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Jamie Dimon Appears Before Senate. Civil War in Syria Continues. Victim of Jerry Sandusky Testifies in Court. Members of Mexican Cartel Arrested in Horse Breeding Front. Casey Anthony Breaks Her Silence. Olympic Gymnast Dominique Moceanu Recounts Her Traumatic Training. New Details in Thomas Kelly Death; Colorado Fire Continues to Burn Out of Control; Conference of Mayors Meet in Florida

Aired June 13, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, everyone. Don Lemon here. Kyra's off today. 11:00 in the East, 8:00 out West. Let's get started.

Even on Wall Street if you manage to lose a couple of billion dollars or several billion dollars in the space of just several weeks, you'll have to answer some questions and not just any questions.

Right now the Senate banking committee is grilling Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, over trades he's admitted were sloppy and stupid, ironically, from the Chase department in charge of mitigating risk.

My colleague, Christine Romans watching this hearing from her post in New York.

The department that's supposed to mitigate risks made these risky trades and now he is having to answer questions. It's obvious why Congress wants to know why these stupid trades were made.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes and he says, you know what? I'm not going to defend it because it violates common sense. It shouldn't have happened. What maybe should have been a legitimate, bona fide macroeconomic hedge morphed into something else, he says, and he will not defend it.

I'll tell you we talk about - you say he's been grilling. It's a very civil discussion, in part, because he is so contrite here. The conversation just now turning into something more about what do you think about Dodd-Frank and the Volcker Rule and new regulations that he has been pretty vocal against, but as far as that trade, he says, no, you're right. It shouldn't have happened and we're sorry for that.

In particular, let me tell you, I want to first talk about the disruption if you will, at the very beginning before he even sat down.

LEMON: There were some hecklers, right?

ROMANS: There were some hecklers and, of course, there usually are with bankers, especially in the wake of Occupy Wall Street. They're saying that the people need to - just listen to it for a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... going to prison. You and others, you need to listen to Bernie Sanders. We need to listen. These guys sit on federal courts. They take billions of dollars in U.S. debt or bailouts at near-zero interest. This man is a crook and he needs to go to jail along with his cronies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Of course, security hustled them out. I'll tell you that Jamie Dimon seemed pretty nonplussed by all of that, quite frankly.

Interesting as well because this is still happening. You're going to get more pointed questions about, should there be more oversight on Wall Street? He was asked point blank, if other smaller, less capitalized banks were doing the same thing, could it take down the financial system?

He didn't really answer that question, except to say that we have a lot of money on our books. This is not something that would have taken down JPMorgan. It's hurt their shareholders, it shouldn't have happened, but there risk management did ultimately find out about it and stop.

But certainly I think there could be more fireworks later on, but so far pretty civil, I'll be honest.

LEMON: Probably will be more fireworks and, as you said, that's what Dodd-Frank was supposed to be about, reforms and preventing this. We'll follow this throughout the hour.

Christine Romans, thank you very much. Keep a close eye on that for us.

We're going to dip back in and out of this as it progresses and warrants here on CNN. So stay tuned.

Let's go overseas now. Civil war in Syria, that's what the U.N. is now calling the anti-government revolt that first erupted 15 months ago. The U.N. estimates 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and there's no letup in heavy fighting across the country.

Good lord. Opposition groups say at least 49 people killed so far today. And now, Syrian forces are using a new lethal weapon, helicopter gunships. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, says the choppers are being supplied by Russia

To Barbara Starr now at the Pentagon. She joins us from there. Barbara, what's the basis of Clinton's claims here?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, she does not exactly saying what intelligence she has on-hand, Don, but you can bet she's got plenty of information about it. The movement of Russian arms into Syria to support the regime there is a top priority for the U.S. intelligence community to be watching. There are a number of ways they can do it, from satellites, from U.S. Navy ships in the Eastern Mediterranean, monitoring Syrian ports there. They are keeping a very close eye.

And I want to you listen just to how angry Hillary Clinton was yesterday when she talked about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria. We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And the words out of Moscow this morning is the Russian military export agency has no intention of holding back on those export deals they have with Syria. They're going to carry them out, they say.

Don?

LEMON: Can we talk more about these choppers? It's obvious that the folks would be alarmed here because that takes this fighting to an entire new level. Right?

STARR: Absolutely. Now, to be clear, the Syrians, by all accounts, we've seen the video, have used helicopters in the past, but what appears to be happening here are some of the most advanced helicopter gunships from the Russians maybe going into Syria.

What is the vicious advantage that this gives the Syrian regime? You can see it right there on that piece of tape. These helicopters can move very quickly into an area. They can stay over a target for a period of time. They can loiter and fire their rockets and their weapons, round after round after round, into civilian areas with great precision, but indiscriminately

The killing of women, children and civilians continues in Syria and these helicopter gunships are just going to add more advantage to the Syrian regime, at least for now until somebody does something about it, Don.

LEMON: Even more relentless. Thank you very much, Barbara Starr. For more on this, check out CNN security team's blog, "Security Clearance."

We're going to go to Iraq now. A wave of bombings has killed at least 58 people and wounded nearly 160, most of the victims, Shiite pilgrims gathering for a religious festival. It is the deadliest sectarian violence since January. The U.N. representatives for Iraq call the attacks despicable. The attacks appear to be coordinated and occurred in at least ten places. The deadliest was in Hillah, south of Baghdad, where at least 20 people were killed.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they raise concerns about renewed violence between the country's majority Shiites and minority Sunnis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Just a quick note for you heading out the door. Those of you going to lunch, wherever, you need watch CNN from your mobile phone or, if you are heading to work, you can also watch CNN live from your desktop. Just go to CNN.com/TV.

It looks like another day of sordid testimony in the child rape trial of Jerry Sandusky. CNN's Susan Candiotti at the Centre County courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, for us.

Susan, can you tell us who's on the stand right now?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a busy morning, Don. Hi. Right now, there is a witness who we believe to be alleged Victim Number Seven and what he is saying is that, he is testifying that he did not allegedly have any sex with Jerry Sandusky.

But what's interesting is this - this person has told the grand jury that in the weeks leading up to his first appearance to the grand jury he had several phone calls, he said, from both Jerry Sandusky and Sandusky's wife, saying that it was very important for him to call him back, but he never did.

Now, that is who is on the stand, we believe, right now. Just prior to him, we heard from someone who is known as alleged Victim Number 10. This is someone who is now 25 years old, Don.

But he is telling jurors when he was about 11 yours old or so in 1977, he met Jerry Sandusky through Second Mile and, at one point, he said, Sandusky brought him down to his basement, pinned him down and told jurors that Sandusky allegedly performed oral sex on him.

He said he was freaked out, he told jurors, and so scared and he said, later, this happened in the basement of Sandusky's home, Sandusky told him, threatened him, that if he ever told anyone, he would never see his family again.

At that point, he said, Sandusky later said, I didn't really mean that, but the alleged victim said that he told his foster mother that he never wanted to see Jerry Sandusky again.

Don?

LEMON: These jurors and what they're hearing, they probably never thought they'd be hearing these conversations in their entire lives. Let's talk more about the witnesses and the people who are testifying. Mike McQueary's father also testified this morning. Did he back up what his son has been saying throughout this process?

CANDIOTTI: Yes, he did. He said that his son was really shook up when he called him that particular night to report that he had seen, as he put it, Coach Sandusky in the showers with a little boy and the father testified there was no doubt in his mind that his son had seen a sexual act occur.

Later on, he said, a couple months later, he testified that he had a meeting with the vice president of Penn State, Gary Schultz, and he said to him, "What's happening with what my son told you about Jerry Sandusky?"

And he testified that Schultz told him that he had heard some noise about Jerry Sandusky before, but he told McQueary's father he didn't need any additional information and that was it.

LEMON: Susan Candiotti, thank you.

This is playing out very fast, this trail. Sandusky faces 52 counts of sexually abusing children and could spend the rest of his life in prison if he's convicted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: One of Mexico's notorious drug cartels, Los Zetas, is accused of infiltrating the world of horse-breeding and racing to, get this, launder drug money. Fourteen cartel members now face federal charges, including the Los Zetas top leaders.

Investigators say cartel members funneled millions of dollars into the U.S. where they established a very successful, award-winning, quarter horse breeding operation in New Mexico, in Oklahoma, California and Texas.

Rafael Romo following all of the developments for us. So, Rafael, 14 Zetas are charged here, only half arrested. Who are the key players?

RAFAEL ROMO, SENTIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Two brothers by the last name of Trevino Morales. One is Jose Trevino Morales. He was living as a legitimate breeder in the United States, buying horses in places like Texas, Oklahoma, California, and New Mexico.

The other brother, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, is the reputed leader of a cartel in Mexico known as Los Zetas and what federal authorities are alleging is that the brother in Mexico was sending millions and millions of dollars in cash to the brother in New Mexico, in Oklahoma, so that he could buy, train, breed and race these horses. That's what the indictment allegation.

LEMON: So tell me more about how it works. How did it work? How were they able to hide millions in drug money with quarter horses? ROMO: Federal officials say they had a number of front companies that operated as legitimate businesses dedicated solely to buying American quarter horses and this all seemed legitimate on the surface.

But what was happening was that they were getting all the cash from Mexico, in reality, and hiding the money through these companies and participating, actually, in races. They, in one case, in 2009, they made $1 million by winning one race.

LEMON: They were very successful with these quarter horses, weren't they?

ROMO: That's exactly right ad it's interesting to see, for example, how much money they made and one thing that caught my attention was the name of one of the horses. It was called Coronita Cartel, if you can make the reference to a Mexican beer and to a drug cartel.

LEMON: So it was very obvious. Several states we mentioned here, Texas, Oklahoma and other states, right? How long has this been doing on?

ROMO: According to the indictment, at least since 2008 and, even more interesting than that, is the money that officials allege was involved. They say at least $20 million was involved and we're only talking about the money that they can document.

LEMON: $20 million since 2008? What's going to happen to the money and the horses now?

ROMO: The money is being confiscated. The horses are probably eventually going to be auctioned off.

LEMON: It always comes down to the drugs, doesn't it?

ROMO: And the money.

LEMON: Well, through that.

ROMO: Exactly.

LEMON: Interesting. Thank you, Rafael Romo. We'll follow.

And I need to tell you this. According to the federal indictment, the Los Zetas cartel is headquarters in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, directly across the border from Laredo, Texas. The Zetas is Mexico's largest drug cartel, in terms of territory, and has operations in 11 Mexican states.

Now, an update to the story that we have been following here on CNN. The suspect in the deadly shooting near Auburn University in Alabama appeared in court just today.

Desmonte Leonard turned himself in last night. Leonard faces three counts of capital murder and two of assault. He's accused of gunning down several people at an off-campus party over the weekend. Two of the three killed were former football players at Auburn University.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Casey Anthony breaking her silence yet again. This time talking with our very own Piers Morgan in a 10-minute phone interview.

Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I said to her, what are the biggest misconceptions do you think about you?

She said, "Well, there's obviously several misconceptions. Obviously, I didn't kill my daughter." She said that firmly. "If anything, there's nothing in this world I've ever been more proud of and there's no one I loved more than my daughter. She's my greatest accomplishment."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Casey Anthony has been in hiding since found not guilty of killing her daughter, Caylee. Piers Morgan spoke with her attorney about her whereabouts and you can watch "Piers Morgan Tonight," weekdays, CNN, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Some encouraging news for Aimee Copeland now. She's a 24-year old, reaching another milestone in her battle with a flesh-eating bacteria. Her condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.

Now, as you may remember, the Georgia native's ordeal began in May after she cut herself on a make-shift zip line across the Little Tallapoosa River.

And in another update, Lana Kuykendall, also fighting a flesh- eating bacteria, is still hospitalized in Greenville, South Carolina. She is in fair condition now and recently saw her newborn twins for the first time.

Imagine this, fulfilling a lifelong dream by the age of 14. That's what Dominique Moceanu did this in 1996, winning Olympic gold as the youngest member of the U.S. gymnastics team.

But her road to glory was anything but easy. In her new book "Off Balance" in stores just this week, Moceanu opens up about alleged abuse she suffered while training and the discovery of a sister she didn't even know she had.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, shares her story in this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu hasn't lost the focus and the smile she's known for as a member of "The Magnificent Seven" in Atlanta. But behind that smile, she's hidden a lot of pain. While she loved the sport, Moceanu says her coaches, Marta and Bela Karolyi, made her life miserable, severely restricting her eating, forcing her to hide sports-related injuries and constantly chipping away at her self-esteem.

DOMINIQUE MOCEANU, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL GYMNAST: Name calling like a piggy and fat. The Karolyis, for example, hit me in a lot of personal and emotional places. They used my father as a medium of abuse.

GUPTA: She says the coaches would call her father to complain about her performance in practice and he'd punish her by hitting her.

MOCEANU: For so long, I was silenced by those very people who never wanted me to say anything.

GUPTA: The Karolyis declined to comment on her accusations, but tell CNN, quote, "We have known Dominique since a young gymnast and wish her only the best of success as she goes through life."

At 17, she went to court to be granted legal independence from her Romanian parents, to reclaimed her money and choose her own coach.

Moceanu's younger sister, Christina, says she witnessed the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, but says Dominique reconciled with him before he died from cancer.

MOCEANU: I learned to take those experiences that were difficult in my life and in the adversity that I had overcome to use it for a positive change.

GUPTA: Moceanu retired from gymnastics in 2006 and, soon afterward, while pregnant with her first child, she received a letter from another sister, one she never knew she had, a sister born with no legs and given up for adoption.

MOCEANU: I got the biggest bombshell of my life and it changed everything. My life will forever be divided now into before knowing about Jen and after knowing about Jen.

GUPTA: Today, Moceanu is happily married. And wants to help other young gymnasts fall in love with the sports that she loves so much.

And she says her two children may even be gymnasts in the future.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: You can hear the rest of Dominique's story on "Sanjay Gupta MD." It's Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Eastern, and Sunday morning at 7:30 Eastern, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: It's a story that we've been following closely on this show, the beating death of Kelly Thomas. It began with a call to the Fullerton, California, police of a man breaking into cars. But that report as we now know turned into this.

And I want to warn you that the video that you're about to see is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY THOMAS, BEATEN BY POLICE: No. No.

(SHOUTING)

THOMAS: They're killing me, Dad. Dad!

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Tell you Kelly Thomas died from his injuries five days later. Now details of who may have made that call to police that would lead to this deadly confrontation. A former employee of this Fullerton bar says it was his manager that falsely reported Kelly to police. The ex-doorman is suing, alleging his manager's life set into motion the events that ultimately led to Kelly Thomas' death.

Straight to Casey Wian now, who has been digging into this story for us.

Man, it's awful to see that video. Casey, give us a label, how far away is the bar from the bus station where Kelly was beaten?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, it's very, very close, less than 50 yards. And it's just across the parking lot from this bar, the spot where he was beaten. Take a look at this map we have of this area and, hopefully, we can show you just how close this is. We're at the Fullerton Transportation Center. There's a bus stop there that you can see, and right near that bus station, you can see where the Slidebar is. There's that parking lot, like I say, just about 50 yards away. That right there is the corner where Kelly Thomas received that beating that all ultimately proved to are fatal. Just 50 yards away from there, across that parking lot, is where this bar is.

So the allegation is that an employee of that bar actually called the Fullerton Police Department to report that Kelly Thomas was breaking into cars, which was not true, by everything that we know. But there are allegations that this bar owner wanted to keep homeless people away, and specifically Kelly Thomas, away from his bar. That's why he instructed his employees to call the police and get rid of Kelly Thomas in whatever way possible, at least according to the allegations in this lawsuit.

LEMON: Casey, question for you. The former employee fired, who allegations in the lawsuit, he says he was fired for telling the truth?

WIAN: That's right. What he says is that he was fired because he actually cooperated with the law enforcement investigation into this beating death. He alleges that the owner of the bar actually told all of his employees not to cooperate with law enforcement, and he's suing this bar owner for unlawful termination and several other things, a lawsuit that could be worth millions of dollars.

LEMON: Casey, what's the Slidebar owners', the management's response? Are they saying anything about this lawsuit?

WIAN: Absolutely, they are. It's really interesting. This story gets more and more bizarre. The owner of the bar is actually a member of a rock band called Lit that had a couple of big hits about 10 or 12 years ago. He says his employees never called the police to respond to, or to get Kelly Thomas moved out of the bar area. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY POPOFF, OWNER, SLIDEBAR: -- former employee is, just trying to get paid. He's taking advantage of the fact that, just tragic story's back in the news. I'm back in the news. I have a record coming out on Tuesday and, all of a sudden, lawsuit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIAN: Now, later today, we're going to hear from Michael Reeves and his attorney, the former doorman, who actually filed this suit. We'll have to see what he has to say about the specifics.

Also, we're waiting to hear the 911 call or any transcripts of calls actually made from the bar to the police department at that time. The district attorney has not yet released those, and may not do so, because it's part of an ongoing court case. But if they do release those transcripts or that call, that could go a long way to clearing this all up -- Don?

LEMON: Quickly, here, the community is still dealing with this. There's a lot going on in the community. What next from the city council, if you can tell me quickly, Casey?

WIAN: Well, one thing that has been talked about is that the city council is considering actually disbanding the Fullerton Police Department --

LEMON: Wow.

WIAN: -- contracting those services ever out to the Orange County Sheriff's Department which would, they believe, save money. We don't know if that's going to happen, but that's one of the things being considered at this point -- Don?

LEMON: Casey Wian, we'll follow it. Appreciate your reporting on that. All right, the fire is burning out of control in northern Colorado. The Hyde Park Fire stretching across more than 43,000 acres and, get this, only 10 percent contained. Dozens of firefighters headed to the fire today. A news conference is being held in Colorado. The fires are still going. They're holding now in Larimer County this hour. There you see it, courtesy of our affiliate, KGMA. We'll monitor that and bring you any breaking developments in that.

Meantime, our Chad Myers, keeping a close watch from the CNN Weather Center.

Just 10 percent contained. Not a lot, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not a lot. But the part that's really not contained is the part pushing back towards Estes Park, in the National Forest. It's better than if it was uncontained in a residential area. We up to 46,600 acres burned, 73 square miles. The problem with 10 percent containment is they are in an area where 70 percent, 7-0 percent of the trees are dead because of the Rocky Mountain pine beetle. Not only do you have things burning, you have dead trees tinder dry. They're ready to go, waiting to burn. This pine beetle has devastated parts of Utah, Colorado, even New Mexico. When you see this stuff burn, it goes up literally -- it looks like gasoline is on fire when it hits the trees. Estes Park right now, winds are calm. That's the best news at this point. We'll see later tonight cooler conditions. As we go into the rest of the week, we actually will see a chance of a thunderstorm. You think, that's a great thing. No.

LEMON: No?

MYERS: That's exactly the wrong thing.

LEMON: Why?

MYERS: Because the rain that happens in the mountains with thunderstorms is never, ever enough to put out the fires that lightning creates. The air is so dry over this fire, that the rain that comes down tries to -- to get to the ground but doesn't. It evaporates before it gets there. The lightning strikes, makes it to the ground, starting a new fire.

LEMON: Not the only place there's fire, New Mexico, Chad Myers.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: We'll follow up on that a little bit later on CNN.

Chad, thank you.

Meantime, they're holding a press conference now. We'll monitor it on CNN in Larimer County, Colorado. You heard what Chad said. Man, it's only 10 percent contained. It is still going.

COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: Back to our top story. You see this just, in a man, "The New York Times" once called America's least-hated banker, is on Capitol Hill trying to explain disastrous trades to the Senate Banking Committee. JPMorgan Chase racked up losses in the billions while trying to avoid risk elsewhere. And things got a little heated before the hearing even started. Hecklers took on Jamie Dimon over foreclosures and taxpayer bailouts. By contrast, the Q&A with lawmakers --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: There it is. That's it. That's them, the hecklers. The contrast between them and lawmakers, well, it hasn't gotten much more testy than this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JACK REED, (D), SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE: This is simply a risk separation. You're hedging portfolio. How can you be on both sides of the transaction and claim you're hedging?

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: I think I've been clear, which is (INAUDIBLE), I think it was good. What it has morphed into, I'm not going to try to defend it.

REED: So --

DIMON: Under any name, whatever you call it, I will not defend it. It violated common sense, in my opinion. I do believe the people doing it thought that they were maintaining a short against high-yield credit that would benefit the company in a crisis. I think -- and we now know they were wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We'll keep an eye and ear on that, the back and forth and let you know if it gets hot and heavy, and what comes out of it. That's our top story here on CNN.

Meantime, nearly 200 mayors from across the country gathering in Orlando, Florida, right now for their annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. This year's meeting is critical with elections just around the corner and, of course, with what's going on in the economy.

Which is why we want to bring in Mayor Tony Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles. Of course, you know him, president of the Conference of Mayors.

And, Mayor Villaraigosa, good morning. You were just in Orland, now you're in Los Angeles. You have a busy schedule. Thank you for coming on. Appreciate it. I want to talk to you about this. The mayors are considering resolutions in a number of things, a number of topics, jobs to garbage collection, which is a job. Right? Collecting garbage. You say, while D.C. is divided, the mayors are getting things done. How are you getting things done?

ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES: As an example, in my city and in cities across the country, our cities are safer. We're working to invest in infrastructure, even at a time when the Congress has failed to pass a surface transportation bill. In fact, they've extended it 10 times. More times than at any time in history. That's two million jobs we're talking about. So, like, in my example, you know, we're expanding some $4 billion, 40,000 jobs at the airport; $3 billion, about 20,000 jobs at the port. We're trying to expand, double the size of our rail system by accelerating $40 billion in a 10-year period of time to build public transportation. But without a federal partner -- frankly, missing in action -- the mayors are pointing to Washington and saying, it's time to do your job.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: What do you mean, federal partner missing in action? Are you talking about Congress? Who are you talking about?

VILLARAIGOSA: Congress.

LEMON: Congress.

VILLARAIGOSA: No question about it. Congress is missing in action.

LEMON: All right.

VILLARAIGOSA: We put a common-sense jobs agenda that we went to Republican and Democratic think tanks and said, what are the kinds of initiatives we could get together that both Democrats and Republicans would support. In fact, it dovetailed very similarly with the president's jobs plan. Infrastructure was a big part of that. The Republicans and Democrats have all failed to pass a surface transportation bill, which would create two million jobs.

LEMON: Mayor, a lot to get to. You're calling out both Democrats and Republicans here. Listen, more jobs need to be created. Everyone knows that. That's no secret. Let's really get to the bottom of things here. The president, remember the whole fine comment last week and, in that statement he blamed, or pointed to the slowdown, the slow economy on local governments not expanding. Chris Christie of New Jersey went after him at the CPAC conference last week. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: He's talking about why job growth hasn't been as robust as it should be. And this is what he said. I stared at the TV and couldn't believe he said it. He said, one of the reasons is because state and local government hiring is going in the wrong direction.

(LAUGHTER)

I swear to you. That's what he said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So that is a, "how dare you, Mr. President," blame governors and mayors. Does Chris Christie have a point when it comes to that? Is it being taken out of context? Is this a real reality in this economy, when it comes to creating jobs? That the cities and states aren't doing it, therefore, the economy, it is not helping the economy?

VILLARAIGOSA: He doesn't have a point. He's making a lot of ado about nothing. Look, the fact is that cities, counties, school districts are cutting. We're cutting dramatically. We're cutting, because states are shifting the responsibility for their failure to balance the budget, and they're putting it on the backs of cities, counties and school districts. That's why the president's proposed to hire and protect the jobs of teachers and firefighters and police officers. And it was Romney who said that we shouldn't do that.

The fact is -- and I mention both Democrats and Republicans, because it's broken on both sides. But it's been the Republican House that's failed to pass the surface transportation bill. It's been the Republican House that frankly has resisted every effort on part of the president to work together to create jobs right now.

And our organization is a bipartisan organization. And it's very interesting, because the mayors have said to both the Congress and the Republicans and Democrats, that it's time to do their job, but we focus primarily on the Republican House that's failed to do almost anything to put people back to work.

LEMON: OK. So, listen, and without -- no talking points, and if you cannot be partisan at this point. What do you need -- I think I know the answer -- need from the president, from Washington? What do you need from Congress? If you say compromise, I don't know if that's going to happen.

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I think we do need them to work together. We do need to pass a surface transportation bill. We do need support to expand our exports, because we know that 95 percent of the new markets are outside of the country. We do need the Congress to do what they can to extend the unemployment benefits. We do need to protect the firefighters, police officers and teachers so that we don't continue to hemorrhage jobs. Those are three areas that we could get bipartisan consensus for. The president's for it. The Senate's for it. Now we need to get the House leadership for it as well.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, Mayor. We appreciate it.

VILLARAIGOSA: Thank you. LEMON: All right. The mayors will spend the next four days at this conference, considering more than 100 resolutions to pressure the federal government into action. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to deliver the keynote address.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: New safety -- excuse me -- new safety rules may let parents of young football players may help parents rest easier because youth football organization, Pop Warner, is announcing big changes aimed at protecting the health of the players.

Our CNN medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is joining us.

Choked up there, sorry.

First, what are these changes?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The executive director of Pop Warner says we are trying to take the head out of football. and that is a visual image. There are two big rules that they will start to institute. And let's go over those.

The first one is when they do the tackling drills during practices -- and this is all about the practice and not play. Tackling drills can last 40 minutes max. That it's.

LEMON: They're putting a limit on it.

COHEN: They are putting a limit on it. You cannot go on and on.

And, secondly, no head-on tackling drills starting more than three yards away. If you do a head-on, you can't start from four or five yards away, because you obviously gain momentum from the distance. And they want to cut that down. 250,000 kids in Pop Warner Football ages 5-15, so this affects a lot of kids.

LEMON: And what you are reporting, and Sanjay is reporting, both of you guys, about leading with the head, they are trying to lessen that and get people not to do it. What led to the changes, all the numbers and the people being injured is one of them?

COHEN: Several things, but one being one was a Virginia Tech study. And they put the helmets on the kids, and you can't see it, but there are sensors inside of the pads here.

LEMON: Cool.

COHEN: And 7 and 8-year-olds wore these for the entire season and they found on average a given kid was getting 107 hits a season in the head, and some of them large enough to cause concussions. So 107 hits a season on a 7-year-old, and that is a lot.

LEMON: But helmets protect. But there's not enough padding in helmets to protect from everything, correct? COHEN: You can't protect from everything, so you are protecting somewhat, but what happens is that the brain still -- and I hate to use this image -- but it is still rattles around in the skull. I mean, you can see this animation shows what happened when there was an impact. The brain is still rattling around there, and you can still get injuries. The folks at Pop Warner are aware of the lawsuits at the professional level and even at the college level. And obviously, they want to keep their kids safe and they don't want to have those lawsuits either.

LEMON: It does not start at the professional level, they believes it's a long period of time after repeated -- starting when kids are young and it's repeated.

COHEN: We think of the injuries as, wow, a kid got a big hit and falls to the ground.

LEMON: Yes.

COHEN: But it can be small hits over a small period of time. And imagine that a kid plays from age 7 to 20, that is a lot of hits.

LEMON: When you said 7 and 8-year-olds testing the helmets, that made me think about that.

Thank you, Elizabeth. Appreciate it.