Transcripts For WPVI Good Morning America 20170629 : vimarsa

WPVI Good Morning America June 29, 2017

The russia investigation. Tim tebows big moment at bat. The rising mets star sending a 92mileanhour fastball soaring. Took a bat on the ball and hit it hard and was thankful i could get one out tonight. Getting one step closer to the major leagues. Tim tebow hit it out of the house. That moment once again. He just got promoted. What a great way for timmy to celebrate. Put the bat on the ball, hit it hard. Just like that. It is crunch time in the capitol. Trying to craft a new version of Obamacare Repeal by tomorrow but it is going slow. We have new polls this morning showing the public just isnt buying it. More on that in a moment. First to that tornado threat out of the midwest. More than two dozen reported twisters tearing across four states. Abcs alex perez starts us off in wisconsin. Good morning, alex. Reporter ray, good morning, robin. A lot of the damage happened after dark so many people are just now getting a chance to assess what happened. Now, that powerful storm ripped right through this garage tearing down the walls and sucking this big truck out, flipping it over. [ sirens ] hurry, tornado. Reporter dangerous twisters tearing through the heartland. I think its coming this way. Reporter 26 reported tornadoes touching down across four states wednesday from iowa to wisconsin. Oh, its hitting the ground now. Reporter the storming bringing massive hail. Toppling trees and destroying homes. This is, you know, fury of nature type of stuff. Reporter one family it hit like that. Reporter narrowly escaping. This morning the massive cleanup under way. Crews working to clear roads and help those who lost everything. Just like the world had ended. Reporter this as wildfires wreak havoc in the west. More than a dozen structures destroyed in southern utah. Ask you guys to all leave. Reporter the goodwin fire in arizona quadrupling in size on wednesday. Firefighters forced to pull back for fear of their safety. So the cleanup here is just getting started. But to complicate things many parts of the midwest today bracing for another round of strong storms. George. Okay, alex, thanks very much. We want to get more on those wildfires out west. Rob marciano has that. Reporter 40 of them so expanding this and hot and dry conditions across the Intermountain West and red flag warnings still in effect. Some of that energy is now in the plains where we got the Severe Weather yesterday. And thats where were going to have the Severe Weather today. A severe thunderstorm watch out for much of northern kansas and a Flash Flood Watch out for kansas city and parts of missouri and the threat extends today across the plains and tomorrow its going to actually get into the great lakes and getting closer to the Holiday Weekend so may impact the plans of our viewers. Rob, thank you. Now to that breaking news. One of the popes top advisers facing Sexual Assault charges this morning. Cardinal george pell, the highest ranked vatican official ever to face these accusations. Our Foreign Correspondent James Longman has that story for us. Good morning, james. Reporter good morning, robin. Yes, a Stunning Development overnight. The man considered the third highest ranking official in the Catholic Church is charged with multiple counts of Sexual Assault. George pell is a senior cardinal from australia and is in charge of vatican finances which makes him a close adviser to the pope. We dont have much detail yet of the allegations but they do go back to his time as a young priest. Cardinal pell firing back criticizing what he calls a relentless character assassination adding the whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me. Now, in his official statement he says hes looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously. Police have instructed him to appear in court on july 19th. As a member of the popes upper circle this is potentially the biggest scandal to face the current papacy but pope francis indicated his support and given Cardinal Pell leave in order to face trial. The pope has asked everyone including the media to withhold judgment but this is a big test for him. Reporter his reaction is going to be under huge scrutiny. Many just feel that the vatican has not done enough to deal with this problem. The world will be watching, robin. It will, james, thanks. Were following several stories out of washington. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell trying to reach consensus on Obamacare Repeal hoping for a vote but few signs hes picking up the support he needs. House set to vote on two new bills and President Trump will hold his first meeting with south koreans president and how to deal with north korea at the top of the agenda. New developments in the russell investigation. One of President Trumps closest personal aides is now facing questions. Our senior White House Correspondent cecilia vega here with the details. Good morning, cecilia. Reporter good morning. This probe is widening. Investigators are now looking at the president s inner circle. As you said one of the people they now want to talk to is one of the president s closest aides. He is President Trumps longtime former bodyguard turned Top White House aide. Such close ties he has an office right next to the oval office. And this morning, abc news has learned Keith Schiller is now on the list of witnesses that House Intelligence Committee investigators want to talk to as part of their probe into possible ties between team trump and the russians. Schiller did not respond to a request for comment. But sources close to the investigation tell abc news people on that witness list have been notified. Schiller has known President Trump for nearly two decades. A former new York City Police officer who is now director of oval office operations, the president assigning him such tasks as hand delivering the letter to fbi headquarters that told former director james comey hed been fired. He is rarely heard from publicly. But he is nearly always by the president s side, known for being fiercely protective. During the campaign schiller was seen hitting a protester outside trump tower. Stop it reporter he was at the center of this now infamous moment. Excuse me, sit down. You are werent called. Sit down. I have the right to ask the question. Reporter after just a look from his boss, it was schiller who ushered univision anchor jorge ramos out of that news conference. Dont touch me, sir. Dont touch me. You cannot touch me. Reporter one white house official here tells me theyre not surprised to learn schillers name was on this list, in fact, several white house officials here expect that their names could end up on this list too, george, as this russia probe continues. Do we have any idea who those officials will be . Reporter well, george, were learning a little bit more as this investigation moves forward. We know that investigators want to talk to, for example, the president s soninlaw jared kushner, we know that they want to talk to his longtime friend roger stone. This is essentially a witness list, thats what this is and as this investigation moves forward, more names are being added to it. Expected to get wider. Thanks very much. George, more now on the health care showdown. The senate scrambling to draft a new version by tomorrow before leaving for the july 4th recess. President trump is predicting a great result. Mary bruce is tracking it all for us on capitol hill. Good morning, mary. Reporter good morning, robin. Well, republican leader Mitch Mcconnell is hoping to have a revised version by tomorrow but this morning its still unclear what parts are being tweaked and whether this will be enough to turn some of those no votes into yeses. Overnight the president got a harsh greeting as he arrived at his d. C. Hotel. [ chanting ]. He dropped by a fundraiser for his reelection campaign. As he eyes four more years that promise of his first term to repeal and replace obamacare is stalled on capitol hill. Health care is working along very well. Reporter Republican Leaders are still optimistic but still facing opposition from within. At least Nine Senate Republicans are opposed to the current bill. Not to mention all of the senate democrats. But thats not stopping the president from predicting a surprise victory. We could have a big surprise with a Great Health Care package. So now theyre happy. What do you mean by big surprise . I think youll have a great surprise. Reporter the real surprise would be if republicans are able to pull this off. Gop senators ive talked with who are still opposed are on the fence say they dont know if they can get it done and if they cant, well, there is growing talk up here of the b word. They may have to do a bipartisan deal. Robin. All right. And also, of course, the president is focusing on his travel ban and know parts will go into effect today. Reporter yeah, thats right. Part of his travel ban will be going into effect today and comes after the Supreme Court earlier this week finally upheld some parts of the ban. Thank you. More from our chief White House Correspondent jon karl. Lets begin with the russia investigation. Now reaching deeper and wider into the white house. This is still very much the beginning as it continues to grow, much more difficult for the white house to wall off the investigation from the rest of their work. Reporter and its cast a shadow over the entire west wing. The fact that schiller is now on that witness list is a reminder that virtually all of the president s senior aides at some point are going to be touched by this investigation. Even those who arent even accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever will have to come in, testify. That means its going to take time, a distraction and, george, legal bill, lots of legal bills, a shadow not just over the current senior staff but those they want to bring in who are having second thoughts about whether or not they want to be dragged that this. I lived through that in the 90s. Even when youre just a witness it costs you a fair amount of money, could be even tens of thousands of dollars. Lets talk about health care. A lot of new polls coming out showing how weak that senate bill s a couple up now. Three new polls all showing support for the Republicans Health care bill, one as low as 12 according to usa today will make mcconnells job so much more difficult. Reporter absolutely and another recent poll from fox news which has the number a little bit higher at 27 Approval Rating for the republican plan but look at this, george. 52 , a majority of the country now saying in that fox news poll they view obamacare possley. So its a tough political environment here. They still believe they have a chance to get this passed. But they really need to come to an agreement at least in the outlines of what the bill will finally be to get those wavering republicans on board by tomorrow. The president promising a big surprise. Any idea what hes talking about . Reporter i think the surprise hes talking about is winning, is victory on this bill. Getting this bill passed in the senate and, george, at this point that would be a surprise. It would be a surprise. Meantime, the president is meeting with the south korean president tonight. It comes as his National Security adviser suggests the president asked him to draw up new military options to take on north korea. Reporter thats right. The president himself has asked for the options and its a much more difficult challenge now because the North Koreans as their Missile Program has advanced, they can now launch missiles with a much shorter setup so much less time to react so what the president has told his National Security team is that he wants a new set of options including military options which they, of course, hope it will never come to because there are no really there is no good military option on the korean peninsula. None at all. Okay, jon karl, thanks very much. George, we have more now on the new security measures affecting thousands of flights heading to the u. S. The department of Homeland Security announcing enhanced screening for passengers and electronics. Abcs david kerley has the details and, david, this morning the airlines are warning this could, of course, lead to significant delays. Reporter theyre talking about that and actually how much it will cost as well, robin. This is all about terrorists who learned how to put explosives in Electronic Devices and sneak them through security. The u. S. Was considering expanding the laptop ban. Instead theyre requiring much tighter security from any airline that wants to fly into the u. S. Overnight airlines grumbling about the new stricter screening requirements the u. S. Is demanding for any jet headed to america. Passengers will see more dog units, explosives swabbing and new hightech scanning machines in foreign airports. The fear terrorists have learned to hide them in Electronic Devices. We saw it in africa. Our enemies are currently working to find new methods for disguising explosive, recruiting insiders and hijacking aircraft. Reporter the u. S. Is basically setting a new global standard for airport screening. Rather than expanding that laptop ban on eight middle eastern and eight african nations and so it will have to be used by every Airline Flying to the u. S. That covers 280 airports, 180 airlines, 2,000 flights and 325,000 passengers a day. Al qaeda and isis bombmakers have spent considerable time seeking to better understand Airport Security and find ways to build bombs that can get past it. Reporter while the International Airline Association Hopes to minimize the cost to airlines, the u. S. Airline association says, there should have been more consultation to avoid operational disruptions which it says are likely. Now, the airlines are being given a few weeks to implement some of these new restrictions. And a few months for others. Their kind of complaining its a very short time line, robin. What about the laptop ban already in effect at some airports . Reporter yeah, dhs, Homeland Security is saying if those airlines and those airports can meet these new Higher Standards theyre going to lift the laptop ban on those airports and airlines. Interesting, all right, david, thank you. We turn to an investigation into what set off an explosion at a college dorm in kentucky. As you can see much of the building at Murray State University was gutted. A University Employee who was injured is thankfully in stable condition. No students were inside because its summer break. Authorities say a preliminary investigation indicates a gas leak may be to blame investigating whether foul play was involved. We move to a Major Development in that case that made National Headlines last year when orred protesters occupied a National Wildlife refuge. An fbi agent is now facing charges accused of lying about the deadly encounter. Clayton sandell is in denver with the story. Good morning, clayton. Reporter and good morning, george. The fbi tells us that agent is no longer working on the bureaus elite hostage rescue team. Hes been reassigned after a shooting he says didnt happen. This morning an alleged lie and an fbi agent facing criminal charges. You want my blood on your hands . Reporter stemming from this attempt to arrest Robert Lavoy Finicum during a takeover at a wildlife refuge. They flee and nearly hit a roadblock. Thats when investigators say fbi agent w. Joseph astarita fires twice missing him as he gets out his hands up a bullet tearing through the truck. But astarita, a member of the fbis elite hostage rescue team, allegedly told investigators he never pulled the trigger. The actions of the fbi hrt in this case damaged the integrity of the entire Law Enforcement profession. Which makes me both disappointed and angry. Reporter seconds later state troopers shot and killed finicum saying he reached for a gun. Finicums wife says my husband was shot in the back three times and should have been afforded his own due process before they killed him. The coverup is worse than the crime because the agent would not have been prosecuted for taking a shot if he felt that that vehicle driven by finicum was a danger to the public. Reporter now what is still not clear is why astarita allegedly lied. Prosecutors say that will come out in court. The agent faces five felony counts in all and pleaded not guilty. Five counts. There were other members of the team. Whats going on with them . Reporter yeah, thats right. There were four other members of the team who were there. The sheriff who investigated the case says the fbi told him that those agents were not disciplined. The sheriff says that is disappointing, george. Okay, clayton, thanks very much. Back to rob for more on those conditions fueling the fires out west. George, all those lush hillsides from all that rain this past winter a

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