Pope Francis Arriving in U.S.; Secret Service on High Alert for Pope Visit
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Petraeus resigned nearly three years ago when it was revealed he had an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Petraeus offered that apology earlier today in front of lawmakers at the Senate Armed Services hearing. That does it for me today. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Carol Costello. AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts now.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming to America, the pope just hours away from his historic visit and the Secret Service on high alert ahead of one of the largest security events in U.S. history.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So who can and cannot be U.S. president, according to Ben Carson? Moments ago, he tried to clarify his stance on Muslims. So did he?</s>BOLDUAN: A game-changer. On one of the most dangerous battlefields on earth. Drones, fighter jets and troops, Russia rapidly building up forces in Syria as ISIS advances.</s>BERMAN: Hello, I'm John Berman.</s>BOLDUAN: I'm Kate Bolduan. Hours from now, Pope Francis will begin his historic visit to the United States. Arriving first in Washington, D.C., before coming to New York and then off to Philadelphia. Five days of history expected to draw crowds by the hundreds of thousands. Taking a look right now at the pope --</s>BERMAN: Somewhere in there. Behind that camera.</s>BOLDUAN: Right behind that camera. We promise you, he is there, wrapping up his visit to Cuba, blessing the city, Santiago de Cuba, delivering a speech, and meeting the people there.</s>BERMAN: This is a sign of what's to come. Everyone wants to get a picture of him in Cuba and United States. He'll land at Joint Base Andrews about 4:00 p.m. He'll be greeted in person by the president, vice president and their families. This is a sign of respect almost never granted to world leaders when they arrive in Washington. Our Michelle Kosinski joins us live from Washington right now. This is a reminder, Michelle, this pope from the Americas has never actually been to the United States of America.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. Some of these preparations, just the arrival, from the moment he steps foot in Washington, you can see how momentous an occasion it is. The president himself is going to travel to Andrews Air Force Base to greet him personally as he gets off the plane. It will not only be the president, but the first lady. We now know Sasha and Malia Obama will be there, the vice president and Dr. Jill Biden. We'll have a lot more detail on what each of these stops are actually going to look like. For example, at the air force base, we described they are -- you know, who's going to be on the tarmac along with dozens of church officials, but there's also going to be a fence line where more than 1,000 people will be lined up. Most of them invited by the archdiocese here, but also some invited by the air force base itself. Next step then, the next day -- so this is Wednesday now, tomorrow -- here at the White House, between 14,000 and 15,000 people are expected to gather to await the pope's arrival on the south lawn. That includes many members of the Congress, also members of the president's cabinet. The pope himself will arrive on that South Lawn. Usually we see dignitaries arrive here in the front. But he'll arrive there. There will be a Marine Corps band that will play both national anthems. Yes, there is a Vatican national anthem. After that, then there is the bilateral meeting in the Oval Office between the president and the pope. For days, we've been trying to get more detail, more of a sense of how this meeting will play out. What is it like in that room? Now we're finding out from senior administration officials, this is going to be a one-on-one between the two leaders. There will be two translators in the room, if need. But we're told that the pope will want to speak English. It's not his strongest language, but that he's been practicing for months. So, much of the conversation is expected to be in English. Again, just the two leaders with two translators. No other members of administration. That's expected to last 45 minutes to an hour. It's described as being personable, very relaxed. Not like a formal meeting. But very warm and friendly between these two, who, remember, met once before at the Vatican last year. Concurrently to that, there will be a meeting between other White House officials, the vice president, Secretary Kerry, meeting with other Vatican officials. That's going to go on at the same time. And from there, the pope leaves the White House. Back to you guys.</s>BERMAN: A very big few days, to be sure. Some complicated, you know, protocol at the White House.</s>BOLDUAN: And choreography.</s>BERMAN: All right, Michelle Kosinski, thank you so much. With stops in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, and we're talking big places, Capitol Hill, Madison Square Garden. This is one of the largest and most complicated security operations the U.S. has ever seen.</s>BOLDUAN: Let's discuss this and all of the history around this visit with Jonathan Wackirow, a former Secret Service agent, who served on President Obama's detail; as well as CNN political commentator, Carl Bernstein, the author of "His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of our Time." I mean, Michelle laid it out there, everything at stake, if you will. Just the few additional details she laid out, Jonathan. More than 1,000 people will be gathered at Andrews to see the arrival. And then 14,000 to 15,000 people expected at the White House. That's just two of the stops for the pope. You say that protecting the pope is like no other protectee. Why?</s>JONATHAN WACKIROW, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Absolutely. Because he doesn't follow the same mold that traditional Secret Service protectees have. He's not a politician. Really the pope is the nexus between the public and the church. His responsibility is to go out into the crowd and embrace the public and really touch the people.</s>BERMAN: Literally.</s>WACKIROW: Literally, touch the people. We've seen that during his time in Cuba and all of his travels, he's constantly going into the crowds, unsecure. And really throwing his own security teams off- balance. The Secret Service has to be prepared for that and has to have a plan in place for when the pope does make those, you know, unscheduled movements.</s>BERMAN: Carl, I grew up in Boston and Pope John Paul II visited there on his first trip to the United States in 1979. It was huge. To this day there are still photos of his visit there. I wonder if you can compare this visit from Pope Francis to Pope John Paul</s>II. CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & AUTHOR: They have the same message about the poor, the marginalized, the responsibility of rich nations to their people and those who are forgotten. That's the gospel. That's the gospel of Christ. Both John Paul II and Francis are masters of preaching this gospel and both preeminent leaders of their time in many ways because they transcend national leadership. They have the biggest following, certainly, of any particular leader in the world today. And so this is going to be really fascinating to see if this pope can keep his visit from becoming politicized. He doesn't want it politicized. There are those who wants it politicized, particularly those who oppose his message and think somehow it's, quote, too liberal or progressive.</s>BOLDUAN: To that point, with these historic meetings, sitting down with the president, speaking before Congress, just to name a couple, what then is the goal, do you think, for the pope in these meetings?</s>BERNSTEIN: The pope wants the agenda of the world to focus on what the world preaches, on Catholic social teaching, which is one of the great contributions to mankind. And the Catholic Church is responsible for this idea we must look out for our brother and sister, to those who are not as fortunate as we are, that we must show respect for all points of view. He's going to, indeed, continue to preach about the unborn and about more tolerance for those views within the church that have been considered heretical before. As we've heard him preach so many times, he wants a church of openness. A little bit like John who called that Ecumenical Council to bring the church into a modern world, in that papacy, he's going to do it without an Ecumenical Council, but through his own preaching, just like John Paul ii did as well. Remember, the huge crowds. He appealed to youth is the other aspect of this that we should be looking at.</s>BERMAN: Jonathan, this is a national special security event.</s>WACKIROW: Absolutely.</s>BERMAN: Which means the Secret Service is in charge right now.</s>WACKIROW: Correct. The Secret Service is the overarching coordinating agency for this visit. Whenever there's a designation of an NNSE, National Special Security Event, Secret Service is placed in charge of the coordination, FBI is in charge of counterterrorism and intelligence. And then it opens up the door for a lot of other federal resources to be put towards a visit.</s>BOLDUAN: How do they balance it? You kind of touched on it. He touches the people. He gets out in the crowds. The head of the Secret Service kind of talked about how difficult that balance is, getting it right. Not overreacting when people want to come to the pope or throw things at the pope, not in a bad way, but they throw things at the pope. But also not missing anything.</s>WACKIROW: Absolutely. So, I mean, it's always the balance between, you know, access to a protectee and security, and finding that leveling point. Here what we have to do with Pope Francis is we have to understand that he is going to do this. So, there is different areas along parade routes and at different sites that he's going to where we know he's going to go into the crowd so that having that advance knowledge, then we make those areas secure.</s>BERMAN: Planned spontaneity, in other words.</s>WACKIROW: Exactly.</s>BOLDUAN: No selfie sticks, one thing I saw, oddly enough, was pointed out.</s>BOLDUAN: I'm big on the selfie stick.</s>BERNSTEIN: There's a terrible precedent of the attempted assassination of John Paul II. Obviously, those in the security business, the police in New York as well as the Secret Service, are terribly aware of the enmity of certain people towards this figure.</s>BERMAN: You can see the barriers and precautions taking place in Central Park.</s>BERMAN: Carl Bernstein, Jonathan Wackirow, thanks so much. Appreciate it.</s>BOLDUAN: Reminder to all of you, tonight, CNN is taking an inside look at Pope Francis. The CNN special report, "The People's Pope," airs tonight at 9:00 eastern.</s>BERMAN: Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Mitt Romney, all rejecting what Ben Carson had to say about Muslims and if they should or should not be in the White House. Moments ago, Ben Carson just clarified his remarks, blaming the media, largely. See what else happened.</s>BOLDUAN: It's a place spiraling out of control, where terrorists, a dictator and other nations are fighting for power. Now Russia is making moves that could change everything.