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S&P Downgrades Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac; Deadliest U.S. Day in Afghanistan; President Obama to Speak About Economy; Political Fallout from Debt Mess; Investors React to U.S. Downgrade; Inside World's Largest Refugee Camp

Aired August 08, 2011 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio, 7 I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed for this Monday, August 8th.

It is Wall Street's first trading day since the U.S. lost its pristine AAA accredit rating. Now, as expected, the move has investors squeamish.

Right now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 330 points. Markets in Europe and Asia also fell today. We're looking at that 358, down now.

The financial services firm Standard & Poor's is warning Washington that its credit rating may take another hit if something is not done about the nation's debt burden. S&P downgraded U.S. credit from AAA to AA-plus. That happened on late Friday. That was an unprecedented move. S&P blames the U.S. debt load and the recent political brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.

And we have just learned last hour S&P has now downgraded the credit ratings for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi, here to explain this to us.

Ali, first of all, tell us -- you know, some people are not surprised by this since these are government-backed institutions, but clearly this is not a good sign for what is happening. It almost looks like a domino effect.

What does this mean for us?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, there are a few companies that either by virtue of the fact that they're GSAs, government-sponsored agencies like Freddie or Fannie, or that they do a lot of business with the government, or in the business of getting treasuries that are going to be affected by this. So this was not unexpected.

Here's the sing, Suzanne. When your credit is downgraded it has two effects. Either it makes it more expensive to get money or it makes it harder to get money. Now, for the United States government, this isn't really an issue because it has liquidity, there's lots of U.S. debt to go around. It can't be replaced by people deciding to buy Canadian bonds or Australian bonds, which are higher rated and pay higher interest. On the margins it can, but generally speaking, money has continued to go into U.S. treasuries because, while this is a political problem here in the United States, it's thought of as a safe bet, particularly when you compare us to Italy or Spain or Greece or places like that.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

VELSHI: A little bit different for Fannie and Freddie. These companies, the effect of the increase of the downgrade in their credit rating, could actually have a material effect either in their ability to secure all of the money that they need to guarantee the mortgages that people get --

MALVEAUX: Right.

VELSHI: -- or cause it to become a little more expensive. So this is actually where the rubber starts to hit the road and where we might actually see a tick up in interest rates.

MALVEAUX: Right. So what does that mean for us, Ali? Is it going to be harder to get a home loan now?

VELSHI: Well, this is one of these things that we've never been down this road before, so we're learning this as we go along, moment by moment. We have not seen an increase in either treasury rates, we have not seen an increase in bond yields, the interest rate. We have not seen an increase in home mortgages. In fact, we've seen nothing but a decrease.

So here's the short answer to your question. Over time, we know that our interest rates, whether it's for home mortgages or for treasuries, are historically very low and likely to go up. So if I were somebody taking a mortgage -- and I've been saying this for a year -- lock in, because rates over time will go low and they historically will go higher, and they're historically very low.

Who knows what effect this is going to have in the coming week or month? It's really unclear. We're watching it very closely to try and understand that.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

VELSHI: Bottom line is, mortgage rates are so low at the moment, that it's not going to crush things if they go up a little bit. If they go from, you know, 4.75 to 5.75 percent, that's still historically very low. So, unclear what effect it will have.

If rates were to go up, Suzanne, we know we're not living in an environment -- we know how sales are slow and prices are not improving. So it would be not a great move, but it's not like we're talking about going from 5 percent mortgage rates to 8 percent or 9 percent. So, again, nothing to be terribly alarmed about. This was expected.

MALVEAUX: OK. Good.

And the next step in this downgrade thing, I mean, do we expect that there's going to be another domino potentially that's going to fall here?

VELSHI: Well, you know, we're looking very closely at financial companies and insurance companies. We're not sure how that's going to pan out just yet. There may be some other downgrades.

It's all relative, right? Something is a better bet than something else in terms of credit, so we're watching it very carefully. Remember, there are only four companies in the United States that are AAA-rated anyway. So it's not the same correlation everybody thinks it is.

There are places that have AA ratings that still do very well and find it very easy to make money for other reasons. So, no need to panic at the moment. You've seen the market kind of stabilizing around this level.

I think -- again, I've been saying this all morning. I think this market reaction is a little overblown based on the news that we've actually gotten.

MALVEAUX: All right. We're not going to panic yet here, Ali. Good advice.

And we know the president obviously is going to be addressing that as well, because a lot of people are asking questions, there's a lot of uncertainty here. What is happening to our economy? Are we in an economic crisis, spiraling downward?

Well, the president is going to make a presidential statement. That's happening at 1:00, just a few hours from now. It's happening in the State Dining Room at the White House. Clearly, he's going to be answering some questions, at least make a statement about what is taking place, since the credit has been downgraded. And now we see this domino effect play out here in the economy.

(NEWSBREAK)

MALVEAUX: And here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. Today's question: Does America need a liberal Tea Party?

Our Carol Costello -- good to see you, Carol -- joins us from New York with more.

Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can't have too many Tea Parties, right, Suzanne? Yes.

MALVEAUX: What does that mean? COSTELLO: Well, let me tell you.

American liberals are doing a lot of soul-searching right now. Many are furious with President Obama and say he caved to the right wing on budget cuts without getting tax increases in return because, I'm sure you've heard, Republicans won't even go there. CNN contributor Julian Zelizer says liberals need to play their trump card.

He says, "Democrats are frequently scared to say what a majority of Americans think. The public has favored raising taxes on the wealthy to help lower the deficit."

So, what to do? HBO host Bill Maher says liberals need a radical wing of their own called the Donner Party, named after the American pioneers who had to turn to cannibalism to survive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAHER, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": We need loudmouths and bad dressers who can match the Tea people maniac for maniac. You say no new taxes on the rich? We say tax the rich at 100 percent. Apparently, crazy is the new sensible, and we will not lose the war of bad ideas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: On Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show, former vice president Al Gore called the debt deal an outrage that abandoned majority rule. If you believe that, he says, then you should rise up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need to have an "American Spring," a kind of an American Tahrir Square, nonviolent change where people from the grassroots get involved again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That, Gore says, would even the playing field. But is that really what America needs? Would an "American Spring" or a Donner Party just lead to more hyper-partisanship?

So, the "Talk Back" question today: Does America need a liberal Tea Party?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Carol.

Well, the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating could have ripple effects from Wall Street to your street, everybody's street. Over the next two hours we're going to take a closer look at how the downgrade is likely to affect the stock market, the housing market, the auto industry, as well as your personal finances. We're going to begin with Wall Street on the first day of trading since the downgrade.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories ahead.

First, what does it mean when a country's credit rating suffers? We're going to give you a crash course.

Then, your career choice. Well, it could be limiting your potential. We're going to explain how expanding your job search could get you hired. That's a good thing.

Also, 30,000 children starve to death in just three months. It is unbelievable what is happening. A live report out of Somalia from our chief medical correspondent.

And 38 people, including 22 of the nation's most highly-trained elite troops, were killed in a single helicopter crash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: New details now on the single deadliest incident for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. NATO has now cordoned off the area in Wardak province, where a transport helicopter went down killing 38 people. Now, 30 of them were American forces, and most of them elite Navy SEALs on their way to help fellow troops.

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, she's joining us.

And Barbara, it's just unbelievable when you heard the news. And helicopters, rarely are they shot down in Afghanistan. It's considered a relatively safe way to travel.

Does the military suspect that this could have been an inside job?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I think at this point they are very clear that this was not an inside job. This was the Taliban. Army Rangers on the ground reported seeing gunfire in the area at the time when the helicopter crashed.

Why is the area cordoned off now, as you mentioned? Well, what they want to do is get the wreckage out of there.

They don't want the Taliban to have any access to the wreckage, to be able to issue some sort of propaganda videotape, or take advantage of this incident in any way. There is still very much of a combat-type situation going on in that area, overall. So there are U.S. troops in there from the coalition trying to get it all under control.

The Navy SEALs were going in, as you say, to assist Army Rangers on the ground who had come under fire and wanted to get some extra help on the ground, and that's the tragedy of what happened here. A lot of focus now in the coming -- next couple of days on the return of remains back to the United States. They are expected back in Dover perhaps as soon as tomorrow -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Barbara, most of the SEALs that were killed were from SEAL Team Six. That's the same elite unit that killed the al Qaeda leader, as we know, Osama bin Laden, in May.

Do we suspect that the Taliban knew what kind of target they were hitting, that they knew that these of the same unit that went after bin Laden?

STARR: Right. You know, I think it's pretty unlikely that they knew that these SEALs were from the same unit that went after Osama bin Laden. I can't really fathom how they would know it.

The SEALs were actually on call, if you will, to be a quick reaction force, to go to the scene of any trouble in the region where U.S. troops might need some extra help. So they were already on call to go.

That's not something that would be readily apparent to anyone outside the U.S. military in that very narrow area of Afghanistan. It's not unusual for them to be involved in these very serious operations. They conduct raids, helicopter assaults, really almost every day, every night in Afghanistan. This is the dangerous work that these folks do -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Barbara Starr, thank you very much.

Well, the weekend deaths bring the total number of U.S. troops killed in the Afghan War to 1,684. We'd like to put names and faces to the troops killed in Saturday's helicopter crash.

Professionally, they were the best of the best. More than that, they were husbands, fathers, sons, fiances and friends. Their family members are mourning their loss and praising their courage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The commitment that they put into this country while we're out doing the simplest things in life, they're doing incredible tasks that many of us may not care to know about. It shocks us all. And we're going to miss them terribly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIE REAGAN, FIANCEE OF KILLED GUARDSMAN: He sent me an e-mail the night before and he told me -- he said, "Please don't worry about me." He said that's the last thing that he wants me to do.

He said, "You and the girls are always in my heart. Don't worry. This place isn't going to change me. I'm going to change this place. That's just how I am."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was just physically fit, mentally sharp, a great sense of humor. And he was the perfect -- you know, when I think of the perfect soldier, that was John Brown (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John Brown (ph) was a Rambo without the attitude. He was a humble healer in service to his country, a Special Forces medic on a mission in Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was intense. He was funny. He had that dry humor. He loved his family, his sister. He just became an uncle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw the men in uniform and I just fell to my knees. It was -- there's no preparing for it. You know, it's something that you see in the movies, not something you're supposed to live through.

I want to tell the world that he was an amazing man, that he was a wonderful husband, and a fabulous father to two wonderful children. He was a warrior for Christ, and he was a warrior for our country. And he wouldn't want to leave this Earth any other way than how he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We are watching the markets, where stocks are down sharply. This is the first day of trading since the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. Right now, the Dow Jones down 283 points or so, and it is quickly moving.

We are also following what will take place at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN is going to carry live a presidential statement. President Obama will make a statement to the American people regarding this economic crisis, the downgrade of the credit.

I want to bring in Brianna Keilar, our White House correspondent there.

Brianna, what do we expect the president to say? Obviously, a lot of people very nervous, very frustrated by what they're seeing with the economic crisis and what is taking place today.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very nervous and frustrated, and certainly the markets are reflecting some of that, Suzanne.

Expect the president, when he talks to -- when he addresses and remarks at about 1:00 p.m. Eastern, to talk about the economy in general. Yes, I'm told by a White House official, he'll talk about the downgrade by S&P, but his remarks are going to be broader than that.

Expect him to take a reassuring tone and cite examples of why there should be confidence in the U.S. economy. Certainly something to combat concerns about the downgrade.

We heard over the weekend White House officials and surrogates for the president really talking -- really hitting S&P for the downgrade, saying that the math was flawed, and certainly hitting the process and House Republicans in particular for really just the chaos that we saw going into the debt ceiling battle. And expect the president, in his remarks, Suzanne, to say that the fiscal commission, this congressional commission that will be tasked with finding a path forward in deficit reduction here in the coming months, that they need to do so -- and we've heard this before -- in a bipartisan way, really have a commitment to doing something significant so that they can build on the deficit reduction.

And then one final point, Suzanne. A White House official tells me expect the president to talk about the loss of Navy SEALs in Afghanistan. A statement was put out over the weekend, but this is the first time that we'll hear the president address that tremendous loss of life in Afghanistan.

MALVEAUX: A real tragedy there.

Brianna, I know in speaking with a lot of people over the weekend, some of Obama's biggest supporters seem to be quite frustrated about what has taken place, and some of them say that the president wasn't strong enough negotiating the debt deal, that he's in part to blame for this credit downgrade that we see.

Do we think that the president is going to come back and that he is going to defend himself, defend the administration in terms of what led to where we are right now?

KEILAR: You know, I'm not sure if he'll specifically address that in his remarks today, Suzanne, but something that you heard from the president and from White House officials -- and this has been one of the standard lines -- is that the president has been willing to make decisions that are unpopular. This has been part of his challenge to Republicans when he asked them to do something that was unpopular with their base; namely, increasing taxes.

What you should expect in these remarks, something that we have heard before from the president, an emphasis of what he called a balanced approach, addressing an entitlement reform for deficit reduction, something that is not popular with Democrats, and increasing taxes, of course something not popular with Republicans -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Brianna. We'll be waiting for the president's address.

Obviously, he's going to try to comfort Americans during these hard economic times, during a time of uncertainty and a lot of frustration. So we'll all be listening in very closely to what the president's message is.

We have been taking accounts about the financial fallout. We've been trying to figure out what this debt debacle means, including this downgrade to the country's credit rating, but there is a political fallout as well. President Obama, facing a backlash from some of his supporters who see him as to quick to compromise, too slow to defend traditional Democratic values.

Well, joining us to talk about that is Drew Westen. He is a professor of psychology at Emory University. He is author of "The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation." And he also wrote a "New York Times" editorial titled "What Happened to Obama?"

I want to thank you, Drew, for being here. And just read very briefly something that caught our eye.

You wrote, "When faced with the greatest economic crisis, the greatest levels of economic inequality, and the greatest levels of corporate influence on politics since the Depression, Barack Obama stared into the eyes of history and chose to avert his gaze."

It's pretty tough from you on the president here. What did you mean by that?

DREW WESTEN, PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR: EMORY UNIVERSITY: What I meant was that times like this call for really strong leadership. And if you think about the presidents who have really exercised that kind of leadership in a crisis, FDR being the greatest example, he didn't say, hey, let me split the difference with Wall Street. They just crashed the economy, so let's find the golden mean between good and bad, between the special interests and the public interests.

He said, you know, at no time in history have such a group of powerful men united in their hatred for one man, and I welcome their hatred. And can you imagine President Obama saying anything like that?

MALVEAUX: Do you blame him for what is taking place here, the fact that we do now have this downgrade and it's a deal that many people believe just wasn't good enough to get us out of this economic mess?

WESTEN: Well, you know, we have a mixture. We have -- on the one hand, we have a Republican Party that's been completely unwilling to compromise. And we have a president who is so bent on compromise, that it almost doesn't matter what the substance of the compromise is.

So, between the two of them, you've got bullies on one side and you've got a guy who just doesn't understand bully dynamics on the other, that when someone tries to bully you, you have got to give them the punch in the face. You don't say, oh, I'll back down this time and maybe you'll be nice next time. That just ups the ante for them.

MALVEAUX: You're not the only one who believes that Obama should really give them a punch in the face. We saw talk show host Tavis Smiley on a -- he's on a bus tour. He's drawing attention to poverty. He's also very critical of the debt deal signed by the president.

Here's what he said on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAVIS SMILEY, CO-HOST, "SMILEY AND WEST RADIO SHOW": The Congress and the president respectfully have declared war on the poor. You can't sign into law legislation that raises the debt ceiling but opens up a crater in the floor. Put another way, no unemployment extensions for poor people, no closing of a single corporate loophole, not one new tax, not one cent of new tax on the rich and the lucky. So, once again, the corporations get off scot-free. Wall Street and the big banks get off scot-free. And all these cuts aimed ostensibly at the poor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Drew, do you think the problem is that the president's got his priorities wrong?

WESTEN: I don't think he knows what his priorities are. The reality is that - -I think Tavis is absolutely right. You don't cut $120 billion in tax breaks for the rich and then start cutting Medicare and Medicaid and taking my 81-year-old mother and saying, you what? You're on a fixed income, let's chop it back by a couple thousand dollars so we can give money to hedge fund managers who are paying 15 percent on their income. That's just not right.

And the average American hears that and they say, that's not what we believe in. That's not what we think is fair.

MALVEAUX: Your editorial promotes critical response as well. One from Jonathan Chait, he's senior editor of "The New Republic." He says that, "He fails to explain why any president of the post-war era has compromised, reversed, or endured the total failure of his domestic agenda. Yes, even George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan infuriated supporters by routinely watering down their agenda."

Do you think he has a point here? Does he have to compromise? Is this not part of the presidency, part of the job, is to try to find that middle ground?

WESTEN: Oh, sure. I mean, compromise is the essence of politics, but you don't compromise on your values and you don't find that golden name between good and evil or between good and bad policies. You have to compromise where it makes sense.

But you also have to put some -- you have to put yourself behind a vision. And I don't know about you, but I don't know what this president's vision is of where he's taking America, what he believes, what he thinks will fix this ailing economy that's got so many people at the end of the month saying, I don't know how I'm going -- I don't know I'm going to pay my bills. I don't know how I'm going put gas in the tank so I can get to work.

That's the vision that he hasn't offered the American people.

MALVEAUX: All right. Drew Westen, thank you.

We're going to be listening to what the president has to say, whether or not he articulates his vision. That's at 1:00. That is very soon, this afternoon. He's going to be addressing the nation about this economic crisis as well as the debt downgrade.

And this downgrade is having impacts across the world. We're going to check in with Richard Quest to see what it means overseas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're watching the markets where stocks are down sharply. This is the downgrade of trading since the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. Right now, the Dow Jones down by 299 points.

We are also waiting for the president to make a statement to the American people. That's happening at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. We're going to carry that live. He's going to be addressing the economic crisis and the credit downgrade, as well as other issues.

Now --

(MUSIC)

MALVEAUX: People are saying a lot of different things about the downgrade and here's some perspective from some of the top money minds that are out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JOHN CHAMBERS, STANDARD & POOR'S: The current level of debt is quite high and under anyone's plausible scenarios, it's going continue to rise as a share of the economy. The figures that we published are accurate and our analysis is sound.

LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY: Look, S&P's track record has been terrible, and as we've seen this weekend, its arithmetic is worse.

STEVE FORBES, CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, FORBES MEDIA: The markets are going to be a little uncertain. The key thing is whether the two other rating agencies are going to follow S&P. I don't think they will, and if they don't the reaction's going to be rather minimal.

KEN ROGOFF, FORMER CHIF ECONOMIST, IMF: This isn't the end of the world. It's AA-plus, that's still a really high grade. But it's disconcerting in the middle of the crisis as it's deepening.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

MALVEAUX: The impact of that credit downgrade is not only being felt by the United States, but also overseas.

Richard Quest joins us from New York.

Richard, you're an expert on all of this as well and what are you seeing from the Asian and European markets? How are they responding, reacting to this today?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me look at Asian markets first for you and they were all sharply lower as the Nikkei in Tokyo, the Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong, Australia, all down roughly between 2 percent and 3 percent. Those markets have long since closed.

In Europe at the moment, the worst losses are being seen in the German market where the DAX index is down nearly 4 percent. And I think what you're seeing there are worries about transfers of wealth from Germany to the other European countries down in the southern part and down into Spain and particularly Italy. Especially now we have the European Central Bank, the European version of the Fed, Euro Fed, is buying Italian bonds.

Put this into the equation that we are now seeing in the U.S., the Dow Jones off just about 2.5 percent, the NASDAQ off over 3.5 percent, and you really do understand that we have a financial world that is unhappy. They don't believe that it's a crisis and a calamity, a catastrophe and a disaster, but they do believe that on both sides of the Atlantic, there is something smelly in the back of the fridge that hasn't been rooted out and that actually needs to be dealt with. And that's what this downgrade, that's what Spain and Italy and that's what the markets are telling you today.

MALVEAUX: And, Richard, do we expect this to be a trend? Do we expect to see this again tomorrow, more downgrades?

QUEST: Well, downgrades maybe not. In terms of down markets, I think you've got to ask yourself, OK, eventually, if I -- I promise you this, even miserable old cherries will sell in the market and someone will make them into a plum jam or something. So, eventually, things do get cheap enough and people do buy the market recovers.

But will we see a long-term or medium-term recovery? No. Not until there has been a reason for that, and at the moment that reason doesn't exist.

MALVEAUX: And, Richard, the value of the U.S. dollar, is it less today than it was say last week overseas?

QUEST: All right. Let me look at the dollar briefly. The dollar lost ground against the euro. It's down a half a percent. It's down half a percent against the pound and the Swiss franc, obviously, lost ground there. You pace (ph) your money, you take your choice with currencies.

The dollar is going to be affected by the bond market, by commodities and we've seen gold rise very, very sharply. The dollar, just for today -- just for today -- the dollar is a side issue, and we'll come back to that one, dough doubt, in the next few days.

MALVEAUX: All right. Richard Quest -- thank you very much, Richard.

If you're one of the millions of Americans who are on the job hunt, are you looking in the right field? That question to Alison Kosik. She's got some top tips for making a career change.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, a blistering heat in many parts of the country. Our own Rob Marciano who is a golfer, but shouldn't be golfing in this weather, I suppose.

(CROSSTALK)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You can work on your setup indoors. You know, we were just talking about this last week, when will it end?

MALVEAUX: Yes.

MARCIANO: And, you know, we were hoping this week, we might see the ridge break down a little bit and see temperatures cooler than they are, but not a whole lot. I mean, not certainly enough to brag about. Little Rock records yesterday, 108. That broke the 106. Joplin saw 107. Texarkana, 106. Dodge City, Springfield, and everybody up and over 100.

Dallas is at day 37. Today would be the 38th day in a row of seeing 100-degree plus. Now, there's even a suburb outside of Dallas that their small reservoir has completely run dry.

So, this has turned into a serious situation. Heat indices, of course, in the orange and pink highlighted areas and that's where you can see temperatures that will feel like they're well up over 110 and 115. In some case, higher than that one, you couple the humidity.

When you talk about the forecast high temperature for Dallas today, that doesn't include humidity, 106, and we don't get cooler tomorrow. I mean, this heat is not breaking down really. It doesn't look like it until we get later in the week or towards the weekend. So, even through Wednesday, it looks like Dallas would break their all-time record for streak, a number of days that would be up and over 100 as we cruise through the rest of this week.

Let's talk cooler things and show you some cool video out of the Netherlands. This is a climate that really is more like northern California or the Pacific Northwest. It's fairly cool. They don't get tornadoes very often.

Well, this rare one ripped through some communities through the Netherlands, and did a little bit of damage. I'm not sure if they rated this on the EF scale, but certainly impressive footage there coming to you from Holland where it was in the spring time and might be tearing up some tulips right about now. But no major injuries or damage, but cool video nonetheless.

We'll be playing golf near that twister. Suzanne, back over to you.

MALVEAUX: I have to hold off on the golf game for a while. Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

MALVEAUX: Top tips, we're going to tell you how to polish up your resume before making a leap into a new career. That up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Good news for those in the job market. Employers added 117,000 jobs last month. So if you're one of the 13.9 million who are still unemployed, Alison Kosik, she's here with today's top tips on why switching careers actually may be a good idea right now.

Alison, is that what's going to land you a new gig?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is a good possibility of a way to get a job, Suzanne. You know, if you've been laid off, you know, out of work, looking for a job, out of the jobs report, we found that there were jobs in health care, retail, trade manufacturing and mining -- those that we saw gains in those areas. A decline in government jobs, however, is one down side to that report.

A new Career Builder survey finds that 54 percent of workers who were laid off in the last year, they found new jobs in entirely different fields than where they worked before. Here are some examples. A financial adviser becoming a teacher; a music teacher transitioning into an animal care technician; and a bookkeeper who became a truck driver -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Wow! That's pretty incredible.

So if you did a complete 180 in your career, I mean, that's probably pretty jarring for most folks. How do you figure out if your skills are right for like a new career path?

KOSIK: You know, you really have to kind of get the training and the background. And one interesting thing that's aligned with that is kind of the anxiety about switching careers and when asked why they were anxious, 50 percent of those polled said it was pressure to prove themselves while 40 percent said fear of the unknown and 21 percent said being unfamiliar with new technologies put them on the edge.

So, Career Builder said use sites like careerpath.com where you can use their job discovery wizard to enter your skills and see if they match up with any openings out there. Also, if you got a field in mind, but think you may need more training, consider taking an online class or getting some additional certifications or degrees because it only makes you look marketable, and it shows that you have initiative, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Is there anything you should do with your resume or cover letter to make sure that it gets noticed?

KOSIK: Oh, yes. You know, with the average employer, Suzanne, taking, you know, 30 seconds or less to review that resume, you've really got to stand out and Brad Karsh of Job Bound Training Solutions, he says emphasize all of your skills, your experience, that match that new role, maybe like a volunteer position, put it at the top of your resume, but Karsh says don't try to hide your reasons for switching careers -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Alison, great tips, as always. Thank you, Alison.

Well, next, we're going to have your responses on our "Talk Back" question. Does America need a liberal version of the Tea Party?

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MALVEAUX: You have been sounding off on our "Talk Back" question. Does America need a liberal version of the Tea Party?

Our Carol Costello has your responses.

Carol, what are folks saying?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you ready for 'em?

MALVEAUX: Yes.

COSTELLO: The "Talk Back" question again: does America need a liberal Tea Party?

Becca says, "Please, no! One Tea Party is one too many already and I'm a Republican."

This from Becki, "Yes, we do. Whey is the middle class being sucked dry while they get all the breaks? This is what is wrong with our country right now."

This from Amy, "The will of the people is being ignored for a far right wing, impractical ideology. They are playing chicken with the future of the United States without a single clue of what life is really like for people struggling to survive."

This from Timothy, "Do we need a liberal protest movement? Yes. Do we need a crazy liberal protest movement? No."

And this from Tom and it is my favorite, Suzanne. "The middle needs to get pissed off a little more. We are getting screwed by both sides of the extreme political ledger. We need to grab the collective heads of the left and the right, bang them a la Moe, Larry and Curly and say to them, 'You will not get everything you want.'"

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. Please continue the conversation.

MALVEAUX: I wish I -- I wish we had a clip of that video, because I can imagine that the head banging there. But a lot of people is frustrated, Carol. Everything is frustrated. And dare I say, they're angry about what's going on right now.

And, you know, they've got a lot of questions. Hopefully, the president will answer at least few of them, the concerns, in about an hour or so. So, we'll see. It's a great question. All right.

COSTELLO: Thank you very much. I'll be back in 15 minutes.

MALVEAUX: All right. It is bigger and brighter. Now, even easier to find CNN's most compelling video. We're going to invite you to check out the bold new look of CNN.com's ground breaking new video experience. It's at CNN.com/video.

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MALVEAUX: Yes. These numbers are unimaginable. We're talking about 12 million people in dire need of assistance in the Horn of Africa -- the crisis across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, triggered by a severe drought.

Somalia is hit the worst. Almost 30,000 children have died in the past 90 days.

CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he arrived in the region just a few hours ago. He joins us live from the largest refugee camp on Earth. It is in Dadaab, Kenya.

And, Sanjay -- I mean, it's just kind of unbelievable when you think about the crisis that is taking place there. You can't even wrap your head around it. The United Nations says it's the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

What are you seeing? What is happening there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I have been to a lot of different place, Suzanne, around the world -- in the middle of warzones and natural disasters. And I have never seen a camp quite like this and as big as it is. You know, 400,000 people, they say, are probably in this camp now. Just think about that. That's the size of most medium sized cities in the United States.

You know, one thing that really struck me is that this has been an on going problem for a long time. I mean, months if not even longer in terms of this specific camp -- 300,000 people here at this camp several months ago before this drought really hit its peak, and the repercussions of this drought hit its peak, 100,000 people have come into this camp.

And, you know, Suzanne, it may come -- you know, they walk sometimes up to 100 kilometers from Somalia to the border, simply to get into a place like this. The drought caused the lost of their crops, which cost lost of their livestock, which meant that they had to food and no water. And they had to essentially just travel sometimes like this with their kids in toe. It's just heartbreaking.

By the time they get here, they are so famish, they are so malnourished. They are so much in need of medical care and they are in line, you know, with literally tens of thousands of other people. It's really hard to describe.

MALVEAUX: Sanjay, help us to understand, how did we get to this point?

Humanitarian groups have been trying to get food and basic supplies there now. But in this day and age, how is it that people can still starve to death?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, first of all, with this regard to this drought, it was neither sudden nor unexpected. This shouldn't have been treated as a surprise. It seems to have been from a resource and aid standpoint. They anticipated this worst drought in 60 years and as a result of this drying up of drops and the livestock would not have anything to eat and you see how the cycle continues.

There was no preparation. There was not aid taken into these areas ahead of time -- food and water, basic supplies to offset the needs.

And there is also the superimposed problem with conflict, this idea that there's this Islamic militant group here called al Shabaab, which for a long time simply did not accept any Western aid into this country. And aid workers in the past have been killed. Even though they have lifted the ban, subsequently, there's still an atmosphere of mistrust, Suzanne, about this whole thing, and that just really makes the problem worse.

MALVEAUX: It's such a shame, such a tragedy.

Sanjay, thank you very much. We're going to be watching more of your reporting beginning tonight. "AC 360" is moving to 8:00 Eastern, and Anderson Cooper, along with Sanjay Gupta, are going to be reporting live from the Horn of Africa on the region's devastating famine. That is starting tonight at 8:00. It's an "ANDERSON COOPER 360" special report, "Somalia: On the Front Lines of Famine."