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Irene's Aftermath; America's Pilots Getting Rusty?; Report on Airline Safety and Pilot Training; President Obama to Deliver Jobs Address; Government Trying to Block AT&T Merger; Moammar Gadhafi Still At Large; Libyan Rebels Prepare for Offensive Against Sirte; Drunk Father Throws Son off Sight-Seeing Boat; Aruba Suspect Staying in Jail; Palin to New Hampshire for Labor Day

Aired August 31, 2011 - 16:02   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary Napolitano just mentioned that the president -- it's now been announced just in the last hour from the White House the president himself will be touring specifically Paterson, New Jersey, to take a look firsthand at some of the damage from what was Tropical Storm Irene.

But I want to you now from New Jersey. Let's go northward to Vermont, still reeling from all the flooding there. Try to imagine this, a mountain island. That's what you have in some places, towns as much as 1,000 feet above sea level cut off by this, raging waters. In some places, food and supplies could only get in to these people by air or by four-wheel vehicles.

One of those places finally getting help is Wilmington, Vermont, and that is where we have Amber Lyon live.

And, Amber, finally maybe some relief for those people who very much so need it.

AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are getting relief already, Brooke.

We have got National Guard troops in here. The roads leading in and out of town has since been opened. This was one of those mountain islands you were talking about. For at least a day residents couldn't get in or out. Now people in this community of 1,800 are just trying to clean up the mess after floodwaters over my head -- I would have been underwater -- swept through this town damaging almost every single business in the center of town.

And I'm here in front of the Country Store. It's been around since 1836. They're just going through here trying to collect anything they can. We have got Vermont snow globes. They're covered in mud. They're just trying to salvage them. But unfortunately some businesses here cannot be salvaged.

I want you to take a look at that building over there. That is Bert's Aquarium store. And that building is a complete loss. It just went away with the waters and so did all of the inventory. Big question out here, we have been asking these residents, is did they have flood insurance? Obviously Vermont is not used to getting hit by tropical storms. It's been a little mixed, Brooke.

We found some people that say they were insured, others that say that they did not have insurance. And they consider their damage to be a complete loss out here. And I found two of those women.

This is Suzie (ph) and this is Kathy. And they own the consignment shop across the street. We have been watching them all day. They have been going in and out all day trying to save anything they can.

And you guys are considering your inventory to kind of be a total loss and you're not insured.

SUZETTE KINGMAN, CO-OWNER, THE FASHION PLATE: And we're not insured. Yes, it's just total devastation.

And the things are -- they're not ours. That's the thing that's been my worrisome. It's not our stuff. It's not our stuff. It belongs to somebody else. It's consignment. And it's a 50/50 gig. And people bring us their things just to make a little money, clean out their closet, give it to us. We sell it. We keep half, they get half. Everybody is happy. And the people that buy it love it, love the store.

LYON: So you guys, you have been in good spirits today. You say you were in shock but you're looking at the bright side of things out here?

KINGMAN: Really, we're actually -- our landlord just told us that they're going to make our building -- his -- this building for him -- he owns several properties in town -- he's going to make this one his priority to fix up and get it running again.

LYON: Because you had quite a bit of damage of out here. Show us a little bit of your stuff.

They were pretty upset about these clothes here.

KATHY COSTELLO, CO-OWNER, THE FASHION PLATE: We have vintage (INAUDIBLE) boots. We have Gucci pants that were like butter. And now they're like mud. We have a Burberry raincoat that we couldn't find during the storm and the flooding that would have made The Fashion Plate a very fashionable ensemble.

(CROSSTALK)

KINGMAN: Armani shirt.

COSTELLO: And all of it has come from our second home owners and our local people that have supported the shop. They bring us all of their stuff and they love the shop. And the teenagers in town come and buy stuff. They're an hour-and-a-half to any mall, and they can get Abercrombie and Hollister.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But they won't for long, because no matter what, Susie and I did it ourselves and we're going to do it again.

LYON: And one thing before we go, Brooke, if you guys can show us over here, one thing these two were very happy about was they were able to save this mannequin.

(CROSSTALK)

LYON: Can you tell me the story about him?

KINGMAN: The man? We snuck down here Sunday night kind of on the hush-hush right after the storm -- right after we could cross the bridge. And I went into the store.

And I just heard the cry -- had a little cry. As I was picking things up, like you don't know where to start because it's such a mess, it's such a mess. Here's our guy, my guy, laying, floating with his arm all disheveled and broken. And my guy, I picked him up and I said, come on, buddy. And he was...

(CROSSTALK)

LYON: You were able to save him?

KINGMAN: Yes.

BALDWIN: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

LYON: Thank you very much.

All right, Brooke, well, we're going to be out here for the rest of the evening monitoring the cleanup out here.

BALDWIN: OK, Amber Lyon, thank you very much.

I know a lot of lives were certainly at stake during that storm. And if you wonder what life was like in one of those trapped towns in Vermont, we have someone who can tell you.

Sandra Manzke is on the phone from Wardsboro, Vermont.

And, Sandra, I understand you're in one of those few towns, possibly even the last town, that is totally, entirely cut off. Is that still the case and do you feel at all in danger because of it?

SANDRA MANZKE, FLOOD VICTIM: Well, I don't feel totally in danger because there are a few ways today that you can get up and around.

It might take you 45 minutes to go three or four miles. But that certainly may not be true for other residents who are on roads that are very unstable that they cannot drive. And I think they are going to be -- they really do feel very unsafe.

The roads -- the community has been terrific. Anybody who has a dump truck or any big machine has been putting in some temporary roads. But these roads still are really only accessible by ATV. And one of the things that we're very concerned about right now is the fact that these are just dirt roads that were put in to be temporary roads so that we're not completely shut off the from the world, although part of the town still is.

And it's going to rain this weekend. And this is -- these roads could become quickly very unstable again.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Right. As you mentioned, a lot of them are impassable without something like ATVs.

I do know like the town Amber was just featuring, some of the supplies, food, have been dropped in by air. But I know you don't have power. You're on a generator. What about other folks around town, especially the elderly? How are they doing?

MANZKE: Well, there are very few people that have power. I don't think anybody actually in Wardsboro has power as yet.

While there are a few telephone poles from -- on one side of the road, Route 100, that goes through town and it is really the only main road, as you go down the road, all of the telephone poles are in the water, in the river. There is no stable earth to kind of for Central Vermont Public Service to put these poles back up.

We have to quickly -- and we did see a helicopter come in this afternoon. And I do believe the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be here very shortly. And we're doing -- the town is doing a tremendous job to just try and get as much done as possible. But these are temporary roads. They're not by any means going to be the final project.

BALDWIN: Yes, it's amazing, though. You hear about these different towns in Vermont, a lot of people coming together. I'm sure your son, the assistant fire chief in town, I'm sure he has his hands full.

Best to you, Sandra Manzke. Thank you very much for hopping on the line and giving us an update in your town.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

BALDWIN: And now I want you to listen to this guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I discussed it with him. We jumped in together and just thought, OK, it would be funny, ha, ha, ha. We were just screwing around, just horse playing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was not crying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he wasn't crying. I haven't seen him cry in so long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, that guy you just saw -- he's a father -- says he threw a 7-year-old kid overboard, yes, right off a moving boat. Wait until you hear the rest of this wild interview and his side of the story. I will also talk live to the investigator in this particular case. Don't miss this. That is ahead.

Also up next, is your pilot getting rusty by letting the computer do the work? I will talk live to an aviation expert about how concerned we should be flying here of pilots maybe forgetting how to fly? Is that possible?

Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Something to think about the next time you get on a plane. CNN has gotten its hands on this report. This is a pretty huge report here.

This is by an independent group of pilots, other experts commissioned by Congress, and it talks about airline safety, and specifically pilot training. And in essence, it says that pilots run the risk of putting too much faith into the auto-pilot systems and need more training on how to actually handle the planes manually when something go wrong.

I want to bring in our go-to guy and all things aviation, Jim Tilmon, a retired pilot.

Jim, good to see you again, Jim.

JIM TILMON, RETIRED PILOT: Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let me just first ask -- you know, pilots, look, I mean, sometimes I'm relying on my own on too much technology. I mean, is this truly potentially an issue, that pilots are relying too much on those automated systems?

TILMON: I don't want to make a blanket statement like that. And that one kind of scares me because it says that you never know what your pilot is capable of handling.

I don't think it's quite like that. I do know that the automation that's available in the cockpit today is far different from what we had when I started flying. When I started flying, you had a lot to do, you kept busy the whole time you were gone. You'd have an engine failure, or you'd have this go wrong, or that go wrong, or you were babysitting the engines and the airplane and everything else.

Today, you can fly a 30-year career and never have even a cough from an engine. So you have to realize that there's a lot less labor involved. However, there's not a bit of lack of complexity, and that complexity requires a certain amount of automation. BALDWIN: So let's just use you as an example. If you were flying today, and to use your word, "babysitting," if you weren't having to babysit the controls quite like you did before, would you get rusty?

TILMON: No, I wouldn't. And one of the reasons I wouldn't is because I had a regular deal that I did. And many pilots do today.

They reach 10,000 feet on their dissent, and they hand-fly that thing down to the ground, or very close to that. And the same thing is true on takeoff, taking off and hand-flying until you get to a certain altitude, and then you cut on the auto-pilot.

A lot of pilots are getting a more practice than you might imagine. However, again -- I have a "however" -- this one is that sometimes we do get a little bit, let's say, loose in terms of allowing the auto-pilot to do so much until it does too much. And the auto-pilot, if it gets bad information, can give you a bad output, and it's possible to literally get to the place that you've lost control.

BALDWIN: Can you give me on example -- and I know that fatal airline crashes are down recently, thank goodness. But can you cite a specific example in which a fatal crash was due to pilot error?

TILMON: Oh, well --

BALDWIN: Because a lot of people -- let me just jump in. A lot of people are talking about that Air France flight -- you remember that? -- off Brazil, and that was the stall instance where that was -- you know, why they reported pilot error there.

TILMON: I'm not ready to call that pilot error. I'm saying that there was a sequence of events that took place, and part of it had to do with their reaction to something they didn't truly understand.

I don't know if I'd call that an error. I can say this -- the design of that particular airplane is such that things can happen with your airplane that you don't understand. You don't see it, you don't know, and you don't feel it.

That airplane does not have a feel. The airplanes I flew, you could feel it. You knew when you had a load on the airplane.

That one has no feel whatsoever. The throttles don't even move when the power changes necessarily. So you're kind of flying with so much trust in this system, that you fail to do some of the things you ordinarily would do.

I'm not ready to condemn those pilots yet. I'd like to say, let's review the system and let's review the safety procedures, and let's review the training, and let's review our thinking before we make that kind of a judgment.

BALDWIN: And I know they are reviewing it, but as part of that story, I read that the French investigators are recommending that all pilots get training in manual flying and handling high-altitude stalls.

What about U.S. pilots? What kind of training are they getting?

TILMON: Well, I think we're getting that. We've always had that.

Now, I have to reverse myself once again, because the new guys, the guys that are coming on board now -- and there are not a lot of them, because just about everybody is senior and they've been there forever. But when you bring on a new pilot who has not been through some of the things that some of the older guys have, they've never flown an airplane that had anything but some computer activity on it. They don't understand what to do necessarily when something goes wrong with their computer.

I mean, let's face it, I've been in newsrooms where, when the computer fails, it destroys everything. I mean, nothing is working right. I've been in operations for airlines where the computer failed and a lot of the pilots didn't know how to follow a flight plan because everything has been done by computers.

So it's a challenge that I'm glad they made this report. I just hope that it will be treated properly and people will understand what we have to do to correct it, and that nobody gets upset to feel like their pilot has forgotten how to fly.

BALDWIN: Right. Well, perhaps, as you mentioned, it's a note to all of us. We're all reliant to a degree on computers. We all just need to be able to do our jobs if in the case they fail us, because they certainly are not infallible.

Jim Tilmon, thank you.

TILMON: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Still ahead, President Obama asked Congress for a primetime platform to reveal his highly-anticipated jobs plan, but the timing here could be ruffling the feathers of Republicans. We're live at the White House.

Also, we are going live to Texas, where a fast-moving wildfire, picking up right now.

Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just in to us here, some news in the tennis world. Venus Williams has withdrawn herself from the U.S. Open.

She's citing an unknown illness. Venus entered this year's Open, ranked 36th in the world. She won first round, as did her sister, Serena Williams.

So Venus is out. We have Venus' tweet just from Monday. Here it is. "Hi, everyone. Great to be back at the Open. Wow. Feels good just to be competing. See you at the Open."

Again, she has withdrawn. As soon as we get more from her, her camp, we'll pass it along to you.

And now this, some breaking news on the president's job speech. The government wants to block a merger that would affect cell phone users across the country. And flames are raging in Texas.

Time to play "Reporter Roulette."

And I want to begin at the White House with Brianna Keilar.

And Brianna, the president is calling a joint session of Congress. This is a big deal.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is a big deal. He's actually asking essentially, Brooke, to be invited, because it's Congress that has to be inviting him. And they have to have a vote to do that.

So it is a big deal, because think of the visual. You've got the House, you've got the Senate. They're all together. They're in the House chamber.

This is something that kind of looks like the State of the Union, arguably a big deal and quite a big forum to announce his jobs proposal that we have heard he's going to lay out. And that's really the president trying to create the significance and just how serious he wants this to be taken -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And Brianna, we're also getting some news from House Speaker John Boehner. Apparently, he wants to move this back one day because of security concerns.

What are you learning about that?

KEILAR: Yes. So, listen, here's the schedule.

You have the House coming back on Wednesday. And their first votes aren't until 6:30. Now, there would have to be a vote of some sort if this is going to be a joint session.

And then you're looking at perhaps that takes the House into about 7:00 p.m., right? And that only gives about an hour before the president's address.

You talk to Republicans, and you hear exactly what Speaker Boehner put in his letter, which is, that's not enough time to really have a security sweep. And he's saying, why don't you do it on Thursday instead?

But, Brooke, Thursday, I do note, that Thursday is the kickoff for NFL season, the Saints versus the Packers. The pre-game starts at 7:30.

I'm just saying, that's really something to compete against if you're the president trying to give an address. But yes, there's a kind of, like, tiff going on about what time, what day they're actually going to have this.

BALDWIN: So there's a potential pigskin (ph), issue, but there's also the issue of, isn't Wednesday night the night of the GOP debate?

KEILAR: That's right. So here's the other interesting thing.

NBC, Politico, they're having a debate, Republican presidential contenders. And White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about a lot about this today. You know, why are you having it on this day?

So it's just purely coincidental. And he said it is coincidental, and he's confident that the networks can decide exactly how they're going to juggle these two priorities.

He was asked, "Are you saying they should move the debate?" The White House isn't going there. They're just saying that they're confident that this can all be worked out and the people will have their choice of what they want to watch.

BALDWIN: OK. So we'll see who wins out.

Brianna Keilar, thank you very much.

Also, just a quick reminder to you. CNN is hosting our own GOP presidential debate. That is September 12th, Monday September 12th, from Tampa.

And now, next in "Reporter Roulette," the U.S. government is trying to stop AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile.

Felicia Taylor is live for us at the New York Stock Exchange.

And Felicia, why? Why is the government trying to stop this?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, just like you want to have choices of what you're going to watch on television, people should have choice as to which phone service they're going to be able to use. So this is all about competition. And the government wants to make sure that competition stays in the marketplace to protect consumers from higher prices.

Three companies would control 90 percent of the wireless market if that would come together. So a combined AT&T and T-Mobile, and then Verizon and Sprint.

Less competition usually comes at the expense of consumers because they don't have as much choice. The government has said that it would result in higher prices, fewer choices, and lower-quality products.

This doesn't mean, however, that the deal is off the table. The government says their door is open and AT&T could come to the table and make concessions. They've already said that they would hire or bring back 5,000 jobs from overseas calling centers. So that's one concession that they could make.

But as far as the stock was today, AT&T stock was down about four percent. The winner was Sprint. It was up almost six percent on the news.

BALDWIN: Felicia Taylor, thank you very much.

And finally in our "Reporter Roulette," that fast-moving wildfire near Dallas. Dozens of homes have burned, dozens more at risks. The flames have just kicked up right around this town. It's call Possum Kingdom Lake.

That's near where our own Jim Spellman is, live.

Jim, bring me up to speed. How are conditions today?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, just in the last hour since we talked, this fire has really taken off.

It was up at the crest of this ridge, which is now completely enveloped in smoke, and it's quickly moving down. We've watched this phenomenon of spotting where the wind picks up embers, takes it down the hill, and starts a new fire. They've aggressively been using helicopters.

You can see one in the water here picking up some water out of the reservoir here, trying to get ahead of this spotting. But they really thought they had this fairly well in hand late this morning. And just like that, the winds picked up, and it's kind of changed the tenor.

Now, there's not any homes immediately where it's heading right now, but it's hard to tell what's happening on the other side of the ridge. And you can just see how fast these situations change.

And Brooke, when these embers do pick up and land, here's what they're finding. I showed this to you last hour, but it's incredible. I mean, you can even hear it crackling, it's just so dry. And this is what you see for mile after mile here in this totally parched state -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: That is huge, huge smoke. Quickly, in terms of containment, are they progressing?

SPELLMAN: Well, the fire's definitely advanced in the last few hours. We're going to get briefed this hour by authorities here to see what their containment figures are. Last time it was 25 percent. We can't see the backside, but it's progressing this way -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Jim Spellman, thank you very much, in Texas.

And that is "Reporter Roulette" for this Wednesday.

Coming up next, a CNN exclusive. One of Moammar Gadhafi's sons has just reached out to CNN, and he has a direct message to the rebels. Arwa Damon, standing by for us in Tripoli's newly renamed Martyrs' Square. She's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Within just this past hour, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of Moammar Gadhafi, spoke to an Arab radio station, and he issued a challenge to the rebels who seized much of the country, including the capital of Tripoli. Said Gadhafi's challenge is this -- go ahead, take the city of Sirte if you can. Sirte is perhaps the last remaining Gadhafi stronghold some 300 miles from Tripoli. The rebels say they have Sirte surrounded, and they've told Gadhafi supporters there to surrender by Saturday.

Arwa Damon for us live in the Libyan capital. Arwa, I know Saadi Gadhafi reached out to our own Nic Robertson. What has he said and what have we heard from Saif al-Islam on that television channel?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the two brothers do appear at least to be adopting different tones in that email. Saadi said they will be willing to negotiate a ceasefire to a certain degree saying if the rebels could guarantee safe passage to Tripoli, they would be willing to negotiate. The National Transitional Council for their part saying that they would secure safe passage for any family member to come to Tripoli, but that they would then be detained upon arrival.

The rebels in the opposition council are not necessarily looking for any sort of negotiated cease-fire but rather firmly wanting to put the family on trial and see some sort of justice.

Saif al-Islam continuing to adopt a very, very defiant tone saying they have 20,000 fighters ready to take on the rebel fighters in the town of Sirte, also saying that he was, in fact, speaking from a Tripoli neighborhood and that both he and his father were fine. Absolutely no way of verifying the authenticity of that message or verifying that Saif al-Islam or any one of the Gadhafi family members claim to still be in Libya.

But if you listen to the celebrations happening behind me, the people here in Tripoli most certainly continue to believe the capital is firmly in their control and that the Gadhafi can try to fight for as long as it wants to, but they are not going to be giving up the freedom they have right now.

BALDWIN: Arwa, just quickly, why are they celebrating behind you? Just explain that.

DAMON: Well, it is the end of the holy month of Ramadan. People are telling us this year they are celebrating for their religious holiday but also they are celebrating their victory. They are singing various revolution slogans behind us. And it's been a fairly emotional time. We were seeing children out earlier in the street today who were also singing and dancing. And they were interestingly saying it is the first time that they have been out in the streets singing, no matter what it was that they were singing -- they are celebrating in that you are newfound freedom. BALDWIN: They're celebrating. But let's talk about the stark reality of Tripoli. More than half the city doesn't have any running water. The U.N. is working of an impending crisis there. Is anyone working to get water running? Who's taking charge there?

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: It's been interesting. Even though there are shipments expected from the World Food Program, neighborhoods are really rallying together. There are a number of households here that have dug their own wells. They have done this historically, and those people are literally throwing their doors open to everybody in the neighborhood.

And 60 percent of the capital, according to the U.N., is without water and sanitation. Yes, families are struggling. But at the same time, they're saying that communities are coming together in a way that's never been seen before, at least never seen since the Gadhafi regime came into power. There are of course widespread health concern, and you continue to hear --

(GUNFIRE)

DAMON: People here celebrate with gunfire and fireworks. But at the end of the day there are concerns about the water situation. But they are saying they fully believe this is something they're going to get through given everything they've been through here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Gunfire, their own version of fireworks. Arwa Damon they are celebrating the end of Ramadan. Thank you very much, in Tripoli.

And now this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you hadn't been drinking, do you think you would have done it.

SLOANE BRILES, FATHER: Absolutely. It was water. You're in the water. Do you go to water just to look at it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And his clothes though, you threw him in in his clothes?

BRILES: Well, we have more clothes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This guy throws his seven-year-old son overboard off a moving boat. Coming up next, not only will you hear how he is defending himself in a pretty wild interview but also speak live to the sheriff's department investigating this. Don't miss both sides of this story. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Safe to say, I believe, that this gentleman here, he is a former marine. His name is Sloane Briles. It's safe to say he will not win father of the year, not for the state of California, not for Orange County, maybe not for his own household, not in 2011 at least. Here's his mug shot. This is a call placed to 911 from a pleasure boat. a touring boat on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm on a boat tour called the Queen, and there's a man that just threw his son overboard. That's the charge here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Threw his son overboard. That's the charge here. The son, seven years of age. But to hear Briles tell us, he and his son were just taking a dip. Wait till you hear this guy. Stand by for that. Here's his mug shot again. Here's dad.

Some of the folks on the boat say he was having a tiff with his girlfriend. The girlfriend said he was drunk. The witnesses say the quarrelling made the son so upset. So before he tossed the kid overboard, dad hauled off and smacked the kid, made him cry. Not so, says dad.

Here's our first taste of Mr. Briles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRILES: He wasn't crying. I haven't seen him cry in so long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would someone make up that he was crying and that you were hitting him if that wasn't true?

BRILES: Beats me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We'll hear more from dad in just a moment. First we want to bring in Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County sheriff's department. Jim, so from what you know, can you just walk us through what happened out there at Balboa Harbor aboard this pleasure cruise Sunday?

JIM AMORMINO, ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Sure.

Sunday, just before 2:00 p.m., the suspect became involved in a dispute with his girlfriend. His seven-year-old son and his six-year- old son were on board. The seven-year-old son was visibly upset. The suspect walked to the front of the boat with the seven-year-old boy. The boy began to cry. The father warned his son to stop crying.

He did hit him with an open fist on the face at least a couple of times, according to witnesses. Witnesses on the boat became angry that he was striking his son. Several passengers walked toward the front of the boat where the suspect was. Several witnesses stated that the boy was saying, stop, you're hurting me. Stop hitting me."

According to witnesses, the suspect struck the boy a couple of more times in the face and then one time with an elbow, and warned him, "If you do not stop crying, I will throw you overboard."

BALDWIN: So we know how the story ends. He throws him overboard.

In addition to those witness accounts, they also say Briles threw the kid from the front of the boat, something the dad, again, he disputes that. He says he didn't smack him and didn't toss him off the front. He's disputing a lot of this. Let's listen to him once more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if he went under the boat and drown?

BRILES: It doesn't work like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does it not work like that? Little kid goes overboard, the boat is moving, he could get --

BRILES: We were on the fantail, the back, the bow. We jumped of well prior to them actually slipping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you hadn't been drinking, do you think you would have done it?

BRILES: Absolutely. It was water. Do you go to water just to look at it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And his clothes, though, you threw him in in his clothes?

BRILES: We have more clothes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. Jim, he says, we jumped off, makes it sound like he and his son were going for a dip in the water. But some of the witnesses say dad didn't jump in until after someone had swam to the kid. What is that your understanding? Is that the story?

AMORMINO: It's not the story. The story was he threw him off in the front of the boat. The deckhand threw out a life preserver. Three boats came to the boy's rescue. Several people came to the front of the boat. That's when the suspect jumped in.

So he may have jumped in to aid his son, I don't know. But he may have been jumping in to get away from the angry crowd. But by the time he jumped in, the boy had already been rescued and on another private boat.

BALDWIN: Forgive me. There were two sons. One is in the water, another still on the boat. Are the kids still with dad? Where's mom?

AMORMINO: Well, after the incident, both boys were taken to a harbor police station. And the mother was contacted. She came and they were released to her custody.

BALDWIN: OK. Jim Amormino, thank you very much, Orange County sheriff's department. Thank you, sir.

First Sarah Palin decides she is going to a major event with Republican presidential candidates, even though, let's all remember, she's not running yet. Then she backtracks. We're getting to the bottom of it next.

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BALDWIN: We've been following the story of missing Maryland woman Robyn Gardner. She's been missing in Aruba since August 2nd.

And her traveling companion, this guy, Gary Giordano, possibly linked to the disappearance. They've haven't known. The judge, he was in front of today had to determine whether or not to keep him on the island or not.

There hasn't been a lot of evidence linking him to her disappearance. But we have now learned that he will now be detained in Aruba for another 60 days. We have Martin Savidge in Aruba. We'll get him to in a matter of minutes with an update on that case. Interesting turn of events there.

But now let's talk politics, Jim Acosta is standing by for us in Washington with all things Political Ticker.

Jim, what do you have?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brooke, the politicians here in Washington they think of themselves as masters of the universe, but they may not be masters of the Google calendar.

First it was the schedule back and forth that seems to be going on between Speaker Boehner and President Obama over this speech before the joint session of Congress that the president would like to give.

But, you know, earlier in the day, we were trying to make heads or tails of the situation with Sarah Palin. You know, she's supposed to speak at a Tea Party event out in Iowa on Saturday for a group called the Tea Party of America, which is a relatively unknown Tea Party group, I have to tell you.

But Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak to that event. There was back and forth as to whether or not she was going to actually show up. First she was in. Then she was out. Now we understand she's back in again.

And all of this going back and forth seems to coincide with Christine O'Donnell, who was one time a favorite of the Tea Party Movement, sort of being invited and disinvited and invited. Now she's been disinvited again from the same event.

And our Peter Hamby who's been trying to track this down found out from talking to his sources, that according to some of the folks close to Sarah Palin there were some concerns about Christine O'Donnell's participation in that program. So we're still trying to get to the bottom of it, but it is all very interesting.

It appears Sarah Palin would like to have much of this stage to herself and a lot of this goes to, is he or is she not going to run for president? She's said she's not going to probably announce that she's running for president this weekend.

She said that decision may come later on in September. But she added, Brooke, another event this weekend at another Tea Party group up in New Hampshire. She's going to be with the Tea Party Express on Monday.

So it's got everybody wondering what's going on here. Again, that Google calendar is very handy, if only some of our politicians would use it.

BALDWIN: Perhaps we'll learn soon enough. We'll sit and wait. Jim Acosta, won't we? Thank you very much.

Coming up next, he came all the way here just to see me, maybe not. Maybe he's actually speaking to a crowd at the Carter Center in a little bit. But we'll take him when we can get him. Wolf Blitzer live in the studio next.

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BALDWIN: This is that part of the show when I check in with Wolf Blitzer who's normally in "THE SITUATION ROOM." But he's actually in our situation room.

Are you going to make this your situation room?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": You know wherever I am is "THE SITUATION ROOM."

BALDWIN: I see the graphics. It's magic, boom like that.

BLITZER: This is a beautiful set you have here.

BALDWIN: It is amazing, isn't it? So what do you have --

BLITZER: I remember the old days.

BALDWIN: It was kind of nice. I like our digs.

BLITZER: Beautiful.

BALDWIN: Welcome.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: What do you have coming up?

BLITZER: We've got a lot of news coming up, including a discussion I'm going to have with some experts on the FBI. How worried is the FBI right now, Brooke, on the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11? What are they doing about it? Will al Qaeda or some al Qaeda affiliate or some lone wolf or some individual seek revenge for the killing of Bin Laden?

What's going on? What's the preparation? There's going to be a lot of events that day. We'll take a closer look at that. We also have a professor to tell us what's happening in Libya and Syria right now. It's a fascinating development in the North Africa and the Middle East.

So we got a lot coming up plus, the politics. It's a joint session.

BALDWIN: Joint session.

BLITZER: Not a joint meeting. He wants a joint session.

BALDWIN: So who was right?

BLITZER: Brooke.

BALDWIN: I don't often get to say that. Brooke Baldwin, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: You were correct. You're doing an excellent job.

BALDWIN: Quickly, you're here because you're going to the Carter Center.

BLITZER: The CNN dialogue, we initiate, we inaugurate it tonight. The first discussion on the 2010 census, the new America, what it means for all of us, it's going to be a good discussion over there. You're coming?

BALDWIN: I'm coming with you in the car. Thank you, Wolf. We'll see you in a couple of minutes right here.

Meantime for me, more on our breaking story out of Aruba. The man who may be the final person to have seen Robyn Gardner alive, the missing Maryland woman, just learned. He is staying behind bars for quite a chunk of time to go. We're there live next.

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BALDWIN: All right, on the case today, we're taking you live to Aruba. Martin Savidge is there. Martin, we've just learned a matter of minutes ago that Gary Giordano, the companion of missing Maryland woman, Robyn Gardner will be in custody there for 60 more days. What more can you tell me about that?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, it's interesting because that's the max. That's what the prosecution asked for. There had been all sorts of speculation that it may have been less than that, maybe 30 days.

But a lot of people didn't think he'd get the full 60. But that's exactly what the judge in this particular hearing did. It would imply there must be compelling evidence, perhaps more that the public has been told or the media has been let on to know that they seem to have against Gary Giordano to hold him for this extent of time.

Because the level of proof that the prosecution had to provide has always been raised higher and higher every time they go before a judge so it seems to be significant. They also put out a call again to the public of Aruba saying, if anybody knows anything, please come forward at this time. And they put it out in three languages. That's all we know. We're hoping to get further explanation.

BALDWIN: Yes, so like you said, it must be some sort of compelling evidence for him to have to stay down there for two more months. Take me back in the case because, you know, we were just talking yesterday and there hasn't been a lot of evidence linking him to her disappearance.

SAVIDGE: Right, not a lot of what we would say is the physical evidence. There seems to be circumstantial stuff and certainly evidence that would make him not look too good. I should point out, I had a very quick comment coming from Michael Lopez who is the attorney that represents Gary Giordano.

His comment is "no comment" and it was quite clear he was quite angry in his demeanor. He was not happy with this ruling. Naturally he wouldn't be. But this case is one that was based upon some statements that Gary Giordano said that didn't seem to hold up.

He said it was really rough and that the currents were really bad. And this was on a calm day when the first responders in the water said they didn't feel any currents.

And then on top of that, you have the insurance policy, $1.5 million he took out on Robyn just before they've come on this trip. Who is the beneficiary if something were to happen to Robyn? Gary Giordano and that certainly doesn't look good.

There's got to be more I think in order to hold him for this like the time ensues.

BALDWIN: You would think. I know you and your crew will be digging on that compelling evidence. Martin Savidge, thank you very much live in Aruba.

Before we go, I want you to take a look at this. Let's end the show on this note. First of its kind in the world, ladies and gentlemen, this is a virtual grocery store. This is actually in a subway in Seoul, South Korea.

Offers items you'd buy at a supermarket, but alas, you see this? They're not actually shelves. This isn't an actual food. These are just photos of food. Items you'd find in the grocery store. So how does it work?

Shoppers walk by. They scan the bar codes with their Smart phones. Groceries are delivered to their door. You don't want to go to the store to buy some OJ, scan the bar code delivered to your house. Lazy? I kind of like it.

That's it for me. Wolf Blitzer here in Atlanta in the studio. "THE SITUATION ROOM" starts right now.