Transcripts For CNN The Situation Room 20120801

that sent its bus to circle the president's event in akron dismissed the report as another liberal study and blamed the president's failed policies for the economy. and they took another shot at the president's auto bailout releasing a new ad in a state where one out of every eight jobs is tied to the auto industry. >> the dream that we've worked for and so hard for is gone. >> and if you still believe in me like i believe in you -- >> reporter: but in campaign ads and on the trail, the president routinely takes credit fer rescuing the auto industry and saving hundreds of thousands of jobs. it wasn't just autos in the cross hairs on this visit, but airplanes. air force one touched down at the national guard base in mansfield, home to the 179th air lift wing and the c-27 cargo plane. defense budget cuts threaten the planes' future and this base's mission. in a statement republican ohio senator rob portman said "these o h1n1s must be pretty frustrated to see the president drop in town and fail to give them a straight answer to end plans to end their important mission." if this moves forward, candy, yesterday when white house spokesman jay carney was asked about this, he seemed unaware of the issue. today in the gaggle aboard air force one on the way here to ohio, jay carney said that the reason for this was because of redundancy with the aircraft. but the president was committed to finding another mission for the unit there. candy. >> dan lothian, people watching how every dime is spent of government money at this point. thanks so much. the president's visit comes as polling shows him ahead of mitt romney in ohio and florida. it's hard to get more critical than that. the "new york times" survey gives mr. obama a six-point lead in both states when voters are asked who they'd vote for if the election was held today. more with cnn political analyst gloria borger. six points certainly is a pretty big lead given what these polls have been for so long. >> yeah. >> what's changed here? >> it's also significant, candy, because it's among likely voters, not just registered voters. so you're narrowing the pool to a certain degree. so it's very important. there are some real signals for mitt romney that he has to pay attention to. first of all, he's trailing with women. women are so important. in the state of ohio president obama is ahead with women by 21 points. generally mitt romney can compensate for that by doing well with men. and he's not doing as well with men as he should be if he's going to makeup for that large gender gap. also the president's plan to let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire is very, very popular with people in these battleground states. and then there's another issue that looms very large for mitt romney. and let's take a look at it. that's whether he cares about the average person. and if you take a look at this and you see does mitt romney care? 42% say he does in florida. 38% in ohio. but 49% say mitt romney does not care about the average person and 55% in ohio. that notion that he doesn't care about you or your problems is something that's been dogging him throughout this campaign. he clearly hasn't been able to shake that. >> right. it's the relatability issue. >> right. >> does he understand you and your problems? which is what elections are about. explain the head scratcher to me when which candidate seen at best at helping people. >> take a look at this number. i think it shows you that people don't really -- they're not really thrilled with either of these fellows. if elected, do you think romney or obama would help or hurt your own personal financial situation? and if you look at it, they're pretty much tied there. people believe that obama would hurt 38%, romney 37%, help, both 26%. no different at all for both of them, 34%. that was kind of stunning to me actually, because what it says to me is that maybe the negative ads are canceling each other out and it's a pox on all your houses. and people are saying, you know what, i may not like president obama, but i'm not sure mitt romney's going to be that much better. and don't forget, mitt romney's whole big spiel is the economy. and these people are saying, you know, six in one, half a dozen in the other on that. >> maybe people are thinking the government can't help me. >> right. that's right. >> neither one of these guy ks actually do it. >> and maybe they're turned off and won't turn out to vote. that's another possibility. >> that would be a problem for both of them actually. >> yes. >> so tell me about whether there's anything in there that shows that they're liking either one of these candidates. >> well, when you look at the likability, and the question is, do you view the candidates favorably? and president obama has reached the 50% mark in florida, 51% in ohio. romney significantly below him. and it's not as if people are overwhelmingly approving of the president, but 50% is really important. and also when people like you, candy, i think they're more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt as the leader. so that has always been the president's edge over mitt romney. he has to get those likability numbers up. he'll try and do it at the convention when he tries to tell people who he is, what motivates him and why he cares so much about the country. that's what happens at conventions. but at this point they're still waiting for an answer. >> and if your likability figure -- if you're looking at going i don't think either of these guys help me, it kind of matters which one you like. >> right. they still give romney some better scores on the economy generally. but on my personal financial situation, if you don't really think there's a dime's worth of difference between either of these folks, then you're going to say, okay, who do i feel more comfortable with as the leader? that could become more important. >> gloria borger, chief political analyst, thank you. >> sure. we are following developments on capitol hill where the house will vote any time on dueling proposals set to expire at the end of the year. dana bash is on capitol hill for us. dana, we know republicans have the vote to pass a one-year extension across the board all of the bush tax cuts. democrats don't have the votes for their plan to extend it just to the middle class. so i'm going to take a wild guess, this is just politics? >> reporter: it is, candy. i know you're having trouble standing still because you're so surprised by that. to be fair, just like it was just politics when the senate democrats did the same thing last week, passed their proposal, which of course is to just extend the bush era tax cuts for the middle class. the reason it's just politics is because neither side has the votes to make this become law right now. but as far as republicans go, who of course run the house of representatives, they're doing this now just before they leave for a month-long recess to campaign for re-election, all of them, because they want to really hit this heart against democrats. speaker john boehner was just on the house floor. he put it this way, summing it up saying raising taxes at this point in the economy is a big mistake. and they already have 89 democrats targeted. those 89 democrats voted two years ago to extend the bush-era tax cuts for two years many of them said because the economy was bad. and republicans point out over and over that the economy seems to be worse now. >> we know that house republicans are holding this because obviously they think it's to their political advantage to be on the record as extending all the bush tax cuts. what do democrats think, if anything, they'll gain out of this vote? >> reporter: it's interesting. they're not running from this. in fact, they're running towards this politically because they argue on the democratic side that they think that they are right when it comes to the policy goal here. they say that that is reflected in the public opinion polls, which according to many we've seen they are correct. and the public opinion polls show that most people, especially independent voters, want to extend just those for the middle class. and they also feel that they are able to really hit republicans for wanting to protect the rich. and in fact i was just e-mailing with somebody at the democratic campaign committee, the folk who is are in charge of getting democrats elected, and they say they already have some online ads ready to go in 23 districts against republicans for, as i said, trying to protect the rich for voting against just an extension on the middle class tax cuts. >> our dana bash on capitol hill. not much policy going on there, but lots of politics. thanks, dana. when we come back, we will have a new report. we'll be talking to someone at the san antonio airport. as we told you before, a bomb threat was called into that airport some time ago. it's been evacuated. incoming planes have been told to move to places far away from the airport. there are people on the tarmac of course not being allowed to go into the facilities. so we will get an update on that. plus, a top democrat says mitt romney basically paid no taxes for over a decade. a serious allegation by senate majority leader harry reid. does he have any proof? 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>> yeah. this time we do have our terminal facilities evacuated due to a specific threat that was called in to our airport earlier this afternoon around 2:00. about 2:35 local time we did evacuate our terminal facilities. we have done a sweep of one of our terminals, which is terminal b. and we are actually bringing people back into that facility. >> so these people that we're seeing -- >> this is just happening right now. >> okay. so the people we saw earlier on the tarmac and obviously it's brutally hot in san antonio this time of the year, are being allowed to come back into a terminal that's been swept, correct? >> yes, correct. we did have some medical help out there. there was nothing that was reported at this time. but it is warm out here right now. so we're trying to get some water to some of these people and get them on buses and into a safe sheltered area. we're trying to get some public transit out here to help us out. >> and tell me about incoming air traffic. what's happening with those inbound planes? >> yeah. inbound planes are being allowed to land. they're just being held out on our tarmac area away from the terminal facilities at this time. and then aircraft that we did have at the terminal facilities were backed out. and either were cleared to takeoff or are held. >> when you say a specific threat, can you just try to define that for me? is that something where someone says i have placed a bomb in this or that terminal? or is it because they mentioned the san antonio airport? >> correct. >> which one? >> it was a little bit of both. it was called in specifically to our airport. there were specific locations as well as specific numbers that were given to the people who answered the phones. >> and we are told that perhaps that specific threat was for the parking garage. can you confirm that for me? >> i can't at this time. >> okay. and how long will it take you to sweep the rest of the airport? >> again, we're working on that. we do have one whole terminal already swept and cleared for people to enter. it's just working up now on our bigger terminal, which is terminal a. and like you said, there may be some external facilities as well that need to be sweeped. >> and can you tell me, mr. johnson, when -- as far as incoming -- i have no idea how planes fly into san antonio in a given hour. are all of them that are scheduled to come in, there's still room for them one assumes? you can still have them land very far away, right? >> yeah. at this time we have plenty of room for additional aircraft. we have about 260 total flights in and out flights and about 14,000 to 15,000 passengers a day. so we're looking at now probably 10 to 13 flights. and right around 1,000 people that are affected. >> and so far we have to emphasize nothing has gone off. you've found nothing suspicious, is that correct? >> at this time i can't confirm that. >> okay. is that just because you don't know the results of the search? or you're not allowed to? >> correct. it's ongoing at this time. >> all right. great. thank you so much. rich johnson, public information officer at san antonio international. thank you so much for your time. we of course at cnn will continue to check-in, hopefully with mr. johnson and others to see what's going on there. right now of course everyone's safe. and in fact they're trying to get water to some of those folks you saw stranded out there on the tarmac. another thing we are watching very closely this election year is the balance of power in congress. right now the democrats tenuo tenuously control the u.s. senate. they have 51 votes plus the body's two independents. as of today the race for the open republican seat from texas is a lot more interesting. democrat paul sadler is the underdog against a suddenly rising republican star ted cruz. our cnn political reporter, shannon travis is here. shannon, this is sounding so familiar. tea party candidate coming out of nowhere shakes up the establishment. he kind of came out of nowhere. >> he did come out of nowhere. although a lot of tea parties have been backing this guy for a while now. do a little bit of background. it was basically a hard scrap between these two men, man-to-man. they emerged from a crowded field of republicans in a may primary. the two of them emerged and they basically went man-to-man again, political combat in this race. cruz, who was the tea party-backed candidate was outspent by lieutenant governor who is the more republican establishment type by three-to-one and yet he still won this. the other interesting, candy, is it also split the republican party down certain lines as well. you had governor perry backing his lieutenant governor and the likes of sarah palin and rick santorum backing ted cruz. again, obviously pallin and santorum are huge tea party figures. so you're seeing a bit of a battle for the soul of the republican party, if you will. at least that's what a lot of political observers and sources are telling me is this is essentially a battle for the republican party. which way will it swing? more towards the hard right tea party types or more towards the moderate establishment types. >> have you been able to sort of assess yet is this a big enough rift or deep enough rift to maybe cause some of those more moderate, more established republicans to take a good look at the democratic candidate? >> yeah, they are. a lot of democrats are saying, you know what, every time a tea party-backed candidate wins one of these republican primaries, this gives the democrat more of an opening. this is less likely in a red state like texas, but republicans on both sides are basically assessing the situation and saying, hey, you know what, do we need to move a little bit more towards the tea party? because they seem to be the ones with all the momentum and energy. or do we kind of say, you know what, we accept you, we'll let you kind of have some of your issues up at play, but we'll kind of contain you and keep you in a box. tea parties of course are saying that these are steps in a "hostile takeover of washington," that's their ultimate goal. >> lots of echoes from 2010. >> absolutely. >> shannon travis, thanks so much. there's a new development in the international fight against terrorism. bulgarian police say this man is the suicide bomber who attacked a bus loaded with israeli tourists. they're hoping somebody knows who he was and who he worked for. more on that in a minute. also, new proof of atrocities on both sides of syria's civil war. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. nature valley trail mix bars are made with real ingredients you can see. like whole roasted nuts, chewy granola, and real fruit. nature valley trail mix bars. 100% natural. 100% delicious. hand-carved on the side of a cliff is the guoliang tunnel. what?! you've got to be kidding me. 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[ male announcer ] the all-new cadillac ats. mary snow is monitoring some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. mary, there's been a sharp spike in syria's death toll after intense fighting in two major cities, damascus and aleppo. >> yeah, candy. an opposition group says 117 people were killed across the country today. syrian president bashar al assad made a public plea to his military in which he said opposition forces are using "inside agents" to destabilize the country. meantime, france promises new efforts to stop syria's civil war after it took over leadership of the u.n. security council. a look at a new computer-generated image of the suicide bomber accused of killing five israeli tourists and a bulgarian bus driver. the group arrived from tel aviv to vacation at the black seacoast resort. they have not ruled out a coordinated attack, tensions were heightened when israel implicated iran or an islamist militant group. in the u.s. an unexpected pick-me-up on the jobs front as companies add more workers than expected in the month of july. payroll processing company adp reports an increase of 163,000 jobs. that's still less than the 172,000 added in june. however, analysts say if the labor department's report on friday is similar, it could send an encouraging economic message. candy. >> and heaven knows what the economy could use is an encouraging note or at least consumers could. thanks, mary snow. appreciate it. >> sure. an allegation that could damage mitt romney's campaign if it's true. a top democrat says the candidate paid basically no taxes for a dozen years. but is there any proof? plus, the federal reserve takes note of a slowing economy. so what does it plan to do about it? details of possible action straight ahead. 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there's a lot of commentary out there that the fed is really out of ammo at this point. >> that's what many critics say. think about what the fed has done already. it's keeping interest rates at exceptionally low levels until 2014. and then sure that's helping us all finance our mortgages, finance our cars. and that's helping, but let's say the fed goes ahead and puts this stimulus into the economy, which essentially means that what the fed would do is buy up lots of treasury bonds, lots of treasury bonds. and put that money into banks. the problem is is that it's already done this twice before. so this would be the third time around. and it helps temporarily as we saw in the past, but many critics are wondering what it could do now because this is really a question about demand. just because the banks have that money, it doesn't mean they're going to want to go ahead and loan it out. they really don't have incentive to do that because interest rates are so low. so they sit on that money. and it doesn't really address the bigger problem in this country. and that is jobs. how is the fed able to get the jobs market really moving? and that is really the conundrum that the fed is in, candy. >> cnn's alison kosik, thank you. democrats trying to gin up outrage over mitt romney's taxes. joining me today cnn strategist donna brazile and ana navarro, also a cnn contributor. yesterday, ladies, in "the huffington post" saying that basically mitt romney hasn't paid taxes for like 12 years. today at an obama event we have the former governor of ohio, ted strickland, saying this. >> think of this, my friends. mitt romney pays a lower tax rate than millions of middle class workers. and he may, he may have paid no taxes at all in some years, but we don't have any way to know for sure. because mitt romney unlike his father, refuses to release his income tax returns. >> so, donna, it sounds to me when you add that up with senator reid's statement yesterday, the democrats are trying to smokeout mitt romney on his tax returns. >> i don't think the democrats are alone. if you read some of the leading editorials across the country, including "the washington post" and other significant newspapers, they're also saying, mr. romney, please show us your returns. this is not unheard of. as you know, this is something that most presidential candidates, nominees, have done since the early 1960s. i think mitt romney should follow his father's example and end this speculation and release his tax returns. he told abc news over the weekend that he would release more of his previous returns. i think the one that he released already, 2010, and still some three days later they're stonewal stonewalling. this is not just the democrats. this is media organizations and others basically asking the question, what are you hiding? >> ana, you know, at some point in every campaign's life there comes a time when an issue hits critical mass. and pushing back against it just is not worth the time and effort anymore. do you think that time is nearing for mitt romney? or do you think he's given a plausible answer for why he won't release his back taxes -- tax returns? >> i think the next few days may be very interesting because one of the things he said is he's going to release two tax returns. we're waiting for the 2011 ones. and as you know, the automatic extension period runs out for all americans august 15th. so i'm hoping to see another tax return. i wouldn't be surprised if we see another tax return in the next 15 days. that being said, i think it is highly irresponsible for somebody like harry reid, who is the majority leader of the u.s. senate, to throw out a rumor that is completely unsun stan shated and has no facts. we can all see what's happening here. democrats want to use this. they want to turn unsubstantiated rumors and insinuate that mitt romney has done something wrong. when the truth is there's absolutely no evidence that he has done anything wrong. >> ana, how do we know what the truth is? because he refuses -- he's stubborn about this. the campaign has basically stonewalled in the media. the media's requested these. of course the democrats and others will pick up on it. the speculation is out there. the only way to end the speculation is for governor romney to allow a little sunshine and just release the returns. he's running for the presidency of the united states. release the returns. put it behind him so that he can go out there and create some more gaffes. >> and, ana -- >> donna, as you know, i have said that i think he should release more tax returns. but i am so ready to move on from this issue. i mean, we have beat this rug to death at this point. it's ready to go to the important issues. and how do we know he hasn't done anything wrong is there's no indication ever in mitt romney's life that he's done anything wrong or illegal. and in the one tax return we did see and we picked over like vultures over a carcass that he had used every mechanism to pay the lowest tax rate he could. and i don't think there's anything wrong. i think every american would want to do the same. >> most don't have highly paid accountants they can use in the book. >> but she does have a point that at this point there's no evidence that mitt romney did anything other than use the loopholes that by the way washington wrote into the tax code. >> i'm not accusing him of doing anything wrong. >> right. >> i'm just saying release the returns. i work for a congressional candidate. and it was alleged that she didn't file her local taxes. we got to the bottom of it. but we didn't just release one year of returns. we had to release clearly ten years of returns. i just think that when you're running for public office, you have to expect that people want to know some things that you might feel a little uncomfortable sharing. >> donna brazile, ana navarro, thank you so much both of you. more than half of all u.s. counties have now been designated disaster zones. it's because of the drought. coming up, the latest on what that might do to your grocery bill. and today taeshl whe, espec you eat could make a big difference in your politics. questions? 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( laughter ) why's the new guy sending me emails from paris ? paris, france ? verizon's 4g lte devices are global-ready. plus, global data for just $25. only from verizon. mary snow is monitoring some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. mary, i know you have a story about more people dying from sickness in uganda. >> and, candy, health workers are desperate to stop a killer. and they are tracking anyone who may have come into contact with those infected with the ebola in uganda. 16 people are now dead including a teenage boy in a western district who also lost nine relatives to the virus. uganda's president warned people not to gather in large groups while dozens of suspected cases are investigated. higher grocery bills may be inevitable. this summer drought was devastating to u.s. agriculture. and now more than half of all u.s. counties have been declared disaster zones. the damaging conditions that stretched out across the nation's corn belt also impacted crops like soybeans, hay and land used to raise cattle. usda reports food prices could spike nearly 5% in 2013. and is your boss like a robot? microsoft is working on a mobile robot outfitted with cameras and a high-def display that would allow someone to be in two places at once. the user would sit in front of a web cam and can move around the robot even having a conversation with someone standing in front of it. robots with similar features run around $10,000 a pop. and it can also mean no more vacations either. >> exactly. exactly. i'm not sure what to make of that story. boss is a robot. we'll revisit it later. thanks, mary. >> sure. whooping cough is making a deadly comeback in the u.s. and there's concern part of the reason may be the vaccine itself. plus, the latest results from the london olympic games. you can see them now instead of later tonight. but consider that your spoiler alert. do you see it ? there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it. any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. in here, every powerful collaboration is backed by an equally powerful and secure cloud. that cloud is in the network, so it can deliver all the power of the network itself. bringing people together to develop the best ideas -- and providing the apps and computing power to make new ideas real. it's the cloud from at&t. with new ways to work together, business works better. ♪ last season was the gulf's best, tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. jonathan horton climbed all the way to the ceiling... in the middle of a department store. some parents might have scolded him. ♪ jonathan's parents gave him... gymnastics lessons. ♪ it's amazing how far you can go with a little help along the way. ♪ td ameritrade. proud sponsor of the 2012 u.s. olympic team. across the country today opponents of same sex marriage are voting with their breakfast, lunch and dinner orders. one-time presidential candidate mike huckaby -- cnn's george how el is keeping track of events in georgia. >> reporter: candy, things are much quieter at this chick-fil-a in suburban georgia. as you imagine at the chick-fil-a franchises it gets busy. but today the owner of the next door said this is the busiest he's seen the chick-fil-a. we saw a group of people from a nearby church who showed up here to take a picture in front of chick-fil-a for chick-fil-a preeshs day. also want to talk about what we saw in houston, texas. we saw lines outside the doors of the chick-fil-a franchise there. a lot of people came out to support this. and today we spoke to some people who said they want to take a stand. take a listen. >> when i heard what was happening on the news last night, i say that i will not let that stop me from going in there. after all, as far as i'm concerned, chicken ain't done nothing to nobody. >> that's probably 100 to 150 people out here today, staff and members of our church that could get by here today. and i just think it's a good feeling. we're all believers. we're all christians. it's good for us to support each other and support people that support christian values. >> reporter: so, candy, keeping it in context, we are talking about suburban atlanta. we're in the bible belt, also where this company was founded where many people understand the values of this particular company. so you find a lot of support maybe more opposition in places where the company expanded, for instance, nyu in new york. take a listen to what some students had to say about it. >> it's just bad business and bad policy, i think. that's my personal opinion. i wouldn't eat there. and i actually am surprised they're still here because i don't think that most of my friends, the people i associate, would eat there. >> i don't eat that because i don't like their policies. >> reporter: so a lot of people taking a stand on this. but you also find, candy, some people who just decided to come here regardless. >> well, that's what i was going to ask you. did you see some people were surprised to show up at chick-fil-a today in suburban atlanta to find it's the site for people to come and talk what sounds like religion and politics? >> reporter: you know, you do find that. you find some people who said, you know, this is where i typically eat lunch or dinner, for instance, and i'm going to continue doing that. i did speak with one person, candy, who said i do not agree on the company stance on same sex marriage. but this is the restaurant i like. i like the quality of the food. so this person said i'm going to continue going. but you also find, candy, those people who have taken this as a political statement to eat at chick-fil-a or to stop eating here. >> yeah. george howell, thanks, george. what's behind a deadly rise in cases of whooping could have? then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection. get great values on some of our newest models. male spirit present.trong it's the priceline negotiator. >>what? 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[ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. president obama today phoned the members of the gold medal winning u.s. women's gymnastic team. will he have more congratulatory calls to make after today's competitions? keep watching and you won't have to wait for tonight's reruns to find out because we have our resident spoiler with us here, tom foreman with today's results. >> this is our spoiler alert just as it's been the past couple days. look, if you don't want to know who won, turn away from the tv, turn the sound down for about three minutes. then come back. i'm telling you now, don't be mad if you don't pay attention. let's get to it here. jump in and look at results. start our timer here. best story of the day. kristen armstrong from boise, idaho, almost 39 years old. she is in no way related to lance armstrong. and yet she went out in the women's time trial today. she covered 18 miles in 37:35. she's bordering pushing up to almost 30 miles an hour. magnificent performance. she didn't even know she'd be back. 10, 11 years ago she had osteo arthritis so bad she didn't know if she could be an olympian. she wanted to have a son. dropped out for a while. came back today right to the finish line. look at that. the gold medal. a magnificent finish. that's her son, lucas, with her right there. she said i wanted to get him something to play with. that's something to play with. great, great, great story about a great bicycle rider. we should be very proud of her in this country. swimming, another big finish here. nathan adrian. this guy was not supposed to win. he's up against this guy called the australian torpedo. james mag neson, the world champion, wasn't supposed to win, got to the wall and reached out and in 0.001, he grabbed the gold as well. so the women in the 4 x 200 relay. big wins in the swimming arena. beyond that we had other wins that were important. bronze in men's jgymnastics. and the british picked up their first gold today in rowing. we picked up a bronze in that as well. more details on that later. the biggest story of the day, believe it or not, is this. these teams. two from south korea, one from indonesia and one from china in badminton who were disqualified because they allegedly weren't trying to play hard enough. they were basically trying to throw the matches. that's what the officials said. and they think they were trying to do it so they would have a better seed in the finals against weaker opponents. they were warned. and then they were all booted from the competition. these are some of the top teams which have left teams like canada suddenly in contention for medals who didn't think they'd have a chance at all. ama amazing, amazing story. and, candy, sometimes there is some bad in badminton. that's the lesson of the day. >> thanks for that, tom. actually, i'm really happy the brits won something. i think that's great. >> yeah. >> i think that's wonderful for them. get me up-to-date on the medal count. >> for the brits, that's the goal they were looking for. they were really happy to get that. the host team wants to win something. the women went out and road their hearts out and made something good happen. as of this hour china with 30 h total. we're right behind them. we've a pretty good catch up on this side over here. japan, france, germany up there next to us. these are the big ones up there. we'll see what happens as this depose on and how this adds up as the competition continues, candy. so really quite an amazing, amazing day. some good strides for the u.s. team. we'll have to see if they can keep that going. it's been a great, great olympics so far. i'm having a blast. >> i am too, actually. i almost put my hands over my ears when you were talking, but i can't do that. tom foreman, thanks for ruining for us today. appreciate it. here's a look at this hour's hot shots. in the philippines boys collect recyclable materials after a storm clutters the shore. in lebanon female police officers march in a graduation parade. in panama, a picture of a whale. and in china, a couple sits on a toilet-shaped seat as they enjoy their dinner. hot shots, pictures coming in from around the world. you're in "the situation room." happening now, the battle raging for syria's commercial stronghold hits a gruesome turning point. cnn's ivan watson is inside syria where rebels are beating and executing their prisoners all on tape. plus, the olympics are about playing to win. but eight badminton players have been disqualified from the summer games for allegedly playing to lose. we'll go to london for the latest. and a needle turns up in a seventh airline sandwich in a matter of weeks. is it a prank or serious cause for concern? welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm candy crowley. and you're in "the situation room." first to some breaking news out of texas. a bomb threat at san antonio international airport. planes are being kept away from the terminal. and passengers have been evacuated. we want to go straight to cnn's ed lavandera with the very latest. hey, ed. >> reporter: hey, candy. well, this has now been going on for a little more than an hour and a half. a spokesman with the airport says that terminal a has been swept and no explosive devices found there. so people are being allowed to return into that area. terminal a is still being evacuated -- is still evacuated. that's the much larger terminal, candy. that's the terminal that is host southwest airline gates as well as delta airlines gates. that's the much more used terminal there at the san antonio airport. this is an airport in the midst of a massive construction project that's been going on for several years. but what we've learned from san antonio police officers here is that they have bomb technicians. and they appear to be focusing on the parking garage -- the short-term parking garage where authorities there say that a specific bomb threat was called in that dogs inside that garage had been alerted to several swre vehicles in that parking garage. that appears to be where they're focusing the majority of their attention right now. still a very volatile situation. we're making a lot of calls to try to get to the bottom of what's going on. clearly the investigators there and teams and bomb technicians on the ground taking this threat very seriously. those terminals still evacuated. airplanes landing but not being allowed to approach or get close to the terminal. so still also hundreds of passengers on planes waiting to figure out what will happen. as i mentioned, this has been going on for little more than an hour and a half. candy. >> ed lavandera with the very latest from san antonio international airport. still evacuated at this point. thank you, ed. now to the scores of deaths in syria's bloody streets. more than 100 people have reportedly been killed just today. and there are new indications the civil war is far from over. embattled syrian president bashar al assad is em ploering his military to restore as the battle for syria's most important commercial city rages on. cnn's ivan watson is inside syria where the fight for aleppo has turned very ugly. we want to warn you that what you're about to see is very graphic and disturbing. >> reporter: the battle for aleppo is turning uglier and more vicious by the day with both sides apparently oblivious to the laws of war. on monday government and security forces clashed around the police station in eastern aleppo. rebels told cnn they were then attacked by members of the betty clan, a pro-government militia. at least 11 rebel fighters were killed. the next day their comrades went looking for revenge. capturing several members of the family, the rebels filmed and distributed video of their fighters kicking and beating two men. [ speaking in a foreign language ] the cameraman identifies one of them as a man he calls zano. we see him bloody and almost naked in a room full of prisoners. these are the betty shabiha says a voice off camera. they attacked the people of aleppo and killed 11 free syrian army members. one by one the captives mumble their names to the camera. the next rebel video shows zano and several other prisoners being led outside. don't shoot, nobody shoot, someone says. but that's not enough to stop what can only be described as a summary execution. [ gunfire ] intense gunfire continues for almost a minute. an official with a large rebel group that operates in northern syria claimed responsibility for these extrajudicial killings. in a phone call with cnn, he said the executions were carried out in retaliation for the rebels killed by the betty clan. we conducted an investigation, judged them guilty and then took them outside and carried out the execution at approximately 12:00 noon on tuesday said the spokesman who asked only to be called abu. for the last 17 months international organizations have denounced the syrian government for committing atrocities against civilians. the free syrian army has often promised its men will fight by the rules of war and treat prisoners humanely. but this week's rebel killings in aleppo suggest the start of a bloody cycle of revenge. ivan watson, cnn, reporting from northern syria. [ gunfire ] joining me now on the phone our ivan watson. ivan, the first thing that occurs to me is we cannot exactly expect that at this point in this war that there would be a geneva convention sort of agreement as to how to treat prisoners. how is it seen in aleppo? is it seen as harshly as it looks to us as we look at those pictures? >> reporter: you know, some residents i've talked to, somin habitants here in the north of the country said we think the rebels are trying to send a message to the shabiha militias that they're not invincible. that we can come and hunt them down and kill them. we've got mixed responses from some rebel commanders we know. of course the spokesman for this brigade that has claimed responsibility for the executions said, well, we investigated these guys and we judged them and we decided they should be executed. he was completely unapologetic about that. another commander we talked to said i would have preferred if there was a court of law that we could have judged these guys in, but we didn't have one. so this appears to be accepted by the handful of people i've talked to. and perhaps that's because of the incredible loss of life and suffering that they've seen inflicted by syrian security forces over the last 17 months. >> sure. and in some ways this was reminiscent to me of what we saw in libya and moammar gadhafi where we literally saw him sort of beaten to death by enraged folks after he was toppled. but let me ask you if you have any sense of how widespread this is? do you think it's confined to this one place you saw? or do you think there are prisoners in other cities or even in aleppo? >> reporter: i don't have any conclusive evidence that there have been other extrajudicial killings like this. but when you talk to the rebels who are carrying out the fighting, they have a pair of boots that they've confiscated from an army soldier after battle or a flak jacket. and you ask them, well, what happened to the guy who used to wear that helmet? inevitably they'll say he's dead. and whether or not that happened in the battle itself or immediately afterwards after somebody had been taken captive, i don't know. but it's going to be a real concern. the fact is that the international community, the international human rights groups have been condemning the damascus regime for unspeakable atrocities committed against unarmed civilians for the better part of 17 months. now many of those civilians are armed. and many of them want revenge. >> moving forward, what does this bode for the battlefield and for international acceptance of the rebel community? >> reporter: well, there are deep concerns already from some governments about the makeup of the rebels. there's been a lot of talk aboutin filtration of al qaeda and jihadists. if you see extrajudicial killings taking place, that will only amplify those concerns. the rebels are very conscious of their image. they want to present a positive face to the outside world. the rebel brigades that i've seen nearly everyone we've met they have media officers, guys whose jobs are just to follow the fighters and film and get that video online. and then in this case of these killings in east aleppo on tuesday, those guys were doing their job. there was an element of transparency there. it's just revealed a very ugly side of the conflict. >> that it did. ivan watson reporting for us from northern syria tonight. thanks, ivan. >> reporter: thanks, candy. ahead, republicans raise new questions about transparency or lack thereof at the white house. they claim obama administration officials used their personal e-mails for work. just ahead i'll ask president obama's deputy campaign manager to respond. plus, the u.s. postal service set to default on a $5.5 billion payment to the federal government. what it could mean for your mail delivery. doesn't have to take . i'm done. i'm going to... drink this... on the porch! ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] mops can be a hassle, but swiffer wetjet's spray cleaner and absorbent pads can clean better in half the time so you don't miss a thing. swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. and for dry messes big and small try swiffer sweeper vac. take the steps to reach yours, everyowith usgoals. with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advisor can help you. every step of the way. from big steps, to little steps. since 1863 we've helped guide our clients, so they can take the steps to help grow, preserve, and pass along their wealth. so their footsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank ♪ [ male announcer ] its lightweight construction makes it nimble... ♪ its road gripping performance makes it a cadillac. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with advanced haldex all-wheel drive. 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>> yes. for the first time in its more than 200-year history, the postal service is defaulting on a payment to the government. and this is really just the latest sign of the services increasing financial problems. the u.s. postal service defaulted on a $5.5 billion payment to the federal government today. >> it's a big deal to the postal service because they've never missed a payment on anything before. >> reporter: what was the money for? to cover health benefits for future retirees, prepayments that are required under a 2006 law. >> we're putting money into that account for employees that don't work for the post office yet. some of them aren't even born yet, but that was the mandate that the law did. >> reporter: it's an added strain for an already-burdened agency. a sluggish economy and the growing number of people paying their bills online have meant multi-billion-dollar quarterly losses. what does that mean for your mail delivery? in a statement the service said operations won't be effected. we will continue to deliver the mail, pay employees and other things required. postal service retirees and employees will also continue to receive their health benefits. but there are plans to cut costs by $22.5 billion by 2016 and return the agency to profitability. it's already shutting down some processing plants. and has offered retirement packages to thousands of employees. it's also cutting hours at some post offices. and wants to end saturday service. unions want to reduce the money set aside for health benefits and don't want to see services cut. >> what we're really asking is to slow down the rate of the prepayments. i think these got to be some closings and consolidations. that's modernization. it just doesn't need to be as draconian and quickly as done as what is necessary right now. >> reporter: ultimately new legislation will be needed to help put the organization on a solid long-term fiscal footing. the senate has passed legislation to help shoreup the services finances, but the house has yet to act. >> congress created the situation that the postal service is in right now. and congress can fix it. >> reporter: the postal service and postal workers hope congress is listening. >> now, candy, all this comes as you mentioned as a new memo from the postal service's inspector general says the service could begin experiencing serious cash flow problems as soon as this october in the form of $100 million shortfall. if congress doesn't act, they have a backup plan to try to continue operations, continue dealing with the mail, but the irony in all this, candy, is that the payment that was due today -- that's due today, was delayed a year ago to give congress time to deal with this issue. and here we are a year later. >> they must not know the first rule of congress, which is they expand whatever time they are given to do something and then take another couple months. i imagine if people's mail stops showing up, congress might hear about it. >> they're going to do everything they can to make sure the mail keeps going. >> thanks so much, athena jones, appreciate it. >> thanks. now, you know that the tsa, the agents at our airport security gates get a lot of grief. so we want you to stay with us for a story that's a big change. how agents rescued a kidnapped woman. also, the latest scandal at the olympics. it's in badminton. and even olympic veteran carl lewis agrees it's a whopper. >> it's like fixing. it's like fixing a game. as you know anywhere in the world, no one likes that, no one respects that. well another great thing about all this walking i've been doing is that it's given me time to reflect on some of life's biggest questions. like, if you could save hundreds on car insurance by making one simple call, why wouldn't you make that call? see, the only thing i can think of is that you can't get any... bars. ah, that's better. it's a beautiful view. i wonder if i can see mt. rushmore from here. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. mary snow is monitoring some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. mary, i hear the power's up and running in india. >> yeah. and, candy, that hopefully brings the worst blackout in history to an end. half the country lost power after two consecutive days of blackouts that affected an estimated 600 million people. although backup generators kept airports and hospitals running, the crisis is said to have revealed india's struggle to upgrade the country's power grid to meet the demands of an ever-growing population. legendary author, play write and actor gore vidal has died. the often outspoken vidal penned more than 20 novels and 200 essays. he tried unsuccessfully to run for public office twice. and he fiercely opposed the war in iraq. to miami international airport, tsa agents trained to spot terrorists save a kidnapping victim. the behavior detection officer saw a young woman trembling and trying to hide her battered face as she stood at the ticket counter. two new jersey women were arrested for beating the 25-year-old holding her against her will and forcing her to take money out of her bank account. and the uc davis police officer seen dousing seated protesters with pepper spray no longer works for the university. the lieutenant was put on paid administrative leave after the scandal last november. but he continued to collect a six-figure salary despite intense criticism, that is until yesterday. candy. >> wow. another big story out there, mary. today u.s. agriculture secretary tom vilsack designated an additional 218 counties in 12 states as primary natural disaster areas because of the drought. now, understand this, more than half of all u.s. counties now are designated as disaster zones. cnn's christine romans is talking to farmers in iowa. >> reporter: candy, i'm here in leclaire, iowa, a popular breakfast and lunch spot for farmers. and here they're talking about the drought. will it be worse than 1988? is there any chance at all for the soybean crop? while we're all talking about 1988 perspective, i met a farmer this morning who has more perspective than anybody else on this crop and what's happening here in the fields. 92-year-old harry van horst. farming, has it changed a lot. >> i walked behind a team of horses. at that time we planted about 18,000 or 20,000 kernels of plants an acre, now they plant 35,000, 38,000. that's about as bad as it was in '36. >> in '36. >> in '36 it was bad. >> it was bad in '88, bad patches in 2005. >> they weren't as bad like it is this year. this year i think's worse. >> reporter: no one here has more perspective than harry. he was farming full-time until just two years ago, candy. for the record, the first time he voted in an election, he voted for herbert hoover. one thing they're talking about here, soybeans. august is bean month. if they could get some rain, you would see soybeans do a bit better. on the optimistic side for iowans, they keep pointing out they will go on and farm next year. and since '88, one of the big differences, candy, most of these farmers do have crop insurance. they do have crop insurance. that will prevent them from losing everything, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to run out and buy a new truck. that's why the economy here will suffer no matter what. candy. >> christine romans covering the drought for us in iowa today. congressional republicans say they've discovered another problem at the obama white house that has to do with the campaign promise and e-mail. standby for details. also ahead, an olympic-size scandal. the spectators are buzzing about accusations some badminton teams actually played to lose. >> they're trying to win a gold. and they thought by losing a certain match was going to help them win overall, no problem with it. c c and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. do you have any idea where you're going ? 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[ tires squeal ] and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? here in washington republicans are raising new questions about transparency at the white house after a new report from a republican-led congressional committee revealed the obama administration has e used -- some members of the obama administration have used some personal e-mail accounts while working inside the white house and met with lobbyists outside the white house. now the white house is firing back. we have brianna keilar joining us now with details. >> the romney campaign and the rnc are seizing on this report that's been put out by a house committee -- a republican house committee important to note. it shows personal e-mails were used and that meetings were scheduled offsite to avoid there being a record in the white house visitors log. five days before health care reform passed the house, now the head of the obama campaign e-mailed a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry and he said in part, i will roll pelosi to get the $4 billion talking about the funding deal that got f pharma. it is okay for a white house official to use personal e-mail account for official business, but only if they cc or forward that e-mail from their personal account and they loop it into their official white house account. this is a legal issue. white house officials receive briefings on how to comply with the law. but, candy, on this particular e-mail -- and i've asked the white house repeatedly on this, they won't say if he looped in his white house account. a spokesman for the white house, eric schultz saying, mr. messina occasionally received a sent e-mail on a long standing personal account. when some of those e-mails contained information he took steps to official communications he took steps to preserve such e-mails. >> so let's face it, mitt romney, it's the political season. it is about politics. mitt romney is being hit very hard on not being transparent about his tax returns. >> sure. >> can we draw some lines here? >> oh, sure. this is about deflection. as you know, mitt romney has a huge problem with openness himself. he's only released his 2010 tax returns so far. he says he will release his 2011 tax return which he got an extension on before the election. and the obama campaign has made a big deal out of this. they've called for romney to release more. the romney camp is looking to deflect some of this focus by tarnishing president obama's claim by having the most transparent administration in history. and the obama administration has done a lot on transparency. for instance, they make white house visitor logs public, which is a reversal of a long standing practice of presidents, democrats and republicans. but this report though no doubt politically motivated does raise some questions that the white house is not answering. >> and i bet nancy pelosi will have a couple of them actually. >> yeah, right. >> that's quite an e-mail. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> of course. joining us now to talk about this and more, obama deputy campaign manager, stephanie cutter. it's good to see you. the white house said whatever was white house business, jim messina forwarded those e-mails, you worked at the white house, was this a common practice? did you integrate personal and official e-mails? the point being of course that white house e-mails are put into the record where as personal e-mails are not. >> right. you know, for details on this i'm going to have to defer to my friends at the white house who are handling this issue. but i can tell you for everybody working in the white house and everybody across this country, we all have personal e-mail addresses. and for our long standing relationships, they often use those personal e-mail addresses. but at the white house we were all instructed for official business to just forward those e-mails into the white house system. and so that's what we've all done. and i agree with -- i was listening to you talk with brianna earlier, and i agree with you. this is a politically-charged attack to try to deflect from mitt romney's transparency problems, which are enormous compare today this one issue. whether it's not releasing his bund lers, not releasing his tax returns, taking the hard drives with him from massachusetts. all of these things. trying to close his fundraisers even on the european trip. all of these things prevent enormous transparency problems. this is a politically charged attack and i don't think it will do anything to distract from his problem. >> right. even if the folks on the house side saw a way this might help mitt romney, it doesn't mean that what they're looking at isn't true. that's what i was trying to get at was is it a fairly common practice to end up doing business on personal e-mail accounts? >> it's not a common practice to do business on personal e-mail accounts. but if you have a friend on the outside who's used to corresponding with you on your personal e-mail address, every now and then it does happen. as i said, we are instructed to forward that into the white house system if it's official business. and that's what we do. >> let me turn you to some polls that came out today in ohio and florida. poll which largely show the president ahead both in florida, ohio and pennsylvania i should add. but inside the polls there is this number. who do you think would do a better job on the economy? in florida, the president 45%, mitt romney 47%. in ohio, the president 46%, mitt romney 45%. essentially that's a tie. why do you think that is? >> why do i think it's a tie between mitt romney and barack obama and who would be better on the economy? >> yes. what do you think when voters are asked who would do better on the economy that basically they see very little difference between the two of them? >> well, i think for several reasons. as you know, that's been mitt romney's advantage in this race for a very long time because of central premise of his candidacy has been his business experience and how that would qualify him to turn around the economy. i think voters are waking up and realizing that's not true. they're realizing what that business appearance was about. it wasn't about creating jobs, it was about creating wealth for himself and other investors. that came for real consequences for working people and communities. so i think voters are starting to become more aware of what that experience is. and i also think the other thing in those polls, candy, that i found interesting was that, you know, a majority in both states that you mentioned believe that the president's policies either are working to improve the economy or will work in the future. and, you know, they also are becoming more aware of what's actually happening, what programs are in place. key investments in education and clean energy are making a real difference. and the president's fight to protect the middle class from tax increases and to ensure that everybody pays their fair share as part of deficit reduction is something people are paying attention to and they're liking it. >> stephanie, if i'm looking at those poll numbers in who will do a better job on the economy and i know that we're looking at an election that's going to be on the economy and the president is below 50%, i think that's worrisome. >> well, i think that this is going to be a close election. and it's going to continue being a close election. and let's face it. over the past three and a half years the country has gone through a significant economic crisis. the worst economic crisis since the great depression. and it's going to take us a while to dig out. but in ohio specifically, you know, with the auto bailout, they've had tremendous growth as a result of what the president did to save the auto industry. >> so shouldn't he be doing better? >> there's stories like that in all of these states. >> shouldn't he be doing better? >> the president is going to continue fighting every single day throughout the course of this election to talk about his vision for improving the economy. and he's going to continue laying out the choice because voters do have a choice here. whether we want to build the economy from the middle out, which is what voters are responding to in these polls. or if they want to build the economy from the top down, which is what mitt romney wants to do. again, those same policies are what crashed the economy in the first place. so we're going to continue laying out the choice. this is going continue to be a very close election. those polls were great for us today. but it's not always going to be like that. everybody's going to go up and down. it's going to remain close. which is why we're working every single day to get people organized on the ground, president had a great event today. that's what we're going to keep on doing. >> stephanie, in the brief time we have left, yesterday the senate majority leader said someone at bain told him that mitt romney didn't pay any taxes for ten years. we saw ted stricklanstrickland, governor of ohio, clearly a strong supporter campaigning for president obama indicate much the same thing today. does the obama campaign have any proof that mitt romney didn't pay any taxes or that something illegal has been done? >> no, we don't have any proof. and that's not what we're saying. but what we are saying is that we don't have any information. mitt romney's asking voters -- the american people, to take his word for it. and he's running for president of the united states. and he's breaking a long standing tradition that's been in place since his father ran for president by keeping his tax returns secret. and that's a problem. and i think that lots of people are suspecting a variety of things that are in those taxes. he clearly doesn't want to release them. so what's in them that he doesn't want people to know? and those are the questions people are asking. >> okay. obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter, thanks for joining us today. >> thank you, candy. could robots one day replace human troops on the battlefield? we'll take you to a pretend battlefield where that's already happening. and another needle found in an airline passenger sandwich. are these growing number of cases connected? and how concerned should you be as a traveler? 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millions of americans will see their taxes on dividend income spike, slowing investment in u.s. companies and jeopardizing development in energy projects that create american jobs. ask congress to stop a dividend tax hike -- for all of us. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] we wanted to let you know that a law enforcement official has told cnn's ed lavandera that the all-clear has been given at san antonio international airport. these are pictures from previously. but we are told now that after more than two hours of a search of the airport no explosive device was found. as you may recall, a threat was called into the airport. it was specific enough, serious enough, they also had some bomb sniffing dogs that seemed to signal something was going on at the parking lot. they closed down the place. they sent incoming airplanes as far away as they could. they pulled all the airplanes out of their spots. but right now, again, a law enforcement source tells cnn's ed lavandera the all-clear has been given at the san antonio international airport. no explosive device found. it will probably take them a couple of hours to get back up to speed. now, the story of the day at the olympics is the scandal involving four badminton doubles teams that apparently played to lose in order to face easier opponents later on. in the end they all lost. officials disqualified them. cnn's zain has the latest. >> reporter: bad in badminton today. here in london the olympics is all about winning, but eight players decided they actually wanted to lose their matches. why would you want to do that? well, all of them had apparently qualified to the next round in the quarter finals, but they wanted to lose their games so that they would be up against a weaker team. it wasn't just about the badminton, it was also about the strategy. but everybody knew what was going on. they totally missed easy shots. they failed in some of the serves that landed up in the net. now, the ioc spokesman has come out and said it's not acceptable. the olympics chief added it's depressing and also unacceptable. the president says they're going to investigate and make sure something like this never happens again. all those eight players were booed by the fans there. listen to what the fans thought. >> it's not just to do with winning. it's the taking part in what the community gets out of it. not just athletes wanting to get gold. and china wants all the glory. it's a bit selfish. it's ruining the olympic spirit. it's not taking part. it's ruining it. >> i think it's a shame that they don't play like they should play. and, yeah, it's a shame for the sport. in my eyes they should be stopped or be thrown out. >> i think it's appalling. if i'd been here watching that, i would be really disappointed to pay all that money to come and watch that would have been really disappointing. it's really let's the sports down really. >> i'm appalled they wanted to play it that way. but i would like to know who gave them the instructions to play it like that. and if it was senior in their squads, then maybe they should be kicked out. >> reporter: the fans are angry. they want their money back. some paid more than $100 to watch some of these matches that were supposed to be the best the world has to offer in badminton. now, none of the players it seems are going to be able to play because their appeals have been rejected for south korea, for indonesia they've withdrawn their appeal. and the chinese say they're going to launch an internal investigation. candy. >> zain vegee in london for us. imagine a day when robots replace human troops in combat. pentagon correspondent chris lawrence shows us. >> reporter: welcome to robot boot camp. >> so this is the desert, on the floor we have sand. it's about two and a half feet deep. >> reporter: where robots dig for bombs in bone dry deserts. or endure the heat of a human rain forest. >> there are places you'll sink into the mud three or four feet. >> reporter: they've learned to block out battlefield sounds. [ gunfire ] >> from all around. >> reporter: yeah. gunfire there. gunfire there. or dive under water to detect mines. all under one roof in the nation's capital. in other words, what looks and honestly feels like a humid dense rain forest somewhere deep in southeast asia is really just the other side of an air-conditioned lab right here in washington, d.c. remember, navy seals aren't built in air-conditioned labs. so why should its robots get a pass? at the naval research lab's newest center, they can tweak the temperature from nearly 400 degrees to 50 below. >> computers have perfect memories. people do not. >> reporter: so they're starting to develop robots that can respond to real troops, the kind that get exhausted or anxious and make mistakes. >> the fire is in the center on the floor. >> reporter: meet lucas who is training to fight fires on board a navy ship. >> hello, lucas. >> hello. >> the fire in compartment three has been contained. >> reporter: he tells lucas there is a fire in compartment five. >> wait for laura then follow me there. >> reporter: but look what happens when laura gets mixed up. >> let's head to compartment three. >> there must be a misunderstanding. you think that compartment three is not under control, but it has been contained. >> you want the robot to understand that people can make those mistakes. >> reporter: the military wants robots that don't have to be commanded every step of the way. >> fire extinguished. >> reporter: that can take at least some initiative in battle. >> i used to joke around that if a robot were 100% autonomous, it would be in miami sipping motor oil on the beach. >> reporter: maybe 50% autonomous is plenty. chris lawrence, cnn. a needle turns up in a seventh airline sandwich. is it a prank or a serious cause for concern? and a california professor behind bars accused of a lethal plot at the school his son attended. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've been years in the making. and there are many years ahead. join the millions of members who've chosen an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. go long. insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. i wish i could keep it this way. [ dr. rahmany ] you see, even after a dental cleaning... plaque quickly starts to grow back. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste can help. it not only reduces plaque... it's also clinically proven... to help keep plaque from coming back. plus, it works in these other areas dentists check most. ♪ new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste. life opens up when you do. for extra plaque protection try new crest pro-health clinical rinse. flight found a sewing needle in a sandwich. founds similar to needles in food on delta flights. cnn brian todd is looking into it. >> reporter: whether it is part of a prank or something else, what is clear there's a pattern causing concern among experts about the screening of airline food. two airlines, seven sandwiches, heightened anxiety. a passenger found a sewing needle in a catered sandwich on an air canada flight from victoria british columbia to toronto. the passenger suffered a minor injury. the airline says it is investigating and working with caterers to tighten security. it follows reports of needles found in six sandwiches on delta flights from amsterdam to the u.s. two weeks ago. >> when i felt to see what it was, i pulled it out, here it was a needle about one inch long, looked like a sewing needle, sharp on both ends, didn't have an eye on one end. >> reporter: the fbi and dutch authorities are investigating that case. dutch officials say some of the sandwiches, including one in an abc news photo just arrived at the amsterdam airport where they're being forensically examined. tom fuentes believes they are pranks, not plots. >> why would they bring pain and suffering to a passenger biting into one, not likely to be lethal in the long run, and would be detectible condition can aid and and dutch officials say there is no link between the incidents, but there's one connection. cape gourmet is a catering company that serves delta airlines. they acknowledge it came from their facilities. they say they serve air canada but was not the prior from there. a gate gourmet spokesperson says they're working with airlines to enhance screening of the food. i asked the former top israeli official about that. how do you screen items? >> not everything needs to be screened, not screening is the best solution to prevent forbidden items from getting aboard. in the case of catering, obviously catering is being prepared in a specific location, and this is the place where the security procedures need to take place. >> reporter: ron says airline caterers have to start by vetting employees better. the security concerns go way beyond sandwiches and prepackaged food. to give you an idea how tough it is to screen it, one expert says between food, knives, forks, spoons, blankets and things, there are an average of 40,000 small items loaded onto one jumbo jet for one long haul flight. candy? >> thanks, brian. a respected california professor appears to lose it after his son commits suicide. details ahead. s ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it. any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. 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"the situation room" continues with kate. the tea party has new hope for wins in november. and it is a day of dueling demonstrations of chick-fil-a. i am kate bod won. you're in "the situation room." it is the most severe and expensive drought to hit the united states in a quarter century, now it is worse, much worse. more than half the counties in the country have been declared disaster zones because of the drought. photos show the destroyed crops, lakes like this one in illinois that are bone dry. the severe weather expert chad myers is standing by. first, i want to go to brian todd with more on the spreading drought disaster. brian, july is going down as one of the driest months on record. how bad was it? >> reporter: we spoke to the lead climatologist in the state of iowa. iowa is the number one corn producer in u.s. the climatologist gave a stark picture. as end of july, july was recorded as the fifth driest month in 140 years. fourth warmest month in iowa in the same time period, 140 years. july of course one of the key months for the growing of corn in iowa and in that region. so it is stark there. overall, across the country, it isn't much better. two-thirds of all the livestock, two-thirds of the crops in this country now are produced and cultivated, cared for in areas that experienced at least moderate drought. kate, it is a grim picture across the country, but especially in the corn belt. >> absolutely. the pictures really tell the story here. what does this mean? viewers want to know for food prices across the u.s. >> reporter: corn is key, especially in these regions of iowa. corn and other crops like it, corn effects the packaged and processed foods across the country. what experts tell you, it takes about a year for a surge in corn prices to play out among other foods. takes about a year for that to play out in actual food buying process. about this time next year, you're going to feel it. what the usda is saying now is that food prices overall in the u.s. could surge as much as 4.5% next year. get ready to feel it at the grocery store. >> brian, i know there's conversation or talk of this in washington, but what is the federal government planning to do to help farmers through all this, if anything? >> reporter: well, it has gone beyond the talking stage at this point, kate, because the u.s. department of agriculture and the secretary tom vilsack announced they're going to provide april extra almost 4 million acres of conservation land for glazing for livestock. it is land they normally preserve, won't let livestock trample over it. right now, the situation is so dire, they're providing almost 4 million acres of conservation land for glazing and livestock because the land is moister, it has more quality. that's the first step. the usda said insurance companies will give them a grace period for paying insurance premiums 30 more days. farmers getting a financial boost to get through it. they need all the help they can get. 30 days may not cover it as far as financial concerns of farmers now. >> well said. also so interesting, july is a key growing season, growing month and tough go of it for so many farmers. brian todd, thank you so much. want to bring in our severe weather expert chad myers to go more in depth. chad, how did things get this bad? >> it was hot a long time. remember that about summer. then it didn't rain. big ridge of high pressure took all the rain to canada. there are only very few areas, kate, that aren't effected by this disaster declaration, parts of the dakotas, minnesota, parts of eastern nebraska, western iowa. there's something growing there in the dry land areas and small areas here into michigan and wisconsin as well. everywhere else, this is the map of where the disaster areas have hit. let me just tell you, give you april idea. in illinois, they typically grow 12.8 million acres, some didn't grow. means a loss of at least 50% yield, some spots more than that. >> amazing. chad, i want to shift our attention. there's some amazing pictures coming out of california, some fire pictures out of riverside, california. what can you tell us about this fire and what people are facing here? >> this is kind of the santa rosa plateau area. i have been watching this fire for a few hours. firefighters think they're getting a handle on it, then a spark will jump ahead. winds have been gusting almost 17 to 20 miles per hour. and as soon as they see all the areas that are done, then all of a sudden another area of fire pops up. and there you see that, firefighters around there, foscheck is a fire stopper, they put that red dye in it so they know where they dropped the last batch so they don't drop it on top of it again. >> get a handle ton quickly. people in colorado are dealing with devastating fires there. a tough go for so many people. chad myers, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. turning to presidential politics and a boost for the obama campaign. new polling shows the president leading mitt romney in three key states, pennsylvania, florida, ohio. obama gets 50% support or slightly better in all three states in this recent poll, zeroing in on ohio. obama is six points ahead of romney in the quinnipiac, "the new york times" poll. he is driving home the importance of the election in november. dan lothian joins me live from akron. dan, what was the president's message this time? >> reporter: the message was he is fighting for the middle class, details the progress he made so far, pointed out to supporters, there are no quick fixes, then he went after mitt romney. he said what he is offering is not a plan and not a solution for the americans that taxpayers can support. >> girl? >> yes. >> reporter: it is standard operating procedure, drop in for burgers or sweets at popular local spots. >> i think this would be perfect for michelle. >> reporter: a photo op meant to reinforce his message, that he is looking for small business owners and middle class americans and mitt romney's plans will only benefit the rich. >> folks making $3 million a year or more get a quarter million dollar tax cut. >> reporter: to drive that point home, he touted a new report by the tax policy center. it didn't specifically analyze romney's plan, but found similar proposals benefit high income families, increase the tax burden on the middle class. >> doesn't that sound like a good plan for economic growth? does that sound like a plan you can afford? >> reporter: the romney campaign that sent its bus to circle the president's event in akron dismissed that report as another liberal study and blamed the president's failed policies for the economy. >> i received a letter from general motors. >> reporter: they took another shot at the president's auto bailout, releasing a new ad in a state where one of eight jobs is tied to the auto industry. >> the dream that we worked for and that we worked so hard for was gone. >> and if you still believe in me like i believe in you. >> reporter: in campaign ads and on the trail, the president routinely takes credit for rescuing the auto industry and saving hundreds of thousands of jobs. it wasn't just autos in the cross hairs this visit but airplanes. air force one touched down at the national guard basin mansfield, home to the 179th airlift wing and c-27 cargo plane. defense cuts threaten the base's future and mission. rob portman said these ohioans answered the call to serve, must be pretty frustrated to see the president drop into town and fail to give them a straight answer about his plans to end their important mission. yesterday, white house spokesman jay carney seemed unaware of the issue when asked about it in his briefing. today he said president obama was committed to finding another mission for that unit. kate? >> dan lothian in akron, ohio. thank you very much. safe travels back home. a big story in politics, a major tea party victory by a grass roots senate candidate. what it could mean for the future of gridlock on capitol hill. and new information about israel's plans for an attack on iran. leon panetta tells what he knows in an exclusive interview. 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[ sparking ] now, that's progressive. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank. an upset primary victory in texas is giving the tea party new hope of influencing the balance of power in congress. democrats now control the u.s. senate with a slim majority, 51 members with two independents that vote with democrats. and there's new excitement in texas for the open republican senate seat there because the tea party favorite, ted cruise, beat an establishment candidate for the gop nomination. bring in our senior congressional correspondent dana bash. what are you learning about mr. cruise and the potential impact of his win? >> reporter: the answer to that is that if ted cruise does win in november, it won't do anything to change the balance of power next year in the senate, but could do a lot to change the tone. a gop texas up start with a familiar tea party rally cry. >> millions of texans, millions of americans are rising up to reclaim our country, to defend liberty and to restore the constitution. >> reporter: 41-year-old ted cruz walloped the establishment candidate in the primary with this promise. >> politicians cut deals. principled conservatives deliver. >> reporter: democratic leaders warn if cruz wins in november, gridlock in the senate will be worse. >> anyone elected to the senate who starts by saying i won't compromise isn't going to help us. >> reporter: the tea party is a good foil for democrats. but some say it won't make a difference. he replaces kay bailey hutchinson and she votes with establishment most of the time. but like any senator, it could grind things to a halt. >> one senator says no, we stop the train. >> reporter: cruz isn't the only one to do that. he beat lugar and vowed confrontation over compromise. >> what i said and continue to believe, one side or the other must prevail. i hope this candidate da see will move the republican party forward to become the majority. >> reporter: and the senate will be a polarized place. so many moderates chose to leave. nearly a half dozen retiring this year. still, it is an open question whether tea party rhetoric on the campaign trail translates into action in office. two years ago, a handful of tea party backed senators promised to hold their own leadership's feet to the fire to slash spending, shrink the government. rand paul on the patriot act. >> call your leadership in washington, tell them you're unhappy. >> reporter: jim demint is a tea party -- >> ted cruz comes in, he can empower some democrats to make those hard decisions. >> reporter: he argues the more tea party backed senators, the less gridlock. >> i think there are enough democrats if we have a strong mandate election who will work with people like ted cruz, marco rubio, pat toomey and new senators in a sensible way to change the course of our country. >> reporter: but in talking to republicans in the hallways here, it is clear that republican leaders understand if they do succeed winning control of the senate next year, they are going to have a lot different pressure on them. expectations are going to be very high. >> give the viewers an update where things stand in the house as the house is taking up a vote on extending bush era tax cuts. hugely contentious issue this year. >> reporter: hugely contentious, highly political vote that republicans in the house are holding. if you take a look, you can put it on the screen now. not a surprise, this bill has already looks like passed. republicans successfully passed it. what we are looking for is to see how many democrats cross-over, feel the pressure to vote for this. this is a one year extension of all bush era tax cuts. looking at the screen. looks like 20 democrats have voted yes. a lot fewer than two years ago when they voted to extend it for two years. i think there are 86 democrats still in the house who voted for the two year extension. >> a hugely political vote as we know, going back and forth in the senate, but not going anywhere at the moment. >> reporter: not going anywhere at the moment, this is not going to become law, just like senate democrats did last week when they passed their version of this, just to extend the middle class tax cuts, it is just so they have for the five week recess, which they're going on tomorrow, to have this as a political issue to head into the campaign. >> dana bash, thank you so much. so is israel any closer to taking military action against iran? defense secretary leon panetta tells cnn what he learned from the israelis. stand by for that in an exclusive interview. did an american cyclist make a huge come back from injury? we give you the olympic results before they air on prime time tv. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. high up in the atlas mountains of morocco. have you seen this road we're going down? ♪ there is no relief for the brakes. we'll put them to the test today. all right, let's move out! [ ross ] we're pushing the ats brakes to the limit. going as fast as we can down the hill. we are making these sharp turns, slamming on the brembo brakes. [ derek ] it's like instant response, incredibly consistent. this is the challenge, machine vs. mountain. [ male announcer ] the all-new cadillac ats. taking a look at pictures now, this chopper picture was closer, hopefully they'll zoom in again so you can see it. pictures of a fire engulfing a home in riverside, california, riverside county, california. a fire we were talking about earlier with our severe weather expert chad myers, just amazing to see the damage it is doing now. you're looking at the pictures just live here in "the situation room." so sad as they work to contain the wildfire. thank you to our affiliate for helping us with the live pictures. moving on, the prime minister of israel warns that time is running out for a peaceful solution to iran's nuclear defines. benjamin netanyahu met with leon panetta in jerusalem, the subject of possible israeli came up. >> reporter: it dominated international diplomacy all year. will israel attack iran's nuclear facilities, and if so, when. in an exclusive interview with cnn, while in jerusalem, meeting with israeli leaders, defense secretary leon panetta told me what he had heard. >> reporter: what have the israeli told you about their current assessment, how close iran is to having a nuclear weapon? >> they have not made a decision. >> reporter: not made a decision to do what? >> not made a decision to whether they're going to attack iran. >> reporter: it seems iran is yet to decide whether to transform its growing nuclear program into a bid to build a nuclear weapon. but panetta and the israeli agree that iran's uranium enrichment program brings it ever closer to a weapons capability. and that would push the u.s. and israel into making the decision about what to do next. a decision that may not be far away. >> point in the intelligence community, if they made the decision to develop the enriched uranium, develop the weaponization they would have to do, probably looking at approximately a year. >> reporter: he is stepping up his own talk of a possible u.s. strike on iran, in case diplomacy and growing sanctions fail. current sequence of meetings between iran and major powers have yet to yield any agreement. >> if for some reason that doesn't work and they make the decision to proceed with the weapon, then we have options to deal with that militarily if necessary. >> reporter: all that's required is a political decision. >> we remain fully prepared to be able to exercise whatever option the president of the united states decides with regard to this issue. >> reporter: and what about the israeli? defense minister says yes, the sanctions against iran are tightening, but he doesn't believe they're going to change their minds and give up the nuclear program. barbara starr, cnn, jerusalem. president obama is willing himself as the underdog in fund-raising. is his campaign getting desperate for cash? and an alarming rise in a childhood disease, new worries a common vaccine may not be enough. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] ♪ [ snoring ] [ male announcer ] introducing zzzquil sleep-aid. 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[ screaming with excitement ] and move out now. ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new cadillac ats. ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new cadillac ats. you know what's exciting? graduation. when i look up into my students faces, i see pride. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm kate bolduan. i am going to look at the new presidential polls in three battleground states. president obama is leading mitt romney among likely voters in ohio, florida, and pennsylvania. the real question is why? let's talk about that and much, much more with democratic strategist and former obama spokesman bill burton, he is part of the pro-obama super pac, and joining me economist, former nixon speech writer, ben stein. thank you, gentlemen, for being with me. sorry we are not all in the same room. let's dig into the poll numbers. ben, to you, looking at the polls, it is a pretty tight race when you look specifically on their handling of the economy and romney has really been polling well in terms of his business credentials. that's really what he is running on. it begs the question to me, shouldn't he be doing better in terms of these polls? i mean, they're one, two, three points apart in how they're handling the economy. >> i think mr. romney would do a lot better if he had an actual plan. he can point out that mr. obama has failed to arrest the unemployment very much, failed to arrest the general feeling of malaise, failed to address america competitive with china, failed to address the budget deficit. he failed at all these things, but mr. romney who not displayed a better, more convincing plan. mr. obama is a more charismatic candidate. that's the problem. by all reasonable accounts, people should be holding obama to blame, they're not i think because mr. romney hasn't shown why he could do better. >> in short, in 100 days or less if you were advising him, how would you advise mitt romney to step it up. >> i would get serious heavy duty thinkers in the world of economics, way beyond me, to come out with a serious, realistic plan, not just a plan for less regulation, but a meaningful plan to resolve the deficit crisis and get the economy stimulated. the problem is there is no such plan. there is simply nothing either of them can do. we're really stuck in a very difficult situation. so he just can't magically come up with a plan. there is no magic plan. >> bill, let's look at it from a different way. you will say this is music through a democrat's ears when you hear that from ben stein. look at the polls specifically in ohio, maybe we can throw out the numbers again. ohio where the president campaigned today is leading, obama is leading romney by six points. when it comes to his handling of the economy, he is only leading by one point. does that mean there are other things at play in what's influencing the election, and more so, does it still show the economy is a dragon t on the ob campaign? >> i think there are a lot of factors. if i am the romney campaign, the thing that makes me nervous are the top line numbers. it is the fact if you look underneath those numbers, some of the things that people now think about mitt romney that they didn't previously, for example, that when he was in private business, he was more worried about profits than the middle class and that that would carry into the kind of president that he would be. i actually think the reason the president is doing well in these states is because he has shown a great deal of economic leadership and the american people, especially in places where the race is really engaged think that he was dealt a tough hand and has a better vision for the country than mitt romney does. i don't take a lot of stock in the fact he has these leads now, it is a short snapshot of where we are. i more think it is the undercarriage that people ought to be watching, the fact that people just don't trust mitt romney on the economy. you would think maybe they did in such a tough economic climate for the president. >> do you think that's what the problem is, ben, that they don't trust mitt romney with the economy? >> i don't think it is so much that. i think it is a huge issue that he has not shown his income tax returns. i must say, even my republican friends are very -- almost all my friends are republicans -- are very concerned he has not shown more income tax returns and it would be good if he did, unless it showed he paid zero tax, that would not look good. what the body of journalists has ignored, when he was at bain capital making enormous profits, he wasn't just making them for himself and children, he was making them for endowment funds for universities, pension plans for municipal and state workers. those profits were going to fund retirement of middle class americans. in terms of what he has done for middle class americans at bain capital, he did an awful, awful lot. although mr. obama's economic leadership plan may look good to mr. burton, the results have been quite disappointing, to put it mildly. >> just on this point. >> go ahead. >> for starters, i think the private sector growth of 4 million jobs in the recovery is pretty impressive. the point ben made about the pension funds that did better, in fact, there are cases where mitt romney came in and helped drive companies into bankruptcy, and even when his investors lost money, like the investors that ben stein is talking about, he still made money, they made a profit at bain because of the way they structured the deals. >> that was a small part. >> in many cases. if i take off my personal hat and put on my analyst. >> it is malpractice mitt romney hasn't talked about his business experience. the fact he hasn't, it has an impact on what people think about him and has turned off voters. >> i have one last question. bill, you're big on fund-raising, part of the obama super pac. he donated $5 million of his own money. this is what he wrote to supporters. he says what i gave won't be enough to sur mount the unprecedented fund-raising we have seen on the other side, both from the opponent's campaign and outside special interest supporting him. this is not the first e-mail we have seen. the obama campaign is trying to bill itself as the financial fund-raising underdog. why do they have to seem so desperate? >> i don't think it is a move of desperation. i think it is a moment the president is saying all hands on deck, including mine. he thinks everybody ought to get involved. if democrats don't get involved in the wave of special interest money that will come into right wing groups is going to be very difficult to beat in the fall. >> one final thought from you, ben? >> the matter of fact, the truth is the democrats overwhelmingly outfund raised the democrats this time and last time. all the figures from the democrats are myth, data from all sorts of democrats have wildly outraised the republicans this time and last time. >> the money a big story this election. ben stein, thank you very much. bill burton, thank you as always, gentlemen. talk to you soon. we have new information about the u.s. involvement in syria. want to bring that to you after the break. stay with us. it's something you're born with. and inspires the things you choose to do. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. it's hard to see opportunity in today's challenging environment. unless you have the right perspective. bny mellon wealth management has the vision and experience to look beyond the obvious. we'll uncover opportunities, find hidden risk, and make success a reality. bny mellon wealth management bringing new information into "the situation room" about u.s. involvement in syria. want to go to the state department for the details. what do you have? >> reporter: we have seen the u.s. is thinking of ramping up support for syrian rebels battling the president assad. we understand the president signed an intelligence finding. it is an authorization that authorizes covert assistance to the rebels. have to be careful to note it is not lethal assistance. the u.s. made quite clear it is not ready to arm the rebels, allies like turkey, saudi arabia, qatar, the u.s. is stepping up assistance. not sure when the president signed the authorization, we believe in the last few months. what it does, it allows the u.s., cia and other intelligence agencies to provide covert assistance, things that might be classified. we also see the u.s. has been ramping up assistance to the rebels, signed a license from the treasury to allow other groups to start supporting the rebels, but all has to be nonlethal assistance. u.s. not ready to arm the rebels, leaving it to other allies, but stepping up intelligence cooperation. >> that's a significant development, while as you note, there are a lot of calls in the u.s. for actually arming the rebels, giving that kind of assistance. it is a significant development as bloodshed continues in that country, especially in aleppo. some amazing, shocking images from there. elise levitt, thank you so much. it has been busier than usual at chick-fil-a restaurants across the country. one time presidential candidate declared august 1st chick-fil-a appreciation day in support of the president that's a vocal opponent of same sex marriage. among those following that advice, sarah palin. >> going to chick-fil-a, we are on the way to missouri to help a campaign, then nebraska and iowa. today we're in phoenix where there's good chick-fil-a. can't wait to eat the waffle fries and spicy chicken. >> supporters of same sex marriage are trying to organize same sex kiss day at you probably guessed, chick-fil-a restaurants, getting people talking across the country. straight ahead. any parent that heard it can never forget the sound of whooping cough. now there's a spike in the number of cases. and the latest results from the london olympic games. giving ayou a spoiler alert. 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[ engine revs ] the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. it is one of the more frightening diseases of childhood, one that many experts thought we had under control. there's an alarming rise in cases of whooping cough. suspicion is on the vaccine itself. mary snow is working that story. this is pretty scary. what are you finding out? >> it is. the u.s. is on track to have the highest number of cases since 1959. a lot of questions behind what's behind the spike. a new study looks at how effective vaccines are. she says she had never heard of whooping cough, until the day she gave birth to her son, devon. doctors warned her about it then and there. she didn't hesitate to get him vaccinated when he was two months old. >> i am very worried. i heard that cough causes a lot of -- it can choke him, it can possibly -- he could turn blue. >> the concern comes as the cdc reports more than 19,000 cases of pertussis or whooping cough so far this year. that would be a 50 year record outbreak. pertussis can cause violent, rapid coughing pushing air from the lungs, and leaving those battling with it to inhale with a whoop sound. it can be fatal in some infants. nine babies in the u.s. died from it this year. increases in whooping cough are reported in 37 states, the highest rates in washington and wisconsin. >> if protection wears off even slightly faster, pertussis is transmiscible. if you send somebody into a room with 100 people, that person has pertussis, about 15 people are going to get it if susceptible. >> the vaccine is being closely examined following changes to it in the 1990s. a new study from australia, published in the journal of the american medical association found the newer vaccine was not as effective as the older one. clark says while the study is a small one, he believes it is important and says the cdc is working to confirm the results. in the meantime, doctors are raising awareness of whooping cough, which at first can mimic symptoms of the common cold. >> infants at greatest risk of pertussis or whooping cough. >> nine babies died from it this year. this pediatric pulmonologist says in babies, coughing is not necessarily a symptom. >> a six week old came in, stopped breathing seconds at a time. >> yes. >> you knew right away it was whooping cough. >> yes. >> he is encouraging mothers to get children vaccinated. you can't get it until two months old. at four months, devon is on round two of five doses of the vaccination nation. his mother hopes it will protect him from the disease she's now expert in. >> the cdc is encouraging adolescents and adults to get a booster does. the newest recommendation is for pregnant mothers to do the same. until they get that, they're depending on people around them to protect them from getting sick. >> so scary. mary, thanks so much. >> sure. want to bring you more pictures from our affiliate, wkal and pictures of a wildfire we've been tracking for more than an hour now, really. when we last saw it, this wildfire in riverside county, california, was moving towards this home. but now it's completely engulfed this home, as you can -- this is 80 miles, i'm told, from los angeles. this poor family. you can see it's just absolutely engulfed this home and firefighters are obviously working to contain this fire. but we have these live pictures now, thank you to our affiliates for bringing that us to. we'll continue to track that as well. find out who won gold at the london olympics before the results air on primetime tv. you'll see it right here first in "the situation room." ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs g of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. mary snow is back monitoring the other stories right now coming into "the situation room." what do you have? >> at the san antonio international airport, police have given the all-clear on three vehicles inside the parking garage after a caller claimed there were bombs planted inside. nearly 1,000 travelers and workers were evacuated. an airport spokesman said several planes were held on the tarmac for safety but they were being allowed to deplane into the terminal building. to miami international airport, two tsa agents trained to spot terrorists say the kidnapping victim -- officers saw a young woman trembling and trying to hide her face as she stood at the ticket counter. two new jersey women were arrested for beating the woman and forcing her to take money out of her bank account. and an inmate set to walk the green mile gets a job at a state pen instead. chief, set to be euthanized, is now at angola prison where he patrols the ground. budget cuts led to the prison using dogs to guard inmates. it worked well enough, they are now breeding the wolf dog hybrid. >> this is the first time i've heard of the wolf dog hybrid. learn something new every day. mary, thank you so much. more u.s. athletes won gold today at the olympics. stay right there and you won't have to wait for tonight's reruns to find out who the winners are. spoiler alert, cnn's tom foreman is keeping track of all the big stories at the games. hey, there, tom. >> hey, kate. as we always say, it's a spoiler alert. turn your sound down. turn your soiund down if you wat to to know. christian armstrong almost 39 years old, great, great story. she won the gold in beijing. didn't know if she was going to compete this time around. she went out there, blew the doors off and won gold, big-time. there she is with her son, lucas. oldest woman to ever accomplish this, huge win for the u.s. in gymnastics, danell leyva won the all-around gymnastics bronze medal. before that, it was in the 1980s when we did this. this little trick right here, ki do that, but i don't like to show off. that was a huge, huge, wonderful thing for him. swimming was also a big event today. the women in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay grabbed gold. and this swim by nathan adrian, he wasn't supposed to win. he was against an australian guy who was a missile who was supposed to win. at the end, he edged him out by 0.01 second. he got the gold. that was a huge breakthrough there. terrific showing by all of our athletes today. the medal count, let me bring it up here, there's the medal count for the day, china, 30, usa, 29. 17 golds to 12. very tight race at the top. >> tom was joking on the reference to a member of congress, tom. you're a wild man. >> i've seen it. >> tom foreman, thank you so much. we've all had bad service at a store, at some point in our lives. but wait until you see one clerk's over-the-top rant on video. but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and save you up to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about. and which aarp medicare supplement plan works best for you. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and you'll never need a referral to see a specialist. there's a range of plans to choose from, too. and they all travel with you. anywhere in the country. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. call today. remember, medicare supplement insurance helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay -- expenses that could really add up. these kinds of plans could save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs... you'll be able choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. and you never need referrals. so don't wait. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. this easy-to-understand guide will answer some of your questions, and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. if you've ever been treated badly by a store clerk, you might want to have your cell phone camera ready the next time it happens. a man in florida did. it land him and that rude employee in this report by jeanne moos. >> reporter: we've all experienced bad service. but what do you call it when you're served a middle finger? holding the camera was a guy named chris who came into this 7-eleven in orlando, florida, with his 3-year-old son. the worker asked the boy if he wanted a ride on the broom she was using. the dad said, no. he said she started yelling. >> i asked her to stop. i said, if you don't stop, i'm going to record you and put it on youtube. and she kept going. >> get out of my face. >> reporter: chris complained to the manager. >> she just gave me the finger. i have it on video. >> reporter: but this was only part one. guess who showed up with an upraised finger? you can hear chris' son asking a very good question -- >> what doing? >> this lady's chasing us in the car. there she is again, chasing me down in her car. >> reporter: maybe this is her idea of curb service. but both drivers stayed in their cars. >> i'm being followed by this lady. i'm an armed citizen. >> reporter: at least no shots were fired. actually, the only thing fired was the employee, which explains the "now hiring" sign. we weren't able to track down the worker to get her version of events. and neither the 7-eleven's manager nor corporate headquarters would comment. but chris had this reaction to the employee's firing -- >> i'm very happy with it. by her actions, she should have been arrested. >> reporter: instead of pressing charges, chris pressed his case in the court of public opinion, a.k.a. youtube where he chewed her up, chewing her out. you can't say this worker never lifted a finger. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> only jeanne. that's all for me. i'll be back tomorrow. i'm kate bolduan right here in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, a report tonight says mitt romney's tax plan would raise taxes for 95% of americans. does it add up? and as chick-fil-a faces outrage over its stance on gay marriage from some quarter, amtrak unveils new ads, ride the pride. and a kidnapped woman going through security, let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, ouch. a report today from the tax policy center says that mitt romney's tax plan would raise taxes on 95% of americans. now, mitt has promised a 20% tax cut to everyone. so whose math adds up -- mitt's or the tax policy center's? it's sort of like an olympic boxing match. today, the romney camp threw a punch fast and early, pointing out that one of the authors was a former aide to president obama. as the romney campaign wrote to us, that is, quote, hardly objective. true, one round to mitt. but for the romney campaign, we checked the other two names on the report, and one author was a former aide to george h.w. bush, the final one worked for both bush and obama. round two to barack. let's lay out the substantive charge f. report says if mitt romney's plan becomes reality, tax revenue, because he's going to be cutting marginal tax rates, will drop by $360 billion in the first year alone. that means if it's revenue-neutral, someone must pay $360 billion more. again, that's if it's revenue-neutral, which is something mitt romney specifically promised in february. romney's economic

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