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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

SCOTUS Rules Against Cell Phone Searches; SCOTUS Rules Against Aereo; U.S. Economy Retracted Even More in First Quarter Than Reported; Primary Results; Boehner Threatens to Sue Obama; Team USA Prepares to Face Germany

Aired June 25, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Hello there, everyone. I'm John Berman.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CO-ANCHOR: And I'm Michaela Pereira. It is @THISHOUR, 11:00, right on the nose.

This hour, breaking news from the highest court in the land, handing down a ruling that affects the way you watch TV, another one involves your cell phone.

BERMAN: Yeah, technology very much on the court's mind this morning.

Our justice correspondent Pamela Brown outside the Supreme Court in Washington with the details, Pamela, let's start with cell phones first and an important legal ruling about searches here.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, John. This is a big blow to law enforcement and a big win for privacy rights.

Essentially, today, this was a sweeping decision, unanimous decision here at the high court, saying that police must obtain a search warrant before searching the cell phone of a criminal suspect upon an arrest.

Before this, police used great discretion to search cell phones without search warrants. In fact, the two defendants in this case were convicted, in part, because of information taken from their cell phones without a search warrant.

They argued that cell phones should be treated differently than other items on a person, such as a wallet or a purse, and today, the justices in a nine-zero decision agreed with the defendants.

And here's what they said. "Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple. Get a warrant."

The justice goes on to say, Justice Roberts, "Modern cell phones as a category implicate privacy concerns far beyond those implicated by the search of a cigarette pack, a wallet, or a purse."

And, of course, Michaela and John, this brings into question the larger question of what's going to happen to all of those people behind bars right now that were convicted based on information taken from their cell phones without a search warrant. That's a big question.

PEREIRA: I feel some appeals will be in the offing.

Another ruling that we want to talk about, obviously, a big deal in our world here on television, one that certainly has TV broadcasters celebrating, something to do with streaming, talk to us about this.

BROWN: Yeah. No, absolutely, this is certainly a big win for broadcasters. This has to do with a company called Aereo, and this company essentially used these tiny dime-sized antennas to grab the content from broadcast networks and stream it to subscribers.

And this company charged the subscribers and didn't pay a dime to the broadcast networks. The networks said, look, this is a violation of copyright law. You're stealing our content. The Aereo, the small startup company argued, no, we're just providing the equipment.

But in this case, the justices disagreed with Aereo and ruled in favor of the networks, saying that, in fact, this was a violation of copyright law.

PEREIRA: Interesting developments for us, Pamela Brown, thanks so much for bringing that kind of fresh off the presses to us here right here @THISHOUR.

BERMAN: Yeah, a lot of people say they just cut the legs out from under Aereo completely, be hard for them to go forward.

PEREIRA: Yeah.

BERMAN: Just a couple minutes after the hour right now, some startling news, a big, startling number about the U.S. economy.

PEREIRA: Yeah, new data released this morning says that the economy shrank more than expected in the first quarter, declining at an annual rate of 2.9 percent.

What all does this mean? Let's ask our business correspondent Alison Kosik to crunch some numbers for us. Go ahead.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela and John. So that 2.9 percent, it's actually a negative 2.9 percent. It basically means the economy didn't grow in the first three months of this year.

Here's the thing with this, though. We knew this number was going to come in lousy. True, it came in much worse than expected. And if you want something to blame, believe it or not, you can blame the weather.

The brutal winter in the beginning of the year that slowed -- let's say -- shipments not just here but around the world as well. It's weather that kept consumers from going out of their homes and going shopping. It kept businesses from spending.

It even kept people from spending money on health care, and health care actually represents a sizeable portion of GDP.

Plus, you look deeper in this report, exports to foreign countries declined as well. So you kind of roll all that together, it seems like the economy kind of came to a grinding halt during the first three months of this year.

Michaela and John?

BERMAN: People are looking at this, Alison, saying, we've had bad weather before. There have been cold winters before. It was, but nevertheless, 2.9 is a big number, negative 2.9, the worst number since really the recession, 2007-2008.

What does this mean for the average person?

KOSIK: You know what's interesting? You say that. If you ask two different people about how they feel about the economy, you are going to get two different answers, because the reality is our economy is still recovering from the recession.

And if you are not feeling jazzed or feeling fantastic about how the economy is right now, this is why, because it's not growing in a robust fashion.

We're in a recovery not necessarily operating on all cylinders. There's a lot of inconsistencies with the day we get as to how things are going.

That said, though, the fact that the economy didn't grow and contracted for the first three months, believe it or not, may be a one-hit wonder because we're already seeing the economy picking up steam in the second half of the year, whether it's housing numbers, manufacturing, even jobs numbers. They are improving.

So what the thinking is at this point, that going forward, the numbers are going to look a lot better, and that's why you are not seeing the market rattled. In fact, you are seeing the Dow up 62 points. We're seeing a lot of green on the screen. I think what you're also seeing is the market is really dismissing this number.

John and Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right, we appreciate you joining us @THISHOUR to break that all down for us.

Sometimes you see the headline and don't know what it means for the person at home. There you go. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

Ahead @THISHOUR, House Speaker John Boehner is thinking about suing the president over his executive orders. A lawsuit, really? What happened to talking things out?

BERMAN: Then, Republican Senator Thad Cochran was fighting for his political life in Mississippi, so to avoid the same fate as Eric Cantor, he got some help from an unexpected source, African-Americans. PEREIRA: And it is the bite seen around the world -- at least the

World Cup. Uruguay's Luis Suarez chomping on the shoulder of an Italian player, and it left a mark.

And you know what? It wasn't the first time Suarez bit another player. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: @THISHOUR, you could hear the sigh of relief from the political establishment overnight. For all the public dissatisfaction with Congress, Tuesday's primaries suggests that voters aren't quite ready to clean house.

PEREIRA: So let's run through it a little bit.

In New York, longtime Congressman Charles Rangel looking for a 23rd, and he says final, term, looks like he's beaten the Democratic challenge, but state senator Adriano Espaillat isn't quite ready to concede just yet.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Republican Congressman James Lankford triumphs over a candidate who had lots of tea party support.

BERMAN: In Colorado, former Congressman Bob Beauprez wins the Republican primary for governor over another ex-congressman, Tom Tancredo, who made a name for himself with a hard line stance on immigration.

PEREIRA: But the race has that everyone talking, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, the second longest-serving Republican in the chamber, survives a fierce challenge from a tea party opponent by stitching together a broad coalition, including Democrats and African-Americans.

BERMAN: That was a nail biter. I was up late, late, late last night, watching those numbers come in.

Another big political story, though, to tell you about right now, in Washington, a stark sign of the incredible frustration there, a mounting effort by congressional Republicans to sue the president.

House Speaker John Boehner, along with dozens of fellow lawmakers, now on the record talking about filing suit against President Obama over his use of executive orders and also what they consider to be unilateral action.

PEREIRA: The president has made no secret of using executive orders to bypass a deeply divided Congress, particularly on some of his hallmark issues, gun control, climate change, minimum wage, same-sex marriage, power plants, health care, immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've got a pen and I've got a phone and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, the White House has not weighed in on the Speaker's threat to sue, but just this morning a spokesman for top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi called the idea "reprehensible."

PEREIRA: Let's discuss reprehensible and all the other aspects of this. Let's bring in our political commentators, Ross Douthat and Donna Brazile. Good morning to you both.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

BERMAN: Take a look at a chart I think Democrats would like you to look right now. It looks at the last six presidents, and it shows that with two years to go President Obama's tally on executive orders is far smaller than the last Democrat in the White House, Bill Clinton, and even Clinton didn't hit the mark set by Ronald Reagan.

Now, Ross, I know Republicans what they often say is that the type of orders that the president is doing much more significant than presidents have done in the past, and also how he interprets laws like choosing to unilaterally forego the employer mandate for a year. That's the type of action they are upset about also, isn't it?

DOUTHAT: Right. And this is -- I mean, look, I think the courts have traditionally taken a very dim view of attempts to use lawsuits to settle disagreements between the other branches of government, and I'd expect them to do the same in this case.

I think what you're seeing is more just an attempt by Speaker Boehner and others to sort of elevate this issue in the public's mind and to sort of emphasize the extent to which the president has been claiming very sweeping executive powers on a range of issues.

And this isn't just true in domestic policy. You see it in foreign policy too, in the Libya conflict, which we entered into without really a congressional resolution; in the claims of executive power to assassinate American citizens overseas; and then on a series of very hot-button issues here at home, all the issues you listed, particularly the executive order on immigration and the way the Affordable Care Act has been -- shall we say -- creatively enforced.

So I think Republicans have a point that the president campaigned very strongly on the idea that President Bush had overreached on executive power, and now I think the things they're highlighting are arguably overreaches, but I don't think the courts are going to adjudicate the matter.

PEREIRA: Donna, what is your assessment of what's behind all this? And is this what it's come to?

We vote the people in, these ladies and gentlemen in there, to be able to work these things out, talk things out, and certainly we haven't seen a lot of that going on.

But to sue the president?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First of all, I think it's not only reprehensible, as leader Pelosi stated, but I think it's another distraction that the Republicans would like us to howl at.

Look, this is one-half of one-third of a branch of government, and the truth is that they simply don't want to want to do anything.

We know based on what they have done already that they don't want to work with this president, and Ross understands and I agree with him, that the courts will probably laugh this lawsuit out of the courtroom.

This president has used his pen very judiciously. In fact, he's been more cautious than most presidents. You have to go back all the way to Grover Cleveland -- and by the way, that's before my time -- to find a president who has used his pen less often than previous presidents.

I think this president has made it very clear to Mr. Boehner and others that he wants to get something done on immigration reform, on raising the minimum wage, on ensuring that there's no discrimination of anybody in our society, so -- and extending unemployment insurance for those who are still out there looking for work, so -- and closing corporate tax loopholes.

In fact, I can actually write the agenda if Mr. Boehner needs some help. I'll do it for free. The truth is, is that Republicans, they want a polarizing and a paralyzing environment because this allows them to go out and rev up their base.

They're using taxpayers' money for a get-out-the-vote strategy in November, just to keep Republicans excited.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: We're going to help you make that appointment with speaker Boehner to talk about strategy going forward Donna. Guys, I want to talk to you both about the late night we all had last night watching the results come in from Mississippi, and what it all might mean. Because Thad Cochran, been in office a long, long time, I think he put together the first of its kind coalition in Mississippi. Donna I want to start with you here, he really depended, It does seem, anecdotally and by some of the results we've seen, on a large - or a much larger black turnout to help put him over the top?

BRAZILE: This was shoe licking politics at its best. Thad Cochran went back to his early roots as a politician where he went to the preachers, he went where people lived, where they eat, where the play and they pray, and he got out the vote. He got out as many votes he need to win and he did it by telling people this is what I've done for you in Washington, D.C. I don't represent just, you know, conservative Republicans. I represent the entire state of Mississippi, perhaps more politicians should be reminded that they represent the entire state when they are United States senators, not just those that go out and vote for them.

He won last night, but I think he's going to have a hard time this fall because there's a conservative Democrat who will also go back to those same voters and say, guess what, I've done more for you on voting rights, on education and others issues than Thad Cochran. So we're going to have another interesting race.

PEREIRA: Ross, we will give you the final thought..

DOUTHAT: I think it will probably be a cake walk for Cochran in the fall, although it's possible there will be lingering bad feelings over this result and he will have trouble turning out his base. Part of the reason I think Cochran was able to pull this off was precisely that Democrats knew they probably couldn't win in November. And if they thought they could have won they might have gone out and voted for the challenger McDaniel and created a situation where there would have been a weaker nominee. This happens on both sides. This is politics, Donna.

(CROSS TALK)

BRAZILE: If you hold your nose for McDaniels, you might lose your entire face.

DOUTHAT: Remember Democrats voting for Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in the Republican primaries. It's politics.

BRAZILE: Remember, we do have conservative Democrats. We have not run them out of the party. In fact, we embrace a very diverse party with conservatives, moderates and liberals. But the truth is McDaniels ran a campaign that was so obnoxious to Democrats and independents, and that is why you saw Cochran able - in the last three weeks - it was really a 72 hour campaign, let's go ahead and get the Republican some credit, they found their soul going door to door. And that is why he won.

DOUTHAT: I knew Donna would get the last word in the end.

BRAZILE: I like Ross though.

BERMAN: Republicans very happy, despite Donna's smiles today. Donna Brazile, Ross Douthat thank you so much for being with us.

PEREIERA: All right. Still ahead, Team USA, what are they doing tomorrow? They are facing off against Germany? A draw allows both of them to advance the World Cup knock out stage. So will the teams play it straight or play it safe?

BERMAN: It's been five years since Michael Jackson's death. Five years, his body guards now out with salacious details about the pop star's personal life. How he got them high fiving each other. That is ahead @THISHOUR.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We are counseling down the hours here. Fewer than 25 to be exact now until the World Cup match of the century. The U.S. takes on Germany right after @THIS HOUR tomorrow. PEREIRA: We are the pre-show right? The U.S. men taking on second

ranked and uber talented Germany in an epic battle. The U.S. men's soccer team and their German coach are holding a news conference in Brazil, @THISHOUR, to let the world know they are ready.

Let's get straight to Fred Pleitgan. He is in Brazil where the battle will be played.. We'll get to your allegiance, first, because Fred we know you are a German. We will talk to you about that in a second. But first, we want to talk about some of this brouhaha that has been brewing, if you will, about this one player in Uruguay who is accused of biting an Italian player in the middle of the game. It's sending shock waves here. How about there in Brazil?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN COMMENTATOR: Oh, it's absolutely sending shock waves here as well. It's something that seemed quite bizarre while the game was happening. It seemed as though it was two players who were just, sot of, getting at it in the penalty area. The all of a sudden, the Italian player was saying, wait this guy just bit me. This is Luis Suarez who is a player for the Uruguayan team. The Italian player, afterwards, was showing that wound that he had.

Now what's going on is that FIFA, the governing world football body, has launched an investigation into all of this. There appears to be some sort of video evidence and we'll wait and see. Apparently this player Suarez has a history of doing this. He's been banned twice before for several games for biting other players. It is a bizarre incident making headlines in Brazil and, of course, also in Europe as well. It is quite bizarre.

BERMAN: Can you imagine having a long record, as a player, of biting other players? That being in your biography. This guy, who is one of the top five players in the world, may not play another game at this World Cup. It is simply crazy.

PEREIRA: It is bananas.

BERMAN: I want to talk now about the big game tomorrow, Fred, and I'm not sure where your allegiances are. They should be with the United States of America, really the most hopeful, and inspiring team playing in the World Cup, certainly tomorrow. But they have this big game against Germany. Jurgen Klinsmann played for Germany, he coached Germany. A lot of people thinking, you know both teams, all they need is a draw, maybe there will be a little gentlemen's agreement there.

PLEITGEN: Well first of all John, I want to make clear that I'm rooting for Germany, but I want both teams to go through so I can have the best of both worlds. I love America, I love Germany, my allegiance is in the middle. I'll be wearing the German jersey tomorrow.

As far as Jurgen Klinsmann is concerned, yes, there is that talk of possible collusion, of them possibly having a phone call. After all this is sort of the master taking on the apprentice because, Joachim Loew the German coach, was actually the assistant under Jurgen Klinsmann. Both coaches have said it's nonsense, it is not going to happen. There are some German and American players who came out and said, listen, every time you try to do something like this, it usually backfires. So we're just not going to do it.

It seems as though it's something that is sort of in the air and both teams have something to play for. The Americans want to prove they can beat the best teams in the world and go through. The Germans want to prove they are better than what they showed in the last game against Ghana, cause there was some criticism against the Germans there, as well it was a 2 to 2 draw and they really want to wrap things up in this group.

So I do expect it is going to be a fast game, it is going to be a tough game. But one thing I will agree with John on it is very good to have the U.S. in the World Cup and it will be very good to have the U.S. advance because a lot of football power houses and a lot of fans here in Brazil are saying this is one of most exciting teams in the tournament right now.

PEREIRA: Should we do a friendly wager between Fred and John? Thought fellas, yes, no, are you in?

BERMAN: If we win, I want one of your cities. Give us Munich. If we win, we get Munich; if you win I will send you a hat. Sound like a fair deal.

PLEITGEN: Oh, yeah. But a CNN hat, and "EARLY START" hat.

BERMAN: I love how he says, without humor or irony, I'm actually rooting for Germany, like, make no mistake about it. I want the Germans to win.

PEREIRA: He didn't bring up the fact, there's a lot of German American players or the U.S. team too. They are infiltrating, I am just saying.

BERMAN: They chose to play for the United States of America. Tells you something.

PEREIRA: Ahead @THIS HOUR, Iraqi prime minister rejecting U.S. calls for an emergency unity government, but he still wants U.S. help in pushing back those rebels as they advance and march toward Baghdad. How exactly should Washington react?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)