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American Morning
Cops Foil Kansas Bank Robbery; Senate Showdown Continues
Aired May 19, 2005 - 08:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Perhaps the strangest robbery the FBI has seen in years. This morning, an agent takes us step by step through a botched bank job. And what a story it is there.
The debate heating up in the Senate over the president's judicial nominees already today. Jeff Toobin will stop by, explaining why the judges are causing such a controversy.
And that galaxy far, far away finally back in theaters on Earth. Is it a gigantic opening on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Also ahead this morning, we're going to be talking to the next mayor of Los Angeles.
HEMMER: And we're still learning how to say his name. Antonio...
O'BRIEN: We, kemosabe? Villaraigosa.
HEMMER: What have you got, a mouse in your pocket? A historic win on Wednesday. Now some huge challenges ahead for him and the rest of L.A. So we'll talk to him today.
O'BRIEN: Good morning, Mr. Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad.
Coming up in "The Cafferty File," a state university is going to offer a class in pornography.
A new line of greeting cards coming out, perfect if you're cheating on your spouse.
And a mother wants her son's high school yearbook recalled over a photograph. We'll show you the picture.
HEMMER: All right, we'll check in there.
O'BRIEN: A great "File."
All right, Jack, thanks.
Let's get right to the headlines with Carol Costello -- good morning, again.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, another message believed to be from terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A new audiotape posted on several Islamic Web sites. On that tape, the speaker denounces Iraq's new government and defends the killing of fellow Muslims to avoid disrupting the holy war. CNN has not been able to verify if the voice is, indeed, Zarqawi's.
Today in Ba'qubah, Iraq, a roadside bombing killed at least two Iraqi policemen and wounded a third. A civilian also hurt.
U.S. and North Korean officials meeting face-to-face for the first time in months. A U.S. Embassy official in Tokyo confirming there was a so-called working level contact between both sides. It happened last week at the United Nations in New York. American officials have been trying to convince North Korea to return to six nation talks over its nuclear program.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is trying to beef up the Patriot Act. Aids for Pat Roberts says he is working on a bill to give the FBI even more power, all in the name of fighting terrorism. But critics say Roberts' proposal is a step in the wrong direction and it's time to put the Patriot Act back in balance with the Bill of Rights.
A new report shows two thirds of the country's Type 2 diabetics are not controlling their blood sugar well enough. Poor management of the disease could lead to nasty complications and even death. As many as 18 million Americans have Type 2 Diabetes. The study was done by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
And if you are watching us, you probably did not make it to the "Star Wars" midnight screening, but boy, did thousands. Oh my goodness, I can't believe how many people stood in line at midnight. They even camped out for days before today at midnight to get a good seat and to be the first to know one of the secrets hidden for almost three decades -- how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. And that other question, how Darth Vader came to say "this is CNN."
HEMMER: Ooh.
COSTELLO: I'm sure that's answered in the movie, too.
HEMMER: Even more intriguing.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's all in there.
HEMMER: Thanks, Carol.
We want to get to the story in the middle part of the country, a strange one, too. A suspected bank robber now in critical condition after a brazen robbery in broad daylight. This is strange, too. The suspect walked into a bank in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe on Wednesday. He told employees to strip down to their underwear. He took six of them into a minivan, took them hostage, had one of the hostages drive to the airport. The suspect was then shot by police. He may have been trying to make his getaway in a small plane.
Wow!
FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza my guest now in Kansas City, Missouri.
Agent Lanza, good morning to you.
JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Good morning.
HEMMER: You say this is what, one of the most unusual robberies you have ever seen? Can you make an argument against that?
LANZA: We've never had one like this before, very bizarre. All the circumstances that took place during this robbery are extremely unusual.
HEMMER: I want to go through a couple of them.
He was walking in the bank with a t-shirt that said, "Show Me the Money?" is that true?
LANZA: That's what he was wearing, right. Camouflage pants and then he had pulled a ski mask over his face.
HEMMER: So then why does he tell people to strip down to their underwear?
LANZA: Well, we don't know yet. It's probably a power play more than anything else, a control issue over the hostages, is what we can determine at this point.
HEMMER: So he takes six of them outside, right? Led them by a rope, I think, to a minivan.
LANZA: He actually had them...
HEMMER: What...
LANZA: He had them chained up, which he had brought a chain with him in a backpack into the bank. So he chained them together, walked them out to the minivan and also he put flex cuffs, or plastic handcuffs, on some of the hostages, and then walked them into a minivan which belonged to one of the tellers in the bank.
HEMMER: Would that tell you, then, that that was his plan all along, to take some hostages with him? LANZA: Well, presumably it -- that's what we would think right now. In the backpack he also had a couple of walkie-talkies. During the hostage scenario, he gave a walkie-talkie to one of the hostages and told him to go out and give it to the police to communicate with them.
HEMMER: Now, we're watching some of this video in the minivan.
Why is that rear window blown out?
LANZA: A shot came from inside the van. The suspect fired out at police or out into the parking lot through that rear window and that's what blew that window out.
HEMMER: Was he aiming at one of you guys?
LANZA: Well, we weren't -- the FBI was not on the scene. The police, of course, had the perimeter of the bank. We don't know what he was aiming at, but the shot was fired from inside the van. The police did not return fire because, of course, the hostages were in that van.
HEMMER: So he makes his way to a local airport.
What was his plan then?
LANZA: We don't know and we haven't had a chance to talk to him. We don't know whether he was planning to try to get out by plane or whether that was an after thought in his escape from the bank. He drove up to the -- he forced the hostage to drive up to this single engine Cessna that was sitting on the runway. He tried to get in the plane and that's when the police fired upon him.
HEMMER: There were two guys in the plane, right, one pilot and one student?
LANZA: Yes. There was a pilot and a student and a student instructor in the plane getting ready for a practice takeoff, as a matter of fact.
HEMMER: Do you think they were in on it?
LANZA: Absolutely not. We talked to them at length and there was -- there's no indication at all, no evidence to indicate they were involved. And they've been cleared and they were cut loose yesterday afternoon.
HEMMER: Did -- so do you have a good idea about what his ultimate plan was? Or was he just making this up as he went along?
LANZA: We don't know. We haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. He's in the hospital in critical condition. He parked a car about two miles away from the bank, a black Toyota Camry, which he brought with him. You know, what was he going to do with that if he escaped by plane? So, you know, that leads us to believe that maybe his planned escape was not by plane, but he was going to go back and get into his car eventually.
HEMMER: He hasn't been charged yet, right?
LANZA: He has not been charged officially in court, that's correct.
HEMMER: What do you charge this guy with?
LANZA: Well, the very obvious charge is armed bank robber. That would be one federal charge that could apply. There's also numerous other charges related to the taking of a hostages, kidnapping and so forth.
HEMMER: What a day it was, huh?
LANZA: It was a busy day yesterday. The Olathe police did a fantastic job at containing the suspect and making sure that none of the hostages got hurt.
HEMMER: Indeed.
Thank you.
LANZA: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Jeff Lanza, special agent with the FBI.
Appreciate your time -- here's Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Capitol Hill showdown that could trigger a big change in the way the Senate is run is now in day two. In about an hour, Senate lawmakers will begin their debate again over President Bush's judicial nominees. The fight is expected to come to a head next week, but moderate members of both parties are still searching for a compromise.
CNN legal analyst Jeff Toobin joins us with a look at the judges who are really at the center of this fight.
Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Nice to see you.
Let's get right to it.
Priscilla Owen. She's sat on the Texas Supreme Court since 1984.
Why exactly is she in the crosshairs for the Democrats?
TOOBIN: She is -- what's interesting about both of these nominees is there is no question about their integrity, their intelligence. What this is about is their conservative political views, conservative judicial politics. Priscilla Owen was a protege of Karl Rove, the president's political guru. He engineered her election to the California -- to the Texas Supreme Court in 1994. She is very pro-business. She was a business lawyer. The most inflammatory accusation against her is that she is trying to engineer the overturning of the right to choose abortion. In one very controversial case, she voted, on a parental notification case, in the minority against the position of Alberto Gonzales, now the attorney general, then a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.
O'BRIEN: He took great exception about it. And that's what we heard Ted Kennedy saying on the floor of the Senate yesterday.
TOOBIN: Right. That has been -- his opinion has been used as a tool to beat up Priscilla Owen. She said -- he said that she engaged in unconscionable judicial activism. That accusation, which Gonzalez has subsequently said, look, it was just one case, I think she's terrific, that's been a big part of the case.
O'BRIEN: And you've got Justice Janice Rogers Brown, also very controversial.
Why?
TOOBIN: Also very controversial, a justice of the California Supreme Court. She's a outspoken, much more than Priscilla Owen, an outspoken judicial conservative. She's African-American. She's often compared to Clarence Thomas, comes from a similarly very poor background, is the daughter of Alabama sharecroppers. In her statements on and off the bench, again, abortion is relevant because she has challenged the right to privacy, which is how abortion is defined under, you know, current constitutional law. She's spoken out very forcefully against affirmative action. She is someone who would really, based on her statements, try to change the law, to the extent an appellate court judge could.
O'BRIEN: A lot of posturing about these two specific candidates, and even the other eight that are up for discussion. But really it's a much bigger question, isn't it?
TOOBIN: Absolutely. And, you know, two appellate court judges can't change that much. What this debate, I think, is really about is about the United States Supreme Court and when President Bush has the opportunity to put someone on the bench there. That's when the nuclear option really matters because that's when the 45 Democrats who are now in the Senate will have no voice if the nuclear option comes through, because what the nuclear option is about is changing the Senate from 60 votes needed to 50 votes needed. And there are 55 Republicans. That's what it's about. And the Supreme Court vacancies, which we all expect to come starting this summer, that's what this fight, I think, is really about.
O'BRIEN: Behind-the-scenes machinations to try to come to some compromise before they get to the nuclear option, if they do.
TOOBIN: Lots of them. Indeed.
O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, thanks.
TOOBIN: All right.
O'BRIEN: Bill.
HEMMER: Eleven minutes past the hour now.
Here is certainly a good story. Day after day after day all week long it has been nothing but gorgeous here in the Northeast. I think we've waited about nine months for this -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HEMMER: More today?
What's happening?
MYERS: Not too bad today. You know, you blamed me for all of the bad stuff, I'm taking some credit for the good stuff.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Still ahead this morning, a rare chance to get perspective from one of the U.S. commanders in Baghdad. We're going to talk to a U.S. colonel about the fight against the rising insurgency and some of the biggest challenges that he's facing, and U.S. forces are, too.
HEMMER: Also, meet the newly elected mayor of L.A., the first Hispanic in that job in more than 130 years. You'll meet him, too, in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: And, if you think these are kind of gross, you could be exposed to millions of them. They might be making you sick. We'll tell you what they are and what they do ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Voters in Los Angeles have fired their mayor. This week, for the first time in more than three decades, an incumbent was denied reelection. And L.A.'s mayoral runoff was a breakthrough in more ways than just one.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a beautiful day, Los Angeles.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Antonio Villaraigosa made history, winning by a wide margin over incumbent mayor, James Hahn. Riding a wave of voter discontent, he became the first Hispanic mayor in Los Angeles since the city's pioneer days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know Antonio. We believe in Antonio. He's the man. It's our man for Los Angeles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a vision for the city. He's charismatic and he knows what he's doing. He knows how to run things.
O'BRIEN: A native of Los Angeles, raised by a single mother, Villaraigosa was once a high school dropout. But he went on to earn his law degree and became speaker of California's state assembly. Most recently, he was an L.A. city councilman. Now, as mayor-elect, he says he'll go about putting his campaign theme of unity into practice.
ROB REINER, VILLARAIGOSA SUPPORTER: This is the most diverse city in the country and he has the ability to bring us all together to get things done for the city.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
O'BRIEN: And the mayor-elect, Antonio Villaraigosa, joins us from Los Angeles.
Good morning to you.
Congratulations on your victory.
Thanks for talking with us.
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, LOS ANGELES MAYOR-ELECT: Good morning, Soledad.
How are you?
O'BRIEN: I'm well, thank you.
Why do you think you won? You were able to double your support among the blacks from four years ago. You equaled the support among whites with your -- the man you ran against. You overwhelmingly took the Latino vote.
But why do you think you won?
VILLARAIGOSA: I think people knew me better four years later. I think that the fact that people were looking for a fresh start and a change had a lot to do with it. And I think just the fact that we ran a great campaign. This was a different election than four years ago. And, actually, I tripled the African-American vote from four years ago and won among every ethnic group. And I said that although people have made a lot of to do about the fact that I'd be the first, being effective and making a difference is why I ran for mayor.
O'BRIEN: There are not a lot of cities that are as diverse as Los Angeles -- 48 percent Hispanic, 31 percent Caucasian, 11 percent Asian, 10 percent African-American, lots of other minorities in that mix there.
But when you run on a platform of unity and you are trying to bring all of these groups together, who don't always have the same agenda and don't always agree, you've got to be sure to run into some kind of problems, right?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, whenever you're in public life you run into problems. And whenever you're trying to, you know, lead a city as complex as Los Angeles, you're going to have issues. But make no mistake about it, this is the most diverse city anywhere in the world. There are some 30 different nationalities that have their largest population in Los Angeles outside of their country of origin. We have the largest population of many different groups.
Our ability to make L.A. work is going to go a long way to making America work, because I've often said that Los Angeles is the city of America's hope and promise. It's the city where we come from every corner of the Earth here to make it happen. Our ability to get along and our ability to work together, to take on the challenges of what we do to improve our schools, how we grow our economy, what we do to make our traffic better and our air cleaner, is going to go a long way to showing whether or not we can do it in other big cities.
O'BRIEN: Schools and the economy, in fact, were some of the top issues that the voters were interested in.
How do you fix the schools? You definitely expressed your passion, but yet been actually very slim on the specifics.
What do you do?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, actually, specifically what I've said from the very beginning, let's look at what successful schools look like. They're schools where parents and teachers are involved. They're smaller. They're schools where parents and teachers can make decisions about how they spend their money.
And so I've said that the next mayor of this city has got to collaborate with the school districts. But ultimately I believe that the mayor should be accountable for our schools, much as they are in New York and Chicago, not because that's a perfect structure, but what we have right now is not working.
We have more kids that drop out in Los Angeles than graduate. That's not a statistic that we can afford to live with. We need to do a better job. And so what I've said is let's look at what successful schools look like, use charter schools as a model, incubators for innovation, places where they're actually trying new things to make them work.
O'BRIEN: You are the city's first Hispanic mayor. We mentioned raised by a single mother. We don't have a lot of time, but to what degree are you a role model here?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I have a responsibility, no question about it. I think that responsibility is to be a uniter, to be effective, to make a difference, to show people that I can be a mayor for all of us.
O'BRIEN: Antonio Villaraigosa, congratulations to you.
Thanks for talking with us.
Appreciate it.
VILLARAIGOSA: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Bill.
HEMMER: Soledad, thanks.
Twenty minutes before the hour.
In a moment here, we'll get you off to Baghdad today. We'll talk to a U.S. commander in charge there in some parts of that city about the battle against the insurgency and what story he thinks we are not covering from Iraq today.
Back in a moment after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: One of the most popular stories on our Web site right now, cnn.com, is the death of an actor with a hundred faces. Impressionist Frank Gorshin, best known for his role as the Riddler in the old "Batman" TV series. He said before getting that part he was a nobody. But those epic battles with the caped crusader shot him to fame and more. Gorshin was 72 years old. Rest in peace.
Here's a pretty good riddle. Ground zero, what do you do? Jack has that, Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Bill.
Yes, four years, almost now, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The redesign of the World Trade Center has been more about conversation than it has about actually building anything down there. We don't have much to show so far. Yesterday, real estate developer Donald Trump called the design for the Freedom Tower "the worst pile of crap architecture I've ever seen in my life."
Trump offered his own proposal for the site. It is this -- a stronger, taller version of the original Twin Towers.
Now, love him or hate him, this is what the guy does for a living. He designs and builds buildings.
The question this morning is do you like his plan for the Twin Towers?
Bob in Chapel Hill writes: "If the Trump plan should prevail, then everything about America that's hated around the world shall win -- power, greed, self-indulgence. To him it's not about the towers, it's about "The Donald.""
George in Chicago writes: "For once, I have to put aside my dislike of Donald Trump and agree with him 100 percent. The continuing absence of the Twin Towers in the New York City skyline elicits a feeling of profound loss and defeat."
Walt writes from Missouri: "Finally someone who knows what he's doing steps up and says it like it is. The Freedom Tower is an eyesore piece of Euro crap."
Reg in Thunder Bay, Ontario: "While watching Trump on TV, I have to agree, it's the worst piece of junk I've ever seen. But a good barber could fix it."
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
HEMMER: Owa!
O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE) coming through. You know, it's interesting, Paul Goldberger, who writes about architecture for the "New Yorker" and who is also, I think, the dean of the Parsons School of Design, said essentially that Donald Trump does everything about Donald Trump and that he's wrong and that also, when you bring two men, you know, big time architects together to do what -- create what they've created, also wrong because it kind of is -- doesn't quite work, you know, that there's really no good plan, you know?
CAFFERTY: I like Trump's plan.
O'BRIEN: Really?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: And, boy, he got some headlines with that quote, didn't he?
O'BRIEN: I don't know. Yes.
CAFFERTY: He's right.
O'BRIEN: That was the day after he called the architects "eggheads."
CAFFERTY: Yes. I don't -- I mean there's a lot about Trump you can dislike. But I happen to think this is a good idea.
O'BRIEN: I don't know. I don't love it, but that's me. We can argue that later.
CAFFERTY: Oh, I don't think so. I'm sick of arguing.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Well, David Letterman took a shot at the new TV season on his show last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, COURTESY CBS/WORLDWIDE PANTS)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST: I don't know if you folks know this or not, but this is the time of year when all of the networks announce their new fall programming. CBS has a tremendous show, a tremendous reality show, and it's a combination of "The Bachelor," very popular, "The Bachelor," and also "Survivor." And it's called "Who Wants To Marry Robert Blake?"
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Oh.
HEMMER: Any takers? He was on with Larry King the other night.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HEMMER: Ooh, what an interview that was.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HEMMER: Perhaps not the end of that story, either, too, by the way.
O'BRIEN: Yes, well, you know, (INAUDIBLE)...
HEMMER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: ... continue.
HEMMER: Yes.
Let's get a break here.
In a moment here, you've seen those sweet credit card offers, right? What you may not see, though, the hidden fees and the interest rates. How you can protect yourself and what you need to know. We'll talk a look at that, when we continue after a break here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 19, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Perhaps the strangest robbery the FBI has seen in years. This morning, an agent takes us step by step through a botched bank job. And what a story it is there.
The debate heating up in the Senate over the president's judicial nominees already today. Jeff Toobin will stop by, explaining why the judges are causing such a controversy.
And that galaxy far, far away finally back in theaters on Earth. Is it a gigantic opening on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Welcome back, everybody.
Also ahead this morning, we're going to be talking to the next mayor of Los Angeles.
HEMMER: And we're still learning how to say his name. Antonio...
O'BRIEN: We, kemosabe? Villaraigosa.
HEMMER: What have you got, a mouse in your pocket? A historic win on Wednesday. Now some huge challenges ahead for him and the rest of L.A. So we'll talk to him today.
O'BRIEN: Good morning, Mr. Cafferty.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad.
Coming up in "The Cafferty File," a state university is going to offer a class in pornography.
A new line of greeting cards coming out, perfect if you're cheating on your spouse.
And a mother wants her son's high school yearbook recalled over a photograph. We'll show you the picture.
HEMMER: All right, we'll check in there.
O'BRIEN: A great "File."
All right, Jack, thanks.
Let's get right to the headlines with Carol Costello -- good morning, again.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, another message believed to be from terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A new audiotape posted on several Islamic Web sites. On that tape, the speaker denounces Iraq's new government and defends the killing of fellow Muslims to avoid disrupting the holy war. CNN has not been able to verify if the voice is, indeed, Zarqawi's.
Today in Ba'qubah, Iraq, a roadside bombing killed at least two Iraqi policemen and wounded a third. A civilian also hurt.
U.S. and North Korean officials meeting face-to-face for the first time in months. A U.S. Embassy official in Tokyo confirming there was a so-called working level contact between both sides. It happened last week at the United Nations in New York. American officials have been trying to convince North Korea to return to six nation talks over its nuclear program.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is trying to beef up the Patriot Act. Aids for Pat Roberts says he is working on a bill to give the FBI even more power, all in the name of fighting terrorism. But critics say Roberts' proposal is a step in the wrong direction and it's time to put the Patriot Act back in balance with the Bill of Rights.
A new report shows two thirds of the country's Type 2 diabetics are not controlling their blood sugar well enough. Poor management of the disease could lead to nasty complications and even death. As many as 18 million Americans have Type 2 Diabetes. The study was done by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
And if you are watching us, you probably did not make it to the "Star Wars" midnight screening, but boy, did thousands. Oh my goodness, I can't believe how many people stood in line at midnight. They even camped out for days before today at midnight to get a good seat and to be the first to know one of the secrets hidden for almost three decades -- how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. And that other question, how Darth Vader came to say "this is CNN."
HEMMER: Ooh.
COSTELLO: I'm sure that's answered in the movie, too.
HEMMER: Even more intriguing.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's all in there.
HEMMER: Thanks, Carol.
We want to get to the story in the middle part of the country, a strange one, too. A suspected bank robber now in critical condition after a brazen robbery in broad daylight. This is strange, too. The suspect walked into a bank in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe on Wednesday. He told employees to strip down to their underwear. He took six of them into a minivan, took them hostage, had one of the hostages drive to the airport. The suspect was then shot by police. He may have been trying to make his getaway in a small plane.
Wow!
FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza my guest now in Kansas City, Missouri.
Agent Lanza, good morning to you.
JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Good morning.
HEMMER: You say this is what, one of the most unusual robberies you have ever seen? Can you make an argument against that?
LANZA: We've never had one like this before, very bizarre. All the circumstances that took place during this robbery are extremely unusual.
HEMMER: I want to go through a couple of them.
He was walking in the bank with a t-shirt that said, "Show Me the Money?" is that true?
LANZA: That's what he was wearing, right. Camouflage pants and then he had pulled a ski mask over his face.
HEMMER: So then why does he tell people to strip down to their underwear?
LANZA: Well, we don't know yet. It's probably a power play more than anything else, a control issue over the hostages, is what we can determine at this point.
HEMMER: So he takes six of them outside, right? Led them by a rope, I think, to a minivan.
LANZA: He actually had them...
HEMMER: What...
LANZA: He had them chained up, which he had brought a chain with him in a backpack into the bank. So he chained them together, walked them out to the minivan and also he put flex cuffs, or plastic handcuffs, on some of the hostages, and then walked them into a minivan which belonged to one of the tellers in the bank.
HEMMER: Would that tell you, then, that that was his plan all along, to take some hostages with him? LANZA: Well, presumably it -- that's what we would think right now. In the backpack he also had a couple of walkie-talkies. During the hostage scenario, he gave a walkie-talkie to one of the hostages and told him to go out and give it to the police to communicate with them.
HEMMER: Now, we're watching some of this video in the minivan.
Why is that rear window blown out?
LANZA: A shot came from inside the van. The suspect fired out at police or out into the parking lot through that rear window and that's what blew that window out.
HEMMER: Was he aiming at one of you guys?
LANZA: Well, we weren't -- the FBI was not on the scene. The police, of course, had the perimeter of the bank. We don't know what he was aiming at, but the shot was fired from inside the van. The police did not return fire because, of course, the hostages were in that van.
HEMMER: So he makes his way to a local airport.
What was his plan then?
LANZA: We don't know and we haven't had a chance to talk to him. We don't know whether he was planning to try to get out by plane or whether that was an after thought in his escape from the bank. He drove up to the -- he forced the hostage to drive up to this single engine Cessna that was sitting on the runway. He tried to get in the plane and that's when the police fired upon him.
HEMMER: There were two guys in the plane, right, one pilot and one student?
LANZA: Yes. There was a pilot and a student and a student instructor in the plane getting ready for a practice takeoff, as a matter of fact.
HEMMER: Do you think they were in on it?
LANZA: Absolutely not. We talked to them at length and there was -- there's no indication at all, no evidence to indicate they were involved. And they've been cleared and they were cut loose yesterday afternoon.
HEMMER: Did -- so do you have a good idea about what his ultimate plan was? Or was he just making this up as he went along?
LANZA: We don't know. We haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. He's in the hospital in critical condition. He parked a car about two miles away from the bank, a black Toyota Camry, which he brought with him. You know, what was he going to do with that if he escaped by plane? So, you know, that leads us to believe that maybe his planned escape was not by plane, but he was going to go back and get into his car eventually.
HEMMER: He hasn't been charged yet, right?
LANZA: He has not been charged officially in court, that's correct.
HEMMER: What do you charge this guy with?
LANZA: Well, the very obvious charge is armed bank robber. That would be one federal charge that could apply. There's also numerous other charges related to the taking of a hostages, kidnapping and so forth.
HEMMER: What a day it was, huh?
LANZA: It was a busy day yesterday. The Olathe police did a fantastic job at containing the suspect and making sure that none of the hostages got hurt.
HEMMER: Indeed.
Thank you.
LANZA: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Jeff Lanza, special agent with the FBI.
Appreciate your time -- here's Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Capitol Hill showdown that could trigger a big change in the way the Senate is run is now in day two. In about an hour, Senate lawmakers will begin their debate again over President Bush's judicial nominees. The fight is expected to come to a head next week, but moderate members of both parties are still searching for a compromise.
CNN legal analyst Jeff Toobin joins us with a look at the judges who are really at the center of this fight.
Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Nice to see you.
Let's get right to it.
Priscilla Owen. She's sat on the Texas Supreme Court since 1984.
Why exactly is she in the crosshairs for the Democrats?
TOOBIN: She is -- what's interesting about both of these nominees is there is no question about their integrity, their intelligence. What this is about is their conservative political views, conservative judicial politics. Priscilla Owen was a protege of Karl Rove, the president's political guru. He engineered her election to the California -- to the Texas Supreme Court in 1994. She is very pro-business. She was a business lawyer. The most inflammatory accusation against her is that she is trying to engineer the overturning of the right to choose abortion. In one very controversial case, she voted, on a parental notification case, in the minority against the position of Alberto Gonzales, now the attorney general, then a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.
O'BRIEN: He took great exception about it. And that's what we heard Ted Kennedy saying on the floor of the Senate yesterday.
TOOBIN: Right. That has been -- his opinion has been used as a tool to beat up Priscilla Owen. She said -- he said that she engaged in unconscionable judicial activism. That accusation, which Gonzalez has subsequently said, look, it was just one case, I think she's terrific, that's been a big part of the case.
O'BRIEN: And you've got Justice Janice Rogers Brown, also very controversial.
Why?
TOOBIN: Also very controversial, a justice of the California Supreme Court. She's a outspoken, much more than Priscilla Owen, an outspoken judicial conservative. She's African-American. She's often compared to Clarence Thomas, comes from a similarly very poor background, is the daughter of Alabama sharecroppers. In her statements on and off the bench, again, abortion is relevant because she has challenged the right to privacy, which is how abortion is defined under, you know, current constitutional law. She's spoken out very forcefully against affirmative action. She is someone who would really, based on her statements, try to change the law, to the extent an appellate court judge could.
O'BRIEN: A lot of posturing about these two specific candidates, and even the other eight that are up for discussion. But really it's a much bigger question, isn't it?
TOOBIN: Absolutely. And, you know, two appellate court judges can't change that much. What this debate, I think, is really about is about the United States Supreme Court and when President Bush has the opportunity to put someone on the bench there. That's when the nuclear option really matters because that's when the 45 Democrats who are now in the Senate will have no voice if the nuclear option comes through, because what the nuclear option is about is changing the Senate from 60 votes needed to 50 votes needed. And there are 55 Republicans. That's what it's about. And the Supreme Court vacancies, which we all expect to come starting this summer, that's what this fight, I think, is really about.
O'BRIEN: Behind-the-scenes machinations to try to come to some compromise before they get to the nuclear option, if they do.
TOOBIN: Lots of them. Indeed.
O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, thanks.
TOOBIN: All right.
O'BRIEN: Bill.
HEMMER: Eleven minutes past the hour now.
Here is certainly a good story. Day after day after day all week long it has been nothing but gorgeous here in the Northeast. I think we've waited about nine months for this -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HEMMER: More today?
What's happening?
MYERS: Not too bad today. You know, you blamed me for all of the bad stuff, I'm taking some credit for the good stuff.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Still ahead this morning, a rare chance to get perspective from one of the U.S. commanders in Baghdad. We're going to talk to a U.S. colonel about the fight against the rising insurgency and some of the biggest challenges that he's facing, and U.S. forces are, too.
HEMMER: Also, meet the newly elected mayor of L.A., the first Hispanic in that job in more than 130 years. You'll meet him, too, in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: And, if you think these are kind of gross, you could be exposed to millions of them. They might be making you sick. We'll tell you what they are and what they do ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Voters in Los Angeles have fired their mayor. This week, for the first time in more than three decades, an incumbent was denied reelection. And L.A.'s mayoral runoff was a breakthrough in more ways than just one.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a beautiful day, Los Angeles.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Antonio Villaraigosa made history, winning by a wide margin over incumbent mayor, James Hahn. Riding a wave of voter discontent, he became the first Hispanic mayor in Los Angeles since the city's pioneer days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know Antonio. We believe in Antonio. He's the man. It's our man for Los Angeles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a vision for the city. He's charismatic and he knows what he's doing. He knows how to run things.
O'BRIEN: A native of Los Angeles, raised by a single mother, Villaraigosa was once a high school dropout. But he went on to earn his law degree and became speaker of California's state assembly. Most recently, he was an L.A. city councilman. Now, as mayor-elect, he says he'll go about putting his campaign theme of unity into practice.
ROB REINER, VILLARAIGOSA SUPPORTER: This is the most diverse city in the country and he has the ability to bring us all together to get things done for the city.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
O'BRIEN: And the mayor-elect, Antonio Villaraigosa, joins us from Los Angeles.
Good morning to you.
Congratulations on your victory.
Thanks for talking with us.
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, LOS ANGELES MAYOR-ELECT: Good morning, Soledad.
How are you?
O'BRIEN: I'm well, thank you.
Why do you think you won? You were able to double your support among the blacks from four years ago. You equaled the support among whites with your -- the man you ran against. You overwhelmingly took the Latino vote.
But why do you think you won?
VILLARAIGOSA: I think people knew me better four years later. I think that the fact that people were looking for a fresh start and a change had a lot to do with it. And I think just the fact that we ran a great campaign. This was a different election than four years ago. And, actually, I tripled the African-American vote from four years ago and won among every ethnic group. And I said that although people have made a lot of to do about the fact that I'd be the first, being effective and making a difference is why I ran for mayor.
O'BRIEN: There are not a lot of cities that are as diverse as Los Angeles -- 48 percent Hispanic, 31 percent Caucasian, 11 percent Asian, 10 percent African-American, lots of other minorities in that mix there.
But when you run on a platform of unity and you are trying to bring all of these groups together, who don't always have the same agenda and don't always agree, you've got to be sure to run into some kind of problems, right?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, whenever you're in public life you run into problems. And whenever you're trying to, you know, lead a city as complex as Los Angeles, you're going to have issues. But make no mistake about it, this is the most diverse city anywhere in the world. There are some 30 different nationalities that have their largest population in Los Angeles outside of their country of origin. We have the largest population of many different groups.
Our ability to make L.A. work is going to go a long way to making America work, because I've often said that Los Angeles is the city of America's hope and promise. It's the city where we come from every corner of the Earth here to make it happen. Our ability to get along and our ability to work together, to take on the challenges of what we do to improve our schools, how we grow our economy, what we do to make our traffic better and our air cleaner, is going to go a long way to showing whether or not we can do it in other big cities.
O'BRIEN: Schools and the economy, in fact, were some of the top issues that the voters were interested in.
How do you fix the schools? You definitely expressed your passion, but yet been actually very slim on the specifics.
What do you do?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, actually, specifically what I've said from the very beginning, let's look at what successful schools look like. They're schools where parents and teachers are involved. They're smaller. They're schools where parents and teachers can make decisions about how they spend their money.
And so I've said that the next mayor of this city has got to collaborate with the school districts. But ultimately I believe that the mayor should be accountable for our schools, much as they are in New York and Chicago, not because that's a perfect structure, but what we have right now is not working.
We have more kids that drop out in Los Angeles than graduate. That's not a statistic that we can afford to live with. We need to do a better job. And so what I've said is let's look at what successful schools look like, use charter schools as a model, incubators for innovation, places where they're actually trying new things to make them work.
O'BRIEN: You are the city's first Hispanic mayor. We mentioned raised by a single mother. We don't have a lot of time, but to what degree are you a role model here?
VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I have a responsibility, no question about it. I think that responsibility is to be a uniter, to be effective, to make a difference, to show people that I can be a mayor for all of us.
O'BRIEN: Antonio Villaraigosa, congratulations to you.
Thanks for talking with us.
Appreciate it.
VILLARAIGOSA: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Bill.
HEMMER: Soledad, thanks.
Twenty minutes before the hour.
In a moment here, we'll get you off to Baghdad today. We'll talk to a U.S. commander in charge there in some parts of that city about the battle against the insurgency and what story he thinks we are not covering from Iraq today.
Back in a moment after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: One of the most popular stories on our Web site right now, cnn.com, is the death of an actor with a hundred faces. Impressionist Frank Gorshin, best known for his role as the Riddler in the old "Batman" TV series. He said before getting that part he was a nobody. But those epic battles with the caped crusader shot him to fame and more. Gorshin was 72 years old. Rest in peace.
Here's a pretty good riddle. Ground zero, what do you do? Jack has that, Question of the Day.
CAFFERTY: Thanks, Bill.
Yes, four years, almost now, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The redesign of the World Trade Center has been more about conversation than it has about actually building anything down there. We don't have much to show so far. Yesterday, real estate developer Donald Trump called the design for the Freedom Tower "the worst pile of crap architecture I've ever seen in my life."
Trump offered his own proposal for the site. It is this -- a stronger, taller version of the original Twin Towers.
Now, love him or hate him, this is what the guy does for a living. He designs and builds buildings.
The question this morning is do you like his plan for the Twin Towers?
Bob in Chapel Hill writes: "If the Trump plan should prevail, then everything about America that's hated around the world shall win -- power, greed, self-indulgence. To him it's not about the towers, it's about "The Donald.""
George in Chicago writes: "For once, I have to put aside my dislike of Donald Trump and agree with him 100 percent. The continuing absence of the Twin Towers in the New York City skyline elicits a feeling of profound loss and defeat."
Walt writes from Missouri: "Finally someone who knows what he's doing steps up and says it like it is. The Freedom Tower is an eyesore piece of Euro crap."
Reg in Thunder Bay, Ontario: "While watching Trump on TV, I have to agree, it's the worst piece of junk I've ever seen. But a good barber could fix it."
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.
HEMMER: Owa!
O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE) coming through. You know, it's interesting, Paul Goldberger, who writes about architecture for the "New Yorker" and who is also, I think, the dean of the Parsons School of Design, said essentially that Donald Trump does everything about Donald Trump and that he's wrong and that also, when you bring two men, you know, big time architects together to do what -- create what they've created, also wrong because it kind of is -- doesn't quite work, you know, that there's really no good plan, you know?
CAFFERTY: I like Trump's plan.
O'BRIEN: Really?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: And, boy, he got some headlines with that quote, didn't he?
O'BRIEN: I don't know. Yes.
CAFFERTY: He's right.
O'BRIEN: That was the day after he called the architects "eggheads."
CAFFERTY: Yes. I don't -- I mean there's a lot about Trump you can dislike. But I happen to think this is a good idea.
O'BRIEN: I don't know. I don't love it, but that's me. We can argue that later.
CAFFERTY: Oh, I don't think so. I'm sick of arguing.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.
Well, David Letterman took a shot at the new TV season on his show last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, COURTESY CBS/WORLDWIDE PANTS)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST: I don't know if you folks know this or not, but this is the time of year when all of the networks announce their new fall programming. CBS has a tremendous show, a tremendous reality show, and it's a combination of "The Bachelor," very popular, "The Bachelor," and also "Survivor." And it's called "Who Wants To Marry Robert Blake?"
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Oh.
HEMMER: Any takers? He was on with Larry King the other night.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HEMMER: Ooh, what an interview that was.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HEMMER: Perhaps not the end of that story, either, too, by the way.
O'BRIEN: Yes, well, you know, (INAUDIBLE)...
HEMMER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: ... continue.
HEMMER: Yes.
Let's get a break here.
In a moment here, you've seen those sweet credit card offers, right? What you may not see, though, the hidden fees and the interest rates. How you can protect yourself and what you need to know. We'll talk a look at that, when we continue after a break here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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