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Obama's Road to Charlotte; New Orleans After Isaac; Nittany Lions Lose

Aired September 01, 2012 - 16:00   ET

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome back. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is preparing for his second so-called victory rally today in a battleground state. He'll speak to supporters in Jacksonville, Florida in about 30 minutes or so from now.

This morning in Ohio, the GOP candidate reiterated some key points of his acceptance speech. Romney promised to lower taxes on small businesses, repeal the Obama health care plan, and balance the budget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATEROMNEY: We'll finally have to do something that Republicans have spoken about for a long time and for a while we didn't do it. When we had the lead we let people down. We didn't make sure we don't lead them down this time. I will cut the deficit and get us on track to a balanced budget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Now to President Barack Obama who spent part of his day at a rally in Urbandale, Iowa. He launched what he is calling his Road to Charlotte tour. He took aim at Mitt Romney's convention speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you didn't DVR it, let me recap it for you. Everything is bad, it's Obama's fault, and Governor Romney is the only one who knows the secrets of creating jobs and growing the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So as the president starts his Road to Charlotte tour, the Democratic Party is putting the finishing touches on the convention. It all gets going Tuesday. CNN political producer Shannon Travis is in Charlotte, North Carolina this afternoon. So Shannon, you know, are people trickling in already besides the media, such as yourself?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Yes, I mean, mostly the media presence is growing and growing since yesterday when we arrived but you're absolutely right. They are some of the delegates, some of the DNC officials that have started to come in, probably picking up their cars and securing their hotel rooms before things get too crazy. I think the bulk of people are going to be coming in tomorrow, Fred.

Also tomorrow we expect for the security perimeter that will secure basically the entire zone surrounding this arena where the DNC will kick off on Tuesday. That will be going up tomorrow afternoon we expect so a few more headaches getting around then as well. So yes, a lot of preparations are going on. A lot of people are filing in. Pretty much yesterday and today, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK. Quite a few celebrities are kind of on the roster to speak or at least be in attendance. Who are they as far as you know?

TRAVIS: Yes. The Republicans had Clint Eastwood. Let's go through some of the performers who will be here for the Democrats. I've got a little bit of a list here. Amber Riley. You remember her. She is of "Glee" fame, R&B singer, that's on Tuesday night. They will be performing, Fred. On Wednesday we got Jessica Sanchez of "American Idol" fame. Redford Marsalus the famed jazz musician will be doing the national anthem. And then on Thursday it will essentially be like a huge concert. You got Foo Fighters, Mary J. Blige, Earth, Wind, and Fire, James Taylor, and Marc Anthony doing the national anthem.

So that is the day as well that the president and the vice president will make their acceptance speeches. That should be a lot of fun and a big draw for those performers too.

WHITFIELD: We also understand while the DNC is meeting Republican Mitt Romney is getting a little practice on debates that'll get under way soon. What do you know about those details?

TRAVIS: Yes. We already knew. We were previously reporting that Senator Rob Portman of Ohio would play Barack Obama in these debate preparations for Mitt Romney. Jim Acosta reported earlier that they will be practicing this week so I guess Romney is taking a little bit of time while the president of the Democrats are here to take a little down time and do some debate preparation. So would love to be a fly on the wall for that, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Shannon Travis, thanks so much, in Charlotte. Everybody would.

All right. CNN's live coverage of the Democratic National Convention from Charlotte, North Carolina beginning Tuesday evening, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett, and Candy Crowley will be joining Wolf Blitzer to lead the coverage.

All right. Now to rural Plaquemines Parish in far south Louisiana. You probably recognize Plaquemines as the place that got whacked by Isaac's storm surge. A large section of the parish lies outside of the federal levee system highlighted there. It is actually still under water.

CNN's George Howell headed out today by boat to survey the flood and also get a chance to talk with whoever he could find out there. Give me an idea. What happened? What did you see? GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And so, Fred, I want to show you over here. Just on the other side of that tree line there is a levee, a raised levee like the one we're on right now, maybe eight or nine feet high. And beyond that, beyond that levee, you find these communities under water. We did go over there. We got on a boat, even rode along the levee side just to see what the situation is over there.

And Fred, I can tell you the flood waters are still there. You know, you have to be on a boat to really go into these neighborhoods and see them. Remember these flood waters got anywhere from seven feet to 14 feet in this area. Went over these eight-foot-high levees. So you find officials there doing the best that they can to search for anyone who still needs help in that area.

We even ran into a person who lives in that community. He has lived there for a short time but again he says that, you know, this was a surprise to even people who have lived there all their lives. He went over to search for his pets. He was able to find his cats. Search and rescue for animals, it's something that many people weren't able to take their pets when the situation became dire and people had to get out. Here's what Robert Sanders had to say to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT SANDERS, RESIDENT: I did a lot of rescue out of the Ninth Ward after Katrina. You know, it's a beautiful place over here and kind of like gambling. You take a gamble. But, you know, people around here have been doing this all their life. They'll probably come back and build it right back and get ready for the next one. That's probably what I'll do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So Fred, again, we're talking about Plaquemines Parish. We're talking about these very thin slivers of land that parallel the Mississippi right out to the mouth. People who live out here say, you know, they will likely return back even after going through this storm, going through Katrina. People say this is home and they are going through the process of starting over.

WHITFIELD: So, George, has everyone been located in that area?

HOWELL: Fred, I'm sorry. You'll have to repeat.

WHITFIELD: Has everyone been located in that area?

HOWELL: From what we understand. You know, there are still some people, Fred, you know, who decided to stay in their homes even through the storm and are still there despite the flood waters. Officials check in with those people. So everyone so far is accounted for. We do know of two deaths reported here in Plaquemines Parish. Again a couple discovered in a flooded home.

You know this is a situation when you talk to Robert Saunders about this, he says there was a short amount of time to get out of the way. This water came quickly. He said within a matter of minutes, Fred, four feet of water in his first floor. He went up to the second floor to try to get away from it. Then he decided to get out when those officials, you know, came to help him escape.

WHITFIELD: George Howell in Plaquemines Parish, thanks so much, Louisiana, appreciate that update.

HOWELL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Let's find out where the remnants of Isaac might be right now and what it promises to bring. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis in the Weather Center. Boy, this Isaac has some serious staying power.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's got legs, that's for sure. And the remnants are still moving just primarily right around the central Mississippi River Valley but for the most part its impact is felt to the east of the Mississippi River.

Here we have two tornado watches out for a good portion of Illinois and southern Illinois extending down into Missouri. We've had some isolated reports, tornado warnings. Doppler radar indicated tornadoes. But for the most part any tornadic activity we see coming out of the, what is left over from this going to be short lived and fairly weak. That's not to say they're not going to be dangerous but for the most part that is what we're looking at throughout the afternoon.

All right. Rainfall totals for the most part in southeastern Illinois, southern Indiana, portions of Kentucky. This is where we could see kind of a bulls eye for some heavy rainfall here. This will be where most of the energy is going to be heading into the next 24 to 48 hours, maybe six to 10 inches of rainfall possible in some of those areas. But for those who are without power and it may take several more days for everybody to get back online, in southeastern Louisiana they're saying in excess of 440,000 people without power.

Look at the temperature. It's 90 degrees outside, insufferable. That with the humidity combined to make the heat index feel like 101 degrees in New Orleans, 105 in Shreveport. Slight risk of thunderstorms. We knew that going into this afternoon. And I think we'll see the bulk of the activity for this afternoon shifting eastward as we go into the next 24 hours.

So we have the remnants left here. There's still a fire danger across the northern Great Plains. But Fred, we'll keep you updated. It made landfall. Isaac made landfall on the seventh anniversary of Katrina in New Orleans.

WHITFIELD: That is so remarkable.

MAGINNIS: It is.

WHITFIELD: I don't think anybody could believe their ears when they heard that that could potentially happen and then it did is really astounding. All right. Karen Maginnis, thank you.

All right. Should Texas voters have to bring a photo I.D. to the polls? A federal appeals court weighs in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some fascinating legal cases straight ahead including one that just might impact the presidential election. Avery, you first, on what really is a victory for the U.S. Justice Department.

AVERY FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, some states are putting great big boulders in front of the voting booth. So a three-judge panel this week came up with a blockbuster. We'll talk about that and more coming up.

WHITFIELD: And Richard, you think this is something that really could impact the elections in a big way?

RICHARD HERMAN: I think it could impact. The state of Texas was beat down here. You wonder why a Democrat has not won a statewide election in the last 10 years. Discriminatory intent. Not going to be tolerated.

WHITFIELD: All right. Our brilliant legal minds, 90 seconds away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Moving to Texas and the U.S. Justice Department which, you know, the U.S. Justice Department can put one notch in their belt as a victory as they are challenging these new voter ID laws that are sweeping across the country. There's something like 10 states that have them. So in the case of Texas, now we're talking about that new voter I.D. law being knocked down. So is it likely, Richard, that the other cases just might follow suit? There are some precedents now that perhaps this is not a case in which there are a rash of fraudulent, you know, voters who are trying to cast a ballot because the Justice Department and others have already determined that there is not, you know, there isn't a pattern of a great litany of fraudulent cases.

HERMAN: Right. Do the ends justify the means? Are these laws required to cure some far reaching problem we had with voter fraud? But the answer here is, no. They don't. You'll wonder why in the great state of Texas no Democrat has won a statewide election in the last 10 years. It's because the Republican-controlled legislature does things like this. I mean, this was clearly as the court held a discriminatory intent involved in doing this, Fred.

WHITFIELD: In large part because many people - there is a large number of people in this jurisdiction in particular in Texas that don't have those government issued I.D.s.

FRIEDMAN: Right.

WHITFIELD: They don't have cars, they don't have driver's licenses. And so they wouldn't be able to produce these documents.

FRIEDMAN: Right.

That's right. That is exactly right. I mean.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead, Avery.

FRIEDMAN: The bottom line on it is that 56-page opinion and let's not dance around what the issue is. The three-judge federal panel said that it was based on race and it is a very definitive, clear decision that 142 years of amending the constitution not to block voter rights, a 47-year-old federal law that guarantees voter rights, these cases keep falling.

State legislatures in Texas and Florida and Ohio keep trying to block the polls primarily of the poor, of minorities. And you know what? Whether it's a federal judge appointed by a Republican president or a Democratic president we're seeing virtually all federal cases, Fredricka, saying knock it off. It violates the Constitution. Let people vote.

WHITFIELD: South Carolina has a case that might be the next one in line. It, too, you know, is covered jurisdiction under the voting rights act similar to Texas.

FRIEDMAN: Right.

WHITFIELD: The argument there is that they're requiring people to have one of the five state issued I.D.s. but the law apparently has to be preapproved. And what does that mean exactly? A law would have to be preapproved before it would be able to go forward, Richard?

HERMAN: Exactly. If you want to have redistricting maps or you want to go into requiring some sort of identification, you know, it doesn't have to be a driver's license, Fred. That's what happened in Texas. They proposed alternatives. Other types of identification, which the legislature just knocked down in amendments. But they have to go to D.C. to get approval because this violates the Voting Rights Act.

They want to make sure it's there, that the elections are fair. And what we're assuming here is that who are being disproportionately affected here, it's the poor and they're assuming the poor will vote democratic so that is the rationale behind all this. And I think they're going to continue to fall when states act in this manner.

WHITFIELD: All right. Richard Herman, Avery Friedman -

FRIEDMAN: Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Yes, go ahead.

FRIEDMAN: The Supreme Court is not going to take the case. That is very important. Election is two months away. Those cases will stand. Very, very important.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, gentlemen.

HERMAN: I disagree.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HERMAN: I think the Supreme Court will take this case. They're going to take the case not in the next three months but they are going to take the case.

WHITFIELD: All right. The legal guys are here every Saturday noon Eastern giving us their take on the most intriguing legal cases of the day.

All right. The lap top computer of the future is here. It's greener, cheaper, and hopefully will soon be in the hands of school kids who could never afford it before. The guy who invented it? He is on "The Next List" tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we started designing the $100 laptop we were just looking at how do you protect the key board and the screen? How do children sort of carry it around? We set aside between 10 percent and 30 percent of our work hours toward those kind of projects. I can't tell you that's just what made business sense every month but I can tell you that is what made human sense every month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. There's outrage in South Africa today after 270 platinum miners were charged with the murders of 34 fellow miners. Those miners were actually shot dead by police officers. The miners were involved in a deadly clash with police officers two weeks ago. South Africa's Justice minister is demanding an explanation and the release of the miners.

Victims of thalidomide have rejected an apology from the German inventor. The drug taken by pregnant women caused thousands of babies to be born with shortened arms and legs. For years victims have demanded justice staging protests across the world. Five decades after the drug was taken off the shelf, the head of the survivors' group says the apology is too little too late.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WENDY ROWE, LYNETTE ROWE'S MOTHER: I have read the speech and the so- called apology. It's the sort of apology you give when you're really not sorry. I suspect he might not know what shock is. Shock is having your precious child born without arms and legs. It's accepting that your child is not going to have that life that you wanted for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Thalidomide was not approved for widespread use in the United States.

A new chapter in Penn State's tarnished history ends in defeat today. The Nittany Lions lost their season opener to Ohio University. It was the first game following the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal that rocked the team and the university. It was also the first home opener since 1949 without legendary coach Joe Paterno. Paterno died two months after he was fired from the team.

Isaac has had a lot to do with rising gas prices. Right now the national average is at $3.83 for a gallon of regular unleaded. It's up eight cents over last week. Some stations in the south have seen a 20-cent jump in the past week and a lot of it is because of the closure of oil rigs and refineries that were in the path of Isaac.

All right. He has won the third largest powerball in history. $337 million is written on that check right there. Donald Lawson quit his job working on the Michigan railroads after learning that he was the winner. But he says the win won't change him a whole lot. He'll keep on living the simple life.

All right. Mention the song "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Free Bird" and you know what classic southern rock band I'm actually referring to. Band members tell us the story of how they got the name Lynyrd Skynyrd. It actually have something to do with this man who may be unrecognizable to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: They've been together for the most part some 40 years. Their music sparking memories of weddings, proposals, and school dances, "Sweet Home Alabama," "Free Bird," "What's Your Name?" Now you know exactly who I'm talking about. Lynyrd Skynyrd. I sat down with the vocalist Johnny Van Zandt and guitarist Gary Rossington and Ricky Medlock about how it all got started beginning with the band's name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

It was his gym teacher. I should let him explain it.

His name was Leonard Skinner. So with a different spelling but he used to get us in trouble for having long hair in school. It was just down to our eyebrows or touching our ears back in the '60s but we liked the Beatles and we wanted to be a band so we tried to grow it long but in gym class he noticed it shaking and stuff and would kick you out to get a hair cut. So after a while, we just quit school and said, "No. We're not doing it and grew our hair and played in the band." "Now you kids stay in school."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I was going to say.

WHITFIELD: It doesn't work for everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't work for everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now it's kind of weird.

WHITFIELD: Lynyrd Skynyrd, think about that. When he finally learned that, wait a minute, Lynyrd Skynyrd is actually kind after play on my name. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We spelled it different so he wouldn't sue us.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not that stupid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he opened up a realty company in Florida, Jacksonville, and a couple of night clubs called Skinner's Place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we saw him and he introduced the band a couple of times on the tribute tour when we started back saying I'm the real Leonard Skinner and I'm going to introduce Lynyrd Skynyrd.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Here to confuse everybody. Lynyrd Skynyrd. So they're touring the U.S. showcasing their new album "Last of a Dying Breed" and you can see more of my interview with the band tomorrow 5:00 Eastern time right here on CNN. They were a lot of fun.

All right. That's going to do it for me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "CNN Newsroom" continues at the top of the hour and right now keep it right here for "SANJAY GUPTA, MD."