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Plane Crash Kills Polish President and a Number of Top Dignitaries; Embattled RNC Chair Michael Steele Asked to Resign by GOP Official; Congressman Makes Comparison Between Tea Party and KKK

Aired April 10, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center, this is "CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Brianna Keilar. We have a lot of breaking news this morning, so let's get right to it.

HOLMES: The top story we've been keeping an eye on here for the past several hours. This happened in the wee hours, but the president of Poland is dead along with his wife and several other top dignitaries of the Polish government. The entire country is mourning right now.

You are seeing on the left side of your screen the wreckage of the plane that went down in the western part of Russia. On the right of your screen, you're seeing what we have been watching for the past hour or so now. That's a live picture in Warsaw, the capital of Poloand, a country that is in absolute shock right now.

Again, I repeat, not just losing the president of that country, the first lady, the head of the army chief of staff, the national security office head, deputy parliament speaker, the deputy foreign minister, a number of dignitaries.

Right now we've confirmed 89 altogether were lost in that particular plane crash, but according to other numbers there could have been more people on the plane. So waiting to get another good, hard number.

Poland's prime minister came out a short time ago, trying to reassure the people of his country, but also saying he wants those victims to be remembered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TUSK, POLISH PRIME MINISTER (via translator): The deputy speaker of the Polish government and representatives of Polish political parties. The modern world didn't see such a drama. For many of us, they were friends and acquaintances.

The biggest tragedy is for the families of the people who were killed in Smolensk. I wanted to say in the name of all the Polish people, to pass the words of condolences to the family of the Polish president, to his daughter, to his mother, to his brother, and to all the families of all the victims. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And again, the president, 60-year-old Lech Kaczynski, along with his wife Maria, along those who have been killed in that plane crash.

You just heard from the prime minister there. The way it works in Poland, the role of president under their constitution is a largely ceremonial role with some powers, but most of the political power does lie in the hands of the prime minister. Right now the acting president of that country is the head of the parliament.

We'll have more details as they continue to come in, also reaction from around the world, including from President Obama. We'll let you hear his response straight ahead.

KEILAR: The long wait is over and the results are not what the people of West Virginia had hoped for. Rescue workers found the bodies of four missing miners Monday overnight. That brings to 29 the number of minters killed in Monday's explosion.

HOLMES: And a family in Tennessee adopted a son from Russia, but sent him back, essentially saying he was damaged goods. The boy was seven years old. According to the family, he was violent and psychotic. They claimed he threatened to kill people, had actual hit lists, and tried to set the house on fire.

The child, though, when he got back to Russia, says the family was mean to him, pulled his hair and whatnot. The situation has touched off an incidence international, and the U.S. government is reportedly troubled by it all. Officials are investigating now to see if anything actual criminal took place. Russia has suspended adoptions until the U.S. agrees to better regulate them.

And again, our big breaking story this morning, the president of Poland dead along with his wife and many others of the Polish government after a plane crash in the western part of Russia. It was in Smolensk, the western part of the country.

CNN's Phil Black has been keeping an eye on this story for us from London. Phil, what else have you been able to find out?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., this Russian Tupolev 154, the jet carrying the Polish president and the group of 89 or so high-ranking Polish officials was on final approach to the military airstrip at Smolensk. We are told there was very heavy fog, and somehow something went wrong. The aircraft struck trees and the result -- there is not much left of that aircraft.

Witnesses have talked about the plane being engulfed in flames, and the debris is strewn across a wide area there. An investigation is already underway. A key part of that will obviously be locating the aircraft's black box flight recorder. But for the moment it's not known precisely what happened to the plane, but a lot of the speculating right now is focusing on that thick fog. HOLMES: And also the government there in Poland is trying to focus on certainly taking care of their people. We've seen a couple high-profile officials come out try to reassure people, also the mourning process is starting.

But give our viewers an idea of how it works with their government and how it's set up with their constitution and who exactly is running the country of Poland.

BLACK: Sure. As you mentioned, the prime minister said the Polish state will and must continue to run. Under the system, the Polish president does not hold overarches powers. The business of government is largely held by the prime minister and his senior ministers. None of them were on board the plane, so the government will continue to function under the constitution.

In the meantime, the speaker of the Polish parliament will step in and assume the president's duties, and an election must be held within 60 days. There won't be a vacuum, there will be continuity of poltical leadership.

But it's important not to underestimate just what this loss symbolically means to the Polish nations, to lose so many top ranking political, civilian, military officials in one go, the aftereffects will be felt for some time to come within that nation -- T.J.

HOLMES: Phil Black, thank you so much.

We're going to let our viewers know a bit more. Lech Kaczynski, born June 18th, has an identical twin brother. They were first child actors and rose to prominence in the country before getting into politics.

A full decade later, Lech Kaczynski became mayor of Warsaw in 2002. Two years later he ran for president as a social conservative. He promised a moral revolution. He then quickly named his twin brother to the prime minister position, and he served from mid-2006 until November 2007.

KEILAR: Besides the president and his wife, there were a number of other dignitaries on this flight. They include Poland's last president in exile, the head of the national security office, the deputy parliament speaker, some additional lawmakers as well, and the deputy foreign minister were also on board.

As you can imagine, there's been outpouring of support from the international community. President Obama has just issued a statement. I want to read a portion of it now.

It says "Today's loss is devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the world. President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who played a key role in the solidarity movement and he was widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to advancing freedom and human dignity."

"With him were many of Poland's distinguished civilian and military leaders who have helped to shape Poland's inspiring democratic transformation." President Obama going on to say "We join all the people of Poland in mourning of their passing."

HOLMES: Here now listen to the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMITRY MEDVEDEV, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: So that all the officials accompanying his accident -- and I've been in close contact with our partners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That's President Medvedev of Russia. The people of Poland you can imagine are just in shock after hearing the news of this accident. Let's show you what we saw just a short time ago, the outpouring of emotion there. This is in the capital. We saw crying, we saw singing, and we see a lot of people stopping to leave flowers and notes.

These I'm told, once again returning to live pictures, again, this crash is still about, what is it, about seven hours old, news of it just about seven hours old. This square, this particular area of Warsaw has been packed with people leaving flowers and notes.

Condolences have been pouring in on social media sites as well. Josh Levs is taking a look on those sites for us this morning. Hello, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the picture we were seeing there in Warsaw, that one of the many places in the world that's begun to have gatherings, a lot of people thinking not only of the president and his wife, but also the other people on the plane, the dozens of lives that were lost in this plane crash.

While we look at this, another thing I'm seeing on the Internet is organizations are organizing other events. You have polish expats organizing their own events to share in the mourning here for this huge loss for so many people.

Let's come over to my screen. First of all, there's a Facebook page that's gone up specifically for that -- RIP Polish president. You can see one of the messages down here. "We are sharing your sadness from Turkey."

We've also been interacting with you on Facebook. Adam said, "Josh, such a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the Polish people." Let's jump over to twitter. Here's just one. "This is tragic, heartbreaking for Poland. Good reminder life is short and you never know your expiration date will come."

We have all sorts of breaking details for you at CNN.com, and we'll be bringing you every detail as we get it. Keep it here with us on TV, also stay with us online as we learned more about what happened. T.J., Brianna, back to you. KEILAR: All right, Josh, thanks very much. We'll have more on that terrible crash, including a closer look at the plane.

Plus, embattled Republican national committee chairman Michael Steele speaks today at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the party faithful confident they're seeing a conservative resurgence across the country. We're going to go there live.

HOLMES: Also Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens leaving the high court. Who will President Obama nominate to fill that vacancy? We're live in Washington with some potential replacements.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: The tea party leaders pretty much patting themselves on the back for Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak's decision not to run for reelection.

Also happening today, final speeches at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference happening in New Orleans. That's were our deputy political director and friend of our show here on CNN Saturday morning, Paul Steinhauser, is this morning.

Paul, we talked about this. The tea party, we knew this was coming, but they want to take full credit for Stupak getting out of game.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: They're pretty happy campers, T.J. This is their third national bus tour, and they were targeting to Democratic lawmakers in this. They started in Searchlight, Nevada, going after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But the other person they say they were targeting was Bart Stupak in Michigan.

They put up ads and had all these rallies in his district. This will embolden the movement overall as they continue on and get involved in the midterm elections.

HOLMES: All right, a gathering of conservatives, Republicans there in New Orleans. Sarah Palin got the crowd fired up yesterday, as she often does. What do we expect to see today?

STEINHAUSER: Right now there's not a lot of action. But in about three hours it will be pretty crowded here.

Among the speakers today, Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. You know, I know that he is really facing some tough times, really under the gun for his handling of the party committee and some of its expenditures. So he's building his support, trying to keep the job.

Also speaking today, a bunch of people, T.J., who may want to run for the next race for the White House for their party's nomination, including from next door in Mississippi, Haley Barbour, the governor over there, and also includes Ron Paul, the Congressman from Texas. Remember, he ran for the White House last time around. Also speaking today is Mike Pence, Indiana Congressman, and the former senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum. Also the results of a presidential straw poll, so we'll keep a close eye on that.

HOLMES: I know you'll keep an eye on things for us there, our Paul Steinhauser, who can clear a room like nobody else. Paul, good to see you, buddy.

(LAUGHTER)

STEINHAUSER: Hey!

KEILAR: And tomorrow morning Candy Crowley will be lived in New Orleans for "STATE OF THE UNION." A former RNC chairman shares his thoughts on the state of the GOP and current RNC chair Michael Steele.

Candy and the best political team on television will also explore the phenomenon of Sarah Palin. Candy Crowley hosts "STATE OF THE UNION" Sunday mornings.

HOLMES: A question a lot of people are asking -- should the chairman of the Republican National Committee resign? My next guest says no way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Poland is a nation in mourning. As you can see from the latest pictures out of Warsaw, following a plane crash that killed the nation's president, first lady, the head of the military, and a number of other top dignitaries, civilian and military officials.

We're talking about the head of the national security office, some presidential aides, the deputy speaker of the Polish parliament, the list continues to go on and on. There are several of these top dignitaries in this plane crash, all of them have perished. And you can see now across the country and also across the world a lot of outpouring and a lot of mourning.

The president, the role of president that was held by Lech Kaczynski, very much largely a ceremonial role, the prime minister holding the strong executive powers. But all of these civilian and military officials being killed in this one plane accident very much affecting, as you can see, the people of Poland.

We'll continue to cover this breaking news as we follow the investigation into exactly what caused this crash.

HOLMES: Another story that gotten a lot of interest this past week -- Michael Steele, the chair of the RNC. In a letter to the RNC chair, the head of the North Carolina GOP thanks Steele for his leadership and even says he's prayed for him. A few lines later in that same letter he asked him to resign.

My next guest says Steele resigning would be a huge mistake. Let's bring in Republican Lenny McAllister, whose been a friend of our show here on CNN SATURDAY and "SUNDAY MORNING." Lenny, good to see you. You tell everybody out there why would it be a mistake for Steele to call it quits?

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN ANALYST: First and foremost, T.J., leaders don't step away, they step up. One of the major criticisms about former governor Sarah Palin attempting to go after the White House in 2012, should she choose to do that, is because she stepped away from her post in 2009 as governor of Alaska.

The Republicans cannot continue to have messages where people step away from these images.

HOLMES: Lenny, that's a little different of a situation. Some would say Steele stepping away would be a good thing because he has brought all this scandal. They could wash their hands and get rid of the bad press.

MCALLISTER: They said the same thing about governor Palin, where she had all these controversies, ethical allegations up in Alaska, but now being she's being bantered around as being a presidential candidate.

At some point in time when you're at the crux of history, you have to go back to humble servant leadership. If you're able to do that, you can work through a crisis and lead people in the direction they need to do.

Michael Steele has done a good job raising money, there's been significant elections where he's led victories on, and we're at a point where the Republicans can help bring the nation back to where it needs to be. It's a time to step up.

HOLMES: You make a good point there. You talk about governorships of Virginia, New Jersey, among them also Scott Brown's victory up in Massachusetts. You talk about the $11.4 brought in last month, so a lot of things people can point to and say he's done a good job on.

But let me show you from something from Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." It might be amusing, and then I'll ask you about it on the other signed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Mr. Chairman, you're honestly saying the criticism you're saying can be chalked up to race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I said.

STEWART: All that is just racism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Straight baby, can I get a word-word. Hammer time.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: OK. You get there, they're making light of the chairman. John Stewart said he canceled an interview with them, so they brought out a puppet to talk about some of the things Steele has been criticized for. Is that part of the problem, though, he's become in many ways a late-night laugh line and a joke, and he might have a tough time from this point on, doing his job?

MCALLISTER: You could say that, but I can point back to, and I know it's a different role, but George W. Bush wasn't exactly the most respected president in the United States when he was coming up for reelection in 2004, yet he still won, and the Republicans still held on to control of both houses of the Congress.

There's still a way to Republicans to win even in the midst of these controversies. People forget that under Michael Steele's leadership there's been a level of diversity that we haven't seen in the Republican Party in decades.

Do you really want to sacrifice that when you have 33 congressional African-American candidates out there, a couple Latino candidates going for gubernatorial races, Marco Rubio down in Florida? Do you want to jeopardy dies that when there's still a way to move past this controversy?

Again, I go back to humble, servant leadership. If we can get Chairman Steele and the rest of us combining around that message, I think we can get past it and still be effective in November.

HOLMES: Just quickly, you agree with him when he says he has a slimmer margin for error because he is a black man?

MCALLISTER: I think the margin of error we have to focus on we're at a crux in history at this point in time, and both Barack Obama and Michael Steele have very historic decisions to make.

Lenny McAllister, always good to see you, Republican from North Carolina, a friend of our show. We'll see you again soon.

And for all things political and more stories from the best political team on TV, go to CNN.com.

KEILAR: Breaking news from overnight. Poland in mourning right now, the president, first lady and many -- a large number of top government officials, civilian and military, have died. They were killed in a plane crash in Russia. Josh Levs has more.

LEVS: Brianna, we're going to tell you all about them and share some of your reactions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Coming up on the bottom of the hour here on "CNN Saturday morning," the story we've been following for the past several hours, the president of Poland along with the first lady dead and a number of other government officials. These are pictures we got in just a short time ago of the wreckage. They were trying to land their plane in the western part of Russia, apparently in heavy fog. If we can take this picture up full behind me, but this is the wreckage of that plane, some 89 people on that plane, the reports that possibly more.

But this was made up of high-ranking government officials, the army chief of staff, a number of high-ranking officials. The country of Poland we're told in shock after what happened.

President Kaczynski is not necessarily like the head of state here in the U.S. This was a largely a ceremonial role, but most of the executive power is held in the prime minister, who was not on the plane, I should note.

But still a figure who had been in the spotlight over in Poland since he was a child. He was a child actor, came up through the ranks, so really a beloved character. As we see in this picture, the mourning process is going on right now.

KEILAR: And important to note in this day and age that there has not been a question raised whether this is terrorism related. That's not a concern that's been raised.

Right now investigations seems to be focused on whether this is a mechanical error, although one of I guess maintenance facilities said they don't think that's what it is. Certainly they'll be looking at whether it's pilot error as well.

And our Reynolds Wolf has been researching this plane, the Tupolev 154. This is not something we're familiar with. What have you found, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's compared to a Boeing 727. Certainly 189 people was in range for being on the plane. What's interesting about this aircraft is it's been the backbone of air travel in that part of the world. The three engines, this thing is configured to land not just on perfect runways but on gravel runways or dirt runways, which, to be honest with you, is the type of a workhorse you need for an agrarian area look where this landed.

In Smolensk you have two air bases, one that's an airport south of the city, then a bit farther north the air base. The southern area has an airstrip only about 5,000 feet long, but the air base itself, that air strip is about 8,000 feet long.

We've been showing viewers video all morning long, certainly some of that wispiness may be the fog. This air base was actually for the Russian military. Back in 1990 they dismantled it, but now it's open for civilian use.

Now, there was some information about the pilot using an airstrip he may not have been familiar with. Usually when you have pilots, they fly VFR, visual flight rules, or IFR, which is instrument flight rules. I would imagine this pilot with his experience would be IFR, but still a lot of information coming in. I will guarantee you that certainly the foggy conditions, the trees certainly did help matters whatsoever in this particular incident. Back to you.

HOLMES: Reynolds, we appreciate you giving us that insight.

KEILAR: And of course the big question here, how did this happen? Let's bring in Bob Francis, the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Bob, tell me a bit about what you're hearing that maybe the plane actually disregarded instructions to land at a different airport?

ROBERT FRANCIS, FORMER CHAIRMAN, NTSB: I heard that, and I think that, you know, this is one of the -- one of the cases where you wonder what's motivating pilots to do things. Certainly there's a possibility there's a maintenance issue or something else.

But this aircraft was a Polish military aircraft, they have good maintenance capabilities. So you start to wonder if in fact the reports are true there were two or three go-rounds before the accident took place.

What motivated the pilot to go to that particular airport? Maybe that he was familiar with it. It may be that the ceremony was in fact taking place very close to that and he wanted to get the president as close as he could.

But ultimately, as someone was saying, this is a very popular aircraft. It's not the most modern airplane in the world, but that probably doesn't make any difference.

KEILAR: But the question of maintenance, and we've heard from a director of the factory in Russia, where they said in December -- so just a few months ago, they completed a major refurbishing, repair of the plain.

Do you think then this could be a maintenance issue? When you look at the factors in a crash like this, what are you considering? Take us through the different factors here.

FRANCIS: I think an accident investigation looks at all of the above. But I do think when you see the weather was like this, and you see an event was taking place and it was close to that airport, the pilot's incentive to go down as low as he can and try to get the president there is certainly something that can't be ignored.

The presidential aircraft in any country is going to -- one assumes it's going to be pretty well-maintained. The Polish are capable of doing that. They have a good aviation structure. So will that be looked at, maintenance? Absolutely.

The big issue is the recorders, how good are the recorders, how many parameters do they have? A good recorder will probably tell you more than anything else.

KEILAR: The last we heard, bob was that they had not yet found these black boxes. Do you think they will? And how essential is it?

FRANCIS: Very, very important, and the chances on land that they won't find them are infinitesimal. They will find them.

It will be interesting to hear the conversation between the pilots in terms of that motivation or reasoning, to try again or the third time, whatever that was. But the conversation in the cockpit will be very, very interesting.

And then obviously the flight data recorder will be recording the controls and how it actually happened, what the rate of descent was, et cetera.

KEILAR: And maybe reveal something about whether this was pilot error and what was going on, if they were aware of the weather situation.

Bob Francis, the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, thanks for being with us.

FRANCIS: You're welcome.

HOLMES: A teenager who lives with an agonizing disease eases the pain for others by turning the pages. He's you're CNN hero of the week. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Our CNN hero of the week is a big-hearted bookworm who helps abused and homeless children escape their suffering.

KEILAR: Mackenzie Bearup lives with an agonizing and incurable disease, but spends her time easing the pain of other kids by sharing her secret for relief, which is reading. She is just 16 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MACKENZIE BEARUP, CNN HERO: I was in the fifth grade when I hurt my knee. The doctor then diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy. When something touches it, it's like a bomb goes off my knee. The only thing able to get my mind off the pain was reading.

Any child in horrible pain like this needs something. Something that helped me was books. But the people in these shelters are just like you and me. They need things to get their minds off whatever they're going through.

I put fliers in mailboxes and I set up a website. Thank you so much for donating. My original goal was 300 books. Before I knew it, I had 3,000 books. My total right now is 38,000 books, and I have delivered books to libraries and reading rooms in 27 different shelters in six days.

If one child finds a love of reading I've given them, that can turn their life around entirely. I really think that reading can do that for someone. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: So far Mackenzie Bearup has donated almost 40,000 books to shelters in six states. She's also helped to fill 27 shelter libraries and reading rooms. To see her state of the art pain treatment or to nominate someone who you think is changing the world, go to CNN.com/heroes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Again, we are covering the breaking news this morning, the president of Poland, his wife and several other top members of the government killed in a plane crash after trying to land in heavy fog in the western part of Russia. You're seeing the wreckage of it there. At least 89 people we know were killed aboard the plane.

And the cause believed to be the plane clipped some trees and some really horrible visibility, trying to land that plane in western Russia. CNN's Richard Quest has been looking into the safety of the particular plane that was carrying the president.

I talked to him just a little bit ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Richard, tell me, what do we know about this plane? For our viewers here in the U.S., is this essentially their air force one equivalent?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was their equivalent. It was a Tupolev 154, the military version of the plane, about 20 years old, delivered to the airlines in 1990, and then transferred to the polish airport some years later.

The Tupolev 154 may not be familiar to Americans, but it was the workhorse of the old Soviet airlines and across eastern Europe. More than 1,000 of these planes were actually made, 205, 220 or so are still flying in parts of Eastern Europe.

In fact, it is an old plane, not greatly used in service anymore, but that doesn't necessarily of course means there was anything wrong. In fact, within the last couple hours we have learned that this aircraft actually underwent a complete refurbishment, new avionics and electronics in December. It certainly was airworthy.

HOLMES: You called it a workhorse, if you will. This plane, not just the one he was on, but this particular type of plane, had a pretty good and reliability safety record over the years?

QUEST: Yes. I mean, you know, whenever we talk about safety records, I'm always tempted to say no better, no worse. If you look at for example a Boeing 737 or the 727, it's similar -- three engines in the back of the airplane, the 727.

There have been about 60-odd serious incidents with the Tupolev 154, and when you put that in the perspective of the 20, 30, 40 years they were flying, you then add in the sheer numbers and rules.

One of the things to bear in mind about the 154, because of the somewhat primitive nature of the old soviet airfields, particularly in rural parts every the former soviet union, this plane was built for very difficult flying conditions, not only meteorologically, but physically, very large wheelbases.

So it may have been old, but it certainly was a stable aircraft.

HOLMES: And still, what we're hearing right notice, it appears things are not pointing to any mechanical failure at this point. There were some weather conditions and some issues going on possibly with visibility. So we haven't seen anything else that pointed to anything wrong with the plane, but just the conditions outside.

QUEST: What we know is there was very heavy fog, zero visibility in western Russian at the time when this plane was trying to land.

Now, presidents' planes are almost given purple corridors, they're called, to ensure they fly safely, quickly and without delays. Certainly in Russia, that would have been the case with this aircraft.

Whether it had the necessary avionics for a complete auto- landing, whether it had the avionics that would have allowed the pilots to land in that visibility, we will only know. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia has now been appointed to lead the commission of inquiry into the crash.

But they will certainly -- my gut feeling this afternoon is this will be focusing on the weather initially.

HOLMES: Richard Quest, we appreciate you hopping on and giving you some detail. Thank you very much.

QUEST: Pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Coming up, some controversial remarks about the tea party from a Democratic lawmaker. We're going to have him live to explain them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, hate mail, death threats, and then some remarks that didn't take too kindly by some folks. They came from a second- term congressman. This started all last week when Representative Steve Cohen compared the tea party movement to the KKK in such a way.

He was a guest on a satellite radio show. We're going to play the clip of what he said. Go ahead and play it now. Then we're going to show it, and then talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE COHEN (D), TENNESSEE: The tea party people are kind of like without robes and hoods. They have really shown a very hard- core, angry side of America that is against any type of diversity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right, that is what he had to say then. Let's see what he has to say now. The congressman from Memphis, Congressman Cohen, joins us now this morning live. Sir, thank you for being with us on this Saturday morning. You know those comments got a lot of reaction and response to you, some threats coming your way.

I want to ask you now to explain. It's one thing to say the tea party folks are angry, but you used the comments they were angry "without the robes and the hoods." What did you mean by that?

REP. STEVE COHEN, (D) TENNESSEE: Well, you know, I've gotten a lot of criticism, but I've gotten a lot of support, too. And people in my district have been very supportive.

The fact is the leaders of the tea party movement did not repudiate and stand out against the spitting on Emanuel Cleaver, an African-American member of congress, or the "N" word being used by certain members of the tea party on the capital against John Lewis, the civil rights hero.

And when the leadership and people don't stand up and speak out against something, it hurt the whole tea party movement. Certainly there are tea party people that don't have those type of attitudes, but there are predominantly 99 percent white, they don't represent diversity in our society, which is the beauty of America.

HOLMES: I guess that's what a lot of people have with it. There are a lot of moms, dads and middle-class folks out there, and it sounds like a member of Congress is labeling them as racist. Is that the case?

COHEN: I would say that they are 99 percent white, that crowd.

HOLMES: That doesn't mean they're racists, though, you go to the floor of the Senate and you see a lot of white people, and one black guy is a member.

COHEN: That's true. Certainly they're not all racist. But when you're against health care and against government programs that have a de facto effect upon minorities more than they do others.

And Dr. Martin Luther King said one of the greatest inhumanities in our society was the unequal distribution for health care and was for national health care. He was assassinated in my city. We remembered that event last weekend.

To think that 42 years later we finally get health care, and people are against it and that's what makes them rally against their government and act out, to me it's inhumane.

No, they're not all racist, no question. But the fact is they're against government spending, against programs, and there are certainly similarities in their tactics to people who have historically been against civil rights and progress.

HOLMES: Of course they would say they are against some spending in health care. Maybe they like some points, but overall they're against some of the big spending and some of the parts of the health care reform, not just against it for the sake of it.

I want to ask you, and I want to get you on the record, and I don't think you're saying they're all racist, but as a movement itself, the tea party, do they have a role to play in moving forward and the political dialogue of this country, or do you dismiss them as a whole as just frankly racist and on the fringes?

COHEN: I would not dismiss them as racist. I would say they're on the fringes because they're against what I think is the greatest progress and social reform this country has made since the '60s, this health care bill we just passed. They're against government spending.

They first started against the TARP bill, a very difficult vote. Nobody wanted to bail out the banks, but that worked, and it was a bill that's all that money has almost all been paid back and paid back with interest.

So they were wrong on the issue that was their inception, because if we didn't pass the TARP, the economic and financial structure of this country and the world would have collapsed. And so you just can't be against things that the government gets involved in like Social Security and Medicare and Civil Rights and Voting rights and all kind of aid for people with disabilities, and those are good programs.

HOLMES: The last thing before I let you go, and I have to let you address this critic in that you did this, it was a calculated move to stir people up in your district.

You're in a predominantly black district in Memphis, and you're going to be going up in the primary a guy who's pretty popular in a lot of way, Willie Harrington, who his supporters has said that the seat you hold right now is an African-American seat and a black American needs to be in it, and you're doing it as a political maneuver to stir it up. I'll let you respond.

COHEN: Not at all. I won my general election by 89 percent. I did 20 points better than John Lewis. I assure you I'll do just as good this fall.

When I did that program, it was a satellite radio show in Los Angeles. To be honest with you, while the hosts have become my friends, one of them I met when he was in town, I had no idea anybody listened. I just didn't realized that people listened and it becomes viral.

I basically thought I was talking to these fellows in Los Angeles and a couple thousand people would hear it and that was it. There was no calculation at all.

HOLMES: You know how these things sometimes take off, and this one did. We appreciate you taking the time to give you a chance to explain what you meant. Sir, we'll be following that race, and I certainly will, as a guy from that area.

COHEN: Thank you, T.J. and Brianna. And Brianna, you have to be around more often.

KEILAR: I will be. I live on the Hill. Thank you, congressman.

And ahead we have live continuing coverage of breaking news out of the Poland, a plane crashed that claimed the lives of the president of Poland and potentially dozens of top Polish officials. That's ahead.

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KEILAR: We will, of course, continue to follow the breaking news out of the top of the hour coming out of Poland, where a plane crash in Russia has killed the polish president and potentially dozens of top Polish officials.

HOLMES: Last count now 97 people dead. We're going to pick things up in the NEWSROOM at the top of the hour. Be right back.

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