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Romney Releases 2011 Tax Returns; Cancer Survival Rates Rising?; Interview With Maine Senator Olympia Snowe

Aired September 21, 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: So, once it lands at LAX, where does it go before that final sort of parade through Los Angeles on October 12, where it then, you know, goes home to the California Science Museum?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, they have to get it off. That's the first thing.

Can't take the 747 down the streets. They would have to cut down all the trees. They will pull it off, put it on the ground and prepare it to go through the streets. And that is, you know -- it's not just going to roll on its wheels. That's going to take a couple of weeks or even a week to get that all ready to go and then it goes all by itself, beautiful little parade.

BALDWIN: OK. Chad Myers, come back once we see Endeavour land please at LAX. We will walk through the live pictures on our watch.

Meantime, top of the hour, now this. And top of the hour, and I'm Brooke Baldwin here.

The big story we're working of course in the world of politics, that being the fact that right now online the Mitt Romney campaign is in fact releasing the 2012 tax returns. Question is now, how will the details of his taxes actually play into what is happening here politically as we are now, you know, less than seven weeks away from that November 6 date?

We have Christine Romans, but we also have Candy Crowley standing by to talk a little bit about the political ramifications and the why now.

Candy Crowley, to you, what do you make of all this, coming out today?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is Friday.

And tradition has it, if you have something you want to bury, you put it out on Friday. But if you look at these things, there is nothing in it that we don't already know. Mitt Romney is a very wealthy man. Mitt Romney makes most of his money from investments, meaning a lower tax rate applies.

I think his effective tax rate last year was 14.1 percent. They donated 30 percent of their income to charity. So this is not, on the face of it, largely that different from the tax return we have already seen. In addition, we do have a notarized statement from Pricewaterhouse saying, look, in each of the last 20 years, Mitt Romney has paid taxes, that over that 20-year period, the average effective federal tax rate was 20 percent.

So it doesn't seem to me that there is anything in this you can grab on to, other than the fact of things we have already known, which is he's wealthy and he pays a fairly low tax rate simply because it is investment income and that is taxed at a lower rate.

So we're also supposed to get some health letters, I think, attesting to his health and that of the vice president. So I don't see anything on the face of it that does anything to change the dialogue, but it does renew the dialogue of what he pays in taxes and how much he makes.

BALDWIN: In terms of renewing the dialogue, because there were so many calls from folks, critics, folks on the left saying why aren't you releasing more information from previous to 2010, and I know just looking down here at the note that PricewaterhouseCoopers is releasing this letter basically with the summary, right, of tax information from the Romneys from 1992 to, what is it, 2009.

Is that going to cut it for people who are calling for more information?

CROWLEY: Probably not.

BALDWIN: Probably not.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: No, I don't think at this point you're going to change the dialogue about whether or not he should release all of his tax returns.

This clearly was an attempt to satisfy those who are willing to be satisfied by this kind of information. It will not satisfy Senator Harry Reid, who as we all know, famously went on the Senate floor, to go after a number of things about Mitt Romney, has made a big deal in his home state of Nevada of saying this man needs to put out his tax returns.

I don't -- I seriously doubt this will satisfy Senator Reid. For those who are saying, I would vote for him, but I'm really worried about what is in his tax returns, this may satisfy them. And, A., I don't know if there are those kind of voters, but, B., it says, you know, from a standing, you know, tax group that notarized it and all of that, says, look, he paid taxes, the average was 20 percent, they gave X-amount to charity over this 20-year period.

We will see. As you know, Mitt Romney -- I think this is a candidate decision here, this really has very little to do with the campaign. It was the candidate's decision that he thought that these two years in detail were fully enough for people to get an idea, and he clearly would like to shut down the conversation about the last 20 years, but he thinks that the details are an invasion of privacy.

BALDWIN: What about -- moving away from that and just to the Romney campaign in general, and I want to talk about who you have on, on Sunday, but we have been hearing sort of from the campaign saying they're going to be cutting down, there will be fewer of the closed door private fund-raiser events and more spots in which we will be seeing Mitt Romney speaking to you, the American, about what he feels, the direction he wants to take the country, going to the all-important state of Ohio, right, for that bus tour next week, those three days.

What do you see looking ahead, Candy Crowley, and also who do you have on the show?

CROWLEY: Well, looking ahead for the campaigns, I would say this. This is generally the time where the fund-raisers do tend to be fewer and further between, simply because now is the time you really need to be out there and you really need to be campaigning, especially in these must-win states, which certainly includes Ohio.

I think when you have a bus trip and you're doing it along with a man who is as popular among conservative Republicans as Paul Ryan is, that you're trying to generate the excitement here. And you're trying to get in all of those daily newspapers and all those little spots you go to through Ohio.

This is in some ways standard stuff. But it is also response to the criticism obviously that Romney has gotten that all he seems to be doing is fund-raising, he's not spending enough really fighting for it in the swing states. So clearly he's going to do it. But I would also say it is the sort of thing you do come the fall campaign, which has started for real.

As far as the show is concerned, thank you for asking. We're going to have -- among our guests will be Senator Durbin and Senator Lindsey Graham. We want to talk first of all about the Middle East and what is going on and what we have now learned about what happened in Libya, as well as we want to -- both of them are close to the -- close observers of the campaigns. We want to get their take on what is going on as we start the fall campaign.

BALDWIN: Here we go. Can't wait to see you moderating that debate, by the way, Candy Crowley. Can't wait. Can't wait. Thank you very much. We will see you Sunday.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: All right.

BALDWIN: And that will do it here. No.

Christine Romans, Christine Romans is standing by.

Christine Romans, forgive me. Sorry.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: We will call it a Friday. I'm having a Friday moment.

Do me a favor and just run through some of the numbers. We know now the tax returns 2011 out and about on the Web site for folks to see.

What have you seen?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm still waiting to download those from the Web site, quite frankly.

But I can show you 2010. This is how big it is. This is just 2010. We will get another year like that, 2011, and those are the two years that Mitt Romney, the Romney campaign will allow us to really pore over. I can guarantee you there are the headlines that the campaign released, how much he made last year, his effective tax rate, the letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers saying that over the past 20 years, he's paid an effective tax rate on average of 20 percent.

But you will see a lot of people, me too, going through this on a Friday evening in a political season to find out just where the income is coming from. We know it's almost investment income, what countries, are there foreign taxes paid, what kind of investment vehicles has he invested in, where are those investment vehicles domiciled, et cetera, et cetera.

There's an awful lot to go through here. You can be sure. But the headline is that he made $13.7 million last year, and that he paid $1.9 million in taxes on that. We know the effective tax rate is about 14.1 percent. And he paid about a third of his income in charitable donations.

We know from his other tax returns that we have seen, and an estimated 2011 that we saw earlier this year that he gives, he tithes to his church and he gives other charity, charitable donations as well.

The 20.2 percent on average for the past 20 years, Brooke, is interesting, because as Candy said there have been a lot of calls about how much has he paid in taxes, has he paid his fair share, does the top 1 percent pay its fair share? And the 20 percent number sort of is politically significant because while it is below the 35 percent, which is your marginal tax rate for a very rich person in this country, it is more than the 15 percent tax rate of the middle class and the effective tax rate of the middle class.

But I will tell you there is nothing middle class about this tax return. And that's something that has sort of dogged this campaign. This is an awful lot of money, we knew he was rich. He's fabulously wealthy. He gives a lot of money to charity. He pays, you know, last year 14.1 percent in taxes. But quite frankly, this is -- it is a return that shows that he is the top 1 percent, the top .01 percent in America.

BALDWIN: And as we have heard from him, he has said basically he shouldn't be penalized for his success. We will be watching to see what his message will be when he's in the heart of the country in Ohio next week.

Christine Romans, thank you very much. And again our thanks to Candy Crowley.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: And now, a lot more news unfolding this hour, including this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Dramatic improvement in the survival rates for people with cancer. And new research will soon make that possible. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me live. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): Congress is about to adjourn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: But why isn't anything getting done? Huge issues are left hanging.

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Shame on them for abandoning our farmers, our economy and families who need us to act.

BALDWIN: Plus, a desperate call to 911 to help a stranger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's banging on the windshield for him to stop. Oh, my God.

BALDWIN: Drivers work together to help a woman clinging to life on a Georgia interstate.

And if you live in Los Angeles, keep watching us, but make sure you peek out your window. You're about to see this for the last time ever in the air. We will take you live with the space shuttle Endeavour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As so many governments around the world have feared, Friday, the day of prayer in the Muslim world, has also turned into a time of protests.

Look at these pictures. Demonstrations against the United States over this anti-Muslim video have sprung up in at least five countries. Some were peaceful, like this event here. This is Malaysia. Some were forbidden. In Tunisia and Indonesia, the government banned demonstrations. France closed embassies in more than 20 countries.

However, other events today were extreme. Look at this. Do you know what this is? This is Bangladesh, radicals setting fire to a box labeled "Coffin of Obama."

But the worst of the outrage happened in Pakistan, where 15 people died. Want to go straight to Islamabad to Reza Sayah, who is live for us.

Reza, what happened there today?

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of violence, demonstrations throughout the country, most of the major cities, as you mentioned. 15 people killed, 13 of them protesters, two of them police officers in the city of Karachi.

The demonstrations started very early, almost after dawn. They grew in number and intensity throughout the day, especially after Friday prayers, around 2:00 p.m. local time, and that's when a lot of people started heading out.

And that's when demonstrations really started to grow. Many of the people we saw today, devout Muslims who are angry with this anti- Islam movie. Others were angry with the U.S. government, the U.S. foreign policy in the region, the occupation of Afghanistan, the drone strikes that are killing militants in addition to civilians.

But we also saw a lot of young people, a lot of teenagers, 20- somethings and these were the troublemakers, the people who were sparking the violence. They often had that mischievous smile, and you got the impression that they weren't offended with any movie, that they were out there to create some trouble and they certainly made a lot of headlines, and they fueled a lot of the violence today.

BALDWIN: Reza, I know a lot of the protesters tried making their way to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. Did any of them get there?

SAYAH: They didn't.

That's what protesters have tried to do throughout this week and yesterday as well. But the security forces are becoming very adept at blocking the roads. So what you see is these protesters trying to approach the consulates in Karachi and Lahore. They can't get there and that's when you see the clashes. The U.S. Embassy here in Islamabad, that's in an enclave, incredibly difficult to get there. Protesters didn't get close to the embassy here in Islamabad.

BALDWIN: OK, Reza Sayah for us in Islamabad, thank you very much.

The United States knew the outrage was coming, and the Obama administration tried to calm it through a commercial that ran on seven networks in Pakistan. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Let me state very clearly -- and I hope it is obvious -- that the United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You see these ads, the State Department spent $70,000 on the ad.

Want to bring in Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS."

Fareed, it's nice to see you. I just want to pick up on the demonstrations that I was just talk about to Reza Sayah about in Pakistan. Why isn't this message we just heard in that ad, why isn't that getting through to the Pakistanis, or are the protests about something much more than an offensive video?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: They're about something much more and they're about something else.

They are getting through to the Pakistanis in the sense that, remember, Pakistan is a country of many, many, many millions of people, I think it's 120 million or something like that. These are protests involving a few thousand people.

This is the standard operating procedure for a certain kind of radicalized political group in a place like Pakistan. They search around for incidents like these, like this video, or of some guy burning a Koran, something like that, and they use it to manipulate public opinion, to whip their troops up into a frenzy, and they unleash them.

The goal is to get political power, attention for themselves, to radicalize the population. It is not that the message isn't getting through to them. They don't want to hear the message. They want to try and misrepresent the reality of that video as much as they can.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you, totally switching gears, Bill Clinton, Fareed, you just sit down with former President Clinton and you got his take on President Obama's chances come Election Day and if he could win by an electoral landslide.

Let me just play part of what Bill Clinton said to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's possible. But we still don't know who is going to vote.

He won an enormous victory among people under 30. But they are disproportionately likely now to be unemployed or stuck in part-time jobs, to be frustrated. I think for all kinds of reasons, they're unlikely to vote in large numbers for Governor Romney, but will they vote?

How much will the vote be lessened or reduced by the fact that in Florida, except for four counties, the pre-election voting, the advance voting has been cut down to eight days and doesn't include the Sunday before the election, which is an arrow aimed straight at the heart of the African-American churches who pull up the church buses on the Sunday before election and take elderly people who have no cars or people who are disabled to the polls so they can vote.

How much is all that going to affect the turnout? I never -- in my lifetime, nobody has done anything this blatant. So, I still think you have to assume it is going to be a close race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He is saying it is going to be a close race, but, still, his guy is going to win.

ZAKARIA: I think that was the body language.

What I pointed out to him was that in every swing state, Obama is now leading by a comfortable margin. And he has been leading in almost all swing states by some kind of margin for two months now. It is not just this recent bad week or bad couple of weeks that Romney has had.

But he raises the very interesting issue about turnout. We really don't know enough about what the nature of turnout will be because some of these groups are groups that certainly don't turn out at midterm elections. We know that from the last midterm election.

But also we don't know what the effects of some of these efforts to pare down the voting list would be. So all that produces the uncertainty, not so much the head-to-head polls in swing states of likely voters. In all of which, as you know now, Obama is leading by an average of 5 percent.

BALDWIN: And, finally, we will look for your interview, more of your interview with Bill Clinton. Over the weekend, you have a special coming up.

ZAKARIA: We have a special on jobs in America.

We look around the world to try to figure out what is working in other parts of the world and what we could do right back here, how can we adopt best practices and get some jobs moving in this country.

BALDWIN: OK, Fareed Zakaria, thank you. Again, we can watch you this Sunday, 10:00 in the morning, 1:00 p.m. Eastern, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS."

Thank you.

ZAKARIA: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: A cancer breakthrough and a CNN exclusive.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has news from one of America's top cancer hospitals saying we finally, finally may have turned the corner on fighting this disease. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Today, the largest cancer center in the world, M.D. Anderson, made a startling announcement. It said we are finally in a position to radically reduce the death rate from several common cancers, not some day far off, but soon.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta got this exclusive interview with researchers in this Texas lab. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RONALD DEPINHO, M.D. ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: We're in a position to make dramatic impact on cancer mortality in this decade.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're saying if we do everything right, in five years from now there will be far fewer people dying from cancer, right?

DEPINHO: Correct. I think that with the existing knowledge and the application of what we now know we could begin to see dramatic declines in mortality that would accelerate in years five through 10 and beyond set the stage for ultimate control of the disease.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And Sanjay joins me now.

And M.D. Anderson, some huge predictions. Can I just -- on behalf of folks who have known people, loved ones who have had cancer, I just want to say a big hallelujah, hopefully, for this. Is that fair to do?

GUPTA: It's an aspirational thing.

That was the president of the M.D. Anderson, the largest cancer center in the world. They do more clinical trials and he's the one saying this.

BALDWIN: What cancers are we talking about?

GUPTA: There is a list. And they came about this list by trying to figure out where they would make the biggest impact over the next several years.

And I want to tell you. But let me preface by saying that the mood down there was -- they call it the moon shot, that's what they call this project. The same sort of energy and enthusiasm that President Kennedy had of putting a man on the moon, that's what they're trying to harness here.

But take a look at the list, Brooke. Some of the big cancers, melanoma, lung cancer, the biggest cancer killer overall, triple negative breast cancer. This is one of the hardest breast cancers to treat, there are not a lot of good options. In these cancers, they think, as you pointed out, Brooke, not a long time down the road, but within the next few years significant decreases in mortality.

BALDWIN: Their word that they have been using is cure. They want to cure.

GUPTA: It is audacious and people are reluctant to use that word and for good reason.

And we have heard it before. I have heard it before as a doctor, as a journalist. But again this place, M.D. Anderson, you know, you tend to think of these as watershed moments. One day, you pick up the paper and you read, we cured cancer.

Of course it is built on lots and lots of knowledge over lots of years. And that is what has been happening here for a long time. They think with the existing knowledge that they have, everything from genomics, trying to figure out people's genetic sequences, how susceptible they are to certain treatments, all of that, in combination with how to prevent the cancers from occurring in the first place, they can get to the point where they eliminate cancer mortality.

BALDWIN: Forgive my impatience, but I'm just curious. Of the list of cancers we just saw and all the research, you were in the labs with them, which cancer is it that they think they will have the impact the first?

GUPTA: I asked the same question.

And it came back probably the answer is melanoma. I put that at the top of the list for that reason. But we saw this patient you're looking at here, Brooke. His name Brian Rose. He's a baseball coach in the Midwest, and he has stage four melanoma, which means it has spread throughout his body.

There are no good options really for patients like this. What he's undergoing, what you're looking at there is one of the first times in the world that this therapy has been used, where they take his own immune cells, they take it out of his body, which they're doing there, and then those teach those immune cells how to fight his melanoma.

They inject those cells back into the body. So, it is essentially his own immune system that becomes the thing that is targeting the cancer. That idea is not completely new or novel, but the way that they're doing it now at M.D. Anderson, they're very, very optimistic that they can actually "cure," if not absolutely treat a guy like Brian Rose.

BALDWIN: It's incredible.

GUPTA: Yes. It is good to share some good news in this area, because as you say everybody is affected by this.

BALDWIN: Everyone. I can't think of a single person who doesn't know someone or has lost someone sadly from cancer. Sanjay, thank you. GUPTA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And I know you're sitting there thinking how can I learn more? And you can, because you can watch Sanjay's report. It's called "Chasing the Cure." We're using the cure word. It's coming up this week, and airs Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Eastern, and Sunday 7:30 in the morning.

Dr. Gupta, thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Members of Congress leaving the building today, and they won't be back until after Election Day. And that may have you thinking, what exactly did they get done this session?

So, joining me next, a veteran member who is so fed up with the sniping and the partisan atmosphere, she's not seeking reelection. She's Senator Olympia Snowe. She joins me live next. We will get her take on everything from her congressional colleagues to her party's nominee, Mitt Romney. That is next.

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, Congress has wrapped up its work before its election recess. It didn't exactly break productivity records.

Lawmakers passed 173 laws, as of last month. The original. quote/unquote "Do Nothing Congress" was back in 1948, passed more than 900 laws and this year is the earliest congressional quit-date before an election in more than 50 years.

And we have Senator Olympia Snowe. She joins me from Washington. She's retiring this year, not running for re-election, citing some of the frustration, Senator, with some of the political gridlock and I just want to say welcome back here to the show.

And before we speak, I just want to play a little bit of your -- we'll call it fiery -- fiery, colorful speech, slamming the snail's pace of work. This was yesterday morning. Let's roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SNOWE: Through the self-inflicted travesty of last year's debt- ceiling debacle, that we're facing another manufactured crisis, this year, with the fiscal cliff that never would have existed if the Senate had remained in session, had fewer recesses and maximized every legislative day based on the job that we were elected to do as I have argued virtually throughout this entire Congress.

According to a recent study illustrated by this chart, deferring, last year, the debt ceiling to the 11th hour in August produced the highest level of policy uncertainty of any event that occurred over the last 20 years. That includes 9/11, the financial crisis, the fall of Lehman. It included the Iraq war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Senator Snowe, self-inflicted travesty, manufactured crisis, is it fair that you were saying Congress has blown it?

SNOWE: Basically, that is true and, based on the fact that we failed to address these issues, none of the issues that we are now confronted with in the fiscal cliff, for example, were issues that were a surprise.

They were all anticipated. Even the debt ceiling crisis didn't have to be a crisis. We knew in January 2011 that we had to raise the threshold. In fact, the original deadline was in March.

But it continued to be deferred to the 11th hour in August of that year, creating a crisis and putting the country through emotional travail.

And, so, that's what is such, I think, a travesty and, also, I think, affecting the confidence of the people of this country towards their elected officials and political institutions.

BALDWIN: But, Senator, if I may, and I appreciate your candidness yesterday and let's just be honest here. Who is to blame for this?

SNOWE: Well, you know, obviously there is enough blame to go around, but in the United States Senate and that's what we were addressing yesterday, obviously, the majority -- the Democratic majority controls the Senate, so they control the agenda and how it's established.

It is important to get a legislative agenda at the beginning of the new Congress, work it out with the minority leader, and then sort of lay a plan for how it's going to be addressed, so the debt ceiling was one issue.

We knew the tax rates were going to expire, so we did a temporary extension. And all of these together should have been addressed at the onset of the Congress, in conjunction with the president and, obviously, with the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Bringing them to the table and say, this is the agenda. We know these are the issues that have to be addressed and we want do it in a timely fashion that's thoughtful and deliberate rather than in the 11th hour, bills that crafted behind closed doors, giving very little time to evaluate and to analyze them and, so, thus, we're in this situation in the lame duck session.

BALDWIN: You talk about how it is the Democratic majority in the Senate that sets the agenda, but what about -- you mentioned the fiscal cliff, right? The fiscal cliff is looming. You called it a manufactured crisis. What about the Republicans, though, your party? Do the Republicans need to give in on opposition to raising taxes to help the deficit? Do they need to give in?

SNOWE: You know, the point is here, Brooke, is to have the committees address these issues in a timely fashion, as I mentioned, which would have been, frankly, last year.

You know, assign the committees. We had the tax rates. We should have had tax reform and get everybody on board.

BALDWIN: But that didn't happen, as we well know, so what about now? What about Republicans? Will they give in?

SNOWE: Well, it's a question of what we're -- it is not a question of giving in. It's what is it that we're going to address and how we're going to address it for the future of this country?

What are the ideas and what's the merit of a plan and who is going to be drafting it?

We have to have people who've been elected by their constituents to be participating in the committee process to get this done. That's why I argue with the majority of the leader in the letter.

Have us lay the groundwork on a bipartisan basis and I sent it to Mitch McConnell, as well, that we should lay this out, last April. Let's begin that process so we're prepared for a 36-day lame duck session to deal with all of the big issues.

That hardly seems sensible or reasonable to do the right thing and then we can see where everybody stands in on the questions that you raised. Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Multiple issues -- forgive me, multiple issues left to tackle, not just the fiscal cliff.

But final question to you, Senator, and that is, we have to talk about Mitt Romney. Let me just play some sound. This is what he said late yesterday about Washington and, specifically, President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I can change Washington. I will change Washington. We'll get the job done from the inside. Republicans and Democrats will come together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Do you have faith that your party's nominee can do that?

SNOWE: Well, I hope so and that's what he has said and that is important.

He had to do that, obviously, in Massachusetts, as governor of Massachusetts, and certainly has to happen here.

Now, I just regret that that hasn't happened to the extent that it should have. That could have, I think, changed the political dynamic and perhaps this dynamic wouldn't have taken hold.

And, now, as to how we go forward and certainly that is something that both, you know, Mitt Romney and the president need to address in this campaign because it is a critical issue and, certainly, I take Mitt Romney at his word.

BALDWIN: You take him at his word, not just hope so, but believe so, as well.

SNOWE: Yes. It is important. Absolutely. And he understands the value of that, and we have to change the dynamic here.

And, also, having the American people participate in that process and that's something I will be addressing once I leave the United States Senate and encouraging people how they can change it in real time, so that this kind of culture doesn't continue to persist.

BALDWIN: Eighteen years.

SNOWE: Yes.

BALDWIN: Eighteen years, three terms, Senator Olympia Snowe, we truly appreciate you coming on. Thank you.

SNOWE: Thank you. Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And talking about Mitt Romney here, the big news today, his 2010 tax returns being released today, a short time ago. They were released online.

Jim Acosta has been covering the Romney campaign. He joins me live from Las Vegas.

And, Jim Acosta, why now? Why today?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to the Romney campaign, it's because this information is ready and let's run through some of these numbers because there is sort of an interesting story to tell here, Brooke.

First of all, according to this 2011 return, which has been put up on the Mitt Romney website, Mitt Romney paid nearly $2 million on roughly $14 million in income for an effective tax rate of 14 percent.

But this is the interesting part. The Romneys donated $4 million to charity, but they only claimed $2.25 million in -- as a deduction for their contributions.

Why is that important? Well, previously during this campaign, Brooke, Mitt Romney said that he basically paid more than an effective tax rate of 13 percent for all the time that he's been paying his taxes. He was even asked in an interview on ABC, do you recall a time you paid less than 13 percent? He went and looked and said he would go back and look and report back to us in the news media.

And so what the Romney campaign is saying is that he limited the deductions that he took in terms of those charitable contributions in order to, as the campaign calls it, conform to his previous statements about that 13 percent tax rate.

So, that is interesting to note. The other thing that they put out today were the health records from the Romney campaign from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and according to those health records, Brooke, both candidates are in very, very good health.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: OK, Jim Acosta, thanks so much for us from Vegas.

And staying westward, live pictures over the Los Angeles area, Space Shuttle Endeavour flying to its final home, going to land at LAX any moment now.

We're going to take you to the landing site and bring you the historic moment, live on CNN.

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BALDWIN: What a way to say goodbye. Talk about goose bumps.

There she goes, wheels up, 11:17 Eastern time, this morning. That is how the final day of this flight began for Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Let's check out some live pictures here. Chad Myers standing next to me, telling me she is flying up or down the 105 toward that final landing spot of Los Angeles International Airport.

It's been a long day, flying over California, heading northward, giving folks around the state a chance to wave goodbye, to look up.

We have Chad Myers, standing by with me here in studio. Also, in California, we have Miguel Marquez and, also, Casey Wian.

And, Miguel, let me just go to you first. I understand you're on a bluff overlooking the airport with the crowd. Look at that crowd. Do you see it?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we are in El Segundo, California. There's a little hill looking out over LAX.

This is -- how amazing were those flyovers? Twice now, twice now, the shuttle has flown over LAX and it is absolutely stunning.

I met kids out here. Look at these guys here today. I met engineers, rocket -- real rocket scientists who actually worked on the space shuttle and it's come here about 200, 300 feet off the runway. It is an absolutely stunning sight, inspirational for so many people. There are old people. I see people in wheelchairs out here, struggling to get out here, kids out here, playing with space shuttles. It is absolutely stunning to see how excited people are.

One of the freeways in L.A., the police didn't shut it down; the freeway shut itself down. People just stopped on the freeway to watch the space shuttle go by.

The hills throughout Los Angeles, packed with people. Kids ain't in school today. Ain't in school today? I should go back to school.

It's just a fascinating day. There must be 10,000 people out here. There's an enormous bandstand they set up out here. There are -- there's only -- you know, they weren't expecting this many because there's only about five port-a-potties down there and there's huge lines, but everybody is very, very sweet and kind to each other.

It is an absolute lovely day, after 123 million miles, the Endeavour has 12 more to go and it'll do it through L.A.

BALDWIN: I love your excitement, Miguel. Can you -- I'm curious, the kids behind you, I mean, why are they there? I would love to hear from them.

MARQUEZ: Yeah, why aren't you guys in school and why are you here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here to see the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of a shuttle.

MARQUEZ: Very nice. And how cool is it to see it on a plane?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So awesome.

MARQUEZ: Basically, it's just a really awesome day, Brooke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, dad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... my history class.

MARQUEZ: This is your history class?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, same with me.

MARQUEZ: So, what, you're going to have to write a 20-page report in the morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no way, no way, no way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we learned about primary source and secondary. I think I'm going to be a primary.

MARQUEZ: He's a primary source, just like reporters. Perfect. BALDWIN: I love it. We're not going to go too far from you, Miguel, because I definitely want to see the pictures. I love everyone's heads up as they're watching for Endeavour.

I was reading in one of the L.A. papers this morning, you know, I know police were worried people were going to be on the highways, looking up instead of looking straight ahead, so that's good to know the highway there shut themselves down.

We'll check back in with you in a second.

I know we have Casey Wian, also standing by. Casey is actually at the airport at the hangar where Endeavor will live until that museum. Set the scene for me, Casey.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've got here, Brooke, is a little bit more sedate scene than Miguel is encountering, but it's about to get a little more excited here, once this 747 carrying Endeavor lands.

What you're going to see is right over my shoulder, right where those flags are. That's where the plane and the shuttle are going to taxi to. There's going to be a ceremony here involving three of the 150 or so folks who flew on the Shuttle Endeavor and also some dignitaries.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is here. The master or should I say mistress of ceremonies -- this is very appropriate for Los Angeles -- is the woman who played Lieutenant Uhura, Nichelle Nichols in the television show "Star Trek." So, she will be presiding over the ceremony here.

Now, what's going to happen once all the dignities dignitaries are gone, there's a hangar, United Airlines hangar, behind our camera where the shuttle will be moved and it will prepared for display at the California Science Center in downtown.

It's going to have some replica engines put in, minor work getting it ready for display mode.

And then it's got a 12-mile trek where it will be towed over the city streets of Los Angeles, and we've talked about this before. That's been kind of controversial because they've had to tear down 400 trees to make way for that.

BALDWIN: Casey, let me interrupt you.

WIAN: That'll happen in a couple of weeks and then it'll -- go ahead.

BALDWIN: Forgive me. Forgive me, Casey, and I do want to hear about that because that is so much part of this story, but if you're watching this live picture with us, the landing gear is down, so clearly that means the landing is imminent as we watch this.

We have this picture. We just want to sit on this because truly this is historic. We've watched the other shuttles make their ways, piggybacked, New York and Washington, D.C., Atlantis down at Kennedy Space Center at the museum down there, and this is that final shuttle.

This is Endeavour as we watch her gliding in for the final time into Los Angeles. Let's just sit on this.

And there she is, touchdown. Space Shuttle Endeavour on top of the modified 747, after sort of traversing the country the past couple of days, she is home.

Let's check back in with those kids in a very enthusiastic Miguel, Miguel Marquez over in El Segundo.

Miguel, I hear the cheers. I hear the cheers.

MARQUEZ: Listen to the crowd! Those are the -- those are the jets that were accompanying it going by LAX and, now, the shuttle is coming to a slow, rolling stop right in front of us.

Look at all the people taking pictures. I'm going to duck down, actually, because I'm in everybody's way.

It is an absolutely stunning day, beautiful California afternoon. That shuttle coming in on the back of that 747. There it is. It will head to a United terminal not too far away from us where it will be taken down and it will move 12 miles to the California Science Center.

An absolutely beautiful day, a sad day, in some ways, but people here, absolutely loving it. Brooke?

BALDWIN: OK. Miguel, we have to pay the bills.

Folks, don't go too far. Promise we're going to come back to the live pictures and check back in with Casey, Chad standing next to me.

Quick break. Back in a moment.

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BALDWIN: All right, want to take you back out to Los Angeles International Airport. There she is on the ground, Space Shuttle Endeavour making its way to her final home.

We have a couple reporters stationed in and around the LAX area.

I want to go back to Miguel Marquez standing around with some incredibly enthusiastic pint-sized, perhaps hopeful astronauts.

Miguel, tell me what that moment was like just a few minutes ago when these folks finally saw the space shuttle land.

MARQUEZ: Look, everybody out here is inspired by this thing. When I was a little kid in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, I remember having the space shuttle poster up on my wall and thinking, oh, wow, jeez, I wish I were an astronaut. I became a reporter instead to watch the thing -- the shuttle come in for its final landing, but I'm with somebody here who has sort of a similar story.

From Korea, you watched the (INAUDIBLE) -- you watched the moon landing, were inspired, you came here and you're actually a rocket scientist who worked on the space shuttle. Tell me what you did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I was a design engineer. Actually was a part of the team that designed the space shuttle and built the space shuttle. Also had supportive mission.

MARQUEZ: And how thrilling is it to be here today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is so exciting. You know, it was a highlight of my life, working on the space shuttle program and, being here and to see the chapter close, it's just awesome. It's awesome.

MARQUEZ: Thank you. Thank you very much. Generations to come will be inspired by this program. Brooke, amazing.

BALDWIN: Fantastic.

For the record, I did want to be an astronaut, went to space camp and the whole deal, but, you know, then the whole physics thing happened in high school and I said, I think I'm better at English.

Fantastic live pictures. Thanks to our crews and our L.A. bureau for making all of this happen for us.

Thank you so much for watching. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Quick break and then "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer is next.

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