tv Erin Burnett Out Front CNN November 19, 2013 8:00pm-9:01pm PST
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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com "outfront" next a conservative u.s. congressman busted for cocaine. plus george zimmerman free again despite new allegations. and a virginia state senator stabbed repeatedly in his own home. his son found dead at the scene. let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" we begin with the breaking news a congressman busted for cocaine. florida congressman trey ravell arrested for quote unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally possessing cocaine. the freshman will appear in court tomorrow. he faces misdemeanor charges and up to 180 days in prison.
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dana bash is out front with the latest. dana, what more can you tell us about this? >> reporter: well, erin, the congressman himself released a statement this evening apologizing for letting his constituents and his family down. and he also announced that he's an alcoholic. i want to read part of his statement. he said "i struggle with the disease of alcoholism. this led to an extremely irresponsible choice. as the father of a young son and a husband to a loving wife, i need to get help so i can be a better man for both of them". he also said "it's a blessing in disguise because this is forcing him to get treatment. i should note he hasn't voted at all this week not since friday. one of his colleagues told our colleague he's been trying to call him to offer him support but can't reach him. >> wow. i know that it's not a name probably familiar to a lot of people watching, dana, obviously you know him. i understand he's a colorful character. >> reporter: he certainly is. as you said he's a house freshman. he is not somebody who people
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know. but he is sort of one of those in the newer mold of members of congress because he is 37, he is somebody who's trying to kind of be different than the elder statesmen. and he has been pushing the envelope for republicans as well. in fact, he did an interview, in fact forgive me he didn't do an interview he wrote an online piece where he said he's a hiphop conservative. the way he described it is that he said, there you see it, and he even said that public enemy has some conservative messages. he said fight the power is something that he sees as a quite conservative message. we can read that to get a sense of that. the other thing he may not be well-known but he really gravitated towards those of us who covered him in tv news because he used to be a tv reporter before he went and ran for congress. >> dana, thank you very much. appreciate it. our second story "outfront" the good news about obama care. you say wait. did i just hear you right?
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you said good news sunny did say good news because i know you have heard the bad news. we all know about the horrific, very bad, very terrible web site not functioning and the cancellation notices. according to "the los angeles times" a number of states that use their own systems, online systems, are on track to hit enrollment targets because of a sharp increase in november. according to state officials. so just moments ago i spoke to the u.s. senator from kentucky, rand paul. a staunch obama care opponent. i asked him about the report because it's near and dear to his heart. >> one of the states that the say is outpacing enrollment estimates is actually kentucky. obviously your state. the say the kentucky demographics that have come out have shown 41% of the people who have signed up on the state-run web site were under the age of 35. that's above the magic number. 40% means obama care can work in terms of the young. and obviously kentucky seems to be exceeding that.
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that's pretty impressive. are you going to say kentucky is a success story for obama care? >> what i would say is that what's extraordinary about kentucky's situation is that 40 times more people have been canceled than have signed up. 280,000 people have had their insurance canceled under obama care and 7,000 have signed up. so the number being canceled dwarfs the number actually signing up. so no, if that's a success i hesitate to see a failure. >> i understand your point. of course someone might say once the web site's work you'll get some of those people to sign up or the plans that are going to be offered to them are better. i know those are fair conversations and discussions we could have. at least i have to get you on the record. if young people are signing up in kentucky and you're getting the math right there, that opens the door for obama care succeeding, right? you've got to acknowledge that. >> maybe. but the thing is, if you have 280,000 people canceled a lot of them were young people. and what's going to happen is
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the expense was less for people that are being canceled. their policies are being canceled because they're less expensive than obama care. so they're going to be asked to sign up for obama care and i don't think the will because their premiums are going to rise. but the most important statistic is, 40 times more people are being canceled in kentucky than are actually signing up. >> those people though, right, over time will have some sort of health care. some of them could pay the penalty. you're totally right. >> maybe. the thing is they're going to have to choose something -- they're being canceled because the have something less expensive and president obama wants them to buy one of his four plans which are more expensive. >> but would have better care. >> maybe. if you're a 24-year-old guy you really don't care if you have dental care for your kids if you don't have any kids or pregnancy coverage for a wife if you're not married or infertility coverage if you're not married. so yeah, it's better but it's more expensive and it may not be what you want because it doesn't apply to you, it applies to
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somebody else. >> >> as a doctor, though, aren't you concerned about the fact that a lot of people say i'm going to buy what i want. i want to buy bare bones. but then something happens to them that the don't expect and the expect the system paid for by other people who have insurance, right, and by taxpayers to come in and bail them out, right? whether that's via the emergency room or some other sort of care. and as a doctor, doesn't that frustrate you? isn't the whole point to make everybody pay in so you don't have people who think i don't want this but then free load off the system when the actually need it? >> well, i'm for more freedom of choice and less coercion. obama care coerces you to buy certain products. i'm for letting people buy any product the want. and i will tell you that when people could buy anything the wanted, that the problem there was 15% of our public that was uninsured. a third of them were young, healthy people who made between 50 and $75,000 a year. the weren't buying it because it was expensive. so the had money, and now it's
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more expensive. so really a third of our problem of the uninsured was due to the expense. and we're now making it more expensive. so i think we've actually made the problem worse. so i really don't see a big up side to this. with all the cancellations, i see young people losing their insurance and being forced to buy something the don't want that's more expensive. and that's coercion. that's not freedom. >> is there a way, though, for someone like you to say, especially given your expertise, that you can try to make this better? you were an early supporter of the defund obama care effort, obviously. you chapmpioned the government shutdown in order to do so. i want to play you what the president said about that today. >> one of the problems we've had is one side of capitol hill is invested in failure, and that makes, i think, the kind of iterative process of fixing glichg as the come up and fine tuning the law more challenging. >> he has a point there. the point you're raising about
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the young people straight to it. couldn't you say one way to make them sign up would be the penalties. if the penalties rise it makes more sense for them to sign up for the health care. then you're making this thing work instead of advocating for its failure. >> listen to your words, erin. make people, coerce people, mandate, force. i'm for more freedom of choice where individual consumers get to buy what the want, what the can afford to by. i'm not for mandates. i'm not for telling people what they can by. it's opposite to everything we believe in as a country. the president wants you to pick only from his four choices. if you choose something else he's going to call it a name like substandard but it's what you chose to buy because it's what you could afford and what you wanted. he's going to force you to buy something you may not need or want. >> i see your point. but people say the want freedom of choice. i don't want to pay for it.
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then when something happens to them the expect to get the care paid for by somebody. that's part of why our costs are so high to begin with. >> i don't think anybody should get something for free. people should pay. when i was a physician and some people couldn't pay, some of them paid on installments. some of them paid a little over time. some never paid me and that does happen. but i think physicians and hospitals have dealt with this since the beginning of time. and it isn't perfect. i'm not saying the old system is perfect, either. but what i would have done is expand competition and make prices more elastic. let prices down and down and have cheaper policies with higher deductibles because then competition would bring prices down. >> of course deductibles are a big issue here. a lot of these deductibles are very high on a lot of plans being offered. but when you talk about being for freedom and not liking words like force and mandate, it brings me to the question of what is a conservative. and i think it's an important question because you're vying against a lot of people who may
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be running in 2016 including yourself. here are two of your possible opponents this week talking about how they're really conservatives. >> there are some republicans who say because i got 61% of the vote in new jersey he must not be conservative. how could a conservative win those. this is completely crazy to me. >> i'm a conservative. and i'm a practicing one. >> i'm a practicing one. it just sort of sounds like a religion. jeb bush is in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, new jersey governor chris christie says everyone should be allowed to marry who the want. does that fit your definition of conservative? >> i don't think anybody gets to decide what is or isn't conservative. i think on the new jersey governor, embracing obama care, expanding medicaid in his state is very expensive and not fiscally conservative. really many republican governors i would say are conservative did resist expanding and accepting obama care in their states. i would say that fact i would
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say would lead you towards making the conclusion is not a very conservative proposal. >> all right. and our thanks to senator rand paul. please we look forward to your feedback on that ichnterview. still to come a man who knew his attacker is out front tonight. a federal employee found to be running a black supremacist web site. why is uncle sam and you the taxpayer still paying him his salary? no joke. and big move surrounding the toronto mayor still "outfront." [ male announcer ] at his current pace,
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our third story "outfront" tonight, a black supremacist employee of the homeland security who was fired for calling for the murder of white people he still has a job at dhs. he admits he rant site "war on the horizon calling for a racial war" so why on earth is he still collecting a paycheck paid for by our tax dollars? tom foreman is out front he
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calls him 70 irritated genie is still at it, still on the internet condemning whites, gays, jews, asians, anyone who doesn't measure up to his black nationalist views. >> that's how we're going to put a foot in his this cracker's ass. >> and he is still an employee of the department of homeland security, three months after the agency publicly acknowledged his web site calling for widespread racial violence. he declined our request for an interview, but on youtube even he seems surprised he was not let go as soon as his employers found out. >> i always remind myself, the know who you are. the know what you're doing. don't forget that. >> reporter: he's not the only one wondering how he's kept his $115,000 a year job. >> this is a guy who runs a web site that calls for the mass murder of whites and for war on the horizon. >> reporter: the southern poverty law center has accused him of hate speech, and officials there are baffled that he remains on the federal payroll. he's been on administrative leave since august, but that
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just means he's collected nearly $38,000 for doing nothing. >> the fact of the matter is that his views are the kind that the department of homeland security should be tracking, the should not be playing him or paying him. >> reporter: the department says little about the matter, confirming only that he remains an employee of immigration and customs enforcement or i.c.e. and noting "i.c.e. does not condone is in hateful rhetoric or advocacy of violence. accusations of misconduct are investigated thoroughly and if substantial cheated appropriate action is taken." before he was put on leave he said he worked for the devil. >> i'm not just pushing paper. i'm having to sit down and say, okay, how do i help these people that need to be helped. >> reporter: he called it a fun job. some government watchdog groups say look, firing a federal employee is just complicated and it takes time.
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komafi has suggested maybe he's still employed because the feds want to keep an eye on him. but erin, considering how routinely he savages people taking on everyone from trayvon martin's parents to president obama, it's really hard to imagine how homeland security could not be keeping an eye on him. >> on all points it's impossible to disagree with you and pretty outrageous to imagine it's worth pay be $116,000 a year so we can keep an eye on him. thanks so much for tom foreman. our fourth story "outfront" george zimmer man arraigned on domestic violence charges today four months after being acquitted in the murder of trayvon martin. he was charged with aggravated assault and criminal mischief. but judge agreed to release him on a $9,000 bond with a number of restrictions. david mattingly is in sanford, florida, covered the trayvon martin case from start to finish. was there in that room with george zimmerman and he's out front with the story. >> reporter: new accusations
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against george zimmerman suggest this is not the first time his girlfriend feared for her safety. a state prosecutor told the court samantha shiby says zimmerman choked her during an argument a week and a half ago and that zimmerman talked about suicide. not reported to police, it caught his public defenders off guard. >> that was the first i heard about it, too. i was surprised myself. >> reporter: samantha's mother tells cnn "my daughter is doing good and she's in a safe place" after her alarming 911 call. >> he just broke my glass table. you just broke my sunglasses and you put your gun in my freaking face and told me to get the [ mute ] out. >> reporter: investigators say zimmerman had been living with shivy for months. the judge says he now has to stay away from her. >> not by person, not by phone, not by mail, fax, blog, tweet, through facebook. no contact at all. >> reporter: zimmerman's not even allowed to go back to his girlfriend's house to collect
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his belongings. someone will have to do that for him. his attorneys say deputies already took away multiple guns belonging to zimmerman. he is not allowed to have a gun or leave the state while out on bond. to wear a tracking device again, just like before he was acquitted of murdering trayvon martin. declared indigent, zimmerman claims to be $2.5 million in debt, homeless, unemployed with only $144 to his name. >> he's upset. he's calm but he's upset. he wants to go home. >> reporter: never arrested before on domestic violence charges, zimmerman traded restraining orders with a former girlfriend in 2005. in september he was detained after his soon-to-be ex-wife accused him of smashing her ipad after a fight. no charges were filed. this time, zimmerman blames everything on his girlfriend and made sure his story was recorded in his own call to 911. >> he just started smashing stuff, taking stuff that belonged to me and throwing it outside, throwing it out of her
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room, throwing it all over the house. she broke a glass table because she threw something on it. >> reporter: and shortly before zimmerman was released from jail today, another twist. he was served, erin, with divorce papers. >> served with divorce papers. what about the girlfriend? i'm just looking at her there. i know zimmerman said he's known her for a long time, samantha shiby. what more do we know about her and the rumor that i've heard that she was pregnant with his child? >> reporter: well, not just a rumor. we actually heard george zimmerman say it in his 911 call that she was pregnant. then we heard from deputies that she told them that she wasn't. we tried to get to the bottom of it today. her mother didn't respond to those questions when we contacted her. george zimmerman himself didn't respond to those questions when he walked out of jail. >> wow. i heard at the end you're saying he has $144 to his name. you've seen him in both cases. obviously we all remember how heavy he got during the trayvon
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martin case. how did he look today? >> reporter: well, he's lost weight noticeably. he's of course got a lot more facial hair now. but his demeanor was relatively the same that we observed while he was in the courtroom. he stood there, he listened, he answered only when he needed to. the only difference today it might have had something to do with the thermostat in the jail, he was sweating. >> all right. thank you very much, david mattingly. still to come, a virginia lawmaker stabbed in his own home in a bizarre and horrific tale he's fighting for his life. his son is dead. the mental health crisis. plus more strange behavior swirling around rob ford and a huge announcement surrounding his television show we told you about last night. and at least 16 dead from massive flooding. the most rain seen in centuries the we'll show you the dramatic video next and exactly where this happened. wow...look at you. i've always tried to give it my best shot. these days i'm living with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat,
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welcome back to the second half of "outfront." at least 16 people are dead tonight after a sigh clean ravaged the italian island of sardinia, playground for billion iraries. the amount of rain the island usually gets in six months came down in 12 hours. the bridge that you're looking at right there reportedly collapsed as a policeman was driving through.
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people have not seen rain like this on the italian island for centuries. think about this for one second if you would. 17 inches of rain in 90 minutes. stunning. that's what new york, for example, gets in five months. the faa has announced it's giving extra medical attention to overweight pilots and air traffic controllers before it's willing to certify them. according to their top medical doctor, obstructive sleep apnea is almost universal in obese people. the faa doesn't want its most crucial workers getting sleepy on the job. pilots who have a body mass index over 40 will be evaluated by a special sleep therapist. u.s. authorities have just busted what the believe is -- wait for this one -- a north korean meth ring. five men have been arrested in thailand in connection with the ring. they're being extradited to the united states. investigators say the were trafficking methamphetamine and other drugs from north korea. the men are apparently part of a
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broader investigation involving former soldiers including joseph hunter, a former u.s. army sniper nicknamed rambo who allegedly had a murder for hire scheme in the works. and gay rights supporters outraged after chick-fil-a ceo dan kathy was given aaward for being champion or justice and equality after he said last year he was supportive of the biblical definition of the family unit. it prompted protests and boycotts. you probably remember that. in a statement the urban league of greater atlanta says the award recognized chick-fil-a's significant financial contributions but still supports equal rights for all. and ford nation, about crack-smoking mayor from toronto and his brother was canceled. the show didn't cite his recent indiscretions as the reason but said the show takes too much time to keep on the air. don't worry, the real life rob ford was much better than the
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staid rob ford you saw in that clip, anyway. a horrible story out of virginia. a state senator brutally stabbed in his home, his son now dead from an apparent suicide. cree deed was found early this morning with multiple stab wounds to his head and torso. investigators believe his son austin, called gus, stand him and then turned a gun on himself. outfront tonight we begin with the story and chris lawrence. >> reporter: police found a chilling scene after an early morning 911 call. >> deeds was stabbed multiple times about the head and upper torso. deeds was able to leave the scene on foot. as he was coming down a hill from his residence he encounter add cousin when lives nearby >> caller: creigh deeds was airlifted to a hospital. deputies found the senator's 24-year-old son gus suffering from a gunshot wound. he died at the scene.
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police say there was an altercation. >> based on the evidence we have right now, we are looking into this as an attempted murder and suicide. now, this is not an absolute determination because it's still very much an ongoing investigation. >> reporter: his son gus was often seen at his side on the campaign trail. gus was a music major at the college of william and mary. but officials say in the last month he'd left the school. the richmond times dispatch is reported that gus deeds was sent for a mental health evaluation under an emergency custody order. but the paper cites a source saying he was released monday because no bed was available. creigh deeds is well-known in virginia politics in his unsuccessful bid for governor in 2009 he garnered a presidential endorsement. >> when like at the way he conducts himself and his campaign, speaking truth to power but always doing it in a way that reminds us that we have to bring people together instead
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of driving them apart. >> reporter: one bright spot in all of this, creigh deeds has been updated to fair condition from critical. as for his son, the facility where gus deeds was allegedly released from just yesterday said the will not confirm that he was brought there under an emergency custody order, but the do say even if someone is brought there, the cannot be held there any longer than six hours. cnn reached out to virginia officials to get a better explanation, and the tell us that the the availability of beds for these emergency consultations is quote tight, but in normal circumstances, because they are calling hospitals all across the area, normally it is possible and likely that someone does get a bed. erin? >> chris lawrence, thank you very much. sobering. and "outfront" is virginia state senator chad peter sohn. he's known creigh deeds for 15
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years. let me ask you this. you've known cree for more than 15 years. how concerned was he about gus? >> well, erin, i first of all thank you for having me on this evening. i know that as a father he had had a lot of concerns about his son, just issues involving dropping out of school and things of that nature. and i just know thought was a topic that was of grave concern to him. >> and i know that obviously gus deeds had recently dropped out of william and mary, the college there. did cree ever talk to you about that? >> yeah. i think again, cree, we were friends and we had a friendship outside of the state senate. and again, i just know that he had been concerned about his son's situation. and that was something that was on his mind. >> and did he feel he had solutions? i mean, when we hear these stories, got to be honest with you, senator, sometimes it's just so shocking. according to reports, gus was released after a mental health
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evaluation on monday because there were no psychiatric beds that could be found. i mean, it sounds like cree had tried to help his son and sort of run up against wall after wall after wall. did you get that impression, that he felt like i'm trying to get help here for a child with mental health problems but i'm not able to do it? >> yeah. i will tell you, erin, i don't know the details about the psychiatric bed. i do know that cree was living in mill springs, which is a rural part of virginia, on the very far western part of the state. and i know he was living with his son. the two of them were living together. that was a conscious choice as i understood to try to help his son get back on his feet, to get some stability in his life. and i just know that cree had made a commitment to his son in that way. and again, i hadn't talked to him specifically about it in the last few months, but i just know it weigh on his mind as a father. that's why as shocking as these
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events are today, the pieces kind of come into place now that we know more about the history. >> was cree close to gus? you're talking about as a father he wanted to live with him to try to help him ostensibly because there weren't other options. but were the close as father-son? >> yeah. in fact one of the memories i have of cree and gus was them traveling the state together. i think back to cree's run for attorney general in 2005. and that's when we became friends, because we had been friends but we knew each other even better because i was campaigning that same year. and gus was his driver. the traveled together, cree tried to make time for them to travel together. and he was a teenage boy of maybe 15, 16 years old at the time. i just remember he had a big mop of curly hair, and there was a very affectionate relationship. that's how i remember them. >> thanks very much to you, state senator peter sohn. still to come, did president obama snub abraham lincoln?
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why did the president skip the gettysburg ceremony today on this crucial anniversary even though he says late at night he goes to a special room in the white house when his wife and daughters have gone to sleep to think about the gettysburg address. the u.s. government launches an investigation into an american car company. why are its cars catching on fire. ♪ stacy's mom has got it goin' on ♪ ♪ stacy's mom has got it goin' on ♪ [ male announcer ] the beautifully practical and practically beautiful cadillac srx. get the best offers of the season now. lease this 2014 srx for around $369 a month with premium care maintenance included. ♪ man: [ laughs ] those look like baby steps now. but they were some pretty good moves.
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outer circle. first to beirut with suicide bombers outside the iranian embassy killing 23 injuring nearly 150 people. i asked nick payton walsh why the embassy was the target. >> reporter: erin, i'm standing just down the road from where those two blasts detonated about 9:00 this morning outside the iranian embassy. we're now hear from the will be knees army. there were two suicide bombers one on a scooter the other on a jeep detonating those devies. guards opened fire on them as the approached the gates. i'm standing in a hezbollah stronghold and the group that claimed responsibility made it quite clear the were targeting the iranian embassy and trying to get hezbollah to stop assisting in the syrian conflict. but many concerned the tactics today a suicide bombing people have not seen at all for decades here in lebanon and this is another sign the violence in syria is spilling over into lib none. erin? >> thank very much to nick. i want to go to tokyo now where
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thousands lined the streets today. you say what would the do that for? because caroline kennedy, the new u.s. ambassador to japan went through that horse-drawn carriage. kennedy's first trip to the imperial palace was part of an elaborate procession marking the official start of her duties. kyung lah was there. >> reporter: what you are seeing here, all these people lining the street here in tokyo, this is highly unusual. they are here just to catch a glimpse of caroline kennedy become the u.s. ambassador in the eyes of japan. now, caroline kennedy arrived here at the imperial palace, pulled in a horse-drawn carriage traveling through the streets of tokyo. she arrived at the imperial palace for a formal ceremony where she presented her credentials to the emperor of japan. ambassador kennedy made a short statement after the formalities. >> eager to begin work as ambassador. so it was a wonderful ceremony
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and i'm honored to represent my country. >> reporter: the japanese, at least the ones who have shown up here, appear to be relatively unconcerned about kennedy's lack of diplomatic experience despite pressing issues in this region like north korea, china, as well as the global economy. the say what's brought them out here and what they are most impressed with with their new ambassador is her star power. erin? >> thanks. our sixth story "outfront" did president obama snub abraham lincoln? thousands gathered in gettysburg today to celebrate abraham lincoln's 272-word address. there was one very notable no show, the president of the united states, barack obama. the white house blamed a scheduling issue. when reporters pressed asking what's more important than the gettysburg anniversary his aide responded "i don't know. there's this whole web site
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problem that some suggest might destroy the dem party." okay, i'm excited about this conversation. governor howard dean, let me start with you. something happened a few moments ago. i want to ask you about this tweet first. the president is not running the code for the obama web site. why that snarky response from the white house? >> i have no idea why the response to the white house. but you guys don't have enough to do if this is the lead story or important story on cnn. for heaven's sakes, the president idolizes abraham lincoln. he put his cabinet together thinking about abraham lincoln. to have a discussion about why he didn't go on this particular day, i think we should let the president be in charge of his schedule rather than television reporter that is don't have enough to do. >> let me ask this to you, then. he obviously is feeling the pressure from this conversation. if he weren't he wouldn't have done what he just did which is put out a hand-written letter saying after michelle and the kids go to sleep he goes down to a room where abe lincoln used to hang out and he thinks about,
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pontiff kates about abraham lincoln. "i linger on these few words that have helped define our american experiment, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." politically wouldn't it have been smart to switch the conversation, put yourself in the shadow of abe lincoln, get rid of this whole obama care thing. >> the president has a job. and it's to be president of the united states. who are we to question what his choices are in his schedule? he does have a few things distract him. i will say that the web site is probably something he's worried about. i agree he doesn't write the code. but the day of a president is pretty full. there may have been a great many things. what about the nsa which appears to be out of control? lots and lots of problems. >> it would be great if he talked publicly about some of them a little more than he has, shawn. >> i think the issue is that he's had time for ten fund raisers. he was golfing last weekend. i'm not begrudging him.
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but the notion that all these other things take paramount to going and celebrating this day seem a little silly. if the white house is going to make light of it then the can't sort of make light of it, put the statement out as you said and have time for fund raisers and golf and everything else and then claim we're busy with everything else. it doesn't add up. and i think that they've got to get their story straight. but they've gone from having the president not in the loop on all these various issues, a.p. reporting, department of justice monitoring some reporters, the nsa, and then the web site. he doesn't even know what's going on or the staff's not informing him. and then today pfeiffer making light of the fact there's so many other things to be doing. as the governor pointed out, i would agree, this president has embraced lincoln from announcing choosing where he's going to announce his presidency to the route he took in washington to the bible. so to suddenly act like today is just another day on the calendar is a little ridiculous as well.
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>> we don't know. for all we know he was discussing a serious national security issue. maybe he was putting the finishing touches on either blowing up or signing the iran detail. i mean, the presidents do a lot of really important things. and i think abraham lincoln is an iconic figure in american history. it is possible that something else was distracting the president today and i think ought to give him leeway on that. >> he did attend a wall street ceo summit and he talked about the obama care web site problem. here is what he said. >> i think that we probably underestimated the complexities of building out a web site that needed to work the way it should. >> we probably underestimated the complexities. he went on to say we probably -- we underestimated what we probably needed to do on the front end was to blow up how we procure for i.t. governor dean, all i have to say is this. he has come out and apologized
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again and again. got to give the guy credit for that. why use the word probably? why not just say i know we underestimated. i know we need to change how we do i.t. contracts. >> web site rollouts are tough. i've seen a lot screwed up. electronic medical records. we did the tax department rule up there. my rule on i.t. it takes twice as much and costs twice as much and often you have to do it twice. this is not the first i.t. rollout that's been screwed up. >> did you have this problem in vermont? >> this is certainly an i.t. rollout that's very very public and that's the problem. >> with all due respect, governor, the problem here isn't the web site. and i know the default keeps going back to the rollout and i.t. and procurement. the fact of the matter is, frankly republicans are right. we warned everybody about this. when you go to take over 1/6th of the economy, the health care system you're going to have a
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problem. it's not like building godaddy. wolf was just teased his package all the backlogs and problems in the v.a. system. this is not about a web site. it's about having government take over health care and not acknowledging that there's going to be massive problems. the acknowledged today that 30 to 40% of the site is still not done. the can't get the silly shopping cart to work that any amazon-type site would have because this is not -- this is not an easy deal. they're trying to take over too much. and government is doing what government should not be doing. >> in part the president has acknowledged. but governor dean that's why i get to the issue of the word "probably." probably sounds like someone who doesn't really want to fully admit the messed up. i messed up is different than i probably messed up. >> this is not a government takeover of health care. this is romney care. we wouldn't be having an exchange with 26 states if the republicans had willingness to deal with all this. this has nothing to do with the
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fundamental problems of obama care. this has something to do with web site problem. the administration made mistakes, the contractor made mistakes. it would have been nice after this bill passed if the republicans had been responsible to their own people and done their best to make this thing work. it can worked. it worked in massachusetts 98.5% of massachusetts citizens have health insurance. this is the same system. >> thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate it. now bad news for tesla motors, now the target of a federalivation because the national highway traffic safety administration said today it's launching an investigation into why two of the company's model s vehicles have caught fire this year. according to reports the fires began when the battery casing cracked open. it's just the latest p.r. nightmare for tesla, which once was just a company that cowl do no wrong. last week actor george clooney got involved, telling "esquire" magazine i was one of the first cats with a tesla. but i'm telling you i've been on the side of the road awhile in that thing.
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i said to them, look, guys, why am i always the guy on the side of the road. tesla ceo responded to clooney said in other news george clooney reports that his iphone 1 had a big back in 2007. that's little different than a car blowing up. the company is changing its warranty to cover damage done to fire even if due to driver error. according to e ilan musk, either our belief in the safety of the car is correct and this is is a minor cost or we are wrong in which case the right thing is for tesla to bear the cost rather than the car buyer." elan musk. investors are worried. for the year this stock is still through the moon. we're going to take a brief break. still to come "hunger games" is back and the money enormous. farmer: hello, i'm an idaho potato farmer.
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the first film in the "hunger games" trilogy brought in $190 million. apparently most of you have bought your tickets for the next one "catching fire" is supposed to do better than that. we spoke to jennifer lawrence about the money and power behind the deal. >> the girl on fire. >> number one was big this. one's probably going to be even bigger. >> she has to be eliminated. >> it's a wonderful story. the trilogy itself is full of that because there's so many different levels. and the cruelty of the capital
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as well just kind of intensifies this second one. >> well, i won't go to whole foods the day it's coming out. >> stock up the day before. >> no. literally the day the movie was released i had no idea i was famous yet. i don't think i knew the movie came out that day. i was at whole foods, had the worst experience of my life. >> what happened? that's hilarious. >> the had to call the police. i had to go down like the cargo elevator and i was crying. really sad. >> geez. whole foods makes me so happy. >> i saw my ex-boyfriend there. he was like how's your life? i was like really bad. >> life's pretty good now, though. the first film made almost $700 million worldwide and lawrence is now an oscar winner. >> ladies and gentlemen, the winner for best actress, for "silver linings playbook"" jennifer lawrence. >> one of the biggest stars in hollywood. >> i have such a -- no, it's really such a wonderful life that it's great. i think i would have died in an
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office, just me personally, because i remember being in school. there are times when i still remember that, just being able to travel and the freedom and being able to be creative every day. it's such a blessing. >> so are you going? let us know. piers morgan is next. customer erin swenson ordered shoes from us online but they didn't fit. customer's not happy, i'm not happy. sales go down, i'm not happy. merch comes back, i'm not happy. use ups. they make returns easy. unhappy customer becomes happy customer. then, repeat customer. easy returns, i'm happy. repeat customers, i'm happy. sales go up, i'm happy. i ordered another pair. i'm happy. (both) i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. happy happy. i love logistics.
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the united states population is going to grow by over 90 ovemillion people,ears and almost all that growth is going to be in cities. what's the healthiest and best way for them to grow so that they really become cauldrons of prosperity and cities of opportunity? what we have found is that if that family is moved into safe, clean affordable housing, places that have access to great school systems, access to jobs and multiple transportation modes then the neighborhood begins to thrive and then really really take off.
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the oxygen of community redevelopment is financing. and all this rebuilding that happened could not have happened without organizations like citi. citi has formed a partnership with our company so that we can take all the lessons from the revitalization of urban america to other cities. so we are now working in chicago and in washington, dc and newark. it's amazing how important safe, affordable housing is to the future of our society.
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this is "piers morgan live." welcome to the viewers in the united states and around the world. tonight, george zimmerman back in court. he was found not guilty of murder. will he beat the wrap in this case? >> there was a prior domestic violence case that happened approximately a week and a half ago that involved a choking she did not report to the police. >> and a state senator stabbed in his home. his son dead at the scene. an attempted murder suicide. is this the case of a mentally ill young man falling through the cracks. alec baldwin and the n-word. who decides what you can and cannot say? we'll battle it out with charles blow.
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