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Jack Kevorkian Dead at 83; Obama Visits Ohio, Talks Chrysler; 2012 GOP Contenders Talk Faith; Charges Likely Today Against Edwards; Job Growth Slows; Weiner Picture Scandal Goes Global; John Edwards Indicted; Yemen's Presidential Compound Shelled

Aired June 03, 2011 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is 10 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.

This morning we've learned Jack Kevorkian, the so-called "Doctor of Death" has died. The Michigan pathologist openly assisted terminally ill patients commit suicide and fueled a national debate over the issue. Kevorkian was 83.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO (voice-over): This hour, President Obama is on his way to Ohio to talk about jobs. There, he will talk about the rebound of the nation's auto industry and the controversial bailout that he says helped turn things around.

And presidential politics, the Republican road leaps through Washington today and tomorrow that's where the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference is being held. Just about every Republican even considering a run will be there to score points with the conservative power base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The two-year investigation into John Edwards and the money paid to his mistress could bring an indictment any minute now. We're awaiting word of criminal charges against the former presidential candidate.

CNN's Joe Johns is in Raleigh, North Carolina, where that might go down. We're still waiting?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Still waiting for any official word, quite frankly, but I can tell you this. There have been a lot of talks about a plea agreement, pretty clear that those discussions didn't go well at all, went back and forth and back and forth.

The key issue obviously was whether John Edwards would plea to a felony. We're told he didn't want to plead to a felony simply because he didn't want to give up his law license, wanted to go back to practicing law. He did that very well. Prosecutors apparently pretty adamant they wanted to see some type of felony. Allegations, as you know, just for a little bit of background, this is a guy who was a United States senator, ran for vice president in 2008, got involved in an extramarital affair with a young woman named Real Hunter and had a child with her.

And then got in hundreds of thousands of dollars to essentially cover up the fact that he had the affair and the question is why was it being covered up? Was it being covered so that his wife, Elizabeth, who had cancer wouldn't find out or is it being covered up so that he could influence the presidential election?

So we're waiting for any kind of official word that all of this has gone down. It's a kind of stunning situation for John Edwards. This is a guy who was referred to as the Robert Redford of politics at one point and now he finds himself at this place, a really good looking guy, great legal career, bright political future and it all goes down the tubes fairly suddenly right now, Carol.

COSTELLO: Joe Johns reporting live from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Our CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says there's a lot we don't know about the Edwards case, but one big question before the court would be how close was Edwards to the money that went to his mistress and his baby?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: A lot of this money, these negotiations went through his aide, Andrew Young, who was the person at first, who claimed to have fathered this child, and then, of course, turned on Edwards and wrote a book about him.

Another thing Edwards lawyers are saying, look, this whole thing was set up by Andrew Young and the people who gave the money. Edwards himself was not involved. That's another issue that if this case goes to trial, will have to be spelled out before the jurors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Jeffrey also says if Edwards is convicted, he will serve jail time, no question about it.

Also this morning, a sobering new measure of the economy and more evidence the recovery is losing steam. New figures show the economy added just 54,000 jobs in May.

That is a breathtaking drop from the month before when 232,000 jobs were created, and as with all things business, the numbers only tell part of the story. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange with a closer look. Alison --

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we're reacting and the markets are reacting too. Actually, the markets are off their lows of the session, but you know what? It is really a rough day on Wall Street because this was really a terrible report. It's not really all that surprising either. We had signs earlier this week leading up to today's report that pointed to this week. Look, the housing market still in trouble, manufacturing is cooling off. Big companies are expecting their sales to slow.

But still, you got to admit, this is tough to swallow because look at this, in the past year, it's really been pretty good as far as job growth goes, from February to April, we averaged job gains of almost 250,000.

Now, analysts are expecting more weakness through the summer and part of the concern for this employment picture is government jobs. We've been losing government jobs for months especially at the state and local levels, 15,000 in March, 19,000 in April and we lost another 29,000 in government jobs in May.

And it's likely to keep happening because of budget problems. It really shows, Carol, just how fragile this recovery is.

COSTELLO: It sure does. Alison Kosik live at the New York Stock Exchange.

President Obama oddly enough is on his way to Toledo, Ohio to brag about the auto bailout and how it saved jobs. He's doing that in Ohio in part because was a critical swing state that helped him win the White House.

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican who represents Ohio had this to say about his visit moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's clear from this morning's jobs report that the economy still isn't creating enough jobs. You talk to job creators around the country like we have, they'll tell you that the overtaxing, over regulating and overspending that's going on here in Washington is creating uncertainty and holding them back.

This week, House Republicans met with the president, urged him to change course and work with us on our plan for new jobs and economic growth in our country. We hope he'll take us up on our invitation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ed Henry is at the White House. So, Ed, the president is traveling to this Chrysler plant in Toledo and has this horrible jobs report out. And Republicans already commenting about it, so what can he say to convince the American people that the economy is indeed recovering?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I was just talking to the president's top economic advisor Austan Goolsbee who is basically saying, look, there's no way to spin that these numbers are not great. You know, they realize they're not great, but they're looking at the long term trajectory and you look at the fact that 2.1 million jobs have been created over the last 15 months. They think this is just a one mad month, but in the long term the recovery is still coming around.

But, you're right, I mean, look, most people look at these numbers and say it's just not fully recovering and worse, it could be slipping back into recession when you combine it with the awful housing numbers this week.

Stock market has been bouncing around. There are certainly a lot of fear and concern out there. This is going to put a big damper on what the president was hoping to show as a big turnaround in the auto industry.

And part of this case would be, look, if he had not help to save the auto industry, this whole jobs picture would be a lot worse.

COSTELLO: The Republican Governor John Kasich is not exactly warmly welcoming the president. The president did invite him to appear with him at this Chrysler plant and the governor says he had prior engagements. So it's just more partisanship, isn't it?

HENRY: Well, certainly, I mean, the last time the president was in Ohio back in February, John Kasich, the Republican governor did greet him at the airport.

This time he says he has other things on his schedule. Who knows whether that's politics or whether he really has other things on the schedule. I think the bottom line is, it does point up the fact both parties are still deeply divided on some of these key economic issues and that's the big take away here.

I mean, you had the House Republicans here at the White House a couple days ago. You heard John Boehner's comments there a few minutes ago. They're still far apart on coming up with some sort of a deficit reduction plan.

Let's face it, that's one of the reasons why Wall Street is so spooked right now, is that we're running up against this debt ceiling and neither side appears ready to really compromise, to figure out some way to lift that debt ceiling and also come up with real solid deficit reduction. Carol --

COSTELLO: And just one more thing. You know, Mitt Romney has entered the race and he says he can beat President Obama and gave him an "F." There was an op-ed from Mitt Romney that he wrote back in 2008. I just want to quote something for you to see what you think about this.

Mitt Romney wrote back in 2008, if General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.

Well, of course, that did not happen. Chrysler and General Motors are doing just fine and the president would argue that the bailout saved jobs. So how could Mitt Romney spin that?

HENRY: I have a feeling that President Obama would love to face Mitt Romney in a general election debate next year and bring that op- ed up because he obviously is going to make the case today that letting the auto industry fail would have been a disaster.

Now there's a counter argument though that basically that if the government had not bailed out GM and Chrysler that the good parts of those two companies would have survived. Maybe they would have been bought out by Ford or BMW or someone else would come in.

And that eventually they would have hired those people, some of those auto workers back and that maybe without government assistance things would have been OK. I think the president would say, why take that chance?

Why put more people out of work for months and months when the economy is already fragile? I think the bottom line is the president would love to talk to Mitt Romney about that in the debate, Carol.

COSTELLO: And Mitt Romney would probably want to fire back about Ford, a company that did not accept the bailout and doing just fine. Ed Henry live at the White House, thank you.

At the bottom of the hour, we'll hear from the CEO of Chrysler about the bailout and what it means to U.S. taxpayers. Poppy Harlow of CNNMoney.com will join us with her exclusive interview.

Congressman Anthony Weiner says he's through talking about the racy picture sent from his Twitter account to a young woman in Seattle. He says he was hacked, but he won't deny he's the man in the picture.

Of course, the story has gotten a lot of attention in the United States, but it's gotten a lot of attention overseas, too. Max Foster from CNN International is in London. Headlines about this overseas?

MAX FOSTER, ANCHOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Well, it's sort of a media story overseas, I'd say because there's a fascination in this is so big in the U.S. media. So therefore you've got newspapers here in the U.K. for example trying to explain what Weiner means in American terminology so there's a bit of a lesson there.

And then going over all the puns and making fun about that and then into the debate in America, which is did he or didn't he? Let's have a look at some headlines, "The Dominion Post" in New Zealand. The headline there, "Politician Bungles Underpants Explanation."

Going on to say, "Most puzzling to many is why Weiner would not clarify if he was indeed the person in the photo, which is presumably something he would have had a pretty good idea about.

The Independent" in the U.K. on a more serious note, "Why a Twitter Could Finish Congressman's Career," all his life he's lived with the name Weiner. No surprise then that the newspapers are calling it Weinergate on our indulging and a festival of puns and innuendo.

COSTELLO: It's so embarrassing, Max. Let's talk about something a bit happier now because the last hour we talked about Kate Middleton's childhood home that went on the auction block and we hear it's already been sold?

FOSTER: Not all that happy actually for the sellers. Carol, it's meant to go for $800,000 and now sold for $790,000. This was the home she lived in until she was 13.

Lots of interest, lots of journalists, lots of investors there but in the end, went to a local couple who will use it as their family home, just as the Middletons did back in the early 1990s.

COSTELLO: A beautiful end to that story. Max Foster, live in London, thanks so much.

A bit of breaking news to pass on to you right now, WTVD is reporting an indictment has indeed come down against John Edwards. We've been talking about this all morning and will have much more after a break. But again, John Edwards has been indicted. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: CNN has now confirmed a federal indictment has come down against John Edwards. Joe Johns is in Raleigh, North Carolina and Jeffrey Toobin is in New York with analysis. Joe, let's start with you. This isn't exactly a surprise, right?

JOHNS: No. It certainly isn't a surprise. I'd like to actually see the documents to see, you know, specifically what they're charging because that was the question all the time. We do know that this was, in large part, a campaign finance investigation, as to whether hundreds of thousands of dollars that Edwards received and went essentially to cover up.

The fact that he had had an affair and a child with Real Hunter, whether that money could be construe ad campaign contribution or was it just a gift that came from a wealthy philanthropist and a wealthy attorney to try to keep his wife from finding out that he has had an affair.

Interesting because there are a lot of people who say people like that can give away their money if they want to and doesn't have to be construed as campaign contribution. The other point, it's interesting, but not surprising John Edwards did not agree to this situation.

You have to point out this guy has a very skilled trial lawyer, did quite well before he went into politics, fighting for the little guy in civil court. If anybody could think he'd be able to work with his attorneys to persuade a jury he was not guilty, that would be a guy like John Edwards.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll talk more about that with Jeffrey Toobin. He has a very high powered lawyer, Greg Craig, who used to represent the president. I mean, this guy is very powerful and very good at his job.

But if John Edwards is convicted, he could serve time in jail? Is this a wise move on his part? I mean, as a legal guy, how would you counsel John Edwards?

JOHNS: Ask me in six months when we know what the results of the trial is, then we'll figure out whether it was a smart move or not. I don't know. I mean, it's important to point out. This is a very unusual criminal prosecution.

It is unusual for anything related to campaign finance law, federal election commission law to result in criminal charges. There have been, as far as I'm aware, no criminal prosecutions, based on someone giving money that turns out to be not a gift but campaign contribution.

The structure of this case is very unusual. That's not to say it won't end in a criminal conviction, but there will be a lot of novel legal issues the judge will have to sort out before this case even goes to trial.

COSTELLO: So Jeffrey, just to boil it down so people understand. I mean, is it - you know, we know that John Edwards received hundreds of thousands of dollars from one of his political donors.

But isn't the question is whether that was to cover up the affair so he could win an election or whether it was just to cover up and affair and hide it from his wife? I mean, is that basically what the jury has to decide between?

TOOBIN: Well, I think that is one of the issues they will have to decide. Another issue, which I think is really important is, what was John Edwards role personally in soliciting this contribution, in deciding how the money would go.

Because a lot of the money was handled, apparently, by Andrew Young, the aide who initially took the claim to be the father of Rielle Hunter's baby so Edwards' personal involvement in these transactions will be very important.

Because I think one of the claims by the defense will be that Edwards had almost no involvement in how this money was solicited and then spent.

COSTELLO: And John Edwards is a wealthy man himself, right? John Edwards is a wealthy man himself so why couldn't he have spent his own money to cover up this affair?

TOOBIN: Why didn't he spend his own money? Another complication, this money came from Bunny Melon, who is a philanthropist in Virginia and Fred Baron, who was a wealthy trial lawyer in Texas.

He since died so he will not be available as a witness, which will complicate matters probably for both sides in terms of determining what his intent in this whole process was.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, when you really think about how this trial will go down and the testimony that will be heard, this could be one of the most sordid trials ever, I mean, as far as the trial of a political figure.

TOOBIN: And that's what makes this such a bizarre set of circumstances because on the one hand - I mean, it is. It's just awful. I mean, here you have Elizabeth Edwards dying, you have John Edwards having this affair and having this child, all of which would make the jury not like this guy.

Then you have these really rather technical issues about what's a campaign contribution and what the Federal Election Commission laws really say. The defense's challenge will be to get the jury not to focus on the underlying behavior, but to focus on the legal issues. And, you know, that's going to be hard, because the facts are, as you say, so sordid.

COSTELLO: They really are. We're going to take a quick break, but Jeffrey Toobin will stick around as well as Joe Johns from Raleigh, North Carolina. We'll be back with much more on John Edwards who's now been indicted by a federal grand jury. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: CNN has now confirmed that an indictment, a federal indictment has come down against John Edwards that means he will go to trial and if he is convicted, he could well spend time in jail. Jeffrey Toobin and Joe Johns standing by to talk more about that.

Another bit of breaking news to pass along to you, the presidential palace in Yemen coming under attacked this morning. The president is among those injured. Tribal fighters and government forces have been battling out with missiles. Shells hit a mosque inside the palace injuring other government officials as well.

In the meantime on Capitol Hill, a hearing gets under way in the next hour on Homeland Security efforts to counter threats from Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. The hearing is entitled denying safe haven the title of the hearing.

Back to Yemen though, CNN's Mohammed Jamjoon is now in the region. He joins us from Abu Dhabi. Mohammed, what else can you tell us about these injured officials?

MOHAMMED JAMJOON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we heard just a short while ago not only that seven senior level officials in Yemen's government were injured in this attack that took place on the mosque in a presidential palace earlier today, but also the president of Yemen was among those injured, that he sustained a slight head injury in that attack.

This is a very worrying development of government officials of Yemen that I've been speaking with because if tribal fighters that have been battling it out on the streets of the capital with government security forces for the past 12 days, if they've been able to get this close to the palace, which is practically a fortress, which is so well protected with so much security around it.

And if they've been able to shell it or hit it with a missile, with an RPG as eyewitnesses and residents and government officials there are telling us, what does that mean for the future of this government, how vulnerable is the president and his security forces?

This comes at a time where there's so much concern that Yemen is on the verge of civil war. You have an anti-government demonstration movement going on day after day and several cities across the country. Now you have pitched street fighting in the capital for the past 12 days.

And just to give you one more example of concern, in a city called Zinjabar in Abian Province, with is a hotbed for militants and al Qaeda in that country, Islamic militants seized that town several days ago and they've been involved in clashes with security forces ever since they're still in that town.

So a lot of strife and a lot of violence are spreading throughout the country, really worrying regional neighbors of Yemen and western allies of the country as well.

COSTELLO: Mohammed Jamjoom, thanks so much.

In 2008, Mitt Romney said don't bail Detroit. Today, Chrysler CEO openly mocks him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- smoking illegal material and the government stepped in as the actor of last resort, had to do it because the consequences would have been too large to deal with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Coming up, more on that outspoken interview. Braiding the bailout. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: CNN has confirmed that John Edwards, once a presidential candidate has been indicted by a federal grand jury, indicted on six counts.

Let's bring in our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. I'm reading a copy of this indictment as I'm sure you have it too, Jeffrey. While you put your glasses on --

TOOBIN: Racing to it.

COSTELLO: I know, just the first paragraph. I mean, you read this and it says a center piece of Edwards presidential candidacy was his public image as a devoted family man. The communications strategy developed by Edwards campaign stressed the perhaps of publicizing among other things that Edwards' family comes first. That's quite a set up to the rest of this thing. TOOBIN: It is. You know, there is a saying in criminal law called a "speaking indictment." A "speaking indictment" is an indictment that really makes the case. That really sort of outlines the evidence and really sticks it to the defendant. This is clearly a speaking indictment.

I'm working my way through it. There is a lot of technically extraneous material that is very insulting and very damaging, stuff about his haircuts, his famously expensive haircuts. This is obviously an indictment that is meant to embarrass him as well as simply announce the charges.

Just, you know, by means of comparison, when Dominique Strauss- Kahn was indicted in last week or two weeks ago for the attack on the maid here in New York City, that indictment by the Manhattan district attorney was a very bare bones indictment. It didn't say anything about the crime. It was not a speaking indictment. Federal court where this is, they're more often speaking indictments. And you can be sure we will be picking this thing apart.

And another thing very interesting here, the amount of money alleged that went through these two big contributors was almost a million dollars --

COSTELLO: Wow!

TOOBIN: -- which is more than had previously reported. They're claiming between Bunny Melon and Fred Baron, the trial lawyer, they gave Rielle Hunter almost a million dollars.

COSTELLO: I haven't read through this whole thing, and you haven't either, but in essence, this, like, illustrates the height of political hypocrisy. I mean, they're basically alleging that John Edwards presented himself as this family man, like, dedicated to his wife, Elizabeth. Yet he had this affair and he covered it up not because so much to cover it up for his wife and family's sake but to keep the image going, right? He wanted this huge amount of money from his political contributors to keep this image of him going so he could be elected to office?

TOOBIN: Right. And this is why this is going to be a very difficult case to defend because the jury -- the defense is going to want to say to the jury, look, this is not a trail for politicians being hypocrites. You know, our prisons are crowded enough. You know, if we just wanted to put every politician who didn't tell the truth about his campaign about you know, what kind of guy he was during his campaign.

That's not what this case is about. This is actually a very technical case about whether the campaign finance laws were violated. And just seconds before we were e-mailed the indictment, Edwards' lawyers e-mailed me -- and I assume lots of other reporters -- statements by two former high-level employees of the Federal Election Commission who said, I have reviewed the evidence in this case. As far as I can tell, these payments by these two wealthy people would not be, in my view, campaign contributions.

So, clearly, the main defense here is the money that was spent on behalf of Rielle Hunter by these two supporters of John Edwards, were gifts, not campaign contributions. That's where they want to have this fight.

COSTELLO: Yes, but if you just step back and you think about this like a normal person, like, I'm having an affair and I want to cover it up, I kind of don't go to my wealthy friends and say, hey, can you give me lots of money so that I can put my - you know, the person I'm having an affair with up in a fancy house and cover up the fact that person -- if I were a man, is having my baby? I mean, it's just - it would be -- that's unusual, isn't it?

(LAUGHTER)

TOOBIN: I mean, it's all unusual. But the question is, you know, it's not what would you do? Would you pay it yourself or would you have someone else pay it? The legal question is if someone else pays it, is it a campaign contribution as defined by the federal election laws? And that's not a question I think most people have an obvious answer to because most people have no idea what the federal election laws say.

And I think the question -- again, the challenge for the defense here is going to be to say, look, put aside the issue of what you think about John Edwards' behavior. We know it's terrible, but the question is, is this a violation of federal campaign finance law?

I don't know whether it is or not. I mean, honestly, that's the heart of this case. But you can see in the way this indictment is written, the message here is John Edwards is a bad guy. Who does a lot of bad things, among other things, violating campaign finance laws. But I mean, this indictment is really an take on him personally, on his character, on his behavior. And not incidentally but not exclusively, also violating campaign finance laws.

COSTELLO: Yes. It's an ugly read, at least what I've read so far. Jeffrey Toobin --

TOOBIN: I bet it will be widely read.

COSTELLO: I bet it will, too. Jeffrey Toobin, many thanks.

It is time for "Political Buzz," a rapid-fire look at the hottest political topics of the day. Each of our brilliant political observers get 20 seconds to answer three probing questions. Robert Zimmerman is a member of the Democratic National ComMittee. Comedian Pete Dominick is a satellite radio host, and a Cherri Jacobus is a Republican strategist.

Welcome to all of you.

CHERRI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you. COSTELLO: Maybe I'll think of a John Edwards question a little later. But let's start with this first question, shall we?

President Obama is talking up the auto bailout at a Chrysler plant in Ohio today. But after all said and done, the bailouts could cost taxpayers $14 billion. Still, it helped save Chrysler. So, the question, was the bailout worth it? Robert?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It helped save thousands of Americans their jobs. It's a tremendous success story in this heartbreaking recession that we're all living through. It started with President Bush, it was directed and implemented by President Obama. And just Chrysler alone saved 50,000 jobs. Now, GM, Ford and Chrysler are at profitability. We should all bipartisanlly be proud as Americans to see the auto industry back.

(BUZZER SOUNDS)

COSTELLO: Cherri.

JACOBUS: You know, this is -- are you calling on me? Did you say Cherri?

COSTELLO: Yes, I did.

JACOBUS: This is (INAUDIBLE). Ford did not take the bailout money, and Ford is part of this recovery. So, I think it's a little bit hypocritical for the president to sweep into Ohio for the 14th time which just happens to have 18 important electoral votes that he desperately needs for his re-election when in fact it's the American people and the ingenuity of the companies save themselves.

(BUZZER SOUNDS)

COSTELLO: Oh, out of time! The buzzer is our god. Pete.

PETE DOMINICK, COMEDIAN: Well, I think you have to -- was it worth it? Yes. It saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. And did Chrysler get the message? Well, they did get to discontinue that horrific PT Cruiser. GM streamlined their products.

But to set a precedent that we're bailing out corporations, that is kamikaze capitalism. I don't know why the president is bragging that we'll bail you out -

(BUZZER SOUNDS)

DOMINICK: -- if you get in trouble.

COSTELLO: OK. Onto question number two. Evangelical Christians are hosting Michele Bachmann and John Boehner and Mitt Romney and others in Washington for the Faith in Freedom Coaltion.

So, how influential will evangelical Christians be in 2012? Cherri? JACOBUS: You know, they will be important. They've always been an important block, but Republicans still have to fight for that vote. More and more, the evangelicalsi in this country as fiscal issue as moral and family issues. So, I think it fits well with the Republican agenda and Tea Party agenda, and I think Republicans will do very well but should never take that vote for granted in any way, shape or form.

COSTELLO: Robert.

ZIMMERMAN: Look, the evangelical politicians just don't have influence in the Republican party. They have the Republican party in a chokehold. And as long as they chose to worship at the altar of Rush Limbaugh, they are going to separate the Republican party from independent and mainstream voters.

COSTELLO: Pete.

DOMINICK: It's always fun to watch politicians pander to religion blocks. And it will be interesting to watch two Mormons, Jon Huntsman and Mitt Tomney and Catholics Newt Gingrich, I believe Rick Santorum. But they will have power.

The interesting thing will be the overlap between the Tea Party and evangelicals. We'll see what happens with that? Will they be able to have the same amount of power, that's the question.

(BUZZER SOUNDS)

COSTELLO: Yes. OK, on to question number three. Only 10 seconds for this one. Palin and Rudy Guiliani - Sarah Palin and Rudy Guiliani -- say it was just coincidence they were in New Hampshire on the very day Mitt Romney announced his run for president. Seriously, Robert?

ZIMMERMAN: Hey, if you believe that, you'll believe Sarah Palin was on a bus tour with her family for vacation or that Donald Trump was comfortable eating pizza with a fork and knife or that Mitt Romney was comfortable in that farm setting yesterday.

(BUZZER SOUNDS)

ZIMMERMAN: There are no coincidence is in politics.

COSTELLO: Cherri.

JACOBUS: You know, I don't think they should go. It's too early in the primary to be throwing punches like this. It goes against Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, I think Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. This is in that same zip code. I don't think they should be there.

COSTELLO: Pete?

DOMINICK: Horrible commandment, by the way. Let's always criticize each other. But listen, Carol, sometimes you get inspiration to leave free and die. That's all that Sarah and Rudy have. They just want go to New Hampshire and live free and die yesterday afternoon. It's just a coincidence.

COSTELLO: It's true, that's the state motto. Thanks all of you for playing "Political Buzz" today. Cherri, Robert, Pete. And "Political Buzz" will be back on Monday.

Much more on the breaking news about John Edwards' indictment. That's still ahead. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Let's get a quick check of the markets right now. You can see the Dow is down about 66 points, and maybe to be expected after the horrible jobs reports released today. This on a day President Obama is on his way to Toledo, Ohio to speak at a Chrysler plant to brag about the auto bailout. And we know he will do that because earlier this week, the Obama administration declared 2009's GM and Chrysler bailouts a success.

No surprise the Republicans don't see it that way at all since the car makers still owe big bucks. Let's take a look at the numbers here. At the end of the day, the U.S. is expected to lose about $14 billion on the bailouts, $1.3 billion of that on Chrysler alone.

Poppy Harlow is here to put it in perspective for us. You just interviewed Chrysler CEO, and he had interesting things about taxpayers and whether they lost out on this deal.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, exactly. Choice words from Sergio Marchionne. He is now at the helm of Chrysler and of course, Fiat was sort of swooped in and rescued Chrysler out of bankruptcy.

But Carol, I asked him about a 2008 op-ed Mitt Romney wrote. You'll hear about that in a second. And he didn't mince his words when he was talking about his opinion on whether or not Chrysler needed that taxpayer bailout, whether it could have stood on its own two feet. So, listen to part of our conversation as today is the first day Chrysler is no longer partly owned by the U.S. government.

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HARLOW: You know, it's interesting, this morning I re-read and op-ed by Mitt Romney in 2008 in "The New York Times," and he said, look, don't bail out Detroit. Don't bail out Chrysler and General Motors. So, looking back, do you think Chrysler could have stood on their own two feet without this government money?

SERGIO MARCHIONNE, CEO, CHRYSLER: Whoever told you that is smoking illegal material. That market had become absolutely dysfunctional. It had become absolutely dysfunctional in 2008 and 2009. There were attempts made by a variety of people to find strategic alliances with other car makers on a global scale. And the government stepped in as the actor of last resort. It had to do it because the consequences would have been just too large to deal with.

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HARLOW: So, Carol, the question is what would the consequences have been? The White House came out with a report again this week, saying, look if we didn't step in and bail out GM and Chrysler, we would have seen the loss of 1 million American jobs. The White House calling that a conservative estimate.

I also want to tell you in that 2008 op-ed where Mitt Romney said don't just go in give checks to Chrysler and GM, he also said automakers will stay the course, the suicidal force of declining market share. The numbers do not show that. GM, Chrysler sales are up pretty much across the board. When you look at Chrysler's numbers specifically, sales up 27 percent from a year ago. The numbers are showing these companies right now are still in the red to taxpayers a bit, but they are doing a whole lot better than two years ago.

COSTELLO: Poppy Harlow, live from New York, thanks so much.

We'll have more details on John Edwards indicted this morning on six counts. We just learned Edwards will make his first court appearance in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon. We'll bring you more information.

Also coming up, two NFL players waiting for the lock-out to end spend time feeding children and digging wells in Africa. Vernan and Vontae Davis, two San Francisco 49ers will join us live to tell us about their trip. That's next.

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COSTELLO: Still, no deal in sight in the NFL lockout. But at least the two sides are speaking during not-so-secret meetings this week. It all could hinge on the appeals court meeting today to decide if the standoff continues but a ruling is not expected until next month. And that leaves the players with a lot of free time as the standoff moves into week 12.

But check this out. Some athletes are taking full advantage of the time off by volunteering with Pros for Africa. What you see here are a San Francisco 49er, Vernon Davis and his brother, Miami Dolphins' Vontae Davis, in Gulu, Uganda. Just two months ago. They're handing out beans, rice and oil.

Joining us now live are the Davis brothers, Vernon and Vontae. Welcome to you both.

VERNON DAVIS, NFL PLAYER: Thank you for having us.

VONTAE DAVIS, NFL PLAYER: Thank you. Welcome.

COSTELLO: Tell me what it was like over there in Uganda, as you were handing out these things. Let's start with you, Vante.

VONTAE DAVIS: Oh, well, we went to Africa and Uganda and Rwanda. And we basically fitted 2,500 people for hearing aids. And we also passed out food to over 3,000 people, which was exciting to give back, coming from Washington D.C., and visiting an underdevelopment country like Africa was a blessing for me and my brother, Vernon.

COSTELLO: Vernon, the reception you got from those children, how did it feel?

VERNON DAVIS: It was amazing. You could think about it, just imagine yourself fitting kids with hearing aids, and they're going crazy for the first time because they can hear. It's like giving them a breath of fresh air. They can breath now. It was just amazing.

I started to cry. I know Vontae cried, too. He won't admit it.

COSTELLO: You wouldn't expect that children would need hearing aids.

VONTAE DAVIS: Yes, you wouldn't expect it. But I mean, it's millions and billions of kids that can't hear, but then you give them these hearing aids and all of a sudden, they can hear. It's amazing. It's just a wonderful experience.

COSTELLO: That's terrific. I know as much as you're enjoying your charity work, both of you you probably have a desire to be on the field, too. So, Vontae, I'd like to ask you about that. I don't know. We're into week 12 now, no one knows if the NFL season will start on time. Do you think the players' union is doing the right thing?

VONTAE DAVIS: Well, I can't really put my finger on it. You know, I'm a player. It's their job to negotiate and get everything right with the NFL. I know me and Vernon along with a lot of guys in the NFL are preparing the best way they could to be ready for the season. And all we can do is sit back and wait and see what happens.

COSTELLO: It must be so frustrating for you both.

Vernon and Vontae, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. And good for you doing something so valuable with your time. We appreciate it.

VONTAE DAVIS: Thank you.

VERNON DAVIS: Thanks for having us.

COSTELLO: When we come back, we'll have much more on John Edwards case. He's now been indicted on six counts. And you know, if he's convicted of this stuff in a federal court, he could serve jail time. We'll be back with more after this.

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COSTELLO: CNN has now confirmed John Edwards has been indicted on six counts. His first court appearance will be at 2:30 p.m. Eastern in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

I want to bring in our political analyst, Gloria Borger, to talk more about this. To put it in perspective, you've been around a long time. You knew John Edwards when he was at the height of his popularity. You see him now and you think?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLTICAL ANAYLST: Well, I think it's kind of a sad situation, really, you look at somebody who was a vice presidential candidate, and then you look at somebody who ran for the presidency twice, whose reputation is in tatters and isnow about to mount what we're told will be a very, very vigorous defense on the question of whether he essentially took money to pay his mistress. And the huge fight is going to be over whether these were gifts or whether in fact they were campaign contributions.

It's pretty ugly. It's pretty messy, and he's facing a very, very difficult trial. And of course, he's retained absolutely top- notch lawyers. It's interesting. His key attorney is Greg Craig, former White House counsel in the Obama administration. This will be a very difficult road for him both nationally as well as in his home state.

COSTELLO: Also, what you think is it's how close he came because at one point wasn't he seriously being considered for Obama's vice president for his running mate?

BORGER: Well --

COSTELLO: I mean, I know John Edwards wanted that, not necessarily Barack Obama, just that he was in there trying is kind of scary right now.

BORGER: Look, I think the time he almost reached his pinnacle was when he ran with John Kerry. I think at that point, you know, John Edwards was considered to be somebody who politically, on the stump, was very much reminiscent of Bill Clinton.

You know, I traveled with John Edwards a lot. And he was terrific on the stump. He had a great story to tell. He had a wonderful marriage, or so we thought. He had a life full of ups and down, having lost a child in a terrible car crash. And he was seen as a very sympathetic fellow from the right part of the country, if you're a Democrat. From the South, which is one of the reasons John Kerry picked him.

And now, you take a look at him and you say, gee, how the mighty have fallen here.

COSTELLO: Yes, you're not kidding. Gloria Borger, many thanks. We appreciate it.

BORGER: Sure.

COSTELLO: The presidential palace in Yemen under attack with the prime minister and six other senior officials hurt. We'll have a live report for you in the next hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Taking a quick look at some headlines that will be making news later today, President Obama visits a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio today to spotlight the auto industry's comeback and the role his administration played in that. He speaks to auto works at 1:25 Eastern.

First lady Michelle Obama will hold the annual Spring Harvest at 3:45 Eastern. She'll be joined by American-Indian children, and they'll plant corn and beans and squash in the White House garden.

I'm going to toss it over to Suzanne Malveaux, but I'll be back to talk more about the auto bailout and whether it was worth it for American taxpayers.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Great. Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Appreciate it.