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Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney; Security Firm Blackwater Wants Back In; Syrians Fear Looming 'Bloodbath'; Syrians Fear Looming "Bloodbath"; Lowe's Under Fire For Pulling Ads; Hollywood Shooting Rampage; Music Monday

Aired December 12, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Joe Johns. Thank you so much. We'll see you up here in the studio momentarily for a little "Political Pop."

And hello to all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

As always, "Rapid Fire." Let's go, beginning with Iraq.

Iraq's prime minister at the White House today. Nouri al-Maliki and President Obama spoke to reporters. Both men there at the White House, looking ahead to the day just three weeks from now when nearly all U.S. forces are expected to be out of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Throughout the region we'll see a new Iraq that's determining its own destiny, a country in which people from different religious sects and ethnicities can resolve their differences peacefully through the democratic process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Also this hour, we are watching the markets. As you can see, the Dow down 216 points here, two hours from the closing bell. The markets are down because of growing doubts over the resolution of Europe's debt crisis, also are over sale warnings from chip maker Intel.

Watching markets for you today.

Also, breaking today, Arizona's tough immigration law going to the nation's highest court. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the state can enforce it as the Obama administration is fighting against it. A ruling expected in June.

And Mitt Romney stepping up his attacks on Newt Gingrich. We want you to listen to how the former Massachusetts governor characterized the apparent front-runner now in this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Erratic, outspokenness, which may be great in a campaign, but is not great for someone who is running for president of the United States, representing this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Those comments coming after Newt Gingrich called the Palestinians an invented people. More on the heated race in a couple of minutes with Wolf Blitzer out of Washington.

Happening right now in Blacksburg, Virginia, the funeral service -- live pictures here of this service -- for Virginia Tech police officer Deriek Crouse. The officer was killed during that shooting incident on the campus last Thursday.

Police say a 22-year-old Ross Ashley shot Officer Crouse, no apparent reason, then killed himself just about a half-hour later. Ashley's relatives have sent condolences to Officer Crouse's family.

And Occupy Wall Street protesters, they are trying to occupy these West Coast ports. They had planned marches today all the way from San Diego up to Anchorage, Alaska's. This year -- these pictures playing out, this is Portland, Oregon, where gates have been closed at two of the ports' four terminals. The union that represents longshoremen at many West Coast ports has distanced itself from these protests today.

And a Facebook post leads police to a horrific scene in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The bodies of two 19-year-olds and an unidentified third person police believe to be the gunman were found minutes after this status update.

"Someone call 911. Three dead bodies at 3229 Lima Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana. I've killed Ryann, Erin, and myself. People were warned not to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) play me and ruin me. They didn't listen. Sorry about your luck."

A status update.

Nancy Lopez saw the post from Washington State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY LOPEZ, SAW FACEBOOK POST, CALLED POLICE: I kind of like freaked out when I had seen it. Is this true or is it fake?

So then I just called the Fort Wayne Police and told them what was going on, that a friend of mine on Facebook, his name, and then I read them the post. And they said the address was the same as what they had listed for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All on Facebook.

Also today, a private funeral is being held for this little girl, 7- year-old Jorelys Rivera, who was with raped and brutally murdered in Georgia. Little Jorelys was snatched from her playground area at her Georgia apartment complex. A 20-year-old maintenance man is now charged with killing her. A funeral was held had Saturday in suburban Atlanta. And then Jorelys' body has now been flown to Puerto Rico for a private family funeral. She will be buried in Puerto Rico there tomorrow.

And a prison break by members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Fifteen suspected terrorists escaped from a prison in south Yemen earlier this morning. They broke out by reportedly digging a 20-foot tunnel. The prison is in Aden, which has been under a terror threat since May, when militants took over a nearby province.

Back here at home, Secret Santas, they are really stepping up their game this year. Listen to this.

Some anonymous Santas are paying off people's layaways, just walking into Kmart stores and throwing down some money in both Michigan and in California. Last Monday, someone donated 500 bucks for three separate layaways. The next day, 14 layaways were paid off with a $2,000 gift from a Secret Santa.

Holiday spirit, hello! That's what we're talking about here.

We are just getting started. Five minutes into a two-hour show. Here's what we have coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: In less than two hours from now, two Republican contenders for president will be squaring of in a Lincoln/Douglas style debate, and one candidate has a lot riding on this one.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): Sparks fly over a TV show about Muslims in the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- practice our faith without losing our sense of American patriotism.

BALDWIN: Well, now Lowe's yanking its ads from the show. It's a move one lawmaker calls un-American.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The clock is ticking. We're in the final minutes now.

BALDWIN: More than eight years later, American troops getting ready to leave Iraq. You will hear candid memories from the folks who have lived on the front lines.

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was his family that was under that house.

BALDWIN: Plus, an about-face in the fight over Alabama's controversial immigration law. I'll speak live with a Republican who supported it but now says we've got to change this, and fast.

And --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a madman in the street.

BALDWIN: -- a guy steps into the middle of Sunset Boulevard, waves a gun, and pulls the trigger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God!

BALDWIN: Find out who was behind the camera and why he was screaming in this Hollywood rampage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Talking politics now. And I don't know if you caught this, but high-rolling Mitt Romney offers a big-bucks bet to Rick Perry over Romney's position on health insurance. Have a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ten thousand bucks, a $10,000 bet?

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not in the betting business, but --

ROMNEY: Oh, OK. OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That little exchange there from this weekend, that's caused quite a bit of an uproar, that the prospect of wagering $10,000 as so many Americans are out there today struggling looking for work -- Romney, he is not disowning the gesture, but says his wife warned him lately that he's really actually not much of a gambler. So, that said, let's move on.

I want to bring in Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

And Wolf, stand by. Let me continue to set this up, because we know Mitt Romney is getting a little bit more aggressive here, and that's no huge surprise. He's obviously going after Newt Gingrich.

Here is something that Gingrich said that may have given Romney though an opening. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who, in fact, are Arabs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was Newt Gingrich speaking, Wolf, before Saturday's GOP debate, as you well know, saying we have invented the Palestinians. And now here is Mitt Romney just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: We don't go out and say something like the Speaker said. It shows a level of -- let's say an erratic outspokenness which may be great in a campaign, but it's not great for someone who is running for president of the United States, representing this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Erratic, Wolf Blitzer. Is that the beginning of what we'll be hearing from Camp Romney toward Camp Gingrich?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: You know, it will be intense, it will be serious. I'm not sure it's going to really get muddy and dirty, the exchanges between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. They both have too much riding on it, and both of them, in the end, they want to save their fire for President Obama in a general election campaign. But it will get intense, it will get heated up from time to time.

"Erratic outspokenness," I'm not sure that that's necessarily a bombshell or anything like that. They disagree on that. They disagree on some other issues as well.

We'll probably hear more about it. There's another Republican presidential debate coming up later this week.

But I don't think it's going to get overly personal or brutal --

BALDWIN: You don't?

BLITZER: -- or anything along those lines. I suspect they'll keep all the kind of ugly rhetoric, the ugly exchanges, to a minimum. At this stage in their political careers, they've got too much riding if they let it get too ugly, because then folks will say they're just providing ammunition to the Democrats and to the Obama campaign by slashing and burning each other. So I suspect it will be relatively tame.

BALDWIN: OK.

Looking ahead to the primaries, which, as you know, they're right around the corner, they don't line up too nicely for Mitt Romney. You have the Iowa caucus upcoming, January 3rd. Our latest polling shows Gingrich leading Romney by 13 points.

Next, New Hampshire. The only bright spot, I guess you could say, for Romney, Romney has a lead of nine points there.

South Carolina, all Gingrich. Here you go. He's up 13 points in South Carolina.

And finally, Florida. Newt Gingrich beating Romney right now 48 percent to Romney's 25. Are the Romney left to hope that they're just going to have to survive January and then hope to take advantage of his vaunted organization nationwide?

BLITZER: That's part of their strategy. Remember, for the first time, what the Republicans are doing is what the Democrats did the last time, is that it's not going to be winner take all in these early contests, the caucus states, the primary states. It's going to be proportionate.

In other words, you're going to get a certain number of delegates going to the Republican National Convention in Tampa over the course of the next summer based on how many votes you actually get in the contest. So Romney, he's got a lot of money. He can keep this going against Newt Gingrich. Right now, at least, he's got a lot more money.

So, if he survives January, and then they go into February, March, this could be a repeat of what we saw four years ago, when with Democratic contest went all the way through June, as you well remember, Brooke, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fought it out for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was only a couple of months before the Democratic convention in Denver, and, of course, we know what happened then, the Democrat was elected.

So, all this talk of it being over by the end of January I think is really, really premature because of the new rules that the Republican National Committee has put forward providing proportionate delegate counts in each of these states. So it's not going to be over with all that quickly. For those of us who are political news junkies like you and me, this is good stuff.

BALDWIN: Yes, it is good stuff. Who knows how late this may actually go?

But you mentioned the White House. If things do get ugly, which they may or may not, between Gingrich and Romney, it's a good thing for Obama, a good thing for the White house.

How does the White House handle this though strategically going forward now? They had been attacking Romney. Now they've sort of switched their game up, firing at Gingrich, which could, I guess, in the end help Romney.

BLITZER: Yes. Over the weekend the DNC, the Democratic National Committee, put up their first ad really going after Newt Gingrich. Almost all of their fire has been directed at Mitt Romney over these past several weeks and months.

I've spoken to a lot of Democrats, a lot of Obama supporters. They all think that it would be easier for the president -- it's still going to be difficult no matter who the Republican nominee is -- but it would be easier for the president to beat Newt Gingrich than it would be Mitt Romney in a general election campaign.

But, having said all that, they're gearing up for either one or maybe somebody else. Who knows? But right now they're beginning to direct some of their fire at Newt Gingrich, even though behind the scenes, I think some of them are sort of hoping it turns out to be Newt Gingrich. They think they can beat him.

They should be very careful what they wish for if they think it's going to be easy, because you never know what can happen in a general election campaign. And I pointed this out on many occasions.

I'm old enough to remember in 1980, when there was an incumbent Democratic president named Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan eventually got the Republican presidential nomination. Some of Jimmy Carter's aides were high-fiving each other, they were celebrating. They thought, how could an incumbent president like Jimmy Carter not beat a former movie star? And guess -- we all know what happened.

BALDWIN: We all know what happened. You never know, as you say. Don't count your chickens, is what my mom always said to me.

Wolf Blitzer, thank you so much. We'll chat next hour as far as what you have coming up on "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Meantime, President Obama and Iraq's prime minister meeting today at the White House. This is the U.S. pulling out virtually all of its remaining troops from Iraq by the end of this year.

And the company once known as the world's most notorious private security contractor, Blackwater, changing its name again. Find out why, coming up.

Plus, have you heard about this? A 14-year-old kid from Virginia escapes from hostage-takers in the jungle in the Philippines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my goodness, I can't put into words. It is truly a Christmas miracle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The details of how this kid got free are amazing. We've got that story for you coming up.

And a man is allegedly shot by his mother-in-law while trying to pick up had his child. But the whole shooting caught on camera by the guy who got shot. We're going to show you the video coming up this hour.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: "CNN In-Depth" all this week -- today, specifically -- President Obama hosting Iraq's prime minister at the White House. And with just a couple more weeks now until the nearly complete U.S. pullout from Iraq, the two men there reinforced their promised post- war partnership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We're here to mark the end of this war, to honor the sacrifices of all those who made this day possible, and to turn the page to begin a new chapter in the history between our two countries, a normal relationship between sovereign nations.

NOURI AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I am very happy. Every time we meet with the American side, I find determination and a strong will to activate the strategic framework agreement. And I say, frankly, this is necessary and it serves the interest of Iraq, as it is necessary and serves the interest of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Want to give you now just a quick timeline on the U.S. pullout from Iraq.

So, the height of the war -- the height -- about 170,000 Americans troops were in country, manning more than 500 bases, outposts, airfields. So now watch these numbers drop.

It was recently, as January of this year, 50,000 U.S. service members. Now, today, four American installations, just 6,000 troops. And they're on track to be gone, as promised, as we've been hearing from the president, by the last day of 2011.

No more armed patrols, no more combat air support missions, just a couple dozen troops to help the Iraqi military buy weapons. But plenty of Americans will stay in Iraq. I'm talking about diplomats, contractors, a couple thousand civilian security personnel hired to protect them. And that is the part of Iraq's future that I want to talk about now, that contracted security force.

Because at one point during the Iraq War, the private company called Blackwater was a dominant player in the private security business in Iraq, and it went bad for Blackwater. There were incidents. They were booted out of the country. Now the company that used to be called Blackwater wants back in.

And I want to bring in Suzanne Kelly to help here, join me in the conversation. Not only is she a CNN senior national security correspondent, she literally wrote the book about Blackwater.

And Suzanne, Blackwater, I saw this morning, it's changed its name again. Why?

SUZANNE KELLY, CNN SR. NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It has, for the second time. The first time the company changed its name, it was still owned by the same person, still run by the same executive management team, so it was really just kind of a change in name only.

It was after that bloody shooting in Nisour Square in September of 2007, 17 Iraqis were gunned down by a Blackwater team. Now, they're trying to sort of figure out what all happened that day, still, all these years later. But it was really the beginning of the downfall for Blackwater.

Their reputation was kind of shot. They had had incidents before that they weren't able to get over.

And so, last year, in December, Erik Prince, who's a former Navy SEAL and owner of the company, threw his hands up in the air and said, that's it, I'm walking away. So he sold the company to a group of private investors who thought that putting their money into this might well be worth it.

Now, remember, the contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places around the world number in the hundreds of millions, reaching billions of dollars. So there's reason to understand why they would invest in this.

Now, the big challenge has been whether or not they can make people believe they are a different company completely. They brought in a new board of directors, they have a new management team, they've gotten rid of the old management team. They have a new CEO who decided this would sort of be like the crowning achievement to change the name as well.

BALDWIN: But, if I may jump in, you mentioned the 17 Iraqis gunned down in the square back in 2007. I mean, how does this country -- I guess the third iteration, the third name now -- can they shake that?

KELLY: Yes. It's a great question.

And the new name is ACADEMI, by the way. I don't even remember -- we're so excited about the topic because it's so incredibly interesting, but they decided on the name ACADEMI because they wanted it to be something completely different from Blackwater that focused on the training.

And I think that's the attitude now, that the new company owners and CEO is moving forward. They're saying, look, we're not the same people.

And they know that there are going to be a lot of lucrative contracts in Iraq coming up. They're going to need security around those oil and gas installations. There's going to be a lot of work that's bid on by other companies, and they would like a piece of that again. And so I think they feel like the measure of success will be whether or not they can convince Congress, a lot of people in the media, a lot of sort of Blackwater haters, that they really are a different company.

BALDWIN: We'll, we know you'll be watching ACADEMI. And we'll follow that story with you as well.

Suzanne Kelly, from Washington.

Suzanne, thank you.

And staying "In-Depth" with me here on Iraq now, nearly nine years here of war, President Obama said today, ends this month. But the war forever changed the lives of entire generations in Iraq, and I want you to hear this. This is the personal reflection of a seasoned CNN correspondent, a profoundly moving moment she witnessed during the war there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: In 2005, when I was still a producer, I went on an embed. It was in Husaybah. And the Marines had been trying to clear elements of al Qaeda in Iraq up the Euphrates River Valley, and they had gotten everyone into Husaybah, which is right up against the Syrian border.

And it was intense. It was street-to-street fighting. And the people in Husaybah were afraid to speak out. No one would really say al Qaeda's here, and that's pretty much the status quo, because it's not worth the risk for them.

There was one man -- one man -- who said, yes, al Qaeda is here, and, yes, we want the Americans to save us. And I remember being just completely in awe of his courage.

I ran into him two days later. We were at the scene of an air strike, a house had completely collapsed on itself, two dozen family members were inside. And he was there, and he was digging through the rubble because they had one body left to get out.

It was his nephew. He must have been 8, 9, 10 years old, maybe.

And I just remember looking at this man who was the only person I had met who had the courage to say, we want the Americans to save us, and there he was. And he pulled out this boy's body which just looked like he was sleeping. And he was covered in this gray dust.

And there he was, this man, who said, we want the Americans to save us. He paid the ultimate price. That was his family. It was his family that was under that house.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Arwa Damon.

Speaking of Syria, let me take you there now. And if you thought reports of thousands killed over anti-government protests in the country were bad, you haven't seen anything yet. That's the word from an opposition leader. We're going to show you why, straight ahead.

Also, this incredible story of this 14-year-old American boy kidnapped in the Philippines, held there for four months. Find out how he just escaped on his own, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This 14-year-old boy from Virginia has managed to escape from Islamic militants who kidnapped him in July when he was just on vacation with his family in the Philippines. His name is Kevin Lunsmann. He is a Filipino-American.

He apparently got away from his captors late last week while his guards were asleep. He was spotted walking in a remote area by Filipino troops who turned him over to American forces.

So, back home in Virginia, family friends say they never lost hope that Kevin would make it out of there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN GOWEN, FAMILY FRIEND: It was the greatest day. I had just prayed and prayed, "God, all I want for Christmas is Kevin to come home."

JUNE MARTIN, FAMILY FRIEND: To know that it's over for his family, number one, is just ecstatic. For our family, oh, my goodness, I can't put into words. It is truly a Christmas miracle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We mentioned Kevin was over there with his family. His mother was released by her captors back in October, and a cousin who was also abducted was set free just last month.

In Syria today, leaders of the nationwide anti-government protest movement are worried, particularly those in the city of Homs. That's where opposition leaders say the government has started a countdown clock. And when that clock hits zero, protesters will either be hurt or killed.

The deadline is tonight. Stop protesting, lay down your weapons, or government forces will attack. Again, this is a claim being made only by protest leaders.

I want to go to straight to CNN veteran international correspondent Jim Clancy, for us in Beirut, Lebanon.

And we should say, Jim, you're there because Western journalists aren't allowed to work and cover these stories that we're reporting on inside Syria.

Jim, is there any reason to believe this deadline, this midnight tonight deadline, is the real deal? And, also, what are the government officials saying about it?

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're not saying anything about a deadline. They have the city surrounded. They had a vote today. They're trying to portray the situation as normal. That's coming from the government of President Hafez al-Assad.

But we have known for days that the city of Homs has been surrounded. There are tanks that have moved in, militiamen that have moved in.

I talked to a member, one of the leaders of the opposition, inside Homs just a couple of hours ago. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABU FARIS, HOMS REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL: The camp (ph) fire started in the early morning. A lot of tanks inside the city, but security forces and Assad's army is still surrounding Homs and we don't know when they will -- so people expect attack at any motel, but we don't know when.

CLANCY: Very fearful indeed. He said -- I asked him, are people trying to leave the city? He s aid, Brooke, we couldn't leave if we wanted to, but we don't want to. We want to stay.

But there are checkpoints in the city such that they cannot move around to get out. They've had a lot of funerals today as they always seem to have in Homs. There were some 21 people killed today.

Today the big funeral was for a woman, an elderly woman, who died because she couldn't get any insulin, getting medicine, getting food. Homs is now the capital of the revolution, if you want to call it that, inside Syria. And it is a city under siege.

BALDWIN: Why, though, Jim, because we've been hearing about the government forces digging trenches, cutting of power? No water, no telephone in Homs. What does that tell you? What's the message?

CLANCY: It tells me I want to be there. I want to see what is going on myself, but look, we've watched a pattern here that the Syrian government has repeatedly used, and that is isolate one city, in this case the strongest city right now in Syria.

They did the same thing several months ago in Daraa in Southern Syria. Isolate the city, go in, quadrant is off, move in the troops, kick down doors, make mass arrests. They arrested some 2,000 activists and broke the back, if you will, of the demonstrations in that city. They may be hoping to do the same thing here -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jim Clancy, as close as you can get for now to what's happening in Syria for us in Beirut. Jim, thank you.

And now to a story we first reported on this a number of weeks ago, the show on TLC. It's called "All American Muslim," you heard of it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The city of Dearborn, Michigan. Dearborn is a whole other world. Number one most concentrated community of Muslims outside the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Here's a story today. Big box home improvement store Lowe's getting all kinds of flack after pulling their commercials from this program.

Coming up, we have David Caton standing by live. He is the man in charge of a group that called on Lowe's and other advertisers to pull out. We'll ask him why, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The home improvement giant store, Lowe's facing a bunch of backlash today after it pulled its ads from the show "All American Muslim," the new reality show on TLC that follows the lives of these five Muslim families who live in Dearborn, Michigan.

Lowe's decided to pull its ads after a conservative association called the show propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law.

One woman whose family is featured on this show, "All American Muslim" said she was disappointed by the decision by Lowe's. She told the Detroit News, "I'm saddened that any place of business would succumb to bigots and people trying to perpetuate their negative views on an entire community.

As far as Lowe's goes, this is all over social media, apologizing to the controversy in a Twitter posting the company said this -- we did not pull our ads based solely on the complaints of any one group.

It is it never our intent to alienate anyone -- that's from Twitter. Let's go to Facebook, quote, "It appears that we managed to step into a hotly contested debate with strong views from virtually every angle and perspective.

So social, political and otherwise, and we've managed to make some people very unhappy. We are sincerely sorry. That's the end of that quote there from Lowe's from Facebook.

I want to bring in the executive director of the Florida Family Association, David Caton. David, it's your group that was encouraging advertisers to pull out of the show. You object to the show. Why?

DAVID CATON, EXEC. DIRECTOR, FLORIDA FAMILY ASSOCIATION: Well, the show portrays these five Muslim families that are not representative of the entire Muslim faith. Muslim is defined in all the dictionaries as those who follow Islam.

And I beg anybody to find an imam in any mosque in the country that believes that Sharia shouldn't apply to the people in America. And for this program to show these people, which I wish they were all like this.

I would be doing handstands if all of the imams in this country took an anti-Sharia, anti-Islamic take. Home Depot pulled out of the show, I don't understand why everybody is upset about Lowe's.

BALDWIN: I do want to say I hopped on your web site and I read parts it thoroughly and I saw the e-mail from Home Depot. We tried reaching out to TLC to verify the news with regard to Home Depot. Again, Home Depot said they didn't have any additional ads, but they would not be advertising on the show.

I want to, though, go back to your point that said the people of the show are not representative of the entire Muslim faith. Can you be specific with me? You've seen the show. What scenes in the show, to quote you, "advance Islamic fundamentalism?" What scenes do you have a specific issue with?

CATON: It's the absence of the radical side of the imam's proposition of Sharia law that's most concerning. It's the absence of the application of Islamic code.

For example, a gentleman leaves his catholic faith to marry a Muslim woman. Now, if that had been the reciprocal, literally all hell would have broken loose within the Muslim Islamic community. That's a taboo no-no situation.

So, you know, they show the good side of all of this, but they're not showing what's happening underground. Now, again, I would like to hear from the imams of this country to come out and just say, you know, we don't want any part of Sharia law to apply to America or American laws.

We want to follow all American laws with regard to how we treat women, honor killing, mutilation, so on and so forth.

BALDWIN: David, let me interrupt. I want to go back to your point about this man who was Irish Catholic who converted. I happened to have that man and his wife on the show.

He talked about initially how his parents didn't know quite how to feel, but he did end up converting so he could marry her had. I want to play just this one clip from them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHADIA MCDERMOTT, TLC'S "ALL AMERICAN MUSLIM:" You know, it's amazing that people think you cannot be American and Muslim because this country was founded on being able to have the freedom of religions and we work like everybody else.

We follow the laws of the land like everybody else. And, you know, for the few lunatics who hijacked the religion's name and al that we don't claim them. We are diverse people, we are very different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So even she said that the few lunatics. She's saying that's few, few people. I also want to provide one other perspective and then I want your opinion here.

California State Senator Ted Lieu wrote a letter to Lowe's CEO, saying this religious discrimination is the equivalent of the company asserting that it's pulling advertising from the Christian Broadcast Network 700 Club.

Because this program somehow riskily hides the agenda of Christian radicalized groups such as the Area Nation. Sir, how is what you're doing any different? CATON: How is what we're doing any different? We simply are voicing our first amendment right to express our concern about a program that is not totally are -- showing a total picture of Islam to the American people and it's guised in a name that is "All-American Muslim," which we believe is inappropriate because not all Muslims in America are anti-Sharia, anti-Islam.

And for this senator to have come out and make these statements, he himself is violating the separation of church and state by advocating for one religion over another and he's getting involved in a private issue that really should not be government's role to deal with.

This is a religious -- this is a market-driven issue, an issue that we are -- we're dealing with in the private sector. For him to come out and advocate like this I believe is unconstitutional. It's wrong.

BALDWIN: David Caton, Florida Family Association. I appreciate your perspective, thank you.

CATON: Thank you.

You know, we've said in the past that a particular story looks like it comes straight out of a movie. This did happen on the streets of Hollywood, a man armed with a gun shoots blindly at cars walking down the middle street. As you can hear and see, it's all caught on camera. We hear from the man who made the video coming up.

Plus, a mother-in-law accused of shooting her daughter's husband all while he's recording the whole thing on his cell phone. This is another piece of video you have to see to believe, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now the search for the catalyst for the street a Hollywood's one of the famous intersections Sunset and Vine. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's shooting people! He's shooting people at will. There's a madman. There's a madman!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Yes, this may be Hollywood, that guy is no actor there. This is 26-year-old Tyler Brehm who is shooting at anything that moved. It including a music industry executive who happened to drive by, John Atterbury was shot in the face and neck. He is in critical condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you! I love you! Shoot at me! I love you! I love you! I love you, man! Kill me! I want to die! Please kill me! I was just going to -- jump and I thought about you! I thought about you! I thought about a man shooting, and you came! You came from God!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And you hear this person yelling and shouting at this shooter. That is the voice of Christopher Johns shouting from his apartment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER JONES, TRIED TO DISTRACT GUNMAN: I'm so sorry, man! I thought of you, and I came an you shot people! I thought of you just now!

JONES: I made a calculated kind of comparison. I thought, if people down there at point-blank range to the shooter were going to get shot, you know, they were kind of helpless to avoid being killed.

Me, I'm four stories up. If I could take any of his attention and divert it towards me, you know, any gunshots that he would shoot, I would have an opportunity to get out of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So he's shouting those things to divert attention. This shooter, Brehm, was confronted finally by plainclothes detective and an off-duty cop working on a movie set. He pointed his gun. They shot him to death. Police are trying to determine if a recent breakup with a girlfriend led to this on Friday.

And a Florida grandmother is hauled off to jail after had her son-in-law records a chilling encounter on his cell phone. The son- in-law here, Salvatore Meglinow is lucky to be alive. He was picking up had his 3-year-old son for a court-ordered visit in the midst of this bitter custody battle here.

And he said he didn't have a good feeling so he decided to turn on had his cell phone camera. Just a warning, this recording isn't just chilling, you might find it downright disturbing. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't believe you did that! What, are you crazy? You I can't believe you shot me!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off me!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shot me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: After this whole scuffle, the mother-in-law called 911. She told the dispatcher that the man pulled the gun on her, but the video tells a much different story. Today, grandmother, Cheryl Hepner sits in jail charged with attempted first-degree murder. The man was treated in the hospital and released.

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BALDWIN: Wild Flag. You ever heard of them? They're this new punk rock all-female group with a pretty impressive (inaudible). Here's Wild Flag on this music Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not going to play rock. We're going to play one song then we're going to talk about UGA. That's why you guys got a ticket, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mary and Janet and I did a lot of touring in our bands. I think we always had a mutual respect for one another.

We got together to work on a documentary sound track. And when the director asked for vocals on one of them, we decided to call Mary and let her give it a shot.

It wasn't like we were forming a band. It was like we were just friends who wanted to play music together, working on a project. I call it a rock band.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me, too. It's the broadest term that works.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I say we're a rock band and we for the most part play original songs we wrote ourselves. It's music to move to and music to participate in. It's pretty rowdy, I think.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even right away when we were writing songs, that Carrie and Janet had a way of talking that sometimes it was almost without words. Things would happen really quick. There is an intuition between the two of them that's actually fascinating to be a part of.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like the chemistry is what makes it completely unpredictable. There is honestly like chemicals combing where you're not exactly sure what's going to happen.

CARRIE BROWNSTEIN, WILD FLAG: If anything, I think writing about music just made me love contemporary music a lot. I just love, like, where things are right now and I'm excited to be part of it, I guess.

Like that critic in my head is never turn off so that existed when I was in Sleater, too. I just didn't have an outlet for it. But I keep it pretty separate.

REBECCA COLE, WILD FLAG: To me, I think one of the most special thing about this band is we work really hard to express ourselves and get into a really real place and true place on stage.

I love playing with these people. They're just -- each one of them is so talented in a really specific way and really brings something to the table that is just really exciting and amazing to play with them.

And also technically they're all, like, really, really good. I feel like as a musician I feel constantly pushed to be better like you always want to play tennis with someone who's a little bit better than you. That's how I feel with this band.

BROWNSTEIN: We're trying to form a connection with people through music. I think it's a very earnest endeavor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all are striving to make songs for the ages, songs that will last, songs that people want to listen to and songs that are meaningful to people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Wild Flag. Ladies, thank you. By the way, go to my blog cnn.com/brooke. We'll make sure to post that up there. You can also check out any other Music Monday interviews we have. Let me know who you're listening to, who do you love, cnn.com/brooke.

Still ahead, President Obama making a huge revelation about the American drone that Iran claims to have, what the U.S. just asked the Iranians to do.

Plus, big developments today in the Penn State scandal, including a big twist. An assistant football coach told a grand jury he witnessed a little boy being raped by Jerry Sandusky. But now we're hearing a different version of that story. Stay with us.

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BALDWIN: A new report now raising questions about a key witness in the child abuse case against Jerry Sandusky one day before Sandusky's accusers testify at tomorrow's preliminary hearing.

CNN contributor, Sara Ganim of "The Patriot News" report that Penn State assistant coach, Mike McQueary appears to have offered several different accounts of what he saw in that Penn State athletic complex showers back in 2002.

Ganim reports McQueary's story that he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy varies in several details among his grand jury testimony. A handwritten statement he gave to investigators and a summary of his testimony in the initial grand jury presentment.

Meantime, former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, who is 85 years of age, already battling lung cancer, fell and broke his pelvis over the weekend. Paterno has been hospitalized, but a source tells CNN he will not need surgery.

I want to bring in B.J. Schecter, executive editor at si.com. B.J., good to have you on. Big picture, this scandal has cost Joe Paterno his job, but it's also raising all kinds of questions about these athletics, money, influences on campus.

My question is, is there any chance this whole story reduces the power, reduces the influence on other big-name coaches nationwide or no? B.J. SCHECTER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, SI.COM: Initially I don't think it will, but I think what it does show is it sounds the alarm on what can happen if we place so much emphasis on athletics over academics many times.

If we give coaches or programs or athletic teams so much power, something like this can happen. And hopefully it sounds the alarm and it shows people we have to re-evaluate the priorities with college athletics and how they fit into academics.

BALDWIN: Well, B.J., speaking of influence and power, this sparked a bit of a conversation. Let's talk money. I'm talking big money here. Take a look. Texas Coach Mac Brown $5 million a year. Alabama's Nick Saban more than $4 million a year, Ohio State, (inaudible) new head coach Urban Meyer, $4 million a year. So, that's the most recent hire, $4 million, amid, you know, their own scandal last summer with their head football coach, right?

And all of this with the background of what's happening at Syracuse and Penn State. Are you surprised by the numbers, or not at all?

SCHECTER: You know, given the way college athletics has trended upward in the last several years, in the last decade or so, I'm not at all surprised.

But when you look at those numbers and you think, not only are these coaches the highest paid individuals in their universities -- and they're very prestigious institutions in which a lot of research, important research, the cure for cancer, cure for many diseases, a lot of important things are being studied and researched there -- not only are they the highest paid individuals in those universities.

They're the highest paid employees in their own states, much more than the governor or any law enforcement officials. It's really staggering when you look at the pure amount of money that these coaches are making.

BALDWIN: What are the dangers of that kind of power?

SCHECTER: Well, I think you know, Penn State says it all. The fact that, you know, the institution was really made into what it is today because of football and because Joe Paterno built that university around football.

Now, Joe Paterno did a lot of good, don't get me wrong, at Penn State. But the fact that when some of his players got into trouble, whether they with the law or academically, he ultimately had the power to say, look, leave them alone, they're just kids. That's too much power, no matter who you are.

BALDWIN: B.J. Schecter, SI.com, thank you, sir.

SCHECTER: Thank you.