the side of attempting to condemn what they thought was an example of bit gotgotry. they learned that was not the case, they stepped forth very quickly and apologized to miss sherrod and made this, i think, a very important example of why the kind of thorough investigation that i think cnn has done and now others has contributed to a positive view of this issue. so no, i don t think they re harmed by it, i think they re strengthened. now as for andrew breitbart, i think the use of a tape like that of miss sherrod s speech and editing it such that you intend to create a misinterpretation of racial bigotry where none exists needs to be condemned for what it is. it is a political manipulation of what of the most sensitive issues in the american debate. my question about breitbart, not just him but in terms of exposing real racism on both
her the white house itself wanted it. they asked me to resign. in fact, they harassed me as i was driving back to the state office from west point, georgia, yesterday. i had at least three calls telling me the white house wanted me to resign. the agriculture secretary, tom vilsack, however, told us that wasn t the case. and it didn t matter whether shirley sherrod fell she had been taken out of context. what mattered was what she was captured on videotape saying. i didn t speak to anybody at the white house. when i saw the statements in and context of the statements i determined it would make it difficult for her to do her job as a real development director and phonily compromise our capacity to close the chapter on civil rights cases. i didn t want anything to jeopardize her job in terms of getting the job done and getting people work in georgia. i certainly didn t want us to have a controversy making it more difficult to turn the page. i made this decision, my decision. nobody
the ocean bed. rob marciano will be live with details on how it will work. the tape doesn t tell the whole story. that s what shirley tells us in an exclusive interview. so what did she mean when a video clip appears her describing how she withheld assistance to a farmer who was white. a source telling the fed that they know who is behind a 23-year-old american who went to yemen and never came became. and the a.m. blog is up and running. join the live conversation going on. go to cnn.com/amfix. bp now running more, as they call them, integrity tests on
today is day 92. what the heck took so long to get this more efficient machine out here to look for the oil? they say it s just been a lot of red tape and approval process. once again, we re getting unprecedented access. actually going to be sitting inside of the blimp flying over the water in about an hour and a half. so stay tuned to cnn. we ll bring you updates all day long. looking forward to it, amber. thank you. here to talk about the other half of the critical see coast operations rob marciano, live in orange beach. good morning. reporter: good morning. if there s one thing that i ve learned in covering this oil spill, nothing is as easy as it seems. and skimming oil and finding that oil is a challenge. there are so many small patches of it out there.
when they finish drilling these relief wells and the time line for that is still by mid-august. we re very close. we re only about four feet away from the well from relief well number one, and about 100 feet from getting to the bottom point. but they still have to line that well and actually make an interseconds with that so we are still looking at mid-august before the relief well is complete. john? all right. if they attempt it and it works, it will be a bright spot. we haven t heard a bright spot in a while, since last thursday when they finally stopped the leaking. thanks so much, rob. also later this morning, a navy blimp is scheduled to fly over orange beach, alabama in search of oil slicks and threatened wildlife. cnn s amber lyon has been granted exclusive access to take you inside the blimp to see how that mission operates. we ll catch up with amber later on this morning and the latest from static kill from rob in the 8:00 hour of american morning. also new this mornin