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CNN Saturday Morning News

Today is Bank Transfer Day; Outrage Over Photo I.D.

Aired November 05, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

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T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Just crossing the top of the hour on this CNN Saturday morning. Hello to you all, give you a look at some of the stories making headlines, jurors in the Conrad Murray trial, they're home for the weekend, resume deliberations on Monday, Michael Jackson's former doctor has pled not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death.

Also, big banks may be in for a big surprise today, because today is bank transfer day or move your money day. A frustrated small business owner started the movement to get bank customers to close their accounts at the big banks and move their cash to credit unions or smaller banks. A similar movement again is called move your money day whatever want you to call it move your money, bank transfer, it's all today.

Also, an early morning earthquake woke up people in central Oklahoma today, 4.7 magnitude quake, centered about 45 miles east of Oklahoma City. There are unconfirmed reports of several aftershocks. No reports yet of any major damage or injuries.

We got the news just a bit ago. The sad news, that Andy Rooney has died at the age of 92. This comes just weeks after he signed of from "60 Minutes." He had been with CBS for some 60 years, 30 of those with "60 Minutes" doing those classic essays at the end of every show. He died after complications from a minor surgery. I talked to one of his former CBS colleagues, Bob Arnot, just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB ARNOT, FMR. CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT (ON THE PHONE): He pretend to be this curmudgeon, but he really wasn't. I mean as I said I was right (INAUDIBLE) corner to him, the seventh floor of CBS. You know, he had this kind of bluster, but he was just the nicest, sweetest guy you could even begin to possibly imagine. Curious at "60 Minutes" he was never flustered about anything. It was like it was no big deal. How does this guy do it? Of course, it was so incredibly ingenious. I mean every detail is so interesting and so thought of. You know, how did he every figure it out? And it was so low tech. You know he had this - (INAUDIBLE) he had this old typewriter (INAUDIBLE) he just kind of type in a lot (INAUDIBLE) it's just no big deal.

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HOLMES: We will have much more throughout the day on Andy Rooney, dead at the age of 92.

Just four minutes past the hour now. With President Obama in France this week for the G-20 financial summit, vice president Joe Biden handled the president's weekly White House address. He didn't stray far from the president's popular talking point, pushing Congress to pass the administration's jobs bill.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The president and I believe THAT we have to act now. That's why we introduced the jobs bill, which independent validaters said we create two million new jobs, although 51 senators voted for that jobs bill, our Republican colleagues in the Senate used a procedural requirement that required us to have 60 votes so it failed.

We can't wait for the Congress to start acting responsibly, and that's why the president used his executive power in making announcements like one that will put hundreds of thousands of thousands of people will be able to go and refinance their homes.

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HOLMES: All right. Now Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown he delivered the GOP's weekly counter address. He agrees job creation is important but says partisan politics are getting in the way.

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SEN. SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: With millions of Americans looking for jobs, it's no mystery what our priority should be here in Washington. We should be doing all that we can to help this economy start creating jobs again and we should be doing it right now. Working to create jobs is one of those challenges that tests us here in Congress, it shows us who we really serve, the party leadership on Capitol Hill or the people who elected us in the first place, and my attitude is I answer to my conscience and to my constituents, period.

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HOLMES: Now, Brown wants a majority leader Harry Reid to act on the jobs bill that recently passed the House of Representatives with more than 400 votes.

Six minutes past the hour now, you know where your money is, right? Well one group wants to you move it, move it out of the big banks and into community banks or credit unions. They're calling it move your money day. And so far, it seemed that a lot of people are paying attention to this message. According to our CNNmoney.com, at least 650,000 people. That's a lot, have fled the big banks in just the past month.

Listen now to how one of the organizers described how this grassroots movement grew so big so fast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KRISTEN CHRISTIAN, CREATED FACEBOOK PAGE FOR MOVEMENT: I started the idea myself, it began as a Facebook event that I sent to 500 of my closest friends, educating them to the powerful impact credit unions can have on our local community. And from there, they invited 500 and they invited 500, so now we are nearly 42,000 supporters in less than two weeks.

Big banks, for far too long, have mismanaged funds and utilized unethical business practices, so it's time that we vote with our dollar and help restore our local communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. Let me bring in our financial analyst, Clyde Anderson here with me again. And you know, I will give you an opportunity to say, "T.J., I told you so you" because you and I sat here and we talked about people getting upset and it's so hard to switch banks.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: There you go.

HOLMES: And I thought that people wouldn't do it. Wow.

ANDERSON: Exactly (INAUDIBLE) they've done the opposite. They've actually done it. 650,000 people that is a lot of people to say, "OK, I'm fed up and I'm going to change banks. People are tired. They're tired of feeling like they are being pushed around and stepped on.

HOLMES: And I said this isn't easy to do because we all have bill pay and all these stuff set up, but now I've been hearing from some of my co-workers this morning, and maybe you will tell me now, how difficult of a process is it. It's a Saturday, today is the day you are supposed to move. I mean can you do this all online?

ANDERSON: You can do a lot of it online and majority of it online. Some people want to go to the banks, you can go to bank. Most banks are open until 1:00. Now the thing is that they have made it so easy. I think they heard your cry and they heard you say that it was difficult and they made it a little bit more simple.

So now, you can go online and some banks even have kits to where you can actually set up the new account first, and that's what you want to do. Set up the new account first and then you'll be able to kind of transfer that money over. So you want to set the new account, make sure everything gets set up, and then you can have the tools, five- step process, that they'll walk you through to determine what you need to do next and move that money.

HOLMES: You said you heard my cry. I wasn't really crying about it. All right. The other thing though - where do you even know to move it? I am, quite frankly, not that familiar with the community banks or the credit unions in my area, how do you find these?

ANDERSON: Well, you know, what's interesting we talked about the move your money project. Movethemoneyproject.org, there is a website that they set up and talks about the initiative, talks about the movement, but they also have a finder on there where you put in your zip code and it will tell you the banks or small banks as well as credit unions that are in your air that you may want to take a look at, and there are several of them around. We just don't know about them sometimes, not talked about enough.

And so if you go on there they will tell you who they are and where they are and you can go and look and see if that is somebody you want to do business with. Now giving the small guys a chance.

HOLMES: We had that website. You know what to the viewers, I apologize, I don't have it off the top of my head, but I'm going to tweet it out to you. We were reporting about it and you can just plug in that zip code and find it to you. We will get it to you, I promise, folks, like we said as well, last thing here, Clyde. The banks, some of the websites, one we can put up here, people can see that.

But the banks reverse course, they said Bank of America especially, we're not going to do that $5 debit fee, others did the same thing, but that didn't help. Are people still going to go this direction?

ANDERSON: Well I think it's a little bit too late.

HOLMES: Wow.

ANDERSON: For some of this - and think about it this would not have happened 10 years ago. Now with technology and the ability that we have to do to have the voice that we have, people are using the voice that they have and making things happen. Now it's a little bit late to say, "Hey we made a mistake and we're not going to do this and now being reactive, instead of being proactive and realizing really what the customer wants and what they're saying and what they need.

HOLMES: All right. National Credit Union Association, that is where you can go the website the other is moveyourmoneyproject.org, National Credit Union Association. Clyde, thank you. Always good information, thanks for sticking around an extra hour here for us.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

HOLMES: Thank you so much.

ANDERSON: Let me turn at 10 past the hour, to my good friend, Reynolds Wolf, who is keeping an eye on things. Reynolds, everybody is getting an extra hour to recover from the LSU/Alabama game tonight. They need to remember to set these clocks.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEROLOGIST: Why can't this happen every weekend? Seriously, isn't it the greatest thing in the whole world? Waking up Christmas morning and finding an extra hour's of sleep hiding under the tree. It's beautiful, it's a great thing. Especially because of this - that's right, we got a big football game going on tonight.

I don't care what team you pull for. This is going to be like Ali and Frasier. You got LSU and Alabama, they teed up at, let's see 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, temperature 63, wind out of the east at five miles per hour. Remember to set your clocks back, fall back, so enjoy your extra hour's sleep.

It doesn't matter, T.J. is going to be up watching this. I'm going to be up watching this, still bleary eyed in the morning. It happens. All right. Let me show you that will have you bleary. We'll take a look at what's happening out west. We got a very strong, very potent storm system just ripping through the four corners. Yesterday, it brought a sand storm to parts of Arizona. And the high elevations, not bringing sand, but snow. In some spots may see snow, not just inches, we're talking several feet, and you might see some delays in Denver because of some showers, higher elevations snow and the wind is going to cause problems in Phoenix, due to showers, so you might see delays an hour or so.

Now again, the big weather maker we're talking about is going of the winter storm warnings that you have scattered across the four corners and the central Rockies, but back out towards the west, into the Sierra Nevada, it's going to be rough there up to a foot of snow in places, about 7,000 feet or more, just keep it in mind.

We're going to talk more about that storm system and talk about the potential for some severe weather in parts of the mid-Mississippi Valley coming up very soon. T.J.?

HOLMES: Thank you. See you again here in just a moment. 11 past the hour now.

The voter controversy, you have been hearing about this. New photo I.D. requirements put in place and some are saying it is put in place on purpose to keep minorities away from the polls. A debate when we come back. Stay here.

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HOLMES: Quarter past the hour now on the "CNN Saturday Morning." And there is a lot of controversy these days about new voter I.D. laws. They're popping up all over the country. A number of states have passed these laws that require the voters to show photo I.D. if they want to vote. Critics are now pointing at Republicans, pointing their fingers at them because a lot of these laws were passed by Republican state legislators and they believe Republicans are trying to keep minorities from voting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH LOWERY, CO-FOUNDER SCLC: I am reminded where we were back in the '40s and '50s, trying to get the right to vote. When Boards of Registrar would tell lies when we could vote, they're doing the same thing, only at a more sophisticated level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, voter I.D. laws are already on the books in at least 14 states, some of these go into effect in 12012. At least seven states have really strict laws. But look at this now, 33 other states are considering similar legislation and this could affect millions upon millions of voters. So we need to talk about this important topic this morning and joining us is civil rights attorney Judith Browne- Dianis. Also, 80-year-old Joy Lieberman who is concerned about some of these new laws and whether or not she would be allowed to vote in Missouri. And also Hans Von Spakovsky, he is with the Heritage Foundation. We're actually going to talk to him after the break.

So let me start with you, first here, if I can, Judith. Why not? What's wrong with getting it right and making sure that the person stepping into that voting precinct is who they say they are?

JUDITH BROWNE-DIANIS, CO-DIRECTOR, ADVANCEMENT PROJECT: Well, T.J., thanks for having me.

This is actually the most wide scale roll back of voting rights that we have seen in a over a century in this country. They are requiring one type of I.D. and in fact there's an estimated 21 million Americans that don't have state-issued photo I.D. and they say that this is about voter fraud but in fact, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than find a prosecutable case of voter fraud.

HOLMES: I will give you that but to those other folks, I know there are a number of people and a disproportionate amount of minorities and poor people are the ones more likely not to have those I.D.s, but just on the merits of walking into a booth why not, why shouldn't you have to show a photo I.D. with your name to prove that you are who you say you are before you're allowed to do that precious thing to vote?

BROWNE-DIANIS: Well, the problem is that this is creating a new barrier to voting and voting is a right. This isn't like getting on a plane or buying Sudafed which is a privilege that you have, if you have money. We are talking about undermining democracy, cutting off participation, voting should be something that is simple because it is the most fundamental part of our democracy.

And in fact, by federal law, you can go into - you can go into vote by using multiple forms of I.D.. What's wrong with the utility bill? What's wrong with your work I.D.? There are many other kinds of I.D., and it shouldn't boil down for this one restricted I.D..

HOLMES: Let me bring in Ms. Lieberman now who lives in Missouri. Missouri is considering this type of I.D. law. Now, I know you have some special circumstances ma'am, from your birth certificate, it doesn't necessarily match the name that's on your I.D. now, and you got all kinds of things going on, but do you have a real concern that maybe you wouldn't get a chance to vote?

JOY LIEBERMAN, CONCERNED VOTER: I'm very worried that I'll be disenfranchised by the new photo I.D. laws. My birth certificate has a glitch. My middle name which is the name I use, which is the name I registered to vote under, which is the name I ran for public office under is not on my birth certificate. I'm worried that this would not be considered adequate documentation to get a photo I.D. card in Missouri, which would enable me to continue to vote.

HOLMES: Ma'am does this put you in a position, where imagine, you think you would just be too much of a chore, it would be so hard to try to correct all the paperwork and go through all the bureaucracy and the red tape possibly to get it corrected that you had might just throw up your hands and say "Well, this is just too hard and I won't vote?

LIEBERMAN: I doubt that I would do that but I'll try to go through the paperwork, but this is 80 years of paperwork. Who's around who can document what my name was 80 years ago?

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Ma'am, one last thing, you have been voting for a while, you held public office as well. You know, what is your gut? How do you feel about the idea that maybe you couldn't vote again?

LIEBERMAN: I'm furious. Voting is a right and a privilege and I feel it's granted to me by the Constitution of the United States. I voted in every election since 1952, driving is a privilege. Voting is my right and my responsibility. I expect my state to continue to allow me to vote. They will certainly take my taxes, then I sure think I deserve the right to vote.

HOLMES: Well, Ms. Lieberman and also Judith Browne-Dianis, again civil rights attorney and also co-director of the Advancement Project. We forgot to mention that. Thank you both for being here. This is one side, certainly, of this argument.

We are going to heart other side of it. There's a lot of people out there who will say these voter I.D. laws need to be in place. We need to make sure that the person voting, they are who they say they are, the other side of the argument, after the break. Stay with me.

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HOLMES: Before the break, we were talking about voter I.D. laws popping up in many states causing controversy. Several states have passed this, requiring voters to show a photo I.D. in order to vote. Some people say it is meant to cut down on voter fraud, others say it's meant to cut down on minority voters and others who oftentimes vote democratic.

Joining me now is Hans Von Spakovsky. He is with the Heritage Foundation. Sir, thank you for being here. When we say voter fraud what kind of stuff are you talking about?

HANS VON SPAKOVSKY, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, look, a photo I.D. can stop four things. One, stop impersonation fraud it can stop people voting under false voter registration forms. It can prevent double voting by people who are registered in more than one state and it can prevent people who are in the United States illegally from also voting in the elections.

HOLMES: What evidence do you have that that is happening on a widespread level?

VON SPAKOVSKY: You don't need it on a widespread level, as the U.S. Supreme Court said when it upheld Indiana's photo I.D. law that kind of fraud can make the difference in close elections. And you know, in Missouri, where Ms. Lieberman is from, you know, an election just two years ago decided by one vote. And if I may say, what's sad is Ms. Lieberman has been misled by her attorneys.

She is exempt from the photo I.D. law that Missouri is going to have go in place if it's approved in a referendum. That law which was passed a couple of years ago specifically says anyone born before 1941 and that includes her, is exempt, as are people with physical and mental disabilities.

HOLMES: Well, sir, a lot of people don't feel that way and they feel like a lot of people just throw up their hands and say, "OK, I can't deal with this and can't do this" and you talk about the Supreme Court case with Indiana, yes, they ruled for Indiana but also, Indiana couldn't come up with a single case of voter fraud there. So I guess where do you see the voter fraud taking place that justifies states changing laws like this?

VON SPAKOVSKY: Well, look, I can't give you an inventory here today. I have written about a lot of case studies on various kinds of voter fraud. I would refer you - just two weeks ago, Arthur Davis, former black congressman from Alabama, member of the Congressional Black Caucus, wrote an editorial in an Alabama paper talking about the voter fraud that he saw when he was running for office and saying that he had been wrong in his opposition to voter I.D. and he said it was required. I would point out to you, look, CNN is headquartered in Atlanta. Georgia has had a photo I.D. law, one of the strictest in the country, in place now for five years. They have had two federal elections, local elections. There has been no downturn in the turnout of African-American voters in any of the election in fact, they have gone up significantly.

HOLMES: Mr. Hans Von Spakovsky, sir, can we have you back? I want to continue this conversation, this will continue to be a conversation, but I would really like to continue this with you, we ran out of time, a lot of breaking news this morning, but thank you for being here and I hope we can have you back.

VON SPAKOVSKY: Sure, happy to come back.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks so much. Quick break right here. We are back on CNN.

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