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Obama Presides Over Medal of Honor Ceremony; Missile Defense Plan to be Scrapped?

Aired September 17, 2009 - 13:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Want to interrupt that story because we're taking you straight to the White House for the Medal of Honor ceremony. Sergeant Jared Monti will be honored. There is the president and the first lady entering the room there. Also present, Paul Monti who happens to be the father of Sergeant Jared Monti - Monti , sorry about that. Sergeant Jared Monti, who's being honored. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almighty and loving God, in whom we place our trust. We ask your blessings on this ceremony as we honor the life and service of Sergeant First Class Jared Christopher Monti. His heroic actions and selfless service on 21 June, 2006 in Afghanistan reflect the spirit of our great nation and the heart and soul of the men and women of our armed services.

You remind us, Lord, in your word that the secret of a great life is the desire and determination to prefer the needs of others more than our own. Even to the point of laying down our life for our friends. Lord, Jared's family, friends and fellow soldiers gather here today to bear witness that he pursue attained a level of greatness that few of us achieve in our brief life here on earth.

Thank you for charting Jared's course to greatness. From his days as a young boy who dreamed of wearing our nation's cloth, to his calling as a noncommissioned officer who dedicated every waking moment to train, mentor and love his solders. To his selfless acts displayed during the chaos of combat as he courageously fought through enemy fire to rescue one of his fallen soldiers.

Lord, would you comfort Jared's parents, Paul and Janet, his brother and sister, Tim and Nicole, and his fellow soldiers who fought alongside him in Afghanistan with the assurance that Jared's climb to glory did not end until he safely and securely fell into your everlasting arms.

May we and all who hear of Jared's sacrificial service never cease to give thanks and to pray diligently for the young men and women in our armed services, who like Jared, stand in harm's way, even this moment, protecting, supporting and defending our great nation. This we pray in your most holy name, Amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Please be seated.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. Of all the privileges of serving as president, there's no greater honor than serving as commander-in-chief of the finest military that the world has ever known. And of all the military decorations that a president and a nation can bestow, there is none higher than the Medal of Honor. It has been nearly 150 years since our nation first presented this medal for conspicuous gallantry, intrepidity in action, at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. In those nearly 150 years, through Civil War, two world wars, Korea and Vietnam, Desert Storm, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq and countless battles in between; tens of millions of Americans have worn the uniform. But fewer than 3,500 have been recognized with the Medal of Honor.

And in our time, these remarkable Americans are literally one in a million. And today we recognize another, Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti. The Medal of Honor reflects the admiration and gratitude of the nation, so we are joined by members of Congress, including from Sergeant Monti's home state of Massachusetts, Senators John Kerry and Congressman Barney Frank. We are joined by our Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, and leaders from across the armed forces.

We are joined by the leaders of the Army, to which Sergeant Monti dedicated his life, Secretary Pete Geren, our incoming secretary, confirmed by the Senate last night, John McHugh, Chief of Staff General George Casey, Sergeant Major of the Army Ken Preston and Jared's fellow soldiers and commanders from the legendary 10th Mountain Division. We are joined by those who now welcome Sergeant Monti into their storied ranks of the Medal of Honor Society.

But today is not about high officials and those with stars on their soldiers. It's a celebration of a young soldier and those who loved him, who made him into the man he was, and who join us today. His mother, Janet, his father, Paul, his brother, Tim, and his sister, Nicole. And from his Grandmother Marjorie to his six-year-old niece, Cariece, (ph) and cousins and aunts and uncles, from across America, more than 120 proud family and friends.

Duty, honor, country, service, sacrifice, heroism: These are words of weight, but as people, as a people and as a culture, we often invoke them lightly. We toss them around freely. Do we really grasp the meaning of these values? Do we truly understand the nature of these virtues? To serve, to sacrifice? Jared Monti knew, the Monti family knows. And they know that the actions we honor today were not a passing moment of courage, they were the culmination of a life of character and commitment.

There was Jared's compassion. He was the kid at school, who upon seeing a student eating lunch alone, would walk over and join him. He was the teenager who cut down a spruce tree in his yard, so a single mom in town would have a Christmas tree for her children. He even bought the ornaments and the presents.

He was the soldier in Afghanistan who received care packages, including fresh clothes and gave them away to Afghan children who needed them more. There was Jared's perseverance, cut from the high school basketball team, he came back a the next year, and the next year and the next year, three times, finally making varsity and outscoring some of the top players. Told he was too young for the military, he joined the National Guard's delayed entry program as a junior in high school. That summer, while other kids were at the beach, Jared was doing drills.

There was Jared's strength and skill, championship wrestler and tri- athlete who went off to basic training, just 18 years old, and then served with distinction as a forward observer, with the heavy responsibility of calling in air strikes.

He returned from his first tour in Afghanistan highly decorated, including a Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal for Valor. There was Jared's deep and abiding love for his fellow soldiers. Maybe it came from his mom, who was a nurse. Maybe it came from his dad, a teacher. Guided by the lessons he learned at home, Jared became the consummate NCO, the noncommissioned officer caring for his soldiers and teaching his troops.

He called them his boys. Although obviously he was still young himself, some of them called him grandpa.

Compassion, perseverance, strength: A love for his fellow soldiers. Those are the values that defined Jared Monti's life, and the values that he displayed in the actions that we recognize here today.

It was June 21, 2006, in the remotest northeast of Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan, Sergeant Monti was a team leader on a 16-man patrol. They had been on the move for three days, down dirt roads, sloshing through rivers, hiking up steep mountain trails, their heavy gear on their backs, moving at night and in the early morning to avoid the scorching 100-degree heat.

Their mission, to keep watch on the valley down below and advance of an operation to clear the area of militants. Those who were there remember that evening on the mountain, a rocky ridge not much bigger than this room. Some were standing guard knowing they had been spotted by a man in the valley. Some were passing out MREs and water, there was talk of home and plans for leave. Jared was overheard remembering his time serving in Korea.

Then just before dark, there was a shuffle of feet in the woods, and that's when the tree line exploded in a wall of fire. One member of the patrol said it was like thousands of rifles crackling, bullets and heavy machine-gun fire ricocheting across the rocks. Rocket propelled grenades raining down, fire so intense that weapons were shot right out of their hands. Within minutes, one soldier was killed, another was wounded.

Everyone dove for cover, behind a tree, a rock, a stone wall. His patrol of 16 men was facing a force of some 50 fighters. Outnumbered, the risk was real. They might be over run, they might not make it out alive. That's when Jared Monti did what he was trained to do, with the enemy advancing, so close they could hear their voices. He got on his radio and started calling in artillery. When the enemy tried to flank them, he grabbed a gun, and drove them back. When they came back again, he tossed a grenade and drove them back again. When these American soldiers saw one of their own, wounded, lying in the open, some 20 yards away, exposed to the approaching enemy. Jared Monti did something that no amount of training can instill, he patrol leader said he'd go, but Jared said, "No, he is my soldier. I'm going to get him."

It was written long ago that the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them. Glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding going out to meet it. Jared Monti saw the danger before him and he went out to meet it. He handed off his radio, he tightened his chin strap, and with his men providing cover, Jared rose and started to run, into all those incoming bullets, into all those rockets. Upon seeing Jared, the enemy in the woods unleashed a firestorm. He moved low and fast, yard after yard, then dove behind a stone wall.

A moment later, he rose again, and again they fired everything they had at him, forcing him back. Faced with overwhelming enemy fire, Jared could have stayed where he was, behind that wall. That was not the kind of soldier Jared Monti was. He embodied that creed all soldiers strive to meet. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. And so for a third time, he rose. For a third time, he ran toward his fallen comrade.

Said his patrol leader, "It was the bravest thing I had ever seen a soldier do."

They say it was a rocket propelled grenade, that Jared made it to within a few yards of his wounded soldier. They say that his final words, there on that ridge far from home, were of his faith and his family. "I have made peace with God. Tell my family that I love them."

And then as the artillery that Jared had called in, came down, the enemy fire slowed and then stopped. The patrol had defeated the attack. They had held on, but not without a price. By the end of the night, Jared and three others, including the soldier he died trying to save had given their lives.

I'm told that Jared was a very humble guy. That he would have been uncomfortable with all of this attention, that he would say he was just doing his job, and that he would want to share this moment with others who were there that day.

And so as Jared would have wanted, we also pay tribute to those who fell alongside him. Staff Sergeant Patrick Libert (ph), Private First Class Brian Bradbury, Staff Sergeant Keith Craig. And we honor all the soldiers he loved and who loved him back, among them noncommissioned officers who remind us why the Army has designated this the year of the NCO, in honor of all those sergeants who are the backbone of America's Army. They are Jared's friends and fellow soldiers watching this ceremony today in Afghanistan.

They are the soldiers who, this morning, held their own ceremony on an Afghan mountain at the post that now bears his name, Combat Outpost Monti. And they are his voice, surviving members from Jared's patrol from the 10th Mountain Division, who are here with us today. And I would ask them all to please stand.

(APPLAUSE)

Like Jared, these soldiers know the meaning of duty, of honor, of country. Like Jared, they remind us all that the price of freedom is great. By their deeds, they challenge every American to ask this question, what can we do to be better citizens? What can we do to be worthy of such service and such sacrifice? Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti, in his proud hometown of Raynham, his name graces streets and scholarships, across a grateful nation, it graces parks and military posts. From this day forward, it will grace the memorials to our Medal of Honor heroes. And this week, when Jared Monti would have celebrated his 34th birthday, we know that his name and legacy will live forever, and shine brightest in the hearts of his family and friends, who will love him always.

May God bless Jared Monti, and may he comfort the entire Monti family. And may God bless the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Janet, Paul, will you please join me at the podium for the reading of the citation?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president of the United States of America, authorized by act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of Congress, the Medal of Honor, to Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant Jared C. Monti distinguished himself by act of gallantry and intrepidity, above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a team leader with headquarters and headquarters troop Third Squadron, 71st Calvary Regiment, Third Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, in connection with combat operations against an enemy in Nuristan, Afghanistan on June 21st, 2006.

While Staff Sergeant Monti was leading a mission aimed at gathering intelligence and directing fire against the enemy, his 16-man patrol was attacked by as many as 50 enemy fighters. On the verge of being overrun, Sergeant Monti quickly directed his men to set up a defensive position behind a rock formation. He then called for indirect fire support, accurately targeting the rounds upon the enemy, who had closed to within 50 meters of his position.

While still directing fire, Staff Sergeant Monti personally engaged the enemy with his rifle, and a grenade, successfully disrupting an attempt to flank his patrol. Staff Sergeant Monti then realized that one of his soldiers was lying wounded, in the open ground, between the advancing enemy and the patrol's position.

With complete disregard for his own safety, Staff Sergeant Monti twice attempted to move from behind the cover of rocks into the face of relentless enemy fire to rescue his fallen comrade. Determined not to leave his soldier, Staff Sergeant Monti made a third attempt to cross the open terrain threw intense enemy fire. On this final attempt he was mortally wounded, sacrificing his own life in an effort to save his fellow soldier. Staff Sergeant Monti's selfless acts of heroism inspired his patrol to fight off the larger enemy force. Staff Sergeant Monti's immeasurable courage and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, headquarters, and headquarters troop, Third Squadron, 71st Calvary Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division and the United States Army.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please join me in prayer.

Lord as we conclude this ceremony, keep us mindful of the eternal reward we attain by devoting our time, energy, and even our very lives on behalf of others. Use Sergeant Jared Monti's legacy of selflessness, sacrifice, and service to challenge and inspire all of us to do the same for our fellow citizens for generations to come. May we remain forever grateful for American patriots, like Jared Monti, whose selfless acts of service have kept our nation the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Lord, may your divine favor and wisdom rest on our President Barack Obama, as he continues to lead us to greatness. Bless the member of our armed services and their families. And God bless America. We pray in Your Holy Name, Amen.

(END LIVE FEED, IN PROGRESS)

WHITFIELD: You're seeing the conclusion of a somber, poignant moment, a posthumous honoring of Sergeant Jared Monti, receiving the Medal of Honor from the president of the United States there.

It is, of course, the first time Mr. Obama awarding this highest military honor. And as you heard there, just prior to the honor and the citation being read, for the parents of Sergeant Monti, the parents, Paul and Janet, both there, you heard the president describing the sergeant as a generous heart, from giving gifts to Afghan children, to cutting down a spruce tree for Christmas back at home, in his home state of Massachusetts for a single mother.

He was known as a wrestler. He was a tri-athlete and even his fellow soldiers used to call him "grandpa". He would have celebrated his 34th birthday this week. He called his fellow soldiers, "his boys". He died while trying to save his comrades, while they were undergoing an ambush in Afghanistan, they were being -- they were under siege by about 50 or more Taliban fighters. So, again, he has just received the Medal of Honor, his family receiving it in his honor there at the White House

All this taking place as the U.S. and Congress, and the White House grapples with how many more U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan. More of that, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Having sent thousands more troops to Afghanistan, President Obama says he's not in any hurry to send more, but he's already hearing a drumbeat for deeper involvement in a war that turns eight years old next month. Here now is CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Troops on patrol talk with Afghans about building a medical clinic. This is the type of action U.S. commanders want. Helping Afghans, so they don't turn to the Taliban.

But the combat reality, senior U.S. officers increasingly believe urgent change is needed.

GEN. JAMES CONWAY, COMMANDANT, MARINE CORPS: If I could change one thing today with what's happening in the south of Afghanistan, it would be more troops, but more Afghan troops.

STARR: In an exclusive interview with CNN, General James Conway, Marine Corps commandant, spells out how more troops might be used.

CONWAY: I think that there's lots of place where we believe we can put the Taliban on the run, as well as disrupting his logistics and supply lines, his command and control, his money source, which in large measure is drugs.

STARR: Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now says even more U.S. troops may be needed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What will happen in that two or three-year period, you think in terms of the security environment while we're training?

ADM. MICHAEL MULLEN, CHRM., JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: If we are just training?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MULLEN: I think security environment continues to deteriorate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

STARR: As public support for the war continues to slip, Conway says the public isn't seeing the full picture.

CONWAY: So, I'm an optimist. I think that, one, the country needs to understand better, perhaps, what's taking place.

STARR (on camera): Members of Congress have now been briefed on the new strategy assessment and the so-called metrics, the standards for judging success in the war. The next step? Deciding whether to send additional U.S. troops to the war zone. President Obama says he's not in a rush to make that decision. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: In the view of the Vice President Joe Biden, it's premature to make any long-term decisions about the Afghan war, at least until the Afghan election is resolved. You may recall that Afghans voted for their president August 20. And while the government claims the incumbent Hamid Karzai won, allegations of fraud have not gone away just yet. Biden spoke exclusively with CNN's Chris Lawrence, while on a surprise visit to Iraq this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Do you think that more troops are needed to win?

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think that's premature. Look, the president made a decision back in March, setting clearly what our goal was, that is to defeat Al Qaeda in that region, and made a significant deployment of resources, civilian and military. They're now only getting in place. They're not all fully in place and deployed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And stay with CNN. Afghan President Hamid Karzai will be a guest today in THE SITUATION ROOM with Wolf Blitzer, that is at 4 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

All right. More now about the turn around on a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe. As we have been reporting, President Obama has decided to scrap the Bush administration's plans to put missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I have spoken to the prime ministers of both the Czech Republic, and Poland, about this decision, and reaffirmed our deep and close ties. Together, we are committed to a broad range of cooperative efforts to strengthen our collective defense and we are bound by the solemn commitment of NATO's Article 5, that an attack on one, is an attack on all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The goal of the old plan, and of the new system, which the president says will work better, costs less and be deployed sooner, it is to shoot down potential missiles from Iran. CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger joins me now to talk about the change and the fallout in D.C. and beyond.

So, Gloria, let's begin with the Russians who have already weighed in on this.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the Russians are bound to be more pleased with this than our allies, than our Czech allies, and our Polish allies. But in talking to experts this morning, the one question we have to ask, and we really have to look at is what, if anything, did we get from the Russians as a result of this, vis-a-vis Iran, or is this going to just produce a more belligerent Russia? We're coming up, next week, the president is going to meet with the president of Russia in New York, so I think foreign policy experts are going to be watching to see whether, in the end, Russia will take a noticeably tougher stance on Iran and its production of nuclear weapons. We just don't know the answer to that yet.

WHITFIELD: OK, there's already some response coming from the GOP on this plan as well, and what's being said. Even though Secretary Gates is reiterating the same message that President Obama is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R) MINORITY LEADER: This ill-advised decision does little more than empower Russia, and Iran, at the expense of our European allies. I think it shows a willful determination to continue ignoring the threat posed by some of the most dangerous regimes in the world, while taking one of the most important defenses against Iran off the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, Gloria, what does this mean to hear this, and to see that once again, it's very difficult for, I guess, the president and Democrats and Republicans to see eye to eye?

BORGER: Well, it's quite predictable. I mean, this was President Bush's missile defense plan that he's taken off the table, which a lot of people supported. I think the administration has gone out of its way to say that they're not abandoning missile defense. Rather, they say, they're redesigning missile defense, and they also go out of their way, and they tried to issue a little preemptive strike here, not only by saying the Defense Secretary Gates, a Republican, supported this along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So they're making the case that this was a unanimous, bipartisan decision, it's just another form of missile defense, and they're not taking it off the table.

WHITFIELD: All right, new and improved.

BORGER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Some of the language that I heard.

BORGER: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: Gloria Borger, thanks so much, from Washington.

Much more in the NEWSROOM after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A look at our top stories right now. Jurors in the reckless homicide trial of a former Kentucky high school football coach will start deliberating soon. Both sides are presenting posing arguments today in the trial of David Stinson. He's accused in the death of one of his former players. Prosecutor says that Stinson ran a brutal practice session in the day Max Gilpin collapsed. The sophomore died three days later.

Investigators in California have found some bones on property owned by kidnapping suspect Phillip and Nancy Garrido but it's not clear yet whether the bones are human. The Garrido's are charged with the 1991 abduction of Jaycee Dugard who has been reunited with her family. Police are not looking for evidence that could link the couple to other child abductions.

Bond is set at $3 million for the suspect in the killing of Yale graduate student Annie Le. Yale lab technician Raymon Clark was arrested and arraigned this morning. He did not enter a plea. The crime has left the community simply shocked.

RICHARD LEVIN, PRESIDENT, YALE UNIVERSITY: 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.

WHITFIELD: Le was strangled, her body hidden behind a wall in the lab's basement. Police are calling it a case of workplace violence. "Arms and legs, not a luxury," that's what one double amputee is telling Capitol Hill as the battle for health care reform rages on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More evidence today that job losses in the U. S. are slowing. New claims for unemployment dropped to 545,000 last week. That's down 12,000 from the week before and it's the lowest level of new claims since early July. But the number of people continuing to get jobless benefits jumped 129,000 last month to just over 6. 2 million.

The economic bigwigs say there are some hopeful signs of the recovery, but tell that to the Americans still trying to make ends meet. In today's Money and Main St., CNN's Allan Chernoff introduces us talks to a family trying to make 13 weeks of severance pay last a whole year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Karin and Chris Kaubacki jogging home from an errand instead of driving. It's one of many cost-saving the steps the Kubackis are taking since Karin, the family breadwinner was laid off in July from her software job at Eccentra (ph).

CHRIS KUBACKI: At first, it was instant panic, "Oh, my gosh, we're going to lose our house tomorrow we're going to be living in cardboard box."

CHERNOFF: Karin decided to turn her lost into an opportunity to spend more time with the family while taking time to find a job she'd love. So the Kubackis plan to stretch Karin's check and her 13-week severance to last a full year. Determined not to dig into savings.

KARIN KUBACKI: How you do it? I have the rules posted actually at my desk.

CHERNOFF: Rules like live within your means, which the Kubackis say they've always done. They're also do-it-yourselfers. Chris, a stay at home dad, who's a wood worker, builds toys for his on matt.

MATT KUBACKI: My dad made it. That's the best.

CHERNOFF: For the first time, Karin set up a budget. To stick to it, the family shops only for absolute necessities. The library is now a frequent stop as are other free community resources.

K. KUBACKI: We have had more fun since I lost my job than ever.

CHERNOFF: Having adopted a frugal lifestyle, the Kubackis say they now say they truly appreciate small luxuries.

K. KUBACKI: If you pick just a couple of luxuries, like Hershey bars, you'd really enjoy them.

CHERNOFF: Even as they stretch, the family still donates 10 percent of Karin's unemployment check to church. Living only a few doors away from the neighbourhood food pantry, the Kubackis are often reminded of their blessings.

K. KUBACKI: So I don't have a job right now. We've got a house, we got food, we have nothing to complain about.

CHERNOFF: Allan Chernoff, CNN.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: And remember tonight, our Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi is talk about your economic future on a CNN summit special. Money & Main St. That's tonight 11 Eastern only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Quicker, cheaper, better? President Obama hopes to see all three in his pushed to overhaul America's health care system. Today, the president is taking his case to students and young adults at the University of Maryland, that happened his afternoon. Promising that Congress will pass health care legislation before year's end while taking aim at special interest groups and his opponents from the other side of the aisle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARRACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I've heard a lot of Republicans say they want to kill Obamacare. Some may even raise money off of it. But when you ask these folks what exactly my plan does, they have got it all wrong. When you ask them what their solution is, it amounts to the same old, same old. The same status quo that's given us higher costs and more uninsured and less security than you've ever had. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And as you might expect, that sentiment won't sit well among the ranks of the GOP where such port is seemingly dwindling by the day for the president and his call for health care reform, happening right now a live picture of a republican news conference on Capitol Hill. We'll bring you the latest on that as it warrants.

So health care reform affects everyone, men and women of all ages with all sorts of medical needs. Take the case of Jordan Thomas, he lost both legs as a teenager and now he's fighting for amputee's benefits on Capitol Hill. Here now is Brooke Baldwin.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the debate for health care reform wages on in Washington.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: A college in Charles are now offering -

JORDAN THOMAS, AMPUTEE: Yes, I have come up to Washington.

BALDWIN: 20-year-old Jordan Thomas is fighting for a cause close to home. Jordan is a bilateral amputee who lost his legs in a boating accident when he was just 16.

THOMAS: My dad jumped in the water immediately and held me afloat. I remember he looked at me saying, "Dad, my feet are gone."

BALDWIN: During his recovery, Jordan met children whose parents unlike his afford expensive prosthetics. >

THOMAS: My prosthetics are $24,000, and a lot of companies will put caps -- $5,000 caps and you have to pay for the rest.

BALDWIN: So, the then 16 year old, started the Jordan Thomas Foundation raising money to help disadvantaged kids like Noah get the prosthetics they need. You like the knees?

NOAH: Yes.

BALDWIN: How does it work? Just like that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE CHILD: Yes, and you can do this, watch. Taking Noah's story to the next level.

BALDWIN: So what do you do, are you pounding down the doors of the congressmen?

THOMAS: Trying to get a hold of some of them, yes. And just raising awareness, that's the thing of the whole amputee deal; it's not kind of a red state or blue state deal. It's just kind of an ethical deal

BALDWIN: Jordan is asking hard hitting questions -

THOMAS: What do you do to ensure that the amputees have access to the best possible people for them to provide prosthetics?

BALDWIN: -- hoping lawmakers also listen and follow through.

BOB CORKER, SENATOR, (R) TENNESSEE: There's an awareness level that is hugely raised when someone like him is here.

BALDWIN: Joining Jordan, dozens of amputees taking their message to the U. S. Senate, the same day that Senator Max Baucus released his road map to health care reform.

DAVE MCGILL, AMPUTEE COALISTION OR AMERICA: We want legislation that will eliminate the caps, so that amputees across the United States have access to the types of devices that allow them to function every day.

BALDWIN: There are 2 million amputees nationwide; Jordan is simply one of them, taking on congress step by step.

THOMAS: It's just a - it's a no-brainer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow, he's an extraordinary individual -

BALDWIN: Yes.

WHITFIELD: -- for following with us now. So, he is really pushing this ahead. But at the same time, in the bills that are resented on Capitol Hill, does it seem that people are conscientious of the 2 million amputees just like him?

BALDWIN: Yes. He's hoping so, yes.

WHITFIELD: And he's making - he's making -

BALDWIN: Yes, that's exactly why and I love how he said, "it's a no- brainer." I mean, he's a college student, you're 20 years of age, you know, it's not a red state-blue state thing. We need better coverage down, you know, when it comes to insurance companies. Bottom line to answer your question, right now there's 2 million amputees: old, young, men, women, and they're all waiting to see, they're looking to specific language in eye of this proposed bill, what really matters is the final bill that will come across, to see if they will be a federal parody.

Basically, that means everyone to be covered. So, you say a $500 deductible and your insurance takes care of the rest of it. Right now, it's happening to everyone though, they're banging down to the door.

WHITFIELD: If people were not thinking about it before, they are now -

BALDWIN: Yes, they are -

WHITFIELD: His story was very compelling

BALDWIN: -- raising awareness. WHITFIELD: And he's a dynamic individual. All right, Brooke, thanks so much. Good to see you.

BALDWIN: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, an ACORN employee with a lot to say giving advice on the sex trade and saying she murdered her ex-husband, and now she's saying it's all a joke.

WHITFIELD: All right, eight minutes before the hour, which means eight minutes. And as you see there, Rick pondering what's next in the hour, Rick.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm working n a couple of things, but one of the things I'm really curious about today is, amidst everything we've been talking about, especially given President Carter's comments that it appears that there is an element of racism involved in the criticism of President Obama. That's a macro-version, there's a more micro-version that we're really beating on today and that is the story that's going on in Morrow, Georgia. There was a woman who says she was leaving a restaurant, and -and when in fact -- what I was reading -- doing now is going through the police report once again -

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- because she's going to come this and talk to me. You know, she's very nervous about doing this, but the police say and now the FBI seems to be intimating as well that while she was leaving the restaurant -- black female as she referred to in the police report -- was beaten up by a 47-year-old man who beat her and kicked her and called her racial slurs for no apparent reason.

WHITFIELD: Yes. In the view of her child?

SANCHEZ: say- say that again, Fred.

WHITFIELD: In the view of her child?

SANCHEZ: And her child as there, in fact the whole thing was about the kid -

WHITFIELD: Great.

SANCHEZ: -- trying to get out and the man pushing a door, which can happen at any time, so it wasn't a big deal, but it's what happened afterward. And this thing's blowing up on the internet, as it is on Twitter, MySpace, Social Media.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: She's coming to talk to me --

WHITFIELD: OK.

SANCHEZ: She'll be here in the studio for just a little while. WHITFIELD: We are looking forward to that. Rick Sanchez, thanks so much. Now just seven minutes away.

All right, plus we know, Rick and everyone else has been covering this story here on CNN. An ACORN employee caught on tape with a whole lot o say giving advice on the sex trade and claiming she murdered her ex- husband. Well, now she says it was all a joke.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An ACORN worker in California was caught on camera talking about her time in the sex trade and about killing her ex-husband. Well now the community organizer in the video tells our Special Investigations Unit correspondent Abbie Boudreau that it was all a joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An ACORN worker in San bernardino, not only offering advice o help a pimp and a prostitute, but telling them is that she gets it, because she too was once in the sex trade.

TRESA KAELKE, ACORN EMPLOYEE: I ran a service,

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?

KAELKE: Yes. Heidi Fleiss is my hero.

(LAUGHTER)

KAELKE: I understand and believe me I do know because I used to employ girls that would do this because they didn't care.

BOUDREAU: And that she once killed an abusive ex-husband.

KAELKE: I shot him. I shot him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But was it self-defence?

KAELKE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just picked up the gun and said f-ck you! And I shot him and he died right there.

BOUDREAU: But the worker caught in the sting, Tresa Kaelke now says she made it all up.

KAELKE: It's a joke, everything is a joke, none of it is true. They came into my office; they were a little suspicious to me when they came in. They played with me and I played back. I shocked them like they were trying to shock me.

BOUDREAU: Kaelke told us that she first told the filmmakers that ACORN would in no way help them with the prostitution project. But when they didn't leave, then she became uncomfortable, alone in an office in a tough neighbourhood with strangers, she started to make up stories, stories she wishes she could take back.

KAELKE: It's affected my life extremely and the lives of everyone around me. And I'm deeply sorry for that. It was a bad joke, I feel, but I felt a bad joke was being played on me.

BOUDREAU: The video took the ACORN controversy to another level. In the earlier videos, workers were apparently caught offering advice on how to hide prostitution money from the tax man and even bring in underage sex workers from overseas. But no one ever claimed to be a killer before.

San Bernardino police even investigated and found that the claims quote, "...do not appear to be factual." Investigators have been in contact with the involved party's known former husbands who are alive and well. The couple who took the video, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, are both conservative activists. ACORN said they have been deliberately manipulating the videos to put the liberal group which has become a target amidst serious corruptions, voter fraud allegations in the worst light possible. Amy Schur is ACORN's California's chairwoman. She accompanied Tresa Kaelke to the interview.

AMY SCHUR CHAIRWOMAN, ACORN, CALIFORNIA: We believe these two activists broke the law filming us. And then, what are they putting on the air on the - on line - they are putting doctored, edited, sliced and diced versions of these tapes.

BOUDREAU: That said, ACORN has already fired four workers for the earlier tapes and Kaelke told us she's been placed on indefinite suspension. Abbie Boudreau, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Rick Sanchez is up next.