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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Settlement Reached in O'Reilly Case; Kerry, Bush Attack Each Other
Aired October 28, 2004 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
Breaking news in the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case. No court, no tapes. A settlement has been reached.
360 starts now.
Five days left. Kerry leans on the Boss and bashes Bush on Iraq. The president says Kerry's the wrong man for the wrong time.
What's wrong with this presidential photo? Duplicate troops? An honest mistake, or media manipulation? We'll have the real story.
Rudy Giuliani ignites a war of words. The Kerry camp says he's denigrating our troops. The Bush camp says, Stop playing politics with American soldiers.
Yasser Arafat in serious condition. He'll fly to France for medical attention. Tonight, CNN's Christiane Amanpour has the latest from Arafat's compound.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
COOPER: Good evening again.
We begin with breaking news. An all-out settlement in the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case. His lawsuit claiming his associate producer, Andrea Mackris, was just trying to extort money from him, gone. Her lawsuit, alleging the top-rated Fox News anchor harassed her, gone.
Tonight, questions, not many answers. Who gets what? And did Mackris really have O'Reilly on tape talking dirty? And did that factor into the settlement?
CNN's Adaora Udoji joins us with breaking details. Adaora?
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Anderson, this has literally broken in the last half an hour or so. It's probably hard to argue that there hasn't been a case only two years old that has gotten as much attention and grabbed as many headlines as this one involving Bill O'Reilly. As Anderson just mentioned, there was a bitter accusations going back and forth between him and one of his employees, an associate producer, Andrea Mackris. In fact, he, O'Reilly was claiming it was a politically driven plot that Mackris was trying to extort $60 million from him and Fox News. He also claims she was trying to ruin his career.
Bitter accusations, including charges that Mackris taped conversations between the two of them.
Whatever the case, Anderson, we have confirmed tonight, on the eve of a scheduled court hearing, the two sides have settled. A source close to the case released this statement to CNN. We're going to take a look at that.
And it says, "The parties regret that this matter has caused tremendous pain, and they have agreed to settle. All cases and claims have been withdrawn, and all parties have agreed there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Mackris, or Ms. Mackris's counsel, Benedict Morelli and Associates. We now withdraw any assertion that any extortion by Ms. Mackris, Mr. Morelli, or Morelli and Associates, occurred. Out of respect for the families and privacy, all parties and their representatives have agreed that all information relating to the cases shall remain confidential."
So Anderson, at this point, it looks like Bill O'Reilly facing, no longer facing sexual harassment suit, and Andrea Mackris no longer facing an extortion suit.
COOPER: There had been a court case scheduled for tomorrow, there had already been a court case that was scheduled for last Friday. There was a delay in that, it was rescheduled to this Friday. The supposition Lisa Bloom of Court TV had made on this program was that talks were under way. Clearly talks were under way, as there has been some sort of a settlement. What were they going to do in court tomorrow?
UDOJI: Absolutely, Anderson. There was frenzied speculation all week of a settlement. Tomorrow's hearing was specifically about tapes, whether or not there were any tapes that existed of conversations between Bill O'Reilly and his associate producer, Andrea Mackris. Now, O'Reilly and Fox lawyers had argued they believed that in her complaint against Bill O'Reilly, some of the sections, the conversations that she was attributing to Bill O'Reilly, they read like a transcript. And so they believe they were tapes, and they wanted the court to force Andrea Mackris and her lawyer to...
COOPER: Right, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) clear...
UDOJI: ... come and explain it...
COOPER: ... there were tapes of some sort. Obviously we will (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UDOJI: Well, they were never very clear about that. COOPER: Right. Well, they said either there, I mean, it was either there were tapes, or this woman had a remarkable, you know, photographic memory, because in those transcript, it had every sort of, you know, stutter and everything...
UDOJI: Right, "Um" and "Uh."
COOPER: ... that he was alleged to have made. Anyway, we're going to cover, continue this a little bit later on in the program with several attorneys looking at the case. Adaora Udoji, thanks for breaking the story.
Moving on to more important matters, politics. The polls open around 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, and that means there are now about 85 hours to go. It is getting pretty interesting, isn't it? On the campaign trail today, you had an rock star turned activist, an astronaut turned senator, tomorrow, the action hero turned governor. Quite a road show, all in all.
Covering the big top of campaign for us are John King with the president, and Candy Crowley, with whom we begin tonight in the Kerry camp. Candy?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, you took the words right out of my mouth, because, you know, sometimes very popular politicians are referred to as rock stars. But we just flipped that on its head today, and we had a rock star in the place of a politician.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): If ever there was a time to do it up, the time is now. Ladies and gentlemen, the Boss.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (singing): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) right way, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) every morning with the words each day.
CROWLEY: Kerry aides say Bruce Springsteen sings about the people the senator talks about. All Kerry was missing Thursday was the guitar and a tune.
SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... people who are in the middle class struggling to get ahead, people who play by the rules, pay their taxes, get up in the morning, go to work, try to find work.
SPRINGSTEEN (singing): Mister, I ain't a boy. No, I'm a man, and I believe in a promised land.
CROWLEY: Besides being on message, Springsteen can generate enthusiasm, which is to say, he packs the house.
SPRINGSTEEN: Well, looks like Senator Kerry draws a pretty good crowd, doesn't it?
CROWLEY: Kerry's message was yet another whack on the missing ammo. The facts are unclear, but Kerry flogs it, as an aide explained. It's a metaphor for all things Bush.
KERRY: And now, George Bush's shifting explanations, an effort to blame everybody except themselves, is evidence that he believes the buck stops anywhere but with the president.
CROWLEY: This was not a day about the message, it was about the messenger, a job John Kerry was oh, so happy to outsource for a while.
KERRY: I may be running for president of the United States, but we all know who the real Boss is, right?
When George Bush heard that the Boss was playing with me and was going to be with me today, he thought they meant Dick Cheney.
CROWLEY: A good time was had by all, and we do mean all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: The truth is, the Kerry campaign didn't want to make much news today. When asked if the senator would, as usual, give local interviews to some of the stations here, one aide replied, Nope, we've already got our pictures, Anderson.
COOPER: Candy Crowley, thanks for that, in Columbus.
As we say, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be on hand tomorrow to pump the president up. No girlie man he. Today, though, in a couple of states, Mr. Bush did his own heavy lifting. CNN senior White House correspondent John King reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saginaw, Michigan, five days out. Festive confetti after a closing appeal that ran 44 minutes, leadership the dominant theme. Four short seconds, the president's first line of defense.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Senator Kerry will say anything to get elected.
KING: As Mr. Bush moved on to Ohio, the day's major flash point was again Iraq, and 380 tons of missing explosives. Senator Kerry says bad planning by the president is to blame. Mr. Bush says it's not clear what happened.
BUSH: A president needs to get all the facts before jumping to politically motivated conclusions.
KING: In Wisconsin, the vice president upped the ante.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, frankly, I think it's a cheap shot, and I personally believe that it says something about the character of the man who would make it.
KING: And a new Bush TV ad reinforced the say-anything theme.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC. AD)
ANNOUNCER: Now he claims he will always support our military. The same Kerry who voted against $87 billion for our troops in combat in the war on terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The bruising rhetoric is a rebuttal to Senator Kerry's portrayal of the president as so stubbornly and ideologically wedded to his positions that he won't admit mistakes even when the evidence is overwhelming. Mr. Bush hopes memories of 9/11 make his the more convincing case.
BUSH: I've learned to expect the unexpected. History can deliver sudden harm from a soft autumn sky. I found you better know what you believe, or you risk being tossed to and for by the flattery of friends or the chorus of the critics.
KING: Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, was the president's final stop, and a critical pocket in the fight for Pennsylvania.
(on camera): Now, Bush aides for months have said they would be thrilled if security and leadership are the major debating points in the closing days of the campaign. But the ferocity with which they're responding to Senator Kerry's attacks also suggests more than a hint of nervousness.
Now, Anderson, no rock stars with the president today. We did just have some pretty cool fireworks, Anderson.
COOPER: And you got a band playing right now. All right, John King, thanks very much.
Lot of concern, of course, about the fairness of these elections. Here's a quick news note. The Justice Department is going to send more than 1,000 monitors to polling places in 86 jurisdictions. Now, that's three times as many as were dispatched just four years ago. Eight hundred and forty of the monitors are specially trained observers from the Office of Personnel Management, and 250 will be attorneys from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
Now, they're going to be sent to polling places in 25 states, from Alaska to California and Florida, with instructions immediately to report possible discrimination to a central Justice Department command center in Washington.
What a week it's going to be.
Tonight, there is a tape we want to tell you about. It's a tape apparently made by someone wanting to do us all harm, a terrorist who rails against America and threatens all of us. The threats, of course, are not new. The man's identity is not known. And, frankly, all day we've wrestled with whether or not to show you this tape. But it is already a tape that is become embroiled in a small way in coverage of presidential politics, and so we think the story is worth telling. Joining us live in Washington with more is CNN national security correspondent David Ensor. David?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, on this tape, on the face of it, quite alarming. A man who calls himself Azzam (ph) the American speaks in English, the first time on an alleged al Qaeda tape that that was done. And warns that there could be additional large-scale al Qaeda attacks at -- against this country at any moment.
Now, the CIA has done a technical analysis of this tape, and U.S. intelligence officials say they cannot authenticate whether this is the real thing, or whether this is a hoax. They do point out that the graphics and the logo on the tape are the same as some of those that have been released by al Qaeda.
Here is a sampling of what Azzam the American has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZZAM THE AMERICAN: People of America, I remind you of the weighty words of our leaders, Sheikh Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al- Zawahiri, that what took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America, and that, Allah willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Now, this tape was first obtained in Pakistan over the weekend by ABC News. They gave copies to the FBI and CIA, which, as I mentioned, have not been able to authenticate whether it's really an al Qaeda tape or not. And although there is that logo there that is similar to some tapes al Qaeda has released in the past, one U.S. official noted, that logo could be copied.
So they really are not sure whether this is the real thing or not, but it could be. And if it is, it's rather chilling, Anderson.
COOPER: Well, David, I just want to clarify, I mean, this is basically some guy in a room somewhere, who just made a tape, and, you know, he dressed up in a headdress and he got a rifle. I mean, we don't know anything about this guy. He could be a guy just in some garage in Pakistan, for all we know.
ENSOR: That's right. I mean, the tape was obtained in Waziristan, which is the, you know, one, the area along the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and Ayman al- Zawahiri are thought to be hiding. And apparently ABC News believes that it may have come from al Qaeda itself. But they aren't sure. The U.S. government certainly isn't sure. And there are some who suspect this could be coming out now as an effort by somebody to influence the U.S. election.
So, it may not be the real thing, and just -- we really have to caution people. COOPER: Because I read, I mean, it is presidential, you know, a presidential election week, and I read in "The Washington Post" today Howard Kurtz's column, that Brian -- according to Howard Kurtz, Brian Ross, who's the reporter from ABC, I guess, who broke this story, or received the tape in some way, felt was concerned that it had been -- information about the tape had been leaked for political reasons to pressure ABC to air this tape.
ENSOR: Yes. Well, the tape was delivered to government officials at the CIA and FBI, and presumably the word got out to, you know, political appointees around the government that these tapes existed. In fact, we understand that copies of the tapes have been given to 13 present and former officials in the U.S. government. So that makes it easy for leaks to occur, and it looks as if that is what happened.
COOPER: All right. David Ensor, appreciate your reporting on the tape. Thanks.
Still looking for a flu shot, are you? Well, 5 million new doses of the vaccine could be on the way.
That tops our look at what's happening right now cross-country.
In Washington, federal health officials say the extra flu shots have been found by manufacturers in Germany and Canada. The FDA is sending inspectors to the plans to make sure now the doses are safe before they are shipped to the U.S. Not a bad idea, that.
Los Angeles, California, to protect and videotape. In January, the LAPD will put five surveillance cameras on Hollywood Boulevard, hoping they'll deter crime. Eventually, there will be 64 cameras throughout the city. The ACLU calls the move, quote, "really disturbing."
San Diego now. Stay out of the smelly water. About 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage, oy, spilled into the Pacific Ocean. three water treatment plants couldn't handle the double flow of water during heavy rains yesterday.
Further north now, Toluca Lake, California, a dog's rescue. Take a look at here. Bruno, a golden Lab, was airlifted from the rain- swollen Los Angeles River yesterday. Firefighters also carried Bear, a border collie, up a ladder onto dry (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- oh, there's Bruno. He's good. Both dogs belong to the same family -- sorry for the dog reaction -- which installed a microchip in Bear, and that helped get the dogs back home. So some good news there.
That's a look at stories cross-country tonight.
So are you ready for the 360 challenge? Because later in the program, we're going to ask you three questions that test your knowledge of today's news. Now, if you're watching the program closely, following current events, you should be able to get them all, although it is tough tonight. If you're the first to e-mail us all three correct answers, we'll send you a 360 T-shirt. Stay tuned, the challenge is coming up.
Also tonight, doctored photo on the campaign trail? Who Photoshopped in these loyal soldiers? An interesting development.
This, plus Bill O'Reilly settles his sexual harassment suit. We'll have the details of the last-minute maneuver.
Also tonight, Bill Clinton under the knife. He shares a vision he had during heart surgery. An interesting vision, this. You'll hear it from himself.
Plus, well, all that ahead. Let's take a look at your picks right now, most popular stories on CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And this just in to CNN, a development in the Halliburton investigation. Sources tell CNN that the FBI has asked to interview an Army Corps of Engineer contractor about the no-bid contract she says her agency awarded a subsidiary of Halliburton. That interview has yet to take place. The inquiry expands the investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq. Halliburton dismisses the development.
Back to the campaign now, and the images on which it thrives. The good news is that digital photography makes almost anything possible. That's also the bad news. Seeing and believing are not the same any more.
Here's a case in point from CNN's Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC. AD)
BUSH: ... sacrifice, we're defeating the terrorists...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Bush ad features a still photograph of soldiers, apparently listening to President Bush. But as the blog DailyKos.com first noticed, if you look closely, you see the same small groups of soldiers repeatedly. The Bush campaign initially denied that there had been any manipulation of the image, but now acknowledges it was changed from this, a photograph taken at Fort Drum, New York, in July of 2002.
KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH CAMPAIGN MANAGER: In the bottom left-hand corner, the presidential podium blocked some people, and that part of the podium was removed, and some pictures of some additional soldiers were put back in.
MESERVE: Mark McKinnon, media adviser to the Bush campaign, says it was an unauthorized change made by an editor, that there was no attempt or need to deceive, that the crowd was impressive and real that day.
Computer programs make changing a photograph as simple and quick as moving a mouse. And it's been done before. For instance, two photographs of John Kerry and Jane Fonda were famously merged into one widely distributed faked image.
The Kerry campaign is pouncing on the changes in the Bush picture, issuing a statement saying, "If they won't tell the truth in an ad, they won't tell the truth about anything else. This doctored commercial is fundamentally dishonest and insults the intelligence of the American people." It goes on to say, "Unless George Bush has changed its position on human cloning, it's got to pull this fundamentally dishonest ad immediately."
(on camera): The Bush campaign has pulled it, but after the offending image is replaced, they say, the ad will be right back on the air.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, these past couple days have given us plenty to talk about. We're sure here hear it more before Tuesday. As always, we like to get both sides of the presidential race. In a few moments, we'll talk with Kerry campaign senior adviser Joe Lockhart.
But first, White House communications director Dan Bartlett joins me now from the White House. Good to see you tonight.
Dan, good to see you tonight.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: You too.
COOPER: I got to start by asking you about this news just in to CNN about a law enforcement (UNINTELLIGIBLE) force telling CNN the FBI has made a formal request to interview an Army Corps of Engineer chief contracting officer about, she says there was a no-bid contract for Halliburton. Should also point out that the senior law enforcement official insists no federal investigation whatsoever, the White House or Vice President Cheney, who obviously used to head Halliburton.
Do you have any comment on this?
BARTLETT: Well, that's the first we learned of it ourselves. As they said, there's no involvement of the White House or any officials in the White House, including the vice president. And we've said all along, this investigation necessary, when you get to the facts, make sure the facts come out. But the White House itself is not involved in this. It is being handled by the Department of Justice and law enforcement officials.
COOPER: There are some who are saying in the last couple days that the Bush camp has kind of stumbled. I mean, first, not responding, they said, fast enough, or the president not responding fast enough to Kerry allegations about these missing explosives in Iraq. And now, this odd story of the doctored photo. What do you make of what, what's going on?
BARTLETT: Oh, I think that's a little bit of hype by the other side. The bottom line is, on the fact about the explosives, what President Bush has demonstrated and what John Kerry has failed to do is wait for the facts to come out. And that's what happens when you have a strategy like they have, and that is, to kind of grasp from headline to headline to try to attack the president.
They are not closing their campaign on a positive message, that John Kerry can offer a vision and plan for the future. All they're doing is trying to attack President Bush every single day, grasping at any headline they can find. What we thought was more important is to wait to see what really happened. And now we're finding more and more information that's demonstrating that this stuff might have actually been moved before the fall of Saddam Hussein.
We just don't know. But that hasn't stopped John Kerry. So actually, I think that story's going to backfire on Senator Kerry himself, because it demonstrates the weakness of his strategy coming down the stretch.
Ken Mehlman came onto your program, or the earlier program on CNN, and told you that we had no idea about this with the ad. It's being fixed. Again, I think these are just Democrat spinmeisters going at it. That's what you expect during the end of the campaign.
But what's really happening out there is, President Bush has consistently had a national lead in all the polls, and demonstrates the support he is gaining here in the final days of this campaign. The crowds are huge, no rock stars necessary for his big crowds, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: Let me ask you...
BARTLETT: ... that's why he's going to finish strong.
COOPER: Let me ask you about this, because earlier in the week, when President Clinton campaigned for Senator Kerry, you said this, on October 24, quote, "The fact that John Kerry's going to roll him off the surgery table and onto the campaign trail demonstrates a revealing aspect, that he's underperforming with key parts of his own constituency."
Now we see President Bush marching out Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tommy Franks was on the trail today, even his dad. I mean, would you say the same thing about President Bush? Does, is this a sign of weakness?
BARTLETT: Well, the big difference is, is that Governor Schwarzenegger and those folks are coming out that'll reach out to independents and reach out to people not a part of our party. The difference is, is, Bill Clinton is being used in Philadelphia in a part where a Democrat should already be performing quite well. And he's coming there to try to shore up support in a part of the Democratic Party John Kerry should already be doing well in. And I think that's the critical difference in this. Everybody's going to have big guns out there helping them during the stretch, the last stretch of the campaign. But if you look at exactly where they're having to try to spend most of their time, it's two places. It's in states that Al Gore won in 2000, meaning we're on offense. And it's with key constituencies within his own party that he should have already had locked away.
COOPER: Dan, appreciate you joining us. We're going to have Joe Lockhart on in a moment. We'll be right back.
BARTLETT: Right.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, earlier I spoke with White House communications director Dan Bartlett on 360. We give all sides.
Now joining me from Washington, Kerry campaign senior adviser, Joe Lockhart.
Joe, good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
JOE LOCKHART, SENIOR KERRY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Oh, glad to be here.
COOPER: I got to ask you first about this story just in to CNN, I don't know if you saw it, about the Halliburton and the FBI. I assume that's something we're probably going to be hearing a lot about from Senator Kerry.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, I expect there will be some discussion of it. We've been saying for months that there was something wrong with the way that the Pentagon had awarded these contracts, $7 billion in one of them with no bidding process at all. The White House had sort of pushed back on that, saying that, you know, we were just hurling irresponsible charges.
Well, it is their Justice Department that's now doing a criminal investigation of Halliburton, you know, and the government. That's the most important part. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: We should point out -- should point out, a senior law enforcement official tells CNN there is no federal investigation whatsoever the White House or Vice President Dick Cheney.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, you know, but they are looking at the Pentagon, and this is -- the commander in chief likes to talk about where the buck stops, so it stops with him. And, you know, we'll just have to see how this plays out.
COOPER: Joe, you know, what we're hearing from the Bush camp a lot the last couple days is that you guys are basically just lurching from headline to headline, grabbing whatever you can, to, you know, to score a few points in these waning days. Is that a fair critique? LOCKHART: Well, it's a very interesting critique of some group that is very much on the defensive. We're not grabbing at headlines. Let's look at the facts here for a second. The administration has known this for as many as 17 months, that these explosives were missing. They had no intention of sharing that information with the American public before the election. They were holding back this information for political purposes.
Now, "The New York Times" broke the story. We think this is a legitimate story, because the president has asked us, Have I made this country safer? Well, the answer is no. We are less safe when terrorists, instead of U.N. weapons inspectors, are in control of 380 tons of high-grade explosives.
COOPER: Well, the, you know, the, the counter to that, the Republicans say, is, Well, look, you guys are long on criticism, short on actual solutions.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, I think what we've said all along is, knowing what we know now, that it was the wrong decision to go in and invade Iraq knowing that they had no weapons of mass destruction, knowing that they had no connection to 9/11, and knowing that they weren't an imminent threat. That's the difference between John Kerry and George Bush.
And you have to ask yourself, are we safer when we had a weakened and contained Saddam Hussein in Iraq, or when we have terrorists and insurgents, with all sorts of weapons at their control, attacking our troops on average of 87 times a day?
COOPER: Joe, your candidate's spending a lot of time in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico, all states Al Gore won in 2000. That doesn't seem to be a good sign.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, I think those states are close. I'm confident we're going to win each and every one of those. I think if you look at the president's schedule, he's spending a lot of time in Ohio and Florida, two states that he won last time, two states that we're confident we're going to win. We're ahead in both. We're ahead in those states that you just mentioned.
But listen, you know, this is a close election. We're going to go and work for every last vote. We're going to be in and out of those states over the next five days. They're going to see John Kerry every night on their local news, making our case about, you know, a fresh start in Iraq and a fresh start for Americans, middle-class Americans, here at home.
COOPER: Close indeed, 48-48, 48 to 48, according to "The L.A. Times" in Pennsylvania, a state Al Gore won in 2000 as well. Joe, good to talk to you. Thanks for being on the program.
LOCKHART: Thanks.
COOPER: "Fast Fact" on those political add you keep seeing, more than 750,000 TV spots dealing with the presidential race are expected to have aired by election day. Seven Hundred and fifty thousand, that's almost twice as many as just four years ago.
Well, could it really come down to this, after months and months campaigning, millions and millions of dollars spent, more than a billion, could the outcome of Tuesday's election rest on whatever happens in the next few days?
Apparently the candidates think so or else they wouldn't be campaigning as hard as they have been, particularly in those infamous battle ground states. You heard about their last-minute blitz earlier this hour, but is the strategy working?
CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): The map is getting clearer. Right now, according to various polls, 28 states seem likely to vote for George W. Bush, they total 233 electoral votes. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia seem likely to vote for John Kerry, they total 210.
That leaves six states where the campaigning has been nonstop. Three big swing states, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CHMN. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think we're going to win Florida. I think as we move through Ohio, Pennsylvania and the big states start coming in, that, you know, we're going to have an electoral college victory.
SCHNEIDER: But Florida looks problematic for Kerry. Most polls in Florida show Bush leading. Pennsylvania looks better for Kerry, though it's gotten close. Ohio is looking better and better for Kerry.
Add Florida to Bush's total and you get 260. Put Pennsylvania and Ohio in the Kerry column and the Democrats have 251, both short of the 270 electoral votes you need to win.
What now, three smaller swing states, all in the upper Midwest. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
BUSH: Because we're going to carry Wisconsin and win on November the 2nd.
SCHNEIDER: If he does, he does, 270 electoral votes a fair majority. Minnesota would also put Bush over the top. Kerry needs 19 more electoral votes. He has to carry both Wisconsin and Minnesota, no other combination will do it for him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: The electoral arithmetic is telling the candidates go north, eat cheese and learn how to saw, yal, yabetcha.
COOPER: Remember it's Lambeau or Lambert Field. Remember, whatchamacallit. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, News Mexico, I mean, even Pennsylvania, all states Al Gore won in very close races. I mean, Joe Lockhart kind of put a positive spin on it.
What are you seeing there?
SCHNEIDER: You can spin it both ways. Bush says we're on the offensive in states that Gore carried. On the other hand, Gore carried those states and there's a reasonable likelihood that they have a bias in the Democratic direction. So, a lot of Democrats say Minnesota. Minnesota is going to go for Bush, forget it, it hasn't gone Republican since 1972.
COOPER: All right. Bill Schneider, we'll be watching. Thanks, Bill.
Well, Yasser Arafat heading to Paris for medical tests.
That tops our look at global stories in the "Uplink." Ramallah, the West Bank, Arafat is expected to head to Paris earlier tomorrow. This is the shot we got of him early today, via Jordan. His first trip outside his compound in more than two years, if you can believe it. Aids, say the Palestinian Authority president is very sick, suffering from a blood platelet deficiency. Doctors aren't sure why.
Baghdad, Iraq now, one of the world's largest aid groups is moving out, CARE International says it's going to working in Iraq and today pleaded to Islamic kidnappers to free one of its workers, the head of the program has kidnapped. Just yesterday, hundreds marched through the Baghdad streets pushing for Margaret Hassan's release. Hassan, has lived in Iraq for 30 years and she was kidnapped on her way to work last week.
Flores, Indonesia now, prehistoric discovery. Scientists has discovered the bones of a new human species, some of who were just three feet tall. Researchers say, the so called Flores man lived at least 12,000 years ago. And their brains were about the quarter of the size of those of homo sapiens. Whether the species interacted with modern man is unknown.
That's tonight "Uplink."
Coming up next, Bill O'Reilly settles. Find out how he kept the sexual harassment case out of court.
Also tonight, Bill Clinton's heart surgery. Hear from the former president about the vision he said he had while under the knife. Covering all the angles stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight in "Justice Served," the sensational Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case has been settled. How, why and for how much, we don't know. Both sides have entered the no details whatsoever zone.
O'Reilly's attorney Ronald Green released this statement a short while ago saying, "The parties regret this matter has caused tremendous pain and they have agreed to settle. All cases and claims have been withdrawn and all parties have agreed there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Mackris or Ms. Mackris' counsel, Benedict P. Morelli and Associates. We know withdraw any assertion that any extortion by Ms. Mackris, Mr. Morelli, or Morelli and Associates occurred. Out of respect for their families and privacy all parties and their representatives have agreed that all information related to the cases shall remain confidential."
Joining me now to discuss the case, Court TV anchor, Lisa Bloom.
And in Los Angeles, employment litigator, Debra Opri, who defended James Brown on harassment charges with success.
Appreciate both of you being with us.
Lisa, let's start off with you, what do you make of this?
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: Well, a lot of unanswered questions. First of all, this is the statement from Ron Green, he's the attorney for Fox News and O'Reilly. This is not a statement from the Mackris and Morelli side, presumably that's forth coming. But it's odd that he'd be speaking for everyone. But taking it at face value a lot of unanswered questions, Anderson.
As you point out, number one, what was dollar amount?
We'll probably never know that.
What about Andrea Mackris' employment? Technically, she's still an employee of Fox News. Will she be showing up for work tomorrow? I doubt that. I'm sure that O'Reilly is keeping his job and she probably have to force to resign as part of the settlement.
COOPER: Deborah, you've experience in this. You've read the statement, what do you make of it?
DEBRA OPRI, EMPLOYMENT LITIGATOR: Well, let's put it this way, everyone had a reputation that was being harmed, Bill O'Reilly was suffering the most. Were there tapes, maybe. Were there comments that rose to the level of unlawful conduct, probably not. Will Ms. Mackris move on in her life and get the apartment she wanted, yes. Was she really a victim here, probably not. Was Bill O'Reilly smart, was Fox smart to settle, of course. Lets move on, it's election week. The minimum press coverage will be this week. And I think all parties were very smart to do it immediately.
BLOOM: I don't know if it's fair to say Bill O'Reilly suffered the most. I mean, Andrea Mackris is probably out of work and her reputation was smeared repeatedly in the press by leaks probably coming from the..
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: Including this leak that you just repeated about her wanting an apartment. I mean, that's not substantiated. What we do know is that she was right...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I'm sorry. Wait. I'm sorry to interrupt, I just want to let you know that we just received a statement, I think, from -- from actually from Andrea Mackris and this -- the background on it a CNN producer was shooting -- I literally just got handed this. Was shooting some video of Andrea Mackris. The following exchange on tape occurred between herself and Mackris as she entered her apartment in Manhattan. Mackris, says it's over and I'm happy. The question from the producer, are you happy with the terms of the settlement?
Mackris, I can't say anything more. I appreciate everyone involved.
OPRI: Let me just say this, Lisa, I respect your position as a victim's right advocate. I'm a victim's right advocate and I also defend companies and defendants for sexual harassment in the companies. However, this is not the case to hang your hat on because I don't think by far she should be the motto for victims. She was not a victim here.
COOPER: And you say that because why? Why do you say that?
OPRI: Listen, she was going to sink Bill O'Reilly. She was going to write a tell-all book.
BLOOM: Now, how do you know that?
OPRI: She recorded conversations. She went out to dinner with him. She engaged in telephone conversations willingly.
BLOOM: No, you just don't know that.
(CROSSTALK)
OPRI: Stop interrupting, Lisa. Let me finish a statement, please.
BLOOM: But now we'll never know, because there is a settlement...
OPRI: We will never know...
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: ... which way the facts turn out, because there is a settlement. These are just allegations.
COOPER: Debra?
OPRI: Are you done? Thank you.
First of all, victim's rights have to go with the company policies. Victim's rights show that she should have properly reported it to the company, and she didn't. Everybody is going to argue her to be a linchpin for victims. She's not. This woman, in my opinion, could very well have been the representative to show how to entrap people, and, you know, this will be a litmus test for future litigants, that, you know, don't get reported.
COOPER: Lisa?
BLOOM: Yeah, the problem with the settlement, Anderson, is it's so unsatisfying from the public point of view. We'll never know if she had the tapes, what was...
COOPER: You mean from a salacious TV point of view.
BLOOM: Well, no...
OPRI: That's absolutely what she's saying.
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: I think sexual harassment cases are very important. The position of women in the workplace is very...
OPRI: And I think...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Debra, let Lisa finish.
BLOOM: I think the position of women in the workplace is very important, and her claims were very serious...
OPRI: This is the wrong case to hang your hat on, Lisa.
BLOOM: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of obscene phone calls that Bill O'Reilly made. We will never know if that's true. We'll never know if she insisted on $60 million...
OPRI: This is the wrong case to hang your hat on.
BLOOM: ... or if she was going to make this public, his extortion claims. Ultimately, it's just a settlement. Maybe ultimately we'll find out what the terms are, like we did in the Michael Jackson -- probably not.
OPRI: This is not the case to hang your hat on.
COOPER: Lisa Bloom, Debra Opri, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.
OPRI: Thanks.
COOPER: Coming up next on 360, U.S. troops under attack on the campaign trail? It's rare, and it is definitely "Raw Politics."
Also tonight, Bill Clinton sees death, he says, both darkness and light. The former president talks candidly about his heart surgery.
And the candidates living la vida loca. Even if you're not a big fan of "Sabado Gigante" like I am -- I actually am, I watch this every Saturday -- we guarantee you'll be talking about it after tonight. And in a moment, today's 360 "Challenge." How closely have you been following today's news? Find out next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: All right. Are you up to the challenge? Time now for the 360 challenge. Be the first to answer all three questions correctly, we'll send you a 360 T-shirt.
No. 1: Election monitors are being dispatched to polling places in how many states?
No. 2: Approximately how many political TV spots are expected to have aired by Election Day?
And No. 3: Scientists in Indonesia have discovered remains of humans that stood how tall?
Reminder, they were little.
Take the challenge. Log on to cnn.com/360, then click on the answer link. Answer first, we'll send you the shirt. Find out last night's "Challenge" winners and tonight's answers, coming up later on the program.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Former president eight -- former President Clinton, eight years in the White House, 20 years in politics, and tonight he says he feels a bit detached from this election. A fresh perspective; people say major surgery will do that it you. Clinton underwent a quadruple bypass last month. His heart stopped for 73 minutes, and during that time the 58-year-old tells ABC News he saw death. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I saw dark masks crushing -- like death masks being crushed in series, and then I'd see these great circles of light. And then like Hillary's picture or Chelsea's face would appear on the light, and then they'd fly off into the dark -- into the distance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Clinton says while he liked the forced rest, post-op he wishes he could have done a little bit more for John Kerry. Clinton has already hit the trail for Kerry, as you may know, in Florida and Pennsylvania, and plans to hit three more states this weekend.
Well, all this week Senator Kerry has seized on news of the missing explosives in Iraq -- we've talked about that earlier -- to accuse President Bush, once again, for mishandling the war, in his words.
The president is fighting back and got some reinforcement today from none other than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. But in an effort to deflect responsibility from the president, Giuliani seemed to shift it to U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq, perhaps forgetting that some things are still sacred in "Raw Politics." Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): This morning on television, Bush supporter Rudy Giuliani broke a sacrosanct rule in politics. He seemed to criticize U.S. troops over the missing ammunition in Iraq.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: The actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?
COOPER: Giuliani later issued a statement saying he, quote, "wholeheartedly supports our troops." But it was too late. The Kerry camp had already seized on the comments.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is what Rudy did. He blamed the troops. He said, they didn't do their job. He couldn't be more wrong.
COOPER: On the campaign trail where hold your fire zones are rare, the U.S. military is sacred ground, never to be insulted. The last thing candidates want is to be seen criticizing the troops.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: If you are heard to criticize American troops, you're criticizing our brothers, sons, sisters, daughters, husbands, wives. The troops are us.
COOPER: And voters. That's why on the campaign trail, we hear so much of this.
BUSH: We have got a fantastic military.
KERRY: Our troops are doing a heroic job.
COOPER: And see so much of that.
Troops even make it into political ads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our soldiers fighting in Iraq, our heroes.
COOPER: And that's why both camps so often accuse each other of abandoning the U.S. military.
BUSH: The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts.
EDWARDS: Aren't you sick and tired of George Bush and Dick Cheney using our troops as a shield instead of protecting our troops?
COOPER: Using the armed forces to shoot at each other, that is "Raw Politics."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, 360 next, four hours of surreal, wacky fun. Not exactly politics as usual. President Bush and Senator Kerry go after the Latino vote with Don Francisco. Talk about that in "The Current" ahead.
First, The Boss, Bruce Springsteen playing live right now at John Kerry's event at Ohio State University. Let's listen.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In tonight's pop culture "Current," the presidential candidates are appearing on one of the strangest talk shows you've probably never seen. This Saturday President Bush and Senator Kerry will each share the TV screen with a legend known as Don Francisco. He's the host of "Sabado Gigante" the widely popular Spanish language program which I admit I Tivo every Saturday even though I don't speak Spanish. But for this show, you don't really need to.
The candidates know the visit could be a smart political move, but the show is anything but your usual campaign stop. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It's part chat show, part quiz show and part variety show. "Sabado Gigante" which means "Giant Saturday" in Spanish is, well, surreal. Fun, fast-paced, frenetic, and four hours long. It runs from strange segment to even stranger segment. And this weekend it's the place the presidential candidates picked to reach out to Hispanic voters by literally speaking their language. Both George W. Bush and John Kerry. Both George W. Bush and John Kerry taped interviews with the host Don Francisco fielding questions on family values, immigration, amnesty and religion.
DON FRANCISCO, HOST, "SABADO GIGANTE": What our candidates think about our community. We have several problems. How are they going to solve the problem, if they're going to solve the problem and on the other hand, we'd like to show the human part.
COOPER: "Sabado Gigante" might seem like a strange place to make your political case, a show that is all insane style and very little substance. Host Don Francisco is not really a host but an actor Mario Kreutzberger playing a host, often sidling up on the show to some buxom beauty.
But there's more to "Sabado Gigante" than meets the eye. It is the most watched Spanish-language entertainment program in the country airing on Univision a network that reaches 98 percent of Hispanic households in the U.S. And that is what makes it must-do TV for any presidential hopeful.
FRANCISCO: The first message to my viewers is vote. Doesn't matter who you vote, but you have to vote. COOPER: These days savvy politicos know hard news isn't enough. So "Sabado Gigante" is the logical last stop for any candidate battling for that big bloc of voters.
FRANCISCO: I call my show like a soup. You can put more or less ingredients, but it has always a flavor.
COOPER: A flavor both candidates hope will help give them a taste of victory on November 2.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: "Sabado Gigante." 360 next, don't believe everything you see. We'll take photo manipulation to the Nth Degree.
And tomorrow the doctor is in the house. Former presidential candidate Howard Dean joins me to talk about the race as it reaches its final days.
First, the 360 challenge. Here's another look at tonight's questions. Still have time to try to answer them. Election monitors are being dispatched in how many states? How many political TV spots will air by election day? And scientists in Indonesia discovered human remains that stood how tall? If you've been paying attention you should know the answers. We'll give them to you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: All right. Time now for the answers in today's 360 challenge. Election monitors are being dispatched to polling places in how many states? The answer is 25.
Approximately how many political TV spots are expected to air by election day? A remarkable number, 750,000.
Scientists in Indonesia have discovered remains of humans that stood how tall? The answer -- three feet. First person to answer all three questions correctly will be sent a 360 T-shirt. Tune in tomorrow night to find out if you are the winner.
Last night's winner Jason Concel from Athens, Ohio. Appreciate you playing. We have a lot of people playing this game. A lot of people into it. Hope you join in tomorrow night. A 360 T-shirt, Jason, is on the way. Another 360 challenge and another chance to win tomorrow.
Tonight, taking the eye of the beholder to the Nth Degree. So now there's this flap as we told you earlier this evening about a photo the Bush campaign admits it did sort of manipulate just a wee little bit, but only just to remove an obstruction, that's the official explanation. Hey, sounds believable to us. We do it all the time ourselves.
Here, all you can see at first is me standing next to one of those dumpster things all the trash gets thrown into but when you remove the obstruction, it becomes immediately apparent that I was meeting the pope that day. Thank goodness for digital photography, huh?
In this one, the fellow taking the picture did that classic unforgivable thing, he stuck his thumb in front of the lens. Luckily thumbs are easily removed making it possible for you to see me and Spiderman getting ready to climb the side of a skyscraper.
And one more thing. Why do we call them doctored pictures anyway? I mean, you go to a doctor to be cured, not to be falsified. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching 360. Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 28, 2004 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
Breaking news in the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case. No court, no tapes. A settlement has been reached.
360 starts now.
Five days left. Kerry leans on the Boss and bashes Bush on Iraq. The president says Kerry's the wrong man for the wrong time.
What's wrong with this presidential photo? Duplicate troops? An honest mistake, or media manipulation? We'll have the real story.
Rudy Giuliani ignites a war of words. The Kerry camp says he's denigrating our troops. The Bush camp says, Stop playing politics with American soldiers.
Yasser Arafat in serious condition. He'll fly to France for medical attention. Tonight, CNN's Christiane Amanpour has the latest from Arafat's compound.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
COOPER: Good evening again.
We begin with breaking news. An all-out settlement in the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case. His lawsuit claiming his associate producer, Andrea Mackris, was just trying to extort money from him, gone. Her lawsuit, alleging the top-rated Fox News anchor harassed her, gone.
Tonight, questions, not many answers. Who gets what? And did Mackris really have O'Reilly on tape talking dirty? And did that factor into the settlement?
CNN's Adaora Udoji joins us with breaking details. Adaora?
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Anderson, this has literally broken in the last half an hour or so. It's probably hard to argue that there hasn't been a case only two years old that has gotten as much attention and grabbed as many headlines as this one involving Bill O'Reilly. As Anderson just mentioned, there was a bitter accusations going back and forth between him and one of his employees, an associate producer, Andrea Mackris. In fact, he, O'Reilly was claiming it was a politically driven plot that Mackris was trying to extort $60 million from him and Fox News. He also claims she was trying to ruin his career.
Bitter accusations, including charges that Mackris taped conversations between the two of them.
Whatever the case, Anderson, we have confirmed tonight, on the eve of a scheduled court hearing, the two sides have settled. A source close to the case released this statement to CNN. We're going to take a look at that.
And it says, "The parties regret that this matter has caused tremendous pain, and they have agreed to settle. All cases and claims have been withdrawn, and all parties have agreed there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Mackris, or Ms. Mackris's counsel, Benedict Morelli and Associates. We now withdraw any assertion that any extortion by Ms. Mackris, Mr. Morelli, or Morelli and Associates, occurred. Out of respect for the families and privacy, all parties and their representatives have agreed that all information relating to the cases shall remain confidential."
So Anderson, at this point, it looks like Bill O'Reilly facing, no longer facing sexual harassment suit, and Andrea Mackris no longer facing an extortion suit.
COOPER: There had been a court case scheduled for tomorrow, there had already been a court case that was scheduled for last Friday. There was a delay in that, it was rescheduled to this Friday. The supposition Lisa Bloom of Court TV had made on this program was that talks were under way. Clearly talks were under way, as there has been some sort of a settlement. What were they going to do in court tomorrow?
UDOJI: Absolutely, Anderson. There was frenzied speculation all week of a settlement. Tomorrow's hearing was specifically about tapes, whether or not there were any tapes that existed of conversations between Bill O'Reilly and his associate producer, Andrea Mackris. Now, O'Reilly and Fox lawyers had argued they believed that in her complaint against Bill O'Reilly, some of the sections, the conversations that she was attributing to Bill O'Reilly, they read like a transcript. And so they believe they were tapes, and they wanted the court to force Andrea Mackris and her lawyer to...
COOPER: Right, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) clear...
UDOJI: ... come and explain it...
COOPER: ... there were tapes of some sort. Obviously we will (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UDOJI: Well, they were never very clear about that. COOPER: Right. Well, they said either there, I mean, it was either there were tapes, or this woman had a remarkable, you know, photographic memory, because in those transcript, it had every sort of, you know, stutter and everything...
UDOJI: Right, "Um" and "Uh."
COOPER: ... that he was alleged to have made. Anyway, we're going to cover, continue this a little bit later on in the program with several attorneys looking at the case. Adaora Udoji, thanks for breaking the story.
Moving on to more important matters, politics. The polls open around 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, and that means there are now about 85 hours to go. It is getting pretty interesting, isn't it? On the campaign trail today, you had an rock star turned activist, an astronaut turned senator, tomorrow, the action hero turned governor. Quite a road show, all in all.
Covering the big top of campaign for us are John King with the president, and Candy Crowley, with whom we begin tonight in the Kerry camp. Candy?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, you took the words right out of my mouth, because, you know, sometimes very popular politicians are referred to as rock stars. But we just flipped that on its head today, and we had a rock star in the place of a politician.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): If ever there was a time to do it up, the time is now. Ladies and gentlemen, the Boss.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (singing): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) right way, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) every morning with the words each day.
CROWLEY: Kerry aides say Bruce Springsteen sings about the people the senator talks about. All Kerry was missing Thursday was the guitar and a tune.
SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... people who are in the middle class struggling to get ahead, people who play by the rules, pay their taxes, get up in the morning, go to work, try to find work.
SPRINGSTEEN (singing): Mister, I ain't a boy. No, I'm a man, and I believe in a promised land.
CROWLEY: Besides being on message, Springsteen can generate enthusiasm, which is to say, he packs the house.
SPRINGSTEEN: Well, looks like Senator Kerry draws a pretty good crowd, doesn't it?
CROWLEY: Kerry's message was yet another whack on the missing ammo. The facts are unclear, but Kerry flogs it, as an aide explained. It's a metaphor for all things Bush.
KERRY: And now, George Bush's shifting explanations, an effort to blame everybody except themselves, is evidence that he believes the buck stops anywhere but with the president.
CROWLEY: This was not a day about the message, it was about the messenger, a job John Kerry was oh, so happy to outsource for a while.
KERRY: I may be running for president of the United States, but we all know who the real Boss is, right?
When George Bush heard that the Boss was playing with me and was going to be with me today, he thought they meant Dick Cheney.
CROWLEY: A good time was had by all, and we do mean all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: The truth is, the Kerry campaign didn't want to make much news today. When asked if the senator would, as usual, give local interviews to some of the stations here, one aide replied, Nope, we've already got our pictures, Anderson.
COOPER: Candy Crowley, thanks for that, in Columbus.
As we say, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be on hand tomorrow to pump the president up. No girlie man he. Today, though, in a couple of states, Mr. Bush did his own heavy lifting. CNN senior White House correspondent John King reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Saginaw, Michigan, five days out. Festive confetti after a closing appeal that ran 44 minutes, leadership the dominant theme. Four short seconds, the president's first line of defense.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Senator Kerry will say anything to get elected.
KING: As Mr. Bush moved on to Ohio, the day's major flash point was again Iraq, and 380 tons of missing explosives. Senator Kerry says bad planning by the president is to blame. Mr. Bush says it's not clear what happened.
BUSH: A president needs to get all the facts before jumping to politically motivated conclusions.
KING: In Wisconsin, the vice president upped the ante.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, frankly, I think it's a cheap shot, and I personally believe that it says something about the character of the man who would make it.
KING: And a new Bush TV ad reinforced the say-anything theme.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC. AD)
ANNOUNCER: Now he claims he will always support our military. The same Kerry who voted against $87 billion for our troops in combat in the war on terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The bruising rhetoric is a rebuttal to Senator Kerry's portrayal of the president as so stubbornly and ideologically wedded to his positions that he won't admit mistakes even when the evidence is overwhelming. Mr. Bush hopes memories of 9/11 make his the more convincing case.
BUSH: I've learned to expect the unexpected. History can deliver sudden harm from a soft autumn sky. I found you better know what you believe, or you risk being tossed to and for by the flattery of friends or the chorus of the critics.
KING: Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, was the president's final stop, and a critical pocket in the fight for Pennsylvania.
(on camera): Now, Bush aides for months have said they would be thrilled if security and leadership are the major debating points in the closing days of the campaign. But the ferocity with which they're responding to Senator Kerry's attacks also suggests more than a hint of nervousness.
Now, Anderson, no rock stars with the president today. We did just have some pretty cool fireworks, Anderson.
COOPER: And you got a band playing right now. All right, John King, thanks very much.
Lot of concern, of course, about the fairness of these elections. Here's a quick news note. The Justice Department is going to send more than 1,000 monitors to polling places in 86 jurisdictions. Now, that's three times as many as were dispatched just four years ago. Eight hundred and forty of the monitors are specially trained observers from the Office of Personnel Management, and 250 will be attorneys from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
Now, they're going to be sent to polling places in 25 states, from Alaska to California and Florida, with instructions immediately to report possible discrimination to a central Justice Department command center in Washington.
What a week it's going to be.
Tonight, there is a tape we want to tell you about. It's a tape apparently made by someone wanting to do us all harm, a terrorist who rails against America and threatens all of us. The threats, of course, are not new. The man's identity is not known. And, frankly, all day we've wrestled with whether or not to show you this tape. But it is already a tape that is become embroiled in a small way in coverage of presidential politics, and so we think the story is worth telling. Joining us live in Washington with more is CNN national security correspondent David Ensor. David?
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, on this tape, on the face of it, quite alarming. A man who calls himself Azzam (ph) the American speaks in English, the first time on an alleged al Qaeda tape that that was done. And warns that there could be additional large-scale al Qaeda attacks at -- against this country at any moment.
Now, the CIA has done a technical analysis of this tape, and U.S. intelligence officials say they cannot authenticate whether this is the real thing, or whether this is a hoax. They do point out that the graphics and the logo on the tape are the same as some of those that have been released by al Qaeda.
Here is a sampling of what Azzam the American has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZZAM THE AMERICAN: People of America, I remind you of the weighty words of our leaders, Sheikh Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al- Zawahiri, that what took place on September 11 was but the opening salvo of the global war on America, and that, Allah willing, the magnitude and ferocity of what is coming your way will make you forget all about September 11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Now, this tape was first obtained in Pakistan over the weekend by ABC News. They gave copies to the FBI and CIA, which, as I mentioned, have not been able to authenticate whether it's really an al Qaeda tape or not. And although there is that logo there that is similar to some tapes al Qaeda has released in the past, one U.S. official noted, that logo could be copied.
So they really are not sure whether this is the real thing or not, but it could be. And if it is, it's rather chilling, Anderson.
COOPER: Well, David, I just want to clarify, I mean, this is basically some guy in a room somewhere, who just made a tape, and, you know, he dressed up in a headdress and he got a rifle. I mean, we don't know anything about this guy. He could be a guy just in some garage in Pakistan, for all we know.
ENSOR: That's right. I mean, the tape was obtained in Waziristan, which is the, you know, one, the area along the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and Ayman al- Zawahiri are thought to be hiding. And apparently ABC News believes that it may have come from al Qaeda itself. But they aren't sure. The U.S. government certainly isn't sure. And there are some who suspect this could be coming out now as an effort by somebody to influence the U.S. election.
So, it may not be the real thing, and just -- we really have to caution people. COOPER: Because I read, I mean, it is presidential, you know, a presidential election week, and I read in "The Washington Post" today Howard Kurtz's column, that Brian -- according to Howard Kurtz, Brian Ross, who's the reporter from ABC, I guess, who broke this story, or received the tape in some way, felt was concerned that it had been -- information about the tape had been leaked for political reasons to pressure ABC to air this tape.
ENSOR: Yes. Well, the tape was delivered to government officials at the CIA and FBI, and presumably the word got out to, you know, political appointees around the government that these tapes existed. In fact, we understand that copies of the tapes have been given to 13 present and former officials in the U.S. government. So that makes it easy for leaks to occur, and it looks as if that is what happened.
COOPER: All right. David Ensor, appreciate your reporting on the tape. Thanks.
Still looking for a flu shot, are you? Well, 5 million new doses of the vaccine could be on the way.
That tops our look at what's happening right now cross-country.
In Washington, federal health officials say the extra flu shots have been found by manufacturers in Germany and Canada. The FDA is sending inspectors to the plans to make sure now the doses are safe before they are shipped to the U.S. Not a bad idea, that.
Los Angeles, California, to protect and videotape. In January, the LAPD will put five surveillance cameras on Hollywood Boulevard, hoping they'll deter crime. Eventually, there will be 64 cameras throughout the city. The ACLU calls the move, quote, "really disturbing."
San Diego now. Stay out of the smelly water. About 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage, oy, spilled into the Pacific Ocean. three water treatment plants couldn't handle the double flow of water during heavy rains yesterday.
Further north now, Toluca Lake, California, a dog's rescue. Take a look at here. Bruno, a golden Lab, was airlifted from the rain- swollen Los Angeles River yesterday. Firefighters also carried Bear, a border collie, up a ladder onto dry (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- oh, there's Bruno. He's good. Both dogs belong to the same family -- sorry for the dog reaction -- which installed a microchip in Bear, and that helped get the dogs back home. So some good news there.
That's a look at stories cross-country tonight.
So are you ready for the 360 challenge? Because later in the program, we're going to ask you three questions that test your knowledge of today's news. Now, if you're watching the program closely, following current events, you should be able to get them all, although it is tough tonight. If you're the first to e-mail us all three correct answers, we'll send you a 360 T-shirt. Stay tuned, the challenge is coming up.
Also tonight, doctored photo on the campaign trail? Who Photoshopped in these loyal soldiers? An interesting development.
This, plus Bill O'Reilly settles his sexual harassment suit. We'll have the details of the last-minute maneuver.
Also tonight, Bill Clinton under the knife. He shares a vision he had during heart surgery. An interesting vision, this. You'll hear it from himself.
Plus, well, all that ahead. Let's take a look at your picks right now, most popular stories on CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And this just in to CNN, a development in the Halliburton investigation. Sources tell CNN that the FBI has asked to interview an Army Corps of Engineer contractor about the no-bid contract she says her agency awarded a subsidiary of Halliburton. That interview has yet to take place. The inquiry expands the investigation into whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq. Halliburton dismisses the development.
Back to the campaign now, and the images on which it thrives. The good news is that digital photography makes almost anything possible. That's also the bad news. Seeing and believing are not the same any more.
Here's a case in point from CNN's Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC. AD)
BUSH: ... sacrifice, we're defeating the terrorists...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Bush ad features a still photograph of soldiers, apparently listening to President Bush. But as the blog DailyKos.com first noticed, if you look closely, you see the same small groups of soldiers repeatedly. The Bush campaign initially denied that there had been any manipulation of the image, but now acknowledges it was changed from this, a photograph taken at Fort Drum, New York, in July of 2002.
KEN MEHLMAN, BUSH CAMPAIGN MANAGER: In the bottom left-hand corner, the presidential podium blocked some people, and that part of the podium was removed, and some pictures of some additional soldiers were put back in.
MESERVE: Mark McKinnon, media adviser to the Bush campaign, says it was an unauthorized change made by an editor, that there was no attempt or need to deceive, that the crowd was impressive and real that day.
Computer programs make changing a photograph as simple and quick as moving a mouse. And it's been done before. For instance, two photographs of John Kerry and Jane Fonda were famously merged into one widely distributed faked image.
The Kerry campaign is pouncing on the changes in the Bush picture, issuing a statement saying, "If they won't tell the truth in an ad, they won't tell the truth about anything else. This doctored commercial is fundamentally dishonest and insults the intelligence of the American people." It goes on to say, "Unless George Bush has changed its position on human cloning, it's got to pull this fundamentally dishonest ad immediately."
(on camera): The Bush campaign has pulled it, but after the offending image is replaced, they say, the ad will be right back on the air.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, these past couple days have given us plenty to talk about. We're sure here hear it more before Tuesday. As always, we like to get both sides of the presidential race. In a few moments, we'll talk with Kerry campaign senior adviser Joe Lockhart.
But first, White House communications director Dan Bartlett joins me now from the White House. Good to see you tonight.
Dan, good to see you tonight.
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: You too.
COOPER: I got to start by asking you about this news just in to CNN about a law enforcement (UNINTELLIGIBLE) force telling CNN the FBI has made a formal request to interview an Army Corps of Engineer chief contracting officer about, she says there was a no-bid contract for Halliburton. Should also point out that the senior law enforcement official insists no federal investigation whatsoever, the White House or Vice President Cheney, who obviously used to head Halliburton.
Do you have any comment on this?
BARTLETT: Well, that's the first we learned of it ourselves. As they said, there's no involvement of the White House or any officials in the White House, including the vice president. And we've said all along, this investigation necessary, when you get to the facts, make sure the facts come out. But the White House itself is not involved in this. It is being handled by the Department of Justice and law enforcement officials.
COOPER: There are some who are saying in the last couple days that the Bush camp has kind of stumbled. I mean, first, not responding, they said, fast enough, or the president not responding fast enough to Kerry allegations about these missing explosives in Iraq. And now, this odd story of the doctored photo. What do you make of what, what's going on?
BARTLETT: Oh, I think that's a little bit of hype by the other side. The bottom line is, on the fact about the explosives, what President Bush has demonstrated and what John Kerry has failed to do is wait for the facts to come out. And that's what happens when you have a strategy like they have, and that is, to kind of grasp from headline to headline to try to attack the president.
They are not closing their campaign on a positive message, that John Kerry can offer a vision and plan for the future. All they're doing is trying to attack President Bush every single day, grasping at any headline they can find. What we thought was more important is to wait to see what really happened. And now we're finding more and more information that's demonstrating that this stuff might have actually been moved before the fall of Saddam Hussein.
We just don't know. But that hasn't stopped John Kerry. So actually, I think that story's going to backfire on Senator Kerry himself, because it demonstrates the weakness of his strategy coming down the stretch.
Ken Mehlman came onto your program, or the earlier program on CNN, and told you that we had no idea about this with the ad. It's being fixed. Again, I think these are just Democrat spinmeisters going at it. That's what you expect during the end of the campaign.
But what's really happening out there is, President Bush has consistently had a national lead in all the polls, and demonstrates the support he is gaining here in the final days of this campaign. The crowds are huge, no rock stars necessary for his big crowds, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: Let me ask you...
BARTLETT: ... that's why he's going to finish strong.
COOPER: Let me ask you about this, because earlier in the week, when President Clinton campaigned for Senator Kerry, you said this, on October 24, quote, "The fact that John Kerry's going to roll him off the surgery table and onto the campaign trail demonstrates a revealing aspect, that he's underperforming with key parts of his own constituency."
Now we see President Bush marching out Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tommy Franks was on the trail today, even his dad. I mean, would you say the same thing about President Bush? Does, is this a sign of weakness?
BARTLETT: Well, the big difference is, is that Governor Schwarzenegger and those folks are coming out that'll reach out to independents and reach out to people not a part of our party. The difference is, is, Bill Clinton is being used in Philadelphia in a part where a Democrat should already be performing quite well. And he's coming there to try to shore up support in a part of the Democratic Party John Kerry should already be doing well in. And I think that's the critical difference in this. Everybody's going to have big guns out there helping them during the stretch, the last stretch of the campaign. But if you look at exactly where they're having to try to spend most of their time, it's two places. It's in states that Al Gore won in 2000, meaning we're on offense. And it's with key constituencies within his own party that he should have already had locked away.
COOPER: Dan, appreciate you joining us. We're going to have Joe Lockhart on in a moment. We'll be right back.
BARTLETT: Right.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, earlier I spoke with White House communications director Dan Bartlett on 360. We give all sides.
Now joining me from Washington, Kerry campaign senior adviser, Joe Lockhart.
Joe, good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
JOE LOCKHART, SENIOR KERRY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Oh, glad to be here.
COOPER: I got to ask you first about this story just in to CNN, I don't know if you saw it, about the Halliburton and the FBI. I assume that's something we're probably going to be hearing a lot about from Senator Kerry.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, I expect there will be some discussion of it. We've been saying for months that there was something wrong with the way that the Pentagon had awarded these contracts, $7 billion in one of them with no bidding process at all. The White House had sort of pushed back on that, saying that, you know, we were just hurling irresponsible charges.
Well, it is their Justice Department that's now doing a criminal investigation of Halliburton, you know, and the government. That's the most important part. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: We should point out -- should point out, a senior law enforcement official tells CNN there is no federal investigation whatsoever the White House or Vice President Dick Cheney.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, you know, but they are looking at the Pentagon, and this is -- the commander in chief likes to talk about where the buck stops, so it stops with him. And, you know, we'll just have to see how this plays out.
COOPER: Joe, you know, what we're hearing from the Bush camp a lot the last couple days is that you guys are basically just lurching from headline to headline, grabbing whatever you can, to, you know, to score a few points in these waning days. Is that a fair critique? LOCKHART: Well, it's a very interesting critique of some group that is very much on the defensive. We're not grabbing at headlines. Let's look at the facts here for a second. The administration has known this for as many as 17 months, that these explosives were missing. They had no intention of sharing that information with the American public before the election. They were holding back this information for political purposes.
Now, "The New York Times" broke the story. We think this is a legitimate story, because the president has asked us, Have I made this country safer? Well, the answer is no. We are less safe when terrorists, instead of U.N. weapons inspectors, are in control of 380 tons of high-grade explosives.
COOPER: Well, the, you know, the, the counter to that, the Republicans say, is, Well, look, you guys are long on criticism, short on actual solutions.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, I think what we've said all along is, knowing what we know now, that it was the wrong decision to go in and invade Iraq knowing that they had no weapons of mass destruction, knowing that they had no connection to 9/11, and knowing that they weren't an imminent threat. That's the difference between John Kerry and George Bush.
And you have to ask yourself, are we safer when we had a weakened and contained Saddam Hussein in Iraq, or when we have terrorists and insurgents, with all sorts of weapons at their control, attacking our troops on average of 87 times a day?
COOPER: Joe, your candidate's spending a lot of time in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico, all states Al Gore won in 2000. That doesn't seem to be a good sign.
LOCKHART: Well, listen, I think those states are close. I'm confident we're going to win each and every one of those. I think if you look at the president's schedule, he's spending a lot of time in Ohio and Florida, two states that he won last time, two states that we're confident we're going to win. We're ahead in both. We're ahead in those states that you just mentioned.
But listen, you know, this is a close election. We're going to go and work for every last vote. We're going to be in and out of those states over the next five days. They're going to see John Kerry every night on their local news, making our case about, you know, a fresh start in Iraq and a fresh start for Americans, middle-class Americans, here at home.
COOPER: Close indeed, 48-48, 48 to 48, according to "The L.A. Times" in Pennsylvania, a state Al Gore won in 2000 as well. Joe, good to talk to you. Thanks for being on the program.
LOCKHART: Thanks.
COOPER: "Fast Fact" on those political add you keep seeing, more than 750,000 TV spots dealing with the presidential race are expected to have aired by election day. Seven Hundred and fifty thousand, that's almost twice as many as just four years ago.
Well, could it really come down to this, after months and months campaigning, millions and millions of dollars spent, more than a billion, could the outcome of Tuesday's election rest on whatever happens in the next few days?
Apparently the candidates think so or else they wouldn't be campaigning as hard as they have been, particularly in those infamous battle ground states. You heard about their last-minute blitz earlier this hour, but is the strategy working?
CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): The map is getting clearer. Right now, according to various polls, 28 states seem likely to vote for George W. Bush, they total 233 electoral votes. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia seem likely to vote for John Kerry, they total 210.
That leaves six states where the campaigning has been nonstop. Three big swing states, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CHMN. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think we're going to win Florida. I think as we move through Ohio, Pennsylvania and the big states start coming in, that, you know, we're going to have an electoral college victory.
SCHNEIDER: But Florida looks problematic for Kerry. Most polls in Florida show Bush leading. Pennsylvania looks better for Kerry, though it's gotten close. Ohio is looking better and better for Kerry.
Add Florida to Bush's total and you get 260. Put Pennsylvania and Ohio in the Kerry column and the Democrats have 251, both short of the 270 electoral votes you need to win.
What now, three smaller swing states, all in the upper Midwest. Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
BUSH: Because we're going to carry Wisconsin and win on November the 2nd.
SCHNEIDER: If he does, he does, 270 electoral votes a fair majority. Minnesota would also put Bush over the top. Kerry needs 19 more electoral votes. He has to carry both Wisconsin and Minnesota, no other combination will do it for him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: The electoral arithmetic is telling the candidates go north, eat cheese and learn how to saw, yal, yabetcha.
COOPER: Remember it's Lambeau or Lambert Field. Remember, whatchamacallit. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, News Mexico, I mean, even Pennsylvania, all states Al Gore won in very close races. I mean, Joe Lockhart kind of put a positive spin on it.
What are you seeing there?
SCHNEIDER: You can spin it both ways. Bush says we're on the offensive in states that Gore carried. On the other hand, Gore carried those states and there's a reasonable likelihood that they have a bias in the Democratic direction. So, a lot of Democrats say Minnesota. Minnesota is going to go for Bush, forget it, it hasn't gone Republican since 1972.
COOPER: All right. Bill Schneider, we'll be watching. Thanks, Bill.
Well, Yasser Arafat heading to Paris for medical tests.
That tops our look at global stories in the "Uplink." Ramallah, the West Bank, Arafat is expected to head to Paris earlier tomorrow. This is the shot we got of him early today, via Jordan. His first trip outside his compound in more than two years, if you can believe it. Aids, say the Palestinian Authority president is very sick, suffering from a blood platelet deficiency. Doctors aren't sure why.
Baghdad, Iraq now, one of the world's largest aid groups is moving out, CARE International says it's going to working in Iraq and today pleaded to Islamic kidnappers to free one of its workers, the head of the program has kidnapped. Just yesterday, hundreds marched through the Baghdad streets pushing for Margaret Hassan's release. Hassan, has lived in Iraq for 30 years and she was kidnapped on her way to work last week.
Flores, Indonesia now, prehistoric discovery. Scientists has discovered the bones of a new human species, some of who were just three feet tall. Researchers say, the so called Flores man lived at least 12,000 years ago. And their brains were about the quarter of the size of those of homo sapiens. Whether the species interacted with modern man is unknown.
That's tonight "Uplink."
Coming up next, Bill O'Reilly settles. Find out how he kept the sexual harassment case out of court.
Also tonight, Bill Clinton's heart surgery. Hear from the former president about the vision he said he had while under the knife. Covering all the angles stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight in "Justice Served," the sensational Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case has been settled. How, why and for how much, we don't know. Both sides have entered the no details whatsoever zone.
O'Reilly's attorney Ronald Green released this statement a short while ago saying, "The parties regret this matter has caused tremendous pain and they have agreed to settle. All cases and claims have been withdrawn and all parties have agreed there was no wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr. O'Reilly, Ms. Mackris or Ms. Mackris' counsel, Benedict P. Morelli and Associates. We know withdraw any assertion that any extortion by Ms. Mackris, Mr. Morelli, or Morelli and Associates occurred. Out of respect for their families and privacy all parties and their representatives have agreed that all information related to the cases shall remain confidential."
Joining me now to discuss the case, Court TV anchor, Lisa Bloom.
And in Los Angeles, employment litigator, Debra Opri, who defended James Brown on harassment charges with success.
Appreciate both of you being with us.
Lisa, let's start off with you, what do you make of this?
LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: Well, a lot of unanswered questions. First of all, this is the statement from Ron Green, he's the attorney for Fox News and O'Reilly. This is not a statement from the Mackris and Morelli side, presumably that's forth coming. But it's odd that he'd be speaking for everyone. But taking it at face value a lot of unanswered questions, Anderson.
As you point out, number one, what was dollar amount?
We'll probably never know that.
What about Andrea Mackris' employment? Technically, she's still an employee of Fox News. Will she be showing up for work tomorrow? I doubt that. I'm sure that O'Reilly is keeping his job and she probably have to force to resign as part of the settlement.
COOPER: Deborah, you've experience in this. You've read the statement, what do you make of it?
DEBRA OPRI, EMPLOYMENT LITIGATOR: Well, let's put it this way, everyone had a reputation that was being harmed, Bill O'Reilly was suffering the most. Were there tapes, maybe. Were there comments that rose to the level of unlawful conduct, probably not. Will Ms. Mackris move on in her life and get the apartment she wanted, yes. Was she really a victim here, probably not. Was Bill O'Reilly smart, was Fox smart to settle, of course. Lets move on, it's election week. The minimum press coverage will be this week. And I think all parties were very smart to do it immediately.
BLOOM: I don't know if it's fair to say Bill O'Reilly suffered the most. I mean, Andrea Mackris is probably out of work and her reputation was smeared repeatedly in the press by leaks probably coming from the..
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: Including this leak that you just repeated about her wanting an apartment. I mean, that's not substantiated. What we do know is that she was right...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I'm sorry. Wait. I'm sorry to interrupt, I just want to let you know that we just received a statement, I think, from -- from actually from Andrea Mackris and this -- the background on it a CNN producer was shooting -- I literally just got handed this. Was shooting some video of Andrea Mackris. The following exchange on tape occurred between herself and Mackris as she entered her apartment in Manhattan. Mackris, says it's over and I'm happy. The question from the producer, are you happy with the terms of the settlement?
Mackris, I can't say anything more. I appreciate everyone involved.
OPRI: Let me just say this, Lisa, I respect your position as a victim's right advocate. I'm a victim's right advocate and I also defend companies and defendants for sexual harassment in the companies. However, this is not the case to hang your hat on because I don't think by far she should be the motto for victims. She was not a victim here.
COOPER: And you say that because why? Why do you say that?
OPRI: Listen, she was going to sink Bill O'Reilly. She was going to write a tell-all book.
BLOOM: Now, how do you know that?
OPRI: She recorded conversations. She went out to dinner with him. She engaged in telephone conversations willingly.
BLOOM: No, you just don't know that.
(CROSSTALK)
OPRI: Stop interrupting, Lisa. Let me finish a statement, please.
BLOOM: But now we'll never know, because there is a settlement...
OPRI: We will never know...
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: ... which way the facts turn out, because there is a settlement. These are just allegations.
COOPER: Debra?
OPRI: Are you done? Thank you.
First of all, victim's rights have to go with the company policies. Victim's rights show that she should have properly reported it to the company, and she didn't. Everybody is going to argue her to be a linchpin for victims. She's not. This woman, in my opinion, could very well have been the representative to show how to entrap people, and, you know, this will be a litmus test for future litigants, that, you know, don't get reported.
COOPER: Lisa?
BLOOM: Yeah, the problem with the settlement, Anderson, is it's so unsatisfying from the public point of view. We'll never know if she had the tapes, what was...
COOPER: You mean from a salacious TV point of view.
BLOOM: Well, no...
OPRI: That's absolutely what she's saying.
(CROSSTALK)
BLOOM: I think sexual harassment cases are very important. The position of women in the workplace is very...
OPRI: And I think...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Debra, let Lisa finish.
BLOOM: I think the position of women in the workplace is very important, and her claims were very serious...
OPRI: This is the wrong case to hang your hat on, Lisa.
BLOOM: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of obscene phone calls that Bill O'Reilly made. We will never know if that's true. We'll never know if she insisted on $60 million...
OPRI: This is the wrong case to hang your hat on.
BLOOM: ... or if she was going to make this public, his extortion claims. Ultimately, it's just a settlement. Maybe ultimately we'll find out what the terms are, like we did in the Michael Jackson -- probably not.
OPRI: This is not the case to hang your hat on.
COOPER: Lisa Bloom, Debra Opri, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much.
OPRI: Thanks.
COOPER: Coming up next on 360, U.S. troops under attack on the campaign trail? It's rare, and it is definitely "Raw Politics."
Also tonight, Bill Clinton sees death, he says, both darkness and light. The former president talks candidly about his heart surgery.
And the candidates living la vida loca. Even if you're not a big fan of "Sabado Gigante" like I am -- I actually am, I watch this every Saturday -- we guarantee you'll be talking about it after tonight. And in a moment, today's 360 "Challenge." How closely have you been following today's news? Find out next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: All right. Are you up to the challenge? Time now for the 360 challenge. Be the first to answer all three questions correctly, we'll send you a 360 T-shirt.
No. 1: Election monitors are being dispatched to polling places in how many states?
No. 2: Approximately how many political TV spots are expected to have aired by Election Day?
And No. 3: Scientists in Indonesia have discovered remains of humans that stood how tall?
Reminder, they were little.
Take the challenge. Log on to cnn.com/360, then click on the answer link. Answer first, we'll send you the shirt. Find out last night's "Challenge" winners and tonight's answers, coming up later on the program.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Former president eight -- former President Clinton, eight years in the White House, 20 years in politics, and tonight he says he feels a bit detached from this election. A fresh perspective; people say major surgery will do that it you. Clinton underwent a quadruple bypass last month. His heart stopped for 73 minutes, and during that time the 58-year-old tells ABC News he saw death. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I saw dark masks crushing -- like death masks being crushed in series, and then I'd see these great circles of light. And then like Hillary's picture or Chelsea's face would appear on the light, and then they'd fly off into the dark -- into the distance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Clinton says while he liked the forced rest, post-op he wishes he could have done a little bit more for John Kerry. Clinton has already hit the trail for Kerry, as you may know, in Florida and Pennsylvania, and plans to hit three more states this weekend.
Well, all this week Senator Kerry has seized on news of the missing explosives in Iraq -- we've talked about that earlier -- to accuse President Bush, once again, for mishandling the war, in his words.
The president is fighting back and got some reinforcement today from none other than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. But in an effort to deflect responsibility from the president, Giuliani seemed to shift it to U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq, perhaps forgetting that some things are still sacred in "Raw Politics." Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): This morning on television, Bush supporter Rudy Giuliani broke a sacrosanct rule in politics. He seemed to criticize U.S. troops over the missing ammunition in Iraq.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: The actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?
COOPER: Giuliani later issued a statement saying he, quote, "wholeheartedly supports our troops." But it was too late. The Kerry camp had already seized on the comments.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is what Rudy did. He blamed the troops. He said, they didn't do their job. He couldn't be more wrong.
COOPER: On the campaign trail where hold your fire zones are rare, the U.S. military is sacred ground, never to be insulted. The last thing candidates want is to be seen criticizing the troops.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: If you are heard to criticize American troops, you're criticizing our brothers, sons, sisters, daughters, husbands, wives. The troops are us.
COOPER: And voters. That's why on the campaign trail, we hear so much of this.
BUSH: We have got a fantastic military.
KERRY: Our troops are doing a heroic job.
COOPER: And see so much of that.
Troops even make it into political ads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our soldiers fighting in Iraq, our heroes.
COOPER: And that's why both camps so often accuse each other of abandoning the U.S. military.
BUSH: The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts.
EDWARDS: Aren't you sick and tired of George Bush and Dick Cheney using our troops as a shield instead of protecting our troops?
COOPER: Using the armed forces to shoot at each other, that is "Raw Politics."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, 360 next, four hours of surreal, wacky fun. Not exactly politics as usual. President Bush and Senator Kerry go after the Latino vote with Don Francisco. Talk about that in "The Current" ahead.
First, The Boss, Bruce Springsteen playing live right now at John Kerry's event at Ohio State University. Let's listen.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In tonight's pop culture "Current," the presidential candidates are appearing on one of the strangest talk shows you've probably never seen. This Saturday President Bush and Senator Kerry will each share the TV screen with a legend known as Don Francisco. He's the host of "Sabado Gigante" the widely popular Spanish language program which I admit I Tivo every Saturday even though I don't speak Spanish. But for this show, you don't really need to.
The candidates know the visit could be a smart political move, but the show is anything but your usual campaign stop. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It's part chat show, part quiz show and part variety show. "Sabado Gigante" which means "Giant Saturday" in Spanish is, well, surreal. Fun, fast-paced, frenetic, and four hours long. It runs from strange segment to even stranger segment. And this weekend it's the place the presidential candidates picked to reach out to Hispanic voters by literally speaking their language. Both George W. Bush and John Kerry. Both George W. Bush and John Kerry taped interviews with the host Don Francisco fielding questions on family values, immigration, amnesty and religion.
DON FRANCISCO, HOST, "SABADO GIGANTE": What our candidates think about our community. We have several problems. How are they going to solve the problem, if they're going to solve the problem and on the other hand, we'd like to show the human part.
COOPER: "Sabado Gigante" might seem like a strange place to make your political case, a show that is all insane style and very little substance. Host Don Francisco is not really a host but an actor Mario Kreutzberger playing a host, often sidling up on the show to some buxom beauty.
But there's more to "Sabado Gigante" than meets the eye. It is the most watched Spanish-language entertainment program in the country airing on Univision a network that reaches 98 percent of Hispanic households in the U.S. And that is what makes it must-do TV for any presidential hopeful.
FRANCISCO: The first message to my viewers is vote. Doesn't matter who you vote, but you have to vote. COOPER: These days savvy politicos know hard news isn't enough. So "Sabado Gigante" is the logical last stop for any candidate battling for that big bloc of voters.
FRANCISCO: I call my show like a soup. You can put more or less ingredients, but it has always a flavor.
COOPER: A flavor both candidates hope will help give them a taste of victory on November 2.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: "Sabado Gigante." 360 next, don't believe everything you see. We'll take photo manipulation to the Nth Degree.
And tomorrow the doctor is in the house. Former presidential candidate Howard Dean joins me to talk about the race as it reaches its final days.
First, the 360 challenge. Here's another look at tonight's questions. Still have time to try to answer them. Election monitors are being dispatched in how many states? How many political TV spots will air by election day? And scientists in Indonesia discovered human remains that stood how tall? If you've been paying attention you should know the answers. We'll give them to you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: All right. Time now for the answers in today's 360 challenge. Election monitors are being dispatched to polling places in how many states? The answer is 25.
Approximately how many political TV spots are expected to air by election day? A remarkable number, 750,000.
Scientists in Indonesia have discovered remains of humans that stood how tall? The answer -- three feet. First person to answer all three questions correctly will be sent a 360 T-shirt. Tune in tomorrow night to find out if you are the winner.
Last night's winner Jason Concel from Athens, Ohio. Appreciate you playing. We have a lot of people playing this game. A lot of people into it. Hope you join in tomorrow night. A 360 T-shirt, Jason, is on the way. Another 360 challenge and another chance to win tomorrow.
Tonight, taking the eye of the beholder to the Nth Degree. So now there's this flap as we told you earlier this evening about a photo the Bush campaign admits it did sort of manipulate just a wee little bit, but only just to remove an obstruction, that's the official explanation. Hey, sounds believable to us. We do it all the time ourselves.
Here, all you can see at first is me standing next to one of those dumpster things all the trash gets thrown into but when you remove the obstruction, it becomes immediately apparent that I was meeting the pope that day. Thank goodness for digital photography, huh?
In this one, the fellow taking the picture did that classic unforgivable thing, he stuck his thumb in front of the lens. Luckily thumbs are easily removed making it possible for you to see me and Spiderman getting ready to climb the side of a skyscraper.
And one more thing. Why do we call them doctored pictures anyway? I mean, you go to a doctor to be cured, not to be falsified. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching 360. Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN NOW."
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