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American Morning

President Bush Meets With General David Petraeus; War Funding Bill; Virginia Tech Students Return to Class

Aired April 23, 2007 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. It's Monday, April the 23rd.
I'm John Roberts, in Washington, D.C., where there's lots of news this week.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: There sure is.

And I'm Kiran Chetry, here in New York as well. Thanks so much for joining us on this Monday.

ROBERTS: Hey, did I hear Ali Velshi say that you were into salads?

CHETRY: He doesn't know me that well yet.

ROBERTS: He doesn't know you very well yet. No, not at all.

Hey, stories making news this morning here in Washington.

The war funding bill, the appropriations committees from the House and Senate getting together this week to figure out what kind of bill they're going to send the president. The president has promised that anything that has got a timetable for withdrawal is going to be hit by his veto pen.

General David Petraeus is there at the White House this morning talking with the president, the commander in chief. And he will make a statement -- this is the commander in chief -- at 9:50 this morning from the Oval Office.

Kiran, we'll be carrying that live, of course.

CHETRY: Of course.

And it's also a big day in Blacksburg, Virginia. Classes resume today at Virginia Tech one week after the shootings. And coming up in just about 15 minutes, there will be a tribute to the victims.

7:15 a.m. last Monday, when those first shots were fired, two people were killed in a dorm room. We're going to be bringing the coverage to you live, a look at the tribute and memorial as a lot of brave students and faculty, and by the extension, parents, all ready to come back today, one week after those shootings.

ROBERTS: All lots of important stuff coming up. But back to our stop top story now.

President Bush first meets with the top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus. He's in Washington this morning. Then the president briefs the American people. A statement from the Oval Office expected at 9:50 a.m. Eastern.

CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for us this morning.

Barbara, why is General Petraeus here and what does he hope to accomplish?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, all eyes will be on General Petraeus, of course, as he moves across Washington this week. He's here to talk to the president, but he is here to try to convince Congress to take off those funding strings and give him the money he needs to continue operations in Iraq.

Just before he left Iraq, he gave an interview to "The Washington Post" with a quote that may tell much more than it seems to at first glance. He said to "The Post," "I don't think you're ever going to get rid of all the car bombs. Iraq is going to have to learn -- as did, say, northern Ireland -- to live with some degree of sensational attacks."

That's the problem. There is some progress, but the very sensational car bombs, those attacks, are way up in Baghdad. Violence in Diyala Province in the east way up.

So Petraeus has got to convince Congress that he can really make this troop surge work. And the clock, John, is ticking. What the commanders have said is they're going to make an assessment by the end of summer. The end of summer, John, is maybe just 20 weeks away.

ROBERTS: So what do you think, Barbara? Was the general trying to lower expectations there? Because he has been very criticized by people like Harry Reid, saying the surge isn't working. John Edwards, as well, has also said the surge isn't working.

Is he trying to say, hey, wait a second, your vision of success and mine are different things?

STARR: Well, he may well be, because, you know, last week, Secretary Gates was in Iraq, and he, throughout that visit, the secretary, kept talking about the clock is ticking, patience is limited, the commitment is not open-ended.

One of the question people are beginning to ask about all this, if you lower expectations, what are the insurgents hearing in all of that? If they keep hearing these lowered expectations, do the insurgents just say, well, maybe we'll sit back and wait it out?

And you might ask, John, where is Secretary Gates this week while all of this is going on in Washington? He's in Russia and eastern Europe talking about missile defense -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. And I'm sure that you'll be having many more reports on that this week.

Barbara, thanks very much.

In Iraq this morning, three suicide bombings in three different parts of the country today killed at least 27 people. One attack happened at a restaurant right outside the Green Zone in Baghdad.

And Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, says that he wants to put a stop to a 12-foot-high wall that is being built to prevent sectarian attacks in one Sunni neighborhood. Al-Maliki says there are other methods to protect neighborhoods than building walls.

And over on Capitol Hill, Congress will be trying to come up with a war spending bill. Democrats are likely to set a withdrawal deadline with any funding bill. But the president promises that he's going to veto anything that's got a timeline to it.

So what can the Democrats do?

CNN's Dana Bash joins us now.

Dana, what does it look like the Democrats are going to be giving the president today as they go through these negotiations, or later this week, at least, as they go through these negotiations?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, Democratic sources, John, tell us that what they're likely to do is adopt the less stringent Senate language. Remember, the Senate passed a bill that sets a goal of bringing troops home, not a hard and fast deadline like that -- like passed the House. And this is going to be another nail-biter of a week because, remember, each -- the Senate and the House, they both passed bills without even one vote to spare.

So, this could pose yet another challenge, a big challenge for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, because she already is hearing from some Democrats on the left saying, if you're going to send us -- put something on the House floor that doesn't have a hard and fast deadline, we might not vote for it. So, it's going to be interesting to see once again if Democrats can get the votes even to send this bill to the president that he promises to veto.

ROBERTS: Now, Dana, the Democrats will send President Bush this bill knowing, as you said, that he's going to veto it. What's the game plan? Are they just trying to make a statement by having him veto his own funding request?

BASH: In part, actually, yes, that's exactly what they're doing. Democrats say -- you hear them over and over -- that they came to Washington, that they were put in power in Congress by the voters in order to challenge the administration, and specifically try to change the president's Iraq strategy. And they say that is what they were sent here to do, they're at least going to try to make a statement by sending him something with a timeline for withdrawal that they know he's going to veto.

That's the political answer. The policy answer, Democrats do say, though, John, is that -- they even quote Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that, by having this debate here, they do think they are putting pressure on the Iraqi government to have -- to achieve the ultimate goal, which is to get the military and the political leaders to stand up for themselves.

ROBERTS: And Dana, what's likely to happen after the president vetoes this bill? What about this Murtha bill that's out there?

BASH: Well, that is the big question. Once this comes back to Congress, how are they actually going to get the funding to the troops, which almost all Democrats agree they need to send?

As you mentioned, John Murtha, in the House, his idea is to just pass about a three-month funding bill in order to at least get the money to the troops, but then have this debate all over again about a timeline for troop withdrawal. In the Senate, though, I can tell you, there's not a big appetite for that. What they instead want to probably try to do is send a funding bill with some -- some general benchmarks for the Iraqi government, at least to try to meet in order to get the money.

ROBERTS: Dana, great reporting on all of this. Thanks very much.

BASH: Thank you.

ROBERTS: We'll check back with you.

Right and left in France. Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist Segolene Royal are going to face off in two weeks' time to determine who's going to be the next president of France. They were the top two vote-getters on Sunday among 12 candidate looking to succeed Jacques Chirac. Royal is looking to become France's first female president.

Kiran, is she going to lead the way? Female president in France, female president in the United States? What do you think?

CHETRY: How about that. And, you know, the signature white. People pay a lot of attention to what she's wearing, and she's known for her signature white outfits. They wouldn't talk about that if she was a guy.

Meantime, Virginia Tech, we're actually just about five minutes away right now from a remembrance that's going to be taking place. They're returning to campus today, just a week after the shootings that forever changed their campus. And the tribute is starting at 7:15 Eastern. It's the time that the first two students were killed in West AJ Hall, Emily Hilscher, and her resident adviser, Ryan Clark.

At 9:45 this morning, a university-wide moment of silence will mark the second shootings that killed 30 students and teachers at Norris Hall, across campus.

At 9:46, a bell will toll 32 times. Thirty-two white balloons released from the drill field and a thousand orange and maroon balloons. That signifying Hokie spirit and unity.

CNN's Jim Acosta is in Blacksburg at the alumni center on the Virginia Tech campus to bring us more of the feeling today as they get ready to go back.

A very brave move for many people in light of what happened last week.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. It is one week after that massacre, and many, but not all, students are returning to class this morning, changed by this tragedy. But also, they say strengthened, as well. Nearly all of the students we talked to told us they're determined to carry on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice over): Like many students at Virginia Tech, Greg Wrenn is now back at school. But coming back wasn't easy. He lives in West Ambler Johnston Hall, the scene of the first shooting.

(on camera): Did it help to see mom? I bet it did.

GREG WRENN, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: Yes. It helped both of us, I think. It helps a bunch just to get away and see family.

ACOSTA (voice over): As other parents dropped off their sons and daughters, passing the shrine outside the dorm, it was hard for Greg's mother to say good-bye.

(on camera): I get the sense, Cindy, that you don't want to let him go here.

CINDY WRENN, MOTHER OF VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: No, I don't. But I have to. I can do it.

G. WRENN: Yes. We'll be OK.

ACOSTA (voice over): But she didn't let him go without some motherly advice.

G. WRENN: Don't stop talking. Find people to talk to, call as much as you need.

ACOSTA: There are other signs of this campus coming back to life. A women's lacrosse game paid tribute to the fallen students.

But for the players' parents, it was hard at times to cheer on the team.

KAREN GALINDO-WHITE, MOTHER OF VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: You know, we were saying we feel a little guilty being happy.

ACOSTA: At the drill field, the 32 stones designated for each victim are still drawing hundreds of mourners. The sense of loss remains overwhelming. MAUREEN MALDONADO, MOTHER OF VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: I think it's taken away a lot of innocence and the sense of peace and security here. But I think they'll regain that.

ACOSTA: But also unmistakable is the sense of hope.

KRISTIN PATTERSON, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: Everyone just keeps saying that it's a really close community, and it's really true. You know, we all want to see each other, we all want to be there for each other.

ACOSTA: Back at Greg Wrenn's dorm, he sees a campus that has changed.

G. WRENN: There's still not a lot of people back, but the feeling on my hall is more of unity than ever before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And as you mentioned, Kiran, in about five minutes there will be that moment of silence to mark the shootings at West Ambler Johnston Hall. It's the first of two tributes this morning. The other, at 9:45 this morning, where there will be another moment of silence, a ringing of the bells, and a balloon release, where the students here on the Virginia Tech campus will remember their classmates and do what they are ready to do this morning, they say, and that is go back to class -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Thanks so much, Jim.

Meantime, an autopsy confirms the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The medical examiner says that Cho's 32 victims were also shot more than 100 times. The evidence shows defensive wounds trying to shield themselves. And we are waiting for more tests to determine if Cho had any drugs in his system.

ROBERTS: The fight over war funding is about to lead to a big showdown between the president and congressmen. Once the promised veto comes, what's next? We'll be putting that question to two of our experts coming up next.

And you're looking live at the Virginia Tech campus. First in a morning of tributes coming up.

We'll take you there next on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

There's a live look right now as many are gathering on the Virginia Tech campus. A memorial is set to get under way actually in just about a minute from now. The campus is going to be filled with students, teachers, parents, members of the community, all gathering to pay tribute to the first two students killed last week, Emily Hilscher and Ryan Clark. The significance of 7:15, that is the time those first shots were fired at West AJ Hall. Also, memorial flags will be displayed after the moment of silence.

Then again at 9:45, another moment of silence. That will be to mark the second shootings that killed 30 students and teachers across campus at Norris Hall.

Also, then at 9:46, a bell will toll 32 times to remember all of those who lost their lives a week ago in the worst shooting, especially by a lone gunman, in our nation's history -- John.

ROBERTS: Yes. And, you know, you've got to give those kids a lot of credit. They could have just stayed home. The university gave them that option. They said, if you want to just take the rest of the year, that's fine, you'll go away with the grade you got.

But for them to come back and gather outside West AJ, as they are there, and pay tribute to the victims of the shooter, that really does show a lot of courage. And I think, too, Kiran, a real sense of commitment that they want to get past this and keep that Hokie spirit going and move on.

CHETRY: It's true. In just a couple of minutes we're going to be talking to one of the teachers, a very popular teacher there, as well as two students, one of whose sister was shot and is still recovering. So that shows you as well the insistence that they do want to try to get back into it and to move ahead and move on from this tragedy.

ROBERTS: All right. We've got that coming up.

But right now, a closer look at the Iraq funding bill. Democrats are considering their next move after an inevitable veto from President Bush on their version of it. Will there be some sort of last-minute compromise?

Jim Vandehei is the executive editor at politico.com. A.B. Stoddard, associate editor of "The Hill". They're with us this morning. They're going to be some of our experts who will come on the show frequently to try to unravel the mysteries of Washington.

The first mystery, who's going to win this, President Bush or the Democrats?

JIM VANDEHEI, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, POLITICO.COM: This is a fascinating debate mostly. You have Harry Reid now, the Senate majority leader, saying the war is lost. If you had asked me that question a month ago, I would say, you know, at the end of the day, we're definitely going to get a spending bill, and it's going to have a little bit of language in it, but nothing binding, saying -- tying the president's hand. And now you have a situation where the most popular Democrat in the Senate is saying we cannot win this war. So, it is conceivable now that Democrats are going to try to force Bush's hand much more aggressively than we thought a long time ago.

ROBERTS: You know, something that I was wondering is, there is still all this violence going on in Baghdad, now Diyala Province is apparently falling apart. Petraeus is saying we may have to deal with some level of violence as they saw in northern Ireland for a number of years.

But, A.B., if Petraeus can't fix this, is it worth staying and trying?

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "THE HILL": Well, the Democrats are waiting out the surge right now, but so are Republicans. Democrats are talking about if the veto comes, a 60-day funding for the war, which allows them to buy more time and hopefully pick out more Republican votes at the same time that the Republicans are waiting out the surge.

They don't want to go with the Democrats yet. They don't want to defect. I think we'll see defections in the summer, probably in the fall, but I don't think before the end of this next spending fight.

ROBERTS: So, Petraeus is in town, he's meeting with the president this morning. He's also going to be meeting with members of Congress, including Democrats, try to cajole them into funding the war.

Are they in a mood to listen?

VANDEHEI: I think everybody wants to figure out a solution, and it does make some sense to both Republicans and Democrats to maybe have a short-term funding bill because they want to give time to see if the surge can actually work. There's a lot of people who are very skeptical.

Most Democrats think the surge is not working, is not going to work. Yes, it's pacified some of the problems in Baghdad and Anbar, but it has not done much outside of those regions. So what happens when you don't have that heavy troop presence?

So, I think everyone wants to figure out a solution and maybe give the surge a little more time to work. But because Democrats, and most Democrats now, not just liberal Democrats, but moderate ones, too, think you cannot win this war, they want to forge ahead.

ROBERTS: So you think after Bush vetoes the spending bill that probably at the end of this week they'll go with this Murtha plan?

STODDARD: They're not going to de-fund it. They're not going to -- if you talk to them privately, they say, we're not shutting down the Department of Defense, not on their watch.

ROBERTS: Yes. Last week on "LATE EDITION" I suggested that the Feingold bill cuts funding in the middle of a war, and I got a nasty letter from him about all that.

But hey, listen, another topic that I want to flip to, Gonzales. After what happened on Friday, is it all over? Take a listen to what Senator Arlen Specter said on "FOX News Sunday" yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The attorney general's testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility. It has been damaging to the administration, because without answers as to what really happened, there's a lot of speculation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, support for him really going south in Congress, I would say.

VANDEHEI: Unbelievable. You and I covered the White House together, and we saw this play out with Donald Rumsfeld, where even Republicans were saying, take the hint, you've got to get rid of Rumsfeld. Now it's happening with the attorney general, and a lot of Republicans want him gone, even those who aren't saying it publicly.

Privately, I can rarely find a Republican who will defend Gonzales and say that he should stay. This is really going to test Bush's loyalty.

ROBERTS: Yes, but I mean...

STODDARD: Oh, they're exasperated. Listen, for the Republican Party, they already feel like they're going to go into the '08 elections, the congressional elections and presidential, being the party of the Iraq war. They don't want to be the party of incompetent government. And after Walter Reed and Katrina, the execution of the war, this is the last thing that they want.

ROBERTS: But here's the problem, though, is that Rumsfeld was one guy. I mean, you know, Bush was very loyal to Rumsfeld, thought that he was his guy to execute the war and take care of the military, but Gonzales is a personal friend. These guys go way back.

He was his personal attorney. He was on the Supreme Court in Texas by virtue of a George Bush appointment. You just don't throw him overboard.

VANDEHEI: But what's different here is that, yes, they're close friends, and it goes back. What's much different in this case is a lot of people inside the White House, people close to Bush, really feel like it's time for Gonzales to go. So, the question is, how long is Bush going to resist this?

You know, he does have a tendency when people are pushing for the resignation to strike a defense posture and say, no, no, I'm not going to be -- I'm not going to have my hand forced. But if this -- it's not just now the attorney general. It's this scandal about firings. Every single issue that comes out of the AG's office is going to have this cloud hanging over it, and that's the point that Specter was making.

ROBERTS: Well, perhaps if White House officials keep pushing hard enough, one day the right hand will know what the left hand is doing in the White House -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Sometimes it's hard. You know, you don't know if you're doing it on camera or, you know, for the people in person. So you can mix that up quite easily.

Still to come this morning, moving forward at Virginia Tech. A lot of brave students and faculty making their way back to campus today. We're going to talk about what it's going to take for everyone to be able to carry on. We're going to talk to professor and poet Nikki Giovanni, and two students, including one whose sister is still recovering in the hospital from being shot this morning.

And also, from gun control to abortion, big issues pushing candidates for president to reveal themselves. Where do they stand?

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Gas prices in the news today, up eight cents. A gallon of regular unleaded, that's up eight cents in the past two weeks to $2.87 on average, according to the Lundberg Survey. That's up 69 cents a gallon since January. But the survey predicts prices will peak in a few days, and then we will see those prices start to fall.

Twenty-three minutes past the hour now, and Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business".

So, we're thinking that it's going to fall, only to probably rise again for the summer, when everyone's traveling.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, these falls and ups and downs, I mean, this is 30 cents in the last month. So that's a big deal. Gas prices, nobody has seen them fall dramatically in the last couple years. Right around Hurricane Katrina they reached $3.05 a gallon. That was sort of the highest it has been in a long time, but we're not all that far.

And depending on where you live in the country, you could be paying more than that at any given moment. So not a great story. The best solution is still driving a car that uses less gas, because this isn't going away.

Another thing that's not going away are bank mergers. It's Monday, which means we've got mergers. And this is a huge one, not here in the United States.

Barclays Bank, which most people know -- it's one of the biggest banks in the world based out of London -- is buying ABN AMRO, which is a very large Dutch bank. Barclays is going to own 52 percent of it, which means that the new company is going to be called Barclays.

It's going to be listed in New York, but the headquarters will be in Amsterdam. Why it affects American consumers, first of all, because it's a $91 billion deal, which is big by any standard. But as part of the deal, ABN is going to sell LaSalle Bank, which is a Chicago-based bank which is pretty big. It's got 10 percent of -- about 14 percent of the deposits in Chicago.

They're selling that to Bank of America, another big bank. So this is a theme you're going to see a lot of in the next little while.

This will affect investors more than it affects people with deposits at a bank, because it's kind of seamless. Banks are going to change hands. Big banking deals, as, you know, the world gets smaller...

CHETRY: Right?

VELSHI: ... these banks have to compete, and they have got to buy other banks in order not to get bought in a hostile takeover. And that's what this is about.

CHETRY: Oh, I got you. Is there anything people, consumers need to look out for? Is there anything you have to do if your bank changes hands?

VELSHI: Well, your mortgage -- if you have a mortgage with LaSalle Bank, for instance, that's going to change hands. But mortgages, as many people are now learning as a result of the subprime thing, your mortgage isn't probably with the bank you took it out with in the first place.

That's going to be the major change for most people. The LaSalle branches may or may not become Bank of America branches. Probably not much effect for most consumers today, but it's useful if you're thinking about investments. The banking industry is a busy industry right now.

CHETRY: All right. Good to know. Thanks Ali.

VELSHI: See you.

CHETRY: John.

ROBERTS: Hey, the top stories of the morning are coming right up.

Also, Newt Gingrich says he knows what's to blame for the Virginia Tech shooting. He's already facing some harsh criticism for it.

And somebody call the bouncer. Karl Rove and Sheryl Crow mixed in heated words over global warming at the White House Correspondents Dinner. CHETRY: Yes. And speaking of that, Sheryl Crow also caused even more buzz this morning over an interesting suggestion, John, that she put on her blog. She said -- she's of course very concerned about global warming, and went on a bus tour with Laurie David. But she says that "We're an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three would be required."

And so of course...

ROBERTS: She's talking about toilet paper there.

CHETRY: One square. I mean, unless hers her different, this is what I got out of the CNN bathroom. This would be -- this would be her version of an emergency or a pesky situation. That's all you got.

ROBERTS: You know what I can't figure out? Is why because we're an industrious people can we make do with less TP? I'm not -- I don't get the correlation there.

CHETRY: I don't know, but unless she has different toilet paper, I don't know how this would work. But maybe she'll tell us.

ROBERTS: All right. We'll be back with more of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Tornado terror. Homes damaged, dozens of people hurt, some missing in west Texas. We have new pictures of a wild weekend of storms on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And thanks for being with us. It is Monday, April 23rd. I'm Kiran Chetry and the pictures, John, are unbelievable that people actually chase these storms.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: They are. I don't know if the people are brave or nuts, but they certainly do get an adrenaline rush from doing that and they do say that they're trying to get more scientific information out of it. For the most part it seems like, we just get some pretty fantastic pictures. By the way, I'm John Roberts in Washington again this week. Good morning to you, Kiran.

CHETRY: Good to see you and we have a lot stories on our radar this morning. Classes of course resume at Virginia Tech. We're going to get a look at what it's like going back. We talked to a student whose sister is still recovering in the hospital. She was shot by that gunman, also professors also returning to campus today and as we saw a couple minutes ago, the live pictures marking the moments when the first shootings took place.

ROBERTS: And a presidential campaign was in full swing over the weekend after a bit of a pause. Some wedge issues coming into the forefront here because of what happened at Virginia Tech. People are now talking about the gun control issue and because of a decision by the Supreme Court on partial birth abortion, the abortion issue is now thrust into the forefront again. Candy Crowley, our senior political correspondent is going to be joining us this morning with all of that, Kiran.

CHETRY: A then little bit of dish about the White House correspondents dinner over the weekend and the big headline of course, all the buzz about Karl Rove has a little run-in with Sheryl Crowe and Lori (ph) David, the producer of Gore's global warming movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." So, we're going to run down that and there are people that were there and we both heard some different takes on that, as well. We'll show you a couple pictures because the surprise hit of the party was no one having anything to do with politics.

ROBERTS: And you know what's interesting is that Sheryl blogged about that on huffingtonpost and she says that she grabbed Karl's sleeve because he was turning away and he said, don't touch me. And Lori David actually quipped, who would not want Sheryl Crowe to touch them? So we'll try to figure all that out this morning.

Big news stories of the week, though, are bringing up some big wedge issues for presidential hopefuls. The Virginia Tech tragedy, the Supreme Court's ruling on abortion just two examples, forcing candidates to take a stance on issues that might have otherwise stayed on the back burner. CNN' senior political correspondent Candy Crowley here with us this morning. Good morning to you.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

ROBERTS: The issue of abortion, because the Supreme Court's decision on partial birth abortion upholding the ban. Who benefits from that, politically?

CROWLEY: What's interesting is whoever frames this issue the best is who is going to benefit from it politically. The Republicans do best when they focus just on this narrow issue, that is the partial birth abortion issue. Democrats want to make this broader, this is a threat against Roe v. Wade. So whoever does better at framing that is the party that's going to gain.

ROBERTS: Republicans are hoping it will fire up the base, Democrats, as well, hoping that the pro-choice people will jump in.

CROWLEY: And they already have. The people we heard from the most, actually, were not the politicians, but from the various interest groups. The politicians, this is so split. Seventeen Democrats voted for that partial birth abortion ban. It's a later term abortion ban. It's known as partial birth by its critics, but 17 Democrats voted for it. That was the subject of the Supreme Court law. So it's a sticky one and doesn't really cut that easily across partisan lines.

ROBERTS: Gun control. It looks like Congress is going to hold some hearings on it, Carolyn McCarthy, Chuck Schumer about saying we should look into all of this, but there doesn't seem to be any great appetite on Capitol Hill for new gun laws. How is it playing in the presidential campaign trail? CROWLEY: Very, very mutedly. This isn't something they want to go into. First of all, we don't know exactly what happened. It looks, as though, a very troubled young man got a hold of a gun. It's still unclear whether there was a background check that was adequate and in accordance with state law. We have to wait and see that. No one thinks that there is some big sweeping law registering handguns, licensing handguns. No one thinks that's going to happen on a Federal level. Much of this has happened at the state level.

ROBERTS: McCain came right out on Wednesday saying no need for more gun control. What about Giuliani? He's got this far more nuanced position. He was real strict gun control advocate in New York City, but across the country, not so much.

CROWLEY: Nuanced is a good word for it. A lot of people think it was a flip-flop. Look, when you're the mayor of New York City, you're basically for gun control. That is a very urban, lots of population in a very small place. When you're running for president, you have to deal with places like the interior west, urban, suburban and rural areas in the Midwest and in the south, where guns are a part of the culture. So, it's very different to look at it and Rudy Giuliani has now said, well, you know what, it's up to the states.

ROBERTS: And he can say, look, it's one thing for New York City, but states because of the differences in their populations, the differences in tradition, maybe have to look at that on a case-by-case basis. What about Al Gonzales? What kind of effect is he going to have, particularly if he hangs in on the '08 election?

CROWLEY: If he hands in, it'll be interesting. One of the things that the White House seemed to be trying to avoid or doesn't really want to get into is will a confirmation of another attorney general, should Gonzales leave, would that be held up while they try to get a hold of Karl Rove or would they try to get a hold of more e-mails and documentation from the White House. So far, it plays very well for Democrats. If Al Gonzales leaves, the issue goes away.

ROBERTS: Or some people suggest it could go right into the White House.

CROWLEY: Well, if it does then, we've got a whole new issue, but if Alberto Gonzalez leaves, he's no longer a punching bag.

ROBERTS: Candy Crowley, as always, thanks very much. Good to have you out there on the trail. Kiran.

CHETRY: Well on the campus of Virginia Tech today, there will be several services to honor those who were killed in last week's shootings. At 7:15 this morning the campus observed a moment of silence. It was the time that the two students, the first two students were killed, Emily Hilscher (ph), as well as resident advisor Ryan Clark. Coming up a bit later this morning to honor the victims, a bell will toll 32 times and 32 white balloons will be released and that will be followed by the release of 1,000 orange and maroon balloons all signifying Hokie spirit. Joining me now Nikki Giovanni, a poet, an English professor at the university as well as Patrick Strollo, a Virginia Tech senior. His sister, Hillary survived being shot three times. She's still recovering in the hospital and Lashun King is a grad student who knew nine of the victims. Good morning to all of you and thanks for being with us this morning.

NIKKI GIOVANNI, ENGLISH PROFESSOR, VIRGINIA TECH: Good morning.

CHETRY: Certainly a beautiful day behind you, you can see there on the Virginia Tech campus, let me ask you first, Professor Giovanni, what was the mood like returning today?

GIOVANNI: I am glad to be back on campus and I'm looking forward to being back in the classroom. I don't teach on Monday. I teach on Tuesday, but I wanted to be here today because I'm a part of this community and I think that we've done a banner job in just being stand up people. I think our students have been graceful. I think that the country has embraced, I don't think the country has embraced us, the world actually has sent good wishes and I wanted to be here to be a part and to offer whatever comfort little old ladies who wrote poetry offer.

CHETRY: And you've been a huge comfort judging from the first convocation that we saw when you had people on their feet cheering just a day after.

Lashun, let me ask you, how does the campus move forward?

LASHUN KING, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: I think in order for the campus to move forward, we must continue to unite as we're doing right now. In order to get for such a tragedy, the campus must come together in unity and that's exactly what we're doing now, not only just as a college campus, but as a community.

CHETRY: And, Patrick, this certainly hit very close to home for you. Your little sister is still recovering in the hospital. How is she doing?

PATRICK STROLLO, SISTER SURVIVED SHOOTING: She's doing very well. She's still in the ICU, but we're looking it get her a medical transport up to Pittsburgh in the coming days.

CHETRY: And knowing that you have such an outpouring of support and sympathy from really the world, does that help your family through this trying time?

STROLLO: Oh, of course. You know, it would be impossible to recover without this. It's just been so helpful. My sister knowing that everyone is praying for her. It's really just given her inspiration to hold on and just fight to live.

CHETRY: Professor Giovanni, are there going to be changes, do you think, in the security situation on the campus and do you think that they're prepared to make sure that students and faculty are protected for the future?

GIOVANNI: I have absolute confidence in Charles Steger and in his leadership and I'm sure that he's going to do everything that needs to be done. As for me in my classroom, I think that my job right now is to listen and we have a thing here, it's called Carol Lee (ph) doughnuts and so, tomorrow, I'm bringing in two dozen Carol Lee doughnuts and Starbucks coffee and we're going to sit and talk and get a sugar high and listen to each other and I think that's what I do. The rest of it is out of, Steger will do what needs to be done. I have no doubt of that.

CHETRY: I'm sure there is going to be a lot of that going on. People just need to talk to one another, but you're commended for getting through this and moving forward with dignity and pride and all of us certainly are getting a taste of the Hokie spirit today for sure. Thanks to all of you for talking with me this morning, Nikki Giovanni, Patrick Strollo. Our thoughts and prayers with your family by the way, Patrick and Lashun King, thanks so much.

STROLLO: Thank you.

GIOVANNI: Thank you.

ROBERTS: This morning southern Chile is digging out after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. This photo, take a look at this, it shows the exact moment that the tremor struck on Saturday. It caused landslides, huge landslides and a massive wave that swept many people out to sea. Three people confirmed dead, seven others still missing. Authorities say that the quakes may be linked to the birth of an undersea volcano.

And wild weather in Texas, a twister descends on a Texas panhandle town and the result is devastating. We'll going to have the details of that coming up next.

And Newt Gingrich says he knows what's to blame for the Virginia Tech shooting. We'll have that. It's very controversial. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. What looks like golf balls from the sky are really hail stones raining down on places like Allison, Texas, part of a wild storm system that swept across the Texas panhandle over the weekend, literally looked like golf balls. There's also stunning new video of a tornado touching down in Cactus, Texas. That is in the panhandle. Late Saturday at least 14 people hurt, extensive power outages and there are 50 people reported missing. Officials though think they simply may have left town when the tornado alarm sounded. It's 44 minutes past the hour right now and we're going to head over to Chad Myers for a look at what spawned that system and also what we can expect later. Hey Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. The area that did spawn that weather is gone now. It has moved away but there's another area right behind it, kind of like planes lined up into La Guardia. This one now for today is centered over Salt Lake City and the four corners. That's where the cold air is. Now, there's warm air up into the central plains and very warm air for the east coast, although there won't be any severe weather in the east coast. It cools down for tomorrow with a front that comes down from the north and actually almost northeast. We call those backdoor fronts irrelevant.

What we have for tomorrow is a set up of 50 to 79 from Denver to Dallas and that's the area that we'll see the severe weather. You can see the spin to the low there over Salt Lake City and the severe weather for today, although limited today, will definitely be across all of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and maybe even to Nebraska tomorrow and there will be snow in Denver tomorrow night. It is cold enough to do that. The severe weather recipe is a very muggy, warm air, humid air mass and another dry one coming in and a big-time jet stream aloft, all basically a classic pattern, John, of what a severe weather day will be tomorrow. There will be many tornadoes on the ground tomorrow. We'll pay attention for you.

ROBERTS: That going to be moving eastward, as well? That looks like another nor'easter in the mix.

MYERS: No for a nor'easter it actually needs to come down farther down into the south. It could if the jet stream drove it there, but it won't and then turn up. This one's actually going to drive itself right up into Ontario. So we'll call it a sou'wester.

ROBERTS: Give those Canadians back some of their bad weather. Thanks Chad.

MYERS: I know you're one, so you can't blame them.

ROBERTS: I used to be one.

MYERS: I know.

The blogs are abuzz this morning reacting to comments that Newt Gingrich made about the shootings at Virginia Tech. Here's what he said Sunday on ABC. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Virginia Tech like many campuses was supposedly a gun-free zone. In states where people have been allowed to have concealed weapons in Mississippi and Kentucky, there have been incidents of this kind of a killer who were stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So, the problem is that there aren't enough guns on the Virginia Tech campus. CNN's Jacki Schechner joins us now. What are the blogs saying about all of that?

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not so much, John. There's pretty much a consensus that this is probably not the best idea. We're getting a lot of that from the liberal side. John (INAUDIBLE) at americablog saying you take hormone-drenched kids. You put them in an emergency crisis situation and give them guns, that's really going to end up well. What they are really talking about more so than that comment was where Newt Gingrich talked about liberalism being to blame for what happened at Virginia Tech. He was a little obscure in what he was talking about. He mentioned violent video games. He mentioned kids dressing in provocative Halloween costumes and then as you might imagine, bloggers this morning are talking about, huh, what was he trying to say? A lot reading of them reading it over and over again, say it didn't make much sense.

Pam Spalding weighing in, saying that provocative Halloween costumes are bad parenting, not liberalism. It's even conservatives who say that he's making non sequesters here. It's not making any sense to them where it is he is trying to come from. There's others who are saying this is not political. This has nothing to do with that. This is one particularly horrific incident. One conservative we did find, Dan Reel (ph) was backing Newt up sort of, was saying OK, maybe this opens up a larger conversation as to where our society is heading, but again not making this political would have been a better way to go. Moderate voice saying again this is from the middle, a perspective here that this was a barbaric outrage to turn something that was really just a tragedy into something that was political. So Newt maybe not garnering much support for trying to make this a political statement as opposed to just a human tragedy. John.

ROBERTS: The Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee is holding a hearing on this later on today and coming up, we'll be talking with Senator Susan Collins who is the ranking Republican on that about Gingrich's comments and about where this all may be going, basic stuff. Thanks very much Jackie, appreciate it.

Kiran and I were there. So was Sanjaya and there was a little tiff that everybody has been talking about between Karl Rove and Sheryl Crowe. There's Kiran and Sanjaya. It was all at the White House correspondents dinner. We'll have the low down for you coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Hey it had some big stars, some comedy and a lot of drama and we're not talking about any movie. We're talking about this weekend's White House correspondents dinner. John and I were there and so was "Washington Post" Army Argetsinger. She contributes to the "Post" Reliable Sources political gossip column and joins us from the "Post" newsroom this morning. Hi. Amy. Good to see you today.

AMY ARGETSINGER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good to be here.

CHETRY: First of all, before we get to all the drama, let's talk about the big buzz which was Sanjaya Malakar, the 17-year-old "American Idol" cast off. There's a picture right now. It's a miracle I got a shot with him. (INAUDIBLE)

ARGETSINGER: Seriously, every year, there's one person who gets the mob around them. Last year it was George Clooney. This year it was a guy you never heard of last year, Sanjaya Malakar. It was kind of amazing. He had been the character on "American Idol" that was most controversial that everyone was buzzing about this year and he got evicted from "American Idol" just in time to be the star guest. "People" magazine hosted him, great anecdote. It kind of sums up the entire White House correspondents dinner scene for you. He was seated at the table starting to eat his dinner and a tall, balding, middle- aged man comes over saying, can I get your autograph? The "People" magazine staffer is trying to shoo him away. We're trying to eat now. The man says, I'm the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer and he did get his autograph. That tells you something about the whole hierarchy at the dinner there.

: He was stopped by every camera on the red carpet and long-time Washington insiders, political movers and shakers are just sort of walking by. But I will say for Sanjaya he was very nice and he was very gracious about it and he stood for what probably was thousands of photographs. He seems to be enjoying his moment.

CHETRY: Now did you Amy get a chance to get any buzz or witness any of the big smackdown, I guess verbal between Lori David, Karl Rove and Sheryl Crowe got into it, over global warming?

ARGETSINGER: No, didn't witness it personally but this happened in the middle of the room filled with 2,000 people, so you did have a couple dozen people who realized that a pretty hot confrontation was going on. We did however check back with the bystanders and with the sparring partners themselves to find out what happened. As Lori David explains it, Lori David of course being the wife of comedian Larry David and the producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," she says that they took advantage of their time there to try to catch up with administration officials to talk about global warming. They get Karl Rove and say, look, we want you to pay more attention to the data here, a lot of problems going on and Karl Rove brushed them off, Lori David and Sheryl Crowe say that he started saying the U.S. does better than China does and the U.S. spends a lot of money on research. It got fairly hot though and he turned to walk away. Sheryl Crowe apparently tried to smooth things over. There was some exchange to the extent of the two of them saying, hey, you work for us, Karl Rove saying no, I work for the American people and walking away. Karl Rove later said that he felt like he had been set up. They set out to insult me and they did. Lori David and Sheryl Crowe meanwhile felt that they had been snubbed.

CHETRY And maybe that took people's mind off the fact that it wasn't the funniest correspondents dinner in recent memory.

ARGETSINGER: No, it was rather somber. Last year, as in past years, President Bush got up and did a pretty impressive comedic routine of his own where he traded lines back and forth with a George Bush impersonator. Steven Colbert was the entertainment last year. This year President Bush got up and, granted they did do a David Letterman top 10 best George W. Bush moments that made fun of the president and that matter of a few seconds, but then the president got up and said, in light of this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech, I don't think I should be funny tonight and with that he handed things over to Rich Little who was the hired performer.

CHETRY: And he got mixed reviews, too.

ARGETSINGER: He did, yeah. The choice of Rich Little had been kind of controversial. You know his heyday was really in the 1970s. A lot of people felt that the White House correspondents association was perhaps going too far the other way to get a comedian who wasn't going to offend, as some believe Steven Colbert did last year. The reviews were not very kind for Rich Little either.

CHETRY: All right Amy Argetsinger, thanks so much for joining us to talk a little bit more about it.

ARGETSINGER: Thank you.

ROBERTS: You know, Rich Little did say the "A" word though in front of the president and the first lady which looked like it was little bit controversial. Definitely, the entertainment this year not quite what it usually is.

Coming up, the top military leader in Iraq heads to the White House and the president and Congress head for a showdown over Iraq funding. What will it mean for the war and the troops? You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: We are coming up on the top of the hour now and Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business." Circuit City and Napster.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's merger Monday. There's another deal going on. It's not a real deal, but it's this arrangement to sell downloaded tunes. Creatively it is going to be called Circuit City and Napster. You're probably too young to remember this, but back in the day before you kids all used iTunes, we had Napster. Kind of disappeared, came back and Napster is a really good paid service in terms of success. It has well over half a million paid subscribers who get their downloaded music off of Napster. Making a deal with Circuit City to sort of have -- you go to Circuit City's webpage. You'll be able to download these tunes. You can either pay $15 a month and subscribe or you can download for 99 cents. They're doing what Best Buy did with Rhapsody last year. They're all trying to get a piece of the action. ITunes has most of the action.

CHETRY: But they have a neat story, because Napster used to be free. That was the undercover thing (INAUDIBLE) to be a paid service successfully is a remarkable story.

VELSHI: And part of that is the deal with Time Warner, our parent company, to be AOL's distributor of music because AOL didn't want to be in that business. So it's all coming around. It depends on what you buy, what you use and how you use it. But 99 cents a song, 15 bucks a month. The bottom is falling out of the CD business, so they've all got to do something.

CHETRY: True, Ali thanks so much.

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