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Social Media Privacy; A New Party Brewing?; Toyota's Troubles

Aired February 04, 2010 - 13:59   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. One of the things that we are talking about today is the fact that Facebook has turned 6. It is the sixth anniversary of Facebook, one of the most important and influential media sites in the world. John Abell is with Wired.com, and he is here to talk about it. John, good to see you. You are here via Skype, I see.

JOHN ABELL, WIRED.COM: That is right.

VELSHI: John, you know, I'm fascinated by Facebook and fascinated by the social media, and we can report endlessly on the good that has come from it. But the one thing that it has challenged is our sense of privacy and our ability to maintain privacy. I want to get your thoughts on it.

ABELL: Well, sure. There is a sense when you are in your Facebook sort of community that you are dealing with kind of your roommates and people down the hall, but you are not, really. The recent changes in the privacy defaults that Facebook institutes means that a lot of the things that you putting up there are going to everybody, and as a matter of practical truth, anything that you put on there anyone could share with somebody else.

There's also the issue of owning your information, and it -- Facebook has it, it's there, but it is really your - but when you want to leave, it's not that hard to take it with you.

VELSHI: So what's the issue here? Is it something that Facebook and social media companies need to adapt to, or do we all have to adapt our behavior to the fact that now it's just all out there a little bit more than it used to be?

ABELL: Well, absolutely. We have to accept the fact that pretty much everything that you say anywhere, especially in a large community like Facebook, is a matter of public record at some point. But it's also important for companies to sort of take seriously the fact that you do have some reasonable expectation of privacy, even if the privacy controls aren't quite there, or even if you are sort of saying things in public. So we have to be careful, but we also have to hold companies to a higher standard.

VELSHI: Give me a letter grade for Facebook's handling of this evolving privacy discussion.

ABELL: Well, you know, grades are great. I would say that they are definitely trying.

It's in no company's interest to sort of make it easy for you to kind of stop using their products and services, and they are really competing in a new kind of era here. This is the Twitter era, where everything is kind of public. They're trying to be as public as possible.

I think they're giving it a good try, but I think there's a whole lot more they can do.

VELSHI: John, good to talk to you. And thanks for your perspective on it, very balanced perspective about it.

There are concerns about privacy, and some of that lies on our shoulders and some of it's on the shoulders of those companies that host us for social media.

Thanks you for being here.

John Abell of Wired.com. He's the New York bureau chief of Wired.com.

All right. We have been talking about the Tea Party, which is beginning to look a lot more like a political party. In fact, today, it has its first national convention kicking off in Nashville.

In fact, just now, I think registration is about to open. You can see there are some people with some strong, strong opinions, you can see from those effigies and posters.

How has this movement grown so quickly? We're going to talk about that in just a minute.

You know what? We're going to talk about it right now.

First of all, I'm going to tell you about the Tea Party movement and where it all started.

Back in 2009, it was sort of the first most people heard about it. February 10, 2009, one woman protested wasteful spending in Fort Myers, Florida. By February 16th of last year, there were dozens of protesters, actually. They were protesting the government stimulus plan which we have been digging into here in Seattle.

By February 27th, dozens of rallies had started nationwide. They were dubbed the "Tea Party Rallies" for the first time, and this is a reference to the Boston Tea Party throwing off the yolk of oppression and taxation without representation.

By April 15th of 2009, hundreds of thousands rallied at Tax Day Tea Parties, sort of protesting how the government uses tax dollars.

By September 12th, and through the summer, the Tea Partiers had a march on Washington. It drew tens of thousands of people in D.C. alone. And, of course, February 4th, today, the first National Tea Party Convention starts. Tickets are sold out. They are somewhat expensive, and as a result of that, some people are staying away, some people have backed out, feeling that the amount that it costs to actually go to the Tea Party Convention isn't in keeping with the grassroots approach that this was supposed to have.

Let's go to senior political analyst, Gloria Borger. She's in Washington right now.

Gloria, are we witnessing the birth of another party in America?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think we're witnessing the birth of a very passionate movement that's really, in many ways, defined by what it opposes. And it opposes big government. It opposes excessive regulation. It opposes more taxes. It opposes a higher deficit.

And it's grown because there seems to be this vacuum in American politics right now, and politics abhors a vacuum. And so this party is rushing in to fill it.

I think it's a party in need of leadership. I think it's a party in need of organization. And I might say that the growing number of Independent voters out there won't all necessarily be members of the Tea Party movement, but they are kind of attracted by its independence and its sort of anti-Washington nature.

VELSHI: Well, let's just pull up a poll. We have asked people how they identify.

Thirty-two percent identify as Democrats. Twenty-six percent as Republicans. Forty-two percent identify as Independents.

Is that where the Tea Party is aiming, or is it actually with the Republicans?

BORGER: Well, you know, it's interesting. I think if you had to take a look at it right now, you'd say that these folks are neither Republican nor Democrat, but they might not be your typical Independent voter either.

Lots of Independent voters we poll say they are looking for more bipartisanship. And these voters, I think, have very, very firm ideas about what they believe and what they don't believe.

And quite frankly, they have been inspired by the fact that they don't see anything that is going on in Washington that they like. And in the long term, there are lots of Republicans at that Capitol dome behind me who are a little bit worried about this Tea Party movement, because they're worried that it could split the Republican Party and hand a lot of congressional victories to the Democrats.

VELSHI: And, of course, you've got a president who is now trying to appeal very broadly to all sorts of other groups. We're going to come back and talk to Gloria a little bit more about that, the impact of whether or not we are looking at a new party, the impact of the Tea Party movement on the future of politics in this country.

On the right of your screen, John Avlon is there. He's an Independent, and I want to talk to him about whether he sees his own face in the Tea Party or whether it's something foreign to him when we come back.

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VELSHI: Let's continue our discussion about the Tea Party, what it means, who those people are.

We've got Gloria Borger, our senior political analyst, and John Avlon, who is the author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Attacking America."

Were you talking about the Tea Party people when you referred to the "lunatic fringe attacking America"?

JOHN AVLON, AUTHOR, "WINGNUTS": No. No.

The Tea Partiers are a conservative populist movement. It think there certainly are extremists and wingnuts among their ranks and some of their heroes, but it's a big mistake to conflate one to one. And it's also a mistake, I think, to equate the Tea Partiers with Independents.

Again, you know, I think you see, as CNN's new poll just showed, Independents are the largest and fastest-growing segment of the electorate. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be Independent.

And yes, Tea Partiers are angry at both parties. They're angry because of the cyclical overspending that they've seen and the dysfunction that's been in Washington. But at the end of the day, the Tea Partiers are to the right of the Republican Party.

They are conservative populists. They want to move the Republican Party further to the right, whereas Independents feel the parties are too polarized.

VELSHI: Gloria, you heard Republican member of Congress Michele Bachmann saying that she felt the Tea Partiers would take over the Republican Party.

BORGER: Well, you know, I don't think that's a possibility at this point. The case has to be made though that we can't really underestimate the potency of the public anger that's out there right now.

And I agree with John that, you know, Independent voters are very different from these Tea Party folks who really are defined by certain fiscal issues. You know, they don't want more taxes. And certainly, they don't want big government.

If somebody can harness that and attract Independent voters that John is talking about, and some of these angry Tea Party voters, then you really might have a very viable candidate.

VELSHI: Well, let's look back to 1992 and discuss that for a second. We'll talk about the results of the 1992 presidential elections with Ross Perot pulling 18.9 percent of the vote, Bill Clinton getting 43 percent, George Bush 37.5 percent. And obviously, if some of those conservatives had gone over to George Bush, that would have been a very different story.

Who, John -- capitalizes on this, as Gloria says? Are we ready for a movement? Are we ready for a new leader?

AVLON: Well, I think there has been an Independent movement brewing in American politics for a long time. And you started to see it in Ross Perot's 1992 campaign.

Ross Perot, fiscally conservative, socially liberal to Libertarian, like most Independents today. What was happening then? Anger at the deficit, anger at the party -- both parties had sort of given up any sense of fiscal responsibility, and the special interests that controlled Washington -- the same things that are motivating Independents and some Tea Partiers today.

What I think has happened is, in the intervening years, you have seen a reinsertion of play to the base politics that reinforces the worst aspects of Washington in the eyes of many Independents. So, yes, folks are angry, folks are giving up on politics as usual. But where this leads, how it will break, well, that story is yet to be written.

BORGER: I think what you see going on in the White House right now, what you saw in the last election, is that Barack Obama is trying to become that candidate again. I think during the election, lots of Independent voters flocked to Barack Obama because they thought he was representation of that sort of Independent bipartisan kind of politician.

And now what you are seeing with the president as he goes and talks about civility, as he goes to the House Republican Conference and takes them on, he is trying to reclaim that mantle of Ross Perot, if you will, to a certain degree, and say, I'm fiscally responsible, I'm bipartisan, I want to work with you, and try to get those voters back. Otherwise, there is a vacuum into which the Tea Party can jump.

VELSHI: John, you're going to be at the Tea Party Convention?

AVLON: I will be there.

VELSHI: Now, here's the thing. For a guy like you and many Independents in this country, they don't want to be associated with some of those signs that we showed pictures of just recently, some of the ugliness that goes on there.

If this movement is to grow, is it going to actually have to sort of shed some of its fringe?

AVLON: Well, one of the things that has happened in the last year is there's no question the fringe is blurring with the base. And one of the things that's going to be interesting to see in this Tea Party Convention is whether they pivot to a positive agenda.

You know, I think a lot of folks in the movement are a part of what they call the Obama resistance. But the old populist movements had a policy program. We haven't seen that pivot yet, and that's going to be a real key question for this movement going forward -- can they pivot to a positive message, or are they animated primarily by opposition to President Obama?

VELSHI: And to your point, Gloria, can President Obama pivot to his more populist message before the Tea Party catches up to him?

BORGER: Well, and that's exactly what they're trying to do. They see it out here on the horizon. They don't see a natural leader for it, but they also understand that Barack Obama was able to attract Independent voters sick and angry with politics in the presidential campaign, and he can't be seen as a product of Washington anymore. So, he is trying to move outside of that.

VELSHI: All right.

Gloria, good to talk to you, as always.

BORGER: Sure.

VELSHI: John, great to see you. You look like you've got something to say.

AVLON: I do. Look, both parties -- I've been given notice. But this should be a wake-up call to both parties.

BORGER: Right.

AVLON: American people are sick and tired of this far-left/far- right fight. They're tired of politics as usual. And both parties should realize they've been put on notice by the American people.

VELSHI: All right. You both will come back often. Good to see you both.

Thank you very much, John and Gloria.

BORGER: Sure.

VELSHI: All right. The whole world is watching Toyota not only for the recalls and the retrofits already in progress, but to see whether another recall may be in the works. And this time it might involve the Prius.

I'm going to break it down right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: OK. While we follow the Toyota story -- and we really are following it very carefully -- we've got people at mechanic shops, at Toyota dealerships, finding out exactly what's going on, how these repairs are happening.

Let's talk a little bit about what's going on.

One of the newest discussions into this Toyota issue is the Prius. And this goes back to May of 2009. The third generation Prius goes on sale in the U.S. and Japan. You will know that as the 2010 model.

By July of 2009, there was a complaint of a lag in Japan in the braking, which means the braking wouldn't activate until, I've heard, almost a second after it was tapped.

Now, in January of 2010, there was a software update. Apparently, this is a software problem, according to Toyota. But it was not yet sold. And now we're getting more complaints about the braking system. So, I did hear a Toyota dealer say earlier it's just a second, but I saw a calculation today that says that if you are going at some speed, the difference between the brake activating when you tap the brake and a second can mean 80 or 90 feet, which, of course, is an important distance when you are trying to stop your car.

We'll keep you posted on that side of things.

Let's take a quick look at the recalls right now just to make sure that if you have a car that is recalled, you know that you're in here.

You should call Toyota or call your dealership. But the floor mat recall, there's two different issues. One is the pedal getting caught on the floor mat.

You've got those versions of the Avalon, the Camry, the Corolla. Then you've got the Highlander, the Matrix, and the 2004-2009 Prius. That's just about the floor mats. Also, the Tacoma, the Tundra pickup truck and the VENZA.

Now, there's a separate recall. That's the pedal getting stuck on the floor mat.

There's a separate recall that has to do just with the gas pedals themselves getting stuck. You've got the Avalon, the Matrix and the Vibe, the Sequoia, the Tundra, the Camry, the corolla, the Highlander and the RAV4 in those model years.

Again, call Toyota, call your dealer, get it fixed. And we'll keep you posted as to any other developments, including those having to do with the Prius, if we get those.

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VELSHI: Listen, I want to keep you all posted on a story that we have been staying right on top of, and that is the Toyota story.

I want to tell you now, in case you've seen news leaking out about this, there is not a Prius recall under way. Toyota has denied and CNN has confirmed from Toyota they are denying reports of a Prius recall.

In Toyota's words, "We have no information that such a decision has been made. We are working with NHTSA on a preliminary evaluation of the issues raised in owner complaints."

So, if you do see news trickling out about a recall on Prius, that has not taken place, according to Toyota. If it does take place, or there are any further developments on Toyota, we will bring you every piece of the story as it continues.

Another story that we are following is the Bank of America charges that have been laid by the New York attorney General. On the other side of this break, I'm going to tell you what that means to you and who has been charged.

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VELSHI: OK. A major story that we are following right now.

If you felt angry and betrayed by how Wall Street acted before, during and after the biggest financial crisis in recent history, listen to this.

Fraud charges have been laid against America's largest bank, its CEO at the time of the crisis, as well as its former chief financial officer. The charges say Bank of America executives, including former CEO Kenneth Lewis, deliberately misled shareholders and the U.S. government in order to secure bonuses and to get bailout money for the bank.

Let's go straight to New York. Allan Chernoff is working on this. Our senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff, has been following this story not just today, but, in fact, since this whole thing started back in 2008.

What have we got, Allan?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, you have very aggressive charges here from the New York state attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. As you said, he is charging the bank and the former chief executive officer, the former chief financial officer with fraud, saying that they intentionally hid the extent of losses at Merrill Lynch in order that Bank of America's shareholders would go ahead and approve the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America.

And in addition, they are saying that they hid one over on Washington, D.C., that they essentially hid from Washington, D.C., the extent of the problems, that they said we are going to need a bailout to get this deal done or else we are going to back out. And the attorney general is saying that actually was not the case, but that they deceived Washington in order to get that $20 billion bailout. So very aggressive charges here, Ali.

VELSHI: And it seems that the attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general for New York, has worked with the special inspector general for TARP, the bailout in order to come up with these charges.

CHERNOFF: That is right. They have worked in concert on this.

Very interesting, at the same time today, the Securities and Exchange Commission is actually announcing a settlement with Bank of America, $150 million, that is a big amount for an SEC settlement. The money will go to Bank of America shareholders, and they are settling charges that Bank of America had hid the extent of losses and also had hid the bonuses, $3.5 billion in bonuses that were to be paid out to Merrill Lynch employees. So, an important settlement there from the SEC.

And Ali, also, let me add the response from Bank of America and this is the response to the New York state attorney general charges. He is -- the Bank of America is saying that, "Bank of America and its executives, including Kenneth Lewis and Joe Price," the former chief financial officer, "at all times acted in good faith and assisted with their legal and fiduciary obligations... The company and these executives will vigorously defend ourselves" -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Allan, your sense of how big a deal this is? We have not seen charges laid of this nature at that high of a level throughout the entire financial crisis. They have been smaller, they've been against people in lower positions. How big of a deal is this to the viewers?

CHERNOFF: Yes, very important. This has been going on for a while. The New York state attorney general has been investigating those bonuses, he had a face-to-face meeting with the CEO Ken -- the former CEO Ken Lewis, also met with the former head of Merrill Lynch, John Thain. So this has been going on for a while, he has clearly been dissatisfied with what he has heard, he is alleging fraud in this case. And it is pretty juicy stuff, you do not get this sort of thing every day.

VELSHI: Yes, I have been reading the complaint. It is a 90-page complaint with, as you say, some very specific allegations. Allan, you are reading through it and I will do the same and we'll talk again on this.

Allan Chernoff our senior correspondent in New York on this very important news of charges laid against Bank of America and two of its former very senior executives.

CHERNOFF: Another story we're continuing to follow, the Toyota story. You may have heard rumors about a recall on the Prius, the 2010 Prius. Let's go right to Chris Isidore, he's CNNMoney.com. Chris has been following this story.

Chris, you understand that -- you have talked to Toyota, they are not issuing a recall on the Prius? CHRIS ISIDORE, CNNMONEY.COM: I'm not hearing anything.

VELSHI: All right, if somebody is with Chris, just tell him to tell us what he knows about the Prius recall. OK, he can't hear me.

We're going to take a quick break. When we get back -- tell us what Chris knows about Toyota denying that the Prius is in a recall, it's being recalled. Toyota is saying that not the case. We want to get clarity from Chris who has just spoken to Toyota on the other side of the break.

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VELSHI: OK. You may have heard news trickling out about Toyota issuing a recall for the 2010 Prius. Our Chris Isidore at CNNMoney.com has just spoken to Toyota, he says that is not true.

Chris, what do you know?

ISIDORE: As of right now, the Toyota people in the United States say they are not aware of any recall. It is the middle of the night in Japan, so it seems unlikely that anything was issued in the last few moments. But it's pretty clear that something is going to have to be done with the Priuses. Toyota has admitted there is a problem with the software, it's causing a problem with the braking. It's a more of a when, not if.

VELSHI: Right, and there actually some numbers that came out sort of saying it was 270,000. So somebody reported something very specifically, but Toyota is saying that is not the case. For the moment, if you own a 2010 Prius, it is not under recall.

ISIDORE: Not under recall, though, Toyota has admitted there is a problem with the software that controls the brakes on that and say that they have fixed it for new Priuses being made, but there are 37 Priuses on the road in the United States which do not have the fixed software.

VELSHI: And the issue here is drivability versus safety. There are a lot of things that a company offers to fix on a car when they find that it is wrong under the guise of it being drivability issue. When it falls into the area of safety, that is usually where a recall has to happen.

ISIDORE: Right. Well, and braking issue is perhaps even more serious than an acceleration issue. If the gas pedal is sticking, you should be able to shift into neutral and jam on the brakes to stop the car. If the brakes are not working properly, there is a potentially more serious problem.

VELSHI: The issue here is a lag that the customers are complaining about. That when they hit the brake, it does not start to brake for about a second. I had somebody -- we listened to one dealer today say it's just a second, it's not that big of deal. But you have read the evidence of how serious a one-second delay in applying the brake can be. ISIDORE: Well, we know that there are four accidents, two of them involving injuries; no fatalities, fortunately. And you have to understand that this is only 37,000 cars out there, and you have already had problems with more than 100 of them. It is percentagewise a much higher incident of problems than in the gas pedal recall where you have millions of cars under recall, but only a couple of thousand have had problems.

VELSHI: All right, we have been advising people on what to do if they have either the gas pedal problem with the floor mat problem or the gas pedal problem on its own. As you mentioned, you stick it into neutral, try to get yourself into a safe position, disengage the engine. We have no advice for people who think they've got a braking problem, am I right?

ISIDORE: Well, no. I mean, you keep your foot on the brake as hard and as long as possible and hopefully the car stops before it makes contact into something.

VELSHI: All right, this problem is not getting much easier for Toyota. Chris Isidore, you should know, is one of our team of people who follows the auto industry, so he's one of the guys that we get a lot of our information from him.

Chris, it's good to see you. Thank you for staying on top of this story, along with Peter Valdes-Dapena and Poppy Harlow and the whole CNN team. Thank you for that.

ISIDORE: Sure. Thank you.

VELSHI: CNNMoney.com is the place to go for information on this recall and for information to do with Toyota. We're continuing to follow this story, but for the moment, Toyota is denying that there is a recall on the Prius. We will keep you posted on that.

To some other news story, motivational speaker and self-help guru James Ray is in an Arizona courtroom. He was arrested yesterday on three counts of manslaughter. He hosted that sweat lodge ceremony last year near Sedona where three people died last year. He could face up to 12.5 years in prison on each count.

And off of the coast of Florida, a kite surfer was bleeding and surrounded by a group sharks yesterday when he was rescued by a lifeguard, but it was too late. It is Florida's first fatal shark attack in five years.

And two giant pandas born here in the U.S. are headed home to China. Three-year-old Mei Lan left Atlanta this morning aboard a FedEx 777 nicknamed "The Panda Express" The plane headed to Washington where it picked up 4-year-old Tai San. The two pandas will join a breeding program to help replenish the endangered species.

All right, we've been having a conversation with Karl Penhaul about these Americans who have been detained in Haiti for allegedly, improperly trying to remove children from Haiti, children they said were orphans. Karl Penhaul joins me on the line now with the latest. There has been an update, Karl what have you got?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Ali, the Americans have now left the prosecutors' office and we are following two vehicles where the Americans are riding in, high-speed (AUDIO GAP) to see where they are being taken. I asked at the exit of the prosecutors' office, I asked one of the prosecutors who was in on the hearing how the session had gone. He said, I will talk to you later, outside.

But between then and the Americans came out, and we are now following them to keep our eye on them to see where they will be taken, to see what decision the panel of three prosecutors has taken. Because what they in fact were doing today was listening and hearing the evidence in the case and deciding whether they will formally charge the Americans or whether they will decide to release them for lack of evidence, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. So they have not been -- we've not made a decision, they have not been given a decision that they are free to go, it is just that that could be pending?

PENHAUL: I have a seen a media report, but it is only a media report that I have seen right now, that their decision may be to release some of the Americans and to hold others. But I would prefer to get back to you with that in a few minutes when we have that absolutely confirmed. Like I said, in a few minutes it should be much clearer.

What I can tell you is that when the Americans were taken out of the prosecutors' office, they were loaded into a white SUV and into a blue pickup truck. None of them were speaking to the press. I asked them if they had a message for their families, knowing that they are very devout Christians I asked them what the Lord had decided for them today. There was no response to any of the questions. They certainly looked solemn, and when they were loaded up into one of the white SUVs, the larger of the two groups, eight of the Americans were in the white SUV, and they quietly began to sing a hymns.

But certainly no comment from any of them about what is happening now, but no tears either. Some solemn faces, some hymns, but no tears and no comments to the press, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Karl, you'll stay on that story. If you have a new development, you just call us in and we will put you on TV to tell us what the new development is with those remaining Americans.

Karl Penhaul in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

When we come back, we will go to the White House. Ed Henry is actually dressed better than normal there.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Better than normal?

VELSHI: He seems to have peeked into my wardrobe to see what I am wearing.

HENRY: I see you got orange there.

VELSHI: We're both wearing orange, but he is not just doing it to impress me. He actually has a reason to be dressed up, he might actually be getting a raise. So stay with us and we'll listen to that.

HENRY: Going to see the boss.

VELSHI: Yes, he's going to see the boss.

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VELSHI: There is nothing against Ed Henry that the theme song coming into "The Ed Henry Segment" today talks about a panda bear. We're not referring to Ed Henry, we're referring to those panda bears that -- they're leaving D.C. to go breed, is that the deal?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're going back to China. They were on loan to the United States, I guess we're trying to foster good relations, there's a lot of sticky issues that this Obama administration has to deal with when it comes to China. In a couple of weeks, in fact, the president is going to meet with the dalai lama, that is not going to make the Chinese happy right now. So they're going to have their disagreements, but I think the pandas are something we can all agree on are pretty cute and cuddly, I guess.

And there are a lot of people shedding tears. Tai Shan, who was one of the pandas, sort of got a following here in Washington and from people all around the country and the world who came to visit. So yes, the pandas are a pretty big deal today, Ali.

VELSHI: You are -- I think that the panda's jobs now are to be fostering good relations with each other, right? They're going to be making more pandas.

HENRY: Yes, I'm trying to be diplomatic about it, Ali, and I think you are trying to cut to that -- yes. I mean, reproduction is a big part of the panda experience, I suppose you can say...

VELSHI: You don't really want to be having this discussion right now, because the big boss is right near you. He's watching you.

HENRY: Yes, you are kind of putting me in the bad position, exactly.

VELSHI: He thinks that you are the senior White House correspondent, and here you are talking about the pandas getting it on.

HENRY: You are cramping my style, exactly. Let's try to cut that out, because today, over my shoulder here you can see the White House residence, and up in one of the old dining rooms up there, the president had business leaders over -- Steve Balmer of Microsoft. This is the fifth one he's had in his time in office, and it's a regular thing he's trying to do, get a sense of what is going on with the job situation, what's going on with the economy.

But among the executives today is none other than Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner, our parent company.

VELSHI: Right.

HENRY: And so, that's why I tried to dress a little nicer today. I was hoping -- I did the shot out here hoping that he might come out of those doors maybe in the West Wing at some point. Maybe -- you know, lunch is over, so maybe he left and moved on with his day without me.

But I hope you don't mind if I have to end this segment quickly, because at some point if Jeff Bewkes comes out here, I want to make a good impression. I might have to go out there and hail a cab for him...

VELSHI: No, exactly.

HENRY: ... out to Pennsylvania Avenue to get him a cab if I have to, because, you know, you want to get in good with the boss, you want to get a raise. Just throwing that out there.

VELSHI: You got that fancy tie.

Listen, the president this morning -- you are talking about the lunch, this morning he met with some other people. Tim Tebow the quarterback was in on that.

HENRY: Well, it was kind of a funny moment, because the president was there giving a very serious speech at the annual prayer breakfast, every president since Eisenhower has been there and has spoken, and he's talking about coming together and all this. And if you look at some of the video that we had, Tim Tebow, who gave the final prayer and is very outspoken about his Christianity was there on the dais, and one of the members of Congress was getting a signed piece of paper from him, it almost looked like he was getting an autograph. So I'm not sure if everybody was paying full attention to what the president was having to say.

But you know, this is one of those moments where they are trying to foster some bipartisan cooperation. We've heard a lot about that from the president in recent days. He's trying to find these forums where he can reach out to the other side. The prayer breakfast an obvious place to do that, also a place maybe to get a autograph.

VELSHI: All right, well, in the interest of fostering cooperation, I invite you our viewers to follow Ed Henry @EdHenryCNN on Twitter, but also follow me, @AliVelshi.

HENRY: We're expecting the leaders -- you know, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi are going to be coming out here. They're going to meet with the president in the Oval Office shortly behind closed doors and they're going to be going in the Oval Office. And then we hope they come to stakeout, and we've got the microphones set up, and we've even got the sign out there just in case Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi are not on -- getting on the right page with Twitter yet.

VELSHI: Right. In case you don't know, Ed Henry is on a mission to maintain more Titter followers than I have. We will see how this ends, Ed.

HENRY: If I have Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, it means I'll have an even bigger lead than I have right now over you.

VELSHI: Oh, I think his mike has just dropped out. We can't hear anymore. We'll try and get back to you, Ed. Thank you.

Ed Henry and "The Ed Henry Segment."

All right, this Toyota thing is getting more and more complicated. If you are hearing reports of another Toyota recall, the company says not so fast. Poppy Harlow joins me from CNNMoney.com to break that down. The new news or not the news as it were about a Prius recall right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right, let's go straight to New York to CNNMoney.com Poppy Harlow standing by, and she is on top of the Toyota situation along with everyone else.

Poppy, this latest news -- we just talked to Chris Isidore -- about whether there is or is not a recall now on the 2010 Prius.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: All we can go from, Ali, is what Toyota is saying. I'm going to read you their statement. They are clearly saying at this point there is not a recall. Keep in mind, in Japan, as Chris Isidore said, my colleague, it is the middle of the night, so we will probably hear something more from Toyota in the coming hours. But here's what they said, we have no information that such decision has been made. We are working with NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on a preliminary evaluation of the issues raised in owner complaints.

What are those issues? Those issues are with the brakes in the 2010 hybrid Prius, 124 of the complaints here in the United States. Prius a very popular model in this country, 37,000 of them on the road here in the U.S. So 124 complaints, that's a lot. You have to think other people may be having issues that have not filed complaints yet, so it is something to be concerned about.

It is obviously something that Toyota is looking into. They have talked about the fact that they had a problem with the software for manufacturing those brakes. So they have admitted problem, but, Ali, to, be clear, no recall.

But I want to take you through why this is so critical. Before any of this Prius issues even a single one, they had 8.1 million vehicles recalled worldwide in just about the last month. The company came out yesterday and said it's going to cost them about $2 billion, that doesn't include anything having to do with any potential problems with the Prius. And they said they're probably going to have an estimated $100,000 future vehicle sales lost as a result, Ali

Add the Prius on top of this, you've got some major issue and auto analysts I spoke with said, you have major issues beyond the estimated cost, this is long-running upward for Toyota, Ali.

VELSHI: Right, ultimately, this is a company that gets a premium on its cars because of its reputation in reliability.

HARLOW: Right.

VELSHI: So it's reputation is probably bigger than the financial hit. We have seen companies take financial hits and recover from them, and obviously a company of Toyota's size that's manageable. It's the can they get in front of this thing? Do they always have to be last out of the gate with information about repairs or recalls? That seems to be what the issue here.

HARLOW: I think that is exactly the issue. And now the media's been talking about it since January 21st when the recall first happened for the initial issue with the unintended acceleration in eight other Toyota models, not even including the Prius. They've got major problems. They've got a communication issue that they're dealing with and they've got a major investor stock issue.

Ali, you know this story well. Here's the stock up here on January 21st. June, OK year to date. The last two weeks, it has fallen precipitously, the stock is down 18 percent since January 21st. The stock, I'm looking at it trading right now, down another 2 percent, Ali. They've got issues on the investment front, they've got issues on the PR front, and they've got major issues on the safety front because it was the NHTSA which came out today, Ali, and said they are opening a new investigation on the 2010 Prius hybrid.

VELSHI: Once again, Toyota is not in front of that, they are responding to something that the government is doing.

HARLOW: Again.

VELSHI: And I think that's what it comes down to.

All right, Poppy, we've got our whole team on this. You are the front of it, but we've got everybody there at CNNMoney.com.

HARLOW: Sitting right back there, yes they're all behind me.

VELSHI: Yes, Chris and Peter -- so we're going to stay on this for our viewers.

We're going to tell you everything you need to know about these recalls as they go along. Again, we did know what to do if you've got the acceleration problem, we do not have any advice to give you if you are having a breaking problem. Obviously, as Chris Isidore just said, that is a much more serious.

Poppy Harlow, thanks very much.

Listen, did you ever open something on your computer that's not safe for work? Come on, be honest. Well, next time, make sure there isn't a camera on you. See this guy? Not the guy in the foreground, the background is in a whole lot of trouble. And now, there is a campaign to save his job, but we're not sure that's going to work. Does he deserve a second chance? I will have "The X-Y-Z of It" when I come back.

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VELSHI: All right. Almost time for "RICK'S LIST" and Rick Sanchez is standing by.

Rick, you are talking about Haiti.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Have you seen what is going on down there? Brooke Baldwin, she and I were just getting a briefing from the folks over here at the international desk.

Look, the Associated Press seems to be, Ali, saying that all ten of these Baptist missionaries from Idaho, right...

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wait, but we have not confirmed that. It is important to point out that our own Karl Penhaul who has been on this story, he's on the ground, he has jumped in this car and so he is following this van with these ten missionaries. So we need to know if they're either going to Port-au-Prince to the jail or if they're going to the airport. We don't know yet.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and I think that's the point, and that's a great point.

Look, two things are happening, all right. A news service is reporting that they have been charged officially with child trafficking. CNN has not confirmed that, however, one of our best and brightest, if I do say, Karl Penhaul is there. You just heard him a little while ago, he's on the phone, he's following the car and he will have the information for us as we move forward.

VELSHI: He says the minute he gets it, he's calling us.

SANCHEZ: One other quick thing, we may have an exclusive with Scott Brown during this hour. May have an exclusive, we don't know.

VELSHI: The filibuster buster.

SANCHEZ: You know, he's the story right now. So if it happens, you'll see it.

VELSHI: All right, I've got something for you to pay attention to, because this is the kind of guy -- if I had a list, this guy may be on it.

It's time for "The X-Y-Z of It." Maybe you have seen this video already on our air, or maybe you are one of the 1.3 million people who have watched it on YouTube where it has become a sensation. Now, forget the guy talking in the foreground, OK. Watch the guy sitting at his computer -- you've seen this, right? -- on the left side of the screen. The guy there, you can just see his head, he's talking to the guy who just walked up.

Now the guy sitting down is banker Dave Kiley (ph). He's opening up an e-mail with some racy photos of model Miranda Keir (ph). Australia's Channel 7 News caught him in the act while they were doing an interview with this fellow on the front of the screen. Now the other guys is on leave while the company, Macquarie of Australia, decides whether to do anything about it.

But here is the part, he is getting a lot of support on the Internet. A financial Web site called Here is the City has started a "Save Dave" campaign encouraging to e-mail Dave's company and plead for the knucklehead's job.

SANCHEZ: Ali?

VELSHI: Yes?

SANCHEZ: You know what? There is a possibility that we might get this Scott Brown -- let's, Ali, I am taking it from you. You fine?

VELSHI: You take it, you take it. Take the show, take the show.