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Civil War in Libya; Senate Budget Battle; Tornado Hits Town in Alabama; Discovery Lands After Final Space Mission; NPR President Resigns Amidst New Controversy; Man Whose Son Committed Suicide Due to Bullying Speaks Out; Newt Gingrich May Soon Announce Run For Republican Presidential Nomination

Aired March 09, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Ali, thank you so much.

As you know, we are right now in the midst of a very rough day of wild weather in the Deep South. In fact, there's a small town just about 15 miles south of Mobile in Alabama. It's called Theodore in what is believed to be a tornado created what one witness calls 30 seconds of pure hell. Look at some of the damage there, roofs just destroyed.

We have our own CNN producer, Stephanie Oswald. She is in Theodore. She will be our eyes and our ears on the ground in a matter of minutes.

But, first, breaking this afternoon, the Libyan government has just announced a huge reward for the arrest of the man who is leading the opposition to Moammar Gadhafi. And despite all these reports that Gadhafi himself was in talks to step aside, he is showing no signs at all of backing down.

Take a look at this map. Here's what's happening right now on the front lines. Anti-Gadhafi forces are advancing on multiple fronts. And I want to take you to a town. It's a town we have talked about before, Ras Lanuf. It's in the eastern part of Libya, where some of the most intense fighting is happening right now.

Pro-Gadhafi fighters, they pounded this strategic oil city by air and on the ground. They fired crushing artillery. They used rocket power on the rebels. And even though opposition forces were outgunned, they did not allow Gadhafi's men to gain control there.

What we're hearing, though, is at least one oil storage tank was blown up and there are also reports that the refinery in Ras Lanuf has now been shut down. Not too far from the nation's capital, there's a town called Zawiyah. The fighting there has intensified. CNN has been unable to get back to Zawiyah since Monday, but Libya state TV is reporting that government supporters were on the streets. They were there today.

They were dancing. They were chanting pro-Gadhafi slogans and waving. You can see a bunch of them, the green Libyan flags. Now, is the scene, a very far cry from the horrifying accounts our CNN correspondents are hearing firsthand.

And it was just about this time yesterday we were waiting -- I know Nic Robertson was waiting for some six-plus hours for this man to show up at a Tripoli hotel. And he did finally show up at a Tripoli hotel, but we didn't actually hear from him. Then last night Libyan TV, they did air the footage of Gadhafi saying, yet again, the opposition forces are misled and even drugged by al Qaeda.

Gadhafi says the motives, they are not about him. But he says they're about oil. In fact, he said this -- quote -- "This is what America, this is what the French, those colonialists want."

I want to bring in CNN's Nic Robertson, who is still there in Tripoli, still, as we know, Nic, a Gadhafi stronghold. And as I said, after hours and hours of waiting yesterday for Moammar Gadhafi to speak at that Tripoli hotel, we now know he spoke to tribal supporters and not you and other correspondents there, 100-plus there waiting for him. Also today, we're hearing about this reward. Let's just start there. What can you tell me about that?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The reward is something I don't have any details on at the moment.

I can tell you about Zawiyah at the moment. We don't have any current information coming from Zawiyah. The best information we had is still from yesterday, when a doctor managed to get out of the town. He said that two doctors had been killed, two clinics had been closed down by the military.

And the pictures that we have seen on state television today from the outskirts of Zawiyah show Gadhafi supporters. This is an image that apparently is supposed to convey the fact that the government now has control in Zawiyah. But we can see from these pictures these Gadhafi supporters and not in the center of the city, where the rebels are. They're on the outskirts of the city.

And just over the last few hours, the government here has told us that they will take us to Zawiyah to see the situation for ourself. We actually left the hotel and started heading there. They turned us around and brought us back. Apparently, I believe the oil minister is due to give a briefing soon about the situation in Ras Lanuf.

And we're now being told that there will be another trip, even though it's the middle of the night here, to take us back to Zawiyah. So really what's exactly happening there is not going to be clear to us for a little while, at the (AUDIO GAP).

BALDWIN: I know you were in Zawiyah a couple of days ago. And there you go trying to go again. They say they will take you and you get turned around.

Let me ask you about some video. Apparently we got some video in from Bin Jawad, where Gadhafi's forces appear to have control there. Let's listen. We can hear some people shouting, some sort of perhaps gunfire. Nic, in terms of Bin Jawad, who's gaining more ground in this part of Libya? ROBERTSON: It's the government.

Initially, the rebels had taken control of that town. The government's organized itself, got the army back in full force, coordinating it more with the air force. And they have got more troops pushing into that area.

It appears they have taken control of Bin Jawad. In fact, if you watch state TV, Libyan state TV, here in the capital, you will see pictures of what the government says are dead fighters from the rebel side. And you can see a reporter being taken around by a soldier in that area. You can see a lot of desert sand covering some of the bodies that are there. So this is the government showing its people that it's winning in that area, Ras Lanuf obviously much more contested at the moment, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nic Robertson once again live in Tripoli. Nic, my thanks to you as always.

And as we speak here, the U.S. Senate is voting on a Republican plan to keep the government running. But are both parties getting hung up on some of the wrong details? We will get a live report from Capitol Hill. That will be up next.

Also, some are calling him, some are calling him a modern-day McCarthy. Others are praising him for trying to combat terrorism. But who is New York Congressman Peter King? Did you know that he once supported a group that killed innocent civilians? Dana Bash spent the entire day with him and got to ask him about that. She's going to join me live coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Check this out with me. This is a live picture of the Senate floor. This is obviously happening right now, budget votes in the Senate .

Now, Brianna Keilar is up there to help me tell this whole story, but first let's make sure we're all on the same page. We know that we're talking here about the budget for year 2011. That's key to keep in mind. Now, that is fiscal year 2011, which actually ends October 1, which means, check your calendar, we're already halfway through this fiscal year and we still don't have a formalized budget.

So the U.S. government still spending a heck of a lot more than it's taking in, which everyone now agrees is a great big problem.

Back to Brianna in Washington.

And, Brianna, what are they doing up there today to try to get all these numbers straight?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, they're doing something. I wouldn't say it's going to straighten out all of these numbers, though. We're actually watching two votes right now, one under way as we speak on a big package of spending cuts, $61 billion in cuts, another vote we're going to see on a smaller package of spending cuts, $6 billion worth, and here's the thing. Both are expected to fail. So this says to House Republicans -- and, yes, this is happening on the Senate floor, but this is to House Republicans who already passed this big package of cuts, you know what? This isn't going to fly here in the Senate.

And then it says to Senate Democrats who really don't want many cuts, that's not going to fly either. And then, Brooke, it sort of sets the boundaries for these negotiations on the spending cuts that we're ultimately going to see.

BALDWIN: But we have had, Brianna, weeks and weeks of this. Is there any sort of indication they're any closer on getting this thing done?

KEILAR: We don't know if they're closer. What we do know -- and we have talked about this, Brooke -- is that neither Democrats or Republicans want to see the government shut down a week from Friday, right? House Republican leaders, remember, they are the ones really pushing the big cuts here. They are acknowledging that they may need another short-term funding bill to fund the government beyond the end of next week, so that Democrats, Republicans and the White House can continue talking.

And we do know that today the four top Democrats in the Senate are at the White House talking to the president about exactly what they can sign onto. So, in short, negotiations are continuing.

BALDWIN: Let's assume, though, for a moment that they eventually get 2011 squared away. But then, once 2011 happens, obviously they have to do 2012, right? So, Brianna, is that where they're really sort of cutting the deficit? Might that really begin in earnest for 2012?

KEILAR: Yes, definitely, Brooke. And here's why.

If you think of federal spending as a pie, think of it as like a pie chart, we're talking about just a very small slice of the pie when we're talking about the cuts that are being voted on right now in discretionary spending. That red bit, that yellow bit, that is the small piece of the pie that we're talking about now.

Now, the vast majority of federal spending, it goes to the Defense Department. It goes to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare; that was that blue part of the pie that you saw there. And you had just yesterday the bipartisan leaders of the president's own fiscal commission telling Congress, essentially, you guys need to focus on the big stuff here, entitlements. The cuts you're proposing, that is chump change. And if you don't tackle entitlements, the folks who buy U.S. debt, China, are going to stop doing that.

The really scary thing they said that really grabbed me yesterday, Brooke, was this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN SIMPSON, FORMER CO-CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM: I think that when the people that hold this paper look around, and all you have done is cut waste, fraud and abuse, foreign aid, Air Force One, Pelosi's aircraft and all this, and Congress pay, that they know that you didn't get anywhere.

ERSKINE BOWLES, FORMER CO-CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM: Just stop and think for a minute what happens if they just stop buying our debt. What happens to interest rates and what happens to the U.S. economy? The markets will absolutely devastate us if we don't step up to this problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What happens? Financial catastrophe. That's what you heard Alan Simpson, former GOP senator saying. That's what you heard Erskine Bowles there, former White House chief of staff under Clinton.

And how much time are we talking about, Brooke? They both said two years, maybe less, unless Congress really buckles down and starts to tackle spending.

BALDWIN: Brianna Keilar, we know you're watching it every single iteration and chapter of this whole thing.

KEILAR: Yes.

BALDWIN: Brianna, thank you.

Coming up next, we will stay on Capitol Hill. And a lot of you are asking, who is this congressman, who is this New York congressman behind tomorrow's Muslim radicalization hearings? Well, Dana Bash has some answers. She takes us to his office filled with reminders of 9/11 and asks him about his connection to a group that killed innocent civilians.

She's going to join us live to explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, we told you about an apparent tornado. It is not yet confirmed. But take a look at this video that we have quickly turned around for you. Look at this truck on its side.

This is around the service station that obviously is partially obliterated. We talked to a witness, witness saying they experienced 30 seconds of hell, pictures from the food World Down there. We do have a producer on the ground working to confirm what happened. You can see the exteriors, though, unbelievable stuff. We will figure out what happened, if there are any injuries and sort of an overall assessment of the damage here in a matter of moments.

But I want to move on. I want to take you back to Capitol Hill, because the man of the hour in Washington is Congressman Peter King. His big hearing we have been talking about it, it takes place tomorrow, and he's most definitely a man on a mission. But that much is sure.

But some are saying he has gone too far. And since we're talking about terrorists, what about Peter King's past support for the Irish Republican Army, the IRA?

Here he is, Congressman Peter King, his story told by our own Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the chairman's seat. This is chairman's gavel.

REP. PETER KING, New YORK: Yes, it's all this, right here. This is where it's going to be.

BASH (voice-over): Homeland Security Chairman Peter King preparing for his hearing on what he calls radicalization of Muslims in America. To some, akin to Joseph McCarthy's 1950s communist witch hunt.

That Peter king is the modern-day Joseph McCarthy.

KING: I would say, first of all, there's no basis for it. And secondly, I would tell people wait and watch and listen to the hearing.

BASH: King has not always been at odds with Muslim Americans. In the 1990s, he backed U.S. action in the Balkans to defend Muslims there. KING: I was not popular in my district, but I did it because it was the right thing to do. I thought the Muslim community in those countries is being victimized.

BASH: He had a close bond with leaders of this mosque and others in his New York district, then came 9/11.

KING: It switched when I saw the Muslim American community not responding the way they should have. When they were trying to cover up for Al Qaeda, when they were trying to blame it on Jews and the FBI, the CIA, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

BASH: Like comments from now former friends like Ghazi Khankan.

GHAZI KHANKAN, FORMER MEMBER, ISLAMIC CENTER LONG ISLAND: And I said we should also investigate the possibility of Israel being involved, and that changed his opinion 100 percent.

BASH (on camera): You've been called a man obsessed, obsessed with a Muslim radicalization. Are you obsessed?

KING: No, I am very focused. I lost so many people in my district on September 11th and within a 30-mile radius of my home, probably a thousand people -- over a thousand people were murdered on September 11th. BASH (voice-over): His office is filled with reminders of the attack.

KING: Funeral after funeral after funeral. And that one, sort of, I don't know, to me, it captured it all.

If you ask me what I think about going to work every day, it's 9/11 and preventing another 9/11.

BASH: King says that requires cooperation from U.S. Muslim leaders, which he insists law enforcement is not getting, but some call King's efforts against American Muslim terrorism now hypocritical. King is Irish American. In the 1980s, he was an active supporter of Gerry Adams and an Irish group the state department then deemed terrorists, the Irish Republican Army.

(on camera): The IRA was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths and effectively were a terrorist attacks.

KING: I knew what Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness were attempting to do within the IRA, and I was saying that continually that there is a real opening here if the United States would take advantage of it to be an honest broker. Bill Clinton did that.

BASH (voice-over): He insists the IRA was a legitimate force that had to be dealt with to achieve peace.

Back in his committee room, King says he knows his hearing on radicalization of U.S. Muslims is stirring anger against him, accusations of bigotry, but has no apologies.

KING: Hey, listen, I would love to be -- I would love to be loved. I'm -- you know, I'm not a masochist. But on the other hand, I have a job to do. And I would not want to wake up the day after an attack and say, I should have done something differently.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And there she is, Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.

And, Dana, the news about the Irish Republican Army, a lot of Americans might not have had any clue about that bit about his past. Does Representative King's past support of the IRA at all undercut his credibility as the chair of the Homeland Security Committee?

BASH: Well, some say there's no question that it undercuts it, because they call him flat-out a hypocrite.

And what he says in response to that is that he -- he understands where those people are coming from, but he insists that it is different. And he gives a number of reasons why, but I think the biggest reason that he gives, this is what he says, is that the IRA never engaged in any terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland.

So, Brooke, I sort of gamed that out with him. And I said, OK, let's just say hypothetically that did happen and it happened on your watch while you homeland security chairman. Would you call a hearing and have a hearing of radical Irish-Americans?

And he said absolutely. That was his answer. But it's important to note that not all of his friends who agreed with him when it came to Northern Ireland agree with him now. For example, one of his -- an Irish-born writer who was close with him wrote on IrishCentral.com that he doesn't think King is doing the right thing in holding these hearings, dealing with radical Muslims in America.

He said, "I no longer recognize the politician I have known for 25 years."

BALDWIN: There is all kinds of information, criticism, pontification on tomorrow's hearings. We're observing it all.

Dana, we appreciate you going straight to the source. Dana, thank you.

And as we continue talking about these hearings, when we come back, one of the very few who will be testifying at tomorrow's hearing, and he knows a little bit about the Muslim community. He is Muslim.

Also, later this month, CNN's Soledad O'Brien is going to take us into this dramatic fight over the construction of one particular mosque in Tennessee. They're calling it "Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door." It airs Sunday March 27, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We might as well just call it the King hearing, the hearing tomorrow in Congress on radicalized Muslims in America. And stand by because I'm going to speak with this man. He will be there tomorrow testifying. He is Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. And stand by for him.

But I want you to keep this in mind. Even though the hearing has yet to begin, some are comparing as you heard in Dana Bash's piece Peter King to the communist-hunting Senator Joe McCarthy, the guy whose hearings back in the 1950s came to be viewed as a witch hunt. Well, I guess we will all watch and wait and see. But let's listen right now to a prominent Muslim speaking today in Washington, not too thrilled about the hearing tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAHID BUTTAR, BILL OF RIGHTS DEFENSE COMMITTEE: Were Representative King sincerely interested in investigating the roots of domestic extremism, he would explore the threat posed by people who bombed federal buildings in Oklahoma. And if he were sincerely interested in investigating the roots of violent extremism, he would explore the threats posed by people who have flown planes into IRS buildings in Texas or people who have assassinated health professionals in the middle of their church services in Missouri.

But he's not. These aren't the kinds of threats. It's not domestic extremism in which Representative King is interested. Representative King is interested in scoring cheap political points by vilifying vulnerable communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that is the kind of thing we're hearing from some of America's Muslims. And I told you we would talk to Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. And I think Dr. Jasser for joining me here.

I want to begin because it's special to have you on because, as I said, you are actually testifying tomorrow. I want to ask you twofold. Why have you agreed to testify, and what do you hope comes out of this hearing? What do you hope it achieves?

ZUHDI JASSER, AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY: Well, I have agreed because really my mission, my whole life and actually since 9/11 when we formed our American Islamic Forum for Democracy, is we see terrorism and radicalization as simply a symptom.

The underlying cause is the need for reform, enlightenment, the separation of mosque and state. And that identity -- identification of our children, young adults, Muslims with this society has been breached in many cases and we need to connect that and go through a reform.

And this is an opportunity to do that. I hope these hearings are a platform for positive exchange. I hope the vitriol melts away and the theater goes away and we simply look at the ideas at really beginning to have a national conversation about a problem that we definitely need to acknowledge exists and look at solutions.

BALDWIN: Dr. Jasser, you talk about vitriol, and something we're hearing from Muslims is that Congressman King has stated unfairly that they are refusing to help law enforcement, i.e., the FBI, track down potential terrorists.

I want you to listen to something with me. They're saying that is flat-out wrong. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO BEUTEL, MUSLIM PUBLIC AFFAIRS COUNCIL: We have found that two out of every five al Qaeda-related plots threatening the United States since 9/11 has been thwarted with the assistance of Muslim communities. Within the past year, that number has actually spiked to three-quarters of such plots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That Muslims are helping thwart plots. Dr. Jasser, what's your response to that? Is he right, or is Congressman King right?

JASSER: I think they're both right.

Clearly, the majority of the heroes in thwarting plots are American Muslims. But this, when we talk about cooperation, it's not sort of a binary thing where you either cooperate or don't. The cooperation -- I have never met a Muslim that wouldn't turn in a jihadist at that step where they say they're going to attack.

But the Nidal Hasans of the world didn't become radical or violent at that last step overnight. It was a process over years. And there is an ideology -- again, it's not all 100 percent great or zero problematic. There's a continuum there. And cooperation is the same way. There's ideologies from some mosques, from some organizations that tell Muslims, America is against Islam. America is against Muslims. We should unite as a community.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Forgive me for interrupting. You mentioned Nidal Hasan.

But let's talk about public enemy number one. The government says American-born Anwar al-Awlaki has eclipsed now Osama bin Laden as the number-one terrorist threat. He's young. As we have seen, he's Internet-savvy. What can you offer perhaps coming from within the Muslim community about al-Awlaki's influence?

JASSER: Well, what we offer is, if you look at al-Awlaki, right now every Muslim would say that and these groups would say that he's bad and we need to fight him, et cetera.

But they weren't saying anything when he was giving sermons in Denver mosques, in San Diego mosques, in Northern Virginia mosques. He himself before he became a radicalizer was being radicalized. And we haven't -- for all the talk they're saying about addressing other groups, of over 220 arrests and convictions from the Department of Justice, over 180 of them are Muslims.

I can't help the non-Muslim problem of violent extremism. But what I can do, as I fear for the legacy of my children that are Muslim, we can start to repair some of that ideology, not the majority, but that minority ideology that's influencing the radicalization of people like al-Awlaki and others before they become violent extremists.

BALDWIN: Well, we will be watching for you, Dr. Jasser, and several others testifying and perhaps the hearings will open more of a dialogue here. I appreciate you coming on. We will be watching for you tomorrow in Washington. Thank you.

And, as I have been mentioning throughout here, we have been monitoring tornado watches and warnings all around the Southeast today. And we're getting some video -- look at this with me -- from at least one of the places we believe a tornado has hit. We're taking you to Alabama. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We want to get you back to the severe weather we've been watching sort of popping up in the deep south. We are seeing heavy rain, flooding, tornadoes across multiple states. These are pictures from Metairie, Louisiana. And in one small town, Theodore, Alabama, just about 15 miles south of Mobile, what is believed to be a tornado created what one witness there called "30 seconds of pure hell."

I want to go to CNN's Stephanie Oswald there in Theodore. Stephanie, I mean, the pictures sort of tell the story here. But what are you seeing from your vantage point?

STEPHANIE OSWALD, CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Brooke. Well, I can tell you I just talked to one of the police captains, he said it was a miracle no one was injured or killed. We've seen a lot of property damage. I can tell you there's a water tower right to my right, and that is apparently where the reported tornado hit down.

And it's almost as if it hopped over the street because the wires are intact, street signs are intact. But you can see that the gas station behind me has been pretty much demolished.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow. That's a gas station.

OSWALD: And there's a half mile stretch of complete demolition. Yes. Take a look.

BALDWIN: That is or was a gas station.

OSWALD: And they said a lot of the property -- yes. It's pretty bad, the property damage. Another big problem was cars. There were several dozen cars that were damaged, a lot of glass breakage. They said they had to tow about two dozen cars because they could not identify the owners. So that's the real damage here.

BALDWIN: You mentioned, thank goodness, no fatalities. Any injuries? And also have you talked to anyone there who saw this thing pass through?

OSWALD: Brooke, there were three injuries, three people were transported by ambulance, but their injuries were minor, basically from flying debris because this happened at about 8:45 local time. So people were in the grocery store, people were in the parking lot. Again, a miracle that nobody was hurt more seriously.

BALDWIN: Thank goodness. Look at that police presence.

OSWALD: We didn't speak to anyone who actually saw the damage.

BALDWIN: Hopefully you can and we'll check back in with you. Go ahead, real quickly.

OSWALD: I was just going to say to keep in mind this area because they are so used to getting hurricanes they're very quick to respond. So the police department, the fire chief, they were all here within ten minutes of touchdown.

BALDWIN: That is fantastic. Stephanie Oswald, thank you so much.

OSWALD: Also, big, big day for the space shuttle Discovery. It landed today for the final time. But do you know what mission control told the crew the moment it touched down? You're going to hear that. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, today is the day for NASA's record books. It is the end of an era, so to speak, the final space shuttle Discovery final mission. The aging shuttle landed at Kennedy Space Center just a couple of hours ago. There it is. It racked up more than 148 million miles in orbit. Discovery has spent 365 days in space during its lifetime spread out over 39 different missions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And nose-gear touchdown and the end of a historic journey. And to the ship that has led the way time and time again, you say farewell Discovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: John Zarrella was there at Kennedy Space Center as "discovery" touched down. John, I know you have seen "discovery" in action many, many times. I imagine today was a bit bittersweet.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No question about it, Brooke. You know, I did see Discovery. I saw it on both of the -- it flew both return to flight missions after the tragic losses of Columbia and Challenger. Of course it flew John Glenn into space. I was there for that one. This is one of those moments where you watch it and you just say, this is it. You know, one down safely and two more to go, Atlantis and Endeavor is right there behind me in the vehicle assembly building.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow.

ZARRELLA: Yes. Bad weather coming into the cape tonight. They were planning to roll out to the launch pad for the April 19th launch. They're holding off. Either tomorrow or Friday they'll go out. Right away the next one ready to go.

BALDWIN: Just curious, what do they do with the space shuttle? With Discovery.

ZARRELLA: Discovery will spend about nine months. They'll clean it out, get all the hazardous materials out, take the engines off. And then it's going to the Smithsonian. That's the plan right now. Discovery will be at the Smithsonian.

Endeavour and Atlantis will go to museums but there's quite a battle going on. Every museum or place like the Kennedy Space Center, visitor complex, they want one, up at Dayton, Ohio at the air force museum there, they want one. Johnson Space Center, everybody wants a shuttle. Only two are going to go anywhere else besides the Smithsonian.

BALDWIN: Only so many to go around.

ZARRELLA: And NASA wants $28.8 million for each one. So they got to put up the money.

BALDWIN: That's not chump change at all. We'll be watching for Atlantis and Endeavour. I'll be headed to the Smithsonian. John Zarrella, what a cool job you have to watch these things up and down. We appreciate it.

Another day, another resignation at NPR, and this one is huge, folks. This time it's the CEO.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Today we are seeing a major leadership shakeup at National Public Radio with CEO Vivian Schiller resigning today. And all of this comes after conservative activist James O'Keefe caught yet another NPR executive making controversial remarks on hidden camera.

It was fundraising chief Ron Schiller, no relation to Vivian Schiller, shown on that piece of video. He did resign yesterday. And I want to bring in CNN's Brian Todd here with more on the story, the undercover video and the fallout. I understand here that Ron Schiller actually had another job lined up separate from NPR, right, and is now losing that before even getting started?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He has lost that job, Brooke. The other shoe dropped just a short time ago. The Aspen Institute, the prestigious think tank where Ron Schiller announced he was headed before all of this came out now says he will not be working there.

And they're placing that decision on him. In a statement, the institute says Ron Schiller informed them that in light of this controversy, he doesn't feel it's in the best interest of the institute for him to work there, not clear if Schiller was helped along in that decision or not. This all comes after Schiller was caught, of course, in that very damaging setup.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: You're looking at a sting operation, a setup by people who know how to do it. NPR foundation executive Ron Schiller thinks he's meeting with a potential donor but he's actually being punked. Here are clips he says about Republicans and the Tea Party.

RON SCHILLER, PRESIDENT, NPR FOUNDATION: The current Republican Party particularly the tea party is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian. I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move.

TODD: In the edited video, an actor posing as a Muslim foundation executive is heard prompting him for his --

SCHILLER: Basically, they are -- they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting --

TODD: This meeting was set up by conservative activist and filmmaker James O'Keefe. I spoke with O'Keefe via Skype.

TODD (on camera): Why NPR?

JAMES O'KEEFE, CONSERVATIVE FILMMAKER: My colleague Sean Adelaide who posed as one of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood was pretty offended with what happened with Juan Williams. And he suggested looking into NPR after that incident back in the fall.

My other colleague, Simon Templar, came up with the idea to have a sort of Muslim angle since Juan Williams was fired due to his comments.

TODD (voice-over): I spoke with NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller, who's not related to Ron Schiller, over the phone.

VIVIAN SCHILLER, NPR CEO AND PRESIDENT: The comments made by Ron Schiller are an affront to this organization and are contrary to everything we stand for, as a news organization. We stand for diversity of opinion and tolerance and open-mindedness. And I -- his comments did not reflect those values.

TODD: As head of the NPR fund raising arm, Ron Schiller is not involved in NPR's news operations and his views are not aired on NPR. Schiller had announced last week he was leaving NPR for a new job.

Schiller did not flinch when the supposed Muslim foundation leader said that Jews control the media and that the fictitious Muslim group was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But NPR said it rejected a $5 million check they offered.

Critics have long lambasted NPR as slanting liberal. Last year NPR was criticized by conservatives for taking a grant of more than a $1 million from George Soros, the billion who supported left leaning causes, and for firing analyst Juan Williams after he confessed on FOX News that he's uncomfortable when he sees Muslim-garbed passengers on a plane.

The House Republican budget passed last month would eliminate funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by 2013. For O'Keefe, NPR is not his first target. Past undercover sting videos of his embarrassed liberal groups like Planned Parenthood and ACORN. He's accused of creatively editing out parts of his sting interviews. But O'Keefe says the unedited NPR video is posted on his website.

O'Keefe pleaded guilty last year after being caught trying to access the phone system of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu. Last summer he even tried to embarrass a former CNN correspondent on a boat set up with sex toys and hidden cameras, according to a 13-page planning document. A former O'Keefe associate warned CNN at the last minute.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: OK, Brian, I've got a couple of questions for you. First things first -- what does this mean for NPR going forward?

TODD: It's very damaging to NPR. Some other comments that Schiller made in that undercover video are getting considerable fallout. In that undercover video he said that NPR would be better off in the long run without federal funding. NPR quickly repudiated that, saying they don't share that view, that federal funding is crucial for public radio. But it's given ammunition for house Republicans who have been trying to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. House Majority leader Eric Cantor said this morning, quote, "We'll proceed along those lines." It's really given them ammunition.

BALDWIN: James O'Keefe, these hidden camera videos, first he got ACORN, now he caught in NPR on camera. Would it be possible he's gaining any credibility with each of these stunts?

TODD: That's really a point of debate. Both he and his team, his people who do this, they call themselves "investigative journalists," but some people who monitor the industry, including Howard Kurtz of our own "Reliable Sources" says he doesn't think it's journalism. He points out these guys do this through lying and deception. They get people to sit down and talk.

But is it very different from what other mainstream news organizations have done when they've gone undercover? That's a point of some debate. I don't have the answer right now. It's being debated in the public forum.

BALDWIN: Brian Todd, appreciate you coming on. Thank you.

Next, the president and first lady take to Facebook to try to make sure no father has to go through what this man went through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK SMALLEY, BULLYING LED HIS SON, TY, TO SUICIDE: I was responsible for my son's safety. No matter what, no matter where he was, it was my job to protect him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we're going to tell you what the president and first lady are doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, this just into CNN here. Live pictures from the Senate floor, Senator Al Franken speaking. That Senate vote we told you at the top of the hour, the Senate has defeated the House Republicans' bill that would cut $61 billion in spending for the rest of the year, so now they are going to vote on a democratic version which would cut $6 billion. By the way, that is expected to fail as well, and if and when that happens they are back to the drawing board to keep the government running past March 18th.

Now to our trending segment today. This is an important one because of a man, his name is Kirk Smalley. His son Ty committed suicide last year after being suspended from school for standing up to his bully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMALLEY: I have to make a difference. I promised my son on Father's Day this year I'd stop this from happening to another child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Kirk Smalley has taken a stand against bullying, and tomorrow he gets his biggest audience yet at the White House. I want to bring in our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry because we know, Ed, social media plays into this and that is why it's trending today. Is this the first time, Ed, that we've seen the president and first lady kind of coming together on a video on Facebook?

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly the first time I remember them taking such a big initiative and certainly the president has used Facebook, Twitter, social media to reach out and campaign and organize people for political causes, but to kind of say, look, let's put politics aside and let's take what is such a serious issue.

When you play that sound from that parent it just tears your heart apart. I think the White House wants to bring attention to this tough subject and they are going to use social media. Take a look at what the president and first lady did. This video they posted on Facebook starts with a little bit of a joke and then gets a little bit serious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For a long time bullying was treated as an unavoidable part of growing up, but more and more we're seeing how harmful it can be for our kids, especially when it follows them from school to their phone to their computer screen.

MICHELLE OBAMA: That's why we're holding this summit, and that's why we're asking you whether you're a student, a teacher, a coach, or a parent to join us.

OBAMA: You can participate in the conversation online. Find more resources and be a part of this growing campaign at stopbullying.gov.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Well, the president started it by saying, look, "I didn't come here to friend you," obviously that was the joke. But the bottom line is the founder, it gets better, project on this whole situation. Came on "American Morning" and said, look, the president is saying the right things so far, but the key is going to be what kind of action is actually taken after this White House tomorrow, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We'll be watching tomorrow. What a brave father to come out despite what happened to his son, speaking up, speaking out. Ed Henry, my thanks to you. And coming up, a woman who knows some of those men and teenagers who Texas who are accused of gang-raping an 11-year-old girl. We'll hear that interview and had a she's saying about that neighborhood.

Also Wolf Blitzer will be here to talk about what's happening in politics right now. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And now CNN = Politics update. We have Wolf Blitzer in Washington with the very latest off the CNN Political Ticker. And time once again, Mr. Blitzer, to talk about Newt Gingrich. We know he disappointed us, disappointed Jessica Yellin who schlepped all the way down to Atlanta.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": She was there.

BALDWIN: He had a very short press conference. What do you have on him today?

BLITZER: He's now saying he's going to announce probably in late May. That's the word he was on a conference call today, Newt saying he would probably announce in front of Philadelphia's Independence Hall in late May, that he was going forward.

He admits, by the way, that the way last announcement about creating some sort of exploratory committee, in his word, didn't exactly work out the way he wanted it to work out. "I concede last week's announcement got cluttered," he says, "in ways that were pretty foolish, but we've moved beyond that."

So he's making it abundantly clear he's getting ready to run for the Republican presidential nomination, and now he's saying the formal announcement will come in Philadelphia in late May, at least that's what he's saying in a conference call with former staffers and supporters earlier in the day.

Another Republican is seriously thinking of running, probably will run, is Mississippi governor, the former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour. He's off to Chicago for an economic address. He's going to Iowa once again.

So all of the indications are that Haley Barbour is going to seek that Republican nomination as well. No word on when he'll make his announcement but that seems to be moving ahead.

Finally a sad note to report, the Washington press corps, David Broder, unfortunately has passed away from complications of diabetes. A lot of our colleagues know David Broder and read his columns in the "Washington Post," saw him on television. He was 81 years old. Very, very sad. He was a great journalist. We're sorry that we have to report that he's now passed away. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, any quick preview, any one big guest you have coming up on "THE SITUATION ROOM"?

BLITZER: John McCain.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow.

BLITZER: John McCain will be in "THE SITUATION ROOM" today. As you know, he favors a no-fly zone. He's getting hammered by some people who don't like his idea of a no-fly zone. The White House is lukewarm. We heard Bill Daley, the White House chief of staff over the weekend, say those who are talking about a no-fly zone should know this is not a videogame.

Robert Gates, the defense secretary, says this would be big time, effectively an attack on Libya because you've got to go and knock out the air defense system, the surface-to-air missiles, crater the runways, so in effect this is an attack on Libya.

John McCain's got his response. He's very outspoken on that, also recognizing the opposition as the legitimate government of Libya. So John McCain, the ranking member of the Senate armed services committee, will be my guest later today in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 5:00 p.m. eastern, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you, Wolf Blitzer. We'll check in with you a little later this hour. Also we'll get you another Political Ticker update in half an hour. You can always hop online to get the latest news off the Political Ticker. Go to CNNpolitics.com or on twitter go to @politicalticker.