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Secret Services Shoots Woman who Violates Security Cordon; Hurricane Heading Towards Louisiana, Republican Senators Caught on Hot Mike; Day Four of Government Shutdown

Aired October 4, 2013 - 07:00   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, what else do we have?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a very big day for Pope Francis. He's in the Italian town where his name sake, St. Francis, lived and died. What's he doing there? Some say he's trying to live up to the name he chose.

MICHAEL PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And a beautiful story behind video recorded from -- wrong video. Sorry. This is shocking video from a state trooper's car, frightening, frightening moments captured on the side of the road. We'll show this to you, tell you how it all unfolded, coming up.

BOLDUAN: First, let's get to the big story we're watching this morning. The nation's capital still reeling from a dramatic car chase, police chasing after a woman with her one-year-old daughter from the White House to Capitol Hill, the terrifying day ending in gunfire. This morning, we're finding out more about that woman. Deb Feyerick has been digging into her past. But let's begin first this hour with Joe Johns, live near Capitol Hill. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. The nation's capital is recovering from more pandemonium as authorities try to continue to figure out why 34-year-old Miriam Carey rammed that barricade down at the White House then led them on a crazy chase up here to the United States capitol just two weeks after the Navy yard shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: A heart stopping scene unfolding outside the U.S. capitol. The dramatic moments caught on tape by a camera crew. Watch as 34- year-old Miriam Carey drives away in a luxury car, careening through the streets with police in hot pursuit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Report of gunfire on Capitol Hill.

JOHNS: Officers, politicians, staffers and bystanders sent running.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody this way, now!

JOHNS: Hunkering behind whatever they could find. Secret Service says the incident began at 2:14 after a verbal exchange with one of their uniformed officers, the woman ramming her black infinity sedan into a security barrier about a block from the White House. After police asked her to get out of the car, she drove away, leading them on a high-speed chase down Pennsylvania avenue, all the way to the east side of the capitol, Secret Service on her tail.

ED DONOVAN, U.S. SECRET SERVICE SPOKESMAN: This unauthorized vehicle approached the check point. Our officers acted appropriately, the vehicle then fled and struck one of our officers as it departed that initial scene.

JOHNS: The suspect drove around Garfield Circle, careening toward the capitol east front, one of the most security areas in the country. Just moments later, her car crashed outside the Senate office building. Perceiving a threat, police opened fire. No weapons found inside the infinity.

DYLAN PRICE, WITNESS: When I heard the gunfire, about five or six round, my wife and I, we just dropped to the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was walking towards the capitol building, and 30 seconds later, as I hit this point, there was about three or four cop cars that passed me. About another 30 seconds after that I heard a series of loud pops, a gun going off.

JOHNS: Inside the vehicle, a one-year-old girl believed to be the woman's daughter. An officer pulled her from the car and took her to a hospital. One of the two officers injured was hurt after hitting this barricade during the high-speed pursuit.

CATHY LANIER, CHIEF METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: This does not appear to be in any way an accident. This was a lengthy pursuit. There were multiple vehicles that were rammed. There were officers were struck, and two security perimeters that were attempted to be breached. So it does not appear in any way this was an accident.

JOHNS: Officials say both officers are in good condition and recovering, as the city is still reeling from the deadly Navy yard shooting reliving moments of fear once again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Washington Hospital Center says the United States capitol police officer injured in that chase has now been released, and that one-year-old child in good condition and in protective custody. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Joe, thank you very much.

All right, so the woman involved here, Miriam Carey, you've heard that name. She's a 34-year-old mother. She was. She also had some other traits that have become all too familiar as we investigate violence in America -- hints of delusions, mental health evaluations, difficulty sleeping, and an apparent inability to control these problems from a horrible event occurred.

Deb Feyerick is here, picking up the story, looking into this woman and what the motivations may have been here. Deb, what do we see so far.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the big questions is why did she feel she had to drive from her home in Stamford, Connecticut, all the way to the White House. It appears she wanted to gain access, wanted to talk to President Obama. Now, the authorities are working under the assumption that Carey may have been suffering from postpartum depression. According to a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation, Carey's boyfriend contacted police 10 months ago in December, saying that he was very worried about the safety of the couple's baby daughter who was just four months old at the time.

The source says the boyfriend told police Carey was acting delusional, claiming that President Obama placed her home in Connecticut under electronic surveillance and that her town was actually in lockdown. At the time she was taken in for a mental health evaluation the boyfriend says she was suffering from sort of depression and was having trouble sleeping. The little girl right now is in protective custody, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, now, obviously, there will be a lot of questions about the care for the child, if there was such concerns about the woman, as we know very difficult to deal with it. You'll learn something from people who knew her. They may learn more from her immediate surroundings, especially if she was somewhat closed off. Is it true they got into the apartment?

FEYERICK: They did get into the apartment. The interesting thing is they didn't get into the apartment until about 4:30 this morning. The reason for that is because authorities did find a letter addressed to the boyfriend, but the letter had some sort of suspicious white powder on it. So they had to remove it, take it for testing, and the hazmat teams went in and cleared the air to make sure it was safe to be in that apartment. Authorities also brought in a robot to make sure that the apartment hadn't been booby-trapped in any way. But right now it is a very active, ongoing investigation, Chris.

CUOMO: Obviously safety first. The main protocol is to discover if there is a continuing threat. If this is just about this woman and her delusions, this story will tap out pretty fast. Deb, thank you. Appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Let's talk more about this. Let's turn to Fran Townsend, CNN national security analyst. It's interesting because we don't often have so much video to look at, at how something like this plays out, Fran. But I do want to get your take. When you see the video and you hear the reports of how this all went, did the system work from your perspective?

FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The system did work. These officers around the capitol, the Secret Service, the uniformed Secret Service are highly trained, and they go through exercises with this. I want you to imagine in a world post-9/11 where we've seen Al Qaeda and even domestic terrorists like Oklahoma City use vehicle- borne improvised explosive devices.

When they approached this woman, she doesn't comply with demands for request for identification. She uses the car as a weapon against them. You saw that in the video. There are five officers, guns drawn. And she actually uses the car as a weapon in a threatening way. They don't know what else is in that car. We heard reports they didn't see the baby. And they don't know if that car is laden with explosives. And so they have to react as if it is a very serious threat.

BOLDUAN: Even though she went from the White House all the way to Capitol Hill, did it work in the sense that it prevented any further endangerment of people around them? Did they stop her soon enough or should this have been stopped early?

TOWNSEND: Well, you can see from the very beginning at the White House, that video at the White House, they're trying to stop her.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

TOWNSEND: Naturally whenever there's a high-speed chase, we've heard the tragic stories about innocent civilians being killed. That, gratefully, did not happen here. They were able to contain it and ultimately stop her.

BOLDUAN: As you said, her car, easily to argue, was the weapon here. She apparently did not have a gun or shoot it at the law enforcement that were engaging with her. So it does beg the question, is this justifiable use of force on the part of capitol police? She was shot and killed.

TOWNSEND: I think the video answers the question. The answer is absolutely. When she used the car as a weapon, threatening the officers initially, there was no question. She refused to comply with commands, sirens going, lights going. They really, definitely tried to warn her, to stop her, and it now appears through mental illness she failed to comply.

BOLDUAN: That's the big question in the end. Deb Feyerick has been digging into that. She clearly had a history of mental health issues. Is that the big fear for law enforcement now? It's the same thing with the Navy yard shooter. We're not talking about a terrorist act. We're talking about a lone disturbed person. How do you catch that before that happens?

TOWNSEND: Look, I think unfortunately, this series of incidents we're hearing more and more about that raises the specter of mental illness and makes the public aware, you realize, in this instance, again, her boyfriend reported this to authorities months earlier, but the need for families and those in the immediate circle of the disturbed person to keep at it, to report it, to get the attention of authorities. And hopefully, this also raises the awareness of authorities to take this more seriously.

BOLDUAN: Take that into account and follow that line. We saw that with the Navy yard shooter as well.

TOWNSEND: Exactly right.

BOLDUAN: Fran, thank you so much. Great to see you, as always. Chris?

CUOMO: A lot of anxiety along the Gulf coast. The first big storm of the hurricane season is barreling their way. Tropical storm Karen expected to make landfall early Sunday morning. And now a hurricane watch is in effect from Louisiana to Florida. Meteorologist Indra Petersons is tracking every move. Comes this morning from Pensacola, watching Karen. What do we know, Indra?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's so unique standing here. You think what it would have been like 150 years ago. It is literally a beautiful morning. We have a light wind, temperatures in the 70s, gorgeous sunrise is coming up. But that is not the case. We have weather technology that lets you know there is a storm coming, a tropical storm now just 100 miles off the coast of Louisiana, making its way closer to shore, and residents anywhere along the gulf are keenly aware what was a quiet season is now becoming an active tropical season.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Tropical storm Karen is heading for the Gulf coast this weekend, take a similar path to that of hurricane Katrina, which devastated the gulf coast back in 2005. Katrina was a powerful category five storm, meanwhile Karen will be a much weaker likely a low category one when it makes landfall late Saturday or early Sunday. Florida and the gulf coast have been pummeled with bad weather and rain all summer long with some areas breaking rainfall records. Many areas certainly don't need more rain.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It has been a record-breaking year for rain across the south. Trees are standing in mud. When that wind comes across, 60, 70 miles per hour, those trees are going to fall down.

PETERSONS: Despite the ongoing government shutdown, can be westerns over the storm are causing some FEMA employees to return to work.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: FEMA has begun to recall currently furloughed employees necessary to serve functions of the agency that protect life and property as they prepare for potential landfall, for tropical storm Karen.

PETERSONS: Karen is the 11th named storm of what has been an unusually quiet hurricane season this year, with only Ingrid and Humberto becoming full hurricanes so far. Last year, super storm Sandy hit the northeast in late October. Forecasters don't know why this year has been so quiet, but say another situation like Sandy is extremely unlikely.

MYERS: This is really the peak or at least the end of the peak of hurricane season right now. We are still in it. There will be more storms this year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: I was talking about how quiet it is here, how people may not even know what a storm is coming. That's what it felt like 150 years ago. But again, that is not the case. As we go through the afternoon we'll see conditions ramp up and see some stronger winds.

I do want to point out the latest advisory of the National Hurricane Center weakened the storm to 60 miles per hour. It could strengthen, we'll monitor that. Landfall expected Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday morning, all the way from Louisiana to the panhandle of the Florida coast.

Of course, as far as rainfall anywhere from four to eight inches, 12 edges, not out of the question. We'll be monitoring that. Of course, gusty winds about one to two feet of storm surge, some places even two to four feet. That is one story.

Again, the other story we continue to monitor is this impressive storm making its way out of the Rockies, dumping one to two feet of snow in the higher elevations, around Montana and Wyoming. In the Dakotas, still another foot of snow is possible with blizzard conditions. Yes, we are talking 70 mile per hour winds, visibility near zero, another foot of snow there, that same system continues to make its way east. That means cold air next to warm air, severe weather outbreak for Minnesota down through Oklahoma. That means potential for severe weather in through Chicago and eventually if we continue to push in through Ohio. A lot going on out there, Kate.

BOLDUAN: There sure is, a lot to watch this weekend. Indra, thank you so much.

Michaela is here with all the latest headlines.

PEREIRA: Let's take a look at the headlines at this hour. Pope Francis at the birth place of his name sake, the hilltop town of Assisi in Italy. He's expected to celebrate mass with hundreds of thousands of faithful at St. Francis Square after praying at the saint's prison cell and tomb. The pontiff is expected to reemphasize his vision of a church closer to the people that makes social justice a priority.

You'll recall the Montana woman authorities say pushed her newly wed husband off a cliff. She has been charged with his murder. A grand jury indicted Jordan Linn Graham in the death of Cory Lee Johnson. It is alleged she pushed him off a cliff at a national park eight days after their wedding. She originally told investigators she found his body at the bottom of the cliff.

California is now the 11th state to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Governor Jerry Brown signing a measure that takes effect no later than January, 2015. These licenses will have a special designation on the front stating they cannot be used for providing eligibility for employment or for public benefits.

A dramatic dash cam video just being released of a police stop in Oregon last August. It took a violent turn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: That man, John Allen II, you can see him running wearing military fatigues, opened fire on the state trooper who stopped him for speeding. The trooper returned fire, hitting Allen in the chest. Allen was later found dead, slumped over the steering wheel about a half-mile away from where this incident happened. And his children, 10, 13 and 15 years old were also in the car. They were unharmed. The state trooper was wounded and is now recovering.

New legs and a whole new life for a little girl in Florida. She's 3 years old. Her name is Ireland Nugent. Lost both legs in a tragic accident. Her dad accidentally backed over her with a riding lawnmower. Look at her now. She has a brand new pair of prosthetic legs. She loves them. Apparently she had first pair. They didn't work out because of bone spurs.

Little Ireland says she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up, and she is definitely well on her way.

BOLDUAN: That's amazing.

CUOMO: I love that video, the part about the mom saying she doesn't really know.

PEREIRA: She doesn't.

CUOMO: She's blessed by the innocence of her youth.

PEREIRA: Little ones are incredibly resilient.

CUOMO: She thinks she has new toys. It will help fuel her perspective going through. She'll do great things. I'd love to report them right here.

We'll take a break right now. Coming up on NEW DAY, politicians playing with the shutdown, that's bad. Playing with the debt ceiling by all accounts would be much worse. This morning there may be cause for hope for an agreement on this issue. Candy Crowley is here with new reporting.

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, new developments in the search for a suspect in the terrifying biker/SUV incident caught on video. They're looking for the suspect who beat up a man after this altercation on a busy New York City street.

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BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The government shutdown is in day four, and there is just maybe a glimmer of hope. Not to end the shutdown though, but to avoid another punch to the economy. House Speaker John Boehner is apparently saying he won't allow the government to go into default. That means raising the debt ceiling. That deadline is only two weeks away. CNN's Brianna Keilar is at the White House with more details this morning. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kate. Good morning to you.

A couple developments here overnight. President Obama has completely scrapped his trip to Asia. He won't be heading there tomorrow as originally planned.

Also we've heard about some private discussions from House Speaker John Boehner. While he may not be bending on a shutdown, a sign that he could on the debt ceiling.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: With the government partially shut down and the United States careening towards defaulting on its debts in mid-October, House Speaker John Boehner made a key admission about the debt ceiling. A Republican who spoke to CNN after a private meeting with house GOP members, said Boehner informed them he will not allow a default to happen, even if it means relying on votes from Democrats.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY, SENATE MINORITY LEADER: I'm all wired up here.

KEILAR: In a city that lives for an open mike moment to pull back the curtain.

SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY: I just did CNN. And I just go over and over again, we're willing to compromise, we're willing to negotiate.

KEILAR: Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell and fellow Kenticky Senator Rand Paul delivered.

PAUL: 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: I do, too. I just came back from a two-hour meeting with him and that was, 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, now we're willing to compromise on this. I think they can't- we're going to - I think, I know we don't want to be here but we're going to win this, I think.

KEILAR: But at a campaign-style event in Maryland --

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.

KEILAR: President Obama pulled a bit of an ace out of his sleeve, sounding the alarm for a key voting bloc, seniors.

OBAMA: In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time.

KEILAR: As he explained why defaulting is worse than a government shutdown.

OBAMA: In an economic shutdown, if we don't raise the debt ceiling they don't go out on time.

KEILAR: He again pressured House Speaker John Boehner to fund the government and drop Obamacare concessions.

OBAMA: Call a vote. Put it on the floor. Let every individual member of Congress make up their own minds, and they can show the American people, are you for a shutdown or not.

KEILAR: In an exclusive interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Senate Leader Harry Reid revealed he and Boehner originally struck a deal that included spending cuts.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're saying that he told you, he promised you in a private meeting that he would pass a clean bill with no strings attached, particularly on Obamacare?

SEN. HARRY REID, D-NV: That's why we did it. That's why we agreed to that lower number. That's one of the largest compromises since I've been in Congress. That was a big deal, $70 billion just like that. And he couldn't deliver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: If that account is the accurate, it just shows you that House Speaker John Boehner's initial intentions were thwarted by a conservative contingent, Chris, in the Republican party who I can pretty much guarantee you will not be happy to hear that their speaker may have been cutting this private deal. There's already some suspicion there, even just over his previous closed door discussions with the White House.

CUOMO: Of course there is. There's suspicion all over the place down there right now. Brianna, thank you for the reporting. Appreciate it.

Joining us now from Washington, CNN's senior political correspondent, host of "STATE OF THE UNION," Candy Crowley. Thank you very much, Candy, for joining us. Appreciate it.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

CUOMO: I cannot get past the hot mike moment. I can't. I see it as too instructive, too clear in a bipartisan way, doesn't matter if it's Republicans or Democrats that get caught. Please, tell me, what does it mean to you, what you hear these men saying about the disconnect between what they are supposed to be doing and what they want to be doing.

CROWLEY: It certainly is a signal to the House. We had heard Rand Paul say publicly, I don't -- we're not going to be able to get rid of Obamacare, but it's a great starting position. We have had, in particular in the Senate, a lot of Republican senators saying shutting down the government is a bad idea, it won't work for Republicans politically, et. cetera.

This tells me that they are in a position that the Senate doesn't want to be in. It tells me that they are hearing privately and publicly from the president no negotiations, which probably is more troublesome in terms of there really isn't anything going on. We kept thinking there was, that maybe somewhere people were talking about a compromise and clearly that's not happening.

So -- and obviously, what Republicans believe is that that particular stance, we're not going to negotiate on anything, is not going to survive the test of public will. So far what we see is Republicans are taking the bulk of the blame. We'll see if that shifts.

CUOMO: It was such naked insight into how -- they didn't poll, you know, what it means. We're saying we want a compromise. If they're looking to that for their guidance. It could be either party. I felt it was instructive of why this process is taking as long as it can, which raises the question about why Boehner is not bringing up this vote for a resolution. What do you believe is behind it? Is he not doing this because he's worried about losing face or his job? Why is there no vote?

CROWLEY: I want to put something -- not particularly in this conversation but something we don't discuss all the time but that is, there may not be the votes there. I talked to Nancy Pelosi a couple weeks ago, and I said do you like the CR? I mean, if the House put the -- if Boehner put just a straight old spending temporary spending resolution on the particular, do you like it? She said no. There's too many cuts in it. There are Democrats who don't like the CR, even plain without anything attached to it.

There are Republicans that are always going to vote against it because it doesn't do anything about Obamacare, should a clean CR come up. There may not be the votes at the moment.

Having said that, certainly the main impetus is that his caucus is not with him at this point. I would also suggest it's not just the 35 and the 40. They have been pretty good at holding together. This is more than 40 Congressmen at this point. Now we're beginning to see some fractures and maybe a dozen House Republicans looking for a way out, but they've held force with not just the Tea Party, although it does seem Tea Party driven, obviously.

CUOMO: I'll tell you this. If the Democrats get a CR, clear, let's turn the government back on thing and they balk, or they start to make -- they'll have a big problem. They better be careful what they ask for.

Let me ask you this last question: the debt ceiling, are you hearing, getting indication that they know down there not to mess with it the way they have with the shutdown? I ask that because Representative Steve King was saying this debt ceiling stuff, it false demagoguery. It's not that big a deal. What are you hearing? Do they get is it a big deal? We have to do it the right way.

CROWLEY: I'm hearing nobody wants to find out. The debt ceiling really has been, from economists to a number of folks on Capitol Hill, they just look at it and say, this really would be disaster on the U.S. economy, on the world economy. Even those who say I don't know because I'm not an economist, but I don't want to find out.

What we're hearing from Boehner I think certainly substantiates all of that. This is not something that he's going to allow to happen, even if it means he has to rely on Democratic votes. That's something for the Republican speaker of the House to say. Even if I have to get Democrats to do it, we're not going to allow the debt ceiling not to go up.

CUOMO: Candy, thank you for the perspective. Thank you for asking the right questions every day, especially Sunday. Great to have you on NEW DAY. of course, I and many of you, I hope, will be tuning in Sunday morning for "STATE OF THE UNION." The guests, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, 9:00 a.m. eastern, a can't miss on Sunday, of course, here on CNN.

Kate, over to you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, a terrifying car chase on Capitol Hill leaves a woman dead and eyewitnesses shocked. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown was outside the Capitol during the chase and the gunfire, we're going to get his take on what happened.

Also ahead, police are getting close to finding the suspect they say is responsible for beating a man who drove through a pack of bikers in New York City. More on that, ahead.

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