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Seven Confirmed Dead in D.C. Metro Crash; Ed McMahon Dies at Age 86; Obama to Discuss Iranian Protests, Health Care and Energy Policy at Press Conference Today; British Foreign Office Expels Two Iranian Diplomats from London; Existing Home Sales Up For Second Straight Month

Aired June 23, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. It is Tuesday, June 23rd. Here are the faces of the stories driving the headlines today in the CNN NEWSROOM.

D.C. subway passengers relive their nightmarish ride. Investigators working today to find what led to a deadly rush hour crash.

A television legend leaves us. We will remember America's favorite sidekick -- Ed McMahon.

Neda, the symbolic face of the Iranian protester. An outcry over her death, but Iran says election results stand.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I saw the entire car basically crumpling up on top of the first train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Seven confirmed dead and Washington's mayor indicates more bodies could be pulled from the crumpled wreckage of two D.C. trains. One plowed at the back of the other which was stopped on the tracks.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve at the crash scene this morning for us. Officials are getting another look at the damage.

And Jeanne, where do things stand?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Tony, it's very much a recovery operation today. They brought in a lot of heavy equipment, including cranes, and they're trying to move the layers of wreckage away and also separate the cars. And as they go in, they are looking and searching for additional victims.

The mayor toured this crash site a short time ago and came away saying he thought that there was a good chance that the death toll, which currently stands at seven confirmed, may well go higher. He said the city will spend some time today reaching out to their relatives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY, WASHINGTON, D.C.: We're going to spend as much between now and 5:00 trying to identify the bodies and then contact the next of kin. That's a very important part of this that hasn't occurred. The bodies that were just pulled out of there, unfortunately, there hasn't been formal notification to the families. So we know that not only our condolences are with them, but we have a real need to get them information.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: There is another briefing coming up at 5:00 Eastern. The mayor says he expects by that time that fire and rescue will have handed this site over to the National Transportation Safety Board for their investigation -- Tony.

HARRIS: And Jeanne, just a quick one here. What is the NTSB saying so far?

MESERVE: Well, what happened here is you had one train stopped on the track. The other came along at a high rate of speed, rammed into it at such a high rate of speed that the first car went up in the air and came down on top of that other train.

It turns out that the train that rammed into the first one was an older fleet of cars, and that's raised some issues with the NTSB. Here's a bit of what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: Our recommendations in 2006 about the crash worthiness of these 1,000 series car -- we recommended to WMATA to either retrofit those cars or to phase them out of the fleet. They have not been able to do that, and our recommendation was not addressed. So, it has been closed and in an unacceptable status.

We have also made recommendations in the past about recorders and recommended that they equip all of their fleet with recorders, event recorders. Again, that has not taken place on some of the older series of cars that WMATA was expecting to phase out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: So there were no recorders on the second train. There were recorders on the first train. But they're looking at a lot of things here. They're looking at tracks, they're looking at signals, they're also looking at the possibility of operator error, but it's far too early for them to draw any conclusions.

Back to you, Tony.

HARRIS: All right. Jeanne Meserve for us. Jeanne, appreciate it. Thank you.

Ominous. An ominous road ahead for Iranian protesters. The country's top judicial official announces a special court set up to deal with demonstrators.

Meanwhile, the electoral body rules out annulling the election. It says it found no major fraud in the June 12th presidential vote. And state-run media reports President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in for a second term some time between July 26th and August 19th.

It is now a week and a half since the protests began in Tehran and other cities. They are the largest demonstrations since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

President Obama coming under growing criticism for not siding more openly with the protesters.

CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen agrees the president should be doing more. He spoke earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The president's supporters are saying he's pitch perfect on the issue of Iran and his response to it. You have said, though, that you think the president should show more forceful leadership in this case.

How would you define that?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, John, I want to concede up front this is a close call in any White House. We've seen these situations before. In Tiananmen Square, back in the presidency of George H. W. Bush, he was very cautious and restrained, and was heavily criticized for it. People said that he brought dishonor to his foreign policy and, yet, 15 years later, Tom Friedman, "The New York Times" columnist, wrote that it was because of his restraint that China stayed on course and actually became a freer and more free-market society than it was then. And had he interfered, he might have knocked it off course.

So, there is a strong argument the other way. But I must say, I side with those who believe that the president has offered to the world a voice of hope for change and a new kind of politics, and that in this situation, it's very important -- and I think people around the world are then looking to him for leadership and leading the world to this new day. When this first moment of testing comes, he retreats into what is the old style and staying out of it, and I think it has emptied his Cairo speech of some of its meaning.

I don't think, John, it was an either/or about either speaking up or not speaking up. Rather, I think it was a choice between doing very little or organizing a concert of nations to speak up together. I think what has been missing here is a united voice from Democratic leaders around the world that could include, for example, the president of Turkey, a democratic Muslim country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Many people are hoping President Obama will make a stronger statement supporting the people of Iran. The president is holding a news conference next hour.

Let's go live now to the White House and our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

And Suzanne, we're going to talk later in this hour. A couple of things we want to take up with you. But initially here, why is the president calling this news conference today?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, it's quite clear the president does want to make some comments about Iran. We know that we've seen these written statements, we've had briefings with senior administration officials on background, but clearly this thing has escalated.

The president wants to get out in front of this and show that, yes, he is paying attention, that he understands what is taking place on the ground. There has been some criticism, as we know, that has language has not been strong enough in regards to aligning himself with the protesters, the demonstrators.

We're told that he is not going to announce any kind of new policy when it comes to Iran, but that he will use some new language to express his concern about the violence, to talk about that this is in the Iranian's hands, that their own future, their own protests will determine their leadership, ultimately, but that he will use new language in addressing that. He is also going to talk about health care, as well as energy policy.

All of this on his plate, Tony. It is a lot to deal with, but he does want to make sure that he at least gives the impression, certainly, the message that he understands what's happening here, that he sympathizes with some of the violence that -- the protesters who've experienced the violence on the ground, and that he has a good handle on this -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. All right.

Well, Suzanne, let's talk a little bit more about this later in the hour. And my thought, anyway, that this news conference will be as much about the economy and health care as it is about Iran. We'll talk about that a little at the half-hour.

All right, Suzanne. Appreciate it. Thank you.

And you can see President Obama's news conference live next hour in the CNN NEWSROOM. It is scheduled for 12:30 Eastern, 9:30 on the West Coast. He will take questions from reporters from the White House Briefing Room.

We are working diligently to get around Iran's information blockade to bring you the latest from the front lines of the election crisis.

Let's go live now to our Ivan Watson at the Iran desk.

And Ivan, given the blockade, given how difficult information is to get from Iran, and certainly from the streets of Iran, what are you following?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, that blockade, that crackdown, just getting tighter. You know, Iason Athanasiadis, she's a contributor, a freelancer, a reporter for "The Washington Times," arrested in Tehran, the latest to be rounded up as part of the government's crackdown on independent voices in Iran, both foreign voices and Iranian journalists. Dozens of them arrested, as well.

But a very interesting development, Tony. One of Iran's most prominent activists, Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Prize winner for peace, is in Brussels. She is meeting with European leaders, trying to organize action against the Iranian government after its crackdown following these controversial presidential elections.

Let's take a listen to her press conference, Tony.

HARRIS: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRIN EBADI, IRANIAN NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE (through translator): What I mean by political sanctions is that if the Iranian ruling system keeps the same approach towards the citizen, European countries should downgrade the level of diplomatic relations with Iran. For example, from ambassadorial to just the level of charge d'affaires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: And Tony, she has called for the release of prisoners. She has called for the election results to be annulled. She wants a new round of elections to be supervised by international organizations like the United Nations. And as she is doing this, the diplomatic tensions between Tehran and Europe are getting worse.

We've had the French and the Finnish governments calling in ambassadors to condemn the crackdown, the violent crackdown on demonstrations in the streets of Tehran, and also Britain has expelled two Iranian diplomats, a tit-for-tat move after Iran expelled two British diplomats from Tehran yesterday.

HARRIS: Well, Ivan, let's take a big step back and let's bring everyone up to speed with what the Guardian Council is saying about the election and any talk of the results being nullified.

WATSON: The Guardian Council is trying to nip this debate in the bud. It has said that under no question can these election results be annulled, that everything is going to move forward. A parliament committee in Iran has called for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president and the official winner of these controversial elections, for him to be sworn in some time between July and August 19. Despite that, there is some debate going on in the ruling circles there. You have another parliament group that has called the interior minister in, called him out onto the carpet and criticized his handling of these protests in the streets. And there have been calls from some very important figures in the Iranian ruling elite for investigations into the killings of at least 19 Iranians in the streets of Tehran over the course of the past 10 days -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right. Ivan Watson for us.

Ivan, appreciate it. Thank you.

He is best known for introducing Johnny Carson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED MCHMAHON, TV PERSONALITY: Here's Johnny!

But he's a television icon, look, in his own right. CNN viewers remember famed TV sidekick Ed McMahon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And here is the latest on Iran.

Today, the British Foreign Office tells CNN it's expelled two Iranian diplomats from London. This in response to Iran expelling two British diplomats from Tehran yesterday.

Iran's Guardian Council announces it will not nullify the presidential election despite days of protests. The council says it found "no witness of major fraud or breach in the election" and that irregularities were only reported before the balloting, not during or after.

State TV says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn into a second term between the end of July and mid-August. There are no major protests in the streets today, but activists have called for a nationwide strike.

Iran sure to be a top topic when the president holds a White House news conference next hour. And you can see it live at 12:30 Eastern, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

One of TV's greatest sidekicks ever, Ed McMahon, died earlier this morning at the age of o86. He had reportedly battled bone cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCMAHON: Here's Johnny!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: That boisterous introduction became McMahon's signature for three decades. McMahon played second fiddle to Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show." His many divorces and weight gain frequent Carson punch lines. During his time with Carson, McMahon moonlighted as host of "Star Search" and TV's "Bloopers and Practical Jokes."

As soon as word broke of his death, we started hearing from our viewers about the famed entertainer. And Josh Levs joins us to share some of those thoughts.

Boy, I hope folks are really weighing in on a great life lived and what an entertainer.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You a fan, Tony?

HARRIS: Oh, well, absolutely. I am of a certain age. I remember when "The Tonight Show" was 90 minutes long. That's how long I go back with that show.

LEVS: It was 90 minutes long?

HARRIS: Yes. And I'm one of the believers that there's no Johnny Carson without Ed McMahon, a terrific entertainer and did so much for Johnny and that show. And I'm really happy that he found so much individual fame with these other shows outside of "The Tonight Show."

LEVS: He was an icon. I mean, he was an icon on his own.

I know people talk about sidekick and being the ultimate sidekick. There's him and Batman's Robin, right? But I'll tell you, I remember, too, growing up and watching him and being really impressed, and thought he had such a super cool job.

HARRIS: Right.

LEVS: So many of our viewers do, as you know. It was literally within seconds that we started hearing from viewers as soon as we started reporting it.

We actually have an iReport for you. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WHITE, IREPORTER: Here's Johnny! The voice of Ed McMahon. What an icon of late night TV.

And for 30 years he and Johnny Carson ran the gamut of late night. They were late night.

You stayed up all night long, and I mean from my shorty pants days on up. It was always Ed McMahon being that voice announcing Johnny Carson. You know, Ed lived a pretty good life and he had some pretty tough times in the latter days of his life, but that voice will always be remembered. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: And we've also been hearing from all the social networks we've got going. We've got the NEWSROOM blog, we've got Facebook and Twitter.

I pulled up a few quotes. Let's just go to this graphic here. I want to see you the kinds of things people are writing us today.

This one from Tony: "Thank you for laughter, the honesty and all the years of unselfish service to the industry."

Let's go through a couple more. We've got a little time here. Let's go to the next one now.

"Rest in peace, Ed, and party on up there with Johnny. 'The Tonight Show' was never the same after they both left.: From Cindy Dean Wafstet.

Let's get in two more really quickly.

"He seemed like the friend that many would have liked," from Malykke Bacon.

And finally, we pulled together this one for you: "Very kind and humble soul."

Let's show the last graphic. It's going to show you where you can weigh in. We've got our NEWSROOM blog, CNN.com/newsroom. We're going to my Facebook page and Twitter, and both places is just /joshlevscnn.

And Tony, we'll keep following these throughout the day.

HARRIS: That would be great. How about this -- and in the next hour -- thank you, Josh -- we will talk to former talk show host and frequent "Tonight Show" guest Dick Cavett.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We are keeping a close eye on the Iran election crisis. Here's what we know.

The British Foreign Office tells CNN it is expelling two Iranian diplomats from London. That's in response to Iran expelling two British diplomats from Tehran yesterday.

Iran's electoral body now ruling out, annulling the disputed election. It says it found no major fraud in the June 12th presidential vote. The country's top judicial official announces a special court set up to deal with demonstrators, and state-run media reports President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in to a second term some time between July 26th and August 19th.

It is not quite a revolution, but certainly not the status quo inside Iran. Trita Parsi is back with us again today. He is president of the National Iranian American Council.

And Trita, thanks for your time again.

TRITA PARSI, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL IRANIAN AMERICAN COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.

HARRIS: You were terrific yesterday. Let's see if we can push it forward a bit today.

You know, the president is going to be talking about this, taking a lot of questions on Iran, no doubt, in his news conference next hour.

Has the president, in your view, struck the right balance in his handling of the crisis?

PARSI: Yes, he has. And I have to tell you, I'm a little bit frustrated with some of the criticism against him, and I think it's been a very limited criticism, but it seems to be getting much more play than it deserves.

We have to remember one thing -- had President Bush now been in power, and continued to make military threats against Iran, I am pretty confident that Mousavi would not have called for his people to go out on the streets. Under those types of perceptions of a national security threat, it is much more likely that they would have just swallowed their pride and anger and would have gone forward.

It's precisely because of the reduction of that threat that you see the internal dynamics in Iran playing out in the way that they are. When you have an external threat, you have the entire leadership in the regime and beyond closing ranks. And that's what we saw for eight years during Bush. It's not a surprise that something like this can happen under Obama.

HARRIS: But Trita, you take a bit of issue with the president's handling of this. Here's what you wrote in today's "Christian Science Monitor." On most counts, the White House's position has been on mark, but here is one legitimate criticism. And I take it you join on this -- "The Iranians are missing two words from Obama: 'I condemn.'"

Expand on that.

PARSI: Yes. No, you're absolutely right. This is from yesterday's "Christian Science Monitor," and I argue that the one word that is really missing from the vocabulary of the president, at least up until now -- and I think that's going to change in about an hour's time -- is to condemn the violence.

It's not enough just to criticize it, it's not enough just to call for it to end. But this brutal violence conducted by the Iranian government against its own people needs to be condemned by the president. That is not to take sides. That is different than taking sides. It's just simply standing up for the principles of human rights that the United States stands for.

HARRIS: Got you.

What would those words, "I condemn," what would they mean to Iranians?

PARSI: I think having spoken to people on the ground, it is very, very clear. They don't want the president to get into this and take sides. They are very proud of the fact that this is something that they have done by themselves. This is completely homegrown, and they don't want it to be hijacked.

They don't want it be hijacked by any other country, they don't want to be hijacked by exiled opposition groups in L.A. But they do want the president to be very clear in condemning the violence, because that goes beyond politics.

HARRIS: OK. A couple of questions here to sort of move the process forward and maybe get a better handle on where we are right now.

Yesterday you said you weren't sure President Ahmadinejad would survive the current political crisis. Is it more clear today, particularly since the Guardian Council is saying that it is not going to nullify the election results, that Ahmadinejad survives?

PARSI: I don't think it is more clear. I think the situation is still extremely unclear, and at the end of the day what happens with the Guardian Council is that one door that seemed to have been opened yesterday when they came out and said that there was some fraud, seems to have been closed a little bit more, but it's still not completely closed. At the end of the day, if the Khamenei faction and Ahmadinejad faction do not compromise, this situation is going to continue. It's going to be to the detriment of all people inside of Iran.

HARRIS: Well, to that point, where does the opposition movement go from here? You said yesterday that people are tired, not convinced that their efforts will lead to anything.

Will the protests, will this action lead to something?

PARSI: Well, what I meant -- what I said yesterday is that they're not necessarily convinced that these type of demonstrations, necessarily, will lead to this type of goal that they have in mind. However, if you shift the strategy, which I suspect that they will start doing soon, away from demonstrations and away from general strikes and things of that nature, you're not going to have the type of violence and death toll that you currently have, which is something that has shocked a lot of people. It has brought about a lot of anger, but they also have apparently started to rethink, and thinking that perhaps there are other ways that they can show their complete disagreement with what is happening, but not necessarily take it to the streets.

HARRIS: Trita Parsi, as always, it's good to talk to you. Thank you.

PARSI: Thank you so much for having me.

HARRIS: Yes, my pleasure.

And new actions in Iran meant to silence the protesters. That's despite official admission of some voting irregularities.

CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour discussed the developments on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Guardian Council itself, according to state television, did say that there may have been discrepancies with three million votes based on a survey of 50 cities in which boxes were stuffed with more ballots than there was population, people to actually vote. So, they are, on the one hand, admitting irregularities; on the other hand saying nothing will change.

And as you mentioned, the official news agencies now saying that the presidents will be inaugurated, as is traditional, sometime between July and the 20th of August, when Ramadan starts.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: The Iranian opposition is calling for a national strike. Do you think that's likely to happen? And what kind of impact could that have?

AMANPOUR: National strikes were pivotal during the revolutions 30 years ago. Oil workers, business workers, construction, airline, many, many of the engines of the Iranian economy and daily life, did go on strike periodically and extensively. However, in this case at this time, that simply has not materialized. Over the last several days we've seen several shops closing, some out of fear of violence around the protest gathering sites, but some perhaps in sympathy with the protesters.

On the other hand, the opposition leaders are basically saying that because they do not have any kind of mass media access, the Internet is quite, is quite slow at the moment, they're simply not able to get that word out and it's also not clear whether that order would be followed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Many people are hoping President Obama will make a stronger statement supporting the protesters in Iran, but CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux says that's not likely. Let's listen to her explanation from yesterday and then we will talk to her live in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX: We've heard this before. This warning about, you know, tomorrow's going to be the big day. It's going to be even worse than the one before. The administration doesn't want to react to warnings that the sky is falling. What they want to do is every day gather intelligence, see what's happening in Iran and then make appropriate statements based on that.

The second thing is here, this is one point that they make, is that the U.S. is not responding to Washington. They're not responding to members on the Hill, but they are talking directly to Iranian reformers and what they're getting from Iranian reformers is that their stance is the right one. That they're striking the right balance, that they should not change their language.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Suzanne joining us from the White House. How weird is that to see your comments from yesterday. I know it's a little bizarre, but I have to tell you, I wanted to play that because just in full transparency here, my question to you was I thought the Iranian establishment and its criticism of the president over the weekend had provided President Obama an opportunity to take a stronger stance, and you made those statements in response to that observation. You were very clear yesterday that you didn't and don't expect any new policy pronouncements from the president today, but you do think he will break some new ground on Iran in the news conference next hour.

MALVEAUX: That's true, Tony. One thing they're saying here is that they're speaking with experts who are looking at the situation on the ground. They're not speaking directly with Mousavi or any of his sympathizers, but they're certainly taking a look at what's happening there and they're saying they're not going to announce any kind of new policy when it comes to Iran, but he is certainly going to make the statement very clear that he understands what's happening on the ground. He understands the violence that is being perpetrated against these demonstrators.

He will, again, call for an end to that violence. He will not say that there is anything new in the relationship between the United States and Iran, but that he does get it. That he sees what's happening here and that in that sense, in that way, he certainly sympathizes with those demonstrators, but he is also going to reiterate, Tony, that this is up to the Iranian people. They do not want to make the United States a target or a foil for what is taking place on the streets in Tehran at this time. They don't think that that is a particularly useful or helpful.

We expect the president will reiterate that position, but he wants people to know that he understands what's happening and he empathizes for those who clearly lost their lives or who are being suppressed at this time, but that he feels, ultimately, the best way of approaching this is to deal with whoever comes out in the end of this in the Iranian regime. Tony.

HARRIS: Suzanne, I think this news conference is going to be dominated as much by questions about the economy as it is about Iran, and I'm wondering if you think the same thing, certainly North Korea, to Iran. All important topics, but the American people hired this president to fix the economy, and there is some concern that with the pace of the recovery.

MALVEAUX: Two things that he's actually going it highlight in his opening remarks besides Iran, and that is energy policy, as well as health care. Health care, as you know, Tony, is in a pickle at this moment because Congress -- you have two proposals that are going through the Senate. Both of them more than a trillion dollars over the next ten years, so there are even some Democrats who are having a pretty difficult time here signing on to that because of the cost of health care reform.

That's one of the issues with this president. How much will it cost to reform the system? Are members of Congress willing to do that? that's one of the big issues when it comes to the economy.

HARRIS: Suzanne Malveaux, thanks for playing along.

Iran. Sure to be a top topic when the president holds his White House news conference next hour and you can see it live here in the CNN NEWSROOM at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Here is the latest on Iran today. The British foreign office tells CNN it's expelled two Iranian diplomats from London. This a response to Iran expelling two British diplomats from Tehran yesterday.

Iran's Guardian Council announces it will not nullify the presidential election despite days of protests. The council said it found, quote "no witness of major fraud or breach in the election" and that irregularities were only reported before the balloting, not during or after. State TV says president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn into a second term between the end of July and mid-August. There are no major protests in the streets today, but activists have called for a nationwide strike.

Take a look at this shot taken by CNN iReporter Ted Osan. He snapped this picture of the Washington Metro accident last night about three hours after the wreck. Ted was not on either train, and you can check out this and other photos at ireport.com.

Emergency workers still trying to navigate through the twisted wreckage. The crash yesterday on D.C.'s Red Line during rush hour killed at least seven people and two others in critical condition. At this hour, dozens of others were treated at the scene. The train ran into another stopped on the same track. Boy, look at those pictures. One passenger spoke to CNN's "Larry King" last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASMINE GARSO, TRAIN PASSENGER: There was a woman in the train with me who was probably around seven or eight months pregnant. So, at that moment my main concern began to be, let's move away from this in case anything explodes or something collapses further.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Did your train ever leave the track?

GARSO: I don't believe it did. What I did see as soon as I got off and took a few steps back and I looked to the left, and I literally saw that it seemed as though our train had, if you can imagine, mounted the stationary train so that there was an entire train car diagonally pointing at the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Investigators say it will be several days before they figure out what caused the collision.

Washington lawmakers are haggling right now this morning over the cost and scope of a national health care plan. Don't expect much action before the summer recess. That's when voters get a chance to weigh in with their Congressman. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said he is convinced there will be a compromise plan in place by October.

We're asking for your views on this. What do you think? Do you think a health care reform bill will pass this year? Drop me a line. I got a blog, in case you haven't heard. I've got a blog page here. Go to CNN.com/newsroom and then you -- you click on my name or my face, I don't know which it is, and it will take you to my page.

Existing home sales up for a second straight month. Is it a sign of recovery? We'll see what Wall Street thinks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Here is the latest on Iran. Today the British foreign office tells CNN it has expelled two Iranian diplomats from London in response to two diplomats being expelled yesterday. It will not nullify the presidential election, despite days of protests. The council said it found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election and that irregularities were only reported before the balloting, not during or after.

State TV says president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn into a second term between the end of July and mid-August. There are no major protests in the streets today, but activists have called for a nationwide strike.

You know, we have some encouraging, dare I say, encouraging numbers coming out of the housing market. Existing home sales are up for the second straight month. We haven't seen a back-to-back increase in nearly four years. Could this be a trend? Sounds like a trend. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with details. Sounds like a trend to me, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly something that we haven't seen, as you mentioned in four years. Existing home sales, which make up the majority of home sales in the U.S., rose 2.4 percent in May. Why is that? Well, mortgage rates were low. The average 30-year fixed came in at 4.86 percent. Now, they've risen substantially since then. Still below 5.5 percent this month. But they've risen sharply.

And of course, low prices. The median sale amounted to $173,000. That's down nearly 17 percent from a year ago. Of course, foreclosures, distressed sales really pushing those prices down and a lot of people who are buying -- first-time buyers and their benefit -- they're helped out by a $8,000 first-time tax credit. But this report was expected to be a tad bit higher. Stephanie was talking about it earlier. We were expecting nearly 3 percent rise, Tony.

HARRIS: Susan, look, we're dealing with tight credit, nervous buyers...

LISOVICZ: Right.

HARRIS: Now there's talk about problems with appraisals. What's going on here?

LISOVICZ: That's a surprise. The National Association of Realtors says fewer homes sold last month because of problems with appraisals, and some appraisers were comparing traditional homes to distressed homes, which the end result -- more haggling, more bickering and more contracts falling through.

One other thing that has to happen for the housing market to recover is we need to get that inventory down. The inventory did drop, Tony, but we're still talking about a nine-and-a-half-month supply. So, you need to cut that down by about four months or so to get it to a healthier place and that is, of course, weighing on the housing market and what's weighing on the stock market is the sense that maybe stock prices got ahead of themselves.

So, even after the worst sell-off we've seen in a couple months, we're seeing still a little weakness. The Dow, the NASDAQ down about 0.25 percent and the S&P and the Dow are now down for the year. That's what we've seen in the last week. Put them back in the red.

HARRIS: Do me a favor. We probably won't get a chance to talk to you in the noon hour, the president's at 12:30 Eastern, as you know, but send me some notes. Your thoughts on the president's news conference, in particular what he says about this economy and we'll talk about it tomorrow, okay?

LISOVICZ: You got it, Tony.

HARRIS: Once again, the president is holding a White House news conference next hour. You can see it live in the NEWSROOM. Again, that's 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Anything you can do to stay cool out there. You can see kids enjoying a nice afternoon in the water. And Hollywood, Florida, where temperatures, even by Florida standards, were crazy hot yesterday. A record high of 100 in Fort Lauderdale, 98 in Miami, and Vero Beach, 102. That was an all-time record high. So, the hottest that's ever been recorded there in Vero Beach.

Well, a lot of folks getting in on the heat, not just in Florida. There you can see how far it extends. A lot of real estate all across the nation's midsection, too, where the heat index will be filing like between 105 and 115 degrees. Really, actually, dangerous heat out there.

Look at the temperatures on the thermometer. Ninety-four in Minneapolis. Ninety-seven in Kansas City. Triple digits. This going to be lasting for a good, solid week in this area. Cool temperatures, though, across the Northeast. Only 67 today in Boston. You guys are going to be having to wait until Friday until those temperatures start to cool down just a bit.

In fact, temperatures so hot across parts of the upper Midwest, as this video coming in from southern Minnesota, and the Austin area. Might be saying, "What does road construction have to do with heat other than it's a miserable job when the heat index is so high?". Temperatures here are so hot that the roads were actually buckling. So, they're fixing that problem and say to use a lot of caution over the next couple of days.

All right, some heat relief a little bit in Florida as the showers and thundershowers have been moving through the area, bringing down heavy downpours, but we still have a severe thunderstorm watch in effect, including in Tampa and also into the Orlando area. And speaking of tropical-type weather, we're still keeping our eye on Tropical Storm Andre. It's packing winds around 70 miles per hour. About 70 miles away from the coast now, but it's moving to the north and west, and really just a big rainmaker for these folks. You know, Tony, I'm hot just thinking about this weather today. It is brutal!

HARRIS: Let's open up the vents a little bit in this joint. All right, Jacqui, let's call Jacqui off, thanks, Jacqui.

Here's a look at the stories coming up next hour in the CNN NEWSROOM for you. Live from the White House, President Obama takes questions from the White House press corps, Iran, North Korea, health care among the likely topics. The news conference begins at 12:30 Eastern time.

And more on Iran. Did some clerics defy the ayatollah and turn out for election protests? And does it signal a change in attitude? CNN's Brian Todd will take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Obviously we are keeping a close eye on the situation in Iran. The streets of Tehran are quiet right now. And these are scenes, amateur video from Sunday. Sunday night in Toronto, a candlelight vigil for Neda. She is a young woman who was shot down. Shot dead at a weekend protest. The iReporter who captured these images in Toronto didn't want us to use his name, so we won't. But she says she was moved by the protests in Iran.

We are also remembering Ed McMahon. Johnny Carson's right-hand man for 30 years on The Tonight Show. McMahon died earlier today in Los Angeles at the age of 86. Dick Cavett, wow, went head to head with Carson and McMahon in the early '70s when he hosted his late- night talk show on ABC, and he joins us on the phone from New York. Dick, thanks for your time. It's great to talk to you.

DICK CAVETT, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST: Listen, Tony, why have they kept us apart so long?

HARRIS: It's ridiculous, isn't it? It's a crying shame.

CAVETT: Should I call you Mr. Tony to be formal?

HARRIS: No, you just call me Tony, or you can call me Big T. I'm kidding. Dick, what are your thoughts on the passing of this terrific personality? Ed McMahon.

CAVETT: I got to know Ed because when the Cavett Show was canceled on ABC, Johnny had me on his show the following Monday. So I was on a number of times. He would always say, "We are very fond of Richard, but if the next one doesn't work, it will be Armed Forces Radio for Dick." We liked each other a lot. By the way, being on ABC was not exactly going head to head with Johnny.

HARRIS: Yes. No. I got you. I totally got you on that. You know, you hear -- you heard the reports...

CAVETT: Yes.

HARRIS: Carson as a personality could be aloof. And Ed seemed so accessible on TV. I'm just curious, was he the same off camera, to the extent that you knew him off camera, as he was on?

CAVETT: Very much so. I couldn't see any difference. I met Ed at Sardie's (ph) when I was a college kid sneaking into tapings of "Who Do You Trust," the ungrammatical theme show that Johnny started. He and Johnny were downing one at Sardie's (ph), and I nosed in, and Johnny's being from Nebraska as an opening. And they had the best time laughing together and they really enjoyed each other. And I would say this, I maintain this, Ed got a bad rap as a laughing machine for Johnny. What the Germans call an (INAUDIBLE). Only the German viewers will be mildly shocked.

When Groucho came on the first time with Johnny, he turned to Ed and said, "Well, laughing boy," -- a title of an old, popular novel before your birth. But the fact is, Ed was genuinely amused by Johnny. And when he laughed, that laugh was real.

HARRIS: Well, and maybe you get at it, right there, the relationship that these two men shared. I'm just sort of curious what made Ed so good in his own right as a broadcaster, as a personality, and then what made him so good with Johnny. What was Ed's contribution? Forget about the laughing. To the show. CAVETT: It sounds condescending, but Ed was a very lucky man, and he knew it. His announcing skills were not greater than some other people, but the wonderful chemistry between those two was really magical. It worked for both of them. And Ed was a genial guy all the time. He had the office next to mine on "The Tonight Show," when I was writing for Johnny.

And the cheesy wall partitions made it so I could always hear Ed on the phone from nine to five, making deals, hustling -- that's not an impolite word, he was devoted to his career and the advantages that he had. And he devotedly worked at it all day. I don't know -- do you know what happened? I mean, did he have bad management for business, did he gamble?

HARRIS: Well, you're referring to the bankruptcy and the problems that he had with his finances in later life.

CAVETT: Yes.

HARRIS: Yes, I know what you're...

CAVETT: A very sad ending to a colorful life.

HARRIS: Well, Dick, thank you for your time. Next time, let's get you in front of a camera, and let's talk to you about, oh, any number of things.

CAVETT: Hey, listen, Tony, have me on a lot?

HARRIS: All right. Dick Cavett, appreciate it. Thank you.

CAVETT: Thanks.