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American Morning
Insecure about Your Finances; Farming is In; Cleaning up a Catastrophe; Politics Gone Viral
Aired July 22, 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 to you. It's Thursday. It's July 22nd. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us. A lot to talk about this morning. Let's get you right to it.
First of all, sorry, Shirley, an apology and now a new job offer for the woman whose comments about race were taken way out of context. The White House even acknowledging that the Shirley Sherrod's situation was bungled. You'll hear her reaction to all of this, including her thoughts on getting back at the guy that posted the video, Andrew Breitbart.
CHETRY: Another embarrassing episode for BP. The oil giant admitting it photo shopped the pictures of its Crisis Command Center to make it look busier than it was. This is the original photo, and we'll show you what a little cutting and pasting can do, coming in.
ROBERTS: Tens of thousands of people without power this morning. Trees and power lines pulled out of the ground all over Connecticut. At least four tornado warnings were issued as a dangerous batch of storms ripped across the northeast. Can we expect more of the same today? Some answers just ahead from the CNN extreme weather team.
CHETRY: First, the White House is now trying to make good with former agriculture department official, Shirley Sherrod, who we just spoke to moments ago on our show. She was forced out of her post when a portion of her comments about race were posted online, comments taken out of the context.
Now, her old boss says he wants her back and is offering a profound apology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: I want to make sure everyone understands this was my decision. And it was a decision that I regret, having made in haste.
I've learned a lot of lessons from this experience in the last couple of days. One of the lessons I learned is that these types of decisions require time. I didn't take the time. I should have. And as a result, a good woman has gone through a very difficult period. And I'll have to live with that for a long, long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So will she go back to work for the same people, who, as she said this morning, threw her under the bridge? We spoke to Shirley Sherrod earlier on "American Morning."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY SHERROD, FORMER USDA DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR: I'm not so sure that going back to the department is the thing to do. I know that I have lots of farmers and others in Georgia, I've been getting messages, saying, Shirley, please come back to work with rural department in Georgia. But that's not what the offer is.
CHETRY: As I understand it, it would be something to do with civil rights, perhaps in an office of outreach?
SHERROD: Yes, yes, it would. And that's -- you know, that's another reason why I would not want to be the one person at USDA that's responsible for issues of discrimination within the agency.
The thing that really hurts is it was so easy for them to make a decision to throw me under the bridge, you know, without looking -- I was asking them, please, look at the entire speech. Look at my message, and you'll see that's not the message I put out there. But no one was willing to do that. It was easy to put the blame all on me, get me out of there. You dealt with the problem.
That's what's so scary about maybe going back into work and thinking, oh, she'll deal with the problem. Anything could be blamed on me.
CHETRY: Would you consider a defamation suit against Andrew Breitbart?
SHERROD: I really think I should. You know, I don't know a lot about the legal profession, but that's one person I'd like to get back at.
ROBERTS: Really.
SHERROD: Because he came at me, you know, he didn't go after the NAACP. He came at me, you know.
ROBERTS: So in getting back at him, what wow be looking to exact from him?
SHERROD: I don't know what I can get from him. An apology at this point, and he hasn't made that is just not enough for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You there go. We also asked her if she would like to see his website shut down. She said that's a start. Sherrod now says she does want to speak to the president directly. Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House this morning. It's interesting, though, because she said, he's our president, and we have to support him. But she also said when the rubber meets the road, he may not quite get it.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I was listening to her comments this morning. I've obviously e-mailed the White House to see if they've been listening to what she's been saying as well.
Initially, Kiran and John, White House aides do not expect for the president to pick up a phone and called her. Of course, that may change in light of her comments and remarks and her desire to speak to the president, as she said, to teach him something about her own background and her own experience, which she pointed out different than President Obama's. So we'll see if something develops within the morning or so.
One of the things that the White House initially was trying do is show that, look, they were not responsible for that first decision to make sure that she had resigned, or force a resignation. White house officials even had made the point that the president had backed Secretary Vilsack's decision.
All of that changed when the NAACP put out the full tape, giving us full context. There was a message from the White House, not the president, but somebody who they will not name, pushed USDA and Secretary Vilsack to reopen the case.
Clearly this morning and yesterday, White House officials recognize and understand and talk about it both behind the scenes and we saw Robert Gibbs in front of the camera, that there's serious damage done to this White House as a result of this controversy. Here's how Gibbs put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think without a doubt, Miss Sherrod is owed an apology. I will do so certainly on behalf of his administration. I think that if we learn -- if we look back and decide what we want to learn out of this, I think it is, as I said, everybody involved made determinations without knowing all the facts and all of the events.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, John, Kiran, we still don't know all the facts. We'll see if we get more answers out of the White House today on this.
It is clear from White House aides that in some ways they do want to insulate the president from this. They have made it a point to recognize that it was Secretary Vilsack who had made this decision. They were not initially involved.
But, clearly, there's still a lot of questions about the level of sensitivity inside this building here and just how the White House handled it and how it could have been handled differently. So we'll seal how the president is going to reach out to Miss Sherrod as she would like.
CHETRY: Thanks so much, Suzanne Malveaux.
And coming up at 7:40 eastern, we're going to talk about the larger picture, viral politics, and the response of getting it fast instead of getting it right. We're going to talk to David Frum and Lisa Caputo on how this story erupted on the web.
ROBERTS: It used to be that you had time to check things out. now everything moves in warp speed and unfortunately, innocent people get caught in the crossfire.
New this morning, more dangerous weather ripping across the northeast, four different tornado warnings issued in Connecticut. The National Weather Service says at least one did hit the northwestern part of the state, tens of thousands of people without electricity.
CHETRY: And for the second time this week, dangerous floods hitting eastern Kentucky. Local officials say well over 200 homes have been washed off of their foundations. One firefighter tells us that people had to be evacuated from the fast-moving water, many of them trapped, some even escaping to rooftops to get away from water.
Nearly a foot of rain has fallen there in the past 48 hours.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: Back to court today for the Justice Department over Arizona's new controversial immigration law. With only a week to go before it takes in effect, you'll meet one immigrant family with too much to lose to wait around. Their story is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 11 minutes past the hour now.
In just a few hours, a federal judge in phoenix will be hearing arguments in two case challenging Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants. One is being brought by the Obama administration itself, which claims that the state's new law encroaches on federal authority and is unconstitutional.
If the feds have their way, the Arizona law will be struck down before it actually gets up and running next week. But for one immigrant family it may be too late. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has that part of the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a middle-class suburb near mesa, Arizona, a family is packing it up, preparing to flee the state. They asked us to call them Carlos and Samantha. CARLOS, LEAVING ARIZONA: This is the living room. This is my boy's room.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): They're all empty.
CARLOS: Everything we worked for.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): They say they were living the American dream -- a house, two kids, a small jewelry business that catered to Latinos. But when his customers, many of whom were immigrants, started losing their jobs and leaving the state, his business collapsed. Now, he says, he, too, wants to get out before SB-1070 goes into effect.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): You love the state?
CARLOS: Arizona, yes.
GUTIERREZ: And now?
CARLOS: Little by little, they're pushing us out.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): They would say you're leaving because you want to go. You don't have to go.
CARLOS: I don't have to go? I do, for my family's sake.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): Your wife is undocumented?
CARLOS: Yes.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Carlos is a legal resident. Their children are American. But he says they can't run the risk that his wife could be arrested and deported.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): You're one family who's leaving. Do you think there are others?
CARLOS: There's many, there are a lot of people who have left since this started.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Todd Landfried agrees.
TODD LANDFRIED, ARIZONA EMPLOYERS FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM: This was just another strip mall in the Latino neighborhood of Mesa.
GUTIERREZ: Lanfried represents a group called Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform. He drove us through Mesa, Arizona, and pointed out what he says is the fallout in the state's immigration laws and a bad economy.
LANDFRIED: Anytime you start running people out of a state, you make it harder for the businesses that provide services to those people whether they're here legally or not. They're not going to be able to fill their strip malls. They're not going to be able to fill their apartment complexes. RUSSELL PEARCE, ARIZONA STATE SENATE: If it comes with that invasion of illegal aliens, it's an obstruction to the rule of law and a damage to the taxpayer. There's a cost to that.
GUTIERREZ: Russell Pearce is a state senator and the author of SB-1070. He also lives in Mesa, Arizona.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): Do you believe there's any correlation between those empty businesses and Russell Pearce's law?
PEARCE: I think there's a correlation, probably. I think there's a correlation to the war. I think there's a correlation to the tough economy. I don't think I'd take credit for all of that.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Credit, he says, for forcing people like Carlos and Samantha to self-deport.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): What do those boxes represent to you?
SAMANTHA: So much of my memories.
GUTIERREZ: You don't want to go?
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Carlos says he will remember Arizona as the state that allowed him to achieve his American dream and as the state that took it away.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Mesa, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Wow, a difficult story for them.
So, how is your economic security, or actually, more precisely, how is your economic insecurity? Well, according to a new study, brand-new study with a new measure, it's a lot higher than it was 25 years ago. We'll talk to the author coming up. It's 15 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, if you're insecure about your finances, waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat worrying about it, well, you're not alone.
A new study today finds the American dream of economic security has taken a pretty serious hit. According to the report, the feeling of uneasiness is at a 45 -- sorry, 25-year high, with one out of every five Americans now suffering a 25 percent decline in their household income.
Joining me now to talk more about this is Yale professor Jacob Hacker. He developed this economic security index along with the Rockefeller Foundation.
Jacob, good to see you this morning. Exactly how do you define economic insecurity?
JACOB HACKER, YALE UNIVERSITY: We define it the way that Americans feel it. We ask, what's the chance that someone will experience a 25 percent or greater decline in their income. And we also look at the cost that they pay for medical care.
So we say, if you're spending money on medical care, that -- that's money that you don't have to spend on other things. So it's 25 percent or greater decline in your available resources without an adequate financial safety net.
We're really looking at the risk of falling down the economic ladder without a net beneath you.
ROBERTS: You know, you would think that as time goes on you might actually increase your economic security. But your index has found that fewer than one in eight people were feeling economically insecure back in 1985. Now it's almost one in five people. Why are the numbers going up?
HACKER: Well, what we found is that there's been a big decline in economic security. And Americans say that they're feeling secure. What we wanted to look at is what the actual chance that you'll have that decline.
So you're right, since 1985 we've seen a big increase from around 12 percent experiencing these big losses to 25 percent. And the big driver of it is that people are more likely to have these big drops in income than they used to. And that seems especially true during economic downturns.
ROBERTS: And is there a particular group of people that's more vulnerable than another?
HACKER: Well, we were a little surprised to find that there is not. That in fact this risk is -- has risen across the demographic spectrum. It's risen for people near the bottom of the economic ladder and people near the top and it's certainly risen for the middle class.
ROBERTS: Didn't you find, though, that people between the ages of about 18 and 34 tend to feel more economically insecure than others?
HACKER: That's right. There are these differences. People who are younger are more likely to be insecure. We also found that people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder are more insecure.
But what's striking is that for all these groups there's been this increase. This is not something that's just happening to one part of the population.
ROBERTS: Yes, you also found that economic insecurity in this past recession is higher than it has been in previous recessions. And very significant, and a lot of experts have talked about this, in between recessions in the past, there tended to be a fairly robust recovery. But we're not seeing that now. HACKER: No. And that's really what worries us. You know, we've seen a ratcheting up of economic insecurity. The new normal after every economic downturn has been a higher level of insecurity.
And if that's the case, given how steep this downturn is, given how long it's likely to be before we return to prerecession levels of unemployment and economic expansion for ordinary middle class families, this could be a very long before we see a full recovery to a better level of economic security.
And I think this really calls on us to think about the long-term challenge for our nation to really rebalance our priorities.
ROBERTS: All right. And over your left shoulder, we see the Capitol building where they're thinking a lot about the economic situation in the country.
HACKER: Yes.
ROBERTS: You would think that this would be something that would bring them together collectively to try to solve it. But it's only deepening the partisan divisions in Washington. What's going on?
HACKER: Well, sometimes it brings them together. You know a lot of politicians were pushed to extend unemployment benefits that said they weren't going do it. And I think that reflects the fact that there is a widespread recognition that Americans are really suffering out there.
But you're right. Americans are angry. They're upset about the state of the economy. But that anger and that collective angst doesn't always translate into a clear message for politicians and we have a deep partisan division in this country about what to do.
We have to act and we have to overcome these divisions because economic security is really a bedrock feature of the American dream.
ROBERTS: Yes, we tend losing our -- we tend or we risk at least losing our position in the world if we don't get things back on track.
Jacob Hacker from Yale, it's great to talk to you this morning. Thanks for coming in.
HACKER: Thanks for having me.
ROBERTS: And if you want some more information on this, by the way -- if you want more information on the study -- the Economic Insecurity Index, just go to CNNmoney.com. And you can find it all there -- Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Sounds good, John. Thanks.
Well, still ahead, he is a Yale grad, he worked on Wall Street but he's giving it all up for greener pastures. A look at why farming seems to be making a resurgence among some very unlikely people.
Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Do you remember the lyrics to that?
CHETRY: No.
ROBERTS: Green acres is the place to be? Farm living is the life for me? Top stories --
CHETRY: Well, that's sort of coming back now, isn't it?
ROBERTS: It is. Yes. Top stories just minutes away.
First though, an "AM Original," something that you'll see only in AMERICAN MORNING. For many, the hip thing to do on the weekends is to go to your local farmer's market for fresh organic produce and other delectable items.
But now a surprising number of young and smart people are taking it a step further.
CHETRY: They're actually ditching city life and picking up organic farming, and with a lot of hard work, some of them are making a pretty good living.
Our Carol Costello is tracking the story from our D.C. bureau this morning.
There's something so satisfying about growing your own vegetables.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Using your hands, growing your own vegetables, it is the hot thing to do right now, John and Kiran. In fact, this fall, there will be a hot new two-year program offered at the University of Maryland. It's going to be called Sustainable Farming.
As you said, agriculture is hot. And I'm not just talking about urban farming. I'm talking about farming, as in making your living off the land.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROY SKEEN, FARMER: Brandywines, those are 3, those are 2.
COSTELLO (voice-over): At the University Farmer's Market in Baltimore, Roy Skeen is selling tomatoes, squash and greens. All vegetables he planted then harvested with his own hands. It's not exactly what he was born to do. He evolved.
(On camera): So I hear you went to Yale?
SKEEN: I did.
COSTELLO: What did you major in?
SKEEN: I majored in history, the most useful of all subjects, which will lead us into a career in -- anything.
COSTELLO: Farming?
SKEEN: Farming. That's right, that's right.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Not that Skeen regrets his Yale education or the years spent in New York working in investment banking. Both vividly taught him that world was not his. But this is.
SKEEN: Like for me, the magic of like seeing a cucumber on a vine was like -- it was like a circle in my psyche had been connected. You know here's something that had been in front of me every day in my life growing up, and I never knew where it came from.
COSTELLO: For Skeen, farming is spiritual, useful, a way of making the world better. And if you think he's, well, a new age hippy idealist, he's not the only one.
The National Future Farmers of America, an organization kids join in junior high in high school, tells me for the first time in its history it will surpass 520,000 members.
(On camera): Farming is hip now.
JACK GURLEY, FARMER: It is. It didn't used to be. When we first started -- my first year as organic farmers, people would look at us like we were crazy. You know, we're not buying anything from you, you guys use manure.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: You're kidding?
GURLEY: Yes.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Today, 15 years later, Jack Gurley is a guy to emulate. He and his wife make their living growing on 10 acres. It's this life most wannabe farmers want.
(On camera): What kind of a living can you make?
GURLEY: I think we make a really -- really reasonable middle-class lifestyle. We're essentially finished the end of November, right -- end of October. And I don't start again until February. So I have off four months where I don't have to do anything.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Gurley and his wife now mentor young people like Roy Skeen on how to make a living from farming. Skeen's goal right now is to make $30,000 a year. But again, the money is only part of it.
SKEEN: There we go. That's what we're looking for. Because it's something that like 80 percent of the population did 100 years ago. So it was one of those like -- it feels like it's coming home. For me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: For a lot of people. Those kids joining Future Farmers of America are from all over the country. The biggest increase in membership is in large urban areas in cities like Baltimore, and New York, and Chicago.
And as I said, most of those kids want to own small farms or just grow enough food for themselves. It's actually part of a seven-year trend of the nearly 300,000 new farms started since 2002. Most are 10 acres or less. And they're operated by young people who supplement their incomes working in jobs outside of farming.
So there you go. A new way of life for many young people in this country, John and Kiran.
CHETRY: It's amazing. It's smart. It makes a lot of sense. I was telling you about it yesterday. And I brought two pictures to show you. My in-laws do this now. Of course they're not selling them but they're like --
ROBERTS: Those are your in-laws? Wow, they're pretty young.
CHETRY: That's my daughter and my niece. And the hands of my father- in-law. He's teaching them about picking the beans. They have been in there. They have cucumbers. Tomato plants in the background. And the girls were totally fascinated by this, of course.
And they've been getting enough to -- they don't have to buy their vegetables right now. I mean, lettuce -- but they have so much of peppers, onions, scallions, tomatoes, squash. It's amazing. And --
ROBERTS: Great.
COSTELLO: I know --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: As a farm girl, it makes me so happy because my parents have done that for the last 30 years. We never had to buy vegetables at the grocery store. So I'm glad that it's a hip-hop trend. And I told my mom, you're in. You're in, baby.
CHETRY: It's great, and you know sharing with your neighbors, the food. As Christine Romans told us, seeds fail, I mean after the recession, were up. So a lot of people are catching on. I mean as you showed up, people are doing it to earn money. A lot of people are also doing it just to keep, you know, their family budget in check.
COSTELLO: And who knows if your food is safe or where it comes from. If you plant your own food, you know it's safe, you know you don't put harmful chemicals on it. You know you're not going to set Salmonella poisoning.
CHETRY: Exactly.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: It's always great when Mr. Haney (ph) drops by, too.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure. Take care.
ROBERTS: Crossing the half house now. The White House now trying to make good with former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod. She was forced out of her post when a portion of her comments about race were posted online. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack saying she has been put through hell and offering her a new position.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, Sherrod told us she's not so sure she wants that position. We also asked whether she'll seek some sort of payback against the man who put the clip on the internet in the first place, Andrew Breitbart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIRLEY SHERROD, FMR. GA. DIR., RURAL DEVELOPMENT, USDA: I really think I should. You know, I don't know a lot about the legal profession, but that's one person I'd like to get back at.
ROBERTS: Really?
SHERROD: Because he came at me. You know he didn't go after the NAACP, he came at me. You know.
ROBERTS: So, in getting back at him, what would you be looking to exact from him?
SHERROD: I don't know what I can get from him. An apology, at this point. And he hasn't made that. It's just not enough for me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Today, President Obama will sign a bill to cut down on wasteful government spending. The new law holds agencies more accountable for the billions of taxpayer dollars that are paid to the wrong person in the wrong amount or for the wrong reason.
And the House is expected to take up and pass a bill today that extends unemployment benefits until the end of November for some 2.5 million people. The Senate passed the bill yesterday by a vote of 59- 39. President Obama has promised to sign the legislation once it's on his desk.
CHETRY: And when it comes to image enhancement, BP clearly has some challenges. And the oil giants has caught and now apologizing for posting a picture of its crisis command center on its web site that was photo shopped to make the people look busier, to make the monitors look like they were full of the images of the spill. Well, see for yourself. On the right is a picture of BP's Texas command center and then it was enhanced. On the left is how the picture eventually appeared on BP's web site. Some of those blank monitors suddenly have pictures in them. It shows what a little creative cutting and pasting will do. The oil giant apologized for the deception and is placing the blame on the photographer.
ROBERTS: Well, the calls are growing louder for President Obama to rethink his moratorium on offshore drilling. Protesters gathered in Lafayette, Louisiana, yesterday, the event dubbed a rally for economic survival. It drew 11,000 people. All of them pleading with the administration to lift its deepwater drilling ban so that laid off rig workers can start earning paychecks again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are a safe (INAUDIBLE) but we are important.
BROOKS BELLIGRIN, LAFAYETTE, LA. RESIDENT: In the industry, you thought maybe them take a six-month (INAUDIBLE) and sit on the sidelines, they're not going to be able to sustain it.
MADELEINE WINJUM, MARRIED TO OIL WORKER: The moratorium is really arbitrary, and what stops them from coming after the (INAUDIBLE) rigs, next. You're punishing the whole industry for one rig. One rig that (INAUDIBLE) caused this tragedy.
BELLIGRIN: Oil comes out of the well and mother nature is going to take care of itself. It's going to take time and it's going to impact us for a while and I think we're going to overcome this. This moratorium, if long enough, I don't know we can overcome that.
KEN FONTELOT, LAID OFF OIL WORKER: I feel like it's another opportunity for President Obama to show that he doesn't have to listen to us.
ANTHONY EMMONS, REFINERY SUPPLIER: I don't know where President Obama is finding his experts, but he needs to find some new experts to get some of those boys working in the oil fields and all these rigs for the last 40 years that would be the best thing you can do. Use common sense and let us work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Wow. All right, well, Rob Marciano is live in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this morning. And you can see, you know, how strongly many locals led by, you know, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal feel about lifting that moratorium. Meantime, get us updated on the storm that's brewing in the mid-Atlantic right now. A lot of concerns that they're going to pick up and move some of those clean-up operations so they don't take a direct hit, what do you think?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, when you think about all the assets they have out there surrounding this well and all the coordinated efforts that it takes to do what they're doing, especially at 5,000 feet below the surface of the gulf, any sort of bad weather hampers things.
They've been blessed with a couple of weeks of really good weather. But we are in hurricane season and there is a disturbance that is heading towards the Gulf of Mexico. At this point, it looks like it will get into the gulf sometime over the weekend, but there's serious questions as to in what form it will be.
We are running into some sheer that will probably knock down the intensity levels. But regardless of that, they are worried that this thing gets into the gulf and hampers operations. You get winds over 30 miles an hour and it pretty much shuts things down. Not only to cap and kill that well, but also to skim the oil off the water. Any sort of rough seas hampers that. I got to imbed with a Coast Guard cutter, specifically assigned to skim oil off the Gulf of Mexico, and well, as you can imagine, it's a pretty messy business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just going to - we're just going to go over the thrusters and that will keep the right rotor on.
MARCIANO (on camera): They're working the vacuum right now. The other side of that wall is a skimmer. The oil is so thick right now that they're having a hard time actually getting it into the mouth of the skimmer. So, chopping up the water is helping a little bit. But you can see most of it is just sitting there and it's sucking in more water than it is oil. It's been the problem they've had the past couple days.
On a good day, how much oil could you get off this water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if we're going right to the barge, the skimmer's capable of 440 gallons a minute. So --
MARCIANO: 440 gallons a minute?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A minute.
MARCIANO: That's a lot?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MARCIANO: What was your best day so far during this whole operation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, I'm not really keeping track anymore.
MARCIANO: It all blends in day to day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does. Every day is Monday.
MARCIANO: It's got to be grinding?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can be. You wear down. It's nice when you pull in for a couple of days' rest.
MARCIANO: Well, you're doing great work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: It is a grind, and they are doing a phenomenal work out there. There was a little sliver of hope at yesterday's press conference that I haven't heard really since the beginning of this mess, John and Kiran. They said that for the first time they're actually having some difficulty finding significant oil to skim.
Obviously, a combination of the skimming and clean-up efforts and not having oil come out of that wellhead for the past six now seventh day. So a little bit of optimism there. But this cleanup effort is going to be going on for weeks and months to come, as you know.
ROBERTS: That is a good thing. But for those marshes that got that heavy, emulsified sludge in there, it's going to be a long time for them to come back, if they ever do, right?
MARCIANO: Yes, that's a huge issue. How you clean the marsh? I mean, you can flush it out. But every good solution has a bad ramification, it seems. It's always a double-edged sword. But they're doing the best they can and the people working down here, all over 40,000 of them, John. Amazing effort. And you can be sad, or be angry at what's happened here, but the people who are working hard to clean up the mess, they're the ones saving the gulf for sure.
ROBERTS: Yes, as you pointed out, working in pretty tough conditions. Rob, thanks so much.
And be sure to catch the "Rescue Saving the Gulf." Rob Marciano takes you to the front lines of the largest clean-up job in the world. Saturday and Sunday night. 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.
CHETRY: Still ahead, politics, viral videos and race. The Shirley Sherrod story. A perfect example of how much serious damage can be done to careers, lives and reputations. Up next, we're going to talk with two former White House staffers and campaign strategist David Frum and Lisa Caputo. How you come back from that kind of damage and this is just the beginning as we head closer to the midterm elections?
38 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: 41 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning.
No question about it, this Shirley Sherrod controversy blew up into a firestorm of accusations, politics and race gone viral. In an age where anything you say can be altered and in some cases destroy you. Joining us to discuss how unvetted videos can do real damage, Lisa Caputo, former press secretary for First Lady Hillary Clinton and also David Frum, former speech writer for George W. Bush and editor of FrumForum.com. Thanks to both of you for being with us.
DAVID FRUM, FRUMFORUM.COM: Thank you.
CHETRY: When you talk about a perfect anatomy of the political controversy, this one really seems to have it all. You know, the allegations of racism, after this highly edited tape that came out of Shirley Sherrod in an NAACP event went viral. And then, of course, all of that media pressure happening from the AG Department to the president, everybody having to turnaround and basically say that they were wrong.
When you take a look at exactly how this happened, Lisa, let me start with you, what are the lessons, learned, if any?
LISA CAPUTO, FMR. PRESS SECRETARY FOR FIRST LADY HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think David - I want to say David wrote a great piece on this. I read it yesterday and it was well said. And I think his experience and my experience at the White House will tell you there is no news cycle anymore. I mean, this is all about the viral video. And it's all about the here and the now and the propensity for irresponsibility is at a fever pitch.
And I have a point of view on this which is I think this is very orchestrated. I think we've seen a pattern of this. Let's remember when we had Sonia Sotomayor nominated for the Supreme Court, all of that commentary around here comments were taken out of context in reference to wise Latinos.
So there's this undercurrent going on, I think, on the part of the other side of the aisle, if you will, to play the race card and I think it's dangerous.
CHETRY: David, is this only conservatives? I mean, do you think conservatives are alone in being culpable for most of this?
FRUM: Well, look, playing the race card is something that happens a lot in American politics. The president is doing a little playing of the race card when he makes an impassable immigration reform a big centerpiece of his 2010 legislative agenda. He knows he's not going to get it but he's hoping that he can goad Republicans into saying something provocative that will alienate Hispanics.
That reminds us of what is so unusual about the Sherrod case. This is a case where the story can be immediately and overwhelmingly refuted and so almost instantly. That's not how things usually work in politics. Usually, it's a little murkier, usually it takes a little bit time, it takes a couple of days to put the case together on behalf of the person (INAUDIBLE) and this could have been a much murkier story where we're still arguing about the facts and those different stories would then harden along primal political lines.
CHETRY: And the other thing, the internet is not necessarily new. Racial politics, not necessarily new. What was it about this that seemed to just blow everything up into a fever pitch, leading it all the way back to the White House? And I mean, yesterday, you really couldn't miss, it was a remarkable moment to see Shirley Sherrod, you know, in a split screen listening to Robert Gibbs apologizing to her while she's sitting here on our set at CNN. I mean, instantaneous reaction and action taking place before our eyes?
CAPUTO: I think what it about this is that the comments were completely taken out of context on purpose. And then sent out around the web, around the internet. And everybody reacted to what they saw on the internet, versus doing the due diligence first and taking a step back and saying, you know -
CHETRY: Right.
CAPUTO: Could this possibly be right? And getting the context around it. But that's the problem with this. I mean, going back to the lack of a news cycle, it's the reaction to the here and the now, because what happens is it just - it feeds journalists (ph).
CHETRY: Yes.
CAPUTO: And what I would love to see, I have to tell you, is I think that Mr. Breitbart ought to - ought to, you know, sort of be looked at. Where is the - the enterprise journalism story on what he does day in and day out, what his operation is, and what he's doing?
CHETRY: I want to ask you about the issue of - of this call to judgment, this - this quick rush to judgment, I guess, David, because Shirley, when she was on our show last hour, said she told the Department of Agriculture people who were calling her, insisting she pull over the side of the road and BlackBerry her resignation, she said you got to listen to the whole tape. The whole tape is out there. It will show that this was a story of redemption. This was a story that paints a very different picture, and they didn't.
They - you know, and asked her, if this had just been on Breitbart, do you believe it would have been as big of a - blown up to as big as what it is now, the issue, if the Department of Agriculture hadn't reacted the way that it did and the NAACP reacted in the way that it did in swiftly condemning her before knowing everything?
FRUM: Well, this administration that right now is under a lot of pressure. It's facing catastrophic losses in the House and maybe the Senate too. And it wants to be a rapid response administration. It doesn't want to make the mistake of the Bush administration of sticking by your people to the very end. No, we're going to do a clean cut and get rid of anyone who's a potential problem to the president.
There isn't - and because they know they're up against a big narrative this year of racial redistribution. You know, America - just about everybody in America is poorer, maybe a lot poorer than they were a couple of years ago, and it's natural, when you've lost a lot of money, to think that somebody else must have it. It can't have just vanished into the ether. So - and a lot of - of people who are in the group with savings, older, more affluent, whiter, these people - these people, they've seen losses in the stock market, their houses aren't worth what they were, they - they've lost a job before retirement age. They probably wouldn't get another. They're hearing that Medicaid (ph) may be - Medicare may be cut back.
And they're also seeing the president do various kinds of things to spend more for the poorer part of society, and they think they're taking my money and they're giving it away. And - and that is just perfect environment for a story not only of economic redistribution, which is what is going on, to turn into a story of racial redistribution.
CAPUTO: But you know what's interesting, though, Kiran, is a landmark piece of legislation was signed yesterday by the president, you know, the reg (ph) reform bill, and nobody really knows about this and it's almost as if - I can't help but wonder, you know, was this orchestrated in a way to - to divert from the president's agenda? And I do think, as I said before, I mean, this is politics at its finest or not finest.
CHETRY: Right, depending on what --
CAPUTO: Let's remember, I mean, this is - this is the -
CHETRY: -- where you're looking at it from.
CAPUTO: -- this is the art of negative campaigning that - that, you know, began many years ago, and it's gotten worse and worse.
And, you know, the president addressed the race issue during the campaign, and I hope that there is not a place for race in this - in these midterm elections because I think it's wrong. I don't think race belongs in our politics.
CHETRY: Well, maybe it's a cautionary tale, moving forward, as, of course, videos will keep going viral. It's the reaction now that people are probably going to be watching even closer.
Lisa Caputo, as well as David Frum, great to hear both of you this morning. Thanks.
FRUM: Thank you.
ROBERTS: And - and one, you wonder if the administration could have avoided simply by listening to Shirley Sherrod.
Forty-eight minutes after the hour. Reynolds Wolf has got this morning's travel forecast right after the break. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Well, the picture this morning of the Gulf of Mexico taken on Gulf Shores, Alabama, where right now it's 79 degrees, later on today, 97 degrees and steamy. It's going to be difficult for those folks who are out there skimming the oil off the surface of the gulf to work in yet again. But as Rob Marciano told us a little while ago, thankfully, a little bit of a good news, we're seeing less oil on the surface.
CHETRY: Yes. But the heat index is ridiculous.
ROBERTS: Off the charts.
CHETRY: Sometimes, you know, sometimes 118 at times yesterday.
Meanwhile, let's check in with Reynolds Wolf, see what we can expect today weather wise. He's in Atlanta for us this morning. Hey, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, one thing we've got is some information that just came out just a short while ago from the National Hurricane Center, and that information is right behind me on the Wall. Let's get right to it. Let's enlarge this image.
You see this area shaded in red? This is a spot now. We're watching this tropical development. It's still not a named storm, but it has been upgraded at least with a high probability, at least 70 percent chance of becoming something bigger, 70 percent chance of greater development. Right now, it is moving right through parts of the - the Eastern Bahamas. Eventually, will make its way a little bit more to the west.
The question is where is this thing going to go? Well, the latest we have in terms of our computer models, most of the models tend to agree that this storm is going to make its way - or, rather, the system. It's not a storm yet - is going to make its way north of Cuba, right along the Straits of Florida and then move into the Gulf of Mexico.
The question is, though, when it moves out here, what exactly could happen? Well, all the models have this thing dying when it gets into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. But, remember, these storms can be very fickle, and it is the time of year that we do see these things develop, especially in places like the Gulf of Mexico where the - the water seems to be very warm. It may be moving into a low sheer (INAUDIBLE), but that can change too. So we'll watch it for you very, very carefully.
One thing we want to do is this imagery that we have is given to us by Stormpulse. They've been - it's just a wonderful tool that we've been using. Now, I'll tell you, this tool at a minimum will show that as this moves into the gulf, although it may not develop and become something bigger, you can expect at least heavier wave action, a lot of clouds, scattered showers, possible storms. And, with that, certainly that's going to hamper some of the oil containment efforts.
Let's send it back to you in the studio.
ROBERTS: Reynolds, thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.
CHETRY: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including Shirley Sherrod unedited, accepting a White House apology, but will she take the job offer? We're going to hear how she's trying to put this racial and political controversy in the past.
ROBERTS: We want it. We want it now. But we don't want it for more than 30 seconds. It happened to Shirley Sherrod. Could YouTube become a victim of the modern age?
We'll talk to the author of a book who says the internet is killing our culture and our values.
CHETRY: And it really is a shot of the day - whale versus boat, a 40- ton mammal that wanted a ride.
Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
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CHETRY: Phil (ph). Always coming up with new material. Thanks, Phil (ph).
ROBERTS: Three minutes to the top of the hour.
American Airlines being sued by a passenger who says they refused to refund the $25 check baggage fee after they lost her luggage. The woman claims American lost her checked bag on a flight from Seattle to Grand Rapids, Michigan back in May. The airline is not commenting on the suit.
CHETRY: By the way, Phil (ph), John needs his shirt back by tomorrow.
Facebook hitting a new milestone. The world's largest social networking site now has 500 million users, more (ph) than the populations of the U.S., Mexico and France combined. Interestingly, 70 percent of Facebook users live outside the United States.
ROBERTS: I thought Phil's (ph) shirt was very cool.
Top stories are coming your way in just two minutes' time. Stay with us.
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