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President Meeting With Congressional Leaders to Discuss Debt Limit; Norway Arrests Man Thought Responsible for Terror Attacks; Heat Wave Grips Much of the Nation; NFL Still Negotiating Contract; President and House Speaker Hold Dueling Press Conferences

Aired July 23, 2011 - 10:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We are following several developing stories.

Right now in Washington, D.C., the president summoning key congressional leaders to meet him there. That meeting expected to take place in one hour and it comes a day after the speaker, the House speaker, John Boehner, walked away from the talks, and it ended in a day with the two men going back and forth in dual press conferences.

Also, in Norway, the royal family and members of the government have been meeting with survivors of those horrific attacks that killed at least 92 people. The prime minister says he personally knew some of the victims. Police have one person in custody. He is going to be charged in both the deadly bombing in Oslo and the even more bloody attack at a youth camp.

But hello to you all. Thank you so much for being here on this CNN Saturday morning. It's going to happen an hour from now, President Obama and congressional leaders sitting down one more time at the White House. Don't know if there'll be much negotiating, though. Talks between the president and the House speaker broke down yesterday, and it resulted in dual news conferences, both men in those news conferences pointing the finger at the other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My expectation was that Speaker Boehner with was going to be willing to go to his caucus and ask them to do the tough thing, but the right thing. I think it has proven difficult for speaker Boehner to do that. I have been left at the altar now for a couple of times.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE LEADER: Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O. Let me just say that the White House moved the goalposts. They refused to get serious about cutting spending and making the tough choices that are facing our country on entitlement reform. So that's the bottom line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right, our White House correspondent Brianna Keilar with me again on this CNN Saturday morning. Good to see you. I just mentioned at the top there, didn't expect these necessarily to be negotiations taking place in an hour. How would you describe what's supposed to take place?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think this is being described as an emergency meeting. Expect a stern message from president Obama. He said yesterday, T.J., that he was going to demand an explanation from congressional leaders on how they're going to increase the debt ceiling after the talks fell apart between the White House and House Republicans.

Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner, saying that what really led to the total collapse here was the White House moving the goalpost, as Boehner put it. He said they had agreed to about $800 billion to raise revenue, and then the White House came back, President Obama came back, Boehner said, and demanded $400 billion more, something that, for House Republicans, would be a poison pill.

And then you have Democrats, we heard President Obama saying yesterday, questioning if Republicans would accept any deal, saying that the things he had agreed to had rankled Democrats so much that he thought maybe there was promise that this could find some common ground. But he questioned if Republicans could be happy with any type of agreement, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Brianna Keilar, we're going to be talking to you again. We'll leave it there for now, but thank you so much.

To our viewers, al lot of you were out on Friday night. You missed some of the developments yesterday. You missed those two news conferences from president Obama and Republican House leader John Boehner. We will play both of those for you at the bottom of the hour, in their entirety, let you hear them for yourselves and make your own determination. But clearly and visibly, these two men were upset last night.

Well, let's turn now to that national tragedy in Norway. The prime minister there is saying this morning that that attack on a youth camp really one of the worst attacks that maybe his country has seen since World War II. This happened on Utoya Island where hundreds of people, most of them teenagers, had gathered for a youth camp that was sponsored by the ruling political party.

The prime minister was supposed to speak there today. Instead, he's there to see the scene of this great tragedy. Police do have a suspect in custody. There he is. His name is Anders Behring Breivik. Police say he was actually dressed as a police officer and got onto the island and opened fire and killed at least 85 people there.

Our Diana Magnay is near this island of Utoya. She joins us once again. Diana, the farthest story has certainly been, is this the only suspect, is this the only man, is it really possible for someone to pull this off and have acted alone?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, you have to ask yourself that question, because really to have caused such mass murder, mass murder on this scale, as a single person, even if it was meticulously planned, really beggars belief.

But just to give you a sense of how easy it was for him to pick off his targets -- he was dressed up as a police officer when he arrived on the island, which meant that he was able to bring heavy weaponry across on the boat. And the young people who were meeting there had gathered together in a group to discuss what had happened in Oslo just a couple of hours before.

And he had asked if he could address the group. And so he really had, you know, hundreds of young people gathered in front of him, at which point he opened fire. So you can see why it was so easy for him to shoot on the scale that he did.

And that shooting carried on for more than an hour, some young people realizing that this was -- their lives were at stake, trying desperately to escape, fleeing into the water. Others, apparently, at the believing that this was some kind of drill, and actually approaching the gunman. So really horrific details emerging from survivors of the incident on the Utoya Island. T.J.?

HOLMES: And Diana, much of a motive emerging just yet?

MAGNAY: Well, we're beginning to form more of a picture about this man. Anders Behring Breivik. From his sort of writings on various social media sites, we know that he was a sort of right-wing Christian fundamentalist who felt ideologically opposed to the sort of growing multiculturalism of Norwegian society. He felt that the labor party wasn't doing enough to sort of eradicate the multiculturalism.

So that is possibly a motive. I mean, I'm speculating here, and of course, the police are keen not to speculate. But the prime minister has said this is politically motivated. And if you look at the targets, first of all, the government center in the middle of Oslo, and secondly this youth party camp, which happens every year, so is an easy target to plan towards. The prime minister himself said it was in the island of Utoya that he himself was politically inspired many, many years ago, that for him it was always a paradise to go to that island in the summer and to count with all of those young people, and a paradise that has now turned into a hell, T.J.

HOLMES: Diana Magnay, thank you once again, this morning.

The island attack Diana was just talking about there, that's just part of the story. All of this started in Oslo, the capital city. That's where a bomb went off targeting a government building. Seven people killed in that blast. It could have been much worse. The site may remind possibly some of Timothy McVeigh and Oklahoma City. Again, one man, Anders Behring Breivik, expected to be charged in both attacks.

A federal jury in New York has found the father of a convicted terrorist guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Fifty- five-year-old Mohammad Wali Zazi is the father of Najibullah Zazi. Last year the son pleaded guilty of plotting a bomb attack on the New York City subway system in 2009. The father now facing up to 40 years in prison. Also yesterday in Ohio, a jury found convicted sex offender Anthony Sowell guilty of 11 counts of murder. Sowell was dubbed the Cleveland Strangler after the remains of dead women were found in and around his home two years ago. He showed very little emotion as the guilty verdicts were handed down. The 51-year-old now faces a possible death penalty when he's sentenced next month.

Also, President Obama has met a key a requirement in the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Yesterday the president and his top men in the Pentagon certified to Congress the military is ready to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. It comes after an extensive period of training and preparation. By law, the ban will be lifted in 59 days on September the 20th.

Well, are you one of them, one of those folks obsessed with fantasy and comic book culture? Well, Comic-Con is the place for you. Happening in San Diego right now, more than 100,000 people will be there, and nearly half of them women. We'll have a report for you.

Also, the heat across this country has been deadly. Still, dangerous weather going on out there. Our Reynolds Wolf will join me in just a moment. It's 10 minutes past the hour on this CNN Saturday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 12 minutes past the hour now on this CNN Saturday morning. Much of the country right now dealing with a heat wave, a heat wave that just won't get out of here.

And take a look at this, an iReport sent in to us from Kim Miller. This is actually near Toronto, Canada. They are getting it as well. And King Joseph has figured out a way to cool off. This is a horse, as you see here, stepping on the sprinkler. He's figured this thing out, trying to cool down.

But Reynolds Wolf with me here now. We talk about people protecting themselves, trying to protect animals as well. This one taking it upon himself to cool himself down. But can we call what we're seeing right now, in this country, in the U.S., is this historic?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. It is. The thing is whenever we talk about, is this the worst it's ever been? You've got to remember, the planet's 4.6 billion years old.

HOLMES: It's been around for a minute.

WOLF: We've been on the planet for a very, very -- when I say long time, thousands of years, but we only keep a little bit of data. But that little bit of data's been very impressive, and what we've garnered from the last couple of days.

Take a look at these, T.J. These are the record highs we had yesterday. If you happen to look at some that have an asterisk, that's where we have the record breaking -- 105, record breaking in Washington, D.C., 102 up in Atlantic City. We make our way a bit farther to the north. In Newark, we had 108, and 103 in Hartford, 101 in Providence.

The humidity was very impressive yesterday. We can expect a few changes in the forecast as we make our way through the next couple of days. Big changes in the atmosphere. Hopefully, that will be due to the big area of high pressure that we've been calling a heat dome. It's expected to slide a little bit farther to the south, and when that happens, it will create a void.

And what will move in is an area of low pressure and that will bring cooler temperatures for places like New York and eventually Washington, D.C., where instead of triple digit heat, you'll see the temperatures cool down into the 90s and overnight lows into the 70s for Washington, D.C.

One more thing as we wrap things up. As we see these air masses, these contrasting air masses move, the high drop we get to the southeast, that low coming in, the result has been some scattered showers and some strong thunderstorms. If you happen to be in Chicago and you're at the airport, you know about the delays you've had, all due to, again, that problem sweeping across the Great Lakes.

We're going to talk more about that coming up throughout the morning, and of course, T.J., more on that heat. Big story for us. Back to you.

HOLMES: Reynolds, we appreciate you as always. Check in you again soon.

Well, it's a quarter past the hour now. What in the world can get 130,000 people together in San Diego? Comic books? CNN Entertainment Producer J.D. Cargill standing by for us at Comic-Con. You probably know it by now, folks, but if not, I'll let J.D. break it down for you.

Good morning to you again.

J.D. CARGILL, CNN ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCER: Good morning, T.J., how are you?

Listen. This is one of the best events I could imagine covering, because it's crowded with people for whom like every day is like Christmas morning, Four days-worth of Christmas morning.

What Is everyone talking about this year at Comic-Con, it seems the white-hot ticket, what everyone's buzzing about is "Game of Thrones" based on the books by George R.R. Martin, who is being called a modern day Tolkien, who, of course, wrote the "Lord of the Rings." It's got everything a fan boy could want, swords and fighting and blood and action and romance.

Well, we were lucky enough to have one of the stars right here in the CNN Express come on and talk to us about his excitement about being involved. This is Jason Mimoa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON MIMOA, ACTOR, "GAME OF THRONES": I've never read a book where I've become so invested. I got the audition and then I was hooked four days straight. I got kids. I locked myself in the room. I was like, honey, I have to read this for my audition. I was just blown away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARGILL: Yes, I mentioned this is something that fan boys love, but fan girls love it too. And something we've really noticed this year, and I've been covering Comic-Con for a few years, is that there's a lot, a lot more women here. In fact, the convention tells me that four out of 10 tickets have said sold to women, so 40 percent. That's a lot more girls than we're used to seeing.

We had two of the biggest female nerds, if you will, right here on the CNN Express yesterday, and they talked to us a little bit about what it means to be a woman at comic-con. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARI BYRON, "MYTHBUSTERS": I've noticed sort of a backlash towards the super-attractive girls who are gamers and that sort of thing, almost constantly challenging the fact that they're nerds or geeks, that there's no way that that's a possibility. And I don't know if that's a generational thing or if it's just you're always going to want to hate beautiful girls for something.

(LAUGHTER)

MAYIM BIALIK, ACTRESS, "THE BIG BANG THEORY": It's kind of the third wave of feminism. I'm really a second wave feminist. The third wave of feminism is I can look however I want, I can present myself however I want. You still have no right, right, to challenge me about my intellect or my interest. But I thought it was so funny, because I would never think that that would be the image of a nerd girl. But it's shifted so much. I feel like an old hag next to her. I'm a true nerd girl. Look at me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARGILL: And those are just a few of the people we're talking to out here at Comic-Con. The 42nd annual event is scheduled to go all the way through Sunday. T.J.?

HOLMES: All right, J.D., enjoy yourself out there, buddy. We'll be checking in with you again. Thank you so much.

Well, at 18 minutes past the hour. Let me turn now to the NFL owners. They approved a deal to get the league up and running again. So we're on our way, right? Well, players not ready to sign just yet. Got more details for you coming up.

Also, the debt talks back on, maybe? Less than an hour from now, after Speaker Boehner walked away from talks yesterday, the president said, uh-huh, get back here this morning, 11:00. That meeting taking place in 40 minutes. You're going to their dueling press conferences from last night. We'll play them for you in their entirety. Stay with me on this CNN Saturday Morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 21 minutes past the hour now on this CNN Saturday morning. Helping mothers with nowhere else to turn -- this week's CNN hero put her own life on hold to help others get a healthy start on theirs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN LIM, CNN HERO: The moment that a woman falls pregnant in Indonesia, she is 300 times more likely to die in the next 12 months than if she was not pregnant. If you have money, you can get excellent medical services, but the poorest people don't always get the services that they need.

In the hospital here, you cannot take your baby home until you've paid your bill. Sometimes the mothers wait outside the hospital all day waiting to get in to feed their baby and to change their baby's diaper.

My name is Robin Lim. I'm a midwife. Most people call me Ebu (ph) Robin, because "ebu" (ph) means mother. I've learned about the dangers of motherhood, when my own sister, she died as a complication of her third pregnancy. I was just really crushed. I came to Bali to reinvent my life.

No matter how poor they are, no matter their race or religion, we teach new graduating classes of midwives how to do a more natural, gentle birth. The women can stay as long as they want.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via translator): Robin helps poor people. She cares about me very much, like my own mother. I'm extremely grateful.

LIM: Each baby, each adult deserves a clean, healthy, loving environment. Those are a human right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Keep in mind here that every single one of this year's CNN heroes chosen from people you tell us about. So to nominate somebody you know who's making a big difference in your community, go to CNNheroes.com.

Well, NFL owners have found a deal they like. Now it's up to the players to end the lockout. We'll tell you whether or not to start getting ready for some football.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Getting close to the bottom of the hour on this CNN Saturday morning. And police in Norway have arrested this man, Anders Behring Breivik in connection with those deadly attacks yesterday. And 92 people killed, nearly 100 wounded. The country's prime minister is meeting today with families of victims. Norway's royal family is also meeting with those family members.

Also, the president and the top brass at the Pentagon have now certified to Congress that the military is ready to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. This comes after an extensive period of training and preparation. By law the ban will now be lifted on September the 20th.

And we're just about a half-hour away from what is being called an emergency meeting at the White House. President Obama and Congressional leaders will have another go at those stalled debt ceiling discussions. Well, discussions fell apart yesterday when Speaker Boehner walked out, but it ended extraordinarily yesterday in Washington with dueling press conferences between Boehner and the president. We will play those for you in their entirety here in just a few minutes. I know a lot of you missed it and it is worth seeing.

But, again, we're at the bottom of the hour here. Another remarkable turn of events this week. Joe Carter with HLN sports, a friend of our show here on the weekends. The owners signed a deal. All the players have to do is sign and we've got football. What's the problem?

JOE CARTER, HLN SPORTS ANCHOR: The owners have voted to agree on a new proposal. They're not going to sign it until the players decide they like it And they also recertify as a union.

But the problem now is what we heard earlier from Cory Wire when he said that player representatives, some of them haven't even seen a finalized copy of this new proposal, this new collective bargaining agreement by the owners. That's frustrating. That's frustrating to hear from a fan's perspective because I think most people out there right now just want to hear the good news. Are we going to have football, yes or no, come fall?

Right now it's the drag on four plus months of going back and forth, the gamesmanship between the owners and the players, the negotiations. At the end of the day, the average Joe just wants to see football and doesn't like to see millionaires and billionaires arguing.

HOLMES: We haven't lost a lot of football just yet. What's our timeline right now where if we don't get something done, we'll get into that danger zone of missing pre-season games, and god forbid, off into the regular season as well?

CARTER: All right, so the owners approved this new deal Thursday night in Atlanta. Then they passed it on to the players, and they laid out a very specific timeline, basically saying that the players have until Tuesday to do two things. Number one, they must approve this deal. They must vote on it unanimously and have a yes vote. Second thing, they must recertify as a union. If they do that by Tuesday, then we'll have training camp open up on Wednesday. Everything else will go off on time. First preseason week will be August 11th. The first regular season game will be September 8th.

If anything gets pushed on beyond that, then you're looking at games being lost, games being gone, money being lost. You spoke to Cory Wire earlier in the show, he's a player representative for the Falcons, and he said they're not in any rush to be pushed into a raw deal for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The players feel like we're doing the right thing, taking the time to do what's work for a group of workers who just want a fair deal for us and for the future of those of our kind. So I believe justice and fairness in the end will show and we'll win out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: So the clock is ticking basically here. You've got the players with a few days on their hands to get this thing figured out, to negotiate whatever is left to negotiate, and then hopefully sign off on this thing and we'll kick off football on time.

HOLMES: OK, a lot of the players feel this was a great PR move by the owners this week. All this coverage of it, everything's wrapping up, making the fans feel like, OK, this is about to get wrapped up. And now it seems like the players are the holdup.

CARTER: Well, then, players, make your PR move.

(LAUGHTER)

CARTER: Release a statement or come on camera and say, hey, we need to look at this document. We need some time to look it over, because it is a megadeal.

HOLMES: Ten years.

CARTER: The ball is in your court, per se.

HOLMES: We want to have it right. Joe Carter, good to see you as always. Thank you so much.

Again, we're at the bottom of the hour. Last night you probably missed the war of words in Washington, D.C. Not just any war of words. Yes, it happens a lot in D.C., but this was the president of the United States and the House Speaker having back-to-back news conferences, both of them clearly upset.

So what's next? Well, coming up, we're going to be airing both of those news conferences in their entirety and let you see how this drama played out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Now, we are just past the bottom of the hour on this CNN Saturday morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes. So glad you could spend just part of your weekend here with us. We are just about a half hour away from a very important meeting there at the White House. It's being called an emergency meeting between the president and congressional leaders.

At stake right now, a lot -- raising the debt ceiling. If that doesn't happen, a lot of other things will happen. We could lose our stellar credit rating in this country. That could lead to higher interest rate for you. This could lead to Social Security checks not going out. There's a lot of stuff at stake.

These talks have been tough, and yesterday Speaker Boehner walked out, said he didn't want to negotiate with the White House anymore. That was yesterday. You know what happened. The president said, uh- huh, get right back here to the White House at 11:00 on Saturday, that's today. And that meeting is about to take place.

But last night in Washington was dramatic and it was an extraordinary night -- dueling news conferences between President Obama and Speaker Boehner. You may have missed it if you were out last night on your Friday night, like a lot of people were. So first we'll late you hear from the president when he stepped up to the podium.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening, everybody.

I wanted to give you an update on the current situation around the debt ceiling. I just got a call about a half hour ago from Speaker Boehner, who indicated that he was going to be walking away from the negotiations that we've been engaged in here at the White House for a big deficit reduction and debt reduction package.

And I thought it would be useful for me to just give you some insight into where we were and I think that we should have moved forward with a big deal. Essentially what we had offered Speaker Boehner, was over $1 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending, both domestic and defense.

We then offered an additional $650 billion in cuts to entitlement programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. We believed that it was possible to shape those in a way that preserved the integrity of the system, made them available for the next generation and did not affect current beneficiaries in an adverse way.

In addition, what we sought was revenues that were actually less than what the Gang of Six signed off on. So you had a bipartisan group of senators including Republicans who are in leadership in the Senate, calling for what effectively was about $2 trillion above the Republican baseline that they've been working off of.

What we said was, give us $1.2 trillion in additional revenues, which could be accomplished without hiking taxes -- tax rates, but could simply be accomplished by eliminating loopholes, eliminating some deductions, and engaging in a tax reform process that could have lowered rates generally, while broadening the base.

So, let me reiterate what we were offering. We were offering a deal that called for as much discretionary savings as the Gang of Six. We were calling for taxes that were less than what the Gang of Six had proposed and we had -- we were calling for modifications to entitlement programs would have saved just as much over the 10 year window.

In other words, this was an extraordinarily fair deal. If it was unbalanced, it was unbalanced in the direction of not enough revenue. But in the interest of being serious about deficit reduction, I was willing to take a lot of heat from my party and I spoke to Democratic leaders yesterday and although they didn't sign off on a plan, they were willing to engage in serious negotiations despite a lot of heat from a lot of interest groups around the country in order to make sure that we actually dealt with this problem.

It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal and frankly, if you look at the commentary out there, there are a lot of Republicans that are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done. In fact, there are a lot of Republican voters out there who are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done.

Because the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of the American people believe we should have a balanced approach. Now, if you do not have any revenues, as the most recent Republican plan that's been forward, both in the House and the Senate proposed. If you have no revenues at all, what that means is more of a burden on seniors, more drastic cuts to education, more drastic cuts to research, a bigger burden on services that are going to middle-class families all across the country.

And it essentially asks nothing of corporate jet owners. It asks nothing of oil and gas companies. It asks nothing from folks like me who have done extremely well and can afford to do a little bit more. In other words, if you don't have revenues, the entire thing ends up being tilted on the backs of the poor and middle-class families.

And the majority of Americans don't agree on that approach. So, here's what we're going to do. We have now run out of time. I told Speaker Boehner, I've told Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, I've told Harry Reid and I've told Mitch McConnell I want them here at 11 o'clock tomorrow.

We have run out of time, and they are going to have to explain to me how it is that we are going to avoid default.

And they can come up with any plans that they want, and bring them up here, and we will work on them. The only bottom line that I have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election, into 2013.

And the reason for it is we've now seen how difficult it is to get any kind of deal done. The economy is already weakened. And the notion that five or six or eight months from now we'll be in a better position to try to solve this problem makes no sense. In addition, if we can't come up with a serious plan for actual deficit and debt reduction, and all we're doing is extending the debt ceiling for another six, seven, eight months, then the probabilities of downgrading U.S. credit are increased.

And that will an additional cloud over the economy, and make it more difficult for us and more difficult for businesses to create jobs that the American people so desperately need.

So they will come down here at 11 o'clock tomorrow. I expect them to have an answer in terms of how they intend to get this thing done over the course of the next week.

The American people expect action. I continue to believe that a package that is balanced and actually has serious debt and deficit reduction is the right way to go.

And the American people, I think, are fed up with political posturing and an inability for politicians to take responsible action, as opposed to dodge their responsibilities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: So you hear the president there. That was him yesterday and that was in its entirety. The president certainly upset, and took a few questions as well. But you heard him say, I'm telling them they have to be here at 11:00. That's 18 minutes from now he's expecting those congressional leaders at the White House.

And you heard the assignment he gave them. You come here with a plan and explain to me how are we going to avoid an issue with our credit rating. How are we going to avoid these problems without raising the debt ceiling. How is that going to get done.

Well, you also heard from Speaker Boehner. He gave a response just minutes after the president spoke last night. We'll also air his full news conference in a moment. But first, we will be talking with our political analyst and friends of our show here on CNN Saturday morning. That's Lenny and Maria. We'll get their take on the president last night. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, we just heard from the president, from his press conference last night. We'll play John Boehner's remarks in their entirety in a moment. But first, let me bring in Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and also Republican strategist Lenny McAllister in Chicago. Guys, good to see you both. Let me have your reaction, Maria, if you will. What did the president's words and also his tone say to you?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That he's extremely frustrated, the same way that the majority of the American people are, T.J., which is why we need to get this done and hopefully the Republicans understand the urgency. I'll do something I have never done, T.J., which is absolutely disagree adamantly with what the president said. He said this was an extraordinarily fair deal. It wasn't. It was an extraordinarily unfair deal completely tilted towards the Republicans, which is why they should have ran with it. It was a gift to the Republicans. They refused to take it. The Democrats were ready to negotiate a lot of the sacred programs that they like, which is why it demonstrates tremendously leadership from this president.

HOLMES: Well, Lenny, is the point there, maybe a lot of his frustration comes from the fact that he seems, at least in his mind, and in other people's minds, he seems to have given a lot and they still won't take the deal.

MCALLISTER: It's not about giving it to Republicans. It's about giving it back to the American people. Look, I just got a text from Congressman Joe Walsh who said, listen, Americans are looking for a solution, not a deal. And that's what it boils down to. This is not a matter of who wins between Republicans and Democrats. This is about what's best for American moving forward so we can be prosperous and get thou out of this recession once and for all. That's what's really on the table here. And if it goes back to increasing taxes or getting revenues up in the wrong fashion or ways we have to take a step back and say there has to be a better way of doing this.

HOLMES: Do you think, Lenny, they should have taken the deal, Republicans?

MCALLISTER: No. If there's a better way of doing this, let's talk about that. Again, we talked about that $400 billion at the last minute. That's something that makes people step away from the table.

HOLMES: All right, Maria, I'm going to let you have the first word when we come back to you. We'll let our viewers hear here in just a moment House Speaker Boehner. Of course he had a response to the president last night. He said the White House, it's like dealing with Jell-O when you're trying to work with them, and accusing them of not being serious at the White House. You will hear his response and his press conference in its entirety when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: As we get close to the top of the hour, we were just showing you President Obama's press conference from last night, coming out responding to House Speaker Boehner, who actually walked away from the debt talks yesterday. Well, he had a response to the president. He stepped up to the podium last night. I'll let you hear him now in his entirety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JOHN A. BOEHNER (R-OHIO), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I want to be entirely clear, no one wants to default on the full faith and credit of the United States government. And I'm convinced that we will not. Starting tonight, I'll be working with colleagues here in the Capitol, both the House and the Senate, to find a responsible path forward.

And I have confidence in the bipartisan leaders of the Congress that can come together and to ensure that we have an agreement that -- that will allow the country to avoid default and meets the principles that we've outlined. Spending cuts that must be greater than the increase in the debt limit and no tax increases.

The discussions we've had with the White House have broken down for two reasons. First, they insisted on raising taxes. We had an agreement on a revenue number. A revenue number that we thought we could reach based on a flatter tax code with lower rates and a broader base that would produce more economic growth, more employees and more taxpayers.

And a tax system that was more efficient in collecting the taxes that were due the federal government. And let me just say that the White House moved the goal post. There was an agreement on some additional revenues. Until yesterday, when the president demanded $400 billion more, which was going to be nothing more than a tax increase on the American people.

And I can tell you that Leader Cantor and I were very disappointed in -- in this call for higher revenue. But secondly, they refused to get serious about cutting spending and making the tough choices that are facing our country on entitlement reform. So that's the bottom line.

I take the same oath of office as the President of the United States. I've got the same responsibilities as the President of the United States. And I think that's for both of us to do what's in the best interest of our country. And I can tell you that it's not in the best interest of our country to raise taxes during this difficult economy.

And it's not in the best interest of our country to ignore the serious spending challenges that we face. No I want to say this is a serious debate. And it's a debate about jobs. It's a debate about our economy. And frankly, it's also a big debate about the future of our country.

You know, until recently the president was demanding that the Congress increase the debt limit with no strings attached. Matter of fact, the Treasury secretary sent me a letter two days after we were sworn in, in January demanding that we give him a clean increase in the debt limit.

And I made it clear that we would not increase the debt limit without cuts that exceeded that increase in the debt limit, that there would be no new taxes and that there would be serious spending reforms put in place.

Listen, it's time to get serious, and I'm confident that the bipartisan leaders here in the Congress can act. If the White House won't get serious, we will.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Well, that's Speaker Boehner from last night. Reaction from Lenny and Maria, next.

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HOLMES: All right, let me bring back in Lenny McAllister and Maria Cardona. Lenny, our Republican strategist, let me start with you here. You heard -- you know what, Maria, I promised I was going to let you start, so actually let me do that. Forgive me.

CARDONA: It's OK.

HOLMES: Actually, on the point, can Boehner say this is not that the White House wasn't serious? Is that -- can he make that claim at all?

CARDONA: Not with any shred of credibility, T.J.

HOLMES: OK.

CARDONA: Because, again, what the American people understand. And yes, we're all trying to find solutions here, but Republicans need to listen to the American people. Because they understand and actually agree that any deal that happens should include spending cuts as well as new revenues. It's the only way to do this in a fair and balanced way.

And Speaker Boehner mentioned the additional $400 billion and talked about the White House moving the goalpost. The reason that came up is because Republicans demanded a trigger that would mean the repeal of health care reform. Come on. At that point, President Obama didn't walk away. But then the Democrats said, OK, if you want to talk about that, let's talk about increased revenues. That's how you negotiate. You do not walk away. The president did not demand that. He wanted to keep talking. Republicans didn't.

HOLMES: Lenny, can you defend in any way why you can say that the White House hasn't been serious?

MCALLISTER: Well, if you're not willing to even look at health care reform and say that maybe we need to adjust this as well, because maybe we can't afford it, of course they're not being as serious as they say they can be.

Listen, these are the same Democrats that had a super majority and a huge majority in the House of Representatives and went after health care reform, not fixing the economy, not addressing the debt ceiling.

And now that the Republicans are coming in and acting as the adults on Capitol Hill, now they're being made out to be the bad guys, because there making that there needs could be some serious decisions made when it comes to cuts and to spending.

Let's be real, the Democrats controlled Congress over the last two years. We had none of these talks, we we're more concerned about Obama care and Democrats making deals with each other than we were about making deals with the American people.

HOLMES: All right, Lenny, Maria, we appreciate you all being able to stick around a little longer for us this morning. You all have been with us a longer today than -- that usual. But we really appreciate it and we needed you this morning.

CARDONA: Our pleasure.

HOLMES: So thank you both so much.