Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Controversial Romney Tapes; Apple Stock Rising; Female Suicide Bomber Kills Twelve; Severe Weather Alert for East Coast; Mitt Romney Not Wrong Statistically Speaking; Chicago Teachers to Meet with Union

Aired September 18, 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 we continue on, hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

We begin with the big story, Mitt Romney allowing open coverage today at this fund-raising event in Salt Lake, open coverage at a fund-raising event after the public disclosure of what he said last May about American voters at a private fund-raiser in South Florida.

Here is the remark that has all kinds of folks buzzing today. It was Mitt Romney again last May, the clip provided by the left-wing publication "Mother Jones." Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.

All right, there are 47 percent who are with him who dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has the responsibility to care for them, who believe that they're entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.

But that's -- that's an entitlement, and that the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So Mitt Romney said that nearly half the country, 47 percent to be precise, you heard the words he used there, self- described victims, dependents of the state. Here's more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: And so my job is not to worry about those people. I will never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center, that are independents, that are thoughtful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Romney says nearly half the country, again that 47 percent number, is dependent on the state and he won't be able to convince them to take personal responsibility for their own lives. He says, basically, they're not going to vote for him.

CNN's Peter Hamby joins me now from Washington.

Peter, hang with me, because I want to just show two notable reactions here to the Mitt Romney videos. These are both prominent conservatives, number one. Look at this quote with me. Bill Kristol, "Weekly Standard," he wrote in his magazine's blog -- quote -- "Romney seems to have contempt, not just for the Democrats who oppose him, but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him."

I'm sure you read this op-ed, "New York Times," David Brooks, conservative voice, denouncing the secretly taped musing as -- quote, unquote -- "country club fantasy."

Peter Hamby, what are other conservatives saying? Is anyone about to jump ship? And I'm thinking specifically -- we were talking about this today -- you know, the Republican members of Congress who could be in tight races right now might have a tough time defending exactly what their guy had to say.

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, we haven't heard a lot from people in tight races now.

We have heard from two high-profile Republicans who are in competitive Senate and House races. One is Linda McMahon, the Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut. She's running against Democrat Chris Murphy, and that race is essentially tied. She came out today and became sort of the first high-profile Republican to criticize Romney over this saying she doesn't think 47 percent of the country view themselves as victims.

She thinks they would rather get out of that situation in life. She broke with Romney. And secondly is Allen West. He might be familiar to our viewers as a Tea Party figure from the Miami-Dade area, 18th District in Florida, and he also said that Mitt Romney has said, phrased his words, he said they were clumsy.

That's tough coming from Allen West, who has said some pretty inflammatory things over the year. But you touched on Kristol and David Brooks. What you're seeing on the right, right now is sort of two strands of thought here. One is a sort of Beltway conservative elite, like those folks, talking about Romney sort of being arrogant and dismissive and contemptuous of half the country.

But you're seeing a lot of conservatives on the Web, say, hey, Mitt Romney finally said something we believe in. He's talking about what they call a dependency society. And it is about time people spoke bluntly about what Barack Obama is doing to this country. That's coming from more of the grassroots side of things.

I think the problem for the Romney campaign, as much as they like to say they don't care what people inside the Beltway think, guess what, they really do. They really pay attention closely to what Beltway political types are saying about the campaign. It has really gotten under their skin in this campaign, frankly, in a way it hasn't for the Obama campaign in Chicago.

BALDWIN: It got enough under their skin for them to throw this news conference together at 10:00 last night.

So you touched on what the right is saying today, and let me play what the White House is saying today, and this is just a portion from the daily briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney basically trying to draw a distinction between the Romney we see on the tapes and President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: When you're president of the United States, you are president of all the people, not just the people who voted for you. You have heard the president say so many times, because he deeply believes it, that we're in this together, all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Peter, do we have any idea where the Obama campaign plans to take this? Will the president take this issue with, you know, Romney on the campaign trail? I know Vice President Joe Biden is speaking right around now. We're waiting to see if he makes any remarks. What do you think?

HAMBY: Biden said today he thinks the words stand for themselves. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina sent out a fund- raising e-mail about this last night.

The Obama campaign pounced. They clearly see this as an opportunity. If this doesn't show up in a TV ad, it is probably malpractice. The best way you can attack an opponent is to use his own words against him in a television ad.

I have been talking to Republicans in Ohio and Florida this morning who are bracing for just that. The president himself has multiple opportunities to talk about this today. One, he's taping "David Letterman." And be should taping it at any time now. If David Letterman doesn't ask him about this, I would be shocked.

He has also got two fund-raisers in New York. One is at the Waldorf Astoria. Does President Obama really want to talk about wealth disparity at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan? Probably not.

But he also has another fund-raiser at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club with Jay-Z and Beyonce and it might come up there. Reporters are allowed in to view the president's remarks at fund-raisers. President Obama is really, really good at this.

He's very good at slipping in the latest sort of campaign news item into his stump speeches, into his fund-raisers, to really propel the story onward to another day. The minute that maybe the negative news is fading for Romney, Barack Obama is likely to kind of push it forward into the next news cycle, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You would presume they would want to remind the voters every day, all 49 remaining, that Mitt Romney has said this.

Peter Hamby, thank you so much for us in Washington.

Want to take you to Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee, because joining me now is Republican strategist Chip Saltsman. He formerly managed the Mike Huckabee presidential campaign.

Chip, nice to see you.

CHIP SALTSMAN, FORMER MIKE HUCKABEE CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Good to be with you.

BALDWIN: How big a problem is this for Mitt Romney?

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: You laugh.

SALTSMAN: Well, it is not -- you know, well, because it is a problem in itself, but then you tack it on to the last week, and then he's had not only a bad couple of days, he's had a bad couple of weeks.

And the campaign is really not only just kind of stopped. Everybody is now, instead of talking about a very close presidential election, which we're at, they're talking about how Mitt Romney has messed up the campaign and all this kind of stuff.

And really this campaign is completely off message. They haven't been on message in a couple of weeks. They're responding, they're defensive. And we need a little bit of a game changer here to kind of get us right back on message.

BALDWIN: If you were running the Romney campaign, what do you do?

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: And I hear you laughing, and I know Mitt Romney is not laughing about this.

SALTSMAN: Yes. No.

BALDWIN: But what would you do to make this go away?

SALTSMAN: You know, I might say, hey, let's everybody not talk for 24 hours. It seems like they're just kind of talking themselves into problems.

Look, this is a real challenge because you were talking about earlier about how just a few conservatives at the Washington level and a couple of candidates have criticized and kind of moving past this. Well, these kind of things happen in tidal waves.

And first of all, it's a couple of -- it's one or two people and then all of a sudden it's 10 or 12 and then all of a sudden it is the whole caucus who is jumping. They got a real challenge here to right this ship. They got time to do it. That's a good news, is they got 49 days to do it. But they got to...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Can they right this? This is...

SALTSMAN: Stop the bleeding.

BALDWIN: ... a tsunami, if you add up the myriad of issues within the campaign. Can they stop this within the next 49 days?

SALTSMAN: Yes, I mean, I think they can.

But at some point you got to say today it stops. They haven't been able to do it. It has been since the convention, it's been one after the other after the other. And obviously this is a video from several months ago, but still they dropped it, whoever dropped it knew exactly what they were doing. They were kind of seeing the Romney campaign getting back on their feet, so they sent them another jab. Again they're off message yet another day.

BALDWIN: I want to break down, Chip, this 46, 47 percent number that the country -- that Mitt Romney is talking about.

According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, Romney is essentially right when they say they pay no taxes. We have to be specific here because we're saying no income taxes. Look at these numbers with these -- 61 percent of these non-taxpayers actually do pay payroll tax.

That means they have work, so contrary to Romney's maintaining, they are assuming at least some degree, some degree of personal responsibility -- 22, you see the number, 22 percent considered elderly. A lot of those could be retirees who paid taxes before -- 15 percent earn so little that their tax liability is eaten away by deductions.

Here is my question to you, Chip Saltsman, is despite what Mitt Romney says, a lot of those people might have actually been planning to vote for him, no?

SALTSMAN: I think a lot of them were. A lot of them still might. And don't forget they also pay local and state taxes as well through sales taxes and property taxes for the homeowners.

This is -- it is a challenge because the conservative base really does at the federal level feel like almost half the people don't pay taxes. That's an absolute fact. But the problem is when Mitt Romney says it, how he says it builds into a greater narrative that he doesn't care about those, the middle class or the poor, which he clearly does, but he doesn't always have a great way to articulate it.

That builds into the narrative, which is yet another challenge for the campaign. Final question -- I was just talking to Peter Hamby about this -- the other issues, down ballot if you will. If you're a campaign manager for a very tight House race, if you're a campaign manager for a Republican House member, do you encourage him or her to stay mum right now?

SALTSMAN: Right.

Especially in these tossup states, there is a lot of people right now, campaign managers looking at the television saying let's hope this gets better in the next 24 hours, so we don't have to make a decision. My guess is, today, the local newspaper folks aren't asking the candidates what they think about their comments. If the story goes on another day or two, they will ask them and they will have to see some of these guys take stances on it.

BALDWIN: We reached out to six House members in tight races, Republicans, and they're out campaigning today. We would love to talk to them.

SALTSMAN: Unavailable.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Chip Saltsman, thank you so much in Nashville for me.

SALTSMAN: Good. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Severe weather taking aim at the East Coast, with a significant risk for tornadoes in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

BALDWIN: And a lot more unfolding this hour. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: More than 100 inmates are on the run after an escape near the U.S. border. And now there are suspicions this could have been an inside job.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): In a place where women aren't allowed to drive, one steers a van packed with 600 pounds of explosives and launches an attack.

And 70,000 troops still in Afghanistan. CNN breaks down each candidate's position on the war's future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Huge day for Apple, it stock surging to this new high, this coming just one week after the tech giant unveiled its new iPhone 5.

This morning, I heard my producer saying, $700? He's right, topping $700 for the first time ever.

Let's go to Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.

My goodness, another record, you know. Yes, huge excitement, but I have to ask, is Apple at all in danger of rising too fast, ever possibly becoming overvalued?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what? Analysts say not necessarily, that the stock price is going too high too fast.

Many analysts say, you know what? The upcoming earnings that Apple has, that's going to support the momentum that you're seeing despite the fact its share price has been outpacing earnings. Also, its stock relatively speaking, Brooke, isn't all that expensive. Shares are actually trading at 16 times its fiscal 2013 earnings estimates.

But then you look at Amazon and Facebook, they trade at much higher multiples than that. You know what that means? It means the stock has room to run.

BALDWIN: Room to run. So, how high does Wall Street think it can go?

KOSIK: Well, here is what is funny is analysts say, you know what? It is really hard keeping up with these price targets that we have put out there because these targets keep on getting hit.

Look at some of this. Hilliard Lyons is predicting that Apple gets up to $775 a share. There's an $850 figure. There's Topeka that estimating that Apple will get up to $1,111. Not sure when that would happen. But that's what Topeka is saying. If you're a shareholder, you can only hope.

BALDWIN: Lucky, lucky.

Alison Kosik, thank you.

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

BALDWIN: From the economy to war in Afghanistan, a woman, a young woman drives a van loaded with explosives, then, moments later, unleashes a brutal attack.

This comes as the U.S. is making this dramatic move in the fight against insider attacks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Muslim outrage, we're hearing now may intensify tomorrow. This French satirical weekly called "Charlie Hebdo" says it is going to public cartoon drawings of Mohammed.

AFP reports the French prime minister is calling for a sense of responsibility from the publishers, but a reporter at the magazine told CNN -- and I'm quoting here -- "In France, we are allowed to publish anything we want and those who disagree with that can sue us."

That's a direct quote. According to AFP, more than four million Muslims live in France.

And the fury over the mocking of the Prophet Mohammed is reportedly the reason for a bombing that killed 12 people in Kabul, Afghanistan, today. And in a part of the world where most women aren't even allowed to drive, a female bomber crashed a car carrying more than 600 pounds of explosives in this van. None of the victims was American.

But a terrorist group claiming responsibility for the violence blames America for a video that ridicules and mocks Islam's prophet.

And all of this is happening as NATO is restricting some of its operations with Afghan security forces.

Let's go straight to Kabul to CNN's Anna Coren, who is there with us.

And, Anna, first, just to hit this point home, using a woman, a young woman, she was 22, to carry out this attack, that's incredibly rare, is it not?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. It is rare and it's also very frightening. She was actually Kabul's first suicide bomber. There have been other female suicide bombers throughout Afghanistan, but never here in the capital, so really quite frightening, as you say, 22 year old, and in direct response to this anti-Islamic film.

She was driving this car, with 300 kilograms of explosives, 600 pounds, rammed into this minibus, which had eight South Africans on board. And, Brooke, we were there on the scene within about an hour of the explosion. And the engine was at least 100 meters away from where the crater was, from that blast site.

Nearby buildings, the windows were absolutely shattered, just the power of this explosion, but, yes, I mean, women do not drive here in Afghanistan. So the feeling is that perhaps she was allowed to get through the checkpoint without being stopped.

BALDWIN: You mentioned those eight South Africans and you also make the point that this was in direct retaliation to that film, you know, made in the U.S. So, if South Africans were the target -- I don't even know if that were -- if they were in fact the target, but explain that.

COREN: Yes, I know.

It is a little bit confusing, but I think, here, if you are white and you look different, then you must be American. I think that's generally the consensus here. It's certainly what the enemy thinks, certainly what the Taliban thinks. So I'm sure they thought they were targeting Americans and certainly when we first heard the reports, this happened at 6:45 this a.m. this morning. You could hear the blast. We're some five, six kilometers away from it, but certainly the reports were that they were -- that the people who had been killed were Americans, but, as it turned out, they had actually targeted South Africans.

BALDWIN: Wow. Anna Coren for us in Kabul, Anna, thank you very much.

The very first -- as she's reporting, first female suicide bomber in the capital city.

As we mentioned, Chad Myers was up with me a little while ago talking about the severe weather. He has just told me that there is now word of a tornado warning in D.C. inside the Beltway. So we are going to talk to Chad after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Severe weather, we want to talk about this now with Chad Myers, as we have been talking about the significant risk for tornadoes.

Now you're telling me, as you're looking at your radar here on your iPad, so, tornado warning, which, to be specific, that means someone has either spotted a tornado or there's indication on the radar.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Correct.

There is enough rotation on the radar for the Weather Service to pull the trigger. That means that the rotation around Adelphi about two minutes ago was significant enough to pop -- just pop the warning out and say, yes, there could be a tornado on the ground.

The reason why we don't know that there might be a tornado on the ground at this point is that it's raining so hard. These are not like your Texas tornadoes where you see them ten miles away.

They are wrapped inside of a rain shaft. You may not even know until it's on top of your home.

But now it's up towards Beltsville and, eventually, out towards South Laurel. This is where I used to live, just to the west of the BW parkway, right up through -- to Beltsville and to the northeast from there.

Next stop, if it keeps on going, would be Laurel and then Columbia and then maybe up toward Baltimore. That would be a while yet, but that would still be -- you know, this is still good. This warning is going to be for a while.

D.C. has now been cleared, but the Beltway, just outside the Beltway, you're still in the tornado warning.

And I just talked to one of the producers about which one's worse, warning or watch. Nobody understands. Warning is a longer word. It's more important. It's the bad one. Watch, a shorter word, not as bad. We are in the warning. We are in the bad one.

BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": All right, somebody tweeted me. All these people are tweeting from the D.C. area and -- thank you -- and I read your tweets and somebody said, "My goodness, it looks like Armageddon outside."

So ...

MYERS: Power lines are down. Flooding is going on right now, too.

BALDWIN: Yeah. Live pictures of the White House. You can see all the drops on our camera and a picture of the Capitol building. Take it quickly. You can see the flag just flying.

All right, you can see it there as well, just crazy, crazy rain out there. Stay safe.

Chad Myers, keep us posted. We appreciate it.

MYERS: Will do.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much.

I do want to move along to this. Forget the 1 percent. Apparently, all the talk today is about the 47 percent. So where exactly does the 47 percent live? And what impact will they have on this upcoming election?

No one knows it better than CNN's John King. He is standing by live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, once again, the Romney campaign is playing cleanup and, today, the Obama camp wasted no time jumping on that secretly taped video of Mitt Romney where he is talking about nearly half of American voters, dissing them, saying, basically, that they won't be voting for him.

Obama folks posted an ad on the Internet. Let's just take a look at a portion of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... believe that they are victims who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing. You name it.

That's an entitlement and that government should give it to them and they will vote for this president no matter what and, so, my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I actually felt sick to my stomach.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I don't like it.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It shows he's out of touch, he thinks half of the country is -- feeling like victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, that was fast. Mitt Romney held an impromptu news conference, trying to explain himself. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: You know, it's not elegantly stated. Let me put it that way. I'm speaking off the cuff in response to a question and I'm sure I could state it more clearly and in a more effective way than I did in a setting like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Want to bring in John King. Good to see you, sir.

Let's just begin -- let's begin with this and this is, you know, quoting Mitt Romney, his less-than-elegant approach. What's your take?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, my take is this. I actually think he's talking about two different sets of numbers and then he gets a little mumbled and he goes off onto his controversial part about all these people are victims and they're dependent on the government.

Why do I think two sets of numbers? I'm going to show you some charts, Brooke. They mean nothing to you when I hold them up, but these are charts that come from a Republican polling firm they shared with me.

They knew I was going to use these in some on-air presentations a couple of months back, but it's the same polling firm that Mitt Romney's pollster comes from. Neil Newhouse comes from a firm, Public Opinion Strategies.

Now, follow me. When you read these charts, what the firm has said for some time -- they've tried to figure out how in such a tough economy does President Obama maintain a pretty rock-solid coalition, hardly ever drops below 47 percent in a national poll. Why is that?

Remember that 47 percent. That's the first number Governor Romney used.

Well, they go through the math here and they say, African- Americans, he's retained his support. Latinos, he's retained their support. Other minorities, like Asian voters, Native Americans, he's retained his support and college-educated white women. White women college graduates, the president has maintained his support, roughly from 2008.

They add that up and they get 47 percent, so, when Romney was saying the president gets 47 percent almost no matter what, that's actually true. That's what his pollsters have told him.

Then he went off to the 48, 49 percent, presumably talking about the percentage of Americans who don't have to pay income taxes at the end of the year, but sweeping generalizations are always a path into political quicksand, Brooke.

So, if you're saying all of the president's voters, all of them -- that's what he's saying if you listen closely, don't pay taxes. He won 95 percent of the African-American vote, 66 percent of the Latino vote, 52 percent of college-educated white women. To say none of them pay taxes, all of them are victims, that's why he's got some explaining to do.

BALDWIN: And, just to take it a step farther, when you look at this 47 percent, part of that, of course, could be, you know, elderly right now. Right now, maybe not paying, but take a look at this new Gallup polls because these are folks, John King, that very much so could have been voting for him, come November 6th.

You look at the Gallup poll, asking voters over the age of 65 their choice for president, Romney leads the poll. You see the numbers, 52 percent to 43 percent. If the poll is taken, let's say tomorrow, you know, on down the line, you think because of this those numbers will change?

KING: Well, I do think they could change. Now, the seniors also voted for John McCain. The senior vote has been trending Republican for some time.

However, if you're President Obama, you're exactly right. They're going to go into these elderly communities and say, Governor Romney says you're a dependent, that you're a victim, that you want to freeload on the government.

They're going to go to the veterans who might come home and need care from the V.A., might need vital medical treatment. They're going to people, Brooke, who are maybe on food stamps because they got laid off, not because they feel entitled, not because they want something from the government, because you have a family trying to feed their children while they're hoping to get another job.

The president now can use these words. Now, again, Governor Romney's going to have to explain them and ...

BALDWIN: How does he explain them? Let's be specific because I know he's, you know, doing this interview in about 20 minutes. What does he say? How does he prevent this from having a lasting impact on November 6th?

KING: Well, he has two choices. Some conservatives at the grassroots-level say double-down, Governor, and have a debate about government dependency. Some conservatives want him to do that.

Other Republican strategists are saying, oh, my god, please make this go away, because they're starting to see some evidence, not just this controversy because it's just happened, but they're starting to see some evidence that Governor Romney is starting to hurt other Republicans down ticket and they want to get him back up on his feet.

Governor Romney has a choice, does he say it was stupid, I didn't mean it and explain himself or does he say, it was not so elegant, but then essentially double-down on it.

That's a tough choice when you're in a campaign like this because, look, it is still a very, very, very close election. However, if you look at the course of the past ten days, it is moving almost by the day more in the president's favor.

BALDWIN: John King, thank you very much, from Washington for us. Stay dry there, will you?

Less than two months before the presidential election, we're to give you a closer look at the big, big issues. That's ahead. Both sides weighing in on the future of Afghanistan and the U.S. military involvement there.

Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: NATO is stopping, at least for now, some of the operations in Afghanistan its troops are doing with Afghan security forces.

It's reaction to the violence against the U.S. for that video that insults the Prophet Mohammed and to a series of assaults by Afghan security forces on the NATO troops training them, what are so- called "green-on-blue" attacks.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the insider attacks are a sign of the Taliban's desperation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It is kind of a last-gasp effort to be able to not only target our forces, but to try to create chaos because they've been unable to regain any of the territory that they have lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, all of this highlights the tough road ahead in Afghanistan for the man who will be in the Oval Office next year and, to help you decide who exactly it should be, CNN is going in depth on the issue of Afghanistan, detailing the position of President Obama and Mitt Romney each take on America's longest war.

Here now is Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Seventy-thousand American troops are still fighting in Afghanistan, but will election day affect them one way or the other? We see two candidates moving closer and closer to the point where there's not much space between them.

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our goal should be to complete a successful transition to Afghan security forces by the end of 2014.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Next year, Afghans will take the lead for their own security. In 2014, the transition will be complete.

LAWRENCE: There were real differences at the beginning of Governor Romney's campaign last summer when he seemed to criticize President Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

ROMNEY: It's time for us to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can.

I also think we've learned that our troops shouldn't go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation.

LAWRENCE: But the governor's position evolved. By November, he opposed any plan to bring most of the troops home before 2014.

ROMNEY: I stand with the commanders in this regard and have no information that suggests that pulling our troops out faster than that would do anything but put at great peril the extraordinary sacrifice that's been made. This is not time for America to cut-and-run.

LAWRENCE: Whomever sits in the Oval Office will have to decide how the U.S. hands over to the Afghans, and that's where we see the biggest difference, when it comes to talking with the Taliban.

OBAMA: We're pursuing a negotiated peace. In coordination with the Afghan government, my administration has been in direct discussions with the Taliban.

LAWRENCE: While President Obama makes a distinction between Taliban and al Qaeda, Governor Romney says he won't haggle with a group that has killed American troops.

ROMNEY: We don't negotiate with terrorists. I do not negotiate with the Taliban. That's something for the afghans to decide how they're going to pursue their course in the future.

LAWRENCE: So there's negotiation versus no-negotiation with the Taliban.

President Obama announced an end-date, years in advance. Governor Romney opposed publicizing that date.

The president ended the surge this month during the fighting season. The governor would have kept additional troops there through December.

Analysts say neither man has spent much time talking about the war, but Mark Jacobson says that's partly because the big strategic issues like the surge and handover have been pretty much decided.

MARK JACOBSON, GERMAN MARSHALL FUND: What we're looking at now is execution of this strategy and that doesn't require the same sort of political capital and time from Washington, D.C., that was required two years ago.

LAWRENCE: The two men don't exactly agree on how the fighting affects the nation's finances.

OBAMA: Because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over $1 trillion, it's time to do some nation building right here at home.

ROMNEY: Of course, the return of our troops cannot and must not be used as an excuse to hollow out our military through devastating defense budget cuts.

LAWRENCE: So the biggest difference on Afghanistan may be how to spend the money when the war is over. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Chris Lawrence, thank you.

Coming up, a lot of talk about Mitt Romney's comments about taxes and Obama supporters. There is a certain something he mentioned in the speech that we have yet to get clarification on, that being what he said about Hispanics.

Will his remarks impact the Republicans' efforts to attract more Latino voters? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Mitt Romney's remarks about Americans who are dependent on government have stolen the spotlight, but he's also seen and heard on that video talking about Hispanics, specifically Ana Navarro is with me, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist.

Ana, good to see you. Welcome.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Before we talk, I want to play a little of this tape, this is the Romney remarks. Then we'll talk about them. This is when he's talking about his father.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Had he been born of Mexican parents, I have a better shot at winning this, but he was, unfortunately, born to Americans living in Mexico and lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be help to be Latino.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Ana, what do you make of this? Do those remarks offend you at all?

NAVARRO: You know, they don't, Brooke. Yesterday when I first heard of this and I saw -- I read he'd made a Latino joke. I tell you, I cringed.

And I went and I saw the video and I read the transcript and I did not take offense to it.

There are many Latinos who are taking offense to it. I'm getting a lot of Twitter feedback and social media feedback telling me that.

I think it may be the context that bothers folks. Interestingly enough, back in January in Miami during the Florida primary, he said basically the same exact thing on an interview and he said it in front of a Hispanic audience and that audience clapped.

So, I'd almost say I think we're responsible in Miami for encouraging his --

BALDWIN: We'll have to pull that interview. I'm curious, do you think he was just acknowledging that Hispanics are a growing force in politics? You have Marco Rubio there in Florida. And Julian Castro. Is that how you see it, potentially?

NAVARRO: No.

BALDWIN: No?

NAVARRO: I think what happened was probably -- no. I don't. I think what happened probably was somebody asked him a question. Brooke, I've been to enough Republican and Democrat fundraisers where I can tell you some odd questions come out at very high level donors. And, you know, things get said. And I think he was just acknowledging what's his family history, his father's heritage.

BALDWIN: But, Ana, I have to press you on that and say many people I think are offended because he's basically inferring had his parents been Mexican, his chances for becoming the next president would have been much, much greater had he been minority and attract more minority voters in the country. And that's offensive to some folks.

NAVARRO: That's offensive to some folks. It's not offensive to others.

As I told you, Brooke, he said the exact same thing on Univision. Didn't have an issue with it. Smirked somewhat. More offensive to some than others.

I think he might be right. I don't have a problem with somebody telling me he wishes he were Latino. I'd have a problem if he said he'd glass he's not Latino.

Now, I'll tell you, at the same time, I think that if he were Latino, it would be helpful. It was helpful to Brian Sandoval, the governor of Nevada. It was helpful to Susana Martinez. It would be helpful to Romney if he could speak to the culture and the language.

I don't take it as offensive. I can see where others do. As I said to you, I think it's probably the fact that he's kind of using it as country club humor in front of, you know, a bunch of rich white people having dinner and chuckles at it. That makes it more offensive to some folks.

BALDWIN: Yes. Go ahead.

NAVARRO: My advice to Romney is clarify that you didn't mean any offense, remind folks that you'd said this in public and, for the love of God, Mitt, do not try to be funny.

You are not funny. We're not going to vote for you because you're funny. We're going to vote for you because you're qualified.

BALDWIN: Who knows, if there's a mea culpa -- who knows if that will fall on deaf ears on Americans or not. Ana, good to see you. Thank you very much.

NAVARRO: Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Any minute folks representing the teachers' union in Chicago are getting ready to meet. A judge is hearing the case tomorrow. We're going live to Chicago, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In mere minutes teachers union delegates will be meeting to talk about a possible settlement in the Chicago teachers strike. Seven days here these students are out of school as 26,000 teachers are out of the classroom right there on the picket lines.

Let's go to Ted Rowlands. He's been all over this outside where that meeting is set to start. What happens next?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now thousands of families, Brooke, in Chicago have their fingers crossed that the teachers will vote in the next few minutes here to end the strike so their kids can get back into school tomorrow morning.

I talked to Karen Lewis, head of the teachers union, a few hours ago and ask her point-blank, is this the end? What's your gut?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN LEWIS, PRESIDENT, CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION: I don't know. From what I'm hearing, people are ready to go back to work and feel more comfortable about that, so we're hoping that's what will happen.

ROWLANDS: And from your perspective this is a good deal?

LEWIS: Well, it's a deal. It's the deal we have. I don't like overselling things because then it's like, oh, you promised and you said, so let's keep expectations where they need to be.

ROWLANDS: But you're satisfied?

LEWIS: I think it's the best deal we could get at this moment in time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: 800 delegates, Brooke, they're gathering now. They'll discuss this for a while. Then they will vote to either continue or end the strike. Kids could be back in school tomorrow morning.

BALDWIN: So, to be clear, 30 seconds, Ted, if they agree with those fingers crossed, if they agree to end the strike today, class is back on tomorrow?

ROWLANDS: Absolutely. And if they don't agree, then it's back to the drawing board. They figure out what it is they need to go back and talk about and they'll do that, meaning kids will not be back and parents will not be happy.

BALDWIN: OK, Ted Rowlands for us in Chicago. We'll be watching as that develops over the course of the next hour. Ted Rowlands, thank you very much

And thank you, as always, for watching. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in Atlanta at the CNN World Headquarters.

Let's go to Washington where we have Joe Johns sitting in for Wolf Blitzer on this Tuesday. Joe Johns, to you.

JOE JOHNS, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Happening now, more secretly recorded video surfaces of Mitt Romney talking candidly with donors. Find out what's in the latest release.

>