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CNN Saturday Morning News

Pastor Critical of Romney; Prostate Test Confusion; Three Women Win Nobel Peace Prize

Aired October 08, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, two minutes past the hour here.

You're seeing a live picture of presidential candidate Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, addressing a group of conservative voters there in Washington, D.C. This is the Values Voter Summit that's been going on. Most of the presidential candidate candidates, if not all, making comments there. Herman Cain, Mitt Romney will be up a little later today, a little later this morning, as well.

But Ron Paul just taking the stage. Let's listen in for a quick moment.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- it has always been the reaction of the sibling, maybe one, two, three or four years old. I was always fascinated with the intrigue of the sibling looking at a small baby. And I thought, well, that was natural and good, and it really symbolizes what a family is all about.

Unfortunately, our families have been under attack. And I have a few ideas about why that has occurred, and what we might do about it.

But the value of the family was something that was early described in the Bible, and there's one reference to the family that I thought was very important. And that was in Samuel, the first Samuel, chapter eight, and this is when the people, not the elders, came to Samuel, when he was very old, and they knew he would be passing on.

So the people came and said to Samuel, what we need is a king. We need a king to take care of us. We want to be safe and secure. In Samuel, although he knew he wasn't going to be around long, he advised the people of Israel not to accept the king, because the king, he warned, would not be generous.

(END OF LIVE COVERAGE)

HOLMES: Just listening in for a moment there, as he is just getting started at his speech at the Values Voter Summit. A collection of conservatives there, it's been going on the past couple of days. Most, if not all, of the Republican presidential candidates addressing that forum. We'll see Mitt Romney address them here in just a bit this morning, as well.

But it really was yesterday at that Values Voter Summit that a controversy really sparked, because Reverend Robert Jeffress, you might not know the name, but he is an influential person that you're going to be hearing a whole lot more about. He is the head of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, and he caused the stir because of something he said about Mitt Romney. He actually said that Mitt Romney is a part of a cult.

Now, our Jim Acosta is there at that Values Voter Summit for us.

You pick up the story from there, if you would, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., it's a difficult story to tell, because it is so very complicated. But basically, here's how it goes. Yesterday, here at the Values Voter Summit, that pastor that you mentioned, Robert Jeffress from First Baptist Church of Dallas was giving the introductory comments for Rick Perry.

Pastor Jeffress is an endorser of Rick Perry, wants to see him elected president. And it was during these introductory comments that Pastor Jeffress said something very interesting. He said, "We want a candidate who is a good moral person or do we want a candidate who is a born-again follower of Jesus Christ?"

That was a not so subtle dig at Mitt Romney. And so when Pastor Jeffress walked out of the ballroom, he was peppered by reporters with questions about what exactly did he mean by that?

And Pastor Jeffress did not mince words. He said that he believes that Mitt Romney is not a Christian. That he says Mitt Romney is a Mormon and Mormonism is part of a cult, and so therefore Republicans should vote for Rick Perry because he is a Christian.

Now all of this obviously cause a huge uproar. We asked the Perry campaign well did you know that Pastor Jeffress was going to make these comments? They said it was the event organizers who set up Pastor Jeffress as the introductory speaker.

We went to the people who were sponsoring this conference, the Family Research Council, and asked them about, well, who put this pastor before Rick Perry. And the event organizers said, well, we came up with the pastor, but we ran it past the Perry campaign first, and the Perry campaign green lighted the pastor.

So, you know, there is a bit of a controversy here over how did this pastor come to be the introductory speaker for Rick Perry. I asked Pastor Jeffress yesterday about his comments and whether he stands by them, that Mitt Romney is part of a religion that he considers to be a cult.

Here's what he had had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. ROBERT JEFFRESS, SENIOR PASTOR, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF DALLAS: The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest Protestant denomination of the world, has officially labeled Mormonism as a cult. I think Mitt Romney's a good moral man, but I think those of us who are born again followers of Christ should always prefer a competent Christian to a competent non-Christian, like Mitt Romney.

So that's why I'm enthusiastic about Rick Perry.

ACOSTA: But what do you say to those voters out there who say that religion, his Mormonism, shouldn't be an issue in this campaign? He's just as American as everybody else?

JEFFRESS: Oh, I agree he's just as American as anyone else. And Article Six of the Constitution prohibits --

ACOSTA: And Mormons do say they are Christians.

JEFFRESS: Yes.

ACOSTA: They say that. They believe in Jesus Christ.

JEFFRESS: A lot of people say they're Christians and they're not. But they do not embrace historical Christianity. And I, again, believe that as Christians we have the duty to prefer and select Christians as our leaders. That's what John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, said.

And, again, I think when we've got a choice as evangelicals, between a Rick Perry and a Mitt Romney, I believe evangelicals need to go with Rick Perry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And we asked the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormon church, for a response to this. They did not give us a comment, they directed us to their website which states that the Mormon church does believe in Jesus Christ. They believe he is the son of god and their savior.

Obviously, there are evangelical Christians, T.J., who disagree with all this. And we even reached out to the Romney campaign, because he is speaking, as you mentioned, within the hour, what their response is to all of this, and they had no comment.

Governor Romney dealt with all of this back in the 2008 campaign, T.J. You will remember, he gave a big speech, at Texas A&M about his religion. There were comparisons made to the case that John F. Kennedy had to make back in 1960 about his Catholicism and how that would not get in the way of him being president of the United States.

Mitt Romney thought he passed that test back in the 2008 campaign, but it is back all over again for the former governor of Massachusetts -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Jim Acosta for us at the Values Voter Summit in D.C. and when Mitt Romney steps up, we'll certainly monitor his comments this morning. Also, take a look at how likely the Republican primary voters answered the question in a recent CNN WMUR poll. Is the country ready to elect a Mormon president? Sixty-one percent say yes, 25 percent say no. The poll was conducted from September 26th to this past Thursday and has a sampling margin of plus or minus six percentage points.

And it wasn't too terribly long ago that Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain was seeing single digits in the polls and given little regard in his campaign for the White House. That was then. This is now. His political stock has risen significantly in recent GOP polls and in Friday at that same voters - Values Voter Summit, Cain made fun of the so-called experts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Three months ago, the pundits - the political pundits said Herman Cain can't get the nomination. Herman Cain cannot win the presidency, because he doesn't have high-name I.D., he doesn't have a kajillion dollars, and he has never held public office. But let me tell you what the American people are saying. They don't care about a kajillion dollars. America wants to raise some Cain, not raise more money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Cain went on to slam the Occupy Wall Street Movement. And said the protesters are anti-capitalists.

Well, 10 minutes past the hour now. How about this for a fitness goal? One man says he wants to run on the surface of the moon. And we don't think he's kidding.

Meanwhile, let's say good morning once again to our Reynolds Wolf.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Wow. That's interesting. That's - that's what you call a tease in broadcasting.

HOLMES: Stick around, Reynolds.

WOLF: That's incredible. I definitely will.

Hey, something maybe (INAUDIBLE) weekend is rain in Texas. I know we've gone from the really dry conditions of the summer and now we're making the transition into fall and the rain is going to be coming down like a box of hamburgers. This is going to be really rough, especially in places like Midland and Odessa.

We're going to talk about that coming up in a few moments, T.J.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, about a quarter past the hour. Some of the stories making headlines cross-country. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was laid to rest Friday in a small, private service near Palo Alto, California. The 56-year-old tech visionary died Wednesday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56 years old. Also take a look at Oklahoma City. You see this, a ruptured oil pipeline sent crude oil high into the air and into a nearby pond. The family next to that pond had to be evacuated. Crews are working to stop the leak and trying to contain this spill.

Also, a few years back, you remember Jonathan Prince ran from L.A. to New Orleans to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims. Well, he's running again. But this time, he wants to run on the moon. He says he wants to do it to raise awareness about space travel. Reynolds, do you recommend that? Is it possible? Can you really run on the moon?

WOLF: That whole gravity thing gets kind of crazy.

HOLMES: It's an issue.

WOLF: And getting up there is kind of tough too. You know, really, really tough. And, you know - who wants to run - you need some kind of fuel, and just tang and, you know, freeze dried food - do you know what I'm saying?

HOLMES: I do know what you're saying.

WOLF: I know you do.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WOLF: T.J., my friend, you are up to speed. That's your forecast. Back to you.

HOLMES: Reynolds, thank you. We'll see Reynolds here again shortly.

And coming up, some important health information after a controversial and now confusing recommendation. Men should not get screened for prostate cancer? It seems to go against exactly what we have been told for years and years. But an influential government panel is about to make that recommendation. We'll explain. And we've got a doctor here to tell us exactly what we should do with this information now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, fellas, listen up, and any woman out there who loves some man in your life, you need to listen as well. This is a very important health story. It has some life-saving information now we're about to pass along to you about prostate cancer. Because a government panel now saying that the PSA blood test, the one that screens for prostate cancer that so many of us have been told we need to make sure we get, we're being told it's no longer needed for healthy men. An influential government panel says the screenings sometimes do more harm than good.

Listen to one member of this government task force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL LEFEVRE, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI: The common perception that PSA based early detection of prostate cancer prolongs lives is not supported by the scientific evidence. The risks are very real. Unfortunately, the benefits seem to be from the best science that we have, somewhere between small and none.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. And I'm joined now by Dr. Omer Kucuk. He is with Emory University and you say when we were talking during the commercial break, we need to "unconfuse" people right now. This is very important. So based on these recommendations coming out now, they're saying that this screening we've all been told to get, we don't need it anymore.

Do you agree with that recommendation?

DR. OMER KUCUK, WINSHIP CANCER INSTITUTE, EMORY UNIV.: Well, the recommendation is that screening should not be done. However, we have to put everything into context.

Prostate cancer is very prevalent, it's the number one cancer in men. There are over 240,000 men who will get prostate cancer this year alone and the numbers will only increase. Because of the ageing population, the numbers will go to 250,000, 260,000 over the foreseeable future. Yet, 40,000 or more American men will die of prostate cancer every year.

So it can be a deadly disease. Yet it is easily preventable and when caught early, it is a curable disease.

HOLMES: OK. But we're told to catch it early by doing this PSA testing and this panel is telling us, do away with the testing. What are we supposed to make of that?

KUCUK: Right. I think first of all, the message is, it is a preventable disease. Physical activity, exercise, it's easily preventable. You can cut down the prostate cancer risk by 30 percent, just by doing 30 minutes of exercise a day and a diet that's rich in vegetables, especially tomato products can prevent prostate cancer.

If we can't prevent it, we have to catch it early. It is clear that we can cure the disease if we catch it early. We can only cure it if it's caught early at an early stage and you need to do surgery and radiation, of course, to cure it. But you have to catch it at an early stage. And the only test we have right now to catch it early is PSA test.

HOLMES: OK.

KUCUK: Until we come up with a better test, I think it is important to continue with testing. And to catch the disease at an early stage when it's still curable.

HOLMES: OK. Doctor, what are people supposed to do? Because this is so confusing to them now. And this is certainly personal for me, Reynolds, both of us, father, grandfather, have dealt with prostate cancer. And now we have this very influential panel telling us don't do the PSA testing.

So, doctor, how much harm can something like this do, a recommendation, for men who have been told to do this and now they're told not? I mean we still can't make heads or tails of what we're supposed to do.

KUCUK: Right. I think it's important to know that there are populations that are particularly at a high risk for prostate cancer.

HOLMES: That's for sure, yes.

KUCUK: And we need to continue to screen people who have a high risk, who have a family history, who have risk factors like being overweight and lack of physical activity. But I think in general, if you see - I see men in their 40s and 50s with prostate cancer and dying four or five years later. So it is important to know that you can cure this disease. And men at the age of 40 or 50, if you catch prostate cancer, that man has another potential life span of another 30, 40 years.

HOLMES: OK.

KUCUK: So it is important to know that this disease is not going to wait around for 30, 40 years. It will kill the person within 10 years, 15 years. But still, that's a lot of life span lost.

HOLMES: OK. That recommendation, as we wrap, people - what do I do now? The recommendation from the American Cancer Society and even you to do what?

KUCUK: We still recommend that men over the age of 50 get screened and men at high-risk even start earlier.

HOLMES: OK. Simple as that. Dr. Kucuk, we appreciate you so much. This controversy is not going to go away but important information this morning. We appreciate you coming in.

KUCUK: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. We're getting close to the bottom of the hour now. Did you know we haven't seen a woman get the Nobel Peace Prize since 2004? But this year, not just one woman, but three sharing the award. We'll introduce you to them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, it has been seven years since a woman won the Nobel Peace Prize, but this year in Oslo, the Nobel Committee singled out not one, not two, but three female activists for risking their lives, pushing for peace, women's rights and gender equality. So three women will share the prize this year.

One of them, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. You may know that name and the face. She, the current president of Liberia, also Africa's first democratically-elected female president. She is a Harvard-educated economist and seen as a reformer and peace-keeper in her country. Also from Liberia and sharing in the prize, Leymah Gbowee. She played a key role in helping to bring peace to Liberia, following 14 years of war.

Also sharing in the prize, the first Arab woman to ever win the prize. Tawakkul Karman, she before, during and after the Arab Spring, she played a leading role in the struggle for women's rights and democracy and peace in Yemen.

So congratulations to the three of them. They will split the $1.5 million Nobel Peace Prize money. The award shows the growing role of female empowerment in developing nations.

Well, coming up next hour, a treat here in our 10:00 Eastern hour. We're going to say happy birthday to the dean of the civil rights movement. Reverend Joseph Lowery will be here in studio with me.

But I thank you for being here with us. I'll be back with you at the top of the hour, 10:00 Eastern time, for more live news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)