unfolding right now over chick-fil-a. the issue, same sex marriage. i'm wolf blitzer in aspen, colorado. you're in "the situation room." they're not the headlines mitt romney's campaign was hoping to see as the candidate met britain's prime minister today. romney sparked an uproar with remas about london's readiness for the olympic games and promptedprompt ed pointed rebuke against himself. jim acosta is in london traveling with romney right now. what's going on with the republican candidate? what happened? >> reporter: wolf, earlier today mitt romney told british leaders he's hoping to take in an olympic swimming event during his time here in london. but with no pool in sight he's making some waves of his own. as mitt romney chatted up the olympics in meeting after meeting with former and current british leaders, the london media were already off to the races with comments the gop contender made about the city's preparations for the games. >> you know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out. >> reporter: in an interview with nbc, romney noted some of london's problems in getting ready for the olympics. >> do they come together and celebrate the olympic moment? that's something which we only find out once the games actually begin. >> reporter: it was that remark that drew a sharp response from british prime minister david cameron in the hours before his own scheduled meeting with romney, cameron put diplomacy aside and took issue with the republican candidate -- >> i think we'll show the world not only we come together as a united kingdom but we're extremely good at welcoming people from across the world. >> reporter: what sounded like a jab straight from a gold medal boxing match he drew contrast between staging the games in london versus salt lake city where romney had guided the olympics to success. >> we are holding an olympic games in one of the busiest, most active bustling cities anywhere in the world. i mean, of course it's easier if you hold an olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> reporter: after his meeting with cameron romney faced reporters outside number 10 downing street where he tried to walk back his comments. >> did you intend to criticize the way london had prepared for these games? >> i'm very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful olympic games. what i've seen shows imagination and forethought and a lot of organization. and expect the games to be highly successful. >> reporter: on the same day the torch made its way through london, it was a diplomatic flameout for romney who had come to the city hoping to tout his olympics experience to voters back home. he did receive shoutouts from british leaders. >> it's great to have somebody here who's organized a successful olympic game. >> reporter: not so much on the streets of london. >> mitt romney is rude in what he says. he comes to visit the prime minister of the country and then criticizes the country for the effort of putting on the olympics. >> reporter: now, earlier this afternoon here in london, the mayor of this city was holding a rally, wolf. we should tell you that at that rally the mayor of london actually called romney out for his comments that he made about the olympic games to nbc saying to a crowd "there's a guy called mitt romney who wants to know whether we are ready. are we ready? yes, we are." just some comments from the street tonight. there's no indication any of this will have an effect on the campaign back home where you know romney is pummelling the president with tv ads on the economy. romney is planning to attend opening ceremonies with his wife tomorrow before heading off to israel this weekend. wolf. >> thanks very much, jim acosta. he's traveling with mitt romney in london right now. as you said, romney's next stop is israel. i'll be traveling to jerusalem this weekend for a one-on-one interview with the republican presidential candidate. you'll see the full interview with mitt romney right here in "the situation room." that will air on monday. this week some of the world's top experts on fighting terrorism are here in colorado for the aspen institute security forum that's co-sponsored with cnn and "new york times." today i had a chance to conduct the first-ever public in-depth interview with u.s. navy admiral who planned the raid that killed osama bin laden. admiral william mcraven may not be a household name, but as you're about to see, he's a genuine u.s. hero. this is the guy who's sitting right here who had the guts to tell the commander in chief we should do it, let's do it. and when you ordered that raid and when you said -- you didn't even know for sure that bin laden was abbottabad at that compound about a mile or so away from the west point of pakistan, did you? >> let me make one thing clear, i didn't order the raid. >> but he told the president of the united states that he thought he could do it. [ laughter ] >> i mean, and this is not a small point. the fact of the matter is it was the president of the united states that ordered the raid. >> and he deserves an enormous amount of credit for that decision. >> he does. [ applause ] >> and when he came to the head of special operations, that would be you, and said what do you think? what did you say? >> well, first, i will tell you that it was a long process to get there. and our piece, the military piece, i look at in three components was probably the easiest aspect of the entire raid. the two other pieces of this were the cia's role. and i think when the history is finally written and outlined and exposed on how the cia determined that bin laden was there, it will be one of the great intelligence operations in the history of intelligence organizations. and a tremendous amount of that credit goes to director leon panetta at the time because he built the right team, he had the right people, he made some very gutsy calls. and he was not concerned about who got the credit. so when you take a look at how he built that team, which was a military and intelligence team, tremendous amount of credit goes to the agency. and the other piece of this really is the president and his national security team. i've made it very clear to people, again, the military piece of this we did i think 11 other raids that evening in afghanistan. now, i don't want to diminish the nature of this raid. it was a little bit more sporty. [ laughter ] and we understood that there were some strategic implications to it. but at the end of the day it was what we had been doin really for ten years. the president and his national security team -- i'm not a political guy, but i will tell you as an interested observer in this, they were magnificent in how they handled the start to finish. we went through a number of meetings. the president asked all the right questions. his national security team with secretary gates, secretary clinton, chairman mullen, the vice chairman, tom donland, dennis mcdun new and tom brennan and others did a fine job of finding out the facts to make their recommendations based on the facts. and the president gave me ample time to prepare once the concept was approved. but at the end of the day, make no istake about it, it was the president of the united states that shouldered the burden for this operation, that made the hard decisions that was instrumental in the planning process because i pitched every plan to him. so any indication that bill mcraven ordered this raid, led this raid was, you know, the key piece of this raid is just patently false. >> but you're a navy seal. >> yes. [ laughter ] >> and these men who went in there, navy seals, they were taking orders from you directly. >> they were. >> you were speaking to all of them. you knew each one of them personally. here's just a technical question, did you rehearse it in advance? >> well, i'm not going to talk about the tactical details. obviously we're not going to do a mission like that without rehearsing. we rehearse every operation. particularly significant ones like that. as i said, i have made a point of not talking about the tactical piece of this other than to say that it is what we do. we get on helicopters, we go to objectives, we secure the objectives, we get back on helicopters and we come home. i was short one helicopter. >> well, that stealth helicopter, when it went down -- all of us have read about it, we've heard about it, i've spoken to people in that room -- the white house situation room as opposed to another situation room, but when that helicopter went down, there was a gasp because a lot of the folks there, correct me if i'm wrong, thought of desert 1 in 1980 jimmy carter's plan to rescue americans in iran. >> i wouldn't pretend to tell you what they were thinking. >> what were you thinking? >> i was too busy frankly -- i mean, we had a backup plan. we executedhe backup plan. at that point in time you're worried about getting the mission done and getting the boys back home. so we had a plan suffice to say. >> and it worked. >> and it worked. >> that helicopter, by the way, all the stealth technology and all that, is that gone? has it been shared with bad guys? >> i'm not going to address that. >> you don't want to talk about that. curious. i want to nail this down as best as i can. you didn't have 100% knowledge, the president didn't have 100% knowledge that bin laden was holed up in that compound. did you have 80%? 50%? give me a ballpark -- how confident were you that a tall guy was hiding out in that compound? >> again, i'm not going to address the tactical piece of that. suffice to say we were not sure he was there. and, again, that gets back to some tough decisions that were made. my job was to get him if he was there. if he wasn't there, we would know that pretty quickly. and our intent was to get up and get out. >> i suspect you're not going to want to answer this question, but i'll ask it anyhow. as the admiral and i know we just spent some quality time together, this is the united states of america, we can ask the questions. he doesn't have to answer them. but we can ask the questions. and i think it's an important question that at least i've always been very, very curious about. was the mission to capture bin laden? or was the mission to kill bin laden? >> you know, that's a great question. i'm not going to answer it. [ laughter ] >> all right. but there were contingencies this guy would be brought out in a helicopter and brought somewhere? >> did they teach you this to do the end around -- >> you don't want to discuss that? >> no. >> all right. there's much more ahead. my interview will continue with admiral william mcraven. in our next hour we're going to talk about the deadly challenges the u.s. is facing in afghanistan right now. and later in our new 6:00 p.m. eastern hour we'll have part three of the interview where we discuss whether or not gays serving openly in the u.s. military has had any impact at all on special operations forces and he commands some 66,000 special-ops forces. we'll talk about leaks to the news media about national security. a lot more coming up with admiral william mcraven. also, the duke and duchess of cambridge and prince harry, greet the torch at buckingham palace. plus, the unlikely collision between fast food and gay marriage. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. well hello, welcome to hotels.com. summer road trip, huh? uhuh yep uch let's find you a room. at hotels.com, you'll always find the perfect hotel. because we only do hotels. wow. i like that. nice no. laugh... awe uch ooh, yeah hmm nice huh book it! oh boy call me... this summer, we're finding you the perfect place - plus giving you up to $100 at hotels.com take the steps to reach yours, everyowith usgoals. with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advisor can help you. every step of the way. from big steps, to little steps. since 1863 we've helped guide our clients, so they can take the steps to help grow, preserve, and pass along their wealth. so their footsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank get to jack cafferty. he's got the cafferty file. jack. >> before i do this, admiral mcraven is as good as it gets. and this country is so very fortunate to have people like that at the highest levels of our military protecting us around the clock. i watched that interview. and i got to tell you, it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. what a magnificent job he and his people did for all of us. we should be grateful. anyway, onto more mundane things, politics. >> yeah. i agree completely. >> fired up or not? turns out the rallying cry for democrats in 2008 may not apply to this presidential campaign. a new poll shows democratic voter enthusiasm is down sharply from the last two presidential elections. just 39% of democrats say that they are more enthusiastic about voting than usual. that's down from 61% who felt that way in 2008, and 68% in 2004. and it's lower than the 51% of republicans who say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting for president. voter enthusiasm often gives a sense of possible turnout. but it also reflects voters' expectations of their party's chances of winning cht translation, democrats might be less optimistic about president obama winning a second term than they were four years ago. when you consider the fact that republicans are more excited at this point and that they historically vote in higher rates than democrats, not a good sign for the obama campaign. but it's early. on the other hand, it's possible democrats may just not be too into the race yet and come election day they will turn out and vote. maybe they won't be excited about it, but they'll vote. meanwhile, in another sign democrats are not revved up, the party's having some serious fund raising issues. for two months now president obama and the democrats have lagged behind mitt romney and the republicans to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. it's not just the race for president. nancy pelosi having a tough time getting democratic house members to contribute to the democratic party. in june gop lawmakers gave as much as three times as much money as democrats did to their respective congressional campaign committee. here's the question, why aren't democrats as excited to vote this year? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog. or go to our post on the "the situation room" facebook page. i know you're excited, wolf. >> i'm always excited when it comes to covering politics because i'm a political news junkie. i totally agree about admiral mcraven. much more in the next hour and our 6:00 p.m. eastern hour. and we're going to do a special, jack, i want to announce to our viewers right now. saturday 6:00 p.m. the full hour with admiral mcraven. i think our viewers will want to see and get context on what's going on on a whole bunch of issues affecting the u.s. military. jack, thanks so much. >> i can't wait to see it and people ought to get their kids in front of the tv set and make them watch. that's the tradition that this country was built around. men like that. great stuff. >> yep. all right. thank you, jack. appreciate it. the olympic torch is now in london making its way throughout the city in a relay that included a stop at buckingham palace where it got a royal welcome from prince william and his wife. our royal correspondent, max foster, joining us with details. max, tell us about that upclose look. what happened? >> reporter: yeah, just lost the end of that, wolf, but a fantastic day. get the sense that olympics are here. such a big buildup hasn't there been and then the torch finally going to the big landmarks in london, downing street, river of the thames. in many ways the face of this olympics to the outside world because when they're involved everyone involved. they're wearing the british team outfits but fully involved in all the commonwealth countries. we'll be back again there, wolf, because we think michelle obama will be at buckingham palace. that's just before the opening ceremonies. less than 24 hours to go now, wolf. >> i noticed, max, that they didn't run with the torch. here's the question, are the royals getting involved in any of the actual events? >> reporter: yeah. big disappointment, wasn't it? actually, this morning what they did is they went to an inner city school, and they're all about making sport inclusive for all and the olympics inclusive for all. so what better way of showing that than throwing themselves into sports themselves. and they went into various parts of this school. first of all the duchess of cambridge, we saw her playing some table tennis which has made a few headlines here. she performed pretty badly against this young girl who was fantastic at table tennis. one of the best in london. but she was throwing herself in. and then the next room next door we had prince harry shooting hoops with the young team. missing all of the hoops. but, again, throwing himself in. outside prince william ha a go at football and missed the goal. it wasn't a great day for royal sport but certainly got the cameras there getting everyone in the mood. i think everyone is in the mood now, wolf. >> they certainly are. i'm getting excited. i think a lot of our viewers around the world are all getting excited as well. i thought her table tennis or ping-pong wasn't so bad. better than mine, i think. that's just my opinion. hey, max, thanks very much. there's lots of spornt consumer news here in the united states today. mortgage rates just hit another all-time low. wait until you see the numbers. and jpmorgan chase just agree today a multi-million-dollar settlement in a case involving its credit card customers. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." won't need... ♪ hajimemashite. hajimemashite. hajimemashite. you guys like football ? thank you so much. i'm stoked. you stoked ? totally. ... and he says, "under the mattress." souse le matelas. ( laughter ) why's the new guy sending me emails from paris ? paris, france ? verizon's 4g lte devices are global-ready. plus, global data for just $25. only from verizon. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone likes a bit of order in their life. virtual wallet helps you get it. keep track of spending, move money with a slide, and use the calendar. all to see your money how you want. ♪ all right. this just coming in to "the situation room." we have new details on facebook's financial health. lisa sylvester has the details and some of the other top stories whachlt are we learning, lisa? >> wolf, just now facebook beat analyst expectations by reporting a 32% increase in revenue compared to a year ago. still, the company lost money in its first quarter as a publicly traded company. and it's been wild in afterhours trading. at first facebook stock soared but now it's down. and jpmorgan chase will pay $100 million to settle accusations it unfairly raised minimum payments and fees for many of its credit card customers. settles a class action lawsuit back to the start of the financial crisis in late 2008. the bank argued the changes were a sensible way to reduce its risk. and mo