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Red Rox Clinch World Series; Dark and Stormy Halloween in Store; Congressional Hearing on Obamacare Yesterday

Aired October 31, 2013 - 07:00   ET

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


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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY, it's Thursday, October 31st. Also known as Halloween, judging by Kate's pumpkin costume this morning.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Unintentional.

CUOMO: Forget Disneyland, Boston is the happiest place on Earth this morning and for good reason; Sox Nation celebrating its third World Series title in the last nine years. Well played, and more importantly, well deserved. Boston closed out the St. Louis Cardinals last night 6-1 in game six. Wasn't even close. More importantly they brought Boston back on and off the field. The ultimate rebound after the marathon bombings, some six months ago.

Red Sox fanatic John Berman at Fenway last night, taking selfies, ridiculously so, had to watch him. He is live this morning with a proper celebration. John, what's it been like for you? You're from Boston. More importantly, you covered the bombings. You know how the city feels.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's been an amazing thing to be a part of, Chris, I have to tell you, walking out of Fenway last night after the game, I was hugged and high-fived by more people in an hour period than I ever have been in my entire life. What a contrast that moment was with the streets teeming with people celebrating to in April when we were here after the bombing. That day when this city was shut down. People behind closed doors as they hunted for the bombers, and that tragedy struck so many so close to home. Now this baseball team, the Boston Red Sox has completed the biggest turnaround in baseball history. From worst to first, but more importantly, I think they symbolize much more -- they symbolize this journey for this city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMANS: Victory at home, at last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is unbelievable.

BERMAN: Absolute jubilation flooding the streets. Red Sox Nation celebrating their team's World Series win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what "Boston Strong" means.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing defines Boston than this moment right here.

BERMAN: The excitement reaching a fever pitch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely amazing game. Red Sox, three times in nine years, doesn't get better than that.

BERMAN: Down on the diamond it was run --

UNIDENTIFIE MALE: Here comes Gomes. He is safe.

BERMAN: After run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is gone. 2-0, Red Sox.

BERMAN: After run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's 5-0, Boston.

BERMAN: An absolute blowout.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It hasn't happened at Fenway Park for 95 years! The Red Sox are world champions.

BERMAN: The Red Sox winning it, and winning it at home. The last time the Sox won in the shadow of the Green Monster was 1918, back when Babe Ruth played for the team, winning a season stunted by World War I.

This is the third Red Sox title in nine years, but this one is different. This isn't about breaking a curse like in 2004, this isn't even just about baseball. This team that finished dead last in the American League East last year came to symbolize resilience in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

It was this team that hung this shirt in their dugout and last night emblazoned the same slogan onto their field, "Boston Strong." It was this team that broke into small groups and quietly visited the victims of the attack. It was this team that played ball at Fenway Park the day after the city was shut down in the final manhunt for the bombers. They opened the doors, filled the seats, came from behind and declared with no ambiguity --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our (EXPLETIVE DELETED) city.

BERMAN: This team, this bearded brawny group of bashers, this worst to first, tragic to magic collection of men proved there was prophecy in that profanity from David Ortiz. Now the people of Boston can say in unison, this is our city. This is our team. This is our championship.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: And I was sending e-mails last night, exchanging e-mails with a group of survivors who survived the bombings here at the marathon. Each were injured. They said they were all watching the game together. They still feel so very much a part of what this city has been through and really connected with the Boston Red Sox who were here that week and are here now. Winning it all in October. Kate?

BOLDUAN: As you lay out well, John, this win goes far beyond just the game for that city. Thanks so much. So glad you could be there last night. We'll talk to you in a little bit.

Let's get more perspective, though, on what this means for the city with "Boston Globe" sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy. Dan, a late night for you, I'm sure. Good morning.

DAN SHAUGHNESSY, BOSTON GLOBE SPORTS: COLUMNIST: Good morning. How are you?

BOLDUAN: I'm doing really well. Thanks. Give me your take on the series and the big win last night. What does this mean.

SHAUGHNESSY: I think your reporter wrapped it up nicely. It's interesting to have come to this park for 50 years in my place, but it goes back 101 years of playing baseball in this very spot where we're standing here, and they last won the series here 95 years ago. Babe Ruth, I think, was staying at the Buckminister Hotel, driving back to Sudbury after the game, and Carl Mays beat the Cubs on September 11. It was early that year because the war was winding down in Europe, but here we are 95 years later an they did it again.

BOLDUAN: And they did it again. You know Dan, and you know this well, the problem of the written word is it sticks around and sometimes comes back to bite you. You wrote in a column at the beginning of the season back in February, the following, my friend. "The juice glass is half empty today. These guys could be really bad and really boring." Not so hot on the team at the beginning of the season, eating a little crow this morning?

SHAUGHNESSY: I will own that. I owned it all year. When it came to the World Series, I've been so consistently wrong about this team, I picked the Cardinals to win just to keep the mojo going here. That came true as well. This is a magical year. I didn't see it coming. Nationally the team was picked fourth or fifth on the heels of the worst season in 47 years. This thing did pop out of nowhere. It makes it all the sweeter.

BOLDUAN: What's your take? Was there a key moment in the season, in the series? Was there a moment when there was a turnaround for the team? Because you're right, going in they weren't really ranked that hot.

SHAUGHNESSY: During the year we kept waiting for them to fall or stumble, and they had a trip to the west coast where they beat the Giants and Dodgers, and I think at that point people started to really believe. In the playoffs, the moment is clearly game two against the Tigers. They've lost game one, they're down 5-0 late in game two. David Ortiz hit the grand slam into the bull pen, Torii Hunter flips over, his legs are up in the air, the cops hands are up in the air, and from that point on they were a steam roller all the way.

BOLDUAN: What do you think looking forward? What does this mean for the team and the team's legacy?

SHAUGHNESSY: Well, I mean, three championships in nine years makes them the team of the century in Major League Baseball, in this century. Which is interesting because in the last century they won five of the first 15 World Series played in the 20th century. So, here they are again, but this is a new ownership, the John Henry ownership came here in 2002, and they won three world championships in a city that waited 86 years to get one. It's pretty remarkable.

BOLDUAN: There can be your headline for your column tomorrow, "the team of the century." Dan, it's great to meet you. Thank you so much. Congratulations to you and the city of Boston.

SHAUGHNESSY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Of course.

CUOMO: All right. It is Halloween.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: They're enjoying it up there in their way. For the rest of us we're dealing with some wicked and wet weather this Halloween. They'll be powerful thunderstorms, packing strong winds, expected today for the eastern half of the country. You'll have to prepare. Meteorologist Indra Petersons is going to help us just do that, following the conditions. What do we know?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're talking 53 million people tonight. Really having a threat for severe weather. If you're in a major industry from Detroit all the way through Memphis, and even stretching down through Houston you have the threat of strong winds an isolated tornado and heavy rain. Really even if you're all the way into the northeast tonight, you are going to be concern with this major storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Heavy rains fell in central Texas overnight, causing flash flooding in Austin. Several counties in the area had to evacuate as surging water engulfed the roadways.

A massive storm in the nation's midsection is brewing up a wicked pot of wind, hail and rain, turning Halloween into a ghoulish soaker from Texas to the Midwest and northeast. Golf ball sized hail fell in Nebraska and Kansas, meanwhile blinding rain and howling winds snapped power lines. Driving was nearly possible. Further south, 3 inches of rain fell in just four hours in Livingston, Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Trick or treat.

PETERSONS: Trick-or-treaters in Cincinnati, Memphis and Houston may have to delay or cancel their Halloween plans tonight, as strong storms are expected to dump 3 to 5 inches of rain.

MARK JONES, COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, CITY OF CLINTON: Thursday afternoon, we will make the decision as to whether to cancel the haunting of Old Town.

PETERSONS: Some last-minute costume shoppers are already thinking of alternate plans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the ladies we trick or treat with is going to have a Halloween party for the kids at her house if it rains.

PETERSONS: If the storms become severe, the safest thing to do is stay inside severe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't need anybody getting hurt at a time when it's supposed to be fun.

PETERSONS: The east coast is no stranger to Halloween soakers. Last year, residents in New York and New Jersey were cleaning up from superstorm Sandy, and the year before it was a record-breaking nor'easter that dumped snow across several states.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Just take a look at the system, as it's expected to make its way across the country tonight. Notice it actually strengthens. It looks like a bullseye. That's the concern. If you're in Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinnati, look for winds as high as 50, 60 miles per hour. They can be out there. Heavy rain, right around Austin, we saw about 13 inches of rain.

This heavy rain still in the forecast tonight and spreading east. About 3 to 5 inches of rain in the forecast. Isolated amounts can be higher and of course that heavy rain spreading into the northeast as we go overnight tonight. Really a lot to be concerned with. Nothing you want to see on Halloween.

BOLDUAN: But we will.

PETERSONS: Unfortunately, yes.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. Thanks, Indra. What's going on, Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We have headlines to watch today. Denials from NSA leader General Keith Alexander. He says a report that the agency secretly hacked into Google and Yahoo! untrue. The agency is not denying, however, that it may have monitored communications between the servers. Alexander insisting all information obtained from the two internet giants was legal and authorized by the courts.

In Kenya this morning, five more people being held in connection with the deadly terrorist attack on a Nairobi mall. A senior government official tells CNN the suspects will appear in court Monday. As many as 11 people were taken into custody by Kenyan police shortly after that attack that killed 67 people. The gunmen are believed to be affiliated with the Somali terror group al Shabaab. An update now to that puzzling small plane crash that went unnoticed for hours in Nashville. We now know the identity of the pilot killed, 45-year-old Michael Kallen (ph) of Canada. Investigators say he rented the plane in Windsor, Ontario, had filed plans to fly to an island on Lake Erie. The NTSB will issue a preliminary crash report within ten days.

And the murder trial of a Utah doctor accused of killing his wife, one of Martin MacNeill's daughters is expected to return to the stand today to testify against her father. Alexis Summers has told the court her mother was in good health after the surgery, and her pain seemed to be under control. That just a day before she died from what prosecutors say what was overdose from pain medication given to her by her husband.

And they are calling it "Halloween for a Heart" in Houston. Fourteen -year-old Anna King has been waiting more than a year for a new heart. Her community has rallied around her to help her family pay her medical bills and raise organ donor awareness. A big old Halloween party fund raiser is planned for Anna tonight. The mortgage company hosting it has already raised more than $10,000. Love when a community gets behind one of their citizens in a big way like that.

CUOMO: Great way to spend this holiday. Great story. Thanks for that, Mick.

We're going to take a break now on NEW DAY. When we come back, as I've said, it seemed members of Congress thought Kathleen Sebelius was dressed as a pinata for Halloween, because boy did they give her a beating. Question, was all the rage warranted? Were the politicians playing pretend themselves in advance of trick-or-treat time? We'll discuss.

BOLDUAN: Plus, we're hearing from Vice President Biden in an exclusive interview apologizing for the Obamacare website problems and also talking about a very important issue that's key to his heart, an important issue to talk about, domestic violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. I was in the middle of a point. Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary took the blame and a beating before Congress, promising, though, that the Healthcare.gov site will be fixed. Meanwhile, in an interview with our sister network, HLN, Vice President Biden, like the secretary, used the words "I'm sorry." Are apologies necessary and if so, they are enough? Let's get the take from the left and the right. Professor Marc Lamont Hill is the host of HuffPost Live, Will Cain, CNN political commentator, columnist at The Blaze. Gentlemen, Happy Halloween. I like to use a word on the show, traves-sha-mockery, right, which was made famous by a beer commercial, a travesty of a sham of a mockery.

Will may think I'm talking about Obamacare, I'm talking about the hearing. On the left and the right yesterday, what was the value, the point of purpose? A hearing is supposed to be fact-finding to help promote future legislation. Professor?

PROF. MARC LAMONT HILL, HOST, HUFFPOST LIVE: There were two facts. I found out how much the website cost, it was about 116 million. That made me happy to know. I have more insurance. They have no idea how many people signed up. That was actually comfortable. I didn't know if the Obama administration was hiding it, or didn't know. I'm happy to know they didn't know on some level, just to have the information.

Other than that, this was nothing but grandstanding. Watching Kathleen Sebelius and Marsha Blackburn, they were all just grandstanding. And one more thing: the fact that she said "I'm sorry" like that means she's never going anywhere. No one stands up and says I'm sorry unless they're sure their job is protected.

WILL CAIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, the value was limited, Chris, but I will say this just to kind of move this conversation forward. Yeah, we didn't find out the answers to things like why they went live, why it was such a failure, why you would push such a failure live at that time. There is some value in grandstanding. If that means you're holding a megaphone up to expose something to the public. I'm not suggesting yesterday was a successful example of that.

HILL: I was going to say.

CAIN: Grandstanding in and of itself isn't a worthless exercise. It can serve a purpose.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: Yeah, by you used the last two months grandstanding.

CUOMO: You use the phrase "push the conversation forward."

CAIN: Right.

CUOMO: I feel that neither of you guys did that yesterday. You're representing your teams. I don't feel like you did it yesterday. And it worried me about what's to come if this is the best you two can do in terms of coming together.

CAIN: This is why I separate the concept of grandstanding from what happened yesterday. I do not think Republicans need to be in charge of the microphone, of the megaphone on Obamacare. It is becoming self-evident. The problems the American people are experiencing, it's not just the website, the functionality, and more importantly, the security, it's people getting kicked off their insurance, of having pledges made to them broken. They're experiencing it, and I want them to experience it objectively, not necessarily what the Republicans --

HILL: I think they're worried after November 30th there will be nothing to complain about, and so they're going to put a spotlight on it now because now the Obama administration is vulnerable. The website is broken, the security is down. There are legitimate concerns. I don't agree with you about the promises being broken, but there are other things here that are legitimately worthy of critique, and they're making the critique now because after November 30th there will be nothing.

CUOMO: Was it wrong for the left yesterday, the Democrats, to ignore the fact that you rushed this out because you passed the law, you knew it was optically failure, if you didn't get it online right away, so you did it haphazard way and it was reckless, and now we're all paying for it.

HILL: Reckless might be taking it too far. I think they under --

CUOMO: Identifying risk and ignoring it is the definition, legally, of reckless.

HILL: I think they underestimated how much risk there was. I think they thought the site wasn't perfect but they clearly didn't estimate that this would happen. I think the other problem is when you start legislation back when you have an opposition which is trying to dismantle it at every turn, they're worried that it makes them look bad. And they're also worried that if you keep pushing it towards elections, which is another issue for 2014 when the markets expand, then you're making a whole lot of Democratic senators vulnerable.

CAIN: There is a concerted effort right now to make this about Republicans. That's why I'm telling you, I think Republicans need to step back and let it play out. You can use the word obstructionist, you can use people that want to get in the way of this. This has nothing to do with conservatives and Republicans anymore. Its failures are on its own merits. And by the way, talking about how Obamacare is not working, i.e. the website, is one aspect. We need to be talking about how Obamacare is working and people losing those health plans because they weren't grandfathered in because they don't meet President Obama's minimum standards. That's Obamacare working.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: It's not President Obama's arbitrary minimum standards, it's a fairly any objective standard of equality, reasonable healthcare is by any measure in the world. It's not like Obama said I don't want that one.

CAIN: Do you understand - do you hear the arrogance in that statement? You are defining for the rest of America what minimum standards are. You're defining what's better. When President Obama --

HILL: That's what we always do. We do it with food, we have the FDA --

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: You always do it. I agree.

HILL: You don't think governments should establish standards for things like food, health care, housing? If we didn't do that, people would --

CAIN: I think when you tell the American people if you like your healthcare plan you can keep it you should live up to that standard and not really -

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: And not (INAUDIBLE) really mean if I like your healthcare plan you can keep it.

HILL: No, if it meets a minimum standard. Let's not forget the people who are losing these plans are able to get comparable plans at cheaper prices often times, or with better coverage. It's not as if we're taking something from you, and replacing it with something that --

CAIN: It's better in your terms.

HILL: It's objectively better.

CUOMO: I went after -

(CROSSTLAK)

HILL: What are you talking about? You don't think there's an objective standard of better healthcare, if you get more coverage, you're paying less for deductibles, if you can keep your -- it covers preexisting conditions.

CAIN: It's not cheaper. And you're defining better by forcing people to buy things they don't necessarily want or need. There are parents in their 50s who have no children, they are now paying for pediatric eye exams, things like this. Is that your definition of better? Things I don't need?

HILL: Paying for pediatric eye exam is, first of all it's an outlier, but second they're still getting more coverages and more consumer protections in addition to pediatric eye exams, which they probably don't need. I can see.

CUOMO: And an important piece for this going forward, one of the things you do well, Will, and hopefully a reflection of the best of the right is, what's the alternative? There have to start being alternatives on the table. I think you pushed the idea of this is bad, this law, as far as you're going to go with the shutdown. After that, you have to have an alternative. Forty-something votes to kill the law. It didn't work. Make it better. We haven't heard that part from the side yet.

CAIN: I don't know that you're going to hear that, Chris, and here's why. The American people made their choice. When people make their argument that elections have consequences, they're correct. This is in the Democrats' hands now. Obamacare in its next year, the next several months is in the Democrats' hands. If it fails, as I suspect it might, then you're right, Republicans need to be ready. Here's what we would have like to have seen. Here are some free market solutions, some consumer cost pressures. We'd like to actually implement to bring healthcare costs down. Right now, Chris, there's not an opportunity for that.

HILL: (INAUDIBLE) That horse is out of the barn. CAIN: That might be true.

HILL: There's no way we're dialing this back (ph). I don't think it would fail. I thought it would be productive if Republicans came with ideas before it so-called fails.

CUOMO: Your guys' discussion is always better than what we hear in D.C. I'm hoping that it kind of like rubs off, it's one of the reasons that I love that you guys come on.

But you do know this: on the left you have to be open to what objective means and on the right you can't wait for it to fail. You have to put up solutions because that's what progress is about in a state of compromise.

CAIN: Well, there's two ways to fix this. One, I don't think Republicans have C++ programming experience to fix the website. Otherwise we're opposed to the idea.

HILL: Of websites?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: No, of the actual policy.

CUOMO: Thank you very much for joining me on Halloween. I wish you the best. No tricks, all treats. For both of you.

What do you think? You heard a lot of good ideas. There's a lot of conflict as well. Tweet with us the #newday.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next on NEW DAY, Vice President Joe Biden working to help victims of domestic abuse. The exclusive interview with the vice president, coming up.

Also ahead, new developments in the case of a Georgia teenager found dead inside a rolled up gym mat. New video showing more of what happened the day he died, and now federal prosecutors are considering a formal investigation into his death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

BOLDUAN: I'm not sure if we should be excited or scared right now. We have got to show a shot of everybody. What do we have today? A Batman. A gorilla. Elvis.

CUOMO: Elvis with the freaky hands.

BOLDUAN: And then we have Freddy Krueger.

PEREIRA: That was freaky. CUOMO: There's Dino the gorilla. He said he was dressed as me.

BOLDUAN: Is it easier or harder to operate the camera in a gorilla suit?

CUOMO: He's not talking because he's in character. And Roger, biggest man in television.

BOLDUAN: That's not a costume.

CUOMO: He's very big.

PEREIRA: He's a handsome guy.

BOLDUAN: Happy Halloween, everybody.

CUOMO: Enjoy it. A lot of news this morning as well. Is that not so, Ms. Pereira?

PEREIRA: It is true. Let's take a look at our headlines at half past the hour. It hadn't happened at Fenway Park in 95 years until last night, the Boston Red Sox won the clinching game of a World Series at home. A big boost for a city that really needed it. The Sox beat the Cardinals in six games, completing a remarkable worst to first turnaround from last year. Boston has now won three world series titles in the last nine years.

Want to show you a picture. This young boy looks quite like the boy with autism, Avonte Oquendo, who has been missing in New York City for weeks now. Is it really him? New York police reportedly tracked down this teen who took the picture after it was posted on Facebook and he said he couldn't get the boy to engage in conversation. It's really important to note, Avonte's brother has said he doesn't think the photo looks like his missing sibling.

Prosecutors strongly object to letting Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel leave prison while they appeal a court ruling that set aside his conviction. Skakel was convicted in 2002 of killing his neighbor, Martha Moxley in 1975, but a Connecticut judge ordered a new trial last week, ruling that Skakel's trial attorney didn't adequately represent him.

Cold Bay, Alaska temporarily quadrupled in population when a Tokyo to San Francisco Delta Airlines flight made an emergency landing there. The flight diverted out of an abundance of caution, when an engine indicator showed a problem. Once it touched down, the small town jumped into action, transferring stranded passengers to their community center in a small armada of pickup trucks, SUVs, and a town bus. Those passengers, grateful I'm sure, were eventually transferred to another plane and flown on to their destination of San Francisco.

Talk about saved by the cell. Newly released surveillance video shows the moment a store clerk was shot by a gunman and his cell phone saved his life.