a new breakthrough can reveal the entire genetic blueprint of a baby still in its mother's womb, detecting thousands of diseases, but at what cost? i'm wolf blitzer in chicago. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com bill clinton can certainly work wondzers out there on the campaign trail, but he can also work himself into trouble from time to time. first, he praised what he called the so-called sterling -- that's a quote, sterling business record of mitt romney right here on cnn. then he contradicted president obama seemingly by suggesting that the bush tax cuts should be extended even for the wealthiest americans. i just sat down with the former president here in chicago at the clinton global initiative, and i asked him about that. >> what i was saying yesterday, which is apparently not accurate, is that if this fiscal cliff comes to the president and the congress and the country before the election, he can't afford to give up his position and he shouldn't. that we'll have revenues to deal with this debt long term and asking those of us to pay taxes. i support that position. i always have, and -- but the republicans feel they can indirectly ratify it, so i was talking whether they needed to put off after the election, but they still have until the first of the year. so if they have until the first of the year, in any case, to deal with this there's no problem. they both have their positions, and to decide how to resolve it, but the election won't intervene and therefore, i regret that all of this stirring up has happened because that's what with i was thinking. i was under the impression that shooing might have to be done before the election. >> the president has flatly said he will veto any extension of the bush tax cut for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000. he's extended it and he says he won't do this again. >> i support this issue, and i think on the merits, upper income people will have to contribute to the long-term debt reduction. you get debt now, there are irthree thing, adequate revenue stream and what he's trying to say is that we've got to have all three, and so i support his position, but we really -- i'm very sorry about what happened yesterday. i thought something had to be done on the fiscal cliff before the election. >> all right. the full interview coming up at the top of the hour at our 5:00 p.m. eastern hour. we go through a lot of these issues including some of the comments he's made about mitt romney at bain capital, but just a little flavor of what we're talking about. i want to dig deeper from what we just heard from the former president of the united states. candy crowley is joining us right now. chief political correspondent, the host of cnn's "state of the union." it's not every day, candy, that you hear a former president of the united states apologize and say that he regrets what he said earlier, but he was up front. he are he fsz. i would love to hear the conversation that goes back and forth and he seems to be on the same page with president obama and the fact that most people don't think any of this will happen before the election, they've thought that for some time so it's interesting to me that the former president didn't know that because i think it's been something that's been mentioned over and over again, but nonetheless, he saw the need to get back on the same page with the president for whatever reason and clarified his remarks and apologized. you know, it's bill clinton and he moves on and so will the obama re-election campaign. >> and we had a whole other exchange about how some are suggesting -- some of his critics are suggesting this is vintage bill clinton and he's actually in his own way trying to undermine, for whatever reason, the president and his re-election chances. you won't be surprised that he totally dismisses that notion and you hear these point especially given some of the bitterness when hillary was running for the presidential nomination against barack obama. >> i actually don't know what the rationale is, but i certainly agree that bill clinton is a man that can be vur careful at what he says and he's also sharp about what's going on. when he makes a mistake, it seems very out of character for things. here's my guess. when he said that mitt romney had a sterling private career in business, he meant it. i think he probably also feels at some level that it's the wrong time to cut taxes -- i mean, to raise taxes at any income level. i think that's what he said. on the other hand, the only thing that this former president really needs to do is say i support president obama. he's the guy i'm going to vote for, and you should, too, and he's doing that. i think bill clinton still remains a very powerful advocate for president obama even though he has to come out 24 hours and saying something that he apologized. all he has to do is i support president obama and it might help folks who are re-thinking their vote at this point. >> he backed up his words and he said he'll do fund-raising events for the president and make sure he does some campaigning over these next five months as well. once again, the full interview will air in the 5:00 p.m. eastern hour. you'll hear what the former president of the united states has to say on a whole range of issues and we'll talk about personal and presidential politics. we also talk about what's going on in czechoslovakia at the full initiative. computer attacks on iran. a presidential hit-list. the bomb now investigating a cove ert operations. there's outrage from both sides of the aisle on capitol hill. let's bring in our correspondent dana bash. some dramatic developments on this story. what's the latest? >> reporter: the latest is the director of national int intelligence james clapper came to capitol thoil brief members of congress to find out what he knows about these intelligence leads and afterwards, senior members came out together and these are very partisan times in congress so that in and of itself was very telling. an extraordinary show of bipartisanship intended to signal the seriousness of intelligence leaks. >> to have all four of those come forward today and talk about the severity of these leaks i hope sensdz a very clear message about how dangerous this has become. >> reporter: one by one the top republicans and democrats at the house senate intelligence committees described the need for new legislation to stop what they call a cascade of leaks that threatens national security of people's lives. some examples, an a.p. report about a thwarted al qaeda bomb plot and "the new york times" report on drone attacks and an attack on iran. >> it hurts our abilities it with our allies to have them work scombus get information. it hurts us to recruit assets to give us intelligence information that will allow us to protect our citizens. >> the white house has its own preliminary investigation. >> the agencies were directed to expand the scope of classified information they gave to the press. we none some cases someone from a segment of the media was present in a classified setting. >> reporter: cnn was later told rogers was referring to the film showed on the raid on osama bin laden. it was politically motivated to help the president look good and republicans were more circumspect. >> do you believe knowing what you know about the leaks that they are politically motivated to try to help president obama? >> i'm not going to pre-judge what the fbi's charged with the responsibility of doing. we've been through this before in the bush administration. wherever the responsibility falls out, that's where it's going to be and if it's in the administration, fine. if it's not in the administration, fine. >> reporter: five months before the election day, everything is political and democrats raising questions about leaks from anywhere in the administration could hurt. >> do you have any concern that by making such a big deal by leaks in the obama administration, not the white house, but the obama administration that this is goi going to be finger-pointing at anybody in the white house? >> this is not finger-pointing at anybody. we have a problem and we want to stop that problem. we want to put changes in the bill, but dana, this has to stop. when people say they don't want to work with the united states because they can't trust us to keep a secret, that's serious. >> reporter: and the white house insists these leaks are not politically motivated and to suggest otherwise is grossly irresponsible. for these lawmakers they may agree on the need to do something about it, and they don't agree on the kind of investigation that should occur. there should be an independent investigation, an independent council, of course, but she's not so sure because that could take years and we don't have years. one last note, as we speak the fbi director robert mueller is here on capitol hill talking about the investigations they're doing into a couple of these leaks we talked about. >> lots of stuff happening. we'll dig deeper. dana, thanks very much. could stepped-up lie detector tests be used for some, some government employees to deter classified information. cnn national security producer susan kelly broke the story for us. tell us what you know. >> james clapper was up on the hill talking about members of the committee that we just heard dana talking about. he kind of laid out his own ideas for getting tough or leaks and making it easier moving forward to find the source of leaks like this, and what he was talking about doing was expanding the counterintelligence polygraph and that was something given to government employees that hold a better clearance level and this goes across government agencies besides this overcities and give people the polygraph that may not have questions added to it along the way such as have you ever passed information you were not supposed to pass to a journalist? >> that would certainly help narrow the focus. >> i guess even the threat of these polygraphs would deter some sensitive information from being leaked by individual, but specifically, who would be s subject to these lie detector tests? >> it would be the 16 intelligence agencies and it would go beyond that, too. it would be a government ride initiative. if you have people, for example, who work in the state department who work with information like this, sensitive information they would be qualified to take this polygra polygraph. >> the interesting thing to look at is when it smop stops. with the political accusations being batted around this isn't something that would help in that sphere, but it would help in terms of being able to target across several government agencies who might be telling the truth and who might not be. >> sensitivities galore here. thanks very much. so is president obama allowing the leaks to score political points? i'll ask his chief campaign strategist david axelrod. he's standing by to join me live in chicago. >> also, the deadly spiral spiral in serbia, and chaos in the denny's restaurant. customers flee as a man opens fire and all of it is caught on tape. ♪... ♪... ♪... choose the perfect hotel cause we want to show them something new. you ready? let's go. walmart can now convert your favorite dvds from disc to digital. no way. if hulk smash disc... it's no big deal. now you'll never break them, scratch them or lose them. we can use that. you'll never break them. so what do you guys think? we love it. it's only two bucks per disc. that's cool. that's the walmart entertainment disc to digital service. bring in your favorite dvds to your local walmart photo center to get started. don't go in there. don't go in there. they don't listen. jack cafferty is here with "the cafferty file." wolf, wisconsin's recall election could be a sign of things to come for unions and the democrats. republican governor scott walker's victory is a big deal and here's why. walker recognized the financial path we're on. he did something about it and he prevailed. despite howling from liberal critics, voters in wisconsin stood by their governor and his effort to limit bargaining powers for workers and if wisconsin gets it, maybe there's hope for the rest of us. consider this, two of california's biggest cities are backing works against unions, san diego and san jose voted overwhelming this week to cut the pensions of city government workers in order to save money, and if it can happen in california, the bluest of the blue states maybe it can happen anywhere, like washington, d.c. -- pardon me. even californians understand that the cost of government pensions are killing us. according to cnnmoney.com, the pension gap for police, firefighters, teachers, and other city, county and state employees could be as high as $3 trillion and that doesn't include the cost of medical care. meanwhile, wisconsin's governor walker says the recall results mean that it's now competitive in his state come november. wisconsin's a state president obama won by 14 points in 2008 and it's not just wisconsin. other big union states may no longer be an automatic checkoff for president obama. for example, former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is suggesting that his state is, quote, definitely in play, unquote. so here's the question. what impact could the wisconsin recall election have come november? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on our blog or go to the situation room's facebook page. wolf? >> all right, jack. thank you. meanwhile, ominous developments unfolding in syria right now. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top stories in "the situation room." what's the latest? >> united nations observers in syria came under small arms fire as they tried to reach the scene of the latest massacre. it prompted a blunt and dire warning from the u.n. special envoy to syria, kofi annan. >> today, despite the acceptance of the six-point plan and the deployment of the courageous mission of united nations observers to syria, i must be frank and contend that the plan is not being implemented. if things do not change, the future is likely to be one of brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence and eventual-out civil war. all syrians will lose. >> and take a look at the dramatic video showing what appears to be a government tank being destroyed by a rocket-propelled grenade being fired by opposition forces. you can hear a voice exclaiming god is great. cnn cannot independently confirm the authenticity of this video. more than 80 lawsuits against the national football league have been bundled into one federal case. it accuses the league of failing to acknowledge and address risk of brain injury associated with the sport and fail toing form players about those risks. the lawsuit is filed on behalf of 2,000 nfl players. a league spokesman says there is no merit to the allegation. police in oklahoma city are looking for the man in this surveillance video in this denny's restaurant. he was fighting with a woman inside and when it got physical, a restaurant worker and a customer forced him out of the door. he returned to the restaurant and started firing, sending customers fleeing. they have not identified the gunmen. wolf? >> wow, what a story that is. lisa, thanks very much. troubling polls. the fund-raising race and we'll talk about that and a lot more with obama's chief campaign strategist, david axelrod is here in chicago with me. he's standing by lye. the interview coming up next. 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