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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Tragedy Striking A Young Couple In New York; Breakthrough in HIV Battle; Dennis Rodman Talks North Korea Trip; Romneys Open Up About Presidential Loss; Biden Apologizes
Aired March 04, 2013 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, it could be a groundbreaking case in the battle against HIV. Researchers say they have cured a little girl of the virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not at this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: You heard right. That is a nurse refusing to help an elderly woman who just collapsed and then later died. The appalling details ahead for you.
BERMAN: Amazing.
Plus, the agony of defeat. Mitt Romney opening up, describing what it's like to run for president and lose.
Welcome back --
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Yes. Exactly. It's a very interesting interview. Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Berman.
SAMBOLIN: And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. It is Monday, March 4th. It is 31 minutes past the hour. We're happy you're with us this morning.
It's a breakthrough in the battle against HIV. For the first time in the 32-year history of the virus that causes AIDS, a child has been cured. Scientists say a two-year-old Mississippi girl who was born with HIV is now infection-free. The key to success may have been that the baby received high doses of three HIV drugs within 30 hours after birth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's fantastic news from any number of angles, of course, that a child has been cured, but this actually happened really quite easily and quite inexpensively.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Researchers say more studies need to be done, but this breakthrough development could forever change the way babies born with AIDS are treated.
BERMAN: We have a lot of questions this morning, I mean, a whole lot of questions, about an independent living facility in Bakersfield, California that refused to administer CPR to an 87-year-old resident. The woman collapsed there last week, and no one on staff was willing to revive her.
The people who operate Glennwood Gardens say it is not their policy to perform CPR on residence because they are not a nursing home. Listen to the exasperated 911 operator trying to get someone to help.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We can't do CPR at this facility.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then hand the phone to a passerby. If you can't do it, I need -- hand it to the passerby. I'll have her do it. Or if you got any citizens then, I'll have them do it. Anybody there can do CPR. Give them the phone, please. I understand if your facility is not willing to do that, give the phone to that passerby or that strange then. I need -- this woman is not breathing. She's going to die if we don't get this started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: And it's just unbelievable audio. The woman was eventually transported to a hospital. She later died.
SAMBOLIN: Poor family.
All right. The FAA this morning investigating what caused a small plane to crash and kill four people who were on board. The plane went down and burned shortly after takeoff in Northern New Mexico. This happened yesterday. The victims, two adults and two children, have not been identified. Strong, gusty winds in the area may have played a role there.
BERMAN: This morning, crews in Florida are finally getting a handle on a brush fire that has burned two dozen structures, including ten homes in Marion County, Florida. Authorities say the fire around Ocala National Forest has scorched more than 1,900 acres. Right now, it's about 80 percent contained. So far, no injuries have been reported.
SAMBOLIN: And right now, teachers in Strongsville, Ohio, are officially on strike. It took effect just after midnight. A weekend bargaining session with a federal mediator failed to produce an agreement between the teachers union and the board of education. The walkout affects nearly 400 teachers, counselors, and nurses. School officials insist classes will be in session today for students and for the non-striking staff.
BERMAN: So, Dennis Rodman fresh off his basketball diplomacy tour to North Korea now has made his Sunday show debut, sitting down with this week's George Stephanopoulos. So, when asked about Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's threats against the United States and that country's record on human rights, the hall of fame basketball star said this.
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DENNIS RODMAN, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: I didn't look at all -- I understand what he's doing. I don't condone that. I hate the fact he's doing that, but the fact away (ph) is that, you know what, that's a human being, though. (INAUDIBLE) to me, been a friend. I didn't talk about that. I understand that. I understand that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: It's amazing. Dennis Rodman probably knows more about Kim Jong-Un now than any American diplomat.
SAMBOLIN: Considers him a friend. Yes.
BERMAN: Well, he met him face-to-face, and no one's done that. Rodman describes Kim Jong-Un as a humble man who loves power, but Rodman insists that he doesn't want war.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Thirty-four minutes past the hour.
We are hearing now from Mitt Romney for the first time since he lost the presidential election. In a Fox News interview, Romney reflects on the hard-fought campaign and the infamous 47 percent remark that helped sink his candidacy. The former GOP candidate also talks about how much losing hurts.
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MITT ROMNEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I still care. And I still believe that there are principles that we need to stand for. Now, I look at what's happening right now. I wish I were there. It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House, doing what needs to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: CNN's Shannon Travis is live in Washington. Very nice to see you, Shannon. So, what did Romney say? How did he explain that 47 percent comment?
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, it's startling. I covered the campaign for months, as you know, Zoraida. This is the most candid that I've ever seen Romney, actually. He talked about that quote that you just played about it killing him not being in the White House, and as you mentioned, openness on just how much those 47 percent remarks actually stung his chances.
Remember, back then, Romney was speaking at a private meeting with donors, and he said that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government. Those comments were secretly records. Now, on this Fox News interview, Romney acknowledges the pain it caused. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY: You know, when you speak in private, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted and could come out wrong and be used, but, you know, I did, and it was very harmful. What I said is not what I believe. Obviously, my whole campaign, my whole life has been devoted to helping people, all people.
I care about all people of the country, but that hurt. There's no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS: Zoraida, damage likely caused because President Obama and Democrats, you remember, hammered away at Romney for that line throughout the campaign.
SAMBOLIN: Oh, absolutely. And Ann Romney was also talking quite a bit about how much it hurts not to be in the White House, for her husband not to be there. What was she saying?
TRAVIS: That's right. She was equally candid. She said during the interview that she actually cried at the loss. And she also imagined what life would be like, really, for all of us, Zoraida, with a President Romney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANN ROMNEY, MITT ROMNEY'S WIFE: I know he would have been a fabulous president and I mourn the fact he's not there. And, it would have been -- it would have been much better for America, I believe, in my heart, if he had been there right now. I totally believe at this moment, if Mitt were there in the office, that we would not be facing sequestration right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS: One last thing, Zoraida, Ann Romney said she's mostly moved on and she also admitted she considered an offer to go on "Dancing with the Stars" --
(LAUGHTER)
TRAVIS: -- but that she turned that down because she said at 64, she's just not flexible enough.
SAMBOLIN: Oh, really? I think she would have been great.
(LAUGHTER)
TRAVIS: I think so, too.
SAMBOLIN: I agree with you. It's a very, very candid interview.
TRAVIS: It was.
SAMBOLIN: Shannon Travis, thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.
BERMAN: It's a really interesting interview. And Ann Romney says she has mostly moved on but not completely.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: She said not completely.
SAMBOLIN: Very affected, both of them.
BERMAN: And Mitt Romney said, you know, he thought in his heart until late into that election night that he was going to win.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: And that's very unusual in a presidential race.
It's 38 minutes after the hour right now. Coming up, Vice President Joe Biden apologizing for something he did not do back in the 1960s.
SAMBOLIN: Plus, how a seven-year-old tried to get creative with his breakfast wound up getting suspended from school. You're going to want to hear this story.
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BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. Tragedy striking a young couple here in New York. They were expecting a baby and they were on their way to the hospital because the mom to be was not feeling well. But on the way, their cab was broadsided by another car and both parents were killed.
Now, miraculously, doctors were able to deliver the expectant mother's baby boy. At this moment, police are still searching for the occupants of the other car. CNN's Susan Candiotti has more.
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SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An Hasidic community in mourning. An emotional funeral held on a Brooklyn Street outside a synagogue as the caskets of two young parents to be are remembered, so is their miracle baby boy, delivered three months shy of his due date. Doctors quickly performing a C-section after a hit and run crash that killed his parents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible. Sad. One year, not even married a year. You know, they're going in for the happiest time to have a baby. That's what happens. Terrible.
CANDIOTTI: Razie Glowber (ph) and her husband, Nathan, both 21, were heading by cab to a hospital around midnight Saturday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suddenly, she just wasn't feeling well. Just they wanted to check it out.
CANDIOTTI: They never made it. This is what the cab looks like after police say a hit-and-run driver smacked into the passenger side of the cab at an intersection. The roof is now sheered-off. Investigators say the driver of a light-colored BMW and a passenger took off on foot, the front of that vehicle smashed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The message to the driver used to be in my younger years was give yourself up before we find you.
CANDIOTTI: The baby's mother was dead on arrival at a hospital, but doctors saved her son. At his parents funeral, friends and family said the mother to be worked. Her husband studied the Torah, and both were looking forward to starting a family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just lost a beautiful couple. Two wonderful people, always with a smile on their face, always trying to help.
CANDIOTTI (on-camera): Now, help is pouring in for their new baby boy who will be raised by two sets of grandparents.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.
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BERMAN: Really, such a tragedy. Now, their driver of the cab was taken to the hospital and later released after doctors determined that he was not seriously hurt. Pedro Dela Cruz told reporters he is lucky to be alive.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing I can remember is when somebody was on the side of me, passenger side, telling me don't worry, don't worry, the ambulance is on the way. That's the only thing I remember.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Dela Cruz described the young couple in his cab as nice people. He says he feels just awful about what happened to them.
SAMBOLIN: That is a terrible story.
Forty-four minutes past the hour. Joe Biden apologizing Sunday for something that he didn't do. The vice president joining hundreds of marchers in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate Bloody Sunday. That is a day in 1965 when civil rights activists were attacked by state police. They were marching to pressure Congress to pass the voting rights bill, and Biden says he should have been there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was involved in my state in a small way, which was still fighting the lingering vestiges of Jim Crow. But I regret, and although it's not part of what I'm supposed to say, apologize that it took me 48 years to get here. I should have been here. I should have been here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Biden marched Sunday with Georgia Congressman John Lewis who was among those beaten by police 48 years ago.
BERMAN: Right now, the cardinals who will vote on the next Pope are meeting at the Vatican. We're going to go live to Rome coming up.
SAMBOLIN: Plus, Keith Olbermann reportedly plotting a return to his TV sports routes.
BERMAN: Oh, that should be interesting.
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SAMBOLIN: Good morning and welcome back to EARLY START. It is 48 minutes past the hour. Let's get you up to date -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Lot going on this morning, everybody.
A medical breakthrough to tell you about this morning. A Mississippi toddler born with HIV has been cured. The girl is now 2 1/2 years old. She's the second person and the first child to ever beat the virus that causes AIDS. Doctors report she received higher doses than usual of three HIV drugs within 30 hours after birth, instead of the more common lower doses of one or two drugs. Certainly, a very big medical breakthrough there this morning.
In Florida, the house where a sinkhole opened up and swallowed a man as he slept is being torn down this morning very carefully. The sinkhole is believed to be 30 feet wide and 60 feet deep. Thirty- seven-year-old Jeff Bush is presumed dead. He was sleeping when that hole swallowed him up.
A child in Maryland suspended from school for two days because he molded a breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun. You heard me right. His name is Josh. He suffers from ADHD. He doesn't do well in school, but he excels in art class. So, he was being creative. His teacher phoned Josh's dad and his dad called the suspension insanity.
Coming up later this hour at 8:30 Eastern, Soledad is going to talk to Josh and his father about this case. Molding a pastry into the shape of the gun.
All right. That's Keith Olbermann. He may be returning to ESPN, the network that launched his career. Olbermann spent five years there in the mid 1990s and confirmed he recently had dinner with the president of the network. ESPN insists no deal is imminent. Olbermann is suing his last employer, Current TV, for a reported $70 million alleging breach of contract.
BERMAN: It should be interesting.
(CROSSTALK)
SAMBOLIN: Thank you.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
BERMAN: Fifty minutes after the hour right now. And Catholics may have a new Pope in less than two weeks. A Vatican spokesman said Benedict XVI's successor may be in place by March 15th. More than 100 cardinals are meeting this morning and this afternoon, one of the issues on their plate to set a date for the conclave. CNN analyst and correspondent for the "National Catholic Reporter," John Allen is in Rome for us. Good morning, John. So, what's the latest?
JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Good morning, John. Well, what we know is the cardinals this morning are meeting in the first of what are called their general congregation meetings. This is where all the cardinals of the world, not just the 115 who were under 80 and will, therefore, elect the next Pope, but also those who are over 80, get together and the idea is to try to take stock of the issues facing the church and also outline the qualities the next Pope is going to need.
As you say, of course, at the top of their to-do list is they also have to set a date for the conclave. Now, we're not actually expecting them necessarily to get around to that today, because first, they have to go through a fairly lengthy set of ceremonial items such as swearing oaths to maintain the confidentiality and so on. We're hearing the date may be March 10th, somewhere in that neighborhood, John.
BERMAN: All right. John Allen in Rome for us, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
SAMBOLIN: I wonder if we ever get to see the list of what those qualifications or qualities are that they're looking for. You know, he just --
BERMAN: Those oaths of secrecy, they're pretty serious when you swear them at the Vatican.
SAMBOLIN: I'd love to know, though. As a catholic, I'd love to know what they're looking for, right?
Fifty-one minutes past the hour. Facebook, as we know it, is about to change again. More on this week's big announcement coming up.
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SAMBOLIN: Welcome back. It is 55 minutes past the hour. (INAUDIBLE), right? If you use your smartphone to log on to Facebook, listen up, trending this morning, the famous Facebook newsfeed is getting a makeover this week. And the new version is expected to bring more features to mobile platforms, including smartphones. Expect to see the revamped look debuting this Thursday.
BERMAN: That's a big, giant deal.
All right. Also trending, fighting claims of watered-down beer with water. Anheuser-Busch taking out this full page ad in at least 10 national newspapers. It features a picture of a can of drinking water with the Anheuser-Busch logo along with the caption, "They must have tested one of these."
Anheuser-Busch donates water to the American Red Cross. Now, unhappy beer customers have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the beer giant claiming mislabeling alcohol content. Anheuser-Busch says the claims are completely false and groundless.
SAMBOLIN: All right. You have to see this.
BERMAN: This is amazing.
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SAMBOLIN: A New York State high school championship game ends --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It knocked around and not --
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
SAMBOLIN: Do you hear that? Mt. Vernon is going to hold on to the win. No, it doesn't! It's an incredible-buzzer beating shot. New Rochelle, the team in black, was down two points when Kalil Edney hit a 55-foot shot. It's a shot of a lifetime to beat archrival, Mt. Vernon, and win the section 1 class (ph) title.
Initially, refs waved the shot off saying time had expired, and Mt. Vernon was actually celebrating, but after further review, they ruled the amazing shot did, indeed, beat the buzzer. I was watching this with my son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: I feel like it's a final disclaimer.
SAMBOLIN: Unbelievable. And he said to me, no, no, no. They did it. Yes, they did. Look, it's unbelievable. Unbelievable moment. Everybody was talking about this.
BERMAN: No. I watched this video like a thousand times. And honestly, it looked --
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: And it gets the ball out of his hands. You will never see a buzzer beater like that again. And if you want to watch that another hundred times, visit our Web site. SAMBOLIN: Just go to my Facebook page.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Check out that and other top CNN trends at Cnn.com/Trends.
SAMBOLIN: That's incredible. I love moments like that.
All right. "Saturday Night Live" picking fun at the forced spending cuts. It became last Friday. If you miss, the village people and -- we have you covered.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, of course, these cuts will affect our military, our civil servants, federal construction projects --
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- even grants to native Americans.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm the one who has to tell these folks, young men, there's no need to feel down.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young men, pick yourself off the ground.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young men, just because your funding is down, there's no need to be unhappy.
(LAUGHTER)
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BERMAN: It's fun to be here. All right. EARLY START continues right now.
