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Hagel: Obama's Pick for Defense Secretary; Google Chief, BCS Championship Game Tonight; Former New Mexico Governor in North Korea; Hot New Gadgets on Display

Aired January 07, 2013 - 10:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: He delayed emergency funding for the troops in 2007. Even after the surge has existed in 2008 he still said that it wasn't because of the troops addition. When we add that to his dangerous views of Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas and terrorism as well estranged hostility towards Israel, I think the Senate should oppose Mr. Hagel.

SEN. HEIDI HEITKAMP (D), NORTH DAKOTA: Chuck Hagel is a tremendous patriot and statesman. Served incredibly in Vietnam, served this country as the United States Senator. He hasn't had a chance to speak for himself. And so why all the prejudging --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Why all the prejudging, chief political analyst Gloria Borger is in our Washington Bureau -- in our Washington Bureau to answer that very question, I mean, you've been reporting for a month Hagel was the frontrunner.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

COSTELLO: Why do you think Obama wanted Hagel if he was going to get all this -- all this grief from certain lawmakers?

BORGER: Well I think he knew he was going to get the grief and I think he's been thinking about him for quite some time and there's a whole variety of reasons. First of all, the President believes that he's qualified. This is somebody who's served in the Senate, was on foreign relations committee, obviously. This is somebody who's been very involved with veterans, a veteran himself.

If he becomes Secretary of Defense, he would, I believe, become the first enlisted man to become the chief at the -- at the Pentagon. I also think he believes given his record and given his stature that he would be somebody who could stand up to the generals. This is very important to the President. When the President was deciding about the surge to -- in Afghanistan, and in my reporting on that, something that came up over and over and over again was the President's concern that he listen to the generals but then make his own decisions and I think he believes that Chuck Hagel is somebody who could really do that and that is very important to him. And also, I think personally and you can't underestimate this, President Obama is somebody who likes to have a comfort level with the people he appoints. He's become a good friend of Chuck Hagel's. Remember, they travelled to the Middle East together in 2007 or 2008. He is somebody who co-chairs his intelligence advisory board. And I think he's somebody he sees eye to eye with in terms of Iraq and Afghanistan and if confirmed, Chuck Hagel, don't forget, would be pulling troops out of Afghanistan, not putting them in.

So I think it's sort of a -- a large picture there and it's the person that the President I think wanted from day one.

COSTELLO: OK. So Susan Rice, the President wanted her to be Secretary of State. She is not going to be obviously, right?

BORGER: That's right.

COSTELLO: So we lost from one. So -- so what does this nomination, I mean, Senator Lindsey Graham called this nomination an in your face kind of thing with the President. Is it?

BORGER: Well, in a way to Lindsey Graham I think it is because Lindsey Graham comes from the other side of the foreign policy spectrum but you raise an interesting question about Susan Rice and I raised it to someone in the administration. Why pick Chuck Hagel but not go to bat over Susan Rice?

Now the answer I was given was that Susan Rice pulled out before the President made any formal decision. That's the White House spin on it, if you will. I believe that they thought that perhaps Susan Rice was a fight they might have lost. I think the White House believes that Susan Rice -- that Chuck Hagel is a fight they're going to win. They've got some problems.

Even on their own side of the aisle when it comes to pro-Israel Democrats. He's going to have a lot of tough questions to answer about the questions of how he stands on sanctions in Iran, with Democrats as well as Republicans.

But I think in the end they've made the calculation that Republicans don't want to pick a huge fight or will lose a huge fight if they say Chuck Hagel didn't like the war in Iraq. Well more than half of the American public didn't like the war in Iraq either.

COSTELLO: Yes. Gloria Borger thanks so much.

BORGER: Thanks a lot, Carol.

COSTELLO: It's a trip shrouded in secrecy and taken without the support of the U.S. government. Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Google chairman Eric Schmidt took a flight from Beijing to North Korea today. Now it's thought that Richardson might try to negotiate the release of an American being held there.

CNN's Alison Kosik is following the story from New York. So -- so why did the Google chairman go -- go with Bill Richardson? ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We don't know why he's on this trip, Carol. A Google spokeswoman did issue a statement last week saying the company doesn't comment on quote, "personal travel". Now we do know that North Korea strictly censors access to the Internet. And Eric Schmidt has spoken out on Internet freedom, Governor Richardson told the "New York Times" that Schmidt is interested in some of the economic issues there, the social media aspect but that's about all he would say about it.

Sources have told CNN that trip is a private humanitarian visit it is thought that Richardson's objective will to try and negotiate a release of an American prisoner who is captured last month in North Korea.

We also know that the State Department doesn't want any Americans to visit North Korea right now. North Korea tends to use any American visits as a sign of respect for its leadership. But the U.S. doesn't want to send those kinds of signals. Now the U.S. is trying to punish North Korea for long-range -- for a long-range rocket launch from last month -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes but we don't know that if the American being held prisoner in North Korea is a Google employee or might he be?

KOSIK: There are a lot of questions. We don't know. And that is why there is a lot of attention on the visit simply because there are a lot of these question marks hanging around -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Alison Kosik reporting live from New York.

Our digital lives are changing and we soon could be living in the home of the future. We'll show you some of the technology debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show. You won't believe it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: NBC executives say violence on TV has nothing to do with how people behave well that's because they're defending their new drama which is called "Hannibal" as in that "Hannibal". Let's head to New York and check in with A.J. Hammer. I like how you described this TV show. It's Hannibal when he was a younger and more innocent character.

A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Well, you know you've got to go for what you can. And before the FAVA Beans, of course. But NBC is defending it, Carol, primarily because they hope and think that a lot of people are going to watch this show but Robert Green -- Greenblatt who is the head of NBC Entertainment says, "He's skeptical of this direct connection that people are always trying to make between violence on television and violence in real life." He was speaking at a Television Critics Association Convention.

And he made his view clear that people need to remember that factors like mental illness and access to guns do of course play a big role in real-life violence despite so many people being very quick to point fingers at violence on TV. The reality is there are a lot of shows that feature a lot of violence that do very well in the ratings and of course the hope for big ratings is why in the end NBC is unveiling this show, why Fox has a serial killer show called "The Following" coming out and why you can find a lot of violence on television but quite frankly, Carol, if it turn the majority of viewers off you could bet that the networks would change their course.

COSTELLO: Yes you could argue that these shows are different A.J. because these shows make heroes out of serial killers, they make them into this interesting characters that we're supposed to really like in a way but hate at the same time.

HAMMER: Yes. There is this sympathetic factor and it sort of goes, or flies in the face of how we think we should be thinking about people who do the types of things that these people do.

COSTELLO: I mean, at least in "The Chain Saw Massacre" the guy wielding the chainsaw pays in some way at the end.

HAMMER: Right, right. And the audience, as well which it's coming at you in 3D.

COSTELLO: I just I can't -- I have to close my eyes in if I'd be in that movie. Let's end on something sort of kind of maybe uplifting. Mariah Carey, her ex-husband drama. Not uplifting.

HAMMER: Well yes, uplifting, maybe not. But Tommy Mottola and Mariah Carey have been divorced now for 15 years. The music executive has a new book out it's called "Hit Maker" where among other things we get his take on Mariah's success and what part he played in that. He claimed some credit for Mariah's career which I think he rightfully can. He says Carey obviously has incredible talent but if he wasn't there to drive her and hadn't been so controlling, she would never have achieved the success that she has now.

I want to read you this quote, according to "The New York Post". He wrote, "If it seems like I was controlling, I apologize, was I obsessive, yes. But that was also a part of the reason for her success."

Now Mariah was just a teenager more than 20 years younger than Mottola when he signed her to a record contract and she was just 23 when they got married. It was only a four-year marriage and Carol you may remember later on Mariah referred to that time in her life as a private hell.

But certainly at the beginning when she was just starting out, Tommy Mottola was the guy who gave her the big break and really pushed and pushed her. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of stories about the level to which he pushed her and how that played out.

COSTELLO: Well I'm glad he found a way to justify Mariah Carey's private hell. Good for him.

HAMMER: And there you go.

COSTELLO: A.J. Hammer, thank you. For the latest entertainment news, watch "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" 11:00 Eastern on HLN.

We're always on the go and we need gadgets that can keep up. This week, thousands of companies will show off the latest and greatest in tech. And we've got a sneak peek.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's the latest and greatest from all things tech, the Consumer Electronics Show gets to the full swing today with everything from cars that drive themselves to ultrahigh def televisions. More than 3,000 exhibiters are in Las Vegas hoping to change the way you and I live. Check this out.

An 84-inch touchscreen table, that's what you're looking at. It's one of the countless products that will debut this week. Jim Barry is the spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association, the trade group behind the event. And Jim, why do people need that gigantic screen on a table?

JIM BARRY, SPOKESMAN, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION: Well, it's not always a question of need, is it? Good morning, Carol. Nice to be with you.

Well, you know, that's one of the -- it's an interesting thing about this show. It reflects and both leads what's going on in technology every year for the past 40-some years.

And you know, that static devices like that, while very cool and touchscreens, one of the big trends, another big trend are no touchscreen, gesture technology but the real movement is away from those static devices, TVs and desktop computers to portable devices, whether they are tablets or Smartphone or ultra book computers or eBook readers. We are taking our information and our entertainment with us just about everywhere.

COSTELLO: I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to touch anything. I can just think and the device will work.

BARRY: Well, you know, that's getting closer. When you think of -- I mentioned no-touch, gesture technology which is really in the Xbox 360, the Kinect. Now getting in more and more television sets so you don't have to actually touch it or use a remote to change the channel or to change the volume.

But the other combination of artificial intelligence and voice recognition, a lot of us know it as Siri with iPhones or Speak To It or other apps for Android phones. But that's the kind of thing, that's a fundamental change that's going to let us do a lot of things that we can't do now with our devices and use them in many different ways that's much more intuitive and actually a lot easier, too.

COSTELLO: That's cool. If I could just do a hand motion and my television would change channels, that would be awesome.

BARRY: That's cool.

COSTELLO: I wouldn't have to figure out how to use the remote.

Let's talk about smart phones and some of the accessories -- I know you've mentioned but let's get specific. What's one of the cooler accessories for my --

BARRY: One of the cool things I've seen here is called the Smart Sound and the Smart Sound is actually a case, a case for your -- this one in this case this is the Samsung Galaxy Note but if you notice the back of the case -- it comes in nice colors too -- it opens up like this. It's really like a trumpet effect I would say.

This will increase the sound so if you're watching movies or listening to music, a lot of us use our smart phone to listen to music or even if you want to use it as a speakerphone for a group, this will amplify the sound. It's about $40. I got them for iPhones. You can see for this one it's actually a stand and the smart sound. It's very, very cool I think. And again, a simple idea that adds to some really high tech products.

COSTELLO: That's really cool. The CES is also a big car show which I didn't know so tell us some of the cool things you could get for your car.

BARRY: Right. Well, it's a big car show annual and it's a big app show also. And here is the viper. This is from -- this is on an iPhone. This is an app that you hook up with your car and this is the viper smart start and this will start your car from your iPhone. And you can also use this with Siri. I'm not going to be able to do that in the studio but you can just tell Siri to start the car and it will start it up.

Those of us who live up in the northeast, cold winter's morning or if you live in the real hot area, a hot day, get the air conditioning or that heat going.

COSTELLO: That's awesome. With the music and video and pictures, it's easy to run out of space to store it all but you tell -- you're going to tell us there's a new wireless solution. What is it?

BARRY: Yes. This is called the air stash. And this is really cool. It has a USB connecter, too. So you could plug it in to other devices but it works with an iPad or other Smartphone so most of us don't have enough memory, especially if we put a lot of movies and music on our phone or tablet.

So the Air Stash, this is from Maxell, it also can work with a number of devices as well. So if you've got a couple of kids and everybody wants to listen to the same thing or different things, you can wirelessly add memory and send stuff from one device to the other. This is the Air Stash from Maxell and that's about $150 or so.

There's another great thing about electronics, the prices come down on all this stuff as time goes by.

COSTELLO: Yes, getting better. Jim Barry, thanks. You were a lot of fun. We appreciate it. BARRY: Thanks, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We'll have complete coverage of this week's consumer electronics show. It's all online at cnnmoney.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As you well know, the NFL divisional round of playoff games set for next weekend. On Saturday, the Baltimore Ravens travel to Denver to take on the AFC's top seeded Broncos. Then the San Francisco 49ers host the Green Bay Packers. On Sunday, the NFC top seed Atlanta Falcons will take on Seattle. And the Houston Texas play the New England Patriots in the late game.

Let's talk about the Redskins a little bit. Robert Griffin 3 will undergo an MRI after reinjuring his knee in the game against the Seahawks. Still a lot of buzz over whether the Skins should have left their franchise quarterback in the game after RG3 hurt the knee in the first quarter. We'll keep you posted on his injury update. He's set to have an MRI today.

How big is tonight's BCS championship battle between number one Notre Dame and number two Alabama? Well, just follow the money. The resell market has tickets going for as much as $60,000 each -- $60,000 each.

I'm speechless, Carlos Diaz, from HLN Sports who's lucky enough to cover the game in South Florida.

CARLOS DIAZ, HLN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I think I should be paying like $4,000 just to be standing this close to the stadium right right now.

But you know, Carol, there so many amazing stories here with this national championship game. I mean of course, we have Notre Dame against Alabama, two storied franchises. But if you look deeper at people like A.J. McCarron, the quarterback of Alabama, when he was 5 years old, he had a near-death experience on a wave runner and ever since then he's gone back to the children's hospital that helped save his life and he's delivered presents to some kids at the hospital and this time last year he went to that hospital and met little Starla Chapman. She's a three-year-old with a rare form of cancer. And when he gave Starla a present, he gave him a present of his own. A little yellow wristband saying "just trust". He wore that wristband last year. A.J. McCarron wore that wrist band last year during the national championship game he played in last year against LSU, won that game and he not taken that wristband off since.

And get this Starla who flat lined last year, that's how dire her situation was last year, her parents told to pray for a miracle. That miracle came and now her cancer is in remission and McCarron says that he's touched to be able to work with young people like that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) A.J. MCCARRON, ALABAMA QUARTERBACK: I've been blessed enough to be in a position to kind of touch people's lives, inspire them in certain ways and she was a blessing to me. Just kind of met her on that Christmas Eve that day at USA Women's and Children's hospital and, you know, we just kind of just a relationship has taken off from there.

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DIAZ: And you better believe that Starla is going to be wearing her number 10 jersey tonight when Alabama plays. She has a jersey that says A.J.'s girl.

Speaking of Notre Dame there's another jersey that's very important tonight and that's the number 7, worn by wide receiver T.J. Jones. It is the same number of jersey that his father Andre Jones wore in 1988 when he played for the last national championship game, last national championship team that Notre Dame had.

Andre Jones passed away a year and a half ago just before T.J.'s sophomore season. He had a brain aneurysm at the age of 42 and T.J. says it was his teammates and alumni at Notre Dame that helped him get through the tough time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RJ JONES, NOTRE DAME WIDE RECEIVER: It means a lot. It's like to represent my dad on the field. Even though he's not here, I still feel like he's with me every day. I'm glad I get the opportunity to, you know, I guess play for him now with his number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAZ: So everyone's talking about how this is an epic matchup between number one ranked Notre Dame, and number two Alabama but you can see there's so many great stories involved with this game, as well, Carol.

COSTELLO: I know. I got goose bumps. Carlos Diaz, thanks so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Lots of responses to our the "Talk Back" question today. The question, "What, if any, new gun laws should be passed.

This from Stephen, "Sensible gun safety laws should be an ongoing effort the same way we continuously upgrade motor vehicle safety laws."

This from Gary. "We don't need any more nanny laws. People with malicious intent even if they don't have a criminal history won't abide by any laws. More gun control will just take away firearms from law abiding citizens."

This from Deborah. "There is nothing wrong with having background checks but plane truth is if someone really wants a gun they will find a way to get it." This from Jeffrey. "The only law that may work is a ban on magazines over five rounds. Will you stop violence with this law? No. But you may cut down the body count." Please keep the conversation going, Facebook./carolcnn or feel free to tweet me @ CarolCNN.

I am Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me today and thanks for answering my "Talk Back" question. I'll always appreciate it. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield.