Romney Backing McCain; Health Officials Say FEMA Trailers Pose Health Threat
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips. New developments in the battle for the White House. Sources tell us that Mitt Romney is getting ready to endorse his former rival, Republican front-runner John McCain. An official announcement is expected about an hour and a half from now from Boston. Our Dana Bash broke the story, and she joins us now from Burlington, Vermont -- Dana.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fredricka. Well, you certainly gave the headline there. And it is a big headline, an important headline, that the most bitter rivals right now are coming together -- at least Mitt Romney is coming behind John McCain, and it will happen just outside Mitt Romney's former headquarters for his presidential campaign in Boston. And, you know, this is something that has been sort of making its way towards fruition for -- really for a few days now, since Mitt Romney formally stemmed aside last week. But we're told that Romney made his decision this morning, had his top campaign aide call over to John McCain's campaign manager and let him know that he did want to make this formal. You see I'm in Burlington, Vermont. That's because John McCain was already in New England today, so that kind of makes it an easy stop for John McCain to go and do this. Now, what we're told by a source familiar with this decision is that Governor Romney decided that he wanted to do this "in the interests of healing" and that because he wants McCain to move faster to "secure the nomination" and unite the party for the general election against Democrats for November. Now, what we're also told by a source familiar with this decision is that Romney will encourage the delegates that he's accumulated over the past several months during this primary and caucus season, about 286 delegates, he will encourage them to get behind McCain. We're trying to figure out the math and the rules inside the Republican Party to see just what the reality is of doing that now versus doing that at a later date. But in terms of the perception and in terms of the message that Romney is trying to send, obviously this is like manna from the political heavens for John McCain right now, because what he has been trying to do is to convince conservatives to get behind him. Well, to have somebody like Mitt Romney, who was out pounding away at John McCain when he was a candidate for president, saying that John McCain is too liberal to be the Republican nominee, for Mitt Romney to get behind him and say that he still -- he now thinks that it's important for the whole party to get behind John McCain, is really a crucial message to those conservatives. But, you know, it's important to note, Fredricka, there is a subplot going on here. And in a way, this is, in some respects, as much about Governor Romney as it is about John McCain. Because we're told by one of Governor Romney's former aides that this is also a decision in order to try to send a message to Governor Huckabee that Governor Huckabee is "being a pest" and that Governor Romney wants to show that he is "a foot soldier" in the McCain revolution there. A little bit of a pun on what McCain always says, is that he's a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution. So, you see a bit of a subplot going on between Governor Huckabee and Mike -- excuse me, Governor Huckabee and Governor Romney, thinking ahead to their own viability. Governor Huckabee has made it pretty clear that he thinks in order to stay a player in the Republican Party, he wants to stay in the race and show that he can still get votes. Well, Governor Huckabee -- Governor Romney, by making this formal endorsement of McCain today, he's making it clear that his best shot of viability in the future is to show that he's a good soldier and he's party person, and that's why he's getting behind his former rival -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: A party animal, as they say. So, Dana, we've been taking folks all across New England, or at least we will this afternoon. You're there in Burlington, Vermont. We were showing some live picture of a McCain event, because he's in Rhode Island, right there, of course. And it's hard to know, I guess, Dana, whether, in fact, John McCain, once he were to take to the Mike, whether he would preempt Mitt Romney's address or official announcement coming out of Boston.</s>BASH: My guess -- maybe this is a bit of an informed and educated guess -- my guess is it would be, no, that he probably won't do that. That he's probably going to give his stump speech. My guess is it would be similar to what we heard him do here in Burlington, talk about the fact that he respects Governor Huckabee staying in the race, but really, really going after the Democrats. My guess is he'll stick to that. But you know, John McCain likes to surprise us. You never know.</s>WHITFIELD: Right. One never knows, do one, as they say? All right, Dana Bash. Thanks so much from Burlington, Vermont.</s>BASH: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: Of course, you will be hearing from John McCain this evening when he visits "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight for an exclusive interview with the Republican presidential front-runner there. That's 9:00 Eastern, and it's something you will only see on</s>CNN. LEMON: And President Bush just raised the stakes in a national security showdown with House Democrats. Mr. Bush says he'll put off an overseas trip to pressure, to pressure the House to renew an eavesdropping bill to the president's liking. Standing by live at the White House now, CNN's Kathleen Koch. Hello, Kathleen.</s>KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, this is most unusual for the president to offer to delay, not just any domestic trip, but an international, six-day, five-nation trip to Africa, in order to settle this issue. Now, just about an hour ago, the president, on the south lawn, reiterated the demand he made in the Oval Office yesterday, that the House permanently approve this government eavesdropping program, allowing them to wiretap basically phone calls, conversations, any kind of communications with -- between suspected terrorists. The Senate approved the measure. And what they did is they always granted telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution for cooperating in such wiretapping after 9/11. That's something the White House insisted on. But the House has not included that. It wanted three more weeks to debate the issues. House Republicans said no. The president wouldn't give an extension. Right now, the law expires at midnight on Saturday, as the Congress leaves on recess. And the president says that would be a mistake.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I urge congressional leaders to let the will of the House and the American people prevail and vote on the Senate bill before adjourning for their recess. Failure to act would harm our ability to monitor new terrorist activities and could reopen dangerous gaps in our intelligence. Failure to act would also make the private sector less willing to help us protect the country, and this is unacceptable.</s>KOCH: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had an angry response for the president, saying that even if the law expires, he has everything he needs to protect the country in the interim. She said, 'He has nothing to offer but fear. I'm afraid his fear mongering on this bill is not constructive." And Pelosi went on to say if there were any adverse national consequences, which she does not expect or hope for, but she said that the president and the Republicans would not support any extension. "Bear the responsibility." Don.</s>LEMON: All right. Kathleen Koch at the White House. Thank you very much for that, Kathleen.</s>KOCH: You bet.</s>LEMON: And you saw the GOP walkout right here live in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're going to have more from Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill. She's going to get the Democratic side of and it how they're responding coming up right here in the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. WHITFIELD: Meantime, it is the newest chapter in what has become a horror story for people who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. Trailers designed to serve as temporary housing are still home to thousands of people. Well, now, the U.S. government is telling people that those same trailers could be hazardous to their health. Our Sean Callebs is following this story for us from New Orleans -- Sean.</s>SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, it has been an ongoing concern here for some time. Actually, going back to March of 2006. The concern is formaldehyde in travel trailers, as well as mobile homes. The concern is, this formaldehyde, it could be at high levels and cause breathing problems, especially among the elderly, the sick, and children as well. So, FEMA asked the Centers for Disease Control to do a study, a long-term study, looking at the potential risk. They held a news conference here just a short while ago and said, yes, there are concerns about formaldehyde in especially the travel trailers. So, what they are trying to do is get people out of these trailers as quickly as possible. Some 38,000 families are still living in the trailers. Here's what FEMA Director David Paulison had to say...</s>R. DAVID PAULISON, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: As a result of these preliminary findings, FEMA's going to continue our aggressive action to provide for the safety and well-being of the residents of these travel trailers by finding them alternative housing. Since November, we have moved out -- over 15,000 families have moved out of these travel trailers into some other housing. We're not going to wait for the final results, but we're going to work to continue or expand our actions with the residents that need to be relocated.</s>CALLEBS: And clearly, it raises a lot of concerns for people who have been living in these trailers for the past two and a half years. And there are a number of critics, especially on Capitol Hill. We had a chance to speak earlier this morning with Congressman Brad Miller. He is the chairman of the Technology and Science Committee. He is highly critical of the way FEMA has handled this entire affair.</s>REP. BRAD MILLER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: What's troubling to me, and what I think we should continue to look at, is why we didn't hear about it before and whether FEMA really acted with the kind of urgency that they should have acted with, based on the information that was available to them and whether they consciously closed their eyes to the information out of concern about public embarrassment or legal liability.</s>CALLEBS: Well, FEMA has said they acted with the best information, as quickly as they could. But getting some 100,000 people, 38,000 homes out of trailers, into some other kind of housing in this area, Fredricka, is going to be difficult. Anybody that lives here knows there are not a wealth of apartments floating around out there, there are not a lot of hotels. For example, the NBA all-star game is here this week, so hotels are at a premium. So what they are possibly looking at is moving people into mobile home trailers that have been tested for formaldehyde. It's not a popular issue with people down in this area, a real sore point. So what they are trying to do is get them out as quickly as possible. As the summer months come and the heat builds up, the big concern is getting those trailers hot and not very well ventilated. And so people -- the elderly, sick, children, especially those with breathing trouble -- could be in for a difficult summer unless FEMA can get those people out of the trailers and into some other kind of housing quickly.</s>WHITFIELD: Well, this entire experience for a lot of these folks displaced from Katrina, living in the trailers, this is entrenched distrust from the government. And now to hear this, I have to imagine when you talk to a number of people who have been staying in these trailers right now, they have to be angry.</s>CALLEBS: Well, they are. I mean, that's the bottom line. They feel they lost their homes in this disaster. Their argument is FEMA was just horribly unprepared for this entire disaster. The people living in the Gulf Coast area knew the potential was there to wipe out tends of thousands of homes if the big one came, if levees were breached, or further down in Mississippi, a storm surge coming in. Their big concern is, why wasn't there more testing ahead of time? Why wasn't there a better plan to get some kind of affordable housing up quickly? And they basically believed the government, saying this is where we want you to live, and they presumed it was safe. And now they're finding out different.</s>WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. All right. Sean Callebs, thanks so much for that update.</s>LEMON: It's up there in space somewhere, but not for long. A dead satellite with a dead computer and no controls, it's falling back to Earth and is expected to hit early next month. A senior military official said today one option being considered is to shoot it down. Shoot down the satellite with a missile from a Navy cruiser. There's a few reasons why. One, is that -- to make sure that the space junk hits the Earth in a safe place, rather than an unsafe place. And, two, it's a secret spy satellite, and whatever on board is, of course, a secret. We're expecting a news conference at the bottom of the hour. The Pentagon and NASA expected to speak. We'll bring that to you live. And we'll speak with our very own Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon after a very quick break.