Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

President Obama Urges Deal on Payroll Tax Cut; Boehner Speaks On Payroll Tax Cut; Blizzard Hammers Parts of West, Midwest; Priest Talking On Free Speech Nearly Arrested; Gingrich Goes After Activist Judges; Lady Gaga's Twitter Account Hacked; Piers Morgan Testifies

Aired December 20, 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: All right, well, surprise, top of the hour, spoke for six minutes there, the president making an appearance in the White House daily briefing, essentially speaking directly to the speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, who, by the way -- guys, let's show that live picture -- we are waiting to hear from as well in just a matter of minutes.

As you can, the room is clearly filling up. So that perhaps means his presence is imminent. The deal Is this.

And, Wolf Blitzer, you're standing by, and we can talk through this as we wait for the speaker of the House. The deal is, the president is clearly frustrated that the House has yet to take up this bill to extend the payroll tax for two months.

I know that there was a conference call with his caucus over the weekend and he was one of the leaders of the House expressing support over this two-year -- two-month deal -- excuse me -- and now he's saying, hang on a second. He's changing course. He saying we don't want to kick the can down the road. He's saying we need a year extension.

So, Wolf Blitzer, what gives?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's real brinkmanship. As the president says, they are eyeball to eyeball right now.

One on the side are the Democrats in the House and the Senate and the president of the United States. But joining them in that corner are most of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate and some Republicans in the House.

But on the other side is the House Republican leadership, John Boehner, the speaker, Eric Cantor, the majority leader, and the others, largely because the caucus, the Republican members, most of them in the House of Representatives, they didn't like this deal. A lot of them didn't like this payroll tax extension to begin with. They didn't think it was a great tax policy. It wasn't really paid for you, if you will.

But having said that, they thought -- they did pass legislation for a yearlong extension of the payroll tax cut and they sent that to the Senate. The Senate didn't take that up even. They came up with their own version. They thought -- the Democratic and Republican leadership of the Senate, they thought the House would go along -- 89 members of the U.S. Senate passed it.

But guess what? Over the past 24, 48 hours, the Republican leadership in the House said they don't want it. They want to go to conference. They have got until December 31. Bring the senators back. Work on a deal for a yearlong extension, as opposed to a two- month extension.

And that's where it falls right now. The Democrats in the Senate and other Democrats, you just heard the president say, if they don't pass this two-month extension and at least let the payroll tax cut continue for 160 million Americans, many of them would lose $1,000 or $1,500 a year if this extension doesn't go forward, at least keep it for two months, and the next two months you can come up with an extension for the rest of the year.

But the Republican leadership in the House says they don't want that. They don't want to play these games anymore. They don't want to kick the can down the road. They want a full deal. That's where it stands right now.

So they have got until December 31 to fix it although this is a critical moment right now. They are eyeball to eyeball. I think the personal is really though mounting on the Republican leadership in the House to come up with something because they don't want these guys to leave, they don't want them to go back to their districts without a deal, because if the taxes go up, if there is a tax increase on January 1 for 160 million Americans, most of them, at least according to the polls, will blame the Republicans. They won't blame the Democrats.

BALDWIN: Yes. We heard the president at the end saying there put politics aside. Please, to the House, the Republican-controlled House, take up this Senate bill for a House.

And the House did vote today, we should point out.

And in pointing that out, I want to bring in Kate Bolduan.

The House did vote today. It was not on this in particular. It was a motion for this to be taken up by the Senate-House conference committee on something that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is essentially saying thanks but no thanks, correct?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a pretty great summary, actually, Brooke.

What the House did today was they did not vote directly. They did not directly vote on this measure. As you heard the president say, bring this up for a vote. What the House did was basically essentially a procedural maneuver to reject the Senate short-term measure without having to kind of outwardly reject it.

In this vote, they say that they disagree with the Senate measure and want to go to conference, which is Democrats and Republicans would come together as they're appointed and kind of hash out their differences.

What this appears to do and why it kind of seems a little backwards and a little convoluted, what this appeared to do for the House is allow the House to show that this Senate measure did not have support but also protected House Republicans from having to vote on the record, to be on the record voting against the payroll tax cut extension, which could be seen as thus voting for a tax increase, which you know that Democrats would use as some of their fire, especially in an election season going forward.

So that's kind of where things stand in the House at the moment. They did have this vote and they voted to go to conference, essentially rejecting the Senate measure. The vote was 229-193. But Wolf said it. I know you're saying the same thing. What is next? The stare-down is essentially continuing and neither side is ready to budge.

And now the pressure has just ratcheted up a whole new notch now with the president coming out and speaking directly to the speaker. I'm very much looking forward to see what House Speaker John Boehner has to say now.

BALDWIN: So as we await House Speaker John Boehner, we can see the room filling up more as we are about to hear from him there live and obviously we will take it live, do you have any, Kate Bolduan, inside intel as to what he could be hearing from the House speaker? Might he say something that would be a game changer or do we essentially anticipate he's going to underline, italicize the point that he's been making over the past 48 hours?

BOLDUAN: I will say aides have not tipped their hand as to what we will be hearing from House Speaker John Boehner, but I would not expect a game-changing statement here, because he's made his position very well known here in the past 24 hours, that House Republicans are opposed to this two-month extension.

If they're going to extend it at all, they want to go to this one-year deal. And that's why you see Democrats and Republicans here -- and why it's probably so frustrating for viewers -- talking past each other because really Democrats and Republicans, at least leaders at this point, they all want a one-year extension.

But it's just how are they going to get the point where they're actually going to negotiate it that they're absolutely disputing at this point. Republicans, as you all know, they don't want to do this two-month extension. They want to start negotiating now. But Democrats say that they want the assurance of having this two-month extension in place to make sure that the tax cut doesn't lapse and then they will reopen the negotiations.

I think if this show anything it shows the absolute lack of trust between the two parties here, especially the two chambers and the leadership in the two chambers as this battle has absolutely drawn out and gotten to a level of brinksmanship that I don't think really anyone anticipated, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We are 11 days away from this payroll tax cut expiring. We're also 11 or 12 days away from an election year.

And, Wolf Blitzer, hammer this home for me. The stakes are so, so high. If -- and this is the hypothetical if game. If a compromise is not made, how do Democrats, how do Republicans use this as ammunition come November?

BLITZER: Well, it will be great ammunition for the Democrats because they will obviously blame the Republicans, especially House Republicans. Republicans are not in control of the Senate. The Democrats have the majority in the Senate, but they do have the majority, a lopsided majority in the House of Representatives.

And so the president in his own reelection campaign and other Democrats in districts all over the country, they will hammer the Republicans for allowing taxes to go up for 160 million Americans. They will blame the Republicans and they will hit them hard on this. And presumably I think it's one of the factors why, in this new poll, this new CNN/ORC poll that we released just a little while ago, Brooke, the president's job approval number has now gone up to 49 percent, which is not fabulous, but it's certainly better than the 44 percent it was back in November.

So it's a nice jump for the president. I think it's in part because he's pushing really hard for this payroll tax cut to be extended at least for another year. It's probably helping him in his bid for reelection. It's going to put a lot of pressure on the Republicans.

Here's what I think we will hear from the speaker of the House. He will make the case. He will say, you know what? The House of Representatives passed legislation increasing the payroll tax cut, extending the unemployment benefits, going at and fixing this Medicare payment for doctors so that Medicare recipients will continue to get their full Medicare availability.

The House of Representatives passed it. They also included what was a poison pill as far as what the White House was concerned, forcing the president to make a decision on this oil pipeline from Canada towards Texas in the United States. The president wants to hold off until after the election on whether it comes in.

Here we see the speaker coming in.

BALDWIN: And here he is.

BLITZER: He's got a lot of Republicans sort of as props behind him.

BALDWIN: Backing him.

BLITZER: But let's listen in, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's listen.

(BEGIN LIVE SPEECH) REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president -- the president and leaders of both houses of Congress have called for a year-long extension of the payroll tax credit.

The House has passed a bill that would do just that. It would extend and reform unemployment insurance and protect Social Security and create jobs.

We're proud of the bill that we passed. The House passed it with bipartisan support.

We also understand the Senate passed a different bill. We oppose that bill because the two-month extension will create more uncertainty for job creators in our country when millions of Americans are out of work. The payroll processing companies say that the Senate bill is unworkable and so complex that many Americans may not even get the tax credit.

So today, we have voted to go to a formal conference to resolve the differences between the two bills. This is a system that our founders gave us. It is as old as our nation and as clear as the Constitution.

Our House GOP negotiators are here and ready to work with their counterparts in the Senate to resolve the differences as quickly as possible. Our negotiators are Kevin Brady, David Camp, Renee Ellmers, Nan Hayworth, Tom Price, Tom Reed, Fred Upton and Greg Walden.

Now, it's up to the president to show real leadership. He said that he won't leave town for the holidays until this bill is done. The next step is clear: I think President Obama needs to call on Senate Democrats to go back into session, move to go to conference, and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. I sent a letter to the president today asking him to do just this.

We've done our work for the American people. Now, it's up to the president and Democrats in the Senate to do their job as well.

With that, I will take a couple of questions.

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, Senate Democrats say they're not coming back. So does this mean the tax cuts are going to lapse?

BOEHNER: We have done our job. All we need now is to resolve our differences.

A two-month extension is nothing more than kicking the can down the road. The president has asked us to do this for a full year. We did it for a full year. We offset the cost with reasonable offsets. There's no reason we can't do this.

If you remember just several weeks ago, the House had passed a DOD authorization bill; the Senate passed theirs.

BOEHNER: In the -- in the period of less than a week they were able to resolve big differences in these two very large bills. There's no reason why we can't resolve this in short order.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

BOEHNER: There are a lot of ways to resolve this. We're doing this under what we would call regular order, the system that our founders gave us. If there's a difference between the two houses we sit down and resolve those differences.

QUESTION: Speaker Boehner, are your House members going to go home for the holidays until this is resolved, or are you going to keep them here?

BOEHNER: Our negotiators are here, ready and able to work. The members of the leadership will be here, ready and able to work. We'll be available to do what needs to be done.

But the issue now is will the president engage with the Senate Democrats and bring them to the table so we can resolve this and give to the president what he has asked us to give him, a one-year extension of these expiring programs.

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, the president, of course, has just said that -- he appealed to you personally and said, "I need John Boehner to help out. . ."

BOEHNER: I need the president to help out, all right?

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, I had a question.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: He's -- he's asking you to help out (INAUDIBLE) that you all take up the Senate bill (INAUDIBLE). Any chance of that happening?

BOEHNER: The Senate bill -- we've already taken up the Senate bill.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)

BOEHNER: We rejected the Senate bill and we moved to go to conference.

Under the rules of the Congress that means the papers that were in our position are on their way back to the United States Senate.

QUESTION: Sir, thank you.

The Senate passed a two-month bill. The House has passed a one- year bill (INAUDIBLE). Is the length of a compromise (INAUDIBLE)?

BOEHNER: The Senate voted to give the American people a $166 tax cut. We voted to give the American people a $1,000 tax cut. We're going to insist on doing this the right way.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) working on this for weeks and haven't been able to come to an agreement. What makes you feel that you can actually do that between now and New Year's?

BOEHNER: Well, we've not been working on this for weeks.

I want to make clear, I told the Senate leaders, both Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, that there would be no negotiations with the House until such time as the Senate passed a bill. I meant what I said.

And -- and when they were getting ready to pass this and somebody passed on to me what they thought it would look like, I made it clear to them at that point that I was uncomfortable with where they were going. I expressed my displeasure in once again taking the convenient route and not doing the people's work.

Thanks, everybody.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END LIVE SPEECH)

BALDWIN: All right, this whole payroll tax cut extension logjam coming really to a climax, again, as we mentioned, 11 days before it expires.

Let me reintroduce who we have at play as we continue to cover this back and forth. We have Jessica Yellin for us, senior White House correspondent for us there on the law at the White House. Also have Kate Bolduan, who has been watching all this back-and-forth volleying there on Capitol Hill, and Wolf Blitzer.

Wolf, let me just begin with you.

We just heard there from the speaker of the House essentially saying he sent a letter to the president today saying, get your Senate Democrats back together. We need to talk about this, again standing behind the fact that he wants this deal and he wants a year and two months isn't going to cut it.

BLITZER: Well, and he went further.

He was very specific in saying, these are the rules. When the Senate passes one version of legislation, the House passes a different version of legislation, there has to be a conference committee, senators and representatives getting together, working out differences. Then they pass whatever agreement they come to. They send it to the House floor, the Senate floor, and they vote up or down.

If it passes, it goes to the president for signature. Now, what the speaker has now done -- and this is precisely according to the rules -- he says, we don't like what the Senate passed, but we're willing to have a conference. Let's resolve this. We have until now and December 31.

He then read the names of the House conferees, the House members who are ready and standing to sit down with the senators to go ahead and work out a deal. The pressure is now going to be on Harry Reid, and Mitch McConnell, for that matter, the Republican leader, but especially Harry Reid, to name senators who will in the coming days sit down with these representatives and see if they can come up with an extension of the payroll tax cut.

If they don't by December 31, and the president hasn't signed it into law by December 31, it won't be extended and everyone, 160 million Americans will see their taxes going up starting on January 1. They agree they don't want that to happen.

So the next question, what the speaker has now done is thrown the ball back to Harry Reid and say, here are our conferees. They're waiting. They're standing by. They want to meet with your conferees. They're ready to meet today, tomorrow, the next day. They have got until December 31. Go ahead and they can work out some sort of compromise between both chambers, and then there will up-and-down votes in the Senate and the House.

Harry Reid has said he's not going to do that.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BLITZER: The House, for all practical purposes, has gone into recess even though technically they are not in recess. They have a member or two usually from Virginia or Maryland standing by to gavel every day for about 10 seconds or 20 seconds technically just to keep it going.

So the pressure is now going to be on Harry Reid to come up with some conferees. We will see if he does it. If they don't, they have blinked, everyone has blinked, in effect, and the American people will suffer as a result.

BALDWIN: So, Wolf, thank you. Let me just springboard off of your point.

Kate Bolduan, to you.

Now that House Speaker Boehner has said here are my conferees essentially to you, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, you need to appoint your conferees, let's get together and let's chat, off of Wolf's point, even though the Senate Democrats say that they are not coming back, if these two sides do come together, if they begin to talk, then procedurally what happens next?

BOLDUAN: Well, procedurally, up here miracles can happen if the two sides want to agree.

We well know that whenever there's a government shutdown that we're facing at the 11th hour. Procedurally, going told that going to conference could take days with a lot of the procedural votes that, quite honestly, get really in the weeds. So, we won't go through them.

But I think the reality that is probably the thing that our viewers care about is that, at this moment -- and, of course, things change, but at this moment and it has been for all of -- for days now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has given no indication that he has any intention of bringing the Senate back in or, for that matter, to appoint these conferees, as we call them, to begin these negotiations, because their point is the following.

As we have already talked about, Brooke, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he's ready and willing to begin negotiating that one-year deal that all of the leaders want when the House votes to put this two-month extension in place to ensure that there isn't a lapse in this tax break.

And so that's really where his firm position is. And Senate Democrats have given no indication that they are going to be moving off of that point. And the fuel to their fire is that we have already -- we're talking about compromise. We have already passed a bipartisan compromise.

Rarely these days do we see a vote go through unless it kind of a benign nomination, if you will, go through the Senate of 89-10. And it did over this weekend with a lot of Republican support, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Right. Kate Bolduan, thank you. Wolf Blitzer, thank you.

I'm going to give Jessica Yellin the last word, who is standing by for me at the White House.

And before -- Jessica, before we talk, I just want to play a little bit of sound from President Obama when he popped up in the White House daily briefing and I think we can all agree that everyone is agreeing that the one thing in common here is the clock is ticking. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The clock is ticking. Time is running out. And if the House Republicans refuse to vote for the Senate bill, or even allow it to come up for a vote, taxes will go up in 11 days.

I saw today that one of the House Republicans referred to what they're doing as, quote, "high-stakes poker." He's right about the stakes, but this is not poker. This is not a game. This shouldn't be politics as usual. Right now, the recovery is fragile, but it is moving in the right direction. Our failure to do this could have effects not just on families, but on the economy as a whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Jessica Yellin, the president there essentially tossed the ball to the House speaker. House speaker tossed the ball to the Senate majority leader. Now what?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, from the White House, the president is using the bully pulpit to try to put all of the pressure and focus on the House to act now.

And we have seen over these past few months that his messaging has been somewhat effective at doing that, as the latest CNN polling has shown. And what he is trying to say is that there really is not enough time essentially to craft yet another compromise. We have seen how these compromises have gone.

They have worked hard to get where they are and that it's up to the House to act now or taxes will go up. This is a two-part message. One, on the policy, the compromise is done. Why shouldn't the House act and sign it while they can work on this one-year extension?

The other piece of this is, on the politics of it, in a sense there's a dare here. If the House of Representatives doesn't like this two-month extension, then what they are saying, the Democrats are saying, in effect, then go ahead and vote to raise people's taxes. Take a straight-ahead vote no and vote to raise people's taxes.

And then these members would have to be on the record explicitly voting to do that. They have dodged that so far. And so they are keeping up the pressure from this side of Pennsylvania Avenue for the House of Representatives to get on the record one way or another on that direct question.

BALDWIN: It is a high-stakes dare that would affect 160 million Americans.

Jessica Yellin, my thanks to you.

And now, quite an hour it's been so far. Here's what else we have coming up for you. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: They are calling it dangerous, impossible, this blizzard that's rocking large parts of the country. We're going to take you live to one of the areas hardest-hit.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): One longtime congressman says it's the most unproductive, most partisan Congress he's ever seen. And now the bickering, the fighting, it's about to directly impact your paycheck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why can't you take yes for an answer?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Our members do not want to just punt.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: If Congress can't agree on a deal soon, your taxes go up. We're live on the Hill as time runs out.

One leader in New Orleans says crime's getting so bad, he's calling on the National Guard to walk the streets. This, after a toddler is shot to death during a drive-by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crime is spiralling out of control. Everybody's afraid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I'll speak with that lawmaker, live.

Mystery surrounds North Korea's new leader, but one man says that he knows Kim Jong-un very well. What a former classmate says about Kim's social skills and why he hated to lose.

And -- his daughter, a college student, disappears but moments before she did, she left chilling messages about an encounter with a strange man. We're on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A punishing storm is pounding the Midwest. Just listen to the wind here. It just looks cold. Western Kansas, people are socked in. Highways are closed in the panhandle of Texas.

It is so bad that if you're planning to travel in the central plains today, good luck because forecasters say it may be impossible. That is their word, impossible.

That Interstate 40 main highway from Albuquerque to the Texas state line was closed. Zero visibility. Portions of it have since reopened. North of there, in Colorado, blowing snow, packed snow, a glaze of ice shut down I-25.

And then you have the Amarillo, Texas area. Public safety officials call it a whiteout. Joining me now by phone from Kansas Sharon Watson from the state Emergency Management Office.

Sharon, tell me what it looks like where you are. Where is the brunt of the storm?

SHARON WATSON, KANSAS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): The worst part of the storm is in the western portion of the state, southwest in particular, around Garden City and also up near Colby.

I-70 had to be shut down for several hours overnight. It's just reopened here in the last couple of hours. And a few other highways are starting to reopen, but a significant number of roadways are still closed due to the amount of snow that we received in Kansas.

Much of it was drifting as well due to the winds so as much as five and six feet of drifting snow in parts of Western Kansas ranging from a couple of inches to a foot of actual snow.

BALDWIN: Do you anticipate -- you mentioned a significant number of those highways still closed. Any clue as to when you may be able to reopen them?

WATSON: Well, several have been reopened, but of the larger highways, I-70 is one of those, but certainly the highway department is working as fast as they can to try to reopen those roadways.

There's just a lot of snow to move and so a lot of work ahead of them and, of course, the more wind and a little bit more snow is coming today so that's impacted the progress as well.

BALDWIN: Yes, that will make it worse. Sharon, what about just people? Anyone still stranded or in trouble?

WATSON: There were some shelters that were opened as a lot of the highways closed overnight. First to stranded to motorists and so we have some of those areas that we're checking in with to see how things are going.

Not a lot of those situations, but certainly people knew it was coming so we had some advance warnings. So people could kind of make their travel plans. We're urging people to avoid traveling to Western Kansas until things do get better.

BALDWIN: Be safe. Be patient. Sharon Watson, my thanks to you.

Now this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The city council vows an oath and they promise two things to protect the constitution of the United States of America and the constitution of the state of Florida. And I believe that he violated his singular oath by stripping people of their right to speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Find out why this priest was booted out of a city council meeting in Florida, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A city council hearing turns contentious after a priest is nearly arrested all over free speech. This whole thing started during a public forum last Thursday in Pensacola, Florida.

Father Nathan Monk (ph) addressed a city council. He was angry. The Council President, Sam Hall who had three speakers cut short and escorted out during an open forum earlier in the week.

Monk argued Hall had violated their First Amendment right to free speech, but I want you to watch now what happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't have the right to determine what type of speech people are going to have when they are addressing the government for a redress of grievances. It was a sick and gross abuse of power.

SAM HALL, COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Your time is up. Sit down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I have a minute and 12 seconds left.

HALL: I'm ruling you out of order.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I am absolutely within order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So Nathan Monk doesn't want to sit down. Officers, you see them stepping in here, a couple council members get up and leave, not happy with the council president's action. You see them walking out.

So as Monk's time expires, he walks out of the chamber followed closely by officers. Monk needless to say not at all pleased with his treatment in there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FATHER NATHAN MONK: The city council vows an oath and in that oath, they promise two things to protect the constitution of United States of America and the constitution of the state of Florida. I believe that he violated his singular oath by stripping people of their right to speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: As for the members of the city council, they are divided as to how Hall handled situation was handled it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY JOHNSON, PENSACOLA CITY COUNCIL: Everyone was a right to express themselves. We're not trying to stop anyone from expressing themselves as long as they do it with respect.

SHERRI MYERS, PENSACOLA CITY COUNCIL: It is not acceptable to me. I will not tolerate it and I will speak out against it and do everything that I can to ensure that every citizen's rights while I'm on that council and even if I'm not on that council is protected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Council President's Sam Hall, his voice you heard a moment ago, released a statement on Monday. He said this quote, "I'm a firm believer in the right of free speech and freedom of expression, but I believe that free speech does not mean unrestricted speech."

The statement went on to say, "Perhaps I was hasty in my judgment on Thursday, but as council president, it is my job to protect order and decorum for the citizens and for my fellow members of the council.

We should also note that Monk was allowed to return to the chamber where and speak again. Monk says he holds nothing personal against the council, but has concern of the censorship at the open forum may become a habit.

Piers Morgan testified today at a British government-backed investigation into alleged unethical practices in the media. You know, he hosts a show here on CNN.

But about 15 years ago, Piers was the editor of the British tabloid "News of the World," which recently closed after being accused of hacking into people's voice mails and story leads.

The paper now at the center of this hearing. Morgan left before the time it allegedly tapped into phones, but moved to another tabloid and he has repeatedly denied any involvement with either paper.

Our senior international correspondent, Dan Rivers is in London -- Dan.

DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Piers Morgan appeared via a video link here into central London to answer questions about media ethics, tabloid ethics and his tenure as editor of both the "News of the World" and the "Daily Mirror" between 1994 and 2004.

He's asked specific questions about his knowledge of phone hacking, denying repeatedly that he knew that phone hacking was going on at the "Daily Mirror" or at the "News of the World" and denying that he ever ordered or condoned phone hacking in any way.

Things got quite testy when Robert Jay, one of the QC's asking the questions got down to details about exactly how he came to listen to the voicemail messages of Heather Mills, the wife of Sir Paul McCartney, a former Beatle.

Piers Morgan saying that he could not reveal the details of how he came to listen to the voicemail message because it would betray the source of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At one stage, I was played a tape of a message Paul had left a message for Heather on her mobile phone. Can you remember the circumstances, Mr. Morgan?

PIERS MORGAN, FORMER EDITOR, "NEWS OF THE WORLD": Well, I can't discuss where I was played that tape of or who played it because that could compromise a source and I can't do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm not sure about that, Mr. Morgan. You can discuss in general terms where it was, can't you? MORGAN: Actually, no, I can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a tape of a voice mail message, wasn't it?

MORGAN: Well, I'm not going to discuss where I heard it or who played it to me for the reasons that I've discussed. I don't think it's right and in fact the inquiry has already expected me not to identify sources.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, but I do think we expect you to identify what is obvious to anyone reading this is that you listened to a tape of a voice mail message. Isn't that correct?

MORGAN: I listened to a message, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a voice mail message, wasn't it?

MORGAN: I believe it was, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: It was also questioning closely about hacking into the voicemail messages of TV presenter, Orika Johnson, who was revealed to be having an affair with England football manager, Sven Goran Ericsson.

Piers Morgan denied listening to Orika's voicemail and says he can't remember advising Olrika Jolts to change her mobile pin number as was alleged at a dinner hosted by Piers Morgan at the "Daily Mirror."

He was asked also about the testimony of the one former employee, James Hipwell, who says that phone hacking was routine on the showbiz desk of the "Daily Mirror" while Piers Morgan was in charge.

Piers again denying that he had any knowledge that phone hacking was being used to gleam stories from celebrities' phones. Dan Rivers, CNN, London.

BALDWIN: Dan, thank you. Well, you know, Newt Gingrich is running for president. But have you heard about the strong feelings he's now sharing about certain radical judges in this country?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a 54-page paper outlining the historical background to balancing the judiciary so judges don't believe they could be petty dictators telling the rest of us what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Newt Gingrich basically wants judges making controversial decisions to be able to call before Congress to justify their decisions. We'll tell you if that even constitutional. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Have you heard about this? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is now raising the idea that so-called activist judges should be arrested.

Gingrich left Congress years ago after losing support of his own party and his latest comments have now given fodder to his critics and giving Republican insiders new reasons for concern. Here is how Newt Gingrich explained his position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: One of the things that you say is if you don't like what a court has done, that Congress should subpoena the judge and bring him before Congress and hold a congressional hearing.

Some people say that's unconstitutional, but I'll let that go for a minute. How would you enforce that? Would you send the capital police down to arrest him if you had to?

If you had to or would you instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. marshal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeff Toobin, on the phone with me. Jeff Toobin, so the idea of sending federal law enforcement to appear to before Congress to justify their ruling, sir, is that even constitutional?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST (via telephone): It's bonkers, crazy, nuts, never happen in a million years. This is opposed to about 208 years of Supreme Court precedence and against the commonsense of how our legal system works. This could never happen.

BALDWIN: Bonkers. Tell me how you really feel, Jeff Toobin. We know that criticism is coming from both sides from Democrats and also Republicans.

Do you think with your experience, this is one of the stories that will just go away in the next news cycle or is this something that Gingrich has said that's so fiery that he is going to either have to take it back or explain?

TOOBIN: Well, I think, you know, in the rush of a campaign people say a lot of things and most of it just sort of passes out with the tides. I think to the extent that this has a life, it will be to reinforce the perception as Mitt Romney has said that Gingrich is a little zany.

I don't think he's really serious about having judges arrested. But it is important to point out that conservatives over many years have been very upset about a series of Supreme Court decisions, Row v. Wade about abortion rights.

But it is also true that liberals are upset about a lot of decisions. So I think one of the bedrock principles of American politics has been that the courts are left alone, that the courts, they may make mistakes, may be wrong on occasion.

But the other two branches of government do not interfere with the judicial branch which, since the decision of Madison in 1803 has the last word on what's constitutional in our country.

BALDWIN: What would happen if a sitting president tried to subpoena a judge, pull him before Congress and justify his decision? What could even happen?

TOOBIN: Well, I think they could request judges to testify, but --

BALDWIN: But to justify a decision?

TOOBIN: But this idea of force -- I'm sorry?

BALDWIN: But to justify a decision?

TOOBIN: To justify their budget request, which Congress clearly controls, but the idea that a subpoena could be issued to ask another judge -- that's the only way to enforce a subpoena, to ask another judge to threaten a judge with refusing to come into court, never happen in a million years.

That's why we have separations of power in this country. That's why it's the courts that decide what the law is. No subpoena to a judge would ever be enforced over that judge's objections.

BALDWIN: OK. Jeff Toobin, you say it's no-go and bonkers.

TOOBIN: Bonkers is a technical legal phrase.

BALDWIN: Technical legal phrase. Jeff Toobin, thank you so much for calling in.

Did you hear about this one? Rocker, Jon Bovi was killed off yesterday, killed off online. His response to his death was hilarious.

Plus Lady Gaga's Twitter account was hacked. Find out what the hackers are trying to accomplish when my friend. We're going to talk about that after this quick break. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Another celebrity is killed by the internet. A pop star's Twitter page has been hacked and a family Christmas card goes 3D. Not making this stuff up. These are the stories you're talking about, tweeting about, this is what is trending online right now.

And we want to bring in Jen Hobby, welcome, an entertainment reporter for syndicated radio show "The Bird Show." So thanks for staying up late to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks for having me. BALDWIN: Let's first talk about Jon Bon Jovi. I know a lot of celebrities kind of get killed off erroneously on the internet and he has been recently.

JEN HOBBY, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER, "THE BIRD SHOW": He's the latest one to find out yesterday that he was dead. I wonder what that phone call sounds like.

BALDIWN: Surprise, I'm not.

HOBBY: Trending everywhere yesterday. He decided to respond on his Facebook page with his fans by posing with a photograph letting everyone know that he was alive and well.

BALDWIN: Here's the picture. So in this piece of paper, heaven looks like New Jersey.

HOBBY: Looks like New Jersey, now I don't know about that, but I thought it was clever. He had a great response to it having some fun with it. It was smart that they put the date and time on the sign.

BALDWIN: Right. It says, I'm OK.

HOBBY: This is from a long time ago. Exactly.

BALDWIN: Lady Gaga on Twitter, which she has 17 million followers. She was offering iPads on this Twitter page.

HOBBY: Gaga was totally hacked. Lady Gaga has promised her fans that she is the one who tweets from the account.

BALDWIN: It's really her.

HOBBY: It's really her all of the time except for yesterday when it was hacked. She came back on Twitter and said we cleared up the hackers, but no iPad 2s for 17 million followers, sorry.

BALDWIN: Do they know who is behind the hacking?

HOBBY: They don't know yet. They're still trying to figure that out, but they have recovered it, fixed the problem and deleted the tweets for sure.

BALDWIN: OK, done and done. And finally the Kardashians?

HOBBY: They're everywhere, aren't they?

BALDWIN: Here we go again. What's going on? Merry Christmas from the Kardashians.

HOBBY: Merry Christmas from the Kardashians, that's right. They all posed for their annual Christmas photo. Now, this year, if you get 3D glasses, you can actually see it in 3D, if you can believe this.

BALDWIN: Only the Kardashians. HOBBY: Yes. And Chris Jenner, the matriarch in the middle wearing the only pop of color, everyone else in their tuxedos and even the rest of the women and their show stopper Mason always stealing the show from the Kardashians is there, too. This is Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the family that seems to be part of all of our families.

BALDWIN: So are we twisting because I don't know exactly how 3D -- not that I'm getting a Kardashian Christmas card, we assume people have glasses laying around or --

HOBBY: I think this is just -- if you have got lying around, you can see it. I guess, head to your computer screens and see if it works for you.

BALDWIN: Jen Hobby, come back. Great to see you. Thank you so much.

HOBBY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Now to this year, the troops are out of Iraq, the flag is now home. President Obama and Vice President Biden took part today in a U.S. military tradition, a ceremony marking the end of the war in Iraq. The flag there presented to the president and that flew over the forces in Baghdad.

As many as 500 million trees have died this year in Texas. The ongoing drought, as we've been reporting on, is the cause. That number makes up about 10 percent of all of the state's trees.

San Francisco's Candlestick Park could have used a few more candles last night. This is wild. The lights went out twice during Monday night football.

You can see a transformer blew on the left side of the screen. The first blackout delayed the game about 20 minutes and then second quarter, there you go, lights out again.

About 15 minutes later the lights were eventually back on and the 49ers pulled out the win. Pacific Gas and Electric say they are not sure why the transformer blew, but only one customer. That really big customer, Candlestick Park, was affected.