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Hurricane Hanna Expected to Hit Carolinas; Unemployment Soars to Five-Year High
Aired September 05, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tropical Storm Hanna closes in on the East Coast, but what's behind Hanna could be even worse. Hurricane Ike takes a sudden turn. Will it follow Gustav right into the Gulf?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It made news all over the country. Sheriff's deputies raided a suburban mayor's home and killed his dogs. The mayor and his wife were completely innocent, but the sheriff is standing behind his deputies.
What does the mayor have to say about all of this? We'll talk to him live.
Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: Hello, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Hi, Don.
LEMON: I'm Don Lemon.
You are live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
All right. Let's talk about the rain, the wind and the surf. They're kicking up this hour along the coast on both Carolinas.
Tropical Storm Hanna is hours from landfall. You can see the radar right there. Storm warnings out from Charleston to just south of New York City.
Homes are boarded up. Shelters are open. And several states have declared states of emergency. Behind Hanna, a stronger but smaller storm, Hurricane Ike, is on track to cross the Florida Keys next week and move into the Gulf of Mexico.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Boarding up and packing up, folks who live along the South Carolina coast have been through that so many times. Let's check in right now with CNN's Kathleen Koch, who is waiting for Hanna at Myrtle Beach.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Fredricka, there are a lot of people here at Myrtle Beach who are not waiting for Hanna. You know, this is a huge tourist destination. This weekend alone, they expected 100,000 to 150,000 tourists. Well, I can tell you, a lot of them have left.
Our hotel went from 80 percent occupancy to 30 percent with the threat of Hanna bearing down on this town. So what we're expecting, around 3:00 they say we might start getting the tropical force winds, the really heavy stuff, 70 miles per hour sustained winds, plus. That's not going to happen until well after dark tonight, two to four inches of rain.
But a lot of tourists just didn't want to wait it out. They say, hey, you know, you can't enjoy your vacation in this. We did find some though earlier on the beach today who say they're staying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA CANNON, TOURIST: Checkout is tomorrow and we're going to stay through tomorrow and ride it out. I think it will be fun and exciting and different, an experience to tell the kids when we get home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Well, what a lot of people are not really excited about experiencing come tonight and early tomorrow morning is the potential nine-to-ten-foot storm surge. Now, that could come on top of high tide. That's at 12:30 tonight.
So the governor has issued a voluntary -- I stress "voluntary" -- evacuation order for those in the low-lying areas where there could be flooding. Also those in mobile homes and trailers and campers that just can't take the really high winds we're expecting tonight. But otherwise, a lot of the residents are just saying it's not any worse than your typical nor'easter -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: OK. They're so used to it, aren't they?
KOCH: That they are.
WHITFIELD: But at the same time, I know folks don't want to be too complacent about it all.
All right, Kathleen. Thanks so much.
KOCH: You bet.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, let's not forget about the Gulf Coast, still reeling from Hurricane Gustav. In southern Louisiana, evacuees have been coming home to this right here: damaged homes and downed trees, a whole lot of them. More than 800,000 homes and businesses are still without power.
Well, later on, we'll be checking in with Don's mom, who's been going through all of it in West Baton Rouge, at home, just kind of duking it out there. The Red Cross is also helping out people there as best they can, already handing out 400,000 meals. The organization estimates that its relief efforts will cost about $70 million, and they are asking for your help. LEMON: Fred, in the meantime, the United Nations is rushing to help Haiti, decimated by three storms in three weeks. Scores of people are dead. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. And many have had nothing to eat or drink for days. A relief ship has just docked in the flooded port city of Gonave, loaded with bottled water, rice and other emergency supplies.
WHITFIELD: All right. An unusual investigation still under way in the nation's capital. You're looking at live shots right now there of Capitol Hill, because not long ago, U.S. Capitol Police are confirming to CNN that a vehicle drove up to a Capitol Police officer and asked for directions, but that officer saw inside the vehicle what appeared to be a rifle case of some sort.
Well, the driver of that vehicle was taken into custody. Now you're looking at images coming from one of our iReporters, Howard Zimering, who happened to be in a building nearby, on the rooftop, actually, and snapped off these photographs and shared them with us.
And you can see right there that the vehicle was surrounded by law enforcement personnel. They searched the vehicle after taking that driver into custody.
We don't know anything more about that driver and what his or her story is. But Capitol Police say that they did recover a shotgun, ammunition and some sort of improvised explosive device. That's the information coming from U.S. Capitol Police that CNN is now confirming. And you're seeing other images of law enforcement authorities there, right there on Capitol Hill.
When we get more information about this incident, why it happened and how, we'll bring that to you.
With Election Day just two months away -- can you believe it? -- the stage is now set in the race for the White House. John McCain accepted the Republican nomination last night in St. Paul, Minnesota, just months after his campaign was on the rocks, if you recall.
Well, speaking to a cheering crowd, the Arizona senator vowed to shake up Washington if he is elected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me just offer an advanced warning to the old big spending, do-nothing, me first, country second crowd. Change is coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well, today, John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are on the campaign trail in Wisconsin, as well as in Michigan -- Don.
LEMON: Well, as Republicans celebrated John McCain's nomination, Fredricka, police faced off with throngs of protesters outside the convention. Take a look. Man, it was a rowdy time there. Almost 400 arrests. Four hundred of them were made on the final day of the convention, with police using tear gas and percussion grenades to control the crowd. Police say most of the protesters were given citations for unlawful assembly and then released. In all, more than 800 people were arrested during the convention.
WHITFIELD: And on this day, after the GOP gathering, Barack Obama is stressing his differences with John McCain. The Democratic nominee is campaigning in a state that could decide the White House. We're talking about Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You would think that George Bush and his potential Republican successor, John McCain, would be spending a lot of time worrying about the economy and all these jobs that are being lost on their watch. But if you watched the Republican National Convention over the last three days, you wouldn't know that we have the highest unemployment rate in five years because they didn't say a thing about what is going on with the middle class.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Obama's running mate, Senator Joe Biden, also on the trail today in Pennsylvania right now. He's at a campaign event in Langhorne and we've got live coverage straight ahead on that visit.
LEMON: Of course the economy is issue #1. And there is some brutal news out today on the state of our economy. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate jumped in August to a five-year high.
Our Ali Velshi has a look at what we can only call grim numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The jobless rate in America has now soared to 6.1 percent. That is much higher than we expected it to come out at. It was 5.7 percent in July.
This is a five-year high. You have to go back to September of 2003 to find an unemployment rate that's that high.
Now, the unemployment rate measures those people who are in the workforce or looking for jobs. That's almost a bit of a misnomer. So I want to get that out of the way and I want to talk about the more important number, and that is the number of jobs that were lost in August -- 84,000 jobs lost in August.
We were expecting 75,000 jobs to be lost. So when you put this 84,000 into the mix and you make some adjustments for a few prior months which were worse now than we initially thought, the total number of jobs lost for 2008 so far is 605,000. So, that's 605,000 people, fewer people who are working now than at the beginning of the year. (END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That was our senior business correspondent, Ali Velshi.
Every month of 2008 has seen a net lost of jobs. In August, the industry's heaviest hit included manufacturing, retail and business services.
Meantime, it is a one-two punch of rotten news today. A banking industry group reports Americans are seeing their homes foreclosed in record numbers.
The number of homes in the foreclosure process grew to, get this, 1.25 million during the last quarter. At the same time though, nearly three million owners were behind on mortgage payments and new foreclosure proceedings were launched against nearly half a million homes. The worst-hit states still California and Florida.
Let's take a look now at what the markets are doing. You can take a look.
The Dow is down 18 points. We still have about two hours though before we get to the closing bell. Actually an hour and about 50 minutes until we get to the closing bell. We'll see if that changes. Susan Lisovicz will update you right here with the full report on the stock market in the CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: And hostilities over? That's a question mark. Maybe not entirely, but how's this trip for a first step?
Secretary of Condoleezza Rice landed in Libya today, the highest level official that the U.S. has sent since the Eisenhower administration. She's expected to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi later on today.
The atmosphere? Well, Libya has come some distance from the Libya of the 1980s. The country is now an elected member of the U.N. Security Council and no longer regarded by Washington as a state sponsor of terror.
Well, stay tuned to CNN. Later on this afternoon in "THE SITUATION ROOM," Zain Verjee we'll have an exclusive one-on-one conversation with the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
LEMON: And Fredricka, in Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti, a U.S. Navy ship docked today as part of a humanitarian aid mission. The USS Mount Whitney is the Navy's sixth fleet command ship. Two other U.S. aid ships preceded the Mount Whitney.
Some Russian troops remain in Poti. And Moscow today questioned why a warship was used for the U.S. aid mission there.
U.S. troops, as many as 8,000 of them, may possibly be home from Iraq by early next year. Sources tell CNN that the top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is recommending the drawdown of the U.S. presence there, citing the improving combat environment in Iraq. The action would free up a brigade to be rotated to Afghanistan instead of Iraq. The White House has only acknowledged receiving the recommendation.
WHITFIELD: Well, outrage in Maryland. The mayor of a small town is not happy that two deputies who killed his dogs in a botched drug raid are not being charged. He'll be joining us live with more reaction.
LEMON: He was in a messy custody battle with Sarah Palin's sister. We've got an exclusive interview with the former brother-in- law of the Republican vice presidential nominee.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Let's talk some politics now.
And leading our Political Ticker today, some new numbers on the McCain/Obama battle. In our latest national Poll of Polls, 47 percent support Barack Obama, 43 percent back John McCain, 10 percent say they just don't know quite yet. Obama's lead was six points on Wednesday. The Poll of Polls, I want to tell you, is an average of five different surveys all taken before John McCain before he made his acceptance speech as the party's nominee last night in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Well, some high-profile Democratic women are hitting the trail for Barack Obama, hoping to blunt Sarah Palin's potential appeal to women voters. Hillary Clinton heads to Florida on Monday. Governors Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas are also to campaign for Barack Obama in the coming weeks.
And John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention didn't score an A plus for flawless productions. It was marred by demonstrations and a technical glitch. And his critics faulted him for a plotting delivery.
But McCain apparently connected with curious Americans with his choice of running mate. Sarah Palin's debut on the national stage on Wednesday night drew 40 million viewers. Wow.
Check out our Political Ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just log on to CNNPolitics.com, your source for all things political.
WHITFIELD: And now jail awaits Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. But he's saying that he's not finished in politics. As part of his plea agreement for obstruction of justice, the scandal-ridden Democrat agreed to resign in two weeks and serve four months behind bars. Addressing supporters last evening, Kilpatrick signaled that he may not go away quietly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK (D), DETROIT: I want to tell you, Detroit, that you done set me up for a comeback.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Well, under the terms of his deal, Kilpatrick also will pay a $1 million fine, serve five years on probation. And well, he can't run for office during that time, at least.
Well, another four years in prison for disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. A federal judge sentenced Abramoff yesterday for his role in corrupting politicians. He already has spent two years in prison. His four-year term will be served concurrently with time remaining from his conviction on unrelated charges in Florida.
LEMON: All right. Let's talk about coping after Gustav. Man, it hit hard in some areas. We're getting ready to check back in with my mom. She's keeping us up to date on how people in her area of Louisiana are doing.
WHITFIELD: Can't wait to hear from her.
And police, well, they killed two dogs belonging to a town's mayor in a botched drug raid. The sheriff calls the shooting justified. We'll ask the mayor what he thinks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Imagine you're driving down the interstate and all of a sudden you're having to deal with this in traffic. An airplane, right? Well, this happened just moments ago on the Garden State Parkway, Monmouth County, New Jersey.
Thank you, WABC, for those pictures. That's our affiliate in New York City there giving us these shots from Tinton Falls, New Jersey.
So apparently this plane lost power for a time. This is according to The Associated Press, and they are quoting authorities in New Jersey saying the plane lost power for a while. It's a four- seater Cessna.
It left from Allaire Airport in Wall Township and lost power shortly after takeoff. The aircraft made an emergency landing on the Garden State Parkway, which is in Monmouth County there.
No injuries, according to one person at the turnpike authority. There were two occupants on board the plane when it landed in the northbound lane. It happened about 1:30 Eastern, almost an hour ago.
And here's the interesting thing. Bystanders, which would be people who were driving on the interstate, or perhaps road workers, helped the pilot move the plane onto the shoulder of the highway. And there it will sit until the FAA comes to investigate.
No reports of any injuries. We'll continue to update.
WHITFIELD: Wow.
LEMON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Well, close call and good piloting it seems, right? LEMON: And good help from bystanders.
WHITFIELD: Nobody hurt.
LEMON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Excellent.
All right. Well, the labor market takes another big hit. A new government report shows the economy has now lost jobs every month this year.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
LEMON: All right. High-priced calls and one gigantic bill. Listen to this story, OK?
An Oregon family is scratching their heads about their $19,370 in cell phones charges. Let me say that again.
WHITFIELD: I think I'd faint if I got that.
LEMON: Nineteen thousand, three hundred and seventy dollars in cell phone charges. The 200-page bill covers only one month. That's one month.
WHITFIELD: Oh no.
LEMON: Dave Terry says his son used the laptop with a wireless card...
WHITFIELD: No.
LEMON: ... to send pictures and e-mail while on a trip to Vancouver, Canada. Terry says his service provider never alerted him about the spiraling charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE TERRY, RECEIVED $19K PHONE BILL: Well, when you have a bill that runs normally $250 to $350 for our cell phone bill, for all of our cell phones, when AT&T saw the numbers getting up over $1,000, I would think that it's their responsibility to inform us that something is amiss, because that card could have been stolen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Nineteen thousand, three hundred and seventy dollars.
WHITFIELD: Well, now, he's got a good point there. I am hoping that you're going to alert me that, you know what? We're noticing some activity on your account that is unusual based on your habits. What's going on? Are you really doing this?
I'm nervous.
LEMON: I know. Have you ever had a really high one?
WHITFIELD: No, not like that cell phone, no.
LEMON: Mine was $700 something. I went to Europe and, you know, one of those ones that...
WHITFIELD: Yes. And did you call? Did you say...
LEMON: Seven hundred and eighty bucks. I had to pay it, baby.
WHITFIELD: ... are we sure about this?
LEMON: I had to pay it. That was a long time ago.
WHITFIELD: No, you ate it. You knew. OK.
LEMON: Yes, I had to pay it because I did it.
WHITFIELD: Yes, you knew.
LEMON: I didn't realize at the time.
WHITFIELD: All right. That hurts.
LEMON: Hey, I want to tell you what AT&T says about this. It says it's looking into the matter and hopes to have an answer for the Terry people within the next few days.
WHITFIELD: Oh, so there is hope.
LEMON: Terry family, let us know about that...
WHITFIELD: I'm feeling for them.
LEMON: ... almost $20,000 cell phone bill. That's a lot of talking, huh?
WHITFIELD: Yes. Oh please. That's crazy, is what that is.
All right.
Well, she is the Republican nominee for vice president. That you know. Well, did Sarah Palin try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his job as state trooper? Questions still unanswered completely.
We'll have an exclusive interview with the brother-in-law.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. It's 32 minutes after the hour. Here are some of the stories we're working on today.
Dinner tonight with Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. That's what's ahead for Condoleezza Rice, who has landed in Tripoli, for the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than 50 years. After decades of confrontation, the U.S. and Libya are working on closer relations. And joblessness soars to a five year high. Employers last month slashed 84,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent.
And tropical storm Hanna making waves in the Carolinas. Hanna's expected to hit tomorrow, perhaps around Myrtle Beach, or a little farther north. Hurricane Ike, well that could visit south Florida, early next week. And Ike is a big one they say.
LEMON: All right. Well, across Louisiana, you can hear the chain saws. Utility crews are everywhere trying to get the power back on four days after hurricane Gustav blew ashore. Yesterday, we talked with a woman who is coping with all this in west Baton Rouge, an area that took quite a beating. Katherine Lemon Clark is back on the phone with me. And in case you didn't know, she's my mom.
And Mom, everybody here -- it was their idea. They're like, you got to call your mom back and get an update. And you have been sending me pictures. I had no idea that Baton Rouge looked like this.
So, is it getting any better for you? Do you have power yet?
KATHERINE LEMON-CLARK, MOTHER OF DON LEMON: No, I don't have any power yet. And right now, I am feeling a lot like Wilma and Fred Flintstone in the stone age.
LEMON: With no electricity, right?
LEMON-CLARK: With no electricity. I am just so tired. I know they're working hard. But this is getting to be a little too much. I am irate.
LEMON: Yes, I know. And you sent me pictures this morning. Those are people in line at Wal-Mart. That's a gas line right there, I believe. And then people in the grocery store. And I think you also sent me some pictures of empty shelves.
LEMON-CLARK: That's in Wal-Mart, in the Wal-Mart. It's empty shelves there and in the local grocery.
LEMON: So, what are people doing for food if there's no electricity? the restaurants can't open, they can't cook.
What are they doing?
LEMON-CLARK: There are a few places open. They're closing early. And once you get there, everybody's closed. And basically I went this morning to try and get something to eat and there was a line so long I just refused to go in the store.
LEMON: It's that bad. You know, I've been getting from people -- there's this thing here, Mom, that I'll explain to you a little bit later called, Twitter. People saw you on TV and they have been asking about you, how you're doing and wishing you well. I know my sister who lives in Prairieville, she won't have electricity for at least a month. LEMON-CLARK: A month. So they have been out today, both of your sisters. One's in (INAUDIBLE), one's in Prairieville. And they are out looking for generators.
LEMON: Can you get them?
LEMON-CLARK: I've been calling and sometimes the lines are working and sometimes they are not working. It's hard to get through. I think that's possibly one of your sisters trying to call me now.
LEMON: OK. Well, I'm going to let you go and talk to her mom. Again, I love you and I'll see you this weekend. I'm going to come down and see if I can help you out, OK?
LEMON-CLARK: OK, darling. Thanks for giving me a holler.
LEMON: OK. Bye, bye.
Fred says hi, by the way.
WHITFIELD: Yes and sending a big hug, as well. Hang in there.
LEMON-CLARK: I'm trying.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much for being with us and keeping us posted.
Meantime, let's talk about how high gas prices have perhaps kept you and a whole lot of folks off the roads. And now apparently, that may have helped deplete the highway trust fund. To try and explain all of this, make some sense of it, Alan Chernoff is with us now.
And when we talk about this highway trust funds we're talking about money that usually comes from gas taxes that helps in this trust funds. It keeps our highways looking good and performing strong. But apparently there's a big problem now.
ALAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, you know, Fred, you'd think that people driving less is a good thing. And it is a good thing for gas prices, it's a good thing for reducing our dependence on foreign oil. But, it is not a very good thing for the federal highway trust fund.
Turns out all that reduction that we've been seeing in driving and by the way, it's historic -- more than 50 billion miles, fewer miles, driven since November, compared to the year ago, period. That huge reduction has led to a really big decline in the highway trust fund. Because it depends upon the federal tax on gasoline -- 18.4 cents. Remember, John McCain wanted to suspend it this past summer.
So, the fact that people have been buying less gasoline means less money have been going into that highway trust fund. And now the Department of Transportation is saying that trust fund is going to be hitting a major shortfall. And they're saying they need to get $8 billion in emergency funding from Congress in order to replenish the trust fund. And that's essential in order to repay states for the money that they spend on highways -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Wow. That is a huge quandary.
All right. Alan Chernoff, I've got lots of questions to follow- up on, but we've got other breaking news we want to get to. So, we'll have to do that another time.
Alan, thanks so much for that breakdown.
LEMON: We want to get you to Pennsylvania. Specifically Langhorne, Pennsylvania. And that's where Barack Obama's vice presidential pick, Joe Biden is speaking. He was talking about the war in Iraq.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... that out teaches us, will out compete us. Any country that out educates us will out compete us. And your job is actually not only in terms of the well-being of the children under your jurisdiction. But, it really is a national security issue. I know that sounds stupid to say that, but think about it, it is 00 our national security, our economy depends on the job you're doing.
Diane, I used to be a commissioner. I left the job because it was too hard. They know where you live.
(LAUGHTER)
So I went to the Senate. Did you guys do zonings? If I never see a zoning hearing again in my life, I will die a happy man.
(LAUGHTER)
You want to get someone's attention, tell them you're putting a gas station on the corner. Whoa. God bless you, dear.
And Robin, our state treasurer, our -- I represent Delaware. I'm proud of representing Delaware. When I'm home, I always start talking about our and I get in trouble in my state. You're doing a great, great job.
And one of my really good friends. A guy who was a friend of mine long before I was asked to do this job, John Credesco (ph), who is the county chair here is my buddy. Stand up, John. I want to show what a good-looking guy looks like. You know what I mean?
(LAUGHTER)
And Reverend Evans, I mean this sincerely. Pray for me. Pray for us. I mean it, especially all the mistakes I make. But thank you for being here.
Look, we're going to hear in a minute from three people, Elizabeth, Shelly (ph) and David, who have a story to tell, that is the American story, what's happening right now. But, what I'd like to do is make a few somewhat serious remarks. I'll take no more than a few minutes and then we'll hear from them. And then with your permission, if you have time, I would be happy to try to answer any of the questions you all may have.
Look, folks, last night, we heard my friend. And I really mean this sincerely -- you know, you hear in politics, people say, my friend from Mississippi and my friend from Arizona, as a salutary way in we talk in the Senate. But John McCain is my friend. I admire John McCain. I know of no man or woman I have ever met that has known more personal courage than John McCain. We've been friends for over 33 years. We have traveled together. When John was Navy liaison, he staffed me three or four years, everywhere I traveled in the road. Jill and John are good friends.
As a matter of fact, there's a best-selling book written about -- it's called "The Nightingale Song" about John and some of his graduating class from Annapolis, that references Jill and John in the book as good buddies. She doesn't like the reference, but John is a great guy. John was staffing me in Greece. I was meeting with the Prime Minister Papandreou. And we were supposed to go to this fancy dinner and Jill said, do we have to go to this dinner. And John said, no, no, I know a great place for dinner. And there was a great place literally, down on the docks where Zorba lived, I think.
And so I had to go to the fancy thing and I come back down and find them and we're wandering through alleys on the docks. You're going to get very angry at this, Jill. But, I walk around the corner and there are these cement tables, like down at the shore, you know? The cement base and cement cable. And I walk in and Jill and John are standing up on the table drinking Ouza and dancing with one another. And I'm thinking, I've never trusted John since then, Jill. But he's a great guy.
And if John called me today and said, Joe -- like when they went after John McCain -- when Bush went after him in South Carolina with the scurrilous comments they made about his character, I called John and I said, John, where do you want me? I'm an Al Gore guy, but where do you want me? I will show up anywhere in America and can testify to the kind of man you are. And he is a good man. He is a good man.
(APPLAUSE)
But when John came to the Congress, even then when we traveled together, we argued like heck. We argued like heck about policy. We are friends, which is the incredible thing about a democracy. The first guy to call me when I was asked to join the ticket was John, to congratulate me. But John and I have had not bitter, but spirited arguments about everything from Amtrak to Afghanistan.
We used to argue when we traveled together as friends. Him as a Captain in the United States Navy and me as a young United States Senator. My argument with John is not with John, the man. My argument is with John, is John, his ideas. My argument with John is the fundamental difference John and I have about where to take this country. And it is fundamental. Ladies and gentlemen, today, today, this is why Ed's such an incredible governor. They announced the unemployment figures nationwide. For the eighth month in a row, Americans have lost jobs. We have lost 604,000 jobs in a America, just this calendar year. We're in a position where we had 84,000 lost jobs, shattered dreams, broken homes that occurred as a consequence of this loss of work just in the month of August. We now have 6.1 percent of the American work force idle. And you know what that means.
When a man or woman loses their job, they not only lose their income, they lose their sense of dignity, they lose who their identity, who they are. That's how we identify ourselves. That's how we're brought up. That's how in my neighborhood and yours, you're identified. You're identified by your willingness to work hard, your willingness to do the right thing, your willingness to show up every day and provide for your family. And so it's not merely a lost job. It's a lost sense of identity that occurs. And I don't think my Republican friends -- this ain't your father's Republican Party, by the way. This is a different Republican Party.
(APPLAUSE)
And so folks, when I listened to the parts of the Republican convention I could hear -- because I was traveling. A lot of time I was in the air. I went from, you know, all the way from Battle Creek, Michigan, back to Pittsburgh to Scranton, down to the west coast of Florida, east coast of Florida, and then on the west coast, then back up into North Carolina and into Virginia and then into D.C. So I've been on the road. No complaints. I've been on the road and haven't been able to see all that I wanted to see.
But, I'll tell you, it's not so much of what I heard in the Republican convention. When you heard John speak last night. It's not so much what I heard, when I heard part of what the Governor had to say, the vice presidential candidate. It's what I didn't hear.
(APPLAUSE)
The silence of the Republican Party was deafening. It was deafening. On jobs, on health care, on environment, on all the things that matter to the people in the neighborhoods I grew up in. Deafening!
(APPLAUSE)
Ladies and gentlemen, their America is not the America I live in. They see something different than I see. Ladies and gentlemen, literally, those of you, I can't swear to this because I didn't see every bit of every speech. But I asked my staff to check. Do any of you recall either candidate on the Republican ticket utter the phrase, middle class?
AUDIENCE: No!
BIDEN: Did any of you hear them utter the phrase, health care and how we're going to help? AUDIENCE: No!
LEMON: OK. Joe Biden in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Their America is not our America. They see something different than I see. And I've never seen Joe Biden, not that I can remember, have this much energy. He seems to be energized coming off the Democratic National Convention last week. Joe Biden in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, talking about a number much issues there.
The economy also, earlier before we got to him, he was talking about the war in Iraq. And now he's talking about the differences between Republicans and Democrats and John McCain and Barack Obama. Saying that John McCain is his friend but he just has a different direction for the country than Joe Biden has. We'll continue to check in with all of our candidates out on the campaign trail.
Meantime, deputies kill two dogs belonging to a town's mayor in a botched drug investigation. The sheriff calls the shooting justified. But what does the mayor say? He joins us and we'll ask him. Straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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WHITFIELD: All right. A small town mayor is outraged after an investigation clears two deputies who shot and killed both of his dogs in a botched drug raid in his home. The raid itself was a mistake. The mayor and his wife have been cleared of any wrongdoing. Well, the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Cheye Calvo, joins us now from Washington.
All right, Mayor, good to see you.
MAYOR CHEYE CALVO, BERWYN HEIGHTS, MARYLAND: Good to see you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: I can only imagine what you're feeling is given the outcome of this internal investigation.
But did you have hope against hope that the sheriff's investigation might present a different outcome?
CALVO: I think the sheriff's report is outrageous. But it's not necessarily surprising.
They pretty much nearly justified conclusions they made, now over a month ago, to pretty much say that they didn't do anything wrong. That's why about four weeks ago we called for and received a federal investigation of the activities, not of just the sheriff's department, but also the police department. So we -- what they said was outrageous. But we're not surprised. And that's why the Feds need to investigate this --
WHITFIELD: So, your expectations are quite different involving now the FBI?
CALVO: Right. Well, this is one step in a multi step process. And so the police are having their own investigation. We have filed formal complaints. But we really hope the Feds come in and get the fact out. Because it's not just the conclusion disturbing, a lot of the details. I mean, the sheriff never actually spoke to myself, my mother-in-law. They never came to our house. And a lot of things that they're suggesting violate the physical evidence. So, it really is just a cursory review on their part and really didn't give much thought to it. And a lot of things they say, just don't make sense.
WHITFIELD: Yes. And it would seem -- you know, as the mayor, you would have a whole lot of confidence, much more than the average citizen, perhaps, in the local sheriff's department or you know, municipal police department, et cetera.
But after an incident like this, that this could happen to you and your household and you're the mayor of the town, what do you suppose this does to shake the confidence of the average citizen in the police departments, or sheriff's departments, especially when it comes to investigate their own?
CALVO: Well it's important to point out that these are county departments. We have a separate municipal force and actually I am proud to say that we have one of the lowest crime rates in Prince George's County.
WHITFIELD: But the county and city work together.
CALVO: Well they should work together. And unfortunately the county has a go-alone sort of strategy. Because, we're admittedly one of the nicer parts of Prince George's County. But there are a lot of communities in Prince George's County that do have high crime rates. And that doesn't mean that most of the people who live there are criminals, it means they actually need help from the police.
But when the police do this in our community it means that this is really standard operating procedure, and it really explains why there are a lot of communities in Prince George's County that don't trust the police. And I think that's the real travesty, because those people need the police to protect and serve them most.
WHITFIELD: And so what is it like now in your home? How are you all feeling about your personal security? Do you kind of feel like this is that warm, cozy home that you once had?
CALVO: We're -- I won't say that everything is fine, but we get better day-by-day. We have been blessed in so many ways that people have listened to our story. But our hope is that while we can't get our dogs back, and we can't undo what was done to us, we can get the story out, have a full investigation, not just of our incidence, but a pattern of incidences that have happened in Prince George's County and hopefully turn that in a positive direction and make some changes so this doesn't have to happen to other people.
WHITFIELD: And I know you've since gotten a new dog.
CALVO: We have.
WHITFIELD: It's certainly not a replacement of the two labs that you lost, but it helps a little bit?
CALVO: I think he brings tremendous joy to our lives. We miss Peyton and Chase (ph) but we love Marshall and he's helping us to find some sense of normalcy.
WHITFIELD: Mayor Cheye Calvo, thanks so much and we look forward to the update from the federal investigation as well. Appreciate it.
CALVO: Thank you, Fredricka.
LEMON: She's the Republican nominee for vice president. Did Sarah Palin try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his job as state trooper? We'll have an exclusive interview with the brother-in- law.
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LEMON: As Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, campaigns for vice president now, she is under investigation back home. Critics say she abused her power by trying to get her sister's ex-husband fired.
Drew Griffin of our special investigations unit got an exclusive interview with the ex-husband.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, says he has no ill will toward the Palin family, says he is actually excited about Sarah Palin's vice presidency. What he's not excited about is the fact that his bitter divorce and ensuing custody battle with Sarah Palin's sister is now turning his private life into headline-making material. He sat down with us exclusively on condition his union representative be at his side to set the record straight.
How do you feel about just having all of your life plastered in newspapers and TVs, and now picked up nationally?
TROOPER MIKE WOOTEN, ALASKA STATE POLICE: It's definitely not very easy. It creates a lot of stress, that's for sure.
GRIFFIN: What would you like the people who have read all these reports to know about you?
WOOTEN: Well, you know -- I guess -- you know, my priorities are my kids and being the best father I can be to my children and being -- my job, being the best trooper that I can be for the state, the citizens of the state. And -- I was young and I made mistakes and I was punished for those mistakes. I learned my lesson. They're behind me. And I'm trying to move on and be the best dad I can be to my children and be the best trooper that I can be.
And I love my job. And I love this state. You know, that's -- those are my priorities.
GRIFFIN: Trooper Mike Wooten is 36-years-old. He has been married four times. All four marriages have ended. He has a long list of reprimands as a state trooper. He admits that he did taser his 11-year-old stepson in a demonstration, he admits he killed a moose illegally. There are allegations he was drinking in his patrol car, which he denies, and there are allegations he threatened to kill Sarah Palin's father, which he also denies.
After all of that, he is still a trooper. He was suspended for just five days. But his record is not the issue here; it's whether or not the governor used her office to try to pressure the public safety commissioner here in Alaska to fire Wooten. And when the public safety commissioner would not fire Wooten, that the governor actually fired him.
Governor Palin denies that and said the firing was over a budgetary issue. But the state investigation goes on.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Anchorage, Alaska.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: More tonight in primetime.
The East coast, bracing for Tropical Storm Hanna. And then Ike right behind her. Ike is a hurricane.
Our Chad Myers is checking it all out. The very latest in the CNN severe weather center.
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