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American Morning
"Obama's Wars"; Obama at U.N.; Pastor Accused of Sexual Coercion; U.N. Meets at General Assembly; Can Democrats Hold On To Both Houses of Congress?; O'Donnell Swears Off T.V. Interviews For the Remainder of Campaign; The U.N. Party Circuit; Laying the Ground Work?; Super Salmon
Aired September 22, 2010 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is 8:00 Eastern on this Wednesday, September 22nd. Thanks so much for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us.
A lot to talk about this morning. Here's what happened overnight. The White House reacting this morning to a new book written by Bob Woodward. The title is, "Obama's Wars," and it paints a picture of a president at war with his own advisers over how to end the conflict in Afghanistan. The late-breaking developments coming your way in just a moment.
CHETRY: Also, world leaders now converging on the United Nations to have their say before the General Assembly. President Obama will join them today ahead of his big speech to the entire world body tomorrow.
ROBERTS: The 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 election ethics and she is done with the national media for now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL (R), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: Because of the frenzy that these things have become, it's interfering. So, I've been talking to some people that have invited us to events and we're asking them to not allow media to attend or at least to keep them in the back so that I can meet the voters without them getting pushed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Her biggest supporter, Sarah Palin, is also out with a new video playing up the Tea Party and she sure looks like a candidate in it. The Best Political Team on Television is here to break it all down six weeks from Election Day.
CHETRY: And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. Go to CNN.com/amFIX.
Well, top story this hour, the war inside the White House over the war in Afghanistan. It's all spelled out in a new book from Bob Woodward titled "Obama's Wars."
CHETRY: There were excerpts that were released overnight and they describe deep divisions within the administration on how to deal with Afghanistan. Close aide Richard Holbrooke reportedly telling the president that his plans for ending the Afghan war, quote, "can't work."
Ed Henry live at the White House this morning.
So we understand the administration is responding. I know they wrote back to you in an e-mail about the excerpts from the book. What are they saying this morning?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kiran. Early this morning, the White House having to respond to this, as it leaks out. The book was supposed to be published next week.
Interesting, a senior administration official tells me, quote, "The president comes across in the review 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 quote from a senior official who also notes that, look, the debates, the division that's laid out in the book has been reported on before.
That is true, but perhaps not in the level of detail that we're now seeing in this book -- number one. Number two, the senior official points out to me that, you know, the president is shown really pressing for answers about, you know, what's the best strategy to get al Qaeda, keep them in check, pressing for more information, personally getting involved, reading the intelligence reports, making sure that he went through every scenario to get this policy right. That's all well and good.
That, however, the suggestion that, look, there's nothing new here, let's just sort of move along, which is what the White House response certainly sounds like, does not necessarily match what you just laid out when you got someone like Richard Holbrooke, a senior official on this administration on Afghanistan and Pakistan policy saying he's not sure -- allegedly saying, at least we should say -- and quoting in the book that he's not sure the policy is going to work, that's a problem for this administration. Something they don't want to be dealing with right now and they want to be talking about the economy and health care because today is the six-month anniversary of the health care reform being signed into law. The president is going to have a big event on that.
Last thing they want to be talking about is division over this war policy -- Kiran, John.
ROBERTS: So, the timing was unfortunate for the White House, but the book wasn't a surprise. They knew about it.
HENRY: You're right. I mean, the bottom line is President Obama did at least one interview. All kind of other senior officials were involved.
So, they can't be completely surprised by this and I think, in fairness to the White House, some of this division, as I noted, has been out there before. And let's face it -- war making policy is messy. You know that from the Bush administration, having covered that closely, as well. It's not easy. There's going to be division.
And one thing this administration said coming in was that they weren't going to just rubber stamp what the Pentagon wanted, that they were going to go through this with a fine-toothed comb and it looks like from the excerpts it does show a commander-in-chief doing that.
However, the level of division, and now, after the decision is made, having people like Richard Holbrooke allegedly questioning whether this policy is even going to work, that's a problem when the president today going to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, wants to be talking about, you know, stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons, talk about Israeli/Palestinian peace, et cetera. The last thing they want to be talking about is division within their own ranks on Afghanistan -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, it will be interesting to see what he talks about today and how all of this is received this morning. So, Ed Henry, thanks for getting that response and on for us this morning. We appreciate it.
HENRY: Thank you.
CHETRY: President Obama, as we said, is turning his attention to the world stage today. He is arriving in New York ahead of the big speech. He's going to be speaking to the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow.
ROBERTS: Meantime, world leaders are getting to know each other a little bit better, in face to face meetings at the United Nations.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is following it for us and she joins us now.
So, who's meeting on the sidelines here?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, they'll all be meeting. I mean, President Obama arrives about 4:00 this afternoon and then he has a speech first of two speeches. He'll be talking about Millennium Development Goals and that's a big side of this, social and economic developments of developing countries. And then we have the big speech tomorrow.
And you have to say, every time that we're here for UNGA, there's a lot of attention on President Ahmadinejad and you were talking about the policy. You know, the e evaluation of how effective the Obama administration's policy has been and are we going to get a replay of what we got last year, you know, tough or is it going to be more moderate, where are we?
It's a confusing time with Iran policy because nobody, including the administration, seems to know what you can do to get the goal that they want, and that's to stop the nuclear program. And over on the other side, you have this ticking clock of Israel which is saying, look, we're going to take matters into our own hands if this doesn't stop because eventually in a year or so, they're going to get a bomb. They would say. And so, we have to do something about it.
So, Obama's in a difficult situation.
CHETRY: It's also interesting because there were so much strife going on domestically because of the economy. I mean, people sitting in Elkhart, Indiana, you know, suffering and cities all over the country may say, why do I care about what's going on in the world when we're suffering so much? I mean, what type of message might the president have to craft to show he's still keeping his domestic concerns top of mind?
DOUGHERTY: Well, you know, his -- the strategy that they have really is -- he's going to be talking about development and it may seem a little strange to say, you know, we need to help other countries when this country is having difficulties. But he makes a point and Hillary Clinton makes a point that if these -- if countries fall apart and we are just in Afghanistan -- if countries fall apart, if people are living poorly, and they have nothing to keep them from going to terrorists or be under this wave of terrorists, you can have massive problems. So, he is going to talk about development and that's a theme that we don't get into too much but it's hugely important here at the U.N.
But the overriding thing again, Mideast, Iran, and these very serious issues with time frames that are very tight.
ROBERTS: We'll be watching to see how it all goes and good to have you watching it for us on CNN.
DOUGHERTY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Jill Dougherty, thanks so much.
CHETRY: And a quick programming note by the way. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be Larry King's guest tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
ROBERTS: And later on in this hour, we're going to track Richard Roth's wild ride on the general assembly party circuit. I don't know. It's like --
CHETRY: Were you there, too, Jill?
ROBERTS: -- an oxymoron, isn't it? General assembly party circuit.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: So, stay tuned for that this morning.
CHETRY: Well, he did speed dating well. We'll see if he does speed the United Nations party circuit, that's a ton of parties.
Our Rob Marciano is here in New York this morning with the weather headlines. He, of course, was good young man and went to bed early.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I did. Is there a red carpet at the U.N.?
CHETRY: I guess we'll find out.
MARCIANO: Yes. I'm looking forward to that.
Good morning, guys. Hey, listen, I want to start off with what's going on in the Caribbean. The National Hurricane Center has been watching this little thing percolate that we mentioned yesterday and now it's turned into something a little bit more worriful (sic). Sixty percent chance of this becoming a tropical depression, tropical storm in the next 48 hours.
I think it's money in the bank that it will be our next tropical storm. It's got all this warm water to traverse and not a whole lot in front of it as far as atmospheric conditions go. And this will get to Central America and then potentially into the Gulf of Mexico as we get towards next week.
All right. What else is going on tropically? Rain across from Texas from Karl. And also, rain across part of Arizona, New Mexico, from Tropical Storm Georgette, which we really didn't talk much about. It was a little tropical storm that sped up around the Baja California, on the eastern Pacific, and that will be trained into this front that's trying to pass to the south and cool everybody off, but it's going to pretty much hover around the northern tier.
Look at these numbers yesterday -- 100 degrees in Alabama. Columbia, South Carolina, 98 degrees. Birmingham, 98 degrees.
And guess what? Tonight, at 11:00 p.m., fall arrives and over the next couple of days, still feels like July and August. So, Mother Nature not really cooperating just yet, but it will be cold soon enough.
ROBERTS: That's all right. This is non-cooperation. I don't mind.
MARCIANO: Yes.
CHETRY: We'll be glad for this in January.
MARCIANO: Yes, it feels -- it feels good. It feels good. Although it's a scorching summer, we're easing into winter and, you know, slowly but surely.
CHETRY: We'll see what goes on.
MARCIANO: Yes.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, you know who's going to have plenty of time on his hands this fall? David Hasselhoff. Poor guy.
ROBERTS: I was concerned about that. I'm, you know, hoping he was going to stay busy.
CHETRY: Well, you know what? Where was the German vote, people are asking. The Hoff is already history on "Dancing with the Stars." He was the first celebrity voted off of the new season.
ROBERTS: Yes, the judges gave his cha-cha a real beating. One is calling it a potpourri of insanity. Hoff tied for last place this week with "The Situation" and comedian Margaret Cho.
CHETRY: How do even -- how do you cha-cha effectively in a skin tight leather jacket?
ROBERTS: She was great.
CHETRY: Oh, she's good. But she had nice -- her clothing is looser.
ROBERTS: A little looser, a little freer.
CHETRY: Well, the FDA is one step closer to approving genetically-modified salmon. This is salmon that is injected with a gene that allows it to produce this growth hormone all year long so it grows twice as fast as conventional fish. But would you eat it? And will they need to put it on the label? We're going to break down the debate coming up.
ROBERTS: And a sex scandal rocking one of the most powerful churches in the South. The pastor, Bishop Eddie Long, accused of coercing church members into sexual acts. We'll talk with Long's spokesperson, Art Franklin, live. Coming up next.
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ROBERTS: Thirteen minutes now after the hour.
The spiritual leader of a prominent Atlanta church is now facing sexual abuse charges. Two separate lawsuits allege that the Bishop Eddie Long used his position to coerce two men into sexual relationships when they were teenagers.
CHETRY: And the church is categorically denying these allegations.
Art Franklin is a spokesperson for Bishop Long. He joins us now on the phone from Atlanta.
Thanks for joining us this morning, Art.
ART FRANKLIN, SPOKESMAN FOR BISHOP LONG (via telephone): Good morning, Kiran and John. How are you guys?
CHETRY: We're great. Thank you.
Disturbing allegations for sure from two men who tell our Ed Lavandera that they have texts and e-mail that will corroborate their story. What is Bishop Long's side?
FRANKLIN: Well, right off the bat, Kiran, I want to be clear from our perspective. There's been a lot of chatter since yesterday. But these complaints that have been filed against Bishop Long are definitely without merit. And as we swiftly stated yesterday, upon learning of the accusations, and as you said, Bishop Long categorically and adamantly denies these allegations and there's really unfortunate that these men gone down the road, taken this course of action against someone who's helped them like he's helped numerous individuals and families who were in tough situations.
ROBERTS: You know, Art, these two men in question, Anthony Flagg and Maurice Robinson, who have filed these lawsuits -- I'm looking at the complaints here -- very similar in their stories and their allegation that Bishop Long became spiritual and personal advisers, that they were involved in this covenant ceremony, that they traveled extensively across the country and around the world with Bishop Long. And there are numerous allegations here that he engaged in sexual conduct with them.
And here's one allegation here. It says, quote, "Defendant Long has a pattern and practice of singling out a select group of young male church members and using his authority as bishop over them to ultimately bring them to a point of engaging in a sexual relationship."
The allegations here, very detailed.
FRANKLIN: And, John, let's talk about those two men making these allegations. These are plaintiffs in lawsuits who are not innocent victims. They're men on the wrong side of the law several times before which includes being charged with breaking into Bishop Long's office back in June of this year to steal items such as jewelry and property that they could get cash, cash for, so let your viewers be the judge of their actions. We certainly can't get into individual demands. That's part of the legal battle.
ROBERTS: Right.
FRANKLIN: That's a battle that our legal defense team will have to respond to at some point.
ROBERTS: On the point of that break-in, it is detailed here in the lawsuits. Their attorney, B.J. Bernstein, says that they were lashing out at Bishop Long in that break-in that they stole personal items from him to hurt him for what he had done to them.
FRANKLIN: This is actually, John, a case of retaliation and a shake down for money by men with some serious credibility issues who are trying to mount their own defense. This is something that went from 48 hours of contact with the attorney flinging outrageous demands to this dog and pony show that we are seeing that began yesterday.
CHETRY: Can you explain what the nature of the relationship was prior to these allegations being made, prior to the alleged break-ins? What was Bishop Long's relationship with these two teens?
FRANKLIN: They were young men who were part of the Long fellow's program at New Birth but outside of that I can't speak to any type of relationship that they had with Bishop Long. They also -- they were employed by the church as church employs a number of young people and others.
CHETRY: But -- when you say that you can't speak to the nature of it, what of these e-mails and text messages that seem to indicate there was, at least, you know, some significant contact?
ROBERTS: Whoops. We seem to have lost him. He is obviously on a cell phone there.
FRANKLIN: We are getting information from you guys in the media and responding to Kiran, we have not even seen the lawsuit ourselves so that's something that our attorneys have to go through and they'll look at it. They'll respond to it in the appropriate form.
CHETRY: And in the meantime, what has been the reaction of the congregation? I mean, this is a church that has at least 25,000 members. A big part of the community there. What has been the reaction?
FRANKLIN: Oh, Kiran. Last night, it was a very spirit-filled worship service from a church family that loves its spiritual leader very much. Bishop Long has done so many great things, not good things but great things that he has strong support from throughout the world and drawing strength from his family, from the New Birth families, lots of friends and supporters who are standing with him.
ROBERTS: Do you deny, though, Art, that Bishop Long had a very close relationship with the two men in question and that they did travel extensively with him?
FRANKLIN: A number of people travel with Bishop and he knows them. But listen. There are a lot of things, John, out there that are being said and before rushing to any judgment on Bishop Long in this court of public opinion which is taking place right now, I really do hope that you would look at these guys who are throwing the mud and just consider the source.
ROBERTS: Sure.
FRANKLIN: We'll learn a lot more.
ROBERTS: Obviously, we will be looking at all aspects of this case but did Bishop Long at any point of these travels, ever share a bedroom with either one of these men? FRANKLIN: That is one of the allegations that we learned through the media that's being made by the attorneys and that is something that our defense team will have to respond to.
ROBERTS: So, you don't have a response at this point?
FRANKLIN: I do not have a response for that. That's something our defense team would have to respond to.
ROBERTS: All right. Art Franklin, it is good of you to spend time with us. Thanks so much for joining us. It is much appreciated.
FRANKLIN: All right. Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. So we heard from them and, of course, I'm sure much more is going to come out of this throughout the day. We have Ed Lavandera digging on it as well.
ROBERTS: And the attorney B.J. Bernstein will be joining Kyra Phillips coming up in the next couple of hours here, as well.
CHETRY: All right. So we want to stick around for all of that. And meantime, we are also talking about something that's been happening and actually been getting worse lately and that's the president's approval ratings. They've dropped in some areas. However, the first lady still a hot commodity. Her approval ratings especially among Democrats very high and she is going to be doing her part to help out heading back to the campaign trail for the midterm elections. We are going to get the latest on that from our Mark Preston.
ROBERTS: And the fast food chain, KFC's latest ad campaign. It's got people talking. They're hiring college women to promote their double down sandwich using a certain part of the anatomy to get the point across. We'll have that story coming up for you. It is twenty minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It is time for us to get down to business. And if you are planning a trip over the thanksgiving holiday and you haven't booked yet -- be ready to pay.
ROBERTS: I'm waiting to find out if I can go somewhere first.
CHETRY: Yes, I know. Got to get these days off approved so that you can get out there because you are going to be paying 10 percent more over last year.
ROBERTS: Yay.
CHETRY: Well, the average cost of a domestic round trip flight over thanksgiving, because they know they got you, it is the most traveled time of the year, $384. ROBERTS: You want to go somewhere? Pay up! KFC using buns to promote no buns. The restaurant is recruiting college coeds to be human billboards and wear KFC Double Down sweats. Double down is that sandwich where the chicken is actually the buns.
CHETRY: Yes, it is horrible for you. And, you know, the ironic part is if you ate a lot of those Double Downs you wouldn't fit in the sweat pants they are giving out to those girls with their cute little buns.
ROBERTS: Are they really high calorie?
CHETRY: Yes, they are two fried pieces of chicken and then on the inside is more cheese and --
ROBERTS: I don't know.
CHETRY: How much was it? It was like 1,200 calories or something insane if you get the whole meal.
ROBERTS: So, you just eat two of them and one here and one here.
CHETRY: Exactly. That's its own advertisement. You don't even need the lettering. Well, a free beer on Budweiser, the King of Beers --
ROBERTS: To wash down your double downs.
CHETRY: Exactly. Trying to get you to buy their beer again, get the crown back. Anheuser Busch says it plans to give out half a million free Bud samples in bars and restaurants by mid-October in an effort to boost sales among the under-30 crowd and even plans to partner with Facebook so that friends can get a free beer on their 22nd birthday.
ROBERTS: Well, what happens after the official United Nations meetings end? Parties begin. Richard Roth hits the U.N. party circuit. Five cocktail parties in 65 minutes. Coming up next.
CHETRY: Yes, and you're required to dance like that.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- seven minutes past the hour. Your top stories a couple minutes away. First, though, an A.M original, something you will see only on American Morning. World leaders are getting down to business this week at the United Nations so you know what that means.
ROBERTS: Yes, that means that after they get down to business, they're going to get down. Parties are on. Richard Roth trying to keep up with all of the partying.
CHETRY: We have to straighten your tie.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Trying to recover from the lead-in. Anyway, yes, parties, receptions. The General Assembly in now full swing. And we know, if you have a car in Manhattan, you want to swing with someone else. So it's parties, receptions, I'm too busy this week to go to all of them because I have to be up early to be with you here. But on the eve of the U.N. annual big deal, I'll take you inside what the U.N. party circuit is really like. I tried a bit of a marathon run through hello, ambassador.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight's not going learn a lot of news. I mean, the Americans are, you know, they are pretty disciplined even when they drink.
ROTH (voice-over): We are awaiting the arrival of U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's their once-a-year attempt to kind of a pal up to the press corps. Personally I'm hoping that when Susan Rice comes in and if she past us anytime she'll come late in the event, I hope to ask her a question about Darfur and have her say something noteworthy.
ROTH (on camera): In the middle of the perfect pint bar, you are going to ask her a question about Darfur, Sudan?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am. I am.
ROTH: Excuse me, excuse me. Hi. Can you tell me, are you a journalist?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm not. I'm the Deputy Director at the Press Office, the U.S. Mission.
ROTH: As I said, I keep close touch with the U.S. Mission to the U.N. And I know the entire staff explicitly. Well, we made it to the first event. Once again, just like last evening, food and drink and journalists. This is the Dak-Hamershol (ph) fellowship reception.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is kind of like running a marathon and you just have to make it to mile 26 without collapsing. It's kind of tough.
ROTH: Because of the renovation, you can't just take an easy staircase or escalator to the next event. We are going through a U.N. garage. Now it's on to the United Nations Development Program Photo Awards. It's an event about eradicating global poverty using photographs to show people in misery around the world and it's hard to really eat cheese. I'm trying to show how you can go to five events in 65 minutes. You are event number three. You are the author in the crowd there. Is it worth it for me to come to hear you?
STEPHEN PINZER, AUTHOR: Well, this is a wonderful environment physically because just within a few blocks of where we're standing you have some of the greatest concentration of interest and fascination about global affairs. ROTH (voice-over): Author Steven Kinsler is delivering some very good talk about journalism and life overseas but I can't stay and hear it. I have to go to the Libyans hosting a reception for ambassadors and journalists.
ROTH (on camera): Well, we're going in. This is the diplomatic receiving line, standard operating procedure at all diplomatic missions and parties. You make nice and you want to present a good impression representing the entire networks, you want to shake hands. You may not know the wife's name but you're going to try it. Hello, ambassador.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
ROTH: Thank you for your openness. Thank you, also. I'm Richard Roth of CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for coming.
ROTH: Thank you. Well, I still don't know her name but we'll find out by the time the evening's done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: Well, not every U.N. party looks the same, of course. It could be a private dinner with your name attached to a designed seat next to the ambassador's wife, or it could be a quick run-flu as the 192 U.N. ambassadors know all too well. There have been bigger parties. This week the German chancellor had one which I forgot about and got out too late and I couldn't go.
ROBERTS: Did they have a band at any of these?
ROTH: No, it's not a Bar Mitzvah, John. They are simple reception parties.
ROBERTS: Anything mildly interesting?
ROTH: They do have the book. I remember once former German chancellor played the trumpet. Things do happen at the parties. It's not like New Year's Eve, though, at these things. They're talking about serious topics, but the ambassadors tell you they get the most work done at places like this. They see dozens of other diplomats and they can get more done than sitting in the General Assembly hall and listening to speeches.
CHETRY: Did you later apologize to the deputy press secretary lady for not knowing her?
ROTH: Yes. But she is a big fan of CNN so it helped. I wasn't a barfly trying to make chatter here.
CHETRY: Right. You had the CNN mike flag behind you.
ROTH: That helps. Sometimes you want the CNN sign there, and in some circumstances other stories, on the road you don't want to have it seen for various conditions.
ROBERTS: We should have Max Kellerman here doing analysis. He probably would have found those parties about as engaging as a typical soccer match.
ROTH: Yes, we could have had a party debate. But look, it's -- people get -- they don't like the U.N. and think it's parties and talk, but there is some work done there, also.
CHETRY: Good to know. Thanks for getting up with us. Richard Roth, as always, a pleasure.
Now a plan c in Chile to save the stranded coal miners. There is a third rescue tunnel now being drilled. Officials are hoping that it speeds up the rescue of the 33 trapped workers. They're digging with a giant drill borrowed from an oil company. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera says he hopes the miners will be out by late October or early November.
The White House at war over Afghanistan -- getting its first peek at Bob Woodward's new book called "Obama's Wars." It documents the internal struggle and critical decisions of the Afghan war, and a lower profile war being waged in Pakistan.
CHETRY: And California's case of corruption on steroids according to the prosecutor, eight current and former city officials in Bell, California, will be in court today. They're facing criminal charges accusing they drained the city's treasury to line their own pockets.
It's a story we are following closely here on "AMERICAN MORNING." A former city manager making about $800,000 a year and he alone faces 53 corruption counts.
ROBERTS: Time now for the latest news of the best political team on television, and crossing the Political Ticker this morning, President Obama touting his accomplishments and trying to rally supporters in a new video.
CHETRY: Our senior political editor Mark Preston is following that for us at the politics.com website, and our Ed Henry live at the White House with a new midterm prediction that's just crossing the Political Ticker as well. Let's start with you, Mark. What's going on?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Kiran, John, 13 million Americans, waking up this morning to a new video message from President Obama. It's a four-minute call to arms by the president to Democrats and democratic supporters saying not only do they need to go out and vote in November, they also need to start donating to Democratic candidates across the country and volunteering on these campaigns.
Obama says, look. Special interests are pouring millions of dollars in to try to return Republicans to power. We need your help. In addition to that, we are seeing former Reagan officials help fund a new ad campaign, a new national ad campaign, take a play off the 1984 "Morning in America" series by the President Reagan at that time talking about all the good things happening in the world.
However, the new ad campaign by these Reagan officials is called "Mourning in America" saying President Obama had failed leadership.
And let me take it down to the White House right now for some interesting analysis and perspective from a very powerful player here in Washington, D.C. Ed Henry's got the news on that.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Mark. CNN has learned that one of the most powerful business lobbyists in town is saying basically that it is not a slam dunk for Republicans to control Congress and that he believes Democrats might actually hold on to the majority in the House.
This is Tom Donahue, very powerful president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He's sparred with the president over business policies, but he's also pledged to spend upwards of $75 million to win control of Congress for Republicans. I'm told in private he's been telling colleagues that he's gone through every single House race and he believes that Republicans are going to lose some seats that they don't see coming right now, and that's going to help Democrats barely hold on with maybe a slim majority.
This basically is not necessarily anti-Democratic year but an anti-establishment year that could hit incumbents in both parties. That's music to the ears of people here at the White House saying in private for a long time they think expectations are so low for Democrats they might actually surprise some people on Election Day.
CHETRY: Wow, all right. We'll wait and see. Thanks so much, Ed. A reminder to both of you -- thanks, Mark -- head to CNNpolitics.com for all of the latest news on our ticker.
ROBERTS: Delaware Senate candidate and Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell swearing off the national media at least for the time being. CNN Senior political analyst Ed Rollins and former New York Congresswoman Susan Molinari talk about all of that coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 39 minutes after the hour. Delaware Senate candidate and Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell says she is done with the national media. She sat down with Sean Hannity on FOX News last night for what she said is her last interview for national TV.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, (R) DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: It's off the table because that's not going to help me get votes. I won't do anymore national media because this is my focus, Delaware's my focus, and the local media is my focus. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: O'Donnell said she did last night's interview because she happened to be in town on other video. Here to talk about and the new video of Sarah Palin that has people saying she's going to run in 2012, CNN senior political analyst and Republican strategist Ed Rollins, and former New York Congresswoman Susan Molinari. Great to see both of you.
SUSAN MOLINARI, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So interesting strategy from candidate O'Donnell. Goes on national television to say she is done with national TV. But is this really that unusual? I've covered plenty of presidential candidates who bypass the national media, going for the locals.
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Most candidates running for the Senate would kill to have a CNN interview or what have you. In this particular case I think she gets nothing but trouble. I think she has to focus on Delaware. She has a short timeframe here. We'll see in two or three weeks if we're talking about her as a viable candidate. If not there's a lot of other races that are starting to become viable.
ROBERTS: So let's ask you, because you were a candidate once upon a time, about her media strategy. She said that the media should be either banned from certain events or at least held back. I mean, I've been plenty of media bans myself, but during presidential campaigns, not congressional campaigns. Did you have problems with the media and say keep them back or keep them out?
MOLINARI: No, no. I think there's -- I think there's no benefit to doing the national --
ROBERTS: Did you have to say, where are they?
MOLINARI: Yes, I did, exactly. Doesn't anybody care about?
ROBERTS: Please, please, cover my press conference.
MOLINARI: Exactly. But, you know, look, I agree with that 100 percent. There's no benefit to the maximum national exposure she is going to get. People do that because it brings in money, brings in out of town interest. She already has that, you know, being able to amass over $2 million I think in such a short period of time.
She is doing debates and town halls, and I think I heard today she is doing a debate that CNN will cover.
ROBERTS: Yes. Wolf Blitzer is monitoring it.
MOLINARI: So she's not running away from that kind of exposure, but there is no benefit for her not staying focused locally, as every campaign is, but particularly in a state the size of Delaware, it is a get out the vote campaign.
ROLLINS: There's been no interest whatsoever in the opponent.
MOLINARI: That's very true.
ROBERTS: He's the one saying where are they?
(LAUGHTER)
MOLINARI: Right. I'll let you in my event.
ROBERTS: She did answer some questions, or not, depending on your perspective, with Sean Hannity last night, dismissed questions about her back taxes, Use of campaign funds for personal expenses. She said she got behind a little bit on the mortgage doing pro bono work. She had to explain how she makes a living. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'DONNELL: I take non-profit clients. I do freelance work, and when you're running for a campaign, you can't have a multi-client load. You just can't offer them the sort of service. I have one client right now I'm very proud of. I work part time for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: What do you think? Has she adequately answered the questions that people wanted --
ROLLINS: She has a good personality. I think in this environment a lot of people are hurting and relate to people behind in the mortgages and what have you. The critical thing for her is she can make no mistakes. Whatever she says has to be 100 percent accurate. She can't make it up or cover it up because she'll be -- that will be the issue.
MOLINARI: And while the truth is she might say she wants the media as a distance and there is doubt as to the veracity of what she is saying, there's no doubt the Democratic Senatorial Committee will come in and fact check everything she says. And if it's not true it's going to be an ad in the last week.
So I'm sure her handlers that came in from Washington, D.C. right now are telling her that she has to be totally straight up or will be the end of the campaign in the last few weeks.
ROBERTS: Let's switch gears. Sarah Palin, her political action committee comes out with a new ad. A lot of people are saying she looks like a candidate. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN, (R) FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: The Tea Party movement is not a top down operation. It's a ground up call to action, forcing both parties to change the way that they're doing business, and that's what it is.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: She is certainly positioning herself as at least the figurehead of the Tea Party movement as we saw in the primaries, Susan, a real political force to be reckoned with.
MOLINARI: No doubt.
ROBERTS: Will it be the same type of force in the general election in November?
MOLINARI: I think it will be less of a force but I think it will be a huge force. What the Democrats are contending with right now is enthusiasm gap, right? We have independents who still --
ROBERTS: No shortage of enthusiasm in the Tea Party.
MOLINARI: Exactly, and a huge shortage of enthusiasm in the Democratic Party nationwide. When you get that coupled with the fact of independents by two to one are still favoring the Republican Party, it seems that the Republicans can win a majority by having the Tea Party support them and be spokespersons for Republican Party candidates as well as independents still saddling up to the bar. That's an amazing combination and one that could prove successful for the party.
ROBERTS: Ed, is the Tea Party becoming Republican Party?
ROLLINS: It is correspondent a very important segment of it. And I think that we should now push it away, we should bring it in and listen to them and basically make them a part of it.
They're the activists and they are the volunteers and they are doing in many cases what the Christian right did for us --
MOLINARI: Right.
ROLLINS: -- in the '70s and '80s and there was a lot of people wanting to push them away at that point and time and they became a very important part of our coalitions.
ROBERTS: So Susan what do you think about Sarah Palin? Is she positioning herself for a run in 2012 or is she just making money?
MOLINARI: You know, it's hard to say with Sarah Palin, isn't it? I mean, when you look at her political trajectory, it's -- it's just amazing. After coming out as a presidential campaign as the vice president that even people on the McCain campaign and had nothing -- well, had some negative things to say, let me put it that way.
Now has made herself a very important if not one of the most important spokespeople in national politics today. I don't put anything past her. If she does not run for president, she will be an important voice that people will listen to after this next election as we all start to look at the candidates as they queue up. ROLLINS: There will be other important voices though. There'll be some new governors --
ROBERTS: Well, would you run her as a candidate?
ROLLINS: Will I run her as a candidate, I have Haley Barbour was my deputy. Mitch Daniels was my deputy and I was Mike Huckabee's chairman, I've got more candidates than I know what to do with next time.
So --
ROBERTS: So will she be viable?
ROLLINS: She would be very viable. She can go in the aisle she has to run a real campaign. She can't run it above, I remember Reagan in 1980 --
ROBERTS: You can't run it by Twitter or Facebook.
MOLINARI: Right.
ROLLINS: Reagan skipped Iowa and created George Bush. George Bush went in on a grassroots campaign, barely beat us in Iowa and gave him life. You've got to go in there and do it the way people have always done it. Giuliani skipped Iowa last time. You've got to go in there and basically do Iowa.
ROBERTS: So -- so if I were to ask you two for a wager, would you say she runs or not?
ROLLINS: I would say she runs.
MOLINARI: Yes, I would say she runs but I do want to emphasize from a Republican Party's standpoint, I think Ed's absolutely right when we have, you know, we have senior stars like Governor Christie who, you know, has taken up a lot of national stage with his reforms.
Some great candidates like John Kasic (ph) who's probably going to be Governor of Ohio. Who was, you know, nothing but a political spitfire when he was a young member of Congress and balanced the budget for the first time in 40 years. We have a lot of stars coming onboard the Republican Party after this election.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll see if they can even claim a little tiny piece of the spotlight that's saving (ph) Sarah Palin right now.
MOLINARI: Right that's true.
ROBERTS: Susan Molinari, Ed Rollins, great to see you this morning.
MOLINARI: Thank you.
ROLLINS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thanks so much for coming in -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right guys. Thanks.
Well, you know, summer ends at 11:09 Eastern time tonight but the heat is sticking around. Rob Marciano is tracking all of that.
Plus, another disturbance in the Caribbean that could become our next named storm. It is the height of hurricane season. Rob comes to talk about it coming up.
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CHETRY: A beautiful shot from St. Louis, Missouri. Now earlier today we have said that there was some corrosion on that.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I can see it.
CHETRY: You cannot see it.
MARCIANO: Look how rusty it is.
CHETRY: It's sterling silver.
MARCIANO: Oh exactly.
CHETRY: It's stainless steel -- whatever it is.
It's beautiful this morning, the arch, its 68 degrees right now.
MARCIANO: That rusty arch.
CHETRY: Yes. It's a new drink in St. Louis.
Rob Marciano is following all of it for us as we wave goodbye to summer.
MARCIANO: Yes.
CHETRY: A turtle neck weather but short sleeved. I'm confused.
MARCIANO: And the spring colors so it's a --
CHETRY: No, yes and there's brown buttons. I mean, what are you going to do?
ROBERTS: You see now what happens in the autumnal equinox. You just, you get really confused. What do I wear?
MARCIANO: It's us. You can stand eggs on their tops and all of that kind of jazz.
CHETRY: I thought that was the vernal equinox.
MARCIANO: Well, either one of it -- all these fancy Latin words are confusing me.
This one is easy of the hurricane season, we have Lisa, the next one will be Matthew.
And the satellite -- well, we'll get to that in a second.
But first, I want to talk about Igor, because Igor slammed believe it or not at Newfoundland, Canada yesterday.
ROBERTS: Wow.
MARCIANO: Yes, look at the video. A dramatic stuff. It didn't actually make a direct hit but was close enough to do some damage as far as hurricane force winds. Five to 10 inches of rainfall swelling rivers there about 19 communities at one point cut off because of the torrential rain and storm surge there.
All right, now let's talk about what potentially could be Matthew. This is our disturbance in the Caribbean which is gathering some strength. The National Hurricane Center has put a red box around it meaning over the next 48 hours a pretty good chance it develops into at least a tropical depression if not a tropical storm so we're monitoring this. It is forecast to get close to the Gulf of Mexico as we get towards next week.
This in the Gulf of Mexico, remnants of Karl or just a flow from Karl, I guess you would say now. Rainfall over Texas has created some flooding conditions from Corpus Christi to Brownsville. More rain expected today and then a slow, drying-out process. Also some rain and moisture from tropical storm Georgette which we didn't really talk much about because it was in the Pacific. But now some of that is flowing up into Arizona and New Mexico. And they have flash flood watches out because of that tropical moisture.
Now, we have a little front; that's when we go across the Midwest. It's trying to push down to the south not having a great deal of success with that. And because of that temperatures are going to remain rather high over the next few days.
Check out some of these records yesterday. In Alabama, 100 degrees; Columbia, South Carolina, 98 degrees and in some cases, this is as warm as it's been this late in the year or in the season which is what -- summer, at least for now. Right? 86 degrees in St. Louis; 92 degrees in Atlanta. But tonight, at 11:09 yes. That's right. Fall arrives.
So break out the pumpkins and get the leaf blower out and get ready for the fall. It will be close to 90 degrees over the next couple of days. So do it in a short-sleeved shirt.
CHETRY: Right. Get ready for the fall. Wear your tank top.
MARCIANO: It will be cold soon enough.
ROBERTS: We'll be able to make pumpkin pie on the sidewalk.
You know, for all the predictions of a dangerous hurricane season, we have actually done pretty well so far. MARCIANO: We've been lucky. It's been well above average and the numbers are going to be very much above average for sure but getting hit by a hurricane, the U.S. has done remarkably well and we're hoping that luck continues. But the numbers are indicating that we'll probably see a few more storms before the season is done.
CHETRY: So they're still out there. It's just the track -- we've been lucky with the track.
MARCIANO: We have been -- like it.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: Ok.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob. We'll see you.
Well, the FDA is one step closer to approving genetically engineered salmon, a fish that grows twice as fast as a conventional farmed relative. Does it sound fishy? Would you eat it? Asking those questions this morning.
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ROBERTS: Four minutes now to the top of the hour. Time for your "AM HOUSE CALL", stories about your health. The Food and Drug Administration is right now considering whether to allow genetically- engineered salmon or what some people refer to as a frankenfish to be sold in grocery stores.
CHETRY: The industry says this genetically-altered salmon grows twice as fast as regular salmon but besides that is almost exactly the same. Critics though are not necessarily convinced.
Earlier we spoke to William Hallman, the director of food policy at Rutgers University. We asked him if this genetically-engineered fish really is safe to eat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: You have to wonder though if you're bathing a fish in growth hormones 12 months of the year as opposed to staging it in seasons or cycles, might the fish -- might you be introducing something into the food chain there that people could to react to -- maybe a food allergy?
WILLIAM HALLMAN, FOOD POLICY INSTITUTE, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY: Well, that's a question that the FDA has really looked at. And, you know, you as a human being are bathed in growth hormone all the time, as well. It is just a question of really how much.
This is a natural hormone. It's not anything that unnatural. It just allows the fish to grow winter and summer.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: Well, if approved that fish would be the first animal specially-engineered just for food. He had also talked about the fact that a lot of food we eat, a vast majority is genetically modified in some way from corn to soy to tomatoes.
ROBERTS: When you look, though, with the comparison between the wild fish and then the genetically-engineered fish, the same age and you see how much bigger it is, it does make you wonder what's going on inside old frankenfish there, doesn't it?
CHETRY: Yes it does. And the other question is whether or not it will even be labeled. We may not know if what we're eating is genetically engineered or not.
ROBERTS: Tip, if the fish is really big, maybe it's a genetically engineered.
CHETRY: Fifty-seven minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. Here's a warning for you. How about this one? This is a New York man who found this curled up on his toilet seat. Let's show it to you. It is a three-foot long corn snake also known as the red rat snake. Look at that thing. Eerie pale yellow just sitting there on the toilet and they think it came through the plumbing.
ROBERTS: Can you imagine? It came up through the plumbing, up through the toilet, wrapped itself around the toilet seat. So that's what's in your plumbing today.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: That's going to do it for us.
Kyra Phillips is in the "CNN NEWSROOM" and you give me heck about throwing dental floss in the toilet.
