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NEW DAY

Obama Admits Health Care Roll-Out Flaws; Economic Optimism Slumps; Obamacare's Website Woes; New York Giants Finally Get A Win

Aired October 22, 2013 - 06:30   ET

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


JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're going to play this out in Washington with their hearings. But I think the most important factor here is, can the administration a month from now, two months from now and three months from now present a credible case they learn from mistakes? Their mistakes are pretty unforgivable in the sense that they have two years to ramp up the group.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

KING: So, have they learned from their mistakes and are people who are signing up for the exchanges, people getting health care, are they having an easier time? And a more important question, a year from now are they paying more money and do they think they're getting the same or better quality of care?

Health care is so personal. If people are personally mad come next October about health care, the Republicans will have a perfectly good year.

BOLDUAN: And how the administration handles picking up the pieces when they know that this has been a problem, will definitely put -- be a big factor, in how big this plays in the midterm.

KING: Especially in an environment where people have such little faith in government. If they can fix their mistakes and own up to them, they'll probably get some credit.

BOLDUAN: All right. Great to see you, John. Thank you so much.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I like having him in New York.

BOLDUAN: I know, let's keep him.

CUOMO: More King, concentrated king when he's here.

BOLDUAN: It's highly concentrated, like orange juice.

CUOMO: You know, all of us who love politics, you know, we --

KING: Your Jets beat my Patriots. You should be gloating.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Why did you bring that up?

CUOMO: Jets respected by the way. Thank you.

You know why? Boston strong. You know, my heart is with that city right now because of what you guys have made it through up there. So, I can't enjoy the Jets victory.

KING: I'll be there tomorrow.

CUOMO: Enjoy it.

BOLDUAN: The only reason he's in New York. I'm kidding.

KING: October baseball, it's a great thing.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, John.

Let's get to Michaela for the stories making news at this hour.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's look at our headlines.

Could two mysteries be coming together? An attorney for the missing girl known as Baby Lisa says the FBI is talking with investigators in Greece to see if Maria is actually Lisa. There are similarities between Maria and a new age progression image of Lisa. But the girls may not be the same age.

Lisa Irwin vanished from her Kansas home some two years ago.

Authorities in Nevada still trying to determine the motive for a deadly shooting at a middle school in Sparks, Nevada. A 45-year-old teacher and military veteran Mike Landsberry was killed. Two other students were wounded before the boy that was shooting took his own life. Witnesses say Landsberry was shot trying to shield other students.

Police say the shooter took the semiautomatic handgun from his parents. The two wounded students are in stable condition this morning.

Twenty-one members of the Arizona Air National guard including a colonel have been indicted in alleged pay scheme. Officials say the guardsmen defrauded the federal government out of more than $1 million over a three-year period. They allegedly falsified their home addresses making them eligible for extra pay.

Two of the three women held captive for a decade in Cleveland are writing a book about their ordeal. Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have partnered with "Washington Post" reporter Mary Jordan and her husband, Kevin Sullivan. No meetings with publishers have yet been scheduled.

Berry, DeJesus and Michelle Knight were kidnapped by Ariel Castro. Castro was sentenced to life but hanged himself in the prison in September.

A teen from Oklahoma went digging for buried treasure and came up with quite a treasure. (INAUDIBLE) state park, she discovered an almost 4- carat canary yellow diamond. She found that, people. That gem is tear drop. It's shaped in a tear drop and says it is the size of a jelly bean. Says that she may turn it into a ring or may sell it to help pay for college.

CUOMO: I've been missing a jelly bean size for months now.

PEREIRA: How convenient that she found it for you?

CUOMO: Two months now.

BOLDUAN: Is that what you said you were going to give to us?

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Split in half. I was going to give it to you for nose rings.

PEREIRA: We're here.

CUOMO: Contemporary.

Let's let her have it. Live and let live, I say.

Maybe I'll make a condition of the good stuff. Who knows?

BOLDUAN: And we're imploring to return it. That would be the better stuff.

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY: brand new polls this morning showing Americans think the economy -- wait for it -- is in rough shape. Are you surprised? Maybe not. But do they have hope for the future? You'll want to hear it.

BOLDUAN: Plus, President Obama is promising to fix the problems that have plagued the health care Web site. But how? We're going to be talking to a tech expert about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: "Money Time". You saw it. Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Seven out of 10 Americans think that the country's economic conditions are in a bad state. That's according to the new CNN/ORC poll released just this hour. Just 29 percent say the country's economic conditions are good. And that's bad.

So, let's bring in chief business correspondent Christine Romans to help us understand why.

Why the pessimism?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Shutdown fatigue. When your leaders aren't leading, I think people start to feel unnerved by that, at a time when the recovery was already quite fragile.

So when you look at these numbers, you can see consumer confidence is flagging here and it's pretty concerning. I mean, look at this, 29 percent say that economic conditions today are good. That is the worst we've seen since late last year. All this year we've been able to hold above 30 percent, but now we're pulling below there.

When you have your government, when you have Congress taking you to the brink and then stopping at the last minute, again and again and again, it really hurts confidence. When confidence gets hurt, that's bad news for job creation, it's bad news for spending. It's something that's interesting to me, you have the NASDAQ up 30 percent this year. You have a record high in the S&P 500, yet you have confidence falling, falling, falling, because of I think the message that we're seeing from Washington.

BOLDUAN: So, what is the disconnect then there?

ROMANS: The disconnect is half of Americans are invested in the stock market, half aren't. For everybody else it's about a job. They want to hear the government is working to make the kinds of -- the kind of environment we're going to create job. We're not creating jobs.

Now, people are feeling better going forward. That's the next question. One of these polls showed a year from now 40 percent say things will be doing better, things will be good. That's great to know, except that's down from earlier this summer when half the people thought things would be better.

You want to see people being hopeful going into next year. Are we going to have that if we have more manufactured crises down the road? It's a leadership story, a job story. We're going to know in less than two hours what the job situation was before September. That will be a number before the shutdown.

But it's really important to see how job creation is going, because jobs still the key. That hasn't been the message from Washington, right? It's been about fighting about debt and deficits. Jobs are the key right here.

CUOMO: So, often, though, fixing the economy is different than fixing confidence. So, what do you think the numbers mean to our men and women in Washington?

ROMANS: I think it puts them on notice, unless they start to have a real sane budget process you'll have the American people saying we're not feeling good about things. We're going to pull back. This shows you that Washington is hurting the economy, hurting the way people feel.

BOLDUAN: All right. Christine, thank you so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: We'll be talking to you in a little while and get new job numbers which are delayed because of the government shutdown. So, that's why we're getting them now.

All right. Let's get over to Indra right now to get another check of the forecast.

Talking about cold, cold, cold, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I would say we're under a freeze warning, yes. You would be cold. Chicago, 31 degrees under a freeze warning. The current temperatures right now.

Look at the difference on both sides of the cold front. Charleston, currently 53 degrees, right on the flip side of it, Indianapolis right now, 33. So, good 20 degree drop all long this front. A pretty strong cold front that's expected to spread to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast today. How cold is it, even for the Midwest?

Well, Chicago today your high is only 41 grows. That is 19 degrees below average. You're in St. Louis, a little bit more moderate, 61 degrees, 6 below in Cincinnati, 10 below at 55.

Either way, we're looking for this big pattern change to occur as the cold front makes its way across. You can actually see the light rain, showing you where that frontal boundary is. Light rain will be expected with it as well.

The big story will be temperatures not just in the Northeast and mid- Atlantic, even into the Southeast. We'll see that big temperature drop. Atlantic today, 71. Check out Boston, high today 69 degrees.

By tomorrow, welcome at that drop. Boston goes down 20 degrees to 51 degrees, even in Atlanta. We go down to about 62 degrees. So the chill is spreading anywhere that you are on the East Coast. But I mean, still 62 in Atlanta, I think they're fine. Boston 51, 20 degrees in one day, a lot.

BOLDUAN: That is a lot in one day.

PETERSONS: Yes, it is.

BOLDAUN: Thanks, Indra.

PETERSONS: Sure.

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's go around the world, starting in Russia, where investigators say a female saw cried bomber set off a blast on a bus that killed six people.

CNN's Phil Black has that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The explosion was captured on a dashboard video camera, debris blasted across the road. Moments later, passengers are scene running from the bus.

Investigators say one of those survivors told them the bomb detonated moments after a woman boarded that bus. They believe that she was the suicide bomber. A 30-year-old from the Russian republic of Dagestan, where militants are still fighting for independence Islamic state. It's also close to Sochi, where the Russia government knows it places a big security challenge, safely hosting the Winter Olympics next February.

Back to you, Kate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: All right. Phil, thank you so much.

Now, in China, a second day of dangerous smog is leading to closure of schools, roads and the airport.

CNN's David McKenzie has that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The pollution in Beijing is bad today but in northeast China, it's off the charts, bringing a city of some 10 million people to a standstill. Flights have been canceled, the highway in town closed and schools have been shut down. They say it's because the heating system, coal powered has been turned on in the city, here in China, they want a long-term solution to the problem of terrible pollution but there seems like there's no end in sight.

Kate, back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, David.

That goes under the category of terrible pollution. My goodness.

CUOMO: When you put industry first and there's no regulation, you're going to have problems. They're going through their own evolution there about how they catch up to where we are today, where we talk about smog control all the time.

We're going to take a break on NEW DAY. When we come back: are you tired about hearing about how the Obamacare website is broken? I know I'm tired of telling you, so guess what? We're going to take a look at why it's actually broken and what they are doing to fix it.

PEREIRA: Also, a marching band tells a competition to beat it. Check out this tribute to Michael Jackson. It's our must-see moment. You don't want to look yet, Kate.

BOLDUAN: No, I don't.

CUOMO: No, it's because of the school.

PEREIRA: Uh-huh, Buckeye.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Even the president admits the healthcare.gov website has serious problems. And with persistent delays and errors plaguing users and insurance companies, it needs fixing and fast. The administration says they're bringing in technology experts to help what should be done.

Brett Larson is the host of Techbytes here to explain the problems and possible solutions. They're bringing in experts. Should they not have done that beforehand, one would ask? Did they have a good team of people there, do you think, that -- to launch this in the first place?

BRETT LARSON, HOST, TECHBYTES: Well, you would hope, because they're the most online savvy administration that we've ever seen. You know, they know how to use the web and the internet and Twitter and all of these things. So, for them to fail on building a website is kind a big gaffe.

PEREIRA: Yes.

LARSON: They should have brought experts in. But I think they needed more time. I think they needed more infrastructure and I think they needed more testing.

PEREIRA: There wasn't a lot of beta testing, was there?

LARSON: There was not a lot of beta testing. And from a lot of the reports we've read, during the beta testing, the site completely failed. And there are some good reason for this. I mean, this is a very complicated thing. It's not like when you go on kayak to buy a plane ticket. I'm going from New York to JFK or from New York to San Francisco on this date and I want a ticket.

It's like, "Oh, OK, there are seven tickets available." No. Now, we need to know, how old are you, and what's your zip code, and are you healthy? And what's your income like because we may have subsidies for your plane -- and all of this information is coming from all these different places and it didn't work.

(LAUGHTER)

LARSON: Not a handshake.

BOLDUAN: For the non-tech savvy, you know, reading that they did tests and due to volume it crashed just days before and now there's some need to rewrite millions of -- what's it called, lines of new code. What does that mean? How could they have gotten that so wrong?

LARSON: From everything I've seen, it seems pretty easy why they got it so wrong, because they had too many people trying to make too many different things communicate.

PEREIRA: Too many cooks in the kitchen?

LARSON: Yes. Medicare is going to take care of this database, talking to this database. And then, this guy is going to design the front end. You can't do it that way. CUOMO: This is not unlike what we experienced with homeland security. When the agency was first developed and they had to synchronize everybody different databases and how they interface with each other. So, there'll be an evolution. They knew that. They just got what the curve was going to be wrong. Also, point of order, Mr. Larson, isn't it different based on what state you're in, right?

LARSON: Absolutely.

CUOMO: You can have a very different experience. Tell us why.

LARSON: Also the reason why the healthcare.gov site was so burdened is because the states that aren't participating where you are required to go to the federal site, that puts extra burden. The states that are participating like New York, like California, they've spent time and money to build out the infrastructure so it actually works.

The New York site works great. The first couple of days it was very difficult to get through it because of demand, but after the first week, now, you can get on it. Now, you can go through --

PEREIRA: How much of an easy fix is this going to be going forward because they've got to make it right --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Time is of the essence.

PEREIRA: It really is. The deadline looms.

LARSON: They need to do it quickly. I would say it's probably a month at best to get it done and it's going to be a lot of work. A lot of sweat equity is going to have to go back into it.

CUOMO: They keep taking offline. So, they have to keep doing it while they fix it which makes -- adds to the burdens.

LARSON: Nights and weekends they could pull it offline. But again, if you're trying to reach people who are uninsured, you want to make it available any time of the day. That's the bought of the internet. The phone center I have heard reports is working better, although, when the president gave out the number, there was a busy signal. Can't imagine why.

(LAUGHTER)

LARSON: It's like a radio contest.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Brett Larson --

CUOMO: Who thought the DMV would be a better option than another government program?

(LAUGHTER) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): Hey, guys, time for "Must-See Moment" today. Check this out on your screen. The king of pop in the form of a marching band. That is Ohio State University's band. Kate is averting her eyes. Paying great tribute to the pop icon's "Bad" album which turned 25 years old last August. Fanning out on the field, forming the silhouette, doing the Moonwalk, everything. I mean, several recognizable dance moves. It's really fantastic.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Is that real?

PEREIRA: Naturally, this has gone viral. Over two million views. They are known for doing just incredible formation.

BOLDUAN: Their marching band is spectacular. It's always fun to see --

PEREIRA: And it gives you --

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO (voice-over): Kate's a Michigan fan.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I'm not a fan of Buckeyes.

CUOMO: Kate is afraid of marching bands.

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: Look at this Moonwalk.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

LARSON: That's really impressive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (on-camera): -- man, they're running, well --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Have to point out the obvious.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN (on-camera): All right. Coming up next on NEW DAY, could the mystery of a girl found in Greece be connected to the disappearance of a little girl in Kansas City? We have breaking developments in this case coming up for you. CUOMO (on-camera): And how did this happen again? Two jumbo jets carrying close to a thousand passengers come dangerously close to a midair collision. We've seen this before. The official answer for why makes it even more frightening. We'll tell you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Update for you for water cooler time. It took nearly half a season, but the Giants finally became jet-like, a.k.a. winning, beating the Vikings. Let's bring in Andy Scholes --

BOLDUAN: Did you write that yourself? I think you did.

CUOMO: I don't know who wrote that.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Andy Scholes with this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hello, handsome. Tell us about the game.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey, Chris. So, you knew the Giants were going to get a win eventually. And last night was probably their best chance. You know, records wise, the game was the worst match-up ever in the history of "Monday Night Football." You had 1-4 Vikings taking on the winless Giants and the game was pretty ugly.

The lone bright spot for the Vikings was wild man, Jared Allen's awesome sack of Eli Manning. Check it out. He has to reach around the offense of lineman, grabbed him, and brings him down. Now, while Eli put the sack there, he did not throw an interception for the first time this season.

The Giants, they would end their worst start in nearly 40 years with the 23-7 win.

"Forbes" releasing its annual list of the most disliked athletes in the NFL. Topping the list once again is Eagles quarterback, Michael Vick. Fans clearly haven't forgotten about his dog fighting scandal. They haven't forgotten about Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend either. Even though Te'o claims he was duped, he still comes in as the second most hated player in the league.

Ndamukong Suh, Ben Roethlisberger, and Mark Sanchez round out the top five.

One of the top stories in the lineup section on BleacherReport.com today is about the amazing accomplishment of six-year-old Keelan Glass. Keelan recently became the youngest person ever to run a half marathon. She not only completed the race. She did in pretty good time, crossing the finish line in two hours and 46 minutes.

And Keelan wasn't just running just for that record. She was doing it to raise money for charity. Good for her.

CUOMO: Wow!

SCHOLES: She's already got the half marathon at 6 years old. And guys, she said she wants to run a full marathon by the time she's 10.

CUOMO: Wow! That is --

BOLDUAN: That is putting it all in perspective whenever we say we don't feel like going to work out.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Exactly. You need to set your goals a little higher. That is the story of the morning.

CUOMO: Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Andy.

CUOMO: That is really impressive.

BOLDUAN: That sure is.

CUOMO: Only way you get one of my kids to do that is if you put one of those hats with like -- iPad suspended one foot in front of their face -- very impressive.

BOLDUAN: There's an invention (ph) for us.

CUOMO: Good for you. Good for you.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mother's intuition. The only word that I know to explain it is that I feel like she's OK.

CUOMO: Mystery deepens. An American couple thinks this little girl found living in Greece is their daughter. Are they right?

BOLDUAN: Mourning a hero. A marine turned popular teacher gunned down trying to save his students in a tragic school shooting. This morning, a community searching for answers why this happened.

PEREIRA: Graveside grievance. After getting permission to erect it, a family is told to remove their daughter's tombstone shaped as her favorite cartoon character. Their fight and that controversy straight ahead.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, October 22nd, seven o'clock in the east. New this morning, President Obama owning up to the obvious, the embarrassing issues with the Obamacare website and trying to re-assure Americans about the important thing, that it will get fixed. The question, how did the most internet savvy administration in history get this so wrong?

BOLDUAN: Plus, the blockbuster trial starting today for a doctor accused of drugging and drowning his own wife. Shocking new evidence is expected. Did the doctor tell fellow inmates he was glad that his wife was dead? We're going to hash out these new details with HLN's Nancy Grace, coming up.

PEREIRA: Also, we got a troubling new report about a recent near collision midair. It might make you nervous to fly. Two jumbo jets with nearly a thousand passengers on board come dangerously close to one another. We're learning just how it happened and it is pretty scary.

BOLDUAN: Sure is.

But breaking overnight, could a little girl found in Greece actually be this child known as Baby Lisa? She went missing from her Kansas City home two years ago and her parents think that it could be her, the little girl found in Greece could be their daughter. As the mystery girl known as Maria, she was discovered in a gypsy camp just last week.

But it's not clear how she got there. So many questions surrounding this mystery. CNN's George Howell is following the story live in Kansas City this morning. Good morning, George.