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CNN Saturday Morning News

Close to a Hundred Killed in Norway Attack; Record-Shattering Heat; Debt Ceiling Deadline Looming; Debt Deal in Jeopardy; Pie in Murdoch's Face; NFL Lockout Not Over

Aired July 23, 2011 - 08:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR, SATURDAY MORNING: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING, 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. I'm T.J. Holmes and we have two major developing stories this morning.

First, the president summoning congressional leaders back to the White House for a Saturday morning conference. This comes the day after the House Speaker John Boehner walked out on debt talks. The president calling them right back. That meeting coming up shortly.

Also, the developing story out of Norway where at least 91 people have been killed in two separate attacks in Norway. Police there say these two attacks are, in fact, linked. That is a still breaking and developing story. We'll have the very latest for you live in just a moment.

But we do need to begin in Washington, D.C. with that looming deadline on the nation's debt. You may have missed this last night but it was an extraordinary night in Washington, D.C. The president and the House Speaker John Boehner each holding news conferences, basically calling each other out for the breakdown in the debt ceiling talks.

So where are we right now? We talk about the debt ceiling needs to be raised, but we actually hit the debt ceiling back in May. We hit the limit. The Treasury secretary has been doing some interesting math, moving money around to pay the nation's bills since then.

Well, that safety net, his ability to move that money around runs out on August 2nd. So what Democrats want to do in order to get a deal on the debt ceiling they want to do away with some tax cuts and loopholes as part of this larger control of the deficit.

Republicans say that's raising taxes and no way we're going to go for that. They say spending cuts are the way to go. They seemed to be close to a deal this week, but then yesterday happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Essentially what we had offered Speaker Boehner was over a trillion dollars in cuts to discretionary spending, both domestic and defense. We then offered additional $650 billion in cuts to entitlement programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's not in the best interest of our country to raise taxes during this difficult economy and it's not in the best interest of our country to ignore the serious spending challenges that we face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Even though Speaker Boehner is the one who walked away from the talks, he says he will show up to the White House here in just a few hours where the president has summoned congressional leaders.

It's at the White House where we find our White House correspondent Brianna Keilar.

Brianna, we're not talking about negotiations, necessarily, taking place today. It's more so of a bit of a homework assignment that the president gave congressional leaders.

BRIANNA KEILAR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is sort of being called into, T.J., the principal's office and having to explain yourself. We heard President Obama say that he wants these congressional leaders, the top Democrat and the top Republican each from the Senate and the House to come in and explain to him how they are going to increase the debt ceiling.

This after these talks collapsed yesterday and to listen to both sides, yes it was over tax increases which has been a sticking point for so long as many House Republicans don't want to accept any tax increases.

We heard House Speaker John Boehner say that the president had moved the goal post that he had agreed to $800 billion essentially in revenue and then the White House came back and said, you know what? We want $400 billion more and that Boehner said yesterday was tantamount to a poison pill.

And then on the other hand, you had him saying that for entitlement cuts that he wanted that he wanted the White House, obviously, to back off on those tax increases and the White House wasn't going to give as much on entitlements as he wanted. These are two major issues for the Democratic and the Republican base and in the end, this is what contributed to this collapse yesterday.

HOLMES: OK. And before I let you go, to be clear to our viewers here, we are not necessarily talking about just a matter of money. It's a matter of principle because relatively speaking, $400 billion over 10 years is not that much. But Republicans can't go along with anything that could be deemed a tax increase.

KEILAR: A lot of this is principle and a lot of this is politics. You had House Republicans say they weren't going to agree to tax increases. You have Senate Republicans, many of them who signed a pledge as well.

Then you have Democrats who are trying to defend entitlement programs like Medicare. They had -- when the House Republicans, T.J., had voted for a budget that included a reform of Medicare, they slammed Republicans for doing that. Then to turn around and give on Medicare reform, Medicare cuts really sort of undercut what they were arguing before that these programs shouldn't be touched. ?

So these are kind of, the word sacred cow has been thrown around. These are sacred cows and each side has theirs and each side at this point not blinking.

HOLMES: All right, Brianna Keilar. We'll talk to you plenty throughout the morning.

We're just under three hours from that meeting taking place at the White House. Thank you so much and a lot more on this debate throughout the next several hours here. We certainly got some hard feelings on both sides.

In about 10 minutes, we'll be talking about the politics of the deal or no deal, actually our Lenny McAllister and Maria Cardona, friends of our show here, will join us a little earlier this morning. We'll be talking to them.

Then, at 10:00, in case you missed it last night, we're going to play for you both of those news conferences.

Again, this happen later in the evening, 6:00 or 7:00 where a lot of people might have been out enjoying their Friday night, but some strong words, some visibly upset men at the microphones last night. You'll hear from them in their own words.

Again, that's a little later on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Moving on to what is a horrible story and still a breaking story out of Norway. Many people are still in shock after the horrible attacks yesterday -- two of them. The first one you're seeing the aftermath of here. It was in the capital of Oslo. A bomb rocked the capital there badly damaging a government building, shattered windows in several other buildings. Seven people killed there; 90 more injured.

But that's just the beginning. Police now have this man you're seeing on your TV screen in custody. His name is Anders Behring Breivik. They believe he carried out the Oslo bombing, but then the second part of the attack. They said he went to an island about 20 miles away dressed as a police officer and opened fire on a youth camp. Some of the kids there as young as 13 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED BOY (through translator): I was out when the assassin came. A friend and I had gone to (INAUDIBLE) to buy candy. When we came back they told us to wait for the boat that would take us back to the island because a heavily armed policeman had just taken the last boat onto the island as part of what they said was standard terrorism procedure. The policeman and two other (INAUDIBLE) members crossed over so we were forced to wait. (INAUDIBLE) Then we heard shots then we ran back up the hill towards the main road and hid among the stones and trees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: At least 84 people were killed on that island. Again this is a youth camp that had to do with the governing party there, the labor party. They had this camp, they've been having it for several decades. Kids as young as 13, some of them after the gunmen started shooting trying to swim away. The gunmen was even shooting at them in the water. (INAUDIBLE) an hour. There were no police officers. Anyone who could get there to get aid, so this went on for quite some time. You can imagine the horror. We'll be checking in with our correspondent there live here a little later this morning.

Meanwhile, the president, he was quick to give his reaction also and give his condolences to the people of Norway. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring and that we have to work cooperatively together both on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks. I remember fondly my visit to Oslo and how warmly the people of Norway treated me. Our hearts go out the them and we'll provide any support we can to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And again, one person in custody now. Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that more people could be involved. Right now they believe this one suspect did carry out these attacks. Eight minutes past the hour.

Let's say good morning to Reynolds Wolf. He's keeping an eye on weather. It's been all about heat, heat that won't go away. This is a lingering heat wave we have.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Reynolds, see you plenty throughout the morning. Thank you so much.

Ten minutes past the hour. We've been telling you these debt talks breaking down. They broke down yesterday, but there's another meeting coming up at the White House in less than three hours. Lenny McAllister, Maria Cardona joining us a little earlier this morning because we got a lot going on. I'll be talking to them in two minutes.

Also a little later, the NFL owners have a proposal on the table that could end the football lockout. So what's the holdup with the players signing off on the deal? We've got a linebacker in studio. He's also a player rep. He'll tell us if he's ready to sign on that dotted line. It's 10 past the hour, stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, 13 minutes the hour.

Get back to this breaking - still breaking story out of Norway where police have a man in custody, say he's responsible for two attacks in Norway that left some 91 people dead. The death toll could go up.

One of those attacks was on a youth camp where at least 80 people were killed. Our Diana Magnay is near Utoya Island, there that attack took place, that youth camp was taking place.

Diana, again, this is still a fast-moving story. So you just update us with the latest.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The prime minister visited the youth camp a short time ago and he's at a hotel which is just up the road from me now about to give a press conference. He's met with families of some of the victims and some of those who have survived who are sitting around in the sort of surroundings of that hotel right now.

As you can imagine there's a lot of media waiting to talk to some of those who survived, but at the moment, they are meeting the prime minister, the king and queen of Norway, also there to talk to them.

We know that police are still continuing to search for bodies around the waters of the island because, of course, some of these children, young people who were attending this youth camp had to swim for their lives and this man, this suspect in custody who we know to be a 32-year-old ethnic Norwegian, member of a rifle club was able to just pick them off as they were swimming away. Horrific scenes that took place on the island yesterday T.J.

HOLMES: And Diana, they keep saying that they had this one suspect in custody. They believe he is the one that carried it out. Are they still looking into the possibility that maybe he had some help or even if likely he had to have some help in planning it?

MAGNAY: Well, it does seem to have caused that, that scale of death is, you would have thought someone would need an accomplice. The police, of course, are not ruling anything out in this investigation.

There have been reports in local media that there was an accomplice but eyewitnesses on the island saw another man with the suspect who has been taken into custody and the police say they can't confirm or deny this. They are looking into whether it's true.

So these are still the early stages of the investigation. The man in custody they are searching his farm. He had a farm which, of course, would have given him ample leeway to accumulate fertilizers which could have been used for explosives.

And if you look at the (INAUDIBLE) here, this youth camp is held every year on that island. It's a very easy target to plan towards, first of all going for the government quarters, the prime minister's office and (INAUDIBLE) and using that as a foil to cross to the island as a policeman and really just pick off a gathering of young people. This was a meticulously planned operation T.J.

HOLMES: Diana Magnay, we appreciate you this morning. Thanks so much.

It's 16 past the hour. We're going to turn to some other stories here in the news across the country including in Aurora, Colorado.

Balloon boy? You remember him. The balloon at the center of that hoax back in 2009 has now gone on display. Take a look. A store owner bought it at auction for about $2,500. That's not quite the million dollars that balloon boy's dad had expected. Of course, you'll remember that story all a hoax, everybody was following this balloon across the country, essentially when it turns out the little boy wasn't even in it.

Turn to California now where a television crew happened to see this. Look that. Did you see that, folks? A man being dragged down the street by this vehicle. This is in Stockton. They are going about 35 miles an hour. It probably felt like 100 to him. The man is OK. Police did not file any charges. Not exactly sure what was happening there.

Also in Florida, people living near a massive sinkhole say they are worried about their homes and why wouldn't they be. The hole caved in last month and portions already of one business have fallen into that sinkhole.

Let's turn back to this debt ceiling debate. It's been dominating the talk in Washington for weeks, months. More talk going on in a few hours. Did we really think we would get this close to the deadline? Just over a week to go before this country cannot pay all of its bills. Now it seems the sides have been doing more talking about each other than maybe to each other lately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of a deal and frankly if you look at the commentary out there, there are a lot of Republicans that are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done. In fact, there are a lot of Republican voters out there who are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. So this is the crew that will be there in just a few hours, the House Speaker John Boehner, majority leader in the Senate Harry Reid, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and the Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi will all be there.

The president and Boehner went after each other last night. If you didn't hear it, we've got a bit of that for you. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Up until sometime early today when I couldn't get a phone call returned, my expectation was that Speaker Boehner was going to be willing to go to his caucus and ask them to do the tough thing but the right thing. I think it has proven difficult for Speaker Boehner to do that. I've been left at the altar now a couple of times.

BOEHNER: Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O. I'm not going to get into the partisan sniping that we heard earlier. But I can tell you that there was every effort in the world to avoid the real cuts that we need to make in order to preserve the fiscal integrity of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Let's bring in our friend (INAUDIBLE) on this Saturday morning. It is a big day of politics. Our Democratic strategist Maria Cardona in Washington for us and Republican strategist Lenny McAllister in Chicago, a friend of our show here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Guys, good to see you as always.

We have to start with what we saw yesterday. Lenny, let me go to you first here. We have seen people walk away from these talks it seems like every other day since they have been going on. Did yesterday seem a little different and a tone was a little different and yesterday might be some kind of a game changer in this whole debate?

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It seems like a game changer. These are two guys that went golfing together several weeks ago if you remember. It seems as if though now that there seems to be some sense of betrayal on both sides and maybe the best thing would be for Boehner and Reid to get together, see if they can get the rest of the way down the line. Hopefully, what we'll find out today is they are actually not that far away.

Maybe the frustration is high, but the amount of space between a deal being done and being close to being done is not as far away as it seems right now. So that's what we're waiting for earlier this morning.

HOLMES: Maria, this is being portrayed as Boehner walking out and now he's cutting the president or wants to cut the president out and say I'm just going to deal with congressional leaders. Is that kind of what maybe what should have been done in the first place?

MARIA CARDONA, SENIOR ADVISER TO HILLARY CLINTON'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: What should have been done in the first place T.J. is for Speaker Boehner to really understand what could get through his caucus and to try to exert some leadership there.

You talked in the beginning about people walking away from the negotiations several times. Those people have always been Republican leaders. Democrats have stood at the table strong. They have offered up even their own most sacred of cows to put on the table. Republicans have been the ones this whole time in these negotiations to be the ones that have been recalcitrant. They've walked away four or five times from these negotiations.

The speaker did not return the president's call for several hours. Who does that? That's not exerting leadership. That's basically putting politics first. I hope Lenny is right that Speaker Boehner is not that far apart and that he really wants to do this. I think in his heart he does, but what he realized yesterday is that he was not going to be able to get this through his caucus and the tea partiers pulled him back.

HOLMES: Is that fair to say he should show leadership? He should be a leader and get everybody on board. The speaker can't make some of these Republicans and there's a lot of new ones serving their first term in Congress who made a lot of promises. Should we expect this guy to be able to get everybody lined up or should we expect that leadership?

MCALLISTER: We should expect everybody to get everybody on both sides of the table. If you look at President Obama, there's politics even involved in yesterday's press conference. He's sitting there saying he's not talking about Republican congressional leaders can't understand why we can get it done. He specifically said Republican voters can't understand why we can't get this done.

Who is he appealing to? He's appealing to folks in 2012. Everybody is playing a political game right now even the president. This is why him coming into these talks late in the game and being partisan initially. His frustration is genuine yesterday, but if he was more frustrated as a (INAUDIBLE) leader earlier in the process, we probably wouldn't be so late in the game right now.

HOLMES: Maria, I never thought we would be to this point. I know we still have a little over a week. But everybody is going to take a hit if we get to August 2nd. Nobody is going to come out looking good. Nobody is going to come out saying it was their fault. They'll try that, but it's going to look bad on everybody. Who now is left that could step up? It seems like there are hard feelings now. Now it's personal. So with that, who is the leader who is going to step up?

CARDONA: Well, hopefully it's going to be President Obama and I hope Speaker Boehner and the Republican leadership joins him. It's the only way, really, that this is going to get done, T.J., because to your point and the president has been very clear on this, both sides have been to blame here.

But, I think there are two things that Republicans, Republican leadership really need to take a hard look at. You know, Lenny talked about the politics in this. Of course there's politics in this. It's Washington. It's a political city.

But at the same time if you look at the polls, the majority of Americans believe that whatever debt negotiation comes out of Washington has got to include both spending cuts as well as new revenues. They understand as well as Obama and the Democrats that it's the only way to get this done in a fair and balanced way, in a way that is asking for shared sacrifice that does not protect the wealthy and the corporations at the expense of seniors, middle class families and small businesses and the second thing is that if this does go down, T.J.

And I hope that it doesn't, the Republicans will get the majority of the blame because Americans understand that Obama and the Democrats have put everything on the table, have not walked away once and it's Republicans who were being recalcitrant on this and that is political (INAUDIBLE) for them.

HOLMES: I know Lenny disagrees. I can only give you 15 seconds here. We're going to come back later. But (INAUDIBLE)

MCALLISTER: Fifteen seconds, the bottom line is the Republicans had $800 billion on the table. It's that last $400 billion that came out of nowhere that made Speaker Boehner walk away.

When you go these kind of gotcha moments in these late game negotiations, you're going to get this frustration from the Republicans and they're going to feel as though the Democrats are not as serious as they are claiming to be when they're out in front of cameras.

HOLMES: Lenny, you're going to have plenty more time to speak and so will you Maria because we brought you guys in early. It's an interesting day on Capitol Hill last night and certainly today as well, meeting coming up in two and a half hours at the White House.

Let's talk to both of you guys a little later throughout this morning on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Thanks, guys see you shortly and at 25 minutes the hour.

A quick break here folks. We're going to be right back. But that is the place. We have all eyes on them. Wish we had ears in the room. Debt talks coming up in two and a half hours. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're at the bottom of the hour now on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Reynolds Wolf here.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Well, 32 minutes past the hour.

It was an interesting day in Washington, D.C. last night. It's going to be another interesting day because another interesting meeting is taking place in two and a half hours at the White House. The President called congressional leaders back to the White House for an emergency meeting trying to come up with a deal on this debt ceiling.

But what if they don't come up with a deal by the August 2nd deadline? We'll tell you what will happen if they don't. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, thirty-five minutes past the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And we are just a couple of hours away from an emergency meeting at the White House. President Obama called Congressional leaders back to the White House. And said Republicans need to come and explain how they are going to keep the country out of default without a debt ceiling deal.

Talks broke down earlier this week when Speaker Boehner walked out of the meetings and last night things certainly got interesting; the President and the House Speaker, John Boehner, calling each other out on the debt ceiling. Listen to this back and forth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: That's what the American people are looking for is some compromise.

BOEHNER: They refused to get serious about cutting spending and making the tough choices that are facing our country on entitlement reform. So that's the bottom line.

OBAMA: The only bottom line that I have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election into 2013.

BOEHNER: I just want to tell you what I said several weeks ago. Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O.

OBAMA: It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of a deal.

BOEHNER: When you get into these negotiations, sometimes it's good to back away from the tree and take a look at the forest.

OBAMA: I think that one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is can they say yes to anything?

BOEHNER: I think that we can work together here on Capitol Hill to forge an agreement. And I'm hopeful that the President will work with us on that agreement.

OBAMA: So, here's what we're going to do. We have now run out of time. I've told Speaker Boehner, I've told Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, I've told Harry Reid and I've told Mitch McConnell I want them here at 11:00 tomorrow. We have run out of time and they are going to have to explain to me how it is that we are going to avoid default.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now we will replay, because a lot of you were out last night on your Friday night doing your thing; so we will replay both of those news conferences from the President and Speaker Boehner coming up at 10:00 Eastern Time.

So what happens though, folks? What happens if there is no deal? A lot of people are asking what if?

Well, our Lisa Sylvester breaks this down for you with some answers to what could happen if the debt ceiling is not raised?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If the debt ceiling is not raised it could have a catastrophic effect on Main Street.

The Treasury Department lays out a frightening scenario. As we near the beginning of August interest rates could increase if investors start to get spooked and it appears that the U.S. may not meet its financial obligations.

If Congress continues not to act Social Security and Medicare checks could be stopped or delayed. And services could be cut off to military families and unemployment benefits halted. The cost of borrowing for everything from a house to college tuition could rise steeply.

One economist at the Liberal Economic Policy Institute says the GOP is playing chicken with a freight train.

ANDREW FIELDHOUSE, ECONOMICS POLICY INSTITUTE: They are behaving like petulant children. They are not getting their way so they're refusing to act. But it's incredibly irresponsible and they better come to their senses well before August 2nd.

SYLVESTER: The doomsday scenario has many average folks worried.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm terrified, to be honest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we'll lose our credit rating so I guess next time when we need to borrow probably nobody will give us the money to borrow.

SYLVESTER: But Republicans are holding the line arguing the $14 trillion U.S. debt is a drag on the economy hindering job growth. They are demanding billions of dollars in spending cuts before signing off on raising the nation's debt ceiling by another $2.4 trillion. There are Americans who agree that the binge spending needs to stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think the debt should be raised anymore. I just think that we need to stop spending as much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should start paying off and figuring out ways to pay off the debt that we already have and then figure out, you know, how can we spend like this money properly so that we don't have to keep on raising the ceiling.

SYLVESTER: The U.S. government's debt ceiling has been raised repeatedly over the decades; 74 times since 1962.

Lisa Sylvester, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And our Brianna Keilar is standing by for us. She's reporting for us live at the White House. She's been with us all morning. We'll talk to her again in just a few minutes.

An update on these talks, what can we really expect of what's taking place at the White House. Here in just a couple of hours.

Well, did you know the name Wendi Deng before this week? A lot of people are, saying Deng after they saw what she did to protect her husband. She has become practically a household name now.

But coming up we'll explain a little more about her and her background and let you see the smack heard around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, about a quarter of the top of the hour.

I'm joined now by Nadia Bilchik, for our "Morning Passport". And this is a story that everybody was talking about this week, Wendi Deng.

Now, I'm going to ask you about her. But for our viewers, if you have not seen this video, we are talking about the wife of Rupert Murdoch, having the hearing in Parliament about his "News of the World" empire, that whole hacking scandal. Someone tried to throw a pie in his face. Look and listen to how she reacted.

NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: That's her in the pink jacket.

HOLMES: That's her.

BILCHIK: She leapt over.

HOLMES: Yes.

BILCHIK: And let's clarify, it wasn't a pie as such, it was a symbolic pie. It was actually a paper plate with some foam and the idea behind a pie --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: And there she is, folks. We're slowing it down, but that's her in the --

BILCHIK: Oh, good, yes.

HOLMES: And you see the arm go back and she just lets him have one. And everybody talked about this. It started a lot of debate about -- wow, she's really sticking up for her man.

BILCHIK: Yes. They're calling her -- It's her James Bond moment. That she is the heroine of hack-gate, all kinds of things. She certainly did. And he had hoped to pomper (ph) the pompous. That's the idea, puncture the pompous and humiliate the powerful is the idea behind pie-throwing as such.

HOLMES: But that was a very quick reaction by her. She became a household name and what-not. But there's a lot to this woman and her background actually.

BILCHIK: There is a lot to it and in fact a Taiwanese channel took this moment and animated it. And I have to show you this as you know.

HOLMES: OK. I have to see this.

BILCHIK: Hopefully we're about to --

HOLMES: Uh-oh, I hear them yelling in the background. It doesn't sound like we have it. You all let us know when you have it ready. But we can continue this --

BILCHIK: Because you must see as soon as we do have it. Wendi Deng has a very checkered past. She was first married to Jake Cherry an American that she met when she was just a young student in China. She was very good friends with Jake Cherry and his wife.

Here's the video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng pounced to the defense of her husband.

The assailant is a comedian who calls himself Johnny Marbles. People are curious how he managed to get past security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And people saw it there at the beginning. You get the idea though. People are having some fun with this. She became almost a cult hero.

BILCHIK: Exactly. She's going to be offered a movie role next.

HOLMES: And I'm sure. But continue what you were saying.

BILCHIK: So I was saying that she is a woman -- when she was a young woman in China she was studying medicine. She meets an American couple Jake Cherry and his wife, becomes friends with them. Moves back to America with them. And then has an affair with Mr. Cherry, who she marries. So that was apparently her first husband stealing.

And then Rupert Murdoch was married to Anna Murdoch for 32 years. And Anna Murdoch, they'll say, was very happily married. She says the first she heard that her husband was having an affair with Wendi Deng was when he asked her for a divorce.

So she must be quite a formidable woman and she certainly knows what she wants. She now has two little girls, Grace and Chloe, two young children. So she's insured of getting the Murdoch millions. I think we're going to see more of the power of Mrs. Murdoch.

HOLMES: Then again it's probably important to know that first marriage didn't last long. The one some are saying she just stayed married long enough to get her immigration status here in the country.

BILCHIK: A wily woman indeed and one you don't want to throw a pie in the face of.

HOLMES: Apparently not.

Nadia, we appreciate you as always. More to come on that story I'm sure here in the days and weeks ahead.

But coming up here in just a moment, NFL owners have signed it, sealed, not quite delivered. Why do we still have a hold up if the owners have signed off on an agreement? Well, I'm going to be talking to one player, one of the player reps will be here in studio with me in a moment. I'll hand him a pen and see if he's ready to sign that agreement.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. We're about ten minutes from the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

The NFL lockout we thought was about to be over because you see on Thursday the owners approved a deal and then we were told that all we had to do was wait for the players to approve it and we got football again. But not so fast. Take a listen to this, first of all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY JONES, DALLAS COWBOYS OWNER: At the end of the day, you do get roughed up. And I don't mean that physically but you do get roughed up and that's what the negotiation is about. We didn't get where I might have dreamed we could get to on some of these things but what I do know is that we did some things to help grow this league.

JEFFREY LURIE, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES OWNER: It allows for stability of the sport. The sport is already so popular. This allows us to just worry about football for the next ten years, how to grow the sport, how to make it safer, how to make it more fun.

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HOLMES: All right. So that deal is in place at least. The owners signed off, all of them. They voted unanimously. So now we're waiting on the players to sign this. So what is exactly the hold up?

Let me talk to one player -- one player rep from the Atlanta Falcons, Coy Wire here in studio with me. Good to see you, young fellow. Tell me first of all: are you ready to sign it?

COY WIRE, ATLANTA FALCONS PLAYER REPRESENTATIVE: Not quite yet.

HOLMES: Why not?

WIRE: Ready to -- as far as an emotional stand point we have to get this season started not only for us but for the fans as well. But this is a big deal. This is something that we really need to make sure that we're OK with because this is a ten-year commitment not only for us but players that are going to come after us who may still be in college now.

We need to make sure that all points of the deal are correct before we go ahead and sign.

HOLMES: Now, have you been able to get a look at the deal yourself just yet?

WIRE: No. Not yet.

HOLMES: So that's part of the problem.

WIRE: It's the problem. The owners allowed it to be thought by the general public that a vote would be made Thursday and that we can get this thing settled Thursday and it just wasn't the case. We had not even seen the proposal that they had ratified.

The last we saw a proposal was when we had our meeting in D.C. and there were still issues that remained opened. There are some things that need to be ironed out. And we went ahead and sent that back to the owners. We were supposed to collectively bargain to iron out those issues. And they knew that we hadn't seen the final proposal that they had ratified so how could we vote on something that we didn't even know was acceptable.

HOLMES: As you know, some of the words that were used by some your fellow players out there, sending out these tweets. You know, they can send out stuff instantly. But some that got a lot of attention we're talking about: "We were duped. We were hoodwinked by the owners and the league." Do you feel that way that in some way they duped you guys and you were hoodwinked on Thursday by the mood they made.

WIRE: Well, those are strong words and definitely get attention. I'm not going to use those words. But the owners are king businessmen.

HOLMES: That's how you want to put it.

WIRE: It's how they've matriculated to the upper echelons of the business world. And there's a reason why they are successful. They have an agenda. They have a plan. They're sticking to it, rightfully so.

It doesn't mean that it's our agenda and what's right for us as well. We need to make sure that we go through and make all the, you know, review of the proposal necessary to make it acceptable to us as well. HOLMES: You said you wouldn't use those strong words. A lot of the guys were reacting emotionally as you know. But after giving it some thought do you still think it was -- if you don't want to use those words -- was it a dishonest play? Was it disingenuous, even?

WIRE: I think it was a play for leverage. Since the beginning this has been all about leverage and who has the upper hand. Who can strong arm the other body of negotiators? And for them to be able to, you know, say that they ratified the proposal and now the ball is in our court made it took like it was up to the players to go ahead and get this thing started.

End the lockout when really -- you know, we didn't start the lockout. We've been wanting to -- the lockout to be lifted for some time. We wanted to go to work. We could have been collective bargaining while we had mini-camps, while we had off-season training. And their leverage the whole time has been the lock-out, to strangle players financially in hopes that it would cause fissures and cracks in our body of workers.

HOLMES: Last thing here, how important is it to you to win in the court of public opinion? Football is going the happen at some point. But how important is it when you do get back to football that the fans actually side with the players in this whole thing and say it's too bad for those guys. Versus saying, "Man I got to go to this game. I can't believe these guys put me through all this."

How important is it to you that they --

WIRE: Very important. We love our fans. It's what makes our games special and unique in this country and it's one of the things of which we're most proud that we have a body of fans who support us and rally behind us.

At the same time it's not about trying to win them over. I believe the truth wins out in the end and what's right wins out in the end. Even if it doesn't, it's known. And the players feel that we're doing the right thing, taking the time to do what's right for a group of workers who just want a fair deal for us and for the future of those of our kind. And so I believe justice and fairness in the end will show and will win.

HOLMES: All right. Coy Wire, he's a player rep and linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons. Looking forward to seeing you on the field at some point.

WIRE: Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

HOLMES: All right. Let me ask you, what do you think? Do you think the debt talk -- they'll get the debt ceiling worked out in Washington first or you all get a deal first in the NFL?

WIRE: God, I hope so. You know, we talk about football and it is a pertinent and significant issue in our country, but there's bigger matters at hand. HOLMES: We'll see which one happens first. Will they get a debt deal worked out or these guys get the lockout over with. We shall see.

Really, Coy, we appreciate you. Good to have you here.

WIRE: Thanks for having me.

HOLMES: All right. And we are watching D.C. because now we're just two hours away from that all-important meeting; an emergency meeting is being called after Speaker Boehner walked away from debt talks yesterday. The President said you get back over here today and that's happening in just a couple of hours; trying to keep the U.S. from defaulting on some of its loans.

Stay with us for that.

Also today, still developing and breaking story of that tragic attack in Norway; a couple of attacks. Authorities believe one person is responsible for both. We'll give you the very latest there.

Stay with us on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

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