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Budget Battles Continues; FBI Interviews Libyans in U.S.; Al Qaeda's New Threat; House Speaker on Budget Standoff; Government Shutdown Two Days Away; Gadhafi's Letter to Obama; Ex-Congressman Visits Gadhafi; Face to Face with Gadhafi

Aired April 06, 2011 - 14:59   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Aww, doing great! Hope you're doing well, Randi!

There is the Capitol behind me. It appears to be a beautiful day in Washington, D.C., but still no deal to keep the government running past Friday. The people working there, nothing yet. That showdown is looking closer by the minute.

And we want to begin with the president. President Barack Obama, and he spoke just a short time ago in Philadelphia, and you can sense the frustration about the doings on Capitol Hill. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After weeks of negotiation, we have now agreed to cut as much spending as the Republicans in Congress originally asked for. I have got some Democrats mad at me, but I said, you know what? Let's get past last year's budget and let's focus on the future.

So we have agreed to a compromise, but somehow we don't have a deal, because some folks are trying to inject politics in what should be a simple debate about how to pay our bills.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the White House warns of furloughs involving close to 800,000 federal workers. And for those awaiting federal tax refunds, officials today are saying those refunds could be delayed.

Now, the president keeps saying they are close to a deal, so we want to take a deal at where the two sides stand.

First now, we want to go to Capitol Hill, though, where that work supposedly being done, where House Republicans are meeting right now behind closed doors. We presume they are discussing what their next move will be, either compromise or to stand firm.

CNN's Brianna Keilar is watching things develop outside the meeting at Capitol Hill.

Brianna, are they talking about a possible deal in the near future? BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, I am standing right outside of this room, and you said they are talking about next moves presumably. They are.

They are talking about next steps and one of things that they are considering is really to see if they have the votes they need to pass a short-term spending bill if in the absence of an agreement between the White House and Senate Democrats and House Republicans if they can bridge the gap until they do have a deal. This would be a short-term proposal that Republicans have put out, $12 billion in cuts over one week.

Just to give you a sense really how severe that is compared to some of the cuts we have seen in recent weeks, that is six times the rate of cuts that we have seen in short-term measures over the last several weeks.

So it is unclear if Republicans even have the votes to push this through, but let me tell you, Don, one of the things in this bill would also be funding the Defense Department for the rest of the year. And that is something that perhaps could give some Republicans cover, if Republican leaders decide to pursue this bill.

As you said, federal workers will be affected. Well, so will the military if the government shuts down and certainly Republicans are sensitive to the -- really those optics of members of the military not being paid in a shutdown, Don.

LEMON: Yes. And I'm glad you bring that up, Brianna. Blast from the past for you, the year 1995, and I want our viewers to look at a young House Republican. There he is. Ohio's John Boehner, he is now Speaker John Boehner. He was then a trusted lieutenant to then Speaker Newt Gingrich.

And for a number reasons, Gingrich and the Republicans ended up getting the blame for that 1995 shutdown, Brianna.

So, my question to you are Boehner and the Republicans aware that this could backfire on them?

KEILAR: You know for sure that he remembers that. And you know that Democrats remember that as well. And that's certainly, I think, informing the fact that they are all saying that they don't want for there to be a shutdown, with the exception of some people on the far left and some people on the far right.

That said, you also hear them kind of positioning themselves in the case of a shutdown to blame each other, but the bottom line is , Don, when you look at the polls -- and we have done them with CNN/Opinion Research Corporation -- by and large, Democrats don't want to see a government shutdown. They think it is a bad thing.

There is a partisan divide. Republicans are more in favor of it, but especially as something that would drag on as a shutdown, there are a lot of Americans who think that it is a bad idea and Republicans are sensitive to that as are Democrats. LEMON: All right, Brianna Keilar, stand by. We will be checking back with you.

And we told you that the White House is warning about tax refunds being delayed. They're talking about national parks closing, problems with paying troops and up to 800,000 workers being sent home. A Senate Democrat warned just a short time ago effects could be felt far outside the nation's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D), MARYLAND: There is a belief that a shutdown will occur only in Washington. Oh, the lights will go out in the Washington Monument. Maybe a museum will be closed here or there. Maybe even a national park will be closed here or there.

Both on the Senate floor, the House floor and even in the media, it is followed by kind of a snicker or even a snarl. How foolish. How they don't understand the functioning of a government of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's go now to CNN's Tom Foreman also in Washington not far from the Capitol himself and he has looked at the numbers for us.

Tom, what did you find out?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, man, I found they are confusing, Don. I will tell you that much.

I will tell you something else. The president says some people playing politics with the . Don't have any doubt about this. There are a lot of people, Democrat and Republican, playing politics with it. That is why we are at this point. The simple truth is the Democrats were running everything back last fall. They could have passed a budget when the president proposed it, but it was an election and neither party has much appetite for this sort of thing back then.

So he proposed this idea. We are talking about the 2011 budget. This is important. This is not the thing that we were talking about yesterday with Paul Ryan. That is the 2012 budget. It is a whole different matter. We are talking about the budget that should have gone into place last October and lasted to this coming October.

It was not passed back then for a lot of reasons, because Washington is very nervous about that sort of thing in a midterm election year, and so we have had these continuing resolutions, one after another to keep the government operating at the 2010 funding levels.

So, in that process, we have had some deals. About $10 billion in cuts were agreed upon by Democrats Republicans as they went through these resolutions. We have now gone through roughly half of the fiscal year without a budget, so now they are saying we are going to finally settle it. House Republicans want $61 billion in cuts to the president's proposal and to do that, as you might guess, Don, guess what they have targeted? The things that Democrats like.

LEMON: Yes.

FOREMAN: Yes, exactly, things that Democrats like. That's the thing. They are going after things like Amtrak over here and they're going to after -- excuse me -- I made Amtrak almost jump of the screen there. They are going after things like Amtrak and Head Start and Even Start. Look at these programs.

These are things that really are very much liked. National Public Radio, Job Corps, Peace Corps. Look at the cuts over here, pretty substantial. The reason they are going after those programs is because Republicans say, this is wasted government money. This is money that we can't afford in these economic times.

Democrats, of course, are saying, hold on a second, let's look at defense, let's look at other things that you Republicans like. That's the battleground here. That is what they have been duking it out on. So where do we stand right now?

The Democrats have countered with about a $33 billion set of cuts vs. $60 billion or so that the Republicans want. There has been some talk, Don, about getting down the $40 billion mark, some talk at any moment of them being within a few billion of each other. As they sort this out, the negotiations continues.

But I will tell you, Don, what I have been saying all day, and it's still true. What this comes down to is the three P's here, policy, politics and the last one, which is really the important one here, price. The simple truth is everybody here in Washington knows that this issue of the cost of government has become a real issue, because the economy's in so much trouble, but they have to somehow settle the disputes over policy and politics if they are going to address price. Their ability to do that or not on both sides will determine whether or not we have a shutdown -- Don.

LEMON: I keep hearing from people like Harry Reid they are not that far off, but from $60 billion to $33 billion, that is a big in between there, Tom Foreman.

FOREMAN: That is a big in between, but the rumblings we hear is that they're closer than that, that those are sort of the big numbers.

But all this is going on behind closed doors. They're trying to hash it out. They're trying to get together. One of other the issues here, Don, that is interesting, a lot of what the Republicans are after is they're saying we want cuts that will be in effect real cuts that diminish the size of government overall. And it is not surprising that you said earlier that a lot of Democrats don't want a shutdown of government.

As a practical matter many more Democrats see the government and what it is spending money on as a force for good. Many more Republicans see that as a force for wasting money. So, of course, the Democrats say we should go on, this a good thing, and Republicans are in effect saying, look, we don't want a shutdown either, but if the cost is bankrupting the government by spending on things we shouldn't, they don't want that either, so it is really a philosophical issue that is driving this, Don. And the money matters. The money really matters. But in the end, what they are fighting over is policy and politics.

LEMON: Yes. And I'm going to give you some advice. Don't go far away from that board, because if something comes out of that deal or that talk, that meeting Brianna Keilar is standing is front of you, you will have to change all of those graphics and all those numbers.

Thank you, Tom Foreman.

FOREMAN: I will have the graphics department busy. Thanks, Don.

LEMON: All right.

We would like to hear how you feel about the potential government shutdown. Will it affect you, your family, your job, your home? Share your story at CNNireport.com. Then watch tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN NEWSROOM turns the focus of the budget showdown on you.

We want to go now to Libya and new words the feds are questioning Libyans right here in the U.S. This comes as concerns apparently grow that Moammar Gadhafi could be planning revenge attacks against Americans. That is ahead.

Plus, a former congressman is set to meet with the Libyan leader. Find out why Curt Weldon is trying to convince Gadhafi to do and why he is the guy to do it. That's next.

Also, I'm just getting word that Defense Secretary Robert Gates just made an unexpected stop on his overseas trip. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Just before the break, we told you that the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, made an unexpected stop on his overseas trip.

CNN has confirmed now that the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, touched down in Baghdad on an unannounced visit. And he will visit with U.S. troops around Baghdad and visit the northern part of the country. He will also visit with Iraqi government officials.

A topic of discussion no doubt will be the drawdown of American forces there later this year. He visited Saudi Arabia earlier on his trip to the region and also he met with King Abdullah there in Saudi Arabia. But again the secretary of defense just landing in Baghdad about 30 minutes ago, 2:23 here Eastern time. He arrived. We will continue to follow that, any developments from that.

Let's talk about Libya now. Libyans living in the United States could be getting a knock on the door from the FBI if they already haven't gotten one. A law enforcement official tells CNN that the FBI has begun interview Libyan nationals, specifically those remaining here on visas.

The official describes it as a proactive effort to seek out intel on possible revenge plots against Americans. They will concentrate on parts of the nation with the highest population of Libyans, a number that could reach the thousands.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is suggesting American Muslims have an attorney present before speaking to the FBI, but they are not saying don't talk to them.

An American hoping to get the diplomatic ball rolling in Libya is in that country right now for a meeting with Moammar Gadhafi. Former Congressman Curt Weldon is urging the Libyan leader to step down. Weldon met Gadhafi on an official visit in 2004, but today's visit in Tripoli is a private one. He is not representing the White House or secretary of state's office.

Instead, Weldon says Gadhafi's chief of staff invited him. He spoke to affiliate WPIX before today's meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURT WELDON (R), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: I am here to tell him face to face it is time for him to leave. It is time for him to step down, allow the people to take over the government of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We should tell you that Weldon is also proposing a cease- fire and he's asking Gadhafi to withdraw his military from contested cities. Gadhafi in return is asking President Obama to stop the NATO bombing.

And for more now, we turn to CNN's Nic Robertson in Tripoli.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Curt Weldon says that he is not representing the White House, not representing the U.S. State Department, but it is interesting. The White House hasn't so far talked up or talked down his mission here.

His arrival coincides with a letter sent from Moammar Gadhafi to President Obama essentially recognizing that the United States has withdrawn its aircraft from the coalition enforcing the no-fly zone. At least that is the way Gadhafi's letter reads, implying that the United States is stepping away from its war as he calls it as part of the crusader alliance here.

It seems to indicate that there may be some diplomatic space on Gadhafi's side for the message or the proposals at least that Weldon is bringing. He says it will propose that Gadhafi steps aside, not steps down, because that is confrontational language, that he also enforces a cease-fire here, that he gets out, he gets his forces out of key cities, cities that the U.N. has already outlined, but also that the opposition should stop their advance as well, stop trying to take more territory.

The proposals include a power-sharing interim, where the government, current government prime minister would share leadership with one of the opposition leaders Jalil, possibility in the future of a parliament here, that there would be a parliamentary advisory council set up with international politicians to help Libya.

And for Gadhafi, the possibility of the honoree title of the honoree chairman of the African Union. But of all of these proposals, it is far from clear that these can be acceptable to Gadhafi, can be acceptable to the opposition here, or acceptable to the international community at large.

But Weldon's mission here comes at a time when Libya is looking very, very keenly to establish diplomatic ties with the international community and in particular with the United States, but far from clear his visit here can succeed.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Tripoli, Libya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Nic, thank you very much.

Back here in the U.S., surprising developments in the case against Barry Bonds. Find out why his lawyers ended their defense before it really began.

Also, just a week after an air traffic controller dozed off in the tower, we are now hearing about another sleeping incident and I will tell you where when this one happened and whether anyone was at risk. It is all next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. This is just in to CNN. Take a look at this. You're looking at for the first time just as I am. These are live pictures coming to us from Oklahoma.

You see it's our affiliate there, KWTV and KOTV. This is just outside of Oklahoma City. This is the northeast part of the city in Oklahoma County. Already a couple of mobile homes here have burned and a barn has burned as well. This is obviously a grass fire.

Here's the problem. Here's the problem, not that we would report on a grass fire,. The winds there are so strong, they are concerned that it could spread, 30-mile-an-hour winds. So those grass fires are spreading rapidly there in Oklahoma and big concern that more could be burned instead of a barn and a couple of fields there in Oklahoma. We will check that for you and keep you up to date on that as well.

Also, we're getting some information that is just into CNN. We are hearing as we go to our top stories that we may be hearing from the House speaker, John Boehner, in just moments. You saw our Brianna Keilar there on Capitol Hill. She's checking in, as well as the other folks, all of our resources there in Washington. But again we may hear from in just moments House Speaker John Boehner, of course the government shutdown looming if they don't come to a deal by Friday.

Other big stories unfolding right now. Barry Bonds' attorneys rest their case without calling a single witness. The baseball hitter is accused of lying to a grand jury that was investigating how professional athletes get steroids and other drugs. A drug dropped one of the give perjury charges against Bonds. Closing arguments are set to begin tomorrow in San Francisco. After that, the case will go to the jury.

Could fall football be delayed? The NFL and its players are in court today on whether some of the players can even hit the practice field. You might remember players and NFL owners failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement last month. At least 10 players are suing to try to end the lockout, including Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. If they can't play in September, it will be the first time since 1987.

And remember that air traffic controller who fell asleep on the job at Reagan National Airport near D.C. just a short while back? Well, it turns out another controller at another airport fell asleep. The FAA told a congressional committee today that during their investigations they found a second controller catching z's back in February. And get this. They say it was willful. The incident took place at Knoxville's airport. The FAA is taking steps to fire the controller.

A small victory in the struggle to get the upper hand on the crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Emergency workers say a chemical mixture known as liquid glass apparently did the trick, stopping the flow of highly radioactive reactor water from the number two reactor into the Pacific Ocean today. Radiation levels in the seawater around the plant have fallen. They were 7.5 million times -- I will say it again -- 7.5 million times higher than normal, but dropped sharply to some 280,000 times above the legal limit. TEPCO finished dumping 10,000 tons of radioactive matter from the plant's waste water facility into the ocean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUKIO EDANO, JAPANESE CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY (through translator): I regret the fact we are causing a lot of concern to people in neighboring countries as well. The highly radioactive water collected in turbine building and similar contaminated water had been flowing out to the sea. And in order to stop that situation, we had to free up space to store up the very highly contaminated water and to release the less radioactive water. But we needed to explain this reasoning better to the people involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Using water had been considered one of the most efficient ways to cool the reactors. U.S. engineers worry enormous amounts of water may actually weaken the containment vessels making them more vulnerable, but there is no easy fix here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have to be injecting water. They have to keep the core covered. And I can tell you do not want to take that water out of containment right now, because it is screaming with radioactivity and you have absolutely no capabilities whatsoever to process it. And I hope if they haven't figured it out by now, they need help in analyzing this situation and maneuvering the plant back to a safe condition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Want to tell you, just as precaution, just as precaution today TEPCO started pumping nonflammable nitrogen into a reactor containment vessel to prevent a buildup of hydrogen from causing another explosion. That would be bad.

It has been called one of the biggest e-mail hackings in history and now more companies are revealing security breaches involving your information. Up next, find out how hackers are doing this and why our privacy may even be more at risk in the future. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Big question, are they any closer to a deal?

Both sides here, and you are looking at Capitol Hill. There's a closed door meeting going on there. And the House speaker is supposed to be in that meeting, along with other Republicans. Our Brianna Keilar spoke from there, reported from there just moments ago. And we may see the speaker, Speaker Boehner, at any moment now.

We are reporting at the top of the hour again that the Republicans had been meeting about this, about their next move, what it will be, what they are going to say. Are they going to come closer to the Democrats who want $30,000 in budget -- and then they want $66,000 -- $66 billion -- excuse me -- in cuts. That's what they want. The two sides say they are getting closer, but that deadline is coming up on Friday and it is coming fast. Again, as soon as the speaker comes out, we will bring that to you live -- $30 billion and $60 billion, they're going to meet in the middle hopefully somewhere.

It may be one of the biggest e-mail hackings in history. Last week, Epsilon, the largest permissions-based e-mail marketing company in the world, admitted that someone hacked into its computer systems, stealing potentially hundreds of thousands of our names and e-mail addresses, but that is not the worst part of it.

Now more companies are revealing security breaches involving your information, but just exactly how are the hackers doing this and could your privacy be at an even greater risk in the near future?

An explanation now from's CNN's Richard Quest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It didn't take long before the e-mails of apology and reassurance started being sent out.

They came from companies like American Express, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ritz-Carlton, the hotel company. And they were designed to tell their customers one simple fact, that their e-mail address had fallen into the wrong hands and all because the company they used, Epsilon, had been compromised.

Epsilon is a mass marketing company that takes e-mail addresses and does all of the outsourcing, newsletters, mass marketing, you name it, they do it. But the hackers got in. Now, what did the hackers not get? They didn't get passwords. They didn't get financial data. They didn't get any compromising data.

Well, so what are you worried about, I hear you ask? Because what they got instead was something almost as valuable. They got e- mail addresses, the key to access to you and me.

With our e-mail addresses, now the hacksters can begin a phishing expedition. They can set up false e-mails to false Web sites. They could begin to gather data from the ingenue and those who are simply careless.

And before long, they are mining a wealth of information. That information ultimately provides dividends. They may not have got all the details they wanted, but they certainly got enough to create havoc.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Richard Quest, thank you very much.

That box little box you see next to me, we are watching Capitol Hill where Speaker John Boehner could come out to talk at any moment.

He is in the middle of a closed door meeting with Republicans and you see our Dana Bash preparing the report on what is going on. You're not going to miss it. We will bring it to you live right here on CNN.

Also as unrest grows overseas, new signs that al Qaeda smells blood. Terrorists have been setting up shop in Yemen where the alleged underwear bomber trained, but the threat level is escalating since the future of Yemen's government is up in the air. That has the U.S. very concerned. Stay right there. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Now, here's the question that most Americans want an answer to, in two days from now, will my government still be up and running or will it be gridlock and not get my tax return and on and on and on.

The people who are negotiating that right now are meeting on Capitol Hill. Speaker Boehner, one of them, and we may hear from him at any moment. Republicans are behind closed doors and our Dana Bash is standing outside of that meeting. There is movement we think. Dana, what's going in that meeting? What do you hear?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is right, Don. The meeting is just wrapping up. We're waiting for the speaker to come where I am right now.

But I've been talking to the Republican lawmakers as they've been leaving and they've been telling me a couple of things. One is that the speaker reported to them that there is progress being made in these negotiations.

Talks probably are a better way to describe them to try to keep the government running. The negotiations, of course, on spending cuts and he also at one point, I'm told actually got choked up when there was a rousing applause from the fellow Republicans. Because he was saying thank you for standing by me because a lot of the subplot here has been pressure on John Boehner from the conservatives to say, do not give in.

One other important note, it is entirely possible and probable I would even say that they could come out and say that the House Republicans could have a short-term spending bill that they are going to put on the floor tomorrow.

They feel that they do have enough votes to actually pass that. We are talking about what was floated yesterday or two days ago, $12 billion in cuts and funding the Pentagon for the rest of the year.

Just a reality check, we don't expect the Senate to actually pass this, and we certainly know that the White House has rejected it, but it is going to be the Republicans' way to say, look, we are doing what we can to avoid a government shutdown.

LEMON: Well, the president has said, Dana, you know, I can't have the American people waiting and we can't do our jobs here by just temporarily, these temporary fixes to one week here or two weeks there, and a month here or there.

So how is the president going to react to this? How are the Democrats going to react to this so-called short-term fix that you are hearing about?

BASH: At this point, if it is the same legislation, which we believe from Republican sources that it will be -- excuse me. I'm pausing because I think that -- no, the speaker is not on the way, but we promise we'll let you know when he comes.

If it is that same legislation, Democrats have made it very clear sources to us and even publicly that they do not believe this is the right way to go because the cuts they have in this bill are not the cuts that the Democrats want.

And more importantly, because it just isn't a stomach for a short-term spending bill because they want the bill to fund the government for the rest of the year. But what is going on here is a lot of posturing and a lot of positioning, and House Republicans have been working very hard to try to make it clear and send the signal as to their voters, to the American people that they don't want the blame.

That they want to try to deflect the blame and if they do go ahead with the short-term bill tomorrow, that will be one more step in trying to send the message.

LEMON: Dana, can you break down the third wall here and let the American people in on what is going on, the viewer, if you can pan and show us what is happening. Where you are, whose office you are standing outside of and how much longer before the speaker comes out and who else is there with him?

BASH: There are so many people here, I can have -- Eddie, if you can hear me, pan a little bit and you won't be able to see much, but where I am is basically in the basement of the capitol.

And over this way, and Eddie is going to pan a little bit this way and it is very hard for you to see because there are a lot of people here is there is a meeting room down there. That is where the House Republicans have been meeting.

And if Eddie wants to come back over here, they're going walk up here and they're going to speak to the microphones. This is where the House Republicans meet --

LEMON: They are all lined up in the hall down the office and they have the microphones down at the end of the hall where they're going to come out with those flags are.

BASH: The people lined up here are people like us, members of the press waiting for the speaker and the fellow leadership to come out.

LEMON: Well, it was a very important moment, Dana, and we're going to keep you around. So can you standby, we're going to come back after the break because we are hearing that the House speaker, Dana Bash is reporting - you want to say something, Dana?

BASH: I'm just saying, I'm just getting a two-minute warning in my other ear so I switch it here.

LEMON: We're get a break in two minutes. The House speaker, we're back here on CNN with Dana Bash and the House speaker.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Just before the break, Dana Bash from Capitol Hill got the two-minute warning that House Speaker John Boehner is going to come out and update us on this looming government shutdown and the standoff over the budget.

So Dana, you know, there are always on the money, but what are you hearing? How long it's going to be and do you have any idea what they have come up with?

BASH: Well, at this point, just to be clear for our viewers, there is no deal on the big thing, which is spending cuts and keeping the government running. Those are discussions that are ongoing and this meeting that has been going on is among the Republicans.

It's John Boehner talking to his fellow Republicans, all of them in the House and trying to give them an update on where things stand, which we're told from lots of members of Congress coming out. He said that things are progressing, but also to hear from them about what they want because that has been a very important subplot here in this tug of war over how to keep the government open and how much spending to cut.

And the subplot has been all of these new members of congress on the Republican side, many of them and I've talked to some of them in the past hour, Don, saying that they really have been trying to keep the pressure on John Boehner not to compromise too much, to stand their ground.

But, I think that the headline that we're likely to hear. Now we are hearing this from multiple lawmakers. We will see what John Boehner says when he comes out is that they do plan to go ahead with a short-term spending bill, stop-gap bill that they probably will vote on the House floor tomorrow.

This is something that we saw earlier in the week, the $12 billion in cuts, but here is the key part of it, it also funds the troops, funds the Pentagon, the Defense Department for the rest of the year. In fact, Republican sources that we've been talking to they've been started calling it the troop funding bill.

Why is that? Because that helps them sell it to their fellow Republicans because there been, you know, no stomach at all from at least mostly Republicans and even Democrats and even the president himself to do another stop gap spending bill.

But there is also a political desire, Don, among the republican leaders to not get the blame if there is a government shutdown. So they are going to try to put this on the floor of the House, again, we are told by several sources likely tomorrow. Trying to say, look, we are trying.

LEMON: Dana, let me jump in here because again, if this is the same effort that was put forth by Republicans, Democrats have already said no to this temporary $12 billion troop-funding bill.

BASH: Yes, which they call the troop funding bill. They have already said no, but that's not going to stop them because that's, you know, I hate to say it. But it's almost beside the point because the goal for Republicans in putting this on the floor tomorrow is as we expect them to do at this point is to say, look, we are trying.

We are trying the do something. We're trying to keep the government running. We don't want to keep the government shutdown even as we have discussions about the big picture -- forgive me, I saw a lot of people coming. I have to look over.

LEMON: Just keep doing it. I'll step in if you need to get some information. Don't worry about it. I can talk plenty. Some people say too much sometimes. Listen, Dana, update us because before you were telling us about a moment that the House speaker had in this meeting --

BASH: Don, I have to interrupt you because the Speaker is coming with the other members of the Republican Party. I will step out of the way.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

REP. JEB HENSARLING (R), TEXAS: It is a larger turnout than usual. Something must be up. Well, it has been 46 days since the House Republicans first passed a bill to keep the government open and put us on a fiscally sustainable path.

The president of the United States has just said that the least we can do is to pass a budget and then went to Pennsylvania apparently to work on his campaign budget. We would remind the president, again, House Republicans have passed a bill to keep the government open and put the nation on a fiscally sustainable path.

We stand here today united with the path to prosperity budget introduced by our Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. The nation has an opportunity to be on the path to decline or the path to prosperity. And with the Republican budget, we will prevent tax increases, provide fundamental tax reform, and we will provide the nation with a fiscally sustainable path to give the confidence to job creators to go out to grow, invest, and create more jobs in America.

That's what we need today and we haven't seen anything but a protection of the status quo of spending $42 -- borrowing 42 cents on the dollar, much of it from the Chinese and sending the bill to our children and grandchildren and that is simply unacceptable.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: You know, I have to tell you all that I like the president personally. We get along well, but our president isn't leading. He didn't lead on last year's budget and he clearly is not leading on this year's budget.

Remember that the Democrats had a majority here last year, super majorities in the House and the Senate. They had the White House and yet they failed to pass a budget. As a matter of fact, they could not agree on the budget after the election and in December, they punted until this month.

When you look at the fact that the president introduced a bill to put a debt commission together a year ago, and while I didn't agree with everything that his debt commission put forward. I want to tell you that these people worked hard and they had a lot of very good ideas, and yet the president used none of his own deficit reduction's commission's ideas in his own budget.

Here we are trying to clean up last year's mess. Our goal is real clear, we're going to fight for the largest spending cuts we can get and the policy rider that were attached to them. Because we believe that the cutting the spending will lead to a better environment for job creation.

We are continuing to have conversations with our colleagues in the Senate. I'm hoping that they will continue to do well. The government is due to shutdown tomorrow. So we are going to prepared to move forward with our troop funding bill that would fund our troops and keep the government open for another week, and cut $12 billion in spending.

I think this is the responsible thing to do for the United States Congress and I would hope the Senate could pass it and the president would sign it into law.

REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Obviously, these are very serious times for this country. As we know $14 trillion in debt is not light matter. I care about people and we care about people. We care about people who are out there right now trying to find a job.

We care about people who frankly are trying to figure out how they get through the end of the month trying to pay the bills and that's why we are doing what we are doing. We have got to solve the debt crisis in this country and we have got to demonstrate some responsibility here in Washington so that the economy can get going again.

As we all noted Paul Ryan and the Budget Committee are marking up the budget as we speak. You know, we have put forward a plan. That in fact, it does retire the debt over time and does so without raising taxes. We have seen nothing out of the president as far as a vision on how he wants to take the country.

And in fact, in the Senate, we know from the leader there, he doesn't even accept that there is a fiscal crisis in this country. We believe that we have to act to do something to make sure that the American economy recovers. We have put forward plans. We understand America is broke. And my question is, Mr. President, are you going to help us fix it?

LEMON: All right, that was Majority Leader Eric Cantor speaking there, and you saw the House Speaker just moments ago really hitting the president hard saying that we are in deep trouble with a government that is about to shutdown.

And the president jumped on an airplane and flew off to a town hall meeting so that he could campaign and starting out, I really like the president, but he is not leading. He is not leading and all the Republicans there hitting the Democrats saying the Democrats aren't even admitting that there is a fiscal crisis in this country.

But again, as our Dana Bash reported, it was believed that the meeting was going to be among the Republicans, going to be about that $12 billion temporary bill to keep the military, the troops up and running. They call it the troop-funding bill and that is what Boehner came out and announced and said that they're not going to back down on what they want. And they're going to try to pass this $12 billion saving bill for the military.

Coming up on the other side of the break, we have more news when it comes to Americans and our foreign policy. Gadhafi wrote a letter to President Obama. We are now finding out what he said to the president what he wrote in that letter on the other side of the break.

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LEMON: All right, by now we know that Libya is in the cross hairs right now because of U.S. coalition strike on them. Defiant leader Moammar Gadhafi not backing down even though everyone says he lost the legitimacy to lead.

He sent a letter to President Obama and we are now finding out what's in that letter. I'm just going to read the quotes that are just - here's a couple of them. He says, "we have been hurt more morally than physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you."

He says, "Diespite all this, you will always remain our son." You will always remain our son, he says and then he goes on to say, "NATO is waging an unjust war against a small people of a developing country" and he says, "you're in the position to keep NATO off the Libyan affair for good."

And then the last quote that I'm going to read here, "as you know too well, democracy and building of civil society cannot be achieved by means of missiles and aircraft or by backing armed members of al Qaeda in Benghazi."

Sorry the last one, this is the last one. "Our dear son, Excellency Barack Hussein Obama, your intervention is in the name of the USA is a must so that NATO would withdraw finally from the Libyan affair." Quotes from Moammar Gadhafi's letter to President Obama. More on that coming up.

In about an hour here in THE SITUATION ROOM, a former congressman is meeting face to face with Moammar Gadhafi today in Tripoli. His name is Curt Weldon. He is urging the Libyan leader to step aside.

He's not representing the White House or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office. Weldon says Gadhafi's chief of staff invited him. Weldon met with Gadhafi on an official visit back in 2004.

And my next guest was there with him, Congressman Elton Gallegly of California. Congressman, after 2004 trip to Libya, you said, quote, "I came away with one lasting impression from my visit. The Libyan people want their country to rejoin the international community and improve relations with the United States and the American people."

Seven years later, here we are. The question is does Moammar Gadhafi want the same thing?

REP. ELTON GALLEGLY (R), CALIFORNIA: I think it's very difficult to understand exactly what Colonel Gadhafi really wants. He's very complex person and a person that's really hard to understand.

When we went there six or seven years ago, my principle objective was to have him turn over all of his weapons to the international community and also to provide the reparations to the victims of the Lockerbie tragedy and the downing of the aircraft that killed over 200 people.

We were successful in getting ultimately $2.7 billion. He agreed to make that commitment and he kept that commitment. As it relates to the arms, he has kept that commitment unlike folks like Saddam Hussein who continually never kept them.

LEMON: Congressman, with all due respect, that was then, and I'm sure some good things happened out of that. But, this is now. Let's talk about what you said then. You said that the Libyan people wanted a closer relationship with the United States and members of the U.N. OK?

And then you had this letter today with these sort of unusual quotes from Moammar Gadhafi. Do you think that Moammar Gadhafi is on the same page with the Libyan people? He says he wants the president to stop the air strikes and to stop NATO. What do you think of what he wrote and what he wants? Is he in accordance with his people?

GALLEGLY: I think Moammar Gadhafi realizes his hours are numbered and quite frankly he's a difficult person to understand. I think he is ready to step down and I don't think he has really any options.

He has some very close confidants certainly his son is the closest of those confidants and certainly capable of giving him better advice than he seems able to give himself.

LEMON: Let's talk about your former travel partner, if we call him that. Weldon is proposing an interim government in Libya headed by the current prime minister and an opposition leader. Do you think that's going to fly with Gadhafi?

GALLEGLY: I think that it has great potential. I haven't looked at every aspect of the proposal, but I still believe Gadhafi realizes that he has few options right now and only time will tell in the next few days. Curt Weldon is a very capable guy. He understands the complexities of Libya and he understands who the players are and I think they understand him.

LEMON: OK, real quick. I have to run here. If you can answer this quickly for me, we haven't heard from the White House, but Mr. Weldon says that the White House knows of his visit. Do you think the White House is happy that he took this trip?

GALLEGLY: You would have to ask the White House that question. It's a little unorthodox, but at the same time I think we should all be focusing on the welfare of thousands, if not millions of people and their lives and the ability to survive.

LEMON: Congressman, thank you very much. I want to say that Congressman Curt Weldon is going to be on "THE SITUATION ROOM" tonight with Wolf Blitzer. Again, our thanks to the congressman.

Wolf Blitzer was covering the White House during the last government shutdown. So what are the big differences with the current deadline? This current government possible government shutdown.

What are the similarities? The answers may surprise you. I'm going to ask him coming up next.

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