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Live Feed: David Axelrod Speaks on Romney's Home Turf; SpaceX Dragon Returns to Earth; American Kidnapped in Egypt Talks to CNN; DOMA Ruled Unconstitutional by Federal Appeals Court

Aired May 31, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West. We start this hour with breaking news.

A federal appeals court in Boston has just ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. DOMA, as it's called, defines marriage as strictly heterosexual, one man, one woman. It denies all sorts of benefits to gay couples and that's one reason the court in Boston says it cannot stand.

CNN legal contributor Paul Callan joins me now on the phone. Paul, let's talk exactly about what this ruling means right now and then we'll move into what this could mean at a higher level.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: OK. Let me start, Kyra, just by saying this is a federal court in the New England area, the first circuit court of appeals, and they cover basically, you know, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, believe it or not, and Massachusetts.

So this ruling is binding only on that area of the United States, the federal courts that cover that area of the United States. But it's a very, very important precedent that will be looked at by courts around the United States and there are at least seven other lawsuits pending, challenging the DOMA act. So this is a very, very important precedent.

PHILLIPS: This also makes it more likely that it could move its way up to the supreme court, yes?

CALLAN: Absolutely. Yes. Because what the Supreme Court likes to do, especially when dealing with controversial issues, is to basically allow the lower courts to resolve it and come up with different solutions and then the Supreme Court, you know, hands down a decision for the entire country.

PHILLIPS: And now you mentioned seven other existing cases?

CALLAN: Yes. I was just -- as I was reading the decision of the court in Massachusetts, I was looking -- yes, there are right now, as I count it, eight prominent Defense of Marriage Act cases pending around the United States, and this was considered to be one of the most important ones. But there's one in New York, the southern district of New York. There's one in Connecticut. There's another in California. All over the country, this law is being challenged on constitutional grounds.

So a lot of other courts will look to Massachusetts to look to the first circuit on this decision.

PHILLIPS: You mentioned this is one of the most important cases. Why?

CALLAN: Well, it's important because many cases in other states are brought at a state level and many of them are pending only in what we call federal district courts.

Now, federal district courts cover more limited areas. New Jersey, for instance, has one federal district court, but when a decision goes up on appeal, it goes up to one of these very large federal circuit courts like the Massachusetts one, which covers basically the northeast of the United States.

So, a circuit court of appeals has a much broader influence, it covers a greater area of the country and it also, the precedent is a more important precedent.

So, as the circuit courts weigh in on this, if the Supreme Court starts to see a trend, then the court is more likely to take the case for review and consider how the circuits have looked at the issues.

PHILLIPS: And just to make it clear, it's unconstitutional due to what I'm reading here, and just tell me if this is correct, because obviously I wish I had a law degree, this would be easier for me, Paul, but that's why I call on you ...

CALLAN: There's still time, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: There's still time. You'd be a great professor.

They're saying that it's interfering with the right of the state to define marriage and also denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns. Is that correct?

CALLAN: That's correct. Those are the two areas that the court focused on, which is kind of interesting because that issue of interference with the right of the states to define marriage, I find from an ideological standpoint that's very, very interesting.

Because, of course, the opponents of gay marriage have largely been conservatives, in some cases, and some cases religious grounds have been the reasons for opposition and usually people who advocate those positions are states' rights advocates.

And here the court has said this is a state right and, if the state wants to permit gay marriage, then the state should be allowed to do it. The federal government should not be able to abrogate that right through legislation like this. So it's sort of a lineup on this ideology, you know. States' rights court here, gay marriage should be legal if the state wants it to be legal.

PHILLIPS: Got it. DOMA ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court, breaking news this hour. Paul Callan, thanks so much for calling in. Appreciate it so much.

Also happening right now, we are moments away from saying mission accomplished. We're talking about the Dragon capsule, right now, speeding back to earth, getting ready to make a huge splash.

This is the first commercial flight, by the way, to and from the International Space Station thanks to the private company SpaceX and, once Dragon arrives home, NASA will have crossed a historic threshold.

The capsule is supposed to splashdown within the hour somewhere in the Pacific. We're told several hundred miles off the coast of Baja, California.

Let's bring in our Lizzie O'Leary. She's following this as well. So where exactly is the Dragon right now?

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, Kyra, it's over the Indian Ocean, and that picture you just put up where you could sort of see those solar panel wings and that larger part of it, that part should be coming off in just a couple of minutes, two to three minutes. That's the trunk. That's detaching.

And then in about 20 minutes, the Dragon capsule should enter the earth's atmosphere and that's sort of its final trajectory before it heads toward that splashdown.

You saw that animation. In some ways it could remind viewers of what the Mercury capsules looked like when they splashed down at the beginning of the space race.

Remember the Dragon, of course, has no astronauts inside. It's a cargo capsule and it's the first cargo capsule that's able to go up to the space station and come back intact.

There are other cargo capsules from the Japanese, the Russians, the European space Authority, but those all burned up upon re-entry, so really, the key here is that it's commercial and that it is able to come back into the atmosphere.

It's supposed to land off the coast of Baja, California, somewhere about 500 miles off the coast. It's kind of a big, wide range for now, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And, now, we, of course, want to witness the splashdown so we can say mission accomplished, that this has been successful.

What will be the next mission and how many more missions until we actually may see men and women in one of those capsules? O'LEARY: Well, that latter part is a little bit of an open question. SpaceX says they're working towards doing that next year. They have a contract with NASA for 12 different flights and there is a lot of flexibility built into this because so much of this is trial and error.

We saw a few glitches when the rocket left the earth. They had to postpone the launch just a little bi, and so we don't quite know when they will put human beings in there, but that is certainly their goal and their goal is not to have those splashdown in the ocean, but be able to have those land on the ground.

The Soyuz capsule, the Russian spacecraft, is the only one right now that is able to ferry astronauts to and from the space station and , if U.S. astronauts want to go, they have to hitch a ride with the Russians.

PHILLIPS: All right, Lizzie O'Leary, we'll be watching, waiting for that splashdown expected this hour. Thanks so much.

Stay with us throughout the hour because we will keep you updated on the Dragon's return.

All right, let's talk about Egypt. A state of emergency that's been in effect for decades has finally been allowed to expire. It actually gave police broad leeway to arrest citizens and hold them indefinitely without charges.

A very personal emergency for two American tourists is over now as well. The pair was kidnapped today at gunpoint while traveling in the Sinai and freed, apparently unhurt, just hours later.

The gunmen demanded the release of a man arrested yesterday on drug charges. It's not clear if that man was released as part of a deal with Egyptian security forces.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And just a quick note for those of you heading out the door. You can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone or, if you're heading out to work, you can also watch CNN live from your desk top. Just go to CNN.com/TV.

It sounds like a Hollywood slasher movie, a manhunt for a porn actor suspected of murder, cutting up the body of his victim and mailing the parts to politicians. But this is not a movie. The gruesome killing was actually carried out in Canada and the suspect may now be in France.

Paula Newton is joining us from London. Let's talk about the suspect, what more you know about him and why is he believed to be in France now, Paula?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTENATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The first thing is he doesn't have a criminal record, but certainly has left a long trail on the Internet. Police do confirm that, in fact, perhaps the murder was actually caught on video and might have been posted to an Internet site. They're doing what they can to make sure that it is removed if, indeed, it is video of the murder.

Luka Rocco Magnotta does not have a criminal record although he's known to use a couple other alias. He was born in Toronto, but was really a man who kept to himself and had moved to Montreal a little while ago.

Police now are concerned that he, perhaps, boarded a flight from Montreal to Paris on the weekend. Interpol has confirmed with us that he is on their most wanted list now.

Although, Kyra, we have spoken with authorities in France. They still are not very clear exactly if it's the interior ministry that will be dealing with this or police. We're waiting to hear back from them.

This is not good news for Canadian police forces. They had put out this Canada-wide warrant, but if he's already gone abroad, it may be difficult to track him down quickly.

Something that's so chilling about this, Kyra, is that when this foot, this human foot, arrived at the campaign headquarters of the Conservative party in Canada -- and you can imagine -- people describe the stench as being horrific -- the note apparently said that he would strike again. So we could be dealing with a man that's quite dangerous.

PHILLIPS: So does this -- is this just -- does he have an issue? What were the rants on the Internet? Does he have an issue with certain politicians, certain parties?

NEWTON: This was the connection, the link that hasn't yet quite been made and they also tonight know if more of the body parts of this victim, unfortunately, are still in the mail system.

They intercepted a hand that supposed to go to another political party. It wasn't targeted towards the government. A very, very bizarre crime and police having very little clues as to what the motive would be.

But again, he was very prolific on the Internet and some indications are, police say, that he was also engaged in violent behavior and posted it on the Internet.

PHILLIPS: Do we know who the victim is?

NEWTON: So far, police in Montreal have been circulating the picture of a man who is missing, a man that's missing. He's of Asian descent and they've been going around, trying to figure out if anyone has seen him or knows where he is.

But police right now are unable or unwilling to confirm that it is this missing Asian man who was the victim. Autopsy still being conducted in both Toronto and Montreal.

PHILLIPS: All right. Paula Newton, thanks so much.

A Montreal police officer actually said that the crime scene was one of the worst his force has ever seen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So who the heck is Mitt Romney going to pick? We're talking about his number two, of course, and we've been throwing out a number of popular contenders, one of whom is Marco Rubio.

Even though he says no way, he's still getting a lot of buzz. The young Latino Florida senator with four kids, married to a former professional cheerleader, is this what the GOP needs?

Tom Foreman is going in-depth with us. Tom, what do you think?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, is it what they need? I don't know. Everybody always wonders about that.

I still think people vote for the guy who's running for the president and the vice president is kind of a side-show, but could it nod things one way a little bit? Maybe. Maybe.

PHILLIPS: Let's just take a look at what's he's done this week. He made a trip to Gitmo. He's given a number of foreign policy speeches. He's getting ready to give this speech today, right, at the Council on Foreign Relations, so why do all this if you don't have plans to be V.P.?

FOREMAN: Yes, he keeps saying oh, no, I don't want to be that. You know what this is like? This is like dating in high school in Washington. This is how this works.

If you say, I want to and then you get picked, you look desperate. If you say I want to and you don't get picked, you look like a loser.

So they all sit back and they play it coy and say, you know, if I'm asked to serve ...

PHILLIPS: He's playing hard to get? Is that what you're telling me?

FOREMAN: ... I'll go, but in the meantime, I'll get my tux pressed, just in case, and that's what all these trips are about.

PHILLIPS: I'm going to tell you no, going to tell you no, until you want me more. That's what's going on here.

FOREMAN: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: Well, not everybody is a Rubio fan. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, hold on just a second. He needs just a little more experience. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES: And I just think that the country needs to have people in positions of leadership who have that level of experience that's important to serve effectively as president and as vice president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: How much weight does that carry, what Gonzales ...

FOREMAN: I don't. I mean, I guess it carries some weight, but Democrats love hearing that sort of thing from a Republican, but they can't say it very loudly because, I know Democrats don't like to hear this, but if you were to take Marco Rubio's experience right now and stack it up to President Obama's experience when he was running for the presidency, very similar.

I mean, President Obama didn't have a whole lot of experience either, so Democrats can't say that too loudly or Republicans are going to say, your man did the same thing and you seemed to be perfectly happy with him and he ran for president.

PHILLIPS: And all this week we've been going in-depth on the Latino vote. If Romney were to pick a Latino as his number two, if he were to pick Rubio, does that secure the Latino vote for him?

FOREMAN: You are on to one of my favorite topics here because, no, it doesn't, but -- but -- here's the "but" part -- first of all, the Pew Hispanic Center which does great research on this found out that it's really important.

I've been reporting on the Latino vote for 25 years, long before it was in vogue, and the simple truth is, the Latino vote in this country, first of all, prefers to be called a Hispanic vote. Most of the people of this background would prefer to be called Hispanic if anything at all.

But more than half of them don't even want that. They call themselves by their family's country of origin. They say, we're Guatemalan or we're Mexican or we're Puerto Rican or we're Dominican and that's important because they do not see themselves as a group.

This group may come together and vote at any given time for one candidate or another, but they also are independent blocks of people who may vote differently, so, no, it doesn't cement the vote.

However, here's the important part. Mitt Romney doesn't have to win all of them. All he has to do is win some of them to tilt it back because, remember, everybody from the Hispanic voting bloc that he wins he takes away from Barack Obama.

Yes, Barack Obama has a big lead in that group, but everyone he gets diminishes that and he could neutralize the vote even if he doesn't win it.

PHILLIPS: Tom Foreman, thanks so much.

FOREMAN: Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: And, of course -- good to see you, too.

Florida is considered one of the most important swing states in the presidential election as we know, so stay tuned to see what happens next.

Well, it's awards season here at CNN and we want you to help us decide who deserves this year's iReports Community Choice Awards. So just log onto CNNiReportsAwards.com to vote.

Here's your nominees for best personal story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: You can buy almost anything in New York City, but giant sodas may be on their way out. The mayor who took on smoking and trans-fats now says super-sized, sugary drinks are hazardous to New Yorkers' health.

Alina Cho is joining us from our New York studios with that. Alina, what are you going to drink?

ALINA CHO: Diet?

PHILLIPS: There you go. You better go back to your big mug of water. I've seen you carrying that thing around.

CHO: Absolutely right.

PHILLIPS: What exactly is being proposed here?

CHO: Well, you know, it's a ban that's being proposed on sugary drinks that come in bottles or cups larger than 16 ounces. That means something like this, 20 ounces, would be banned under this proposal.

Now, remember, Kyra, this is not the first time that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been out front on the issue of health and fighting obesity. The mayor, you'll remember, championed the ban on smoking way back when in restaurants, a ban on artificial trans-fats and now, as I mentioned, he wants to ban those sugary drinks like sodas that come in bottles larger than 16 ounces.

The ban would affect all New York City restaurants. We're talking about 20,000 establishments, restaurants, food carts, and any other establishment that receives a letter grade for food service in the city. Here's why.

How about that, Kyra? A tall glass of fat.

PHILLIPS: Disgusting.

CHO: If you're reading along ...

PHILLIPS: That grossed me out. I'll never touch a soda again.

CHO: Right. Well, let me tell you something, if you're reading along with the copy there, it says that drinking one can of soda a day can make you ten pounds fatter a year.

It went on to say, don't drink yourself fat. The suggestion is to drink water. You love water, right? We do. Water, seltzer, low- fat milk.

We should also mention, Kyra, that the ban does not affect diet sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks or alcoholic beverages and it would not apply to grocery or convenience stores.

If you're boiling it down, it does appear that the ban will affect mostly places where you can actually order food and that includes a food cart. The idea being, of course -- this is something that I've heard many, many times -- eat your calories; don't drink them.

PHILLIPS: So what does the beverage industry think about this?

CHO: What do you think? They're not happy.

PHILLIPS: Not very happy. Exactly.

CHO: Not happy. They're not happy. In fact, I was just handed a statement from both McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Let me read you the first one from McDonald's.

"Public health issues cannot be effectively addressed through a narrowly focused and misguided ban."

Coca-Cola adds, "The people of New York city are much smarter than the New York city health department believes."

The New York City Beverage Association, meanwhile, issued its own statement saying, in part, "There they go again. The city is not going to address the obesity issue by attacking soda because soda is not driving the obesity rates."

But, Kyra, I have to tell you, New York City disagrees. In this city alone, more than half the adults are considered obesity and overweight and the city research shows that higher obesity rates are more common in neighborhoods where soda consumption is high.

So a lot of debate about this.

PHILLIPS: When could it take effect? How quickly?

CHO: The board of health will vote on it in June and, if it passes, and it will get a nod because the members are appointed by the mayor and the mayor supports this, the ban could take effect as early as March.

PHILLIPS: All right. Alina Cho, we'll follow it. Keep drinking your water. Thank you. Mayor Bloomberg is actually going to join us live about one hour from now. My colleague, Suzanne Malveaux, will ask him about this soda ban and a lot more, 12:30 p.m. eastern time.

Take you live to Boston, Mass. These are Mitt Romney supporters -- sorry, David Axelrod, actually, the main adviser to the Obama campaign, is going to be speaking to the crowd here. Here's the twist. You've got former employees of Mitt Romney joining David Axelrod. Basically, jumping camps, and joining David Axelrod there on the steps. They'll be talking about broken promises, Romney's Massachusetts record. We'll be following it live.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures out of Boston, Mass, right now. You see David Axelrod, Obama's main campaign adviser there, about to be introduced. Step up to the podium. What makes this so unique? He's in Romney's home turf. You have a number of Massachusetts officials there who used to work under Governor Romney that have now jumped camps, and they're joining Axelrod in support of President Obama.

Our Jessica Yellin is there as well.

Jessica, this is an interesting twist.

JESSICA YELLIN, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. You know, this is opening up a second front in the Obama campaign's assault on what they consider Mitt Romney's central case for the presidency. Romney has claimed that he is a master of the economy, that he can create jobs. And first, you saw the Obama campaign go after his record at Bain. Now they're going also after his claims that the experience in the private sector made him able to improve the jobs picture in Massachusetts. And they're going to argue -- I think you'll see Axelrod here argue, that the way he applied his private- sector experience was not helpful or effective in Massachusetts for sort of middle-income Americans. And so it's -- and then make the case that the way he will apply private-sector experience as would apply -- as president, would also not be beneficial to most Americans in the U.S. going forward.

(CROSSTALK)

YELLIN: Go ahead.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you this. It was interesting, when I was reading the description of what this event was about, I was a little thrown of because it was talking about all these Massachusetts officials who served under Governor Romney that are -- have basically jumped camp, joining Axelrod, now supporting President Obama for re- election. Do we know who these Massachusetts officials are? How high ranking they were in Mitt Romney's camp when he was governor? What kind of impact, influence, knowledge do they have about what they are saying are broken promises? YELLIN: There are a variety of state legislatures, former mayors, people who served in the state house with him, in various capacities worked with him or were in government at the same time that he was governor, and so say that they experienced the impact of his tenure as governor. I have in my Blackberry -- in a moment, I can pull up some actual names if you'd like.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Yes. It would be interesting, because it -- it --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: -- it sounds like some pretty heavy hitters have now basically turned away from the man that they served under or worked with and --

(CROSSTALK)

YELLIN: Well, you know, some of them are Democrats, some of them are people who, you know -- one of the Mitt Romney's claims was that coming into office was he was going to work across the aisles, and so people will say now, it didn't work out that well.

But one of the points I think is important to make here, Kyra, is that we've been reporting for a week now that the president's campaign tried to go after Mitt Romney's record on Bain and private capital. And we've questioned whether that was effective or not, and was he going to back down from it, and that this move to attacking his record in Massachusetts is in some way a move away from attacking Bain. And the point I'd like to make is, it's not anything of the sort. That what they're explicitly doing is trying to link the governor's record at -- at Bain, to his work in government and trying to say, look, Mitt Romney's trying to make the case that in the private sector, he learned all sorts of things about how to run the economy that he can apply to government. And the Obama campaign wants to make the case that what he learned in the private sector, when he applied it in government, it didn't work out the way he said it would.

PHILLIPS: Got it.

YELLIN: That's the case they're making. You don't have to buy it, but that's what they're going to say.

PHILLIPS: Got you. This is obviously a pretty long introduction. Maybe we've got -- do you want to listen in or talk a little SpaceX until we hear from David Axelrod?

All right. Let's go ahead and listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not going to work now. It's my honor to introduce one of our long -- the longest serving mayor in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, John Barons.

(APPLAUSE) JOHN BARONS, MAYOR OF NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS: You know, this reminds me of the time that Eric Burdsstrom (ph) tried to take me down.

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING)

BARONS: He didn't take me down then and he's not going to take us down now.

(APPLAUSE)

BARONS: Having served as mayor of the city of North Adam for 26 years, I've seen --

PHILLIPS: We're going to keep monitoring this Obama campaign event with David Axelrod and a number of Massachusetts officials who served under Governor Romney. The theme of the event, broken promises, Romney's Massachusetts record. We're following it and monitor it live as soon as Axelrod steps up to the podium, we will take it.

The other live event happening right now, something that Chad Myers and I love, SpaceX.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Anything space. We'll be getting a splash down, what, within 10, 15 minutes possibly?

MYERS: It's about five.

PHILLIPS: About five minutes. We're almost there.

MYERS: About 44 after. It did -- SpaceX, the "Dragon" capsule survived the burn. that was a big thing. This is coming through the atmosphere a lot like "Apollo." Remember how that just heated up right through the atmosphere and the shuttle did the thing. They had a chance this thing could have tumbled out of control, completely torn it up. But there it is. It is still there on the picture. And I have seen now all of the parachutes deploy that is slowing the vehicle down to about 11 miles per hour for a splash down of, let's say, between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas, so west of the west coast of the U.S.

There's the capsule itself. As they zoom up or pan up you will be able to see -- hopefully, you can see them. This is very cool pictures. There's one of the chutes. The multicolor, it looks like black and white, but it is red and white. It's coming down very slowly. That 11 miles per hour is a perfect speed for it to hit the water. There is a big barge, 135-foot barge with a crane on it, waiting just outside of this area. Here you go. Here's the west coast of the U.S., there's Mexico, and here's the landing area. There's a barge with a crane waiting on it out here. That barge will come to it after releasing two what's called hyperlon (ph) vehicles, those rubber boats, looks like pontoons on the outside. They will speed to it when they see it lands, make sure it's floating. And it should -- it's a sealed capsule. It shouldn't sink at all. You never know. There's divers in there. They want to make sure this thing is going to -- I hope those are real pictures. Is that a real -- no, that's an animation. I was --

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: I'm looking at a small screen. I go, oh, my gosh.

PHILLIPS: Is that a live picture of mission control or is that the SpaceX folks in Hawthorne, California?

MYERS: This is "Dragon" splash down of two minutes and 55 seconds. This is SpaceX. You can see all their little computers there.

PHILLIPS: OK.

MYERS: They have the dual monitors. they can put one thing on one and one thing on the other side. They are watching NASA TV as well as we are. They're looking at 41, 22. They're looking at splash down in about two and a half minutes. Right on time. They're thinking that's right on time. The di-orbit burn happened earlier today, at about 10:51 eastern time. The first parachute at 11:55, about six minutes ago, and the main parachutes to slow this all down came out at 11:36, five and a half minutes ago. This looks very good.

PHILLIPS: It's historic. NASA lost the capability of getting things back and forth, right, via the space shuttles --

MYERS: That's correct.

PHILLIPS: -- to U.S. ISS when the program was shut down, so this is historic because it's the first American private business that is carrying cargo. And the next hopefully the next mission, well the future mission, will be taking man or woman --

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: That's right.

PHILLIPS: -- up there, in private business.

MYERS: Clearly, going up was a big thing but they're actually bringing things down, 140 pounds of stuff, experiments, all that stuff back down so we can look at it here on the ground again. That's good news.

PHILLIPS: We're tracking it. Less than five minutes.

Chad, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: We'll keep a close eye on this moment in space exploration and keep you updated throughout the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Two updates on two breaking stories we've been following throughout the morning.

First, SpaceX. The "Dragon" capsule has splashed down. We just got word it has landed just off the coast of Baja, California. We can officially say now mission accomplished. The first commercial flight to and from the international space station, thanks to the private company SpaceX. We'll talk more space in just a second.

But the other breaking news story that we have been following all morning were the two Americans kidnapped in Egypt. We have found -- well, we had reported, rather, that the situation had ended, that they were in custody and safe.

I'm told now Brandon Kutz, one of those kidnapped Americans in Egypt, has called in to us, on the phone with us now.

Brandon, where exactly are you calling us from?

BRANDON KUTZ, AMERICAN KIDNAPPED IN EGYPT (voice-over): Hi. Somewhere near Nuaba (ph) in Egypt.

PHILLIPS: Can you tell us -- can we back up so I can bring all our viewers up to date. We had reported on this story very early this morning. Can you tell me -- just take us from the very beginning? Where were you, what happened, give us the details?

KUTZ: OK. Yes. We were leaving Dahab (ph), going up to Taba (ph) yesterday evening, and just past Nuaba (ph) on the way up. We were stopped and we were delayed several hours and then we were taken into custody of -- we were taken into custody and they treated us very well. We were in very good condition by the way. Anybody that's listening that's family please let them know that we're just fine.

PHILLIPS: Is this the first time, Brandon --

(CROSSTALK)

KUTZ: We stayed there --

PHILLIPS: Is this the first time you've been able to talk publicly? Have you been able to make any other phone calls or is this the first time family members are hearing from you?

KUTZ: Probably the first time, yes. Unfortunately.

PHILLIPS: Wow. OK. So all of -- all your family members, those close to you, Brandon, obviously calling in to us. He's OK. Telling us his story now of what was happening while there in Egypt. Were you on vacation? Can you tell us why you were there, Brandon?

KUTZ: Yes. We were diving in Dahab and everything was pretty normal, actually. There was no problems the whole time. Like I said, we had been there a couple days. We were traveling back to the border and, you know, like I said, there's something that happened with the police where somebody was arrested and, you know, there is a blockade in the road and we were stopped and, like I said, we were taken into custody. We'd been there since -- again, we've been treated very well. No problems or anything like that.

PHILLIPS: So, Brandon, when were you kidnapped? Who -- how did it happen? Who was it that took you?

KUTZ: Yes. Well, it was -- I don't know. I mean we were all stopped, quite a few people on the road. All the cars were pulled over on the road last night and we were stopped there for several hours. And basically, the -- one second.

(INAUDIBLE).

So they picked us -- they picked us up and we went to -- we drove in the desert for a while and then we went to a house --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: OK, OK, Brandon, Brandon, can I just ask you quickly, who is whispering to you?

KUTZ: Oh. It's the guys that are -- that have been taking care -- that have been with us the whole time.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: OK. I -- I -- Brandon, I'm going to end this conversation.

We are going to take a quick break and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: After a five-day visit to the international space station the "Dragon" capsule has made the splashdown.

Chad Myers, we have been following it.

This happened just about six minutes or so, just off Baja, California?

MYERS: And so far, NASA has tweeted, yes, splash down confirmed, safe splash down. Before that they said all main chutes have deployed. The vehicle is slowing down to one mile per hour. But I haven't seen any of these guys on NASA TV take a breath yet. Literally, they're still on their head phones and still talking to each other and haven't jumped up and cheered like Mission Control in Houston was up and down and cheering on the moon or in the water, whatever it was. And so these guys are just sitting here kind of like waiting. I guess they're waiting for those boats to get to it to see if it is OK. There is no communication back and forth from "Dragon" right now as it sits in the water. I don't see these guys getting up even for a coffee. They are still waiting to hear, I think, from Dragon and make sure it is OK.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Pretty fascinating. There was communication going on between NASA's Mission Control, the international space station, with the six men station and crew there. And then, SpaceX team located in Hawthorne, California, so you had communication going on among all three entities monitoring this. And it made history.

MYERS: Look at this. He has his hands on his beard.

(LAUGHTER)

I don't see anyone more worried than that guy, like his wife is having a baby. I don't know. We'll have to see if it came down to one piece. NASA said it did, though. So that's great news.

PHILLIPS: In just a few more seconds, Chad, so folks can understand what exactly this means. We're talking cargo on this mission. And SpaceX does have a contract to launch about a dozen more of these missions. And hopefully, we will see the actual human beings, not just cargo, going back and forth via these commercial launches.

MYERS: Right. It took cargo up. The cargo came out. They put cargo in, and the cargo came down. Now they can take some of these experiments, some of these pieces of the experiments, and take them apart here down here on land and maybe even learn more. That's great. This stuff can go both ways now.

PHILLIPS: Chad Myers, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: That does it for us. Thank you so much for watching. We will be back here bright and early tomorrow morning.

Suzanne is right after the break with more from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live to Boston, Massachusetts. David Axelrod, Obama's right-hand man when it comes to the campaign for re-election at the mic. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

DAVID AXELROD, CHIEF ADVISOR TO OBAMA CAMPAIGN: -- a financial engineer whose career has not been about generating jobs, it is about generating short-term profits. Not about generating long-term growth or building for the future, but about taking what he can when he can.

So he cut education and fees rose 63 percent at state colleges, maybe for some of these young people here. He cut workforce training and a key program to assist manufacturing businesses. He privatized state functions and sat by as a state call center was outsourced to India.

(BOOING)

AXELROD: He borrowed to pay operating expenses and left the tab for the next governor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: All of this may be -- this may work in the realm of leverage by quick scores but it is not how you build a future.

(SHOUTING)

(APPLAUSE)

AXELROD: One more statistic. A recent poll showed Governor Romney trailing badly here in his home state.

(CHEERING)

AXELROD: These may not only voters right here for Mitt Romney in Massachusetts.

(APPLAUSE)

AXELROD: It is a harsh judgment from the people who have come to know him best.

You know, it has been a century, a century since a person was elected president of the United States while his neighbors were rejecting him.

(SHOUTING)

AXELROD: The message Massachusetts seems to be sending as they listen to Romney reprise his familiar pitch is, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.

(CHEERING)

AXELROD: Romney economics didn't work then. It won't work now.

(APPLAUSE)

AXELROD: And with that, if there are members of the news media who want to address questions to us, who want to contend, we're happy to entertain them, anyone up here. Anybody?

(SHOUTING)

AXELROD: You can't handle the truth, my friends. That's the problem. You can handle the truth? You quiet down.

(SHOUTING) AXELROD: But he doesn't make that argument. He talks about how well he worked with the legislature. The reality is -- I mentioned that governor Romney raised spending by 6.5 percent. His proposals were for 8 percent. This group of people reined him in and exercised some responsibility. So, you know, we all know he vetoed 800 bills along the way, almost all of them overridden, but most of them for the benefit of Republican primary voters and other states, not for purposes of governance, and that was the problem. He was a drive-by governor here on his way to running for President of the United States.

(END LIVE FEED)