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American Morning

O'Donnell Camp Fires Back; Bob Woodward's New Book on Obama's Wars; Bill Clinton's Diet Secrets on Reversing Heart Disease

Aired September 22, 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 FEMALE: Obama's wars, Bob Woodward's new book on the internal White House struggle with the strategy in Afghanistan.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE: I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The decision to put more troops in, the obsession with getting them all out on the Most News in the Morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. We have a lot going on this Wednesday. It's September 22nd. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us. We got a lot more on Bob Woodward's new book and President Obama coming up in just a moment. But first, this morning's top stories for you.

A story that you saw first on CNN, Georgia pastor Eddie long, leader of a 33,000 member mega-church, accused of coercing young men into sexual relationships. CNN's Ed Lavandera broke that story. His live report is just ahead.

CHETRY: The Christine O'Donnell camp firing back. The candidate for Senate in Delaware with the hopes of the Tea Party on her shoulders says she did not violate any election ethics and that her opponent and the national media are just out to get her. O'Donnell also said that she won't be giving any more national TV interviews with six weeks to go till Election Day.

ROBERTS: And former Bill Clinton not the man he used to be. In fact some might say he's half the man he used to be. He's slimmed down considerably, dropping some 25 pounds. He tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer how he did it and why.

CHETRY: And our big story this morning, claims of an internal struggle inside of the White House over what to do in Afghanistan. It's all laid out in a new book by Bob Woodward called "Obama's Wars," and excerpts have just been released. They paint a portrait of a president desperate for an exit strategy and clashing with military advisers who were unable to give him one. ROBERTS: Yes, the book is called "Obama's Wars." It describes intense divisions within the administration, with advisers telling the president his strategy for ending the war will fail. The book also claims President Obama set a withdrawal timetable for the conflict because he didn't want to lose the Democratic Party.

And it says the CIA has a 3,000-man covert army operating in Afghanistan. It also talks of a testy exchange with advisers over troop levels with the president erupting at one point saying "I'm done doing this!"

CHETRY: Ed Henry is at the White House this morning. And Ed, you have just gotten a response back from the administration as to some of these claims in Bob Woodward's book. What are they saying about it?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, you're right. This is the very first reaction we're getting from the White House, getting it on CNN, a senior administration official telling me, quote, "The president comes across in the review of the Afghan policy and throughout the decision making process as a commander in chief who is analytical, strategic, and decisive, with a broad view of history, national security, and his role." That from a senior administration official.

Also notes to me that many of these divisions have been out there before. We knew that the war policymaking wasn't pretty. And this official also pointing out if you look at the full context of the book that the president was really focused on the review about sentinel questions about Al Qaeda being defeated, was really detailed and pressing for more information from the intelligence reports, painstaking in the detail, and pushing, in the words of this official, to get the right strategy.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't get at the central questions you've just laid out, which is, are there senior people within the policymaking such as Richard Holbrook who allegedly says in the book that he doesn't think the strategy is going to work.

What about all of the infighting, which is much more detailed than we've seen before? We knew about division, we didn't know about this detail.

And then finally, what about what you and John were just laying out about the president allegedly saying that he had to craft this withdrawal strategy to begin to withdrawal troops in the summer of 2011 because of politics on the Democratic Party, pressure basically from liberals in his party? That's not answered by the senior administration official because that's not really what they want to talk about. Right now they want to be talking about economy and jobs heading into the election.

And today is the sixth anniversary of the president signing the health care reform into law, and he's going to be doing an event today to sort of promote the fact that some of the provisions are now taking effect. Meanwhile, that's being blown out completely by this new book.

ROBERTS: Sixth anniversary or six-month anniversary?

HENRY: Six-month anniversary, not six years. It feels like six years.

CHETRY: I just want to ask you quickly, when we talk about these so-called divisions that Bob Woodward is claiming in the book, why does Richard Holbrook's opinion matter? Give a little bit of context for people wondering what was going on?

HENRY: Well, sure. We remembered him as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Clinton administration. Right now he's essentially secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the White House's sort of senior adviser on Afghan policy dealing with the entire region. And so he's a central player in all of this. And if he has second thoughts about whether the president's policy is going to work or not after the fact, that's a problem.

ROBERTS: At the same time, we're getting new poll numbers coming in on the president's approval rating. Let's put them up and have a look here.

From back in February of 2009 until now his numbers have plummeted. He was in the mid-60s, now he's in the mid-40s, currently at 46 percent, 49 percent, just shy of a majority, disapprove. You put together a special report for us at CNN.com, Ed, asking the big question, has the president lost his mojo? What did you find out? Has he lost his mojo?

HENRY: Well, a question a lot of Democrats are asking is they need the president now more than ever in this final push in the last six weeks of the campaign. So we went to Virginia, rural Virginia, because as the state the president carried the first time a Democrat did that since 1964.

We looked in part at this race where a freshman Democratic congressman Glenn Nye is running for his first reelection battle. He is in deep trouble. This is one of the races that is going to decide whether or not the Democrats control the House. And Glenn Nye is someone who voted against health care reform, voted against a lot of the president's policies, and basically is running against him. Take a listen to what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GLENN NYE, (D) VIRGINIA: I've agreed with the president on a number of key issues, especially issues that have to do with taking care of our veterans and military families. We disagree on the details sometimes. I didn't vote for the health care bill. I thought it was too expensive. I didn't think that bill was the right formula.

And I'll tell you, I'm frustrated too. I understand where a lot of folks are coming from when they say, you know, we see all these challenges, we see weakness in the economy and people struggling with unemployment. And at the same time, we see people in Washington taking the partisan tact and attacking each other. That doesn't solve any problems. I understand why people are tired of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: You see, he's trying to tap into that frustration and say, look, I'm not with the president. I'm essentially my own man. And I understand the frustration people have, and he wants to make this a race about himself, not the president.

It's interesting because I reminded the congressman that back in 2008 he campaigned with the president in that very district in Virginia four times. He doesn't really want to campaign with him now. That's one sign of whether the president's lost his mojo when you've got Democrats in his own party saying maybe they don't want to campaign with the president.

They want to take his money out on the fundraising circuit, but they don't want to campaign with him because of those approval ratings you pointed out, John.

CHETRY: They're trying to get reelected to their districts, you can understand they're going to do whatever they can do to show they're independent. Ed Henry, glad you got that comment from the senior officials at the White House. And we'll, of course, continue to follow that with you throughout the morning.

HENRY: Good to talk to you.

CHETRY: You can also read Ed Henry's piece, it is about the president and his mojo. Go to CNN.com/politics.

ROBERTS: Now to a story you saw first here on CNN, the spiritual leader of a prominent church in Atlanta known for his public crusades against homosexuality is now facing sexual abuse charges. Two separate lawsuits allege that Bishop Eddie Long used his position to coerce two men into sexual relationships with him when they were teenagers.

Ed Lavandera broke this story. He's live in Atlanta. And this is a very, very troubling lawsuit against the bishop, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, there's no question that the allegations in this lawsuit are sending shockwaves through the New Birth Baptist Missionary church. It is a huge mega church, and Bishop Eddie Long is a very influential man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BISHOP EDDIE LONG, NEW BIRTH BAPTIST CHURCH: Angels were flying around my bed, all night, all day!

LAVANDERA: Bishop Eddie Long's fiery sermons have made him a revered evangelical pastor. He's the bishop of the New Birth Missionary Baptist mega church near Atlanta, Georgia.

JONATHAN WALTON, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL: Eddie Long offers himself up as this kind of man's man. He's the quintessential man, he's a successful businessman. He's a successful preacher. He has a beautiful family. He's a successful family man, he drives a fancy car. He wears custom tailored clothes.

So in some ways some would argue that he is the man that all women want and that all men are supposed to aspire to be.

LAVANDERA: But in separate lawsuits, two young men, former church members, say Bishop Long used his spiritual authority to coerce and manipulate them into destructive sexual relationships. Twenty- year-old Maurice Robinson and 21-year-old Anthony Flagg say they met Eddie Long through the Bishop's Longfellow's youth academy, a ministry aimed at nurturing boys into strong young men.

BJ BERNSTEIN, ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFFS: He would use biblical stories to talk about how important it was to follow your leader and your master, and let him know that the acts that he was engaged in were not necessarily meaning that he was a homosexual.

LAVANDERA: Bishop Long's spokesman tells CNN he adamantly denies the allegations. The young men allege Long made them his spiritual sons in a private ceremony called a covenant.

BERNSTEIN: Within that covenant, it was essentially a marriage ceremony where there was candles, exchange of jewelry, and biblical quotes given in order for Anthony to know, and for the bishop to tell him, I will always have your back and you will always have mine.

LONG: In the name of Jesus.

LAVANDERA: Bishop Eddie Long built a spiritual empire by sheer force of personality. New Birth Church had 300 members some 20 years ago. Today it has more than 25,000 members. When Coretta Scott King, the wife of the Reverend Martin Luther King died, her funeral was held in his church.

As Bishop Long's prestige has grown, so has his conservative voice in social politics. He once led an anti-gay marriage march in Atlanta.

LONG: We're not marching against folks, we are marching for folks. And if they don't understand it now, they'll understand it better, as the old preacher says, by and by.

LAVANDERA: Bishop Eddie Long often refers to himself as "god's scarred leader." Those who followed his career say Bishop Long has never shied away from talking about his own personal struggles and faults. That's made him even bigger than life to his spiritual flock.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: John, as soon as this lawsuit was filed, Bishop Eddie Long's spokesman offered a swift response yesterday afternoon, saying "We categorically deny these allegations. It is very unfortunate that someone has taken this course of action. Our law firm will be able to respond once attorneys have had an opportunity to review the lawsuit."

So we anticipate perhaps some more from them from Eddie Long's folks later on today. So we'll see how that plays out. John?

ROBERTS: And, in fact, we should point out that about an hour from now, 8:10 eastern, we're going to talk with Art Franklin, the spokesman whom quoted there. And later on this morning, Kyra Phillips will be talking to BJ Bernstein about this whole case. So a lot more to come on this. Ed Lavandera for the moment, thanks so much.

LAVANDERA: You got it.

CHETRY: It's 11 minutes past the hour right now.

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CHETRY: And which leads us into our next story, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? If you've made your plans yet, you're in for -- if you haven't made your plans yet, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. Unfortunately it'll cost you a lot more this year if you're planning on flying.

ROBERTS: They do it to us every year.

Also, Christine O'Donnell firing back after ducking our questions. The Tea Party sensation responds to accusations that she stole from her own campaign. You can imagine what she's saying about it this morning. We'll bring it to you. It's 15 minutes after the hour.

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CHETRY: There's a pretty shot this morning. The sunrise.

ROBERTS: Very nice. Going to be a nice day in New York today, too.

CHETRY: Should be gorgeous. Gorgeous.

Well, it's 18 minutes past the hour. We're following what's a tense standoff right now with police in Fairview Heights, Illinois. Officials say that there's a man inside his home. He's been in there since last night threatening to blow himself up. They say he may actually have the means to do it, as well, and that he has his wife inside the home with him.

Police say the suspect has experience with bombs and that they're taking the threat seriously. They've set up a perimeter. They've called in a bomb squad. They actually say that there's a bomb unit from Scott Air Force Base being brought in, as well. This standoff began when police wanted to question him. They went to his home to question him.

ROBERTS: There is now a third escape tunnel being drilled that could potentially speed up the rescue of those 33 miners who were trapped in Chile. Workers are digging it with a giant drill that was borrowed from an oil company. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera says he hopes that the miners will now be out by early November, which is maybe as much as a couple of months before it was thought that they were going to be out. CHETRY: Wow.

And to politics now. A midterm race in the national spotlight. Senate candidate and Tea Party star Christine O'Donnell from Delaware is speaking out. She sidestepped our Gary Tuchman's questions about some bills that she paid with campaign cash. But she did sit down last night with Sean Hannity of FOX News. And although she could head to Washington and make decisions that would affect all of us, she says that she has given her last national TV interview. She also tried to clear the air about the days that she said she dabbled in witchcraft.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: Bill Maher, a friend of yours, obviously. You did his show a lot, apparently.

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL (R), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: Yes, unfortunately.

HANNITY: All right. He comes up with this tape. Was it 1999 you made an appearance?

O'DONNELL: Yes.

HANNITY: Talking I guess about a boyfriend when you were a teenager?

O'DONNELL: Right, right, right, right.

HANNITY: OK. Saying that you had dabbled into witchcraft. Why don't you explain for people that may be -- what was that about?

O'DONNELL: Well, teenage rebellion. You know, some people dabble in drugs to rebel, that's how I rebelled.

HANNITY: All the talk about you've got to do this national show, that national show.

O'DONNELL: No, it doesn't --

HANNITY: Is that off the table for you?

O'DONNELL: It's off the table because that's not going to help me get votes. I instead want to go to as many town hall forums, as many candidate forums, as many church picnics that I can fit into my schedule so that I can meet the voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So Gary Tuchman has been following the O'Donnell campaign since her surprise victory and has her lawyer's response to a watchdog group that called O'Donnell a criminal.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, we've been reporting this week that a watchdog group in Washington, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, has filed complaints against Christine O'Donnell saying that she spent at least $20,000 of campaign money for personal expenditures.

Well, today the Christine O'Donnell campaign is fighting back. We asked O'Donnell about it two days ago. We asked her while she was at a candidates forum. She gave a general statement, why would you believe a liberal group and not of it is true? But we asked her specifically about these charges, charges for rents, charges for gas, restaurants. She didn't answer the question. But today, her lawyer did speak out. Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who is representing O'Donnell says these allegations are not true whatsoever. One of the charges that she wasn't running for anything in 2009. She lost to Biden in 2008, started running again in March of 2010. But according to Cleta Mitchell, she always intended to run, therefore she was a candidate in 2009, even though she didn't officially declare it. And therefore, she was allowed to spend money.

About the personal charges, though, gas stations, restaurants, stores. Why would you need that for a campaign? But Cleta Mitchell is saying is that perhaps there are some reporting errors. Every client she's had has had problems with this complicated FEC forms. Either way, she is strongly supporting Christine O'Donnell.

John and Kiran, back to you.

ROBERTS: Gary Tuchman this morning. Gary, thanks.

We also heard from Christine O'Donnell's Democratic challenger, Chris Coons. He said that witchcraft isn't really relevant in this campaign. Coons is also been forced to answer questions about his past. He had to come out and deny allegations from conservative bloggers and radio hosts that he is a bearded Marxist based on an article that he wrote in a student paper back in 1985.

Well, if you're bewitched or bewildered about the race going on in Delaware, we're going to get it all straight for you because the two candidates have accepted an invitation to participate in a debate on October the 13th. It's going to be hosted, moderated by Wolf Blitzer. You can see it right here on CNN live from the University of Delaware. That is the 13th of October. Doesn't happen to be a Friday, does it?

CHETRY: Let me look. It might. Hold on a second.

ROBERTS: Just play in to everything. Friday, the 13th.

CHETRY: I doubt it. It's a Wednesday.

ROBERTS: It's a Wednesday.

CHETRY: But --

ROBERTS: Fun to think about.

CHETRY: But it is interesting, though. Because as we heard her say, she's not giving any more national interviews. This might be one of the only chances, you know, for people to get some of their questions out there about what type of senator she would be if she won the election. ROBERTS: Did you ever see Wolf Blitzer wiggle his nose like Samantha Stevens?

CHETRY: No. No witchcraft there. I can't really picture that, actually. I don't know if I want to.

Well, 23 minutes past the hour. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he's going to be in New York. He's addressing the United Nations and protesters are out in force demonstrating against Iran's leader. He is also stopping by "LARRY KING LIVE," as well. So we're going to have more on that.

It's 23 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up now, 25 minutes after the hour. We're "Minding Your Business."

If you've been hanging on to that gold waiting to sell it to get some cash, now might be the time to dump it. Because gold has hit an all- time high now. It topped $1,293 an ounce in early trading this morning.

CHETRY: Wow.

ROBERTS: Demand is soaring after the Federal Reserve indicated a willingness to further stimulate the U.S. economy.

CHETRY: One of America's great landmarks is rusting. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is made of stainless steel. Engineers promised in the 1960s that it would last for centuries, but now it's corroding. And an engineering firm has been hired to try to figure out what's going on and how to stop it.

ROBERTS: What's going on? Maybe it's not as stainless as the stainless steel it was purported to be.

Americans certainly love their Macs. We're not talking about hamburgers here. We're talking about computers.

A study by the American Consumers Satisfaction Index found that Apple Macintoshes have the highest satisfaction rating of any personal computer. It's the seventh straight year that Apple has led the competition. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer all tied for second. It's kind of like there's Mac.

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: And then there's everybody else.

CHETRY: And then there's everybody else. Right.

Well, if you haven't booked that Thanksgiving flight just yet, you should prepare yourself that it's going to cost you more. Airlines are -- as they do every year, hiking fares, but this year by 10 percent over last year. The average cost of a domestic round trip flight over Thanksgiving will be $384. That seems like a bargain, doesn't it?

ROBERTS: Well, it depends on where you're going, I guess. If you're going from New York to Philadelphia, no, it wouldn't be. You could walk for a lot less than that.

CHETRY: Well, if you fly on the Tuesday before the holiday and you return on the Sunday after, your fare could actually be $170 higher than normal. Time to get in your car.

ROBERTS: You want to go somewhere?

An economic aftershock. The recession is over. So what happens next? Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich joins us live coming up to talk about his new book and plans that, well, some people might find a little controversial.

It's 27 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're crossing the half hour now.

And world leaders are gathering in New York to address the United Nations. And there's a lot of attention being focused on Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There were throngs of demonstrators that have been lining the streets outside of the U.N. to protest the Iranian leader. Addressing a U.N. session on global poverty yesterday, Ahmadinejad said that capitalism is dying and that it's time for a new economic system.

ROBERTS: Well, President Obama turns his attention to the world's stage today, arriving in New York ahead of his big speech to the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow. Two years ago while campaigning, here's what the now president said about dealing with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will use all elements of American power to pressure the Iranian regime, starting with aggressive, principled, and direct diplomacy. Backed with strong sanctions and without preconditions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: That was back in 2008. So how will President Obama handle the Iran situation two years later? CNN foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is joining us now. And it doesn't seem like we're going to hear the same tough rhetoric that we heard last year at the United Nations General Assembly.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: John, I was thinking about that. If you look at that quote from him from two years ago, it was reach out, stretch out the hand. Maybe they'll grab it back, maybe we can do something, maybe we can stop their nuclear program. Then you had a period where they got into some really hard rhetoric. And a lot of it came from Hillary Clinton.

CHETRY: He took a lot of heat for that. That was a debate when they were candidates. And she said - didn't she say it was naive to talk about no preconditions?

DOUGHERTY: Exactly. Very good point. So here we are - and now we're getting back to the same thing. Because the president -- President Obama is now talking about there's a chance that we can still, you know, engage. And Hillary Clinton's rhetoric, if you look at that, it's a military dictatorship, responsible parties in Iran should begin to take control. It's almost like good cop/bad cop. And it's also back and forth. So there's a lot of ambiguity.

CHETRY: It's very interesting to see that noted. And meanwhile, the protests - and I was getting e-mails and I'm sure you were too from groups saying Ahmadinejad does not speak for the people of Iran and we're protesting that he's even getting a forum, that he's even allowed to speak. These are people, you know, ex-patriots of Iran that are incensed that he's getting this world stage at the U.N..

DOUGHERTY: Exactly. And you know, the overriding thing, of course, is the nuclear issue. And what's going to happen. Will they actually come clean on their nuclear program? But there's a lot of political upheaval in Iran right now. And I think behind the scenes when you talk to U.S. diplomats and others who know it, no one's sure, what lever can you pull? You know, how can you change the situation? What's really going to hurt? Will these sanctions hurt that small group of military leaders? Or what else?

ROBERTS: Particularly they hurt the population at large -

DOUGHERTY: They do.

ROBERTS: As opposed to the targeted leaders. But Ahmadinejad himself despite his rhetoric would like better relations with the west. But until he dials back on the nuclear program, not much is likely to happen.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, and look at what they've accomplished. Not much. You know, Iran continues to process this nuclear - to process uranium. That deal to ship out uranium and reprocess it some other place did not go through. And we're almost in the same rut that we've been. It's not effective.

CHETRY: Well, we'll see what he talks about when he has the big forum. That's tomorrow, right?

DOUGHERTY: Right, right. That's the big speech. And it will be very interesting. Because yesterday he was pretty temperate and now - I think actually it was two days ago and now, Thursday, we'll get a big test because that's really, that's the speech.

CHETRY: He speaks to the entire U.N. General Assembly. DOUGHERTY: Right. Right.

CHETRY: You'll be watching for sure.

DOUGHERTY: And listening.

CHETRY: We'll check in with you.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Jill.

DOUGHERTY: Thanks.

CHETRY: Another programming note on the issue of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also going to be speaking to Larry King. That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

ROBERTS: Time now for the latest news from the best political team on television. Crossing our political ticker this morning. Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., announcing that he is deeply sorry after admitting a relationship with a female "social acquaintance." Our senior political editor, Mark Preston live in the CNN Politics.com desk. Oh, boy, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Oh, boy, John. You said it. Well, I'll tell you - this is a story, of course, that the "Chicago Sun Times" broke yesterday. And Jesse Jackson, Jr. having to address what he describes as "a private and personal matter." What this is all about is a Chicago businessman told federal investigators that Jackson had him paid to have this restaurant hostess here from Washington, D.C., to fly back and forth between Chicago and here in the nation's capital. It forced Jackson to release a statement saying, of course, that he was deeply sorry and that he disappointed some supporters and basically he's working this out with his family and has worked it out with his family.

What is beyond personally troubling, John, is the fact that he potentially could have violated the House gift ban. So he could have violated some congressional rules. The same businessman also said that Jackson asked him to raise $6 million for Rod Blagojevich who was the former governor of Illinois as Jackson was trying to get that seat. That was left vacant when President Obama left to become president. Now Jackson has denied those allegations.

But moving on, President Clinton is talking tea party. In fact, what he's saying, John, is that the Democratic Party should not be engaging the tea party. In fact, the Democratic Party should be focusing instead on solutions and telling voters how they can make things better.

This is how he described the tea party founders. They tend to be pretty far right extremists whose goal is to destroy the power of government to mediate the power of corporations. And he told our own Wolf Blitzer yesterday that on CNN.

And Sarah Palin herself is talking tea party. All seems to be a big tea party, John and Kiran. In fact, she put out a video yesterday highlighting the movement. It was an 80-second video called simply "The Tea Party." I got to tell you, to me it really seemed like a presidential video in many ways because it used footage of Palin addressing a tea party rally earlier this year. A lot of big crowd shots, John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: Well, there's no question about it, when it comes to enthusiasm, the tea party seems to have the edge this year. Mark.

PRESTON: Yes, no question.

ROBERTS: Great to see you this morning. Thanks. We'll check back in with Mark next hour. And for all the latest political news just go to our web site, cnnpolitics.com.

CHETRY: 36 minutes past the hour now. Also new this morning, hip hop singer Wyclef Jean officially ending his bid to become the next president of Haiti. Jean said it was not an easy decision to make, he'd promised to fight Haiti's ruling making him ineligible to run because he's not a resident. Now he says that there are other battles more worth fighting.

ROBERTS: All right. You heard about alligators in the sewers, right? Well, check out what a Bronx, New York, man found curled up on his toilet seat. Yes, we said toilet seat. A three-foot long corn snake also known as a red rat snake. They're pretty creepy, but they're harmless.

CHETRY: I'm getting goose bumps.

ROBERTS: Police were called in. They easily corralled the thing. They think that, yes, it came up through the plumbing.

CHETRY: So that urban myth that they've said all these years is not true, is, in fact true, reptiles crawl through the sewers, right up through your toilet.

ROBERTS: Some people worry about flushing your dental floss down the toilet. I'd say that's not too much of a worry comparatively speaking.

CHETRY: You flush down the dental floss and out comes a snake.

ROBERTS: You know that the dental floss is never going to come back up and sit on your toilet seat.

CHETRY: Oh, goodness. Goosebumps. All right. I don't need that this early.

ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE)

CHETRY: Well, former President Bill Clinton has dropped 24 pounds, and he say he's reversing the effects of his heart disease and he's spilling his secrets to CNN on how he turned it around and got very healthy. It's 36 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: With pressure building on the president to figure out how to jump start the economy, he is now losing another member of his economic team.

CHETRY: This is Larry Summers. He is the director of the National Economic Council. And he says he's going to return to Harvard at the end of the year. He said he had to do that to not lose his tenure. It is the third big loss, though for the president in recent months.

Robert Reich knows the pressures of working in the White House. He was the secretary of labor under Bill Clinton and has a new book out on the current financial crisis and what lies ahead. It's called "Aftershock, the next economy in America's Future." Thanks for joining us this morning, Robert.

ROBERT REICH, AUTHOR "AFTERSHOCK, THE NEXT ECONOMY IN AMERICA'S FUTURE: Thank you.

CHETRY: First, your thoughts on Larry Summers. This wasn't that unexpected. I mean, he has said that he needed to go back to Harvard, right? But what is the impact of this being the third big economic adviser of the president to leave?

REICH: Well, clearly it gives the president the opportunity to push the kind of the reset button on economic policy. Because you had three of the four big advisers on the economy who have left or are leaving. And it's sort of the next chapter.

ROBERTS: So let's get to the book then, "Aftershock." After reading through it, you have some, I guess what you could refer to as dramatic perhaps controversial prescriptions for fixing the economy.

REICH: I don't think they're controversial, John. They may be dramatic.

ROBERTS: You don't think they are controversial, but a lot of people would. Let's start with the economic comeback. The economic recovery. You paint a fairly grim picture of that. Here's what you say in the book. You say "the so-called recovery will be anemic. A large percentage of Americans will remain jobless, or their wages will drop. American consumers will not be able to spend enough to keep the recovery going." You point in the book an imbalance in the fundamentals of the economy. What's that imbalance?

REICH: Well, the fundamental imbalance is really for the last 30 years most of the gains of the economy, gains of growth have gone to the top, particularly the top one percent. Now, I'm not a class warrior, but I am a class worrier. Because if all the gains go to the top, the problem is the middle class, the vast middle class doesn't have enough purchasing power to try and turn around and buy all the goods and services that the economy is capable of producing without going deeper and deeper into debt.

And finally, that debt bubble bursts as it did, and now we are back to where we were before. Unless something is done about the fact that the middle class is basically stranded, we're not going to ever be able to get out of this.

CHETRY: You think the solution is to increase the marginal tax rate for the top earners like $410,000 and above to be taxed at 55 percent to 61 and around that area to be taxed at 50 percent. People would say this is classic socialism, income redistribution.

REICH: No, no -

CHETRY: This is spreading the wealth around.

REICH: No, Kiran. First of all, the major point in the book is to ensure that the middle class through taxes, through education, through infrastructure really has the wherewithal to prosper. And they do not right now. There's no redistribution per se. I mean, let me talk about -

CHETRY: Well, you do talk about putting - having college education be free. Having anybody be able to go into Medicare and some of that money that you would perhaps work 10 years out of your -

REICH: Yes. That's right.

CHETRY: You put that money into paying for people who maybe could not afford college. So it is making its way through there?

REICH: Well, yes and no. But my point in the book is that even for the very rich, it's better to have a smaller share of an economy that is growing quickly than a huge share of an economy that's dead in the water. So it's not exactly redistribution. I'm saying to the very rich, look, you have a stake economically and politically in an economy that is doing much better for everybody.

ROBERTS: What are the - one of the points you make is you need to tax the rich in order to get the revenue from them. Because they're not going to spend the money themselves. That they live well within their means. They live way too modestly. You can't make up in their spending in the revenues gained from their spending as you could if the government were to tax them.

Here's what you say "the sheer magnitude of the task of spending obscene amounts of money can be surprisingly challenging." But what about the argument, Robert, that Jeff Saks made on this program yesterday. That you can't raise the revenues necessary just on the backs of the rich? That you have to cut spending programs, as well. And also, there's this idea too that the rich can afford not to take as much income. They can defer income, therefore defer taxes and the money that you get from them will be even less than maybe you're getting now?

REICH: Well, the rich can defer taxes, and that's part of the problem. Last year, the 25 top hedge fund managers in this country earned on average $1 billion each. And a lot of them paid about 17 percent in taxes. I mean, they're paying at a tax rate because of deferrals and because of capital gains loopholes, they're paying a tax rate that somebody earning $30,000 a year pays. It is absurd.

CHETRY: So they know how to game the system.

REICH: They know how to game the system, Kiran. But it also goes to the current debate over whether you extend the Bush tax cuts to the top or not, or the 98 percent. But people at the top do not spend nearly the same percentage of their income as average working people. And therefore, if you give them a big tax break, they're not going to turn around and spend it, they're not going to create jobs. And also, by giving them a big tax break and extending the Bush tax cut for them for another year or two, you are giving them a huge windfall. One year for the top two percent means $36 billion. And that blows a hole in the budget.

CHETRY: Well, I want to give your reaction to what Ben Stein wrote. He's an economist. And he put an article out there saying, why am I being punished? I feel like I'm being punished because I fall into that top tier that would not be extended if Democrats have their way in the House.

And he wrote, I'm not quite sure what my sin is. I worked for almost every dollar I have except for a small percentage that my parents left me by virtue of working hard and Spartan living. Most of that taken by the federal estate tax. I have a hell of a lot less than I did before the stock market - the real estate market crashes. I didn't get a bailout. I pay my income taxes. After them and the commissions I pay my agent, I'm left with about 35 cents for every dollar I earn.

Doesn't that just go against the grain of what America is?

REICH: Well, Kiran, for one thing nobody right now is talking about doing anything other than go back to the Clinton tax rates. I mean, that's what the big debate about. Do you extend the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent? Or, do you go back to the 1990s?

And then the 1990s we had a pretty good economy, as I recall. I was Labor Secretary through most of that. You had 22 million net new jobs created. And you didn't have anybody complaining very much about the tax rates. Let me remind you also that under Dwight Eisenhower, Republican president who nobody accused of being a socialist or a radical, the top marginal tax rate in this country was 91 percent.

Now, I'm not saying go back there, but look, people who are very wealthy in this country have never been as wealthy as they are now. The gap between the top one percent and everybody else has not been as great since 1920s. And we're all part of the same society. People don't become wealthy because they are working in Madagascar or Bangladesh. They become wealthy in the United States because they have benefitted by being part of the system.

ROBERTS: Some dramatic, some might say controversial ideas.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: I think the idea of a 55 percent marginal tax rate is controversial. REICH: Well, it may be controversial, but in terms of what it allows, in terms of subsidizing middle class; cutting taxes on the middle class; providing better education; better job training, better infrastructure; allowing us to reduce the long-term debt; this is not and should not be controversial. Believe me.

ROBERTS: The book is called "Aftershock." Robert Reich, great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by.

REICH: Thanks, John.

CHETRY: Good to talk to you.

REICH: Thanks, Kiran.

ROBERTS: The White House reacting now to "Obama's Wars," a new book by Bob Woodward. It claims that the president has been battling with top Military advisers who refuse to provide him with an exit strategy to the war in Afghanistan. What is the White House saying about those claims? We'll have that for you coming up at the top of the hour.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

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ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning. Have you seen President Bill Clinton lately? More like the Beatles said, he's not half the man he used to be. He's lost some serious weight.

CHETRY: You remember back in the days when he was president people used to tease him about the fact that he liked to eat at McDonald's. Well, that was then and this is now. Clinton losing 24 pounds. The former president says he's actually reversing his heart disease. So how did he do it? He revealed the secrets in a one-on- one interview with our own Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZLIER": How do you lose so much weight? What kind of diet are you on?

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, the short answer is, I went on essentially a plant-based diet. I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit. I drink a protein supplement every morning. No dairy. I drink almond milk mixed in with fruit and a protein powder so I get the protein for the day when I start the day out. It changed my whole metabolism and I lost 24 pounds and I got back to basically what I weighed in high school.

But I did it for a different reason. I mean, I wanted to lose a little weight but I didn't ever dream this would happen. I did it because after I had this stent put in, I realized that even though it happens quite often that after you have bypasses, you lose the veins, because they're thinner and weaker than arteries. The truth is that it clogged up, which means that the cholesterol was still causing build up in my vein that was part of my bypass. Thank God I could take the stents.

I didn't want it to happen again. So I did all this research and I saw that 82 percent of the people, since 1986, who have gone on a plant-based, no dairy, no meat of any kind. No chicken, turkey. I eat very little fish. Once in a while I'll have a little fish. Not often. If you can do it, 82 percent of people who have done that have begun to heal themselves. Their arterial blockage cleans up. The calcium deposit around their heart breaks up. This movement has been led by a doctor named Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic. Dean Ornish, whom you know out in California. The doctors Campbell, father and son, who wrote the China study, and a handful of others.

But we now have 25 years of evidence. I thought, well, since I need to lose a little weight for Chelsea's wedding, I'll become part of this experiment. I'll see if I can be one of those that can have a self-clearing mechanism. We'll see.

BLITZER: I hope you're healthy for many years and get to see grandchildren for many years to come.

CLINTON: Me, too. That's really the big deal. Hillary and I, we're happy. We love our son-in-law. We admire him and we'd like to be around if there's grandkids. We want to be there to do our part.

BLITZER: Mr. President, good luck.

CLINTON: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Good luck, Bill Clinton. How'd you lose weight? A five minute dissertation later he tells you everything -

CHETRY: I know but you can't stop listening, can you? That's the amazing part of him.

ROBERTS: That's the other part of him.

CHETRY: But it really is radical to think you can reverse heart disease by going on a completely plant-based diet. This is something Sanjay has talked about, as well, that he doesn't keep meat in the home. I just -- if you can do it.

ROBERTS: There are so many different diets out there. The new one, the Paleo diet where all you eat is meat and vegetables -

CHETRY: Eat like a caveman.

ROBERTS: Eat like a caveman, live like a caveman, whatever.

I mean, it obviously worked for him. Good for him for losing some weight.

CHETRY: Great.

ROBERTS: More stories about your health, go to CNN.com/health.

CHETRY: And we're going to have your top stories in just two minutes.