Thaddeus McCotter Enters Presidential Race
HOLMES: So, about 10 minutes off the top of the hour. A couple of pictures, live pictures up here of the Nation's Capital. A lot of celebrating going to be happening there over this holiday weekend. I hoped to there be with you, but I had a change of plans. I'm not going to be able to make it up. But still, everybody's going to be enjoying the fireworks, the mall. Just everybody taking in the nation's birthday in Washington, D.C. And there is, today, a new candidate in the presidential race this morning - Thad McCotter. You know him? Well, he's a Michigan congressman. Listen to how he kicked off his campaign.</s>REP. THADDEUS MCCOTTER (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am announcing my candidacy for the nomination of my Republican Party to serve as your president of the United States.</s>HOLMES: He is now the tenth Republican in the race, and nobody else did it like this when they announced. Yes, who is he exactly? Well, you can tell he plays the guitar. He plays in the band called the Second Amendments. That will probably help him on the trail somewhere. Other members of the House in that band as well. McCotter is serving his fifth term in Congress, representing the suburbs around Detroit. He's a member of the influential House Financial Services Committee, and he says he'll play up his support for the auto industry bailout as part of his campaign. Meanwhile, the debate over raising the debt ceiling has led to a big change of plans for Congress. They are working this week instead of taking a longer Fourth of July break. CNN Congressional correspondent Kate Bolduan has more on the political theater playing out in Washington.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: T.J., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid canceled the Senate's July Fourth week break in order to continue working on the debt negotiations, he says. That and the president's press conference set off some pretty astonishing political theater up here as the debate over raising the federal debt ceiling rages on.</s>BOLDUAN (voice-over): After President Obama scolded Congress for taking time off instead of getting to work on a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling, the Senate's top Republican issued a challenge in the form of an invitation right back at the president.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: The president says he wants to get working. He wants us to get working. I can't think of a better way than to have him come right on over today. We're waiting.</s>BOLDUAN: Republican Senator John Cornyn took it even further, calling the president's Wednesday press conference, quote, "absolutely disgraceful."</s>SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: He should be ashamed. I respect the office of president of the United States, but I think the president has diminished that office and himself by giving the kind of campaign speeches that he gave yesterday.</s>BOLDUAN: And Cornyn issued a challenge of his own as the president heads out of town for two political fundraisers.</s>CORNYN: Instead of going to Philadelphia tonight and raising money, why isn't it - why didn't he call Senator McConnell, Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid into his office and sit down and do his job?</s>BOLDUAN: That elicited this sharp rebuttal from the president's spokesman.</s>JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We can walk and chew gum at the same time, as you - as the president said yesterday.</s>BOLDUAN: Meantime, in a choreographed offensive, Democrats took to the Senate floor, one after another, laying out what they call egregious tax breaks and accused Republicans of protecting only the wealthiest Americans.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a special write-off for thoroughbred racehorses.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tax break for yacht owners.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tax break for private jets.</s>BOLDUAN: And the sharp rhetoric turned to political theater when Republicans bulked at the timing of an unrelated trade deal meeting that Democrats said would help the economy.</s>SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: And I look over there and I see these empty chairs, on the very same day that the July 4th recess has been canceled, because four or five members on that side refused to allow the Senate to recess, supposedly because we have so much business.</s>BOLDUAN (on camera): A whole lot of fiery rhetoric on both sides, but it's not clear if any of this will have any impact on pushing the stalled debt talks forward. Still no meetings scheduled between the main negotiators, Republican and Democratic leaders, and the White House -</s>T.J. HOLMES: All right. Thanks, as always, to our Kate Bolduan. Well, we are just five days away from the final shuttle liftoff. At $4 billion a year for the program, has it been worth it? We take a look, next.