Return to Transcripts main page

Ballot Bowl 2008

Obama, Clinton Campaign in Puerto Rice; Firestorm Over Clinton's Comment; Cindy McCain's Tax Returns; Tornado Spotted in Oklahoma

Aired May 24, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much, Fredricka.
I'm Mary Snow in Sedona, Arizona. I'll be joined momentarily by my colleague Suzanne Malveaux, who has been reporting live from Puerto Rico following the Democratic candidates.

I'm here not far from the home of Senator John McCain. Senator McCain does not have a public schedule this weekend, however he is hosting a number of people at his family's ranch, and that includes three names who have been talked as potential vice presidential candidates.

Also a lot of news surrounding Senator John McCain, including the release of his medical record, his wife's tax returns that she said she would never make public. We'll get to all of that, but we'll also be taking a very close look at the Democratic race that has now gone to the island of Puerto Rico.

And of course the big headline, the firestorm caused yesterday by Senator Hillary Clinton, when she alluded to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. It created a firestorm, she came out to back away from that statement and Robert Kennedy Jr. also came out to defend Senator Clinton. But still, it has become the headline all across the country, questions about whether or not this campaign and this Democratic race is finally coming to an end.

We're going to have a lot more in the next hour, but first, we want to go to Senator Barack Obama's event today, earlier today in Puerto Rico. Let's go to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's time to end this war so we can finish the fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and combat the other threats of the 21st century. We need to combat them not with just tough talk but with tough diplomacy and strong alliances. That's the kind of leadership our troops deserve and that's the kind of leadership I intend to offer when I'm commander in chief.

But America's obligations to servicemen does not end when they take off the uniform. We have a sacred trust with our veterans and we have to keep it. The other day I had the chance to do this. There was a bill up for a vet in the Senate called the 21st century GI bill that would help make college affordable for today's veterans without harming retention rates.

This bill was proposed by my friend Senator Jim Webb of Virginia who was a marine himself and by leaders of both parties. It's designed to update the original GI bill that veterans like my grandfather received and allowed them to go to college after World War II. Thanks to bipartisan support, the bill passed by a vote of 75-22.

But one of the people opposing it was John McCain. Now let me be clear, no one can dispute John McCain's love for this country or his concern for veterans, but here's what I don't understand. I don't understand why John McCain would side with George Bush and oppose our plan to make college more affordable for our veterans and make sure that people like Nelson had the kinds of extensions that they needed in order to get educational benefits. George Bush and John McCain may think our plan is too generous. I could not disagree more.

Putting a college degree within reach for our veterans isn't being too generous, it's the least we can do for our heroes. And I will continue to fight in the months to come to give those who have defended America the chance to achieve their dream.

But there's so much more work that has to be done for our veterans. Just look at the VA hospital here in San Juan. This hospital was built nearly four decades ago and it is in desperate need of renovations and repairs. There's not enough room, it's not designed to help women veterans and it's not well equipped to provide care if you're paralyzed or disabled. That's unacceptable. When I'm president, we'll review what's wrong with the VA hospital here in San Juan and with all our VA hospitals and solve any problems we find swiftly.

We need to make sure that the veterans here in San Juan are getting the same quality care as veterans in Chicago, in New York, in Los Angeles in all of the 50 states. And that those who have worn the uniform of the United States of America are being treated with the respect and the dignity that they have earned.

That's why I've pledged to build a 21st century VA as president. It means fixing our system so it works not just for servicemen, but for servicewomen. It means no more red tape. It's time to give every service member electronic copies of medical and service records upon discharge so that everything is processed efficiently and in a timely way.

It means no more shortfalls. We will fully fund VA health care. It means no more delays. We'll pass on-time budgets. It means no more means testing. It's time to allow every veteran into the VA system. It means making sure our veterans are laid to rest with honor.

And it means continuing the work I've begun on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and having a policy of zero tolerance for homeless veterans. We should not have any veterans sleeping on the streets anywhere in the United States of America and anywhere in Puerto Rico. I'll also build on the work I did in the Senate to confront one of the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that's post traumatic stress disorder. A recent study by the Rand Corporation found that because of inadequate mental health care, the number of suicides among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan may actually exceed the number of combat deaths. And yet, the other day we found that a VA psychologist actually instructs her staff to refrain from making PTSD diagnoses because it was costing the government too much money. Costing the government too much money. Think about that.

How many veterans might be going without the care that they need because of such attitudes? How many are slipping through the cracks? We're a better nation than this. We have to do better than this. The Senate, I've helped lead a bipartisan effort to stop the unfair practice of kicking our troops out of the service who suffer from PTSD. When I'm president, we'll enhance mental health screening and treatment at all levels from enlistment to deployment to re-entry into civilian life.

We'll bring in more mental health professionals and give them more training to recognize the signs of illness and we will help dispel the stigma of seeking care.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: That was Senator Barack Obama earlier today in Puerto Rico taking aim at Senator John McCain for not supporting a measure on Capitol Hill to extend benefits for veterans, essentially helping with tuition after three years of service. There has been a pretty fierce dust-up between the two campaigns over the past couple of days over this bill and it even turned personal at one point on Thursday. Senator McCain alluding to the fact that Senator Obama did not serve in the military service.

In Stockton, California, Senator McCain made his case saying he is afraid this bill wouldn't really help to retain people already in the military. Here is Senator McCain Thursday in Stockton, California, taking aim at Senator Barack Obama over this bill and explaining why he opposes it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am always honored to be in the company of veterans. I am always deeply honored. It's a great honor of my life. And those who I know best and love most are those I've had the honor of serving with far away and long ago.

And I cherish my memories of my comrades that I had the honor of serving with. And sometimes people say that I had a difficult time in prison. And I did. But I also want to tell you that the great honor of my life was to serve in the company of heroes.

I was privileged to observe a thousand acts of courage and love and compassion. And my friends, I understand our veterans' needs but I also understand the needs of the active duty military. And we just had a bill on veterans educational benefits. And I am in favor of increasing dramatically the benefits that our veterans have earned from educational benefits. But I also want to tell you that I want to encourage people to stay in the military and make careers of it. That's very important.

And someone who has never served may not understand the absolute vital importance of a noncommissioned officer. The great strength of the military is our noncommissioned officers, the ones I know best and have learned the most about leadership was our noncommissioned officers. Those brave Americans who decided to make a career out of the military. And I want to encourage people to do that.

I want to give them additional benefits as they serve longer and I want them to be able to transfer those educational benefits to their family members so that after they've served a period of time. We can honor them best by increasing their educational benefits, taking care of their health care but also encouraging retention.

My friends, I don't need anybody to tell me about what veterans needs, I know them and I understand them and I understand them very well and so do you. So let me say to you again, I believe that our veterans health care is a requirement and an obligation. And what happened at Walter Reed is a disgrace and it can never happen again.

And I believe, my friends, as you know, unfortunately we're going to have a lot of PTSD out of this war and they have to be treated and helped. And there's going to be the grievous wounds associated with the IEDs which are such a terrible, terrible way of fighting a war. And so difficult to cope with in this kind of enemy that we're dealing with who has no respect for the lives of innocent people.

But I can also tell you that one of the things we're going to fix and we're going to fix soon is that today at the Phoenix VA, or any of the VA facilities in California is that our veterans have to go down to get an appointment to get an appointment, to stand in line to stand in line.

I want to give every veteran that has a routine health care need a plastic card to take with them wherever they need to go to get the health care they need and never stand in line to stand in line again. Or wait again. And we've got to take care of our veterans, my friends. And that's our first and foremost obligation in addressing health care issues in America.

Now I'm grateful you're here. This is going to be a tough race. I thank you for your support. I need every one of you to go out and call your friends and register people to vote and understand that California could decide who the next president of the United States is.

It's a humbling experience to get the nomination of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and your own Californian Ronald Reagan. It's a humbling experience, but I'm up to the task and I've spent my life in public service and I've spent my life serving this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: That was Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee on Thursday in Stockton, California, explaining to an audience there why he opposed a bill to extend veterans benefits that would include tuition for people in the military, three years in service, that is something that has come under fire from Senator Barack Obama and the two campaigns have really been battling it out.

We have lots more ahead but up next, we'll have take a closer look at Senator Clinton's remarks she made in South Dakota that she has found herself explaining when she said she's staying in the Democratic race and made an allusion to the assassination of RFK. It has caused a firestorm. We're going to be going live to Puerto Rico with my colleague Suzanne Malveaux. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is picture of my brother, Sergeant Jason Vaughn. The thing I most admired about my brother was his kindness and compassion for others. We always said he should have been a politician because he could really work a room. He was killed May 10, 2007 in Baqubah, Iraq and we will always miss him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to CNN's BALLOT BOWL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We are watching many different events. The Democrats obviously competing over the nomination in Puerto Rice, crisscrossing the commonwealth, their primary on June 1st. That is next Sunday and it has the biggest prize out of the last three remaining contests, South Dakota, Montana, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico having 55 delegates.

Now Barack Obama was here where we are just moments ago at the University of Puerto Rico. He was talking to a group of veterans about the special care that is needed, obviously acknowledging Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Also, we expect to see Senator Hillary Clinton arriving shortly as well. She'll be arriving shortly as well. She'll be addressing some similar issues. She is also talking about economic issues, the gas prices in particular. AAA announcing a record high, the $3.91 for a gallon of gas, unleaded. Really a tremendous amount of money for a lot of people.

A lot of voters talking about that and Hillary Clinton addressing those concerns earlier this week talking about the high gas prices, but also about a plan of energy to tackle it. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd also like to see us come up with some immediate relief for people who are suffering with these high gas prices. You know oil hit $130 a barrel. I know some analysts believe it's going to hit $200 a barrel and by the end of the year if not sooner. There is an irrational component to this. And so therefore, I would like to see us be more vigorous in trying to help people now. All that I want to do for the long-term I'm 100 percent committed to.

But what about right now? As oil goes up, the price of gas and diesel go up, right? Some people think we'll hit $4 by July or earlier. Some people think we could hit $5 or $6 by the end of the year. That is a big burden on people who have to drive. We're not talking about folks who have other alternatives. We have a lot of public transit they can use like a lot of people I represent in New York.

We're talking about people who live in places like South Dakota, who drive long distances, commute to work. Maybe use their cars, their trucks and their farm equipment to make a living. So I think we should be doing four things. If I were president right now, I would launch a Department of Justice investigation into the energy traders who are manipulating the market and driving the price up. There is no doubt in my mind.

They are currently unregulated and that is a mistake. We saw what happened. We remember Enron. When Enron was going on, the energy traders working for Enron were manipulating the electricity price on the West Coast. We found that out afterwards. Well, even oil company executives admit there is speculation going on. So let's start standing up to that and that's what the president should do.

Secondly, the Congress passed a provision I had been advocating for some time. Quit filling up the strategic petroleum reserve, it's already 97 percent fuel. I would go a step further and I'd release some oil so that people could begin to see the price driven down. I've been advocating that we start going after OPEC and Congress is beginning to respond. OPEC is a monopoly cartel.

They are not operating on the law of supply and demand. They set the supply, they set the price. We should be leading an international effort at the World Trade Organization. We should be changing our laws to allow people to sue them for antitrust. We should not let OPEC, which has determined the supply and price of oil since 1973, to continue unchallenged.

It is time for the United States to lead an effort to try to take them on and see if we can't rein them in. And finally, I would like to start going after the oil companies. You know, I admire a lot of previous presidents who took on these big interests, Republican and Democrat alike. Teddy Roosevelt went right after the oil companies, didn't he? And broke up their monopoly. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, they stood up to the huge corporate conglomerates of their time.

It's time we were had a president who stood up to the oil companies and I think you start by going after their record profits. A lot of those are totally without any basis. And what I believe is that we should try to provide immediate relief for consumers now. I know that's not easy because the oil companies are pretty powerful, but we've got to start somewhere.

And I think the time to start would be right now to say, let the oil company pay the gas tax out of their excess profits now. Let's set a floor and let's begin to rein them in as well. So there's a lot of work to be done if we're going to get ourselves out of this energy dilemma that we're in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Senator Hillary Clinton talking about her energy plan. We are also keeping a close eye on what is happening in Sedona, Arizona, that is where Senator John McCain is holding kind of a weekend party, a retreat, a barbecue with a group of friends, some couples there.

But a lot of people looking at his guests and looking very, very closely. Many of them speculating that perhaps they could be the choice, the number two choice, the VP choice and be asked to join his ticket. We'll have more of that after this very brief break when BALLOT BOWL continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter Burks, he was really not only one of my best friends, but he was very responsible, very trustworthy person. He was a very big patriot. He said, I'm a soldier, my country demands of me to go to Iraq to fight for freedom, so this is my duty to serve my country. I just wished there were more guys like Pete in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Families speaking out about their loved ones on this Memorial Day weekend as CNN pays tribute to veterans. I'm Mary Snow in Sedona, Arizona, you are watching BALLOT BOWL.

And here in beautiful Sedona, Arizona, Senator John McCain with his family has a ranch. He is not having a public schedule but certainly there's a lot of focus on the high profile Republicans attending the McCain's ranch this weekend because on the guest list, three individuals seen as potential running mates.

Now the McCain campaign has said over and over, this is really just a social gathering but it hasn't stopped the speculation. Attending this weekend is Governor Mitt Romney, a former presidential rival of Senator John McCain and the former Massachusetts governor. Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, who is seen as helping Senator McCain in the primary when he had an 11th hour endorsement.

And another Republican seen as a rising star, Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor. One of our affiliates, WWL in Louisiana caught up with the Louisiana governor before he headed here to Arizona to ask about the weekend. Let's take a little listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: I'm flattered my name made that list. I'm honored to have gotten an invitation to spend some social time here. The Senator and his folks have made it very clear that this weekend is a social weekend. It has nothing to do with the vice presidential process. I take them at their word. I absolutely believe that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: That was Bobby Jindal attending Senator McCain's outing this weekend. And also attending is Senator Joe Lieberman. He is a close friend of Senator McCain and has been working to help him try and get elected. Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas.

And while the McCain campaign has said it is not talking about the VP process, there was one mention today in "The Hill," the Capitol Hill newspaper saying that Arthur Culvahouse, he is a former Reagan administration official, legal counsel, has been named to head the VP search. Now the McCain campaign had no comment on that saying it doesn't talk about the VP process and even an adviser was quoted in that article saying John McCain is in charge of that VP search.

But certainly a lot of focus on who will be Senator McCain's number two and also the qualities that will be needed. Certainly age has been one of the topics that has been repeatedly raised since Senator McCain is 71 and would be the oldest first term American president if he's elected.

Later on, we're going to take a look at the health records that were released. But also yesterday late in the day came a bit of a surprise and a reversal. Cindy McCain releasing her 2006 tax returns. And why this is noteworthy is because she had said earlier this month that she would never release her tax returns, saying that she had separate assets from her husband and for 28 years they had filed their tax returns separately. But the campaign says that she did not want this to be a distraction because there had been a lot of criticism and a lot of pressure to make these public.

What came out was a summary, it was not a detailed account of Cindy McCain's wealth which is said to be over $100 million by some estimates in published reports. What this tax return showed is that she had earned over $6 million last year and paid about $1.7 million in taxes. Cindy McCain is an heiress of her family's beer distribution company. This in order to disclosure hoping to quell some of the criticism about the lack of transparency. The Democrats hopped on this right away saying that it was laughable, that there was not enough disclosed by the McCain campaign.

Cindy McCain also saying that she is -- or the campaign saying that they will release her 2007 returns. She had filed for an extension, when they become available. This is all part of the some of the news that has been coming out, even though Senator McCain has no public events starting yesterday through Monday. We're going to be taking a closer look again at his health records. But right now, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to go live to Puerto Rico and take a closer look at the Democratic race now in Puerto Rico.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)