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CNN Saturday Morning News

Pakistan Protests Continue; Obama Leading in Polls; Understanding the Mitt Romney's Campaign Strategy; Mike Rowe Explains How Booze Built America

Aired September 22, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell.

New details this morning in an attack on a consulate in Libya. It left four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens dead. Sources tell CNN the consulate was doused with diesel fuel killing Ambassador Stevens and IT specialist Sean Smith with toxic smoke.

And now some Libyan citizens are protesting the attack while expressing their support for the United States.

Hundreds of people stormed the headquarters of a radical Islamist group that has been linked to the attack. They say that they and not the extremists represent the real sentiments of Libyan people.

KAYE: Our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is in Benghazi, Libya, with more on how these pro-democracy demonstrations unfolded.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Randi, this probably is one of the few countries where we are seeing mass demonstrations, not just in support of the United States, but more condemning the attack that took place on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

People taking to the streets yesterday in the thousands demanding democracy, but more importantly demanding an end to these extremist militias whom people and the government here say were in fact behind that attack that took Ambassador Stevens' life and the life of three other Americans.

What happened is that at night on Friday hundreds of these pro- democracy demonstrators began taking the situation into their own hands and storming various headquarters of known extremist militias in the city of Benghazi, including the headquarters of the militia known as Ansar al Sharia.

And if you will remember, the Libyan government has said that it has detained individuals who are part of Ansar al Sharia in association with the attack on the U.S. consulate, although they say the group as a whole was not behind that assault.

BLACKWELL: Arwa Damon, thank you.

And in Pakistan, a violent scene is still unfolding as protesters furious over the inflammatory film that mocks the prophet Muhammad have destroyed banks and government offices, killing 27 people and injuring more than 100 in the process. Reza Sayah is in Islamabad.

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Several hard-line religious groups in Pakistan calling for several more demonstrations on Saturday, but nobody expects the repeat performance of Friday. Friday will go down as one of the deadliest days of protests in Pakistan in years. Among the fatalities, two police officers in Karachi, the driver of a news van in Peshawar. Scores of people were injured in demonstrations across the country, and lots of public and private property damaged, looted, vandalized and set on fire, including several movie theaters and several banks, but it looks like it was the police departments that received the brunt of the damage. Scores of police vehicles and small police check posts also torched.

The demonstrations started early Friday morning. They grew in number and intensity as the day went on, especially around midday when Friday prayers was over and a lot of people started coming out into the streets. The overwhelming majority of protesters were men.

Among them devout Muslims who were offended by this anti-Islam movie, but you also had a lot of people who were against U.S. foreign policy in the region. They don't like the occupation of Afghanistan. They don't like the U.S. drone strikes that have been killing militants in addition to civilians, and then what you saw were the trouble-makers, the rowdy young teenagers, the young men in their 20s. You didn't get the impression that they were out there because they were offended by an anti-Islam movie. You got the impression that they were getting a rush with the face-off against police.

Reza Sayah, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Our thanks to Reza Sayah. And President Obama will address the unrest across the Muslim world next week at an appearance before the U.N. general assembly on Tuesday.

KAYE: To politics now and Mitt Romney's taxes. His campaign released the Romney's 2011 federal return late yesterday afternoon, and here are the numbers. Romney paid nearly $2 million in taxes off an income of nearly 14 million. That's a 14.1 percent rate. He paid 13.9 percent back in 2010. So why the low rate? The majority of Romney's income came from investments. In fact all but about half a million of it.

Here's what the Obama campaign though had to say afterwards. Mitt Romney took advantage of complex loopholes and tax shelters only available to those at the top.

BLACKWELL: President Obama is opening up a lead on Mitt Romney in some key swing states. Here's our poll of polls in Ohio. A five-point lead for President Obama and it's a six-point lead in Virginia. So what's Mitt Romney saying about the polls like these? Well, perception also about the campaign is in trouble, what does he have to say about that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: You are slipping in the polls at this moment. A lot of Republicans are concerned about this campaign. You bill yourself as a turnaround artist. How are you going to turn this campaign around?

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, actually we're tied in the polls, we're all within the margin of error. We bounce around week to week, day to day. There's some days we're up, there are some days we're done. We go forward with my message that this is a time to reinvigorate the American economy, not by expanding government and raising taxes on people but instead by making sure government encourages entrepreneurship and innovation and gets the private sector hiring again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Mitt Romney is basically rebooting his campaign next week. He'll be out on the trail more leading up to the first debate on October 3rd.

KAYE: Romney is also trying to put that now infamous hidden tape behind him, you know, the one where he said 47 percent of Americans are addicted to handouts and that he'd be doing better in the election if he had Mexican parents, yes, that one. Well, it was secretly taped, but does the Romney campaign bear some of that responsibility? We'll find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

We're looking at live picture of the Space Shuttle Endeavor on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport. The space shuttle "Endeavor" landed for the last time at LAX yesterday, but first it did a flyover towards San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. It's headed for retirement at an L.A. Science Museum.

Here's a look at its journey.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you have this 47 percent that don't pay taxes, and these people are never going to vote for me, and when I talk about these people who don't pay taxes, I don't mean senior citizens, all right, and I don't mean members our armed services and I don't mean southern whites, OK? What I mean is, and real quick, no one is recording this, correct? OK. It's very important that no one records this. OK, good, because I'm about to say who these people are, and I would prefer to not have that on tape. Sorry, sir, is that a camera on the table pointing right at me? OK, great. All right. Now, when I say these people, I mean black people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That's "Saturday Night Live" making fun of the secret Mitt Romney fund-raising tape. We're focusing on that tape this morning not necessarily the content, certainly not exaggerated the way "Saturday Night Live" just portrayed it, but the act itself.

Rich Galen is a Republican strategist. Rich, thanks for joining us this morning.

Does the Romney campaign, just start here, does the campaign have to take some of the blame not just for what was said but also for the fact that it got out there in the first place?

RICH GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I mean, in this day and age, you can -whether you're Kate Middleton or Mitt Romney, I think you have to assume that there's a camera pointed at you from somewhere all the time, and you just have to be a little more conscious of what you're saying. Now remember, that tape -- not the "Saturday Night Live" tape, that is contemporaneous, but the original tape was from May, so we're still in the primary area, and I don't believe Romney had Secret Service protection yet so people didn't go through magnetometers and what have you.

But yes, this happens all the time that open mics are deadly. Remember when George said - I think he was still Governor Bush and Dick Cheney, George Bush pointed at a "New York Times" reporter and called him a major league you know what, and it was on an open mic so these things happen all the time.

BLACKWELL: Yes, George Allen's moment, now running for Senate in Virginia.

GALEN: Well, that was from a tracker and trackers are a little bit different.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GALEN: That's a good point though, Victor. That big-time campaigns, statewide campaigns will employ somebody with a little, you know, they used to be flicker cameras, and now you can just do it with your smartphone to follow the opposition camera all the time every day to look for things like that, and so - so, I mean, the candidates, can do it two ways, you can either kind of rail against it and bristle or say "OK, this guy is not going to be there. I'm not going to say anything that I wouldn't want on the front page of the "Washington Post" down here. So, you know, that's just the way you have to operate.

BLACKWELL: Now, as I remember, and we were bringing up the George Allen situation where he used a slur against a specific race, that was at a rally in public. He was in a park. With this event Mitt Romney -

GALEN: But he was - he was aiming - he was angry - he had gotten upset about - he was talking with about the tracker specifically.

BLACKWELL: About the tracker specifically, understood. But he was in a public place this event with the Romney tape from May was inside a home at a private event. How does a campaign with the cell phones that have cameras and the small cameras and all that can be hidden, how do they control to the best of their ability not getting these recordings out in the first place? Do they confiscate cell phones and the cameras at the door?

GALEN: That, I mean, if you want to - in many cases that's exactly what happened. You're just asked to leave your cell phones, you know, on a table or in - in one place and some little - some volunteer will put a tag on it and you get it back, just like you would leave your coat or your galoshes if it was raining. So yes, I mean, that's one way to do it. An easier way to do it is simply say something that you don't want.

Remember four years ago the same thing happened to Barack Obama when he was talking about - about rural Pennsylvanians, you know, relying on their guns and god when they got mad at somebody. Guess, he won Pennsylvania. He didn't win the primary but he won the general.

BLACKWELL: Now, essentially we've been talking about this as if it's something nefarious, it is a bad thing, but in this era of everyone having a camera and full disclosure in campaigns as we wanted since the beginning of the nation, do we consider this a good thing in any way? I mean, we are hearing what Romney says. He hasn't backed away from it. He's actually doubled down on it. Is it good that we actually have this video?

GALEN: Yes, sure. I think it's fine for everybody to be able to see these folks. I mean, again, in a quasi or actual public, any time they are around other people. I don't know that we need to have them stalking around in their hotel suites particularly, but, you know, the polling on that 47 percent, I'm going to get the numbers - I'm not sure I'll get the numbers exactly right, but the concept is connect, that something on the order of 23 percent it would made them feel better about it, like 40 percent said it didn't matter one way or another so it's 63 percent either a push or a positive so the notion of that being the game-changer against Romney is simply incorrect.

BLACKWELL: Do you think we would hear a different response if the numbers had been different after that poll about the 47 percent comment?

GALEN: Well, I think if - if he could do it again he wouldn't have said it at all. I mean that's clear, because the bigger problem, Victor, as you know, is that it took them out of their game. They were getting - down to six weeks and a couple of days to go, and every day that the Romney campaign is not talking about the economy, unemployment and all the things that they want this campaign to kind of rotate around is a day lost so whether or not that was marginally harmful, marginally helpful, it doesn't make any difference. It took them out of the game, their game plan for another two or three days. That's where the danger is for the Romney campaign.

BLACKWELL: Republican strategist Rich Galen, thank you.

GALEN: You bet.

KAYE: An incredible story of redemption. We'll have an update on a young man cleared of rape charges a decade after his conviction. Why his dreams of professional football are now coming true.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: An update now to a story that we've been following since May. Brian Banks was released from prison earlier this year after his rape conviction was thrown out. His accuser turned out, lied about the assault.

He was only 16 when he went to jail and forced to give up his dream of playing professional football. I spoke with Banks back in May and he has always had a positive outlook on his dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN BANKS, EXONERATED OF RAPE CHARGES: You know, good things come to those who hustle while they wait. So I've been praying for this day of freedom and you know, I tell god that upon my freedom, if you bless me with the opportunity to play for the NFL, then I'll for sure meet you halfway and I'm ready.

KAYE: Is there a certain team you're waiting a call from that you wanted to give a shout-out to?

BANKS: Yes, for sure. Shout-out to the team that feels I deserve the opportunity. Let's play some football.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANKS: He is such an amazing guy, and now Banks is living that dream. The 26-year-old will be playing professional football finally. He has just joined the lineup for the Las Vegas Locomotives. His first game is Wednesday night, and we will be rooting for you, Brian. Congratulations.

BLACKWELL: Certainly. Mike Rowe, he's had a lot of jobs, host of a hit TV show, salesman, and opera singer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BLACKWELL: He sat down with me to talk about his new job bar hopping around the country to show you how booze built America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROWE, TV HOST: That's very kind, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Discovery Channel host Mike Rowe does not mind getting dirty. In fact, he's worked a lot of jobs in his day, dirty ones, but he's probably not complaining about his assignment this week. He's drinking beer, yes, and a lot of it. Mike took a break from hosting his hit TV show and took a seat at the bar to tell me "How Booze Built America."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right. Mike Rowe.

ROWE: I'm him.

BLACKWELL: You are. We're here at Old Town Bar.

ROWE: Fine bar.

BLACKWELL: We wanted to make you feel at home.

ROWE: Who's got the tab on this, by the way?

BLACKWELL: We do.

ROWE: I love it here.

BLACKWELL: Yes. So, you know, when most people think Mike Rowe they think "Dirty Jobs." You had a lot of really interesting jobs, including with the BSO. How did you get into singing?

ROWE: I crashed an audition for the Baltimore Opera. I learned an aria. Somehow I got in.

BLACKWELL: Any chance you'd share something that you remember from your days in singing?

ROWE: Ultimately it was -

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BLACKWELL: Very good. Very good.

ROWE: Very kind, thank you.

BLACKWELL: So, after that, you spent some time, I'm sure a lot of people would be surprised to know at QVC.

ROWE: My first actual job in television.

The lamp is a little warm. Not unlike lava.

I wandered out of the opera hall dressed as a Viking and I walked across Mt. Royal Avenue into the Mt. Royal Tavern to order a beer, and watched the ball game. But the football game wasn't on. The bartender, a guy I'd known for years was watching a big guy in a shiny suit sell pots and pans and I was like, "Rick, you know, can we watch the game." He said, "No, I'm auditioning for that guy's job tomorrow." He bets me 100 bucks I can't get a call back if I go to the audition with him. So I go to the audition, and I didn't get a callback but I got a job offer on the spot but it wouldn't have happened without a beer, and that's kind of what helped motivate the booze show.

BLACKWELL: And the series is three parts on Discovery. "How Booze Built America."

ROWE: Welcome back to the American revolution brought to you in part by booze.

BLACKWELL: We got all of these portraits we see in history of the signing of the constitution and, you know, the landing of the Mayflower. Right outside the shot there's like a keg somewhere.

ROWE: Always.

BLACKWELL: A couple of bottles somewhere that the painters did not include. Why do you think we've never heard these stories?

ROWE: This is the stuff your social studies teacher just didn't tell you. I'm sure when it comes to talking about it to school kids, you know, there's a lot of pressure. Let's just leave that part of the story out. But it's a mistake because you know, booze was on the Mayflower. In fact, the Mayflower wasn't headed to Plymouth. It was headed south, it stopped in Plymouth because they ran out of beer. And back in those days beer was the only thing you drink. Once they got into New England, what became New England, they started building taverns every few miles. There was no Facebook. You know, taverns were the social network. Beer was the thing that held everybody together.

BLACKWELL: One portion of the first portion that I've watched that I was amazed by was the national anthem and that it's actually based on an English drinking song.

ROWE: Oh, yes, (INAUDIBLE) was an old poem, been around for years and years and years and the tune was, in fact, a drinking song. Francis Scott Key was a lawyer, and he was hired to defend an American who actually gave British soldiers quarter. He and this guy are on a ship drinking Madera wine anchored outside of Ft. McHenry, bombs bursting in air, the whole thing is going on when Key writes "The Star Spangled Banner," and so, you know, he's drinking wine when he's writing it, and ultimately this is all set to an English drinking song, so, you know, I'm not saying we don't have a national anthem without booze, but we certainly don't have the one that we have without it.

BLACKWELL: What is your favorite story about the influence of alcohol and the founding of the country?

ROWE: Like, can you look, for instance, at Lincoln's assassination. Everybody knows the story, right? Ford's Theater. Star Saloon, John Wilkes Booth is in the saloon for a full half hour before he shoots the president. He's sitting there drinking, liquid courage. He finally gets his courage up, and he leaves the room to shoot my favorite president. People know that. What they don't know in the same room is a guy in sort of a pinkerton uniform dressed like a cop. That's John Parker. That's Lincoln's bodyguard.

Everybody's drinking, so, you know, when you think about, you know, how did booze take America on a different course? Would Booth have pulled the trigger had he not had a few in him? Would the bodyguard have stopped it had he been at his proper post? It helped bring the north and south together faster. It hastened the reconciliation because much of the south was horrified by what Booth did, so it's not about booze being a good or a bad thing, it's about the fact that it's always in the room, always shaping things, whether we like it or not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Thanks for watching today. I'll see you back here at the top of the hour.

BLACKWELL: "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)