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FDA Approves Diet Pill; Wildfires in Colorado; Interview with Ben Quayle; Eric Holder Could be Held in Contempt of Congress; Google Unveils New Tablet; Queen Elizabeth II Visits Northern Ireland; First African-American Marines Honored on Capitol Hill;

Aired June 27, 2012 - 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: Here we go, hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Any moment now, Congress will honor the first African-American Marines with the Congressional Gold Medal. Folks, this is a huge deal. This is the highest civilian honor. It's a symbol of national appreciation, for good reason. You see a packed room here, appreciation for achievements and contributions.

For seven years back in the 1940s, you had these 20,000 African- American recruits trained at Montford Point. This was during World War II. And we're told the survivors here in 2012, there are some 400 of those Marines. They will be there today on Capitol Hill to accept this honor. And we will bring part of that to you live. So stick around for that.

But, first, I want to bring in this news. This is just in to us here about an hour ago, huge development from the world of medicine. The government signing off on this pill designed to fight obesity, yes, a weight loss pill designed to fight obesity. It basically tricks your brain when it comes to eating.

And I want to talk to senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen about this.

I'm sure some people are thinking, great, magic pill, perfect.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

There's some good things about it, but I want to be very careful. It's an appetite suppressant. It makes your -- tricks your brain into thinking you're full, when really you're not.

BALDWIN: OK.

COHEN: So the first question is on every mind, well, how much right can I lose?

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Right. That's what we all want to know.

BALDWIN: So what's the answer?

COHEN: So, let's take a look.

The people -- they studied 7,000 people and on average they weighed about 220 pounds. During the course of the year, they lost 13 pounds. They went from 220 pounds to 207 pounds. Now, that's a good weight loss, and their blood pressure went down and their cholesterol went down, et cetera.

But it's not gigantic. Doctors tell me this is good, but it's not, they still, many of them still had more weight to lose. It didn't take cake of their obesity, necessarily.

BALDWIN: But just to underscore the significance, this is the first time in like 13 years that an obesity-fighting pill has been approved by the FDA. Who was it approved for? How do you get it?

COHEN: Well, you can do to a doctor and ask for it. And a doctor can prescribe it to whomever they want. But the FDA does give guidelines.

And what they say is doctors should only give it to you if you're obese. And obese is pretty big. For example, if you're 5'6, obese would be over 180 or if you're overweight and sick. So they're not -- doctors are not supposed to give it to that healthy person who wants to lose five pounds to look better in a bikini. It's not for that person.

But doctors, I'm sure, will prescribe it to that person because doctors tend to do that. History has shown us that. So, again, it's only for obese or for overweight people who are sick, like let's say have high blood pressure or something like that.

BALDWIN: You mentioned a test group or 7,000 or so.

COHEN: Right.

BALDWIN: So I don't know if it's too early to really know if there are any horrendous side effects with this pill.

COHEN: That's a great way to put it because it may be too early to know.

BALDWIN: OK.

COHEN: We know from these 7,000 that there was nothing truly horrific stood out. There were things like headache and nausea.

But again if history serves a lesson here, in the past, diet drugs have been approved and it doesn't look like they cause anything horrible and then, right, you try it -- instead of 7,000, you try in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of people, and then you see, oh, you know what, for some people, this really does cause big problems.

(CROSSTALK) COHEN: Hopefully, that won't happen with this pill. But it sometimes does.

BALDWIN: Cautious optimism for Arena. Thank you.

COHEN: For Belviq.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Belviq is the pill.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Thank you.

A firestorm here -- a firestorm of epic proportions is now burning through Colorado. For the first time since it started three days ago, the Waldo Canyon wildfire wiped out homes in the Colorado Springs area forcing 32,000 people to get out of town, to evacuate.

This is a picture. This is just unreal. This is the cover of "The Denver Post" here and there are other images just like this if you want to flip through these picture on DenverPost.com. But the fire here is just 5 percent contained blackening more than 15,000 acres and 65 mile-per-hour winds today are only making matters worse.

Look at this, just the orange as far as the eye can see. Waldo Canyon is just one of 10 large fires burning in the state right now. And the governor, who we talked to a little while ago on this show, said there are suspicions that someone could have started this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), COLORADO: But the question was asked whether -- about the possibility that the Waldo fire down in Colorado Springs was set maliciously, it was not a lightning bolt or an accident, that it's some stupid fool going out and playing with fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER UPDATE)

BALDWIN: I want you to stay right there. Join me as we talk to my next against. She is Jenny Stafford. She has of course been watching all the twists and turns, I'm sure watching you, watching this.

She's a military wife. She has two young kids. And her husband is deployed, so she's sort of running the ship here in Colorado Springs and she has evacuated her home.

And, Jenny, I just want to say thank you for calling us. I was reading a little bit as to how you were describing this particular fire close to your home and you used the word apocalyptic. Can you explain?

JENNY STAFFORD, RESIDENT OF COLORADO: Yes. It was like nothing we have seen in our lives.

As the kids and I were driving out, we had a mandatory evacuation in our neighborhood and luckily we got a lot of notice and were able to pack up. And as we turned back to look, the flames were coming over the hill. Everything was -- looked like it was on fire, smoke everywhere and that was probably about 4:45 yesterday afternoon. So it just got worse from there. So, it's been pretty scary here in Colorado Springs...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Jenny, as you are in your car, I'm assuming your little ones are with you, I don't know, and you're looking in your rear-view mirror and you see your home, you see I don't know what else in the background, what are you thinking, what are you feeling?

STAFFORD: I felt so fortunate that we were able to get out with our lives and have my children with me.

We had our little cat as well. And we have had so much support, the community. I have been (INAUDIBLE) trying to think about just how wonderful this community has been, but we have been so blessed to have the support. And we know that right now our house is still standing, we believe, but if something does happen, we have so much love around us.

But, truly, this is one of the scariest things we have ever been through. I'm an East Coast girl. I have been in Colorado Springs 11 years. And when we moved the our neighborhood, we knew that this was something that was possible. We live right against the national forest. And but -- you think it's possible, but you never believe it's going to happen until you see it with your own eyes.

BALDWIN: You hear that and you hear from folks and they never think this is going to happen to them. And I know your husband is away. And you have got Anna (ph) and Jack and I don't even know how you begin to explain what his happening to them.

Stand by for me, Jenny.

I have got Jim Spellman, who is one of our correspondents who is in Colorado covering these wildfires as well.

Jim, I see an umbrella. I presume it's not raining. Is that water coming from helicopters. What's going on?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it is raining a bit. And you might think that rain would be a good thing on a wildfire, and it could be, but they are expecting possibly severe storms depending on the way the systems build today to come through this fire area.

And the problem is the rain barely makes it to the ground before it evaporates, but it brings winds, like Chad was talking about earlier that happened up the state a little bit. It's going to bring erratic wind that could shift the direction of the fire in very unpredictable ways. And because so much area has been burned out, it's almost area that's eroded, it could actually lead to flash floods. So they're dealing with a wildfire here and potential severe summer storms with flash flooding. It's going to be another complex day here this afternoon as the winds pick up.

Once, as Chad described, when it jumped that canyon, Queens Canyon, and raced into these communities, they called for reinforcements from everywhere they could get. There's now a thousand firefighters on this fire. And they are really building up for this afternoon when the wind gets severe again, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Crossing that line, it was a game changer. Jim Spellman, thank you.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

BALDWIN: Thanks to Jenny just quickly for calling in and of course Jim Spellman as well. We're all over this story.

So, meantime, you can -- I know you're sitting there and you feel for these folks, as do we. If you want to try to help them, just go to CNN.com/impact. We have different lists and different organizations, ways you can help those in need. So, again, the Web site is CNN.com/impact.

And with that said, a lot more news coming at you. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): The countdown is on. In less than 24 hours, President Obama hears the fate of his biggest legislation, a law that changes everyone's health care and we're taking you behind the scenes.

Hollywood loses a queen of the romantic comedy, but kept her sickness secret. You will hear Nora Ephron in her own words.

And a bombshell in the case of one woman's murder, a hit man and a sex dungeon -- why police arrested her husband after charging their handyman. The news is now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: They are the nine, the men and the women of the United States Supreme Court, the justices who will decide whether President Obama's health care reform law lives or dies tomorrow.

Four of them, they are considered right-leaning. Four of them are considered left-leaning, and then there's the man in the middle. He's Justice Anthony Kennedy. Maybe you saw him on the cover of the "TIME" magazine recently calling Justice Kennedy -- quote, unquote -- "the decider." When he fellow justices are deadlocked, 4-4, Kennedy oftentimes is the tiebreaker here which makes him perhaps the key player in this ruling that will unfold tomorrow morning.

And Steven Engel once clerked for the Supreme Court for Justice Kennedy.

So, you should have some pretty good insight here to this potential swing voting man.

Steven, since he is so often the swing vote, as we pointed out, how much do you think attorneys actually focus their oral arguments towards him?

STEVEN ENGEL, FORMER CLERK FOR JUSTICE KENNEDY: Well, I think that it's a common strategy.

Prior to Justice Kennedy kind of assuming this position, folks often talked about Justice O'Connor being the swing vote. And really Justice Kennedy has one vote, just like everybody else. But if you think there's four to the left and there's four to the right, it's kind of natural to focus on him, because his vote could be dispositive.

BALDWIN: When you clerked with him, did he ever talk about his poker face? How good is it?

(LAUGHTER)

ENGEL: I don't think it's about a poker face. I think Justice Kennedy asked some hard questions of government. He asked some hard questions also from the challengers to this case. So I think he's really just trying to get at the answers here. He's not trying to sort of hide where he is.

BALDWIN: Poker face jokes aside, though, you worked for him. Do you find it alarming at all that so many of these decisions really come down to this one man, it seems?

ENGEL: No. Again, I think it's just the way the court is balanced. And there is an expectation that the court could wind up 5- 4 on this. But we don't know. We will see that tomorrow. Just -- every nominee on the court matters.

BALDWIN: We are expecting for Justice Kennedy to be the swing vote. I remember when we were talking during the oral arguments, I was talking to Jeff Toobin, our senior legal guy, and he said, yes, he absolutely ripped into the federal government's counsel all of like five minutes in.

So, what can we really glean from that? Is it perhaps a harbinger of how he may decide?

ENGEL: Look, I think he did ask hard questions of the government. He said that the government is doing something here that it had really never done before, forcing someone to enter the stream of commerce under the guise of regulating commerce.

And Justice Kennedy said that he thought the government had a heavy burden to carry that. But again that said, when he got to asking the challengers questions, he asked some fair and hard questions there too, so I think the challengers have to be happy with how the oral argument when, but you're really only going to know how Justice Kennedy himself answered these questions tomorrow.

BALDWIN: I want you to take me into the room, how this exactly works. Take me in the room where you have these nine justices I presume sitting around a table. How many hours does this take ultimately to decide? How does that process work behind closed doors?

ENGEL: Sure.

Well, the deliberations among the justices is relatively brief. A couple of days after the oral arguments, the justices met in the conference room which is attached to the chief justice's chambers. And I can't tell you how long they were there for. But typically conference doesn't go more than an hour or two to decide all the cases that are on the agenda.

And basically the justices, they go down in order of seniority, from reverse order of seniority. They express their views of the case, and then they vote. And that's -- and then they go back and they -- the senior justice, whether it's the chief justice or the senior justice in the majority, will sign the opinion and then the justices draft opinions. They draft dissents. They circulate them back and forth. They kind of get it right and then when they are ready, they issue the opinions.

And it looks like that will be tomorrow.

BALDWIN: Yes. I understand though that they can change their minds. But nothing is really official until it's read from the bench from the chief justice.

Is this the kind of thing, though, the sort of back and forth that you just described, is this sort of like what happens in the chief justice chambers stays in the chief justice chambers or will we ultimately get to know sort of nuance from this whole decision making process?

ENGEL: Well, the justices are the only ones in that conference room.

But they -- in contrast to any other branch of government, they have to announce what they're going to do in writing. And so we're going to read how they feel about the case. We're going to read their deliberate consideration of all the issues. And in fact I think there's probably going to be a lot to read come tomorrow.

These opinions could be dozens of pages long.

BALDWIN: Well, we're going to be tackling it. Steven Engel, we appreciate it. And we will just get that decision when it comes down tomorrow morning. Thank you.

ENGEL: Sure.

BALDWIN: Another big moment tomorrow, nothing that has ever been done before. The country's attorney general, Eric Holder, could be held in contempt of Congress. And Republicans making a big move today.

Plus, Google takes aim at Amazon and Apple unveiling, aha, its very own tablet. It costs less than 200 bucks.

Quick note for you. If you are heading out the door, you can still keep watching us here at CNN on your mobile device or on your desktop. Just go to CNN.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, a couple of stories we're watching here.

Attorney General Eric Holder at the center of this election-year showdown on Capitol Hill. Also, Google getting ready to join the tablet wars.

Time to play "Reporter Roulette."

Want to go straight to the White House to my colleague, Dan Lothian.

And, Dan, what kind of reaction from the White House are we hearing today on Speaker Boehner's decision to go ahead with this vote tomorrow to possibly hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, they are disappointed here.

White House spokesman Jay Carney saying that this is a wholly unnecessary vote, pointing the finger at Republicans, saying that they are really just all about politics here, that they have made a strategic choice to score some political points and that what they should be focused on is the economy, putting more teachers in the classroom, the infrastructure jobs, making sure that the interest rates on student loans stay low, not on this vote.

BALDWIN: I know it was the president who used the executive privilege last week. Can the White House or DOJ, can they do anything this sort of late in the game to hold off this contempt vote?

LOTHIAN: Well, that's such a good question because there were these behind-the-scene negotiations that broke down, but White House spokesman Jay Carney today sounded a bit optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You remain hopeful that common sense prevails here, although you do have to look at the beginning of the year when Republicans announced that one of their chief legislative and strategic priorities was to investigate the administration and damage the president politically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: So he is hopeful, but he would not say whether there were ongoing talks between the White House and members of Congress and whether or not the president himself was actively involved in trying to make sure that something happened here in these final hours.

BALDWIN: All right. Dan Lothian, hope everything is OK there. Dan, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

LOTHIAN: A little windy.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Thanks, Dan.

LOTHIAN: OK.

BALDWIN: Dan Lothian to Dan Simon. We go to the opposite side of the country, San Francisco here, next on "Reporter Roulette."

We're talking about this Google tablet just unveiled today. It's the Nexus 7. So I'm sure you have had maybe a little time to play with it. How does it stack up to the iPad on the Kindle Fire?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's smaller completely different.

It's smaller than the iPad, seven inches, in comparison to the iPad, about 10 inches. And it's a lot cheaper -- $199. I think it looks to me like a pretty good machine. The problem is if you're somebody who is heavily invested into the Apple infrastructure, if you will, the ecosystem, say you have downloaded a lot of music or downloaded a bunch of apps, it might be a bit of a hard sell to kind of switch over to the Google system where you might have to buy all that stuff all over again.

So, we will see how it does. This is a very competitive landscape, if you will. This is going to go on sale in mid-July -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. So that's the Nexus 7. Then you have this thing called the Nexus Q. It looks like a little black orb. What is this?

SIMON: Well, this is a home entertainment streaming device. This is kind of like the Apple TV product, you know, that set top box that you have?

This allows you to stream music and stream TV shows and movies directly to your computer. You can control it with your phone or your tablet. Same problem here. If you're somebody who has bought a lot of content using Apple, it may be a tough sell to go and buy this, but it looks to be again a nice device, priced at $299, so a bit pricier than some of the other products. And that also goes on sale in mid- July -- Brooke.

All right, Dan Simon, thank you.

And that's your "Reporter Roulette" here on this Wednesday.

I want to tell you about something that was really unimaginable say 10 years ago, but it happened today. Queen Elizabeth II shakes the hand of the man who led the group that killed her husband, the IRA, Sinn Fein, and royalty all in one room. You're going to hear what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want us to just stop for a moment and watch a little history in the making. Watch this with me.

Watch as Britain's Queen Elizabeth, she walks into this room in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and she's going down this line and she's shaking hands. And she's shaking hands and then she reaches out and she shakes the hand of a man who was once a commander of the IRA, the Irish Republican Army.

We will slow it down here for a moment and see it again, because this really is -- here it is -- this is the historic handshake. This is Martin McGuinness. He is the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.

But this handshake, keep in mind, comes 14 years after the IRA ended its war against British rule.

And I want to go to our senior international correspondent covering this historic handshake.

Nic, did you ever think we would see this in our lifetimes?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think I did, and I certainly don't think many people here thought that they would see it. Why?

Because, for 30 years, half of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Martin McGuinness was trying to kill her soldiers, kill her policemen, drive her government out of Northern Ireland, and even killed the queen's cousin, Earl Mountbatten, a very good -- a very well-loved relative by the queen, much loved by the queen.

So, to see the rapprochement, that she would come and shake the hands with a man many people see as responsible for that, and that he would turn about from wanting to drive out the British government to shaking hands with the person, the one person who epitomizes everything about Britain, his archenemy for so long, I think that's why people didn't expect it to happen.

But it's very, very heavy on symbolism. And the important thing that both of them are trying to do to show people in Northern Ireland that it really is time to move forward. You have got peace. But now start to put behind you some of the baggage of the past. That was the message here -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Two little things I noticed when we watched this video a couple of times, of course, the obvious, that she's wearing green, a nod to Ireland, and ten when you look at the line, the men whose hands she is shaking, they bow, except for McGuinness, who doesn't bow his hand. He actually, it appears, looks her in the eye, which, protocol- wise, is a bit of a no-no.

What do you make of that?

ROBERTSON: Well, he's trying to play to two audiences here in some ways.

He says -- after shaking the queen's hand, he came out and he said, I'm still a republican, which in the context of Ireland means, I still want the British government to get out of the north of Ireland and to unite the whole of Ireland.

He also said to the queen when he greeted her, he greeted her in Irish and said goodbye to her in Irish. And, again, those are statements. This is man who grew up speaking English. Irish is a second language to him, yet he uses it as a first language for the queen, with the queen.

So, it's heavy on symbolism. But what McGuinness is doing here, however, is really putting behind him once and for all that the -- the violence, the hard-core roots. He's lost support today from some of those people who are still building bombs and still want to kill British soldiers, kill British policemen here and blow up parts of -- parts of this city here.

So, he has really put himself beyond these hard core republicans. He's still trying to stay faithful to that message. He's trying to broaden his political appeal. He's trying to move on and send this very big message of reconciliation here.

BALDWIN: As you mentioned, it is heavy on symbolism. Nic Robertson, live in Ireland. Nic, thank you.

Let's show you some polls, shall we? They are out today. They are showing President Obama is leading Mitt Romney in three key battleground states.

Take a look at Florida, President Obama leading 45 percent to 41. In Ohio, 47 to 38. And in Pennsylvania, it's 45 to 39.

And one more bit of numbers here. The new CNN national poll of polls shows Obama ahead 48 percent to 44 percent, again, in the poll of polls. That's an average of four national polls taken over the past two weeks.

Justin Bieber and Selina Gomez were on the House floor or really their pictures were. Representative Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, used these two stars to make a point on an Arizona immigration law that would allow police to check people's immigration status or papers which, he says, leads to racial profiling. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE LUIS GUTIERREZ (D), ILLINOIS: Justin Bieber and Selina Gomez, these young people have overcome their very different national origins and become, apparently, a happy couple.

I'm sure Justin helped Gomez learn all about American customs and feel more at home in her adopted country.

Oh, wait a minute, I'm sorry. Because I'm not a trained Arizona official. I somehow got that backwards. Actually, Miss Gomez of Texas has helped Mr. Bieber of Canada learn about his adopted country.

Justin, when you perform in Phoenix, remember to bring your papers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How about that on the floor of the House today. Arizona's controversial "show-me-your-papers" law, as it's been dubbed, was upheld by the Supreme Court just yesterday.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, in just about 20 hours from now, we're going to know how they rule on ObamaCare. Republican Congressman Ben Quayle says it needs to be repealed, but is his alternative plan a little vague.

We're going to challenge him, on some numbers next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We have just learned -- we've been talking a lot about these horrible Colorado wildfires -- we have just learned the president will be traveling to Colorado on Friday to take a look at the damage in person and, of course, thank these thousands of responders for bravely battling the fire.

You're looking at a picture. This was from "The Denver Post" today. You can just look through all these incredible images of damage as so many people are fearing for their lives, the homes, DenverPost.com.

We talked to the governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, and I was asking him and he was really hitting home the message that looking at the pictures makes his blood boil. He's wondering if there's any kind of suspicion that this particular Waldo Canyon fire might have been started by an arsonist. He called them a stupid fool and an idiot.

We're all over it. In the meantime, we're all over this other story.

A big day in Washington tomorrow, folks. The day Republicans have been waiting for is almost here. They have spent a lot of time and a lot of money, breath and patience, railing against ObamaCare. It will be a huge victory for them if the Supreme Court strikes down that law tomorrow.

Arizona Congressman Ben Quayle is one of those Republicans rooting for that to happen. Congressman, welcome. Thanks for coming on.

REPRESENTATIVE BEN QUAYLE (R), ARIZONA: Yes, thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: Let's say -- and this is a what if game that we have to play today -- let's say that the Supreme Court grants your fondest wish, totally striking down ObamaCare. What concrete plans to Republicans have to put legislation in its place?

QUAYLE: The one thing that we're going to wait and see what the decision is, but looking at some of the proposals and some of the things that I would like to see is to see real market-based reforms.

Because we did need healthcare reform, but I don't think ObamaCare was the right answer to the problems that we had.

So if we actually make sure that we're allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, making insurance attached to the person rather than the job, allowing states to have pools with pre-existing conditions, a number of proposals that I think will actually drive down costs and increase access.

And, if it's truly market-based, then we'll actually see competition driving down the price and actually increasing the level of care.

BALDWIN: So you do have plans to pass legislation. You mentioned folks with pre-existing conditions to not discriminate against them. Do you have a plan for that?

QUAYLE: What I would like to see is actually allowing the states deal with that where they can put together a pool for people with pre- existing conditions or chronic conditions who can't afford health insurance, but they can go into a state-level pool. Those are the types of things that have been proposed and talked about.

But really we want to have the conversation with the American people. We don't want another 2,000-page bill to go out and not talk to the American people and tell them that we have to pass it before they learn what's in it. I think that should be what we do.

BALDWIN: We'll get a little preview of that conversation right now. The question is when, the timing of this. Is it before the election, after the election, Congressman?

QUAYLE: I think we're going to first see what comes out of the Supreme Court tomorrow. We've got 10:00 a.m., I believe, tomorrow morning is about what time they're going to be doing it.

So we'll see what they do, if they actually rule the whole law unconstitutional or they just do pieces of it. We don't know, can't determine that from oral arguments.

But once we get that, then we can take it to Congress and see what we can do. I personally would like to see the whole law ruled unconstitutional, so we get a clean slate to actually address the health care problems that we need to address.

BALDWIN: Let me run through a couple of the benefits from the plan that people are already seeing. More than three million young people under age 26 added to their parents insurance.

More than five million seniors got prescription drug benefits under Medicare. We mentioned pre-existing conditions. Sixty thousand people with pre-existing conditions were able to get coverage.

If all of that, if you get your wish, you want the whole thing struck down. You want Congress to have a clean slate. What then do you do for those people who are getting this help now?

QUAYLE: I think that we do push through legislation that actually abides by the Constitution that will be market-based in driving down costs and increasing access. I think that you allow the states to have more flexibility within Medicaid. These are the types of things that I think the Republicans can get behind. We don't have one plan in place, but we'll wait to see what the Supreme Court says.

BALDWIN: You don't have any plan in place?

QUAYLE: No, I said that we don't have one plan. There's a number of different plans that are out there. Once we see what will come out of Supreme Court then we'll see which plans will be working within the framework that the court provided. We don't know if they will scrap the entire law or not, and then go from there.

But there's already a number of plans out there. I was looking through different healthcare bills. There's close to 100 that deal with healthcare reform that are from the Republican side. Those are the things we'll look at to put together a bill that actually does what needs to be done to reform our healthcare system so that it reduces costs and increases access.

BALDWIN: Let me ask Congressman Quayle about immigration because I know Romney is not giving a position on President Obama's executive order on immigration that came down from the DHS a couple of weeks ago.

Now, the whole "show-me-your-papers" law, that's what it's really called in your state that the Supreme Court now has upheld. This is Arizona. Is that because he's weak on the issue, he being Mitt Romney?

QUAYLE: I think that Governor Romney and all of us should be talking about the fact that the president doesn't have the authority to do what he did. He's bypassing Congress, trying to write laws via non-action on laws that are on the books. This is a horrible precedent. BALDWIN: But don't you wish -- Congressman, this is your state. You have an opinion. Are you frustrated Mitt Romney really doesn't seem to, at least publicly? It's been very vague.

QUAYLE: I'm just can state what I believe. I think that all of us should be very up in arms about what the president has done, what Secretary Napolitano did yesterday by taking way the cooperation with ICE and the local law enforcement agencies with Arizona. That's just ridiculous.

BALDWIN: Congressman Quayle, forgive me for interrupting again, but I'm asking about Mitt Romney, not the president, Mitt Romney.

QUAYLE: I've said that I would like the see Governor Romney come out and be more forceful on how the president actually went about this, went against the constitutional foundations that our country was founded on.

BALDWIN: But he's running for president, so let's take away what he thinks the president should do if he wins. Shouldn't we hear concrete plans from him?

QUAYLE: No, but I think that when you're talking about what the president did, I think that Governor Romney and everybody here on Capitol Hill should be talking about it, as well.

If we have a president that just is going to basically make up laws as he goes along, we don't have a separate and co-equal branches of government anymore. This is a horrible precedent to set because then you'll just have a president that continues to disregard Congress and how our laws are made and actually executed.

BALDWIN: The senate tried to pass the DREAM Act in 2010. This was a piece of bipartisan legislation that got blocked.

QUAYLE: It got blocked on a bipartisan basis, I believe. They couldn't get it through when they had complete control of the House and the Senate. The DREAM Act is fundamentally flawed.

We do need to find a solution to these issues, but that one is not the right solution and I think what the president has just done is just really just disregarded the Constitution and separate but co- equal branches of government. That's not the right thing to do. I think everybody should be talking out against that.

BALDWIN: Speaking of the Constitution, you mentioned it. At 10:00 tomorrow morning, we'll see how the Supreme Court comes down on the constitutionality of ObamaCare. Congressman Ben Quayle, thank you.

QUAYLE: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And in a minute, a huge moment is going to happen on Capitol. Huge, significant, the nation's first African-American Marines. Here is House Speaker John Boehner teeing this thing up, about to get the highest honor for any civilian. You're going to see it live in just a moment.

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BALDWIN: All right live pictures on Capitol Hill. House Speaker John Boehner getting a little teary-eyed, introducing about 400 African-Americans Marines who broke the military's final color barrier. They're about to receive the nation's highest civilian honor. This is a huge day. More on this after this quick break.

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BALDWIN: A group of trailblazers -- look at these live pictures -- a group of trailblazers are being honored right now on Capitol Hill. I promise I'll stop talking in a moment and we can just watch this.

But if you don't know who the Montfort Point Marines are, they broke the military's final color barrier from '42 to '49. Just about 20,000 African-Americans went to Montfort Point, this blacks-only boot camp at Camp Lejeune. They were shipped off to war in World War II and they are finally being recognized. Take a look.

FIRST SERGEANT, RETIRED, WILLIAM MCDOWELL, MONTFORD POINT MARINES, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS: Good afternoon. If I don't talk loud enough, let me know. For 167 years Negroes were not permitted to join the United States Marine Corps to defend this country. That condition changed in 1941 and the entry did begin in 1942.

Unfortunately, it took a world war to make it happen, but it happened. On behalf of those who came forward and said, I want to be a Marine, I welcome you to this most auspicious occasion because you all were directly involved.

At this very proud moment and in this magnificent venue, I want to thank the honorable speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. John A. Boehner for his kind invitation to each of us that are here today.

Thank the members of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives who supported the bill to honor the Montfort Point Marines with a Congressional Gold Medal and a particular thanks to Congresswoman Corrine Brown from Florida; Senator Kay Hagan from North Carolina who made it happen; National president of the Marine Point Marine Association, Chief Warrant Officer and Dr. James Everhart, United States Marine Corps; the past national president of the Montfort Point Marine Association, Mr. Joe Geeter, master gunnery sergeant, United States, retired; and Joe Carpenter, lieutenant colonel, retired, United States Marine Corps.

I would like to personally thank the officers and staff of the Marine Corps Special Projects Directorate, Colonel Smith and her operations planning team. You guys did a hell of a job, a hell of a job putting it all together.

And last, but not least, on February 25th of last year at the Camp Joseph H. Pendleton Base theater -- I happened to be there -- a gentleman said that this injustice, this non-recognition of what Montfort Point Marines did, many of them who served through World War II and on into Korea and Vietnam -- a bunch of them are here -- he said he was going to fix it and he did. He's a man of his word. He made it happen, 35th fifth commandant of the Marine Corps, James F. Amos.

Come on. Like a guy who says something, says he's going to do something and he did it.

On a personal note, and I think I'm echoing the thoughts of many of us who are fortunate enough to be here, I don't think we imagine that anything like this would ever happen in our lifetime.

It does sadden me that so many of our brothers are not with us today. The upside of it all is that we do remember each and every one of them. They're in our hearts and minds and they shall never be forgotten.

This day, that Gold Medal -- that Congressional Gold Medal -- excuse me. Those out there saying suck it up, Marine. I know.

This Gold Medal is very much theirs, also. I am happy for this event to take place because, as an extension of it, I get a chance for me and my wife, Brenda, to reunite with old friends, look forward to reminiscing a bit, might even let them buy me a drink or two. Go around complimenting each other about how good we look.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege and an honor to stand before you and receive the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of yourselves and the almost 18,700 other brothers who served this nation and the Corps with courage, commitment.

This award belongs to them because, collectively, you all did what some of us thought was impossible. Once again, you've made history. Thank you for being here. Semper fidelis, Marines. Thank you.

BALDWIN: An emotional First Sergeant, Retired, William McDowell accepting the nation's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. We thank them.

The head of the Marines, General James Amos, really sums it up best. I want to quote him. Quote, "To me, they were heroic for two reasons. They fought against the enemy during World War II while they also fought for their civil rights and respect for their fellow Americans. It is fitting that we as Americans honor their selfless service and sacrifice with a Congressional Gold Medal and fully embrace their storied contributions to the history of our nation at war. Thank you."

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BALDWIN: For years and years, healthcare reform has been a powerful political divider, but beyond the politics of healthcare, what does tomorrow morning's looming decision by the Supreme Court really mean to you and me? I want to bring in CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. While we're waiting here -- and it's supposed to come down around 10:00 tomorrow morning, the big decision -- many Americans say that they worry the law would force them to adopt healthy habits. I guess kind of force them to be responsible for their own health. Hello.

How much, though, do individual habits really play into this country's health issues, do you think?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's a funny thing. We're going to force you to be healthy, a terrible, terrible thing that we're asking people to do.

But, look, I'll tell you about Americans, overall. Obviously, there are people who have significant chronic disease and illness and have been afflicted with cancer. They're just in a tough spot, Brooke, sometimes. It's very hard for them to get healthcare insurance. It can be very expensive, even if they do.

But leaving that aside, if you look at the country as a whole, there's so many things that we need to pay attention to that help explain, in part, why our health care costs are so high.

About three-quarters of the nation, 68 percent roughly, are either overweight or obese. We talk about this, Brooke, to the point where people's eyes glaze over. I get that. But there are consequences to that number and because obesity is related to just about every chronic disease you can imagine.

Twenty percent of Americans smoke. Again, that's part of why health care costs are so expensive as well. But, Brooke, let me make a larger point, something that you and I have talked about.

BALDWIN: Yes.

GUPTA: Just simply having healthcare insurance alone doesn't mean you're going to be healthy. Healthcare insurance doesn't equate to good health. You and I both know people with terrifically good health insurance who are terrifically unhealthy.

So take a look at that. Only half of Americans got preventative care services prior to 2010. That's when you had about 80 percent to 85 percent of Americans covered.

So just providing the insurance is the first beat, but there's a very important second beat to this as well, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That being the conscious choice to live a healthier life, right?

GUPTA: That being the choice to become a healthier America. I think becoming a healthier America accomplishes lots of things. People feel better when they're healthier, but it also helps bring down these costs. Now, I don't know if this is so much forcing people to become healthy, but I think there are things within the plan that potentially incentivize people to become healthy -- no co-pays for preventive services, things like that. People can try and not get sick.

BALDWIN: Right. There's so much else beyond the individual mandate. We're going to have all our questions answered at 10:00 tomorrow morning. We're going to hash it all out, I'm sure, throughout CNN tomorrow.

Sanjay, thank you.

Candy Crowley, take it away. Your "Situation Room" begins right now.