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CNN NEWSROOM

Holder to Sit Down with Press, Many Boycott; Severe Weather for Oklahoma and Texas; Smoking Gun in Jackson Trial; China Buying Biggest U.S. Pork Producer; "New" Pro Football Hall of Fame; Interview with Joe Namath

Aired May 30, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. It's 32 minutes past the hour. The attorney general may find a lot of empty seats when he sits down with top news organization. Eric Holder plans to talk about guidelines for investigations involving leaks to the media. What is said in those meetings is supposed to be off the record.

CNN, along with "The New York Times," "The Associated Press," and the "Huffington Post," say they will not take part unless they can tell you about the meeting, unless we can report it. The meeting comes as House Republicans say they have problems with what Holder told them about investigating journalists at a hearing earlier this month. They want answers, and this scandal shows no sign of slowing down. Jim Acosta has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At a hearing on the recent revelation that the Justice Department had seized phone records of Associated Press reporters, Attorney General Eric Holder was asked a crucial hypothetical question. Whether journalists could be prosecuted for espionage. Holder gave this response under oath.

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not anything that I have ever been involved -- heard of, or would think would be a wise policy.

ACOSTA: But roughly than one week after that testimony, the Justice Department acknowledged Holder was involved in a decision to seek a search warrant for the private e-mails of Fox News reporter James Rosen. An FBI affidavit used to obtain the warrant for Rosen's e- mails described him as a potential aider and abettor and/or coconspirator in disclosing government secrets in a 2009 news story.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are conducting an investigation into the attorney general's testimony. Firing off this letter to Holder, asking for clarification, saying the Rosen case appears to be at odds with your sworn testimony.

REP. BOB GOODLATTE, (R ) VIRGINIA: The testimony he gave did not limit itself to a prosecution of a reporter. It was broader than that, and, therefore, it seems to be contradicted by the facts.

ACOSTA: But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney argued Rosen wasn't the one being prosecuted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it the administration's opinion that the attorney general testified try truthfully?

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think based on what you said, he testified truthfully. I think every public report -- I think the attorney general talked about prosecution. Extremely large distinction between what's at issue here and prosecution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are legitimate questions about the truth of Holder's testimony --

ACOSTA: But constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, a fierce critic of the Bush administration and Obama voter says Holder should resign in an op-ed in "USA Today."

JONATHAN TURLEY, LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV.: Eric Holder crossed a line, an important one. He endangered a free press. If Eric Holder were a rational actor, he would resign. He's damaged goods. I'm not sure why he would want to keep limping along. But if he refuses to go, he needs to be fired.

ACOSTA: Earlier this month President Obama offered Holder his complete support.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have complete confidence in Eric Holder as attorney general.

ACOSTA: That hasn't changed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does he still have confidence in this attorney general?

CARNEY: Absolutely he does, yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That was Jim Acosta reporting. The question, can Eric Holder survive this? There are a lot of Republicans who believe the attorney general should have been fired a long time ago. So does constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, you heard him in that story and dare I say, are you a liberal.

TURLEY: Well, you know, it's not the first time civil libertarians found strange bedfellows in controversies. But this is not the first such complaint against Eric Holder. He has led a Justice Department that has rolled back on a number of civil liberties, but did cross the rubicon here.

It's difficult to overstate how dangerous this type of investigation is to our system. He is the chief legal officer of the United States. Takes an oath to protect the Constitution. But here he is the threat to the Constitution. He did a direct assault on the free press. Which is critically important to the protection of liberty. That's why the framers put it in the First Amendment.

COSTELLO: So, President Obama is a constitutional lawyer, right? Why does he stand so strongly by Eric Holder?

TURLEY: Quite frankly, because these are his sins as well. What Eric Holder did, is part of years of efforts to pressure reporters, investigate reporters, President Obama is aware of that. This is very public as you know. This administration has been extremely aggressive in pursuing whistle blowers and reporters in investigation.

And this distinction that they weren't actually going to prosecute people like Rosen is realyl fallacious. It's ridiculous. The threat to the free press is that you are seizing confidential records. For a long time in this country, the government has maintained a very bright line. It has pursued leakers and whistle blowers, but not the reporters, and what they did here is to create this enormous chilling effect.

What people need to remember is the greatest protection of liberty in our history is not Congress, not even been the courts. It's been the free press, they are the ones that often reveal scandals and pressure public officials to account for themselves.

COSTELLO: So I think many people were surprised too that Eric Holder didn't step down after the first term, because a lot of president's cabinet members stepped down, right? It's sort of unusual that he stayed anyway.

TURLEY: He -- he has, and I'm not too sure why. You know, as you know, most second terms do seem to attract scandals. Not too sure why. But Holder has always been controversial. He was opposed in his confirmation as having a political record during the Clinton administration, a controversial one. But he's proven one of the most loyal aides to the president and he has given the president cover, so on things like Obama's, you know, policy that the so-called kill list policy that allows the killing of citizens, a warrantless surveillance, other controversial programs, it's been Holder that has taken the hit. He's what they used to call in Europe, a sin-eater, these are people that would take your sins away for a price. Holder is the ultimate sin eater in the beltway. He protects the president and he has an important use in that sense.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Jonathan Turley, many thanks. Constitutional lawyer at George Washington university.

TURLEY: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

A potential bombshell in the trial against Michael Jackson's concert promoter. Coming up in the NEWSROOM, an e-mail sent from executive at AEG Live is called the smoking gun and that executive is having one tough time explaining why he wrote what he did.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Think you had a rough day? Be thankful you are not on the Texas Rangers' ground crew. Last night's game was postponed after a storm quickly moved in. Look at that. The high winds had the grounds crew struggling to keep the tarp under control. Look at them running after it.

Amazing they just didn't take flight, right? It was a real mess. Chad Myers and our CNN crew are out storm chasing in Oklahoma. They captured this video yesterday. Now, I guess this was part of the same storm system, that hit Texas, but we'll ask Chad about that. So, Chad Myers joins us live on the phone from Oklahoma City. Was it part of the same storm system, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST (via telephone): It was, Carol. We turned from storm chasers to chasee as it chased us from Texas back into Oklahoma City last night. We thought we were away from it, the storm we finally got into the hail core, honestly, Carol, I can't believe all the windows stayed in the vehicle. We got hit by so much hail yesterday with this storm, and the winds were 50, 60 miles higher. Gusting to 80 miles per hour. Dust in the air, animals running away from the storm. Hail hitting the car for miles and miles. We were probably in this hail core for at least 15 miles. Just couldn't get out of it, kept chasing us.

Going as fast as we were, and it was a messy chase yesterday. Because the sun never came out. Today, the clouds are rolling, clouds across the sky. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Today will be another severe weather day, another tornado day, right now, though, I'm a little more concerned that it's central Oklahoma, not western Oklahoma or the Texas panhandle where we were yesterday, and much more populated area, we saw what happened to Moore, when any type of tornado runs into a populated area, we will be here covering it, keep you advised if anything pops up or anything hits the ground, Carol.

COSTELLO: We appreciate that, we do. Chad Myers reporting live from Oklahoma City.

A stunning piece of evidence that could help determine the outcome of the Jackson family's lawsuit against the concert promoter AEG Live. An e-mail from AEG Live's cochairman says Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray needed to get Jackson in shape to perform onstage. And it when on to say, "we want to remind Murray that it is AEG, not M.J., Michael Jackson, who is paying his salary."

CNN exclusively obtained his deposition from December, which was shown in court this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on the assumptions that AEG is your company and M.J. is Michael Jackson, do you have an understanding of what that means?

PAUL GONGAWARE, AEG LIVE CO-CEO: No, I don't understand it, because we weren't paying his salary. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So why would you write that?

GONGAWARE: I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then let's go on to the next sentence. When you say his salary, who are you talking about?

GONGAWARE: I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Dr. Murray as you know was convicted of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the drug Propofol. AEG Live claims it was Jackson who hired Murray, not AEG and that -- that sentence -- the whole trial hinges on that, so we'll keep you posted.

Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, China bringing home the bacon and spending billions to do it. We'll have the latest on the country's biggest U.S. purchase ever and what it means for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: China has big plans to bring home the bacon; literally spending nearly $5 billion to buy the United States largest pork producer.

CNN business guru Christine Romans is in New York to tell us why this is such a concern.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is a very, very big deal; $5 billion that is the largest purchase ever wholesale purchase of a company by a Chinese company. And it's the U.S. food supply. And we've seen China buy pork, computer companies, car companies and everything.

But this is a food company. And so that's why it's raising some concerns in Washington. Now, the company says it wants to buy this pork producer, producer of things like John Morel, Farmland, Armor Brand, wants to buy it so they can export pork to that huge Chinese market.

But clearly, when you have a big Chinese company buying a big stake actually buying a big part of the food supply in the U.S., that's what's raising concerns -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well -- well I think people -- the first question that pops to mind are the safety questions surrounding the food. Because as we all know, China has had its problems with that.

ROMANS: And most recently you had this -- this big case, where there -- there was a company in China that was accused of dumping rotting carcasses -- pig carcasses into a river and Chinese consumers very upset about their own food safety.

So the deal, what they're saying about this deal. What fishes are saying about this deal is this is to buy pork produced in the U.S. for export to China.

But listen, very carefully, like Charles Grassley, you know, who is a senator, he has concerns, very serious concerns about this.

He wants the DOJ to look into it. This is what he said yesterday, "I've always said we are nine meals away from a revolution. So a safe and sustainable food supply is critical to national security."

This deal is supposed to be for the export of pork to China, but who is to say it couldn't turn around and someday the import of products into the U.S. under the Smithfield brands. That's not what the company is saying it intends to do here. But there will be a very -- very clearly, there will be a Washington review of this deal for economic and national security concerns and at this point most of the analysts are telling us, they don't think they'll find any -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ok. Christine Romans reporting live from New York.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still ahead in the NEWSROOM does Tim Tebow have a future as an NFL quarterback or could he accept another position on the field? We'll ask hall of famer Joe Namath about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The pro-football hall of fame in Canton, Ohio is marking its 50th anniversary with a makeover. The hall has completed a $27 million expansion and renovation project, adding new exhibits and interactive displays. The big grand opening is Saturday. And one guy who had a place in Canton for -- for years and years will be there. And that would be Joe Namath. And he joins me live now.

Good morning.

JOE NAMATH, FORMER NEW YORK JETS QUARTERBACK: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, it's so great to have you with us. I'm excited to talk with you.

NAMATH: Well, thank you. I'm excited about this Hall of Fame, too. Boy, this is the golden anniversary and having just been through there last August with a couple of nephews of mine, I hope every professional football fan can get through there. It's a wonderful place to visit with the interactive games and the memorabilia and all, it's just joyful.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, I was born in Canton where football began and I have been to the Hall of Fame many, many times. And you know people have criticized the Hall of Fame for being rather shabby. And they criticized the NFL for not pouring more money into it. But now it's gone -- undergone this renovation, so -- so tell me, when I go, because I haven't been there for five years or so, what is the first thing that I have to see?

NAMATH: Well, as soon as you go through the doors that's been changed right away. It's a huge open area that a couple of stories high that has history, artifacts, pictures, memorabilia of what's taken place and then there are interactive areas where the kids, the adults can go and take part in actual video replays and make the right call. There are areas that you can listen to today's coaches calling plays right in the game, talking to the quarterback.

It's just -- you can spend hours going through there.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's awesome. So -- your personal favorite bust in the Canton pro Hall of Fame?

NAMATH: Oh, my personal favorite. You know what I have to go back to the guys that paved the way, so to speak. You know Sammy Baugh, those guys, Jim Thorpe, early on that really developed the sport. It's the sport that's the great thing. And the players that hung in there. The coaches that hung in there and helped develop it. Those are the guys that I enjoy seeing.

COSTELLO: It's amazing. Jim Thorpe wore that flimsy-looking helmet. It's just amazing that people could survive playing in those days.

NAMATH: Oh and they have shoes from the 1800s, you know, shoulder pads, things have changed drastically since I guess it was about 1886 when Rutgers and Princeton played. They took soccer and they tried to adjust it to change the game. The soccer and rugby combined. That evolved actually into our game of football as we know it.

COSTELLO: Ok I've got to ask you a question about Tim Tebow, because you're a former Jets. He's no longer with the Jets. Will Tim Tebow ever be a quarterback again on an NFL team?

NAMATH: Well, I hope so. I hope so. One of the things for sure since Tim Tebow has been a college athlete, any of the fans that have watched him appreciates his effort, appreciates his work ethic and the kind of guy he is.

But let me tell you something, Carol. This is the big leagues, professional football. As a quarterback, you have to be a good passer. To play other positions you've got to have quicker feet and Tim may have a little bit better speed than Tim may have -- if you want to put him as a receiver he has not been working on those hands. He's got to develop as a blocker. We're asking a great deal.

I think if Tim can improve his passing, he'll have a shot. That's the main flaw.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Oh and happy birthday. I know your birthday is tomorrow.

NAMATH: Yes thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Joe Namath, many thanks.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Poisoned letter, gun rights and New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY: The letter was obviously referred to our anti-gun effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The poisonous message, "You'll have to kill me before you take my guns."