Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Obama Challenges GOP on Tax Cuts; Missing Georgia Banker; Assad Agrees To Approach; Cruise And Holmes Settle Divorce; 40,000 Plus U.S. Computers Lose Internet; American Gored At Bull Run; Wall Of Water Kills 170 In Russia; Mystery Illness Killing Kids; Political Showdown In Egypt; Yasser Arafat To Be Exhumed; Runaway Semi Crashes Into Gas Station; Government Re-Prioritizing U.S. Communications; Mickey, Winnie And Kim Jong Un
Aired July 09, 2012 - 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: A quarter million or more dollars a year. In the process, the other 98 percent of the country would have their taxes stay the same rather than going up, as they're scheduled to, in 2013. Instant -- instant big issue here in the election campaign. Here was the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Congress doesn't do this, millions of American families, including these good looking people behind me, could see their taxes go up by $2,200 starting on January 1st of next year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So, is the president proposing a tax increase, as Mitt Romney is saying, or yet another tax cut, as the White House would have you believe? Jessica Yellin is at the White House.
And, Jessica, actually it looks -- are you in the White House or you're somewhere in New York perhaps?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No. Yes.
BALDWIN: You're in New York. There we go.
YELLIN: New York.
BALDWIN: Which is it, increase or cut?
YELLIN: Oh, well, it depends I guess who you ask, but this is what the president's proposing is an extension of the current Bush tax cuts for everybody who makes below $250,000 for regular folks -- for folks who are families. And it would be, in the president's words, essentially a continuation of the fairness policy that he's tried to campaign for on the campaign trail for the last few weeks and the central framing of this campaign for the next four months.
Here's what the president had to say earlier, Brooke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a stalemate in this town, in Washington, between two very different views about which direction we should go in as a country. And nowhere is that stalemate more pronounced than on the issue of taxes. Many members of the other party believe that prosperity comes from the top down. So that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth. I disagree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: And there you have the fundamental debate of this election, Brooke, because, of course, Republicans would say, as you point out, it's a tax increase on the very wealthy and on who they call business creators. This is essentially what the two sides want to be debating or the president wants the two sides to be debating between now and November 6th.
Brooke.
BALDWIN: So we mentioned "Groundhog Day." We've had this conversation before.
YELLIN: Yes.
BALDWIN: Why this figure, $250,000?
YELLIN: Partly because that is the number President Bush used when he signed into law the Bush tax cuts during his presidency. Some in the Democratic Party had argued that the number should move up to anybody making a million dollars or below. And now it's been locked in at 250 by the president and the White House because that is the number they have been using to date because it was the President Bush number and it sounds more in their phraseology or in their conception, reasonable and low.
The bottom line is, they want to be able to argue that regular Americans are being denied an extension of their tax cuts because the GOP is insisting that it only get extended if the very wealthy also get their tax cuts. So all y'all regular folks, you're not getting that extension because the GOP is insistent the very rich get theirs too. Obviously Republicans see it differently.
BALDWIN: Absolutely. Chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin for us in New York.
Jessica, appreciate it.
I do want to go to Washington and talk to Ryan Lizza, a CNN contributor. He writes at "The New Yorker."
And, Ryan Lizza, let me just ask you kind of the same question I asked Jessica, that being, why are we having this debate? We had it two years ago. We're having it again. You know, this issue about the $250,000? Why can't lawmakers (ph) on both sides of the aisle, why can't they settle this thing and move on? RYAN LIZZA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, these tax cuts just -- they've been fought over since 2001. So the back story, Brooke, is, when they were passed in 2001, they had an expiration date. For complicated parliamentary reasons, they were set to expire 10 years later.
Now, in 2010, right after Republicans won the House of Representatives, Obama and Congress agreed to a two-year extension of those tax cuts. And that, of course, kicks it to December 31, 2012. So these tax cuts will expire right after the election unless Congress and the president can agree on what to do about them.
BALDWIN: You think that's really going to happen by the end of the year?
LIZZA: No.
BALDWIN: No.
LIZZA: No, it's --
BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) laughter.
LIZZA: I mean, frankly, this -- but Obama -- but President Obama wants to make this debate central to his campaign. And you'll remember the two strategies of this campaign, Brooke.
BALDWIN: And so does Mitt Romney.
LIZZA: Well, you know, I disagree with you. I think Obama wants this to be a big ideological debate. He wants the American people to have a clear view of Romney. The Republican ideology versus the Democratic ideology.
Frankly, Mitt Romney's strategy is a little different. He wants to keep details of his policy proposals as simple as possible. And he wants the public focused on an up or down vote about how Obama has handled this economy. So watch as these two guys scramble in the coming months. You're going to see Obama constantly come back to setting up a choice between the two candidates, where Romney's just going to say, Obama has failed, he's not working, we need to replace him. So there is a difference between the two of them strategically there.
BALDWIN: OK. Stand by. I just want to run through for the viewer here just a really good foothold, a brief history of tax cuts, if you will.
So the Bush tax cut establishes these new tax brackets at 10 percent and 15 percent. And the rest of the brackets sort of slid down by about 3 percent. So there's your tax cut right there. When, as you pointed out, Ryan, when the Bush tax cuts expired in 2010, we had this whole debate essentially along the lines of the one we're having right now, and the compromise looked like this. Everyone had their tax cut extended for two years. They adjusted the alternative tax on wealthy wage earners. Tossed in some protections for the unemployed. If we, Ryan, and we're saying this isn't going to happen at the end of the year, but if and when there is a compromise, what do you think it will look like?
LIZZA: Well, you know, it's actually an interesting question, Brooke, because I, frankly, -- if Congress were to settle the Bush tax cuts before the election, it would actually make a broader tax reform and entitlement and deficit package. What's been -- in Washington. What's been known as the grand bargain, where not just the tax cuts but everything, all the tax and spending issues that the parties disagree about, it would make it actually a little more difficult for that to happen after the election. So it would take away the Bush tax cuts as a point of negotiation.
So Obama did something strange today. He said, I want the Bush tax cuts settled before the election. And then after the election, we'll have a big negotiation over tax reform. Doesn't quite make sense because it's probably going to be easier to do tax reform if the Bush tax cuts are still on the table after the election.
So, frankly, I think the president knows there's no chance of this passing through Congress, but he wants to have the argument. His whole strategy is he wants the American people to settle to deadlock in Washington. To choose one ideology over the other. And that's what this is really about.
BALDWIN: But so if it doesn't happen by the end of the year, when does it happen, with a lame duck Congress?
LIZZA: Well, then it gets into tricky terrain. Right, you could do it in a lame duck Congress, or the lame duck Congress could extend them for a few months and then you could use those few months to settle the issue.
BALDWIN: OK.
LIZZA: Because, remember, a year ago today, the president and Boehner ended their talks on a grand bargain.
BALDWIN: Right.
LIZZA: They were tantalizing close to settling all this.
BALDWIN: Right, but it didn't go anywhere. Right.
LIZZA: It didn't go anywhere. It came really close.
BALDWIN: Kicking the can down the road. I remember using that phrase one -- a few times here.
LIZZA: Yes.
BALDWIN: Ryan Lizza, we're just going to have to continue this conversation and see when something happens, when that compromise can happen. Ryan Lizza, CNN contributor and of "The New Yorker."
LIZZA: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Good to see you. LIZZA: Good to see you.
BALDWIN: And President Obama and Mitt Romney may be neck and neck in a lot of polls, but when it comes to cash, Romney is king, for now. The Republican, along with his party's national committee, raised more than $106 million last month. President Obama, on the other hand, $71 million. In an e-mail to supporters, the Obama campaign said thanks for the best month, actually, of this election. But in the very next paragraph, warned that Republicans are way ahead.
And we have a lot more for you on this Monday. Watch this.
The feds are tracking down a banker who's accused of faking his own suicide and ripping off investors in this multimillion dollar scheme. And now we're hearing why he may still be alive.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
The mystery is baffling doctors. Children dying but no one knows why. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is there uncovering a big piece of the puzzle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICKEY MOUSE: Hey, Minnie, would you like to join us?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Plus, Mickey and Minnie come to North Korea in this radical shift. The rogue nation's new leader goes Disney?
And, Bashar al Assad says the U.S. is behind the violence in Syria and the U.S. fires back with the usual response.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A Georgia man, once hailed as a small time and small town hero, is now being accused of being a big-time crook who may have faked a suicide to hide his trail. Back in 2010, banker Aubrey Price took over this failing community bank in the town of Ailey. It's about 170 miles southeast of Atlanta. Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC, says Price used this bank to then get more money which was lost in bad investments to the tune of $17 million. The SEC says, in total, Price bilked $40 million from investors over the last four years. And now, guess what? Price is missing. His last sighting? Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. AARON PRITCHETT, LOWNDES COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: He boarded a ferry from Key West to Ft. Myers and subsequently we do not know whether he exited that boat willingly or if he actually got off the boat in Ft. Myers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And CNN's David Mattingly joining me now. And so we know that -- what a story, first and foremost.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. I know. What a mystery.
BALDWIN: What a mystery. His acquaintances said he was going to try to kill himself, yet investigators think he's still alive. Why?
MATTINGLY: Well, he sent out this letter that showed up about three weeks ago today. And that's when the news hit that he was going to try and kill himself because he got into a string of bad investments, lost all of his money, and was just going to end it all. Right now it seems that his family is the only one that believes he carried out those plans.
BALDWIN: Huh.
MATTINGLY: And you heard some of them right there from that investigator who was talking about them, his plan was to get on a ferry in Key West. A ferry that went from Key West up to Ft. Myers. And during that voyage, he was going to slip over the side and commit suicide. They were able to confirm that he actually purchased diving weights to assist him in going to the bottom.
BALDWIN: Wow.
MATTINGLY: Well, that's about all they can confirm. They were able to see that he scanned his ticket when he got onboard the ferry, but there's no record of people getting off the ferry. So they can't confirm that he got off or where he might have gone after that.
But they do know that he's a man of means. He told his wife three weeks ago on Saturday that he was going to Guatemala to do some business with a telecommunications company. Well, that never happened. And now we find out that he's got property in Venezuela. He's a man of means. And, obviously, because of what's been going on here, the allegations possibly a man of capable of some very elaborate deception.
BALDWIN: OK, so elaborate deception. You sort of ran through basically what the alleged scheme would be. Does he have kids?
MATTINGLY: He has a family. Like I said, they are the only ones right now who believe that -- apparently believe that he did carry out his plans for a suicide. But the way this all worked, according to federal authorities, is that he -- there was a failing bank in south Georgia. He set up an investment company to take control of that bank. So he was in charge of the investment company that solicited funds. He was in charge of the bank that he was in charge of recovering -- to turning around.
Well, he was providing his board of directors with falsified statements of where he was putting this money and what he was doing with the money. Well, now we're finding out that he either had bad investments or he pocketed this money. We don't know exactly what.
BALDWIN: OK. The secretary here says Price admitted to some of his acts, I'm going to quote in a letter entitled "confidential confession for regulators." What is that?
MATTINGLY: That's right. This was part of a 22-page letter that not only where he was stating his intentions to commit suicide, but carrying out this elaborate explanation of what he was doing and what went wrong. This is -- and this is what it was called, "confidential confession for regulators." These are his, Aubrey Price's, exact words.
BALDWIN: OK.
MATTINGLY: And the statement goes on from the SEC, Price admits that he, quote, "falsified statements with false returns in order to conceal between $20 million and $23 million in investor losses."
Now, when we're looking at the warrant that's been put out for his arrest from the U.S. attorney's office, they're not being very specific on how much was lost investments or how much was stolen investments.
BALDWIN: Needless to say, if they do find him and this could be true, he could face some serious time.
MATTINGLY: Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt. And there's a lot of people with a lot of money at stake here.
BALDWIN: OK. David Mattingly, thank you. Thank you so much.
A new approach to end the violence in Syria. President Assad is now blaming the U.S. for the unrest. And his reasons involve gangs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Diplomatic Envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Iran. Part of his new strategy to end the bloodshed in Syria. Earlier Annan met with Syrian President Bashar al Assad. He has said Assad has agreed to, quote, an approach -- an approach to end the violence. No details on exactly what that approach may entail.
Meantime, no letup in the violence there. Activists say 30 people have now died today across Syria as the government continues its crackdown. Andrew Tabler is a senior fellow in Arab politics at the Washington Institute for near east policy. He's also written a book. It's called "In The Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria."
Andrew, welcome.
ANDREW TABLER, AUTHOR, "IN THE LION'S DEN": Thanks.
BALDWIN: I want to begin with something I read. President Assad talking to German TV. And so he tells them that the U.S. is providing political protection for what he's calling gangs in his country. And he says the majority of Syrians still support him. My question to you is, is this man delusional, a, and, b, is he trying to villainize the west? TABLER: Yes to both. President Bashar al Assad, in his 12 years in power, has been a very unstable, very difficult person to deal with. He's Janus-faced (ph). But he has a problem. He has now almost an 18- month-old insurrection going on in the country, much of which is armed, and he continues to blame it on foreign conspiracies led by the United States and Israel that back these armed gangs and that somehow it's just going to be brushed aside and that soon the regime forces will sweep them away and to victory. The only problem is, for over 18 months the Syrian people aren't having it. They know that this isn't about armed gangs. This is about governance in Syria and the fact that Assad has to go.
BALDWIN: They know. They know despite these words, despite this blame on the U.S. and the west.
I know he's agreed to, you know, this plan to end the violence before. Obviously that hasn't ended anything. Is today's agreement going to be as meaningless as the last one do you think?
TABLER: Well, yes, notice that Annan said "an approach." Not the one that was agreed upon in Geneva, which is actually out in the press.
BALDWIN: Right.
TABLER: About a transition government. He said "an approach," which means Assad probably decided to change --
BALDWIN: What does that mean?
TABLER: It probably means he decided to change the terms again, which he's done time after time. He did it with the first six-point Annan plan in April. He didn't abide by both deadlines. And the problem is, is that when he doesn't abide by these deadlines, he thinks it's an opportunity to negotiate and the problem is that the west went along with it. There were no consequences for him not going along with the plan and it seems like he wants to play around with the new plan as well.
BALDWIN: Does he feel like there is any sort of threat of any kind of consequence? Is that why he can play around, you think?
TABLER: Yes, of course, because the Obama administration has said for months that military options are off the table or they say, for example, that -- this was ahead of the last Geneva talks -- that it has to be explicit. Assad has to steps aside. And then they do a deal with the Russians and all of a sudden, well, it's not explicit. So this is the problem. Assad knows that the Obama administration doesn't want to do anything in Syria. That it's very complicated. And he's calling their bluff. And so far he's been able to get away with it.
BALDWIN: Let me add to that, because we have heard, you know, from U.S. officials declaring that Bashar al Assad will soon be out of power. Here is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: The future, to me, should be abundantly clear to those who support the Assad regime. The days are numbered. The sand is running out of the hour glass and we want to make clear to the Syrian regime that they need to be willing to end the violence and start the serious business of a political transition.
Because we have no doubt about the outcome here. We know that the Assad regime will fall. The question is, how many more people have to die before that happens?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Days are numbered, Andrew. Days are numbered. We've heard this sound bite before.
TABLER: Yes.
BALDWIN: These -- as you just pointed out, these are sort of, you know, empty words to President Assad.
TABLER: Right.
BALDWIN: So, where does that leave us?
TABLER: Well, notice that the secretary is measuring time with an hour glass and not with actually a stop watch. We had an opportunity to be straightforward about this in Geneva. We didn't do that. And the answer to her question is, a lot more people have to die according to Washington's position in Syria before there is any firmer stance. I think, in the end, that Assad will go. I think it's going to be much longer than we thought.
Now the problem about this is, is, yes, a lot of Syrians will die. That's horrific. But most importantly for American security, Syria has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the Middle East. If that -- if -- as the state devolves and if that material gets loose, that's a threat to our national security. And if we continue on our current approach with the Assad regime devolving over time, as the secretary said, we're headed into a situation where those kinds of materials could get loose. And that's a danger.
BALDWIN: Time for the stop watch not the hour glass.
TABLER: Exactly.
BALDWIN: Andrew Tabler for us in Washington. Andrew, appreciate it.
TABLER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: And, well, that was quick. Hollywood's latest blockbuster divorce already settled.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Well, less than two weeks after announcing their split, celebrity couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have now signed a divorce settlement. They say it is in the, quote, "best interests," end-quote, of their young daughter. Holmes filed for divorce back on June 28th seeking sole custody of their six-year-old Suri. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins me from New York.
Sunny, whoo, that seemed pretty quick. Pretty quick for a settlement, right?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Really, really quick. I think we were all surprised. She filed, let's see, June 28th. So it's only been about two weeks. They were married for five years. And they have issued that statement saying that they have reached a settlement.
I will tell you, this was certainly quite a strategy by Katie Holmes because, let's face it, this was her first walk down the aisle. But this was not Tom Cruise's first walk down the aisle. He married Mimi Rogers and he filed for divorce in 1990. They were married for three years. Then he marries Nicole Kidman and he files for a divorce after 10 years in I believe 2000. And so he is said to have been caught off guard by Katie's sort of legal wranglings because it was no, you know, accident that she filed this in New York because that was very strategic. New York rarely gives joint custody. And a lot of New York divorce filings are also kept sealed, as opposed to being kept more public in California.
BALDWIN: Private.
HOSTIN: And so certainly this is I think what many will see as a win for Katie Holmes.
BALDWIN: Let me read what the pair has released. So, the statement. They say, quote, "we are committed to working together as parents to accomplishing what is in our daughter Suri's best interests. We want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other's commitment to each of our respective beliefs and support each other's roles as parents."
So that's what they're saying. And this, you know, look, this is obviously a private matter between, you know, family members. But, look, they're in the public eye, so a lot of people are now wondering when we talk settlement, do we know what that specifically means? What exactly are they settling? Is it divorce? More than a divorce? Will we ever know?
HOSTIN: We will never know because the terms of the divorce are -- of the divorce settlement are confidential. That's what we've just learned. And that's no surprise. But let's face it, I mean, this needed to be kept private because these are very -- two very high profile, public people. And what would be more important to a public person than the public image. And so we won't hear much about what happened here, but we do know that it's been reported that they were fiercely fighting over sort of Scientology parenting. And I think when you look at the statement that they just released, the one that you just read, Brooke, they say that they respect each other's beliefs, each other's respective beliefs. So I think we can assume that that's code for that sort of turmoil that they had in terms of scientology.
BALDWIN: Yes. And hopefully just putting their little girl as priority number one and leaving it there.
HOSTIN: That's right.
BALDWIN: Sunny Hostin, thank you.
HOSTIN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: And more news unfolding right now. "Rapid Fire." Roll it.
A federal trial underway today over this new voter ID law in Texas. The law says Texans have to show photo identification in order to cast a ballot, but the U.S. attorney general's office blocked the law saying it could make it tougher for minorities and the disabled to vote. The Texas AG points out at least four other states require photo I.D. for people to vote.
Lance Armstrong, he is now suing to try to block those doping charges. The U.S. Anti Doping Agency accuses the seven-time Tour de France champ of using performance enhancing drugs. Armstrong's lawsuit says the agency's proceedings are rigged and it accuses the agency of looking to snare a, quote-unquote, "big fish" to justify its existence. The Anti Doping Agency says Armstrong's lawsuit doesn't have a leg to stand on.
No Google, no Yahoo!, no FaceBook today for more than 40,000 U.S. computers. Cyber criminals infected the computers with malware called DNS Changer.
The FBI set up emergency servers so it could warn users to get rid of it, but the FBI servers were shut down at midnight so if you can't get online today now you know why. Just call your internet service provider for help.
The bulls are off and running. Check this out, Pamplona, Spain, they do this every year. But we can tell you today, one American is in the hospital.
A 39-year-old man was gored in the leg trying to outrun -- you see all of them along those bulls. You would drive along the crowd trying to outrun when it hit the bulls.
Fifteen runners in total have been hospitalized since the traditional running of the bulls started on Saturday.
Today is a day of mourning in the mountains of Southern Russia. More than 170 people purportedly died over the weekend as floods swept through this region. Survivors are now identifying the dead today.
And a criminal investigation is under way into whether local officials did enough to warn people of the incoming wall of water.
The mystery here, absolutely baffling doctors. Children are dying. No one knows why. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Cambodia uncovering a huge piece of the puzzle.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A mystery illness is killing kids in Cambodia and doctors finally have a lead. So it turns out a common childhood illness known as Enterovirus 71 may be to blame.
So far, at least 64 kids have died some within hours of showing up at the hospital. It turns out a good number of them tested positive for the virus, which is a common cause of foot and mouth disease.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Cambodia. And Sanjay, what have you learned?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, there are some answers now as to what might be causing this and specifically in the form of something known as Enterovirus 71.
What they did was they tested samples in these children. There were 66 children total. They were able to get 24 samples. Of those, 15 were positive for Enterovirus 71.
As you can tell by looking at the numbers, Brooke, it's not a complete answer. There's also something else. It has to do with just how deadly this particular illness is.
These children, often within 24 hours of being admitted to the hospital, are dying. They often start off with mild fever, but then quickly progress. They will develop inflammation of the brain, really catastrophic brain swelling.
And then from there something happens to the lungs that doctors told me they've never seen before. The lungs almost are completely destroyed within a very short time and that's ultimately what leads to death.
The problem is, Brooke, it's very hard to reconcile Enterovirus 71 alone as a cause for all that I have just described. So right now, investigators are continuing to look zeroing in on perhaps other pathogens.
And also the possibility of some sort of toxicity from a medication or something else that could be causing all of the problems that have been occurring in these children.
That's where the investigation is headed right now as more details come to us, Brooke, and we'll certainly bring them to you. Back to you.
BALDWIN: Awful. Sanjay Gupta, thank you for us in Cambodia.
Egypt, Egypt's new president is headed for his first major showdown with the generals that have run the country since the revolution.
Mohamed Morsi has called parliament back into session tomorrow, the very same parliament that the military dissolved just last month and military leaders met for five hours yesterday, but did not issue a statement.
Was Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, was he poisoned? His wife seems to think so. It was revealed last week that high levels of this radioactive substance were indeed found on some of his clothes.
And now the green light has been given by the current Palestinian leader to exhume Arafat's body and try to find out for sure.
How about this for a close call? Take a look at this. You see this 18 wheeler coming toward the gas station? Bam. This is Akron, Ohio. Full speed. Police say, you can see it again.
They say the semi's brakes apparently went out as it was leaving a highway and the driver managed to avoid the cars at the light.
Amazing, before he saw it tipping over and crashing inches from this gas pump. The semi was not carrying anything hazardous and no one was hurt.
Cyber attack, wildfire, even a hurricane. President Obama uses his executive powers to keep the government's communications going. How far does his order go? Stick around and find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: while you weren't looking, President Obama gave the government a new power. Just this past Friday, he quietly implemented an executive order that reprioritizes communications through a special White House chosen committee in case of a national emergency.
So say a war breaks out or a hurricane blasts the Gulf Coast. In those cases, President Obama says, I'm going to quote him, "The federal government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions."
Amie Stepanovich is the associate litigation counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Amie, welcome to you. You know, I guess the first question is does this really give the president ultimate authority here over phones, e-mails, et cetera?
AMIE STEPANOVICH, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER: Well, it actually does give him a lot more authority than we think he had before. Congress has been considering cyber security bills for a long time now.
They've been in committee for over a year. The president has stepped in, however, and kind of given himself and the Department of Homeland Security increased authority to kind of prioritize federal communications to the detriment of civilian communications.
So for example my cell phone conversation or yours can be shut down in favor of a conversation between an official at the Department of Homeland Security and somebody in state government.
BALDWIN: OK, say we were having a conversation of our cell phones or e-mails that could be shut down. And in a sense, look. I mean, this happened.
This executive order came after the president was in Colorado because of the horrible wildfires so obviously we need a way to protect communications in crises like that, do we not?
STEPANOVICH: We do. It's a noble mission. In fact, generally we have agreed with the executive's approach to cyber security. He has a very positive way of dealing with things.
For example, he has promoted the idea of having cyber security operations housed at a civilian federal agency such as DHS, which has built in transparency and accountability measures as opposed to some approaches, which have housed it at a government military agency.
Such as the National Security Agency where we would have no idea what was going on. The executive has been very, very pro civil liberties in that perspective.
However, this is something that should be left to Congress to deal with and not executive order.
BALDWIN: Let's just remind everyone what his first executive order was. This was 2009 and here was the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: In order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo.
And promptly close the detention facility at Guantanamo consistent with national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and interests of justice I hereby order --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So this is the president who, you know, started out wanting to close Gitmo, which as we know didn't happen and now he is taking authority over our cell communications, e-mails, etcetera. The question to you is what happened to him?
STEPANOVICH: Well, I'm not really sure if we can question something the president has done especially in relation to what you just described because in relation to Gitmo he acted to close it down and then Congress came back and said you actually can't.
They prohibited funding from being used to take prisoners out of Gitmo, which is something that I think people overlook. But Congress is who we have elected to make the laws.
It's in our constitution. It's the branch of authority that we rely on to make laws. I think we still have to rely on that separation of powers principle as kind of inherent to our federal system.
BALDWIN: But it's interesting to point out, too, liberals love to accuse former President George W. Bush of destroying our personal liberties, but whose privacy policies do you find more worrisome now -- President Bush, President Obama? Where do you stand?
STEPANOVICH: President Obama definitely has a different take on privacy and transparency. On his first day in office, he issued a memo saying that transparency would kind of trump his overall administration.
He really wanted documents to be out in the public. However, as an agency, as an organization epic has constantly come up against obstacles and hurdles to getting those documents and assimilating them to the public.
So I think there is definitely a difference between what the Obama administration has said they were going to do and what has happened in practice.
BALDWIN: So upholding the promise of transparency, are you happy with what he's done or no?
STEPANOVICH: We believe he's taken steps. We aren't happy with where we are right now. I think we really should be a lot further along.
BALDWIN: Amie Stepanovich in Washington. Amie, thank you.
STEPANOVICH: Thank you.
BALDWIN: She is from California, he is from Alabama. Together they are "The Civil Wars." Their music is described as an intimate conversation without the dinner party chatter. Sometimes less is more. Fantastic band. It is "Music Monday." "The Civil Wars" is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: They describe themselves as a baby band, but I can tell you the sound is anything but little. "The Civil Wars" are this folk rock pop duo with pretty big sound for just two people.
With a bare bones approach to music their modest melodies are uplifting and at times haunting. On this "Music Monday," we give you "The Civil Wars."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm John Paul.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm Joy and we are "The Civil Wars."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're watching CNN.
JOY WILLIAMS, "THE CIVIL WARS": It's certainly been quite a rollercoaster ride these last couple years as "The Civil Wars." I don't think either of us would ever have anticipated being able to experience all the things that we have in the last several years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's true.
WILLIAMS: But we get to play headlining. I'm having my first baby with my husband.
JOHN PAUL WHITE, "THE CIVIL WARS": We are definitely a baby band in lots and lots of ways. We just met three years ago, and so we know there are still millions of people out there that don't know we exist and that's extremely exciting to us.
WILLIAMS: We came from very different and diverse musical backgrounds. I'm from California and he is from Alabama. I don't think we ever thought that our musical backgrounds could have blended to make the sound of "The Civil Wars" is.
It is really easy for the most part creating and collaborating with John Paul and that's a pretty rare thing when you get into a room with someone to be vulnerable and make art.
WHITE: One of my favorite things about this band and making music with Joy is how much she pushes me to be better at what I do. She's a world class singer. And so I have to, you know, bring my game every night just to keep up.
WILLIAMS: Every time we perform there's something different that happens and that's actually really fun. That keeps me excited for what we're doing and for what is to come.
I'm excited about album number two. Whenever we can get around to it, I've got a small, but significant change happening very soon.
WHITE: We call it the solo project.
WILLIAMS: The baby.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Thanks you two. By the way, big congratulations to Joy who gave birth to a baby boy, Miles Alexander on June 30th. And we have all kinds of different "Music Monday" interviews. Go to the Brooke blog, cnn.com/brooke. You can see who we've been interviewing over the past year, year and a half.
I think we've been doing this and make sure you comment. Let me know what bands you're listening to and who you want me to interview for an upcoming "Music Monday."
Mickey, Minnie, and Winnie the Pooh, dancers dressed as Disney characters performing in, wait for it, North Korea as its new leader brings a gift to the young people. Disney calls it a copyright infringement.
Are you too wired? No, not by caffeine, but to your computer? Next hour, do not miss this folks, incredible cover story of "Newsweek" this month. The connection addiction and how it's rewiring your brain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We are used to seeing odd happenings out of North Korea, but this has to be a first. Look at this with me. Disney characters, I'm talking Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh taking to the stage in the world's most repressive society and performing for the North Korean leader himself Kim Jong-un.
The Walt Disney Company says it did not authorize this in any way so what's going on? Let's bring in John Park. He is a research fellow at Harbors Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
John, wow. You know, this is a man. You and I have talked about him. We know so, so little about him. Does this at all give us a glimpse into his mind, a guy who's got the power over North Korea's nukes bringing Mickey Mouse on stage? What's going on?
JOHN PARK, BELFER CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: I think this shows another side of Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea. He's multi tasking.
I mean, you have an attempt -- in one sense trying a long-range missile attempt in April. That didn't go so well. They failed to put a satellite in orbit.
Maybe putting these Disney characters on stage is something of a sure bet as a crowd pleaser. But right now, there is continuity in terms of at least what he is trying to do and that is put his own personal stamp on the new leadership structure.
I think one way to look at these characters on stage is that Kim Jong-un rather than fighting the cultural influence coming in, these western cultural influences coming into North Korea is actually joining and trying to be ahead of this wave.
BALDWIN: So what exactly is this stamp you mentioned supposed to look like? I guess, is this more to placate North Koreans? Is this a message to the world? What are we to take from this?
PARK: It looks like from the various reports this is very much internally focused. You have the contrast with his father who was something of an afficionado for high arts, for cinema.
And now with the appeal to Disney characters it's almost like Kim Jong-un is trying to be more of a populist in terms of his approach engaging the people.
North Korean state media called this part of the grandiose plan that Kim Jong-un is unveiling for dramatic turn in the arts. So as much as that sounds like it's a very high brow, at the end of the day as we saw with this report and in the footage here they're Disney characters.
BALDWIN: And not only that we saw some pictures of some of the women performing in, you know, dare I say, sort of stylish wardrobes, strapless gowns, and Korean TV now says Kim Jong-un assembled these performers himself.
So he is officially saying, yes. You know, I'm taking credit for this show. Do you think this is a sign of more to come from North Korea and the supreme leader?
PARK: I personally think that we will see more of this. It's a very interesting contrast to South Korea. South Korea is lauded for using cultural influence through something called "Hallud," which is the South Korean soap opera, the South Korean pop stars.
That has something has influenced the other parts of Asia, but now North America and Europe. So Kim Jong-un may be taking a cue from this incredible cultural influence coming out of South Korea and trying to emulate that.
And really show that North Korea is at the cutting edge of this type of cultural export although in the initial stages it's focused on his own people.
BALDWIN: And clearly as you point out, this is a western influence so maybe is this a lesson here that even the most repressive regime on the planet can't block the power of western commercialism?
PARK: That's right. If you look at it a lot of the cultural influence in the outside is coming from China and this is I think interesting to note because we are having U.S. cultural figures, icons we've grown up with, coming in not from the United States, not from America, but from China.
And so increasing commerce with China means that the door opens and you can't really control what comes in on the backs of a lot of this commercial activity. So, you know, one thing Kim Jong-un can do is take credit and basically say that this is something of a cultural gift to his people.
BALDWIN: And it sounds like that is precisely what he is doing. John Park, thank you so much.
Top of the hour here. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Hour two, instant issue in the election campaign. Did the president propose another tax cut today or rather a tax increase as Republicans say?
At the White House today, you have Mr. Obama laying out this one-year extension of the already extended Bush tax cuts for everyone who makes less than $250,000 a year.
Now, those above that numerical figure would see their taxes go up. And in the event of a deal, I should say in the event of no deal, everyone's taxes would rise here. So here is the president anticipating a scathing GOP reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We all say we agree we should extend the tax cuts for 98 percent of the American people. All right, everybody says that. The Republicans say they don't want to raise taxes on the middle class.
I don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. So we should all agree to extend the tax cuts for the middle class. Let's agree to do what we agree on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: As we said before, we have heard the same thing exactly two years ago when the bush tax cuts were expiring for the first time. The difference here is an election year.
Dana Bash is live for us on Capitol Hill and Dana, why now? Why this debate now?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are lots of reasons. First and foremost that some Democrats I talked to admit this is a change in focus.
And a change that, understandably they want to put forward because the big economic issue that we're all talking about late last week was how the jobs report was so dismal and how the economy is just in a terrible place for the president. So he absolutely used the (inaudible) to talk about issues that they believe - according the internal polling and, frankly, public polling as well - really does benefit them. The idea that middle class Americans should get a tax extension and those who are wealthier should not. And that is the way that they want to frame the debate when it comes to the economy.
BALDWIN: You know, you mentioned when it comes to this the polls are on his side. He pointed out today that he has the public on his side as well. So why might Republicans think this is a winning issue for them?
BASH: The reason Republicans think this is a winning issue for them, Brooke, is because they feel that history is on their side and that any time the discussion is about tax cuts or, more specifically, tax hikes - any time that they can paint Democrats as wanting to raise taxes is bad for Democrats. And I just want to show you a quote from one of the top Republicans. Kind of give you an illustration of how they're framing it on the Republican side. This is from the number two Republican, John Kyle. He said President Obama's push to raise taxes on those earning $250,000 including 940,000 business owners could not come at a worse time. Friday's disappointing job numbers and the continuing crawl of economic recovery indicate that job creators are still struggling. Yet the president would have these business owners pay more in taxes to pay for more government spending.
And you see there. They're trying to put some meat on the bones, so to speak, and give specifics who they're talking about. Almost a million business owners not just some hypothetical, theoretical discussion but it's about real people that they say will be hurt if those taxes for the highest earners go away.
BALWIN: I want to keep chewing on this with Rick Newman. Dana Bash, thank you. I want to bring in Rick Newman. He is in New York. He is the chief business correspondent with US News and World Report. So, Rick, we saw something today. And I just want your comments. Take a look at this graphic. Everyone look at this graphic. This is going to be the tax burden borne by people who make more than that magic number $250,000 a year. So the right side of the graphic, you see the line takes up just a teency-weency bit. That is the president out there proposing the top federal tax rate increase from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. Just a little bit there.
What the graphic shows is that, historically speaking, that's not all that high. Rick Newman, correct?
RICK NEWMAN, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT: That's correct. In fact, taxes on top earners are far lower than they have been historically. Taxes for most earners are lower than they have been historically. This is basically been the result of the Bush tax cuts which went into effect in 2001 and 2003. Part of the rub here, Brooke, is that people have gotten used to this. I mean, I don't think too many Americans are saying oh gee I need to put money aside for when tax rates are going to go back up. We've have ten years when Americans wealthy and middle class both have basically become conditioned to these lower tax rates.
This is going to be extremely difficult when we're going to have to raise taxes which most economists will tell you is inevitable sooner or later.
BALDWIN: We've seen the tax cuts extended already for two years. Now the president is proposing to extend it again. This isn't free, is it?
NEWMAN: No it's not. I mean, the extension of these tax cuts have basically been adding to the national debt for the last few years. We are very lucky because we're able to borrow in order to finance lower taxes today. Everybody who's paying attention to this problem knows that this money is going to have to be paid back in some way. And that's why they're calling this the fiscal cliff. I mean, it is a huge burden when we actually decide how we're going to pay back all this money. What we hope happens is that there's some sort of coherent plan to start small, impose the paybacks gradually and get to it over time. But that's going to take a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. There's no way around the fact that it's going to take both. What's going to happen for the rest of this election and certainly into 2013 is a growing and huge fight about exactly what those cuts and taxes are going to be.
BALDWIN: But Rick, you to talk to almost anyone. They know this thing isn't going to get worked out by the end of the year. So then what happens to you and me and people watching? What happens to our taxes and when does this thing finally get decided?
NEWMAN: Well welcome to the bizarre U.S. political economy. So here's the situation: we know that if congress does nothing, everybody's taxes will go up by a lot. We also assume that will not happen but we're not going to know the exact details until the very last second. It's also possible, Brooke, that taxes do technically go up because they don't come to a deal. Then once the new congress comes in they pass something that's basically retroactive. This is why business leaders are tearing their hair out right now I mean it's just unbelievable to people who runs businesses that they don't know what their taxes are going to be next year. They also don't know what the government's policies are going to be about spending, they don't know if we're going to have another fiasco about extending the government's borrowing limit in early 2013 which is going to have to happen.
And I think the result is we're going to see basically an economy that's in a state of paralysis until the end of the year. At least until the election because business leaders simply are not going to do anything. They're not going to hire, they're not going to make any major business decisions until they know what's going to happen.
BALDWIN: Eeking closer and closer to that fiscal cliff. Rick Newman, it's frightening. Rick, thank you.
NEWMAN: Yeah, we're going to walk right up to it, though.
BALDWIN: We are.
