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Government Shutdown: Day Three; The Shutdown Fallout; Military Feels Shutdown Pinch; Dozens Dead In Boat Accident; Dealing With Obamacare Glitches; Church Bus Crash; Southwest Pilot Fired; Is It Bigfoot?; Second Biker Not Charged in NYC; Government Shutdown: Day 3

Aired October 3, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It's Thursday, October 3rd, six o'clock in the east, and we are now in day three of a government shutdown.

If there were any hope that the president finally meeting face-to-face with Congressional leaders would jump-start negotiations, that hope was dashed when those leaders left and reached the microphones. We will tell you what they said and did not say.

We're also going to look at the growing effects of the shutdown. Your health may now be at risk. Not only because flu vaccine production may slow, but also, the food you eat may not be inspected as thoroughly now as before. We'll tell you why.

KATE BOLDUAN. CNN ANCHOR: And there's also new evidence this morning in that dramatic confrontation between a pack of bikers and family in an SUV. We've seen the video leading up to the alleged assault, but we now have photographs that show what happened after the video stopped. We're going to be talking to one of those bikers who was there. Don't miss that.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Also we know that the first few days of Obamacare exchanges were pretty rocky. Has it gotten any better? Well, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is traveling across the country in kind of a rock star bus. He has been at a call center when they're fielding all sorts of questions from people that are trying to sign up. He's going to have a live report for us ahead.

CUOMO: All right. So, here is the latest with the government shutdown, and it's all about what there isn't. There are no compromises, there are no deals and, frankly, no surprises. Let's bring in Brianna Keilar kicking off our coverage live from the White House. Leaders of both parties finally agreeing to meet with the president. They talk for about an hour and then what happens, Brianna? Good morning to you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Chris. Well, not a whole lot, Chris. That is the headline. Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, called the meeting, quote, "unproductive." And sadly, that may be the one point where there was bipartisan agreement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEILAR (voice-over): For the first time since the government shut down, Congressional leaders met face-to-face with President Obama at the White House Wednesday night. Both sides emerging with no deal and no signs of progress to end the stalemate.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The president reiterated one more time tonight that he will not negotiate.

SENATOR HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: We're through playing these little games.

KEILAR: Republicans still demanding President Obama accept a delay to his signature health care program.

BOEHNER: All we're asking for is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Am I exasperated? Absolutely I'm exasperated.

KEILAR: In an interview with CNBC, the president reiterated that he won't give in on Obamacare, but said he will negotiate on budgetary issues like taxes, spending, entitlement reform, if the House Republicans first agree to re-open the government for several weeks.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We have a situation right now where if John Boehner, the speaker of the House, puts a bill on the floor to re-open the government at current funding levels, so that we can then negotiate on a real budget that allows us to stop governing from crisis to crisis, it would pass.

KEILAR: The president is probably right, but that's not happening anytime soon. Instead, House Republicans held votes again on funding the government in a piecemeal way that the Senate will surely reject.

Meanwhile, not far from the capitol, the World War II Memorial, operated by the largely shuttered National Park Service has become a proxy in this battle. To counter images of world war ii vets showing up to the barricaded memorial, the RNC offering to pay to keep it open.

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIR: Our veterans deserve the freedom to see this memorial. We're willing to pay the bill. Now it's up to the president just to let them in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Now that is just what happened. The National Park Service now saying it will keep that memorial open for World War II veterans, an outrageous image off the table, Kate. As we understand that the RNC will not be picking up the tab.

BOLDUAN: All right, Brianna, thanks for starting us off this morning. So as Washington squabbles, the American people are facing real consequences from federal food regulation to fears that our national security is at risk. The shutdown fallout has wide-reaching impact on daily life. The question no one, though, has an answer for, when will furloughed workers get back to work?

CNN's Rene Marsh is at the Lincoln Memorial this morning in Washington with more. Good morning, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. You know, day three, and you see the gates behind me. The Lincoln Memorial still closed this morning. Those hundreds of thousands of federal workers, their lives still in limbo this morning, they really do not know when this will all end.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): Instead of starting their day at the office --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us do our work.

MARSH: -- these furloughed workers are manning the picket lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are being placed in a furlough status.

MARSH: For the nearly 800,000 federal civil service workers, they're now nonessential status is a slap in the face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think? Yes, I'm upset.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still have to put food on the table and pay my bills.

MARSH: People living on this military base in Hawaii stocking up before their commissary closes down.

CHERI COPELAND, STOCKING UP BEFORE COMMISSARY CLOSES: I came just to grab a couple things, but then I started getting a little panicked by when I saw how empty all the shelves were.

MARSH: The shutdown could also affect food safety.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at FDA Headquarters in Maryland they've been hit hard by the shutdown, several hundred food safety inspectors have been furloughed. That means people who watch out for the safety of our eggs, produce and seafood, several hundred of them furloughed. It does increase the risk of food-borne illness and some kind of an outbreak.

MARSH: Empty hallways at the Centers for Disease Control as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're out of the office on furlough and unable to take your call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very concern for the experts that we have here. What is it that might be happening that we're just not going to catch it as soon as we normally would.

MARSH: Even more painful, Reynolds says, because of the shutdown, the CDC can't support its annual flu program just as the season is arriving. The impact is being felt beyond the CDC's walls. ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at this sandwich shop in Atlanta, the manager tells us sales are down. They've even had to cut back on employee hours. He says most of the people who typically fill up these tables during the busy lunch hour actually work across the street at the CDC.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've cut back my staff significantly. A lot of my staff have young children as well so it's making an immediate impact.

MARSH: The shutdown also complicating the search for a missing woman in Idaho.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at this Idaho National Monument, which as you can see is very rugged terrain, park rangers even in the face of this government shutdown are continuing their search for a missing woman, that's whether they get paid or not. The National Park Service gave them a green light to continue their search for a missing 63-year-old doctor. The expectation is they'll eventually get paid for their hours, but there's no guarantee.

MARSH: Meanwhile, the majority of national parks and monuments remain closed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: All right, well, we can tell you that the army's college football game in Boston will go on as scheduled this weekend as well as the Navy versus the Air Force game. Chris and Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: All right, Rene, thanks so much. I mean, you see the small impact. A football game isn't really big impact of the shutdown, but it just shows how unsettling it is and how it's impacted so many lives.

CUOMO: The longer it goes, the worse it will get. A shutdown is one story but a lot of news for you so let's get right to Michaela -- Mich.

PEREIRA: We have some news developing right now, in fact breaking. At least 88 people have died after a boat capsized and caught fire off the Italian island of Lampedusa. About 150 people so far had been rescued by the Coast Guard. I want to take you live to Rome right now. Ben Wedeman join us with the very latest -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michaela. This operation is ongoing. The Italian Coast Guard telling us just moments ago that they've rescued 163 people. Now these are migrants coming from, according to the Coast Guard, Somalia, Eritrea, Ghana and other countries within Africa.

The Coast Guard said the boat probably left from Misrata on the Libyan coast and they believe that it could have held as many as 500 people. Now this has been an issue for years now, migrants coming from Africa and the Middle East to the Southern Italian coast and islands. Just last night, 463 Syrian refugees landed safely in the Lampedusa and the island of Lampedusa as well, but certainly right now, the coast guard still conducting these operations off Lampedusa -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, we'll continue to watch the story along with you. Ben Wedeman reporting there from Rome. Thank you. You know, as government rushing to boost computer capacity in order to handle unexpectedly strong Obamacare web traffic. Obama administration officials say servers are being added and the system is being streamlined to improve performance.

The healthcare.gov web site advised users to wait for pages to load Wednesday. Delay is not a problem. It's also continued to plague market places run by states. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on the road. He will join us later in the show with more.

Tragedy on a highway in Tennessee, eight people killed. When a church bus blew a tire and crossed the median on Interstate 40, colliding with an SUV and a tractor-trailer before flipping over. Six senior citizens on the bus died, along with the driver of the tractor- trailer and a passenger in the SUV. More than a dozen other people also injured.

You might recall this dangerous hard landing over the summer. It has now cost a Southwest Airlines pilot his job. That captain with 13 years experience decided to take the controls from his co-pilot just seconds before landing at New York's Laguardia Airport. The plane came down nose first breaking the landing gear and sending that plane skidding down runway. About ten passengers were hurt. The first officer will receive additional training.

All right, here we go. We have not discussed this on NEW DAY yet where you guys stand on the issue of big foot. You be the judge. Indra, I want you to weigh in. These are pictures from a group called "The Sasquatch Genum Project." They claimed this is in fact asleep in the woods of Kentucky.

Now it's worth noting these pictures are eight years old. They were leased by an entrepreneur trying to promote a documentary. CNN regrettably not able to independently confirm whether or not this is indeed big foot, we haven't discussed it yet. Where do you stand?

BOLDUAN: I don't have a position. I try to be very agnostic when it comes to the conspiracy. This is straight out of an episode of NEWSROOM.

PEREIRA: Conspiracy, brother. Where do you stand?

CUOMO: I feel that both of you missed a great opportunity. You should have said there's big foot.

PEREIRA: You actually --

BOLDUAN: No.

BOLDUAN: The thought came and I said I love it so much I'm not going to do it.

CUOMO: So obvious I'm going to insult myself. There's only one way to answer the true mystery of big foot and of course, it is science. So let's go to Indra Petersons, our meteorologist.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Wait a minute here. Am I hairy, do I have big feet? What are we going with?

CUOMO: You with the big feet and a lot of hair.

PETERSONS: Yes, that would be me. I want you to pay attention to what could be our next Tropical Storm Karen. There's a high chance we see this develop. The difference between yesterday and today, this is a spaghetti model. It shows you the weather models and where they think it will go.

Yesterday, the consensus was not there. We were seeing some of the models taking it all the way through Texas and the panhandle of Florida. Today, we're really starting to see this more narrow down as far as where it could go. Let's take a look at one of the models. This is actually the European model here. With this one, you could see, it makes landfall here, most likely about late Saturday evening, kind of around New Orleans, Biloxi. Not a strong system.

If it develops right now, we're talking about a strong tropical depression or weak tropical storm. That's what we're looking at. The biggest concert here, of course, the rip tide it makes its way in, strong winds and the flooding concerns with heavy rain. Right around the gulf itself, about 4 inches of rain. It continues to make its way further in, 1 to 4 inches of rain around Arkansas.

We continue to watch it in this path as we go through the weekend here for further developments on this one. Otherwise, into the northeast, still beautiful, just like yesterday. We're talking temperatures, 10, 15 degrees above average again, but I try to put clouds on all of your three days here. Really to show you that will start to change even though the temperatures stay up there.

There is a system that will make its way through with a chance of rain. We see that around the Midwest and even a chance for severe weather. So 1 to 2 inches of rain we don't see the heavy thunderstorms, but if you're in Iowa or Nebraska, even the threat for tornadoes with most likely large hail and strong thunderstorms in that region.

Otherwise it continues to make its way east overnight tonight and in through tomorrow. The northeast, you'll be talking about that threat for some rain, about 1 to 2 inches there. The big thing is that tropical storm this weekend. If it does develop, we'll watch it.

BOLDUAN: OK, we'll watch it. Thanks, Indra.

CUOMO: We'll take a break now. Coming up on NEW DAY, new developments in the case of the terrifying brawl you see in this video, the bikers, the SUV, what happened? For the first time we have new images that show the video moments after. The video stops then things happen. We now have photos to show you.

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, a verdict in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial, concert promoter AEG Live is off the hook. The Jackson family shut out. We're going to hear from one of the jurors behind this verdict.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

We have new developments for you in that SUV/biker altercation in New York. Police are looking for help finding any of the riders involved. One was charged Wednesday while another was released. The violent episode ended with the SUV driver beaten and a rider in a coma.

Now, for the first time we have a look at what happened when the video stopped.

Let's bring in Pamela Brown, joining us with the latest.

This is what matters most. This is the moment that the police have to develop what we know.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

And police, as you mentioned, are asking for the public's help, Chris. In fact, so far no charges have been filed in connection with the assault on that driver, Alexian Lien. In fact, charges were dropped against one of the bikers who appeared in the viral helmet cam video pounding on the SUV right before Lien was assaulted.

Meantime, some of the motorcyclists involved in Sunday's chase appeared last night at a vigil for Edwin Mieses, the biker who was seriously injured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Anger and heartache for the family of Edwin J. Mieses, the motorcyclist showed in that helmet cam video who was run over by Alexian Lien's Range Rover as it was trying to escape a swarm of motorcyclists.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a family, not a gang.

BROWN: Some of Mieses supporters are upset that the bikers were portrayed as the aggressor and this road fight gone viral, saying charges should be considered against the SUV driver.

LEXI FILPO, SUPPORTER OF EDWIN MIESES: There could have been other things that could have happened or done instead of running somebody over.

BROWN: Others disagree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would do the same thing he did. I mean, they threatened his family and started slashing his tires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being threatened like that and being attacked the way he was and in fear for your life, I don't think he had a choice.

BROWN: This video shows two bikers striking the SUV when it got stuck in traffic after exiting the highway where the fracas began. Then, the video cuts. Police say that's when motorcyclists pulled Lien out, beating and slashing him in front of his wife and child.

These new pictures from "The New York Post" appear to show Lien on the ground as his wife looks on. Police released these two pictures of one suspect who they believe was banging on the SUV with his helmet. Charges were dropped Wednesday against Allen Edwards, the other man pounding on the SUV.

A law enforcement source telling CNN Edwards may have actually been trying to protect Lien. In a statement, the Manhattan D.A.'s office says, "Prematurely charging individuals with low-level crimes does not further the goals of the investigation and could weaken the cases we expect to bring."

One biker, Christopher Cruz, was in court Wednesday facing reckless driving charges for what happened before the assault. You can see him in this video slowing down right in front of the SUV, causing Lien to bump into him. The incident that apparently sparked the confrontation, according to police.

Cruz's attorney says he did nothing wrong.

H. BENJAMIN PEREZ, LAWYER FOR CHRISTOPHER CRUZ: His motorcycle was struck and he stood right there. I never assaulted this man.

BROWN: This video from 2011 shows a separate case of alleged biker violence. Riders appear to surround and antagonize a motorist. Law enforcement sources tell CNN they're examining the footage frame by frame, looking for possible patterns in what they call biker gang activity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And authorities are hoping to make more arrests in connection with the attack on Lien. Investigators are still digging for information, talking with witnesses, analyzing the video and listening to 911 calls Lien made during that chase.

Meantime, at the vigil last night they raised almost $400 and hope to raise more at another rally today.

But this is still an evolving case, still developing, Chris.

CUOMO: Very complicated. This is all fact-driven.

BROWN: Yes.

CUOMO: The video gives us pieces. You think it's going to tell you the story. It tells you everything you don't need to know in some ways.

When the first biker was struck, the man you see looking backwards, police are going to have to develop why that happened. The man is slowing down. It may have been mischievous, it may not have been. It doesn't matter, though. Does that driver stop, does something happen when he stops that makes him go into a panic and now run over who we see get run over in the video and everything that ensued. That's very important because the motivations for the actions will tell the story in terms of the law here.

And until the police develop why things happened the way they did, charges will not come out is my suspicion. Hearing different from the office?

BROWN: No, that's absolutely right. As we heard from the D.A.'s office yesterday, you know, it's just they're saying it's too premature to file any charges right now. They had someone in custody for what happened in relation to the assault and they decided to drop those charges. They said this doesn't mean there won't be more charges forthcoming.

But we're trying to piece together the full picture. The video doesn't tell the full picture. We don't see what happened after those motorcyclists pounded on the SUV. We still don't know why the driver chose to speed off when he was swarmed by the motorcyclists. So, a lot of unanswered questions. The story still very much developing.

CUOMO: Banging on a window is not a crime. And we're touching on a culture here also. You know, these big packs of riders, not gangs, just riders and things that happened. It's complicated for police. We'll keep following it.

Pamela, thank you very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. Now, in the next hour, we're going to talk with one of the guys who was riding there. He saw what happened or at least parts of it. We'll get his take on the situation.

Kate, over to you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY: two words we all hate, "bank fees." They're costing Americans billions of dollars a year and now they're going even higher. We're going to talk about just how high and also what you can do to avoid them.

Also ahead, President Obama sitting down with congressional leaders to talk about the government shutdown. The big takeaway? No progress. So, where do we go from here? John King is going to be here to break it down in this morning's political gut check.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: You're watching NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Hello. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Thursday, October 3rd.

Coming up, they were looking for a billion dollars but Michael Jackson's family is going to get nothing, says the jury. What were the key facts? What were the key reasons they made their decision in Los Angeles? We will tell you.

BOLDUAN: Plus, you overdraw your checking account by a quarter and you get stuck with a fee as steeps $30. It seems unfair, right? Well, bank fees are on the rise. We're going to tell you by how much and what you can do about it.

CUOMO: A lot of news going on right now.

So, let's get to Michaela -- Mick.

PEREIRA: All right. Day three of the government shutdown. Lawmakers still hammering away at one another instead of a deal to end that stalemate. A meeting at the White House last night didn't get the parties any closer to a deal. The president says he's willing to negotiate but only after Congress re-opens the government. A small but growing group of moderate House Republicans say speaker John Boehner should allow a vote on a clean spending bill.

Another humanitarian crisis may be unfolding in Syria. According to "The Wall Street Journal," the Assad regime is choking off food supplies to a Damascus suburb that suffered a chemical weapons attack in August. International aide workers report pro-Assad forces have encircled the 12,000 people living in the village of Mowad Hamiya (ph). One soldier quoted as saying, "Let them starve."

Improving weather is giving rescue crews more hope they'll find two missing hikers today. A man and a woman still missing in separate remote areas of the Southwest Washington state. The 31-year-old man was last seen Saturday, the 23-year-old woman failed to check back in with family on Monday.

A U.S. citizen from Bosnia now being held on $1 million bail for allegedly telling airport security screeners at Jacksonville International Airport that he had a bomb in his back. Zeljko Causevic appeared in court Wednesday. Investigators say it ended up being a hoax, that his backpack contained a microchip, a small battery pack and a cell phone. That scare evacuated the entire airport and inconvenienced travelers for about six hours.

Well, apparently, the Clintons have baby fever. Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton making a big resolution for next year. Apparently, she says she wants to start a family. In a "Glamour" magazine interview, she calls 2014 the year of the baby and says her mom, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cannot wait to be a grandmother.

I had a chance to speak with her a couple months back and she said that was one of the talks, as busy as parents are with all of the things they are involved in, that they drop hints frequently.

BOLDUAN: So, are you telling me, that family is just like every other family.

PEREIRA: Every other family, always busy, close to home. CUOMO: What a difference a generation makes, though. You know, you talk to your parents and your grandparents about having kids. They're like, it happened when it happened. Now, it's like next year we're getting on it, about April 10th.

BOLDUAN: We want the due date to be --

CUOMO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: They have to do items for their children.

BOLDUAN: We want it before we have to start the primary process.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Just kidding.

Let's move now to our political gut check of the morning.

No deal after the president sat down with congressional leaders Wednesday night. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell calling the meeting unproductive. So, will a speech today from the president change any of that?

Let's go to CNN's chief national correspondent John King for more on this.

So, John, I always love the words, the statements and speeches that come out after these meetings. Things we heard last night -- the meetings with useful, worthwhile, cordial and a polite conversation. But most importantly, no deal came out of it.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No.

BOLDUAN: What are you hearing? Was anything accomplished in the meeting?

KING: Well, let's try for the perfect segue. Maybe 2013 already is the year of the babies. They work in that building behind me there.

No. Now, let's be quasi-optimists. You have to have the first tough meeting to move on to the second meeting and third meeting.

BOLDUAN: Good point.

KING: So, the fact they were all in the same room, we should take as a good sign. It's about time they at least explain their positions to each other face to face.

But I'm told by people on both sides, Democrats and Republicans, that that's all that happened. Everybody explained their positions, nobody budged and both sides said they're not going to negotiate. They have now a president who says the House Republicans have to give up and surrender and the House Republicans are saying no, Mr. President, unless you give us a piece of your health care bill, we wouldn't back down. The one piece of this, Kate, that both complicates it and maybe gets you on a path toward a resolution, not in a short term is that it's one big deal. We were talking about the shutdown, then the looming debt ceiling deadline, with that debt ceiling deadline now two weeks away. This is one big negotiation and the stakes are enormous.

BOLDUAN: So, do you think that it has already become a dual crisis that they're dealing with? They're not, that's likely -- if they're going to deal with it, they're going to not only deal just with the shutdown and then start talking about the debt ceiling, they're going to have to deal with it all together?

KING: Yes. I think if we're going to get a resolution to the shutdown in one or two, here we are on day three, that would have emerged. Now that we're heading toward the weekend and to the second week, it makes no sense, especially for this reason.

Let's assume that Speaker John Boehner is not get anywhere near where he started, which would be defunding, essentially derailing Obamacare. Does he want two tough votes that get him a lot of grief from his conservative rebels, or does he one tough vote that gets him a lot of grief from his conservative rebels?

So, odds are, almost certainty is now that if this is resolved, I'm still going to say if. There are some people who think we could default in two weeks. But if this is resolved, it would come in one big package.

Watch for the market forces here. The financial markers are one driving factor. A lot of Americans just got their savings back after 2008. They just sort of got back to that point, that post-financial crisis.