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Police Investigate Death of Chris Henry; Mexican Drug Shoot- out

Aired December 18, 2009 - 15:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Making news right now on your national conversation. What are police investigating -- a suicide? A homicide? An accident? What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Black man on it with no shirt on. He is beating on the back of the truck window.

SANCHEZ: What really happened to Chris Henry?

Hundreds of rounds of ammo to take down a big part of the Mexican cartel. Who is this boss of bosses?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is an American drug war, and it is being paid for with Mexican blood.

SANCHEZ: And Tiger Woods now linked to a doctor accused of hocking performance enhancement drugs?

My access becomes your access with tweets from Jim DeMint, the PGA, Congress, in this truly national conversation for December 18, 2009, starts right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez with the next generation of news, a conversation, not a speech. And it is your turn to get involved.

We are coming to you today from New York City. I want to show you a picture of -- it seems somewhat chilling, by the way. This is a home in Charlotte, North Carolina, all decked out for the holidays. But it is the tire tracks that you see right there in the foreground that tend to get your attention. That is the chilling part.

This is the home where a fight apparently broke out between the NFL's Chris Henry and his fiance, Loleini Tonga. Minutes later, Henry was spotted hanging onto the bed of a pickup truck while his fiance drove fast. Listen to this description. This is from a woman who was driving behind them. She called 911.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am driving behind a yellow truck. It is a F-150, the tag says. It has got a black man on it with no shirt on. He is beating on the back of this truck window, and the truck is driving. I don't know if he is trying to break in it or something. It just looks crazy.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Now, according to police, just moments after that call was made, Chris Henry came out of the truck. Those are their words, came out -- 18 hours later, this troubled NFL football player was dead, leaving behind a whole lot of questions and also a lot of sadness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAD OCHOCINCO, NFL PLAYER: My grandma always say you never really question the man upstairs on a decision he makes because he never makes mistakes, but I don't see how, you know, Chris was supposed to go already, especially when you are on the right path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Well, this seems to be getting more and more curious with each passing hour. We know about the troubles of Chris Henry. We know about his multiple arrests, suspensions from the league.

The official line is that he had turned things around with the help of the fiance, with whom he had three children, by the way. In fact, he was -- Henry and Tonga were planning their upcoming wedding. And this fight they had, it apparently had to do with the wedding arrangements, which included 15 bridesmaids. Fifteen bridesmaids -- that is the number that Henry wore for the Cincinnati Bengals.

But here is the question -- is she going to be questioned by police for throwing him off of the truck? Is it possible negligence? Is it manslaughter, or was it maybe just an accident?

Questions that need to be answered at some point.

My colleague Jeff Toobin, though, he is not buying this part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Is there an expectation if everything is true as we know it right now, Jeff, and that man was in the back of her car, shirtless, but banging on the window, is there an expectation that she should stop, so that he cannot fall off of the truck? JEFF TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's hard to know. I mean, it really is hard to know under the circumstances. Obviously, one of the things you're going to want to know if you're the police officer is, did she intentionally drive the car in a way to try to get him off, to sort of get him to fall off.

SANCHEZ: To which she would say, "Yes, because I had a madman who was threatening me back there."

TOOBIN: Correct. SANCHEZ: As you look at this case -- you don't see charges coming out of this case.

TOOBIN: It looks unlikely to me. Obviously, there's only one survivor here.

SANCHEZ: Right.

TOOBIN: And the issue would be: did she commit any sort of crime? It just -- based on these facts -- doesn't look that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: All right. Joining me now from Charlotte is Christopher Kirkpatrick. He's of the "Charlotte Observer" newspaper.

Chris, thanks for joining us once again.

CHRISTOPHER KIRKPATRICK, "THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER": All right. No problem.

SANCHEZ: I understand you spoke with some of the neighbors last night. What are you learning? What are you gleaning from the neighbors?

KIRKPATRICK: Well, we spoke to one neighbor whose name is Lee Hardy. And he overheard a conversation, kind of the argument or discussion in process. And he saw Chris Henry in the back of the pickup truck.

And, according to him, Henry was pounding on the roof and asking Ms. Tonga if she would get out of the truck so they could have a discussion or they could talk out their difference, whatever that was.

SANCHEZ: Well, that doesn't sound like a threat.

KIRKPATRICK: Well, I'm not sure what it is. The police are obviously investigating, and that is what they are trying to find out.

At that point, Mr. Hardy reported to us that he heard Mr. Henry say, please -- something along the lines of, please get out, or if you take off again, I am going to jump out and I am going to kill myself. And Mr. Hardy heard this while he was at the top of the ladder trimming a pear tree on his property.

SANCHEZ: This is a homicide, because police are investigating a death, right?

KIRKPATRICK: Well, I think when anyone dies, it is a homicide.

SANCHEZ: Right.

KIRKPATRICK: But if no one is charged, it is -- there is a whole...

(CROSSTALK) SANCHEZ: But I guess that is what I'm -- I what I'm getting to, is there a homicide investigation as you -- as far as you know at this point? Are there detectives working this case?

KIRKPATRICK: According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, they are -- quote -- "trying to piece together what happened." So, they will go through their investigation and then they will make a determination if it was an accident or if something else happened.

SANCHEZ: Oh, and it may well be an accident, and maybe charges won't be filed, but do we know if she is being questioned?

KIRKPATRICK: We don't know that for sure. We have obviously tried to interview Miss Tonga and spoke to her father, who said that she wouldn't be able to come to the phone. And there was word that a family member had spoken to the media about some issues with the family, but she has not spoken to us, and we don't know where they are in the police investigation and who they have spoken to.

SANCHEZ: Do we know why she was running from him, why she got in the car -- in the truck, and started driving away in the first place? Do we have the answer to that simple question?

KIRKPATRICK: Well, I mean, even the way you pose the question, we don't know for sure that she was running from him at all. We just -- we know from an eyewitness that she didn't want to get out of the truck, and that he was in the bed of the truck pounding on the, and according to the 911 call, pounding on the top of the truck trying the get her to come out.

But her intent...

(CROSSTALK)

KIRKPATRICK: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask the next question then. Is there any evidence that would lead us to believe that she felt threatened by him? Any witness testimony or anything of the sort?

KIRKPATRICK: Not that has been made public. The only thing that we have is what the neighbor said, Mr. Hardy. And he says he heard Mr. Henry trying to get Miss Tonga out of the truck, and that he made this threat about throwing himself out of the truck and she drove off. And then, of course, you have the 911 calls, which describe the scene.

But as far as intent and exactly what happened, that is pretty much unknown at the moment.

SANCHEZ: What a bizarre story. I mean, I am telling you, there really are a lot of questions in this case. I am glad you are there to follow it for us. And you were one of the few people to meet them both before this incident. And as far as you know, they seemed to be getting along just fine prior to this, right?

KIRKPATRICK: I did not meet -- are you asking me if I met Ms. Tonga and Chris Henry?

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Yes. I saw some of your reporting on it. Had you talked to them?

KIRKPATRICK: No, no, no. I spoke to Mr. Hardy and Miss Tonga's father and, of course, the police, but I don't know the -- Chris Henry or Loleini Tonga.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Well, thanks so much nonetheless, Christopher Kirkpatrick with "The Charlotte Observer." My thanks to you for that report.

The Mexican drug cartel takes a major hit. What you are seeing and hearing there in the background in that other square there next to me, that is a two-hour gun fight. This is an extraordinary piece of video. You have probably never seen anything like this. Why should it make you care more about what is happening in your city? We will answer that question.

Also, we just got some video in from Copenhagen. I'm going to be sharing that with you as well. Why is Robert Gibbs upset, who normally squares off with reporters here in the United States, but now he is squaring off with reporters from China?

What is going on here? This video just coming in. I can't wait to share it with you. I'm going to seeing it with you for the first time as well. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

I want to show you something now that just happened a short time ago, as promised. This videotape is coming to us from Copenhagen. It is a bit of a kerfuffle, if you will, between the American press corps and the Chinese news corps.

First, quickly, I have to set this up for you, because you know President Obama is in Denmark. He's meeting with other world leaders at the climate change summit. They are trying to hammer out an international agreement of some kind on cutting carbon emissions.

Now, here is the deal. Obama was on his way into the meeting. The room was open to the press. That is when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs notices that the American newspapers can't get into the room due to the crush of the Chinese press that seem to have taken over the place. Watch what happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Gibbs, I didn't get any shots for American TV. (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No press. No press.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Hold on. Hold on. I have got to get my American guys in, because everybody else got in.

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Our guys get in. No, those guys didn't get in. Those guys need to get in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no.

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: My guys have to get in, just like your guys have to get in. All right? My guys get in, just like yours guys got in. This is a joint meeting. My guys get in or we are leaving the meeting.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But there is already American press...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, I did not get in.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did not get in.

GIBBS: This guy did not get in. This guy did not get in. This guy did not get in. Come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Did you see that? That is amazing. I am seeing that for the very first time. You heard him say that my guy has to get in. This is a joint meeting. And if your guys are in here, my guys are going to be in here, too, Robert Gibbs standing up for the American press corps there, standing up to the Chinese, who are clearly heard saying no, no, no, no several times.

We will try and see if we can get some more on that and get some reaction to it. And as we do, we will be sharing it with you. Maybe we can even -- Eric, if you are listening to me in Washington, maybe we can even get some tweets on that. Maybe we can get somebody to react out of Washington as to what Gibbs' comportment was there.

Meanwhile, speaking of tweets, let's go the Rick's List if we can now on the story I told you about just moments ago. This Chris Henry story has more questions than answers to it. Sorry. There I am. This is interesting with some of the reaction that we are getting on Chris Henry.

Let's start with Shaq. This is Shaq. Moments ago, he said this. "Rest in peace, Chris Henry. You will be missed, my brother."

But -- OK, that is very similar to most of the comments that we have been getting so far. But now watch this one.

"I reached out to him many times." This is Jay Feely, you know, the placekicker for the New York Jets? He says: "I reached out to him many times, including in jail, to no avail. His death was not a result of past problems, but part of a pattern."

That is interesting, a critical tweet from a fellow football player, Jay Feely, the placekicker for the New York Jets on this situation involving Chris Henry, who was obviously a guy who had many problems in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tied up, hands and feet, and every little noise, every bump, it's, is this it?

I'm an American national. Please help me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The horrific story of an American contractor held hostage underground in Iraq for 10 months. You are going to hear him describe his ordeal.

That is a hail of gunfire (SPEAKING SPANISH) the boss of bosses in the Mexican cartel is taken out in a noisy all-out assault by the Mexican navy. You are going to see this for yourself.

By the way, an energized and exuberant Michael Ware, who just got back from Mexico, is going to help me take you through this. Stay right there, extraordinary video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: In what is easily one of the greatest and one of the most violent movies ever made, Al Pacino as Tony Montana engages in a gun battle that lasts hours. Remember it? But Tony Montana is a fictional drug lord and "Scarface" was a movie.

The video I am about to show is the real takedown of a real drug lord, and real people are killed with real bullets.

Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Arturo Leyva is known as the boss of bosses of a Mexican cartel. This guy is responsible for flooding our streets in the United States with cocaine and heroin. He is so big that Mexico's navy had to be called in to take him off the streets, him and five of his associates.

He was killed in this bloody shoot-out in Cuernavaca, Mexico, not far from Mexico City, by the way. Former DEA Special Agent Robert Strang knows the story from inside out, and does CNN correspondent Michael Ware, who got back from Juarez, Mexico, just recently.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT STRANG, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: This is a huge, widespread problem. This -- by the way, this just isn't a problem in Mexico. This is a problem for us in the U.S.

WARE: I couldn't agree more.

STRANG: These cartels are running some of the biggest organized crime networks in our cities, in our country, as we speak.

WARE: In the United States. But this is an American drug war and it's being paid for in Mexican blood.

SANCHEZ: But where you're wrong, I believe is, the violence has not poured over the border. We're not seeing Americans...

(CROSSTALK)

WARE: That's what I'm saying. It's being paid for in Mexican blood. Are they less than Americans?

STRANG: The violence is here because it was going on in Mexico. There's no question.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: How so? How so?

STRANG: Look at the arrests.

SANCHEZ: But not direct violence from them.

STRANG: Yes.

SANCHEZ: We don't have cartel members coming into the United States...

(CROSSTALK)

WARE: Yes, you do. You have kidnappings in El Paso. You have murders.

STRANG: Two hundred fifty arrests by the Justice Department and DEA this year alone. There's four other major investigations going on right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: By the way, it has been more than two years since the United States government promised more than $1 billion to help Mexico fight the drug war. So far, only $26 million has been spent.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars head to Mexico from American drug consumers each year, as an equal amount of pot, cocaine flows back into American cities. That, folks, is the reality.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AL FRANKEN (D), MINNESOTA: The senator has spoken for 10 minutes.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: I wonder if I could ask for unanimous consent for just an additional moment.

FRANKEN: In my capacity as senator from Minnesota, I object.

LIEBERMAN: Really? OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Senator Lieberman gets dissed by Senator Franken on the Senate floor. He shuts him down. And Senator McCain shows his frustration in defense of Lieberman. What is going on?

And what is it like to be a hostage in Iraq and then spend 10 months without light and without human contact? Roy Hallums has lived through that. He shares his amazing story. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CALLER: Hey, Rick. This is Ray from New York.

Health care is dead. The white, rich and old GOP have won again. The Democrats fighting among themselves. It is dead. Too bad.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Al Franken, the newest member of the U.S. Senate, but he is not acting that way. Not exactly shy is Franken.

Here he is Monday challenging John Thune on the Senate floor during the health care debate. Senator Thune had displayed a placard, purporting to show that proposed new benefits won't kick in for months. Franken recited a list of new benefits that would take effect right away.

He was just getting warmed up. Here is something you rarely see, a United States senator, in this case Joe Lieberman, being denied the opportunity to speak longer than allotted, in this case by freshman Democrat Al Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: The senator has spoken for 10 minutes.

LIEBERMAN: I wonder if I could ask unanimous consent for just an additional moment.

FRANKEN: In my capacity as senator from Minnesota, I object.

LIEBERMAN: Really? OK. Don't take it personally.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I just saw -- I have been around here 20-some years, the first time I have ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks. And I must say that I don't know what's happening here in this body, but I think it's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: A couple of things to point out here.

First of all, if you think that Al Franken was running the Senate because he is sitting up in the chair, the exact opposite is true. You may not know this, but presiding over the debate is like grunt work, and it's often reserved for the new guy, the freshman.

The other point to make is that Franken was under instructions to speed things along, since the Senate's Democratic leadership wants to pass the health care bill by Christmas. The Republicans, on the other hand, are on the record, on our newscast, as a matter of fact, on our tweets on the record, as saying they want to use delaying tactics whenever possible.

A complicated duel image of Tiger Woods, voted athlete of the decade as his personal life unravels. Later in this show, we're going to talk to golf author and blogger Geoff Shackelford about Tiger's new dilemma. Have you heard of it? I will tell you what it is. It has nothing to do with girlfriends, by the way.

And you can join us for the national conversation whenever you visit Atlanta. Just call 1-877-4CNN-TOUR.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back.

This is fascinating, one of those stories where you are going to see a face that you recognize together with a face that you don't recognize, but come to find out they are the same person, in this case an American contractor who spent almost a year as a hostage in Iraq. He looks a lot different, a heck of a lot better, in fact. He is interviewed here by CNN's Michael Ware who himself has been in the middle of some pretty dicey situations, in fact, kind of like this contractor's. Here it is. We are watching together.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three months after Roy Hallums disappeared in Baghdad in 2004, this proof-of-life video appeared.

ROY HALLUMS, FORMER HOSTAGE: My name is Roy Hallums. I'm an American national. Please help me.

WARE: Hallums was an American contractor building mess halls and providing food to the U.S. military. And his kidnappers were demanding $12 million for his release.

HALLUMS: You're just basically in shock. And you're moving and you're walking, but it's almost like an out-of-body experience. You can see what's going on, but you don't believe it.

WARE: Before it was over, Hallums would be held nearly a full year by Iraqi insurgents, 311 days. Something I know a little about, having been taken by al Qaeda myself.

(on camera): When I was grabbed by al Qaeda and pulled from my car, I mean, they were just going to cut my head off. But it's like it was someone else. At that moment, it felt to me like it was happening to someone else, even though I was completely or even hyper aware of the moment.

HALLUMS: You're right, it's like it's almost third person, that I can sit there and tell the story, I can answer any question anybody has, and it -- you know, it doesn't bother me and what's for lunch.

WARE (voice-over): This is Hallums at the end of his ordeal. He'd lost 40 pounds, but says he never lost hope. For most of the time, his kidnappers kept him in a secret and cramped underground cell. The entrance sealed shut.

HALLUMS: And you could hear them troweling this concrete over the door and then they would shove a freezer over the top of that to hide where the door was. You're buried in there and if they decide, well, it's just too dangerous to go back to the house, and they never come back, then you're in your tomb.

WARE (on camera): Dead men tell no tales.

(voice-over): Eight months after his proof-of-life video had appeared, U.S. Special Forces received a crucial tip on his whereabouts. Worried Hallums would be moved, they instantly launched a daylight rescue, four helicopters sweeping into a village south of Baghdad. This video shot on a soldier's helmet camera and beamed back live to headquarters.

The men smashed their way into the house. They knew to look under the freezer, under the rug, and then under the concrete.

HALLUMS: I heard Special Forces pounding on this little door in the room where I was and the guy jumps down in there and says, are you Roy? It's like, well, this can't really be happening, you know, because after all this time, they actually found where I was, you know, which was a miracle.

WARE: Two days after Roy Hallums was rescued, I joined a U.S. hostage team gathering information and I shot this video as they returned to the Iraqi farmhouse and Hallums' hell hole. It gave me a sense of what may have awaited me, or any of the other Westerners kidnapped in Iraq. And now, talking with Hallums, it's forcing me to deal with things I'd rather forget.

My experience began here. I was grabbed in late 2004, not far from where you see this burning American Bradley fighting vehicle. This is Haifa Street in the center of Baghdad, and al Qaeda had just taken over the neighborhood.

Like Hallums, I was taken at the height of al Qaeda's campaign of their videotaped beheadings, like this one. The last images of contractor Nicholas Berg alive. I actually videotaped my own capture, my camera catching one of my abductors pulling the pin on a grenade before they pulled me from the car.

Unlike Hallums, for me, there was to be no imprisonment. This was al Qaeda and I was going to die. They readied me immediately for beheading, to be filmed with my own camera. I was only saved by Iraqi insurgents I knew who resented al Qaeda's takeover.

(CROSSTALK)

WARE: Meeting Hallums, sharing our experiences, flushed up in me a mix of emotions. I can't even bear the thought of being held for months on end like he was.

HALLUMS: You're laying there in this little hole in the dark. You're tied up, hands and feet. And every little noise, every bump, it's, is this it, you know? Is this when they're going to do it?

WARE: And as with much in war, you get a new perspective on life. We both know nothing is ever going to be the same for us again.

(on camera): Is it the little things? Is it like, for me with, you know, all the conflict I've been in, it's the tiny things. It's a smell. Or it can be a sound. Or it can be a certain texture or color or word that triggers or evokes memory. What is it for you?

HALLUMS: Usually little things. I mean, I had those -- I had nylon zip ties on my wrists 24 hours a day for ten-and-a-half months. The other day I was out walking and my dog and my neighbor had brought something home from the store and he was cutting the zip ties off of the bundle.

And I looked down at his yard and there's these zip ties laying there and they'd been cut off and, you know, it's just one of those things you -- you remember you had a different relationship with that zip tie than he has.

WARE (voice-over): In the end, though, it's those who love us, waiting back home, often unknowing, who suffer the most. While survivors, like Hallums, barely able to walk or talk after not being able to do either for so many months, know just how lucky we are to be alive.

Michael Ware, CNN, Memphis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The streets are flooded. Cars are floating, emergency vehicles are everywhere trying to get the cars out of the roadway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: My old stomping ground, South Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale getting a whole lot of rain and a whole lot of flooding, and this big storm is also going to be hitting the Eastern Seaboard. We are going to want to show you some of this, because it will affect parts of where you are.

Chad Myers is going to tell you more in just a little bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I need to get a shot for American TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got to get a shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no press. No press.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, anymore. No press.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never got in.

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Just hold on. Just hold on. I have got to get my American guys in, because everybody else got in.

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Let my American guys in. No, no, those guys didn't get in, those guys didn't get in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no, no pictures, no, no.

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: All right. My guys get in just like your guys got in. This is a joint meeting. My guys get in, or we're leaving the meeting. These guys get in...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But there is already American press, already, just now. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I did not get in. I did not get in. I'm the only American.

GIBBS: This guy didn't get in, come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Did you hear what he said? He said, my guys get in or we are leaving the meeting. That is the press secretary of the United States, standing up to the Chinese in defense of American journos.

Speaking of American journos, let's go to "Rick's List." We've been trying to collect all of the comments that are being made by reporters out there in Copenhagen who are following this story. I saw a bunch of them. Here's David Corn, David Corn is of Mother Jones. He writes: "Journos create dangerous mob scene rushing into press briefing room on chance Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton will do a presser."

Frenzy. Frenzy it was, wasn't it? We -- as far as we know though, the president didn't come out and speak, did he? I don't believe he did. I don't know if it was announced that he would. Show the David Henry one, because that seems to be the one that maybe helps create some of the expectation. I don't know if somebody had gotten tipped off that the president was.

Let's go ahead and look for that one if we can, too. Let's go down our list here. That's what you're looking at right there. That's "Rick's List." And there we collect all of the different comments that are coming in right now from Copenhagen.

There is Ed Henry's comment. You know, he's our White House correspondent. He writes this, he writes -- move that over if we can for just a little bit: "President Obama holding an unexpected news conference in 20 minutes in Copenhagen, heading there ASAP, will update shortly."

Now obviously that's Ed Henry on the expectation that there may be a news conference with the president. What we're doing is we're collecting -- we're collecting all of these comments and then sharing them with you as we try and figure out exactly what happened in that little brouhaha there between the secretary of -- between our press secretary and the Chinese. We'll have it.

Could Tiger Woods's get worse before they get better? We're going to examine that in just a couple of minutes with golf blogger Geoff Shackelford.

And then Chad Myers joins us next with details on a major storm. Stay there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The good news is that we are probably going to live longer. That's according to some new data coming out from the Census Bureau, and also the Social Security Administration. As far as women go, they expect that within the next 40 years, women are going to start living on average to about 93 years old, whereas men, about 86.

So those numbers are good, especially if you are someone who is getting up there in years. But there is also a cost associated with this, and that's where the bad part of the news comes in. About $8 trillion by 2050. That is what it is expected to cost to take care of the people who live longer, their health care expenses, population demographics, Social Security, retirement, all of things that you might imagine.

Of course, as I mentioned, it's not really just about living longer, it's about living healthier, and people think that there is a huge health care cost associated with keeping people more functional as they get older, but I can tell you as I have traveled around the world and written books on the subject and followed the work of a guy name Dan Buttener.

It does not always have to be that way. There doesn't have to be huge costs associated with living more functionally. What you are looking at right now are shots of Costa Rica, for example, the reason we point out this place, and Dan Buttener does, it that it has the lowest rate of middle-aged mortality anywhere on the planet.

And if you really go and try and investigate why that is, they'll say a lot of it has to do with their diet, a diet that is extremely high in antioxidants and extremely high in calcium as well. But again, the headline here, people in this country are going to be living longer. I think that is coming within the next 40 years. That life span is going to significantly increase, but there are lots of challenges with that that are already starting to be addressed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: All right. I want you to take a look at this, if you possibly can. See that right there, that is Fort Lauderdale up top. And, Asheville, North Carolina, is on the bottom. It is getting pretty rough out there, folks, whether you are south or north or in the middle. Virginia's governor, meanwhile, has just declared a state of emergency, all of this relates to a major storm.

Chad Myers, he is following it for us. There is a lot to follow, I guess, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Two sides. You have a severe weather side, and you have a snow side. And when that happens, it can't happen unless there is a big enough low that you have cold enough air on one end and you have a severe cold front on the other end, and that is what caused both of those pictures.

One of the -- and we're going to see a lot more of those pictures, one of the -- and we're going to see a lot more of those pictures by tomorrow and Sunday. And it's just going to be a nightmare. Leesburg, Charlottesville, D.C., you are in the teeth of this thing for tonight. It does get to D.C. Later on this evening, eventually into Baltimore and so on.

All of the red counties that are going to pop up here, all under winter storm warnings, that means six inches to a foot. And some of these computer models, Rick, are just almost scary in how much they are printing out. There goes the weather across Monroe County. That is the cold front. That made the weather down there.

Then the storm swings up the East Coast and puts down a snow from Philadelphia through Baltimore into D.C., one to two feet possible. But let me take you to this graphic right here, which is another computer model literally printing out snow in inches. We had to look to see if it was centimeters or something, but something wrong with this model. No, it is forecasting 26 inches of snow in D.C. proper.

Now people are going to go...

SANCHEZ: Whoa!

MYERS: Yes, some people are saying, wait a minute, is it going to be 12 or is it going to be 20 or 30? And I am asking the question, how does that change your plan? If it is 16 or if it is 30, you are going to go out in 16, but you're going to stay home in 30? It's going to get ugly. You have got to think I-95, I-80, all of these major interstates and the Beltway for sure will be just a silly mess out there, Rick.

And it doesn't -- here are some pictures out of Greensboro just coming right now. Obviously snowing there. That's where the weather is coming from. And it will be sliding up the East Coast right into Connecticut, into Massachusetts as well. It doesn't even get to New York City until tomorrow night. But I can't -- I lived in D.C. for a while, and when it rained in -- or snowed three inches -- snowed three inches in D.C., the whole place shut down.

Thank goodness this is a Saturday, because if 20 inches really possible, it is going to be shut down for days. And people are joking, maybe they will get the health care bill done, they will be all snowed in, so they will have to do something.

SANCHEZ: Hey, let me tell you something, I went to school -- you may know this about me, but I went to school in Minnesota, and before that, I was in Moorhead, Minnesota, at Moorhead State University, played football up there, and 26 inches, even there, would shut the town down, and they are used to it, my friend.

That is a lot of snow. By the way, I am being told by Angie that we have got some new video coming in from my hometown, South Florida, I don't know if this is Miami or Fort Lauderdale, take us through it, Chad, what have you got?

MYERS: You know what? West Hollywood had fourteen inches of rain today in 24 hours, actually in about six hours. So the water came up and it came up quickly. Even North Beach, North Miami Beach proper picked up almost 12 inches of rain and it all -- it couldn't all run off at the right amount of time. SANCHEZ: All right. I am being told -- hold on, I am being told, everybody, stand by, I am being told that this video is going to be turning around any moment now. This is what looks to be like...

MYERS: Should I play something? Should I play some music?

SANCHEZ: ... tornadic activity.

MYERS: Oh, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: All right. Tell me again, Angie? Have we got it? Are we about to roll this?

MYERS: This was from a storm earlier.

SANCHEZ: All right. She is saying...

MYERS: We had two tornado warnings.

SANCHEZ: She is saying -- two tornado warnings as a result of the...

MYERS: We had two tornado warnings. And this was earlier. And then one down by Florida City that was spinning quite rapidly. I don't know how that thing didn't put down a tornado. But then there was -- there was another one up by the Biscayne Bay.

SANCHEZ: It's amazing. I got it, Michael.

MYERS: You got it?

SANCHEZ: All right. Let's -- no, no, we don't have that. All right. Let's take a...

MYERS: OK. All right. I've danced enough. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: ... a break. Let's take a break. Stay right there. We're going to take a break. When we come back, I'm told we're going to have this thing cued up. I want to see it now. I'm curious as to what happened down there in my stomping grounds. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: All right. Let's bring Chad back if we possibly can.

"Chad-o," let me know when you're there, we've got that video you were talking about out of South Florida, let's watch it together. Cool.

MYERS: Unless you're under that canopy.

SANCHEZ: Wow, that's from WSVN, the place where I worked for something like 17 years. That's looking like North Bay Village.

MYERS: Yes, you know what, though, you could...

SANCHEZ: That may even be...

MYERS: You could get that to blow off with just a thunderstorm. That doesn't necessarily mean there's a tornado on there. Although they did say -- one of the...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I know where that is.

MYERS: ... that something actually did happen down there, there was rotation in that storm, for sure.

You know where that is?

SANCHEZ: That looks like the gas station on 79th Street, just into North Bay Village, which is a private island, where that TV station is. There you have got some folks running to the scene now. Now you know, you should explain to folks that when we talk about tornadic activity in South Florida, this is not the same kind of tornadic activity you get in Kansas, by the way.

MYERS: No, but you know what, Rick, it's "El Nino" this year, and so there are going to be many, many more tornados in Florida than usual. This is a typically "El Nino" pattern, when that happens, you get the jet-stream that floats right over Florida for most of the wintertime. And the problem, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, too, nighttime tornadoes, you're not awake.

Absolutely, the best gift you haven't bought for Christmas yet is a NOAA weather radio. Because it could save somebody's life. Absolutely. That's what you should buy for a stocking stuffer. You could have anywhere from $29 for a midland on up to probably $79 for something highfalutin. But it doesn't matter, they all work the same. Make sure, though, they say "same," S-A-M-E, same, that you can program your own county and it doesn't go off all night long with other people's stuff.

SANCHEZ: By the way, I should mention, that was probably a funnel cloud before it became a small twister, because judging from what I'm looking at, if I'm correct about that, that's only about a stone's throw from the water, so that probably was a funnel cloud that then hit over land, which then made it no longer a funnel cloud, right? Did I get that meteorological term right?

MYERS: Yes, waterspout. Waterspout.

SANCHEZ: Waterspout.

MYERS: That's where you're going.

SANCHEZ: Water -- yes.

MYERS: And which are threats.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Chad. You speak rick-speak?

Let's talk about Tiger Woods. Have you ever seen Tiger's logo? All right. Let's take a look, TW, all right. See it right there? That's the logo. What else can you say but "train wreck" these days. Those mistresses, they might become some of the least of Tiger's worries soon because a Canadian doctor, have you heard about this, who started treating Tiger after his 2008 knee surgery, has now been charged with selling an alleged performance-enhancing drug.

This, my friends, is a whole new can of worms. Joining me now from Los Angeles, golf author Geoff Shackelford. He runs a great golf blog, geoffshackelford.com.

Geoff, thanks so much for being with us. Do you see Tiger Woods being hauled before a grand jury at any time in the next several months as this thing is investigated, to possibly testify in the case of this Canadian doctor, this guy named Anthony Galea?

GEOFF SHACKELFORD, GEOFFSHACKELFORD.COM: Well, it's a little early to tell, but the fact that the doctor said so much to The New York Times in their piece to their writers last week, really gave away a lot of very interesting information and some things that I'm sure some people are going to want to ask questions about. And namely, that is, why was he treating Tiger at his home in Florida when athletes were known to be coming to Dr. Galea's clinic in Toronto.

So it raises a lot of questions, but we're a long way, too, from talking about a grand jury. It's -- right now it's just an FBI...

SANCHEZ: This guy is...

SHACKELFORD: ... Buffalo office investigation.

SANCHEZ: We should point out, this guy doesn't have a license to practice in Florida, right?

SHACKELFORD: Correct. And he is also being investigated...

SANCHEZ: That could be a problem.

SHACKELFORD: ... for that.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We -- and yes -- and what is he doing near Tiger's house? We've watched Tiger Woods go from a skinny kid who happened to be able to hit a golf ball to a mile in to a guy built like an NFL linebacker, and now you know and I know that people are going to start to ask serious questions, wondering whether Tiger Woods is golf's Barry Bonds.

First of all, have you heard the supposition already? I imagine you have. And what do you make of it?

SHACKELFORD: Well, we heard it a few years ago when he started getting really big, but I would caution everybody, and remind them that Tiger was one of the people who really forced the PGA tour's hand into starting a drug testing program. The first time he was asked about it, he was a little bit on the fence, but then he said, out of nowhere, about a year later that he thought the tour should have one. So he really was the reason that Tim Finchem, the commissioner, changed his position. However, after the last few weeks, everything we've seen, it's really hard to fathom that there's more out there. Yet again, we've been shocked by everything, so sadly it's a possibility.

SANCHEZ: Well, the last few weeks, what we've -- I'll tell you what we've learned in the last few weeks is that whatever we think about Tiger Woods may not be what the truth really is about Tiger Woods. I mean, I don't think there's any fairer statement than that at this point, based on what we've seen going on. And that's not really just to take a shot at the guy, that's just the reality of the situation.

Speaking of Tiger Woods, where is this guy? We haven't seen hide nor hair of him since this incident. I mean, this is one of the most famous people in the entire world. No paparazzi? Nothing. Where is he?

SHACKELFORD: Very strange situation, the way he's hidden, I think it has been a disaster. Today there was a report he was in Palm Beach getting ready -- he's already on the yacht, he was dropped off from his limo. There are reports now that he may be checking into a clinic in Wickenburg, Arizona, and then another report says he's at home in Orlando hitting balls in the dark, which sounded a little bit strange to me. That one was probably the most far-fetched.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you something. Before all of this, Tiger got a pass from the media in general, from Tim Finchem, from the fans. In fact, hardly anybody ever complained about stuff like this that I'm about to show you that I get a feeling he's not going to be able to get away with in the future. Let's roll it, Rog.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six, I meant to say...

TIGER WOODS, GOLFER: (expletive deleted).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, well, no more commentary necessary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That made my commentary look pretty mild.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Yes, he used some, well, some -- I've seen that, without the bleeps, that is some real salty language. Now I've got to tell you, I play golf with a bunch of guys in my neighborhood, there's language like that all the time. Is that a big deal for him in the future now?

SHACKELFORD: I think so. We've seen in the last year people really were starting to get bothered by some of the antics on the golf course. Do remember he doesn't entirely get away with it. He is fined by the tour each time that happens, they just don't release that information. And the fine does go to charity.

But there definitely in the last year was a growing sense that this behavior was really getting to be absurd, especially some of the club-tossing. And I just don't see people being very tolerant of that in the future. And I suspect he'll be a bit more cautious.

SANCHEZ: That's the point, that things could possibly change. Geoff, thanks so much. We're done here. Let's go over now to THE SITUATION ROOM and Wolf Blitzer.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Rick, thank you.