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American Morning
Student Rescued From the Rubble; Saving Haiti's Orphans: Handful of Kids Head to the U.S.; Tempers Hot in Massachusetts Race for Kennedy's Seat; Marriage: A Better Deal for Men; Survivor Logs the Living
Aired January 19, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Glad you're with us on this Tuesday, January 19th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here are the big stories that we're following for you in the next 15 minutes here on the Most News in the Morning.
Saving the youngest victims from the earthquake aftermath. Hundred of orphans now in desperate need of food, water and medicine. Some are being flown to the United States but other pending adoptions are now in limbo. We're live with where the adoption process stands right now.
CHETRY: And raising millions in mere hours for Haiti. The rich and famous joined Larry King to help one of the poorest nations in the world. Alina Cho has the highlights of a telethon and tweetathon that surpassed all expectations.
ROBERTS: The battle for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat coming down to the wire today. It's a race that could affect the entire country and change just about everything in Washington. And in the home stretch, things are getting ugly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People, man, it's that -- you know, people are just plain angry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Our Jim Acosta is live in Boston this morning with voter reaction, and our political panel is looking at this critical race.
CHETRY: One week ago today a powerful earthquake turned Haiti into literally a living hell. And this morning food, water and medical supplies are still too slow to reach the people of Port-au- Prince. The situation in fact becoming so desperate that the Air Force is bypassing a log jam at the airport and parachuting tons of supplies directly to survivors.
Meanwhile, the streets of Port-au-Prince are growing more dangerous as people become more desperate. Looting is now a little bit out of control and sadly toothpaste is in very high demand, not for brushing teeth but people are putting it under their noses to mask the smell of decaying bodies.
Now the U.S. government is relaxing regulations now making it easier for people to temporarily adopt tens of thousands of Haitian children left homeless by the quake. And Americans are putting aside their own economic challenges donating more than $200 million to help the people of Haiti.
ROBERTS: Two hundred thousand people may have been killed in the earthquake. More than 70,000 bodies have already been recovered.
Maxine Fallon (ph), luckily, is not one of them. The 23-year-old college student spent six days trapped in the rubble after her school collapse around her, but she cheated death thanks to a search and rescue team from Peru and a CNN news crew.
Chris Lawrence is live for us in Port-au-Prince this morning. Tell us how this young lady wound up in the back of your truck yesterday.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the really amazing thing is that they are still pulling people out of the rubble as of last night. That is six full days after the earthquake with no food or water.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): We were driving to a story when a paramedic runs out in front of our truck begging for help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now. Right now.
LAWRENCE (on camera): So what's happened was, we were just passing by and the rescue teams told us can we please use your truck.
(voice-over): They just pulled a young woman out of the rubble and her blood pressure is 60 over 20. She's got to get to a hospital. They need to keep their truck to search for other survivors. So our CNN pickup truck becomes an instant ambulance and it's our driver behind the wheel/
A rescue team from Peru and Nicaragua have just pulled her out of a collapsed building six days after the earthquake.
(on camera): It looks like she had lost consciousness for a minute or two and she just -- she just blinked and now she's opened her eyes again. I can see the paramedic, he's got her head -- his hand firmly on her neck. He's feeling for her pulse.
It looks like we're pulling up now to the U.N. hospital. Maybe we were driving for 10 minutes. You think 10 minutes? Ten-minute drive, it seemed like a lot longer.
Now, this place really isn't set up for any sort of long-term care. You can see she's being treated outside right here on the sidewalk. The doctors are telling us what they're trying to do is just stabilize her enough so that they can transport her to a better hospital.
(voice-over): She's a college student named Maxi (ph) Fallon and her sister tells me she's been looking for her all week.
"We think it's over, but, no." They load another quake survivor in our flatbed that both need to go to a better hospital.
The first one can't take them. So we drive another 40 minutes and it's dark by the time we get to this French hospital where the paramedics finally get her inside.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Yes, the doctors tell us that she was severely hydrated, had some pretty bad cuts and bruises. She may have some fractures. They're going to do some x-rays today. But by all likelihood, she is OK. She's going to live.
The paramedic told us her legs were bent back in such a way that it may have taken a lot of the pressure off her chest, allowed her to keep breathing. And Maxi (ph) herself told us it was dark, it was painful. She said she could smell all of the dead people around her but that she prayed every day. She said she never, ever gave up hope that she'd be rescued -- John.
ROBERTS: Can't imagine what it would be like to go through an ordeal like that and how she has ever really fully going to be able to recover from it. Wow, incredible story.
Chris Lawrence for us this morning at Port-au-Prince. Chris, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, in a sea of helplessness in the aftermath of the quake it's the children that are among the most vulnerable. There were an estimated 380,000 orphans in Haiti. There were some private organization that put that number much higher than that, and this was before the quake. Well, that number is now, of course, expected to rise dramatically in the days and weeks ahead. But there is hope.
Our Gary Tuchman has been at one orphanage where a handful of the kids are now headed for new homes in America.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An orphanage in Haiti where 25 small children were living and sleeping outdoors because of the partial collapse of the orphanage. Two sisters from Pittsburgh who run the orphanage were gravely concerned that the adoption processes which were underway for all the children to move to the United States would be postponed indefinitely.
JAMIE AND ALI MCMUTRIE, ORPHANAGE DIRECTORS: Their paperwork was in government offices downtown and their offices are all crumbled. So, that's what they need. All those papers are what they need to be able to get a passport and a visa and go live somewhere else.
And most of the people, even if the paperwork were there, we're hearing that most of the people who would do anything about it are under the rubble, too.
TUCHMAN: But now, two days after we aired our story some surprising but good news. The adoption process rapidly expedited. Six of the children given approval to start their new lives with their new parents in the United States. Getting ready to fly on an Air Force C-17 to the U.S.
Moise (ph) holding hands with her sister Diana, who came with her provision of crunch berry cereal. Then there is Claudia and little Ethan, and even littler Jenna, the tiniest of the group. 13-year-old Gertrude is the elder stateswoman. I asked my French-speaking producer Justine Redmond to ask her if she knew who her new mom is.
TUCHMAN: Indeed, Melissa is meeting her at the Sanford Airport near Orlando.
(on camera): Little Jenna lived in Port-au-Prince her whole life. She will now be going to the Rocky mountains, moving to Colorado...
(voice-over): ... with her mother Elizabeth also meeting her and the other children in Florida. None of these children has ever seen a plane this close up, let alone been on a plane. The lives of these orphans are about to change profoundly and poignantly.
LT. COLONEL RANDON DRAPER, U.S. AIRFORCE: That was a teamwork effort. I mean, there are a lot of moving parts and that coming together. The contingency response wing, the State Department and CNN crews, the U.N. A lot of people back in the states and that working together.
TUCHMAN: All six children safely strapped into their Air Force seats calmly prepared to begin their new lives. Before we take off, we look at a bracelet given to Gertrude by her new mother. One of the charms says "daughter."
About two hours later, the children arrived in America and relatively chilly central Florida. And then Melissa who gave Gertrude the "daughter" charm got to hug the girl who is now officially her daughter. And Jenna was hugged tightly by her mother from Colorado, Elizabeth. It was an emotionally joyous scene, far different from the scenes they left behind.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, there you see some of the bright spots in this tragedy. And developing right now, dozens of Haitian orphans are on their way to the United States, as well. It's part of a mission that's being led by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Their plane touched down in Florida last night and is now on its way to Pittsburgh. It should arrive in the next few hours. A spokesman for Governor Rendell says that medical aid and in some cases adopted families are waiting for the children.
ROBERTS: Jared Leto buys Larry King's suspenders for $1,000 and that was just a drop in the bucket. By the time Larry's special "Haiti: How You Can Help" replayed last night, more than $7 million was raised for the injured and starving and desperate earthquake victims in Haiti. Celebrities on both coasts were manning the phone lines and the tweet suite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF PROBST: Perbal Grand (ph) says Larry should auction off his suspenders tonight as part of the fundraiser.
RYAN SEACREST, HOST, "AMERICAN IDOL": Larry, auctioning your suspenders tonight as part of the fundraiser. Should we start the bidding?
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Start the bidding. You start it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll start the bidding at $100.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm at 250.
KING: 250.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 300.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 500.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 500.
SEACREST: Jared Leto is at $400.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The bidding didn't stop there. Our Alina Cho is going to have all of the highlights and the heartfelt pleas coming your way at 6:50 Eastern this morning.
CHETRY: And if you'd like to know how you can help, go to CNN.com/Haiti. There is information on the charitable agencies that you can donate to. That's at CNN.com/impact. And then also continue sharing your stories, your images and your reports. We have reconnected people and in so many ways been able to bring images, both tragic as well as heartwarming to our viewers because of your iReports at CNNireport.com. And again, following on twitter. It's #haitiCNN.
ROBERTS: Other stories new this morning. Polls open in one hour in Massachusetts. The tight race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown to fill the late Senator Ted Kennedy's seat is going down to the wire with consequences for the entire country.
The latest poll shows Brown seven points ahead of Coakley. If Coakley loses, Senate Democrats lose their 60-vote majority putting President Obama's health care reform plan in jeopardy. We're going to hear from voters in Massachusetts just ahead.
Plus, political analyst Jennifer Donahue and John Avlon join us at the bottom of the hour.
CHETRY: Evacuation orders lifted in Southern California after the first of three expected winter rainstorms. There were fears of mudslides in San Fernando Valley. They never materialized thank goodness, and 200 residents were able to come back to their homes.
The next of three back-to-back storms though is expected today. Forecasters say that when it's all over, Southern California could get hit with a total of 20 inches of rain.
ROBERTS: Ten and a half minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Our Rob Marciano in the weather center in Atlanta. Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. That storm that Kiran talked about is the stronger one this week. It's about to slam into the California coastline right now.
It's amazing how closely packed these storms have been, not even a 12-hour break between them. So there you see the satellite picture very active, lots of moisture and it's all heading into California.
Let's talk northeast. Boston special election today. You will see a little bit of snow, likely less than an inch but nonetheless little bit of snowfall there with temperatures right around the freezing mark. Also fog across the midsection of the country.
Much more weather, guys, coming up in about 30 minutes. We'll see you then.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob, see you.
CHETRY: And still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, we're going to be live as we said, in Boston, Massachusetts. Voters are heading to the polls and it's a Senate race that could have nationwide implications.
Eleven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 14 minutes after the hour. A quick check of other stories new this morning.
An announcement is expected to today, that Jay Leno will return to "The Tonight Show." Leno explained to his audience last night that NBC initially approached him about moving to 11:30. And when asked if Conan O'Brien was onboard, they said they could almost guarantee it. Leno says he has no animosity toward Conan and that it's just business. CHETRY: President Obama's first State of the Union address is set for next Wednesday, January 27th. The timing of the speech has been up in the air until now. The Obama administration was waiting for the outcome of health care legislation. The White House though decided against pushing the address into February.
ROBERTS: In about 45 minutes, polls will open in the state of Massachusetts. Today voters are deciding who will fill the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. The outcome could prove critical to health care reform in Washington.
As for the race itself, things have turned nasty and as Jim Acosta tells us now voters are, in a word, angry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the public's in a fighting mood, what better place to score some votes in Massachusetts than at Boston's legendary sports arena, The Garden, right before a hockey game.
SCOTT BROWN (R-MA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm treating it like I'm down 30 minutes.
ACOSTA: That's where the Republican in the election here, Scott Brown, was talking like an underdog even though polls now show he just might beat the once heavily favored Democrat Martha Coakley.
MARTHA COAKLEY (D-MA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I know that people are frustrated. They're angry. They may be focusing that in many different ways.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks to Scott for letting us keep the bailout money. Cheers to that.
ACOSTA: At this Brown campaign rally, Coakley supporters showed up drinking faux champagne and calling themselves "Bankers for Brown". Within seconds, tempers were flaring.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think that's honest?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. You tell me. What do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't appear honest to me.
MATT COLEMAN, MANAGER, SULLIVAN'S TAP: People are just plain angry.
ACOSTA: Matt Coleman, manager of the Sullivan's Tap, is an independent who left the GOP frustrated. Now, he's mad at the Democrats, namely, Coakley.
ACOSTA (on camera): Did Martha Coakley screw this race up?
COLEMAN: Oh, without question. She took -- she took a pass. It's classic arrogance -- limousine Liberal arrogance.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Republicans say they're ticked off at the repeated references to Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not Ted Kennedy's seat. It's the people's seat.
ACOSTA: And sports fans are blasting Coakley's reference for beloved Red Sox veteran Curt Schilling as a Yankees fan.
DAN REA, WBZ RADIO HOST: Yes, but now Scott Brown has Curt Schilling, OK?
COAKLEY: Another Yankee fan.
REA: Schilling?
COAKLEY: Yes.
REA: Curt Schilling a Yankee fan?
COAKLEY: No. All right, I'm wrong. I might -- I'm wrong.
REA: The Red Sox great pitcher of the Bloody Sock?
COAKLEY: Well, he's not there any more.
ACOSTA: Over at Coakley headquarters, staffer Pedro Morales is telling voters get angry with the Republicans.
PEDRO MORALES, COAKLEY CAMPAIGN STAFFER: The Republicans, in general, have been a disaster when it comes to the Latino minority communities and we're very, very angry at them. It's pay back time.
ACOSTA: Republican Scott Brown warns the public will only become more enraged if he wins and Democrats try to pass health care reform while they still have a 60-vote majority before he takes office.
SCOTT BROWN (R), MASS. SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, I think that's a mistake because then the people will get more, I think, upset than they are now with a lot -- talk about a background bill (ph).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now some top Democratic strategists in Washington are mad at Martha Coakley. As one strategist complained to me yesterday, Coakley, she said, went on vacation instead of campaigning over the holidays. It's a sign that Democrats are backing away from Martha Coakley and trying to put some distance between Martha Coakley and President Obama.
John, this is shaping up to be the midterm before the midterm for the Democrats, and it could be one nasty nor'easter up here.
ROBERTS: And, Jim, she's got to have an awful lot of pressure on her because she stands to lose a seat that's been held by a Kennedy for 53 years and the whole health care reform bill is riding on her. How is she coping with the pressure?
ACOSTA: Well, the Coakley campaign claims that they have some internal polling and of course, you know, you have to take that with a grain of salt. That shows that she still has a chance in all of this. And they were telling us yesterday that their internal polling shows that she's up two points.
Now, that is running contrary to all the independent polling out there that shows Scott Brown taking the lead in this race, but no question about it, she has a lot of pressure on her. If you had said two weeks ago that Martha Coakley was going to lose this race, you would have been laughed out of the room. The Democrats are not laughing now, John.
ROBERTS: Yes. Beginning of January she was up by 15. Jim, thanks so much.
Stay with us. In 15 minutes' time we'll be talking more about this critical race and the shakeup that it could bring to Washington. Joining us will be independent analyst, John Avlon and political analyst and "Huffington Post" contributor Jennifer Donahue.
CHETRY: All right. Still ahead, we're going to be joined by Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" and we have news of a recall to tell you about as well. One of the big car makers.
It's 18 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Nice, uplifting music this morning.
It's 22 minutes after the hour. Means it's time for "Minding Your Business" and it's a recall involving thousands of late-model Chrysler Jeep and Dodge vehicles, a defective part that could cause sudden brake failure. The 2010 Chrysler Sebring as well as the Dodge Avenger part of the recall. Also affected, the 2010 Dodge Nitro Jeep Liberty, Jeep Commander and Grand Cherokee, also Ram trucks from 2009 and 2010 on the recall list.
ROBERTS: Well, Christine Romans now with us, "Minding Your Business" and, increasingly, Christine, women, it's seems, are wearing the pants in the family.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. And we could look at the demographics. We look at the Census Data and the Pew just did a -- Pew did a fantastic analysis of 40 years of income and salary data and -- and one of the papers this morning is calling it "Women Wearing the Pants".
CHETRY: Yes, and we have it.
ROMANS: "Now She Wears the Pants in the Family", why...
CHETRY: Yes. This is "A.M. New York". But, yes. There you see the traditional wedding cake. However, the guy is in the dress. ROMANS: OK. They're calling it the "Rise of the Wives". That's what the demographers are calling it. And I want to show you exactly what this is. This is women over the past 40 years. Their share of education and salary is rising faster than men's.
If you look back in 1970, 4 percent of husbands had wives who earned more than them -- only 4 percent. Today, 22 percent of husbands have a wife who brings home more bacon than they do. So, more women, that -- moving very quickly in this direction.
Also, take a look at this. This is because of education. Who is better educated? Today, husbands and wives, 53 percent of them today have the same education, 19 percent of husbands have a better education, 28 percent of wives have a better education.
ROBERTS: Interesting.
ROMANS: So, things have really been changing here. What it looks like is -- is more men are marrying up than they did before.
Forty years ago, frankly, a woman had one or two choices. She could be a teacher, she could be a nurse. She could get a good education, if she wanted, but there wasn't really a place for her in -- in the -- in the workforce. Now there is, and this economic balance between men and women is changing pretty dramatically.
CHETRY: It's also interesting, I -- when we did the story about inside the child's mind, one of the guys that we talked to, Dr. Sachs (ph), writes about the problem with boys, and he says that if you take a look at under 30 in New York City, women have better jobs and women are going to college in greater numbers.
ROMANS: They are. And, in fact, now, women have overtaken men as college graduates. Fifty-four percent of college graduates are women. So you see, when you look at the -- and this is changing every single day.
That's not my Numeral, though. My Numeral today is 60 percent. That has to do with marriage. And this really surprised me -- 60 percent. It's a marriage statistic. A lot of this has to do with marriage, too.
Sixty percent of Americans are married today. In 1970, 87 percent of Americans were married. Income gains for married women, married men and couples all grew over the past 40 years, but single men, their incomes grew only very, very small.
ROBERTS: Interesting.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: There you go, guys. Put a ring on it.
ROBERTS: And when they -- when they...
ROMANS: Get a college educated girl, put a ring on it. ROBERTS: And when they perfect synthesizing sperm, we become totally useless.
ROMANS: Oh, you're not totally useless.
CHETRY: You had to go there. You had to go there (ph).
ROMANS: Come on!
ROBERTS: They're working on it. Believe me, they're working on it.
ROMANS: Come on! We still need you, John.
ROBERTS: Coming up next to the Most News in the Morning, we're going to go back to Haiti. CNN's Ivan Watson introduces us to one man and explains why he's making a list of all the people living on his street.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know. We don't know what we -- what we can do. We don't...
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who do you want to give this list to?
JOSEPH RICARDO, HAITI QUAKE SURVIVOR: I guess (ph) American people. American. American.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
So many survivors in Haiti are simply hanging by a thread, still waiting for food and water. For that matter, they're waiting for anyone to notice that they're still alive.
We came across one man who went to work logging every living soul in just one block in Port-au-Prince. He thought that maybe it would convince someone to come to their rescue.
Our Ivan Watson was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON: We saw this sign hanging on Delmas (ph) St., a plea for help. We came over and met Joseph Ricardo. Why did you make this sign, Joseph?
RICARDO: OK, I just write in that, because I need help. OK? There are so much person over there who got so much problem, that's why -- and I see that and I then -- I then imagine this and I just write for -- for help. Because, you know, there are so much person dying in -- dying here. There's so many dead. We cannot live. That's why we wrote it. OK?
WATSON: Can we -- can we see your street?
RICARDO: Oui. Let's go.
WATSON: These are all destroyed houses, yes? Did someone come to help you guys out?
RICARDO: No. There's no...
WATSON: Nothing?
RICARDO: Nothing. (INAUDIBLE). You see, it's too bad. It's too bad.
WATSON: There are dead people in here.
RICARDO: Oui, dead here. (INAUDIBLE) who are dead here. (INAUDIBLE) sleeping. You can -- down there. Can you see? (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
WATSON: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Oui. Deux.
WATSON: Two people killed? They're children.
RICARDO: Yes.
WATSON: Her children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oui.
RICARDO: Two.
WATSON: I'm sorry, madam. Je suis desole.
All you want is food and water?
RICARDO: Yes. Only that.
WATSON: Just food and water?
RICARDO: Food and water.
WATSON: You guys are sleeping out in the street now night after night and there are more people sleeping in the street down here, Joseph?
RICARDO: Oui. It's there we're sleeping every -- every day. We just stay here and we got nothing, OK? If we all go on the street, take something, to give -- it could be (INAUDIBLE), you see?
WATSON: Now, you're making a list here in your notebook. What is it -- why are you making this list?
RICARDO: I don't know. I just -- I just write in it, because I need help, OK?
WATSON: This is the names of the people living here?
RICARDO: The name of the people. We just -- we're just sleeping here. OK? I just write their name for help -- for ask help, OK? I don't know. I just -- I don't know. There's no -- we don't know -- we don't know what we can do.
WATSON: Who do you want to give this list to?
RICARDO: I guess (ph) American people. American. American. I don't know.
WATSON: So, this is where -- what people have resorted to here. You have this man, Joseph, making a list of residents of this devastated street -- just one street in Port-au-Prince -- to give to anybody...
RICARDO: Anybody.
WATSON: ... for perhaps food, for perhaps water. .
Ivan Watson, CNN, on street 66B in Port-au-Prince.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Not even knowing who to give the list to either, wow.
It's half past the hour, and that means it's time for this morning's top stories.
More aid is flowing into Haiti, the first airdrops now taking place since the earthquake. A U.S. cargo plane dropped 40 pallets of food and water onto a field just north of the congested airport. That is 42,000 ready to eat meals and 9,600 bottles of water.
CHETRY: We asked you to help the people of Haiti and you certainly answered that call. Celebrities spent last night working the phones and taking donations during Larry King's fundraiser and altogether more than $7 million was raised.
The show may be over, but you can still help. For the Red Cross call 1-800-help-now.
ROBERTS: Plus, in just 30 minutes, voting starts in a Massachusetts special election to fill the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. Several polls show Republican State Senator Scott Brown with a lead over Democratic State Attorney General Martha Coakley.
And a GOP win in this deeply blue state would end the Democrats' 60-seat majority in the Senate, putting President Obama's plans for health care reform an extreme risk. CHETRY: And what's so ironic in this election is this is a seat that was occupied for nearly 50 years by Ted Kennedy, known as the liberal lion of the Senate, a person who helped champion health care reform on Capitol Hill, and it could go to a Republican candidate who is vowing to stop President Obama's plan.
For more I'm joined from Boston by Jennifer Donahue, a political analyst and contributor to the "Huffington Post." Hi, Jennifer, good to see you this morning.
JENNIFER DONAHUE, FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR, HUFFINGTONPOST.COM: Good to see you, Kiran.
CHETRY: And also here in New York we have with us independent analyst and political contributor to "The Daily Beast," our John Avalon. Hi, John.
JOHN AVALON, AUTHOR, "INDEPENDENT NATION": Good morning.
And let me start with you, Jennifer. Polls leading up to today showing that the Democrat, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is actually trailing Republican State Senator Scott brown. This is a state that hasn't elected a Republican senator since 1972. You also every member of Congress from Massachusetts is a Democrat.
Why is Brown doing so well?
DONAHUE: He's branded himself brilliantly. He has ran as the people's senator. He has said it's the people's seat. That was the game changer a week ago in a debate against Coakley where she didn't have a effective answer against that.
She was running for the Kennedy seat. Well, Kennedy is gone, and that is a very, very sad thing, but no one can fill the lion's shoes.
The other thing is Massachusetts already has health care, universal health care, and it is fining people for not having that health care. Massachusetts voters say if we do this on the national level, we're going to be fined a lot of money if we don't want to buy into the system, and the national health care being proposed wouldn't necessarily pass with Coakley in the Senate because she actually favors the Stupak amendment. So that is not likely to get into the Senate vote bill.
Really, they're better off with a Paul Kirk vote.
CHETRY: And he's the third party candidate running, as well, right?
AVALON: He's the senator who's filling out Kennedy's seat until the election.
CHETRY: But there is a third party candidate, and this is what is interesting about this situation is that he is also sort of tapping into that same sort of tea party anger, but it is not working against Brown. AVALON: That's right, because the tea partiers have really understood that Brown represents a real shot at winning this seat. What I think you're seeing here is the independents in Massachusetts asserting themselves more than ever before.
We stereotype in our politics and dumb it down. We say everything is blue state, red state. So people considered Massachusetts this liberal bastion. In fact, independents outnumber Democrats or Republicans in Massachusetts.
CHETRY: Nearly 50 percent of the state when asked, people say they're independent. How big of an impact are they going to have on this race?
AVALON: Huge. Independents will decide who wins this election, bottom line. And even the state like Massachusetts, you have 2.1 million independents, and they're swinging 41 percent edge to Scott Brown. That's the election. Independents asserting their real power even in Massachusetts should be a huge wake-up call to Democrats and Republicans.
CHETRY: And it's interesting what you said, Jennifer, about how whether or not -- everyone keeps saying that the fate of the health care reform bill really hangs in the balance here. Does it or does it not? If we see a win by Brown they could technically slow walk his certification as they're saying and try to rush it through.
And you're saying even if Coakley wins, it's not necessarily a done deal, either.
DONAHUE: It's not a done deal if Coakley because still Pelosi has to bring the House Democrats along to vote for the Senate bill if it were to pass. And that's a heavy lift unless they go nuclear and go for the 51 reconciliation vote, which may be what they're left with.
The bottom line is this -- Obama will lose his 60 seats in the Senate whether it's now or in November. Maybe it's better to take the pain now. This is only a two-year seat they're filling. Maybe it's better to get it over with and have a clean slate.
Health care should not have taken this long. In August it was clear people did not like the health care legislation, they wanted jobs. The focus on jobs still hasn't come. Americans do not like the leadership void they're feeling. They're going to come out today en mass, the weather is good, and they're going to demonstrate that.
CHETRY: It's interesting. Jennifer just spoke about the weather. When people were polled before this, you had a nearly 20 percent margin, Republicans saying they were very, very excited to vote, it was like 83 percent to about 63 percent for Democrats in the state of Massachusetts.
Is this a referendum on what Obama, the president, has done so far in office? AVALON: I think independent swinging against Obama which began last swing and continued accelerating over the summer with health care is being affected in this race. I don't think it's a referendum on Obama personally because he is still personally popular with many independents.
It's the Democratic Congress that's being reacted against. Independents like the checks and balances of divided government. They dislike the legislative overreach that comes when one party controls both the White House and Congress. That's what you're seeing.
This is a brush back pitch in effect against Democratic control of Congress, and that's why it should be a wake-up call. Independents or fiscal conservatives, they don't like the overspending they have been seeing and the growth of government that the health care bill has come to symbolize, unfairly or not.
CHETRY: We'll see what happens in Massachusetts. And again the polls open in just about 30 minutes.
And a quick reminder by the way, John's book, "Wingnuts, how the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America," there it is, it hits store shelves February 23rd. You can read more also about this critical race on our show blog where John wrote a commentary piece about Massachusetts swing voters and how they could decide the outcome, CNN.com/amfix.
The polls close, by the way, 8:00 p.m. eastern. Tonight Wolf Blitzer and the best political team on television will bring you the results live.
Time to take a quick break, we'll be back. It's 36 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Thousands of people in Port-au-Prince now fearing what's next as they spend desperate hours in tent cities.
ROBERTS: These makeshift communities now dot the earthquake- ravaged city. There is little fresh water or food, and safety now a growing concern as desperation mounts.
Our Jason Carroll is live in Port-au-Prince this morning. And Jason, you spent some time in one of these tent cities. What was it like?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I spent time at one of the most crucial points, and that is at night. We have seen these tent cities during the day and we talked about the need for water and the need for food. Now they say it's time to talk about the need for security, especially at night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CARROLL: This is one of Port-au-Prince's largest camps for survivors, a former golf course now home to thousands. Daytime, it is hot and uncomfortable. Nighttime presents even more serious problems.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can put something down and they steal it.
CARROLL (on camera): The people here tell me that the overwhelming number of survivors who end up in tent cities like this one are good people who are just trying to make do night after night. But there is that small element that exists here that makes life miserable for everyone.
CARROLL (voice-over): Incidents of sexual assaults, stealing food and water now being reported at camps like this all over the city.
PRISCA LABRANCE, SURVIVOR: I have to sleep on the floor and sometimes I'm afraid.
CARROLL: Prisca Labrance is 13 years old. At night she shows me how she does not go far from her family's tent.
CARROLL (on camera): And so you sleep there and is that your Bible over there?
LABRACE: Yes, it's my Bible.
CARROLL: Her family and the Bible her only comfort now.
LABRACE: I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid, because god is with me.
CARROLL (on camera): Because god is with you. You use god as your protection?
LABRACE: Yes.
CARROLL (voice-over): Not far from her tent, Gene Roman sits and wonders why police are not doing more to protect his family.
CARROLL (on camera): Have any of you seen police around here to help protect you?
GENE ROMAN, SURVIVOR: I don't see the police.
CARROLL: You don't see the police.
ROMAN: I see the police on the street.
CARROLL: On the street but not here?
ROMAN: No.
CARROLL (voice-over): Roman isn't seeing many police at the camp because many of them were victims of the earthquake, too.
MARIO ANDRESOL, NATIONAL POLICE CHIEF: It's clear that, you know, we do not have enough people.
CARROLL: Haiti's national police chief Mario Andresol telling me before the quake Port-au-Prince had more than 4,000 officers, and now less than half that.
CARROLL (on camera): It's got to be incredibly difficult and an incredible challenge for you to try to enforce crime in these areas at night.
ANDRESOL: Exactly, exactly right.
CARROLL (voice-over): Andresol says the international community needs to provide reinforcements because the tent cities aren't going anywhere and people like Prisca Labrance and Gene Roman are waiting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And today the U.N. Security Council is expected to improve an increase in the number of peacekeeping forces here in Port- au-Prince. And as you can see from this piece there for the police and the survivors living in tent cities like the one behind me here, that help cannot come soon enough. John?
ROBERTS: Jason Carroll this morning in Port-au-Prince. Jason, thanks.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, it's 43 minutes past the hour. We'll have Rob coming along with more on the travel forecast right after the break.
ROBERTS: And of all the doctors in Haiti, the U.S. military reaches out to our Sanjay Gupta to help save a little girl. We'll show you why they turn to him for help coming up.
It's 43 minutes after the hour.
CHETRY: It's 45 minutes past the hour now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We have more from Haiti and the relief efforts that are continuing right now. Surgeons are desperately needed on the ground in Port-au-Prince, and that was made very clear yesterday when our own chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, was asked by the U.S. military to perform emergency brain surgery on a young earthquake victim.
Sanjay walks us through what it was like to be called into action in the midst of this crisis.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the latest story of a 12-year-old girl named Kimberly. She is a Haitian citizen who like many others in the earthquake was injured, and in her case, pretty severely. She was trapped under rubble, but she also had a piece of shrapnel. It was turned those piece of brick that actually went through her skull and into her brain. She was found yesterday from the rubble, and the decision was made to transport her to the USS Carl Vinson. We also know that her mother passed away, but her father is alive, and they were discussing exactly what should happen as part of your goal with her father. When she arrived at the Carl Vinson, they realized that given the nature of her neurosurgical injury. She wouldn't get any surgery, and she is going to need emergently, so they try to exhaust all the capabilities of the military trying to find a neurosurgeon and simply could not find one that would come in time.
Having watched coverage on television, they knew that a neurosurgeon was in the country, working for CNN, and they got a hold of our international desk and eventually got a hold of us. Once I heard the story, I obviously drove out to the airport. A helicopter flew in and flew me out to the carrier and was able to form this operation and gratified to tell you that the operation went very well, and she is doing very well after the operation, and then eventually the helicopter flew me back
So, this is just one story, this girl, Kimberly, a delightful, young gal who is going to do very well from this operation, but it is a part of a larger issue. Again, talking to the need for certain types of medical doctors, in this case, neurosurgeons, and also talking about the need for supplies. There wasn't the right instrument, for example, to perform all the different types of procedures that are necessary. There is still a dramatic need down here in Haiti. This is a story that demonstrates that. Back to you.
ROBERTS: Pretty incredible he was out there in the Carl Vinson yesterday morning performing brain surgery and interviewing President Clinton the day in the afternoon. He is a busy fella.
CHETRY: I know and then reporting live with Anderson all night long, so yes, absolutely.
Meanwhile, it's 48 minutes past the hour right now.
ROBERTS: Let's get a check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather across the country. Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. We'll start with the East Coast. Big election happening in Boston today, so what's going on there? A little bit of snow. They had some snow yesterday; a heavy wet snow. It didn't pile up to be a whole lot anywhere from two to six inches in most spots, but it was so heavy, shoveling, and I'm sure was not easy. Temperatures are right around the freezing mark, so I think it will be mostly snow, mostly after 11:00 today and probably an inch or two; that's about it.
All right. We slide it out to the West Coast where a number of storms are already pounding this area, and some of this rain is getting into the desert southwest places like Phoenix and through Albuquerque and places that really can't handle much more than a half an inch of rain, maybe will get one or two or even three inches of rainfall over the next couple of days, so those areas of concern.
Evacuation orders have been lifted for parts of Southern California for mudslide potential from the first storm, but here comes storm number two already dumping rain into San Francisco and winds with this and waves have been huge. Winds across the higher mountain passes have easily been over hurricane force. Meanwhile, warming up down across parts of the south, and fog continues to be an issue across parts of the Midwest.
Here are your expected delays today, Boston low clouds and white snow, maybe 15 to 30-minute delays there, Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis seeing some clouds and fog and then San Francisco and Los Angeles because of those storms that are heading into that area of the world. Very El Nino-like pattern. Expect it to continue for the rest of this week. John and Kiran, back out to you.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks so much, Rob.
This morning's top stories are just minutes away, including aid finally starting to trickle in, but the situation on the ground in Haiti is still desperate. Some planes, 80 planes packed with supplies are being diverted. Rubble is blocking roads across the capital making trouble very difficult. One week after the quake getting food and water to people is still proving to be a logistical nightmare.
ROBERTS: There is also still a huge need for doctors and nurses across Port-au-Prince as medical teams roll in, what are the challenges that they'll be facing? We are talking with Former Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Bill Frist along with Bill Toison (ph) who is an aid worker with World Vision Canada.
CHETRY: Also the polls open in just ten minutes in Massachusetts. A special election for the late Ted Kennedy senate seat could have a huge impact nationwide, and we're going to talk more about why, and we're going to be live in Boston coming up on the Most News in the Morning. It's 50 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Here at CNN, we have made it our duty to help reconnect families with missing loved ones in Haiti, and here's our global reach to answer their call for help.
CHETRY: And last night, it was an absolute A-list of stars and humanitarians. They all joined Larry King for one of the most special shows of his long career. Our Alina Cho is here with the highlights and really going into it. They knew that people were going to answer the call, but what happened afterwards surpassed all expectations.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean in the 30 minutes, $700,000 raised. It's really incredible, guys. You know, even Larry said himself last night, I have had some unusual panels in the history of "Larry King Live", but this is different. Listen to this, Ben Stiller with Benicio Del Toro, J-Lo, and Paula Abdul, an unlikely group for sure, but coming together to make a difference, a star-studded night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER LOPEZ, ENTERTAINER: They describe it as a nuclear bomb going off.
MICK JAGGER, MUSICIAN: This is a huge, massive disaster for one of the poorest, poorest countries.
PAULA ABDUL, ENTERTAINER: Overwhelming despair and families not knowing who is alive.
CHO (voice-over): J-lo, Mick Jagger, P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Ben Stiller, and even Ringo Starr. A constellation of stars with so much to give helping people with so little. Larry King welcomed all of them for a telethon and tweetathon called, Haiti, How You Can Help, and they raised millions in a matter of hours.
RYAN SEACREST, ENTERTAINER: The need is immediate.
CHO: And what's more immediate than Twitter.
Ryan Seacrest, an avid Twitter, was on hand in Larry's tweet suite with Jared Leto who lived in Haiti.
JARED LETO, ENTERTAINER: See I saw three twitter that people were actually building houses around the world. Some of our fans are kind of joining in and helping the cause.
CHO: Some of the first images of disaster came in through social media. Now, it's being used to prevent a humanitarian aftershock.
P.DIDDY, ENTERTAINER: Haiti, for me, is such an inspirational country. They were the first people to take back their freedom. The first people to say that we will not be slaves any more.
GARCELLE BEAUVAIS-NILON, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ACTRESS: My cousins are okay. My aunt is still missing, but my cousins are okay, and I got to speak to a few Haitian callers, and we got to speak in cradle (ph), and I can't tell you how moved I am that everybody cares.
CHO: even Larry King's signature suspenders are helping.
UNKNOWN MALE: Purple Grand (ph) says Larry should auction off his suspenders tonight.
CHO: And Ben Stiller who I sat down with just a few weeks ago says he hopes Haiti remains in everyone's heart, long after the last plane leaves.
BEN STILLER, ACTOR: A month, two months, six months down the line when people aren't doing specials on it when the cycles moved on, the support they're going to need, and I think that's what, you know, we all have to sort of work towards, keeping attention.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (on-camera): He's absolutely right. You know, I spoke to Ben Stiller by phone after the show last night. He told me he does plan to go back to Haiti once the cameras are gone. He was originally planning to go next month but that will likely be pushed back given what's happened, and by the way, Ben does have his own charity, Stiller Strong.
He has redirected his focus. All donations will now go toward emergency relief in Haiti. He was originally planning to build a school there. He also told me his biggest asset as a celebrity is that he can draw attention to a cause, and guys, by all accounts, it worked between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. midnight which is when the replay of Larry King live ended. More than 7.2 million dollars was raised. It's really, really incredible.
ROBERTS: Yes, it's a good deal of money.
CHO: And you know, that is the conservative estimate because UNICEF, I know, opened their lines until 5:00 a.m. They, alone, raised $3.2 million, so it's a huge, huge number.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: So many ways to give. Alina, thanks so much.
CHO: Good day.
ROBERTS: Good story.
Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds here in the Most News in the Morning. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Looters, many of them armed now running wild through the streets of Port-au-Prince. The outbreak of violence caused by a critical need for food, water, and medicine still in very short supply this morning.
