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Debt Deadline Draws Close; Missing Mom Found Dismembered; In the Mind of an Accused Killer; CBO Data Reveals House and Senate Deals Need More Cuts; FBI Director to Stay Another Two Years; DSK Accuser Meets with Prosecutors; Raise the Debt Ceiling Song
Aired July 27, 2011 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Just six more days now until Washington could run out of money to pay its bills. And they are still no closer to a deal. In fact, they're back to the drawing board. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
(voice-over): Who is really in charge here? Today, the Tea Party rallies in Washington, while warning Republicans, do not cave. But will House Speaker John Boehner listen?
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Most of the elected members of Congress understand that there is no option here. We pay the bills that we have already run up.
BALDWIN: A missing mother of two murdered and dismembered. Now the children's father and his wife are charged.
JUDGE JACQUELINE BREWER, NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT COURT: If you plead guilty to that offense, the punishment, maximum punishment is either life without parole or the death penalty.
BALDWIN: The hotel housekeeper who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her takes her case to the Manhattan prosecutors, but will they believe her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost all the physical evidence, or all of it, supports her case.
BALDWIN: And, yes, it's come to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Raise the debt ceiling. Raise the debt ceiling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Welcome back, hour two. Let's continue, shall we? I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Six is the number today, six days until default, default of the U.S. Treasury. And we are seeing the stock market take a dip. We were just talking about this. Take a look here, Dow Jones industrial average down today 198 points.
Joining me now from Washington, let's go straight to A.B. Stoddard. She is the associate editor of "The Hill."
A.B., good to have you on. And you know what? We have been wondering, is this what it would take to get one side or the other to blink? Have you heard the question yourself and are things up there beginning to look a little bit more urgent as U.S. lawmakers are looking at the numbers from Wall Street?
A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "THE HILL": Well, it's always frightening to the members who were here for the historic vote on the Troubled Asset Relief Program in the fall of 2008.
But there's a lot of newcomers in the House Republican Conference who were not there for that vote who think TARP was a toxic vote, who deny that it was successful and who are dug in on, you know, hopes that they can pass something with deeper cuts, that they can get a balanced budget amendment.
And their numbers now are somewhere between 20 or more. The speaker is not going to give anymore. He says it's the only plan that can pass. And he is speeding ahead and plowing ahead, hoping that by tomorrow he will have 217 Republicans. He knows he will only get a few Democrats, maybe three or so. So he needs to come up with 217 Republicans. And he's trying to assure them that his leverage, as the market drops and we get closer to the deadline on Tuesday, that their leverage will only diminish, it will not increase.
BALDWIN: Well, speaking of those Republicans, those House Republicans you mentioned, he needs 217. We know that they're also trying to, you know, rework this plan. It started with faulty numbers, has little chance of passing.
They also, A.B., I'm sure you know very well that they watched -- this was yesterday, I guess as a rallying point, the movie clip from "The Town" about bank robbers trying to get -- rally, you fight the Democrats. Not kidding, if you're just learning this. Not kidding. They did do that.
Now, Senate Democrats are working on their very own math- challenged plan, I should point out as well, the Reid plan. And the White House is saying the ball really in Congress' court. Is there anything of substance happening there on the Hill today?
STODDARD: Oh, yes.
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, really hopes because the Congressional Budget Office scored his bill today and said it would produce more savings than the Boehner plan, the House speaker plan, he really hopes that in the end that will the bill that gets to the president's desk and he hopes that he will enough support for it to pass. That's the one, as Wolf mentioned, that carries us into 2013 and does not require another fight like this on a vote to raise the debt ceiling. Now, the House speaker's plan, of course, prompts another vote in the next six months.
At this point, Republicans do not want to sign on to Reid's plan. They do not want to give the president a pass on this into 2013, but at this point, John Boehner, the speaker, is still scratching for those votes on the House side. He doesn't know if it can pass the House. And if it does, he doesn't know if it can pass the Senate. People are talking privately about a compromise that would sort of meld the two bills, but we're not at that point yet, because they need to see those bills fail before they start really compromising and merging the two.
BALDWIN: Compromise, it's a good word, A.B.? Thank you very much
(CROSSTALK)
STODDARD: It has to happen by Tuesday.
BALDWIN: A.B. Stoddard, thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: And let's stay in Washington. And now let's go live to Mark Meckler. He's the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, the nation's largest Tea Party group.
Mark, since we're talking Wall Street, let's talk Wall Street with you as well. And I want to ask you, as we look at the numbers -- I hope you have a monitor in front of you. If you don't, the Dow down 198 points today. The numbers, do these numbers worry you at all? And do you think it is time for the two sides here, Republicans, Dems, get together and do what A.B. and I were talking about, compromise?
MARK MECKLER, CO-FOUNDER, TEA PARTY PATRIOTS: No, and actually we do think compromise is a bad word.
If you look at what's happened, compromise has brought us to $14.3 trillion in debt, a historic amount of debt. Every day we go in debt another $4 billion, enough to build two space shuttles. It's time to stop the compromise. What the American people want is they want the government to act responsibly and stop spending more money than they take in.
BALDWIN: OK. So according to you, compromise is a dirty word. Let's talk about your side, definitely digging in here, defending the proposition of absolutely no new taxes to help erase the national debt. But let me point to a graphic we have created. Because what do you say to the folks who point out that as a percentage of our GDP, a percentage of our gross domestic product, Americans there -- look far right to the right, at 2011, that Americans are paying less in federal taxes than any time since -- look all the way to the left there -- since the '50s? MECKLER: Well, I think the real question is, Brooke, ask anybody who pays taxes -- and remember, almost half of the American public doesn't pay federal taxes anymore. But ask any taxpayer if they think they're paying too much taxes.
(CROSSTALK)
MECKLER: And they're all going to tell that they're paying too much, not --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Let's go back to my question, though. Because, guys, let's throw the graphic up once again. Again you will see in 2011 how low as a percentage of GDP the taxes that we're paying now. What do you make of that?
MECKLER: It's not really a question of tax increases or no tax increases. They will spend whatever we give them. They have proven that. And what we're asking them to do what you have to do, what I have to do, what every citizen has to do, which is we're asking government to simply live within its means. It's not about raising taxes.
BALDWIN: What do you think of Speaker Boehner's plan? You know, first off, he did get his numbers wrong. And when it was all said and done, it only saved $850 billion over the course, you know, of 10 years. Are you surprised he couldn't come up with something bigger?
MECKLER: I'm surprised at all the plans. Because really what we're talking about in Boehner's plan and Reid's plan and whatever Boehner comes up with next, we're talking about phantom cuts. These are cuts that probably will never take place. They're pushed out into the future.
And that's what these guys do is they avoid the responsibility, they push spending cuts out into the future and they can't bind future Congresses, neither legally nor practically speaking. History shows us we can promise future spending cuts. They never come.
So we're not impressed with Reid's plan. We're not impressed Boehner's plan. The real plan is to cut spending and live within our means. The American public understands that.
BALDWIN: Well, I think also though that the American public when you talk to them, as we have, they really do fear let's call it a doomsday scenario. You know, if the stock market keeps going down, if a default triggers some sort of financial catastrophe, are you at all afraid that your side is going to take the blame here because you didn't compromise on taxes?
MECKLER: No, absolutely not. And the only reason there's any fear out there about a doomsday scenario is because that's what the politicians are selling to them.
The president talked about not being able to pay Social Security checks. That's just a lie. The reality is the money is there. We have heard talk of default. You mentioned default. We won't default on our debt obligations unless the president and the treasury secretary choose not to pay that money.
The money exists to pay it. It's roughly 10 percent of our monthly income. My 12-year-old can do the math. She knows you can pay that debt service every month. So talk of a default is just fear- mongering and the American public are tired that kind of fear- mongering. They're adults. They want to be treated like adults. They want the real facts and they will have the real discussion.
BALDWIN: Then is it your feeling that something along the lines of some sort of economic disaster will benefit your side come 2012, come the elections?
MECKLER: We don't expect to see some sort of economic disaster, and we're not looking at political benefit.
Unlike the president, who's trying to push this out past 2013 so it doesn't affect him in the election or even the Republicans that want to short-term it, so that it will affect the election, we're not interested in that. We're interested in dealing with the economic reality. I know it. You know it. The American citizens know it. You cannot continue to spend more money than you take in.
What we're asking the president, Reid, Boehner, what we're asking them all to do is look at what can be cut today. The General Accounting Office came up with literally hundreds of duplicative programs. Those could be cut today. They could have been cut six months ago. Why do we still have those programs? Let's get real and start the cutting. That's where the real discussion begins and ends.
BALDWIN: Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party, thanks to you for sharing your perspective.
MECKLER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Coming up next, this is a gruesome one, gruesome story we're following here out of Texas, where police have discovered the dismembered body of a missing mother of two. The children's father and his new wife have now both been charged with her murder. But there's a lot more to this story than that.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The child custody fight apparently spins so out of control that it ends with a grisly search in a Texas creek, and now three young children who may never really know either of their parents.
Let me start by introducing those involved here in this gory drama, and if you have kids in the room, this is your chance to walk them out. OK?
Twenty-seven-year-old Laura Ackerson of Raleigh, North Carolina, a working mother with two young sons.
Then there's this couple, Grant Hayes and his new wife Amanda. They have a 1-year-old baby daughter. Hayes is a musician, he's also Laura Ackerson's ex-boyfriend and father of her two boys.
So a couple weeks ago, Ackerson dropped her boys off with Hayes, and that very day police believe Hayes and his new wife killed Ackerson and then cut her body into pieces. They are then accused of packing those pieces into these coolers, stuffing them in a rented U- Haul trailer and driving more than 1,000 miles from North Carolina to Texas and dumping her remains in a murky creek southwest of Houston.
So these divers, they're equipped with sonar equipment. They found a head, a torso and a piece of leg in that creek. DNA tests are a match for 27-year-old mother of two Laura Ackerson.
Grant and Amanda Hayes have been arrested in North Carolina. Both were in court just yesterday. And I want you to watch the judge yesterday, this is what judge told Amanda Hayes, keep in mind, she gave birth to a baby daughter not too long ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE JACQUELINE BREWER, WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT COURT: Ms. Hayes, you're charged with first degree murder. If convicted or if you plead guilty to that offense, the maximum punishment will be life without parole or the death penalty.
And I'm going to go ahead and appoint the public defender to represent you. If for some reason, you want to hire your own lawyer, that's always an option.
AMANDA HAYES, ACCUSED OF FIRST DEGREE MURDER: Thank you, ma'am.
BREWER: And bond, there is no bond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Grant Hayes is also being held without bond on the same charge. His father is caring for those little children he had with Laura Ackerson and Amanda Hayes.
And now, if it is interesting, if it's happening right now, you're about to see it -- "Rapid Fire."
Let's begin here with some stunning pictures out of South Korea. Rescue crews there are dealing with a deadly, devastating mess. Dozens of people killed when a hillside gave way, swamping an entire village.
Look at the pictures.
Happening east of Seoul Monday night just after midnight without warning. Months of rainfall weakened the soil, sending a wall of mud tumbling. Rescuers rushing to dig survivors out of collapsed houses. Hundreds of families have lost their homes. Raquel Nelson, remember the Georgia woman we talked about yesterday? She was convicted in the death of her son, her 4-year-old son after he darted in traffic. She will receive a new trial. The mother of three was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 48 hours of community service Tuesday for the April 2010 death.
Nelson and her three children were crossing the street when her 4-year-old boy broke away, ran into the road, the boy was hit and killed by a drunk driver who served just six months behind bars. Nelson's new trial is set to begin October 25th.
And an 80-year-old woman babysitting her great-grandchildren survives after being hit in the face with an arrow. She was sitting in her kitchen when this happened. Apparently a neighbor was practicing her archery skills near her home in Missouri.
Police seized the man's bow and arrows. He said he didn't mean to hurt anyone. The prosecutors charged him with second degree assault and criminal action. The woman is recovering from her injuries.
And, as you very well know, there was a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, but it's ready for launch next week. And no, it's not the shuttle. As you know, we're finished with that era. It is a very exciting day for NASA. Their Juneau spacecraft, now connected to its rocket, it will be spent up towards Jupiter. And if everything checks out, launch is a go for August 5th. It will take just over four years -- four years to get there. But once Juneau arrives, scientists hope it will help unlock the secrets of Jupiter's giant gas interior.
And President Eisenhower took his final breath there. So did General MacArthur. Today, the famous Walter Reed Army Medical Center was officially inactivated in a ceremony marking its 102 years of service. When it closes for good in September, its duties will be dispersed to other medical facilities serving the Armed Forces around Washington.
And a little girl here just wanted to raise $300 for a clean water charity. She's raised $400,000, but she's not the one raising it. She's not around to see this amazing response. Rachel Beckwith was killed in a pile-up on I-90 over the weekend in Washington state. But since then, donations to the group Charity Water have just taken off.
Her father described Rachel's selfless personality.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACOB BECKWITH, RACHEL'S FATHER: Rachel. Rachel was a really special girl. And I love you very much, Rachel, and I miss her.
Her heart was bigger than this room and she always gave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: As a result of this tragic accident, Rachel's father says her -- daughter's kidney and liver were donated to help others.
Coming up next, we are getting brand-new video in from Oslo, Norway, showing the exact moment Friday's blast went off. We're going to show it to you.
Plus, the mind of a madman. Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines Norway's most notorious killer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Time to take you "Globe Trekking" here with a couple of stories from overseas, starting with this one out of Libya.
There is now outcry over the sighting of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, there he is in a wheelchair, on Libyan television. This is Abdel Baset al-Megrahi sitting in this wheelchair with a facemask pulled down under his chin.
Now, this was on Libyan state TV yesterday. Al-Megrahi was attending a pro-Gadhafi rally. He is the only person convict of the 1998 bombing of Pan Am 103 that went down over Lockerbie, Scotland. Al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison about two years ago on compassionate grounds after doctors claimed he had cancer and only had three months to live.
To Norway now and this new look inside the mind of Anders Breivik, the suspect behind the twin terror attacks which killed 76 people last Friday. We have some new video here. Look at this. This was shot inside a store in Oslo just as that bomb was going off. The force, as you saw, forcing some of the items off store shelves.
After Breivik allegedly set off this bomb, as you know, he went on to a shooting rampage at a nearby youth camp. But what triggered this violence? Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, gives us a better idea of Breivik's mindset.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fuelled by drugs and a profound hatred for Islam, Norway's most notorious killer wanted to push Europe into war.
GEIR LIPPESTAD, ANDRES BREIVIK'S LAWYER: He said it was necessary to start a war here in Europe and throughout the western world.
GUPTA: His lawyer says his client didn't think he would live through the rampage.
LIPPESTAD: He thought he would be killed after the bombing, after the action in the island and he also thought he would be killed.
GUPTA: But Anders Breivik did survive and now the world is asking, what committed prompted this man to commitment mass murder. This rambling 1,500-page manifesto, allegedly written by the killer himself, details how he would carry out the attacks, down to the song he would play on his iPod during the killings, "Lux Aeterna " from the movie " Requiem For a Dream."
"I'm pretty sure I will pray to god as I'm rushing through my city, guns blazing, with 100 armed system protectors pursuing me with the intention to stop and/or kill," the manifesto reads.
As if playing a video game, the writer continues, "I have no intention to surrender to them until I have completed all three primary objectives and the bonus mission."
LIPPESTAD: He has a view on the reality, which is very, very difficult to explain.
GUPTA: The manifesto also relieves details about his personal life in a lengthy Q&A; it's not clear who's asking the questions.
"I consider myself to be a laid back type and quite tolerant on most issues," it reads. He says his parents got divorced when he was only one. His father and stepmother were diplomats, and his stepfather is a retired military officer who spends a lot of time with prostitutes in Thailand.
He has a good relationship with his four half siblings, according to the document, but especially with a sister who moved to Los Angeles 14 years ago.
As a teenager, the writer says he enjoyed hip-hop music and scrawling graffiti. His best friend growing up was a Pakistani Muslim.
So what finally crusader Islam? The NATO campaign in Serbia. "It was completely unacceptable how the U.S. and Western European regimes bombed our Serbian brothers. All they wanted was to drive Islam out by deporting Albanian Muslims back to Albania," the manifesto reads.
It says he became estranged from his dad when he was 15 years old. Breivik's father is now retired and living in France.
JENS BREIVIK, FATHER (through translator): It's impossible to explain. He was just like other boys of his age. I'm not sure what more to say. He was a bit withdrawn. He wasn't very sociable in a way, but he had no extreme tendencies in the period I knew him.
GUPTA: Breivik's father didn't want to show his face on camera, but he did not shy away from saying what he really thinks of his son.
BREIVIK: In my darkest moments, I think that rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life.
QUESTION (through translator): Do you feel guilty in any way or responsible for what's happened?
BREIVIK: I feel shame and grief for what has happened. I really wish it undone, but it has happened and it's horrible to think about. I'm going to live with this for the rest of my life.
GUPTA: Lifelong horror and grief, something the victims' families and survivors may know all too well.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Speaking of those survivors, we are hearing more stories now after Friday's attacks in Norway. You want to watch my interview with this mother of a 16-year-old girl who was at that youth camp on that island Friday when that gunman, Breivik, open fired. You can watch it, we'll get it up for you on the blog. Go to CNN.com/Brooke.
The teenager here, this is Julie with her mother, had the presence of mind to text her mom for two hours off and on during this horrific ordeal. You can hear her mother's entire firsthand account of what happened, how her daughter hid, what she did to survive -- CNN.com/Brooke.
Mitt Romney is topping most presidential polls, but there could soon be a new GOP frontrunner. Peter Hamby and Paul Steinhauser standing by for your "Political Ticker." That duo coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Let's get you a "CNN Equals Politics" update. We have Paul Steinhauser and a special guest appearance on this show, I never get to see him, Peter Hamby. Two of you guys, trouble one, trouble two with the CNN Political Ticker.
Good to see both of you.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Brooke.
Listen, he's the smarter guy of the two. So it's better that you get him rather than me.
Start with me for two seconds. Listen, let's talk about Rick Perry. Brand new poll out from Gallup today and it indicates, guess what? If Rick Perry jumps into the race, into the battle for the GOP presidential nomination, as we think he probably will. Look where he ends up right now? Second place, 18 percent, in this brand new Gallup poll. Second straight poll, our poll last week, CNN/ORC, showed the exact same thing. That's why all eyes are on Rick Perry. If he jumps in, polls indicate he could be very, very competitive with Mitt Romney, who right now is the frontrunner.
You have more on him. What do you know, Peter?
PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I talked to one of Perry's closest advisers, Dave Carney. He told me if Perry does join the race, you won't see any of these formalities that you saw with the other candidates. About intending to run, exploratory committee etc cetera, all a ramp up to a formal announcement. Rick Perry will not have an exploratory committee if he runs. Carney, his advisor, told me that Perry will be all in, if he decides to run, which is probably a smart move because he's already doing a lot of those exploratory things, talking to donors, talking to activists. When he runs, he should be ready. It's getting kind of late in the season and he's got to jump in there and make up a lot of ground against his contenders.
STEINHAUSER: OK, enough about Rick Perry for a second. Let's talk about Mitt Romney, Brooke. He is the front-runner right now. He is-where was he today? Ohio. It looks like Romney is running a general election campaign, looking ahead to that already even though the primaries haven't even happened yet. Ohio not a primary state, not an early primary state, an important battle ground state, today he was there talking at a manufacturing plant, criticizing Barack Obama.
So it looks like in some ways Mitt Romney is looking ahead already, trying to look presidential, trying to look ahead to the general election, going after Barack Obama. And not really talking about the other guys and the other ladies in the race for the White House on the Republican side, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Gentlemen, thank you very much.
I always just like to remind viewers, look, you guys are always hard at work on the ticker, you can always get the latest updates on Twitter, @PoliticalTicker. Paul, Peter, thank you.
Coming up the first responders on 9/11 who developed cancer over the course of the last 10 years, guess what? They will not get their care paid for under a special program. We'll tell you what's behind that decision. Stay right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Amy Winehouse music sales surge; NFL training camps open their doors; a snub of 9/11 first responders; and debt ceiling talks. We have an all-star, all female cast for you in today's "Reporter Roulette."
And Brianna Keilar, let's begin with you at the White House. We know the date, clock is ticking towards Tuesday. Any activity there at the White House today?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN White House CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke.
We know that the White House-and we heard this from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a short time ago. The White House is still very much talking with Congress at the aide level, and also between the president and members of Congress.
But the big story, Brooke, is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue where House Republicans, House Republican leaders are trying to win over their Republican conference and get them behind the Boehner plan. The plan the speaker has put forward. What makes it even more difficult is some math that the Congressional Budget Office put forward, showing that it doesn't cut as much as the speaker has said it would. So now they're back to the drawing board, trying to get some more deficit savings so they can make good on that promise of cutting as much as they increase the debt ceiling. This has delayed a vote that was supposed to take place today until at least tomorrow. And, Brooke, that's a roadblock which no one needs when we're six days out of the August deadline.
BALDWIN: As they're looking at the math, right, and they are going back and forth on the Hill, what is the White House saying in terms of if we hit August 2, the get debt ceiling isn't increased, what happens in terms of the economy? With regard to a default, what then happens?
KEILAR: This is one of the things I pressed Jay Carney on today, in the press briefing. Because some folks have wondered if perhaps this August 2 deadline isn't as hard and fast as the White House is making it out to be. Investment firms, some of them have suggested there are more days. And what Carney said was that come August 2, according to the Treasury Department analysts, the U.S. loses its borrowing authority. And it's at risk of default, Brooke.
So the point that he made was that you'll see a cascading effect that have even though revenue will be coming in, there will be no borrowing authority if the debt ceiling isn't increased by August 2. And at certain points in the days to follow August 2, choices will have to be made. He was very serious today. He called this real and dangerous.
But Brooke, I know you mentioned this earlier when you're out at the grocery store, or you're walking your dog, or something. This isn't what you hear people talking about. And there's an urgency, the White House is feeling, that I think a lot of American people are not.
BALDWIN: Some people are feeling it. Brianna, thank you.
Certainly the markets are reflecting some jitters. Look at the numbers and go to Alison Kosik, who is live for me, at the New York Stock Exchange.
Alison, the markets have now officially closed and the Dow was down what? Close to 200?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, 198 points today for the Dow, more than 2 percent for the Nasdaq and S&P 500. Investors are getting anxious at this point. They're not panicking yet, Brooke. Traders still think a deal is going to get done. An even bigger worry here is a possible downgrade of the nation's Triple A credit rating, even if a compromise is hammered out.
Because that carries longer lasting effects, those higher interest rates. And not to mention the world perception and just overall confidence in the U.S. So yes, we are seeing the fear play out in the market. We are also seeing it play out in the gold market. Gold prices are setting record highs on an almost daily basis at this point. It's a sign, Brooke, that investors are looking for a safe place to park their money while these negotiations continue to play out on Capitol Hill.
BALDWIN: As we continue to watch that, certainly as we get closer to August 2, something else a lot of people are watching, music sales. I mean, 27-year-old Amy Winehouse, she died over the weekend, and her music sales are incredible right now.
KOSIK: They are. There were more of her albums sold in this past week than during the first six months of the year. You know the song "Rehab" that's Winehouse's Grammy award-winning hit. That's been the most down loaded song since her passing. I happened to download "You Know I'm No Good." That's a great song.
BALDWIN: Got both of them on iTunes.
KOSIK: That's a real good one. Yes.
BALDWIN: Yep.
KOSIK: And Neilson Soundscan also said that there is digital track sales are up 2,000 percent compared to the previous week, and she's also getting a lot of radio air play as well, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Just listening to her just this morning. It's still so sad. Thanks so much.
Alison Kosik, thanks so much.
And next here on "Reporter Roulette," you know what? They risked their lives going through dust and debris to save others on 9/11. And now first responders won't get payments for their cancer treatments from a special program. Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here.
Talk to me about some of these people. They say they got sick, they say they got cancer from working day in, day out at ground zero.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And I'm sure they're very angry about this news. They are convinced that they got their cancer from working at ground zero. I interviewed one such worker last summer. His name is Jevon Thomas. He was diagnosed with a rare cancer called epithelioid sarcoma. And it is in his arm. You can see the scars from the many operations that he had.
BALDWIN: Look at that.
COHEN: I mean it really is a very-it's a terrible story. And let's take a listen to what he says about the connection between his service at ground zero and his cancer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN (On camera): So right there, that's where you think your cancer started?
JEVON THOMAS, 9/11 FIRST RESPONDER: Yes, I'm 100 percent sure of that.
COHEN: How can you be so sure?
THOMAS: It's no coincidence that within a year of me working there every day, that I started growing a lump in my hand, and it turned out to be cancer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now, Jevon is convinced that that is where he got his cancer. But today this federal group says there's no published scientific evidence that can allow us to make that link between cancer and work at ground zero, which is why they're not going to pay for it. The group didn't say there's no link, they just said there's no published data that allows us to make that link right now.
BALDWIN: I talked to some of these first responders. These are tough, tough men and women. I know they will be fighting back.
COHEN: Yes, they will. And there are ways for them to fight back. This is not the final word. There are reviews, there are things that they can do. And there are many politicians who will be fighting for them.
BALDWIN: Elizabeth, thank you.
COHEN: Thanks.
BALDWIN: And finally here on "Reporter Roulette" After months of fan worry and negotiations between NFL players and owners, training camps, ta-da, they're opening. Carol Costello is at Baltimore Ravens training camp in Maryland.
Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, I know it doesn't look so exciting but believe me it is. I'm at the Ravens training camp and inside that building, Quarterback Joe Flacco, along with other Ravens football players, are having a series of meetings, supposedly going over playbooks, and meeting with coaches and things like that. Sort of getting the ball rolling, getting to know each other again, if you will.
Every so often a player will pop out and say something to reporters waiting. Ed Dickson, a tight end for the Ravens, was kind enough to do that. We asked him how prepared he was for the coming season.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED DICKSON, RAVENS TIGHT END: I knew we were going to get back to work soon, so I kept practicing, kept preparing myself for when we had to come back to camp, when I got to get back to the meetings. I just enjoyed my time off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The players here in Baltimore won't actually take the field Friday morning. Tomorrow, they have a union meeting for what they're calling a unification meeting. Because remember they dissolved the union for negotiating purposes. So they are getting together tomorrow to take care of that. And then, as I said, on Friday morning they'll hit the field. Back to you, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Carol Costello, thank you so much.
And that is what we call "Reporter Roulette."
The woman who accused a powerful French businessman of attempted rape is taking her case to prosecutors today, trying to convince them to salvage her case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. It's "On The Case," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The Senate voted unanimously today to keep FBI Director Robert Mueller in office for another two years, gets to keep his job as term is set to expire next Tuesday, a date we're familiar with, August 2nd.
Now to this, the hotel maid who accuses the former head of the International Monetary Fund of sexually assaulting her in his pricey New York Hotel room, I'm sure you've seen she's been on a bit of a media blitz. We talked about it earlier this week.
A lot of information has come out that raises some serious concerns about her own credibility. And today, we do know she met with prosecutors there in Manhattan who are trying to decide whether they should pursue or drop the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Sunny Hostin is on the case for us today. And Sunny, why did this maid -- why did Ms. Diallo meet with prosecutors today?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, my understanding, Brooke, is that this investigation is winding itself down, but it is still ongoing. And given the media blitz, the prosecution wanted to speak to her once again about her version of events as to what happened at the Sofitel Hotel on that day.
My understanding also is that they're also going to go over that call that discussion she had with an inmate in prison that discussion was in her foreign dialect. And so they are -- they do have a translation and they're trying to determine whether or not she said I know what I'm doing, this guy has money.
Of course, her defense team or her civil team said that is not an accurate interpretation and what the discussion was. But they are at this point trying to figure out whether or not to proceed with this case.
BALDWIN: You mentioned the media blitz, Nafissatou Diallo, that's her name, she did interview with "Newsweek" magazine and also a TV interview with ABC news.
I just want to play a short clip here of that television interview. She's describing the alleged attack from back in May. We'll talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NAFISSATOU DIALLO, ALLEGED RAPE VICTIM: He come to me and grab my breast, no, you don't have to be sorry. I said stop, stop, I don't want to lose my and he pushed me to the floor. I cannot move. I tried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Sunny, you know, this is so rare to hear from someone in her position. I mean, is she at all hurting her case by coming forward and talking on national TV?
HOSTIN: You know, she is and it is a rarity for sexual assault victims especially in a high profile case, but in any case to come forward name and face in front of the media. This is something that doesn't happen and it's something prosecutors don't want to happen.
Because now you have, Brooke, yet another version of events in the public, in the public domain and if she were to get on the witness stand, she could be cross-examined on not only the statement she made to hospital workers, the statement that she made to investigators, but now the statements to all of us, that we've all heard.
So I think everyone can agree that it wasn't a good idea for her to give these interviews to "Newsweek" and to ABC if this case was to go forward. But what many people think, and I tend to agree, this was her last ditch effort to try to persuade the prosecution to let her have her day in court.
BALDWIN: OK, so if it's last ditch, looking ahead, prediction time. You know, how might this play out? I know you're a former federal prosecutor. How will the prosecutors in Manhattan DA's office, will they go forward with it or will they drop it?
HOSTIN: Well, the great thing above being a federal prosecutor from the District of Columbia where I practice that you get to practice both local prosecution and federal prosecution so I have a little bit of experience in this area.
And I will tell you this, Brooke, this is a very difficult case for the prosecution to prove because there are so many inconsistencies. The defense here is that it was consensual act. So you really have to put her on the witness stand.
If she can't be believed, they can't prove the case. And so my sense is that this case may be dropped, but I want to say this and I think it's very important.
Just because the prosecution cannot prove this case and if this prosecution decides not to go forward does not mean that this woman was not attacked. It will only mean that they believe that they cannot prove their case in front of a jury.
BALDWIN: That's an important point to make, Sunny Hostin. Thank you very much. Good to see you. We talked about this a couple of times. But have you actually heard what specifically this movie clip that was played to inspire House Republicans when they were talking debt, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can't ever ask me about it later and we're going to hurt some people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whose car are we going to take?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Yes, Ben Affleck might not like that. We're going to explain why. "Political Pop" next.
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BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer and his team working hard there in Washington prepping for "THE SITUATION ROOM" in a matter of minutes. Wolf, who do you have on the show today?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, if you remember last week, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz was bitterly criticized by her colleague from Florida. She's a Democrat. She's the chair of the DNC as well.
Allen West, the Republican freshmen, a Tea Party supporter, he's the Republican from district just north of her district in Florida and he called her at one point because they were fighting over Medicare cuts and all of that, vile, repugnant and all of that.
Well, today, he's going to be on the show and he's responding to Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. She didn't receive an apology, still hasn't received an apology. He's going to explain why he is in no mood to apologize to Debbie Wasserman-Shultz.
He's also here as part of a debate with another Tea Party advocate in the House of Representatives, Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh opposes the speaker's plan, House Speaker John Boehner's plan to deal with the debt ceiling. This vote is supposed to come up in the House floor tomorrow.
Allen west supports the speaker. So they're going to debate that. But it was a moment -- I just wanted to give Allen West a chance to respond to Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and all the people complaining about West's comments regarding her.
So that's coming up. Also, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, we'll get the latest on what the president is doing right now to deal with this crisis. I must say, as you know, it is a crisis.
BALDWIN: It is, and Wolf, on a much lighter note, I want you to stick around for this next story because I know you're big on doing the Dougie.
This next song, I don't know if you've seen this on YouTube. I tell you what. I'm embarrassed this has been stuck in my head all day. Take a listen.
BLITZER: He's not doing the Dougie.
BALDWIN: I am saying I don't know if you can doggy to this song.
BLITZER: I could certainly Dougie to that song, but he's not doing the Dougie. He's just doing an excellent job with a little rapping. You know what my song of the day today is?
BALDWIN: What's that?
BLITZER: And you're probably too young to remember this one. But "It's The End Of The World As We Know It". You know that song?
BALDWIN: And I feel fine? We're talking REM.
BLITZER: I'm worried about what's going on right now. It's the end of the world as we know it.
BALDWIN: Wolf, you can talk REM. I'm going to talk about this guy who's a bit of a hit on YouTube with my pal, Joe Johns, "Political Pop" next.
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BALDWIN: It's not too often you actually hear the words rap and debt ceiling in the same sentence, but alas after all this talk, we knew it was bound to happen, right, Joe Johns? It's a hot new summer jam?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right. I mean, it's hilarious. Remy is the name of the artist. The video is pretty funny. It's called what else? "Raise the Debt Ceiling." It's got some Eminem thing going on.
It looks like it was produced in a much smaller budget than anything Eminem produced still holds together as a concept. It's comedy, of course. You know, I never imagined I would actually see a video that discussed things like quantitative easing, there you go.
For the record, Remy has another rap video about Arlington, Virginia, which is equally hilarious, but only if you've ever lived here.
BALDWIN: Yes, which I have. He's kind of a big deal, I guess, within the beltway, a la YouTube clips. But it's kind of awesome and I'll tweet out the link if you would like to hear it yourself. Also there's more buzz here about House Republicans. This is a Ben Affleck movie about bank robbers, what they're listening to when they were talking debt?
JOHNS: Exactly, the Affleck movie is called "The Town" and Congressional Republicans sort of to get their guys unified in the debt ceiling battle played a clip of the movie, Affleck is in the movie, telling his buddy he needs some help, a lot of trust. Just check out the clip. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need your help, I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later and we're going to hurt some people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which car are we going to take?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: So they show this clip and then in the meeting, Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida who Wolf just talked about volunteers figuratively to drive the car for the Republican leadership, but not lost on all of this is what the Affleck character in the movie actually does.
He and his buddy basically engage in a violent beat down of a couple of other guys at an apartment. And then suddenly this movie starts provoking jabs from Democrats, including Affleck. "The Huffington Post" reports that Affleck says Republicans ought to watch his movie "Company Men," which is about guys laid off in the recession.
Then Democrats in Washington throw their two cents in including Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. The upshot of her comments is that the use of violent imagery is inappropriate. All of that amidst the chaos on Capitol Hill.
BALDWIN: And it continues, as the clock tick, tick, ticks until Tuesday. Joe Johns, thank you so much. I love "Political Pop" today.
That's it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin in Atlanta.
Now let's go to Wolf Blitzer. Your "SITUATION ROOM" starts right now.
