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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Capitol Car Chase; Government Shutdown Day Four; Full Video of Road Rage; Public Tweeting
Aired October 04, 2013 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: Crisis at the Capitol. A woman with a child inside her car leads police on a high-speed chase from the White House to Capitol Hill. A collision, shots are fired, forcing a lockdown on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: They are stalling for time so that they can jam this up against the debt ceiling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Day four. The government still shutdown. The blame game continues. But is there an end in sight? Speaker Boehner being pulled in two directions and making a fascinating pledge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: FEMA has begun to recall currently furloughed employees necessary to serve functions of the agency that protect life and property as they prepare for potential landfall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Well, here she comes. Tropical Storm Karen brewing in the Gulf, ready to strike land. Furloughed FEMA workers, as you heard, recalled. It's already a state of emergency that's been declared. What you need to know for the weekend.
BERMAN: The storm is getting strong in the southeast.
SAMBOLIN: Yes. Hairball. Yes.
BERMAN: You've got to pay attention to that map. We'll have that for you in just a little bit.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
SAMBOLIN: And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. Nice to have you. We welcome all our viewers here in the United States and around the world.
We're going to begin with the chaos in the nation's capital. It's -- I'm not talking about the debt ceiling or the government shutdown. It was a wild chase that began with a woman ramming her car into White House barricade. It ended with the suspect being shot to death near the U.S. capitol. Now investigators are trying to determine what drove a Connecticut woman to use her car as a weapon.
CNN's Joe Johns picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A heart- stopping scene unfolding outside the U.S. capitol. The dramatic moments caught on tape by a camera crew. Watch as a woman, reportedly 34 years old, speeds away in a luxury car. Careening through the streets with police in hot pursuit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Report of gunfire on Capitol Hill. If you're in an office building, shelter in place.
JOHNS: Officers, politicians, staffers and bystanders sent running. Hunkering behind whatever they could find.
Secret Service says the incident began at 2:14 after a verbal exchange with one of their uniformed officers. The woman ramming her black Infinity sedan into a security barrier about a block from the White House. After police asked her to get out of the car she drove away leading them to a high-speed chase down Pennsylvania Avenue all the way to the east side of the capitol. Secret Service on her tail.
ED DONOVAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE SPOKESMAN: This unauthorized vehicle approached a checkpoint. Our officers acted appropriately. The vehicle then fled and in fleeing, struck one of our officers as it departed that initial scene.
JOHNS: The suspect drove around Garfield Circle, careening toward the capitol east front, one of the most secure areas in the country. Just moments later her car crashed outside the Hart Senate office building. Perceiving a threat, police opened fire. No weapons found inside the Infinity.
EDMUND OFORI-ATTAN, EYEWITNESS: When I heard the gunfire about five or six rounds, my wife and I, we just dropped to the ground.
DYLAN PRICE, WITNESS: I was walking toward the capitol building and about 30 seconds later, as I hit this point, there was about three or four cop cars that sped past me. Another 30 seconds after that I heard a series of loud pops like a gun going off. It looks like it was from outside.
JOHNS: Inside the vehicle a 1-year-old girl believed to be the woman's daughter. An officer pulled her from the car and took her to a hospital.
One of the two officers injured was hurt after hitting this barricade during the high-speed pursuit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). CHIEF CATHY LANIER, METROPOLITAN POLICE: This does not appear to be in any way an accident. This was a lengthy pursuit. There were multiple vehicles that were rammed. There were officers that were struck. And two security perimeter that were attempted to be breached so it does not appear in any way this is an accident.
JOHNS: Officials say both officers are in good condition and recovering as the city still reeling from the deadly Navy Yard shooting reliving moments of fear once again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Our thanks to Joe Johns. And he just mentioned the Navy Yard shooting. I think that's key to remember here.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: Everyone so incredibly tense with these images and this chaos going on. And of course there was that mass shooting just a few weeks ago. That helps explains I think why everyone was on such edge.
SAMBOLIN: Even if you don't really understand what's going on. You don't know if there's a bomb in the car.
BERMAN: Not at all.
SAMBOLIN: You -- you know, so many unanswered questions when it's crazy.
BERMAN: Some of those questions are being answered this morning especially when it's dealing with the woman who was apparently behind the wheel in that chase. Law enforcement sources tell CNN she is 34- year-old Miriam Carey of Stanford, Connecticut. She apparently had a history of mental illness.
According to Carey's boyfriend he contacted police last December telling them she was acting delusional. He says she claims that President Obama had put Stanford on lockdown and that she was under electronic surveillance. He told the police -- he was fearing for his daughter's safety.
SAMBOLIN: Yes. So he was happy to hear that she was OK.
BERMAN: The boyfriend says Miriam Carey suffered from post-partum depression.
SAMBOLIN: You know the fact that she was hearing voices, we're talking about this earlier, it sounded to me more like postpartum psychosis. Very serious. Very serious. Just terrible. Terrible.
All right. Five minutes past the hour.
Now to the do-nothing government. It is day four of the federal shutdown with no immediate end in sight. You still have the little clock ticking there. You see it on the right hand corner? That's how long this has been going on. There are first signs that House Speaker Boehner is backing down from the budget impasse with President Obama. Boehner says he won't allow a default when the debt ceiling votes hits in less than two weeks.
We are going to get more from CNN's Brianna Keilar.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the government partially shut down and the United States careening towards defaulting on its debts in mid October, House Speaker John Boehner made a key admission about the debt ceiling. A Republican who spoke to CNN after a private meeting with House GOP members said Boehner informed them he will not allow a default to happen even if it means relying on votes from Democrats.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: I'm all wired up here.
KEILAR: In a city that lives for an open mike moment to pull back the curtain --
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I just did CNN, and I just go over and over again, we're willing to compromise, we're willing to negotiate.
KEILAR: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Kentucky Senator Rand Paul delivered.
RAND: I think -- I don't think they poll tested. We won't negotiate. I think it's awful for them to say that over and over again.
MCCONNELL: Yes, I do, too.
KEILAR: But at a campaign style event in Maryland.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.
KEILAR: President Obama pulled a bit of an ace out of his sleeve sounding the alarm for a key voting bloc -- seniors.
OBAMA: In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time.
KEILAR: As he explained why defaulting is worse than a government shutdown.
OBAMA: In an economic shutdown, if we don't raise the debt ceiling, they don't go out on time.
KEILAR: He again pressured House Speaker John Boehner to fund the government and drop Obamacare concessions.
OBAMA: Call a vote. Put it on the floor. And let every individual member of Congress make up their own minds. And they can show the American people, are you for a shutdown or not?
KEILAR: Even a car chase and shooting on Capitol Hill brought into relief the chaos in Washington. The two fellow officers injured are both working without pay because of the shutdown.
Brianna Keilar, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: The shutdown not just hurting here in the United States but also abroad. Overnight, President Obama canceled a trip to Asia next week because of the ongoing government shutdown. The president had already shortened his trip from four countries down to two. Now Secretary of State John Kerry will lead the U.S. delegations to Indonesia and Brunei. He's going instead of the president.
Now this was a crucial trip. The president wanted to bolster U.S.- Asia policy and perhaps most importantly he was also expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the crisis in Syria. That now will not happen. Another casualty of the shutdown.
SAMBOLIN: So it is back to work for some government employees. FEMA put a temporary halt to the temporary layoffs as it gears up for Tropical Storm Karen. We told you about this at the top of the show. It's expected to strike the Gulf Coast this weekend. The agency furloughed about 86 percent of its staff. But now many are being called back because they need to help protect life and protect property.
BERMAN: Right. And this storm Karen heading right toward the southeast where they are now getting ready for this. Tropical Storm Karen, the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. It could be the first tropical system to hit the U.S. this year.
Karen is gaining strength out in the Gulf of Mexico right now packing 65-mile-per-hour winds. Forecasters say it could come ashore this weekend, possibly as a hurricane anywhere from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.
So, guys, pay attention.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: To where this thing is headed. Let's get a look now, an early look at the weather from Chad Myers.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Another problem with Karen is where it's going to make landfall has been very wet all summer long. A 60-mile-per-hour storm will knock down trees left and right. There will be major power problems across the southeast for the weekend. Severe storms across parts of the Midwest. A snow event for the upper Midwest into Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota.
It's still going on. There will be feet of snow in the higher elevations of Wyoming all the way up into South Dakota, the Black Hills, all of those areas are going to see a lot of snow. Eighty-nine in Memphis today, 86 in Atlanta, 87 in New Orleans. A couple of airport delays. New York City will have some low clouds, just a couple of showers. Minneapolis, a thunderstorm or two. Denver, there is that rain, light snow in the mountains and also some wind. Back to you guys.
SAMBOLIN: Thank you, Chad.
A new arrival at the San Diego Zoo now has a name. Meet Xena. A two- toed baby sloth. Visitors to the zoo voted on naming the cuddly creature and Xena beat out Dulce, which means sweet. Officials say Xena is being trained to be -- don't laugh.
(LAUGHTER)
She's being trained to be an animal ambassador for the zoo. Now the sloth is typically asleep 15 to 18 hours and spends the rest of the day searching for food. Kind of like Berman does.
BERMAN: That's right.
(LAUGHTER)
That is me searching for food all day and napping.
SAMBOLIN: Do you have two toes?
BERMAN: I have many --
SAMBOLIN: Two more.
BERMAN: I have many toes.
SAMBOLIN: Do you have many? No.
BERMAN: I have multiple toes. The toe-toed sloth is my favorite kind of sloth, by the way.
SAMBOLIN: Really?
BERMAN: Yes. No, I don't know why --
(CROSSTALK)
Are there four-toed sloth?
SAMBOLIN: Please tell us, if you know.
BERMAN: It's a menacing creature but a toe-toed --
SAMBOLIN: There could be --
BERMAN: Adorable and --
SAMBOLIN: A ten-toed sloth.
BERMAN: Congratulations to Xena who won over Dulce, which means sweet. So thank you for that.
SAMBOLIN: Dulce. I say Dulce. You say Dulce?
BERMAN: I say whatever you say.
SAMBOLIN: I say Dulce.
BERMAN: Ten minutes after the hour right now.
And coming up, new developments in that bizarre biker/SUV brawl here in New York City. Police say a major suspect could now be in custody.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Welcome back to EARLY START. Thirteen minutes past the hour and police have identified a major suspect in the brutal beating and slashing of that SUV driver. This is here in New York City. He is believed to be the man seen here smashing the window with his helmet. And police say he could be in custody soon. Thursday bikers came out in defense of another rider charged in the incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look at the video, the man waves first at the SUV telling him, "move over, stop." Because you're driving erratically. That man ignored that. Then he got in front of him, he said let me slow down to see if I can slow this man down. That man did not slow down an ounce. He hit the bike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: But the wife of the SUV driver is defending her husband's action which left a biker paralyzed. She says they left them no choice because they put her family in grave danger.
BERMAN: Some people are calling that a case of road rage. Details still unclear.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
BERMAN: In Kentucky, a clear case of road rage. Police there say the man you see here drawing his gun and firing, he is a doctor. Now we've seen that terrifying video but the other man who took this video is now releasing the whole tape and speaking out about this harrowing high-speed confrontation.
CNN's Gary Tuchman has much more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID COLLAR, ROAD RAGE WITNESS: Muzzled noises. I had the camera out the window.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Collar was driving on Interstate 75 just south of Lexington, Kentucky, when he shot this video on his phone. It was almost the last thing he ever did. Keep an eye on the black Lincoln with the bicycle attached to the black in the left lane.
David Collar started rolling his video after he says the man behind the wheel started driving recklessly in the emergency lane. This is the first time all of the video has been publicly seen.
COLLAR: He is passing people on the left emergency shoulder. He started out he's tailgating somebody I guess didn't get over quick enough for them so he decided to go on the left emergency shoulder and passed this vehicle. At this point Interstate 75 is three lanes wide already so he's made his own fourth lane.
I get out my cell phone and turn on video which is, you know, real simple to do and just try to, you know, hold it up and try to get his license plate number, but he doesn't like that and he slams on his brakes. It almost comes to a complete stop in the left-hand lane on I-75. So at that point I know he a little bit crazy.
TUCHMAN (on camera): This is precisely where David Collar was on the Interstate after he finished rolling video of the license plate. But he was concerned because of the bicycle on the back police would not be able to make out what was on the plate, so he saw the right rear window of the driver's vehicle open. He decided to make the identification easier if he tried to get video of the driver's face.
COLLAR: I was getting in front of him. So I'm starting to slow down. That's when I see his window come down. His window comes down and he pulls up his hand and points a gun right at my face.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We zoom in the picture and it's very clear, the driver is pointing a gun right at David Collar. And then look at this. Not only he is pointing the gun you can clearly see smoke. It appears the driver also fired the gun.
COLLAR: I was scared. I didn't -- after the shot was fired, I'm like, OK, I'm not hit, I don't feel anything. And I kind of looked around in the vehicle thinking, you know, that had to hit something but I didn't see any -- you know, I didn't see any bullet holes or anything.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Your heart must have been beating fast?
COLLAR: Yes. It was a little crazy.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): David Collar told police his story and gave them the video. And now Pairen Dobbins is under arrest. Dr. Pairen Dobbins. A prison physician in the southern Indiana town of Branchville. A former family physician. A doctor who has a very troubled past. Records in North Carolina where he used to practice show that on December 2008, Dobbins filled unauthorized prescriptions for highly addictive pain killer Oxycodone.
He had tested for its use the previous month. As a result the North Carolina Medical Board reported he voluntarily surrendered his medical license.
Dobbins also practiced in Indiana. And in July 2009 that state's licensing board put his medical license on indefinite probation. But in December 2009 Indiana allowed him to practice once again as long as another doctor was present. And then in May 2011, Indiana waived that condition allowing him to practice by himself once again. Dobbins is now out on bond. He has pleaded not guilty to wanton endangerment, faces the possibility of five years behind bars. But charges could be increased following an investigation. And a supervisor tells us he's been fired from his job. Where he is currently, we don't know.
(On camera): And how are you feeling now days later?
COLLAR: I have been sick ever since it happened. Just sick to my stomach. If we could just go back and him, you know, flip me the finger instead of the gun, I'd be a lot happier.
TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Lexington, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN: That's scary.
Eighteen minutes past the hour. A criminal couple is behind bars. Police have charged the pair a high-priced heist in Florida. The husband allegedly caught on tape fleeing the scene in a 200,000 dollar Astin Martin. Police say he left the multi-million mansion with more than 400,000 dollars in jewelry and cash. But not before leaving the woman of the house bound and gagged. So the couple faces armed burglary and assault charges. The owner of the home is the male suspect's boss.
BERMAN: Wow. All right. Coming up, if Twitter stopped, is it an investment you have dreamed of? The wait is over. The company revealing new financial details. Its $1 billion IPO plan, I got to say Wall Street and tech freaks are salivating over the details in this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Who is this?
BERMAN: Awesome, whatever it is.
SAMBOLIN: Is it Bruno Mars?
MARIBEL ABER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
SAMBOLIN: Bruno Mars?
BERMAN: There you go. Thank you. Maribel Aber, thank for that.
ABER: Trying to bring, you know --
SAMBOLIN: Thank you very much.
ABER: Fun and music.
BERMAN: You bring money to us and you bring music.
(LAUGHTER) SAMBOLIN: Did you bring money? Good morning.
ABER: Not with me. Maybe a credit card or two.
Good morning. Good morning. Let's start out with what is going on with this big Twitter plan with IPO coming up. Should we talk about that?
SAMBOLIN: Oh, yes.
BERMAN: Let's do it.
ABER: Let's do it. Well --
SAMBOLIN: Berman thinks it's the most important thing happening.
BERMAN: It is.
ABER: Salivating Wall Street. Well, Twitter is finally going public with its IPO plans and financial details. Twitter reported a $69 million net loss and $253 million in revenue for the first half of 2013.
I want to tell you that compares to a $49 million net loss on $122 million revenue for the year earlier period. Those are the numbers. The company says it had $218 million active users June 2013 and it's up from about $151 million in June of 2012. So quite a pickup there.
Twitter wants to raise $1 billion in this IPO, but it didn't say whether it will trade on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange and its ticker symbol will be TWTR.
OK. Soon you'll be seeing ads on Instagram. Remember Facebook bought photo and video sharing service for about $1 billion a year ago. Now it hopes to make some money back on that deal. Facebook says it hopes to start to ads on Instagram within just a few months since the ads will be as unobtrusive as possible if that can happen.
Now some big banks are offering help to furloughed government workers. So some good news here for folks. TD Bank says workers affected by the government shutdown can get a loan for the amount of their monthly paycheck up to $1,000 without paying interest, without paying fees. So the -- the thing you do have to have is an account in good standing and also other big banks say that they're also going to help workers on a case-by-case basis.
And we've got to talk about this. House Speaker John Boehner hopes to avoid another big crisis over the debt ceiling in a couple of weeks. He is reportedly meeting with lawmakers and says he will not permit the country to default for the first time on its debt. The "Washington Post" says that he told fellow Republicans that they must come up with an agreement that a significant number of Democrats would support.
But again, you know, let's quickly go back to Twitter. This is going to be the talk of the day. It's a huge thing. And not knowing where it's going to list is a big thing, too.
BERMAN: You know, they're growing every year. They're growing in a huge way but they're also not profitable and not close to profitable.
ABER: That's right.
BERMAN: And -- I mean, there's another thing. They're already on mobile. I mean, they are already everywhere they need to be. The question is how can they start making money and how soon?
ABER: That's right. I mean, and that mobile is where it's at. Mobile and advertising. I think what I see about 65 percent of revenue comes from like ads. Three-fourths of Twitter users are all on mobile devices so then how can they monetize that and make more money. That's the question.
BERMAN: Big questions.
All right, Maribel, great to see you. Thanks so much.
SAMBOLIN: Thank you.
BERMAN: Coming up, we have some new details on the suspect, the woman killed during that Capitol Hill chase. Why police say they are confident that this was no accident.
SAMBOLIN: And purring like a kitten. Wait until you see the surprise lurking inside this Florida driver's engine.
BERMAN: Wow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: The ripple effect. Day four now of the government shutdown. And federal workers are not the only ones being shut out. How are feuding politicians are now hurting relations at home and abroad. The president cancels a crucial trip to Asia.
SAMBOLIN: Did you see this? We have shocking new video of police cruisers smashing into a barrier. It's a high-speed chase from the White House to Capitol Hill, it ended with gunfire. We have the very latest.
BERMAN: Wow. And a burger topping that could have some church goers really upset. A burger of the month that may be sacri-licious. Pun intended but folks just wait until you see this.
SAMBOLIN: I don't know how I feel about that. Stay tuned. Tell us how you feel about it.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. About 30 past the hour right now and let's get the latest fallout from the federal government shutdown.
President Obama has now canceled a scheduled trip to Asia. That news coming over night. It said Secretary of State John Kerry will lead the U.S. delegations visiting Indonesia and Brunei. This was a crucial trip. The president was set to meet with Vladimir Putin and talk about Syria.
We're now four days into the shutdown. For the first time, though, there are some signs that the House Speaker John Boehner may be beginning to crack under some pressure of a party fractured over whether to attach changes to Obamacare to any government funding in debt ceiling increase.
