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White House Adviser Van Jones Quits Under Pressure; Afghan President Hamid Karzai Close Electoral Win; Embassy Guards Whistleblower Out of a Job; Cyclist Blows the Whistle on Snoozing Guards
Aired September 06, 2009 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Supreme Court gets set to convene a month ahead of schedule. Will it throw out limits on corporate campaign donations?
And no swimming -- shark attack fears close some Massachusetts beaches.
And speaking out, now out of a job. Our Paula Newton talks with a man who blew the whistle at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live this Sunday, September 6th. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
A big week ahead for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She'll hear her first case on the high court. The justices are coming back almost a month early to take up a fascinating free speech case. It all started with a sharply critical movie that a conservative group made about Hillary Clinton's run for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THEN-SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: ... is claiming basically the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency as her own, except for the stuff that didn't work out, in which case she says she has nothing to do with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the movie amounted to a campaign ad. That's leading to a ruling on whether there should be any limits on campaign spending by corporations and labor unions.
Attorney Tanya Acker helped prepare cases for the Supreme Court when she worked at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration. She joins us now from Los Angeles.
Good to see you.
TANYA ACKER, ATTORNEY: Nice to see you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Well, what a week to get the Supreme Court back in action and the first case or among the first cases that the new Supreme Court justice will be handling, how significant is this case potentially to be?
ACKER: This case is huge. I mean, we are talking about a case that can potentially overturn almost a hundred years of our understanding about how campaigns are funded and financed. What at issue in this case is whether or not corporations and labor unions are going to be treated just like people, just like individuals for purposes of donating to campaigns. Right now, they cannot.
Now, there are some ways of evading some of those restrictions. But the law right now provides that corporations and labor unions cannot contribute to these campaigns.
Now, what the Supreme Court could have done here is simply rule on the very narrow ground about whether or not this campaign video -- or rather, this Citizens United video constituted a campaign ad. But instead of doing that, they have suggested that they want to consider the much larger question about whether or not this ban on corporate and union money to campaigns should be overturned. And so, it's a really big deal.
WHITFIELD: So, this movie -- this movie, "Hillary the Movie" is really just a springboard of the discussion. It is what precipitated these discussions about the corporate financing or financing from labor unions?
ACKER: Absolutely. I mean, the movie was funded -- produced by Citizens United, a conservative group. As you know, as you've pointed out, it's extremely critical of now-Secretary Clinton. But the point really is beyond the substance of this movie, what the SEC held previously was that the movie could not be distributed on demand because it constituted a campaign ad and that it thus fell within the jurisdiction of SEC regulation.
So, again, the court could have really taken the easy way out and say it's not so much a campaign ad because my understanding is that Citizens United wanted to distribute the movie on demand. So, they could have gotten around the much larger, trickier issue. But they really have instead chosen to take the much more dramatic course which is to potentially overturn a decision that they made just six years ago when they upheld these campaign restrictions on corporations.
WHITFIELD: And there are nine justices -- nine justices that will be weighing in on this ultimately, but it's one justice...
ACKER: Yes.
WHITFIELD: ... the newest one, Sonia Sotomayor, all eyes may be on her to see exactly how she argues or, you know, what kind of points that she just might make. What kind of performance, you know, if you will -- for lack of a better word -- do you expect from her?
ACKER: Well, you know, Fredricka, Justice Sotomayor is known -- she was known on the appellate bench to be a very aggressive questioner. She is sharp. She doesn't -- one lawyer who appeared before her is quoted as saying, she doesn't suffer fools gladly. I think that's true of a number of justices on the court. But she's known to be a pretty sharp and assertive questioner.
So, I think that she'll be pretty active. Now, importantly though, her placement on the bench is not going to change the ideological composition of the court. So, whereas this court seems to be inclined to overturn the -- some of these campaign finance rules, she is probably not going to really shift that balance. So, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and I said, you know, arguing she's not going to have her prosecutorial hat on, nor she'd be a litigator, but instead, she'll be questioning and then ultimately ruling on it.
All right.
ACKER: Right.
WHITFIELD: Tanya Acker, thanks so much. Good to see you, from Los Angeles.
ACKER: Nice to see you.
WHITFIELD: Have a great weekend.
ACKER: You, too.
WHITFIELD: After months of letting Congress take the lead on health care reform, there are reports the Obama administration may draft its own plan. The president is scheduled to address Congress this week.
And CNN's Kate Bolduan is standing by at the White House.
So, Kate, what is the administration's new strategy to move health care reform forward?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are definitely trying to reframe the debate, refocus the debate over health care right now, Fredricka.
As you said, it is a big week ahead -- a big week for the president. He just returned a short time ago from his second week, albeit a stop- and-go second week of vacation returning from Camp David, the presidential retreat. And he's now facing a crucial week in the health care debate. He'll be addressing a joint session of Congress Wednesday, where the administration says the president will lay out an understandable clear terms what the White House wants in health care reform.
And amid increasing public concern over the current Democratic proposals that are out there, top White House aides fanned out today to set the stage and really set the tone for the president's address this week.
Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They'll leave that speech knowing exactly where the president stands, exactly what he thinks we have to do to get health care done, health care reform done this year. He intends to do it.
DAVID AXELROD, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: All the ideas are on the table, David. The president set forth principles at the beginning of this discussion, at the beginning of the year. And now all the ideas are on the table, and the president will say, we agree on 80 percent of this. Let's do the final 20 percent. Let's get the job done and here's how I think we should do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And here's how I think we should do it. And the White House officials, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs specifically today also saying that President Obama will lay some -- draw some lines in the sand in terms of legislation. So, they're setting it up to be quite a lot riding on this speech as they're trying to reframe and get control of this health care debate, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And is there a plan B, say, if talks or these negotiations back-and-forth fall apart on the Hill?
BOLDUAN: Yes, that's a good question. I don't know if we can yet call it a plan B. But CNN is learning that the White House is quietly talking about drafting its own health care legislation, being described as kind of a contingency legislation if talked on Capitol Hill do fall apart. And that could include a trigger.
It's a so-called "trigger," meaning that if health care reforms only if -- the public option will only be kicked in, will only be triggered if health care reforms don't meet certain goals, benchmarks and timetables. But the big question, as we always ask Fredricka, will that win support? And that is really unclear.
Today again, on the Sunday talk shows, we heard people on the left and on the right really digging in. Liberals are saying that the public option is essential. People on the right saying that is just not something they can support. I guess, the key will probably be the president appealing to moderates, to the center, trying to win bipartisan support -- some kind of bipartisan support on this legislation.
WHITFIELD: All right. Kate Bolduan at the White House -- thanks so much.
BOLDUAN: Of course.
WHITFIELD: All right. A key week coming up for the health care battle for President Obama. He'll push his reform plan at a Labor Day rally in Cincinnati actually tomorrow. And then on Tuesday, he gives his address to the nation's school kids. And Wednesday, the president will address a joint session of Congress on health care. And then, Friday, he'll be at the Pentagon for a 9/11 memorial ceremony. So, another test for the Obama White House. The president's televised message to cool kids facing an angry backlash for many parents -- the administration now plans to release a transcript of the planned speech tomorrow.
CNN's Tom Foreman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it a fast lesson in public pushback, the president's plan to speak to school kids on Tuesday has some conservative parents saying he's trying to brainwash their kids into buying his politics.
SHANNEEN BARRON, PARENT: Thinking about my kids -- sorry -- in school, having to listen to that, it's really upsets me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Politics is totally up to the family.
ANDREA MILLER, PARENT: So, will I send my child? I don't know. Right now, I would say no. I'll keep them home.
FOREMAN: Across the country, many school districts are encouraging students to watch. In New Orleans, it will be required, but that's an exception. In virtually every state, at least some schools have decided to either not show the speech, review it first, or make viewing optional.
Some sites schedule conflicts and technical difficulties, but this was not what the White House expected. The president's speech will focus on keeping kids in school, a subject he's promoted before.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Unfortunately, nearly 30 percent of U.S. high school students aren't making it to graduation.
FOREMAN: But the core complaint seems to be with supplementary teaching material from the Department of Education. Originally, they called for students to write, quote, "what they can do to help the president."
(on camera): The White House has since changed that, suggesting that children now write about their own educational goals. Furthermore, the text of the president's speech will now be put online Monday, so any teacher, parent or politician can preview what's going to be said.
(voice-over): Plenty seem fine with that, including the national president of the PTA.
CHARLES SAYLORS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL PTA: We have an opportunity here in the United States for parents, teachers and students to take part in a tremendous civics lesson.
(CROWD CHANTING)
FOREMAN: Still, just like the crowds at all those town hall meetings, others are far from satisfied.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My rights as a parent are being circumvented so that this president can speak to my children.
FOREMAN: And they clearly resent the notion that they are unfairly questioning the president's motives.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: Education matters, and what you do today and what you don't do can change your future.
FOREMAN: After all, they point out, when the first President Bush spoke to school kids on TV in 1991, top Democrats called that just political advertising on the taxpayer's dime.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. You don't have to be in school to see President Obama's speech to the kids. Just tune in to CNN. We'll carry it live noon Eastern on Tuesday.
The announcement came in the middle of the night, in the middle of a holiday weekend. White House environmental adviser Van Jones has resigned. Jones insists that he's the victim of a vicious smear campaign, but he is quitting to avoid becoming a distraction.
He was under heavy fire by conservatives who accuse him of having extremist views. They point to a petition he signed back in 2004 suggesting that the Bush administration officials may have allowed the 9/11 attacks. They also criticize him for course rhetoric like this February exchange posted on YouTube.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are the Republicans able to push things through when they had less than 60 senators, but somehow we can't?
VAN JONES, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, the answer to that is they're (BLEEP)holes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reacted to the Jones resignation this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIBBS: What Van Jones decided was that the agenda of this president was bigger than any one individual. The president thanks Van Jones for his service in the first eight months in helping to coordinate renewable energy jobs that are going to lay the foundation for our future...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the president want him to go? GIBBS: Well, the president and the CEQ accepted his resignation because Van Jones, as he says in his statement, understood that he was going to get in the way of the president and ultimately this country moving forward on something as important as creating jobs in a clean energy economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And we'll talk with senior White House correspondent Ed Henry about whether the Obama administration bowed to pressure over the Van Jones controversy and if we're seeing signs that the opposition is slowly chipping away at the White House. That's coming up at the bottom of the hour.
Jaycee Dugard's hometown feared the worst for 18 years. But the town is turning pink now to celebrate her safe return. The kidnapped girl now is a free woman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: In California, a small town is celebrating the return of Jaycee Dugard. She disappeared from South Lake Tahoe, California, 18 years ago and was found recently living in the home of a convicted child molester.
Kara Finnstrom is in South Lake Tahoe.
Kara, what's going on the town right now? I see the pink balloons behind you.
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, a parade is now under way. We want to show you some of those pictures. It sets to arrive here in about 10 minutes. And we're talking about a literal sea of pink here. People dressed in pink, carrying pink balloons, ribbons and signs.
Pink was Jaycee Dugard's favorite color as a child. Now, the Dugard family itself actually moved away from this community years ago. But those who lived here say they've always felt connected to Jaycee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANGIE KEIL, LAKE TAHOE PARENT: Everyone was just going, "Did you hear Jaycee is alive, and she's found." We were all so excited.
FINNSTROM (voice-over): Neighbor Angie Keil never forgot the blue- eyed girl so violently snatched on her way to school. During the nearly two decades since, sadness and fear have reverberated in this small mountain community.
SUE BUSH, FORMER TEACHER: There were tears and they were scared. They should have been scared.
FINNSTROM: Jaycee's fifth grade teacher says classmates wrote Jaycee letters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my senior yearbook.
FINNSTROM: One classmate, Meagan Doris (ph), felt Jaycee's absence during each life milestone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She didn't have a chance to graduate high school, to have friends, turning, you know, 21 and going to college. I think that's probably been the most haunting thing.
FINNSTROM: But Angie Kiel says in the midst of all the horror and loss, Jaycee unknowingly gave her and other parents an incredible gift.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: This guy walked around the corner, and he said, "If you come find my wallet with me, I'll give you $5."
FINNSTROM: That was Kiel's son Emmet, shortly after a frightening 2002 encounter. Emmet says the man chased him but he got away on his bike.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Practice these things with your family.
FINNSTROM: Emmet was taught to escape through a program in schools called "A Fighting Chance.
TERRY PROBYN, JAYCEE DUGARD'S MOTHER: My name is Terry. I'm Jaycee Lee Dugard's mother.
FINNSTROM: Jaycee's mother helped launch it in her daughter's honor six years after her disappearance.
BROOKE LAN, A FIGHTING CHANCE: We would put the kids the trunk of the car and we would lower the -- we would actually lower this. We don't latch it all the way.
FINNSTROM (on camera): Isn't this a little scary for the kids?
LAN: At first, it is a little scary for them. But, boy, when they get out of the trunk, they feel really good. They understand what it takes to break wires, what it takes to kick out taillights, or what it takes to bang on the top of the roof and really make a lot of noise.
EMMET FREEMAN, STUDENT: The training had told me, just say no, you don't know this guy. And so, I did.
KEIL: You just never know what would have happened. But the fact that Emmet knew what to do and knew not to even engage in any conversation meant that he is with me now.
FINNSTROM (voice-over): Keil says in this community, where nobody used to lock doors, the training appears to have helped a number of children. Now, she's overjoyed knowing a girl who started it all is finally back home.
KEIL: I can't imagine what it would be like to get her back.
(END VIDEOTAPE) FINNSTROM: And this parade reverses the route of the walk this community did on the 10th anniversary of Jaycee's disappearance. They say that actually signifies that this has come full circle, Jaycee coming back home -- Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: Wow. That's an extraordinary story. Thanks so much, Kara Finnstrom.
All right. Planning to spend this Labor Day at the beach? Well, we'll tell you why some folks in Massachusetts are making other plans now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at the top stories right now.
A shakeup in the Obama administration. Environmental adviser Van Jones is calling it quits. The word of his resignation came overnight. He says he is a victim of a right-wing smear campaign over his past activism. Jones once signed a petition calling for an investigation into whether the government allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen.
President Obama returns from Camp David today to start a busy week. Tomorrow, he's pushing his health care reform plan at a Labor Day rally in Cincinnati. Tuesday, he addresses the nation's school children. And Wednesday, he faces another tough crowd, returning members of the U.S. Congress. He ends the week at the Pentagon for a 9/11 memorial.
And more progress against that massive wildfire burning outside Los Angeles. Firefighters say it's half contained and should be fully contained in about nine days. It's no longer threatening any homes.
And for many people, Labor Day weekend means one last trip to the beach. Several Massachusetts beaches have been closed through the end of the holiday because of sightings of a great white shark. "No swimming" sign haves gone up at five Cape Cod beaches. Massachusetts hasn't seen a fatal shark attack since 1936. Officials there are taking no chances.
And if you're spending the Labor Day weekend along the gulf coast, you'll be dodging some showers, but mostly, it's a beautiful holiday forecast for just about everybody out there, Jacqui Jeras. Unless you're in the coast of Massachusetts.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. But you know what, though, check this out.
WHITFIELD: The sky is going to be beautiful, but just don't get in the water.
JERAS: I know, but -- check it out. Oops. I want to get the temperature. Temperature -- I don't want the wind. Give me the temperature. There it is.
All right. Check it out, 61 in Boston.
WHITFIELD: No.
JERAS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: That's not my kind of beach weather. Then again, I'm not diehard, and folks in Massachusetts are diehard.
JERAS: Sixty-something could feel good.
(LAUGHTER)
JERAS: It's a little chilly, needless to say, if you're thinking about the beach in the northeast. But it is beautiful, and, of course, temperatures warming throughout the afternoon.
We are looking at some heavier showers and thundershowers across parts of Florida, across the Florida Keys, where things have been kind of heavy as well. We'll go ahead and pan over just a little bit and show you some of these thunderstorms around Mobile, New Orleans, we've been getting heavier showers and storms here as well -- looking around Indianapolis, down towards Louisville. This is going to stick around through some of the afternoon as it heads towards the Cincinnati area.
And then in the southwest, we had a lot of rain into Arizona and Phoenix there yesterday. Today, it's just a couple of spotty showers. So, we're still going to have a chance in the afternoon, but not quite as prevalent, I don't think, as yesterday.
And really, the worst place for a barbecue today in the Pacific Northwest, where we've got a strong cold front, making its way onshore here, bringing in some very heavy showers and thundershowers. And we've got a camera to show you from our affiliate in Seattle from KING TV, where the rain is coming down pretty heavy and foggy conditions -- 58 degrees.
WHITFIELD: Ooh.
JERAS: Rain through Labor Day.
WHITFIELD: Too brutal for me.
JERAS: No. Oh, it gets better.
WHITFIELD: Yes?
JERAS: Hold on. Hold on, there's more.
WHITFIELD: Oh! You're going to tell me about the snow.
JERAS: Snow, yes. Snow levels about 6,000 feet. They could see one to two feet of snow at the higher elevations...
WHITFIELD: Wow.
JERAS: Yes -- between today and tomorrow. Tomorrow, of course, the big Labor Day holiday and we're going to see a lot more of the same across the southeast. A little bit more widespread into the Ohio Valley and, yes, the Pacific Northwest being rainy and very cool. Everybody else is looking pretty good though.
WHITFIELD: Everyone will just have to spend a lot of time indoors together.
JERAS: There you go.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Jacqui.
Well, from the speech this week to school kids, to a controversial adviser's resignation, to backlash over health care reform -- is the White House starting to show signs of vulnerability?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Opponents of government health care reform and big government are making sure their protests stay fresh in lawmaker's minds.
(VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The tea party express that started in California found its way to Louisville, Kentucky, this weekend. It will make several more stops before reaching Washington, D.C. on September 12th for a taxpayer march.
So, health care reform and government spending aren't the only topics inviting criticism of President Obama. Just last night, word came that White House adviser Van Jones had resigned. A leading House Republican, among others, had called for Jones' job because of a petition Jones signed five years ago. That petition called for an investigation into whether government officials under the Bush administration deliberately let the 9/11 terror attacks happen.
Is this an example -- the resignation -- of the White House caving in to pressure from the right? I talked about that with CNN senior White House correspondent Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think they pretty much did give in to the pressure. And it had been building for days. The White House hadn't really pushed back very hard. They had kind of let this fester. And some of the comments that Van Jones had made were just kind of beyond the pale, even people in the White House privately acknowledge, especially signing onto that petition for this group that essentially was charging several years ago that Bush-era officials knew about 9/11, sort of let it happen, let these terror attacks happen for their own political reason.
People inside the White House very high up realized that this gentleman was not going to survive that, and they didn't want the president being tied to that. And so they acknowledge now that maybe the vetting was not good enough about his -- you know, his background, his statements and whatnot. So there's clearly a mistake there.
But I think, secondly and most importantly, with that political pressure out there, this White House realized the president about to give a big health care speech, the focus needs to be on that, not some other controversy. And so what did they do? They tried to bury this over the Labor Day weekend, when maybe the media's not paying that much attention, a lot of Americans are vacationing. This is a good time to sort of get some bad news out there so you can focus on health care.
WHITFIELD: So this anti-Obama administration movement -- it does seem to be gaining strength and even chip-chipping away at the administration in different ways, whether it's Van Jones or it's maybe health care reform or maybe even Tuesday, his speech to school children. Is this movement sort of chipping away at the integrity of the White House, or does the White House feel like it's handling this well?
HENRY: Maybe not the integrity, but it is chipping away at sort of that political armor this president had. I mean, you remember, as a candidate, it seemed like, in many days, he could do no wrong, whereas the Clinton campaign and the McCain campaign had so many issues they had to deal with. The Obama campaign was pretty solid, pretty adept at all of this. And then the first 100 days or so, they were also pretty strong.
But we're starting to see his approval ratings come down, and I think there's some frustration among Democrats that I've talked to on Capitol Hill, other advisers to this president, who are saying that they're not pushing back as quickly as they did when he was a very agile candidate. When there were charges on the Internet, rumors out there, they were very aggressive in pushing back.
In the White House -- like that education speech on Tuesday, again, that festered out on talk radio for several days with very little pushback from the White House. These Van Jones allegations were sort of festering out there. They didn't push back. They let it build and build. And finally, you're right to note health care, with what the president calls disinformation out there about death panels and the like. Sure, the president eventually pushed back pretty hard, but he let it go on for weeks and weeks and weeks until the opposition really mobilized. And it really put this White House on the defensive.
WHITFIELD: But there really is a difference between pushback and modifications because as it pertains to health care reform and even the lesson plan for the classroom speech, the White House made some modifications. It now is saying it wants to craft its own health care reform legislation, and it also made some changes in that lesson being asked of the school students. So does that undermine this White House?
HENRY: Well, certainly, on the education speech, I think what happened is they acknowledged that the lesson plans that they were going to distribute on Tuesday along with the president's address, back-to-school address to students -- they had to chuck that because it looked maybe a little political. They were trying to get the students to write essays and whatnot saying how they could help the president, why they admire them. There was some blowback on that, and they've now acknowledged, Look, maybe that wasn't the right thing, just stick to the speech where he says study hard and stay in school. That's pretty non-controversial.
On health care, what top aides to the president are saying is that he hasn't settled on writing his own bill yet per se, but for the first time in private, they are talking about putting something together, whether they call it legislation, they call it principles. And you're right, that's a reversal from before, when they kept insisting they didn't to need to write their own bill, they didn't -- they had to let Congress do it.
And they maybe over-lessoned -- over-learned the lesson of 1993 and '94 with Bill Clinton, where he got too much in the weeds, too much in the details. It backfired. Congress rejected it. This time, they were so bent on letting Congress do all the details that maybe the president didn't assert himself early enough in the process.
I think the bottom line, though, is he still has time. It's evaporating, but he's got time. That's why Wednesday night is so important, that speech to a joint session of Congress. He can finally assert himself. He can really finally get much more specific. And maybe we're late in the fourth quarter I guess, with the football season about to start, but he's still got some time, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Does the White House see these attacks as politics as usual, or does it see something else, dare we use our word, racism?
HENRY: Well, in terms of Van Jones, I think they realize that while this was someone who's been friendly with the president and some of his advisers over the year and he was the green jobs czar, which is a very important priority for the president, they haven't suggested that race was a factor here, I think in large part because on some of the issues that are at stake here -- for example, this 9/11 splinter group charging that the Bush officials knew about 9/11 in some way. It was so outrageous, having nothing to do with race, that even people in the White House who are fans of Van Jones, in terms of substance and policy on environmental issues, realized that's just beyond the pale and they couldn't defend it.
So even if there were other issues that could have tinged towards racism, they're not really bringing that up because they realize bottom line is this guy signed onto some really controversial stuff. He says he didn't really know what he was doing. But they're acknowledging they didn't vet this clearly enough. And you have to wonder, after the Tim Geithner tax issue and the Tom Daschle tax issue, why did they let this man go through without more, you know, vetting his statements and his associations a lot more closely, Fred?
WHITFIELD: The White House knew that change would be an uphill battle, but does anyone in the White House acknowledge or indicate that this is tougher than they expected?
HENRY: You know, they will acknowledge as they are sort of sleep- deprived at this state. I mean, so many of these White House aides have been working around the class. You think back to the first hundred days, where specifically, they were dealing with the stimulus, the financial crisis. That's almost calmed down a little bit. But unemployment's still at 9.7, almost 10 percent right now. They are still facing a mountain of problems. We haven't even gotten -- we've talked about health care, but we haven't even gotten to Afghanistan yet.
I mean, that may ultimately be the biggest issue this president confronts over the first four years here, whether he has only one term or not. We'll see whether he has eight years or four years, but the bottom line is he's already sent 21,000 more troops into Afghanistan. He's getting pressure that he might have to send even more. And conservatives certainly, by and large, want to see that. But on the left, he's facing pressure from people in his party saying, Why are you doubling down? Why are you increasing our presence in Afghanistan? This is not what we voted for. So I think your bottom line question is absolutely right. Campaigning is one thing, governing's a whole 'nother matter, Fred..
WHITFIELD: White House correspondent Ed Henry in Washington, thank you.
HENRY: Thanks, Fred.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A key week coming up in the health care battle for President Obama. He'll push his reform plan at a Labor Day rally in Cincinnati tomorrow. Then Tuesday, he gives his address to the nation's school kids. And then Wednesday, the president will address a joint session of Congress on health care. And then, Friday he'll be at the Pentagon for 9/11 memorial ceremony.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai is close to winning a second term, but Afghanistan's election remains under scrutiny as claims of election fraud continue. CNN's Atia Abawi reports from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The IEC, the Independent Election Commission, released more results today from August 20th's presidential elections. They say they've tallied about 74 percent of the country's votes.
(voice-over): President Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, with a comfortable lead of 48 percent of those counted. His main rival, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, with around 32 percent of the votes.
The IEC also stating that they had to throw out votes from 447 different polling stations because of fraud. This has been an election marred with fraud even before election day, the ECC, the Electoral Complaints Commission, receiving over 2,000 complaints, nearly 600 considered priority A, meaning strong enough that it could actually affect the outcome.
DAOUD ALI NAJAFI, INDEPENDENT ELECTION COMM. (through translator): The Independent Election Commission has been completely impartial and neutral in its activities and in fulfilling its duties throughout the process.
ABAWI: Just yesterday, Dr. Abdullah held a press conference where he again was pointing the finger towards the Karzai campaign for fraud, and this time also towards the IEC, saying that they were also engaged in fraud. The IEC has denied those allegations. So has President Karzai's campaign.
(on camera): And President Karzai's campaign say that they're not speaking up at the moment because they would rather have the institutions handle the situation, rather than interfering with democracy. Atia Abawi, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: The man who blew the whistle on his naked, cavorting co- workers in Afghanistan is speaking out. Hear what he has to say about the U.S. embassy guards' behavior and why he's now looking for a new job.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories. One of the president's top environmental advisers is resigning. Embattled green jobs point man Van Jones says he has been hammered by criticism over his past activism. Several years ago, Jones signed a petition calling for an inquiry into the 9/11 attacks which suggested the government under the Bush administration was responsible. He has since apologized, saying he didn't review the document fully.
Health care, education and 9/11 figure prominently in President Obama's agenda this week. He'll push health care reform at a rally in Cincinnati tomorrow and a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. And then Tuesday, he'll stress the importance of education to the nation's school children, and on Friday, he'll pay a special visit to the Pentagon for a 9/11 memorial.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai is edging closer to victory right now, despite accusations of vote rigging. And with 74 percent of the election results counted, he is leading. He needs 50 percent to avoid a second runoff. The Independent Election Commission is not expected to finalize the results until later on this month.
And China says people convicted of syringe attacks could face the death penalty. Police arrested 21 people last week in western China on suspicion of stabbing others with hypodermic needless. Five people have died in recent protests separate from that. This part of China has been racked by ethnic violence between native Muslim Uighurs and millions of Chinese who have moved there from other parts of the country.
And he saw his co-workers misbehaving on the job at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan, so he turned them in. Well, now the whistleblower is out of a job, as well. Terry Pearson says he wasn't looking for glory or mass firings. What was he after? He explains in this exclusive interview with CNN Paula Newton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fresh off a plane in Afghanistan, Terry Pearson says he's back home in Britain much sooner than he wanted to be after blowing the whistle on behavior he says was shocking and undignified.
TERRY PEARSON, FORMER CONTRACT WORKER IN AFGHANISTAN: It was just downright stupid, some of the things they were doing, and insensitive.
NEWTON: Pearson was a contractor working as an operations supervisor at Camp Sullivan in Afghanistan, housing quarters for U.S. embassy guards on contract. The camp is now under a U.S. State Department investigation for inappropriate conduct stemming from charges and explicit photographs involving U.S. embassy guards, images of nudity, alcohol abuse and what appears to be sexual hazing.
Pearson says he saw it for himself a couple of months ago, was disgusted, and said no one should have tolerated it.
PEARSON: You would not try to enforce a sexual deviant way of thinking on someone. You may have a laugh and a joke and do something, drop your trousers just for a laugh. But when you start encouraging people to drink alcohol running off someone's body parts, you know -- oh! -- a bit over the top.
NEWTON: Pearson says he wrote e-mails to his employer, RA International, and complained to supervisors of Armor Group, the contractor that shared the camp and employed the guards featured in the pictures.
PEARSON: And his answer to it was, They're just letting off steam. And I think that's what they -- the way they looked at some of the incidents that happened.
NEWTON: But the incidents were investigated by the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight and reported to the State Department. Several guards have now been fired or resigned. Management is being replaced.
But as a whistleblower, Pearson says he wasn't after mass firings, just a change in behavior. He says back at Camp Sullivan, he was made to feel he had done something wrong, and so he resigned a few days ago, only to ask for his job back just hours later. It was too late. He was on a plane home within hours.
His employer, RA International, says Pearson resigned of his own free will and, quote, "Although we are now aware of the alleged events at Camp Sullivan, the employee's resignation was not associated with this matter."
(on camera): How much does it bother you right now -- you're the whistleblower, you're the person who said this is not right -- and now you're out of a job? PEARSON: If I could turn back the clock and have the chance to do something different, I don't think I would. I think I'd still end up doing exactly the same thing because I think people's dignity -- dignity at work and respect at work is more important than having a job yourself.
PEARSON: Pearson says he will continue to help with the State Department investigation, but he's still stunned that doing the right thing could have such dire consequences in his own life. Paula Newton, CNN, Liverpool, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And this week marks the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Now in 2009, how safe are our roadways, our bridges, our ports? We'll take an in-depth look at the state of U.S. security.
And if you have any questions, we want to hear from you. Send them to us at CNN.com/fredicka or you can find me on FaceBook, and we'll tackle those questions next Saturday during the 4:00 PM Eastern hour of the NEWSROOM, state of the U.S. security. We want to hear from you.
All right, it's the kind of problem no crew wants to find. Why a disturbing discovery on a California landmark could have drivers looking for another way to work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Drivers in San Francisco and Oakland could have a nasty commute ahead. Take a look. Well, this is a time lapse photo right here as work crews began a seismic retrofit of the Bay Bridge. Yesterday, they actually found a significant crack in a steel link that helped hold up the eastern span. And now take a look right now, live pictures of that bridge being worked on there.
It's a beautiful bridge. We all agree on that. But they want to make sure it's as safe as possible for the thousands of people that commute it every day. Fixing it actually means that span could be closed for much longer than first planned. It was supposed to reopen Tuesday. Some 260,000 vehicles in all cross the bridge every week day.
Pretty nice weather for most of us this Labor Day holiday weekend, but folks in Seattle are shivering in cold, raw, rainy weather. And in the mountains, there's snow? That's what Jacqui says. You said it. I believe it.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, good.
(LAUGHTER)
JERAS: So glad to hear that. Thank you, Fredricka. You know, lots of folks...
WHITFIELD: You know I believe you all the time. What you got for us? JERAS: Well, you know, like you said, really very chilly across the Pacific Northwest. You know, this is that big Labor Day holiday weekend, where people are thinking sun, fun, pool, beach. Well, I'm thinking fireplace and maybe a little hot chocolate across the Pacific Northwest. I know you're kind of used to it here, but this time of year, it's even cool by your standards.
Check out some of these temperatures in this area and what it kind of feels like, 64 degrees right now in Seattle. Portland also about 60 to 64 degrees in this area. Olympia, Tacoma, there you can see you're still in the 50s at this hour, so certainly a bit on the chilly side. And that's going to stick with you right through the weekend.
And as you head into the higher elevations, yes, you see that white in here, a little bit of that pink? That's snow transition taking place. Could see a couple of feet of the stuff before all is said and done. So it's a little bit of a bummer for you for the weekend, unless you like to stay inside and enjoy that kind of stuff.
Now we've got some other areas of the country that are a little bit on the wet side, as we take a trip over towards the East Coast. And there you can see some of the showers and thundershowers pushing through the Louisville area. Indianapolis, you're finally starting to clear out. And then for you beach goers down here along the Gulf Coast, we've been having some spotty showers and thunders from New Orleans over towards Mobile, throughout really the Pensacola area. And then South Florida really, really heavy and wet yesterday. Today less prevalent, but it is still out there.
No travel delays. There's your best news for the day.
WHITFIELD: Hurray!
JERAS: Just thought I'd try and get a big smile out of you with that one because that, like, never happens, right? And the forecast for tomorrow looks a whole heck of a lot like today. Heat's starting to build back, though, into parts of Texas, and we've got the on-shore flow in the Southwest, which brings a little fog to that bridge in the San Francisco area, but it also brings humidity into those fire areas.
WHITFIELD: OK, they need a little bit of that.
JERAS: Yes, they do.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate it.
All right, sleeping on the job and then busted for it, what happened to security guards caught napping when they should have been protecting New York City's George Washington Bridge.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The whistle has been blown, the axe has fallen. Two guards who were hired to protect George Washington's Bridge have been fired. They were sleeping on the job. CNN's Deb Feyerick spoke to the guy who actually caught them napping. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joey Lapore loves riding his bike from New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge into New York's Central Park.
(on camera): You take this path every day?
JOEY LAPORE, CAUGHT BRIDGE GUARDS NAPPING: Pretty much every day.
FEYERICK (voice-over): It was one of those rides across the bridge Lapore looked over at a security booth and saw something that alarmed him.
LAPORE: I saw a guy sleeping, and I thought, This is crazy that the guy's sleeping on duty.
FEYERICK: And he says it happened not once but three times.
LAPORE: I got totally outraged, and I said, You know what? I'm taking a picture of this.
FEYERICK: Which he did, walking straight up to the security booth.
LAPORE: Imagine if I was a terrorist. Imagine if I had a gun in my hand. I could have opened up his door and blew his head right off. That's how close I was.
FEYERICK: Months before going public, Lapore says he reached out to the security guard.
LAPORE: I said, You know, I don't want to be a jerk and report this, but you got to promise me you're not going to be sleeping while you're supposed to be guarding a bridge. And he said, No, no, no, it won't ever happen again. Don't worry.
FEYERICK: But when it did with another guard, Lapore felt there was a bigger problem.
LAPORE: If this guy worked in a deli and he was sleeping behind the counter, I wouldn't care. But when you're protecting us and it's your job to have an eye out for anything that's potentially hazardous for us or our safety, then I take that very seriously.
FEYERICK: The Port Authority, which runs the bridges, says both guards have been fired for sleeping on the job. In a statement to CNN, the agency says it welcomes public vigilance and that, quote, "The Port Authority takes the safety of its passengers and facilities very seriously and has spent more than $4 billion on security since 9/11."
Although he feels badly about the firings, Lapore still feels he did the right thing, especially because a cousin and friend died on 9/11.
LAPORE: If I can do one thing to help one person stay alive, then I'll be very, very fulfilled for that. FEYERICK (on camera): Neither the Port Authority nor the contractor that hired the security guards would release the names of the two men in the photos, so we were unable to reach them directly. The agency did confirm that sleeping on the job was the reason for termination. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And coming up in one hour, who's making a bid for Senator Ted Kennedy's seat? We'll take a look at the players. Also at 4:00 Eastern, swine flu. Lots of you have questions about the H1N1 virus, and we have answers. And a four-day school week? Good idea or bad? Why officials in one school district say it will save them from a budget crisis.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "YOUR MONEY" starts right now.
