Minnesota Senate Race Still Undecided
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Coming at you right now:</s>TED TURNER, FOUNDER OF CNN: -- so mean and nasty to the illegal immigrants.</s>SANCHEZ: Ted Turner back at it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their motivation was to find the -- find Latinos and to assault them.</s>SANCHEZ: Another Hispanic attacked randomly, this time killed just for being Hispanic? This Georgia congressman suggests Obama is a Marxist and a fascist. Huh? This FOX commentator says reporters picked on Palin because she didn't abort her baby. Taking note today: Hate. We talk. Two hundred votes apart in Minnesota, less than 1 percent in Mizzou. The election is not over. (on camera): Hi. We welcome you black. (voice-over): And guess who made Jimmy Kimmel's show last night? It is lunchtime in San Francisco, 3:00 in Baltimore. Your newscast begins now.</s>SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez here in the world headquarters of CNN. There is breaking news as we begin this newscast. As a matter of fact, Roger, let's put up that picture that we are getting from Minnesota. It appears that the secretary of state -- that is Mark Ritchie -- he is about to start talking about what is going on with that extremely close election now separated by only 204 votes. Let's go ahead and listen in.</s>MARK RITCHIE, MINNESOTA SECRETARY OF STATE: Great. Thank you. I want to start out by thanking everyone in the media here today and others who have done a really amazing job of covering this election, the canvassing period, the post-election audits, and soon the recount. I think our citizens are getting a big picture about all the different things that it takes to run a successful, free and fair election in Minnesota. So, thank you for your efforts and your work. I also want to thank my staff and the local election officials. Everybody knows that it has been an unusual year. We had a big primary in September. We had a statewide recount, first one since 1962. Then, we had a big run-up to the election, big Election Day. We had then the canvassing process, the post-election audit process, and soon we will initiate a second statewide recount. So, it has been a big year. My staff here, the local election officials in the counties and cities, the 30,000 or more election judges, and everyone who helped make this process have been amazing in their efforts. And I just want to express my appreciation to all that they have done, knowing there is also a lot of work ahead. The purpose of today's press conference is to announce first the makeup of the statewide election canvassing board. I asked Chief Justice Magnuson to name two members of the state Supreme Court. That is what is in the statute. That is my constitutional responsibility. And I asked the chief judge of the district court here in this county, which is one we are a part of, the 2nd Judicial District, Chief Justice Gearin, to name two. They have both very generously named themselves and in the case of the Supreme Court also G. Barry Anderson. This is a tremendous amount of work. And, so, their willingness to take on this task is very, very appreciated by our office.</s>SANCHEZ: All right, let me dip back into this thing. We're going to be monitoring this thing throughout the newscast. Obviously, this is turning into a huge story. Imagine the fact that they are now separated, Franken and Coleman, in Minnesota by only 204 votes. And it has gotten smaller and smaller as we go along. And you know what else is happening? It is getting ugly. The Republicans are saying that it is somewhat -- quote -- "mysterious" that suddenly the votes are going away, that it's moving in one direction, and that there is a Democrat secretary of state. So, as we continue to follow this situation, you can almost feel the tension in Mark Ritchie's voice as he was explaining what the process was going to be. And it is going to be canvassing boards, just like we saw in Florida in the past and we have seen in other places. And as we get more information on this in this newscast, we're going to be sharing that with you. By the way, it is not the only place. It is Minnesota. It is Alaska. It is Georgia and now Missouri, where they still have not been able to confirm a winner between John McCain and Barack Obama. Now to this, Hank Paulson, treasury secretary, will he apologize to the American people? That is actually what he was asked today by reporters as he came out and talked to them. It is one of his first news conferences that he has given thus far. First, does he owe the American people an apology, and did he mislead Congress? Let's take that, Rog.</s>QUESTION: Have you abandoned homeowners because you're no longer going to use TARP to help the homeowners? And on a broader question, you're using TARP now completely differently than you told Congress you were going to use it. Did you mislead Congress? What's happened?</s>HENRY PAULSON, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, let me get to the -- what we -- what we said to Congress was we needed a financial rescue package because the credit markets were stopped up. And we were focused on the problem.</s>SANCHEZ: When it comes to your money, and your mortgages, nobody better to talk to than our own Gerri Willis. She is joining me now to do just that. Also, we have got Stephanie Elam. She is standing by on Wall Street to bring us up to date on the effect of these conversations today on the market as well. Gerri, let me start with you. He didn't apologize. Does he need to?</s>GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: No, no, no, he does not need to apologize, not for using TARP the way he did. It made perfect sense to rescue the system. However, we have rescued the system now. Let's get some help out there for people who need help with the mortgages right now. And there is a proposal out there from Sheila Bair at FDIC. And the treasury secretary said, you know what? I'm not so thrilled with that plan. We don't know about that one.</s>SANCHEZ: Well, here's the issue. And there are a lot of folks who are sitting out there right now who are in trouble with their mortgages and other problems. How do you convince these folks who are watching us right now that by rescuing the bigs, it will trickle down to somehow rescue or help them?</s>WILLIS: I didn't say that.</s>SANCHEZ: But how does he do that? How does Hank Paulson do that?</s>WILLIS: I think you have got to do both. You have got to do both at the end of the day. You know what I heard today from the treasury secretary?</s>SANCHEZ: What?</s>WILLIS: I heard, I'm done. I have stabilized the banking system. We are starting to get our arms around asset securitization. We have got plans in place to help people with mortgages. We are ready to train the next guard, the next people in charge.</s>SANCHEZ: But, wait, no, the work is not done. There is all this talk that there's going to be now a rescue of the big three auto companies. In fact, he was asked about that as well. Here is what he said.</s>PAULSON: It's a critical industry. It's critical to the country. Manufacturing is critical to the country. The -- our position all the way along is that any solution has got to be a -- a solution leading to viability.</s>SANCHEZ: When this guy talks, people listen, certainly on Wall Street. Stephanie Elam has been monitoring this throughout the day. What was the effect there while this news conference was on the air today around noontime or so?</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the markets were down all day, Rick. But we are definitely lower than we were at that time. But I don't think it had a tremendous effect there. I think a lot of people were not too surprised by what came out of the news conference today. I think a lot of people expected these changes, because you could already see they were starting to happen.</s>SANCHEZ: I am just wondering, will we see a rescue of the auto industry in the same form that we saw a rescue of the AIGs and some of the banks?</s>WILLIS: I think there is money going to the auto industry right now and that you will see more of that.</s>SANCHEZ: You mean out of the $750 billion package?</s>WILLIS: No, I think Congress past January 1 is definitely going to get on board and send more money to Detroit. Now, it is arguable whether that's a good idea or not?</s>SANCHEZ: Twenty five billion?</s>SANCHEZ: Stephanie, what is the effect of that going to be with investors?</s>ELAM: Well, I think part of the issue you have got to look at here is that he did say today that he thinks $750 billion is enough for the financial rescue. He also made it pretty clear that he doesn't want to include Michigan, the GM, the Chrysler. He doesn't want to -- and Ford -- include them into this package at all. He is looking at that as a separate issue. I do think, though, there will be more pushing for that. If that does happen, it will probably help the stock. But some people speculate, Rick, that it stave would just off what's eventually going to happen to these companies anyway. So --</s>SANCHEZ: All right. Both of you are sharing your insight and so are our viewers who are connected to this newscast like no other. Let's go to MySpace now. Robert, if you would. "Rick, why can't we bail out the auto industry as a stipulation they have to start manufacture high-fuel economy vehicles? I think that everyone would benefit. No one wants to see more people losing their jobs. It has to stop." Well, that is funny you say that, Mandy. Thanks so much for watching our show. That is exactly the stipulation that Barack Obama says he will have on the auto industry before any money goes to them, whether it is the first $25 billion or the second $25 billion that Nancy Pelosi is talking about. Gerri, my thanks to you for being here.</s>WILLIS: My pleasure. Loved it.</s>SANCHEZ: All right. Have a good trip back to New York.</s>WILLIS: Thank you.</s>SANCHEZ: And to you as well, Stephanie Elam. As we follow the news for you, there is something else that we're going to be talking about coming up in a little bit. A FOX News commentator apologizes for saying the media wanted Sarah Palin to kill her child, kill the child. That is a direct quote. We will have that for you. And, of course, we are following the latest that is coming out of Minnesota. This is going to be going on probably for months. This is day one. Roger, dip back into that live shot if it is still going on. We will take you out on that. That is Mark Ritchie. He is explaining. And there is a lot of heat on this man because there's a lot of heat on this story. It could turn into a mess. We will be right back.