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American Morning
Showdown Looming at Zuccotti Park; Rice Meets with Iranian Counterpart; Solyndra CEO Resigns; Democrats Call for Bank Fee Investigation; Perry's Plan to "Energize" Jobs and Security; Parachute Fail Lands Guy in Jail; Is Reality TV Becoming Too Real?; Should Companies Require Interviews with Minority Job Candidates?; "Occupy" Park Cleaning Postponed; Guilty Verdict in CT Home Invasion; TSA Misses Deadline To Inspect Non U.S. Cargo
Aired October 14, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. One hour from now, Occupy Wall Street protesters will come face-to-face with New York City police. Cops want them to vacate a Manhattan park so workers can clean it up. Demonstrators insist the city is just trying to clear them out. The standout live from Lower Manhattan ahead.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. U.S., Iran meeting face-to-face. Days after learning of an alleged plot by the Iranians to kill a Saudi ambassador in Washington, diplomats from the two countries are talking behind closed doors. Details in just a moment.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello. Texas Governor Rick Perry trying to regain his mojo. We'll talk to the governor ahead of what could be a make or break policy speech today on this AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: Good morning. It is Friday, October 14th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's a good morning on many levels. Number one, it's a Friday.
ROMANS: The Tigers won.
VELSHI: And number two, that's what I was going to say. The Tigers won. All yesterday, we were saying that the Rangers are one game away from clinching it, and I kept thinking, well that means that the Tigers could still win.
COSTELLO: Did you see the sixth inning? That was a crazy inning. They had a single, a double, a triple and a home run in one inning. I don't think that's ever happened in baseball before.
Miguel Cabrera's double, he got lucky because the ball caramed off third base. The only reason it turned into a double and that was the turning point.
VELSHI: There's a spring in her step. Wouldn't you say?
ROMANS: Carol, I just want to know for real. This week, did you watch more baseball or sleep more? VELSHI: She definitely watched more baseball.
COSTELLO: I haven't slept all week. I'm a little slap happy now.
ROMANS: All right, listen, in 60 minutes, things are getting a little ugly, perhaps, in New York Zuccotti Park. "Occupy Wall Street" protesters has been staging a sit-in there now for nearly four weeks. They are being ordered to vacate at 7:00 Eastern. That's an hour from now. The city wants to clean the park. That's what they say.
Mayor Bloomberg says they want to clean the park quadrant by quadrant and then allow the protesters back in. But the protesters believe this is all an attempt to clear them out, to evict them, they say.
Susan Candiotti is live in downtown Manhattan. Susan, the demonstrators made it very clear that they don't plan to leave. Bloomberg and his team made it very, very clear that this is just a temporary park cleaning. So, who's right?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Who's right and who's wrong, well, it depends on who you talk to, of course. But at this hour, this crowd has itself psyched up.
They've been chanting and chanting for more than an hour. The crowds have swelled because normally at this time, we've been down here a lot, everyone is fast asleep.
Nothing like that this morning because they're saying if they have to lock arms and sit down, they're not leaving this park. Here's what led to this point.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): These protesters may be accusing Wall Street of trashing the American economy, but that's not the kind of trashing that's provoking the latest clash. Zuccotti Park, the privately owned, but now publicly occupied stage for the protest is filling up with garbage.
BRENDAN BURKE, DEESCALATION SECURITY: They get brooms. We have donations. We have cleaning supplies. We try to keep it as clean as we can, but it is an occupation. On the weekends, it's gets flooded with everyone from the world.
CANDIOTTI: The park's owners, Brookfield Properties, promising a clean sweep Friday telling protesters to move out until the place gets a makeover.
RAY KELLY: People will have to remove all of their belongings and leave the park a section at a time. After it's cleaned, they'll be able to come back, but they won't be able to bring back the gear, the sleeping bags.
CANDIOTTI: The protesters weren't buying it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's clear it's more or less an eviction.
CANDIOTTI: But some local businesses have had it with the mess.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've had instances where they came in to ask me where I could dispose of their bags with their waste, excrement I don't know how you want to call it. But I said this is not the place or business for that and I don't know how to handle it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take a broom a dust pan.
CANDIOTTI: Activists from "Occupy Wall Street" took the streets to clean up the trash now threatening to distract from their message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The focus of it is economics.
CANDIOTTI: Protesters say they've used $3,000 of their own money on the cleanup bringing in trash cans, mops and brooms, preparing for a cleanup or a possible confrontation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And at this hour, there are more and more people arriving on the scene. They plan to swell their ranks so that when the police start arriving to assist the park's owners in this cleanup that's supposed to start in about an hour's time.
These people say they're prepared to sit down and make them leave chanting things like "this is what democracy is all about." And for example, reaction from, tweets this morning, from a lot of supporters including Russell Simmons, of course, a business entrepreneur, a hip-hop mogul and he is saying this is what democracy is about.
For these young people and they're mainly young activists here that they should not have to leave this park. In fact, he's offered to pay for the entire cost of a cleanup if the city will just reconsider. Back to you.
VELSHI: Susan, we can hear the chanting. We can hear the loud noises behind you. Keep us posted. If things get a little bit more heated there, we'll, of course, come right back to you. But we'll be visiting with you a lot throughout the course of the morning. Susan Candiotti at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.
All right, new developments now in the alleged plot by Iran to assassinate a Saudi ambassador in the United States. CNN has learned Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has had face-to- face talks with the Iranians.
State Department officials say Rice met with Mohammed Khazaee, Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations. We're also finding out more about Mansour Arbabsiar. The 56-year-old Iranian- American accused of conspiracy to murder of foreign official.
A friend and former business partner says he finds it hard to imagine Arbabsiar would be capable of killing anyone. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did drink a lot and I know when we were in business together, he would come in some mornings and he would look like he'd been hung over for a while.
He did strike me as the kind that would go out there and want to murder hundreds of innocent people. I mean, tThat takes a callous person and he never struck me as that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Arbabsiar's former business partner and friend went on to say the suspect always stuck him as a happy person who loved America.
ROMANS: All right, the CEO of Solyndra, now the bankrupt clean energy company who's default left taxpayers perhaps of more than half a million dollar bill, that CEO has resigned.
Court documents show Brian Harrison stepped down last week. Harrison, you remember, refused to testify in front of Congress last month. Today there's another hearing looking into whether the Department of Energy broke the law when it agreed to restructure Solyndra's debt back in February.
House Democrats are taking their outrage over bank fees straight to the Justice Department. They are asking the attorney general to investigate whether the big banks are illegally working together, colluding to charge customers these new monthly fees. Some Democrats contend that would violate antitrust laws.
Coming up at 7:45 Eastern, we'll talk to Molly Katchpole, the young woman leading a petition against Bank of America's new $5 a month debit card. And North Carolina Congressman Brad Miller also about a piece of legislation that would make it easier to switch your banks.
VELSHI: Texas Governor Rick Perry may be looking for new life for his presidential campaign today. He's making his first major policy speech since he jumped into race in August.
He's expected to lay out a bold of new energy plan that promises 1.2 million jobs and makes us more secure by cutting our reliance on foreign oil.
We'll talk to him specifically about that at 7:15. He'll be our guest here on AMERICAN MORNING. We'll talk about a decision to run his drop in the polls, Herman Cain's surge and his plan to get his mojo.
COSTELLO: It's interesting that Rick Perry is making the rounds this morning. He doesn't normally do that. But he had that terrible debate performance where he virtually disappeared and maybe he's like trying to --
VELSHI: You know, Herman Cain does a lot of TV appearances. COSTELLO: Yes, he's everywhere.
VELSHI: Anytime anybody asked him, he sort of shows up.
COSTELLO: People already lining up for the new iPhone 4S, which goes on sale in just about two hours here on the east coast. Apple already sold 1 million of the iPhones in the first 24 hours the device was available for pre-order.
And the National League Championship Series all tied up at two games apiece. The Milwaukee Brewers beating the Cardinals in St. Louis last night to even out by a final score 4-2. The Brew crew did it with a rally capped off by Ryan. He got the big go-ahead hit. He's amazing. Game five tonight in St. Louis.
Over the American League, the Detroit Tigers staying alive for me. A 7-5 win over the Rangers last night. A lucky bounce, the top of the show we talked about it, two more runs by Dellman Young who hit two home runs last night.
He's hurt. He's got an oblique injury. Can you imagine swinging the bat with that, but he came through as did Cabrera and as did Martinez, who also was hurt.
VELSHI: Nothing bad to say about Cabrera this morning.
COSTELLO: No, I love Miguel this morning. I don't care if he can't run.
VELSHI: -- much better than we do.
ROMANS: Yes, I mean, I could do this about ticker symbols and cut corporate earnings --
COSTELLO: I should have been a sports report. What was I thinking?
ROMANS: True. All right, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING," just hanging out. A base jumper stuck dangling in a tree. He thought twice about ever coming down, because the cops weren't too happy about it.
COSTELLO: Bet not.
VELSHI: Plus reality TV takes on the recession, which shows about frugality of excessive bargain hunting and finding a job. Is reality TV becoming a little too realistic?
COSTELLO: And your life on auto pilot. How this may be part of your everyday life, drones. It could happen sooner than you think. It's 9 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back. A parachute failed landing a guy in jail. Take a look at this. A base jumper dangling 60 feet high, he left off California's tallest bridge, the Forest Hill Bridge in Auburn, standing 730 feet high over the American River. He got his parachute caught in a tree. Police used a helicopter to rescue the jumper. That's not easy trying to grab a moving target from a chopper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were dealing with a parachute hung up in the tree. The motor wash moved the victim around a lot. He was kind of precariously hung into a tree. He's not only the motor wash a problem, but the length that they have to do to try to get away from the victim as much as possible. The longer you are away from a helicopter swinging on a line. It's like a pendulum floating underneath something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Police say he dangled there about 90 minutes before he called 911 from a cell phone.
COSTELLO: He dangled there for 90 minutes? Wow. Wouldn't your head explode?
VELSHI: Well, police arrested him because it's illegal to base jump without a permit. Stupid to base jump with one.
ROMANS: All right, everyone has their favorite reality shows, right? Whether it's "SURVIVOR," "THE REAL HOUSEWIVES," "JERSEY SHORE"?
They're an escape from your own reality. You're watching something exciting and different, maybe a little nutty. That's what I like hoarders personally, but reality shows are taking a new turn. They're hitting a little closer to home for millions of out of work Americans. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): From the Kardashians to the housewives and the millionaire matchmaker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, girls. Are you ready to meet a millionaire?
ROMANS: We know Americans love shows about people with money, but when did watching economic struggle become entertaining.
A.J. HAMMER, HOST, HLN'S "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT:" Now reality television is reflecting something so major that's going on in virtually everybody's lives, the economic downturn.
ROMANS: Call it Recession TV. There's pawn stars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifteen?
ROMANS: Downsized.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. It says --
ROMANS: American pickers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people look at this stuff as their savings accounted, like, I bought this. I think it's worth more money.
ROMANS: Repo games.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Recall it in the morning.
ROMANS: A&E Network just shot a pilot called "Job Whisperer," a show about finding a job and even "Sesame Street" introduced Lily, a muppet struggling with hunger.
LILY, MUPPET, "SESAME STREET": You don't even know whether you're going to have a next meal or not. That can be pretty hard.
ROMANS: So is reality TV becoming too real to watch?
JEFF GARDERE, AMERICA'S PSYCHOLOGIST: There will always be the escapism type of TV, whether it's scripted, whether it's reality, where people are just frivolously just spending money and having a lavish lifestyle. Sometimes we need that, but I think we're redefining what life is as a middle-class American, and they're getting that information from TV.
ROMANS: For now, many Americans will dream of a fairy tale wedding through our TV sets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: And for some that fairy tale wedding is really just getting a job.
I had a great conversation with Robert Thompson from Syracuse University and Pete Dominick about why - what we're calling recession TV. You can watch that discussion on "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" tomorrow at 9:30 A.M. Eastern.
I don't know if finding a job is as entertaining as they're going to try to make it.
COSTELLO: I think it's depressing.
ROMANS: But repoing a car is depressing and it's wildly popular.
COSTELLO: Well, they make it so exciting, though. "The Repo Guys" are like, you know, it sounds like out in the Wild West, instead of lassoing cattle, you're lassoing a repoed car.
ROMANS: If they can make finding a job like "Survivor" or like the great - the race -
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- what is that, "The Great Race" or the race thing, you know - VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- where you're actually, you know, showing your skills and trying to get a job, then maybe it's going to be entertaining.
But, I mean, now that it seeped into even reality TV -
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- and money has always been in reality TV, but not having money being in reality TV -
COSTELLO: Although, it'll be nice if there was something in the middle, because I don't like watching those other shows, either.
ROMANS: Do you do "Quarters" (ph)?
COSTELLO: Yes. I do find that interesting.
ROMANS: I like "Quarters" (ph).
COSTELLO: I have to admit it, I do.
Let's go to Atlanta to check in with Rob Marciano who has his own kind of reality.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes and it's not pretty. I can tell you that.
Good morning. It's Friday, guys. And for a lot of people the reality is that we've got a couple days off. If you don't, sorry. But the northeast will see not the best of weather for this Friday and it will last through tomorrow.
We don't have much in the way of rain from New York to Philly, but some of that is heading up into the Upstate New York area or parts of Western Mass. But the back side of this, this is kind of a storm that's gathering some strength. We saw a tremendous amount of rain with this across parts of Virginia. A couple reports of tornadoes in Virginia and the Newport News area up through just north of Richmond as well.
And, ooh, here's some of the video. I wasn't able to see this earlier, so I'm just seeing it for the first time as well. But there you see some of the damage. Likely it's a tornado touching down there.
All right. The back side of this is going to have some wind with it. Gusts to 65 miles an hour potentially. We've got high wind watches that have been posted just to - just to the east of the Great Lakes. And some of these winds will get into the bigger cities as well over the next couple of days. So that coupled with the rainfall will slow down some of the travel throughout the day today.
Thunderstorms in the New York metros. Over an hour delays there expected especially at LaGuardia and Boston, Philly, Chicago. I mean, you can pick them as far as the major cities are concerned, you'll have your problems. Although, for the Detroit game yesterday, they managed to get it in without any sort of rain delay. So that was impressive, nonetheless.
All right. The dry continues. The dry weather continues across the midsection of the country and in the desert southwest and SoCal will continue their stretch of very warm weather; 91 degrees expected in Los Angeles; 88 degrees in Dallas; and 71 degrees up there in New York City where they're debuting the iPhone 4s. They're having parties down in Battery Park. Good times.
COSTELLO: Wish you could be there.
MARCIANO: I'll be there on Monday, guys.
VELSHI: Nice.
ROMANS: Awesome.
MARCIANO: My cousin Rudy's getting married tomorrow, so -
VELSHI: Very good. All right.
ROMANS: Hey, congratulations, Cousin Rudy.
MARCIANO: Yes.
ROMANS: There you go.
VELSHI: See you in a bit, Rob.
MARCIANO: Yes.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
Now's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. Today's question, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates?
The black community is hurting. Sixteen-point-seven percent unemployment and many in the African-American community say President Obama is trying, but not hard enough.
Robert Johnson, CEO of the Black Entertainment Television and an influential guy in the world of politics. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT JOHNSON, CEO, BET: And I think the president and the Congress both sides, I'm not picking on one or the other, they need to go the extra mile to increase opportunities for African-Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Johnson's idea, going the extra mile? Expand the NFL's Rooney Rule throughout the business world for executive level jobs. That's the rule requiring NFL owners to interview at least one African-American candidate when there's a vacancy in a coaching or GM position.
OK, I hear you. That smacks of discrimination. Not so, says Johnson. It would be strictly voluntary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: There's no mandate to hire anybody. It's simply - it's called what I call, best practice enhanced commitment to diversity inclusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Especially, he says, with so many white candidates vying for the same jobs. As for how the Rooney Rule has changed the NFL? There are now eight African-American head coaches, before there were only two. And five black general managers, before that, only one. The Rooney Rule, though, is mandatory for NFL owners.
So the "Talk Back" question today, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates? Facebook.com/AmericanMorning, Facebook.com/AmericanMorning. I'll read your comments later this hour.
VELSHI: OK. Coming up ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a fighter jet going into an all-out nosedive at an air show in China. More of this incredible video and what happened to the pilot when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A potential showdown between the city of New York and the "Operation Wall Street" protesters has been averted for now. The Mayor's Office tells us that they have pushed back, they have postponed the cleaning of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan that has been scheduled for 7:00 A.M.
We've shown you pictures of those protesters holding hands, assembling en masse to make sure they were not pushed from the park. The city has said that they wanted to - these are live pictures we're watching here now.
The city has said that they wanted to clean that park section by section because it needed to be cleaned. That it was dirty after so many people being there for so long. The protesters said, oh, no. This is an eviction and we will not leave this park. Again, the Mayor's Office saying the cleaning has been postponed. So it will not be happening at 7:00 Eastern Time - Ali.
VELSHI: All right. We'll keep an eye on that for you. We've got a presence down there.
"Minding Your Business" right now.
U.S. stock futures are up ahead of the big G-20 Meeting of the world's financial ministers in Paris today. Financial stocks dragged down the Dow and the S&P 500 yesterday, while tech shares pushed the NASDAQ higher.
More bad news overnight, though, about the stability of the eurozone. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has cut Spain's long-term credit rating by one notch from AA to AA Minus. And rating agency Fitch put 13 major banks on notice for a potential downgrade. The list includes Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, as well as several of the biggest banks in Europe.
Some good news out of Europe, though. Slovakia became the 17th and final country to approve expansion of a critical bailout fund for the region. The expansion of the fund means the EU will now have more flexibility and power to bail out any European banks or European governments that get into trouble.
Well how could you - you could be seeing fewer GAP Stores soon. The company says it plans to shut down 21 percent of its stores in North America over the next two years. That's about 700 locations. The combination of the lasting effects of the recession on people's shopping habits, as well as the rise of online shopping have made the past few years a real struggle for GAP.
After several weeks of record low, mortgage rates are up slightly. The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is still pretty low. It's 4.12 percent. This week, that's according to Freddie Mac, you might want to consider refinancing your mortgage while they remain this low.
AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Just about 30 minutes past the hour. We are following Breaking News.
CNN just learned the City of New York will postpone this morning's cleaning of Zuccotti Park.
VELSHI: Now, this is relevant, because the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have been staging a sit-in there for nearly a month. The city had ordered them to vacate by 7:00 A.M. Eastern Time today.
ROMANS: Susan Candiotti live in Downtown Manhattan. Susan, tell us what's happening right now, because the city is actually saying that Brookfield Property, the people who owns Zuccotti Park, they have said they will postpone the cleaning and the city is saying the cleaning has been postponed. So who made this decision?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now, as word is getting out about this, you're hearing cheers starting to go through, like, waves through the camp. They obviously -- the protesters consider it a huge victory.
And I talked with one of their press spokespeople just a little while ago, and he said, "I'm very excited. We're all very excited to hear this news," and it shows the power of democracy, as they put it, in his words, that people power is more important than any one political office or entity in this country.
And so, at this hour, that word is slowly filtering out -- what does that mean for the protest? You're hearing the cheers. It means, they say, they're going to stay here -- stay here for the time being because you remember, they've been saying consistently that if they can't occupy this park, then it's not an occupation.
Back to you guys.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Susan, how many people are there? You told us usually people are sleeping at this time, but everyone is very much awake. There are more people than ever down there.
Can you give us an estimate?
CANDIOTTI: The police always stay away from estimates. Certainly, you can definitely say hundreds of people are here. The park is full.
This is the amount of people you normally see during the daytime or on a busy weekend or the day of the march, this kind of thing. But certainly, as you indicated, they're all usually asleep at this hour, but they were ready to do a sit-down here and not move, if it came to that.
Right now, police remain in the perimeter of the area. Police walking up and down the street here, but other than that, everyone is very peaceful and well-behaved.
COSTELLO: And you've got think that this decision by New York City, or whoever, you know, the decision was made by, will only fuel the fire?
CANDIOTTI: Well, it's hard to say. Obviously. They certainly avoided what was clearly going to be a confrontation, because protesters have consistently said that they weren't going to leave this park willingly. So, they've avoided that.
Certainly, this is a sign that this protest has grown in strength and as they put it, in people power, and they're making their voices heard. So, they certainly won this battle, and it means, most likely, that they have more staying power than they obviously thought they did before.
They're going to continue this campout, at least for the time being. So, now, we'll have to see what the next move is on the part of the people that own this park. You know, one of the main things they were worried about is the cleanliness of the park. Once that word filtered out they were going to move people out, that's when they brought out their own brooms and mops and starting cleaning this place up.
So, it would seem, at least, they're trying to do a better job of sanitary conditions which had been spiraling downhill as of late.
COSTELLO: Just to give a sense how many of there, can your photographer move the shot off of you so that we can see how many people are down there? CANDIOTTI: Exactly. Fred, if you can hear me, we'll try to pan out a little bit. Because I'm tethered to a wire, I can't walk through as I normally can at this particular stage, but we'll be able to do that as the morning goes on.
But it's filled. And this park is about the size of a city block, or at least a half block. So every square inch -- you can still walk through but it's not easy. You have to pick your way through the park.
Again, just as crowded as it normally is on any busy weekday or on any busy weekend when the crowds normally swell. But they did bring more people in today to help swell the ranks to try to make it more difficult for the police to move them out.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Susan, we'll keep checking in with you to see how this develops, whether people end up -- more people end up staying there or people start to thin out again. Unclear what this does at the moment, but the confrontation that we were concerned about for the moment seems to have an averted.
Susan, thank you very much.
A raucous crowd.
ROMANS: I would say. So, what they're galvanized this morning, we'll see whether they stay galvanized today and through the weekend. And you know the question is, it's postponed, but until when? The city, and company that actually owns or has control of that park has been saying the conditions there are not -- at some point, they will not be safe for people.
COSTELLO: We're going to have somebody from the "Occupy Wall Street" protest on. We're also going to have someone from the Tea Party, because the Tea Party has been kind of vilifying the "Occupy Wall Street" folks online. Tea Party doesn't want to be compared to the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters and we'll also ask the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters what exactly went down today with New York City in that park.
ROMANS: It's interesting. All right, guys.
Switching gears, the second suspect in a gruesome 2007 home invasion in Connecticut has been found guilty of murder. A jury in New Haven convicting Joshua Komisarjevsky on all 17 charges he faced, including capital felony killing, kidnapping, arson and sexual assault. He could get the death penalty, and he was seen yawning as he was led out of court.
VELSHI: Let's bring in Deb Feyerick. She has been covering this case.
It's just such a terrible case to cover. Dr. William Petit lost his wife and two daughters in this tragedy. What did he have to say about the verdict? He's been pretty vocal through the whole thing? DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, he's been quite quiet and quite refrained, and quite restrained, I should say. And one of the reasons is that he didn't want to say anything that could potentially trigger a mistrial. He didn't want to incite the defense because Komisarjevsky had a very different defense than the accomplice who was a year ago sentenced to death row.
So, Dr. Petit has carried himself, as he described it, and it's true, with great dignity, great composure. He said he would think of his wife poking him saying, you know, cut that out. Cut that out. Stop acting like that.
So, he didn't want to get enraged. He didn't want to show outright anger. He thought, it wasn't a way to honor the memory of his wife and his two daughters.
But one thing he did say is, it kept coming back, listening to the taped confession of Joshua Komisarjevsky talking about what he did during this horrible, chilling home invasion. How he molested the 11- year-old girl. It kept coming back to this weird dynamic that this now accused killer really thought he had some connection with this child.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM PETIT: I thought 1,000 times what would have been different if I had two sons as opposed to two daughters. So, you know, I didn't make that clear and didn't want to interject myself in the trial, but I always thought right from the beginning that part of this was about sexual predation upon women and in this case, a teenager, an 11-year-old girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And one of the reasons he said that is because, you have to remember how this crime started, the wife and daughter, they happened to stop to pick up some groceries on a Sunday afternoon in summer.
Who else was in the parking lot? Joshua Komisarjevsky. He saw the wife and the daughter. He waited. He followed them home, and then hours later, he and his accomplice came back to the house to rob it.
So, it was clear that this was a big part of the trial -- did he intend to actually kill this family? The jury found, in fact, he did, and there's a lot of gruesome testimony that's going to come out during the penalty phase of this trial as well.
ROMANS: One of the gruesome things about that confession from him was that he said, you know, he hit him in the heat, he hit the father in the head and he said I'd never hit somebody before and he was sort of complaining about the sounds he was making, and then he kept hitting him.
I mean, I don't know how a jury could have found that he didn't mean to kill him, the way he was describing the crime in his home.
FEYERICK: And when you hear his voice on that tape, it is without emotion. It is very flat. It is -- there's no -- there's no highs. There's no lows. It's just very flat.
And, you know, almost like you're listening to somebody that is devoid of all the motion. The doctor said he exhibited signs of a lying sociopathic personality and he said that he'd likely convinced himself that he'd done absolutely nothing wrong. That he wasn't guilty of anything. Again, the way he describes what he saw as a relationship with this 11-year-old child who he was torturing, you know, he's calling her by her nickname. He's talking about music as if somehow they're best friends, when, in fact, this child was terrified.
So, there's something really wrong about this particular individual.
ROMANS: Now there's the sentencing phase?
FEYERICK: Yes, yes. And he's facing the death penalty, six counts. And his accomplice is sitting on death row right now.
ROMANS: Deborah Feyerick, thanks.
COSTELLO: Wow.
Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING: has the recession changed your opinion of debt? Is it still key to achieving the American Dream, or is debt holding you back, or doesn't it matter? We'll talk about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
The American Dream, it's being able to afford a house with a white picket fence, a car, food, all with the constraints of your budget. That's what it's supposed to be, of course. It's also supposed to be able to, you know, grow your family a little more than your parents' family was able to grow.
Over time, though, Americans have had to wrack up large amounts of debt, not just to live the American Dream but to sustain their current way of life. And that may be why a new poll finds more Americans believe debt is now an obstacle to achieving financial success.
Joining me now is CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, who's also the editorial director of the "National Journal." He brings us that poll this morning.
Good morning.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
ROMANS: Let's talk about what you found here. Forty-seven percent of people said the downturn encouraged them to pay off their debt, this version to death. Is it a temperature sentiment? I mean, it's certainly justified. Will it last?
BROWNSTEIN: This feels like something lasting. First of all, Christine, this is the tenth and part of a series of polls that we do at "National Journal" in partisanship with Allstate, and "Heartland Monitor" that looks how Americans are navigating the changing economy.
And what you see in this poll, the reason I think it is a lasting change is people are talking about both altering personal behavior and making kind of public policy analogies to that. On the one hand, you see a very clear preference in this poll, of paying down debt. A strong sense that accumulating too much debt both at the family level and at the national level was a critical part of the downturn and a conviction that really to get our economy back on stable ground. Both families and the federal government has to reduce the red ink.
Now, there are many economists who worry if we are simultaneously paying down debt, both the family and national level, where does the purchasing power come to drive the economy? But, right now, I think, there is an almost like the Great Depression, changed the way the G.I. generation looked at money for a long time, I think this event has been searing enough that many people are going to look at the balance between spending and debt differently in their own life.
ROMANS: The conundrum here, though, is that people also say they're very concerned about jobs, the availability of jobs and the availability to have a job. Well, the Democrats would tell you the way to assuage that as much as you can in the near term is to spend money on job packages, but opponents say that's just stimulus spending. So, they want a job but they don't want debt.
How do you do both?
BROWNSTEIN: That is the conundrum, right? I mean, when you have many economists who are worried that if we are, quote, deleveraging both at the government level and at the family level, that you're contracting purchasing power and accelerating the downward cycle of less spending, less employment, less money to spend, less spending, more focus on paying down debt.
In terms of public policy, I think the sweet spot here and you can see President Obama responding to this already is that any kind of short- term stimulus, I think, has to be paid for with long-term debt reduction to pass muster with the public. In this poll, it's very clear that the public does not accept the idea of adding more permanent debt to provide a short-term response to the downturn.
That's what they did in 2009 with the big stimulus plan. You'll notice, of course, with this jobs plan, unlike 2009, in 2011, President Obama is arguing and the Democrats, they're going to pay for it and it's not going to add to the debt.
ROMANS: And you call this -- this is our Great Depression. And I do agree with you. And it's changed how we think about money, how we think about expectations from the economy and from the job market and what a job means to our family -- all of those things. But it's also inspired different movements and different reactions to it. The Tea Party, for example, is one offshoot of reaction to all of the uncertainty that has happened since the great recession. Even Occupy Wall Street, that's a reaction to sort of this growing income gap and this feeling -- this nagging suspicion that, hey, wait, you know, Wall Street came out on top and the rest of us are still really hurting.
How do we heal these divisions and solve these problems, or in our version of the great depression, is it just division and divisiveness?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think, look, of course, this -- this new force of this tremendous downturn comes after a period of growing polarization to begin with, with the highest level, for example, of party line voting in Congress since the mid- 19th century.
You know, what happened in 2008 eroded confidence as we've seen in previous Heartland Monitor Polls in both government and business simultaneously. Very unusual. The Tea Party is a reaction to the first part of that. A backlash against President Obama's efforts to expand the role of government reflecting that growing suspicion of government that we saw after 2008.
Occupy Wall Street is really the kind of a distant echo of that, which we hadn't seen before. There is kind f tinder in the sense that public confidence in Wall Street, in big business and the banks has also declined, and no one has really mobilized that into a political movement.
You do see in this new poll a continue tilt toward more skepticism of government, but that doubt about business is also there, and this is really the first time we've seen someone try to mobilize.
ROMANS: And meantime, speaking of jobs just quickly, you know, President Obama we're told, you know, called John Boehner to congratulate him in the passage of this trade deal, the rare moment of bipartisanship in Washington, quite frankly.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
ROMANS: And there's the subject, as reported, turned to the fact that John Boehner says, look, we do have a jobs plan, Mr. President. Don't appreciate, you know, criticism that we don't. We do, and it's less regulation, less government intervention. You have very two different world views and that is not changing?
BROWNSTEIN: Right. And this is all the feel of a very bad breakup. It doesn't matter what the subject there's going to be an argument about it. The republican plan, really, though, the difference is that I think President Obama's plan is really focused on some immediate big ticket things the government can do. The Republicans, I think, are focused more on kind of a longer term vision that less government, less spending, less regulation, less taxes were ultimately leads to more job growth. The tough question for them is that, essentially, was the program followed under President Bush and under -- even under President Bush, even before the 2008 downturn, even during the best years, job growth was running at about half the annual level as it was in the 1990s.
ROMANS: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: It's not clear that either side has a real answer to regaining the kind of job growth that we saw both in the 1980s and 1990s, and I think many Americans instinctively understand that and that's one of the reasons they are pessimistic about the direction of the country right now.
ROMANS: Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst, editor and director of the "National Journal." Nice to see you. Have a great weekend, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you. OK.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: That's a lot of information in there. Very, very interesting stuff.
ROMANS: I didn't even get to China. I wanted to ask him about China, because Ron, he wrote a piece in "The Washington Post" about China saying that he really wants to come out hard on China when he is as president, and he's really only want to starting to draw the China threat into the whole thing --
VELSHI: Sometimes, you think she's joking when she --
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, no. She's still fascinated about China.
VELSHI: We worked together for a decade, but you are the nerdiest person I know.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: I mean that in the best way.
All right. It's 48 minutes after the hour. We're following breaking news this morning. New York City backs off in the face of a showdown with Wall Street protesters. This has just happened. We'll tell you more about it just ahead.
Forty-eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Ten minutes until the top of the hour. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI (voice-over): A showdown between New York police and the Occupy Wall Street movement has been averted in Lower Manhattan. Demonstrators have been ordered to vacate Zuccotti Park this morning by 7:00 a.m., so officials could clean it, but moments ago, New York City officials announced the cleanup is postponed at request of the company that owns the private park.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has had face-to- face talks with Iran's ambassador to the U.N. The meeting took place Wednesday as U.S. officials were announcing details of an alleged plot by the Iranians to murder a Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil.
The Transportation Security Administration says it will not meet a December 31st deadline to inspect all cargo on flights headed for the United States. So far, the agency has not said whether a new deadline has been set.
And President Obama and President Lee of South Korea visiting a GM auto plant in Detroit later today. Last night, Lee and his wife were honored at a state dinner at the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI (on-camera): That's the news you need to start your day. AMERICAN MORNING is back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We asked you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question this morning, should companies require interviews with minority job candidates?
This from Heather, "No, sorry. You interview the candidates who are the most qualified for the position based on their work history skills, et cetera, and not their race."
This from Angela, "I think it's more disturbing that many companies won't interview those who've been out of work for a while no matter their background."
And this from Paul. "No way. That's so racist. Equal opportunity for everyone, Black, White, Hispanic or me, Native American."
Keep the conversation going. Facebook.com/americanmorning. I'll read more of your thoughts a bit later.
ROMANS: It's perfectly illegal to exclude someone who doesn't have a job and different ethnic groups have different levels of unemployment. So, it just perpetuates some of those things, too. Very interesting.
When you think of drones, you think of hellfire missiles, you think of bad guys far away, and then there also some saving lives much closer to home.
VELSHI: So, soon you may have one in your garage for just a little bit more than most --
COSTELLO: It's a nice drone you have there, son.
ROMANS: Can I borrow your drone?
VELSHI: Chris Lawrence has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Homemade vehicles are flying out of this small San Diego warehouse. And for under $1,000, you can buy your very own drone.
CHRIS ANDERSON, CO-FOUNDER DIY DRONES: We want to make aerial robotics available to everybody.
LAWRENCE: Owner, Chris Anderson, is an editor at "Wired" magazine. Jordi Munoz, his whiz kid partner.
JORDI MUNOZ, CO-FOUNDER DIY DRONES: I never knew that I'm going to have good chance to be able to work for a high-tech company or even own one.
LAWRENCE: Jordi grew up in Mexico, able to fix anything.
MUNOZ: When I was 10 years old, I was able to view (ph) from scratch computers, repair laptops.
LAWRENCE: Legally, Jordi couldn't work while he was waiting on his green card. He got so bored, he built a concept drone.
MUNOZ: I received like a lot of kicked back, like, hey, this is amazing. Keep going with your work.
LAWRENCE: That turned into do it yourself drones which is pushing military technology into the civilian world. The company imagines a U-18 zooming into a burning building as it flies up ahead of firefighters. The drone's heat censors tell them instantly how hot each room is as its cameras identify any obstacles that may block their way to the people trapped inside.
(on-camera) These things always become less expensive, but why would you really need a personal drone hovering around them?
ANDERSON: I don't know exactly. Security, maybe?
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Anderson says personal drones could record crimes and instantly alert police.
ANDERSON: Maybe cameras, the notion of cameras being something that you hold is outdated (ph). Maybe cameras have wings.
LAWRENCE: People are already using social media to broadcast their lives 24/7, a mobile camera could be the ultimate extension of that desire.
ANDERSON: Once we make it easier to put an eye in the sky, I think that the users will discover the real applications.
LAWRENCE: Chris Lawrence, CNN, San Diego. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: That's really cool.
COSTELLO: That is cool.
Just ahead in the next hour, from the "it" guy to the underdog. Governor Rick Perry hoping his energy plan will energize the job market and the economy and maybe his campaign in the process. We're going to talk to him live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI (voice-over): Breaking news. Showdown in the park averted. Wall Street protesters about to get kicked out for cleanup time just told they can stay.
COSTELLO (voice-over): And talk about a showdown. The Tea Party versus Occupy Wall Street. Members from both sides will battle it out this hour or will they find out they're sort of kind of on the same side?
ROMANS (voice-over): And it was literally a flight that fell from the sky and plunged into the Atlantic. This morning, new transcripts from the cockpit of AirTrans 447. For the first time, the final conversation of the pilots as it was going down.
VELSHI: And Texas governor, Rick Perry, try to turn it around. We'll talk to the government ahead of what could be a make or break policy speech today moments away on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS (on-camera): And good morning, everyone. It's Friday. I'm going to say it one more time. It's Friday, October 14th, and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI (on-camera): For all the other things that are going on today, it's a particularly good Friday because --
COSTELLO (on-camera): The Tigers won!
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO They go on to Texas, and it was a great game, but we'll chat about that a little later on. But yes, it is a good day, Ali.
