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American Morning

Hawaii Earthquake; Snow Emergency; North Korea Sanctions; North Korea Radiation; Insurgent Video; Weldon Investigation; America Votes 2006

Aired October 16, 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: Says he's a victim of blackmail.
Oprah and Bono went on a shopping spree along Chicago's Magnificent Mile, all to help in the fight against AIDS in Africa. They only bought product red items sold at The Gap, Apple, Motorola, Converse and Armani. One of the coolest items, a red iPod. $10 from each iPod goes to the fight against AIDS.

And fallout after that big brawl between players from Miami and Florida International. Thirty-one players were suspended in all -- 13 from the Hurricanes, 18 from Florida International. Each suspended player must now sit out his team's next game. For more on these stories or any of our stories, go right to our website at cnn.com.

The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. October 16th. A Monday. I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Lots happening, so let's get right to the news wall.

Hawaii's big island is trying to recover after being jolted by that strong earthquake. It's the biggest quake to hit the Hawaiian islands in over 20 years. The entire state's been declare a disaster area. And it's expected that the island could, in fact, feel aftershocks for weeks to come.

M. O'BRIEN: Also happening this morning, United Nations votes to impose sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test, but China now balking at some key provisions. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heading to Asia tomorrow.

S. O'BRIEN: A state of emergency has been declared for parts of New York state blanketed with over two feet of snow. The storm left three people dead and nearly 400,000 homes and businesses without any power. Look at those pictures there.

Let's get right to Chad. He's at the CNN Weather Center watching that story and also, of course, the tornado warnings along the Gulf Coast.

Oh, terrible news for Plaquemines Parish, isn't it, Chad?

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: People in Hawaii might be feeling aftershocks from that powerful earthquakes for weeks. This morning they're assessing the damage from Sunday's quake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The windows shook. The bed was shaking, because I was still in bed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When it came, they just shook. I mean totally shook. And I just kind of like jumped out of bed and I said, what is that? And he said, it's an earthquake. I said, oh, my God!

S. O'BRIEN, (voice over): It was quite a wake-up call. A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake jolting tourists and residents on Hawaii's big island on Sunday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt the tremor and stuff and then it started swaying and we just grabbed what we could and ran down the stairs.

S. O'BRIEN: Dozens of tremors followed the initial quake, including a 5.8 aftershock. The power outages were widespread and there was significant structural damage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I came out here and I could not believe this. And there was smoke everywhere. I guess from the concrete and everything. It was filled with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there was a cloud of smoke and everything outside, you know, and you'd have like 9/11 when the building goes down, all that concrete turns into dust. So a little mini 9/11, if you will, was outside there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's been damage to the hospital building. Ceiling tiles have come down in our patient care areas and things have fallen off shelves and racks. We don't know about structural damage yet. We have evacuated patients off of our medical surgical unit and off of our -- out of our skilled nursing unit.

S. O'BRIEN: Hawaii's governor has declared the entire state a disaster area. The quake, and it's aftershocks, set off fears of a Pacific-wide tsunami. But it didn't happen. And so far there have been no reports of deaths from the quake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A gorgeous, gorgeous place. I mean, it is paradise, right up until this happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: The 6.6-magnitude earthquake is the biggest to hit the Hawaiian islands since 1983.

And there's a state of emergency this morning because of snow in Buffalo, New York. President Bush made the call to help clear the roads and get the power back on. Two feet of snow caught the area by surprise. Schools expected to be closed all week. Melissa Holmes is with our affiliate station, WIVB, and she's got our report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the command post for 2,000 utility crews from all across the northeast who have come here to western New York to lend a hand during the region's largest power outage in history. This morning, 250,000 homes and businesses are still in the dark. But that's down from the nearly 400,000 who lost power on Thursday and Friday after two feet of snow was dumped on the Buffalo region. Thousands of trees snapped and fell on thousands of power lines, creating a hug mess and the massive blackout.

Now many people are seeking heat and food in numerous emergency shelters. Today, many communities are still in states of emergency with driving bans still in effect. And the region's largest school districts have canceled classes for the entire week.

Now even with all of these crews here, it's estimated power won't be restored until the end of next weekend. President Bush has officially declared the city of Buffalo and its four surrounding counties as a federal disaster area, meaning hundreds of thousands of residents here could be getting some much-needed federal aid to help rebuild after this devastating snowstorm and blackout.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: The Bush administration is leaning hard on China to help enforce a new U.N. resolution, punishing Pyongyang for that underground nuclear bomb test. But the Chinese, North Korea's only friend in the region, are balking at putting some teeth into that document. CNN's Ed Henry live at the White House with more.

Hello, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

You're right. A lot of concern here that China is backpedaling, so a late add this morning to the president's schedule. He will meet in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton to figure out how to make these U.N. sanctions stick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The White House is celebrating a diplomatic victory at the United nations and vowing to turn up the heat even more if North Korea fails to end its nuclear program.

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The sanctions could be increased, modified, suspended or lifted so that we've left open all of the possibilities, depending on how North Korea itself behaves. That's why the ball is really in North Korea's court.

HENRY: But the celebration may be short lived because already there are cracks in the coalition.

WANG GUANGYA, CHINA'S AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: For China, our political position is, we are not in favor of inspections.

HENRY: China immediately suggested it will not enforce a critical part of the sanctions, inspections of cargo along the 880 mile border it shares with North Korea.

SEN. CARL LEVIN, (D) MICHIGAN: Without total Chinese support, there's no way a sanction regime can work.

HENRY: U.S. Ambassador John Bolton says the burden is on China to follow through on a resolution that passed the U.N. unanimously.

BOLTON: I wouldn't want to think within just hours after the resolution, that China was saying that it wasn't going to abide by what it had just voted for.

HENRY: Some Republicans are backing Democrats and saying the only way to solve this nuclear crisis is for the White House to engage North Korea in one-on-one talks like the Clinton administration did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got to get to the core of the issue. If we do not do that, then we are going to find the world daily in a far more dangerous situation.

LEVIN: The Clinton administration succeeded, at least partially. They succeeded in keeping the plutonium can under inspection so it could not be used. Compare that to the total failure of the Bush administration relative to North Korean policy.

HENRY: President Bush has flatly rejected that charge, firing back that it was the Clinton approach that allowed Pyongyang to move forward on a weapons program.

BOLTON: When President Bush came into office, he found increasing evidence that the North Koreans were violating an agreement that they had struck in 1994. In fact, had probably been violating it almost before the ink was dry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: That's why the White House prefers to operate through the so-called six-party talks. In fact, tomorrow, Secretary Rice heading to Asia for a major diplomatic mission. She will stop in three of those six nations -- China, Japan and South Korea -- to try to figure out how exactly to make sure these U.N. sanctions accomplish their goal, which is to stop North Korea's nuclear program.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And as she travels, she'll hear a lot of talk, a lot of pressure to have a bilateral negotiation, U.S. versus North Korea. What will her response be?

HENRY: She's going to say what the president has said over and over, which is that they do not believe that those bilateral negotiations worked in the Clinton administration. Instead, what they prefer is these six-party talks with potential side negotiations where a U.S. representative will talk to a North Korean representative in the next room, if you will, but not one-on-one solo. They want to do it as part of a broader framework. They think that will be better to have more allies to bring to the table.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House, thanks very much.

So what was it that blew up in North Korea? Was it a small nuclear bomb? Maybe a fizzle? Or was it a very large, conventional explosion. The diplomatic world taking the North at face value when it says it was a nuclear device, but the Pentagon is still trying to verify that claim beyond a shadow of a doubt. CNN's Barbara Starr with the latest on that from the Pentagon.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles.

Well, the Pentagon and the entire U.S. intelligence community, now one week after what North Korea says was its first underground nuclear test, still trying to figure out exactly what did happen. Here's where we stand.

Last Friday, the results of the first airborne sampling after that explosion, the first results came back on Friday morning. They were negative. No radioactivity. Friday night, the second batch of test results from a second airborne flight came back. They showed radioactivity.

And, in fact, the U.S. intelligence community was ready to put out a statement. The office of John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence, had this statement ready to go. And, in fact, reporters got their hands on it. It said, "preliminary analysis of air samples collected on 11 October has detected radioactive debris consistent with a North Korean nuclear test." The statement went on to say, "additional analysis is ongoing, and will be completed in a few days."

So we checked this morning, just a few minutes ago. No final answer yet. Those test results, that second batch, still undergoing analysis. We may learn something later today. We may not.

And so what's the bottom line? Why is this so important? Well, the U.S. intelligence community needs to know what exactly North Korea did because they must tell the president, of course, what is the status of that program. How big was the test? What kind of weapon was it? Does North Korea appear to be getting help from the outside? And making a definitive ruling on the radioactive debris will help them.

So it may have been a test. Could have been a false positive. Could have been some sort of atmospheric conditions. They did detect radioactive debris. The question now is what does it all mean.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: One insurgent group in Iraq says it wants to negotiate with U.S. forces. A spokesman for the Islamic Army of Iraq -- if we take the videotape here, you can see that he's covered up his face in the video. And this video was obtained on Sunday by CNN. This spokesman spells out a set of conditions that would end the group's participation in the insurgency. Let's get right to CNN's Michael Ware. He's in Baghdad for us.

Michael, good morning.

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, we've had a very rare opportunity to gain access to the Islamic Army of Iraq insurgent organization. This is the leading insurgent group among a broad faction of the insurgency responsible for many of the attacks against U.S. forces. We effectively were able to conduct an interview with the spokesman of this group by forwarding questions and having that videotaped response come back.

Now, it's fascinating stuff. Here in this month, October, only 16 days old, already at least 49 U.S. deaths, with a rising death count against Iraqi civilians and security forces as well, as we see the Ramadan offensive. Here he comes out and says with a lead-up to the midterm elections reiterates the group's offer to hold negotiations or discussions with U.S. forces.

He also gives us a window into the structure of his organization and the role of al Qaeda in the insurgency. He also gives a reality check on the sectarian violence, all throughout making many very savvy American cultural references from the Vietnam War, to Watergate, to President Bush's "mission accomplished" statement.

But he also talked about one of the motivating factors behind the Sunni insurgency, and that's fear of Iranian interference. He says very clearly to CNN that a byproduct of the U.S. occupation is the entrenchment of Iranian influence here in Iraq. And he says this is one of the major motivating forces that is sustaining the insurgency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, (through translator): America and Iran have occupied Iraq. America is the disease that caused the infection, which is the Iranian occupation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARE: So this is a very, very savvy address to the people of America. So in this interview, we hear this key insurgent group talking directly to the people of America, asking them to question President Bush's record on Iraq. He certainly vows that the insurgency is going nowhere, yet reiterates the chance to discuss what effectively would be cease-fire or peace talks.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Michael Ware for us in Baghdad. Thanks, Michael.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, conservative leaders trying to rally the religious base by taking on the issue of same-sex marriage. Will this strategy work this time as it has before? We'll look at that.

And as America's population nears the 300 million mark -- feeling a little more crowded in here? Well, we'll talk to the man who was number 200 million and see how things have turned out for him. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. It's 17 minutes past the hour. If you're heading out the door, let's get a quick check of the traveler's forecast for you. Chad's got that.

Hey, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: On Capitol Hill today, the Mark Foley e-mail scandal. The investigation still churning along. The House Ethics Committee to hear from the chief of staff to Louisiana Congressman Rodney Alexander. He brought Foley's e-mails to a teenager, a House page, to the attention of House leaders.

And another Republican in hot water this morning just three weeks before Election Day. Sources telling CNN, Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon is under investigation for allegedly steering contracts to his daughter's company. CNN's Dana Bash live now from Capitol Hill with more.

Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, two sources with knowledge of this investigation confirm that the Justice Department is, in fact, looking into whether or not Curt Weldon used his influence and his position to help his daughter, who is a lobbyist, secure contracts for clients. Now these sources say these lobbying contracts have been under scrutiny at the Justice Department for months now. But Curt Weldon's chief of staff tells CNN, neither the congressman, nor his attorney, nor anyone on his staff has been contacted and they have no independent knowledge that this probe is even happening.

Now Weldon has been in office for about 20 years. He is a Republican who has been very secure in his seat until this year. He's in really one of the fights of his life politically who's already in danger of losing his seat. But the issue that had been playing most in his suburban Philadelphia district has been the war in Iraq. And now news of this probe brings in another negative narrative for Republicans this year, and that is potential of corruption and potential of another scandal.

But it is also important to note, Miles, that Curt Weldon's top aide tell us that they think that that's exactly why this is all coming to light three weeks before Election Day. He is lashing out at a liberal-leaning watchdog group and the Democratic Party for bringing publicity to this issue at this time, so close to the election. It is also important to point out that the Democratic Party has sent flyers to constituents on this issue in the past couple of days.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And just to be clear where this all stands, it's an investigation, no indictment, right?

BASH: That's exactly right. And that is important to be clear, that they have opened up an investigation and it does not necessarily mean that Curt Weldon will be indicted at all. You know, this is something that the Bush Justice Department has taken very seriously, as we have seen with other examples, Republican and Democrat, the idea of public corruption. If there is an question, they seem to want to investigate it.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, thank you.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, as Election Day approaches, political activists are trying to get ways to get their supporters out to vote. That's always a big problem in midterm elections, especially. One group is, again, hoping to energize conservative Christians over a single issue. AMERICAN MORNING's Dan Lothian is in Boston for us this morning.

Hey, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

As you know, the fight against same-sex marriage energized evangelicals in 2004 and helped President Bush win a second term. Now with just three weeks to go before the crucial midterm elections, the issue of same-sex marriage is again being used to rally the faithful.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN, (voice over): A massive appeal to evangelicals across the country, uplinked to hundreds of churches and broadcast on Christian media. The message, preserve religious rights by opposing same-sex marriage.

TONY PERKINS, PRESIDENT, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Vote your values on November the 7th.

LOTHIAN: This evangelical rally of sorts, called Liberty Sunday, was organized by the conservative Family Research Council and held in Boston, in the only state where gay marriage is legal. A symbolic backdrop in the battle to energize conservatives, some of them frustrated by political scandals, and others tempted to stay home on Election Day.

DR. RAY PENDLETON, TREMONT TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH: To remind people of what the consequences are. To remind people of what their responsibilities are. We want them to be thoughtful and respectful, but have a consistency between what they believe and what they do in the polling place.

LOTHIAN: Eight states will be voting on constitutional amendments that would bar same-sex marriage. Pastors and politicians, like Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, fired up conservatives, calling them to action. Everyone here clearly aware of what success could mean to the cause and to key congressional races.

PERKINS: Make sure that not only you go and vote, but you call 10 people on Election Day and encourage them to go and vote.

LOTHIAN: But the opposition, like some of the protesters outside the event, is organizing too. Much more, some political experts say, than in 2004. And Democratic political consultant Doug Hattaway says this time around same-sex marriage is less of a lightning rod.

DOUG HATTAWAY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It rallies some people. Your average voter looks at it and says, "what's up with that?" This is not an issue for most people.

LOTHIAN: Hattaway says it's also much more difficult for evangelicals to point the finger when some conservative politicians and operatives have been knee deep in scandals.

HATTAWAY: This is clearly a last-minute sort of hail Mary pass. They are desperate. Their own base is really angry at them for good reason. I really doubt that an anti-gay sort of tirade at the 11th hour is going to change things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: But some at the event did tell us that they are disappointed with some politicians in their own party. They are still motivated to vote on their values. The question is, will they come out in big numbers?

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that really is the big question, isn't it, Dan, what really happens three weeks from now and how many people are motivated to come out.

LOTHIAN: That's right.

S. O'BRIEN: Dan Lothian for us this morning. Thanks, Dan. He's in Boston.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, we're "Minding Your Business." A stock options scandal at a major health insurance company claims its biggest casualty yet. Andy Serwer is here with the latest on that. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It's Monday, which means it's time to talk about stock options scams, I guess, essentially. Andy Serwer is here with that.

Hello, Andy.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

William McGuire, the embattled CEO of UnitedHealth Group, will step down as CEO of that company as of December 1st, after an investigation by an outside law firm found that stock option grants to him were manipulated. And when you think about this whole stock options scandal, you think about McGuire because this sort of kicked it all off back in March when "The Wall Street Journal" did that investigation and analysis of the stock options. That's number one. Number two, it was so big. A trove of $1.78 billion worth of options that this guy got. The bottom line here is that . . .

M. O'BRIEN: That would cover the deductible, wouldn't it?

SERWER: It sure would and it would cover your tax problems and a whole host of other problems as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

SERWER: You may remember they looked at his options back then, 29 options, and, you know, most of them were at the low point or the second low point of the quarter of the year. Three years at a very low point, 1999. The lowest price of the stock that year got $600 million worth of stock that one year.

M. O'BRIEN: And the odds of that happening randomly were?

SERWER: Two hundred million to one.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow.

SERWER: And he kept saying, well, you know, there is that one chance, in the investigation. And the lawyer said, we're simply not buying it.

Now here's an interesting wrinkle. McGuire has agreed to reprice all of his options to the highest point in each one of those years.

M. O'BRIEN: So they go under water? SERWER: No, no, hardly. And that's where it's interesting. So it sounds like he's giving back, and he is a little bit, but not that much. See, the whole thing about stock options, for them to work, the stock's got to go up a lot. And UnitedHealth Stock was a barn burner. It was up 50 fold, 50 times while he was CEO. So the fact that he's moving it to the worst day of the year for him means he's only going to peel back tens of millions of dollars, so he'll still have, you know, over a billion dollars of options.

M. O'BRIEN: That may not be enough to satisfy.

SERWER: I suspect not. And there's still outstanding litigation as they say.

M. O'BRIEN: As they say.

What's next?

SERWER: Next we're going to be talking about OJ prices, orange juice, and they're up, as you probably know.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, are evangelical voters losing faith in the Republican Party? We'll take a closer look at that.

Plus, the U.N. imposes sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program. Critics say the thing has no teeth though. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: U.N. Sanctions against North Korea are meant to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program, but those sanctions already appear weaker today, with both China and South Korea saying they're not going to take actions that restrict trade with North Korea.

Nicholas Burns is the undersecretary of state for political affairs. He's at the State Department this morning.

It's nice to see you, sir. Thanks so much for talking with us.

NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: Soledad, good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. Let's begin with a look at some of the sanctions that are actually now in place. The sanctions against North Korea would ban goods related to the weapons program, would freeze financial activities, would have a travel ban, as well, for senior North Korean officials, would ban luxury goods as well. And then this one, it would call for cooperative action, including inspection of cargo in North Korea. Call for, but not required. Critics would say, well, how are you going to enforce this anyway?

NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Soledad, these are very tough sanctions. They're among the toughest ever imposed on any country by the United Nations, and we hope that they will convince the North Koreans to recalculate the cost and benefits of what their trying to do developing a nuclear weapons program.

Australia announced today it will prohibit all ships from entering Australian ports. Japan announced today new measures, and we have some indications that the Chinese are also stopping trucks and inspecting them across that 800-mile border this morning.

So we assume that China and all the other countries that signed that resolution, signed up to it, are going to implement the resolution. They are required to do so.

S. O'BRIEN: That might be a big assumption, sir, if you don't mind me saying, because the Chinese over the weekend made it very clear, in fact, that they're not going to be inspecting the cargo.

Here is what Wang Guangya said. He is the Chinese ambassador to the U.N., as you well know. He said this, "For China, our political position is we are not in favor of inspections because for a number of years as a general principle, it will lead to negative consequences." They've made it very clear it's going to be a no go.

BURNS: I don't think it's such a big assumption, Soledad. In fact, as I just told you, the Chinese are beginning now to stop trucks along the 800-mile borders and inspect all of them. That's a sign that China is going to implement the resolution it signed up to. And it would be extraordinary, if in this day and age, given the importance of this issue, a leading member of the Security Council, a permanent member like China. did not implement a resolution that it agreed to two days ago. So will continue to remind the Chinese that that's their obligation.

S. O'BRIEN: South Korea says they're already planning a joint project involving trade with North Korea. That would seem to go against the list of the sanctions.

BURNS: Not necessarily, because it's not an embargo on all trade; it's an embargo on trade in nuclear items, in luxury goods and in defense equipment. So it doesn't stop all commerce. For instance, food aid, which the South Koreans often send to the North Koreans. So I wouldn't jump to that conclusion.

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush said back on May 23rd, 2003. Let's play a clip. You know this one well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea. We will not give into blackmail. We will not settle for anything less than the complete verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Bill Kristol and others, on both sides of the political aisle, frankly, have said actually we are now tolerating a nuclear North Korea, and we continue to with a resolution that doesn't seem to have real teeth, doesn't mandate inspections but calls for them, encourages them, things like that.

Here's what Bill Kristol said. He said, "We're ceding to nuclear North Korea, and it seems we're going to accede to a nuclear Iran." He's joining -- make that connection there, that it's actually going to get much worse. How do you respond?

BURNS: Well, I disagree with him. This resolution does have really teeth. There are five different types of very tough sanctions in place. In fact, it is among the strongest resolutions the U.N. Security Council has passed in a long time. So I think he's wrong. I think you'll see that North Korea is isolated because of this action, and it's going to impose on countries like China and Russia, South Korea, ourselves, Japan, the necessity of making sure that all of us are stopping trade in nuclear items, we're banning visits by North Korean officials to our countries, and we do have the ability, if there is suspicious cargo on ships, to stop those ships and to search them. That is a resolution with real teeth.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, we'll see how it plays out. Thank you for joining us.

BURNS: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, nice to see you as always.

Well, the Earth is still rumbling in Hawaii. Aftershocks of that big earthquake yesterday morning. The epicenter of the 24 was -- rather 24 miles off the western coast of the big island of Hawaii.

Let's get right to Chris Lawrence. He's joining us by phone on the big island.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

I'm inland in Wamaya (ph), which is inland, near the northern tip of the big island. I'm at a point where the road is literally cracked and buckled from the earthquake. You can just see a split in the road that is completely cracked where the road has started to collapse on one side.

As I was driving up here, I did see large rocks on the side of the highway, although it does appear that the crews have worked pretty hard over the last few hours, and the road itself seems mainly clear until I got to this point.

Back a ways, there is a bridge that had been shutdown, because the engineers had found pieces falling of it falling off underneath it. And further to the south, near Kona, I visited a hospital where most of the patients have been evacuated to the other side of the island. There was some small damage. Part of the ceiling collapsed at certain points, and there was some debris on the floor.

But overall, I haven't seen a lot of major damage. A lot of people here have been telling me about damaged homes. But again, it's about 1:30 in the morning here. It's pitch black, so it's really hard to see too much outside of the main highway -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Chris Lawrence reporting for us by phone this morning. We're going to obviously continue to check in with him throughout the day. Thanks, Chris -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the Republican Party tries to rally support among the faithful, evangelical voters, but how do religious conservatives feel about the recent GOP scandals? We'll hear from them ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Straight to politics now. In Boston, evangelical Republicans gathered yesterday for a get-out-the-vote rally. There's a lot for them to be angry about, the Mark Foley e-mail scandal right at the top of the list, and now a new book out today from a former White House insider, who says White House staffers mocked religious conservatives in private, white courting their votes in public. Three weeks until the election now, a lot of Republicans are praying this won't be the key to defeat.

AMERICAN MORNING's Delia Gallagher joining us live now with more.

Delia, let's talk about Boston and Liberty Sunday.

First of all, evangelicals going to Boston, that's kind of a statement there. But what were they saying there?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH AND VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Well, the interesting thing was we went to went ask them exactly, you know, were they losing faith? Do they care about some of these scandals and some of things that are happening in Washington, because this is the question everybody wants to know. So let's take a look at some of their responses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the issues can change. I think the feelings and positions can change, and -- but I do support the administration.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a few, but I haven't lost faith in it at all. We still have a lot of good people out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, sometimes I vote with my nose like this, but the alternatives are worse, no matter what you say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GALLAGHER: And I think that gentleman really expressed something that I've heard from a lot of evangelical voters, that the problem here is whatever the scandals are and so on, they don't feel that they have another place to go. So either they're going to vote Republican or they're going to stay home.

M. O'BRIEN: Not like they're going to start a third party of evangelical, you know...

GALLAGHER: That's entirely possible.

M. O'BRIEN: Maybe that will happen. We'll see and watch that unfold. Let's talk about this book. It's called "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction." This insider, David Quo (ph), who wrote this, was formerly with the faith-based initiative at the White House. It's a pretty damning book.

GALLAGHER: Well, first of all, the book is just out today. Nobody has read the book in its entirety. There are a couple articles out about what is alleged in the book. The people that I have spoken to, first of all, say they deny some of the allegations entirely. Other people say, well, you know, if Karl Rove was calling us nuts behind our back or so on, we don't really care. We're voting on the policies of the Republican Party, more than the individuals. And we saw this also in response to the Mark Foley scandal.

You know, there's a huge distinction to be made on the part of evangelical voters and others, by the way, other Christian voters, who say this is not about the individual and what they're doing. Yes, that's important. We're disappointed by certain behaviors. But at the end of the day, we are values voters because of the traditional abortion issues, same-sex marriage issues. And if you vote for those issues, and if you are concerned about those issues, that doesn't change regardless of who is representing them. The question is, what are the policies they are going to put forward, and if they agree with the values that you hold. And those don't change, by the way.

I mean, this is the thing that in all of this leading up to the elections, values voters don't change their values. I mean, there's a slight shift in the evangelical party for more liberal evangelicals, who say that there are other values besides just those traditional abortion and same-sex marriage ones.

But nonetheless, I mean, that's where the base votes.

M. O'BRIEN: Delia Gallagher, thank you very much.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: For lots of people, they feel like their daily commute is getting longer and longer and longer. And you know why? Because it is. We'll take a look at that growing trend, straight ahead this morning. And then, as America's population closes in on number 300 million, take a look at this guy. He was 200 million 40 years ago. He'll tell us how that big milestone affected his life.

Plus, we're "Minding Your Business" ahead. Orange prices are going up. And of course that means putting the big squeeze on juice makers.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: It's expected to happen very, very soon -- America is going to welcome its 300 millionth person. And with that milestone, the torch will be passed from the man who became Mr. 200 Million 39 years ago.

CNN's Rusty Dornin has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were no cell phones, video games, laptops, ATMs or MySpace when Bobby Woo was born in Atlanta in 1967. As the Vietnam war rages, Woo hailed as the 200 millionth American. After the delivery Bobby's mother, Sally, woke up to a roomful of photographers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Bobby was born, President Johnson was the president, so that's his first birthday president.

DORNIN: It was "Life" magazine, and not the Census Bureau, that made him a milestone. Demographically, Woo was not exactly your average American of the '60s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Statistically speaking, it ain't me. I was not what they expected for the 200 millionth American.

DORNIN (on camera): Because you're Chinese?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chinese in the south. I think they said statistically speaking, I should be a Caucasian male born in New York or something like that.

DORNIN (voice-over): But getting singled out like a sweepstakes winner did impact Woo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to see how the average was turning out, and that of course carried a little bit of pressure for me.

DORNIN: Woo did well under pressure. He was an honor student, graduated from Harvard, and is now a partner at one of the largest law firms in Georgia.

In 1967, there was a new American every 14.5 seconds. Now it's 10 seconds. But Woo suspects the 300 millionth American may not actually be born.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When "Life" magazine sent out reporters to find out who would be the 200 millionth American, they went to hospital delivery rooms; they didn't go to courtrooms where judges were swearing in new citizens.

DORNIN: It may, indeed, be an immigrant who makes the 300 millionth mark. Most Americans, according to a Gallup poll, have no idea how many of us there are. We decided to see for ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably I guess around a billion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think the population of the U.S. is right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 28 million?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot, I'd say about, I don't know, 10 million.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 300 million.

DORNIN: Some time in October it will happen, but we'll likely never know exactly when. And Bobby Woo's 15 minutes of fame will fade into the history books, that is, until we approach 400 million.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, we won't know exactly when, but the U.S. Census bureau is projecting the population will hit 300 million at 7:46 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday morning, tomorrow morning.

"ANDERSON COOPER 360" has a special look at this imminent milestone, "a Nation of 300 Million." That's tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So we have to have live trucks at every hospital in the country in order to capture this one. We'll keep you posted on it.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, cleaning up after that powerful earthquake that jolted Hawaii. We'll take a look at the serious damage it caused there. That's straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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