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First Presidential Debate Just Three Days Away; Supreme Court Meets Tomorrow; Insider Attacks Increase In Afghanistan; Major Quake Hits Colombia; Two Kids Missing After House Fire; "Patriocracy" And Political Discord; Supreme Court Begins New Term; "Bonnie And Clyde" Guns Go Up For Auction; Traveling On A Horse
Aired September 30, 2012 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
It could be a critical turning point in the presidential race. The first big debate, the big showdown just three days away and both President Obama and Mitt Romney are busy preparing.
CNN's Athena Jones takes a look at what's at stake.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Both the Obama and Romney campaigns are doing their best to lower expectations ahead of Wednesday's debate.
DAVID PLOUFFE, OBAMA CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: We've expected all along that Governor Romney will have a good night. He has prepared more than any other candidate in history.
REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: President Obama is a very gifted speaker. The man has been on the national stage for many years. He's an experienced debater. He's done these kinds of debates before. This is Mitt's first time on this kind of stage.
JONES: Ryan's words echo to memo from Romney adviser Beth Myers who said the president was widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history.
Myers even pointed to a CNN/ORC poll showing a 25-point advantage for Obama on voters think will win the debates. The Obama camp likes to remind voters that the president hasn't had as much time to prepare for the debates because he's busy being commander in chief. When it comes to just how much debates matter, it depends.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Most often debates don't make that big a difference. Very few candidates ever win an election with a debate, but quite a few have lost an election with a debate. So it can matter.
JONES: These match-ups can produce some memorable lines like in 1980 between Then-Governor Ronald Reagan and president jimmy carter. RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.
JONES: And Lloyd Benson's swipe at fellow senator Dan Quayle in 1998.
LLOYD BENSON: I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
JONES: Then there were moments to seemed to say more, like President George H.W. Bush looking at his watch in a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton.
Texas Governor Rick Perry's oops remark, Romney's high dollar wages and Obama's comment to then rival Hillary Clinton in 2008. One thing analysts agree on, the debates may be Romney's big chance.
CELINDA LAKE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: He's got two very tough competing goals, to be likeable and laying out the attacks. It's hard to go likeable when you're the attack dog.
CASTELLANOS: We've seen Obama as a president for four years. There's not much room on his canvas to paint. Mitt Romney, he's still got a little space left on his canvas. He can show us where he would lead us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And Athena Jones joining us live now from Washington. So Athena, just how much debate prep will President Obama and Romney do over the next three days?
JONES: Well, Fredricka, this is really crunch time, right? The president is already headed out to Las Vegas. He already took off. He has a rally there tonight and then will spend the next several days doing debate prep out there in Nevada, which is, of course, a key battleground state.
He'll be in practice with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry who is playing Mitt Romney in their practice sessions. Now Governor Romney is down today in Boston. He went to church. He's having private meetings, doing a little bit of debate prep.
We're told he heads out to Colorado tomorrow. He'll be practicing with Ohio Senator Rob Portman. Portman is playing President Obama in these debates and it's all leading up to Wednesday's big night -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, Athena Jones, thanks so much in Washington. All right, so you don't want miss the big debate. You can watch it here live on CNN, Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Tomorrow morning, the U.S. Supreme Court justices will formally kick off a new term on the agenda, some of the most complicated issues of our day. Here now is Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right after the Supreme Court's health care decision in June, Chief Justice John Roberts joked to colleagues that he would find an island fortress to escape the political heat.
Here's how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described the eventful spring.
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SUPREME COURT: Some have called it the term of the century.
JOHNS: Now three months later, the court is back and there are no signs of it cooling down.
THOMAS GOLDSTEIN, SCOTUSBLOG.COM PUBLISHER: The justices are moving from the frying pan right into the fire. They are tackling some of the most difficult legal questions of the day. Across the board, probably the biggest term in at least a decade.
JOHNS: Cases involving the contentious issues of affirmative action, same sex marriage, voting rights and abortion are all likely to come up this term, which kicks off Monday.
CARRIE SEVERINO, JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK: There are a lot more in the docket and a lot more in the pipeline that they'll be making a decision on soon.
JOHNS: Another big set of decisions will bring even more scrutiny on the chief justice. Rumors swirled that the health care he authored caused a personal rift with fellow conservative colleagues including Justice Antonin Scalia. A claim Scalia denied to CNN's Piers Morgan.
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA, SUPREME COURT: No, I haven't had a falling out with the chief justice. No, nothing like that.
JOHNS: The other big question, will the chief justice take the court in an aggressive new direction. Liberals fear a more hard line, a dramatic shift to the right.
ELIZABETH WYDRA, CONSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY CENTER: A lot of progressives are concerned that this might mean that the chief justice has delivered some capital, some good will and will now push the conservative agenda.
JOHNS: Tom Goldstein who has argued before the court thinks Roberts want some more conservative court, but that he'll do it gradually.
GOLDSTEIN: He's not trying to move the law radically quickly. I think Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas really want to get to the end answer as quickly as possible and make the law conform to what they really understand, whereas the chief justice is more incrementalist.
JOHNS: The conservative court watcher, Carrie Severino doesn't believe much will change any time soon.
CARRIE SEVERINO, JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK: Certainly, this isn't a conservative court until we have a shift in members of the court. It's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left or to the right.
JOHNS: For opinions that could be close, 5-4 decisions, attention will also be paid to Judge Anthony Kenny, who is frequently on the swing vote in some of the toughest cases. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Two Americans, one soldier and a civilian, are dead after a fire broke out in Afghanistan. It happened at a temporary checkpoint being monitored by coalition troops west of Kabul. Three Afghanistan soldiers also died in the crash that might have been promoted by insurgent fire.
Insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police officer or militants wearing uniforms, have been on the rise now. U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen says these killings are tragic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're in a tough spot right now. Can you explain why the sudden increase in these attacks?
GENERAL JOHN ALLEN, U.S. COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: I'm mad as hell at them, to be honest with you. We're going to get after this. It reverberates everywhere, across the United States. We're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If these attacks continue, the American people are going to say we've had enough. Why are we training these people if they're murdering us?
ALLEN: It may be, in fact. It may be the voice right now we hear. The key point is for us to understand that the vast majority of the Afghans, and you've lived with them, you understand these people, they're with us in this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Earlier this month, U.S. troops were ordered to halt joint operations with local security forces in some areas because of these attacks.
A major earthquake rocked Southwest Columbia today. It had a magnitude of 7.3 and hit about six miles from the city of Isnos. There are no reports of injuries or damage so far. Officials say it was an extremely deep quake, originating nearly 100 miles beneath the earth.
A mystery in Tennessee, what happened to these children before a fire destroyed their house?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A desperate search for two Tennessee children today. Their home burned down a week ago, but police say still no trace of 7- year-old Gage Daniel and 9-year-old Chloie Leverette. Their grandparents' remains were found in the debris.
Susan Candiotti is following the story and joins us live now from New York -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. You know, it's so mysterious and so confusing. At this hour, state investigators are launching teams of people using dogs to search a bigger area of the woods and both sides of the road around the house that was incinerated.
With absolutely no physical evidence that the children were home when their grandparents died in that fire last Sunday, authorities are doing all they can to find the 7-year-old and 9-year-old.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): More than a week after sifting through ashes and debris, investigators have found no sign of 9-year-old Chloie Leverette and 7-year-old Gage Daniel. No signs the youngsters were there.
And so far, no evidence they weren't when an inferno swept through their home that they lived in with their grandparents. Friends and family don't understand, and neither does anyone else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think something is very fishy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more you find out, the more questions you have.
CANDIOTTI: Helicopters equipped with infrared cameras have found no sign of the children in surrounding woods either. The children were last seen playing in the neighborhood about three hours before the fire started last Sunday night.
Did someone take them? The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued an amber alert Friday night, calling the missing children endangered. Authorities don't know what caused the fire, adding to the mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said that it was not an intentional fire, but obviously there's more to it than that.
CANDIOTTI: Chloe's parents are not considered suspects, according to police.
MARY LAM, SISTER: We are tired, but we want this to be -- to continue on until we find out what's really happened to these children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: It's what everyone wants to know, Fred. What happened to those children?
WHITFIELD: So what was the relationship between the parents, the grandparents, were the children actually living at that house? CANDIOTTI: They were. And Fred, we don't know all of the circumstances, but authorities say it appears to have been an agreed- upon arrangement and the children have been living with their grandparents for years.
Now, investigators say Chloie and Gage's parents do not live together and have had some legal troubles years ago, but again, they are not considered suspects and the family is cooperating according to police.
WHITFIELD: And what other steps are investigators taking to find these kids?
CANDIOTTI: Well, they tell me that they're talking with people at the children's school, friends, neighbors, and of course, the parents. But as time goes on, authorities are getting more and more worried about what happened to these two beautiful children.
WHITFIELD: All right, Susan Candiotti, thanks for keeping us posted.
All right, next, a discussion about America's state of political discord profiled in a new documentary.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Does it seem like America's political system consists of a lot of shouting leading to few results? That's at the core of a new documentary called "Patroicracy."
Audiences will be able to see it and discuss it Monday night at the University of Denver. That's where the first presidential debate takes place on Wednesday. Here is a little bit of what they'll be seeing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a single member was ready on one side to sit and talk with the other side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don't you try working with Democrats? The American people want us to meet in the middle. They don't want this nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, Brian Malone is the man who produced and directed "Patriocracy." He is joining me right now in Denver. Good to see you.
BRIAN MALONE, PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR, "PATRIOCRACY": Thanks for having me.
WHITFIELD: So in this documentary, the narrator asked, if not challenges, how did we get here, how do we get out, should viewers, when they watch this, feel hopeful at the end of this rather -- it is kind of depressing and an angry view of America. Or is this mostly a real look in the mirror? MALONE: Well, I think you hit it on the head there. It is a real look in the mirror. To tell you the truth, it's all of those things. I'd like to think it's all of those things. It's kind of a reality check to really have us as Americans really look at our responsibility as citizens.
WHITFIELD: Did you feel like a lot of people you spoke with were hopeful? You showcase a lot of political hopefuls, Alan Simpson, Eleanor Cliff. Did they feel hopeful about this?
MALONE: Hopeful, that's kind of a stretch, but I do think it's more of a reality check that things can get better. There's also this notion that things kind of go in cycles. Right now, we might be in a down cycle.
WHITFIELD: What is that thing or moment that provoked you to say, you know what? I'm going to do a documentary. I'm going to compile these thoughts, grab a collection of sound bites that have been on any number of networks and put it all together.
MALONE: It came from backyard barbecue discussions, honestly, to tell you the truth, where the conversations changed from what your kids are doing in school and that kind of thing to, that Obama, he's a socialist, or that bush, he's just evil, you know what I mean?
And the conversations at social events started spiralling downward, and I felt like that type of conversation is not what I really signed up for.
So we set out to explore, what are the reasons on a very base level that if it's reached down to our very basic level of our human-to- human discussion, person-to-person discussion on a personal level, how did it get this bad where it's gotten this deep, it's this saturated in our American culture?
WHITFIELD: Among those congressional leaders you spoke with, Representative Jim Cooper who, in his own words, thinks the system is broken. Here's what he had to say in your doc.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congress is not even being minimally competent today. So our behaviour is shameful in many, many respects. We've got to cure this problem.
REPRESENTATIVE JASON ALTMIRE: We have our reaction almost at a screeching halt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there's no bad policy, there is no compromise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're listening to some of the worst influences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: You heard a collection of voices. Almost everyone agrees something not going right, but then the only way to kind of right those wrongs is if people are willing to participate.
Did you get that out of these lawmakers who acknowledge their system might be broken but is there a commitment that they're willing to adhere to fix it?
MALONE: Well, I guess what I would say to that is members of Congress respond to the people that they hear from, and if they're only hearing from the loudest, most extreme voices, then that's who they're really going to respond to, honestly.
If more rational, more thoughtful conversation entered into the interaction with their constituents, I would bet that you would see a change not only in the behavior of members of Congress, but you might also see a change in some of the faces in the members of Congress.
WHITFIELD: That's Brian Malone, producer and director of the documentary "Patriocracy." If you want information on where the movie is being screened, go to Facebook and search patriocracy, or you can go to the documentary's website, patriocracymovie.com.
There are the Bonnie and Clyde guns on the auction block today. How do you think they'll go for? I'll tell you what auctioneers think.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The U.S. Supreme Court heads back to work tomorrow morning. One of the first big issues it could tackle is voter ID laws ahead of the November election. We could also see rulings on gay marriage and an affirmative action case involving the University of Texas.
The justices took some time this morning to attend red mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington this morning. It is the mass that is at the beginning of a new session since 1953.
Bonnie and Clyde's guns are on the auction block today in New Hampshire. These are the ones the notorious bank robbers actually had on them when police ambushed and killed the couple back in 1934.
Auctioneers are banking on getting at least $100,000 for each gun and whoever buys the gun will also get an extra clip for bullets and a letter from the son of one of the Texas Rangers who killed the couple.
All right, when most of us travel, we usually take a train, a plane or an automobile. Why not try hopping on a horse to get around?
CNN's Zain Verjee gets on the saddle in London's Hyde Park.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to take you to one of London's biggest tourist spots, but I'm not going to take you there by boat or by buggy or by bus or by bike, I'm going to take you by Ben. Now, this is not Big Ben, just Ben, and Ben is going to take us for a little stroll around town. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love this because this doesn't feel like work at all.
VERJEE: This is the beautiful serpentine in Hyde Park. It was created 300-some years ago. It's actually fake. So Ben and this horse won't want to actually drink from this water, but the tourists are having a good time.
Hyde Park is 350 acres. We're actually on a bit called rotten road. Now, this used to be a very fashionable place where society would come to see and be seen. No, it's not time to eat! If ever you're in London, come check it out. Come for a ride in Hyde Park Stables. Zain Verjee and Ben, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Cheerio, Zain. I'll be back in one hour and I'll talk to the mayor of Phoenix about the week he spent living on food stamps. He'll tell us how that experience changed him. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Stay with CNN. "YOUR MONEY" starts after this.
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