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American Morning
Slain Florida Couple's Home Held $100,000; Obama Says Health Care Bill Is a Must; Charges Against Harvard Professor Dropped; Senate to Vote on New Gun Proposal; Feds Test Security With Their Own Bombs; Harry & Louise Switch Sides
Aired July 22, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Wednesday, July 22nd. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for being with us.
We are following several developing stories this morning. We'll be breaking them all down for you in the next 15 minutes here on "The Most News in the Morning."
Was it murder for hire? New details are emerging in the murder of a Florida couple. We'll tell you how the suspects were trying to get their hands on the, quote, "mother load of valuables at the home."
CHETRY: With dissention in the Democratic ranks, President Obama will take his case for health care reform directly to the American people. He would be holding a prime-time news conference tonight and we are live at the White House today with a preview.
ROBERTS: And a total eclipse of the sun, hundreds of millions of people in Asia watching in awe. We will show the longest solar eclipse so far of the 21st century.
CHETRY: Wow.
Well, we begin with stunning new details in the home invasion and murders of a Florida couple known for adopting special needs children. A source telling CNN the suspects tried to get their hands on a second safe in the home of Melanie and Byrd Billings.
Seven men are now facing murder charges. One of them, Leonard Gonzales, Jr., identified by a fellow suspect as the gunman, and police say that there may be more arrests to come.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has been following the latest developments for us in this disturbing case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, good morning.
CNN has learned there was a second safe in the Billings's house, and this is what the suspects were really going after. It was called the motherlode. According to the source familiar with the investigation, this safe contained at least $100,000, but for whatever reason, the suspects were unable to get to it and did not get the money.
On Tuesday night, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan was asked about this development on "AC 360."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": The source familiar with the investigation telling us there was a second safe in the house containing cash, $100,000. Can you confirm that for us, sir, and tell us about it?
SHERIFF DAVID MORGAN, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: I cannot. I can only confirm the items that we have recovered or the -- excuse me, that we know were removed from the Billings home, and that was a small mid-sized safe and a black briefcase.
KING: You rule -- you're saying there was not a second safe or that you just can't confirm that, sir?
MORGAN: I'm saying, sir, that I'm not at liberty to address that issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: An attorney for the Billings family also said she had no comment.
Now, the reason this second safe is significant, is because up until now, we only knew about one safe, one safe that the suspects did get away with. But the sheriff's office has said it contained only some jewelry, some family papers and medication for the Billings' children.
There are other new developments in the case. According to court documents, one of the suspects charged with murder allegedly told investigators that suspect Leonard Gonzales, Jr. is the man who shot and killed Byrd and Melanie Billings. Now, the sheriff has said that he has tried to talk to at least three other persons of interests and that he could be making more arrests -- John and Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Susan Candiotti for us -- thanks.
Police also say that the suspects trained extensively for at least 30 days, and there was also a report they staged a dry run of the crime at the Billings home - John.
ROBERTS: President Obama addresses the nation tonight in a prime-time news conference. He will try to convince the public and skeptical lawmakers his big plan to cover the uninsured and remake America's health care system will work.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House for us this morning.
We've seen a full court press on this, Suzanne. The president optimistic he can get it all done?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He certainly is portraying that. This is going to be his fourth prime-time press conference in the first six months of his presidency. And today, we're going to see President Obama meeting with Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to basically assess the progress there. But what we're going to hear tonight is a real push for his number one domestic priority and that is health care reform.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): President Barack Obama is raising the stakes, using a prime time news conference to throw all his weight behind health care reform.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But make no mistake, we are closer than ever before to the reform that the American people need and we're going to get the job done.
MALVEAUX: Facing skeptical lawmakers, including members of his own party, the president's strategy consists of private arm-twisting and public scolding.
OBAMA: Time and again, we've heard excuses to delay and defeat reform.
MALVEAUX: Using his popularity and political capital early in the game.
OBAMA: I don't want you to feel alone.
(APPLAUSE)
MALVEAUX: With town halls, TV interviews, and prime-time -- aimed at building momentum and creating a sense of urgency to get health care legislation on his desk by mid-August.
OBAMA: So, we have traveled long and hard to reach this point. I know that we have further to go.
MALVEAUX: Some say a risky strategy.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think from his point of view, there are many in the public who would like to hear from him, but they'd also like to see him just sitting down, negotiating out the plan. You know, what they look for is a leadership that says, "Here's where we're going to go." Not a leadership that says, "I'm encouraging Congress to make more progress."
MALVEAUX: The effort comes amid recent polls showing approval for Mr. Obama's health care plan dropping below 50 percent, and Americans are now split over his handling of the economy.
Republicans are seizing the moment.
MICHAEL STEELE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: We want to fundamentally reorient one-sixth of our economy in two weeks. And that makes no logical sense to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: And, John, the timing, the high-profile nature of this press conference was really meant to push members of Congress along to about give the president some good news tonight to announce to the American people as it stands now -- still very much negotiations behind the scenes, the health care reform very much in flux.
Even White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, yesterday, is saying that after the August recess, they'll still have much work to do - John.
ROBERTS: We'll see if he can get something going within the next 14 hours.
Suzanne Malveaux this morning -- Suzanne, thanks so much.
The president's address is just part of our special prime-time coverage tonight. Starting at 7:00 Eastern, our "BLACK IN AMERICA" reports kick off with "MOMENT OF TRUTH." The president's address is at 8:00 Eastern. Then at 9:00, Soledad O'Brien reports "BLACK IN AMERICA 2."
We have heard the president is trying to sell his trillion- dollar health care plan in five of the last six days now. On Friday, he spoke from the diplomatic room at the White House. Then on Saturday, the president pushed Congress on the issue in his weekly radio and video address. Sunday, the White House went dark.
But on Monday, the president held another roundtable. Yesterday, he spoke from the Rose Garden; and then, of course, tonight, that prime-time news conference.
Plus, your reaction to the plan is lighting up our amFIX hotline this morning.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Since when is it a crime to be rich? I'm not rich. But a lot of these well-to-do people have worked very, very hard to get where they are today, and they really shouldn't be paying for health care for a bunch of people.
CALLER: Why not more time and do it right as they said when it comes to the health care bill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This thing about this health care, this is socialism.
CALLER: Why don't we tax the people that jeopardize our health? But then again, nobody makes anybody eat all this stuff.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Keep those calls coming on this or any other topic that you're interested in. Let us know what you think. Just call 1- 877-MY-AMFIX. That's 877-692-6349.
CHETRY: Well, other stories new this morning.
More legal troubles for outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. A preliminary state report says that Palin may have violated ethics laws by letting supporters set up a legal defense fund to help her battle ethics complaints. Palin has cited the time and money needed to fight a flood of ethics complaints as a major reason why she's stepping down.
ROBERTS: Oakland, California, has a new cash crop. It's not what you might think. The voters there are giving overwhelming approval to a landmark special tax on proceeds from medical marijuana. Eighty percent of people voted yes. Oakland is facing a massive deficit and city officials estimate that the new pot tax will generate nearly $300,000 in its first year.
CHETRY: Well, a new report just out this morning says that the federal government is at risk of being unable to fight off cyber attacks against the nation's computer networks. The report named "Cyber Insecurity" says that the nation could be in jeopardy because there aren't enough workers who are properly trained to protect computer systems from hackers, from terrorists and from foreign governments.
ROBERTS: If you're just waking up this morning or if you happen to live on this side of the planet, it's safe to say that you missed last night's total eclipse of the sun.
CHETRY: Yes. But if you happened to see it, boy, did you get a treat. People in India and China had a chance to see the longest solar eclipse of this century. This is a shot from Beijing at the exact moment that the moon completely covers the sun.
And here's what it looked like from some of the other hot spots as well.
ROBERTS: All right. Here's some video from South Korea sent in by an iReporter, shows a spectacular view from a Buddhist temple. Another cool shot here as blackness begins to cover Bhutan. This is from Allahabad, India, and you can just see the outline of the sun as the clouds pass over.
And here's a look at our Emily Chang doing a live report from Shanghai during that moment of totality -- just a few minutes of totality -- as the moon completely covers the sun. I'll tell you, that very first shot, we got an amazing, amazing photo of what they call the diamond ring. Just as the moon crosses the sun, it just flashes so brilliantly like that.
CHETRY: It's gorgeous. They said Varanasi, India was actually a place where they had...
ROBERTS: Look at that. There it is. Wow.
CHETRY: It's gorgeous -- where they had a very, very clear view. But in some of the other areas where hundreds of thousands came out, there was a lot of cloud cover. So, people didn't get to see it as brightly. Those eclipse chasers, you know...
ROBERTS: Yes. The weather ruins picnics and eclipses.
CHETRY: There you go.
Well, still ahead: we're going to be speaking to a couple people who are weighing in about the situation that we first brought you yesterday on AMERICAN MORNING. The Harvard professor...
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: ... basically arrested after trying to get into his own home after the door was broken. A lot of questions about racial profiling this morning. So, we're going to bring you that coming up.
Nine minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: Good morning to Atlanta, Georgia. This morning, a pretty shot there, where it is partly cloudy, 66 degrees right now. Later on, it's going to be sunny and 88 degrees.
And welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
The Mac is back. Apple is reporting a 15 percent increase in third-quarter profits over last year, thanks largely to strong Mac computer and iPhone sales. It's the best non-holiday quarterly earnings in the company's history. Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter. That's a whopping 626 percent jump in unit sales from the year before.
They made a couple changes and tweaks and people are happier with it.
ROBERTS: There you go.
A Senate committee is approving a bill that would require airlines to let passengers get off planes that are stranded on the tarmac after a period of three hours. Airlines oppose the measure saying it would cause even more delays. The legislation now goes to the full Senate.
CHETRY: Also, charges against a prominent African-American scholar have been dropped, but Henry Louis Gates is still angry over his arrest at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Harvard professor was taken into custody last week when an officer responded to a report of a burglary. Gates was locked out of his house. He'd just returned from a trip to China and actually forced his way in.
Gates claims that he was arrested because he was black and he wants a face-to-face meeting with the arresting officer. He wants that officer to apologize and says he will forgive him.
ROBERTS: So, was Professor Gates a victim of racial profiling or were police simply doing their job?
We're digging deeper on this issue this morning. Dayo Olopade is a political reporter for "The Root," a black perspective online magazine, where Gates serves as editor in chief. Dayo interviewed Gates yesterday, and she joins us now this morning from New Orleans.
And Rod Wheeler is a former homicide detective and training officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and he joins us from Washington this morning.
Dayo, let's start with you. When you interviewed Professor Gates yesterday, he said that he was outraged by what happened. What specifically about how this unfolded from the beginning made him believe that he was being racially profiled?
DAYO OLOPADE, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE ROOT": Right. Well, you know, the charges have been dropped, the conversation is going to continue, as you mentioned. But when I spoke with Professor Gates at his Martha's Vineyard home, he talked about the officer getting into his home. The officer, once he had provided him with identification saying that he was, indeed, a Harvard professor, that he did have his driver's license that said he lived in the home, the officer then still started to harass him about the way he had been behaving him, accusing him of being loud and disorderly.
And the situation escalated to the point where the two of them were in conflict, yelling at one another, and he felt ambushed when he stepped out his home. His lawyer, Charles Ogletree, and a few other professors said that stepping out of the home was sanction for the officer to arrest him.
And so, once he got out there, he described seeing six different police officers who cuffed his hands behind his back. He has to use a cane, he's handicapped, he couldn't walk to the car -- and so really, just felt physically violated as well as having someone come into his home.
ROBERTS: OK. Well, let's get the law -- let's get the law enforcement perspective on this.
Rod Wheeler, weigh in for us. From what you know of this case, do you believe that the officer who was investigating this report of a potential break-in at the Gates' home did anything wrong from the outset?
ROD WHEELER, FORMER DC. HOMICIDE DETECTIVE AND TRAINING OFFICER: You know, after reading the actual police report that was submitted by this officer, John, it appears the officer did, in fact, what he was probably trained to do. Now, it doesn't appear on the surface as if the officer did anything when it comes down to discrimination.
However, there was an issue here, I believe, of class. You know, you got this Harvard law professor or Harvard professor who can really do no wrong and then this police officer who was actually doing his job. So, I think at the end of the day, we will see that this officer probably was just simply operating according to protocol and was doing his job.
ROBERTS: OK. Well, that raises the issue of, then, training, which we'll get to in a second. But let me ask you, first of all, Rod, the question here that a lot of people want to know is, if Henry Louis Gates was a white Harvard professor, would he have been treated in the same way?
WHEELER: You know, I actually would submit to you, John, that he probably would have been treated the same way. The real profiling -- the real race profiling this country is not against African- American men that's the age of Mr. Gates. It's actually African- American young men, between the ages of 18 and 28 years old, which Mr. Gates doesn't fall into that category.
Now, was it -- this a case of racial profiling based on the information that we know at this point? And I would say no.
ROBERTS: Dayo, you mentioned something about this a second ago. So, let's dig a little bit deeper on it. In the police report, Officer James Crowley, as you pointed out, claims that Gates was engaging in, quote, "loud and tumultuous behavior."
OLOPADE: Right.
ROBERTS: Did Professor Gates indicate to you just how heated the confrontation between the two of them became?
OLOPADE: Well, he described the situation escalating almost immediately. This whole thing, again, happened in the span of about 15 to 20 minutes. So, it really did go from a sort of "Can I help you, sir," very quickly, he describes feeling the hair go up on the back of his neck, feeling that he was in danger.
From his perspective -- and again, it's sort of a "he said/he said" with that in the police report -- it did become sort of heated very quickly, and as soon as Gates brought up race, as soon as he said, "You're treating me this way because I'm a black man and you're a white police officer," that was when things really went south.
ROBERTS: Right.
OLOPADE: So, I do think, to a certain extent, you know, it was about power relations, but it was, as Rod say, about class as well...
ROBERTS: OK, Rod...
OLOPADE: ... and about, you know, who has the power.
ROBERTS: OK. Rod, so then it now comes back to the issue of training, because basically -- because the charges have been dropped, what this boils down to is an argument...
WHEELER: Sure.
ROBERTS: ... between Professor Gates and the officer.
WHEELER: That's right.
ROBERTS: You say that you believe he was acting according to the training protocol, which then brings up a couple issues. A, is the training protocol adequate, and B, do police officers receive some sort of training in how to diffuse a situation when tempers begin to run high?
WHEELER: Well, yes. That's an excellent question, John, and a lot of people have been asking that same question. Police officers go through a lot of extensive diversity training, first of all. Now, that's not to say that racism doesn't exist in a police department. Yes, it does.
However, I think based on the training and the experience that that officer has will dictate the outcome of that particular situation. In this case, you're talking about an officer that was experienced on the job, an officer who was responding to an actual call from a complaint.
So, I think, based on the training and the experience of this officer, it appears, right now, as if the officer did act appropriately. But I can understand -- as an African-American male myself, I can clearly understand the feeling that Professor Gates had, although I must tell you from being a police officer, no one really understands the position of that officer unless they're really on the scene of that incident.
ROBERTS: Right. I think anybody surprised when the police show up on your doorstep, no question about that.
Dayo, last question to you. Lawrence Bobo, a Harvard professor and close friend of Professor Gates, wrote on TheRoot.com, quote, "If Skip Gates can be arrested on his front porch and end up in handcuffs in a police cruiser, then, sadly, there, but for the grace of God, goes every other black man in America. That is one sad statement and it should also be enough to end all of this post-racial hogwash."
OLOPADE: Right.
ROBERTS: What does Professor Gates think this all says about the state of race relations in America?
OLOPADE: Right. Well, he emphasized to me in our interview that this is not about him. He describes being humiliated in jail. He describes the whole process of going through the criminal justice system, which was new to him. You know, he's an academic, and he's been brought into the realm of politics, policies that adversely affect African-American men. And he said that he's going to use all the resources at his disposal to make sure this doesn't happen to other people.
ROBERTS: And...
OLOPADE: He said it very well that he's one -- there are 1 million African-American men in the criminal justice system, and he (AUDIO GAP). You know, there's a fight to carry on.
ROBERTS: And I guess what he's going to do as well is use his talents to produce a documentary on the state of race relations in the justice system.
OLOPADE: Right.
ROBERTS: Great conversation this morning, folks. Thanks very much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
WHEELER: Thank you, John.
OLOPADE: Thanks for everything.
ROBERTS: And stay tuned, tonight for CNN special prime-time coverage. At 7:00 Eastern, our "Black in America" reports kick off with "Moment of Truth" where Soledad O'Brien will interview Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates exclusively this evening. The president's address and his press conference at 8:00 Eastern, and then, at 9:00, Soledad O'Brien is back with "Black in America 2."
It's 19 1/2 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
ROBERTS: Wake up, Capitol Hill. The day's beginning.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: You got a lot of work to do.
ROBERTS: I got to go around and knock on a lot of doors this morning and get folks up. It's mostly sunny and 70 degrees right now. Later on today, partly cloudy, high of 86, and, of course, when it gets hot like this in the middle of the summertime, always a risk of a thunderstorm popping through.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPODENT: Some people like those people in Washington like to stay in bed.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Ron Paul would like them all to stay in bed so they can't do any more damage, right?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: You know, it's been said that this August recesses is like the ones that's coming up, at least, they can't hurt me.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: I know. I know. It's true.
Now, look, talking about Ben Bernanke, he was speaking in front of the Hill yesterday, he will again today. No fewer than three congressional hearings yesterday on Capitol Hill about your money and all of the rescues to try to fix the economy.
And Ben Bernanke, the Fed chief, the mild-mannered college professor, really coming out swinging, defending the Fed's actions over the past few months, saying that, essentially, they helped avert a global calamity, the Fed and all of the global central banks and what they have done. Many of the improvements on financial conditions can be traced in part to policy actions taken by the Federal Reserve.
So, he's defending the independence of this central bank and also defending everything that they've done and saying that there is an exit strategy. There are concerns among people on Capitol Hill that all of this that the Fed has done could lead to inflation, hurt the dollar down the road, and he said, no, we do have an exit strategy.
In terms of how you're going to feel, he said, we have a very long haul here because even when the economy starts to recover, he said that we will have elevated unemployment through the year 2011. And this is what he said about how Americans are changing their behavior.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: There has been a big change in behavior in the private sector and that's fine. It creates problems in the macro-economy because without consumer spending, the economy doesn't grow as fast. But I wouldn't advise families to worry about that. I think people need to get their balance sheets in order and their budgets in order, and that's a positive that will come out of this whole -- of this whole crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: We've been saying here for months, you know, on AMERICAN MORNING "Minding your Business," saying, "Look, your economy is the most important thing here. You've got to get your own balance sheet in order. Yes, that hurts the consumer spending part of the bigger equation. And people, don't worry about yourself here at this point."
And he's saying American families are starting to do that. We'll hear more from him again today and I think you're going to hear him defending again, the independence of the Fed and what they've done so far.
CHETRY: So, when he says there is an exit strategy, did he outline that?
ROMANS: He did not outline when and that's what everybody wants to know: when are they going to get out. The economy is too fragile, the situation is still too fragile right here for them to pull out completely, but he did start to say how they were going to do that.
CHETRY: And you mentioned Ron Paul. We are going to be talking to him a little later.
ROMANS: Oh, good.
CHETRY: His biggest concern is he feels that the Federal Reserve doesn't have to answer to anybody.
ROMANS: Right. And so...
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: And Ben Bernanke's concern is, if you start answering to Congress, that's politics, and politics loses their credibility for being independent.
ROBERTS: Nobody wants to answer to anybody, that's the problem.
CHETRY: All right, Christine...
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: ... "Minding Your Business" this morning, thanks so much.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Well, here's a story that probably a lot of you can relate to. A telemarketer calls, you're trying to eat dinner, maybe it's late at night -- for us, that's 6:00 p.m. -- and, you know, you really want to go off. Well, a guy in Ohio did just that, and now he's facing four years in prison.
Charles Papenfus called a St. Louis marketing firm after receiving a junk mail asking him to renew a bogus car warranty. We told you about those car warranty calls earlier in the year on this show. Well, according to court documents, Papenfus allegedly told a sales representative that he would burn down the firm's building, kill all the employees and their families. Well, the Better Business Bureau says that sometimes consumers are pushed too far by telemarketers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone could become so frustrated by the misleading tactics that these companies use, so that a consumer could feel pushed to the point of doing something that they wouldn't normally do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And the man's wife says the outburst was unusual for her husband. She describes him as cool-headed. He remains in jail, though, because she says it's 45 grand to post bail, and she doesn't have it. So now, he's there.
ROMANS: That's quite a reaction. I just hang up.
ROBERTS: I think a lot of people might be able to sympathize with him.
CHETRY: It will be a little fun going to get him out. You never know.
Twenty-six minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-nine minutes now after the hour.
Some mayors around the country -- about 400 of them -- are fired up over a new gun proposal. It could allow near national use of concealed weapons permits.
Our Carol Costello is standing by live in our Washington bureau with more on a proposal to make gun permits more like driver's licenses.
And it's certainly not sitting well with everyone, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, no, it's not. But, you know, John, gun rights advocates are having a banner year. Congress has already passed a law that allows guns in national parks. Washington, D.C.'s attempts at gun control have been thwarted by lawmakers.
And now, the Senate is considering a law that would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines. Plenty of people are upset at that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Colin Goddard is a survivor. He was a student at Virginia Tech the day Seung-Hui Cho burst into his classroom and opened fire. Goddard was shot four times. Thirty-three other students died.
Goddard is in Washington to tell lawmakers, even if he'd had a gun that day, it would not have stopped Seung-Hui Cho.
COLIN GODDARD, VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS SURVIVOR: When I smelled that gunpowder, that's when I knew what was happening. To be able to effectively respond to someone coming through a door like that, guns blazing, you need millisecond response times and even the most trained police officers can't do that.
COSTELLO: Goddard is lobbying against Republican John Thune's proposal, which would allow people to carry concealed firearms into other states. The longest they have concealed carry permits from the states in which they reside.
Goddard argues the proposed law would make it easier for unbalanced people to carry guns anywhere they chose, including states with more stringent concealed gun laws. And he isn't the only critic.
Mayors from 450 cities took out an ad in "USA Today," urging senators to vote down the amendment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What it would do is it would put an enormous number of guns on the streets, and it takes away states' rights.
COSTELLO: But the National Rifle Association says carrying a gun is a constitutional right and a matter of personal safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the scene of the crime, there's only two people there, the criminal and the victim, and that victim always ought to have the right to own a firearm and have a firearm to protect themselves if they choose.
COSTELLO: Case in point -- last year, a bank customer legally carrying a concealed weapon near Detroit thwarted a bank robber who claimed to have a bomb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told him I don't care, but you're not robbing the bank today.
COSTELLO: But critics say for every hero there are many more villains like Richard Poplawski, who legally owned guns and used them to kill three Pittsburgh police officers, and Seung-Hui Cho, who bought guns legally and killed 33 at Virginia Tech.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Now the proposed amendment is expected to go to a vote later today, and Democrats are scrambling to get the votes they need to defeat this measure. But remember, Republicans have twice this year scored significant pro-gun victories with substantial moderate Democratic support.
So, it should be interesting to watch later today, John.
ROBERTS: Yes. A lot of controversy about this.
And, Carol, coming up in our 7:00 hour we're going to have our own duel of sorts, we're going to be joined by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, he's a fierce opponent of this measure, and one of the sponsors of the amendment -- Senator John Barrasso, who says that the permit should be legal everywhere - Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, health care will be front and center tonight when the president meets with -- in a prime-time press conference at the White House. And while the president is stepping up pressure on Congress to deliver health care reform before the August recess, he is meantime trying to win back the support of a key voting group -- independents.
Joining us now to look at that, Jennifer Donahue, political director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. She joins us in Newbury, New Hampshire this morning.
Good to see you, Jennifer.
JENNIFER DONAHUE, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, NEW HAMPSHIRE INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: Good morning.
CHETRY: And here with us in the studio is John Avlon, columnist for TheDailyBeast.com and author of "Independent Nation."
Good to see you as well, John.
JOHN AVLON, COLUMNIST, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: Good to see you.
CHETRY: Well, let's start with you, Jennifer.
So the president, of course, as we know, invested a lot in this debate. The latest polling by Gallup, though, shows that 50 percent of people when asked disapprove of the president's handling on health care policy.
What does he need to say tonight to win people back over?
DONAHUE: Well, a lot of this is now in the packaging of it. Because I think what's happened is the polling popularity and especially among independents, who have a less vested interest than Democrats in seeing this move forward, are starting to question it as it gets closer to reality.
It's one thing to like the idea of health care, universal health care, and to believe in that idea. It's another then to see the costs associated with it and to see the details. The devil is always in the details.
So as we get closer to the possibility of this, the president has to amp up his case. And he is smart to take it on in primetime, not to have Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi deliver this message, particularly when Congress is at odds over how to do it, but to brand it himself as really the best order of this issue, and to try to sell those people on the fence on this idea that this should be, in fact, an entitlement.
CHETRY: And, John, we talked about independents and how important of a voting bloc they are. They helped President Obama win the election.
AVLON: No question.
CHETRY: Now when it comes to how they feel about health care policy, they're also showing a little bit of signs of a cracking, I guess you could say. 57 percent approved of health care policy back in April. Now it's just 44 percent.
In terms of independents, what is worrying them the most about what's going on now?
AVLON: It's costs. On fiscal issues, independents are much closer to Republicans than Democrats. And here's where President Obama is suffering from a bit of bailout backlash. There's an exhaustion with the impression on spending we're seeing. And when they see health care now come down the pike with a trillion dollar price tag, they say hold on.
So, what he's got to do is move beyond the appeal to independents. He's got to bring them back as a bloc. This needs to be a bipartisan plan.
But it's not just a matter of style. He's got to put substance to it. He needs to start reaching out across the aisle substantively, to win over and adopt some Republican proposals like medical malpractice reform, a lot of people who purchase plans across state lines, and bring entitlement reform back into this package as well.
He's got to control the costs. Otherwise independent skepticism is going to continue, and that's going to be a problem not only for the legislation but for the administration.
CHETRY: But do you really think that Republicans are on board in any way, shape, or form to get this across even if he gets things like malpractice reform in there?
AVLON: No, no. I think they're going to do a party line vote, but it's important to have substantive outreach to say, look, I adopted these proposals in good faith. Then you can paint the Republicans as the party of "No." It's a very different situation than it was in 1994. But he cannot pass this legislation the way that unites the nation without winning over independents again, and they are breaking with the Obama administration.
DONAHUE: John, that's not true.
CHETRY: And Jennifer, you brought up an interesting point where you said he wants to take this out of the hands of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. One of the interesting things that we've been hearing, one Democratic senator told CNN that congressional Democrats, some of them claim they're baffled. They don't understand why there's not more involvement and more detail about what exactly they should be doing right now when it comes to this.
So, how does that get sorted out?
DONAHUE: Yes. I mean, I think part of the dynamic of that is that President Obama said that this would be Senator Kennedy's legislation. He said that during the campaign. What they need to avoid at all costs is a bad out roll like in '93, '94 when Hillary Clinton offered legislation that in some ways is very similar to some of the proposals on the table, but it was withheld from the Republicans. There was no compromise effort. Right now, if Obama doesn't look like he's reaching out to the middle and if Republicans look like they are the party of "No," Republicans will face a really difficult re-election prospect in 2010 and potentially 2012, which is what the parties are thinking about right now.
More than half the country wants some reform. You have to give them something. But if you give them too much, they will reject it, based on the heels of two stimulus packages and very high unemployment.
CHETRY: Yes, the timing really is everything right now. One of the things that a lot of our callers and writers to our blog, who identify themselves as independents, are saying why the rush, why does this have to get shoved through in the August recess? In the political world we know why.
DONAHUE: And they shouldn't rush, yes. They shouldn't rush, yes.
CHETRY: And John, why...
DONAHUE: If they were to rush, if they rush right through, I think what's going to happen really is that the backlash that's going to be so huge that the legislation is going to get killed.
CHETRY: John, if it doesn't happen by August, is it not going to happen then?
AVLON: No, I don't think that's the end of the world. This is the devil Democratic President since Harry Truman. Setting an August 7th deadline was ambitious, maybe too ambitious. The important thing is getting this ball down the field, making it and packaging it as reform that resonates with independents in the center.
That's the really important thing here. Doing a party line vote that rushes through by August 7th won't be a victory that's ultimately sustainable politically or practically for this administration.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll see what he says tonight as he takes this right to the people as we said.
John Avlon, great to have you. Jennifer Donahue, great to have you as well. Thanks for being with us this morning.
And a reminder, the president's address is just part of our special coverage tonight starting at 7:00 Eastern. Our "BLACK IN AMERICA" reports kick off with "MOMENT OF TRUTH." Then the president's address comes to us at 8:00 Eastern Time and at 9:00, Soledad O'Brien reports "BLACK IN AMERICA 2."
It's 38 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Good morning, Sacramento, where it's clear and 58 degrees. Later today, sunny and a high of 96.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It appears that California is a step closer to being able to pay its bills with real money instead of IOUs.
CHETRY: That's certainly a good thing, isn't it? Well, the cash-strapped state has been doing that for nearly three weeks, paying with these IOUs. But as CNN's Casey Wian tells us, the agreement to close California's 26 billion budget gap is still not a done deal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger compared the state's latest $26 billion deficit reduction deal to a Hollywood movie.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: I want to thank the legislative leaders for hanging in there and negotiating all these weeks and especially the last few hours. It was like a suspense movie.
WIAN: And California's lawmakers already are applauding.
SEN. DARREL STEINBERG (D), CALIF. SENATE PRESIDENT: I want to congratulate the governor and my fellow legislative leaders.
WINA: But the credits have yet to roll. Legislative leaders must persuade two-thirds of their rank and file to approve a plan that avoids new tax increases, but makes dramatic reductions in critical state services. They include nearly $9 billion from education over two years, $1.6 billion from health care for the poor, children and the disabled, and more than a billion dollars from prisons.
$1.3 billion would be saved by requiring state workers to take three days off without pay each month. The state also plans to divert $4 billion from cities and counties with a promise to repay half of it.
Los Angeles County may sue.
MICHAEL ANTONIVICH, L.A. COUNTY SUPERVISOR: What's taking place in Sacramento today is really highway robbery of local government's resources.
ZEV YAROSLOVSKY, L.A. COUNTRY SUPERVISOR: It stinks. It smells. It is bad public policy.
WIAN: California is one of eight states that failed to reach budget agreements by the start of the current fiscal year. Five still haven't.
New York's legislature was gridlocked in a political power struggle for five weeks this summer. Now there's another delay that's threatening the finances of New York City schools. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants drastic action. MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY (from WOR Radio): The governor can call back the state legislature every single day in Albany and he can -- and he can send the state troopers to drag them back unless they're out of the state. And he should do that.
WIAN: In California, parts of the budget deal are clearly accounting gimmicks. Lawmakers agreed to shift a payday for state workers from June 30th to July 1st, pushing more than a billion dollars in salary to the next fiscal year. The plan also accelerates personal and corporate tax collections to bring money into the state treasury sooner.
(on camera): Those provisions combined with speculative measures such as savings from state asset sales and new revenue from offshore oil drilling could mean lawmakers will need to repeat their deficit reduction performance in the not-to-distant future. That is unless the economy rebounds so quickly that state revenue increases faster than expected.
Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. Well, coming up in our next hour, we're going to be talking about that controversial proposal now before the Senate that would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines. New York Michael Bloomberg is strongly against it. He's going to be joining us to give his side at 7:30 Eastern.
It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: A pretty picture this morning of Chicago, Illinois. Mostly cloudy right now, it's 68 degrees, and some showers a little bit later, 77.
Our Rob Marciano is keeping track for us of weather around the country.
Boy, it doesn't feel like July still at least around these parts.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: About a month ago, you and John were saying, you know, when is summer going to get here, and I said...
CHETRY: We're still saying it.
MARCIANO: ...well, about now. You guys are still in the wet stuff. Although today looks OK. I think you're going to enjoy some sunshine today at some point.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: No. We just had to see the pictures. But these eclipse chasers, these people that spend thousands and thousands of dollars and go anywhere the eclipse is so they can get the best vintage point possible -- vantage point possible, it's very interesting.
MARCIANO: You got to buy some cloud insurance next time.
CHETRY: Very true. All right, Rob, thanks.
Forty-nine minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
We have a developing story that you have to see to believe. Jeanne Meserve shows us how lost luggage is helping us fly safer skies.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, I'm in a warehouse surrounded by thousands and thousands of pieces of luggage. Because a bomb can be hidden in a suitcase, these are valuable tools in devising better aviation security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): Airplanes blown to smithereens all in the name of science and security. But wait. This story really begins at the Transportation Security Laboratory in Atlantic City, where Patrick O'Connor builds bombs for the government.
PATRICK O'CONNOR, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY LAB: This is a real explosive that I have here in my hand.
MESERVE: O'Connor has built hundreds of improvised explosive devices disguised as electronics, footwear, even an innocuous looking stack of DVDs. The designs evolve based on intelligence about the bombs terrorists are building.
O'CONNOR: You usually use a thief to catch a thief, and that's what we do here.
MESERVE: Some of the bombs are detonated in old planes to test whether a similar device could bring down a flight. Others are put in luggage and run through screening machines. If the bombs are not detected, scientists try to close the security gap to beat the terrorists.
SUSAN HALLOWELL, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY LAB: It's a game of cat and mouse. We understand what they're doing. They understand, to some measure, what we're doing. And we counteract that with better, improved technology.
MESERVE: Machines are not the total answer.
ROBIN KANE, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: And, at the end of the day, the technology detects very specific threats. It does not detect a terrorist.
MESERVE: But better machines would be a valuable tool. Scientists do a high resolution cross section scan of a peanut M&M to show us how they might someday be able to ferret out explosive material by examining its density and granularity. Others are trying to crack the problem of detecting liquid explosives by capturing and measuring the vapors emitted from a homemade concoction concealed in a bottle of cold medicine.
HALLOWELL: Well, I can't tell you what's in the micro bottle, but it's something that -- that's really bad that we need to keep off the airplanes.
MESERVE: Not all the work being done here will lead to better bomb detection. But some might and could prevent something like this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): Researchers here practice something they call Bagology. They will take a suitcase like this and run it through a screening machine fully loaded in order to determine what sorts of ordinary objects set off false alarms. That way they can eliminate them, making aviation security more efficient as well as more effective.
John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning. Jeanne, thanks so much.
So, health care, it's all the talk these days. Is it something going to get done or is it not. It's interesting that Harry and Louise, remember them from the 1990s. They're back again, only this time, they're on the other side of the issue.
Jim Acosta has got that story coming up next.
It's 55 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Fifty-seven minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
You may remember back in 1994, the health insurance industry helped derail President Clinton's plan for health care reform with the help of the "Harry and Louise" ads. Well now as President Obama pushes his plans for reform, Harry and Louise are back. But as our Jim Acosta reports, the two actors have changed their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Obama is urging Americans to tune out the forces against health care reform.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know that there are those in this town who openly declare their intention to block reform. It's a familiar Washington script that we've seen many times before. HARRY JOHNSON, ACTOR PLAYING "HARRY": Well, the paper says Congress is moving ahead on health care.
ACOSTA: But one part of that script has changed as in the pages marked "Harry and Louise." In 1994, the fictional couple appeared in TV ads sponsored by the insurance industry famously opposing President Clinton's plan for health care reform.
JOHNSON: If they chose...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We move.
ACOSTA: Flash forward 15 years.
JOHNSON: Oh, looks like we may finally get health care reform.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's about time.
ACOSTA: Harry and Louise are back. This time in favor of Democratic proposals to overhaul the system. Turning the kitchen table on the issue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little more cooperation, a little less politics, we can get the job done this time.
ACOSTA: So you got the old band back together.
RON POLLACK, FAMILIES USA DIRECTOR: We got the old band back together.
ACOSTA: But they're singing a different tune this time.
POLLACK: There are -- that's different lyrics. The lyrics now make it clear that it's very important for our nation to actually get health care reform and to get it this year.
ACOSTA: Health care reform advocate Ron Pollack with the groups Families USA brought the actors back to the studio hoping for some Harry and Louise magic of his own. In a behind the scenes look at the making of one spot, the actor playing Harry, whose name is Harry Johnson, gives his own take on health care.
JOHNSON: Hardly anyone can afford to have health care. People are losing health care every day.
ACOSTA: The original "Harry and Louise" spots were so powerful, they were spoofed by the Clintons themselves.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It says that eventually we are all going to die.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under the Clinton health plan? I've never been so frightened in all my life.
ACOSTA: And the actors just got a pat on the back from Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, who appeared unaware of the couples' recent role reversal.
MICHAEL STEELE, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Harry and Louise helped save us from Hillary Clinton's health care experiments in 1994. This year, Harry and Louise have been replaced by another couple Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: But nowhere in the new Harry and Louise spot is there a mention of the Democratic proposal to give Americans the option of joining a government-run health care program, the so called public option. That's because a co-sponsor of the new "Harry and Louise" ad, the pharmaceutical lobby "Pharma" says through a spokesperson that it's too early to tell whether it will support the public option -- John and Kiran.
CHETRY: Jim Acosta for us this morning.
Pretty interesting, isn't it?
ROBERTS: Absolutely.
CHETRY: All right. You said they've changed their tune.
