condition. about five and a half minutes into the call the sleeping dispatcher, wakes up, picking up where he left off, mitters a question. >> what's your address? what's your address?address? >> caller: who knew 911 needed a wake-up call. jeanne moos. >> yes? uh-huh. [ snoring ]. >> caller: new york. >> that does it for me, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues next on cnn. good evening, tonight from boston i'm john king. ahead on ominous note, emergency landing and new worries about airline security on flights heading to the united states from overseas. also a possible break-through in the standoff over iran's nuclear program. is iran about to blink and allow new inspections? and the man who succeeded in are mr as massachusetts governor, deval patrick is a democrat, but wait until you hear what he has to say about romney's old company, bain capital.

we begin with the latest on an in-flight scare that forced a u.s. jet to make emergency landing by fighter jet. it raises fresh concerns for security for airliners headed to the states from africa and europe. u.s. airways flight 787 from paris to charlotte diverted to bangor's maine after a passenger's note warned she had a surgically implanted device. the plane with 188 people on board landed safely and the woman else courted off in handcuffs. officials determined she didn't have a device after all but that leaves plenty of questions. fran townsend is with us, a member of the external advisory committee for the cia and department of homeland security. fran, this is something people have been worried about, somebody with an implant device, perhaps a bomb. >> we saw an aggressive response because what we've heard for months from intelligence and law enforcement sources that they're really worried about this

because they heard this threat stream. this goes back to yemen, the al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. the bobmaker is al siri, responsible for the recently foiled plot we've heard so much about, and this is a device, we haven't seen it happen yet, haven't seen an implanted device explode but we know from the 9/11 commission not to have another failure of imagination so they take this threat scheme seriously. they saw no evidence of recent surgical marks but couldn't take the chance they missed something and scrambled two f-15s and put it in bangor, maine, which is consistent with what the protocol would have been with a flight coming in with a threat from europe. >> is there anything turns out not to be the case, no recent surgical marks but if you're the crew on that plane i assume you have basic guidelines if somebody says they have this, you have to assume it's serious, correct? >> that's exactly right. we understand now that they put her to the back of the plane,

where she was examined, she was held there. the pilot then notified the air traffic control and they did do exactly what they've been trained to do, and john, while this turned out to be a woman with sort of a false threat, they didn't know that in the air and did everything they were supposed to do to protect the passengers on that flight. >> since this threat it out there and we assume this say false alarm and they acted appropriately, where are we in terms of getting to the point can the devices be detected? >> well this is probably the most difficult challenge we're facing. there's no one single silver bullet that would have detected this. what tsa i think tells us that they rely on is a matrix, a multilayered approach. so you go through, there are screeners who have behavioral training to spot anomalies. they swipe your hands and you go through back scatter and millimeter wave machines. what the hope is that this multilayered approach would

allow them to identify somebody that was an anomaly, so they might be able to detect it but right now there's no single screening device that would detect an implanted device. >> fran townsend, thanks. >> thanks, john. we're tracking a potential break-through on iran's disputed nuclear program. the united nations nuclear watch dog says expect a deal in the next few days which could clear for fuller access to controversial sites and scientists many people could be part of an atomic weapons program. >> last time i said progress was made. this time i'm saying decision was made. >> nick burns is the former undertear of state former ambassador to nato and now teaches at harvard university. is this a break-through or another iranian promise soon to be broken? >> well it's one of the two, john. it could be a break-through but we have to see the details of this agreement, if it's finalized by the international atomic energy agency.

we've learned with the iranians over the last several years you cannot trust and you have to verify, and this deal, of course, that's now being reported in the press is by no means finished but it is a good sign that they invited the chairman of the iaea for the first time in a couple of years to visit, that they're talking about much more intrusive inspections of suspected nuclear sites, and of current nuclear sites. that's been one of the big issues that the united states and other countries have had with the iranians, their refusal to allow the iaea to monitor exactly what the iranians are doing and of course, john, this coincides with a very important second round of negotiations tomorrow in baghdad, where the united states and the other members will be negotiating with iran. it looks like there's momentum towards at least the beginnings of some agreement but until we see the details, we have reason to be cautious. >> you say reason to be cautious, the israelis are openly skeptical, they have the most at stake you might argue. they believe what iran is doing is agreeing to some technical

agreement on paper so they can go into the talks tomorrow and say back off the sanctions, give us a break. should the p-5 plus one, the group that it's called, the united states, should they back off or ratchet up the pressure? >> i think the iranians are at the table in baghdad tomorrow because of the pressure, because of the sanctions, so i would think that we'd want to see a maintenance of the sanctions, if not a reinforcement of the sanctions, and indeed, the eu oil embargo in iran is just now beginning to be implemented and the u.s. central bank sanctions which are so important also just beginning to be implemented. so i'd be surprised if we saw the sanctions taken off iran, because i think that's been the reason, that's what's motivated the iranians, that and force fr israelis, made credible by the toughness of prime minister netanyahu. those are the two reasons why the iranians appear to be moving. . >> former nato ambassador undersecretary of state nick burns thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks, john. let's turn to an important

consumer safety story here at home. the stroller brigade invaded capitol hill today. a group of mothers pushing their babies and pushing lawmakers for a crackdown for dangerous chemicals found in everyday products. here's dana bash. >> reporter: strollers, babies, breast feeding pillows, usually women walking around the capitol like this are tourists, not activists. >> hey, hey, ho, ho, toxic chemicals have to go. >> reporter: moms like lisa allen came from all over the country to push regulation of carpets in items for babies that could be health hazards. >> as a mom it's overwhelming. we do the best we can but we still need help and hoping that our senators will help us to protect our children. >> reporter: flame retardant chemicals in many carpets and couches pushed by the smoking industry to prevent fires are toxins that could cause cancer,

fetal impairment and fertility problems. that prompted this protest. >> every time you sit down on the couch, you know what happens? when you sit down, you release this fine spray of toxic chemicals right in the face of your baby. >> that's not right. >> that isn't right. >> reporter: at issue a 19 6 law giving the epa authority to regulate chemicals is in need of an update. the epa administrator says because of legal and procedural hurdles of the 80,000 chemicals in its inventory, the agency has tested just 200 chemicals and only banned five because of toxic heal risks. senator frank lautenberg authored legislation to require manufacturers to provide information on health hazards for all chemicals and require chemical companies just like pharmaceuticals to demonstrate product safety before putting products on the market. >> a will require chemical makers to prove their products

are safe before they end up in our children's bodies. >> reporter: the chemical industry strongly disputes the epa numbers, but insists chemical companies agree, safety laws need to be updated. it's just the democrats' approach would hurt businesses. >> it will not do the two things that we really need to do, the two goals are to protect health in the environment and also to ensure that american manufacturers can compete in a global marketplace. >> reporter: moms like christine nystadt who flew in to idaho to talk to her senator says she wants information to make smart choices about what she buys. >> you can't read a label on this pillow and know anything other than it's supposed to confer with, you know, rules for fire retardants. that makes you feel like you're doing something safe. it turns out the exact opposite may be happening. so until the labels mean something, we are powerless. >> reporter: now there are 18 democratic senate co-sponsors, those are democrats, no

republicans so far, john, and the spokesman for the top republican on the environment committee, james inhoff tells me he does think this issue is important. he wants to work with democrats, but the way this particular piece of legislation was written it would hurt, he says, businesses and business development. >> so help me a bit further on that one, dana, senator inhoff is open to the goals and most republicans don't love the epa so is there a middle ground here? >> reporter: that is definitely another part of it. there's no question, the legislation gives a lot more power to the epa to regulate businesses, which is a political non-starter for a lot of republicans. is there a middle ground? the truth is that there have been private discussions with consumer groups, with industry groups, and with senators and members of congress in both parties for some time. they seem to be at odds right now, but with the kind of effort that we saw from moms today, going from door to door, that's the kind of grassroots effort that actually does tend to matter in the long-term. so could be.

>> we'll stay tuned on that. dana bash, thank you. ahead there's a new sign the economy may be picking up, especially good news for homeowners hoping to sell. we'll have the details in a little bit. but next the man who succeeded mitt romney as governor and still deals with romney's old business. you're the governor of a state that bain capital calls its global home. it's right up the street global headquarters. >> indeed. >> are they a bad company? >> no, they're not a bad company. ♪ [ engine turns over ] o then we turned the page, . the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. see your lexus dealer.

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you, welcome home. >> thank you, good to be heem. you're in an interesting position this year. you're the governor of a state that bain capital calls its global home. it's right up the street in lowell headquarters. >> indeed. >> are they a bad company? >> no, they're not a bad company and nobody is saying they are, including the president. it's a remarkable thing. you know, if you take a little step back to watch how good the republicans are at changing the subject. this is not about bain. it's not about private equity in general. it's about a guy who is holding himself out to be a job creator, whose record is fair game at doing that. i can tell you, that when he was, when he was governor before me, we were 47th in the nation in job creation. we're in the top ten today. the numbers of reforms that he talked about, that we actually accomplished, is considerable. he did one profoundly important thing, and that is to lead the

reform of the health care system and that's something he wants to talk about on the national trail. >> i'll come back to his time as governor, but member of the house democratic leadership jim clyburn said bain capital rapes companies. he can't support a company that rapes companies. >> the question is whether mitt romney has what it takes, has the preparation and experience and the empathy to serve as president of the united states. it's not about whether bain is good or bad. i have friends at bain. i have people who support it, who supported the other candidate in my own campaign, so i respect what bain does, and its role in the free market system, but we need somebody who understands that there are multiple bottom lines and that's what we have in president obama. >> you are a friend of the president of the united states. >> and enthusiastic support. >> and serve in the office once held by governor romney. odd place to be? >> sometimes. there are a number of people who have been encouraging me to get out there and you know, hammer

away at my predecessor. he's always been a gentleman to me and i don't like that kind of politics, but i do think that his record in his one episode in public life is fair game, and it's a record that does not support what he's holding himself out to be. what i think we need instead and what we have tried to do here in massachusetts and i know what the president's trying to do at the national level is to encourage people to turn to each other instead of on each other and come together to solve big problems. >> i assume you have no doubt who carries the election in massachusetts? >> president obama. >> massachusetts is usually an afterthought. people say it's blue, it's democratic, as solid as can be. >> we don't like to think of ourselves that way. >> most people think president obama will carry the state even though governor romney calls it home but you also have the brown/warren race, one of the best senate races in the country. >> really interesting race, too. >> you have the prospect of aiken digoing back to congress in the barney frank district as

he retires and we have that lapse now, no kennedys in the congress. interesting state. not normally the case. >> it is and i think we are thought of as being more reliably blue than we are. there are more unregistered independents in massachusetts than there are registered democrats and republicans combined and we've had 16 years before me of republican governors. we've, we have scott brown now in the senate, and in a tight race with the probable democratic nominee, elizabeth warren. >> let's go back then and make clear what is and isn't fair game when it comes to bain capital, where we started. what's fair and what's not fair game? some people attack the company broadly. people say these guys are rapers, they're horrible. >> i get some people think the whole idea of private equity is bad and doesn't contribute. i'm just saying i'm not one of those people but i do think that it is fair to ask whether a

person who represents himself as having a record of creating jobs has actually done so. and we've seen a number of examples made public recently of that not actually happening. that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with that dimension of private equity in some absolute sense, but it does mean that what is being represented as a capability of the republican nominee is undermined by the facts. >> i worked in this state many years ago and my first presidential campaign was covering governor dukakis, someone else who once held your job, ted kennedy, michael dukakis. >> where are you going with this? >> john kennedy, mitt romney. deval patrick, you look at the schedule where you've been and going, iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, california, planning for 2016? >> i'm planning for 2012, and that is the re-election of president obama, and that's why i've been to all those places and i'll go other places that i

can to support him and what he's trying to do, consistent with my day job. >> in this book you talk about the advice from an english teacher at milton academy, shun pretense and ambiguity. so shun pretense and ambiguity. deval patrick does not think maybe down the line he'll seek national office? >> no? shermanesque. >> i keep being asked the question and answer it the same way because it's the truthful way. >> thank you for your time. >> good to be with you. still to come new satellite pictures reveal north korea may be ready to start another international crisis. plus defying astronomical odds, a baseball fan catches back-to-back home runs. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right,

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ride it at universal studios hollywood. welcome back. here's kate baldwin is the latest news you need to know right there. >> hi there, john, good evening, everyone. new satellite pictures show increased activity at north korea's nuclear test site, signaling the north koreans are probably getting ready for an underground test. u.s. official is warning such a test would be "a serious miscalculation." it looks like the u.s. housing market finally may be starting to pick up. figures from april show sales of existing homes at their highest point in nearly two years. not only are sales up, so are prices. nationwide the median price for a home was a shade over $177,000. so put them on the market, folks.

just kidding. finally maybe the red sox ought to sign this guy, john, considering you're in your hometown, caleb lloyd, who was sitting in left field at last night's cincinnati reds game caught back-to-back home runs, and he didn't keep either of the balls, if you can believe this. he tells cincinnati.com he gave the first ball to the guy who hit it, it was his first major league homer and gave the second ball to the friend who talked him into coming to the game. talk about being in the right place at the right time. >> that's a nice guy, red sox have hurt outfielders, maybe they will sign him temporary minor league deal. see you in a little bit. >> he's a reds fan have you have to work on him. >> that's all right, as long as can he play. ahead unwelcome garbage washing up on the u.s. west coast. the first debris from last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami in japan. as we'll see in a bit there's plenty more where this came from. next the head of the republican party joins us to discuss the increasingly nasty and personal campaign for the white house.

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in this half hour of "john king usa" the republican party chairman joins us to talk tactics as the obama campaign expands its effort to define mitt romney as uncaring, out of touch and, they say, unqualified to be president. plus more than 1 million tons of junk washed away by japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami now starting to wash up along the u.s. west coast, and some of it may be toxic.

the truth about the latest poll numbers and why president obama wants to change the subject. it's been over a year since president obama released his long form birth certificate but the birther movement isn't dead, not to some in the republican party. arizona secretary of state asked hawaii for verification about the president's place of birth and the iowa republican party wants to insert a quote "national born citizen" requirement in its platform. >> there are many republicans who feel that barack obama is not a natural born citizen because his father was not an american when he was born, and therefore, feel that according to the constitution, he's not qualified to be president, should not have been allowed to be elected by the electoral college or even nominated by the democratic party in 2008, and so this is an election year. it's a shot at him. >> so is this the conversation

republicans ought to be having in the middle of a competitive presidential campaign? joining me the chairman of the republican national committee ryan privas. mr. chairman we were talking how competitive this election is, how you think you can put michigan back in the republican column. what do you say to people like the gentleman you just heard in the state of iowa, the arizona secretary of state, who are trying to stir up this birther argu argument. do you pick up the phone and tell them stop? >> i haven't picked up the phone yet but i've been pretty clear now for over a year and i don't know how long i've been chairman, that this issue is a distraction. we have everything we have to have on this president. we have the words coming out of his mouth, the promises and the standards that he made to the american people. he didn't fulfill any of them when it comes to jobs, the debt, the deficit. he's the president of the united states and i got to tell you, we're going to beat him in november, and we're going to focus in on where i think the real horsepower in this campaign

is all about, which is the economy, and the promises that barack obama made to the american people. >> but to beat him, sir, and it is a very competitive election, and governor romney has a very good chance, as we speak, on this day, to beat him you need discipline. we just talked about, you said yet, i assume that means you may yet pick up the phone. i want to you listen to a romney supporter, iowa congressman steve king, and he's talking here about immigrants and who should be allowed in the country and who shouldn't be. >> you want one that's going to be aggressive, pick the one that's the friskiest, the one that eggs you most, not the one sitting on the corner. so you get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. we got the pick of every civil yung ho on the planet. >> forgive me, sir, but given your party's challenge deficit struggles with latino voters

right now, listening to something like that has to make you bang your head off the wall. >> john, i'm sorry, i couldn't hear what he said. i couldn't make it out, but i'll tell you this, our party is committed to reaching out and appealing to latino hispanic voters across america. we're not just doing it by talking about it. we're going door to door in places like kissimmee and hi hialeah in florida, with directors on the ground, relationships, municipal clerks making sure we're meeting our absentee ballot goals in the community. an rnc or dnc chairman can talk top line with you all day long but at the end of the day, our job is to make sure that we've got more ballots in the box than our opponent, and that means having a ground operation and an army on the ground that can go door to door and appeal to those voters. that's what we do. >> but does it also mean not having, not only republicans,

but republicans who are the little pin that says they're members of the united states congress, equating immigrants to dogs? >> john, i'm sorry, i couldn't, honestly i couldn't make out any of the clip you just showed. so obviously, i can't be in a position to comment on it. all i can tell you is that we believe that this president lied or was so grossly negligent in his promises to hispanic voters across america in 2008, he promised pathway, he didn't deliver a thing. he had harry reid and 60 votes in the senate. he had a super majority in congress with nancy pelosi, and for all of his whining and complaining, he didn't accomplish one of his promises in that regard. >> i want to give you a chance to respond to this. as you know the mayor of newark, new jersey, cory booker went on "meet the press" this sunday and said things that made the obama campaign and the democrats pretty mad about private equity. he was also cautioning republicans not to go down the

jeremiah wright path and finds those things nauseating, thinks it's time to focus on the big issues. cory booker took some heat from democrats and inside the obama campaign, last night he went on msnbc and said this. >> here they are, plucking sound bites out of that interview to manipulate them in a cynical manner to use them for their own purposes. to say i stand with cory booker, i have not seen a republican national candidate with maybe the exception of jack kemp, a long time ago be willing to stand in newark, new jersey, camden, new jersey, patterson, places often the gop wants to imagine doesn't exist. >> are you plucking sound bites out of interviews and manipulating them? >> well, i think we all know the answer to that. i'm -- i've been a lawyer for 14 years, john, and one of the things i learned in law school when the other side is making your case you keep letting them talk. i can hope and pray the obama

team keeps cory booker out there on television. i hope he's on sunday morning this week as well. because i happen to agree with him that these nasty, dirty attacks on mitt romney are uncalled for and i think this president, who promised to be this different kind of politician, he was going to carpet the world, you remember, in 2008, and now it's all, you know, hate and division and everybody's horrible, and this group against that group. there's a better america. we love this country, and we believe that this country is on the line in this election and that's why we need to defeat barack obama and bring back the america that we know and love. >> reince preibus, 160 days to go. >> you bet, john. soccer balls, sire foam containers, bits of styrofoam and more, all sorts of everyday items washing up on the alaskan coast after a 14-month, 4,000 mile trip across the pacific.

it's all debris from japan's devastating tsunami and earthquake in march of last year. the japanese government says 1.5 million tons of it is heading toward the west coast, and some say it could be toxic. cnn's casey wian is in yakatan, alaska. you've gone a long way to see this washing ashore. what are the biggest concerns right now? >> reporter: well, john, the biggest concern right now is the debris that we are starting to see wash up on the shores here in southeastern alaska. as you mentioned i'm near the fishing village of yakatat near the estuary. you can see a sandbar over there, we'll show you some of the debris we picked up the other day on this sandbar. you can look here and see things that locals say they have never seen before, a lot of these buoys, this big, black buoy right here is used in oyster

farming, they're saying. we see a lot of consumer products here, with japanese writing on them. here's another buoy over here that says "made in japan," one of the biggest concerns, though, john, right here is buoys that are made out of this styrofoam. you can see just as i handle it, little bits and pieces blowing off. the big concern is that the wildlife, the fish, and the birds are going to be eating these little pieces of styrofoam, they're going to think they're full, not going to get the nutrients they need, they're going to die off or be prey, easy prey for other species. so locals here are very concerned about it. some of them more remotely, you have to reach by helicopter or boat, are littered with debris and they have not figured out how they are going to clean all this stuff up yet, and where they're going to put it once they clean it up, nor have they figured out who is going to pay for it. locals say they need some help, john. >> well that was the follow-up question, as this starts to come

ashore, we know there's much more coming, could take weeks and i assume months, you say they don't know who is going to pay for it. who do they hope will pay for it? >> they certainly hope the federal government is going to step up to the plate. there are hearings coming up in congress later this week to try to figure out how they're going to address this issue. you know, we see the near term problem right here, but the big concern is that giant mass that's still out there on the pacific ocean. there is a large commercial fishing industry here. there are native americans who still survive on subsistence fishing. you can see some of the huts behind me here, they're very concerned that boards and who knows what else will be caught in their nets and then there's the concern about potentially toxic substances out there getting into the water table, a lot of issues that are being studied. it's the very beginning but they're starting to run out of time. as you mentioned this stuff is

starting to arrive sooner than anyone expected. it seems that people didn't calculate the wind. lot of the stuff that we're seeing here is lighter weight stuff, and so it is being blown by the wind in addition to the currents, john. >> casey wian on the scene for us, as this challenge begins in alaska. thanks so much. ahead the battle over bain heats up. is a bain executive more qualified than your plumber to be president? joe biden doesn't think so. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

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the battle over bain intensified today as vice president joe biden visited new hampshire and suggesteding -- get this -- your plumber is as ready to be president as mitt romney. >> your job as president is to promote the common good. that doesn't mean the private equity guys are bad guys. they're not. but that no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber. and by the way, there are a lot of awful smart plumbers. all kidding aside, it's not the same job requirement. so it's totally legitimate for the president to point this out. >> now biden wasn't kidding when he got to the crux of the obama campaign bain attack, raising character questions about governor romney. >> what private equity firms are supposed to do is make wealth for the investors. exactly.

exactly. that's their job, it's legitimate. it's legitimate. but folks, making money regardless of the consequences for the workers, the companies they acquire, or the communities that get wasted, is another question. >> now top romney advisers accuse the president and the vice president of a gross distortion. >> i think the bain record as a whole is fair game, and what you have to do is do an honest evaluation. the bain record is about 80% they were able to save jobs at companies, and 20% of the -- when they invested in companies that were in such bad shape, they weren't able to save those jobs. >> we're live in boston tonight. this is the home of bain capital. and its workers, democrats as well as republicans, don't appreciate the obama campaign attacks, but don't expect those attacks to end. look at this, 55% of registered

voters in the latest abc/"the washington post" poll disapprove of how the president is handling the economy, and this one's even worse, just 16% said they are better off now than when president obama was elected. now you don't need me to tell you those are damning numbers for any incumbent and the big reason the president wants to change the focus to governor romney and bain. here to talk truth tonight "new york's" washington correspondent ray lizza, erick erickson and in washington, cnn contributor james carville. mr. carville, to you first, we will see more and more polling, maybe get data with a definitive yes or no. in your view are at tacks on bain working? >> they're just starting and going to continue as they well should. i don't understand the argument against them. romney makes bain central to why he's running and who he is. he says he created 100,000 jobs. obama people pointing out hey

you lost some jobs in place and all of the republicans are whining. governor sununu makes as much sense as anybody. romney put it front and center, his reason for running, what he touts all the time. it's absurd to see people whining about something a candidate puts forward. it doesn't make any sense that he couldn't make this an issue, just like you can make things about obama an issue. it makes no sense to me. >> erick, absurd, makes no sense? >> actually i agree with james. the romney campaign made his time in the private sector an issue so of course the obama campaign will make it an issue but the obama campaign as they make it an issue should probably focus on the time mitt romney was actively in charge of the company and the romney campaign has a right to say romney wasn't there at the time, and romney can also as he did i thought probably the only effective time he ever dealt with the issue during the primary was to say this is just like what barack obama did with general motors, i did with bain capital, so yeah,

it's legitimate to go after it, but i think the obama campaign has to be careful in how they do and to be honest with you, john, i don't think most americans understand what private equity is and a lot of them really don't care. >> well if they're paying attention to the campaign they'll know a lot more about private equity as we get closer to the election. ryan, as the president tries to make this case and it's clear he thinks it's a case worth making, he has had some problems i will call them with democrats, complicating his message, cory booker says he found these nauseating and any attacks on jeremiah wright, he went out to try to fix that. this is james clyburn, member of the house democratic leadership on the air criticizing bain and explaining that he never takes any political contributions from companies whose conduct he questions. >> i don't take contributions from payday lenders. i refuse to do that and that's free enterprise but there's something about that enterprise that i have a problem with and there's something about raping

companies and leaving them in debt, and setting up swiss bank accounts in corporate and businesses in the grand caymans. i have a real serious problem with that. >> ryan, the obama campaign didn't like the congressman's use of the word raping, thought that was over the top but isn't congressman clyburn saying if you took money from bain if you don't like what they're doing you should give it back? the president raised about $150,000 in the campaign and a top bain official helped him raise more than $200,000 more, isn't that what the congressman is saying? >> i don't know if clyburn is in a safe seat to afford those decisions and not take certain money from constituents. partly what main cory booker and some other more business-friendly democrats is that they have relationships with people in private equity, and as the democratic coalition becomes more upscale, those kind of funders are more important to democrats.

now, obama on the other hand was sort of the favorite of wall street in 2008, and has lost a lot of that support, so i think it's a little safer for him to attack private equity. on the whole issue of what romney's done, my view is his mistake was that he redefined what his success at bain was all about, and he defined it in terms of jobs, because he wants to run on fixing this economy and everyone wants to talk about jobs, and he's not telling the positive story that he could be. his work in turning around the olympics, his work as governor, and, you know, his work at bain based on a different metric, not jobs, is a decent story, and he sort of walked right into a trap here that the obama folks set for him. >> james, i want your take on these brand new numbers. nbc/"wall street journal" poll came out and asked did president obama deliver the change he promised? 36% of the poll says he delivered the right kind of change.

62% say he's delivered the wrong kind of change. if you're advising an incumbent and that 62% number has to give you some pretty serious pause. >> i have no doubt it's a very, very close election. the race is 47/47 a lot is going to depend on what happens between now and election day. the thing i go back to the bain thing, this is absurd. it's not an attack on private equity, it's an attack on romney stepping right into it. the only thing i disagree with ryan about is romney stepped into it. he said he created 100,000 jobs net. romney is a man who has some resources. he's raising a bunch of money, he's worth a bunch of money, he has a whole network, a whole political party behind him to answer this. quite whine being it and answer it. put people on who have heart, talk about the good things. all this carping and whining and attack on this and that, that's the thing that drives me crazy. if you want to run for

president, then, you know, you got to take what comes with it. >> it's no mystery this was going to happen, right? the entire primaries were dominated by attacks like this from his republican opponents. >> right. >> so, eric, does he have to step forward and say more or would that take his focus off the president if he tried to open the bain books or explain it more positively like james says? >> you know, i think that romney needs to keep focusing on the economy, the numbers. it's sort of like what i've been saying for a while now. the president is going to have to convince the american public right now, just look at these nbc news polls that are just out. the president is going to have to convince the american public that romney will do a worse job than he's already done fixing the economy because there seems to be a growing consensus in america that the president hasn't done a very good job. so he's going to have to go after bain and romney when he starts phrasing his attacks on the economy and what he did at bain showing that he really is a turnaround artist. i think that's probably where he should go, not necessarily that he created jobs, but that he is a turnaround artist. >> i agree with that.

he's got a good story to tell but it's about his management experience and decision making not about how many jobs he created. >> he stepped into it. >> they are going to keep hitting it. gentlemen, thanks. erin burnett "outfront" coming up. you're speaking to a former partner with bain tonight. what's his take? >> he is very clear that the goal of private equity is to make profits and to make money. now, this is obviously very difficult for mitt romney. mitt romney is trying to say, well, he's created all these jobs. in truth though, john, of course, if private equity is successful, you have better, stronger companies and therefore more stable, higher paying jobs. that does not always end up being the case and we've done the math as well on those numbers of jobs that james was just referring to. mitt romney says he's created. what are the real numbers? and also cory booker. remember how he said i don't want to personally indict private equity. it's not just because he's friends with private equity titans, it's because they have been making direct investments

in newark. we'll tell you about what those are. it's a more complicated story on private equity than either the left or right would like to admit as you know. we're going to talk about that and that bain partner, i'll find out who he's voting for. >> see you in a few minutes, erin. thanks. an online auction site found a sure way to get attention. it's offering what it claims is dried blood from the attempt to assassinate president reagan. really?

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here is kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now. >> a somber and emotion moment in joplin, missouri. a huge crowd observed a moment of silence at 5:41 central time marking exactly one year since a devastating tornado touched down there. i'm sure you cannot forget. the storm killed 161 people. and a new era in space exploration blasted off before dawn. the first supply ship launched by a private company is now in orbit and bound for the international space station. pretty amazing video right there. space x's dragon capsule is carrying food, clothing, and scientific experiments. it's an unmanned mission. if it's successful it may open the door for other commercial space missions.

always fun to watch that. an auction website is selling what else? a vial claiming it held president ronald reagan's blood sample after the 1981 assassination attempt. i believe that's a picture right there. pfc auction says there's even dried blood in the glass tube. the executive director of the ronald reagan presidential foundation calls it a craven act if it is true. the foundation is threatening bidding action. the price is already more than $14,000. i guess that's what great about america, you can sell anything and there's always a buyer. >> you're probably too young for this, but instead of a moment you missed we look back on the moments some of us missed from the original king of late night, johnny carson. he retired from "the tonight show" 20 years ago today. >> here's johnny! ♪ >> carson walked through those curtains