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American Morning
Body of Missing Yale University Student Found; President Obama Under Attack by Osama bin Laden in a Newly Released Videotape; President Obama Heads to Wall Street to Talk About Economy; Serena Williams Displays Disorder on the Court; What Changed a Year After Lehman Brother's Collapse?; Brazen Bank Bandit Caught
Aired September 14, 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 on Monday, September 14. Glad you're with us this morning. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for being with us. It's good to have you here.
A lot to get to this morning, and here are the big stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
Brand new developments surrounding the case of missing Yale graduate student Annie Le. It is now a homicide investigation. Police say a body believed to be that of Le was found stuffed inside a wall at the research lab where she went missing last week.
CHETRY: An audio message believed to be from Osama bin Laden has surfaced on a radical Islamist Web site. For 11 minutes, the terror mastermind lashes out at President Obama calling him "powerless." There are also references to former President Bush as well as former Vice President Cheney. In a moment, we'll get some insight on the tape from our senior Middle East affairs editor, Octavia Nasr.
ROBERTS: And it was one year ago that Lehman Brothers collapsed, sending the world's economy into a financial free fall. Today, President Obama marks the occasion with a trip to New York. He'll deliver a major speech on the financial meltdown in the heart of Wall Street. The best political team on television is standing by with more on today's speech.
CHETRY: First, though, a grizzly picture is emerging this morning about what happened to a missing Yale graduate student. Last night, police say they found Annie Le's body stuffed inside of a wall in the basement of a medical research lab. The discovery coming on what would have been Le's wedding day.
Our Susan Candiotti has been following the story from the beginning. She joins us now with the latest developments.
The whole thing is just so sad, and in some ways it's so unbelievable. And she's at a research lab at Yale University.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. How could you think something like this could ever happen? It's really been a stunning past several hours as this has all unraveled.
All night long homicide investigators have been on the scene trying to free her body. Then, a positive I.D. and an autopsy. A tragic ending for a young woman about to be married and it's sending shock waves to Yale's campus.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): It's now clear why no one had seen Annie Le leaving this medical research building last Tuesday. Apparently, she was trapped inside. Her body found Sunday night hidden inside a basement wall.
ASST. POLICE CHIEF PETER REICHARD, NEW HAVEN POLICE DEPARTMENT: She hasn't been positively identified as of this time, however we're assuming that it is her.
CANDIOTTI: The 24-year-old grad student often worked in a basement lab performing experiments. She was majoring in pharmacology. Le was last seen entering the building Tuesday, her image capture on security cameras. No one saw her coming out, and investigators had been reviewing videos frame by frame and pouring over blueprints.
Then a law enforcement says they found blood-stained clothes inside some ceiling tiles Saturday. The "New Haven Register" reports the clothes are different than the ones Le was seen wearing on camera.
KIM MERTZ, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: All I would say is that items that could potentially be evidence have been seized. None have yet been associated with Annie Le.
CANDIOTTI: Investigators also spent Sunday searching through a recycling plant in Hartford, about 40 miles away. They were looking through garbage hauled there from Yale. Police called it routine. The main focus is the building where Le was apparently murdered.
REICHARD: Detectives and investigators right now have a large amount of physical evidence at the scene that we're going through to determine if it's linked to this case or not.
CANDIOTTI: Yale's president reached out to the victim's family and sent an e-mail to the campus announcing Le's death.
RICHARD LEVIN, PRESIDENT, YALE UNIVERSITY: I met earlier this evening with Annie's family, with her fiance and his family, and I conveyed to them all the deeply felt support of the entire Yale University community.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And the students are planning a vigil on campus. People -- police rather have interviewed dozens of people on campus, family, friends, professors, employees, and no one is yet being called a person of interest, and no one can come up with a motive. And, you know, in another sad coincidence in all of this, it turns out that Miss Le had written an article about campus security last February for a medical school magazine, and she was comparing security there to other Ivy League schools. And in there she mentioned tips. Le, just take a bare amount along with you as you walk through campus and what did she have with her? Nothing? She left behind in another office, her wallet her purse, her cell phone.
CHETRY: It's such a sad situation and the motive so really unknown at this time, right?
CANDIOTTI: That's right. And, of course, that's exactly what police will be working on.
CHETRY: All right. Susan Candiotti for us this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: President Obama coming under attack in a new audiotape believe to be from Osama bin laden. The tape, released on Al Qaeda link Web sites, accuses the president of being "powerless" to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our senior Middle East affairs editor, Octavia Nasr, is on the telephone. She is in Frankfurt, Germany today. And would this seem to be yet another bit of the P.R. war between Al Qaeda and President Obama with Al Qaeda trying to suggest, Octavia, that the president is no different than his predecessor was?
OCTAVIA NASR, SENIOR EDITOR OF MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS (via telephone): Absolutely, John. The voice on the tape sounds very much like bin Laden, and the rhetoric is very consistent with other messages we heard from bin Laden, especially marking the 9/11 anniversary.
This has been something of an obsession with bin Laden wanting to talk to the American people on the anniversary of 9/11. So on this anniversary as well, he sends a message basically explaining why he attacked the U.S. on 9/11. He does slam President Obama, as you mentioned.
He also mentions his speech in Cairo, a very famous speech addressed to the Muslim world and that dates the tape, it puts it around June, end of June anytime between end of June and now. So really the biggest news out of the states is that around that time, bin Laden was alive and he was able to record this message and send it out for the world.
The other messages from bin Laden have been about Gaza, about Pakistan, and then this one. Experts are telling us that he is becoming really irrelevant when it comes to serious attacks around the world. That this is, indeed, a P.R. campaign that he continues and now he's starting to attack President Obama calling him no different from the other administration. As a matter of fact, calling him as the president who's under the influence of the neo-conservatives of the U.S.
ROBERTS: All right. Octavia Nasr for us at Frankfurt, Germany this morning. Octavia, thanks so such.
CHETRY: Right now it's five minutes past the hour. A lot of other stories new this morning, and there are a lot of questions now surrounding the death of a former top aide for ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
The medical examiner's office is waiting for toxicology reports before determining what killed Christopher Kelly. Police say they found Kelly slumped over his steering wheel Saturday. He later died at the hospital.
He was supposed to start an eight-year prison term this week for a federal mail fraud. The local mayor says that police found drugs in the car, but he's backing off of comments that Kelly overdosed.
ROBERTS: President Obama's health care speech heckler says one story is enough. Congressman Joe Wilson who yelled "You lie" during the president's joint address to Congress last Wednesday says he won't apologize on the House floor this week because he already apologized to the president and the president accepted it. House Democrats plan to censure Wilson if he refuses to apologize to the House.
CHETRY: A touching tribute to Michael Jackson kicked off the MTV Video Music Awards last night in New York City. His brother, Jermaine, and father, Joe, were in the crowd as look-alikes re-created from some of his famous moves to songs like Thriller and Smooth Criminal. Also sister, Janet, joined them on stage for Scream. That was the only video that they ever made together and it was her first performance since his death.
ROBERTS: Well, from the King of Pop to the prince of pompous, there's always at least one whacky moment that people are talking about the morning after the VMAs. And last night, it came courtesy of Kanye West. We all know that he can be a sore loser or at least play one on TV. Only for the first time ever, he wasn't thinking of himself last night.
Too bad for Taylor Swift because Kanye's sudden bout of altruism came during her big moment which he got the Moonman for First Female Video. Check out what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER: Thank you so much for giving me a chance to win a VMA award. I...
KANYE WEST, SINGER: Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'm going to let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time -- one of the best videos of all time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Way to kill the moment there. Maybe Kanye was upset that Taylor Swift outsold him and everyone not named Michael Jackson this year. Kanye was booed off the stage and any mention of his name for the rest of the night got pretty much the same reaction. CHETRY: She's a sweet kid. I remember interviewing her when she was just 16. She's also 19 years old. Her mom was there and apparently her mother had some words with Kanye West backstage. He apologized to Taylor Swift on his Web site later and also to her mother. He spoke to her mom. But man, 19 years old --
ROBERTS: Maybe think about that -- maybe think about the apology before you go up on stage and do that as opposed to afterwards. That would be a good idea.
CHETRY: Yes. As you know, he was saying it on behalf of Beyonce that she had the best video. Well, she ended up winning Video of the Year, which is the biggest award actually of the awards ceremony. But anyway, when she got that prize, she actually gave up her speaking time so that Taylor Swift could say her thank yous and have a moment. Beyonce certainly a class act.
ROBERTS: Yes, very classy.
CHETRY: So, all is well that ends well.
ROBERTS: Well, speaking of class acts, Serena Williams class act came a little unglued on Saturday night when she was losing to Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open, was called for a foot fault. She went off on a tirade that got her a $10,500 fine so far. But she could be fined even more and maybe even suspended. We'll talk about what fate could possibly await Serena Williams coming up.
Nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's a pretty shot this morning of the Capitol. Washington now clear, 65 degrees and a little bit later it's supposed to just be a beautiful day, at least here on the east coast. Sunny and 85 degrees.
Well, some headlines coming out of the beltway in your political ticker this morning. Some key Democrats are now questioning the mission in Afghanistan saying the president needs to make it clear what the mission is there eight years since the 9/11 attacks. Intel Committee Senator Dianne Feinstein told CNN's John King that there should be a timeline as the White House considers another troop increase.
ROBERTS: The White House reacting to one of the biggest demonstrations of Barack Obama's presidency. Thousands of tea party protestors marched on Washington this weekend, protesting unprecedented government spending. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on CNN's STATE OF THE UNION" yesterday said, the president doesn't think the anger has anything to do with the color of his skin. Some liberal critics have suggested that the tea party protesters are motivated by race.
CHETRY: The man who took over a key Senate committee after the death of Ted Kennedy says that a Senate health care bill will include a strong public option. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa also predicted that a health care reform bill will pass Congress by Christmas.
It's now looking like it is up to the Senate to come through on a health care compromise. Other key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle now say a House bill is dead, and there are other senators who say there's no way a public option will pass, including Republican Olympia Snowe.
Well, for the latest buzz from the best political team anywhere, you can head to our ticker, CNN.com/ticker.
ROBERTS: President Obama zeroing in on one of his top priorities, the economy. In just a few hours, the president travels to the scene of the crime, Wall Street. There he'll deliver a speech one year after the federal government decided not to rescue Lehman Brothers. A decision that nearly brought the world's financial system to a grinding halt.
Our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux in New York with a preview for us. Hardly seems like a year has gone by.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Isn't that amazing.
ROBERTS: Time flies, doesn't it?
MALVEAUX: You say it's the scene of the crime. It can also be considered the belly of the beast, you know, depending on how you look at it.
Obviously, this address is for members of Congress as well as Wall Street. It was back in January where he actually called for them to like move forward in tougher financial regulations of these financial institutions. There's been very little appetite for that for members of Congress. And so he is really pushing them today to move forward.
And there are two things that are happening. One is that he is going to connect. He's going to make the connection between the health of the American people as well as the health of the economy, that that is interconnected and related.
Now the other thing that he's going to be doing is that he's going to focus -- by focusing on the economy this week, he gives members of Congress a little bit of breathing space, if you will, to negotiate behind the scenes on some of those more contentious items on health care reform. And as we know, John, there's going to be a little bit of quiet arm twisting that's going to go on this week. So while we focus on the economy, we think there's going to be movement on health care reform as well.
ROBERTS: So do we know exactly what he's going to say in terms of beginning this arm twisting today?
MALVEAUX: We know the broad outline here. He's obviously going to be talking about the fact that financial institutions need to be regulated. There need to be tougher regulations that this is about the U.S. economy. It's about happening on a global scale and that this is something he's been pushing forward.
He is also going to defend his administration for nearly nationalizing, if you will, two auto companies as well as some financial sectors, some parts of the banks. And I want you to get a sense of what he's going to say. This is in "60 minutes" just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With the auto companies, before I took office, Uncle Sam was writing them billions of dollars worth of checks without holding them accountable. And what we said was, if you're going to get taxpayer money, then you've got to be accountable to taxpayers by restructuring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: He's also going to make the case that basically they've come from the brink, that this could have been another Great Depression. It is not. That there are some things that, obviously, have been moving forward when you take a look at the housing industry as well as manufacturing. But it's still a difficult time for a lot of people, and they have to make sure that they show people they understand, that they get it. They know that people are still suffering but things are improving.
ROBERTS: You got to wonder, though, with all this focus on health care reform and then going into the midterm elections next year, financial regulations sort of so far on the back burner and turned down so low it will never see the light of day.
MALVEAUX: You know, that's a very good point. That's why he's out there today to try to push this a little bit further.
ROBERTS: Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning. Suzanne, thanks.
Of course, you can see President Obama's speech live right here on CNN and CNN.com/live. It starts at noon Eastern, by the way.
CHETRY: We had a chance to see some of the U.S. Open action. Actually John was there up close and personal. You got to see Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams go head to head.
ROBERTS: Serena?
CHETRY: And Kim won but it was certainly overshadowed by Serena's reaction.
ROBERTS: Yes. You see Serena Williams go head to head with a line judge.
CHETRY: That, too. And that didn't turn out so great either. So, we'll show you the video coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." It was the mother of all comebacks in New York. Belgium's Kim Clijsters won the U.S. Open after returning to the tour just last month.
The 26-year-old had taken a two-year retirement to get married and have a child. Clijsters is the first mother to win a grand slam in nearly three decades, and she did with convincing style. She beat ninth seed Carol Wozniacki, 7-5 and 6-3 for the second set.
Clijsters reached the final, by the way, after beating Serena Williams on Saturday. It was a match that ended with the words foot foul led to a string of "F" bombs.
CHETRY: Yes. Defending champ Serena was called out for stepping over the line. That gave Clijsters the match point that then set Serena off. And here's a look at what happened next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERENA WILLIAMS, 2009 U.S. OPEN SEMIFINALIST: I swear to God. I'll (expletive deleted) take this ball and shove it down your (expletive deleted) throat.
Do you hear me? I swear to God.
You better be glad. You better be (expletive deleted) that I'm not, I swear.
I didn't say I would kill you. Are you serious? Are you serious? I didn't say that.
I've never been foot faulted. And then suddenly in this tournament, they keep calling foot fault. So I'm not saying I don't, but like, I don't know. You know, I'm not going to sit here and make an excuse. You know, if I foot faulted, I did. So, it was what it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. There you go. She had calmed down by the time she sat and gave a press conference about it. But as we mentioned, the temper not only cost her the match but $10,000 for spewing profanity at the line judge and that could be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fines.
Also, there are some, you know, in the tennis world who are saying that you should be suspended but you have to send a message that that type of behavior is not OK.
ROBERTS: Yes, there's a code of conduct, and she may have violated at least three measures of that code of conduct. Verbal obscenity, verbal abuse, and unsportsmanlike conduct. So --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Here's the part with a sport like this, I mean, you got to keep to your cool. That's part of being, you know, a really high profile, you know, high -- ROBERTS: No. There's a question, though. You know, she was called for a foot foul a couple of games earlier on the other side of the court by a different line judge. She accepted it. But when you're two points away from match point, you know, it was 15-30, and, you know, you call a foot fault foul then? Why?
ROMANS: She really lost her cool. I mean, she --
ROBERTS: Strict application of the regulations, you would call it. But, you know, even John McEnroe said you don't call something at that point in the match.
CHETRY: Right. He's known for his calm, level-headedness.
ROBERTS: Are you kidding me? You jerk.
CHETRY: Anyway, let's get to Christine Romans "Minding Your Business." You know, we all sat here a year ago. It was a year ago that Lehman Brothers collapsed.
ROMANS: Speaking of obscenities.
CHETRY: Right. And The federal government said, you know, let the chips fall where they may. After that we saw a lot of changes. But when we asked the question, are we better off today? Does the financial system helped you or could this happen to us again? What's the answer?
ROMANS: Well, there are many people who think it could happen again, that there are a lot of regulatory reforms that haven't happened yet, that we haven't gotten a handle on some of the risk taking that helped bring Wall Street to the brink. And what's changed in the year since Lehman Brothers?
Well, there's still been a lot of talk about should Lehman have been saved? Was that a critical mistake that sent the financial system over the edge? There are a lot of really smart people right now who are saying, you know what, if it weren't Lehman, it would have been somebody else.
The panic in the air last fall was just so thick that you couldn't have avoided it, and that actually Lehman's collapse helped galvanize policymakers to do a lot of very difficult and unpopular thing. The last real bipartisanship maybe we even saw was the passage of that $700 billion bank bailout.
But what do we need to see happen so far? Well, a lot of people say that banks are still too big to fail. Big institutions are still big to fail. We haven't dealt with this too big to fail issue that is so critical.
The role of regulators, we have this patchwork of regulators and still don't have this cohesion of how we're going to deal with 21st century institutions with 20th century regulations. Risk taking and executive pay still a big problem, and the G-20 when it meets in just a couple of weeks' time, they're going to be arguing over this as well.
Now, has the -- you know, the president is going to want to take the -- you know, take the momentum of this moment to be able to say, look, a year has passed, we've got a lot of big work to do. But has the rally in the stock market may be taken some of the heat out from under this? You know, I mean, stocks have started to come back.
Clearly, you haven't gotten back everything you lost but this is the rally since March. I mean, the Dow was up 3,000 points, and you have kind of this fading memory, I think, for some people.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: And arguments about how it's going to get done.
ROBERTS: When everything is looking better, you know, the pressure is off a little bit.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: But the thing is, the stock market is looking better but the housing market isn't. The unemployment picture isn't retail sales or not.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: And so how do you --
ROMANS: And that's why the president has to be careful about taking a victory lap today and say we've pulled this back from the brink. Because, yes, we are back from the brink, but people are still really hurting. That's going to be a fine line for the president to walk today.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. Good Monday morning to you, Christine.
Twenty-four minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." To the feds, he was a mystery man, armed, daring and very dangerous, allegedly robbing banks across four states without ever wear a mask. But this morning, the long arm of the law has caught up with this brazen bandit.
Our Carol Costello live in Washington. Carol, big question everybody has we know what his face looks like, but who is this guy?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really a strange story, John. They don't call him brazen for nothing. As you said, he's suspected of robbing banks in Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, and Illinois.
This guy was so slippery the FBI posted surveillance photos from the robberies on huge electronic billboards in eight states. In these photos, you could see a man sneering and holding a pistol sideways. You saw him behind John there.
The FBI said the huge billboards worked. They received valuable tips. But the hero of the day is a retired highway patrolman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): He's dubbed the brazen bandit. Police say Chad Schaffner would march into a bank, point a gun in the teller's face and order everyone on to the floor. He's suspected of at least ten bank robberies in four states, probably more.
But Schaffner is now behind bars after a tip to authorities from Sam Lakey (ph), a retired Missouri State Highway Patrol officer. While on a trip with his family, Lakey's (ph) police instincts kicked in when he saw a car in a Kingdom, Missouri motel parking lot that looked familiar.
SAM LAKEY (ph), RETIRED MISSOUR STATE HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER: Either I've seen this car, or it's, you know, somewhere or maybe in our trip or whatever. And then as time went on, it was, you know, could it be that car from that bank robbery?
COSTELLO: Lakey (ph) later saw a man staying at the motel acting suspicious, and he did some digging.
LAKY: I got on the Internet, kind of checked a little bit and then got on the "America's Most Wanted" and did the Google for bad guys kind of search and there he was.
Schaffner had been featured on "America's Most Wanted" and had his picture and story posted on the show's Web site. Lakey (ph) called police. They surrounded the motel. Schaffner was in his room at the time when he noticed the police activity and became nervous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He contacted the front desk, actually called down to the front desk. One of the detectives on the scene began to speak with him, and told him that the best thing he could do is just come down to the front desk and the officers actually were waiting for him right outside the door.
COSTELLO: Schaffner was arrested and faces multiple charges of bank robbery, burglary and receiving stolen property.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And, John, you asked who this guy was. Well, when Schaffner was identified, the FBI said he was released from an Indiana prison just last year following an armed robbery conviction. He also has several other convictions in Indiana for crimes including burglary and resisting arrest. So, he's no stranger to law enforcement.
ROBERTS: No. He seems to be certainly prone to recidivism there.
Carol Costello for us this morning. Carol, thanks so much.
Crossing the half hour now, and here are this morning's top stories. The search for Yale graduate student Annie Le may be over, but another is just beginning. Police say they found a body believed to be that of Le stuffed inside a wall at the school lab where she went missing last week.
Investigators have declared the case a homicide. Le was supposed to be married yesterday. So far, police are not releasing any information on a possible suspect.
CHETRY: The world's most wanted terrorist is accusing President Obama of being powerless to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new audio recording reportedly from Osama bin Laden emerged last night on a radical Islamic Web site. The purpose of the video, according to bin Laden, is to remind America of the causes of September 11th. Bin Laden's last audio message came June 9th.
ROBERTS: And President Obama taking his economic message to Wall Street this morning. His visit coming one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which many believe triggered the financial crisis. Administration officials say the president will call for quicker action on financial reform and discuss plans to wind down the government's involvement in the financial sector.
CHETRY: And this morning, the clock is ticking on the make-or- break push for a compromise on health care reform. President Obama spent part of the weekend making a passionate pitch to 15,000 supporters in Minnesota. While back in Washington, police say more than 60,000 to 70,000 so called tea party protestors brought their outrage to the lawmaker's doorstep.
Joining me now to put a lot of the claims being made out there about health care reform to the Truth-O-Meter test is Bill Adair, founder and editor of PolitiFact.com.
Good to see you this morning, Bill.
BILL ADAIR, EDITOR, POLITIFACT.COM: Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: So President Obama continued his push for health care reform over the weekend trying to explain that reforming the system in tough economic times would actually be beneficial to Americans money- wise. So here's what he said during a rally in Minneapolis.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Insurance companies will be required to cover at no extra charge routine checkups and preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies, because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer or colon cancer before they get worse. That makes sense and saves money and saves lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So it seems like it makes sense that with preventive care, if you catch these things early, it saves money.
Is that true?
ADAIR: No, it's not. We gave it a false on the Truth-O-Meter on PolitiFact.com. It is one of these things. It does save lives, and it may make sense, depending on how you judge these things, but it does not save money. The studies that have been done indicate that when you do a lot of preventive care it actually costs more because you've got to do so many tests to find the one person who has the disease. So Obama gets a false on the Truth-O-Meter for that one.
CHETRY: Oh, that's interesting. All right. Well, we have another one that we would like to run through the Truth-O-Meter for you. And this is another claim. But this one was made by minority leader John Boehner in the House about what President Obama, then candidate Obama said on the trail about health care.
And let me just read it to you. It says, "As a candidate, President Obama declared that everyone deserves access to reproductive health care, that includes abortion and vowed that this "right" would be at the heart of his health care reform plan if elected."
What did the Truth-O-Meter say about that.
ADAIR: Boehner gets a true on the Truth-O-Meter for that one. This is part of the critics' point that Obama's plan would expand coverage for abortion. We've looked at that one separately. As for this particular claim, though, Boehner is right.
When you look at what Obama said, he did, although in the cautious language of a very sensitive subject say exactly what Boehner claimed he did that it would be a key part of his health care reform. So Boehner gets a true for this one.
CHETRY: And I do want to ask you a follow-up question about that. As this debate goes on and on and becomes more contentious, has that whole issue of reproductive rights and talking abortion, has that been sort of put to the side of any bill that's now on its way through Congress?
ADAIR: Well, that's what the Democrats are trying to do, but I don't think they have succeeded yet. I mean, there is still a lot of controversy about provisions in the bill and what they would do and whether they could lead to expanded care for abortion. That's actually something we'll be examining this week on PolitiFact.
The big controversy has focused on whether there are subsidized abortions. The Democrats have tried hard to make sure that doesn't happen. Sort of say that government money would not be used for abortion coverage. But I think it's going to be a very contentious issue this week in particular.
CHETRY: All right. And finally Congressman Charles Bustani is a practicing heart surgeon. He issued the official Republican response to what the president said on his health care proposal. And in it, he said, "I read the bill Democrats passed through committee in July. It creates 53 new government bureaucrats. You ran that claim through the Truth-O-Meter.
What did you find?
ADAIR: We did. We gave it a barely true on the Truth-O-Meter. He's claiming that there are these 53 bureaucracies that would be created. This has been a complaint by the Republicans for several weeks, and they've been using that number. But their numbers just don't add up. When you look at their list of alleged bureaucracies, it includes a lot of things that really aren't and in some cases some double and triple counting. True, there's no question that the health care plan would expand government in a substantial way, but there really aren't 53 bureaucracies. So barely true on the Truth-O-Meter for that one.
CHETRY: All right. Separating fact from fiction for us as always.
Great to have you, Bill Adair. Thanks so much.
ADAIR: Thank you.
CHETRY: And if you want to check out more of Bill's Truth-O- Meter, head to our blog CNN.com/AmFix.
A lot of them are listed today, as well as once we've done in the past with bill.
Thirty-six minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
With banks stingier than ever when it comes to credit, families are finding ways to get around the traditional lending institutions. People now turning to friends, relatives and in some cases total strangers for help with loans. And in many cases it's turning out to be a win-win for both sides.
Our Christine Romans has got that story.
It's a story that may give you a few ideas this morning.
Hi, there:
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I was surprised by how vibrant this market is quiet frankly, you guys. It's called peer- to-peer lending, and we found it has quite a following.
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ROMANS (voice-over): Teacher Mark Newman spends his days at this Bronx High School, and he spends a third of his teacher's salaries paying his debts. Student loans and $10,000 in credit card bills. The math became impossible.
MARK NEWMAN, PEER-TO-PEER BORROWER: I got all kinds of letters from the credit card companies -- Bank of America, Citibank, American Express saying that they were cutting my credit limits and raising interest rates on whatever balances that they could.
ROMANS: He pays on time and more than the minimum.
(on camera): They're raising your interest rates to 29.99 percent.
NEWMAN: A minimum of -- yes, yes, at least.
ROMANS (voice-over): A minimum APR of 29.99.
NEWMAN: Yes.
ROMANS: So he paid off his Citibank card with money borrowed at 21 percent interest, borrowed not from other banks, but online from strangers. Strangers like Tommaso Trionfi, who kicked in $50 of Newman's $3,000 loan.
You always want to diversify a little bit of your portfolio, so you look at new things.
ROMANS: Borrowers who need money, connect with lenders with money on sights like Prosper, LendingClub and VirginMoney. It's peer- to-peer lending or P-to-P for short.
TOMMASO TRIONFI, PEER-TO-PEER LENDER: On my saving account, I'm getting one in a quarter percent so basically nothing. And if you compare to Prosper 12 percent on average. If you can fine-tune a little bit, you're going to have much better return.
ROMANS: A tiny $118 million market in 2005. It has exploded to an estimated $5.8 billion in outstanding loans by next year. Economist Ray Fisman describes it as Match.com meets eBay.
RAY FISMAN, COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL: I think the one thing in thinking about the future of this model that's important is there's surely on cap on how large this can get in terms of individual loan size.
ROMANS: Buyer beware. Some borrowers default. It's why lenders prefer small-size loans to spread their bets.
Lender Trionfi is bidding here on another loan. And borrower Newman feels better paying real people than credit card companies.
NEWMAN: I basically put the credit card on a shelf somewhere and I just walk around with my debit card and one credit card and swore to change the way that I borrowed money.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: So peer-to-peer lending is a long way from taking over the banking industry. It's a very, very small segment of the loan market, but growing. And the SEC is taking notice, making sure these websites are registered and it's looking into how it will regulate them in the future.
But really interesting stuff there.
ROBERTS: To make any money, though, in peer-to-peer lending, particularly at 50 bucks a shot, you'd have to have hundreds of loans out there.
ROMANS: They do.
ROBERTS: How do you -- how do you monitor them all?
ROMANS: It's all monitored exactly like eBay or Match.com. You go on there. You see all of your -- all of your loans. You can see exactly when the payment hit. And people like to really diversify, so they, you know, they'll loan maybe $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 to a hundred, 200 different borrowers. And that you can see exactly how all of your portfolios are doing.
CHETRY: That seems like a big headache. I don't know. You got to -- the other thing, though, what is your recourse if they don't pay you back? You just lose the money?
ROMANS: Yes. And what happens just like eBay, if you -- if you are a bad borrower, then you're flagged right away. So you can see how good the borrowers are and the like. You know, it's still evolving.
ROBERTS: You don't send big Macs from the collection agency out to go?
ROMANS: Know what? Actually, the collection agencies do go in and they do go in and they collect these loans and stuff. So, it's fascinating and evolving and growing quite quickly. And sometimes it's people who know each other. You know, grandma wants to loan money to the grandson, but all the other grandkids get mad. So they do it through a loan operation like this. So that it's all, you know, all in paper.
ROBERTS: Shadow corporation grandma doesn't get into trouble.
CHETRY: You could have grandma (INAUDIBLE).
All right. We're going to take a quick break, when we come back. It's 43 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 45 minutes past the hour right now. There's a shot of Charlotte, North Carolina this morning, where it's partly cloudy, 60 degrees. A little later, it's going to be partly cloudy and 87. And welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We get a quick check of our top stories now.
Can you believe this one? I don't know. They got away with it, but I don't know if they're going to get away selling it. A $1 million reward now being offered for information leading to the recovery of several Andy Warhol paintings. They were stolen from a Los Angeles home. The pieces include portraits of Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus and tennis champion Chris Evert. Police say the multi- million dollar collection was taken last week from the dining room of businessman Richard Weisman.
ROBERTS: Well, a dose of good news about the swine flu. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the first round of shots could begin early next month. The vaccine was not expected to be available until late October. The news comes after tests found that a single low dose of the H1N1 vaccine may be enough to protect adults.
CHETRY: Also, Tina Fey's headline-grabbing impressions of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" have earned her yet another Emmy. Fey picked up her sixth Golden statue Saturday night for guest actress in a comedy series. And here's just one of Fey's impersonations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would now like to give each of you a chance to make a closing statement.
TINA FEY, ACTRESS, IMPERSONATING FMR. ALASKA GOV. SARAH PALIN: Are we not doing the talent portion?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And in her acceptance speech, Fey said that she still admired the former governor of Alaska, calling Palin an inspiration to working mothers every before because, quote, "she bailed on her job right before the Fourth of July weekend."
I think that was tongue in cheek.
ROBERTS: Just a little tiny bit.
Rob Marciano is monitoring extreme weather across the country this morning. He's at the weather center in Atlanta.
What do we got today, Rob?
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: It was excellent, though a little rainy. Thanks, Rob. We'll see you soon.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
So it will seem a lot like "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," except that it's being on a different time. Jay Leno's new gig actually starts tonight. So we get a sneak peek of what we may expect from Jay.
Forty-nine minutes after the hour now.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Fifty-one minutes past the hour now.
Jay Leno left "The Tonight Show" as you know back in May, passing hosting duties on to Conan O'Brien. But, of course, he couldn't stay away from showbiz for long. His new primetime show actually debuts tonight. And for fourth place NBC there is a lot riding on it. A.J. Hammer has the story.
A.J. HAMMER, HOST, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: John and Kiran, one of the most talked about new shows of the fall TV season hits primetime tonight. It's "The Jay Leno Show," and for fourth place NBC there is a lot riding on it.
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JAY LENO, T.V. HOST: Folks, it's Monday night. Time for headlines.
HAMMER (voice over): The headline from primetime this fall is no misprint.
LENO: These are turkey drumstinks.
HAMMER: Jay Leno is moving to the 10:00 p.m. time slot in one of the boldest gambles ever seen in network TV.
ANDREW WALLENSTEIN, EDITOR, HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM: This is about as big a risk as you could take in primetime. This has never been tried before.
HAMMER: NBC, which used to stock its 10:00 p.m. hour with dramas like "ER" and "Law and Order" is turning that time period over to Leno five nights a week.
Why? Simple economics.
WALLENSTEIN: It is going to be so much cheaper to do this program than to put the usual array of five different scripted dramas.
HAMMER: Don't expect a radical makeover from Leno's "Tonight Show" look. He'll still do a monologue plus popular bits like "Jaywalking."
LENO: If you're going down and use the Panama Canal, you're trying to get from where to where?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: One place to another.
HAMMER: And headlines.
LENO: 6:00 p.m. hay-eating contest. Animals only.
HAMMER: He is adding a stable of comedy correspondents, along the lines of the daily show. The experiment could blow up in NBC's face if the show fails to draw enough viewers, leaving 11:00 p.m. local newscasts with a feeble lead-in.
WALLENSTEIN: There is no one sweating more than local affiliates right now.
HAMMER: Will it work?
The HollywoodReporter's Andrew Wallenstein has his doubts.
WALLENSTEIN: I would be really surprised in 2010 to see "The Jay Leno Show" continue at 10:00 p.m. That time slot has always been a stronghold for drama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HAMMER: Now, Leno says he doesn't expect his show to do numbers anywhere near those of "CSI" for instance, but industry observers believe an audience of just 5 million viewers a night would make this show very profitable.
John?
Kiran?
ROBERTS: A.J. Hammer for us this morning.
Well, a lot of bad behavior over the weekend from stars on the courts or on the stage. Kanye West at the VMAs last night.
CHETRY: Yes. Kanye West stealing the thunder from 19-year-old Taylor Swift as she came on stage to...
ROBERTS: He's very good at stealing the microphone.
CHETRY: Swift was so excited to get her first VMA, and, wow, what did he do after that and what's been the fallout? We're going to show you coming up.
Fifty-four minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
The Tea Party Express rolled through Washington this weekend. Thousands of people gathered in the capital to demonstrate against what they call out-of-control government spending. Today, the protests are over, so what's next?
Our Kate Bolduan reports from Washington. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, it was a massive conservative rally, but the big question is, will the message carry?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Obama, can you hear us now?
BOLDUAN: A swarm of protestors from across the country descended on Washington this weekend, loud and frustrated they railed against big government and the Obama administration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not want government involvement in our health care, nor do we want the higher taxation that comes along with such a proposal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just sick and tired of government growing and spending and taxing everybody into oblivion.
BOLDUAN: The event, a culmination of the anti-tax rallies of spring and the health care protests of summer, organized by conservative groups like Freedom Works, which is led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
DICK ARMEY (R), FORMER HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: What did they say about, they weren't real. They're Astroturf. They don't know what they're talking about. They'll go away. Well, did you go away or are you back?
BOLDUAN: But now that the march on Washington is over, where will they go next?
DEBORAH JOHNS, VICE CHAIR, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: Stop the bailout, stop the debt, stop the tax and spending.
BOLDUAN: Deborah Johns who road the Tea Party Express from California to Washington insists this grassroots movement has staying power.
(on camera): This place was a mass of people. They're now gone. It kind of emblematic of my question, which is where do you go from here, then?
JOHNS: You know what, at all of our stops, we encourage everybody in all those cities to stay involved in your local politics, at your local and state level.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): All with a keen eye toward the 2010 mid- term elections and beyond.
JOHNS: We want to start early. We want to keep the focus going, and we want the people to know that, you know what? Your voice does count.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BOLDUAN: From here, the challenge is trying to keep up momentum. Organizers say the focus will remain on local action, but also say we can expect another nationwide rally in November marking what they call the start of the countdown to congressional elections.
John?
Kiran?
ROBERTS: Kate Bolduan for us this morning.
Kate, thanks so much.
We're coming up now to the top of the hour. It is Monday. It's the 14th of September.
I had to look at the calendar there.
CHETRY: It's going fast.
ROBERTS: Well, it is going fast, and this weekend also seemed to take an awfully long time. It felt like about five days instead of three.
CHETRY: It would be good for us.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: That means sleep, right?
ROBERTS: Exactly.
