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"Specific, Credible" Terror Threat; Obama Sells His Jobs Plans; 100,000 Told to Evacuate Flooding; River Crest 17 Feet Above Flood Stage; Power Outage Hits 5 Million People; Giuliani on 9/11 Security; Wildfires Destroy 1,400 Homes In Texas; Protests Shut Down Transit Station; GRAIL Launch Delayed For Saturday
Aired September 09, 2011 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the new terror threat that was uncovered just days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Intel officials describing it as quote "specific, credible but unconfirmed information about a potential al Qaeda plot".
Well, it's believed to involve three individuals and explosives such as a truck or a car bomb. Washington and New York are cited as possible targets.
We're covering all angles of the story. We've got anti- terrorist Fran Townsend. She's in Washington. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. Fran, let's go ahead and begin with you.
You know, you're a former Homeland Security adviser to President Bush. Let's talk about this, quote, "specific, credible, but unconfirmed." Tell us exactly what that means.
FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Sure, well, the specific is exactly what you outlined, Kyra, it's a potential car or truck bomb, Washington or New York may be targets, three potential individuals.
One may be a U.S. citizen. That is the specific. The credible goes to where they got this information from. They're not telling us that whether it was human intelligence or technical intelligence, whether it was derived from the CIA themselves or whether they got it from a foreign ally.
We don't know the source, but obviously the source to those in the U.S. government is a credible source. But we need to focus on the unconfirmed. I mean, we get lots of information that meets the first two. What they're looking for now it is an all hands on deck effort.
The law enforcement intelligence and diplomatic communities around the world, we're trying to find, the U.S. government is trying to find information to corroborate in some way and give them additional lead information so they can identify either the cars or the trucks. So they can identify the individuals in question or take them into custody.
PHILLIPS: And, you know, we talked about this last hour, the fact that we are reading about and talking about real specifics here. I mean, actually launching some type of vehicle bomb threat here. What does that tell us about the CIA, the flow of information, its new boss General Petraeus, his first week here on the job?
TOWNSEND: Right. I don't think this is going to be anything new to General David Petraeus, who for all his experience has seen the U.S. government at work trying to counter these sorts of threats, but it does tell us about a very much well resourced and well trained CIA. This is the CIA that developed the information for the Abadaad compound raid that killed Bin Laden.
We've seen the al Qaeda leadership decimated. Almor Atani was taken -- another al Qaeda leader was taken into custody by the Pakistanis several days ago. And so we've seen a much more robust intelligence gathering capability.
And this is clear -- now we know when we need additional information to involve the state and local law enforcement and the American people to aid this effort.
PHILLIPS: Well, you've just put it out there. Fran, you remember 10 years ago one of the biggest problems, lack of communication among all the key agencies.
TOWNSEND: Right.
PHILLIPS: What we're seeing now, is this an example of how that's changed, those gaps have been filled and our agencies are communicating properly?
TOWNSENT: I think it's an indication that they're doing it much better. Remember, you know, it was December of 2009 the attempted Christmas Day bomber where President Obama came out. He was not happy.
Information had not been shared and he had his counterterrorism adviser John Brennan go back and look at how that happened. I talked to John Brennan earlier this week and he reaffirmed that as a result of that they went back and strengthened those information sharing mechanisms among the agencies.
PHILLIPS: So bottom line, if you're in New York or D.C. do you stay home this weekend? Do you stay away from soft targets or just go on? I have a feeling I know what you're going to say --
TOWNSEND: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Go on and live your life as normally as you can?
TOWNSEND: That's right. You cannot -- you can't change your life and your activities based on unconfirmed threats. If that was the case we would never go out of the house. So you got to wait to see if there is additional information. Authorities are going to let you know that and if it is confirmed, then you can think about how you want to alter your activities.
PHILLIPS: Fran, thanks. TOWNSEND: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Our Barbara Starr has been working our sources at the Pentagon. Barbara, what are you finding out?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, there is a growing sense officials say that this threat is emanating from Pakistan, from the Pakistan/Afghan border region from al Qaeda. What they call al Qaeda central.
Not one of the affiliate organizations in another country in Somalia or Yemen, but al Qaeda right in Pakistan. And they are looking at the possibility they tell us that other groups in Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban known as the TTP, the LET that was involved in the Mumbai, India attacks, that they are also involved in this.
So when they see this sort of super of al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers what they are looking for is what Fran was talking about, corroboration, a second source, someone to tell them, OK. This threat is for real. You have to move against it or if nobody out there is hearing anything about it, does that mean they can dismiss it?
This is the calculation going on right now. This is why the U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence community and U.S. military intelligence is operating at full tilt along with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security.
They know what their sources of information are telling them. They're looking for corroboration. They're looking for more specificity. Kyra --
PHILLIPS: All right. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Barbara, thanks.
In an address before a joint session of Congress, President Obama laid out his new plan to put more of us to work. And today he's hitting the road to sell his ideas to the American public.
Brianna Keilar travelling with the president. Joins us now live from Richmond, Virginia where he's getting ready to make a speech. Brianna --
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra. We're awaiting the president. He should be in about an hour and he'll be speaking here at the University of Richmond selling that plan he outlined last night.
The two really big chunks of his jobs plan about $250 billion for extending and expanding a payroll tax cut for employees making it bigger than they're already receiving and also extending it for employers for small businesses, and also about $150 billion for infrastructure spending, highways, railways, schools, that kind of thing.
New energy that you sort of saw the president have last night, it was sort of in contrast to what we've seen recently. He's taking that on the road. He will be in Ohio next week selling this plan and today, he will be here at the University of Richmond trying to appeal to voters and show them that he is trying to do something and that essentially if he can't do it, it's Congress that is standing in his way.
Interesting to note, Kyra, this is actually Eric Cantor's district where the president is speaking today and White House officials that I've spoken to tell me that is nothing to do with why the president is here.
This is a venue that certainly is not very far from Washington, D.C., about an hour and a half or two hours' drive for us as we made it so not that far. But you can see that there are going to be competing messages because at 3:00 p.m. Eastern today Eric Cantor will also be talking jobs as well.
And so even though you've seen House Republicans be more conciliatory talking about wanting to kind of take some avenues to jobs creation, and not really pushing back as far as they could -- really as far as they could have against the president last night make no mistake there is a battle for the message here. Kyra --
PHILLIPS: OK. Brianna, we will follow that battle for the message. Meanwhile we're talking about historic flooding in the northeast as well. Nearly 100,000 people ordered to evacuate from Maryland to Pennsylvania to New York, homes are under water.
Rivers are cresting all because of Tropical Storm Lee dumping rain on an already saturated region. At least three people have died there. Some places got drenched with almost 15 inches of rain.
Our Mary Snow is actually in the city of Wyoming one of the hardest hit flood areas in Pennsylvania. So Mary, set the scene for us and tell us how bad it is.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, you know, there are so many people that have just come over here and say they have never seen anything like it and they've been living here their entire lives.
We're right along the Susquehanna River. We're on the 8th Street Bridge. Part of the bridge is under water. You can see all this debris that has been slamming this bridge.
The river did crest, but it is still about 16 feet above flood stages and about three miles north is where Mike Butera lives. Mike, you said you were forced out of your home by the water yesterday. What's happened to your house?
MIKE BUTERA, RESIDENT, WEST PITTSTON, PENNSYLVANIA: Right now the house is flooded to within a foot and a half of the ceiling. It's a one-story ranch home flooded to within a foot and a half of the ceiling.
SNOW: You have a family home that's been in your family since 1949. Have you ever seen anything like this? BUTERA: No. In 1972, which was -- which still is the biggest flood in history, the highest the river has ever been, we only had a foot and a half on our main floor. We're at about 7 1/2 feet. It's about 6 feet higher than it was in '72 as far as the flooding.
SNOW: Where do you go from here?
BUTERA: You wait until the river goes down. You clean up then you rebuild. You rebuild.
SNOW: Can you salvage anything?
BUTERA: Hopefully the structure. Can't salvage anything in there, but hopefully we can salvage the structure. Hopefully there is no structural damage.
SNOW: Our condolences to you. Sorry about what you're going through. Mike, thank you for your time. Kyra, you hear these stories over and over again. It is just so incredible to see the force of this raging river.
PHILLIPS: Mary Snow. We'll follow developments out of there. Mary, thanks
A massive power outage in California. The lights went out for more than 5 million people in San Diego and also parts of Arizona, even Mexico all because of the actions of one utility worker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The reason that America and this great city has shown such resilience is because we refuse to be intimidated. But that doesn't mean we're stupid. We'll keep our eyes open.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks about the terror threats reportedly aimed at the 10-year anniversary of September 11th.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: As we approach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we wanted a sampling of how concerned people are these days. Not very according to the CNN/ORC poll taken just a couple weeks ago, which shows nearly two out of three Americans felt they had little reason personally to be afraid of terrorist threats. Again, worth noting that the poll was taken before the government issued this latest bulletin.
Now let's talk about that latest bulletin and the story we're all talking about this morning the latest terror threat. Our next guest is privy to more terror intelligence than many of us probably would want to know.
New York Congressman Peter King chairs the Homeland Security Committee. He's also is on the Intelligence Committee and the only member of both, by the way.
He is joining us live from Capitol Hill. So, Congressman, what can you tell us about this -- this terror plot? How did you get the information and how are you taking it?
REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: I was actually briefed yesterday morning by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center and again, last evening by John Brennan who's the president's special Homeland Security adviser.
The facts are very specific as to the type of threat, how it would be carried out, the number of people involved, all of that. They are as far as specifics. It's credible in that there is a plausible plot. There are some holes, but it is plausible.
But it is not being confirmed with any other source other than we got the information one way. We've not been able to confirm it the other way.
But it is taken very seriously one because it is so specific and with the 9/11 commemorations coming up, we know al Qaeda does look toward anniversaries. They do look for symbolism. They do look for icons. So with all of that, it's been taken very seriously.
PHILLIPS: So, Congressman, OK, so here we are 10 years later since the attacks that devastated our country. So these specifics, these threats, what you know, what we all know now, how have we done in the past 10 years to preventing another 9/11? How would you rate what we're finding out?
KING: We're doing very well. First of all, we haven't been successfully attacked in 10 years. So that alone is a very significant victory. On this, we did find it out, which we probably wouldn't have prior to September 11th of 2001.
If this is a real plot, we still don't know if this is a real plot, but this type of information we wouldn't have gotten. If we had gotten it, may have gotten pigeon holed somewhere or maybe put aside.
Instead I can tell you the moment this information came in every federal agency was heavily involved, the FBI, the CIA, DNI, all of them, NSA and then it was immediately also given to the NYPD and the Washington, D.C. Police Department.
Last evening, it was sent out to police departments all over the country. So we've made a lot of progress. More has to be done. I think we need more as far as communication for first responders, cops and firefighters.
PHILLIPS: Let me ask you about that, Congressman because you've been very vocal about certain gaps that still exist. And one of the main ones are first responders and how well equipped they are if something were to happen.
So if this plot ended up being credible or ends up being credible and something does happen, are our first responders ready, particularly there in New York? If not, what are you trying to do to prepare all of them?
KING: First responders are ready in almost every way, but one and that is they do not have the type of dedicated communications that they need. That is still a problem and that can be resolved. We just allocate the D block, make it available only to police and firefighters for emergencies such as this.
That is still a weak link we have, the lack of proper communications interoperability. We do have full interoperability of communications. That is I think extremely important.
I am pushing Senator Joe Lieberman and I, Senator Rockefeller, most members of the Homeland Security Committee, the secretary of Homeland Security both Republican and Democrat feel very strongly about this, the 9/11 Commission. That is one gap that has not yet been filled.
PHILLIPS: Got it. I know you'll be fighting to fill that gap continuously. Congressman Peter King, appreciate your time today.
KING: Kyra, thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: You bet. Just about 10 minutes from now, we're going to go live to Afghanistan where the intel supposedly originated. CNN's Nic Robertson is working that angle for us. He's going to join us live from Kabul.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking stories cross country now. Sweating out the blackout that left millions of people in the south western U.S. yesterday powerless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL KHAN, ON POWER FAILURE: It was so damn hot in the house. The air is off. My dogs are running around, you know, what's going on? I said the only thing we can do is just get out of the house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The outage made rush hour a bigger headache than usual not to mention the lack of air conditioning for people weather in temperatures that hit triple digits. The source of the failure was a power substation near Yuma, Arizona.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEAL ATKINS, SURPRISED BY POWER FAILURE: I wasn't expecting it to be as widespread. I went to 16th street and traffic was backed up for blocks. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Which made for more traffic woes at the height of the outage Arizona power officials say more than 50,000 customers went without electricity. That number and accompanying problems were much larger across the California border where as many as 5 million customers went without power at the height of the blackout.
Now imagine being the guy that caused the massive outage and how he is feeling this morning. That's right, one guy we're told affecting 5 million people.
Let's get straight to our Casey Wian in San Diego. Now, Casey, we've been talking about this one utility worker, but you're saying, hold on, there is more to the story.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is, Kyra. I just spoke with APS, the power company in Arizona that's involved. They're, of course, still investigating this situation. What they can tell us now is that there was one worker in a substation near Yuma, Arizona who is working on a piece of equipment that somehow malfunctioned.
And at that point the spokesman for the company says no one should have lost power, but about 10 minutes later, power was out in the area of Yuma and then it eventually spread as you mentioned to southern Orange County, San Diego County and even across the border into Mexico.
They do not know what actions that worker - one of those workers actions if any caused the outage. They're going to be investigating that over the next several weeks. But what I can tell you right now here in San Diego, people are relieved because officials were warning that power was going to be out perhaps through today and maybe even into the weekend.
About 13 hours after the massive outage yesterday, San Diego Gas and Electric officials say that they have power restored to all of their customers about 3.5 million folks. And as you can see behind me, we're starting to see traffic beginning to flow.
Traffic lights here need to be put back into service in some areas, but in terms of the morning commute it's going a lot smoother this morning than it did yesterday when lots and lots of folks were just stuck in traffic, businesses were closed. It was a major a headache. Kyra --
PHILLIPS: That's good that things are getting better. Casey, thanks.
A busier day than usual on the floor of the stock exchange. Several New York public figures were there to honor the victims of 9/11. One of them former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Our Alison Kosik had a chance to speak with Giuliani about 9/11 security just a few moments ago. Alison -- ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. The former New York City mayor came back to the NYSE today to ring the opening bell. As he did, back on September 17th, 2001. He said you know what? It was important to come back here to mark that day when the markets reopened after being closed almost a week.
He said, you know what, the NYSE, it's really the core of our economy. It is a huge symbol of capitalism and the nation's financial system and Giuliani said, you know what, getting the NYSE back up and running was a difficult job, but it was an important job.
And he led us through the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil so he really knows what he's talking about. I want you to hear what he had to say about the current terror threat that we heard about yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: Well, I don't know the exact intelligence, but I can sort of interpret from all the experience that I had getting that information. They must be pretty convinced that this is a real one.
That doesn't mean it is going to happen or they aren't able to intercept it. We have much better methods now for picking these things up than we did before September 11. I'm pretty confident the New York City Police Department will be able to prevent this.
But people should be more alert. But they shouldn't let this affect them too much psychologically and this should be a reminder at the 10th anniversary of September 11, doesn't mean that we can put all of this behind us. These people who came to kill us on September 11, 2001 want to come and kill us over and over again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: And after this terror threat that we heard about yesterday New York is no doubt on high alert. We saw checkpoints at bridges today on the subways here in New York City so it's clear that action is being taken to keep an eye on what is going on.
But I also talked about politics with Rudy Giuliani. He told me he hasn't decided if he is going to run yet. He is waiting to see who emerges from the Republican camp. He acknowledges it would be difficult for him to be nominated, but didn't rule it out. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Alison Kosik, not only part of our best money team, but now best political team on television, Alison, you did a great job. We're going to actually talk about your interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton coming up in just about 15 minutes or so as well. Alison, thanks so much.
Also coming up how much does 9/11 still play into our national politics? Our political buzz panel is going to weigh in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now. President Obama hitting the road to push his $447 billion American Jobs Act. The package includes taxes incentives for hiring and spending on construction work.
Parts of New York and Pennsylvania dealing with near record flooding once linked to Tropical Storm Lee. Tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate.
And U.S. intel officials confirm a credible, but unconfirmed threat linked to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. They believe the plot involves three people, explosives, and possible targets in New York and Washington.
Well, the information for the latest terror threat originated apparently in the tribal area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. That's according to a federal official who spoke exclusively to CNN.
But in Afghanistan that intel is being downplayed. Our Nic Robertson is on it. He's in Kabul. So, Nic, what exactly are your sources telling you?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in Afghanistan the minister responsible for the border region says that he doesn't have any information about this.
Perhaps that is not surprising because he is unlikely to know what the Pakistanis would know across the border which is where the al Qaeda camps are and there is certainly a track record of al Qaeda people being recruited, going to those training camps in Pakistan being picked up by top al Qaeda officials and told no don't go into Afghanistan and attack U.S. troops there.
But why don't you go back to your home countries and perpetrate attacks there and one person responsible for doing exactly that with young recruits was picked up in Pakistan just a week ago. Kyra --
PHILLIPS: All right, our Nic Robertson reporting to us from Afghanistan. Nic, appreciate it.
Now your "Political Buzz," a rapid fire look at the biggest political topics of the day. We've got three questions, 30 seconds on the clock and playing today, Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona, founder of Citizen Jane Politics, Patricia Murphy and talk show host, Dana Loesch.
All right, first question, did the president's big jobs speech given the momentum that he's going to need to get anything substantial accomplished here, Maria?
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think he did, Kyra. The speech last night was tremendous. He hit it out of the park. It was the right tone. It was the right message. It was the right specifics. Tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for middle class and working class families, an infrastructure bank that supported by labor and by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all paid for. All of these proposals have had bipartisan support in the past, and you ready for this, Dana? I applaud John Boehner for having said that he would -- that this merits consideration. That he didn't dismiss it out of hand. I hope he can show leadership and talk about that to his Tea Party caucus who it's my way or the highway attitude. (BUZZER) Hopefully, they can put that aside.
PHILLIPS: Dana is smiling. Go ahead, Dana.
(LAUGHTER)
DANA LOESCH, TALK RADIO HOST, "THE DANA SHOW": I could have sworn that I heard this speech before back in February of 2009 when we had the $800 billion stimulus. It's 409 -- half a trillion dollars of stuff that's already been pitched. It's a rehash of the stimulus 2009 speech, and it's not all paid for, and he didn't lay out. A. Not only did he never say how much it cost during the speech, but, B. All he said was, well, we'll have the committee decide the cuts.
This is the exact same committee that he does not control, that he's going to be expecting to make the cuts necessary to pay for this. And the cuts as it stands aren't there -- (BUZZER) because he's talking about $400 billion and a couple million cuts here and there. Done that up.
PHILLIPS: Patricia.
PATRICIA MURPHY, FOUNDER OF CITIZEN JANE POLITICS: I'm going to say no. The president can't do anything without Congress, and Congress can't do anything these days. So, I didn't hear anything in the speech that's going to change that dynamic. And to Dana's point, the president said this is all paid for. It's not all paid for. He wants the Super Committee to pay for this, but the Super Committee doesn't even know that they can get the work done that's already on their plate.
It's like going shopping and telling your friend, oh, I paid for it, because you're going to pay for it for me. Don't worry about it. There's no bill for me. I'm fine.
(LAUGHTER)
MURPHY: So, no. He didn't do anything last night that's going to change that dynamic. Congress is tied in knots. There's nothing he said last night that's going to change that.
PHILLIPS: All right. Ladies, well, Dick Cheney says that Hillary Clinton should maybe run for president in 2012, and our Alison Kosik actually had a chance to ask the Secretary of State what she thought of that comment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: What's the likelihood that you're going to challenge President Obama in the primary? You know, you've got Dick Cheney in your court. HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Oh, yes. It's below zero.
(LAUGHTER)
KOSIK: What do you think about what Dick Cheney said that you would have made a better president than President Obama?
CLINTON: One of the great things about being secretary of state is I am out of politics. I am not interested in being drawn back into it by anybody. I have a big job to do, and I'm honored to do it everyday, representing our country.
KOSIK: Would you ever get back into, do you say, politics again then if you leave this position?
CLINTON: I don't think so.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Hmmm. So, do you think Hillary Clinton really is permanently out of politics, ladies? Dana.
LOESCH: I'm going to take her at her word. And I've seen other stories that say as soon as she's finished with her tenure here as secretary of state, she is going to retire. Although, I did think that she would do a tremendously better job than the current president that we have, I think that I'm going to take her for a word and think that she is done after she's finished with secretary of state.
PHILLIPS: Maria, what do you think?
CARDONA: The last person in the world that she's going to listen to is Dick Cheney.
(LAUGHTER)
CARDONA: And I also take her at her word. I haven't talked to her about this recently, but she has said many times that she is enjoying her job as secretary of state. She's doing a tremendous job at being the country's top diplomat. But if you mean by politics continuing to have a voice in what is passionate to her and that means giving voice to what makes this country great to talking about what is good for middle class families, workers, women, children, she will continue to do that until her dying days. (BUZZER)
PHILLIPS: Patricia.
MURPHY: I don't see Hillary Clinton doing it, but I wish that she would. As a reporter, I would give anything for a replay of the 2008 election, but I just don't see her doing it. You know, she's strongly driven by loyalty even to this president. I have to say, though, there are members of Congress who would like to see a challenge to this president, Democratic members of Congress.
He is very vulnerable. Could anybody -- could any Democrat really knock him off? I don't think so. If anybody could, I think it'd be Hillary Clinton. So, we know she responds to the call of history, but I don't think she'll do it this time.
PHILLIPS: All right. Ladies, buzzer beater now. Twenty seconds each. Right now, there is a, quote, "credible" threat tied to the 9/11 anniversary ten years later. How much do you think 9/11 plays into our national politics? Patricia.
MURPHY: You know, I don't think it plays into our politics very much right now, and I think that's a shame. I was up there in Washington on 9/11 and the days afterward when Congress really came together, and politics was so, so irrelevant. I think that our country is in a lot of the same problems today that we were back then, but members of Congress, the president, nobody seems to be coming together in the way that they were before.
PHILLIPS: Maria.
CARDONA: I do think it plays into our national politics. It is not the number one issue by any means. We know what that is. Jobs, jobs, jobs. So, let's pass the bill that the president is going to give to Congress next week. Pass this bill. We need it urgently. But, it is always in the consciousness, you know?
It is something that will affect us. We're going to be thinking about it all weekend, especially people in Washington and New York. I am a little bit nervous, but it is not going to be the number one issue.
PHILLIPS: Dana.
LOESCH: To Maria's point real fast, you can't pass something that doesn't exist. There's not even a piece of legislation.
CARDONA: Next week, honey.
(LAUGHTER)
LOESCH: He was supposed to have a working vacation. What did he do on his vacation? And it's not paid for.
CARDONA: He wrote the bill.
LOESCH: I think that -- I don't think that it, it really does play into politics at least as much as it did in the years following 9/11. It seems that the unity, especially in Washington, D.C. (BUZZER) doesn't exist anymore, and I think people have grown complacent again. Except for TSA. TSA is crazy.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Oh, boy. All right. I should let the other ladies respond. All right. Hold that thought. We'll get to that on Monday. You guys have a great weekend. Thanks so much.
LOESCH: Thanks, Kyra.
CARDONA: Thank you. PHILLIPS: Well, fighting wildfires not just one but dozens of them, some deadly. The latest from Texas is next.
And President Obama's jobs plan. We're talking billions of dollars and possibly thousands of jobs. Poppy Harlow explains coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking stories across the country now.
Plumes of smoke still billowing over Texas. Firefighters have gained some ground in the battle against dozens of wildfires. (INAUDIBLE) fire near San Antonio is more than 50 percent contained now. Meanwhile, the 34,000 acre Bastrop fire near Austin has already destroyed nearly 1,400 homes. Two people have died there.
And in San Francisco, a B.A.R.T. train station was shut down for a couple of hours as police arrested more than 20 demonstrators protesting against the Bay Area Rapid Transit authority's police force.
And NASA delaying its planned launch today of a moon research mission. Bad weather is the reason. They'll now shoot for tomorrow. That mission, called GRAIL, will study how the moon was formed.
You may be surprised to hear just how many new jobs could be recreated by rehabilitating old buildings such as schools and foreclosed homes. The president actually talked about it in his jobs plan last night. Now, CNNMoney's Poppy Harlow is going to give us a few more details. Hey, Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey, Kyra. Yes. It's interesting hearing the president last night, then the White House sent us the outline of the proposal. We'll get the specific American Jobs Act legislation next week, but in what we have from the White House, so far, it talks about project rebuild. That includes modernizing about 35,000 schools. It also talks about revamping, if you will, a number of vacant buildings and homes all across America.
I want to show you some video, because we wanted to see what this was like, if this is really happening, the screening of buildings. The Empire State Building, they are doing it right now. We had a chance to tour it as you can see what they're doing. Let me show you these numbers, because it's pretty astonishing. In the Empire State Building where they're doing this huge energy retrofitting, they've created hundreds of jobs.
There are $20 million project expensive up front, but they think it's going to save almost $4.5 million a year. That's a 38 percent cut in energy spending. Now, take a listen to the guy who is heading this project, because he really gets into how big this industry could be across America and what it could mean for American jobs. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID MYERS, JOHNSON CONTROLS: There are new jobs in old buildings. There's a lot of work to do. There's payback with it. If you look at the private sector, we believe it's up to a $12 billion incremental industry that could be created to go capture the savings in these old buildings. The estimate we see for the overall private sector buildings would be about a $12 billion a year industry.
We think that would translate into anywhere between 120,000 and 240,000 jobs. Ranging anywhere from engineers and consulting work down to maintenance and construction jobs that would go with that.
HARLOW: So, construction workers who may have lost work in other sectors could technically come work in this environment in retrofitting?
MYERS: Absolutely. In fact, most of it is very consistent with work they've done in the past. It's just working on different types of things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: And now, here's what's key if those construction jobs, Kyra. I asked him, all right, how much training is it going to take? Do people have to go through years of training to get these jobs? Because that doesn't help the situation we're in now. He said absolutely not. We're talking about weeks, maybe a month of training here. And when you look at construction workers in this country right now, the president talked about it last night, they face more than 16 percent unemployment, almost double the national average.
They're in a very bad state, and they can get jobs just like this. We see it playing out on a mass scale at the Empire State Building, but this is what the president would like to see across the country -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll talk more about it next week when you get the whole plan. Poppy, thanks.
Peyton Manning, he's had his third neck surgery in less than two years. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us to talk about the recovery for the Colts quarterback. That's next.
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PHILLIPS: The NFL season got under way with a big bang last night and so did one rookie's pro-career. The Packers' Randall Cobb returned to kick off 108 yards for a touch down. Oh, yes. Look at him go. And he ties an NFL record for the longest return ever. Cobb also caught a touchdown pass against Saints. Green Bay held on to beat New Orleans 42-34. Yes. You're the man.
All right. Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning's, 13- year starting streak is actually coming to an end. He's going to be on the sidelines after having more neck surgery. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here to tell us about that surgery. And yes, this is the football from the Packers/Saints game. Peyton actually taught me how to throw, but that's a whole another story. But let's talk about his condition. Seriously, this is not good for one of the greatest football players.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think a lot of people paying close attention. I mean, this is the third operation now in his neck. Let me just show you here. You know, he's had operations on the neck from going from the back of the neck before. So, going from over here and taking some pressure off of nerves.
What we hear that he had been now was an operation from the front of his neck to try and take an entire disk out over here, replace it with another sort of substance, and then put a titanium plate across that to form what's called a spine fusion. A bigger operation, a commonly done one, but as you said --
PHILLIPS: Why does someone get this type of surgery?
GUPTA: It's interesting. We have some details about, you know, what the colts are telling us. Usually, it's because someone has a nerve that's pinched, and the disk is what's doing the pinching. What he had done before was sort of a less aggressive therapy to try and take some of the pressure off. It didn't sound like it worked the first time.
May have worked for a little while. Second time it came back. They tried once more. This time, they said, you know what, we're going to take the entire disk out so you can't have that problem anymore, but it's a bigger operation that does require those bones to be fused together so the disk, you know, is not moving around.
PHILLIPS: So, tell us about the recovery. How soon he could be back on the field.
GUPTA: This is an operation that's commonly performed. I do an operation like this all the time, but usually, five to ten days before someone is sort of kind of feeling more like themselves again. For someone like him to get back to the gym to start rehabbing the muscle groups, that would affect your triceps, by the way, that particular level where he had that operation done. So, think about a football player and the triceps.
He's got to get that muscle group back into shape. They say between eight and 12 weeks. It's an estimate.
PHILLIPS: What's the case scenario?
GUPTA: Worst case scenario is that the nerve is pinched so dramatically that he just doesn't get the strength back from his playing standpoint. Certainly, any time you do an operation, you can get infection. You can have leakage of fluid around the spinal cord, bleeding, all those things. Sounds like the operation went well. So, the biggest thing now, I imagine, in the next week, we're going to hear about Peyton being back in the gym working on triceps exercises, specifically in addition to other stuff and trying to get that throwing arm back in place. From a mechanics standpoint, you know, swiveling the neck and doing all the stuff that a quarterback needs to do, he should be able to do that even with this fusion. It does fuse one part of the spine, but all of that sort of movement, the up and down, that should remain.
PHILLIPS: Got it. All right.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. In all seriousness, where the football (INAUDIBLE)
GUPTA: We brought it.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Really? OK. You got it. To break. There we go. To break.
And also up next -- that' right. Hillary Clinton has actually talked to our Alison Kosik on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. You will see the full interview, but here's just a small clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Let's not, you know, let's remember the past, because we have to be smart, we have to be vigilant, but let's look toward the future. Let's show some confidence and some optimism. Let's get the bells ringing and let's get some activity going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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PHILLIPS: Special day on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. New York leaders, former and current, honoring the victims of 9/11. Alison Kosik also had a chance to ask about security in light of the threat that we've been talking about since yesterday afternoon. You actually were able to grab the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for a one-on-one, Alison. Tell us about it.
KOSIK: Yes, I did. And you know what, I did bring up security because that's really what's on everyone's mind this morning after we heard about this possible terror plot targeted against New York and D.C. And New York is definitely on alert. You know, we saw that this morning on our commute in. We're seeing it at the train stations.
More people in uniforms, more dogs out there, check points on bridges and at the subways. And it's likely going to continue through the weekend as we get closer to the anniversary on Sunday of 9/11. So, I asked Secretary Clinton what the latest is if all this was expected, if this kind of threat was expected, and how concerned we should be? Listen to what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: Well, first, let me say, there is a specific, credible, but unconfirmed threat report. We take it seriously as we always do, and particularly, because we learned from the raid on Bin Laden's headquarters and going through all the material that al Qaeda was still determined to attack around anniversaries and particularly New York and Washington. So, we are obviously working with everybody to try to find as much information as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: And she said if 9/11 taught us anything, it's that our spirit is strong. We can band together and make it through these tough times. And you know what, we saw that spirit at the opening bell back on September 17th, 2001 when the market reopened after being closed for almost a week. And we saw that same spirit again today. There was a huge crowd out here today, huge applause when this opening bell rang.
And you know, there were a lot of tears, too. You know, it's very sobering. There's a lot of emotion. Go around and ask anybody here on the floor, and they know of somebody who was killed in the attacks, but what we're doing is showing we can get through these times of tough times. Secretary Clinton spoke about that resiliency and the -- we're in it together attitude -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Alison, thanks.
Other stories making news later today. 11:30 eastern time this morning, President Obama speaks to the University of Richmond. He's selling his jobs plan.
Then later this afternoon, House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, speaks at a Richmond, Virginia business.
And at 8:00 p.m. eastern in Washington, a concert to honor 9/11 victims has been moved from the National Cathedral to the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts.
Well, making their mark, every Tuesday morning since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Freeport Flag Ladies have waved the American flag at motorists in Freeport, Maine. Elaine Green, Jo Ann Miller, and Carmen Footer say they're showing support for their country, and Elaine remembers the very first time they waved that flag just three days after 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELAINE GREEN, FREEPORT FLAG LADIES: I decided to come up here, and I brought my flag with me. And, this was a heavy time for everybody. I didn't know if it was proper to raise the flag or not, but finally, I did. And when I did, people beeped their horns and yelled "God Bless, America." We'll get through this and that dark, heavy feeling that was around every one of us just lifted and I said, this is what I need to be doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Well, join us for our special 9/11 ten years later. Live coverage of remembrance (ph) events begins Sunday 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN.
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PHILLIPS: Well, as expected, White House candidates are slamming President Obama's jobs plan. And our senior political editor, Mark Preston, is in Tampa just ahead of CNN's Republican Tea Party debate getting all the feedback. Mark, what are they saying?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, you know what, Kyra? You're right. No surprise that the Republican candidates came out very critical of President Obama last night. In fact, we saw Michele Bachmann leave the campaign trail, go to Capitol Hill, and deliver her own response. Well, you know, not only did she talk about it, so did Mitt Romney. He did it kind of been 21st century fashion. Let's take a look at this video he released.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It's called the American Jobs Act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRESTON: And there you go. You know, Mitt Romney didn't actually say anything in that web video. He decided to use the president's own words and the fact that he said the president has waited too long to act, but while he did that, Rick Perry, the Texas governor decided to go with the old-fashioned way. He put a statement out right here. Let's take a look at the statement, Kyra.
And in the statement, what Rick Perry says there is basically, you can't spend your way out of the problems that we're in right now, which is a very strong Republican talking point. In fact, he says that President Obama's call for nearly half a trillion worth government stimulus when America has more than $14 trillion in debt is guided by the mistaken belief that we can spend our way to prosperity.
But again, I tell you what, Kyra, probably, my most favorite statement that came out last night came from Herman Cain, and there is something to be said that brevity is a virtue. In fact, let's take a look at what Herman Cain said last night in very short words. "We waited 30 months for this?" So, Kyra, Republicans on the attack. No surprise here.
PHILLIPS: Right. And what do you think, Mark? The president's speech probably going to become an issue in CNN's Republican Tea Party debate on Monday?
PRESTON: Well, they'll certainly use it to try to attack the president. You know, even though these Republicans are against each other, they're all vying for that Republican nomination, one thing they are unified in is they don't want to see Barack Obama elected in 2012 -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Mark Preston in Tampa, getting ready for the big debate Monday night live right here on CNN. Mark, thanks.
Well, that's it for us. We hope you have a terrific weekend. We'll be back here bright and early on Monday. Meanwhile, our Suzanne Malveaux in Afghanistan, Fred.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: I remember when you were there about eight to nine years ago.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That was a different anniversary.
PHILLIPS: Yes, it was.
WHITFIELD: Now, Suzanne is in Afghanistan marking the ten-year anniversary for the start of the Afghanistan war.
PHILLIPS: And things have changed.
WHITFIELD: Certainly has. We're going to get to that momentarily. You have a great weekend.
PHILLIPS: You, too.
