Taibbi: Obama might have gotten the '99 percent' message

Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi appeared on Countdown Friday evening, discussing the Obama administration's populist rhetoric in creating a potential foreclosure fraud settlement with the big banks.

Taibbi, encouraged by the latest developments of the settlement, was open to the possibility of the big banks' top individuals facing major crimes.

“If they do this for real, if they do this like a real, Enron-style investigation, you know, you could have half the luminaries on Wall Street doing prison time,” he said.

Taibbi also told fill-in host Bill Press that the president is possibly tapping into the message of '99 percent' movement.

"I believe that they have gotten the political message that is what people want," he said. "The question is, 'Will they really follow through? 'Will it be a cosmetic investigation or will it be a real cleaning of the markets?' But I think that they've might. There's a slight possibility that they've really gotten the message."

WATCH: Video from Current TV, which was broadcast on January 27, 2012.