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New Attacks as Syria Deadline Passes; "I Am the Real George Zimmerman"; Courting Middle Class Voters; More Fallout From GSA Scandal; No Grand Jury In Trayvon Martin Case; Titanic Excites 100 Years Later; FaceBook Snaps Up Instagram
Aired April 10, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, it's 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
I want to get you up to speed for this Tuesday, April 10th.
The neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin has launched his own Web site to raise money for his defense and himself. The Web site reads I am the real George Zimmerman. It warns viewers to be careful of other Web sites falsely claiming to be raising money for him.
Now, the site includes a link for people to donate money, to pay for Zimmerman's lawyers and living expenses. So far, no criminal charges have been filed against Zimmerman.
President Obama, he is on the road today to make his case for the so-called Buffett Rule. It would require people who make more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30 percent in income taxes. The president says it makes the tax code more fair and prevents the very rich paying a lower tax rate than the middle class. Republicans say that it would hurt economy and stifle job growth.
Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen says that he is very sorry. The team suspended him for five games after he said he loves and respects Fidel Castro. A lot of Cuban-Americans -- they want him fired.
About an hour ago, he talked about the controversy saying he betrayed the Latin American community and he is now asking for forgiveness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OZZIE GUILLEN, MIAMI MARLINS MANAGER: Very, very, very sorry about the problem, about what happening. And I will do everything to make it better, everything in my power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Extreme winds, bone dry conditions fueling dangerous brush fires up and down the East Coast. There are warnings that are in place today from Florida to New York as firefighters, they are trying to get things under control.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
MALVEAUX: All right. That sound -- that is not gun fire. That is actually softball size hail that is smashing into an Oklahoma creek. It happened last night. Pretty amazing. Thankfully, no reports of anybody being hurt.
No pullout and no peace.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
MALVEAUX: Syrian troops were supposed to withdraw from cities across the country today. But as you can see, the attacks, they are continuing. Opposition groups say at least 40 people have been killed already today by government forces.
Our Ivan Watson is joining us on the phone from neighboring Turkey.
Ivan, you were at a news conference with Kofi Annan who is brokering this peace deal with Syria. Does he have hope that this deal is actually going to stick or is it falling apart?
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Suzanne, believe it or not, he says the peace plan is still alive, even though today was supposed to be the first phase of it, the Syrian military was supposed to withdraw from population centers today. And despite those plans, we are already getting reports of dozens of people killed today and fresh artillery bombardment of cities and towns.
He made another appeal for all sides to stop fighting. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N.-ARAB LEAGUE SPECIAL ENVOY: So let me again appeal to the Syrian government and the Syrian parties to cease violence in accordance with the plan and I believe there should be no preconditions for stopping violence, that is something we need to do for the people and for the country concerned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: Suzanne, on Sunday, the Syrian government dropped some new preconditions, it demanded that the Syrian rebels sign written guarantees and hand in their weapons. It demanded that countries that support the rebels also sign written guarantees that they won't do that. In the meantime, yesterday, we had a deadly gun battle erupt on the border between Syria and Turkey. We had a journalist killed in neighboring Lebanon, in addition to the hundreds of people who have been reported killed in Syria itself over the last couple of days --
MALVEAUX: Ivan, tell me about the situation where you are in Turkey -- the situation with the refugees.
WATSON: Yes. These people we're now at about 25,000 refugees in this country. Some of them have been here so long they are you are giving birth to children in the refugee camps. But there's been a fresh wave of them coming across the border in the last weeks, more than 2,700 refugees in a single day last week.
They are being pretty well taken care of. The refugee camps look clean. But these people are desperate and they see no hope in going back home. They are terrified of their own government and their own army, which is supposed to protect them instead of shelling their cities and towns.
MALVEAUX: Ivan Watson -- thank you, Ivan. Appreciate it.
I want to bring in our Michael Holmes into the discussion.
Michael, we know that Syrian opposition now claimed 11,000 people have been killed. I'm going to break these numbers down for our viewer to take a look this.
We're talking about March 27th. This is when Syria's president accepted Kofi Annan's peace plan, 80 were killed. The number stayed high. Jumps to 150 on April 2nd. That is the date, the exact date the troops are supposed to start leaving these heavily populated areas.
And then you take a look at yesterday's death toll, 160. I mean, this trend here, you got a total of 1,088 people killed since the peace deal. Michael, explain to us why this peace deal, it's just not working.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, yes. It has been extraordinary seeing the death toll climb while the troops are meant to be pulling back. And that's because the Assad regime, they know that they have to crush this dissent in order to survive themselves as a regime. So they are going into the towns and cities and trying to do as much damage to the opposition and the opposition infrastructure and, of course, civilians on the way, to -- before he would even consider pulling back.
There are plenty observers who say he has from the beginning played for time. He said what he needed to say, paying lip service to ideas or suggestions or pressure, while at the same time just continuing on and continuing on with the crackdown.
MALVEAUX: So, what is going wrong here? The international response -- clearly, they cannot control the situation on the ground. Are there other alternatives to what Annan is doing?
HOLMES: Internationally -- I mean, there's not. I mean, you've got a situation where there's no real consensus when you factor in the Russians and the Chinese and their tacit support of the Assad regime because of their own regional self interest. And you've got the West in a situation where they are not going to do a Libya and go in there with NATO warplanes and stop it.
Assad knows this. And he can sit back and continue doing exactly what he's doing. He is feeling the pressure now from the Russians which is changing things. He has had all of the opportunity in the world to stop this. He's not doing it because his own survival depends on it.
MALVEAUX: And, Michael, what is the next deadline here?
HOLMES: Well, the deadline is meant to be pulling out now. There is no other.
Kofi Annan said today at the news conference that Ivan was at, he said that peace plan is very much alive. And if you did take it off the table what would you put there in place.
Well, this, to come up for peace plans -- I don't have anything else either. But, you know, it's very dangerous situation because you got -- as Ivan said, you've got shots fired over the border into Lebanon, you have shots fired over the border into Turkey, you've got Arab Gulf states supplying arms and money to the rebels. The regional implications of this are still huge.
MALVEAUX: Is it clear who's actually being killed? Do we know? I mean, is there a clear delineation here? These are good guys, these are the bad guys, and these are the people who are losing their lives.
HOLMES: It's not that simple either. No, that's a very good question. A lot of those being killed on the opposition side are fighters. They are defectors from the army. Enormous number are innocent civilians. You can't indiscriminately shell a neighborhood and not kill women and children and families, as they sleep. And that is what's happening as well.
But when say good guys and bad guys, you got to also look at that fact that Assad does have quite a lot of support within various communities within Syria. It's not that -- it's like Saddam Hussein situation. He has a lot of support within the Alawites, obviously with the Shia as well and within parts of the Sunni community as well.
So it's not good guy/bad guy. It's hard to see this having a good outcome because even if he does pull back from the towns and the cities, what is have you left behind? A social fabric that has been absolutely torn asunder by this.
He did, Kofi Annan quickly, too, at the news conference, he did say that there is evidence that he's pulled back from some towns but moving to others where he hasn't been before.
MALVEAUX: It's just a terrible situation over there.
Michael, thank you so much.
HOLMES: Good to see you.
MALVEAUX: Appreciate it.
Here is a rundown of some of the stories we're covering:
First, he's been in hiding since the night that he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Well, now, he's speaking out on line.
Then, they sprung into action, saved the lives of their classmates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Happening so fast your heart's pumping. It's breathtaking and breath-giving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Nowadays when you need a phone number, you Google it, right? Well, so why do those big clunky phone books keep showing up on your front porch? Well, there's a growing call to get rid of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Police in Sanford, Florida, say that someone shot up one of the patrol cars early in the morning. Sanford is the city where Trayvon Martin was shot last month.
CNN's Martin Savidge, he's joining us from Sanford.
You've got many angles to this story today. First of all, tell us about this police cruiser being shot up in the neighborhood. What do we know about that?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this, you know, really a troubling trend here clearly, because up until this point, there has been no violence associated with the Trayvon Martin shooting after the initial event, of course. But, last night, apparently, there was a police car, patrol car, that have been parked in the neighborhood for several weeks. It was there really to detour tour buses that had now added the community where Trayvon Martin was shot to their schedule.
And so, as a result, that police car was parked. Last night there, about 4:30 in the morning, actually this morning, came reports on the telephone of people saying shots fired in the neighborhood. Police dispatched in the area, couldn't find anything and then looked at the patrol car, it was riddled with gun fire, hit several times, shattering glass, puncturing the sides of the vehicle.
There was nobody in the vehicle. It's what they call a spotter vehicle, there's no person placed inside it, but clearly you would not want to have been in the vehicle at the time. And it's unclear if the shooter knew there was anybody in there. Authorities say they had no clue who did the shooting or what weapon was used.
It's got to be considered a troubling sign here in this community by authorities -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: And, Martin, did you say there's a tour that's going through the neighborhood now?
SAVIDGE: Oh, this is what authorities say. And I know that sounds extremely bizarre. But they say that after the incident and, of course, the national notoriety that has come, there have been tour buses that go through that area, large tour buses.
There's an elementary school right there in front of the housing area, and as a result, it's been disrupting traffic for the school. And buses have been pulling on the property. So, that's why the spotter car was placed to try to detour that.
MALVEAUX: OK.
SAVIDGE: As unbelievable that might sound.
MALVEAUX: Yes, a little strange.
George Zimmerman launching a Web site asking for money to help out in his defense. What's his appeal? What does he say?
SAVIDGE: TheRealGeorgeZimmerman.com launched apparently yesterday, and this is designed, one, to allow George Zimmerman, he says to get out his message. He did put his own message up there to begin speaking out. He says he hasn't been able to do that.
Let me just read you a couple of quotes from that. He said that as a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employers, my family are and ultimately my entire life.
And then he goes on I'm grateful to my friends that have come to my aid, whether publicly or personally, never questioning my integrity or actions. And then you can essentially contribute to him, I would say defense fund, he doesn't have one yet, he's not been charged, but to support his lifestyle by clicking on the PayPal.
It's surprising to many people. There's no idea how much has been raised. We know last week, there was a donation of $10,000.
So -- what's also interesting, there's no mention of Trayvon Martin, no mention of it being a tragedy, and no apparent mention of remorse in any way.
MALVEAUX: Interesting.
And what do we know about the latest in the case itself? We know that the special prosecutor is not going to have a grand jury involved in this.
Do we expect she could come up with some decision soon about whether or not Zimmerman will be charged?
SAVIDGE: Right. The belief is could be any moment. We have no idea if it is going to be any moment. But the thought is, if it's in her hands, she could make that decision, she could do it at any time.
We know that if she's not using the grand jury, it will not be murder in the first degree. You have to have a grand jury under Florida law to do that. So, we're thinking, perhaps if it's a charge, it could be manslaughter or something along those lines. He could get up to 30 years if getting a full conviction.
MALVEAUX: All right. Keep us posted, I know you will, if there's any developments at the court house. Thank you. Thank you, Marty.
Could it be the end of the Yellow Pages? That's right, as we know it. We're going to talk about the phone book in the age of cyberspace.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish I could get that excited about a book.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73, Johnson, Maven R. I'm somebody now. Millions of people look at this book every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Awesome.
Yes, right. It used to feel like a big deal when you got your name in the phone book for the first time, not so much anymore. AT&T is selling its majority stake in the Yellow Pages now to a private investment group for almost $1 billion in cash and credit.
I want to bring in Felicia Taylor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Felicia, OK. This thing -- and this is not even the biggest one, right? I mean, this thing is so heavy. What do you -- what do you use it for? Lifting weights or something? When I brought this to the set, they asked me, they thought I was going to sit on it as a booster chair, so I'd be a little taller.
They said, no, that's not what it's for. Where is this thing going? Do you use the phone book?
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDE NT: I don't. I haven't used a phone book in years. I think that's pretty much the majority.
I mean, honestly, did you get that excited when your name was in the phone book the first time?
MALVEAUX: I absolutely did. I totally did. Just like paying off your student loans, you know? That's a great thing.
TAYLOR: Sign of recognition.
OK. Well, here's the deal. AT&T sold off a majority stake in Yellow Pages to Cerberus Capital Management, and that's a private equity firm. It's 53 percent stake and it sold for $750 million. Naturally, AT&T has been struggling to keep the Yellow Pages relevant. It's turned yp.com into more after city guide, trying to compete with other online review sites.
It's had, you know, limited success. So, now the hope is that Cerberus can super charge that web business.
Yellow Pages has delivered still to about 150 million homes. I mean, so think about that. It has a far reaching expanse. I mean, I still get it. I haven't looked at it unfortunately.
So, in frankly, in some cities like Seattle and San Francisco, homeowners have to opt in for delivery. But did it take in more than $3 billion last year. So, it's still a money maker and AT&T will share in any future success because it still has 47 percent stake in the company.
MALVEAUX: You know, Felicia, when you get older, the goal is not to be in the phone book. You don't want the name, address in the phone book. Don't want to be that available there.
Tell us about the markets. How are they doing?
TAYLOR: Well, not so great. The selling is really picked up in probably I would say the last 20 to 30 minutes. And that's coming off of the sort of the eurozone concerns both in Spain and Italy with their bond yields rising and, you know, obviously, sovereign debt now back on the forefront.
But the other thing is we've got the unofficial kickoff to the earnings season with aluminum maker Alcoa, reporting after the bell today. We've also got JPMorgan Chase coming this week and Wells Fargo, as well as Google.
So, the biggest thing this week is going to be corporate earnings. However, there is also Best Buy to talk about, and that's because the CEO, Brian Dunn, resigned.
Best Buy is going through a rough patch. Its shares have been down about 23 percent overall this year. And right now, they are down another 3.5 percent. So not very good news for him to be stepping down at this time.
MALVEAUX: All right. Felicia, good to see you. Thanks again.
President wants to jack up the tax rate for the richest Americans. It might be good politics. But is it really going to make a dent in the deficit? We're going to ask our political panel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Here's the rundown to some of the stories we're working on next:
The White House wants the richest Americans to pony up more on taxes. But is it going to do good for the economy? We'll see.
And two quick-thinking seven graders saved the day, and their school mates' lives, when the bus driver collapses at the wheel.
And later, government spending scandal posted on YouTube for the world to see.
Well, some school heroes, they're going to tell you about this -- they saved the day when their bus driver suddenly lost consciousness behind the wheel. Now, you got to watch this surveillance tape. You see the driver -- he's starting to shake, clearly in some kind of trouble here.
Kids say they knew something was wrong. One boy runs up, he grabs the wheel, steers the bus off the road and then grabbing the keys. The other student does CPR until the teacher runs to the bus for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEREMY WUITSCHICK, STOPPED BUS: I'm just thinking I just want to stop the truck, because I don't want to crash and I don't want to know what it feels like.
JOHNNY WOOD, DID CPR ON DRIVER: I ran up and tried doing chest compressions. But his eyes were rolling back and it was -- I could tell it was getting harder for him to breathe. You want to know if he's OK but then again it's happening so fast, your heart's pumping. It's breathtaking and breath-giving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The school superintendent says that the students get emergency training several times a year so they'll know what to do if a bus driver needs some help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: There is new embarrassing video from a conference that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think meetings are good to have in between breaks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: We're going to show you the tapes, break down the money that was spent during both the Obama and Bush administrations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time for "The Help Desk" where we get answers to your financial questions.
Joining me this hour is Gary Schatsky, a financial planner and president of objectiveadvice.com. Carmen Wong Ulrich is the president of Alta Wealth Management.
Thank you both for coming in.
First to you, Gary. Question came in from South Carolina. This person wrote in, they have a pretty large amount of credit card debt. They have enough money to pay it all up. The question is, should they pay it off all at once, or set up a payment plan to pay it off gradually?
GARY SCHATSKY, FINANCIAL PLANNER: Well, first of all congratulations that you are about to pay it off. Almost everyone is going to want to get rid of it in its entirety, unless the card associated zero percent over a long period of time, you're going to want to wipe it out.
The only other real exception is if for some reason they won't accept cents on the dollar, it's something you might meaning not pay the full amount to pay it off all at once.
But why carry high interest debt a second more than you have to.
HARLOW: Exactly. Absolutely.
Carmen, your question comes from Paul in Ohio. Paul, wrote in, "When I got divorced, I bought a condo for $125,000. It's now worth around $80,000. I no longer live there but I still owe around 114,000 on the mortgage. What are my options?
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, ALTA WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Paul is under water.
HARLOW: Yes.
ULRICH: So, you got three options: He can hold it, which to see if it actually grows in value in any way. Then he can sell it. Or he could short sale it and go for a short sale, which means, of course, it would sell for less than he owed. It's a difficult process but that's a responsible way to do it.
Or he could walk away. Now, if you walk away, it goes into foreclosure and that absolutely destroys his credit. So, he needs to make that judgment call on his own, what of those three options that he want to do?
HARLOW: Does it change since it's viewed as an investment property since he's not living there?
ULRICH: Well, that's the thing. There's not a lot of help for folks on a second property. It has to be a primary residence to get help from HUD, for example, to qualify for any of those programs. But a secondary residence, not there.
HARLOW: Yes. All right. Thank you guys so much.
Folks, if you have a question you want answers, just send us an e-mail any time to CNNHelpDesk@CNN.com.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Bill Clinton once told struggling Americans I feel your pain. Well, now the presidential candidates are trying to convince Americans they, too, feel it.
They are scrambling to appeal to middle class voters and paint the other guy as out of touch with the working class. Joining us to talk about that and much more, Democratic strategist, Ed Espinoza and Republican strategist, Cheri Jacobus.
It's so good to see you. Glad to have you on. I want to talk about President Obama. He's on the road. He's pushing his so called "Buffett Rule" requiring the richest Americans to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.
You have a campaign conference call that was promoting this. And Senator Dick Durbin, he was the one who took aim at Romney's Swiss bank account. I want you to listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS (via telephone): It is impossible for him to explain or defend owning a Swiss bank account. I asked Warren Buffett at a meeting we had recently. Do ever had a Swiss bank account? He said no, there are plenty of good banks in the United States.
So I started asking people why do you have a Swiss bank account. There are two reasonable explanations. Number one, you believe the Swiss franc is a stronger currency than the United States dollar.
That apparently is the decision the Romney family made during the Bush presidency. Secondly, you want to conceal something. You want to hide something. Why would you have a Swiss bank account?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Cheri, I'm going to you first. Legitimate questions there or is this another attempt to really paint him as out of touch, not like everybody else?
CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: This is a class warfare pure and simple. What we've seen with the Obama campaign and the Democrats for quite some time. Quite frankly, it's all they have. When you have a very poor Obama economy, you have to make voters jealous and resentful of the people who are doing better.
Look, the bigger issue is that the so-called "Buffett Tax" that they're talking about, this 1 percent, the people that they want to pay more. Warren Buffett himself has done very, very well, one of the few people who has done very well with Barack Obama as president.
He got a sweet deal with the company he owns under the Keystone pipeline deal that the president torpedoed. So let's set that aside because Warren Buffet is doing very well. But in terms of people in this country becoming millionaires it's what we all want.
It's something that should be encouraged and the other thing is the government should not be telling anybody what they can do with their money even if it's dividends from investments. They paid taxes on this.
So this notion that there is somehow something wrong or illegal, there is not. This money has already had taxes paid on it and the Buffett rule would not bring any hardly anything into the treasury to pay off the debt.
MALVEAUX: I got to get you off there for a minute. We got to get Ed in here. Ed, does it make any sense for the president, he's got the bully pulpit here. He's talking about the "Buffet Rule." Does he really need his surrogates to go after Romney on things about the offshore bank account?
ED ESPINOZA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, Durbin made a good point. Why do you have a Swiss bank account? You either hiding something or you don't have confidence in the American dollar.
You know, Cindy said that you don't want to begrudge someone's success so they're just jealous. But Warren Buffett doesn't need to be jealous of anybody, he doesn't begrudge anyone's success and he doesn't have a Swiss bank account.
If you're going to run for president of the United States maybe lead by example, keep your money state side and invest in things you have confidence in. This sends a message to people you're out of touch and it's not something that everyday people can identify with. I don't know anybody with a Swiss bank account.
JACOBUS: Why is it the government's business where somebody keeps their money? I think that's a bigger issue. First of all, you have a president who did very well under the Bush economy. He now is a millionaire 12 times over. I don't understand why it's Dick Durbin's business or anybody else's what people do with their money --
ESPINOZA: It's not the government's business. It's principle.
JACOBUS: It's sort of an odd argument. I think what we want is somebody who knows money, who wants to create an economy in the United States where everybody wants to keep their money here.
But you know what, if the United States Congress and the president isn't doing that, isn't creating that environment then Americans no matter who they are should be able to do what they want with their money.
I think it's -- should make us all nervous when you've got senators trying to dictate what somebody can legally do with their own funds.
MALVEAUX: Why not be more forthcoming. To both of you, why not just put it out on the table and say here's where my money is, what I've done and here's why. What's the point of not discussing it? Why not just put it out there and satisfy people who have questions, legitimate questions?
ESPINOZA: Right. It's a good question.
JACOBUS: Well, yes, they can do that and they should. Sometimes they do it piecemeal. And sometimes they do it. They have, when you have a lot of funds or properties, sometimes takes more than an afternoon to do it. But again, I think --
ESPINOZA: Let me --
JACOBUS: I think it's a real false issue here and the American people are going to catch it.
MALVEAUX: Let's talk a little bit about the gender gap here. President Obama is leading Romney when it comes to women. But we have a new poll here that shows the president is having a harder time with male voters.
And this ABC/Washington Post poll, he trails Romney among men, 44 percent to 52 percent. Talk about this, Ed. What does he need to do? What is the problem that he's having in appealing to men?
ESPINOZA: Yes, I looked at this poll and I dug into the cross tabs and tried to find what it was that was -- that had men leaning in a different direction. I couldn't specifically find it in this poll.
But what I did find is that African-Americans still support the president by 90 percent. Latinos support the president 2 to 1. Women support the president an 18-point gap. So when we talk about men that aren't supporting Democrats or the president you are specifically looking at white men.
Anglos, and these are places largely in the rust belt area, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, places that have been hard hit by the recession. It's natural that bread winners who lost their job are going to be skeptical of government right now. We're not losing them completely, but it's a group that we need to -- Democrats need to communicate with in a stronger way.
MALVEAUX: All right, Ed, Cheri, we're going to leave it there. We're going to have you guys back on very soon. Thank you. Good to see you.
If you are not already alarmed by all of the wild spending we saw at a Vegas conference for government workers, stay tuned, there is another General Services Administration employee who is now on leave that means eight GSA workers fired removed or out of a job, put on leave. And new video from the conference. Dana Bash has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hoping to limit the political damage, the Obama administration headed out to selective media outlet an hour's worth of new embarrassing GSA video over the holiday weekend.
Among this see it to believe it clips, government workers appearing to mock the president for his green jobs initiative. It is yet another submission for a video awards ceremony, which CNN first reported on last week.
A talent show at a lavish 2010 GSA convention in Las Vegas, which cost taxpayers over $800,000. But House Oversight Chairman, Darryl Issa, says the administration conspicuously omitted a key part of this video, evidence he says, GSA employees were making these videos during a taxpayer funded work day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was amazing. Was there anybody in Region 7 that wasn't in that thing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they didn't work on Friday, the chances are they weren't in the video.
BASH: Still, what the administration did release is damaging. In this video, a man dressed as an angry clown makes fun of government meetings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think meetings are good to have in between breaks.
BASH: In this one, government employees mimicking the movie "Office Space" appear to destroy government property. At the Las Vegas conference where the videos were played, listen to this brazen boasting.
JEFF NEELY, ACTING GSA ADMINISTRATOR, PACIFIC RIM: I think I pretty much promised to deliver and over-the-top, unforgettable, team- building experience. How did we do on that one?
BASH: That's Jeff Neely, an acting GSA administrator for the Pacific Region. Here he is on the event's red carpet, yes, a make- belief red carpet at a government conference.
NEELY: I am wearing all Armani. I think what I would like people to take home is to dispense with the notion that what's done in Vegas stays in Vegas and to really lead with what's done in Vegas needs to be shared with everybody.
BASH: What is this government employee's talent?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a talent for drinking margaritas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now how is it the GSA gave you that talent?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my commitment to our go-green initiative.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Dana Bash, she joins us. Dana, first of all, why did they do these videos? It seems really kind of odd to me.
BASH: It was a talent contest. You know, just like we have here at CNN. No, that was a joke. That was a big joke. I mean, that speaks to the whole scratch your head question because it's a very good question, Suzanne.
Why did they do this? It was supposed to be team building. It was supposed to allow people to lighten up, but obviously the content of it went too far. Never mind the cost to taxpayers, which is mind blowing, the cost to taxpayers, almost a million dollars this particular conference.
MALVEAUX: Never seen any costs on our talent contest there that got us lavish spending. But tell me here, I imagine that the White House is really on the defensive.
BASH: Absolutely. I mean, they realize that this is a huge political problem. And one thing that we are hearing more and more, though, from the Obama administration is push back at the House Republicans who were pushing this issue.
About spending not just during the Obama years, but the Bush years, in fact, we have a graphic to give you a sense of how much spending has really gone up and went up exponentially during the Bush years.
Back in 2004, $93,927 was spent on this Western Regional conference. This happens every two years. By the end of the second term, the Bush term, it had gone up to $655,000. That's a 600 percent increase. So those are the kinds of things that Democrats certainly are pushing.
Not only from the White House, but we'll see those kinds of questions no doubt when these hearings begin on Monday from Democrats about, you know, what about spending during the Bush years.
MALVEAUX: Sure, excess in both administrations. All right, Dana, thank you. Appreciate it.
I used to say a picture worth 1,000 words. Well, Facebook thinks a picture is worth a billion bucks. We're going to tell you why in tech trends coming up.
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MALVEAUX: We've been following the Trayvon Martin case, and, of course, there have been new developments throughout the day in terms of whether or not George Zimmerman, the killer of Trayvon Martin, is going to be facing criminal charges. I want to talk to Trayvon Martin's parents, who are in Orlando, Florida, now. Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who are there, as well as their attorney, Benjamin Crump.
Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. I know there -- you've been traveling, you've been doing interviews, you've taken time off from work. It really must take a toll at some point. How are you holding up at this point?
SYBRINA FULTON, TRAYVON'S MOTHER: It's very difficult. We do a lot of praying. We read our Bible every night. And it's just, you know, we just keep pushing forward because we just are fighting for Trayvon.
MALVEAUX: And at this point, what do you make of the fact that now you have the special prosecutor, Angela Corey, who's going to be making the decision on her own, without a grand jury, whether or not your son's killer, George Zimmerman, is actually going to be charged?
FULTON: Well, we're not that versed on the legal system, but our attorney did advise us that if it went to a grand jury, we would not be able to attend. That it would be a closed door meeting. And we didn't agree with that. But that was the system and how it was set up.
When we found out that they were not going to have a grand jury, that Miss Corey's office is going to handle it and she's going to make the final decision, we were a little at ease with that rather than something that's going to be closed door.
MALVEAUX: And, Mr. Martin, are you -- how confident are you that this one woman, this special prosecutor, is going to be the one to determine whether or not your son's killer could potentially face charges and go to jail?
TRACY MARTIN, TRAYVON'S FATHER: I have strong -- I have faith in her. It's not only having faith in Miss Corey, we have strong faith in the Lord and all we can do is continue -- all we do is continue to pray and ask that our Lord and Savior bring us through this in a peaceful manner. And we're just asking for justice to be served.
MALVEAUX: Do you -- have you seen the website? Do you know that George Zimmerman now has a website and he is asking people for money for his defense? He is reaching out to people. He's put this out, a page, saying, I'm the real George Zimmerman, and now looking for people to donate for him.
FULTON: We've heard about it. We have not seen the actual website. We've heard about it. And we just think, this is America. It's just America at work again. And there is good and bad in each person. And we believe that it's his right to have a website if he wants to.
MALVEAUX: Do you think, Mr. Martin, he's raising money from your son's death, from your tragedy?
MARTIN: Certainly if he has a website and he's asking for donations, he's raising money off of our son's death. But all of this could have been avoided. We never asked for the media coverage. We never asked for any of this. George Zimmerman made the decision to shoot and kill Trayvon and that's how all of this came about.
If he had not got out of his vehicle that day, he wouldn't have had to worry about starting a website or writing a letter or asking for people to make donations for his defense funds. Had he stayed in his vehicle as he was asked to do by the dispatcher, none of this would have even mattered.
MALVEAUX: Ms. Fulton, I know you've been asking for calm and for peace. For people to -- not to disrupt things. And there were reports of a police cruiser that was shot up in the neighborhood -- in your neighborhood. Does that alarm you at all? Do you want to talk to people who potentially are acting out?
FULTON: I just want them to look at us as examples. And this happened to our son. So no one can be more hurt than we are. And we're remaining peaceful. And that's what we ask. We don't ask that they stop the protest. We just ask that they have a peaceful protest and that they're able to get their point across without any violence or destruction.
MALVEAUX: All right.
MARTIN: And that shooting wasn't in our neighborhood. It was in the Sanford area. It wasn't in our neighborhood.
MALVEAUX: OK. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin and, of course, Benjamin Crump. We'll be getting back to you I know as soon as there is more information about the fate of George Zimmerman as well. Thanks again.
MARTIN: Yes, ma'am.
BENJAMIN CRUMP, MARTIN FAMILY ATTORNEY: Thank you.
FULTON: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: We're going to take a quick break.
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MALVEAUX: Titanic's allure seems as strong as ever. You've got popular books, you've got the blockbuster movie and now, believe it or not, you've got two memorial cruises sailing to the site where the ship went down. One left from London this weekend. Another leaves from New York tonight.
Chris Welch, he's joining us live from Pier 88 in New York.
Chris, you're going to take this journey. I think that's pretty amazing there. And hopefully we'll follow it throughout the week. Tell us who's on board.
CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, they're actually just starting to board the ship. There will be about 440 passengers on this ship. Some of them are actual descendants of Titanic survivors and Titanic victims.
Now, you alluded to this already. There are two memorial cruises. One leaves from New York, this one that' I'm standing on right now, the Azamara Journey. There's another ship that left a couple of days ago from South Hampton. That ship is actually retracing the actual steps of Titanic.
Now, both ships, this one will meet -- will actually go up to Canada to a cemetery where a lot of Titanic victims are buried. Then it will head to the site where Titanic is buried -- or, excuse me, where Titanic sank and where a lot of victims rest.
Now, both ships will meet at that site right in the middle of the ocean. There will be a memorial service at that point. And it will take a couple of days for this ship to get there. But when they do, there will be a memorial service at a point when the ship struck the iceberg. Then there will be another service at the point when Titanic sank.
MALVEAUX: And tell me a little bit about how this is set up here. I understand that people will be in costumes of the time -- the times that the outfits that people wore. That they'll have the same menu, the same music.
WELCH: A lot of that stuff. A lot of things that were done on the Titanic will be done on this ship. Some of the same menu items, as you mentioned. They will be having, you know, string quartets, a lot of period music, that kind of thing. In many ways it is a little eerie, but it's also, you know, they say, organizers say, passengers say, we wanted to memorialize. And those I spoke to who have relatives from the Titanic say, look, we want to go out to the site where, you know, my great-grandfather died so I can pay respects.
Now, we actually had a chance to catch up with the ship's captain this morning. He told us a little bit about what it feels like for him to be behind the wheel of this ship, 100 years later in the same waters in the North Atlantic.
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JASON IKIADIS, CAPTAIN, AZAMARA JOURNEY: I think there's an element of eeriness, if you like. But it's also going to be hugely interesting and fascinating. I believe there may also be some descendants of the Titanic survivors on board. Also Titanic enthusiasts, of course.
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WELCH: That captain actually specifically requested to make sure he was captain of this ship because he is a big buff -- Titanic buff, I should say. He's actually -- he lives near South Hampton currently and he's sort of grown up with Titanic in his backyard. So this is a very special trip for him too.
MALVEAUX: And, Chris, what I loved about your interview earlier this morning is that you asked him about the sense of responsibility. And he said, yes, he does feel a real sense of responsibility to these passengers given the history of the Titanic there. It's really a fascinating journey that they're going to be on. And, of course, Chris, we're going to be following it all the way. In about 30 minutes, I'm actually going to speak to one of the passengers who's on the memorial cruise. It was her great-grandfather was one of the 1,500 who died at sea 100 years ago.
Instagram, it is this tiny photo sharing company. Basically hits the jackpot when this week FaceBook buys it for $1 billion. So if you're one of the 30 million people who have already downloaded Instagram to post your pics, you already know what it's about. If you haven't, it's an app and it basically lets you doctor up your photos, make them look like old pictures, and then post and share them. It's kind of a cool thing.
I want to bring in Mario Armstrong about it. He's a digital lifestyle expert at our sister network HLN.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, HLN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: Hey, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Mario, you know, people love this stuff and now FaceBook wants to buy it up, buy it badly, but they're not even going to make money off of this. Why the appeal?
ARMSTRONG: Yes. Well, the appeal is because this app, number one, it's absolutely beautiful. It's one of the flawless apps that are out there, Suzanne. But more importantly than it's just beautiful design and the way it works, it's what it can do. People take photos with this app and then they instantly share that to people that are following them within their community or they can share to the FaceBook and Twitter and other places as well. But what it really does, even for me, I get excited when I see other people's photos that they've taken --
MALVEAUX: Well, you see our photos, Mario. You've got to check out our photos here. Because these are from our morning meetings. You had Tanisha (ph) and I and you've got Brenda (ph) and Mary (ph). And there's Ed. And so you can see the before and after, right. Explain a little bit what it does.
ARMSTRONG: Yes, well, you can see the before and after. You can apply filters to the photos so you can make them, you know, look retro if you want to or make them just look different ways. You can make them look better. You can clean them up. So it's a lot of flexibility within the app.
But really what it's about is being able to share what people are up to at that moment. So instead of me reading a tweet or reading a FaceBook post about what you're up to, I can actually see an image and see what you actually see. And that's the real power of it, sharing real-time moments through photos.
MALVEAUX: And tell us a little bit about the guy who's behind this app. Because this is a young guy and he's about to become really, really rich.
ARMSTRONG: Well, not only him, but --
MALVEAUX: A lot of them, yes.
ARMSTRONG: Most of his staff will become really, really rich. Started by two guys back in 2006 he left college, but this thing was new in 2010 of October. So this is a relatively short amount of time. You don't normally hear about apps that take off that fast. I mean this app has grown faster than FaceBook and a lot of other services that are out there. So the amount of people that are just really into this app, and, Suzanne, it was only available for people on iPhones. It just recently became available for people with Android phones and it took another huge spike. So this is one of those apps that has clearly broken through, people really enjoy it.
And FaceBook has a horrible mobile photos experience. And so, Facebook saying, wait a minute, Instagram is great, people love it. Our mobile experience really lacks, especially when it comes to photos, this is something that can really enhance our site. Plus, we get to know where people are based upon their photos, so maybe we can even direct advertising towards them.
MALVEAUX: Yes, pretty cool stuff. And Mario, it was a simple concept, that's the thing. I got to think of one. I'm trying to come up with an app.
SYSTROM: Trust me, everyone is. Even Kodak. Kodak is like what happened to us? We were the photo people, and here they are going bankrupt and you have this app that's in photos that's going for, you know, a billion dollars.
MALVEAUX: Yes, pretty crazy. Mario, great to see you as always.
SYSTROM: Good to see you as well. See you in pictures on Instagram.
MALVEAUX: OK, I'll send you some more.
