Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

No Michigan Primary Do-Over?; Drug Cartels Deploying Submarines; McCain Aide Suspended; New York City Inspector Arrested in Deadly Crane Collapse

Aired March 20, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Their primaries were too soon. Their secondaries won't take place at all.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: First, Florida gives up on plans for a do-over vote to allocate Democratic delegates. Now Michigan's efforts apparently have fallen through, too.

Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar, in today for Kyra Phillips at CNN Center in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don lemon.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, there was a chance that Michigan might have a do-over when it came to the primary, but it looks like it will not happen now. CNN's political unit confirming that today.

We want to bring in our Wolf Blitzer, who is the host of "THE SITUATION ROOM," that comes up right after this program.

Wolf, what does it mean for both candidates?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it means very bad news potentially for Hillary Clinton. She was really hoping that there would be a do-over first in Florida, then in Michigan.

It now looks very, very unlikely that there will be formal primary do-overs in either of these states. She -- she was really hoping that, after Pennsylvania, April 22, and several other states in early June, there would be another round of primaries in these two important states, Florida and Michigan, and that potentially she could do well there.

But it looks like right now, Florida the other day they basically killed the prospect of doing a formal primary there. They couldn't get their act together. Now it looks like the same thing's happening to the Democrats in Michigan. The legislature there is about to go out into recess, the House, which is Democratically-controlled.

They had a deadline of today, to do so, but they're now going into recess without taking any formal action. So, it looks very unlikely, not necessarily completely out of the picture, but very unlikely that Michigan will have an opportunity to do another revote. So, the question, Don, remains, what do you do with the delegates that are supposed to be seated at the Democratic Convention in Denver at the end of the summer from these two states, Michigan and Florida?

There are other options out there. There are other compromise proposals that are being floated to find a way to seat those delegates in some sort of percentage, but, you know, this is not going to be easy by any means, because you got to get both campaigns on board.

LEMON: Right.

BLITZER: You got to get the DNC on board. You got to get the state Democratic parties on board. And so far, despite all their hard work, they simply haven't been able to do it. So, it remains an unknown quantity at this point.

LEMON: And, Wolf, I want to ask you, because you said -- and I'm looking at -- reading the wires here and also listening to what you are saying -- you are saying that there is a slim possibility, a slim possibility, but it looks like, there, the assembly is going on -- the House is taking a break, as you said, starting next week, and the clerk needs 60 days to set up the election.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: So, a slim possibility, but it's looking like it's not going to happen.

BLITZER: They were hoping to do this election on June 3, right at the end. Puerto Rico's got the last scheduled contest right now. And they are hoping to do that one on June 1, to do a primary in Puerto Rico. June 3 would be the date that the Michigan primary would take place. But it doesn't look like they can get their act together right now.

LEMON: OK.

BLITZER: And even though it was going to be privately, they weren't going to use taxpayer dollars, they were going to use private contributions to fund these two primaries in Michigan and Florida, there were so many other complications.

Bottom line, as I said before, Don, this is probably good news for Barack Obama, bad news for Hillary Clinton.

LEMON: Yes. OK.

And, obviously, a big topic today in "THE SITUATION ROOM," starting at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN. And Wolf Blitzer is the host.

Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks, Don.

KEILAR: Just want to let you in on something that Politico.com is currently reporting, that an aide for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has been suspended for circulating video of Barack Obama's former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Now, you probably recall this firestorm of controversy recently over some sermons of Wright's. Basically in some of them, he said Senator Hillary Clinton had an advantage over Obama in the presidential race because she is white.

And he also said in another sermon that America had brought the September 11 attacks upon itself. Well, these were actually sermons from some time ago, from months ago, that were some -- that did somehow come to light, that created this firestorm of controversy, prompted Wright to leave the Obama campaign and also prompted Barack Obama to give a speech very recently about race and how it relates to this campaign.

So, again, Politico.com reporting that an aide to the McCain campaign has been suspended for circulating this video. We're working to confirm this for ourselves. We will bring you any information as we get it.

LEMON: And we will talk about it in our political roundtable if we can get confirmation on that.

Also now, we want to talk about that freak accident in the Florida Keys. Deputies say a woman died after a spotted eagle ray jumped out of the water and hit her in the head this morning off Marathon Key. It weighed about 75 pounds. But eagle rays can weigh several times that.

They're generally shy, although they can be deadly, with their sharp, venomous stingers. The 55-year-old victim from Michigan was boating with her family. An autopsy is planned to find out whether the woman died from the blow to her head, the stinger's star or of a subsequent fall.

Now we're now learning -- we just learned moments ago from Florida Wildlife and Fisheries that she died as a matter of fact not from a sting, but from the impact of that eagle ray.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... extremely unusual. I mean, the chances of this occurring are so remote that, I mean, most of us are completely astonished that this happened.

I mean, we have seen them, and I have seen them, personally, while I'm driving in the South Florida waterways, in the ocean in South Florida, you know, to see the ray actually jump out of the water, and I have seen that myself. But to actually see a -- or know of a collision with a ray is extremely unusual. And it's something that doesn't happen very often.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: And, again, initial reports from the Florida Wildlife and Fisheries we're told here on our air just a couple minutes ago that they believe she died from the impact and not from the stingray.

Let's talk about Michigan again, go back to that story. It is a political football so to speak that's been going back and forth, back and forth, between Michigan, Florida. Will they have a redo? Will they not? It appears Michigan's not having one. We heard last -- earlier this week Florida is not having it.

Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley on the trail with Obama, and she joins us now to talk about the Michigan no redo -- Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Don, never say never, but it really does look as though Michigan is following along the path of Florida.

As you know, just to kind of backtrack, the primaries that Michigan and Florida held were outside the calendar set by the rules of the Democratic Party. So, the delegates from those primaries didn't count. Nobody kind of foresaw that the delegate vote would be this close at this point.

So, now people want Michigan and Florida to have a redo, but time is running out, because they have to do it by mid-June. It takes about a month to set these things up. The plan was before the state Senate in Michigan. They have recessed without acting on it. The Clinton campaign is blaming Barack Obama. Barack Obama has argued that the Michigan plan wasn't fair in a number of ways and advantaged her.

She has said, and said today, that if Michigan and Florida are disenfranchised, as she puts it, it would call into question the validity of the Democratic nominee. So, the stakes are incredibly huge. And, once again, there is no clear path, and maybe no path at all, at this point for Michigan or Florida to have a revote.

LEMON: Yes, and all of this, Candy, is really leading us to some very interesting -- it's going to be a very interesting convention, to say the least.

CROWLEY: It is. They're going to try very hard not to make it interesting, I can tell you that.

LEMON: Yes.

CROWLEY: You know, Barack Obama says, I want to seat these delegates. Perhaps we could apportion them, you know, cut them down the middle. I will take half. She will take half.

That, of course, would leave the state at play where it is right now, which is him leading in pledged delegates and the popular vote. Clearly, they don't want that in the Clinton camp. What the Democratic Party wants is to not have that big fight at the convention. My guess is, now, at this point, if nothing else happens in Michigan and Florida, they can go to the rules credentials committee and appeal and say, we want you to seat us. So, that's kind of the next step if, in fact, Florida and Michigan don't go back together. Talk to the governors, talk to the state parties, talk to the candidates and come up with something else.

And as I say, never say die in this campaign. They may yet come up with something, but as I said, time is running short, and it does cost a lot of money, and that's been an issue in Michigan as well as Florida.

LEMON: Very interesting stuff.

OK, our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, there joining us.

And of course Candy contributes to "THE SITUATION ROOM" and, of course, our 8:00 show, which focuses on the election. You can join her there and watch her reports.

Thanks, Candy.

CROWLEY: Thanks.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

LEMON: Well, guess who is deploying scores of submarines to challenge the U.S. military? Just ahead, an exclusive report from our homeland security correspondent, CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. We have new information on that awful, awful crane collapse last weekend in New York, killing seven people.

Fredricka Whitfield, what do you have?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, pretty extraordinary, and this, too, is very shocking. Media reports are indicating that now an arrest has been made of an actual inspector who worked with New York City, who claims to have inspected this crane about two weeks ago, but apparently lied, and actually faked the reports.

And you recall that just prior to this accident happening last Saturday, it was said by city officials that an inspector had actually looked at the crane and that whole construction site that prior Friday, and that there appeared to be no violations.

So, it's unclear whether indeed that inspection really did take place. But we do know that the fake inspection that is being linked to this investigation now dates back to March 4. And now that New York City inspector is facing arrest.

It's unclear exactly what was written on that report, but, according to media reports, that inspector never actually went to the site to carry out an inspection, but that there were some faked documents that were provided to New York City.

So, that investigation now broadening out. Still unclear, however, exactly why this crane collapsed and fell in the first place there at Second Avenue and 50th and 51st Streets, tragic situation.

LEMON: It is. And if -- a lawsuit probably will ensue. If one person's arrested, that's just the beginning of the legal process, yes.

WHITFIELD: Yes, plural. Yes, better believe there are going to be lawsuits.

LEMON: Yes. All right, thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right.

KEILAR: What will the drug thugs think of next? Cocaine cartels have deployed a new weapon, a staple of naval warfare.

And our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, joins us now from Washington with an exclusive report to explain exactly what is going on here.

Jeanne, what is going on here?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we have been seeing these vessels for a couple of years, but now we're seeing more and more and more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): A high-speed chase on the high seas. In this video, obtained exclusively by CNN, Coast Guardsmen on a Navy boat chase a semi-submersible, a vessel that rides almost completely underwater.

Its suspected cargo? Tons of cocaine -- this incident three weeks ago in the Pacific far off the coast of South America part of a growing trend. Between 2001 and 2007, there were 23 known smuggling cases involving semi-submersibles. The Coast Guard projects 85 this year, 120 the year after that, because they do the job for the traffickers.

THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD COMMANDANT: They're very low- profile, very hard to pick up with radar. They go very slow, and don't leave a wake.

MESERVE: And they are sometimes camouflaged with blew paint. Built in the jungles of Colombia for about $1 million apiece, new models can travel hundreds of miles without refueling at speeds as high as 12 knots and can carry as much as 12 metric tons of cocaine.

Once made of fiberglass, many are now made of steel, making them more seaworthy. Some can even be navigated by remote control. FRANKIE SHROYER, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION: The traffickers are always trying to outwit us. They have got a lot of money. If these become successful or more successful, they will continue to use it until we get a handle on it.

MESERVE: Authorities say they often get good intelligence about semi-submersibles but don't always have the resources to respond. When they are successful, the crew of the semi-submersibles usually bails out, scuttling the vessel and drugs., making prosecution difficult. But that could change.

ALLEN: We're actually working with the Congress right now to pass legislation that will make the operation of these vessels in and of itself illegal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Right now, these vessels are used to move cocaine from Colombia up to Central America or Mexico, but U.S. authorities fear that eventually they could bring drugs or other dangerous cargoes directly into the U.S. -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And are these semi-submersibles, is it on the periphery of drug smuggling or has this become a principal way of moving drugs?

MESERVE: Well, they are seeing more and more drugs moved this way, obviously. But the DEA says there are many other types of conveyances that are used more frequently. They are still using planes. They are still using fast boats. They are still coming over land in containers. So, this is just one part of a much bigger picture.

And the DEA says the real solution here is to bring down the entire organizations and stop all of it. That's what they try to do, but, boy, what a tough job.

KEILAR: Jeanne Meserve with this exclusive report for us -- thanks, Jeanne.

MESERVE: You bet.

LEMON: No Democratic do-over in Michigan, that appears to be the case, after state lawmakers fail to act. We will talk more about Michigan and Florida with our political roundtable. You don't want to miss it .

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK, let's take another look at issue number now. That is the economy.

And CNN entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson joins me now about a report out about one industry that doesn't suffer during a weak economy. In fact, it might even get a boost.

Brooke, is that -- people want to escape; is that what it is? (CROSSTALK)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: They do. They want a getaway, Don, from all the stress and all the worries. They want to relax a little bit.

Even with the financial woes, the real estate instability and job uncertainty, folks are still loosening those purse strings for a little bit of enjoyment. And Hollywood is a primary beneficiary. The box office has proven over and over that, when times are tough, it's Teflon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And this is a challenging time for our economy.

ANDERSON (voice-over): A challenging time, indeed, but there is one business that generally thrives during times of economic strife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CAREY, ACTOR, "HORTON HEARS A WHO!": Nothing wrong with this, Morton. Nothing wrong with this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The movies.

JOHN FITHIAN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATER OWNERS: People continue to come to the cinemas even during challenging economic times.

ANDERSON: Last weekend, moviegoers shelled out $45 million to see "Horton Hears a Who!," propelling the animated comedy to the year's best opening so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE CARELL, ACTOR, "HORTON HEARS A WHO!": You realize that, if you tell anybody, they would think you were crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Paul Dergarabedian from box office tracker Media By Numbers says revenues are four percent higher than last year and could rise with summer fare like "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones."

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN, PRESIDENT, EXHIBITOR RELATIONS: People need an escape. And going to the movies is a fairly inexpensive way to get out of the house.

ANDERSON: Box office revenues actually increased during five of the last seven recessions, according to government statistics.

FITHIAN: Movie cinemas have done well during recessionary times. ANDERSON: The Great Depression of the 1930s, when movies like "Frankenstein" and "King Kong" made their debuts, witnessed a cinematic boom.

DERGARABEDIAN: There were about 70 million people going to the movies a week. That's like eight times more than the number of people who go to the movies today.

ANDERSON: Today, people have countless more entertainment choices, but, according to the National Association of Theater Owners, movies are still among the most affordable options at an average ticket price of $6.88.

Some people we interviewed are eager to catch their next film, despite belt-tightening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will cut back on the haircut. I will cut back on some eating. But the movies, I can't do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really love movies. So, no, the economy is probably not really going to affect my judgment too much.

ANDERSON: Others are hesitant.

A poll conducted by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation shows 75 percent of respondents have cut back on leisure activities, including movies, restaurants or travel, or have postponed major purchases.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My money's going more towards bills at this point. Anything I do for entertainment, it has to be either really, really cheap or free.

ANDERSON: During this economic downturn, Hollywood hopes moviegoers continue to pay the price of admission.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: And, Don, John Fithian, whom I spoke with from the National Association of Theater Owners, did say there is a danger for Hollywood during hard economic times, and that can be the difficulty of financing. But he said, as long as there are quality scripts, quality movies, that the process for the most mart does work itself out.

LEMON: People want to escape. But I have to tell you, every time I go to the -- I can't believe how much a movie ticket is. I really can't. And then the popcorn and the Coke and all that...

ANDERSON: It adds up. But, to put it in perspective, the average movie price is $6.88.

And a lot of people told me, Brooke, that seems a little bit low. But that factors in dollar theaters, matinees, also senior prices and kids' ticket prices. And in smaller towns, Don -- for example, I reached out to Smith Center, Kansas. Their adult price starts at just $6.50. So, to put it into perspective, across the country, it's still one of the most affordable forms of entertainment.

LEMON: OK. Do you know what it is there in L.A.? You probably get premieres because of what you do?

ANDERSON: I don't think I have ever paid $6.88. It's much higher than that.

LEMON: It's like 12 bucks or something. It is just crazy. All right.

ANDERSON: It is, $12 or higher usually, yes, on a Friday night.

LEMON: Yes. All right. Thanks a lot. Always good to talk to you.

ANDERSON: Thank you. You, too.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

LEMON: OK.

We have heard much about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama, his former spiritual adviser, former pastor.

And now we're getting word -- and it's coming from Politico.com -- that the McCain campaign has suspended someone from their campaign because he's accused of sending out an e-mail blast of Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama over a PDA -- sending it out. And the McCain has said that they would stay away from that sort of campaigning.

Joining us now from Politico.com, who actually broke this story, is Jonathan Martin.

Jonathan, explain to us what happened.

JONATHAN MARTIN, POLITICO.COM: Sure. There has been a video on YouTube in circulation the past couple of days getting a lot of interest that basically portrays the words of Jeremiah Wright with some of the more extreme images from various elements of black --

LEMON: It's called "Is Obama Wright?"

MARTIN: Right. And --

LEMON: W-R-I-G-H-T.

MARTIN: Correct. And it shows Malcolm X talking about the chickens coming home to roost. It shows the black Olympians raising their hands in the black power salute. And it also shows sort of every element that has been circulating for months in e-mails about these questions over Obama's patriotism, sort of long simmer, underground campaign that is now really emerging.

And so it was sort of a so-called mash-up video that has been, in the past three days, really exploding among conservatives. And this McCain staffer saw fit to blast that out to a distribution list. And, of course, once that got out, the McCain campaign disavowed that action and suspended him from the campaign.

LEMON: OK. What are they saying? Are they making any comment about this, about why they suspended him? Are they saying it's because they don't want to be involved in this kind of spurious campaigning?

MARTIN: That's exactly right. You know, McCain himself and the campaign over and over again have said that they will not raise these kind of personal issues, matters of race and patriotism, against Obama. And this contradicts directly those assertions.

So they have suspended this employee and have indicated that this was not a senior level person. But, look, obviously this is an embarrassment for them, given all that they have been saying here in the past few weeks, to have this now on their hands.

LEMON: But, also, Jonathan I'm reading one of your columns...

MARTIN: Sure.

LEMON: Let's see what...

MARTIN: Sure.

LEMON: I think it was from today...

MARTIN: Right.

LEMON: ...that you wrote, you said, "In their view," and you're talking about the GOP, right?

MARTIN: Right.

LEMON: -- "That they now, with this whole Jeremiah Wright thing, that they have sort of an antidote to the Obama-mania that's going on in the country."

MARTIN: Right.

LEMON: So if, then, they do have antidote, why wouldn't they be sending it out? And it doesn't -- I mean, obviously this was -- was this for laughs, this video, or was this something taken seriously?

MARTIN: Oh, no, this was taken very, very seriously.

LEMON: OK.

MARTIN: And, look, I think you raise a very smart point, and that is that this is a delicate situation. The McCain folks and the Republican establishment do not want to be accused of playing the race card, playing the patriotism card.

Yet there is this fodder -- it's almost forbidden fruit that is out there now in videos that a lot of conservatives just want to really try and take advantage of the things. They recognize the power that is there.

But the question is, who's using it? Who's sending it out? And when it's done by a campaign, when it's done by a party, then it's more important and it's more dangerous.

LEMON: OK. All right.

Jonathan Martin from Politico.com breaking this story about the McCain staff person being suspended for sending out this video of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright interspersed with cuts of Barack Obama and other black spiritual leaders. Thank you very much for joining us today.

MARTIN: Thank you.

LEMON: And as you were talking, our political roundtable was listening in. We're going to talk about that with the political roundtable coming up in just a few minutes -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, that's right. No Democratic do-over in Michigan.

LEMON: Right.

KEILAR: Of course, that really appears to be the case after state lawmakers there failed to act. We're going to talk more about Michigan and also about Florida with our political roundtable.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: New word in on that story we were telling you that's coming out of Florida, that Michigan woman who died when this ray -- this spotted ray that you see here jumped into her boat that she was in. This happened off of the Florida Keys.

Well, apparently she was killed because she fell backward and her head struck -- actually struck the boat deck. But she did not die either because of being stuck by the barb of the ray or by the sheer impact with the ray. Again, the Michigan woman who was killed this morning off the Florida Keys when this ray here jumped into her boat, she died when her head struck the deck of the boat. That's the word we're getting from Florida Fish and Wildlife.

LEMON: OK. Well, another do-over plan apparently comes to nothing. And a presidential campaign staffer apparently crosses the line -- two big issues that flared up within the past hour.

Let's sound out right now with our political roundtable. Joining me now from New York, "Time" magazine columnist, Mr. Joe Klein. I should say, in this corner Joe Klein. In Washington, Jonathan Capehart, editorial writer for "The Washington Post."

Hey, Jonathan, good to see you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART, EDITORIAL WRITER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Hi, Don.

LEMON: And Larry Elder, an author and KABC Radio show host.

Thank you very much.

Hey, Jonathan, I heard you -- I saw you, actually, on the preview monitor here, listening to Jonathan Martin from Politico about this staffer. What is going to be the fallout from this from the McCain campaign?

CAPEHART: Well, I think Senator McCain did the right thing by suspending this campaign worker. I couldn't hear all of Jonathan's report, so I don't know how high up the person is in the campaign. But Senator McCain has said many, many times that that's not the kind of campaign he wants to run -- no personal invective, no dirty tricks, if you will.

But I mean were you really surprised, Don, that this happened?

LEMON: Yes.

CAPEHART: No. I mean this -- this is -- you could just write the RNC or 527 commercial out of all this.

LEMON: And I've got to ask you this, Larry, if the GOP -- and the Politico has been writing this, a number of people have been writing about this -- saying that now that this Jeremiah Wright thing has happened, that maybe there is an antidote to the whole Obama-mania thing that's going on. Now they have some momentum and some ammunition to show that he is, in fact, fallible.

LARRY ELDER, AUTHOR, KABC RADIO HOST: Absolutely. I just have a new book out Don called "Stupid Black Men: How To Play the Race Card and Lose." and I spend a lot of time talking about Jeremiah Wright. I wrote this eight months ago.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Oh, jeez.

ELDER: The book just now came out...

LEMON: Larry.

ELDER: And I said -- well, I've got to get the plug in here. Come on, give me some love over here.

(LAUGHTER)

ELDER: I'm a capitalist.

LEMON: OK. Go ahead.

ELDER: And I said...

LEMON: I'll let you do it.

ELDER: And I said this guy is going to be a problem. And the thing about the McCain staffer, assuming that what the Politico said is true, it's just stupid. This campaign is reeling now from this scandal. And the last thing you do when your opponent is drowning is throw him a live preserver. This is going to take attention off of Obama and put it on McCain. So the staffer should be fired for stupidity.

LEMON: Joe, is this an overreaction?

JOE KLEIN, COLUMNIST, "TIME" MAGAZINE: The firing? Well, we've had a history of --

LEMON: It's a suspension. I just want to make it clear, it's a suspension.

KLEIN: A suspension?

LEMON: Yes.

KLEIN: We've had -- we've had a history of campaign workers over the years distributing videotapes and getting canned for it. Back in 1988, Dukakis staffers distributed a Biden tape -- the tape where Biden was plagiarizing a British politician -- and they got fired.

This is pretty much campaign business as usual. It's really stupid because as long as Rush Limbaugh lives and breathes on this planet, then McCain doesn't have to do any dirty work. People like Limbaugh will do it for him.

(LAUGHTER)

KLEIN: All right, well, but I think maybe the operative metaphor here isn't drowning, but the giant stingray landing in Obama's boat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh.

LEMON: Oh, Joe.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: OK. Well...

ELDER: Don't blame that one on me.

KLEIN: He hasn't hit his head.

LEMON: Yes, I'm not even going to go there.

ELDER: Don't blame that one on me.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I'm not going to go there because someone did die from that.

Hey, let's talk about -- real quickly, I want to talk about Michigan, because that is the next bit of big news that we have coming out here. The legislature there saying no way, they're not -- well, they're not going to do a re-do. They went home basically.

There is going to be a recess for two weeks, so they're going to go on a break for two weeks. And they're saying basically they're not giving it enough energy, they don't see where it fits. So it's looking like a no re-vote in Michigan.

This is obviously not good news for the Clinton campaign -- Joe?

KLEIN: I don't know whether it's -- I think Clinton -- that Michigan was going to be a much closer race than maybe Florida would have been. But, you know, there are basic rules in life. And, you know, Michigan and Florida were punished because they refused to play by those rules.

And, you know, I think that there's going to be some kind of an accommodation. You'll see Michigan and Florida delegates (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: Jonathan jump in here.

CAPEHART: Don, you know, I think that some kind of accommodation is going to have to be made. I mean I think the DNC is going to have to do a little soul-searching and ask itself, do we really want to alienate voters in Michigan and Florida -- two of the most -- more populist states in the nation -- and maybe cripple the party in the general election? I don't see how the DNC could let that happen.

LEMON: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: And, Larry, I'll let you get in here real quick.

But I want to ask -- I want to get this in, also. We have a poll of polls taken from likely primary voters. And I think this one is from Pennsylvania here. Am I correct, is this from Pennsylvania or is it just likely -- from Pennsylvania. Clinton, 52 percent; Obama, 39 percent.

And what I'm wondering from you, Larry -- and maybe it's too soon to tell. I don't know if it has anything to do with it. Do you think, at all, with what's happened over the last couple of days, we've been talking about McCain and his staffer, do you think that this has hurt Obama at all? Because it appears -- 39 percent, 52 percent -- that's a pretty big margin.

ELDER: Oh, absolutely, it's hurt him. He's gone from that guy in Boston, Don, in '04 who talks about there's just one America, the guy on "60 Minutes" who said if I lose, it won't be because I'm -- because of my race, the guy who says that we've come 90 percent of the way, on the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, to a guy who has said I don't have a dream, I have an excuse. And he did not address why he attended this racist church for 20 years. He only talked about the...

KLEIN: Oh, yes, he did.

ELDER: ...legacy -- he talked about the legacy of racism in America and not why I attended, for 20 years, a church of a guy who's racist, anti-Semitic...

KLEIN: He absolutely did.

ELDER: ...anti...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Go ahead. Go ahead. We're running out of time, but go ahead, quickly.

ELDER: And anti-America...

LEMON: Respond quickly.

ELDER: ...and believes in wacky conspiracy theories.

LEMON: Larry, let him in. Go ahead.

ELDER: Why did he go there?

LEMON: Joe? What were you going to say? We've got to go, but real quickly.

KLEIN: He absolutely did -- you know, he disowned Jeremiah Wright's thoughts and words and beliefs, but couldn't kick him out of his family. This is a guy who's a surrogate father to him. And I thought that that was very effective.

As for the Pennsylvania poll, we've been seeing polls like that for a while. I don't think that the Wright story has really percolated into the public yet. And I think maybe a week from now...

ELDER: Oh, yes it has.

KLEIN: Maybe a week from now...

CAPEHART: Right. That's...

KLEIN: ...we'll be able to see whether it's had an influence on the pollings in Pennsylvania.

ELDER: Oh, yes it has.

LEMON: OK. I've got to wrap it. But if you want to respond, Jonathan, I can give you five seconds. No kidding. Go ahead.

CAPEHART: Joe is right.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Very good.

CAPEHART: Thank you so much.

LEMON: That was three seconds.

CAPEHART: Thank you.

LEMON: Well, three seconds.

CAPEHART: I got two more then.

LEMON: And you got the last two when you said three seconds.

Larry Elder, Jonathan Capehart and Joe Klein, thank you very much.

CAPEHART: Thank you, Don.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Have a great evening, guys.

We'll see you a little bit later on, probably on "THE SIT ROOM" or one of the other shows we have devoted to politics, as well.

Thanks.

KEILAR: Road rage in South Carolina -- who is behind the wheel here? That siren might tell you. We'll have more in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: You may recall that crane collapse in midtown Manhattan that happened last weekend and killed seven people there. Well, some neighbors had said that it was an accident waiting to happen. It turns out they may actually be right. This is some really serious stuff.

Let's bring in Jim Acosta. He is live in New York with details.

What's the latest -- Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, city officials just announced that the inspector who was responsible for that site has been arrested. According to city officials, the inspector falsified records, saying that he had visited the site on March 4 when, in fact, that visit never occurred.

Now we should mention that city officials do say that an inspection of that site did occur on March the 14. That's one day before that crane came tumbling down, eventually killing seven people and injuring 24 others.

What is unclear at this point is whether the absence of that inspection on March 4 had anything to do with this collapse -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And it sort of begs the question if this inspection didn't go through, if it was falsified, if maybe there aren't other crane inspections -- I know there are probably hundreds of cranes around New York City. Have city officials gone there yet or is it pretty preliminary yet? ACOSTA: Well, the building commissioner here in New York City has said that she is ordering a full audit of all crane inspections and all of the inspections pertaining to this site to get to that very question. Because that question undoubtedly came up.

As you know right now, this city has been in the middle of a building boom for the last several years had and there are cranes up across Manhattan. And, you know, you can only look at news reports in recent weeks and in recent days to know that people have been looking up into the skies wondering, you know, just, you know, how safe these cranes are -- particularly in light of what happened on Saturday. So, yes, city officials are highly attuned to this and they promise to get to the bottom of it -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jim Acosta live for us in New York. Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: You bet.

LEMON: Google Mapping is good for finding hotels or even hospitals. It turns out you can also use to it find haddock or humpback. The next big thing for oceanographers is Google technology keeping tabs on where the wild things are in the sea. I just hit it right -- wild things -- all right -- in the sea.

Our Miles O'Brien has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Your mother always told you there are a lot of fish in the sea. But how many? No one really knows the answer.

PROF. PAT HALPIN, DUKE UNIVERSITY: The oceans are a part of the world that's extremely unexplored and probably even less explored than parts of our solar system.

O'BRIEN: But maybe not for too much longer. Pat Halpin is a researcher working on the Census of Marine life -- a 10-year global effort, now in its eighth year, to take a head count of what lives in the seven seas. The end result is a publicly available Google map that lets you see what lies beneath the blue void -- the same way you find a movie or a pizza.

HALPIN: And now with the same kind of tools, you can bring up information on endangered species in the oceans.

O'BRIEN: Take whales, for example. They're tagged and tracked by satellites or spotted by ships or airplanes -- all of the data funneling into this map called OBIS as in Ocean Biogeographic Information System.

HALPIN: You start to see patterns emerging. And the only way you find these kinds of patterns is to be able to map things out in both space and time. O'BRIEN: So how many species are there in the sea? Fourteen million old and new -- and they're still counting. We land lovers are outnumbered 10 to one.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK. You figure this one out -- road rage or good police work?

That's next, oh -- in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, we want to get this one in before "THE SITUATION ROOM."

We're about to show you two graphic reasons why the South Carolina State Patrol is under federal investigation. Take a look.

Here's reason number one -- recorded last April from a dashboard camera as an officer chased a suspect.

Did you see that? In the beginning he hit him with the car. The suspect eventually was captured. The officer was reprimanded.

Here is reason number two. It happened last June.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's running down Holman Street. He's moving (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Every time I see that, it just makes -- believe it or not...

KEILAR: It's shocking.

LEMON: ...the man who was running got away. But the officer bragged to colleagues that he'd nailed him. The officer received a 24- hour suspension. And, as we said, the department under federal investigation from the Justice Department, no less.

Time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

KEILAR: He is standing by in "THE SITUATION ROOM" to tell us what's coming up at the top of the hour -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, guys. Thank you.

Congressman John Murtha, Pennsylvania's anti-war Democrat, he's standing by live. We'll ask him why he's supporting Hillary Clinton if Obama is the anti-war candidate. Should Michigan and Florida re-vote? The Clinton camp is for it, the Obama team says it's playing by the rules. We're going to have a debate with Clinton supporter James Carville and Obama supporter Tom Daschle. They'll be here live.

And if the dollar is weak right now and the euro is strong, why aren't Europeans flocking here for their vacations? Zain Verjee has the surprising answer.

All that, guys, coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

LEMON: Can't wait to see that, Wolf. Thanks.

KEILAR: The closing bell and a wrap of the action on Wall Street -- that's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Ms. Stephanie Elam standing by with a final look at the trading day.

Hello, Steph.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Brianna and Don.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: Thanks, Steph.

KEILAR: Thank you.

Let's head to "THE SITUATION ROOM" now and Wolf Blitzer. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxantshop.com