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Rick's List

President Obama Speaks Out on Oil Spill; Will BP's Latest Attempt Work?

Aired June 04, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes, sitting in today for Rick Sanchez, this, of course, RICK'S LIST.

And on the LIST today, it's pretty much just one item, the list dominated by the story that really has been dominating coverage for some time, the Gulf oil disaster. We have breaking developments this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): Here's what's making the LIST:

Devastating images, as oil covers more of the Gulf of Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These birds tend to lunge feed for fish. And they get covered.

HOLMES: President Obama making his third visit to Louisiana, and expressing his anger.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am furious at this entire situation.

HOLMES: Will he demand more action? And what's BP's latest step to stop the leak? Kyra Phillips joins us live. She's been at BP's base of operations in the Gulf.

Also, politics in South Carolina taking another strange turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki Haley.

HOLMES: First, two men claim they had affairs with the Republican front-runner for governor. Now a state lawmaker is hurling a racial slur towards the candidate and President Obama.

And Joran van der Sloot captured in Chile, sent back to Peru. He's accused there in the death of a local woman. He's also facing different charges in the U.S. Rafael Romo joins us live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And welcome, everybody, to RICK'S LIST, T.J. Holmes sitting in today. And topping that LIST right now: President Obama back in the Gulf, back in the Gulf Coast now on day 46 of this oil disaster. The president touched down just in the past hour. You see him there, touched down in Kenner, Louisiana.

The president went immediately to a briefing, and he is still in that right now, we're told. This is his second trip to the Gulf in the past week. This is his third trip he's made to the Gulf since this whole disaster started. And he's telling us, he's furious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")

OBAMA: I am furious at this entire situation, because this is an example of where somebody didn't think through the consequences of their actions. And it is imperiling not just a handful of people, this is -- this is imperiling an entire way of life and an entire region for, potentially, years. So --

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Has the company felt your anger?

OBAMA: Well, they have felt the anger. But what I haven't seen as much as I would like is the kind of rapid response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And, again, like I mentioned, the president headed straight for a briefing, still in that right now. His next scheduled stop is to the marshy area out in the Gulf. That's Grand Isle you have been hearing a whole lot about, just one of the many scenes becoming an alarming and heartbreaking environmental catastrophe.

Our Ed Henry is there for us.

Ed, hello to you. You're back in the area there as well, the president making his third stop. What is he hoping to accomplish on this trip?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., you mentioned that briefing he's getting right now with some of the region's governors, federal officials who are here on the ground.

He may make some comments, we expect, after that back there in New Orleans. But then, because of the bad weather, he's not going to be able to chopper here. It's a two-and-a-half-hour drive, so that motorcade is going to take a long time to get here.

And let me tell you what he's going to see and what is the goal of this White House trip. They have heard that criticism, as you noted, that maybe the president hasn't connected with real people, didn't spend a lot of time with fishermen, et cetera. He met with some on the first trip at the beginning of May, but not last Friday, when he was here in Grand Isle.

Let me tell you what he is going to find, because we expect that he will meet with some of those people. I saw a short time ago a lot of Secret Service action over at a bait and tackle shop and sort of a general store that's here for all the fishermen who come.

This would be the high season when they would be come here -- coming here to fish. And they're frankly not here. I spoke to the owner of this bait and tackle shop, and he told me, look, I'm basically shut down right now. He normally sells everything. He does shrimping himself, and then he sells what he catches. He sells potato chips, soda, things like that, basic general store for the fisherman who are going to go out on the water.

They're not going out there right now, because they can't fish. And so he's worried that he's going to go out of business. I saw signs on the road saying, end this nightmare, another sign directed at BP that basically said, look, can't fish, can't swim. How the heck are we going to feed our kids now?

You can tell that there's visceral anger here because their way of life is threatened. And I can tell you, what I'm seeing now, just from one week, standing near the same spot last Friday, there were just those little tar balls, little bits of oil and sand mixed together, little tiny balls on the beach.

Now we're actually seeing oil come up on the beach. And, so, people here that we're talking to, locals, are telling us they're getting more and more worried that, even if top cap -- top cap works, and the well is finally capped, that the oil that's already out there is coming right here -- T.J.

HOLMES: Well, you know, it's amazing just in a week's time how much the story has changed since the president was there.

Ed Henry for us, good to see you. We appreciate you, as always. And, again, you hear anything from the president, by all means, let us know and we will talk to you again here shortly.

Ed, thank you.

We're talking about this latest effort now. The others have failed. They're on plan who knows what now, D, E, F, but another plan in place and showing some hope right now.

Let's talk to Satish Nagarajaiah. He's a professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.

Sir, thank you for being with us. How do you feel right now, getting some of the reports about how it is going?

SATISH NAGARAJAIAH, PROFESSOR OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING, RICE UNIVERSITY: They have cut the riser. They have put the cap on. They're collecting some oil, about 1,000 barrels a day. That's what Admiral Allen reported, so they seem to be optimistic.

HOLMES: Seem to be optimistic, 1,000 barrels. We have been hearing that, collecting some oil, but, at the same time, they have been telling us about 19,000, up to 19,000 barrels a day have been going into the Gulf. So, that's still an awful lot leaking. Anything we catch, that is great. But what do you think now? This riser package, they have to close those vents they say at the top which is allowing still a lot of oil to get out. From what you can tell, and your expertise, sir, once they close those, do we have -- do we have our first success, if you will, in trying to plug this thing?

NAGARAJAIAH: That all depends on the mechanical seal that they can get on the riser and the cap, you know, and once they close the vents, we will know how much they can capture. It's very hard to predict that right now.

HOLMES: What are the dangers of it right now? When I say dangers, I mean what are some of the potential problems that can come as you see it when you start to try to close these vents?

NAGARAJAIAH: I mean, one problem could be that, you know, they may not be able to close the vents completely because of the pressure. The other problem is potential form of -- formation of hydrates, and that's something that we have to see.

HOLMES: And that's what the problem was last time. They thought the vents would solve it. And for our viewers here, just make sure I don't get too far ahead, assume everybody knows what we're talking about here.

The lower marine riser cap package, they call it, they essentially put this cap on top, has some vents essentially at the top that is allowing some of that oil to still leak out. They plan on closing those four vents on the top. And that's when they believe they will be able to collect much more of this oil.

One more thing here, Satish, we're hearing these relief wells are the only real way to do this. Explain to people just how tricky it is trying to -- they're digging two wells, we're told, but we're told August. This is the permanent solution. But, I mean, how much faith should we put in these relief wells hitting what they're supposed to hit?

NAGARAJAIAH: I -- you know, they're going to have (INAUDIBLE) in the final few thousand feet figure as they get closer to the well. Remember, they're trying to intersect the well, which is approximately about nine inches, 10 inches in diameter at the lowest portion.

So, it's going to be difficult, but they can accomplish that. You know, we have advanced directional drilling now, so they should be able to get there eventually, but we will have to see. Optimistic guesstimates are mid-August, but let's hope they get there by then.

HOLMES: But all you're talking -- they're drilling tens of thousands literally now feet we're talking about drilling down, and you're saying --

(CROSSTALK)

NAGARAJAIAH: Yes, it's 13,000 feet from the ocean floor, 13,000 feet, yes. (CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: And you're saying they're trying to hit something that's nine to 10 inches?

NAGARAJAIAH: Yes. Absolutely, yes.

HOLMES: That doesn't sound possible, quite frankly.

NAGARAJAIAH: Yes, well, they're going to (INAUDIBLE) in the final -- you know as they approach the well, they will have to (INAUDIBLE) a bit, and then they will eventually get to that.

Remember, they're drilling two wells, so there's an additional redundancy there. If one fails, they can actually do with the other one.

HOLMES: Well, we hope that we don't have to hear the word fail anymore.

Satish Nagarajaiah, we appreciate your expertise, again, professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.

Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

Again, folks, you are still looking at that live picture. We're not going to go at any point too far away from this story. You're seeing it there, that live picture. Oil continues to gush out into the Gulf of Mexico right now, even though they're reporting some success in getting that cap on top of that well.

Now the next part, and they hope to do it sometime today, close the vents on top of it and then start collecting much more of that oil. We could know at some point by the end of today whether or not this latest effort is actually the first real success, if you will, in trying to stop this leak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD COMMANDANT: The real focus right now is to get that containment cap in place below the Discover Enterprise, continue drilling the two relief wells. We're doing -- the first one is on the DD-III that we're on right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, CNN has been given exclusive access to the president's point man in the Gulf, and our Kyra Phillips is going to be taking us to the heart of the operation that's trying to stop this leak. She's going to be live for us from New Orleans. That's ahead.

Also, Chile captures Joran van der Sloot and puts him on a plane for Peru. He's the former suspect in a U.S. teen's disappearance in Aruba and now the prime suspect in a young woman's death in Peru. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, have you been keeping an eye on what's going on in South Carolina, the race for governor there? It's not just getting -- you know, sometimes it can get interesting, but it's getting ugly quickly.

But the Republican governor's primary in South Carolina is the one we're talking about here. Two GOP consultants -- you may have heard this part of the story by now -- they're out there saying that they had extramarital hookups, if you will, with Nikki Haley, the married mother of two who is the Republican front-runner for governor.

Now, Haley's denying both allegations, saying the GOP opponent, Andre Bauer, is orchestrating a smear campaign against her. Bauer today now challenging Haley to take a lie-detector test.

We will get back to that in just a second, because now things have taken another turn, an uglier turn, some would say. Another Republican, State Senator Jake Knotts, took aim at Nikki Haley last night on an Internet forum that was held at a pub.

Let me tell you what he said. And I'm quoting here. "We have already got a rag-head in the White House. We don't need another rag- head in the governor's mansion."

Those words of State Senator Jake Knotts, encompassing not just Nikki Haley, but dragging the president into this. We have asked Senator Knotts to come on this show and explain his remarks. Office hasn't returned our calls just yet.

We can discern, though -- we're trying to discern what he was talking about, what he meant. Well, maybe this had something to do with it. Nikki Haley is of Indian heritage. She was born a Sikh. She later became a Christian. Now, in a follow-up statement, Knotts said this -- quote -- "I believe Ms. Haley is pretending to be someone she is not, much as Obama did. But I apologize to both for an unintended slur."

Senator Knotts is a player in Republican politics in South Carolina, has appeared on this show here as well.

Let's bring in our CNN political producer, Peter Hamby, spent a lot of time working on South Carolina for us.

Hello, Peter.

We all were kind of scratching our heads at some of the stuff that happens in South Carolina politics, unfortunately.

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: I know.

HOLMES: But help people understand, first of all, who Senator -- state Senator Knotts is. Is he a player there in the state?

HAMBY: He is. He's a longtime state senator. He's from the Columbia area. He's a former cop. He's one of -- one of these more establishment Republican legislators in South Carolina who probably would embrace the good old boy name. He -- he was -- he's a big opponent of Mark Sanford. Nikki Haley is considered, you know, a Sanford protege, so you're seeing some of these political fault lines here beneath the name calling and some of the ugliness that we have been seeing.

HOLMES: OK. What have you been able to understand? Where was he going with this? Even some explanation it was supposed to be some kind of a joke.

HAMBY: Yes. I mean, so there's this political talk show they do online down there run by a couple, you know, younger political consultants, and they do it at this public the Flying Saucer in Columbia, which is a -- you know, a pretty big hangout there in town that's right next to the statehouse.

Apparently, they had a couple of state legislators on gabbing about politics. And from what I can -- what I heard from these guys is that Knotts just kind of came over. They invited him to sit down on the panel. And he started riffing on, you know, Haley's, like you said, Sikh heritage. And, you know, that's where this rag-head comment came from, out of that.

HOLMES: All right. Now, of course, let's get back to the actual race.

Now, Nikki Haley, she has been dealing with all these allegations about these possible extramarital hookups, I should say. She's been talking about it, had to answer some questions.

Let's take a listen to how she responded about some of this and what happens in politics in South Carolina in a radio interview. I will ask you about it on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: There's this underground world of politics that happens where the establishment is very, very concerned about their money and their power. And if anybody threatens the establishment, anybody threatens where their money and power's going to go, they do everything they can to stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, you deal with politics a lot in South Carolina. You covered it quite extensively. Does she certainly, in your estimation, have a point in what she's saying there?

HALEY: Yes. Not taking sides in the race, she does, frankly, have a point. South Carolina's one of these states where there are, like she said, an entrenched kind of -- there are entrenched consultants in the state. It's very unique in that a lot of times even candidates take on the identity of a lot of these consultants, who really don't like each other very much. And that goes all the way back to the era of Lee Atwater and Carroll Campbell and, most famously, you know, the McCain/Bush wars of 2000 down there. But another point that, you know, Haley is, again, one of the -- a small-government, Tea Party, reform candidate.

There's a longstanding dispute in the state between the folks in the legislature who are more establishment Republicans and the Mark Sanford-Nikki Haley types, who have gone to war against each other in the statehouse.

HOLMES: Yes.

HAMBY: And you saw that during the stimulus battle last year with Mark Sanford.

HOLMES: Well, Peter, no matter what, help us understand this politics in such a way that two guys, according to Ms. Haley, are flat-out lying. So that means, if that's the case, these two would risk their own reputations, their own relationships, marriages, themselves to come out and say this stuff just for the sake of bringing down this politician.

Is that what it's like in South Carolina?

HAMBY: That's exactly why people have thought twice about these accusations. You're exactly right.

You know, Will Folks, the blogger who made the first accusation, he has got a family. He's a Nikki Haley supporter. Larry Marchant has a very lucrative business. He's a powerful lobbyist in the state. So, you know, he's also married.

Why would these guys come out there and put all -- risk all that? But, you know, they haven't offered proof. I don't know what proof would be in a case like this, but apparently Nikki Haley is surviving at this point. She looks to be one of the candidates who is going to make the likely runoff after the primary next Tuesday.

HOLMES: And last thing here, I will let you go on this, and I will ask you what you think of it. That same interview that we just rolled a clip of it, she was asked this question at the end of it this question by the interviewer, essentially: "If something comes up after you win the primary or you win the general election, if something were to come up to validate the claims in terms of stepping out on your husband, would you resign?"

She said "Yes," instead of, some would say, well, not saying, nothing's going to come out because there was no affair.

What do you make of that comment?

HAMBY: Well, you know, in the wake of Mark Sanford, there's really nothing else you can say. The state political establishment there and voters are honestly tired of this sort of thing, so, you know, for her to hedge on a question like that might be a questionable political move, you know, after the Sanford scandal from last year. HOLMES: And, of course, as we know, on the bigger picture, with -- South Carolina plays a pretty big role when it comes to the nomination process of picking presidents, quite frankly, in this country.

Is this what happens early on? I believe they're the third primary that we see during the presidential primary season. So, you have to make a stop in South Carolina. Do the national candidates get caught up in some of this ugliness you say takes place in South Carolina?

HAMBY: Yes, absolutely.

Again, the prime example being McCain and Bush, you know, was a very negative campaign back in 2000. You saw a lot of sniping. I lived down in there in 2007 and 2008 during the last Republican primary. You know, there were, you know, anonymous flyers papered to cars attacking Mike Huckabee. You know, the McCain campaign said they were being attacked again. You know, there was sort of underground sniping about Mitt Romney's faith.

Again, these things do happen down there, but South Carolina is very important in the nominating process, and going back to 1980, no Republican has gone on to win the presidential nomination without winning South Carolina first.

HOLMES: Peter Hamby, I'm glad you kept your wits about you after all that time in South Carolina, seeing some of this ugliness.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: Peter, good to see you. Good perspective. Good to have your knowledge today. You have a good one.

HAMBY: OK. Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: All right.

As we know, it's only been a few days since that bloody raid on an aid ship headed to Gaza. And now another aid ship says it won't stop until it's forced to. We will show you what that has to do without list of most intriguing people in the news today. That's straight ahead.

Also, unprecedented access to the oil rig has been given to our Kyra Phillips. She's traveled there with the national incident commander, Admiral Thad Allen. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Again, day 46, here we are. And this could be a big day, an important day, some success we're told right now on this latest effort, this lower marine riser cap package.

They have right now got this thing on top of that well, and they are going to close some vents to maybe start -- start collecting more and more of that oil, so maybe so much of it won't be getting out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Meantime, exclusive access now to this story, a story, of course, right now that everybody is talking about. Again, we continue to see these live images of what is happening, again, a mile below the surface of the water, right now, again, success. We will know a little later today just how successful it was.

In the meantime, the guy in charge of this whole operation, Admiral Thad Allen, well, we got some exclusive access to him. CNN's Kyra Phillips went to the rig in the Gulf near where the oil disaster is playing out. She's the only reporter who has been allowed on one of those rigs. And she's been getting the firsthand details of the operation from the man in charge, Admiral Allen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: The real focus right now is to get that containment cap in place below the Discover Enterprise, continue drilling the two relief wells. We're doing -- the first one is on the DD-III that we're on right now.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And let's make that connection. As they're working to get that top hat right now to seal that gusher, how does this well -- how is it going to benefit?

ALLEN: The relief well is being drilled right below us going down. It started at an angle though over, and somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 feet below the sea floor. It will intersect the well bore. At that point, it will start pumping heavy mud in to drive the oil and the hydrocarbons down towards the reservoir to stabilize it so they can put a plug in or do what they call a bottom kill.

After that's done, there should be no pressure below the blowout preventer. That will allow them to actually removed and cap the well, bring the blowout preventer up and do forensic analysis on it.

PHILLIPS: Explain the connection, the bottom kill here and how that is going to make what's happening on the Discovery Enterprise successful.

ALLEN: The intention is to intercept the well bore well down below the surface near the reservoir, then pump heavy mud in to counteract the pressure of the oil coming up that will allow them to basically plug or kill the well. Once that is done, you can do things like remove the blowout preventer, bring it to the surface and try and find out what happened.

PHILLIPS: How soon do you think that can happen, Ted, or are you just working as fast as you can?

TED STUKENBORG, TRANSOCEAN: We are working as efficiently and as safely as possible.

PHILLIPS: I know you don't want to make any mistakes.

STUKENBORG: That's correct. PHILLIPS: How is it then for you? What's it like to get up in the morning and deal with media scrutiny and have to come out here and do everything you can to make this happen?

CAPTAIN JACK SCHINDLER, TRANSOCEAN: It can be frustrating at times. The thing is we have to make sure that the crew is focused on the job. At the end of the day, we want to drill this well as efficiently as possible and we want to do it with no incidents. We want to do it with no injury to anybody. In fact, we want to have everyone who comes on the rig to go home in better condition than when they came on the street.

Part of the problem is that there is a lot of outside scrutiny on what it is that we're doing out here. And I think the American population is wanting this well to be done. They want it now. We all want it done now. But we all have to understand that this is a well that's killed 11 people. We have to understand that we're sitting over top of one of the world's best drilling rigs. The well that we're drilling right now killed 11 people and sunk a rig. And so we're not going to speed up and we're going to do this as safe as possible and we're not going to hurt anybody. And that's our goal.

PHILLIPS: What's the deal with the water spray that's taking place next to the Enterprise?

ALLEN: So you've seen an offshore supply vessel over there with water being sprayed out of its stern. As the product is rising up because as you know there's oil coming out of the riser pipe until we get the containment cap on right now. They're actually putting water over the surface to reduce the volatile organic compounds that come off of the oil that produce inhalant problems for the workers out there. So this is actually a safety issue to put water over the top of the oil so the fumes basically don't come up.

PHILLIPS: Because when were flying in, the smell was so strong. It's like fresh tar smell.

ALLEN: And one way to reduce that is to basically spray water to reduce the vapors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And just a reminder: This live picture, again, we have been seeing it every day for the past several weeks since we got this picture, but, still, this has been going on now, folks for 46 days straight, every moment, oil leaking out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Need to let you know the president is there. This is his third trip to the area. Because of some bad weather, he flew into Kenner, Louisiana, but he's having to drive now to Grand Isle, so that's going to take we're told a couple of hours, at least, but the president on his way to Grand Isle, which is -- in some ways has been ground zero for a lot of what we have been seeing in this coverage and a lot of this oil starting to wash ashore.

We're going to hear a whole lot more from Kyra and her exclusive reporting from the Gulf. That's going to be coming your way next hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You actually handcuffed the gator with --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- handcuffs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You heard that right. I don't know how you do it, but an officer of the law cuffs a gator. You have got to see this to -- yes, seriously. Everybody in the studio even is laughing at me. They don't believe it.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: But, yes, that's happening.

Also, our list of most intriguing persons in the news -- what they have to do with an aid ship headed towards the Israeli blockade of Gaza, find out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Bottom of the hour here now, and time for us to check the list of the most intriguing people in the news today.

Whenever the Israeli blockade of Gaza is in the news, these folks are reminded of their greatest heartbreak. From Olympia, Washington, this husband and wife grieve for their daughter who died under the tracks of an Israeli bulldozer while she protested the demolition of Palestinian homes. That was seven years ago.

Look at them now, Cindy and Craig Corrie. They created the Rachel Corrie foundation for peace and justice for their daughter. And that's not the only tribute. The aid ship expected to dock in Gaza today or tomorrow is called the "Rachel Corrie," they are watching and holding their breath hoping they won't see a repeat of the deadly assault on the aid ship a couple days ago. The Corrie family, today's most intriguing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hardest part about doing manipulator work, you're looking at a 2-d screen in a 3-d world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really don't know how close to the bottom I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes, this is just happening as you're seeing it here. That's a pool. But how do these things are being done, though, 5,000 feet below the surface of the water right now and trying to fix that oil leak. But how do these things actually work? Do they work? How well do they work? We'll take you along for a test drive. That's just ahead.

Also, they fight fire. They also rap. A fire department takes fire safety to a whole new and scary level. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, a baseball fan's spectacular catch and some rapping firefighters. They're in our list of best video moments. And I'm told this is called "Fotos del Dia."

It's Chicago, Wrigley Field. Check this out. Now, this guy, a baseball player, brave guy, he tosses just a ball during practice up into the stands. The fan catches it in his beer. And he drinks the beer. This wasn't a homerun ball. Do you know when the guys do that? That is nasty.

But a big fan doing his thing, a big gulp, one of our photos for you today.

Also, this you got to see. Members of the Midland fire department. They got red-hot rhymes they believe that have to do with safety. Trying to get a good message across here, but, man, did they really have to go this route?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(RAPPING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You know, their hearts are in the right place, but as my sister would say, it's not that hot. Still, folks, it's well- intentioned, but some might have thought maybe they could have picked another route.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(RAPPING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You know, give them credit for trying. They get the message out. Maybe it will help somebody.

Check this out here, this is well-intentioned as well. You see this roaming reptile. A sheriff's deputy, Richard Nowlin, he actually cuffed an eight-foot gator, cuffed it. As you can imagine, that's not very easy to do. He had a neighbor help him out as well. They used flex cuff and some handy homemade device and finally the trapper was able to get the gator away.

You can see all the "Fotos del Dia" on CNN.com/ricksanchez.

Joran Van Der Sloot, kicked out of Chile, sent to Peru. He's the prime suspect in the death of a Peruvian girl. He was also the prime suspect, you'll remember, in Natalee Holloway's disappearance from Aruba five years ago. What's he saying today? We're live in Peru.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, on our crime list today, Dutch murder suspect Joran Van Der Sloot, he's heading straight into police custody in Peru. He was captured in Chile yesterday, facing charges of the slaying a 21-year-old woman in his hotel room.

That's actually not the only legal problem he's facing right now. Our correspondent, Rafael Romo, is on this story for us. Rafael, hello to you. Has he made it yet? When will he get there? And when he gets there, what is he going to be facing?

ROMO: Not yet. He was supposed to be transferred from Peru at the border, a town called Arica, at noon today. That has been delayed. He's now, like, almost three hours delayed. But he's going to be transferred at that point into a city called Tagnat to Peruvian officials.

Once that happens, he'll be taken to the capital of Peru, Lima, where he is expected to be formally charged with the murder of 21- year-old Stephany Flores.

Now, this case has moved so incredibly rapidly. They were together last Sunday, Monday she was reported missing. Tuesday or Wednesday he fled Peru. Thursday he was caught in Chile, and today he's expected to be transferred to Peruvian officials, who are very fast moving case here in Peru, T.J.

HOLMES: Rafael, two more things for you. First of all, do they have any idea of a motive, or at least are they telling what that motive might be publicly? And also, he's also got some issues in the U.S. out of Alabama.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN EDITOR, LATIN AMERICAN DESK: That's right. Well, a couple of things to take a look at for Peruvian officials. One, we understand that Stephany Flores had made some moneymaking poker that he might have been interested in. That's one theory the police are looking at.

The second theory is her car was found about 50 blocks from the hotel where they were. So we don't know if he was just trying to flee or what his plans were with the car.

And also one of the latest developments, he is being charged in the United States in Alabama in an extortion case, apparently trying to get money from an entity or an individual in exchange for information in the Natalee Holloway case. Again, that's just a complaint that was filed in the states yesterday that it's only now beginning to happen, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Rafael Romo, all over this story for us. We appreciate you as always.

Of course, we knew this man hadn't hunt was going on. It got us to thinking of the most famous manhunts. We put together a list for you of some of the most famous manhunts. We have a top three for you. Can you guess who is possibly on that list? That's next.

Also, some of these images are just heartbreaking -- seabirds covered in oil. Just how bad is it getting? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, the manhunt for Joran Van Der Sloot didn't take too long, but there have been other famous fugitives who were on the run for quite some time. We put a list together for you, the top three most famous manhunts.

Did you guess who possibly made this list? Number three, Eric Robert Rudolph, best known for the 1996 centennial Olympic park bombing right here in Atlanta, Georgia, along with women clinics and a nightclub. Police searched for him for five years before he was brought to justice in 2003.

Number two on the list, Andrew Punane, wanted for the murder of fashion designer Versace and four others in the late 90s. He led the FBI on a nationwide manhunt which ended when he committed suicide on a Miami Beach houseboat.

Number one on our list today of the most famous manhunts, you know the name, you know the face, Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski also goes by the name the Unabomber. For nearly two decades he terrorized America mailing bombs without the FBI having a single lead.

And then in 1995 his own brother recognized his writing in a manifesto and informed the authorities who captured him in 1996.

Well, you may have heard BP's chief complained that he wants his life back. Well, that didn't sit well with a lot of folks, including the man who lost his son on the rig explosion. We'll talk to him, straight ahead.

Also, those remotely operated vehicles doing the heavy lifting at the bottom of the ocean at the oil spill site, but how exactly does this work? How exactly do you maneuver those things when they're 5,000 feet below the surface of the water? Our Rob Marciano took a test drive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Day 46 and here we are still trying to stop the oil from leaking into the Gulf. And technology is topping our list of tools being used to plug this leak. We're talking about these remotely controlled vehicles. They're being operated some 5,000 feet below the water's surface, difficult to do. CNN's Rob Marciano found out just how difficult it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You have a camera here, a camera here and a couple of lights.

MARCIANO (voice-over): There's been lots of lights and cameras catching the action.

MARCIANO (on camera): This is what they're using to saw the pipe, to hopefully put the cap on successfully.

BOB CHRIST, PRESIDENT SEATREPID: What you have on these vehicles is two manipulators and then a power pack, a tooling pack.

MARCIANO: Submersible ROVs or remotely operated vehicles, are doing the grunt work at the bottom of the Deepwater Horizon site. Not far away, SeaTrepid Enterprises services unmanned subs. Bob Kris gives me a quick lesson.

BOB CHRIST: This turns left, this turns right. This goes forward. This goes backwards. You have a rotational camera. See? It goes 360 degrees. Have a seat and have a drive.

MARCIANO (on camera): All right.

MARCIANO (voice-over): it's remarkably difficult, like driving a car on ice. Yes, let's move forward to a bigger sub, similar to the ones working the BP well. Michael Brian guides me through the more advanced gadgets.

BOB CHRIST: You're heading, which is a compass rows with a numeric as well as the standard.

MARCIANO: And I get a chance to see how the robotic arms work.

BOB CHRIST: The hardest part, you're looking at a 2-d screen in a 3-D world.

MARCIANO: Typically, three men work this ROV in a deep ocean, one driving, one working the arms, and a navigator. My simple task is position the sub to grab onto an anchor at the bottom of the pool.

MARCIANO (on camera): See, I'm too low. Now I'm too high.

MARCIANO (voice-over): This ROV cost about $2 million. One wrong move could be a costly mistake. My advice --

BOB CHRIST: Get the job done, one at a time, small steps, baby steps.

MARCIANO: Don't master mind plugging the well.

BOB CHRIST: Not your job. You're job is to drive the sub.

MARCIANO: Rob Marciano, CNN, Robert, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're drilling right now, killed 11 people and sunk. And so we're not going to speed up, we're going to do this as safe as possible. We're not going to hurt anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: We've got an exclusive look for you at the high stakes operation going on in the Gulf. Kyra Phillips, the only reporter to go on board one of those drilling rigs with the president's point man in the Gulf. That's ahead.

Also, the biggest jump in jobs in a decade. So why are people not celebrating? Poppy Harlow along. She's got that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: The May jobs report showed the biggest gain in ten years. But is that really an accurate picture? As they say, the devil in the details, and for the details, certainly not the devil, Poppy Harlow. She's here with us.

(LAUGHTER)

Poppy, hello. Hello to you. And you just have to be the bearer of what some thought was bad news. You hear 431,000 jobs, that sounds great. But --

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's not. That's the top line, the headline of the jobs report we got this morning. The reality is more than 400,000 of those were temporary census jobs. That means they're only going to be around a few months, all those census workers. And they're all provided by the government. The private sector, companies large and small, only added 41,000 jobs. That's down from 281,000 in April, a huge decline.

I want to show you the big board if we can show you the market because it's selling off in a big way. The Dow is down 350 points right now, so Wall Street didn't like this number. You see reflected right there, the lows of the session, below 10,000 points.

Bottom line, this jobs number is not good at all. I see the only possible bright spot is that the manufacturing sector hit so hard added 75 percent of those private sector job. Overall though, T.J., not a good reading at all for all those unemployed people T.J.

HOLMES: That's one number we say is not a good reading. The other number went from 9.9 to 9.7. Break that down were for us.

HARLOW: The unemployment rate went down just a bit. The reason it probably did that is because when you give up looking for a job, when you say, forget it, I haven't found work in six months, I'm done, then you're no longer counted by the government as unemployed if you're not looking for a job.

It really doesn't make sense to most people, but that's technically how it works.

One of the regions we're looking at is the Gulf coast region given the oil spill, given the moratorium on offshore drilling, the question is all those jobs. Earlier today, I spoke with Christina Romer. She's the chief adviser on the economic council for the president. She talked to us about the jobs in the Gulf coast. I want to play you that sound quick l quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA ROMER, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: This is a terrible environmental disaster and it's something that is going to hurt oyster farmers, shrimpers, the local tourism industry. We do anticipate it being mainly a local shot, something we can deal with in the local area, and probably won't spill over into the overall economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So as you heard the White House saying, we don't think the job problem in the Gulf as a result of this oil spill will necessarily spill over.

The one thing I can tell you is that there is still $388 billion of stimulus money left to be spent and we hope that means real, long- term job creation. As you can see on Wall Street, they're not believing today, a massive sell-off all day in the red. The Dow down 334 points heading into the weekend, closing below 10,000. This is the biggest decline we've seen for the Dow since May 6th -- T.J.