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Starring Roles for Christie, Rubio at RNC; Protest from an Obama Supporter; Police Find Girlfriend Locked Up for Years; Zimmerman Defense Wants Judge Removed; James Holmes Must Be Declared Incompetent to Plead Insanity.

Aired August 14, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hey, Deb Feyerick. Thank you so much. Good to see you.

And thank you, everyone, for being with us. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It's 11:00 on the East Coast. That means 8:00 a.m. on the West Coast. Here, we go.

A massive wildfire in Washington state right now and, if you thought you heard that there was a fire out there, things have changed, dramatically. In fact, this thing has grown from 2,800 acres to 26,000, all of this just over the last few hours.

We've been watching this in our newsroom and we've got some incredible, new video that's come into our newsroom from Washington. Take a look as we zero out. Just phenomenal flames, imploding trees.

The firefighters there are battling these things. It's near a place called Cle Elum about 80 miles southeast of Seattle, if you know this area, but the plumes of smoke can be seen for miles.

Firefighters are now calling for backup, all over the state and out of state, too. They're forcing people to evacuate their homes and quick. Meaning, you don't get to grab a lot as you get out.

We want to go to affiliate reporter now from KIRO. He joins me now on the telephone. Rick Price, this is just remarkable. When we were putting this story together for our newsroom, we weren't sure where in the newscast it was going to go until then, all of the sudden, this story was going to the top of the news. Give me a bit of feel for how things are going.

RICK PRICE, REPORTER, KIRO TV: Well, it got very, very big, as you noted, very, very fast. It's windy all day and very often the fires will lay down overnight. The winds will calm down a little bit.

That was not the case. I noticed, at one point, I checked on the Internet and a nearby wind at a place called Ellensburg which is a great deal bigger than Cle Elum was about 20 miles per hour and that's been driving this fire to the south and the east a little bit and really, really moved from, as you noted, about a few thousand acres now to 26,500. The equivalent to that is about 41 square miles and they don't have any detainment lines around this yet. They've really only been able to try to defend some structures and, even at that, they've lost about 60 homes. There are hundreds of people that have been evacuated and this thing is still going on.

It's really not clear how it's going to develop because the wind is supposed to pick up and the temperatures are supposed to reach about 90 degrees today.

BANFIELD: Yeah, I'm sure that's not helping matters any at this point, but do we even know, is it too early for the forensics on this thing to find out where it started and how?

PRICE: That is what we were told by the undersheriff of Kittitas County last night. These things, the point of origin is fairly easy to spot, at least in general, because you know where the fire started, but really, they've got their hands full, fighting this thing right now, trying to keep it away from the houses and the ranches and the outbuildings and so forth.

And it will probably be a little while before the investigators can get in and take a look at that for sure. Causes of wildland fires in the last ranged from human-caused by accident to human-caused by arson to something as simple as a lightning strike which could sit there and smolder in the dust for days or even weeks before it really catches.

BANFIELD: Well, I'll tell you it is just frightening to see those statistics jump in the last couple of hours, 2,800 acres to 26,000 acres burning in your state.

All right, be well, be safe and, Rick, update us if things continue to change through the hour if you would, please, sir. Rick Price joining us from KIRO TV in Seattle.

Other big news that we're keeping an eye on, as well, the president and his GOP challenger, they are heading through the swing states, folks, not to mention heading all over the air waves, too.

President Obama and Mitt Romney with events this hour, obviously with events for the next three months, too, and the former is in Usilas, Iowa, day two of the Hawkeye bus tour.

And the latter, Salesville, Ohio, and you're going to see them live right here on CNN as we keep our campaign-cams hot and ready to go at any moment.

And, by now, what all of the political professionals think of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's running mate, that's pretty clear, but in 84 days, you and me and everybody else in your living room and everybody else out on the street, we get to have our say in this.

In the meantime, we do have the polls to let us know what our neighbors and we seem to be thinking at this point and, also, the pundits, too. And you know what? Like the pundits, it's a bit of a mixed verdict.

CNN's political editor, Paul Steinhauser, joins me with more on that. So here's my thought. When you get a big announcement of a running mate, there's a bump and it's exciting and, all of the sudden, everybody instantly gets to know this person pretty quickly and, in the case of Paul Ryan, my thought is that he started off with some numbers and they went much, much higher right away.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Exactly. You know, Paul Ryan was not very well-known to most Americans before this past weekend, Ashleigh, so the battle right now between the Democrats and Republicans is to define him and it's been under way and it's heavy and hot on both sides but, yeah, what about those first impressions?

Take a look at this. It is a mixed picture. This is from ABC news and "The Washington Post" and, well, you can see right here. They polled Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That's before the naming of Ryan and they also named after.

Here's the favorable rating among registered voters and look at that, 26 percent last week, 40 percent over the weekend, so that's a pretty good bump up there for Paul Ryan when it comes to his favorable rating and, among independents, you're also seeing a similar jump there, as well.

But go to a Gallup poll. This thing was conducted on Sunday, the day after the naming of Ryan and they asked, well, was the naming of Ryan a good, fair, bad choice for Mitt Romney? And you can see right here, 39 percent, about 4-in-10, said it was an excellent or pretty good choice for Mitt Romney to name Ryan as his running mate.

But 45 percent it was only a fair or poor choice. You can see the bottom 16 percent, still no opinion. Kind of mixed there, right? But let's compare it to past choices. You can see right here that that Ryan choice was not as good as Sarah Palin four years ago, 45 percent saying that Ryan was a fair or poor choice. That's higher than Palin was in 2008. It's also higher, a lot higher, than Dick Cheney was.

I guess Dan Quayle, you've got to go all the way back to 1988 to find somebody.

BANFIELD: Holy cow.

STEINHAUSER: Yeah.

BANFIELD: Look at that number, 52. Whoosh.

STEINHAUSER: So, you've got a mixed message here, some good, some bad news. Ashleigh, I always this with polls. It's a snapshot of how people feel right now. We still have 80-something days to go until the election. People change their minds.

BANFIELD: And you know what? I want to button that up, as well. In 1988, no big Internet, so Dan Quayle may have had an easier ride without all the scrutiny or at least the extraordinary microscope that everybody else has had to endure.

All right, Paul Steinhauser, thank you. I know those polls are going to change and you're going to come back with new ones soon. So, we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you, my friend.

All right, Chris Christie didn't make the cut for V.P., but that outspoken New Jersey governor is not going to be sidelined, no way, no how. It's going to happen, folks. It's going to happen, folks. He's going to give the keynote at the GOP convention, two weeks from now.

And Wolf Blitzer is going to join me a little bit later, bottom of the hour, to talk more about that and also Marco Rubio's involvement in the campaign. That's a significant one, as well, so we'll let you know how exactly how those details shook out and how they will shake out.

By the way, she snagged one of D.C.'s most eligible bachelors, back in the '90s, and, today, she is front-and-center as the wife of the Republican vice presidential candidate.

I'm talking about Janna Ryan. She is not just a doting spouse, folks. She's got a degree from George Washington University. She went on to be a corporate lawyer and a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. She also happens to come from a family with strong ties --- are you ready? Are you sitting down? To the Democratic party.

I did not misspeak. Janna Ryan, strong family ties to the Democrats. Joining me now is Margaret Hoover, without ties to the Democrats. It's nice to see you, Miss Hoover.

So, this was a surprise when I started looking into Janna Ryan and her background. I found out all sorts of really interesting stuff and then you show up and tell me that you know her.

MARGARET HOOVER, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM": No, no. I actually haven't met Janna. I've met Paul. I've been lucky enough to meet Paul a couple of times. Of course, I know many of the folks that he's worked with.

But the thing about Janna is, yeah, you're right. She has a law degree of George Washington University. She went to Wellesley College. Of course, Hillary Clinton went to Wellesley. Madeleine Albright went Wellesley.

BANFIELD: Smart cookies.

HOOVER: But her family, her cousin, is also a Democrat in the House of Representatives who serves alongside with her husband. Her uncle was the governor of Oklahoma, Democratic governor of Oklahoma.

One of the things that you see about the Ryans is that, unlike many of the congressmen who are in Washington who do not reach across the aisle, who don't actually have friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they actually are related to Democrats on the other side of the aisle. So, this is what -- I mean, we often remorsefully regret that our politics has become so personalized, so vitriolic. There's a demonization of the other. You don't get that with the Ryans. They actually reach across the aisle all the time.

BANFIELD: Well, they certain reach across their bed, no matter what, right? And we've got lots of examples of political bedfellows, like Mary Matalin/James Carville, that seem unlikely partners and how did these two get connected?

HOOVER: Well, I don't know that Janna is a registered Democrat. In fact, it seems to me that she is actually a strong proponent of her husband's policies and philosophy and she's a very strong supporter.

Of course, they met when she was a corporate lawyer. She was a tax attorney in Washington. She was also a lobbyist and they met in the first term of Congress when he was first serving as a freshman on the hill.

They're both Catholic and a mutual friend introduced them and all the stories and reports say that they hit it off immediately and were married only a year later.

BANFIELD: Very young. Married really young. Because, you know, they've these ...

HOOVER: Well, I mean, they're in their 30s. I mean, it's ...

BANFIELD: I think that's really young.

HOOVER: 28-, 29-, 30-years old.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

There's something that a lot of people have been tweeting about and blogging about when they saw her and she showed up for the sort of inaugural -- what do you call it? The introduction to America, so to speak, and she wearing a dress from Kohl's. I think it retails for about 70 bucks, but on sale, it was $35 and that made a big splash. People were thrilled about this.

HOOVER: Well, you know, look, they're normal people, right? Janna, even though she has a George Washington University law degree, she lives in Janesville, Wisconsin. She raises their three children, she is a stay-at-home mom and she is a really integral a part of this power couple.

BANFIELD: Let me ask you, power couple, when you say that, I want to wrap this up this way. How important is that woman behind that man when it comes to politics?

HOOVER: Well, that -- they very clearly have a political partnership and their marriage is a partnership. You can't be a congressman and chair of the budget committee in Washington, gone all week and then come home on the weekends unless you have a strong partner raising your family. And family is really, really important to them. You hear that from everybody that knows them well. They're family people and Paul Ryan sleeps on a cot in his office in Washington, D.C., and comes home on the weekends to make sure he's there with the kids.

BANFIELD: By the way, many of us here at CNN, we sleep on couches in our office, too, when we're pulling doubles and triples.

HOOVER: You and Paul Ryan, not that much separate, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I know, I know. Except for those eyes. Holy cow, those eyes.

It's great to see you, Margaret. Thank you.

And, by the way, Margaret mentioned about the law degree of George Washington University. She's a stay-at-home mom now by choice, but you should remember here that Janna followed in her mother's footsteps by attending law school before making that big decision to get married and then moved to Oklahoma and then stay at home with her family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: A quick note for you, if you're just heading out the door. No problem. You can continue to watch CNN from your mobile phone or your iPod or anything.

If you're heading to work, you can also watch CNN live from the desktop computer. It is so easy. Just go to CNN.com/TV.

I watched CNN on my way to work on my iPad and it was flawless. Believe it or not.

All right, I want to turn to overseas news right now. Some pretty remarkable stuff is happening. Syrian President Bashar al- Assad controls less than a third of his country and his power is disintegrating.

That is the blunt assessment from his former prime minister, a man who left him, walked away and left the country and is now speaking publicly for the first time since the detection to Jordan last week.

Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIAD HIJAB, FORMER SYRIAN PRIME MINISTER (via translator): I can confirm to you given my experience and the position I had that the regime's morale, economy and military has completely collapsed and is only in control of no more than 30 percent of Syrian lands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: In other developments, Syria's also expected to be booted from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and that's a group meeting in Saudi Arabia right now, as we speak.

It's also where Nic Robertson is live. He's covering the summit. He joins us from Jeddah.

So, Nic, when I read some of the things that the Syrian former prime minister had to say, it sounded pretty clear to me that he is just about calling Bashar al-Assad a filthy liar for all of the things that he has said about this conflict, saying it's just a bunch of terrorists out there.

This man has said, not true. I was there. I saw what's going on and it's horrifying.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I think we'd expect him to say that.

Look, this former prime minister, according to the reports that we hear, was forced into taking over the job as prime minister and, pretty much since he got the job, he's been trying to get out of the country.

That's the narrative we're told and we would expect him to come out of the country and really Bashar al-Assad and try and sort of convince people who might be standing in the middle now to join the opposition, but the reality is there are assessments that said Assad still controls the security forces. We haven't seen any major, major large-scale cracks in that.

He hasn't used but barely a fraction of his whole military armaments, his whole stockpiles of weapons.

So, while the prime minister is perhaps the more authoritative person we can hear from and who may sound very convincing, I think we need to view what he's saying with a little bit of skepticism. It sounds a little bit too good to be true that Assad could really be on his last legs.

BANFIELD: But, oftentimes, when they say these things, you think they're covering their backs, as well, for any kind of international prosecution, too.

But let me ask you about the Organization of Islamic Cooperation right now. How much of a toothy move, how much teeth does this organization have in kicking out Syria?

Because it seems like everybody else who has, you know, cut ties with Bashar al-Assad hasn't seemed to have a huge impact on that dictator.

ROBERTSON: Yeah, and that's really, I think, the question a lot of people are asking here right now. The heads of state will vote on that tonight.

But this is a massive organization. It's the largest international organization outside of the U.N. It represents about 1.5 billion Muslims around the world from 57 different states, so we can't underestimate the sort of weightiness of this organization, but, you know, what about those teeth?

OK. It kicks out Syria, but this means nothing unless they arm -- these states arm themselves and go into Syria and remove Assad himself, which they're not about to do. I have to say that. That is not on the agenda.

But the reality is, is that Assad has really given up listening to about anybody other than those that support him, Iran, China, Russia. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson, joining us live from Jeddah. Thank you so much for that, Nic.

And I want to turn our attention farther east from where Nic is to Thailand. This is a story about a politician, but before you say, what do I need to know about a Thai politician? How about this?

He has a former wife. He also has an Uzi. That's a sub-machine gun. And he took it to a restaurant where they were having dinner with friends and it did not come out well.

Zain Verjee, joining us now from London. This really caught our attention today. The ex-wife, who is not estranged from this man, is dead. The restaurant erupted into chaos. This politician is in trouble, but not arrested. What on earth happened?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who goes into a restaurant, Ashleigh, with an Uzi to have dinner? And the answer is, nobody knows why this Thai politician did that. What was the point of that?

But he did and he apparently accidentally fired, killed his ex- wife and also severely injured his personal secretary.

Now, the thing is that he's been charged with negligence here, death by negligence, but he can't be arrested and the reason is because he sits in parliament and you can't arrest anyone who's in a sitting parliament.

So, they can't do anything until parliament ends. So, it's a really weird story and no one really knows how this even happened.

BANFIELD: All right. Well, let's head to another international story, not far from you, actually, just across the pond in Germany. Some flash mobs, but not the kind that you like to cheer to and enjoy and pass onto your friends. These are like the former 1930s, you know, Nazi torch marches.

These are people who have come out in white masks with torches, basically, spreading a message of hate through Germany. How did these people come into being and what is their story?

VERJEE: Well, basically, these guys call themselves "The Immortals." You can see them in this videos wearing those white masks and covering their faces.

They're really trying to represent the 1930s Nazi marches. These are Neo-Nazis and they kind of organize these through the Internet and through text-messaging and things like that.

They upload video like this onto places like YouTube and their main message is that multiculturalism kills Germany, the fabric of German society.

So, the police and German officials have been raiding homes to try to get them, but this kind of video, which is really horrible, is still coming out.

BANFIELD: It's awfully creepy. I'm not sure how frightening it is. You know, I'm not among them, but it sure does look creepy on video.

Hey, I would be remiss, my friend -- you and I have both been in the media for a while and I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the passing of the former "Cosmopolitan" editor, Helen Gurley Brown.

I know we don't work in the magazine industry, but I kind of feel like I might not be where I am today were it not for this woman. I don't know if you feel the same way over there in London.

VERJEE: I do. Millions of women around the world do. You know, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, that's what she was about. I've got your attention now, right?

She gave women a space to talk freely about it and to be OK with having sex, being single and, oh, my goodness, enjoying it, as well.

You know, "Cosmopolitan" magazine, she took it over in 1965 and she pretty much transformed it. She was provocative, a little bit raunchy and really kind of promoted women's sexual and financial independence.

I mean, you know, I picked up my usual copy, you know, every morning here. You know? How 50 shades is your sex life, you know, Ashleigh, and we may get a few good tips out of this, you know?

BANFIELD: You know what? They ...

VERJEE: We may get a few good tips out of this, you know? She had one great clip that I just ...

BANFIELD: Zain? Zain? She picked -- her magazine picked me as one of the fun, fearless females and not for doing anything ...

VERJEE: Oh, really?

BANFIELD: Yeah, it was for being a war correspondent. So, they do some really heavy stuff in there, too, as well as the ...

VERJEE: Right. They do.

BANFIELD: ... how is your boyfriend doing?

VERJEE: They do. They have great articles. You know? And One of the great things that she said, she said, good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere. My own philosophy is, if you're not having sex, you're finished.

BANFIELD: That's funny. I think we all sort of made light of it and everything, but the truth is it really gave women a freedom that, if you extrapolate, could have been used elsewhere in businesses and workplaces. It made women feel a lot more equal to men in so many other areas of life.

VERJEE: Right. Exactly. Exactly and one of the things that she was really targeted for during her life is by the feminist movement. They were like, well, this is all against feminism. You're just promoting beauty. You're making women look like hey should be in the servitude of men and that's really destroying feminism.

But, actually, I think that she really promoted it, this sort of "do-me" feminism, but also gave women a space and a voice and taking control of sexuality and independence.

BANFIELD: Zain Verjee, it is always a pleasure, my friend. I adore you and I look forward to talking to you again tomorrow.

VERJEE: All right. Thanks so much, Ashleigh. Got to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I got this great e-mail yesterday. It was company- wide, here at CNN, and it announced that our own Candy Crowley is going to be the first woman in two decades -- two decades -- to moderate a presidential debate.

And there's a great back story behind it, too, apart from her awesome back story, of course. There were three teenage girls in New Jersey who decided to start a petition. They wanted a female moderator and they thought it's time. It's been too long.

That petition got 120,000 signatures online. And shazam. Pretty good stuff. Now, remember Carole Simpson. She was the first black woman to anchor an evening newscast, she the first African-American woman to moderate a presidential debate back in 1992 and, this morning, Carol Simpson and Candy Crowley spoke with CNN's Soledad O'Brien about the enormous significance of this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLE SIMPSON, MODERATED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE IN 1992: It took these three teenagers to make the world cognizant of the fact that it had been 20 years since a woman had done a presidential debate.

And -- but I had no doubt, once the publicity got out there, and I started trumpeting it, too, that they were going to name a woman and I can't -- I'm hard-pressed to think of a better woman to fulfill that role than Candy.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): The first thing that went through my mind was, I'm a journalist and this so great. I mean, this is just such an opportunity and so few people get it and I didn't -- honestly, it didn't click in until people started to say, well, what does it feel to be like the first woman since Carole Simpson who, as she says, is, a dear friend.

I've known Carole forever and, so, that's very fun, but I didn't actually think of the female part until later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, we sure did and we're very proud of Candy at this network. Every day, in fact. The town hall debate is going to take place on Tuesday, October 16th, at Hofstra University.

I want to move from one fabulous woman, Candy, to another fabulous woman who had a very lofty goal for her 104th birthday. That's the goal. Holy moley.

That's Alice Aho. She joked to her daughter that she wanted to climb a mountain for her birthday and her family took her seriously and they set up a trek up Oregon's Mt. Hood.

This was her first time up the mountain in decades, but she had done it three times before with her husband in the years before he died.

This time, Alice could not physically climb on her own, so she took the ski lift and took her family along for the ride, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICE AHO, CLIMED MT. HOOD FOR 104TH BIRTHDAY: So far, the mountain's just the same as it ever was. And now it's very nice. I enjoy being up here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: One of her great grandchildren was the person, if you could squint and see, was actually holding her walker during the chair lift ride. She took her walker on the chair lift, her great grandchild carrying it for her.

The lift took the family as far as 7,000 feet and, can I say, CNN wishes you a very happy birthday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: All right. Quick look at the markets right now. The Dow is up almost 37 points. We're keeping an eye on things today but not a bad way to start the first couple of hours of trading.

Let's talk about the next big event on the political horizon. Republican National Convention, two weeks from now in Tampa. Until today, one of the few remaining unanswered questions had been who besides the nominees take the primo speaking slots. May have been a badly kept secret but New Jersey governor Chris Christy delivering the keynote address and Florida Senator Marco Rubio is going to introduce Romney's acceptance speech. Those are two good spots to be as a politician.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer joins me with his thoughts on that and other fun little nuggets to get to.

Wolf, this wasn't a huge secret, but that's a great spot for Chris Christy given the fact he was, you know, people wanted him to run for president.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: People wanted him to run for president. People thought Marco Rubio would be a great vice presidential running mate selection. They weren't going to get the number two slot on the ticket. Marco Rubio maybe just being not as experienced nationally as he probably should have been in order to be heart beat away from the presidency. Still a young guy, and opportunities in 2016, 2020 down the road. Same was Chris Christie. I don't think he was ever seriously considered for the running mate slot because he's -- you know, he just has been a little bit too controversial, a little bit too outspoken and would have gone against totally what Mitt Romney was looking for. Although, he does have a huge future ahead of him. He's an impressive politician. They've got big jobs at the convention. We'll be there covering every step of the convention.

BANFIELD: You are not all work all the time. You take in a sports game now and again. And I understand you were present for the infamous kiss-cam moment. And it turns out, First Lady Michele Obama addressed this very topic, the whole controversy around why they didn't kiss when the kiss-cam hit them up. She told Jay Leno what the story was all about. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had just walked in and sat down, and I just saw my face on the jumbotron. And I'm still a little embarrassed. I didn't see the kiss-cam part.

JAY LENO, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Right. OK.

MICHELLE OBAMA: I didn't know we were supposed to kiss.

LENO: OK.

MICHELLE OBAMA: And then Malia came over after we got booed for not kissing.

LENO: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: And she was just disgusted with us.

(LAUGHTER)

LENO: Really?

MICHELLE OBAMA: She said, why didn't you kiss? I was like, kiss what? What are you talking about? She said, you were on the kiss- cam. You were supposed to kiss. We were like, we weren't paying attention. JAY LENO, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Let's show what happened.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERING)

MICHELLE OBAMA: She orchestrated that second try because, after the second half, we came back, she said, "I've arranged for you to get another chance on the kiss-cam.

(LAUGHTER)

MICHELLE OBAMA: And then she came and sat with us to make sure we didn't mess it up.

(LAUGHTER)

She's like, get ready, it's coming. And when she was like, OK, go, now. Kiss. Do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Man, how adorable. She got a twofer kiss, too. One on the mouth and one on the forehead.

You tweeted about it, didn't you, Wolf?

BLITZER: I was at the game with my pals, Ernie Grenfeld (ph), the president of the Washington Wizards, my hometown team; my friend, Ed Cohen (ph). We were sitting there and, all of a sudden, you know, they start singing that song "So Kiss Me" and they came up there. And I saw the original moment and no kiss. And that's when I tweeted that Barack Obama and Michele Obama were just on big screen kiss-cam and no kiss. There was booing. Everybody wanted to see them kiss. And it took well in to the second half when all of a sudden Malia got them back on the kiss-cam and I took that picture. That was the first picture when there was no kiss. The second picture of the kiss-camera that I took did show the kiss. I don't know if you have it there.

BANFIELD: Adorable. I have it.

BLITZER: This is what I tweeted, "Finally! @Barack Obama, @Michele Obama. There's the kiss right there.

Do I have a future as a photographer, Ashleigh, or what?

BANFIELD: You have a future on TMZ without question. You can be here and working TMZ.

(LAUGHTER)

I love that you cover all facets of politics.

Thank you, sir.

WOLF: I tweeted it out -- I tweeted it out right away and probably got more replies, more tweets in response to that one little -- those two little tweets on the kiss-cam than all of the serious politics I tweet about all the time.

BANFIELD: Change your hair, see what happens.

Wolf, thank you. We'll catch you again on "The Situation Room," 4:00 p.m. eastern. Right?

WOLF: 4:00 p.m. eastern. We got a lot of news coming up today.

BANFIELD: Look forward to it.

Thank you, Wolf Blitzer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Well, as we mentioned earlier in the program, both President Obama and Mitt Romney are on the stump today. Not surprisingly. Mr. Obama's in Ohio and his Republican rival is in Ohio. And, of course, hecklers and protesters are part of every race for the White House.

But our Dan Lothian, who's covering the president, caught a very unusual protest of sorts. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CHEERING)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama says he feels right at home in Iowa.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We spend a lot of time in Iowa. And I felt like an adopted son of Iowa.

LOTHIAN: But even at this friendly rally --

(CHANTING)

LOTHIAN: -- we found discontent.

(on camera): Do you think the president let you down?

KRISHNA PRABHU, PROTESTER: On global AIDS funding, certainly, absolutely. Because I look at the promise that was made versus, you know, when's happened.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): Recent Harvard grad, Krishna Prabhu, from Iowa, and otherwise vocal Obama supporter, showed up at the rally, stood just over the president's shoulder and quietly unfolded the hand-made sign that said "Fund PEPFAR," the president's emergency AIDS relief, started under President George W. Bush.

(on camera): Campaign told you to put it down?

PRABHU: They did. A guy crept back there saying put the sign down. I didn't want to cause too much of a problem.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): But Prabhu, who will attend Harvard Medical School in the fall joins Chris (ph), who argues AIDS funding has flat lined or decreased under President Obama.

(on camera): But you remain a supporter?

PRABHU: I remain a complete supporter because I think Mitt Romney would be even worse as would Paul Ryan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): Now the Obama campaign provided a laundry list of things that they say that the president has done to fight the global AIDS problem, highlighting the fact that the U.S. remains the largest donor to the global fund and that the president has a renewed focus to fight the AIDS/HIV problem here at home, as well -- Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Dan, that's from one of those files titled "With Friends Like These."

(LAUGHTER)

Dan Lothian, thank you.

A reminder to you all to stay with CNN for complete coverage of the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: When New Jersey police busted into the home of a suspected gang member they found the things you might think they would find -- drugs, cash and then they found something else. A 44-year-old woman locked up and not just for a little bit. Locked up for years at a time, on and off. This story is off the rails bizarre.

Our Jason Carroll, covering this story.

You got a source on this one. It is bizarre to think that somebody could have been locked up off and on for periods that could last years.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what the source is telling me. When they went out there, they had a search warrant to search an apartment, Michael Mendez, for drugs. Searching the apartment, they go to a back bedroom. They break off the lock and find a 44-year-old woman inside the bedroom. The source says, under questioning, it appears as if she had to use a bucket for a bathroom for a period of time.

BANFIELD: Oh, come on.

CARROLL: But she was also given a phone and she could have called at any time, as well. And during the whole process of interviewing her about what had happened to her during her time there, she defended Michael Mendez. So it's a very bizarre case. Here you have the officers of New Jersey state police going in to the apartment in Patterson, New Jersey, execute a search warrant. They find what they're looking for. They find the drugs, and obviously find a whole lot more.

BANFIELD: She had a working telephone?

CARROLL: Correct.

BANFIELD: And didn't call out to alert the authorities that she was a prisoner?

CARROLL: Did not call. Some of the neighbors actually saw her off and on over a period of time, you know, for brief periods. So she had the ability to call. She had the ability to reach out for help. But you know, the source tells me they see this time and time again in certain situations where people are held captive --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Not this egregious with a padlock on the outside.

CARROLL: Not this egregious and not perhaps this severe.

BANFIELD: Is it a case of extraordinary domestic abuse or a Stockholm Syndrome of sorts?

CARROLL: Good question. We don't know. Here you have this woman -- she's being evaluated at a hospital. Her condition at this point unknown. But it's one of those situations where clearly there's been some psychological damage.

BANFIELD: And he's been held on a million-dollars bail, which is no joke.

CARROLL: No joke. He's held on a million-dollars bail. He is a suspected gang member.

BANFIELD: Latin Kings?

CARROLL: Latin Kings. More than 4,200 prescription pills found there in the apartment.

BANFIELD: Not good.

CARROLL: Perhaps a court appearance later on today.

BANFIELD: Good to know. Keep your eye on that for us if you would, and let us know in this hour if it breaks.

As Jason said, a court appearance to find out the charges may result because oftentimes when they break, what you are charged with ain't what you end up being tried for and we could see additional charges in the case.

Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Lawyers prepare their defense in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, here is the latest move. It centers around this man, the judge presiding over the case, Kenneth Lester. Turns out Zimmerman's attorneys do not want him on the bench. They say they, quote, "lost faith in the objectivity," end quote, of the court, and they don't believe Zimmerman can get a fair trial with the judge. But the judge says, I don't think so. He's refusing to recuse himself and he says Zimmerman's request is "legally insufficient," end quote, short story. Now the defense says not so short a story. They're taking it up a notch to a higher court. They want the higher court to step in and they want to appeal this thing and remove Judge Lester from the case.

So it begs the question, what's the problem with the judge? What difference does it make to this case?

The guy with the answer is our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.

The first thing I thought when they put forth this motion to get rid of Judge Lester is they might be going for a Stand Your Ground hearing because it is the judge and the judge alone that decides if this goes to trial or you walk out a free guy. That may not be the case here.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: That's right. The defense in this case is weighing whether to have a Stand Your Ground hearing which is does the law that we have discussed so often which says that you can Stand Your Ground or respond if you feel like you're threatened, does that apply, or maybe they'll go to the judger and say this was self-defense, end of story, ignore the Stand Your Ground law altogether. The defense said different things publicly and don't have to make a decision yet. That's a possibility as well.

BANFIELD: The strange part is Zimmerman's attorney intimated last week without question they were going forward to try to prevail in the Stand Your Ground hearing. Then this week he is suggests, you know, maybe not so. Maybe we'll go with the standard self-defense argument and battle this out before a jury. I am thoroughly confused as to the strategy.

TOOBIN: This is one of the reasons why a lot of defense attorneys don't talk to the media much before a trial or during the lead up to a trial because you change your mind. When you're a defense attorney, your strategy can change based on developments, but you don't usually want the media chronicling that, and this might be an argument for not talking so much.

BANFIELD: I always had the love/hate relationship with the law because I want to hear everything. I like the sunshine state because we get great stories and it is a lovely disinfectant but at the same time it really does tend to encroach on a fair trial, especially for Zimmerman who has been all over the press.

TOOBIN: Florida is great. Florida is the most open legal system, the most open in the country.

BANFIELD: It is the reason "In Session" exists.

TOOBIN: And unfortunately after the O.J. Simpson case a lot of states cut back on public access, on televised access to trials because people thought the cameras had a bad effect in the O.J. case. That happened in New York. Florida has not. Florida remains the one state where cameras can always get in. And as a media guy, I support it as well.

BANFIELD: I hear you. I have to wrap up but not before I say this. Do you think this change in strategy or what's been said in public by Zimmerman's attorney, that he wants to go forward with the self-defense, is because a bench trial would be too difficult given the credibility issues Zimmerman has with the lying?

TOOBIN: No. I think there are a lot of moving parts here. I think it is bizarre frankly they're trying to have this judge disqualified because, remember, the judge revoked bail because Zimmerman clearly lied but then he gave him bail again.

BANFIELD: He gave him bail.

TOOBIN: How can you ask for recusal when he ruled in your favor? So he said a couple nasty things.

BANFIELD: Like he flooded the system and manipulated the system, but judges say these things.

Don't go anywhere. A few minutes.

BANFIELD: All the time in the world.

I would like to work you over time. This is the case against the movie theater gunman, James Holmes. Did you know that if you want to be declared legally insane, you have to be declared competent first? We'll explain in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: James Holmes -- by now, you have seen the pictures of him in court with the dyed red hair after the Colorado shooting. And a lot of people say it will be insanity defense more than likely.

What most people don't know is that we're not even there yet, are we? We're not even at the stage where he can go to court. But you to be declared competent.

TOOBIN: That's right. It is a two-stage process. This is what would happen in the Loughner case in Tucson, the shootings with Gabby Giffords. There were months where Loughner was found not fit to stand trial, that is too crazy even to understand what was going on. He subsequently was found sit to stand trial and then wound up pleading guilty.

BANFIELD: Sometimes you're medicated into being competent. TOOBIN: Sometimes against your will. Sometimes there are cases where people say, I don't want that medication.

BANFIELD: Elizabeth Smart's abductors.

TOOBIN: And that case wound up taking years and years in part because of that controversy. Here the question first will be, is the Aurora shooter Holmes fit to stand trial, fit to understand what is going on.

BANFIELD: What the trial even entails.

TOOBIN: Yes. That's fair.

BANFIELD: It is constitutional.

TOOBIN: That's right. You only want cases where people understand what's going on and, of course, in the meantime, he is not going anywhere. It is only if he is found fit to stand trial then the whole issue of the insanity defense or some other defense arises.

BANFIELD: By the way -- I got to wrap this -- the chances of this case actually prevailing in an insanity defense given the Kevlar, the booby-trapping, given the, oh, this is bad stuff I am doing, it is highly unlikely.

TOOBIN: The insanity defense rarely, rarely succeeds. And certainly on the basis of the evidence we have seen so far doesn't look like a very promising case.

BANFIELD: It is amazing to know you have to be competent in order to be crazy.

TOOBIN: True.

BANFIELD: And you have to be competent in order to be legally insane.

Always good to have you here. We'll have more conversations as this case continues.

TOOBIN: Alas, the legal system does not move quickly.

BANFIELD: Thank you, sir.

Thanks so much for watching us today.

Stay tuned. NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL starts now.