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Obama Winging Westward; Venezuelans Pick a President; Commercial Space Flight Begins Tonight

Aired October 07, 2012 - 18:00   ET

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

DON LEMON. CNN: There we go. Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Of course, we're going to get you up to speed with today's top stories.

In just 24 hours, the meningitis outbreak has grown by almost one third. The CDC confirming 91 cases of fungal meningitis in nine states, including seven deaths. That's 27 new cases since yesterday. Nearly half of the new cases are in Michigan.

The fungal meningitis is linked to steroid injections often used to ease back and neck pain.

The company that distributed the tainted steroid issued a voluntary recall for all its products.

Alabama authorities are investigating the shooting death of a University of South Alabama freshman by a campus police officer. Officers say 18-year-old Gilbert Collar was naked and acting erratically outside the campus police station early yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLGAN MEANOR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA STUDENT: This is definitely unusual and it's a very weird situation for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the officer who shot the freshman says cooler verbally challenged him and rushed him repeatedly before he fired one shot, hitting Collar in the chest.

Tonight's SpaceX launch will officially turn space travel into a business. First, privately contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX successfully demonstrated it could do the job back in May when it docked a capsule with the space station. We'll go live to Florida a little later on this hour.

At least 100 people were killed across Syria today as the country's 19-month-old civil war.

At least 36 people were killed in one town with the government saying it has cleansed the area of terrorists. Rebel fighters say they've taken over several military outposts near the country's border with Turkey. Turkey and Syria exchanged artillery fire for the fifth day in a row.

It's presidential election day in Venezuela. Analysts say this is the strongest challenge yet to the 13-year rule of President Hugo Chavez. His opponent is young, 40 years old, and considered a moderate.

Stay there. Our senior Latin America affairs editor is right here and he's going to join us live in just a couple of minutes.

Republican voters in Port St. Lucy, Florida, turning out in big numbers today for their candidate, Mitt Romney. It's his second time up and down the critical swing state. Well, today, he pointed to one of the key differences between his and President Obama's plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If he is re-elected, he will install Obama care. And with it your premiums are going up an extra $2,500 above what they already are in your current plan. That's according to the Congressional Budget Office. My plan is I will finally get control of the excessive costs in health care by repealing and replacing Obamacare with real reforms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Well, President Obama is spending the day an entire away from his opponent -- well, he's in the other side of the country. He is heading for Los Angeles right now, private fund-raiser is set for later. And we're told former President Bill Clinton will be there, too.

Then later, a big concert at the Nokia Theater.

Live to Los Angeles now and our White House correspondent, Dan Lothian.

Like the Nokia Theater live to Los Angeles -- what's going on here, entertainment or politics? I guess they are colliding here.

So, Dan, two very different campaign strategies today by these two candidates. Romney with a rousing crowds in Florida and the president taking yesterday off and today keeping it relatively low key, 30 days until the big day. What's the agenda in L.A. tonight? Let me guess, money.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. Well, you know, he took a -- you pointed out yesterday he was celebrating his wedding anniversary because he was actually out of town in Denver on the actual anniversary. So they celebrated that over the weekend. Then coming here, as you know, the president has come to California as kind of his ATM. He does a lot of fund-raisers here, from the Hollywood set and others. He's been able to pull in a lot of cash.

So, that's primary focus of the president's trip. As you pointed out, he's having the big concert with some big names -- Earth, Wind and Fire, Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, and many others. George Clooney is expected to deliver some remarks as well.

But in addition to that, the president will also be meeting with what the campaign is calling some high-dollar donors. These are people who have been consistently raising big amounts of money for the president. About a dozen of them, the president will be meeting privately with them.

And then later tonight we'll also be having a fund-raising dinner with, again, high rollers, high donors, if you will -- people who are putting up about $40,000 each for the dinner.

So, the president expected to pull in about $9.5 million, not only in fund-raisers here in Los Angeles but also tomorrow up in northern California, Don.

LEMON: Forty thousand dinner -- man, dinner is expensive out in Hollywood. Listen --

LOTHIAN: That's right.

LEMON: Fund-raising, the president -- you know, President Obama crushed it in September, raising a record of $181 million. I mean, does he really still need to push donors?

LOTHIAN: Well, they believe that they do. In fact, you probably get the e-mails that are sent out. We get them every day from the campaign, pointing out that Mitt Romney, especially on the heels of Mitt Romney's strong performance during that debate, they say he's already looking at victory and they are sort of teasing their supporters, saying, look, he thinks he's going to win this thing so donate now.

So, they are pushing really hard. Why are they doing this? Because they believe they need money in some of these key battleground states. As you know, the race is very close nationwide, but specifically in these battleground states like Ohio, Virginia, also in Florida, those are states where a lot of money is being poured in for the ground operation, but also for those wall-to-wall TV ads that you see.

So, they are pulling in a lot of money, but a lot of money is going out the door, Don.

LEMON: All right. Dan Lothian -- of course, on Thursday, we'll be watching the vice presidential debate as well. Appreciate it, Dan.

You know, people are picking a president today in Venezuela. There's the man trying to hold on to the job.

President Hugo Chavez, he voted today in Caracas. Well, throughout the country, troops are out in force at voting places, to guard to polls and to keep the peace, of course. And since Chavez was first elected 13 years ago, today's contest is regarded as the strongest challenge to his role.

Latin America is certainly paying close attention to this important election.

Rafael Romo, our senior Latin American affairs editor.

So, Rafael, tell us about the man challenging Hugo Chavez and what's at stake for Venezuelan people today?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: What's at stake for Venezuela is they want to keep on being a socialist country and a socialist economy and regionally, if you speak about that, it's about how Venezuela is portrayed in the world as a socialist model that has driven away many companies -- many of them American companies by expropriating, nationalizing a lot of the companies that used to be there, including many American companies.

And on today, for the very first time in 13 years, Hugo Chavez is facing a real challenger by the name of Henrique Capriles.

LEMON: Forty years old, right? Young.

ROMO: He's only 40 years old. He has never lost an election. He's incredible what he campaigns. He has visited more than 300 towns around the country.

And he has been on this nonstop campaigning for the last several months. He attracts a lot of people. But again, Chavez has been in power for 13 years. He's the incumbent and has tight control over government and over all these people.

LEMON: Yes, and that was him voting. Let's show the people voting here in the United States, because many voters travel to New Orleans from Miami. This must be really crucial for people to be traveling to New Orleans from Miami.

ROMO: That's exactly right. This is set to be a very close election, Don. What happens is that there are as many as 100,000 Venezuelans abroad, 70 percent of them here in the United States. And if the election is close enough, the expats may indeed decide this election. That's a reason why you see the voting there.

Now, most of them live in Miami, but since the consulate was closed in Miami, they were forced to drive or fly a thousand miles away to New Orleans. But they did and that shows you how committed they are.

LEMON: Yes, a lot of them convoys, too.

Listen, when we say what's at stake, obviously these people have strong feelings about this election. What if it doesn't go Hugo Chavez's way? What can we expect?

ROMO: That's the worry for the international community because you know what he said when he was asked that. What would happen -- would happen if you don't win? He said we have the potential for civil war because he says his followers are so committed, are so energized that they would not take anything other than a Chavez victory.

Now, we don't know if this is extremist rhetoric or if he is indeed talking about the truth. But the reality is that that's what he said and he has the armed forces who are fiercely loyal to him. So there's no way and there's a history of violence in Venezuela, a coup in 1992, another attempted coup in 2002. So, it remains to be seen what's going to happen today or tomorrow.

LEMON: And you'll be watching it.

ROMO: Absolutely.

LEMON: Great reporting.

ROMO: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you, Rafael.

Still ahead here on CNN, Israel may have discovered the owner of that drone that it shot down. Which country got caught spying?

And Syrian children go to school. But with bullet and bombs flying in their home country, they are now far from home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Some very disturbing video from the front line of the Syrian civil war. Some children, particularly, may want to look away. We're told that this person that you see running is a young Syrian boy, that he was hit by sniper fire in Aleppo. You see him right there.

Well, CNN can't independently confirm the video's authenticity.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

LEMON: This video is said to show a government aircraft going down in a Damascus suburb. Well, that phrase you hear people shouting in Arabic means "God is great" or "God is the greatest", and there you see smoke billowing down from that downed jet -- building up from that downed jet.

Across Syria, opposition activists say at least 100 people were killed today. That includes at least 36 people dead in a Damascus suburb. It's an area the government it had, quote, "cleansed from terrorists."

Meanwhile, Syria and Turkey again traded artillery fire. One exchange involved the same Turkish town where five Turkish civilians were killed last week.

And as the fighting continues, the United Nations said almost 300,000 Syrians have fled the country, almost a third had gone to Turkey. But Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq also have taken in refugees.

In Jordan, the U.N. is working to get refugee children back in school but there are challenges. I want you to take a look.

(BEGIUN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY LAKE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF: Well, there are two problems here in Jordan. One is that I was just been at, is the Zaatari Camp, near the border where there are about 30,000 refugees and where you started from scratch with UNHCR and others just a couple months ago, and we are building schools and finding teachers, both Jordanian and Syrian, to teach the kids.

But the problem is winter is coming and it is all tents right now. So, urgently, we are working to bring in prefabricated buildings and others. But about two-thirds of the refugees from Syria have scattered in Jordan and are living in communities where we are working to bring them into schools because with typical Arab hospitality, the Jordanians are welcoming them into their public school system. So there's a lot of work there.

The main problem, of course, is all the schools in Syria, where about a tenth of them are damaged, where there are a lot of kids out of school and we are very actively trying to get them into school as the school year is just beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Israeli military experts are working around the clock examining the remains of a mysterious drone shot down on Saturday. The Israeli military released this video. Take a look. It now believes the drone did not take off from Gaza but may have originated in Lebanon.

Israeli security experts are pointing the finger at a long-standing rivalry with Hezbollah. Now, going as far to suggest Iran provided them the drones. Iran which supports Hezbollah has no comment.

A massive march protesting U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan came to an abrupt halt today. A convoy of about 100 vehicles deep got almost to the tribal region of South Waziristan when they were stopped. Officials said the road block was put in place for security reasons. The march led by former cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan sought to call attention to the end of the U.S. drone strikes in the region.

The men hoping to become next in line to the presidency take their turn debating. How the good news about the unemployment rate may change the approach of both candidates? That's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Don't forget, you can stay connected. You watch CNN live on your computer. You can do it from work, just go to CNN.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: Big Bird, how did you find out your name was mentioned in the debate?

BIG BIRD: Oh, I got a million tweets.

MEYERS: So you're on Twitter?

BIG BIRD: No, I'm a bird. Tweet is how we talk.

MEYERS: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was pretty funny, I'm a bird. Big Bird himself on "Saturday Night Live's" weekend update. Well, is Big Bird a man or a woman, do we know? Male or female? I don't know. Kind of ambiguous.

Of course, it's a bird, right? Of course, responding to Mitt Romney's mention during the presidential debate that he would cut funding to Big Bird's network, PBS, of course.

It's been four days since the election season's first presidential debate. Four days of analysts breaking it down, practically word for word. And after all that talk, consensus at both sides remains at, let's be honest, it was a night President Obama wishes he could have back but there are no do-overs and there's a vice presidential debate to look forward to now.

So let's talk.

L.Z. Granderson is here. He's a contributor and he's also a writer for ESPN.

And Ana Navarro is here. And in honor of Big Bird, she is wearing big bird's colors. She's all about Big Bird. She's a Republican strategist, of course.

She's much prettier. Not that you're not pretty, Big Bird. OK.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: All right. There's big bird. There's Ana. We are not making fun of you -- yes, we are. I love you, Ana.

So, L.Z., let's just be honest.

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, sir.

LEMON: President Obama was off on Wednesday. Mitt Romney had a particularly good night. Did he have had a practically good night or is it just that the president was off? I think Mitt Romney had a great night and the president was off.

What happened?

GRANDERSON: I think both. I think Mitt came prepared. Mitt was on fire. All he had to do and think about was this debate. And the president was flat.

I don't know what else was on his mind. It could have been his anniversary. It could have been what was going on in Syria and Turkey, because he is busy running a country while he's trying to run for re-election.

I don't know what the problem was, but you're right, he stunk it up. I'm sure at this point, he knows he stunk it up. I think there was a five-point swing since the debate.

So now he went from being up 20 heading into the fourth, now he's in overtime. He's got to find a way to pull this together. He was going into it way ahead.

LEMON: All right. So, listen, you know we are in this show, nonpartisan. We're not about talking points.

Why does every single liberal say no one called out Mitt Romney's lies? I get responses here, why don't you guys call out Mitt Romney's lies?

In the middle of the debate, it is not up to the media nor the moderator to call out lies. It's up to the president to do that. So, they should be asking President Obama why he didn't do that if he felt Mitt Romney was lying.

GRANDERSON: Well, I think there were moments where he challenged Mitt Romney what he was saying, but I disagree with you. I think the moderator's job is to also make sure that the things that are being said on stage is congruent with things that had been said in the past. Instead of calling the person a liar, you need to have the background to present and say, well, wait a minute, this is what you said on this day. So --

LEMON: If he has fact about what somebody said, but it is up to the president to defend himself.

GRANDERSON: Absolutely, absolutely. I'm not trying to say the president should not take responsibility for his awful performance, he absolutely should have. But I think some of the criticism to the moderator is also justified.

LEMON: OK, go ahead, Ana.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Look, Don, what the liberals are doing is post-debate spinning. It's whining. And there's no whining in politics.

There was one person who should have challenged what Mitt Romney was saying and his name is President Barack Obama and he didn't do it.

LEMON: Right.

NAVARRO: So everybody else doing it afterwards just doesn't carry the same punch. And I absolutely agree with L.Z., it was a bit of both. There was a lot of both. President Obama was way off and Mitt Romney was very much on his game.

You know, I don't remember many debates where it's hard to think of a memorable gaffe or a memorable knockout blow, and yet there was a very visible mark of, you know, undebatable victor of this debate, which was Mitt Romney.

LEMON: Yes.

NAVARRO: He did it just because for 90 sustained minutes, it was like he was debating a limp piece of spaghetti.

LEMON: Yes, it was like the chair from Clint Eastwood.

But, listen, I want to go a little bit longer with this segment to talk more with these guys. This is some honest talk.

Let's talk about these job numbers, they couldn't have come at a better time with the president considering his performance the other night. How big of a help is this below 8 percent jobless rate, do you think?

I'm going to start with Ana to see what the Republicans think about that. How big of a help? Because Mitt Romney can no longer go, well, the unemployment rate is above 8 percent.

NAVARRO: Absolutely it was a help. And it was a salvo for President Obama on Friday, the day just after this disastrous debate.

And let me tell you, Don, I'm a Republican, but when it comes to unemployment numbers, I'm an American first. I root for the home team. I'm not on the red team or the blue team.

I want our economy to strengthen. I want us to recover as a country. And I think the smartest thing any political person can do, any pundit can do is celebrate America doing better.

LEMON: I think you're absolutely right. So why are many Republicans saying thee numbers were cut, when there's no interaction when the White House and the office that decides these numbers, why -- that is spinning and whining as well.

NAVARRO: Because we are 30 days from an election. And everything is political. What they eat is political, what they wear is political, what they're saying is political. But at the end of the day, after November 6th, we are all in this together.

GRANDERSON: I don't think that's true.

LEMON: You don't think that's true. I think they are whining because they don't --

GRANDERSON: Can I give you this one point? Can I give this one point across?

LEMON: Go ahead.

GRANDERSON: And that is that we've had 27 to 28 consecutive months now of job growth. This is not like a one-off. The Republicans have not been happy about job growth for like two years.

LEMON: Yes. GRANDERSON: What we saw this past week was just a microcosm of what we have seen the past two years.

LEMON: Listen, I'm being told you are going to get cut off because the satellite is going down in about a minute.

So let's get this out. Can we just show pictures from the debate last night between Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart? We watched it in the newsroom and said, this is great, why aren't the real debates like this? Maybe it should be Bill O'Reilly or Jon Stewart moderating the debate instead of the people we have chosen? There should be more diversity in the people, maybe younger people doing it?

And again, more diverse, more criticism about diverse moderators. What do you guys think? This was -- this was great. The other debate was boring the other night. Ana?

NAVARRO: Well, Don, I'm all with you with everything you just said except about the part of Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly being diverse. I'm not sure they fall into the diverse category.

LEMON: Yes, we did see three people of the same color up there, yes.

NAVARRO: I think they were entertaining --

LEMON: Yes.

NAVARRO: They were entertaining because they are entertainers.

LEMON: I got to go. But go ahead, L.Z., real quick.

GRANDERSON: I was just going to say a lot of the conversation was honest, which is something our politicians can't afford to be, sadly.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

GRANDERSON: Thank you.

LEMON: All right. Vice President Joe Biden, Congressman Paul Ryan get their turn to tackle the issues before the country this Thursday night. Our coverage of the vice presidential debate begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

One of Pennsylvania's top officials arrested and accused of abusing his own child.

Plus, ten years after a terrifying and deadly rampage, the youngest of the D.C. snipers is speaking out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A naked man acting erratically. That's what a campus police officer at the University of South Alabama said he confronted last night before pulling out his gun. And he says that man, 18-year-old Gilbert Collar, refused commands to back down and continued to rush the officer in the early morning hours yesterday. Campus officers shot Collar, killing him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSHUA FRYE: I feel that the cop had more than a gun. And with that being said, he could have pulled out a taser or pepper spray, anything like that. So why did he use a gun on this kid? He was probably drunk or something like that. It could have been handled in a better way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Mobile County deputies have stepped in to assist in the investigation.

I want to go now to Pennsylvania where a deputy attorney general and his wife are accused of severely abusing two children they adopted from Ethiopia. Police arrested Douglas and Kristin Barbour after the kids had a doctor's visit. Investigators say a doctor noticed several fractures on the 18-month-old girl's head and the 6-year-old boy appeared starved. The couple faces charges of assault an child endangerment.

It was 10 years ago this month, a series of apparently random sniper attacks terrorized the Washington, D.C. area. Ten people were killed and three wounded.

John Allen Muhammad was executed for the crimes in 2009. His accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 during the killing spree, is serving multiple life sentences.

In a recent interview, Malvo admits he was a monster. Brian Todd has the story now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He says he is a different person now. Not the same young man who terrorized the entire Washington region for nearly a month.

LEE BOYD MALVO: I mean I was monster. If you look up the definition, I mean that's what a monster is. I was a ghoul. I was a thief. I stole people's lives.

TODD: Lee Boyd Malvo convicted in the D.C. area sniper case says he is truly sorry for what happened. His exclusive interview with "The Washington Post" comes on the 10th anniversary of the shooting spree that left 10 people in the Washington region dead over the course of about three weeks.

Speaking from Red Onion State Prison in Virginia where he is serving a life sentence, Malvo, who is now 27, tells "The Post's" Josh White what it was like to be under the control of his older partner in the killings, John Allen Muhammad.

MALVO: He told me the old person has to die. Lee Malvo has to die.

TODD: And he gives jarring descriptions of how they deliberately but randomly went about shooting their victims.

(on camera): It's the detail in Malvo's account that is often so haunting, like his description of what happened here in the parking lot of this Home Depot when Malvo was the spotter and John Allen Muhammad shot Linda Franklin who just happened to be in her car.

(voice-over): Malvo describes how he gave the signal to shoot, how Muhammad on a hill nearby fired the kill shot and how the image of Franklin's husband is the one that stands out for him.

MALVO: The first one is Mr. Franklin's eyes and what makes that -- they're penetrating. But -- it's the worst sort of pain I've ever seen in my life. His eyes. It's the worst -- words do not possess the depth in which to fully convey that emotion and what I felt when I saw it.

TODD: Retired FBI agent Brad Garrett who questioned Malvo after his capture says he's not surprised that Malvo is willing to pin much of the terror on Muhammad when he wasn't before.

BRAD GARRETT, ABC NEWS ANALYST: The spell is gone. The whole idea that Muhammad was a good person or actually helped him in life has dissolved. And so now what he is doing is stepping forward. He's taking responsibility but he's clearly putting Muhammad in the picture.

TODD: Muhammad was executed in 2009. Josh White, "The Post" reporter, couldn't get new pictures of Malvo. The prison allowed no cameras, writing utensils or paper. White interviewed Malvo through Plexiglas.

(on camera): Can you tell us what he looks like now?

JOSH WHITE, WASHINGTON POST REPORTER: You know he looks similar to what he looked like before, though about 10 years older. He is kind of a slight guy. He's not particularly tall. He's not particularly heavy. His hair was very closely cut.

TODD (voice-over): Paul Laruffa, one of the first people shot during the spree, says he forgives Malvo.

PAUL LARUFFA, SNIPER VICTIM: If I held the same hate today or that I felt in 2002 when he tried to kill me, I would have wasted or just damaged the last -- I would have let him damage the last 10 years of my life and he hasn't.

TODD: One particularly chilling account from Malvo in "The Post" interview he said during the shooting spree he sometimes went to the news conferences held by law enforcement officials. Malvo said he went to the events for, quote, "intelligence collection."

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Priceless works of art ruined. The word of a modern American master is defaced at a famous museum.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Listen to this. Yet another priceless work of art defaced and this time, it is the work of one of America's most important modern artists.

CNN International's Azadeh Ansari is here with more.

So, what happened?

AZADEH ANSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Well, Don, this all unfolded today at the London modern museum, the Tate Museum.

LEMON: Right.

ANSARI: So, thanks to the power of social media, an eyewitness who was there, witnesses said this man was sitting calmly in front of one of Mark Rothko's murals, Seagram murals, which is part of a series, and before, he was sitting there and calmly and then went up with a marker pen and started to deface it.

And again, if he wasn't there tweeting about it, we probably wouldn't have heard about it as soon as we did and then it just blew up on the Internet.

LEMON: Yes.

ANSARI: And the motive is unknown. No arrests have been made right now. And this is not the first time we have seen this.

LEMON: No pictures of it?

ANSARI: There are pictures, so you can go to CNN.com. We have it for our viewers. They can go to article, which is on dot-com, and they can see the picture that's there and you can see in the corner, a black marker, the vandalism that's been done to the portrait itself.

LEMON: Can we go to CNN.com and put that up? Is that possible for our viewers here on television to see it? No?

ANSARI: I think we'll have to have our viewers go to it afterwards.

LEMON: Everybody is talking.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: OK. We are talking about something that you can't see. That would be frustrating at home. Sorry about that. But go to CNN.com.

ANSARI: You can see it there.

LEMON: What's the painting worth?

ANSARI: Well, the painting, he's a very high-priced artist. His last painting was auctioned off for $87 million. And so, now, we don't know what it's going to be worth. But --

LEMON: Eighty-seven million dollars?

ANSARI: His last piece of work, the "Orange, Red, and Yellow" painting.

LEMON: This is just one in several incidents like that's happened recently.

ANSARI: Absolutely. The most recent one in last few months, Jacob Zuma in Johannesburg, the gallery where his genitals were showing, someone went up and defaced his painting. These examples keep coming up.

And the motives really are unknown, Don. It could be a difference in ideology, political views, religious views, but -- and sometimes people are just crazy.

LEMON: Yes.

ANSARI: I mean, there's no rhyme or reason to what they do what they do. And, again, it's not the first time we have seen this and probably not the last, unfortunately.

LEMON: All right. Azadeh Ansari, thank you. I know it is like sitting here going --

ANSARI: And don't forget to go to CNN.com.

LEMON: -- there's a tornado over my shoulder and you pan over and don't see it. But there are some restrictions. We apologize. Go to CNN.com to see it.

We like seeing you anyway. Thank you.

ANSARI: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: The countdown is on. Commercial space travel just a couple hours from becoming reality. We are going to go live ahead to the Space X launch at the International Space Station.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In less than two hours, the first launch of a resupply to the International Space Station will take place.

Of course, we know John Zarrella is a part of it. He joins us now from Miami.

John, are we now counting on private industry to do what NASA used to do?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And a large part we certainly are. We certainly are resupplying the International Space Station and ultimately sending astronauts to the space station. Shuttles gone, commercial companies are the real deal now. And this is a big deal tonight if the weather holds up at the Kennedy Space Center. A little bit iffy with clouds and rain showers expected to be in the area for the launch, but right now, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is sitting on launch pad, pad 40 up at Cape Canaveral, the Dragon spacecraft on top of it. And it will be at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. if all goes well -- on its way to a rendezvous with the space station.

Now, a lot of people are saying, well, what's the big deal? They already did this back in May. And yes, they did. SpaceX became the first commercial company to rendezvous, berth and then return their capsule back to Earth. But that was a demonstration flight. This is the real deal, 1,000 pounds of cargo going up.

Now, at the Kennedy Space Center during a news briefing just the other day, Bob Cabana, who was the head of the space center there, said that this is just the beginning. They are looking forward now to when these commercial companies will carry humans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT CABANA, DIRECTOR, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER: From a commercial point of view, the commercial crew program here at KSC and partnership with the Johnson Space Center, has moved forward. We have three companies under Space Act agreements here, CCICap, the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability contract. Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX with the Falcon 9 Dragon rider.

And we are moving forward to help enable commercial operations for crew to the International Space Station.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: So, you know, that's the next step in what is a promising future, at least right now. You know, Don, they are going to be carrying up these supplies, I mentioned. They've got a lot of food stuff and experiments. And I know you know what these experiments are all about.

But let me just read one of these. The role of microtubule membrane cell wall continuum and gravity investments in plant investigation.

I don't know. I figured you might.

LEMON: Can you explain to us what that means?

Gradual continuing -- OK, let's speak in layman's terms now. Now that commercial companies are flying cargo, what is the status of NASA's manned space program?

ZARRELLA: Well, what you're going to see now is now that they are doing this and once they are able to by 2016, these commercial companies, to take astronauts to the space station, NASA is working on its new big rocket that will ultimately use the Orion Spacecraft, which is under development, will take astronauts, perhaps back to the moon, certainly to an asteroid and eventually on to Mars. That's the grand design, but we won't see that rocket first tested until about 2016.

LEMON: John Zarrella joining us to explain the space time continuum. Appreciate it, John.

ZARRELLA: Sure.

LEMON: Is Major League Baseball's new format doomed from the start? We're going to talk about it, that and about Drew Brees. And we're going to look at the break us -- looks to break, I should say, passing record set more than 50 years ago. Sports is next.

Wherever you go, we go, too. You catch CNN live on your computer, while you're at work, or even on your smartphone. Head to CNN.com/TV. It's free if you have cable subscription.

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LEMON: Junior hockey player got an unexpected surprise last night after scoring the second goal of the game. Eighteen-year-old Taylor Cots (ph) jumped against the rink's edge and went straight through the glass. He wasn't hurt, luckily, and continued on celebrating right to the bench. His team, the New Jersey Junior Titans, went on to win, by the way, 4-1. It was good he won and he wasn't hurt, of course.

OK. Heartbreak. Sports fans don't have the replacement NFL refs to kick around anymore. In fact, they have a new target: Major League Baseball umpires.

The wildcard playoff game on Friday night between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals got wild late into the game. A disputed call. The infield fly rule ended the Braves' season and the career of legendary player Chipper Jones.

Look at that. People are not happy. Fans went into a frenzy showering, Turner Field with all kinds of debris.

The game was delayed for about 20 minutes and when play resumed, it was under protest by the Braves. My goodness.

Terrence Moore, sports contributor for CNN.com, columnist for MLB.com, joins us right out of the gate.

What the heck happened and was this the wrong call? Was this dead wrong?

TERRENCE MOORE, CNN.COM SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: This was a brutal call.

Don, it's called the infield fly rule, not the outfield fly rule. If you saw what that umpire did, he made that call closer to the warning track than home plate. This is not good.

LEMON: OK. So the MLB, Terrence, responded to a fan demand and added a second wild-card team from each league.

But a one-game playoff -- I mean, is it enough or does this show for at least a best of three format maybe?

MOORE: Well, the knee-jerk reaction, we should play more games. But you know what? If you play more games, then the World Series is going to end about the time of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. You can't do that.

Then, people say, why don't they cut off the regular season games? Baseball owners losing revenue for the regular season, that's not going to happen.

This is the best solution right now. A one-game elimination game and it's very similar to March Madness, which is very good.

LEMON: I was traveling on Friday to make it home in time to see the game, but then I went to a restaurant, it was on, and the Braves fans came in ordering shots like give me a shot. They were so depressed.

MOORE: Wasn't worth throwing stuff in a bar.

LEMON: Yes, that was over. They've gotten that out. They just wanted to drown their sorrows in alcohol.

So, let's talk football now. Drew Brees going for the NFL consecutive games with a passing touchdown record tonight and suspended head coach Sean Payton, along with the suspended coach and G.M. will be there, with the permission of Commissioner Roger Goodell. Last week, he allowed Greg Williams to go to a Rams game.

Is he softening or, I don't know, is he playing a P.R. game here?

MOORE: You know what? I'm going to start with this. When it comes to commissioners of professional sports leagues, they never do anything out of the kindness of their hearts, but let's give Roger Goodell is break on this one here. You're talking about one of the three or four most legendary individual records in history of the National Football League, Drew Brees is going for.

Plus, Drew Brees says these guys are very instrumental in his life to help that happen. There's no grassy knoll here.

LEMON: OK. Hey, real quickly, can we talk about the legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt? Rumors that she had made -- reports she was forced out because of early Alzheimer's. Can you -- she said no -- can you settle this for us?

MOORE: Well, she's telling the truth. Remember, back, during the press conference in April, she said it was her decision. She says it's her decision now. In between, we saw an affidavit but also in the affidavit she also said that she was mistaken. So she's fine. We're all good.

LEMON: We're all good. Thank you. Appreciate it, Terrence.

All right. The daughter of lead singer Gene Simmons is looking to break out on her own.

Plus, the future is now at a robot exhibit in China.

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LEMON: Want to know what the big story will be next week? Well, stay tuned. From the White House to Wall Street, our correspondents tell you what you need to know. We're going to begin tonight with the president's plan for the week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: I'm Dan Lothian.

President Obama trying to bounce back from his debate performance hits the campaign trail this week, making stops in California and the key battleground state of Ohio. He's also expected to visit other swing states later in the week and continue preparing for his next presidential debate.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: I'm Paul Steinhauser at the CNN political deck.

Foreign policy will be in the spotlight tomorrow when Republican challenger Mitt Romney gives what's being billed as a major speech at the Virginia Military Institute. But the highlight of the week will be the vice presidential debate. Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan face-off Thursday in their only showdown in Danville, Kentucky.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

Well, Wall Street gears up for earnings season this week. Lots of big companies reporting, including aluminum giant Alcoa, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

The big question is, will we see that earnings decline in the third quarter. Some feel that the slow in the China and persistent weakness in Europe will finally take a toll on corporate earnings here in the U.S.

Also ahead this week, the latest inflation data and a look at consumer sentiment. We'll track all that and the week's business news on CNN Money.

A.J. HAMMER, ANCHOR, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: I'm "Showbiz Tonight's" A.J. Hammer.

Here is what we're watching. We're speaking with Sophie Tweed Simmons. She's the daughter of the KISS front man Gene Simmons and model Shannon Tweed. But now, she's making a name for herself as a standout on "The X Factor."

Also, Kim Coles, Tamar Braxton and Tia Mowry just a few of the big stars stopping by to talk hot topics with me on "Showbiz Tonight".

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: And in China the first ever giant robot exhibit is going on. Besides talking to visitors, some of these robots play soccer. They also -- look how cool that is. And they also play ping-pong. Others can sing, dance, and even -- get this -- do traditional Chinese shadowboxing. It sounds like old rock 'em sock 'em kids game but this is beyond.

If your interest is piqued, you might start planning for next year. The event ends tomorrow. Probably can't make it now.