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tv   John King USA  CNN  November 18, 2010 7:00pm-8:00pm EST

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thinks tsa agents can read the one-liners on your scanners through your clothes. they pull you out for special attention. that would look like you are the underwear bomber. >> our advice is to say, i am wearing something like a flying pasty and this covers my private parts and i want to maintain my dignity. >> reporter: i was groped by the tsa and all i got was this lousy t-shirt. we have entered the age of the audacity of grope. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. ♪ i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." john king, usa starts right now. thanks, wolf. good evening, everyone. what a busy day in politics. tonight, a complicated legal challenge for the obama white house that has some asking a simple but provocative question. does the president need a new attorney general? also, mixed signals from an embolden republican party. is the right hand not talking to
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the further right hand? a 9-1 vote by the house ethics committee recommending censure for charlie rangel, now shamed by ethics violations. yes, even more big political news and this one might make you cringe when you hear it. our contributor, james car vil, enrages the obama white house by suggesting and i'm being very, very, very careful here with my language, that the secretary of state, is more of a man than the president. we begin tonight with your money, a potential glimmer of hope for the made in american level and a very important fact chat. this is how the day began on wall street. that revving engine is general motors, once the icon of american and global manufacturing. more recently, gm has been known for shattered plants and a bankruptcy filing. it's stock is for sale again and it closed up on day one. good for any of you that decided to buy at the the opening price
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and maybe good for all of you anyway, because as taxpayers, you are pat owners in general motors. remember, the federal government pumped $50 billion into gm. at the time, it was more than a little controversial. back as the loan to gm was kicking in, 6 in 10 americans opposed the plan. most republicans mocked as socialism, the represent for what they then labeled government motors. here is a sampling. >> at least at this stage, the companies are not doing what needs to be done to save the companies. so that puts us on a long-term policy of the government simply propping up this industry. >> i do disagree with the government coming in and taking over a company like this. i think that was heavy-handed. >> i think this is a bridge loan to nowhere. this is a down payment on many billions to come. >> were all those republicans wrong?
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well, the president thinks so. >> there were plenty of doubt teres and naysayers who said it couldn't be done, who were prepared to throw in the towel and read the american auto industry last rights. that wasn't an acceptable option, to throw up our hands and to quit. that's not what we do. >> so let's help you decide by scrubbing the numbers to get a better sense of whether gm cannot only survive but thrive, and whether you will get all of your money back. all alley ali velshi, our chief business correspondent. >> you already said $50 billion is what the u.s. government popped into gm. i am going to show you to you. we gave gm $50 million. they have made some money and been able to pay back some of this. as a result of this the initial public offering today, the amount that general motors has been able to repay the taxpayers has been $23 billion. of the $50 billion. that means that there is another
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$27 billion to go. in order to do that, two things have to happen. angus is going to tell you about one of them. gm has to be a good, valid, going concern. that is something they have to prove. the other thing is the stock price has to go up. it opened up higher than it was expected. it closed at $35. for american to get its money back, the treasury has to sell the remaining 25% of gm stock that it still holds at about $55 a share. so a $20 improvement in that stock price. as you know, as well as i do, that could be a long time. i will show it to you here. taxpayers gave general motors $50 billion initially. general motors, as a result of what happened today and some other pay backs have given back $27 billion. this is what we are waiting for. the other $23 billion. can't tell you whether that will be six months or six years down the road. if angus can tell us they are building cars that americans twoont buy, including that chevy volt, we may get that money back sooner than we think. >> let's put the request he to ann gus.
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you just gave gm the motor trend car of the year by volt. here is what you wrote. the volt started life as an old gm project and then arrived fully formed as a new symbol of the new gm, carrying all of that. as a result, a lot of the sound and furry has tended to obscure a simple truth. this automobile is a game changer. why so? do you believe that this company closed up today? is it going to keep going up. >> the volt is a game-changer. it is a game-changer because of the power train technology in it. the investment in the power-train technology is really an investment in the future of automobile manufacturing in america, because what it does is it puts an american company right in the game of the electrification of the automobile power train, which will become increasingly important as oil prices rise as they will as china motorizes and
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oil is priced in a basket of currencies. for once, america is thinking forward. it is doing the forward thinking that makes the japanese such titans of the auto industry. can gm carry the momentum of the do-over it was given with the bailout an the bankruptcy? the company is now much leaner. prior to the bankruptcy, it was inching its way towards restructuring. it was still a company that was sized to 1970s market expectations instead of 21st century market realities. we are now starting to see what a leaner gm can do. it can be profitable. it is starting to roll out some very good products. there is a lot more to come. this is an industry that has very long lead times. that's very difficult in an environment where, you know, you have got to do quarterly stock earnings reports if every 90 days you have a report card marked for products that take 3 to 5 years to get to market. >> ali, as we wait for more
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products, ann gus lace down a pretty optimistic predicate. if gm does everything right, part of the road to profitability depends on americans being in a position coming to where they feel comfortable putting down the money for cars, right? >> that's exactly right. gm wasn't doing the right thing a few years ago. it was americans inability to get credit to buy cars and a recession costing them jobs that was the nail in the coffin. we have to depend on gm doing the right thing, which they haven't proved 2they can do in the past, making cars we want to buy and americans having the confidence to buy new cars and invest in this technology. i just drove a nissan leaf a couple hours ago, the competitors to the volt as opposed to the hybrid the volt is. this new breed of car is going to be very interesting. if we can get the money and the jobs and the credit to buy these cars, i think there might be something there. gm is far from out of the woods right now.
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>> ali velshi, for the american taxpayer who opposed this bailout and thought the president was sending money down a failed enterprise to begin with, is the bailout a successor is that still an open question? >> i think it is a success. the part that's being left out of the conversation is that it is estimated that 1 million jobs were saved as a result the of not letting gm fail but going into a structured bankruptcy instead. that's a very, very big deal. in an economy where jobs are stuck, the fact we didn't lose another 1 million jobs is an important part. on that front, it did succeed. we will not be able to say it succeeded in five years if that 23 billion is still outstanding. this company will have to get its act together and get the share price up. >> this is probably more of a political question. the american dream was built when the industrial revolution came through the united states and the auto industry was at the center. good-paying jobs with good benefits in a long-paying outlook that made middle class communities throughout america. i travel through america and see
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the rusted, old gm communities. is this the beginning o of a turn around or is it too early toens athe question? >> it is the beginning of a turn around. the american market is now gleeblized and normalized and the market share that the detroit three enjoyed is frank pli unsustainable. the whole issue with general motors and chrysler, companies were too big, too many dealers, workers, factories. now, in a single moment, they are going to chop through that and get this do-over and start again. i think it is important that manufacturing remains a part of the u.s. economy. the level the 6 out of 10 of every americans who couldn't care whether gm or chrysler lived or died, showed how low manufacturing was valued in this couldn't interest i. it is a strategically important skill that america has going forward. i don't think we are ever going to get back to the 1950s and '60s.
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the auto industry has changed. the game is changed. the u.s. market has changed. but, we can have a viable and vibrant domestically owned manufacturing, auto manufacturing business. no question. >> i hope you are right on that. whether you are a democrat or republican out there watching, we should all hope that ann gus is right. angus mckenzie, ali velshi, thanks for walking us through the numbers. when we come back, you know james car vville, sometimes he says very controversial things. this morning at breakfast, he said something, between the mail preside male president and the female secretary of state that has the white house enraged. we will tell you what in a moment. over a hundred etfs.... ...chosen by the unbiased experts at morningstar associates. let me pick what works for me.
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let's support the small business owners getting our economy booming with the first ever small business saturday. on november 27th, shop small. it's going to be huge. [trumpet playing "reveille" fades to silence] the united states capital there this evening. in that dome, under that dome tonight, shame, shame for one of the most powerful men on capitol hill once. by a 9-1 vote, the house ethics committee recommends the full house censure congressman charles rangel of new york.
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the announcement came after a dramatic and tearful day. let's go live to brianna keilar. give us the latest of what has been a difficult and shameful day for charlie rangel. >> reporter: this is serious. a censure is one step below expulsion. this is the recommendation of the ethics committee. still, there will be a vote scheduled by the full house. the full house will have to decide. i think the thought is that they will probably move on this recommendation. if they agree, this process is in essence public humiliation. charlie rangel would have to go on the floor of the house. he would receive a verbal rebuke from the speaker of the house herself. this coming today just a few days after an ethics subcommittee found that rangel was guilty on 11 of 12 counts of violating house rules for four different things. a couple of them, failing to pay taxes on income from a rental villa that he owns in the dominican republic even though at the time he was the chairman
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of the powerful tax-writing committee and soliciting donations for a college center bearing his name, doing that with companies that had business before his committee and doing that using official congressional letterhead as well as staff time, official congressional staff. this is a very big deal, this recommendation of a censure, john. >> brianna, will the full house act on this quickly. >> reporter: i think the expectation is that they will act quickly. it is still to be scheduled. hopefully, we will know that very soon. >> brianna keilar from capitol hill. she is dead right, censure is a stiff penalty. although, you will hear calls that he should be expelled. now, we turn to the white house where there is a huge legal controversy. to try a guantanamo detainee in civil court. ac quit talls on all 284 accounts. the verdict has some prominent republicans demanding that all future trials for alleged terrorists be held before military commissions, not in
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civilian courts. in the taping for cnn's "larry king live" a short time ago, vice president, joe biden, says it is not that easy. >> when you go to so-called article three court, all the stuff was, you can't try them in federal courts. you have to worry about terrorists attacking the court. you can't try them. they are not going to get sentenced. he will be in jail longer than if any other method were tried. the same thing george bush did with the shoe bomber, that he did with the 24th hijacker. >> so you are saying in the future with others, you would go civilian court. >> there is no reason not to go civilian court based on this case, at least. >> as conservatives publicly criticize the white house decision to take that to civilian trial, there are private conversations that this is a reputation to attorney general eric holder. >> john, i can tell you senior people hearsay eric holder still has the president's confidence.
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they have a warm, personal friendship. let's not forget, the last time there was a top official here who sort of ended up messing something up on the war on terror, it was greg craig, the white house counsel, a chief person that advised the president to sign an executive order promising they could clothes guantanamo within one years. that has long passed. we are coming up on two years. qu guantanamo nowhere close to being closed. this case is raising question about whether they can move forward in civilian courts. as the attorney general has suggested and other big terror cases, senior officials are acknowledging it is going to make it tougher in some of those cases. i have major, major terror suspects. the bottom line here is showing ha it would seem very black and white back in the 2008 campaign that they were going to do
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things differently in terms of executing the war on terror. it turns out it is a lot more gray once you are in office, john. >> very well put. we will stay on top of this one. the delicate matter of james carville's late testify comparison between hillary clinton and president obama. james carville is on the phone. i appreciate you joining us. you have caused quite a stir in down by comments you made at a breakfast meeting. i am going to read a reporter that was there tweeted this. if you are listening at home, i will read it as it was said. some of you may not like the language. james car vil to reporters this a.m. quote, if hillary gave up one of her balls and gave it to owe ba pa, he'd have two. james, are there a lot of your friends in the senior democratic party that are outraged. >> i am outraged. i said it. it was reported in news week. i think it was put in the column of "the new york times."
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it is a joke. the fact it was a joke and i was making a point, as i said, in the campaign. the people in the white house sh you be more current. >> he is the president of the united states. if you said it during the campaign, is there any different standard now than he is the president of the united states that should caution you not to repeat an off-color, ill-language joke. >> i may have said all of the things that people say about the president and i support them with all the things the president does, i repeated a joke i made in the campaign and if they are offended, let them be offended. >> what was the context in which you repeated it? >> we were talking about, i think it was -- i will have to go back and get the transcript, but that he needed to stand up more to these things, that they let him off too easy. i believe that was the context. i don't remember. i said, during the campaign, i
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said, boom. if i offended anybody, i'm not sorry and i don't apologize. >> all right. >> it was repeating a joke. actually, apparently, people laughed at it. >> if you are not apologizing, that means you meant it. >> i mean it as a joke. it was something that i had said before and i repeated the joke and it didn't strike me as something being particularly ajeen egregious. i can understand why they don't like it. it was just repeating a joke. that just happens sometimes in politics. this thing can't all be like serious, long-face stuff. every now and then, you have to enjoy yourself a little bit. it was just a joke. don't take it too much more than that. that's what it was and i'm not sorry i told it. >> that's an explanation, james carville. james, we appreciate it. james stepped out of a very important event with his daughter to talk with us. we appreciate him joining us on the telephone.
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we will talk to him in the person in the very near future. eric ericson, the editor and chief of a conservative blog is joining us to talk about this. and here in washington, roland martin. the language of this one is hard. it is something james did say. it is a comparison he made during the campaign when both hillary clinton and barack obama, then senator clinton and senator obama were candidates of president. does it make a difference, john -- roland, you go first. you are right here with me. does it make a difference. he is the president of the united states and she is the secretary of state. to say if hillary clinton gave up one of her and gave it to obama, he would have two. >> there is a difference. i believe you have to have respect for the office of president. i understand what james said. he explained us the context. so what he did was, he mixed a
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present-day discussion as relates to what the president should do with a joke that he told during the campaign. so, frankly, it is not like he was repeating -- it is not like he was telling a story from 2008 and linking the two. it is disrespectful to the president of the united states to make that kind of comment. >> you just heard his explanation where he said, if i offended anybody, i don't apologize. >> if a republican had made the same crack and refused to apologize, there would be a lot more offended people. i appreciate that james was joking. we do need a good sense of humor in politics. this is about the president at the end of the day and different than in a campaign context. reality of our political dialogue, "a," you are never off stage. if you throw the long bomb, if you start throwing around comparisons like this, it is going to get picked up an the context you meant it in isn't going to matter. james knows that. so i think this was off color, off base and not a wise move. >> eric ericson, you have
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apologized for a few controversial things you have said and stood by some others and said, no, i meant it, that's why i said it. what do you make of this? >> who cares. james carville is a private citizen. he said this in the past. they said, is this current, he said this before? who cares. yeah, barack obama is the president of the united states. for years, i sat and listened to democrats call george bush the stud i haddest man tho be president and idiot. everybody knows james personality, big deal. >> that speaks to what the problem is. that is, i do believe you have to have respect for the office. i remember that on election night, bill made a comment to paul bagalo saying clinton was your president and this is your president. i said, no, president obama is also your president. there are people that said the same thing with president george w. bush. i also said, he is your president. i take offense to people calling
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him barack obama. he is president barack obama. you should respect the office regardless of democrat or republican. >> he may be president of the united states but he is also a politician. if he can't handle james carville saying something like this, trust me i have plenty of friends that have said a lot worse than him. >> i am going to call a time-out. we will continue the conversation. these guys aren't going anywhere. we will continue this conversation. we have more to talk to them and a lot more ahead in the program, including a conversation with the number three man in the democratic leadership, james clyburn of south carolina. the democrats get the message. what comes next. there is a big summit coming up, the nato summit in lisbon, portugal, general david petraeus. and, pete dominic, no, he is not joining the tsa but he is going to give us some reporting, personal reporting. [piano keys banging] [scraping] [horns honking]
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i want to start with what i will call a potential case of mixed message from the new emboldened republican party. you have newt gingrich, the former speaker and likely future presidential candidate out at the republican governors meeting in san diego. he says, health care, repeal, huge issue. >> finally, every republican presidential candidate is going to run based on the repeal. the republicans are going to gain 12 to 14 senate seats, 40 house seats and by no later than april of 2013, it is going to be repealed. >> a prediction from newt gingrich. my question to you guys, does that emphasis on health care,
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repeal, repeal, repeal, contradict what the new republican leadership in washington is going to do. new republican leadership team will focus on creating jobs rs cutting spending and reforming congress. other statements affect jobs, jobs, and jobs. maybe this is inevitable. you have one group taking control in congress and another running for president. who is going to control the message? >> they are going to repeal health care. they are going to keep voting on repealing health care. amazingly, this he know how to multitask. they can do both. >> when obama did that, when he tried to multitask, a lot of people say that was the beginning of the end. sure we have to bother about jobs. that takes time. let's also pass this health care bill. >> that's when numbers tried to decline. it is the difference between taking responsibility for governing and being engaged in the permanent opposition campaign. the person most caught in the middle is mitt romney. he has a big problem. if newt gingrich is right, and
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it is all about repealing health care, he has a lot of explaining to do. >> based on his predictions can he give me some lotto numbers? if you focus on health care and not jobs, you are going to have trouble come 2012. >> that's an interesting test to watch. they want to do health care. we will keep an eye on that one. remember last night, we talked about michael bloomberg saying how hard, almost impossible, it would be for somebody to run as an independent. a third-party candidate. haley barber, the governor of mississippi and head of the republican governor's association said a men. >> i am not going to argue with mayor bloomberg, i think he is exactly right. i think if a strong, third-party candidate got into the race, it is barack obama. if you get a third party to come in and split the vote of conservatives and people that don't like obama's policies, that's the best thing to happen to obama.
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>> haley barbour, if he is good at one thing, it's math. >> the numbers get more difficult for at least one of the two established parties if a major third party candidate comes in. the only scenario is where that happens is if sarah palin was the nominee. there would be a huge opening in the middle of the electorate. we have seen this in 1912 when woodrow wilson was elected. haley barbour has some history in mind. i don't think it looks likely it will happen that. >> haley barbour has recent history. i am sure ross perot is still ringing in his head. a popular president, even with the economy, after the gulf war, a year later, he was packing. he is saying, you run as a fiscal conservative, the gop nominee is doomed. >> teddy roosevelt, best known third-party president candidate ever, he lost. ross perot, best-funded third-party candidate, he lost. third-party candidates typically
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elect democrats. >> would he have the guts to stand up on some issues in the election. today we learned that they will at least try on tax cuts. the house current majority, the majority leader, steny hoyer putting out a statement saying the house will vote on an extension of middle class tax cuts before they expire. democrats firmly committed to continuing tax cuts for middle class families up to $200,000. they will fight on this one. we can not afford to add $700 million to the deficit to benefit the wealthiest americans. >> politically, democrats are saying, we defend the middle class and we will leave the republicans to push through tax cuts for the rich. it is a very smart tactically strong move. >> a lot say they are going to vote against the stimulus and
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get clobbered. they say if republicans try to repeal health care they will get clobbered. no, they are not. most people understand that if the democrats do this, at some point, they can come for the other people's tax cuts as well. >> bottom line shall the reason you do this, you say, how can you guys sit here and want tax cuts for the rich when you sat there and blocked unemployment benefits? that's how you frame the conversation if the democrats were smart, they will stay on this point. the reason hoyer came up with that comment, it was an ode to the president, you better stand with us on this one as opposed to meeting the other side in the middle. >> we are out of time here. i need you guys to cooperate. haley barbour had a closed door, hand check with the republican governor saying we have to get a new chairman other than michael steele. haley barbour's answer said, most governor wants a new chairman. raise your hand if you think michael steele will be elected to a new term as chairman.
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>> the real question is, will he run? >> we have no hands up in this room. thanks for coming. when we come back, headlines, today's other top news and jim clyburn. we will ask him if he has anything to say about the ethics reputation of charlie rangel. i l to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. good speech dad. [ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. i worry about my son playing football. which is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries in an accident and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. [ commearlier, she hady vonn! an all-over achy cold... learn how to share your ideas
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snortd korea is further pursuing their nuclear program. two recent sets show what experts believe is tunnelling work. a malaysian man has just been charged with hacking into the computer network of a u.s. federal reserve bank in cleveland, ohio and stealing more than 400,000 credit card and debit card numbers. the one thing i got to say about that, beats working. >> hope it is not mine. a little known factoid. the secret service protects the president of the you states. guess what? they are the lead people investigating things like that. >> no wonder he got caught. >> thanks, joe. when we come back, jim clyburn, the number three in the house democratic leadership. we will ask him about the ethics reputation of charlie rangel and the criticism of the congressional black caucus by
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when democrats give up control of the house, south carolina's james clyburn will remain number three in the party's leadership. in a break with precedent, he will hold a newly created position, assistant democratic leader. he joins us from capitol hill. >> i want to start with a story that's developing today, the proposed ethics punishment against your friend and long-time colleague, charlie rangel. he has been found guilty on 11 of 12 ethics violations. a recommendation from the committee to the full house is that he should be censured. is that an appropriate penalty or should he resign?
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>> well, i have not talked to charlie about that. i just read those comments, those reports coming across. quite frankly, i am really trying to internalize this. i would rather not make any public comments about it at this moment. >> he has complained he has been treated unfairly by the committee. do you see any evidence of that? >> i don't know about that. i saw his comments a couple days ago. i think it had to do with the process on the day he showed up without counsel as to whether or not they should go forward. i don't know about that. this has gone on for a couple of years now. i do believe that it would serve no useful purpose for me to pass any judgment on that. >> let's move on to your new challenge in your new position. there have been a number of people in the party. we had congressman, peter defazio, a long-time colleague
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of yours. the republicans won 61 net seats in the house. yet, we are putting forward the exact same leadership team led by nancy pelosi. you are a member of that team, sir. so maybe it is foolish for me to even ask the question. do you understand the critics who say how can we suffer such a drubing and say, let's stay with the same team. >> i certainly understand that. a lot of criticism may be ordered. it should be received by all of us. i don't mind being critiqued but i do believe that we should be honest with ourselves when we talk about what really contributed to all of this. i've never seen it anywhere when the experts did not say that when you are the incumbent and you are facing 10% unemployment,
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that created from that, pretty significant and very hard to overcome. i don't care who may be at the helm. if you've got that kind of unemployment, it's a problem and you are going to become a poster child. i can understand that but let's look at the leadership team that got us through four years into the majority, four years ago, after being out in the wilderness for 12 quleeyears. that was this team. i would say, if we did it before, we can do it again. >> let me ask you first a question looking back at the campaign and then a question looking forward to your new responsibility. looking back, many of your colleagues have said, for all the people saying it is nancy pelosi's fault, maybe they should look down the road, many democrats complaining that in some of his policy choices before the election and then in the way the white house acted during the campaign that the president put his own interests ahead of the party's interests. do you buy that?
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>> no, i don't buy that at all. the president was dealt a pretty tough hand. people say it is time for us to accept responsibility and stop blaming the past. well, the fact of the matter is, we did stop the hemorrhage of 1,000 jobs a month. we did start creating jobs, at one point 2 million jobs created in the last ten months. what we need to do is create four or five million jobs a year and everybody would be happy. the fact of the matter is, we have a gradual improvement recovery taking place. it is just not fast enough for me. so it is certainly not fast enough for many of my constituents but we are moving in the right direction and hopefully, we will see things coming out of the white house and out of this congress that will speed that up. i would hope that the new
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majority in the house of representatives will work with this president and help us get this country moving again and stop all this foolishness about saying that your first order of business is to make sure that this man does not get reelected. that's not going to do anybody any good. what we need to do is think what's best for the country and forget about the politics until next election season. >> the big changes in the next congress when the republicans take the majority is that they will have in their caucus in their conference for the first time african-american memberships on the house side. two members. one of them was with us the other night on a program. tim scott, whether he would join the professional black caucus, he was quite critical of the priorities of the congressional black caucus. >> i know the inner cities are not receiving the type of assistance it needs because it cannot come from the government. if we are going to see an opportunity, we need to promote
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entrepreneurship. that is a private sector response to challenges in the economy. if we want to see the inner cities and communities where i grew up prospering, we will have to focus attention allowing for private and public schools to compete in communities. i don't hear that being addressed. in the cbc. >> does mr. scott have a point? >> i don't think so. i did not see my service as representing the inner city. >> forgive me. i don't think he meant you. i think his point was that the congressional black caucus is a group in his view was too urban focused, too government spending focused, not enough community empowered focused. >> that's why i went into the caucus. i am not going to stand outside and criticize. i go in there, i sit around that table and i make the case for the communities that i represent. i would say to tim scott, a very fine young man. i know him very well. he and my daughter are great friends. i would say, please, come into the caucus.
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help make the case for rural south carolina. i would love to have some company there to help so that they would know that it comes in a bipartisan way. so i would expect the hand of friendship to him and i hope he would join the caucus. i don't agree with everybody in the caucus all the times. we have very spirited discussions in the congressional black caucus. so this notion that all of us think the same way is just not true. we are not monolithic by any means. we have rural communities and interests being discussed in that caucus as well as urban. so i would say to him, come join us. help us move the country in a way it should go. i think he will find the service there very stimulating and very helpful. >> congressman clyburn, thanks for your time. >> thank you so much for having me. >> when we come back, the president is about to head to a business nato summit in lisbon,
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portugal. the subject, afghanistan. we are just back with an exclusive interview with commander, general david petraeus. we will have that conversation in a minute. ♪
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as obama is about to head to a nato summit in portugal the plan is to put a plan in effect to end the war effort by 2014. barbara starr had an exclusive conversation with the commanding general, david petraeus. let's talk about the deadline. first, joe biden, the vice president is on "larry king live" tonight and was having a conversation about why we need deadlines. listen to this about hamid karzai. >> you're got to step up, man. let me tell you, daddy's going to start to take the training wheels off in october. i mean, in next july. so you better practice riding. >> interesting language there, but a nudge at president karzai and a reflection of the lack of trust or doubts about him. you put the same question to
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general petraeus in asking about his relationship with the afghan president. >> i believe that i have a very good relationship with him. we meet several times a week. we do at least two one-on-ones a week. we have done trips to various provincesafghanistan. and we do come at issues from different perspectives at time. >> when he's done with the uniform he should be secretary of state. >> diplomatic speech. politics, politics, politics. what a surprise is what's going on right now. karzai is under pressure at home to show he can be independent. president obama going to the lisbon summit this weekend trying to make sure hamid karzai opportunity back him into a corner, that they can have an orderly withdrawal from afghanistan. >> interesting you say politics. there is a perception here, especially among the president's
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skeptics that his marching orders to the general have been "get me out." not do nation building, get the afghanistan forces out but do the minimum possible to get us out. you put the question to the general and it seemed to get under his skin a little bit. >> many people now believe that that is actually the focus of the u.s. effort. do what you can, work on security, economic development, governance, but it is now all aimed at getting out of afghanistan. >> well, i must not have gotten that memo, because my marching orders are to, indeed, do everything humanly possible to help achieve our very important objectives here in afghanistan. let's remember that the reason we're here is of enormous importance to our country and, indeed, to afghanistan and the entire world. >> but for the soldier on the ground, this is general petraeus speaking at the 40,000 foot
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level. we spoke to a lot of individual soldiers for them make no mistake it's about when we can go home. that's what they are looking forward to. >> to the point that the goal now, the president said start coming out in the summer of 2011. the lisbon summit will start to say out in 2014. >> but there is out and there is out. it's still a wreck. there will be u.s. troops there doing training, support. a huge mission. the u.s. will be in afghanistan for decades to come. >> we'll keep in touch as the summit plays out. welcome home. when we come back, you have heard about the new tsa security measures. some say it's an invasion of privacy. we sent pete domenic to an airport to get the -- whatever. i'm not sure what that is. . >> ooh, i like that. that's nice. very good. thank you. [ woman ] alright, so this tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours.
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big debate in tv in the halls of congress about the new aggressive screening procedures at the airport. so who better to check all this out than pat-down pete domenic. pete? >> that's right, john king. i flew from laguardia to atlanta where i am this morning to figure out what was going on. i have to admit i'm not one of those people opposed to being touched. in fact, i did everything, john king, to get touched. i bought one way with cash, i was twitchy, sweaty, looked nervous. they didn't pay attention to me whatsoever. they wouldn't touch me. no one came anywhere near the junk. i just wanted to be touched. nothing, john. then t

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