Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Health Care Reform Stalled in Congress; Sarah Palin Officially Resigns Governorship, Controversy Continues About President's Statement about Arrest of Harvard Professor; American Father Continues to Fight for Custody of His Kidnapped Son in Brazil; Cuba Tightens Its Belt
Aired July 27, 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: Meanwhile, we're crossing the top of the hour. Right now, 7:00 a.m. here in New York on this Monday, July 27th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho. John Roberts has the day off. It is 7:00 on the nose here on the East Coast.
Here are some of the stories we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
Sarah Palin's parting words as governor of Alaska packing quite a punch. Her jabs at Hollywood, the media, the anti-gun crowd and more. Our Candy Crowley's analysis is just ahead.
CHETRY: Also, does President Obama have the votes? The White House sounding strong, even confident on health care reform. But on Capitol Hill, there's plenty of talk from both sides of the aisle that the bill will not pass. So, is the president's plan on life support? We're live from the White House.
CHO: And with the two-week rally under its belt, the next few days could be critical for Wall Street -- 146 companies from the S&P 500 report earnings this week. Our Christine Romans has numbers to watch for.
Plus, why Fed chairman Ben Bernanke believes there may be a silver ling in this sagging economy.
Now that Sarah Palin is no longer governor of Alaska, a lot are wondering about her next move. She posted the final message on her official Alaska Twitter account yesterday, saying "God bless the USA and God bless Alaska."
But is she really preparing to run for higher office in 2012? Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley examines that possibility and Palin's fighting words in yesterday's goodbye to being governor speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: She is a one- woman sound bite machine.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: By the way, Hollywood needs to know, we eat, therefore we hunt.
CROWLEY: A warning from the moose hunting, fish catching Sarah Palin that Hollywood wants to take away the right to bear arms, an unexpected topic for a farewell speech.
As Palin handed over the Alaska governorship, the wear, tear, and resentments of a year on the big stage were evident.
Her parting words, a parting shot at the media.
PALIN: So how about in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up.
CROWLEY: Palin's farewell was a three-day rolling picnic from Wasilla to Anchorage to Fairbanks, surrounded by supporters dreaming big.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we get a woman president, let it be her. She's a real woman. She knows about what a woman is supposed to be. She's pro-life, she's pro-family, she's pro-woman.
CROWLEY: It was not all friendly going. Palin has lost some of her light in Alaska and a lot of it on national stage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She abandoned her state in the middle of a term. They didn't ask for her to run.
CROWLEY: The latest ABC/"Washington Post" poll found that 53 percent of Americans view Palin negatively, 40 percent see her positively.
Worse, four in ten Republicans don't think Palin understands complex issues.
Still, she wouldn't be the first politician to rehabilitate herself. And it's clear, while she's handing over the governor's chair, she's not relinquishing the microphone.
PALIN: With this decision now, I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right, and for truth.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWLEY: Palin's writing a book. She says she'll help other candidates. She'll give speeches. And one of her first post-governor events is at the Ronald Reagan Library in California.
She could make good money doing all of that. She could also be on a path that leads to 2012. It's called keeping your options open.
CHO: I just asked her that about five minutes ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did she say? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to know what she said? She said, "I don't know," with her little smirk.
CROWLEY: One thing is crystal clear, Sarah Palin, private citizen, sounds a lot like Sarah Palin, politician.
PALIN: And one other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family, too. So leave his kids alone.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWLEY: Exit stage right, but definitely don't fade to black.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Thanks, Candy.
Also, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinks we'll see a female president in the United States someday, but she says it won't be her. Mrs. Clinton appeared yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" and she ruled out the possibility of running for president again. Then was asked about the prospects for potentially a President Palin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does she have what it takes?
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: That's up to the voters to determine. It's up to the voters to determine with respect to anyone. I mean, putting together a presidential campaign is an extremely complicated enterprise.
So, I'm just going to leave it at that. And I will be an interested observer. I do want to see a woman elected president. I hope it's a Democratic woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And Mrs. Clinton says she believes there will be a female president sometime in her lifetime. It's interesting, when I interviewed then first lady Laura Bush and said do you think Hillary Clinton will be president? She said, "I want to see a female president. I hope it's a Republican."
CHO: Well, in the fight over health care reform, a big question remains, does President Obama have the votes to get a plan passed?
Pressure is mounting on the Hill, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saying they don't think support is there. Even Democrats are fighting within their own ranks.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is defying naysayers, telling our John King there will be reform.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It is the speaker's job sometimes, and you know it a lot better I, to referee disputes within the family. Are you worried your family is coming apart on this and that you might now have the votes on the floor?
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: Absolutely, positively not.
KING: You have the votes?
PELOSI: When I take this bill to the floor, it will win. But we will move forward. This will happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Our Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House this morning. Suzanne, the administration really on a full-court press this weekend trying to do some damage control, right?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Damage control and also express a sense of confidence. We heard Nancy Pelosi talking about they are going to get this through. That is what you're hearing publicly.
Privately they are saying, look, that what they want to do is they want to put the president out there. He'll continue to push for this, and essentially that he's still a viable, credible player when it comes to this, that despite the fact he did not get that deadline that he was hoping for, that he still has some political capital to try to push this thing through.
So public, you're going to hear a lot of confidence, a lot of optimism. Privately, once again, you'll see a little bit of that arm twisting.
I want you to take a listen to how David Axelrod put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID AXELROD, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: We're less interested in hard deadlines than in moving the process forward. The deadlines have had a disciplining affect. Three of the five committees of jurisdiction in the Congress have passed bills. The other two are working hard on it.
We want to move this process forward. Even if both the House and Senate had voted on the bills before the break, this would still go, as you know, well into the fall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And Alina, they're absolutely right. It is going to go well into the fall. We expect the president to be traveling this week. But he also, in August, they talk about the August recess, that he is really going to be pushing this forward very aggressively in August.
And one of the things they do concede is that it's going to take a lot of work. It is going to take some more time. They have been emphasizing, they say they have got about 80 percent of this thing done, 20 percent of it not done. but it is that 20 percent, Alina, that we know that is going to be the very tough sell.
I want you to hear from a top Republican who put it this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) MINORITY LEADER: The House bill and the Senate Health Committee bill, they pay for it by cutting doctors, cutting hospitals, and raising taxes on small business. Those are very difficult pay-fors, and they are having a hard time selling it to their own members.
The only thing bipartisan about the measures so far is the opposition to them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Alina, however, there is a bipartisan measure or at least a measure that seems to be gaining some bipartisan support, the so-called Cadillac tax. It is a tax on a gold-plated Cadillac plan, insurance plans are offered to high execs and that this is something that insurance companies will offer.
It's very expensive. They say if they go ahead and tax insurance companies that perhaps they will get some of that revenue they desperately need for health care reform.
Cut critics are saying, look, if you tax those health care insurance companies for an expensive plan, it's just going to go back to the consumer and be put on the consumer. So there's still some debate over there.
But at least it's one of these ideas that seems to be percolating now that you've got time to think all these different plans through --Alina?
CHO: Suzanne Malveaux, live for us at the White House. Suzanne, thank you.
Coming up, we're going to be talking to two people who really are on opposite sides in terms of viewpoints, Democrat and a Republican, on President Obama weighing in on Henry Louis Gates scandal. Of course that's the -- controversy, rather.
He's a Harvard professor who was arrested inside his home on July 16th. We'll have that interview for you coming up next. It's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Eleven minutes after the hour.
New developments in the controversial arrest of prominent Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. T he woman who first called 911 said she never uttered a word about race when she reported a break in at Gates's home, or what she thought was a break in.
And now there are new questions this morning about President Obama's about-face in the case. Here are his two comments again, coming just two days apart. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Cambridge police acted stupidly.
I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning Cambridge police department or Sergeant Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those word different.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Here to talk about this, Karen Finney, former communications director for the Democratic National Committee, and Tara Wall, political analyst for "The Washington Times" and former adviser to the Republican National Committee. Thank you both for joining us. Good morning to you.
Karen, I want to start with you. We have got health care reform on the table, we've got an economy in shambles by most accounts, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet, at a prime-time news conference, President Obama weighs in on this matter. Some have suggested that's not really presidential to comment on what is essentially a local matter.
So why weigh in?
KAREN FINNEY, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I think it's the kind of question that any president would have been asked. It raises some serious sort of questions about race and bias in our country.
You know, and on the political side, I might say if I was working in the White House or advising, I might have wanted him to say it in a slightly different way.
But as an American, I was very proud that he weighed in and that, frankly, that he kept true and honest to what his feelings were.
Clearly we know in this incident, this is not necessarily about the two men specifically. It touched a deeper nerve, I think, for all of us. So I think the president was speaking to that, and I think that was the right thing to do.
CHO: You talk about that deeper nerve. Tara, I want to get to you. The president said by his own administration that he could have calibrated those words differently. But setting that aside, by weighing in, perhaps the president opened what is now a bigger and better discussion on race. You can say all you want that racial profiling doesn't exist, and there is no way to tell whether is actually happened in this case.
But racial profiling has happened in this country. I suspect it does continue to happen. So why not have this conversation? Is it such a bad conversation to have?
TARA WALL, NEWS ANCHOR AND POLITICAL ANALYST, "THE WASHINGTON TIMES": The president did two things. Certainly, the good thing about what he said was that he elevated the discussion on race, of course.
But the bad thing is he elevated it in a way he now regrets elevating it in that way. I'm sure that is not the way he wanted to frame up this discussion, and this not how you push the discussion forward as it relates to race and race relations.
And, quite frankly, there are things that he probably could have thought about beforehand, knowing that this was going to come up, to move the discussion forward.
One of the things his predecessor did, for example, President Bush, issued an attack on racial profiling in 2001 when it was occurring, and made a promise he was going to put an end to it, and in 2003 issued the first ever federal ban on racial profiling.
So if President Obama wants to elevate this discussion on race as opposed to having knee-jerk reactions which diminish your credibility, the best course of action is to talk about productive ways to do this.
FINNEY: I think actually his credibility would have been damaged if on Friday he went into the briefing room he would have completely just taken everything back.
Look, this is a president who has a lot on his plate both on the domestic front and the foreign front. And one of the things we've seen fairly consistently in the poll numbers is honesty, shares my values. The American people trust him, and I think, unlike most politicians.
We all know, we've all been there. The political thing to have done would have been to go in and just completely apologize and try to sweep it under the rug and move on.
But he didn't do that, actually. He said, I might have been able to calibrate or say this differently, but he stayed true to the spirit of what he said initially. I think he maintains a lot of credibility.
And I hope that by inviting both men to the White House, we are able to elevate the conversation, because we do know that there are a number of issues left unsaid.
This comes out on the heels, two weeks ago we saw a group of children kicked out of a swimming pool. And some of the comments that were made during the Sotomayer hearings, it was appalling to hear a senator speak to a woman, a Hispanic woman, a candidate for the Supreme Court that way.
So there are a lot of issues that are still out there, and hopefully we can use it as a teachable moment.
(CROSSTALK)
WALL: I would just disagree slightly with the credibility issue. He is president. His words carry a lot of weight. And he has to remember that before speaking out before having facts is not very presidential. I think that he has to take that in consideration.
CHO: No matter where you fall on this issue, I mean, one thing is for certain, and Tara, you took the words out of my mouth, no more powerful megaphone that the presidential megaphone. So that is for sure.
Karen Finney, former communications director for Democratic National Committee and political analyst for the "Washington Times," former adviser to the Republican National Committee, we thank you for both joining us.
FINNEY: Thank you.
WALL: Thank you.
It's 15 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Now, that's a beautiful shot.
CHO: Gorgeous shot this morning in St. Louis.
CHETRY: Isn't that beautiful, the arch.
CHO: Love it. It's 67 degrees right now. It's going to be 89 and sunny, pretty nice.
CHETRY: I think they have some storms in New York, I think.
CHO: Always.
CHETRY: Not so good.
CHO: The entire month of July, practically.
Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We have Christine Romans with us. She has been tracking stimulus money for us. It's very interesting, this Recovery.org Web site. You get to find out at least where some of the money goes. And you guys do some digging from there. So where is it all going?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Recovery.gov is the Web site, and it's really interesting. You can go in there and find your own hometown, home state, find out exactly what companies are getting these contracts.
We found one in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It's $9.3 million for an unused train station. This is one folks that the stimulus critics zoom in on and says this is not stimulus. This is one that's on their list of the 100 projects they don't like.
Basically, it's an abandoned train station and a platform that serves about 84,000 people every year, but they are going to refurbish the train station there.
And there has been increased use of that Amtrak spot, so they are going to put a little coffee shop in there. But that's $9 million for that.
Another one in Colorado is Bird Watching Road. This is Pawnee national grassland. Apparently this is a good place to watch rafters. If you like to watch rafters, this is the place to go. But they're going to spend $2.5 million to fix up some roads that have eroded so you can go bird watching.
CHETRY: Where is this?
ROMANS: This is in Colorado, yes, for capital improvement and maintenance. You can go right on recovery.gov and see it for yourself.
Another one here, 23 fellowships for early career scientists. About $3 million for 23 different fellowships for people for global health. This is about global health research leaders is what they are trying to fund.
This fits into the president's idea of , frankly, trying to push people into medicine and research and engineering and technology, that these are the kinds of jobs for the future.
And quickly, $55 billion is Romans numeral for today, $55 billion. This is how much is expected to be wasted or lost or lost to fraud from the entire stimulus, $55 billion. This is according to Earl Devaney, the recovery accountability and transfer -- the guy who oversees the whole --
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: In his confirmation hearing, he said 7 percent of these projects are estimated to be lost to waste. That's about $55 billion.
CHO: But if they can figure that out and they can also track it down to $250 for work boots in West Virginia, why can't they find the $55 billion in fraud and stop it?
ROMANS: And that's what we're doing right now, ladies and gentlemen, by keeping an eye on every one of these projects. We've been calling the people who are getting the contracts. And sometimes they are not very happy to hear from us, quite frankly.
But calling them when they get the contracts and saying, "Hi. Guess what? We're following your contract. How many people have you hired? How are you spending the money? They love to talk to us.
CHETRY: I bet they do.
ROMANS: That's what we're doing.
CHO: Well, we love that you do that.
So that was your numeral, $55 billion.
ROMANS: $55 billion.
CHO: Christine Romans. Thanks, Christine.
ROMANS: Thank you.
CHO: It's 22 minutes after the hour. We're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
You know this next story from the father's point of view. We've all heard that. A little boy caught in an international tug-of- war between his American dad and his stepfamily in Brazil.
The child's father was here on AMERICAN MORNING telling his story.
CHO: We had a chance to talk to him. He's just really, really in a bad way trying to get his son back. He actually moved to Brazil.
But now CNN, in an exclusive for the first time, is able to talk to the Brazilian family. And they speak at length from their home in Rio de Janeiro. Our Doug Feyerick traveled to Rio to get their side of the story.
You know, in the end this is a little boy who is caught in the middle of all this, and both sides want him.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And it's the child who is going to lose in all of this, at least initially.
But this boils down to something really very basic. If you were unhappy in your marriage, how far would you go to keep your child? Would you break the law, kidnap your kid hoping to gain custody in another state, another country? It's a desperate, terrible choice, but one thousands of parents have made, defying court rulings again and again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: At the age of 35, Bruna Bianci had everything she dreamed of, living in Brazil with her American-born son, happily remarried, a baby on the way, her own business. It was almost perfect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was really, really brave to come here. She wanted her life back.
FEYERICK: It came with a price. Bruna gambled she'd be able to keep her son Sean in Brazil and work out custody with her first husband in New Jersey, David Goldman.
FEYERICK (on camera): No one except Bruna knows the exact moment she decided to stay here in Brazil, but it's at this point that the story's husband and wife take sharply different turns.
FEYERICK (voice-over): David went to court in New Jersey, Bruna in secret went to court in Brazil, and attempt to beat the system. Each got custody. But under the terms of the Hague Convention, the U.S. court ordered Sean be immediately brought home.
PATER LAUZON, CHILD CUSTODY EXPERT: Oftentimes parents are not allowed to move, and that's why, in all likelihood, she took this particular step of kidnapping the child.
FEYERICK: Goldman says Bruna warned him not to go to police, threatening --
DAVID GOLDMAN, FATHER: I would never see my son again.
FEYERICK: Her mother and brother say not true.
FEYERICK (on camera): Was she threatening him, don't come, you'll never see your son?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She asked him to come many, many times.
FEYERICK: Goldman's attorney called the invitation a bold-faced lie. Meanwhile, years passed. Sean was living in Rio, learning Portuguese, and making friends.
Then, tragically, last August, his mom died hours after giving birth to a daughter. Again, Sean's world was about to change. A Brazilian high court judge ordered Sean's immediate return to Goldman, concluding Bruna's family had alienated the child from his real dad.
Sean's stepdad is making a legal claim for Sean to stay in Brazil, where he's lived half his life.
GOLDMAN: I'm pleased with this decision today.
FEYERICK (on camera): Why, as a stepfather, you are fighting for custody of another man's biological child?
JOAO PAULO LINS E SILVA, STEPFATHER: I was 60 percent of Sean's life. I've given him love, care, protection, supporting him financially.
GOLDMAN: Silva, a man with no blood relation, to keep another parent's child is against their own laws. CHETRY (voice-over): So why is Sean, now nine, still in Brazil?
SILVANA BIAHNCHI RIBEIRO, GRANDMOTHER: She always asked me to me, to "Mom, if someday, something will happen to me, please, Sean, he's your son. Promise that you are going to stay with him."
FEYERICK: Bruna's family, still grieving her death, is determined to fight on.
SILVA: Can you imagine that you have to live in America, and you have to live with someone that you don't know but is your biological father, and you do not remember? Just go. I mean, he doesn't want to go.
BIAHNCHI RIBEIRO: He's so sad. And I miss my daughter so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: While the Hague Convention does consider the best interest of the child and length of time living in a different place, experts say it's a flawed argument because it rewards the initial act of kidnapping.
CHO: You were talking earlier about this. I mean, this boy, Sean, was taken to Brazil when he was four years old. He's now nine. You talk about all those early memories really are there with the mom.
FEYERICK: That's exactly right. And that's exactly what the family is arguing. The family is arguing, look, do you just simply snatch this kid back out of Brazil? Doesn't that constitute another abduction?
Again, the initial argument, you can't kidnap twice.
CHO: But is dad says it's a totally different story, because he's there in Brazil fighting to get him. He gave up his whole life here. And he has visitation with him. And he says that he feels the child is being told to say this stuff.
So again, two sides to every story. In the end no one wins if the child is not happy.
FEYERICK: And David has won all the court arguments, at least here in the U.S., and then at higher court levels in Brazil.
CHO: Do you think the child knows what's going on?
FEYERICK: He does. He does.
But again, you can't put the weight on a nine-year-old child to make the decision. Do I stay with the family I've known the last five years of my life? I'm only nine. Or do I go back to my American father who loves me, but what life is it? I don't know.
So that's complicated.
CHO: Great reporting, though, definitely.
FEYERICK: Thank you.
CHO: We are tracking developing stories for you, several of them. It's just crossing half past the hour.
Just a short time ago French President Nicolas Sarkozy left a Paris hospital after an overnight stay. Doctors were monitoring his heart. The 54-year-old Sarkozy collapsed while jogging in hot weather on Sunday.
Officials say his test results came back normal. They also say when President Sarkozy collapsed he never lost consciousness.
CHETRY: Also, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is due back in court today for resentencing. Who is he? He's a Virginia man convicted of joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate former President George W. Bush while he was still in office.
He joined al Qaeda after going to Saudi Arabia in 2002 for college. Last year, an appeals court decided that a 30 year sentence was too lenient.
CHO: Plus, a 23-year-old man in New Jersey has been arrested for the hit-and-run death of former "American Idol" contestant Alexis Coen. She was killed Saturday at Seaside Heights, New Jersey and police have ruled her death a homicide. You may remember Coen for auditioning twice on "American Idol." And went twice rejected her choice words for judge Simon Cowell had to be censored for TV.
CHETRY: Lance Armstrong wasn't the first to cross the finish line this year. Of course, he's a seven-time Tour de France winner but instead his team mate and rival Spaniard Alberto Contador won the race and he also won the coveted yellow jersey.
CHO: You know, it's Armstrong's first appearance in the race in four years. And at 38 years old, he still managed to finish third. So he made it to the podium. Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke to the seven-time champ him in Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Coming in first, is that something you thought about? I mean, did you care? You write it's not about the bike but do you care if you come in first or not?
LANCE ARMSTRONG, SEVEN-TIME TOUR DE FRANCE CHAMPION: Well, I wanted to come in first. But sometimes in sports, there's somebody that's better. And I was that guy for seven years. And I never understood what it felt like to get second or third.
I'm 38 now, and you race guys that are 24, 25, or 26. And they are fast. They are strong. They have acceleration. They have all those things you had at that age. Then you get third. That's the great thing about the tour, is that the best man always wins. GUPTA: How was this race different for you in terms of how you trained, what you ate? Were there differences compared to five years ago.
ARMSTRONG: Well, I used a lot of the same training, the same idea with diet. The only difference, I guess, is that I'm now 38 years old. So a 38-year-old man does not wake up every day like a 28- year-old. But I can't complain. I think I rode well.
GUPTA: Why come back after four years? What inspired this?
ARMSTRONG: Obviously, I have to have a love for the bike, a love for the tour. Otherwise it's too hard, it's way too damn hard to go out and do this. But my passion for fighting cancer, and fighting not just in Texas and the United States but around the world.
GUPTA: When you look at you the man, Lance, and the issue of cancer, do you think the people separate that? I mean, do they understand why you're riding and why you came back?
ARMSTRONG: Yes, I think so. You know, these days it's easy to get feedback. When people have a comment or have an issue, they let you know. And most of them are regarding cancer. That tells me that the people understand. They have been affected either themselves or their loved one and they understand it. And they say keep going. Pedal hard for them tomorrow, pedal hard for my mom, or my neighbor, or my co-worker.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: You know what, he was telling Sanjay -- Sanjay was saying his heart pumps 90 gallons per minute compared to five gallons per minute for a normal person.
CHETRY: He's super human.
CHO: He is. And he gets double amount of oxygen for every breath that he takes. So, it's no surprise that he won seven times.
CHETRY: Yes, but it was interesting what he said. You feel it when the athletes are 10, 15 years younger than you and they have that acceleration and you don't.
CHO: And you know, he was 27 the first time he won, he's 38 now. So (inaudible) the body slows down.
CHETRY: As my grandmother used to say, you can't fight...
CHO: Not that we know, but we've heard. We have heard that the body slows down.
CHETRY: Exactly.
CHO: Stay with us for more of Sanjay's interview with Lance Armstrong. The two are going to talk about the problem of doping in cycling. That's at 8:30 Eastern time here on the most news in the morning.
CHETRY: Well, would you believe this if I said gas is going to go up to $20 a gallon in our lifetime?
CHO: Maybe.
CHETRY: Would you believe it if I said that was a good thing?
CHO: Definitely not.
CHETRY: Well, we have the author of the book who wrote this interesting, interesting pieces about why we will see $20 a gallon gas and why it will change our lives for the better.
Thirty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. You know, last summer loads of people actually parked their cars, and they decided to get rid of their SUVs. They walked, they biked, they car- pooled, yes, because gas soared to four bucks a gallon on average nationwide. And a lot of people were wondering how high is it going to go. Well, now AAA says the national average, this is a year later, $2.50 a gallon today.
Our next guest says, though, cheap fillups aren't going to last forever, but that's a good thing. Christopher Steiner, senior staff reporter at "Forbes," he also wrote the book "$20 per gallon" about the inevitable rise of gas and how it's going to change our lives for the better. Christopher, thanks for being with us this morning.
CHRISTOPHER STEINER, AUTHOR, $20 PER GALLON: Thank you.
CHETRY: How do you convince people to worry about the price of gasoline when it's relatively low, as we said it as $4 last year and now on average it's $2.50 a gallon.
STEINER: Well, some people you can't convince to worry. But I think as economies recover across the world and we get this two billion people that are going to enter the global middle class for the next 30 years. Right now, there is only a billion people on the globe. The price of oil will go up, it's inevitable.
CHETRY: And you talk about the growing middle class in both China and India. How are they going to affect the world as we know it in terms of gasoline usage?
STEINER: Sure. Well, those people want to live the same type of lives we already have. China just passed the United States as the largest car market in the world during the first half of 2009. I mean, that's an amazing thing. If someone had told you that was going to happen 10 years ago, you would have thought they were nuts. CHETRY: The other interesting thing that you wrote about in your book is how - when we talk about, you know, how gas is a natural resource, obviously it's not an infinite resource. How it takes - what did you say, for every six gallons of gas or for every six gallons of gas we use, we only take one out of the ground.
STEINER: Well, for every six barrels we use.
CHETRY: Barrels of oil.
STEINER: Yes, same difference. We only find one. So we're using at a much greater rate than we're finding because we found most of the good oil.
CHETRY: And also the process it takes for us to get gasoline now is much harder. So how does it translate to the person at home who is driving an SUV who, you know, wants to be able to drive what they want and he's thinking it's $2.50 a gallon right now.
STEINER: Right. Right. And it's hard to force people to change when life is so easy at $2.50. And so, what you're going to see is people aren't going to change a lot until they have a reason to. And that reason is going to be the price of gas. So I think when people think about tomorrow, if they got up and the price of gas was three times as much, would they drive as far to go to work. Would they be willing to drive their kids as far, would they be willing to live in the same town they live in now. And the answer for a lot of people is no.
CHETRY: The other interesting thing is you talk about this psychological tipping point, it's $6 a gallon. When do you think we're going to see $6 a gallon?
STEINER: I think that could happen in the next three to four years. And the reason $6 is so important is because we've already been to $4. And I don't think that would blow anybody away psychologically, though it certainly changed how we live in America. Americans drove 100 billion less miles last year than the year before. We never had a statistic like that ever before and that was due to $4 price of gas.
CHETRY: All right. So what about the subtitle in your book where it's going to change our lives for the better. How is it going to be better if it costs us so much money? If it takes that chunk out of our paychecks every month?
STEINER: Right. Right. Well, there's a bevy of reasons. But it goes back to things how we live. I mean, how we live is largely determined by where we live. And as we move denser, you're going to see obesity rates down. Our environment's going to clean up and we'll become more energy independent. We certainly won't be totally energy independent but capitalism needs an incentive for people to develop alternative energies and that incentive eventually will be the price of gas.
CHETRY: It's very interesting that we talked about having incentives. We still apparently don't have enough incentives to change it. But it's very interesting because we took a look at your, if you will, the good and the bad happens at different price points. So let's put up quickly what happens at $6 a gallon. You say the good part is the death of the SUV. Some people say that's good, some people will say it's not so good.
STEINER: Sure.
CHETRY: Los Angeles emerge from the smog. And you say that there's 15,600 lives saved a year by what, just by people being off the roads?
STEINER: And that's just from car crashes, the fatalities. We lose over 45,000 people a year on the roads. And as the price of gas go up, we lose fewer and fewer.
CHETRY: Let's go to when gas is $20 a gallon, which a lot of people at home are cringing and saying I hope this doesn't happen. But if you said 90 percent of Americans will live in cities, 70 percent of people will never own a car. But on the bad end of that nuclear reactors power everything and polyesters too expensive for clothes. Explain that.
STEINER: Well, polyester comes straight from gasoline. So we'll find different fibers, natural fibers to wear. I mean, I don't think anybody cares about that. But as we move to closer things, as we live more urbanly we'll ride mass transportation. And we will walk to work, we'll walk to grocery stores and we'll walk to school. I mean, that's how a lot of people already live.
CHETRY: What happens to the suburbs.
STEINER: The suburbs? The far out ones? They probably turn back to farms. A lot of those homes are just going to fall over.
CHETRY: Well, it's very interesting. You paint a great picture. Your thesis is very interesting as well. For people that are looking to find out more, it's "$20 per gallon" gas. Christopher Steiner, thanks for being with us this morning.
STEINER: Thank you.
CHO: Kiran, thanks.
After the controversial arrest of prominent Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, police in the Boston area are asking for some understanding. Our Elaine Quijano goes on a ride along next. It's 43 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back to Most News in the Morning.
There is new information this morning in the case of the arrest of prominent black Harvard professor in Massachusetts, Henry Louis Gates. The woman who called police is now coming forward, say she never mentioned race when she called 911. And cops are now facing more scrutiny over split second judgments of people that some claimed are influenced by race. Is that fair? And what kind of instant decisions are cops forced to make in the heat of the moment?
Our Elaine Quijano live from our Boston bureau this morning with that side of the story. You actually went on ride along, Elaine. What did you find?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I did. You know, obviously cops are very sensitive and want to make sure that people understand really what it is that they are dealing with. I can tell you that taking a step back from this, all sides are obviously trying to put this very controversial issue to rest. But here in the Boston area, it is very clear hard feelings remain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): Sergeant James Crowley wants to move past the controversy over his arrest of Harvard professor Henry Gates.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you satisfied with how the president handled this?
SGT. JAMES CROWLEY, CAMBRIDGE POLICE: Yes.
QUIJANO: But in Cambridge this weekend, signs placed in Professor Gates yard while he was out of town accused him of playing the race card. They have since been removed. In neighboring Arlington, Massachusetts.
OFFICER MIKE HOGAN, ARLINGTON, MASS. POLICE: We treat everybody the same.
QUIJANO: Officer Mike Hogan, a decorated eight-year veteran of the force won't comment specifically on Gates' arrest but thinks the public needs to understand...
HOGAN: There's no such thing as a routine call or a routine (INAUDIBLE), because it's such a dangerous job that you don't know what you're going to run into. 6-9, control number 10. Just got a 911 hang-up call. So we're going to respond to that house.
QUIJANO: In minutes he's there after as a second officer arrived. After a quick look inside he determines it was an accidental call.
HOGAN: That's a perfect example of we don't know what we're walking into.
QUIJANO: But Hogan recalls a different ending in this neighborhood. Another 911 hang-up, a man answers the door, insists nothing is wrong, then refuses to allow Hogan inside.
HOGAN: I kind of pushed the door open, stepped closer to him. And behind him I found there was a female who was standing in the hallway crying. She said, please, help me. Help me. QUIJANO: The woman had called 911 after being raped repeatedly. Those split second judgments familiar to all police officers. While he acknowledges racial profiling may exist, Hogan says most cops just want one thing.
HOGAN: They are out there every day just trying to help people.
QUIJANO: Back in Cambridge, Sgt. Leon Lashley has a nuance view. He was there the day of Gates' arrest and fully supports Sgt. Crowley's actions insisting he's no rogue cop. But as a black man, Lashley says he knows firsthand what it's like to be viewed suspiciously.
SGT. LEON LASHLEY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. POLICE: Hopefully we still continue to have dialogue on it. Because it is a big issue and it's a concern for everybody. And it's something that needs to come out. And people need to be able to talk about it, I mean, openly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: As for dialogue, as for that sit-down over beers at the White House with President Obama, Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gates, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday he hopes it will happen over the next several days. Alina.
CHO: Elaine Quijano live for us from our Boston bureau. Elaine, thank you.
Forty-eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Good morning, New York City. There's a look right now at the Jacqueline Onassis-Kennedy reservoir. And a lot going on in Central Park today.
CHO: You ever run around?
CHETRY: Yes, beautiful.
CHO: That's great.
CHETRY: What is it exactly like -- is it 1.6 miles? 1.2.
CHO: It feels like a mile.
CHETRY: OK. Fine. It feels like 1.6.
CHO: Feels like three on some days.
CHETRY: If you are running, you have to run between the rain drops today because it's cloud cloudy, 72 and a little later we're getting some isolated thunderstorms, 88 degrees here in the city.
Here's a look at some of the top videos right now on cnn.com.
She won the lottery almost nine months ago, but says she still hasn't seen a penny. We'll see her in a second.
Well, a British woman accidentally dropped her winning ticket. She said two people picked up her winnings, and then used them to get out of debt. There she is. Now a UK court has ordered the couple to pay what's left of that half of the original, which was $50,000.
Well, breathing easier in Beijing, factory closures have made the city's air the cleanest it's been in almost a decade. It's a silver lining in the slumping economy.
And also, a massive hailstorm ripped through Wisconsin this weekend. Pebble-sized chunks of ice pelting the southwest portion of the state taking down trees and causing flooding damage, as well. So, wow, in Wisconsin, you saw that mess out there.
Rob Marciano's keeping track of all of the extreme weather for us. It's that time of year, right? Some of those severe storms we see right in the heart of the summer.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, just about anybody can get them, especially where the head and humidity builds the most. And we're starting to get into that pattern where the east coast finally is seeing some humidity build. So all along the i-95 corridor, where you'll see it today, afternoon pop up thunderstorms, and then we'll highlight an area just west of Chicago in red, where we think we'll probably see a more strong storms pop up late this afternoon.
We are seeing a little bit of showers and storms rolling off the Delmarva. That won't last too long and then you'll get into your humidity building into the afternoon and you'll see more of those thunderstorms pop up. Dallas, northwest across the Red River, also seeing a few showers there this morning, it shouldn't be too bad. 87 degrees in Dallas. It will be 108 in Vegas. Record breaking heat across the Pacific northwest 82 degrees in Atlanta, and 83 degrees in New York City.
All right, got to love AA ball in the heart of summer. The Binghamton Mets' mascot doing a little dance over the center field. Oh, my goodness that's got to hurt. That's got to sting in the nest as a matter of fact. My goodness that hurts to watch, doesn't it? Anyway, apparently bingo, the bumblebee does this deal after a home run. There was a grand slam so he decided to take it to another level and obviously, yes, wings are a little creepy.
CHETRY: He took it to another level.
MARCIANO: What was that?
CHETRY: He took it to another level, Rob, two octaves higher.
MARCIANO: Yes, I...
CHETRY: Although I tell you what -- that's the time when you're grateful for the bulk of the suit, the mascot...
CHO: Yes.
CHETRY: You know, the padding takes the edge off.
MARCIANO: I can tell you as a man, I'm not sure it's going to take much of the edge off of that particular fall. Anyway, guys, more obligatory animal video, although that would be a man dressed up in an animal suit.
CHETRY: I have an obligatory animal video for you next time we see you. A fish story, my mother-in-law caught what maybe the biggest flounder in Delaware this season.
MARCIANO: Really?
CHETRY: They've already fried it up and eaten it, but...
CHO: She beat your father-in-law, it was like not even close.
CHETRY: The jury's still out whether she reeled it in herself. But anyway, I'll show you a little bit later, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right. Sounds good.
CHETRY: Thanks.
MARCIANO: See you.
CHO: Sarah Palin is now officially the ex-governor of Alaska. She spent her last day, you know, handing out hot dogs at the governor's picnic.
CHETRY: Yes, a huge picnic.
CHO: So, you know, the big question, the $50,000 question, what is she going to do now? Her husband says on to the next chapter, advisers say we're going to hear a lot more from citizen Palin. We're going to talk a lot more about this next. It's 55 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Cuban president Raul Castro says the global economic crisis means tougher times ahead. But unlike his brother Fidel, Raul says the communist island nation can't blame all of its problems on America. CNN's Shasta Darlington is reporting from Cuba for us.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran and Alina. Cuba commemorated Revolution Day this weekend, usually an opportunity to reflect on the state of the nation. Right from the top, President Raul Castro warned of new cost-cutting measures up the road.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DARLINGTON (voice-over): President Raul Castro says hard times are not about to let up.
Adding a second belt tightening plan will be hammered out in coming days to deal with the fallout of the global economic crisis. Especially the reduction of revenues from exports and additional restrictions on accessing external financing, Castro says.
Cubans are already feeling the squeeze. Public transport has been reduced. The government has ordered factories and businesses to cut energy consumption or face sanctions. This global slowdown has hit Cuba hard. Revenues from key exports like nickel are down, the price of imports like food is up.
But this war veteran says he's not worried about the future.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): We've always managed to pull through, he says, we'll pull through any situation.
DARLINGTON: 200,000 Cubans packed into the parade grounds in Ogin (ph) in eastern Cuba to hear Raul Castro speak. He took a few swipes at the U.S. trade embargo but made it clear Cubans have only themselves to blame for agricultural shortages.
It's not just a question of shouting fatherland or death, down with imperialism, the blockade knocks us out when the land is there waiting for our sweat. It's a message Castro surely hopes Cubans will take home with them after the party is over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DARLINGTON: We should get more details about those cost-cutting measures this week. Not exactly what many Cubans wanted to hear on their holiday. Kiran, Alina?
CHO: Shasta Darlington from Cuba for us. Good morning, everybody. Almost crossing the top of the hour. 59 minutes after the hour. It's Monday, July 27th. Good morning, everybody. Glad you're with us. I'm Alina Cho. John Roberts has the morning off.
