Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Leaders Arrive for Nuke Security Summit; Replacing Judge Stevens; Holocaust Remembrance Day; Confederate Pride or Prejudice?
Aired April 11, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I want to show you right now, Representatives from 46 countries are arriving in Washington, D.C., getting ready for President Obama's nuclear Security Summit, it starts tomorrow. It's being called the biggest gathering hosted by a U.S. President since the U.N. was founded in 1945.
CNN's White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us now for what looks like a very warm and sunny Washington D.C. day and evening -- I should say. Hello, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. It is, actually what White House officials are telling me now this is going to be unprecedented in scale and scope, this security summit. It has not started officially until tomorrow and it'll be at the Washington Convention Center, not far from here.
But what the president has been doing today is hosting various world leaders at the Blair House right across the street from the White House; one-on-one meetings with critical allies from Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, South Africa.
And the point that he is making today along with the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is that no longer are we looking at a nuclear threat when it comes to nuclear war, when you're talking about Cold War states. We're now looking at the threat of nuclear terrorism; the possibility of terrorists, like al Qaeda, or criminal gangs or rogue groups getting a hold of nuclear materials and actually launching some sort of nuclear attack. That is what this summit is targeted to address.
And here's how President Obama put the threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The central focus of this nuclear summit is the fact that the single biggest threat to U.S. security, both short-term, medium-term, and long-term, would be a possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon.
This is something that could have change the security landscape in this country and around the world for years to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Don, the goal of the summit here is for all of these countries to get on board with President Obama's plan to secure these nuclear materials, vulnerable nuclear materials or loose nukes, within four years. This is around the globe.
So we are expecting these world leaders are going to sign in the next few days a communique, a document, essentially recognizing these nuclear terrorism threat endorsing President Obama's plan and then coming up with their own ideas to make sure that those materials are in fact, secure and don't get in the hands of terrorists.
LEMON: You said coming up with their own ideas; so are there -- is anything being offered ahead of -- before they come up with these ideas, any specific things about what these countries can do -- Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: There are some specifics actually because several of the countries will be talking about how do they prevent these nuclear materials from being smuggled into other countries into the hands of these terrorists. They'll talk about regulations. A lot of the nuclear materials are in the private industry. How do they regulate those industries? The legal systems, how do they hold those smugglers accountable and punish them.
And then finally those materials that go into making nuclear explosives like highly enriched uranium, where do you put that stuff? How do you secure it? One example is the country of Chile, is saying, you know what? We're going to give it to the United States, let you guys take care of it, worry about that and secure it. We're not going to have to deal with it. There are other countries that are going to say, look, we have this material. Let's give it to a third party and secure it there.
Those are the kinds of ideas, kind of commitments in spite that some of these countries are going to be introducing over the next 48 hours.
LEMON: All right, Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Suzanne there's a squirrel behind you having a whole a lot of fun.
MALVEAUX: Can I look?
LEMON: Yes, well I saw in the other segment, you gave -- now you can go ahead and have fun because I think -- I think you're done for the day. So go and enjoy the day.
MALVEAUX: No. We've --
LEMON: No, you're not?
MALVEAUX: I'm stuck, did you hear me?
LEMON: Oh, again, again.
MALVEAUX: Ok.
LEMON: By the way, that little squirrel over your left shoulder. Thank you, Suzanne. We'll talk to you in just a bit. MALVEAUX: Ok.
LEMON: You know just moment ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Polish Embassy, she signed the book of condolences for Poland's late president and first lady who died yesterday in a plane crash in Russian, nearly 100 other Polish dignitaries also perished in that crash.
The body of President Lech Kaczynski is now back in Warsaw. The motorcade bearing his casket moved slowly to the streets lined with people and paying their respects. And in Russia the investigation is now getting underway into why the Polish military plane went down short of the airport.
CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is at the debris-filled crash site -- Nic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm about half a mile from the runway here. It's in this direction through the trees here. And look down here, debris twisted and torn apart, fuselage from the Tupolev 154. And up here, across the road -- take a look -- is the direction the plane was coming in over this way, coming in across this road here. And this is where it begins to hit the tops of the trees again.
And if you look down this bank here, you begin to see all these bits of broken wood from the trees, where the plane is beginning to head as it's coming down.
Here's another bit of torn fuselage on the ground. And already some flowers are being laid here and if you look over here, larger bits of aircraft laying around in the field. And already people, reporters, picking for it you can see through the trees here, police as well kind of secured the site and the large tail of the aircraft.
But again, just follow me up here. And you can begin to see just the scale and the force with which the plane hit the trees. This is the size of some of the debris here and this seems to be apart from a wing. You can see that the force of the crash has just broken it away, sheared away from these large mounds.
And you can see as well the tree here, just large boughs of tree ripped apart. And looking up at the top, you can really see how the plane cut into them.
And what the investigators are going to focus on are the black box recorders. They say they're still looking at the possibility of human error, the possibility of bad weather. Of course there's clear visibility now but when the crash happened 24 hours ago, there was thick fog. And also saying that there's a possibility that it could have been mechanical errors; they are not ruling out any of those things right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: That's our Nic Robertson reporting from Smolensk, Russia where that plane crashed.
Live pictures now from Warsaw, and this is the Presidential Palace; around this palace, tens of thousands of people have gathered. They have been gathering there since they got word of this crash yesterday morning. They are paying their respects. And they lined up in front of the palace just to see the body of their president, the first lady and the military leaders arrived. Ninety-five other people died on that plane, including the president and his wife.
And you can see that, look at the candles there near the presidential palace in Warsaw; an unbelievable story happening yesterday and unfolding right now.
And just moments ago we saw the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton at the Polish Embassy in Washington paying her respects, signing a condolence book and also saying a few words so that her words could be carried around the world.
We are watching the story, we're going to carry bits of the week- long celebration -- I should say, excuse me -- the week-long memorial service, a week of mourning there in Poland. We'll carry it here on CNN for you. So make sure you tune in. We'll carry it for you.
You know, the battle to see who will replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens now under way. Our Mark Preston weighs in on it.
And this may have surprised some people. "The National Enquirer" nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The newspaper's executive editor is going to join us live.
Why are they being nominated for that and do they have a real chance of winning? Some say yes.
It's time to you to become part of our conversation as well and make sure you log on to the social media, social networking sites, give us your comments. Some of them we'll get on CNN, I'm reading them right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: President Barack Obama now has another chance to shake the Supreme Court with Justice John Paul Stevens retiring. Now, we saw how nasty the health care reform debate was, it makes you wonder if we'll see an equally nasty confirmation process. Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, talked a little bit about that this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: And I think Senator Feinstein said it well the other day. She said that, she believed the president should nominate somebody that would get a very strong vote, 70-plus votes, bipartisan, that they will approve and confident and professional. That's the kind of nominee I hope that he nominates and that we can support. I would like to be able to support this nominee.
But if we have a nominee that evidences a philosophy of judges know best, that they can amend the Constitution, by saying it is above and effectuate agendas then we're going to have big fight about this because the American people don't want it.
DAVID GREGORY, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: And senator --
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: The Constitution says that 51 senators can confirm somebody. It doesn't require 60 senators. I don't think there's going to be any kind of the filibuster. You know just last year we had about 100 and some odd filibusters, that's totally unprecedented.
Actually that's lazy person's way out. The American people pay us and elect us to vote yes or no, not to vote maybe. Every time you have a filibuster, you're saying, "I'm not going to vote yes or no, I'm going to vote maybe."
GREGORY: All right, final --
LEAHY: -- that's irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So Stevens just made the announcement on Friday but surely the President had some replacement in mind. Surely he does because he knew about this beforehand. He just didn't know exactly when it was going to happen.
Right, Mark Preston, CNN political editor? We're going to talk about that.
So Mark, he knew it was going to happen. We knew about it we talked about it last weekend. So what exactly do we know at this point about where things stand on replacement, hearings, any of that?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well you know, Don, we don't have any firm dates or time lines at this point. What we do know is that the President came out on Friday and said that, you know, within the next few weeks he hopes to actually have a nominee where he will nominate somebody to replace Justice Stevens. And then after that what you'll see in the Senate is they will try to figure out what is the best time to hold hearings.
I think for our viewers what we really want to zero in on is probably after the July 4th recess. We'll probably see in those three weeks in July right after the recess going into probably the first week in August, you're probably going to have Judiciary Committee hearings and possibly a vote.
Now, that is what the Democrats want to happen. But it really does comes down to who President Obama nominates, if he nominates somebody that Republicans thinks is a judicial activist, somebody that they can't support, or at least they are going to put up an opposition to whomever President Obama puts up. LEMON: Yes.
PRESTON: It depends how fierce that opposition will be.
LEMON: I saw some of the responses at -- coming out in before -- I mean, the announcement has just happened or the announcement was imminent and people -- there were people saying, oh, we're going to filibuster -- whoever it is, and not even knowing it. So let the games begin as we say, right?
Everyone is saying, let's look at -- let's look at the list of people who mostly we believe are at the top of the lists, here are a few of the top names: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Federal Appeals Court Judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland. But it could also be a total surprise, right? Someone we -- we don't -- we haven haven't even thought about.
PRESTON: Well, it could be a surprise. And you were right at the top when you said that President Obama already has a list put together.
Look, when you're elected president, you already know that you have the chance of making a Supreme Court pick. So you're probably already thinking in your head who that would be.
LEMON: Yes.
PRESTON: In addition to that, he went through this just last year with Justice Sonia Sotomayor. But outside of those judges that you just mentioned, there are some others. Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts is somebody who is often mentioned as somebody President Obama would consider putting on the bench, as is Jennifer Granholm, the governor of Michigan, as is the former Arizona governor, Janet Napolitano, who currently serves in his administration.
So there's three possibly but I'll just throw the wildcard out there --
LEMON: Hillary Clinton? I know you're going to say that.
PRESTON: Oh, you took it away from me.
LEMON: I'm sorry.
PRESTON: But why not? Why not just play the game? Let's throw out Hillary Clinton as a possible name. She certainly has the background to sit on the court; unclear whether or not he would actually nominate her.
LEMON: I was channeling you. I was like, "Is he going to go there," and you did. Mark Preston, we'll see you later at 10:00. Ok.
PRESTON: Thanks don.
PRESTON: Thank you, sir. LEMON: Think about it, every single high school senior graduates and goes on to college; everyone of them and they come from one of the most dangerous parts of Chicago; "Perry's Principles", next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Now for a look at some of your top stories, officials in West Virginia estimate it will take two days to remove the bodies of 22 coal miners. A total of 29 miners were killed in an explosion nearly a week ago. But before the bodies can be removed, the mine must be re-ventilated to remove toxic gas. President Barack Obama has urged a thorough investigation into the cause of the explosion.
President Obama today honored the memory of the victims of Nazi genocide during World War II. Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The President says the Holocaust calls on all people to renew their commitment to prevent genocide and, quote, to confront anti-Semitism and prejudices in all its forms.
More pain at the pump. Gas prices are up nearly 4 cents a gallon in the past three weeks. The national average for a gallon of regular is now $2.85; that's up 80 cents since last April.
A public school where 100 percent of the senior class goes to college. No, it's not a dream. This is happening in an area of Chicago torn by youth violence.
CNN contributor -- education contributor, Steve Perry takes us inside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (on camera): We're here at Inglewood section of Chicago, one of Chicago's roughest neighborhoods. This is Urban Prep having its first graduating class and they're going to send 70 African-American young men to college.
It's the Holy Grail in academia. I'm going to go inside and talk to these folks. I'm excited.
Now, Mr. King, I know when you say that you send 100 percent of your kids to college, a lot of people don't believe it.
TIM KING, HEADMASTER, URBAN PREP ACADEMY: Right. Right.
PERRY: So sometimes for their purposes, you have to introduce them to the wall.
KING: They need to see some proof.
PERRY: This is a lot of proof here. Tell me what we're looking at.
KING: So on this wall, every time a student is admitted to college, what we do is we take their admission letter, we copy it and we put it up on the wall on the school.
PERRY: People see results. They're going to say, "100 percent of your seniors going on to college. You must pick the kids. You can't be a public school."
KING: Yes. We get that a lot. People tell us all the time, "Oh, you're a selective enrollment school. That's some private school." But we're not. We're a public school. We're a charter school which means we're independently-operated but we're publicly- funded and we don't select our students based on any criteria.
PERRY: This is Urban Prep. And Urban Prep is an oasis, an opportunity for children to believe in themselves and dream beyond their circumstances. Create an opportunity where there didn't seem to be one and go on to a four-year college at a rate of 100 percent.
We know how to run successful schools. The question now is, will we?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Education contributor, Steve Perry. We visited Urban Prep the day after President Obama was elected -- that was back in 2008. They promised me that they would finish high school and go to college and they did. And it's good to see that they are doing it.
And you know, next weekend, we want to you check out our special, it's called "Fixing American's Schools". "Fixing America's School" -- it is a town hall meeting with parents, students, teachers from all across the U.S. plus, Education Secretary Arnie Duncan.
If you have any questions for him, for the education secretary, or for me, make sure you send it through Twitter. You can tweet it, Facebook, or send it on MySpace, donlemonCNN. Look for "Fixing America's School" next Saturday 7:00 p.m. Eastern and Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.
Here's something that you don't see every day: an African- American defending the Confederacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a great thing that the governor of Virginia did when he declared Confederate History Month because now we have the opportunity to tell the Southern side which was never told.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Why he stands behind the controversial Confederate History Month.
Plus, "The National Enquirer" has a reputation for capitalizing on the pain and suffering of others. Right? But could a Pulitzer prize change the paper's image?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: All right. A huge controversy rising out of Virginia this past week, over a war that ended 145 years ago. Governor Bob McDonnell declared April Confederate History Month but left out any mention of slavery in his proclamation. Civil rights groups blasted him for it accusing him of twisting history. President Obama called it an unacceptable omission and it really fired up CNN political analyst Roland Martin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: These were American terrorists. These were individuals who were committing a sin against humanity. Who wanted to keep a system of oppression, degradation, and absolute denial of opportunities for African-Americans. We're celebrating people and had they won, Don, you and I would not be sitting here right now. You and I would be in the fields right now as property as opposed to being free individuals.
And so that's like somebody saying, oh, we're going to celebrate the Nazi soldiers by saying they were only doing their job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. That was CNN's Roland Martin. So, Confederate History Month is going on in a number of southern states and it is primetime for re-enactors who want to bring the battlefield back to life.
We have a whole panel of Johnny Rebs joining us right now. Tim and Lisa Knight are here with me in Atlanta; and then there's H.K. Edgerton (ph), he is live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Good to see you. Don't be nervous. We're just talking. People want to hear from all of you. Thank you very much.
What do you guys think about the controversy that's going on with the governor and with the proclamation?
TIM KNIGHT, CONFEDERATE REENACTOR: As far as the state of Georgia is concerned, the proclamation here is to celebrate the Confederate Heritage Month. That's representing everybody who was a part of it, both white, African-Americans, Hispanics, Indians. It's not just to represent one particular culture.
I don't understand exactly how far as Virginia portions of it about leaving out slavery but as far as the state of Georgia is concerned, it represents everybody who participated during that event.
LEMON: Do you feel the same way, Lisa?
LISA KNIGHT, CONFEDERATE REENACTOR: I understand that it's a very hot button topic. It's something that strikes a nerve with many people. It's not something that should be demonized or that should be excluded as part of our history because it is very much part of our history. And that's the only where we fought internally; where we had strife of that type. I think that if we're not careful and don't honor that and don't think through that and we shuffle it under the rug, then we're neglecting part of our American heritage.
LEMON: As a southerner -- believe me, I get southern pride -- but do you understand what the Civil War means to, especially African- Americans who were, you know, slaves during that time and for them and for the people in the north and in the south, that's what the war was about to end slavery and the south did not want to end that. Do you get that?
T. KNIGHT: I understand that part. But there's a lot of things that our history books and they leave out. It's not just strictly over the issue of just slavery. 93,000 African-Americans participated on the side of the Confederacy. They don't bring that up.
LEMON: Those people participated but they were not necessarily willing participants and by the time African-Americans could join the Confederacy, join the army, it was too late. It was 1865. So many didn't -- they weren't considered enough of a person to even join the Army, to be allowed to join the army and fight in the war.
T. KNIGHT: It's in between 10 to 15,000 that actually carried arms.
LEMON: Let's bring in H.K. Edgerton now. Again, he is in Charlotte, North Carolina. H.K. you would know about this because this is what you do. What do you say to this, about African-Americans, especially the slavery part of it. Because you can understand, a lot of people don't like the celebration because to them it means slavery. They felt that they would be slaves to have the south won.
H.K. EDGERTON, CONFEDERATE REENACTOR: Well, let's back up some of this. First I'd like to talk about, you know, some of the things that Mr. Martin talked about. You know, he called the honorable people in the south. some of the most honorable people in this country American terrorists and said that if the south had won the war we would be in the fields now. That's just poppy cocking.
That's people that want to end slavery and end all dialogue. It is a great thing that the governor of Virginia did when he declared Confederate History Month because now we have an opportunity to tell the southern side, which was never told. With the advent of the industrial revolution, and you know, I'm very surprised about -- in Virginia, up until the days of the war, those men and the legislators of Virginia are working very hard to try to figure out a way to have real emancipation for that slave.
They knew, white folks in the south (INAUDIBLE) knew that a man was not free unless he had an ability to take care of himself, unless he had land, a home for shelter, and some money, and possibly some slaves of his own. You know, I resent the fact that this man like -- I don't know whether if Mr. Martin is from the north or where he's from but it's the same (INAUDIBLE) that these folks give to the north that virtuosity does not belong in the north. LEMON: Listen, I know Roland, I believe Roland is from the south and I don't want you to take it too literally. I think what Roland meant was, had the south won, that African-Americans would not be in the same position that they are now. At least --
(CROSSTALK)
EDGERTON: Yes. He's --
LEMON: Hang on, let me finish. I'll let you talk and I'll give you time. At least when it comes to civil rights. Because that's what the civil war was about. The south, let's just be honest, did not want slavery to end and that was their main focus for the civil war. And that's when the succession came about. They wanted to secede from the union if slavery was abolished. That's what the civil war was about.
EDGERTON: No, sir. I absolutely totally disagree with you. First of all, let's talk about some real evidence.
LEMON: Now listen, am I to believe --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hang on. Let me ask you this question.
EDGERTON: You said you would let me talk.
LEMON: I will let you talk for a long time, Mr. Edgerton. I am giving you your choice. Am I to believe the history book that what I've read about, what the history book say, what every other historian says, my own ears and my own eyes, or am I to believe what you say and what civil reenactments say?
EDGERTON: Let's just go to that. Let's just talk about that. Let's just talk about the establishment of the public school system the in 1865 and how they northern school teachers came here to demonize and divide and separate white and black folks from the north and south.
More importantly, let's talk about Abraham Lincoln and his corn amendment. If the southern men wanted to maintain economic institution of slavery, they would along with Lincoln supported the corn amendment and basically what Lincoln said is that if the south would agree to the tax increase that the law is proposing, that Congress would never have the ability to write an amendment to end the economic institution of slavery.
LEMON: OK. Right there. Hang on. Hang on one second.
EDGERTON: No, no, no.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I'm not cutting you off because I want to get a point in. I'm cutting you off need to take a break and then we'll come back and discuss more. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone, to our conversation. Virginia's governor opened up some old wounds by declaring April Confederate History month, and leaving slavery out of the equation. We have been talking with a panel of three civil war re-enactors Tim and Lisa Knight. They're here in Atlanta and then H.K. Edgerton joins us by satellite.
OK. I'm sorry. I had to take a break. You were saying --
EDGERTON: Are you talking to me, sir?
LEMON: Yes.
EDGERTON: Well, see here's the whole thing about it. Having Confederate History Month and talking about leaving out slavery, the thing about it is when you have Confederate History Month, we talk about the things that took place, around here in America, you can't leave out slavery. You have to talk about the place of honor and dignity that (INAUDIBLE) I'm talking about the confederated flag.
Hollywood don't tell the story. Other folks don't tell the story. This is why you need to have Confederate History month. My question is why are these folks afraid to have the southern side told? They don't want to tell you about these things. We talk about black history month. I don't know how you can separate black history from confederate history in the first place.
LEMON: OK. Can I get in here now, please?
EDGERTON: Yes.
LEMON: I don't think people think that it shouldn't be thought in history books or people shouldn't learn about confederate history, I think there is a concern when people, when you celebrate, when you believe that people are celebrating Confederate History, because when you are celebrate that, it's an insult to African-Americans, insult to people who were slaves when one of the main reasons, although you don't believe it was the whole reason, one of the main reasons behind the war was to keep people enslaved. And that's why people think it's insulting. Black history month is one month out of the year. Go ahead.
EDGERTON: You're talking to me. Am I on?
LEMON: Yes. I'm talking to you.
EDGERTON: That's the sad part about this thing. The propriety of all these folks, including white folks, who presume to assume that that slave somehow was just a man, all he did was pick cotton and beans and sugar cane. He was a very intelligent man. This man could do everything.
LEMON: OK. Mr. Edgerton. Any way, let's bring it back to -- I can't let you go on with that because that part is going to upset me when you talk about slavery. No one wants to be a slave, black, white, or whatever. It's an insult. No one wants to be a slave. And talk about the intelligence, that's beside the point, to have someone enslaved, to own someone, to control some one. It doesn't matter how smart they are, you still own and control them. They are not free.
I don't get your point on that.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I want to bring in these guys, Lisa and Tim again. And the reason -- I don't think anyone is saying, even Roland, anyone is saying that we should not learn about the confederacy and not learn about the history of this country. It's part of the history of this country. I understand that. I am a southerner. I grew up in the south. So I know what it's about. But you don't understand that it's insulting and hurtful to some people when you celebrate these types of event?
LISA KNIGHT, CONFEDERATE REENACTOR: I think your choice of the word celebrate is a slanted word. I think our goal is to educate. We are not celebrating an atrocity where hundreds of thousands of Americans on both sides were killed.
LEMON: All right. Even a proclamation, it may be right to celebrate but even a proclamation, some people are still insulted by that.
KNIGHT: I'm not sure why that would be in. Because any major conflict, any time where American blood was spilled, that would be something for us to note, something for us to reflect on and say, this was something that happened that was significant for us to celebrate? No. And that's not what we do but we do educate. We do relive. We do, pull people in and help them understand as much as we can what really happened.
LEMON: So here's a question. Here's what I think. It should be in the history books. And it is. I learned about it in school. And it's in the history books, all the way up from elementary school, on up to college, you get the history of this country and you know about slavery.
Having a proclamation, I think, and the whole time to learn about it when you don't include slavery and denouncing slavery, are you saying that we should have had slaves? Do you believe that we should have had slaves? Do you believe that slavery should exist in this country.
TIM KNIGHT, CONFEDERATE REENACTOR: I don't believe slavery should exist anywhere in the world and it still does. But the simple fact of the matter -- I'm not trying to state anybody who owns slaves, right or wrong, but for 200 years ago to 2,000 years ago, slavery was part of not just this country but every nation on the planet.
LEMON: Absolutely agreed with that. LISA KNIGHT: And they were African-American slave owners in the south. So it's not a black-white issue. I mean, yes, slavery as an institution is abomination and we all agree on that. And we're not celebrating the institution of slavery.
LEMON: There in your group is there black reenactors?
LISA KNIGHT: Not currently.
TIM KNIGHT: We've had three different members.
LISA KNIGHT: But on our roster right now. We don't currently have, we have about 40 people in our roster right now.
LEMON: OK. Mr. Edgerton, I'm going to ask you the same question I asked them. Do you think there should be slavery in this country? Do you agree with slavery?
EDGERTON: Absolutely not. I'm not here defending the economic institution of slavery what I am here defending is the fact that you want to take history and paint one side of --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: No, no. Not me.
EDGERTON: I'm not saying you.
LEMON: I'm just here facilitating the conversation.
EDGERTON: When I say you, I don't mean you personally. What I'm saying is that the folks in America -- see the southern people have done a great injustice here. The whole world was complicit in the economic institution of slavery. Nobody talked about those Africans who went into my grandma's village and snatched her out from under her mother's arms and put here in the shores of west Africa and put on slavery. Those Africans were just as guilty. New York, you and Mr. Martin --
LEMON: Mr. Edgerton, I have to go because of time purposes. We only have a few minutes left on the air and there are other things that we have to do. So I appreciate this. And maybe if we can get you back we'll continue this discussion but I also learned about Africa's role in slavery in elementary school and I'm not that young. It's back in the '70s. I disagree with you that we are not taught about that. That's in the history books and we talked about it before.
Thank you all for joining us. And again, as I have said and I think as Roland has said, everyone has a right to protest, celebrate, to reenact, to do what they want. But to leave out one part of it is disingenuous.
LISA KNIGHT: And I would agree with you on that.
EDGERTON: I disagree. LEMON: I appreciate you all joining us.
Very passionate opinions there from people who still love the stars and bars. And thank you so much for your comments on Twitter and on Facebook. But you won't see activist and author Tim Weiss, slipping into a gray uniform, even though his southern roots run deep. His new book "Color Blind, The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity is coming up in just a few weeks.
He says "Confederate History Month is a major step backwards." Here's part of our conversation that we had.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: There are people who are writing me now saying, "hey, you need to go back and learn history. Slavery was not a point in the civil war. It had nothing to do with it."
TIM WEISS, AUTHOR: That's absolutely preposterous. If you look at the declaration of causes that were issued by the states who left the union. Every single time that they explained their decision, they said that the reason, not one of the but the reason was the fear that the federal government under Lincoln was going to abolish slavery. That's what they believed.
They were worried, for example, that they would not be able to have slaves in the newly acquired territories to the west that had been taken after the war with Mexico. That was the sticking point. In fact, the vice presidency of the confederacy Alexander Stevens stood up and said, right after Lincoln was elected that all the other issues had been resolved -- the trade issues, the tariff issues, that they had all been resolved.
The only remaining factor according to the vice president of the Confederate government was the institution of African slavery, which I should point out, he said was a wonderful, moral and god ordained system of government. For any one to want to commemorate the confederacy when it's own leaders said that that is what it stood for is an abomination.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Tim Weiss, thank you Tim.
The civil war still dividing the country. 145 years after it ended, it's still conversation that is not going away and we are going to keep following it for you, right here on CNN.
Taking a look now at some of your top stories. Just a short time ago. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Polish embassy in Washington. She expressed condolences from the president and the American people to the people of Poland for their tragic loss yesterday. Poland's president, first lady and nearly 100 other dignitaries died in a plane crash in Russia.
One U.S. senator says a fee for carry on luggage is a slap in the face of air travelers. Spirit Airlines announced this week, it will be charging up to $45 for a carry-on bag. The decision has sparked outrage among some passengers. And last night I spoke with the Spirit's CEO Ben Baldanza about the fee. And he said, it's not as bad as it appears.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BALDANZA, PRES. & CEO, SPIRIT AIRLINES: The basic fee to carry on the bag after August 1st is $30. $20 if you're a member of our fare club. The $45 fee is for anyone who decides not to stop at a kiosk at the airport and the ticket counter and go to the gate. And the reason we charge a little more for that is we're going to have to transact that bag at the gate and what we're trying to do is avoid gate delays. So we don't want to do that. No one has to pay the $45.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That argument doesn't fly with Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York. Today, he said he will urge government regulators to prevent fees for carry-on bags. The new fee takes effect August 1st.
And Cowboy fans, well, at least you have your memories. Texas Stadium, the home of America's teams for some 40 years went out with several dozen bangs this morning. The Urban Texas Utility demolished with some 50 blasts of dynamite and an 11-year-old essay contest winner got to push the button. He's a very cute kid, by the way, too. His name is Casey.
The Pulitzer Prize and the "National Enquirer," two names rarely mentioned together until now. The newspaper's executive editor live next.
Are you going to win it? Don't answer that. Wait until after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. The Pulitzer Prizes are being handed out and you won't believe who is in the running for the top prize in journalism. It's a big, big deal. The "National Enquirer" has been nominated for both the investigative reporting and national news categories for breaking the story of ex-presidential candidate John Edwards' affair and love child.
And joining us to talk about it, from New York right now is Barry Levine. He is executive editor of the "National Enquirer." Barry, this is a really, really big deal. Do you think you deserve to win this award?
BARRY LEVINE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "NATIONAL ENQUIRER": Well, I think with no disrespect to the great "New York Times" newspaper. They won last year for their reporting of the Spitzer prostitution scandal and I think that story in terms of the reporting was done, was a drop in the bucket compared to what we have persevered at the "National Enquirer" to bring the John Edwards' story to a conclusion. LEMON: So do you think, you know, that it's a "National Enquirer" -- I hope, you know, I would imagine you hope that the judges aren't swayed by that and say, oh, it was a "National Enquirer." Because there's been a lot of flak, (INAUDIBLE) the "National Enquirer" doesn't deserve a Pulitzer Prize. They're in a whole different category.
LEVINE: You know, our reporting, one of the key stories -- one of our submission stories is the fact that we reported last year that John Edwards is the focus of a federal grand jury investigation and possible misappropriation of his campaign funds to cover up the affair. We think that we did very significant reporting, the same type of reporting that's done by the great newspapers in this country and certainly our reporters and researchers and photographers who work on this incredible presidential scandal for so long certainly deserve the recognition.
LEMON: Do you think that this will change the game when it comes to tabloids if you do indeed win or just your nomination. It's your first time to be nominated, right?
LEVINE: Well, it's the first time that the Pulitzer board officially accepted our eligibility. And I think that whether we win or not, it's a great honor to be part of the process. More importantly, we've been vindicated by the bloggers who for so long followed our story and publicized our story on the web while the main stream media avoided the John Edwards' story for a long period of time.
So they followed us and all of our information turned out to be factually correct, which at the end of the day is what we wanted. And certainly for our readers, they followed our story and stayed with us. And at the end of the day, John Edwards just this January finally admitted paternity of his daughter, Francis Quinn who's two years old.
LEMON: Yes. But you know what, I have to say this -- and you know this early on we were talking about it in a meeting here. And I said, did the "National Enquirer" get the story? You said, yes. I said what, let's have him on. Then you came on this program. I think you should get credit where credit is due. Really quickly though, you do play by different rules when it comes to, as you say main stream journalism.
LEVINE: Yes, we do practice checkbook journalism. We often times quote anonymous sources to a great degree. To get the story in the paper over the course of, from late 2007, we had relied on anonymous sources who we cultivated for a long period of time and gave us our trust. I can say, in terms of checkbook journalism, that the stories that we submitted for 2009, there was no checkbook journalism practiced in those stories. So hopefully the Pulitzer committee will review us fairly and squarely and there won't be any bias directed towards us based on our reputation as a scrappy supermarket tabloid and regard what we did as something worthy of America's highest journalism honor.
LEMON: Well, Mr. Levine, we got to run. But listen, good luck to everyone. And if you win, come back and talk to us, OK.
LEVINE: OK.
LEMON: Happy to have that conversation.
LEVINE: I appreciate that.
LEMON: It's going to be interesting.
LEVINE: I will. Thank you.
LEMON: Win or lose, Tiger Woods, probably very happy this Masters weekend finally arrived. People are talking about his golf game instead of his life away from the course.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. One of the biggest sports stories of the year today, the Masters Golf Tournament featuring two greats trying to concentrate on golf. But with enormous family concerns, Phil Mickelson, the sentimental favorite with his wife and mother battling cancer picked up his third Masters title. There you go. That's who won.
Tiger Woods making a return to golf after his personal life -- well, he was reduced to shambles. Finished, he tied fourth, right, our sports business analyst, Mr. Rick Horrow has been to Augusta this week. And he joins us now. You're not the only one who's been to Augusta this week. How do you like that? Can you see that?
(CROSSTALK)
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Yes, I like you now. But I can finally think the Masters hat off, by the way and the $69 tie that they make you buy. So wait for another year, right, pal?
LEMON: Yes. But listen, I want to get to Phil Mickelson, because really, you know, his wife, mother-in-law, dealing with cancer. The family man won. And a lot of people are excited. This is good news for him, not only personally but moneywise.
HORROW: Well, moneywise, he's more likable. He's more trustworthy, especially with what happened with Tiger last few months. He's got a big deal with Rolex, Barclay's, KPMG. He made $52 million last year in endorsements and winnings alone. So we're fine with Phil. But the game of golf won. Because it's much bigger than just Tiger.
And the ratings will be astronomical. This may be the most watched golf event in the history of the sport on television. And frankly we came up with a great story as well. So I think the golf industry can move on very positively too.
LEMON: What's next for Tiger?
HORROW: He says he may consider Charlotte, that's the next step on the Tiger watch. He may now look at his endorsements. He's tied at the hip obviously with Nike and with EA Sports, the Gatorade, the Accentures were waiting in the wings. I really think that Tiger picks up other endorsements. Finishing fourth in this tournament is not that bad.
I think he and the golf industry and Phil and everybody just wanted to get through the week and they did. I would say with flying colors, honestly.
LEMON: Oh, really? OK. So let's talk about K.J. Choi. He was paired with Tiger for most of the time, four days. What is that? Is that an endorsement bonanza?
HORROW: Well, it's an endorsement bonanza. He tied Tiger stroke-for-stroke. Every one of the four day. More important than that the companies that measure this kind of exposure say $15 million to $18 million for his endorsers paying Titleist and SK Telecom. And he's got a Korean bank that he represents. So he didn't win but his endorsers certainly won.
LEMON: So look at this hat. You got the hat. But check this out. Did you end up, I know you (INAUDIBLE) but did you end up in the local paper on the fashion section from Augusta?
HORROW: No, I think they were taking pity on you because this was your first Masters. This may be the first of many. No -- you're trumping me again, pal, as usual. As usual.
LEMON: Thank you, sir. No, no, no -- I'm just having a little fun with you. Thank you, Rick Horrow. Always a pleasure to have you on. OK.
HORROW: All right. See you next week. Bye.
LEMON: See you soon. You can check out Rich Horrow's weekly sports business blog. Just log on to my blog, cnn.com/don.
Thanks for watching, everyone. I'm Don Lemon in the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. See you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. "State of the Union" with my friend Candy Crowley begins right now. Make sure you watch the whole thing. We'll see you back.
