[Wolf Blitzer:] And happening now, Rupert Murdoch tells parliament the phone hacking fiasco tainting his news empire is not ultimately his fault. This hour, the riveting testimony about the broken trust, the shattered ethics and those who should pay for alleged crimes. Stand by. Hackers say they've turned the tables on Murdoch's company, tapping into internal e-mail and other corporate secrets. They're threatening to go public with what they found. And President Obama embraces a bipartisan compromise that could potentially, at least be a way out of the looming debt crisis. He's urging House Republicans not to waste their time on a symbolic vote due to happen very soon. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Rupert Murdoch says this is the most humble day of his life. A titan of news business, he called he was called on the carpet before the British parliament today over the phone hacking scandal that shocked and appalled the world. Along with his son and a former chief executive, Murdoch was hammered with questions about alleged crimes that brought down his popular tabloid, the "News of the World."
[Unidentified Male:] Did you close the paper down because of the criminality?
[Rupert Murdoch, Chairman And Ceo, News Corporation:] Because we felt ashamed at what had happened and thought we wanted to bring it to a close.
[Unidentified Male:] People lied to you and lied to their readers.
[Rupert Murdoch:] We had broken our trust with our readers.
[Blitzer:] Let's bring in CNN's Richard Quest in London. He's been following the scandal all day. It was riveting, riveting, the hours that they were before these members of parliament. Give us the the upshot, the headlines, Richard, on what we learned.
[Richard Quest, Host, "quest Means Business":] What we learned is that Rupert Murdoch said and admitted this was the most humble day of his life. He was ashamed, as you just heard. But we also learned that they don't take responsibility for what took place. He said he had been misled by those people he trusted and people who they had trusted. So we were not left with any greater understanding of how the people at the very top of News Corp and News International did not know about this scandal that was growing more and more. Instead, I think what we did get, very much in their favor, both from Rupert Murdoch, from James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, they sat there for hour after hour taking the questions in good nature, in good humor. And, frankly, that alone, I think gives a certain amount of credit to their benefit, that they did go through this process. Ultimately, though, tonight, as Rupert Murdoch did say, he doesn't take responsibility for what took place, although he will be the man who has to sort it out.
[Unidentified Male:] Mr. Murdoch, do you accept that ultimately, you are responsible for this whole fiasco?
[Rupert Murdoch:] No.
[Unidentified Male:] If you are not responsible, who is responsible?
[Rupert Murdoch:] The people that I trusted to run it. And then maybe the people they trusted.
[Unidentified Male:] Can you name people?
[Rupert Murdoch:] I worked with Mr. Hinton for 52 years and I would trust him with my life.
[Quest:] Now, what I think, Wolf, is interesting in that exchange, the normal phraseology for people doing that is, I was not to blame, but I take responsibility, the buck stops here. And what we didn't get there was that phraseology or some version thereof. We also finally, Wolf, we did get, later on, in his final statement, the hacking was wrong, the payments to the police were wrong, no excuses.
[Blitzer:] And there was an incident there, at one point, where an intruder just showed up with some shaving cream. Tell our viewers what happened.
[Quest:] The pictures don't really tell the full magnitude of the story. As you can see on the screen now, the the intruder, an activist, a comedian, came in with and basically tried to well, he did. He successfully pied Rupert Murdoch with with shaving foam on a plate. What was interesting and if you look at the picture again, you see close up, Wendi Deng, Rupert Murdoch's wife, she launches herself out of the seat, hits the guy with the pie, grabs the plate and shoves it in his face. James Murdoch launches himself out of his seat. And all of this disgraceful that anybody I mean Mr. Murdoch does get hit. Ten minutes later, they do re- restart the hearing. He is without his jacket and apologies all around for what took place.
[Blitzer:] A remarkable day in London in parliament today. We're going to stay on top of this story. Richard, thank you very much. Lots of emotions, lots of tough questions in the Parliament. Was there more heat, though, than light? And joining us now from London, member of parliament, Louis Mensch. She's a member of the Conservative Party. Mrs. Mensch, thanks very much for joining us.
[Louise Mensch, Member Of British Parliament:] My pleasure.
[Blitzer:] Did you get the answers from Rupert and James Murdoch you were looking for today?
[Mensch:] Well, I think we got lots of answers that we were looking for. Some major questions remain to be answered, chief amongst them, if they really didn't know, why didn't they know, which was the thrust of my questioning. But we did get very exhaustive answers to difficult questions over a sustained period of time.
[Blitzer:] What's the biggest question you still want answered?
[Mensch:] I think it has to be if you didn't know, why didn't you know? And that would apply to all three of our witnesses today. Perhaps the single most unconvincing part of Mr. Murdoch, Sr.'s testimony was that he wouldn't have noticed the "News of the World" because it was such a small and insignificant part of his media operation. It may be small in terms of finance as part of News Corp's global balance sheet, but it certainly is not small in terms of reputation and in terms of being a major flagship British paper. And you would think that if there was a threat to its reputation and integrity, it would certainly have been kicked up the line or it should have been kicked up the line to Mr. Murdoch.
[Blitzer:] Do you believe both Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks were telling you the truth during their testimony today?
[Mensch:] I found them to be mostly convincing, with a couple of exceptions. As I've just said, I really don't buy the argument that they didn't know because it was too small, it was beneath their notice. That's one argument I didn't buy. But overall, I have to say I found them to be credible witnesses and the failures that I saw today in News Corp were failures of corporate governance rather than failures of malice. So in that sense, I think I was mostly convinced by the evidence I heard today
[Blitzer:] So where do you, as a member of parliament on this committee, where do you go from here?
[Mensch:] Well, I think I've said to Mr. Murdoch that I hope he will now take matters into his own hands, not rely on other people, the police
[Blitzer:] Do you have suspicions about the prime minister, David Cameron, that he may have known more than he's acknowledging?
[Mensch:] None whatsoever. And even among the most rabid Labour Party supporters, I haven't heard a single question about the prime minister's integrity. People talk about judgment in hiring Andy Coulson. But hindsight is absolutely perfect. And there were many people in the British press at the time who thought it was an inspired appointment. I can remember reading about this. Also, I should say that Mr. Coulson's guilt hasn't been proven so far, either. So, no, the prime minister his integrity is not in any kind of question. And I think you'll see, as you saw when he announced the inquiry, a very strong statement tomorrow and his MPs backing him. Indeed, we've had polling in this country over the last couple of days showing the Conservatives taking a lead over Labour and the Labour Party dropping by 3 points. So this isn't stirring the public.
[Blitzer:] You were asking the questions when that intruder came in with that shaving foam or the shaving cream and and started throwing it at Mr. Murdoch. What was your reaction? What was it like in that room?
[Mensch:] I was absolutely horrified, frankly, that the dignity of our witnesses could be compromised in that way. And I think the parliament's security authorities will have some very serious questions to answer. I know we're going to be referring it to the speaker. I was absolutely furious, because this was a very lengthy, very serious session of parliament, with two of the most important media executives in the world in front of us. And we were asking very serious questions about phone hacking. And I thought, A, the protester was absolutely pathetic. But, B, that Mr. Murdoch, Sr., as I said, did himself no end of credit by being willing to go on and answer my questions, nevertheless. In fact, it was quite hard to to gear myself up to be to make those questions as tough and as hard as I I had originally planned them, because I admired his courage in sitting in front of me after that incident.