Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Pioneer to Slash 10,000 Jobs; Final Stimulus Vote Soon; Autism and Vaccine Ruling Expected; Lincoln's 200th Birthday; Madoff's Wife Withdrew Millions; Peanut Company Executives: No Comment; Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes; New Jobless Claims Numbers Lower
Aired February 12, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, it's a minute after the hour. Here are this morning's top stories.
A slump in sales forcing electronics maker pioneer to slash 10,000 jobs across the globe. The Tokyo-based company also announcing it's throwing in the towel on its flat-screen television business next year instead of focusing more on car -- instead it's going to focus more on car and navigation electronics.
Right now the economic recovery package on a fast track to the president's desk by next Monday, President's Day. Yesterday, congressional leaders struck a deal on the $789 billion plan and Democrats making it very clear why they think the bill is necessary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: This bill creates $3.5 million jobs. More than one-third of this bill is dedicated providing tax relief for middle-class families. Cutting taxes for 95 percent of American workers. We all agreed we cannot short-change our future which is why we are giving states critical help they need to strengthen education and invest in our communities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Republicans warn the legislation is more of a spending bill than a job creation bill.
While you were sleeping, gasoline prices creeping closer to $2.00 a gallon. According to AAA, the national average is now $1.95 a gallon. That's up more than a penny from yesterday, and you're saying to yourself, wait a minute, why is the price of gas heading up to $2.00 a gallon when the price of oil is $35.00 a barrel? Wow. It's because of a bit of a bottleneck in the refining capacity here.
Refiners aren't producing as much gas and, therefore, the price at the pump goes up. Don't worry, we'll be looking into this story for you in the coming days.
A landmark event in the history of autism is expected today. Department of Justice Special Court is expected to render its first set of decisions about the role of vaccines in relation to autism.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is live for us in Atlanta this morning.
Sanjay, what exactly do we expect the court to decide today?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is -- this is pretty interesting as you mentioned. It could be a landmark decision. There are several different questions that ultimately this court will try to answer. What we anticipate, and we don't know for sure, but we anticipate is one of those questions today about a specific case which is does the combination of MMR vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines caused autism. That's a big question. It's a question that a lot of people would ask for a long time.
Thimerosal in case you don't know is a mercury-containing preservative that was present in a lot of childhood vaccines that's still present in the flu vaccines and certain variations of a flu vaccine, but for the most part has been eliminated. But that question is something that people had been trying to ask for a long time.
These are called the omnibus autism proceedings. It's sort of a special vaccine court as you mentioned. And they've heard cases in the past, they've been around for some time. But this is really based on three test cases. One of the families is a family of Michelle Suducia (ph) who you see there. That's a family that we have spent some time with at CNN. She's 14 years old now. She had -- she had seizures. She's still force to wear a diaper. Their family claims that this was all brought about after an MMR vaccine around the age of 15 months. And this is one of the test cases that's being heard today.
Now, again, we expect that we might have an answer on that specific question sometime today. There are two other questions that ultimately this vaccine court is going to try and answer. One of those questions, does MMR alone cause autism? That is sort of the second question. And then a third question, sort of breaking it down, do thimerosal-containing vaccines cause autism?
Obviously, John, we've been talking about this a lot for many years in AMERICAN MORNING as these questions may or may not get answered today, but some special rulings expected to be handed down.
ROBERTS: Now we did see a ruling a while ago in the case of Hanna Polling, an association between the vaccine and autism.
GUPTA: Right.
ROBERTS: How different are these cases from the case of Hanna Polling?
GUPTA: Well, in the specific case, and I spent a lot of time covering the Hanna Polling case. Talked to her father as well, who is a neurologist, interviewed a lot of people. The best way to think about that case is that was sort of a concession by the Department of Justice that the vaccines in her case may have led to her autism-like symptoms. It wasn't very clear-cut and made it sound very specific to this one individual as opposed to answering broader questions, which is ultimately what people want to see. Hanna Polling on the screen there.
What we're talking about today is sort of came from the genesis of a National Vaccine Injury Act and they are creating these test cases to sort of answer the questions more at large for the thousands of people who have similar claims against this federal injury autism port. So this could be more of a general ruling and answer a lot of questions for a lot of people who have been waiting.
ROBERTS: Right. So in the case of Hanna Polling, it was thought that the vaccine might have triggered an underlying condition whereas in these other three cases, you're looking for a direct link between the vaccine and autism?
GUPTA: Yes, I think -- I think that's a fair way of saying it. In Hanna Polling's case, there was some thought that maybe she had an underlying mitochondrial disorder. And did the vaccine somehow cause that to get even worse. It's unclear still in her case, and we don't have all the records so they weren't released. There was a concession only that this may have contributed to her autism-like symptoms.
I think it is worth saying with these special courts, John, it's very different than a regular court where you don't have to determine an exact cause and effect. You just have to determine is it more likely to be causal than not to have been causal. So very different standard with these courts as well.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll be looking forward to that ruling this morning and your further reporting on it for us. Sanjay Gupta this morning. Thanks, Doc.
GUPTA: Thanks, John.
CHETRY: And now to our other big story this morning. President Obama scoring a big legislative victory that his administration hopes will help Americans struggling in this difficult economy. Right now the $789 billion stimulus plan is on the fast track to his desk, and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is at the White House.
So, Suzanne, House and Senate leaders were finally able to get to a deal on the stimulus bill yesterday, but still only three Republicans in both Houses, you know, only three senators back it and none in the House. And so, really even the president did run on a promise of working with both sides, is there going to be potential fallout because there was a struggle with this bill?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kiran, this really is the president's legislation. It is his baby, and he didn't write it, he didn't get involved initially. Got kind of involved late in the game, but he is obviously the face of this bill.
And what's happening here is you get the House Democrats, some who are quite angry with the president, they feel like he left the few Senate Republicans that really govern the process here cut too much out of this whole spending package. There's some House -- the House Republicans didn't get a single vote there, who feel like it is not an economic stimulus package but simply untested spending. What this says about the president, it really says a lot about his governing here. He is a pragmatist. He's a realist. He governs from the center, and very much willing to take this on. It's almost as if, you know, like a journalist, Kiran.
You know, you get complaints, emails from the left and complaints from the right, you feel like, OK, well, maybe I'm doing something right here. I'm playing it straight down the middle, because I'm getting complaints from both sides. The Obama Administration feels like it is doing something right, that this is a victory, it's a success, but clearly not everybody is happy.
Kiran?
CHETRY: The bottom line is he needed those to peel off those three Republicans, right? Or this could have been stopped in filibuster?
MALVEAUX: Oh, absolutely. He needed the Republicans, he needed some Republican support. But what this says essentially is that what's going to happen is later on down the road, how difficult is it going to be to have things like social security reform or Medicare or education? These are big ticket items. Things are things that the Democrats really want to push forward. It is something that President Obama wants to push forward but in a meeting with those blue dog Democrats earlier in the week, those moderate Democrats, they acknowledged to each other it's going to be a really tough sell.
Those are going to be hard things to accomplish, because right now you're just dealing, they're trying to get both sides to push forward whatever is going to fix this economy.
Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. And it's still remains to be seen how this bill is going to turn out. There's even some Democrats like Charlie Rangel saying we don't know if it's going to work but we have to do something.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
CHETRY: So we'll continue to follow it all. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning, thanks.
ROBERTS: All day today we are marking Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. Plenty of celebrations going on in our nation's capitol. And CNN's Jim Acosta is live with the man of the hour, so to speak, at the Lincoln Memorial this morning.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John.
Good morning. They are commemorating the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln here today at the Lincoln Memorial. And it's quite a site. Actually, they're already striking up the band here. And I talked to historian Douglas Brinkley about this yesterday and I'll just share with you a quick quote. He said, "No matter how bad you have it as a president, Lincoln had it worse. The civil war, freeing the slaves, preserving the union, that's Lincoln's legacy. That's what they are remembering out here today.
And I'm joined by the president -- the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln right now.
And Mr. President, I want to ask you, what do you make of all this hubbub down here? What do you think of all this?
CHAD DAMRON (ph), ABRAHAM LINCOLN IMPERSONATOR: Well, you know, I'm an ordinary person. I'm kind of surprised of this big crowd of people, but it's sure is nice to be an American and I'm glad I can be here with them.
ACOSTA: Terrific, sir. And we should also note that this is, obviously, Lincoln impressionist. His name is Chad Damron (ph) and he's from Michigan. And, Chad (ph), I want to ask you -- you've been playing Abraham Lincoln for 35 years. Why do you do it? What is it about Lincoln?
DAMRON (ph): I do it for children. I want to inspire children, give them some goals in life for a man that worked hard, earned it, and deserved what he gets.
ACOSTA: Very well said, sir. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Love the hat. You still look good after all these years, Mr. President.
And just so you know, this event that's happening down here, various Washington officials are here -- the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Obviously, this is one of several events around the country.
And Washington is obsessed with Lincoln these days, John. You go to the Library of Congress, where they have the Gettysburg address on display. You can see that. Or you can venture over to the site of the assassination, Ford's Theater, which has just reopened after an extensive renovation. So, Lincoln is still us, John, after all these years.
ROBERTS: And certainly looking spry at the ripe old age of 200 this morning, we should add as well.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: Beard looks good.
ROBERTS: It does. Yes. Getting a little white, but it's looking pretty good. Jim, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: Sure. And stay with CNN, by the way, because starting at the top of the hour, our Soledad O'Brien is going to have a special "FROM LINCOLN TO OBAMA." We'll have special reports looking at history, and the link between our 16th and 44th president, right here on CNN.
And Jim Acosta mentioned all the things you can see there at the nation's capital. You can also go to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois. And we'll actually be going there in the last half hour of our program, coming up in about 40 minutes' time.
It is right now 12 minutes after the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (voice-over): The peanut mess gets stickier. How much did the company really know about the deadly salmonella?
STEWART PARNELL, OWNER, PEANUT CORPORATION OF AMERICA: I respectfully decline to answer your question.
CHETRY (voice-over): Inside the peanut scandal hearing.
REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), CHAIRMAN, ENERGY & COMMERCE COMMITTEE: This company cared more about its financial bottom line than it did about the safety of its customers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: What company emails reveal -- ahead on the Most News in the Morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
He is accused of the biggest Wall Street rip-off in history. Now investigators say Bernie Madoff's wife tried to walk away with millions on the day their children turned in their dad. Regulators in Massachusetts say Ruth Madoff withdrew more than $15 million from a firm that her husband co-owned before the Feds arrested him. Authorities already think that Madoff is trying to hide some of the $50 billion he allegedly scammed out of investors.
They have been vilified nearly as much as Bernie Madoff, and yesterday executives from eight of the country's biggest banks were on Capitol Hill trying to explain what they did with your money. Their banks collectively received $165 billion in government bailout cash and lawmakers demanded to know why loans to consumers and businesses were still so hard to come by.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE CAPUANO (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Start loaning the money that we gave you. Get it on the street. And don't say, oh, well, we're not using that money for bonuses. Come on! REP. NYDIA VELAZQUEZ (D), NEW YORK: So can you explain why your institutions are finding money to fund a multibillion dollar merger that will produce 19,000 job losses?
REP. GARY ACKERMAN (D), NEW YORK: When the press makes inquiries as to what you did with the first tranche of money that we gave you, many billions of dollars, your answer is it's none of your business.
CAPUANO: But basically, you come to us today on your bicycles after buying Girl Scout cookies and helping out Mother Teresa, telling us we're sorry, we didn't mean it, we won't do it again, trust us. America doesn't trust you anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: For the record, none of the CEOs did arrive by bicycle. But they didn't arrive by private jet either. They admitted to making mistakes and promised that they would do all they can to regain the public trust.
CHETRY: And lawmakers on Capitol Hill were also furious, again, not about the CEOs and the banks, but executives from the Peanut Corporation of America. They were trying to get answers. It's the company that's at the center of one of the nation's worst ever salmonella outbreaks.
Abbie Boudreau with CNN's Special Investigations Unit is tracking the story for us this morning.
Abbie?
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Officials from the Peanut Corporation of America refused to answer any questions from members of Congress yesterday even after dramatic revelations from internal company documents and emails.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this container are products that have your ingredients in them. Now, I just wonder would either of you be willing to take the lid off and eat any of these products now?
BOUDREAU (voice over): With nine deaths now linked to the salmonella outbreak, hundreds sickened, and the FBI looking into to the Peanut Corporation of America to see whether the poisonings were crimes, the top officials of the peanut company at the center of it all had only one thing to say to Congress on Wednesday.
PARNELL: On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your question based on the protections afforded me under the United States Constitution.
BOUDREAU: Committee Chairman Henry Waxman revealed new documents that show the trail of salmonella poisonings in the plant.
WAXMAN: These documents obtained by our subcommittee are very disturbing because what they show is that this company cared more about its financial bottom line than it did about the safety of its customers.
BOUDREAU: Representative Waxman showed this e-mail that the president of the company sent after he learned the company's products had tested positive for salmonella. "We need to discuss this," the president wrote to the manager of a peanut plant. "It's costing us huge dollars. We need to protect our self."
In another series of emails from last August, after one lab tested positive for salmonella in the company's product, then another lab showed the product to be clean. Stewart Parnell wrote, "Okay, let's turn them loose then." That seems to contradict a later e-mail written in early January as the outbreak became more publicized, stating, "We do not believe the salmonella came from our facility."
Various members of Congress tried to directly press Parnell and also the plant manager Sammy Lightsey about these documents.
REP. BART STUPAK (D), MICHIGAN: Did you or any officials at the Peanut Corporation of America ever place food products into the interstate commerce that you knew to be contaminated with salmonella?
PARNELL: On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your question.
STUPAK: On advice of counsel?
PARNELL: On the advice of my counsel.
STUPAK: Is it your intention to refuse to answer all our questions today based on the right against self-incrimination?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOUDREAU: In earlier statements, the company denied it shipped out dangerous products and that its top priority has been and will continue to be to ensure the public safety.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOUDREAU: Testimony Wednesday also revealed the company knew about a contamination problem as far back as 2006. The Peanut Corporation of America now faces at least three lawsuits, and another plant in Texas has been closed by officials because of concerns over possible contamination -- John, Kiran?
CHETRY: Abbie Boudreau for us, thanks.
Well, with the Taliban regrouping and the situation in his country getting worse, Afghanistan's president did sit down with CNN, gave his thoughts on working with our new president -- ahead.
Also, how do you follow in the footsteps of a legend like Abraham Lincoln? The similarities between our new president and today's birthday boy -- well, President Lincoln. It's 19 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I think about Abraham Lincoln, what I'm struck by is the fact that he constantly learned on the job. He got better. He wasn't defensive. He wasn't arrogant about his tasks. He was very systematic in saying, I'm going to master the job and I understand it's going to take some time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
All day today CNN is marking Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday with special coverage. President Obama has said on several occasions that he looks to our 16th president for inspiration. For more on that, I'm joined now by the author of "Why Lincoln Matters Today More Than Ever," former New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
Governor, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming by this morning.
MARIO CUOMO (D), FMR. NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR: Nice to be back.
ROBERTS: You wrote a terrific article for "Newsday" on the occasion of the inauguration of our 44th president, in which you talked about Lincoln and sort of the rich history and how that informs our 44th president. You said, "There are already apparent similarities and differences in their personalities, positions and situations that indicate the kind of leadership that we can expect from Obama."
Why don't we break that down? What are the similarities and what might they indicate about his leadership?
CUOMO: A lot of similarities. Natural gifts, first of all. Lincoln's eloquence. Obama's eloquence. Lincoln's ability with the written word, the precision, the intelligence of it, the clarity of it. Obama writes well. But most of all, Lincoln's incredible intelligence. The idea that he could write and speak that well without ever going to school except for a few months formally and just reading everything, including Adam Smith and the "Wealth of Nations," et cetera, that kind of clear headedness, his common sense, his instinct for benign pragmatism instead of ideologies, simple shibboleths.
It's that simple thinking politically that's got us into trouble. The ideologies I said, for example, big government is bad, so let's not regulate these guys. Thanks a lot, you didn't regulate them and look at what happened. Or if you cut the taxes of the very wealthy, they will invest more money and that will trickle down to all the working stiffs. What a joke that is. Obama sees the lack of intelligence the way Lincoln did. ROBERTS: Although there are many people who disagree with you that it's not a joke, that it is pragmatic fiscal policy.
CUOMO: No, sir. It's wrong. And here's what he would have said -- what Lincoln did say. This is on the question of government. Forget about big government, little government. It's all the government you need when you need it and only the government you need. If you don't need it, use the market. Do it yourself. Now, my God, how clear it is that we need a whole lot of big government.
As for the tax cuts, OK? If you cut the taxes of the very, very wealthy, this idea that they're going to invest more and you'll benefit from it is silly compared to Obama's idea, which is common sense, which give it to the middle class people, to the people who need to spend it, because they're short, because their kid needs a suit, because somebody needs an operation.
ROBERTS: Let me go down to differences, if I could. You also wrote in that same article, quote, "Lincoln focused his 1861 inaugural address on the one issue that eventually dominated his political career -- slavery in the United States and how it could affect the Union."
"Obama, on the other hand, has literally scores of daunting global issues to deal with, and his success or failure will have a worldwide impact."
So, I mean, Lincoln had no mean feat. He was trying to save a nation here, but you say Obama really actually has more to do?
CUOMO: Absolutely. Tough, tough job. First principle idea -- crises give birth to reputations for greatness. If you don't have a crisis, you don't get to be a great president. And so the ones who are thought of as great are Washington, Roosevelt, in the middle, Lincoln, but not Polk. Polk was a very smart guy, but nobody ever thinks about him because he didn't have a crisis.
Lincoln had a great crisis, obviously, and it led to the Civil War. Obama has nothing but huge crises in a world which 148 years later is much more complex, much more dangerous, and where the influence of this country is even greater. If Lincoln made a mistake, then the Union might have fractured. If Obama makes a mistake on the economy, the whole world will suffer. China will suffer. When they suffer, they stop giving us money. Europe will suffer. The 6 billion people will suffer.
That's what Lincoln didn't have. He didn't have the impact on the whole globe. And on the other hand, if Lincoln did the right thing, he was an inspiration to the people who were watching the United States of America. If Obama does well, good Lord willing, he will, because of his intelligence, his eloquence, et cetera, et cetera, if he does well, the whole globe does better. So, we've never had so much to worry about and we've never had so much to hope for.
ROBERTS: Right.
CUOMO: That's the big difference. Even more than in Lincoln's day.
ROBERTS: Well, that's something to keep him awake at night. Governor, it's great to see you.
CUOMO: OK.
ROBERTS: Thanks for coming by this morning.
And stay with CNN because at the top of the hour, we're going to turn things over to our Soledad O'Brien for a CNN special "FROM LINCON TO OBAMA." Soledad will explore the legacy of our 16th president. That's here only on CNN.
CHETRY: And we're also just minutes away from the highly anticipated jobless claim numbers. Will they go up or down? Stephanie Elam is covering the breaking news for us this morning.
Also, our Fareed Zakaria's interview exclusive with Afghanistan's president. Does he need a troop surge like we had in Iraq?
It's 28 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, our Fareed Zakaria has sat down for an exclusive interview with Afghanistan's president. He asked Hamid Karzai of sending thousands more foreign soldiers into his country much like the Iraq troops surge is the right move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENT: In 2002 and 2003 when e began our journey, you know, thousands and thousands of Afghan people came to see me. They were all asking for more U.S., more U.S. international troops in our country. We have troubled many years on what should have happened early on didn't, unfortunately happen.
Now, the country is not in the same mood as it was in 2002. So any addition of troops must have the purposeful objective that the Afghan people would agree with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And you can catch the full interview on "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Sunday 1:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Well, Prince Harry has reportedly been ordered to take sensitivity training. British tabloids are reporting that the Prince is being sent on an equality and diversity course by the British Army after he was recorded making remarks that people considered racist.
Last month a newspaper released video from 2006 of Harry using highly offensive term about a Pakistani officer. Harry apologized but said that he used the expression about a friend and without malice.
And you may remember Henrietta Hughes. She shared her hardships with President Obama during a town hall meeting in Florida on Tuesday. She had no job or place to live. Well, now she is being helped by a stranger. Chene Thompson, the wife of local congressman, is giving Hughes and her son a place to stay until they can get back on their feet.
This morning, just moments before Henrietta had a chance to look at her new digs, we caught up with the two women.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HENRIETTA HUGHES, RECEIVING HOME FROM STRANGER: I'm overwhelmed with gratitude because no one would do that.
CHENE THOMPSON, WIFE OF REP. NICK THOMPSON: Oh, yes, they would. Yes, they would, definitely.
HUGHES: But someone like her.
THOMPSON: Definitely. I was just in the right place at the right time.
HUGHES: Yes. So I - I'm sorry.
THOMPSON: We're just very grateful that we got together.
HUGHES: Yes.
We'll get you settled in and get you relaxed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: This just in to CNN. New jobless claims numbers announced just moments ago. Stephanie Elam now with a look at what has been a worsening job market.
And you're going to ask yourself the question when do things look good? When they were terrible.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. But this are really, really bad, that was better and that case is still the same today. We are taking a look at these numbers here. 623,000 jobs, that's a revised figure for last week, ending last Saturday, so February 7th that we're looking at here. This is down 8,000 from the revised figure of the week before but still worse than expected.
Talking about 623,000 people filing for the first time, initial jobless claims saying that they are now out of work here. So the week before that had been 626,000 so just to give you an idea of what is happening there and the number of people who are still having a difficult time. Keep in mind, last week that was a 26-year high.
So obviously, things are continuing to get worse. I also want to take a quick look here at retail sales because we got those numbers as well. January numbers, seven months in a row, we were expecting up decline. Well look at this retail sales up one percent. In this world, one percent is actually kind of comforting, excluding autos was up just shy 0.9 percent there.
So a little bit of - a slight perk there, if you would say that. Because keep in mind, consumers really drive the economy. Two-thirds of the U.S. economy is spent by people spending. So when people are not spending it really hurts the economy.
ROBERTS: So again, job numbers better than they were the previous week but worse than has been expected?
ELAM: Worse than has been expected. Exactly, 623,000 jobs. If you think about it, anything over 500,000 shows you that we're just in dire straits. You hope to have a 100,000 jobs created at this pace. And we're seeing this many more lost per week. So that just gives you an idea of how rough things are.
CHETRY: And it also makes you wonder we were talking about the stimulus bill, save or create 3.5 million jobs. Is that going to be enough?
ELAM: No, if this continues at this rate, will that be enough? Obviously, if you can keep people in their jobs and not have them looking for other jobs that will help out but no way the paint has a pretty picture at this point.
ROBERTS: Stephanie, thanks so much.
ELAM: Sure.
CHETRY: The Pittsburgh Steelers stole the show, of course, at the Super Bowl and one Steeler in particular really stole the show with his amazing catch. He's here live. Super Bowl MVP auctioning off the gloves he wore for a special cause. That's Santonio Holmes walking into our studio right now. We're going to talk to him, coming up in just a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roethlisberger has time. Throws to the back of the endzone and it is caught!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You know it was an incredible catch and clenched the Super Bowl for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thirty-five seconds left in the game. Wide receiver Santonio Holmes made the game-winning catch, giving the Steelers their record sixth win. He also earned the MVP trophy and Santonio Holmes joins me now.
Great to have you with us this morning. Thanks for being here.
SANTONIO HOLMES, SUPER BOWL MVP: Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: That was probably one of the most exciting Super Bowls I've ever seen. What was going through your mind when you caught the ball? Did you know you were inbound?
HOLMES: I was a 100 percent sure I was inbound so I made sure the feet never left the ground. You know I extended the hands just as high as I could and the ball was you know, honestly placed where nobody else could catch it but me.
CHETRY: Does that type of thing happen so fast you don't have time to think about everything? The clock ticking, knowing everything is riding on your shoulders, what goes through your mind?
HOLMES: Just making the play. You know, you're not really thinking about what else goes on after or before or anything like that. All you want to know is that ball coming to me and is this my chance to make the play?
CHETRY: What did Ben say to you afterwards?
HOLMES: He asked me if I was in bounds, you know? And I looked up to him and told him I'm 100 percent sure. You know feet never left the ground and I was definitely in bounds.
CHETRY: Certainly a whirlwind. So you go from - and you guys were favored but you know in the end you ended up being MVP of the Super Bowl. What does that feel like? Are you still on cloud nine about it?
HOLMES: Very much on cloud nine. Everywhere I go, you know, people calling me now, you know, MVP. That's been my name instead of you know, Santonio Holmes like it has been. It's really special to me. It shows that I worked hard for something that I really wanted.
My coaches, some of my teammates even told me that you're going to be the MVP of this game and I really didn't want to believe them, you know? But the hard work that I put in and the dedication that I gave towards this game, you know really paid off for me in the end.
CHETRY: You know, people have been talking to you about how you got to that point and you admitted to the "Miami Herald" that for a very short time when you were a child you actually sold drugs. How did you go from you know very difficult circumstances to where you are today which is a hero to a lot of kids?
HOLMES: It was more so my mom, you know? She was always there for me. She did a lot for us, you know, as a kid growing up. And she didn't have much, you know? So, therefore, we were forced to do what we had to do in order to, you know, make things happen. So that was - that was pretty much you know, how a lot of people, you know, grew up and they never really talked about it, but I felt it was the right time to talk about it, to show kids where I came from. You know, how I got to this point and anything is possible in changing, you know, your ways of living.
CHETRY: What do you tell your son? Your son is six years old, Santonio Holmes III.
HOLMES: Yes, I tell him you know just whatever you want to do, you know, you can do it. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't be whatever you want to be, you know? He always tell me he wants to be a policeman or he wants to be a football player. You know? Whichever come first. I told him you know dad is going to be behind him a 100 percent.
CHETRY: That's great. And also, that is one of the big reasons you're here today. These are the actual gloves that you made that famous, now famous catch with, to win the Super Bowl and you're auctioning these off for sickle cell anemia. It's a disease near and dear to your and heart because your son suffers from it.
HOLMES: Yes, my six-year-old has, you know, he has the trait. You know, sickle cell and we've been battling it, you know, for the past six years of his life. And I know that the life expectancy isn't you know long for kids or adults that even have it. And my thinking is to auction off these gloves to raise money for the awareness of sickle cell and the kids that are less fortunate and the parents who don't have the money, you know, to support their kids like I do now.
CHETRY: It's very expensive.
HOLMES: And the more that we can help, you know, I can help. Reebok can help, you know, we're definitely going to try.
CHETRY: It's also a disease that hits African-Americans much larger and it's genetic.
HOLMES: I think it was passed down from his grandmother, you know, on his mom's side. I'm not sure, you know? Neither one of us or myself or his mom has it. But I think it was definitely passed down from somebody along the family line. And, you know, we're very sad that it happened to him, but we know we definitely take the necessary precautions to make him better and to just keep him, you know, running strong, because I know a lot of times, he has problems with his body aching and when he goes to the pool, he comes home later that night and he is having one of those attacks.
You know, where his body aches, he can't walk. He don't want to get out of bed, he don't want to go to school, he can't eat. I know a lot of kids suffer, you know, those type of things. So if we can help prevent any of that, because I know the medicine, the breathing treatment, a lot of that stuff is very expensive.
CHETRY: Right. Well, people, if they would like to bid on Santonio Holmes' gloves, you can go to reebok.com. The bidding ends Sunday at 10. It's great to talk to you and by the way, congratulations on your Super Bowl success.
HOLMES: Thank you. I appreciate that.
CHETRY: Take care.
ROBERTS: (inaudible) problems along the airports in New York City. Our Rob Marciano is tracking it all from the extreme weather center there in Atlanta. What are we looking at, Rob? ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: We're looking at some wind. I'm sure Santonio Holmes would have no problem flying through it but airports, on the delays, you're not going to believe some of them we're not even at 9:00 yet. Details coming up.
The Most News in the Morning will be back. It's 43 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Check out this incredible video this morning. A twister caught on tape at a golf course in Hawaii. Employees tell CNN that winds were so strong one of the golf pros was actually picked up off of the ground. He is going to be fine but apparently did suffer a little bit of whiplash. You may ask yourself why is the twister sort of pink in color? It turns out it picked up red dirt just outside the golf course ground.
Our Rob Marciano is tracking the extreme weather here in the contiguous 48. Rob, you also had some statistics on this golf pro who was picked up?
MARCIANO: Yes; 6'1" and 250-pounder.
ROBERTS: Wow.
MARCIANO: And judging from his last name, I'm no expert, he may very well have been part Samoan. So that may be the longest toss for that large man in Hawaii and quite sometime. Hopefully he is recovering well this morning after going through that ordeal.
All right. Listen, cold and windy today across parts of the northeast. This is the storm that brought severe weather across the plains and Kentucky yesterday. We got three-hour delays at La Guardia, over 2 1/2 hours at Newark and ground stop at Philly and this will likely grow larger and longer as we go throughout the day.
So what is left of the low is right around here. Cold air spinning around it. It's mild right now and windy across the northeast. High wind warnings posted in these red areas that are painted in. At least the counties that are southwest of the slope that will rapidly be moving off towards the north and east, making way for the next low that will bring winter storm conditions across the plains and another storm coming into the pacific northwest so an active weather pattern shaping up right on through the weekend. John, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much. Appreciate it, buddy.
MARCIANO: You got it.
CHETRY: And we're talking Lincoln today on what would have been the former president's 200th birthday. We're going to see the similarities between President Lincoln and President Obama at 48 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's a big day for our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Today the nation honors his 200th birthday. And right now, wreath laying ceremony under way at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington there at the foot of the steps. The wreath will be laid this morning by Ken Salazar, the secretary of the Interior with assistance from Major General Richard Rowe, who commands the joints force headquarters of the national capital region, also the U.S. Army military district of Washington.
So we'll be bringing you celebrations commemorating the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln all day here on CNN -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. But we're always on top of the latest medical news as well here on AMERICAN MORNING. And today, we are answering your questions. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta," CNN's chief medical correspondent. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta.
Hey, Sanjay, good to see you this morning.
GUPTA: Good morning.
CHETRY: Let's start right in. Nicole from Florida writes - "I've heard that if you have children under two years old, you should not have the TV on. My daughter is six months old and watches some TV. How much, if any, should she be exposed to?"
GUPTA: Well, you know, Nicole, Kiran and I could probably tell you that there's a doctor to answer this question and a parent to answer this question. As statistics would have it, about 90 percent of children under the age of two do watch some television. So you're not alone as a starting point.
What the experts will say is, look. Really under the age of two that children really shouldn't watch any TV for a couple of reasons. One is there really appears to be no benefit to the child to watching television, no educational benefit. Also, children who watch TV at a young age are more likely to go on to have problems with obesity later on in life. So those are two concerns.
But the reality is that a lot of parents do allow their children to watch a little bit of television especially when it could be helpful to the parents if they are trying to get a meal cooked or something like that but also if you do let your child watch television, try to make it somewhat educational, maybe do it with a book or something that's more interactive. So the child gets something out of it. It's difficult though, let me say as a parent and I know you agree with this, Kiran, not to let them watch any television at all.
CHETRY: If it were not for Barney and Super why, my husband would never get a hot meal in our house.
Well, Linda in Louisiana gets the next question this morning. She writes "can you tell me what causes infections after surgery?" We seem to be hearing about this a lot. A lot of people wrote in with questions about this, especially the type of staph infections.
GUPTA: Yes, you know, what is interesting and I think one thing to keep in mind is hospitals are very dirty places. And this is where the dirtiest, the most pathogenic, if you will, bacteria live because so many medications are being used there. So those particularly bad bacteria are allowed to grow and they are allowed to thrive. That's the first thing to keep in mind. What happens is that sometimes these bacteria can get from a non-sterile area into a sterile area, around your wound, for example, around the catheter, the basic supplies and hospitals like they do at home, make sure anyone touching your bandages washes their hands or using gloves.
You, yourself, do the same thing. At the first hint of something whether the skin around the area looks inflamed or develop some swelling or fluid accumulation, make sure you tell someone about it because you may need medications such as antibiotics.
CHETRY: All right. I know it's a very scary situation when you're already trying to recover from something else. And you get a secondary infection or something like that.
GUPTA: That's right.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay, great to see you as always. And by the way, if you have a question for Dr. Gupta, we want to hear from you. Go to cnn.com/americanmorning and you can send us an e-mail or you can send us a question using an i-report. John.
ROBERTS: A tale of two presidents. The surprising similarities between Abraham Lincoln and President Obama on Lincoln's 200th birthday. We'll have them for you. It's 54 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: President Obama has called Abraham Lincoln his favorite president. And on the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday, we're taking a look at why. Kyra Philips joins us now this morning, live from Springfield, Illinois. There at the balcony of the south portico of the White House this morning. Good to see you this morning.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, of course, you know the whole White House. I mean, I grew up. This is where I was born and raised. As a matter of fact, I want to give a shout-out to the girl scout troop here 5505, from my hometown, Jacksonville, Illinois. Say hi, girls. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
PHILLIPS: There you go. So there is the future CNN correspondents.
But seriously when I was growing up as a kid, you could go visit Lincoln's house and drive by and check it out. Now you can come here to the White House. But it's not just talk about Lincoln. It's talk about Lincoln and the Obama connection like, for example, this campaign flag. Look at this. Abraham Lincoln. They even spelled his name wrong so it wasn't just Obama who is having issues with his name, also Abraham Lincoln. Just one of the parallels that we found as we've been spending time here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): This is a tale of two presidents. United through the best of times. The worst of times. And how Springfield, Illinois, launched two progressive politicians destined to make history.
So when you go through Lincoln's home and then you see that Barack Obama is now the president of the United States, what were you thinking about going through the house?
ANN TSCHETTER, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA: That Lincoln is going this rock or whatever he would have used in 19th century lingo.
PHILLIPS: Just imagine what Abraham Lincoln was thinking at home, sitting in his parlor and relaxing in his rocker and writing here at his desk. He would be the leader to free slaves, fulfilling the declaration of independence, declaring all men are created equal.
Two hundred years later.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
PHILLIPS: Barack Obama would reach the pinnacle of that ideal.
BROOK SIMPSON, CHANDLER, ARIZONA: This is the Lincoln dream, the right to rise, culminating in a different way with the first African- American as president of the United States.
PHILLIPS: Obama, a law professor and civil rights lawyer, inspired by what took place in this law office centuries ago. Lincoln, the lawyer. A strong orator with a sense of morality. Open to new ideas, listening to his critics. Two attorneys, two different lifetimes. Both men dedicated to being scholars of the Constitution.
KEN WINKLE, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA: Some lawyers and some politicians will just do anything to win, but I think the spirit of working together to do the right thing and do the most good for most people was important to Lincoln and it seems we're moving toward a time when -
PHILLIPS: The same with Obama?
WINKLE: Exactly.
PHILLIPS: And it was here in the old capital that Abraham Lincoln gave his famous House Divided speech. A House divided against itself cannot stand, he proclaimed, sound familiar? Fast forward. February 10th, 2007, Lincoln came to life here as if it were 1858.
OBAMA: Because of the millions who rallied his cause and we're no longer divided north and south, slave and free. PHILLIPS: Barack Obama announcing his candidacy for president of the United States. And for the first time in history, in the humble heart of the Midwest we all witnessed Lincoln's dream and Obama's reality.
Abe Lincoln knew who we were. He just didn't know what we might become, until now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And John, as you can see people are already lining up to see the actual documents. Over here, we've got the emancipation proclamation and over here the Gettysburg address and then the 13th amendment over here. Maybe Kevin can get a closer shot. That is his actual handwriting there. And when you're a hometown girl, John, you get a little bit of a connection here.
I was able to go see the postmaster yesterday and here we go, the new Lincoln stamps - 42 cents. A lot more expensive from the time that there were stamps here in Springfield, Illinois, during Lincoln's time.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Fabulous. Looks like you're having a great time there and you'll be there all day today as well.
Well, she's gone away but she's going to be there.
CHETRY: She makes so much fun she had to leave.
ROBERTS: She's going to be there all day today broadcasting as we continue our celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday.
CHETRY: That's right. And that's going to do it for us. Thanks so much for being with us on AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
