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Spill Continues to Leak Oil into the Gulf; BP Losing PR Battle Over Oil Spill; President to Name New National Security Director; Confrontation Between Israeli Navy and Irish Aide Ship to Gaza Ends Peacefully; Arizona Immigration Law Affecting Upcoming Primaries

Aired June 5, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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


T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there. Good morning, everybody. From the CNN center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING for this fine Saturday morning, 10:00 a.m. where we stand here in Atlanta, Georgia, 9:00 a.m. in Grand Isle, Louisiana, where of course a lot of news coming out. We'll certainly be going there. But good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: It's great to be here with you.

HOLMES: Glad to have you back.

MALVEAUX: We're expecting to hear from President Obama this hour. He's going to formally announce his choice for the next director of national intelligence, James Clapper, from the White House. We're going to take you there live.

HOLMES: What are the chances? You see the president at the White House all the time. Someone's probably going to shout out a question about the oil disaster.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely. And he'll ignore it.

HOLMES: All right, you have to ask the right question sometimes.

But also this morning, we're going to get an update, expecting new information about the oil spill this hour, expecting to get it live from the guy in charge, Thad Allen. He's the commandant down there in charge. He's been heading up the government efforts on that leak. His conference scheduled for 10:45 eastern time. We'll take that live as well.

MALVEAUX: Israeli Navy commandos boarded and seized an Irish aide ship headed to Gaza this morning. This time the crew did not resist and the incident ended without anyone getting injured. A spokesman for the group Free Gaza says the seizure was unacceptable in international waters.

Police in South Carolina will investigate a murder as a possible hate crime. Somebody shot to death a black man then dragged his body behind a car. Investigators say a nine-mile trail of blood and tissue led to a trailer park. Now, there they arrested and charged a 19- year-old white man who worked with the victim. Police have no motive for the murder. And McDonald's has recalled 12 million drinking glasses featuring characters from the movie "Shrek." The paint on them contains cadmium, which is a potential cancer risk.

HOLMES: Also, just in to us this morning, a bit of good news. The government has reopened more than 16,000 square miles along Florida's Gulf coast to fishing again. You'll remember so many people were worried that they kept closing down and closing down areas of fishing because of this Gulf oil spill. They just reopened some they thought they were going to have to close.

More than 13,000 of the square miles we're talking about are in the all-important west of the Florida Keys. So this is very important stuff here. Good news. So now 32 percent of federal fishing waters are closed. That's still a high number some would say, but still it's gone down a bit.

The reopening of the fishing grounds comes as BP announces it has collected some 76,000 gallons of oil in the first 12 hours after putting a cap on that ruptured well. This is a start. It's great to hear some of this oil is be captured.

But listen to how much now. Let's keep it in perspective -- 76,000 gallons is less than 10 percent of the almost 800,000 gallons federal authorities estimate are pouring into the Gulf every single day.

BP will be trying today and tomorrow to shut four vents on top of that cap. Shutting the vents could significantly reduce the oil that's flowing out.

A couple of live things we're keeping an eye on this hour. Suzanne and I were just mentioning, the president has a news announcement at 10:00 eastern time. We'll take that live, not expecting he will make any comments about the BP Gulf oil disaster, but if he does, you'll hear them. You will hear who he is picking for the national intelligence.

But also Thad Allen has a press conference scheduled for 10:44 eastern time, about 40 minutes from now. We will take that live as well.

MALVEAUX: And we're getting more reports of oil globs that are washing up on the Florida panhandle. We want to go to CNN's Rob Marciano. He is on the Pensacola beach this morning. Rob, you've been taking a look at these beaches and the kinds of things that are washing up. What are you seeing this morning?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, a similar scene of what was reported yesterday morning, and that's oil globs, as you mentioned, and tar balls, anywhere from quarter to half dollar and some cases pancake size and shape, other cases like baseballs or soft balls.

This is other things we're starting to see wash up onshore. Random litter, caked in oil. This obviously travels faster than the slick itself, it can roll on the waves driven by the wind. So this is a precursor of things to come.

And then this was discovered farther down the beach, about two or three miles, that glob which was previously frozen, quickly melting, and bubbling up already.

So disturbing stuff. And we just got reports that there are even more globs of oil further down the beach where that was discovered yesterday. We're going to check that out in a little bit. But as you can imagine, the folks who live here, they're pretty disturbed.

MALVEAUX: Rob, I can't help but notice there's --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORA CANTERBURY, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Yes, sir. That's my opinion, yes. And we're all so sad. This is just our way of life, and it could be gone. It could be gone. Look how beautiful that is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: Look at it. Look how beautiful this is. It's amazing. This is some of the whitest sand you'll ever see in the world, quartz that was left over from the Appalachians during the last ice age and then pounded by this surf, creating this white sand beach. The beach is open, as you see.

I suspect we'll see more in the way of cleanup crews. That is the strategy. When the oil tar balls come onshore, when more significant oil comes onshore, they bring people out and clean the beach. We talked to the governor yesterday, Governor Crist, about just exactly what he needs to help protect his state.

I'm sorry, OK. We talked to the mayor as well. And the mayor, who's going to be in a meeting in about half an hour, he talked about what's going to happen if things get worse here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MIKE WIGGINS, PENSACOLA, FLORIDA: There are many plans. Of course, the beach cleanup crews will remain here, no question about that. We have inland strategies on our inland waterways where we have booms laid out. We, of course, have aircraft reconnaissance. We have skimmers that are working. So we have strategies for all situations.

But let's just hope we don't have to put those strategies into effect. And the few tar balls we had this morning is going to be the most of our problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: The biggest worry, obviously, the estuaries, and that's where most of the boom is set up, much like Louisiana, not nearly as many wetlands. But there are sensitive wetlands here and they're trying to protect those shorelines as well.

And what the governor told me, he said, listen, we've got 1,300 miles of shoreline. This state is surrounded by water. And the oil, if it gets in that Gulf loop current, could swing away around to the other side of the state as well.

So things are looking relatively dire here in the sunshine state of Florida. And we'll just continue to report on it as these tar bowls get closer to it. The sheen itself, Suzanne, and main slick is still thought to be three, four, maybe five miles offshore. They hope at least the main part of it stays offshore. But right now we've got ominous signs that may not happen.

MALVEAUX: Rob, I'm seeing the umbrellas behind you there. I guess people are on the beach, enjoying themselves. Do we have any sense of how this is impacting tourism this weekend?

MARCIANO: Well, you know, it looked busy to us yesterday. But this is nothing. This beach gets absolutely slammed. So a lot of people say running numbers about 80 percent down as business.

But the beaches are open. That is the message that I want to bring out, the beaches are open. Escambia County officials are not going to close them until they deem it is a health risk. And from what I've seen, I'm no health expert, from what I've seen it doesn't appear to be a health risk because we don't have that just massive influx of oil.

So they're doing the best job they can to keep the beaches clean and they'll keep the beaches open just as much as they can.

MALVEAUX: OK, thank you so much, Rob. We really appreciate your reporting. Thanks.

HOLMES: Florida's governor has created a task force to look primarily at two things, how to stop the oil from damaging the state's valuable beaches, one that Rob was just on, also how to save Florida's tourism industry.

Joining us on the phone from Destin, Florida, another one of those beautiful places with those beautiful white beaches, is Dawn Moliterno, a member of the governor's Gulf oil spill economic recovery task force.

Ma'am, thank you for your time this morning. I don't know if you were able to hear our Rob Marciano talking about the beaches still open, some of these tar balls showing up. How far away are we from having to consider closing any beach in Florida? Is that way, way down the line somewhere?

DAWN MOLITERNO, FLORIDA TASK FORCE: T.J., that is definitely way down the line at this point. We, as your reporter just stated, we are open for business and handling this situation as it comes our way. But at this point, our beaches are open, will remain open unless there's a safety and health issue.

And at that time we will put our customers first and act responsibly and provide them with alternative opportunities within our communities. And there are many. HOLMES: And ma'am, the mission of this task force, would you say it's more -- a lot of it has to do with, quite frankly, continuing to get a message out, because even if there is very little tar ball or anything else showing up on a beach, people around the country who were planning to come to Florida just have this perception that the oil is on the way, or already there. We shouldn't go to Florida.

MOLITERNO: Well, T.J., the task force has several responsibilities. And one is what you just stated, making sure that the message is accurate and that we let people know that we are open for business, and if something does occur that we will act responsibly and inform everyone.

The other things that the task force is responsible for is to help coordinate state agency efforts, to assist affected businesses and industries, to help monitor BP's efforts in providing financial relief to these impacted businesses and industries, and to help coordinating in the process and efforts to gather economic loss data and industry economic indicators.

So it's got several prongs. But you're absolutely right, the most critical one is to let everyone know that the beaches of south Dalton and Destin are open. We hope they'll come down and continue with their vacation.

HOLMES: Ma'am, how much time do you think you have if the oil continues to gush, god forbid if it is until August, but if it continues to move, and, again, god forbid, it hits the loop current and the oil makes its way around the coast of Florida, how much time do you have before we could start seeing beaches closed?

MOLITERNO: Well, T.J., I don't think anybody has that prediction. No one has the crystal ball to know exactly, because there's a lot of variables. Mother Nature has that in her hands. It depends on the currents. It depends on the winds. It depends on a lot of things.

As you mentioned, if it gets into the loop, it's less likely it would hit some of the beaches of northwest Florida. So no one knows exactly when or how much oil could come upon these beaches.

But I think the important message is, is that these communities are resilient, and they've been preparing for this since the onset of this situation. There are multiple plans in place, multiple deployments.

I'll give you a great example. In San Destin alone, some of those boats and those water activities that could be potentially affected if it gets into an area closer to our beaches are moving all of their activities into our harbor, from the harbor into the marina at San Destin so people can still enjoy the water activities, and not be affected, just like our 15 coastal dune lakes.

HOLMES: I certainly believe, again, you'll have certainly a big task on your hands. But a big part of that is just reminding people, we are open for business. Ma'am, thank you so much for the time and the message. Good luck down there. We're keeping an eye on things. Like you say, the beaches are open. Thanks so much to Dawn.

MALVEAUX: And we're seeing more oil washing up onshore as far east as Pensacola. Coming up, your Gulf coast forecast and how the weather is affecting exactly how far this oil is going to spread.

HOLMES: Also, a big rally planned in Arizona today for those in favor of the state's new immigration law. Learn why the controversial law is having an impact on Tuesday's primaries in neighboring states.

It's 13 minutes past the hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It is day 47 of this oil disaster, and we are following the track of the oil, specifically meteorologist Reynolds Wolf, who is taking a look at the direction that the oil is moving and whether or not this would make it worse or better in the cleanup effort and folks are on the beach and obviously the wildlife that is being threatened.

What are we seeing?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: In some ways this situation could be better and in other ways worse. It could be better in some regard that if this oil gets caught and referred to in the loop current, it could keep it away from some of the pristine coastlines.

But at the same time it could have a detrimental effect spreading oil in places we wouldn't normally expect, through the straits of Florida, back up the eastern seaboard.

But one thing you really need to consider which works in favor for us is the longer that this heavier crude stays out in the saltwater, the saltwater is a very corrosive agent that will help tear it apart, so to speak, the heavier crude. But the sheen could spread just about -- well, all over the Gulf and possibly in the eastern seaboard, too.

This is the situation we have with the oil slick. Of course, you've got the Deepwater Horizon location here. The oil has spread quite a bit. And what we're referring to when we talk about the loop current.

And let's show you this animation. This computer model gives a pretty good indication where we anticipate the oil to go. You see it on the screen. It's the yellow and the red. The yellow, of course, where it would tap into the Gulf stream and go up the eastern seaboard and off the outer banks and deeper into the Atlantic. That is just one possibility.

Again, the heaviest crude, only makes up about three percent of the spill all together. The rest is that rainbow sheen, much of that will be burned off by the sun. But still, much of it, of course, affecting pristine wetlands, certainly a tragic situation.

For people today who are going to be out there trying to clean up this mess, it could be a rainy forecast. We've been seeing Rob Marciano along the beach all morning long, the sun is out, but we've got a big boundary of showers and storms along the I-10 corridor. This will sweep along the coast, so we'll see more cloud cover, choppy conditions out in the water and out in the open Gulf we could see some storms there also. So it could be kind of a rough day to say the very least.

Coming up we're going to give you a better indication of what you can expect for your weekend both weather-wise, and of course, travel- wise, too, just moments away.

MALVEAUX: All right, thank you, Reynolds.

HOLMES: This has been going on for some seven weeks now, day 47 of this oil crisis. The president, a lot of folks venting their anger, and most of it is directed at BP, as you can imagine. A lot of people feel exactly as how the president says he's feeling right now.

MALVEAUX: And the president says obviously that he is furious with this, and some of these other folks, they're venting their rage online, creating a whole new kind of battle for BP. And that is on the internet. I want to go to Josh Levs who is following all of that. Josh, what are they saying?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've never seen anything quite like this, ever. You have the growing communities in which people are expressing outrage online. It's become this battle where they're up against BP.

You've got BP with its website packed with so many things, links to videos, links to their underwater cameras, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. And yet you have the people complaining who are in some ways an even larger voice.

If you Google to try to find the twitter page for BP, the biggest thing that comes up is fake. It's a group creating fake tweets from BP. "This weekend only to come to BP to top off your tank and we will top off your tummy with some free $10 blackened shrimp." So it is a battle online.

So we need an analyst to help us break down what is going onion line. Here to join us, Kevin Dugan, who is an expert in all things PR and social media, with the Empower Media. Talk to me about -- Empower Media Marketing, excuse.

Kevin, talk to me about this battle going online. What is BP doing well and not well to get its message out?

KEVIN DUGAN, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, EMPOWER MEDIA MARKETING: Unfortunately BP's been trying to do things well, but what they really started with was the biggest problem. The CEO being out there and making some comments for which he later apologized was critical. It polarized the entire audience and really put BP on the defensive. And I'm not sure if they'll be able to come off the defensive now.

LEVS: We're seeing this online. You're seeing the critics taking it online. You sent me a link. This is a contest. People are tweeting me these things every day. People are taking on these images of BP and saying this is what their new logo should be instead. This is a contest on flicker going on right now backed by Greenpeace, I believe.

And it is a growing battle online. So in terms of web strategy, companies all over the world are watching this. What does a company do when it's at the center of a crisis and people are expressing outrage online? What is the strategy? What do you do?

DUGAN: The first thing they need to do is listen. Hopefully they've been doing that before the crisis actually takes place.

The other thing that BP really missed the boat on unfortunately is they weren't very active in social media prior to this. They had two of the four profiles established that you mentioned between flicker, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, but they really had not used them.

And you can't flip a switch like that, and expect to get traction with an audience. As you can see, you know, Greenpeace has been out there participating online for years, and they have a number of folks following them. And it's very easy for them to engage with these people whereas it's not for BP, because they waited until this problem happened.

LEVS: This is interesting. You mentioned before we went to air, what a lot of companies do these days, they put information out there online and they hope people will go there and find it. And you're saying what companies really need to do, it's not broadcasting, what you really need to do is engage. What's that about?

DUGAN: Correct, yes. If they had been participating prior to this, they would have established communication with a lot of folks, and would not be trying to do so for the first time. They could engage with them when this happened.

It is a very polarizing situation. And people need to express their emotions. Right now, they're using social media to broadcast.

LEVS: So you find them and engage with them.

We want to hear what all of you think. You can weigh in. I showed my Facebook and Twitter screens earlier, how you can weigh in. People are weighing in like this big-time. They have a lot to say. About 90 percent so far are against BP, a lot of complaints out there. Some saying, I think I'm getting really good information out of that company.

Kevin, thank you very much to you.

DUGAN: Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: I've got a link to your blog also on my Twitter page.

T.J. and Suzanne, this is raging more and more every day. People are angry, some people backing it. We'll keep an eye on this.

HOLMES: Josh, thank you.

Meanwhile, it's time to vote again. Folks going to the polls, several states next week, some hotly contested primaries.

MALVEAUX: And coming up, the impact a controversial immigration law and alleged sex scandal are having on those contests.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, 25 minutes past the hour. Just to let our viewers know, we're standing by to hear from the president of the United States to make an announcement about his new director of national intelligence. That's going to be from the White House expecting that at any moment.

Also, another live event we're keeping an eye on, waiting for is Thad Allen, the man in charge of the response down in the Gulf during this whole oil disaster is expected to brief us all at 10:45 eastern time. When that happens, you'll see that live as well.

Meanwhile, the standoff between Israeli Navy and Irish ship trying to get aid into Gaza has ended peacefully this morning. Still, some unresolved issues of getting the supplies into the region. Our senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is joining us now live from Gaza city.

Ben, give us -- first, we can give the update in fact that we know that this -- the Israeli military has intercepted this ship. The stuff was heading to Gaza for humanitarian aid. Will it eventually make it to you?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what has happened, for instance, the flotilla that was stopped on Monday and turned back to Israel, they unloaded all the equipment, all the supplies, but the Hamas-led government here in Gaza refused to accept it.

The Israelis were, for the most part, willing to send it into Gaza. But the position of the government here is that if those supplies are not delivered by the people who had brought them, they refused to accept them. They consider them in a sense stolen goods.

And that's probably going to be the same case with this boat that came from Ireland, the Rachel Corrie, which will be docking in the Israeli port shortly. They will unload the supplies, which is about 1,500 tons, including around 500 tons of cement.

The Israelis will inspect all of that and probably put it onto trucks and send it to the border with Gaza. But at this point, it seems it's unlikely that they're willing to accept it.

Now, it's not that these supplies would have really made any difference, T.J. It's really more symbolic than anything else. It's an effort by people outside of Gaza to get things into Gaza. So it's not going to make a difference. It's really symbolic struggle, as much of this struggle is here, T.J.

HOLMES: Ben Wedeman with the update and perspective there from Gaza city. Ben, we appreciate you, as always.

MALVEAUX: The rally in phoenix today in support of Arizona's new controversial immigration law. This was the scene last week in Tempe. This is where demonstrators also rallied in favor of deporting illegal immigrants.

The law is stirring up debate outside of the state as well in politics. Here to break it all down for us is Paul Steinhauser. Paul, great to see you this weekend. People are taking a look at this rally and what this means. How is this impacting Arizona's law, impacting the primaries outside of that state?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, it's impacting, Suzanne, the primaries here in California, one of the neighboring states to Arizona, and also in the primaries in Nevada.

How do Americans feel about this law which allows law enforcement in Arizona to ask for somebody's proof of either citizenship or residency here in the U.S. if they are arrested or detained for something else? Look at our poll. A majority in this poll, 57 percent support the law.

And you know what, Suzanne, we're seeing that kind of similar support in other polls from other national organizations. But, as you can imagine, when you break it down by demographics, Latinos and Hispanics are vehemently against the law.

In this state, in California, in the gubernatorial primary on the Republican side, Suzanne, the immigration law in Arizona has become a big topic of discussion. Both candidates in the Republican gubernatorial primary tried to say they're a bigger supporter of tightening up border security and of immigration control.

It's also an issue, Suzanne, in the Nevada race on the Republican side. Everybody there saying that they are big supporters of the law. Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: And we saw that this week when we saw President Obama and obviously the governor of Arizona, both of them meeting at the White House arguing, debating that very point over immigration law.

I want to turn our attention, however, our viewers to get a sense of what is happening in another primary. It's coming up on Tuesday. That's in South Carolina.

And Paul, I have to say, a lot of people are shaking their heads and wondering what is going on in that state when you take a look at some of the things that coming out of the mouths of folks who were involved in this race. Tell us what's happening.

STEINHAUSER: Yes, this is South Carolina, of course, which had the Governor Sanford saga over the last two years, and his infidelity. So it continues on. There's a Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, as you mentioned. And just two days ago, a state senator down there used a racial slur to describe not only President Obama, but also the leading Republican candidate in that gubernatorial contest. He has since apologized.

But this candidate, Nikki Haley, is a practicing Christian but of Indian-American heritage. And it has just been a controversy, one after another. That candidate, Nikki Haley, has also been accused by two other Republicans in the state of having an affair with them.

It is just dumbfounding people in the state who have lived through the Sanford saga now to be dealing with this. It seems it doesn't end in South Carolina, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Paul, we'll be keeping our eyes clearly on all of those races. Thank you so much for joining us this Saturday.

And we're going to hear from President Obama any minute now. He's going to formally announce his director for national intelligence, Lieutenant General James Clapper. That is set for ten minutes from now. We'll take you there live so you can see that right here on CNN.

HOLMES: Baby boomers heading for retirement projected that one in five Americans, more than 71 million people, will be over the age of 65 in the next 20 years. So who's going to be taking care of all those folks? This week's CNN hero has already started helping older Americans stay active, engaged, and independent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IRENE ZOLA, CNN HERO: Before my mother's experience, seniors on the street were pretty much invisible to me. My mother went in the nursing home after a stroke. I didn't want to leave my mother in a place where people were ignoring her.

Here's my mom. This was a month before she passed away. I was shocked that our culture doesn't have a place for very old people except in nursing homes. And I decided that I wanted to do something about that.

My name is Irene Zola, and my organization is helping seniors age at home. We help to connect seniors with people in the community. And the volunteers provide any kind of informal care that is wanted by the seniors.

There is a growing population of elders. Families are living with one another. So this is one way that a community really makes a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes you feel enriched. She has a way about her, like somebody cares.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's made me more aware. It's made me feel more connected to my own neighbors and my neighborhood. ZOLA: Some people believe old age is a time people stop learning. But it's not. Why not live life to the fullest? And that's what I love to see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Remember, to nominate someone you think is changing the world, you can go to CNNheroes.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a look at this morning's top stories.

President Obama's expected to nominate Lieutenant General James Clapper, a 32-year air force veteran to become the next director of national intelligence. Now, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the fourth person in five years to hold the job.

Israeli commandos seized an Irish aid ship headed to Gaza in defiance of the blockade. The crew did not resist. An Israeli warship has the boat under tow to a port in Israel. The government wants to inspect the cargo for banned items.

Well, if your child got one of those "Shrek" drinking glasses at McDonald's don't let them use it. McDonald's has had to recall 12 million of them because the paint contains cadmium. The FDA calls cadmium in larger quantities a potential cancer risk. You can return the glasses to McDonald's for a refund.

HOLMES: Some good news to tell you about in this whole Gulf oil disaster. After taking a look at new images and data the government has reopened more than 16,000 square miles along Florida's gulf coast to fishing again. More than 13,000 of those miles are west of the Florida Keys.

That comes as BP announces it has collected more than 76,000 gallons of oil in the first 12 hours after it put that cap on the ruptured well. That's a start. That's something, but it's small -- 76,000 gallons, that's actually less than 10 percent of the estimated 800,000 gallons pouring into the gulf of Mexico every single day.

BP is now trying to close four vents on top of the cap that could, we're told, significantly reduce the oil flow going out into the Gulf.

Thad Allen, you've been hearing that name an awful lot. He is the coast guard admiral in charge of the whole response. We're expecting actually to hear from him live any minute now to give us an update on this weekend's efforts to try to cap that leak.

Meanwhile, our Kyra Phillips got exclusive access to the now retired admiral. This, again, he did retire, but this is his last assignment, if you will. He is the government's point man in the disaster zone. And she brings us now the day in the life of this busy guy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

ADM. THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: How are you?

PHILLIPS: Good to see you. It's still dark on the Gulf coast. But admiral Thad Allen has begun another day in the eye of the storm. The 61-year-old commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard officially had his change of command last month. But he's now on the toughest assignment of his long career.

First, a jolt of caffeine. The admiral's security detail knows every coffee shop on the Gulf coast. And then the first calls of a very long day -- the White House, federal agencies, governors, the army corps of engineers, they never stop.

Today's top priority, hammering out an agreement on getting sand barriers built to protect the Louisiana coast and paying for them. It's an issue that's sharply divided state and federal government.

The admiral has to be broker, diplomat, decision-maker, and the public face of the administration's efforts to tackle the worst environmental disaster in modern history.

Then it's on to the incident command post, the nerve center of the massive operation to deal with the spill.

ALLEN: Good morning, the briefing this morning --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right, there he is. A reminder, we want to let you know, a couple live events we're standing by for. We expect in this hour, one of them being Admiral Thad Allen going to step out and give a live news conference and update about the efforts.

It's a big weekend this weekend for those efforts. You see that on the left. That's where we're expecting Thad Allen to step out to.

On the right, the president expected to step out in the Rose Garden at the White House any moment now as well and let us know about who he is tapping to be the new head of -- the new national director of intelligence, that Lieutenant General James Clapper. Both of those events are expected live at any moment.

We'll try to get a quick break in, but when either one of those starts, we will jump in and let you hear about it. So stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... it is critical to all the others. As president, I also depend on the best available intelligence for daily decisions that I make every day. In particular, I depend on the director of national intelligence. As DNI, Dennis Blair continued the extraordinary service that defined his entire career. During his tenure, our intelligence community became more integrated and agile. And I will also be grateful to Denny for his sense of purpose and his sense of service.

Today I am proud to announce my choice for the next director of national intelligence, James Clapper. With four decades of service to America, Jim is one of our nation's most experienced and most respected intelligence professionals.

As undersecretary of defense for intelligence he has success successfully overseen the military and civilian intelligence personnel and budgets that make up the bulk of our 16-agency intelligence community.

He has improved information sharing, increased intelligence support for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, upheld civil liberties, and he played a key role in our effort to update and reorient our intelligence community to meet the threats of our time.

As director of two critical organizations, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, and during a distinguished career in the air force, Jim developed an intimate understanding of our human and technical collection programs.

He possesses a quality that I value in all my advisers, a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know even if it's not what we want to hear. And Jim is a forceful champion of his fellow intelligence professionals, never forgetting what it was like to risk his own life during two combat tours during the Vietnam War.

As DNI, Jim will be my principal intelligence provider and leader of our intelligence community. Our intelligence community has made great strides since the 9/11 attacks. Guided by good intelligence, we've struck major blows against the leadership of Al Qaeda and terrorist affiliates and we've disrupted many plots in our country and saved many American lives.

But as we saw in the failed attack over Detroit, we need to do even better. We need to constantly evolve and adapt and improve. That's why I ordered a series of reforms to strengthen intelligence earlier this year. And that's why I'll be looking to Jim to ensure that we have the most capable and efficient intelligence community possible.

Intelligence must be collected and analyzed quickly. It must be shared and integrated effectively. And it must be acted upon decisively. That's what I expect as president, and that's what our national security demands.

In short, our intelligence communities needs to work as one integrated team that produces quality, timely, and accurate intelligence. Let's be honest, this is a tough task. But this will be Jim's core mission. He is imminently qualified and he has my complete confidence and support. Jim also understands the importance of working with our partners in congress, as he has said, not merely to appear when summoned, to keep Congress informed and seek members' consent. Not surprisingly, the Senate has voted to confirm Jim for senior positions on four separate occasions, and each time it has done so overwhelmingly.

Given the importance of this position, the urgent threats to our nation, and Jim's unique experience, I urge the Senate to do so again and as swiftly as possible. I've spoken to the appropriate Senate leaders and I've indicated that I expect this nomination to be completed during this work period.

This nomination can't fall victim to the usual Washington politics. And as we go forward my administration will continue to work with Congress to ensure that Jim and all our intelligence professionals have the authorities, resources, and support they need to succeed.

Finally, let me say to the men and women across our intelligence community, most Americans may never see you work ...

MALVEAUX: We just got the president cut off there. As you heard, he was announcing the head of intelligence.

But we also want to take you to a live event. Admiral Thad Allen updating us on the very latest in the clean-up efforts in the oil disaster.

ALLEN: ... to make sure they don't form, and slowly lowering the pressure on the nitrogen cap so the oil comes up and they can begin production. In the first full 24-hour cycle, yesterday as they bring the production level up, they were able to bring up and produce 6,000 barrels of oil from the well.

The goal is to continue that production and raise it up, and hopefully take the pressure off the well and hopefully start to reduce the oil that is coming out the vents to make sure the oil had a place to go while they were increasing production. I can answer any questions you might have about that.

In general the southerly winds and actually from the southwest, taking the northern edge of this spill perimeter and moved it closer to Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, we're starting to see the product actually come ashore in the form of tar balls, small oil patties and mats, if you will.

The impact is from western Mississippi and Pensacola. They're concerned about basically from the Mississippi-Louisiana line over to Port St. Joe in Florida. In regards to that, we've got a lot of people out doing cleanup operations on the beach, doing skimming offshore.

I want to talk about two particular things we have going on in the area that I think should be of interest to the local community. A local boatman and boat owners can come in and register their boat to do work on the water. This could be anything from deploying boom, to inspecting boom to see if it's damaged, to doing surveillance and reporting where the oil concentrations are at so we can get a response going.

Yesterday we hit one of our best days since we started this response. We actually had a total of 443 vessels of opportunity working around Alabama. I'll give you a little sense of where they were at. There were 61 vessels operating off of Dauphin Island, 74 in Dog River, 143 vessels over in Baldwin County, and 22 vessels from Fair Hope.

We're using these vessels trying to optimize local knowledge on the water, what these folks know, their expertise and their talent.

The second thing I would like to talk about is the qualified community responder program. We've started this for the local communities in Alabama and Mississippi and Florida. They're covered by the Mobile incident command area.

And what we're trying to do is find unemployed individuals that would like to seek training to get involved in this response. And the goal is to train over 4,000 people across these three states, about 1,500 in Alabama, about 1,500 in Mississippi and about 1,500 in Florida.

To date we have trained 2,700 individuals, and they are ready to deploy. That is 898 in Alabama, 1,500 in Mississippi, and 344 in Florida. To date, there are another 1,900 individuals scheduled for training.

The types of tasks that we have these folks involved in include handling material and supplies, racking or shoveling debris, actually removing debris from beaches, operating bobcats or power washers to clean rocks and beach areas, wiping or washing oil-covered items, and removing trash and other debris.

Safety is a primary concern. So we make sure that these folks go through basic training, not only for the tasks they're doing, but for exposure to the potential materials they'll come in contact with out there.

The majority of the training for this area is actually done here at the Theodore site. This is far beyond the staging area for boom, for repairing boom. This is actually a processing point and a dispatch point for personnel. They can come in here, receive their training, get their certification and be deployed elsewhere in the area.

In general, the operation here at Theodore is one of the best I've encountered in the group and I want to commend everybody here for the job they're doing, and the integrating that the contractors and subcontractors in the local community have come together for the response for the folks in Alabama.

With that, I would be glad to take any questions you might have for me. QUESTION: What's your plans for the governor arriving today? The governor said you basically promised this would happen. What's going on and what is your plan?

ALLEN: I'm here in Theodore to take a look at this operation. I'm doing a flight shortly to see what areas we're booming. I'm scheduled to move with Governor Reilly later on today to sit down and talk about what issues he has, and that's at the direction of the president.

(INAUDIBLE)

ALLEN: No specifics yet, but I will meet with Governor Reilly. It's based on the conversation that he and I had with the president yesterday.

QUESTION: One thing the governor has wanted to do is boom the beaches. Is that possible?

ALLEN: You can. You can boom the beaches. There's always a tension between where you're going to boom and what areas you're going to protect.

In general, going into this response, the state identified sensitive areas that need to be protected. These are the islands and the marshlands generally back in the bay where you have a lot of juvenile water life that comes -- grows and becomes mature there.

If you boom a beach, you can do that. The problem is the hardest place to pick up the oil is in a marsh or wetland. The easiest place to physically remove oil is from a sandy beach. It's much easier to recover and remove. The best thing is to do it on the water. If you have to deal with it on the land, a beach is easier to deal with than a marshland.

Yes, sir?

(INAUDIBLE)

ALLEN: I'm not sure what the question is. I'll give you a summary of what's going on. There have been reports of underwater oil plumes by university research vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

The administrator of NOAA has put together a large area sampling plan to send NOAA vessels to form a consortium with the universities in the area and test the higher carbons in the water columns at different depths.

That's being done right now, including operating a five and ten- mile radius around the oil platforms and the place where the recovery's going on. Those vessels are starting to return to port. There are others going out.

Sometime in the near future, I won't put a time limit on it, but they'll put together a profile based on all the data so we can understand what the picture looks like for the entire Gulf area in relation to what kind of water columns -- what kind of hydrocarbons are present, and they come up with a general model of what's going on in the gulf.

QUESTION: Does the cap seem to be working? Is it doing what it's intended to do so far?

ALLEN: Yes, with a couple of caveats. When we put the cap down, there were four vents on the cap that allow oil to escape. It's not going up through the pipe. What you want is you want to keep oil in the containment cap and not let water in, because when water gets in, you form hydrates.

What they're slowly doing is increasing production to the wellbore and up total ship and actually producing oil that will be shipped ashore just like it would in any other normal production capacity.

They want to raise that up to the maximum extent possible on a daily rate basis, and then slowly start turning off those vents where the oil is coming out of right now when they're sure they don't have sea water coming in.

Ultimately because we don't have a perfect cap on top of it, there is a rubber seal that connects the containment cap to the riser pipe, because we didn't get a smooth cut with the diamond wire cut. We had to use the more -- less elegant shears and it was a little bit jagged.

What we're trying to do is minimize leakage. It comes out and is forced down around the rubber seals because we can't accommodate all the pressure going up. And we have to get to a full rate production in that pipe before we know what the exact steady state, if you will, for any leakage we may see around that rubber gasket.

To combat that, we have installed equipment down there where we can use undersea dispersant to try to disperse that oil at the source and try not to have to deal with as much on the surface. At the same time we'll continue mechanical skimming, burning, and try to limit if at all possible any dispersant application on the surface because we used more than was contemplated for a spill this size.

And as you know, we've reached the 1 million gallon threshold on dispersants. It's preferable to use a dispersant rather than have the oil because the toxicity is much less, and we are mindful that there are some toxic impact of the dispersant. We're trying to focus it now on the subsea area where the oil is actually coming out of the oil wellhead.

QUESTION: The governor has said President Obama has ordered the Coast Guard to give Alabama whatever it needs. Will you get Alabama everything it needs?

ALLEN: I'm here today to get a complete brief on boom inventory, skimming inventory, the number of people here. I'll sit down with the governor this afternoon and give him those answers.

QUESTION: That's where you come up with the plan?

ALLEN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will now turn to questions from the phone line. Operator?

(INAUDIBLE)

HOLMES: Just, folks, we want to let you know what you're looking at. Thad Allen right now giving a press conference, he's taking questions by phone. He had to pick it up because he couldn't hear. He's having a few technical difficulties in answering the questions. Let's go ahead and listen.