Despite GOP Promises, Spending Bill Loaded With Earmarks/Hackers Target Public Wifi
BALDWIN: And now to one of my favorite parts of the show. When we're looking for answers that just aren't getting answered, we turn to our guy in D.C., who's inside the Beltway for just about three decades, Joe Johns, for "Political Pop." And Joe, let's talk about this spending bill. It is loaded with all kinds of earmarks. Seems to be the word of the day here. But correct me if I'm wrong, didn't we hear it was Mitch McConnell, the GOP, voting to ban these earmarks?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a bunch of people. I mean, it's almost Christmas, I guess this is in honor of the Christmas season or something. The Congress has loaded up this giant catch-all spending bill -- the call it an "omnibus" -- but it's just a great, big, old bill with all kinds of stuff in it. And they've got so many earmarks, it looks like a Christmas tree decorated with every kind of gift, trinket, bauble, bangle imaginable for folks back home. And Taxpayers for Common Sense -- Brooke, you've heard of these guys, right?</s>BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.</s>JOHNS: This is a watchdog group. They track this stuff. And they say the bill has 6,700 earmarks worth about $8.3 billion. And Senator John McCain's been railing against the stuff for years, made another one of his trips out to the Senate floor to point out some of the wacky-sounding things that got in the bill. Listen up, Brooke.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: One of my favorites that pops up all the time, $349,000 for swine waste management in North Carolina. Another one of my all-time favorites that's always in there, $413,000 for peanut research in Alabama, $247,000 for virus-free wine grapes in Washington, $208,000 for beaver management in North Carolina, $235,000 for noxious weed management in Nevada. One of my another all-time favorites that is always on here every year, $300,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii. Now, some people are watching and thinking I'm making this up! I'm not making it up -- $300 had,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii.</s>JOHNS: The Polynesian Voyaging Society -- I still haven't been able to figure out what that is. It's like --</s>BALDWIN: Nor have I. I heard that.</s>JOHNS: That's in there every year.</s>BALDWIN: Nor have I. And look, maybe some people in Washington say it's very important to have virus-free grapes, and maybe, you know, a senator or congressman say it was very important. But here's the -- here's the thing. I thought a lot of members of Congress were supposed to be swearing off these earmarks. I thought that's, you know, that the voters wanted. That was the message that the voters sent this past election, no?</s>JOHNS: Yes, well, some of these guys were sort of -- how do you say --</s>BALDWIN: Wink, wink, nod, nod?</s>JOHNS: -- for earmarks before they --</s>JOHNS: For earmarks before they were against them, you know? I guess what you can say, this is kind of putting them in a tight spot, a lot of people up on the Hill. Senator John Cornyn of Texas -- he was one of the people I talked to just a couple of weeks ago, two or three weeks ago, who said he was swearing off of earmarks. At the time, he said it was the right thing to do. But here's the problem. Cornyn has about $100 million worth of earmarks in the bill. So how is he going to handle that? Well, he says he is going to vote against his own earmarks, he says. Listen to this.</s>SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: I think that's, to me, the context. And we've said very clearly -- we voted for an earmark moratorium. We will abide by that. And we will reject any earmarks requested by us or anyone else because that's what the American people told us they want.</s>JOHNS: So put them in the bill, and now he's going to vote against the bill. OK. We're looking forward, obviously, to the coming Congress, when Republicans who swore with off all these earmarks start seeing what the world of politics really looks like when they can't take pork back home anymore -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Real quickly, Joe, talk to me about the White House Christmas tree.</s>JOHNS: Oh, yes, yes. This is -- we've been trying to get this on TV for so long.</s>BALDWIN: Today is the day, Joe.</s>JOHNS: Yes. I'm really excited!</s>JOHNS: Let's just sort of roll the tape so you can look at it. This is time-lapse photography. The White House photographers wanted to show just what goes into putting up the White House Christmas tree. These guys have much better access, obviously, to the White House than any of us do. That's the only reason they can set up a camera in there like that. And there you see it, pretty cool stuff, frankly. I was told it took hundreds of people to do this. I don't see hundreds of people in the video, I don't think, but it's certainly a lot of people.</s>BALDWIN: Just a couple people working really, really, really fast.</s>JOHNS: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: That looks like the Blue Room. Is it the Blue Room?</s>JOHNS: You got me, Brooke. I mean, I've been in there, but I don't know the Blue Room from the Yellow Room from the --</s>BALDWIN: I'm just cheating by looking at the wallpaper.</s>JOHNS: There you go.</s>BALDWIN: I've only been there once. There you go. That's kind of cool, Joe Johns. Thanks for bringing us that video. We've been wanting to get that on the air. Joe Johns, thank you, with today's "Political Pop," always the stuff we never really get to from Washington. Joe, thank you. We'll see you tomorrow.</s>JOHNS: You bet.</s>BALDWIN: And have you ever used -- who hasn't? -- public wifi, right, especially if it's free? But be careful because hackers may be targeting your information. The warning you need to hear. That is next. Plus, what is happening now with Aretha Franklin? There are some concerning reports about her health, and now her camp is speaking out today. Also, the death of a Hollywood legend. "The Pink Panther" will never be the same. "Trending" next.