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New Health Care Plan & Your Money; Pitching Health Care Reform; Yale Murder Arrest
Aired September 17, 2009 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning everyone. It is Thursday, September 17th.
Here are the faces of the stories behind the headlines today. Senator Max Baucus, architect of Senate health care reform, hard selling his plan to his colleagues over lunch today.
President Barack Obama holding a campaign-style rally this hour for a health care overhaul. We will have live coverage.
Raymond Clark III formally arrested and charged in the murder of Yale grad student Annie Le.
Good morning everyone. I'm Tony Harris and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Let's quickly get you caught up on the day's headlines, then take the time to break down big issues to find out why they really matter today.
Leading the way, the president last hour announced an upgraded missile defense shield for Eastern Europe. The idea originated in the Bush administration to guard against Iran's missile threat but it called for interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic. That irritated the Russians. The president and Defense Secretary Robert Gates say the plan will work better and is more cost effective and will also get the interceptors out of Russia's backyard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We have now the opportunity to deploy new sensors and interceptors in northern and southern Europe that near-term can provide missile defense coverage against more immediate threats from Iran or others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our new missile defense architecture in Europe will provide stronger, smarter and swifter defenses of American forces and allies. It is more comprehensive than the previous program. It deploys capabilities that are proven and cost effective and it sustains and builds upon our commitment to protect the U.S. homeland against long range ballistic missile threats. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Rallying for health care reform this hour, President Obama makes a new pitch, this time to the nation's young adults, millions of whom are without health insurance. You are looking at live pictures now from the University of Maryland. I believe this is the Comcast Center -- students there gathering to hear the president speak.
His address is set to begin about 45 minutes from now. We will, of course, bring you live coverage right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
From person of interest to murder suspect, just this morning police in Connecticut charged 24-year-old lab technician Raymond Clark with killing grad student Annie Le. Police say Le was strangled; her body found Sunday stuffed in basement wall of an off-campus medical research building.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JAMES LEWIS, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT POLICE: I think it's important to know this is not about urban crime. It's not about university crime. It's not about domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We have a correspondent in New Haven and we will take you there live in just a couple of minutes.
In Indonesia, police are celebrating the death of that country's most wanted terrorist. Noordin Top's terror network was blamed for nearly every major terror attack in Indonesia over the past decade. Those attacks killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds. The 41- year-old Noordin Top had ties to al Qaeda and he was killed in overnight raid in central Java.
That's our look at the day's big stories.
Now let's go in depth right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The senate's health care sales pitch begins: Max Baucus holding a special meeting with his finance committee. He is walking them through his newly revealed proposal for overhauling the health care system.
Live now to CNN, congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill. And Brianna, a lot of hard work ahead for chairman Baucus.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Right now, Tony he's talking with the Democrats and the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee one day after unveiling his very detailed draft of a bill.
Let's talk about some of the issues and concerns that Democrats have because they're certainly not all on board and there are a lot of criticisms that they are leveling at Senator Baucus' plan.
The big one that we're hearing over and over this morning from senators as they go into this meeting is this issue of affordability. Not only making sure that this plan allows health care -- they call it here bending the cost curve. The cost of health care skyrocketing; they want to make sure that they can sort of bring that back to earth.
And then the other question of this on affordability is, is the federal government providing enough assistance to low income Americans so that they really can afford health insurance. Either by expanding Medicaid and covering more low income Americans or through this idea of a tax break for other low income Americans essentially a coupon that will help them pay for health insurance.
It's not just the concern of Democrats I should tell you. It's also the concern of Senator Olympia Snowe really seen as Democrats best shot for getting a Republican on board. Here is what she said really just minutes ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR OLYMPIA SNOWE (R), MAINE: I obviously think it's important to achieve affordability. At the end of the day the objective is to ensure that Americans have access to a more affordable health care than they currently do. Secondly is recognizing that there's something seriously wrong with our current system that health care costs rising at two and three times the rate of inflation putting it more and more out of reach for more and more Americans so that will continue to be true given the escalation of these costs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, back to Democrats. In addition to this concern over affordability, because keep in mind this plan is the Senator Baucus' plan is much smaller, significantly smaller than some of the plans we've seen coming out of the house and the other one in the Senate. So there are less subsidies.
But the other concern Tony is over this public option. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, also Senator Jeff Bingaman and both of them on the Senate Finance Committee; Bingaman's been involved in this Gang of Six bipartisan talks, these very significant talks.
They say they want a public option. Senator Rockefeller, in fact, has said he couldn't vote for Senator Baucus' plan in its current form. So these are areas that Democrats are going to -- these Democratic leaders are going to have to chip away at to bring their own Democrats onboard.
HARRIS: Now, for someone like Senator Rockefeller -- bring me up to speed here. He made statements yesterday. Then essentially there was a meeting with the president and did he back away from that very firm line at all?
KEILAR: He softened his stance certainly, Tony. And what we heard him say was he sort of backed up President Obama saying that President Obama is committed to making sure there's competition. You heard him come out as soon as Senator Baucus revealed his plan and say I could not vote for this. And then we heard him soften it in all this manner of nuance in increments but yes ...
HARRIS: Boy have you said it. All right. Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill for us.
A little explainer now on those cooperatives proposed by Senator Max Baucus. I got answers from CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen about what co-ops are and how they work. Here's a bit of that conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There are a couple health co-ops out there in the country most notably Seattle and Minneapolis. They are nonprofit organizations which is very different from health insurance companies. The patients select the governing board again very different from your basic Aetna, United, et cetera. And you need to have tens of thousands of members at least to make it work in order to get that purchasing power that you need. Some would say you need hundreds of thousands of people to make it work.
HARRIS: Yes, but all right. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, we're talking about 46 million people by some estimates who don't have insurance. Does this idea of a co-op get those people covered?
COHEN: Right. That's a big problem; 46 million uninsured Americans; that's what reform is trying to help. Will co-op solve that? No. That's according to two folks who run co-ops: one in Seattle and one in Minneapolis who I was on the phone with earlier.
I said, is this going to help? They said no. We're not charities. You have to spend money. You have to pay premiums to join our co-ops and we don't take everyone. We do say no to some people with pre- existing conditions.
Now, one of them said our prices are middle of the road. We're the average price for -- our premiums are about what other people's premiums are.
HARRIS: What's the point?
COHEN: According to these co-ops, the point is that co-ops create good competition. The co-ops manage to deliver high quality health care at a lower price because they don't have to make these huge profits and put money back into the company. What one person told me was, look, we bring down the price of health care in general so more people can afford it.
For example, in Seattle where they have pretty prominent co-op, health care is less expensive and more efficient than in other parts of the country and some would say a big reason why is because they have that co-op there. It changes the landscape. It still doesn't ensure all of the uninsured. There are uninsured people in Seattle, Washington. There are uninsured people in Minnesota and those two places have co-ops.
HARRIS: My point. How much does it cost to get a co-op system started because my understanding is from you that there is a pretty significant upfront cost?
COHEN: Right, there are. There are some significant startup costs. You have to have money to get started, get your executives going. Get deals with doctors and that kind of thing. It's estimated that it would cost between $4 billion and $10 billion to get co-ops going in this country and that's what some people are hoping will happen with health care reform is that the government will provide that seed money.
HARRIS: Will it solve the problem of 46 million people..
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: We have a lot of work to do on the Baucus plan. I just want you to know that we are on it. Elizabeth will join me after the president's speech to show which health plan might be better for students or those so-called Young Invincibles.
Let's set the scene again. Let's take you to Maryland. President Obama should be addressing students in College Park in I guess about 30 minutes or so. We'll bring you the president's remarks live. It will have a campaign rally feel to be sure.
Later, our senior business correspondent Christine Romans looks at the cost of plans and the fines you may pay for not getting health insurance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're looking at flooding, video coming into us from just outside of Little Rock yesterday; torrential downpours flooding Pinnacle Mountain State Park there. A number of issues around Arkansas; at one point half of the counties were under a flash flood warning. Still similar issues today but not quite as bad.
They weren't the only spot. Check out this iReport -- I'm pulling this right off the web site here. Ireporter Erica Myers right outside of CNN Center near the Phillips Arena, just a cascading waterfalls off the stairs there.
I've never seen it rain in Atlanta like it did yesterday. We're seeing similar amounts of rain in spots today. Area of low pressure backed up into Texas but the expanse of the precip zone really across a good chunk of the south including parts of Tennessee and much of western Tennessee under flash flood warning right now; Columbia about to get hit hard. When it does rain it will rain a whole bunch in a short amount of time in some cases very saturated ground.
We move this system slightly to the east tomorrow but really we start to weaken it. That will be the saves grace.
As far as temperatures today, they'll be held down in spots that have the rain, Atlanta to Dallas notably. Temperatures across the northeast, another cool day lower to mid 60s -- feeling a little bit like fall there.
If you are traveling through Atlanta, some delays because of weather; 30 minutes there; San Francisco, seeing some delays, Baltimore, Houston, and also Minneapolis. That's a quick check on weather. The CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris is coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's get details on the arrest of that Yale University worker for killing a grad student. CNN's Mary Snow in New Haven, Connecticut, outside the police station and Mary, Raymond Clark, the suspect in this case, has he made his first court appearance yet?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes he has. It's been fast moving Tony. Raymond Clark appeared at an arraignment just a short time ago here in New Haven. He did not enter a plea. He was arrested this morning being charged with murder. And he's being held on a $3 million bond.
Police had him under surveillance and overnight they were staked out outside a motel where Raymond Clark had been staying after he was released from police custody. He was taken into custody earlier for DNA samples and other evidence but then released.
And police are saying this arrest warrant because it is sealed, they are not giving out details about the arrest or the potential motive. The police chief did say yesterday that an arrest really hinged on a DNA match. He wouldn't say today that there was a DNA match but he indicated that was really at the core of this investigation.
Also, the New Haven police chief talked a little bit about the workplace. He knew that Annie Le, the graduate student who killed last week, and Raymond Clark had worked in the same building. He would not elaborate. But he did say this. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEWIS: I think it's important to note this is not about urban crime. This is not about university crime. It's not about domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country.
SNOW: Again, officials not expanding on any kind of had history before the murder.
Yale's president Richard Levin did release a statement today saying that Raymond Clark had been employed as a lab technician here at Yale since 2004 and he says his supervisor reports that there was nothing in his job history and years here at Yale to raise red flags.
We'll be hearing more from Richard Levin at the bottom of the hour. He's going to be making a statement. And Tony, so many questions have been raised about security. Mr. Levin in his statement said this says more about the dark side of a human soul than it does about security measures but he says nonetheless they are going to be taking suggestions from the community about how to improve security -- Tony.
HARRIS: That's good, Mary. I got to tell you this idea of a news conference that this was workplace violence certainly snapped the heads of just about everyone here in the newsroom wanting more details on that and what actually happened here. It is an issue so many places.
Mary, did you want to comment on that further?
SNOW: You know, officials have been so tight lipped. It was worth noting that an FBI agent who spoke briefly did thank the behavioral assistance unit at the FBI and the polygraph unit. We do know that those two units were involved in this investigation. No details about the history of what happened in the workplace.
HARRIS: We'd certainly like to learn more about that. There's a teaching moment there for everyone in workplaces all around the country.
All right. Mary Snow, appreciate it. Thank you.
Let's get to Josh Levs now. And Josh if you would, give us a look at the Yale campus and this particular lab building.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is something you and I were talking about this morning. Kind of painting the picture for what has become just an absolutely wild story; this whole thing beginning to end.
We're going to go first to Google Earth. I want to kind of start up in the sky and zoom in. I want to paint the picture of this community and what it looks like and how we get to this.
Yale is a big name but it's not a big school. It's a relatively tight knit community. Total undergrad about 5,000 and total grad students, all those schools together, just 6,000. So you have a relatively small community as far as universities go in which a lot of people know each other.
So the chances are something like this obviously would affect a community anywhere but here, you have a smaller and tight knit one.
You're looking at a shot of the building where all this happened. And what I've done here is, we have it on Google Earth for you. Let's come back to this screen.
One reason though, some people in the Yale community, a lot are not surprised by the type of thing we're hearing Tony is that we've been getting a sense for days from people inside this community that they believe it had to be someone with special access to this building. You can't just get in. We'll zoom in. This is the lab four stories. And we're talking about the basement where this happened. But what we've been hearing is that at all the entrances and all the exits they have video cameras. Not only is there security to get in but there's security within the building. A lot of the people who work in this building couldn't access the basement.
In order to get into different parts of this building to do anything, Tony, one would have to have special access. It gives a context for what we're hearing.
HARRIS: Do we have a time line? There's such intense interest in this case. I know that the folks at cnn.com are working on a number of different features including a time line.
LEVS: Yes, let me show you really quickly. This is cnn.com with the main story. Click on time line. It's been nine days now and what we do is we trace you through each step of what we've been hearing and seeing over several days and the story and you have some pictures there inside the lab as well.
Really helps paint the picture for what the steps have been so far. Obviously there is still a while to go here Tony to find out ultimately what happened.
HARRIS: Very good. Josh, thank you.
Let's get to our top stories now.
President Obama taking his health care reform pitch to the nation's young adults, the ones who would pay for a big chunk of his plan; live pictures here of a campaign style rally about to begin at the University of Maryland. The president's speech starts minutes from now. Watch it here live. They start clapping on cue or something.
The Massachusetts legislature in session today to consider the late Ted Kennedy's final wish; a bill allowing governor Deval Patrick to temporarily fill his U.S. Senate seat until a special election is held in January. Republicans have said they plan to fight the bill.
Investigators in California have found bones on property owned by kidnapping suspects Phillip and Nancy Garrido. Testing will determine if the bones are human or animal. The Garridos are charged with the 1991 abduction of Jaycee Dugard. The bones were found by investigators looking for connections to other kidnapping cases.
There are more positive signs on the economy today. We will check in with Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange in just a couple minutes.
You're on the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's get to some business news. There have been lots of stories, upbeat signs on the housing front lately. And some analysts are going so far as to say the housing market will actually lead -- lead the economic recovery?
So what do today's numbers tell us? Susan Lisovicz -- Susan is at the New York Stock Exchange with details. Oh, I want to hear this good news. Susan, good to see you.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Tony.
Well, home construction rose last month. So that's encouraging. And what's also encouraging is that the level is the highest we've seen in nine months. Now, it was mostly due to a surge in apartment building where single family home building fell.
And that's considered a more important and more stable sector but the outlook no question is improving, Tony. Home builder confidence for instance rose yesterday and building permits jumped nearly three percent.
I kind of look at the housing sector repairing and Tony, it's sort of like repairing your home.
HARRIS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: It is -- it can cost more...
HARRIS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: ...take longer...
HARRIS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: ...it can be messy.
HARRIS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: I mean, there are still some problems. It's slow. It's uneven. But it would be fitting that we would see improvement here because that's after all where it all started.
HARRIS: Yes, ok now, hold on a second here.
You've been reporting at a good chunk of sales due principally to first-time home buyers getting and taking advantage of this credit that's available.
LISOVICZ: Right.
HARRIS: That is ending soon. Then, what happens, Susan, to the housing markets?
LISOVICZ: Well, that's a big question. It's not unlike the "Cash for Clunkers" right?
HARRIS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: ...which drove auto sales.
Well, the White House is considering extending that $8,000 credit.
HARRIS: Absolutely.
LISOVICZ: There's a bill working through the senate that would extend it Tony, through all of next year with double the credit to $15,000.
HARRIS: Whoa...
LISOVICZ: ...remove restrictions that prohibit people who already own homes. So...
HARRIS: That could be huge. I mean, we've got to think about that for a second. That could be huge.
LISOVICZ: Yes. And that's why realtors, bankers, home builders are lobbying big time for it. Because as it stands now, this tax credit Tony, expires at the end of November.
Well, what does that mean? That's the winter season...
HARRIS: Exactly.
LISOVICZ: ...when the housing market even in better times is dead. And we know that the housing market has a ways to come back yet. No question about it. The National Association of Realtors says this credit has been used to buy more than one million homes.
But if you want to know if -- are there obstacles, well, let's look at one.
HARRIS: Right.
LISOVICZ: A budget deficit...
HARRIS: Oh boy.
LISOVICZ: ...of more than $1.5 trillion.
HARRIS: Wow. I'm just trying to figure out -- and it looks like we're going to try to grow our way out of this. That's what it looks like is in the offing here.
LISOVICZ: Well, I mean, you know, you really -- I think that the campaign to extend this is operating under the premise that you don't want to kill...
HARRIS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: ...the early recovery that we're seeing in this very big and very important market.
HARRIS: All right, so Susan here's what we're going to do tomorrow. We're going to ramp up our Nancy Wilson. And we're going to talk about all of the good financial news we've been receiving this week. Are you with me on that?
LISOVICZ: Yes and I'm with you on that, I'm also with you on what's stocks are doing today because this is the fourth day of gains.
HARRIS: Come on.
LISOVICZ: ...where are at their highs for the year. And the DOW is less than 200 points from 10,000.
HARRIS: Can you believe that?
LISOVICZ: Yes, there are some people are accusing me of jinxing that but when I say that. But I'm going to say it. We're at 97 -- we're at 9,828.
HARRIS: Let me jump out there on the limb with you. All right Susan, I appreciate it. Thank you, see you next hour.
On CNN tonight: a year after the failure of Lehman Brothers and the world wide economic collapse, Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi tell you how to take control of your economic future. A "CNNMoney Summit Special: Money and Main Street" tonight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.
Live pictures now.
Let's see those live pictures, the COMCAST Center in Maryland. And we're about 20 minutes away from the president's speech to college students. They're gathering at the University of Maryland.
We will look at the cost of the Senate Committee's Health Care plan. That is next for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: No doubt what you want to know is how the new health care plan might impact your bottom line. For answers, let's go live to Christine Romans in New York. And Christine, look, what are we going to cover here - we're going to talk about the options available and what happens if you don't get some kind of coverage here?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. For a second, let's talk about the outright winners.
HARRIS: Yes.
ROMANS: Outright winners. Anyone with a pre-existing condition who can't get insurance right now, this Baucus bill is what we're talking about. The most current iteration of all these different plans to try to get people insured. Pre-existing conditions biggest winner. People who are uninsured, Americans and legal residents who are uninsured, they are going to have an option to get into the market here.
Now, they want to try to require everyone or almost everyone to have coverage.
Anchor: Right. ROMANS: And the way they're going to do that is they're going to penalize people who don't. So they're going to subsidize your premiums, help you get this insurance and they're going to penalize you if you don't. This is what penalties would look like. The fines - for a family making above $66,000 a year, that would be a fine of $3,800.
Anchor: Yes.
ROMANS: For an individual making above $32,000 a year, the fine would be $950 a year. For people who make less than that, the fines are lower. For a family making below $66,000, you would be fined up to $1,500. For individual, as you can see, $750 a year. The idea here is that you want to go to these state exchanges or go straight to the insurance companies and buy your insurance. They're also, as you can see from that, very brief one-second of a screen, they are also going to expand Medicaid coverage. Medicaid eligibility.
Anchor: Can we get that back up?
ROMANS: So that is already a current government run plan and expand that eligibility for families with an income of up to $30,000 and individuals with an income of $14,400. So there's a lot of different things at play here. Tony, I can tell you that it's going to lurch, it's going to change -
HARRIS: Right.
ROMANS: And the legislative process is not pretty but this particular plan, you know, they want to get as many people to be covered as possible to get them to those state exchanges and there would be penalties for families who didn't go and do that. But there are also big subsidies.
HARRIS: Right.
ROMANS: The way I read it, Tony, subsidies for your premiums and your out-of-pocket expenses all the way up the income chain to families making about $88,000 a year, depending on how much -
HARRIS: 88,000, really?
ROMANS: Yes, I mean, it's a sliding scale -
HARRIS: Right.
ROMANS: For what those premiums are but the idea here is to get people covered. The big winners, the big winners, anybody with a pre- existing condition in their family. That's the real clear winner I can see here.
HARRIS: Yes, all right. Christine, appreciate it. Thank you.
ROMANS: Sure.
HARRIS: CNN tonight a year after the failure of Lehman Brothers and the worldwide economic collapse. Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi tell you how to take control of your economic future. A CNN Money Summit special "Money & Main Street" tonight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
All right. Joe Biden on his third trip to Iraq as vice president. He told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki if Iraq wants U.S. troops to leave before the end of 2011, the U.S. will comply. Iraq is planning a referendum on the withdrawal date.
Biden spoke exclusively to CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence. The topic turned to Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Do you think that more troops are needed to win?
JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I think that's premature. Look, the president made a decision back in March, saying clearly what our goal was and that is to defeat Al Qaeda in that region and made a significant deployment of resources, civilian and military. And they're not only getting in place, they're now getting fully in place and deployed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: President Obama gives the Medal of Honor today to the family of Army Sergeant First Class Jared Monti, killed three years ago in Afghanistan. A soldier's bravery. A father's heartbreak. CNN's Ed Henry has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A crisp New England morning in a small town outside Boston. Paul Monti wrapping up his daily ritual that ends in the garden he built to remember his son, Jared.
PAUL MONTI, FATHER OF SGT. 1ST CLASS JARED MONTI: This is where I get my solitude.
HENRY: Jared Monti was killed in Afghanistan three years ago.
MONTI: I walk an hour and a half to two hours every morning. That's nice. There's a sign that the town dedicated to Jared. And I walk up to the sign and talk t him and then complete a big loop.
HENRY (on camera): What do you say three years later?
MONTI: I just tell him what's going on. What went on the day before.
HENRY (voice-over): The father wears his son's dog tags as a shrine in the living room and now he's accepting his son's Medal of Honor from President Obama.
MONTI: I would give all of it up to have my son back. Everything. There's nothing I wouldn't give even my own life to get my son back.
HENRY: According to a Pentagon account and CNN interviews with soldiers who were there, Sgt. Monti was leading a small patrol, ambushed by dozens of Taliban fighters.
A young private named Brian Bradbury was badly wounded, unable to move.
SGT. MARK JAMES, U.S. ARMY: Somehow was saying, Bradbury was his guy so he is going to be the one to go get him back.
HENRY: With bullets flying, Monti had to take cover. He ran out a second time but the enemy fire got more intense so he stopped and yelled for help. Then he ran out a third time.
JAMES: We all kind of heard him scream.
HENRY: Sergeant Monti knew he was dying and his family was in his final thoughts.
MONTI: He said "The Lord's Prayer" and he said "tell my family I love them." And that's about the most meaningful thing that there is.
HENRY: Inspired, his squadron beat back the enemy but then a terrible twist. A U.S. helicopter lowered a medic to grab Bradbury. The young Private Monti tried to save. As the two men were being raised in the air, a cable snapped. Bradbury and the medic plunged to their deaths.
MONTI: It didn't matter the end result because that was him. He just did what the soldier's creed said you never leave a soldier behind.
HENRY (on camera): I asked Paul Monti what advice he would give the president about the way ahead in Afghanistan. He says send more troops even if it's going to be difficult to sell to the American people. Paul Monti saying that after eight years, it's time to finally get the mission right.
Ed Henry, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Let's get you to our top stories right now. We're awaiting President Obama to speak. He is set to address students at the University of Maryland any minute now. The president pitching health care reform to young adults who would pay for a big chunk of his plan. Live pictures here at the campus. The Comcast Center. Go Terps. You can watch the president's speech live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
An axe and a knife attack at a school in Germany in Anasbach, 90 miles north of Munich. Police say an 18-year-old student also threw a Molotov cocktail inside his high school. Nine students were injured before police shot the attacker and took him into custody.
We want to take you to New Haven, Connecticut. The president of Yale University is speaking. He's about to speak. His name is Richard Levin. He's expected to make a statement on the investigation and the arrest of Raymond Clark. There he is. Let's go to New Haven.
RICHARD LEVIN, YALE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: Good morning. I wrote earlier this morning to the Yale community to inform everyone about the arrest of Raymond Clark. We're relieved and encouraged by this progress in the investigation, but it is important to resist the temptation to rush to judgment until a full and fair prosecution of this case means a just resolution.
As with every development in this tragic story, we think first of Annie Le's family, her fiance, and his family, and her friends. And our hearts go out to them. Mr. Clark has been a lab technician at Yale since December 2004. His supervisor reports that nothing in the history of his employment here gave any indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible.
It is very disturbing to think that a university employee might have committed this terrible crime. But as I reminded our community, we must not let this incident shatter our trust in one another. The work of the university requires us to engage with each other in the classroom to collaborate in the laboratory and to trust one another in the workplace all across our campus.
I want to emphasize that our campus and our city are safe places. Both are thriving communities made more so by the strong partnership between the city of New Haven and the university. What happened here could have happened anywhere. It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about anything else.
We're all deeply indebted to the men and women of the FBI, the Connecticut State Police, the New Haven Police, the Yale Police, and the Yale Security. They have truly worked tirelessly and cooperatively since Annie Le's disappearance last Tuesday. We are a very close community with deeply shared values. Monday night's candle light vigil gave moving testimony to the caring and compassion of this place.
We will continue to offer comfort and consolation to Annie's family and friends and to all of the people who work here and we'll honor Annie's memory by re-dedicating ourselves to the highest and best values of this institution. Thank you.
Now, I would like to ask my colleague, Laura Smith, who is the president of Local 34, (INAUDIBLE) to come to the podium. She, of course, represents those 3,400 clerical and technical workers -
HARRIS: OK. You've been listening to Yale's president Richard Levin who in addition to expressing his sympathies to the Le family expressed his pleasure with the pace of the investigation, encouraged by the pace of the investigation.
He detailed a little bit of Raymond Clark. The suspect in this case. His employment history at Yale. He's been employed there since December of 2004 and in conversations with Clark's supervisor, Yale's president said there was nothing in Clark's employment history to suggest that he might be capable of something like this. The president also reiterating that Yale is a safe place. Stating that pretty flatly there that Yale is a safe place. We will continue to follow the twist and turns, the ongoing investigation into the murder of Annie Le.
Any new information we get, you'll get it as soon as we have it. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: At least 16 people were killed when a large car bomb rocked Afghanistan's capital today. 55 people were wounded in the suicide bombing not far from the Supreme Court building. Officials say multinational soldiers were the target as they traveled on an airport road in Kabul. At least six Italian troops and 10 civilians were killed.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai defending the integrity of last month's elections and certified results released Wednesday gave Karzai more than 54 percent of the votes. In a news conference today, he called election observers irresponsible for announcing more than 1.5 million votes were suspicious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: There was unfortunately and overwhelmingly negative press coverage from the international press on the election in Afghanistan and the day after. Let's not talk about that. Let's go to find out exactly if there was the kind of fraud committed in the election as reported in the international press. And let's give the Afghan election commission - both the election commission and complaints commission their right due to investigate and find out the results.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. This afternoon at 4:00 Eastern, CNN's Wolf Blitzer talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the military campaign and last month's election. That's today in "The Situation Room" 4:00 Eastern on CNN.
You know, there is a hunger crisis right in America's backyard. Almost half of the children in Guatemala can't get enough to eat among ethnic Mayans, the number soared to eight in 10 children.
Helena De Moura has today's "Impact Your World" report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HELENA DE MOURA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About 200 kilometers from Guatemala City, lies Halafa (ph) where this year alone more than 20 infants have died of malnutrition. Officials say the ongoing food shortage is affecting more than 300,000 families nationwide. Most of them are seeing their livelihood deteriorate due to the persistent drought.
RAFAEL ESPADA, GUATEMALAN VICE PRESIDENT: Practically 40 percent of children in Guatemala are suffering from chronic malnutrition. The level of acute malnutrition is relatively low. However, during these times of climactic upheaval such as now, the numbers tend to escalate.
DE MOURA: It may be an academic distinction, the country has the highest level of chronic malnutrition in Latin American and the fourth worst in the world.
It's a situation Guatemala's president last week, declared a calamity, compounding the problem, some relief organizations are actually pulling out of Guatemala due to lack of funding as a result of the global recession. That's not the case for Compassion International, the relief group works mostly through local churches capitalizing on existing community networks.
EDWARD LASSEGUE, COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL: That allows us to be quite efficient because for one it brings the element of local ownership.
DE MOURA: For CNN "Impact Your World," I'm Helena De Moura.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: All righty. If you want to help this or other global causes, just logon to cnn.com/impact.
Let's take you now to the Comcast Center. The University of Maryland college park. I guess you can tell from the roars, the president is in the room. The president talking to young people - thanks for turning that up. The president talking to young people there at the University of Maryland about health care reform. Why don't we do this, let's take you now to the president of the United States.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, Maryland! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, College Park! Thank you so much. It is good to be back at the University of Maryland! I want to start by wishing the (INAUDIBLE) and the Terps good luck this weekend. Maybe I'll even rub tostidos (ph) before I leave.
We've got a number of extraordinary elected officials who are here. I just want to just want to introduce them real quick. Your governor, Martin O'Malley, is in the house. The two outstanding senators from Maryland, Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardner in the house. One of the finest leaders that we have in Congress, Steny Hoyer, is in the house.
Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown is here. Prince George's county executive, Jack Johnson, is here. Mayor Stephen Bryaman is here. State senate majority leader, Tom Miller, is in the house. Congresswoman Donna Edwards is here. Congressman Elijah Cummings. Congressman Chris Van Hollen. Congressman Sarbanes is here. Congressman Dutch Ruppersburger is here. And to your president, Dan Mote, president of the University of Maryland, thank you so much.
You know - who? You know, the last time I was here, it was in the heat of a very long and very tough campaign. And in that campaign I promised to be a president who - you guys can sit down, by the way. In that campaign, I promised to be a president who didn't just clean up yesterday's crises, I didn't want to be a president who was just content with standing still. I promised to be a president who would build a better future, who would move this nation forward. Who would ensure that this generation, your generation, had the same chances and the same opportunities that our parents gave us. That's what I'm here to do.
That's why I ran for president of the United States of America. I ran for president because of people like Rachel. Did she not do an outstanding job in the introduction? Part of that promise is an economy that leads the world in science and technology and innovation. Part of that promise is a clean energy revolution that protects our planet, protects our security, creates jobs of the future right here in the United States of America. Part of it is giving every citizen the skills and the education they need to compete with any worker in the world.
Just like you're getting right here at the University of Maryland. And today we are on the cusp of taking another big step forward towards fulfilling that promise. A few miles from here, the House of Representatives will soon be voting on a plan that would finally make the student loan process simpler and more affordable for millions of young Americans. This plan would end the billions upon billions of dollars in unwarranted subsidies that we hand out to banks and financial institutions, money that doesn't do anything to make your loans any cheaper.
Instead, we're going to use that money to guarantee access to low-cost loans, no matter what the economy looks like. We'll use it to strengthen Pell grants and Perkins loans, to make college more affordable. We'll shore up our system of community colleges. And we will simplify the complicated, convoluted financial aid forms so it's easier for you to apply for help and get the financing that you need.
Now, these are reforms that have been talked about for years. But they're always blocked by special interests and their lobbyists. Well, because you voted for change in November, we're going to bring change in the House of Representatives today. And then we will take this battle for America's students and America's working families to the Senate, and then I intend to sign this bill into law, because that's the change you worked for. That's the change you voted for. That's the change we're going to deliver.
But, Terps, we can't stop there. There are still those in Washington who are resistant to change. Who are more willing to defend the status quo than address the real concerns of the American people. What can I tell you? They're still out there. We're facing the same kind of resistance on another defining struggle of this generation, and that's the issue of health insurance reform.
Now, let me say, you know, when you're young, I know this isn't always an issue that you have at the top of your mind. You think you're invulnerable. That's how I thought.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, Obama.
OBAMA: I love you back. I'm sure - I'm sure some of you wonder why this college required that all new students have health insurance this semester. Well, here's why. Here's why. Every day the one in three adults - one in three young adults - who don't have health insurance live one accident or one illness away from bankruptcy. Think about what had happened with Rachel if she hadn't had health insurance. Nearly half of these young people have trouble paying their medical bills. Nearly 40 percent are in debt because of it.
I mean, think about adding the debt you already have for college on top of that - another $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000, or $50,000 worth of debt because you get sick. Some of these Americans don't get insurance because they feel young and healthy. But some work part time or for small businesses where you haven't offered health insurance, and it's just too expensive to buy coverage on your own. And even if you have coverage, insurance companies today, they can drop it or water it down when you're sick and you need it the most. Or they can decide that they won't pay the full cost of your care and make you pay the rest of it out of pocket, even if it's thousands upon thousands of dollars.
That's why more than one-third of all young adults, including those with insurance, have had trouble paying their medical bills. That's why one-fourth of all young adults are paying off medical debt, and we've heard some horror stories during the course of this debate. There's the young father I met in Colorado. His child was diagnosed with severe hemophilia the day after he was born, and they had insurance. But because there was a cap on their coverage, as one child's medical bills piled up, this father was left frantically to search for another option or face tens of thousands of dollars of debt.
Another woman - another woman from Texas was about to get a double mastectomy when her insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne. By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her breast cancer - what's going on, guys? We're doing OK. Relax. Everybody's all right. We're doing fine. Let me talk about - I want everybody to - I want everybody to understand this.
You had a young woman who was diagnosed with cancer, but because she had a case of acne that the insurance company said hadn't been declared, they decided they wouldn't cover her. By the time her insurance was reinstated, her breast cancer had more than doubled in size. Now, these stories are heartbreaking. They are wrong. Nobody in America should be treated that way. And we are going to bring about change this year.
Now, at its core - listen up. At its core that's what this issue's about. Health care's about more than the details of a policy, it's about what kind of country you want to be. Young people, it's about what kind of country you want to be. We are the only nation on earth that leaves millions of people without health insurance. We spend more than any country on earth, and we're not any healthier for it.
So, this is about what kind of country you want your children to grow up in. A lot of you here today and a lot of young people across the country gave your time and your effort to this campaign because you believed that America can still do great things!
