Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
A Long Day of Questions and Answers for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; New Gallup Poll Signals Increasing American Displeasure With What's Happening in Iraq
Aired May 07, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. The president apologizing to the Arab world, will the secretary of state -- secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld take the fall? Excuse me.
From the rim of the Martian crater, a picture of outstanding beauty and scientific value. We'll talk about Mars today.
And that "Friends" finale from last night. Did it live up to the hype?
This morning here on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, it's Friday, and it feels like it. Seven o'clock here in New York.
Soledad is out this week. Heidi Collins here again with us as you have all week. Good morning to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning to you. Thanks for the rain, by the way, on the very last day.
HEMMER: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Hey, other stories that we're following this morning -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will answer questions on Capitol Hill today.
He seems to be the lightning rod for anger over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. And there is talk it could cost him his job.
Live to the capitol for that just ahead.
HEMMER: Also a lawyer from Portland, Oregon, American citizen, may be caught up in the Madrid train bombings. A report on why he's been taken into custody by the FBI; that story continues today. COLLINS: And Jack Cafferty continues today as well.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: For a while. Or maybe longer.
There's a think tank in Washington that apparently has thought a lot about this -- because that's what they do -- and has decided that Democrats should call themselves something else besides liberals.
We will explain in the moments and hours in front of us.
COLLINS: All right Jack, thanks so much.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Do want to get to the news though this morning -- an apparent suicide attack has disrupted prayers at a Pakistani mosque.
Police say a bomb exploded at a Shiite mosque in downtown Karachi.
The blast left at least five people dead; wounded more than 30 others, but there are other reports at least ten people have been killed. We'll keep our eye on that story for you.
U.S. soldiers are tightening their grip on Iraq's holy city of Najaf. Troops there have been fighting with supporters of Muqtada Al- Sadr. Meanwhile, fresh clashes are reported between U.S. troops and militia loyal to al-Sadr near Karbala.
Amid the fighting the rebel cleric traveled to Kuka (ph) today for weekly prayers.
Al Qaeda may be offering gold in exchange for the killings of top U.S. and U.N. officials. The offer was made in a new audiotape reportedly from Osama bin Laden. The voice on the tape is offering 22 pounds of gold to anyone who kills top U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, or his envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Intelligence officials have not independently verified the identity of the speaker.
Emergency contraception known as the morning after pill won't be sold over the counter at least for now. The Food and Drug Administration rejected the move, saying it needs more proof that girls younger than 16 can safely use Plan B without a doctor's guidance.
The decision overrules a recommendation from the FDA's scientific advisers. The maker of the drug is expected to try again for approval.
And the question of Ross and Rachel has finally been settled for good. After ten years, the final episode of "Friends" aired last night. The finale had a couple of surprises in, and a double whammy for Monica and Chandler, who were surprised by twins. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm really happy for you guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you feel?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm tired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you don't have that much time to relax; the other one will be along in a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry; who should be along in a what now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next baby should be along in a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We only ordered one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: To find out whether Ross and Rachel got back together, though, stick around.
We will have more in our "90-Second Pop." A very special edition today.
HEMMER: What did you think of last night?
COLLINS: I thought it was great.
HEMMER: Yes?
COLLINS: Very fun, yes. They had one little tiff (ph) or one little thing to chat with them about and find out more.
HEMMER: Good deal. That's a good tease; we'll stay tuned for that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: It will be a long day of questions and answers for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Capitol Hill later today, facing lawmakers first in the Senate and then later this afternoon in the House.
Many of them want some justification for his actions during the current scandal over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
Let's start this morning on Capitol Hill in D.C. and CNN's Ed Henry.
Good morning there.
ED HENRY, CNN: Good morning, Bill. Secretary Rumsfeld will launch the fight to save his job from this very Senate hearing room in a little less than five hours.
He will face two hours of grilling here, and then head over to the House side of the Capitol where he will launch phase two of this battle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: When Rumsfeld takes the hot seat today, members of Congress will be hanging on every word.
SEN. BILL NELSON (D) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well there's still a lot of poking and probing and a lot of answers to be provided.
HENRY: The political stakes are enormous for Rumsfeld. The secretary was rebuked by President Bush on Wednesday, and now he has a string of senior Democrats calling for him to resign.
REPUBLICAN. NANCY PELOSI (D) MINORITY LEADER: Mr. Rumsfeld has been engaged in a cover-up from the start on this issue and continues to be so.
HENRY: But Republicans are insisting that there not be a rush to judgment.
SEN. JON KYL (R) ARIZONA: Would we have the right to call for somebody's resignation before we've even heard what they have to say? Or been briefed on what they did? Is that an American way to go about doing things?
HENRY: Rumsfeld met behind closed doors Thursday with four Republican senators. He told them he's eager to tell his side of the story and is confident that he can turn the tide.
One senator in the meeting noted that Rumsfeld is no rookie.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, Secretary Rumsfeld is not new to Washington or to the Pentagon or to emotional matters like this, but of course this is one small part of a huge responsibility he has.
HENRY: But the hard-charging Rumsfeld has not built up a reservoir of support on Capitol Hill. The kind of backing he may need now more than ever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (on camera): In this time of trouble, Secretary Rumsfeld may want to take a page from his own book, "Rumsfeld's Rules," which he published 30 years ago. It was a guide to political survival in Washington.
One of the rules seems relevant to today's testimony. It says "Be yourself, follow your instincts; success depends at least in part on the ability to carry it off." The secretary will try to carry it off right behind me at this witness table.
As you can see there are five microphones. That's because the secretary will be flanked by four other defense officials, including Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers.
And one administration official, senior administration official, has told CNN that as part of this testimony the secretary will announce the creation of an independent panel to investigate this prison abuse scandal -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ed, thanks for that. Ed Henry there on Capitol Hill.
There's a new Gallup poll released earlier today signaling increasing American displeasure with what's happening in Iraq. Only 37 percent of those surveyed said things in Iraq are going well. Some 62 percent described it as poor.
To the White House and Dana Bash there -- good morning.
DANA BASH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- and on Secretary Rumsfeld, Bill, the president gave him a public slap on the wrist yesterday much the same as he did, we are told, in private the day before, specifically for not being kept informed about the fact that these pictures of Iraqi abuses existed and about the fact that a classified report existed that cataloged those abuses.
The president knew about neither. But the president rejected the Democratic call -- growing calls -- that Ed was just talking about, for Secretary Rumsfeld to step aside, to resign.
He said that his Secretary of Defense is a good one and that he serves the nation well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Secretary Rumsfeld has served our nation well. Secretary Rumsfeld has been the secretary during two wars and he is an important part of my cabinet and he will stay in my cabinet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Although the president was clearly annoyed that he didn't get some key details, the White House -- White House aides do say that perhaps Rumsfeld himself was not kept in the loop, that he didn't know some of the details about this issue.
And the other thing, Bill is that still on this day after many questions have been asked, the White House still doesn't know and say aides say they probably won't exactly find out when the president himself knew about these abuses, knew that they potentially existed, simply saying that perhaps it was sometime in January.
But beyond that, they can't say when he found out or what he asked to do about it. HEMMER: Dana, with King Abdullah yesterday, the president used that word publicly, "sorry." Do we anticipate an apology of some sort from Secretary Rumsfeld today, or not?
BASH: That's a very good question. The president himself obviously did so under mounting, mounting pressure.
It was sort of damage control to -- his first attempt at damage control -- because there were a lot of questions and criticisms here in the United States and also in the Arab world, which was more important for what the president was trying to achieve that he didn't say he was sorry.
So that's why he came out after an important meeting with King Abdullah where the two discussed the impact this was having and he did say he was sorry.
As you mentioned, Secretary Rumsfeld has not done so yet. It will be interesting to see whether he does later today at both hearings.
HEMMER: Dana, thanks for that, and certainly we'll have live coverage later today before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Later in the House as well.
Our coverage starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time with Wolf Blitzer.
Secretary Rumsfeld scheduled to start speaking at 11:45 a.m. Eastern time -- Heidi.
COLLINS: A lawyer in Portland, Oregon is being held in connection with the March train attack in Madrid, Spain.
Yesterday the FBI took Brandon Mayfield into custody.
Sources say fingerprints link him to the devastating train blast.
CNN's Rusty Dornin is live in Beaverton, Oregon with more now on this.
Rusty, good morning to you.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN: Good morning, Heidi. Sources tell CNN that Brandon Mayfield has been under round the clock surveillance leading up to his arrest on Thursday afternoon.
FBI agents served two search warrants, one at his home and one here at his office in Beaverton, which is right outside Portland.
What we know about Mayfield -- he was an immigration lawyer, passed the bar in 2000. Apparently converted to Islam sometime in the '80s. Spent an early part of his life in Kansas.
Also he defended one of the so-called Portland Seven; those were seven men convicted over the last year of conspiring to aid the Taliban and al Qaeda. He did not defend them in that case; he defended one of them in a custody battle.
But as you said, he is being linked to the Madrid bombings, which killed 191, from fingerprints that were found on a plastic bag that authorities say was related to the bombing.
His wife told reporters outside their home last night that authorities have made a big mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONA MAYFIELD, BRANDON MAYFIELD'S WIFE: I know he's innocent. Everyone knows he's innocent. Everyone he knows knows he's innocent and we're hoping for his release soon. So that's good. Good news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: So the president of a local mosque in Portland also stepped up and defended Mayfield and said there's been a terrible mistake.
He is being held as a material witness. Now that has been used increasingly since September 11. Unfortunately, it means that he is held indefinitely, also without any kind of representation, so it's going to be very difficult to find out many details in this case.
Eighteen other people have been arrested in Spain in connection with the bombing -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Rusty Dornin live in Beaverton, Oregon this morning. Rusty, thanks a lot.
HEMMER: In a moment here, an Iraqi-American kidnapped in Iraq; a family in Colorado now pleading for his release. In a moment we'll get to that.
COLLINS: The Opportunity Rover offers another amazing view of the red planet. We'll look at the latest pictures.
HEMMER: And saying goodbye to "Friends," all six of them, last night.
We'll say hello to our "90-Second Pop" panel on that a bit later this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Opportunity is knocking again on the red planet. NASA scientists are floored by the latest view they're getting of the Martian surface.
The Mars Rover has reached a crater that could yield much more information than previous finds.
Jim Garvin is NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. I spoke with him a little bit earlier and asked him why this crater is so exciting. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM GARVIN, NASA LEAD SCIENTIST FOR MARS EXPLORATION: Craters are like Mother Nature's natural rock quarries. They give us a way to see what's inside the planet without having to dig it ourselves, and here's a big 60-foot deep hole waiting to show us the unseen side of Mars.
COLLINS: Now, I know that both of the Rovers have been handed five more months to do their assignments.
Will Opportunity spend its last few days making this one way trip now to study the bottom of the crater and if so what's going to happen to it when it's down there?
GARVIN: Well, first, we're not sure. We're going to take a nice 360, kind of like a drive around the skyline of this big -- this hole we call Endurance -- to see basically how we can get in there to get up close to these walls of really nifty rocks that we think are going to tell us about the history of -- of this place on Mars and maybe the role of water.
And we want to see how we might want to get out. I mean it's nice to think about 30-40 years ago when the people went to the moon.
We never dared send them into craters like this. So we have to be careful with our priceless robotic American there, Opportunity, before we make that choice, but if we do, it certainly would have a wonderful science playground to work with as we explore this side of Mars.
COLLINS: What would it look like? We're looking at some pictures right now, but what is the Rover actually going to see way, way, way down at the bottom?
GARVIN: Well first its -- it really wants to get sort of halfway down where the cliff sides of rocks are showing; they're kind of like a tablet to read the pages in stone and down at the bottom you'll see these beautiful fine-grained talcum powder like dunes swirling around.
That's where, you know, we might get into the greatest trouble getting out. But it's on those crater walls that we really want to look with our robotic rock hammers and those great eyes and ears that these Rovers have.
COLLINS: Well, Jim, let's talk about that for a second. I know that there is a -- quite a risk that you could lose the Rover altogether because of how steep and how grainy the sides of this crater are. Is it going to be worth it if that happens?
GARVIN: Well, it's a question of science risk versus the way we all explore. We -- this may be our best chance of seeing 50-60 feet of the -- you know the unseen side of Mars anywhere that we'll be able to get to with this mission so we're very confident these Rovers are far more robust, better, if you will, rock and crater climbers than perhaps some people, so we have to weigh the risks and over the next week we're going to make that assessment with the engineers that drive these things, with the scientists like me and all the folks working to see whether we can.
Is the risk there? Yes. But can we learn something from this? Absolutely. We're already in the gravy time on this mission.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And gravy time it is.
All right, Jim Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration speaking with us earlier today. NASA scientists expect both Opportunity and Spirit to remain functional at least through September.
HEMMER: About 19 past the hour. Major League Baseball trying to untangle itself a bit from Spiderman. Story has been going on throughout the week.
First check of your business, Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" here with us today, good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
HEMMER: Friday's off the bases, huh?
SERWER: Yes, that's right, a retreat here for baseball and so many pitchers. They were going to be putting the Spiderman logo on bases in national baseball parks.
Major league baseball parks, that is, across the country to promote the film. Now they're retreating. Parents are going to love that.
That's what it was going to look like, right on the bases. I don't think anybody was going to see that anyway because that's an aerial shot. But it's probably a good thing.
Spiderman does whatever Spider can but not whatever Barry Bonds can. It's still going to be on the on-deck circle, however.
HEMMER: Oh, is that so?
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: They're going to leave it there.
SERWER: They're going to leave it there.
HEMMER: They said that the reaction on line was just tremendous against it and that's why baseball made its call. But you know what? Without this story we're not even talking about baseball right now.
SERWER: Yes, that's right.
HEMMER: And the sense of the PR move... SERWER: Right.
HEMMER: They got a lot of publicity.
SERWER: And you know one interesting thing Office Depot, they had a promotion where they used giant pencils for the foul poles so it sort of has been done before. A strange one.
HEMMER: What about the Hummer? What's GM doing?
SERWER: Well, GM is actually introducing a line of financing for the Hummer because sales have been dipping and slipping.
Down 21 percent in April. Why? Well, you got to wonder how many of these babies you can sell.
Can you say saturate the market, number one. Number two; gas prices and we've been talking about this for weeks. Really up toward $2 a gallon. Now $1.87 across the country for regular and that's just a lot more than $1.50 obviously a year ago.
And that really starts to add up when you fill one of those cars up, one of those vehicles up, obviously.
HEMMER: Yes, big cars -- big vehicles. Interesting news on Krispy Kreme. Looking at it today.
SERWER: Yes, indeed. This just crossed the tape a minute or so ago; Krispy Kreme is going to be warning about -- or is warning about its earnings saying that finally the low carb diets have caught up to the donut chain.
They said they were immune for months and months but finally people seem to be cutting back.
Want to do a quick check of the markets here while we can. Yesterday a down day. Alan Greenspan warning about deficits.
That's hurting and of course the big news today, though, Bill is going to be the April jobs report out at 8:30, stay tuned for that. We're looking for the creation of 173,000 jobs. Rates will stay at 5.7 percent.
HEMMER: All right, we'll watch for that. An hour and ten minutes away, too.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Here's Heidi again.
COLLINS: Still to come this morning, a doctor said she had no hope for a recovery, but her family held out hope for a miracle and then their prayers were answered.
Plus, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the hot seat. Will calls for his resignation be heated? Stay with us right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right welcome back. "Question of the Day" and Jack.
CAFFERTY: Hello. Remember George Carlin come up with those seven words you couldn't say on TV?
Well there may be an eighth one. That word is liberal. A report by a think tank called The Center for American Progress says now that the right in this country has managed to label Democrats as liberal -- liberal in the sense meaning well-meaning, admirable but ultimately weak, naive, and ineffective when it comes to governing.
This is what they found in their study. The Center says Democrats should avoid using the word liberal and instead call themselves progressive. You all right?
COLLINS: All right.
CAFFERTY: OK. The Center for American Progress is a liberal or perhaps we should say progressive think tank. Liberal used to stand for social progress. Rockefeller was a liberal, Carnegie a liberal -- these were people with a lot of money. Philanthropists who championed social change and who were never seen as weak or ineffective. They were also all Republicans.
So, what happened? The question is this, is liberal a dirty word. You can weigh in with your thoughts on that in this election year at am@cnn.com. One other little story -- the president and his wife are not going to attend the graduation of their daughters from -- their twins -- later this month.
They say they want to spare the other people attending the ceremony from the rigorous security measures that occurred during a presidential visit.
How do you not go to your daughter's graduation? Jenna Bush is an English major at the university of Texas at Austin; Barbara Bush majoring in humanities at Yale University and they're not going to their kid's graduations?
HEMMER: You don't buy the idea they're trying to spare the others?
CAFFERTY: No, I -- well, I don't know. I mean but that's nonsense. I got four daughters. You go to the kid's graduation. What is that?
HEMMER: I'm with you on that.
CAFFERTY: And besides, if you're one of the classmates, wouldn't it be exciting to have the President of the United States coming to your graduation?
HEMMER: Have you been to a presidential event since 9/11? The lines are forever when it comes to getting through.
CAFFERTY: I don't get invited to a lot of presidential events, Bill. It may come as big shock to you.
HEMMER: We're going to get you on the list. In a moment here it's all over but the syndication. The final episode of "Friends" -- was it worth the hype last night?
How it ended; part of our special "90-Second Pop" coming up this hour. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: About 7:30 here in New York, welcome back everybody. Heidi is working for Soledad again today on a Friday, a rainy Friday here in New York.
COLLINS: Yes, that's for sure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 7, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. The president apologizing to the Arab world, will the secretary of state -- secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld take the fall? Excuse me.
From the rim of the Martian crater, a picture of outstanding beauty and scientific value. We'll talk about Mars today.
And that "Friends" finale from last night. Did it live up to the hype?
This morning here on AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, it's Friday, and it feels like it. Seven o'clock here in New York.
Soledad is out this week. Heidi Collins here again with us as you have all week. Good morning to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning to you. Thanks for the rain, by the way, on the very last day.
HEMMER: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Hey, other stories that we're following this morning -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will answer questions on Capitol Hill today.
He seems to be the lightning rod for anger over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. And there is talk it could cost him his job.
Live to the capitol for that just ahead.
HEMMER: Also a lawyer from Portland, Oregon, American citizen, may be caught up in the Madrid train bombings. A report on why he's been taken into custody by the FBI; that story continues today. COLLINS: And Jack Cafferty continues today as well.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: For a while. Or maybe longer.
There's a think tank in Washington that apparently has thought a lot about this -- because that's what they do -- and has decided that Democrats should call themselves something else besides liberals.
We will explain in the moments and hours in front of us.
COLLINS: All right Jack, thanks so much.
CAFFERTY: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Do want to get to the news though this morning -- an apparent suicide attack has disrupted prayers at a Pakistani mosque.
Police say a bomb exploded at a Shiite mosque in downtown Karachi.
The blast left at least five people dead; wounded more than 30 others, but there are other reports at least ten people have been killed. We'll keep our eye on that story for you.
U.S. soldiers are tightening their grip on Iraq's holy city of Najaf. Troops there have been fighting with supporters of Muqtada Al- Sadr. Meanwhile, fresh clashes are reported between U.S. troops and militia loyal to al-Sadr near Karbala.
Amid the fighting the rebel cleric traveled to Kuka (ph) today for weekly prayers.
Al Qaeda may be offering gold in exchange for the killings of top U.S. and U.N. officials. The offer was made in a new audiotape reportedly from Osama bin Laden. The voice on the tape is offering 22 pounds of gold to anyone who kills top U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, or his envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Intelligence officials have not independently verified the identity of the speaker.
Emergency contraception known as the morning after pill won't be sold over the counter at least for now. The Food and Drug Administration rejected the move, saying it needs more proof that girls younger than 16 can safely use Plan B without a doctor's guidance.
The decision overrules a recommendation from the FDA's scientific advisers. The maker of the drug is expected to try again for approval.
And the question of Ross and Rachel has finally been settled for good. After ten years, the final episode of "Friends" aired last night. The finale had a couple of surprises in, and a double whammy for Monica and Chandler, who were surprised by twins. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm really happy for you guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you feel?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm tired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you don't have that much time to relax; the other one will be along in a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry; who should be along in a what now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next baby should be along in a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We only ordered one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: To find out whether Ross and Rachel got back together, though, stick around.
We will have more in our "90-Second Pop." A very special edition today.
HEMMER: What did you think of last night?
COLLINS: I thought it was great.
HEMMER: Yes?
COLLINS: Very fun, yes. They had one little tiff (ph) or one little thing to chat with them about and find out more.
HEMMER: Good deal. That's a good tease; we'll stay tuned for that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: It will be a long day of questions and answers for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Capitol Hill later today, facing lawmakers first in the Senate and then later this afternoon in the House.
Many of them want some justification for his actions during the current scandal over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
Let's start this morning on Capitol Hill in D.C. and CNN's Ed Henry.
Good morning there.
ED HENRY, CNN: Good morning, Bill. Secretary Rumsfeld will launch the fight to save his job from this very Senate hearing room in a little less than five hours.
He will face two hours of grilling here, and then head over to the House side of the Capitol where he will launch phase two of this battle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: When Rumsfeld takes the hot seat today, members of Congress will be hanging on every word.
SEN. BILL NELSON (D) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well there's still a lot of poking and probing and a lot of answers to be provided.
HENRY: The political stakes are enormous for Rumsfeld. The secretary was rebuked by President Bush on Wednesday, and now he has a string of senior Democrats calling for him to resign.
REPUBLICAN. NANCY PELOSI (D) MINORITY LEADER: Mr. Rumsfeld has been engaged in a cover-up from the start on this issue and continues to be so.
HENRY: But Republicans are insisting that there not be a rush to judgment.
SEN. JON KYL (R) ARIZONA: Would we have the right to call for somebody's resignation before we've even heard what they have to say? Or been briefed on what they did? Is that an American way to go about doing things?
HENRY: Rumsfeld met behind closed doors Thursday with four Republican senators. He told them he's eager to tell his side of the story and is confident that he can turn the tide.
One senator in the meeting noted that Rumsfeld is no rookie.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, Secretary Rumsfeld is not new to Washington or to the Pentagon or to emotional matters like this, but of course this is one small part of a huge responsibility he has.
HENRY: But the hard-charging Rumsfeld has not built up a reservoir of support on Capitol Hill. The kind of backing he may need now more than ever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (on camera): In this time of trouble, Secretary Rumsfeld may want to take a page from his own book, "Rumsfeld's Rules," which he published 30 years ago. It was a guide to political survival in Washington.
One of the rules seems relevant to today's testimony. It says "Be yourself, follow your instincts; success depends at least in part on the ability to carry it off." The secretary will try to carry it off right behind me at this witness table.
As you can see there are five microphones. That's because the secretary will be flanked by four other defense officials, including Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers.
And one administration official, senior administration official, has told CNN that as part of this testimony the secretary will announce the creation of an independent panel to investigate this prison abuse scandal -- Bill.
HEMMER: Ed, thanks for that. Ed Henry there on Capitol Hill.
There's a new Gallup poll released earlier today signaling increasing American displeasure with what's happening in Iraq. Only 37 percent of those surveyed said things in Iraq are going well. Some 62 percent described it as poor.
To the White House and Dana Bash there -- good morning.
DANA BASH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- and on Secretary Rumsfeld, Bill, the president gave him a public slap on the wrist yesterday much the same as he did, we are told, in private the day before, specifically for not being kept informed about the fact that these pictures of Iraqi abuses existed and about the fact that a classified report existed that cataloged those abuses.
The president knew about neither. But the president rejected the Democratic call -- growing calls -- that Ed was just talking about, for Secretary Rumsfeld to step aside, to resign.
He said that his Secretary of Defense is a good one and that he serves the nation well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Secretary Rumsfeld has served our nation well. Secretary Rumsfeld has been the secretary during two wars and he is an important part of my cabinet and he will stay in my cabinet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Although the president was clearly annoyed that he didn't get some key details, the White House -- White House aides do say that perhaps Rumsfeld himself was not kept in the loop, that he didn't know some of the details about this issue.
And the other thing, Bill is that still on this day after many questions have been asked, the White House still doesn't know and say aides say they probably won't exactly find out when the president himself knew about these abuses, knew that they potentially existed, simply saying that perhaps it was sometime in January.
But beyond that, they can't say when he found out or what he asked to do about it. HEMMER: Dana, with King Abdullah yesterday, the president used that word publicly, "sorry." Do we anticipate an apology of some sort from Secretary Rumsfeld today, or not?
BASH: That's a very good question. The president himself obviously did so under mounting, mounting pressure.
It was sort of damage control to -- his first attempt at damage control -- because there were a lot of questions and criticisms here in the United States and also in the Arab world, which was more important for what the president was trying to achieve that he didn't say he was sorry.
So that's why he came out after an important meeting with King Abdullah where the two discussed the impact this was having and he did say he was sorry.
As you mentioned, Secretary Rumsfeld has not done so yet. It will be interesting to see whether he does later today at both hearings.
HEMMER: Dana, thanks for that, and certainly we'll have live coverage later today before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Later in the House as well.
Our coverage starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time with Wolf Blitzer.
Secretary Rumsfeld scheduled to start speaking at 11:45 a.m. Eastern time -- Heidi.
COLLINS: A lawyer in Portland, Oregon is being held in connection with the March train attack in Madrid, Spain.
Yesterday the FBI took Brandon Mayfield into custody.
Sources say fingerprints link him to the devastating train blast.
CNN's Rusty Dornin is live in Beaverton, Oregon with more now on this.
Rusty, good morning to you.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN: Good morning, Heidi. Sources tell CNN that Brandon Mayfield has been under round the clock surveillance leading up to his arrest on Thursday afternoon.
FBI agents served two search warrants, one at his home and one here at his office in Beaverton, which is right outside Portland.
What we know about Mayfield -- he was an immigration lawyer, passed the bar in 2000. Apparently converted to Islam sometime in the '80s. Spent an early part of his life in Kansas.
Also he defended one of the so-called Portland Seven; those were seven men convicted over the last year of conspiring to aid the Taliban and al Qaeda. He did not defend them in that case; he defended one of them in a custody battle.
But as you said, he is being linked to the Madrid bombings, which killed 191, from fingerprints that were found on a plastic bag that authorities say was related to the bombing.
His wife told reporters outside their home last night that authorities have made a big mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONA MAYFIELD, BRANDON MAYFIELD'S WIFE: I know he's innocent. Everyone knows he's innocent. Everyone he knows knows he's innocent and we're hoping for his release soon. So that's good. Good news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: So the president of a local mosque in Portland also stepped up and defended Mayfield and said there's been a terrible mistake.
He is being held as a material witness. Now that has been used increasingly since September 11. Unfortunately, it means that he is held indefinitely, also without any kind of representation, so it's going to be very difficult to find out many details in this case.
Eighteen other people have been arrested in Spain in connection with the bombing -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Rusty Dornin live in Beaverton, Oregon this morning. Rusty, thanks a lot.
HEMMER: In a moment here, an Iraqi-American kidnapped in Iraq; a family in Colorado now pleading for his release. In a moment we'll get to that.
COLLINS: The Opportunity Rover offers another amazing view of the red planet. We'll look at the latest pictures.
HEMMER: And saying goodbye to "Friends," all six of them, last night.
We'll say hello to our "90-Second Pop" panel on that a bit later this hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Opportunity is knocking again on the red planet. NASA scientists are floored by the latest view they're getting of the Martian surface.
The Mars Rover has reached a crater that could yield much more information than previous finds.
Jim Garvin is NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. I spoke with him a little bit earlier and asked him why this crater is so exciting. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM GARVIN, NASA LEAD SCIENTIST FOR MARS EXPLORATION: Craters are like Mother Nature's natural rock quarries. They give us a way to see what's inside the planet without having to dig it ourselves, and here's a big 60-foot deep hole waiting to show us the unseen side of Mars.
COLLINS: Now, I know that both of the Rovers have been handed five more months to do their assignments.
Will Opportunity spend its last few days making this one way trip now to study the bottom of the crater and if so what's going to happen to it when it's down there?
GARVIN: Well, first, we're not sure. We're going to take a nice 360, kind of like a drive around the skyline of this big -- this hole we call Endurance -- to see basically how we can get in there to get up close to these walls of really nifty rocks that we think are going to tell us about the history of -- of this place on Mars and maybe the role of water.
And we want to see how we might want to get out. I mean it's nice to think about 30-40 years ago when the people went to the moon.
We never dared send them into craters like this. So we have to be careful with our priceless robotic American there, Opportunity, before we make that choice, but if we do, it certainly would have a wonderful science playground to work with as we explore this side of Mars.
COLLINS: What would it look like? We're looking at some pictures right now, but what is the Rover actually going to see way, way, way down at the bottom?
GARVIN: Well first its -- it really wants to get sort of halfway down where the cliff sides of rocks are showing; they're kind of like a tablet to read the pages in stone and down at the bottom you'll see these beautiful fine-grained talcum powder like dunes swirling around.
That's where, you know, we might get into the greatest trouble getting out. But it's on those crater walls that we really want to look with our robotic rock hammers and those great eyes and ears that these Rovers have.
COLLINS: Well, Jim, let's talk about that for a second. I know that there is a -- quite a risk that you could lose the Rover altogether because of how steep and how grainy the sides of this crater are. Is it going to be worth it if that happens?
GARVIN: Well, it's a question of science risk versus the way we all explore. We -- this may be our best chance of seeing 50-60 feet of the -- you know the unseen side of Mars anywhere that we'll be able to get to with this mission so we're very confident these Rovers are far more robust, better, if you will, rock and crater climbers than perhaps some people, so we have to weigh the risks and over the next week we're going to make that assessment with the engineers that drive these things, with the scientists like me and all the folks working to see whether we can.
Is the risk there? Yes. But can we learn something from this? Absolutely. We're already in the gravy time on this mission.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And gravy time it is.
All right, Jim Garvin, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration speaking with us earlier today. NASA scientists expect both Opportunity and Spirit to remain functional at least through September.
HEMMER: About 19 past the hour. Major League Baseball trying to untangle itself a bit from Spiderman. Story has been going on throughout the week.
First check of your business, Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" here with us today, good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
HEMMER: Friday's off the bases, huh?
SERWER: Yes, that's right, a retreat here for baseball and so many pitchers. They were going to be putting the Spiderman logo on bases in national baseball parks.
Major league baseball parks, that is, across the country to promote the film. Now they're retreating. Parents are going to love that.
That's what it was going to look like, right on the bases. I don't think anybody was going to see that anyway because that's an aerial shot. But it's probably a good thing.
Spiderman does whatever Spider can but not whatever Barry Bonds can. It's still going to be on the on-deck circle, however.
HEMMER: Oh, is that so?
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: They're going to leave it there.
SERWER: They're going to leave it there.
HEMMER: They said that the reaction on line was just tremendous against it and that's why baseball made its call. But you know what? Without this story we're not even talking about baseball right now.
SERWER: Yes, that's right.
HEMMER: And the sense of the PR move... SERWER: Right.
HEMMER: They got a lot of publicity.
SERWER: And you know one interesting thing Office Depot, they had a promotion where they used giant pencils for the foul poles so it sort of has been done before. A strange one.
HEMMER: What about the Hummer? What's GM doing?
SERWER: Well, GM is actually introducing a line of financing for the Hummer because sales have been dipping and slipping.
Down 21 percent in April. Why? Well, you got to wonder how many of these babies you can sell.
Can you say saturate the market, number one. Number two; gas prices and we've been talking about this for weeks. Really up toward $2 a gallon. Now $1.87 across the country for regular and that's just a lot more than $1.50 obviously a year ago.
And that really starts to add up when you fill one of those cars up, one of those vehicles up, obviously.
HEMMER: Yes, big cars -- big vehicles. Interesting news on Krispy Kreme. Looking at it today.
SERWER: Yes, indeed. This just crossed the tape a minute or so ago; Krispy Kreme is going to be warning about -- or is warning about its earnings saying that finally the low carb diets have caught up to the donut chain.
They said they were immune for months and months but finally people seem to be cutting back.
Want to do a quick check of the markets here while we can. Yesterday a down day. Alan Greenspan warning about deficits.
That's hurting and of course the big news today, though, Bill is going to be the April jobs report out at 8:30, stay tuned for that. We're looking for the creation of 173,000 jobs. Rates will stay at 5.7 percent.
HEMMER: All right, we'll watch for that. An hour and ten minutes away, too.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Here's Heidi again.
COLLINS: Still to come this morning, a doctor said she had no hope for a recovery, but her family held out hope for a miracle and then their prayers were answered.
Plus, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the hot seat. Will calls for his resignation be heated? Stay with us right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right welcome back. "Question of the Day" and Jack.
CAFFERTY: Hello. Remember George Carlin come up with those seven words you couldn't say on TV?
Well there may be an eighth one. That word is liberal. A report by a think tank called The Center for American Progress says now that the right in this country has managed to label Democrats as liberal -- liberal in the sense meaning well-meaning, admirable but ultimately weak, naive, and ineffective when it comes to governing.
This is what they found in their study. The Center says Democrats should avoid using the word liberal and instead call themselves progressive. You all right?
COLLINS: All right.
CAFFERTY: OK. The Center for American Progress is a liberal or perhaps we should say progressive think tank. Liberal used to stand for social progress. Rockefeller was a liberal, Carnegie a liberal -- these were people with a lot of money. Philanthropists who championed social change and who were never seen as weak or ineffective. They were also all Republicans.
So, what happened? The question is this, is liberal a dirty word. You can weigh in with your thoughts on that in this election year at am@cnn.com. One other little story -- the president and his wife are not going to attend the graduation of their daughters from -- their twins -- later this month.
They say they want to spare the other people attending the ceremony from the rigorous security measures that occurred during a presidential visit.
How do you not go to your daughter's graduation? Jenna Bush is an English major at the university of Texas at Austin; Barbara Bush majoring in humanities at Yale University and they're not going to their kid's graduations?
HEMMER: You don't buy the idea they're trying to spare the others?
CAFFERTY: No, I -- well, I don't know. I mean but that's nonsense. I got four daughters. You go to the kid's graduation. What is that?
HEMMER: I'm with you on that.
CAFFERTY: And besides, if you're one of the classmates, wouldn't it be exciting to have the President of the United States coming to your graduation?
HEMMER: Have you been to a presidential event since 9/11? The lines are forever when it comes to getting through.
CAFFERTY: I don't get invited to a lot of presidential events, Bill. It may come as big shock to you.
HEMMER: We're going to get you on the list. In a moment here it's all over but the syndication. The final episode of "Friends" -- was it worth the hype last night?
How it ended; part of our special "90-Second Pop" coming up this hour. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: About 7:30 here in New York, welcome back everybody. Heidi is working for Soledad again today on a Friday, a rainy Friday here in New York.
COLLINS: Yes, that's for sure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
