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American Morning
Republican Captures Kennedy's Seat in Massachusetts; GOP Win a Setback for President Obama and the Senate; Major Aftershock Hits Haiti; Haiti Desperate Need in Remote Neighborhoods; Haiti's Forgotten Victims; New Rules from Uncle Sam; Where's the Love?
Aired January 20, 2010 - ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning on this Wednesday, the 20th of January. The year anniversary of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and what a difference a year makes.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly. We're at least a little bit warmer and not sitting outside on that cold January day last year.
ROBERTS: There's a kind of a little bit of chill in the White House this morning, no question about that.
CHETRY: I would say so. You know, they're actually calling it the vote heard around the world and what we're talking about this morning is the Massachusetts special election.
Republican Scott Brown capturing the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts. Many calling it a shocking upset and a real resurgence potentially for Republicans. A disaster though for Democrats that has health care reform in America in limbo this morning.
ROBERTS: Inauguration day 2009. For millions of Americans, President Obama epitomized a new era of hope and change. Twelve months later, though, where's the love?
We're taking a closer look at his troubled agenda a year after assuming office. Can he still be an agent of change?
CHETRY: And we're, of course, still following the latest developments out of Haiti this morning. A U.S. Navy hospital ship is due to arrive later today, bringing more than 500 doctors, nurses and other medical staff. But getting help there and getting help to the people have been two different stories. We're going to have the latest, including word of another incredible rescue a full week after the earthquake hit.
ROBERTS: Well, as incredible as it might sound, Ted Kennedy's Senate seat has been captured by the Republicans. And health care reform in this country is now in jeopardy.
Republican Scott Brown pulling off an upset for the ages scoring a stunning victory in a special election in Massachusetts. Here's the numbers for you. More than two million voters turned out. Brown winning by an improbable 5-point margin over Democrat Martha Coakley. And the Republican senator-elect was quick to throw down the gauntlet on health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BROWN (R-MA), MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR-ELECT: And this bill is not being debated openly and fairly, it will raise taxes. It will raise taxes. It will hurt Medicare. It will destroy jobs and run our nation deeper into debt.
MARTHA COAKLEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS SENATE CANDIDATE: We'll always remember our terrific Senator Ted Kennedy and his words: "The work begins anew, the hope rises again, and the dream lives on."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We're breaking down this improbable win for the GOP and its likely impact on health care reform. We've got the best political team on television this morning.
Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House with reaction from shaken Democrats who no longer enjoy a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. We begin though with Jim Acosta. He's at the state house in Boston.
And, Jim, it's such an irony, Senator Ted Kennedy's dying wish was to see America's health care system overhauled and the seat now goes to a Republican who has completely different ideas.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And Democrats may hope that what happened in Massachusetts stays in Massachusetts, but that is not going to be the case if a Republican in Scott Brown can campaign across this state saying that he will vote against health care reform in what is a very liberal state. Obviously the signs for the Democrats not good, coming up in these midterm elections as this campaign goes on, John.
And Scott Brown said some very interesting things last night. He essentially took all the independents in the state who are very worried about President Obama's agenda and put them in the back of his pickup truck that he talked about so often during this campaign and drove them to victory. He talked last night about how this is the people's seat, not Ted Kennedy's seat, throwing a bone to all those folks in Massachusetts who really bristled at the idea that this was holding on to Ted Kennedy's Senate seat for the Democrats.
He ran against that notion throughout this campaign. There are also some populist urges on the far -- on the part of the electorate throughout this campaign. At one point, Martha Coakley made that comment that Curt Schilling may not be a Red Sox fan, was a Yankees fan. That did not go over well. When you talk to voters out here on the streets of Boston, even in Boston, there were folks who would say, well, this is just another indication that perhaps the Democrats are out of touch, and their candidate is out of touch. So this morning, John, the Democrats have a very big task on their hands. You mentioned health care reform. When you have people like Barney Frank, perhaps the most liberal member of the House of Representatives, saying that if Scott Brown wins, health care is dead, if you have Anthony Weiner who is a champion of the public option, remember the public option in the health care debate, if Anthony Weiner is saying if Scott Brown wins health care is dead, this morning, John, it is very difficult to see how this reform legislation passes in Washington.
ROBERTS: And how would you like to be Martha Coakley this morning, Jim?
ACOSTA: Absolutely. She was -- according to some of the polling here, John, 30 points ahead in this race, 15 points ahead just in the last couple of weeks of this campaign. As we mentioned yesterday, we talked to one top Democratic strategist from Washington who was brought in to help rescue this campaign who told us that they were very upset down in Washington that Martha Coakley went on vacation over the holidays instead of staying and campaigning for the Senate seat. There are obviously going to be lots of postmortems about this race.
You know, last night, Martha Coakley said that the president called her and said, you know, we can't win them all. Well, President Obama knows that all too well. He campaigned side by side with Creigh Deeds in that governor's race down in Virginia. He lost there. He campaigned side by side with Jon Corzine in New Jersey. He lost there. Then in the final days of this campaign, the president came to Massachusetts, campaigned side by side with Martha Coakley and went 0- 3, John.
ROBERTS: I guess all you can say this morning, Jim, is ouch. Jim Acosta for us. Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: Ouch.
CHETRY: Well, the stakes in the Massachusetts special election couldn't have been higher for Democrats and the president. And as we've been saying this morning, the filibuster-proof majority in the Senate is gone. And many are asking can health care reform be saved.
Suzanne Malveaux has morning after reaction live from the White House this morning. And, Suzanne, how much of a setback is this for the president? What are they saying this morning in the White House?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, I talked to a senior administration official who obviously say that they are very disappointed and frustrated with what has happened here. If you take a look, this is the one-year anniversary of the president's inauguration. A number of setbacks the White House has to deal with.
First and foremost, this devastating loss in Massachusetts. That Democratic seat that was held since 1953 by a Democrat widely seen as a referendum on the president's health care agenda, a significant loss among the independents and a real expression of fear and frustration among some American people who feel that there's more government but that their lives are not improving.
Whether or not health care reform is going to survive, it certainly seems like it is not yet dead, but on life support here. It is going to be a very tough haul for this president and Democrats to try to figure out to push this through.
There was internal debate in the White House whether or not this should even be the number one domestic agenda priority for the president his first year. So they're going to be huddling, trying to figure all of that out. And it raises questions, Kiran, certainly about whether or not the president is going to be able to push forward some of his other legislative priorities. We're talking about energy, cap and trade, immigration reform, financial regulatory reform, all of these things. Because quite frankly, there are some Democrats who are thinking if Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states, if the health care plan of Obama can sink that Democratic seat, what is going to happen in these more competitive races? So the Democrats might not be so supportive of the president's agenda moving forward this year.
And finally, take a look at the poll numbers here. President Obama's approval rating dipping down by almost 20 points over the year. It was 65 percent when he took office in the beginning. CNN's new poll numbers out just this morning now showing that it's at 49 percent.
So, Kiran, obviously this president and this White House has to deal with the fact that this country is in a sour mood, that bipartisanship, a change in Washington has yet to happen. He's got a lot of big challenges in this next year coming up, Kiran.
CHETRY: Certainly. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning. Thanks.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ROBERTS: And the breaking news this morning comes to us from Haiti where there has just been a major aftershock to last Tuesday's earthquake. Jason Carroll is up live for us this morning. What was it like, Jason?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to tell you it is very scary. We were sitting here just getting ready to go live and, you know, we've been experiencing minor tremors for the past several days. This one started out that way, then got significantly stronger. And we all just sort of sat around and waited for it to pass and hoping it wouldn't get any stronger than it did.
You could hear the screams from some of the people behind me, as you can imagine. The nerves are quite rattled. Behind me here at this tent city where people have been camped out, everyone stood up. They're out in the middle of the open, so I think they felt a little better for that. They stood there and you could hear some audible sort of cries for just a little while, and then thankfully it all stopped. But some frightening moments here in Port-au-Prince, as we experienced what must have been one of the stronger aftershocks that we felt here in the past several days -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. And nothing yet, Jason, on the U.S. Geological Survey map of the latest earthquake, so no idea of the magnitude yet. But we expect to know very soon.
Thanks, Jason. Jason Carroll for us in Port-au-Prince this morning.
We're following a developing story in Virginia, an intense manhunt going on right now around Appomattox. It's about 75 miles southwest of Richmond. Police with dogs and heat-sensing equipment are looking for a man they say killed eight people yesterday. All of the victims were adult men and women. The suspect nearly shot down a police helicopter forcing it to make an emergency landing.
CHETRY: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as well as the director of National Intelligence and the anti-terror chief all heading to the hot seat on Capitol Hill today. They're going to be facing questions concerning the lessons learned after the failed attempt to blow up a Northwest jetliner on Christmas Day.
ROBERTS: And lawmakers also looking into why the Army missed critical warning signs in the Fort Hood shooting. Today, a House Committee will hear from the authors of an independent review ordered after the attack. The report found, among other things, the military failed to supervise the suspect, Major Nidal Hasan.
Next hour, hear from one of Hasan's former patients who says he thought that Hasan might have been a terrorist, and this was back in 2007.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it's now 10 minutes after the hour. We'll get a quick check of the weather headlines this morning with Rob Marciano. All eyes are going to be out west this morning, expecting another wild day out there.
Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Let's touch on that aftershock. The USGS will typically vet something like this, so we don't get instantaneous reports as to how deep it was, what the magnitude of it was. So no reports on this.
I can tell you this, though. It's been over two days since any sort of aftershock was felt in that area. Yesterday, we had a 5.8 quake just off the Cayman Islands but that's unrelated, a different fault line, and one doesn't have anything to do with the other. But it has been over two days since they've felt any sort of aftershock in Haiti. So certainly some pressure has built up and the ground is settling once again today. As soon as we get the report from the USGS as far as how strong it was and where it was centered, we'll get that to you quickly, no doubt.
All right. The other big story weather-wise today, severe weather across parts of the mid-South. We'll be cold and also out west. Once again, the third of three powerful storms scheduled to come into California today. Flooding rains, they had a report of a tornado yesterday. The ground's probably going to go in some of those burn areas later today, John and Kiran. They've already seen five inches of rain. They could see another five inches with wind-driven rain later on tonight. We'll talk more about 30 minutes. See you then.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob. Looking forward to that. Thanks.
And coming up on the Most News in the Morning, we have seen the difficult conditions for people living in the heart of Port-au-Prince, but it's worse on the outskirts. Our Jason Carroll shows us the difficult conditions there coming up.
Eleven minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Thirteen and a half minutes after the hour now, and a quick check of what's new this morning.
The donations for relief efforts in Haiti are still pouring in. A newspaper that covers nonprofit groups says American charities have raised more than $220 million so far. More U.S. troops are now on the ground guarding convoys and distributing food and water. The Pentagon also sending in more ships including one with cranes to help clear debris and rubble and help get the port open. The Navy's medical ship, the USNS Comfort, is scheduled to arrive later this morning. And how great is the need for that ship.
And choppers have already flown the first patients to the ship. They're being treated en route to Haiti and miraculously rescue teams are still pulling survivors from the rubble, including a 69-year-old woman and a 15-day-old baby.
CHETRY: Just amazing, amazing stories. You know, while the relief is finally pouring in getting to the people in Haiti, there are still entire communities and villages on the outskirts of the capital that are desperate for help. And our Jason Carroll visited one of those remote neighborhoods. We're back to him live in Port-au-Prince this morning.
We talked a lot about the need in Port-au-Prince. What about these remote, outlying villages, Jason?
CARROLL: Right. They're really the hillside communities, Kiran, and we had heard so much about them when we were here from the locals who were telling us about them. We would pass them on our way to stories. And so what we decided to do was to get a guide, go into one of these hillside communities and to find out what they were dealing with.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): We found Jude Petit-Homme and his four-year-old sister, Soraya (ph) in one of Port-au-Prince's poorest and most remote neighborhoods, la vallee de Bourdon.
CARROLL (on camera): What happened to her arm here? Did she break her arm?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING HAITIAN)? JUDE PETIT-HOMME, HAITI QUAKE SURVIVOR: Oui. Yes.
CARROLL: Yes. She broke her arm.
CARROLL (voice-over): After days of waiting, Petit-Homme feared hope was not coming for his sister because he knows not many would know how to find where they lived.
CARROLL (on camera): And you lived way up there?
PETIT-HOMME: Yes.
CARROLL: And so it took you one hour to - to walk down here...
PETIT-HOMME: Yes.
CARROLL: ... to get help for your little sister?
PETIT-HOMME: Yes.
CARROLL (voice-over): Some 6,000 people live in le vallee de Bourdon, and help for them still has not arrived. And there are at least 30 other hillside communities just like it around Port-au-Prince, where the worry is people there, too, are still waiting.
CARROLL (on camera): These steep, narrow pathways are the only way in and out of these kinds of communities here. The homes are built right on top of each other. There are no addresses, so you can imagine, it's very difficult to keep track of who survived and who perished in the earthquake.
CARROLL (voice-over): The path leading in is at times blocked with debris, a maze of homes on either side, most destroyed or badly damaged. Along the way, Thomas Brutus saying, with the assistance of our translator, they need help removing bodies.
THOMAS BRUTUS, HAITI QUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): He would like to take them out. One house has three, another one has nine.
CARROLL: He leads us to one home where the smell was nearly unbearable.
CARROLL (on camera): Does anyone know who the deceased are in here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING HAITIAN)?
CARROLL (voice-over): They tell me a mother and son are buried in the rubble.
The area's section chief, similar to a city councilman, uses a bull horn to get information out. He knows there's one thing standing in the way of getting help.
ROMELUS PIERRE RONAL, CITY COUNCIL: Accessibility.
CARROLL (on camera): Accessibility? RONAL: Yes.
CARROLL: They can't get down here.
RONAL: They can't get down here. Yes.
CARROLL: Yes.
CARROLL (voice-over): Four-year-old Soraya (ph) is one of the lucky ones. She has an older brother strong enough to get her help. The worry is for the others, still suffering in the city's hillsides.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Kiran, the problem with these hillside communities is that they're so densely populated and they're so confusing once you get down in there, even some of the locals have a tough time navigating their way through there.
So help for them, it - it's probably still going to be a while before they're able to receive it - Kiran.
CHETRY: Jason, also, we're just looking at the USGS, the US Geological Survey website. They are charactering this as a 6.0 magnitude quake, which, I mean, as we know, the original quake was 7.0. That's quite a big aftershock.
Do you know of any damage, any disruption to some of those many sites around the county where rescue workers are still sifting through the rubble, trying to find survivors?
CARROLL: Well, it's worrisome. It's very worrisome. And - and we were here obviously, when it happened and it definitely felt strong. And - and as we have been through many different - some many different neighborhoods throughout the city where many of the homes are - that are badly damaged are, you know, are barely standing at this point, it's worrisome because it makes you wonder what has now happened to many of those structures that were just barely hanging on at this point.
And so, in terms of damage, can't tell at this point, because, obviously, we're here and not out there. But it was very strong. The people behind me were sleeping outside in these tent cities, and that's part of the reason why they've been sleeping outside, obviously. Some of them don't have homes. Some of those who do have homes are too afraid to sleep in them overnight. You could hear the audible screams from, you know, folks out here, when - when the earth started to move again.
It started out small, Kiran. It started out just like one of the other many - the other tremors that we felt since being here, and then it got very strong. And we all sort of looked around and waited for it to stop, as the - the building started, you know - swayed. But in terms of damage, it's just - it's just hard to tell at this point.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Just an update, USGS website saying that the 6.0 is the preliminary magnitude and they look to have an update expected within 15 minutes. So we'll keep asking you and fill our viewers in as well on what's going on with that aftershock.
Jason Carroll for us in Port-au-Prince. Thanks.
We're going to have much more coming up. Nineteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-two minutes after the hour.
Let's take a quick update on that aftershock, almost an earthquake in and of itself, in Haiti just a few minutes ago. Magnitude 6.1 now is the revision. Looks like it was about 25 to 30 miles west of Port-au- Prince, along the same fault line that last Tuesday's earthquake occurred. So...
CHETRY: Yes, and we're...
ROBERTS: ... some pretty nervous folks there.
CHETRY: Absolutely. We heard from our Jason Carroll. Sanjay Gupta also e-mailed to say it felt like a wave went through the buildings, the strongest that he's felt so far, as he's been there as well.
So some frayed nerves, obviously, because of what happened and a lot of concerns about these aftershocks. This was a pretty big one.
ROBERTS: Yes. Yes, definitely the strongest since the earthquake a week ago.
Christine Romans here, by the way, "Minding Your Business" this morning. How are you?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm fine, thank you. J
Just a quick update for you on FHA-backed loans. These have been incredibly popular over the past year, since the mortgage really began.
It's going to be harder for you to get a mortgage backed by the - by the FHA, and Uncle Sam-backed mortgage. Just a couple of things, they're going to raise the amount of cash you're going to need upfront to pay more insurance. You're going to maybe have to pay more if you have less than a 580 credit score.
Look, these are loans that allow you to pay 3.5 percent for a down payment. They're backed by the government. They're not given by the government, but they're backed by the government so that if you go into a default, the - you know, the government backs the mortgage lender. They've been incredibly popular. They're going to make it a little more difficult now.
CHETRY: And - and concerns over foreclosures, right? I mean, one of the big reasons why...
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: ... they want to make sure that if you're going to buy a home, you can afford it.
ROMANS: That's absolutely right. They have to protect the tax payer. They also have to protect the people who are underserved and might have a harder time getting a loan. The default rate, I mean, of these loans, is higher than - than average. It's going up and that's a little bit worrisome.
So it's going to be harder for you to get an FHA-backed loan. They've been incredibly - incredibly popular. I wanted to give you an update on that.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
One other point about the - the aftershock that was just felt, a depth - a preliminary depth of about 13.5 miles, which would make it more than twice as deep as last Tuesday, so a little bit more of a buffer there, but certainly still a significant event there in Haiti .
Coming up next, a year ago he swept into office on a wave of popularity, but now the president's future looks cloudy. So where is the love?
Carol Costello reports, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ROBERTS: And the breaking news that we're following this morning, a major aftershock to last Tuesday's earthquake. It appears to be along the same fault line, deeper than last Tuesday's by about twice - a little more than twice, the magnitude 6.1 according to the US Geological Survey.
Our Elizabeth Cohen at an orphanage. She's near the airport in Port- au-Prince. Elizabeth, what did it feel like where you were and what were the effects, if any?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my goodness, it felt like a ship rocking, John. That's the only thing I can say, like a ship sort of rocking back and forth.
And the patients in the hospital that I'm at reacted immediately. They all put their hands up in the air and said something in creole, and I asked one of the nurses here at the University of Miami to translate, and she said they're asking Jesus for forgiveness and they're asking Jesus to protect them. And, well, all I can say is, I guess it worked because it stopped as soon as they - as soon as they made their pleas - John.
ROBERTS: Was - was there any damage to any of the structures that... COHEN: No.
ROBERTS: ... either you're or neighboring structures?
COHEN: Not that I could tell. I mean, it appears that there's no damage, from what I could tell.
ROBERTS: OK. But, certainly, a lot of those buildings that were tumbled down are very fragile and the rescue workers still working on top of them, and, you know, with the - when the ground shifts like that, you can definitely run into problems.
How - how are things at the orphanage where you are?
COHEN: I'm at a hospital, and things are - things are getting better than they were before. They finished doing all the amputations they needed to do, so some people have died from (ph) gangrene, and now they've put a stop to that. And they're hoping to move this hospital to better quarters.
But, you know, people are - people have - the patients obviously were terrified by that aftershock, and hopefully will get calmer and will be calmer as they move into a new hospital.
ROBERTS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning, monitoring the situation there. Again, a magnitude 6.1 shaker this morning, an aftershock because it's along the same fault line, but certainly, to folks there, it felt like a whole new earthquake.
CHETRY: Yes, absolutely. As you pointed out, the depth was twice as much as the one that happened a week ago, so that's the good news, because...
ROBERTS: A little - a little bit more of a buffer, but still fairly shallow compared to many.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead - actually right now, we're going to show you something that you will only see on AMERICAN MORNING.
It was a year ago that love was in the air. America seemed to come together behind the nation's first African-American president.
ROBETRS: Anything seemed possible, but what a difference 365 days could make.
Carol Costello this morning with an "AM Original".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2009.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
COSTELLO: The hearts of millions of Americans were ready to burst...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SINGING).
COSTELLO: .... with a Woodstock kind of love.
COSTELLO (on camera): You cannot believe...
COSTELLO (voice-over): In 25 years of reporting, I've not experienced an event like it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love, the joy, their humor, the smile.
COSTELLO: Obama supporters nearly swooned over a First Couple that seemed so different.
Three hundred sixty five days later, that Woodstock kind of love went the way of the hippy's movement.
JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: We thought that we were at a new moment and go to a new place, but the level of resistance has been historical and ugly and very divisive.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW HOST: What is so strange about being honest and saying, "I want Barack Obama to fail"?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over: Drew Westen, a political psychologist and Obama supporter says from the get-go, some of the rhetoric did become poisonous. But instead of loudly fighting back, the president tried to bring Republicans into the fold, and it backfired.
DREW WESTEN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: You don't compromise with the people who completely disagree with everything you believe in. You clearly enunciate a vision and you say, this is my vision for America. And not, you know, my vision is, somewhere between what I believe and somewhere what people on the other side believe.
COSTELLO: Like on health care reform -- instead, of telling Americans exactly what he wanted in a health care bill, President Obama left it up to lawmakers. Republicans used the president's strategy to create fear and confusion among voters. It also fueled the tea party movement.
This continued divisiveness is clearly something the president regrets. In an interview with "People" magazine he says, "What I haven't been able to do is bring the country together in a way we had done in the inauguration. That's what's been lost this year -- that whole sense of changing how Washington works."
All is not lost. For some, there is still a sense change will come. Recent polls show overwhelming support for the president remains high among African-Americans, even though standing in the unemployment line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's helping. He's helping as much as he can. I don't know how much more he can do. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We gave Bush eight years, and look what it gave to us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like he's trying to help people who are out of jobs right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we're looking for miracles, and he's not a miracle worker.
COSTELLO: Even the president himself admitted that exactly a year ago today.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America, they will be met.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And they'll say the problem with that, of course, is that many Americans don't believe that. But, keep in mind, it is only year one and other presidents have suffered through their first year, like President Ronald Reagan. You know, he first took office at a terrible time -- when the -- when the economy was in a terrible shambles. And look at President Reagan's place in history -- he's become one of the best.
So, year two begins. We'll see what happens -- John, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: There you go. Former President Clinton also had a tough first year, you remember that whole thing. So, there you go.
All right. Carol Costello for us this morning -- thanks.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: To read more on how people are grading the president, go to Carol's piece on our blog, CNN.com/amFIX and give your grade, too.
We should point out, too, there's been some revisions to the estimates of the earthquake position, magnitude and depth.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Initially, it was thought that it was just off of the southeastern tip of Gonaives, which is the island just off the coast of Port-au-Prince, and that it was 13 1/2 miles deep. They've now shifted that. They say it was only 6.2 miles deep, and they've moved the location of the epicenter further south, along the peninsula south of Port-au-Prince. So, this was another shallow quake, just like last Tuesday's.
CHETRY: Right. And they upped slightly the magnitude, 6.1 now. And we're, of course, following the latest. All our crews felt it. At this point, they're unable to assess any immediate damage -- as Elizabeth Cohen said, she didn't believe there was damage to her building. Jason says it's hard to tell. He's standing over an area where there's a lot of tent city -- you know, this makeshift tent city set up so people were already outside.
And we'll be following the latest on that.
Meanwhile, the other top stories this morning: The group Doctors Without Borders is coming down hard on the U.S. military. They're saying that -- they're criticizing the way it's running the airport in Haiti. They say that only one of their planes filled with vital medical supplies has made it in. They say they've been turned away three times since Sunday, despite assurances it could land.
So, actually, this one plane was turned away three different times. They have been able to land other flights in Haiti but they're saying that it's been made much more difficult than it needs to be because of the delays at the airport. The group is claiming that five quake victims died because those supplies were delayed.
Police and firefighters are going door to door in a rain-soaked Los Angeles neighborhood. They're urging hundreds of families to evacuate their homes ahead of the next storm. The third storm of three that's come in over the past week. And they're afraid that all of this recent rain could lead to mudslides.
There you see cars practically underwater in some of these shots. We're going to be checking in with our Rob Marciano in 15 minutes. He's going to give us an update on the extreme weather that's once again heading for southern California.
And the late Ted Kennedy's senate seat will soon be occupied by a Republican. Scott Brown pulling off an improbable a five-point upset in a special election in Massachusetts last night. The state's voters sending a message to Washington, and stalling health care reform on Capitol Hill -- John.
ROBERTS: And the major upset largely due to the growing power of the state's independent voters. Joining me now: three independent voters from Massachusetts, Jeremy Powers and Matt Coleman, who supported Republican Scott Brown; and Kerry Robert, who supported Democrat Martha Coakley.
Good morning to all of you.
Let's start with you, Jeremy, first of all, because you have voted Democratic in the past. You voted for Senator Kerry. You voted for Senator Kennedy in the last election. You were also a Democratic ward chairman in Springfield, Massachusetts. Yet last night and yesterday, you voted for Scott Brown. Why?
JEREMY POWERS, VOTED FOR SCOTT BROWN: Frankly, I didn't like the process of coronation that I felt was taking place by the Coakley campaign and by the Democrats.
Scott Brown worked hard, he deserved to win. He got out there. He campaigned aggressively and asked for votes.
Martha Coakley's campaign was largely invisible and that had a lot to do with my determination to vote for Senator-elect Brown.
ROBERTS: And, Matt, we were talking to you yesterday. Our Jim Acosta stopped by and said hello. What were your reasons for voting for Brown?
MATT COLEMAN, REGISTERED INDEPENDENT: Well, quite frankly, Martha Coakley hasn't been doing her job. You know, I mean, she has all this stuff on her plate. (INAUDIBLE) the e-mails from the Boston mayoral elections, two senators, two state senators that are indicted, the Senate president being indicted, and all they're -- all they're doing is just sitting around and she's doing nothing about it.
So, if she's not doing anything here, what's she going to do down there?
ROBERTS: And, Kerry, you stuck with Martha Coakley. But at some point, were you sort of going back and forth?
KERRY ROBERT, REGISTERED INDEPENDENT: Initially, when I first -- when Scott Brown started to get some momentum about a week -- two weeks ago, I started to -- people whose opinion I respected, I started to think, oh, geez they might be on to something. So I did a little bit of digging and it was important for me to separate the candidate from the campaign. And I think Scott Brown ran a good campaign, but in the end, I sided with Martha Coakley.
ROBERTS: Jeremy, was there a particular issue that you voted on? You know, Martha Coakley was saying that the future of health care in this country depends on her getting elected. President Obama came along on Sunday and made exactly the same plea. And yet, Brown is suggesting that things will be much different when it comes to health care reform.
Was there a particular issue for you in this election?
POWERS: Health care was certainly part of it. I didn't want to see a health care plan rammed through in just a "yes" vote rubber stamped by Coakley. I do want the legislature, the House and Senate, to really look at health care and see how it affects people. And I didn't want (AUDIO BREAK) for health care. I think, as a nation, we really need to look at exactly how much this is going to cost and we don't even know what the final bill is yet.
So, I wanted our senator to be somebody who would look at health care, look at the costs associated with health care, and how it would affect our future.
ROBERTS: You know, Matt, when we were talking to you yesterday, you suggested that there's a whole wave of anger out there. What is that driven by?
COLEMAN: I think it's more of the health care issues and the increased taxes that are going to be put upon us. The health care, it's -- when you add on 1,000 pages after the initial -- after the initial bill being drawn up, there's something rotten in Denmark, you know? And it's ridiculous. It's just absolutely absurd.
ROBERTS: And, Kerry, what -- and if this seat that was held by the Kennedy family since 1953 can switch and go into Democratic hands -- and Scott Brown was saying this wasn't the Kennedy seat. It didn't belong to any one person or one party. It was the people's seat. What do you think that means for the future of the Democratic Party in 2010?
ROBERT: It's an interesting question. I mean, I think people talk about the shift that's going to take place. And I think that -- I think that the Democrats really need to rethink how they're going to run campaigns and people who have been in their Senate seats for a while, I think, need to think about how they're going to do things in 2010.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, folks, thanks for joining us this morning with your perspective on the election. I really appreciate it.
POWERS: Thank you.
ROBERT: You're welcome.
COLEMAN: All right. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thirty-eight and a half minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It's now been more than a week since the earthquake devastated Haiti. And in the coastal town of Jacmel, the cathedral clock is still at 5:37 p.m. Shocked residents of the town in southern Haiti remained cut off from the world.
CHETRY: And some have resorted to chartering boats to ferry out the injured, but help is now on the way. And there is still hope, even amid all the deaths, the miracle of life as well.
Soledad O'Brien joins us from Port-au-Prince now with the story of a town that is yet to be told.
Good morning, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
You know, it was interesting. We started getting these e-mails, panicked e-mails out of Jacmel, with people saying, send supplies.
I'm hearing my friends who are in Jacmel, they can't get anything. They're getting no help. It's a smaller city than Port-au-Prince. And because of that, they felt they were really last on the list to start getting help. So, we went in. Eventually, there were some issues about whether or not there would be -- the roads were passable, how long would it take to get there. We were able to get in and what you saw in Jacmel was a little bit of the same confusion and chaos that we've seen in Port-au- Prince.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right here. Right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to go -- we have to go to the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is she alive? Is she OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, she's OK. She's all right.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): On the chaotic streets of Jacmel, a baby is rescued in the rubble. She was found by a local firefighter and raced to Colombian rescue workers. No one knows if she was born before or after the earthquake. Did her mother abandon her? Or is her mother dead?
It's just another confounding moment in the ruins of Jacmel, an isolated town not far from the epicenter of the quake. Life has been upended. Local officials estimate as much as 10 percent of the population may have died. The survivors were digging themselves out alone for days until help began to trickle in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought as much light engineering equipment as we could, I'm talking shovels, picks, axes, chainsaws, the "jaws of life" -- just any material that can be, you know, carried portably.
O'BRIEN: Now, there are guards from Sri Lanka, light engineers from Halifax (ph) and rescue workers from Colombia. Cuban doctor, Sylvia Del Toro (ph), was already here with her colleagues working with Haitian doctors at the hospital. Now, they have 70 patients a day beneath tents.
This 3-year-old boy is recovering from head injuries and fractured limbs.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
O'BRIEN (on camera): He's doing better. Thank God.
(voice-over): But this 4-year-old drifts in and out of consciousness, and is likely to die. The child suffered massive neurological damage.
(on camera): There's always hope.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
O'BRIEN: "Where there's life, there is hope," she says. Dr. Del Toro says they need orthopedists and anesthesiologists, or people who survived the earthquake will die from their injuries.
Jacmel is Haiti's cultural capital, a seaside town of 40,000 that draws artists, musicians and film students -- dozens from institute scene who took to the streets to record the catastrophe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jacmel wasn't receiving any help and they got to work immediately, videotaping stories and sending them out over the Internet, and help is finally coming.
O'BRIEN: Keeping up the pressure on international relief workers who are arriving like a small cavalry. Massive boulders made the roads hard to pass so the Canadians came by sea and the Americans are arriving by air.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (on-camera): We saw the Marines in the area closed by handing out some kinds of supplies and water, and marine, but you know, you heard about this obviously, this aftershock we had, and people were sprinting out of this hotel. It looks like, according to the US Geological survey, that was located closer to Jacmel, and it will be interesting to see what kind of damage they have suffered there and how that's going to complicate all those recovery efforts and rebuilding efforts and cleaning up efforts that we've seen yesterday. Back to you guys.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly, the last thing they needed there in Haiti is yet another earthquake. Thanks, Soledad. That was a great reporting from Jacmel. Glad we got a chance to look at that.
Meanwhile, it's 45 minutes past the hour right now, and severe weather hammering the West Coast. We're going to be checking in with Rob Marciano. He is also going to be updating us on this aftershock, this 6.1 magnitude quake that hit right along the same fault line in Haiti.
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JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Forty-eight and a half minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano is monitoring this latest aftershock, I guess you could call it; although, it felt like an earthquake to most people. He's at the Weather Center in Atlanta. Rob, I guess a little bit of information they adjusted depth, magnitude, and location, but they seem to pretty much have it nailed down now?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they do, and you know, what was felt is was felt, and it's the strongest aftershock they've had, the one before this was 5.9, so this coming a week after the actual quake itself. Here's the red spot. The red spot right here, that's where the aftershock, that's the most recent quake that we've seen, well, over 40 aftershocks since the beginning of this, but it's been over two days since we felt anything, and again, this one at 6.1.
Remember the original one was at 7.0. Keep in mind the amount, how strong these things are is exponential, so these numbers may not seem like a big difference, but to go from a 6.1 to a 7.0 makes the 7.0 twenty-two times stronger than the 6.1, so we obviously wouldn't see the amount of damage that we saw last week.
Also of note that is interesting is yesterday we had a 5.8 in the Cayman Islands. This one is a completely different fault, but it's along the same plate boundary. Sometimes, you get what's called trigger earthquakes, meaning if you release the energy in one spot, meaning Haiti, you build up energy in another spot and that may have cut it over the edge here in Cayman. Not a big deal as far as damage over there in Grand Cayman. Building codes are much stronger. Again, a 5.8, much, much less in intensity than a 7.0.
All right. Let's talk weather. Severe weather expected across the midsection of the country, and again, a big-time rainmaker coming in to the West Coast. This is going to be the third of three and the strongest one. What came through L.A. yesterday is now diving through the desert southwest. Over five inches of rain in some spots loosening some of the soil there, and even a report of a tornado along Newport Beach there, three reports actually and some damage done.
Now, already we're starting to see the third one come in with rainfall moving into parts of San Francisco. This will be driving down to the south and filling in across Los Angeles, so we'll probably see four, five, in some cases, six inches of rain on top of what we've already seen, and this may well be enough to release some of the ground there, especially along the burn end areas.
They're ordering mandatory evacuations today of at least 600 residents beginning at 9:00 a.m. along the Big Tujunga Canyon, that is where most of the station fire burned of the hillside there, so tense, tense times there in Southern California, John, as this next storm comes in throughout the day today and through tonight, not only with wind but heavy mountain snow and also some wind, and as we saw yesterday, the wind is doing some damage. Back to you guys in New York.
CHETRY: Rob, I just want to ask you a real quick back to the aftershock in Haiti, do you know, or is there any way they can tell if they can expect more on some of our cruise? I mean, obviously there's a lot of fear and uncertainty. They went running from the hotel and they're wondering can they expect more?
MARCIANO: It's tough to predict. Aftershocks can go on for months after the original quake. The fact that there wasn't one for over two days probably means that the pressure was building and may be the reason that this one was so strong, so if there's any consolation, because this aftershock was this strong, my guess is the aftershocks, if they do come over the next few days would be much weaker, more along the 4.0 to 5.0 range like we've seen in the past week.
CHETRY: All right. Rob Marciano for us. Thanks so much.
Gas prices still coming down from a 15-month high, triple this since the national average for regular gasoline is down 3/10 of a cent to about $2.74 a gallon. That's six days in a row that prices have dropped.
ROBERTS: Fifty-minutes after the hour. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. You know, Conan O'Brien is still hammering away at NBC, and his final few days on the air as the tonight show host just getting his punches in.
ROBERTS: While he can, yes. The NBC debacle has been playing out nightly, and it's made for some must-see TV in late night. Here's Jeanne Moos with that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is how to put your feet up on a desk when you're about to leave that desk behind. Oh, sure, Conan fans protested.
And their protest against NBC ended up on NBC's website. Fans went nuts when Conan, himself, jogged by.
All they were saying is --
PEOPLE (singing): Give him a chance.
MOOS: But at least gave us the chance to saver a late night smackdown.
With other comedians imitating Leno, Jimmy Kimmel did his whole show impersonating Leno and dissed him on Jay's own show.
UNKNOWN MALE: Never order anything off the TV.
UNKNOWN MALE: Like NBC ordered your show off the TV?
UNKNOWN MALE: Yes, no, no, no.
(LAUGHING)
MOOS: Letterman took some of the sharpest jobs, even showed Leno taking over a dead talk show host show.
UNKNOWN MALE: In the television industry, there are two types of talk show hosts, Jay Leno and those who have been victimized by Jay Leno.
JAY LENO, "THE JAY LENO SHOW": Even Dave Letterman taking shots at me which is at right. He's usually just taking shots at interns. I couldn't believe.
MOOS: The deadliest shots were aimed at NBC universal's president, Jeff Zucker.
UNKNOWN MALE: He's like the Cheney of television. He used to shooting shows in the face.
MOOS: Zucker was taken aback by the blow back.
JEFF ZUCKER, PRESIDENT, NBC UNIVERSAL: People delivering death threats over a program moving back a half hour. MOOS (on-camera): As if the late-night drama wasn't animated enough --
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Zucker tried to get O'Brien to fall in line by threatening to keep him off the air.
MOOS: A Taiwanese tabloid's website turned it into an animation with Leno as a tubby superman and Conan as the hulk.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: He pretty much said, hell no, I won't go. NBC management was getting insulted night after night on their own network.
MOOS: Five years ago, Conan was thrilled to get The Tonight Show.
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN": I gave my heartfelt thanks to everybody at NBC, particularly to Jay Leno.
MOOS (on-camera): But that was then, this is now.
O'BRIEN: Just coming to work in the morning now has gotten really uncomfortable.
MOOS (voice-over): In the end, Jay made nice.
LENO: Through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman. He's a good guy.
MOOS: Although I feel bad for talk show hosts who seem to have nine lives?
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And there you have it. All right. Our top stories are coming up 90 seconds away. It's 50 minutes after the hour.
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