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Palestinians Push for Statehood; Amanda Knox Appeal Continues; Thomas Friedman Interviewed about New Book; Music Group Chiddy Bang Profiled; Some Speculate Chris Christie Will Run for President

Aired September 26, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And hello to all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

A brutal day in court at the appeal hearing for American college student Amanda Knox in Italy. One lawyer held up pictures of murder victim Meredith Kercher bloody body. And another called Amanda Knox a liar, pointed her as a promiscuous she-devil with a split personality, angelic and compassionate one moment and demonic, satanic, diabolical the very next, all of this as Amanda Knox's future for this 24-year- old is hanging in the balance.

Let's go straight to Italy. Curt Knox is Amanda Knox's father. He's live for us in Perugia.

Curt, good to see you back on here again here with us.

You're where the appeals hearing is being held. And looking at some of the video of Amanda in court, she appears more thin. How is she holding up? Is she eating? Is she sleeping?

CURT KNOX, FATHER OF AMANDA KNOX: Well, you know, it's been very tough for her, you know, especially these last three hearings. It's been, you know, everything against her.

So, you know, with literally her life hanging in the balance of what the decision is in the courtroom, it's very tough to sleep. And she has been thinning down a bit too.

BALDWIN: Were you, Curt, were you in court today when that lawyer called your daughter a sex-loving she-devil?

KNOX: Yes.

You know, it was -- this particular lawyer, you know, even during the first trial essentially did the same thing. And it was extraordinarily hard to listen to. And it was even harder for Amanda because, you know, she hears it all in Italian and can understand it, where I can only understand bits and pieces of it.

And I could see her wincing in her face periodically. It was very tough for her. But what I find very hard to believe is how this person can start calling her that when he's never even talked to her, never met her, and never really knows who she really is.

And that's the part that really bothers me the most.

BALDWIN: Curt, she is 24 years of age. You alluded to this before, but if you can just speak a little bit more specifically to the pressure she's feeling, it could be life in prison for her. That's now what the prosecution is asking. Or she could come home.

KNOX: You know, we're really hoping for the come home part, but it is truly that.

You know, these two judges and six jurors really have her life in their hands. And, like I say, these last three hearings have been extraordinarily hard. But the defense starts tomorrow, and I think we're going to see a very different picture of what this case is all about and so will the world.

BALDWIN: Can you give us a quick preview of that? Curt, can you hear me?

Did we lose his audio?

KNOX: Yes, I can -- say that again, please.

BALDWIN: Oh. My question was just simply tomorrow -- you mentioned the defense. What should we expect? What picture will they paint?

KNOX: Well, you know, first of all, tomorrow is going to be the Sollecito defense. And then Thursday will be Amanda's defense.

And what I think we're going to see tomorrow is really a focus on the forensic evidence that independent court experts have really defined as being bad and unreliable, where what we saw and what we heard during the first three hearings is all circumstantial evidence. So when it really comes down to the nuts and bolts of this case, you're going to hear in the next couple of days that there really is no forensic case here, and I think that's going to paint a different picture to this whole situation.

BALDWIN: Curt, if your daughter does win this appeal, do you even know how quickly she can hop on a plane and come home?

KNOX: Well, the process is such that, you know, she is under control, actually, of the guards that bring her to the court and not actually under control of the court. She will actually have to go back to prison and actually go through a checkout process.

And at that stage of the game, we will be able to begin to bring her home. And that's what we're really looking forward to and we're really hoping we get the right answer from the court on that.

BALDWIN: And just from your perspective, the whole family, you're there in Perugia. You walk along the streets there. What kind of looks, what kind of comments do you get from Italians?

KNOX: Well, you know, it's really been very positive.

I mean, even through all three-and-a-half to four years that we have been here, any Perugia people that we run into have been, you know, very positive towards Amanda and very supportive to us as a family. And, you know, one of the big, I think, cultural things, especially here in Italy, is family.

And to see us continually over here supporting her, I think they see that that's really the whole family thing, and they have been very supportive towards us. I mean, just today at lunch, I had two people from Perugia come up and, you know, say hi and say they're very supportive of Amanda and hope that we get the outcome that we're looking for.

BALDWIN: Final question to you, we know Amanda has one more opportunity to address the court. Do you have any idea what she will say?

KNOX: You know, she's actually been thinking about this and kind of giving us ideas of what she's going to talk about for probably the last three, three-and-a-half months, knowing that this is really her final opportunity to express her heartfelt, you know, thoughts as it relates to how she's being judged and the fact that she had nothing to do with this horrific crime and that Meredith was her friend.

And it's probably going to take place just before the jury goes in for deliberations, which is probably going to be Monday morning of next week.

BALDWIN: Curt Knox, father of Amanda Knox, live from Perugia -- Curt, thank you.

KNOX: Happening right now at the United Nations, the Security Council is about to consider the Palestinian's bid for statehood. As we have mentioned over the course of the last week, this is clearly a huge deal. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made his push last week before the U.N. General Assembly.

But here's the thing. The U.S. has already said it will veto the move. President Obama says the next step forward cannot come through a solution at U.N. He says the answer is diplomacy, specifically renewed talks on the tough issues that still divide the Palestinians and the Israelis. Many Palestinians acknowledge that statehood, this whole bid is largely symbolic.

But President Abbas is still making and receiving praise for it as well. He got a hero's welcome when he returned home to the West Bank just yesterday. Take a look at the crowd there waving the flags all in support of him and his move. We're going to keep watching this one for you and bring you any developments of course from the U.N. as soon as we get them.

And then one GOP candidate for president takes the lead in a new straw poll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel great. But I feel even greater because the voice of the people is bigger than the voice of the media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Herman Cain, how he is shaking things up and where the other candidates line up.

And then protesters rallying against bank bailouts, the mortgage crisis, and the execution of Troy Davis, they get maced by police. How these peaceful protests turned violent -- back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: President Obama's taking part in a virtual town hall today in the middle of his three-day trip to the West Coast. The online meeting, called Putting America back to Work, is sponsored by social media giant LinkedIn. And he shared the stage with LinkedIn's CEO. This was in Mountain View, California.

What asked what we can do as Americans to help improve the economy, the president made another push for his jobs bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Independent economists have estimated that if we pass the entire package, the American Jobs Act, we would increase GDP by close to 2 percent. We would increase employment by 1.9 million persons. And that is the kind of big, significant move in the economy that can have ripple effects and help recovery take off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: President Obama went on to field questions from the audience and online from LinkedIn members across the country.

Also, in Florida, Herman Cain taking the top spot in the Republican straw poll. Take a look at the numbers, drew 37 percent of the vote. That's twice as much as Rick Perry. Mitt Romney meantime came in third with 14 percent. The victory didn't come as a surprise though to Cain, because he says voters are starting to announce his 9-9-9 tax plan. Have you heard about this?

He explained it this morning on "AMERICAN MORNING." Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAIN: My plan is bold because it throws out the tax code and imposes a business flat tax of 9 percent, a personal flat tax of 9 percent, and a national sales tax of 9 percent. It replaces all of these taxes that people are now having to grapple with, and it provides certainty to the business community, which is what they're looking for in order to grow this economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Also speaking freely for the very first time, those American hikers in prison for 26 months in Iran say their time there was, and I'm quoting, a world of lies and false hope.

Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer speaking at a press conference in New York yesterday, four days after Iran released them. The two were held specifically for 781 days in Evin prison and went through this espionage trial Bauer says was based on ridiculous lies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH FATTAL, FREED PRISONER: From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American.

SHANE BAUER, FREED PRISONER: Every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Fattal, Bauer, and Bauer's fiancee, Sarah Shourd, were arrested after straying across the unmarked border between Iraq and Iran back in July of 2009. She was released last September on medical grounds

And where in the world did NASA's upper atmosphere research satellite fall this weekend? Were you wondering about this? I kind of was. An iReporter thinks he has the answer. He is Kris Rakowski. He shot these pictures over the weekend in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Huh. The 35-year-old art director says he first started looking for signs of falling debris from that satellite right around 10:00 and describes it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Now, NASA says the satellite passed over Africa, North America, and likely landed somewhere off the West Coast of the U.S.

It is supposed to be one of the most secure places in the Afghan capital, but the U.S. Embassy in Kabul came under attack last night. An Afghan employee of the embassy opened fire in a CIA annex killing one American and wounding at least one other person. The gunman was killed by security personnel.

And our Nick Paton Walsh is following the story for from Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

And, Nick, tell us what you have been learning about this attack.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The key thing about this is exactly where it happened. While the U.S. Embassy itself is clearly a secure compound, this is a more secure part of it, an annex not far away from the main compound, out of which CIA operatives are said to work.

Great concerns, really, as to how this employee of the annex, the Afghan, was able to get a firearm, go through the vetting and background checks he must have had to be able to be an employee at this sensitive part of the embassy, and then carry out this attack itself. I think really it's not clear what his motivation is. And investigators are still saying they can't tell whether he had some disgruntled attitude towards his fellow colleagues which may have caused this to happen or whether he was part of Taliban plant, part of a more complicated plot by the insurgency.

At this point, there's been no claim to responsibility by any part of the insurgency. It really is not clear why this occurred. But, still, the psychological part is going to be felt by the Afghans after the last three weeks in which there was this intense attack against the U.S. Embassy and ISAF headquarters and then a key Afghan peace negotiator killed in his own home.

People are wondering how safe really is Kabul, the place that America is supposed to hold the best control over in Afghanistan? And an attack like this, even if the insurgency has nothing to do with it, it's just going to cause people to question that further, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Right. The psychological impact as you mentioned, an attack perhaps like this of this magnitude could happen any time anywhere, certainly reverberating throughout the capital city.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for calling in.

Also, Diana Nyad called off her swim from Cuba to Florida again -- why the marathon swimmer tried again and gave up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad says she's tried for the last time to make that swim all the way from Cuba to Key West, Florida. Her quest ended Sunday, nearly two-thirds of the way across, forced out of the water by incredibly painful jellyfish, man-of-war stings. Here's how she explained it today at a news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA NYAD, SWIMMER: It was like a devil that had a speed that whisked across you that you just can't describe. And when it hit, the pain was paralyzing. I just -- I went -- and I thought, you know what? Jellyfish, this is going to happen all the way across. You better suck it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Oh, Diana Nyad, she certainly never lacked enthusiasm or drive. This swim was a lifelong quest. By the way, she tried this twice before. In fact, I talked to her just a couple of weeks ago after that second attempt. She refused to call it a failure. Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NYAD: I can look back, and it's a lesson -- a life lesson to me.

And I hope all the people around me, and I think it was, that if you spend two years, let's take maybe an absurd example. You're married and spent 15 years in a marriage and it doesn't work out. And you try your best, do everything you can to make it work. It doesn't work. You walk away. You've got to be able to take something from all that precious time spent that's valuable.

So I just spent two years of precious time of my life and so did this entire expedition. So if we didn't make it, is it an entire failure? Was it al not worth doing? Of course not. Huge, huge ramifications of positive feedback of life force came out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Nyad's swim would have spanned more than 100 miles. She made it all the way to mile 67, a woman who conquered so many swimming challenges and age. She's 62. That's pretty good for a 62-year-old, refuses to say that this goal conquered her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NYAD: It's all worth it. There's so much boldness in living life this way. And we did it all, and no one can ever take it away from us. So I stand here proud. I really am.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Her face a little swollen from all those man-of-war stings. She had tears in her eyes. And she thanked her entire team for support. Go, Diana.

And then this, chaos in New York City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I looked back, and this officer in a white shirt just came around and sprayed me and three other girls in the face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Demonstrators rallying against these bank bailouts, the mortgage crisis, the excuse of Troy Davis, they got maced by police. We will explain how these peaceful protests turned violent.

And then this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MAMOUN JANDALI, FATHER: My wife, they came up and start hitting her mostly on her face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This elderly couple beaten after their son's song about creating peace in Syria takes off. The Syrian government is suspected here of being involved in this beating. We will look at the government worried its people will rise up against it and the music that's inspiring Syrians.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You know, music has amazing properties. It can inspire. It can unite. It can make people dream.

But we should also not forget it can strike fear. Consider the story we're about to share here about this musician who simply wants peace in his home country of Syria. When his song about the political violence there started to resonate, his elderly mother and father thousands of miles away were hunted down and beaten to a pulp.

Now, the family believes the thugs who did this were part of the Syrian government, a government that fears this uprising by its own people and the music that inspires them.

A report now from CNN's Gena Somra.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GENA SOMRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-Over): Thirty-eight-year-old musician Malek Jandali says the message of his song "Watani Ana," Arabic for "My Homeland Is Me," is simple.

MALEK JANDALI, PIANIST AND COMPOSER: It is a song from my heart to the heart of the Syrian people and every people. What does it say? I am my homeland. And my homeland is me. My love is fire in my heart for you. When am I going to see you free?

SOMRA: Lyrics the Syrian-American says are universal.

But just days after he played the song at this July 23 anti-Assad protest rally in Washington, the reaction in his homeland, he says, was swift and brutal.

Here, you can see the blood of my wife on the floor, on the carpet, my wife.

SOMRA: Malek's father, a 72-year-old surgeon, says these images taken just moments after he and his wife were beaten at their home in Syria, show just how far that government is willing do go to silence dissent, even if the voices being raised are thousands of miles away.

MAMOUN JANDALI: As I came back from work evening from my hospital, a moment later came two men inside and close the door and start hitting me, handcuffed me back, put tape on my mouth and nose, pushed me upstairs, where -- my wife, they came up and start hitting her, mostly on her face, in front of me.

And they said to us, "This is a lesson to you to know how to behave your son, who is demonstrating and making fun of us."

SOMRA (on camera): What was going through your mind during this attack? MAMOUN JANDALI: I was very, very, very shocked. And the most what hurts was to watch -- to watch my wife being hit, and I can do nothing.

SOMRA (voice-over): CNN was unable to independently confirm the attack in Homs, and the government would not respond to our questions.

But in the past, it has blamed armed gangs for attacks on civilians. When Malek learned of what happened to his parents, he says he was saddened, but not surprised.

MALEK JANDALI: It's the regime that's possible of doing any crime, any atrocity to terrorize people and to stay in power. I mean, a five-minute song has threatened this regime. And what is music? You can't even touch music. You can't even see music.

SOMRA: As he sits in his son's home in the United States nearly two months after the attack, Dr. Jandali's wounds may have healed, but not the pain.

MAMOUN JANDALI: It hurts. That is reform and, there, look of the government of this regime, you know?

SOMRA: Far from silencing a song of protest, the attack against the composer's parents may have instead made it a rallying cry for the Syrian opposition.

Gena Somra, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: One question after I watched Gena's piece was, where is Dr. Jandali's wife? She wasn't interviewed there. Well, we found out.

Mrs. Jandali went to Michigan to be with the couple's other son, who happens to be a dentist. He's going to fix her teeth, which were so badly damaged from that beating. And then once the pictures of her beaten face were circulated online, the Jandalis' home in Syria was ransacked. They installed security cameras before they left the states and saw the home being just ripped apart. They believe it was in retaliation for going public with their beating story.

And now to this: a peaceful protest turning violent. You need to see what's going on in New York City right now. Demonstrators have been out on the streets for over a week now. But over this past weekend, the situation did get intense. Take a look. You see police officers taking down one of these protesters.

The demonstrators have been trying to call attention to what they say is greed and corruption in our financial system. And some people were also protesting out there the execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis. Organizers had hoped to get 20,000 people involved, but thus far that has not happened.

But I do want to show you something else. Again, over the weekend, this video - it's in slo-mo, this from YouTube with onscreen descriptions of what's going on. You see a New York police officer -- obviously, not that one. There's another one in a white shirt here at some point pepper straying some women demonstrators. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHELSEA ELLIOTT, PROTESTOR: I look back at this officer in a white shirt just came around and sprayed me and three other girls in the face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A police officer said the police officers used the spray, quote, "appropriately." NYPD saying over the weekend about 80 people were arrested over the weekend mainly for disorderly conduct and blocking traffic.

And it's your future on the line, jobs, jobs, jobs, how to compete in what some are calling a hyper-connected world. That someone is Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Tom Friedman in the studio to talk to me about his new book. That conversation is coming up.

And then this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: From the good life to mind your manners, the alternative hip hop duo Chiddy Bang joins us for this "Music Monday" for a look at how this group got their start. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK, in depth today, the job market going nowhere, new home sales have fallen again. There are real concerns America is teetering on the brink of another recession. We've been talking about it for a while now. And the federal government could shut down at the end of the week because politicians are fighting over this tiny fraction of the budget regarding natural disaster funding.

So do you ever wonder what it's going to take to get our country moving again? Let's talk to this guy. Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and author Tom Friedman has written a book about this. It's called "That used to be us -- How America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back." So says the frustrated optimist, apparently. Tom Friedman, wonderful meeting you.

TOM FRIEDMAN, REPORTER/COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK TIMES": Great to be here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You start -- the name of the book is past tense. What do you mean by that?

FRIEDMAN: It is interesting. This is a forward-looking book with a backward-looking title. And the reason is we actually believe we had a formula for success in this country. It goes back to Hamilton and Lincoln and every successful president. It was nurture education so people have the skills to master whatever technology whether it's the cotton, gin, or super computer. Have the world's best infrastructure, roads, airports telecommunications, bandwidth. Third, have the best immigration policy that welcomes in those energetic and most talented entrepreneurial immigrants who will start a quarter of the companies every year. Fourth, have the best rules for investing, incentivize investment. Lastly, have the most government funded research to push out the boundaries of knowledge so entrepreneurs can pluck them off and start the Googles, et cetera.

BALDWIN: These are the five pillars of success.

FRIEDMAN: Exactly. That's how we got here. We didn't get here by accident. We had a formula. It was a great public-private partnership. People say I did this all on my own. You didn't do anything on your own. This was a great partnership. What's happened over the last decade, the first decade of the 21st century, which we call the terrible twos, one of the first in American history, if you look at all five of those -- education, infrastructure, immigration, rules, and government funded research, the arrow points down on all five. That's the problem.

BALDWIN: One issue, so says the man who wrote "The World is Flat" before even Facebook, Skype, Twitter, I want to read part of this passage because that's sort of one of the challenges. "With the world getting more hyper connected all the time, maintaining the American dream will require learning, works, producing, relearning, and innovating twice as fast, twice as hard, and twice as much." How do we compete in that hyper connected world, and what do you mean by that?

FRIEDMAN: This is really a book for entrepreneurs, bosses, employees, and students. What we mean, basically, is this. When I wrote the world is flat in 2004, Facebook didn't exist. Twitter didn't exist. The cloud basically didn't exist. Linked-in didn't exist. Applications were what you sent to college, basically. For a lot of people, Skype was a typo.

All that happened in just the last six years. We went from connected to hyper connected. What does that mean for a boss? I'm sitting here in the studio and see robotic cameras everywhere. Was that here 10 years ago?

If the whole globe were a classroom, the curve rose. There's more access to connectivity and not just cheap labor, but cheap genius like never before. So we have a chapter in the book called "Average is over." If you show up with average now, it's not going to produce an average salary that will allow for an average lifestyle.

BALDWIN: You have to bring that something extra. There's an entire chapter called, and I think this is helpful for people, "Help wanted." I don't know if it's you and Michael, but you approach these four potential employers. It was white class --

FRIEDMAN: We did white collar, blue collar, and green collar, the U.S. army.

BALDWIN: So what did you find? You asked them the same questions, what did you look for in and employee?

FRIEDMAN: They said basically what we're looking for people who can do critical thinking and reasoning -- in order to get an interview. Now what we're looking for is people who can invent, reinvent, and engineer their job.

BALDWIN: What does that mean?

FRIEDMAN: It means when change is are happening this fast, your cameraman, director, they have to be able to see the change and come to your or your bosses at a CNN and say you know what's going on? Is your bosses can't see it. It's happening too fast. So everyone needs to be actually -- I got to find a job when I graduated from college. Our kids are going to have to invent a job. You're going to have to basically invent, reinvent, and re-engineer your job.

By the way, in this hype connected world, it's incredibly exciting because you can be a company of one now. You can connect. You can partner with people like never before.

BALDWIN: And then, I love the part where you talk about talking to Americans in general or even just to parents. You have the parents out there who are not involved with their kids or they're so involved that everyone gets trophies.

FRIEDMAN: There is no legacy spot waiting for me in Atlanta. I better figure out what world I'm in here, where the opportunities are, and work twice as hard. We're all new immigrants here in the hyper connected world.

The artisan was the person who before mass manufacturing did everything one off, made that purse one at a time, those shoes one at a time. What did artisans do? They were so proud of their work they carved their initials in their work. Make sure you do your job every day, do something extra that's better than that machine, software, so that you'd want to sign your initials into it. Those are really how you have to approach your job today. You have to bring that something extra that justifies your unique value creation.

People can say very easy for you to say, Mr. Foreign Policy Columnist. You don't understand. I inherited a great columnist's office back in the 60s and 70s. When I come to the office, I say I wonder what any 60 million competitors are going to write today? Every blog, every person out there is a competitor.

BALDWIN: There's a way though. You take it to the next level toward the end of the book and talk politics. We're going to talk politics after the break, because you have an interesting suggestion with regard to a third-party candidate in this race to make things happen. We're going to continue this conversation after the break. Tom Friedman in the studio. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: We are back with Tom Friedman, "New York Times" columnist, author of multiple books. This is his latest, "That used to be us." Let's pick up where we left off. We were talking about politics. Towards the end of the book you talk about how it's not only polarized but it's paralyzed. I want to quote something you write here. You say, "Liberals blame all of America's problems on Wall Street big business while advocating a more equal distribution of an ever- shrinking economic pie. Conservatives assert that their key to an economic future is simple -- close your eyes, click your heels three times, and say "tax cuts," and the pie will miraculously grow." How do we fix this?

FRIEDMAN: We need a hybrid politics. We need a little of both. We need to cut spending. We've made promises to future generations we can't possibly keep.

Secondly, though, we need to raise revenue, because if we take all that spending cut out of Social Security and Medicare, you can't support capitalism. Capitalism is wild, lots of swings, lots of brutality. People will live with it if they know there's a safety net under it.

Last part, we need to invest in that five-part formula for success. So we need to cut, raise, revenue, and we need to invest all at the same time. It takes a hybrid politics that does not correspond right now to the agenda of either party.

BALDWIN: Vis-a-vis A third-party candidate, as you term, shock therapy. We need a shock to the system. You're not proposing a third candidate who would ultimately win the 2012 election.

FRIEDMAN: What we're basically saying is we think there's a huge body of voters who want that high-bred politics and would support it. But they're unrepresented now. We think the only way you break the deadlock between the two parties is to change the incentives, show them that there's a different body of voters.

We believe in incentives. Move the cheese, move the mouse. Don't move the cheese, the mouse doesn't move. The cheese is that huge, unrepresented middle. If there's a third party or independent party candidate who comes along and identifies that middle, I think you could start to reform the politics.

BALDWIN: You're talking more Perot.

FRIEDMAN: Not the left of the left or the right of the right. We're talking a Michael Bloomberg type, someone from the center, a Ross Perot type.

BALDWIN: Will this have a happy ending?

FRIEDMAN: Brooke, everyone asks this. Does the book have a happy ending? We say it does, we just don't know if it's fiction or nonfiction.

BALDWIN: To be continued, dot, dot, dot. I can't have you hear without asking the big news. You in the general assembly and the Security Council taking up this idea of the proposition from Mr. Abbas about the Palestinian statehood today. What do you make of this peace process? And might the beginning stages of the next step happen under Obama's watch?

FRIEDMAN: Things have never been more broken, quite honestly. Abbas' speech, you know, those were three speeches, Abbas, Netanyahu, and Obama. Those were about three worst speeches I've ever heard in order at the United Nations. Abbas spoke to his base. Netanyahu spoke to his base. And Obama just tried to not offend anyone so he doesn't alienate Jewish voters here. It got us nowhere, frankly.

First fundamental rule about the Middle East, the Middle East only put a smile on your face if it starts with them. The only thing that's going to change this, OK, is when this Israeli government, OK, assures Palestinians that we'll get into negotiations.

And what we're talking about is all of the West Bank, except for minor border adjustments. Right now the Palestinians don't believe that's the case. And it's only going to move forward when Israelis are assured, OK, that what the Palestinians are after is a state there and not return of refugees that will somewhat change the character of the Jewish state.

There's the big question of the two sides. Are we talking about four states or two? Is it your state and my state? I hear a lot of people say the West Bank is your state too. Israelis say, wait a minute, you want the West Bank state, but I hear Hamas saying it's our state too.

BALDWIN: So I'm hearing we don't know.

FRIEDMAN: We don't know. And this is not going in a good direction. Watch out.

BALDWIN: OK. Tom Friedman, thank you. The book "That used to be us." Thank you so much. Pleasure meeting you.

FRIEDMAN: Appreciate it.

BALDWIN: Coming up, an incredible show of power and influence. America's top cops says its officers can take out a terror plane.

Also, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIDERA "CHIDDY" ANAMEGE, MUSICIAN: Got to give a shout out to CNN "Music Monday." Yes, couldn't spit a verse too soon. You could catch me. Who you calling? Never falling. Shout to Brooke Baldwin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Nice. Chiddy Bang, a look at how the alternative group got their start. "Music Monday" is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If you watch this show regularly, you know I like all kinds of music, Indy rock, bluegrass, punk, jazz, classical. And today's music is a genre that I love. Chiddy Bang can't be classified as another rap or hip hop group. Their upcoming album is called breakfast is "Mind your Manners". You think they might have something to do with the fact they are both 21 years of age? My producer friend, Julian Cummings, sat down with the duo to hear how they crafted their unique sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

ANAMEGE, : I'm Chiddy.

NOAH "XAPHOON JONES" BERESIN, MUSICIAN: I'm Xaphoon Jones.

ANAMEGE: Together we are Chiddy Bang. We were in college freshmen. This is two and a half years ago, three years ago.

JONES: I was DJ-ing at parties.

ANAMEGE: Yes, I just grew up rapping. In jersey, I was around this rap. My parents were like, no, don't do that. Read a book or something.

(MUSIC)

JONES: Probably one of the biggest influences on me, Joe from the clash. I grew up, I add uncle who was like making me listen to be you know -- I had an uncle making me listen to minor thread and --

ANAMEGE: Me coming from New Jersey, I don't listen to hot 97 and just whatever I would hear on the radio, so my favorite artist was Jay-Z.

JONES: Kanye.

ANAMEGE: It was like him approaching me saying, yo, listen to this style of instrumental. Here is the beat I was cooking up. It blends this was that. I was like, this kind of dope. I never heard this before, but I love it. I want to hop on it. That's how I felt.

JONES: Our biggest song, I want to play on our eventual singer. Like he never heard of TNT.

ANAMEGE: He played it to me. It wasn't even instrumental. It was a DJ match-up, Notorious B.I.G. on that. I thought, I should rap that. Let me get on that. Let me hop on it.

JONES: I didn't think either of us too it to seriously until we did a show at Swarthmore college. It was a club basement in the middle of the woods with like 100 kids, 160 kids. They looked at us literally after we posted like three songs on the Internet. And it was like, you guys are like -- you guys are on it. There are people who figuring out our music now. It gets to the show, one, two, three and everyone knows the lyrics. I think that's the first time we were like maybe this could be a possibility.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Chiddy Bang, thanks, you guys. You can watch our interviews here on music Monday. Just go to my blog, CNN.com/Brooke. Tell me what you love. Tell me what you're listening to and who you think should appear each and every Monday.

Now this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: I'm governor of New Jersey. I'm not going to run for national office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Thanks, but no thanks. But he is a giving a big time speech and meeting with big time donors. Has something changed?

BALDWIN: Also, new polls showing voters are split between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Wolf Blitzer has the latest results in your Political Ticker. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Time now for your CNN = Politics update. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer in Washington with the latest news fresh on the Ticker. Wolf Blitzer, shall we start with polls?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Why not? We have new CNN-ORC poll numbers. Among Republicans right now, nationally, look at this, Rick Perry with 28 percent, Romney, 21 percent, Gingrich, 10 percent, everybody else in single digits. Remember, these are just national polls. Romney is still second behind Rick Perry, even though Rick Perry hasn't done that great in these debates.

Look at this hypothetical match-up. These are registered voters. Match-up between President Obama and Mitt Romney, almost dead even, 49-48. The president does bet when it comes to rick Perry, 51-46 percent. Just a little snap shot. It is still very early, but it gives us a flavor of what is going on.

The president of the United States is taking no chances. He is doing a lot, a lot of fundraising, including out in California. Guess who attended his fund-raiser in Palo Alto yesterday?

BALDWIN: Your favorite singer.

BLITZER: That with would be correct, Lady Gaga.

(LAUGHTER) BLITZER: Guess how much she today pay in order to speak to the president about a very serious subject, bullying in schools, right now? Guess what it cost Lady Gaga to attend? She had to pay $35,800 per person. She paid. The president didn't pay to get her there. She made to make a contribution to the president. But apparently she did have a chance to speak with the president about a subject very close to her, which is bullying and what we can all do about it. It is a very serious subject, obviously.

One other political note, Brooke, before I let you go, or before you let me go, whatever. Donald Trump is continuing to meet with Republican candidates. He met at Trump Towers on 5th Avenue in New York, with Mitt Romney. I will be speaking in "THE SITUATION ROOM" in the next hour and I will try to get a sense of what he thinks about not only Mitt Romney but Rick Perry. He met with him last week and these other candidates. We will see where the Donald thinks this Republican contest is going. And as I keep saying, it is still wide, wide open.

BALDWIN: It is indeed, isn't it? Wolf Blitzer, thank you very much. We look forward with your chat with the Donald.

Meantime, we'll have another political update for you in a half an hour. By the way, they are on twitter. Go to @politicalticker for all your ticker news.

And now top of the hour, watch this --

BALDWIN: Is New Jersey governor Chris Christie reconsidering his decision not to run for president? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.