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American Morning

Rescue Crews Back in the Mine; New START With Russia: Nuke Deal Faces Political Hurdles; Tea Party Targets Stupak; No Dollars for Jobless; Will He Stay, Will He Go?

Aired April 09, 2010 - 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: Happy Friday, welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's April 9th. Glad you're with us this morning. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Acosta in for John Roberts. Thank you for having me again. I appreciate it.

CHETRY: Good to see you back from Miami.

ACOSTA: I'm back from Miami and sporting the tan.

CHETRY: The flush feel.

ACOSTA: This flush feel, yes. Thank you for bringing that up. I appreciate that. But there's lots to talk about this morning. There's a lot of news.

CHETRY: Yes.

ACOSTA: We're going to get the latest on the mining rescue that's going on in West Virginia. This confederate controversy down in Virginia, so a big day.

CHETRY: Oh, yes, a lot going on today. And actually we could find out within the hour the fate of four missing miners in West Virginia. Just a few hours ago, rescuers were cleared to reenter the mine where 25 workers lost their lives Monday. Everyone still holding out hope that there will be a miracle. We're live at the scene of a search still ahead.

ACOSTA: And President Obama heading home from Prague after striking a deal with Russia for deep cuts in nuclear arms. Now he must sell it to the Senate. Ed Henry has been traveling with the president. His live report is just ahead.

CHETRY: Also, the tea party movement is doing their best to make sure Congressman Bart Stupak pays a price for his vote on health care reform. But is the conservative Democrat really that vulnerable. We're going to hear from people in his hometown.

ACOSTA: That should be interesting. And of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. We want to hear from you about anything in the news, whatever is on your mind. That means anything. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX. We'll be reading your comments throughout the morning -- Kiran.

CHETRY: And meanwhile, we start in West Virginia where hope is fading but it is still there. That rescue crews will be able to get back into the Upper Big Branch Mine and perhaps against all odds find four missing West Virginia miners alive. They headed back in earlier this morning. The search teams got the all clear and then they made a mad dash back inside. Yesterday, they got within 500 feet of the area where the miners are believed trapped, but they were forced to turn back because of dangerous gas levels and fears of possibly another explosion.

Meanwhile, one of the two injured miners who survived Monday's explosion has reportedly been released from the hospital. The "AP" reports that he's not talking to anyone this morning.

Brooke Baldwin is live in Naoma, West Virginia, where the rescue efforts has started up again this morning. And give us a sense of how optimistic they are as they get set to go back into that mine and look for those four missing miners.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, I think you can tell when you hear from West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin and the folks from MSHA there's still hopeful. The optimism of this pervasive but it certainly tamped down.

Keep in mind we are at hour 86 since Monday afternoon's fatal blast here at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Naoma, West Virginia. Right now, these rescue crews, 15 men, two teams of 18 should have made it by this point to that long wall. You keep hearing them talk about Section 22, this is this 2,000 foot stretch of wall deep inside this coal mine where the rescue teams believe three of the four missing miners are located.

And along the stretch of long wall is also where they've been honing in on this rescue chamber because as everyone has been repeating, if there's any hope of survival, these guys have got to have made their way in the rescue chamber. Now once they have checked and established the fate of those four missing miners, the next step is the gruesome recovery process.

There are 18 bodies that we know of inside. Four of them have been identified, 14 of whom have not. In order to help preserve the air and improve it, because as we were told off camera by MSHA's Kevin Stricklin that the process of recovery should take, in his words, a long time. So what they'll be doing is on the surface of the mine, the surface operators will be pumping nitrogen into that drill hole number one to help improve the air. Then the recovery process will continue and hopefully, the rescue process as well.

Kiran, also today, four funerals are already scheduled for four miners who've already passed away. We should have some kind of an update, though, in about 30 minutes' time here at the elementary schools as far as how the rescue effort is going, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Brooke Baldwin for us this morning. Thanks so much. And as Brooke just said, we are going to get an update. They're holding a press conference coming up at 6:30 Eastern Time on the latest on the rescue attempt and we'll bring it to you live right here on the Most News in the Morning.

ACOSTA: Well, we're learning new developments this morning about a U.S. helicopter that went down in southern Afghanistan. Three American troops and one civilian employee were killed when their chopper crashed about seven miles from the capital of Zabul Province. A spokesman for the Taliban claims the helicopter was shot down by militants, but there are reports from the Afghan government that the crash was caused by technical problems -- Kiran.

CHETRY: And President Obama is on his way home to Washington armed with a history-making deal for the U.S. and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenal. You saw it live here yesterday as they were doing that signing ceremony in Prague of the new START treaty. The president says that the treaty is an important step towards a nuclear free world, but there are political hurdles ahead. He needs to get the Senate to ratify it.

Our Ed Henry has been traveling with the president. He joins us live from Prague. And as you mentioned yesterday, it's certainly not a done deal. But is it gearing up to be as divisive as this health care debate was?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it could be Kiran. Essentially, you know, Robert Gibbs told us yesterday that when you look at the Senate it's so polarized right now, sometimes renaming a post office could even become a big debate. And they do need 67 votes. That means you can't do it just with Democrats. You've got to get significant Republican support.

The White House says they don't have the votes right now, but they're confident they're going to get them for several reasons. Number one, traditionally these arms control treaties with Russia have been pretty bipartisan over the years, significant support on both sides.

Secondly, when you look at the opposition or at least the concerns that have been raised, potential opposition from Republicans like John McCain, they've been very measured in their response. Raising questions but not outright coming out against this treaty like we saw on health care where Republicans right from the get-go were pretty much against the president's plan.

And finally, you already have a top Republican in Dick Lugar of Indiana, very influential who's saying basically he is on board with this treaty. That's frankly more than the Democrats ever got on health care really in the Senate on any of those votes. So they think Dick Lugar will bring along other influential Republicans and they believe after some work over the next few months, they will get this. But you're right, it's not a done deal yet, Kiran.

CHETRY: The president also yesterday spoke of the new day in relationships with Russia. What do your sources say behind the scenes about how the U.S. is going to be able to bring Moscow on board when it comes to tough sanctions against Iran and the United Nations? HENRY: That's a good question. They feel like they are getting some momentum on that because you saw all the public ceremonies yesterday. What we didn't see was behind closed doors we're getting some new information about what happened. President Obama was supposed to have two meetings with the Russian president. One, that was one-on-one. A second one that was more expanded with officials like Secretary of State Clinton. The budgeted time was 90 minutes for both meetings.

We're told now by U.S. officials that the first meeting, just the two presidents lasted 90 minutes alone. The reason is they really got down to brass tacks, got into details about potential sanctions against Iran. So they now believe that Russia is coming along. The big question now is looking ahead to next week.

The president back in Washington on Monday and Tuesday hosting a big nuclear security summit to follow up on all this. One of the leaders who will be there is the Chinese president. He's got another influential vote before the U.N. Security Council. They're going to try to take the momentum out of Prague here and take it to this meeting with the Chinese president on Monday. And they hope they can get both Russian and China onboard, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Ed Henry for us this morning in Prague, thanks.

ACOSTA: Looks nice in Prague.

CHETRY: Beautiful behind him, right?

ACOSTA: Absolutely.

Also new this morning, Sarah Palin will be the headliner at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. She will have a tough act to follow after a House speaker, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich really laid into President Obama last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: The president of the United States, the most radical president in American history, has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people. He has said, I run a machine. I own Washington and there's nothing you can do about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Gingrich said the Republicans can win in 2010 and also called on the party to layoff Chairman Michael Steele. We'll talk about the pressure on Steele to step down later this hour -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Then he went on to expose (ph) the virtues of Michael Steele.

ACOSTA: He did.

CHETRY: You haven't heard a lot. And he said, listen, he got you a win in Virginia.

ACOSTA: That's right.

CHETRY: He's working here, he's working there. They raised more money this month than they have in their history.

ACOSTA: And perhaps more importantly, Michael Steele getting some backing from Sarah Palin.

CHETRY: Exactly.

ACOSTA: That might be better than Newt Gingrich.

CHETRY: That's true.

Well, a diplomat from Qatar has been released and officials say he will not face charges after a bomb scare on a flight to Colorado. The Qatari embassy also says that Mohammed Al-Madadi was planning to visit a convicted Al Qaeda terrorist in prison during his trip. The "Washington Post" just reporting that he's being sent back to Qatar now. Passengers on a flight became suspicious after smelling smoke. The plane was then escorted into Denver by two F-16 fighter jets.

ACOSTA: And, Kiran, I wish my golf game was like this. It's hard to tell, Tiger Woods just spent five months off for a scandal that nearly brought an end to his marriage and severely damaged his reputation.

Round one of the Masters was his best ever. Thanks to a pair of eagles. Tiger finished with a four under par 68, two shots off the lead and heard from only cheers from the fans at Augusta National.

CHETRY: So how did these two birds help him so much?

ACOSTA: Good one. Good one. Not the golf fan, are you?

CHETRY: Know, I know what an eagle is.

ACOSTA: But Tiger --

CHETRY: Better than a birdie.

ACOSTA: There you go.

CHETRY: Not as worse than a -- never mind.

ACOSTA: Apparently he's getting a mulligan from the fans. That's the way I like to put it.

CHETRY: I knew you're going to bring mulligan into this somehow.

ACOSTA: Oh, ba boomba (ph)

CHETRY: Well, if you thought it was brilliant or you thought it was in bad taste, you've seen it, right?

ACOSTA: Yes.

CHETRY: Tiger Woods? Everyone is talking about this Nike ad where it features the voice of Woods' deceased dad, Earl, and he is talking. And he asked Tiger if he learned anything. Well, it didn't take long for the late night shows to have a little bit of fun tinkering around with the ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": There's another commercial premiering tomorrow, another Tiger Woods commercial. This one featuring the voice of his mother, Kultida Woods.

VOICE OF UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tiger, what the (expletive deleted) were you thinking? You stupid boy. Always using your (expletive) instead of your brain. Didn't I always tell you not to sleep with (expletive deleted). You are (expletive deleted).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Not getting a mulligan from the late night talk show host.

CHETRY: No. You knew that was going to happen. I mean, they also did another ad. They showed that same thing and they played some of the purported voice mails of Tiger.

ACOSTA: Yes. That's right.

CHETRY: One of the ladies asking to please delete --

ACOSTA: Her comedy just writes itself.

CHETRY: Yes, from the voicemail. There you go. Unfortunately.

Well, hey, it's 10 minutes past the hour. Time to get a check of the weather headlines. Which one did you like better, Rob? Because I know I asked you yesterday whether you like the original ad. How about the Jimmy Kimmel version?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the original is a little bit creepy and maybe a little bit too soon. So the Jimmy Kimmel was a nice, nice touch. Nice adjustment to the original.

Good morning, guys. Hey, listen, you're going to have a bit of an adjustment to make here as the cold air begins to sweep into the eastern seaboard after the record breaking temperatures. Fifty-seven in New York and raining right now, but 33 in Chicago. So there's the cold air. It's actually in Pittsburgh now and driving off to the east.

Rain across the I-95 corridor for the morning and then drying out in the afternoon. The severe weather threat for the most part is over. Look at this. Lake-effect snow -- are you kidding me -- across parts of Michigan. High pressure control should be a good looking day today and a good looking weekend speaking of the Masters for Augusta. The rain yesterday knocked down the pollen. Seventy-one degrees for round two as they tee it up at Augusta National in eastern Georgia. Back to you guys in New York.

ACOSTA: Right in the lumber yard.

CHETRY: There you go.

ACOSTA: That was a caddie shack reference.

MARCIANO: Nice work.

CHETRY: I know. I know a couple more, but I'll say them. I don't want to get mulled.

ACOSTA: It's in the hole.

CHETRY: Eleven minutes past the hour. Rob, thank you.

We were just talking about caddie shack yesterday for some weird reason.

ACOSTA: Very appropriate I think.

CHETRY: Well, hey, the TEA Party Express, they're taking their message on the road right now. And the latest destination is rural Michigan where they are taking aim at one of the Democrats at the center of the health care debate.

Eleven minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back.

ACOSTA: It is 6:14. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

You may have heard about the TEA Party movement. It's been --

CHETRY: You actually went inside the tea party movement --

ACOSTA: I have been inside.

CHETRY: -- with your special report.

ACOSTA: That's right. And lived to tell the tale. They were the most vocal and visible opponents of health care reform this year. No surprise there.

CHETRY: Yes. And despite not being able to get more members of Congress to vote no, they're still vowing to be heard. And as Dana Bash shows us, they're actually setting their sights on socially conservative Congressman Bart Stupak after his vote in n support of the overhaul. Here's a look.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kiran and Jim, for the tea party movement, health care is Exhibit A of the kind of heavy-handed government they railed against. And they've come here to rural Michigan to rally up opposition against the congressman they see as finding enough votes for Democrats to make health care law.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): The Tea Party Express rolled in for the first of five planned rallies here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Why this stop? It's Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak's district.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defeat Bart Stupak, the man who sold out principle, agree or disagree with his principle --

BASH: The anti-abortion Democrats' 11th hour deal helped deliver remaining votes to pass health care.

REP. BART STUPAK (D), MICHIGAN: There will be no public funding for abortion in this legislation. We've all stood on principle.

BASH: But Stupak constituent Beverly Michaels doesn't buy it and says his yes vote drew her to this Tea Party rally.

BEVERLY MICHAELS, STUPAK CONSTITUENT: And I was really proud of him because he was standing firm on his principles, and when he caved, I -- I just lost all of my faith in him, and I had admired him up to that point. And I was waiting to vote for him in November, but now I'm not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're got to vote in Constitutional Conservatives. That's right.

BASH: Unlike other Democrats that Tea Partiers are trying to topple, Stupak has not been considered vulnerable. He's represented this Michigan sprawling Conservative Michigan district for 18 years, winning mostly by huge margins.

Inside Ben's Place, one reason why, dedicated constituent services. Diane Lockeman (ph) says Stupak's aides helped her husband secure disability checks.

DIANE LOCKEMAN (ph), STUPAK CONSTITUENT: He got it through. He got it through faster than what it was going. Because it was -- it was over -- almost over two years until we called him in.

And, actually, his aides even call us to check up to see how we're doing on it.

BASH: And unlike the Tea Party, this coffee shop draws supporters of Stupak's health care vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had to make a decision and probably made a decision for the people that need health care in this country.

BASH (on camera): So you think the health care bill was the right thing to do, (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

BASH (voice-over): Still, the anti-abortion Democrat is now facing a primary challenge on the Left and new pressure from groups on the Right that used to support him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bart Stupak betrayed us and voted to spend federal dollars -- our dollars -- on abortions.

BASH: It's why even long-time Stupak supporters like Rich Brown (ph) say this time is tough.

RICH BROWN, STUPAK CONSTITUENT: It's probably going to be a tougher year for him than he's had in the past. Just the whole climate out there, there's a lot of negativity up there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: The TEA Partiers rallying here said they want to send Congressman Bart Stupak into early retirement, but Stupak himself hasn't formally decided whether to run for a tenth term, much to the chagrin of Democratic leaders in Washington who fear losing him means losing this Democratic seat -- Kiran and Jim.

CHETRY: Dana Bash for us. Thanks.

Well, coming up on the Most News in the Morning, more states are facing big financial problems right now, and it could be problems for people who collect unemployment benefits.

Christine Romans is here with a preview. Hey, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Thirty-three states that have these big trust funds for unemployment benefits are actually running out of money or already insolvent. The very time you need more money for your unemployment check is the very time that they're not getting money to replenish these funds.

We're going to tell you what it means for you and what it means for state budgets right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-one minutes past the hour right now. Christine Romans is here, "Minding Your Business" for us this morning.

Not such good news for many, many states across the country struggling right now.

ROMANS: Now, look, unemployment benefits. This is something that's paid for out of state funds -- a combination of state funds and now federal funds because we have had so many extensions, the federal government, your taxpayer money is paying for -- for those extensions.

But the states, 33 states now are insolvent on their Social Security funds. Think of that, four states are on the brink. They've had to borrow almost $39 billion from the federal government. So it's not that your -- your check is going to stop because your state ran out of money, its social security -- sorry. Social Security is the whole another story. It is unemployment -- it's unemployment fund. It's got to turn around and borrow a bunch of money from the federal government to keep it going.

ACOSTA: More red ink.

ROMANS: Right. Absolutely.

You look at the states -- Jim, I bet -- I bet you can guess what states are the ones.

ACOSTA: Let's see --

CHETRY: California and New York.

ACOSTA: California. New York.

ROMANS: Ohio -- I don't mean -- I'm not laughing about it.

ACOSTA: The usual suspects.

ROMANS: Absolutely. California, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, they all have multibillion dollar -- they've spent --

ACOSTA: Obligations.

ROMANS: Oh, yes. I mean, it's -- it's just incredible. That's an awful lot of money.

And it's because so many people in those states are applying for jobless benefits at the very same time that the money that's coming in, which are taxes on wages, are -- is going down. So --

CHETRY: So they're -- but not all states are doing -- there are a few bright spots.

ROMANS: Yes, and if you look at the map, you can see they seem to be the same states who have lower unemployment. But also, the folks who follow this say they also were socking money away during good times and -- and taking -- making sure that this wasn't going to happen.

So these are the solvent states so far.

ACOSTA: And their constituents are awfully happy that their governors and their state legislatures ran things properly during the good times.

ROMANS: Right, and aren't having to borrow from the federal government right now to covered their -- their jobless checks.

ACOSTA: And you have a Romans Numeral this morning?

ROMANS: I do, 99 weeks. This is meant to show you, I guess the strain on the system.

CHETRY: This is on -- this is the -- the longest that people have been taking out unemployment benefits, for 99 weeks now?

ROMANS: Yes. Ninety-nine weeks. You can get unemployment benefits up to 99 weeks. We've never had it that long in this country.

It just shows you the strain. It's not that these -- it's not that these states all planned poorly --

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: It was originally 16 weeks, right? I mean --

ACOSTA: Right.

ROMANS: Twenty-six weeks.

CHETRY: Twenty-six weeks --

ACOSTA: And this is --

ROMANS: -- 26 weeks.

ACOSTA: And this is becoming a debate because not everybody wants to continue doing this, and with people talking about those recovery that's supposed to be right around the corner or perhaps underway right now, folks are going to be saying, wait a minute --

ROMANS: Yes.

ACOSTA: -- time to slam on the brakes.

ROMANS: That's right. Ninety-nine weeks is a long time, and when you start to -- get to see actual job creation -- and you're right. The people who say we shouldn't be giving away all these benefits, they start to get a little more vocal.

CHETRY: But if your family is the one that relies on that check to eat, you'll feel differently.

ROMANS: Oh, yes. Yes.

CHETRY: Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: Sure.

ACOSTA: Thank you, Christine.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, America drowning in massive debt, as Christine just highlighting right now with this problem with unemployment benefit. Well, it's all growing by leaps and bounds daily. So what happens to our economy if we don't change course and how can we change course in the current economic climate? A lot of big questions out there. Christine is going to be looking at these issues and weighing some of the answers in a two-hour special, "IOU.S.A." It's this Saturday at 1:00, Sunday at 3:00 P.M. Eastern.

ACOSTA: A very important story, and everybody's talking about it. Our debt is just mounting.

Now, still to come on the Most News in the Morning, why Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele -- you may have heard of him -- is facing calls to step down, but not from everybody within his own party.

That story, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

You know, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has been the target of nonstop attacks from inside his own party. A number of high profile Republicans say the chairman should step down, but not all of them.

And what is the official word from the RNC? Steele is not going anywhere.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): With Congress on its spring break, it didn't take long for Washington to come up with its latest parlor game, will the chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele stay or go?

ACOSTA (on camera): Does Michael Steele have any plans to step down?

DOUG HEYE, RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: None at all.

ACOSTA: That's not -- that's not happening?

HEYE: That's not happening.

ACOSTA (voice-over): That's despite calls from some Republicans who are already weary of Steele's history of (INAUDIBLE). The recent disclosure that a group within the RNC known as the Young Eagles had spent nearly $2,000 of committee cash at a Hollywood strip club could be the last straw.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a change at this moment would be a good thing.

ACOSTA: One RNC member, Shawn Mahoney, jumped ship publicly, sending his resignation letter to a New Hampshire newspaper, "Mr. Chairman," Mahoney wrote, "do I need to remind you that the Republican Party is supposed to be the Conservative Party?" Two better known Republicans, former White House Advisers Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie are promoting as separate fundraising machine called American Crossroads, which some in Washington are calling a shadow RNC.

Doug Heye, the RNC's Communications Director, says Steele is trying to ease tensions by shaking up his staff and holding a conference call with RNC members.

ACOSTA (on camera): You have some distractions that you're dealing with right now?

HEYE: You know, certainly there have been, and that's why we've put these changes in place, and that -- real changes that are not just administrative but personnel as well, because a real change is needed to be made.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Are there some top Republicans still in Michael Steele's corner? You betcha.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: I support Michael Steele. I am glad that he is the leader of the party.

ACOSTA: But before you think this is just another inside the Beltway story, consider this. When we asked 10 out of towners touring the capital the question who is Michael Steele --

ACOSTA (on camera): Do you know who Michael Steele is?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's the head of the RNC.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Nearly all of them knew the answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's the Republican National --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: RNC Department --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Committee. Republican National Committee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chair and he's in real hot water over the Strippergate or whatever you want to call it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

ACOSTA: And that story about the RNC trip to the Hollywood strip didn't sit well with this Republican mother of two from North Carolina.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not a good example for my little guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: They all knew who he was. That was a big surprise. We all went to the Capitol thinking that nobody was going to know who Michael Steele was, and the exact opposite was proven.

I should mention that the RNC was slightly behind the Democratic Party in fundraising last month. But Steele is on a big winning streak is what the RNC will tell you, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts -- need I go on?

As the RNC points out, those victories happened on his watch and that's why you have folks like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich saying Michael Steele should stay put.

CHETRY: Right.

And they just obviously want to change the conversation as well. I mean, as --

ACOSTA: Absolutely.

CHETRY: -- Newt Gingrich was saying yesterday, let's focus on who we want to defeat, you know, in terms of the other side.

ACOSTA: Right.

CHETRY: -- not turn on ourselves. So, we'll see if it works.

ACOSTA: Yes. Absolutely. No time for a circular firing squad inside the Republican Party is what they are saying.

CHETRY: Yes.

ACOSTA: They would much rather take advantage of this situation that the Democrats are in right now.

CHETRY: Yes. Understandably so.

All right. Well, it's half past the hour right now. Time to take a look at the top stories this morning.

The treaty signed, we brought you the live pictures yesterday, the president in Prague. But now, the Senate needs to sign off on the landmark deal between the U.S. and Russia to reduce our nuclear arsenals. The president is heading home to Washington now after leaving the Czech Republic. He'll host some 50 world leaders next week. They're holding a nuclear security summit in Washington.

ACOSTA: And rallying the party. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasting President Obama, saying the administration is the most radical in history. He told a crowd of conservatives at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference that they can win in 2010 and after they do, they will undo the president's agenda.

CHETRY: We're also hoping for a miracle in Raleigh County, West Virginia. We've been keeping an eye on the latest as rescue teams finally were able to go back into the Upper Big Branch mine in the search for four miners still missing. We could learn the fate of these workers at any moment.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that one of two injured miners who survived Monday's initial blast has now been released from the hospital.

A quick look right there -- and that's where the live press conference is set to take place any moment. We're expecting an update from West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin as well as others who were tracking the latest on this rescue attempt and we'll bring you that live as soon as they step up to the podium.

ACOSTA: That's right. But in the meantime, it has been a week, as we all know, of outrageous statements and back pedaling apologies.

CHETRY: Yes, a lot of this, what we saw this week, a rare moment of political civility though.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CHETRY: But here to break it all down for us is his -- in his weekly segment is our own John Avlon, CNN contributor and independent analyst.

Thanks for being with us this morning. Good to see you, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be with you as always.

ACOSTA: Good to see you.

CHETRY: So, we were talking about, something that's raising a big firestorm of controversy is this declaration, the proclamation from Virginia's governor about this month dedicated to remembering the Confederacy.

AVLON: Confederate History Month, that's right. Bob McDonnell campaigned as a centrist problem-solver, but this week, he became quite a polarizer by reissuing a Confederate history proclamation. One of lines, for example, read, "April is the month where the people of the Confederate States of America began and ended a four-year struggle for independence, sovereign rights, and local government control."

Now, a couple problems of this proclamation: one, he resuscitated it after it was suspended by -- for eight years by two his Democratic predecessors. And more importantly, he took out a reference to slavery that previous Republican Governor Jim Gilmore had included. So, it was a combination of really an odd judgment call on two fronts. Apparently, thinking he could score political points --

ACOSTA: This plays well to the Tea Party crowd, right? He's talking about sovereign rights in there.

AVLON: Sovereign rights, absolutely does. But I think this -- he was apparently compelled to do this or trying to appeal to the Sons of Confederacy, a group down in Virginia. But this really, ultimately, ended up exacerbating all the problems he's trying to deny. And it is a real sign that we are not over this.

CHETRY: Yes. So, he later did come out, right? And he actually put in an addition mentioning slavery to that proclamation.

AVLON: A little belated. A ton of apologies, very little explanation, because let's face it, somebody made a decision to not only reissue the proclamation but to proactively take out the reference to slavery. And the Civil War was not only about independence and sovereignty, it was about slavery. You can't ignore it.

Bob McDonnell got a little wingnutty this week.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, there's a little thing called the emancipation proclamation, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which did away with slavery -- all that happening as a result of the Civil War.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Sort of a slight omission there.

AVLON: Just a little bit.

CHETRY: All right. There you. So, that's his pick for wingnut on the right.

ACOSTA: There's one on the left.

CHETRY: The wingnut on the left. Yes, this was an attempt at humor, was it?

AVLON: Well, that's what --

ACOSTA: Is this wing nut with a lower case "W"? That's the question.

AVLON: This is more maybe nutty than wingnutty. But Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson, who had a clip go viral this week with interaction with an admiral talking about the island of Guam and his concerns that it might capsize.

CHETRY: All right. Let's listen to a little bit of it.

ACOSTA: Oh, boy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HANK JOHNSON (D), GEORGIA: My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't anticipate that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, what could be wrong with that?

AVLON: What could possibly go wrong? Well, truly, more geologic concerns, perhaps illogical. Now, Congressman Johnson did put a statement saying he was having a subtle sense of humor.

Well, you know, it's possibly is a very dry sense of humor. But didn't look like a stand-up comedy show. I'm thinking his explanation is all wet. At the time when Congress has a low approval rating, that doesn't help.

CHETRY: Well, the criticism was, as you're going to call up all these generals -- you know, are you going to call up all these military brass and you're going to ask them a question about, you know -- and ask them that when there are so many p pressing things going on. So, it's kind of getting dinged for that.

ACOSTA: Now, you have a wingnut hero this week, right?

AVLON: We got a bonus round and it's always a pleasure when we get to do our profile and courage award, because, right now, were the time where civility itself makes news. Conservative Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, speaking to a hometown crowd this week, got a question about Nancy Pelosi, and he said, look, I may disagree with her 180 percent, but she's a nice lady. The response: boos. And Coburn's response is a little lesson in civility to his constituents.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Just because somebody disagrees with you doesn't mean they're not a good person. What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what's going on and make a determination yourself. So don't catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CHETRY: I believe he went on to say, he didn't just referring FOX News, but he went on to say, you can't just get your news from one source. You got to watch more shows. You have to read a couple of papers, right? I mean, he said, I read this paper --

ACOSTA: AMERICAN MORNING would be a good place.

CHETRY: There you. Of course.

AVLON: And that we could disagree without demonizing the opposition -- an important message. Thank you, Tom Coburn, for standing up for civility.

CHETRY: All right.

ACOSTA: He's not just Dr. No.

AVLON: Nope.

ACOSTA: Sometimes, he's Dr. Courage.

(LAUGHTER)

ACOSTA: I don't know what I'm saying.

CHETRY: Thank you. Hey, by the way, you check out our Web site, CNN.com/amFIX and check out all of John Avlon's wingnut picks throughout the week.'

Thanks, John.

AVLON: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And you're not going to want to miss this. Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning: held hostage by sea by Somali pirates, John Roberts talks to Captain Richard Phillips about his ordeal one year later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: All right. We're getting an update from West Virginia on the fate of the miners and the rescue operation that's underway right now. Let's listen into the progress right now. This is Kevin Stricklin from the -- from the federal agency in charge of this.

Let's listen.

KEVIN STRICKLIN, U.S. MINE SAFETY & HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: -- of their work where it was to visit both underground refuge chambers. Well, they proceeded into the mine, they got to the first rescue chamber, the governor said, located close to where the longwall face was and it was not deployed. In that area where the rescue chamber was, there were 900 parts per million right at the chamber. They then broke the plane and went towards what is head gate 22, and when they broke the plane and went into the four connecting entries.

We have smoke in all four of those entries and the smoke is traveling from this side towards the longwall face, indicating that we have a fire somewhere. So, it was at that time that a decision was made to evacuate the rescuers and to begin the inerting process that we talked about last evening.

We have the nitrogen set up and ready to go as borehole number one has the location in the back of head gate 22 where we have pulling -- where we have a fan that had been set up and pulling samples from. As soon as the rescue teams get outside, and I'm sure they are out by now, the inerting process begins by sticking nitrogen in.

In addition to that, as the governor mentioned, we have some boreholes that are going -- we're trying to put into the mine today. Three boreholes that are of concern to us or that we need. The first one and the most important is the borehole that's going in close to the refuge chamber that we could not visit. It's down approximately 400 feet.

And the intent is to drill feverishly and get that in as soon as we can. And the estimated time is somewhere around noon. Now, when this borehole goes in, the thing we want to do is deploy the camera, stick it down the bore hole, and see if that chamber has been deployed.

In addition to that borehole, we also have a borehole toward the mouth of head gate 22, referred to as hole number four. That's about 445 feet down. That should go in sometime this afternoon. And that's a way for us to monitor the one location to see if the nitrogen has gotten to that point and helped us inert the area where we think the fire may be.

And the third borehole, it only has 100 feet to go to break through. It's shown on the map as hole number three, the upper area of the map.

The thing that we -- that is unknown is exactly where this fire is at. We don't know if it is from the head gate 22 area or from the area up towards hole three. So, that's kind of where we're at. The concentration of gas that was coming out of the borehole as we measured it was approximately 4 1/2 percent combustible.

And as I said, the big decision, it's a very tough decision, was to pull the rescue teams out and not put them in harm's way based on that smoke that we saw in the four entries that was moving toward where -- toward the longwall face from head gate 22.

REPORTER: Kevin, how much heat can those rescue chambers withstand? Are they capable of withstanding the heat generated from fires inside that mine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Depending on obviously on the strength of the fire and the intensity, if the shelter is deployed, I don't know the precise temperature, but it's obviously not as great as the temperature would be were it not deployed.

We have hopes, continue to hope. We're working as hard as we can. To get our mine rescue teams back in the mine. And, hopefully, we'll be able to accomplish that this afternoon. I can't give you a definite temperature at which that shelter might withstand.

REPORTER: If there's a fire in the proximity, close proximity to that refuge chamber, do you think that it will withstand that heat, that people inside could withstand and survive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, it depends on the intensity of the fire. Sometimes, the fire is not that hot.

REPORTER: Is there insulation between --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

REPORTER: How do you guys put out a fire?

STRICKLIN: Well, the first thing you do is you inert the atmosphere and you bring the oxygen down below 10 percent. And then rescue teams would come in if we were comfortable that there was a knot -- and the reason you do that is to displace or take away the possibility of an explosion. We have to take away the possibility of a second explosion first, and to do that, we need to get the oxygen concentration below 10 percent.

UNKNOWN MALE: As they were doing, why hasn't that happened? And second, the bore hole over the other shelter that you had found was supposedly going very quickly. Yesterday, it was already at 350 or 400 feet --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: That's the latest from the mine rescue operation that's going on in West Virginia. Basically, the big breaking news in all of this is that the rescuers who tried to go back down in there again overnight have been pulled out, and that they did discover that there's a fire underground.

CHETRY: Yes, that's what we heard from Kevin Stricklin. He said there was some smoke that was indicating that they had a fire somewhere, where they don't know. But the other thing that, unfortunately, does not bode well for the situation and for the hopes of these four miners being found alive is that they said that they found the first rescue chamber. This is where they would allow miners to live for some 96 hours or more, and they said it was not deployed. Meaning that obviously it wasn't used.

ACOSTA: Right.

CHETRY: So, they're going to try to run a camera down to see the second rescue chamber and whether or not that one is in use.

ACOSTA: But it's still obviously not safe to do an extensive search underground for these miners this morning. We'll keep you posted on this. Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, we're going to try to get to that interview next with John Roberts talking to Captain Richard Phillips about his ordeal with Somali pirates one year later. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifty minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. He's the hero from the high seas. You may remember Captain Richard Phillips. He was kidnapped last year by Somali pirates after negotiating for the safety of his crew.

ACOSTA: Right. Who can forget that? He was then held for days on a lifeboat before navy snipers took out three of the pirates. Phillips wrote a book about that experience, "A Captain's Duty" and recently spoke with John Roberts about the moment the pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you look back on it, you know you had that one day when the pirates were chasing you and you managed to outrun them, and then the next day, they were there again. Was there anything that you think you could have done to keep them off the ship in the first place?

CAPT. RICHARD PHILLIPS, HELD HOSTAGE BY PIRATES: We pretty much did the industry standard for that time, what was the norm for pirate prevention, and it turned out that it wasn't enough.

ROBERTS: But what was that moment like? I mean, what feeling went through you when you said, oh my God, I've got a pirate on board my boat the first time in more than 100 years that a pirate had ever set foot on a U.S. flag vessel.

PHILLIPS: It was sort of a sense of a slippery slope and what opportunities that we had then to change it. So, it was the first realization that they had gotten aboard the boat, and now, the game had changed. Now, it had turned into a cat and mouse game on the ship, hide and seek game, and they were winning. At that instance, they were winning.

ROBERTS: So, you ended up in the lifeboat for a number of days. In the broad sense of things for people who couldn't imagine themselves in that situation, what was it like?

PHILLIPS: It was about four, four and a half days in the boat. It's an enclosed boat, 30-foot boat with two hatches, four windows up top. It was very, very hot with the engine running. The deck was so hot after awhile then you couldn't put your stocking feet down on it. It was so hot. For me, I liking it to being in a sauna for 13 to 15 hours a day. I was just constantly covered in sweat.

ROBERTS: When you tried to escape, you pushed the one guy in, you dove off the back of the boat. What was that moment like?

PHILLIPS: The first thing for me was, oh, this water is so cool, because they used to stop and jump in the water to get cool, and they wouldn't let me. So, the first thing was just how refreshing and how cool and how nice it was. And then, wait a minute, I'm in a situation here, and then my next thought was oh, my glasses, because I lost my glasses diving in a boat much as I have when I'm in my boat (INAUDIBLE), and then the third thing, let's get the heck out of here.

So, I took a breast swim as long as I could underwater, popped up, and took another breast, swim as long as I could and then it was like of what the heck are you going to do now and I just dive and swim toward the bombard (ph).

ROBERTS: They started chasing you around in the boat, and you started playing this game of cat and mouse going on the one side, back again. When did that game of cat and mouse end?

PHILLIPS: Actually, the whole situation probably lasted maybe five or seven minutes, certainly under 10. Once they came after me, I was just sort of going underneath the boat at times, hanging onto the pipes underneath, and then surfacing trying to come away from them. You could hear the footsteps and yelling on the boat, and they were yelling and running around. So, I would come up under, at one point, I was at the bow hanging on to a little fold there.

And then I hear them and I go back under the boat, but in the end, I came up on the other side away from them I thought, and indeed, a guy was standing right there and he happened to have his gun right there. He fired twice and I re-evaluated my situation and became flexible. I said, okay, okay, you got me.

ROBERTS: And said take me back on board. After that, things were really tense?

PHILLIPS: Again, they were very upset. They were incised. They were basically walking back and forth, because it's hard to have two guys walk up and down the alley, and they walk back and forth to just take turns, swinging, and hitting me, and hitting me with the butt of the pistol and slapping me and kicking me, because they would just sense I would even try and escape.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: There we go. A little bit of the amazing story from Captain Richard Phillips about just how he fought on his feet and was able to make some changes and make some moves that ended up saving his life.

ACOSTA: Yes. And it sounds like that they're making changes with the navy. I mean, they sunk one of those pirate ships just recently.

CHETRY: They did, and they also have been actually bringing on their own armed security crew to help make sure that those pirates do not hijack their ships. Pretty amazing stuff.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CHETRY: We're going to hear more coming up a little bit later. Meanwhile, it is now 54 minutes past the hour. Rob is going to be joining us in a couple of minutes. He has our weekend travel forecast after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: All right. It's 6:56. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines turn to Rob Marciano. Rob, looking little rainy up here in the northeast.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, just for a little bit, Jim. Good morning again, Kiran. We're looking at this front that's pushing finally off the eastern seaboard. This thing has been hanging around the eastern 2/3 of the country like for a good couple of days, and it is spreading some rain from Portland, Maine back to Hartford, Connecticut, New York, Trent, and New Jersey, just moving the offshore of the Delmarva and of Cape Hatteras as well.

Those are the strongest thunderstorms and that's really where the cold front itself is and markedly cold behind it and windy. So, that's where you're going to see your travel delays at the New York metro airport. Cincinnati will get into the act as well. Philly, Boston, a little bit of leftover rain and wind and then the cool temperatures kind of move in, I mean, not terribly cool. It was cold enough for snow in places like Wisconsin and Michigan, but temperatures in the 50s and Chicago warming up today, and 62 degrees once the rains move through tomorrow. But it's a far cry from here, 92, you saw just two days ago. So, enjoy the cooler weather. Jim and Kiran, back up to you.

ACOSTA: I think it was 127 degrees in Washington.

CHETRY: It probably felt like it, right? And then throw in the pollen and everything, forget it.

MARCIANO: Like the summer isn't bad enough, you know.

CHETRY: All right. Rob, thanks so much.

ACOSTA: Thanks, Rob.

CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break, and we'll have your top stories when we come right back. It's 58 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)