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President Bush Arriving in Japan, Facing Tough New Problems Back Home; Two Teenagers Captured

Aired November 15, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. President Bush arriving in Japan just hours ago, facing tough new problems back home. His poll numbers continue their freefall. We'll have a live report.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Two teenagers caught on the run are captured. The young man is a suspected murderer. Is the 14-year-old girl a victim or an accomplice? There could be some answers today in this brutal double-murder case. A live report is ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Also captured this morning, the apparent cell phone bandit, but who was she talking to? All that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Actually, that would be whom was she talking to, if we want to be correct about that.

S. O'BRIEN: The grammar police are all over you.

M. O'BRIEN: Grammarial offense early in the morning.

Good morning to you.

S. O'BRIEN: I know. And we're literally only one minute in.

M. O'BRIEN: One minute in.

S. O'BRIEN: Circling the drain already.

M. O'BRIEN: Only three hours to go.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.

Let's get right to this story. It was a baffling case yesterday. Really many questions remain, obviously. A possible extradition hearing today for that Pennsylvania teenager who is accused of killing his girlfriend's parents. He was arrested on Monday in Indiana. Eighteen-year-old David Ludwig crashed his car into a tree after a high-speed chase. His girlfriend, 14-year-old Kara Beth Borden, was also in the car. Now neither one was injured in the crash. The arrest happened in Belleville, which is west of Indianapolis, just about 600 miles away from Lititz, which is in Pennsylvania, and that's where the murders took place.

CNN's Allan Chernoff is there for us this morning.

Allan, good morning to you.

The big question of course in this sort of bizarre story is the young woman. Any word on whether she was a victim in this case or if, in fact, she was an accomplice in this case?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, there is still so many questions surrounding this tragedy, and that perhaps is the key question. Police here are hoping to get some answers pretty soon, and they intend to bring the children back from Indiana later today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Reporter: A weekend of terror for 14- year-old Kara Borden ended here, outside Indianapolis, about 600 miles from home, where her 18-year-old boyfriend, David Ludwig, allegedly shot and killed her parents. The Volkswagen Jetta they were driving crashed after a police chase of speeds up to 90 miles an hour.

DAVID COX, INDIANA STATE POLICE: I pulled him from the car. There was some slight resistance, but that was it.

She was just frantic, crying, screaming.

CHERNOFF: Police say early Sunday morning, David Ludwig brought Kara home after a full night out together. Kara's parents, Michael and Catherine, summoned Ludwig back to their home. He returned concealing a handgun. During an argument, Ludwig allegedly shot Kara's father, Michael, in the head, then shot her mom, Katherine.

(on camera): Making the story even more horrific is the fact that Kara's 15-year-old sister Kaitlin told police she saw her father being killed right by the front door, then ran inside of a bathroom as her mother was shot. Minutes later, Kaitlin ran out the back door toward a neighbor. Her 9-year-old brother, David, had already run across the street to this neighbor's home, from where he called the police.

(voice-over): Police stormed the home, but found only the two bodies. On a street that appears simply idyllic, neighbors are shocked.

DAVID JONES, BORDEN'S NEIGHBOR: It just makes you think, makes you stop, take a good, hard look at so much around you. So much we take for granted that you just never know.

CHERNOFF: Still unknown whether or not Kara played any role in the murders.

SKYLER JONES, KARA BETH BORDEN'S FRIEND: She was a really nice friend. She was an amazing friend. Her parents always made us feel at home at her house. It's just a nice place to be.

TOM MANNON, NEIGHBOR: She seemed to be a typical all-American girl, just a sweet kid on the street, and just a beautiful kid, and she knew my girls very well. CHERNOFF: David Ludwig, neighbors say, often dressed in black and favored a goth look. He was home-schooled and had worked as a lifeguard and at Circuit City this past summer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: The district attorney plans to charge Ludwig with two counts of homicide and one count of kidnapping. If convicted, Ludwig could face life in prison -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Many questions remain. Allan Chernoff for us this morning. Allan, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is meeting with Democrat senators today. One possible topic of conversation, a controversial memo dating back 20 years now. In the memo, Alito writes about his stance on abortion and other hot-button issues.

Congressional correspondent Ed Henry live on Capitol Hill.

Ed, what's the reaction to these statements, 20 years old now?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pretty predictable. Breaking along partisan lines, and perhaps finally kicking off the ideological firestorm we've all been waiting for.

At issue, as you mentioned, is this 1985 job application, when Mr. Alito was applying for a job under Attorney General Ed Meese. He was already working the solicitor general's office, arguing and helping developing cases before the high court for the Reagan administration. And in this job application, he wrote that he was proud of work on cases in which the Reagan administration had argued that, quote, "racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed, and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."

As you can imagine, conservative activists very happy about that line on abortion, but Democrats, like Senator Edward Kennedy, charging immediately that this suggests Judge Alito is out of the mainstream in America. And wouldn't you know it, the timing is such that today, Senator Kennedy is meeting with Judge Alito in one of those courtesy visits. Judge Alito also meeting with Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein. She's the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can bet there'll be some tough questions about this memo.

Take a listen to Nancy Keenan. She's a liberal activists, who reflects some of the anger on the left about this memo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY KEENAN, NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA: There's no doubt that he would very much either overturn Roe, or basically restrict Roe to the point that it's not even applicable in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: But White House officials point out that this happened, as you mentioned, some 20 years ago. They say they have no idea where Judge Alito is now on abortion. They haven't asked him, because they do not have an ideological litmus test on this issue or other hot- button social issues.

And also the White House is getting some political cover from a key moderate Republican. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter is pointing out as he has started looking through some of the cases that Judge Alito has ruled on, he has been pretty evenhanded on the issue of abortion, privacy rights in general. Specter saying, quote, "I don't think we know at this point what Alito would do with Roe. We have gotten deeply involved in more of his cases, and found a very heavy commitment to legal interpretation, which might differ from his own personal views.

So there you have it, some real political cover from a key moderate Republican -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry on the Hill, thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is in Japan this morning. He arrived in Kyoto, where he's going to meet with the Japanese prime minister on Wednesday. Before he heads to an APEC meeting in South Korea, he is also going to make stops in China, and in Mongolia as well.

Here at home, the president's approval ratings continue to hit new lows. A CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls shows that just 37 percent of people polled approve of how the president is handling his job. Sixty percent say they disapprove. Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She's in Kyoto, Japan.

Dana, ohayu gozaimasu to you.

Let's talk about the approval numbers, low, low, low.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Low, low, low. Well done, first of all, Soledad, on your Japanese greeting.

But in terms of the president, absolutely. You know it is a old trick of the presidential trade to perhaps try to escape problems at home by coming to the world stage, but remember last week, Mr. Bush was in Latin America. He faced some massive protests. Here, his reception is expected to be more polite.

But it's not just the general approval rating that the president and his aides are likely very concerned about, it's also some other specifics. You mentioned the approval rating, but remember, President Bush, back in 2000, when he was governor, ran primarily on restoring honesty and integrity to the White House, and restoring it to Bill Clinton's Oval Office. Look at these numbers. Now less than 48 percent, just under 50 percent, think that Mr. Bush is more trustworthy than Bill Clinton.

Also when you talk about the issue that perhaps still defies Mr. Bush more than anything else, Iraq, those numbers, by and large, are still sinking even further. Six in 10 now say going to war in Iraq, Soledad, was not worth it. That is why the president, when he left the United States, he left swinging. He left -- he stopped in Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska and really tried to swing back at his Democratic critics, attacking them on those two fronts, honesty, integrity, and on Iraq, saying he manipulated the intelligence when it comes to going to war in Iraq.

Mr. Bush saying, as he had said once before, that Democrats are simply being hypocritical, because they, too, he says, saw intelligence, and many of them who are criticizing him now, he says, supported the war and supported Mr. Bush's efforts there. As you can imagine, Soledad, the Democrats are denying that they saw the same intelligence that Mr. Bush saw.

S. O'BRIEN: So then the question is, what does the president want to get out of this trip? Do you expect he's going to get a lot out of this trip?

BASH: You know, the president's aides are trying very, very hard to lower expectations. It's -- they're taking sort of politics or diplomacy 101 to a new extreme in trying to lower expectations.

But it's interesting, he is book ending this trip, focusing a bit on Iraq, here in Japan. His closest ally perhaps in Asia is the prime minister. He has some troops, a small contingent of troops in Iraq. He's probably going to extend their say.

And on the last stop, Mr. Bush is going to be the first president to go to Mongolia. Why? Primarily because they, too, have a small contingent of troops in Iraq -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash is traveling with the president. Dana, thanks for the update -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: There are some signs this morning that the president's supporters are feeling vulnerable on Iraq. The Senate expected to take up a Republican proposal today, calling on Iraqi forces to take over security in the country. The measure would also require the president to lay out his strategy for ending the war. Democrats are offering a proposal that goes even further, moving toward a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, more bloodshed. In Baghdad this morning, a car bomb killed two police officers at a popular breakfast spot; 13 others wounded. In Kirkuk, five police officers killed by insurgents. Two from a roadside bomb. Wreckage was seen and videotaped, and three others were killed by gunmen.

And in Pakistan, police are on high alert. A car bomb exploded this morning in front of a government building in Karachi. At least three are dead. A dozen others are wounded. Pakistani officials say the target may have been a KFC restaurant. Fast food chains have been attacked in Karachi several times this year.

S. O'BRIEN: Developers, and real estate experts and city planners are in New Orleans this week. The team is touring the city to look over the damage and make recommendations for rebuilding. Meanwhile, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and his Bring Back New Orleans team are holding more town hall meetings for residents who are looking for answers. And as you can imagine, emotions are running very high. Some people still don't have power, but they are getting the power bills coming in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm up to almost a thousand dollars on my light bill. I need help. I'm not just crying out for myself, I'm crying out for all of those in my position. Somebody got to help the people that's here! We are here, mayor. We're not out there. We're not in Texas. We not in Florida. We are here! We need help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: A good samaritan offered to pay that woman's electric bill.

Well, next month, "Time" magazine is expected to announce its person of the year, and it might not be a person at all. The magazine's managing editor says there are five or six leading contenders. Among them, U2 lead singer and activist, Bono, and the terror leader, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. The magazine also says, though, it is considering Hurricane Katrina. The last time the magazine chose a nonhuman was back in 1988 when it named the endangered Earth as a person of the year.

And if you were affected by Hurricane Katrina and you want to thank somebody who helped you, please send us your story. All next week on AMERICAN MORNING, we are celebrating the week of giving. Go to CNN.com/am. We'll post some of your responses on the Web site. And some people will be selected to share their stories right here with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

Lots of people giving thanks, especially this week.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Just in this morning, the so-called cell phone bandit may need to make a call to an attorney. The FBI arrested 19- year-old Candice Rose Martinez around 3:30 this morning Eastern Time. The FBI agent reportedly spotted her in a parked car. The two men with her or around her were detained. Martinez is suspected of robbing four banks in Northern Virginia, all while talking on her cell phone.

S. O'BRIEN: I can't decide what is more fascinating about that case. One, what was she saying? I mean, don't you want to know? Who's she talking to while she's knocking over at back. I'm at the counter, here I am.

And two, why does she -- I mean, look at the high-quality video. Clearly, that's why they caught her so much. You can make out this woman's face so clearly.

M. O'BRIEN: Why did it take them this long?

S. O'BRIEN: No, not why. I mean, I'm just surprised that she kept knocking over banks, four banks, they said, right, four Wachovia's.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, maybe it's a disguise. Maybe she's a man.

S. O'BRIEN: Could be, you know.

M. O'BRIEN: There you go. That would be a twist, wouldn't it?

S. O'BRIEN: That would be a twist. Who knows.

Ahead this morning, we're going to have more on that Amber Alert arrest in Indiana. Remember we told you about this yesterday, 18- year-old boy, 14-year-old girl caught, but was Kara Beth Borden, the 14-year-old girl, a kidnapping victim, or was she an accomplice in her parents' murders? We'll take a look at that ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And then later, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's abortion memo, it's 20 years old. Did Democrats really want to know where he stands on Roe versus Wade, though? The surprising answer on that. One expert says maybe not. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: More this morning on that shocking double-murder case in Pennsylvania. It ended with the capture of the 18-year-old suspected killer. There he is there, David Ludwig. And also the capture of the 14-year-old girlfriend. It was her parents who were killed.

This morning, we talked to Brett Lovelace. He is a police reporter with the "Intelligencer Journal," and he joins us from Lititz, in Pennsylvania.

Nice to see you.

First of all, the main question, I think, everybody is asking you, any information on whether this 14-year-old girl, whose parents were the victims in this double murder, this horrifying crime, was she an accomplice, or was she also a victim in this case?

BRETT LOVELACE, POLICE REPORTER: Right now, she's still being considered a victim. And David Ludwig has been charged with kidnapping to support that claim at this point.

Now, a team of investigators here from Lancaster Country flew out to Indiana. They got there about 6:00 p.m. last night. They spent the night. They did have an opportunity to meet with David and Kara at the Indiana State Police Station. And the thought was to conduct some interviews there, get them on a plane, and bring them back here to Lancaster County today. What was gleaned from those interviews is not clear. It's not known.

S. O'BRIEN: But there are some details that are emerging about their stops along the way, from Pennsylvania to Indiana. They stopped to get a sandwich. They stopped to get some cash from the ATM. What did witnesses say about the couple when they made those stops?

LOVELACE: Well, the reports have been very conflicting. We do know they had stopped at an ATM in Dubois, Pennsylvania, which is very western Pennsylvania, near the Ohio border. But the initial report was a source of confusion, because at the same time that state police here in Pennsylvania had ordered the amber alert to focus on Clinton County, the police in Indiana were tracking down tips there and ended up catching up with the Volkswagen there, so that supports the tips here in Pennsylvania were erroneous, that they weren't actually here in Pennsylvania yesterday morning as reported.

S. O'BRIEN: They were eventually caught -- and we are looking at pictures of this vehicle crashing into a tree there. They were eventually caught at the end of a five-mile high-speed chase. Do you have any more details about that chase?

LOVELACE: They were at a truck stop. A motorist at the truck stop recognized them from the Amber Alert and called state police in Indiana. Two troopers at that point had start searching for them on the interstate. They came up behind the car, tried to initiate a traffic stop. Mr. Ludwig refused to stop. He exited the interstate, got on to a secondary road. It was a five-mile chase. Speeds reaching to 95 miles an hour. He was weaving in and out of the southbound and northbound lanes, around oncoming traffic. One of the troopers from Indiana managed to force him off the road. His vehicle struck a tree. That's when he was arrested.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a little bit more about David Ludwig. I mean, we know now that both he and Kara Beth Borden kept online blogs. Have you been able to glean any information off of his blog, I mean, what kind of background he had? Did he ever have any problems previously with the police? Who was this kid?

LOVELACE: No. He had no other problems with the police at all. He had not ever been arrested or questioned, even as a juvenile, and that's why it kind of comes out of the blue that this whole thing happened.

Now his father did keep a large collection of guns, hunting rifles and handguns, and David had access to those and was familiar with shooting those, so he felt confident enough to use those guns.

As far as from the blogs, it was just typical teenage chatter, back and forth, music they were into, personal interests, hobbies, nothing that would of indicated, hey, I'm going to come kill your parents and we're going to run away together.

S. O'BRIEN: She has a brother and a sister who were helpful in the investigation. What is the next step here, I know? What happens to this girl?

LOVELACE: Kara is now in Indiana, but she's going to be brought here to Lancaster. If the investigators can determine she was complicit on this in any level, she certainly will be charged appropriately. But remember, she's only a juvenile, so she would only be charged as a juvenile. David is 18. He's going to face two criminal homicide accounts as an adult. He's going to face reckless endangering, and those could add up to life sentences.

S. O'BRIEN: Brett Lovelace is a police reporter with the "Lancaster County Intelligencer Journal." Thanks, Brett -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, "Minding Your Business." Pilots at Delta Airlines say they're ready to strike. The airlines says that would be murder/suicide, and they say the threat rings hollow anyway. Andy will tell us about that, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Getting kind of ugly at Delta Airlines. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business," telling us how the pilots and the management team not getting along right now?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Not at all. The war of worlds is heating up. The rhetoric is intensifying between Delta Airlines and its 6,100 pilots union. What's going on here is that the airline want to tear up its contract with the union. The union saying if that happens they will go on strike. Yesterday, Delta said that such a strike would be, quote, murder/suicide. And listen to this, Miles, the company also said that a strike threat is hollow because they would simply get an injunction, forcing the pilots to work. Now think about that, forcing the pilots to work. That is an ugly scenario.

M. O'BRIEN: Do we want to be on the plane is a good question at this point.

SERWER: That's a question. There's going to be a rally today in Atlanta, which is Delta's hometown, a rally by the pilots that is. And tomorrow in Manhattan will be that showdown in court between the pilots and the company, that is, unless they reach a settlement.

And you know, usually when within airline goes bankrupt -- and we can say usually because it happens a lot, unfortunately -- they settle with these major unions beforehand so they have potential contract in place. Delta didn't do that this time, and they are paying a very high price here.

M. O'BRIEN: And you've got to wonder, because they talked about going into bankruptcy for at least a year. You would think they would of gotten their ducks in a row.

SERWER: And I think that's because the relation between the union, the pilots union and the company have not been good, so they were unable to do that, and here they are at the brink potentially.

M. O'BRIEN: But it may be illegal for them to strike, depending on how you interpret the law?

SERWER: It may be. And this is one of these issues, you know, federal employees can't, pilots maybe can. It's subject to interpretation. M. O'BRIEN: OK, it is like a railway act.

SERWER: Exactly. The old railway act.

M. O'BRIEN: The old railway act. All right, thank you very much, Andy Serwer -- Soledad.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles, ahead this morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us. He's going to announce who is taking part -- drum roll, please -- in our 2006 New You Resolution. I'm so sorry, I don't think it's us. But we'll tell you who it is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us. It's not us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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