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American Morning
Protesters Describe Iran's Bloody Crackdown; Obama Pitches Health Care Plan; South Carolina Governor Admits to Long-Distance Affair; Credibility, an Issue for the Republican Party After Latest Scandal
Aired June 25, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome once again. It is Thursday, the 25th of June, 7:00 a.m. here in New York. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
Here's what's on our agenda this morning, big stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
It has been a mystery for days, but now we know missing South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford left the country and has been cheating on his wife with a woman in Buenos Aires. But did taxpayers pay for any of that? The story and the fallout with our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, just ahead.
CHETRY: Also, the crackdown in Iran, much more bloody and brutal than we had earlier thought. Our correspondent, Reza Sayah, has been on the ground there for days. He is now back and he's going to tell you what he was not able to just 24 hours ago.
ROBERTS: Plus, the president is calling for better medical care for all Americans. So why was only one news network allowed to carry his town hall meeting on health care? We're breaking down President Obama's plan and the claims of media bias this morning.
CHETRY: We begin, though, with the bizarre twists and turns in the story of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. We now know that he was in Argentina, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff had originally said. Sanford also admitted to cheating on his wife in an apology at a news conference yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MARK SANFORD, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I hurt her. I hurt you all. I hurt my wife. I hurt the boys.
I hurt friends like Tom Davis (ph). I hurt a lot of different folks. And all I can say is that I apologize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: For more, let's bring in our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley. And I mean you have been around to see a lot of this. What was your reaction yesterday at that at times very bizarre and very emotional press conference?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I guess my initial reaction was we have passed this way before. Whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, all of these seem to fit into a certain template. First the confession and then the tears and then the apologies.
You're right that this was a rather bizarre world news conference simply because it took a while for him to get around to why everybody was there and the big question. Nonetheless, when the Republicans look at this, what they see is yet another barrier to the road to recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): It turns out the tale of the South Carolina governor gone missing is a cliche.
GOV. MARK SANFORD (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: So the bottom line is this. I -- I've been unfaithful to my wife.
CROWLEY: A collective groan from Republicans as another of their promising new faces on the national scene goes down the tubes.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: I wonder if Sanford thought that he was going to get away with this? They all do it. Could have been our JFK.
CROWLEY: In a rambling, halting, teary news conference, Governor Mark Sanford copped to a string of bad behavior including a 5,000 mile lie. His hike along the Appalachian Trail was a trek to Buenos Aires, reportedly to this apartment complex for a rendezvous with a long-time friend he says became a lover over the past year.
SANFORD: I have seen her three times since then during that whole sparking thing.
CROWLEY: Mrs. Sanford knew about the sparking thing and said in a written statement she asked her husband to leave two weeks ago, but he'd earned a chance to resurrect the marriage.
SANFORD: So it had been back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And the one thing that you really find is that you absolutely want resolution. And so oddly enough, I spent the last five days of my life crying in Argentina.
CROWLEY: There's more. E-mails between Sanford and his lover obtained by "The State" newspaper in South Carolina. The paper says the authenticity of the e-mails was confirmed by the governor's office. A spokesman for the governor would neither confirm nor deny authenticity to CNN.
"You are my love," she wrote him, "something hard to believe even for myself as it's also a kind of impossible love." "You have a level of sophistication," he wrote her, "that's so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines."
In Republican circles everywhere, the winds (ph) factor is high. Damage control 101, sympathy and prayers, followed by as much distance as you can find.
With warped speed, the Republican Governors Association accepted Sanford's resignation as head of the RGA. Ten days ago, Senate Republicans were just as quick accepting John Ensign's resignation from his Senate leadership post.
SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R), NEVADA: Last year, I had an affair.
CROWLEY: Also new to the national stage, Ensign, like Sanford, was sometimes talked about as a 2012 dark horse.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It seems like a lot of our new leaders seem to be self-emulating.
CROWLEY: Good grief, said a Republican strategist, they're dropping like flies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: The problem now for Republicans is that this story does not appear to be a one day wonder. There are remaining questions and criticisms. Many in the state say the governor left with absolutely no way to contact him in case of an emergency and, of course, there are also questions as to whether any state money was used for any of these rendezvous with his lover -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. As you reported, Haley Barbour has now taken over as chair of the Republican Governors Association. But when you look at the bigger, long-term political fallout, you know, what determines who stays and who goes?
CROWLEY: Sometimes it's legality and that's why I think even though Governor Sanford has made it clear he intends to stay on, when we look at someone like Eliot Spitzer, the New York Democratic governor, prostitution was involved. There was a hypocrisy factor there because as the D.A. he went after prostitutes, but it's also illegal in New York. So there was a legality.
When you look to Governor McGreevey, former Governor McGreevey in New Jersey, he had put a lover on the state payroll. That also illegal. So he resigned.
So that tends to be the dividing line, although it's not always. If it becomes a problem and doesn't ever get out of the headlines, it makes it hard for someone to do their job. It makes it very hard on the family.
So there also are personal pressures. And it's kind of why you can't really tell how something will shake out in terms of whoever it is and in terms of their career.
CHETRY: Right. So you talk about the wrongdoing factor in this. I think they are looking right now, right, at the money trail. Did South Carolina taxpayer money go toward any of these trips to Argentina? That would be one of those factors that you were talking about.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. But there's a lot of factors that go into that. We do know, for instance, and it has the documentation of a trip exactly a year ago to Argentina, but it was -- and it was paid for by the state Commerce Department. However, other people were there. It involved other countries like Brazil.
We don't know if Governor Sanford saw this woman during that trip. It was a trip that many governors take to look at commerce in another country. So it might be hard to say, well, this was the reason he went down there and the state paid for it. So that's getting sorted out at this point.
CHETRY: Candy Crowley, good stuff this morning. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you in the next hour as well.
CROWLEY: OK.
ROBERTS: More dramatic developments from Iran this morning to tell you about. A vicious new crackdown against the uprising.
Witnesses tell CNN that security forces are beating women and old men with batons and firing tear gas. And Neda, the young woman whose dying moments have become a symbol of the uprising, well, the Iranian government now saying she may have ties to terrorists or that someone may be trying to frame the government for her murder.
And then this from the Iranian ambassador to Mexico, denying the brutality saying, "We do not beat up our people."
One of CNN's last journalists allowed in Iran until he was abruptly called to a government office and his safety was threatened was our own Reza Sayah. Reza joins us now on the telephone where he can freely describe what he witnessed and what he couldn't speak about before while he was in Tehran.
Reza, where were those last hours in Iran like for you?
REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): John, the last few hours moved very quickly. You know, it was really a glimpse for me in how the Iranian government is systematically trying to snuff out the international media.
Tuesday afternoon, we got a call to meet with someone in the Iranian ministry that handles press credentials. We went in and there waiting for me was an intelligence official that we've been banned from reporting since Saturday that this man told me he had evidence that I had been working, but he wouldn't or couldn't substantiate it.
He then gave me a blank piece of paper and a pen and he said what I need you to do is write down that you will no longer do any reports out of Iran unless they're positive reports. Obviously, this was highly unusual. He said if I didn't sign this agreement, I'd have to leave within 24 hours. If I wouldn't leave in 24 hours, they couldn't guarantee my safety and they couldn't guarantee if I could come back and work in Iran.
So I called up the bosses at CNN. It was a quick discussion. The decision was easy. But based on this request and what to me was a threat, we decided to leave and arrived in Atlanta last night.
ROBERTS: Certainly because a lot of journalists have been detained in Iran, were you able while you were there to see what was going on in the streets, or maybe on the way out see what was going on in the streets, and how would you describe what you saw?
SAYAH: I think the last few days there, John, there was generally speaking a lull. And that was because of the vicious crackdown that started on Saturday, the day after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, came out and in a speech on Friday declares that enough is enough. These protests, whether they're silent and peaceful, are not, they're illegal. And if you come out again, we will crack down. And any blood spilled will be on the hands of Mr. Mousavi, the opposition leader.
Saturday was an ugly day when people came out. That was the day when 26-year-old Neda was killed along with several other people. And for the next four days based on what I was hearing from protesters that I was calling, there was some uncertainty and reluctance emerging because of this vicious crackdown. You're still seeing pockets of resistance, pockets of clashes, but certainly not what you saw last week.
ROBERTS: Well, it was terrific work that you did there, Reza, under extraordinary circumstances. It would have been great if you could stay, but certainly glad to have you back here in the U.S. safe and sound.
Reza Sayah for us this morning. Reza, thanks so much.
CHETRY: And the president taking his pitch for health care reform to prime time last night. But there are still many unanswered questions about the trillion dollar price tag. We're going to be live to the White House where things are standing this morning.
It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." When it comes to President Obama's health care plan, Congress is still wrangling over the details of coverage and in particular, cost. But that didn't stop the president from taking the plan to the people holding a so-called national town hall last night broadcast only on ABC. The president is promising he can find a balance when it comes to health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we are smart, we should be able to design a system in which people still have choices of doctors and choices of plans, that make sure that the necessary treatment is provided, but we don't have a huge amount of waste in the system, that we are providing adequate coverage for all people, and that we are driving down costs over the long term.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Our Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House for us this morning with some context and perspective on all of this. And it would appear that the president's got a pretty high mountain to climb these days on health care, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, it really is quite extraordinary when you think about it. For the White House to allow a TV network to hold a town hall meeting with anchors, called the president's family room and his parlor, really quite unusual. It underscores what this president is trying to do, the length to which is he going through to push through his health care reform.
A lot of what we heard, he covered ground, but it wasn't new ground. He made the case. He made the point once again he wants a government-created health care insurance alternative to private insurance companies. Their plans to what he says is going to really reduce the spiraling costs of health care, that he is pushing for it.
He is pushing pressure on members of Congress to get this done by the fall. That is because senior aides believe that if it doesn't happen now, that that window is going to close and the closer it gets to midterm elections, not going to happen.
And then, of course, he acknowledged all of the opposition to this from Republicans who once again take a look at this plan and ask the question how is this not going to actually squeeze out some of those private insurers, their plans, and allow them to truly compete. That was the main theme of this. Obviously, a lot of back and forth, John, and it is a tough, tough road for this president.
ROBERTS: Yes, and then there's the big issue of cost. You know, they sent the Kennedy plan, the Senate plan to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring and the price came back, shall we say, somewhat astronomical in its nature. The president says he wants to drive costs down over the long term, but how is America going to pay for all of this particularly when current deficits are running just shy of $2 trillion?
MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, that was the other big issue, the other big question. And one of the things the president is talking about is for the wealthiest Americans who go to file their taxes, their income taxes and the deductions that they make, itemizing those expenses, to actually reduce that for those wealthiest Americans. Here's how he explained it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two-thirds of the cost would be covered by reallocating dollars that are already in the health care system, taxpayers are already paying for it, but it's not going to stuff that's making you healthy. About a third of the cost will come from new revenue. And so what I've proposed is that we cap the itemized deductions, that the top two or three percent get, people making over 250 a year, me and Charlie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So he's talking about the wealthiest Americans trying to create some revenue there to make up for those costs, the huge price tag of this, John, as you mentioned before in the tune of a trillion dollars in the next ten years.
ROBERTS: Yes, all right. Well, we'll see how it goes from here.
Suzanne Malveaux for us live at the White House. I just want to point out, too, a programming note, that Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health and the Red Cross, will be joining us with her take on the plan's currently (ph) before.
CHETRY: A lot to sift through, a lot of competing arguments out there.
ROBERTS: It's really complicated, too. You know, when you look at the Kennedy bill, there is so much language in there that could be interpreted different ways.
CHETRY: That's right. And also the questions about are we getting the full story about what's going on with health care. And there are some people who are crying foul because of the forum that the president used giving that interview with ABC. And Carol Costello is taking a look at that issue for us coming up in just a minute.
Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour now. Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning."
You know, Governor Mark Sanford was a rising Republican star before yesterday's stunning admission that he was having an affair. But does his bad behavior reflect on the party as whole? Is there a credibility issue?
Joining me now, CNN political contributor Bill Bennett. He's also the national radio host of "Morning in America." He's on a break right now from the radio show to talk to us for a few minutes.
Hey, Bill. Good to see you.
BILL BENNETT, NATIONAL RADIO HOST, "MORNING IN AMERICA": Hey, Kiran. Good to see you.
CHETRY: You know, the first thing I was thinking yesterday is these are things people just don't want to hear about in the midst of huge domestic problems. You know, South Carolina, a state with double-digit unemployment, it's at 12.1 percent right now. Governor Sanford became the face of opposition to wasteful spending. And now his constituents find that they were left in the lurch. He's in South America with his girlfriend. How does that affect the credibility of conservatives?
BENNETT: It doesn't help in South Carolina at all obviously, and it doesn't help the Republican Party. I don't know about conservatives, but it sure hurts the Republican Party. It's just too much of this, too many of these.
Family values is an important part of American life. The Republican Party was founded to combat as we said in 1854 the twin relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy. So that was a stand for family values. But it hurts the party when you have so many, if you will, defecting from the cause.
Mark Sanford was regarded as a future leader. Not anymore. And it's a sad and regrettable thing. Obviously, it happens on both sides. But Republicans do hold these values dear. It is part of our charter, so it's a hurtful and harmful thing. There's no question about it.
CHETRY: And you're right it does happen on both sides. The reason I'm asking about the problem is because it's been a bad few weeks for the GOP. I mean, we heard also from Nevada Senator John Ensign. He admitted to an affair, and now this.
BENNETT: Yes.
CHETRY: And both of them conservative. And both of them not afraid to inject morality, you know, into the public discussion. And so then the question of hypocrisy comes in. How do you maintain that credibility when there seems to a double talk problem?
BENNETT: The short answer is you live it. Edgar Guest, the old poet, said don't -- I don't want to hear a sermon, I want to see one. You know, don't tell me about it, live it. So I think that's the final version. That's the ultimate answer.
But, look, hypocrisy means that people don't live up to their standards. And it's better to fall short than not to have any standards at all. But it sure is regrettable when you fall short, particularly when you fall this dramatically short as happened here.
The point is to pick up, move on, do better, look to other people, and look for leadership that, if you will, teaches by example and not just by lecture.
CHETRY: Switch gears and talk a little bit about health care. Republicans are arguing that...
BENNETT: Yes.
CHETRY: ... possibly 119 million people could lose their private insurance. It's according to a study by The Lewin Group that 132 million people would get government sponsored insurance. I mean, there's a lot of numbers here, including the $28 million currently uninsured, but that this public plan could possibly also result in problems, meaning that people who are happy with what they have may find that changing.
BENNETT: Yes.
CHETRY: What are your biggest concerns when we talk about finding ways to give health care to everyone and be able to pay for it?
BENNETT: Well, as you and John have been saying this morning, it's an enormously complex issue and if you noticed every part of it seems complex. Even the polls are complex.
People would like to see all the uninsured have the possibility of being insured. But most Americans are very happy with their health care. And when the president said last night, you know, people are more comfortable with the devil they know than the devil they don't know, most people do not regard the health care situation that they are in as the devil. They think it's pretty good.
The risks obviously of a government plan is that it crowds out all the private plans. And the advantages of private plans are so clear to people who have them that this is the worry. There's also increasing worry on the part of the public about the spending that's going on, unbelievable spending, and what effect this will have on the economy. But most Americans, about 80 percent like their health care plan. They do think something should be done for folks who don't have it, but there are alternatives to that.
The question is, what will we get? The president says we're going to get something, but there's still a heck of a lot of disagreement on what that will be. So our worry is let's not trade something that's pretty good. Let's not make the good the enemy of the -- let's not make perfect the enemy of the good. You're not going to get to perfection that a lot of people are dreaming of and you can very easily make things worse and more expensive. That's the position we're taking.
CHETRY: Bill Bennett, CNN political contributor, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
BENNETT: Thank you. Thank you both.
CHETRY: Well, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we're going to hear from Ivan Watson. He has new details on just how brutal the crackdown is becoming in Iran. He had a chance to speak to an eyewitness protester who tell a harrowing story of beatings in the streets. We're going to have much more on what is going on in Iran after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." We're tracking the situation in Iran on the ground and online all morning long and we're also getting more detail this morning about just how brutal the government's crackdown is getting.
Our Ivan Watson spoke with one Iranian woman who said that she witnessed savage beatings in the streets of Tehran. Ivan joins us live from our special Iran desk this morning with new details.
Hey there, Ivan.
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. We've got numerous eyewitness accounts of a really bloody crackdown by police yesterday in Tehran, baton charges, crushing an attempted demonstration near Iran's parliament. This is one of the eyewitnesses that we talked to. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF IRAN PROTEST WITNESS: It was 5:30. I was going towards the Baharestan with my friends and this was everyone, not only just supporters of one candidate or the other -- everyone. All of my friends, we were going to Baharestan (ph) to express our opposition to these killings these days and demanding freedom.
But the black-clad police, they stopped everyone at Sadi (ph). They let -- they emptied the buses that were taking people there and let the private cars go on. And we went on until Farrahdosi (ph) and then all of a sudden, some 500 people with clubs and boots, they came out of Hedaya (ph) mosque and they poured into the streets and they started beating everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: A harrowing account there, Kiran. We're getting reports from our sources on the ground that families, parents, are going around from police stations to the main prison looking for their loved ones, for sons and daughters who have gone missing, presumably been detained over the course of the past week.
Now, it's very interesting, the official winner of the presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he took aim at U.S. President Barack Obama. Today, he accused western countries like the U.S. of having no prestige in the world, saying they're politically backwards. He was attacking criticism of Iran's bloody crackdown over the course of the past week.
He said Obama made a mistake and told them not to interfere in Iranian affairs. Let me add, though, that it looks like Ahmadinejad is having some problem within his own political elite. He had a victory party last night and the speaker of Iran's parliament according to Iran's Iona (ph) news agency did not attend despite an invitation and several other very powerful Iranian politicians also appeared to not attend that victory party for Mr. Ahmadinejad -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. And it's also fascinating, Ivan, to take a look at what's being reported on Iranian state television, a totally different story than what you're hearing from these protesters to our Iran desk and other outlets. WATSON: Absolutely. They're trying to downplay the reports of turmoil and constantly reporting that the demonstrators are actually terrorists. And we heard from Iran's ambassador to Mexico yesterday. He said that these were terrorists who were setting fire to buses and banks, and said that this is a law and order issue. Iran is simply trying to impose the results of these elections. He's saying that the minority, those who lost the election have no right to ignore the will of the majority -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Ivan Watson for us this morning at the Iran desk. Thanks so much.
Meanwhile, it's 30 minutes past the hour right now. We have the latest on the crackdown in Iran. 70 university professors were taken into custody in the widening government crackdown, according to a website affiliated with Iran's key opposition figure, Mir Hossein Mousavi. It is not clear, though, right now where they're being held.
ROBERTS: New details today in the deadliest train crash in Washington, D.C. history. The surviving train operator has been released from the hospital and could be interviewed by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board today. Nine people were killed. 80 injured in that crash.
CHETRY: After heading up, up and up, four days now in a row that gas prices actually ticked downward. AAA reporting the national average for a gallon of regular is now $2.67 a gallon. It dropped a penny from yesterday.
ROBERTS: It's a shot to the top of the president's to do list overhauling America's health care, but despite the president's prime time pitch last night, battle lines have been drawn. Dr. Bernadine Healy is the former director of the National Institute of Health. She writes a health column for "U.S. News and World Report." She joins us this morning from Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Healy, the republican critics of the Kennedy plan in the senate, and that's the latest plan to be floated on health care, say that it's going to force everyone into HMO style care. The former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsey McCoy was with us yesterday, she was warning about that. She was also warning about the risk of a decline in health care. My question to is you where is the evidence for that in this bill? Is that a mischaracterization of this bill?
DR. BERNADINE HEALY, FMR. DIR. NATIONAL INSTITUE OF HEALTH: I think one of the biggest problems is that we really don't know what's going to be in the bill that's going to transform American healthcare. By intent, by purpose and we're supposed to see that voted upon in a very short period of time.
You know, last night in the town meeting, a very important question was asked by the anchor to the president, which is, shouldn't America know the options and know what restrictions they might face under this new system before voting on it? And there really wasn't an answer. So my concern is that last week -- actually I think it was last Monday to be specific, John, we heard about the CBO scoring the huge bill attached to that Kennedy legislation, and that was sort of cold water dropped on this seemingly relentless push to transformation because it said, hey, guys, the details are we can't afford it.
ROBERTS: Right. Certainly the cost shocked a lot of people including Senator Dianne Feinstein, who said she doesn't know if there is going to be the votes to pass this. But back to this issue of critics saying that this is going to force everyone into an HMO. I mean, anytime that health care has been talked about, health care reform. It's always been with the caveat that people who have health insurance will be able to keep it. They won't be forced to go into a government plan.
HEALY: Well, I think that it's important to point out that initially no one is going to be forced to do anything and the president has been very clear on that, keep what you have, keep your doctor. The issue is over time and it could be as soon as a year or two will the structure that's being put in place in terms of really radically changing the delivery system, particularly if the government has a private plan that undercuts - I mean a public plan that undercuts the private plan that it could force most people into a single payer government driven system.
But also, John, the government is exerting a lot more pressure and control over the private system, as well. Some of that's good quite honestly private insurance does need to be reformed.
ROBERTS: Yes, Robert Reich yesterday, the former labor secretary in the Clinton administration wrote in the "Wall Street Journal" that a big public plan because of its size would have the power to negotiate lower prices for services, for drugs. Now health care costs in this country are going to go up 10 percent in 2009. As you said there needs to be reform in the insurance industry. The insurance industry hasn't been able to do anything to keep costs under control, so why not let a public plan into the arena.
And when you say that people would be forced into a public plan, that would be by choice, wouldn't it? If you can get a lower price somewhere else and if you can get good service, why not choose the lower price. And would that in turn force the insurance industry to reform itself?
HEALY: Well, I - you know, the president keeps saying it's going to keep the insurance companies honest. Well, my feeling is that's the job of government with its regulatory powers. The issue is if the banks are misbehaving, do you form a national bank. You know, if the car company are misbehaving or not honest, do you then - is the answer to have a national car company.
ROBERTS: Well...
HEALY: I think -
ROBERTS: They're pretty close to that right now. HEALY: Well -- and it's not going to be forever. I mean, people are worried about that. So I think that what you really have to look at is why not reform the insurance company. It's shameful that we haven't done those things. And I think that that is where the focus should be. But by this focus on the public plan right now, it really is a Trojan horse to bring people into a public system.
And remember, John, once people are there and they don't have an alternative, then they're pretty much subject to whatever signature is on the next bill. That could change a lot of these nice things that they're hearing about the public plan. You know, there was a very, very important thing that came out last night, also, when someone said to the president, you know, if your wife or if your daughters are very sick and they need something that's not in your public plan, would you go to measures to get it for them. And he didn't answer that.
But the fact is the public plan will have more restrictions if it's going to be cheaper and if it's going to survive by not getting a transfer from the public sector. Remember, Medicare and Medicaid do not pay the same prices that the privates do. So they're really taking money out of the privates. Maybe $1,000 out of your paycheck and my paycheck in order to sustain themselves.
ROBERTS: But then there -
HEALY: So -
ROBERTS: We're running out of time here, doctor, but I just to button that up by saying that perhaps there might not be a declination in service because they're able to negotiate better prices, get more for less, or as much for less.
HEALY: Right. But you always need to have an alternative where people can go if they're not satisfied. And I think even the European countries have learned that. But unfortunately, it might just be the people who have money who can afford the private system and the people who don't will be in the public system. We've got to think this through.
ROBERTS: Right.
HEALY: A lot of these suggestions are great, the insurance exchange I think is terrific, but boy do we have to think this through. The president was really shy on details last night. And that's the biggest problem here.
ROBERTS: Dr. Bernadine Healy, it's always great to talk to you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
HEALY: You too, John.
ROBERTS: Much appreciated. All right.
CHETRY: And the president's prime time pitch is history, but a drama surrounding its one network coverage is not. There are some new questions this morning about media bias. Carol Costello is with us now for more on what's behind that. Is it just sour grapes, we wanted to be able to have the exclusive town hall with the president?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There might be some of that, but ABC certainly took some shots from conservatives over its town hall meeting, some say because it took place in the White House. It was free advertising for the president. But whether it was or wasn't, I'll leave that up to you. The thing is, this is just one battle in a bigger war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): In the competitive world of broadcast journalism, this is what you call a coup.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening, Diane and I are delighted that had could you join us this evening.
COSTELLO: ABC scored with a town hall meeting from inside the White House. And became a political football.
ANNOUNCER: Today a national TV network turns its airways over to President Obama's pitch for government run health care.
COSTELLO: That ad courtesy of the Republican National Committee, a not so veiled attempt some say to paint not only President Obama's health care plan socialist, but make the media a willing partner. Independent analyst John Avlon.
JOHN AVLON, COLUMNIST "THE DAILY BEAST.COM": I think what you have is the newest incarnation of the oldest story that so many are sick of, which is partisan talking points clouding all common sense.
COSTELLO: Fair criticism or not, some say the president is fueling the fire by playing favorites. Before holding a press conference Tuesday, the White House gave Nico Pitney from the liberal blog the "Huffington Post," a heads up that the president was going to call on him.
PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: Nico, I know that you and all across the internet we've been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran. Do you have a question?
COSTELLO: In short, that's unusual. And it didn't sit well with some journalists.
DANA MILBANK, COLUMNIST "THE WASHINGTON POST": Either a news conference with the president of the United States is an unscripted event or it isn't. When people tune in to see the president in the news conference, do they have any confidence that watching a news conference or is this some sort of a pre-produced television program?
NICO PITNEY, NATIONAL EDITOR "THE HUFFINGTON POST.COM": The question wasn't scripted.
COSTELLO: Pitney is well-known for blogging tirelessly with protestors inside Iran. He says the White House knows that and called to inform him the president was going to call on him. Critics he says are just miffed.
PITNEY: They're offended because scripting of it didn't go according to tradition. The White House gets to decide how these press conferences go.
COSTELLO: Maybe. But conservatives are already citing the Pitney thing as another example of the Obama-controlled media. Although critics say it is important to remember every president has favorites. President Bush certainly did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over the past few months, he has given Fox News unprecedented access at his ranch in Texas, aboard Air Force One.
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COSTELLO: And of course that took place inside the White House. Another note, Robert Gibbs, the president's spokesperson, told us the White House did not tell Nico Pitney what question to ask, he came up with it on his own. And ABC, well, if you watched the town hall meeting last night, I'll let you draw your own conclusions. ABC does say it, not the White House, chose the people participating in the town hall meeting. Kiran.
CHETRY: Very interesting stuff. Carol Costello, thanks. And if you'd like to read more about this flap over the president's prime time pitch and see what Carol has on her blog, go cnn.com/amfix. We'd like to hear what you think. 41 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: In five days' time, U.S. troops are scheduled to pull back from Iraq city, turning security over to Iraqi forces. But militants in Iraq are doing their best to interrupt that schedule. Officials say a huge blast in a crowded Baghdad market killed at least 64 people yesterday. And the death toll this week has topped 160. Our Michael Ware is back in Baghdad. He is live with us this morning. Michael, the militants certainly tried to put an exclamation point on this idea of U.S. troops pulling out of the cities.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's actually a continuation of a long running campaign, certainly the levels of violence here in Baghdad are not what they were a year or two horrific years ago, if we all remember the rivers o blood that were flowing during the sectarian civil war. The point of this campaign, this bombing campaign, primarily targeting the Shia population of Iraq is to reignite that civil war and indeed, we saw the much spectacular incident of recent days was, as you highlighted last night. A motor bike pulling a vegetable cart ladened with explosives, detonated at an open air market in the Shia suburb, Shia neighborhood of Sadr City at 7:00 p.m. the peak shopping period, killing 64, wounding about 150 and many of them women and children who were out shopping.
Now, this continues today unfortunately. We have another six people killed in the last 18 hours, including a couple of incidents where a bomb was detonated at a market and a bus station earlier this morning, which killed - let's see, killed three people and then we had another bomb in the same bus station about half an hour ago, which has killed more people. So, what we're looking at over the past six days, John, six days is about 190 Iraqi civilians have been (inaudible). All as we're about to see the countdown to the official end of the American led war in Iraq come to its conclusion on Tuesday. John.
ROBERTS: It's five days away now. Michael Ware for us back in Baghdad this morning. Michael, thank you so much for that report.
46 minutes now after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We have more developing story now.
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitting that he cheated on his wife. Well, now we know where he was when he went missing for days. But there are new questions, like who is the woman that he risked his marriage and an entire political career over. Joe Johns has more on Maria, the other woman.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An Argentinean source familiar with the relationship says the woman Sanford fell in love with is separated from her husband. He is an executive who runs a multi- national business. The source says her first name is Maria, that she's a former journalist and lives in an apartment with her two sons in an upscale central Buenos Aires neighborhood known as Palermo.
Maria apparently met Sanford in New York eight years ago when the governor said she was separated from her husband. In his news conference today, Sanford says their relationship started with an incredibly earnest conversation about whether she ought to get back with her husband for the sake of her boys.
At that point it was 2001, Sanford had not yet been elected governor of South Carolina, although he had already served six years in Congress by the time he met Maria. He stepped down from the House of Representatives in the year 2000, keeping a promise to his constituents to abide by a term limit. Though that relationship may have started out as a friendship, it apparently had blossomed into much more by last year.
In an e-mail last July and reprinted today by "The State" newspaper in South Carolina, Maria wrote Sanford "you are my love, something hard to believe even for myself as it's also kind of impossible love. Not only because of distance, but situations. Sometimes you don't choose things, they just happen. I can't redirect my feelings and I am very happy with mine towards you. CNN's efforts to contact Maria have been unsuccessful.
As for those e-mails, "The State" newspaper obtained the e-mails. They say the governor's office authenticated them. But state officials would neither confirm nor deny their authenticity for us. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: That was Joe Johns reporting. And CNN obtained a trip itinerary from a year ago that confirms the governor visited Argentina as part of a tax payer funded South Carolina Department of Commerce trade mission. It isn't clear, though, he saw his mistress on that trip. It's 51 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Hey, good morning for you all of you up on the lido deck playing that song for you. We've got shuffle board.
CHETRY: Shuffle boards will move to 9:30.
ROBERTS: Aqua aerobics coming up later on and then we got salsa and meringue for those of you who want to get hot, hot.
CHETRY: That's right. And if you're limber, don't forget the limbo contest. That's taking place at 12:30 followed by some chiropractic sessions.
ROBERTS: The weather is good for our cruise, because it sounds awfully wonderful. Reynolds Wolf checking out the extreme weather.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Doing the white man head bob again. You've got that down.
WOLF: You got that down. Yes, good times, man. All we need is we have Isaac take your luggage at the end of the party day, get a drink, and we're ready to rock 'n roll.
CHETRY: That's right.
WOLF: Certainly would be a good thing to do in Chicago yesterday where it was smoking hot. Take a look at this video that we have for you. In Chicago, conditions there were just really warm. A little bit better to deal with today with high temperatures going Wrigley Field, all the way down to the Navy Pier, it was just hot (inaudible) but again as I mentioned, a much cooler day in store for you.
Let's go back to the magic wall and as we do so, we're going to show you a shot that we have from Olympic Park. It is hazy. It is muggy. It is going up into the 90s for Atlanta today and it's going to be even warmer for parts of Texas, Dallas, back into Houston. We're talking some 90s and 100s and when you factor in the high humidity, it's going to feel warmer than that. Memphis along Beale Street, 98 degrees expected. Washington, D.C. with 91 degrees. 86 in Denver, and 86 in Chicago. That is a look at your forecast and a look out for some storms in parts of the Great Lakes today. Let's send it back to you, guys. ROBERTS: Reynolds, thank you. We'll be talking shortly, so be sure to collect all your luggage and belongings. 55 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: What a pretty shot this morning. The sky masking the building in the background there in New York City this morning. 66 degrees. It's going to be partly cloudy, 80 degrees, I call it sinus headache weather but you know --
ROBERTS: As long as it doesn't rain -
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: We'll be all right.
CHETRY: We think it's not going to rain and then it rains every day.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Every day, lately.
CHETRY: But that's just us complaining here in the Big Apple.
ROBERTS: So easy to complain when you're living in New York. Stephanie Elam here, joining us this morning, "Minding your Business." And we've got words of wisdom from Mr. Warren Buffet. And unfortunately we --
ELAM: Mr. Warren Buffet. A lot of people not very happy with what he had to say yesterday. He was in New York City for his annual charity lunch. A Chinese business bid $2 million and won for the chance to sit down with the oracle of Omaha. But before that our very own Susan Lisovicz got a chance to catch up with Mr. Buffet, to get his point on what the economy is doing right now. And he used the word, shambles. He still thinks there's growth to be done.
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WARREN BUFFETT, CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: There's no up tick yet, there will be. I want to assure everybody that. This country always comes back. I mean, if you go, we've had a civil war, we had the great depression, we had Pearl Harbor, we've got a lot of unpleasant surprises, but we always overcome them and we will this, but we haven't yet and it doesn't look like to me like it's eminent. It will happen.
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ELAM: So there you have it. It's going to happen, it's just not there any time soon is what he said. Now, to just counter that a little bit, yesterday we did hear from the Federal Reserve. They wrapped up their two-day meeting to take a look at what is going on in the economy. Everyone looking at their worst where things then. And they're saying they're seeing signs of hope now in the economy. And let's take a look at some of their bigger points. They're saying take a look at the economy, yes, it's still shrinking, but at a slower pace. So it's getting better.
Also spending is starting to improve. Consumers are getting back in the market, stabilizing a bit there. But if you're going to look for a dark spot, it will be the job losses. Companies continue to cut staff and they also are cutting back on spending, but not just as bad. So the Feds saying there are signs of hope, Warren Buffett says there's some way to go there. But the Fed agrees that we're nowhere near done with this cycle that we're in right now.
CHETRY: All right. But they're all saying eventually.
ELAM: Eventually it will happen, not right now.
ROBERTS: And then there will be another downturn and then an upswing.
CHETRY: That's why it works.
ROBERTS: Cyclical economy.
Steph, thanks so much for that. "Minding your Business" this morning.
