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President Obama's Poll Numbers Rising; Hillary Clinton on Capitol Hill

Aired September 20, 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: Here we are. Top of the hour. Take a look at this.

And welcome back. Hour two here in the CNN NEWSROOM as we are watching, as we mentioned, this live -- we're watching some pictures, these certainly are not live, but we're watching Endeavour and as soon as we begin to see it head toward Los Angeles and head toward Edwards Air Force Base, we will bring those pictures to you live. Chad Myers will join me once again.

But we want to get to politics.

Politics, politics, politics here. A short time ago, Florida's the big story today. A short time ago, President Obama arrived in Florida, Miami. Here he is. Miami, to be precise. Mitt Romney got there yesterday. He is still in Florida today.

And you have heard us say it before. When you look at the map of the 50 states, Florida with its 29 electoral votes, is crucial to Romney's hopes for election. Look at the numbers here, Florida 29 electoral votes. Today, this is the poll that shows the president leading Romney in Florida by 5 percentage points.

This is a FOX News poll. This same poll shows a seven-point Obama lead in Virginia. That is as you know another huge electoral state that's being considered a tossup this year but may be right now looks like tipping toward the president.

Also this, perhaps is the biggest news of all. President Obama with the seven-point lead in Ohio.

CNN's Peter Hamby with me now live in Washington.

Let's start with that. Let's start with Ohio. Because, you know, we say it and say it again how key, you know, Florida is to Romney but Ohio's right up there, too. The poll in Ohio, how ominous is it for Mitt Romney?

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, NBC had a similar poll a couple of weeks ago -- or a week ago, rather, that showed Obama beating Romney by seven points.

A lot of Republicans said that margin is actually bigger than it is, we think Romney is losing, but it is not seven points. Well, this sort of reinforces that. It's a big problem and looking at the unfavorable numbers for Romney, they're not good. He's underwater -- 45 percent view Romney favorably in Ohio, 50 percent view him unfavorably. The president at 55-42. He's way beyond where Romney is there.

It's a big problem. No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio. I think you are right, though, Brooke. Florida is a much more important state here because if Romney loses Florida it is essentially over. The only thing Obama has to do then is pick up another smaller state and he will win reelection, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I will let you put your earpiece in there. Can you hear me? Give me a thumbs up?

HAMBY: Yes, no. I hear you.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You know as they push ahead, we have noticed today the Romney campaign is trying to patch some wounds on the fly. Here's Romney. This is from last night.

And I want you to just -- all of us let's just count how many times he says he's behind the country 100 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a campaign about the 100 percent. My campaign is about the 100 percent in America. I know that I'm not going to get 100 percent of the vote. I have demonstrated my capacity to help the 100 percent. Because I care about the 100 percent. People in America will have a better future if they elect me the next president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hmm. What do you think of that?

HAMBY: What was that number again, 100 percent?

BALDWIN: Well, 100 percent, 100 percent.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: It seems to be that Romney trying to erase the memory of the remarks we heard in the secretly taped video, the 47 percent, his word victims, dependent on the government. You have another one for us, some damage control on Medicare.

HAMBY: Yes. That's right.

I mean, Romney first of all he has to sort of figure out a message after that video. He's been forced in to it. But also on the Medicare question, this is actually really interesting today. Brooke, the Romney campaign went up with an ad in Florida on Medicare and look who they're using to push their message on Medicare in Florida. Look at this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan get it. Medicare's going broke. That's not politics. It's math. Anyone who wants to leave Medicare like it is, is for letting it go bankrupt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMBY: That is none other than Florida Senator Marco Rubio and that ad is running in the Miami market only in Florida but it is interesting that not Mitt Romney, not Paul Ryan. They're using Marco Rubio as their messenger.

That looks a lot like the Senate ads that Marco ran during his 2010 Senate race. And in fact his ad maker made that Romney ad. So, you know, it's another -- it calls attention again to the fact that Romney might be a flawed messenger in a lot of ways and sort of had to enlist other Republicans to get the message out, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I'm sure you read the article this morning about more Mitt, right, that the campaign tweaking the message, tweaking the strategy, apparently having Romney do fewer closed-door events, more public rallies in which he's talking to you the Americans beginning with the bus tour in Ohio next week. Talk about what he might be -- what he's hoping to do there.

HAMBY: Well, they have to get out more on the -- first of all, what they're doing is they're actually listening to a lot of the Republicans who have been chiming in for months and months saying change your message, change your message.

They have been doing this for basically all of Romney's campaign and he's been doing more fund-raisers than public events and they will blitz Ohio, him and Paul Ryan, next week. I talked to one elected official in Ohio this morning and I said what's Romney have to do in Ohio, and, Brooke, he said everyone he talks to in Ohio just says when you ask them what's Romney going to do as president, no one can give them a straight answer.

And he was saying that Romney needs to really refine his message and he said he needs to be more aggressive. He actually said he should be like the old Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes and have some fire in the belly and really just get out there and give a full- throated kind of aggressive statement about where he stands and really go after Barack Obama. He shouldn't be like Woody Hayes too much, though, but we all know that Woody Hayes got canned after he punched a player in the face.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I didn't know where you were going with that, Hamby.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Peter Hamby, in Washington, we will be watching Mitt Romney in Ohio next week, he and Paul Ryan. Thank you so much for us in Washington.

And we are just getting this hour started. A lot more for you, including this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Critics have been mostly silent over the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, but today Hillary Clinton heads to Capitol Hill to answer some tough questions. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): A grieving father shares a heartbreaking story. What happened to the Afghan trainee who gunned down his son?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Afghani police officer that murdered my son, I found out last week was released. He's nowhere to be found.

BALDWIN: We're calling to get answers on what happens after these green-on-blue insider attacks.

Mexican prisoners crawl through a tunnel to freedom, but none of it was true, the reality much more revealing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Right now in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is speaking with members of both the House and the Senate about what exactly happened in the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi some nine days ago.

The director of the National Counterterrorism Center confirms that terrorists killed these four Americans, among them, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

Now an unnamed source tells CNN that Stevens feared he was on an al Qaeda hit list. That source went on to tell us that Stevens worried about what he called never-ending security threats in Benghazi and specifically spoke about the growing presence of al Qaeda in Libya.

But the U.S. counterterrorism director says it's still not clear if the killings were planned or if terrorists seized upon an opportunity that all those furious protesters over the anti-Muslim video opened up. The ranking member of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee says whatever the case, security should have been much, much tighter for the ambassador.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I'm just stunned and appalled that there wasn't better security for all of the American personnel at that consulate, given the high threat environment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is there for me in the Capitol.

We know, Dana, that is a closed-door briefing, but what do we anticipate as far as Q&A? What does the secretary of state plan to say?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I should tell you the secretary of state is now in this briefing. It's with all members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, first the House and then in an hour it will be with the Senate.

What she says that she's going to do is bring people from all walks of the administration who can give information to members about exactly what happened, what led up to it and what they're doing now. Listen to what the secretary herself said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Now, I anticipate that this briefing will cover our security posture before and during the events and the steps we have taken since to do everything we can with host governments to protect our people and our embassies and consulate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, you played, Brooke, some comments from the Republican ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee in the Senate saying that she's just flabbergasted that there wasn't adequate security potentially at this consulate in Benghazi.

She is not alone and it's not just the Republican side. I have been talking to some Democratic lawmakers as they have been filing in to this classified briefing behind me and they say they have the same questions, and other questions that they have -- really maybe the key question right now -- which is was this a planned attack or was it as the secretary and others said at least in the days afterwards that it was the work of a mob and it was because of that video?

BALDWIN: But, to take it a step further and that's one of the questions, but we heard Senator Collins. She absolutely thinks this attack was planned. My question to you is, are any lawmakers on either side of the aisle at all holding Secretary Clinton accountable?

BASH: You know, she is a pretty popular figure up here.

I think a lot of it will depend on how candid they think she is in the briefings. Again, she will not be alone. She's coming with reinforcements and then some. She's coming with the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs, with experts from the FBI, also from the State Department, from all over to try to give a more broad explanation to these members.

So, I think a lot of it will depend on that. Having said that, Brooke, I think I have talked to you in front of several of these closed-door meetings after various events that have gone on globally and we have talked about this before, that these members of the administration, especially Hillary Clinton, who was a senator, they know when they talk to all members that even though it's a classified session they want to be careful about the information they give because it tends to come out to people like you and me.

BALDWIN: And we report that information sometimes when it's on the record, Dana Bash.

One more for you, because CNN's been reporting that the ambassador believed he was on a hit list, specifically an al Qaeda hit list. Do we know was Secretary Clinton at all aware of that?

BASH: She herself was asked about that at a press conference just before she came over here to the Hill and her answer was, I have absolutely no information or reason to believe there is any basis for that.

But you can bet that she's going to be pressed on that inside these briefings because a lot of lawmakers are saying that they're frustrated they're not getting enough information from the administration.

In fact, they're getting a lot of their information from news outlets, especially CNN and our fabulous reporting from Arwa Damon and her team over there.

BALDWIN: Yes. As soon as you hear anything else, Dana Bash, let us know. Thank you so much for us on Capitol Hill.

BASH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And now to some disappointing new numbers out today on the number of Americans getting unemployment benefits. We will tell you how the markets are reacting to that news.

Plus, you have Target, also Kohl's, two stores getting ready to staff up for the holidays, but you may be surprised to hear one is actually higher fewer workers than last year. We will tell you about that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: New concerns today about the job market after the Labor Department reported this morning that 382,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week. That is down 3,000 from the week before.

But analysts expected the line to benefits to be shorter by several thousand people.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

BALDWIN: Coming up: Libya mourning today, as funeral services were held for the four Americans killed in Benghazi during the anti- American protests last week.

Also, dramatic police video dash-cam as this truck smashes into a patrol car, officer running to protect a woman. We will show you how this video ends next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This just in to us here.

A federal jury in Ohio has found an Amish man guilty of orchestrating the hate crime of cutting the beards of Amish men and the hair of Amish women. Jurors also found some followers of convicted man, Samuel Mullet Sr., guilty of carrying out the attacks.

To the Amish, the beard is a symbol of faith and it's a symbol of manhood. Mullet could get 20 years in prison. This is according to our affiliate there WOIO.

Just hours ago, the nation of Libya paused to recognize the lives of these four Americans who were killed in Benghazi back on September 11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our blood is spilt for the sake of our country. And your blood has been spilt for our cause. Welcome to you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Libya's prime minister attended a memorial that honored the men killed, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service officer Sean Smith and security officers Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. The program there began with Libya's national anthem, followed by the American anthem.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns was also there to pay tribute to those victims.

Dash-cam video shows exactly how far one policeman went to save this woman. It happened so fast. I want you to watch very closely. The officer actually behind the car in this clip, we will roll it. You have this 23-year-old officer pulls this woman out of the path of his out-of-control squad car. Wait for it as it comes up right there.

This is Texas. A reported drunk driver hit Officer Philip Standefer's patrol unit. Here it is again, careening around, sending it towards this woman who by the way does get away. You see him running out of there. She gets away with just cuts and bruises. The officer was seriously hurt, but we're told he is going to be OK.

And space shuttle Endeavour . We are on space shuttle Endeavour watch, if you will, as it's making its way to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, where it will ultimately be retired, have a new life at a museum.

This is tape just a little while ago as it was passing over Tucson, Arizona, on its way to Edwards.

And Chad Myers here on the ticktock. When should we see live pictures of Endeavour.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Moments, honestly.

They're on the flight line right now out at Dryden. So we're talking about Edwards Air Force Base. That's earlier from Tucson. It's going to look just the same. Hasn't changed any.

We were just talking in the weather office wouldn't it be great if they just left it attached and sold rides in the shuttle?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Wait, wait, wait.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: Left it attached and then, yes, you could climb into the shuttle and then it would fly around with you in the shuttle.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: In our dreams.

MYERS: You could pay for the entire NASA program just by charging pictures.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: These are live pictures, Michael? Is that what you told me?

Aha. Here we are. There she is. This is the space shuttle Endeavour. Here's the deal. This is sort of the penultimate flight. Right? Because you have today. It lands at Edwards and then tomorrow it will cruise up California and to Northern California then ultimately lands at LAX. And then what?

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: And then they have made way for this thing to go through the streets and all the way over to the science museum. And people are going to be able to just walk right up to it.

Even when you're at Kennedy -- and you were there with me for the last shuttle...

BALDWIN: Yes. That's where Atlantis is retiring, where we were.

MYERS: Exactly. They had a fake one there and people were enamored with the fake one, not even a good mockup. Really, it wasn't, where we were standing.

Now they have the real one there. To have a real one in California will be really phenomenal, Edwards Air Force Base, a big unit. This is not L.A. They're not landing in L.A. If you're in the L.A. Basin, don't go look for it. You have to be Victorville and on the other side of the mountains before you are going to be able to see this, but you will get your chance tomorrow.

It's going to fly from Edwards all the way to Sacramento, fly over the capital, across into San Francisco, down the coast,take the PCH all the way south into LAX.

BALDWIN: Can you imagine driving on the PCH and looking up and seeing this?

MYERS: I would love to. Let's go.

BALDWIN: That would be so great. That would be so great.

And then finally, the big moment will be October 12. And that's when I'm sure we will be live and see everyone up and down the streets.

So, we will stay with the picture. Shall we move on? Do we have an ETA? Let's go ahead and move on. But as soon as we start to see the Endeavour landing at Edwards -- we love these pretty pictures of the space shuttle -- we will bring it back to you.

Chad Myers, thank you for now.

MYERS: Fair enough.

BALDWIN: To this. To this. Here we go.

Baby boomers, they're aging -- they're aging like no generation before them. And if you need proof, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce, crowd surfing last night as he opened a three-night stand on his home turf, Jersey, folks. This is New Jersey, just days before his -- wait for it -- 63rd birthday. That is this Sunday.

Happy birthday, boss. Here's a little "Hungry Heart."

I've never seen him live. I know, I know. I'm missing out.

Every day, ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. We call them our CNN Heroes and coming up after the break, I'll profile a couple of them for you and show you how you can now vote, as of today. Cast your ballots for this year's 2012 Hero of the Year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK, admittedly, this is kind of a big deal for us here at CNN today because every year we receive thousands of CNN Hero nominations from folks just like you, viewers all around the world.

And, so, we've introduced you to an extraordinary individual every week and today we have now revealed our top ten CNN Heroes for the year of 2012.

So, each of them get $50,000 to further their work and they also get a shot at the top honor, CNN Hero of the Year, which will earn one of them an additional $250,000 and then, the best part is, you get to help. You get to help decide who that person will be.

So, I'm going to do a little run-through, if you will. The is CNNHeroes.com. You can hop on this website. So, I just want to walk through. Again, CNNHeroes.com.

So, if we scroll up just a little bit, we have all these different thumbnails of the 2012 top ten CNN Heroes. So, for example, let's say I want to touch on Razia Jan. Here's just one of the heroes, so you can read more about. I'm just random selecting. Randomly selecting, no bias here from me.

But you can read about how she's trying to educate young girls in rural Afghanistan and then the same kind of information will come up if you click on any of the top ten CNN Heroes.

So then, once you've, you know, read about them and there are videos, you then can select the person who inspires you the most. So then you click on, boom, "Vote Now," right here. You click on "Vote Now" and then what you do is all the people pop up, right?

So, let's just say we want to pick Leo McCarthy. We want to pick Leo McCarthy as our CNN Hero of the Year. You click on Leo McCarthy and, once you do that, his picture actually pops up and there's a section, if you kind of -- I don't know if we hit the "Vote Now" for Leo McCarthy, but there's a section that pops up where you see his face under your selection where it's the question mark. His face will actually pop up there.

Then what you do is you enter your e-mail address. You enter the security code here and then you click on the red box. Basically, that is officially the way you're casting your vote.

The cool part -- there you go, red box. The cool part is you can actually vote up to ten times every day with your e-mail address or you can actually do it -- you see here. Log in through Facebook. You can do it on Facebook.

Get your friends, you know, excited about this. Share your choice of who you've have chosen as the 2012 Hero of the Year, Facebook or Twitter.

And remember, you can vote from your computer. You can be mobile from your phone, from your tablet, pretty much any device with some sort of browser.

Again, this website is CNNHeroes.com and then we officially, here at CNN, reveal our Hero of the Year. That is December 2nd. Set your DVR now, December 2nd, during CNN Heroes All-Star Tribute in a CNN tradition that really truly -- with all of these people how could it not -- promises to inspire.

Coming up, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seems every president has tried to solve it. So, what would President Obama or Mitt Romney do over the next four years when it comes to that precise topic? We take an in-depth look at that issue, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, here she is. Let's just pull up the live pictures. This is the Space Shuttle Endeavour coming upon Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

We have been talking about this space shuttle. We saw her take off -- what was that Chad, two days ago? Two days ago.

She has made a couple fly-bys across the country, most recently, Tucson, and now she will be landing in Edwards.

But this is not -- I know we're excited, perhaps I'm always excited, talking about all things space, but I realize that this is not the final stop.

So, again, Endeavour lands today then takes off tomorrow morning, will head up the California coast, as we mentioned. If you're on the PCH, you know, keep your eyes on the road, but look up if you see it.

And then, ultimately, lands at LAX and then the big moment for a lot of folks in L.A. will come October 12th when the space shuttle with wings and the whole deal comes traversing through, of all places, Los Angeles on those roads and final home, California Science Museum.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Now, this was an amazing ship, 25 flights to space, 123 million miles, 299 days in the air in space and, it replaced with, basically, other parts, Columbia.

When Columbia came apart, we were down a shuttle. They found other parts. Rather than building something from scratch, they went back to the junkyard, basically, and they said, oh, we've got this, oh, we've got this, we've got this, let's make a shuttle and they did.

And they built it for $2.2 billion-something and they said that when they built it, they didn't -- the companies that were building it didn't make a penny.

BALDWIN: Now, look at that other plane on the other side of that.

MYERS: That's the plane that we're getting the other video from.

BALDWIN: So, that's how we're seeing the shuttle live through the skies. Thanks to those planes.

I thought it was interesting. We were talking about a pilot who had flown a number of these modified 747s with the space shuttle, piggy-backed on top, and he said, you know, it's a little top heavy.

He said that you can only go, what, 15,000 feet in the air approximately?

MYERS: Yeah, you can't get it wet and you can't go below nine degrees -- negative nine degrees Celsius. You can't get it that cold.

It's not going to go into space anymore, so maybe some of those thresholds are different right now, but they didn't fly -- I watched the entire flight and it didn't go above about 13,000 feet at any time.

And you know if you're in plane, you see the little temperature gauge on the outside of the plane when you're flying Delta or United and whatever that shows you the temp. It's 60 degrees below zero, so they can't go that high.

BALDWIN: Yeah, makes sense.

We're going to keep our eye on this, but I think we still have a couple more minutes before this thing lands at Edwards, so we're going to pause, go away from this for just a moment, but I can guarantee you we will show you that landing in Southern California so, Chad, don't go too far.

But we want to move along here and talk about this big issue, as we are looking ahead to November 6th, and one issue is Israel, Palestinians.

It's a very tenuous, fragile relationship and CNN is going in- depth one what each presidential candidate says about future prospects for peace talks.

We have heard strong rhetoric from Mitt Romney, also from President Obama. Here is CNN's lead political anchor, Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In addresses that largely focused on domestic concerns, one country, in particular, was singled out by both candidates in their convention speeches.

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Our commitment to Israel's security must not waver.

BLITZER: President Obama came to office determined to make Middle East peace a central tenant of his foreign policy, even if it meant exerting what some of the advisers described as tough love on Israel.

He took a harder line on Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

OBAMA: In my conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I was very clear about the need to stop settlements, to make sure that we are stopping the building of outposts.

BLITZER: That angered many Israelis, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And early trips to Turkey and Egypt with high-profile addresses to the Arab and Muslim world without a stop in Israel further exacerbated that relationship.

The push for Middle East peace has been stuck ever since. And that rocky personal relationship with Netanyahu was further underlined during a tense Oval Office meeting in May 2011 when the prime minister seemed to be lecturing the president.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL: Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace. It cannot go back to the 1967 lines because these lines are in indefensible.

BLITZER: Still, at least in public, they seem to have moved on.

OBAMA: As I've said to the prime minister in every single one of our meetings, the United States will always have Israel's back when it comes to Israel's security.

BLITZER: On some of the most sensitive issues, Obama and Romney seem to agree, at least when it comes to the big picture -- Jerusalem is Israel's capital; a final agreement should include what's called a two-state solution, Israel living alongside Palestine; and Iran must be stopped from building a nuclear bomb.

But there are differences when it comes to specific details on how to achieve those goals.

Romney charges that President Obama hasn't been a strong enough ally to Israel in opposing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

ROMNEY: Israel doesn't need public lectures about how to weigh decisions of war and peace. It needs our support.

If I'm president of the United States, my first trip, my first foreign trip, will be to Israel to show the world we care about that country.

BLITZER: And he underscored that during his July visit to Jerusalem.

ROMNEY: The Palestinians are going to say ...

BLITZER: In a recently revealed tape from a closed fundraiser back in May, Romney said Israel didn't have a strong Palestinian partner.

ROMNEY: I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel and these thorny issues and I say, there's no way.

BLITZER: But Romney declared his support for a two-state solution during an interview I did with him during his recent trip to Israel.

ROMNEY: The decision as to where the borders would be, as we move to a two-state solution, which I support, that's a decision on borders that will be worked out by the Israelis and the Palestinians. BLITZER: Romney says Obama has rebuffed Israel's security concerns.

However, the Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak told me in July the relationship with the United States is solid.

EHUD BARACK, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: I should tell you, honestly, that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past.

BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Coming up next, an interview that not only deeply affected me, but I know a lot of you who were watching.

I spoke with a father of a 21-year-old Marine killed in an attack in Afghanistan who, over the phone with his dad, basically predicted his own death.

He talked to me about what happened to the Afghan shooter who killed his son and an update, some questions we have about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, here she is, landing gear officially down, Space Shuttle Endeavour on top of one of these modified 747s, piggy- backing, as we watch it land at Edwards Air Force Base.

So, the fun part, as I'm sitting here reading the "Los Angeles Times" as I'm talking to you as they're reporting on this for tomorrow, if you are in the San Francisco area, because the shuttle is going to do a fly-by up there.

They have not officially released specific places where you should be at certain times tomorrow. I presume they will.

But "The Los Angeles Times" is reporting, you know, Golden Gate Bridge, Exploratorium, Monterrey Bay Aquarium, Ames Moffett Field. These are all areas, potentially, where you should look up tomorrow as it makes that final voyage back home to Los Angeles.

But here she is. Let's just watch this together.

Touchdown. Maybe I'm the only one here, I just -- I find this fascinating. It gives me goose bumps. It's bittersweet, as that pilot was just telling us, Chad, that former NASA pilot.

What do you think when you watch this?

MYERS: Well, you know, this Endeavour didn't have very good luck landing at Kennedy all the time, so this is a pretty normal place for it. Out of the 25 flights that this thing had into space, it had to come down seven times at Edwards because the weather wasn't good enough to get it to Florida. So, a pretty good local place there. It knows it's way around here.

BALDWIN: Final note, NASA.gov, here's some trivia for you at dinnertime. Endeavour is named after the first ship commanded by 18th-century, British explorer, James Cook.

Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I interview a lot of people on this show and, every so often, one of those interviews resonates not just with me, but with you. That was the case yesterday.

I invited this man to come on, a father who lost his 21-year-old son, a Marine in Afghanistan. Only he didn't die in battle. He died on base in what's known as a "green-on-blue," insider attack killed by an Afghan supposed to be an ally.

It was this Marine's story told through this grieving father that brought many of you, including myself, to tears.

And, in case you missed it, we wanted to replay a portion and let you know I'm not letting this go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG BUCKLEY, SR., FATHER OF MURDERED MARINE: And it's just heart-wrenching because, as a dad, you want justice.

Now, I have no justice here. The Afghani police officer that murdered my son, I found out last week, was released. He's nowhere to be found.

So, how can I sit here and just let this happen over and over and over again for these young men that are going over there thinking they're doing the right thing and just being executed?

My son was executed. He was in a gymnasium with a pair of shorts on and a tank top, lifting weights and this man walked in, 25-years old after they said he was 15. He wasn't. He was 25 or in his mid- 20s.

Walked into the gym, walked over to my son, 165-pound boy, a Marine who just turned 21, and put an AK-47 right to his chest, five feet away, and pulled the trigger and then shot him again while his other officers watched.

And they called me and they told me exactly what happened. I still haven't had a report yet from the Marine Corps, probably because I know the truth.

BALDWIN: And I just have to say this. Just, you know, CNN has reached out to people internationally to try to corroborate the story and we have yet to get specific corroboration, but, you know, I trust that this is exactly what your son told you.

And, so, here you are, you know. Your son is inspired because of what happened on 9/11. He wants to be a hero, he wants to fight for his country and here he is. taken out by a supposed -- should have been a friend, should have been someone he was training.

We've heard here, Greg, there are more than 50 NATO troops killed this year by local forces and, so, they've prompted now these suspensions. I'm sure you've heard about this, the suspensions of training these new recruits.

If your son were alive today, what would his reaction be to that news? Appropriate? Too little too late?

BUCKLEY: Too late. It's way too late now. It's enough.

You know, the ambassador's -- U.S. ambassador's passed away. My heart goes out to their families, but now there's justice to be served because they were executed. They were blown up. They were murdered.

Now, there's justice, they say, but how about all these young, young men that are out there serving the country? They're being murdered and nothing's being done about it. Nobody's being prosecuted.

BALDWIN: What does justice look like for you in this case? You are never going to get your son back. I can't even begin to imagine getting out of bed every morning.

You have sons. I'm sure they're all coping with this. What does justice look like?

BUCKLEY: Justice to me is to just let these other young men and women come out. Leave them alone.

You know what? It goes like this. If you want to come over to my house and I don't want you there, you won't come. They don't want us there. Why be there?

Our government tells us that they want us there. They don't. There's so much more involved that I know it's not even -- I don't even want to get into it right now with you, but it will all come out soon enough.

But at the end of the day, my justice is so another parent won't feel the heartache I feel. I'm done inside. They tore my whole heart out.

I have a hard time going to bed. I think about him every day, every minute. His brothers kill me when I look at them because they're heart. His mom is hurt so bad.

But they didn't just take my son, they destroyed my family and I don't want other families to feel the pain that I'm feeling. I don't want to see another family out there see their son being brought back on a plane and being rolled off a plane in a box with an American flag around it.

But you know what? It was our government that dropped the ball and they won't admit it. This boy should have been protected inside a military base. We're training people and my son said, we're training people that are going to turn weapons on us and kill us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: That interview got me wondering. What about the bigger picture? What happens to these "green" shooters? Are they thrown into some sort of detention facility in Afghanistan? Are they released?

Here's who we've asked today -- ISAF, the coalition command in Afghanistan. We've asked the Pentagon, authorities in Afghanistan. None of them could tell us where the man who shot Greg Buckley, Jr., is.

Promise you, we'll stay on it. You can watch my full interview. Go to CNN.com/Brooke.

And now, "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer begins now.