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Convention Does Little for Romney; View from Inside Syria; Former Navy SEAL Book on Shelves Tomorrow; Michael Jackson Sick Man Before Death

Aired September 03, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hi, everybody, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Good to see you.

It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West Coast. Let's get right to it, shall we?

It's Labor Day. Hopefully, you're not laboring, but they are in Charlotte, North Carolina. Take a look.

This is not just any Labor Day and Charlotte isn't just any city. In fact, for the next three days, Charlotte plays host to the Democratic National Convention and, right this moment, the Dems are laboring to reclaim the tone of this week.

It seems that one of their own went a wee bit off message over the weekend when answering a question put out in a brand-new ad by the Republicans in the wake of their convention last week, an ad that asks whether Americans are better off than they were in 2008.

CNN's Dana Bash picks up the story now in Charlotte. I like to say this where Servpro is needed. They need to clean up, big time. Tell me what's happening.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's true and they're trying to.

What happened was -- this is a question that was asked across the Sunday morning talk shows yesterday. Are you better off than you were four years ago?

First of all, the president's top campaign advisers didn't really have a clear answer. That was, maybe, problem number one.

Problem number two was one of their best spokespeople, the governor of Maryland, did have an answer, but for them it was the wrong one. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS NEWS: Can you honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago?

GOVERNOR MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), MARYLAND: No, but that's not the question of this election. The question -- without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recession, the Bush deficits, the series of desert wars charged, for the first time, to credit cards, the national credit card.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, this morning, Ashleigh, Martin O'Malley came here to the CNN Grill with all of his cleaning supplies to try to mop up the mess that he made, the political mess that he made with that comment. Listen to what he told Soledad O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'MALLEY: Here's the reality of our situation as a country. We are clearly better off as a country because we're now creating jobs rather than losing them, but, Soledad, we have not recovered all that we lost in the Bush recession. That's why we need to continue to move forward.

Is there anybody on this panel that thinks we have recovered all we lost in the Bush recession? I don't think anybody could say that, but clearly, we're moving forward. We're creating jobs. Unemployment's down, job creation is up and those movements would not have happened without the president's leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, this really does crystallize the whole challenge for the Democrats at this convention.

If the Romney challenge last week was to make people understand who he is and why he would be better than the current president, the challenge for the president is to make people believe in him enough to give him another chance for four more years.

And he is being judged on the four years that he's had before and, basically, that's just the way it is. It is a very tough sell for somebody like President Obama who has a very, very challenging economy right now.

BANFIELD: Challenging, to say the least, and then you have this - I was listening to Ryan Cillizza from "The New Yorker" on Soledad's program this morning and he may have put it best by saying, it's real tough to get elected on a counter-factual, when you're trying to re- spin it saying, but it could have been worse because it's really hard to prove that.

BASH: It is. It is a hypothetical. The only thing that - talked to Democratic strategist. The thing that they feel that they have on their side is that four years ago wasn't that long ago and, four years ago, it was really, really bad and scary when it comes to the economy.

The bottom fell out, the financial crisis was intense and people remember how bad it was, so that is what Democrats think that they have on their side.

The other thing, though, that they are going to have to try to do is they -- sources tell me -- is better articulate the kind of thing that Joe Biden has been saying on the campaign trail, but doesn't get that much traction, which is, as he puts it, GM, General Motors is alive and Osama bin laden is dead.

There are big things that President Obama did. It's just not necessarily getting the play and the traction that it would in another era because people are still suffering out there with job loss and other economic challenges.

BANFIELD: Yeah, I heard Rahm Emanuel saying that. It seemed real short, to the point and really effective, but then again, on the other side of the coin at the RNC, you had an aging actor sucking all of the life out of the message in that campaign, too.

So, Dana Bash ...

BASH: I was assured no mystery celebrities here.

BANFIELD: All right, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Dana Bash, live in Charlotte.

BASH: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, of course, we've got the party before the party, the big party. Take a look-see at the live shot. This is Charlotte kicking off the week with something called "CarolinaFest."

CNN's Joe Johns gets that plum assignment. He is joining me now, live.

So, I'm interested in the focus of this. Clearly, the main politics don't get underway until tomorrow, but my guess is that the Dems aren't going to let today's family event escape any serious messaging?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there is no messaging here, I don't think, Ashleigh. The point of this really was for it to be inclusive, to show some inclusiveness that Democrats think will appeal to North Carolinians.

This is the center of town. It's Trade and Tryon Streets in Charlotte, North Carolina. Originally, this event was scheduled for the outskirts of town at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but they decided to bring it right here to the epicenter of the city and make it a celebration before the Democratic National Convention gets started tomorrow, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, the day kicked off, though, I'm sure, in a way that the Democratic National Committee probably wasn't too thrilled about and that was, there were protesters. There were protesters over the weekend, too.

How are they trying to use this positive message today to - I don't know - somehow homogenize or assuage what we saw already?

JOHNS: Right. Well, yeah, it's interesting. I was out there with the protest yesterday and there are going to be more protests today.

Yesterday, interestingly enough, it was Occupy and others. It was a protest against the banks here in Charlotte. Today, there's going to be a labor protest, of course.

It's a little bit of a risk for the Obama campaign, the Democrats to hold their convention here in North Carolina which is a right-to- work state on Labor Day weekend, of course. You get that natural clash of ideas going on.

But, talking to the protesters yesterday, they made the point to me they didn't feel like they were protesting against President Obama as much as they were protesting against the system. And that's a lot of what you hear out here on the streets, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, Joe, one of the surprises I thought coming into North Carolina, I had only guessed that the local news had laid some groundwork that the Democrats were coming, that this was going to be a big boon to the communities there.

And, yet, the local polling in North Carolina does not bode well going into this convention for President Obama.

JOHNS: That's true, but I think you can also say that, after the last campaign where the president won this state, they expected North Carolina to be in play and I think the polls reflect that.

The "Charlotte Observer" poll, showing Mitt Romney ahead, but only by four points. The latest CNN/ORC poll shows it, basically. a dead heat.

So, they knew North Carolina was going to be, basically, you know, in play and they wanted to try to appeal to voters here to try to put this state in the win column in the second straight election.

BANFIELD: It always matters, of course, just what window they use when they ask those questions. Is it the beginning of the convention? Is it during the convention? Is it the whole ball of wax. And, so, that can definitely change things, but we're going to talk to Paul Steinhauser about that, coming up in a bit.

Hey, Joe Johns, thanks so much. Enjoy the music today. Happy Labor Day.

JOHNS: You bet. You, too.

BANFIELD: Thank you very much. Laboring away, I love it.

CNN's live coverage of the Democratic National Convention, by the way, from Charlotte is going to begin tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. and you can also find more news and analysis from our political team. They are always working, day, night, weekends, Labor Day. They go to CNN.com/politics, as should you. It's great. There's lots of stuff there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Democratic mover-and-shakers are heading to Charlotte, North Carolina, but the star of this week's convention has some, shall we say, more conventional duties on his agenda.

His is still the president, so he's got that little job he's doing, as well. But he is on another campaign visit today and it's in Ohio. You're going to see him live in Toledo about 90 minutes from now.

In fact, we've got out live cameras trained on him and my colleague, Dan Lothian, doesn't get the day off either.

So, there's no escaping Ohio, no matter how you slice it. I always hear our team saying Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, particularly today.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right and, you know, that's the reason that you've seen the president come here so many times, 14 visits since he announced his reelection bid, been here 11 times, so far this year, a crucial battleground state and the president will be here again today sharpening his convention message.

According to aides, they tell me that the president will talk about some of his accomplishments over the past, almost four years, talking about how an individual and the auto industry now has a job because of the auto bailout.

Obviously, that's an important issue in the state of Ohio which has benefitted, directly and indirectly, from the auto industry. The president also will highlight a young person who is able to get insurance by staying on their parents' policy because of health care reform.

He'll highlight a family that is able to stay in their home because they were also able to refinance and, of course, Republicans have been critical of the president, saying that he has not done enough to help those in this mortgage crisis and that the health care reform should be repealed.

But nonetheless, we'll hear the president talk about what he believes are his major accomplishments in an effort to draw that contrast with Mitt Romney, saying this is what he's accomplished, but Mitt Romney, as the president puts it, has no ideas for the future.

BANFIELD: So, while you're on the stump with the president, I'm always curious as to how he is made aware of things that don't go -- the hiccups, shall we call them? Like Governor O'Malley's big old hiccup yesterday and I was talking to Dana Bash about it, our friend and colleague, the "Servpro committee," trying to clean up the mess.

How is it playing out among the campaign that you're with? LOTHIAN: Well, I'm sure he is paying close attention to this. They're not publically talking about any consternation, handwringing going on over the issue, but it has been a tricky balancing act for the campaign and certainly for the president because, on the one hand, they will admit that there are a lot of people out there who are still hurting, who are looking for jobs, who are still not able to find or stay in their homes.

But, on the other hand, they also point out that the president because of his policies and his accomplishments has been able to pull the economy back from the brink of total collapse.

And, so, that's the message that they're trying to push, that, yes, things are not perfect, but they're better than they could have been.

BANFIELD: And now I have to wrap it up, but not before I just mention real quickly with you, Dan, and that is that he's still the president. He still has a job to do, so he gets to campaign part of the day, but he's going to hit New Orleans later today, right?

LOTHIA: That's right. The president will be getting a briefing in Louisiana from local and state officials. In addition to that, he'll tour the area that was impacted by Hurricane Isaac and then he'll make some remarks, as well.

So, the president following up on that visit by Mitt Romney last week who went to New Orleans to view the damage from the storm, up close.

BANFIELD: So, it's official, but it's also something you can definitely get some airtime during the campaign, as well.

LOTHIAN: That's right.

BANFIELD: Dan Lothian, in Toledo, thank you, sir, and thanks for working on Labor Day.

LOTHIAN: OK.

BANFIELD: All right. And tonight we're going to give you a real personal look, as well, at Barack Obama, the man, beyond his presidency, in a CNN documentary, "Obama Revealed -- The Man, The President," airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: As most of us get ready for Labor Day picnics and cookouts, there is a harsh reality right now for people on the Gulf Coast. The example is on your TV screen, so I encourage you to take a quick look, if you are looking away.

These are your fellow Americans, folks. President Obama is heading to Louisiana this evening to assess the damage for himself.

It's been nearly a week since Isaac just tore through their homes, their communities and they're already in clean-up mode, yes, but what a mess.

In other areas, believe it or not, the voluntary evacuations are still in place and thousands of people are still without power, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to remove everything from our home. Mold has already started. And we have two pets and three children that can't come home. It's hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to get back in here. This is our home. This is where we live. And, I mean, we love it out here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Just heartbreaking to see this. Now, the big area of concern right now? Zero into that, Saint Tammany Parish. This is a double threat here, one from the Pearl River and another one from a weak canal lock.

Let's get straight to meteorologist Chad Myers, standing by. So, Chad, is this a matter of just extraordinary volumes of very heavy water sitting and pushing and pressuring the banks and the locks for just so long and they become fatigued?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And water going around the lock itself, because the lock was not high enough, and running along the banks of the dirt berm that the locks are attached to. They were afraid that that erosion could be significant enough to wash all of the water away. Once you get a big gully of erosion, then, all of the sudden, the water goes.

Let me take you to where we're talking about. Here's New Orleans proper and I know you're talking and saying, what can you imagine can be happening a week later?

Well, all this water is to the north because it rained up here, too. It still has to get to the Gulf of Mexico, so one of the places is right here from Bush, Louisiana, here. There's lock number two. Zoom into the lock and I will show you the issue.

The water was coming through here, coming around the lock itself, and this is all just dirt. Afraid that that was going to wash away, they opened the levees a little bit, the dam a little bit, the lock and so that water came out and that helped relieve the pressure. That's when it went from a mandatory evacuation only to a voluntary evacuation.

Understand now, there is more water running downhill and more water's running towards Slidell and, when we get this water down towards Slidell, we're going to get some flooding.

There's not much we can do about this down here. Seventeen-to- 18-feet, we start to flood some the areas up through here. About 20 feet, we flood here. At 21 feet, we actually have to close I-10 because that right there -- that's the weigh-scales - would be completely under water.

That is not anticipated. The number should be 19.5 for feet. That is about a foot-and-a-half just shy of closing the interstate, but it could be close.

BANFIELD: So, I've been watching the models and where the storms been moving and it's sort of shifted around, looks like, you know, basically, Alabama to Ohio, but that makes me wonder about all those Midwest farmers who needed that water. Are they getting it?

MYERS: Yes, they are getting it, but it is way too late.

The corn, though, the planting, the corn is way past what any real water can help now. The threat this year was when it was silking, when the pollen was coming out of the thing on top of the corn and it was getting into the silk, which is that stuff that you have to tear off of your corn that you don't want to eat. That's where the pollen's supposed to go.

When that was happening, it was not happening in secret. There wasn't - the - the -- I can't say the word.

BANFIELD: Sequence?

MYERS: The synchronicity, all I can think of is the band stuff. We'll work around it.

It didn't come out in sequence, right. So, this came out, pollen came out, didn't get to the corn. The corn didn't make those little kernels.

So, when the kernels aren't there, it doesn't matter if it rains or not. It's just - it's done. It will be stuff for the cows to eat, basically, at this point in time.

But there will be some improvement on the pastureland. The pasture in Missouri is 99-percent poor. That's just done, but at least, the rain will help maybe some pastureland, some growth comes back that the cows can eat.

BANFIELD: That's such an unfortunate story and I'm glad you, you know, spelled that out because it's hard for a lot of people to understand what the sequence and the process is and it does make a difference.

Chad Myers, on a holiday, thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

And, ironically, by the way, most of the areas that were hard hit by Isaac are outside of that whole new federal levee system that we all put in for and was re-constructed with 14.5 billion taxpayers' dollars.

So, the president, as we said before, is going to be briefed and he's going to take a tour through the flood damage from Hurricane Isaac. That's about a little before 7:00 p.m. which we will show you, live. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Welcome back. Christine Romans is always the one to talk me off a ledge, as I like to say, because the big question today has been - that's the famous Reagan question -- are you better off today than you were four years ago? And when you break it down, it really comes to the numbers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's been a hell of a four years. That's the bottom line.

I mean, let's take a look here. When you look at unemployment, the jobless rate when the president took office was 7.8 percent. Compare that with now, 8.3 percent, so the jobless rate has gone up.

BANFIELD: And, by the way, there was a big spike in between.

ROMANS: That's right. It went all the way up to 10 percent and then now, so depending on how you look at it, it's either up from 7.8 percent or down from 10 percent, depending on if you're a Democrat or a Republican, by the way.

Median real wages are down about $4,000. That means people have less money in their paychecks. Families have less money.

Gas prices are up, in part because this was a crisis, so you saw gas prices tank as oil prices tanked in the middle of that crisis and the national debt has jumped almost 6 trillion, so you've seen the debt go up pretty dramatically over the last few years.

BANFIELD: Now, is this where it gets better for those who say that's going to be, you know, the Achilles heel for Obama. This is going where he's been about to campaign?

ROMANS: This is the flip-side of that proverbial coin. Jobs growth, we were losing 818,000 jobs in the first month that he was in office, right? Now, look. You've gained 163,000. Not enough, but it is positive job momentum.

GDP, the economy was shrinking, shrinking in 2009. Now, it is growing. Not very much, but it is growing.

Home prices are up. This is a really important part of the American financial, you know ...

BANFIELD: Psyche.

ROMANS: Right. And home prices are up.

BANFIELD: By the way, not everywhere.

ROMANS: Not everywhere, but they are stabilizing and going up.

Consumer spending is increasing and the stock market has rebounded. I mean, this is -- S&P 500 is at - is considerably higher than it was when we were here. BANFIELD: Call my broker because mine doesn't reflect that.

ROMANS: Let's talk about debt because we had talked about debt as one of the factors here and you heard a lot at the RNC about how, under President Obama, the national debt has spiked some $6 trillion, almost.

BANFIELD: Right.

ROMANS: And that is true, but when you look within the numbers and you see why our debt was spiking, you know, a big chunk and this is national debt as the size of the economy, a big chunk of that is actually tax cuts.

Remember President Bush had the Bush tax cuts and then President Obama, he kept them going, so those tax cuts are one of the reasons.

BANFIELD: And the argument continues to keep extending them, too.

ROMANS: Yeah, absolutely. These are wars, what we've spent on wars. That's how much of the - is from that.

And this is the downturn. The crisis itself really hurt taxes, how much money is coming into the coffers of the government and that helped spike the debt, as well.

This is TARP, Fannie and Freddie bailouts and this is the president's stimulus, right here, and some of those policies. And these are all the other stuff that we do to spend beyond our means.

BANFIELD: Well, the tax cuts looks so ugly to the naked eye. There is a Democratic argument and a Republican argument to that brown zone.

ROMANS: Oh, absolutely.

And, remember, they were always called the Bush tax cuts and, now, debt-hawks call them the Bush-Obama tax cuts because the president - you're going to hear a lot of DNC probably about how the president has lowered the tax bill for middle-class Americans. That has to be paid for. That goes to the national debt.

BANFIELD: I just feel like you're going end up in a commercial, a campaign commercial.

ROMANS: It's happened before.

BANFIELD: On both sides, frankly.

ROMANS: Actually, the good thing is you get in a campaign commercial for everybody.

BANFIELD: And the Sunday morning talk shows this weekend, are you better off, as well?

ROMANS: Right.

BANFIELD: Christine Romans, thank you.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Labor Day, 2012. The Democratic convention is upon us and the Republican convention is now history. and the history is still being written. The post-RNC polls and the search for the all- important bounce. It is all about the bounce.

CNN's Paul Steinhauser joins me live from Charlotte with that.

The reason you're perfect is because the bounce is often measured in the polling. and we do have a bunch of polling. I was talking earlier on the program about it. It always matters how you are asking the questions. What did the pep rally do? Did we get the bounce or not?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Maybe, maybe not. We're going to need more polling, Ashleigh, to really understand it. Gallop is out with a brand new national poll this morning conducted on Friday and Saturday, right after the Republican national convention. Here is what they asked. Did it make you more or less likely to vote for Mitt Romney? The numbers are pretty divided. Four in ten said more likely, 38 percent say less likely. Basically, a draw. 22 percent said I didn't watch it or I'm not sure. What about the speech itself? What do Americans think about that? Gallop asked, how would you rate the speech. 38 percent say excellent or good, 21 percent said just OK and 16 percent said it was poor or terrible. One in four didn't see it or were not sure. The 38 is a little bit lower than we have seen in past conventions and past cycles.

BANFIELD: Paul, no convention is left untouched by the other side. We saw that last week with Vice President Biden made plans to go to Florida to do the bracketing thing. We know there are plans for Republicans to bracket this convention. That means trying to take the wind out of the other guy's sail. What are the Republicans doing to the Democrats?

STEINHAUSER: Right here there are a bunch of Republicans, the Republican national committee and the Romney committee are here. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate is in North Carolina. He has a rally a little east of here. He will be bracketing and he will be talking about the Obama campaign and whether things are better now than they were four years ago. Vice President Biden was supposed to be in Tampa, Florida, last week. But Hurricane Isaac washed that out as it did wash out the first day of the Republican convention.

One thing I want to share with you, the Obama campaign has a brand new TV ad playing in battleground states. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD ANNOUNCER: The middle class is carrying a heavy load in America, but Mitt Romney doesn't see it. Under the Romney plan, a middle class family will pay an average of up to $2,000 more a year in taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: You're going to hear a lot more than that. That is a little appetizer of what you will hear. The Romney campaign says that Mitt Romney's plan would not raise taxes for the middle class.

BANFIELD: Lots of fodder for talking.

Paul Steinhauser, thank you very much and thanks for working on Labor Day. Appreciate it.

STEINHAUSER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Paul live with us from Charlotte, North Carolina, where the weather looks good.

We want to know what you think. If you want to experience the Democratic National Convention from the inside, you can do it, in a way. Tomorrow, just join the CNN Election Roundtable and our whole CNN political team. Submit your questions and you can get answers in real time in our virtual live chat. Just log on to CNN.com/roundtable. Starts tomorrow at noon eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: International news. Americans were the target of a deadly suicide bomb attack in Pakistan. It was a car loaded with explosives and it rammed a vehicle that was carrying staffers from the American consulate. The State Department says two Americans in the consulate vehicle were hurt. Two Pakistanis were killed. Peshawar is about 120 miles from the capital and has been the site of recent clashes between security forces and militants.

I want to take you to Syria now. And a warning from the government. Comes from the information minister. There he is. He spoke today and had this message for any country that might want to get involved in the war that is going on there, and I will quote him. "We will cut your arm off." Charming. He also urged the refugees to come on home. There is nothing to fear. All of this as the opposition activists are saying that more than 100 people have died today. That's 100 people just today.

And we have a report from our Arwa Damon from inside Syria. CNN has obtained much of a video from a freelance journalist who spent time under attack. And we do have to give you this warning, as we often have to do, some of the images are very disturbing and certainly not suitable for all viewers. Have a look at this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every night, Trad scrolls through the videos he shot that day, reviewing scenes he wishes he had never witnessed. (SHOUTING)

DAMON: It's a macabre routine but one he is addicted to. He simply can't stop, can't let go, can't give up.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: For the past 18 months he has documented nearly every single death in the town of 50,000, before the violence started --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: Name, date, location. More than 400 victims and counting. Often they are his neighbors, friends, relatives, people he would see around town. And once, he pointed the camera at his brother's corpse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The first one, my brother, I didn't know my brother the first one. After I came also I take some photo of the other one. Suddenly, I remember this one my brother. I start shout, my brother, my brother, my brother, doctor, my brother. But after, normal. I am sad also, the first, and -- and angry. But after normal.

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: The 37-year-old once owned a furniture shops. Now he part of a small team of media activists, filming and posting online the horrific videos that have come to symbolize the Syrian uprising.

(GUNSHOT)

DAMON: Most of the residents have fled. But the indiscriminate shelling still takes its toll on the few that remain.

(SHOUTING)

(GUNSHOTS)

DAMON: Those who have nowhere else to go.

In the last few weeks, this 8-year-old girl was killed by a mortar round that hit her home. They tried to hide her wound to spare her mother the anguish.

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: She collapses when she hears the news.

(SHOUTING)

DAMON: At times, Trad tries to console families, reassuring this woman that her son is going to be OK. That he will survive the wounds to his leg. Occasionally, he hands over the camera so he can help. But too often there is nothing he can do but film.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: Much of the town lies in ruins, similar to most of what we see across Syria. Most people are resigned to their fate, knowing they are on their own.

The hospital, regularly targeted, is trying to build up its defenses.

This man who works in construction is building a bunker for his family. His children take a quick peek into the darkness below. Perhaps this will save them. Perhaps it will be their grave.

(MUSIC)

DAMON: Trad's younger brother is now a rebel fighter. He was a mechanic who wanted to be a D.J. He plays music as they recall the fate of one of their activist friends, detained by Syrian security forces and returned to them with his eyes gouged out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): And they take the eyes. The same, my job. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): I can go down Bashar. I throw Bashar by this one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Too much dangerous. Here in Syria the camera.

But when I finish with revolution I catch the camera like this and I throw it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: May I just remind you what the information minister said today? Anyone who fled Syria should just come on back because there is nothing to fear. Trad and media activists are often the only source for video out of Syria because the government does not want us there, strongly restricting journalists and routinely refusing visas you need to get into the country and arresting those who go ahead and go into the country and report anyway.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It doesn't hit the store shelves until tomorrow and already it's on its way to becoming a best seller? It's the book that details the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. It has caused a stir and now we might have a clue as to why the book was written, "The New York Times" is reporting that the author of no easy day broke the NAVY SEALs code of silence because of bad blood within his unit. Other members of that unit have spoken out in an eBook that they are calling no easy op. In it they say that he was pushed out after mentioning an interest in leaving the NAVY to start a business. He is also facing problems on another front, too. The Pentagon, they are threatening legal action against him because he didn't submit his manuscript for review. That's what you call policy.

Joining me to talk about this is defense attorney, Joey Jackson.

Joey, here is the deal. His lawyer said we had this vetted by our guy to make sure that there is nothing classified. You own guy is not the Pentagon guy. There is a big difference.

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: There is a huge difference. There is a Department of Defense and individual lawyers you can go to and consult. The Department of Defense has policies. If you're going to produce a book and particularly if it could involve sensitive national security information you need to get it vetted by the department. They evaluate and see whether it's public information or stuff that is a little too sensitive and could put other people in harm. If it is, there are problems.

BANFIELD: Here is where I want to go next. Tomorrow, we should get some information about what kind of charges he might be facing. More importantly than that, we have ourselves a hero. I don't care what he said, what his book is. This dude is a hero. What he and his team went through, thank you so much for your service and for the service of your colleagues.

JACKSON: Ditto.

BANFIELD: How do you prosecute a guy like that? A, the optics of it, and, B, nothing -- they can't -- his teammates can't say anything, because it is classified, and they are witnesses who cannot talk.

JACKSON: Very difficult.

BANFIELD: And their information is classified.

JACKSON: Right. To the first point, it is very difficult, and why? Because you have someone who is absolutely a hero and who we all owe a debt of gratitude to, and you have the person sitting at the defense chair and there is something called the jury nullification, and nobody is going to convict this guy.

BANFIELD: I love this guy.

JACKSON: Right. And at the same time, there is a culture and the culture says you don't kiss and tell, and what happens within the operations stays within the operations, because we want to preserve the integrity of them and we don't want future SEALs or anybody else to be subjected to problem. But Ashleigh, it may be much ado of nothing. And it may have information that the public in general is knowledgeable about already. You will have to wait and see. But if he crosses the line, there is a price to pay.

BANFIELD: If you think that you are looking at the guy on the right with Scott Pelley, he is in Hollywood-style makeup. And this is fascinating, because that is not at all what he looks like because they redid him completely so he could tell the story and remain in anonymity. And jury nullification, is -- let's just say, he is sitting there as the defendant and the jury looking at him?

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: In the event it is prosecuted you have a right to sit in a jury of your peers and even though they may be responsible about what he did, and --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Hush, hush in the jury room.

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: I'm not convicting even though you did it.

BANFIELD: I know he did it and I'm not going anywhere near that.

JACKSON: Right, precisely.

BANFIELD: Like the jury that says, see that sex offender, and the dad killed him, I'm not convicting that dad.

JACKSON: Some facts are just so that we can relate to the facts and they resonate so well with us that you don't want to do, you know, you don't want to convict.

BANFIELD: I want to have you back another time when we find out what the Pentagon may or may not do and the possibility of a compromise and if there is a middle ground of the two parties to reach.

Meantime, don't go anywhere, because Michael Jackson -- Oh --

JACKSON: Wow!

BANFIELD: Lord, the e-mails that have come out regarding his condition before he died and before that huge big concert tour. And they suggest this was one real sick man. And we will talk about the legal implications in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So there are some incredible details that remerging about Michael Jackson and his condition in the weeks before he died. There has been a series of e-mails and hundreds of them in fact that were leaked to the "Los Angeles Times" and they were e-mails that detail what the concert promoters were saying about him and people who were working with him, and what they were saying about his medical condition right before that big comeback tour was supposed to launch. The promoter is called AEG. AEG was apparently so worried about Jackson that their top folks suggested hiring a psychiatrist and a big time psychiatrist to evaluate him and the e-mails paint a picture of Michael Jackson in crisis and they come off of the midst of two significant lawsuits that promoter is facing down. One of the lawsuits comes from the insurance agents, and the insurance company, and the insurance company that is asking a judge to wipe out the $17.5 million policy they are being asked to payout because of the death of the top star and they say that concert promoter purchased that policy saying that Michael Jackson was A-OK and ready to perform. And the other lawsuit is coming from the family of Michael Jackson and it is a wrongful death suit. Basically the family says in essence that the promoter worked Michael Jackson to death. Even though they knew he was not up to the grueling schedule of the tour, they knew he was not up to it.

Back with me is defense attorney, Joey Jackson.

And when you read the e-mails you think, open and shut case, but I'm not so sure.

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, look at some of the e-mails, all right. The first one, according to the "Los Angeles Times," "M.J. is locked in his room and drunk and despondent, and I'm trying to sober him up." And that is from Randy Phillips, AEG Live president. And this one again, "He is an emotionally paralyzed mess, riddled with self-loathing and doubt."

BANFIELD: It's super specific.

JACKSON: Wow.

BANFIELD: And the dates of those reports give them ample enough time to say, we can't send him out there.

JACKSON: And here is the problem. First he signs the contract, Michael Jackson, in January of 2009 and 50 converts, in London and to the arena, and everything is fine. And as for the insurance policy, they took it out for him in case he had problems and sick or illness --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Or he would die.

JACKSON: Or he would die, worse. And there is a duty to disclose. What does that mean? If you want a health policy, they examine you and study you and say you are OK. And now what you learn is that Lloyds of London, the insurance carrier did send in multiple doctors to the examine him. However, it went pretty well. But the issue is whether or not at that time they were fully made aware of the extent of the condition. There was one particular portion of the insurance policy, and it talked about have you ever been on drugs? Have you ever been on medication, and the box was checked no. That's a problem, because of the duty to disclose, so the issue is if they with aware the insurance carrier of the full extent of his actual illness would they have insured him and if the answer to the question is that they were not made aware, then they have a good suit.

BANFIELD: If Lloyds of London was made by the promoters or the doctor at the time saying he was taking almost lethal amounts of sleep medication just in order to get an hour of shut eye a night, I would say there would be not be any policy.

JACKSON: Yes, and in hindsight they hired dr. Murray paying him $50,000 a month to treat and otherwise see to it that Michael Jackson was OK and we know the end of that story, Ashleigh, and it did not turn out well.

BANFIELD: And these stories are coming from different sources though. This is an e-mail from AEG's promoter musical director, "There are strong signs of anxiety and paranoia and obsessive-like behavior. The best thing is to get a top psychiatrist in to evaluate him ASAP." And then Kenny Ortega says, "It is like two people in here. One deep inside trying to hold on to what he was and still can be and not wanting us to quit him, and the other in this weakened and troubled shape, I believe we need professional guidance in this matter."

I have 10 seconds left. Does this speak badly to both suits?

JACKSON: Yes, in terms of the wrongful death suit, where the family is alleging he is overworked is a tougher one, because he was paid a lot of money and banking on the money to sustain his existence. And therefore he entered into it voluntary. And not to say they can't prevail, but it is going to be tougher.

BANFIELD: Thank you, Joey Jackson as always.

JACKSON: Thank you so much.

BANFIELD: Thank you, everyone for watching today.

I want to pass the baton to my colleague, Suzanne Malveaux, who starts right now with NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL.