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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Nairobi Mall Massacre; Cory Booker & The Stripper; Yankees Eliminated From Postseason
Aired September 26, 2013 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A government shutdown just four days away. Will Congress hold the economy hostage or actually act for real? We have new developments this morning.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The FBI and Kenya investigating a mall massacre that left dozens dead. The new questions this morning about how the terrorists pulled off their attack. We are live with that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was flirting with him and I thought he was cute and I was excited to meet him at the premiere, but he couldn't make it and we just kept flirting.
BERMAN: So, the mayor, the vegan stripper, and the racy tweets that they shared. U.S. Senate hopeful, Cory Booker's online messages go viral. I said racy. You be the judge as just how racy they are.
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SAMBOLIN (on-camera): Stick around and let us know whether you think this is racy. We're having a big discussion about that this morning.
BERMAN (on-camera): As big as you can actually have at 3:30, but it was big by those standards.
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START. Happy you're with us. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. About 31 minutes after the hour right now.
SAMBOLIN: So, the Senate voting to move forward with a bill to keep the government up and running at least for a couple of months. The unanimous vote paves the way for restoring money to Obamacare that a House passed spending bill stripped out. Then, it will be up to the House Republicans to take the next step.
The shutdown deadline is four days away. There's a second even more critical budget battle just ahead. We're raising the debt ceiling to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt payments. Christine Romans were just talking about that a little a while ago. October 17th is the date treasury secretary, Jack Lew says, the government will reach its borrowing limits and those battle lines are being drawn.
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Jay carney, white house press secretary: There is no negotiating over Congress' responsibility to ensure that we do not default.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The real play here is going to be leading up to the debt ceiling where we could get a full delay for a year, including taxes of Obamacare, and I think the president is ready to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Democrats say that is not going to happen.
BERMAN: Meanwhile, with health insurance exchanges set to open for business next week, President Obama is hitting the road trying to ease concerns about Obamacare. He'll be in George's County, Maryland expected to talk about millions of uninsured Americans finally having affordable coverage once his plan is in place. The president will also be touting how his reform is guarantee coverage in the event the preexisting conditions.
SAMBOLIN: A team of FBI experts joining the investigation into the mall massacre in Nairobi, Kenya, now. Officials are now searching the rubble of Westgate shopping mall for clues. They're also searching for bodies. At least 61 civilians and six security officers were killed in the attack by al Shabaab terrorists. The death toll, unfortunately, is expected to rise as they look through all of the rubble.
CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Nairobi. Arwa, what is the latest there?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you're saying, the investigation is ongoing. It's just behind us over to the right, the location of the Westgate mall. There are security teams still on the ground as well and it is being sealed off because it is a crime scene at this stage. A lot of questions being asked about how this attack was actually able to take place.
Did, for example, the attackers have access to blueprints of the mall? Did they manage to pre-smuggle in some of the weapons that they used and what is the Kenyan government going to do in the future to prevent these kinds of security elapses from taking place. What we do know from Kenyan authorities is that five of the attackers are dead.
Their bodies believed to be buried underneath the rubble. Another 11 individuals have been detained. Some of these detentions happening at the airport. Some of them happening in the city itself, but a lot of questions about the state of the remaining attackers. Remember, there were 10 to 15 the government originally had said.
A lot of questions also about the hostages and all of those people that are missing or unaccounted for. According to the Red Cross, more than 65 people still. We were at the main city morgue here yesterday where families, since the government had announced the siege had ended, were gathered hoping for information about their missing loved ones, waiting for body to arrive.
Interestingly, no bodies arrived at the main city morgue yesterday. But while we were there, we met a woman, Janet Lucali (ph), who we had, in fact, met before. She had found her husband's body on the Tuesday. She was there waiting, trying to get it released to her. She was unsuccessful. The authorities saying that it was still part of this police investigation.
But you can just imagine how utterly devastating all of this has been. In Janet's case, she and her husband had been married since they were 24 and she said he was the love of her life, Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: Oh my goodness. That is so awful. That's exactly what I wanted to know, because we've been talking to you about this woman, Janet, and whether or not she had found her loved one. So sad. Great reporting for us there, Arwa Damon. Thank you.
BERMAN: Breaks our heart. All right. Thirty-five minutes after the hour.
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BERMAN (voice-over): Police are looking for the man they say shot two people killing one at a business near a popular shopping mall on Long Island. Cops say Sang Ho Kim (ph) was mad about a business deal with the lighting company where he opened fire. Police say he fled in a white Honda SUV. Roosevelt Field Mall and some nearby schools were locked down for several hours as a precaution.
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): The three-year-old boy wounded in last week's Chicago's park is out of the hospital. The boy was hit in the face, making him the most seriously injured of the 13 people that were shot. Police believe the shooting was retaliation for an earlier incident. Four people are now facing charges, including attempted murder.
BERMAN: Investigators are trying to figure out what caused a single- engine plane to crash into a bank parking lot in Suburban Chicago last night. A female passenger was killed and the pilot was severely injured when the plane went down in bowling brook, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Chicago. That crashed into a tree, a light pole, and three vehicles before bursting into flames.
Jackson Palmeri picked the worst possible time to make his debut. He was born five days early as floods were wiping out his hometown of Lyons, Colorado. Boy, is he cute? The National Guard rescued his parents from the rising water, but then mom, you know, went into labor. They got to the hospital despite all of the washed out roads and just in the nick of time.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to have a C-section and then he wasn't breathing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many variables, you know, one thing -- if one thing went wrong, everything could have went wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. It's just overwhelming.
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SAMBOLIN: "I had to have a C-section and then he wasn't breathing." Thanks goodness --
BERMAN: He looks awesome now, though. What a cute kid.
SAMBOLIN: He does. He looks much older. Jackson's nickname is Flash --
(CROSSTALK)
SAMBOLIN: He's now a symbol of hope for Lyon as it tries to recover. That is a great symbol of hope.
BERMAN: It is. And a good looking kid, too. And as you said, a big, strong looking little boy!
SAMBOLIN: Strapping young man there!
(LAUGHTER)
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BERMAN: All right. Let's get a look at the rest of the weather now. Indra Petersons is here with that. Hey, Indra.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think he might keep the Name flash, right? Call me Flash. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
PETERSONS: Well, we're definitely talking about something else, snow. And it wasn't like a little dusting. Aha.
SAMBOLIN: I was just making sure, because last time I thought that it was snow, you said it was rain. So, this isn't -- there are the flakes. I see them.
(LAUGHTER)
PETERSONS: We have actually big one. These are just for you, Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: I can really tell.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: We have pictures --
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SAMBOLIN: Seriously? How much? PETERSONS: Like a foot of snow in the Tetons. I mean, this is like the first early big snowstorm of the year. Definitely not something people were hoping for this early, but either way, there you go. There's that big Pacific Northwest storm. Today, still bringing one to three inches with the low elevations and possibly a foot in some of the higher elevations especially kind of gearing out more towards Wyoming today.
And it is chilly. I want to show you the temperature difference and the area. Notice many places in the Pacific Northwest the good 15 degrees below average. These are the highs in the afternoon. The reason it's so pouring (ph), just to the east of them as we go towards the plains and Midwest, temperatures are 15 degrees above average.
So, as the system makes its way across tomorrow, we're going to be talking about some storms breaking or showing up right across that cold front. So, cold air next to warm air never a good thing. We'll start to see those pop up tomorrow.
SAMBOLIN: Thank you.
BERMAN: Thanks so much, Indra.
PETERSONS: Sure.
BERMAN: All right. So, it would not be a Senate race if there were not tweets from a vegan stripper.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: In New Jersey, Democrat Cory Booker raising some eyebrows after some direct messages surfaced that some people see as a little flirtatious. Booker exchanged Twitter messages with a 26-year-old stripper, a Vegas stripper, we'll get to that in a second, from Portland, Oregon. Her name is Lindsey Lee (ph). Booker told her in one of his tweets, "The East Coast loves you and by the East Coast, I mean me."
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think he would have replied to me. So many different times, publicly, if you were, you know, not interested or at least not used certain emoticons.
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BERMAN: I should tell you that Booker was responding to a tweet from her which said the "West Coast loves you and by the West Coast, I mean me." So he's only sort of mimicking what she said. The two, they never met. Cory Booker's camp is dismissing the exchange saying the mayor doesn't regret it.
A spokesman says, quote, "it's obviously pretty innocuous, and quite frankly, there is nothing there." I'm moderately obsessed with the fact that this woman isn't just a stripper, but --
SAMBOLIN: Moderately?
BERMAN: A vegan stripper. There's apparently a vegan strip club in Oregon. I don't even know what that means, but she is, in fact, a vegan stripper.
SAMBOLIN: A vegan strip club. So, all of the strippers are vegan.
BERMAN: oh, that could be -- yes, I suppose.
SAMBOLIN: Right?
BERMAN: I suppose.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Or the clothes they do wear are vinyl, not leather, but they're not wearing them so what does it matter? I mean, seriously.
SAMBOLIN: Let's investigate this, Berman. Let's investigate this.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Coming up, CNN investigates vegan strip clubs.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Forty minutes past the hour.
Former president, George H.W. Bush taking part in same-sex -- or in a same-sex wedding ceremony. Bush 41 was an official witness at the marriage of two longtime friends, Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen in Maine. The couple posted a Facebook picture Bush actually signing the marriage license as you're taking a look at there. Gay marriage became legal in Maine last December.
BERMAN: All right. So, turnabout is fair play after Bono's awesome impression of Bill Clinton.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: It was so good. That man's got skills. But the former president, Bill Clinton, returned the favor during an interview with CNNs Piers Morgan delivering his take on the U2 frontman and philanthropist. Take a look at this.
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(LAUGHTER)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What am Iris to know?
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: And we, Iris, we can imitate anybody.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: I've been singing so long and screaming loud at these concerts so I'm hoarse.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: That's why all of my charities only have three-letter names.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Red, one. And even that's more effort than U-2.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: I don't want to be cruel because i applaud the effort there but that was --
SAMBOLIN: Bad.
BERMAN: You saw a picture of Chelsea on the front row being like, oh, no! Like, please stop, dad.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: All right. Good thing he's not running for office again.
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: Coming up --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At first, we thought they were bears. My 15- year-old ran into the house and she said we got hog, and then they're chasing us.
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SAMBOLIN: Oh my goodness! They have hogs. They are terrorized by wild hogs. We're going to have this whole story when we come back.
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SAMBOLIN: Seriously here. Forty-five minutes past the hour.
Gigantic wild pigs have taken over one neighborhood in suburban Atlanta.
BERMAN: And you thought you had --
SAMBOLIN: I know. The pigs have been spotted all over Lithonia, Georgia. They can weight more than 300 pounds, oh, wow, and they have six-inch tusks. They have been roaming the neighborhood and search of garbage to eat.
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DIANA DAVIS, LITHONIA RESIDENT: He was about this big up here, seriously. His head looked like that big. I'm not kidding. And, I screamed and ran back in!
TAVARES DENNIS, HOG HUNTER: We don't used trap at wild hogs. They're real smart. So -- and these type of hogs is in a neighborhood, they probably won't go in a trap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: And they're really fast. State wildlife officials say these wild pigs can be quite aggressive if you try to get between them and their food. Traps are now being set and baited in hopes of catching the pigs. Wow. That's scary, right? You open your door and --
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: A big feral (ph) wild pig with six-inch tusks. Not when I thought I was getting --
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: It's not UPS. It's a feral hog.
SAMBOLIN: Let's take a look what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan are joining us. Good morning.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, you two.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm actually turning up the volume in my little ear piece because I wanted to hear what Berman was actually saying there.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: Normally, he has this all turn down.
CUOMO: Zoraida is talking. What is she saying? And there's Berman and that's right. I'll tell you what, mock not the feral pig, my brother, because those are some dangerous animals. We're going to be covering that show this morning.
BOLDUAN: You do not mess with a feral pig.
CUOMO: You mess with the pig. We'll see who's the bacon at the end of that fight.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: It's a problem. We're going to have that story for you later.
But, we're going to talk about something's that got to matter to every individual and household that's going on. We're enjoying, in some sick way, the political antics going down there, but there are real issues at play. People have misgivings about Obamacare whether it's good for us or bad for us or costs more, costs less.
Kathleen Sebelius is in charge with administering this program for the federal government. She's going to come on. We're going to put the misgivings and misperceptions as you would see them to her. Let her answer for the government, because the exchanges have been open on October 1st. So, you should know.
And then, the debt limit. It's a bigger fight than the shutdown. It means more than a shutdown to you, not to just Washington, not to just some special interest group, to you, so we'll talk you through it.
BOLDUAN: Yes. And we also have for you this morning a very moving reunion on a football field. I'll tell you, I've watched this several times and I tear up every time I see it. A captain in the U.S. army reserves came home early from Afghanistan to surprise her 13-year-old daughter at a Wisconsin Badgers came in front of 80,000 fans and not a dry eye in the house.
We're going to meet the mother and daughter live this morning to talk about that moment and, of course, thank her for her service. We'll have that for you today.
SAMBOLIN: How beautiful. We're looking forward to that. Thank you.
BERMAN: And feral pigs.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
CUOMO: You see.
BOLDUAN: Bring it all full --
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: You're going to be the bacon.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: You're going to be the bacon.
CUOMO: They are your size.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: You'll see when we do this story. They've red eyes --
(CROSSTALK)
SAMBOLIN: Are they coming in the studio? I'm a little worried.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Berman does like a little landscaping in his house. All of a sudden, he's like a sportsman. He's not afraid of --
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Coming up, benches cleared! A giant brawl on the baseball field. Andy Scholes joins us with what caused all of that commotion. I cannot wait to hear that. That's the "Bleacher Report" coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: So, it's one of those things that's just a bad idea in baseball. When you hit a home run, you just don't sit there and admire it.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: But that's what Carlos Gomez of the Brewers did and it sparked a bench clearing brawl with the Braves. Andy Scholes breaks it all down in the "Bleacher Report." There are a lot of rules.
ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes. Good morning, guys. Well, there are only really two outcomes showing up a pitcher after hitting a home run. One, you're going to get plunked the next time you come up, or two, an all-out brawl will happen and that's what we saw last night. Carlos Gomez homered off Paul Maholm in the first inning and he admired it for quite a while before he finally started running.
And Brian McCann and Freddie Freeman exchange words with Gomez as he round up the bases. And McCann, he had had enough by the time Gomez rounded third. He met him before he even touched home plate and here we go. Both benches cleared. A few punches were thrown. Gomez and Freeman, they're both ejected from the game. And Gomez later apologized for his behavior via Twitter saying it was unacceptable.
For just the second time in 19 years, the New York Yankees failed to make the playoffs. Last night, the Yankee lost for the Rays 8-3 officially eliminating them from the wild card chase. This year's truly been a forgettable one for the Bronx Bombers. Derek Jeter and (inaudible) miss the majority of the season with injuries. And then, you've got the whole A-Rod saga. With Mariano Rivera and Pettitte retiring, the Yankees will have a much different look next season.
Now, Rivera's been receiving all kinds of gifts during his retirement tour, but he never got a horse. The Colorado Rockies gave Todd Helton a horse last night as a farewell gift. Helton is hanging up the cleats this year after spending 17 seasons with the Rockies. A Tennessee volunteer Peyton Manning was on hand for the ceremony. I bet you didn't know this. Manning actually replaced Helton as the Vols quarterback way back in 1994. A cool deal.
Now, Helton basically owns the Rockies batting records and only fitting that he hit a home run last night in his final game at Coors Field.
Well, trending on BleacherReport.com, today, you can read about one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. Happened in the America's Cup. Team New Zealand had eight chances at winning the world's most prestigious boat race series, but Oracle Team USA, they just would not give up. Yesterday, cut off (ph) an improbably comeback winning the final race to reclaim the America's Cup trophy.
Guys, they were down 8-1 in this best of 17 series. They reeled off eight wins in a row. People are comparing it, John, to something I'm sure you're pretty familiar with, the 2004 ALCS when the Red Sox came tack to beat the Yankees.
BERMAN: I know. That was --
SAMBOLIN: Everything comes full circle to the Red Sox, right?
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: To be fair, the Red Sox won four in a row. The America's Cup guys had to win eight races in a row. It's staggering. It's staggering. It's also a giant collapse by the Kiwis.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: Frodo Baggins and the entire Hobbit community very upset in New Zealand about that.
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: Thank you, Andy.
BERMAN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, folks. That is it for EARLY START.
SAMBOLIN: It is time for "NEW DAY." Take it away, Chris and Kate.
BOLDUAN: Thank you, guys. We'll see you in a little bit.
SAMBOLIN: OK.
CUOMO: All right, everybody. It's time for "NEW DAY."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be honest, I feel terrific. I feel energized that the American people had an opportunity, I hope, to engage in this debate.
CUOMO: Double deadlines with the government shutdown just four days away. The next fight already looming. Raise the debt ceiling or go into default. Can Washington come to an agreement in time?
BOLDUAN: Prepare to die. The Navy Yard shooter believed he was being controlled by electromagnetic waves and never planned on getting out alive. We have new details about the deadly attack and chilling new video of the rampage before it happened. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wild pig menace. Feral hogs on the prowl terrorizing a suburban neighborhood, scaring children, trapping people in their homes. We're on the scene of this pig problem.
CUOMO: Your "NEW DAY" starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Good morning, good morning. Welcome to "NEW DAY." It's Thursday, September 26th, six o'clock in the east. Yes, of course it is.
Coming up, secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Iranian counterpart are meeting and it matters. Why? It will be the highest level meeting between the country since the 1979 Iranian revolution. What is on the table for Syria and Iran's nuclear program? We'll tell you.
BOLDUAN: Also, former president, Bill Clinton, sat down with Piers Morgan in a really wide-ranging interview. They tackled everything from what's going on in Syria to the looming government shutdown, even talking about Clinton's wife's, Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions. We're going to bring it to you in just a moment.
PEREIRA: Check this out. Did you see this bench brawl? Oh my goodness. A fight breaking out between the Brewers and the Braves, clearing the benches, really. Only the first inning. You got save this until the end at least.
CUOMO: It looked like hockey.
PEREIRA: It looked like hockey. We're going to tell you why a home run brought both teams on to the field. That's coming up in our "Bleacher Report."
BOLDUAN: It's for a long game. Let's begin, though, with the perfect storm forming in our very imperfect Congress right now. Just four days left until a government shutdown, Senate leaders hoping to approve a spending bill by tomorrow that would keep Washington running beyond October 1st and also include funding for the president's health care law.
And while Republicans scramble to find ways to stop Obamacare, another even bigger deadline loom, the debt ceiling must be raised in just about three weeks or America won't be able to pay its bills.
