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American Morning

Heart of the Effort: On Scene on Rig as Workers Try to Cap Spill; Obama Heads to the Gulf Today; Oil Spill Politics; Disconnect with Customers; Joran van der Sloot Arrest; Michigan Declares Galarraga "Perfect"; Emotion Vs. Science

Aired June 04, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: A fix or failure? You're looking at oil and gas spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, and somewhere in that massive cloud a top cap sits atop the severed pipeline coming out of that blowout preventer. Unclear so far, this morning, whether or not this attempt is going to work. But you're about to get an exclusive look at the high stakes operations. Our Kyra Phillips goes aboard one of the drilling rigs with the president's point man in the gulf.

Good morning, and thanks so much for joining us on the Most News in the Morning on this Friday, the 4th of June. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us this morning. And we are bringing you the latest right now on the efforts to cap this well. Happening this morning. A mile under water and in the dead of night, underwater robots were able to jam a cap onto that severed pipeline but after several failed attempts. And it's still unknown whether or not this latest attempt is actually considered a success or failure at this point.

ROBERTS: They are the heartbreaking images that we feared would come. Birds on Louisiana's Grand Isle, some dead. Others fighting for their lives under a thick coat of crude. It's an indication that the thickest oil from the damage well is now beginning to come ashore.

CHETRY: And President Obama heads back to the gulf coast this morning. But last night in a prime time exclusive, the president told our own Larry King that his patience is wearing thin and that he's, quote, "furious at the entire situation.

ROBERTS: And a CNN exclusive this morning. Our Kyra Phillips is the only reporter to go onboard the rigs where BP is desperately trying to cap the well and cut off the oil spill. She traveled there with National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen. And Kyra joins us now live from New Orleans.

Kyra, quite an amazing opportunity you had. What did you see while you're out on the rigs?

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, even before getting out on those rigs, I was embedded with the admiral for 48 hours, the last 48 hours. You talk about living in a pressure cooker just watching this man lead the response to the worst disaster we've seen here in U.S. history when it comes to an oil spill. And what started as an early morning call to Starbucks with the security detail ended up with first time access and a first ever live broadcast from that explosion site 46 days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: The real focus right now is to get that containment cap in place, below the Discover Enterprise, continue drilling the two relief wells. The first one is on the DD3 (ph) that were on right now.

PHILLIPS: And let's make that connection as they're working to get that top hat right now to seal that gusher, how does this well -- how is it going to benefit?

ALLEN: The relief well is being drilled right below us going down. It started at an angle though over, and somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 feet below the sea floor. It will intersect the well bore. At that point, it will start pumping heavy mud in to drive the oil and the hydrocarbons down towards the reservoir to stabilize it so they can put a plug in or do what they call a bottom kill. After that's done, there should be no pressure below the blowout preventer. That will allow them to actually removed and cap the well, bring the blowout preventer up and do forensic analysis on it.

PHILLIPS: Explain the connection, the bottom kill here and how that is going to make what's happening on the Discovery Enterprise successful.

ALLEN: The intention is to intercept the well bore well down below the surface near the reservoir, then pump heavy mud in to counteract the pressure of the oil coming up that will allow them to basically plug or kill the well. Once that is done, you can do things like remove the blowout preventer, bring it to the surface and try and find out what happened.

PHILLIPS: How soon do you think that can happen, Ted, or are you just working as fast as you can?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are working as efficiently and as safely as possible.

PHILLIPS: I know you don't want to make any mistakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.

PHILLIPS: How is it then for you? What's it like to get up in the morning and deal with media scrutiny and have to come out here and do everything you can to make this happen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can be frustrating at times. The thing is we have to make sure that the crew is focused on the job. At the end of the day, we want to drill this well as efficiently as possible and we want to do it with no incidents. We want to do it with no injury to anybody. In fact, we want to have everyone who comes on the rig to go home in better condition than when they came on the street. Part of the problem is that there is a lot of outside scrutiny on what it is that we're doing out here. And I think the American population is wanting this well to be done. They want it now. We all want it done now. But we all have to understand that this is a well that's killed 11 people. We have to understand that we're sitting over top of one of the world's best drilling rigs. The well that we're drilling right now killed 11 people and sunk a rig. And so we're not going to speed up and we're going to do this as safe as possible and we're not going to hurt anybody. And that's our goal.

PHILLIPS: What's the deal with the water spray that's taking place next to the Enterprise?

ALLEN: So you've seen an offshore supply vessel over there with water being sprayed out of its stern. As the product is rising up because as you know there's oil coming out of the riser pipe until we get the containment cap on right now. They're actually putting water over the surface to reduce the volatile organic compounds that come off of the oil that produce inhalant problems for the workers out there. So this is actually a safety issue to put water over the top of the oil so the fumes basically don't come up.

PHILLIPS: Because when were flying in, the smell was so strong. It's like fresh tar smell.

ALLEN: And one way to reduce that is to basically spray water to reduce the vapors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And just to reiterate the power of that smell, we were about 10 minutes out from landing on that rig and you just all of a sudden got this waft like I mentioned of this fresh tar smell. And you could start to see all the streaks of the oil there in the water -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: You know, it's interesting, Kyra, we've obviously we've heard from Thad Allen a number of times, almost on a daily basis, but the very first time we got to hear from somebody out on one of those rigs, one of the TransOcean workers. They really do seem, despite the bad press that all of us has gotten, to be committed to try to really get this thing under control.

PHILLIPS: Yes, you know what, that's a great point. I mean, this is the first time anyone has ever gotten access to these workers. There's about 500 of them out there. And I was meeting dozens of them on every level of that rig. And you could see they were sort of nervous. They couldn't believe that they saw a reporter, that they saw a camera. And I just went right up to them. And I said, hey, we want to tell your story. Tell me where you're from. Tell me how long you've been working. And can I tell you, they look exhausted. But they're not complaining and all of them just said to me, we just want to get this done and we want to do it right.

ROBERTS: Wow. Great opportunity. We look forward to talking to you more this morning about all of that. Thanks so much. Kyra Phillips, CNN, New Orleans, this morning.

CHETRY: Meantime, anger against BP is growing by the day. There are protests now planned in more than 50 cities across the country. President Obama also saying he's furious and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal says that his state has not seen a dime from the oil giant, adding, quote, "We're done talking to attorneys." BP's embattled CEO Tony Hayward is also in damage control mode as the calls keep growing for his resignation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: Our task is to contain the oil, ultimately to eliminate the leaking well. And most importantly to clean up all the oil, defend the shoreline, and restore the shoreline where oil does come ashore such that we return it to its original state. BP will be here for a very long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: The president is also heading to the Gulf Coast again today. The president told our Larry King that BP's response of the crisis has so far fallen short. The White House also announcing the president's postponing a major trip overseas for the third time. For more now, our Dan Lothian is live at the White House this morning.

And, Dan, tell us more about what he's planning on this visit to Louisiana.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, unlike the last time that the president went there, the second time that he went, he did not get a chance to meet with local business leaders, with fishermen. And so this time the president does plan to go out to the communities that had been heavily impacted by the oil spill. He will also, once he gets there, be briefed by Admiral Thad Allen on the latest information on capping that leak.

Now, the president, as you pointed out, is postponing that trip to Asia. The White House putting out a statement late last night, right before midnight. And what's interesting is that this White House likes to talk about how the president can walk and chew gum at the same time. And while in the statement, they did not say why the trip was being canceled. It's clear that this oil spill crisis is a major focus of this administration and the president wants to stay close to home to deal with it, Kiran.

CHETRY: And you know, The president talked to Larry King last night and he said that he's furious about the spill but said that his job is to fix things instead of yelling at people. But there have been calls even from the president's own supporters that he needs to get angrier, go off as Spike Lee said. How are they responding to calls that perhaps he's too measured when it comes to responding to the oil spill?

LOTHIAN: You know, that is so true. And his own supporters have been very critical of that. And the president has, in fact, expressed his anger. He talks about it here at the White House and also when he went there to the gulf. But the problem is that his critics are saying and some of his friends are saying that he needs to show more emotion, that he needs to not only tell people that he's angry but show them that he's really angry. Well, last night when the president sat down for an exclusive interview with Larry King, he explained why. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would love to just spend a lot of my time venting and yelling at people. But that's not the job I was hired to do. My job is to solve this problem and ultimately this isn't about me and how angry I am. Ultimately this is about the people down in the gulf who are being impacted and what am I doing to make sure that they are able to salvage their way of life. And that's going to be the main focus that I've got in the weeks and months ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: The president says that he's furious because they didn't think through the consequences of their actions. In other words, there were no real plans for such a catastrophic situation, Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, BP's CEO admitted as much yesterday as well. Dan Lothian for us this morning. Thank you.

Also ahead this hour, we're going to be talking more about the politics of the oil crisis in the gulf. At 6:40 Eastern, we're going to be speaking with former Republican Congresswoman Susan Molinari as well as CNN contributor John Avlon.

ROBERTS: Well, CNN is committed is to bringing you every angle of this story as only we can. So this morning, we're going to go in- depth to each impacted state along the gulf shores. First up will be Louisiana, where 60 sea turtles have now been killed by crude oil. Twenty-six more are getting treatment. One species, the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, can only be found in the gulf. That spill could wipe them out forever.

CHETRY: In Mississippi, officials just wrapped up a big hearing on the oil spill. And they have a message for BP -- local, local, local. They're demanding that the oil giant hire local Mississippi residents to help with the disaster. And they want local leaders consulted regularly. They also want local businesses compensated quickly for their losses.

ROBERTS: To Alabama where their worst fears are now materializing, globs of oil washing into Mobile Bay. The white sand at Fort Morgan now stained by crude. One woman from Mobile says she felt compelled to come to the beach just to see it one more time, quote, "before it was destroyed."

CHETRY: And in Florida, they're bracing for what appears to be the inevitable as crude oil lingers just less than 10 miles off the Florida coast. And they're warning tourists to check the status of beaches before visiting the Sunshine State. Again, the large slick less than 10 miles from the panhandle and they're warning that oil could come ashore this weekend.

ROBERTS: If the gusher in the gulf cannot be contained, here's what could potentially happen. This computer model is from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. It shows the widening slick could enter into the gulf's so-called loop current, which you can see there along the west coast to Florida, travel up to the straits of Florida then follow the gulf stream all the way up along the east coast past the beaches of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina by July. It could then impact potentially Bermuda, even get carried into currents as far away as Europe.

Reynolds Wolf joins us now from the CNN weather center in Atlanta. And, Reynolds, the longer this goes on, the worst the news gets.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it really is. I mean, the amazing thing about this that we have to remember is when it comes to this oil slick, it is really at the mercy of two things, the winds and the currents. And, of course, that is the loop current that you see there.

If we can let's show the animation again. And you'll notice it just kind of moves in a clockwise motion, if you will, right along parts of the Florida panhandle, right past Tampa Bay then ends with the (INAUDIBLE). Then it gets picked up towards the gulf stream and then goes right along the outer banks of North Carolina and then deeper into the Atlantic.

Now one thing to mention that's very important is that the majority of this oil that will make its way along the eastern seaboard will be the very thin rainbow sheen variety. We're talking about stuff that's about as thin as, say, a sheet of paper, even the paint that might be on the side of the house. But the thicker crude, the heavier glob, some of that will make it up. But the overall majority, I'd say about 97 percent will be that sheen. But still, a detrimental effect nonetheless. So, again, very interesting to watch that.

Then it's just one computer model. It doesn't mean that's exactly what's going to happen, but certainly things look that is favorable. If we don't cut off the spill, that may be a situation that may unfold in the weeks and months to come. Let's send it back to you, guys.

CHETRY: And then, of course, you factor in weather, tropical weather. I mean, hurricanes could change that. Tropical storms could change that as well.

WOLF: Absolutely. I mean, a strong hurricane could pick up some of that stuff and bring it right on shore, which is really the worst case scenario altogether. I mean, let's keep it in mind that you have that oil. It goes off, say, a storm carries onshore the Alabama, Mississippi, perhaps even the Florida coastline, then you have a contaminated shoreline. So conditions obviously could be much worse in a very busy hurricane season.

CHETRY: All right. Reynolds Wolf for us, thanks so much.

WOLF: You bet.

CHETRY: Coming up, mixing oil with politics. The gulf oil spill could become a real game changer for the midterm elections. So who's likely to face the brunt of it? Jim Acosta is looking at that for us.

It's 13 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Sixteen minutes after the hour. It's in place. The big question this morning, will it work?

You're looking at live pictures of BP's latest effort to cap the gulf oil spill. A containment cap is now over the gushing well. The crude is still pouring out from underneath that cap. BP says it could be a couple of days before they know if the operation is a success. And haven't we heard that before?

CHETRY: Yes, unfortunately.

And meantime, the growing oil spill has raised the political stakes for President Obama, but also for others looking to make a splash in the mid-term elections.

ROBERTS: Our Jim Acosta is following that part of the story for us today. He's live in Washington for us. Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Kiran. You know, I was talking to Terri McAuliffe yesterday, the former DNC chairman. He says the president needs to amp it up.

And the president's latest trip to the gulf is another signal that this oil disaster is fast becoming the biggest political game changer for the election year. The question, who is going to get slimed?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): President Obama is dealing with two gushers, one at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the other out of Washington, where there's no shortage of advice on how to handle the oil spill.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: If I were President Obama, I would call everybody in from all over the world. I have no pride at this (ph). We've got to shut this thing down.

ACOSTA: Former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe is urging the president to call the world's top oil experts down to the gulf.

MCAULIFFE: Let's get all of the experts in. Let's meet daily down there in the Gulf Coast. Let's have a morning, nightly meeting. How do we fix this thing?

ACOSTA: He understands Mr. Obama is no Bill Clinton when it comes to empathy.

MCAULIFFE: He probably would have moved the White House down there.

ACOSTA: The spill could also contaminate candidates for Congress. An environmental group has an ad targeting Arkansas Democratic senator Blanche Lincoln, who's raised more than a half million dollars of campaign cash from oil and gas companies during her career.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to send big oil a message. On Tuesday, send Blanche Lincoln packing.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: The time for waiting is over.

ACOSTA: But the disaster could actually redeem Bobby Jindal.

JINDAL: Good evening, and happy Mardi Gras. I'm Bobby Jindal, governor of --

ACOSTA: Louisiana's Republican governor was written off as a presidential prospect by many in Washington after his infamous 2009 response to the State of the Union.

STU ROTHENBERG, ROTHENBERG POLITICAL REPORT: He was more a target of ridicule than of respect after he gave a response to the State of the Union where he was regarded as not ready for primetime. Now, he's in primetime and he looks very ready.

ACOSTA: Same goes for Florida governor Charlie Crist. One month he breaks with the GOP in his bid for the Senate. The next, he's in the national spotlight.

GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (I), FLORIDA: First order of business for me is make sure we're protecting our beautiful Florida.

ACOSTA: But Terry McAuliffe, who recently purchased an electric car company from the Chinese, says the spill is about something much bigger than politics.

MCAULIFFE: We have got to get serious about getting off of oil. You need people buying electric vehicles.

ACOSTA (on camera): It sounds like Terry McAuliffe is trying to sell me a car.

MCAULIFFE: And I hope you buy one, $13,000, $15,000, 70 miles to the charge, come on, 45 miles -- it will be a great car.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: It is a nice little car. Now, there is a chance the spill could revive Democrats' attempts to get a clean energy bill through the Congress. They'd like to replace drill, baby, drill, with green, baby, green -- John and Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. There you go.

All right. Jim Acosta for us this morning. Thanks so much. How quickly things can change, though.

ROBERTS: Yes. I'm thinking -- before we get to green, baby, green, or drill, baby, drill, I think kill, baby kill is the --

CHETRY: In terms of the well --

ROBERTS: -- the first order of business.

CHETRY: -- amen.

Well, a guy complains to AT&T and gets a legal threat. How's that for customer service. So what's causing the latest disconnect with its customers?

Nineteen minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-two and a half minutes after the hour. Christine Romans here, "Minding Your Business" this morning. Can you hear me now?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, wow.

OK, so there's this customer, this AT&T customer. He's ticked off about his AT&T service on his iPhone, right? And he's concerned about the new pricing plans that AT&T is rolling out that they're not going to have unlimited data anymore. And he's really -- he's really investigated this and he's looking at other kinds of -- of services instead of the AT&T iPhone service.

And so, he e-mails the CEO of AT&T and he basically says, look, thanks for making the switch to another service much easier because you're, you know, you're -- you're not really doing a good job here and it's not -- it's not fair and -- and I'm -- I'm really angry about this. And he says, you know, please don't have one of your $12 an hour executive relations college students call me about this. Then what happened, he said I found them to be generally poorly informed and they have little authority to do anything sensible.

So he -- he was -- he was irritated with the customer service situation at AT&T. So what happens to this AT&T customer? He gets a voice mail from AT&T from not some executive relations college student but from the executive response team who says, I want to thank you first for your feedback, but I'm going forward. We're going to issue some cease and desist letters.

Listen to the voicemail that he got from AT&T. (BEGIN AUDIO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to first thank you for the feedback. Going forward, I need to warn you that if you continue to send e-mails to Randall Stephenson, a cease and desist letter may be sent to you.

(END AUDIO TAPE)

ROMANS: So you're a ticked off customer and you send an e-mail to the CEO and you get a warning from the company that you --

ROBERTS: It doesn't even sound like a $12 an hour college student. It sounded like some kid in elementary school reading from a piece of paper.

ROMANS: That was the official response of AT&T.

ROBERTS: Wow.

ROMAN: The official response --

CHETRY: So what happened after he posted it online?

ROMANS: Well, so then, he was like -- well, hey, he writes the whole thing up. He puts the voicemail -- throws it out online, and then AT&T comes back and tells us, we're really sorry. We take these concerns very seriously. We are going to be talking -- we -- we apologize for the way we -- the way we responded to it, and this young man has accepted --

Giorgio Galante is the name of this -- the name of this customer and he has accepted the apology but he is still switching to the Sprint HDC (INAUDIBLE) I guess it's called. But he is still switching.

But I'm telling you right now, customer service, we've been saying for how many years? We were saying customer service in this country is dead because of the bubble. You just -- everyone spent money and nobody had to work for it, and this, I think shows that, gosh, AT&T comes off looking like a big old stodgy company. With Facebook and Twitter and all these ways to talk to companies, don't e- mail the CEO or you'll get a cease and desist letter.

CHETRY: Wow.

ROBERTS: It's pretty amazing.

CHETRY: Well, you know, shine a little sunlight on it and you see what happens. They changed their tune. So -- got to love the internet.

ROBERTS: You've e-mailed the CEO -- you've --

CHETRY: Yes. I have. I've e-mailed a CEO and I've actually e- mailed the manager of my grocery store, and they're very nice. ROMANS: Oh, and I look up who's on the board of directors and send letters to the board of directors too. You know, but I'm a little crazy.

ROBERTS: I complained about AT&T in the air and they fixed it.

CHETRY: There you go.

ROMANS: Yes. You see that not everybody, you know, has --

ROBERTS: Well --

ROMANS: -- has the platform but this guy, but now everybody does. If you have Facebook and you Twitter and stuff. Remember we had the Continental/United merger. Remember the merger news?

ROBERTS: Right.

ROMANS: And I asked the Continental and United CEOs, what about -- you know, people are really ticked off with the airline industry, and the United Airlines CEO said to us, well, I only read the BlackBerry messages that say we're doing a great job.

CHETRY: But he was teasing, right? You --

ROMANS: I think he was trying to tease me, but, you know, you worry about these big companies.

ROBERTS: I e-mailed the CEO -- the president of Air Canada and he agreed with me that what we were -- what I was complaining about was totally ridiculous, so we're on the same page. (INAUDIBLE).

Twenty-six minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- nine minutes past the hour.

There are new developments now in the murder case out of Peru. Joran van der Sloot, the man who was twice arrested in the disappearance of Alabama missing teen, Natalee Holloway, is now in custody this morning in Chile. He is the prime suspect in the murder of a 21-year-old woman in Peru. Authorities in Alabama have also charged him with extortion for allegedly trying to sell details of Holloway's death to her mother.

In Peru this story has become as big as the Holloway case was here, and we're there to cover it for you.

Rafael Romo is live in Lima this morning with new details for us. Tell us how they finally caught up with him.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR EDITOR OF LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS: Well, Kiran, he was traveling by taxi in Chile when he was detained by authorities and he was questioned and authorities find -- found out that it was him. And right now I'm standing right outside the Hotel Tac here in Lima, Peru where he had been staying.

Van der Sloot had to stay in here since May 14th when he arrived for a poker tournament. The last time he was seen here, he entered the hotel accompanied by a woman, 21-year-old Stephanie Flores, she was buried last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO (voice-over): The parents of Stephanie Flores held on to her favorite teddy bear as they said their final goodbye at her funeral. As her family and friends mourned her death, they also learned the news of the arrest of the prime suspect in her murder, Joran van der Sloot. The 22-year-old Dutchman finds himself in familiar legal territory.

He was arrested twice for the murder of American teenager Natalee Holloway exactly five years ago in Aruba. In each case, van der Sloot was the last person known to see the victims alive. But unlike the Natalee Holloway case, Stephanie Flores' body was found.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): She suffered blunt trauma to the head, breaking her neck, and to her torso and back. Those are the conclusions of the autopsy.

ROMO: According to van der Sloot's attorney in Chile, authorities now need to decide if they will expel him from the country or start the lengthy process of extradition.

"If they decide to go through the option of extradition, this suspect can be in Lima within two to three months because the extradition order has to be approved by the Supreme Court of Chile. There is a procedure where a person that has an extradition order has the right to defend himself against authorities."

If he's found guilty of murder, van der Sloot could spend the next 35 years of his life in prison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO: And there has been a new development this morning in Chile. Interpol is now saying that Chilean authorities are getting ready to expel van der Sloot from Chile and into Peru this morning where he will face charges for the murder of Stephanie Flores, the 21- year-old -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Rafael Romo for us this morning -- thanks so much.

ROBERTS: Well, the images are heartbreaking, oil-soaked birds and dead sea turtles they stir powerful emotions, enough to get the White House to approve plans to build sand berms along Louisiana's coastline. But are these berms the best idea?

Carol Costello is live in New Orleans now this morning with an AMERICAN MORNING "Gut Check."

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

When President Obama comes here today, some people want him to show more emotion. They want him to take emphatic charge of the situation. There are plenty of local politicians showing a lot of emotion. You know, they want to build those sand berms.

But scientists say, hold off on the emotion for just a minute. Now, think about what these sand berms really do to the environment. So, is emotion or science better? A gut check this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: It's incredibly frustrating. All you need to do is look at those brown pelicans.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Louisiana's governor is usually low key, but not these days.

JINDAL: This oil is just all of a sudden is here. And what worries us is, there's a lot more oil behind it.

COSTELLO: He's fired up, emotional.

JINDAL: I don't want to see a drop of oil along Louisiana's coast.

COSTELLO: Like so many other Louisiana politicians, it's not often any congressman cries on the floor.

REP. CHARLIE MELANCON (D), LOUISIANA: These are America's wetlands.

COSTELLO: There was a sense of doom here and some say politicians and their eagerness to do something are calling for solutions that may not work, like giant six-foot high walls of sand or sand berms. It's a concept the politicians say has been in their area contingency plan with the Corps of Engineers.

JINDAL: You wouldn't tell a drowning person give us time to do another study. You wouldn't tell a drowning person to just be patient, you would help them.

COSTELLO: President Obama finally agreed under pressure, approving six berm sites.

(on camera): Would these giant sand walls really work?

MEL LANDRY, BARATARIA-TERREBOENNE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM: There are instances where they would be of benefit.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Mel Landry studies the barrier islands and marshlands Louisiana politicians are so desperate to protect. He points to an island five miles off Grand Isle's coast. Workers here are restoring the beach, but the work gives us a picture of what it takes to build a berm.

Sand is dredged from the bottom of the Gulf and pumped from a barge to the islands. You can see it gushing up on shore. That sand could be used to build a berm. Landry has mixed feelings.

LANDRY: If they are trying to build the berm across the front of every barrier island where there is sensitive habitat for nesting birds, and it could have adverse effects, because these birds nest on the ground. Their nests are just little bit sand depression that they're laying their eggs in. So, if you run over that with a bulldozer, you're certainly going to be impacting the nests.

COSTELLO: He adds they could be blown away in a hurricane and could also disrupt natural tidal flows that they're used to block gaps between barrier islands.

But local politicians aren't hearing that.

BILLY NUNGESSER, PLAQUEMINES PARISH PRESIDENT: This is the only thing that can give us a fighting chance of saving south Louisiana.

COSTELLO: The berms will go up and B.P. will pay the price, $360 million.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: John, six berms have been approved, one berm is under construction. Experts tell me it could take a couple of weeks for the things to be put up. But they're rearing to go. And hey, B.P. is footing the bill, $360 million. So, a lot of people here are saying, if it is a waste of money, who cares? B.P. is paying.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, some good news for those folks there.

CHETRY: And, you know, the other thing to it --

COSTELLO: Well, I'd also --

CHETRY: Go ahead.

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Kiran.

CHETRY: I was just going to say, the front page of all the papers this morning has some heartbreaking pictures and you have the video as well of these birds covered in oil. And a couple of the date line said East Grand Tier (ph) Isle, which is where one of those berms is being built currently. And they said, if they could have just gotten that done earlier, maybe that marshland would not have become oiled. So, there are very strong opinions on both sides about that.

COSTELLO: Absolutely.

We want to know what you think this morning, by the way. Our blog is up and running, CNN.com/amFIX. I mean, should politicians just step back just for a minute and really study this and bring scientists in and really get a group together to see if these berms are really effective? Because sometimes the solution could be worst than the initial problem because if these sand berms are going to kill the wildlife anyway, why erect them?

CHETRY: Yes, a lot of questions this morning about that situation and the other guy, locally, said, hey, if the hurricane does knock the berm over, it's done its job, at least it's protected it from getting on shore. So, again, a lot of differing opinion about it.

Carol Costello this morning -- thank you.

Thirty-six minutes past the hour.

The president is facing criticism in his response to the oil crisis in the Gulf. He's heading there again today. But should he be showing more anger? There are some calls saying we want our president furious and we want him to show it. We're going to break that down with our political panel after a quick break.

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CHETRY: Forty minutes past the hour.

President Obama says he's furious. Critics, however, say that he needs to show more emotion when dealing with the spill. Even some of his biggest supporters say he needs to go off.

But White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, says that the president will be judged on results, not on pounding the podium. The president sat down with Larry King for an exclusive interview and address some of the criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would love to spend my time venting and yelling at people. But that's not the job I was hired to do. My job is to solve this problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, today, President Obama is heading back to the Gulf. It will be the third time since the crisis began 46 days ago.

We're talking now with CNN contributor John Avlon, as well as former Republican congresswoman Susan Molinari. Full disclosure, her law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, represents several energy clients, but she, herself, does not represent any of those clients.

Welcome, Susan. Thank you.

SUSAN MOLINARI (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Thank you. Good morning.

CHETRY: John, let me start with you about how much is at stake with this visit. This will be the second time he's been there since the -- second time he's been on the ground and the third visit to the region. What's at stake?

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, he needs to keep addressing this issue that he's somehow been aloof and detached from the crisis. Look, politics, unfairly or not. And part of President Obama's narrative is that, you know, his defenders say he's cool, while detractors say that means he's aloof.

He needs to show that he's fully on top of this problem, not just issuing, you know, statements from Washington, but feeling the pain of the problem on the ground and issuing a full court press to address this problem. We're a quick fix culture.

In fact, it's 46 days, we've got a vivid problem unfolding in the Gulf. That's starting to really affect people's perception of this administration in the larger sense.

CHETRY: You know, and the other interesting thing about it, Susan, some of the sharpest criticism is coming from supporters of the president. You know, we had James Carville saying that, you know, he needed to do more. We had Spike Lee saying that the president needs to, quote, "go off."

And a lot of -- the thing that the president was saying is, you know, I get it. It's just that pounding a podium or being furious and venting doesn't necessarily solve the problem.

How does he sort of make that point of view heard?

MOLINARI: Well, you know, the clock is ticking in terms of public perception for President Obama also. And he does have to move pretty rapidly to keep himself out of this hole. And I think part of what amazes his supporters and those of us who watched a brilliant campaign is that he wasn't ready for a crisis. Every president has to own a crisis, whether fairly or not, the crisis becomes theirs.

And you need to prepare before you even take office, as to how you're going to deal with that, because you are the perceptual leader for the United States and this world. When it comes to this -- full disclosure, I work with Bracewell & Giuliani and a huge fan of Rudolph Giuliani.

But look how Mayor Giuliani dealt with 9/11 in the aftermath, versus, quite frankly, President Bush right after Hurricane Katrina. I think the other thing that discourages some people is that President Obama, you know, ran on a pretty strict mantle of, "I'm not George Bush" and yet, we find him in a position where he's not offering sort of long-term solutions as to where the United States is going to go to fix this and make sure this does not happen again.

To John's point, we want those answers right away. What are the steps? Will you perform a Manhattan Project to make sure that this will never happen again? That there's redundancies that are going to be -- that we're going to deal with biofuels in the future. We need an ongoing conversation with the president of the United States as we go through this crisis.

CHETRY: You made the comparison and you, Susan, and, John, you also worked with Rudy Giuliani. Isn't it easier, though, in some ways to be closer to the ground? I mean, he's the mayor of New York City after 9/11 and to take charge. Look at Bobby Jindal, he's the Louisiana governor. He knows the area like the back of his hand -- versus a president who, of course, is far removed and has the entire country and world to also pay attention to?

AVLON: Absolutely. And Bobby Jindal has been doing his job and he's been doing it very well. He's on the ground. He's expressing the concerns and fears and frustrations of the people of Louisiana.

But here's where we do expect presidents, when there is a crisis, to own that crisis, to assure us that he is on the job and on the ground when necessary. You know, the ghost of Katrina is hanging all over this, fairly or not. You know, natural disaster versus a manmade disaster, it is not a perfect parallel. But that created such a wound in the psyche of the American people.

Compared with this also, we've got people's frustrations at both big government and big business coming to the forefront here, too.

There are a lot of big themes of America's frustrations coming to forefront in this crisis.

CHETRY: OK. So, Susan, if you were advising the president, what would he need to do? What would you tell him to do to show that he's on it?

MOLINARI: Well, I think, you know, I was listening to Terry McAuliffe in a segment right before. And I would do one of those things. And that is, I would, you know, convene a worldwide, you know, strategy session with scientists and biologists around the world to say, how do we mitigate any of these issues that are coming off right now? How do we make sure that we can return this area back to its pristineness as quickly as possible.

And number two, the Manhattan Project. How do we make sure, if there's going to be a moratorium on deep-water drilling, is it going to be for six months. And at the end of six months, what are we going to do to make sure that this doesn't happen again, that redundancies that built into the project, that we are going to have an energy policy that is different, that looks and shows we are learning.

But that there are some aggressive five points, action steps, what are we doing to make sure we're going to correct this situation as quickly as possible as the government and make sure it doesn't ever happen again. It is that ongoing conversation John just talked about.

CHETRY: And every action has an effect, though, because there are calls for a moratorium, and there are locals who say that there go the jobs, there go 20,000 jobs if you ban --

MOLINARI: That's right. And I think that's really important why he has to control that conversation right now as the president of the United States.

AVLON: And he also needs to use this as an opportunity, once you deal with the crisis and you just say, look, here are the lessons learned, we need to re-pivot as this is just set the energy policy, and say, look, we cannot have a false choice for an energy and the environment. We need to move forward on this and take this into account as we move towards energy and dependence as a nation.

CHETRY: I think the hard part is it's a slow drip day after day. They still haven't capped the well. They still haven't, you know, -- so it just keeps on spreading. And that's a huge challenge, of course, for anyone. John Avlon and Susan Molinari, great to get both of your takes this morning. Thank you.

MOLINARI: Thank you.

CHETRY: John.

ROBERTS: The devastating effects of the oil spill becoming clearer each and every day. CNN crews capture some heartbreaking video of a small flock of birds covered in oil, struggling for breath. More on the threat to wildlife in the Gulf coming your way at the top of the hour.

And it's Friday, you're probably getting ready to go away for the weekend. Reynolds Wolf has this morning's travel forecast right after the break to tell you how it's going to be. Forty-six minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Look at Centennial Park this morning in Atlanta where right now it's 71 degrees. And looks a little wet out there right now -- obviously, there's water in Centennial Park but looks like some around there as well. Later on today, 82 degrees and some storms. It's kind of the way it's been for the last couple weeks in Atlanta.

CHETRY: Oh, yes. Stormy weather and 49 minutes past the hour right now. Let's get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Reynolds Wolf in the Extreme Weather Center. How's it shaping up for the weekend, Reynolds?

WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I can tell you here in Atlanta, it's going to feel pretty much like Atlanta, nice and humid and what not for this time of year. Further parts around the country, we got a stormy start your weekend especially in parts of the Western Great Lakes and the Minneapolis even back towards Chicago, heavy cloud cover. All of the rain is heading your direction. For the pacific northwest, it seems as we do have the reputation of being a rainy place. You're going to have some rain but also a little bit snow in the highest elevations. Meanwhile, as far as south just parts of back into Portland even in Redding, California look for the rain, but thunderstorms a possibility for much of the Gulf Coast. So, anyone working out and trying to hold that oil in place on parts of the Gulf, you're going to be dealing with some strong winds and possibly some severe thunderstorms later on through the day. And the reason for that, pretty simple, this area of low pressure that we have right along the Gulf further to the north, this frontal boundary, and you can see, of course, that, again, the chance of it.

You notice this red area, that's where you're going to see some thunderstorms too especially between the hours at 3:00 and 6:00. We have your maximum daytime heating. It's going to make the air mass very unstable. But what that's going to give you, that combine with that warm air that continues to surge northward is going to make for pretty rough conditions, highs in Chicago, 72 degrees, 85 in Kansas City, 94 in Dallas, and 87 in New York.

You got a pretty good chance that rough weather of having a few delays. Now, right now, it looks like the delays will be pretty minimal, but by this afternoon, much if this will change including spots at Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami, and San Francisco. Right now, looks like the main culprit is going to be anywhere from thunderstorms to low clouds even a little bit of that fog in San Francisco could keep things a little bit of a delay, anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes at the time being.

But as I mentioned, late afternoon, the game changes completely. Some places you might have some delays up to an hour or longer especially in Hartsfield here in Atlanta. Keep that in mind and be patient and enjoy your weekend. Always needs thing to do. Let's send it back to you, guys.

ROBERTS: Reynolds, thanks so much.

Speaking of the game changing, unfortunately, this one's not going to because Bud Selig is not going to overturn the decision on the last out there with the Tigers game and pitcher, Armando Galarraga, and his perfect game. So, he doesn't get it. However, Galarraga and the umpire who deprived of immortality had a reunion of sorts yesterday. Jim Joyce was behind the plate during yesterday's Tigers/Indians game, and Detroit manager, Jim Leyland decided to send out Galarraga to present the line-up card before the game.

Joyce, still emotional from the blown call, wiped away tears, shook hands with Galarraga. Some Tiger fans actually cheered for Joyce the day after he admitted that he blew the call and kept Galarraga from pitching a perfect game. And just to remind you, here it is, clearly out, Joyce says no, he's safe. Aaaw, no, he's not safe. Yesterday, Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm issued a proclamation declaring Galarraga's performance to be perfect. And General Motors backed him up a little bit, too, gave him a brand new Corvette.

CHETRY: So, why can't Bud Selig just give him the perfect game? Come on, they're still kind (ph). ROBERTS: I guess, precedent, and say, no, the umpires call stand, otherwise, I mean, anytime an umpire makes --

CHETRY: Didn't they go back in there in 1991 and change a bunch of different games? He could do it.

ROBERTS: He could, yes. He definitely could do it. It's just he's not going to. And I think he doesn't want to set precedent in this particular case, but he has promised to look into the idea of enhanced replays much liked they used in the NFL. So, instead of being fiver hours long baseball will now be ten hours long.

CHETRY: So, Galarraga, all you have to worry about, just do it one more time, and this time, they'll have replays.

ROBERTS: Yes, there you go.

OK. Still ahead at CNN exclusive, Kyra Phillips takes us out into the Gulf of Mexico and onto the rig that's helping to drill one of the relief wells. She's out there. There's a picture with Thad Allen, the national incident commander. It's our first look inside the operations on the surface to cap this leak, so stay with us for that. Seven minutes now at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's four minutes now to the top of the hour. And now, to a new initiative from CNN.com. It's called "Home and Away." It honors U.S. and coalition troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan by remembering lives of these heroes. On the right side, we got a map of Afghanistan, left side, the map of the United States. The circles indicate where U.S. or coalition forces have been killed, and over here on the map of the United States and Canada, it shows where the hometowns of those folks are.

We got it for Afghanistan. We also got it for Iraq. You can see the build there is the number of casualties, goes well over 4,000 in Iraq. Very, very sad situation. But here's what's so great about home and away is family members, other loved ones of service members who have been killed can pay tribute to their loved one right here on this Web site. Today, we're focusing on First Lt. Brian N. Bradshaw, hometown of Steilacoom, Washington, died of wounds suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle in Afghanistan, June 25, 2009. He was just 24 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BRADSHAW, MOTHER, FIRST LT. BRIAN N. BRADSHAW: Even when Brian was really, really little, he loved the outdoors. And so, we started camping when he was an infant. And he just developed a tremendous love of the out of doors of hiking and that was just his love. And I think that's something that he carried with him always. That was what steered him towards the infantry was the idea that in the infantry, he would still be able to be outside doing many of the things he wanted to do as part of his life in the Army as opposed to being, say, a medical service corps officer where you're going to be at a desk all day long.

He needed a job where he was going to be able to be active and then talking to his soldiers. He kept them very active. He had a wonderful sense of adventure, and he could be quite a clown. That's one of our favorite pictures. That was Halloween. And he was, you know, he was -- I don't know whether it's Sir Lancelot or -- we read lots of stories, and so, he would decide what he wanted to be. And he was a knight in shining armor in that one. He was going to take on the world. He's going to make the world a better place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Memories of First Lieutenant Brian Bradshaw from his mom, Mary Bradshaw.

Log on, check out your hometown, and pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Post your own messages and memories. It's CNN.com/homeandaway. Our top stories are coming up next. Stay with us.

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