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American Morning
Snow in April in the West Wing; Show of Support in Iraq; Alternative Way to Work
Aired April 26, 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: Snow in April in the West Wing. Tony Snow leaves the FOX studio for the White House briefing room. The official word coming in nine minutes.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Rumsfeld and Rice in Iraq. They're making unannounced trips to Baghdad right now to show support for the new government.
M. O'BRIEN: A brazen new terror tape with guns blazing. A terror mastermind in Iraq offers a bald-faced warning to the president.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken, in Silver Spring, Maryland, where high gas prices are driving people to alternative mass transit.
That's coming up on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody.
As we mentioned just a moment ago, just a few minutes away from the official announcement coming from the White House briefing room. We're going to bring that to you live when it happens.
M. O'BRIEN: And we will have it very shortly.
In the meantime, that's where we'll begin, in Washington, where the Bush administration putting a new face on its falling fortunes. The most visible face of the administration's communication team will belong to a well-known conservative radio talk show host and a FOX News analyst. He is Tony Snow. And he comes to the White House with a paper trail of criticism of his new boss.
Elaine Quijano, live now in the White House briefing room, where it will all transpire in a few minutes -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.
Well, nevertheless, White House officials saying they believe Tony Snow will be a forceful advocate for President Bush. This announcement coming, though, at a time when the president has seen his approval ratings continue to fall, now in the low 30s, according to the latest CNN poll.
Republicans on Capitol Hill, of course, very nervous as well about their prospects with the midterm elections coming up. But this is a White House certainly looking to turn things around. And they have a new White House chief of staff at the helm. Josh Bolten looking to put his stamp on the West Wing.
In fact, it was Bolten, according to Republican sources, who assured Tony Snow that he would have a very active role in the major policy debates going on within the administration. That was a point of negotiation. Also, that Tony Snow would be able to have an active role in who gets hired in the White House press and communications operations.
So, he got those assurances, according to these sources, and the announcement expected just a short time from now. Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary. The announcement coming in just a matter of minutes -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Elaine. You can check your cell phone in just a second.
In the meantime, I have one quick question for you. One of the key issues here has been access, and many people suggest that Scott McClellan was not given the kind of access previous press secretaries were. Do you think it is going to be really different for Tony Snow?
QUIJANO: Well, certainly that was something that he wanted to make different coming in to this process. These Republican sources saying, in fact, that was a point that he emphasized during these talks, that part of his deliberations, he wanted to ensure that there was going to be a place at the table for him in these discussions that take place. And so, I believe that is something that White House officials did give him the assurances for.
We'll have to wait and see -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Wait and see we will. Elaine Quijano, thank you very much. Back with you very shortly.
In the meantime, let's get a little more analysis of this. Chief National Correspondent John King joining us from our D.C. bureau.
Let's pick up on that point, John. You've covered a lot of presidents and a lot of press secretaries. The motto in the past has been, press secretaries were in on these key meetings, these key decisions, and had a real say-so in how things were meted out to the media.
Has that changed?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, different presidents, Miles, operate in different ways. There is no question that Marlin Fitzwater, in the first Bush administration, was very close to the president. I remember the early days of the Clinton administration, and one of the big dustups was you had George Stephanopoulos first in that role, then he stepped aside and Dee Dee Myers came in, and the knock on Dee Dee Myers was that she did not have the access to the president. Then they brought in Mike McCurry. By the time he left he was very highly regarded, but when he came in, like Tony Snow, he was an outsider. He had not worked for Bill Clinton when Mike McCurry came in. There was a great deal of suspicion.
So, the challenge for Tony Snow is going to be to prove he has that access.
Scott McClellan had access to the president. He came with him from Texas, he was close to the president. The question was, was he involved in key communications decisions, did he know everything involved, or, more importantly, was he at times sent out there to say things that, while they themselves might have been true, that there was much bigger, fuller picture that the administration was not sharing with reporters.
Karl Rove and Scooter Libby on their role in the CIA leak investigation for one. The criticism of the intelligence in Iraq for another.
So, Tony Snow has an interesting challenge starting at a time the president is at 30-something percent in the polls. But listen, this is an important change for the White House. But having a new press secretary, having a new chief of staff is not going to lower the price of gas tomorrow, it's not going to bring the troops home from Iraq tomorrow.
So, we have to remember, even as we focus on this, the reason this is happening is because the president has some rather profound problems that one or two staff members are not going to change. They need to slowly try to get out of this ditch.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, and let's remind folks that Tony Snow, of late, like a lot of conservatives, quite frankly, has been fairly critical of the president and has called him -- the term was "an embarrassment."
How will that -- how will they handle that one?
KING: Well, it's interesting. The White House is portraying this as the sign the president is being big, that the president is open to bringing in to the inner circle someone who has been sharply critical of him.
I look at this two ways. Number one, remember, the role of the press secretary has changed. You talked about access. The press secretary now lives in a world of Internet, live video feeds, blogs. Everything the press secretary says is dissected instantaneously.
Scott McClellan, fairly or not, became a bit of a pinata, especially among conservative who did not believe he was doing a good job defending and advocating on the behalf of this president. Tony Snow has a very good reputation among those conservatives.
So, it will be interesting to see a couple of weeks from now, after he starts this job, what is being said online, what video clips are being made fun of or being saluted by conservatives online. Is he an advocate for this president in that way? That is one of the key challenge for him in this new job.
Now, again, one person cannot turn this around for the president, but the perception in Republican circles that this president is back on his heel. Not only back on his peels because of policy setbacks, but not fighting. Conservatives and Republicans need to fight if they are to protect their majorities in Congress this year. That is what most people think you will get -- they hope to get out of Tony Snow, someone who is more polished before the camera than Scott McClellan might have been, some who is a longtime partisan, someone with a lot of political experience.
New to this White House team. So, it will be interesting to see if any tension rises up. But in terms of his skills, most Republicans believe he has the skills that the president needs at this moment.
M. O'BRIEN: John King, a man of many skills himself.
Thank you very much for your time, sir.
We'll bring you the president's announcement in just a few minutes. John will be with us, Elaine will be with us. That's 9:10 Eastern, coming up in three and a half minutes -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld making a surprise visit to Baghdad. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also there. The visits are meant to be a sign of support for the new Iraqi government.
Ryan Chilcote is in Baghdad for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The secretary of defense met with the U.S. military's top commander here, General George Casey. He is expected to meet with other U.S. while he's here, and perhaps may meet with some members of Iraq's new political leadership. The whole idea of this trip, really, to show his support for Iraq's new political leadership, something that they accomplished after a very long period of political vacuum in the country.
He's also here, quite clearly, to reassure the United States public that the United States is making progress both on the political and military front amidst pressure from a growing number of people in the United States to draw down the number of U.S. troops here.
All of this coming just hours after a video came out from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a very rare piece of video in which he appears showing his face. Obviously a propaganda video meant to show that he is alive and well.
In that video, he encourages insurgents in Iraq to keep up their fight against what he called a Zionist occupation. He also promises more terrorist attacks.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: And they're on high alert in Egypt after more explosions there today. The story just developing.
This time, two suicide bombings targeting a national -- multinational peacekeeping force in the northern Sinai Peninsula. The bombers kimed themselves, apparently nobody else. An Egyptian government official believes the attacks may be linked to those three back-to-back explosions that took place in Dahab in Egypt on Monday. At least 18 people were killed there -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: And now it's time to gauge gas prices across the country. The average price per gallon currently, $2.92. Remember, that's an average. It's about the same as it was yesterday.
This time last year, it was $2.21 a gallon. Hawaii currently has the highest price on average at $3.24.
Those high gas prices are driving people to -- well, they're driving them crazy in one sense. They're driving them off the road as well. They're driving them on to the rails, to public transportation in those cities where it is an option. As a matter of fact, in Washington, they say ridership on the metro system is up.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken is at the Silver Spring station in suburban D.C.
Good morning, Bob.
FRANKEN: Good morning.
Up, indeed. It's more than twice the ridership since this latest spike in prices. Now, we are finding a lot of people who have been metro riders for quite some time, like Jennifer Manguera.
You are -- well, you're positively un-American. You don't even own a car. You are a metro rider, right?
JENNIFER MANGUERA, SILVER SPRING, MD., RESIDENT: I am, indeed, yes.
FRANKEN: And what have you noticed in the last week or so?
MANGUERA: There's a lot more people on the train. Some of it I think is tourism, but a lot of it is, you know, people just not wanting to pay the gas prices and drive into town anymore.
FRANKEN: So, have they talked -- have you talked to them at all? Do you get the impression that that's what's going on?
MANGUERA: You hear a lot of grumbling about $3 gas prices, yes, absolutely.
FRANKEN: Now, one of the concerns is, is that this is just not readily available to people. People are going to some great lengths to get to a metro now, aren't they?
MANGUERA: Yes. Luckily, a lot of the buses will bring you down here, but only during rush hour. If you want to do something off- hour, it's a lot harder.
FRANKEN: Are you worried that it's going to get so crowded that it's going to become an uncomfortable experience for you?
MANGUERA: No, not yet, because, I mean, if you're willing to wait for the next train that might not be quite as crowded, then you normally get a seat or, you know, at least space, elbow room to sit and read your book or something.
FRANKEN: And Miles, as you pointed out, people who do have it available, like they do in Washington, D.C., are flocking to the metros, but that's a real problem, as you also mentioned, in many cities, where the highway has ruled for a long time. And now people are having to cope with the fact that those highways not only are congested, but they're more and more expensive just to use them -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. I mean, as we look, by the way, the right part of your screen is the White House briefing room. We expect to see the president coming out in just a few moments, along with Tony Snow, his new press secretary.
Bob, this is a situation where we can connect the dots of these two stories as the prices go up and the president's fortunes go down. There's a lot of concern politically over this whole notion of gas prices, with an election, a congressional election looming.
FRANKEN: And the president, of course, made a speech yesterday in which he suggested some things that he's going to try and do to try and put control on gasoline prices, but most of the analysts are saying that this is not something you can solve quickly, that this has been the result of decisions that have been made over the decades, and you don't just snap your fingers and make the accumulated problems go away.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's just it. And as powerful as the president may be, there are big-time, long-range market forces at work here that have a lot to do with all this. Right, Bob?
FRANKEN: Not only that, but some realities that if now there's going to be more of a reliance on mass transit, that's going to mean a very, very expensive time-consuming process. You don't build one of these systems in a couple of weeks. It's more like a decade or so.
M. O'BRIEN: And then, when you think about places like Los Angeles or Atlanta, where I used to live, where the entire city, the entire landscape, strip malls, highways, is all built around the automobile, it leaves people very few options. They can carpool, but in many respects, public transit in some of those cities is limited.
You know what, Bob? Hold it there. Here's the president making his announcement. Let's listen.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning.
I'm here in the briefing room to break some news: I've asked Tony Snow to serve as my new press secretary.
Tony already knows most of you, and he's agreed to take the job anyway. And I'm really glad he did.
I'm confident that Tony Snow will make an outstanding addition to this White House staff. I am confident he will help you do your job.
My job is to make decisions. And his job is to help explain those decisions to the press corps and the American people.
He understands like I understand that the press is vital to our democracy.
As a professional journalist, Tony Snow understands the importance of the relationship between government and those whose job it is to cover the government.
He's going to work hard to provide you with timely information about my philosophy, my priorities and the actions we are taking to implement our agenda.
He brings a long record of accomplishment to this position. He has spent a quarter of a century in the news business. He's worked in all three major media: print, radio and television.
He started his career in 1979 as an editorial writer for the Greensboro Record in North Carolina. He went on to write editorials for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. He ran the editorial pages in both the Daily Press of Newport News and The Washington Times.
He's written nationally syndicated columns for both the Detroit News and USA Today.
During his career in print journalism, he's been cited for his work by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press and Gannett.
For seven years he served as the host of "Fox News Sunday." Most recently, he reached Americans all across our country as the host of "The Tony Snow Show" on Fox News Radio and "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" on the Fox News Channel.
He's not afraid to express his own opinions. For those of you who've read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, "You should have heard what I said about the other guy."
I like his perspective, I like the perspective he brings to this job, and I think you're going to like it, too. Tony knows what it's like to work inside the White House. In 1991, he took a break from journalism to serve as director of speechwriting and deputy assistant to the president for media affairs.
He's taught children in Kenya. He belongs to a rock band called Beats Working. He's a man of courage. He's a man of integrity. He loves his family a lot. He is the loving husband of a fine wife and the father of three beautiful children.
He succeeds a decent and talented man in Scott McClellan.
I've known Scott since he worked for me in Texas. We traveled our state together, we traveled our country together, and we have traveled the world together. We have also made history together.
Scott should be enormously proud of his service to our nation in an incredibly difficult job. I will always be grateful to him. I will always be proud to call him friend.
I appreciate Scott's offer to help Tony Snow prepare for his new job. And I'm proud to welcome Tony as part of our team.
Appreciate you, buddy.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DESIGNEE: Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for the honor of serving as press secretary.
And just a couple of quick notes.
I'm delighted to be here. One of the things I want to do is just make it clear that one of the reason I took the job is not only because I believe in the president, because, believe it or not, I want to work with you. These are times that are going to be very challenging. We've got a lot of big issues ahead and we've got a lot of important things that all of us are going to be covering together. And I am very excited and I can't wait.
And I want to thank you, Mr. President, for the honor.
And thank all your guys for your forbearance. And I look forward to working with you.
Thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: Just a couple of quick words from Tony Snow. He's the president's new press secretary. We heard from the president, too. He started off by saying, "I'm here to break some news." Of course, this has really been, not only in Washington, D.C., but outside as well, a very open secret of predictions for several days now that Tony Snow was going to be named the press secretary.
One of the things the president did in laying out the role, the job of Tony Snow, was, "He's here to help you do your job," he said to the journalists who had assembled to cover that in the briefing room. And also said as the president, his role is to come up with policy, make decisions, but Tony's job is going to be to help explain those decisions not only to the press, but also to the American people.
Elaine Quijano is, of course, covering this story for us. Let's get right to Elaine. She's at the White House.
You know, Elaine, there was joke, where the president said -- Tony Snow has been disagreeing with him sometimes, and the joke was, "Well, you should hear what he's been saying about the other guy." But in truth, the White House is very much spinning this appointment as a new openness.
Is that working?
QUIJANO: Well, it's what they say. They believe that this choice will demonstrate that the president is willing to listen to all voices. They believe that because of the sharp opinions, both good and bad for this president, that, in fact, it will show Tony Snow will be a forceful advocate.
Something interesting, Soledad. I'm not sure if you heard it. As the president was walking out with Scott McClellan, with Tony Snow, questions were shouted at them and they ignored them. And there was sort of a laugh here in the briefing room about that, and people saying, "Well, already it begins."
But what this demonstrates, really, is the desire by this administration to reach out very actively to the media. Certainly, we have seen in recent months on Iraq the president has been trying to turn around public opinion on that specific issue, meeting with reporters, senior administration officials, being very active in trying to get their message out on Iraq. And this choice today certainly an interesting one.
Also, in addition to welcoming Tony Snow, this, of course, was a farewell for Scott McClellan. He will still be on for a period of time to help with the transition, but essentially, the president formally saying good-bye to him in this -- in this particular setting.
Scott McClellan has served President Bush for seven years. Mr. Bush referring back to the Texas days. So, certainly, this perhaps a bittersweet moment for Scott McClellan.
But Tony Snow saying that he is willing to work with people, looking very much forward to working with people here in the White House press corps -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he said he's delighted in his very short remarks, actually. Any indication, anything you can glean from the little bit that he did say to the assembled journalists?
QUIJANO: I'm sorry, Soledad. Say that again.
S. O'BRIEN: Sorry. I know it's noisy behind you. Is there anything that you can glean from the very short remarks that Tony Snow did have for the journalists who had assembled?
QUIJANO: Well, certainly, obviously, a lot of -- a lot of eye contact. He is familiar, of course, very much with this medium.
We heard President Bush himself talk about how it's not just the television background that he brings to this job, but a history in print and in radio as well. So, this is a man who understands full well what the media's needs are, what kind of access the media looks for in terms of covering a president and covering big stories. And certainly this is a White House that believes Tony Snow can deliver.
S. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House for us this morning, in the briefing room, where we just heard both from President Bush and also from his new press secretary, Tony Snow -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's turn it over to John King for a moment, get his insights on all this.
Tony Snow certainly has conservative credentials that go back to the late '70s. He certainly has communication skills.
I'm curious, though, from -- and you've had a chance to view a lot of these press secretaries up close and how they do their job. What is the most important asset that a press secretary needs to have in order to do that job?
KING: Miles, some call it the toughest staff job in Washington. The president obviously has the toughest job in Washington, but the toughest staff job in Washington might be the White House press secretary, because you have to have the trust and you have to have the trust of the president of the United States at a very difficult time of his presidency and in the country's history, given the war on terrorism, specifically, the unpopular war in Iraq. And you also have to have the trust and credibility of the assembled masses in that briefing room.
And that is one of the reasons why most agree it was time for Scott McClellan to move on, because his credibility had come into question in that briefing room. It become a bit of a theater, it becomes a bit of a drama at times. But if you have a president at 30- something percent in the polls trying to sell an unpopular war dealing now with rising gas prices, dealing with the prospect of his party losing control in the midterm elections, you don't want any question about the press secretary's credibility.
Can Tony Snow make the president more accessible to the press? The president makes those decisions, not his press secretary.
Can he advocate to have a president come out and do more press conferences, maybe do more interviews? Scott McClellan wanted the president to do that, and the president did that sometimes and then went in retreat sometimes. Past presidents have done the same thing.
There's an old role in politics, when a president is low in the polls we tend to see him more. So we will see more of George W. Bush because he needs to be out there talking and communicating his message.
The biggest challenge for Tony Snow is to keep what he will have on day one, credibility with both masters, if you will. A press secretary serves two masters, but in the end, a press secretary's first job his to defend his boss, the president.
He is an advocate, he is a political partisan. And sometimes that gets forgotten in what you see today, was a, hey, I really want to work with you, hey, I really want to help you.
We'll see how that plays out. It's a tough challenge, but certainly has the skills for it. And we'll see how it plays out.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Rock, meet hard place, Mr. Snow, is basically what you're saying. That's a real tough job.
I think in this day and age, the media expects to be spun in that room. You said, Scott McClellan, though, probably crossed the line there. A lot people I think have said it.
It happened right around the time of the CIA leak case, when he offered those vociferous denials. And that changed things.
Is that where the line is?
KING: Well, it's -- the line can be in different places depending on the story of the moment. But that certainly was part of the credibility questions that rose up around Scott. And, fairly or unfairly.
He came into the press briefing room -- I was there in those days. I was among those asking the questions. And he said that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby had no role in the CIA leak.
Now, he could say that he meant in the outing of her name, in the outing of Valerie Plame, putting her name in play, violating the law. He could say that, but his words, if you look at them, weren't so clear, weren't so nuanced. And that's one of the credibility issues.
And he, of course, also walked into the whole debate over the war in Iraq, there were no weapons of mass destruction, why were the president and the vice president so definitive about that when there were question about the quality of the intelligence? He took the job at a very difficult time.
He did not have a honeymoon. Scott McClellan did not have a honeymoon. They were throwing high and tight on him the first day he took that job.
Tony Snow comes in a time where, he won't get much of a honeymoon because of the circumstances. Everybody might want to be nice to him, want to welcome him in to the briefing room, but the president is in a deep ditch right now. Make no mistake about it.
And again, a new chief of staff, a new press secretary, moving other pieces of the staff around are not going to solve the crisis in Iraq, are not going to affect gas prices. So, he has a very difficult job, which is why we're told he'll take a couple of weeks to gets up to speed. Scott McClellan will stay for a bit of a transition, but, Miles, it is a very tough challenge. But in his heart, Tony Snow is a loyal partisan Republican. When the president of the United States says, "I need your help," it's hard to say no.
M. O'BRIEN: John King, our man who knows how to throw them high and tight. A little tin music from him here every now and then. He's part of the best political team on television.
Thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: I like that, rock, meet hard place. Yes, I think that's a pretty good description.
A short break is ahead. But when we return, we're going to have some safety tips on natural remedies. We're going to tell you which ones actually could be dangerous and maybe even deadly when they're mixed the wrong way.
That story's ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Americans spend billions of dollars on natural medicine products, often not even understanding how they work, how they interact with your prescription drugs or maybe even over-the- counter medicines. And, of course, the consequences can be dangerous, even deadly.
"Consumer Reports" is out with its first-ever guide to natural remedies. And Nancy Metcalf is with "Consumer Reports," joining us.
Nice to se you.
NANCY METCALF, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Hi.
S. O'BRIEN: You know, I'm always surprised when you look at the numbers, $14 billion that Americans spend on natural remedies.
METCALF: I think that's at $20 billion now.
S. O'BRIEN: Twenty billion now? Wow. And you think, it's unclear how much research is being done on them. It's unclear -- you know, there's certainly not regulation of the industry. So it sort of surprises me.
METCALF: Well, it's very concerning. We at "Consumer Reports" get questions all the time from readers about this. And there really hasn't been up until now a good source of information for consumers. There's a lot of information out there, but it's often very self- interested information from marketers and so on.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Suddenly, someone tells you, "You need to start taking this." It will really help your whatever, and, you know, you don't even know where you're getting...
(CROSSTALK)
METCALF: You go to -- you go to -- you say, I'm going to do research, and you go to a Web site, and it says it's great. Through our medical site, ConsumerReportsMedicalGuide.org, we are just inaugurating a searchable interactive database on natural medicines. It's the first such thing, to our knowledge, that's been available to consumers, and it will enable people to look up brand names, interactions with drugs.
S. O'BRIEN: Because different drug are all marketed and manufactured by different groups, and those could have huge variations.
METCALF: Yes. And also, look up by ingredients to see whether the ingredients are safe. Also, very important to look up whether those ingredients interact with over-the-counter or prescription drugs that you might be taking, which happens an amazing amount of time, and people really aren't aware of that.
S. O'BRIEN: Have no idea whatsoever.
METCALF: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's walk through six ingredients that you've pulled to sort of highlight some of the risks and maybe some of the reward of taking natural medicines. So, let's first begin with what you would say consider.
There's something called Coenzyme Q10. What is it? What's it for? How does it work?
METCALF: It's a vitamin-like compound that actually your body makes. And it's a wonderful cellular booster. There's been a lot of good clinical research on it, and it seems to be safe for long-term use, and we're saying to try it especially in you're concerned about blood pressure, heart, that sort of thing.
S. O'BRIEN: There are two things that you say caution with. Pomegranate juice, which surprised and something black cohosh. What are both of those?
M. O'BRIEN: Black cohosh is actually a pretty effective, or mildly effective remedy for hot flashes, which is a thing of course that a lot women are looking for now that they're hesitant to take hormones.
However, there has been some problem with liver damage with black cohosh. So you need to be conscious of that, and conscious of not taking...
S. O'BRIEN: How about the pomegranate juice? What's that about?
M. O'BRIEN: Pomegranate juice is a wonderful antioxidant, it really is. However, it, too, can interact with medicines. And if you go to the database at "Consumer Reports," medicalguide.org, you can look up to see whether any medicines you take interact with this. S. O'BRIEN: You have a list of things to avoid. I'm going to list them, and then I want you to talk about just one, and we can send everybody else to the Web site for more information on the others.
You say avoid the safe fat burners. Yohimbi (ph) Free Erectile Dysfunction Supplements and noni (ph) juice -- let's started with the noni juice.
M. O'BRIEN: Noni juice is a morinda (ph). it's a tropical fruit, being actually promoted for the thing that Coenzyme Q-10 actually is good for. But there's no proof that noni juice actually works in the same way. And it has also linked with liver damage. So we are urging a lot of caution on that.
I want to talk mostly, though, about the Ephedra-free weight-loss supplements.
S. O'BRIEN: Because when people say ephedra, we know that the FDA has banned that. They're ephedra-free safe fat-burners. They're not safe?
M. O'BRIEN: Most of them are not safe, because they are finding other ways to rev up your metabolism. One common way is bitter orange, which when combined with caffeine can really cause the same kind of problems as ephedra.
S. O'BRIEN: It's A lot to take in, in just a couple minutes. So what I want to send everybody to your Web site, which is consumerreports.org/mg. It's one way -- that's medical guide.
M. O'BRIEN: Consumer Reports medicalguide.org.
S. O'BRIEN: And I think that's another way to get to it, too, so thank you for highlighting some of the risks and some of the good news, too. Appreciate it.
M. O'BRIEN: What a good servicer to provide for everybody. Nancy Metcalf from consumer reports this morning. Again, that's the Web site for you -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Soledad. You've probably seen the guy you're about to see on the Internet. He is the juggling sensation Chris Bliss. And we'll ask him how he feels to be an overnight sensation after all of these years. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Bottom of the hour. Thanks for being with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: If you were here a few moments ago, we've been updating you on President Bush's, what he likes to say, breaking news. Conservative Fox News commentator Tony Snow is the new White House Press Secretary, something we've been talking about for days now. Elaine Quijano was in the briefing room for the announcement. Elaine, the president addressing the fact that Snow's criticized him in the past, and that's been a big issue, I think, for the White House to at least spin?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right. And what senior officials are saying, we heard President Bush take note of sharp opinions expressed by Tony Snow. The president acknowledging that they're out there. But senior officials telling us this morning that they think it will show President Bush and the White House are open to differing opinions, to a wide range of opinions.
Now just a short time ago, as you mentioned, the president did, in fact, make his announcement that Tony Snow is his choice to succeed the outgoing Press Secretary Scott McClellan. Mr. Bush taking special note of those strong opinions expressed by Tony Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE U.S.: Those of you who read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometime has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, you should have heard what I said about the other guy. I like his perspective. I like the perspective he brings to this job, and I think you're going to like it, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: And President Bush saying that he believes Tony Snow will help not only the White House but the media do our jobs. The president, this coming at a time when he's watched approval ratings continue to fall, now in the low 30s according to the latest CNN poll. So this is a White House, Soledad, certainly hoping to turn things around. And they hope with this addition, this will be a part of that turnaround -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Maybe the beginning if they're lucky. All right, thanks very much, Elaine Quijano at the White House for us.
We've got Mike Allen. He's with "Time" magazine. Mike, thanks for being with us.
Tony Snow, is he enough, in fact, to reverse the slide we've seen in the president's poll numbers?
MIKE ALLEN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.
The people inside the White House are very hopeful that he'll bring some new energy. Talk about the change factor. People who are spinning the spinners this morning are saying this is a criticism of anyone who's come before. It's an acknowledgement that this White House is in a different place, numerically and otherwise, than it was when the president was re-elected. So the president, his chief of staff, Josh Bolten, counselor to the president Dan Bartlett, want someone in that position who will be very substantive, someone who was described to me, not Josh Bolten's intellectual equal, but maybe his intellectual peer, somebody has can spar and work with the press. We're told that in his conversation with the president and others, Tony Snow sought and got assurances that he would not just have a seat at every table he wants a seat at, but also a voice, that he will be involved in these decisions. We're told he was assured that he would have all the access we wanted and needed. And of course those might be in the eye of the beholder as time goes on, and that he would be able to come in and do this job in a way that would, as was explained to me, give the president and informed and successful advocate at a difficult time.
Now I enjoyed that clip about the past columns, and the president you saw there, used a little humor to dismiss some of the -- even some very recent criticism in columns, as he suggested were being told, oh, that demonstrates Tony Snow's intellectual independence. So now, of course, when he comes out and says something, you'll be able to believe it. Viewers saw that great scene there. The president, he paused and recognized Scott McClellan, who was there next to the president, Tony Snow on the other side smiling big. He called Scott a decent and talented man. Something that he clearly believes. He's talked before about Scott McClellan's integrity. We're told that Scott is going to work with Tony Snow on this transition. That's why he stayed, and the president made a gesture to Tony Snow as if the podium is yours. You Tony Snow stepped up, very comfortable, taller than the president, and he sort of put both hands on either side of the podium, as if to say, you know, I know what I'm doing, I belong here.
S. O'BRIEN: For all the intellectualist that you're talking about, at the end of the day, He knows how to do TV, and that may be an important plus, significantly less wonky than some of the other people certainly who had the job.
Listen, Mike Allen for us this morning from "Time" magazine. Always great to see you. Thanks for your insight, Mike. Appreciate it.
ALLEN: Have a beautiful week, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. Likewise.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, rangers in Africa are searching for a killer chimpanzee. The chimpanzee went after a car in a game reserve, killed the driver and seriously injured some American tourists. We'll talk to one man who was able to get away, in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A wild story to tell you about out of Sierra Leone. A pack of chimpanzees, one in particular, attacks a car in a game reserve. One person is dead, the driver of the vehicle, two others are injured. We have a lot of questions about this attack. Certainly unusual, but in many cases, none of us have even heard of chimpanzees turning on human beings this way. Gary Brown was in Sierra Leone. He was on the receiving end of this attack, and he lived to tell the story. We're going to hear his story in just a moment. We're also joined by primate expert Lorraine Docherty, live from London to tell us a little bit about how unusual this all is.
But let's begin with Gary and the story. Gary, you were in the game reserve, you were contracted there in Sierra Leone, taking a day off. And the chimpanzee was there as part of this reserve, had actually been placed there by the owners of the reserve. What happened?
GARY BROWN, SURVIVED CHIMP ATTACK: Well we were driving up the road to go to the reserve, and he just came, landed in front of the car and just started screaming, and he charged. And he was very large. And I wanted to correct you, it was actually one man was injured, and there was three Americans. And the driver, which is Sierra Leone, he was killed. But the man that was injured, he is a local there, not an American. The three Americans, we came out OK.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, how did -- what did you do as this unfolded?
BROWN: We tried to get away, first, but he captured the car and he tore the mirror off and then he went through the back window and came half-way inside and he was attacking Melvin (ph), which is the -- the friend -- I mean, he was the local. He's the man that was injured. And he beat the -- was beating the gorilla or the chimpanzee, to beat him out of the car, to get him out of the car away from us. And when he did that, it bit half part of his hand off.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow.
BROWN: And then we threw the car forward. We were just trying to get away. And the car took off, and we crashed through a gate, which on the other side had nowhere else to go. So we turned around and got the car -- we had to push it to turn it around, and tried to go back through. And here the ape -- or gorilla or the chimpanzee was charging again. And we got stuck in the gate. The gate just pinned us in.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, boy.
BROWN: And the ape jumped over the car. And at this time, it was mass panic. It was just everybody get out, or -- you know, because we were pinned. I heard Melvin screaming, help me, help me. I don't know where the others were or nothing, I just knew to look for a weapon. And I picked up a log, and went around the side the car to go help him. And he jumped up and then he charged me head-on with his hands above his head screaming. And I took the pole and I stuck it in his -- hit him in the throat. And that's when he stopped screaming.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
BROWN: And he went down. And Melvin, as he tells it, he told me I kept beating him, but I mean, I don't remember that. He ran, and I chased him in to the jungle. And then I stopped and I had to get Melvin out of there. He was bleeding to death. Because now at this time, his foot was half chewed off.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, so the driver died in the midst of this, and you...
BROWN: I thought he had escaped.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, I see.
BROWN: And I thought he was with the other Americans who were ahead. I was going to stay with this man to get him out of the -- out of there. It was like a mile walk back to the main highway. And I told the Americans to run ahead, and when they got help to send them up here for him, because this man was bleeding. And I thought he was going it bleed to death with me right there.
M. O'BRIEN: Gary, stay there for a second. Let's bring the expert in. Lorraine, this sounds extremely unusual, what you have here. What seems evident is you have an alpha male and -- feels threatened that this is his turf. How many cases have you seen over the years of chimpanzees going after human beings?
LORRAINE DOCHERTY, PRIMATE EXPERT: Like you said, this is an extremely rare event. And there's been very few cases. I think there was a case in the West in the States, in California, where similar happening, when a chimpanzee in a sanctuary attacked a couple. But I think -- and this is, I think, really - the chimp seems to be exhibiting territorial-type behaviors, like you said. The chimp may have saw the people as intruders or the enemy or a threat to his group. So that's, you know -- that's the way I see it.
M. O'BRIEN: Lorraine, are chimpanzees naturally aggressive? I mean, I think we have a perception of them as kind of warm, cuddly creatures?
DOCHERTY: Yes, they're like us. They're highly intelligent, they're sensitive. I've been working with them four years now. And the thing about them, they're very strong animals, five to seven times stronger than a human. And they've very unpredictable and they can be aggressive.
BROWN: Excuse me...
DOCHERTY: So that's something...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, go ahead, Gary.
BROWN: This -- I'm 5'9", this animal stood as tall as me and I guess his weight at 250 to 300 pounds.
M. O'BRIEN: So this is a big animal. Bigger than you would think?
DOCHERTY: They're very big. Yes, very big and very strong. And also, when they get into that kind of -- he's a dominant male, so he wants to exert his dominance, he wants to show he's the boss. And sometimes their hair fluffs out, and it makes them look even taller.
BROWN: Thank you. Because that's what I kept seeing, was his hair fluffed out.
DOCHERTY: Yes, their hair stands up, and they can look very intimidating. And they're not cute and cuddly creatures. They have to be respected.
M. O'BRIEN: Gary, just a final thought. You must -- it's just -- it's shocking and horrifying what you've been through. Have had you a chance to even reflect?
BROWN: This is a nightmare. This is something I'll never get over.
M. O'BRIEN: Gary Brown and Lorraine Docherty. An amazing story. Thank you very much.
Coming up on the program, juggler Chris Bliss. He will join us live. You might have seen this. This has been floating around the Internet. About 20 million downloads now, as a matter of fact. Listen. Can't help but make you smile, right? We'll talk to him about juggling to the music and then we're going to have him demonstrate. As a matter of fact, I'm going to try. That will be interesting. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. I just love this guitar rip.
But you know, suddenly I'm seeing it in new ways, with Chris Bliss juggling to the music. This is has become, what do they call it? Viral video on the Internet? Isn't that is, viral. I don't know.
It's -- there's about 20 million of you out there that have seen this thing on the Internet. He did it years ago, but now he's got this sudden Internet fame. His name is Chris Bliss. He is our guest shortly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
As Miles mentioned just a moment ago, Chris Bliss has become sort of an overnight success, only took you, what, 30 years or so?
CHRIS BLISS, ENTERTAINER: Well, it's a pretty a strange story. I never actually wanted to be a juggler. I wanted to not be a lawyer. And it was a great way to burn that bridge, and then I wound up being the opening act on a stadium tour with Michael Jackson, and then who would make up that credit at this point in time? And I said, that's the end of this ride. I started doing standup comedy, did five or six "Tonight" shows. I said, you know, I've got this other thing, it's kind of cool. Would you like to -- he said, no, stay with the comedy. And then in 2002, the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival said, would do you that juggling thing for us? And I said, sure. You know, I still like it. I was still doing it to close my shows.
S. O'BRIEN: And it's amazing. We've been showing clips of it all morning. It's an amazing juggle. You do it to music. First, why the Beatles? Is it only Beatles songs?
BLISS: Well, that's just the last piece that I would up doing that I left in my act after everything else was done, after I started doing standup.
S. O'BRIEN: So fast forward to 2004 to 2006, and all of a sudden the juggling act is on the Internet, and it's everywhere. I mean, we've have several guests today, just on other issues, where you're talking about you know, Egypt or they're talking health supplements, they said, ooh, Chris Bliss! I love that guy.
BLISS: Well, it's the strangest thing. Somebody must have gone to the Web site where it had just been sitting four years, and they pasted the URL into an e-mail, and they sent it out to their friends, and their friends sent it to everybody.
S. O'BRIEN: It's everywhere.
BLISS: And pretty soon, 6,000 e-mails from 25 different countries, eight offers of marriage, four to join the circus. That's a toss-up.
S. O'BRIEN: Better the marriage than the circus offer, I would imagine.
BLISS: That's true.
S. O'BRIEN: I want you to do a little demo for us, because I've been blown away watching this on the tapes, so I really want to see it in person. And then after we do that, we'll talk about your other passion as well.
BLISS: That's great.
S. O'BRIEN: Can you hear the music? Let's begin.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
S. O'BRIEN: Bravo! Look at all the kids watching! It's a thrill for the tourists this morning. How many years did it take to you really perfect it?
BLISS: Probably four or five years before I started to get the hang of what I was doing, but I wasn't perfecting. It was just this strange thing that came out of nowhere and got me out of law school. So I was very grateful.
S. O'BRIEN: Will you start taking up these marriage offers and the circus offers? And...
BLISS: I don't think my wife would be happy with either one of those. S. O'BRIEN: Wives hate that.
BLISS: Yes, they really do hate the extra marriages.
S. O'BRIEN: Will you do more of that act, though, do you think?
BLISS: My focus is elsewhere. I'm still a stand-up, and I do a lot of writing. I've written some op-ed pieces for some newspapers. And probably from growing up in Washington, probably why the other project that...
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about that other project...
BLISS: Well, that's the greatest thing of all this. I was just thing, this started back in August, and I was worried about how the national conversation in America is sort of was starting to resemble a bad marriage, with everybody talking past one another and nobody listening. I thought when your marriage is in trouble, the best thing to do, look at your vows again. And to me, that's sort of the Bill of Rights. They represent the promise we made to ourselves as a people. And I thought to myself, maybe we if we started putting up monuments of the Bill of Rights, put them up on state capital grounds in all 50 states, and help get the conversation started, to remind people about what's really special about America, which is individual rights, personal freedoms, and it turns out not a single monument of the Bill of Rights anywhere in the United States, which I didn't know. And that's about to change. The state of Arizona is about to give its approval for the first placement of a monument. And once that's up, I think other states will request them, and it's...
S. O'BRIEN: Great passion on all fronts. Not only the Bill of Rights, also (INAUDIBLE). Give me a little lesson as we head into a commercial break and throw it back to Miles O'Brien.
OK, what do you do?
BLISS: It's very easy, Soledad. You just throw them up in the air and then catch them as they come down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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