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American Morning
Underage Sex for Sale on Web; Craigslist Goes to Washington; Interview With Christine O'Donnell
Aired September 15, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A come from nowhere win. Tea party leaves its mark on another race, but are the Democrats saying thank you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to win without them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're breaking down all the key races and watching the ones that are still going on the Most Politics in the Morning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And it is the Most Politics in the Morning. Good morning, it's Wednesday, September 15th, the day after primary day. I'm Jim Acosta. John has the morning off.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Candy Crowley in today for Kiran. We will have complete coverage of the primaries in a moment, but first, here are this morning's top stories.
Freedom for an American hiker jailed in Iran for more than a year. Sarah Shourd having an emotional reunion with her mother and thanking everyone involved in her release, and that includes Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Shourd's two hiking companions are still behind bars.
ACOSTA: Craigslist goes to Washington, a hearing on minor sex trafficking on the web after the website responds to immense pressure to crackdown on prostitution. But other sides are already filling the vacuum. Our Amber Lyon is taking a look at how many run aways are being picked up by pimps as one of the lucky ones is rescued.
CROWLEY: And a triple threat in the tropics. We are watching three powerful storms heating up this morning with two systems threatening land. Rob Marciano is tracking all of them for us this morning.
ACOSTA: First up this morning, it could be a tea party hangover up in Delaware. Seven states and the District of Columbia went to the polls, and it's clear today, it is tea time.
CROWLEY: If there's one thing that's clear, it is that tea party-backed candidates claimed big victories in key races last night, and "AMERICAN MORNING" is the place to watch what happens next. We've got the best political team on TV. So let's get right to it.
ACOSTA: First up, Delaware, where tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell beat long time congressman Mike Castle in the Republican primary for Vice President Biden's old Senate seat, a shocking upset by a candidate who was little known until she won the backing of the tea party and Sarah Palin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, (R) DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: She challenged the establishment before it was cool to challenge the establishment. And she pioneered a trail for so many women out there.
And you know, so, we have to thank her and all the women serving in politics regardless of the party, because it's a man's world, but there are a lot of women who are holding their own and blazing the trail for people like me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: That was Christine O'Donnell there after her victory last night.
CROWLEY: Christine O'Donnell on Sarah Palin, whose influence is also being felt. But is it enough in New Hampshire where the Senate candidate Palin endorsed, former state attorney general Kelly Ayotte, is running neck and neck with tea party favorite Oyide Lamotagne. He actually an early lead yesterday, but as the night wore on, Ayotte took the lead.
ACOSTA: In the nation's capital, Adrian Fenty lost his reelection bid to city council chair Vincent Gray. Fenty's loss could have national implications. That's because his school chancellor, Michelle Rhee, ushered in a wave of changes that became a model of reform advocated by the Obama administration, and some of those reforms were unpopular in the district.
CROWLEY: Yes, it'll be interesting to watch this if it spreads across the country.
In New York's Republican gubernatorial showdown, tea party-backed Carl Paladino easily beat the Republican leaders' former congressman Rick Lazio. And already Paladino taking jabs at the man he'll face in November, popular Democratic attorney general Andrew Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARL PALADINO, (R) NEW YORK GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Andrew Cuomo thinks he can trade in his lifetime liberal beliefs, hijack our agenda, and the voters won't notice. Sadly, all Andrew offers us is status Cuomo.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP) CROWLEY: Also in New York, Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel survives what may have been his toughest primary challenge in decades because of his ethics trouble. Rangel beat his main opponent Adam Clayton Powell IV. That's the son of the man Rangel beat nearly 40 years ago.
Of all the primary races, it's the tea party triumph in Delaware that's resonating this morning. Many analysts now wondering if the Republican Party will ever be the same after Christine O'Donnell, shunned by the Republican Party hierarchy, won the Senate primary anyway with the backing of Sarah Palin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'DONNELL: So again, you betcha! There's another woman I've got to thank. Thank you, governor Palin, for your endorsement. She got behind us folks and gave us a boost of encouragement when we need it. And she was a vote against the politics of personal destruction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Jessica Yellin is live in Dover, Delaware, for us this morning. Jessica, our cup runneth over here this morning, you betcha. We are looking -- I'm looking at the numbers of people who turned out in the Republican Party primary, just Republicans voting. By my count, O'Donnell won about 28,000 Republican votes. And the big question this morning, of course, is how many more can she win? And will it be enough to take Delaware?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Candy, as you know, Democrats and actually many leading Republicans this morning are saying no, it can't. It is this rare, rare instance where leaders of O'Donnell's own party are publicly saying she cannot possibly win a general election.
In this state, almost half of the voters are registered Democrats. It is a very moderate state where another third are independents. And a sense among the establishment is that Christine O'Donnell doesn't have the track record and actually has too many skeletons in her closet to win them over.
That's why her own party was gunning for her and trying to keep her from winning the primary yesterday. But she said -- look, she's done it without them before and she'll do it without them again. I asked her, Candy, I got a chance to talk to her last night. And I asked her point-blank about reports we have that her own party, her national party says they won't even fund her campaign here because they don't think she can win. Here's what she said in an interview last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: We've already been told this evening that the national Republicans, the party organization that often funds campaigns like yours is not going to fund yours. And that many national Republicans have said simply you cannot win in November. Do you need their money? Can you win without it?
O'DONNELL: Well, good, they don't have a winning track record.
(LAUGHTER)
But, you know, of course there's a greater good here. And I would love their support. But they're the same so-called experts that said I couldn't win the primary. If we'd just had that throw-in-the- towel mentality every time there was a fight that needed to be fought, our country wouldn't be what it is. It wouldn't be what is worth defending.
So, you know, there's a lot of visionaries and leaders you've seen here in this room who believe we can win. And if they're too lazy to put in the effort that we need to win, then so be it. We're going to win without them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: And Candy, in fact, she made a fundraising pitch from the podium last night when she accepted her remarks. And the tea party express was there and said they're going to raise a ton of money from around the country to try to help deliver her victory, Candy.
CROWLEY: Jessica, when you look at this win for her, was there any other influencing factor other than the tea party?
YELLIN: Yes, you know -- great question. Of course, she is running in a state where it's not common to see a lot of very vicious personal attacks is the phrase they keep using. And there is among Delawareans I talked to a sense that maybe some of the Republican attacks on her backfired, that maybe there was a sense this wasn't nice, this wasn't fair.
And also, as you pointed out, it is such a tiny pool of people who decided this, I mean, fewer than go to a college football game as some of my football fans say. So it didn't take a lot to influence that small sector. Had this been the whole state voting, probably would've had a different outcome. But she did what it took to get her base out and she really delivered.
CROWLEY: Our Jessica Yellin standing where the action was and will continue to be. Just an amazing night, although we have to stop saying the nights are amazing, because it seems every time we run up and against and say, oh, this may be an upset. So now we should probably start expecting it. Except one small problem -- the primary season's over.
ACOSTA: And we're going to talk to Christine O'Donnell coming up in a little bit. And I guess one of the questions we'll have to ask her, how does she plan to mend some fences down in Delaware, because obviously there are some pretty hard feelings.
And this isn't unprecedented. Down in Florida, remember, Rick Scott, the man who won the Republican nomination for governor down there was sort of an upstart insurgent candidate, wasn't expected to win, and then sort of ripped it away from Bill McCollum, the attorney general down there.
And, you know, this is just one of those volatile election years where you're going to see folks come out of the woodwork and win races.
CROWLEY: And what's interesting is it has been most volatile on the Republican side.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
CROWLEY: And if you look at the Democratic side, we've had really very, very few surprises. And one of them was our Arlen Specter, and he was a Republican and then a Democrat and ran in the Democratic primary. So it wasn't completely unexpected.
And so, listen, you know, folks are upset. Certainly we know inside the Republican Party polling tells us that more than just Republicans are upset.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CROWLEY: And you know what it means is the best of all possible worlds for political reporters which is we don't really know what's going to happen next.
ACOSTA: And I wonder what the Biden family is thinking this morning. Bo Biden could've run for the Senate seat in Delaware and chose not to. And now it looks like Chris Coons, the county executive there in Newcastle County looking like he's going to be competitive in this race come this fall.
CROWLEY: Like all politicians and all people everywhere -- hindsight is much better.
ACOSTA: Yes, exactly.
CROWLEY: Children now disappearing into the underworld of sex trafficking on the web. Our Amber Lyon chased down Craigslist executives about the problem. And now she's taking a look at why it's much bigger than any one website. It is nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
An official from craigslist will be on Capitol Hill today for a hearing on sex trafficking on the web. The site's "adult services" section is now gone thanks in part to the pressure of our Amber Lyon who put them under the microscope and tried to take down those sites.
And she found out that many of the women in the ads weren't adults at all and that the problem goes much deeper than just one Website. Here's amber with this a CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Where are we headed right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going upstairs to her bedroom. She's a normal 12-year-old. Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers.
LYON: Does she sleep in her bed at night?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just so I can feel basically have that connection.
LYON (voice-over): A mother's anguish. Her 12-year-old daughter lured away by a pimp on her way home from school in April. She's then sold for sex on craigslist before the site closed the "adult services" section. She's also trafficked on another website, backpage.com.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A friend of mine told me to look on craigslist and it almost blew my mind. I really didn't believe what I saw. She was there with a wig on. She had on a purple nightgown.
LYON (on camera): Your 12-year-old daughter?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And another one was her rear end. She was bent over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody wants to know when you look at a website and you see a list of prostitutes, how many of them are children?
ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Nobody knows what the real numbers are.
LYON (voice-over): Back in June, we asked Craigslist to estimate the number of potentially underage trafficking victims in its adult services ad. Their answer -- quote, "effectively zero."
ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: That's not true. We have been able to find, locate, and return home 54 missing kids on Craigslist. Now, that is a tiny fraction of what the total scope of the problem is. We found 12 kids on Backpage.
LYON: The national Center for Missing and Exploited Children gave us current missing child posters, all being sold for sex.
LYON (on camera): There are 52 missing persons posters behind me representing 52 girls, all under age 18, all missing right now -- Christina, Monica, Rachel. And The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says all 52 of these girls are being sex trafficked. Erica, Ashley, Nicole. The vast majority of them being sold on the Internet.
We've got white girls here, black girls here, Hispanic girls, Asian girls. The youngest girl on this wall went missing when she was 13 years old. A lot of these have something in common. She may be in the company of an adult male. Over here, Christina may be in the company of an adult male. In this case, that adult male is most likely the pimp. (voice-over): A group based in Georgia called The Future not a Past commissioned a study. They were focusing on the men who try to buy sex online with underage girls.
KAFFIE MCCULLOUGH, A FUTURE NOT A PAST: We wanted to know what's the scope of this problem in Georgia. And to me, the results were staggering -- 7,200 men a month buying sex from adolescent girls. It's like, just took my breath away.
LYON: There's no legal obligation for Web sites to report ads that might involve underage prostitution. Backpage.com told CNN the site includes links to help users notify The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if they identify potential abuses. And back in 2008, Craigslist promised to, quote, "work tirelessly in tandem with key non-profits" and agreed to report ads to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children when they seemed to involve adolescents.
But in a period of 15 months, Craigslist only reported 132 ads. That's 132 out of more than 700,000 adult services ads that it rejected. Ads that could have provided vital leads about children being bought and sold.
And that 12-year-old girl we told you about at the beginning, by chance she called home just as we were speaking with her mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You should be home with your family, with your friends, with the people that love you.
LYON: The first time they'd spoken in the two weeks since the little girl had vanished. Police rescued the 12-year-old girl and arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with human trafficking. One girl rescued out of thousands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing? Just please, step away.
LYON: Amber Lyon, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Wow.
CROWLEY: Well, Amber joins us now on the phone. Amber, I think you're on n route to a hearing in Washington about Craigslist and the child prostitution problem online. A lot of this attention is because of your reporting about the adult services section of Craigslist. What is today's hearing about? What are you expecting to hear?
LYON (via telephone): Well, Candy, we're really hoping to get some answers here. Craigslist hasn't told the public it's been shut down of the adult services section is permanent and really given us information as to what the logic behind their thinking is. So there will be a representative from Craigslist at the hearing today, before federal officials, and we're hoping to get some answers as far as that. In addition to that, we'll have the CEO of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will be speaking as well. And Congress is really delving into this problem to see what is behind the online sex trafficking of these kids -- Candy, Jim.
ACOSTA: And, Amber, let me ask you a little bit about that personal story you talked about in your piece, which was very, very disturbing.
LYON: Yes.
ACOSTA: So basically this 12-year-old girl runs away from home and she somehow ends up in this seedy underworld? I mean, this is just tragic.
LYON: Yes, I know, unfortunately, Jim, that's the story behind a lot of these girls. A lot of them are chronic runaways and these pimps just prey on that. They make the girls feel loved. Some of the girls have daddy complexes. They don't have a father figure in their lives. They make them feel wanted and then they take advantage of them and eventually it's a downhill spiral where they start selling them for sex. And it becomes out of control for these girls and a world that they just can't escape from.
ACOSTA: Well, Amber, part of our job is to shine lights in dark corners, and you have certainly done that with your reporting. And kudos to you and great work and looking forward to hearing what happens on the hill today. I hope somebody lets them have it.
LYON: You know, my flight leaves in five minutes so I'm running to the gate.
ACOSTA: All right.
LYON: Let's cross our fingers I make it.
ACOSTA: Take care. Thanks.
LYON: All right. Take care.
ACOSTA: Well, we're going to turn back to politics in just a few moments here. And the Tea Party's newest star, we have been talking about her all morning, Christine O'Donnell. She pulled off a stunning upset in the Republican Senate primary down in Delaware. Can she win without the GOP and GOP money, more importantly, in November? We will ask her live next.
It is 19 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: It was another big night for the Tea Party. Christine O'Donnell pulled off a stunning upset in the Republican Senate primary in Delaware.
ACOSTA: But many Republican Party officials saw her primary opponent as their only hope for winning the Delaware seat. Can she prove them wrong in November? And Christine O'Donnell, the winner of last night's Republican primary in Delaware joins us now live from Dover.
Christine, Miss O'Donnell, I should say, thanks for joining us this morning. I appreciate it.
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL (R), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: Christine is fine.
ACOSTA: OK.
O'DONNELL: Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Candy. Just call me Christine.
ACOSTA: Oh, I better call you Miss O'Donnell. I'll get in trouble.
Miss O'Donnell, let me ask you this because, you know, already your opponent in this race down there, you're Democratic opponent, I should say, Chris Coons, the county executive there in New Castle has on his Web site this morning -- not a picture of himself when you go to his main page, but a picture of you. It says it's official, meet our GOP opponent, Christine O'Donnell. He looks pretty eager to be running against you, Miss O'Donnell. What do you think about that?
O'DONNELL: Well, I thank him for introducing me to the Democratic voters that I have not yet met. We have a lot of Democrats working on my team right now. And, you know, our message is resonating with voters up and down the state because even the Democrats are frustrated with the failed policies coming out of Washington, D.C. So I thank him for introducing me to future O'Donnell supporters.
CROWLEY: Christine, I'll call you Christine and you can call me Candy. And let me ask you, we've seen some of the headlines this morning. There was one on "Politico" calling you basically the Republicans' nightmare. I am curious as to who you have heard from in terms of congratulations or offers of help in the Washington party hierarchy.
O'DONNELL: Well, we haven't heard from anybody in the Washington party hierarchy. And that's a shame. I think right now maybe their pride is just hurt a little bit and they're licking their wounds because the so-called experts were discredited this morning. So, you know -- but we're hoping to hear from them soon. We will reach out to them. But I'm confident that if they choose not to get behind this race, we will get the support that we need. And we can win in November. Because Delaware's a state that's small enough where I can be in every county every week giving the voters an opportunity to get to know me, I can get to know them, and I can personally ask them for their vote in November.
CROWLEY: Have you heard from --
O'DONNELL: That's exactly what we plan to do.
CROWLEY: Have you heard from any -- what we would call Republican bigwigs saying, hey, way to go there?
ACOSTA: Michael Steele, maybe.
O'DONNELL: Yes, we have. It's been -- no, no, not the official leadership. We've heard from other bigwigs, but haven't heard from Michael Steele, haven't heard from John Cornyn. I had my cell phone on me all night.
CROWLEY: Who might that be?
O'DONNELL: Well, DeMint and Bachmann and some others. But, you know, there are a lot of people who are rallying behind me who are frustrated that the Republican Party has lost its way. What you see in this race and then especially the attitude after our win is that, you know, the so-called leaders have been proven wrong. They got behind a candidate who didn't even support our party principles, supported the liberals nearly 70 percent of the time some years. And they chose to get behind him because they were taking the easy way out. And now, they underestimated the power of we, the people, and the strength and determination that we have to take back our country.
And, you know, their credibility has been shot. But a lot of other folks who are frustrated with what the Republican Party are doing have called me up and said, don't you worry about what they're saying. We're going to make sure that you get all the money that you need to win this. And anyone who is watching right now, Christine2010.com. If you want to help, do what the national Republican Party won't do. What kind of candidate would I be if I didn't at least ask?
ACOSTA: Yes. Exactly. And, Miss O'Donnell, in the final days of the campaign, you sort of alluded to this. It sort of did get nasty between you and your opponent. And it got personal.
O'DONNELL: Yes.
ACOSTA: One of the things that was raised among some GOP leaders in your state is whether or not you're honest and trustworthy. And there's one clip that we want to play for you and get your response to. It's a radio clip from WGMD radio. Dan Gaffney asked you about a statement that you had made, I guess, about your campaign against former Senator Joe Biden now Vice President Biden in which you said that you had won two counties in your state in that race against him. Let's play that clip and then let's get your response.
O'DONNELL: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF DAN GAFFNEY, WGMD HOST: When you were speaking at an out of state group recently and you told them that you won two out of three counties in Delaware, what did you, what did you mean?
O'DONNELL: I don't think I ever said I won two out of three counties, but I certainly --
GAFFNEY: Well, let's listen to the audio. Hold on one second because I have the audio right here.
(BEGIN CLIP)
O'DONNELL: I was the 2008 endorsed candidate against Joe Biden and I won in two counties. We didn't have the support of our liberal Republicans then. (END CLIP)
GAFFNEY: You said you won in two counties.
O'DONNELL: You know what that probably was, you're on the campaign trail a lot, I meant tied.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And that's pretty clear cut.
O'DONNELL: Yes.
ACOSTA: I mean, you were asked about that statement and then you said that you didn't say that.
O'DONNELL: Well -- yes, and you know what happened.
ACOSTA: And then we played the clip and you had said it. So, which is it?
O'DONNELL: Right. Well -- yes, well, at that event, my campaign manager actually corrected me. He said won. Because the reality is we nearly tied the vice presidential candidate in two out of three counties and we won some districts in Sussex County. And when you're getting about a couple of hours --
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: Should that raise the question, Miss O'Donnell, as to whether or not you can be --
O'DONNELL: No, it shouldn't.
ACOSTA: Straightforward with the voters there in Delaware.
O'DONNELL: No, it shouldn't. And you know what the voters told me? No. You know what the voters told me, because at that event, I corrected myself. I went oops, I'm tired. What I meant is we won some. They chose not to play that part of the audio. But you know what the voters told me after the party raised these questions? Like I said before, Delaware is small enough where we have an opportunity to allow them to get to know me and I can get to know them. I was so humbled and encouraged and honored when people told me what we saw coming from your opponent didn't match who we saw on the campaign trail. So they saw right through it. And you can tell by the amazing poll results last night that they weren't falling for it. They didn't believe this negative picture he was trying to paint. And hopefully my Democratic opponent will learn the same lesson that my Republican opponent learned that the voters are tired of these politics of personal destruction. They want campaigns about the issues. They want to hear what their candidates want to do to get our country back on track.
CROWLEY: Let me ask you here just because we're --
O'DONNELL: And when you go negative especially in a state like Delaware, it backfires.
CROWLEY: Let me ask you here --
O'DONNELL: OK.
CROWLEY: You've taken -- yes, you've taken a couple of shots here at Congressman Castle, saying that he was a liberal, that he voted with the Democrats. Delaware, the last time I checked had many more registered Democrats, is a Democratic-leaning state. Can you give me a major issue on which you consider yourself a moderate? Social security, health care, where are you a moderate where you think you could work with Democrats?
O'DONNELL: Well -- well, right now, I think the biggest concern on everybody's mind is how we're going to get jobs back to Delaware. My approach to that is through the private sector. Democrats, independents and Republicans recognize that these big spending policies in multiple stimulus bills and bailouts coming from Washington are not working. We have to stop the government spending and start approaching our economic problems from a private sector job.
The common sense men and women in Delaware know that what's coming from Washington is not sustainable. And it doesn't matter if you're a Republican. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat. And as we go up and down the state and present my proposals, how we're going to take care of the veterans, I believe that treatment of and treatment for should be a number one of our veterans should be a number one priority for Congress. And as we meet people across party lines, we're gaining support, bipartisan support.
And I'd also like to point out that in a state like Delaware, we have almost as many independents as we do Republicans.
ACOSTA: Right.
O'DONNELL: And those independents are strongly behind me, two-to-one lead among independents in some polls. So I'm very confident that with or without the party support we can win in the general election. Yes, it will be hard work but before all the Republican candidates --
ACOSTA: Yes.
O'DONNELL: -- and we were up two points --
ACOSTA: All right. Well, Christine, Miss O'Donnell, we have to leave it there. We have to let you go. But thanks very much for sharing some time with us this morning. We hope you'll come back. There have been some other candidates from the Tea Party Movement as they won these primaries.
O'DONNELL: Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Candy. Absolutely.
ACOSTA: They haven't done a lot of interviews after the day after the primary. So we hope that's not the case with you, Miss O'Donnell. Thanks very much again.
O'DONNELL: No, absolutely not. I thank you for the opportunity to get to know your viewers, as well.
ACOSTA: Appreciate it.
O'DONNELL: Thank you.
ACOSTA: Thanks so much.
CROWLEY: Our top stories are next. It is, let's see, 7:30. Thirty minutes past your hour wherever you are.
DNC Chairman Tim Kaine gearing up to make what's being called a, quote, "major announcement" for the party. The speech is scheduled for this afternoon and a source with knowledge of the event tells CNN the announcement will excite Democrats across the country.
ACOSTA: You may have recognized him from MTV's "Real World Boston" but Sean Duffy is a Republican nominee for Wisconsin's seventh congressional district. Sarah Palin backed the former reality star. Does this sound familiar? He now faces Julie Lassa in the November elections.
CROWLEY: And an "AM House Call" health call alert. An FDA advisory panel ruled certain over the counter cough medicines like Nyquil, Robitussin and Tylenol should remain available without a prescription. These medications contain a powerful ingredients dextramethorphan, which a growing number of teenagers use to get high.
ACOSTA: After spending the last 14 months in an Iranian prison, American hiker Sarah Shourd is making her way home. She was freed on $500,000 bail and reunited with her mother in Oman. Iran is holding Shourd's fiance and another hiker on espionage charges.
Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Muscat, Oman. And Nic, it was - it was really up in the air, it seemed for those 48 hours before her release as to whether or not she was actually going to be released. And then she came out and had very little to say. How is she doing this morning?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, she seems to be resting today. Certainly what we're hearing from the family members of her fiance and her friend are still in jail. They've indicated that her family would like her to rest. It was a very emotional reunion when she got off the plane last night here in Muscat late in the evening, hugging her and kissing her mother and her uncle.
And very clearly it seems that they too want her to get some rest. They want to see how she's doing, what's her psychological state, what's her emotional state. She gave a very brief statement when she got off that plane, carefully crafted. Thanking the Omani sultan here, Sultan Kabuz. Thanking the president of Iran Ahmadinejad, thanking everyone that had helped her. But she said very clearly that her priority now that she's released is to get the release of her fiance and friend who are still in that jail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SARAH SHOURD, FREED FROM IRANIAN PRISON: Today is the work that my day begins and all of my efforts starting today are going to go into helping procure the same freedom for my fiance Shane Bauer and for my friend, Josh Fattal, because I can't enjoy my freedom without them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: So not clear when she's going to head back to the United States. But one would imagine from her statement there that if there's anything she can do while she's still in the region, talk to Omani officials, talk to whomever, it seems that she's going to have that at the top of her priority list before she gets on a plane to go back home.
ACOSTA: And Nic, her comments to the press have been pretty limited since her release. I supposed that's for a reason. I guess she doesn't want to jeopardize what's happening to her fiance and her friend.
ROBERTSON: 100 percent. Her statement in Tehran almost identical to the statement that she gave here when she landed that perhaps slight difference where she puts an emphasis here on winning the freedom of her fiance. In Tehran, she put emphasis on saying that she wasn't going to change her story, wasn't going to change what she was saying when she left Iran.
A clear indication that whatever influences she's come across inside that jail over 14 months, whatever she's been told about how perhaps how good Iran is, how much help she's had from the Iranian leadership, she's not going to come out and bad mouth that leadership when they're the ones responsible for holding her friend and fiance.
ACOSTA: Nic Robertson in Oman for us this morning. Thank you, Nic.
CROWLEY: Back to domestic politics. Seven weeks until midterm elections, and if it was not clear before, it is clear now, the tea party is a big player. Ahead, we'll talk about the tea party's triumphant night last night and discuss who benefits most, with Democratic congressman Chris Van Hollen and Republican Mike Pence.
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CROWLEY: Welcome back. Let's just say that last night the last big night of the primary season did not go the way establishment Republicans wanted it to go. Christine O'Donnell is a tea party rock star now. She'd been basically shunned by the GOP, but she won the party's Senate primary in Delaware without their help last night. Thanks to a big assistance from Sarah Palin.
Come November, the Republicans and the face of the Senate may never be the same but a lot of people that Delaware race means the Senate will not go democratic, rather Republican. Could the House go Republican?
Here to break it down for us, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Congressman Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference. Thank you both for being here.
I know we're not talking about your side of the hill, as we say, but I have to get your impressions on what last night meant. First, let's talk about what it meant for Democrats.
Congressman Van Hollen, what does the win - is it clearly a big night for the tea party? What's the message for Democrats in those victories?
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Well, Candy, we saw similar patterns in the House races that we saw in the Delaware senate race and the New York governor's race. And I have to say, I think voters are going to look at this and it's going to be a wake-up call. Because what we just saw was the complete purging of moderates and independents out of the Republican party.
Mike Castle is somebody who has been a voice of moderation. He has been a pragmatist. He's been somebody who is willing to work across party lines. And what happened in Delaware, just sends a message that there is no room, no room at all for that kind of moderation and independence in the Republican Party and I think that that's going to be a wake-up call to voters in these swing districts. Because swing district voters - they're moderate voters. They are those independent voters and they're going to see this huge swing to the right and they're going to say we don't want to go way over there.
CROWLEY: Congressman Pence, you are one of those listed in a tea party press release today of those that were backed by the tea party. So I know that you have friendly and good relationships with those who identify themselves as tea partiers. But I wonder, you know in politics, perception is everything, and I assume that you'll argue that these are not right wing extremists who have been nominated. But perception is a lot in politics. And don't you all at this point have a perception problem with some of your candidates?
REP. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: Well, look - Candy, there's a party that has a problem out there today. And frankly, it's - it's the Democratic party on Capitol Hill and it's this administration. The American people are tired of the borrowing and the spending and the bailouts and the takeovers. And they're looking for men and women all over the country that are willing to come to Washington, D.C. and rein in this federal government.
You know, Christine O'Donnell ran a competitive primary, won yesterday. And you know, I have every confidence that upbeat positive mainstream conservative message you saw her delivering this morning here on CNN that she delivered all over Delaware is going to continue to resonate.
And, you know, for those who are willing to write off this race now. I think electing Christine O'Donnell in Delaware or a Republican senator in Delaware, it's about as crazy as electing a Republican senator in Massachusetts. Who'd thunk it? Look, the American people want change. They don't want more of the same run away federal spending that frankly characterizes the last administration has gone on steroids in this administration. And they want people that are willing to come to Washington, D.C. and bring that change about.
CROWLEY: Let me just ask you, though. And a lot of Republicans have said, "look, these are not, you know, some sort of extremists. These are mainstream Republicans. Mainstream America." Is it mainstream to want to overturn health care reform, which is one of O'Donnell's positions? Is that a mainstream position to you?
PENCE: Oh, Candy, I'll tell you what. Come on out to Indiana real soon and walk up and down the streets of Muncie and ask people whether they agree with me that we need to repeal Obamacare, lock, stock, and barrel. People don't like to be told that they have to buy health insurance whether they want it or need it or not. They don't want this government takeover of healthcare. I think there's a broad and decisive majority in this country of Republicans, independents and many Democrats, who want to scrap that bill and start over.
So you bet, I think that's a mainstream position. But you know, the American people are saying enough is enough to the spending, the deficits, the debt, the takeovers, the bailouts. I think Christine O'Donnell's message was emblematic of that. Andy Harris' message is emblematic of that in Maryland and I think it's why the American people are being drawn to these good candidates.
CROWLEY: Let me get Congressman Van Hollen in here because I think it is true that if you look broadly at some of the polls, there is a lot of unrest among Americans who do worry we're spending too much and we haven't got a lot of bang for our buck when it comes to bringing down unemployment. Is it possible for all the Democrats' glee at some of the opponents that they're drawing that you are underestimating this move, what seems to be a real movement, not just tea party, but a conservative movement across the country. Could you be underestimating that?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, what we've got, Candy, is the fact the economy is still not back where we want it to be. We're a lot better off than we were 20 months ago, but we're not where we want it. People are looking at that situation and venting their frustration in many places. But the question they're going to face is what's the best way forward?
And with these tea party candidates, you've got a group of people who take the position that we should return to a period of time like the previous eight years where big money, special interests called all the shots in this country, at the expense of taxpayers, at the expense of workers.
Look, let's take Wall Street reform for an example. Right there, we tried to learn the lessons of the past to make sure that the American taxpayer's never put on the hook again to pay for bad decisions on Wall Street. And now you've got these Republican candidates out there who say, hey, let's get rid of Wall Street reform.
Let's do the work that the big lobbyists were not able to do and go back to the status quo where Wall Street firms made bad decisions and held the rest of the economy hostage. So this notion that there's absolutely no role for the government to help regulate some of the big money special interest that had benefited greatly from the Bush administration policies. I think is something that the American people are not going to go for.
And what we saw last night was just one more example of this energy that the Republican Party had hoped to harness, but which has turned out to be a runaway horse.
CROWLEY: Congressman Van Hollen.
HOLLEN: And they don't know what to do with it. And I think the voters are going to send a signal, they're OK with moderation. They're OK with debate, but man, they don't want to go way over the cliff.
CROWLEY: Congressman Van Hollen, Congressman Pence, as always, I have many more questions and no more time. Thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate it.
HOLLEN: Thank you, Candy.
CROWLEY: It is 44 minutes after the hour.
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ACOSTA: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Time for Minding Your Business. This morning we're taking you to a place where the selling never stops.
CROWLEY: From jewelry to make-up to clothes, QVC is the place where even the high-end designers know the perfect pitch can mean big bucks. That's why we're bringing in our Alina Cho, joining us, knows about big bucks and designer clothes.
Good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I know a little bit about it. I've been covering it for a while. Would you believe, guys, that QVC is 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. Every day but Christmas. You know when you think, though, of QVC, you might think of arts and crafts, old ladies at home buying quilts, but not anymore. Times have changed. It's not your grandmother's QVC anymore.
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CHO (voice-over): It was a little shaky in the early days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody wants this ladder. I live in an apartment with vaulted ceilings. Uh-oh.
CHO: That was then.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're not in Kansas anymore as they would have said in the "Wizard of Oz." They've arrived.
CHO: This is now. Founded in 1986, QVC, the 24-hour TV network for at-home shoppers is now an $8 billion business. But here's the real news. Among the big name designer set, QVC is suddenly cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's mesmerizing. On top of that now, it really looks great.
CHO: QVC is so selective, it's reported thousands apply for just a few spots, like Isaac Mizrahi, Diane von Furstenberg, and Vivienne Tam. Dennis Basso, furrier to the stars, is on Madison Avenue and on QVC selling faux fur, amounting to tens of millions in sales. And it's not just designers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to feel how stretchy this is.
CHO: Even the Kardashian sisters are getting into the game. But in order to stay, you have to sell.
(on camera): Pressure's on. When you're on, it's like, sell, sell, sell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to sell. So we try to give as much information as we know about the product and why we love it and why we created it. What the fit's like, what the cut's like. And it helps for them to see it on us.
CHO (voice-over): It's all part of the game.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They such into the consumers in a way that nobody does. They know, they know, they know how to move goods. It's a fascinating thing to watch.
CHO: Show hosts caress handbags. And what about candles? How do you sell products you can't smell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caramel, nutmeg --
CHO: There are tricks to selling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They'll tell me when I'm saying something to go back and say it because the customer reacts to it.
CHO: Then there's the interaction with designers that customers don't get in a store. Like a product, don't like it? Call in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you getting our today special value?
CHO (on camera): They can talk to you on the phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my favorite part. That is my favorite part.
CHO (voice-over): And that connection breeds loyalty; 95 percent of QVC revenue from repeat customers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our numbers tell us that if you make two or three purchases on QVC, you will be a customer for life.
CHO: New designer Carlie Sharielle's (ph) family is in the luxury jewelry business. But when she started her own brand, she wanted to go affordable selling handbags on QVC. Her task on this night, sell 800 in 15 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fewer than 200 bags remaining. The plum is completely sold out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you hear this color's not available anymore, you're like, yes, somebody likes what I'm doing.
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CHO: She, by the way, sold out of three colors. And it was Carlie Sharielle's debut. You might think 800 bags in 15 minutes, it sounds crazy but it is all about units per minute. How much can you sell and how fast? That's why, guys, it's not just about a great product QVC says but a great personality or a great inspiring story behind it. It sounds simple but QVC says that's the hard combination to find. But again, like many other things you know it when you see it. Right?
It's incredible.
CROWLEY: Well, you're right. It's not your grandmother's QVC.
CHO: It's not your grandmother's QVC anymore. You know they're really tough on the products, too. You know? QVC says one of the best things about it is that they know within 30 seconds whether a product worked because those customers call in. They'll say, hey, listen, you might want to tweak that handbag a little bit and they listen. They tweak a lot of products, they'll trying to fix it. They say, we don't give up on the product. In the end they want to sell it.
ACOSTA: The phones don't lie at QVC.
Alina Cho, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
ACOSTA: It is 7:51. Let's get a quick check at this morning's weather headlines.
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ACOSTA: Welcome back. It is 55 minutes after the hour. Some other stories we're following this morning.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Israeli and Palestinian leaders are getting down to business tackling core issues of the Middle East conflict. Clinton's in Jerusalem, where Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas are holding another round of face to face negotiations.
CROWLEY: The couple infamous for crashing a White House state dinner last year may be dealing with something far more serious. According to a new book Michaele Salahi has suffered from multiple sclerosis for nearly 17 years. The book titled, "Cirque de Salahi: Be Careful Who You Trust" is due out today.
ACOSTA: It'll soon be much easier to add pictures to your Tweets. The new pictures are part of a major overhaul designed to make Twitter more user-friendly. The company is partnering with more than a dozen media providers including, Yahoo's Flikr, and Google's YouTube to let users imbed pictures and playable videos directly on Twitter.com.
CROWLEY: Three people are still missing this morning in San Bruno, California, where a gas explosion and inferno leveled a neighborhood and killed four people last week. Newly released radio transmissions are revealing the feelings of helplessness and horror of first responders. For hours firefighters thought they were dealing with a plane crash and were forced to sit and watch and even fall back when they realized they had no water.
Coming up next hour, we will speak to Steven Flynn, author of "Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation." Are there more ticking time bombs under our homes? Could this happen anywhere?
ACOSTA: He's going to have a lot to say about our nation's infrastructure and whether or not it's in need of an upgrade. We'll have that coming up and your top stories coming in just two minutes. Stick with us.
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