Senator Ted Kennedy Casts a Vote
BLITZER: It was a dramatic moment on the floor of the U.S. Senate just a little while ago when Senator Ted Kennedy, suffering from a cancerous brain tumor, actually returned to cast a vote in favor of Medicare funding. And shortly thereafter, Ted Barrett, our producer up on Capitol Hill, had a chance to speak with the ailing Senator.</s>TED BARRETT, CNN CONGRESSIONAL PRODUCER: Is it good to be back, sir?</s>SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: It's great to be back.</s>BARRETT: How are you healing?</s>KENNEDY: I'm just glad to be back in the Senate</s>BARRETT: How important is this vote?</s>KENNEDY: It's enormously important. The whole issue for our seniors to be able to be protected is a key defining issue for this Congress and for this country. And I didn't want to miss the opportunity to be able to express my voice and my vote.</s>BARRETT: And how are you feeling, sir?</s>KENNEDY: I'm feeling fine.</s>BARRETT: Are you coming back here full-time, sir?</s>BARRETT: Coming back full-time soon?</s>KENNEDY: Hopefully.</s>BARRETT: Thank you, sir.</s>KENNEDY: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: It's certainly good to see Senator Kennedy back in Washington where he belongs. We wish him a very, very speedy recovery. Let's move to another story we've been following. The Reverend Jesse Jackson making some very crude remarks today about Senator Barack Obama. Reverend Jackson expressing his deep distress at what he said. The remarks so crude, we can't even tell you here in THE SITUATION ROOM precisely what he said. Suffice it to say they were not -- not very nice. He's apologizing profusely to Senator Obama. But I want to bring back Donna Brazile and get her reaction -- Donna, you've worked long -- many years ago, you ran his presidential campaign, Jesse Jackson. There was an open mike. He said stuff about Barack Obama that he certainly should not have said. What do you think?</s>DONNA BRAZILE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Wolf, first of all, when I heard about the remarks, I was somewhat dismayed. Look, Reverend Jackson is a passionate supporter of Senator Obama. He has done everything to help Senator Obama. Of course, Congressman Jesse Jackson is actively out there also supporting Senator Obama. So I was somewhat dismayed. And I think Reverend Jackson has expressed his remorse and his regrets. And Senator Obama should accept his apology. This is a very important campaign, and not just for African- Americans, but the entire country. And Senator Obama has addressed many of the issues that Reverend Jackson allegedly talked about in this hot mike, so to speak. He has attended conventions where he's spoken out on the problems facing the inner cities. He has spoken passionately about trying to repair some of the problems in the black community. But he is now a presidential candidate that must address and reach out to all Americans. And I think he's doing a great job doing that.</s>BLITZER: So you think Senator Obama should forgive and forget?</s>BRAZILE: Oh, no question. This is going to be a very important election season. And Reverend Jackson's support will continue to be very valuable to Senator Obama. But Senator Obama is his own candidate. And on Monday, he will address the 99th convention of the NAACP in Cincinnati. And that will be another opportunity for Senator Obama to not just talk to the NAACP, but to all Americans who support equal justice under the law.</s>BLITZER: Donna, thanks very much. Let's move on now. It's China as you've probably never seen it before in a brand new Discovery Channel special. Ted Koppel takes us in and around, under The People's Republic of Capitalism, as he calls it. Let's watch a little clip.</s>TED KOPPEL, DISCOVERY CHANNEL (voice-over): When they chant that slogan about safety being important, it is -- to them, and certainly on this occasion, to me. They're allowing my crew and me to accompany them down to the coal face. We've been assured and reassured that this is one of the safest mines in China and so it appears to be. (on camera): This is one of those beginner ski lifts. So instead of going a thousand feet up, we're going a thousand feet down.</s>BLITZER: Ted Koppel is here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Ted, I've known you for a long time. You're a lot more courageous than I am. I'm not sure I would have gone a thousand feet down in that mine.</s>KOPPEL: It's actually about -- by the time you get down there, it's about 3,000 feet but...</s>BLITZER: So were you sweating profusely? Were you scared out of your mind?</s>KOPPEL: Not at first. But I'll tell you, where the miners actually work, you know, you're there in about -- it's less than four feet. So you kind of crab walk your way into the last -- the last part of the tunnel. It's...</s>BLITZER: Because if you're at all a claustrophobic, you could get a real panic attack.</s>KOPPEL: You could do that and it wouldn't do you much good at that point so.</s>BLITZER: What were you thinking? And why -- give us the important -- why is it important for Ted Koppel -- and you've done an amazing documentary on China.</s>KOPPEL: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Anybody who sees it will learn a great deal. Why was it so important, at this stage in your career, to go ahead and literally, given the safety -- or the lack of safety in China's mines -- to go ahead and risk your life?</s>KOPPEL: I think if -- well, first of all, I don't think I was risking any life in any serious way. But I think it's important to go places that you report about. If you report about it simply based on what other people tell you -- we have to do that a lot of the time. We can't be everywhere. But here was an opportunity where they said yes, if you want to go down in the mine, we'll take you down. So, absolutely.</s>BLITZER: You've suggested that of the 1.3 billion people in China, 300 million now have actually emerged from poverty...</s>KOPPEL: Yes.</s>BLITZER: And there's a significant middle class. That's about the same number of Americans.</s>KOPPEL: It is. And they're bootstrapping -- they're trying to bootstrap that remaining billion people out. And the extraordinary thing is, I think Americans believe that if only capitalism takes hold in China, democracy can't be far behind.</s>BLITZER: What do you think?</s>KOPPEL: Capitalism has taken hold in China. There's no question about it. But I think democracy is a long way behind.</s>BLITZER: How worried should Americans be that this China economic bonanza will represent a major threat to the United States?</s>KOPPEL: It is going to represent a major threat in terms of competitiveness. The question is, are we going to deal with that threat confrontationally or are we going to deal with it collaboratively? There is a new study out that indicates by 2035, the Chinese economy will surpass that of the United States. That's only, what, 20 some odd years from now.</s>BLITZER: That's an amazing situation. You know what else is amazing? I learned from your documentary that the elite in China, the car they want is not a Lexus or a Mercedes Benz...</s>KOPPEL: A Buick.</s>BLITZER: It's a Buick.</s>KOPPEL: A black Buick.</s>BLITZER: All right. Help me. Explain why they love Buicks in China.</s>KOPPEL: The Buick has been a major brand in China going back to the old emperor 80 years ago. He drove a Buick. Chou En-Lai, the former prime minister of China, drove a Buick. The Chinese think the Buick -- and a black Buick in particular -- is just the quintessentially elegant car. And the real kicker is you can't sell Buicks in the United States...</s>BLITZER: But they love them in China.</s>KOPPEL: They're selling more Buicks in China than they are in the United States.</s>BLITZER: What about the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games?</s>KOPPEL: Right.</s>BLITZER: President Bush is going. He'll represent the United States.</s>KOPPEL: Right.</s>BLITZER: Senator Obama says he's not sure that's a good idea, given what's happening with Tibet and freedom in Tibet. He wouldn't do it, he says, if he were president. What do you make of this?</s>KOPPEL: I must tell you, with all due respect to Senator Obama, I think if he were president, he would do it.</s>BLITZER: Why?</s>KOPPEL: Because the U.S. national interest is in maintaining as good a relationship with China as it possibly can.</s>BLITZER: Who needs who more?</s>KOPPEL: We both need each other extraordinary -- I mean to an extraordinary degree. Let me give you one example. The war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan. The Bush administration has not raised a single dollar in additional taxes to pay for those wars. Those wars are being paid for by U.S. Treasury bills that have been bought by Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, England. The Chinese hold somewhere between $600 billion and $1 trillion of our Treasury.</s>BLITZER: And so the threat is, if they want to call in that debt, they could do that.</s>KOPPEL: They don't want to do it. I mean we are, in effect, holding guns to one another's head. If they called in those bills, it would mean a huge inflationary spiral here in the United States. It would mean we would not be able to buy all the goods from China that we're buying right now. They need us. We need them.</s>BLITZER: You're going to have this documentary released over four nights on the Discovery Channel.</s>KOPPEL: Tonight through Saturday night.</s>BLITZER: Right. And you spent a lot of time in China, going back many, many years...</s>KOPPEL: Many years.</s>BLITZER: ...when you were a correspondent for ABC News, as a lot of us old enough to remember your excellent work then.</s>KOPPEL: There aren't many of you left, though.</s>BLITZER: What is the single most important nugget of news or information that you've personally learned as a longtime China watcher?</s>KOPPEL: They have a huge problem with corruption. And they try to deal with that by arresting every corrupt official they can find. And they have thousands of them in prison. And if a corrupt official takes -- I think the cutoff point is about $14,000 -- then the punishment is capital. It's death. The problem is the people who are giving the bribes, presenting the kickbacks to the officials, they're not prosecuted. And I had a long and somewhat contentious interview with the head of the anti- corruption unit in the City of Chongching. And, finally, in frustration, he said to me, in effect, you just don't get it. Those people, they're the ones who are -- they're the goose laying the golden egg. They're the ones making the investment in our city. If we start arresting those people, all these new buildings, all these new industries, all these plants aren't going to get built. So they arrest half the problem. They arrest the officials. They throw them in prison. They execute some of them. But they don't arrest the other half.</s>BLITZER: And a...</s>KOPPEL: So corruption is a huge problem.</s>BLITZER: As everything Ted Koppel does, it's excellent, excellent journalism and I recommend it very highly.</s>KOPPEL: You're very kind.</s>BLITZER: Thanks, Ted, very much for doing this.</s>KOPPEL: Thank you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Anybody who wants to learn something about what's really going on in China has to watch this documentary.</s>KOPPEL: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: A worrisome milestone in that nationwide salmonella outbreak, now one of the worst in recent memory. And Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama split on a controversial vote. Political contributors James Carville and Bill Bennett, they are standing by to discuss. Stay with us.