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Democratic National Convention Gets Under Way; Violence in Syria Continues; Interview With Florida Senator Bill Nelson

Aired September 04, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

President Obama is making his way to Charlotte for his party, the big convention. You see all the folks shaking hands, saying hello to the president here. This is the thing. If he watches tonight from the road, which is where he is right now, he will see his wife.

He will see the first lady addressing the Charlotte Democrats. He will also see Julian Castro, the keynote speaker, the rising star. But I want to play some sound here and this from the president campaigning today in the tossup state of Virginia. He's critiquing Mitt Romney's economic plan. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A plan that says we're going to make middle-class families pay for another budget- busting $250,000 tax cut for people making $3 million a year or more, that's not really persuasive to most people.

We don't think that will magically translate into jobs or prosperity for people. We know families won't be better off if we undue all the Wall Street reforms we put into place to prevent another financial crisis or that we are going to be better off if we remove rules to protect our air and our water, or if we're going to take away protections we put in place to make sure that health care is there for you when you get sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The president speaking today in Virginia.

Mitt Romney today, he did take a ride through scenic Vermont. His motorcade was stymied by a tractor as the Republican nominee traveled to the home of Kerry Healey, the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. The tractor pulled over. Motorcade continued on. Romney is rehearsing already for the presidential debates. The first one is not for a month.

But back to the Democrats, you know the deal, convention begins tonight.

Suzanne Malveaux is standing by for us in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Suzanne, let's just first begin with the first lady. Big night for her. What should we hear? What's her message?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly a very big night for first lady and I have to tell you, Brooke, very different than what we saw four years ago when she was really introducing herself and introducing her husband.

Back then, there were a lot of questions over who they were, what kind of man he was and what kind of family they were. Essentially what she will do is she's going to leave the mudslinging for other folks. She's not going to attack Mitt Romney and she's not going to attack Paul Ryan or the campaign.

She's just simply going to make the case, make the argument why she believes President Obama is a good father, a good husband, somebody who is good for the country, someone who understands what it's like to feel financial hardship, that he also understands too there's still a lot of work to be done.

It was interesting earlier today. He gave himself an incomplete when it comes to this economic turnaround. And that's really part of the case they're making, that they need another four years to get the job done or at least to help more people along the way. It's going to be a very positive speech and a very personal speech.

And it will be something that aides say it will be different than what we have heard, some of the things we have heard from Ann Romney over the last 24-48 hours, which has been more of an attack on the president. This is meant to be upbeat, uplifting here and to really set a different kind of tone, if you will, along with something that's different which is the fact that now she is a very popular first lady.

She has a lot of cachet. She's got a lot of street cred. Four years ago , it was the Republicans injecting a lot of questions and doubt about who she was and who her husband was. But now they feel a lot more confident they will display who they really are and how that's a good thing.

BALDWIN: Let me take you back to something you said a moment ago. Because you were referencing the interview the president did with a Colorado affiliate reporter basically giving the grade on the economy as you pointed out as incomplete.

Obviously, the Republicans, they are all over that. They are seizing upon that. I'm curious if you see that perhaps as an unforced error on behalf of the president and when you look at the recent polls, you see that this is the one area really where Mitt Romney is outpolling the president when it comes to the economy.

Four years later here, what does the president say?

MALVEAUX: I don't think they see it as an error, per se. This is not something -- it's not the first time the president has actually given the president an incomplete because he gets this question from time to time how he would grade himself.

In the past, he's actually been criticized before for giving himself too high marks, for seeming a little bit overconfident in what he's achieved. I think there's a deliberate effort by the campaign and by the president to play things down a little bit, to hold back a little bit, because people are looking to him. They are looking to his record and they know and they are very much aware that people are not satisfied. A lot of people are not satisfied with how their lives are going.

I think that that really is a political calculation that he has made and that the campaign has made. I don't think they regret it, but they do see the Republicans have started to sharpen it a bit and use it against him. I don't think that's something that they necessarily are going to shy away from.

BALDWIN: What about looking ahead to when we do see the president? And really it's not the big pitch. Perhaps this is the big argument why he should keep his job here four years later. He will be speaking to this massive crowd. We talked about this, 64,000 people. The biggest crowd he's spoken to on the trail really is 14,000.

Can he fill the seats and what is his main thesis?

MALVEAUX: They certainly hope he's going to fill the seats.

Brooke, they are already looking at the weather to see if maybe they have to switch venues or not, because if it's a big thunderstorm, it's going to be a big problem for them on Thursday.

But one of the main things is they are going to say is we need more time. They also will emphasize this despite the fact the Republicans have been hammering away at this that, yes, he came in with a huge hole with the deficit, with a big, big economic problem. They will talk about the number of jobs they have created and just give a sense they will try to reinvigorate and give a sense of the hope they had four years ago.

This is something that honestly, four years ago, it was a different scenario. It was a different time. People felt the pain. They felt a lot of pain and they felt like they needed to do something drastic and he was the answer, he was actually the hope and change a lot of people thought would bring this country to a different place.

They know they are dealing with a different kind of voter now. He's been in office for four years. They want him to prove through his record that he deserves another four.

BALDWIN: Thursday night, a big night for him. But we will be watching tonight. Suzanne Malveaux, my thanks to you.

CNN's prime-time coverage of the Democratic National Convention kicks off 7:00 Eastern tonight. Make sure you look out for Wolf and Anderson and the rest of CNN's political team and then of course the speeches and then at midnight Piers Morgan wraps up the first night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention tonight on CNN.

A lot more news unfolding here on this Tuesday. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): As Syria's leader meets with the Red Cross, his own planes bomb a town, leaving families to search for their loved ones. Arwa Damon joins me live.

Plus, it's big, it's historic and suddenly NASA's Endeavour is a menace -- why the space shuttle may cause hundreds of trees to disappear.

And an assassin on a motorcycle targets the woman known as the godmother of cocaine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Moments of chaos near Aleppo, Syria, after a bomb is dropped from a regime warplane. People rush to pull any potential survivors from the rubble following Monday's bomb attack. This happened, you see here on the map, this happened in the town. This is al-Bab, just northeast of Aleppo. It's a town known as a rebel stronghold.

And CNN's Arwa Damon has a look at what's happening there right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Darting across the roof to avoid detection, the cameraman manages to capture this, the moment the fighter jet releases the bomb.

According to the voice on the tape, it's the town of al-Bab. Seconds later, and this is what the Syrian opposition says was the aftermath of airstrikes on that same day, Monday, destroying at least an entire building, killing a whole family and many others.

Al-Bab was a rebel stronghold just to the northeast of Aleppo, critical as a gateway of fighters and supplies to the front lines there. But as is nearly always the case, the strikes killed civilians, as the Assad regime tried to shut down that pipeline.

A little boy's seemingly limp body covered in dust, just one of many carried out of the wreckage. The Syrian information minister came out and again pressed the government line that they are simply targeting foreign-backed terrorists.

At times, that is clearly not the case. In other instances, competing narratives cloud the truth. This video montage of destruction edited to music was broadcast on the pro-Assad Ikhbariya network was said to be the aftermath of a car bomb in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, a predominantly Druze and Christian area. The banner blames terrorists for the attack. An opposition activist said the government is trying to foment more sectarian unrest. Syria is an ever-morphing battleground. Rebel fighters outmanned and outgunned are growing more sophisticated with their crude tactics.

Video posted out of the town of Qusayr shows how rebel fighters dug a 200-meter, some 600-foot tunnel for a target they used to describe as impenetrable, a hospital they claim the government was using as a military base and sniping position.

They say they succeeded. And after a two-day fierce gun battle, they managed to drive Assad forces out. They can't hold the hospital, but at least they say for now the government doesn't. They know the government response will be fierce. These days, the only certainty is that across the country more will die on both sides of the spectrum and those caught in between.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Arwa Damon live for us now in Beirut.

From what -- you have explained al-Bab. This was once a rebel stronghold. They know now they are outgunned, outmanned, airstrike obviously proof. What pushes them, Arwa, to fight knowing these kinds of repercussions?

DAMON: Well, Brooke, at this stage they say they have absolutely no other choice.

When you pose them this question, they will remind you that when this uprising began some 18 months ago, they were out demonstrating peacefully and then it was Assad forces they say that fired upon them killing them, forcing them to pick up weapons and now it's resulted in the Syrian uprising.

What began as a peaceful revolution calling for the ouster of Assad regime turning into this all-out civil war and really forcing both sides into this situation where they are so polarized and so hardened against one another, bringing them to any sort of negotiation table at this point in time is just not realistic.

They say they have no choice but to literally fight until the very bitter end whatever that end may be.

BALDWIN: No choice, says Arwa Damon. Arwa for us tonight in Beirut, thank you.

To California making way for the space shuttle. A lot of folks upset over this one. You heard about this? Taking down hundreds of trees all in an effort to get the space shuttle Endeavour to its final home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: What a story this is. In the concrete jungle that is South Los Angeles, trees are somewhat of a rarity. When city leaders say they are cutting down 400 of them, folks get a little upset. But the removal is not for routine maintenance or because the trees are dying.

No, no, this is for something a little bigger, the arrival of the massive space shuttle Endeavour. This will be the first and only time the space shuttle will travel through urban public streets on its way to its new homes, that being the California Science Center.

To make room for this behemoth machine, power lines will be raised, traffic signals will be removed and hundreds of trees will be cut down to their stumps.

And I wanted to bring in Chad Myers because what a story. I read this in "The L.A. Times" this morning and thought my goodness, 400 trees. Obviously, the first question is why the heck can't they just take the shuttle apart?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Cannot.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: It would ruin it. Literally, to take the tiles off would break them, trying to reassemble it.

They knew from the start they couldn't do it. At 170,000 pounds they knew they couldn't get a helicopter to lift it. They tried to go and say what can we do with the interstate instead, the freeways? No, too many bridges, too many overpasses, can't get it under them.

They have to take it this route, 12 miles through city streets on a two-day parade.

BALDWIN: Party in Inglewood.

Let's show you here. Let's go right to the maps. The GR-113, our weather map, you will be able the fly right into it. I will show you where it's going to stop. Right there, that's the park it's going to be in. But here is where it's going to start 12 miles away at LAX because that's where it's going to come in.

What do you have? You have boulevards. First of all, here is Manchester. Not too many trees here close to LAX but as you get up toward Inglewood, you get trees in the middle. These trees not so big. Maybe Inglewood, there they are right there and then you zoom on down to the ground. You will see that. Those can probably be replanted. They are going to replant 800 trees to make up for the 400 that they are cutting down.

But these are the ones that people are really not angry about, but concerned about. This is Crenshaw. Those trees are old. They are pine. You can actually smell them when you're driving down the road. So, Crenshaw Boulevard, all those big trees will be...

BALDWIN: They're saying chopping Pine, ficus, other trees. Some people see this as a win-win. This is some. I know people are frustrated and they're thinking headache and traffic and I'm losing my trees.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Here's MLK.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: California Science Center -- I just want to look down at my notes -- they are expected to spend $500,000 to improve the city landscape.

MYERS: Correct. Here it is all the way up here. I always say how many trees they cut down , but the very next frame around here, how many trees they didn't cut down.

BALDWIN: How many?

MYERS: Down to Leimert. Let's go all the way down here. These trees here on Leimert, that could be the hypotenuse. That's a shorter route. But they decided not to cut those trees down because those, a lot of them were planted in memory of MLK Jr.

There you go. Those are the big trees there on the Mert that are going to stay as they take Crenshaw all the way up to the corner as it turns to MLK, rather than taking them out. They thought about this. They really did try to do the least amount of damage possible.

BALDWIN: Either way, I know our cameras are going to be there. We will be watching this. This is October 12. Right?

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: Two-day parade.

BALDWIN: We will be watching this, Endeavour taking two days to get to the California Science Center. I'm still hoping to get someone on the show from the California Science Center, but thank you for the fly-through.

MYERS: I spent all day...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I so appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I fully understand. This is what we're talking about. Thank you so much, Chad. Appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: You bet. BALDWIN: I do want to take you back to Charlotte here , where Democrats, they are kicking off their convention tonight.

Joining me now, we have Senator Bill Nelson. The Florida Democrat is up for reelection.

So, Senator, nice to see you. Thanks for joining me.

SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: Hello, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Senator, let's just begin with the guy you're hoping will win this thing and get another four years being Barack Obama.

What do you want to hear from him? What does he need to do in his president-elect Thursday to appeal to voters specifically, sir, in your state?

NELSON: Well, I want all this misinformation to be put to rest.

I will give you an example. You heard last week over and over $700 billion cut out of Medicare. It is exactly the opposite. It was $700 billion in the health care bill of savings in order to extend the life of Medicare. Where did it come from? It came from providers like insurance companies on Medicare Advantage. That's the truth and what I want, the truth to come out of this convention.

BALDWIN: You think the president will get into that kind of detail on Thursday?

NELSON: If he doesn't, it will already be put to rest by many people before him.

And that's what the American people need to know. Another example, you have heard this refrain. Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Well, what was four years ago? September and October of 2008, we were in a financial down spiral after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The stock market crashed, massive job layoffs.

(CROSSTALK)

NELSON: Fortunately, now, for the last 29 straight months, we have had private sector job growth. It's painfully slow, but it is the recovery.

BALDWIN: But what do you make of the president's response to the question yesterday talking to a Colorado reporter with regard to grading his job with the economy, his mission in those four years? His answer was incomplete. Republicans have jumped all over that.

NELSON: Well, I don't know why they would jump on it.

We're in the process of what the true facts are. And it is, as I just described it, coming out of the recovery. Now all the pieces are in place. Once we can get out of this ideologically rigidity and excessive partisanship and start bringing people together to build consensus in order to govern, that will start unfortunately after the election, but fortunately that is only two-and-a-half months until a lame-duck session. We will get a lot of it done then.

BALDWIN: Let me just move onto you, Senator Nelson, because I know you have a race for reelection. Last month, you released this ad about your opponent. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: I'm Bill Nelson and I approve this message.

NARRATOR: Florida, meet Connie Mack IV, a promoter for Hooters with a history of barroom brawling, altercations and road rage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Barroom brawling, altercations and road rage, that's pretty tough stuff there, Senator. Anyone turned off by that ad of yours? Do you enjoy running ads like that?

NELSON: Well, people need to know who our opponent is.

And, indeed, all the fact-checkers have checked that ad and said that it is correct. It is true. You didn't get to the part about our opponent doesn't show up for work. He's missed all kinds of votes this year.

And then, when he does show up, as a matter of fact, he votes on taking away the guaranteed benefit of Medicare, and he has a plan to take a trillion dollars out of Social Security. So, the voters are entitled to know what the truth is. And that's what we're doing.

And, by the way, that's after I have been on the receiving end of $15 million of attack ads that all the fact-checkers say are absolutely untrue.

BALDWIN: Attack and counterattack, it's politics, it seems, these days.

Senator Bill Nelson, thank you very much. Enjoy Charlotte.

NELSON: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And when it comes to Florida, the Republicans, they have Marco Rubio as their up-and-comer.

The Democrats have this man, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the keynote speaker at this week's DNC. He's speaking tonight. We are going to get a closer look at this rising star next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, already getting compared to the president. Why? Because tonight, the politician, really unknown to most of us, is the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, a spotlight, let's remember, that shined on then-unknown Barack Obama eight years ago.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has a profile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIAN CASTRO, MAYOR, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Hey, everybody. I'm Julian Castro.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First thing you need to know? It's pronounced Julian Castro. The J is silent. Not Julian.

But even if you get the Spanish wrong, don't worry. San Antonio's Latino mayor has never mastered Espanol either.

CASTRO: I understand Spanish better than I speak it. I grew up in my household with my mother and my grandmother mostly speaking English, so I understand it, but speaking it back is always the challenge.

LAVANDERA: Julian Castro's grandmother immigrated to San Antonio from Mexico and worked as a community activist in San Antonio's Chicano movement.

From those humble beginnings, Julian Castro and his twin brother went on to Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

Now, he's a rising star in the Democratic party, tapped to give the keynote speech at the Democratic convention, the same speech an unknown Barack Obama gave at the convention in 2004.

You get talked about as someone who could be the first Hispanic governor of Texas, even some people have even suggested the first Hispanic president of United States.

Do you like that kind of talk? Can you handle that kind of pressure?

CASTRO: You know, I'd be lying if I said that's not flattering. Of course, it's flattering to anybody, but the biggest mistake that I could make or anybody could make in this situation is to believe the press, to believe the hype.

LAVANDERA: Castro was elected mayor in 2009 and then reelected with 82 percent of the vote.

Now, he's 37, the youngest mayor of a top-50 city in the United States.

He's also used to the baby-face jokes.

I think one of the funnier things that has happened to you, when you first met President Obama, he jokingly asked if you were the intern.

CASTRO: That's right. Yeah.

LAVANDERA: You being asked to do the speech, is that kind of making up for that jab?

CASTRO: No, I don't know. I don't know, but I accept, you know -- I always got the age jokes at different points in my career.

LAVANDERA: Is it still happening?

CASTRO: Every now and then. But I'm starting to get the gray hair that I need from my 3-year-old daughter and from politics.

LAVANDERA: This is the biggest speech of Castro's career. Latinos enjoyed prominent speaking rolls at the Republican convention and Castro must convince Latinos to stick with President Obama and turn out in big numbers

There are a lot of Latino leaders out there who say that President Obama has not been a friend of the Latino community.

CASTRO: Under any score, immigration, education, health care and any number of issues, he has been a very effective advocate for the Latino community.

LAVANDERA: He's in the midst of pushing for a small sales tax to fund pre-kindergarten children for low-income children back in San Antonio.

Castro enjoys a squeaky clean, political image, except for that 2005 San Antonio River Walk Parade scandal. Castro was a city councilman and couldn't make it to the parade in time, so his twin brother jumped on the city council float instead.

Castro's political opponents said the brothers were trying to fool the massive crowd. Castro laughs it off now.

How can we be sure that you're going to be the Castro brother giving the speech tonight?

CASTRO: Well, he says that he's a lot better looking than I am, so there you go. And the wedding ring is another good place.

LAVANDERA: Actually, his brother, Joaquin Castro, will introduce his twin at the convention. You'll see the Castro brothers standing side by side.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So, no twin "switcharoo" tonight in Charlotte, Ed Lavandera.

Ed, that was great interview. Let me just ask because, look, there are a lot of up-and-coming mayors, let's say, in this country. Why Julian Castro, specifically, for tonight's keynote? LAVANDERA: Hey, well, you know, San Antonio knows full well the expectation of its mayor going on the prominent, just ask Henry Cisneros if you look back, you know, 20 years or so ago.

But he knows full well that he was picked for this because he's young, he's Hispanic, but beyond that, he knows his message has to resonate beyond those demographics.

And, so, he says he's going to reach out to middle-class voters and talk about education and health care and those will be the driving points, as well as the story of his family and the opportunities that they had in this country. So, that will be a prominent theme, as well.

BALDWIN: You point out in your piece that then-Senator Barack Obama, 2004, relative unknown.

Here, we are, 2012, a relative unknown mayor of San Antonio. What has he done for his city?

LAVANDERA: Well, you know, he likes to talk about economic development. One of the other things he talks often about is the brain power in the city. That's why he's pushing for this sales-tax hike to fund pre-kindergarten programs for lower-income students.

But a lot of his critics say that he's a lot like President Obama, that he's being celebrated and put on this spotlight way too soon, that he doesn't have the accomplishments that other politicians in this position should already have.

So, you know, he's got his fair share of critics, but remember, you know, he's also won his last election with 82 percent of the vote. Those critics are out there, but he's overwhelmingly popular in San Antonio.

BALDWIN: Wow, 82 percent. Ed Lavandera, thank you for that. No pressure for him, so many people looking for the quote, unquote "Obama moment" here for this mayor. We'll look for it and we'll talk about it tomorrow. Ed, thank you.

A Detroit man confesses to shooting four people. Two of them die. The suspect then calls the police to surrender and get this -- police never show up to arrest him. You won't believe what the suspect had to do to get arrested.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: "On the Case" now, a murder suspect who surrenders himself in Detroit and then gets stood up by police. The 36-year-old man wanted for allegedly shooting and killing these two people at this home in Detroit.

Now, he shows up to surrender at a fire station, waits with firefighters, waits for four hours. Police never showed up, so he took a cab himself to the police station. Detroit's police chief said in a press release, quote, "Every effort to ensure that this person was taken into police custody should have occurred." "Should have occurred," end quote.

Let me bring in defense attorney Anne Bremner. Wow, so, Anne, obviously, the suspect did more than what was expected of him. Do you think prosecutors will take that into consideration? You know, perhaps cut a deal with him, lighter sentence because of this?

ANNE BREMNER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They probably will. I mean, you think to yourself, what do you have to do to get arrested in this town of Detroit? It's a homicide.

BALDWIN: What happened?

BREMNER: Unbelievable, but it will have, I think, some impact, in terms of charging. If not there, then in terms of a sentence because often in sentencing, you look at whether someone cooperated, whether someone tried to make things right, pay restitution or make somebody whole.

BALDWIN: Do we know? What have Detroit police said? Why did police never show up?

BREMNER: You know, right now, they basically are saying, you know, we should have been there, but we weren't and, apparently in Detroit, there's a lot of other things that they can be doing, other crime.

But the fact of the matter is four hours at the fire station and then getting put into a cab, they're not explaining a lot right now.

But the fact of the matter is, this is somebody that really wanted to cooperate with the police and, just by virtue of turning yourself in, that's a form of confession, too, so they should have jumped on that right away.

BALDWIN: Have you ever heard of something like this happening?

BREMNER: Never and I even got on the Web and looked for it. I thought, you know what? This is so crazy it's got to have maybe somewhere.

But, no, I've never heard of anything, four hours, a cab, a fire station and then being taken to another police station because one of the most important things to police officers in a murder case or any serious case is to get a confession and to get it up front because that's signed, sealed and delivered, in terms of your criminal prosecution.

BALDWIN: Anne Bremner, "On the Case." Anne, thank you. Crazy.

As Democrats take the stage tonight in Charlotte, the man they want to beat is on a stage of a different kind. We will take you live to Vermont where Mitt Romney is rehearsing for his debates against President Obama. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Thursday night will be the third and final night of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, and President Obama is set to deliver his big acceptance speech outdoors, rain or shine.

We talk to just a couple of delegates on the streets of Charlotte today to ask if they will show up if it starts to sprinkle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you kidding me? I mean, getting this president elected, I would stand out in freezing cold snow. Yes, I'll be fine, rain or shine. The makeup will run a little bit. I'll be a little frustrated, but, no, this will be wonderful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, we can weather the storm. What is a little rain going to do for you? Other than you get wet and you're going to dry off. But we're here to have fun, so I won't let the rain stop me. I came too far.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've sat in the rain for a lot less.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, we mentioned this before. Take a look at this. You see that tractor? Mitt Romney left New Hampshire today, traveled by motorcade to neighboring Vermont.

He got hung up, briefly, by said tractor as he made his way down to the town of West Windsor where he is launching debate preparations.

Jim Acosta's live for us right now in Woodstock, Vermont, and, tractors aside here, Romney's first debate, it's still a month away, Jim. I mean, is this considered really kind of getting an early start?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Brooke, a two-minute delay behind a tractor, that's pretty standard by Vermont standards, Brooke.

But, yeah, you're right. It is a month away, less than a month away. October 3rd is the first presidential debate, but it shows you just how important the Romney campaign views these presidential debates that are coming up.

And, so, yes, they are behind closed doors. He's at the house of his former lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, working on this debate prep with Rob Portman, the Ohio senator, playing the role of Barack Obama.

And he has some top advisors with him. Ed Gillespie, the former chair of the RNC, and Stu Stevens, his chief image-maker and strategist there with the Romney campaign.

So, it does go to show you they are looking at these debates as being very key, coming up, Brooke.

BALDWIN: His number two, he hopes will officially be his number two, Paul Ryan got a nice dig today at President Obama. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RYAN, REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When it comes to jobs, President Obama makes the Jimmy Carter years look like good old days.

If we fired Jimmy Carter then, why would we re-hire Barack Obama now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Jim Acosta, you have Romney doing debate prep, Ryan out and about campaigning. Will that be the template for the rest of the week as Democrats are partying it up in Charlotte?

ACOSTA: Well, Brooke, I'll be very surprised if we don't see Mitt Romney sometime out in public saying something over the next several days.

I do know that Ann Romney will be out in Ohio tomorrow. She's going to be doing an event out there, sort of bracketing, I guess you might say, Michelle Obama speech's last night, reminding voters out there that, hey, she had a pretty good speech last week at the Republican convention in Tampa.

But getting back to what Paul Ryan said out on the campaign trail, I think the Romney campaign really sees this as a gift, what happened yesterday on the Sunday talk shows when those Obama campaign advisers were having trouble answering the question, are we better off now than four years ago?

And then President Obama this morning was quoted in "USA Today," giving himself an "incomplete" on the economy. Even though Mitt Romney has not been out in front of the cameras, his campaign has been hard at work, making hay out of those comments, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's right, Republicans seizing on that word, "incomplete."

Jim Acosta, enjoy Vermont.

ACOSTA: That's right.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

CNN, by the way, just heard from the head of the Navy SEALs about that controversial book out today about the Osama bin Laden raid.

Wait until you see the scathing memo he sent out to all SEALs. It's a memo you'll only see it right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: That controversial book detailing the special forces mission that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden, now, as of today, on bookstore shelves.

It's called "No Easy Day," written by former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette under the pen name Mark Owen.

Now, Bissonnette did not send the book to the Pentagon for review prior to publishing. That's a big, big deal and, now, Department of Defense lawyers are considering taking legal action as a result.

So, just this afternoon, CNN exclusively obtained a scathing memo written by the commander of all Navy SEALs about the release of the books.

Let me read some of this for you. This is the note from Rear Admiral Sean Pybus.

It says this. Quote, "As the commander of NSW" - which is short for Naval Special Warfare - "I am disappointed, embarrassed and concerned."

Goes on, "Most of us have always thought that the privilege of working with some of our nation's toughest warriors on challenging missions would be enough to be proud of with no further compensation or celebrity required.

It goes on, "Today, we find former SEALs headlining positions in a presidential campaign, hawking details about a mission against enemy number one and generally selling other aspects of NSW training and operations.

"For an elite force that should be humble and disciplined for life, we are certainly not appearing to be so. We owe our chain of command much better than this," end quote.

Right now, "No Easy Day," the book is number one, selling on Amazon.

When it comes to the economy, debt is on the minds of so many of you, so many Americans, and, as your questions come in to us, we have answers thanks to Poppy Harlow.

Hey, Poppy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Today on the "Help Desk," we're talking about student loans, such a hot-button issue these days, a lot of folks asking me about this.

And joining me this hour to discuss, Donna Rosato and Ryan Mack. Ryan, take a listen at this question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm at 20 grand in student loans and I want to know if the government has any plan to help me out in the future?

HARLOW: This is the big question. Will there be more help or, you know, arguably less help out there in the future?

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Well, I mean, there is the Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act that was passed and, as of July 1st 2010, there's no more middleman between the individuals who are paying -- between the government and individuals who want to get loans directly from the government.

July 1, 2014, your income, in terms of 10 percent income, will be capped on how much you have to pay back towards your loans.

There's additional Pell Grants in the legislation. There's also additional assistance for making sure that -- for additional training for individuals to go on get additional jobs from community colleges.

So, beside all of that, one of the best ways to help yourself is to make sure you're paying your bills on time, consolidating your debt, if possible, and making sure you have an organized plan and a budget to make sure you're making those payments every single month.

DONNA ROSATO, SENIOR WRITER, "MONEY": That's right and I think, a lot of young folks, it's hard because they don't make a lot of money when they come out of school.

So, one thing I do know that, if you have a federal loan, that you can get on a payment that's more adjusted to what your income is and so it stretches out the terms of the loan, but the payments are more manageable, so you have a better shot at credit.

And, now, if you're in certain fields, if you become a teacher or ...

HARLOW: Some forgiveness, right?

ROSATO: That's right. They'll pay some of your principle and that's a positive thing, too.

HARLOW: I think a big concern, though, is with the deficit, with the crisis in this country, you know, are some of those programs going to get cut back?

ROSATO: Yeah, that's a real threat. We don't know.

HARLOW: A big question. We just don't know.

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

If you've got an issue you want our experts to tackle, you can just upload a 30-second video with your question to iReport.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Poppy Harlow, thank you. Coming up next, it almost sounds like a character out of the movies. Once a major player in the world drug trade known for being ruthless, now, the mother of four killed the same way she lived. The godmother of cocaine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You know what I mean when I say the godfather, right? Well, get ready to hear about the godmother of cocaine.

She is Griselda Blanco, a - I should say "was" -- a 69-year-old mother of four, seen here in one of her many, many mug shots.

As of yesterday, she is dead, gunned down by a motorcycle-riding assassin as she stepped out of a butcher shop in Medellin, Colombia.

But this cocaine godmother made her name as a drug kingpin right here in this country in Miami in the '70s and '80s. She is so notorious, in fact, a documentary chronicled her exploits.

Here is just a piece of that. Be warned, the language is rough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The godmother told me I'm the baddest (INAUDIBLE) ever to take a breath of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, here's the thing, you know. This isn't exactly your friendly neighborhood godmother, obviously. The stories of her viciousness made headlines for years and years.

We just had to bring in Raphael Room to bring in some of these. I mean, we've been talking this should be an actual film, just the twists and turns of her life.

So, again, so, she was killed by a motorcycle assassin going into a butcher shop. There's so much irony in there.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Exactly. So much irony because she basically invented that kind of execution in the '70s and '80s when she was powerful in California, then in New York and then in Miami, bringing 3,500 pounds of cocaine every year.

At one point in time, her fortunate was estimated at $1.5 billion.

BALDWIN: At one point in time, she plotted to kidnap JFK, Jr.?

ROMO: That's one of the allegations of one of her associates that appeared in the documentary you just showed people, but apparently, it was just talk and never actually materialized to go to the planning stage.

BALDWIN: Tell me more about her. She avoided the death penalty, right?

ROMO: That's right. She was originally prosecuted for drug trafficking, but then she was tied to three murders in Florida and authorities in Florida and in New York said that at least they could have documented 40 murders and that's still conservative because she might have been behind as many as 200 executions in Miami, in New York and in Irvine, California.

BALDWIN: Including a 2-year-old girl.

Just 30 seconds, why godmother of cocaine? Why that moniker?

ROMO: She basically invented bringing cocaine from South America and into the United States.

BALDWIN: It was this woman?

ROMO: Exactly.

BALDWIN: Wow.

ROMO: Most Americans know of Pablo Escobar.

BALDWIN: Right.

ROMO: Well, she was there before Pablo Escobar and on a much larger scale. Pablo Escobar was stealing cars when she was already trafficking 3,400 pounds of cocaine in the '70s and '80s.

BALDWIN: She had so many enemies. It's amazing she lasted as long as she did.

ROMO: 69-years old and she actually became a grandmother, so it's amazing that, at this point, she dies, but she dies in the same way that she attacked many of her enemies.

BALDWIN: Loved the "Godfather" movies so much, she had a son named Michael Corleone. I mean, the details just keep going and going.

Rafael Romo, thank you.

ROMO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you for that.

And that's it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks so much for being with me. I will see you back here tomorrow.

Let's take you to Charlotte now, day one of the DNC. Wolf Blitzer and your "Situation Room," beginning right now.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Thanks very much.