Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20111007 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 October 7, 2011



government. it does not belong in our government. >> now, herman cain back in march responding to a question about whether he'd appoint a muslim to his cabinet or to the federal bench, the answer he said was, no. he subsequently walked that back saying he's open to appointing anyone as long as they pledged their loyalty to america. as far as his claims about sharia law, in a presidential debate in june, he says sharia law has influenced court decisions in oklahoma and new jersey. in new jersey, there was one incident in 2009. one single incident, domestic violence case. a judge refused to grant a muslim woman a restraining order because of her husband's muslim beliefs. that decision was overturned on appeal. that's it. voters in oklahoma did ban judges from relying on sharia law when deciding cases. but that was a preemptive move. it wasn't based on a judge actually doing that or muslims in oklahoma attempting to institute sharia law. on top of that, the constitution bars any religious test for office and the first amendment bars any mixing of church and state or mosque and state. chris christie, new jersey's republican and former u.s. attorney, had a simple answer to the question when he was dealing with it this summer -- >> this sharia law business is crap. it's just crazy. and i'm tired of dealing with the crazies. >> chris christie in july. the governor of new jersey. herman cain was not swayed. here he is just this weekend. >> call me crazy, but there are too many examples of where there has been pushback. >> you don't really mean this, though, do you? >> yes, i do. >> sharia law in the united states? >> some people would infuse sharia law in our court system if we allow it. i honestly believe that. so even if he calls me crazy, i am going to make sure that they don't infuse it little by little by little. it's not going to be some grand scheme, little by little. i don't mind if he calls me crazy. i'm simply saying -- >> you're sticking to it. >> i'm sticking to it. >> the facts simply don't support his notion that there's a threat or some sort of movement toward this. cain is also on record criticizing planned parenthood, which is not unusual among social conservatives who object the its support of abortion rights. back in 2004, he was running for senate in georgia. "the washington post" covered a campaign appearance at which he told supporters that planned parenthood was established to systematically lower the black population. quote, one of the motivation was killing black babies. as for why, because they didn't want to deal with the problems of illiteracy and poverty. as for what motivates planned parenthood either now or when the organization began, we couldn't find any facts to back up cain's allegation and cain hasn't offered any either. but he did tell the heritage foundation this about planned parenthood's founder. quote, when margaret sanger, check my history, started planned parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world. the nonpartisan organization did check cain's history. they found no evidence that margaret sanger had any such motives and they spoke to her leading biographer and leading historians of the time. the conclusion, quote, cain's claim is a ridiculous, cynical play of the race card, we rate it pants on fire. by his own admission, not having the facts doesn't always stop herman cain from saying what's on his mind. here he is the other day talking to "the wall street journal" about the wall street protests. >> i believe these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the obama administration. don't blame wall street. don't blame the big banks. if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself. >> we invited herman cain on the program. but his staff told us the candidate is busy all week. the invitation stands. ed rollins can't say no. dana loesch is also with us. and gloria borger as well. gloria, what does cain have that romney doesn't? >> he's got enthusiastic supporters. more than half of his supporters say they're strongly supporting him. and romney only has about a quarter strong supporters. when you have that kind of enthusiasm behind you, it's important. romney's supporters are sort of comfortable with him but they're not wildly mad about him. now, the good news for romney, though, is that these tea party voters are very fickle. they've moved. now they're with cain. they were with perry. they were with michele bachmann. so they keep moving around because they're looking for the perfect candidate, which, by the way, they're probably not going to kind. >> dana, do you think that's true, that tea party voters are fickle or they're still not settled on somebody? >> i don't think that they're settled on anyone yet. i think it's still a little bit early in the game. i want to see if some of the other candidates -- i would assume a bunch of other tea party activists do as well. want to see if one of the candidates can step up their game. everyone is still vetting the candidates and looking to see where they stand on the issues and how they hold up during national debates. that was the thing that cost perry his immediate lead was he didn't have a good couple of debates. that kind of cost him a little bit. i don't know if it's just so much they're fickle as they're still vetting, at this point, i think. >> ed, can herman cain stand the vetting, as he now is much higher in the polls, he's going to get a lot more -- >> not if he says things like he said on camera. he has the attention of republican voters. they're going to pay close attention. gloria said there's a shift. michele bachmann became kind of a frontrunner for a while and said some things that slid her back. he became a frontrunner early in the debates. he made some mistakes on the same kinds of issues here.ba is this is a time you can be fickle. you can like people but you're not going to vote for them. i think at the end of the day, the tea party element, which is very strong in our party, is not yet settled. >> it's interesting, ed. mitt romney is clearly the frontrunner but he's not breaking away from the pack. >> he's never been above 30%. he's just been a solid -- i had pollsters tell me before this campaign started that he would never get above 30%. can 30% at the end of the day win if you're all divided up? the key thing, in three months we start going after states and delegates. my sense is he's a very strong candidate in new hampshire. he'll be a strong candidate in nevada. perry, bachmann, cain, others will be strong in iowa and south carolina. depending on who wins there, florida may be the ultimate decider. all of those five states will be in january. >> gloria, is there anything that romney can do that he hasn't already done? he's been running for so long, does he just keep being the guy he is now -- >> keep being romney? well, he can't be the guy he was the last time around because the guy he was the last time around was the candidate people thought was inauthentic who was a flip-flopper, kept changing positions to please different constituencies in the party. when you talk to his advisers, they say, we are not going to be that guy. we have defended what romney did on health care in massachusetts, for example. we didn't back off of it. we're looking forwards the future saying it's not right for the nation as a whole. but it was right for massachusetts at that time. the big thing they're going to do and have to continue to do is to make him look like the most plausible candidate to become president of the united states that the republican party can field. that's different from saying he's electable because when you proclaim you're electable to conservatives, it means that you're really moderate trying to be conservative. so what he has to do is say, i'm the only plausible president standing here with these other candidates. that's what he's doing. >> dana, what do you think romney's biggest weakness is, from this vantage point? >> mitt romney. his biggest weakness is his own record. when he was governor of massachusetts, the state was 47th in terms of job creation. i don't get where this big job creation record comes from mitt romney. and i cannot fathom the idea of any true conservative or any republican, for that matter, who's spent the past 2 1/2 years criticizing president obama's health care law suddenly throwing their support towards the governor who helped bring in the blueprint for that. it seems a complete betrayal of everything that everyone's been standing for the past several years. the number one threat to mitt romney is himself. the second threat, i think at some point could be rick perry. i don't know whether or not herman cain can go a full-on primary battle against mitt romney, especially in terms of fund-raising. but he definitely has a lot of support behind him right now. >> he doesn't have a staff. >> yeah. and he -- >> the two campaigns that are organized -- and perry's getting organized -- is perry and romney. as i said, january, maybe even december, we have our candidate set, we don't have our calendar set. you could literally have the iowa caucus the day after christmas this year. but the bottom line is by the end of january, the battle is going to be down to the two people who are serious. it's probably going to be perry and romney. and they'll go for the long run. >> and in terms of fund-raising, perry just came in -- he beat mitt romney this last quarter, just by $3 million or $4 million in fund-raising. cain didn't come close to that. >> cain doesn't have any kind of apparatus. the bottom line is both romney and perry have gotten the easy money, the money from here on gets harder. and they have way more money than anybody else. but from here on out, it's going to take you $40 million, $50 million to get through this process. it's a lot of money. >> and the question for tea party supporters is, are they still going to be looking for mr. perfect or ms. perfect or are they going to rally behind somebody they believe is that plausible president who can go toe to toe against barack obama? >> ed rollins, dana loesch, gloria borger, i appreciate it. we'll talk to herman cain and all the candidates a couple of weeks from now in las vegas. let us know what you think. we're on facebook. follow me at twitter. up next, the airport they want to build on the island in the middle of nowhere. looks like it will benefit a big company nearby but almost nobody else. a company is paying for a fraction of it. guess who else is paying for it? you are. and later, the michael jackson death trial and a good day for defendant conrad murray. how defense attorneys managed to raise doubts about the prosecution's case. thomas mesereau join us. steve jobs left behind two families, the one most people know about and the other that many people don't. we'll tell you about the daughter who was on early apple's, the sister, a famous novelist he only discovered later in life and the birth father he ignored for years. that and more when "360" continues. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. same great taste. so if i didn't know better i'd say you're having some sort of big tire sale. yes we are. yeah. how many tires does ford buy every year? over 3 million. you say you can beat any advertised price on tires? correct. anywhere? yes. like this price? yes. riously? yes what about this one? i'll beat it. this one? s we will. right, i only have one more question for you...this one? (laughing) yeah. get $100 rebate when you buy four tires. 100 bucks! only at your ford dealer. 3 million tires. 11 major brands, fiona's kind-of-nice. i don't know why you're not here. woohoo! yes! ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day yeah! ♪ it was the best day ♪ because of you [echoing] we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors. we make a great pair. right, totally. uh... that's what i was thinking. hmm. covering the things that make the outdoors great. now that's progressive. call or click today. where are your tax dollars going? this is a fascinating report. while lawmakers in both parties are talking about national sacrifice, about deep cuts in defense and entitlements and other spending that touches tens of millions of americans, they're also still pushing money out the door for what appears to be the benefit of the very, very few, or in the case of the story we uncovered, for the apparent benefit of a single, well-connected company. call it corporate well pharr, pork barrel politics or earmarks gone wild. president obama, just a few weeks ago said, enough is enough. >> no more earmarks, no more boondoggles, no more bridges to nowhere. >> that was the president's address to congress last month. democrats and republicans have been saying the same now for years. >> the american people see this earmark process as an example of a broken washington. >> our debt is unsustainable. >> on the earmark process -- >> after the cornhusker kickback. >> driven by earmarks. >> it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. it's an earmark. >> earmarks have become emblematic of everything that's wrong. >> i intend to vote against the earmarks. >> when it comes to our friends in the special interest, spend, spend, spend. >> democrats and republicans railing against earmarks, pet and pork projects like the bridge to nowhere in alaska. you'd think there wouldn't be any pork left. but we found a project out on the tip of alaska. the obama administration kept it going. both republican and democratic lawmakers voted to fund it, even though critics are calling it a multimillion-dollar airport to nowhere. gary tuchman went there. >> reporter: calling this place remote would be an understatement. thousands of acres of alaskan wilderness on an uninhabited island. but you, the american taxpayer, are building an airport here, money for an airport on a deserted island. joe is the mayor of this city in alaska, on another island six miles away. the airport is being built for his town which has 100 residents. why the 100 citizens of mountainous city need an airport that's pricing out at about $77 million? most of it paid by you. >> we have over 1,000 people we need to serve. >> reporter: indeed, in addition to his 100 residents, there are about 1,100 other people who either come by boat or by occasionally seaplane to work here. trident seafood company is getting a good deal for it. trident will pay $1 million towards this airport. >> we're looking at a waste of money here. this is something that you have a private company that is standing to get a driveway built for them by the taxpayer. so this is outrageous use of taxpayer funds. >> reporter: the plant manager is david bossian. >> driveway for trident. what's your response to that? >> to a naked eye, you can't argue that. >> reporter: but trident says it's built its own infrastructure on this island, improved the lives of native population and sees no reason it should pay more than $1 million. >> this is not something that's being handed to us. it is something that we've earned through all the contributions that have been made towards the tax dollars. we have paid millions, millions in tax dollars. >> reporter: many of the families who have been here for generations agree, saying the plant has improved opportunities. in the small post office, a postal worker says he doesn't feel badly about u.s. taxpayers footing most of the bill. >> we all pay taxes just like everybody else does. >> trident changed the lifestyle here. >> reporter: as we continued talking to the mayor, the conversation struck a nerve. if trident wasn't here, do you think you would need this airport for 100 people? >> no, no, that doesn't make sense, no. >> reporter: so you acknowledge that trident needs it far more than your city needs it? >> the city as a community, we are a community, gary. you need to open your eyes and see us as a community. if you keep -- you need to turn the camera off. if you keep insisting on that, i'm going to quit talking to you, gary. >> reporter: but it's not only the airport funding that's getting negative attention. it's still not clear how the passengers will get there. the origin plan was a hovercraft. but in other parts of alaska, it doesn't always work. then there's the thought of a helicopter or a boat like this one. but it takes between 20 and 40 minutes to get there and it's cold and uncomfortable. even though the airport is about to open, we don't know how people will get there. it took us more than two days just to get there for our story. much of the time here, perhaps more than half the time, the waves are too high. the winds too severe to get a boat close to the island where the airport is. today is one of those days. so we waited for the next day. the winds diminished, the skies cleared. we took a cargo boat, then a skiff. but there was a 90-foot muddy cliff between us and the construction site. we had to scale it. even the trident bosses haven't yet been to the site. made it. about 25 construction workers are living on the island for up to two months at a time. gravel has just started to be laid down on the runway. the airport project is on schedule. this is your airport, american taxpayer, even though seeing it on tv is probably the closest you'll ever get to it. >> gary, wouldn't it have been cheaper and easier to build the airport on the island where the people live instead of six miles away? >> reporter: that's right. it's a beautiful place. but the problem is, it's basically a volcanic rock plopped into the bering sea and the pacific ocean. 97% of it is mountainous. the only flat areas are where the people live in their houses. they put it on the neighboring island, which is flat but ironically, no one lives on that flat island. >> i want to bring in steve ellis. mr. ellis, trident says they put a lot of money into the economy and they deserve this airport largely on the taxpayer's dime. you disagree. why? >> clearly, they're the major beneficiary. they do contribute to the economy. they bring 1,000 people or more to that island every year for seasonal work. but they're only kicking in $1 million. and this airport is a little more than a driveway for trident seafoods. >> reporter: gary, why can't they just keep playing seaplanes like they're doing now? >> reporter: the seaplanes are 50 or 60 years old. they don't make them anymore and they have to have good weather. so they fly infrequently. but you can still get there. but it's a long boat ride from the nearest airport to the island right now, it's a 4 1/2-hour boat ride. it's very inconvenient. >> alaska is a pretty unique state in terms of transportation challenges. there are significant challenges in certain places. isn't this just the cost of part of doing business in alaska? it's what's required? >> anderson, it's not the cost of doing business for trident seafood. it's the cost to the taxpayer. there's no doubt that alaska is a unique state and that there is a lot of need for air transportation because you can't get from place a to place b by road. but that said, we still have to look at priorities and what makes the most sense because there's a lot of these type situations around alaska. in this case, it's really about benefiting this one business that's a big business that should be able to pick up part of the tab or a greater share of the tab. >> steve ellis, appreciate it. gary tuchman as well, thanks. >> thank you. coming up, as tributes pour in following the death of steve jobs, we're taking a closer look at his birth. the rem

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