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Bulls Advance to NBA East Finals; SEALs Worried about Retaliation; McCain: Pakistan Situation Unacceptable; U.S. Grills Three Bin Laden Wives; "Driven by Pathological Hatred"; Jesse James: "I Should Have Left Her"; Controversy Over Yankees' Pitcher; Hundreds Flee Swelling Mississippi River; Cancer Patient Returns Home; Mayor Wants to Ban Lazy Cakes; Taliban Claim Bin Laden Revenge;
Aired May 13, 2011 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Chicago Bulls, they are going to the NBA Eastern Conference finals for the first time since Michael Jordan played for them. Chicago's superstar of the area has got to be Derrick Rose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO (voice-over): He makes the move and turns on the Jets for the basket. Rose scored 19 points. His teammate, Carlos Boozer, had 23. The Bulls never trailed in this game as they clinched the series with Atlanta. Chicago advances to play the Miami Heat and Lebron.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It is 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. out West. I'm Carol Costello sitting in for Kyra Phillips. Good morning to you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO (voice-over): This morning major new developments in the Osama Bin Laden story, the Taliban in Pakistan says it launched a deadly suicide attack in retaliation for the killing of the al Qaeda leader. At least 80 people were killed at the military training facility.
U.S. intelligence officers finally had their chance to interview the Bin Laden wives who were inside that compound. Both U.S. and Pakistani officials tell us the three women were questioned together and were openly hostile toward their American interrogators.
And Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Navy SEALs who carried out the raid are now worried about retaliation. In fact, Gates says security measures have been beefed up for the SEALs and their families.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identities of those who participated in the raid. And I think that has to continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So let's begin in our Washington bureau with the Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence. Chris, Secretary Gates is worried that all this information is leaking out about how the raid went down, and this is endangering the Navy SEALs.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, Carol. When you talk about the security of the SEALs and their families, you're probably talking less about actual physical security than making sure that the SEALs' names are not released.
And on that case, "A," you've got Secretary Gates out there, you know, sort of putting the word out to other government officials and to anyone who's been speaking on background, you know, to make sure not to reveal any personal information about this team.
Also, what you're likely to see is that when some of these reports start to get filed, a lot of the personal information, some of the equipment that was used will probably most likely be redacted. In other words, it will be blacked out in the event some of these reports do make it out there through a Wikileaks-type situation.
And lastly, on that same note, the Pentagon has been putting some efforts in place, albeit a bit late, to try to, like, clamp down on exactly how much information could get transferred from, say, a classified system to an unclassified system and who has access to some of these documents.
COSTELLO: So on the subject of information and how it's getting out, I know that you have found out some new information of how Osama Bin Laden communicated with the outside world. Can you share?
LAWRENCE: Yes. And remember, communicated with no e-mail access because you know, having a computer and being online, you know, would leave a trail that a lot of officials would be able to follow. So what he did was, he would type directives or e-mails, and then he would download those to a thumb drive offline.
Then he'd hand the thumb drive to a courier who would then take it out and often hand it to what they call a cut-out. By cut- out, they mean someone who is cut out of the loop. In other words, this third party had no idea that he was getting information from Osama Bin Laden himself.
That person would then download the information and send it out as an e-mail from himself. And then when they needed to get information back to Bin Laden, they would just reverse the process.
So he was able to -- it was a meticulous time, painstaking process to go through, but it allowed him to get information in and out without ever getting online, Carol.
COSTELLO: Another mystery solved. Chris Lawrence, many thanks. And actually, Chris isn't going anywhere because he'll return at the bottom of the hour to discuss one of the more intriguing questions, did the Navy SEALs record the entire raid on helmet cams? Chris will be back to discuss that.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates also says security is a big reason why the president will not release the Bin Laden death photos. Gates referenced the photo-shop age we live in and said someone could alter those pictures and use them to stir up anger and provoke on American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as on American civilians who live overseas.
Senator John McCain says the way America treats its prisoners of war is key to keeping our men and women in uniform safe. He writes in "The Washington Post" today, while some enemies and al Qaeda surely will never be bound by the principle of reciprocity, we should have concern for those Americans captured by more conventional enemies, if not in this war, then in the next.
Of course, McCain spent years as POW in Vietnam. He also talked to our John King about how to handle Pakistan right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: They have an arsenal of nuclear weapons. They can provide a safe haven even more so for Taliban and al Qaeda elements. A failed state in Pakistan is not in the United States' interests.
There's a down side. There's a down side to a failure of the Pakistani's government, the Pakistani government. So we're going to have to be very careful how we approach this, but yet the status quo is obviously not acceptable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: OK, so let's turn to the widows of Osama Bin Laden. Three wives discovered living in the compound with him. All three have now been questioned by U.S. intelligence officers. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Islamabad. He's gathering details on that. So Nick, are they finished?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, we have one Pakistani intelligence official that says, quote, "an ongoing process." Not meaning the interrogation is ongoing, but there will be a number of meetings, which are still ongoing and will continue over a period of time.
That's all we're hearing from the Pakistani side. From U.S. officials, a little bit more detail from them, but they seem to be enormously happy about the kind of access they're getting.
Pakistani intelligence officials, the ISI, acting as the interlocutors between these three women and U.S. officials. The women apparently are being interviewed together, being spoken for by Amal Akhmed Abdul Fatar, who is the older 29-year-old Yemeni wife of Bin Laden who's speaking for all three of them.
Obviously, officials from the U.S. would hope perhaps to have spoken with them separately to try and work up some kind of inconsistency between their accounts and put pressure on them.
But as it currently stands, they say they're not getting anything fantastically new out of this, but the talks are ongoing, Carol.
COSTELLO: So are Pakistani investigators in the room along with U.S. investigators, and do U.S. intelligence officers want to be alone in that interrogation room as well?
WALSH: I'm not a professional interrogator, but we understand they're all in the room together, which of course would be putting a degree of strain on the Americans' ability to press these women who, of course, are hostile witnesses frankly in this case.
And remember, their husband has just been killed by U.S. Special Forces. So you're going to expect a fairly unpleasant atmosphere, but, yes, it does appear the Americans are not getting the kind of information and the speed they would necessarily like, Carol.
COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Islamabad, Pakistan, Thank you so much.
New York's mayor says two men arrested in an alleged plot to attack Manhattan's synagogues were lone wolves. Their arrests were announced yesterday at a New York news conference. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says today the suspects wanted to attack Jews.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLEY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: They were driven by a pathological hatred for Jewish people and their rhetoric got more and more emotional in the last month, in particular.
And yes, certainly they were willing to do it, and two days ago, they showed that they were willing to buy guns and a hand grenade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The two face terrorism and hate-crime-related charges.
Coming up and coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you, what's old is new again. We'll tell you how the company Sam Walton founded is trying to get back to its American roots.
Also ahead, Jesse James, find out what most of us knew all along. Honesty is the best policy. Find out what he says he would do differently in his break-up with Sandra Bullock.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: West Coast Choppers CEO and reality TV bad boy Jesse James is opening up on his split with Sandra Bullock. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" show host A.J. Hammer has that and more. Wow! He had an epiphany.
A.J. HAMMER, HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes. Yes. He's figuring out what he should have done now, Carol. Kind of a basic thing. This is what Jesse James is telling our own Piers Morgan.
He should have done the honorable thing. He should have left Sandra instead of cheating on her. James has written a book. He's talking about his break-up with Sandra Bullock. He talks about his current relationship with tattoo artist and reality star Cat Vonde.
He told Piers Morgan that he is 100 percent to blame for the scandalous break up with Bullock. But James also says that he and his wife were never really friends and that Bullock's public proclamations during their marriage should all be taken with a grain of salt. You've got to check out that part of the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": So do you view her as a rock?
JESSE JAMES, ON SPLIT WITH SANDRA BULLOCK: Yes, but, you know, she said that same speech at four different awards shows. You saw two of them.
MORGAN: What's your point?
JAMES: I don't know. You can take whatever you get out of it, you know.
MORGAN: You don't think she meant it?
JAMES: I think she meant it to a certain extent. You know, what does she do for a living?
MORGAN: Movie star, actor.
JAMES: What?
MORGAN: An actor.
JAMES: OK. Cool.
MORGAN: You think it was an act?
JAMES: I think, you know, that whole -- that people have to live in that world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HAMMER: OK. Well, not surprisingly, James says that he and Bullock don't even talk now, Carol. You can check out the entire interview, it's great interveiw with Piers. It airs tonight on the Piers Morgan show, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT."
COSTELLO: He should just shut up, A.J. He should just shut up.
HAMMER: Yes.
COSTELLO: I think Sandra Bullock is beloved now. There's no way he can win. OK, let's talk about winning in another sense. Ashton Kutcher, "Two and a Half Men"?
HAMMER: Well, yes, this isn't official yet, but the reports are everywhere this morning that Ashton Kutcher will be the guy to replace Charlie Sheen on "Two and a Half Men" and this news comes just a day after reports that Hugh Grant had turned down the role.
We've reached out to CBS. They're not commenting yet, but you know, this could be a huge payday for Kutcher, stepping into the number one sitcom on TV. Kutcher is also, of course, one of the smartest stars at using social media.
He's got one of the largest Twitter followings out there. In fact, he has three million more followers than Charlie Sheen, and Kutcher is teasing us all through his tweets. Last night he asked via Twitter, "what's the square root of 6.25?" and the answer, carol, is --
COSTELLO: I don't know.
HAMMER: Two and a half.
COSTELLO: Duh.
HAMMER: Play along, Carol. Come on.
COSTELLO: I feel really stupid now, but thanks for -- no, that was funny, though. OK, let's talk about Mariah Carey because this is a really strange story.
HAMMER: It's strange, and it really upset me. I sat down with Mariah's husband, Nick Cannon, last night. I asked him about reports that the authorities were called in because Mariah was using alcohol in the hospital where she just gave birth to her twins a couple of weeks ago.
According to Nick and Mariah, the whole thing was a scam in an effort by the paparazzi to get those highly coveted first photos of the newborns. Watch what nick told me about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK CANNON: The story was taken from a nurse actually just -- I guess this is a common thing -- said, you know, if you drink some Guinness, like a beer --
HAMMER: I've heard this.
CANNON: -- yes, the yeast in there actually helps with the breast-feeding and that was told to my wife. I guess someone maybe overheard that and said this is a good way to make a quick buck or call the tabloids. It's kind of sad. How people think that we'll make money off of these newborns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAMMER: Yes, basically, the thought was that maybe somebody would get in there from a child agency and take a picture, which eventually could get leaked out and somebody could make a lot of money. It really makes me sick.
Nick says he is struggling with his desire to keep his children out of the public eye, but he does recognize he has to balance that with massive interest by the public to see the kids.
So he told me that he and Mariah are going to figure out some appropriate and classy way to reveal their kids to the world, but on their own terms.
COSTELLO: Gotcha. A.J., really interesting. Thank you. If you want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world, A.J.'s got it tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" at 11:00 p.m. on "HLN."
Was he honoring the hippocratic oath or was he breaking the rules? A doctor who uses controversial human growth hormone treatments is in the radar of major league baseball investigators.
He says he didn't use that treatment when he saved the career of a Yankees' pitcher. We're going to talk to him next.
And banned from the prom for writing on a school building to solicit a date. Now he's getting support from state lawmakers. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Just a year ago, it looked like the end of the line for Bartolo Colon. The Yankees' pitcher had been plagued by injuries and he was pushing 40. Some said his career was probably over, but not Dr. Joseph Purita.
The Georgetown graduate has been an orthopedic surgeon for three decades and according to "The New York Times," he's been known to use treatments that include human growth hormone. Well, after Purita treated Bartolo Colon, the pitcher was back.
The Yankees signed him in January and now his fastball rockets at 93 miles per hour or better. His recovery has been called a miracle. The credit in large part goes to Dr. Purita. Now the league wants to know more about this so-called miracle return and the treatment.
Dr. Purita joins us now by phone. Doctor, thank you for joining me.
DR. JOSEPH R. PURITA, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON (via telephone): My pleasure, Carol. It's an honor to be with you.
COSTELLO: So tell me how you treated Mr. Colon? PURITA: We treated him with his own stem cells, a fat graft on him and we used his own bone marrow stem cells to put in the areas of injury.
Now, there's no other use of any banned substance, I'm wise enough to know you cannot use that on any athletes so nothing else here. There are no smoking guns as I've told everyone.
COSTELLO: But in some treatments you perform, in many treatments you do use human growth hormone?
PURITA: Right. For a person that has no competitive sports they're going to be involved with, a very minute amount we think may help with the stem cells do more of their work.
But we won't use it on any athlete, be it high school or above, because it's banned by the leagues. Actually, I believe the leagues are correct in that because there's too much leeway for abuse if you start saying you can start using this for an injury.
COSTELLO: Dr. Freddie Fu with the Pittsburgh School of Medicine says this of injecting stem cells. He says bone marrow is a good source of stem cells, but I don't think there's any definitive evidence to show that it will benefit a condition like this.
Bartolo Colon was having trouble with his rotator cuff and his elbow. So other doctors say there's no evidence that an injection of stem cells actually works.
PURITA: Well, there is some evidence out there. There actually was just a very good article in the "Arthroscopy Journal of North America," just last month from Dr. So in Malaysia who showed definitively that stem cells worked in the knee be on the shadow of a doubt he had histology and everything that shows it's a an extremely prestigious journal. It's not one of these so-so journals there.
COSTELLO: We understand that major league baseball has gotten wind of this and it's now conducting an investigation. Have you heard from major league baseball?
PURITA: Quite honestly, no. The only people I've heard from the report is I haven't heard from them, but I'd be more than happy to talk with them and answer any questions they have. There's nothing here to hide.
COSTELLO: You've treated other athletes as well?
PURITA: Yes, I have.
COSTELLO: Who are they?
PURITA: Well, obviously, with Hippalaus, I can't get into that.
COSTELLO: Some Ravens players, Baltimore Ravens players.
PURITA: You've read the article, obviously, and it says some of the people we've treated, some of the teams, I should say.
COSTELLO: Are you worried just because you use human growth hormone and other procedures that these professional athletes, other professional athletes you've treated, will now -- will at least be asked questions of their teams and maybe the NFL and major league baseball?
PURITA: I'm not worried at all because it was never used. There's no story here.
COSTELLO: OK. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
PURITA: OK. Thank you. Bye, now.
COSTELLO: Bye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Checking stories cross country, hundreds of Louisiana residents are scrambling for higher ground. The fourth and final spillway on the swollen Mississippi River is about to be opened, relieving the increasing water pressure. Louisiana towns like Stevenville and Morgan City are hoping their flood walls hold.
A woman with terminal cancer who was earlier not allowed to fly home to her native South Korea finally went home yesterday thanks to Delta Airlines. It comes five days after a Korean airline denied her passage over concerns she might die aboard the flight.
The carrier is defending its decision, and here is their response. We sincerely regret that we could not accommodate them on their flight. Our concern was for her health during the long flight.
Korean Air has an in-house medical team comprised of licensed medical doctors who make the final decisions on who can and cannot board our flights. And like I said, Delta stepped in, and now the woman's at home in South Korea.
If you've never heard of lazy cakes brownies, don't expect a ringing endorsement of the product from the mayor of Falls River, Massachusetts. He wants the city council to ban the sale of the so- called relaxation treats in his town because the brownies have relatively high amounts of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep. The mayor is worried children could be enticed by the adults-only cake and its cartoon character named Lazy Larry.
Pakistan's Taliban says a suicide blast is revenge for Osama Bin Laden's death and that more attacks like these are coming. We'll have more on that next.
And just ahead, the latest on the Osama Bin Laden story and one of the more intriguing questions, did the Navy SEALs record the raid on helmet cams? CNN's Chris Lawrence will be back to tell you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Just about 7:30 in the West, 10:30 in the East. We're following developments in the Osama Bin Laden story. The Taliban in Pakistan says it is responsible for a deadly suicide attack that killed at least 80 people, most of them military recruits. The Taliban calls it retaliation for the al Qaeda leader's death.
U.S. intelligence officers have interviewed the three Bin Laden widows who were inside that compound. Both U.S. and Pakistani officials tell us the women were hostile toward the Americans.
And Defense Secretary Robert Gates says too much information about the raid has come out. He says details could put the Navy SEALs who carried out the operation in danger.
Let's talk more about the deadly attack on Pakistan's military recruits. The Pakistani Taliban says the two suicide bombings are payback for Osama Bin Laden's killing.
Here's the statement from its spokesperson. Pakistani and the U.S. forces should be ready for more attacks. Osama was our great leader, and the killers of Osama will have to pay its price. The attack happened about 130 miles from Bin Laden's compound. Let's get more now from CNN's Stan Grant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This here is the military training facility that was the target for this attack. Now, two suicide bombers on the backs of motorcycles came in here in the early hours of the morning, detonating those explosives.
They have targeted military recruits that have been training here for the past nine months. They finished their training, and they were about to leave when this attack happened. If you look around here, you can see so much of the aftermath of this dual suicide bombing.
You can see cars strewn along the road here that have been blown out, a lot of damaged buildings up in here. This is the worst attack of its kind for this year in Pakistan. The number of dead has continued to rise throughout the day. Scores more people have been wounded and injured and they've been ferried to hospital.
People have been milling around here just pondering exactly what happened and we've had a warning now from the Taliban to expect more. They have accepted responsibility for this attack. They have linked it directly to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. They are saying that this is revenge for his death.
They're warning, as I say, both Pakistan and the United States, to expect more. This whole area is a hotbed of insurgency. Al Qaeda and Taliban militants have been holed out here, and the military has been continuing to mount offensives to try to root them out.
But if you look around here today, just looking at this damage, you can still see the potency of the insurgency. That despite these attacks, that despite the operations here by the military, the Taliban is still potent, and they're warning there is more to come.
Stan Grant, CNN, Chalsada, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Also this morning, CBS News is reporting the Navy SEALs who carried out the raid were wearing cameras on their helmets, and every single moment of the mission caught on tape.
Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is in our Washington bureau. So, Chris, you've been looking into this report. What more can you tell us?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we know that the SEALs did have the ability and did record some or perhaps all of that raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.
We've also confirmed some of the details that have come out since then that we didn't know early on. So, just the fact that the SEALs got their first look at Osama bin Laden when he peeked out of the third floor, they took a shot at him. They missed. And Osama bin Laden retreated back into the room. Eventually they would make their way up to that third floor where they were confronted with bin Laden, with his wives, with some of the children right there in the room. The SEALs having to push some of those wives and children out of the way to get a clear shot at first bin Laden's chest and then his head. Carol?
COSTELLO: So, I know there are many viewers out there saying I'd really love to see that video. Is there any chance some of it would ever be, you know, shown to the public?
LAWRENCE: Well, you never want to say never, but a lot of times what this video is used for is for the teams to go back and sort of recap the mission. A lot of times the mission planners will look at it and say, you know, what did we do right? What do we do wrong? What could we have done better? You know, especially it does have such huge significance because of the target was Osama bin Laden.
But really, they use these cameras and they use these recording devices mostly so that the team can really look at what went on and what they should have maybe perhaps done differently for next time.
COSTELLO: Okay. So, if they don't want it to become public, how can they keep it from becoming public? Because you know there's always a way that something leaks out somewhere.
LAWRENCE: Well, one, you've got to put the word out, you know, across the board that this doesn't go out because like you said, normally this comes from somebody leaking it to a news outlet or leaking it to someone, and then it's out there in the public domain. The other way is they'll probably try to use some of the techniques that they have just started to institute in the wake of Wikileaks, which is restricting access to some of the classified material, making it tougher to, say, take classified material from one computer and then dump it onto an unclassified computer. And also, some of the new restrictions they've put in in terms of having more than one person handle certain material. So, one person would not have, say, access to this. It would take two people to sort of pull it out. Sort of adding layers of security if, indeed, you did not want this video to be released.
COSTELLO: Fascinating. Chris Lawrence live in Washington, thank you.
LAWRENCE: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: There is a fine line between openness and, um, oversharing. And a couple of people on Capitol Hill may have crossed it. I'm talking about politicians. Our Political Buzz next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is time for Political Buzz. A lightning-fast conversation hitting the hot political topics of the day. Each of our brilliant political observers get 20 seconds to answer three probing questions.
Dana Loesch is a Tea Party supporter and conservative. Peter Segal is the host of NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and Robert Zimmerman is a member of the Democratic National Committee. Welcome to you all.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Good to be with you, Carol. Carol?
COSTELLO: Yes?
ZIMMERMAN: Do we win a blender or a washer/dryer if we do this in under 20 seconds?
COSTELLO: No, but you win this beautiful CNN cup. OK, let's get going.
Tavis Smiley was with us last hour. I asked him about President Obama's standing right now with African-American voters and if he's addressed their needs. This is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAVIS SMILEY, PBS HOST, "TAVIS SMILEY": The president has not done enough about black unemployment in part, I think, because respectfully, he's afraid of being accused of being tribal if he does, in fact, help the African-American community in specific and unique ways.
He ought not to be afraid of that when our Jewish brothers and sisters want help on the state of Israel vis a vis public policy. He stands up for them. And gays and lesbians wanted "don't ask, don't tell" overturned. He was right about that. He took too long, but he got it done. He responded to them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Robert, what do you make of that?
ZIMMERMAN: I think Tavis got his sound bite and got his coverage. But I think it's unnecessarily divisive. I think the president has shown a great, great commitment to all segments of our public family, of our country. And I think that kind of rhetoric doesn't help the unemployment picture, doesn't help bring people together. Annuity is going to be what's critical in terms of bringing about solutions.
COSTELLO: Dana.
DANA LOESCH, TEA PARTY SUPPORTER: I don't think we can still be segregating communities in 2011. I think if you want to look at President Obama and what he's done for all factions of the American populous, no, I don't think he has done enough. We still have nine percent unemployment. We have a shambles kind of a foreign policy going on in Libya right now. There are a lot of variables that are making it very uncomfortable right now in America.
COSTELLO: Peter!
PETER SEGAL, HOST, NPR'S "WAIT, WAIT, DON'T TELL ME": How in the world am I supposed to know anything about what he's done for the black community? I can speak, I think, for the slightly swarthy community. And I feel that he's not done enough to provide us with gold chains and medallions and aviator sunglasses, which we like. But that's really about what I've got for you.
COSTELLO: OK. Next topic, Ron Paul. And we couldn't help but play a Conan O'Brien spot to lead into this Ron Paul segment. Here it goes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN": Tomorrow Ron Paul is going to announce that he's running for president. And guess what? this is real. He supports legalizing prostitution and heroin.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
O'BRIENT: That's real! Yes. That's true. Yes, his campaign slogan is "let's just see what would happen."
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And the crowd goes wild. The 2012 GOP field is shaping up. Who do you think President Obama's biggest threat is? Dana.
LOESCH: I have to first say that watching that debate, I think, was the first time as a conservative I've ever seen anyone go, "Yes, hookers and blow! That's great!"
Honestly, I think those -- I think that there's -- it's still shaping up, but I have to say, if Chris Christie got involved, that would be huge. Chris Christie, Allen West. I like Herman Cane, but those are pretty much the only people that have really gotten my interest at all.
COSTELLO: Oh, out of time.
(LAUGHTER)
(BUZZER SOUNDS)
COSTELLO: Robert.
ZIMMERMAN: Look, his first challenge is staying on the good side of Jon Stewart. That's his most important challenge.
Secondly, the unemployment figure, obviously. That's going to be the most critical political challenge he faces in terms of building his support for re-election.
But let's also remember at best this is a 50/50 race. There are four strong potential candidates who are former governors. Actually, one governor, Mitch Daniels. Certainly former governor Mike Huckabee -
(BUZZER SOUNDS)
ZIMMERMAN: and Mitt Romney.
COSTELLO: Oh! Out of time. Peter!
SEGAL: Well, you know, it is a 50/50 country and an unnamed Republican does well against the president in polls, so they should go with that. An unnamed Republican. They could go with a classic paper bag over their head or maybe do the hidden camera thing with a silhouette of a face of the witness. And then if he or she wins, we could reveal who it is on inauguration day and take bets. As a comedian, I want Bachmann.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Oh! OK, next question, Senator Claire McCaskill tweeted this week about her weight. She tweeted that she was feeling fat and she had to go to the gym. And as you know, Congressman Aaron Schock, he posed kind of half naked for the "Men's Health" magazine.
Oh, we've got to see this picture before I get to the question. Do we have the picture of his rock-hard abs?
SEGAL: Oh, I'm getting the vapors. COSTELLO: Dear God, there it is. OK!
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Remember back in the days when we didn't even know FDR was in a wheelchair? Okay, none of us were alive, but there were those days when we didn't know much about our politicians. Are we getting too much information from our politicians? Robert?
ZIMMERMAN: Look, we're getting too much information when family values, former senators Larry Craig and John Ensign discuss their sex life. But when it comes to Claire McCaskill and Congressman Schock, Aaron Schock, I think there's great. I love their message. It's empowering.
My worry, Carol, is this. It's great for Congressman Schock to have abs like The Situation, but when we discuss his right-wing policies, he sounds like The Situation.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Dana.
LOESCH: Oh. Well, Senator McCaskill is my senator, and honestly, I would like to see them talk more about what they think about the president not releasing the Osama bin Laden photos or what they think about quantitative easing or any number of other things. I don't care what they feel about their weight. I don't care about their abs on the cover of a magazine. I want them to act like legislators and do right for the American people.
COSTELLO: Peter!
SEGAL: I've interviewed them both, Schock and McCaskill. They're both reasonable, nice people. I like them both. So, maybe this should be the standard we use. All candidates should run for office without a shirt on, and we could elect them on that basis. And so instead of a Republican and a Democrat on a Senate like this, you'd have somebody from Team Jacob and somebody from Team Edward. And I could be, like, Dracula for perspective.
(LAUGHTER)
(BUZZER SOUNDS)
COSTELLO: I just got a sudden picture of the next -- never mind. Thanks to all of you, Robert, Dana, Peter. Fun, as always. Political Buzz will be back on Monday.
ZIMMERMAN: Great to be with you.
COSTELLO: Bye!
SEGAL: See ya, America.
COSTELLO: Coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you, what's old is new again. We'll tell you how the company Sam Walton founded is trying to get back to its American roots.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: What's old is new again, at least what's that Wal-Mart wants us to believe as America's massive retailer returns to its roots and tries to sell more items made in the USA.
Alison Kosik is live in New York with more on this. So Alison, this sounds good. Sell more American products, yey!
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes, you know, it's true. Wal-Mart is selling more American-made goods, yes. But I'll tell you what, it's not about patriotism. It's actually by default since the mix of products the retail giant is actually selling is changing as consumer needs change.
You know, look at just how much stuff Wal-Mart sells. You know, and the biggest chunk is groceries and household goods like detergent, toilet paper, toothpaste. And those items have to be grown and produced locally. You know, there's electronics, toys and clothing, those kinds of things are mostly made overseas. But shoppers are buying less of that stuff these days and focusing more on those necessities, Carol. They're focusing on those basics.
COSTELLO: So, is it possible for Wal-Mart to ever get all of its products from the United States?
KOSIK: I'll give you a no on that one. You know, it's really hard to see how they could leave China out of the equation because pricing is a major focus for Wal-Mart. It's their spiel. They give those low prices every day on everything. That's what they say. And the typical Wal-Mart customer is a low-income consumer. So, pricing is really critical.
And Wal-Mart has been cutting prices because sales lately haven't been so hot. In fact, sales have been hurting for almost two years now. So, Wal-Mart is going to really continue to rely on those low- priced goods made overseas, and why not? If people seem to be buying the stuff that's locally grown, the groceries, I think they'll go for that, too, Carol.
COSTELLO: Maybe so. Alison Kosik, live in New York. Thank you.
A new CNN documentary examines the crisis in our public schools. It's called "DON'T FAIL ME: EDUCATION IN AMERICA." And it airs this weekend. Soledad O'Brien will be here with a preview next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We have a bit of breaking news to tell you outside of Chicago. This from our affiliate WLS. A commuter train has collided with a semi truck. As I said, near Chicago. No immediate word whether anyone was hurt. But as you can see, it stopped the train. This is sort of the metro service for Chicago.
So, you can imagine mass transit in the city is a mess right now. And we don't know the condition of the driver of the truck or whether he was on the tracks. We only know that inbound train had a collision with the truck. When we get more information, of course, we'll pass it along.
In other news this morning, a CNN documentary premiering on Sunday night looks at the crisis in our public school system and why America's financial future is at risk if students cannot excel in math and science. Here's a preview of "DON'T FAIL ME: EDUCATION IN AMERICA" with Soledad O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD: Three, two, one!
(CHEERING)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a robotics competition that brings 50,000 high school students into stadiums across the country. The purpose is to inspire kids to take challenging math and science classes to prepare them for the high-tech jobs of the future. It is what American public schools often fail to do.
ANRE DUNCAN, U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY: We basically had a 19th century model of education that is not preparing enough young people to be successful in the 21st century global economy.
O'BRIEN: Among this year's competitors, Maria Castro, Brian Whitehead, Shawn Patel.
MARIA CASTRO, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I want to become a solar engineer and go to Stanford university.
O'BRIEN: Junior Maria Castro is a student at the mostly Latino Carl Haden high school in Phoenix, Arizona. The average family here makes less than $30,000 a year.
Guitar player Brian Whitehead is from middle class Seymour, Tennessee.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Are there classes that you are not able to take because they're not offered in the school that you'd like to take?
BRIAN WHITEHEAD, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Well, I guess any AP classes at all.
O'BRIEN: Sophomore Shawn Patel is from upper middle class Montgomery, New Jersey. The son of Indian immigrants, Shawn is already taking two AP classes, which leaves him little time for his favorite hobby, dancing.
SHAWN PATEL, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I'm taking pre-req (ph) honors, Spanish 4, AP U.S. history 1, AP statistics, English honors and chemistry honors.
And if you add them all together, you get a loss of --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Oh! I wanted to see the answer, Soledad. Soledad joins me now from New York. Somebody who has seen this documentary --
O'BRIEN: I can do the math for you later if you want.
COSTELLO: Yes, could you do that? I know that you can.
Someone in house, because I know you had a preview party, some people within CNN saw this documentary. They say it's absolutely fascinating because you sort of pit the students against each other in a way. And it really is telling.
O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, they literally are pitted against each other. They're in a competition to build robots, and they want to win. They want to really win. What we wanted to do was look at their sort of different socioeconomic status and different students but also through the eyes of this robotics competition, which is called First See. Is where you come from and the kind of education you get going to make it possible for you to succeed in a competition like this and really examine overall opportunities in education for American students.
What we've discovered is that some of the statistics that we know are just dire. For example, America ranks 17th in science. 25th in math when you compare it to all industrialized nations. That's terrible.
But if you poll people, you know what they say? We rank one or two. So, not only are we low on the totem pole, we're also way off in where we think we are. That's a huge problem.
COSTELLO: That is a huge problem.
And just going back to these three students, they come from very different backgrounds and very different, you know, socioeconomic backgrounds, so it will be fascinating to see which one does better at this robot competition. You know, as it applies to where they go to school and, you know, the last kid you showed us, that was a very rich school district. He had all these courses offered. But the kid from middle-class America, he didn't have the chance to take those courses.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it's really interesting. And some -- most American students actually won't take calculus and physics. Even if offered, they opt out. Most industrialized nations don't let students opt out. It's mandatory to take calculus and physics, high-level math classes. In the United States, students are allowed to choose. And usually they choose not to.
And that wouldn't be a problem except we have 2 million jobs according to the secretary of education -- 2 million jobs right now that are unfilled in this country because Americans cannot do the technological skills that are required for those jobs. So, those jobs are unfilled. That number is -- it's almost criminal when you consider our unemployment numbers. So, if you don't fix education, if you don't train kids in the STEM field - science, technology, engineering and math -- they won't be able to take those jobs that exist since manufacturing has pretty much left this country. That is really what we wanted to focus on in this documentary, "DON'T FAIL ME."
COSTELLO: I know. I can't wait to see it. Soledad O'Brien, many thanks. And be sure to watch this, CNN's Soledad O'Brien reports, "DON'T FAIL ME: EDUCATION IN AMERICA." the documentary premieres Sunday night, 8:00 eastern only on CNN.
Coming up in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM with Suzanne Malevaux, more on the developments stemming from the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Has the U.S. revealed too much information about the sting, and is that putting the Navy SEALs who executed the operation in danger? We're asking an former Homeland Security adviser for the Bush administration.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Congressman Ron Paul is making a third run for the White House. This morning he's announced he will seek the GOP nomination for 2012. CNN's Jim Acosta has this hour's political news. Hey, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Carol. Yes, he's doing it on Friday the 13th, which may not be the luckiest move on Ron Paul's part. But yes, he is throwing his hat in the ring, announcing earlier this morning on "Good Morning America" that he is indeed running for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Today and at this moment, I'm officially announcing that I am a candidate for president in the Republican primary.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, CO-HOST, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": Why?
PAUL: Because time has come around to the point where the people are agreeing with much of what I've been saying for 30 years. So, I think the time is right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: So just another sign that this race for the White House in 2012 is starting to heat up.
One other potential sign, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has sent out a tweet this morning saying to watch his media schedule this weekend. That might have something to do with the fact that he has unveiled a new -- I guess, series of children's educational videos, you could call them. That is a new business venture for Mike Huckabee, and it has some people in Washington wondering whether or not he's actually going to take the plunge and run for president again in 2012.
And there are also questions about whether or not Mitch Daniels will run for president. He's starting to earn the nickname the Hoosier Hamlet. To run or not to run, that is the question for Mitch Daniels. He had an event last night in Indianapolis, Carol, where he also hinted that he is thinking about running for president, but no firm decisions yet from Mitch Daniels.
COSTELLO: I'm still laughing about the Hoosier Hamlet! That's a good one.
ACOSTA: I didn't come up with it, but it's out there.
COSTELLO: All right. Thanks, Jim Acosta.
Now it's time to toss it over to Suzanne Malveaux.
I'll join you in about 10 minutes or so to talk about whether politicians have lost their dignity by revealing too much of their physicality.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, really?
COSTELLO: Yes.
MALVEAUX: That should be fun.
COSTELLO: It should be.
MALVEAUX: OK. Can't wait to see the photos, too. I know there are photos involved.
COSTELLO: Yes, there are.
MALVEAUX: All right. Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure.
