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Interview With Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray; Costa Concordia Captain May Face Manslaughter Charges; Mitt Romney Rallies South Carolina Supporters; White House to Announce Opposition to Keystone Pipeline Project; SOPA Protests

Aired January 18, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Want to get you up to speed.

When an Italian cruise ship hit some rocks, it started to sink, the passengers started to panic. Just listen. This video was shot as the massive cruise liner flooded with water, started to lean over with more than 4,000 people on board.

There is bad news today from the scene of the wreck, the worst, really, for the families of people still missing. They have stopped looking for survivors, and here's why.

The unstable ship, it's now moving, it's shifting in the water. No longer safe for rescuers to keep going.

There's also something else. Even if they start searching again, they say the chance of finding anyone alive is zero. Too much time in water that is too cold. More than 20 people are still missing.

Rescuers, they're blowing holes in the side of the ship here to get where they think people might be located. They found five bodies yesterday. That made the confirmed death toll 11. Four thousand people got off that ship after it hit the rocks and sank.

The man at the controls that night, he is now under house arrest today, and prosecutors say they are speechless that he's even out of jail. They want to charge him with manslaughter and abandoning his post. We also learned today that it might not be the first time that that same ship was dangerously close to that island.

More in a couple of minutes.

Have an amazing new picture now of the shipwreck, and this is a different view. This was actually taken from space.

This is from the Web site Digital Globe, and it gives you a sense of just how big this ship is. Over three football fields long, it is lying in a heap now off the Italian coastline.

People in Seattle are preparing for one of the biggest snowstorms in 60 years. They are expecting between five and 10 inches. The school day has now been shortened by two hours so kids can get home before the worst hits. Portland, Oregon, also going to get hit with this storm. It is the second major storm to hit both cities this week.

An impromptu rally broke out as Arab monitors arrived in a Syrian town near the capital. Now, the monitors, they are there to see if Syria's president is honoring a peace plan that he agreed with the Arab League. People in the town, they are pleading for justice and an end to the government's brutal crackdown against protesters.

Our Nic Robertson says the town is under military siege and people are terrified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a town on edge. A man is caught by the crowd. They turn on him with a vengeance.

(on camera): They're accusing that man of being a policeman. They've literally chased him down the streets. For a minute there it looked like it was going to be mob justice. People were jumping on him, but it does seem as if he's been able to get away and run off down the street. But they said he was a policeman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Candidates are hitting South Carolina again today. The state holding its first southern primary. That's happening in just three days.

Mitt Romney speaking in Spartanburg, South Carolina. That's happening right now. He is holding a rally -- a grassroots rally.

Two other candidates, they've got events this hour as well. Rick Perry campaigning in Greer, South Carolina. Later, Rick Santorum. He's going to hold a town hall meeting in Laurens.

And if you've been trying to log in to Wikipedia this morning, you're out of luck. You probably tried, realized it's not happening. The online encyclopedia, it's one of several Web sites that is going dark today. It is part of a protest against an anti-piracy bill that is being fought over in D.C. right how.

Now, the bill it's called SOPA. What does it stand for? Stop Online Piracy Act. That's what it is.

Now, Hollywood is pushing for it, but sites from Google to Craigslist, they think that it could kill the Internet as we know it. We should also mention CNN's parent company, Time Warner, supports the legislation.

So take a look at this. It's an amazing picture.

This car careening off a road in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, smashing into a tree, exploding into flames. The 87-year-old driver was stuck inside. Well, a neighbor who saw it happen called 911, then smashed the back window and dragged the woman to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CASEY, PULLED WOMAN FROM BURNING CAR: I went into the cellar, grabbed that hammer, actually, and was banging on the back window. It broke, I unlocked the door. I couldn't forgive myself if I just did nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The driver's son showed up at the guy's house and thanked him for saving his mother's life.

Mitt Romney under attack for saying he pays around a 15 percent tax rate. All right, it's a lot lower than what many of us pay, middle class families. It has critics saying he's out of touch with a lot of folks.

Here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. We want to know, should Romney tout his wealth as a political asset?

Carol Costello is joining us from Washington to talk a little bit about this.

And Carol, you know, they are all millionaires, if not multimillionaires. Could he flip the script here?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Why not just own it?

Mitt Romney is a rich man. He is so rich, Suzanne, he cannot chase away those pictures of his $10 million house or his speaking fees, which added up to $374,000 in one year. I won't even get into that 15 percent in federal income tax thing.

Romney tries to downplay his wealth by wearing jeans and open-neck shirts, and talking awkwardly at times about things many political observers say he shouldn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired. There were a couple of times I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Rick, I'll tell you what, 10,000 bucks? A $10,000 bet?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I should also tell my story. I'm also unemployed.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Time will tell, but I anticipate that most likely, I'm going to get asked to do that around the April time period, and I'll keep that open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Wealthy Democratic candidates have appeared awkward, too. Remember that shot of John Kerry windsurfing? For many voters, the image of Kerry jiving off the coast smacked of elitism.

The editor of "Fortune" magazine, Andy Serwer, has a novel political approach for wealthy candidates like Mitt Romney -- own it!

Look, America is a capitalist country. Money means success. Why not say, yes, I'm lucky, I came from a wealthy family and I became a successful businessman? I'm a devout, charitable guy. I am living the American dream and I want to help you do that, too.

Would such a daring strategy work? That's what I want to know today.

So the "Talk Back" question: Should Romney tout his wealth as a political asset? Should Romney tout his wealth as a political asset?

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

MALVEAUX: Carol, I remember during the 2008 campaign, when he was then candidate Obama, he went bowling and got a gutter ball there. He couldn't win for trying. You know, he's a millionaire, too, and he tried. He tried to relate to the bowling crowd. It didn't work out so well.

COSTELLO: But he should have stuck to what he's good at, which would be basketball. And what's wrong with that?

MALVEAUX: I know. They just try. They try to hard, I think.

COSTELLO: Like Hillary Clinton downing a beer. Remember that?

MALVEAUX: Oh, yes. That was great. That was a great moment.

COSTELLO: They all do that. Yes.

MALVEAUX: All right. Well, let's see. Let's see if this works for Romney.

COSTELLO: OK.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The captain of the cruise ship that wrecked in Italy may face manslaughter charges. Prosecutors say that he's responsible for the deaths of at least 11 people. More than 20 are still missing. Just a short time ago, we got the news that they have stopped searching for survivors.

CNN's Matthew Chance, he's in Naples.

Matthew, first of all, prosecutors say they can't even believe that this captain is out of jail. Why bother to allow him to go home? Do we know that?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's outraged a lot of people, not just the prosecutors, Suzanne. Indeed, the prosecutors say they are considering appealing that decision by the judge. They want him back behind bars.

But the judge made her decision clear in a written statement. She said that she did not believe that Captain Schettino was a risk flight. She did not believe that he was going to tamper with evidence or repeat the crime that he's alleged to have committed, or the charges that he's facing, at least. And so she thought that the house arrest here in Metta (ph) with his family was the most appropriate way of detaining him.

That may change, however, because there is such outrage across Italy, across many other parts of the world as well, that this guy is just under house arrest. This appeal may be lodged, and if it is and if it's successful, he could be back behind bars within days.

MALVEAUX: And Matthew, is there something that we're missing in this story here? Because we certainly don't want to condemn someone before they have been found guilty. But how is he explaining his own behavior, especially in light of those audiotapes that we heard which really made it sound like he was just thinking about himself, that he had abandoned people and had missed his desert (ph) or something.

CHANCE: Well, of course it's important to remember he's not even been charged yet with manslaughter or abandoning his ship or causing a shipwreck. Those are the charges he faces should the investigation determine that there's enough evidence to carry out those charges against him.

But Captain Schettino, in that very shocking exchange that we all heard between him and the Coast Guard as the catastrophe unfolded, indicated in part that he didn't leave the boat, the ship of his own accord. He said as the ship sort of listed to one side, he was catapulted out of the bridge -- or out of the ship into the sea.

That may or may not be true, but certainly that appeared to be the basis of his defense. You may hear more from that as the investigation continues.

But there's just general outrage that he was ordered to go back on to the ship by the Coast Guard to take control of the rescue efforts, and he apparently failed to do that. And so he's certainly got a lot of explaining to do, to say the least.

MALVEAUX: All right. Matthew, thank you very much. We appreciate that.

Want to bring in Chad Myers.

We found out that this isn't the first time that this ship has moved that close to that island. Why did this happen before?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There's a company called Lloyd's List, and they were tracking ships all along there. And there's another couple and I'll show it to you as well. But they allowed us to use some of their data on an August trip. Let me show you what the video looks like from this trip, because, believe it or not, someone now has sent this in.

You can actually see what this ship looked like right there from land. This is from the island. That's how close the ship is without a long lens zoom in here.

According to the Lloyd's List number, about 230 meters from shore. That's about two-and-a-half football fields or so from shore.

Blowing the horns, having a good time. People on board. They just left port. They just left -- they're not even to their first port yet. They just left the embarkation.

And so here we go. Let me show you what Lloyd's List showed about this trip and how close this ship was before. We don't know the captain at this point in time.

This is where the ship ultimately landed, right in here. That's why this red line is turned.

This is the voyage this weekend, January 13th, the red line. The blue line is a different voyage on August 14, 2011. And then look how close it came to actually where it's resting right now, only 230 meters away from shore.

The problem is, it was a little bit farther away. It did not hit a rock on this trip. And let me show you exactly why.

We'll go here. This is the island. This is a Google map.

I plotted those same plots on Google Map. So the blue line is the August, 2011, trip. The January 13, 2011 trip is right here.

And this rock jetty, this is the problem. This is the shoal that the ship hit right there. That's the problem.

You zoom right in, and if you get data by data by data, you can even see one of these rocks sticking out here. I don't know if that's the rock he hit, but I'm sure there were other rocks submerged here. And the red line, he was closer than that. As he traveled on up, hit it right there with the back of the ship on the port side, and it was just a mess.

So how do you do this? Well, this is another company that I just talked to, MarineTraffic.com. They can tell you basically where any ship is almost in the world. I can tell you right now that the Carnival Fascination is docked in Key West, Florida. You can do this, too. You can do whatever you like, MarineTraffic.com.

Here's where this ship -- this is where the Costa ship ultimately is resting. There's a line here. This is the satellite view from Digital Globe. A pretty amazing picture. We just got this today, and this is the rocky shore that people were actually sitting on.

People were sitting on this side of the ship and dangling themselves off, getting on to rescue ships down here. But there's a little bit of a boom right through here, this line you see right there. That's the line keeping the oil from coming on shore because there's still an awful lot of fuel on board this ship, and if that fuel begins to leak, this could be a marine disaster like they haven't seen here in this part of the sea in a very long time.

MALVEAUX: And Chad, just looking at that picture there, that new picture, it gives you a sense of a scale there. How big is that ship?

MYERS: Yes. About 1,000 feet long. And that's about how long most of them are. To be honest, I am going on a Carnival cruise ship in, like, six weeks.

MALVEAUX: Really?

MYERS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Are you nervous?

MYERS: No, I'm not nervous at all. I'm taking my 7-year-old son. I'm not nervous about this at all.

So many ships travel so many places. And it all goes well. This just happened to be not one of those, and this is a big story, of course.

A thousand feet from here to here, only about 100 feet from here to shore. The problem is, once this ship started to list, they couldn't get anybody off the other side. So, all of a sudden now, the floor that was flat is no longer flat, and you need to crawl up to the high side of the ship to get off the high side of the ship.

And that was the scary part. As the boat began to list, people couldn't get off that side.

MALVEAUX: Chad, have you heard from Carnival Cruises? Have they sent you an e-mail or made a phone call, like, hey it's going to be OK, don't worry about it?

MYERS: Actually, no. At 11:00 yesterday morning I got an e-mail that said, "If you'd like to upgrade to an ocean view room from your interior room, you can do it for 50 bucks." Because I'm a cheapskate and I sleep on the inside of the boat. I don't have windows and balconies. But anyway, I am not scared.

MALVEAUX: Well, let's hope it all works out for you. MYERS: I'm still going on the cruise. So I really don't think this is a big thing for the shipping industry, the cruising industry. But it's a big story and people get scared by the water. My mom and dad would never get on a cruise ship. Absolutely not after this.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I haven't had the best cruise experience myself. So I'll just leave that to you, Chad.

MYERS: All right. Fair enough. I'll have the boat to myself.

MALVEAUX: You can report, e-mail us, whatever you want to do, text us, tweet us. Let us know how it goes. OK?

MYERS: All right.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

MALVEAUX: Just how much does presidential candidate Mitt Romney pay in taxes? His fellow candidates, they want to know. But here's what we thought we want you to know. How does Romney's tax rate stack up against what the average American pays?

We're actually crunching those numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney is rallying his supporters in South Carolina today. The state's primary is just three days away.

Romney is resisting calls from his opponents to release his tax returns right away. Yesterday, he said he pays an income tax rate of about 15 percent. Today, rival Newt Gingrich said his tax rate is 31 percent. He said he hopes to release his tax returns sometime tomorrow.

I want to bring in our Jim Acosta, live from Mitt Romney's campaign stop in Spartanburg.

So, how is this playing out here? How is Romney recovering from all of this? There's a lot of criticism about his tax rate today.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you heard Newt Gingrich also say that he wants to call this 15 percent flat tax that's in his campaign platform the Mitt Romney flat tax. So Newt Gingrich is having a lot of fun with this today.

But I just want to point out over my left shoulder there, Mitt Romney is just wrapping up this event here in Spartanburg, South Carolina, about to get on his campaign bus and head off to the next event. And we got a sense today, speaking of the bus there, that they are starting to see Newt Gingrich in their rearview mirror a little more than they have just a few days ago.

There is a sign. There is a growing sense inside the Romney campaign, at least from the surface of things, that they are starting to see Mitt Romney as a threat in this upcoming South Carolina primary.

For example, earlier this morning, two Romney surrogates held a conference basically going off on Newt Gingrich's time as Speaker of the House. There's a Web video featuring one of those surrogates also talking about Newt Gingrich's time as Speaker of the House.

And listen to what Mitt Romney had to say earlier this morning, just a few moments ago, talking about Newt Gingrich's claim that he created jobs when he was in Congress. Here's what Romney had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Speaker the other day at the debate was talking about how he created millions of jobs when he was working with the Reagan administration. Well, he had been in Congress two years when Ronald Reagan came to office. That would be like saying 435 congressman were all responsible for those jobs.

Government doesn't create jobs. It's the private sector that creates jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

ROMNEY: A congressman taking responsibility or taking credit for helping create jobs is like Al Gore taking credit for the Internet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So there you go. Those are fighting words down in South Carolina, when you compare one of your rivals to Al Gore talking about creating the Internet. But we're probably going to hear more of this as the days go forward here, Suzanne.

As we get closer to this primary, and especially going into the debate tomorrow night on CNN, I think we're probably going to see Mitt Romney going after Newt Gingrich in a much more aggressive way than we've seen in the past. It's a sign that inside the campaign, they are starting to see some closing perhaps between these two candidates -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Jim, talk a little bit about the comment that Romney made yesterday about how little money he earned in speaking fees. There are some folks who are raising their eyebrows on that one, because it was quite a bit of money, and they are thinking, does he really realize what this sounds like?

ACOSTA: That's right.

Between February of 2010 and February of 2011, Mitt Romney made somewhere in the neighborhood of $375,000 in speaker's fees. That's been confirmed by CNN looking at his financial disclosure forms.

Well, in talking about that tax rate that he pays yesterday, when he mentioned that at that media avail, he said, well, I also make some speaking fees, but not very much. He characterized it as not very much. Well, Democratic groups latched on to that almost immediately, started putting out YouTube videos isolating that clip to say that, basically, Mitt Romney is out of touch. You know, while Speaker Gingrich and Rick Santorum are going after Mitt Romney on all sorts of different issues, they are not really going after that particular issue, in part because, well, Newt Gingrich has made a lot of money in speaking fees in the past as well.

But this is something that Democratic groups, that the president, that the White House, the Obama re-election campaign, they are storing all of this material, as you know, Suzanne, for the general election campaign. And the Romney people probably know that at this point. They know that -- I would have to think that they know that the comments that were made yesterday were perhaps a little off message -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: OK. Jim, thank you.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

MALVEAUX: We've got some breaking news here I want to bring to you. This is over the controversial Keystone pipeline project.

Dan Lothian, he's live at the White House to explain what we're expecting from the White House, an announcement on this project and the significance of this.

Dan, what do we know?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're hearing, what CNN has learned, is that the Obama administration is likely to announce its opposition to that controversial pipeline later today.

As you know, the Keystone pipeline was part of that payroll tax cut extension deal that was reached late last year, and the president had until the end of next month -- or, rather, the 21st of next month -- to make a final decision. But there had been concerns here at the White House that there needed to be more review because of environmental, ecological concerns, and that's the reason they needed more time to fully review it.

Republicans, on the other hand, have been pressuring the White House, saying that, here's a chance for many jobs, tens of thousands of jobs to be created with this pipeline that runs from Canada, across the border into the United States. And, in fact, we just got a statement from Brendan Buck -- he's the spokesman for Speaker Boehner's office -- reacting to the reports out there that the administration will be making that announcement later today.

Brendan Buck saying, "President Obama is about to destroy tens of thousands of American jobs and sell American energy security to the Chinese. The president won't stand up to his political base even to create American jobs. This is not the end of this fight."

And I can tell you, Suzanne, that already, up on Capitol Hill, there are Republicans who have been looking for alternatives if, in fact, the administration votes no on this, what other routes they can take to make sure that this Keystone pipeline does in fact get done.

MALVEAUX: Dan, there was the possibility that the White House would have delayed weighing in on this until 2013. Why do you suppose this is happening now?

LOTHIAN: That's right. In fact, originally, the White House had pushed for this to happen after the 2012 elections, but, of course, the reason it was moved up was because this was all part of that deal that was reached at the end of last year, that payroll tax cut extension and that, of course, that deadline set on the 21st of next month. As for the timing, why the administration would be doing that today, we don't know exactly, but certainly we'll find out.

MALVEAUX: All right, Dan Lothian with the breaking news at the White House. Thank you, Dan.

So what happens now to the Costa Concordia after the rescue operation is complete? Experts are deciding what to do now with the ship, salvage, scrap, or sink it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Nautical engineers are studying the wreckage of the capsized cruise liner off the coast of Italy. They have to decide whether or not they are going to salvage this thing, scrap or sink it.

Our Brian Todd, he talked with salvaging experts in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It lies there as a stark symbol of strategy. Getting that image removed from the consciousness of victims and nearby residents means getting the "Costa Concordia" physically removed. That job will likely start at a place like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a drill for the hard top. It's got a magnet on the bottom. And the diver goes down and puts it on the hull.

TODD: The hard top used for siphoning fuel from the hulls of disabled vessels. Part of an impressive menu of heavy equipment deployed by the Resolve Marine Group, one of the top ship salvage operations in the U.S.

(on camera): How big of a challenge would this be for your guys?

BOB UMBDENSTOCK, PLANNING DIRECTOR, RESOLVE MARINE GROUP: It would be as big of a challenge that we have ever faced.

TODD (voice-over): Bob Umbdenstock is Director of Planning at resolve. He and this firm have been salvaging, sinking and scrapping ships for decades.

They've refloated a cruise ship so it could operate again, sunken aircraft carrier to turn it into a reef and pulled the wreckage of the Value Jet plane from the Everglades following a horrific 1996 crash.

As we patrol Port Everglades Harbor, Umbdenstock and his colleagues show us the kinds of tankers and cruise ships they routinely work on. I ask Salvage Engineer Joseph Ferrill what the options are for the "Costa Concordia."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best option for everybody would be to get it off in one piece so it's a refloat.

TODD: That he says would first mean pumping fuel and water out of the vessel to make it buoyant then a process called par buckling, attaching massive tensions to the ship as leverage and pulling it upright.

Then huge tugs could haul the "Concordia" away to possibly be repaired, but salvage teams first have to assess whether it can be repaired.

(on camera): The experts at Resolve say just making the initial assessment might take several days. They say the salvage teams have to get in there to find out where everything is, where the dangers are and then maybe determine what they can do with that vessel.

One expert said you might equate to walking around someone else's living room in the dark.

(voice-over): These experts say if the cost of salvage plus the cost of repair is more than the insured value of the ship, another option is cutting the vessel up into pieces.

JOSEPH FARRELL III, SALVAGE ENGINEER, RESOLVE MARINE GROUP: Basically a combination of chain cutting is where you wrap large chain around the hull and put all that tension on it and the chain literally tears the metal apart and then in certain places you'll have to go and maybe use explosives.

TODD: Farrell says they could remove the "Concordia" and sink it to turn it into a reef, but that wouldn't make any money for the cruise line. Repairing it for reuse or cutting up to sell the metals and other parts they say could recoup some of the money lost.

Whether it's decided to salvage or scrap the "Costa Concordia," the experts at Resolve Marine Group say it's not going to be a quick or cheap job. They say it will take months to complete and possibly cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. Brian Todd, CNN, Port Everglades, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: There's a new watchdog in Washington, his job is to look out for your money. But how exactly is he going to do that? Do we even need a new government agency right now?

I'm going to ask Richard Cordray about his new job at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It's called the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. It sounds formal, right? But if you have a mortgage, a credit card, a personal loan, you might want to pay attention to this.

This is a government bureau established by the Obama administration as a watchdog meant to protect all of us, consumers. So the big idea behind it is to make rules regarding basic financial decisions.

Like taking out a mortgage or a personal loan, make those things more clear and transparent to consumers and basically to put an end to unfair lending practices by big banks.

President Obama, he came under fire for pointing a new director to this government agency without waiting for the OK from Congress. That job went to Richard Cordray. He's joining us from Washington.

Good to see you here. There are a couple of things you've done right away. You've outlined three main goals for yourself. You say, the first one, know before you owe, policing financial firms, and cracking down on lawbreakers. Which one is the one most important to address first?

RICHARD CORDRAY, DIRECTOR, CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU: Well, I think they all are, Suzanne. Frankly, people need to be able to know what choices they are making so that they can make informed choices.

Consumers need that in the marketplace. It's been a very confusing and complex financial market place for them. At the same time, we have to have enforcement of the law.

People need to understand that they have to play by the rules, whether they are big or small. Whether they're bank or non-bank and we're going to be very even handed in our approach to that.

MALVEAUX: So what's the first thing you're going to do?

CORDRAY: The first thing that we did upon my becoming director was to launch our super vision program for nonbanks, which gives us the ability to go into places like mortgage brokers, payday lenders and the like.

And actually see what they are doing, examine, find problems, and get those problems corrected. That's very important and it really has not been done at the federal level before.

MALVEAUX: And as a consumer, what we would see? What would we experience? Would we see anything right away from your agency?

CORDRAY: I think people have understood and there seems to be overwhelming support in this country for having an agency like this that will stand on people's side, protect them against fraud and see that they're treated fairly in the financial marketplace. I expect that people are starting to see some difference immediately as firms think more carefully about what they are doing, how they are treating their customers and over time, I think they will see a lot of improvement if we do our job well.

MALVEAUX: Can you be a little more specific? How so?

MALVEAUX: For example, take the mortgage market, which was badly broken leading up to the financial crisis. People got into mortgages at times where they didn't understand the terms.

The terms were buried in fine print. Terms were said to be one thing and turned out to be another, interest rates that jumped up to all kinds of sustainable levels. You know that was a broken market.

It eventually got to a point where it broke our entire financial system and led to the biggest economic crisis of our lifetimes.

So making sure that these markets work better, clear in a more transparent way for consumers is not only good for the individuals involved, but it's good for honest businesses and it's good for the economy as a whole.

MALVEAUX: Speak to the critics. The Republicans who say that it's not necessary to have another big government agency, that there are a lot of other agencies already out there to protect consumers. Why is this important?

CORDRAY: Well, I think we just saw that we had an economic meltdown and we've had a deep recession that we're still digging out of. Millions of people lost their jobs. Millions of people lost their homes. In part, that was because the financial markets for consumers were not policed even-handedly. They were not policed very effectively frankly.

You cannot regulate part of a market and leave the rest of it unregulated. The bad practices drive out the good. That happened in the mortgage market and it was a signal lesson for this country and led to Congress passing this new law and creating this new bureau.

MALVEAUX: Very quickly, Republicans, as you know, are very angry over your appointment. They say it was not done in a way that got the OK from Congress. Are you concerned at all that your appointment is going to be challenged legally?

CORDRAY: I am not. We're serving the very same people that all of the congressmen and senators here from every day, people here concerned about possibly losing their homes, people who are drowning in debt.

The work that we do on their behalf and people can contact us with their consumer complaints with mortgages and credit cards right now on their web site at consumerfinance.gov. The work we do there will these people -- the congressmen and senators will hear that. We'll be able to win our way forward if we do our jobs well. MALVEAUX: All right, Richard Cordray, thank you for your time. It's a big task ahead. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

CORDRAY: My pleasure.

MALVEAUX: Imagine you've got a term paper that you've got to right and suddenly Wikipedia gone. It sounds like it's not possible. A little scary?

Well, it's happening. We're getting a little taste of what life would be like without Wikipedia and many other web sites. We're going to have that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It seems like a war to control the web and now the Internet fighting back. Dan Simon reports on new legislation that could change cyberspace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN SILICON VALLEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of people this very minute are downloading pirated videos from overseas websites. Movies still in the theaters, like "War Horse," can be watched on a computer screen for free, depriving the film industry of millions of dollars. With websites like thepiratebay.org operating in Europe, the U.S. has no authority to shut them down. That has prompted Capitol Hill legislation known as SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, in the House, and PIPA, Protect Intellectual Property Act, in the Senate. The bills, as now written, would require that Internet providers in the U.S. block the offending sites. Media companies like CNN's parent firm, Time Warner, are among those supporting the bill.

CHRIS DODD, FORMER SENATOR: Illegal conduct is not free speech. Illegal conduct is what it is. It's stealing. And that's what's at the heart of this legislative effort.

SIMON: Former Senator Chris Dodd heads up the Motion Picture Association and is a huge backer of the legislation.

DODD: This bill is exclusively focused on the foreign criminal elements that are steeling.

SIMON: The bills would give Washington unprecedented authority in regulating content.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Think of it as a black list. And this is something we haven't seen before in the history of the Internet. Sort of a (INAUDIBLE) black list bill. What would happen is that copyright holders and the U.S. Department of Justice would come up with this list. And then with a court order, serve this on Internet service providers.

SIMON: Search engines, such as Google, also would be banned from displaying the sites. And advertisers, as well as payment processors, like PayPal, could do no business with them either. Collectively, Silicon Valley has said no-go. Not because they want piracy, but don't feel they should be the Internet police and hurling words like "censorship" at the legislation.

David Ulevitch runs a successful Internet security company which gives its customers the tools to block websites in their own homes or businesses.

DAVID ULEVITCH, CEO, OPENDNS: We've never wanted to be in the position of trying to be the editorial directors and we certainly don't think the government's probably the right people to be in that position either.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Want to bring in Dan live from San Francisco.

So, Dan, if the tech industry is against piracy as well, how should this problem be fixed?

SIMON: Well, it's a very tough question and you got a lot of different answers. But the bottom line, it comes down to this. They throw it right back at Hollywood and they say, look, if you don't want people to steal your content, figure out a way to, you know, get people to pay for it.

They look at what happed at the music industry in 1999, 2000. Around that period of time when everybody you knew was downloading music for free using Napster. And then what happened? Well, then Apple came in and came out with iTunes and then suddenly people started paying for music. And now iTunes is the single largest revenue generator for the music label. So they look at Hollywood and say, figure out a way to make people pay for your content, innovate and that's the solution, at least in part, to stop some of the piracy.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, thanks, Dan. Looks like we've got some gremlins of our own here in the broadcast. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Today's "Talk Back," should Mitt Romney tout his wealth as a political asset? Lisa says, "yes, he should. I respect and admire someone with drive and ambition. Mitt obtained his status through hard work. I would not want someone with no drive, ambition or work ethic in the White House." More of your responses up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: You've been sounding off on our "Talk Back" question, should Mitt Romney tout his wealth as a political asset? Carol Costello, he's got your response.

Carol, what are folks saying?

COSTELLO: Yes, why not own it, right?

This from Ronnie. "I find it strange that in a country that has so many people trying to become rich and when you do get rich you're vilified."

This from Julie. "No. So few Americans actually achieve the American dream and in this economy the last thing I want to see is someone living the high life while I struggle to pay for gas."

This from Michelle. "I'd be concerned if my president didn't have any personal wealth. How can you manage a country if you can't manage your checkbook."

And this from Tom. "If he were to tout his wealth and promise he could help you become wealthy, too, he would sound just like a prosperity gospel preacher with gold cufflinks and a Brooks Brothers suit. I don't trust prosperity gospel preachers."

Please, keep the conversation going, facebook.com/carolcnn. And thanks, as always, for your comments.

MALVEAUX: None of them remind me of a prosperity gospel preacher at this point. None of them do.

COSTELLO: I hope not.

MALVEAUX: That image just doesn't come into my mind here. But it would be very interesting to see if it ever plays well because there -- all the candidates are millionaires, if not multimillionaires. And whoever goes up against Obama, he's a millionaire, too.

COSTELLO: And you wonder about that because voters like authenticity. So why not be authentic? Why not just own what you have. Say, yes, I'm a rich guy. Take it or leave it.

MALVEAUX: Let's see how that goes over, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MALVEAUX: All right.

They were flying a fighter jet over Libya, then this happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. KENNETH HARNEY, U.S. AIR FORCE: If you were driving your car down the road and you hit a patch of ice and your car started spinning, that's exactly what our aircraft, at that point, was doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That spin ends up in a crash. Find out what happens next in a CNN exclusive report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: For the first time ever, two U.S. fighter pilots are talking about the day that their F-15 crashed over Libya. Our Barbara Starr has the CNN exclusive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. war over the skies of Libya was just two days old when F-15 pilot Major Kenneth Harney and Captain Tyler Stark got their mission. Conduct air strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's forces. Harney in the front seat, Stark in the back.

MAJ. KENNETH HARNEY, U.S. AIR FORCE: This was the big leagues and, you know, we're going to be flying in combat tonight.

CAPT. TYLER STARK, U.S. AIR FORCE: For me it was, you know, I'm pumped. First time I get to go out and, you know, potentially drop in combat.

STARR: After bombing their targets near Benghazi, they turned for home. But suddenly the aircraft is spinning out of control. They are headed for a crash. For the first time ever, Harney and Stark tell what happened in what would be the most tense hours for the U.S. military in its aid of the NATO mission.

HARNEY: Pretty much like if you were driving your car down the road and your hit a patch of ice and your car starts spinning, that's exactly what our aircraft at that point was doing.

STARK: From there it was, OK, this is -- the first thought was, this is really happening. And a little bit of surreal. Like, we are spinning. This is not good. Very not good.

HARNEY: I call mayday, mayday, mayday.

STARK: We're in the spin. We're falling. Counting down the altitudes.

STARR: They bail out and hope they don't land in the middle of Gadhafi's forces.

HARNEY: I was scared. There was no doubt in my mind that I was terrified.

STARR: They have landed in separate locations. On the ground, Harney spends the next three hours on the run, trying to hide and radio his position to U.S. planes overhead. The Marines fly in a rescue team. Harney wants no mistakes.

HARNEY: So I put my hands up in the air, hoping that they don't come at me very hostile at this point. At that point I don't care if they, you know, put me in cuffs. I don't care if they throw a bag over my head. I know I just want to be on that helicopter.

STARR: Stark winds up in a field. Suddenly, two vehicles approach. Someone calls out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will help you.

STARK: I hear the voice a little bit closer. America, come out, we're here to help.

STARR: Lights are shining right at his hiding position.

STARK: I get up and put my hands up and start walk to the voice and the light. Once I get there, I'm -- my impression is, OK, you have to assume that they are the bad guys. And so I approach them thinking, OK, I'm caught.

STARR: He's drive to a nearby building, still very much on his guard.

STARK: There's a half circle of locals and I'm thinking, OK, this is going to go one of two ways. Either this is where the beatings are going to start or this is where I'm going to get a lot of help. Fortunately, I walked in the room and got a round of applause.

STARR: With all the stress, Stark can't remember the phone number in England to call for rescue. So, he calls his father from Libya.

STARK: In the age of cell phones, who's number do you know off the top of your head? Your parents. So I called them up. I spoke with my dad. I said, hey, I need you to make a call for me.

STARR (on camera): Stark was sheltered that night by the friendly Libyans until an Italian boat could come and pick him up and bring him to safety. What went wrong with the F-15 that night? Well, investigators found that one of the flight maneuvers threw the plane off balance for technical reasons that the crew could not have anticipated.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye.

Hey, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne.