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American Morning

Questions Remain Over Cheney's Handling of News of Shooting Hunting Companion; Chertoff Under Fire; New Orleans Emergency Opening

Aired February 14, 2006 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Zain Verjee, in for Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Taking aim at the vice president. Questions now on why it took so long to report that hunting accident. We're live at the White House.

A failure of leadership, that's one way to define FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina. Will it lead to changes in leadership at Homeland Security?

VERJEE: Saddam Hussein on strike. Another interesting day in his trial, including revelations that he may be getting hungry. We're live in Baghdad.

Technology for health. How is one simulator helping to save lives?

O'BRIEN: And diamonds are a girl's best friend and a bank account's worst nightmare. But does it have to be that way? We'll give you some Valentine ideas. Perfect clarity and color ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

The vice president keeping a low profile after that weekend hunting accident. He was going for quail, instead bagged a campaign donor. The hunting partner is recovering, but questions are being raised about how the news of this account was handled.

White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux among those with questions this morning.

Hello, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Miles.

Of course you saw yesterday just the White House pummeled with those questions about why it took nearly 24 hours to notify the public about this accidental shooting. The vice president, the White House's office trying to defend essentially, well, what they had done, that accidental shooting involving hunting companion Harry Whittington and the fact the office put it in the hands of a private citizen, the ranch owner, to essentially disseminate the news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The vice president spoke with Mrs. Katharine Armstrong, and they agreed that she should make that information public. She was an eyewitness, she saw what occurred, and she called her local paper to provide those facts to the local paper, and the vice president's office was ready to comment on it at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And that point really was close to 24 hours later. They explained it this way, saying of course it was that evening they were trying to tend to Harry Whittington to make sure that he was being taken care of medically. And then Mrs. Armstrong tells CNN that the issue didn't come up that evening when Cheney was actually -- spent the night at the ranch. They decided collectively the next day that that is when she would go forward with this news.

But Miles, I have to tell you that privately, they are conceding here that could have been handled a bit better.

O'BRIEN: I should say. I think, you know, Scott McClellan was a bit tortured, but sort of nodded to that effect when he was having that exchange.

Let's talk about this -- the way this did become public. It didn't go through the normal channels by any means, did it?

MALVEAUX: No, and actually, you have to make a distinction between really kind of the White House and the vice president's office. The White House, often the president, wherever he goes, has traveling press with him. You may recall in Scotland, when he got in that bike accident, they immediately let the traveling press know what was going on when he was slightly injured or injured some other folks, as well.

The vice president really doesn't always travel -- he doesn't travel with the press necessarily. There's not a corps with him, particularly when he's not on official business. He tends to keep things very private.

A lot of times we do not know where the vice president is. But certainly in a situation like this, this is one of those moments when you would think that they would get that -- that in motion, get the ball in motion and get that information out as quickly as possible.

O'BRIEN: You would think.

Suzanne Malveaux at the White House.

Thank you -- Zain.

VERJEE: Miles, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is also under fire. Congress is coming out with a report on Hurricane Katrina that slams him for lack of leadership. On Monday, he defended himself from criticism by the former FEMA director Michael Brown, and his appearance at a Senate hearing today has been called off. AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken is live in Washington. He joins us now.

Bob, how is the administration responding to all the criticism? And how is Chertoff responding?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chertoff is responding by not responding, at least before the Senate committee. The stated reason for canceling the committee hearing is that there are Senate votes which would get in the way of hearing. But there's a widespread feeling that it was also canceled because things are just a little bit hot right now for Chertoff.

He has come under tremendous criticism. Tomorrow, we're expecting a report from the Republican members of a special committee on the House side of the capital which is going to describe the reaction to Katrina as "a national failure" and goes after Michael Chertoff, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, as reacting in a way that was "late, ineffective or not at all."

Now, there's a lot of criticism about the way that FEMA has been handled, that FEMA was sort of absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security. Many people who are with the agency now or in the past say that it really then became less of a priority, that terrorism became the greater priority, something that Chertoff and the department angrily deny.

Also, there are complaints that there were bad communications, et cetera, et cetera. We know all of the complaints.

Chertoff says, however, that really the time has come now to look forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I want to be clear. As the secretary of Homeland Security, I am accountable and accept responsibility for the performance of the entire department, good and bad. I also have the responsibility to fix what went wrong so we can meet the president's expectation and the public's expectations for helping disaster victims as quickly and effectively as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And it will be up to the people who are up on the ground there who are still very, very upset about the lack of response that they are still getting so many months after Hurricane Katrina. They will have to decide how important it is for the people in Washington to be pointing the fingers at one another -- Zain.

VERJEE: Bob, the president is also being criticized for lack of involvement after Katrina. What is the administration saying about that?

FRANKEN: The administration is saying that's hogwash. The administration says that the president was "highly engaged from the beginning." The complaint, of course, that he was anything but, that he was finishing up his time off at the ranch in Crawford and was not as actively engaged as he should have been as the place -- as the man who sits at the desk where the buck stops.

VERJEE: Bob Franken reporting from Washington -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Another sign of recovery for New Orleans. In just about two hours, the devastated city will have its first working emergency room since Katrina hit.

CNN's Sean Callebs is at Tulane University Hospital this morning.

Sean, let's be clear about this. This isn't a full-fledged all the bells and whistle hospital it is opening here, is it?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Without question, Miles, you're exactly right. Tulane has been working on reopening really since the day Katrina punished this area and the hospital was flooded with about a foot and a half of water.

They are going to open the emergency room today at 3:00 local time. That is when they will go through the accreditation and doors will open.

Only 63 beds of this 250-bed hospital will be opening. I can tell you, there's a certain sense of urgency. Just about two seconds ago, the last workers that were hanging these privacy curtains here in this area stopped doing the work up there. There's also some touch-up going on, the paint.

This is a very significant moment because the storm really shut down nine of the area's 16 hospitals. And really, there's not been a working ER like this in service since the hurricane.

There has been at the convention center a tent-like triage center set up. In essence, patients would go there, then hospitals would be called in and ferry those patients out of the area over to Jefferson Parish or where they could get emergency treatment. But very significant.

I want to show you some flood damage, just how bad this area was hit.

I talked about a foot and a half of water. Well, a big problem, the generators are here on the ground floor. The fuel was stored below the ground, so the fuel was compromised very early on and the circuit breaker for the generators was also swamped. So they had to shut power down, evacuate then tire facility.

Just one of the massive headaches. But it did go smoothly, Miles. And really, very, very -- a tremendous amount of work has gone into here over the past six -- five and a half months or so. Ninety million dollars worth of damage.

O'BRIEN: Sean, did they move the generators? CALLEBS: They did not move the generators. I just had a look at them over there.

O'BRIEN: They're still -- wow.

CALLEBS: I don't know exactly -- they may do some more work over there. But they also had a self-imposed deadline. They really wanted to get this up and running because, as you know, Mardi Gras hit this is area in just a couple of weeks. And traditionally, this hospital has seen its business spike by about 40 percent. That is with two working hospitals in the downtown area.

Now they have one operating only a fraction of what it usually does. And hey say the real wildcard, how many people will come in, and will it be as wild, Mardi Gras, that is, as it has been in years past.

O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see that unfold.

Sean Callebs there at Tulane University Hospital as it tries to get back up and running post Katrina.

Thank you.

Let's get to Carol in the newsroom for more news, more headlines -- hello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Miles.

And good morning to all of you.

You might see a thinner Saddam Hussein when his trial picks up again in two weeks. The former Iraqi dictator announcing that he's on a hunger strike. He announced that during proceedings today.

He's protesting the chief judge in the trial, claiming he's biased. Proceedings ran for about three hours today, and as I said, they will pick up again in a few weeks on February 28.

Protests over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed turning deadly today in Pakistan. Western businesses being targeted by demonstrators. They set fire to the buildings and cars. At least two have been killed.

They're supposed to keep you safe in flight, but investigators say they had a little something going on, on the side. Two federal air marshals are accused of trying to smuggle cocaine on a flight by using their air marshal status to bypass security. They are expected to appear in court again later this week.

And true grit for American athlete Lindsey Kildow. She is out of the hospital after a terrifying crash at the Olympic games in Torino. She hit that frozen course going 50 miles per hour. We're still waiting to find out exactly if she'll ski in tomorrow's race, but word is she only has a bruised hip. And she really, really wants to ski, Zain. Her coach is saying, "We'll wait and see." But I'm telling you, Ms. Kildow is determined to take part in the competition. So we'll be watching.

VERJEE: We will. She is very lucky. That was an ugly fall.

Carol, thank you.

Let's check in on the weather forecast. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center.

Chad, it's cold here, but it's unseasonably -- unseasonably cold in -- am I getting that right?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: In Florida, right?

VERJEE: In Florida, right?

MYERS: Yes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: All right.

VERJEE: The bearer of bad news, but good warning.

O'BRIEN: Don't you wish you were here, Chad, for that fun?

MYERS: No. All right.

O'BRIEN: Thanks very much.

Coming up, more on the vice president's hunting accident. Did the White House shoot itself in the foot by waiting so long to go public on this one?

VERJEE: Also, their teeth are as sharp as ever, but shark attacks are actually on the decline. We're going to hear why that has more to do with people than sharks.

O'BRIEN: And on Valentine's Day, diamonds truly are a girl's best friend. But are they any nicer if you buy them from a place like Tiffany's than, let's say, you find them at Costco? Does that really matter to you?

VERJEE: No. No.

O'BRIEN: You don't care? A diamond is a diamond, right?

VERJEE: No, it doesn't really matter, because what matters is, as you know, the cut, clarity and the color. And we'll take a look at all of that.

O'BRIEN: OK. You don't need the blue box. Good.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, THE DAILY SHOW: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt at a political supporter's ranch, making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: Hamilton -- Alexander Hamilton, of course, was shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington was mistaken for a bird.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Jon Stewart having a little fun there.

John King joining us now to talk about the vice president, current, and how that compares to previous vice presidents, not necessarily Aaron Burr. But he joins us now from Hyannis Port, Massachusetts after putting in some yeoman's work there covering the storm.

John, let's talk about the Cheney vice presidency. This is -- you know, we've talked frequently about how powerful Vice President Cheney is, but you had a chance to cover, of course, the Clinton White House and Vice President Gore, and got a chance to see Vice President Cheney in the first term.

How -- what are the differences? How does this vice president's office operate differently than, say, Gore's office?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the biggest difference is this vice president, Dick Cheney, is not running for president. And that is the biggest single dynamic that makes him so different.

Even this president's father, when he was vice president under Ronald Reagan, everyone knew he was going to run for president as soon as he could. Everyone knew Al Gore was going to run for president.

Dick Cheney says he will not run. There is no indication he is going to run. So he's a free agent, if you will, and it gives him some independence.

It also gives him the ability, if you will, to say I don't care when it comes to relations with the news media. Has a very independent operation. It has caused not only frustration with journalists, Miles, it has caused considerable frustration with senior aides to the president of the United States.

But we're five years into this administration. There's no indication that the one person who could change this dynamic, the president, wants to change it. So the vice president does things his way. Sometimes as he pleases.

O'BRIEN: And that would be the only person who could do it.

Let me -- it's interesting, though. This defies the conventional wisdom.

He announces from the get-go I'm a lame duck, I'm not running for anything. And the conventional wisdom is that makes you less powerful in Washington. It's just the opposite in this case, isn't it?

KING: He is very powerful. And sometimes that serves the purpose of the president and the president's senior staff quite well.

They put him out there for trial balloons. He might test lines in a speech to see how they go over with Republicans, with Democrats, with the public at large. But sometimes it has been a source of frustration.

Remember, it was Dick Cheney who said the insurgency in Iraq was in its final throes. That caught senior aides to the president off guard, it caused them a week or more of bad publicity.

A remarkable moment just yesterday in the White House briefing room. Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, saying on camera in a live televised briefing he would have done things differently.

There is tension from time to time between the president and the vice president's staff. You saw it aired in a quite remarkable way just yesterday at the White House. That was not nuance, that was Scott McClellan thumping the vice president's office upside the head.

O'BRIEN: Well, you could say Scott McClellan was being a bit tortured by the whole situation.

Let's listen for just a second.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCLELLAN: I did not know who was involved in that hunting accident. It wasn't until very early Sunday morning that I found out that the vice president was involved in this accident. And of course in a position like mine I was urging that that information be made available as quickly as possible. And the vice president's office was working to get that information out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: So, what is a comedian's dream is a press secretary's nightmare, isn't it?

KING: It could be very tough.

Now, let's be clear. The vice president does have a much smaller staff. So he does not have a press person right there at his beck and call. Not somebody there who would say immediately, "Mr. Vice President, this is going to be a public relations problem. We need to deal with it."

But let's also be clear that Dick Cheney has been a staffer, a member of Congress. He was the White House chief of staff, he was a corporate CEO. This is a man who gets Washington quite well.

He knew very well that this would be a big story. He decided to handle it in the way he handled it.

It is simply who he is, Miles. It is a reflection of his character, it is a reflection of how he does things. He's incredibly powerful and influential within the presidency.

There might be more pressure on him from the outside, from the president himself, from political advisers and elsewhere if he were going to be a candidate for president. But he is not. And clearly, the president has not tried to change the dynamic.

Mr. Bush is the boss. Mr. Cheney does things his way.

O'BRIEN: There are some who would say he has too much autonomy. You think there will be more talk of that?

KING: I think there will be fewer hunting trips in the short term. There will certainly be pressure on him form the White House to be more forthcoming.

This thing is still under investigation in some ways. He was cleared of any wrongdoing. There was the dustup last night about he didn't pay for the stamp. There certainly is now constant pressure from the White House, if there's anything else out there about this, let's make it clear. But friends of this vice president say, no, don't expect things to be any different.

We have asked for five years, "Where is he?" If he's on a private trip, they say, "He's on a private trip. We're not going to tell you where."

Even when we asked during the budget fight, during the run-up to the Iraq war, who was he meeting with, what members of Congress, what constituency groups, they say, "We will give you his public schedule. We will not disclose his private meetings."

That's the way they do business.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

John King, appreciate you insights.

Our Chief National Correspondent John King in Hyannis Port -- Zain.

VERJEE: Miles, coming up, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live. He's going to tell us about a new test to find out if you're at risk for heart trouble. It's not only painless, it's also quicker and cheaper than angioplasty. And don't be afraid to go back in the water. Shark attacks are down worldwide. And believe it or not, economics has something to do with it.

We'll take a look at that next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: Think about this, by the time you're 50 years old your heart will have beaten almost two billion times. Yes, two billion. Sanjay has been counting.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- one, two.

You've got to take care of your heart in order to live a full and a healthy life, right, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Zain. It's a form of meditation as well to count your heartbeats, I think, or something like that.

Look, it's a question I get more than anything else. You're worried about heart disease. Maybe you have a family history, but you haven't had any problems yourself. How do you get it checked out?

Well, there's a new test out there. The images are simply amazing. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice over): James Howard has been around a lot of medical technology. As an endocrinologist with Washington Hospital Center and former medical director, Dr. Howard has signed off on lots of high-tech equipment. So when he needed a heart test, he took advantage of the hospital's state-of-the-art diagnostic machines.

He's lucky he did.

DR. JAMES HOWARD, HEART PATIENT: It discovered a significant coronary lesion, a plaque in my coronaries that I had not known was there.

GUPTA: That plaque could have killed him. But it was caught in time by a new device known as a 64-Slice CT Scanner. It's a machine that offers incredible pictures of the heart without ever entering the body.

The scanner is able to transmit 192 images a second to create a 3-D picture of the heart from all angles. Cardiologists can then study the images off a computer screen, look for even the smallest abnormalities or plaque buildup and give a patient a full diagnosis of their heart health in about ten minutes.

DR. GUY WEIGOLD, WASHINGTON HOSPITAL CENTER: The CT cans are sort of slices of the body. For the kind of resolution we need to visualize these small, little coronary arteries. Not only that, but also the ability to visualize this organ which is beating and moving around inside the chest.

GUPTA: Before the 64-Slice CT Scanner, high-risk heart patients would have to under go a stress test or an angiogram, which is an x- ray of the blood vessels using a catheter in the vein. With the 64 Scanner, CT images are so fast and so accurate doctors can evaluate the cause of a problem with one simple scan.

DR. DOUGLAS JONES, SUBURBAN HOSPITAL, BETHESDA, MD.: It's much quicker, it's much less expensive. A lot of people, this is going to prevent them or allow them to avoid catheterization when it's not going to be helpful.

GUPTA: And the scan can be used as a screening tool for high- risk patients. Like in D. Howard's case, the images can be used to detect certain heart problems before they happen.

HOWARD: It certainly contributed to my well-being and probably gave me, as I like to say, an extended warranty. I think it's prolonged my life.

GUPTA: There are some risk factors with the 64 CT Scanner. The first being the high dose of radiation.

At this time, doctors will only use it on high-risk patients. Not everyone can go in and have a 64 CT Scanner of their heart. And there's a risk of allergic reaction to the die they inject into the body. But those allergies are rare.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And a number of the hospitals all over the country are already starting to use these 64 CT Scanners. The typical scenario is this: somebody comes into the emergency room complaining of chest pain. Instead of getting an angiogram, you know, where they actually look at some of the vessels in the heart, they might go to the 64 CT Scanner, saving the patient some time, some money, and most importantly, Zain, obviously trying to prevent a heart attack in the first place.

VERJEE: How expensive are these scans, Sanjay? I mean, are they covered by insurance?

GUPTA: They are expensive, not surprisingly. And it does depend, you know, sort of which hospital, what part of the country you're living in. But anywhere from $500 to $1,500.

Insurance is a little bit of a tricky thing right now, because this is still a pretty new test for this particular reason, for the heart scan. Some insurance plans will cover it, especially if your doctor orders it for, you know, preventive screening to try and diagnose people who might or might not have a heart attack.

VERJEE: Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta.

Thanks, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

VERJEE: Our Healthy Heart Week will continue. Tomorrow morning we're going to be looking at fixing broken hearts. You think it's impossible? Well, not according to Sanjay. He's going to show us how it's done.

And coming up, Michelle Kwan called it quits in Torino. Now some advertisers may call it quits on Kwan.

Andy's "Minding Your Business."

And on this and every Valentine's Day diamonds are a girl's best friend. But when it comes to quality, do they lose any of the luster if you buy it from Costco's instead of Tiffany's?

We'll take a look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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