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American Morning
Congress Questioned?; 'American Idol' Picked; Deadly Flooding in Thailand
Aired May 25, 2006 - 06:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning, a battle under way between lawmakers and federal law enforcers. Leaders in the House upset about an unprecedented FBI raid on Congressman William Jefferson's office. He's the target of a bribery investigation. They say it was an illegal raid; they want those documents back.
More bird flu concerns this morning. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt will brief the Senate on the government's bird flu response plan. This comes right on the heels of that case of possible human-to-human transmission we told you about yesterday in Indonesia.
And the pope is in Poland today paying homage to his predecessor. Pope Benedict will visit the homeland of John Paul II and meet with Polish leaders.
Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
The FBI about to ruffle some of the biggest feathers in Washington. It involves an investigation of just who leaked that story about NSA wiretapping. The reporting from "Roll Call" says investigators want to talk to select members of Congress.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live for us in Washington, D.C.
Hey, Bob. Good morning to you. Who exactly is the FBI looking to talk to?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Talking about leadership, talking about people who would be on the intelligence committees. Of that ilk, people who might have had access to the information that has made its way into allegations in the media. And, of course, right now there's a very tense relationship between the executive branch of government and investigators, particularly from the Justice Department and FBI, and the members of Congress very jealous about their constitutional prerogatives, including the Article 6 -- or article -- pardon me, Section 1, Article 6 of the Constitution which protects against intimidation. It's supposed to protect against intimidation of Congress by the executive branch.
And members of Congress are saying a raid on Congressman William Jefferson's office as part of an investigation are part of that, that there has been an increasing intrusion on the part of the executive branch into the prerogatives of Congress. They're saying that it should stop.
We should point out, however, that there was a similar investigation into leaks about the NSA a couple of years ago -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, let's -- you know, there's no question, I think, that this is not the last word on it. It's really the beginning of what's going to be a pretty tough debate between the executive branch and the Congress, as well.
Let me ask you another question, Bill, on a different issue, this immigration debate. We hear maybe that the Senate will take a vote today, this afternoon. Does that mean it moves forward and even by Friday, we could see the House and Senate, with their very different proposals, kind of coming head to head?
FRANKEN: Oh boy, will they. This is a battle between Congress and Congress.
This is going to be between the Senate and House. It looks like the Senate is going to pass legislation that is presented as being tough, but having some compassion in it when it comes to a three- tiered approach to possible citizenship for those who enter the country illegally.
Now, the House has a much sterner measure. House Republicans are saying they are absolutely going to dig their heels in on this, which leaves the possibility that ultimately, nothing will be done on the issue this year.
S. O'BRIEN: That is not what the American public wants to hear. But I think you're probably right.
Bob Franken for us this morning.
Bob, thanks.
We're going to talk to "Roll Call's" lead reporter on this breaking story about just which leaders could be questioned by the FBI. That's coming up at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
Vice President Dick Cheney could be a witness against his former chief of staff. In court papers, the prosecutor says the vice president's conversations with Lewis "Scooter" Libby are directly relevant to Libby's perjury case. Libby is accused of lying when he said had he forgotten it was the vice president who first told him the name of the CIA operative. The operative, Valerie Plame, was later outed in a newspaper editorial -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Two staunch allies in the war in Iraq to meet at the White House today to try and chart a course toward troop withdrawals. President Bush welcomes British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It could be their very last meeting as heads of state.
CNN's Ed Henry has more from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tonight, the president welcomes to the White House British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the first world leader to visit Iraq since the formation of a new government. The backdrop for these talks is the fact that these two leaders are joined at the hip, defending a war that has dragged down the popularity of both men.
That's why tonight, the two leaders will try to pivot off some of the good news coming out of Iraq, to urge Iraqis to take a larger share of the burden. The Iraqi prime minister, Mr. Maliki, now says he thinks Iraq will be able to handle all security by the end of 2007. But officials here insist they do not think Mr. Bush will make any grand announcement tonight at a press conference with Mr. Blair about cutting U.S. troop levels by the end of 2007.
Mr. Bush does not want to get overly optimistic, because in the words of one official, so many times they've seen Iraq take two steps forward and two steps back.
Ed Henry, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: CNN will have live coverage of the Bush-Blair news conference. It begins at 7:00 p.m., a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. The actual news conference is at 7:30 Eastern. And then there's a special edition of "PAULA ZAHN NOW" at 8:30 Eastern -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening "In America" this morning, in Georgia, a man accused of hitting a 2-year-old girl with his car is now facing a murder charge. That's because the little girl died from her injuries. Authorities say 46-year-old Lanny Barnes had a clear intent to hurt somebody when he hit two sisters and three small children in a McDonald's parking lot on Tuesday. The 2-year-old died on Wednesday.
Two New York teenagers are arrested in California. Allegedly, they were trying to shake down the Web site MySpace.com. The two are accused of packing into the site, stealing personal information, and then trying to extort $150,000.
A mercury contamination scare in Durham, North Carolina. At least four elementary school students have been exposed. The school was closed on Wednesday while health officials investigated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very upset about it. My young one has liver disease. For him to even come in contact with it or even be that close to it could hurt him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Officials say the mercury may have been spread by an air-conditioning technician or maybe a school janitor. Also in California, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation flexing its financial muscle to battle tuberculosis in developing countries. The foundation is giving $104 million for TB drug development. The money will be used to develop faster-acting drugs.
New video this morning of Barbaro the race horse being treated outside of Philadelphia for his broken ankle. The bones that he suffered in the Preakness last weekend, you'll recall, with those horrible, horrible pictures. Barbaro's vets say he's got plenty of fans. They're sending apples and carrots for him to munch on during his recovery.
And it looks like a record-breaking catch for a fisherman in Florida. He nabbed a great hammerhead shark that weighs more than 1,200 pounds. It's 14.5 feet long. Take a look at that. The shark was caught off the Boca Grande Pass.
Thirty-six minutes past the hour. It brings us right to the forecast.
Chad, are you a fisherman?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes?
S. O'BRIEN: Are you a fisherman?
MYERS: Of course.
S. O'BRIEN: Ever caught a 14.5 foot shark?
MYERS: No, and all the -- all the shark was doing was trying to do was a candy gram.
S. O'BRIEN: What?
MYERS: Candy gram.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh. Oh, that's not even funny.
(LAUGHTER)
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh, you have so spent too much time with Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: You are dating yourself with that shark story.
MYERS: Anyway...
S. O'BRIEN: The new king of the bad jokes is Chad.
MYERS: ... that was a long time ago.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MYERS: Back to you guys.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Were you watching "Idol"?
MYERS: I did. I watched the whole thing. That's why my eyes are kind of like...
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: You really...
S. O'BRIEN: The whole thing?
M. O'BRIEN: You really did?
MYERS: You know, I enjoyed the program. I really did. I thought, oh, I got to sit here for two hours to figure out who the winner is.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
MYERS: But then to see -- to see all real great talent come out with these guys was phenomenal.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, they did have good talent.
M. O'BRIEN: I mean, even Meat Loaf, for gosh sakes.
MYERS: Well, OK. There was some great talent.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh. So harsh.
M. O'BRIEN: The question is, who is the fifth American Idol? If you haven't heard by now, we'll give you a clue.
He says he would like to record an album with Soul. Is that your clue? Get it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN SEACREST, "AMERICAN IDOL": The winner of "American Idol" season five is Taylor Hicks!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: I guess that was a big clue since I said "he" and then soul. You know...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... I mean, I sort of gave it away.
Taylor Hicks says had he no idea that America would embrace premature gray hair as much as they have. We call it the Anderson Cooper effect around here. You know, premature gray is good. I'm thinking about doing it for me, too.
He beat out the lovely Katharine McFever. I still have a little McFever this morning, but that's another story.
Sixty-three million votes were cast. And that is apparently the highest call and text message turnout "American Idol" has ever had.
Now, that show that Chad was referring to was quite a cavalcade of stars. There's Carrie Underwood. And she looked lovely. "Jesus Take the Wheel" is what she sang.
Mary J. Blige, she's great.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I love Mary J. Look at her.
M. O'BRIEN: She is so great. She was up there with Elliot Yamin on the stage, and they brought down the house with a version of U2's "One Love".
And then Taylor Hicks with Toni Braxton, singing the Elvis hit "In the Ghetto". Remember that song? It was a big one for him in the contest.
And then there was the Meat Loaf moment, which was amazing. Meat Loaf and Katharine McPhee. My kids were like, "Who's that guy with the handkerchief?"
But it was -- but it was -- it worked. It worked.
S. O'BRIEN: It's amazing how all the older stars are glomming on to "American Idol" to sort of, you know, boost their...
M. O'BRIEN: You think they might want to sell a few CDs perhaps?
S. O'BRIEN: Maybe. I don't know.
M. O'BRIEN: Is that possibly it with the 200 million they say were watching?
And then, of course, here was another moment that was worth mentioning. Clay Aiken surprises Elliot Yamin. And the question I want to know is, where is Ruben Studdard? What happened to Ruben? It's the runner-up that shows up.
Look. I think he was truly taken aback. Oh my god. Holy cow. I can't believe it's Clay.
And, of course, perhaps one of the bigger surprises of the night, the artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince was there. And as always, he brought down the house. I mean, you know, he...
S. O'BRIEN: Love Prince.
M. O'BRIEN: ... he is such a showman.
S. O'BRIEN: Prince doing "American Idol".
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, what does that tell you? S. O'BRIEN: You know, what does it tell you?
M. O'BRIEN: What does that tell you about the tenor of the times?
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, I'm going to see him in concert soon.
M. O'BRIEN: Will you take me?
S. O'BRIEN: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: I would love to see him in concert.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, we can go. We can go on a date. It will be like a late night out. We'll have rumors. People think we're married already.
You have a chance now to talk to new "American Idol," Taylor Hicks, and the runner-up, Katharine McPhee. They're going to sit down together, along with special guest host Ryan Seacrest. They've got a first primetime live interview, the two last idols standing. Plus, Randy Jackson, too, all taking your calls.
M. O'BRIEN: Dog. Dude.
S. O'BRIEN: That's tomorrow, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, on "LARRY KING LIVE".
More of our top stories straight ahead this morning, including an update on that huge fire at the airport in Istanbul, Turkey. We were showing you these pictures yesterday. We're going to have the very latest on the investigation into that fire.
M. O'BRIEN: We're also live in Thailand on the scene of some terrible flooding there, a lot of devastation. We'll give you an update.
S. O'BRIEN: Plus, a look at what's being done to stem a bird flu outbreak in Indonesia, the biggest occurrence of human cases so far. We'll take a look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: A controversial U.S. bombing raid against the Taliban tops a look at our tops stories that CNN correspondents around the world are covering today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Barbara Starr in Bagram, Afghanistan, where the controversy continues about a U.S. bombing raid earlier this week that killed a number of civilians. The U.S. military says the Taliban attacked from inside a village where the civilians were located and there was no choice but to counter- attack. Still, the leaders of this country and the people are upset about what has happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Vause, reporting from Jerusalem. Today, crisis talks are under way between rival Palestinian factions, with both sides calling for calm. But the day before this meeting, a Gaza security chief, a key ally of the Palestinian president, was killed when his car exploded, bringing to 10 the number of people who have been killed since internal violence erupted between the regular security services and forces loyal to the new Hamas government. This meeting will be chaired by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, from his West Bank headquarters, linked by video to Hamas officials in Gaza, possibly because it's too dangerous right now for Abbas to travel to the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Hancocks in Istanbul. There's still smoke in the air and a very strong smell of burning here at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. This is one day after a huge fire swept through the cargo area, billowing black thick smoke hundreds of meters into the air. Miraculously, no fatalities, just three people injured. Officials say they believe it was an electrical fault and no foul play is suspected.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: For more on these stories, or any of our top stories, you can go right to our Web site, CNN.com -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, after much debate, the Senate is getting ready to pass a new immigration bill. We'll tell you what it includes and what it doesn't include, as well.
And searching for victims in Thailand. We're live with the latest on those devastating floods there.
Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, the Senate is expected to pass its new immigration bill today. It gives millions of undocumented immigrants a chance at citizenship, and it includes a guest worker program, unlike the House version.
Speaking of the House, House Speaker Denny Hastert demanding a retraction from ABC News. ABC reporting Hastert under investigation in connection with that Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. The Justice Department is denying the ABC report.
And Admiral Thad Allen will be sworn in as head of the Coast Guard this morning. Allen came in to the public eye after taking over Katrina relief efforts, you will recall -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Commandant is his new position. And we're going to be talking with him later this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Commandant. It will be good to hear from him.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Hope he's ready for the season.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll talk about that.
The worst flooding in six decades killed dozens of people in northern Thailand. Rising waters have destroyed homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate. And unfortunately, more rain is forecast for today.
CNN's Dan Rivers joins us by videophone from Uttaradit in Thailand.
Dan, good morning.
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
There is a raging torrent behind me where there used to be a quiet canal. That gives you some idea of the ferocity of this flooding. It has swept across this region, engulfing homes, engulfing highways, engulfing railroads.
It's estimated that some 20,000 people have been affected. The death toll at the moment, 50 bodies have been recovered. But that will rise very quickly. There are more than a hundred people missing.
And this is certainly the most devastating flooding here in a generation. People now are worried whether more rains will come and whether this water behind me will rise even higher -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Dan Rivers for us this morning.
Dan, thanks for the update.
Coming up next, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business".
What you got for us?
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Soledad, why is Hollywood biting a cable company hand that feeds it?
Plus, a couple of MySpace bad boys get busted.
We'll tell you all about that.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy. Thanks. Looking forward to that.
Also ahead this morning, why you might be responsible for more than $500,000 of government debt. We're not kidding. We've got details of this jaw-dropping report just ahead.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SERWER: We're still hashing out some things that happened earlier.
S. O'BRIEN: We're still trying to figure out Chad's joke from the other hour.
M. O'BRIEN: Is Chad looped in?
He isn't looped in anymore. We were talking about...
S. O'BRIEN: No. Lucky for him he's not.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: We'll get to the bottom of it.
S. O'BRIEN: We're going to talk business news.
M. O'BRIEN: We're going to help you understand Chad as best we can this morning. It's one of our goals.
But anyway, Andy...
SERWER: All right. Yes, I want to get to a story here.
A couple of Hollywood studios and TV networks are suing Cablevision -- that's the nation's sixth largest cable company -- over something called the network DVR service. And we told you about this a couple of weeks ago.
The way this was going to work is Cablevision was going to allow its customers to DVR or record shows not on a set-top box, but on Cablevision's central computer on their server. And there's a distinction here, the Hollywood studios say. And therefore, they are suing this cable company.
The reason why is they say that consumers can DVR these shows on set-top boxes. That's called fair use. But once the cable company is involved, that should require them to pay an additional fee. In other words, they're allowed to air the show once, but by recording it and allowing consumers to see it multiple times, they need to pay an additional license fee.
Interestingly, FOX, Viacom, ABC, NBC, CBS suing Cablevision. What company's not there? Our parent company, Time Warner, because they own a cable company. Right? So they don't want to get involved.
S. O'BRIEN: They're going to stay on the sidelines on that one.
SERWER: Yes, exactly. We'll just play both side of the fence.
M. O'BRIEN: Which side of the cable are you on kind of thing, right?
SERWER: Yes, exactly.
Let's talk about MySpace, always in the news these days, it seems. This is amazing story.
A couple teens were caught hacking in to personal data on MySpace, two teenagers from New York. And they were booted off by the MySpace police, the authorities. And what they did next was really stupid, according to MySpace.
They decided to try to extort the Web site and say, if you don't pay us $150,000, we will distribute a foolproof plan to hack into your site. And the MySpace people contacted authorities and said really?
S. O'BRIEN: Sure, we'd love to meet you.
SERWER: Right, we'll meet you and we'll have the cash in a bag.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: And these guys traveled out to L.A. to meet them, and guess what? They got busted. They were busted. It was a sting, basically. They have plead the not guilty, by the way, so we'll see what's going on.
M. O'BRIEN: So they weren't quite so smart after all.
SERWER: Yes, allegedly, according...
S. O'BRIEN: Allegedly.
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Yes, exactly. Right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
So, Chad Myers, let's get this back to the candy gram thing.
SERWER: Yes. What's up with this, Chad? Explain.
MYERS: Did you ever see "Saturday Night Live"?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: We all -- we all got it, but we just want to help out our viewers.
S. O'BRIEN: We got it.
M. O'BRIEN: Incase they missed it 30 years ago, Chad.
MYERS: It was 1975. M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I know.
MYERS: I just looked up a transcript.
M. O'BRIEN: It will be 31 years.
MYERS: A shark -- well, actually, Chevy Chase...
M. O'BRIEN: Chevy Chase.
MYERS: ... in a shark outfit was trying to get into a house to eat the person inside.
M. O'BRIEN: It was land shark is what it was called, land shark.
MYERS: Land shark, right. So knocked on the door, "Plumber." She goes, "I didn't order a plumber." "Flowers." "I didn't order flowers."
"Candy gram." And then obviously she opened the door and...
M. O'BRIEN: Opens the door, and then the cello starts going and...
Got you. All right.
MYERS: When you have to explain your jokes this early...
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: I figured Andy was of the vintage. But apparently not.
SERWER: I was too young.
S. O'BRIEN: Any weather you want to share with us?
SERWER: Yes, please.
MYERS: Good morning. It's why I'm getting gray. Not because of my kid.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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