Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card Resigns; Immigration Battle; Preacher Shot Dead

Aired March 28, 2006 - 08:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts, in for Miles O'Brien, who is on assignment today.

Good Tuesday morning to you.

O'BRIEN: A big shakeup to report this morning at the White House. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, is stepping down. The new man for the job was introduced just a short time ago. We're live at the White House with this developing story.

ROBERTS: A border war in Washington today. Protests over immigration reform move from the streets to the Senate floor.

Zacarias Moussaoui drops a bombshell in court and it threatens to sink his defense. Now an admission that he knew that the 9/11 attacks were coming.

O'BRIEN: More cuts coming for General Motors. White collar workers now on the chopping block.

ROBERTS: And a new musical sweeping the nation. At least the nation's teens. A look at what all the fuss is all about ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: Welcome, everybody.

Let's begin with the president this morning. Just moments ago, President Bush announcing a big shakeup in his staff. Andrew Card is going to resign as chief of staff, to be replaced by budget director Josh Bolten.

CNN's Ed Henry live for us at the White House.

Ed, good morning.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Soledad.

That's right, Andy Card has been at this president's side since day one of the administration, some five and a half years on the job. Remember, he was the man who whispered in the president's ear on the morning of 9/11 that America was under attack. But this is a back- breaking job. The average tenure of a White House chief of staff now about two years.

As I mentioned, he's been on the job for about five and a half years. He's tired. There have been calls from Republican critics for some sort of a shakeup here, some new blood, fresh ideas at the White House with the president's poll rating plummeting.

We're told that Andy Card went to the president earlier this month, said he would like to step down. They had a series of conversations, culminating this past weekend at Camp David, where the president finally accepted his resignation. It will officially take effect on April 14. And the president saying just a short while ago in the Oval Office that Josh Bolten is the right man for the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No person is better prepared for this important position, and I'm honored that Josh has agreed to serve. The next three years will demand much of those who serve our country.

We have a global war to fight and win. We have great opportunities to expand the prosperity and compassion of America. We have come far as a nation, yet there's a lot on the road ahead.

I'm honored to have served with Andrew Card. I've got great confidence if my next chief of staff.

Congratulations, Josh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: But this might not satisfy some of those Republican critics I mentioned, specifically on Capitol Hill, because they have been calling for fresh blood, but Josh Bolten himself has also been here from the beginning of the Bush administration, January of 2001 until June of 2003. He was the deputy White House chief of staff.

Since June of 2003, he has been serving as the White House budget chief. So you still may hear some calls for someone else to come in, more staff shakeups as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right. Ed Henry for us this morning. Ed Henry at the White House.

Thanks, Ed.

ROBERTS: The stage is set for an immigration battle on the floor of the Senate today. It's an issue involving national security, jobs and election year politics.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is live on Capitol Hill.

Good morning to you, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. And it was a kinder, gentler immigration reform bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. It was not at all like the bill that was passed by the House in December.

Now -- so what it does, it does not mandate -- it does not toughen penalties on illegal immigrants or those who hire them. It also does not mandate the construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border, the border with Mexico. What it does do, though, is create a temporary worker program, something that President Bush very much wanted, and it also creates a way for the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants said to be in the United States to finally step from the shadows.

ROBERTS: And it's certainly not without a lot of controversy either. We saw over the last few days hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets, big cities in America protesting against the House version of this bill. How are all those images affecting the debate on Capitol Hill?

KOCH: John, here on Capitol Hill it certainly did get lawmakers' attention. I interviewed Senator John McCain, one of the authors of this measure, earlier this morning. And he said it really did help galvanize support for the bill, but at the same time he and others are very realistic.

He admitted that the chances of getting this measure through in an election year are very slim because so many social conservatives, so many members of his own party adamantly oppose the guest worker program, adamantly also oppose any pass to citizenship. They say it rewards illegal behavior and will just worsen the crush of immigrants trying to cross U.S. borders.

ROBERTS: Yes. There's obviously a huge fight up on Capitol Hill, and it's one that again is dividing the Republican Party.

Kathleen Koch up there on the Hill.

Thanks very much.

KOCH: You bet.

ROBERTS: CNN's Lou Dobbs has been focusing on the nation's broken borders for years now. Tomorrow, Lou lands in Mexico for the immigration summit. Three leaders, plus Lou live from Mexico, starting tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: A Tennessee preacher to be laid to rest today while his wife who police say has admitted killing him sits in a jail cell. She was arraigned on Monday, never entered a plea, though.

Let's get right to Rusty Dornin. She's live for us in Selmer, Tennessee.

Good morning, Rusty. RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, Matthew Winkler was a very popular minister here in Selmer, Tennessee. And he really came from three generations of ministers in the Church of Christ. People from all over the region expected to come to his funeral services this morning.

Police still not talking about what they believe the motive was, what apparently Mary Winkler did tell them the motive was. They did say, however, they didn't believe it was infidelity. But they are refusing to comment on domestic abuse.

Pam Killingsworth, a fellow teacher, says what she thought about that motive in particular.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM KILLINGSWORTH, FRIEND: I never saw any signs of domestic abuse. Mary never -- she never said anything. And as much as I was with the children, nothing was ever said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: And it turns out that they were seeing the couple by all in glowing terms. People talked about both of them as very devout Christians, a very loving couple. But there was one neighbor, Sharyn Everitt, who says she saw a different side to Matthew Winkler, that apparently he had yelled at her children, claiming he was going to shoot their dog, and also had gone back and complained to her husband again. She wonders about Mr. Winkler.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARYN EVERITT, WINKLER NEIGHBOR: And then he said, "If that dog comes over to my yard, I'll shoot it." And it was totally not what I expected from a preacher. Wasn't perfect. He absolutely -- I mean, if we're going to elevate him to sainthood, let's wait until after the court and let's see what really did happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Again, Matthew Winkler's funeral services are scheduled to begin in about three hours, and hundreds of people expected to be here -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Gosh, so many questions, obviously, in this case. When Mary Winkler was arraigned, what was she like in court?

DORNIN: She came in, you could hear there was not a sound in that courtroom. And you could hear her chains clinking, her ankle chains as she came in, very downcast.

Didn't look at anyone until the judge began to speak to her. She just had a few words for the judge. It was a very quick proceeding.

She -- she did not enter a plea. Apparently the judge entered it for her. She, of course, will be back on Thursday for a preliminary hearing. And that's when we're going to hear from the state some parts about her confession, and possibly the motive in this case, which police have really been holding close to the vest.

O'BRIEN: Truly have. And it's just baffling, isn't it? Well, I guess we'll all find out, and pretty soon.

Rusty Dornin for us this morning.

Rusty, thanks.

That's just one of the stories making news today. Lots else to talk about.

Let's get right to Carol Costello in the newsroom for more.

Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Good morning to all of you.

Zacarias Moussaoui's defense trying to salvage what some legal experts call suicide on the stand. Moussaoui admitted on Monday that he knew about plans to attack the World Trade Center.

This is the team arriving at the Virginia courthouse. This was this morning.

The defense will try to prove today that nothing could have stopped the terror attacks. That could save Moussaoui from the death penalty.

It's easier to buy radiation material for a dirty bomb than it is to buy cold medicine. That's a quote from Senator Norm Coleman. He says he was alarmed by the lacking U.S. security.

This after government investigators used fake documents to enter the United States and buy enough radioactive material for two dirty bombs. The teams are set to testify before a Senate panel later this hour.

In New York, an apartment building on fire. It is apparently in the Brooklyn area. You can see the pictures show these flames are just shooting from holes in the ceiling. And you can see them shooting from the top floor, too.

Officials evacuating the surrounding areas. No word on if anyone is hurt here. We'll keep you posted.

And public transportation in France is at a stop, or at least delayed. No trains, no planes, no subway, and here's why.

That's right, hundreds of thousands of workers and students again protesting a new labor law. They say it would make it easier for employers to fire young workers. We've been seeing these mass protests for weeks, but this is one of the few nationwide days of the labor strikes.

That's a look at the headlines this morning.

Back to you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Carol. Thanks a lot.

Time now to check the forecast with Chad.

Good morning to you, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Are you the owner of a lonely heart? Coming up, a look at why being lonely could be bad for your blood pressure.

O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, advice for parents on getting kids to cut back or cut out those sugary drinks.

And there is this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was awesome. It's pretty upbeat. All my little sisters got up and were dancing around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: They're talking about Disney's high school musical. Have you seen this yet?

ROBERTS: No, I haven't.

O'BRIEN: Why all the fuss over this made for TV movie? It is a hit with a capital "H." We're going to take a look in "AM Pop" just ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Zacarias Moussaoui putting himself right in the middle of the 9/11 plot. He dropped a couple of bombshells at his sentencing trial, including that he planned to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House on 9/11, and that the shoe bomber Richard Reid would have been his accomplice.

Sajjan Gohel in London is the director of international security for the Asia Pacific Foundation.

Nice to see you, Sajjan. Thanks for talking with us this morning.

SAJJAN GOHEL, ASIA PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Good to be with you. O'BRIEN: Do you think that as some people have said he has essentially given himself the death penalty?

GOHEL: Well, yes, this new latest revelation is a -- is a number of serious developments that have taken place in Zacarias Moussaoui's trial, and this justifies the prosecution's case that he had prior knowledge to the September 11 attacks, that perhaps if he provided that intelligence earlier that that plot could have been thwarted. And he has pretty much now given the prosecution the ammunition for his own death warrant.

O'BRIEN: And he's admitted lying and he's claimed some very close contacts. For example, talking about how his nickname for Mohamed Atta was "Big Time."

Do you think that the claims he made when he took the stand are, for the most part, true?

GOHEL: Well, I'm somewhat skeptical about this because Zacarias Moussaoui has made a number of allegations over the last few years. And what's interesting is that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the master planner of September the 11th, his deposition was read out yesterday in court. Now, he's claimed that Zacarias Moussaoui was just a peripheral member of al Qaeda, that he wasn't going to be a major player on September the 11th, that perhaps he was going to be used later on.

Now, Zacarias Moussaoui has tried to connect himself up with Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, alleging that they were going to be part of a fifth attack on September the 11th. Richard Reid was tied to another plot totally separate. It's not even related.

So, one wonders what is going on inside Moussaoui's mind? Is he warped? Is he trying to be clever?

Either way, the motions are taking place. And the feelings of the families of 9/11, the victims, are being trampled on. And that -- that is highly disrespectful.

O'BRIEN: Oh, it's just terrible for them. I mean, you saw them hanging on his every word with lots of, they felt in many cases, new information that was coming forward.

What do you make of this "Richard Reid was going to be my co- conspirator in the fifth plane that we were going to flying into the White House on 9/11?" What do you make of that claim?

GOHEL: Well, it's important to investigate this because Richard Reid was tossed by al Qaeda to bring down a transatlantic flight going from Paris to the United States on the 22nd of December 2001. He was also charged with his co-conspirator, Sajid Badad (ph), a British- Pakistani, and they were tied to Nizral Trebelzi (ph), who was behind a plot to blow up a NATO air base in Belgium.

They were both in Amsterdam on September the 12th, the day afterward. That plot took almost a year in the making to come into effect.

How could Richard Reid be part of 9/11 now? And Richard Reid himself hasn't given any information to that, nor has anybody else. This is just another new revelation. It seems Zacarias Moussaoui is enjoying the notoriety, he's enjoying the attention, and he's trying to exploit the situation even further.

O'BRIEN: On the stand it's reported that he spoke very calmly, in sort of moderate tones. Do you think he has come across as being a little nutty, or do you think he's coming across as credible? I mean, all that's going to play into what happens to him.

GOHEL: It's a very important question. It seems that even al Qaeda themselves did not trust him enough to carry out any operation.

He was a low-level figure. Perhaps would be used as some sort of (INAUDIBLE) in the future for maybe a suicide attack. But he is unhinged, Soledad.

I mean, he gave a written statement some time ago that he was going to be part of an al Qaeda plot to fly a plane into a Colorado prison to free an Islamic radical cleric. He comes out with a number of strange assertions. And certainly his defense will now try and portray him as not being mentally stable and perhaps not a credible witness. We'll have to wait and see.

O'BRIEN: Which is going to be a strange strategy for them to take, anyway.

Sajjan Gohel, the director of international security for the Asia Pacific Foundation.

As always, Sajjan, thanks. Appreciate it -- John.

ROBERTS: This keeps getting more bizarre.

O'BRIEN: Bizarre, isn't it?

ROBERTS: Yes. It's striking.

Coming up in health news this morning, we'll tell you why finding a friend could be the key to lowering your blood pressure.

Plus, not all drinks are created equal when it comes to children's nutrition. A look at what your children should be drinking to grow up healthy ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Medical news now. Is your blood pressure going up? Instead of taking a pill, try finding a friend.

Researchers at the University of Chicago say you can add loneliness to heredity, diet, being overweight and inactivity as reasons for high blood pressure in people over the age of 50. They have found that the loneliest people had readings up to 30 points higher than people with friends and family around them.

Well, young people are not getting enough sleep. The National Sleep Foundation says about a quarter of the nation's school age children say they have fallen asleep in class. It turns out only 20 percent say they are getting the recommended nine hours of sleep on school nights.

Now here's Soledad.

O'BRIEN: In this morning's "House Call," how sweet it isn't. Sodas and other sugary beverages are a source of weight gain for kids. And some new guidelines are suggesting some healthy alternatives.

Nutritionist Heidi Skolnik is here to join us. A little show and tell as well with what your kids should be drinking.

Heidi, nice to see you as always.

HEIDI SKOLNIK, NUTRITIONIST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: The numbers I think are incredible when you look at the numbers of kids who are drinking sugary, you know, sodas every single day. And the guidelines are often very contradictory.

Let's start with the numbers. Sixty-five percent of girls, 74 percent of boys say they have soda every single day.

As a nutritionist, does that shock you?

SKOLNIK: Well, the issue is nutrient density. And we talk about soda, there's absolutely no nutrients..

O'BRIEN: Zero.

SKOLNIK: Zero. So you want to be thinking about what are you getting. Think before you drink. What are you getting for the calories you're taking in?

O'BRIEN: What are you getting for the calories you're taking in? Let's say you go to the store and get a Big Gulp.

SKOLNIK: So, when you get a soda, when you get a 32 ounce soda, you go for extra value, a little bit more. You get 32 ounces of soda in the movie theater.

O'BRIEN: Right, which is that big.

SKOLNIK: That big. You are actually having 27 packets of sugar, 27 packets of sugar.

O'BRIEN: Is this 27 packets of sugar? Oh, my gosh.

SKOLNIK: And if you would look at what nutrients are in there, zero. There's no protein, there's no Vitamin C, no Vitamin D. You know, you are getting nothing.

For 400 calories in a 32 ounce soda, that's really a meal. But you're not getting anything for it.

O'BRIEN: It doesn't surprise me that a nutritionist is going to say go for milk, don't go for the soda. What exactly are you getting when you choose milk?

SKOLNIK: So, when you realize what you're getting, you'll understand why nutritionists say that. In the one eight ounce serving of milk, of skim milk, it's 80 calories versus 150 in a 12 ounce soda. But you get 8 grams of protein, you get 302 milligrams of calcium, which is 30 percent of your calcium needs for the day in that -- in that 80 calories.

O'BRIEN: Lots of zeroes in the protein and calcium slot when you look over what you're getting in the soda.

SKOLNIK: For soda you get nothing.

O'BRIEN: There are certainly lots of kids -- I mean, my kids, up to about age four, were great with milk. And then didn't want milk so much. How do you -- what can you give them instead? Or is chocolate milk nutritionally valuable as well?

SKOLNIK: So here's the thing, you retain all the benefit in chocolate milk that you do of skim milk or an unflavored milk. You just do add more calories and a little bit more sugar. But you're getting the calcium, you're getting the protein, you're getting the Vitamin D. You're getting all the same benefits. And if it's a way to get nutrients in, that's a good tradeoff.

O'BRIEN: So chocolate milk is still a worthy -- a much better alternative than the soda. Juice has a pretty bad reputation.

SKOLNIK: Yes, it's easy to villainize juice. But here's the thing: not all juices are created equal.

So, something like, you know, Tropicana pure premium orange juice, four to eight ounces, that's going to give you 50 percent of your Vitamin C for the day, folic acid, potassium, all these heart- healthy nutrients that are even good for children. Even the U.S. guidelines suggest having -- recognize orange juice as a value. We're not suggesting...

O'BRIEN: I'm surprised when you see all those zeroes for apple juice.

SKOLNIK: Because they are not all the same. Apple juice is not as nutrient-dense a juice. And so when you're giving your child juice all the time as the beverage of choice and not training them to enjoy water, or to have a selected beverage like milk or orange juice, you're really doing a disservice in terms of calories.

O'BRIEN: I noticed you brought sort of one of those little teeny-weenie servings of juice and not like a big giant jug of juice. A serving size obviously is pretty critical in all of this.

SKOLNIK: Right. And so children don't -- actually, nobody, even the adults, don't need to be having all of these large servings of these beverages. We don't recognize the calories in beverages often as contributing to our caloric intake for the day, but they count. And they really can add up.

O'BRIEN: What about diet sodas? I mean, if you have a kid and they're drinking, you know, a 32 ounce soda, why not switch it for the diet soda?

SKOLNIK: Well, in that instance, where you're talking about trying to wean your child from soda, which hopefully you can prevent to begin with, then that's a good alternative. But in general, why would you feed your child diet soda?

O'BRIEN: So no diet sodas for little kids?

SKOLNIK: No. You're training them to want that taste. Their gastric juices get flowing. They kind of can get a hungry feeling even though nothing is coming. It's not really -- it's not a healthy beverage.

O'BRIEN: End of the day, it's water or milk for you.

SKOLNIK: Yes.

O'BRIEN: What does your kid drink?

SKOLNIK: Water, milk, Gatorade, orange juice.

O'BRIEN: Nutritionist Heidi Skolnik.

Nice to see you, as always. Thanks, Heidi.

SKOLNIK: Thank you.

ROBERTS: This morning's top stories are straight ahead.

Plus, we'll tell you why one guy could get $10,000 because he confused George Mason with George Washington.

And later in "AM Pop," a look at how a television musical became a nationwide phenomenon.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com