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American Morning
John McCain Rejects Pastor Hagee's Endorsement; McCain's Medical Records to be Released Today; Deadly Tornado Hits Colorado; Drugs Purchased Online Poses a Major Concern; Senator Joe Biden Blasts McCain on Foreign Policy
Aired May 23, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE, TELEVANGELIST: Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I just think that the statement is crazy and unacceptable and certainly Reverend Hagee, Pastor Hagee is entitled to his views. But we've reached the point where that kind of statement simply I would -- I would reject the endorsement and the expression of those kinds of views.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: John McCain also rejected the endorsement of Ohio Pastor Rod Parsley after Parsley's controversial comments about Islam sparked criticism from the Arab world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PASTOR ROD PARSLEY, TELEVANGELIST: Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Parsley later said that his comments were directed at militant Islamic leaders.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And John McCain will release his medical records in just a few hours to a select group of journalists, including our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay joins us now from Fountain Hills, Arizona, just outside Phoenix.
Sanjay, I know you have a lot of paperwork to go through. How long has it been since Senator McCain's last medical records were actually released?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was in 1999, right before the 2000 presidential election. That's the last time he released it. And in a few hours, he's going to give a handful of journalists just three hours to look through hundreds of pages of records. It's kind of like medical school and residency all wrapped up into one again, Kyra.
One of the big things that's happened since the last release of his medical records is his diagnosis of melanoma. That's something that a lot of people have paid attention to.
They have seen the scars on the left side of his face. They're pretty extensive. The question has been what exactly do those scars mean? We took a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: This is a picture of Senator McCain right after his melanoma surgery. What does this picture say to you?
DR. KEITH DELMAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: It looks to me as if he had surgery on the left side of his temple for this what we know is his melanoma.
GUPTA: Show me on my face.
DELMAN: What happens is they take off the melanoma which is not only the melanoma but an area of normal issue tissue around it. So it can be a fairly sizable defect that they take off there. And then to take out the area in the face and the lymph nodes there, they took out part of his parotid gland which sits right in front of the ear, which is an incision right just along the ear similar to an incision you have for a facelift, but not quite as pretty.
GUPTA: As a surgical oncologist, that strikes you as saying what?
DELMAN: It's a little bit aggressive.
GUPTA (voice-over): It didn't all fit. Make no mistake. Melanoma is malignant cancer. But why were the doctors aggressive with McCain's operation? Was the cancer more extensive than we've been told? Or was it just an abundance of caution?
DELMAN: You have to speculate that perhaps they were very aggressive because he is Senator McCain.
GUPTA (on camera): When doctors operated on Senator McCain, they had a question to answer. If the cancer were to spread, where would it go?
So they injected radioactive dye around his left temple, around the melanoma and they watched it. The patient behind me has just had that same procedure done. They injected some dye around her left eyelid and they watched it spread down here. Question answered.
In Senator McCain's case, it spread to the lymph nodes in his neck. GUPTA (voice-over): So they tested that first lymph node the dye reached. It's appropriately called the sentinel node, and they found no cancer. That was key. Very good news for Senator McCain.
But again, here is where surgeons typically stop. In McCain's case, they kept cutting and removing and we don't know why.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Sanjay --
GUPTA: What we do know, Kyra, is that when -- go ahead, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: No, no, no, go ahead.
GUPTA: What I was going to say is what we do know is that, you know, when it comes to melanoma, size does matter. And what we've been told is that 2.2 millimeters was the depth of his cancer.
That's relevant because typically you say the 10-year survival rate is around 66 percent in that case. That was eight years ago, Kyra, so he's done fairly well at least according to what we've been told.
PHILLIPS: Well, how many pages of documents do you think you're going to go through? And do you think you'll come across something else from what you've heard thus far?
GUPTA: I don't know. I think it's going to be hundreds of pages of documents. He's a 71-year-old guy. He sees his doctors a lot. Again, we've been told so. There's going to be a lot to go through certainly.
The way I'm sort of approaching it is I've made a checklist of things that I think are important. Certainly his melanoma history is something I want to look for, but also his heart history, any previous cancer screenings, diabetes, anything that sort of jumps out at me.
We know he's had minor prostate surgery in the past. I also know that he takes a baby aspirin and Vytorin. So these are things more related to his heart.
I'm going to look for any tests along that area as well. So I have the checklist in my mind. It's going to be a lot to go through, but I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to get through it and have something to report to you.
PHILLIPS: We look forward to it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: And you can catch Sanjay's special this weekend on the health of the commander in chief. "First Patient," Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN -- John.
ROBERTS: It's just about to turn five minutes after the hour.
The hottest ticket in Arizona this weekend is John McCain's Memorial Day barbecue. He says that he is just having a few friends over for some grilling, but many people think that he's interviewing potential running mates. On the list this weekend, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and former Massachusetts governor and one-time rival, Mitt Romney.
There's also word this morning that Barack Obama is looking at potential running mates. Our Jessica Yellin reports that he is looking for people with strong national security experience like former Senator Sam Nunn, Retired General Wesley Clark, or Senator Joe Biden. We'll have a chance to ask Senator Biden about all that when he joins us in about 20 minutes' time -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And this morning, new questions about the future of some of the children removed from the polygamist ranch in west Texas. Their parents scored a major victory when state appeals court ruled Texas officials had no right to take their children.
In a unanimous ruling, the court found that no evidence was there that the children would be subjected to sexual or physical abuse, no evidence that they were in urgent danger, and no evidence that required their immediate removal from the compound. Last night the church's spokesman spoke exclusively to Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you fear or feel there will be an appeal?
WILLIE JESSOP, YFZ RANCH SPOKESMAN: You know, Larry, I have a great belief that there is enough people, and I have met them, that can recognize a wrong when they see it, and they'll look at it as what it was. It was bad information, and we're hoping that they're not too proud to admit it. And we convince them to end this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And the state still has legal options and could appeal to the Supreme Court.
ROBERTS: Senator Joe Biden blasting John McCain over foreign policy in an op-ed piece today. He's going after him for "saber rattling." Joe Biden joins us, coming up in about 20 minutes' time.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Sean Callebs in Windsor, Colorado, just the latest community to be hit by a killer storm this spring. Coming up, we'll tell you the very latest, and an amazing story of survival. We'll have that story.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, John.
And more Americans logging on to get their meds, and that has doctors worried. Our Drew Griffin investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Can I ask you, did you ever see this patient?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A state of emergency in Colorado this morning hours after a deadly tornado. At least one person was killed, more than a dozen injured. Several homes and businesses destroyed. Some cars even swept right off the road.
Our Sean Callebs joins us now from Windsor, the hardest hit area. Sean, what's the situation like this morning?
CALLEBS: Well, we're driving in here. It is widespread destruction. Very large, flat expanse. And this twister, unlike so many others, it simply carved a path of destruction. This we kind of bounced and skipped along.
And a really amazing story, Kyra. Not terribly far from where we are, about 200 yards, a daycare with 140 children inside. Now the kids and the staff rode out the tornado inside. However, afterward they smelled gas, so the staff had to get all the children, including infants in cribs, all their records, move them to a brick bank about 50 yards away. So they stayed there for some time until authorities were able to come in.
I want to show you just an example of how powerful this wind was. Look at this trucking facility behind me. You can see it picked up the back of these big rigs, tossed them around as if they were toys. That white sedan simply crumpled down in that area.
We know that at least one person died in this storm. The authorities have been out all night. We went to the command center before coming over here this morning. They're very bleary eyed. They're going to be going back out again when daybreak comes out very quickly to these areas to check, to continue rechecking.
So that's the very latest from Windsor. Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Sean Callebs, appreciate it.
ROBERTS: Rob Marciano is here in New York with us today. He's tracking all of the extreme weather and there's lots of it across the country. What do you got for us, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, just a staggering statistic for you. This is the 27th deadly tornado this year. We've had over a 100 fatalities. We average usually 60 or so for an entire year. We're not even halfway through, so it's been an extraordinary year.
This setup has been extraordinary for storm chasers. I'm sure they were crowding the country roads to get a look at some of these storms. They're all concentrated in two areas, Kansas and Colorado.
Check out some of this video from some storm chasers that were in Hoxie, Kansas, yesterday around 6:00 when this twister came through. I mean, they were chasing this thing, and then all of a sudden it is just winding itself up and scoots right past their car. Look at that. Look at that thing rolling right past them.
Can you imagine the adrenaline rush, the fear going through them? I'm sure it's a little bit of both right there. But a number of tornadoes touching down in Kansas and this one appeared to have a couple kind of rotating around. Some of the larger ones will have satellite borders that kind of spin around the main vortex, but that one came dangerously close.
And, by the way, they call themselves the outlaw chasers and if we let that roll you'd get a picture of them, too.
All right. Here is what's happening as far as Kansas is concerned. This morning we don't have a tornado threat. Later on today we will. This morning it's mostly just thunderstorms that contain some large hail and maybe some damaging wind mostly along I-70 and through Haze (ph) and through Wichita. Some storms just about to exit your area.
Northern parts of Kansas will be under the gun today, and there have been a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings out with this. But the main threat this afternoon again will be in western Kansas, western parts of Nebraska, even extreme parts of northeastern Colorado.
Tornadoes, some of which will be large, they'll be wide, they'll be long lived, long tracked. They track 30 to 40 miles like the one we saw yesterday in Colorado, so that certainly can do some damage. We just have to hope that they kind of miss the areas where people live, and that's the game we play with this type of scenario.
But right now, guys, the atmosphere is jacked up or juiced for another active day this afternoon. Toss it back to you.
ROBERTS: All right.
PHILLIPS: We'll track it all.
ROBERTS: Rob will be keeping us updated on that all day long.
Well, we all know the frustration of delayed flights but what about planes taking off in the wrong direction? What is up with that? A problem in air-traffic control that's raising alarm bells. Find out what went wrong at Newark Airport.
PHILLIPS: Barack Obama is going after Cuban voters. They're traditionally Republicans because of the strong anti-Castro stand, but this could be the election that makes them change their minds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In reality all they give to Cuban Americans is lip service, and I think Cuban-Americans of my generation, even Americans of previous generations are tired of the lip service.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So what's Obama doing to woo the voters? We'll tell you, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes after the hour. Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning."
Many Americans are getting prescription drugs online these days. It's easy, it's fast, but it could be in some cases a deadly mistake. Drew Griffin with CNN Special Investigations Unit is looking at the issue tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." He joins us now from Washington with a preview of his report.
Drew, doctors are very concerned about this new trend of people going shopping on the Internet for these drugs.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, you're about to see why. This story actually came to us when a CNN producer's sister tried to kill herself. The prescription drug she used, she bought right over the Internet and it is mind-bogglingly easy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Nancy Fitzpatrick wanted to kill herself. She was facing eviction and had no money.
NANCY FITZPATRICK, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE: I wanted to end it. I wanted to die. And so, I took about 50 Somas. I took 80 amitriptyline and that's all I remember.
GRIFFIN: She had been living a secret life away from her family, but she lived and lived to tell the story to her brother, David, a CNN investigative producer. It's a story about just how easy it is to buy dangerous drugs purchased online.
FITZPATRICK: I just typed in Soma and all these Web sites popped up. And I just picked one.
GRIFFIN: Did you ever speak with a doctor?
FITZPATRICK: No, no.
GRIFFIN: Then how did this woman in Ocean City, Washington, get this bottle of the prescription muscle relaxant Soma, prescribed by this doctor, Kareem Tannous, in Long Island, New York?
GRIFFIN (on camera): Can I ask you, did you ever see this patient, Nancy Fitzpatrick? Can you let me know about these prescriptions drugs were filled, sir? GRIFFIN (voice-over): That's what this story is all about, because prescription drugs are the new crack and heroin, and Internet sites that sell them, according to the National Pharmacy Board, are the new drug dealers.
CARMEN CATIZONE, NATIONAL ASSN OF PHARMACY BOARDS: You can order virtually any drug in the world by simply clicking the mouse and going to the various Web sites that exist out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: John, I sat down and tried this. I was stunned. Here is the Prozac that arrived at my door in less than 24 hours. This is another drug, Elavil, another antidepressant. No doctors, no health exam, nothing.
Tonight we're going to confront the pharmacies, the doctors involved, and we're going to show you how once you do buy these drugs, the companies actually make it easy for you to become addicted to them. That's going to be tonight at 10:00, John.
ROBERTS: Great report. Looking forward to it, Drew. And as Drew said, you can catch that report tonight. "ANDERSON COOPER 360." It's tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Pacific, right here on CNN -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Flight delays bad enough, but listen to this. Planes taking off in the wrong direction. Well, the air-traffic controllers union says that several planes leaving Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey have recently been sent the wrong way. Says it happened three times to Continental jets just last weekend, and it's blaming inexperienced controllers and confused pilots who haven't adjusted to new takeoff patterns. There was no comment from Continental or the FAA.
Planes that are not moving and costing billions of dollars is wasted jet fuel. That's according to a congressional report. It says the airlines are in line to spend $2 billion this year alone on jet fuel during delays or runway congestion.
That report says that commercial aircraft burn an estimated 740 million gallons of jet fuel because of record flight delays in 2007 when oil prices were a heck of a lot cheaper. I've been on the runway where they've actually turned off the engines.
ROBERTS: Well, when they make you sit there at LaGuardia for an hour and a half because they have shut down westbound takeoffs, yes, they do shut down the engines.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Not that you're talking about this personally.
PHILLIPS: Have you experienced it a lot lately?
ROBERTS: Whether you're number 22 for takeoff at LaGuardia or you're trying to fly out of Hartsfield in Atlanta or O'Hare in Chicago, there's so much fuel being burned.
Stephanie Elam here for Ali Velshi this morning with more on that and the overall economic effect.
ELAM: Yes, it's a huge thing and I think anyone can testify to this being the case. Now, this congressional committee that Kyra was just telling you about, they say domestic flight delays are costing the airlines as well as passengers $40.7 billion, and that's just for 2007.
They said that -- the report says that airlines spent $19 billion on extra staffing, fuel, maintenance, and nearly $2 billion of that was just the fuel that you said if the planes idling or circling overhead, something I'm sure we've all done too.
Another $10 billion that's spillover costs. That's for things that are affected by this industry. So think about that. That affects restaurants, that affects hotels, public transportation, all feeding into this number. And the other thing here, more than 20 percent of the time that plane spent in the air last year was wasted on delays.
So that really gives you an idea how much it is affecting, 94 percent of the delayed flights caused by other flights arriving late. And so, therefore, you take off late. We've all seen that effect as well.
So some people are saying what really needs to happen here, we need to have air-traffic control. The system being redone, revamped, and upgraded so that flights can actually leave on time. Another suggestion, opening up military air space and having that open to commercial flights on the eastern seaboards for all those busy, congested cities that Kyra and John know so much about -- New York, D.C., and Atlanta. So that's a big deal.
ROBERTS: Maybe with the cost in the airlines so much money, there will be increased pressure now to try to reduce those delays.
ELAM: Hopefully because air traffic is not going to go down. About 1.1 billion passengers from the U.S. expected in 2025.
PHILLIPS: Unless those air-traffic controllers work long hours. I've been up there before and you watch them pull these double shifts. It's pretty crazy.
ELAM: Yes, it's all very crazy, especially when you're just sitting there with nothing to do.
ROBERTS: Steph (ph), thanks.
ELAM: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Democratic Senator Joe Biden taking aim at President Bush and John McCain in a scathing op-ed piece this morning. We're going to hear what's got the senator so worked up when he joins us right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain lashes out at a controversial pastor rejecting his endorsement. The explosive comments that got McCain all riled up, coming up in 10 minutes' time.
But first, hitting back at the Republicans. Senator Joseph Biden wrote a scathing op-ed in today's "Wall Street Journal" criticizing President Bush and Senator John McCain and Senator Joe Lieberman. He says, "The Bush-McCain saber rattling is the most self-defeating policy imaginable. It achieves nothing."
Senator Biden joins us now from Wilmington, Delaware. Senator Biden, good to see you. This op-ed was in response to one that Joe Lieberman wrote on Wednesday in the "Wall Street Journal," which he was highly critical of Senator Obama. You're pretty hot under the collar about all this.
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Well, you know, John, I am -- this has been the single most ineffectual, incompetent administration in the conduct of foreign policy in modern history. And the idea that they're asserting that the Democrats would be weak on foreign policy I find preposterous.
And we, Democrats, traditionally don't fight back. We sort of say we're going to talk about domestic issues. This should be a central issue where we point out the absolute paucity of any policy that's made us not stronger, it's made us weaker. It's not -- this is not -- freedom is not on the march in the Middle East. Iran is on the march under these guys' watch.
ROBERTS: Let me read a little bit about what Senator Lieberman wrote in the "Wall Street Journal" on Wednesday, talking about this idea of meeting with the leaders of Iran, Syria, and other nations. He said, "Mr. Obama has said that in proposing this he is following in the footsteps of Reagan and JFK. But Kennedy never met with Castro and Reagan never met with Khomeini. And can anyone imagine Presidents Kennedy or Reagan sitting down unconditionally with Ahmadinejad or Chavez? I certainly cannot?"
Does he have a point?
BIDEN: No, he doesn't have a point. Kennedy sat down unconditionally, as did Reagan, as did Nixon. Nixon sat down with Mao, while Mao was supplying the North Vietnamese weapons and material killing Americans. Nixon sat down -- I mean, excuse me, Reagan sat down with Gorbachev while they were still building additional nuclear weapons.
This president of the United States sent his highest level people to Libya, including asking me to go with the administration, to make a deal with Gaddafi (ph), a known terrorist. This president has written letters to Kim Jong-Il who makes Ahmadinejad look like he's a pansy, in fact, and he -- what's happened? He writes dear Mr. Chairman. He's working this out.
So I just think this is a straw man. Can you -- my question is, can you imagine JFK, Franklin Roosevelt, or Harry Truman getting this into the mess we're in in Iraq?
ROBERTS: Senator, we just got this statement in. It was just handed to me from the McCain campaign. They claim that "you're missing the point" about the unconditional summit saying that the actual issue is whether the office of the president of the United States should lend its prestige and legitimacy to a dictator like Ahmadinejad saying, "When a tyrant or dictator is afforded the promotion of an equal footing, unconditional summit with the president of the United States, those bad actors are emboldened and it threatens the security of the United States and our allies."
What do you say?
BIDEN: The fact of the matter is Barack Obama did not say he'd sit down with Ahmadinejad. He said he'd sit down with the Iranian leadership.
The lack of sophistication on the part of the Republicans and not realizing that Ahmadinejad does not control the security apparatus in Iran. It is the theocracy. It is Khamenei (ph). It is not Ahmadinejad.
So the whole notion here is they didn't even know what we're talking about, number one. And number two, how does it square? What would you have called Gorbachev or Breshnev? Where they not dictators and authoritarians?
What was Mao? What was Mao? Was he somehow some shrinking violet who was on the verge of Democratic instincts?
ROBERTS: You know there's another issue.
BIDEN: They ought to read history.
ROBERTS: There's another issue that bubbled up yesterday, Senator Biden, over this GI bill.
BIDEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: John McCain doesn't support the GI bill that Senators Webb and Hagel are promoting. He supports another version of it. Senators Hagel and Webb would like to give a full ride, college scholarship to members of the military active duty who have served for four years.
Senator Obama supports that bill.
BIDEN: So do I.
ROBERTS: He was critical of Senator McCain for not supporting it. And here is what Senator McCain said in response to that. "I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans. And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did."
What do you think of that statement?
BIDEN: When we're in undergraduate school we took courses in logic and that's called an ad hominem attack. It does not respond to whether or not the bill is good. It takes on a cheap shot about whether or not Obama, who is 40 years younger or 30 years younger than John, whether he served in the military.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: Is that a win down into a possible line of Republican attack this fall though? Do you think that they will question his lack of military --
BIDEN: I expect so. It's classically Republican. I'm surprised it's coming from John, but it's classically - not just Republican, it's the classic political counter attack when you have nothing to say, go at the person as opposed to the argument. The fact of the matter is we have not treated our veterans well, period. They're coming home without the proper treatment. We're closing down veterans hospitals and we need to increase the number of psychiatric nurses. We have more people coming back with traumatic brain injury. The list goes on and on and on. We're not taking care of them.
ROBERTS: Our Suzanne Malveaux is hearing this morning that in terms of who he might pick as a running mate, Senator Obama could be looking for somebody with strong national security credentials, somebody like former Georgia Senator Sam Nun, somebody like former General Wesley Clark or someone like Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. If asked, would you take the job?
BIDEN: You know, anybody asked it would be hard to say no. I don't want the job. I made it clear I don't want the job. I want to be chairman of the foreign relations committee. I think I can help promote what I feel strongly. But the reason I ran for president in the first place are these issues and I think I'm much better suited where I am.
ROBERTS: All right. Senator Joe Biden. It's always great to have you on. Thanks for joining us this morning.
BIDEN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: And great memorial day weekend to you by the way.
BIDEN: Thank you. You too. I hope you get a chance.
ROBERTS: Going on the rolling thunder run this weekend in Washington on my motorcycle.
BIDEN: All right. Wear your helmet.
ROBERTS: Thanks, sir. Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, perfect segue with that question about the VP slot. We're actually getting information and right now, our Suzanne Malveaux working her sources. We've been talking about this possible exit strategy for Hillary Clinton. Well, apparently the Clinton and Obama campaigns are talking about what to do about the vice president slot on the ticket right now. Suzanne Malveaux joining us on the phone out of D.C.. Suzanne, what are you finding out?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, sources inside of Hillary Clinton's inner circle are pushing for a compromise. They have reached out to the Obama campaign and really it's all about saving face a graceful exit strategy. They say it's very difficult. What they've done is they have reached out and they presented Obama insiders with three possible scenarios. They say that Obama can ignore Clinton and her supporters and make this vice-presidential offer to someone else, which several people say would be a total dismissal of her. It is considered unacceptable. One person told me that this could mean open civil war within the party, and so they believe that this is scenario number one is going to have consequences. They say it doesn't mean that Clinton would not campaign for Obama, that she would, but she would do so like her husband did campaigning for Gore, quite aloof. They also say that perhaps women's groups will be less willing to raise money for Obama.
The second scenario that they're looking at here is that Obama could publicly offer Clinton the VP spot knowing that she would reject it. Now, this isn't acceptable to the Obama camp. They are afraid that if Obama were to publicly make this offer to Clinton, that she would in fact accept it and the problem the Clinton insiders say is that these two just don't trust each other. So, that's been something that's been rejected by the Obama insiders.
Now, the third scenario is that both of these two could get in a room, try to talk it out, and emerge to agree to disagree here. Come up with whatever they find suitable and present it to the public. For example, Clinton could get her debt covered or Obama could pledge to support her in a run for the Senate majority leader position later on. These kind of things. But Clinton, whether or not she even wants the job, is something that insiders say, look, she's not thinking about. She's aware of these discussions, but she's still looking forward to all the contests. She's still looking forward to the number one spot.
PHILLIPS: And Suzanne, insiders are saying that behind the scenes her husband, the former president, Bill Clinton, is pushing her toward taking that VP slot if, indeed, she's offered it.
MALVEAUX: Well, that's certainly something that the two of them will have to work out. It's really uncertain whether or not she would - that the main point here is that an offer must be made. That is what the Clinton supporters, the insiders are pushing to the Obama camp is that there must be an offer that is made, a way that would really allow her to save face, that she could reject this offer but at the very least that is what needs to happen to bring the two sides together, to bring the party together, and to make peace because otherwise it's really going to be quite a bit of resentment on their side, and they feel like some sort of very meaningful gesture needs to happen in order for this kind of coming together process that they've been talking about over the last several weeks actually happening.
PHILLIPS: And it definitely could make a huge impact obviously on the party and if it, indeed, becomes more divided. Well, maybe I should head to Camp David and sign a peace treaty and then go forward in a positive direction.
MALVEAUX: It's going to take a lot here. I mean, just talking to folks, they really are quite divided over this, too. I mean, there's no consensus on what is the right way to do this, whether or not she should accept the position if she's offered or not accept, and but that's one of the fears in the Obama side is that if they make some sort of public offer, if there's agreement, an understanding that she's not going to accept it and she changes her mind, well, then they're stuck. Well, this is, you know - both sides have to kind of figure out a way here to get what they want, to get what they need, and to bring both sides together. These are the kinds of conversations that people are starting to have.
PHILLIPS: Key words, difficult and graceful. We'll follow what happens with this strategy. Our Suzanne Malveaux, breaking news for us this morning, working her sources on the campaign trail. Suzanne, great job. Thank you so much.
MALVEAUX: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: And Barack Obama spending his time in Florida looking for votes. First he met with Jewish voters. Now he's trying to appeal to Cubans. John Zarrella in Miami for us this morning with a look at what he needs to do to win over these voters. Hey, John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well, this afternoon during a luncheon speech Barack Obama is actually going to be going pretty much right into the lion's den. He is going to be speaking before the powerful Cuban-American National Foundation, for decades staunch supporters of Republican candidates. But times are changing, and that's one of the reasons Obama is here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GIANCARLO SOPO, CUBAN AMERICAN OBAMA SUPPORTER: ...if you limit outside influence -
ZARRELLA (voice-over): You are looking at a rare individual, Giancarlo Sopo is a Cuban-American who publicly supports a Democrat for president.
SOPO: My family is on board with Barack Obama.
ZARRELLA: For decades Cuban-American have been powerful allies of the Republican Party and its candidates. Staunchly backing a no- compromise standing against Cuba. Sopo represents a growing trend, young Cuban-Americans are weary of what they say are Republican promises not delivered.
SOPO: In reality all they give to Cuban Americans are lip service and I think Cuban Americans of my generation and Cuban Americans of previous generations are tired of the lip service.
ZARRELLA: Many in this community would like what Senator Obama is promising, loosening travel restrictions on visiting relatives in Cuba and making it easier to send money to their families. But where Obama loses Cuban American voters is by proclaiming his willingness to meet with Raul Castro. In Miami, something akin to heresy.
NINOSKA PEREZ CASTELLON, CONSERVATIVE EXILE RADIO SHOW HOST: I think the fact that Obama walks in and says we can sit down and talk to Raul Castro because it hasn't worked the other way, it's absurd.
ZARRELLA: Ninoska Perez Castellon hosts a Spanish language radio program. Perez says the vast majority of Cuban-Americans will vote for John McCain and against change.
CASTELLON: The fact that he's firm on Cuba, that he is not willing to lift those sanctions is going to help him in South Florida.
ZARRELLA: Historically at least 70 percent of Cuban Americans turn out to vote. Large turnout that has given this small immigrant community plenty of influence and plenty of important visitors. It's going to be very interesting to see what kind of reception Senator Obama gets. This, Kyra, is a very different audience than the ones he's used to facing. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: He better start working on his salsa and meringue there. John Zarrella, appreciate it. Good hearing from you. And if you're trying to dump your gas-guzzling SUV for a fuel efficient car, well you may have some sticker shock. Find out why dealers are giving you a lot less money for that big car. That's ahead right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: And Senator John McCain rejecting the endorsement of an evangelical pastor after his controversial comments. The fine line that McCain is walking with some Christians, next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 40 minutes after the hour. Senator John McCain rejects an endorsement from a controversial pastor who has been widely criticized for his anti-Catholic views. The rejection came after new recordings surfaced of Pastor John Hagee preaching about Hitler and Jewish people. Listen to some of that and some of what Hagee has said in the past here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Behold, I will send for many fishers and after will I send for many hunters, and they, the hunters shall hunt them, that would be the Jews. Then good sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. This is the great horror of Revelation 17. This is the anti-Christ system. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to god.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: McCain cited the statement about Hitler and Jews yesterday in rejecting Hagee's endorsement.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just think that the statement is crazy. I would reject the endorsement and the expression of those kinds of views.
ROBERTS: So what does all of this mean for Senator John McCain and Christian conservatives? David Brody is the senior national correspondent with the Christian Broadcasting Network. He joins us this morning from Washington. David, it's good to see you. John McCain desperately needed people like Hagee and Ron Parsley to shore him up in places like Texas, according to Christian conservative vote there but I guess he's found out that sometimes these endorsements from evangelicals can come back to bite him.
DAVID BRODY, SR. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CBN: Well, at times for sure. I mean, this was a getting process error. John, I mean, a quick Google search would have helped the McCain campaign. Clearly, John Hagee has been controversial in the evangelical circles for a while. And so, that's been out there. This goes to the larger issue, John, and what we may see come the fall which is this tap dance that John McCain needs to do with evangelicals. You know, he just really wants the evangelical support. He's not going to pander to get, it but he wants evangelical leaders out there. And so John Hagee seemed at the time to be a perfect fit because of his Israel connections and he's very pro-Israel. And that was the big reason why the McCain camp wanted him in the first place.
ROBERTS: Why do you think, David, it took so long for John McCain to repudiate Pastor Hagee - his comments of calling the Catholic Church the great whore are well known. It wasn't until he was down there in Florida courting Jewish voters that he said I don't think this is a good idea.
BRODY: Yes, I think there are a couple of things to that but the bottomline is John McCain has always been a guy that either takes you at your word or gives you the benefit of the doubt or something along those lines. That's been his track record since day one, and so I think his campaign felt they were willing to, you know, let this ride out a little bit, but clearly the Democratic National Committee was not going to let this go. If you notice that the press releases and the fuel behind this fire on Hagee was really coming from the Democratic National Committee. It was not coming from the Obama campaign. They know that there's no reason to bring up Hagee because if they bring up Hagee, here comes Jeremiah Wright again and that's a losing argument for the Obama campaign.
ROBERTS: Right. And McCain was quick to distance himself from Hagee and Parsley. And also to say, look, I'm not a member of their churches. I haven't gone to their church for 20 years. Is he trying to draw a contrast there between himself and Obama with the Reverend Wright issue?
BRODY: Well, I don't think there's any question about that, and I don't expect at all that the McCain camp or the Republican National Committee will let the Jeremiah Wright controversy die at all just because of the John Hagee problems, so to speak. I mean, they will keep that up because they believe they have a winning argument to say this is a judgment issue, that John Hagee may have been a problem for McCain, but McCain dumped him relatively quickly compared to Barack Obama who stayed with his pastor for 20 years in that church for a long, long time.
ROBERTS: I guess we'll see how this affects him with Christian conservatives in the coming days as well. David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, out of Washington. Thanks for joining us this morning.
BRODY: Thanks, John.
PHILLIPS: Rob is watching extreme weather this morning. Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kyra. You have been talking so much about the tornadoes that have touched down, and crazy weather. The fire that broke out south of San Jose near Gilroy yesterday still burning. Winds not quite as bad today, but certainly some dramatic video. 3,000 acres burned with this summit fire. 12 structures destroyed. 500 homes threatened. Mandatory evacuations now in effect for Santa Clara county. And obviously firefighters just doing what they can with this nasty situation there.
So we've got fires there in parts of northern California. Actually, a couple tornadoes touched down in southern California, if you can believe that. Call them land spouts. Usually weak tornadoes, but these actually did some damage. Well zoom into this as happened near March Air Force Base, just south of Riverside where this was reported yesterday afternoon. Show you a cool shot of a picture that was taken right on the runway there. Check this out. First off the damage, they typically don't do a lot of damage but there were actually some rail cars that flipped over. Various neat shot of this tornado touching down. These sometimes spin up from the ground but you can actually see two vortices there. That's - tornadoes touch down in California. We have 46 in total across mostly Kansas and the most damaging were in Colorado.
Today I think we're going to see a similar action across western parts of Kansas and western parts of Nebraska. That's where we have the moderate risk once again for seeing severe thunderstorms later on today that could produce large, long track tornadoes, maybe 30, 35 miles long like we saw in parts of Colorado. That's in effect for today. Similar spot for tomorrow and then eventually everything shifts off to the east as we head towards Sunday.
Crazy stuff happening just about everywhere in the country except for the northeast so enjoy.
ROBERTS: All right. Rob, thank you.
MARCIANO: You got it. PHILLIPS: Well, many drivers are now trying to ditch their SUV to get more fuel efficient cars but the gas guzzlers aren't easy to get rid of. We'll have that story next on AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: And Barack Obama goes to temple to tell Jewish voters that the rumors about him are not true. Find out why he's still being forced to battle lies on the Internet. Coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: With gasoline prices climbing higher by the day, many SUV drivers are looking for more fuel efficient wheels these day.
PHILLIPS: By getting rid of those big gas guzzlers, it isn't easy. CNN's Chris Lawrence has the story.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): John, Kyra, people are fed up. They are tired of paying 80 bucks to fill up their tank. But getting out of an SUV and into a smaller car, easier said than done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): It's been weeks since David Lavi put his truck on the market.
DAVID LAVI, TRYING TO SELL TRUCK: Nobody has offered on it.
LAWRENCE: He wants out so he can buy a small car, but gas prices have sent SUV and truck sales plummeting.
LAVI: I get a lot of calls, people are looking for a better price.
LAWRENCE: So what's flying off the lot now?
JORGE FERNANDEZ, WHOLESALE AUTO DEALER: Chevy Impalas, Malibus, Fords, you know, cars that weren't that popular before.
LAWRENCE: Call it "Revenge of the Nerds," but when comparing new to used, remember this. Last year the government adopted a new mileage formula to correct the exaggerated claims made when those old economy cars were first sold. Still, that hasn't stopped the run on four cylinder cars. What do people say when they bring in SUVs like this Excursion and say, hey, this is what my truck is worth?
FERNANDEZ: Yes, when they find out what you think their truck is worth, they think you're trying to rip them off for something. Some '07s were worth 50, $60,000 just three, four months ago and they're in the high 30s now. It's just - it's amazing.
LAWRENCE: Some owners now owe $20,000 on a truck that's only worth 12. They're as upside down as a bad mortgage and think buying a small car will save them.
JACK NERAD, KELLY BLUE 900K EDITOR: What they might be doing is spending thousands of dollars to save hundreds.
LAWRENCE: Kelly Blue book editor Jack Nerad says if the numbers are working against you don't sell your big truck.
NERAD: Because if you make a trade you're most often going to spend more to make that move than you would just sucking it up and paying the extra gasoline prices.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Some officials at Kelly Blue book say we've really reached a tipping point. In the days of SUVs and trucks dominating the market, that's done. John, Kyra.
ROBERTS: You can imagine - thanks, Chris, that a lot of people are going to take a hit when they try to trade in those vehicles because a lot of people will be going for the smaller cars. The question is how much of a hit are they going to take?
PHILLIPS: And the smaller cars, especially the hybrid, the fuel efficient type cars can't keep up with the production.
ROBERTS: And the price of those is going up as well. For a little while as we make this transition, it's going to be a bit of a vicious circle.
It is the new face of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unmanned drones fighting from the sky is controlled by pilots all the way back home in the States. An exclusive look at what they're doing come up in the next hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where in the world did that come back?
ROBERTS (voice-over): Super cell.
A spring of deadly and destructive tornadoes that tear our west and on the move this morning.
Plus, serious sit down? Israel's surprise decision. As a war over diplomacy rages here at home.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're counting on fear because they know they haven't told the truth.
ROBERTS: Christiane Amanpour on that and McCain's pastor problem, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, Barack Obama went to temple yesterday. That's right. He did it to talk to Jewish voters in Florida. He tried to dispel rumors about his support for Hamas. Joining me now to talk about how Obama can appeal to Jewish voters, Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. He's author of "Is there a right to remain silent?" We should also mention that he is a supporter of Hillary Clinton. Great to see you.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR: Good to see you, thank you.
PHILLIPS: Let's get down to - from what I understand, you are receiving hundreds of e-mails from the Jewish community. Why? What are they asking you? And why are you being overwhelmed by it?
DERSHOWITZ: Well, they don't know Barack Obama and they worry. And they know that I know him, I supported him for the United States Senate and that I'm a strong supporter of Israel and a strong American foreign policy and they really want some advice. Is he a safe candidate to vote for? And they're very - many of them are very, very concerned.
PHILLIPS: Well, what are they concerned about?
DERSHOWITZ: They're concerned about is associations. They certainly don't like his association with his Reverend, with -- indirectly with Farrakhan. The fact that he participated in the million man march. They don't like his association with some extremists from Chicago or some extremists on the anti-Israel side.
On the other hand, they seem to like him as a person, and they realize he's intelligent and that he's very likely to get the nomination and most of them are Democrats, and they want to be able to vote for him. They just want some assurances from people who they know are strongly supportive of Israel that it's OK to vote for him.
PHILLIPS: Well, when you talk about these various associations, I mean, there are a lot of misconceptions out there as well.
DERSHOWITZ: That's right.
PHILLIPS: Are you finding -- Well, are you finding those as you weed through these e-mails? What is it that they think they believe but it's not true?
DERSHOWITZ: Well, many, many such things, and I keep writing back to these people saying please reject this e-mail campaign. Do not vote against him because of his middle name. Do not vote against him because there's some theory out there that maybe he's a Muslim. That's all nonsense. I think that Barack Obama himself put it very, very well yesterday in Florida when he said if you disagree with my politics or my policies vote against me, but don't vote against me because of who I am. I think it's very important to distinguish these fake allegations that are personal attacks from legitimate concerns. Is he going to have a Carter-like foreign policy. Is he going to be soft on terrorism? He did make a statement about Iran which he's now taken back saying Iran is not a serious threat to America because it has such a small military budget. Al Qaeda has virtually no military budget and it was a tremendous threat to the United States. Iran is a tremendous threat to the United States, to world peace, to Israel, and yesterday he said that. He said he would do everything in his power to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. Americans of all types, Jews and anybody else who is concerned about Israel, concerned about American foreign policy, should look very hard at his policies and to try to influence his policies in ways that would make him a strong foreign policy person and not follow Carter policy but they shouldn't vote against him on the basis of misconceptions about who he is.
PHILLIPS: Well, and there was a lot of concern that I know that came out of the President's remarks at the Knesset when he was talking about --
DERSHOWITZ: I was there.
PHILLIPS: You were actually there. Well, let me ask - I didn't know that. So when you were there and you actually heard the president say, and it was directed towards Senator Barack Obama about Democrats appeasing terrorists and the comments about Hamas, what was your reaction?
DERSHOWITZ: My first reaction was I thought he was talking about Jimmy Carter and I said right on because Jimmy Carter was dead wrong in going to speak to Hamas and Hezbollah and then it occurred to a number of people, gee, maybe he is talking about Obama. I don't think it's a correct assessment. I think Obama will be tough in his negotiations, and Obama himself has rejected Jimmy Carter's kind of personal ego-driven attempts to make foreign policy for himself and for the United States. So these are issues that I think we have to continue to press. If he gets the nomination, Obama, as I expect he will, I'm a Democrat. I fully expect to support him, but the level of my support will depend completely on how he answers certain hard questions, and whether he persists in being tough toward terrorism and whether I'm comfortable that he is the right person for America and the right person for world peace. Just one issue on Israel, we want to vote on who the best candidate is for every issue that we believed in the woman's right to choose and gay rights and the economy and the was against terrorism. I think we all want to be comfortable. We, who are Democrats, want to be comfortable that Barack Obama fits that description. I'm hoping to sit down with him after he gets the nomination and make myself comfortable and then I can campaign enthusiastically for him within the Jewish community and other --
PHILLIPS: And I would like to talk to you after you have that sit-down. Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, always great to talk to you. Thanks Alan.
DERSHOWITZ: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Just crossing the top of the hour. Breaking news now in the race to decide the Democratic nomination. Our Suzanne Malveaux is reporting for us this hour that formal talks are under way that could - repeat could -- end Hillary Clinton's presidential run. And possibly give her the vice presidency in an Obama White House. Sources from Clinton's inner circle say that they are talking to the Obama campaign about ways for Senator Clinton to make a graceful exit.
One option would be the vice presidential job. The talks are still in the very preliminary stages and are being described as, "difficult." We'll get more from Suzanne Malveaux in about 20 minutes' time.
