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Al Qaeda Suspected in Bomb Plot; Terror Investigation Intensifies; Countdown to Election Day; Comedians Take Over Washington; Tomas Now A Hurricane; Inside the Tea Party; Spelman Students Win Top Prize With New App

Aired October 30, 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: Good morning.

Synagogues in Chicago and around the country are on alert after two packages bound for Chicago from Yemen were found to contain explosive materials. My conversation with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano coming up in just a few minutes.

Plus, they are taking their political satire on the road. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert on the National Mall today. We're there too. It's 10 a.m. in D.C. as well as in Atlanta where I sit, 9 a.m. in San Antonio, 7 a.m. in Los Angeles. From the CNN Center, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's October 30th, I'm T.J. Holmes.

All the hallmarks of al Qaeda, that's how Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano describes the latest terror plot that's unraveling. Believed to have originated in Yemen and targeting the United States.

Here is what we know. Two cargo planes bound for the U.S. were stopped and searched in London and Dubai late Thursday and early Friday. Explosives were found on both planes. The explosives were discovered within two packages that reportedly contained a circuit board from a disassembled cell phone.

Police in Dubai described one of them as professionally loaded and the source close to the investigation says the explosive found is very likely PETN. We're told both seized packages were addressed to two Chicago area synagogues, both of which are on alert as are others.

U.S. officials are casting a growing suspicion on AQAP, shorthand for al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula, a growing militant group in Yemen.

CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom recently visited Yemen. He joins us live in Baghdad now to talk about Yemen's possible connection to this latest terror plot.

Mohammed, do you have any officials say they're astonished by these developments? How surprising is that?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., not so surprising that they would express astonishment at this. The Yemeni government has been battling this growing al Qaeda in and the Arabian Peninsula problem for close to two years now. What's interesting is to see how their tone has changed in regard to their fight against terror in their country. A few months ago, they were saying they pretty much had it all under control that yes they need some help, but they were really eradicating the country of al Qaeda.

Now they are really saying they need help. They need military aid from foreign countries including the U.S. and the U.K. They need support in this very integral fight because the fear from a lot of countries is that if Yemen becomes a failed state, if the al Qaeda problem gets worse and worse, that will affect not just the region but the rest of the world.

Because if that country does become a failed state, Al Qaeda would be able to operate even more than they are right now. What you've seen in the past month are several developments. Yemeni authorities are saying that al Qaeda members there, the active one are -- number about 400.

The problem is that they are in outlying areas of Yemen that is very hard for the government to control. Yemen is a really good place for militants to setup. It is a very poor country. It's very rugged, mountainous terrain. They really have free reign in the areas where they are to do what they want.

So the Yemeni officials have a lot of counter terrorist sweeps in the past month, but al Qaeda keeps retaliating. They are taking the fight directly against the government of Yemen. That is scaring the region and that is scaring the rest of the world. They're scaring Yemeni authorities. They say they need help and they need it fast -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Mohammed Jamjoom for us this morning in Baghdad. We appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Meanwhile, we continue to get updates and bits of information as this investigation moves forward. And we are just hearing from the Home secretary over in Great Britain, the British Home secretary issuing a statement Saturday just a bit ago saying that the package that was found in the U.K. at least at the East Midlands Airport was, quote, "a viable explosive and could have exploded on the aircraft."

Also added that there's no indication of any other attack on British soil, no change to the threat level in the U.K. as well so even though the packages were addressed from Yemen headed to Chicago synagogues, at least this British security official saying that that package could have exploded on the aircraft.

Earlier today I talked with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. I asked about increased security efforts to uncover future plots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: There is no silver bullet and so you have to really look at do you get the value added on security when you do something like that. We believe that risk-based screening makes sense. That's what we have been doing and we will continue to do.

We will continue it look at ways to enhance that on the cargo side. But it's these partnerships around the globe and around our country that really make the difference and really help create a system, a security, a Homeland Security system that maximizes our ability to detect and thwart plots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The government of Yemen says it has started a thorough investigation.

Just three days until critical midterm elections. Tuesday's vote could change the balance of power in Congress. CNN has the best political team in television spread out across the country covering every angle. We will bring you the most updated election coverage throughout the weekend.

Meanwhile, up on Washington D.C. today, politics not as usual today. We are seeing thousands gather in Washington, but nothing like we are seeing today really.

Comedy Central's two biggest stars are all set to take over Washington for the day. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert will host a rally on the National Mall. CNN's Kate Bolduan joins us live in Washington with this for us.

Good morning to you, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, T.J. Let me know if it's still pretty loud, but again, we are at a rally, so it's going to be loud. The crowds are definitely starting to gather at this point.

The official program starts around noon. It will run until 3:00, but people were out here early this morning and in our limited little space that we have, I'm going to show you kind of what we are looking at.

We have got crowds gathering over here, you can see. As you can see, there's still some space to fill. We have got a few hours, of course, before - a couple of hours before this whole thing really kicks off.

Jay McMichael is going to continue to kind of pan over hopefully to show you a little more of what we've got going on. We've gotten off this press podium to talk to some people, T.J., about why they are here because there's a big question of what is this rally all about? What can people expect?

What I have heard from people, some are turning out because they simply love these two comedians and they want to see a good show. They want to have a couple laughs. But at same time, also from a couple of people that they wouldn't travel all this way, one man from New Jersey, just to see a comedy show. He says he's here to make a statement in a show of force of numbers that the political climate is getting too angry and too extreme. He says that's what he hopes these numbers show.

What will they see today? A little bit unclear. We know Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be out talking. We have a little bit of a clue of some of the musical act.

Sheryl Crow being one of them that will be performing today, but a lot of the guest speakers have yet to be announced. So a lot of the draw as well is to find out really what this whole thing is all about, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Kate Bolduan for us there in Washington. Kate, thank you so much.

Meanwhile, Democrats aren't likely to find anything funny about the midterm. Polls point to big loses so the president is off on a weekend sprint to several states hoping to salvage some wins for the party.

CNN senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry joins us live from Philadelphia. Ed, what does the president's schedule look like today?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, he's jam packed really, three cities he's going to head. This really is the final sprint with three days to go.

He's starting here in Philly at Temple University. We've seen the president hitting a lot of these universities trying to reach out to young people. He was in Charlottesville, Virginia, last night for example, right near the UVA, trying to get young people who maybe voted for him in 2008 for the first time ever going to the polls.

Maybe thinking about sitting on the sidelines in 2010, not seeing a lot at stake for them. This president trying to say, look, this is not a referendum on me. This is a choice that you have. You have got to get out to the polls. It's a choice as the president casts it either going forward with his agenda or going backwards with a Republican Congress.

Here at Temple University, he's going to start out the next couple of hours. A meeting with some volunteers about 1,500 to 2,000 volunteers in a building behind me. These are folks who are going out to canvas neighborhoods here in Philly. Get out to vote (inaudible) for Joe Sestak, you remember he is the Democratic congressman. He was in primary. The White House recently wanted him out. They wanted Arlen Specter to have this nomination instead.

Sestak wouldn't get out. He got the nomination. He's been behind Republican Pat Toomey throughout this race. A lot of pundits had given him up for dead, but in recent weeks, Sestak has really narrowed the gap. It's been a dead heat. It bounced around, but the Democrats now think they have a real shot here. Later the president will be going to Connecticut, another big Senate race, trying to help Dick Blumenthal there who's pulled ahead of Republican Linda McMahon.

And then finally, the president ends all of this in Chicago today. He's going to sleep in his own bed in fact and he's got a big Senate race there for his old seat. Alexi Giannoulias in a very tough race there with Republican Mark Kirk.

So the bottom line is in this final sprint, there's a lot of Democrats who privately believe that they are likely to lose the House of Representatives, but they still have hope they can hold on to the Senate. That's really where the president is focusing his attention on these dead heat Senate battles all across the country, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Ed Henry for us this morning in Philadelphia, Ed, we appreciate you as always. Thank you so much.

You work hard, save money, coast into retirement, right? Not so much the case for some baby boomers. They've worked their whole lives. Now they have either got to work more or polish up their resumes. Anderson with tips on protecting that (inaudible).

Also time for us to say good morning to Bonnie Schneider. Hey, there.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, T.J. We are tracking not one, but two tropical systems in the Atlantic and yes, we're wrapping the month of October.

This one bears watching. Tropical Storm Tomas on the verge of becoming a hurricane. It may even happen in the next few hours. I'll have a look at this plus your Halloween forecast coming up. T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Bonnie Schneider, we appreciate you and we have a weekend quiz for, you know, it's Halloween time. Everybody has the mind on Halloween. Why not a Halloween quiz?

Can you figure this one out? First question this hour, what's expected to be the most popular Halloween costume for pets, a hotdog, a pirate, or a pumpkin? The answer after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 13 minutes past the hour here on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. That music means we are just a day away from Halloween.

And before the break, we asked what's expected to be the most popular Halloween costume for pets? Frankly, I do not know people did this. Bonnie, I do have a couple of pets, never dressed them up, but what would you say would be the most popular Halloween costume, a hotdog, a pirate, or a pumpkin? Bonnie, your answer, please?

SCHNEIDER: A hotdog.

HOLMES: A hotdog, you would think, but it's actually a pumpkin. Number one on the list, the rest of the top five, a devil, a witch, a hotdog, number four, and it's a tie between a bee and a cat. What pet do you dress up as a cat?

SCHNEIDER: You can't dress a cat up as a cat, but a dog as a cat. That's too confusing for the pet.

HOLMES: It's a little mixed up on that map over there. I see what you want to talk about. It's clear what we need to talk about Tomas is the name?

SCHNEIDER: Tomas is the name and this storm, T.J. is on the verge of becoming a hurricane very, very soon. It may even be within the next hour when we get our next advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

Tomas has really been explosive in terms of rapid intensification overnight. We see it bearing down over the Winward islands certainly into Barbados that's where we actually have hurricane warnings for a lot of areas, just on the verge of the Caribbean Sea.

But (inaudible) you see the track because even though we are moving into November, this storm, Tomas, is actually on its way to becoming, if this goes according to this forecast, a major category three hurricane.

This week, and once again, we are moving into November so by Thursday, look at the winds forecast for Tomas, 115 miles per hour. The problem is that right now the storm path takes it south of Haiti. Most of Haiti is now under that cone of uncertainty still recovering from the earthquake of January of this past year.

This is not what they want to see come through Caribbean, especially so late in the season. Luckily this is still days ahead and we could certainly see changes with this storm.

This is still a preliminary forecast. So we're watching this very closely and T.J., just to let you know real quick, we are also following a lot of rain in California this morning.

So you're off to a wet start in San Francisco and Los Angeles for early Halloween. I think it will clear out by tomorrow though.

HOLMES: All right, Bonnie. Thank you so much. We want to turn now to Josh Levs.

Josh, we've been talking so much about politics for the past several months. It seems like a year people have made up their minds, making decisions, researching all the issue. You get ready to vote on Tuesday and you think wait a minute, where is my polling station?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly and this you know what? I've been interacting with the people online today. A lot of them telling me that they honestly don't know where they are supposed to go to actually vote.

But what there are now are some new apps for that and some web tools to help you find your polling place and guide you there step by step and make sure you get there.

I also got some web sites to get you caught up on the candidates and he issues before you cast that vote. All of that is coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, 19 minutes past the hour here on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. The weekend before the midterm elections on Tuesday, and we have another huge rally going on in Washington D.C., not being held by Democrats or Republicans or politicians or candidates of any kind rather, comedians.

You are seeing people collecting already for the rally to restore sanity and/or fear being put on by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. A lot of people still wondering exactly what this is going to be about, but it's billed as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement.

Those are their words how they describe this thing. Our crews are there. We're keeping our eye on this big political rally. Again, three days away from when the time for you go to the polls and vote.

You had to make all these decisions, Josh Levs about who to vote for, which issues are most important to you, but you know what something else pretty important, where are you supposed to go? Where is your polling station?

LEVS: Yes, there's a lot of people who don't know where their polling - I mean, people that we know are saying, you know, I moved last year, I'm not sure where I am supposed to vote.

I've been interacting with some of you today in Facebook and Twitter, you're telling me you don't know where to vote. Well, what I have now for you a series of websites that should help get you all set for the midterms on Tuesday and you don't need to write anything down.

At the end I will show you, I have put everything into one list for you online. All right, let's start off with this. This is from Google maps. It's pretty cool if they have -- all you need to do is type in your address right here. It will zoom you to your polling site.

As an example, they put in 1600 Pennsylvania so I just clicked on it. It shows where they would need to vote. This brings you all the way over to George Washington University. So wherever your polling site is, this will tell you.

Obviously, it's always good to double check information you find online, but that's really helpful. What Google has now to go along with it is this app and this is pretty cool. This has just come out. You can download it for your iPhone, for your droid, whatever you got. If you have a Smartphone, it is an election center map from Google that will walk you or drive you to your polling site directly there.

Just it knows where you are if you give it that GPS information. Couple more things I want you to know about. This is something that Four Square is doing. If you don't know - use Four Square. Four Square is a web site that lets you check in about where you are or where you have been.

Well, they have an (I-voted) badge and they're encouraging people to check in when they vote. It will pop up on this map then if other people see it, it might encourage them vote and other people in your area will see exactly where you voted. They will be able to follow you on that.

Just one more thing I'm going to tell you about. Obviously in advance of what you are looking at here in the big midterms on Tuesday. Get caught up on all the issues at CNN.com's election center. It's in our political section on CNN.com.

Everything I have just showed you here, I'll load it up in my Facebook and Twitter pages right now joshlevsCNN. We are going to talk to you about all the issues, about all the races, what you need to know, fact checks galore, get to know the facts.

Then use those apps to get to the site on Tuesday. See, we can take care of you, one, two, three all the way to Tuesday and T.J. and I talked about this. Last mid terms only had 40 percent turnout in the U.S. and that was up from the previous midterms. And more are crossing their fingers that more Americans will choose to take part in that part of our democracy this time around.

HOLMES: (Inaudible) about who to vote for and half of these folks out there -- some of them won't even vote. All right, Josh, we appreciate you. Good information there.

We have got some voters, a lot of them collecting right now in Washington D.C. on the National Mall, a huge rally taking place this weekend before Election Day.

But, again, these aren't politicians. These aren't candidates. These aren't Democrats, Republicans, left and right putting on this rally.

A couple of comedians are putting on this rally. We will explain. We are there live. Stay with us here on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: So, 26 minutes past the hour.

We are in the homestretch, the final weekend before the oh, so critical midterm elections. Of course, you expect to see the candidates out there, out and about trying to shake those last few hands, kiss those last few babies, if you will, trying to shore up some more votes.

But you also have other big names out there that are not on the ballot this time around, including President Obama. He will be out this weekend. The vice president will be out as well. The vice president is going to be in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, the president is going to be in several spots, Philadelphia, Connecticut, as well as Chicago. The former president, Bill Clinton, also going to be making a stop in Ohio, and the senator, former presidential candidate John McCain, he'll be out and about in Phoenix.

Now it seems at this point, a lot of people are calling it a foregone conclusion that Republicans will, in fact, take back the House of Representatives. They need 39 seats to pick up 39 seats to do so.

It's a different story in the Senate now. That seems to be the mystery now surrounding Election Day. Will they be able to do that? Well, one critical race a lot of people are watching is in West Virginia.

And that's where we find our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser for us. Paul, they love or seem to in West Virginia love their governor. They don't seem to love the idea of him being a senator.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: That's a very, very true statement and let me tell you, T.J., one of those races you are mentioning. If the Republicans take back the Senate, they need to win 10 Senate seats. They got to win right here in West Virginia.

This is a crucial must-win for them. They are bringing in big names to help out and a big name today is going to be Sarah Palin. She's going to be right behind me. A little later today, there's going to be a rally at that pavilion behind me.

Former Alaskan governor is going to be teaming up with a guy called John Rasey (ph). He is a businessman here in West Virginia. He's the Senate nominee here. He's had some big name with him recently. John McCain was here last week, Rudy Giuliani coming next week, Sarah Palin with her husband, Todd today.

As well as Ted Nugent, the rock star who's a conservative activist and a very outspoken critic of President Barack Obama. On the Democratic side, you mentioned, Joe Manchin, two-term governor here in West Virginia, very popular.

But the race here is considered a tossup right now. The Republicans are saying, listen, if Joe Manchin goes to Washington, he's going to be a rubber stamp for President Barack Obama.

Bill Clinton has campaigned here with Manchin. Barack Obama has not. He is not so popular in this state. This is a must-win state again for the Republicans. This is going to be a crazy day here, this rally. We are going to keep it high on everything, T.J.

HOLMES: One more thing to you, Paul, is it fair to say a lot of people are almost starting to dismiss now the idea of Republicans taking back the House? It seems like that's going to be the case, it's going to be a consensus. Would you say that is pretty much the conventional wisdom right now?

STEINHAUSER: Well, let's talk about the numbers. You just mentioned just a second ago 39, that's the net gain the Republicans need to win back the House. Two of the top nonpartisan political handicappers, the "Cook Political Report," the Rothenberg Political Report, they say the Republicans will probably win back anywhere from 48 to 65 seats.

That's more than 39. Check this out. This is our CNN -- latest CNN poll of polls in the battle for Congress, the generic ballot, would you vote for the generic Democrat or Republican in your district? Republicans have a four-point advantage, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Always, Paul Steinhauser, good to talk to you, buddy. Thanks so much. We'll continue to check in with you.

And, of course, all these big races -- you just heard Paul talking about one in particular in West Virginia -- so much is at stake. So, on this last weekend, candidates have a chance and parties have a chance to make their last push before Election Day.

So, of course, there's a big rally taking place right now, or about to start in about an hour and a half, in Washington, D.C., on the National Mall. But it's not the left or the right or any candidate or any party. A couple of comedians are putting this thing on.

Let's check in with our resident comedian. Pete Dominique is there for us. My man.

Good to see you this morning, Pete. People are starting to collect. What is --

PETE DOMINIQUE, COMEDIAN: Hey, handsome T.J. Holmes. I got a little -- it's hard to hear because it's getting a little crazy here, but let me just tell you --

HOLMES: OK.

DOMINIQUE: First of all, T.J., I bet you wish you were here, right, sir?

HOLMES: Yes, well, I don't know about that.

DOMINIQUE: T.J., no, I'm sure the studio in Atlanta is beautiful, but I am on the mall here in D.C. It's awesome. There's a ton of people here. And I worked at "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" for years warming up the studio audiences.

My one prediction was that people out here would be funny. They'd have funny signs. I just saw a guy walk by with a sign, I'm not kidding you, T.J., it said, "God hates nags." I saw another guy walk with a sign that said, "I respect your opinion."

So there's a lot of funny people here trying to use satire to make a point, which is really what "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert" do as well. We wish you were here, T.J.

HOLMES: Well, I know it's going to be a good time, it seems, but the tone. You were talking about some of the signs you see, but the tone there, are people just expecting to be entertained, or what is the message they maybe want to get out?

DOMINIQUE: You know what, I'm losing you, buddy.

HOLMES: Oh.

DOMINIQUE: I'm losing you a little bit there, buddy. I just heard you mention the signs. I'm sorry. All I can tell you is that the people here are -- it's backing up. They're showing "The Daily Show" highlights and "Colbert" highlights, buildup to the rally. And we're going to have a -- we're going to have a good time here.

We're going to have a lot of laughs and there's going to be -- I can tell you this, a little insider information -- there's going to be a mind-bending musical performance. There's going to be things falling out of your ears. It's going to be -- it's going to be a fun time and I think there's going to be a point made. Who knows what the point will be made. That's all I can say.

HOLMES: All right. We'll check in with Pete -- we'll check in with Pete later. Hopefully we can get him connected so we can talk to him. But good information from Pete this morning, of course. Looking forward to that performance he's talking about.

But, again, a lot of people trying to figure out exactly what the rally is about. Kind of a tightly kept secret. They put out some information about the lineup for the day. We know Sheryl Crow is going to perform. Also The Roots has been performing. That band as well. But as far as the speakers go, not quite sure. But, again, these are some of the pictures of people starting to collect.

And again, this is not supposed to start for another hour and a half. People still starting to collect. But it looks like a pretty good crowd starting to gather. And again, another point, people trying to figure out what it's about. They describe it as, we're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying and counterproductive and who feel the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones heard. So that's just part of how they describe this Rally to Restore Sanity and/or fear. So we'll continue to check in with them there.

Now, we have seen other political rallies in D.C., including somebody at the Tea Party. And all you've been hearing about the Tea Party over the past year, really, some say it's still, frankly, hard to figure out the Tea Party. We go in search of this movement. It's 33 minutes past the hour here on this CNN Saturday morning. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Thirty-five minutes past the hour. Want to turn to our meteorologist, Bonnie Schneider. Bonnie, we knew this was kind of coming and Tomas is rearing his ugly head, is he not?

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely, T.J. This is our twelfth hurricane of the busy Atlantic 2010 season. Tomas is now a category one hurricane with maximum winds at 75 miles per hour. Gusts are even higher than that as this storm is working its way further off to the west.

I want to show you the latest path. You can see it's moving west-northwest at 15. Let's zoom in on the track here. I want to show that Haiti is in that cone of uncertainty. We also have hurricane warnings issued for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Martinique with this storm. So it is advancing.

Now, a lot of the models are curving it back out towards the Atlantic in the days to come, but it's important to note this track may chance and it's also important to note that most of the evidence is pointing towards intensification to major hurricane status later this week. I know it's moving into November, but we're still in the tropical season until November 30th. Once again, Tomas is now a hurricane -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Bonnie, we appreciate that update. We'll check in with you again here shortly.

We're at 36 minutes past the hour. I'm going to turn back to politics now. You've been hearing an awful lot about the Tea Party. When you think Tea Party, what image comes to mind? Maybe some of these images, sometimes seen as loud, boisterous, bold, full of energy. The movement can literally organize thousands of folks for a rally. It can also demand all kinds of media attention.

How are they able to do that? Well, our political producer, Shannon Travis, has spent months traveling with the Tea Party Express trying to get some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: I will leave my callback number once again.

I've been calling and calling the campaign and just calling around a few people on the campaign and see if we can find out some information about where she's going to be.

It's Shannon Travis, political producer with CNN. I've called and left you a few messages.

This is what it's been like for at least a week and a half for me personally. A lot longer for some other people who have been trying to contact the O'Donnell campaign. Going to hop back on the bus and just see if we can actually go and find her at some of the places that we know that she will -- might be.

So we're here in the building where Christine O'Donnell's campaign headquarters is. Apparently it's on the second floor. This is the headquarters.

Hello.

I've been knocking repeatedly. And pretty loudly. And we definitely hear people on the other side of the door. A lot of activity back there. Maybe someone's coming to the door now.

Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, turn the camera off, guys. You're acting immature.

TRAVIS: The camera's off.

ON SCREEN MESSAGE: We turn the camera off until O'Donnell's campaign staff starts to record the conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you rolling? If you're rolling, I'm going to roll.

TRAVIS: I just want to get, for the record, what -- see, I'm rolling straight down so we get the audio.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) is audio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Let me bring in our Shannon Travis.

Buddy, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

TRAVIS: Hey, T.J.

HOLMES: You have spent a lot of time out there on the road with the Tea Party, Tea Party Express. Do you feel like you know the Tea Party now?

TRAVIS: I feel like I know them a lot better, but I feel like you and a lot of our viewers probably don't know them a lot better the way that I do. There are a lot of things about the Tea Party movement that people just don't know. I mean we've seen the rallies, we've seen the signs, we've heard about the controversies, we've heard the anger.

But what's it like actually behind the scenes following along with these people, talking to some of the candidates? That's part of the things -- those are part of the things that we want to show you in this documentary. I mean, literally. And even if I weren't involved in this, I would say this, there are some moments in this doc that will just make you go, wow.

HOLMES: Now, OK, that's a heck of a tease you just gave us right there.

TRAVIS: It's true.

HOLMES: Now what do you mean by that, things that will make you just go, wow?

TRAVIS: Well, some things about the inner workings of the Tea Party movement, their questions about who's actually funding the movement. President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly have both kind of derived it as Astroturf and being funded by billionaires and not people like you or me sending in $5 or $10.

So we go deep into that. Who's actually behind this movement? Who's sending -- who's funding it? Because those buses and having rallies and printing up signs, all of that costs money. So we dig deep into a lot of that stuff. Things that people have not heard about the Tea Party movement in the 18 months that they've been around.

HOLMES: All right, Shannon, it better make me say wow now that you've set up this tease.

So, Shannon, good to see you.

TRAVIS: The pressure is on.

HOLMES: We're going to talk to you again soon, buddy. Thanks again. Always good to see you.

TRAVIS: Good to see you again.

HOLMES: And again, the programming note here, you can see this documentary talking about this evening on CNN, "Boiling Point Inside the Tea Party," tonight 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, it's always tough to do all the research you need to do as you're trying to get ready to go to college. But what if you had something right there literally in the palm of your hand that could help you pick a college?

Well, we've got a couple of college students who have created, of course, an app. There's an app for everything. And we've got two young ladies here with us this morning who have created, not just an app, an award-winning app that can help some young people find a college. We're going to talk to them.

It's 41 minutes past the hour.

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HOLMES: All right, forty-two minutes past the hour.

We want to give kudos to the ladies right now. The ladies of Spelman College. They put their school, not that it really need to be put on the map, but they put it on the map in a whole new way. And you earned some money, is that right? I didn't know the money part. You got some money out of this?

JAZMINE MILLER, SPELMAN COLLEGE STUDENT: Actually, our application's on (ph) for free (INAUDIBLE). HOLMES: All right. Well, I'm sitting here next to Jazmine Miller, right here with me here in Atlanta. But also, Jonecia Keels in New York was part of this project as well. So let me back up here.

You all are part of this program. We have this here, a SpelBots is the name of your team, but I'll start with you here since you're sitting here. You have an app that you created. What does that app do and then we'll get into the recognition you got for it.

MILLER: So our app is called HBCU Buddy. And what it does is it's an encyclopedia that basically helps a person engineer and know exactly about their college that they want to go to. So it gives information about the colleges. It tells them everything they want to know.

HOLMES: OK, Jonecia Keels is your partner, is here, happens to be in New York with us here.

But, Jonecia, did you all come up with this? Did you see a need for it, quite frankly?

JONECIA KEELS, SPELMAN COLLEGE STUDENT: Absolutely. The reason why is that not a lot of people know about what an HBCU is. And the people that know about historically black colleges and universities, some of them have false stereotypes about them, such as they're not as academically challenging, which is far from the truth. So by creating this app, we wanted to show and educate the masses about how important HBCUs are and also to show that talent comes from all backgrounds and all fields. They're still being produced at HBCUs.

HOLMES: All right. Well, Jonecia, how did you go from this idea in your head to making it actually happen? We all use these apps, but we have no clue how to get creative.

KEELS: So, me and Jazmine, we went through a rigorous three weeks planning process and she was in Japan at the time and I was in Charlotte, so that was pretty interesting on Skype. But we actually -- we asked around some of our fellow classmates, you know, what is needed for a better experience for a campus life. And we also thought about, you know, putting ourselves back in high school years, like thinking about what institutions we wanted to join.

HOLMES: So what exactly was --

KEELS: So we just put --

HOLMES: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I was bringing you in, Jazmine, actually.

What is -- you entered this in -- tell me about the competition, first of all.

MILLER: So the competition itself is called Big Mobile on Campus.

HOLMES: OK. MILLER: It was a competition for AT&T. And it was a national competition. And what you do is you have to -- you're given a task to write in a mobile application that could enhance your campus. And so one of the main things we wanted to enhance the campus, of course, a ton of ideas came to mind. But one of the main ones was actually from experience at our campus is that when me and Neci (ph) first came to Spelman, we had never seen it before. Were never able to go. So that was one of the main things we also wanted to get out there for people that don't have the resources to go to the college that they are interested in.

HOLMES: And Neci -- I've been calling her by her full name, Jonecia here. It's Neci. OK, my bad.

MILLER: (INAUDIBLE) Neci.

HOLMES: OK. I got it now. And our Mario Armstrong, our tech guy, is here with us. He's always bringing us different kinds of apps. He's with us from Skype here.

How -- you know, you're hearing what these young ladies were able to do. And I guess it sounds easy coming from them. But if I'm sitting at home right now, I've got an idea for an app. What am I supposed to do with that?

MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: Yes, well most people, T.J., don't have the programming skills to create an application. So I'm going to give out a quick web address here too. One is called Appmakr. And that's spelled appmakr.com, appmakr.com. You can go to that site, sign up for free and get your app made. You basically control the whole publishing process, the editing process and the building process.

Another tool you can use is Google has a new application out there as well for the Android called app inventor. So there are some tools that don't require a lot of programming skills in order for you to make your application.

HOLMES: I want to come back to Neci and Jazmine here.

You all not just put this together. Is it SpelBots?

MILLER: Yes.

HOLMES: I got the name of this right. You all are a team there. Now, we always hear about not enough women, not enough minority women are into the science, math, engineering and technology fields. But you all have a team at Spelman. What do the SpelBots do?

MILLER: So, what the SpelBots are is, we're a robotics team that compete on a global level. We compete in a competition called RoboCup. And RoboCup is basically like the World Cup for robotics. So we compete against different countries. Mostly grad schools. And as a minority, all female robotics team, we are the first one to be all female and all African-American. HOLMES: Oh. Now we have a couple of these here. Did you all create these things here? And, Neci, I'll let you talk me through some of the -- I think you can see the pictures here -- but these are some of you alls that you created?

Neci.

KEELS: No.

HOLMES: No.

KEELS: No. Actually --

HOLMES: What am I looking at here?

KEELS: We buy them from a French company called Algebra and Robotics (ph) and our task is to program everything about it. So we need to program its vision, program the motions, everything.

HOLMES: Ahh.

KEELS: Right.

HOLMES: Now, what kind of responses do you all get when you actually see -- when you show up at some of these competitions and there's an all female, all African-American team that shows up, Neci? What kind of responses do you all get?

KEELS: Definitely get a lot of surprised looks. Lots of stares. But also we get some encouragement as well because it's kind of new to see females and African-Americans in technology like this.

HOLMES: OK. What is -- oh! You should see your partner Jazmine over here right now. She's like, oh, we did all the preparation and the work. And he just bit it on live national TV. Now what is this little guy doing? You programmed him to dance? What is he doing, Jazmine?

MILLER: So --

HOLMES: You're still mortified.

MILLER: Yes, yes. So my heart just died when I saw that. But, actually, this is a dance I created. It's -- it was basically for -- it was something fun and extracurricular to do. We actually host a lot of dance competitions for SpelBots to introduce a lot of the new members into programming robotics and what to do with them. And -- he didn't do a very good job. But that part was actually supposed to happen.

HOLMES: You know what --

MILLER: But --

HOLMES: You know, Jazmine, Neci, thank you. But, by all means, I'm sure it worked perfectly during in the competition. MILLER: It normally does. He's camera shy. That's what it is.

HOLMES: All right. We all get that every now and again. We've got to take a quick break here. We're right back on this CNN Saturday Morning.

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HOLMES: Well, at 52 minutes past the hour, we're getting new developments on this story that has been breaking and developing for the past 24 to 48 hours now. British authorities are analyzing one of the packages mailed from Yemen and intercepted yesterday in the U.K. The U.K. home secretary speaking just moments ago. Take a listen.

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THERESA MAY, BRITISH HOME SECRETARY: All preliminary investigation is now complete. I can confirm that the device was viable and could have exploded. The target may have been an aircraft. And had it detonated, the aircraft could have been brought down. We do not believe that the perpetrators of the attack would have known the location of the device when it was planned to explode.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So you're hearing there from U.K.'s home secretary, went on to say they have no information to indicate another attack is imminent, but the information we are hearing there, preliminary investigation is done and they believe -- possibly, she's suggesting there, that whoever may have sent it, the intent was to possibly have it explode on the aircraft and bring that aircraft down.

And possibly it was necessarily not meant for a destination somewhere else and maybe the destination was just to have it on a plane somewhere. So there was no way to know, or at least whoever sent it, where it might be. So maybe that wasn't the point. So again, continue with this investigation. It's still preliminary. But again, some new information we're getting out of the U.K. right now.

Again, we're at 53 minutes past the hour. We're three days away from the Election Day. We are covering a major rally taking place in Washington, D.C., today. That rally, though, is being put on by a couple of comedians. The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or fear, it's being billed. We'll be talking about this throughout the morning, and we'll take you there live. Stay with us.

All right. There we go. We got you with a little music this morning. But you know what that music means. We've got another morning quiz for you.

The classic slasher movie, "Halloween," and the hockey mask worn by Jason. Well, what actor was that mask models after in 1978? Was it Ben Cartwright on "Bonanza? Was it Lee Majors, "Six Million Dollar Man"? Or William Shatner's Captain Kirk from "Star Trek"? The answer after the break.

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HOLMES: Remember these scenes from the classic "Halloween." Before the break we asked, who was that masked modeled after in 1978? Was it Ben Cartwright on "Bonanza," Lee Majors, "Six Million Dollar Man," or William Shatner's Captain Kirk from "Star Trek." I actually had no idea about this one. It was Captain James T. Kirk, that was played by William Shatner.

Because of the independent film's low budget, the prop department used the cheapest mask they could find at a costume store and that was a "Star Trek" mask. Then they spray painted the face white, teased Kirk's hair a little bit, reshaped the eye holes and the rest is history.

Shatner said in an interview years later, he had no idea he was the model for that mask. We're right back.

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