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CNN Saturday Morning News

GOP Candidates Continue Campaigning; Sports News

Aired March 24, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE: Welcome back. I want to take you live now to Camp Hill, Pennsylvania where you see right there on your screen, Rick Santorum is speaking at a leadership conference; let's listen in for just a moment.

RICK SANTORUM: ... says, you know, people of Pennsylvania didn't always give me what I wanted, but they always gave me what I needed, and it was a great, in many respects for me a great gift to get away, to separate out, to get back and involved in the private sector and have a little distance from Washington to see what was going on. It was a painful night in many respects.

But it was a night that I felt that I needed to sort of reassess and take a take a good look at me and my family and being a husband and a father and take that responsibility a little bit differently, a little bit more seriously as the life of the senator was not one that was necessarily conductive to that.

But the greatest gift form a political point of view was that distance, was being able to look from the outside in of what was going on and begin to see the frustration that I would hear from you, from conservatives as Senator, the frustration about what was going on in Washington that candidly, I'll be honest, I just quite didn't quite resonate with me.

Because you're in there sort of doing the sort of the sausage making, and it's like, well, they don't understand and in the sense, I didn't understand, and that was really a tremendous gift to be able to see it from the perspective of what really is going on as opposed to what's going on in the fray.

And it was a real eye opening awakening experience for me and I took that as a good sort of self-correction, and as I continued on and coaching little league and trying to win father of the year award, and husband of the year award, I always usually sort of lost in nail biters.

But I kept fighting, fighting, I kept fighting doing the best I could and trying to provide for the family and then Barack Obama happened.

And like so many people who were sitting on the sidelines for so long, a lot of conservatives, a lot of Tea Party people who, you know, just sort of saw things as well, you know, things are just not good, but it's not the worst thing in the world, I mean things are bad but they can get worse. Well, they got worse, and I saw, to me it was very, very clear to me. I think it is too many people, that fundamental things are at stake in America today. That this isn't just more of the same but a real turning point in our history as country.

And I think like many of you it was not sufficient enough just to sit on the sidelines and throw darts and write columns or do whatever is necessary, but you had to go out and do something.

So I went out and started crossing the country, particularly focused on one bill, Obamacare. To me this was the lynch bin of all lynch bins. This was a lynch bin that was going to change the entire interaction between government and the American people.

Margaret Thatcher said when she left the prime ministership of England that she was never able to accomplish what Ronald Reagan accomplished in transforming America back from the brink of socialism, really, in the 1960s and '70s.

And she said the reason for that was the British National Healthcare System. Peoples' dependency on government, peoples' direct tie to government on something that was absolutely essential for them, their health and their life.

And that once the government has you and has that relationship they got you. And here I'm seeing what I thought was an incredible act of hubris. Well, it was but a foolish act of hubris on the part of the president, on shoving this healthcare bill down the throats of the American people.

I thought to myself, why are they doing this? In fact, I was in the green room with --

KAYE: You've been listening to Rick Santorum there speaking in Pennsylvania. I want to bring in Paul Steinhauser, who's in Washington this morning.

Paul, let's talk about this. I mean, obviously we have the Louisiana primary today and Rick Santorum is in Pennsylvania. Why do you think that is?

PAUL STEINHAUSER: Yes, a little amusing it, but actually there's a little bit of logic here. This is a conservative conference of Republican and conservative activists. Newt Gingrich has well -- another a fellow rival for the GOP nomination also speaking there a little later today.

And I remember Pennsylvania has an important primary coming upon April 24th. Both Santorum and Gingrich has spent most of this past week campaigning in Louisiana so it's not like they weren't thinking about it, they spent a lot of time there.

Santorum actually goes on to Wisconsin a little today, Randi, and of course Wisconsin has a primary coming up a week from Tuesday.

KAYE: And so obviously does he think he's just doing well enough in Louisiana to not have to be there?

STEINHAUSER: It's interesting because none of the candidates actually are there today. They've all moved on and we've seen that a lot in the last couple weeks. They campaign in the state and move on.

Take a look at the polls though. Here's a recent (inaudible) from yesterday, American research group and while this indicates a double digit lead, look at that, 16 points for Santorum over Romney with Newt Gingrich at 20 percent, this is a people likely to vote in today's primarily.

Two other polls that came out in the last week also indicate the same thing, Randi, a double digit lead for Santorum. And listen, it's a conservative state. We saw that he won Mississippi and Alabama just a week-and-a-half ago, and for Mitt Romney, he wasn't won in the Deep South yet and he's not expected to do so today, but the bigger question is, will it really matter?

Will a Santorum win in Louisiana really change anything because the conversation, Randi, really changed after Romney's big win in Illinois the other day and it seems like he's now becoming more and more the inevitable nominee.

KAYE: Yes, but Santorum really hasn't let up. I mean, we heard earlier this week he made those comments about, you know, if Mitt Romney were to be the nominee for the GOP then you might as well keep Obama in the White House?

He's trying to walk those back a little bit. But you expect any fallout to hurt him?

STEINHAUSER: Yes, interesting, that was quite a controversy, that played off the etch-a-sketch controversy from and (inaudible) on Mitt Romney. But Santorum did walk back the comments, and here's what he said last night, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP): Everybody knows full well my passion about defeating Barack Obama, and yet we see this ridiculous canard that is trying to be perpetrated by the Romney campaign that somehow or another I would vote for Barack Obama.

Over my dead body would I vote for Barack Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Well, I guess that's pretty clear but, you know, the day before he kind of suggested that if Romney were the nominee better it would be better for people to vote for Obama, and that is really heresy on the Republican side.

KAYE: Oh, yes.

STEINHAUSER: That's why the Romney campaign and the Gingrich campaign push back so hard and you're absolutely right, neither Gingrich or Santorum, at least publicly, say they have any desire or any thoughts of dropping at this pod. They keep saying they're going all the way to Tampa and the convention. Stay tuned, we'll see if that really happens.

KAYE: Yes, we will see if that happens. I know you're going to Tampa, I don't know about anybody else though, we'll see.

STEINHAUSER: I will be there, yes.

KAYE: All right, Paul, thank you very much. Nice to see you. Checking some top stories for you now.

An Attorney for George Zimmerman says self- defense and not race was the motive in the killing of Trayvon Martin. The shooting has sparked questions about Florida's Sandra Brown Law.

Former Governor Jed Bush and the law sponsors all say that it does not apply in the Martin case. Zimmerman's attorneys agree saying the statute is mainly used when someone is at home.

The Grand Jury is scheduled to meet on the case next month, but a decision on charges could come before that.

The U.S. military says Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales could face the death sentence if he's convicted in the shooting deaths of Afghanistan villagers. Bales faces 17 murder charges. He also faces charges of attempted murder and assault. He's being held at Forth Leavenworth, Kansas.

New video now just into CNN shows the chaotic scene inside the apartment where a French gunman made his final stand. Mohammad Mehra who was shot dead by police was wanted for the killings of seven people including three children. His brother currently be questioned by police.

The African union plans to deploy 5,000 troops to hunt down Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. His rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army is accused of mass atrocities including kills, rapes, and kidnappings of children.

The announcement comes just weeks after that Kony 2012 documentary worldwide attention on YouTube.

All right, don't go anywhere. Powerful storms have pounded the south and the Midwest. Tornadoes tore some houses apart. We have the latest on the damage and we'll also see if more storms might be on tap for the weekend. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Time right now about 12 minutes past the hour and it is time to check out some intriguing stories around the nation. First to Maryland.

We begin in Montgomery County, that's where police pulled over none other than the caped crusader himself, or a pretty good look alike with his very own batmobile. Photos of the traffic stop have been posted on Facebook. Police are not talking about the incident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our main message is that we don't want this in our community because it does not only affect the small community it affects the larger community.

KAYE: In Stonepark, Illinois a group of nuns is trying to stop a new $3 million strip club from opening just a few feet away from their retire home. About 300 neighbors joined the nuns to voice their concern. They're hoping to convince local leaders and the clubs owners to move the club someplace else.

But according to affiliate WGN, that's unlikely. The strip club is set to open in April.

And in Western Palm Beach County, Florida, some scary moments for the pilot and co-pilot of this Sheriff's Department helicopter. They suffered minor injuries when the chopper was forced to make a hard landing. No word yet on the cause.

And let's a check in now with Reynolds Wolf who's looking at the weather for us today. Reynolds, what do you have, what's going on up there in --

REYNOLDS WOLF: You know, (inaudible), I'm still trying to get my mind on weather. I'm still blown away by the batman story. You know, you figure that if you're the cap crusader you'd be able to get away out of a ticket if you're going over the speed limit, you know, somehow. But apparently didn't work for him, so go figure.

I'll tell you what though, if the cape crusader happened to be in parts of the Midwest they'd be dealing with, of course, some of the wreckage we had yesterday.

We did have some tornadoes that touched down in parts of the Midwest. Now we're seeing that frontal boundary drive its way to the Eastern seaboard. So any person who happens to be anywhere in the Carolinas you're going to be dealing with the scattered showers.

Everywhere where you see the light blue that is very light precipitation but where it's green that's the heavier stuff. That's going to get heavier as the day wears on.

Out to the West we're seeing not only some rain but some snow in the higher elevations so you could have some rough driving especially into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Not expecting great deal of heavy snowfall, only three to six, but factor amount of the wind could give you some rough conditions out there, so keep the light on low beam.

Speaking of bad driving conditions, upper Midwest, Western Great Lakes, low visibility, less than a half mile in some spots due to the heavy fog north of the twin cities. Also near Thunder Bay could be very rough. But as the day warms up a bit you can expect that fog to dissipate, so that's the good news.

Some other great news, beautiful conditions for the Central and Southern Plains. You want to go out and play a round of golf in Dallas, it's going to be picture perfect for you, very mild, very sunny. High temperatures for the day only going into very, very, I'd say into the 60s, 70s, 80s in a few spots, but in parts of the Midwest it's going to remain cool because of this area of low pressure that's going to drift its way to the east.

And places like New York where for the time being it's relatively dry, all the rain is coming to you as we fast forward into Sunday morning. Then as we take a look at your temperatures again, mild air funneling behind that low with 65 your high in Chicago, 76 in Denver, 50 in San Francisco, 60 in Seattle and 82 in New Orleans.

So what does this mean to you if you're travelling around the country? Well, you can expect some delays. The worst are going to be, I'd say, along parts of the Eastern seaboard, Charlotte could be a problem, all your airports in Washington, D.C. could have a few backups there. Later on in the day it should get better out West though. That's the latest, Randi, let's kick it back to you.

KAYE: Okay, Reynolds, I will take it. Thank you.

WOLF: You bet.

KAYE: All right. So remember that guy named Tiger Woods who used to dominate the sport of golf? Well, he finally has a shot to get his first PGA win in years. Much more on that coming up in sports.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Tomorrow on "THE NEXT LIST," CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to Hugh Herr, a double amputee who believes there's no such thing as a disability, only bad technology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just in love with (inaudible) the design of the human body, its elegance. Nature has these (inaudible) powerful principles if captured in a technology in a device can be very, very extraordinary in their capacity to help people move again.

So it's -- that's the basic things of (inaudible). We steal from the cookie jar or nature, we apply that and we build synthetical constructs that (inaudible).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back everyone to CNN Saturday morning and of course sports doesn't take the weekend off. Sports Guru Joe Carter joining me now. First, good morning to you.

JOE CARTER: Good morning to you. KAYE: We've been talking a lot about this case, about Trayvon Martin.

CARTER: Yes.

KAYE: And now it seems as though as lot of the anger that's building around the nation is making its way into the sports world as well.

CARTER: You know, were having this discussion this morning in the sports off and just saying, you know, a lot of these NBA guys are just a few years removed from Trayvon's age. I mean a lot of these guys are 20, 21, 22 years old.

You know, talk about the whole hoodie thing that he was gunned down obviously while was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and so we're seeing several NBA players, several big stars as a matter of fact, showing that hoodie look, you know, with the hood over the top of their head.

KAYE: Right.

CARTER: As a form of expression, obviously to show their support for Trayvon and his family, also to show their angers towards the whole situation.

We've just seen Armelo Anthony, as a matter of fact, he's a Knicks star, he posted of himself on Twitter. You can see here it says, I am Trayvon Martin. He went this out to his more than 1.8 million followers.

Then you've got LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and the entire Miami Heat team donning the hoodies there. They took this actually in a team hotel. You can see their heads are bowed, their hands are stuffed in their pockets.

You know, the Miami Heat organization has come out and said that they fully support their actions for doing this. And then before last night's game Amari Stoudemire during pregame warm-ups donned a hoodie here, you see him as he's in shoot rounds there. He's from the Orlando area. He has said that he hopes that something positive can come from this whole firestorm, you know, this tragedy that's caused a firestorm nationally.

And even the NBA Players Association has come out and been very vocal about this. They just posted a statement on their website basically saying that they want to see action against George Zimmerman, the alleged shooter as well as action against Sanford police. They want the officials to step down.

So very vocal from the NBA players and the Players Association.

KAYE: Yes, it certainly is interesting to see how big it's getting.

Let me ask you about another story, the whole bounty controversy. Sean Payton out of the Saint's organization apologizing?

CARTER: Well, you know, this week was a huge week in the NFL. Obviously Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow and then Sean Payton the most -- the stiffest penalty we've ever seen in the NFL. You know, obviously Roger Goodall is proving that he, in fact, does want to see the NFL be a much safer game.

Sean Payton, he's basically, yes, apologizing for lack of a better word. The NFL did slap him with a one-year suspension for putting bounties on players and opposing players and, you know, we expected maybe a press conference from him but he actually put out a statement.

We've got most of it here for you. It says, "I share and fully support the league's concerns and goals and player safety. It is and should be paramount, respecting our great game and the NFL shield is extremely important to me. Our organization will implement all necessary protections and protocols and I will be more vigilant going forward. I am sorry for what has happened and as a head coach take full responsibility."

Now the suspension, as I said, is going to last for an entire year and it's going to cost him about $5.8 million in salary.

KAYE: Wow. Tiger Woods, we were talking about this earlier. He's got his game back it seems.

CARTER: You know, if you like golf, or even if you don't like golf, when Tiger's involved it seems that everybody kind of perks up and pays a little bit more attention. There's so much basketball going on right now, yes, Tiger we're seeing vintage Tiger for the first time in two-and-a-half years he is actually in the lead, actually lead for the lead with Charlie Wi.

And for the first time in two-and-a-half years at a PGA tour event. It's been a long time since Tiger's won at a PGA tour event. There was concern that he might be injured because he backed out of his last tournament. But he looks pretty healthy.

He only had one bogey in 36 holes, and he did have a gator. This is kind of fun, but there was a gator on the hole yesterday latterly too close for comfort. I mean, you see it there in the water --

KAYE: Oh, yeah.

CARTER: Then it crawls its way actually onto the course. And they had to stop play for a few minutes, but they did eventually resume because the gator was like, okay, I've had enough time.

KAYE: 'Cause those things are fast, too.

CARTER: I don't know how much I would even want to test its speed.

KAYE: Yes, they can get you.

CARTER: You speak from experience?

KAYE: Well, I've seen all the signs spending a lot of time in Florida.

CARTER: You've seen enough National Geographics, no. Gators are dangerous.

KAYE: Whoa. All right, Joe, nice to you see.

CARTER: You, too.

KAYE: Thank you. Armed to the teeth for a little trip. You just won't believe what one guys tired to get on an airplane with. We'll show you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Checking top stories for you, an attorney for George Zimmerman said self-defense and not rage was the motive in the killing of Trayvon Martin.

The shooting has sparked questions about Florida's stand your ground law. Former Governor Jed Brush and the law sponsors all say that it does not apply in the Martin place.

Zimmerman's attorney agrees saying the statute is mainly used when someone is at home. The Grand Jury is scheduled to meet on the case next month. But a decision on charges could well come before that.

A Montana man being held without bail after he tried to board an airplane in Sacramento fully armed. TSA agents found three guns in his carryon bag. A pat down revealed he also had a loaded gun in a holster. Authorities also found 192 rounds of ammo and three knives, eight more guns were in that guy's car.

Louisiana voters will finally get their say as they cast their ballots in the latest Republican primary today. It could turn out to be a very big day for Rick Santorum.

Recent polls suggest the former Pennsylvania Senator has a commanding lead over the rest of the field.

And President Obama will arrive in South Korea this evening where leaders from 50 countries are gathering for a nuclear summit. On the agenda, ways to control the spread of nuclear materials. It is the president's first foreign trip of the year. We'll have live coverage of that visit tomorrow morning starting at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Pope Benedict XVI is trading the friendly confines of Vatican City for Mexico. It is the first stop in a six-day tour that will also take him to Cuba.

During the tour the Pope will meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and preside over a Sunday Mass.

Coming up on Your Bottom Line, why some of the brightest minds in the country are saying our ailing education system is leading to a national security risk. Then the Trayvon Martin tragedy. The investigation is ongoing and so is the emotional debate at dinner tables around the nation.

We'll talk to Leann Truey, inspiration for the movie, "THE BLINDSIDE." She's the mother of two sons, one black and one white. Hear how because of the world around her she had to raise son differently.

That is all coming up next, I'll be back a the top of the hour because news doesn't take the weekend off.