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American Morning
Goals and Topics of the G-20 Summit; Protests Intensify Outside Bank of England
Aired April 01, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: But if you're just joining us this morning, we want to welcome you to the program. This is a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry along with T.J. Holmes on this Wednesday, April 1st, and we are covering wall to wall the G- 20 summit taking place in London.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, a special edition because we started at 5:00 this morning, and we did that because the president did have a press conference this morning with Gordon Brown. We've been keeping an eye on all of the live events happening in the G-20 summit and we will continue to do so.
And happening right now, a true test of whether the U.S. and Russia can work together through tough times. President Obama meeting right now with the Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev. They're expected to set a date for a summit to take place in Moscow this summer over reducing their nuclear arsenals.
Also, in two hours from now, the president expected to meet with Hu Jintao, the president of China (INAUDIBLE) that could potentially make or break our economic recovery. A country, of course, that holds so much of the U.S. debt and says it's kind of getting sick and tired of it and not really sure if we can pay those debts back.
Also, he once walked out of a "60 Minutes" interview. Now, French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatening to walk out again, this time of the G-20 summit if leaders don't get serious, he says, about regulating the financial institutions.
This morning, President Obama said we need tough new rules on the road for corporations.
Also, serious security concerns surrounding the G-20. The protest we've been keeping an eye on here that are starting to grow larger and larger as this thing continues on here. Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part, what they're calling, "Financial Fools Day." Police are ready to send thousands of riot officers onto the streets to protect President Obama and the other world leaders who are gathered there. They're facing and again this is a quote, "unprecedented demonstrations" from anarchists, environmentalists and also anti-war groups.
Well, never been this much pressure on this many world leaders to come up with an economic cure. They need to do it pretty fast.
This morning, the president kicked off his day with a closed door meeting with the British prime minister, Gordon Brown. They also held a joint news conference earlier this morning addressing some of your concerns and world concerns. The president saying we've always emerged stronger by standing together.
Take a quick listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I came here to put forward our ideas, but I also came here to listen, not to lecture. Having said that, we must not miss an opportunity to lead, to confront a crisis that knows no borders. We have a responsibility to coordinate our actions, and to focus on common ground, not on our occasional differences.
If we do, I believe we can make enormous progress and that's why in preparation for these meetings, I've reached out and consulted with many of the leaders who are here or will be arriving shortly.
History shows us that when nations fail to cooperate, when they turn away from one another, when they turn inward, the price for our people only grows. That's how the Great Depression deepened. That's a mistake that we cannot afford to repeat.
So in the days ahead, I believe we will move forward with a sense of common purpose. We have to do what's necessary to restore growth and to pursue the reforms that can stabilize our financial system well into the future. Our immediate task, however, is the critical work of confronting the economic crisis.
As I've said, we've passed through an era of profound irresponsibility. Now, we cannot afford half measures, and we cannot go back to the kind of risk-taking that leads to bubbles that inevitably bust.
So we have a choice. We can shape our future or let it then shape it for us. And if we want to succeed, we can't fall back on the stale debates and old divides that won't move us forward.
Every single nation who's here has a stake in the other. We won't solve all our problems in the next few days, but we can make real and unprecedented progress. We have an obligation to keep it, keep working at it, until the burden on ordinary people is lifted, until we've achieved the kind of steady growth that creates jobs and advances prosperity for people everywhere. That's the responsibility we bear. That must be the legacy of our cooperation.
Some are to blame but all are responsible. And I think that's the best way for us to approach the problem that we have right now. I do think that across borders there has been a tendency to believe that whatever the global capital markets were doing was ultimately beneficial.
I am a big believer in global capital markets and their potential to provide capital, to countries that might not otherwise be able to grow. The possibilities are increasing living standards in ways that we have not seen previously in world history. But what we have to understand is that that's going to require some sort of regulatory framework to make sure that it doesn't jump the rails, and that, I think, is something that we're going to be able to put together.
I think it is sometimes important to step back and just have some perspective about the differences between now and the Great Depression, when there were no social safety nets in place, when unemployment was 25 or 30 percent. And this is a difficult time, but it's not what happened to our grandparents' generation, and so, you know, I would ask people to be confident about their own futures.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: American President Barack Obama calm and measured, in contrast to what's been going on outside of these meetings -- thousands of protesters.
And these crowds have been growing just as we've been watching these pictures live on our air over the last hour or two. They planned a day of pranks and protests, dubbing it "Financial Fools Day" before this G-20 summit.
Police there warned of unprecedented mass protests by anti- capitalist groups, as well as environmental campaigners, anarchists, and they say they're prepared to deploy a large number of officers. Some of these protests taking place outside of the bank there, the Bank of England, expected to be the focus of the protest.
We are watching this. Six arrests so far. No major events or problems and we will, of course, let you know as the morning goes on.
Right now, our Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with the president in London and she joins us now.
Suzanne, you're breaking some news this morning about President Obama's meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. What have you found out?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I've been talking to senior administration officials. And these two leaders are basically going to come out of their meeting and they're going to announce the goal of having a U.S./Russian summit over the summer in Moscow, essentially to start negotiations, renegotiations about reducing nuclear arms.
This is all about strengthening the 2002 START treaty but this really is the very beginning. That is something that they're certainly hoping for. They're also going to be discussing the very controversial U.S. defense missile system plan in Eastern Europe.
President Obama has expressed some flexibility when it comes to moving forward on that plan. They'll also talk about the global economic crisis, as well as Afghanistan. All of these things, Kiran, really a part of what President Obama has said pressing the reset button with Russia. So that's what we expect from these two leaders within the hour -- Kiran. CHETRY: Suzanne, we'll be checking back in with you throughout the morning, thanks.
HOLMES: And reminding our viewers what you're looking at here. We're keeping an eye on these protests and demonstrations happening. You can see they're starting to grow, a good group of folks, good sized group of folks there, gathering in several locations around London today including the Bank of England, as we heard described as, consider that essentially our Federal Reserve in the U.S.
But they're gathering there, anti-capitalist, also anarchists, as they're described. Also, folks who are out there demonstrating for climate change that we see these oftentimes that surround these big meetings of world leaders and no different here at the G-20.
But again, the police there say this one is different because this is going to be something they have not seen before. Again, the word of the morning for them, they called them, "unprecedented."
A few arrests, as Kiran just mentioned a moment ago, associated with it so far. But protesters and demonstrators say they are not going to be violent in their protest. Police say this could get violent. And so we will continue to keep an eye on what we're seeing here.
It looks pretty peaceful there. They're playing the guitar. That seems like a pretty peaceful thing.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: So far so good with these demonstrations. But Christine Romans here to my right here, keep staying with us about this G-20 and the economy and the global economic crisis, so much of what is going to be talked about during these meetings. Some want more regulation. Others are resistant or hesitant to go that route.
But when you talk about a global regulatory system, we can't hardly get it together ourselves here just on our own in this country. How do you get everybody coordinated in such a way to regulate all of these financial institutions of the world?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're not talking about one global regulator. We're talking about every country because there's sovereignty issues here. Countries have their own national interests. It's everyone raising the bar and everyone having sort of a common set of agreements here.
In this country, we want to regulate hedge funds. We want to make sure that the banking system is well-capitalized that outside of the banking system these big non-bank financial firms that we know what they're doing. We know that the complex derivatives that are on their books, we know what the risks are of that.
And that there is what the treasury secretary has called, you know, a regulator of systemically important financial institutions. Those are these banks that are interconnected, non-banks actually interconnected all over the world that can bring down the world economy.
And you heard Gordon Brown talk about it. The president has talked about it. Tim Geithner, his treasury secretary, have talked about it.
More regulation is coming, but what the deal is here is that we've got to make sure that we have regulation for this new global interconnected system and that's what a lot of people want, a lot of people want. A lot of other countries really want better regulation.
CHETRY: Right now, we're going to bring in Frances Townsend. She was the Homeland Security adviser under President Bush, former President Bush, and now a CNN national security adviser.
We're looking at these pictures, Fran. We've seen the crowds grow actually just in the past hour or two. And at one point, protesters pushed against these police barricades that were set up outside of the Bank of England, shouting things like, "abolish money."
They've arrested six people so far, but how do they -- I mean, I know they planned for this, but as the crowds start to swell, what are the biggest challenges and how do you protect the public?
FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Kiran, what you saw when these crowds began to surge was the police, the Scotland Yard police officers linked arms, which is a common technique. They train for this. And they train for crowd surge.
The idea is they have three primary objectives in any major protest. One, protect the dignitaries, the safety of the dignitaries. Two, keep transportation routes open so the dignitaries can get their business done. And third, what you're seeing now is, allow peaceful protests, and do everything you can to prevent them from turning violent.
They're right to worry about that. Remember when Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted the G-8, you had the terrorist attacks on the train bombing in London, which was very disruptive. So what they're looking for is, in these crowds of peaceful protesters, is there someone -- are those in those crowds that would take, look to take advantage to disrupt it, a terrorist attack and that sort of thing?
So I think the London police are right to worry about this but they've got thousands of police officers to try and control the surging crowds and this will be their challenge today, to allow the leaders to be safe, conduct their business, but to permit peaceful protests that don't turn violent.
CHETRY: All right. Fran, thanks so much for that.
We are going to continue to follow all of this for you. We're going to take a quick break.
It's 11 minutes after the hour. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Christine Romans, what is the song?
ROMANS: "London Calling."
HOLMES: "London Calling." All right. London is calling right about now.
Thousands of people are calling and they're hoping somebody is going to pick up the phone and listen. These are demonstrators, protesters you're looking at, at the G-20. They are all over the place, really sprawled out, expected to be sprawled out in different places around London today.
We see this typical of many of this great, this group of 20 summits, these G-8 summits we've been seeing. But they do have some world leaders get together but they have so many different issues they're out there demonstrating for now.
What you're seeing, a little pushing and shoving. You see police out there actually supposed to be mobilized in great force that we're told about. Ten thousand police will be working this week out there on the streets. Not expecting, at least from the demonstrators' side, they say this is going to be very peaceful in the demonstrations. Police, however, have come out and said that these things could get violent and they will be ready for it.
Just a little pushing and shoving we've seen so far this morning, but a lot of people out there protesting, anti-capitalists out there and again as we said, anarchists and also people out there making demonstrations for climate change and things like that. But again, you see some things like that. Again, we've seen nothing at all like certainly deemed violent.
A few arrests have been made this morning. Just small numbers of six, I believe was the number we've heard so far. But no injuries or anything to report but this thing has started to grow throughout the day. But the Bank of England certainly one place that's going to be getting the brunt of a lot of the protests there today.
We'll continue to follow this live picture. But while we are following, why they're there is because of the G-20 sum (INAUDIBLE) see what his t-shirt might say this morning.
ROMANS: They want to abolish money.
HOLMES: Well, we should probably not let his shirts -- I didn't know that was there, folks, my apologies. Maybe I won't read the shirts next time, but we will continue to follow the protest there live. But the G-20 summit taking place right now.
The president, his first overseas trip as president. This morning we did start our special edition here of AMERICAN MORNING at 5:00 a.m., to listen to the president and his press conference there with Gordon Brown.
This is just a little flavor of what he had to say in his press conference a little while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We've passed through an era of profound irresponsibility. Now, we cannot afford half measures and we cannot go back to the kind of risk-taking that leads to bubbles that inevitably bust. So we have a choice. We can shape our future or let it then shape it for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. Live picture again of the protest. Our own Becky Anderson is right there in the middle of this protest right now.
Becky, tell us what's going on? What's it like?
Hey, Becky, can you hear me?
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes. I mean, vaguely.
CHETRY: Go ahead.
ANDERSON: Hello?
CHETRY: All right. We're going to come back to her. She's right in the middle of these protests actually. She can barely hear us. I'm sure the noise is very loud there. Apparently, there's some interpretive dance taking place as well.
Hey, I mean, you know, some of this is peaceful. A lot of it is peaceful, actually. They've made six arrests according to police right now, and a large area where a lot of these protesters are still lined up is outside of the Bank of England, and, in fact, they boarded up many windows of these banks.
Bankers saying that they didn't go to work in their pinstripes suits. They wore jeans, trying to blend in with the crowd, not draw attention to themselves.
Our Becky Anderson is right in the thick of it. We're going to try her again to see if she can hear us.
I imagine it's quite loud. Becky, if you can hear me, go ahead, tell us what it's like.
ANDERSON: I've just actually walked out of the protests. There are, I'd say thousands of people gathered outside the Bank of England. There's lots of big signs, (INAUDIBLE) "down with the banks."
It's all fairly good natured at the moment. It's a fairly nice day in London. There's a horsemen of what's called the horsemen of the apocalypse, which is a made-up horse which nags (ph) the protesters down from four tube stations and they converged here at the Bank of England.
There are helicopters, though, hovering above. It's extremely noisy but as I say, fairly good natured at the moment. But they have all just converged and there are more people on their way. So it seems that things may just heat up a little bit as the day goes on. It's noon or just after here in London now, so we'll stick around and fill you guys in if and when things happen.
CHETRY: Becky, thanks so much. We can hear some of the chanting now. And you mentioned the protesters being led by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, as they call it. They claim it's representing war, climate, chaos, financial crimes and homelessness. And again, a lot of extra security and hundreds of police lining the streets.
We're going to take a quick break. We will be right back with the latest on what is going on at the G-20 and around London this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks so much for being with us. We have T.J. Holmes with us this morning, in for John Roberts.
Twenty-one minutes past the hour and we want to take you to London where we've been following all of the latest developments at the G-20 summit.
This was a photo op that took place before the joint news conference between Gordon Brown and our president, Barack Obama. You see there Timothy Geithner, the treasury secretary, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She was also there, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and there were many others including a senior adviser, David Axelrod, one of Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers, Mark Lippert. A lot of them today there as they try to hammer out how best to get us through this crisis.
HOLMES: And after this meeting, after this photo opportunity and short order, they made their way just across the street literally to another room, the foreign office, a big grand room, and the president held his first press conference as president on this overseas trip. And this is his first press conference, of course, he's held as president somewhere other than here in the U.S., I guess you could say or at least overseas here. But let's take a quick listen to the president in that press conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I think it is sometimes important to step back and just have some perspective about the differences between now and the Great Depression when there were no social safety nets in place, when unemployment was 25 or 30 percent. This is a difficult time but it's not what happened to our grandparents' generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Joining me now is the managing editor of the "Financial Times" Chrystia Freeland. She just interviewed the president this past weekend. Also live in Washington, Eamon Javers, financial correspondent for "Politico."
Thanks to both of you for being with us. First I'd like briefly, I'll start with you, Chrystia, your thoughts. What stuck out to you about what Gordon Brown and Barack Obama were saying today at that joint press conference.
CHRYSTIA FREELAND, U.S. MANAGING EDITOR, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Well, Kiran, I thought what was really interesting was the president emphasizing a game, this point about fiscal stimulus and the point that America alone can't revive the world economy.
The world economy has in recent years, become really accustomed to the U.S. consumer being the engine of global economic growth, and that's part of the reason that the American government has had to step up with his massive fiscal stimulus. One of the messages, one of the goals of the American government at this G-20 summit is going to be to try to convince the other big countries in the world that they also need to step up to the plate and also need to introduce big fiscal stimulus programs of their own. So I thought it was interesting that he came out very strongly on that point.
CHETRY: And, Eamon, about that issue that's something that's been received with various, I guess bits of enthusiasm, depending on where you fall in the spectrum. I mean, Germany says, look, we've already done that. We have major social programs in place. You know, we're not really prepared to spend more money that we don't have. So how does our president convince some of these other world leaders that it's in the best interests of all to look toward stimulus and look toward money?
EAMON JAVERS, FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Well, partly by showing a little bit of humility and that's what you're seeing from Barack Obama today as he shoulders a little bit of the blame for this global financial crisis and admits that, yes, the United States has some accounting to do in the phrase that he used this morning, in taking some of the blame for this, and saying this is a bit of an American problem.
There's enormous resentment overseas in Europe that the United States has gone around the world for decades now dictating to other countries how they ought to run their economies, and yet now they feel that the United States has sort of led the world off of the financial cliff. So Barack Obama by acknowledging that can go a long way to soothe some of the tension and ruffled feathers in Europe and help him make the points that he needs to make in terms of getting us out of this crisis.
CHETRY: Chrystia Freeland and Eamon Javers, we'll check back in with you, guys. Thanks so much.
HOLMES: And meanwhile, we will continue to keep an eye on these live pictures. The pictures you're seeing there, the photo op, was a little earlier. But the bottom right of your screen are the protests that have continued to develop and continue to grow there in London as these demonstrators get together around this G-20 summit. We are keeping an eye on all things G-20 related including these massive protests there. Stay with us on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: The Most News in the Morning coming up around 7:30 here at the bottom of the hour. We're keeping an eye on live pictures out of London where the G-20 summit is getting under way. The president making his first overseas trip as president.
We saw him a little earlier this morning in a press conference with Gordon Brown. But what we're seeing here, expecting massive demonstrations, thousands getting together for these demonstrations, but also a part that's playing out -- another little subplot here as we go back and forth. This is the live picture but the other picture you were seeing there is of Michelle Obama.
Let's go ahead and go back to that.
This is her today, actually getting a little tour around London today from the first lady of Great Britain, the prime minister's wife, Sarah Brown. She is making her way around town, making some stops. She is quite the hit there in Europe and in London particularly right now.
I want to bring in the founder and editor in chief of thedailybeast.com, Tina Brown, to talk about what we're seeing over here with the first lady. And they're just eating (ph) her up, aren't they?
TINA BROWN, FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: She's very exotic to the British. I mean, they're not used to a woman in public life who has such self-assurance, such self-confidence, and who is also, you know, African-American. I mean, it's like there isn't anybody really that they can compare her to in British public life where, frankly, you know, women in parliament, women in political life, they are really, you know, like a stuffed Ottoman when it comes to sartorial excellence.
HOLMES: Oh, wow.
Now you mentioned how the public is fascinated with her. Does that translate over you find her exotic. Is the queen not immune to that either?
She's gotten and the president have gotten -- they've both gotten an invitation to go see Queen Elizabeth II, and that's not something we see when they're not usually on state visits, heads of states. So should we take that to mean that the queen is quite fascinated with them?
BROWN: The queen is very fascinated to meet the Obamas. So is the young royals, so is Prince Charles and Camilla, that all really into Michelle and Barack Obama. They were not fans of the Bushes. Prince Charles, by the way, particularly with his environmental concerns, he was not a fan at all. So they're very excited about the Obamas and they're also -- the queen likes strong women. You know, she's a strong woman herself and she will see, I think, in Michelle, a working woman who's as dedicated to her work as the queen is to hers, and she will really appreciate I think her authenticity. She likes people who are real, you know.
CHETRY: It's funny because you wouldn't think of that because of all the pomp and circumstance that comes with her being Her Majesty. But your article cracked me up because you really got down to the nitty-gritty about some of this.
You said that the queen was not that crazy about Hillary Clinton, too strident, anti-Reagan, too California, you said. And then you talk about Cherie Blair, of course, the former prime minister's wife, who was apparently allergic to the fur and feathers of the stuff animals from the hunting trophies around the castle.
BROWN: Absolutely true. Miss Cherie Blair, you know, she famously said about her trips to Balmoral, where the queen lives, is they were too horrible to be even described. So she just loathed it. She's a very sort of left wing character and she just found all that sort of tart and having to wear kilts and the whole thing, she just couldn't stand it.
HOLMES: Now one of the many people wouldn't argue, you might not argue this either, one of the most fascinating, beautiful and flash- bulb prompting first ladies out there, Carla Bruni, the French president's wife. She's not going to be at this G-20 summit. Everywhere she goes, when he goes to big meetings, she usually upstages her husband. She's not coming to this one.
Do we know why?
BROWN: Well, she said she wants to just keep herself fresh for Strassberg, but I tend to think she understood because she's smart that she's not going to compare well in a sense to side by side with Michelle Obama. Because, Mrs. Bruni is a beautiful woman, she's a great cover girl, but at the same time she's also very much a designer, you know? Au couture kind of cover girl. And this is a time when that kind of high life, you know, sort of rich, beautiful, you know, euro girl is not nearly as fashionable as the more authentic, you know, buy your clothes at J. Crew woman of the people who is raising her kids in a very sort of authentic way.
HOLMES: Do we have any evidence of that? Or just you believe is probably what happened?
BROWN: I just think that Carla Bruni knows where the PR lies. And if I were her, I wouldn't come either.
HOLMES: Right. Tina Brown, the editor in chief of thedailybeast.com. I hope you can stick around here. We're going to be talking about this a little more, maybe you can throw some more questions at you about how Michelle Obama right now is taking over the G-20 in a lot of ways.
CHETRY: That's right. Meanwhile, on to her husband.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: President Obama, already busy, of course, making headline this morning. He and British prime minister Gordon Brown talked with reporters nearly an hour actually in central London. They answered many questions, many more than they actually thought they were going to get to. The two leaders also met this morning to talk about ways to fix the global economy ahead of tomorrow's G-20 summit.
Toward the end of the news conference though, one of the British reporters gave the president a chance for a few light-hearted laughs as well. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Mr. President, as president who won with a landslide, have you got any advice for Gordon Brown, the prime minister?
Secondly, what are your things you like most about Great Britain and London?
And lastly, England are (ph) playing in a World Cup qualifying match, and soccer, a game you love. Have you got any good luck message for the England team tonight?
OBAMA: Well, let me take all these in turn.
I have had enough trouble back home picking my brackets for the college basketball tournament that's taking place there, called March Madness. Stirred up all kinds of controversy. The last thing I'm going to do is wade into European football. That would be a mistake. I didn't get a briefing on that, but I sense that would be a mistake, I can tell you. So that would be point number one.
The thing I love about Great Britain is its people. And there is just an extraordinary affinity and kinship that we have. You know, we owe so much to England that when you come here, there's that sense of familiarity, as well as difference, that makes it just a special place.
I have -- the only advice I would give Gordon Brown is the same advice that I gave myself during the campaign and that I've been giving myself over the last three months, which is, over time, good policy is good politics.
And if every day you are waking up and you are making the very best decisions that you can, despite the fact that sometimes the cards in your hand aren't very good and the options are narrow and the choices are tough and you are assured to be second-guessed constantly and that occasionally you're going to make mistakes. But if every day you're waking up saying, how can I make the best possible decisions to create jobs, help young people, imagine a better future, provide care to the sick or the elderly or the vulnerable, sustain the planet, if those are the questions that you're asking yourself, then I think you'd end up doing pretty good.
As I said, everybody's worked extraordinarily hard to make this successful. We are very grateful for the hospitality. There's one last thing that I should mention that I love about Great Britain, and that is the queen. And so I'm very much looking forward to...
(LAUGHTER)
I'm very much looking forward to meeting her for the first time later this evening. And as you might imagine, Michelle has been really thinking that through.
(LAUGHTER)
Because you know, I think in the imagination of people throughout America, I think what the queen stands for and her decency and her civility, what she represents, that's very important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. There we go, the president trying a little bit of a sense of humor. Some of that feedback there was interference from probably all the BlackBerries in there as the reporters try to furiously file their reports from that briefing.
Meanwhile it's his first G-20 summit, his first overseas trip since taking office and world leaders will be gauging what kind of partner they have. For more on that, I'm joined by former assistant Secretary of State James Rubin.
Good to see you this morning.
JAMES RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning.
CHETRY: You had a chance to listen to that joint press conference with President Barack Obama as well as Prime Minister Gordon Brown. What stood out to you about what Barack Obama was saying and sort what he chose to highlight?
RUBIN: I think what you saw were the two personalities, the leaders there. Gordon Brown was a former, what they call Treasury Secretary, chancellor of the Exchequer. And he's much more comfortable with the details of international economics than almost any leader out there. And frankly, the financial crisis has almost been good news for him politically, because it's allowed him to return to the center stage and argue that his solutions are the ones the world is pursuing.
While President Obama has a broader canvas in which to paint. He's got to deal with the Iran issue, the Afghanistan issue, the Middle East peace process. Big question out there for all these Europeans is U.S./Russian relations. So he's more likely to, as he did in the press conference, focus on a number of subjects. Because the United States is the global power. The British play an outsized role in the economic world and that's what Gordon Brown was showing. CHETRY: Let's talk about Gordon Brown for a minute, because they spoke about their friendship that they had. They said that, you know, they are in a partnership of purpose together, meaning Britain and America.
But what about Gordon Brown and what kind of role is he going to play in terms of standing shoulder to shoulder with our president when it comes to convincing some of these other countries like France and Germany that perhaps more stimulus is needed?
RUBIN: I think he will help and let's face it, the British need more help and the British, for reasons of history, for reasons of language, for reasons of economic theory, political theory, are our closest allies in Europe and probably the world. And Gordon Brown has special credibility, because he can speak the language. He is fluent.
And I think a lot of the fireworks promised by the French president, Sarkozy, are probably classic French diplomatic devices and advance to scare people. See whether they can get that extra bit of language they want in the communique. But I wouldn't expect to see Sarkozy, for example, following up on his threat to walk out.
And so I think the British will help. They have the basic same ideas as we do of improving financial regulation, using stimulus where possible. And I don't think you're going to see an outcome in which all the countries of Europe and all the countries of the world agree on precisely how to proceed, but I think Brown will help avoid a breakdown.
CHETRY: All right. James Rubin, stay with us. We're going to take a quick break from this and we're going to come back to you with a little bit more.
But we're going to talk right now about some of the protests we've been seeing. We've been watching these protests grow actually.
HOLMES: They've been growing over the past hour or so that we've been watching. A live picture here. We will continue to bring you more live pictures as the demonstrators grow and the protests grow surrounding the G-20 summit in London. Stay with us on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING..
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HOLMES: Good morning. We are covering what is happening inside the G-20 summit but also what is happening outside.
This is what's outside. Thousands of protesters expected today in what police there are calling, "unprecedented." These protesters and demonstrators around the G-20 summit that is just kicking off.
We saw President Obama today with Gordon Brown, the prime minister of England today.
But the protests not expected to get violent, if you talked to the demonstrators. Expected, possibly, to get violent if you talk to the police.
Our Becky Anderson has been making her way through some of these crowds and these demonstrations today, got her back on the line now.
Becky, go ahead if you can hear me. I hope you can. I know it's hectic down there. And tell me what the scene is like.
ANDERSON: T.J., I wouldn't suggest it's kicking off, but getting a lot more noisy than it was even an hour ago. I don't expect to see any G-20 leaders down here any time soon.
This is a big, big crowd at this point and it's getting bigger. There are thousands and thousands of people now outside the Bank of England. And that is a point of derision as it were. Lots and lots of lots of signs deriding, the fences and trying to (INAUDIBLE) a whole bunch of protesters there with various different signs.
I describe this as convergence of anarchists and anti- capitalists. I'm not sure that any one single person here has got any one single cause.
There are people climbing up on to lamppost and I'm sure if you can hear people cheering around me.
This at the moment is past 1:00 in the afternoon. I wouldn't expect it to stop any time soon. It will go on for the day.
But there's an awful lot of police around at this point.
HOLMES: All right. Becky, we appreciate you sticking with us there.
I know it's - like you said, it's just starting to ramp up there, but it's loud and it's difficult down there. We appreciate you sticking with us and giving us the report again.
Our Becky Anderson there as we rerack that video with some of that video we have been looking at.
Again, as we said this morning, Kiran, starting to grow and it seems like almost an impossible situation for the police there, even though they've mobilized in major numbers 10,000. They're expecting this week to actually to police this thing, but it seems like an impossible task.
CHETRY: Right. And that's something that Fran Townsend, of course, knows all too well. She is a former Homeland Security adviser in the Bush administration.
You spoke about just how orderly and prepared Scotland Yard is. You gave them major kudos for the fact that they really did put together a really challenging and complicated public order/operation here to make sure things did not get out of hand. What do you see as we're watching these pictures and we're seeing the protests grow as their biggest challenge today, Fran?
TOWNSEND: Well, as I aid, Kiran, three objectives.
Remember, they've got to protect the dignitaries. Two, they got to keep transportation routes open so the dignitaries can get back and forth and conduct their business. And third is to allow these peaceful protests to continue without turning violent. And one of the ways you do that is with an overwhelming presence.
T.J. mentioned mobilizing 10,000 police officers. That's the way. That's an overwhelming presence, and what you do is you allow them the freedom to speak and to protest, but you're protecting them at the same time and not letting it get out of hand.
It looks, you know, it's good weather. It's a nice day in London. It's a pretty afternoon. And as long as they've got the ability to muster the protesters around the Bank of England, it should remain pretty peaceful and leaders can get their business conducted safely.
CHETRY: Fran Townsend, thanks so much.
We're continuing to follow these pictures. We're going to take a quick break. Forty-five minutes past the hour. AMERICAN MORNING continues in a moment.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Forty-eight minutes past the hour.
Right now, you're getting a look now, a street view, a street- level view of the protests that are taking place in downtown London. They are targeting banks. The Bank of England, actually, is a real point of convergence for these protesters this morning. They're really protesting capitalism, they're protesting homelessness, they're protesting war and of course climate chaos. Seven planned protests and on top of that, others that are going to be cropping up.
Scotland Yard saying they are prepared for, you know, really an unprecedented showing today. So we will keep you abreast of that situation.
We have T.J. Holmes with us. Also Jamie Rubin joining us now as well.
And it was about two and a half hours ago that President Obama spoke. He held a news conference along with Prime Minister of Britain Gordon Brown and we cut together some of the highlights for you in case you missed it.
So let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: All of us here have the responsibility to act with a sense of urgency. So make no mistake, we are facing the most severe economic crisis since World War II, and the global economy is now so fundamentally interconnected that we can only meet this challenge together.
We can't create jobs at home if we're not doing our part to support strong and stable markets around the world.
We are lifting ourselves out of this crisis and putting an end to the abuses that got us here.
I came here to put forward our ideas, but I also came here to listen, not to lecture. Having said that, we must not miss an opportunity to lead.
History shows us that when nations fail to cooperate, when they turn away from one another, when they turn inward, the price for our people only grows. That's how the Great Depression deepened.
That's a mistake that we cannot afford to repeat.
The prime minister and I also covered several other areas of challenge that are fundamental to our common security and prosperity. As he mentioned, we discussed my administration's review of strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a review that benefited greatly from the consultations with our allies.
The city of London, like the United States, was attacked by the al Qaeda terrorists who are still plotting in Pakistan, and we are committed to a focused effort to defeat them.
Our immediate task, however, is the critical work of confronting the economic crisis, as I've said, we've passed through an era of profound irresponsibility. Now we cannot afford half measures and we cannot go back to the kind of risk-taking that leads to bubbles that inevitably bust.
We won't solve all our problems in the next few days, but we can make real and unprecedented progress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And there you go. One of the other interesting things that we heard from our president is he sort of said that it's been overplayed, the differences. That there's more consensus between the 20 nations than there is a difference.
RUBIN: Well, he's learning the basic process of summitry.
In the run-ups to the summit, the media, the aides to the other leaders, all make a big deal about all the problems. The leaders get together and they find that some of these problems aren't so big as they were made out to be.
And I think that rhetorically and there's basically two messages. One is listen and lead. And you're going to hear that over and over again from this administration. They regard that as the difference between Bush and Obama.
And, second...
HOLMES: All right. I want to jump in here, because we're seeing more live pictures here.
Our Fran Townsend is still with us, the adviser of Homeland Security Department. What we're seeing is a little pushing and shoving here, again, not expecting them to be violent demonstrators. The police getting ready because they thought this could get violent.
Fran Townsend, bring you back in here. What are police now up against in a situation like this? Not exactly sure what these protesters and demonstrators are trying to go. But it's trying to get a little choppy. Is this to be expected with a few folks in the front of the line, is this where police know, you know, that something like this could lead to something a little great if you don't nip it in the bud right now?
TOWNSEND: That's exactly right, T.J.
Now is the point when you see the pushing and shoving. You'll see the police officers going shoulder to shoulder to close the gap, pushing back a little bit. These are critical points because they're being tested.
You see there's a scuffle going on right here. How they handle it will be very important, that they hold that line.
See, they're trying to breach the line right here, protesters.
These are the sorts of incidents that will dictate how this goes. They're taking somebody else out - they're taking somebody out of that crowd now to send a signal to the protesters that shoving will not be tolerated.
This is a matter of sort of sending the message, sending it early, being strong and reforming their line there and not permitting a breach. They're handling it right.
I mean, they'll arrest a couple of people and send a message that they're not going to tolerate any nonsense on that line. And that's a very important sort of moment for them.
HOLMES: But, Fran, if these protesters, who just looking at this line, you see one line, one row of police officers and a big crowd of people. If they make up their minds collectively that they want to get through that police line, they're going to do it, aren't they?
TOWNSEND: That's right. That's right. And that's why it's important to take the one guy out or two guys, a handful of them, and arrest them so you understand, if you want to try and breach that line, you better be prepared to go to jail. And it's an intimidation factor. You know, what the police are trying to do is send a message and intimidate the rest of the crowd from not doing it.
You'll see there's an individual...
CHETRY: Fran, can you see the guy - you see the guy in the center screaming at the police. He seemed to have some sort of head wound because he's bleeding.
TOWNSEND: Well, hard to - yes, you're right, Kiran, it's hard to tell right now. But you can see he's standing back, though. You know, he's shouting at them. If the worst thing he does is stand there and shout at them, that's a win for the Scotland Yard police.
CHETRY: And actually, you know, what, I mean he could have painted that on. You know, we're not quite sure. There was - there were certainly people that were trying to make their point by the way that they dressed. In fact, at one point we were talking about some of the marches being led by, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
What were they representing? Well, war, climate, chaos, financial crimes and homelessness. So, we're not exactly sure if he's actually hurt or if that was something that he wore. Again, as you see and as, T.J., pointed out, you have one line of police officers with batons and then you have these huge - huge mass of protesters behind them. And they're getting a little bit aggressive.
HOLMES: And it looks like they took - as you are saying, Fran, they took a couple of guys out. It looks like they took somebody out, well you can identify that he appeared to have a bunny suit on. But we want to remind the viewers that what we're seeing here is that these are protesters around the G-20 summit.
Oftentimes when President Bush go to a lot of these meetings, he had protests that were directed at him specifically. Of course, the war in Iraq was unpopular in a lot of places around the world but we haven't seen necessarily any of these protests directed directly at the U.S. President Obama. So, do want to make that point. These are just general protests around the summit and everybody here trying to make a point.
But this pushing and shoving and, Fran, do you ever know if you have enough? Police there say about 10,000. They're going to mobilize this week. I mean, how do you ever know if you have enough?
TOWNSEND: Well, you know, T.J., you're absolutely right. There's never enough. You're never going to be one-to-one with the protesters. What you want to do is have enough trained counter sort of protests forces out there that they can sort of control the crowd. But if this is never going to be a one-to-one thing, there's never going to be enough and it's a matter of having appropriately trained and sufficient forces and it certainly looked - you know, you saw the scuffle, you see the shouting but they're reformed the line and nobody has gotten hurt. They have taken a couple of people in custody. The Scotland Yard people are doing exactly what you'd hope they do.
CHETRY: Fran Townsend for us. Stick with us. We're going to continue to bring in these pictures. Jamie Rubin is going to be staying with us as well, the former assistant Secretary of State and we are going to take a quick break. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
HOLMES: And our news this morning is coming to you out of London, where, yes, the G-20 summit is going on.
But outside of that group of world leaders' meeting, we are seeing protests and they are getting a little pushy, a little testy right about now. As we saw this shot just come back. Again, this is a live picture happening right now from London, a lot of these protests happening around the Bank of London.
And a lot of these demonstrators have different causes, different issues. They're here to protest and have their protests heard.
But there is some pushing and shoving that has been going on.
We just saw a police officer actually have to stop and lean up against a wall. It looks like he might have been injured. Maybe winded at least a bit. But we saw a bit of a scuffle there. And what we know is thousands of protesters and demonstrators are here.
But we see one line of police officers so far, at least in this particular area, that are doing all they can to keep this crowd back. And you see, we see a few of these scuffles that have been breaking out in the past several minutes.
A few people have been arrested. The count we had earlier was about six. Imagine it is up a little higher than that. We had that number a little earlier maybe within the past hour.
But you see one individual there in the middle who has certainly been testing the police right about now and testing their patience and this has been going on for the past several minutes.
But they have for the most part, police been able to keep many of these demonstrators back.
Again, we've seen police, we've seen these live pictures. They have to use those batons a couple times to keep some of the crowds back. They are picking out a few troublemakers, if you will, every now and then.
Fran, as I think you've been able to continue to watch this live picture here with us, how do you see it going? Again, you keep telling me that, yes, the police are doing their job and a good job, but we see the scuffles. They're intense for a second and then it calms back down to this.
TOWNSEND: The key here, T.J., is that they calm back down. If the police will, you know, deal with the scuffle...
CHETRY: Did you see that, Fran, somebody just threw some sort of powder.
TOWNSEND: Powder, yes. Some of this is what the police trained for and expect. You expect scuffles on the line. You expect people to get a little unruly. You expect to make some arrests.
The next key for us to watch for is do people start to get hurt. The batons, are there injuries against protesters because once that begins to happen, that tends to be a turning point in a protest where it makes the other protesters more aggressive and the police feel more threatened.
So, we're - as I mentioned earlier, these are critical points in any public protest to watch for. And the real challenge is now, for the police, whether or not they can defuse these couple of protesters, make a few arrests and get the crowd back under control. But at the moment, as I mentioned to T.J., they seem to be holding the line OK.
CHETRY: All right, Fran Townsend stick with us. Again, we're going to keep coming back to that. And here, some close street shots as well of the protest that are taking place in that area.
Again, you just saw more objects being thrown. And in this situation, we've seen that same gentleman down there who looks like he had something on his face, whether he painted on or not. At one point, police grabbed him, Fran, and then it seems like he sort of wiggled his way out and now he's back in front of the crowd.
In that type of situation, why don't they just get like some of the most, you know, the ones that seem to be inciting the most and just get them out of there?
TOWNSEND: Well, I agree with you, Kiran. I mean, I actually think he was aggressive enough. I would have looked to take him out of the crowd.
Now, it's getting more aggressive now here with this scuffle. They -- they will have to make a judgment about him. What you want to do is if you can avoid the arrests and get the protests back under control, good. If you take him out and arrest him, you run the risk of inciting the rest of the protesters, which you don't want to do. So I think they're trying to make a judgment here.
If he's just going to shout at them, that's fine. If he's going to incite the others, then they're going to have to make a judgment about taking him out. But they need grounds to take him out. And he's got to commit some sort of an infraction that will permit them, the basis to arrest him.
CHETRY: All the while, all the flashbulbs flashing away there as all the camera crews are recording minute by minute as this goes on. All right.
