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American Morning
Republican Debate Scorecard; Missing Soldiers: Family Waits for Word
Aired May 16, 2007 - 06:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Smoke-out. Wildfire right now in New Jersey. Roads closed, thousands evacuated. A military flare may have triggered it all.
Plus, live strong.
LANCE ARMSTRONG, TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER: Why wouldn't you spend $10 billion a year on the number one killer in this country?
ROBERTS: Lance Armstrong takes his crusade against cancer to Capitol Hill and into our studio on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning to you. It is Wednesday, May the 16th.
I'm John Roberts in the nation's capital.
Good morning, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good to see you, John.
I'm here in New York.
I bet you're excited about getting a chance to talk to Lance Armstrong a little later.
ROBERTS: I am. I have interviewed him over the satellite, but it will be good to meet him in person.
He was actually one of the inspirations for getting me involved in cycling. I used to follow him in the Tour de France back in the early '90s, when he wasn't a contender. And we used to marvel at the performances that he would put in.
He really changed his riding style a lot between, say, '93 and '95. And then when he won the Tour de France -- so, it will be interesting to have him in here.
CHETRY: So, he got -- he was your inspiration behind riding, but you ride a Harley.
ROBERTS: No, no, no. But I also ride bicycles.
CHETRY: All right. Teasing you.
Other stories on our radar this morning.
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: Now to the Republican debate scorecard. Ten candidates seeking their party's presidential nomination met for round two last night at the University of South Carolina, and all GOP hopefuls spinning some measure of victory today. But what else would you expect?
CNN's John King was there and joins us now live with the highlights.
What was the big story of the night for you, John?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it was a much more feisty and combative debate in round two than we saw a little under two weeks ago in round one. It began with some of the lesser-known candidates taking after the frontrunners, trying to get more exposures, trying to take the frontrunners down a bit.
Rudy Giuliani's support of abortion rights came under attack frequently. But at one point, the frontrunners got into it as well.
Senator Mitt -- former governor, excuse me, Mitt Romney at one point turning to Senator John McCain and saying he didn't like Senator McCain's work with liberals in Washington in the United States Senate, saying that work resulted in bad policy. Senator McCain quickly responding, saying he found Governor Romney a much different man running for president when he needs support among conservatives than he was when he was running for governor in much more liberal Massachusetts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My fear is that McCain- Kennedy would do to immigration what McCain-Feingold has done to campaign finance and money in politics. And that's bad.
JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have kept a consistent position on right to life, and I haven't changed my position on even numbered years, or have changed because of the different offices that I may be running for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It will be interesting to see if that tension between McCain and Romney continues as the debate is over and they're back out campaigning.
John, also some significant differences on the issue of terrorism. A scenario played out near the end of the debate: "What would you do under circumstances of mass attacks here in the United States?"
Senator McCain was very emphatic, saying he would not allow torture of any terror detainees. Both Governor Romney and Mayor Giuliani suggesting they would go a bit farther than Senator McCain in pushing for aggressive detainee treatment to try to get more intelligence information. That another difference we are likely to see play out in the days and weeks ahead -- John.
ROBERTS: And there was also an interesting adlib exchange, too, between Congressman Ron Paul and Mayor Giuliani over that particular issue, when Congressman Paul suggested that it was America's foreign policy that might have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Let's take a quick listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years.
RUDY GIULIANI (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11th, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Giuliani there, John, got a much-needed round of applause because he's got problems with conservatives, particularly on the abortion issue, gay rights, gun control.
Was that him trying to take an opportunity to really play to his strengths, which are security?
KING: Absolutely was, John. He showed a flash of anger and indignity, glared down the row at Congressman Paul. He demanded an apology, demanded that Congressman Paul retract that remark.
For a candidate who was defined by his leadership after 9/11, but has been on the ropes a bit, especially among conservatives, for giving what many believe are confusing or conflicting answers on the abortion issue, that was a chance for Mayor Giuliani to say, here is my strength.
He broke the rules of the debate, if you will, captured a moment. When you have 10 candidates on stage and it is hard to get much attention, you look for breakthroughs. And Mayor Giuliani certainly had one right there.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, maybe he'll parlay that into something this week. We'll take a look at that.
KING: We'll see.
ROBERTS: John King from Columbia, South Carolina.
John, thanks very much.
And a programming note now. Big debates are coming up here on CNN. The Democrat 2008 hopefuls debate on June the 3rd. Republicans debate June 5th in the important primary state of New Hampshire. We'll be carrying that live on CNN, and, of course, all kinds of programming around it, as well.
So make sure that you join us for those two days. And let me tell you, we're also going to be having programming in between, ahead, and behind. So it will really be sort of a five-day extravaganza that we want you to be with us for.
And this into the CNN NEWSROOM just a short time ago. The oldest daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. has died.
Yolanda King, seen here at her mother's funeral last year, was just 51 years old. She was an actress and an inspirational speaker. The family says they don't know the cause of Yolanda's death, but they think that it might have been -- might have been a heart problem.
CHETRY: The military now stepping up the search for three missing U.S. soldiers in Iraq. American troops going door to door in a Sunni stronghold known as the Triangle of Death. They are dropping leaflets and questioning hundreds of Iraqis. The soldiers were ambushed and captured over the weekend.
CNN's Arwa Damon is embedded with the members of the division that are searching now for the missing soldiers. She called in to tell us more about that search in the last hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The unit that we are out with right now has been patrolling for the last seven and a half to eight hours, and they're stopping to -- they're speaking with families that they're coming across, they're speaking with pretty much anyone who they can find. Because what they really are looking for are these nuggets of information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Major General William Caldwell is holding his weekly briefing right now, and we will monitor it for you.
Well, one of the four families anxiously waiting for word on their missing son is going through the experience for the second time in just a month.
CNN's Chris Lawrence has more now from Torrance, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Three weeks ago, this family survived a horrible rumor, that their son had been killed in Iraq. Now they're living with the reality he is missing in action.
JOSEPH ANZACK SR., FATHER OF MISSING U.S. SOLDIER: Now that I know it's my son, it's real. It's really real.
THERESA ANZACK, MOTHER OF MISSING U.S. SOLDIER: I believe in miracles and I believe in prayer. And, you know, we need a miracle here.
LAWRENCE: Army officials notified the parents Sunday, less than a month after someone -- no one knows who -- started a rumor their son was dead. Friends asked about Anzack's funeral arrangements. His mom and dad received sympathy notes, and students at Anzack's high school even put up a sign to honor him.
SCOTT MCDOWELL, SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: And they were moved by what they thought was tragic news. They just put up, "In loving memory, Joe Anzack, class of 2005."
LAWRENCE: The rumors spread all the way back to Iraq, where the soldier updated his MySpace page to say, "I'm not dead."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm alive. And I'm kickin'.
LAWRENCE: Anzack was on the lookout for terrorists Saturday when his unit was ambushed south of Baghdad.
Within a few weeks, his mother has gone from fear, to relief, to complete shock.
T. ANZACK: So, I was OK as long as I heard his voice, but, you know, this is different, this is real. They knocked on our door and -- you know, and...
LAWRENCE: In Iraq, where soldiers face danger and the threat of death every day, there's a fine line between rumor and reality.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Torrance, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And again, as we're talking about this morning, they're going through this exact same thing yet again. We're going to be talking with Joe Anzack's father coming up in our next hour, 8:15 Eastern Time -- John.
ROBERTS: A night of high drama in Washington. Intrigue came out in a Senate hearing yesterday.
Former deputy attorney general James Comey testified that back in 2004 he raced to the sick bed of attorney General John Ashcroft before two senior White House officials, chief of staff Andrew Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, could get there. Although Comey wouldn't publicly confirm it, they were apparently having a disagreement over the president's warrantless wiretapping program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FMR. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Lifting his head off the pillow, and in very strong terms, expressed his view on the matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me, drawn from the hour-long meeting we had a week earlier. And in very strong terms expressed himself, and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, "But that doesn't matter because I'm not the attorney general."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Comey, who was serving as an the acting attorney general while Ashcroft was in the hospital, was refusing to re-certify the surveillance program. Comey and Ashcroft threatened to resign over the matter until President Bush, himself, stepped in, telling his staff to go ahead with the surveillance but bring it into line with law.
CHETRY: The Reverend Jerry Falwell being remembered this morning as preacher, as well as a political powerbroker. Doctors suspect he died of a heart rhythm abnormality yesterday in his office at Liberty University.
Falwell founded the Moral Majority back in 1979 and turned the religious right into a political force to be reckoned with. He was outspoken about homosexuality, abortion and pornography. In 2004, he launched a new organization called the Faith and Values Coalition.
The Reverend Jerry Falwell was 73 years old.
ROBERTS: So, how many times have you been waiting for a subway or waiting for a train and it's late and you start to get upset? Well, take a look at this amazing video that we have got to show you this morning from Argentina.
This is what happens when there are delays in the train system down there. Delays sparked a huge riot at Buenos Aires train station last night. Commuters broke windows, set fires, looted nearby shots. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas. In all, 16 people were arrested, and we don't know if the train ever arrived.
Coming up, we've got video proof that your mom was right when she told you not to play outside during a storm. A couple of kids got very lucky.
And a difference in tone and substance. We'll have more analysis on last night's Republican debate.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Remember all those times when your parents told you not to go outside during a thunderstorm? Well, here's a good reason why. Check out this video from the Dallas area.
Kids walking along the sidewalk there, and watch this, boom, flash. Is that lightning? It's at least part of a lightning strike.
A neighbor happened to have his camera rolling to catch the amazing near miss. How much danger were those kids actually in?
Fourteen minutes after the hour, our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, in the Atlanta weather center with all of that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're going to turn back to politics now, away from Chad's goatee.
The Republicans, two debates under their belt, and before the sparring started last night the candidates paid tribute to the Reverend Jerry Falwell. They got the sudden news yesterday that he had passed away.
So, how did they do in last night's debate? And are they appealing to the conservative GOP base?
Joining me now to discuss this, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative political advocacy group.
Tony, thanks for being with us today.
TONY PERKINS, PRESIDENT, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Good morning.
CHETRY: You're also a graduate of Liberty University. You knew the Reverend Falwell for more than 20 years. And what are your thoughts this morning on his legacy?
PERKINS: Well, I think he leaves a significant legacy. I think it's a twofold legacy.
One, is that, first and foremost, he was a preacher, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and led millions to a real personal relationship with the lord Jesus. But secondly, he challenged Christians to get involved and be what Jesus called -- and Matthew -- the salt and light of the earth.
And he did that through many, many different ways. Through thor Moral Majority, bringing Christians back into the public square for the first time in almost 50 years. You also had Liberty University, which I think is a great legacy of Jerry Falwell.
CHETRY: It sure is.
Let's get back to last night's debates. And in your opinion, who is most in line out of the candidates you saw on the stage last night with conservative values?
PERKINS: Well, I think there are a number of candidates that hold conservative values. There's probably just one real anomaly in that group, which came out again last night on the issue of abortion. And in many ways, I think it's the fact that Giuliani holds a position that is really an anathema to the Republican Party's or the conservative majority's viewpoint on that issue.
I mean, if you lock back, Ronald Reagan put together a very significant coalition of social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, those that wanted a strong defense. And those three coalitions were interdependent. It appears now that some within the ranks of the Republican Party see the conservative coalition as codependent. And that's a mistake. And I think that's a recipe for disaster for the Republicans.
CHETRY: When you say that, do you mean that you will sit out an election in 2008 if Giuliani, a pro-choice socially liberal candidate, is who the GOP gives the nod to?
PERKINS: Well, let me be very clear about that, Kiran. I would never encourage people to sit out, especially those who we consider our constituents, Christian voters, because I think we have not only a right to vote, but an obligation to vote. But I think many people may vote for minor candidates. You know, a third party candidate that could emerge, or someone else. But that's not the real -- the real factor is, how hard will social conservatives work to help, if it is the Republican Party they lean toward, how hard will they help them?
I think we saw in this past November's election that they will turn out and vote, but they will not work. They will not be enthusiastic because of the scandal-plagued Republican Party in this last election cycle. And I think that's the real risk, is that you have a demotivated base...
CHETRY: Right.
PERKINS: ... that was not out there working and making phone calls.
CHETRY: So, who would be your -- who would be your conservative pick if in a fantasy world you could have anybody who would be there with a GOP nominee?
PERKINS: Well, I think the polling will back this up, that there is still a large, undecided percentage of voters. There are things -- like about each of the candidates, I think last night Governor Huckabee did a very good job presenting himself. He's a very articulate, very convincing and winsome individual.
You know, Duncan Hunter has some great points to make.
I think Governor Romney comes across well as understanding the issues.
CHETRY: And you're satisfied, even though his position on abortion has changed?
PERKINS: Oh, I think that his present position is his true position. I don't question that. And I think even John McCain has a -- on the issue of abortion -- now, we have some issues with him on embryonic stem-cell research, but I think there is an opening for another conservative candidate.
And I think that's why Fred Thompson, there's so much interest surrounding him. I think people are still looking for someone who combines those three elements of the conservative movement. CHETRY: Well, you're right about that. At least according to our polling, as well, only 20 percent of those who call themselves registered Republicans are saying they're very satisfied with the field of candidates.
Tony Perkins, from the Family Research Council.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
PERKINS: Good to be with you.
ROBERTS: Yes. And 61 percent saying, oh, maybe they would like to see somebody else jump in the race.
Could the outbreak of contaminated food have been prevented? A new report claims the FDA pushed for tough, new standards for produce. But it ran into a brick wall.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking into this very issue in depth for us. We'll talk it him about it in our next half hour.
And yellow bracelets circling Capitol Hill. The Empire State Building bathed in yellow tonight. Lance Armstrong rides into the nation's capital. He joins us live in about 20 minutes with his crusade to Congress, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. Twenty-five after the now, and we are talking gas prices yet again with Ali Velshi, who is minding our business.
An all-time high, $3.10. So it went up a penny from yesterday.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, went up a penny. And one of our viewers wrote in to "Ask AMERICAN MORNING," "Who gets what percentage of the dollars per gallon that I pay?"
So, we decided to take a look at this.
There are a bunch of things that go into the price of a gallon of gas. The largest of which is the price of crude oil, although with unleaded regular gas at a national average now, as Kiran said, of $3.10, we had to spend some time to break it down. Here's what we found.
The single largest component starting from the bottom up is the price of oil. It's worth $1.46 out of $3.10 a gallon. That is less than half of the actual cost you pay.
Refining costs and profits are the second largest component. That makes up $1.03.
Various taxes eat up about 38 cents. And marketing and distribution, which is everything from getting the gas from the refinery to the gas stations, as well as the gas stations' profits, make up about 23 cents.
Now, who makes all that money from there? That depends. Sometimes there are several companies, from the explorers, to the refiners, to the distributors, to the gas station owners. In some cases, the same company owns every part of the chain. But as we've said before, don't get mad at the gas station owners. In most cases, their take is less than 10 cents a gallon.
Now, here's something to look at. The biggest jump in the components that make up the price of gasoline in the last couple months hasn't been oil. Oil has only accounted for about 12 cents of the game. The culprit is refining.
Now, in March, when gas was about $2.56 a gallon, refining was about 61 cents of that. In April, gas was up to $2.88 a gallon, and refining was up to 86 cents of that.
And with gas at $3.10 a gallon, we've run the numbers. And assuming no major changes in taxes, or the cost of distribution and marketing, the cost of refining a gallon of gas has jumped to $1.03, a 44 cent increase in two months.
Now, several of the nation's refineries are under repair right now. The Department of Energy says the amount of oil not being refined into gasoline is eight times the normal level right now.
CHETRY: Yes, and they pick the spring...
VELSHI: Yes. Yes.
CHETRY: ... as we head right into the busy driving season to go off line.
VELSHI: The refineries, yes.
CHETRY: And I also understand that there are a lot of refineries that take place out of our shores because a lot of the crude is coming from out of the country anyway. So they refine it there.
VELSHI: Yes, which is expensive to ship in. So, you know, we have a bit of a problem.
A lot of these people have been saying refining is where the problem is. The numbers bear that out.
CHETRY: All right. So, we asked Ali and we got our answer.
And we want to let people know, if there is anything you want to know about the stories that we cover, there's something that you want to tell us about the stories that we cover, please shoot us an e-mail, AM@CNN.com, and we will try to get the answers for you and share some of them.
Ali, thanks.
VELSHI: Thank you. ROBERTS: The top stories of the morning coming up next.
Wildfire raging right now across southern New Jersey. The military admitting that it may have lit the fuse on that.
Plus, he outwitted, outlasted, outsmarted the competition. That's why we chose Yul Kwon to be our ambassador to uncover America's hidden discrimination against Asian-Americans.
Plus, Lance Armstrong is going to join us. It's been three years since he starting his Live Strong Foundation. What kind of progress is he making in the fight against cancer?
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: There you see a beautiful photo sunrise over the capitol building. Flags at half staff for the national fallen police officers memorial yesterday. No word yet on whether they might be flown at half staff for the death of Reverend Jerry Falwell. It's Wednesday, May 16th. Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts in the nation's capital. Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: Good morning. It looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty lovely day in the nation's capital, up here in New York as well. Thanks, so much for everyone for joining us today. Some stories on our radar, disturbing new report just released claiming that the Department of Health and Human Services backed away from a plan that would have helped make produce safer. This after people got sick and some even died from eating contaminated spinach and lettuce. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be taking a closer look. He's going to join us a little bit later in the hour. John?
ROBERTS: Lance Armstrong joins me live in the studio in just a few minutes time. He is in town trying to get politicians to sign on to his new crusade against cancer, wants to give more people access to screening. He's also got another program running in Texas that he's going to talk to us about. He wants to create a cancer screening and research center in Texas, wants Texas to lead the nation in cancer treatment and research and he's also looking for a lot more money, as well. He says he'd love to have a chunk of that change that is going to the war in Iraq and put it towards cancer research.
And it's the morning after analysis, 10 Republican presidential candidates met for round two last night and it was a feisty debate at times. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My fear is that McCain/Kennedy would do to immigration what McCain/Feingold has done to campaign finance and money and politics and that's bad.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I haven't changed my position on even numbered years or changed because of the different offices that I may be running for.
REP. RON PAUL (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They attacked us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years.
RUDY GIULIANI (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's an extraordinary statement for someone who lived through the attack of September 11th that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Yes, they started getting into it last night and in a moment we're going to take a look at what conservative and liberal blogs are saying about the whole thing last night.
CHETRY: John thanks. Well, it's an anguished wait now for American families waiting to hear the fate of soldiers in Iraq. Seven ambushed over the weekend. Four of them were killed, three were captured and the Pentagon releasing their names today. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho has a look at who these people were behind the names that were released.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran, good morning to you. Seven soldiers as you mentioned total involved in Saturday's ambush. All of them based at Ft. Drum in New York. As you mentioned four killed. But this morning we only know for sure the names of three of the four soldiers killed. That is because one of the bodies was so badly burned that the U.S. military is now conducting a DNA test to find out that soldier's identity. We could hear something later today on that, but, for now, the four listed as missing are Private Byron Faudy (ph). He is 19 years old from Waterford, Michigan, Sergeant Anthony Shoeber (ph). He's 23 years old from Reno, Nevada, Specialist Alex Jimenez is 25 years old. He's from Lawrence, Massachusetts, you see him there and Private First Class Joseph Anzack Jr. He is 20 years old and from Torrance, California. Oddly enough, in a rare twist of fate just three weeks ago, a report on myspace said Anzack had been killed in action. There were rumors swirling in his hometown, everybody worried about that. So he's actually pulled from the front lines to call his folks to say, hey, I'm OK. Now, his parents of course are worried all over again. Imagine, Kiran, waking up this morning being one of those four families not knowing whether your son was killed in action or still missing this morning.
CHETRY: So the round of emotions that family must have gone through, thinking he was dead, finding out he was alive and then now knowing he's been captured. It's unbelievable. We're actually going to be talk with Anzack's father coming up in our 8:00 hour about that very thing and you also have some more information about someone who has been confirmed killed.
CHO: That's right, three of the four have been identified, Kiran. And they are Sergeant First Class James Connell. He was 40 years old from Lake City, Tennessee, father of four. He spent 19 years in the army. One of his children said he loved the army, clearly. Connell will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The second soldier confirmed dead, Private First Class Christopher Murphy, you see him there. He was 21 years old and from Lynchburg, Virginia, still trying to get some more information on him and the third soldier identified, Private First Class Daniel Courneya. He was just 19 years old, born in Fresno, California. He moved to Michigan when he was 10 years old. Interestingly enough, his stepfather is also serving in Iraq and, Kiran, his mother said being in the military was his dream since he was just three years old and he was living out that dream when he was in Iraq.
CHETRY: It's hard to imagine what that mother must be going through, as well, her husband in there serving now and her son.
CHO: And we should mention too, as you well know, that massive operation, that massive search is still ongoing. Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers involved, air support, dog teams and the highest level of U.S. special operations forces. So, that is still ongoing this morning.
CHETRY: Arwa told us they're exhausted but they're not giving up and they're continuing around the clock until they find their captured comrades. Alina, thank you. John?
ROBERTS: Coming now to 37 minutes after the hour. Internet reporter Jacki Schechner has been taking a look at what the blogs have been saying about last night's Republican debate down there in South Carolina. So what are they saying? Who won? What's the consensus?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the big cheer. Rudy! Rudy! A lot of people weighing in this morning, they thought Rudy Giuliani did a really good job. Doesn't mean that he's a frontrunner favorite, just means that they thought he did a much, much better job this time around than he did last time. We're also seeing that he appeared presidential last night, which is something we haven't seen after the first debate. Our conservative bloggers were taking note that he had a good night. He needed a good night and he came through. But they're also taking note that he owes a lot of that to Ron Paul because he set Rudy up to really with the comeback of the night when he was talking about September 11th and why we were attacked and Rudy was very strong on that. That clip of Rudy's response is now making the rounds on youtube.
ROBERTS: Important for Rudy to put in a good showing last night in South Carolina because, of course, conservatives are a little skeptical, a lot skeptical for that matter of his views. He got some applause last night on the issues of security, which really plays to his strengths. For him to do well in the South Carolina debate I think was very important for his candidacy.
SCHECHNER: It is and we're really seeing it on from the top blogs. It's good that they're weighing in. He also came - top of the blog when they did these unscientific reader polls. But what's interesting to note is still weighing in with more than Giuliani is Fred Thompson, 33 percent on instapundit (ph) which is the top conservative blog.
ROBERTS: A lot of conservatives still waiting for him. SCHECHNER: The draft Fred Thompson movement rages on strong but it's interesting at whether or not his absence from these early debates is really going to make a difference. We'll see how that plays. Also, there was a lot of kudos for McCain that made good opportunities that he took advantage of that he looked strong last night, a comeback from where he had been in the first debate.
ROBERTS: Interesting fight brewing too between Fred Thompson and Michael Moore, the filmmaker.
SCHECHNER: That's also -- we'll talk about that at one point, too. Yeah, that may overshadow some of the Republican candidates. So, we'll see.
ROBERTS: All right Jacki, thanks very much.
SCHECHNER: Sure.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, thanks guys. Growing concern about the safety of the nation's food supply. Why the FDA felt hamstrung to do anything about it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking into this very thing. We're going to be check in with him, coming up next.
And also, Lance Armstrong is riding into our nation's capital, there he is, making some demands from Congress when it comes to giving more money to research finding a solution to cancer. He's going to be joining us live, next. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seven time tour de France champion Lance Armstrong is in Washington, DC, today because it is live strong day and as always, he again is lobbying Congress for more money for cancer research. Lance Armstrong joins us in the studio. Good to see you.
LANCE ARMSTRONG, THE LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION: Good to see you.
ROBERTS: Tell us a little bit about this cancer screening treatment and survivorship act which is what you're currently pushing in Congress.
ARMSTRONG: It's one piece of the puzzle. With the cancer puzzle you have prevention, you have screening and early detection, obviously, you have treatment and then, you know, of course, the big component is research. But as we all know, catching cancer early is the best thing we can do and this piece of legislation focuses on screening people early, making sure that their cancers are caught early, specifically colon cancer, which is a huge killer in this country, 56,000.
ROBERTS: You really are an anomaly. Your cancer was not caught early. You were what, stage four. ARMSTRONG: I was well-advanced, but I was a hard-headed athlete that didn't pay attention to aches and pains and I think a lot of athletes are actually that way but --
ROBERTS: I read the book where you detail your cancer treatment and it was hell that you went through and then to be able to come back the way that you did is just remarkable. But not everybody has that chance.
ARMSTRONG: Not everybody. Unfortunately, too many people still die and, of course, as the cancer is more advanced, the treatment is more complicated and more gruesome and ultimately the chances of death are higher.
ROBERTS: How would this act provide greater access to screening treatment and that sort of thing for people?
ARMSTRONG: Primarily by -- we always talk about the gap between what we know how to do and what we're actually doing. So in this country, we know how to screen people. We know how to treatment people. We've invested the time and the money to cure people. But we're not providing that to the people that need it the most. And so for the United States of America, that's tragic. Again, if we had spent the time and the energy and the money to cure people or to invent things, then let's apply it. Let's give it to the people who need it.
ROBERTS: Back in January post-election you wrote an editorial for cnn.com that was one of the most viewed things we've ever had on our Web site. It got a million hits. Here's what you said about our leaders. You said quote, it's time to hold our leaders accountable. It remains to be seen if the change in power on Capitol Hill will affect the fight against cancer. In two years, we'll elect a new president. We can't predict the actions of any our elected officials, but we can say for sure that when it comes to cancer, their silence is unacceptable. You were lamenting the fact that they didn't make this a priority during the election. Cancer funding has actually been cut. What's been happening since then?
ARMSTRONG: Cancer sort of comes and goes and I think the way the media works in this country is that there are issues that come and go. If you remember a month ago you had Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow relapse and then cancer was a huge story and then other issues come along like Virginia Tech and tornadoes and all these things and all of a sudden, people have forgotten about the disease. The moments that it is there, everybody is fearful that they're all going to get cancer. We know it is one of the biggest concerns of the American public.
ROBERTS: 600,000 a year, doesn't discriminate.
ARMSTRONG: It's a huge bomb. To me it's truly terror. It's something that's unequaled.
ROBERTS: You went cycling with President Bush not too long ago. You were kind to him. You didn't flatten him, but you did ask him for a billion dollars after the ride. Has he come through with anything?
ARMSTRONG: It was very interesting asking for a billion dollars. I never asked anybody for a billion dollars. We have not seen an increase in funding. In fact, we have seen a decrease in funding at the Federal level. That's unfortunate and that's a shame. As we know, the country is at war. The country is distracted. The country is spending money in a lot of other places. Everybody's saying hey, give me money. Give me money. Give me attention. We're not unlike any other problem or any other issue in this country, but to me, a true war is something that kills 600,000 Americans.
ROBERTS: One last quick question. We've spent $423 billion in Iraq. I know that you won't second guess the reason why we went to war, I've heard you say that before, but if you had 10 percent of that money to put towards cancer research, what could you do with it?
ARMSTRONG: I think you can do a lot. You're talking about $40 billion. You would do -- not only would you provide incredible morale to the best researchers in the world, you would provide them space, you would provide them all the access and all the tools that they need to ultimately make a difference and quite frankly I think that should happen. I think that this country should go back to focusing on what I consider to be real homeland security and that is making sure that we're all safe and sound and we all have the best health care and the best access that we can possibly get.
ROBERTS: As a person whose family has been touched by cancer, I wish you well in your endeavors. We're there with you. Thanks very much.
ARMSTRONG: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Good to see you. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right John, good job, good job Lance. Well, the Food and Drug Administration facing a fight now on efforts to beef up protection of fresh produce. It's not, however, coming from the most likely place that you'd expect to see it from. For that we're paging Dr. Gupta. He joins us from Atlanta this morning.
Hi, Sanjay. Good to see you.
DR, SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran, really, really fascinating stuff going on in the world. There's a whole story regarding contaminated food out there. We've been talking a lot about this in terms of e. coli and the spinach and these food outbreaks. You know, 76 million people get some sort of food borne illness every year, 325,000 people are hospitalized and yet the FDA or the USDA don't have any regulatory authority to actually pull food off the shelves. A lot of that is voluntary. In fact a lot of the way that they actually regulate the safety of produce is voluntary which has got a lot of people talking about this. The FDA going to HHS and saying we need more money, we need more inspectors.
Henry Waxman posted this on his Web site regarding food safety is that in fact there's a declining food safety budget. Food inspections from 2003 to 2006 actually down by a third and I think one of the most crucial things, the FDA, while they might inspect packaging plants, they don't actually inspect fields except in the case of outbreaks. Kiran, we've been working on this for some time. We've got a documentary coming out this weekend about this very topic. I sat down with Robert Bracket. He's the guy that's sort of the food safety chief to really find out what is going on here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Is our food safe in this country?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the food is very safe in this country, by and large, and in fact, according to CDC statistics, it appears to be even getting safer over the last few years.
GUPTA: Can I say that it is safer than it was last year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a better indication of where the problems might be so we're watching for it. But until we identify exactly where it's coming from and exactly which actions should be put in place, we'll have to wait and see if bad luck happens again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Bad luck. It was interesting that he said that. I don't think that people really want to think that this was bad luck and that it just has to be a question of whether or not we get good luck on certain years. There are ways to try and make the food safer, but again, because a lot of this is voluntary, a lot of it isn't happening Kiran, which I think is frightening for a lot of people.
CHETRY: It absolutely is, especially when you think back to the spinach situation. There it is bagged. It says it's triple washed. You think you can trust it and then in some cases a young child, young children are killed.
GUPTA: Yeah, that's exactly it. Here's the thing I think that was most striking as we sort of went around the country talking to people and you saw some shots of Salinas Valley which is sort of the garden bowl of the United States. You know, if you look at the cattle industry, for example, they were really besieged by these problems several years ago and they were able to get a hold of it. They figured out sort of the science of trying to get it done. With regards to produce, a lot of these people say we still don't know the science of actually being able to make our produce any safer. We got a lot about this in the documentary coming up this weekend. It's fascinating stuff, Kiran.
CHETRY: That's why we're going to watch it. It is a special, "Danger, Poison Food." It's this Saturday and Sunday 8:00 Eastern time. Thanks so much, Sanjay. And you can also send your questions to Dr. Gupta's mailbag, cnn.com/americanmorning and Sanjay will answer your questions, some of them actually tomorrow right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Coming up, he was last year's "Survivor" winner and now Yul Kwon is working as our correspondent on a special series about Asian- Americans. We're going to have more on whether or not affirmative action is a good thing or a bad thing for Asian Americans.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All this week CNN is uncovering America with a new look at Asian American faces, people and stories and Yul Kwon has been helping us explore the particular challenges that Asian Americans can face. He won last season's "Survivor," the competition that you recall that was divided by race and Yul Kwon joins us now to talk about some of his own experiences. Thanks for being with us.
YUL KWON: Good morning, Kiran. How are you?
CHETRY: It was interesting. Did you know when you signed up for that "Survivor" that they were going to be separating you all based on Asian American, Latino, African-American and Caucasian?
KWON: Absolutely not. In fact if I'd known, I probably (INAUDIBLE) They did not tell us until the night before the game started after we had been on the island for a week and when they told us I thought they made a huge mistake. I thought the whole thing blew up in my face, because I wanted to be on the show to try to change stereotypes about Asian Americans, but it occurred to me that if you're dividing us based on race or skin color, you're going to ignore any differences between individuals and lump us all together in one category.
CHETRY: You then went on to win which was very interesting and actually, they ended up half way through or partway through combining the tribes. They got a lot of negative publicity for that decision and you guys were ahead when they decided that they were going to mix everybody together. What did you think about that?
KWON: I think they planned out the game before. So I don't think they changed their integrated teams in order to respond to criticism. I thought it was a great idea for them to have more diversity, because that's something I felt was always lacking on television, but I thought that the way they did it was very gimmicky. But ultimately I think we had a very positive story because I was able to lead a multi- ethnic coalition of people who stuck together to the very end without betraying each other.
CHETRY: You are giving us a little bit of words from one of the sound bites. Let's hear it for one second what you're saying here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KWON: I honestly was stunned. This is crazy. On one hand I think it's a great opportunity because I think it is wonderful that there are more minorities. At the same time, I'm a little bit worried that (INAUDIBLE) caricatures and stereotypes. So it will be interesting to see how things play out.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: The way they played out is that you won. Did anything having to do with the fact that you were Asian-American give you an advantage, in your opinion?
KWON: I don't know if it was an advantage. I think there are things that I learned over the course of my professional life and these are things that we talked about in the glass ceiling piece. I think as an Asian American, I've learned it become very conscious of the way that I appear to other people and as a result of that, I've learned how to modify my behavior to relate to people that I'm working with. So on this particular instance on "Survivor" I was able to apply a lot of the skills that I learned in order to try to build a very unified team and lead from behind the scenes.
CHETRY: And you and I were talking yesterday because my father is from Nepal and you were recounting your story of just reverting back to what felt comfortable for you as a Korean and how we didn't always play. You gave the example of being in the military and not looking your commanding officers in the eye which you're supposed to do and my dad recounted a few of the similar stories in Asian customs. You don't -- if somebody offers you something you always decline it the first and that's what's polite. Well, in America if you decline it, they're not going to ask you again.
KWON: Can I ask you actually, because I've always felt that and especially talking and going to the story on the glass ceiling, I think women face a double set of problems because not only are Asian women encountering these stereotypes about Asian-Americans, you have to overcome additional obstacles related to their gender. Is that something that you encountered?
CHETRY: I think that in the television field, I think that the television field in particular has been pretty pioneering when it comes to not only having a fair amount of women but I think also for Asians there are a lot of opportunities. I remember looking, even though I'm from Nepal, I really identified with Connie Chung and I remember seeing her as one of the first, she co-anchored the nightly news. We know where that eventually ended up, but I mean she was there and she was somebody that we could look to as, if she can do it, we can do it.
KWON: I think having the role models are absolutely key and I think for Asian American men, we're lacking that. We don't have a Connie Chung. And I think that's why reality shows are actually so interesting because if you look on television, it's reality shows that were casting the most Asian-American men and having the most diversity. "Survivor," "American Idol," "Amazing Race." You just see a lot more portrayal of people as individuals and my hope is that ultimately as we see more and more of these men on television, it will prove the point that you can have a major television franchise carried by a minority and that in turn will lead to more scripted roles.
CHETRY: If it worked for Sanjaya Malakar (ph), I don't know (INAUDIBLE) this season. Yul Kwon, thanks so much. It's been fascinating to talk with you. We want everyone to know you can stay tuned for a special primetime special, coverage of uncovering America. That's going to tonight on CNN. Yul, thanks a lot.
KWON: It's a pleasure.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: When you've got a Kiran, you don't need anyone else.
We're staying on top of a breaking story in New Jersey today. A major wildfire there possibly sparked by a flare from an F-16 fighter jet. We're live at the scene at the top of the hour. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
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