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American Morning

Bill Clinton May Have Attempted To Broker Deal in Florida Senate Race; No Double-Dip Recession Expected; Enhanced Pat Downs; "The Daily Show's" 'Sanity' Stunt; Indonesia Volcano Erupts Again; Anna Nicole Drug Convictions

Aired October 29, 2010 - 06:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It is Friday, the Friday before Halloween. Also, Ali Velshi's birthday.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, stop. You guys stop saying that.

CHETRY: Happy birthday to you.

VELSHI: Thanks.

CHETRY: He loves it.

VELSHI: Good to see you, Kiran.

CHETRY: October 29th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

VELSHI: And I'm Ali Velshi, in today for John Roberts. Here are this morning's top stories.

Bombshell on the campaign trail just four days from Election Day, former president Bill Clinton is responding to reports that he tried to broker a deal in Florida to keep Republicans from winning a Senate seat. The Democratic candidate, Kendrick Meek, spoke to us a short time ago his side of the story and what the White House knew about all of this. Ahead in this hour.

CHETRY: Airport security screeners will be taking passenger pat downs to the next level. But the enhanced TSA procedure may be a bit too personal for many passengers. We're live at Reagan National Airport with the new rules and the controversy they're sparking just ahead.

VELSHI: And the North Koreans reportedly firing two rounds at a South Korean military unit near the border separating the two nations. And the South Koreans firing back according to news reports out of Seoul. No word yet if there were casualties.

CHETRY: Well, a lot going on in the final charge before Election Day, four days now until America votes. And this weekend you'll see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at their rally to restore sanity headed to Washington.

You've got the vice president, president, and first lady all heading out for one final campaign blitz. And of course "The Best Political Team on Television" is up early covering it all for you.

The big story this morning, the political drama unfolding right now in the Florida Senate race.

VELSHI: Reports of a backroom deal involving former president Bill Clinton. A plan to have the Democrat in the race, Kendrick Meek step aside and throw his support behind Charlie Crist to beat the GOP frontrunner Marco Rubio.

Rubio won that primary backed by the Tea Party. This morning, President Clinton is confirming he spoke to his friend Kendrick Meek about dropping out.

CHETRY: Well, the most recent "TIME" research poll shows why this may be happening. Republican Marco Rubio has a comfortable lead over Charlie Crist. Kendrick Meek is trailing Rubio by 26 points. Meek joined us a short time ago to say despite the polls, he is not a spoiler.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: You had a discussion with Governor Crist the other day. Has that discussion taken place?

KENRICK MEEK, (D) FLORIDA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Governor Crist talked to me about getting out of the race. I recommended to the governor that he should consider getting out of the race. This is before this week.

As far as I'm concerned, I look at Governor Crist as being a conservative Republican along with Marco Rubio. I'm not playing politics, I'm not doing backroom deals. I'm running for the United States Senate.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about the whole notion of President Clinton not asking you to get out. There are detailed reports saying Clinton himself made it clear he did speak to you about the issue and left it up to you to make that decision. Are you saying none of that happened?

MEEK: No, I'm not saying -- I just told you that President Clinton and I talked about it. Yes, we did. But he didn't say, hey, listen, this is my recommendation to you because that's not -- that's not his place.

The bottom line is he asked me about the reports of last week and the week before. Once I won the Democratic primary, I must add, by 26 points, which I was down ten points prior to the Election Day, the Crist campaign started their mantra of trying to lock me out of this race.

Let me just say this, the people of the state of Florida deserves a right to vote for the candidate of their choice. I'm qualified by petition, I'm the Democratic nominee. If Charlie Crist wanted to run as a Democrat, he missed the filing deadline to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK. This is a huge political story. We've got every angle covered this morning. What did the White House know about it? When did they know it? Ed Henry working his sources for us there.

Susan Candiotti joins now with President Clinton's response. Susan, you were in Philadelphia last night, you caught up with the president. And it seems from your interview with him that he was not aware the story had broken and the people were talking about it. You asked him whether he spoke to Kendrick Meek.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was very interesting to ask him these questions, let me tell you. President Clinton said Congressman Kendrick Meek talked with him at least a couple of times about Meek dropping out of the race. He said Meek asked him what he thought he should do, and he told him. But the former president refused to say what that advice was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: To be clear, you said he brought it up. But did you -- whose idea was it first? Did you reach out to him first?

BILL CLINTON, (D) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: No, I don't think so. It was -- I knew it was being discussed. And there was a lot of -- people discussed it on and off since Governor Crist got in the race. It was no secret.

But he was finally -- he wanted to discuss it with me so we sat down and talked about it. But I don't want to betray my confidential conversations with him because he's my friend. It's his life, his choice, his decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: And he said Meek was concerned that he and Republican Florida Governor Crist, who is running as an independent, are freezing the moderate and progressive votes. And that would dilute either one's chances to beat GOP nominee Marco Rubio, who is ahead, as you know, in the latest polls.

Mr. Clinton said Meek didn't have enough of a lead to break that lead. He would not elaborate at all about his meeting and even questioned how this came out. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Did you ask him to drop out, though?

CLINTON: No. We're friends, we had a conversation. It's personal. He should talk about it. He can tell you whatever he wants to tell you about it. I have no business talking about it and neither does anybody else. And I don't know what the source of it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CANDIOTTI: Well, one of the sources is, in fact, one of Mr. Clinton's spokesmen. The former president also denied he made the White House aware of his discussions with Mr. Meek. So obviously it's not over. A lot of talking to do.

VELSHI: You also asked him about Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's comments.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. Mr. Steele had said that he was critical of all of this. And he said Mr. Clinton should've kept his nose out of this whole thing and that he should allow the voters to decide who would be in this race.

But Mr. Clinton said, well, you know, I would expect Mr. Steele to say that. He wants Marco Rubio to win. Mr. Clinton denied race had anything to do with this. He said I think Mr. Meek would be the best senator.

And he said Mr. Meek obviously thought this through and he made the best decision he thought would work out for himself.

CHETRY: It's great you had a chance to get the former president to talk about it. And there are three different stories out there this morning. Three different versions, I guess.

VELSHI: They're coming a little closer now. Now we're starting to talk to everybody, it's making a little bit more sense.

CHETRY: Susan, thanks so much.

CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, there are a lot of questions this morning about the role the White House may have played in any of the decisions. Governor Charlie Crist, the independent in the race, spoke to FOX News Channel last night about that and also about how he first worked to make the deal with President Clinton's senior adviser before he got personally involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you speak to anybody at the White House?

GOV. CHARLIE CRIST, (R) FLORIDA: Yes, I did.

VAN SUSTEREN: Who did you --

CRIST: I had conversations with those close to Mr. Clinton.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did Mr. Meek say anything to you like he was considering dropping out?

CRIST: He did say it was considering it. In fact, on a couple of occasions, he had already agreed to do so but changed his mind. And people have a right to do that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Ed Henry's live for us at the White House this morning with more on this. He said he did have contact with the White House, Charlie Crist saying this. What do we know about what the extent of that was?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, a senior Democratic Party official told me the White House was certainly aware of what was going on and they were hopeful that all of this was going to come through.

In fact, this senior Democrat said the White House thought over the course of last week or so on at least two occasions that Kendrick Meek had agreed with former president Clinton that was the path forward, and they thought this was going to happen and they were very hopeful inside the White House here that this was going to pave the way for Charlie Crist bringing in some of the Democratic votes as an independent in beating Marco Rubio the Republican and Charlie Crist next year would caucus with the Democrats on Capitol Hill and basically give them a Senate seat.

A Senate seat, we should point out, they desperately need because there's all kinds of other seats the party's likely to lose. But they wanted to stay far from this, not have their fingerprints on it because the White House has been burned before where they were too close to trying to push him out and it really blew up in their face.

CHETRY: That's the question, though, about Charlie Crist as a candidate. Even if meek were to say, fine, let me bow out, you have a former governor who was popular but was not Republican enough or conservative enough to win the primary, forced to go independent, and now saying in order to keep his political life alive he may caucus with the Democrats. How does that play with independent voters?

HENRY: Well, it could completely backfire and may be playing right into Marco Rubio's hands. His advisers putting out statements saying this is back-room politics at its worst and it plays into his idea that Charlie Crist has been all over the map. Now he's reaching out trying to get the Democrats and get the candidate out. He's talking to the White House, talking to former president Clinton's advisers.

And so it plays into the notion that Charlie Crist is playing all sides and playing into the notion, by the way, that this White House doesn't think Kendrick Meek can win and that's why the Democratic Party wants him to get out.

And so it completely undercuts Kendrick Meek right now who insisting he's still viable. It seems Democrats don't think he can win.

CHETRY: It'll be interesting to see the results on the Election Day and the polls leading up to it. Thanks a lot, Ed.

HENRY: Thank you. VELSHI: And if you are interested as many of you are in watching results on Election Day, "AMERICAN MORNING," in fact, starting Monday we'll be on an hour early on Monday and Tuesday starting at 5:00 a.m. eastern.

And then after the election on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, we're getting on-air at 3:00 a.m. eastern the morning after the election. So we'll kind of be on continuously. And keep in mind, there will be races where we're going to be wanting to pay close attention, particularly some tight races in California, Colorado --

CHETRY: And we may not know the results by the time we go to air the next morning, but we'll follow it throughout the day.

It's beginning to look like Sarah Palin has her eye on the big prize --

VELSHI: Beginning to look like?

CHETRY: Up until this point she has not said a lot or anything definitively about whether or not she'd run for president in 2012. The former Alaska governor was on "Entertainment Tonight" last night. When Mary Hart asked her if she was running for president, she appeared to lay the ground work for a bid. Let's listen to the exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY HART, HOST, "ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT": Everybody is analyzing and debating whether or not you are already running and setting yourself up to run in 2012. Are you going to run for president?

SARAH PALIN, (R) FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: You know, I have not decided what I'm going to do in 2012. I don't think any of the potential candidates have. I think that still it is too early for anybody to get out there declaring what their intentions are.

For me, Mary, it's going to entail a discussion with my family, a real close look at the lay of the land, and to consider whether there are those with that commonsense, conservative, pro-constitution passion, whether there are already candidates out there who can do the job and I'll get to be the biggest supporter and the biggest help if they will have me, or whether there's nobody willing to do it, to make the tough choices and not care what the critics are going to say about you just going forward according to what I believe the priorities should be.

If there's nobody else to do it, then of course I would believe we should do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Wow.

CHETRY: Wow. VELSHI: She didn't say anything there. She did offer to be helpmate to people. She said if nobody else would do it, she might consider it. Yes, that wasn't an answer. But a good, long one.

CHETRY: Yes. When Palin was asked about how it feels to be one of the most polarized figures, she says her views are not that extreme.

VELSHI: It is 12 minutes after the hour.

(WEATHER BREAK)

CHETRY: Still to come, Verizon Wireless shelling out tens of millions of dollars after charging customers for services they didn't want. We'll have details on the settlement and whether or not you'll be seeing any money coming your way.

VELSHI: And a new book by George Bush hits store shelves in 11 days. We'll tell you what the former president considers his greatest achievement and biggest failure.

CHETRY: And airport screeners getting more touchy feely with passengers. The TSA is rolling out its new enhanced pat downs. We're live at Reagan National Airport just ahead.

VELSHI: It is 14 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back. You love that song, right? Gets you in the spirit of Halloween.

Seventeen minutes past the hour. New this morning, Verizon Wireless is going to be paying a record $25 million to settle an FCC investigation into allegations that it charged customers for data services that they didn't want. The payment is on top of the $2 to $6 refunds per customer that are going out. It's been estimated 15 million. So where are the millions?

VELSHI: So it will be about -- $60 million will go out to customers. $25 million will go to the treasury as a fine, which totals about the amount that Verizon overcharged everybody. So, there you go.

CHETRY: There we go.

VELSHI: The FBI confirms the same gun was used in three late- night shootings at military facilities outside Washington, D.C. The Pentagon and the Marine Corps Museum were targeted earlier this month. And the latest shooting took place at a marine recruiting center this week. No one was injured in any of the shootings.

CHETRY: Well, it's another black eye for BP. According to government investigators, the oil giant and one of its contractors, Halliburton, knew there was a problem with the cement that they were planning to use to reinforce the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. They used it anyway, just hours before the rig exploded back in April killing 11 people and triggering the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

VELSHI: George Bush's new book "Decision Points" hits store shelves November 9th. The former president says his greatest accomplishment was keeping America safe in a time of danger. His biggest failure, not passing social security reform.

And how does it feel to be an ex-president? Mr. Bush says he now walks his dog with a plastic bag on his hand. And when he was president, there would be a guy with a plastic bag on his hand following behind.

CHETRY: But times have changed, haven't they?

Well, the San Francisco Giants are halfway there. They shut out the Texas Rangers 9-0 last night to take a two game to nothing lead in the World Series. They scored seven runs in the eighth inning busting the game wide open. The Giants have never won a World Series since they moved to San Francisco 56 years ago. But hey, it's not over yet. The series resumes tomorrow, game three in Arlington, Texas.

VELSHI: And Rob is saying weather is going to be nice for that one.

A former McDonald's employee not loving his weight gain, so he sued the fast food giant and won. We'll tell you why and how much he could get.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: That's one of our wonderful employees, Lexi.

VELSHI: A very spirited one.

CHETRY: I thought she looked like Elle Woods. She said, no, she was just a bunny. She looks like Elle Woods in -- what was it?

VELSHI: "Legally Blonde."

CHETRY: Thank you.

VELSHI: Yes.

CHETRY: Favorite movie of Ali.

VELSHI: Why can't it be things that I know that might make me look like I -- never mind. All right.

Good morning.

CHETRY: Good morning. We're back again. Some of the stories that got us talking in the newsroom this morning.

VELSHI: Get ready for round two. Reports this morning that Bill O'Reilly could be returning to -- "The View." A show insider on "The View" said it was TV gold when host Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar stormed off the set earlier this month. CHETRY: He's been on "The View" more than half a dozen times.

VELSHI: Yes, yes.

CHETRY: And Barbara said that's the exact thing she didn't want it to be that it looked like there --

VELSHI: Right. When they walked off and she said this is exactly what's not supposed to happen, I was thinking when I was watching it -- it's not bad TV.

CHETRY: Yes. Exactly.

Well, here is a table tip if you really need this one. Don't chat and chew. The ZAGAT restaurant guide found that 63 percent of Americans find it annoying when people talk on their cell phones or text during their meals. I thought it would be actually a lot higher. Who wants to be --

VELSHI: Right. Yes, yes.

CHETRY: But they do say that diners say it's all right if you want to take a picture of your food in moderation.

VELSHI: Which I think is a little bit weird, too.

CHETRY: Yes.

VELSHI: All right.

CHETRY: I do too.

VELSHI: And you know the long running joke about men not wanting to stop for directions. I'm actually one of them. It's no joke.

A study out of the U.K. found that on average, men there drive an extra -- listen to this, 276 miles because they refuse to ask for help. I think that the advent of GPS has solved a lot of that. I mean, a lot of guys who just get a GPS because they never want to have to ask for directions.

CHETRY: Exactly. You guys are better at it, though. You just want to know am I going north or south and sort of figure it out from there.

VELSHI: Right, right.

CHETRY: If I didn't have a GPS, I would literally drive around in circles.

VELSHI: Right, right -- 276 miles, that's kind of interesting to me.

CHETRY: I'm not afraid to ask for directions.

VELSHI: Yes. CHETRY: Well, in McDonald's in Brazil, one employee won this lawsuit. McDonald's in Brazil ordered to pay a former employee who gained 65 pounds while working on the job $17,500. That's what he's going to get. He sued saying that he felt pressured to eat the food every day as part of his job.

VELSHI: I feel pressure to eat food.

CHETRY: You walk in, oh, I'm not a Big Mac again, guys.

VELSHI: And I'm not even in the food business.

CHETRY: Oh great. And McDonald's can appeal the ruling and is currently weighing their options. But meantime, he won.

VELSHI: You meant that as a pun. They're weighing their options.

CHETRY: They're weighing their options.

VELSHI: Yes, and I feel pressure to eat a lot. I don't think there's any way I can sue for it.

CHETRY: No, I don't think you can. Nobody is going to work for you here.

VELSHI: Listen, the story that I'm very interested in because I fly all the time, I fly several times a week -- this new TSA rules. What do they call them? Enhanced pat-downs.

CHETRY: Enhanced pat-downs, yes.

VELSHI: I don't know how everybody feels about this. I am not nearly as troubled by that. Like I figured if they've done science and they've figured out that there's a way to get more information about what you're bringing onto a plane, I fly a lot, I like being safe.

CHETRY: Yes. Well, airport screeners are going to be getting a lot more personal, subjecting passengers to as we said enhanced pat downs. But not everyone feels like Ali. There are a lot of people who say it's just a little too invasive. We're going to take a look at the new rules and the controversy just ahead.

Twenty --

VELSHI: Go ahead.

CHETRY: No, you go ahead.

VELSHI: I love doing this. It's 25 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Glass half empty, glass half full. That's what we're talking about today, as we figure out whether or not our economy is heading in the right direction. It may not feel like it to a lot of Americans, but apparently there are some good news on the economic front because leading economic forecasters now say that there will not be another recession what they call a double-dip any time soon.

VELSHI: But if things aren't getting worse, the question a lot of people have, are they getting better? If they are, when are we going to start to feel like it's getting better?

So let's bring in Lakshman Achutan. He's the economic analyst and managing director with the Economic Cycle Research Institute and, of course, Christine Romans with us, as well. Welcome to you both.

LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC ANALYST: Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

VELSHI: So Lakshman has told us --

ACHUTHAN: Yes.

VELSHI: -- and you've written an article that is on on Money.com that your research -- and you do this for a living and you have for a quarter century, your company -- indicates no double-dip recession. That's the part we're celebrating?

ACHUTHAN: Yes, the news is, the forward-looking longer leading indicators of the economy. So not what's going on now but what's going to happen in the future. We've been able to rule out this fear of a double dip. And we've been talking about it for months now. All summer, people have been worried as the economy has faltered that we might have a return to recession.

VELSHI: Right.

ACHUTHAN: And what we're saying here is categorically that is not going to happen. We're not slipping into recession now or any time soon. And so that is one part of this whole kind of nightmare scenario that we can push aside.

VELSHI: Why does Christine look so stern?

ACHUTHAN: Yes.

ROMANS: Because it means that if you're not moving forward in the economy right now, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to start moving forward. It means we're not going to, according to your research, have another recession or double dip, but it means that if you are sitting at home and it feels like a recession to you, there are no indications that things are getting better tomorrow or next week.

CHETRY: And that's the question, Lakshman, that we're wondering about as we keep reading these stories piece meal. I mean, one, of course, is the unemployment. The high unemployment that we haven't seen tick down at all.

ACHUTHAN: Yes.

CHETRY: The other one is this reporting that, you know, you have companies sitting on extremely large amounts of cash. $1.3 trillion, one of the estimates, in cash, yet they're not hiring and it doesn't seem that, you know, we're doing the things that will bring us back to prosperity.

ACHUTHAN: Well, OK, so to Christine's point first. We are going to continue slowing. We started to slow a couple of months ago. That's going to continue this year and into next year.

So saying no recession is very good --

VELSHI: -- continue to slow, not go backwards.

ACHUTHAN: Exactly. So we're still making progress. We're still in the recovery room. We're not going back into the operating room. OK. So it's not going to get really bad. But we're still in the recovery room, we're not out of the hospital. And when you talk about businesses holding on and hoarding all these cash, it's a lot, it's about confidence. A lot of it is about the fear of a double dip. Because the companies that are hoarding the cash today are the ones that didn't fail during the recession and they're scared.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) this is what we should be doing and this is what everybody else should be doing. You have to save money and get a cushion because we don't know what's going to happen going forward. And they could borrow money so cheaply. They could borrow money so cheaply that they're sitting on as much cash as they possibly can.

ACHUTHAN: In a way, the good news if we're not having a recession, they're going to still have the demand coming in the door. You're still going -- so we're going to see GDP and production numbers. They're going to get weaker, jobs numbers may even get a little weaker. They're not going to go negative. That is the key take away from all of this.

VELSHI: OK.

CHETRY: The scariest thing for me, Christine, and I brought this statistic to show you, this federal report earlier this month showing that one out of 34 Americans who had a job in 2008 earned zero income in 2009. And when you take it altogether and you take into account all, you know, underemployment, et cetera, you could be looking at a 22 percent or higher unemployment rate.

ROMANS: (INAUDIBLE) and you look at the percent of the working age population that's actually working is 58.5 percent. I mean, that's on par with economies that aren't efficient and aren't even moderate. You know, I mean, that's a significant problem. And we've also got this under employment -- people who have been long-term unemployed. And we've talked about this a lot. As a society you have to decide, are you going to as a society support financially people for a period of years. VELSHI: We're going to have a chance to make those decision next week. A lot of people will cast their ballots based on whether they should be extensions to the unemployed. And there are choices to be made. You can look at how the U.K., the conservative government in the U.K. has decided that they're about austerity, pulling back, government not spending as much versus the Obama administration, which is saying this is the wrong time to be pulling that back. Stimulus versus austerity. A lot of people don't know that's the decision they're going to be making at the ballot box. But it kind of is.

ACHUTHAN: Well, it is and you know they're making this gut emotional decision and they don't feel good, right? because we haven't recovered what we made from the recession. So they want to react to that. However, even if you were to implement either of these policies now, it wouldn't make a difference in the coming year. It changes the contours of the playing field. The economic playing field years down the road, not any time soon.

So you know, we have our emotional --

VELSHI: That's a good point.

You're going to the ballot box mad because somebody told you they're going to cut deficits and cut taxes or continue spending, but the ultimate effect on the economy immediately is --

ACHUTHAN: Nothing. Pretty much nothing.

VELSHI: Lakshman, good to see you.

ACHUTHAN: Thank you. And at least good news, glass half full at this point.

ROMANS: No double dip.

ACHUTHAN: No double tip.

ROMANS: Lakshman.

CHETRY: Maybe that'll help with the confidence and help bring us the cash.

ACHUTHAN: Exactly.

CHETRY: Thanks, Christine, as well. 33 minutes past the hour. Right now, time for a look at our top stories.

VELSHI: Florida Senate candidate Kendrick Meek denies reports that former president Bill Clinton tried to convince him to drop out of the race. We spoke to Meek last hour, he insists he is in the race to win it.

CHETRY: Also developing now, the North Koreans reportedly firing two rounds at a South Korean military unit near the border, which separates the two nations. The DMZ (ph) on the South Koreans fire back, according to news reports out of Seoul. No word of any casualties.

VELSHI: President Obama may be softening his opposition to same- sex marriage. Earlier this week he told a group of liberal bloggers "attitudes evolved including mine." The White House spokesman said the president has been discussing the issue with colleagues and co- workers who share their stories about being singled out for being different.

CHETRY: Well, on the CNN security watch now. It's an alternative to those revealing full-body scanners. Airport security procedures will be more hands on. The TSA currently phasing in new procedures calling them enhanced pat downs. Some people say the new searches are too invasive, that they allow contact with body parts that are previously off limits and it's not sitting well with some.

Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is live at Reagan National Airport for us this morning. First of all, explain what they mean when they're talking about these enhanced pat downs, Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, probably, Kiran, the best way for me to describe this is to tell you the story of Rosemary Fitzpatrick, who says she felt humiliated and violated by this procedure. Rosemary is a CNN employee. She is also a frequent traveler. She was flying through Orlando on Wednesday night when her underwire bra set off a metal detector. They didn't have advanced imaging technology, those body scanners, so screeners told her she would have to undergo this new pat down procedure. She said "they touched her breast area. They ran their hands over her buttocks, through her inner thighs and even briefly touched her crotch."

Here's her thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSEMARY FITZPATRICK, FLIER: Just the thought of having my parents who are in their 70s be subject to this type of behavior and screening is appalling to me. Even children who are traveling alone. I can't imagine children having to be put through this type of a process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The Transportation Security Administration says this is about security. They issued a statement saying pat downs are one important tool to help TSA detect hidden and dangerous items such as explosives. Think, for instance, about that underwear bomb carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab sewn right into his underwear. The thought is that perhaps a pat down like this might be more apt to detect an explosive like that. Kiran, Ali, back to you.

CHETRY: All right. Who is going to be getting these enhanced pat downs?

MESERVE: Well, the TSA says a very small number of travelers in the end will end up getting these. There's some specific categories that would be subject to them. Specifically, they'll be used on people who refuse to use those body scanners, the advance imaging technology. They'll be used to resolve anomalies that show up when someone goes through one of those body scanners. Also, to resolve alarms that go off when people go through metal detectors. And also they'll be used on people picked for random screening.

So they say the percentage of fliers going through this will be relatively small. They'll always be done by same-sex screeners. And if a passenger wants to, they will be done in a private screening area. That wasn't much comfort, however, to Rosemary Fitzpatrick, who says she will be doing a lot less flying because of this new pat down procedure. That's how discomforted she was by this.

Back to you.

CHETRY: All right. Jeanne Meserve for us this morning at Reagan National. Thanks so much. I love this e-mail we just got from one of our colleagues who shall remain nameless. He goes, "here's your choice, guys, the porn x-ray or fondling."

VELSHI: Right. It's somehow they're going to find out more stuff about you. And you make that choice.

CHETRY: Yes. Friendly skies get even friendlier.

VELSHI: Yes. No kidding.

CHETRY: Well, coming up. Politics, Comedy Central style. We're going to preview this weekend's dueling D.C. rallies headlined by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Oh, sorry, Ali, I forgot (INAUDIBLE). Go ahead.

VELSHI: (INAUDIBLE) It's 37 minutes after the hour.

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VELSHI: So it basically started as a stunt, born on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart's show on Comedy Central, but now it's attracting people who are serious about its message, which we're not even sure is serious. But people are going to this rally.

CHETRY: Yes, just how political will tomorrow's "Rally to Restore Sanity" get? Our next guest was there when the idea came together. Chris Smith is a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. Spent six weeks working on a profile of Jon Stewart and the staff of the "The Daily Show." Thanks so much for joining us.

CHRIS SMITH, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Thanks for having me.

VELSHI: Was it a joke when it started?

SMITH: Yes. I mean --

CHETRY: Was he poking fun at Glenn Beck's rally to restore honor, right? SMITH: Yes, that was the initial motivation and he wanted to see whether Beck's rally was going to be a big deal. It did obviously turn out to be a big success in a lot of ways. So Stewart wanted to mock that and generally sort of over the top political rallies. There's also a little tiny bit of comedic jealousy. You know, Jon's friends with Conan O'Brien who had this big tour this summer. Jon and Colbert got on stage at one point, at a dance off at Radio City, and Jon told me, you know, for a stand-up comic he was usually out there with a stool and a bottle of water, the idea of putting on a show, you know, in front of a wild, live audience is a great draw.

CHETRY: What else did he tell you about why he's doing this? And what is the feeling of "The Daily Show" of what this may end up being. I mean, when you see 310,000 people and counting on Facebook say they're going.

SMITH: Well, much like "The Daily Show," comedy comes first, but the reason the show has had an impact and has a serious following is there's real thought behind the jokes. You know, it's not just the site gags. So yes, he's pushing moderation, sanity, there are going to be no overt calls, vote for this person, vote for that person, legalize pot or you know, stop killing animals. It's going to be a gag. That's the riskiest part.

VELSHI: Well, we -- Kiran and I spoke to a couple earlier who went from Indiana. That drove from Indiana to D.C., they're going to this rally. They're Jon Stewart fans. They've been watching it for eight or nine years but the wife told me that she was hoping something would happen that would actually change political discourse. And the husband told me he thinks that discourse in this country is as partisan and inflamed and polar opposite as it's ever been. And he thinks this is a way to try to change this. There are people going there with some serious goals in mind.

SMITH: No question. And I mean, and Jon is a genuinely almost, you know, corny guy when you start talking to him about civic involvement and stuff like that. And yes, I think he succeeded already no matter how many people actually show up tomorrow.

VELSHI: Because we're having this discussion?

SMITH: Because he's injected sanity moderation, this whole discussion over the past couple of weeks that has gotten a tremendous amount of attention.

CHETRY: It's also interesting because there are other groups that are using this as an opportunity, as well. We talked about some, you know, liberal groups, NARAL Pro-Choice, Organizing for America, other groups that are going to be out there, trying to sign people up.

VELSHI: They'll have tables out there.

CHETRY: They're going to have tables. I mean, is this in some ways an opportunity for more progressive or liberal political voices to try to get new recruits? SMITH: Yes. I mean, everybody and their brother's going to (INAUDIBLE) on to it -- you put potentially 100,000 people in the mall three days before the mid terms elections, yes, people are from all sorts of groups. Not just liberal, I think, because Jon's audience and demographics are pretty down the middle. You know, left, right, and in between. So yes, everybody's going to be out there trying to pull in a few extra votes three days before the midterms.

VELSHI: One of the things that we discuss. And this is probably -- this is the larger discussion that sort of permeates this kind of discussion. Is Jon Stewart becoming a political player?

SMITH: Yes. I mean, anybody who has got President Obama on the show is a political player. You know, Jon has been very careful to this point to stay away from demagoguery or self-righteousness or overt advocacy.

You know, yes, he's sympathetic to Obama and the Democrats. He's not hiding that. He gives them a hard time, you know, when he can.

But he knows that for him to be out there and self-important is what kills the jokes and he is at bottom a comedian.

CHETRY: Right, so he's sort of putting himself out there in this. I mean, it could be a dud.

SMITH: Yes.

CHETRY: You know, there is some risk involved in doing this.

SMITH: No, I think that's not -- is it going to be overtly political? It won't be. You know, there won't be politicians speaking.

It could be Evel Knievel trying to jump the Snake River Canyon. I mean, it could be a flop. He talks about it being similar to things, stunts, skits the "Daily Show" did around the New Hampshire primary several years ago. The scale, the expectation here is much, much different.

VELSHI: The expectation and how people read into it.

SMITH: Yes.

VELSHI: And the response to it.

SMITH: But, you know, I'm keeping sanity alive by going to my kids' soccer games tomorrow afternoon. So he's going to draw an interesting crowd.

VELSHI: All right, very good. Chris, good to see you.

SMITH: Thanks for having me.

VELSHI: Chris Smith, contributing editor with "New York" magazine.

CHETRY: Thanks for being with us this morning.

VELSHI: Well, after three weeks, the jury finally reaches a verdict in the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial. The fate of her attorney, boyfriend, Howard K. Smith, just ahead.

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CHETRY: And once again, "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.

VELSHI: Back by popular demand.

CHETRY: Back by popular demand, a Halloween favorite.

All right, it is 46 degrees right now as the sun is rising over Atlanta. Makes you miss it, doesn't it, Ali?

VELSHI: It does.

CHETRY: Seventy degrees and sunny a bit later today. So it's going to be pretty nice there in the ATL.

VELSHI: It is 10 minutes until the top of the hour, which that makes a perfect time to get a check of this morning's weather headlines with our good friend, Rob Marciano in Atlanta. Hello, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Guys, there's no better Halloween song than "Thriller." It appeals to everybody.

CHETRY: Which one, if it's between "Thriller" or "The Monster mash," what are you going with?

MARCIANO: I got to go with "Thriller" because you get the kids into act. It appeals to everybody including the giant jack lantern that continues to pop out of St. Louis.

Here's your Trick-A-Treat forecast for Sunday night, 58 there -- a lot of places especially east of the Rockies going to enjoy a pretty nice weekend including trick or treat night and that means it will be chilly.

You know, typical Halloween temperatures, but it's not going to rain in many spots. This Tropical Storm Sherry, winds of 40 miles an hour. It will affect Bermuda later on today, but this of year jet stream just blows it out to see. So we're not worried about it, but there are two other areas of concern in the tropics.

We're not done with hurricane season just yet. We're pretty much done with the rain across the I-95 corridor. This may give you a spritz later today, a little front, reinforcing cold front moving across upstate New York right now.

But the front that gave all the severe weather across the southeast now has moved off out to see and we are looking at chilly temperatures already. You know, longer nights. All you need is some clear air and dry air helps, too.

Longer nights of fall really drop the temperatures, 40 degrees right now in Memphis. It's 32 degrees in St. Louis so we've got frost and freeze warnings out there.

And, boy, they just snuck the game in last night before the rains are rolling in this morning across San Francisco there with the rain for at least parts of California, 64 for the high.

Look how we rebound nicely after the chilly morning across the mid section, 61 in St. Louis and 57 degrees in New York City, starting finally to feel like fall just in time for the holiday weekend. Back to you guys in New York.

CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Rob.

Well, there are new allegations against Toyota. Did it try to cover up problems by buying back so-called runaway cars? We're going to talk about it coming up. It's --

VELSHI: Nine minutes until the top of the hour.

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CHETRY: Well, people in Indonesia are once again scrambling for safety. Another eruption. A massive plume of smoke and ash 5,000 feet high and they feared this could happen.

No deaths or injuries reported this time, but at least 32 people were killed when the mount exploded Tuesday. Just a day after more than 400 in Indonesia were killed by a tsunami triggered by an earthquake.

VELSHI: A tsunami, earthquake, volcano eruption, another volcano eruption.

Two convictions in the Anna Nicole Smith prescription drug trial. Smith's lawyer and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, found guilty of two counts of helping supply the former "Playboy" playmate, a known addict, with prescription painkillers.

Her psychiatrist also convicted on charges related to a Vicodin prescription. Smith's doctor was acquitted of all charges. It took the jury three weeks to reach its verdict.

CHETRY: Here's some new allegations against Toyota this morning that it tried to buy back problem cars. New court filings accuse Toyota of secretly repurchasing vehicles with sudden acceleration problems and forcing owners to sign confidentiality agreements.

Toyota said in a statement that it did repurchase two vehicles after further engineering analysis, but it was to investigate the problem, not to cover anything up.

VELSHI: And is candy getting a bad wrap? With Halloween, a National Food Writer and self proclaimed candyholic said sweets with misunderstood.

You should let your guard down and stop popping M&Ms this weekend, maybe, maybe not. We're going to chew it over with Corby Comer of the "Atlantic" magazine at 8:40 Eastern.

CHETRY: See, that's the interesting thing. His argument is candy, you know it's sugar. OK?

VELSHI: Right, other things --

CHETRY: Granola or --

VELSHI: It's got all the sugar.

CHETRY: Frozen yogurt. Not to knock any of that as well, but candy is just candy.

VELSHI: You know what it is. Take it in moderation, but he has been advocating an all-candy diet, which I think is a little suspicious.

CHETRY: Yes, that's tough. You have to add in cheese fries. Can't be just all candy. We'll take a quick break. Your top stories in three minutes.

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