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GOP Convention Braces for Isaac; Feds Warn of Anarchist Bombers; New Book on Osama bin Laden Raid; Former Penn State President Denies Cover-Up; Akin's "Legitimate Rape" Flap; Romney's Energy Independence by 2000; Taylor Swift, Wedding Crasher?; Bad Dog

Aired August 23, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Thank you, Soledad.

Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, convention threat. CNN has obtained a bulletin warning anarchists could use homemade bombs at the political conventions. New concerns about extremists as tens of thousands gather in Tampa.

Zero, zero percent. According to a new poll, that's the number of black voters who support Mitt Romney. How is that possible?

Inside the raid, but outside approval. A new book by a Navy SEAL about his assault -- about the assault, rather, that killed Osama bin Laden. It comes out on September 11th. But this morning, the Pentagon wants to know why it wasn't kept in the loop on this project.

Plus this.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook the nation's capital a year ago today. It damaged some of the national monument. Find out about reconstruction efforts coming up.

CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

COSTELLO: And good morning. Only one more day until Friday. Thank you for joining us this morning. I'm Carol Costello.

Right now, we're going to take a look at the double trouble looming over the Republican National Convention. Just a few days before its kickoff, will a storm named Isaac crash the Grand Old Party? Or is the greater threat manmade?

This morning, Florida is scrambling, and bracing for the unknown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Isaac is a unique storm in this regard. It has the potential to threaten a major convention, designated a special national security event. And that's why I have convened local, state, federal, and convention officials for a twice daily briefing. The goal is to make sure everyone has the best information available. A complete picture of the situation. Everything needed to make a good decision. These officials have been working together to plan the convention for the past 18 months. The possibility for a hurricane has been part of that planning process. All that's required for those plans to be activated is there to be a hurricane, and hopefully that will not happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Because if it does, as you know, the Republican National Convention will be postponed.

Meteorologist Rob Marciano is tracking the approaching storm and our Martin Savidge is going to look at security preps. But let's begin with Rob in the weather center.

So what are the chances?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, if you look at climatology, Carol, you know, we've talked about this about a week ago. Chances are less than 1 percent. But now, given the position, we're talking about chances that are more like 4 percent. But if you factor in the synoptic, I mean weather pattern that, number goes up even more.

Let's talk about first of all what would happen if a category 1 storm were to come into Tampa. This is a map showing the evacuation zones for Tampa. The convention center is right here, in a red and on the border of an orange zone. Meaning if a category 1 storm were to make a direct hit, they are going to evacuate the convention center and many of the hotels around there, and then maybe a category 2 storm probably the rest -- the rest of the area there.

Hillsboro River, Hillsboro Bay and Tampa Bay. The last time they had a direct hit was back in 1946. That was a category 1 storm. We have evacuated a couple of times since then, including when Hurricane Charlie made a nosedive just south of there we thought -- everybody thought that Hurricane Charlie was -- was coming into Tampa in '04, and that's going to headed south. So that's a good lesson for us as far as where these things typically could go.

Right now the winds are 40 miles an hour. It is not really gaining strength rapidly, but it's peppering places like San Juan with some rainfall here. They have tropical storm warnings that are posted for San Juan and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There have been hurricane warnings that have been posted now for parts of the Dominican Republic. And also Haiti, which will get a ton of rain from this unfortunately. And possibly category I force winds as we go through tomorrow, into Saturday.

And then also this getting into the Florida Keys potentially as we go Sunday and Monday. And here is the forecast track. This hasn't changed a whole lot. Very close to Tampa but also the northern Gulf Coast and even New Orleans may very well be in play as we go through time.

COSTELLO: Very good. I know you're going to keep an eye on things for us. Thank you, Rob.

MARCIANO: You got it.

COSTELLO: The other potential threat looms just as large. And both man and machine are in place to guard against potential terrorists. CNN has obtained an intelligence warning from the feds that says anarchist extremists could be plotting bomb attacks across the region.

CNN's Martin Savidge is here with details on this rather unsettling development.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Of course it is. Yes, good morning, Carol. Let me preface this report by saying that law enforcement is using terms like could and might and the possibility. It is based upon an intelligence bulletin that's been put out by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. It is aimed at local law enforcement, essentially it gives them a heads up. And it's not just for Tampa. It's also for Charlotte, where the Democrats are going to be gathering in a couple of weeks as well.

And this is the thing. There is information that the FBI says it obtained that in March it got wind that some anarchists were planning to head on down to Tampa Bay and try to shut down traffic on the bay area bridges. Of course that would have a huge disruption not only for traffic for the convention traffic, in general, even emergency responders trying to get to and from parts of the city.

Then on top of that, the more troubling aspect. Talk of the possible use of IEDs. Now we're all familiar with those from places like Iraq and Afghanistan. An IED is essentially a homemade bomb. Could they be used? Yes, they could be used. Will they be used? The intel doesn't go that far. It just says that law enforcement needs to be aware. So we want to keep this in the right perspective here.

We also know how these anarchist groups have worked at, say, you know, the International Monetary Fund meetings, things like that. Also the Republican convention in Minnesota. So lessons from the past, intel from the spring, law enforcement says be aware down there and these local law enforcement are being --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: They are going to have a huge security force in place for the Republican National Convention.

SAVIDGE: They will. This is basically what you should be aware of, local law enforcement, is to watch out for things like maybe groups you've heard of that are increasing weapons training in some way, shape, or form. Or somebody has been going out and buying up large quantities of material that could be used for explosive devices. Local law enforcement would already be aware, but it never hurts to be told and reinforced again.

COSTELLO: Understand. Martin Savidge, thanks.

SAVIDGE: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Weather permitting, CNN's live coverage of the Republican National Convention from Tampa, Florida, begins Monday night at 7:00 Eastern. Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett and Candy Crowley will join Wolf Blitzer to lead the coverage. Also with chief national correspondent John King. Of course he'll be at the magic wall. That's beginning Monday night right here on CNN.

Turning our attention now to Afghanistan. We're hearing from the U.S. commander in charge of coalition forces there, General John Allen, he's discussing the recent spike of so-called green on blue attacks. That is Afghan forces turning on NATO troops, and that includes Americans.

In fact, just over the past two weeks, there have been three such attacks on Americans. That makes 32 times this year that Afghan security personnel have turned on allies. At least 40 coalition forces have been killed just this year, most of them Americans, 23 in all. That compares to 15 such deaths in all of last year.

Osama bin Laden's death is apparently a moneymaker. That's the cynical view, anyway. First a movie. "Zero Dark 30."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No birth certificate, no cell phone. You guys are ghosts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's right in the inner circle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole world is going to want in on this. I want targets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When was the last time you saw bin Laden?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That movie will be released in December. It's being made by the same people who created "The Hurt Locker." Some Republicans claim filmmakers were given classified documents from the mission.

Well, get ready for a book. On bin Laden's death called "No Easy Day," written by a Navy SEAL who supposedly participated in the raid. It will hit bookstores on September 11th.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is with me now.

This Navy SEAL who apparently wrote the book will remain anonymous. But is he allowed to write such a book?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is freedom of speech in this country. That's where it all starts. So, sure, you are allowed to write any book you want. But you are not allowed to disclose classified information. And this was a completely classified mission. So the question will be when this book finally appears in public, what does it really say? Mark Owen is the pen name of the Navy SEAL, due to -- what he is apparently saying or security reasons he is not using his own name. He is changing the names of all the other SEALs on the mission that night, trying to preserve confidentiality.

But will there be perhaps even inadvertent disclosures of classified information? The military says that they did not get an advance copy of this book to review, to look for any of that. In fact, they only really found out about it in the last few days.

And you're right, Carol. There has been so much out of there. One of the concerns now is if you look at everything, could a bad guy begin to piece together bits and pieces of information and develop a sense of what happened and how it was carried out that the U.S. military would much rather keep private -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, if I'm a special ops guy, even if this guy changed my name in the book, I might be a little upset that I'm being used in this way.

STARR: Well, you know, I think there's going to be a wide range of views. And I think what you just said is certainly going to be one of them. For top commanders like Admiral William McCraven, the head of special operations, by all accounts this is a growing concern.

You have movies. You have books. You have this group of former SEALs and operatives that just came out. Very political in opposition to President Obama and his administration. Talking about the raid. Now a Navy SEAL talking about the raid. The commanders are beginning we are told to become extremely concerned that there is just too much talk out there about it.

There's always been war movies, hasn't there? I mean we've seen this since World War II. So there's plenty of that going on all the time. But is it finally going just a bit too far -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr reporting for us live from the Pentagon.

The death toll from the West Nile virus continues to rise. It's up to 42 now. The latest death in Arkansas. This is now the largest West Nile virus outbreak the United States has ever seen. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says epidemics normally peak in mid August, but it takes time for cases to be reported. So the numbers will likely rise.

The CDC has already recorded more than 1100 infections across 38 states. Nearly half of those cases are in Texas.

To Pennsylvania now, where the former Penn State University president is speaking out for the first time on the Jerry Sandusky scandal. And he's blasting the internal report accusing him of covering up child sex abuse in order to protect the university's image.

When you think of the scandal, you probably think of the former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. As you know, he was convicted on 45 counts of child sex abuse. And you probably think of the former head coach, Joe Paterno, who was accused of covering up Sandusky's abuse.

You might not recognize Graham Spanier's name, but he did lose his job as university president when the scandal broke. He is also implicated in a cover-up. But as of yet, he faces no charges.

CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is in New York.

Jeffrey, you were the first to interview Spanier. It appears he wants his reputation back.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: He sure does, Carol. And I spoke to him for the "New Yorker" magazine. It's at newyorker.com. And, you know, I have to say as someone who followed this pretty closely, I was surprised at at indignant he was and also that he has a real argument, that he has been untreated. You'll hear now what he said about the Freeh report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM SPANIER, FORMER PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: The Freeh report is wrong, it's unfair, it's deeply flawed. It has many errors and omissions.

I know they had a lot of very good people on that team, working on this. They interviewed, they say, over 430 people. Many of those folks have spoken to me about their interviews. Many of them describe those interviews to me as a witch hunt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TOOBIN: His main point is not that Jerry Sandusky was anything other than the horrible, evil man that we now know he was. But Spanier's point is that he did not know that Sandusky was a child molester, and he had no way of knowing. That's of course a very controversial assertion.

COSTELLO: I know. He's mentioned that dreaded word horseplay. I thought it was just horseplay. But in the Freeh report when it was released it contained e-mails that were -- that were damning against -- I mean how does he explain those e-mails?

TOOBIN: Well, there are two incidents. 1998, he was apparently copied. He didn't write any e-mails. In 1998, he was copied about an investigation of Sandusky that went on at that point. And remember, that was an investigation that was in fact conducted by the police, not by Penn State, and they decided not to prosecute him.

2001 is obviously the point of most vulnerability for Spanier. That was the incident where Mike McQueary, the former football assistant, saw Sandusky and a young boy in a shower engaged in what seemed like sexual acts.

What Sandusky says is that he was never told that McQueary or who the source was of the allegation, and most importantly he was told only that it was horseplay, not that there was anything sexual going on. So because Sandusky no longer worked at the university at that point, and because horseplay is not a crime, that's why he didn't report it or order it reported to the authorities.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much.

TOOBIN: OK, Carol.

COSTELLO: Todd Akin's comments about abortion and legitimate rape angered many of his fellow Republicans. But some Missouri voters have a different opinion of the embattled congressman. Hear what they have to say, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We did want to update you on the man stuck in this medical transport van. All of this according to our local affiliates there, KTVK. As you can see, there's been some torrential rain in Scottsdale, Arizona. Two inches of rain fell in a very short period of time. And you know what that means. Flash flooding.

Apparently this -- the driver of this van drove into some flowing water on the roadway. Something you should never, ever do. Got stuck, and as you can see, emergency workers had to be called in. They used that giant cherry picker to get him out of that van.

Is it a he or a she? He just -- it's a he. He just walked out of the frame.

So the driver is OK. There was no one in the back of the medical transport van. Everybody is OK. But as you can see, a lesson learned for that driver. Never, ever, ever drive into a deep pool of water anywhere.

It is the controversial remark that ignited heated debate across the country. Missouri congressman and Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin saying that victims of, quote, "legitimate rape" can somehow block an unwanted pregnancy.

We've heard from top Republican, including Mitt Romney, calling for Akin to drop out of the U.S. Senate race. Even the president has weighed in, saying rape is rape.

But Akin's opponent in Missouri, the Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, has said that Akin should be forgiven, for obvious reasons, something echoed by voters but for very different reasons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEVERLY JOHNSON, SUPPORTER OF REP. AKIN: I cringed because basically I agree with his stance on abortion, but the way he said it, it could have been worded different.

GENE WOOD, SUPPORTER OF REP. AKIN: I think people are looking for something to accuse Todd or to drag him down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We wanted to know more about what Missouri thinks about its congressman and his dubious place in the national spotlight nowadays. For that part of the story, I'm joined by "St. Louis Post Dispatch" editor Kevin Horrigan. Welcome, Kevin.

KEVIN HORRIGAN, ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: I must say I enjoyed your piece headline, "The world discovers the weirdness of Todd Akin, darn it." I take it you were not so surprise by Akin's gap.

HORRIGAN: Well, no, he's been a local treasure for us for almost a quarter of a century. You know, I guess we have to share him with the rest of the world now. It's -- he's been a font of, let's say, sometimes screwball ideas.

COSTELLO: The media has a tendency to overstate the importance of gaffs, although in many people's minds this was the gaff of all gaffs. Still, is it a body blow for Congressman Akin in Missouri?

HORRIGAN: Well, we argue about that at the office. I'm not sure it is. I think it's survivable because Missouri in the past 10 years has headed further south, by which I mean geographically, but Missouri was always sort of a bellwether state, neither northern nor southern or western or eastern.

And now I think we have pretty much joined the old confederacy. The voters are considerably more conservative than they used to be. And Mr. Akin's base, which is the fundamentalist churches and the home school groups, has now been joined by what used to be fairly mainstream normal Republicans.

I guess he'll hold the base. It kind of depends on what the old school Republicans do.

COSTELLO: We know --

HORRIGAN: I wouldn't -- I wouldn't -- I guess I'd say it's two to one against him. But, you know, if I got enough points, I might take him.

COSTELLO: Depending on which poll you look at, the race between the Democrat Claire McCaskill and Akin, I guess it's still a toss-up. So it's obvious that voters don't much like McCaskill.

Can you explain that for us? Why don't they like her? Is it just because the state has become more conservative?

HORRIGAN: Yes. And she's been tied very effectively by the Republican bosses and media strategists to President Obama. She did vote for the Affordable Care Act.

And although Claire is really nobody's idea of a liberal, she's sort of an old school Scoop Jackson moderate Democrat, she has supported the president on most of the president's initiatives. And in this race, you know, it's just as long as you're painted as part of the great Obama machine, then you're going to have trouble in Missouri.

COSTELLO: Kevin Horrigan, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

HORRIGAN: You bet.

COSTELLO: Remember the chaos when a rare earthquake hit the nation's capital? A year later, several of our nation's monuments still need repairs, and they need money to do it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Those of you out West might not understand, but those on the East Coast are still shaken by the events of one year ago today. It is the anniversary of an earthquake that shook a lot of people up and caused some serious damage to our national monuments. This video captured the moment. This is inside the Washington monument when the earth started to shake at Washington, D.C.

The monument remains closed to this day. It will be closed indefinitely because of cracks in the upper portion of the obelisk. And it will take millions of dollars to repair the monument and Washington's National Cathedral. But help is on the way.

Sandra Endo is at the Washington Monument to tell us all about it.

Good morning, Sandra.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol.

Yes, the reconstruction effort will take some time. But let's go back a year ago. The epicenter of this rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake was Mineral, Virginia. That's about 85 miles from the nation's capital, and the tremor was felt from New England all the way down to the Carolinas.

And last year, the White House, parts of the Pentagon, all the museums around the national mall were evacuated. And as you mentioned, Carol, there was some damage. And right now, the reconstruction efforts are underway.

There's a $15 million project being started here at the Washington monument to repair those cracks. And as you mentioned it is closed to the public. It won't likely be reopened until 2014.

At the national cathedral, there was damage there as well. Four of the spires in that cathedral were damaged and destroyed. They are trying to raise money for that. That project is going to cost $20 million.

And today, officials at the cathedral are going to announce a $5 million donation from the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis. And officials there are going to also hopefully ask the public and other donors for some more money to finish the project. And they are going to mark this anniversary with a special memorial at the time the earthquake struck a little later on this afternoon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sandra Endo, reporting live from the Washington Monument this morning -- thanks so much.

Mitt Romney has been endorsed by Herman Cain, but a new poll says the Republican ticket has zero, zero African-American support. Is that possible? Our political panel weighs in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is 30 minutes past the hour. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. I'm Carol Costello.

Stories we're watching right now in THE NEWSROOM:

The opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange rang just seconds ago, ringing the bell, Christie Rampone, three-time Olympic gold medalist and captain of the 2012 swimming soccer team. Good for her and the rest.

Experts say that stocks are expected to drop today, that's because investors are reacting to a manufacturing slowdown in China and Europe.

Florida Governor Rick Scott wants the state's emergency operation center to open later today. Isaac isn't a hurricane yet, but the tropical storm is battering areas from the Caribbean to Florida. It isn't known yet what threat Isaac could pose to next week's Republican national convention in Tampa.

The Mars rover Curiosity is roving. And that is certainly good news for NASA. In its latest exercise, curiosity was able to move forward, turn in place, and back up. Now that NASA is confident the rover can maneuver, Curiosity will move 1,300 feet to a potential drilling site.

This is a big goal. America's energy independence by 2020 -- total independence by 2020. That's the new plan Governor Mitt Romney has released. He released it early this morning, around midnight Eastern Time.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us more.

That's a big ambition.

I was just going to say it sounds very ambitious, doesn't it? But we'll get more details later today, Carol. Governor Romney is going to be speaking later today on this issue. But he did tell reporters yesterday that his plan pledges fewer regulations and more drilling.

Take a look at some of the changes he's going to be calling for.

He wants to give the states control over drilling on federal land within their borders. He wants also to make it easier and faster for companies that have established safety records to get permits to drill. He also doesn't think the government should regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Now, the campaign says the goal here is to get America off foreign oil in eight years. Yes, it does sound ambitious. And it says that will create 3 million new jobs and bring in $1 trillion in new government revenue.

But the Congressional Budget Office is actually disputing these numbers, saying that 70 percent of federal lands suspected to have undiscovered oil and gas reserves, they are already available for leasing. And opening the rest would bring in at most another $50 billion over the next 10 years -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So what is the Obama administration saying about this?

KOSIK: OK. As expected, the president is also calling for energy independence, but it doesn't put a date on when that would happen. The president has talked about his all of the above approach -- about expanding production and use of alternative energy like wind, solar, natural gas, and biofuels, clean coal and nuclear. The Obama campaign Web site points out that oil imports have gone down, and domestic production has gone up since President Obama took office.

The president's plan also focuses on the consumption side of the equation by putting aggressive fuel economy standards in place. Automakers have agreed to improve fuel efficiency standards, reaching 54.5 miles to the gallon by 2025.

But you know this, Carol. It's been forever that these politicians have talked about energy independence, talked about it year after year. But there are so many controversial ways to get there, I think it's part of the reason we're just not there yet -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange -- thank you.

It's got to be a political polling first. Zero percent support, zero. According to an NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll, Mitt Romney has zero percent support among African-Americans. Really? What about Herman Cain?

There's also other high profile black Republicans like former Congressman J.C. Watts. Colin Powell. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. And Congressman Allen West of Florida.

The Twitter-verse -- well, it was equally incredulous. This tweet from Kara Davis, quote. "If a black conservative shouts in the NBC forest, does anybody hear?" And this tweet from one black Republican, "I am the zero percent, according to the liberal media. And Obama. I simply don't exist."

We want to talk more about that because it was so jarring to see that.

Joining me now are: CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, and Will Cain, also a CNN contributor. He leans to the right.

Welcome to you both.

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Come on, Will Cain. Zero percent. Is that possible?

CAIN: No. It's highly improbable at the very least, right? And you just pointed out a few that do exist. So, yes, let's go with impossible more than improbable.

Look, the poll conducted I think a survey of 1,000 people. If you listen to the poll, it said 12 percent of their respondents were African-American. That means 120 people they polled. That fit the profile there.

And if zero of 120 said they would not support Mitt Romney -- I don't know. Can you project that out and make a generalization? I know we do this with all polling. But obviously what we learned here is the definition of margin of error.

COSTELLO: That's right. The margin of error on this poll was, what, 3.1 percent. I talked to CNN's polling people and they said African-Americans are probably underrepresented in this poll.

So, Maria, I did look at the Gallup poll, the latest, and it says that Mitt Romney has 4 percent support from African-American voters.

CARDONA: Well, if you look at that, you know, if you want to talk about margin of error, that's close to the margin of error of this poll. So let's understand that zero percent doesn't actually mean zero people. So that's why you can talk about Herman Cain and Condoleezza Rice and all of these others.

I don't think anybody believes that he has zero support among the African-American community. But it does underscore the fact that he's got very little support, especially compared to President Obama. And you can look at a whole slew of policies as to why that is. And clearly, given that this is the first African-American president, this shouldn't be all that surprising.

COSTELLO: No. But, will, does it call into question -- doesn't Mitt Romney have to win a certain percentage of African-American voters to win the election?

CAIN: Well, you know, Maria points out something interesting there. It is true, regardless of what the NBC poll says, that Mitt Romney's support among African-Americans is at historical lows. John McCain and Sarah Palin got something like 4 percent, whereas as high in the 90s it was up to 12 percent with Bob Dole. He got 12 percent of the African-American vote.

So it asks the question why? Why is the African-American support for Mitt Romney low? Lower than historically comparisons.

And the answer I think is twofold. One, it's because he is running against an African-American president. We can't overlook that fact. And second, the Republican Party has always had a tenuous relationship with African-Americans. They have a different relationship with the federal government than do other Americans.

While someone like me looks to government as a threat to individual liberty that were supposed to protect liberty at a local level that, is not how it worked out in the African-American experience. It was the federal government that protected the individual rights from these more local and state intrusions into liberty. So, that's why we have this relationship.

COSTELLO: But didn't Mitt Romney appear before the NAACP? Wasn't that supposed to give him a little tiny bump? I mean did, that make any difference at all, Maria?

CARDONA: Well, and I actually gave him kudos for doing that. I thought it was brave. But what did he do not a few minutes or a few hours after he appeared at the NAACP? He went to a fundraiser of obvious Romney supporters and bragged that he went to the NAACP and he was booed because he talked about how he wanted to repeal Obamacare. And he told this group, look, if this group of people -- talking about African-Americans -- want more free stuff from the government, they should be voting for the other guy.

So that's clearly disrespectful to the African-American community, and not really a way to reach out to them. And I think to your point, the Romney campaign has made a cold political calculation that they don't need any African-American support. And I would add to that, I think they have made a cold political calculation that they don't need any Latino support, because he's kind of in the gutter on Latino support as well. And that's very dangerous if he really wants to win the White House in November.

COSTELLO: Will Cain, will it be white guys who elect Mitt Romney for president?

CAIN: You know, I don't know. And I even find the nature of this conversation disturbing, Carol, because the truth is when Maria talks about when Mitt Romney went to the NAACP and gave his message regarding Obamacare, would the idea would be that you present your principles and you don't tailor it to the audience in front of you, you don't pander to them and tell them what you want them to hear.

You tell them your principles, what you stand for, and you're judged on those merits. And that should be applauded. Regardless of the political party, principles should be applauded, not pandering.

So, is it white guys that elect Mitt Romney? I hope it's his principles that will and whoever responds to that, does.

COSTELLO: Will Cain --

CARDONA: And I agree. But very quickly, I agree with that, Will, but then don't go and brag about how you didn't tailor it, how you were booed. And I think that is the point that really rubs a lot of not just African-Americans but Americans the wrong way.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll have to leave it there. Sorry about that, Will. Will Cain and Maria Cardona, thanks so much for the interesting discussion this morning.

CNN's live coverage of the Republican National Convention from Tampa starts Monday night, 7:00 Eastern. Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett, and Candy Crowley will join Wolf Blitzer to lead our coverage, along, of course, with chief national correspondent John King at the magic wall, Monday night right here on CNN.

Taylor Swift attended a wedding reception in Boston. But was she a party crasher? Was she invited? Oh, the controversy. Our showbiz headlines are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Some incredible, just incredible pictures. This is from a multivehicle crash near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, right on I-10. This tanker was leaking a chemical similar to propane, and the quickest way to clear it was apparently to just set it on fire because it was too dangerous to do otherwise.

So rescue workers and fire crews, they set the thing on fire. And it caused that enormous blast. But as far as we know -- isn't that something else? As far as we know, no one was hurt. And everything is cleared this morning. Wow.

The fight continues over Arizona's tough immigration crackdown. A federal judge is weighing arguments over the so-called show me your papers provision. Opponents say they have new evidence that it is infected with racial discrimination.

American Express is still America's favorite credit card for the sixth straight year. American Express ranked highest in customer satisfaction. Discover card came in second, beating out Chase.

In today's health for her, while women are still more likely to become caregivers, there's a stark contrast when it comes to Alzheimer's or dementia. Over the past 15 years, the number of male caregivers has soared from 19 percent to 40 percent. That's according to the Alzheimer's Association.

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COSTELLO: Say it isn't so. Did Taylor Swift crash at Kennedy wedding reception on Saturday? Victoria Gifford Kennedy, the bride's mother, told the "Boston Herald" she asked Taylor Swift not to attend the reception. And when Taylor Swift showed up, she told her to leave, but Taylor didn't.

Joining me now is A.J. Hammer, who knows everything about showbiz.

A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes.

COSTELLO: This is ugly.

HAMMER: Imagine, Taylor Swift in a scandal. Yes. Say it isn't so, as you said, Carol

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: She's so sweet.

HAMMER: She is so sweet. And I'm not putting this on her at all. But apparently, this caused enough of a problem for the bride's mother as you said to go on record about it with the "Boston Herald".

Now this wedding took place on Saturday. It was for Kyle Kennedy, that's the daughter of Victoria Gifford Kennedy and the late Michael Kennedy. Taylor is, of course, dating Conor Kennedy and I guess Conor wanted to go to his cousin's wedding.

Now according to the story, Conor was invited but he didn't RSVP. The "Herald" quoted Victoria Kennedy as saying that Conor sent her a text. But at very last minute asking if he and Taylor could actually come to the wedding. Well, she told him no, and she then says when they arrived, she asked the pair to leave but they ignored her.

Now CNN has reached out to Taylor's reps to respond to the story. We haven't heard back yet. I would bet we may get another take on the story soon. Because if you didn't catch the name of the bride's mother, Victoria Gifford Kennedy, her father is Frank Kennedy, her stepmother the "Today Show's" Kathie Lee Gifford.

Now Kathie Lee did briefly mention on the air yesterday that Taylor was at the wedding, but I'm thinking in light of this report Carol she may have more to say.

COSTELLO: I think you're probably right. A.J., thank you. A.J. will be back with us next hour for more "Showbiz" headlines. He'll fill us in on why it's best not to mess with the man known as LL Cool J.

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COSTELLO: Ok. This just in to CNN. This was some emergency landing. This was a roadway near Tampa, Florida on I-75. As you can see that small plane had to make an emergency landing. The plane appears -- well, the wing looks damaged, but it's largely intact, which means the pilot probably survived this thing.

But you can imagine drivers seeing a plane landing over their heads. That would be the ultimate nightmare. But as far as we know, no cars were damaged either. Checking sports now: It was quite a night for the Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre. He nailed them three -- count them, three home runs and the Rangers 12-3 pummeling of the Baltimore Orioles. Two of the home runs came in on the Rangers' nine-run fourth inning. Beltre also drove in five runs in a win, he had two other at- bats to try to tie the Major League record of four home runs in a game, but he's grounded out full time.

It's easy to remember baseball steroid era because it seems to still be around. Oakland A's right hander Bartolo Colon has been suspended 50 games for testing positive for a synthetic testosterone. He's the second Major League player in a week to fail a drug test following Giant's outfielder Melky Cabrera. Colon was the A's most consistent starter this season with an ERA of 3.43 in 24 starts but he misses the rest of the season now.

And Lakers rookie center Robert Sacre may need a big hug this morning. Sacre was the last pick in this year's NBA draft. He's still unsigned, he doesn't even have a number. And he's looking at precious little playing time behind Dwight Howard, let's face it. Sacre was the only Lakers player without a number in the team's photo shoot. I'm just saying -- Jeremy Lin, you never know. That's the look at sports.

Bad dogs are now going viral. Here is CNN's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Humans aren't so appealing when they get shamed for bad behavior, but when a dog confesses "I hid meat in the couch", there is no hiding the cute factor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looks guilty.

MOOS: Here at the blog dog shaming, doggie sins ranging from sex, "I hump every stuffed toy I find" to gluttony are celebrated, "I eat the trash." The grosser, the cuter, "I ate baby poop."

Owners post their pets behind shaming signs often with evidence included the photo. Sometimes they send a tag team of transgressors. "I puked in our crate" and "I ate it." "I pooped by the elliptical machine." "I ate a Herman Melville novel." There are even murder confessions. "We killed a mockingbird."

Sure, some say poor dogs and complain of dogsploitation (ph).

(on camera): Some people think this is mean. They're dogs, but I mean --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you take it with a grain of salt for crying out loud. I mean look at that little thing.

MOOS (voice-over): Dog owners and dog walkers in Central Park had their share of shame-worthy stories. Take Kona (ph), he has a habit of jumping into dirty fountains.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I took him to the Hudson River last week and he started swimming to Jersey.

MOOS: She had to practically drag Kona out.

Barking is a popular dog-shaming topic. "I bark at door bells on TV. We've never had a door bell." "I have beautiful eyes and I bark at any stranger who looks into them. Ruff."

One of the most common misbehaviors seems to be eating underwear. "I am an underwear-eating jerk," accompanied by the chewed-up boxer briefs to prove it. It is not eating, but drinking that gets Daphne and Augustus into trouble with the toilet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She uses her nose. She pries the seat up. She lifts it, he goes right behind her and they start drinking from the toilet bowl.

MOOS: As with humans, sex leaves many dogs astray. "I humped a blind cocker spaniel's face." "I like to hump this cat."

Romeo here has a different source of shame. Some dogs are scared of thunder. He's scared of his own (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Whenever he does he literally leaps up from wherever he is and then searches around.

MOOS (on camera): Actually Romeo is a two-sign dog. He doesn't just like to watch his owner in the bedroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was licking my feet that were hanging off the bed as I was --

MOOS (voice-over): Who is giving who a tongue-lashing? Jeanne Moos, CNN --

(on camera): I see why they call you Romeo --

(voice-over): New York.

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COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts after a short break.

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