Justice Department to Investigate Possible Leaks; President Obama's Economic Gaffe
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. It's 10:00 here on the East Coast. Good evening, everyone. We begin tonight with breaking news. We have just learned that Attorney General Eric Holder has assigned two U.S. attorneys to lead investigations into the possible leaking of state secrets, classified information. Pressure had been building over the alleged leaks. Senator John McCain has claimed White House officials leaked information about U.S. counterterrorism efforts overseas to boost Mr. Obama's national security credentials. Some Democrats have agreed. The leaks resulted in a wave of recent news reports. Well, today, President Obama once again denied the White House deliberately leaked state secrets. Chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin is joining us now with the breaking news. So the administration has been feeling -- clearly feeling bipartisan pressure for several days now, Jessica, on these leaks. What do we know?</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson. Well, look, it's a time-tested Washington strategy. Leak unpleasant news on a Friday night and hope the media is out drinking and too busy to pay attention. But the president also -- I'm joking a little bit, but the president also was under a lot of pressure after his answers at a press conference today when he didn't definitively say whether or not the administration was investigating these leaks. Here's the president.</s>QUESTION: There are leak investigations going on now, is that what you're saying...</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I'm saying is, is that we consistently, whenever there is classified information that is put out into the public we try to find out where that came from. All right? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.</s>YELLIN: Now Anderson, the president -- some on the Hill have, as you say, accused the White House of deliberately leaking the information to make the president look like a strong commander in chief in an election year. And the White House has emphatically denied that charge. The question is, was anybody in the administration involved in sharing any of this information? And that's what this investigation is helping to get to the bottom of -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: I mean, clearly, if you read some of these reports, there was this article in "The New York Times" about the program, the computer virus used against Iran. It does quote administration officials, whether or not they were leaking classified information. I guess that's what investigators will look into. Now, some on Capitol Hill, Senator McCain among them, had called for basically an independent investigation, a special counsel to be appointed. Clearly, the White House is not going down that road. Do you think this is going to satisfy critics on the Hill who say that the White House -- the Justice Department should not be investigating the White House?</s>YELLIN: Well, there are some who are probably not going to be satisfied. But this is according to Attorney General Holder standard procedure at this point. And what you have at this stage are two very senior prosecutors who are investigating them. Each is a U.S. attorney. There's Ronald Machen, who was nominated by President Obama, a Democrat, who is leading one of the investigations. But the other investigation is being led by a man named Rod Rosenstein. And he was appointed by George W. Bush originally. And he actually at one point served with Ken Starr. You remember him because he helped investigate Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair, so hardly a Democrat, hardly neutral guy -- not somebody you could say is going to be in the president's back pocket. Both are graduates of Harvard Law School, interestingly, because the president was as well. And Attorney General Eric Holder has said that he has notified members of Congress about this investigation, but will continue to update them, both members of the Intel Committee, Intelligence Committee,and the Judiciary Committee. So that should satisfy some members of Congress who do insist on being kept abreast of these sorts of things, Anderson.</s>COOPER: You have been covering the White House now for a while. How seriously is the White House taking this? How bad -- how much do they worry about this as having blowback on the president?</s>YELLIN: Well, look, this administration points out, and it's true, that they take leaks seriously. And they have actually investigated and prosecuted more leakers than other administrations.</s>COOPER: In fact, in all other administrations combined. They have I think six ongoing cases.</s>YELLIN: Right, and they take a lot of heat from the left for it, because it's not something that you expect from a Democratic administration. So, they say they take it seriously. And the president pointed that out today, that he has zero tolerance for this. The thing about these sorts of investigations is, once they start, you never know where they lead and how long they last. So the political implications could be potentially damaging for this administration in an election year. And I would also finally add this has not been a good week for the president, not just this leak story, but he had disappointing jobs numbers. He had all sorts of political damage with the campaign this week. So, it's just been a tough one for the president. I think he will be glad for the weekend to come, Anderson.</s>COOPER: Yes, and a difficult day. Jessica, stick around, because we want to talk to you more about that in just a moment. Another "Keeping Them Honest" report now. president Obama really gave Republicans what some are calling a gift when he said this at the Friday press briefing.</s>OBAMA: The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don't have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in -- in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.</s>COOPER: Now, Republicans were quick to pounce on those first five words that the president said. "The private sector is doing fine." Within hours, they surfaced in a Republican National Committee Web ad.</s>OBAMA: The private sector is doing fine.</s>COOPER: Mitt Romney and other leading Republicans also jumped on President Obama's use of those words.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He said the private sector is doing fine. He said the private sector is doing fine. Is he really that out of touch?</s>REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, Mr. President, I used to run a small business. Mr. President, take it from me. The private sector is not doing well.</s>REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: We just listened to the president say that the private sector is doing fine. And my question would be to the president, are you kidding? Did he see the job numbers come out last week?</s>COOPER: Romney also attacked President Obama for calling for more stimulus money to hire state and local government workers. Watch.</s>ROMNEY: He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.</s>COOPER: Well, Democrats quickly jumped on Mitt Romney for specifying firemen, policemen and teachers as workers we don't need more of. By the way, in Wisconsin, we should point out, Governor Walker specifically kept firefighters and police from seeing the same cuts many others in the public sector face. Now, as for President Obama, the White House clearly aware that saying the private sector is doing fine was giving ammunition to the president's opponents and the president later clarified his remarks. Here's what he said.</s>OBAMA: The economy is not doing fine. There are too many people out of work. The housing market is still weak and too many homes underwater.</s>COOPER: To be fair, when the president took office, the economy was in the basement. It's true. More than four million jobs were created since he took office. You can decide for yourself how much credit he should get. It's also true that private sector corporate profits are at an all-time high, according to government reports. But "Keeping Them Honest," here are some other facts. Last month, the private sector added just 82,000 jobs, far fewer than was expected and less than the 87,000 in April and the 147,000 in March. Job growth is slowing down and unemployment rose to 8.2 percent last month. A lot to talk about. Joining me now once again, CNN chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin and political contributors Paul Begala and Ari Fleischer.</s>COOPER: So, Jessica, the president says the private sector is doing fine, then comes out later clarifies the remarks. How big of a gaffe do you think this is for the president?</s>YELLIN: Well, Anderson, remember when John McCain said in the 2008 election the fundamentals of the economy are strong and then candidate Obama hammered him mercilessly for it, saying he was out of touch and he rode that all the way to the victory. It's not going to be that kind of level of gaffe, because President Obama hasn't demonstrated repeated instances of being totally out of touch. What it's done is gotten him off message. This press conference was intended to let the president take the offensive, to let him say that it's the Republicans in Congress who are responsible for these jobs -- the disappointing jobs numbers we just saw and he was trying to get the Republicans in Congress to take action on his jobs bill.</s>COOPER: The president's critics say that the president is out of touch and that this is another example of that. Do you think it's similar to that John McCain comment?</s>PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's about a 2.0 on the McCain Richter scale of gaffes, Anderson. It was clearly a mistake. We know that because he went in and cleaned it up. He's created -- he hasn't -- the American economy and the private sector has created 4.3 million jobs in the last 27 months, since the recession ended. That's not good enough. But it's an awful lot better than in the last recession in the last Republican presidency, the last presidency we have had. In a similar period, we only created about 1.7 million jobs. Now, I can't remember the name of that guy, but he was a terrible president, the Republican before president, just dreadful. So he's got an argument to make. What's interesting is Mitt Romney answered it with a gaffe of his own. He attacked President Obama for saying we need more teachers, cops and firefighters.</s>COOPER: Ari, I want to go to you know. We will get to what Mitt Romney said afterward. But let's just focus first on what President Obama said. I mean, do you give him a pass on this or do you think this is a sign that he's out of touch?</s>ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No, I think the only difference between this and what John McCain said is President Obama has the advantage of having said it in June, when fewer people are watching. John McCain said it in September or October, when it was in the middle of an intense campaign. But I think the bigger trouble here not so much in touch, out of touch, as much as it is an ongoing pattern of dismissiveness of the private sector. The president basically said, oh, those rich people, they are just doing fine. He just seems to have that lifelong approach from the days of his being a community organizer to being a state senator to being the president.</s>COOPER: Ari, couldn't you also interpret it as private sector is making record profits right now, so he's saying they're doing fine. It's the public sector where government can actually do something do in the short term?</s>FLEISCHER: But, Anderson, that's also part of the president's misunderstanding of how the private sector works. The reason so many corporations are sitting on their cash is because they're so worried about Obamacare and its impact on their bottom line, the tax hikes that are scheduled to go in place on January 1, and the president's overall anti-business, anti-corporate environment. People are worried more taxes, more regulations are coming down on them, so they're being cautious and sitting on their cash.</s>YELLIN: Anderson, in point of fact, it was said inartfully, but what he meant to say is that the part of the economy where jobs are being added most -- where jobs are being lost is the part where government can make the most difference. It's an argument against austerity. And he is saying it's astonishing to him that Congress won't do something to help government add more teachers' jobs, add more police officers, add more firefighters. This is about a fundamental difference about the role of government. He does not believe in austerity at this time, while Republicans do. And he's saying Republicans should do something to add more jobs.</s>FLEISCHER: But, Jessica, that's not what he said.</s>COOPER: Ari, go ahead.</s>FLEISCHER: That's just not what he said.</s>YELLIN: It's what he believes and it is what he said. He said it inartfully, no doubt. I mean, it was a gaffe, but we have heard him say it many, many times. Ari, you have heard him say it.</s>COOPER: Ari?</s>FLEISCHER: I have heard him be very dismissive of the private sector many times and I think that's the same remarks he was making today.</s>FLEISCHER: That's one of the fundamental drags on the economy. That's one of the reasons his policies aren't working. His policies and his rhetoric are suppressing job creators in this country who fear what's next.</s>COOPER: So, Paul, then to Romney's point, Romney makes this statement which I'm wondering if he's going to now clarify that a few hours from now, because he comes forward and says the president's talking about hiring more teachers and policemen and firemen. We need to be cutting government. That's the message we learned in Wisconsin, that the American taxpayers want. It's rare -- do you think that was a gaffe or do you think that was just kind of politically incorrect honesty? Because it's rare that -- people talk about cutting government, but rarely do they specify, you know, teachers and firemen and -- or at least firemen and -- firefighters and policemen.</s>BEGALA: Right. It could be that Romney is just being consistent. When he was in business, he laid off private sector workers. Now he wants to be president and he wants to lay off public sector workers. And he did say -- he finished that quote -- and I want to read it exactly. He said: "It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people." That's a really interesting notion, that fewer cops, fewer teachers, fewer firefighters will help the American people. He would be better as a rhetorician if he left it to government in the abstract, as you suggest, and not just to specifically teachers and cops and firefighters. If I had as many mansions as Mitt Romney did, I would want a lot of firefighters out there. I mean, I don't want any ill to happen to any of his many mansions, but he benefits from firefighters more than most of us.</s>COOPER: Ari, this was obviously a gift to the Democrats, who wanted to get the focus off what President Obama said earlier today, but do you think this was a gaffe on Mitt Romney's part or do you think he's right?</s>FLEISCHER: It would have been stronger of course if he had said it just about the government workers, but that was his point. He said more workers. He didn't say fewer or less, or he's going to fire, as Paul is inventing. He said more. And the issue here is, as Jessica pointed out, philosophical. President Obama believes that the way you grow our economy is by having the government find more reasons to hire more people. Mitt Romney believes the way you grow the economy is by having a private sector thrive so it can hire more people. I think that's the philosophical difference what came out today between what the president said and what Mitt Romney said and at the end of the day, Mitt Romney ends up a huge winner as a result of this.</s>COOPER: Paul, do you think Mitt Romney ends up the winner today?</s>BEGALA: No. I think that -- first off, it's June and it is just a wash. But the argument is going to be this. Whose side are you on? Right? And both of these guys have their elitist streaks. Sometimes, the president can be very professorial and I think that ends to be off- putting. Sometimes, like always, Mitt Romney can have this sort of Marie Antoinette syndrome where he seems to insult working people, like he did today, teachers, cops and firefighters.</s>COOPER: Paul, by the way, I love that your big insult of the president is that he's professorial, and Mitt Romney, he's Marie Antoinette.</s>BEGALA: Yes. Well, I'm a public school guy. I'm a state school guy.</s>COOPER: Really equal there though on the criticism.</s>COOPER: But go on, Paul.</s>BEGALA: He can -- the president can be a little ethereal at times. It's true. But Romney, if it's about the out of touch thing, like I say, neither of them are like Joe Biden, who is actually I think really great on middle-class kind of cred. But if it's about who you would rather like hang out with, I don't think Romney is going to succeed there.</s>COOPER: All right. It's been a fascinating day. Paul Begala, Ari Fleischer, thank you. Jessica Yellin, as well, thanks.</s>BEGALA: Thanks.</s>COOPER: Well, let us know what you think. We're on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter @AndersonCooper. What do you think about the president's remarks, about Mitt Romney's remarks today? Let us know. 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