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CNN Saturday Morning News

Decision Day for Cain; Kentucky Church Opposes Interracial Marriage

Aired December 03, 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: We are just crossing the top of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Give you a look at some of the stories making headlines.

Results; some results at least are in from the first election in Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was forced from power. Two major Islamist political parties got about 60 percent of the vote. This is just the first round though of elections; the first of several that'll help decide who will get seats in the lower house of parliament.

Also, Honda expanding its recall of Honda and Acura vehicles with faulty air bags; recall affects about 900,000 vehicles from model years 2001 to 2003. Honda says air bags can deploy with too much force.

Also, a House ethics committee is now extending its investigation into Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. The panel found probable cause to believe Jackson instructed a supporter to raise money for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in exchange for President Obama's vacant Senate seat. Jackson said he's innocent and had pledged to cooperate with the authorities.

Well, we turn to politics, and the race for the Republican nomination. It's really shaping up and could take on a different shape by the end of this day. Herman Cain is going to be making news a little later, at least he says. He plans to make a big announcement the on the future of his campaign. This comes just after Cain came home to Atlanta to see his wife, face-to-face for the first time since allegations of a long-time affair surfaced.

Our Shannon Travis is here with us, as well, at the -- what's supposed to be, Shannon, the headquarters, new headquarters, opening here in just a few hours for the campaign. That doesn't sound like a man who is about to get out of a race.

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I mean, is it going to be a short opening in a few hours or so, or will this headquarters be around in the days to come? I mean it's anybody's guess, T.J., what Herman Cain is going to do. The things we know for sure is that he said he will unveil his announcement, his path forward, his way forward with his campaign today. Just a few hours away from now.

We're expecting about 1:30 to come up to this podium that you might see behind me on this platform and reveal what that decision is. Now, another thing that's really key to his decision, we can guess, is that this conversation that he had with his wife, as you mentioned, that was the first time yesterday that he actually saw her face-to-face since this latest allegation surfaced.

So what did she say? What did they talk about? What's her thoughts? Obviously he's keeping that under tight wraps and it's a private matter, as it should be. But he did tell Wolf Blitzer just a few days ago that when the allegations of this 13-year affair surfaced, that his wife said to him, "here we go again."

We also know that Gloria Cain stood by him through the sexual harassment allegations. Allegations that he, of course, denies. But that she stood by him through that. So is she sticking by him again? Is this family sticking by him? Are those the only or the main key linchpins to his decisions? Are other advisers advising him? We just don't know. But we'll be standing by to see what he has to say, as will everybody watching.

HOLMES: All right. Shannon Travis there for us here in Atlanta for us as well. We'll be checking in with him plenty throughout the morning. Thank you so much.

Herman Cain has said continued support by his backers and donations would have a big impact on his decision. But take a look at this poll. Is this any indication that his support is fading? This is a "Des Moines Register" poll shows just how far he has fallen in the eyes of likely Iowa voters. At 8 percent as opposed to the 23 percent he was polling at in October.

The rest of the Republican field will be watching closely to see what Herman Cain does today, but they still have their own events they need to be paying attention to. Mitt Romney is in Manchester, New Hampshire, has a rally there. It starts in just a bit. We'll take you there for a live look when that does get started.

Also, just three minutes past the hour. We want to turn now to the man at the center of the Penn State sexual molestation scandal. He's trying to set the record straight on his relationships with young boys. Former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sat down in his lawyer's house for a four-hour interview with the "New York Times."

This is his first extended interview since being indicted on sex abuse charges last month. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY SANDUSKY, FORMER PENN STATE COACH: If I say no, I'm not attracted to boys, that's not the truth, because I'm attracted to young people, boys, girls -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but not sexually. You're attracted because you've been spending time -

SANDUSKY: Right, I enjoy. That's what I was trying to say. I enjoy spending time with young people. I enjoy spending time with people. I mean, my two favorite groups are the elderly and the young. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, you heard that voice that was off-camera there, his attorney jumping in, trying to help him clarify after Sandusky said he was attracted to boys. His attorney jumped in and says, "but not sexually" and that's when Sandusky corrected himself.

Sandusky says Joe Paterno, the former head coach of Penn State, never spoke to him about suspected misconduct with minors. He also says the Second Mile Charity never restricted his access to children until 2008.

Sandusky also says that his good intentions were misunderstood. And I quote. "They've then taken everything I ever did for any young person and twisted it to say that my motives were sexual or whatever. I've had kid after kid after kid who might say I was a father figure, and they just twisted that all."

We now turn to Syracuse University, and that school also dealing with some sexual misconduct, sexual child abuse charges there. Having to do with an assistant coach. But the head coach last night admitting that he was wrong. Jim Boeheim apologizing for being angry and defiant and defending his long-time assistant coach, Bernie Fine, against those sexual molestation allegations. Boeheim spoke about that during a post-game interview. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BOEHEIM, SYRACUSE HEAD COACH: I believe I misspoke very badly in my response to the allegations that have been made. I shouldn't have questioned what the accusers expressed or their motives. I am really sorry that I did that, and I regret any harm that I caused.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, Fine was fired last month over those molestation allegations. He had been an assistant coach at Syracuse for 35 years.

Six minutes past the hour now, and you know there are some things that kids just should not say about their teacher. But one kid suspended for saying what about his teacher? He called her cute. We'll find out how this all happened. Stay with me on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon, coming up tonight on CNN "Weekend Prime," look at this giant shark captured on videotape off the Carolina coast. Kind of reminds you of the movie "Jaws," doesn't it?

How often do sightings like this happen, and what would you do, what should you do, if confronted by a giant man-eater? I'm going to talk to a scientist who knows and says you should too. That and more coming up tonight on CNN "Weekend Prime."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour now, giving you a look at some of the stories making news cross-country and the wife of mega church preacher Bishop Eddie Long says she is going through with the divorce. The church issued a statement saying she had reconsidered, but her lawyers say that is not the case. Vanessa Long filed those divorce papers on Thursday. You may remember it was last spring that Bishop Eddie Long settled lawsuits involving four young men. They had accused him of pressuring them into sexual relationships.

Although the five-year-old son of country music singer Mindy McCready has been found and he's OK, she was discovered -- McCready was, with the young man, hiding in a closet at a home in Arkansas. U.S. marshals took him into custody this morning. McCready's mother and stepfather in Florida have legal custody of him. She took him last month, asking the court to restore custody to her.

LSU's SEC championship game happening at the Georgia Dome today. You can be certain Buddy Hair will be there. He has not missed a game, home or away, in 56 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN HAIR, WIFE: He's always gone. I promise you. He will go if he has to crawl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He's a former air force pilot who started attending LSU games when he was a pilot for the team's flights.

We turn now to a fourth grader in North Carolina. He was suspended for two days. You know what got him into trouble? According to his mother, he called a teacher cute. Cute. The school district calls this, "inappropriate behavior." We pick up the story now from Alan Cavanna of our affiliate, WSOC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what sexual harassment is?

ALAN CAVANNA, REPORTER, WSOC: But nine year old Emanyea Lockett learned the meaning of it this week. His offense, his mother says, telling another student a teacher is cute.

CHIQUITTA LOCKETT, MOTHER: When I talked to the principal, he said that was sexual harassment.

CAVANNA: Chiquitta Lockett got the call from the school's principal on Wednesday that her son was being suspended for two days. She says the principal told her a substitute teacher overheard Emanyea talking in class.

EMANYEA LOCKETT, STUDENT: I was talking to my friend and I said (INAUDIBLE) was cute.

CAVANNA: Uh-huh. EMANYEA LOCKETT: And that's all I said.

CAVANNA: His mother says the principal did not dispute that account, and decided to suspend the fourth grader.

CHIQUITTA LOCKETT: It's not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her or touch her in a sexual way. So why would he be suspended for two days?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: May I help you?

CAVANNA: A district spokeswoman says she could not go into detail but says Locket was suspended for inappropriate behavior after making inappropriate statements. We checked the district's code of conduct. It doesn't list inappropriate behavior, but says disruption of school is punishable by five days out of school suspension. This student's mother, though, says the punishment does not fit the crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: I don't know. We talked about this earlier. There is a line. You always have to keep that respect, that relationship between a child, student ask and teacher. But he wasn't saying it to the teacher, it was overheard. Not that that's an excuse, but what do you do here? A two-day suspension seems a little harsh.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There's a reason why kids are kids. Kids don't have all the world knowledge a lot of people have. And they say inappropriate things at times and I mean he could say a lot worse, you know what I mean?

HOLMES: Like what?

WOLF: I'm not going to say it here. You can leave it to your imagination. You got to use your imagination.

HOLMES: You know I like to see what you come up with sometimes.

WOLF: No, you like to watch me squirm. (INAUDIBLE) You like to see me panic and let me tell you, I mean it was deer in the headlights moment there for a brief second.

HOLMES: All right. What's going on, young fellow? You have a trouble spot today?

WOLF: We have two trouble spots.

HOLMES: Two.

WOLF: One is Southern California, the other one parts of the four corners, mainly into New Mexico and there's a chance we might see heavy snow moving to Oklahoma City as we get into the next week.

HOLMES: OK.

WOLF: Could be interesting. Let's hop over here for a moment. I'm going to hop over here. Right now, again it's mostly some rain popping up on radar. That's the first thing that might catch your eye, places like Wichita, just south of Omaha, even over to St. Louis. We're going to follow it up to Chicago where you're getting rain this morning along Miracle Mile.

Meanwhile, as you make your way back over towards the four corners, you see something different, you don't see the rain but rather the snow. It is becoming to feel more prevalent, some of the highest elevations there, (INAUDIBLE) ski country, great there. A little more development towards Flagstaff in Arizona.

What we do anticipate is that snow is really going to pile up in some places, up to a foot of snow in the highest elevations. But that's only part of the story. The second half of the story is the strong winds that will develop over parts of the four corners, some winds topping 50, maybe even 60 miles an hour and that's into Arizona and back into parts of say New Mexico. But Southern California, the winds are still strong there again today.

Santa Anas are going to be roaring out of the northeast and as they do so, we've got a chance we might see more damage, tree damage, power lines. And with the very low humidity, (INAUDIBLE) the critical chance of fire -- again, the fire threat, and speaking of other threats, take a look at that. You see the tree damage over parts of the Southern California area? Yes, when those winds go roaring through the San Gabriels, usually when the first victims some of these beautiful California oaks, they topple over, they hit the power lines. You know the next step, you've got widespread power outages. You saw that awning over the gas station. (INAUDIBLE) Of course, the street signs. It's going to be a while before we see those begin to die into the afternoon, and then maybe back a bit tomorrow and then the clean- up begins. And they're going to have quite a clean-up.

One more thing, T.J., widespread delays can be expected for much of the West Coast, (INAUDIBLE) obviously in parts of Los Angeles, all of your airports, including the small ones like Burbank and then farther north say into this Bay Area in San Francisco, might have some back- ups there, too.

HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, thank you, as always. We'll check in with Reynolds plenty throughout the morning.

We're 16 minutes past the hour now. And a church in Kentucky telling an interracial couple "You're not welcome here." Church members approved a statement saying they don't approve of interracial marriage. We'll have some of your feedback and maybe a change of heart the church might be having.

But first, tomorrow Dr. Sanjay Gupta has a new show on CNN called "The Next List" and he profiles exceptional people in the week. This week, he talks to a woman who makes robots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER KNIGHT, SOCIAL ROBOTICIST: My name is Heather Knight and I'm a social roboticist. A social roboticist is someone that makes robots that can interact with people in a human way. When I tell people that I make robots, they're usually like, "Oh, wow, that's really cool." And when I tell people I make social robots, usually they're a little bit confused at first. And I found the best way to talk about what I actually do is by example.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Twenty minutes past the hour now. And we have been seeing a number of emotional homecomings. It's a scene we're going to see play out in communities across the country, as more and is more troops come home from Iraq. Their mission ends this month. And our Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is at one of the reunions at Ft. Hood, Texas.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., I know you've seen a lot of these homecomings and you know, it just never gets old. But the thing about this one is, it's special, because in the case of Iraq, there is no next time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whew!

LAWRENCE: It's really hard to describe the emotion going on here before the troops arrived. I mean, kids were running around, jumping up and down, they had so much excitement, anticipation of the families. It's been a long 10 months.

And then all of a sudden, this smoke starts coming out, and the gate rises up. And the soldiers come out like rock stars, literally. The crowd is screaming. Everyone tried to make the speeches very, very short, because the highlight was seeing these troops rush into the arms of their loved ones, hugging, kissing, trying to catch up you over -- over what's been missed over the last 10 months.

MICHELLE FREY, WIFE OF RETURNING SOLDIER: A lot has gone on. We put our first one in preschool, our first one in high school. Yes, it's big, you know. And we put one in college this year. So it has been a very long 10 months. Glad it's over.

MAJ. MIKE IANUCHILLI, U.S. ARMY: There's a sense of peace knowing that it's one less opportunity for us to be separated from our families. We know we still have our operations going on in Afghanistan, another contingency operation as they come up. But to know that what has consumed so much of our careers recently as a profession, to know that that's not there looming over us is certainly peace of mind.

LAWRENCE (on camera): So the troops have to do a reintegration training, basically getting acclimated to being back home and with their families again. After that, they get 30 days leave to really just kick back, spend time with the family and maybe let it sink in that they were some of the last troops to walk out of Iraq and they won't be going back -- T.J. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Chris Lawrence there.

You can stay tuned to CNN for special coverage of the withdrawal from Iraq. We have several of our correspondents heading back to Iraq for the final days of the U.S. mission there. We'll have in-depth reports starting next week all the way up to the withdrawal.

Twenty three minutes past the hour now. And that church in Kentucky we've been telling you about that's getting some criticism really across the nation, all over the place, because it passed a resolution opposing interracial marriage. Now the pastor is saying he will ask the congregation to overturn that decision. That could come as early as tomorrow.

The church acted because of this couple, Stella Harville, a long-time member of the church, has been away at school and attended services in June with her fiance. They planned to get married next summer. But this week, church members patched the resolution saying the church does not condone interracial marriage.

It goes on to say interracial couples will not be received as members or used in worship services. Harville told our Erin Burnett she was just stunned by what happened. And you'll hear from her fiance here as well and his disappointment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STELLA S. HARVILLE: I was just floored -- I mean, as well as they were. I mean, to say that we couldn't sing in church because he doesn't want his granddaughter growing up thinking it's OK to marry a black guy? Like, I get that people have their convictions, and it's not like I want to flaunt it in front of them. So, like, what are they going to do? Like, are they going to go out to a public outing?

And if they see an interracial couple, are they going to be like, "we want you to leave because I don't want my granddaughter thinking it's OK." It's just -- I still don't know how to process all of this.

TICHA CHIKUNI, ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED: For someone who has been going, for Stella, who has been going to that church all of her life, she was expecting some support from them. But, you know, everyone just fell off the bandwagon and has passed really harsh judgment on her and on us and the family too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, we got a lot of feedback from you. I've been reading it here and talking to a lot of you this morning on Twitter. Here's some of what you all had to say. One saying, "I feel really bad for the interracial couple. It's 2012, practically, and our views on interracial dating have hardly changed." Another saying, "It's silly for us to pretend racism doesn't exist today. Sadly, this is just another example." Another from Bobby saying that "The church is still the most segregated hour on Sunday in 2011. No surprise." And another from Eddie saying "It's disgusting, but they should be allowed to do what they want. Hopefully they will see how bad the policy is."

Thank you for those comments. Keep the conversation with you all going this morning.

Quick break. But first, you know, the list of most popular baby names of 2011, it's out. Lots of new parents are getting their inspiration from pop cultures, including the Kardashians and the "Twilight" movies. I've got the list for you next. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. A look at the most popular baby names for the year. I'll show these to you. Number one on the list, boys, you see there, Aiden followed by Jackson and then Mason. Mason is the name of one of the Kardashian's babies. Which Kardashian? I'll mess it up. It's Kourtney, yes, it's Kourtney Kardashian named her child Mason. So that's on the list.

"Twilight" saga had a couple names in the top five for boys and girls. You see Jacob there is fifth. And I'm told Jacob is the wolf, right? I haven't seen these movies. You all forgive me. Isabella, she's the main character as far as the girls names goes. Isabella, the main character in the "Twilight" series. Also, Emma is second on the list. Sophia is the year's most popular names for newborn girls.

All right, we'll turn it back to something we know a little bit. Republican presidential candidates they're on the road today, Mitt Romney this hour at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, there with a former candidate, Tim Pawlenty, will bring you some of that a little later this morning.

And, of course, remember, we're expecting a big announcement from Herman Cain today about his future in the race. We'll certainly be covering that live for you. I'm back at the top of the hour with more live news.

Right now, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE".