GOP Wins Weiner's House Seat; Republicans Hold Onto Nevada Seat; Pressure's On to Pass Jobs Plan; PA Health Care Ruling; Attack on U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan Over
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. A Republican capturing the House seat left vacant by Anthony Weiner and the GOP is calling it a vote against President Obama.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello. It's the video everyone is talking about. Good Samaritans rescuing an unconscious motorcyclist beneath a burning BMW. Four of those heroes will tell us why they risked their own lives to save someone else on this</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROMANS: All right, good morning, everyone. It's Wednesday, September 14th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Ali has the day off today.</s>COSTELLO: He does. He was tired after that big Tea Party debate. Coming up first this morning, Democrats licking their wounds this morning after a devastating setback in New York. Bob Turner winning the race to fill Anthony Weiner's vacant congressional seat. It is the first time in nearly a century that a Republican has captured the traditionally Democratic ninth New York district, and Turner did it with an anti-Obama campaign.</s>BOB TURNER (R), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL ELECT: -- asked by the people of this district to send a message to Washington, and I hope they hear it loud and clear. We have been told this is a referendum and we're ready to say, Mr. President, we are on the wrong track.</s>COSTELLO: Mary Snow is tracking this developing story for us. So did this come as a surprise or did people sort of suspect this was going to happen?</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the polls leading into the race showed Republicans were ahead, but clearly the Democrat here was expected to win. I mean, Democrats will say, look, there are conservative Democrats in this district and President Obama won I think by 11 points in 2008. However, you know, Anthony Weiner was elected to seven terms here. Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one and it was clearly expected that the Democrats here would win. You know, there is going to be a lot of dissecting of this race to see exactly what it means. But if you remember back in the spring there was a special election in upstate New York and a Democrat won. It was a surprise because it was a Republican-held district. That Democrat won on Social Security and Medicare. The Democrat here tried to make that the issue here, but in that time the economy has soured and polls showed that jobs were the big issue here.</s>ROMANS: And this wasn't just an American and jobs issue. There is also an Israel issue here too. How did that play in?</s>SNOW: Yes, this was an unusual factor in this race. The Republican here made Israel an issue, and he is a catholic. The Democrat is an orthodox Jew and he found himself on the defensive, because the Republican candidate said, criticized President Obama's policies on Israel. Ed Koch, a former New York City mayor who's a Democrat came out and said I want to send a message to President Obama as Israel and endorse the Republican. So, you know, in the polls it wasn't that big of an issue, but there is a Jewish population in this district. Also same-sex marriage became an issue because the Democrat in this race supported same-sex marriage. He's an assembly man in New York. So, you know, it was anything but local.</s>COSTELLO: The candidate did not support same-sex marriage?</s>SNOW: He's not a politician. He is a former cable TV executive. He did run against Anthony Weiner.</s>ROMANS: His position was same-sex marriage?</s>SNOW: Right.</s>COSTELLO: The national election in 2012 will be very interesting if this is a sign of things to come.</s>ROMANS: Republicans are holding on to a congressional seat in Nevada. Mark Amodei defeated Democrat Kate Marshall in yesterday's special elections to replace former Congressman Dean Heller. Heller is replacing former Republican Senator John Ensign. Remember he resigned from the Senate in May after acknowledging an affair with a staffer's wife.</s>COSTELLO: The pressure is on this morning for President Obama to get Republicans to OK his jobs bill. Just take a look at our new CNN/ORC poll. More than half of those surveyed, 55 percent do not approve of the way the president is handling his job. All the more reason the president is on the road today. He's in a key state of North Carolina hoping to convince the American public it appears some in Congress are holding back his effort to deal with the job crisis.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Maybe there are some people in Congress who would rather settle our differences at the ballot box than work together right now. But I've got news for them, the next election is 14 months away and the American people don't have the luxury of waiting that long.</s>COSTELLO: Dan Lothian live at the White House. Dan, good morning. The heat is on the White House to get this plan through Congress. So how optimistic can the president be?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're trying to remain optimistic here at the White House, but there is, according to top aides, a sense of urgency as the president tries to sell this jobs plan not only to the American people, but also to members of Congress. Now as you pointed out, there are those negative poll numbers, but in a new poll released just this morning, a CNN/ORC poll, there is a much more mixed review of what Americans think about the president's jobs plan, while they still don't know all of the details inside that plan, overall on the major proposals, they like what they see. The 43 percent are in favor of the plan, 35 percent oppose it, and 22 percent are still unsure. So the president, again, as you pointed out, will be hitting the road after visiting key battleground states of Virginia and Ohio. This time he heads to North Carolina just outside Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina where he will visit a small business that the White House says has the benefit of the president's jobs plan. He will also be delivering remarks at North Carolina State University. We expect to hear pretty much the similar message from yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, where the president was calling on Americans to pick up the phone, to tweet, to use whatever method of communication, to force and convince their lawmakers to embrace this jobs bill. But there's still a lot of resistance from Republicans who don't want to see any tax hikes as a way to fund the president's jobs plan. Carol --</s>COSTELLO: Dan Lothian reporting live in Washington for us this morning. Thanks, Dan.</s>ROMANS: A new legal setback for President Obama's health care law. A federal judge in Pennsylvania declaring the provision that requires people to buy health care. Health insurance is unconstitutional. The ruling was issued in one of more than 30 lawsuits nationwide that challenged the president's health care overhaul. The question of an insurance mandate is ultimately expected to end up in the Supreme Court.</s>COSTELLO: After nearly 24 hours, the Taliban's attack on the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan is over. Security forces say they killed the six militants who stormed the nearby building in Kabul and opened fire on the embassy in a NATO command center. No one inside the U.S. embassy was injured, but at least one police officer was killed outside of the embassy. A spokesman for NATO says the strike was, quote, "carefully planned." And we're told they were getting out of jail, but this morning, we're hearing a far different story. An Iranian judiciary official now says there is no decision on whether those two American hikers, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, will be released. Iran's president just said yesterday told NBC News, they could be released with a couple of days. The hikers' attorney said they'd be free as soon as each paid half a million dollars, but everything is up in the air this morning.</s>ROMANS: A 21-year-old motorist who was pulled from a burning car by a group of bystanders. You've probably seen this video. He's recovering this morning and undergoing physical therapy. This is the video right now that everyone is talking about. Brandon Wright of Logan, Utah, unconscious, trapped under a burning BMW after a collision in a parking lot. His uncle says no words can describe the gratitude of Brandon's loved ones.</s>TYLER RIGGS, VICTIM'S UNCLE: The family of Brandon, first and foremost, his parents, his siblings and everyone else, are incredibly thankful for these angels that came to his aid yesterday. The -- watching the video gives us chills. That car could have blown up at any time. It was amazing they risked their lives, 12 people, however many it was to save Brandon's life.</s>ROMANS: Four of those angels who saved Brandon's life will be joining us live from Logan, Utah in the next half hour of</s>AMERICAN MORNING. COSTELLO: And as you may expect, they were humble so I can't wait to talk to them. Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, new staggering numbers on poverty in America. More poor people than at any other time since the U.S. started keeping track. We'll check back with one family we visited last year who's barely getting by. The face of poverty in America.</s>ROMANS: Fire in the north. Flame spreading 16 miles in one day in Minnesota. Smoke now spreading over three states. Look out below, NASA has a better idea of just when a defunct six-ton satellite will be making its plunge back to earth. It's nice to know when that's going to happen. It's 8 minutes after the hour.