Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Governator's Shocking Confession; No Bail for IMF Chief in Rape Case; Bomb Scares During Queen's Visit; Floodwaters Force Evacuations in Louisiana; Chopper Wreckage Returned; Berlusconi's Party Losing Elections; Trump Not Running for President
Aired May 17, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a stunning admission from Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former California governor reportedly confirming that his marriage is over after he told Maria Shriver he fathered a child with a member of their household staff. We're live in Los Angeles with the latest.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And Pakistan is preparing to return the wreckage of that U.S. stealth helicopter that crashed during the raid on bin Laden's complex. It's expected to happen sometime today, but is it too late to resurrect an already fractured relationship?
CHETRY: Also, he's gone from a $3,000 a night suite to a prison cell at Rikers Island. Bail denied for IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn who's now facing charges of attempted rape.
ROMANS: A lot going on. We've got it all covered right now on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Two stories breaking right now. First a bombshell that broke up the former first couple of California. "The Los Angeles Times" saying Arnold Schwarzenegger has a secret child.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Protecting the queen on a historic visit to Ireland. Police say they defused one bomb and were forced to check out another suspicious device on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning.
CHETRY: Good Tuesday morning. Good to see you this morning. Great to be with you. Ali is a little bit under the weather today, but we'll see him back here tomorrow.
ROMANS: That's right. He'll be back tomorrow for sure. A lot of news to follow today including a big story developing out of L.A. this morning.
CHETRY: It was really unbelievable to even hear this this morning. But yes, according to "The Los Angeles Times," quite a bombshell this morning.
They're breaking a story out of California that the former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, admitted fathering a child with a former member of his household staff and that is why the marriage broke up. Schwarzenegger says it happened over a decade ago, but that he only told his wife, Maria Shriver, after he left office earlier this year.
ROMANS: That's when Shriver moved out of their Brentwood mansion. She has not commented. Schwarzenegger saying he has no excuses for his behavior, that he's sorry for the hurt he's caused his wife and children.
Casey Wian is live in Los Angeles this morning.
Casey, when the couple announced that they would be splitting and living separately but they didn't say they'd be divorcing, already then questions are being raised and tongues are wagging about why now. And I guess now we have the answer.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Christine. It's hard to believe that Schwarzenegger could become even more controversial after his two terms as California governor, than he was during, but he has. "The Los Angeles Times" as you mentioned reporting this morning that before he ran for office in 2003, Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a member of his household staff. According to a statement he gave the paper, quote, "After leaving the governor's office, I told my wife about this event which occurred over a decade ago. I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry."
Now, of course, it was only a week ago that Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver announced they had separated after 25 years of marriage. Then they said in a joint statement, "At this time we are living apart while we work on the future of our relationship."
That relationship was clearly strained during Schwarzenegger's run for governor when several women came forward and claimed the actor groped them. Schwarzenegger then apologized and Shriver stood by her husband. The so-called governator took office amid promises of reforming California's notoriously gridlocked government but when he left, there were record budget deficits and low approval ratings -- Christine, Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, and the other thing that people are remarking on today is, how was he able to keep this a secret for 10 years? You know, an entire decade and only have it be known only to his immediate family, at least what it appears, 10 years later?
WIAN: Well, some of the things that "The Los Angeles Times" is reporting this morning include the fact that Schwarzenegger has apparently according to one source been providing financial support for this child and also the former household employee who the paper is not naming, said that she wanted to put in her 20 years, survive 20 years of working for the couple. She did that, then retired from their employ about two years ago. That's about all we know.
CHETRY: All right. Casey Wian for us from Los Angeles, thanks so much.
ROMANS: So the Schwarzenegger stunner leads us to our question of the day this morning. We want to know if a politician's private transgressions matter to their public life.
CHETRY: That's right. Tell us what you think. You can e-mail us, tweet us or go to our blog or find us on Facebook. We'll be reading your comments later in the hour.
ROMANS: Now to the case that's sending shockwaves around the world. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is behind bars in New York City charged with trying to rape a hotel maid. At his arraignment yesterday, a judge ordered Strauss-Kahn held without bail saying the 62-year-old considered a frontrunner until now to be the next president of France saying he is a flight risk. He was arrested on a plane moments before takeoff for Paris.
CHETRY: Yes. And right now, he's locked up at New York City's notorious Rikers Island in an 11 by 13 foot cell, separated from the general population. The defense disagrees but prosecutors say there is strong evidence to back the victim's story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCCONNELL, ASST. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: And restrained a hotel employee inside of his room. He sexually assaulted her and attempted to forcibly rape her. When he was unsuccessful, he forced her to perform oral sex on him.
BENJAMIN BRAFMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He is presumed innocent and this is a very defensible case. There are significant issues that we have already found simply with the preliminary investigation and in our judgment makes it quite likely that he might ultimately be exonerated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be back in court Friday. Our Deb Feyerick has been following the story. She joins us now with the latest this morning.
Hi, Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, listen, I can tell you, I mean, as you said this is a man who could have been the president of France if polls are correct. He has gone from the very height of his career now to the very depths that his lawyer says that forensic evidence will not be consistent with a crime that suggests this was a forcible act. Remember, he is charged with attempted rape after the chambermaid went into the hotel room and apparently when she was in there, he attempted to grope her and force himself on her.
Now, the alibi, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alibi, that right now is under investigation. His lawyer says that one of the reasons he was hurrying to the airport was not because he was actually trying to get away from the scene, but, in fact, because he had lunch with his daughter and then had a scheduled flight, a flight that was scheduled weeks before this incident ever took place.
Now the judge did deny bail. She said that the fact he was at JFK suggests to her that, in fact, there was nothing that could keep him in New York City. His lawyer argued, otherwise, saying he's got a daughter here, he's got a house in Georgetown. Still, the judge set -- denied bail.
I spoke to a former prosecutor who says probably the bail issue will be renewed at the next hearing. But right now, he is charged with criminal sexual acts in the first degree, attempted rape in the first degree, along with a handful of other charges, but his lawyer saying this is defensible and possibly they will be exonerated.
Meanwhile, more is coming out on this poor woman that apparently she's a religious woman, a devout woman, and she has a teenage daughter and she's from a French speaking part of West Africa.
CHETRY: Wow. You know there have been others asking about that flight risk, the questions about that flight risk. People saying look what happened with Roman Polanski. I mean, France and the U.S. don't have extradition agreements.
FEYERICK: Not when it comes to sex crimes.
CHETRY: That's right.
FEYERICK: Not when it comes to sex crimes. And that's the big question. And again, this is a man who's got so many resources behind him. He's got millions of dollars and so he could have technically if he's got nothing to keep him in France now, that it seems his reputation is certainly not intact, then he could have sort of gone anywhere and disappeared according to experts I spoke to.
ROMANS: Meantime, there are those in France who see that perp walk, which is sort of a New York Police Department, NYPD tradition and they're actually outraged by that.
FEYERICK: Yes.
ROMANS: Because in France they say you are presumed innocent until proven guilty as the case here, but they say you would not see something like that of a public figure in France until they were actually convicted of a crime. So they feel as though the United States behaved in cruelty.
CHETRY: Right. It's a cultural thing. Actually you can't see anybody. Not even just politicians. Isn't it a crime to show, to publish photos of people in handcuffs if they have not been --
FEYERICK: Yes, in certain countries. Absolutely in certain countries it really is. And it's interesting because I spoke to a former prosecutor of sex crimes, and I said, you know, does this appear to be a rush to judgment? Was this an overly aggressive move going to the airport, getting him off the plane, especially since you have what really amounts to an allegation? And this former prosecutor said no, it's not. They really had no alternative. Once this chambermaid immediately filed charges against this man saying that this had happened, I mean, she went straight to report this. When she told her bosses, they called the police. The police called special victims unit. So they really had no alternative because he was set to leave the country. So they did what they felt was right.
His lawyer, by the way, says, you know, look, this is a man who actually called hotel security to say look, I've forgotten my phone, could you bring it to the airport for me? And when he did that, police said, tell him we'll bring it to him and that's when he was taken off the plane.
ROMANS: Interesting.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROMANS: All right, Deb Feyerick. Thanks, Deb.
In the 7:00 hour, Deb is going to talk to a prosecutor turned crime novelist, Linda Fairstein, about the especially trained New York detectives who captured the IMF chief before he could actually leave the country.
CHETRY: All right. Switching gears, talking about Pakistan now. They've agreed now to return the tail section of that American stealth chopper that crashed during the Osama bin Laden raid. That exchange is expected to happen today. You may remember that Navy SEALs were forced to blow up the helicopter during their escape trying to destroy any evidence after a mechanical malfunction. But the tail section remained intact. The U.S. has demanded it be returned.
ROMANS: Senator John Kerry is in Pakistan. The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announcing the deal to bring the wreckage home, calling it step number one towards easing tensions between these two countries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she'll be heading to Pakistan soon. A date for that visit hasn't been set yet. The State Department says she will conduct in-depth strategic discussions to improve cooperation between the two countries.
Certainly it is a strained relationship. Senator Kerry's visit there paving the way for that tail section of that chopper to come back, but a lot of work to be done on this relationship.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
Well, also in Libya now, explosions and flames lighting up the night sky in Tripoli. The government says that NATO air strikes targeted two key buildings downtown. One was the government's anti-corruption headquarters and the other across the street housed the head of Tripoli's police force. No word yet on casualties and no comment from NATO.
ROMANS: Seven weeks after a San Francisco Giants fan suffered a traumatic brain injury in a brutal attack outside Dodgers Stadium, the LAPD is expected to hold a big news conference with new details about the persons of interest in this case. The attack happened in the parking lot on opening day. The victim, Bryan Stow, remains unconscious and in critical condition. The 42- year-old paramedic and father of two was taken out of a medically induced coma yesterday and moved to a hospital closer to his home.
CHETRY: Well, brace yourself for a busy summer in the skies. The Air Transport Association's annual forecast predictions showing that U.S. airlines will carry 206 million passengers from next month through August. That's about 34,000 more per day than last year. That's still substantially below the all-time peak back in 2007 before the recession hit. So if you got used to getting a little bit of extra leg room or elbow room because the -- yes, the planes were crowded. Oh, well, that's changing.
ROMANS: All right. Right now, it might be a little crowded up in the space shuttle Endeavour. I mean, I think they've got a lot of equipment up there.
It's rocketing towards tomorrow's rendezvous with the International Space Station. It's Endeavour's first full day in space on its last mission ever.
We're getting a whole new look at yesterday's launch. A woman aboard a Delta flight over Florida, she took this video of Endeavour breaking through the cloud cover heading for space.
You saw the liftoff, you know, from here, live on CNN, and then here's this woman taking a Delta flight over Florida and she sees this and snaps it on her phone and it's, you know, wow.
CHETRY: That's pretty cool. A very unique perspective. A little bit of a bonus, yes, in the skies.
Let's check in with Jacqui Jeras right now. She's got a look at the morning headlines.
Finally, it was nice enough, right, for them to be able to do that launch.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. It's only a 70 percent go for the weather, so good thing everything turned out.
Not looking so great for flights in the northeast and mid-Atlantic today, by the way. We've got this area of low pressure that's cut off from the main flow and it's bringing in some really heavy rain showers along with strong gusty winds. It could be as much as 20, 30 miles per hour this afternoon. Flooding can be expected here as two to four inches is expected and in addition to that, we're expecting some coastal flooding and that happens when we get these strong winds coming in off the coast. Combined with high tide, we've got that full moon tonight so be aware that some of that water is going to be moving up on to the shore way.
Also, a few of those storms could be severe this afternoon, so say from Philadelphia down into parts of North Carolina, the nation's midsection looking great today, though. Over the flood areas of the Mississippi valley, very dry weather. We've had a nice dry stretch and that's going to continue.
And out west take a look at that. Yes, that's not a typo on my map today, guys. Mountain snow. We could see as much as two feet in the sierra in the next 24 hours. So a real potent system out there. Temperature wise, we're coolish in the west as well as into the east. Staying very warm across parts of the south. Eighty-one today in Dallas.
Christine and Kiran, back to you.
ROMANS: All right, Jacqui Jeras. Thank you, Jacqui.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, we're going to be talking a little bit more about the weather. The Mississippi River closed to boat traffic in some areas because of the swelling river. Also, Louisiana getting flooded as well, bracing for what's to come there. We're going to have the very latest on the flooding.
ROMANS: All right. And Apple addicts, listen up. Will there be an iPhone 5? Everything you wanted to know about the next version or the next generation of iPhone, we'll have it for you right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, 16 minutes past the hour right now.
A bomb scare as the Queen gets ready to head to Ireland. Irish authorities say they defused one bomb on a bus and then rushed to the scene of another suspicious device.
ROMANS: Dublin is on lockdown. It's the first state visit by a sitting British monarch in exactly 100 years. Fionnuala Sweeney is live for us in Dublin this morning. Good morning - good morning. What's the latest on this?
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's more than one bomb hoax. That bomb hoax you're talking about was last night when police received a tip-off and it was an IED essentially on a private bus carrying 30 people into Dublin. It was defused.
But as we speak to you, there is another bomb alert this time in north of the Irish border in Belfast. It's thought that Irish Republican dissidents will try to disrupt the Queen's visit, hence something like $42 million being spent on security here over the next few days in the run up to President Obama's visit here next Monday. It's money well spent says the Irish government because they want to boost Ireland's profile amid the backdrop of a serious economic decline in recent years.
Now, on the Queen's agenda when she arrives here in 45 minutes, she will go to visit the Irish president, Mary McAleese. She'll go to the Garden of Remembrance and lay a wreath for those who died in the 1916 Easter Rising. This is very much a healing visit seen on the part of the British and Irish authorities. She will also go later in this week to Croke Park, which was the site of a massacre of 14 people at an Irish Gaelic football game back in 1920, at the height of the war of independence when Ireland was fighting for its independence when British Army personnel went into a game as it was taking place in the stadium, killing 14 people in retaliations for the killing earlier in the day of 14 British Intelligence officers.
She will also attend a state banquet tomorrow night here at Dublin Castle and people will be watching out for every word she has to say about.
CHETRY: Fionnuala Sweeney for us this morning. We'll check in with you throughout the day. Thanks so much.
Well, the Coast Guard closing a 15-mile stretch of the Mississippi River, no word yet on when they're going to reopen it. Right now, it's an area near Natchez, Mississippi. It's off limits to all traffic and water levels they say are just too high and too dangerous right now to reopen it.
ROMANS: In Louisiana, the Army Corps of Engineers has opened 11 gates now in the Morganza spillway. About 2,500 people, 2,000 structures are directly in the path of these floodwaters. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal mobilizing 1,100 National Guard members to try to get ahead of the worst of the flooding, and at the Angola State Prison, the country's largest maximum security facility, 3,500 inmates are being evacuated, many of them helping with sandbagging efforts to keep the water out if - if they can. I mean, that's the hope, but it's unclear whether they will be able to keep it back.
CHETRY: Our Rob Marciano is in Melville, Louisiana, where evacuation orders came down on Sunday. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. They are concerned that this is going to rival the flood of 1973, at least in this town where a number of the homes and parts of businesses were flooded out. Like many towns in this area, there's protective levee, you either live inside of that protective levee or you don't. The folks who live inside are not protected, they're going to have some problems for sure.
The spillway as you mentioned now opened up to 11 gates. They may open more of that. It's been a slow progress of seeing this water makes its way down through the Atchafalaya Basin. And a matter of fact - but as you go north towards the Red River, we've got flooding up there as well.
In Simmesport yesterday, a number of homes flooded in that area. And now, with - with the water heading down to the south, we've got revised river crest dates and this is turning in to be a longer event than really we want or anticipated.
Down in Butte La Rose, the river is not expected to crest there now until the 24th. So full week from now and we've been reporting for the past several days, most residents there have at least partially evacuated, maybe coming back to check on their homes every once in a while. But most of that town has been told to evacuate. And, of course, Morgan City they're now forecast to crest on the 25th. So eight days from now. And then our friends up to the north in Vicksburg and Natchez, they've got crests coming in the coming - in the coming days as well.
If there's one little sliver of optimism or hope, I should say, and it may be unwarranted, guys, we've had a fairly dry spring here, about nine inches below normal as far as the amount of rain we should be having - we should have had since January 1st and there may be a little bit of the absorption from this - in this floodway and that's certainly the hope as this water slowly makes its way downstream.
But, you know, with these rivers, this - the water not expected to crest for a full week now in some of these spots. It's going to be another excruciatingly long wait for that to happen and then with the water making that sort of pressure across the levee system for that long of time the question is can those levees hold and that's been the question now for the past couple of weeks. So far with a lot of maintenance, it's been successful - guys.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks so much, Rob.
ROMANS: OK. Up next, coming up soon on AMERICAN MORNING, get ready to dig a little deeper if you're looking to buy a new car. We're going to tell you how much prices are rising and why and what you can do about it.
CHETRY: Yes. And also, where do you put that car? Well there's an iPhone app to help you find a parking space. What would you ever do without an iPhone? I used to just drive around in circles in San Francisco for hours.
All right. Aren't you not supposed to have one in the car while driving anyway?
ROMANS: Yes. Be careful with the iPhone apps to help you find actually a parking space.
CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's 25 minutes past the hour. "Minding Your Business" now.
Emergency measures are under way this morning to create some headroom after the U.S. government hit its debt ceiling yesterday. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says he's suspending investments into federal retirement funds so the government can continue to borrow money to pay the bills that Congress has already signed.
Get ready to pay a little more if you're in the market for a new car. Researchers say buyers are paying about $350 more since Japan's earthquake. The price hike is needed to offset higher material costs.
A Nissan plant in Japan is back up and running this morning. The plant was shut down after that earthquake in March. Nissan's CEO says the plant will be working overtime to make up for lost production.
In America's job hunt, a CNNMoney analysis finds the federal government has been one of the largest areas of job growths since the recession. Health care was one of the other big winners adding nearly one million new jobs.
The Facebook fight goes to the Supreme Court. The Winklevoss twins have accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. The announcement comes just after a Federal Appeals Court refused to let them get out of their estimated $200 million settlement - settlement with the social network.
And could the new iPhone be evolutionary, not revolutionary? Industry analyst tells CNN the next model of Apple's smartphone will be called the iPhone 4S. It will feature some minor cosmetic changes and reportedly will be available on more carriers.
AMERICAN MORNING will be back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Top stories this morning. Breaking news overnight.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunning confession, "The Los Angeles Times" is reporting that he admitted fathering a child with a former member of his household staff. Schwarzenegger tells the paper it happened over a decade ago, but he only told his wife Maria Shriver after he left office earlier this year and that led to their split.
That leads us to our question of the day. We want to know if a politician's private transgressions matter to their public life. Tell us what you think. You can e-mail us, tweet us, go to our blog or find us on Facebook. We're going to be reading your comments throughout the show.
CHETRY: I think it's hilarious. We've gotten a bunch already. And they seem to be split along gender lines, if you know what I mean.
ROMANS: They really do. I'm actually stunned. So, please keep sending them in to see if our informal --
CHETRY: Yes, if our informal theories hold true.
Well, meanwhile, in jail with no bail. A man in charge of billions of dollars of the world's money waking up on Rikers Island this morning. The judge in New York denying bail for IMF chief Dominique Strauss- Kahn. Police say that he chased a hotel maid down the hall of his New York suite and sexually assaulted her. The judge said Strauss-Kahn is a flight risk after he was arrested on a plane to Paris. Strauss-Kahn has pleaded not guilty in his court appearance.
ROMANS: New fallout from the raid that killed bin Laden. Pakistan now says it will return the top secret tail fragment of the helicopter left behind in that raid. Senator John Kerry made the announcement from Pakistan, calling it step number one. He also said Secretary of State Clinton will visit the country. CHETRY: So, will the move by Pakistan help ease some of the tensions of late between the two nations?
Joining us now is Jamie Rubin, former assistant U.S. secretary of state. He's also the executive editor of "The Bloomberg View."
JAMIE RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Good morning, ladies.
CHETRY: So, it looks like two weeks later, what does it mean that two weeks later now, Pakistan is saying they are willing to return that piece of tail from the downed chopper?
RUBIN: Well, from the United States' perspective, that's obviously good news. We feared probably that it probably fall into the hands of the Chinese, would be the principle country we wouldn't to get at it. Whether the Chinese got access to it, in the last two weeks or not --
CHETRY: I know.
RUBIN: -- I personally don't know. I would guess so. But the point here is that the United States and Pakistan are now returning to the pattern of big crisis occurs, something terrible happens, we believe, you know, they knew or should have known that bin Laden was in their country, a lot of back and forth.
And now, back to the normal U.S./Pakistani relationship, which has this problem where the United States believes that the Pakistan government is playing a double game. On the one hand, supporting Afghan Taliban -- Taliban that are in Pakistan that go into Afghanistan, kill our troops, face off against Afghan forces. On the other hand, Pakistan is an ally of ours in counterterrorism when it comes to terrorists within Pakistan.
So, this is the pattern. It's been going on for many, many years. It's good that we've gotten over this hump and that they are trying to tone things down.
ROMANS: What's -- I mean, and I think you're absolutely right about the Chinese getting a peek at that. I mean, many of the defense analyst and aviation buffs assumed that the Chinese have had a look at this already.
What is the significance of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton going? Does it show we're returning the old pattern? And is that a good thing to return to the old pattern?
RUBIN: Well, I think her trip had been planned. I think the new development from Senator Kerry's trip is probably more the helicopter being returned than the secretary of state's trip. I think that was on the books and is still on the books.
That's going to be part of the challenge the administration faces, to see whether this stark reality we faced of having Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan, near an army base, where he should have been known to the Pakistanis, if he wasn't. It is an issue that many believe should change U.S./Pakistani relations.
CHETRY: And to your point about that, the double game -- and your referred to the while notion of sort of this complicity in allowing these troops to sort of weave their way back and forth between Pakistan and Afghanistan and fight against our soldiers. Some breaking news this morning that NATO helicopters and jets from Afghanistan actually fired on a Pakistani border post and, apparently, two Pakistani soldiers were killed in this incident. Some key supply routes, obviously, for -- into Afghanistan for the U.S.
So, what does this do? What does the impact of actually --
RUBIN: A fire fight.
CHETRY: A firefight. Yes.
RUBIN: A real firefight will probably mean that the military to military discussions between the United States and NATO countries and Pakistan are going to be that much tougher. The general, who really in many respects on security matters runs the country, Kayani, has started to signal he wants to get back to the normal U.S./Pakistani relationship, that they need us.
Up until now, the Pakistanis were mostly expressing outrage, the senior officials that the United States had entered their territory without permission.
CHETRY: Right.
RUBIN: But I think if they realize and are starting to say they need us and we -- certainly, the administration believes needs Pakistan in counterterrorism cooperation, these firefights make things difficult. But they're going to be worked through.
ROMANS: The president is going to give a, you know, key speech about the Middle East and policy in the U.S. And there's a feeling among some that the U.S. took a back seat to the "Arab Spring," and that actually Syria and Iran have been able to use this to their advantage and the United States is left playing defense.
What can he -- what can he illustrate to the American people about how this has strengthened the American role in the Middle East, the "Arab Spring," or has it not?
RUBIN: I think it will be a tough speech to write, to deliver, to achieve the objective, because generally what you're trying to do is show the public, the world, that the United States has a strategic plan for dealing with this dramatic new development of democratic movements across the Middle East, when the reality is that the administration has handled each one differently -- sometimes for good reason, sometimes reactive, whatever, they've handled them differently.
It's hard to have general principles when you approach Libya and Syria. So, very differently, one going to war, the other seeming to acquiesce in the crackdown somehow. So, it's a very, very difficult speech to give. But, in the end, I think the president will rise to the occasion. In the long run, however, the dialogue between the Congress, the public, the president, on these new changes in the "Arab Spring," are -- is going to continue because many do believe, as you've said, that he's been too reactive.
ROMANS: Jamie Rubin --
CHETRY: Real quick clarification -- sorry -- so in this the latest back and forth on the border, the two Pakistani soldiers were injured, my mistake.
RUBIN: Not killed.
CHETRY: There was one last spring where two were killed.
RUBIN: Yes.
CHETRY: And that riled up tension as well. But this fighting, you know, that's taking place between two supposed allies is troublesome.
RUBIN: Well, absolutely. I mean, there have been times where U.S. and Pakistani forces have shot at each other before along this border. The whole issue of resupplying our forces in Afghanistan is where Pakistan is crucial.
And so -- I don't know the circumstances of this firefight, but I would say that it looks like in general, both Washington and Islamabad, the Pakistani government, are trying to get back to the status quo -- some normal relationship.
ROMANS: All right. Jamie Rubin, former assistant secretary of state, thanks so much for joining us.
RUBIN: Thank you.
CHETRY: Good to see you this morning.
Still ahead: a historic visit to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth II. This would be the first in 100 years of a British monarch. Now, there are threats against her life. Zain Verjee has the latest from London.
It's 38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back.
A security scare this morning threatens Queen Elizabeth II's historic visit to Ireland today.
CHETRY: Yes, Zain Verjee is live for us in London.
So, we're told the military had to defuse one bomb and then there were a couple of other scares or false alarms. What's going on? ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, she's going to arrive at the airport in Dublin in about 20 minutes or so, and just hours before, that's what they had to do, they got a phoned in tip-off and the security forces basically tracked down a bus on the western side of Dublin. They stopped it. They found an explosive device and then they defused that successfully.
Now, there was also one bomb that -- another bomb threat that was called in, but that ended up turning out to be a hoax. And many security analysts are saying, guys, that just expect this right all day today, as well as right through the queen's four-day visit.
ROMANS: It's going to impact any of the queen's plans and, you know, remind us why it's so significant for the queen to be going to Ireland?
VERJEE: This is a really big deal. People have called this a watershed moment, a historic moment, extraordinary, the beginning of a new era.
Basically, the last time a monarch went to Ireland was 100 years ago. Her grandfather, George V, went there and that was when Ireland was a British colony, right? There's been so much bad blood between Britain and Ireland in much of the 20th century.
So, this is a big deal because it indicates that solidifying of the relations, it indicates that peace process that was put in place has actually been successful.
But there are people out there that don't want to see a closer relationship with Britain, and these are the guys that are planting these bombs and making these bomb threats known as "dissident republicans." And they don't like the peace deal, don't want to be too close to Britain, and they're using this as an opportunity to grab the headlines and undermine things because they haven't, frankly, been too relevant the past few years. So, that's what they're trying to do.
CHETRY: So, I mean, bottom line, will they disrupt her schedule or is it going on as planned?
VERJEE: Well, right now, it is going on as planned. What they've done is they have had the biggest security operation ever in Ireland. You've got something like 10,000 police and army forces that are all out all over the place. Downtown Dublin is in total lockdown, about 30 streets or so have been closed off. You've got air, land and sea patrols as well.
And you know what the price tag is for this operation? It's $42 million. So, they're trying to disrupt it, but the security out there is pretty intense. There's a ring of steel around the queen in the city as you see.
CHETRY: Wow. Well, that's why they can only do it once every 100 years. It's too expensive.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: All right, Zain.
VERJEE: Yes.
CHETRY: Good to see you this morning.
Everyone can check Zain out, by the way, on "WORLD ONE." It airs right here on CNN at 5:00 in the morning. Thanks, Zain.
Well, have you been to San Francisco trying to find a parking space?
ROMANS: You love the story. You love this story.
CHETRY: I still remember trying to find a parking space. I mean, you have an easier time of finding a gold nugget on the ground.
ROMANS: It's true. It's true.
CHETRY: Well, now, there's an iPhone app that's apparently designed to help you find a parking space. How exactly this would work, though, we'll get into that.
ROMANS: And make sure it's the passenger who's using the iPhone app, not the driver.
CHETRY: Yes, exactly.
ROMANS: Also in California with Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly admitting he fathered a child out of wedlock with a member of his household staff, we want to know if a politician's private transgressions matter to their public life. Tell us what you think. You can e-mail us, you can tweet us, go to our blog, find us on Facebook. We're going to read your comments in about five minutes.
And so far, again, they are coming in along gender lines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 46 minutes past the hour. A quick look at your headlines now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (voice-over): Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger telling the "L.A. Times" that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff more than a decade ago. The paper says that his wife, Maria Shriver moved out of their mansion after he admitted it to her this year.
No bail for the powerful International Monetary Fund head. Dominique Strauss-Kahn remains locked up at New York's Rikers Island accused of trying to rape a housekeeper at a Manhattan Hotel.
Today, Pakistan will return the tail of a U.S. helicopter that broke down during the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. Navy SEALs managed to destroy most of it in an attempt to keep the technology a secret.
The Coast Guard closing a 15-mile stretch of the Mississippi River because of dangerously high water levels. Spillway gate will likely be open for weeks before the river falls below flood stage.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi back in court today for his tax fraud trial amid signs that he may be losing his popularity. His party suffered sweeping losses in last night's local elections.
And surprise, surprise Donald Trump says he's not running for president. Trump says he is not ready to leave the private sector, saying business is his greatest passion. Trump went on to say he's confident if he did run, he would win both the primary and the general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING is coming back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Our top story this morning, the stunning secret kept by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former California governor reportedly admitting he fathered a child out of wedlock more than 10 years ago with a member of his household staff.
According to "The Los Angeles Times," it's a secret he kept from his wife, Maria Shriver, until he left office earlier this year, that's when she moved out of their Brentwood mansion.
CHETRY: It leads us to our question of the day. We want to know if a politician's private transgressions matter to their public life? We've been getting a lot of responses.
ROMANS: Jerry on Facebook says, I don't care. It is the business of Shrivers and the mother of the child and of course, the child. This obsession over celebs and their behavior or lack thereof is no one's business.
CHETRY: Although, Karen Carr Peter says -- actually with leadership comes responsibilities and standards to uphold. These politicians are out of control. The only difference between them and any other teenager is they have the benefit of using taxpayers' money to do their dirt.
That's pretty -- we haven't got a ton yet, but out of the ones we've gotten, guys are saying, you know, with private is private.
ROMANS: Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a statement to "The Los Angeles Times" basically saying, you know, admitting to this and saying I hope that you will respect my family and there are those saying he didn't respect his family in the first place, so that's why --
CHETRY: Didn't respect the family's privacy. Pick on me, don't pick on them. ROMANS: Exactly, there are those who are saying he has chosen to take his private life public in general so he gets what -- he gets all the criticism.
CHETRY: When you look at the timing, I mean, he's confirming this at least to the "L.A. Times." This was before he ran for governor.
ROMANS: That's right. Ten years ago.
CHETRY: All right, keep your comments coming up. Send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on Facebook. We're going to read more of your thoughts throughout the morning.
Meanwhile, it's 51 minutes past the hour. Time to get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines. Jacqui Jeras is in the extreme weather center. I know that in this area we're bracing for flooding.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You have to watch for that. Coastal flooding as well as inland flooding and some of those rivers and streams are going to be on the rise because the rain has been so heavy. There you can see the showers making their way onshore still and you're going to want to leave a little early if you can for that morning commute because the roadways will be wet, visibility will be limited as well.
We have this area of low pressure kind of cut off from the main jetstream and so it's going to sit here for several days continue to bring in that moisture inland. We're expecting anywhere between two and four inches in the next couple days and we could even see a few amounts heavier than that.
Along with that, we're going to see some strong gusty winds and some of these thunderstorms this afternoon could be severe with large hail and damaging winds. We've already got problems at the airports.
Look at that, an hour at LaGuardia. So that's people taking off from other airports getting into New York City and Philadelphia looking at delays around 15 minutes. Expect Boston and D.C. to get in the action later on today as well as some of the Florida airports and San Francisco.
Nation's midsection looks good though, guys. High and dry, that flooding continues to make its way downstream and we're looking at a cresting in Arkansas City. Of course, we'll talk a little bit more about that throughout the hour and Rob, of course, live in the field for you.
ROMANS: All right. Jacqui Jeras, thanks, Jacqui.
If you've ever tried to park your car in New York City or any other city in America you know how difficult it can be to find a spot. I don't bother.
CHETRY: San Francisco really takes the cake. They, though, may have found a solution, those do with your iPhone. Our Dan Simon takes a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN SILICON VALLEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Finding a place to park in San Francisco can be a futile effort.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this neighborhood, it's pretty cut throat. Anywhere in the city, it's pretty tough.
SIMON: So it figures the Bay Area, home to the world's greatest technology companies, would offer an innovative solution.
(on camera): Except it doesn't come from industry, but city hall. The city of San Francisco is offering a free iPhone app that can show you in real time how to land a parking spot.
(voice-over): These street sensors determine whether or not the space is free. The info gets uploaded to a central computer and relayed to the app. Fire it up and you can see the map around you. Dark blue means plenty of spots, light blue it's getting tight, red, pretty much forget it.
(on camera): All right. Let's see if we can find ourselves a parking spot.
(voice-over): How well does it work? Sometimes perfectly.
(on camera): The app says on this block there should be two spots available and guess what? There's one of them right there.
(voice-over): Other times, not so much. Still, the city claims its internal testing showed a high level of accuracy.
(on camera): How accurate is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about 90 percent accurate.
SIMON (voice-over): Nathaniel Ford runs the city's transportation agency. He says the $20 million project entirely federally funded, is about trying to ease congestion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That helps us speed up our transit system, helps us with greenhouse emissions in terms of automobiles circling around.
SIMON (on camera): The app has been downloaded more than 12,000 times, but there's real concern about whether or not it's creating another problem, California has a no texting law while behind the wheel, and driving while using the app, surely doesn't seem safe.
NATHANIEL FORD, CEO, SFMTA: We do not encourage people and it's not necessary to constantly look down at your device, looking for a parking spot.
SIMON (voice-over): Still considered a pilot project, the city installed sensors in 7,000 of the city's 24,000 metered parking spaces and 12,000 more city owned garages. If it works, look for it to expand here and in another big cities. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. So right, some of the time, not right some of the time, but --
ROMANS: Try to use technology to make life a little more easy.
CHETRY: Well, top stories coming up. Also Donald Trump officially ending his presidential campaign that never really started. Now people are saying, wait a minute.
That must have been just the biggest publicity stunt ever, but on the flip side, because of his exit, is there more room to talk about some of the more serious candidates. We'll talk about it.
ROMANS: And something none of us thought we would see, Queen Elizabeth about to arrive in Ireland. Dublin is a fortress, one bomb has been defused. We'll tell you about the queen's historic visit and the security scares there right after the break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi. I'm Pasha.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Anya from "So You Think You Can Dance."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're traveling in a Broadway show called "Burn the Floor" and we're burning it all over the states. Life on tour is very condensed. We fly from city to city, we have to rehearse. We have to practice. We have to find time to rest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bottom line, exciting, adventurous, tiring, but a lot of fun. And it's absolutely worth it. The first thing I do when I get into the city, I have to find a grocery store where I can get an almond milk for my protein shake for the whole week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get a bunch of water so I stock up for the week so I don't have to think about it. When I'm traveling the only two things I need is my partner and my computer for e-mails, staying connected with friends, playing computer games.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. That should come first. The main thing we've noticed about travel globally is that everyone loves to dance and everybody can understand language of dance and even be inspired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
