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Candidates in the Swing States; Powell Backing Obama; Romney in Cincinnati; Campaign Strategy; Patrick Moran Resigns Following O'Keefe Video; Palm Beach County Has New Ballot Problem; 14 Days of Falling Gas Prices; Sandy Could Hit U.S. East Coast; 2 Brothers Charged with Murder

Aired October 25, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Thanks very much, Carol.

And hi, everybody. Nice to see you this morning. It's 11 o'clock on the East Coast; it's 8 o'clock on the West Coast.

Here's where we begin, with a four-letter word, a four-letter word that you can say on TV and it's being said over and over and over again: Ohio. Both candidates are in a love affair with that state right now -- or perhaps more accurately its 18 electoral votes.

The road to the White House has always run through this Buckeye State. So that is exactly where you'll find Governor Mitt Romney today, where he is looking to do one thing: capitalize on his momentum. We've got a live picture right now of a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is at a company called Jet Machine. It manufactures military equipment.

And the Governor is set to take the stage at any moment now. So we have our live cameras trained on the pregame show.

And as we give you this live picture, want to give you a little bit of very important context. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio -- ever. More importantly, it is a critical piece in the campaign puzzle, the metrics of which -- the states the Governor absolutely has to win in order to get the electoral map on his side.

He's in Cincinnati for one of three campaign rallies throughout that state. Our national political correspondent, Jim Acosta, is on the ground in Cincinnati. He's following Mitt Romney's campaign.

So, give me a bit of the game plan. We've seen the geography for the game plan, but the strategy game plan for Ohio today?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, I think you laid it out well there in the run-up to this report.

I have to tell you, Mitt Romney is going to be going across this battleground state with a vengeance today. He has some ground to make up with President Obama with respect to this swing state.

The latest "Time" magazine poll that came out yesterday showed the President ahead of Mitt Romney by five percentage points. Our CNN Poll of Polls has a smaller advantage for President Obama by three points, but as you said, he has to win this state to I guess join the long list of other Republican presidential candidates who went on to the White House. They've won Ohio, so he has to do that if he wants to follow that trend.

Of course, there are other ways to get there if he doesn't win this state, but he's going to be talking about the economy, of course. We've been hearing that over the last couple days and, yesterday, Ashleigh, he sort of repackaged his stump speech and message, framing it in a way to communicate to families, saying, what's in the best interest of your family, how are the housing prices affecting your family, how is the national debt affecting your family?

So, we may be hearing more about that in just a few moments from now, but I have to tell you, as you know, Ashleigh, there's been a distraction for the campaign over the last 24 hours and it has to do with Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock who made those controversial comments about abortion and rape at that debate a couple of nights ago and Mitt Romney was silent on this matter.

Yesterday, his campaign advisers were not really seen around the press corps when we tried to talk to them about this yesterday and, earlier this morning, he made a stop at a breakfast shop here in Cincinnati.

He was asked again by reporters about this matter. He did not respond to those questions. And, of course, all of this is an issue for Mitt Romney because he just taped an ad for Richard Mourdock just in the last couple of weeks for that Senate candidate's campaign and, so far, the Romney campaign says they are standing behind their support for Richard Mourdock and they're not asking him to pull that ad.

Ashleigh, one other interesting tidbit to bring up last night on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Senator John McCain said he was weighing whether or not to continue supporting Richard Mourdock because he said he had not heard Mourdock apologize.

McCain's office has just put out a statement in the last several minutes, saying that McCain now realizes Mourdock has apologized and he is continuing to support his campaign for the Senate there in Indiana.

BANFIELD: You know, I'm glad you cleared that up. I have to tell you, when I was watching that interview last night, I noticed it was a pre-taped interview and it was broad daylight behind him and I didn't know what time that interview had been done, but it more than likely was done after that 11:30 news conference yesterday morning and some people said it wasn't so much as an apology because he didn't apologize for what he said.

He apologized if people took it the wrong way. So that, some people said, was not an apology, even used the words regret at one point. That didn't seem to be a problem for Senator McCain?

ACOSTA: I think it's good enough for Senator McCain and, Ashleigh, there's one other thing that we're going to be talking about today, a very interesting interview President Obama gave to "Rolling Stone" magazine.

Some excerpts have been reported by various news outlets. The interview was done by Douglas Brinkley, the respected historian, and, in that interview, President Obama, according to Douglas Brinkley, according to "Rolling Stone" magazine, referred to Mitt Romney as a "b.s.-er," although he used a word that we can't use here on national television. It rhymes with "bull-spitter."

And, so, we're going to be hearing about that I would think from at least some Romney supporters if not from the campaign itself. So, it's getting close, it's going to get nasty and we'll be hearing from Mitt Romney here in just a few moments to see --

BANFIELD: And I'm keeping an eye --

ACOSTA: -- how his message is taking shape today.

BANFIELD: Jim, I'm just keeping an eye on the stage behind you and the, obviously, the pre-game's still on, so, as we ramp up to the live appearance by the Governor, I just want to ask you about the actual geographic strategy.

We oftentimes call it, you know, the pathway to the presidency or whatever other brand you want to give it, but, clearly, it is a -- it's a puzzle and some puzzle pieces will work and other puzzle pieces won't, so I just want to ask you about this state.

You talked about the Poll of Polls. You know, it's right now showing 48-45 in favor of President Obama, so, what if -- what if the Governor does not prevail in the state in which you are standing right now in which he is campaigning so hard right now? Is there another permutation or combination that will work for Mitt Romney?

ACOSTA: It's sort of like a Rubik's Cube, Ashleigh. You just keep spinning those boxes around and, hopefully, you line it up and solve the puzzle.

I think there are other possibilities. Obviously, if he wins Florida and Virginia and then captures, say, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, if he can sort of peel some of those states away from the President, I believe he starts -- along with New Hampshire -- starts to approach or go over that 270 number.

And keep in mind, Ashleigh, Mitt Romney is going to be across the state of Ohio today, but he's going back to Iowa where we were last night to give what he is billing as a major economic speech.

And, so, they are keeping their eyes focused on Iowa just as the President was staying focused on Iowa yesterday when he was in that battleground state. It's one of those -- it is a Rubik's Cube at this point, Ashleigh. It is all about, if you can't pull Ohio into your column here, what other states can you add up and perhaps exceed that electoral vote total and these other states to help make the math work out to your favor.

But -- and I think that's why you're seeing both campaigns sort of going all over the map. They're flying back and forth from one state to another because there really is no clear path for either candidate at this point because this race is so close.

BANFIELD: All right, Jim Acosta, our national political correspondent, on the Romney campaign for us. Thank you so much.

And, as you continue to watch behind you for when the Governor comes out, I want to let our viewers know that, after this rally, the pace is breakneck. This is in Cincinnati and the Governor is going to head from there to Worthington and then Defiance for two more campaign stops in Ohio. The heat is on, folks, for both of these campaigns.

So, if you're wondering what the President has been up to in the meantime, you guessed it. He's heading back to Ohio, as well. He's going to be there tonight, in fact, but not before pulling what he's called an "all-nighter," taking the red eye on Air Force One to quite literally crisscross the country in a campaign marathon, two states, eight days, coast to coast.

Wait, let me put that another way. Two days, eight states, coast to coast, a big difference and a heck of a difference in pace. Several TV interviews in between, but this is frenzied -- a frenzied pace that's normally reserved for the last few days before the election, not 12 days out.

This morning, there is one very prominent Republican who is putting his name and vote behind President Obama. It is former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said it this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, you know, I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012 and I'll be voting for he and for Vice President Joe Biden next month.

CHARLIE ROSE, HOST, "CBS THIS MORNING": That's an endorsement of President Obama for re-election?

POWELL: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Perhaps not surprising, but meanwhile, the President was continuing his "America Forward: swing this morning in Tampa, Florida, as you look at pictures from 2010 as the President sat with Colin Powell in Washington, D.C., at the White House.

So, to Florida, he talked about making a campaign stop in Chicago today to cast his own ballot. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to stop in Chicago. I'm going to do some early voting in Chicago. I can't tell you who I'm voting for. It's a secret ballot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: And on Monday, this guy comes back into the picture. President Obama will not be the only one on the campaign trail. He'll be joined by President Bill Clinton who's going to join in at campaign events in Florida and Ohio and Virginia. Those are three highly, highly competitive states right now.

So, you'll see a lot more of that, walking arm-in-arm, as the days wane. More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Think back to a few election cycles ago and you may remember George W. Bush made a real point of courting the Latino vote. He was the Texas governor and he even spoke Spanish on the campaign trail.

But Governor Mitt Romney's position and the Republican moves, some of them anyway, on immigration and border control and healthcare could be causing some problems and eroding some of that goodwill and the inroads that President Bush made for the GOP in the Latino community.

Remember, that is the fastest growing part of the electorate and it is critical, especially for President Obama's campaign because he may, in fact, be banking -- banking -- on Latinos to win his re-election.

The reason I can say that is because he actually made this extraordinarily telling comment to "The Des Moines Register" in what at one point was an off-the-record interview, but that he and his campaign released.

Here's the quote. "A big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican party has so alienated the fastest growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community."

But that raises some fascinating questions about Mr. Obama's election strategy. Our CNN contributor and "The Daily Beast's" senior columnist, John Avlon, has just written a terrific piece about this. I encourage you for wait for this interview to be over and then run to your computer to actually read this.

He's on the road for us, as well, on the CNN Election Express Bus and he joins me live from Orlando, Florida.

So, Mr. Avlon, let's start with the obvious. Wow, that's not the kind of statement that you would normally see, but that was supposed to originally an off-the-record interview. Is that how it works, you can speak in those sort of very stark terms when it's OTR?

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I mean, look, I think the President was telling the truth. You know, Mitt Romney has lost a lot of the gains that George W. Bush had very consciously made, trying to make inroads to the Hispanic community.

Because demographics are destiny, Ashleigh, and we know the Latino community is the fastest growing community in the United States right now, but because Mitt Romney tacked to the right on this issue, issues of immigration, in particular, during the primaries, because of the high-profile Arizona law, Republicans have a real problem right now with Latinos in terms of outreach.

And, so, what President Obama was saying is, look, because of that erosion, I have a real opportunity to make real permanent inroads. And the question of this election right now, because President Obama is suffering a slight decline in white support, is, is Mitt Romney's short-term momentum against the long-term demographic trends?

And it is a risky gamble for the Obama campaign. There is no question about it.

BANFIELD: Well, let me ask you this. Since you are in Florida and I think the statistic is almost a quarter of the state this year is Hispanic, it's Exhibit A, as you put it, as to why this is such a risky election strategy.

Is it because you're breaking down the Hispanic demographics or is there a bigger, overarching reason why you say that?

AVLON: Well, the biggest question I think, Ashleigh, is whether the President and the Democrats' demographic gamble this election cycle is ahead of the tipping point. Is it appropriate for 2020 or is it more a 2016 or 2020 strategy when the Democrats' demographics would really bear out the Democrats' gamble?

In a state like Florida, where 22 percent of the electorate is Hispanic, there's obviously a major inroad. This has historically been a very diverse community. What's different about Florida where we are today is that, because you've got a strong concentration of conservative Cubans in the Miami area that traditionally have voted Republican, but that demographic profile has changed as more folks from Latin America, citizens from Puerto Rico moving into areas like Orlando.

And, so, in 2006, Florida hit a tipping point where Hispanic registration started edging Democrat, but that -- this focus here in Florida, the strong core of Cuban Republican support isn't an anomaly.

Over the country, overwhelmingly, Hispanics this election season seem to be supporting President Obama by an unprecedented margin. And that's really clearly what is he is banking on and that's why states that used to be swing states, like New Mexico are not looking like swing states, but safely in the Democratic column.

States like Colorado and Virginia, those demographic shifts are going to be pivotal to see how those swing states end up voting.

BANFIELD: Well, let me ask you this. I know you've written about the sort of the hemorrhaging of the white vote for President Obama. Are there enough, as you look across, clearly, the swing states, are there enough -- and that's not the graphic that I actually want to read for you. That's the answer you just gave me, so let me just move onto the next question and that is this. Are there enough say black and Hispanic votes across the country in the critical swing states to accommodate for that loss of white votes? Will they balance out? Will one overtake the other?

AVLON: That is the big question of this election. The question is, are we at that tipping point? Is it this cycle or is it some time in the near future? You know, whites still make up the overwhelming segment of registered voters in this country and the population overall.

And, so, President Obama really does -- Ron Brownstein, a fellow CNN contributor, has written brilliant analysis about this, pointing to the President needs to keep around 40 percent of the white vote and, if he gets, that plus 80 percent of the African-American and Hispanic vote or more, then he's in good shape.

The real larger problem, I think, is right now the two parties are so racially polarized and that doesn't bode well for the country in the future. We need to start to bridging these divides more aggressively and that's something the President promised to do, something he definitely did in 2008, but with the electorate so polarized, some of these racial divides are re-emerging in the electorate right now with just two weeks to go.

BANFIELD: All right, John Avlon, live for us in Florida, fresh off the CNN Election Express Battleground Bus Tour. Thank you, sir. I look forward to you making it home safely.

I just want to let you know some statistics here. According to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, more than 12.2 million Latino voters are expected to cast their ballot this election day. Look down, four years, that number was only 9.7 million who voted back in 2008.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So, live pictures for you now. I want to take you to Cincinnati, Ohio. We told you it was coming and here it is, Mitt Romney at the podium. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- the chance to watch a few debates which I enjoyed a great deal. I have to be honest with you.

These debates really have propelled our campaign across the country and, in some respects, I think they've diminished the Obama campaign because he has now resorted to talking about saving characters on Sesame Street and word games and, of course, he continues to launch these misdirected attacks at me and he knows they're not accurate and they're not making much progress for him and his campaign gets smaller and smaller, focused on smaller things.

Our campaign is about big things because we happen to believe that America faces big challenges. We recognize this is a year with a big choice and the Americans want to see big changes and I'm going to bring it to this country.

This is a defining election, I believe. It's an election which defines a great deal about the country, but it's also defining about the American families and defining about your family.

I say that because the choice that will be made, this big choice coming up, will have an impact on you and your family.

If you're a senior, for instance, or if you have a senior that you're caring for, if President Obama were to get re-elected and that senior were to need the care of a medical specialist, you might call the appointment secretary of the doctor and say, I'd like to make an appointment, and be told, I'm sorry, we're not taking any more Medicare patients.

Because under ObamaCare, some 50 percent of America's doctors are saying, they won't accept new Medicare patients.

Now, if I'm president -- when I'm president, we're going to -- thank you.

Now, you see, when I'm president, we're going to repeal ObamaCare and put that $716 billion the President is taking out of Medicare -- we're going to put it back into Medicare, so you or the senior you're caring for can be sure that, when you call a doctor, the doctor is going to say, I'm happy to make an appointment to see you. That's the difference between a Romney administration and an Obama administration.

Now, for those of you in your 40s and 50s who have always anticipated that these would be the high-earning years, the most productive years --

(END LIVE FEED)

BANFIELD: So, as we continue to watch Mitt Romney on the stump in Cincinnati, this is Ohio, folks, three stops in Ohio today, and if you were wondering, this is his second trip to Cincinnati since the Republican convention.

So, you can expect to hear a lot more about Ohio. That's the jet engine production facility.

By the way, speaking of campaigning and speaking of big speeches and big stage moments, do you remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You must vote and you must re-elect President Barack Obama.

God bless you and God bless America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Just a few weeks ago, that was the Charlotte Democratic National Convention, William Jefferson Clinton, a moment that a lot of people thought was like a Red Bull injection into the Obama campaign.

So, now, as we just mentioned to you a little while ago, coming to a battleground stage near you, this scene may play out again. Don't know about the "bro hug," but those two are going to be side by side, campaigning, yet again, for the final week of stumping.

Monday, it all starts off in Florida and it will be the first time that these two have campaigned together this election. They've done other appearances, fundraisers, et cetera, but it's the first time they'll be campaigning together.

So, let's bring in Paul Steinhauser, talk a little bit about this. I've been curious. Look, I know that guy gets rock star ratings on the TV because I saw those ratings and I've never seen ratings for the networks, the news networks, that have been higher, but is there a specific demographic that President Clinton can come in and hand deliver to President Obama or is this just an overall effect they're looking for in the Obama camp?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Here's why they love -- and when I say they, the Obama campaign loves having Bill Clinton as one of their top surrogates, if not top surrogate, on the campaign trail, Ashleigh.

First of all, he motivates the base. You know, he pumps up Democrats and we see our most recent poll, when we looked at his favorable ratings among Democrats, it was at 87 percent.

Also, among men, his favorable rating was almost 70 percent. That's even higher than his overall 66 percent favorable rating, so, yes, he helps with men. He helps with white men, in particular, and he helps with the base.

And that's one of the reasons why the President -- the current president wants the former president by his side next Monday in those three crucial battleground states and I'm sure you'll see more of Bill Clinton, either with or without Barack Obama, stumping for the President over the last week-and-a-half, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: OK, Paul, if you could talk to me a little bit about the electoral map and the shifting, the changing winds and the shifting colors on the electoral map.

We at CNN have just shifted North Carolina into the leaning-Romney category. The significance of that and the polls that have led us to do that?

STEINHAUSER: Well, take a look at the map and we'll go through it real quickly. Yes, we did move North Carolina last night from true toss-up. Now, you can see North Carolina right there on the East Coast there, as light red which means it's leaning towards Mitt Romney. That takes Mitt Romney's electoral count from 191 up to 206. We think he's leading in states with 206 electoral votes.

The President remains leaning in states with 237 electoral votes. Of course, 270 is the magic number. We also quickly moved Indiana and Missouri from lean Romney to solid Romney. Why did we move North Carolina? Not really because of the polls, though the polls have indicated lately that Mitt Romney does have a slight advantage there and it seems to be growing by day, but also, we take a look at where the President's been campaigning.

Guess what? When was the last time the President was in North Carolina? You just showed it, the convention in back in early September.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right, thank you, Paul.

And, as we continue to look at all the states, we look a lot at Ohio, both the candidates stumping in Ohio today, Mitt Romney on that stage in Ohio. The rally in Worthington, though, will be later on today.

Just looking at my map. I think it's at 3:10 Eastern time, so you can bet your bottom dollar lots of folks rallying, getting out, ready to watch the Governor come into their state and do his blitzkrieg.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: In Virginia, the son of a long-time congressman has resigned from his father's campaign after an undercover video allegedly shows him dolling out some advice on how to commit election fraud.

Patrick Moran, the son of Congressman Jim Moran, was talking to a conservative activist who was posing as a campaign worker. That activist is part of James O'Keefe's organization and you might remember James O'Keefe from a hidden-camera investigation he did of the ACORN group.

The operative told Moran that he wanted to cast ballots in the name of a hundred registered voters who rarely vote. And listen to Moran's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MORAN, SON OF CONGRESSMAN JIM MORAN: Now you're going to have -- you know, you'll have somebody in House if they feel what you have is legitimate, they'll argue for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I imagine that an OFA lawyer?

MORAN: An OFA lawyer or provided by the committees. Yes, but it's got to look good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got to look good?

MORAN: Yes. I think that's going to be a matter of --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Need to find a computer guy. That's probably my next step.

MORAN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.

MORAN: You're hardcore, Jason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Jim Moran's campaign has said that Patrick, Jim's son, is a well-respected part of the team and called the incident an error in judgment. And as for Patrick's own response to all of this -- quote for you -- he said, "At no point did I take this person seriously. He struck me as being unstable and joking. And for only that reason, did I humor him. In hindsight, I should have immediately walked away, making it clear that there is no place in the electoral process for even the suggestion of illegal behavior, joking or not." I'm going to credit that to a statement to "The Washington Post." But again, he's stepped down from this campaign. Troublesome, no matter what he says.

Do you remember Palm Beach County, Florida? Of course, you do. It's back, folks. Just feast your eyes back on these images from the year 2000 that none of us could get out of our heads. 12 years ago, it was the home of the hanging chad. And it was the center of an electoral mess that ended up leaving the whole process up to the Supreme Court to settle out George W. Bush's White House win. In the end, it all came down to just 537 of those cards and those chads, which represent your votes? Fast forward 12 years now, somebody in Palm Beach County apparently made a mistake again. And they've printed off some absentee ballots but the ballots cannot be read by the computers. And those people, 27,000 of them, who marked their ballots and sent them in -- good for you. Way to go, early voting -- those ballots can't be counted by the computers. So now, the remedy, Palm Beach County elections officials are working hard at recopying all 27,000 of those absentee ballots by hand. They are transferring all the results from those ballots onto other ballots that the machines actually will be able to read correctly.

How do I know this? Because Andrew Restuccia has been following this story really well from "Politico" and he joins me now, live.

OK. First of all, I guess the obvious question we should start with, Andrew, how on earth did those ballots go out in the first place with the mistakes?

ANDREW RESTUCCIA, ENERGY REPORTER, POLITICO: Well, there was a bit of a disagreement with the printer apparently down in Palm Beach County and the supervisor there essentially said that we didn't sign off on this print, and the printer said, oh, yes, they did, and they eventually went to print. There are about 60,000 misprinted ballots in total.

BANFIELD: Somebody is blaming the printer and the printer is saying it wasn't us, they signed off on it. I got that.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: We got the mistake. Now fix the awful 27,000-strong mistake. Is this legal? I put in my absentee ballot. I had to seal it twice and mail it. And no one is allowed to open that until Election Day. Now we have ballots not only opened and looked at, but someone will take that judgment and transfer it to another card to represent their judgment. Is that legal?

RESTUCCIA: Well, it's sort of in this little bit of a legal gray zone at this point. They've established this process whereby you have a Democrat and Republican looking at each ballot and hand-copying them onto another ballot. There's already talk of lawsuits and potential challenges. And, of course, you know, like you mentioned, this is the county where the Bush V. Gore case sort of got its start. And Florida will be a really key state for the presidential election. So we'll have to see how all that plays out.

BANFIELD: Yes, I believe I crafted my first few face wrinkles during that process in the year 2000.

(LAUGHTER)

Andrew, I am astutely concerned about what's about to happen with this process. Do you know -- and I like the fact that you cleared up there are Democrat and Republican officials overseeing one of these ballots.

RESTUCCIA: Right.

BANFIELD: However, since these are absentee ballots, and quite often absentee ballots skew Republican, especially with the military, just about all absentee ballots when deployed, do we know if there's one party or the other that opposes this whole operation, just because of the way it is, because of the way they're trying to remedy it?

RESTUCCIA: Well, we've seen some initial sort of reservations from the Romney campaign about this. Last week, "The Palm Beach Post," which has been doing really good reporting on this, reported that the Romney -- a lawyer from the Romney campaign raised questions about this process. They're not really elaborating on how they would like to fix all of this. So we'll have to see exactly how it plays out. Of course, depending on how the election plays out, you could potentially see a lot more fuss about this.

BANFIELD: All right. Pack a lunch and buckle up, Restuccia. You're on this beat a couple more weeks at least.

Thanks so much. I appreciate your reporting. Thanks for joining us today.

RESTUCCIA: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Andrew Restuccia from "Politico."

Back after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I lived in Paris during college, and going back always brings back memories.

One of my favorite things to do sit outside and sip espresso or glass of wine at a cafe. The French invited the conference. Cafe de Flore, on the Left Bank, is my pick. And for dinner, Brasserie Lipp, across the street from Flora, is great.

If you've never been to Paris, take an afternoon on a sunny day and ride Baton Mushe (ph). These large sight-seeing boats are open air and allow you to see the entire city by sea.

For the arts, the La Range Mureen Museum (ph), which houses spectacular murals by Monet.

For shopping head Avenue Montaigne, the Madison Avenue of Paris.

Then, grab your walking shoes and head to the Champs Elysees, walking all the way up to the Arc de Triompe and back down is a great way to work off the meal.

And speaking of food, don't forget to buy a real baguette sandwich at a boulangerie (ph) or a crepe on the street. Soon, you'll feel like a native.

Alina Cho, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I'm always happy to bring you sunny news, happy news, and this is happy news, where we don't usually get it on the economy front. So today I can tell you that the jobless claims were down 23,000, that's a lot. So they still sit at 369,000, which is a lot. But according to a report from RealtyTrac, we have other good news in foreclosures. Those are down as well. And not just down a little bit, they're down in 62 percent of the United States cities. I hope you live in one of them because it's always good news if you have good stuff with the housing front.

Christine Romans is here to not -- I usually say break it down but I'm not going to that today. I want you to pivot for me, if you would. We have a big jobs report coming out next week, last one before election, going to matter a lot. And today, I just finally said enough. 14 times I've been watching these gas prices go down every day. Romans has to put context to this. Gas prices, what is going on?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They have been drifting lower here after they drifted higher through much of the summer. I want to show you what October gas prices look like. They've been coming down, as Ashleigh said, two weeks in a row now. The so-called experts say that you could see $3.40 to $3.50 by Thanksgiving. That's good news. We expect --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: 20 cents more by Thanksgiving.

ROMANS: In part, because we had supply disruptions in the near term. And if you look at gas prices, this chart of gas prices this year, you can see where those disruptions were, refinery fire in Venezuela, some problems in California. And you can see -- see where the prices started to go up on the second half of that chart?

BANFIELD: Yes.

ROMANS: See where it came down in the summer? See the beginning of the year? That's when it was the primaries and remember candidates making promises how they could --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: -- lower gas prices but gas prices move no matter who the President is or what politicians are doing.

But interestingly enough, when you look further out, from 2008 until today, we will still have the highest gas prices on Election Day in history. The highest Election Day gas prices.

BANFIELD: Election Day gas prices.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: So interesting because it's the --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: You drive to the polls.

ROMANS: Yes. It's the pulse that's taken every time you fill up your car. For example, we worked out today, at $3.60, today's gas prices, $3.60 on average, I'm spending 72 bucks to fill up my minivan. And you'd think that --

BANFIELD: Love you admit you drive a minivan.

(LAUGHTER)

You are so adorable.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Average weekly earnings are like $758 a week. $70 to fill up something every week, that's something you're really feel. That's why gas prices matter so much, as a barometer of how people feel about the economy.

BANFIELD: I always felt gas prices were the necessary evil. I'm about 78 to $85 a week. ROMANS: Do you drive a minivan?

BANFIELD: It's like a minivan, but it's an SUV. I hated mini -- but I also drive a Smartcar and try to offset.

BANFIELD: One is a fortune to fill up.

ROMANS: One I almost never fill. I don't know where the gas tank is.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: I used to bring an eye dropper.

Real quickly --

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: An eye dropper.

BANFIELD: 14 days straight, prices drop in gas prices. All that is 21.1 cents. A big "USA Today" story saying we could see 50 cents this fall season, this election season. Does anybody think that we're going to ever again get down to where Michelle Bachmann was suggesting, $2 gas, I'll save the world?

ROMANS: I learned a long time ago not to predict gas prices because there's so many things, Middle east unrest, something happens to close the Straits of Hormuz. Oh, my goodness. A Venezuela refinery fire that affected gas prices. There are a lot of global factors, which is why, for the near term, you try to believe the oil price information service and AAA and their forecast that things will drift lower for the near term.

BANFIELD: In the meantime, I must be clear, I never put my children in the Smartcar. Thinking out there, you hideous mother, that's only for when I need to get around. I just take the smaller car.

ROMANS: You drive the go cart.

(LAUGHTER)

BANFIELD: I'll lend it to you any time you want.

(LAUGHTER)

Romans, thanks so much.

Back after this.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: There's a new name for you -- Sandy. Much of Florida's Atlantic coast is under a tropical storm warning as that hurricane makes its way towards the Bahamas. It's a Cat 2 right now. Made landfall this morning in Cuba, but not before it really whacked through Jamaica. Two people died in its wake already, and it ain't done yet.

Let's go to Meteorologist Chad Myers, who is keeping an eye on things.

When I was looking at the storm today -- and you and I always have these off-camera conversations as these systems build. We've been talking about it for a couple of days. I have not heard this suggestion that it could be as bad as 1991's perfect storm once as it heads up the east coast of the United States. Are you seriously seeing it like that in the models now?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the perfect storm was a completely separate entity. A perfect storm was a cold storm that started to the north and sucked a storm system into it, therefore, giving it more energy. This is a warm system. This is a tropical system coming up that could slam into the northeast. So, yes, and if there are some worst case scenarios -- I'll call it the imperfect storm because we've already named one perfect. It can't be the same because they're not. This could have more of an impact on more people than the perfect storm did, for sure.

105-mile-per-hour winds right now, Ashleigh. They are moving through the Bahamas and up. We will have huge waves on the coast of Florida as the days go on. Here's the reason why. Category 2 storm dying off a little bit to a 90-mile-per-hour storm, but you have to realize how much on shore flow we are going to get here. Major beach erosion. And stay out of the surf. The rip currents will be tremendous with this. We will lose a lot of surf with this as well. A lot of sand is going to go away with this storm.

Here's the latest, though, the latest track, and why this could affect more people than the perfect storm did, do more damage than the perfect storm did. It is turning the storm between Boston and the cape at all the way into North Carolina with the center of the cone in through New York City. That's the most scary scenario. We talked about this, and this is the off-camera conversation we had about the models. One model, two days ago, one model turned left. The rest went out on to sea. There's only one model that goes out to sea, that one, and all the other models are on shore somewhere from Canada to Washington D.C.

BANFIELD: OK. That tells me, Chad, that you and I can talk again tomorrow, and hopefully Halloween will be saved for all those children on Wednesday.

Chad Myers, thank you, sir.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BANFIELD: We appreciate that.

We're going to keep an eye on Sandy as it heads towards the Bahamas and beyond.

And Joey Jackson is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It has been a terrible week for a southern New Jersey town, distraught after a 12-year-old girl named Autumn Pasqual went missing last Saturday. They're hoping to find her, and on Monday they did, but they found her body discarded in a cycling bin after she had been beaten and strangled. Sadly, this is not a story that we haven't heard before. But here's where this story veers off the rails. The arrests came very fast. The two suspects, brothers. Not much older than Autumn. They were just 15 and 17 years old, these boys. Their alleged motive? Autumn's fancy BMX bike. And then there's this too. Police caught the brothers because their own mother turned them in.

Joining me live now to talk about this is defense attorney, Joey Jackson.

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Oh, man.

BANFIELD: She -- wow. I mean, she read a suspicious Facebook posting or maybe a series of them, and apparently did this with the police, turned her children in. How often do we actually see mothers turning their own children in, especially young children?

JACKSON: Oh, boy. In my experience and in my practice, it doesn't happen. You have to think about this mother, what she's going through, and you have to credit her, but you know, it's maternal instinct to protect children. She has the foresight, the wherewithal to come forward and say, look, something is suspicious and something is amiss. We need justice here. Have you to credit her for that, but actually it doesn't happen.

BANFIELD: Let's ask about the process. Right now they're facing juvenile process, but the prosecutors are reserving the right --

JACKSON: Adults.

BANFIELD: -- to move these kids into the adult system. So many questions. Number one, one of them is 15. One is 17. Could one be an adult and the other a juvenile? Could both be adults even though one is only 15?

JACKSON: Sure. Really quickly, what happens is there's a distinction between both systems. In juvenile court, you don't get a trial by jury at all, OK? I judge decides that. And, of course, we know in regular court you get a trial by jury. On Friday, when they go to a hearing, it's not a bail hearing. It's a detention hearing. What's the difference? The difference is whether they should be released to the custody of the parent under strict conditions -- home confinement, monitoring, a bracelet or --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Until their trial?

JACKSON: Exactly. Until pending a trial here, or whether they should be held. It's likely that, in this case scenario, they will be held. As to whether or not one can be detained, one can be released, depends upon the conduct. As to whether or not they're both tried as adults, which, of course, there's a right to do that. And in doing that, Ashleigh, the court would evaluate, and the prosecutor would evaluate the gravity of the offense. There's a murder here. Their prior conduct, their past history -- there's a lot that the court has to consider, but it's certainly possible, depending on who was the ringleader, who wasn't the ringleader -- was the 15-year-old forced by the older brother? Was the older brother coerced by the younger brother? That will all be determined. But it's clear they could be tried in different tracks, one in juvenile court and one in adult court.

BANFIELD: Is it quite possible that bail is denied, it's possible those children never get back out to their parents?

JACKSON: Oh, yes, sure.

BANFIELD: Let me ask you about the mother who turned in the children. We know that spouses can't be forced to testify against one another, but what about her mom? Does she have to testify against these kids if that's what this comes to?

JACKSON: She'll be compelled to testify. There would be a material witness order put out. It would seem to me, Ashleigh, that she would indeed testify. Why? Because she voluntarily went to the police. And so they're going to ask her what led to her suspicions. The Facebook post, what were they, what was their conduct like? What did you notice that was different about your children? It's likely that not even there be court intervention. She would do it on her own.

BANFIELD: Oh, man. We have some work ahead of us.

JACKSON: Tough case.

BANFIELD: It is. You just want -- they get tougher.

Joey Jackson, thank you.

JACKSON: Pleasure, always.

BANFIELD: Thank you, everyone, for watching us today. Do appreciate it.

Stick with us, though, because NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL continues now with my colleague, Suzanne Malveaux.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL." I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We're taking you around the world in 60 minutes. Here's what's going on right now.

Hurricane Sandy gaining strength, moving quickly across the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea towards the Bahamas.