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American Morning
Van Hollen Weighs in on President's Uphill Battle Fight; Tea Party, a Sure Thing?
Aired September 07, 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: Extreme weather, you're looking at new pictures out of Texas this morning. The state under siege. Tropical storm Hermine slamming the coastline with 60-mile-an-hour winds up to a foot of rain in some areas. They're warning of flash flooding. And South Texas is also on alert, the possibility that Hermine will spawn tornadoes.
Good morning to you, it's Tuesday, September 7th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: I'm Drew Griffin. John Roberts has the morning off. We'll have more on tropical storm Hermine in a moment, but first, the morning's top stories.
The top military commander in Afghanistan blasting a Florida church. That church is planning to burn copies of the Quran. Warning, it's a risky move, and it could put troops in danger in Afghanistan. We're talking to the reverend behind this plan to burn the Quran just ahead.
CHETRY: President Obama ready to unveil a $350 billion plan to kick start the economy and to put the brakes on his party's free fall. We're going to go live report with Ed Henry at the White House in just a moment.
GRIFFIN: And speaking of troops in Afghanistan, we are on patrol with them. How do American troops interact with the locals, especially children? Jason Carroll live in Afghanistan this morning. He's going to have the latest installment of "A Soldier's Story."
CHETRY: First, though, we head back to south Texas where they're getting hammered this morning. A live satellite look right now at tropical storm Hermine as it moves farther into Texas. We also have new pictures just into CNN showing South Padre Island sort of hanging out there in the Gulf, getting a one-two punch, rain and wind, 65- mile-an-hour winds knocking down trees.
GRIFFIN: And we got flash flood alerts, wind advisories issued for San Antonio, south Texas until 7:00 tonight local time. That is a long time. Rob Marciano tracking Hermine in the Extreme Weather Center. And I guess what we're talking about is the possibility that we'll have real floods down there.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not only there, and this thing will go up into areas that don't typically get tropical weather or maybe get one or two sideswipes a year, but well into the plains is where this thing's going to go.
So you showed that video, it was pretty striking. It was probably a four to five to six-hour period overnight where things got nasty, all the way from Corpus Christi to South Padre Island to Brownsville where that made landfall and now up to Texas.
There are 50-mile-an-hour winds right now, so obviously it will be weakening away from the water. But it was 65, so this thing was almost a hurricane at one point and creating winds that were certainly gusting to over 60 miles an hour.
Now we're into the rain event, and also a bit of a twist here which means the right side of this system will have the threat for seeing tornado. So a tornado watch in effect for 1:00 this afternoon. There you see the eye, right about there. OK, so just west of Corpus Christi, and to the northwest at about 17, 18 miles an hour.
So it will move fairly quickly, that's the hope because these things slow down. Obviously, that's where you get all the threat for seeing rainfall that could produce flooding. It will take quite a bit into northern Texas, Oklahoma and eventually making it to Arkansas.
Five plus inches in some spots, upwards in some spots of 12 inches. Where they do need the rain, they're not getting any soon. Check out this video northwest of Boulder, Colorado, northwest of Oklahoma, wildfires, not nearly as bad as what they're dealing with in terms of the rugged terrain west of the Boulder.
Several houses burned to the ground with this particular fire. It is not anywhere in control at the moment. We've got all sorts of assets up there trying to battle this but look at the winds on this thing. It is certainly cranking along. We expect the winds to be another issue today with no rain in sight. Firefighters think it could take several days before that fire is contained in any capacity.
Drew, Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: Well, a lot going on there, Rob. Meantime, it three minutes past the hour. We're just eight weeks away from the midterm elections. And this morning there's some new information about what President Obama plans to do about the sinking economy.
GRIFFIN: Yes, word of what some are calling second stimulus, or "son of stimulus." Hundreds of billions in new spending and tax cuts. But will it buy the confidence of American people? We're now just 56 days until you go to the voting booth.
And a new CNN opinion research poll released an hour ago shows a stunning reversal when it comes to who's better in handling the economy, Republicans now taking the lead, 46 percent to 43 percent.
CHETRY: Yes, the president is hoping to reverse that trend. Tomorrow he'll be in Cleveland announcing a $350 billion plan that includes small business tax cuts as well as new infrastructure spending. GRIFFIN: With so much at stake this election season, we're coverage like nobody else can. T.J. Holmes on the CNN election express cruising to Columbus, Ohio this morning on the CNN express election express bus.
But first, let's bring in Ed Henry live at the White House. Ed, I've got to imagine that some Democrats out there are cringing at the new proposal from the president and quite frankly probably just with the president would go on another vacation.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Drew. Certainly, there are more conservative Democrats who are worried about more government spending. They're hearing a lot of grief about that out on the campaign trail. T.J.'s been talking about that for sure. And we're hearing that in a lot of different states.
But there are other Democrats that are going to welcome this because they feel there needs to be more stimulus. They're worried that this recession has dragged along.
The new information we're getting this morgue is tomorrow in Cleveland the president is going to roll out another $200 billion tax cut aimed at small businesses.
Go through the details -- $200 billion, that's a pretty big number, aimed at small businesses, and basically allow them to duct 100 percent of what they spend on new equipment, new plants, obviously the goal being here to pump some more money into the economy, not just from the government, but in this case actually having businesses, some of this private money, private capital, going back out there to stimulate some demand.
Interesting as well, it comes on top of the president yesterday in Milwaukee saying he's going to spend $50 billion in government money, in that case, for highway, for infrastructure spending. And then a couple days ago, we reported that the president also on Wednesday is going to unveil a $100 billion tax cut in terms of research and development for companies.
So if you add all of that up, it does equal $350 billion. This White House has been adamant about saying, look, we're not going to have a second stimulus plan. They know that's toxic right now when federal spending is such a big issue and debt and whatnot.
But also Republicans could hammer this White House and suggest if you need a second stimulus that suggests maybe the first stimulus was not as good as advertised. So they're going to continue to say this is not a new stimulus plan.
When you add up the dollars the fact of the matter is this is almost half of what the president spent on the first stimulus. That's a significant chunk of money no matter what you call it. This is clearly an effort by this president on the eve of the election to try to show the American people he's all over the economy. The question is whether it's t0o little, too late. Drew? GRIFFIN: Like you said, when you add all of that up, it does look like exactly like "son of stimulus," if you will. Why the president coming out with more spending proposals right now when he's being attacked for out-of-control spending?
HENRY: It's important to note on some of these issues, they claim, and we've got to go through the fine print, but they claim that a lot of them are going to be paid for. For example, on the research and development tax credit, they say they're going to close other tax loopholes to pay for the $100 billion. Is that going happen? We'll see.
First of all, Congress may not take any of this up before the election, so it might be moot right now.
What's the major reason driving this? Let's look at the latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll, when we asked what party could do a better job with the economy. Look at how this has flipped. It's so dramatic for this president. Last August, basically who could do a better job? Voters were saying 39 percent Republicans, 52 percent Democrats, big edge for Democrats.
June of this year, 48 percent for Republicans, 45 percent for Democrats, a drop there. Now, a stark difference, 46 percent saying Republicans can do a better job of handling the economy, only 43 percent say Democrats can.
So this flurry of proposals now in effort to show, look, Democrats were all over the economy.
GRIFFIN: Yes, really, though at a sliding fading in confidence from either part because Republicans went down as well.
HENRY: Yes, both under 50 percent, that's right.
GRIFFIN: Thanks, Ed.
CHETRY: President Obama will unveil his plan to create jobs to boost the economy in Ohio tomorrow. It's a key battleground state and it has been, but more so now because of rising unemployment, and it could spell trouble for Democrats in November.
We have T.J. Holmes, he's riding the CNN election express, which this morning is parked in Columbus, Ohio. And T.J., it's interesting, as we indicated in that polling and hearing from Ed Henry at the White House. It seems, you know, most people that you talk to have sort of lost faith in both parties. At an anti-incumbent feeling to say, hey, listen, nothing's changed for me. And so I'm sort of wondering why should I pick either party?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, and this is the perfect state to make that point. The president's coming here, again, like Ed just said, going to be here tomorrow. This is going to be his tenth trip to this state as president.
But do you guys remember his first trip to Ohio as president? You may not think you do, but do you. It was in March of last year. You remember there it was immediately after the stimulus bill passed. The president came here to where I am, Columbus, Ohio, to tout the effects of that stimulus bill by showing 25 police recruits who were going to be able to keep their jobs because of stimulus funding.
You guys remember that? He was supposed to come here and say, look, these 25 guys we can show you keeping their jobs through the end of the year because of stimulus.
Well, when he came, that first trip to this state as president, the unemployment rate in this state was 9.4 percent, the very next month, 9.7, the very next month, 10.2, next month, 10.8, next month, 11.1, then 11.2. So as soon as he came here to show the effects of the stimulus, it just started to skyrocket with the unemployment rate.
So here we are now, a year later, we sit at 10.3 percent unemployment in this state. So you talk about stimulus. And Drew asked the question at the top, are people going to buy it if they hear about another stimulus since clearly the first one didn't work? Are they going to buy it? Listen to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too busy raising money for themselves to worry about what's going on in the rest of the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There aren't many jobs coming in, and the ones that are here are minimum wage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't care for what party they are, Republican, Democrat, independent. It's just the person that can help the average man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get rid of them both. Just people run for office that want to do the job.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a strong Democrat. However, I'm disappointed in many of our Democratic candidates that they have not worked harder for the middle class. They've made concessions for the wealthy Americans. And we're really hurting here in middle America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So, once again, tough sale for the president if at the time the stimulus passed there were 566,000 Ohioans out of work. So now here we are a year and a half after that stimulus, we have 616,000 Ohioans out of work. It doesn't sound like it's working to them. Tough sell as always, guys.
CHETRY: They're the ones feeling it for sure. T.J., good stuff, thanks so much.
And to keep every step of the campaign this season go to CNN.com/politics as well.
GRIFFIN: A new CNN polls spells trouble for Democrats. As we've been saying, voters now favoring Republicans to fix the economy, showing more confidence in the GOP when it comes to terrorism and immigration, too. So how does the president turn things around? We're going to ask Congressman Chris Van Hollen. He is the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Tough job. We'll have him after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 14 minutes past the hour right now. And crossing the political ticker this hour in the swing state of Indiana, incumbent Congressman Joe Donnelly is taking a unique approach to his election campaign.
He's running ads that don't even mention that he's a Democrat. The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee is more than happy to remind voters that he is indeed a Democrat. The committee's new ad campaign flashes images of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi next to Donnelly, who considers himself a moderate.
GRIFFIN: Here's an interesting twist happening down in Louisiana. Will Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal endorse embattled Republican Senator David Vitter. In Vitter's reelection bid, a spokesman for the governor says not now, maybe later. Right now, it doesn't appear that Vitter needs the governor's help. He has a double-digit lead over his Democratic challenger.
And again, for the most political news, go to CNN.com/ticker.
CHETRY: Well, there are new poll numbers out this morning suggesting that President Obama and the Democrats are in the fight of their political lives this fall.
GRIFFIN: A CNN/Research Opinion poll released early this morning confirms it. It shows Republicans pulling easily ahead of Democrats with voters on the issues of terrorism, immigration. And while gaining a slight advantage on the economy and taxes, the deficit, the war in Afghanistan, voters now barely favoring Democrats in just two categories, and that is health care and social security.
CHETRY: And Congressman Chris Van Hollen is the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which essentially means it's his job to make sure things don't turn out as badly as some of the polls are predicting and he joins us this morning from Washington.
Congressional Van Hollen, thanks for being with us.
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, DEM. CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN CMTE. CHAIRMAN: It's good to be with you this morning.
CHETRY: Well, this poll and it mirrors many others. Certainly not good news for Democrats, obviously. They have eight issues. Some of them are within the margin of error. But Republicans are ranking higher in all but two, health care as we said and social security. And poll after poll shows Republicans possibly making some major gains and the real possibility that they can regain the majority. What is your strategy for making sure that things don't turn out as badly as many in Washington are predicting for the Democrats?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, they're not going to turn as badly. You know, we're just past Labor Day now. This is the period where the American people traditionally begin to focus on elections. I mean, most normal people have been going about their daily lives. They've been getting their kids back to school. And tomorrow in Ohio, you'll hear the president lay out the clear choices that people have. And when they go into that voting booth and they have to choose between two, sometimes more candidates, the question is going to be, what are you going to do on the economy? And right now, we have a fragile economy. We're a lot better off than we were 18 months ago, but we're not where we want to be.
CHETRY: If you mentioned Ohio, we just got a report from T.J. There's a lot of angst, 16,600 people still without jobs and a lot of people are saying how did the stimulus that we spent so much money on really helped us.
VAN HOLLEN: Well, of course, there's a lot of angst because the economy is still soft and weak. But the fact of the matter is the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group, said that the recovery added as many as three million jobs to the economy.
Look, when you are sinking very fast, it is hard. First, you have to stabilize the situation then you try and improve it. The fact of the matter is it's in a dramatically better place than it was 18 months ago, but still not nearly where we want it to be.
So, do you want to go back to the set of policies, the economic policies that created the mess in the first place? Do you want to repeal Wall Street reform, which is what the Republican leader said in Ohio not long ago? Or do you want to continue to accelerate a job growth by passing the small business lending bill that the president is urging the Senate to pass? Right now, it's been blocked by a Republican colleague. So, ultimately, people are going to have a choice on where to go on the economy.
GRIFFIN: Congressman, I've got to ask you, if the president seriously asked that question tomorrow in Ohio, are you better off than you were 18 months ago? We've already had a report this morning that the unemployment has just steadily increased since the president took the White House, and you know, the House and the Senate have been in control of the Democrats now. I think the answer might be no for a lot of people even those who voted for the president.
VAN HOLLEN: Look, there is no doubt that the economy remains weak. When you're going down fast, you have to triage. You have to stabilize the situation. You have to slowly build back. But the question in elections is always about the future. What are you going to do next? And if you listen to what the Republican leader said in Ohio not long ago, he proposed a plan that would effectively cancel about 60,000 contracts out of the recovery bill, Vitter just getting going. I mean, that's a sure recipe for killing some of the jobs that are beginning to grow in Ohio. And I think the president is going to point that out. So elections are about where do we go in the future. And I believe that the American people when they go in the voting booth, they are going to want to ask themselves what the Democratic candidates have been doing but also what the Republican candidate proposes for the future. And I think people are fair minded. I think they recognize that when the economy is going down really fast, you can't buy miracle, turn it around quickly. You have to stabilize the situation, and then move forward. And it would be a huge mistake to go back to the same policies.
CHETRY: You know --
VAN HOLLEN: And listen to what -- what are our Republican colleagues proposing for the economy? That I would -- I would pose that question because they begun to give us the answer and the answer is -- canceling some of those contracts, growing the deficits. It's not a recipe for progress.
CHETRY: You know, there had been exactly some very, very liberal commentators and, of course, Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist, who have actually been quite critical of the president's policies lately, especially as it relates to the economy. I think everyone pretty much agrees that we're in trouble. There is disagreement on what the answer is.
But one of the things that Tom Friedman, Krugman and others have pointed to is we may be in triage mode, as you referred to, but we haven't done anything that would actually change the economy so that the country can grow jobs. So instead -- I mean, some of them liken it to just sort of throwing money down a hole instead of making changes in green technology and other things so that moving forward, we are going to grow rather than just sort of try to plug holes, which is a situation we seem to be in now.
Are you going to support the stimulus (INAUDIBLE) is now talking about rebuilding roads, talking about possibly, you know, rebuilding airport runways as a long-term solution to unemployment?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, the first priority is to pass the small business lending bill that I talked about. And that has passed the House. It's sitting in the Senate. I will support the president's plan. We need to see more details before I know exactly what the lay of the land is. He said he was going to pay for it by closing a lot of these loopholes in the tax law that actually reward corporations that ship jobs overseas.
Now, we have used some of those. We've closed some of those loopholes already. But there are other loopholes out there. And I think everybody would agree, that it doesn't make sense to subsidize, have the American taxpayer subsidize companies that are shifting American jobs, not American goods but American jobs overseas.
And so the president indicated yesterday he was going to look for those kind of savings to pay for investments right here at home. And it makes sense to say let's invest our money here at home, rather than giving tax breaks to companies that are essentially shifting American jobs overseas. That seems to me to be the right choice.
GRIFFIN: OK, real quick, though, yes or no. Should the Democrats in Congress who want to be reelected vote for the next stimulus package whether you call it that or not? Yes or no?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, we're not going to have the next stimulus package before us, before the election. The election --
GRIFFIN: The one that the president is proposing, you guys are not going to vote on before the election?
VAN HOLLEN: What we're voting on for sure, we hope, if the Republicans in the Senate will allow it to be voted upon is going to be the small business lending bill and that would create a pool of about $30 billion that combined with private capital would be able to get to small businesses who are right now, as you heard, are hurting.
GRIFFIN: OK.
VAN HOLLEN: A lot of the folks in Ohio are saying we got to make the next payroll. The banks aren't lending the money. That is the top priority as soon as Congress --
CHETRY: What about after? After? I mean, obviously, when this bill comes out or when you guys put it to the floor for a vote, are you going to vote yes? Are you encouraging other members to vote yes on this proposal by the president for this new stimulus?
VAN HOLLEN: As you know, we have to see the details. I mean, look, the president announced this yesterday. He's going to make some more proposals tomorrow in Ohio. We're looking forward to working with the president on his proposals. But obviously, we have to see some of the details. But the thrust of this is in the right direction. It's to continue to get people back to work, to accelerate job creation, and not go back to the policies that got us to this mess.
Again, elections are about choices. And we're all talking about what the president wants to do and that's good because I think it will help propel things in the right direction. But what are our colleagues on the other side proposing? I urge people to go look at what they're telling us they would do.
CHETRY: Well, we'll certainly ask them about it as well.
VAN HOLLEN: Because they don't -- well, because they want to repeal the Wall Street reform bill. They're telling us that.
GRIFFIN: Chris, we've got to go.
VAN HOLLEN: OK.
GRIFFIN: I'm sorry, man. Thanks a lot.
VAN HOLLEN: Thank you. No problem.
GRIFFIN: We gave you more time than we should have, according to my producers but I enjoyed it. I hope you did, too.
CHETRY: Thanks for joining us, Congressman.
VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you this morning. Thank you.
GRIFFIN: And coming up, candidates backed by the Tea Party may have a lot to say about the outcome of the midterm elections. One Utah Republican may be as close as the Tea Party Movement will get to a shoo-in in the Senate. It is now 23 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: New this morning. With the help of a pair of gigantic suction cups, this climber made a three-hour trek up the side of a California high-rise. He says -- he says he scaled it, the 60-story Millennium Tower to raise cancer awareness and also show the vulnerability of terror attacks on U.S. skyscrapers. Multitasking issue. Police were waiting, of course, when he reached the top.
CHETRY: Well, save from a fiery death. A Georgia sheriff's dash cam captures three deputies as they run to save a man who's trapped inside his burning car. They used a fire extinguisher to battle the flames and they were eventually able to knock out a window and pull the man out. I mean, they're risking their lives here doing this. One of the deputies -- for one of the deputies, it was actually just his second night on patrol.
GRIFFIN: Quite memorable.
Nearly 70,000 bags of dog treats being recalled after a sample over possible salmonella contamination. The recall involves eight-ounce bags of Hartz Naturals Real Beef treats for dogs. So far no pets have gotten sick.
CHETRY: Well, driving for dummies. A new report finds that nearly one in five drivers, that would be some 38 million people on the road, would not pass a written driver's test if they took it now. This is from a GMAC insurance survey. They borrowed 20 questions from random motor vehicle exams from states around the country. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed couldn't answer the question what do you do when approaching a red light -- a yellow light, rather. I mean, I think most of them would stop at the red light.
GRIFFIN: One in five was kind of low.
CHETRY: Right. If you live in New York long enough, what to do at a red light means speed up.
GRIFFIN: Yes, or walk in front of it.
Coming up, make way for the Tea Party. Our special series looks at their look best bet to make it all the way to Washington. Jim Acosta has been doing the series. He'll be live with us just ahead.
It is now just about 27 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Full spin ahead. The election campaign season heading into high gear. We are taking a close look now at a political movement that could impact any midterm elections.
Jim Acosta live for us in Atlanta with our series "Make Room for the Tea Party."
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Drew. The Tea Party is having a big impact so far. Nearly all of the Tea Party-backed candidates for the U.S. Senate right now are in tight races. It's not a sure thing that all of them will win. But that is not the case in Utah where Republican Mike Lee is almost a Tea Party sure thing. His conservative views are straight out of the Tea Party Movement's doctrine like privatizing social security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE LEE (R), UTAH U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: George Washington was the original Tea Party man.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Vowing to bring a Tea Party revolution to Washington, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in Utah, Mike Lee, is a fire-breathing contender of what's become the Bible of this political movement, the U.S. Constitution.
LEE: I hereby vow to you I will not vote for a single bill that I can't justify based on the text of the original understanding of the constitution.
ACOSTA: But at the same time, Lee, a lawyer who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito also talks about changing the Constitution. Lee says he will alter the 14th Amendment, taking away automatic citizenship for people born in the U.S.. He also supports amendments requiring balanced budgets and term limits for Congress.
(on camera): You talk about defending the Constitution and yet you want to change the Constitution. Isn't there a contradiction there?
LEE: Not at all. The Constitution was made to be amended from time to time. Sometimes, we have to do that in order to make the Constitution more true to the American dream.
ACOSTA (voice-over): He's even questioned the 17th amendment, which allows voters to directly elect senators, something state lawmakers used to do.
LEE: People would be better off with their senators when they deliver their messages to Washington. Remember the sovereignty of the states.
ACOSTA: And Democrats like to point out, Lee also favors privatizing social security. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what would be the real thing, if you're the bad guy, to come along and say, we have to roll that back, we have to phase it out.
ACOSTA (on camera): Roll it back and phase it out?
LEE: Phasing it out, rolling it back, all of these options to consider.
ACOSTA: Based on social security -
LEE: Options that we could consider.
SAM GRANATO (D), UTAH U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: You take a guy like me who's not extreme on main stream. What they see it what they get.
ACOSTA: Salt Lake City food distributor Sam Granato is the long shot Democrat in the race. He is trying to exploit hard feelings among some Utah Republicans who are still mad at the Tea Party for backing Lee over the more moderate incumbent senator Bob Bennett for the GOP nomination.
GRANATO: Since the ouster of Senator Bennett, I've had more Republicans, moderate Republicans calling, coming to help us.
ACOSTA: Like Senator Bennett's son.
JIM BENNETT, SON OF U.S. SENATOR BOB BENNETT: When we tried to get Bob Bennett to speak to the Tea Party, they said he was not welcome here. He will be booed if he comes.
ACOSTA: But other Republicans like Whit Lund are looking forward, not back.
WHIT LUND, LEE SUPPORTER: This would be Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
ACOSTA (on camera): You're that angry?
LUND: Ticked off would be a better term.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Just like the Tea Party, Mike Lee wants to pull the Republican Party as far to the right as he can. And that might work in reliably red Utah.
(on camera): You're looking for one Tea Party guy to get in there, it's probably going to be Mike Lee?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Lee is the lock unless the unthinkable happens.
LEE: This is the year that we take that power back. It belongs to us. Let's bring about the change and it all starts right here.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The question is whether Lee's Tea Party principles will work in Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, during our interview, Lee did back away in his talk about phasing out social security. But his campaign web site says he favors, "a systemic overhaul of the program." And as for the 17th amendment, giving the people the power to elect their senators, Lee told me he does not think that will be dropped from the Constitution in our lifetime. But this is some of that conservative red meat that plays really well out in reliably red Utah. Drew.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's starting to play out well in other places as well.
ACOSTA: All over the country.
GRIFFIN: Yes, thanks a lot.
Hey, tomorrow, Jim's going to profile Florida's Marco Rubio. Once a darling of the Tea Party movement. It seems he's no longer toeing that party line.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Checking with Pakistan this morning as well. An area about the size of England still remains under water. It's amazing to think this was a month ago that the flooding happened.
Our Sanjay Gupta has been there. He's been covering the threat of disease that puts hundreds of thousands at risk. We're going to check in with him coming up.
GRIFFIN: Actually, coming up right now, he is in Atlanta, I believe. Sanjay Gupta. He just returned from Pakistan. Joining us now.
You know, Sanjay, you saw so much. I saw a lot of your reports there, but was there something that surprised you the most about this particular disaster?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think overall, the scope of the disaster. I think, you know, I'd read about that I'd heard sort of second hand what the scope of this disaster would be. But I think actually getting there on the ground traveling through several cities, through Pakistan, and realizing how many of these different cities have been affected so adversely, I think what's quite striking.
I mean, you think of, for example, most recently, I was in Haiti, and devastating, devastating earthquake, obviously but more confined, Port-au-Prince, and it's outlying areas, mostly. New Orleans, for example, the flooding there. Here you have just a significant part of the country, the size of Florida, for example, really affected by these floods.
The second thing was that it was on-going. As logistically challenging as it was because of the scope, the floodwater kept moving. So you know, you have it coming from the northwest, sort of going down the Indus River, sort of towards the southeast, towards the Arabian Sea and that river just keeps overflowing. So all of a sudden while it was really problematic further north, it was more problematic a little further south.
So logistically to try and help people, the situation just kept changing constantly. So I mean, it's on-going now. It's true in some parts of the country, floodwaters are starting to recede, but not as much in other parts of the country. The Arabian Sea has these high tides and as a result, the water can't outflow from the country of Pakistan and it just continues to flood that entire area.
CHETRY: You know, and you were there watching these people who were just literally picking up what was left of their belongings and their families, and taking one of their sick loved ones, you know, walking as far as they had to go to try to get to a hospital. Well, this morning, the United Nations is saying that they've actually established more than a thousand of these health clinics across Pakistan.
They say 1,200 mobile clinics are now opening up and they say that for many, of course, this is the only way to receive health care. I know when you were there, you talked about how it was just not enough, by any stretch of the imagination. Millions of people in need.
What did you notice witnessing that first hand and do you think that these 1,200 mobile clinics we're talking about are going to put a dent in the need?
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, Kiran, because every time there's a natural disaster, there's always discussion afterwards, as you may remember. After Haiti, for example, about a second wave of disease coming. And the good news is that oftentimes that doesn't materialize. We didn't really see it in Port-au-Prince. We didn't see it after the tsunami. There were clusters of outbreaks but not that second wave of disease. In part because you can get clean water which is so important to people to prevent those diseases.
Here we have already started to see the second wave start to develop. In large part because there is so much bad water in the country and not enough good water. So you know, imagine, millions of people outside. They've got no clean water. All they have is what you're looking at on your screen, that contaminated water. What are you going to do after a while? You're going to drink that. Yes, that stuff in that bucket, people drink that and they're going to drink that. People were getting sick by the millions.
So there's a real second wave here of significant disease and without basic resources it's going to lead to staggering mortality as well in Pakistan. Is it enough? Your question about the U.N.. It's hard to say. Again, if you look at a map and really look at how many areas have been affected. And keeping in mind that Pakistan, even under the best of conditions, I was there after the earthquake, for example, even under good conditions it's tough to navigate, with flooding it's just impossible to get to people without some sort of aerial support who needs your resources the most.
Forget medical care. Just simply getting them food and water becomes very daunting. So, you know, I don't know if it's enough. It's going to be tough to say that for sure. I think we're going to see some terrible numbers coming out of Pakistan in the weeks and months to come.
GRIFFIN: That's what's so insidious about this disaster. It's like water everywhere that will make you sick. These people are so thirsty. And then you can't really truck water around, given the - you know, the transportation issues that you said, Sanjay. So what do you do? What do you do to prevent this?
GUPTA: You know, Drew. It's interesting, it's a really good question. I think a lot of times, there's a tendency to use sort of more western methods in the sense of by getting bottled water, for example, to people or those trucks that you mentioned. But take a look at what you're seeing there, those water purification tablets or water purification systems.
CHETRY: What was the name of the little boy?
GUPTA: The little boy?
CHETRY: Sanjay, I'm sorry, I was just - as you're showing me this. I didn't know my mic was open, obviously, you remember the little boy that you had shown was terribly dehydrated, he only weighed 10 pounds. And a lot of us were just wondering is he OK? I forget his name, though.
GUPTA: Ali is his name, and yes, 10 pounds, just three years old.
Kiran, I know you have kids. I have a three-year-old who weighs about 30 pounds just for frame of reference there, so profoundly dehydrated, but getting some sort of water purification technology. Even those tablets. You guys probably have seen those. They do a really good job. They're much easier to transport.
And you can turn some of that bad water which is plentiful into good water. I mean, if there's ever a case for these types of purification technology or tablets or whatever to be used, Pakistan is it. This is the best place, probably, in the world, where these types of devices or technologies should be used right now.
GRIFFIN: All right. Sanjay, thanks a lot. I know your reporting has spurred a lot of people to act, some of our viewers, many of them in our "Impact Your World" efforts. So, thank you so much for the reporting and for the great job there.
GUPTA: Thanks.
CHETRY: It must have been tough to be there. I'm glad you're back. Sanjay, thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Well, it's causing some controversy across the globe, a Florida church, what they want to do is set fire to copies of the Qu'ran on 9/11. Just ahead, we're going to be speaking with the pastor of the church. We'll see if there are any second thoughts about this plan, given the outcry, as we've seen protests throughout the Muslim world. And now a top general saying this could actually endanger the lives of our troops overseas.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 41 minutes past the hour right now.
And this morning, a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says that a Florida church's plan to burn the Qu'ran on 9/11 could put the U.S. mission there and our troops at risk. Hundreds of Muslims in Afghanistan are protesting the decision chanting "Long Live Islam." "Death to America," we saw. That's the latest video of the Kabul protests and others in Indonesia as well as other places.
Joining us now from the Dove World Outreach World Center in Gainesville, Florida, is Terry Jones, a reverend of the church, senior pastor and the man behind the event. Thanks for joining us this morning to talk more about this, Terry.
TERRY JONES, SENIOR PASTOR, DOVE WORLD OUTREACH CENTER: Thank you.
CHETRY: One of the things I'm wondering, this rally is set to take place Saturday, of course, that's September 11th. It's also the last day of the Ramadan fast, the holiest day known as Eid in the Muslim religion. Why are you going to burn Qu'rans?
JONES: Yes, we first declared September 11th, international burn a Qu'ran day, actually, for two reasons. Number one, we wanted to remember those who were brutally murdered on September 11th. And actually wanted to send a very clear message to the radical element of Islam. We wanted to send a very clear message to them that we are not interested in their Sharia law.
We do not tolerate their threats, their fear, their radicalness. We live in the United States of America. We want to send a clear message to the peaceful Muslims. We have freedom of speech. We have freedom of religion. They are more than welcome to be here. More than welcome to worship. More than welcome to build mosques. But our 9/11 demonstration, our 9/11 protests is to send a clear message to the radical element of Islam that we will not tolerate that in America.
CHETRY: I wanted to let you say your piece. Because when I first read this story - there is no way this could be as bad as it sounds but it appears that it is. You're saying that you're going to burn a holy book of another religion to send a message to the radical elements of that religion with no thought to the fact that you'd obviously be highly offending everyone in that religion. How do you justify that?
JONES: Well, we realized that this action would indeed offend people. Offend the Muslims. I am offended when they burn the flag. I am offended when they burn the Bible. But we feel that the message that we are trying to send is much more important than people being offended. We believe that we cannot back off of the truth of dangers of the Islam, of the dangers of radical Islam just because people are going to be offended.
Overseas, we see they have no problem burning our flag. They have no problem calling for the death of America.
CHETRY: Right, but this isn't overseas, this is America.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: It's time to stand up.
CHETRY: But this isn't overseas, I mean, this is America. You just said that you welcome peaceful Muslims and you welcome people who build Qu'ran. I mean, you know, freedom of religion is one aspect of what makes our country so great and different from many countries around the world. So why would you want to play into that?
JONES: We're not playing into it at all. I just made a very clear statement. Muslims are welcome here. They are welcome to worship, as long as they submit to, obey the Constitution of the United States. Do not sooner or later try to institute Sharia law in America. Our message is very clear, it is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam. And I think what we see right now, around the globe, proves exactly what we're talking about.
CHETRY: What about turn thy cheek? I mean, this is, you know, Christianity at its most refined. You just don't act out in violence, you don't act out in any manner of hate, that you turn thy cheek, that you don't rise to the nastiness or the level of payback that your perceived enemies do.
Isn't this the exact opposite of what Christ taught all of us to be and to do?
JONES: I agree with you exactly.
I think most of the time, we as Christians are indeed called to turn the other cheek. I believe that most of the time talk and diplomacy is the correct way. But I also think that once in a while, I think you see that in the Bible, there are incidents where enough is enough and you stand up.
Jesus went into the temple and he threw all of the money-changers out. He did not ask them to leave. He was not peaceful. He was at that time very, very upset. Even when this very close friend and disciple, Peter, even when he tried to stop Jesus from fulfilling his will, from fulfilling the father's will, Jesus called him the devil. Jesus called the religious leaders of that time serpents and snakes.
So I agree that most of the time diplomacy and turning the other cheek is the proper way but sometimes not.
CHETRY: You don't care - yes or no - you don't really care if you're offending Muslims by burning the Qu'ran, right? That doesn't bother you if they're offended?
JONES: We realize that we are definitely offending them yes.
CHETRY: OK. So I want to ask you this -- JONES: But we actually think that Muslims should --
CHETRY: I just want to ask you this, does it bother you that the Military and the Military leaders believe that by doing this, you are very likely putting the lives of U.S. soldiers at risk in Muslim countries?
David Petraeus, the General, this is what he said, their actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of young men and women who are serving in uniform over here and also undermine the very mission that they're trying accomplish.
Are you willing to have the blood of soldiers on your hands by this demonstration?
JONES: Yes, we are actually very, very concerned, of course, and we are taking the General's words very serious. We are continuing to pray about the action on September 11. We are indeed very concerned about it. It's just that we don't know -- I mean, how long do we back down?
CHETRY: So you're saying that you very might -- you're saying that you might well go through with it. You're saying you're praying about it, you might not burn the Qu'ran on September 11?
JONES: I'm saying we are definitely praying about it. We have firmly made up our mind, but at the same time, we are definitely praying about it.
But like I said, I mean, how long -- when does America stand for truth? I mean, instead of us being blamed for what other people will do or might do, why don't we send a warning to them? Why don't we send a warning to radical Islam and say, look, don't do it.
CHETRY: Well I'm not questioning --
JONES: If you attack us, if you attack us, we will attack you.
CHETRY: I am not questioning your intelligence, but I am wondering if you thought through the consequences of doing this, of what may happen, and whether or not you may end up doing far more harm than good?
JONES: We are definitely doing that. We are definitely weighing the situation. We are weighing the thing that we're about to do, what it possibly could cause. What is our actual message. What are we trying to get across. How important is that to us right now. That is very, very important that America wakes up. It's very important that our president wakes up. It's very important that we see the real danger of radical Islam. That's what we're talking about. Actually, everyone should be in agreement with us.
CHETRY: All right. We have to go.
JONES: There should be no disagreement there. We're not against Muslims. We're not against the mosque. We're against the radical element of Islam. Even moderate Muslims should be on our side.
CHETRY: No moderate Muslim is going to be on your side when you're burning their holy book. I mean, that just sounds silly?
JONES: Of course, it's not silly.
CHETRY: You're burning their holy book. They're supposed to be on their side. I don't get that part. Listen --
JONES: You can say - we are not for the burning of the book. But we are for what this man is stay saying. What he is doing, we're not for that.
CHETRY: Just reasoning this through, don't you think you could possibly reach out to more people by not burning the Qu'ran on September 11th?
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I said, don't you think you could possibly do more good about bringing attention to your concerns about radical Islam by not burning the Qu'ran on September 11? By saying, you know what, we're going to take the higher road here, we're not going to do this?
JONES: At this time, no. I believe that we are dealing with an element that you cannot talk to. We are dealing with an element they must be shown a certain amount of force, a certain a determination, and putting a stop to it.
CHETRY: That doesn't sound like the Christianity most of us were taught. But, you know what, I thank you for your time and perspective this morning.
Dr. Terry Jones. Thanks for being with us.
JONES: Thank you.
It is 50 minutes past the hour. Quick break, we'll be right back.
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GRIFFIN: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Part of our ongoing series now, A Soldier's Story. We've been following Army Sergeant Randy Shorter. He's now on his third tour of duty overseas. Sergeant Shorter and his unit at a forward operating base in Afghanistan. Sound dangerous? It's because it is.
Jason Carroll went with them on patrol and got a firsthand look of how American troops engaging Afghanistan citizens, particularly children. Here's Jason.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Securing a region is a major part of the mission of coalition forces here. No question about that. But it's not the only mission. There's also a very concerted evident to engage the Afghan people. And we saw an example of that just a few hours ago when we headed out with Sergeant Shorter and the rest of the men in his unit to a small village just south of here.
It was really a fascinating experience to witness how they interacted with the people and what was going on there because as soon as we arrived I know that the soldiers had seen us many, many times in the past, Drew, but it was a first for us to see the children just sort of swarm them, asking a lot of questions. They were very curious about them and curious about what they had to offer.
SGT. RANDY SHORTER, U.S. ARMY: Take off the gloves, shake hands, you know? Smile at the kids, you know?
CARROLL: OK.
SHORTER: If you got like little treats, you know, you can pass them out. You know, they had this thing where they do this. They're wanting pencils --
CARROLL: Oh, they're wanting pencils.
SHORTER: -- you know, because they're excited about going to school. You know, if you got pens, they really love that. Kind of a good icebreaker, especially, you know, with the kids. Because, you know, kids see the vehicles coming in. They see the guns. They're a little nervous at first, you know, scared. They don't know how to take you.
And once you start taking off the gloves, take off the sunglasses, let them see your eyes because, you know, you want to be able to break the ice with the population here. Let them know, you know, we want to help.
CARROLL: OK.
That's what it's really all about, Kiran and John. Taking off the gloves and taking off the glasses, interacting as much as you can.
At one point during this particular patrol, one of the lieutenants from the unit was able to go and speak to the village elder who was there. The village elders are basically like the unofficial leader of a village. And they were able to hear what their concerns are and what their needs are.
The problem is in order to get to some of these remote places you have to pass through paved and in some cases unpaved roads. You can never be sure if an IED has been planted there. Quite frankly, that's how the Taliban is fighting U.S. forces at this point. The main way that they do that is through the use of those IEDs.
CHETRY: And it brings up the point the importance of being able to earn the trust of those tribal leaders that you're referring to is that often times our Military relies on them for intelligence to let them know when an IED has potentially been planted in a certain area.
CARROLL: Without question. You hit the nail right on the head. That is absolutely right.
Some of these village elders can provide not only information about security. But the main point in doing that is, if you can get the village elder to come to U.S. forces for whatever their needs may be, perhaps then they won't turn to the Taliban for their needs. And so, that is really the thrust of what we're seeing here, in terms of some of the diplomacy that's happening on the ground -- Kiran.
GRIFFIN: Jason, are you seeing any Afghan forces there? I mean, they're the ones supposed to be taking over. I'm just wondering real quick -- are there any Afghan soldiers or police present in the village you're at?
CARROLL: Let me tell you something, Drew, that's a very good question.
Every time that we go out, we are out also with Afghan police -- in some cases, Afghan army. Just depends on where we actually end up heading to go out, because ultimately what you want to see here or what coalition forces are hoping is that Afghan police and Afghan army will eventually take the lead in terms of securing this region. A lot of training is going on. In fact, some of training happening right here at Bob Rushmore. That's a Forward Operating Base Rushmore. Some of that training happening right here.
But in terms of where they are, in terms of being able to do that, in terms of being able to take over the region and take the lead, still some ways to go in terms of their training for that to happen -- Drew.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Good stuff, Jason.
Top stories coming your way in two minutes.
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