Gay Marriage On DNC Platform
BERMAN: No medal for the U.S. men's gymnastics team. Coming up, we talk to 1984 gold medallist and legend, Bart Conner, about what went wrong in London.</s>SAMBOLIN: Round two in the tax cut battle. The House GOP will push its own bill this week.</s>BERMAN: And this billboard is getting a lot of double-takes in Idaho. It compares President Obama to an accused mass murderer.</s>SAMBOLIN: Goodness.</s>BERMAN (on-camera): Welcome back, everyone, to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.</s>SAMBOLIN (on-camera): And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. Thirty minutes past the hour here. So, you know, it was a shocker. The men's gymnastics team seemingly collapsing under pressure coming in fifth after being on the top in the qualifying round. So, when it was all said and done, China claimed their second consecutive gold medal in this event. And Great Britain was on the podium for the first time in a century. We're excited for them. Japan took the silver after the coaches made an official inquiry over the scoring of their final athlete, a decision that ended up moving the team from fourth to second place. So much drama. The Americans haven't won a men's title since 1984, which was when gymnast Bart Conner was on the team. So, guess who's joining me now live from London. Bart Conner, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We really appreciate it. So --</s>BART CONNER, FMR. U.S. OLYMPIC GYMNAST: Good morning Zoraida. How are you?</s>SAMBOLIN: Oh, I'm doing well, but. the question is what happened to the team? You watch it with a different perspective and different eyes than we do. What happened?</s>CONNER: Well, unfortunately, it really was a heartbreaker for the U.S. men, because they had qualified so well. The way the finals format works is you put up three athletes on each event and all three scores count. So, there's no buffer if you have a mistake. And unfortunately, the U.S. men made four mistakes. So, they just had an off day, and it was during the team finals. So, even though they have six more opportunities to win medals for the men here at these Olympics, that was a really heartbreaking missed opportunity.</s>SAMBOLIN: No. Absolutely. And after they were first in the qualifying round, do you think the pressure of that actually affected their performance?</s>CONNER: Well, I think the U.S. has the quality to win the gold medal, but I think there were some, perhaps, pressure, you know, clutch performances that just didn't happen. Maybe it was nerves, I'm not really sure. I think what really surprised people was the Chinese men, they scored six points higher in the final than they did in qualifying.</s>SAMBOLIN: Yes.</s>CONNER: Nobody expected them to do so well. They had sent home one of their best athletes with an injury. Another one of their athletes had a knee surgery just ten days ago. So, we had really low expectations for the Chinese team, and they had all of their performances. On every event, they nailed their performances. And the Japanese men were also quite good. And as you said, we're thrilled for the Great Britain team, because they deserve that bronze medal. And that was a spectacular night. What an energy in that arena. It was incredible.</s>SAMBOLIN: No, absolutely. But you know, I do want to stick to the Americans, because we're trying to figure this out. A lot of people are writing that, perhaps, it's inexperience. And a reporter asked Leyva if inexperience had been a factor. Here's what he said. "I don't know what to expect, but now I do. Now I know what the crowd is going to be like. Now I know what the air is going to taste like." What do you make of that answer?</s>CONNER: Well, I can relate to that. My first Olympic experience, I was 18 years old. It was Montreal in 1976. We took seventh as a team, and I took 46th place. I was completely overwhelmed when I walked in the arena and I saw all my heroes from what -- it was then the former Soviet Union and Japan, and it was very intimidating to sort of (ph) ground myself. So, it took eight more years. I was 26 years old by the time I was actually able to calm down in the 1984 Olympics and have a great meet. So, you know, you try to treat the Olympics like it's any other competition. But I like to tell the Athletes, it's not like any other competition and don't try to pretend that it is, because you're going to feel an energy and an intensity that you've never experienced before. So, be prepared for that. So, perhaps, they were just slightly overwhelmed.</s>SAMBOLIN: And what about going from team all-around to individuals? How do you think they're going to fare now?</s>CONNER: Well, I think, obviously, it was an important learning experience. As I said, there are six more opportunities, the all- arounders, Danell Leyva and John Orozco have a chance to redeem themselves in the all around. And, Leyva qualified first in the all- around in their qualification. So, they still have many other opportunities, as I said, six opportunities to win medals. And hopefully, they'll learn from the team disappointment and rebound.</s>SAMBOLIN: Well, it's really nice to have your perspective. Really nice for you to join us this morning. And I hope that if anything else major happens, you will come back, Mr. Bart Conner. We appreciate it.</s>CONNER: It will be my pleasure. Thank you so much.</s>SAMBOLIN: Thank you very much.</s>BERMAN: How cool is it to hear from Bart Conner on that?</s>SAMBOLIN: Fantastic.</s>BERMAN: One of the best of all-time for the Americans, and boy did he have some neat perspective on that. Sticking with the Olympics right now, Michael Phelps may be just hours away from another signature Olympic moment. He'll be looking for his first gold medal of the London games when he hits the pool later today to compete in the 200-meter butterfly. And if he finishes in the top three, he'll tie the all-time record of 18-career Olympic medals. Phelps telling CNN's Piers Morgan when this competition is over, his swimming career is over, too.</s>MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: I'm retiring and I won't be coming back.</s>PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR: That will be it.</s>PHELPS: Yes. If I can look back at my career and say I've done everything I've ever wanted, no matter how many medals, no matter how many records, no matter how many this, that, whatever. If I can look back at my career and say that, it doesn't matter anything else. I consider my career a success.</s>BERMAN: What more could he possibly want?</s>SAMBOLIN: Yes.</s>BERMAN: Phelps already has the most gold medals of any Olympian, 14, and he shattered Mark Spitz's record with eight wins in Beijing four years ago.</s>SAMBOLIN: And still more opportunities, right? All right. Democrats are on track to support same-sex marriage as part of their convention platform.</s>SAMBOLIN (voice-over): The party's platform draft committee unanimously approved a pro-gay marriage language at a meeting. This was over the weekend. The draft now goes to the full platform committee, which meets in two weeks. It reportedly won't be a central issue in either party's campaign.</s>BERMAN (voice-over): And you have to check out this billboard in Western Idaho. No surprise it's getting a lot of attention. It compares President Obama to movie massacre suspect, James Holmes. That's right. The message by Holmes picture says, "kills 12 in a movie theater with assault rifle, everyone freaks out." The message by the president's picture? "Kills thousands with his foreign policy, wins Nobel peace prize." The group behind it says all it's trying to do is argue against the president's war policy. Still pretty controversial.</s>SAMBOLIN: Yes, indeed. A showdown over taxes looms with both parties keeping an eye on how tax cuts will play into presidential election. A House GOP bill that extends all tax cuts is expected to narrowly pass this week. Last week, the Senate eked out a bill pushed by Democrats and the White House that lets tax cuts for upper-income Americans expire at the end of the year.</s>BERMAN (on-camera): It is now 36 minutes past the hour. There is the threat of severe weather today in the southeast. We're seeing hot temperatures all around the country, and we are joined by Rob Marciano in Atlanta. Hey, Rob.</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys. Yes, getting some thunderstorms right now across Alabama, severe thunderstorm watch in effect until eight o'clock local time. Some ramblers rolling through Birmingham, getting into Montgomery as well. Some across the Tennessee Valley, just east of Nashville heading towards North George, including Atlanta and potentially later on today. That's one of the areas that we're watching. Also, pretty strong line of thunderstorms just moved through Chicago and through South Bend, Indiana. Weakening a little bit as it heads towards the Fort Wayne and Detroit, and this expected to continue to weaken as we go through the day today. A couple of fronts that will bring the rainfall, that one. And then also kind of a trailing up into the northeast. You still have a threat for seeing some showers and maybe some thunderstorms or some steady rain along the coastline, but the bulk of the heavier action, we believe, today as far as severe weather goes will be across the southeast. That does include Atlanta back through Charleston and in through Jacksonville as well. Mostly large hail and maybe some damaging winds. We don't see the set-up particularly for tornadoes, although can't rule out an isolated one. Record highs again yesterday, 110 in Hayes, Kansas, 107 in West Plains, Missouri. Hot springs, you bet. Arkansas, 106, and this is the same area today that we expect to see excessive heat. Heat advisories and warnings, including parts of Wichita and through Tulsa, back through the lower Mississippi Valley as well. So, these are areas that are in drought. The Mississippi River very, very low and temperatures in Kansas City, by the way, 102. Not going to be very cool in Iowa where Romans is, 77 in New York and get some clouds and raindrops to deal with, but that's kind of chilly compared to what we see for the Big Apple this summer.</s>BERMAN: Look at those temperatures at where Christine is where having that dry (ph), a 100 degrees out there. Rob Marciano in Atlanta, thanks very much.</s>MARCIANO: All right, guys.</s>SAMBOLIN: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour. It's been a rough overseas trip for Mitt Romney and all eyes will be on him once again when he speaks about a half an hour from now. He is in Poland. We're going to have a live report from Warsaw coming up.