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Censure Recommended for Congressman Charlie Rangel; General Motors Makes Initial Public Offering

Aired November 18, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It's me, Ali Velshi! Thank you, sir.

Look, we got a lot going on in the next two hours, folks. Let's get going.

Quick preview, if you will. We have just gotten word that police in Ohio have called a news conference this afternoon here regarding these three missing people in Ohio. You have Tina Herrmann, her son, Kody Maynard, and their family friend, Stephanie Sprang have been missing since last week.

In fact, we're also learning this here just in the last few moments. Our affiliate WBNS out of Columbus, Ohio, is telling us they have spoken with Stephanie Sprang's son, and he says police have found three bodies.

We're going to go to that as soon as we get that, of course, during the show. We will take that live.

Also, I want to let our viewers know we're expecting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make comments any moment, step before that podium there on Capitol Hill. He will be just coming out of a meeting with some Democrats. And, as you know, this lame-duck session has a couple of major, major, major items on the to-do list, of course, primarily what to do about those Bush tax cuts that expire at the end of this year.

Also, another developing story unfolding at this hour as we enter the last hour of the trading day. General Motors is the headline of the day with their initial public offering. The company has literally come back from the brink of failure since that government bailout about 17 months ago. And today, with an opening IPO of 35 bucks a share, another payback to Uncle Sam begins. And as soon as those market close -- markets close -- it will happen in about an hour -- President Obama will be making a statement about GM.

We're hearing that will happen from the White House Briefing Room. You will see that here.

But first the other major story out of Washington developing now. There he is, just sitting down, live pictures, Congressman Charlie Rangel, 40-year veteran of the Congress, just spoken, officially facing the music today, facing the music for several violations of House ethics, again live pictures from inside this House -- House Ethics Committee, full committee today.

Just to go back, let me give you some perspective. Just before noon, Rangel entered alone for a hearing to help determine his punishment. So, basically, this is like the penalty phase. Now, Rangel is still insisting that even, though, yes, he says he made some mistakes, he says he's not corrupt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: It would really help, and I don't think it's out of line, if the committee didn't say it before, that you could put in that report no matter what you agree the sanctions should be that your member was not corrupt and did not seek and did not gain anything personally for the bad conduct that I have had.

That's all I have ever asked when I referred this whole thing to this committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Standing by live outside of that hearing is CNN Congress -- congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar.

Brianna, I know you've been all over this all day long, really the past couple of days.

And, so, certainly as we saw him sort of sitting down perhaps starting, I don't think he's quite relaxing at the moment, he's certainly, Brianna, had better days.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, he's definitely had better days.

And I think you really saw this weighing on him today. Some of the other proceedings on Monday, when he came initially for the trial, which he was only there for a few minutes, before boycotting the trial, Brooke, he was almost jovial, kind of him -- his jovial self, which he always is. You know, he -- generally you see him walking down the hall. He has kind of got a smile on his face.

And I think that sort of a levity you saw maybe belied really just how serious these proceedings are. But this looks like a man who really is cognizant of what's going on here, 80 years old. He was just elected to his 21st term in Congress.

But he's in the twilight of his career. And this is how really things are kind of wrapping up for him. And I don't think that that has escaped his attention as he's been sitting here in this room. And right now this full Ethics Committee, Brooke, has adjourned for the day. They go into what is called executive session. This is their behind-closed-doors deliberation.

We could find out perhaps as early as today, possibly tomorrow, exactly what their sanction is for him. BALDWIN: Let's talk about sanctions, Brianna, possible options here as far as punishment for Mr. Rangel. We know reprimand is the lightest. Then you have censure.

And so let's look at what happens with that, if that happens. Let's go back in time here. I want to take you back to 1983 and Congressman Gerry Studds walks into the well of the House and is essentially dressed down by the speaker in front of everyone.

He's basically told he's done wrong. So my question to you, looking back at that, is how important is to it Rangel to try to get off I guess with the lighter -- the lighter punishment, if we can say that, get off with reprimand, as opposed to censure?

KEILAR: Well, and there's actually a whole list of different reprimands here.

Censure is the one that the prosecution, the -- the main attorney there on the Ethics Committee, has recommended.

BALDWIN: Mm-hmm.

KEILAR: And then below that, you have reprimand, which is lesser. Above that, you have expulsion, which is generally reserved for someone who has been convicted of a felony. Rangel obviously has not been.

And below all of those, you have fines, maybe having privileges revoked. But, yes, let's talk about censure. He doesn't want a censure. Any member of Congress would rather have a reprimand than a censure, and that's because that picture you saw -- and that was from 1983 -- somewhat poor pictures -- but that is literally public humiliation.

You are there on camera in the well of the House of Representatives, standing there, and the speaker of the House -- actually, there is -- there is a verbal rebuke, and the speaker of the House, which in this case would be Nancy Pelosi, would read the censure resolution. And, by the way, should we mention that Speaker Pelosi and Charlie Rangel go way back.

They are good friends. That would make for a very awkward moment and a very difficult visual for someone who, as we mentioned, is in the twilight of their career.

BALDWIN: Real quickly, Brianna, before I play some more sound from Congressman Rangel, no matter how I guess -- ultimately, this is up to the House to vote -- when then will the punishment take effect?

KEILAR: Well, I mean, you know, we would have to wait, because that's something that would be set. And the way this process goes is that if it is -- for instance, if it were to be a censure, this is something that the Ethics Committee would prepare a full report to the House for and it would have to be scheduled.

So we really can't say exactly when that would happen, but the idea is that it would happen before this Congress ends. Obviously, the new Congress takes place in January.

BALDWIN: Sure.

KEILAR: So, it would be somewhat immediate.

BALDWIN: Let's go back to Monday. Rangel keeps going back to Monday, when the committee counsel, essentially, the prosecutor here said he has found nothing to show that Rangel is corrupt. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKE CHISAM, CHIEF COUNSEL, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT: I see no evidence of corruption. I -- it's hard to answer the question personal financial benefit.

I think the short answer is probably no. Do I -- do I believe, based on this record, that Congressman Rangel took steps to enrich himself based on his position in Congress? I do not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Brianna, we were talking about this a couple of days ago. I guess he's not -- essentially we just heard there's no evidence of corruption. I think the word he used was sloppy. Would that testimony help Rangel possibly escape the heavier punishment of censure?

KEILAR: I'm not so sure that it would. And it didn't earlier this week, because what you -- that's Blake Chisam. He is in essence the prosecution. He is the top lawyer for the Ethics Committee.

He was pressed by a Republican member shortly after saying that. That member said, so, are you saying that sloppiness is a defense? And he said, no, I'm not saying that sloppiness is a defense. He was basically speaking just to the intent.

He said, I believe there are House violations here.

And then that committee went behind closed doors and decided that actually, yes, they thought Rangel was guilty of 11 of 12. So, even though you keep -- I think what this is all about, this, is he corrupt, this is about winning the message, because at this point he's already guilty of 11 of 12 counts.

BALDWIN: Right.

KEILAR: This is about winning the message and him trying to really put a footnote, at least historically, on how he's remembered, that he's getting in trouble for being sloppy, for being overzealous and not necessarily that he's getting in trouble for being corrupt.

And I should say Republicans on this committee said, I wonder. I think we will leave that up to the people to decide. They seem to think that he was almost so sloppy that perhaps there is a degree of corruption. At least, that's what Republicans were saying today, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will wait and see, I guess, perhaps how history will be remembering Congressman Rangel.

Brianna Keilar for us from Capitol Hill -- Brianna, thank you.

Also, want to remind you of our breaking story. We should be hearing at some point within this show, getting a news conference from the sheriff and police up in Mount Vernon, Ohio. They have been searching -- we have been all over this the last couple of days. This is the story of those three missing people.

You remember, I think it was Sunday, they found this 13-year-old girl. She was bound and gagged in this basement. They ultimately arrested and have now charged this guy, Matthew Hoffman, with her kidnapping. But still the big mystery has been, what happened to these three other people, this other child and two other adults?

We should be hearing within the show possibly where this investigation has taken a turn. It may not be good news. In fact, that's what we're hearing from one of the missing people's sons, that the -- the bodies perhaps have been found. That's from our affiliate. Stay here. We could be hearing any moment.

CNN NEWSROOM will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to show you two pictures, if you will, dueling pictures, both on Capitol Hill.

On the right side of your screen, you have Eric Cantor, the whip, three Republican leaders. To the right of him is Kristi Noem from South Dakota. She's the Republican freshman who also has a leader -- leadership role. And if you can't quite see, behind that other box was John Boehner, set to be likely speaker of the House.

They are speaking. They're talking job creation, you know, cutting spending, how perhaps they can change how Congress does business. And on the left side, we're still waiting to see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who will likely -- who has been sitting with his -- his Democratic Caucus, who will likely talk about how far they have come, what they are thinking in terms of those Bush tax cuts.

So, two pictures for you from Capitol Hill live.

Also today, police in Ohio, they have called this news conference for some time this afternoon regarding those three missing people in Ohio. You have Tina Herrmann, her son, Kody Maynard, and their family friend, Stephanie Sprang. They have been missing since midweek last week.

In fact, our affiliate WBNS out of Columbus, Ohio, is telling us they have spoken with Stephanie Sprang's son, all of this happening this afternoon, really just in the last few moments, saying police have found three bodies. We will bring that to you. That news could be very much so grim news at some point here live on CNN.

Also unfolding now -- busy afternoon here -- President Obama bringing back some Cold War language today and surrounding himself with some Cold War figures as well, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Brent Scowcroft. The -- the president wants to get back in the nuclear weapons accountability business between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. He's urging the Senate to quickly ratify the latest version of the START treaty.

That's the Reagan era program aimed at counting and getting rid of nuclear weapons by both superpowers. But there's a bit of a snag here. No arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow has ever been ratified by a Senate in lame-duck session, which is what we're in right now. Still, the president wants it and says it will benefit more than just two countries. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As Ronald Reagan said, we have to trust, but we also have to verify. In order for us to verify, we've got to have a treaty.

The new START treaty is also a cornerstone of our relations with Russia. And this goes beyond nuclear security. Russia has been fundamental to our efforts to put strong sanctions in place to put pressure on Iran to deal with its nuclear program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The president's job by no means done today. Want to remind you, he will be speaking live about General Motors going public today, huge news. We will bring that to you live as well here on CNN.

Also, false alarm, no bomb. Isn't that nice to say? A commercial flight from South Africa to Germany was delayed several hours today after some security screeners decided a piece of luggage was suspicious. Everybody off. Rescreen all those passengers. It turned out that the suspect bag contained an alarm clock and some wires, but no explosives. The plane ended up taking off and landed in -- without incident in Munich.

And want to keep you in the loop here internationally. We're just getting some word of some major riots in Haiti. This whole thing started because of a rumor still going around. We're going take you back live to Haiti today. That's ahead.

Plus, dozens of Republican governors and incoming governors are gathering today and yesterday in California. And you can probably bet the Tea Party movement, it is most definitely on the agenda.

Jessica Yellin is live for us in San Diego. And she will join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: ... that we are Americans and America is...

BALDWIN: Happening right now in San Diego, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich addressing the Republican Governors Association.

In fact, let's listen.

(APPLAUSE)

GINGRICH: There are many opportunities for modernization and transformation, but these give you a sense of the scale of leadership we need.

This is an enormous challenge. It is our generation's rendezvous with destiny. We must have the courage to complete the job and the persuasiveness to work with the American people, so they will...

BALDWIN: Whenever this guys talks, he usually says a little something reportable.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Our national correspondent, Jessica Yellin, is out in San Diego for us.

And, Jessica, I don't know if you've been listening to this. What's -- what's Mr. Gingrich -- Gingrich been saying?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He -- if he's sticking to his prepared text, Brooke, he's taking on what he calls the growing orientation to the left of this government.

He basically slams liberalism and the Democratic Party, saying this country has moved far too the left since 1932, and that it's time for a change, and, in classic Gingrich style, weaves in Google, the iPad, Facebook, and China into his new vision of a Republican Party that buildings jobs. Basically, it's Gingrich being Gingrich.

BALDWIN: Gingrich being Gingrich.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: And we were talking -- just yesterday, you were out in San Diego as well, and we were reading "The Washington Post." They are calling this -- they're sort of trying to I guess rebrand themselves, change their image, not just this bastion of white men, I think, was the word.

YELLIN: Yes.

BALDWIN: And so let's talk about some of the newly elected faces, Jess, some of the newly elected governors. You've just spoken to two of them, South Carolina's Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez from New Mexico.

And, in conversation, what do they have to say?

YELLIN: You know, I asked both of them, these two new women governors, why -- you know, what it was that got them elected and what it is that they sense in the electorate right now.

They both talk about a -- sort of a new kind of voter who is energized to participate and is looking for a different kind of elected official. So I asked them to describe who is this voter and what is their mission. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR-ELECT: They no longer want to elect people because they look good in a picture or hold a baby well. If their elected officials are not going to fight for them, if they're not going to truly represent them, they don't want them anymore. Seniority no longer matters. Now it's all about results.

SUSANA MARTINEZ (R), NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR-ELECT: This can't just be rhetoric. You have to deliver the results. And you have to provide information to those voters on a constant basis, and not, all of a sudden, be surprised with, oh, guess what, we have a half-a- billion deficit, when they hadn't been informed all along how government has been growing in New Mexico in particular.

So, if we keep them informed of where we are, they will understand why we have to make the big and tough decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So, Brooke, one of the interesting themes is, obviously, they are talking about stimulating the economy, not -- through private-sector growth, not through public sector growth, and reducing spending. But a big overarching theme is this idea of authenticity, that people want their elected officials to be more authentic, more real, more honest with them.

And that's what the new crop of governors here says they're going to do, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And you spoke obviously specifically to two women. We know Nikki Haley not only the first female governor of South Carolina, but I think she was one of the original, if the not first mama grizzly backed by Sarah Palin, very much, though, endorsed, right, by Tea Party.

YELLIN: Right.

BALDWIN: And so I imagine there's plenty of Tea Party talk in San Diego as well.

YELLIN: Yes.

And one of the big questions, as you know, will the Tea Party help or hurt the Republican Party going into 2012? No surprise that the leadership here insists that it's a great benefit to the Republican Party. I asked Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who is a potential candidate for president in 2012 and runs this Republican Governors Association, whether the Tea Party will help or hurt.

Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R), MISSISSIPPI: The Tea Party helped us this year. Now, if they had run as independents, like in the Perot period, and divided the conservative vote, divided the anti-Obama vote, now, that would have hurt us.

But that did not happen. They all or virtually all ran as Republicans. And not while every single person won every race that we would have hoped to win, the fact of the matter is, the Tea Party voters very clearly a plus for Republicans in the vast, vast majority of races.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: And he says the same will be true going forward into 2012.

One final note, Brooke, he also said he really hopes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he says he hopes he does not run for president as a third-party candidate, because, if Michael Bloomberg were to run, he, Barbour, believes that that would be a gift to President Obama. It would divide the Republican vote and split it enough that President Obama would win.

BALDWIN: Hmm.

YELLIN: Interesting political analysis.

BALDWIN: What about Mr. Barbour himself? I guess we will wait and see...

YELLIN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: ... as he is one of the names floated out there right now.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Jessica Yellin, thank you.

Hey, let's stay on the West Coast for this next one. The official coroner report tells us what a lot of people already knew. This Hollywood publicist died by homicide by multiple gunshot wounds. But that's pretty much all we know still here, many police baffled. Who killed her? What was the motive? We will have a live report from Los Angeles ahead.

And a student body president at Fresno State University is outed as an undocumented immigrant. We will tell you why he says he lied about his status.

Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: For anyone who thinks illegal immigration is merely a black and white issue, here's a situation that shows how very, very murky it can be.

This week, a college newspaper in Fresno, California, outed the student body president as an undocumented immigrant. Pedro Ramirez's parents, they brought him to the U.S. -- the U.S. when he was just a mere 3 years of age. He says he didn't know he was illegal until his senior year in high school.

So, this case gets very murky, because, under California law, illegal immigrants can pay in-state tuition if they meet certain requirements. In fact, the state Supreme Court just upheld that this week. Some 25,000 people have taken advantage of this law in California thus far. And this outing of Ramirez comes amid a debate over whether children of undocumented immigrants should be given a pathway to citizenship.

And Ramirez, he hopped on the phone with us early this morning, spoke with CNN about his current status.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO RAMIREZ, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: I don't have a pathway right now for me to become a citizen or at least a resident. My goal is, if not to become a citizen, which would be my truly -- my true, true wish is to become an American citizen -- to become at least a resident and actually be able to work in this country.

But there's no pathway for me that -- right now, without having me to go back to Mexico, where I don't know what to do in Mexico. You know, like I said, I was -- I have been here all my life and I don't know what to do in a country that I have never been in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Want to bring in Nick Valencia. He has been covering the story. He helped facilitate that phone call this morning.

And help me under Ramirez's situation. We know he was brought over illegally when he was just 3 years of age.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN PRODUCER: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

BALDWIN: He is getting in-state tuition in California.

VALENCIA: He is. BALDWIN: But he's undocumented.

VALENCIA: I mean, there's a big...

BALDWIN: How is this...

VALENCIA: There's a big but here.

BALDWIN: Yes.

VALENCIA: And it has to do with this law, AB 540. It's been around since 2001. It's a bipartisan bill. In fact, the co-author of this bill is the current lieutenant governor, Abel Maldonado. He was part of this co-authoring of this bill.

It allows illegal immigrants the right to have in-state tuition, the right to just pay in-state tuition and go to school. But, having said that, Brooke, there are certain caveats to this. One is that...

BALDWIN: A very large stipulation.

VALENCIA: Very large stipulations. One of them is, you have to go high school in California for three years. They don't have to be consecutive, but three years mandatory.

And another one here -- let me read this -- a stipulation says that a student must file an affidavit with the school saying that you will apply for legal residency as soon as possible. Now, Pedro Ramirez has had four years, as you know, to start this process. Currently, he told us today with Kyra Phillips that he hasn't started that process. He doesn't feel that there's -- and you heard in that sound bite there -- a logical way.

And this is, of course, creating mixed reaction on campus. I believe we have some sound bites from some students.

BALDWIN: Some students.

VALENCIA: Mixed reaction there at Fresno State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA ESQUIVEL, FRESNO STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: To me, honestly, it doesn't matter. I mean, as long as he -- I mean, whatever he's running for, if he does a good job at it, then that's perfectly fine with me.

ISAAC MARTIN, FRESNO STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I'm a legal immigrant. And I went through so much pain to immigrate into this country. It's a very long process. And it -- it bothers that me people would just come in without doing it. But I understand that it can be difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Now, it is important to note that this bill doesn't just affect illegal immigrants. Other residents of California and the United States do take advantage of this. Currently, of the 220 U.C. students that there are in California, only 2,000 take advantage of this law. It's about 1 percent that do.

BALDWIN: You can understand, though, why some people out there would say, look, we, the state of California, we don't want to give people who are here undocumented, illegally, this handout.

VALENCIA: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: You need to make sure you're signing up to become a citizen.

So, I guess my -- the obvious question is, what's next for him? He's out. He's undocumented. He was a valedictorian, obviously a smart kid.

VALENCIA: He is very scared and worried about what happens next in this process. And also he's worried about the status of his parents.

He's really dragged them into this controversy that's swirling around him. They, of course, are, you know, we assume to be, also illegal.

BALDWIN: Yes.

VALENCIA: We spoke to us yesterday and sort of dodged around those questions as well. His -- he's the son of a maid and son of a restaurant worker, working-class family, and lives in an area that's really at the center of this and a quintessential place in this immigration debate, a lot of undocumented farmers in this area.

He didn't -- growing up, really didn't get into politics. I asked him...

BALDWIN: Sure.

VALENCIA: ... "Have you ever actually asked your parents, are you legal or not?" He said I didn't care about politics. I was in a marching band.

BALDWIN: He didn't even know until he was a senior in high school. You can understand both sides of the argument. Keep in touch with him. Let us know what happens happen.

VALENCIA: I will. Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

I want to go real quickly, we have live aerial pictures of Ohio. We've been telling you at some point in our show we'll be getting an update here on the missing people, the three missing people in Ohio. These are aerial pictures from our affiliate WBNS. We're hearing they are over where perhaps these three bodies have been found. You can see perhaps some of the investigators on the ground. We'll bring that to you as soon as possible. Again, one young child and two adults missing since mid-week last week. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to bring you back to those live pictures over this really heavily wooded area in Ohio and remind you what we're waiting for. At any point during our show we should be hearing from I'm guessing the Knox County sheriff in Ohio that's been leading this investigation for you.

There are three missing people. You see four faces right here. The face on the right of your screen was the 13-year-old that was found on Sunday. She was found bound and gagged. The sheriff described her as a brave little girl. She's alive, she's OK. We don't know much more about her.

She was found in the basement of this 30-year-old Matthew Hoffman. No idea to his connection to these missing people. But he has been arrested. A judge set his bond for $1 million. He has been charged with her kidnapping.

The big mystery since Wednesday last week has been these three missing people. You have the mother of that girl, Tina Herman, 32, her son, 10 year old Cody Maynard, and 41-year-old Stephanie Spring. And the reason why we were showing you those live pictures is because we're hearing from our affiliate out of Columbus, Ohio that according to this friend's son, this missing woman's son, he was notified by police last night that the bodies have been found.

We do not know definitively if that is the word we'll be getting out of this news conference at any moment here but that's certainly a possibility. We've heard from the Knox County sheriff in the past and he's reiterated this could have a grim ending. So as soon as we see them news conference out of Ohio tough story to tell, we'll bring it to you live here on CNN. Real quick break, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to let you know there's another story we are waiting for for you, live remarks from the president. He should be speaking at some point possibly after 4:00 today, 4:00 eastern about General Motors. You know they officially have gone public opened with an IPO at $35 a share, a little higher than they actually thought.

So he will certainly be speaking about that. The government auto bailout about 17 months ago, they've come a bit of way from filing chapter 11 bankruptcy. So we'll hear from Mr. Obama, who knows when, perhaps in a couple of minutes.

First after spending 69 days underground Chile's 33 rescued miners may be a bit dazzled by where they are today. Why? Well they are in Los Angeles, Hollywood. They arrived here just a couple of hours ago. Some family members and a handful of rescuers are traveling along with them. And CNN Heroes is responsible for this trip. They brought the group America all the way from Chile as special guests for CNN Heroes, all-star tribute. You know all about it. CNN Heroes is honoring these miners. Our Gary Tuchman, lucky guy, got to go town to Chile and travel ago long side all these miners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They will be celebrating in Los Angeles in southern California, seeing entertainment sites, going to Hollywood Boulevard. And for many of them it's the first time they have ever been out of Chile let alone the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now the second rescuer to go down the hole to help those trapped miners is part of this trip. He is a member of the Chilean Navy with 20 years experience. Earlier, Gary Tuchman had asked if he had been frightened before going all the way underground. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT RIOS, RESCUER: I was anxious to complete the mission and go where the men are safe.

TUCHMAN: You told me that your wife, though, was scared and your wife was crying most of the time you were down there.

RIOS: Yes, she was a little scared when it was time to be down in the mine. She was real scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Next hour Gary Tuchman will join me live from Los Angeles with more on what the miners will be up to on their trip to Los Angeles. Again, as I mentioned, the miners will be on hand to see who will be named the next CNN hero, pretty special for them. Be sure to watch CNN when Anderson Cooper host "CNN Heroes, an All-Star Tribute" at 8:00 eastern on Thanksgiving night.

And speaking of Hollywood, have you heard this one? First we hear Tony Parker and Eva Longoria are divorcing, then no, their reps are denying it. Then later Eva coming forward and saying, yes, it's true. Now allegations of a big time scandal. That is trending. Brooke Anderson is all over this one. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I promised you at the top of the hour we would be hearing from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and as promised here he is, just stepping out of his meeting with Democrats and taking some questions now.

SEN. HARRY REID, (D-NV) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Arrange a vote on 250 period.

(Inaudible)

We're in no rush to do that. But I think I'm in pretty good shape, the announcement will come by the week after Christmas.

QUESTION: Senator, do you expect a temporary extension of the tax cuts, a temporary extension of all of the tax cuts?

TUCHMAN: I've outlined what we want to do. I want to give the Republicans an opportunity to vote on McConnell's legislation, and we want opportunity and maybe plural, vote, we have to do it more than once, twice, whatever it takes to show the American people we support the middle class and that we do not believe that if we're going to continue to talk about debt and deficit we can walk away from how much these tax cuts costs.

QUESTION: When will that be?

TUCHMAN: In my conversations today with Leader Hoyer, he's indicated they will likely end us an omnibus. That's the way I understood his conversation.

BALDWIN: You've been hearing from the reporters. The big question on Capitol Hill is what will they do this lame duck session of Congress with these tax cuts? Ultimately the bottom line he keeps saying is we, Democrats, are looking out for the middle class. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Also let's go Haiti. Today anger over the cholera outbreak, it's turned violent. Several hundred protesters stoned a United Nations patrol and blamed the peace keepers for bringing cholera to the island nation.

Let's go CNN's Ivan Watson on the phone in Port-au-Prince. Ivan, the violence in Haiti, you and I were talking about this yesterday began earlier in the week. And are you seeing perhaps an uptick in the anger and violence there?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's safe to say, Brooke, that the violence has spread from the northern city where I've been for the last couple of days to the capital now. I'm watching about 20 boys, young men, hurling rocks right now at the entrance to the base for United Nations peacekeepers.

And we've been watching here for some time now young men trying to set fire to the posters of a campaign candidate for presidential candidate for upcoming elections. We've seen them hurling rocks at Haitian police and United Nation peacekeepers and blaming them for the worst cholera epidemic to hit this island according to some medical experts in more than a century.

BALDWIN: Remind me again, Ivan, as we look at these pictures, I saw how close your camera guy goes to the smoke and fire. Remind us again why they are so angry these people, those Haitians. You would think they would be happy U.N. is there, extending this helping hand, especially amidst this cholera outbreak. Remind us why they are angry at the U.N.

WATSON: It's rather complicated. The United Nations has been on the ground here for years, offering basic services, and also with the force of more than 10,000 soldiers and police trying to help maintain order.

This society as you well know is under extreme pressure. You have this deadly killer earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people and left more than a million homeless three months ago. This part I'm standing in is a sprawling tent city for thousands of homeless Haitians.

And cholera is racing through this country, claiming more than 1,100 lives in just the last month alone, more than 18,000 hospitalizations. Somewhere along the way a story emerged that two young peacekeepers from Nepal are the people who brought, accidentally presumably, the cholera bacteria to this country. Now the United Nations has denied that.

BALDWIN: The United Nations is denying it and, of course, those perhaps the Haitians aren't listening to that. They believe they brought the cholera. And as you mentioned, the death toll above 1,100. Ivan Watson, thank you so much. Please stay safe.

You may not believe this next story. Dozens of airport baggage handlers are supposed to be the ones going through your bags, making sure everything is safe. They are accused of cashing in on your overweight bags and boxes, in many cases lying about pieces of luggage on the plane. We'll get to the bottom of the scam. That is ahead.

And there are some interesting items on the agenda today in "Trending," including Tiger Woods and a major, major Hollywood divorce. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Time to talk about what you're talk about, tweeting about, trending. Tiger Woods finally joining twitter. Eva Longoria is filing for divorce. Brooke Anderson has it all down. That's all on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," and joining me from L.A. is Brooke Anderson. Good to see you as always.

BROOKE ANDERSON, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Good to see you too, Brooke Baldwin.

BALDWIN: You know, I've checked to see if you're on twitter Miss Anderson. I have not found you.

ANDERSON: At "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT".

BALDWIN: "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT". There you are. Somebody else who is gets on the band wagon, Mr. Tiger Woods.

ANDERSON: He's the newest high-profile athlete to join twitter, and he did so with this. "What's up everyone? Finally decided to try out Twitter." He's already got nearly 200,000 followers and counting. I just checked.

In a tweet this morning after his radio interview with ESPN's Mike and Mike, Tiger tweeted "The best part about phone interviews is getting to wear shorts. So far Tiger's tweets have been riveting.

Tiger thanked his fans for their support this past year. He admitted to the mistakes he made, repeatedly said he now has a better perspective today than a year ago, and spoke about his kids. Here's some sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, GOLFER: It was very difficult for, certainly difficult for me but more difficult for my kids. They were feeling the effects of it, unfortunately. It was difficult on everyone. I tossed it. I take full responsibility for my actions and here I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Remember, it was last Thanksgiving when his personal and professional life took a huge hit, no pun intended, after the mysterious car crash. Brooke, he also wrote an op-ed piece in "Newsweek." He's working hard to rebuild his reputation. So far it's been a slow go.

BALDWIN: We'll have to wait and see if America will indeed buy that.

Also Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, say it ain't so. Some of these details I've been reading make my skin crawl.

ANDERSON: I'm sad about this, but I'm not really that shocked, Brooke, unfortunately. It's been just three years since their lavish wedding outside of Paris in a castle. Wednesday Eva Longoria filed for divorce from her NBA star husband tony parker. She cited irreconcilable differences.

There's speculation according to SI.com that Parker might have been involved with a wife of a former San Antonio spurs teammate. I also wanted to mention that actor and extra host Mario Lopez who is really good friends with Eva said Eva found hundreds of text messages on Tony's phone from a woman.

We reached out to Tony and Eva's reps for confirmation, for some sort of comment about that. We're are waiting to get their response. But Eva did tweet about their split. She said this -- "We love each other deeply and pray for each other's happiness."

Brooke, the court filing did not indicate when the couple actually broke up. But, you may remember, it was only last month when they appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show together. They appeared to be content and in love, she say in his lap, they were happy.

BALDWIN: It is sad. Quickly before I let you go, we were talking about the publicist murder in L.A., the fatal shooting just two days ago. Any updates on the investigation?

ANDERSON: Well, an autopsy has been completed on Hollywood publicity Ronnie Chasen. She was shot and killed early Tuesday morning. The L.A. coroner ruled the death as a result of multiple gunshot wound. No suspects. No motive. It's an open investigation. And authorities are trying to do everything they can to get clues on what went down.

Who killed her and who shot her as she drove home after the Hollywood premier. They are working with business, homeowners. They confiscated computers. They are looking at surveillance video, anything for answers. Brooke, she will be laid to rest this weekend, Sunday at Hillside Memorial park here in L.A.

BALDWIN: Still a big question on everybody's mind out there, why? Brooke Anderson, thank you.

Wolf Blitzer is next with breaking news of course from the world of politics. Your CNN Political Ticker is next.

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BALDWIN: CNN has all your latest political news with "The Best Political Team on Television," CNN = Politics. Wolf Blitzer is at the CNNpolitics.com desk.

And Wolf, I know as you know, we're awaiting President Obama here within probably another ten minutes or so scheduled to speak about General Motors, but he's also talking Russia today.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": He's talking about the START treaty which he negotiated with Russia, but needs Senate ratification. And in order to get that treaty ratified you need 67 senators to vote yes, 67. Right now there are 59 Democrats in the Senate. The new Senate that's going down I think to 59 Democrats, now 53 in the new Senate.

So it might be a more difficult sell in the new Senate than it is right now because a lot of Republicans have expressed some concern. But the president is hoping that in this lame duck session they can get the 67 votes in the U.S. Senate to ratify the START treaty. It will be a tough sell but he's making a major push. Vice president Biden is making a push. And yesterday the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was up on Capitol Hill pushing for that as well.

We'll see if they can get that done in this Senate. It needs ratification in the Senate, doesn't need any action in the House of Representatives.

On another story we're following this latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll as far as government spending is concerned, it shows that the American public wants the government to cut spending but not on some programs that are among the most popular.

For example, should the government spend less on domestic programs? Right now it's 49 percent say yes. Back in '94, just for some comparison, it was 32 percent, and in '83, 32 percent. So you can see the American public wants the government to spend less on domestic programs.

Having said that, if you ask would it be better, more important to reduce the deficit or cut spending for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, overwhelmingly they don't want any cuts in Social Security, don't want any cuts in Medicaid, don't want any cuts in Medicare and that's where so much of the domestic spending, obviously, goes.

Finally, a little tidbit that we were intrigued by, although he's hinted at this in the past few weeks including an interview he did a couple of months ago, Donald Trump suggesting he's seriously thinking maybe of running for president in 2012 as a Republican.

"I'm thinking about things," he told ABC. "I'm looking at this country and what's happened in terms of respect, and the respect for this country is just not there."

Later, in a different interview with MSNBC, he went one step further in saying this about the president. He says, "He's a nice man, but I think he's totally in over his head" -- Donald Trump taking that hit at the president of the United States.

We will watch all of these stories and a lot more on "THE SITUATION ROOM." That airs in an hour, 5:00 p.m. Eastern, obviously right here on CNN.

BALDWIN: Of course.

But, Wolf, before I let you go, I want to get back to President Obama. We know he will be speaking at the White House about GM officially going public today. And we know that the president, it was 17 months ago he caught a lot of flak, lot of criticism over bailing out the American automotive industry.

What do you suspect he will say today?

BLITZER: He's going to say that this was a good investment for the American taxpayers because not only were a lot of jobs kept, thousands, tens of thousands of GM jobs were kept in the United States, but now the company is doing so much better, and they just had this stock offering today. It did really, really well. And American taxpayers are going to be repaid for that loan they gave to GM.

So, he's going take some credit and say look at all the good things that resulted from this bailout of GM. Sometimes, a bailout works. And in this particular case, it looks like it did.

And take a look at some of these other countries, like China. They want to buy some of that GM stock. They want to have a big piece of the action...

BALDWIN: Right.

BLITZER: ... some of the emirates, some of the rich countries in the Persian Gulf, United Arab Emirates, some of those other stock funds.

So GM is a hot property right now and I'm sure the president will say that what he and the government did helped create the situation a year-and-a-half, almost two years later.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, thank you, sir.