a card, we have spares for everything and we would do that. We would test it, which is required, and then be in a position to support a recycle for tomorrow.

[15:10:03]

If it's more involved than that, or it just takes longer to get through all of that, then we would move to the backup of day on the fifth, and as you know, we're set up for backup on the range on the sixth as well. Weather for all three of those days look good. And so we'll know more, you know, much, much later this evening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks to all three of you.

OK, so for those in the room, raise your hand. Wait for a microphone to get to you and then for those on the phone you can get into the question queue by pressing star one.

So, Marsha, go ahead over here. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marcia Dunn, Associated Press for Tori. It sounds

like a hardware issue. Is that your the best guess or what's your leading suspects at this point with his third computer?

BRUNO: Yes, the leading suspect would be either a hardware problem or a problem with the network communication between these -- between the three computers in the system that interrogates them. But we won't really know until we get physical access and can troubleshoot that. One rack that has this one card that came up slow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, over here, right behind Marsha.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, thanks. Chris Davenport at the "Washington Post."

Tori, when you're talking about a card, I wonder if you'd give a little bit more information about what you're talking about in terms of that, if that's what that entails. Thanks.

BRUNO: Absolutely. So you should imagine a large rack that is a big computer where the functions of the computer as a controller, we called it Rick, are broken up separately into individual cards, or printed wire circuit boards with their logic devices. So they're all standalone, but together it's an integrated controller, which is what Rick, is integrated controller. And we do that to make it easier to troubleshoot them and to swap out parts so that you can replace just one element of it without having to replace the whole thing.

It also helps an isolating which part of that control system is having a problem if indeed it does. So you would imagine sort of three big racks side-by-side in this building with molt like 15 to 20 cards in them. I don't remember the exact count. And what we're going to do tonight is we're going to go in there and troubleshoot the cards. We'll likely have to remove several to evaluate everything, including the chassis, the power supplies, the network communication between them and isolate exactly why that happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. We have one in the third row there. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark Ratterman with "Talking Space." And a question for Tory. How many people will be hands-on looking at the equipment directly in front of it? How big is that team?

BRUNO: How many people will be in the shelter doing the physical troubleshooting tonight?: I don't know off top my head, you know, probably half a dozen folks will be in there. There'll also be lots of people supporting them both here and back in Denver. The design team will stay on and work through the evening with them to get to the bottom of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, I see three in the room right now, then we'll go to the phones. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeff Foust, SpaceNews.

Well, Tory, is there a connection between the issue you saw with the talking valves earlier and then the issue then when you came out of the T-minus four hold, is it the same computer, the same card, something like that?

BRUNO: Sure, Jeff. It's different cards. But the same rack with the same rick, if you will, large computer. So they might not be related because they're -- remember I said the cards are separated by function but on the other hand, if it's something common in the comm system, you know, or the network within that rack or its power supply, then it could be. I won't know until we get hands onto it tonight and then troubleshoot it.

CAMEROTA: OK. You've been listening to officials there at NASA explain what the problem was that scrubbed the launch of this Starliner. It was supposed to happen today at about 12:30 and within four minutes or less than four minutes before takeoff, they scrubbed the mission.

Let's bring in our space corresponding Kristin Fisher, who has been on the ground there all day for us and understands all of this stuff so much better than the rest of us do. So this was a computer problem? Is that what they said, Kristin?

FISHER: Yes. So at the base of the launchpad, there's a large structure. It looks kind of like a shed and inside are three huge computers, and this is all part of the ground launch sequencer. That's the computer that essentially is responsible for conducting the automated launch of the Atlas Five rocket with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft on top. And so what they're explaining in this press conference is that during -- once they went into terminal count, which is when it's right before those final few minutes before liftoff and it's when the ground launch sequencer essentially takes over.

[15:15:12]

At that point in time, there are three computers doing this work, and so you just heard Tony Bruno, who is the head of ULA, essentially saying that they want triple redundancy so all three of those computers have to work, you know, together perfectly in order to give this rocket the green light to launch. Two of those computers showed no problems and worked perfectly fine. But there was an issue, some kind of issue, and we still don't know what exactly it is with that third computer.

And so -- and likely just one chip within that third computer. And so now what's going to happen is it's going to take about three to four hours before about half a dozen people from the United Launch Alliance can get out there and actually get their hands on this hardware, on this computer, on these individual cards, and see what exactly went wrong. And the reason they have to wait I said about three to four hours is because they've got to get rid of all the fuel that is inside that rocket because it is so highly flammable.

So what does this mean? Well, we just don't know yet in terms of when they're going to try again. Once they're able to figure out the problem, there's a chance they could recycle it and they could try again tomorrow at about 12:05 p.m. Eastern Time, if it's as simple fix just like replacing one of those cards here and there. But if it's something more involved something more complex than they might have to wait to those next backup dates June 5th, June 6th.

But, Alisyn, they just said at that press conference that, you know, they have backup cards, replacement cards on hand right here. So if it is a simple a fix as swapping out a few cards, then yes, we could see them try again tomorrow, but it's just too soon to say exactly when it's going to go. But some good information there from NASA, Boeing, and the United Launch Alliance. But I think it's really important for folks to remember that, you know, this is not a Boeing issue it appears, you know, despite all the issues and there have been many issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft over the years. This is an issue that was caused by the United Launch Alliance's computers that power the Atlas Five rocket and propels the Boeing Starliner spacecraft into orbit.

In terms of how they're feeling, Alisyn, you know, Steve Stich who is one of the NASA managers here, he said, you know, it is a little bit disappointing, but this is kind of the way spaceflight is and he's right. I mean, these kinds of things, if it's not the weather, it's the software or it's a faulty sensor, or it's a sticky valve. I mean, those are the little teeny tiny things that always tend to lead to these scrubs and they do happen all the time. But they are especially careful and cautious for a first crewed test flight like this one -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Kristin Fisher, we will hope to see you back here same time tomorrow if they're going to try again. Thanks so much for all the information.

All right. Meanwhile, crews are working to restore water in Atlanta after multiple water main breaks in the city. When will the water be back and functioning? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:14]

CAMEROTA: Crews in Atlanta are still working to repair two water main breaks, one of which happened yesterday, and they've left much of the city without usable water. Popular tourist attractions like the Georgia Aquarium are forced to close for a second day.

CNN's Rafael Romo is live for us on the street.

We know the Atlanta mayor is now talking about this. What's the latest?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. He apologized. So take a look at the water shooting up in the air here. It's, I'm estimating, about 50 feet high. It's very pretty powerful. It's very loud, and this is way more than a major inconvenience for thousands upon thousands of people here in Atlanta. Water main breaks like the one behind me and there are several of them, have paralyzed vast portions of the city, including downtown where some of the favorite attractions only here in Atlanta, but also in the south are located. Yes, the World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium are closed among

other venues and many restaurants, inconveniencing tourists and visitors. But also we're hearing from very frustrated people, including some here in the midtown neighborhood who have told us that they have been without water for 36 hours. And then the water department officials explained that earlier, that they're doing everything they can.

And the reason why the repairs are taking longer than expected has to do with the fact that they have to stabilize water pressure in the affected areas before they can begin to process of repairing the lines. In the last hour, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens apologized saying that teams are working nonstop to repair the water main breaks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ANDRE DICKENS, ATLANTA: We take this matter very, very seriously, and our whole team takes it very seriously as you see as working on this. We apologize profusely for this disruption to life in the city of Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:25:09]

ROMO: And now a boil advisory is in effect for vast portions of the city. In a new development, Grady Memorial Hospital, one of the top medical institutions in the city, just announced that they continue to experience a low water pressure, but remain fully operational and their emergency room is accepting all patients.

Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's hope that that stays the same. Rafael Romo, thank you very much for the update. And we'll have more news when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:00]

CAMEROTA: The Texas high court has ruled against a group of women who say the state's strict abortion ban put their health and lives at risk. The Texas Supreme Court, which is made up entirely of Republicans, narrowed the exceptions in which a pregnancy is unsafe for the pregnant person, or in which the fetus could survive.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the case on behalf of the women last year, said the ruling did not provide meaningful clarity for doctors. The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who was defending the abortion ban praised this ruling.

Joining me now is Ashley Brandt, one of the plaintiffs in the case.

Ashley, thank you so much for being here and just to tell people a little bit more about your story. You were 12 weeks pregnant with twins when you learned that one of them was in trouble and you would need to terminate that fetus in order to save the other. That's obviously an awful position to find yourself in. And you say the state of Texas made it worse.

So are you surprised by this ruling?

ASHLEY BRANDT, PLAINTIFF, ZURAWSKI V. TEXAS: I wouldn't say I'm surprised, but I'm definitely disappointed. I would say I'm just as confused today as I was two years ago when I got my diagnosis while I was pregnant so they had the opportunity to clarify and it's just as big.

CAMEROTA: You along with the other plaintiffs in the case say that your lives and your health were in danger. What would have happened had you not been able to have this procedure -- to leave the state to have this procedure?

BRANDT: So my twin A had a crania. Her skull failed to fuse. Her brain tissue was exposed to the fluid in her sack, and that would continue to deteriorate and I would likely miscarry before viable week. Since I had two that means I would be miscarrying both of my babies and so at 12 weeks, I had to leave that appointment knowing that not only my health was at risk, but I had to continue on with the rest of this pregnancy in Texas that was likely going to result in me holding two dead or dying babies.

CAMEROTA: And just explain the logic that the politicians or the doctors explained to you about why you losing two children would be preferable to having to terminate one of them. What did they tell you about why they weren't going to help you with this?

BRANDT: So I was not in immediate danger. There's no clarification on how sick I have to be, how sick twin B would have to be, how sick we'd all three have to be, how life threatening it would have to be to take action. There's just no clarification. It's so broad, it's so vague that doctors just don't know what to do and politicians are -- I feel like they're purposely keeping it that way.

CAMEROTA: Well, here's what the state attorney general Ken Paxton had to say, quote, "I will continue to defend the laws enacted by the legislature and uphold the values of the people of Texas by doing everything in my power to protect mothers and babies."

What's your response to him?

BRANDT: He's doing a terrible job. Truly every pregnancy and every fertility journey is so unique. There are so many things that can happen out of your control that would require medical treatment. And to try and put all of us into one box and say, you know, here's restrictions and laws that are one size fit all. It's just going to cause more harm. That's not practical. It's not helpful and Texans deserve better.

CAMEROTA: We're looking at pictures of the happy day when you were able to deliver your daughter and what a blessing that was for you. What's next for you and the other plaintiffs? What's the next legal recourse here?

BRANDT: I knew that me and my fellow plaintiffs we're still processing. It's been a long journey and yesterday really felt like I got punched. As far as the next legal step, were going to leave that to the Center for Reproductive Rights and just advocate as much as we can for reproductive health and abortion rights.

CAMEROTA: Well, Ashley Brandt, thank you very much for sharing your painful personal story. We really appreciate you being here.

BRANDT: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: And we'll be right back.

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[15:39:07]

CAMEROTA: A financial boon for former president Donald Trump following his criminal conviction in New York. His presidential campaign says it raised nearly $53 million in the 24 hours after he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, but Trump is lashing out at the U.S. justice system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a rigged trial. We wanted the venue changed where we could have a fair trial. We didn't get it. We wanted a judge change. And we wanted a judge that wasn't conflicted and obviously he didn't do that. There's nobody has ever seen anything like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Those constant attacks on the judge and the judicial system may already be taking a toll.

Here with us now is Kim Lane Scheppele. She's a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University.

[15:40:01]

So, Professor, you study the rise and fall of constitutional governments. Is Donald Trump's rhetoric already having an impact on how Americans perceive the legal system?

KIM LANE SCHEPPELE, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well, it's already having an impact certainly on his followers. And it also has to be put in the context of what he's already done to the judiciary. So while he was president, he put a lot of judges onto the bench whose view of law has been quite demonstrated to be, not all of them, but some of them, partisan.

And so this is actually the playbook of autocrats we've seen around the world. They tried to pack the courts with judges that are friendly to them and when they encounter a judge or a court or a jury that's not friendly to them, then they attack the system to kind of soften it up for a future attack. And now we're seeing his followers going along with that.

CAMEROTA: You know what's interesting is that part of our, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but part of our judicial system is we accept the fact that you win some, you lose some, and in this case, in Donald Trump's three pending cases, he's actually won more than he -- I mean, he's -- the court seems to be and the legal system seems to favor him more than it seems to punish him.

Yes, he was convicted in this case. However, in the classified documents case his Trump appointed attorney, I mean, judge, Aileen Cannon, is certainly not moving with alacrity to bring that to trial, and nor is the January 6th case moving through the court system very quickly. And so the idea that the whole system is rigged against him just doesn't stand to reason, right?

SCHEPPELE: Right. Well, so it turns out that the criminal justice system has a lot of rights for defendants. The problem is of course that most defendants don't have the resources to take advantage of the rights the system gives them. Donald Trump on the other hand has had a lot of resources to put into lawyers and the lawyers have put a lot of resources into delaying tactics, filing every single motions, some reasonable, many not so reasonable.

And the judges I think are afraid to not appear to give him due process. And so as a result, they listened to every motion. They use every opportunity his lawyers gives them to sort of slow the process down and make sure that, you know, everything is done properly. What that's meant, however, in three of the four cases is that they have not yet and probably will not come to trial before the election.

So, yes, Trump seems to have the judiciary on his side because he's taken advantage of every right defendants have, which by the way they should have. This is not a complaint against that. It just goes to show what you can do with a lot, a lot of lawyers.

CAMEROTA: And it goes to show how it's hard to say that the system is rigged against him. So we have seen President Biden tried to combat the idea of a biased judicial system. Here's that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Reckless, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don't like the verdict. The justice system should be respected and we should never allow anyone to tear it down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Is there anything else, Professor, that can be said to try to combat the undermining that Donald Trump is doing of the justice system?

SCHEPPELE: Well, I think that actually the verdict that we had this week shows that there are still some courts, some judges, some jurors that are beyond the reach of Trump and the people that he has behind him, who have been threatening all of these agents. I mean, remember that in this trial as well as in a couple of the others there have been gag orders issued against Trump for actually riling up his supporters to threaten the judge, the jurors, the witnesses, and so on.

In this particular case, you saw what a determined and fair-minded judge could do to minimize those threats to everybody. And the end result was a fair process. All the witnesses who were in that courtroom said so. The jury had its time to deliberate and they decided on the facts and the law. So if we can keep that up, the judicial system will be in good shape. But Trump and his followers have a battering ram that they're aiming at it. And so it will take a lot of strength to keep the judiciary intact.

CAMEROTA: And we are I'm sad to report seeing today that there are Web sites that support former president Trump and his supporters are they claim putting out the addresses of some of the jurors. So we're going to stay on that story and bring everyone updates as we have it.

Kim Lane Scheppele, thank you very much for your expertise.

SCHEPPELE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. But a house with no money down. The new program that makes that a reality.

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[15:49:30]

CAMEROTA: The zero money down mortgage is making a comeback. A new program aims to help those who want to buy a house but do not have tens of thousands of dollars for a down payment. But for some, the program brings back bad memories of the subprime mortgage meltdown that fueled the 2008 financial crisis.

Joining me now is Jonathan Adams, real estate finance professor at Saint Joseph's University.

OK. So, Professor, can you explain how this program works? And does it make you nervous?

[15:50:02]

JONATHAN ADAMS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FINANCE, SAINT JOSEPH'S UNIVERSITY: To answer the second question first, yes, it does make me nervous. The way that it works is it's geared toward first-time homebuyers and Fannie Mae has a program where it will purchase loans that had a 97 percent loan to value ratio, meaning that the loan is equal to 97 percent of the home value or the home purchase price.

And what United Wholesale Mortgage has done is it's kicked in the final 3 percent, which means that the purchaser of the home and the borrower of the debt doesn't have to pay any down payment so they have no equity in the home from the get-go. And the way the program works is UWM or United Wholesale will have a second loan that they make to the buyer and that second loan will then be repaid when the home is sold or refinanced.

And the first loan, which is up to 97 percent loan to value that mortgage is sold to Fannie Mae and goes through the traditional channels of typically being sold into the secondary mortgage market.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, I mean, what's dangerous about this setup or what worries you about it? And is this like what was happening in 2008?

ADAMS: So it's not like what was happening in the sense that there were many other actors involved in the problems of 2008. But this is one component, a very important component where it does begin to look like the erosion of underwriting standards. Now, United Wholesale has said that underwriting standards are much better than back in that period. They are correct. But one of the primary underwriting standards is how much of the home value is being purchased with debt and typically you keep that at 80 percent, not 100 percent.

And the lower the better in terms of safety. So in this case, going to 100 percent is unusual and it's relatively high. Secondly, these loans are geared toward individuals that make 80 percent of the median income in a particular area so they're being targeted toward those individuals that cannot accumulate a down payment, which seems appropriate, but those individuals also can't withstand things such as a temporary loss of job or other disruptions such as a major health expense, and they're more at risk of losing their home as a result.

So I think that the problem here is that you're targeting an instrument that is really not as safe as it should be for this particular type of borrower.

CAMEROTA: Yes. All right. This is important for us to know and we appreciate you helping to telegraph it for us.

Professor Jonathan Adams, thank you very much.

ADAMS: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: Coming up, we answer the age-old question of who needs a best man to carry your wedding rings when a penguin can do it?

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[15:58:29]

CAMEROTA: A groom in the U.K. surprised his bride with an unusual guest at their wedding.

CNN's Jeannie Moos on how to make a penguin your best wingman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Who needs a best man when you can have a best penguin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I give you this ring.

JOE KEILTY, GROOM: I give you this ring.

MOOS: Check out who came bearing the rings.

At this wedding in England, a rent-a-penguin name Widget followed a bucket of fish and carried the rings on a ribbon.

Why a penguin?

KEILTY: My wife, Kerri, her favorite animal that's penguins.

MOOS: It took a roost to pull it off. The best man pretended he'd lost the rings, then dashed out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know he has them because I saw them earlier.

MOOS: The officiant was in on it as groom Joe Keilty faked concern.

KEILTY: Oh, my god.

MOOS: Joe thought his bride might suspect.

KEILTY: Yes, she probably thought it was Holly.

MOOS: Their Cavapoo, but instead the penguins surprised the bride.

KEILTY: She was definitely happy and she had a little tear in her eye.

MOOS: Widget the penguin and three others mingled with the guests.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The presence of your witnesses, family, friends, and animals gathered here today.

MOOS: It cost about $2500 to rent these party animals for two hours.

KEILTY: It made an absolutely perfect day. Just that extra little bit special.

MOOS: It was all so special when --

KEILTY: One of the penguins did peck one of the guests.

MOOS: And all of the penguins left wedding presents on the lawn outside.