Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Moratorium on Deep Water Oil Drilling May Hurt Local Gulf Economy; Joran Van Der Sloot to Reenact Murder for Peruvian Police; Spill Threatens NOLA Still Recovering From Katrina; BP: Cash and Crisis; Hayward to Congress; Big Night in Politics for Women
Aired June 09, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome to a special edition of "American morning" on this Wednesday June 9th, I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts coming to you live from New Orleans this morning. We have passed a milestone. We are 51 days into the largest oil spill in American history. Frustration is rising over the fact that no one, not BP, not the government, not anyone can accurately measure the depth of this disaster.
You're looking at a live picture of oil spill still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico underneath the cap put in place last week. The oil is still coating water and wildlife and threatening to end a way of life that supported generations.
We'll cover all of angles during the next hour here on the Most News in the Morning. First, here are the latest developments for you this Wednesday morning.
Take a look at this, BP releasing stunning high definition video of the leaking well. It was taken last Thursday, just after the riser pipe was cut to fit that containment cap over top of it. The oil giant only releasing that video because Congress demanded it.
BP's CEO Tony Hayward is due to testify before a congressional committee and lawmakers are also suggesting he bring along someone who can answer technical questions about the spill.
We are also learning this morning that President Obama will go back to the gulf coast next week. He'll be here for two days, traveling to Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida this time, and that should give you an idea how big the spill is.
Those are the latest headlines. We want to show you the sickening high resolution images of the leak that were taken last week, video that BP is only now providing nearly a month and a half into the disaster because it was pressured to do by Congress. For comparative purposes, let's put up the high resolution on one side and the low resolution on the other. You can see the dramatic difference there. The one on the right-hand side of the wall is the one you've seen for weeks on CNN and on television. But in the new video, you can clearly see the plumes of oil and gas that have been polluting the gulf. This is so important because scientists have been trying to accurately measure the flow of oil and the size of the leak by looking at the amount that's coming out. They may be able to recalculate when you look at the clarity on the left.
Those are horrifying images for those who live and work here. What is equally upsetting for many is the shutdown of new work in the oil fields that provide so many jobs in this region. The Obama administration said yesterday it would lift the ban on new shallow water permits above 500 feet after implementing new safety requirements for blowout preventers.
But the ban on deepwater drilling will continue for many more months to come. And that has raised concerns about the potential for a second economic disaster in southern Louisiana. First fishing closed down, now oil and gas.
I went down to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, to look at the pain firsthand.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: It's the heartbeat of the oil and gas industry in Louisiana, Port Fourchon, where thousands of workers service the big offshore rigs, more victims of the BP oil spill after president Obama declared a moratorium of deep water drilling.
SHANE GUIDRY: This services deep water in the Gulf of Mexico.
ROBERTS: Shane Guidry is the CEO off of Harvey Gulf Marine. He runs the company his grandfather, a onetime oyster man, started in the 1950s.
GUIDRY: The fishing industry was killed by the oil and gas industry. Then the government shut down the oil and gas industry. What do we shut down next?
ROBERTS: He'll have a decision to make, keep his idle ship in port and potentially lose millions or send the ships overseas and hire local crews. It could spend bad news for lifetime mariners like Tom Levins.
Are you worried about getting laid off?
TOM LEVINS, FIRST MATE, HARVEY PROVIDER: Sure, everybody is. You do something for 28 years, put your life into it.
ROBERTS: It's tough when it comes crashing down.
LEVINS: Sure.
ROBERTS: And the ripple effects could spread far and deep, well beyond the crews of these boats. Before the moratorium, Guidry was about to expand his fleet.
GUIDRY: We were three going to New Orleans but they were completely canceled.
ROBERTS: What was that contract worth at trinity?
GUIDRY: About $140 million.
ROBERTS (on camera): There are two themes repeated here, the people that work in oil and gas know somebody in fishing, and many times the same person has their foot in both worlds.
The other thing you hear so much from other people, this is all they know how to do. If you have fishing shut down and oil and gas shut down for a period of time, the economic blow to this area is just going to be devastating.
ROBERTS (voice-over): Captain Jamie Songy personifies the complex relationship between oil and environment on the Gulf coast.
JAMIE SONGY, CAPTAIN, HARVEY PROVIDER: My wife's entire family is in fishing, I'm the oil side.
ROBERTS: At the moment, it's an uneasy marriage, but one that he says needs to be worked out.
SONGY: We've been through problems before in south Louisiana, and we're going to pull through it. We're going to clean it up, fix what we got to fix and keep going. That's how we do it.
ROBERTS: As the crews of these boats await their fate, it's clear there is little love lost for BP. They too say the company need to be held accountable for the accident and do whatever is necessary to put things right. The blowout they believe was human error, easily avoidable, and something they say, in true Louisiana fashion, you can protect against.
SONGY: I'll tell you how you protect against it. You get the guy who caused the human error and didn't follow procedure and indict him for 11 murders for those that died, and the next guy will do his job right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Over all there are 12,000 people that work the ships here, but if you include the land-based operations that support those ships, close to 100,000 jobs may be at risk if the moratorium continues.
Now as devastating as this disaster is, Florida Senator Bill Nelson suspects it could be much worse so far. He says there is evidence of a blowout beneath the ocean floor. If he's right, that's a potential dooms day scenario.
Senator Nelson believes the well's casing may have been pierced or collapsed in someplace thousands of feet beneath the ocean floor. If it is damaged, oil is not only spilling through the ruptured riser, it is also pouring up through the sea bed, something like a leaking sponge. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL NELSON, (D) FLORIDA: We're looking into something new right now that there's reports of oil that is seeping up from the sea bed, which would indicate, if that's true, that the well casing itself is actually pierced underneath the sea bed. The problems could be just enormous with what we're facing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: If the underground casing is ruptured, the relief wells could be the only hope for stopping this disaster. A development like this could complicate the process particularly, as Senator Nelson says, if there is a breach in the well bore and it's below the area where they are trying to kill the well, the oil could seep up despite the fact they get the upper well actually killed.
That's it from New Orleans for the moment. Let's send it back to New York and Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks.
We're following other big stories today, including last night's big primary races in several states across the country. Defying pundits and the polls, incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln won a Democratic primary runoff against the state's lieutenant governor Bill Halter.
And Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina won Republican primaries for governor and senator. Sharron Angle took victory in the Senate GOP race and will face the Senate's top Democrat Harry Reid come November.
Four coalition soldiers were killed when their helicopters was shut down by insurgents in southern Afghanistan. NATO officials say the chopper was hit by hostile fire in the Helmand province. The Taliban is claiming responsibility for the attack.
And Joran van der Sloot returning to the scene of the crime, this time with the police. This morning van der Sloot is expected back at the Lima hotel room where he allegedly took Peru police he killed Stefany Flores. Police are bringing him there to reenact the murder.
van der Sloot could be formally charged today with her murder. Let's go live to Rafael Romo on the phone in Lima, Peru. Explain what they hope to accomplish by bringing van der Sloot back to the scene?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, he's supposed to return to the hotel here in Lima where the homicide took place. He will be accompanied by investigators and prosecutors. And he's supposed to give them a step by step account of what happened here, minute by minute, exactly tell investigators how he killed 21- year-old Stefany Flores.
This reenactment has been postponed. Yesterday they said it was going to happen and it got canceled. There may be legal issues they are trying to work out before they complete it.
Now, several things have to happen in the near future. He has yet to be charged, Kiran. This would be a big problem in the United States but here in Peru, by law, prosecutors have up to ten days to gather evidence and build a case before they can charge a suspect in the murder case.
Also, he is going to have to appear in front of a judge and have to make a statement. At the same time and the next few days he will be transferred to a different prison. So far he's being held at a cell by himself at the criminal investigations building of the Peruvian national police where he is under the watch of a police officer 24 hours a day so that he doesn't hurt himself.
I was asking the chief information officer for the Peruvian police whether there was any indication that he tried to do that, and he said no, this is something that we normally do as a matter of procedure, just have in cases like this, like these, we have somebody watching over suspects at all times.
So that's what has to happen. It's been slower than normal. Obviously a high profile case and Peruvian authorities are trying to be very cautious with every step they take, Kiran.
CHETRY: There's another interesting twist here, some reporting that van der Sloot allegedly tried to extort $250,000 from Natalee Holloway's mother, Beth --that goes back to the 2005 murder still unsolved in Aruba -- in exchange for information about the location of her daughter's body. What do you know about that?
ROMO: Well, CNN obtained an Interpol report here in Peru. They sent the report asking for the arrest of Joran van der Sloot relating to an extortion attempt.
What the report says back at the end of March he contacted the family of Natalee Holloway and he said that he would give them information regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of Natalee Holloway in exchange for a quarter of a million dollars.
Apparently there was a contact between a representative of Natalee's mother. And they met in Aruba, $10,000 were exchanged and later $15,000 were deposited in a personal bank account of Joran van der Sloot in the Netherlands.
He gave them information about a house where the remains of Natalee Holloway were going to be found. That information turned out to be false. Later he contacted the representative of Natalee Holloway's mother and said that he had been lying all along, Kiran.
CHETRY: We'll find out more details today when the reenactment takes place. Rafael Romo, thanks you.
Meanwhile, New Orleans, a city facing the second huge disaster in five years. So what will the oil spill mean for the local economy, the people, and the culture? We're there live coming up. It's 14 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Sixteen minutes now after the hour. We're live in New Orleans this morning. Day 51 of the gulf oil spill and in many ways this city is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina five years ago. So what will this new disaster mean for the Big Easy and the surrounding area?
Joining me now is Julia Reed. She's a contributing editor for "Newsweek." She writes about New Orleans. Also grew up in the Mississippi Delta.
Good of you to get up early with us this morning.
JULIA REED, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEWSWEEK": NIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, thank you. I'm delighted you're all down here, you know, looking after us.
ROBERTS: It is an hour earlier here. So what's your sense of -- you know, is there a sense of rage in this area, anger, frustration, what is it?
REED: Yes.
ROBERTS: How would you describe it?
REED: I would call it mostly sort of well aimed rage. I mean, this, as you pointed out, we're about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Katrina in August. And you know people in New Orleans and in south Louisiana, Grand Isle, especially, which is near where you were yesterday, was really hard hit. So you know, people have really pulled it together. You know, the shrimp industry was recovering. Here, you know, the city is doing a great job of recovering. We've gotten some responsible politicians. We've got a functioning school system. We've got a new police chief. It's like OK, we've finally taken responsibility for ourselves, getting our act together and are looking forward to, you know, to a more thriving New Orleans post-Katrina than pre-Katrina and kaboom.
ROBERTS: Hold on. Wait a minute. No, you're getting ahead of yourselves here. Things are going too well we're going to slam you with something else.
REED: Yes. And you know, everybody keeps -- oh, you know, it's dependence in oil and gas. It's, you know, global warming and all this kind of stuff. Is this going to be the doom of New Orleans.
The doom of New Orleans is the government agencies that are supposed to have been taken care of us all this time. First we get screwed by the Corps of Engineers. Because Katrina was not, as you know, a catastrophic hurricane. I have to keep reminding people about it. You can talk about, you know --
ROBERTS: Yes.
REED: Warmer ocean --
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) over there and downtown didn't look so bad.
REED: No, I mean, this was fine. Everybody thought we dodged the bullet, I mean, it's a now famous story. However -- so then we find out that the people who are supposed to be making our levees strong enough to protect us are asleep at the wheel. Now we find out oh, wow, the Minerals Management Service is asleep at the wheel. And you --
ROBERTS: More so than that, to some degree embedded with oil and gas.
REED: Yes, I mean, you know, it's laxity and corruption. And you've got a guy -- you know, you have a president, OK, and deep well drilling without even -- I mean, no one if this is the case. You know, people down here are like, where were you? I mean, 51 days later, it's nobody is impressed by talk, you know, from the president of the United States saying I'm looking for whose ass to kick. I mean, that's just absurd. You know, look behind you. I mean, people are really, really angry. James Carville is not the only person literally spitting out his words. I mean --
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) most of the time though.
REED: Well, now he's especially enraged today. I mean, you know, you've got -- I just don't -- there's a lack of trust across the board in this country right now in government institutions. But I mean, we have really -- I mean, of all the people who should have no faith in the government, it's us. And so, now, you know, as your wonderful report a minute ago points out, now we're going to have a six-month moratorium on deep oil drilling that's going to cripple the rest of the economy.
ROBERTS: Speak to that idea, the double whammy that's hitting here. You've got fishing closed down in many areas. You've got tourism impacted. And then you get all these folks -- as many as 100,000 --
REED: As many as 100,000 jobs. Think about that. I mean, the best that the Feds can come up with is really great news about, we had the worst unemployment in my lifetime and they're trying to tell us that it's OK because we have 400,000 plus census workers who are going to get us out of this. That's a joke. Now we're going to really, really get rid of another 100,000 jobs. And when these guys move to Brazil or whenever, they're not going to come back here after the moratorium is over. We can't afford it.
ROBERTS: You don't think they'll come back? If there are --
REED: I think you'd lose. I think you'd -- well, I mean, it will be years. I mean, think about what the cost -- it takes -- you can't just kind of go to Brazil and then kind of like get in your speedboat and come on back and go -- I mean, you know --
ROBERTS: But they do drag these rigs all around the world.
REED: I know. They do. But I just think that once you get settled somewhere else -- let's face it in the short term, you're still talking about a huge hit like you were just --
ROBERTS: So it's been five years in this area still coming back from Hurricane Katrina. How long do you think it's going to be to come back from this?
REED: There's no way to predict because as you pointed out earlier, it took 51 days to get and an almost act of Congress to get a high definition video. I mean, we -- no one knows how much oil is in the ocean. Now you've got Bill Nelson telling us, oh, great, it might be underneath the damn ocean floor. Who knows.
But I mean, nobody can predict this because BP is making sure that we don't have the information we need. Which is another thing is the disconnect between the president's talk and his actions just amazes me. I mean, it's astonishing to me that he's never talked to the head of BP.
ROBERTS: Yes.
REED: And we're letting these guys -- it's like, I mean, I was down in Grand Isle on Monday, it's like watching Mutt and Jeff down there supposedly being in charge of an oil cleanup, which is an embarrassment with what I saw. I mean, guys, you know, bussed in from other cities sleeping under docks. And they wouldn't know a tar ball from a piece of charcoal, and they're like out there napping and they wake them up when the TV cameras get going or the president makes another trip. It's astonishing. New Orleans is still thriving, but I mean, the perception is bad.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll keep watching the story. No question about that. We're very committed to it.
Julia, thanks for joining us this morning.
REED: Thank you.
ROBERTS: It's really great to see you.
REED: Nice to see you.
ROBERTS: President Obama facing growing pressure to lift the ban on deep water drilling, as Julia was saying. Hear why some say the shutdown is punishing the people of the gulf coast more than it's punishing BP. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back, 24 minutes past the hour right now. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning. We have Christine Romans with us. And we're talking a little bit about BP. Of course, BP has been under fire ever since this oil spill happened but they still have -- they're still holding to their shareholders.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They are and they have very deep pockets. And the company yesterday announced that it would be continuing with its first quarter dividend payout. You know, it gives its shareholders about $10 billion a year. And this is a payout to shareholders that's pretty much sacrosanct. I think the last time they cut it was more than a decade ago. So that's 14 cents per ordinary share. If you have a share here listed in the United States, it's 84 cents a share, a total of $2.63 billion.
Now critics, of course, say this is a deep-pocketed BP giving away money that should be given for the cleanup in the gulf and giving it to their greedy shareholders and investors. Well, remember, there are pension funds. There are charities. There are -- you most likely could very well have this stock somewhere in your 401(k). So this is the way this company operates and many others do, too, giving out money back to shareholders. So that's a first quarter dividend. A lot of people have been saying that they should suspend the second quarter dividend for sure until they know the costs of the cleanup and what kind of damage has been done to the gulf.
CHETRY: Now could Congress step in and prevent them from doing that, or they're allowed to do whatever they want to do?
ROMANS: Well, it's interesting because Congress, a big group of congressmen and lawmakers sent a letter yesterday to BP, Kiran, saying that they expect them and want them to halt this planned dividend immediately, even the first quarter dividends. Cancel this advertising campaign as well. The company had a $50 million advertising campaign, until you've done the hard work of capping the well, cleaning up the Gulf Coast and making whole those whose very livelihoods are threatened by this catastrophe. Not a moment before then should you return to business as usual.
It's interesting because we've been talking about this ad campaign to the company reportedly spending $50 million.
CHETRY: Oh, yes, you see it in the papers. On the entire back page of the paper was BP.
ROMANS: And it's interesting because on the one hand, Tony Hayward sort of can't win here, right? If he doesn't talk to people directly, then he's arrogant and he's not -- he's not sorry enough. But if he does and he spends $50 million or whatever the total is, and it's wasting money.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: It's a PR gambit. So, you know, this company is basically under criticism and under fire no matter what.
CHETRY: And they're trying to, they're trying to temper that a little bit, I understand with a plan of what they're doing with the profits from some of the skimmed oil.
ROMANS: A lot of people are asking, what happens to that oil that they're collecting? Well, the company says they're going to donate the profits of that skimmed oil to the restoration of the gulf wildlife and the like. But there is a question of how much of that oil actually belongs to BP because they have this complicated arrangements where they share, you know, proceeds from what comes off of these rigs and the like.
CHETRY: They said net earnings from that.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: So it will be interesting to see.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: Could be like $40 million or more?
ROMANS: Yes, it could be at $70 a barrel, depends on how much they get, yes.
CHETRY: Christine Romans, good to see you as always.
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: Thanks.
Well, a big night of primaries and some big wins for women on both sides of the political aisle. We're breaking down the results and looking ahead to what they mean for the fall midterms with our own independent analyst John Avlon. He joins us after a quick break.
It's 28 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Crossing the half hour, we're back live with a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING coming to you from the Gulf Coast. And time for this morning's top stories.
Take a look at this. You are looking at new high resolution images of the gulf oil leak in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Video that BP has kept to itself until now. This clip shows the ruptured well last Thursday before that cap was put on it. BP released the video only after lawmakers demanded it to try to help scientists get a better idea of just how much oil is pouring into the gulf each and every day.
Well, get ready for a showdown inside the capital. The head of BP, Tony Hayward, has agreed to testify before Congress next week. Lawmakers already warning Hayward to come prepared and to bring with him someone who can answer tough questions on the Deep Water Horizon's operation, design and safety measures.
And President Obama will make his fourth visit to the gulf next week. This time he is going to stay overnight and is scheduled to stop in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Well, we've been talking about this all morning. South of where I'm standing is a community where servicing the oil rigs is not only a way of life but it absolutely fuels their economy. And there is growing anger there that President Obama's ban on deep water drilling and to slow down in shallow water drilling is punishing the locals for the missteps of an oil giant.
Our Carol Costello is live in Washington for us this morning. And Carol, this is a story that is beginning to get a lot more attention in these parts because the economic impact of it could be absolutely huge.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're talking possibly 120,000 jobs lost, John. As you said, the Obama administration has slapped this six-month or more moratorium on new deep water drilling and that has the oil industry and lobbyists and some politicians ratcheting up their efforts to change the president's mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): It is an immense port, 1,400 acres designed to meet every need an oil company might have.
(on camera): What do you call this area?
CHET CHIASSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT FOURCHON, LOUISIANA: We're in Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
COSTELLO: And this is the Wal-Mart of the -
CHIASSON: - of the oil and gas industry, yes, it is.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will suspend action on 33 deep water exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Chet Chiasson is eager to criticize President Obama's six-month moratorium on new deep water drilling in the gulf. 17 oil companies, including BP, Shell and Chevron are affected and every one of their rigs is serviced by this port, from welders to caterers to those who taxi rig workers out to the platforms.
(on camera): If the moratorium lasts more than six months, what do you fear happening.
CHIASSON: What we fear happening is losing 50 percent of the business that we have in Port Fourchon.
COSTELLO: So you think the oil companies will just pick up their rigs and move some place else?
CHIASSON: Right.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Like to Brazil's Santos basin where deep water oil has been discovered and off the South African coast also said to be rich in oil. At least one oil company that does business to the gulf, and Anadarko Oil told me Port Fourchon's worries are premature. But the company did say this at a news release "We are evaluating opportunities to reallocate some of the 2010 capital from the gulf to other areas of our global portfolio."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The crisis needs to be re-addressed.
COSTELLO: The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association is now posting videos of oil industry workers and family members on its web site to exert pressure on President Obama to lift the moratorium.
MARK MILLER, MARLIN OIL & GAS: If the moratorium stays in place, we will all suffer -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our economy will go to hell in a hand basket.
COSTELLO: Louisiana's governor has joined in too, sending a letter to the president urging the federal government to move quickly to ensure that all deep water drilling is in proper compliance. Even as he shows and tells what can happen when safety measures are allegedly not followed. Louisiana Senator David Vitter is pressing too.
SEN. DAVID VITTER (R), LOUISIANA: I'm mad as hell at BP like all gulf coast residents are. But to shut down every exploratory rig in deep water 33 and 120,000 jobs or so to boot, isn't punishing BP more, it's punishing the people of the gulf coast.
COSTELLO: The president says he will not lift the moratorium until investigators figure out what happened with BP. If that takes less than six months or more, so be it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Maybe investigators will have more of what they need when BP's CEO Tony Hayward testifies before that congressional subcommittee you were talking about, John. Of course, that will come your way on June 17th. And the president said, you know, if he gets answers from BP about what happened, he's willing to shorten the time frame of the moratorium. He says he just needs answers.
ROBERTS: You know, Carol, I found from visiting there yesterday, that when you look at this from afar, it's very easy for people to take sides. You know, you got fishing and environment on one side, then you got big bad oil on the other side.
But when you come down here and you talk to the folks and you see these families that are intermingled between fishing and oil. And sometimes the husband will be working in oil and the wife's family working in commercial fishing. It's a far more complicated relationship.
COSTELLO: They make their living off the land, and whether that's from , you know, drilling for oil or whether that's fishing the gulf waters for sea life, it's just the way of life down there. And they support one another. But it is strange, you know, when you look at the beautiful wildlife of the gulf and you see the jumping fish and then you see an oil platform like a couple of miles offshore. That is pretty jarring to people who aren't from that area.
ROBERTS: Yes. When we were on port yesterday, we were on board of one of those deep water service ships and a pool of dolphins went by. It's all, you know, living very close together. Carol Costello this morning. Great piece. Thanks so much, Carol.
Well send you back up to New York. Here's Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks. Well, campaign 2010, there are new faces that reign, many high profile primaries held across the country last night. We've got the results and the potential implications from Washington. John Avalon joins us next with the roundup. 36 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: Well, it's 39 minutes past the hour. Voters across the nation had their say and battle line are now being drawn for the midterm elections come this fall. From GOP races from California and Nevada to a Democrat narrowly hanging on in Arkansas. It was a big primary night for women.
And here to break it down for us, CNN contributor and independent analyst John Avlon. There you see the headline. Women win big. And let's start with California because you had two big ones there. You had Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. Both of them former CEOs, both of them women and both of them pulling off primary wins.
JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely. It's a big foot forward for the GOP in California. You know, here's a state, they haven't been doing great in recent years, despite Governor Schwarzenegger, and they've got two female executives put forth running on executive confidence, fiscal conservatism.
In the case of Whitman, really a socially centrist approach. That's what they're going to need to do to build on that 30 percent that's Republican in California to win over the 25 percent that are independents. That's the only way you can put together a winning political map for Republicans. So it's a really important step for them. Big night for Republicans. Big night for Whitman and Fiorina.
CHETRY: Both of them tried to paint their executive experience as being vital, sort of in some ways a dig in the Obama administration but in other ways just a dig in general at politics as usual. However, Carly Fiorina will have a tough fight going up against -
AVLON: Sure.
CHETRY: -- a long time and popular liberal senator, Barbara Boxer.
AVLON: That's exactly right. And that's one major race to watch. Barbara Boxer, three-term incumbent, very liberal, surprisingly vulnerable in this environment, however. And Carly Fiorina's betting is she can really give her a run for her money. First tough race Barbara Boxer has had in a long time, running on that executive experience, making the case that Barbara Boxer is too liberal for California. There may be such a thing. We will see.
And Meg Whitman running against Jerry Brown. He ran as - was governor in the 1970s. So kind of a redux, old math, new math there.
CHETRY: Yes. And you got -- California is in deep trouble fiscally, and so perhaps they are willing to look in ways they haven't before.
AVLON: It is a state in major fiscal crisis. It's gong to take a strong governor and their voters also approved last night an open primary bill. Big deal, looking forward.
CHETRY: And this means that you can vote, you don't have to be a (inaudible) with the party. You can vote for anybody and the top two candidates could both be from the same party, technically. Yes or no?
AVLON: You know -
CHETRY: Theoretically?
AVLON: Theoretically in some states. I think in this case it's really just voters being able to, you know, say, look this is the candidate I like the best. Republicans will be able to feel the independents in their primary probably leading to more approachable general election candidates going forward. Good news for Republicans in particular.
CHETRY: All right. It will be interesting to see how that works.
Let's talk about South Carolina.
AVLON: Yes.
CHETRY: This is a race that got really ugly. And Nikki Haley, who ended up pulling up the win, tea party favorite, endorsed by Sarah Palin. She had some really strange allegations against her. Two people, one a political operative and one blogger claiming they had one-night stands with her and it's sort of really made for an odd and ugly race. She ended up winning.
AVLON: Absolutely. We are unused to sexual scandals around female candidates, but Nikki Haley pulling off a huge win last night. 38-year-old Indian-American first elected to the office in 2004, fending off a four-person race, getting 49 percent of the vote. It looks like she's going to have a tough runoff. But it really I remarkable for a couple of reasons.
One of which is that the GOP, if she wins, they will have two Indian-American Republican governors from the south. That's a significant seat change and welcome sign of growing diversity in our political ranks.
CHETRY: Yes, with Bobby Jindal as well.
AVLON: Absolutely. CHETRY: And finally, I want to ask you a quick question about Nevada. Because this is going to be interesting. This was a tea party candidate as well. But she's going up against the majority leader, Harry Reid, who as we know is quite vulnerable in this environment. Will that change because of the politics of the oil spill? We haven't heard a lot about the tea party calling for small government at a time when everyone is yelling for fed to get involved in this catastrophe.
AVLON: That's exactly right. And the impact of the BP oil spill on politics and on the tea party momentum in particular is yet to be seen. But Sharron Angle last night pulling off a major upset against Sue Lowden, the Republican establishment candidate. But (inaudible) views very popular with the tea party but such as abolishing the Department of Energy or EPA, are those views really going to have resonance in the fall, in the wake of the BP oil spill?
Harry Reid, very vulnerable. We've seen Democratic leadership lose in previous races like Tom Daschle. But here last night was hoping to run against Sharron Angle. He got his wish. Now we'll see how the tea party fares in the fall.
CHETRY: This is shaping up to be very interesting for the midterm.
AVLON: it's a great political year. Exiting stuff.
CHETRY: You'll be watching every step of the way for us. John Avlon, great to see you, as always. Thanks.
AVLON: Good to see you.
CHETRY: Also ahead, we're going to check in with Jacqui Jeras and the extreme weather center. We have some storms and heavy rain moving through. She's going to tell us where and how it can affect your travel. 44 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Giving you a close-up look at the interplay between the city of New Orleans and the maritime world. A big cargo ship passed by just a couple of minutes ago.
Weather here right now, cloudy. It's already reached 80 degrees. Later on today will be partly cloudy with a high of 93. The good thing, though, about temperatures like that when you are in New Orleans, it's - it's a - it's a dry heat and it's pretty easy to live with.
Jacqui Jeras monitoring the weather forecast for us today. I got to tell you, Jacqui, we landed here yesterday, it was like stepping into a sauna bath. It is so hot here.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is and you got a heat advisory, so you can go ahead and complain about it. It's OK, John.
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) lucky (ph).
JERAS: Yes, and part of that problem is there's no cool off, right? When you're waking up to 80 degrees, that really is extremely uncomfortable. And the heat index this afternoon in New Orleans is going to be somewhere between the range of about 105, possibly as much as 110 degrees, and the heat is going to stick around through the rest of the week, heat advisories through Friday, at least, in this area.
High pressure in control. The only good thing about this is that the winds could become a little bit more southeasterly, so that's hopefully helping to keep that oil a little bit further away from the coast line at this hour (ph).
And, in the meantime, we're looking at stormy conditions across much of the Upper Midwest into the Appalachians, the Ohio River Valley, and we're already starting things out of the gate this morning with those heavy storms once again. Nothing terribly severe, but we've got two clusters, one over here, down towards Oklahoma and Missouri and then another there into the Ohio River Valley that's bringing in some heavy downpours.
You're (INAUDIBLE) morning, with the exception of Washington D.C. You're starting to get some of that light rain, but, for the most part, it should hold off into most of the big cities to the northeast until this afternoon. Heavy thunderstorms across parts of Texas and we'll see some delays, mostly this afternoon in a lot of the big cities across the east and even into Denver because of those afternoon thunderstorms.
John, take it easy. Drink lots of water out there.
ROBERTS: Yes. I think we'll have a chance to spend some time on the water today, so maybe that will cool it down just a little bit.
JERAS: (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: Jacqui Jeras for us. Jacqui, thanks so much.
Now, let's go back to Kiran in New York.
CHETRY: All right. John, thanks.
Well, this morning's top stories are just minutes away, including the clearest pictures yet that we're seeing of the BP oils spill in the gulf, killing local businesses, killing sea life, and now we're getting a look at just how much oil may be actually flowing.
We're live from the gulf where one ship owner says someone at BP should be guilty of murder.
Also, a turn to red and yellow in honor of communist China, so why wouldn't the Empire State Building change its colors in honor of Mother Theresa?
And right after the break, there is pie in your eye, kind. The biggest night since baseball returned to the nation's capital, Stephen Strasburg, the rookie phenom with an incredible 100-mile-an-hour fastball, and he can do it again and again and again. But did he live up to the hype? And what's his future like?
His major league debut and those stories, coming up at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Did you see that? A lot of people thunderstruck yesterday. It's hard to believe Washington Nationals' rookie phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg could actually exceed the hype surrounding his Major League debut, but he did.
Check out some of his pitches.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A chance to approach the record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is just flat filthy (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus he's dictating what it should be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then -- and the 0-2.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He strikes out the side for the second straight inning. He brings in -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For Stephen Strasburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There you go.
Well, Strasburg had a team record, 14 strikeouts, including the last seven batters he faced. He didn't walk anyone in seven electrifying innings before the coaches made the call to pull him.
He got the win. He got a standing ovation from the standing- room-only crowd as well, and one of baseball's highest honors, a post- game pie in the face.
Contributor - CNN contributor Max Kellerman covers the sports world for us. Do they realize, though, that when they do that, they look so silly in their post-game interviews?
MAX KELLERMAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What? The pie in the face?
CHETRY: Why do they do that? Yes.
KELLERMAN: Oh, they love the pie in the face.
CHETRY: Oh.
KELLERMAN: It's actually shaving cream usually --
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- so, you know -
CHETRY: Yes. I'm sure that feels good on the eyes.
Oh, but, anyway, so there was so much hype surrounding him. The Washington Nationals haven't had much to cheer about in their five- year history.
KELLERMAN: Sure.
CHETRY: And then Stephen Strasburg comes along. He went number one in the draft -
KELLERMAN: Of course.
CHETRY - right? In 2009? So what's --
KELLERMAN: He's the most - he's the most talented amateur pitcher ever. I don't - I don't think there's ever been, you know - this is unprecedented, in terms of the hype, partly because this is the hype machine is - works better now than it used to. There's just more media. But there's never been anyone touted like this, and for good reason.
And he's throwing - In my lifetime, Dwight Gooden - when Dwight Gooden was 19 years old, he pitched for the Mets in 1984. There was more hype about him at a young age, and justifiably so -
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- than anyone since maybe Koufax.
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: And Koufax wasn't nearly as young as Gooden. And Gooden had two great pitches, like Koufax - fastball, curveball. And -
CHETRY: So you think he is a third one. He has a change-up.
KELLERMAN: He's got a change-up, too. He has a fastball that was 100 miles an hour, a curveball that looks unhittable, and then he has a - a nasty change-up.
Well, a change-up is like a slow ball -
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- but your arm motion - just for people who don't know, your arm motion is the same, but the grip is different, so the ball comes out much slower, it throws off the hitter's timing.
CHETRY: Right. So it's a little bit like having a really good spin on a - you know, hitting in tennis, right?
KELLERMAN: That - that would be more like a curveball. This is - this is actually less rotation on the ball, so it goes slower.
But any - do you remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon when Bugs Bunny - is -- throws -
CHETRY: Yes. Break it down for me on a level that I can understand. Go on.
KELLERMAN: So he - I'm trying to. So he throws the ball and the batter goes, strike one, strike two, strike three. He swings three times before the ball gets there.
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: So that's a change-up.
Strasburg's change-up goes 91 miles an hour, which is most guys' fastballs.
CHETRY: It is amazing. And the other thing too is it's not just that he can clock it on the radar, 100 - it's consistent, and also he can throw it in the strike zone. I mean, there's a lot of people that can throw really fast. It's not always as predictable.
So what does this mean for him? Because, OK, this is game one. They pulled him out after seven innings. Some of the announcers were grumbling about that. But, you know, the key here is keep it up and not - and don't get injured.
KELLERMAN: Well, this is how big Strasburg is. Celtics/Lakers, most storied rivalry in the history of the NBA, two most storied franchises, played a great game three last night, and we are, correctly here on CNN talking about Stephen Strasburg. That's how big a deal it is.
They made a $15 million investment in him. And Jim Cotton, John Smoltz, who are terrific pitchers and had long, great careers were - were kind of bemoaning the fact that he was taken out after seven innings. They, you know -
CHETRY: They wanted him to break - they wanted him to a break record right there.
KELLERMAN: No, well -
CHETRY: They wanted him to get to 20 strikeouts.
KELLERMAN: He probably wouldn't have broken the record, but he had 14 strikeouts. He was still - technically, if he struck out everyone left in the game -
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- he could have tied. But they just thought that they're babying pitchers' arms too much, and they're wrong. I mean, they - they're basing out, I think, a lot on their own experience. They had long, great careers. They didn't watch pitch counts. But they're atypical.
Usually if a pitcher is of a certain age and you allow him to throw too many pitches -
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- in too many games, eventually he'll have an injury.
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: And Strasburg's motion - here's the caveat here, Strasburg's motion is a lot like Mark Prior's, who was a highly touted and very successful pitcher early in his career and eventually blew out his arm. I mean, he - he's not in the Major Leagues anymore. He pitched a year or two ago. But he's finished as a top-flight pitcher -
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: -- because of his arm. And Strasburg, there are certain similarities.
CHETRY: So that's the big variable, and also it's very different to pitch in the Major Leagues versus college. You're pitching double the amount, right? I mean -
KELLERMAN: In terms of the - in terms of the - in terms of the length of the season.
CHETRY: Right.
KELLERMAN: And you really have to be careful.
But Strasburg is incredible. A lot like LeBron James. He, if anything, exceeded the hype so far in his very, very brief Major League career.
CHETRY: Oh, we're happy for him. He had a great game. Washington has something to cheer about. And he's fun to watch, so -
KELLERMAN: He really is.
CHETRY: Good stuff.
Max Kellerman, great to see you.
We're going to take a quick break. Top stories coming up in just three minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
