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New Day Saturday

NYPD: Two More Bikers In Custody; Off Duty Cop Was Riding With Bikers; Snow Storm Slams Wyoming; Santa Ana Winds Blamed For Fires; Gulf Coast Braces For TS Karen; Obama To GOP: End This Farce; Miriam Carey's Family Wants Answers; Anita Perry: Abortion Is "Woman's Right"; Lawmaker Confronts Ranger Over Shutdown; GOP Senators Caught on Hot Mic; The View from the Top; Obamacare Across the Country; The Dark Side of the Internet

Aired October 05, 2013 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am dying because of the political games you are playing right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Your government is shutdown. You can't get some of your services and you are still paying taxes. What Americans are saying in their messages to Washington.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: New overnight, two people are now in custody for that shocking bikers forum in New York. Wait until you hear about the undercover cop who was there, but did not step in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The things I bought are generally psychedelics.

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HARLOW: It's called the "silk road" and it's paved down the internet, the secret world of online from dot-com to door step. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. This is NEW DAY SATURDAY. A lot has happened overnight while you were sleeping.

HARLOW: Well, just this morning actually in New York, police have two bikers in custody accused of involvement in the clash with a biker group and an SUV driver earlier this week.

BLACKWELL: Police say one of the men is the one seen smashing out the driver window. You've seen this video, smashing here with his helmet. CNN's Margaret Conley is live in New York with more. What else do you know about these men?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, Reginald Chance is the guy in the video using his helmet to smash and pound on that SUV car window. We are at West 178th Street here in New York. The West Side Highway is about four blocks away. That scene happened here behind me. The SUV got off the freeway trying to get away from those bikers. The bikers then approached him and smashed the car window with that helmet right here on this corner.

Now Reginald Chance, he actually turned himself in. He is being questioned right now and charges are still pending. The other man in custody, Robert Sims, he was the second biker that we saw in the video. He actually got off his bike in the middle of the road and went up to open the door of that SUV car before it was able to speed away.

HARLOW: And you know, Margaret, we've also learned that an off-duty police officer was one of the bikers, part of the biker group, who witnessed the incident. What can you tell us about that?

CONLEY: Poppy, as CNN's Susan Candiotti reported last night, there was one police officer who was off duty and he works as an undercover officer, but he was in the crowd because he was part of the group. He was there and witnesses say he could be a key witness because he not only saw the SUV driver hit the biker, but he also saw the beating. The big question is why did it take so long for him to come forward? This incident happened on Sunday and he did not come forward until Wednesday, four days later. So the police are definitely looking into this.

BLACKWELL: One more thing, Margaret. What about the biker, the SUV driver drove over? What about him?

CONLEY: Right. Victor, he is in critical condition. His name is Edwin Mieses. Now his family says that his ribs are fractured. They say that his lungs have been bruised and they also say that he is partially paralyzed. He has hired famed Attorney Gloria Allred.

BLACKWELL: All right, Margaret Conley, getting the latest for us on this biker group versus this SUV. Thank you so much.

A lot of questions surrounding the story of that undercover cop, Poppy just mentioned. Let's bring in Lou Palumbo now. He is a former police officer from Nassau County, New York and the director of the Elite Intelligence and Protection Group.

Lou, what would you do if you were this off duty, undercover cop? Are you supposed to intervene? At least you're supposed to report it within hours, right?

LOU PALUMBO, FORMER POLICE OFFICER, NASSAU COUNTY, NEW YORK: Yes, well, the first thing, Victor, there is a real distinction between being off duty and an undercover police officer. An undercover police officer is one who is actually working a sensitive case for example, narcotics or gun trafficking or even someone who might be on a watch list of a terrorist group who is part of this pack and he is involved in the investigation and reporting to his superiors.

An off-duty police officer is someone who one is on his off-duty time elects to join this group of bikers to go out for a ride. In the course of that, if he witnesses an assault of this type or any irregularity in the behavior of the motorcyclists, he was compelled to report this immediately to the police department.

And for example, if he had a cell phone, he would dial 911 and give location and identify yourself and identify the exact nature of the incident. So this waiting four days, you know we have to first determine what exactly his role of participation in the incident. Did he in fact witness an assault? Did he in fact witness these bikers illegally shutdown the highway?

Did he witness them in fact conduct an illegal vehicle stop and then assault and a pursuit? So this investigation is ongoing. The police department is going to be tight-lipped about it until they come to some real intelligent conclusions and then they'll speak it. But you still have to figure out what was he doing there specifically.

HARLOW: Lou, you are formerly with the NYPD. You know the hierarchy well. You know the rules well. Would it have been basically against policy for him not to go forward to his superiors right away or frankly is there not a policy about that?

PALUMBO: Yes. I mean, what they could charge him with, for example, if the investigation pans out and they determine that he had knowledge of this incident and didn't properly managed it. They would charge him with conduct unbecoming, failure to report, nonfeasance of duty, there's an array. They could actually charge him with being complicit to the assault.

So, you know, but not to get ahead of ourselves, let's let the investigation continue with the police department. I'm sure Internal Affairs is looking into this to give him a fair review and then to come out with an intelligent assessment of what took place.

BLACKWELL: OK, just to clarify. I want to make sure I get the reporting here. The officer who works undercover was off duty and riding with a motorcycle so just so we don't say he was either off duty or under cover. He was undercover and at that time was off duty.

HARLOW: But that bring -- go ahead.

PALUMBO: I'm sorry. I have another question. Why would the police department or any branch of it basically burn an undercover regardless of the case he was working on? Let's say hypothetically he was attached to a drug enforcement task force as an undercover and he was working a high-profile case? I mean, why would they just arbitrarily decide to identify him as an undercover to the world and then everyone who is watching television suddenly know he is an undercover? It doesn't make sense and it certainly is not responsible.

BLACKWELL: We will continue to try to get some answers about that officer and his role or lack of role as it appears on that day. Lou Palumbo, thank you so much for your expertise.

HARLOW: Thanks, Lou.

PALUMBO: My pleasure.

BLACKWELL: People in Wayne, Nebraska, they are getting their first look at this hour at the damage left by those tornadoes yesterday. Look at this. Fortunately so far what we know is that no one was killed. As many as a dozen homes were lost. That twister you see here was one of as many as 18 that touched down in three states, Iowa and South Dakota may have seen them.

Now it is rare to see a tornado at this time of year, but it is not unheard of. The American Red Cross is now sending teams to the area to help the people cope with the storm's aftermath. The storm also knocked out power to half the residents of Rapid City, South Dakota.

HARLOW: From California, where strong winds are creating ripe conditions for wildfires to snow. Snow in early October in the Midwest. Rough weather is hitting many parts of the country this weekend. Let's bring in meteorologist Alexandra Steele in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Alexandra, it looks like a blizzard hit the Midwest. Is more snow on the way for them?

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is and more blizzard-like conditions. So it is really the weather trifecta, of course, you got the snow, tornadoes and also the fire threats. So let's start with the snow. Let's take you to Wyoming and what it looked like, just some incredible snow. Look at this. It is October. Of course, you know tornadoes are rare, but to have a snowstorm like this as well and be this historic is rare as well.

Eastern Wyoming will see snow today. The bull's-eye for today's snow, which will look like that because it will be heavy wet snow coupled with some very strong winds will be Rapid City, South Dakota, 15 to 20 inches of snow, possibly making it one of the top ten snowfalls of all time for that area.

All right, to trifecta portion number two, to the tornadoes, large violent tornadoes ripping through. Look at this. It looks like a scene from a movie. Conditions atmospherically were just incredibly right, again 18 reports, three states and as we've said, it is uncommon, but certainly not unheard of. We have had 11 tornadoes in 2011 in October. So we have certainly seen that. These were ferocious and a mile wide. We will have more details on this.

Of course though, the shutdown of the government may impact the number of observers that will go out to kind of assess these situations to figure how many tornadoes there actually were. We'll learn more of that though certainly in the coming days. To the fire threat as well, October, notorious for fire in California, no question about that, Santa Ana winds howling in Southern Cal this weekend. Red flag warnings are up. Winds pushing any small fire potentially out of control, even yesterday, 77-mile-an-hour gust in Laguna Park, Ventura County and in L.A. County, 52-mile-an-hour winds reported.

So here as well because of high pressure in the center of the country, it is fuelling all of these things. Driving these Santa Ana winds and warming them west and creating the conditions east. We have it all happening. Not to be last, we will talk about the tropical storm. We have Indra with that coming up.

HARLOW: What a weekend?

STEELE: Yes, absolutely.

HARLOW: Alexandra, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the storm because people along the gulf coast are keeping a close eye on the forecast this weekend. Tropical Storm Karen is out there inching closer to storm, bringing a lot of rain, maybe some flooding. Let's go to CNN's Indra Petersons in Pensacola Beach, Florida with more. What should people there expect, Indra?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, at this point in time, the storm really continues to break apart, but there is a reason for that. I mean, right now, it is at 40 miles per hour. The difference between today and yesterday is that yesterday, it was on the border of a strong tropical storm or weak Category 1 hurricane. Today, we take in an entire level down. It's right at the border of a strong tropical depression, 39 miles per hour would make it a tropical storm, currently again, 40-mile per hour wind.

What is going on though, is that it has slowed down significantly. So it is only moving to the north at about 8 miles per hour. If you actually look at it, most of what you see and you think actually is a tropical storm, it is the right of it sheared off and the winds are trying to break it off. There looks like a circulation going straight north and the rest is going east.

As long as it stays where it is, it will break off. But if it makes it northeast, which it is expected to do, it will get over the speed bump and dry air and it could hold together. That is where we have the concern for the tropical storm conditions. In Louisiana, we still have a tropical storm warning. That means within 36 hours, they will see the strong winds, gusting higher than 40 miles an hour.

Still anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain, some places could see 6 inches of rain. We will talk about, of course, the tide coming up as well and storm surge, but again the biggest concern will be the srtongwinds ripping trees out of the ground.

BLACKWELL: All right, Indra Petersons in Pensacola Beach, Florida, for us. Thank you, Indra.

HARLOW: To politics now, President Obama demanding the Republicans quote, "end this farce and reopen the government."

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Take that vote. Stop this farce, end this shutdown now. The American people don't get to demand ransom exchange for doing their job either does Congress. They don't get to hold our democracy or our economy hostage over a settled law.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: That settled law that the president referred to is the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. Republicans as you well know by now demanding limits on Obamacare before the will approve spending bill and that leaves us all in limbo.

BLACKWELL: The House is at work today, day five of the government shutdown.

HARLOW: We are expecting at least one vote by lawmakers today.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Athena Jones joins us from the capitol. Athena, what exactly is the House voting on today?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor and Poppy. As we enter the fifth day of the government shutdown, there is one small glimmer of hope or one positive movement here. Today, the House is coming in, in about an hour to vote on a bill that would pay furloughed workers, these hundreds of thousands of workers that had been ordered to stay home during the shutdown.

This bill would allow them to be paid once the government reopens. It's something the White House supports and so we expect the House to vote on it and the Senate to pass it and then the president to sign it. That is really the only positive step here we have seen over the last few days. The rest of it has been a continuingly heated war of words as each party tries to win this messaging battle, tries to point the finger at the other party to say they're to blame for the shutdown.

House Speaker John Boehner especially yesterday took issue with a report in "The Wall Street Journal" quoting a White House official suggesting that they were winning this messaging battle. Listen to what he had to say.

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REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: This morning, I get "The Wall Street Journal" out and it says we don't care how long this lasts because we're winning. This isn't some damn game. The American people don't want their government shutdown and neither do I.

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JONES: So there you heard Speaker Boehner saying that it's not his fault that the government is shutdown. Now on the Democratic side, the president has said it is up to Speaker Boehner just to bring to the floor a spending bill to fund the entire government and they could end the shutdown in 30 minutes. That is the battle going on. It continues today. We expect to hear more of the same today. Back to you, guys.

HARLOW: All right, Athena, thank you at the capitol this morning. Appreciate it. I will say it is more than just the government workers that hopefully they will get paid, but so many other workers are impacted by this and will not get back pay as a result.

BLACKWELL: Yes and we will see if it moves quickly as Athena believed they might.

A grieving family, this morning they want answers. Their sister was shot after a high-speed police chase in the nation's capitol. Now her family says they are trying to put together the pieces.

HARLOW: And drugs, guns and chemicals, all available for sale on the web. We are looking into that with our Laurie Segall coming up.

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BLACKWELL: It's 18 minutes after the hour now. The family of the woman from Connecticut who was shot dead by officers after police chase in the nation's capitol, they say they have a lot of questions about what happened.

HARLOW: Miriam Carey died after she rammed the White House barrier and raced with her car with her baby daughter in the back seat to Capitol Hill on Thursday. Her boyfriend reportedly told police last year that Carey was delusional and believed President Obama had her under surveillance. Her sister said they did not know why she was in D.C. Miriam Carey's 1-year-old daughter was in the backseat of that car. Luckily, she was not hurt.

BLACKWELL: Very fortunate that she wasn't hurt. Carey's sisters also spoke exclusively to our Anderson Cooper and they say Carey had been diagnosed with post-partum depression with psychosis, but she was trying with doctors help to get better.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMY CAREY-JONES, MIRIAM CAREY'S SISTER: I want people to understand that Miriam, she was a young 34-year-old vibrant woman and she had a lot of dreams and aspirations. She was fun. She was loving. She was very nurturing to her daughter. She was a new mom and she was excited about that. She always talked about teaching. She was a dental hygienist. She wanted to go further and get back in the field. She was a wonderful person. People need to see that she was more than the suspect that was driving the car.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC 360": So as far as you know, she wasn't bipolar or schizophrenic? You believe it was postpartum depression?

JONES: It was postpartum depression with psychosis. That's what her diagnosis was and she worked very closely with her doctor to taper off the medication and just get the counseling that she needed so she can deal with that diagnosis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Your heart breaks for her family.

BLACKWELL: It is still a lot of questions. They want to know if protocol was followed. I'm sure we will get answers on that in the days and weeks ahead. HARLOW: All right coming up, talking politics with the government shutdown. Here is different political news. Sometimes politicians and spouses don't agree, differences on abortion go public coming up in "Politicians Say What."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right, time now for the colorful things politicians say. We will start with the wife of a prominent politician. Anita Perry, the wife of Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry, was asked about the issue of abortion. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when people say to you, Mrs. Perry, you're the first lady. You understand that this is an important issue and that women's rights are an issue and we hope you stand with us. Your view is the governor has it right and the administration has it wrong.

ANITA PERRY, WIFE, GOVERNOR RICK PERRY: That is really difficult for me, evan. I see it as a woman's right. If they want to do that, that is their decision. They have to live with that decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mrs. Perry, I want to make sure you did not just make news. Are you saying abortion is a woman's right to make that choice?

PERRY: It is not mine. It is not something I would say for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, Governor Perry, who has been a very vocal pro-life supporter said his wife, quote/unquote, "misspoke." That is the definition of pro-choice, that another person can make that decision. They can choose for themselves.

As you know, the government shutdown has closed offices and sites around the country. One of those is the World War II Memorial in D.C. There's been a lot of talk about this. Closing the site caused confrontation and controversy between this Texas Tea Party Congressman Randy Newsburger and a park ranger at the vet that stood up for her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you deny them access?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It should be difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Park services should be ashamed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not ashamed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At no costs? It doesn't cost money?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This woman is doing her job. I'm a 30-year federal veteran. I'm out of work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason you are is Mr. Reid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is because the government won't do its job and pass a budget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: People are angry and heated about the shutdown. They should be. It played out there. It is playing out across the country. Also, politicians saying all kinds of things in the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid talked to our own Dana Bash. Dana was pushing him on why Democrats are not funding certain critical individual programs. Critical programs like the National Institute of Health. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If you can help one child with cancer, why won't you do it?

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: What -- why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at the Air Force base sitting home. This is to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing.

BASH: I'm just asking a question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You know Dana said after that, I was playing devil's advocate. She said they decided in a bipartisan manner to sign a bill to pay active military members. You have done it. You have been picking and choosing.

BLACKWELL: You chose this group, why not this one, if you choose this one, why not a third? That is the discussion we will have in day five. Now the politics of closure, our political commentators are next on day five of the government shutdown.

But first, Christine Romans has a preview of "YOUR MONEY" coming up an hour now. Christine, good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy and Victor, October 17th, that's the day the U.S. may no longer be able to pay all of its bills. Things like interest on the debt, military pay and social security checks and Medicare. Without enough money in the bank, the treasury will have to make tough choices about who gets paid first. That is coming up on "YOUR MONEY" at 9:30 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Let's start with five things you need to know for your NEW DAY at the bottom of the hour.

Two bikers are now in police custody accused of involvement in the clash between an SUV driver and a group of bikers this week in New York. Now an NYPD spokesperson says, one is the man you see here -- you've got to see it in a moment smashing the driver's window in the video. His name is Reginald Chance. The other guy is Robert Sims. Now those men have not been charged. The bikers have said they were retaliating after the SUV ran over another biker.

BLACKWELL: Number two -- you can hear the sirens there. A tornado smashes as many as a dozen homes. This is in Wayne, Nebraska. Incredibly no one was killed. And the mayor says several people were hurt. The American Red Cross is now sending in teams to help folks in that area.

HARLOW: Number three, President Obama is demanding the Republicans, quote, "Stop this farce and reopen the federal government." The President just this morning said the Senate is ready to pass a budget and House Republicans should do the same. The House has refused to approve a spending bill without attaching limits on Obamacare.

BLACKWELL: Number four, hope is fading that anymore survivors will be found in that wreckage of a boat that sank off the coast of Italy; 111 people confirmed dead now. More than 200 others are still missing. Now the boat was packed with African immigrants or migrants rather. Italy observed a day of national mourning this Friday.

HARLOW: And number five, Iran's Supreme Leader is giving support to a diplomatic approach being taken by his country's new president. But Ayatollah Khamenei says that the U.S. cannot be trusted -- that is according to Iranian state media. You'll remember President Hassan Rouhani and President Obama recently talked by phone. It was the first communication between the two countries' leaders since 1979.

BLACKWELL: The government shutdown is fuelling anger across the country. A CBS News poll shows almost three-quarters of Americans do not think that a fight over Obamacare is not reason to shutdown the government.

HARLOW: And some in Washington are inadvertently adding to the outrage many Americans are feeling. A hot mic caught two Republican senators reviewing their shutdown talking points. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONELL (R), KENTUCKY: I'm all wired up here.

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. 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. And I just came back from the two-hour meeting with him. And that was -- that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly.

PAUL: I think if we keep saying we wanted to defund it, we fought for that but now we're willing to compromise in this -- I think they can't -- we're going to -- I think, well I know we don't want to be here. We're going to win this, I think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's talk to two CNN political commentators. Hilary Rosen a Democratic strategist, is joining us from Washington and Ben Ferguson a conservative radio host is in Dallas.

I want to start with you, Ben, about that comment from Senator Paul and the comment from House Speaker John Boehner. John Boehner held up a newspaper says "This is not some damn game" talking about comments --

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: -- from a White House official. It seems like there is gamesmanship on both sides with Senator Paul saying "I just keep saying this over and over, we can win this." Isn't that a bit hypocritical?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No because if you notice he said we don't want to be here but we can win this because they're saying they won't negotiate we wanted to defund it. And then we sent back another option, which was delay it for a year instead of defunding it. I mean this is the sausage being made in Washington and people hate seeing that happen.

But I mean it's like yesterday, Barack Obama walks out of the White House with the Vice President of the United States of America and they act like it's impromptu and he's not wearing a jacket and he happens to know that a diner is giving 10 percent off before he's basically spoken to employees at the restaurant saying well these people are given 10 percent off to the hard American workers who are furloughed.

It's all games and the sad part is they shouldn't be doing this in public. The President should be at Camp David this weekend with Republicans being presidential saying I think you're all acting like children so come to Camp David and we're going to act like adults for the weekend and get away from the cameras and get away from the diners, get away from impromptu lunches which never happened with the President.

HARLOW: Right.

FERGUSON: It's just -- it's insane they are not at Camp David.

HARLOW: So whether they -- I mean frankly they should be able to this anywhere in Washington at the White House. But if it takes Camp David, it takes Camp David.

Hilary, you know Ben brought up the lunch we saw President Obama go out to what many deemed the impromptu lunch yesterday at a sandwich shop and then he made this public statement about the government shutdown. Nothing is impromptu in Washington and in politics. And the President gets this sandwich but Hilary, go ahead and weigh in on that.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We should -- well we should remember that you know that much of the cooking staff at the White House is actually off this week.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: I think he can make a sandwich. But ok, ok, continue.

ROSEN: So here's the thing the President had the congressional leaders to the White House. They met privately with no staff for over two hours. So and -- and what we saw later that night was, you know, John Boehner being confronted by members of his more moderate Republicans in the caucus and getting some recognition with those guys that letting this go all the way to the debt ceiling would be a disaster.

And that's really the key here that -- because that John Boehner, in his heart, knows that he is the looming -- the link to the looming disaster. He has the votes. All he has to do is bring it to the floor. He would get a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats who do want to work together and say we don't need to go to brinksmanship here. We can pass a continuing resolution. But he -- to date he's chose not to.

FERGUSON: Poppy --

ROSEN: -- I think ultimately that's what he's going to do.

But what the House has chosen to do today, instead of negotiating or doing more productive things is they are feeling the heat. So they're going to now try --

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: Hilary they're not --

ROSEN: Ben let me finish -- let me finish and you get your say. They -- the House today, because they are feeling the heat, because the Capitol police officers are not getting paid and workers are being hurt, they are going to pass a bill assuring federal workers that they will get back pay once their games are over. I think we can see through the cynicism.

HARLOW: Yes it's not just the federal -- it's not just the federal workers I saw it myself play out on Liberty Island. You know this week --

ROSEN: Yes people are hurting.

HARLOW: -- the concession stand workers. The people running on audio tour, the tour bus people down there that are peripherally connected to having the tourism industry up and running -- they are getting hurt and they are not getting back pay.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: And there's no doubt, look there's no doubt this is hurting people. But I think it's funny how this all in Hilary's mind revolves around Republicans who don't have control of the Senate. The only have control of the House and we're not the President of the United States of America. Negotiating in politics has always happened. Every president that we've had that has had a government shutdown negotiated the entire time.

Never did Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan or George Bush 41 every say "I will not negotiate" and some of them had bigger hands to play than Barack Obama does right now. So I go back to presidential leadership here. The President has got to stop playing games and realize he is not a dictator. You have to work with Congress. They have the purse strings to what you need. This government shutdown -- to walk out there and for the President to say I'm not going to negotiate with people with bombs strapped to their chest at the White House.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: Let's be clear.

BLACKWELL: We've got, we got to end it here because we're well over time. We're well over time here.

ROSEN: The President is not going to negotiate on a law --

BLACKWELL: Ben Ferguson, Hilary Rosen I thank you both.

HARLOW: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Unfortunately we've got to cut it. It is four days in about eight hours 39 minutes, 47 seconds. This shutdown continues so does the conversation.

Also Obamacare is what it's all about essentially had a rocky rollout this week. We dispatched our own expert to field people's questions about the Affordable Care Act -- his answers after the break.

Also it was a banner week for the tennis star Novak Djokovic. Here's this week's "Open Court".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With six grand slam titles and the number one ranking in men's tennis, Novak Djokovic clearly likes the view from the top.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, WORLD'S NUMBER ON TENNIS PLAYER: All my life, I have been dreaming to be the best in the world in tennis. My dreams come true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From humble beginnings in war-torn Serbia, Djokovic overcame long odds to make it in tennis. DJOKOVIC: It was a lot of struggle, difficulty financially. Thank God a big support from my father and from my mother and from all family you know they believed in me and then they gave me hope that I can really actually succeed. I remember as a kid, I was, you know, improvising and making little trophies out of -- out of different materials and just going in front of the mirror and lifting the trophies and saying I was a champion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Djokovic doesn't shy away from the attention that comes from being the top player in the men's game.

DJOKOVIC: I accept it as part of my -- part of my work, part of my life. But -- but I do enjoy it as well. I do prefer television more. And to be honest I like camera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well many Americans spent this week getting up to date, up to speed on Obamacare. We're all still learning what exactly the Affordable Care Act means for us.

BLACKWELL: CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta hit the road to help explain it.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. So Poppy and Victor, we decided the best way to really find out what is happening in the country is to tour the country. This is the CNN Express. We decided to travel around many different states.

And our first stop Greenville, South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to know if a person's age is going to impact the premiums, whether it's going to be higher for older people or lower.

GUPTA: You can't be discriminated against based on pre-existing conditions, you've heard that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

GUPTA: Diabetes, heart disease, cancer -- they don't even ask you about those things.

Are you familiar with what this means for you particularly as a 23- year-old?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not. I'm not.

GUPTA: So I think there is good news here for you which is that you can now stay on your parents plan up until age 26.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are the bearer of good news. GUPTA: It is now day two and we're in Lexington, Kentucky. One of the first things you'll notice, this is a state divided. You have a Democratic governor who's very much in favor of the Affordable Care Act and two high-profile senators who hate it. The end result -- a lot of mixed messages for the residents here.

HOWARD STOVALL, BUSINESS OWNER: This year if we do nothing and keep the same plan, it will be about a 30 percent increase. That is opposed to, I think, we're generally in the 20 percent to 25 percent a year increase.

GOV. STEVE BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: We now have the opportunity for the first time in history to provide health insurance, affordable health insurance for every single Kentuckian. And that's going to be a transformative period for us.

GUPTA: Day three now and we're in Baltimore, Maryland. This is an example of a state where things seem to be going pretty well. In fact, they're going to let us inside through the nerve center, the call center to see how they're dealing with these problems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Health care access, how may I help you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I'm here for (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone enrolled in health coverage now --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Web site is going to be -- it's a very a dynamic tool.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, we can go through their options and tell them the different plans that they qualify for. We can't tell them like this is the best plan, but we tell people, you know, pick the best plan that's based on your needs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: So Poppy and Victor, you get a little bit of an idea of what things look like and how different one state is from the next -- South Carolina to Kentucky to Maryland. We're packing up and ready to go home. Hopefully that will shed a little bit more light on what's happening with health care.

BLACKWELL: CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, also known as the bearer of good news.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Thank you very much. And you can catch more with him today at 4:30 on "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D."

HARLOW: All right coming up -- drugs, guns, even hit men all for sale on the web. Coming up the Silk Road paved (ph) on the Internet with illegal activity.

In this weekend's "Impact Your World", you may know him from the hit series "The Office", but in real life Rainn Wilson is helping girls around the world go to school. Look

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAINN WILSON, ACTOR: Hi there, I'm Rainn Wilson. And together, we can make an impact on educating women and girls all around the globe.

Phyllis, my sister, like my dead great, great grandmother died of stupidity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have ears, Dwight.

WILSON: When I started getting well known as an actor on "The Office", I got inundated by requests to be a spokesperson or do various things for various charities. I had an opportunity to explore what was most important to me in my heart and what I felt can make the greatest impact in the world.

The Mona Foundation supports educational initiatives all around the world, about 20 different initiatives in about 15 countries including here in the United States. They target women and girls and that's how you transform a community.

They are the most at-risk population through most of the developing world. Targeting them to empower them and educate them is really the most crucial thing. Also, they find grassroots educational programs that are already working, but are underfunded and come in to bring the support to help those organizations grow and thrive and flourish and move forward.

Join the movement. Impact your world at CNN.com/impact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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HARLOW: Federal authorities this week shutdown a Web site known as Silk Road. Part Craigslist, part eBay, part Amazon -- kind of, not exactly. So far it was an online marketplace where users could buy or sell guns, drugs, even hire hitmen. As our Laurie Segall discovered, it is far from the only site of its kind on the web.

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LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (inaudible) is picking up mail from the Post Office. Not your typical package. Inside -- drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one's going to be Ecstasy. That one's going to meth (ph)

SEGALL: Welcome to the growing dark side of the Internet. In a couple of clicks, drugs on your doorstep. Peter, whose name has been changed, asked us to obscure his identity.

"PETER": It is basically powdered mushrooms. And you can (inaudible) you say I want to buy 250 milligrams of it. It's a buy now thing like any other place you find something online. You end up with a shopping cart and you're quick to check out.

SEGALL: But the feds are cracking down. This week, online drug market Silk Road was blocked and its alleged leader arrested. Peter is familiar with the site.

"PETER": The things I bought are generally psychedelics namely LSD because that is the hardest one to find on the street.

SEGALL: Users sign on through (inaudible) it's an anonymous network were the only payment accepted is bitcoin -- a virtual currency worth real money.

The idea is that it's just not traceable.

"PETER": It's not traceable if you do it correctly. But if you do things like buy bitcoins on the street or things like that, it basically becomes untraceable.

SEGALL: Silk Road specialized in drugs but as Peter shows us the Internet gets even darker. There are other sites that haven't been shut down.

Here's one.

"PETER": It's the same kind of thing. There's a drug category from different things if you are interested in looking for LSD, you go and you select the LSD thing. Apparently on this site, you can literally buy guns -- AK-47, AR-15.

SEGALL: We were also shown screen shots of sites advertising hitmen. They promise to kill for bitcoin compensation. Peter has never given that one a test drive. He only used Tor to buy drugs, often on Silk Road.

Now that it is gone, are you bummed?

"PETER": Yes.

SEGALL: It is not necessarily an end game.

"PETER": They killed the server. They did not take down the technology that is used to make this happen.

SEGALL: A game of whack-a-mole in the dark corners of the web.

What do you think the outcome of the Silk Road officially being taken over by the government, being taken down?

"PETER": I think people are going to be pretty fearful of using those kinds of services for a while. There will be discussions on what happened and what went wrong and how to improve on it and later on, newer versions that have improved in some way will pop up and regain the trust that's probably dissipating right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: What a fascinating story. Laurie Segall joins us now from New York. Laurie, the big question is the feds, right. How do the authorities get in front of this? Do you get a sense that they have -- have really any handle on this right now?

SEGALL: Look, it took them two years to actually take down Silk Road. They were in there and they were undercover, but as Peter said in our piece, it's a cat and mouse game. And the Tor network is encrypted. It's very hard to infiltrate. And when they do infiltrate it, these guys get even better and they fix these systems and as he said they get even better.

So this is going to be a tough one to really get in front of because a lot of times, Poppy, they are just playing catch up.

HARLOW: Yes. I mean who is better at the technology? You know, total cat and mouse game.

Great report, Laurie. Thank you, I appreciate it -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Poppy thanks. And thank you for starting your morning with us. We've got much more ahead on NEW DAY SATURDAY, continues after a quick break.

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