Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
McCain Courting the Conservative GOP Base; Clinton Vows to Continue the Race; George McGovern Flips to Obama; Toyota Profits Fall; Cops Beating Suspects Caught on Tape; U.N. Relief Aid Finally Reaching Myanmar
Aired May 08, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm totally with him. I mean, I'm campaigning for him and with him and plan to do everything I can to help him. Does that mean we agree on 100 percent of the issues? Don't have to.
Politics isn't about getting 100 percent. Heck, my wife doesn't even agree with me on some things, John, and I've been married to her coming up on 34 years. So --
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: It's all about getting -- it's all about getting 50.1 percent, isn't it.
HUCKABEE: Something like that. It works.
ROBERTS: Governor, thanks very much. It's great to see you again. We'll get you back again soon.
HUCKABEE: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Take care -- Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Always great to have him.
So is Senator Hillary Clinton overstaying her welcome? Her campaign is insisting she's here to stay. Right now, there's a heated battle with those saying enough is enough. And right now, Barack Obama's picking up even more cash and more superdelegates.
CNN's Carol Costello has more on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton a day after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries was still using the words of a fighter.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee.
COSTELLO: Her campaign sent supporters a letter expressing Clinton's personal determination to keep fighting for what I believe in. From what Clinton says, even after disappointing results in the primaries, she doesn't feel now is the time to bow out. But if not now, when? MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: She's telling us now that she's in it through June 3rd. She wants to see a nominee, but clearly she doesn't have the pep in her voice today that she did yesterday.
COSTELLO: Because, perhaps, there are definite signs that lead some to suggest Clinton should consider quitting the race. One, the money is drying up. Clinton acknowledged she has loaned her campaign $11.4 million since February.
Two, some prominent supporters are publicly urging Clinton to quit. Former Senator George McGovern is the latest.
Three, many political pundits are now openly declaring the race is over. All of these factors will make it harder for her to convince the uncommitted superdelegates that she is the candidate to take on John McCain. But for Clinton to really consider these factors, she would have to face the death of her dream.
DAVID WINSTON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: The first woman president. I mean, that is a huge deal. And so, it's hard to give that up.
COSTELLO: Clinton is not the only politician to hold on until the very end. Ted Kennedy did it in 1980. He forced the Democratic contest all the way to the convention, refusing to concede to Jimmy Carter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED KENNEDY, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No more high inflation and no more Jimmy Carter!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And Richard Nixon did it in 1974. At the height of Watergate, he refused to quit until threatened with impeachment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO (on camera): Analysts told me for Clinton to quit she must come to the realization that her political career is not over with this race. She could follow Ted Kennedy's lead and become a powerhouse in the Senate. Or if she still has the itch, four years can fly by very quickly. Carol Costello, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: And then there is this. Long-time Clinton family friend George McGovern made his case on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night saying it's time for him and the rest of the Democratic Party to get behind Barack Obama. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE MCGOVERN, PULLS SUPPORT FROM CLINTON: I'm proud that I endorsed Senator Clinton last October, but I think the time has come in the life of the Democratic Party, in fact, in the life of the nation, for us to get together on a candidate as soon as conveniently possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: And McGovern said he didn't talk to Hillary Clinton because she was tired from being on the trail, but he had a "very good conversation" with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Both Clintons worked on McGovern's presidential campaign back in 1972 when he lost to Richard Nixon.
ROBERTS: Yes. Remember in the Texas primary, she was talking about being down there, being a precinct captain working for George McGovern in Houston back in 1972.
CHO: And Bill Clinton inspired by George McGovern's run.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHO: And it helped him get into the politics as well.
ROBERTS: Wow. Mike Huckabee was saying that's a tough one for her.
Michigan Democrats have got a new plan to get their delegates seated at the National Convention. They want to give Hillary Clinton 69 delegates and Barack Obama 59. The party's rules committee has until the end of May to decide whether or not to approve the proposal. Michigan and Florida were stripped of a combined 366 delegates for holding their primaries early.
Barack Obama is meeting with uncommitted superdelegates today in Washington. He picked up five of them since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries on Tuesday. He now trails Hillary Clinton by just 10.
Just six primaries left in the next four weeks. Obama has got 1,845 total delegates. Hillary Clinton, 1,686; 2,025 needed to win the nomination.
Barack Obama, by the way, joins Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" today. It's his first interview since the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, this national interview. That will be at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
CHO: I think you were the last one to talk to him.
Moving on now, Americans are knee deep in debt. The latest report from the Federal Reserve says personal debt rose more than $15 billion from February to March to a total of $2.6 trillion with a "T." Analysts had predicted just a $6 billion increase. The report includes credit cards and fixed payment loans, but not mortgages and home equity loans.
Also new this morning, the House is expected to pass a bill today to provide $300 billion in guaranteed loans to homeowners at risk of foreclosure. It also offers a $7,500 tax credit to first-time home buyers. President Bush is threatening a veto saying the plan costs too much and bails out lenders and speculators instead of homeowners.
Meantime, House Democratic leaders are delaying the vote on an Iraq war funding bill. That $200 billion plan includes funding for GI, education and unemployment programs. Moderate Democrats say they're worried about where the funding comes from for those extra programs, and Republicans complain they were kept out of the loop during the drafting of the bill.
And more than 43,000 U.S. troops classified as medically unfit for combat since 2003 were sent to war zones anyway. "USA Today" reports most of the troops are in the army which is doing most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon records don't list how serious the health issues were or whether they were treated before deployment.
ROBERTS: We are following breaking news this morning on the growing crisis in Myanmar. A short time ago the United Nations said one of its relief planes landed in the country after days of being denied permission to enter. Another commercial plane carrying U.N.- supplied high energy biscuits was also allowed in. U.S. planes though are still being blocked.
The top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar says the number of people killed from the deadly cyclone could hit 100,000 if survivors don't get food and fresh water. Earlier this morning a representative of the World Food Programme spoke to CNN about the relief effort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BANBURY, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: The World Food Programme is fully prepared now to respond to the needs in there. We have food. We have personnel. We have portable offices, generators, boats.
We're loading them on a plane literally now in Phnom Penh. Those planes are really to fly. We have about four planes ready to go today to Yangong (ph) to start offloading the people, the supplies, the food. We just need the permission so we can do our job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And coming up in just a few minutes here on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll talk with CNN's Christiane Amanpour about the political and physical challenges of getting help into Myanmar.
New this morning. In Russia, Vladimir Putin has got a new job. He was just confirmed as Russia's new prime minister one day after his protege Dmitry Medvedev succeeded him as president. The unprecedented switch comes after months of political maneuvering by Putin to maintain a role in ruling Russia once he stepped down. Now, the next thing to watch is how much power the prime minister shift might be given in the future.
A wild shootout in a busy Florida courthouse. Deputies in St. Petersburg shot and killed a 30-year-old man after he opened fire in the courthouse lobby. One of the deputies is recovering from a gunshot wound this morning. Neighbors say the suspect was going through a divorce and was taking papers to the courthouse.
And in Texas, a giant sinkhole keeps getting bigger. We've seen this before. But, wow! Look at how big this one is.
Oil field vehicles have already fallen into the giant crater. It's in the town of Daisetta. It's about 60 miles northeast of Houston. The hole is almost two football fields long and deep enough to hold a 15-story building. Officials don't yet know what caused it.
CHO: Lucky it didn't happen right in the middle of a highway. You know, you always see those cars going down --
ROBERTS: Or under somebody's house.
CHO: Yes, no kidding.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHO: Anyway, coming up, Toyota's profits falter in the first quarter. Why the world's biggest automaker sees more of the same for the rest of the year. What's going on there?
And tense times in Philadelphia. A police officer killed over the weekend and police there now under fire for an arrest caught on tape. We'll show it to you and an interview you won't want to miss. The commissioner and Philadelphia's mayor join us live, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Ten minutes after the hour. Ali Velshi here with news on Toyota. Profits falling sharply. But we were just talking about Toyota doing well. What's going on?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is an interesting story. Toyota's profits for the first quarter dropping 28 percent. We're going to get their full year profits soon, and we're also expecting a similar drop in profits. What's wrong with Toyota? Aren't they the ones who are doing really well and selling the cars everybody wants to buy?
Well, yes, but there are three problems with Toyota. It's the second biggest car manufacturer in the world after General Motors, GM, and one of the problems is that everybody is successful because they sell lots of cars in America.
Well, the U.S. market has actually been in decline for several years. It's not just a fuel thing. This is a mature market for cars. So Toyota like everybody else has been suffering in terms of selling cars in the U.S. and Western Europe. These are mature markets. They're trying to shift their emphasis over to China, India, Brazil, the Middle East, Russia, places like that, and that is happening. There's no question.
CHO: Emerging markets.
VELSHI: Emerging markets, because that's where people are getting a little bit wealthier and there are more sales. So number one, that shift hasn't happened yet. Everybody in China and India hasn't started buying cars. They're starting to but they haven't picked up on it.
Number two, and this is an important one, when you make cars in Japan or you sell cars and you account for it in yen, well, the dollar has been lower. So part of the problem is that affects their profits. It also makes their product more expensive.
So just this week, we actually heard that Toyota is increasing the cost of some of its cars midseason. So we're not waiting for a new --
CHO: Right (ph).
VELSHI: Yes -- and they are in demand. They're selling a lot of these fuel efficient or hybrid cars. And finally, of course, the issue is the cost of gas, which is up around the world and that is definitely causing some people to pull back, although Toyota generally is a net gain in that environment. They tend to benefit from people pulling back on cars because they have a lot of the ones, including the hybrids that are very fuel efficient.
So this has more got to do with the yen versus the dollar and the fact that the U.S. and western European markets are -- they're just not -- they're mature. You're not going to get your growth in those markets.
CHO: All right, Ali, thank you.
VELSHI: OK.
ROBERTS: Fighting on to the convention. Hillary Clinton soldiers on ignoring calls from Democrats who want her to bow out of the presidential race, and questions about possible police brutality in Philadelphia. We'll talk with the city's mayor and police chief coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back. A manhunt that stretched two states is over this morning, and there are hopes it helps to take the edge off a tense time in the city of Philadelphia.
Eric DeShaun is the third and last suspect wanted for the shooting death of police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski over the weekend. A second suspect also in custody. A third man believed to have fired the fatal shots was killed by police at the scene. ROBERTS: City officials in Philadelphia say the stress of that fatal police shooting may have triggered the beating of three shooting suspects this week. The beating was caught on tape by a local news helicopter. It shows officers pulling three suspects from a car and then repeatedly kicking and punching them.
The suspects were believed to be involved in a triple shooting nearby. Six of the cops have been taken off the street. Well, the department investigates the incident. They are on paid administrative leave as it's called.
Joining us now from Philadelphia is the city's police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, and the mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter.
Gentlemen, thanks for being with us this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Let me ask you, Mr. Mayor, first of all, what was your reaction when you saw this videotape?
MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: Well, I was tremendously disappointed in the behavior of the officers. We have a standard of professionalism for our police officers. Clearly, at least by viewing the tape, we didn't meet that standard in this particular incident.
Having said that, the men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department are hardworking. They're professional in their work. They know how to conduct themselves in different situations, but this activity is unacceptable under any set of terms and conditions, and they will be dealt with. Officers have been removed from the street, as you indicated in your opening. And more will come off the street and be placed on administrative duty, and then there will be an investigation, which is now ongoing, and then the chips will fall where they may.
ROBERTS: Chief Ramsey, your thoughts on what might have contributed to this. There's been some talk of stress in the wake of the shooting of Officer Liczbinski. There's also been talk that perhaps there is a racial bias problem in the Philadelphia Police Department.
COMMISSIONER CHARLES RAMSEY, PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPT.: Well, I don't know what the exact cause is, but there is a unique set of circumstances now with the death of Sergeant Liczbinski Saturday. The officers had witnessed a triple shooting that was unrelated to the sergeant's death, but a triple shooting nonetheless and apprehended the suspects.
But no matter what the cause, there's no excuse for that kind of behavior. And we certainly want to take action to demonstrate our resolve in making sure that the highest level of professionalism in this department is maintained at all times irrespective of the circumstances. ROBERTS: You know, there's a protest there, Chief Ramsey, not too long ago and it was related to this incident back in January, where a white police officer was suspended for 20 days because he had a Ku Klux Klan related poster hanging up in his locker. Do you have a race relations problem in the force?
RAMSEY: Well, we have a very good police force, and we have men and women that are dedicated to serving all communities in Philadelphia. We have 6,700 members. Obviously occasionally we'll have someone engaged in conduct that we're not particularly proud of, or that we just totally feel is inappropriate.
So, I mean, that happens in any large organization, but it's not representative of the entire department, and part of the shame of this whole thing is we're going through a very difficult time this week. People are out there with a tremendous amount of pressure. The vast majority doing their job properly then you have something like this, and it overshadows the tragedy that took place last Saturday.
NUTTER: The other response to your question is no. The issue on Monday night with those officers I would suggest to you very directly is much less about or actually having virtually nothing to do with race. It has to do with crime. These officers, again, were responding to a chase --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Yet all of the officers -- yet all of the officers were white, and the three suspects were black.
NUTTER: The officers show up as they are called in their particular sector, and they engage in the chase. There was the accurate report that three of these individuals out of four had just been involved in a shooting of three other people on a street corner witnessed by police officers.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: And no weapon --
NUTTER: So, I want to be very, very careful -- well, the shooter got away as has been mentioned earlier. So this is about proper police conduct regardless of the race or ethnicity of the individuals involved. And so, I want us to be very, very careful about what we're saying here with regard to this incident.
We're not satisfied with the activity. It doesn't matter what the race of any particular defendant is. Philadelphia police officers, we have a standard. The conduct was not acceptable, and it will be dealt with through the investigatory process.
ROBERTS: And, Chief Ramsey, what else might happen in the force? Will you gather together the officers and you go back over the training again to say things like this are just not acceptable, here are the standards for arrest? RAMSEY: Well, we are in the process of putting together teams for stress management purposes anyway. It will be throughout the department, but obviously there is no training that we put on that involves kicking --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: No, no, obviously.
RAMSEY: So that's a problem.
ROBERTS: But sometimes you need to reiterate to the officers that this is unacceptable. Will you do that?
RAMSEY: We're going to -- we're going to take whatever steps we need to take and certainly training is an ongoing process, but I would like to mention one thing.
ROBERTS: Yes.
RAMSEY: One of the sergeants at the scene was African-American. We did get 15 shell casings at 4th and Hansberry (ph) where the original shooting took place. So it was just -- it was a set of circumstances, not to justify it at all, but it certainly does provide some context in which, you know, things are taking place here in Philadelphia.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll keep watching this very closely. Chief Ramsey and Mayor Nutter, thanks for being with us this morning.
NUTTER: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Appreciate your time.
RAMSEY: Thank you.
NUTTER: Thanks.
CHO: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." Relief aid finally arriving in Myanmar after days of delay, but why can't American planes get in?
CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us live with the unprecedented political and physical challenges of getting help to Myanmar.
And a storm front that rocked Tornado Alley is on the move right now. Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back. Twenty-three minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano at the CNN weather center tracking all of the extreme weather for us. Hey, Rob, good morning.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Alina. Got some cool video coming out of just east of Tulsa from storm chasers yesterday trying to track down what was a funnel cloud. Check it out.
Sirens going off and this thing trying to touch down just to the east of Tulsa. No official report of a tornado there, but certainly ominous looking clouds. The sirens going off and the weather warning. They got their weather radio on also, and, well, truckers continue to go back and forth about their business. That's how they do it in Oklahoma.
Good morning, everybody. Once again, I'm Rob Marciano in the severe weather center. We're looking at a threat today for severe weather to the east now across southeast parts of the U.S. and also a little chunk in through parts of Kansas where we expect to see the most action today.
Threat for tornadoes, yes, but mostly I think damaging winds. Maybe some large hail and certainly some heavy rains and that has been really the biggest thing with this particular system, the heavy rain. Here is the low.
It's going to eject to the north and east, and it's beginning to stretch out. So we're seeing a fair amount of moisture with this. Look at this. This is an area that continues to see flash flood watches and warnings, and we've been saying this it seems like for months now.
Look at these rainfall totals from yesterday. Joplin, Missouri, 5.71 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Lebanon, Missouri, 4.5, and Clay City, Illinois, four inches. So tremendous amount of rainfall already waterlogged the area and the potential for severe weather today across the southeast. John and Alina, back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks very much, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain getting some late night laughs on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and one question prompted him to walk off. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": Everybody knows Senator Barack Obama has a problem with the Reverend Wright issue.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.
STEWART: Americans, I think, 35 percent said they were concerned about his relationship with the reverend. You, sir, have your own person, religious -- I don't want to say zealot, but a religious person endorsing your campaign that Americans have expressed greater concern, your relationship with him. 43 percent. Will you take the opportunity right now to repudiate and denounce President Bush?
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
Sit down! Sit down, sir! What do you think of that though?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: McCain also joked about a possible running mate saying that he'd pick Dwight Schrute. He's a character on the TV show "The Office."
CHO: Walking off is probably the best thing to do in that situation, huh?
ROBERTS: I thought he was going in one direction with that and then took a left turn.
CHO: That's right.
Former senator, close friend, Clinton friend George McGovern is the latest Democrat to call for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race. Despite being short on delegates and cash, she is vowing to stay in until her party has a nominee.
And we want to hear from you on this. So, is it time for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race? Right now, take a look, 70 percent of you say yes. Thirty percent of you say no. You can send us an e- mail on this, too. Please do. CNN.com/am is the address.
ROBERTS: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." Hundreds of thousands living without food, shelter and basic necessities. A second wave of disaster inside Myanmar.
Our Christiane Amanpour breaks down what's taking so long to get critical aid in. We'll have that story coming up for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Much-needed aid finally arriving in Myanmar within the last couple of hours. The government there finally granting access to U.N. planes four days after the cyclone disaster. An estimated one million people are homeless, in need of food, shelter and medicine, and the government is isolated from countries that could help. Up to 100,000 people were killed.
Christiane Amanpour is CNN's chief international correspondent. She's with us now live. Christiane, good morning. You're talking about a humanitarian crisis, up to 100,000 people dead potentially.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Potentially is a very important word.
CHO: Potentially, you're right.
Cannot be confirmed by the government. I know they say 22,000. But, you know, you're talking about a humanitarian crisis. People literally fighting over food. A lot of people in the western world don't understand why this aid can't get to the people who need it. What's going on? AMANPOUR: Well, it could turn out to be their Katrina because what's happening is a completely incompetent response to a dramatic emergency. And basically, the Myanmar government is not allowing visas for much-needed personnel. It's one thing to take planes and cargo and drop them at the airport, but quite rightly the U.N. says we need the personnel to be able to send it around the country.
First of all, we need to know where it's going and that it's not siphoned off and used illicitly by government favorites or the military or whatever. And secondly, you just need equipment, transportation equipment, logistic equipment, people to be able to do that. Fortunately, the World Food Programme has a certain number of people in place and they did have a certain capacity of food in place but they need food, they need shelter, they water purification tablets and they need the people to send it around.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: There are countries all around the world including $3.5 million promised by the U.S.. I mean, what is it going to take though to persuade the military junta to let these planes in?
AMANPOUR: Well, they're playing politics with visas. There have been any number of dramatic emergencies around the world in the last several years that involve countries that the U.S. is adversarial with but has allowed the U.S. in to help, for instance in Iran for 2003. Massive earthquake in the Bam province, basically leveled that historic town, but the U.S. was able to come in, help with the air lift, help with the assistance there, and these countries can sometimes make emergency, you know, decisions to lift visas. The junta is not doing that right now.
CHO: Yes, it's too bad. And, you know, those, I think it's important to point out, too, that the American aid is at the ready. Really there in Thailand ready to go. We just need the OK.
AMANPOUR: Aid all over is ready.
CHO: All over. Let's talk a little bit about a comparison between what happened four years ago. You were in Sri Lanka following the tsunami. How does what happened there compare to what's happening now?
AMANPOUR: Well, obviously everybody rushed to try to help what happened in Asia in the tsunami. The worst catastrophe that that place has really ever had, and so many people -- something in the region of 230,000 people were killed very, very quickly. There was an aid lift. It did -- you know, it took a little bit of time to get up and running, but for instance, for instance, the United States was able to take its heavy helicopters, its lift capacity and really make the difference between life and death in Indonesia in the Aceh province. And that came at a time when the U.S. was not popular in that part of the world and it made a significant difference. It made the people of Indonesia realize that actually they could get help from the United States.
CHO: You know, I m just curious, you have reported on these types of tragedies all around the world. Just curious, you know, it's so hard to get the western media inside. Dan Rivers, one of the few correspondents inside. There was so much -- the media just really went down on Sri Lanka, Banda Aceh, all these areas where so much attention paid to them, do you think if we had more attention that maybe that might put more pressure on the government?
AMANPOUR: You know, probably, probably, but the fact the government doesn't allow the media in is exactly why it doesn't allow the aid in. It's just isolated, it doesn't want it, and good for CNN to have its people in there. It's really important and it's really important to have these pictures and this information coming out. But, you know, they have gone in at their own risk and they have taken a very courageous step to go in and do that on the ground, and that's vitally important for the sake of those people who need that help.
CHO: CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. I know you'll be here tomorrow talking about your documentary notes from North Korea. We look forward to that. Thank you, Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Thank you.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: 30 minutes after the hour now. Hillary Clinton will be making stops in West Virginia, South Dakota, and Oregon today. Clinton is vowing to stay in the race despite growing calls from Democrats for her to bow out gracefully. The latest coming from party elder and close friend of the Clintons, George McGovern. He says the Democratic Party should now unite behind Barack Obama. But another Clinton supporter, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel says she should stay put.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: The fact that mathematically that she can win, I have never heard of any contest that just because you're behind and it looks bad but you still have a possibility of winning that you quit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton has loaned herself another $6.4 million to keep her presidential campaign running.
Michigan Democrats are floating a new plan to get their delegates seated at the national convention in Denver in August. They want to give Hillary Clinton 69 delegates and Barack Obama 59. The parties' rules committee has to approve the proposal. Michigan and Florida were stripped of their delegates for holding their primaries early. Obama is making his pitch to uncommitted superdelegates today in Washington. Hillary Clinton was there yesterday.
New this morning. Senate Democrats are working to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies. It would also roll back $17 billion in tax breaks for those companies, but Senate Republicans strongly oppose the plan, and President Bush would likely veto it. And the good times may be over for the Toyota Motor Company. It said its earnings for the last quarter fell 28 percent. And it expects to report a decline in sales this year for the first time in nine years. Toyota has been holding up better than most automakers but says it's not immune from the global economic slowdown.
Well, people have stopped buying cars. Have they stopped buying airplane seats? Maybe we can get rid of some of those delays.
ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're all going to stay home this summer. In fact, the last summer was such a bad summer for delays and cancellations and overbooked flights. Maybe folks stay home and that problem will go away. But it's not so we are reporting on the best and worst airlines according to the U.S. government for the month of March and for the first three months of 2008.
Let's start with the worst airports for late departures. These are not a lot of surprises for people who go through some of these airports. For the whole period, January to March, Chicago O'Hare came in first for late departures. Newark Liberty International came in first just for the month of March. Now, let's take a look at late arrivals to airports. Guess what? Chicago wins again. January to March it had the worst record for late arrivals. For late arrivals just for the month of March, New York's La Guardia Airport.
March ended being the second worst month for delays, departures, cancellations since they started measuring these things. That's pretty bad because last year was pretty bad. It's just such an inconvenience. It just adds so much hassle to this whole thing. And we were reporting earlier, there's been now the 15th attempt to raise airfares by a major airline. That's just in 2008. We're only in may. Ten of those have been successful. Successful means that one airline in this case Delta, tries to raise airfares. Other airlines then match. Usually we know within 36 hours whether it's been successful or not.
ROBERTS: Do you think this one will be?
VELSHI: You know, two-thirds of them are so far, so it's a good guess.
ROBERTS: All right.
VELSHI: But it's -
CHO: Adding insult to injury.
VELSHI: As we discussed, I'm planning a staycation.
ROBERTS: OK. It's looking more and more attractive all the time.
CHO: Good idea.
ROBERTS: I'm getting a lot of resistance from my family on that. VELSHI: Yes, I'm not kidding.
CHO: Coming up, emergency room overcrowding. A new report says ERs in big cities across the country aren't prepared to handle a major disaster. Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at what Congress plans to do ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 39 minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano at the CNN weather center this morning tracking the extreme weather for us. Where are we looking for bad stuff today, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: It looks like everything will shift off to the east, John. Good morning again. Here is the low. This thing was a little bit farther west yesterday and that's what caused all the trouble in Oklahoma and parts of Texas in the way that we had seven reports of tornadoes. Did some damage, especially in Oklahoma. Big trees uprooted because of the strong winds and now all the action is moving off to the east. We've got some heavy thunderstorms that are rolling just south of Memphis today, and with that you can see some hail and also some -- the possibility of a tornado or two, but it shouldn't be all that bad.
St. Louis down the Mississippi is where we're seeing the heaviest amounts of rain right now. Nashville, you're waking up to some of this. Missouri, some parts of Missouri got almost six inches of rainfall during the day yesterday, especially right along 44 back through Springfield, Missouri and into Joplin is where we saw the heaviest amounts of rain, and that area already saturated from the rainfall we've had for the past couple of months. In some cases, they've seen twice as much rain as they should so far this year. Up the Ohio River we go with rain falling through Cincinnati, Dayton, Covington up through Pittsburgh as well.
And this is stretching into the New York area after a beautiful day yesterday. Boston to New York, down to Philly is where we expect to see rain increasing in intensity and beginning to increase in the rain bucket tomorrow as well. A couple of spots for severe weather today. Western parts of Kansas, we may see some storms fire up, and this is all the energy that was in through Oklahoma yesterday, damaging winds, large hail, and some isolated tornadoes possible from Mississippi, Alabama, and through Georgia and the Carolinas. That's the latest from the weather department. John and Alina, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Rob, thank you.
CHO: Sounding the alarm about emergency rooms in America. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is paying us a house call here in the studio.
ROBERTS: Good morning, doc.
CHO: Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It's fascinating sort of testimony yesterday on the hill. What would happen in your town if there was some sort of disaster? They actually did a fascinating study. 4:30 in the afternoon they looked at what happened to several emergency rooms across the country if disaster struck. I have it for you, what they found, on AMERICAN MORNING, coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: If a disaster strikes or there's a terror attack, can emergency rooms in the United States handle the crisis? That's the question being posed to federal health officials in light of proposed cuts to Medicaid in a hearing on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: Did you do an evaluation to know what the impact would be on these hospitals if these regs went into place?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Medicaid is not intended to support institutions. It's intended to support people.
WAXMAN: But it does support these institutions because people without insurance go to these hospitals. People who are injured go to these hospitals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Our CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. You're a certified level one trauma surgeon. So, you've seen your fair share of action in the E.R.. So, what's the deal? Are they capable of dealing with a major catastrophe?
GUPTA: The short answer is no. It had to do with surge capacity, how available are you for surge. On a day-to-day basis, you know, most people can get care in most emergency rooms around the country. The question is, you're aptly posing - and they're posing on the hill yesterday - disaster happens, a Madrid-style bombing, some sort of catastrophe, what happens then? They did sort of an interesting thing. They actually looked at a certain time of day, neither the busiest nor the slowest time of day and they looked at seven different cities across America, cities that were either considered high risk for terrorist attacks or the convention cities this summer, and they found that more than half of the E.R.s are already are above capacity. On average, five available beds. So obviously nowhere near enough to handle some sort of major disaster, and the situation if you had to label a couple cities as particularly bad, they're going to say Los Angeles and Washington are some of the worst.
Now, any emergency room doctor we talked to yesterday about this said this is no surprise. We have been dealing with this for some time. We know that emergency rooms often get used as primary care centers and they get very, very busy. What to do about it is harder, John. As you might imagine, it's expensive to have a lot of surge capacity. To just have idle beds, idle equipment, idle personnel. Is there a way to better diffuse some of what's needed across an entire hospital. For example, a kidney floor or a dermatology floor may not be as busy. Can those people be cross trained to be able to take care of other patients? Also, there's a real problem with getting people in and out of the hospitals efficiently. Discharge, sort of efficiency. Can you improve on that end? This is a difficult situation though and I think it really exposed sort of that underbelly that you and I have talked about before.
ROBERTS: And there's never anybody in the Neurology department either, right?
GUPTA: We stay pretty busy.
ROBERTS: Until they get all these worked out, is there anything that can be done right now to ease the congestion?
GUPTA: I think a lot of it is going to be sort on the hospitals right now. Now that they have seen this report to really figure out how to be more efficient about this and to, you know, for example, if there's some sort of major event happening in the city, what are they going to do? You know, when I was out in Iraq, as you remembered, John, we talked about this. They set up tents in major disaster situations to take care of patients. Could that sort of be adapted for civilian population as well? As far as disasters themselves, what they do find sort of statistically is the least wounded end up in the hospitals first, the walking wounded so to speak. How do you better triage those people so they don't stay in the hospital, they don't take up hospital beds.
ROBERTS: In terms of these tents would they be set up after a catastrophe happens or would they have them set up as a precautionary measure?
GUPTA: I think after. You know and what we found --
ROBERTS: Wouldn't it take a while?
GUPTA: Well, you know, it was interesting. They have a thing called the forward resuscitative surgical system which were the tents that were set up in Iraq. It takes on hour to set it up. It takes an hour to set it up and an hour to tear it down. And you can move it. So, you can take it to the highest impact areas. You typically have a couple of surgeons there, nurses and an anesthesiology ward within that tent to be able to take care of patients. They work really well in Iraq. I don't know if it could be adapted effectively to the civilian population but this is what's been talked about.
ROBERTS: Why not? Yes. Heck, at least give it a try.
Totally different subject, you heard Ali talking about airport delays. You suffered last night?
GUPTA: You can tell my poorly shaven face here. I got in very late last night. Yes. La Guardia was true to its statistic I guess last night.
ROBERTS: Wow, how delayed were you?
GUPTA: I was supposed it get in around 10:00, I got in after midnight.
ROBERTS: That's pretty normal.
GUPTA: That's right. I'm used to it now.
ROBERTS: Sanjay, thanks. We'll see you in just a little bit.
GUPTA: All right.
ROBERTS: Don't forget. It's mail bag day today as well. So, Sanjay will be back to talk about that. Alina.
CHO: All right. We look forward to that. Coming up, fire fight caught on tape. A soldier accidentally phones home in the heat of the battle. Hear for yourself. And Scientology versus Anonymous. Masked protesters targeting L. Ron Hubbard's religion. It's the religion of Tom Cruise and John Travolta, too. Find out why Scientologists want some of them arrested. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back. Former Senator and close Clinton friend George McGovern is the latest Democrat to call for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race, but she is vowing to stay in until her party has a nominee despite being short on cash and delegates. So we want to hear from you. Is it time for Hillary Clinton to drop out? Right now 69 percent of you say yes, 31 percent say no. We've been reading your e-mails as well. Rebecca in Wayne, Illinois, writes "now that the numbers are impossible for her and Obama's nomination is inevitable, her staying in is becoming exponentially more divisive and damaging to the party each day. It is obvious she is waiting either for a scandal to overthrow him or for the superdelegates and the DNC to overturn his inevitable nomination which would be very bad for the party, no matter who you support."
ROBERTS: This from Linda in Lauderhill, Florida. She says "she has the right to continue her campaign. We believe that she is still the only one who can beat McCain. By Obama's people strong arming everyone to knock Hillary out there, they're not doing themselves any favors. They're starting to look like thugs. If you truly want to unite the party, leave Hillary alone." These are the divisions. They're very, very partisan and very, very agitated.
CHO: That's right. And Caroline in Greensboro, North Carolina says Hillary staying in the race is "typical Clintonism. She continues to pursue her own selfish ambition instead of working to unite the party. She needs to get out." Thanks to everyone who wrote in. More e-mails in our next hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): Voice mail from a war zone. A mother checks her messages. And hears her son under attack in Afghanistan. And uphill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barack seems to have an insurmountable lead.
ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton still fighting as a party elder says throw in the towel. The most politics in the morning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: This is a story you have to see to believe. We've all done it, had your cell phone in your pocket or purse and accidentally made a call, but our Ed Lavandera has a story of a soldier who did that from Afghanistan during a fire fight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Imagine the heart- stopping moment when Sandie Petee checked her voice mail in Otis, Oregon, and heard these horrifying sounds.
VOICE OF STEVEN PHILLIPS: We need more ammo!
LAVANDERA: That's Sandie's son Steven Phillips and his army unit caught in the middle of a live gun fight with insurgents in Afghanistan. Phillips' cell phone accidentally dialed home.
SANDIE PETEE, MOTHER: We listened to it and started hearing yelling and realize it was a gun fight he had been in or a fire fight, and just it was like very emotional. Very emotional.
JOHN PETEE, BROTHER: When I heard it I was thinking, you know, I hope he's all right. I hope nobody got hurt, and I hope he kept his head down.
LAVANDERA: The rapid gunfire intensified during the three-minute phone call. Until this abrupt ending and the message went silent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got me, they got me.
PETEE: I'm thinking, oh, my god, this might be the last time I hear my son's voice on the phone.
LAVANDERA: As soon as the message ended, Steven Phillips' mother tried calling her son back. The phone calls didn't go through. But finally after several hours, Steven answered. The 22-year-old soldier and his comrades were safe and alive. Phillips said the cell phone accidentally dialed home when he leaned up against his humvee and then, believe it or not, he apologized to his family for the profanity on the message.
JEFF PETEE, FATHER: He said he was sorry. He said he was embarrassed. Don't tell grandma. Don't let her hear it.
SANDIE PETEE: He apologized up and down for it. He kind of felt bad, but it's something he does all the time, and we just don't see the reality of it.
LAVANDERA: Steven Phillips' tour in Afghanistan is almost over. He's scheduled to come home next week.
JEFF PETEE: I'm just going to grab him and give him a big hug.
LAVANDERA: And then they'll let him listen to his own gun fight still on their answering machine. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Oh, my goodness, must have been a heart-stopping moment for his mother, but it is good to hear that he's OK and he could be back in the states next week. John.
ROBERTS: Can you imagine?
We're watching the breaking news overnight on the crisis in Myanmar. A United Nations plane packed in aid for the cyclone victims landed just a short time ago. The military government refused to grant permission for relief efforts though for days after the disaster. So, it's put the whole thing behind. Earlier we spoke with Bettina Luescher. She is the spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTINA LUESCHER, SPOKESWOMAN, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: It's only very little that has come in. That, of course, is hurting us. We need people. We need planes. We need helicopters. We need food, water, sanitation. We need to get all of our experts from all of the World Food Program and the other U.N. organizations and NGOs in the country. So it's crucially important that the visas are being issued and that staff can get on the ground. It's a huge operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar says the death toll could top 100,000 if help does not arrive in time. CNN's Dan Rivers is one of the few western journalists in Myanmar. He filed this report a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A land where funerals and death are at every turn. Some are buried, but many bodies are still lying amid the rubble. And everywhere those haunting hollow faces, the drowned world that feels beyond hope.
RIVERS (on-camera): But it's not just people's homes that have been destroyed here. The very infrastructure of Myanmar has taken a severe battering. This is all that remains of a school science laboratory, completely flattened by cyclone Nargis. The school says it doesn't know what it's going to do. And it still hasn't heard anything from the authorities. This is the school yard. The water was three feet deep, and it's miles from the river. "Save the Children" estimate that 40 percent of those who have died are children. The classrooms have no roofs. It will be a long time before the lessons can be taught again here. State television has shown aid being distributed by the army, but the need here is immense. So far many foreign aid agencies haven't been able to get their staff and equipment into Myanmar. They say the red tape of this reclusive country is preventing progress.
Another crippling problem right now in fuel. This is the line of cars waiting for gas. It just goes on and on and on for miles, really, just this never ending queue, all the way down here. And I guess the people at the back are going to be waiting, god knows how long, hours and hours you think.
Here, the gas is $1.50 for a gallon or for four liters, but if you don't want to wait for hours, you can pay the black market rate for ten times that amount. But it's here in the Irrawaddy River Delta that the real misery and suffering is happening. These people are reaching breaking point. How much longer will they be made to wait before the help they desperately need arrives? Dan Rivers, CNN, Southern Myanmar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: So how does the crisis in Myanmar compare to one of the worst natural disasters in history in this country, hurricane Katrina? Let's look at some fast facts for. First of all the storm, hurricane versus cyclone. There's no difference, it is just what the storms are called in different parts of the world. Cyclone in the Indian Ocean, the south west pacific. And hurricane in the Atlantic.
As for the power of those specific storms, during Katrina.
