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CNN Saturday Morning News

Perry Backers Says Mormonism a 'Cult'; 'Occupy Wall Street' Protests Continue; The Day Michael Jackson Died; Another Solar Company Gets Loan; Search for Kansas City Missing Child Intensifies; Candidates Attend Values Voters Summit; Prince Harry Training in U.S.; Students Want To Ban Leaf Blowers in Florida

Aired October 08, 2011 - 11:00   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, we are at the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

A major controversy at a Conservative Voters' Summit in Washington. A pastor backing Rick Perry calls Mitt Romney's religion a cult. A live report from the summit in a moment.

Also, don't fall for it, folks. There are some shopping tricks that are costing you money. Stores are carrying these tricks out on us because they know us. They have figured us out. We'll tell you what to do to avoid falling for them.

Also Britain's Prince Harry is in the U.S. for a visit that is going to last months. Find out what he's doing here and why the royal family might be a little nervous about his trip.

So let's start with that prominent pastor who backs Republican Rick Perry for president. He is now sparking a political firestorm at the Values Voters Summit in Washington. Shortly after introducing Governor Perry to the crowd of social conservatives, Texas Pastor Robert Jeffress talked to reporters saying Republicans should not take Mitt Romney as their nominee because he is Mormon, a religion the pastor described as a cult.

Later, CNN political correspondent, Jim Acosta gave Jeffress a chance to clarify his controversial comments. And he couldn't be any more clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you don't mind me saying, Pastor Jeffress, you created a bit of a stir coming out of that speech because in talking to reporters, you said in pretty strong, plain language what you think of Mormonism. You describe it as a cult. And you said that if a Republican votes for Mitt Romney, they're giving some credibility to a cult.

Do you stand by that comment?

REV. ROBERT JEFFRESS, SENIOR PASTOR, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF DALLAS: Oh, absolutely. And that's not some fanatical comment. That's been the historic position of evangelical Christianity. 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)

HOLMES: All right. And our Jim Acosta is there at that voters summit -- the Values Voters Summit.

Let's start with, I guess, several of these different camps. Let's start with Governor Perry, first of all. What was his response to the pastor's comments?

ACOSTA: Well, the Perry campaign put out a statement last night saying that Governor Perry does not believe Mormonism is a cult. But following Pastor Jeffress' comments, he was introducing the Texas governor yesterday here at the Values Voters Summit. Perry got up on the stage and said that Pastor Jeffress, in his words, hit it out of the park. So it's interesting that he would use that choice of words given what Pastor Jeffress' thoughts are on Mormonism.

And Mitt Romney picked up on that at his speech earlier this morning. He followed Bill Bennett, who is a prominent Christian conservative, T.J. And Bill Bennett went after Pastor Jeffress and his comments.

Let me first play Bill Bennett's comments and then I'll explain what Mitt Romney had to say about Bill Bennett after we play those comments. Here's Bill Bennett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BENNETT, CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL ANALYST: And I would say to Pastor Jeffress, you stepped on and obscured the words of Perry and Santorum and Cain and Bachmann and everyone else who has spoken here. You did Rick Perry no good, sir, in what you had to say.

And if I may say, I hope you have to announce this to the press in terms of the debate between Mormons and Evangelical Christians, I was there first; the one true holy Catholic and apostolic and universal church. And I forgive you all in the name of the father and the --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So Bill Bennett is trying to use some humor there to lighten the mood here. But Governor Romney, when he got up on stage after Bill Bennett, he said that Bill Bennett hit it out of the park. It was a subtle dig at Rick Perry, but it was a dig that everybody here at this conference completely understood.

And then later on in his speech, Mitt Romney had something else to say about another speaker at this even, this gentleman by the name of Brian Fisher with the American Family Association. He's another prominent social conservative who has criticized Mormonism and Mitt Romney said that poisonous language -- in his words -- does not advance our cause and has never softened a single heart nor changed a single mind.

Just for a brief few moments, Mitt Romney also talked about his faith. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our heritage of religious faith and tolerance has importantly shaped who we become as a people. We must continue to welcome faith into the public square and allow it to flourish. Our government -- our government must respect religious values, not silence them. We will always pledge our allegiance to a nation that is under God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, the Romney campaign, those that are close to Mitt Romney and the candidate himself, T.J., all thought they had dealt with this back in 2008 when the former Massachusetts governor ran for president, he gave that big speech at Texas A&M talking about his faith and trying to put this behind him.

But make no mistake, T.J., it is back in a big way. It really exploded at this conference here this weekend and it's going to be an issue for Mitt Romney as the days and months go on.

HOLMES: All right. Jim Acosta, thank you as always.

And to our viewers, I want you to take a look at a recent CNN/WMUR poll of likely Republican primary voters answering the question, do you think the country is ready to elect a Mormon president? 61 percent said yes, 25 percent no. The poll was conducted from September 26th to this past Thursday. It had a sampling error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

HOLMES: More now on Mormons.

You may not know a whole lot about the religion, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was founded by a farmer named Joseph Smith in the early 1800s. He said an angel guided him to a hill in New York State and there, according to church doctrine, Smith found golden tablets detailing how Christ visited an ancient civilization in the Americas. Those tablets are the basis for the book of Mormon.

Smith claimed he saw God and Christ in the flesh, on a hill in Palmyra, New York. He and his followers fled persecution in New York, headed out West, eventually settling in what became Utah.

Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are considered prophets and apostles of God. Mormons do believe in Christ and God and do consider themselves Christians.

Again, the pastor backing Perry says basically, Americans and basically he's saying that the Republicans, primary voters, they should not be voting for Romney because of his Mormon faith.

Well, it's seven minutes past the hour now.

Let's turn to these demonstrations we have been seeing in the streets. They are back in the streets today. The Occupy Wall Street protests continue to grow in their 22nd day now.

These scenes in New York where protesters first gathered and they camped out around the city's financial district. Protesting against a number of things including income disparities and corporate greed. The protests have spread far beyond New York to more than a dozen other cities coast to coast.

Hundreds of people marched through downtown Austin, Texas. Similar scene in Philadelphia. One of the leaders of the Occupy Wall Street group says protesters won't stop until their message reaches every single house in America.

So you might still be wondering, exactly what is the message of Occupy Wall Street? What is the message of these protesters across the country? What are they trying to get out?

Several of those protesters from the Occupy Atlanta organization, they joined me earlier in the NEWSROOM to shed some light on who they are and what they want.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM NICHOLS, OCCUPY ATLANTA PROTESTER: -- social and economic inequality has hit a tipping point. And people are hungry for getting involved and trying to do something to change it. When nine out of ten races in politics is won by the candidate with the most money. When, you know, one in four kids in Georgia now are in poverty; that's a 21 percent increase since the recession started.

People are struggling. It's almost like a -- I want the American Dream back movement.

HOLMES: John, what do you do to change it, though? Your voice -- you've got our attention. We've got you here. We've been covering the protests. Now what?

JOHN REYNOLDS, OCCUPY ATLANTA PARTICIPANT: I think the first step is acknowledgment. I mean, people coming together in unity, acknowledging these issues and saying we have to be more progressive, more ingenuity -- about coming up with solutions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, they went on to say that one of the most important things is that all Americans get involved in efforts to overcome the country's problems.

Meanwhile, President Obama, he's turning up the heat on Congress, trying to pass his $447 billion jobs plan. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the measure next week.

And in the President's weekly address, the President said his package of job cuts, infrastructure spending and job training assistance will put Americans back to work and prevent another economic downturn. And he issued this challenge to Republicans who oppose his bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is not the time for the usual games or political gridlock in Washington. So any senator out there who is thinking about voting against this jobs bill needs to explain why they would oppose something that we know would improve our economic situation. If the Republicans in Congress think they have a better plan for creating jobs right now, they should prove it. Because one of the same independent economists who looked at our plan just said, that their ideas, quote, "wouldn't mean much for the economy in the near term".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. So Republican Senator John Thune attempted to do some explaining to the President in his weekly -- at the Republicans' weekly address. Listen to this. .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: President Obama's policies are damaging our economy and his proposed solutions are not serious. It's nothing but a rehash of the same failed ideas he's already tried combined with a huge tax increase. This is a cynical political ploy that's designed not to create jobs for struggling Americans but to save the President's own job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, the Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week. Republican leaders, however in the House say the bill will not get a vote in that chamber.

Well, 10 minutes past the hour now. The breaking and sad news out of Oakland, California, the legendary owner of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, has died. The announcement coming on the team's Web site; we don't yet know a cause of death. He hasn't been in great health over the past several years.

But for the past 45 years, Davis had been serving as the team's general manager. He saw his teams win a number of championships, three super bowls in there. He was 82 years old. We'll have much more on Al Davis throughout the day. But the news we're just getting from the Oakland Raiders is that their legendary owner, Al Davis, has died.

We turn now to Steve Jobs and two days after his death, reportedly he was laid to rest at a private funeral yesterday. A source telling the "Wall Street Journal" that services were held at an unnamed location. The source says the funeral was a small family affair.

The Apple co-founder died Wednesday in California after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. The company says there will not be a public memorial ceremony for Steve Jobs.

Eleven minutes past the hour now.

What was Michael Jackson's doctor doing in the hours before and right after Jackson died? Stay here. You'll hear what jurors have been hearing all week.

Also, there's magic in that perfect fold at your favorite department store. Financial analyst Clyde Anderson has more some retail shopping secrets that are designed to get you to spend money and there's a good chance it's working on you.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Fourteen minutes past the hour now.

All week, we've been hearing more about Michael Jackson's final hours. Yesterday, before testimony wrapped up for the week, jurors were listening to Jackson's personal physician talking to detectives.

Here now our Ted Rowlands, following the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): T.J., the Murray trial ended the week with riveting testimony from Conrad Murray via an audio tape that jury listened as Murray talked to investigators and this was done just two days after Michael Jackson died.

He talked about the fact that when he came onboard to take care of Michael Jackson, he found out he'd be giving him Propofol on a daily basis. He said each and every night he put Michael Jackson to sleep using Propofol, except, he said, for the three days leading up to Jackson's death, he said he was trying to wean him off of Propofol and that was the only time that he didn't give it to him.

Listen carefully as Murray tells investigators what happened during those crucial minutes where Jackson was unresponsive.

DR. CONRAD MURRAY, MICHAEL JACKSON PERSONAL PHYSICIAN: And I came back to his bedside and was stunned in the sense that he wasn't breathing. Immediately, I checked for a pulse and I was able to get a thready pulse at the femoral region. His body was warm. There was no change in color.

I then lifted his leg, which can give you an auto transfusion and then I continued to do CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until paramedics came. And the paramedics came. They called UCLA. They hooked him up to the pulse oximeter. He was not breathing.

ROWLANDS: The headline from this audio, of course, is that Murray never mentions any of the telephone calls that we've already heard in court. Phone calls to his girlfriends and to his office staff during those critical periods. It's something that the defense will have to grapple with in closing arguments.

Looking forward to next week, what we're looking at is Monday is a dark day. There's no court at all. And on Tuesday, we'll hear the tail end of this audio tape. It's about a two-hour long tape. We got through about an hour and 40 minutes. So we'll finish that up. And then it will be cross-examination time of the detective that's on the stand - T.J.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Ted Rowlands.

And coming up next hour, you want to stick around to hear some of our legal experts. A couple of our best, Sunny Hostin and Holly Hughes. They're taking on the case, from the police interview to the girlfriends. It's all coming up with Kyra Phillips. She's coming up at the top of the hour. She'll check in here with me in a few minutes as well.

The next time you go shopping, it might be today. Whatever you do when you walk into that store, do not turn to the right. Our financial analyst, Clyde Anderson, is long to explain some of the shopping trips that you are -- or tricks that you are falling for.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, 20 minutes past the hour. Your favorite retailer is studying you, literally, watching you while you're shopping. They're figuring out what you're going to do and they're collecting that data and they're using it against you, trying to get you to spend even more money.

Earlier, I spoke with our financial analyst, Clyde Anderson and he tells us how to recognize some of these retail secrets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: How much time, energy, effort and money do they put into this kind of research?

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Millions of dollars.

HOLMES: Really?

ANDERSON: Millions of dollars. It's a big game. We have to realize the game. And we have to play it like it's a game. We don't know the rules a lot of times so we lose.

HOLMES: Ok. And they're spending millions because clearly, that gets us to spend millions in the store.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

HOLMES: All right. Here is one of the tricks. The display and even how they fold the clothes are mean to entice us how?

ANDERSON: It's called the magic fold.

HOLMES: Magic fold.

ANDERSON: It's the way they fold the clothes. It's a proper fold and it looks so neat there. But also you have that display with the wonderful model there with the shirt on that's wearing the shirt and you believe you're going to look like that model in the shirt there. So you're going to go ahead and purchase it. And it looks so neat there, standing there, you can't refuse that.

HOLMES: I just thought they stack them because you want a clean, neat store. But you say that plays on our mind.

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: It plays in your mind. It just looks so wonderfully stacked there, you want to go ahead and purchase that shirt.

HOLMES: Here we go. You're telling me buy one get one free is not a good deal sometimes?

ANDERSON: Not always. Sometimes it can be.

HOLMES: Come on, now. If I buy one and I get another one free, that's not a good deal? ANDERSON: Now, tell me this. Do you always know what the original price was? If you don't know what the original price was, how can you really know if you're really getting a deal. That's what you have to look for.

So if you don't know that, they could be already increasing the price to go ahead and give you that. Maybe they were just really trying to up their numbers, so the more units they sell, the better their numbers look.

HOLMES: Ok. I don't know about that one. If I want to get one free, that's always a good deal.

ANDERSON: Sounds good.

HOLMES: Now, here is the one, I teased a second ago. When you walk into the store, don't turn to your right. This is something we would never think about.

ANDERSON: They're anticipating that you're going to turn to the right. The majority of people in this country are right-handed. So what do we all automatically do? We turn to the right. And so they're going to put the higher cost items over to the right. And they're going to play the music a little bit louder there on the right-hand side to attract you over to that side.

And so the new items, the feature items, the things that are higher priced items, or higher ticket items, they're going to have them over there to the right.

HOLMES: So chances are you will -- aren't you going to eventually get around to that part of the store, anyway?

ANDERSON: Sometimes maybe, sometimes not. And it depends what you're going there to do. You may spend all your money before you get to the left.

HOLMES: Ok. And here's another and everybody probably knows this one. Those little things at the counters as you're standing there waiting to pay, you see all this little stuff around you.

ANDERSON: We should know. There are things that we should know. We've known this, we've talked about this, but we still fall for it. You know, it's the impulse items. So we're standing there, we're waiting at the register, that looks good. It's only a couple of bucks, I'll buy it. They know that you're going to do that. So that's why they strategically place them there for you to go and buy the stuff that you really don't need. It was not your intention when you came into the store to buy it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You fall for all of it, don't you?

Well, 22 minutes past the hour now. Still ahead, Britain's Prince Harry is living in the U.S., at least for now. We'll tell you what he's up to.

Also, how much will the Solyndra collapse hurt other solar energy companies who are looking for federal help. We'll take a closer look.

It's 23 minutes past the hour. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: 25 minutes past the hour now.

The White House has handed over 2,000 pages of e-mails related to that controversial Solyndra loan. Congress is investigating why the Administration backed the $535 million deal. A year later, Solyndra, which made solar panels, went bankrupt. More than 1,000 people lost their jobs.

At issue here is how much did the Obama White House know about Solyndra's financial problems and red flags raised by the Energy Department. One e-mail from an Energy Department adviser said the President is, quote, "breathing down my neck about this", end quote. And just weeks after Solyndra collapsed, another U.S. solar company is in line to get an even greater amount of taxpayer backed financing. But the company insists this time it's a good deal.

Here now our Casey Wian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The remote mining town of Tonopah, Nevada peaks during the early 1900s silver boom. When the last big mine shut down in 1947, Tonopah struggled. The historic Mizpah Hotel, once Nevada's tallest building, closed 12 years ago.

But locals say their future is brighter than ever. Mines are reopening and 600 new construction jobs are coming, thanks to Tonopah's other abundant natural resource, the sun.

KEVIN SMITH, CEO, SOLARRESERVE: It's called the Crescent Dune Solar Energy Facility. This is where the large towers -- about a 650-foot tower -- will be built here in the middle of the facility. And then that tower surrounded by a field of mirrors, about 17,000 extremely large mirrors that focus the sun's energy at the top of this tower.

WIAN: Reflected sunlight will be collected by a receiver and heat molten salt to 1,000 degrees. That will be combined with water to produce steam generated electricity starting in 2013. Solar Reserves investors have put up $260 million. Construction began in September.

But the entire project hinged on help from the Energy Department still reeling help collapse another solar company, Solyndra.

(on camera): Last week Solar Reserve received final approval for a $737 million federal loan guarantee to finish this project. That's $200 million more than Solyndra received before it filed for bankruptcy. But Solar Reserves says it has little in common with Solyndra. (voice-over): Solar Reserves has a 25-year contract with the Nevada Power Company to provide enough electricity for up to 75,000 homes.

SMITH: Our financing is based on electricity projects, selling electricity. Solyndra's was a manufacturing facility, manufacturing PV panels.

WIAN: Photo voltaic solar panel manufacturers have been crippled by competition from China. Solyndra was further hurt by a bad technology bet. Companies in other segments of the solar industry say they're being unfairly tarnished by Solyndra's collapse.

(on camera): How confident are you as the CEO of this company that American taxpayers are not going to be left on the hook for $737 million that you received in federal loan guarantees?

SMITH: We're very comfortable. The (INAUDIBLE) loan guarantee, We think it's a very good investment by the U.S. government; investment in jobs and investment in technology.

WIAN (voice-over): But it's an investment some say is misplaced.

SEVERIN BORENSTEIN, U.C. BERKELEY MASS BUSINESS SCHOOL: These industries, solar PV, solar thermal and other alternative energy producers have real economic disadvantages and continuing to invest in the current technologies for alternative energy production is not likely to yield big payoffs.

SMITH: The Chinese are pouring 20 times the money we are into their technologies. We can either decide to try and compete or we can withdraw from the market and let everybody else lead that market.

WIAN: Back in town, restaurants welcomed the Solar project. Hotels are booked solid and the Mizpah has reopened.

JAMES EASON, TONOPAH TOWN MANAGER: It's just a long time coming, a lot of hard work and it was a big relief knowing that the DOE funding came through.

WIAN: But two other federally backed solar projects worth nearly $3 billion have been delayed recently as Solyndra cast its shadow over solar.

Casey Wian, CNN, Tonopah, Nevada.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And as we come up on the bottom of the hour, coming up, a ten-month old girl goes missing. Police now say the parents are becoming less cooperative in the investigation.

We will have the latest on the search for that little one, Baby Lisa.

We're live in Kansas City, stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: It's at the bottom of the hour now on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Take a look here. Some of these folks are upset. After 10 years now of the Afghan war, they want it to be over. Hundreds of protesters, among them Veterans and their families marched through Washington, D.C. yesterday carrying signs that said fund jobs, no war. Protest ended at the Martin Luther King Memorial.

We'll tell you what angers them. America has lost nearly 1800 service members during the war, another 14,000 came home wounded. This cost taxpayers some $323 billion and counting.

I want to turn to Kansas now. For the parents of a missing 10-month- old baby insists they have never stopped helping police find what happened to little Lisa Irwin, their baby. At one point, the Kansas City Police said the couple was no longer cooperating with the investigation. And today, the search expanded to a landfill.

Our Ed Lavandera is there for us in Kansas City.

Ed, what led them to want to search landfills?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What I'm gathering from talking to police contacts here in Kansas City is that they're just kind of doing whatever they can. They're basically saying publicly here that they have no leads to follow, so they're just trying to think of things that might be possibilities at this point and that's why you saw the search yesterday at the landfill, FBI helping out in that search. That didn't turn up anything.

After many days working here in this neighborhood, they returned here yesterday with metal detectors and they were working a wooded area back in this area behind the house, T.J. they've been talking again to neighbors who live around the family here, as well.

So they continue to do all of that simply because they're really just trying to come up with a wide array of theories as to what might have happened because they have no solid leads.

Add to that the confusion that has been going on with this family and the he said she said about whether or not this family of 10-month-old Lisa Irwin is cooperating with authorities. On Thursday, the police here in Kansas City said that the family had abruptly stopped cooperating.

The family saying yesterday that that's not true, that they continue to work with authorities, although we've talked to a couple family members that say they simply just don't want to be sitting in an interrogation room at the police headquarters for hours and hours on end.

So, one family member is saying, look, we think there's just been a high deal of miscommunication. But despite that, the mother of Lisa Irwin is saying that she was told by police that she failed a polygraph test. And, of course, that has made a lot of people suspicious of her.

Family members are saying that they still have full faith in her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL LERETTE, DEBORAH BRADLEY'S COUSIN: Absolutely. There's zero, zero doubt in Deborah. You know, I don't want to go into it too much, but, you know, the police are doing their job, you know. If you don't have any other suspects, you go to the one person that was there that night, you know, the last person to see her, you know -- you know. Who else do you point your finger at?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And T.J., the last thing that the family -- or the mother of Lisa Irwin says that she had put her to bed on Monday night. It wasn't until Tuesday early -- morning about 4:00 in the morning when the baby's father had come home from working an overnight shift and discovered that the baby was missing.

So we are going on quite some time. There has been no update as to where this baby is and of course, the more time passes, the more scary this situation becomes -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Ed Lavandera for us in Missouri, thank you.

Meanwhile, we'll turn back to presidential politics here and Republican presidential candidates are converging on Washington this weekend for the Values Voters Summit. It's a huge gathering of social conservatives; just about every major GOP candidate is attending the event in an effort to win over this key voting block and first on the stage today was Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And our liberties and our economy, they are under attack today. There is no doubt about it. So we will have to meet up and make these decisions.

To me, the most important decision that we have to ask is, is that they ask, you know, in Biblical times as well as at the time of our founding of this country, what should governing be like? What should the role of government be?

It isn't, you know, where do you cut this penny or this penny and what do we do here and there and tinker around the edges, it should be what should the role of government be? The founders said the role of government ought to be the protection of liberty. That is what the goal of government ought to be.

But the experiment is about to end unless we reverse this trend. I would say that we have gone downhill nearly for 100 years especially for the last ten years and especially for the last four when we think of our economy. But the real challenges are we going to transition from the republic to the empire and to dictatorship? And there are so many signs that we are, you know, transforming into empire and dictatorship and just think of the bearing down on our personal liberties today.

Think about what happens when we go to the airports. Think about now you have no privacy whatsoever. Now, the government can look into every single thing.

So we are living in an age where government is way too big and it's time this government act properly and that is to protect our freedoms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mitt Romney hit the stage not too long after Congressman Paul. He blasted President Obama's economic policies, maybe no surprise there, and he also did not mention the controversial comments by a pastor who backs his rival, Rick Perry. Pastor Robert Jeffress really sparked a firestorm, this is an influential Texas pastor, when he said Republicans should not nominate Mitt Romney because Romney is a Mormon, a religion the pastor described as a cult.

We are 38 minutes past the hour and it's a royal visit. It is going to last two months. Prince harry is in the United States, but this is no vacation. We'll explain, next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, it's about 20 minutes of the top of the hour. Let's say good morning to Reynolds Wolf who just made a little fun of me here.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Well, we're getting about 16 minutes up to the top of the hour, and Britain's Prince Harry is in the United States. He is here to learn all he can about attack helicopters, at least that's what he's supposed to be doing.

The story now from CNN's Max Foster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Prince Harry has already been to war, serving on the front lines in Afghanistan in 2008. Then he was on foot. But if he returns, it will be by air. Harry is about to qualify to fly this, the deadly Apache attack helicopter, fully loaded with rockets, hellfire missiles and a 30 millimeter chain gun.

This may look like Afghanistan, but it's Arizona and the setting for the final part of Harry's Apache training. The course is called Exercise Crimson Eagle, and those who have done it before talk of the white knuckle moments when you fire a live missile for the very first time.

It will be a first for Harry, too, and a reality check for someone referred to as the party prince, in some parts of the press. It's perhaps worth noting that just a few hours' drive from Harry's training base in Arizona is the city that builds itself as the entertainment capital of the world. It is, of course, Los Angeles.

We're not expecting any media access to Harry while he's in the U.S., but there will be a few photographers holding out for a shot of him here. Prince harry is due to return to the U.K. in December for more exercises. But no word yet on when he might be redeployed to the front line.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, I'm at a quarter to the top of the hour and Fredricka Whitfield, normally with us at the top of the hour, she's not here today, but we've got a special guest anchor who we'll be checking in with here in just a moment. Stick around for that after the break.

Also, a civil rights leader celebrating a lifetime of service as he turns 90 years old, we will hear from Reverend Joseph Lower. He's joined me in studio a short time ago. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're just so excited. Look at who we got in the building. Look at this. I say we had a guest anchor and I'm going to talk to her in a second. I just wanted to let you all see her.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm only here because I knew T.J. was working. That's the only reason why I came in.

HOLMES: People say that all the time and nobody believes it, Kyra. We'll get back to Kyra in a second.

But the Reverend Joseph Lowery, he has been right there for some of the most iconic moments of the civil rights movement. He was also right there for the inauguration of the country's first black president and the Reverend Lowery is now celebrating his 90th birthday this week. He joined me right here in the studio this last hour to talk about his big birthday bash, civil rights and also the republican presidential lineup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The man I think is probably one of the more expensive fellows in that line is Huntsman. But they don't pay any attention to him. They're interested in Herman Cain, bless his heart.

HOLMES: What do you mean, bless his heart?

LOWERY: He's having the time of his life. He would give 10 years of his life for what's happening to him now. And I'm happy for him. I don't think he realizes that they're using him.

HOLMES: What do you mean, using him? LOWERY: I think they're using Herman to send their resistance against Romney and Perry and the other fellows who are up top in the money raising. If you'll notice, I don't think Herman's money is anywhere near reaches his votes in the popularity contest.

HOLMES: You're right.

LOWERY: And that's how you can measure how much support he has, by how much money he raises.

HOLMES: Now, what would you think? A few years back people didn't think we would have a black president. But what would you say about the day people go to the voting booth and their options are to vote for the democrat, a black man and a Republican, a black man? What would you think of that?

LOWERY: Incredible. I didn't think in 1965 when we succeeded in getting the voting rights passed, Martin and others of us talked about the fact that we would never live to see an African-American president. We thought there'd be one, but none of us would live to see it.

Unfortunately Martin didn't, but thank god, he did let me live long enough to see it, and not only see it, but participate. But I didn't think we would. So I take the same position, a black Democratic candidate and a black Republican candidate -- I don't think I'll live to see that, and I don't think you will, either.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: Well, you're here, you're 90 years old this week. You've got a big birthday celebration happening this weekend. But I don't know what 90 is supposed to feel like. What does 90 feel like?

LOWERY: It feels just like 89. And 89 feels good for 89 and 90 feels good for 90.

HOLMES: Now, here we are, just days ago, Fred Shuttlesworth, someone who you knew very well was right there with you all to help found the SCLC, march on the streets with you, he died. What is the significance of the elder statesmen, the civil rights era guys like you getting older? What's the significance of us losing those guys over time, those men and women over time?

LOWERY: Well, time moves on. And as much as we might regret it, we are all going to answer that bell when it tolls for us.

But god has rams in the bush. And I think you'll see from time to time leaders will come forward. And the leadership is proliferating. Back in those days, we depended on civil rights people for almost all the leadership. But now leadership comes from all corners. We have leaders in business, leaders in science, leaders in education, and we are experiencing and widespread proliferation of leadership that I think is healthy for the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: All right and as I mentioned, we have a special -- they're all special guest anchors, but this is something else.

PHILLIPS: This is the favorite part of your day where you get to chit chat usually with Fredricka?

HOLMES: It is because she brings the news, she brings a lot of energy and brings some class to my show.

PHILLIPS: She is very sophisticated, let me tell you.

HOLMES: Yes, but this is nice to sit up and have a good conversation.

PHILLIPS: You and I can get into trouble though, the way you and I chitchat.

HOLMES: No, you get me into trouble is usually the problem.

PHILLIPS: T.J. and I always have a good time.

HOLMES: Well, good morning.

PHILLIPS: Good morning. We have a lot coming up. Holy cow, first shift, I'm going to be going until 5 o'clock.

HOLMES: Oh, yes, yes.

PHILLIPS: This is like the energizer bunny shift.

HOLMES: Yes, we get it done on the weekends.

PHILLIPS: It's like 12 shows.

HOLMES: That's how we get down on the weekends. Welcome to it.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Hey, I remember doing the weekends, had a great time, yes, many, many years ago. Conrad Murray, of course, that's the first thing that we want to talk about. That will be coming up in the next hour. You know, our legal beagles, right? We have this segment with Sunny Hostin and Holly Hughes is here. They always get very saucy. That's for sure. They've got their opinions, very strong willed women. You like strong willed women though.

HOLMES: Of course I do and I love those two you're going to have on.

PHILLIPS: Yes and we're going to talk about the fact that we're going to actually hear from Conrad Murray's girlfriend so that should be interesting.

HOLMES: And how many did we get up to?

PHILLIPS: There's been a handful.

HOLMES: A handful, OK.

PHILLIPS: So you've been talking about that, right? HOLMES: We have been talking about the trial. A lot of people, you know, they try to follow it but on the weekend, this is a good time for us to get people caught up. So yes, we've been talking about Conrad Murray.

PHILLIPS: All right, also, the Baptist preacher.

HOLMES: Yes, everybody's talking about it.

PHILLIPS: You've been talking about this all morning. Yes, coming forward, he had to introduce Rick Perry at the summit. You remember this moment with our Jim Acosta, he says Mormonism is a cult, don't vote for Mitt Romney. All right, we're going to actually interview him in the 2:00 p.m. Eastern hour.

Then, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, the life of a transgender, you're going to hear from two women who changed their lives from being men and they say, hey, don't stereotype us. Don't call us freaks. We are normal. We have fantastic lives. You're going to hear their personal stories.

And then, T.J., something that -- I can't believe it's been ten years since 9/11, the war started in Afghanistan. You know my military background. I've done a lot of training; have maintained a lot of sources through the years.

You're actually going to see this piece I put together a decade ago when I got exclusive access to the air wing that was getting ready to bomb Tora Bora. Their mission was to take out Osama Bin Laden and I'm going to talk to the captain who has since retired that was leading that mission and talk about that day. And I mean, I knew what was going to happen and I couldn't tell America. I knew we were going to war. I knew we were going to bomb Tora Bora. I knew they wanted to take Osama Bin Laden out. Now a decade later, I'm actually going to be able to talk about what it was like behind the scenes.

HOLMES: That was again, how long before the first bomb started falling, that piece you did?

PHILLIPS: That was -- they were getting ready to drop the first bomb. Yes, 9/11 had just happened. The terrorists struck our country and the military was getting ready to respond immediately, within weeks.

HOLMES: Ten years later.

PHILLIPS: I know. Isn't that incredible, a decade?

HOLMES: All right. Kyra Philips is here at the top of the hour. She's just about four minutes away. A quick break though, we're right back. Stay here, folks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, before you do that yard work, you need to hear this. Your neighbors might not appreciate it. All right, you know those leaf blowers, the blowers, they're pretty loud can be annoying to some people. But should they actually be banned? Well, they will be in Florida if some college students get their way.

Listen to this story from our affiliate WPTV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN COCHRAN, WPTV REPORTER: (voice-over): It's a common sound across South Florida, the leaf blower. Not everyone likes it and this group wants this piece of equipment and all that comes with it, banned in all of Palm Beach County.

ELIZABETH BACHELDER, S.A.V.E. MEMBER: And you can't have any type of conversation. You can't even hear your music. You can't hear the birds. It's very annoying.

COCHRAN:: Some Palm Beach State college students are calling themselves S.A.V.E., Students Against Volatile Emissions, and this week they will urge county commissioners to ban the use of leaf blowers effective January 1, 2012.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think there is too many of us that haven't had a conversation over the phone and have one of those walk by and say, hold on a minute, you know, wait until the groundskeeper goes past.

COCHRAN:: It's not just the noise but also the health and environmental impacts, S.A.V.E. says a leaf blower brings. Ray Alvarez, who owns Pro Lawn Care Plus, says such a ban would take away one of the most efficient tools he has.

RAY ALVAREZ, OWNER, PRO LAWN CARE PLUS: If we can't use this, it's like cutting our own arm, you know, to do the job we need to do.

COCHRAN:: Alvarez said the leaf blower works much faster than cleaning up with the broom. He says, saving time, saves money.

ALVAREZ: It's probably not going to be as easy, as fast and as cost effective for the customer.

COCHRAN:: Still, S.A.V.E. wants commissioners to listen to its message so that no one in Palm Beach County will be listening to this.

Dan Cochran, WPTV News, Channel 5.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: How's the noise in your neighborhood, Kyra?

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what, I would not be upset losing all the leaf blowers in my neighborhood.

HOLMES: Really?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

HOLMES: Don't you need those perfectly manicured lawn for beautiful street, increases the home value? PHILLIPS: I do that. I do that.

HOLMES: OK.

PHILLIPS: Yes. And I do it with a rake, OK?

HOLMES: That's the old school. Come on. Nobody rakes and sweeps.

PHILLIPS: We're old school around here. You know that, T.J.

HOLMES: Good to see you today.

PHILLIPS: Good to see you, too. Happy morning. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

HOLMES: Thank you so much. Have a good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: OK.

HOLMES: You're going to be on I think until midnight.

PHILLIPS: I know. Exactly (ph).

HOLMES: Talk to you.

PHILLIPS: See you at 2:00 A.M., pal.

HOLMES: All right.