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American Morning

Tom DeLay Done; Jury Makes Zacarias Moussaoui Eligible for Death Penalty

Aired April 04, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. Tom DeLay is done. The embattled congressman makes a surprise decision. He's going to give up his seat.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another outburst by Zacarias Moussaoui as a jury makes him eligible for the death penalty.

And then there's this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILL CARROLL, FMR. HOSTAGE: I just want to say how much overwhelmed and how wonderful the paper's been. (INAUDIBLE) family and to everyone.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Those are tears of joy from Jill Carroll as she meets many of her coworkers face to face for the first time.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jonathan Freed in northwestern Tennessee. Two days since a tornado tore through this area, there's still mourning the loss of 23 people. That story coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: And we'll also talking about wild weather. A new outlook on the coming hurricane season. It could be a rough one.

Plus this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D), GEORGIA: I don't understand what it is about my face that certain members of the Capitol Hill Police Department can't remember.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Allegations of racial profiling from Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Meanwhile, prosecutors are still trying to decide on criminal charges.

Those stories all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome back, everybody.

It is a move that could signal the end of Tom DeLay's political career. The former House leader will not seek re-election to Congress and intends to resign. An official announcement expected today. Let's get right to Dana Bash. She's live for us on Capitol Hill.

Hey, Dana, good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

And you know it is really hard to overstate just how powerful Tom DeLay had once been in the halls of Congress here. He already had been forced to step down as House majority leader last year because, primarily, he was indicted in Texas, and now we understand that he is not only not going to seek re-election, but he is going to step down probably next month from his seat.

Now, he is pointing to the idea that it is his political future, not his legal troubles, that precipitated this surprise decision, and he did prepare a tape that he has handed out, announcing -- explaining why he made this decision, and it has all of the trademark combativeness and fight that Tom Delay is known for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R), TEXAS: Because I care so deeply about this district and the people in it, I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, though he is playing up the idea that he does have a tough political fight, or would have a political fight ahead of him, there is no question that it's very much intertwined with all of the legal issues surrounding Tom DeLay. Not just his personal indictment in Texas, but even more than that, the fact that some of his top aides, former top aides, have recently pleaded guilty in the lobbying scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, and that has certainly overshadowed Tom DeLay and his legacy, and made this an issue that Democrats had already vowed to use not just against Tom DeLay personally and his campaign, but a national issue. They still say they're going to use that against Republicans. He being the poster child, they say, for the culture of corruption that has plagued the Republican Party here in Washington -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana, let me ask you a question, why is DeLay changing his residency to Virginia?

BASH: It's interesting. It's really just apparently just according to the law. He does want to step down from his seat, because there was a big chance that a Democrat could have beaten him. He wants to make sure that a Republican gets a chance to get into that seat, get on the ballot, and legally, apparently, he has to actually leave his primary residency, leave Texas, so he is going to officially live in Virginia so he can be taken off the ballot in the state of Texas.

S. O'BRIEN: Congressional correspondent Dana Bash for us this morning. Dana, thanks.

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney claims she is a victim of racial profiling. The Georgia lawmaker accused of hitting a Capitol Hill Guard who tried to stop her from entering the House office building.

In an exclusive interview with Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM," McKinney scoffed at suggestions that maybe a new hairstyle -- the one on the left is her old one. The one on the right is her current one -- that might be the reason why the officer would fail to recognize her. She claims race was a factor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCKINNEY: There are only 14 African-American women members of Congress. So I don't understand what it is about my face that certain members of the Capitol Hill Police Department can't remember. The bottom line on this is that it doesn't matter if you're an United States capital, or the Georgia capital, the issue is racial profiling. And that's something that we are going to have to deal with as a country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Federal prosecutors are now considering whether to file criminal charges against McKinney. You, of course, can watch Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" weekdays at 4:00 and at 7:00 p.m. -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A major announcement out of Iraq just a half hour ago. Saddam Hussein will face new charges of genocide. That's in addition to the mass murder charges he's on trial for.

CNN's Aneesh Raman live now for us from Baghdad.

Aneesh, bring us to up to date.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, good morning.

For the first time Saddam Hussein facing the charge of genocide. The Iraqi High Tribunal, as you say, a short time ago announced that the investigation is complete into what was known as the Anfal campaign. It took place in the late 1980s. You see some file video of aftermath of attacks where -- directed the Anfal campaign at the company's Kurdish community. Estimates say some 100,000 Kurds were killed, most infamously in the town Halabja, where in March 1988, a chemical attack killed some 5,000 villagers.

So the court essentially saying they are complete with the investigation. They have documents. They have witnesses. They now passed this docket on to the prosecutorial arm of the court. No trial date is set. But expectations are it could begin as early as next month. That is Saddam Hussein currently is facing crimes against humanity in this first trial that is set to resume tomorrow -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: We're hearing word, Aneesh, that we may not hear a verdict in this case until all the trials are complete. What's that all about?

RAMAN: Yes, an interesting statement this morning from Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, he says a deal is in the works wherein essentially no verdict will be issued against Saddam Hussein until all the trials are done. Now Saddam facing upwards of 12 trials. We're currently in the first. They've now announced the end of the investigation of the second.

But in order to do that, they'd essentially have to change the law. The Iraqi High Tribunal statute says that once a trial is complete, there is a verdict. If Saddam is found guilty and sentenced to death, that sentence must be carried out within 30 days of the appellate process ending, so it seems the politicians might be working to change that law and get Saddam through all of these trials before he's issued a verdict on any of them -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And what would be the point of doing that? Why would they want to delay releasing the verdict?

RAMAN: Well, there's been fear on the ground, for instance, that if Saddam is, for instance, found guilty, sentenced to death for this first trial, that of Dujail, where some 148 villagers killed after a failed assassination attempt, many other Iraqis will feel Saddam has escaped justice. He will not have sat in the courtroom, on trial, for Halabja, the Anfal campaign that is coming up, also the suppression of the 1991 Shia uprising, where tens of thousands of Shia were killed, so the thought could be among Iraqi politicians that for the sake of the country, for the people, Saddam has to be in the courtroom facing all of the charges he's alleged with before, in essence, he is put to death, if that is the ultimate punishment he's given -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, the jury's decision was unanimous, and it could mean that the only man charged in the U.S. in the 9/11 attacks is now headed to death row. Zacarias Moussaoui could get the death penalty.

CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena has more in a CNN Security Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Zacarias Moussaoui sat there ignoring the judge and jury, mumbling to himself. When the court was asked to stand for the verdict to be read, he defiantly remained seated. They jury unanimously decided Moussaoui is responsible for at least one death on September 11th.

EDWARD ADAMS, COURT SPOKESMAN: By this verdict the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case.

ARENA: As Moussaoui left the courtroom, he yelled, "You'll never get my blood! God curse you all!" His defense team had no comment.

The Justice Department said it's pleased with the jury's ruling. That same jury will now hear more testimony and decide what Moussaoui's sentence will be. It has two choices: death or life in prison.

KENDALL COFFEY, FMR. U.S. ATTORNEY: I think death penalty eligible is going to turn into death penalty certain, because one of the key things in this next phase is going to be victim impact testimony, how person after person who lost loved ones on 9/11 talks about the devastating, shattering impact that those murders had on their lives.

ARENA: Some 9/11 family members expressed satisfaction the death penalty option is still on the table. Abraham Scott's wife was working in the Pentagon when Flight 77 hit and killed her.

ABRAHAM SCOTT, WIDOWER OF 9/11 VICTIM: I will also say that I love my wife truly and I know that whatever happens to him will not bring her back. But I do believe that her -- the death of Moussaoui will -- will bring comfort.

ARENA: Other family members don't think Moussaoui should be executed. Some worry he will be seen as martyr if he is.

CHRISTY COOMBS, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: He wants to be putt to death so he can, in his own mind, frame himself as a martyr to die for Allah, to die for killing Americans. And this is what we're on the road to doing.

ARENA (on camera): The new phase of the trial begins on Thursday. As the government presents 9/11 victims, the defense team is expected to bring out Moussaoui's troubled past, and argue that he's mentally unstable.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Alexandria, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: In our next hour, we're going to get reaction from a woman whose brother, a pilot in one of those 9/11 attacks, the pilot of the plane brought that was brought down, obviously, by the terrorists. She's been closely following the trial. We'll that you can to her about her reaction.

You want to stay with CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The long road to recovery beings in northwest Tennessee. The toll of Sunday's tornadoes, 23 killed, 1,800 businesses and homes destroyed. Governor Phil Bredesen will head out this morning to survey the damage.

Jonathan Freed is in Newbern, Tennessee, ahead of the governor's visit there.

Jonathan, what are you seeing there this morning?

FREED: Good morning, Miles.

I can tell you, the sun is starting to come up here. It's coming up on full two days. Later today will make it two days since that tornado tore through here.

And we're standing in front of a church. And we're trying to figure exactly out what we've been looking at here. It looks like the platform was back there, Miles. You can see the metal folding chairs probably where the choir was set up. And in the foreground over here, it looks like this is where the main chapel was. The sun is coming up in this immediate area of Newbern. So far, eight people were killed.

And the worry, of course, is as the searches continue and the days go on, that perhaps that number is going to increase. Only the rest of the day is going to show us about that.

Now that 20-mile swathe of destruction that was carved out by the tornado on Sunday evening, we're about halfway through it. It was a F-3, which means it achieved speeds of up to about 200 miles per hour. And as you pointed out, some 1,800 buildings where are either damaged or destroyed in this general area. At least 27 people killed altogether, 15 in Dyer county here. Eight in Gibson County, the adjoining county. And five of those eight people, Miles, all members of one family -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow. All right. Thank you very much, Jonathan Freed, in Newbern, Tennessee.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, The Hammer falls. More on Tom DeLay's stunning decision to leave Congress. We'll talk to the reporter that broke the story. How it could affect midterm elections.

S.O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're talking to Jill Carroll's colleagues about -- a look at it here -- her emotional visit to "The Christian Science Monitor." This colleague actually spent months in Baghdad searching for her. That's ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow. And amid the biggest mumps outbreak in almost 20 years, new questions about whether the mumps vaccine still works.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Without delay, we get to Tom DeLay. Tom DeLay saying he is stepping down from his seat in Congress, opening the way for an election, and thus clearing the path for a Republicans in his district, changing his career, although I'm sure this is not the last we have heard of one Tom DeLay.

Mike Allen, the White House correspondent for "Time" magazine broke the story, and so we're glad to have him with us this morning. An exclusive piece on time.com, which you can read, fascinating insights. Mike, good to have you with us. Good job on the scoop.

MIKE ALLEN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell us -- before we get to some the specifics, tell us, what was his tone? When you think of Tom DeLay, you think of a guy who's -- he's kind of a stick-to-his-guns, kind of almost defiant character. Was that his tone in his conversation with you?

ALLEN: Miles, I think that's a good insight, and that is true when it came to, for instance, the media or the legal cases. We had some pleasantries, and I said, now, talk about the case. He said, what case, jokingly. Because obviously he has a variety of legal exposure. But he said that he's never done anything illegal. I said, have you ever done anything unethical? He said no. I said, have you ever done anything he immoral? And he started to say no, but then he caught himself and said, we're all sinners.

But he would not concede that he failed to supervise members of his staff, although two of them have pleaded guilty to committing crimes while they were on his payroll. He said two people out of the hundreds who have work for me disappointed me. And if any office had to sort of scrutiny I had for 10 years, you might find two people that did something wrong. I talked to him about the news stories about the private planes, the cigars, the $740-a-night hotel rooms, the fancy golf games, and I said, did any of that -- was any of that high living a mistake? And he said that it wasn't, that he didn't choose the place where these conferences were held, that he just went there and spoke to them, and the media wrote about not about the speeches, but about the golf in the afternoon. He said he did plead guilty to playing golf. He said it was the one thing he did for himself, and he used the word "defiant." He said, you can't find one thing for my personal gain. Just look at the bank accounted or my house, which is relatively modest, and you'll see that.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

Let's talk for a moment about what might be motivating him here. I mean, in the final analysis, he's a political realist and a vote counter. And he took an honest look at himself and came to a conclusion. Let's listen to what he had to say in a statement he released after talking to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELAY: My loyalty to the Republican Party, indeed my love for the Republican Party, has played no small part in this decision. Having served under Republican and Democrat control in the House, I know firsthand how important it is for Republicans to maintain their national majority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: So, he's taking one for the team. Do you take that at face value? ALLEN: Well, I think there's two parts of that. And there is that part, where the president, Mr. DeLay saw that this was -- he says that any other Republican would be able to walk into this seat. And there's a time when every Republican House seat may matter. And he said he didn't want to put the district and the party through this fight, which was unnecessary, because he did not have to risk the seat, that it could be held by almost any other...

M. O'BRIEN: But wait a minute. This is about more than one seat; this is about a symbol of Republican power that the Democrats would care -- probably like to use in the context of this election, right?

ALLEN: Right. Miles, I think that's is a good point. And I was just listening to that statement that Mr. DeLay released to the Houston affiliates this morning. And in there, you hear him saying he's fairly somber in that appearance, and you hear him say, I will leave public life. It's an extraordinary statement, isn't it? But he said that he realized that he could do -- be more effective for causes he cares about, foster care, the role of religion in government, which he wants to remote, and most of all, electing Republicans, on the outside than he would be the inside. And he and the friends told me his decision was crystallized on Wednesday when he got an unbelievable response to a speech that he gave at that conference in Washington we all covered about the war on Christianity, and he realized the response he could get from his audience. So he's, as you know, changing his legal residence to Alexandria, Virginia, to launch this new career. It's one last time that Mr. DeLay's using the election laws to his purposes. That makes him ineligible for the Texas ballot, and so Republican officials here are able to put the Republican official of their choice on the ballot.

It's going to be a Republican -- a local or state official, not, interestingly, one of the three people who challenged him in the primary in March, and so, in November, there will be a clean election, a new representative from Texas 22. Certainly no one with the sort of clout that he did. And he's talking a lot about that, talking about how the prosecutor here, Ronnie Earl, who cost him his leadership position and ultimately the seat, I guess you could argue, that he'd also hurt this district, because they're losing a seat on the Appropriations Committee which has come in very handy for NASA.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Mike Allen, good job on the story. Good insights. Thank you very much. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of one Tom DeLay. Just another chapter in his political career. Thanks for your time.

ALLEN: Have a beautiful week, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, you, too -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, a jury decided Zacarias Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty. But will the admitted Al Qaeda terrorist actually get it? CNN's senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin is going to join us just ahead with his take on that. Plus, the biggest mumps outbreak in the U.S. in nearly 20 years is spreading across a college campus and beyond. We'll look at why it's happening and why now.

Those stories all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Hurricane season just a couple of months ago away. So how many monsters storms to expect this year? Chad Myers has a brand new 2006 hurricane outlook. We're going to talk about that in just a little bit.

Also a jury decides Zacarias Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty, but that doesn't mean he'll get it, although it's very likely. Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin will talk us through what's next in just a little bit.

Plus, former hostage Jill Carroll with a tearful thank you to colleagues, many of whom she had never met before in person. We'll talk to one of the reporters who spent months trying to find her, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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