good evening. i m tom foreman in for erin burnett. breaking news. a suicide attack stopped just short of the capitol steps. new details at this hour about the plot. authorities say the would be bomber had conducted a test in west virginia. chose the attack at a d.c. restaurant and allegedly told investigators he wanted to kill people, quote, face to face with an ak 47. if the investigation had not gone well, if detectives had not done their jobs, our lead story tonight would in short be a calamity. inste instead, the fbi and u.s. capitol police stopped it cold. he was arrested in a sting operation when undercover agents posing as al qaeda operatives gave him a fake suicide vest. it contained no explosives, so the public was not in danger. tonight, he is behind bars. brian todd is in alexandria, virginia, where he made an initial appearance today and was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. what are you hearing this evening about this alleged plot? to
new details at this hour about the plot. authorities say the would be bomber had conducted a test in west virginia. chose the capital after considering an attack on a d.c. restaurant, and allegedly told investigators he wanted to kill people, quote, face-to-face with an ak-47. if the investigation had not gone well, if detectfes had not done their jobs, our lead story would in short be a calamity. instead, the fbi and the u.s. capitol police stopped it cold. he was arrested in a sting operation when undercover agents posing as al qaeda operatives gave him a fake suicide vest. it contained no explosives, so the public was not in danger. tonight, the 29-year-old would-be bomber is behind bars. brian todd is in alexandria, virginia, outside the courthouse where he made an initial appearance today and was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. you have been on this all day long with new details coming out. what are you hearing this evening about this alleged
a suicide attack stopped just short of the capitol steps. new details at this hour about the plot. authorities say the would be bomber had conducted a test in west virginia. chose the capital after considering an attack on a d.c. restaurant, and allegedly told investigators he wanted to kill people, quote, face-to-face with an ak-47. if the investigation had not gone well, if detectfes had not done their jobs, our lead story would in short be a calamity. instead, the fbi and the u.s. capitol police stopped it cold. he was arrested in a sting operation when undercover agents posing as al qaeda operatives gave him a fake suicide vest. it contained no explosives, so the public was not in danger. tonight, the 29-year-old would-be bomber is behind bars. brian todd is in alexandria, virginia, outside the courthouse where he made an initial appearance today and was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. you have been on this all day long with new details coming
lawmakers are in session this afternoon, trying to end a tense political standoff over the debt ceiling. so far, we have only been hearing more contentious remarks from both sides. we ll take you there live in a moment. many of you are expressing frustration with the debt impasse in washington. and with members of congress who have yet to reach a deficit reduction deal. vernon hill says he wants lawmakers to get the u.s. out of debt or resign. the united states of america is about to go broke. we re about to lose our credit ratings. the people of the world are looking at us and wondering what the hell is going on with the greatest nation in the world. if you want to share your video on the debt showdown, logon to cnn.com/ireport. along the texas coast, a lot of disappointment after what was once tropical storm don making landfall. it came ashore as a tropical depression. but it wasn t the rainmaker folks were hoping for. much of texas is in a severe drought and the ra
spending cuts in ten years. reid would hike the debt by $2.7 trillion now and mandate an equal amount of cuts. but the congressional budget office says the boehner plan would trim spending by $850 billion, and the reid plan by $2.2 trillion. boehner went back to the board and postponed the vote that was supposed to happen today. reid s plan can t pass the house, and not only is boehner s plan doomed in the senate, a great many house republicans don t like it either. so what happens now? well, time marches on. a never-before-seen default on u.s. debt and obligations could be just six days away, but potentially just as bad would be a downgrade of debt, and a downgrade that would say we are not reliable as we used to be. that could up the cost for borrowing for all of us. here is richard quest on cnn international, and the smart money still says default will be averted, but downgrade, is it inevitable, are foreign investors alarmed? no, it s not inevitable. nothing is inevitab