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Obama on Defense Over Response to Shooting; GOP House Leaders Gearing Up for Fiscal Fight; Over 1,000 Days of Gas Above $3; Apple IOS 7 Launches Today; Baseball Mom's Mortgage Surprise

Aired September 18, 2013 - 06:30   ET

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


KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama talking about the Washington Navy Yard shooting. He said in an interview with Telemundo yesterday, he's concerned these horrific mass shootings will become, in his words, a ritual that we go through every three, four months.

So, this does have any impact, though, on the ongoing gun control debate that's been going on in our country for years now?

CNN chief national correspondent John King here to break it all down for us.

So, he was asked in Telemundo interview what could be done, what can we do, I think is how it was asked. And he put the onus straight on Congress. I mean, he talked about the need for tightening background checks. But that didn't go very far in Congress very recently. Has anything changed since?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In one word, no. In two words, not much, if maybe. Not much.

If you look around -- the big question was in the Senate. Remember, just a couple of months back, Senator John Manchin of West Virginia, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, a Democrat and a Republican, tried to come up with a compromise, Kate, you remember on background checks. But they fell short, they tried to have a vote and they fell short.

Well, the Leader Harry Reid was asked about this. He said unless and until he has the very votes, he's not going to bring it to the floor. And they're five or six votes short in the Senate, and even if you could get expanded background checks passed in the Senate, you have a steep climb in the Republican-controlled House.

When you have these conditions, you know this debate well, Kate, from your days on the Hill, a lot of it is regional. It's not just partisan. A lot if it is where you live in the country. Is your state a big gun rights state?

But a lot of people are looking at the early reports of this Navy Yard shooting and saying it looks like people missed the flags. The Navy could have denied them security clearance, other things, maybe put some record of these mental health issues into a computer system, might have turned up in a background check.

A lot of people are saying the existing system seems to have failed. Why don't we look at that first before you try new things?

BOLDUAN: It does seem that on -- in this circumstance, the focus has to do a lot with physical security or getting security clearances, problems there, rather than further talk of gun control at least at the moment.

Also in the interview with Telemundo, he was asked about criticism that the president got giving a speech on the economy right after the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard and tone he struck in that speech.

John Boehner put out a harsh statement saying it's a shame the president could not manage to rise above partisanship today. I want to get your take on that. Fair criticism?

KING: It's -- everything's fair in life and politics. It's a tough one for the president. The event, obviously, was scheduled the day before. The president is trying to make his case in the middle of battles over economic policies, over taxes and spending, over whether or not the government is going to shut down.

The White House schedules a big event, invite people in and you have something horrible and unpredictable happening. Even some Democrats privately would tell you they thought the president's tone was in bad taste on that day. Could you have predicted it in advance?

The question is, should someone on the senior staff have said, Mr. President, despite all the planning, maybe we should pull the plug on this and schedule it tomorrow? There's quiet talk about that. It's inevitable in this environment. It's a tough call at the White House when you have a plan to go forward and something is happening, you're not quite sure of the ending. You're not quite sure of the numbers, you're not quite sure how bad it's going to get.

Republicans are criticizing the president openly and some Democrats are mumbling a little bit privately.

BOLDUAN: They're also going to be seeing the fighting really start kicking up very soon on Capitol Hill on the budget issue, on the possibility of a government shutdown. What do you make of this latest move from House Republican leaders? They weren't on board but now seem to be at least on board pushing for a vote that would tie defunding Obamacare with government funding.

KING: The House Speaker John Boehner tried to avoid this. He tried to create a way where he could give conservatives a vote. When they sent that package over to the Senate, the Senate would essentially break that part off and ignore it and still go forward and keep the government open.

He's got a revolt. Maybe 40 conservatives on the House side, being encouraged by a couple Tea Party senators on the Senate side. And, remember, a couple months back -- we were talking about this. The leadership aides say it's a problem but chances are less than two in 10, we'll have a government shutdown.

Well, forget that conversation. Because of this revolt, they're now going forward with a much more confrontational strategy.

Will a shutdown happen? There's plenty of time to avoid it. It is much more likely today because of forces in the Republican Party that simply want, Kate, to take every opportunity to try to deny the president funding for his health care law, and even a number of conservative forces, including "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page, are saying, you know, find times and opportunities to pick this fight but not every time. Don't risk the economy. Don't risk a shutdown. But there are a small but very vocal group of conservatives who will say, no, we need to plant this flag and fight.

So, we'll need to watch this one closely.

BOLDUAN: We'll watch it closely. And I'm interested to see if John Boehner ends up passing a government funding bill with a majority of Republicans. We'll have to see how that turns out in the end.

KING: He's got among the toughest jobs in Washington.

BOLDUAN: I would agree with that.

John King, great to see you. See you soon.

KING: Thank you.

CUOMO: We'll take a break on NEW DAY, when we come back, a thousand days with gas at more than $3 a gallon.

BOLDUAN: We don't do anything for 1,000 days.

CUOMO: Right. That's true.

So, why is this happening? We'll tell you, look into this milestone and look ahead to see if there's relief.

BOLDUAN: Plus, forget the sterling silver candle sticks, an English couple got a Hollywood A-lister as their gift at their wedding reception.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Can I keep him, can I, can I?

BOLDUAN: Well, the return policy is tough.

CUOMO: The man does not seem to age.

PEREIRA: Honestly.

CUOMO: He's 52 years old.

PEREIRA: Benjamin Button, totally.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back, everyone.

Let's go around the world now starting with a chaotic situation this morning in Acapulco. Mexico's most famous beach resort is coping with deadly storms that left 40,000 tourists stranded.

Nick Parker has more from Mexico City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PARKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, dramatic scenes in the popular beach resort city of Acapulco. Tropical Storm Manuel creating chaos there with many residents struggling to cope with it's devastating aftermath. Forty thousand tourists have also been stranded with the airport only just re-opening. The main road to the city is still closed.

Further north, rains from tropical storm Ingrid are raising fears of further flooding there. Dozens of people are being killed in these twin storms.

Authorities are now closely watching a tropical wave near the city of Cancun -- Kate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Wow, Nick, thank you so much.

And across the pond, a star studded surprise for a couple at their wedding reception in England. CNN's Isa Soares has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's supposed to be one of the happiest days of your lives and for Abbie and Danielle Lingwood (ph), it could have been more picture perfect. The British couple were celebrating their wedding at the hotel reception bar when they realized Brad Pitt, of all people, was in their midst.

Now, they approached Brad and asked him to take a photo with the newlyweds to which he obliged. Brad who was relaxing after filming "Fury" here in London was reportedly very nice and didn't hold back on the compliments, telling the bride she looked very nice.

A charming man indeed.

Kate, back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Quite a wedding gift.

CUOMO: It's "Money Time".

And a major drain is gas on people's budgets. Today's average gas price, $3.51 a gallon. The damn thing just won't go down. It's been 1,000 days since gas was under $3 anywhere.

So, the question is, is a change coming?

Christine Romans is here to break us down. And, Christine, you were telling me we're lucky it's not higher.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 1,000 days now. You know, the last time the average for a gallon of gas was below 3 bucks was, look at this, December 23rd, 2010, right here. That's when it was $3 a gallon.

Go back here, wow, it was a lot cheaper but it took a global financial crisis for that to happen. But look at this -- it's been a decade- long trend. And, right here, the last 2 1/2 years has been really, really tough.

So, what's the problem here? Why is this happening? First of all, rising international demand. The world craves, wants, is hungry for oil. China and India, big parts of that.

Take a look at this. Another reason we don't have new cheap oil supplies, fracking, very expensive. Deep water platform, it's very expensive. So, that's one of the problems here.

You add into that, investor interest -- look, I mean, global investors are betting on higher gas and oil prices and that starts to perpetuate the problem, right? The prices stay higher.

And also the geopolitical effect. I told you it's been since December 2010. What started then? The Arab spring. As long was we've had the beginning of the Arab Spring and instability in the Middle East, you've seen these oil prices above $3 a gallon. Super-interesting as well, because unless you see a real problem in Syria, unless you see a real problem in Syria we'll stay right about here.

So, $3.51 a gallon today. Where could it go? I asked a guy named Tom Kloza. He says, Chris, here's your good news, $3. He thinks unless Syria has a real conflagration in the Middle East and the U.S. is involved, you're going to see prices continue to come down.

Investor interest would wane as well, because of the Fed tapering. Believe it or not, a lot of people are saying gas and oil prices could come down. But 1,000 days before $3 a gallon, that clearly, clearly hurts folks -- Chris and Kate.

CUOMO: It always bothers me that commodities speculators drive gas to a certain extent.

BOLDUAN: It is infuriating, yes. Hard reality.

CUOMO: Casino effect going on down there on Wall Street.

BOLDUAN: Three dollars a gallon, the floor.

ROMANS: We'll see, we'll see.

CUOMO: The voice from beyond. We'll see.

BOLDUAN: We call it the voice of God.

CUOMO: They'll take it.

Coming up on NEW DAY: iPhone users, listen up, a major upgrade is coming your way. They tell us you don't even need a new phone. Why today's big release could revolutionize the world of smartphones.

PEREIRA: And I want you to be ready for our must-see moment. Trust when I say this. it is a must-see moment of the day. It's been a rough year for the Houston Astros. This did not make it better. Oh.

No! We froze it. We froze it because we want to show it to you when we come back. You know how this ends.

BOLDUAN: That's the best shot of the day.

PEREIRA: We know how it ends.

CUOMO: That's good. That's good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back. Today is the day, except for Chris, anyone with an iPhone is waking up this morning to a push notification to upgrade their software to IOS 7. What will this snazzy new rollout bring and should you even download the update this morning? That's our big question.

Let's bring in Brett Larson. He is the host of "Techbytes" and he is back. So, here we go, first things first.

BRETT LARSON, HOST, TECHBYTES: Yes.

PEREIRA: How do we decide "A" if we need to do it and what do we need to know before we go ahead and get the upgrade?

LARSON: It's going to work past -- you know, obviously going to work on the new iPhone 5s, if you have the new 5 and 5S and the 5C coming out. I think it goes back to 4. If you have an earlier, like a 4, you might want to hold out and wait just to see what other people are saying about using it, because a lot of times a new IOS needs a little more power. And if it has -- if your phone doesn't have that sort of horsepower, you're going to be stuck with like a clue G (ph), everything is slow.

BOLDUAN: Is that why my 4S has not gotten any push notification yet?

LARSON: I don't think it comes up later today. That may also have something to do it.

PEREIRA: So, should you back up your device?

LARSON: Absolutely. Yes. And that's a good tip in, generally. You should always back up everything. I installed it last night. And, it took about an hour to get all my pictures back. And I'm still having issues with my music, because it started fresh. Now, that experience may be different for other people, but you definitely want to back up everything because you could lose everything. You never know. I mean, it's a new operating system. So, it's definitely going to have its quirks.

BOLDUAN: Is it worth it, is it required? What are the new features?

LARSON: I think it's worth it. It looks nice. We have a new Siri. We have a male Siri who --

BOLDUAN: You do get an option?

LARSON: Yes. You have like multiple options for how you want -- let's see if I can bring him up. There are multiple options you can bring your Siri. There are new sounds that it makes.

PEREIRA: Nice.

LARSON: I'm a big fan of new sounds if you like different -- we have different ring tones and different text tones. Isn't that sound nice?

PEREIRA: It's overall -- it's not just bells and whistles. It's an overall --

(LAUGHTER)

LARSON: I mean, beyond the bells and whistles, it looks completely different. It acts completely different. That's where we're going to see a lot of complaints. People today who go to are going to say --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: What's the downside if you switch?

BOLDUAN: That must be the downside.

LARSON: The downside is it looks different --

CUOMO: So, you're going to have to take some time to get used it. So, you have to relearn your phone a little bit?

LARSON: Exactly. In typical Apple fashion, I like sat down and you immediately, it's like, oh, I like how this works. There's a few different things with swiping. If you swipe up from the bottom, your music and all these other settings come up. If you swipe from the top, a different -- so, there's some different things --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: One of the things we were concerned about is that, apparently, if you have apps that you bought from the App store and you paid for, some of them could be rendered useless?

LARSON: Correct. And that is --

PEREIRA: That's a drag.

LARSON: It is a drag. And here again is another warning. Check to make sure your favorite stuff still works. Most of the app developers, they want it to work in IOS 7 because they want you to keep using their apps. You know, Candy Crush Saga has to keep working in IOS 7 or you're going to have a lot of very upset people.

PEREIRA: Not Candy Crush.

BOLDUAN: Yes. My husband will go ballistic.

LARSON: It could be depending on the app you're using. It could be a couple of days. It could be a couple of weeks before they start working again as more developers get their hands on and they're able to troubleshoot and work the bugs out of --

CUOMO: I don't want drama.

PEREIRA: No drama.

BOLDUAN: No apple drama. But has -- often when things with Apple come out, there is drama and we produce (ph)

PEREIRA: Brett Larson host of "Techbytes" come back soon.

LARSON: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you.

PEREIRA: Are you ready for must-see moment today?

CUOMO: Please.

PEREIRA: It feel like this. It was the Cincinnati Reds versus Houston Astros last night. Bottom of the first inning, take a look at Astros short stop, Jonathan Villar, attempting to slide into second base, but pun intended, something stopped and then in the stretch (ph). Wait for it. Here we go. Face plants right -- oh, no. Oh, no.

BOLDUAN: What were his options here.

PEREIRA: Right into Brandon Phillips butt end in a move captured on no less than three separate camera angles. And because things weren't embarrassing enough, Villar was actually called out by the umpire and the Reds went on to trounce the Astros, 10-0.

BOLDUAN: That's now going to be -- I forget the player's name on the --

PEREIRA: One more time.

BOLDUAN: That's going to be his move all the time now.

CUOMO: That's a butt check sandwich right there. Look at him.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Look at him trying to hold up. He's like, no.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: You can see him coming on "Sportscenter" --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: He should have done anything.

PEREIRA: This clip stopped our producer Paulina in her tracks. She came running down the hallway, oh, my goodness, I found our must-see moment.

CUOMO: That's rough. Poor guy. Great player, too.

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: I know. I know.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: That's going to be now everyone's move if someone is stealing a base or sliding in.

CUOMO: I stole 500 bases, but you smash into one butt cheek and that's all you're known for.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: That was good. I needed that. Thank you very much.

Coming up on NEW DAY, back to the serious stories today, we're going to take you. Big questions for you on when we're dealing with the navy yard shooting. What do we want to know? We want to know what the motive was. So, that goes to what was in the mind of the shooter. We have new information about what was going on.

And, and, how that information was given to the navy and yet nothing happened with his clearance. Why? We will ask. Let's see what the answer is.

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, a Georgia girl taken from her home in a violent kidnapping. Police say there is no time to waste solving this crime that has shocked the neighborhood. An update on the desperate search ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. I don't know anything about this story, but here's what I've been told on the teleprompter in front of me. One of the top young pitchers of the Toronto Blue Jays had a special surprise for his mother this week, and it's one that she'll never forget. So, let's figure out why. Let's bring in Andy Scholes with the "Bleacher Report." What's going on here?

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey, Chris. Well, Marcus Stroman was picked in the first round by the Blue Jays last year, and as you would expect, he received a pretty nice sign-in bonus from the team. And this week, he put that money to good use. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marcus, what did you do? Marcus, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: That's Stroman's mom, Adeline, breaking down in tears because her son paid off her mortgage. Stroman posted the video on Instagram saying he wouldn't be where he is today without his parents with the #familyfirst. Good for him.

Trending on BleacherReport.com today is a story about Kevin Ware's road to recovery. The Louisville junior suffered one of the most gruesome injuries ever seen on a basketball court during the NCAA tournament. But, less than six months later, Ware is now back on the court, and get this, guys, he's already dunking. Check it out again.

Definitely good to see him out there doing that. You know what, after this injury, guys, he vowed to play again this season. And it's definitely looks like he is back on track. The basketball season just a couple months away.

BOLDUAN: That's amazing to see, especially when you know the injury that he faced. We hit him. He was a nice kid.

CUOMO: He is nice, he is smart and he was dedicated to getting back. What I liked about that dunk, he's long and can hop, obviously, but I like that jump stop he came to, put a lot of pressure on the leg. Look good.

BOLDUAN: Good stuff today, Andy. Thank you so much.

You hear that music, everyone. It is time for the "Rock Block," a quick roundup of the stories you'll be talking about today. First up, Michaela Pereira.

PEREIRA: All right. Here we go, in the papers, first up, "USA Today," Adrian College, a small private college in Michigan offering to pay all or part of a student loan payment until he or she makes more than $37,000 a year.

And in "The New York Post," grumpy cat of internet fame has a reason to celebrate. She's now the spokes cat for Frisky cat food. Grumpy cat has a big following, 1.3 million Facebook fans.

Time now for business news and Christine Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. When will the fed take the training wheels off the American economy? We're going to find out today at a very important meeting of fed officials. It's called the taper, of course, scaling back the bond buying aim to keeping interest rates low.

A Federal Reserve news conference is this afternoon. That taper talk hasn't dampened the rally on Wall Street. Look at this, year to date, the Dow is up 19 percent. The NASDAQ up 24 percent. The S&P 500 up 20 percent this year -- Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Colorado got a break yesterday, but we are going to be watching a front making its way through the Pacific Northwest. And right over Colorado today, not expected to bring much, but either way, it is something we'll be monitoring. Behind that, we'll watch it go straight through the Midwest and eventually the Ohio Valley.

What are we looking for? We're going to be looking for rain along the warm front and even some severe weather potentially along the cold front. But the temperatures, look at this, we're warming up to well above normal into the Midwest. By tomorrow, looking at 90s, Kansas City, look at St. Louis, look at Chicago. As soon as that cold front kicks through, though, look for temperatures to drop a good 15, 20 degrees behind it. A little bit rainy. A little bit --

BOLDUAN: All right. We're in fall, everyone, it appears. All right. Indra, thanks so much.

We're now at the top of the hour which means it's time for the top news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's easy now to look back and piece it altogether and say somebody should have known.

CUOMO: The investigation. New information, what drove the Navy Yard shooter to kill? His frantic calls to police in the days leading up to the massacre. The warning to the military. So, why was his security clearance not taken away? >

BOLDUAN: In harm's way. A 14-year-old girl violently taken from her home. Now, police believe she is in extreme danger. An all-out manhunt to find her. We're live with the latest.

PEREIRA: Tragedy on the field. A high school football player dies after a hard hit. New questions about the game's safety. Dr. Sanjay Gupta here with what parents need to know.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: What you need to know --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was overwhelming. Just ruined everything.

ANNOUNCER: What you just have to see --

This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, September 18th, seven o'clock in the east. And we have brand new information this morning on the Navy Yard shooter. Police told the military about his mental health issues. Question, why wasn't something done sooner? Also new this morning, police dispatch calls from the shooting, painting a picture of fear and chaos. Take a listen.