Return to Transcripts main page
Campbell Brown
Oil Spill Blame Game; Interview With U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
Aired May 11, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody, and thanks for joining us. Campbell Brown is off tonight. I'm John Roberts.
We're following several developing stories this evening. Right now, in the Gulf of Mexico, another oil containment box, a so-called top hat, is being lowered to the seafloor near the gushing oil well. But will this one finally work? And who is to blame for this whole thing anyway? On Capitol Hill, oil industry executives took their lumps. BP's chief told senators the buck stops here. But have the oil industry and the U.S. government been in bed together for years? We will ask the secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar, and his answer might just surprise you.
Also tonight, news on the three young American hikers imprisoned in Iran since July. Just moments ago, their mothers were granted visas to go to Iran to visit them in prison. We will talk with one of those moms as she prepares to leave for Iran.
We have also got the very latest on Vice President Joe Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, in the hospital tonight after suffering a mild stroke.
And later on, the Washington murder mystery that spawned a summer of rumors and ended one congressman's career. I will talk to the reporters who uncovered the real story of Chandra Levy.
Lots going on tonight, so let's get right to your cheat sheet for the day's top stories, the "Mash-Up."
The big political story tonight is, of course, those oil executives on Capitol Hill. It's a picture that we have seen over and over again, business leaders raising their right hands and being sworn in, then pointing the finger at each other.
Today, the question was, who is to blame for the Gulf oil spill and how do we stop it from happening again?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Executives from three industry giants in charge BP, Transocean, and Halliburton...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing but the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... quickly pointed fingers at a Senate hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the lease operator and well owner, that falls on BP.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Transocean, as owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, had responsibility for the safety of drilling operations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All three companies worked together on the doomed Deepwater Horizon. Oil giant BP hired Halliburton to seal the undersea well with cement in preparation for drilling, leasing the rig above it from Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling company.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear one message, and the message is, don't blame me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: BP, facing an environmental and public relations disaster, says it will pay for all legitimate costs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liability, blame, fault, put it over here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We will have much more on this in just a few minutes time when in a revealing interview, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar tells us maybe the government is just a little too close to big oil.
The number-one international story tonight, a changing of the guard in the U.K., Labor leader Gordon Brown stepping down as prime minister. A day of high political drama ended when less than 90 minutes later, barely enough time to change the linens, Conservative David Cameron moved in to Number 10 Downing Street.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As tradition dictates, David Cameron was summoned to Buckingham Palace and asked by the queen to form a government.
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Her majesty the queen has asked me to form a new government and I have accepted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But Cameron is not alone at the top. Because no party won a majority, he had to make a deal to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, there has been all sorts of horse- trading. At one point, it did look as though Gordon Brown would stay in power, but he didn't have the support of his party.
GORDON BROWN, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And, as I leave the second most important job I could ever hold, I cherish even more the first, as a husband and father.
Thank you, and goodbye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight, David Cameron moved in to his new house. And Gordon Brown...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been held up by a taxi taking a fare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Couldn't even get through traffic.
Cameron said he wants the to form a coalition government with the third-place Liberal Democrats. His Conservative Party won the most seats, but not enough for a majority in last week's election.
Our top domestic story tonight, the search for survivors after deadly tornadoes raked Oklahoma and Kansas last night. Heavy fog complicated the job of rescuers digging through the wreckage of hundreds of homes. At least five people were killed and 58 injured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at them. They're all over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A wall of wild and violent storms dumped hail the size of baseballs and spawned at least a dozen twisters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ray (ph) and Tammy Trumble (ph) hustled their two boys into an underground storm shelter. Debris trapped the family inside the shelter. For several tense moments, neighbors and rescue crews used chain saws and muscle to clear a path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see, this truck stop is virtually destroyed. Even so, it provided critical shelter from the storm for dozens of frantic motorists who managed to survive an enormous tornado by crowding into two small freezers, the bathrooms, and even squeezing behind this cooler.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, those twisters churned across much of the metro area, ripped apart homes and tore down power lines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Oklahoma's governor has declared states of emergency in 56 counties.
Well, the story that people are buzzing about tonight, Miss USA goes -- Miss USA, rather, goes risque. Rather than the traditional poses in evening gowns and swimsuits, the beauty queen hopefuls are stripping down to lingerie for a provocative photo shoot.
And Donald Trump, the owner of the Miss USA Pageant, sees absolutely nothing wrong with that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN & CEO, TRUMP HOTELS & CASINO RESORTS: I mean, the fact is, the girls are beautiful, the most beautiful girls in the world. The show is going to be on, on Sunday night. It's going to get great ratings. And I guess that's what it's all about. But the photos are beautiful. The girls are beautiful. And it is artsy, and we're living in a different age.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Ratings, I guess that's what it's all about. The Miss USA Pageant will be broadcast, as the Donald said, on Sunday night. Ratings, that's what it's all about.
And that brings us to the "Punchline." Tonight, it's the latest installment in the continuing battle of the ascot. Jon Stewart called out our own Roland Martin for televised ascot-wearing after Roland have offered an impassioned defense of ascot nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART")
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": Roland Martin, do you want to go toe to toe with Stew beef? No.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: All right, Roland, come out and play.
(LAUGHTER)
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Jon Stewart asked, why? Why wear an ascot on national television. Join me in this fight and accept this call to arms, and may we all rediscover what it means to be an American. We are, Mary, the United States of ascots.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: You win this round, Roland. It took a man of courage, boldness and true style to bring back the ascot. Oh, by the way, Indiana Jones' gay brother called. He wants his hat back. Boom! Boom!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Roland Martin, we salute you.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is your Tuesday "Mash-Up."
Tonight, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar here with a message for those who think that big oil is too cozy with Washington. He agrees.
Plus, the next stop in trying to stop the Gulf spill disaster, after three weeks of failure.
Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, oil companies were indeed under fire today on Capitol Hill, scrambling to come up with answers, doing their best to shift blame for the deadly disaster that began with an explosion three weeks ago tonight.
It continues with oil still gushing into the Gulf, and there is no end in sight.
We start tonight with David Mattingly. He is along the coast In Lafourche Parish, Louisiana.
David, all right, we're on to plan B now. Explain to us what is being done, now that that first containment dome failed.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, when that first large containment dome failed, they set it aside. And it's essentially cost us about a week, with 5,000 barrels going into the Gulf of Mexico every day.
What they're doing now is working with a smaller dome, one that is a fraction of the size of the other one. It's only about five feet tall, about four feet in diameter, and they're taking it out to do the same thing that the larger dome did, except they're going to approach it in a different way. They hope to be able to avoid getting those crystals forming inside and clogging it up the way they did the larger one.
Then they're going to follow it up about 10 days to two weeks later with something they call a junk shot. That junk shot is essentially something that they're going to inject solid material down into the piping that they have down there to fully shut off the flow of oil.
Now, when that happens, they will be able to continue drilling down to finally cap this thing and end this disaster. But right now we're looking at that entire process taking 10 days to two weeks.
ROBERTS: All right, so, David, as you said, it's going the take a while. Meantime, there are some four million gallons of oil in the water and oil continues to pour out of that broken wellhead. How are they battling all of the oil in the water?
MATTINGLY: They're doing it just by the numbers. They have got skimmers out there pulling it up. When the weather conditions are right, they're burning some of it off. They feel like they're having some success with that.
But, again, this is such a huge area, such a huge amount of oil, they're not really keeping up with the size of the oil that they have to deal with. And right now, that oil is migrating to the west, going past the mouth of the Mississippi River, and now threatening new fishing areas, new coastlines, and new livelihoods.
ROBERTS: Yes, and it's very, very sensitive in that area as well.
David Mattingly for us tonight in Lafourche Parish -- David, thanks so much.
Well, the catastrophe has led to a flood of criticism over government regulation of offshore drilling. And, today, the White House announced its plans to improve federal oversight. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wants to split up the Minerals Management Service, which some say reeks of conflict of interests.
One new agency would oversee drilling leases and collect the royalties from offshore oil drilling, while the other would investigate the oil companies, inspect oil rigs, and enforce safety requirements. Right now, the same agency does all of that.
Earlier, I asked Secretary Salazar why it took a disaster to implement what would seem to be an obvious reform.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEN SALAZAR, U.S. INTERIOR SECRETARY: John, the reform effort at MMS started the day that I got there as secretary of interior over a year ago.
We put in new ethics reforms. We moved people. We have a whole ethics program. We did away with the royalty in kind program, because there was coziness there with the industry, and a whole host of other major -- at the end of the day, this is about creating independence and making sure that the police powers relating to safety and environmental compliance is something that can be done independently of the other function of MMS, which is to essentially go out and -- and produce about $13 billion a year for the American taxpayer, for the United States treasury.
ROBERTS: You know, it's well-known that, back in 2008, the Inspector General's Office at the Interior Department found that MMS employees who were there at the department back then had sex with, used drugs with, accepted lavish gifts from people in the oil industry, while, at the same time, not collecting millions of dollars in royalties.
How would you describe the environment at MMS up until you took over?
SALAZAR: I think there was a culture of corruption.
And, frankly, it reflected badly on the agency. And not everybody in the agency is that way. There are some wonderful public servants who work at MMS. And I'm very proud of the work that they're doing, including now, for they're working 19 hours a day to deal with this problem in the Gulf.
But there were incidents like the one that you speak about which essentially gave the agency an image of a culture of corruption.
ROBERTS: And could that culture of corruption, as you describe it, in any way have sort of paved the way for what happened back on April 20?
SALAZAR: You know, we won't know until the investigations are complete.
But, at least in my level of information -- and I'm pretty deep in terms of knowing exactly what is happening out there -- you had a whole series of things that happened that nobody ever assumed would ever happen. It's akin to the disaster with the Challenger explosion in space.
No one ever expected this to happen, because everybody assumed that you had all the different redundancies built in, so that, if you were going to have a blowout like this, you were going to have these devices kick in and they would prevent the blowout.
So, at the end of the day, all we know is BP is legally responsible for making sure that the American taxpayer is made whole, that the environment is fully restored, and that those who have been hurt and will be hurt by this incident are fully compensated. And that's a responsibility that they have.
ROBERTS: Mr. Secretary, on that point that you just mentioned about nobody foresaw this, we spoke with Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, today on that very point. Here is what she told me this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA JACKSON, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: Just like with any other disaster, people will later scratch their heads and say maybe there was a little bit of arrogance on our parts not to think we would face this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, she suggested that there was some arrogance on everyone's part, not thinking that some day we might be facing this.
Would you agree with her?
SALAZAR: You know, John, Lisa is a great part of our team, and she is working very hard in the Gulf right now to make sure that the problem is being dealt with and people are being cared for.
There have been 36,000 wells that have been drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. This problem has never happened. And, so, you have, if you want, 36,000 tests where you essentially haven't had this kind of problem occur. So, this has occurred in a very unexpected and in an unforeseeable way.
ROBERTS: Once in 36,000 times, Mr. Secretary, but what this disaster seems to have pointed out is that the drilling technology has far outstripped the safety response to it.
You know, BP, to some degree, seems to be shooting in the dark, experimenting with ways to try to cap that well at depths that have never been worked at before. Should all of this have been thought out before they even sunk that well?
SALAZAR: John, the expectation of our national policy, including multiple decades of congressional action and administrative action, has been that this deepwater oil and gas exploration and production was in fact safe, and that all the safety measures were in place to get it done, including all of the redundancies to make sure you didn't have this kind of incident. So...
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: But, with respect, Mr. Secretary, though, it wasn't safe.
SALAZAR: Well, it was a collective judgment of this nation and its national security needs that it was in fact safe.
Something has happened, just like in the Challenger incident and other kinds of incidents, that no one ever expected. And now we have to learn the lessons from that. And we will.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
And we're going to show you just how large the oil spill has grown in a way you haven't seen before. We're also going to look at a big oil company doing some big-time damage control.
Also tonight, a scare for the vice president's family -- Joe Biden's son Beau suffers a mild stroke. How does it happen to someone so young and so seemingly healthy?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It might seem impossible to gauge the magnitude of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but an engineer at Google has found a way, and the images are pretty disturbing.
Take a look at that same spill, and put it in a place like Washington, D.C. The 2,500-square-mile slick now in the Gulf of Mexico would easily foul the nation's capital and also spread to parts of Virginia and Maryland. Further up the Eastern Seaboard, that same massive leak would saturate Manhattan, New Jersey, Long Island, even parts of Connecticut.
And you can see right there in the very center of the screen, it would devastate New York Harbor. Now let's head west to California and the San Francisco Bay area, which itself suffered an oil tanker spill three years ago. If the Gulf spill happened there, it would completely cover all of San Francisco Bay, along with the counties surrounding it, all the way down past Sunnyvale.
It's not these simulations, but the actual images coming from the Gulf that have oil giant BP fighting through a P.R. nightmare.
Tonight, our Joe Johns takes us through their P.R. battle and the fight to save their company's reputation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For years, BP has tried to project an image as the environmentally responsible oil company. Just check out its Web site and the company logo, a sunburst of green. Now, of course, that image is in tatters, and the company is doing massive damage control.
TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP GROUP: The responsibility for safety on the drilling rig is with Transocean.
JOHNS: BP's initial P.R. strategy: Pass the buck. In a series of interviews and news conferences, CEO Tony Hayward pointed the finger at other companies working the doomed oil rig.
HAYWARD: It is their rig, their equipment, their people, their systems, their safety processes.
JOHNS: But deflecting blame isn't easy when even the president of the United States attaches your company's name to a disaster.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They gave me an update on our efforts to stop the BP oil spill.
JOHNS: One public relations guru who has long represented environmental causes says BP has already lost the battle.
ROB ANDERSON, FENTON COMMUNICATIONS: This will be BP's oil spill. This is -- they're not going to be able to get out from under it.
JOHNS (on camera): Public relations experts we talked to pointed to what happened to Exxon after the Valdez oil spill. An oil company's name gets associated with an environmental accident, and the public doesn't forget about it. However, the thing that is different nowadays, which Exxon didn't have to deal with, is the influence of social media, which might seem to be running against BP too right now.
(voice-over): A Facebook page called Boycott BP appears to have thousands of fans. So, what is the company supposed to do? In the end, BP's legacy will depend not just on words, but on action.
ANDERSON: You have got to think that, if they deal with the crisis effectively, if they're able to do that and they're able to show that they are being responsive in this crisis, then that ultimately is what is going to help their brand the most. So, by doing that, they are being good stewards of their brand.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Joe Johns is with me now from Washington.
And, Joe, even as the story was breaking, BP was playing down the extent of the spill. Initial word was that there was no oil leaking, that it was 1,000 barrels a day. Then it was 5,000. Is all that going to come back to haunt them?
JOHNS: Well, you know, that was a very big credibility problem right at the start, John. And that's the kind of P.R. thing that just haunts you and stays with you.
That said, the industry has been really clear all along, saying that people shouldn't rush to conclusions about BP, just impossible to say how it's going to turn out until the cause of the accident has been determined.
And we also talked to a crisis management expert tonight who said, yes, he agrees no one knows what is going to happen. Anybody who says that basically doesn't know what they're talking, John, so up in the air.
ROBERTS: Yes, a lot of chapters of this story yet to be written.
Joe Johns tonight -- Joe, great, great look at that. Thanks so much.
Coming up: finally some good news for the families of the three American hikers being held in an Iranian prison. Word just came that their mothers will be allowed to visit them in prison. We're going to talk with one of those moms coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Tonight, after a very long time, the very first positive sign in the case of those three hikers being held on espionage charges in Iran.
The Islamic republic says it will allow the hikers' mothers to visit them in prison. And just a few hours ago, the news became real when visas were actually issued. The hikers were grabbed last summer while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border. They adamantly deny that they were spying.
And joining us now is Laura Fattal. She is the mother of Josh Fattal, one of the hikers jailed in Iran. She is headed to Washington in just a few minutes to pick up her visa.
Laura, it's great to see you tonight.
Finally some good news for you. It's been a long, long 10 months. How are you feeling this evening?
LAURA FATTAL, MOTHER OF AMERICAN IMPRISONED IN IRAN: You're looking at a very buoyant mom.
And if you saw Cindy and Nora, you would see the same happiness in their faces.
ROBERTS: Cindy and Nora, the mothers of the two other hikers who are being held.
FATTAL: Yes, Shane and Sarah. ROBERTS: So, how -- how did this all come about, and how is it all going to work?
FATTAL: Well, we were notified that, on this past Monday, Dr. Mottaki, the foreign minister of Iran, announced on Press TV, on the Iranian Web site, that the visas are -- were approved.
And we were very, very excited to learn about it through diplomatic channels. And we are going to Washington, and we are going to pick up the visas. So, we know they're approved. They're not in our hands yet, but we expect to have them within 24 hours.
ROBERTS: And when do you expect to be traveling to Iran?
FATTAL: Very shortly. We don't know have exact dates yet, but it will be very shortly.
ROBERTS: Now -- now, as far as I know what the Iranian government has said is that you can come and you can visit Josh and Sarah and Shane. Do you have any expectations beyond that?
FATTAL: We are always hopeful that this is foreboding something even better, and that a release could be in hand. We would love to think that we could come home with our children.
ROBERTS: Now, is...
FATTAL: This is something wonderful.
ROBERTS: Is that just -- is that wishful thinking on your part, or have you seen some indication, through the contacts that the State Department has had with the Iranian government, through the Swiss Embassy there, and contact that Swiss officials have had with your children? Is there anything to indicate that that might be in the works?
FATTAL: There is nothing that is indicating to us something specific like that, no, no. We don't have any word on that.
But, as mothers, as -- for someone who has not seen her son in over nine months, of course I am dying to see him and -- and hug him and kiss him. But we are also optimistic that this might be the end of this terribly long detention for allegedly crossing a border. And that is a question. The only charges, and those were not even positive on those charges are for allegedly crossing an unmarked border. That is the only accusation that is pending.
ROBERTS: You've had your hopes up so many times. And I know we spoke right around the time of the United Nations General Assembly. Last September, Laura, just prior to which, Iranian President Ahmadinejad had appealed to the judge who was involved in this case to show leniency. Nothing happened after that. But just last week, George Stephanopoulos from ABC sat down with Ahmadinejad for an interview. He asked him about Josh, Shane, and Sarah. Let's listen to what Ahmadinejad said through an interpreter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST, ABC: Will you allow these hikers to see their families or not?
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It's in the hands of the judge, but I will make recommendations to the judge. But it's up to him to decide.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What is that recommendation?
AHMADINEJAD: My recommendation would be that he should cooperate, help them. But the judge is not under my influence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, Laura, this issuing of the visas comes very soon after that interview was done and the interview was aired. Is it a coincidence, or do you think maybe Ahmadinejad had something to do with it?
FATTAL: I can be hopeful, and I can hope that the president of Iran, President Ahmadinejad, with his welcoming comments both in September and also now just in the past first week of May, I am hopeful of course that his kind comments precipitated this visa approval. And we are just happy that the movement has happened.
ROBERTS: All right. You know, we've talked a lot of politics over these last 10 months. And I know that you're really looking forward to seeing Josh. You said you want to hug him and kiss him. But what's the first thing you're going to do when you set eyes on him?
FATTAL: Exactly what I just said. You know, I think the first reaction will be just a very maternal hugging and kissing and just wanting him to talk to me. And I'm sure Cindy and Nora with Shane and Sarah will do the same. We want to hear from them. They have been in isolation. We've been sending every day letters to them, but we've receive no letters. And we received one phone call on March 9th. So they have so much to tell us. We are going to be listening so hard and ferociously hard, listening to everything they're going to say. And we are just so grateful for the opportunity to be with them and this humanitarian gesture by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the mothers to go.
ROBERTS: Laura, it's so great to talk to you on such a tremendous occasion. We'll stay in touch with you and see how things go. Thanks so much for being with us. Good luck.
FATTAL: Thank you for having me, John.
ROBERTS: Coming up, the vice president's oldest son who survived a car wreck as a child suffers a mild stroke. But Beau Biden is just 41 years old. How could such a young man who apparently was a healthy guy suffer a stroke? We'll ask a specialist who knows.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: A health scare for Vice President Joe Biden's family. His son Beau, 41 years old, had a mild stroke. In just a little while ago with the vice president at his side, he was transferred from a Delaware hospital to one in Philadelphia. So what happened? That story is just ahead. But first, right now, Tom Foreman has got tonight's "Download."
Hi, Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Blame, baby, blame. Top oil executives defended their actions and shifted blame to each other for that massive oil spill in the gulf. Top officials at BP and its drilling partners spent the day on Capitol Hill being grilled over the cause and cleanup of the spill. Lawmakers chastise executives of the three companies at the heart of the spill for what they called a cascade of failures.
A U.S. drone strike in Pakistan today has apparently killed at least 24 militants along the Afghan border. The Pakistani government says two drones struck the country's North Waziristan region. Based on a CNN count, there have been at least 33 drone strikes in the tribal region this year. The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks.
A controversial war memorial shaped like a cross has been torn down by vandals. The cross is on federal land in California's Mojave Desert. It's been at the center of a Supreme Court fight. The court ruled that the cross did not violate the constitutional separation of church and state. Apparently, however, vandals disagreed. The cross was first erected in 1934 by a local VFW unit to honor the dead of the war.
And talk about centerfolds that jump right off the play. Playboy bunnies will really be hopping in the June issue as the magazine hits newsstands Friday complete with 3-D glasses. Hugh Hefner hoping to capitalize on the latest 3-D craze in the movies. His magazine circulation has plummeted. In an interview about 'Playboy"'s latest gimmick, Hef was asked what would people most like to see in 3-D. And his answer was probably a naked lady. So there you have it, John.
ROBERTS: Wouldn't it just be easier, Tom, to simply do a pop-up book?
FOREMAN: I'm not going to say a word.
ROBERTS: Tom Foreman tonight with the "Download." Thanks, Tom.
Coming up, the vice president's 41-year-old son suffered a mild stroke today. Beau Biden was the picture of health. So how do you explain that? Also, a cheating congressman and a missing intern. It was the Washington super scandal that had the media in a frenzy. Ten years later, police say the real killer is in custody and headed to court on Friday. A new book reveals new details about the investigation. We'll talk to the authors, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEAU BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S SON: We, my brother and I, not the Senate, were all that he cared about. He decided not to take the oath of office. He said then Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can't get another father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That was Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau at the Democratic National Convention as he recalled surviving the car crash that killed his mother when he was a child. Tonight, he is fighting a new battle what doctors say was a mild stroke. What could have brought on a stroke at such a young age? He's just 41.
Joining us now is Dr. Philip Stieg. He's the chief neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Doctor, good to have you in tonight.
DR. PHILIP STIEG, NY PRESB./CORNELL MED. CTR.: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: So what do you think this was all about? It was called a mild stroke. I guess some people also call it a temporary ischemic attack if it lasts less than 24 hours. What do you think it might be all about?
STIEG: Well, I think that it probably was a temporary ischemic attack, a very mild stroke. And thank God for him. It's probably related to some abnormality that they haven't diagnosed as of yet. It's unlikely that it's the common type of stroke that we see in older patients where a clot flies up from a blood vessel or from the heart into their head.
ROBERTS: So what might this be in somebody his age?
STIEG: Well, there may be -- I'm not saying that we know -- but there may be a defect, a congenital defect that he was born with in the wall of his heart. Something could flip from one side of the heart up into his brain, or there could be a blood clot in his heart that broke off, or off of one of his valves.
ROBERTS: Those tests will probably determine exactly what happened?
STIEG: Tests will show us whether he has it.
ROBERTS: For folks at home who might not be completely familiar with the process, what happens in the brain when somebody has a TIA, or a stroke?
STIEG: Well, the type of event you're describing here is typically something will break off from either the heart, and it's shown in the animation here. You see the blood clot in the vessel, feeding his brain. And a piece of that blood breaks off and then it migrates up into a major vessel in the brain, and it blocks that vessel off. Once that occurs, you get damage to the brain. Now in that scenario as shown on the cartoon, the brain is damaged.
ROBERTS: Right.
STIEG: In Mr. Biden's, that probably didn't occur because he doesn't have any neurologic deficit.
ROBERTS: Right. So he would have shown some symptoms. What's the typical treatment?
STIEG: He would have -- he must have shown some symptoms. That's what led him to go into the hospital. And now because of that, he is at increased risk for having a stroke subsequently if he doesn't have a diagnosis.
ROBERTS: Right. Now his father, well-known that he's had a couple aneurysms.
STIEG: Right.
ROBERTS: Is this something that's passed along in the genes?
STIEG: There are familial cases of both stroke like Mr. Biden has had, and also there are familial cases of aneurysms which are very different kinds of strokes. So they're very different vascular problems.
ROBERTS: So just because one has a cerebral vascular problem doesn't necessarily mean that the other one will even if they're of a different nature?
STIEG: Correct.
ROBERTS: OK.
STIEG: Right.
ROBERTS: Now, what can you do just to try to prevent this sort of thing from happening if you're in that age range?
STIEG: That's the most important thing and prevention is the most important thing. So what we want to get out to our patients is they need to watch their diet. They need to control their cholesterol. They need not to get diabetes. They should regulate their hypertension. And they want to make sure that their cholesterol is under control.
ROBERTS: All right. Dr. Philip Stieg, thanks for coming in tonight. Good to see you. Appreciate it.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes time. Larry here now with a preview. And you've got a very big interview tonight, Larry.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": And she looks terrific. Former First Lady Laura Bush is here, John. Written a revealing memoir, touchy on a number of provocative topics, a car accident that's haunted her for a decade, or for decades, and what she believes was maybe poisoning at an official dinner. Even her own children didn't know some of the details until this book came out. And now we'll all know it. Straight from the former first lady, here for the hour, next on "LARRY KING LIVE" -- John.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it, Larry. We'll see you in about 15 minutes.
Remember Chandra Levy? The Washington intern vanished back in 2001 and kept the scandal-hungry media working 24/7 for an entire summer. Now a new book reveals fascinating new details about Chandra's murder and the hunt for her killer. We'll talk to the authors whose reporting helped crack the case, coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Chandra Levy, chances are you remember the name. She was the 24-year-old Washington intern whose mysterious disappearance back in 2001 sparked a media frenzy. Early in the case, we learned that Levy was having an affair with her boss, California Congressman Gary Condit, who quickly came under suspicion. What you might not know is that all these years later, someone else is finally facing murder charges in the case. Jeanne Meserve looks back at the summer of Chandra.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What started as a small local news item about a missing woman exploded in the summer of 2001 into a full-blown media obsession.
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES": It was like a brushfire that just spread out of control, practically consumed the entire media forest.
MESERVE: It was the story of Chandra Levy, a 24-year-old Washington intern who seemed to disappear without a trace.
ROBERT LEVY, CHANDRA LEVY'S FATHER: I don't know. I think she's been stolen.
SUSAN LEVY, CHANDRA LEVY'S MOTHER: We don't know.
R. LEVY: Whoever did that, that's murder --
MESERVE: Suspicion and speculation soon centered on Gary Condit, a California congressman who for months refused to acknowledge he had had an affair with levy.
JOHN WALSH, HOST, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED: So stay right here. Tonight we're searching for Chandra, and the manhunt starts right now.
MESERVE: With high-profile shows like "America's Most Wanted" keeping Condit in the spotlight, the congressman tried to clear his name with a "Primetime" television interview with Connie Chung.
CONNIE CHUNG, HOST, "PRIMETIME": Did you kill Chandra Levy?
REP. GARY CONDIT (D), CALIFORNIA: I did not.
MESERVE: The terror attacks of September 11th eventually diverted attention from the case, which was still unsolved.
(on camera): About one year after Chandra Levy's disappearance, a man walking through this Washington park, Rock Creek, found bones and clothing about 100 yards off a jogging trail.
CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, DC POLICE: The remains found earlier today are in fact Chandra Levy.
MESERVE: A search at the time Levy disappeared had missed her, and the investigators had failed to link her case with other attacks on women in the park. Eventually they did and more than eight years after Levy was reported missing, a laborer, Ingmar Guandique, was charged with her murder.
JEFFREY TAYLOR, U.S. ATTORNEY: We believe that Miss Levy was a random victim of Guandique, who allegedly attacked and killed her as she walked or jogged through Rock Creek Park.
MESERVE: For Chandra Levy's parents, it does not stop the pain.
R. LEVY: I don't really want him to die. I just want him to suffer for many, many years. That would be the best. Dying is too quick, and then they get to go over to the other side and may be forgiven.
MESERVE (on camera): Guandique is scheduled to go on trial in October. When he does, Chandra Levy's mother will be in the courtroom.
S. LEVY: I'm her voice. She's not here. So I -- I am her voice.
MESERVE (voice-over): Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: The Chandra Levy case may never have been cracked if not for some exhaustive reporting by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz of the "Washington Post." Their new book is called "Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery." I spoke with them earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Scott, this book expands on a 13-part series you did for the "Washington Post" back in 2008. Why is this case still so fascinating to you nine years after the fact?
SCOTT HIGHAM, CO-AUTHOR, "FINDING CHANDRA": It plays on so many different levels, John, and it has so many fascinating elements to it. You have a missing intern from California who comes to Washington to strike out on her own. You have a congressman, very charismatic congressman from her hometown who she has an affair with. You have a police department that becomes kind of convinced that Gary Condit has something to do with the disappearance of this young woman. And you have a press core that was completely, you know, just hungry for this story, and they couldn't get enough of it.
ROBERTS: You know, Sari, one of the reasons why the press was so hungry on this, and I was working in Washington at the time was because of the potential connection to Gary Condit. And you suggest in the book that because of the press's fascination with the congressman, that the real suspect, Ingmar Guandique, was allowed to basically hide in plain sight.
SARI HORWITZ, CO-AUTHOR, "FINDING CHANDRA": Exactly. You know, the press had a big impact on this case, John. The media frenzy in the summer of 2001, as you know, was unbelievable. Newspapers and television. And because of the press coverage, people think they know the Chandra Levy story. But they don't know the real story. And we found amazing new revelations in our book.
And one thing we really focus on in the book is that the press rushed to judgment. As we know now, Gary Condit had nothing to do with the disappearance and the murder of Chandra Levy. But they focused -- there was a singular focus on Gary Condit. It was too good a story.
HIGHAM: Yes.
Well, you know, Sari, is a rush to judgment really something new?
HORWITZ: No. But in this case, it was different. The idea that a congressman would have something to do with the murder of an intern, it was unbelievable. But, you know, you make a good point, because we've seen the same kind of rush to judgment in other high profile cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.
HORWITZ: You know, you take the Atlanta bombing case.
ROBERTS: Scott, the book goes into detail and illuminates some mistakes that were made by investigators along the line that weren't previously public. What were some of the highlights that you found?
HIGHAM: The first 24 to 48 hours is probably the most critical time of a murder investigation. And in that window, when they first started searching Chandra Levy's apartment, they went into her computer and they tried to figure out where she had gone, which Web sites she had visited before she disappeared. And while they were doing that, they crashed her computer and they corrupted her hard drive. And it took a month for them to sort through the hard drive and to figure out where Chandra Levy had gone. And a month in a murder investigation is an eternity. When they finally got the computer back and they saw which Web sites she went to, they saw that one of the last things that she did was visit a Web site that had trails and hiking paths of Rock Creek Park, including trails that went to the planetarium and to the horse stables, which is ultimately around where Chandra's body was found. So they executed a search of Rock Creek Park, and they executed the search in a way that they completely screwed up the search.
The police chief wanted them to search off of all the trails and paths in Rock Creek Park, but instead of doing that, they searched off all the roads in Rock Creek Park. And what happened there is they missed Chandra's body by about 50 yards. A half a football field, John. And that made all the difference in the case, because it would be another year before Chandra's remains were found in Rock Creek Park.
ROBERTS: Sari, you had developed a "deep throat" type of source who gave you a big data dump. What did you discover through that data dump that the police didn't know?
HORWITZ: Many things. We got thousands of confidential documents. So when Scott and I were asked to reinvestigate the case in 2007, we were told to burn it to the ground, you know, interview everybody, look in every dark corner, turn over every stone. And I went to a source, an old source I had from years before covering law enforcement. And this source really wanted us to try to solve this case, and gave us thousands of confidential documents to sort of help us along the way.
ROBERTS: All right. So it took eight years to finally arrest Ingmar Guandique. Why did it take so long, and how did the trail eventually lead to him?
HORWITZ: It took so long because, first of all, from the time he was arrested in 2001, Ingmar Guandique said in prison that he was the one who murdered Chandra Levy. But really, I don't think anyone believed him because the police and the prosecutors and the press were so focused on Gary Condit.
ROBERTS: And we should mention, Sari, that he was arrested on an unrelated charge?
HOROWITZ: He was arrested originally for attacking women in Rock Creek Park at knifepoint. Two, the summer of 2001 in the same area where Chandra Levy disappeared.
HIGHAM: And incredibly, those two women were never interviewed by the police until just last year. That's one of the mistakes that we found. You know, these women were right in the same area where Chandra Levy's body was found. One was attacked two weeks after Chandra's disappearance. The other was attacked about a month after that attack.
ROBERTS: Well, it's a fascinating true crime novel, and you folks laid it out so well in such detail. Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham, good to talk to you tonight. Thanks for coming in.
HIGHAM: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: "LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes time. His guest tonight is Laura Bush. But coming up next, Susan Boyle move over for the Scottish bird, an 81-year-old granny who is stealing your spotlight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, the British television show that launched Susan Boyle to global fame has discovered a new star, maybe a super nova, a super mom at least. Could this be the next Susan Boyle?
She's 80-year-old Janey Cutler, a mother of seven, grandmother of 12, and great grandmother of four. And she brought the house down on the latest episode of "Britain's Got Talent," the show that made Boyle a superstar. Check out Janey's rendition of "No Regrets."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANEY CUTLER: Oh, no regrets. No, we will have no regrets. As you leave, I can say, love was king, but for only a day. No regrets as we whisper goodbye
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Janey Cutler, ladies and gentlemen. That performance has over a million hits tonight on YouTube.
And that's all for now. For Campbell Brown, I'm John Roberts.
"LARRY KING LIVE" with guest Laura Bush starts right now.
