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American Morning

Haiti's Main Pier Now Partially Open; Haiti Moving Forward After the Quake; Rock Star Welcome for Scott Brown on Capitol Hill; Stocks Sink on Obama's Bank Plan; Fed Up with the Fighting

Aired January 22, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on the Most News in the Morning on this January the 22nd. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We've got several big stories we're breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.

First, a very welcome sight at the main harbor in Haiti. Cranes. The pier has been partially repaired and it's open this morning. That means supplies for earthquake victims can now arrive by sea. Chris Lawrence is live in Port-au-Prince on a development that could save a lot of ill survivors.

ROBERTS: Hundreds of families in Southern California still facing the threat of mudslides sweeping away their homes. The fourth storm to hit the Los Angeles area this week, leaving freeways under water and a lot of people without power. There's a state of emergency in five counties and in the next five hours it could prove to be critical.

CHETRY: And the man from Massachusetts who's changing the political landscape gets a hero's welcome in Washington from Republicans, but will he be the Democrats' worst enemy? Our cameras are there as Senator-elect Scott Brown makes his D.C. debut.

ROBERTS: The earth is shaking again in Haiti, and hundreds of survivors, many of them orphans are near death this morning. Doctors unable to get their hands on basic medical supplies that could save them. Here's the latest for you this Friday morning.

Another aftershock rattling Port-au-Prince overnight. No reports of injuries, no significant damage, just a lot of rattled nerves. An ambitious task set to begin in about a week, and it's a logistical nightmare, the relocation of 400,000 homeless Haitians to newly-built settlements on the outskirts of the capital.

And stunning new images this morning showing the earthquake's sheer force. Have a look at this. Time-lapsed photos of the government's tax office the moment that it came tumbling down.

CHETRY: And there's also a critical development this morning at the main harbor in Port-au-Prince, and it's inspiring so much needed hope. The pier has been repaired. Now it's far from fully functional, but life-saving food and medical supplies can now be unloaded by sea.

Chris Lawrence is live in Port-au-Prince right now. And, Chris, as we've been talking about over the past several days, the airport so backed up. And this really is a wonderful development for help and aid reaching the sick and dying faster.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, think about it, Kiran. I mean, Haiti, we're on an island. We're surrounded by water, and yet all of the aid up until now has been coming by air or by ground. So this could be a potentially huge development in terms of getting out some of those medical supplies you just talked about to the folks who really need it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Like thousands of others over the past week, the children at Heart for Haiti charity had little food, and its medical staff, no supplies.

DR. SABINE CELIE, HEART FOR HAITI VOLUNTEER: Oh, there was almost nothing here. We had to treat people with what we have.

LAWRENCE: But now, U.S. military dive teams have reopened part of Haiti's main port. Ships held back at sea for a week are now docking. And more importantly, unloading life saving food, water and medical supplies.

LT. CMDR. MARK GIBBS, U.S. COAST GUARD: The very first vessel we had in here was the "Crimson Glory," completely loaded, 124 containers.

LAWRENCE: Lieutenant Commander Mark Gibbs says it took all day to unload a ship they normally finished in six hours. That's because only the left side of the pier is strong enough to support weight.

GIBBS: I'm incredibly sensitive to it because if we lose this pier, that's it. We can't bring anything else in here.

LAWRENCE: We saw the port 40 hours after the earthquake when it was completely shut down.

(on camera): The earthquake has buckled the road almost as tall as I am. There's no way you're going to get a truck through there. That was then, this is now. It's not pretty, but the concrete pile's been knocked down and enough gravel put in. They get trucks rolling through here again.

(voice-over): But we wanted to make sure supplies aren't just sitting here, like they did at the airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is all milk and water.

LAWRENCE: We watched Robert Devries (ph) load up with food and medical supplies right from the dock ship and we followed him back to his Heart for Haiti charity.

This mother says her child is running a high fever. That man has an infected head wound, untreatable without the medicine Devries (ph) and his team just picked up at the pier.

CELIE: Especially antibiotics, everything to keep cleaning wounds, gauzes and things like that.

LAWRENCE: It's a pattern that needs to be repeated, from ship to shore to survivors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: And later today, the military expects some underwater construction teams to start arriving. Their job is going to be to try to actually repair the pier so that you can get more than one truck on there at a time, really speed up the pace at which that aid can get pushed out to families out here in Port-au-Prince -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, certainly -- yes, certainly a welcome sign of progress. Chris Lawrence for us this morning, thanks.

ROBERTS: There is death and destruction everywhere in Haiti but amid all the chaos there are signs, however small, that life is beginning to return to normal in Port-au-Prince. A difficult task, as you can imagine.

Our Jason Carroll is following that for us, and he joins us live from the Haitian capital.

Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. You know, the Haitian people are a resilient bunch of people, and what we've seen are people taking small steps to try to get back on their feet. But as you can imagine, each step is a difficult one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Tense moments at a Unibank just outside the city of Carrefour, people who lined up and waited for hours to receive wire transfers for the first time since the earthquake pushed back by armed guards.

(on camera): We don't want to ask Napoleon to lose her spot in line, so we're just going to do our interview with her here because she's been waiting here since 7:00 a.m. for this bank to open. So I asked her, tell me what it's been like for you. This has been the first time you've been able to get access and get in here and get money, yes?

(voice-over): She says she's hopeless because she has nothing at home. No money and nothing to eat. Later she gets out of line and gives up.

Here at Unibank, just one sign of how some are trying to get Port-au-Prince back on its feet. The trouble there, showing just how difficult it's going to be to do that.

ANDERSON BELLEGARDE, WAITING TO RECEIVE WIRED MONEY: It is hard for me to get in, and it's crazy out here. The line is very -- there's a lot of people here, and things are not in order.

CARROLL: Larger established stores hiring private security guards to watch properties damaged in the quake, but most business taking place here is happening on a smaller level, out on the streets.

(on camera): As you can see here, this building has been destroyed, like so many here in Port-au-Prince. But right next to it they've set up a makeshift market. And we're seeing markets like this pop up all over the city, where people are coming out, starting to sell basic goods like vegetables, bread and sugar cane.

(voice-over): The problem? Some goods being sold are being done at inflated post-earthquake prices. That goes for gas too. It has tripled in price, $26 a gallon. But a haircut at this barbershop we found, still only $2. Now if the owner could only find customers with money to pay and gas to run his generator.

(on camera): Does it make you feel better opening up your door?

FRITZNEL VERMILUS, BARBER (through translator): Yes, because this is the only way we can preoccupy to a regular life, and without it, we cannot do anything more.

CARROLL (voice-over): The streets, a contrast of commerce. Someone gets a shoe shine. These men earning more money than ever trying to keep up demand for coffins.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And business leaders tell us that the banks should be reopening sometime tomorrow, providing full services, if they can reopen. So you can imagine, John, that's going to do a lot to help the people here who need money to buy food, to buy goods. Also going to help businesses who say at this point they have no choice but to reopen and try and get back on their feet -- John.

ROBERTS: Anything to try to return even a shred of normalcy I'm sure is very greatly appreciated there. Jason Carroll in Port-au- Prince this morning. Jason, thanks.

And an important programming note, tonight at 8:00 Eastern, our Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta report live from Haiti, as musician Wyclef Jean and actor George Clooney host "Hope for Haiti Now." The concert and telethon also features Bono, Sting, Shakira, Keith Urban, John Legend and lots of others. The global telethon airs right here on CNN tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

CHETRY: Looking forward to that. It will be great.

Well, meanwhile, we're going to check on some of the other stories new this morning at seven minutes past the hour. A terror alert in India. Aviation officials there issuing a warning for the country's airports after intelligence agencies uncovered reports that Al Qaeda militants were plotting to hijack a plane. According to Indian media, this plot targeted an Air India or Indian Airlines flight that was destined for a neighboring South Asian country.

ROBERTS: Is President Obama's top domestic priority officially dead? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ruling out a last ditch option to pass the Democrats health care reform plan. Pelosi says she just doesn't have enough votes to get a Senate passed bill through the House.

Democratic plans were derailed by the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the Senate. Brown made his Capitol Hill debut yesterday. We've got more on that from our Dana Bash just ahead.

CHETRY: And the worst of the storms may have passed but the next few days could bring even more misery to Southern California. Five counties are now in a state of emergency and hundreds of homes are threatened by mudslides. Freeways are flooded and impassable in some places after four storms in just a week. And this is a forecast that no one wanted to hear, more thunderstorms forming in the Pacific right now.

ROBERTS: Our Rob Marciano is in California this morning. We'll be checking in with him in our next half hour. But first, let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines.

Reynolds Wolf is in the weather center tracking all of the extreme weather. How hard is California going to get hit today?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It looks like the avalanche is going to continue for quite sometime in terms of the rain that continues to march in from the coast. And it looks like we're going to see some rain in the valleys, also right along the coast up on the hills, possibly some heavy snow falling in the mountains. Several feet of snow possible.

Let's go right into the weather map and show you what's happening. Again, the big story out to the west. And usually this time of year we do have the rain in California. But seeing the onslaught of everything Mother Nature has been dishing out over the last couple of days has just been unreal.

You see Los Angeles, Long Beach right there in the center of the screen. All the blue you see is some light precipitation up in the hills. You see some pink, that's the frozen precip, and then the green is the heavy rainfall that continues to march in and that will expect to stay pretty much the trend as we ease into the weekend.

Now very quickly, some of the rainfall totals that we have for you, John and Kiran, take a look at this. We've got about over a foot of rainfall in Los Gatos and Barlett Springs and Newhall in Los Angeles. Look at that going up to about 3.9 inches of rainfall in L.A. More on the ways when we make our way into the weekend.

And very quickly as we round things out, we can also anticipate some scattered showers along much of the East Coast, snow in the Rockies. And in terms of your delays, we're going to have some of those too.

In fact it looks like in D.C. all your airports, L.A., San Francisco, no surprise there, about an hour to 30 minutes or so. And then Chicago, Minneapolis and Atlanta, we're going to have some issues there. About 15 to 30 minutes in terms of your delays.

So we're going to have more coming up. Of course, there are live reports from Rob Marciano who's on scene watching the very latest. But certainly a tumultuous time in California to say the very least, rough times in the Golden State.

ROBERTS: And how ironic too, they're getting feet of snow in the Sierra there in California and just a little bit further north in Vancouver where the Olympics will start in a couple of weeks. They're having to import snow because it's all being washed off the mountains by the rain.

WOLF: I know. It's feast or famine. It truly is.

ROBERTS: Yes.

WOLF: And to tell you the truth, given that snow factors really crucial this time of year. This is the time of year that California gets all their precipitation because within a month or two, it just kind of stops and you won't get anything until about next year the same time.

CHETRY: Right.

WOLF: It's a very weird situation.

CHETRY: All right. Reynolds Wolf for us tracking it all, thanks.

WOLF: You bet guys.

CHETRY: Coming up on the Most News in the Morning, Washington's newest golden boy makes the rounds. Our Dana Bash on Scott Brown, the new senator from Massachusetts. Warm reception as he makes his way to D.C.

Eleven minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We now know why a flight from New York to Kentucky was diverted shortly after it went off the air yesterday. Police say that a 17-year-old Orthodox Jewish teenager caused a scare when he took out boxes of Holy Scriptures and began to pray. Passengers were panicked, because during the ritual, one box is strapped to the arm and another box was placed on the head. The US Airways Express flight landed in Philadelphia as they determined then that there was no threat. ROBERTS: Now you can sit in the cockpit and say "brace for impact," most stash (ph) not included. The plane that Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger safely landed in the Hudson River a year ago is up for auction listed as is, where is.

Of course, the engines don't work. The birds took those out. One was at the bottom of the Hudson River and the fact they're not even attached to the plane. You'll have to pick up the shell of the Airbus A320 at a junkyard in Kearny, New Jersey. The auction is on until the end of March. It's up in the public zone. Anybody who wants to own a little piece of aviation history, there you go.

CHETRY: How about that one?

All right. Well, Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown is getting a feel for Capitol Hill. He got a rock star welcome yesterday from the press and fellow colleagues. And now three days after capturing the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, the political world wants to know will he sink the Obama administration's goals. Here's senior correspondent, congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, Scott Brown was here on Capitol Hill for only half a day making courtesy calls to his future colleagues. But his mere presence here and all of the hubbub that surrounded it is dramatic proof that one Senate race and one man changed things for the president and his fellow Democrats here overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): Mr. Brown came to Washington.

SENATOR-ELECT SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: Hi, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you?

BASH: And arrived to a frenzy, a crush of cameras at meeting...

BROWN: Hey, guys.

BASH: ... after meeting.

BROWN: Whoa, whoa! Guys, I'm not going anywhere. Not going anywhere. (INAUDIBLE) everyone settled in.

BASH: Settled? Scott Brown knows the Capitol hasn't been settled since his election shook Democrats to their core, but they went out of their way to be warm and welcoming, from Ted Kennedy's son, Patrick, to the senior Massachusetts senator.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: And Ted Kennedy wrote me. He said, "As Humphrey Bogart would have said, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship." I look forward to working with Scott.

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: You're going to enter the Senate at a time when the country's in deep trouble, as you know. That was a lot of what your campaign was about.

BASH: Questions like this didn't get answers.

BASH (on camera): Senator Reid, how much has Senator-elect Brown blown your agenda?

REID: Thank you.

BASH (voice-over): Brown was happy to take questions, making his rounds in and outside the capital, but offered mostly vague answers, like on health care.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are thinking about a smaller, scaled- back health care bill. Would you be willing to look at that?

BROWN: Well, I look at every bill, and I plan to look at every bill and make a -- a rational decision.

BASH: He stuck to the script that brought him here.

BROWN: People want good government. They want transparency, they want us here. You know, now that I'm -- I'll be here soon -- they want us to solve problems.

BASH: And try to hold on to his man of the people image, making a point of stopping to talk to Senate staff and security...

BROWN: Hi! How are you guys?

BASH: ... taking a photo with students he bumped into.

The president's former rival could hardly contain his glee.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Senator Brown represents, I think, the dreams and the hopes and the frustrations that Americans feel today.

BASH: But the understatement of the day goes to the rarely excitable Republican leader.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), SENATE LEADER: We are really, really happy to have him here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: The Senate's balance of power will shift and Republicans will have a lot more leverage as soon as Brown takes his seat. He told us he expects to be sworn in as soon as next week -- John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: Dana Bash for us this morning. Dana, thanks.

Still ahead this morning, President Obama proposes new rules for the banking industry, and the stock market responds. Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour. We're "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Toyota recalling 2.3 million vehicles to fix sticking accelerator pedals. Among the affected models, the Avalon, the Camry and the Tundra. This is in addition to the 4.2 million Toyotas recently recalled to correct the problem in which the pedals could become stuck under a loose floor mat, causing a sudden and impossible to correct acceleration.

CHETRY: Well, it's a wrap for Conan O'Brien. "The Tonight Show" host will make his final appearance on NBC tonight. The network and the comedian inking a deal to pay O'Brien more than $32 million, an additional $12 million to his staff. It also allows O'Brien to pursue other opportunities starting in September, and Jay Leno will return as the host of "The Tonight Show" March 1st.

ROBERTS: And if you were anywhere near Wall Street yesterday you heard this sound -- as the -- the DOW tumbled more than 200 points.

Christine Romans is here this morning. They didn't like what the president had to say yesterday.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, they didn't. The president stood up and said if these guys want a fight, it's a fight I want to have, and these guys are the banks, and he came out very strong with a couple of new proposals to rein in the big banks -- their trading, their complexity, and immediately the stock market tanked.

The DOW down 2 percent. It came off its worst levels of the day, interestingly enough, when Congressman Barney Frank came out and said it will take three to five years to actually enact any of this, and the stock market came up a little bit.

But the -- the feeling among investors is that the president is at war with the big banks, at war with Wall Street, and that means he's at war with business, and you need business to create jobs. They see a big disconnect between going after the banks and then today the president will go to Ohio and talk about creating jobs. The view on Wall Street is these are the same things, and the president has missed this point.

Listen to what the president says will be different for the banks if he gets his way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Banks will no longer be allowed to own investor or sponsor hedge funds, private equity funds or proprietary trading operations for their own profit, unrelated to serving their customers.

If financial firms want to trade for profit, that's something they're free to do. Indeed, doing so responsibly is a good thing for markets and the economy. But these firms should not be allowed to run these hedge funds and private equities -- funds while running a bank backed by the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That big, tall guy behind him is Paul Volcker who used to run the Fed many years ago. This -- he's calling -- the president is calling this the Volcker Reel (ph). Paul Volcker has been pushing this for almost a year now, and some thought he had been sidelined by other advisers. It looked on the outside, at least, like Volcker had sort of -- his idea had been sidelined, but now the president is embracing it.

The president's saying you can't rely on American -- the American government to insure your client deposits when you're taking these big risks, but people in Wall Streets is -- well, how would that -- would help AIG or Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns?

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: I mean -- and this is something that a lot of people have been saying need -- needs to happen. I mean, this is why the financial crisis happened in the first place.

ROMANS: Well, some would disagree. Larry Summers has pointed out in his piece last summer -- Larry Summers is also an adviser to the president. He said, well, this in particular would not have helped AIG, Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers. It would have made a difference for Bank of America or Citi.

So there's still a lot of nitpicking about what the president is doing here and how it would have helped, and some concern, even among reasonable, not pro-Wall Street people have some concern that -- that this feeling that there's a war on Wall Street might not be the best approach.

ROBERTS: All right. Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. Christine, thanks so much.

ROMANS: Sure.

CHETRY: Still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, Carol Costello with a new effort of bipartisanship in Washington. Can Republicans and Democrats work together on Capitol Hill without driving each other crazy? We'll have to see it to believe it.

Twenty-four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- six minutes after the hour, and your top stories just four minutes away now. But first, an "AM Original", something that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. There's a lot of anger on both the left and right, and Washington may be more divided than ever. Will the arrival of the first Republican senator from the State of Massachusetts in three decades help at all?

Our Carol Costello is live in Washington this morning. And it's gotten worse over the past year, but we saw Senator Brown making the rounds yesterday and he seemed to sort of be open to this idea of bipartisanship. So I wonder what's going to change?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did seem that way. Remember, one year and two days ago on Inauguration Day, President Obama urged lawmakers to put aside the petty grievances and false promises that have strangled our politics. Well, as we all know, that didn't exactly happen. But it just might now.

Some say that Republican win in Massachusetts wasn't a complete defeat for President Obama and the Democrats because it may stop what many Americans have grown tired of -- you know, all that pettiness and immaturity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): A victorious Republican in traditionally Blue Massachusetts. Yes, Scott Brown resonated by vowing to vote "no" on the current health care reform bills, but he also resonated for something else, he said.

As former McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace writes, "He allowed voters to like Obama."

BROWN: And I say, Mr. President, I know you like basketball, so tell you what. Why don't you pick your best player and I'll take Ayla and we'll take you on two on two.

COSTELLO: It may sound silly, but some in Washington say the idea of a politician suggesting he and his daughter take on the president in a bipartisan game of round ball is refreshing after a year of rancor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want you to die quickly if you get sick.

COSTELLO: For two long-time lawmakers, Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Tim Johnson, Brown's victory re-enforces what can be.

COSTELLO (on camera): So, a Republican and a Democrat sitting together -- like, close together. And you actually like each other.

REP. TIM JOHNSON (R), ILLINOIS: Dennis is -- is one of my good friends in the process. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dennis. We actually agree on some number of issues and we don't agree on others.

COSTELLO: How is that possible?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), OHIO: Well, you can't be trapped by labels.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Both men say some lawmakers have become so wrapped up in party labels, Washington is in a state of ideological warfare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rotten, stinking fish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's scandalous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terrorist.

COSTELLO: "Congressional Quarterly" says partisan voting in Congress is the worst it's been in 50 years.

KUCINICH: I'm a Democrat but I'm not here so that -- that the Democratic Party trumps everything in America. It -- it's got to be -- it's got to do what's right for America.

COSTELLO (on camera): And you, as a Republican, would say the same?

JOHNSON: The same. Precisely the same.

COSTELLO (voice-over): Both men say Senator-elect Brown's win in Massachusetts proves they're right. Brown, like Kucinich and Johnson, has an independent streak.

COSTELLO (on camera): What do you hope President Obama will say in his State of the Union?

JOHNSON: I hope he says that we -- we want to reach out to -- to all people in the process and come up with a product, not only in health care but on foreign policy and others that will work for America.

COSTELLO: And actually do it.

KUCINICH: Well, I hope -- I hope he smiles and says I hear you. I hear you loud and clear, and that we're going to direct our policies accordingly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So is it possible for civility at least to return to Washington?

Congressman Johnson hopes people in both parties seize the day. He says if they don't, we're doomed -- John.

ROBERTS: All right. Carol Costello this morning. Carol, thanks.

And are you fed up with the anger? Sound off in Carol's story at cnn.com/amfix this morning. CHETRY: All right. Well, it's half past the hour right now.

It means it's time for our top stories.

And there are three charity groups now calling for an immediate halt to adoptions in Haiti. Save the Children, World Vision, and a unit of the British Red Cross all say that tracking down relatives and reuniting them with these children needs to be the first priority. They say they believe that hasty adoptions will end up breaking up families in Haiti permanently.

In just 10 minutes, Anderson Cooper is going to be joining us from Port-au-Prince with a group of orphans so badly in need of medical help that there are concerns they may not last the day.

ROBERTS: A man accused of killing one soldier and wounding another outside of a military recruiting center in Arkansas wants to change his plea to guilty. Abdulhakim Muhammad's attorney says his client wrote a letter to the judge asking to be charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder. After the shooting, Muhammad called the act, quote, "retaliation for America's actions in the Middle East."

CHETRY: And a week of torrential rain in southern California leaving an apartment building in Pacifica literally teetering on the edge of a cliff. People in the sixth apartment units were evacuated yesterday after a 60-foot chunk of earth fell. Officials are concerned about massive mudslides following a series of storms. Unfortunately, more rain is in the forecast.

We're going to be checking in with Rob Marciano. He's live there in about 15 minutes.

ROBERTS: He is the GOP's new rock star. Scott Brown surprise election to the Senate has Democrats reeling and some on the far-left and the right ranting.

CHETRY: Yes, wingnut stuff according to independent analyst John Avlon. And each week, he calls those out on the political fringes. John is also the senior political columnist for TheDailyBeast.com and he joins us live right now.

Hey, John.

JOHN AVLON, INDEPENDENT ANALYST: Good morning.

CHETRY: So, we have Scott Brown's election to the Senate and, of course, health care taking centerstage in this because Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority. So, partisanship seems to be at an all-time high right now with that. So, where does the wingnut prize go on the left?

AVLON: On the left, in reaction to the likely election of Senator Scott Brown, Keith Olbermann went on a truly memorable unhedged rant.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC TALK SHOW HOST: In short, in Scott Brown, we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex- nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Wow.

CHETRY: He hit him on all sides.

AVLON: Yes. That's basically the entire identity politics kitchen sink being thrown at the guy. I mean, everything from racist to homophobic to, you know, preparing violence against women. I mean, really, really unhinged. That sound is in a last vestige to any comparison to Ed Murrow going out the window.

ROBERTS: So, what's the background on the comments?

AVLON: Well, the background on the comments are that he can't pull together a full opposition research list of alleged infractions by Scott Brown and then added a couple himself.

And the reality is, one of his colleagues on air called it -- the tirade sad and pathetic, and I think that's accurate. You know, this is way over the line on the 11th hour of an election trying to scare, you know, not motivate your voters to the polls in this case, but scare your voters to the polls by basically demonizing the opposition. That's wingnut stuff by definition.

ROBERTS: All right. And who on the right?

AVLON: On the right, we've got Haiti somehow again attracting the wingnuts. Congressman Steve King of Iowa, conservative. In reaction to a new policy allowing Haitians to stay in the country temporarily while their country rebuilds, he raised the specter of deportation and said perhaps they could do more good at home.

Let's take a listen to what King said.

So, here's the cite (ph). He says, "This sounds to me like open borders advocates exercising the Rahm Emanuel axiom: 'Never let a crisis go to waste.' Illegal immigrants from Haiti have no reason to fear deportation. But if they are deported, Haiti is in great need of relief workers and many of them could be a big help to their fellow Haitians."

CHETRY: How was that comment received by fellow members of Congress?

AVLON: Well, you know, people immediately said, hey, we've heard this kind of thing from -- you know, from King before. He's got a long history of wingnut comments.

This is the guy who, in the summer of '08, during the election campaign said that al Qaeda supporters would be dancing in the streets if Barack Obama won and he also characterized Joe Wilson, who shouted, "You lie" at the president as being an officer and a gentleman and a patriot saying, he said what we were thinking.

So, you know, Congressman King, well-deserved wingnut of the week.

ROBERTS: Now, he has something little unusual this Friday in our wingnuts of the week awards. And that is -- you know, you cited the -- what you called the Olbermann tirade against Scott Brown, but there's been another tirade against Scott Brown, this one actually coming from the right.

AVLON: It is. In an unusual bipartisan display of wingnuttery, Scott Brown coming under pretty serious fire from Glenn Beck on the right in his radio show this week in reaction to comments he made. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BECK, RADIO HOST: I want a chastity belt on this man. I want his every move watched in Washington. I don't trust this guy. I'm just telling you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a creepy moment.

BECK: This one -- this one could end with a dead intern. This one could end with a dead intern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: This one could end with a dead intern. Not that there's any bad memories of that going around.

ROBERTS: And that was in response to his victory speech...

AVLON: Yes.

ROBERTS: ... Scott Brown saying, "These are my two daughters, both of whom are available, by the way."

AVLON: Right. Admittedly a little creepy, but I think Beck's comments are...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: One of our female producers told me, she said, "If my dad ever said that, I would kill him. I would literally kill him."

AVLON: Yes. Look, I mean, not perhaps the best, you know, victory address moment in history, but again, throwing a dead intern right into the conversation, you know, look, I get that it's all about the race..

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: ... an interview with Scott Brown afterward, and she said that his family, I mean, there's just very unique. His daughter was on "American Idol" back in 2006. She made it to the 62. She was performing and dancing at his victory party. So, I mean -- and she says that they really, really have, you know, a good, close relationship. So, maybe -- maybe the daughters didn't take it as badly as everybody else.

AVLON: Maybe it wasn't the nightmare teenage daughter scenario that some have imagined. Well, look, all I know is, you know, dead intern, that's a jump too far.

ROBERTS: Yes. All right. You know, wingnuttery aside, though, it's interesting to see the skepticism among conservatives of this fellow, as much as a hero -- as much of a hero he's being held up for taking Ted Kennedy's seat and blocking health care by the Republican Party.

AVLON: Yes. Well, he's not the strict social conservative that some have portrayed him.

ROBERTS: Yes.

John, great to see you. Thanks so much.

CHETRY: Thanks so much.

And, by the way, John has a new book coming out and it is called "Wingnuts," by the way, "How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America." How funny, two of the people that we talked about today are on the cover. There you go. Well, you can also read John Avlon's "Wingnuts" blog every week on our Web site, CNN.com/amFIX.

Good to see you.

ROBERTS: Coming up on the Most News in the Morning: they survived the earthquake, but what now? Anderson Cooper shows us the uncertain future for many of Haiti's orphans.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Forty minutes past the hour.

Treating the young victims from Haiti's devastating earthquake has certainly becoming -- as we've been showing you over the past several days -- really an overwhelming task for medical crews.

ROBERTS: Many children are now orphans, and nurses fear unsuitable medications and equipment in some pediatric wards may make it impossible to keep them alive for much longer.

Anderson Cooper went to one ward and shows us what the conditions are like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outside the crumbling pediatric ward at General Hospital, a nurse sings of God and grace.

(SINGING)

COOPER: You can't hear the singing inside the pediatric tent...

WANDA SMILEY (ph), 11 YEARS OLD: Mama!

COOPER: ... because Wanda Smiley can't stop screaming.

She's 11 years old. Her legs are broken. No one sure exactly what else is wrong.

Nearby, a little boy with a broken leg sits silently, watching it all. His name is Johnny. He doesn't know his last name. His parents are dead. He has no clothes and no where else to go.

DR. MARIE FRANCE CONDE: Right now, he has a broken leg, a broken foot (ph), a femur, as well as a broken -- he has several fractures on that leg. But no one is here for him.

COOPER (on camera): What will happen to him?

CONDE: Last night, I did not sleep thinking about Johnny because I got up. I said, maybe I should take Johnny home. And I said, I know it's not going to be possible.

COOPER (voice-over): For kids whose parents are dead, there is no clear system. That's part of the planning that needs to be done.

CONDE: We don't have much. That's all we have.

COOPER: Dominique Toussaint, a Haitian-American nurse from Harlem doesn't cry in front of the children. But outside the tent, she's overcome by it all.

DOMINIQUE TOUSSAINT, HAITIAN-AMERICAN NURSE: Everybody has infections. It seems as though to me like they're going to eventually die. I don't even have someplace to wash my hands. I have one bottle of hand sanitizer.

We can't do anything under sterile technique. It's impossible not to have, you know, horrible infections. You know, the medications we're giving them, we could use some stronger medications. We don't have them.

COOPER (on camera): It also seems like a lot of the medication, the supplies you do have are not built for children. They're not geared for children.

TOUSSAINT: They're not. Like I just went to get an oxygen tank, it took forever to get the tank. It took forever to get a mask. The mask we have is probably too big to even put on my face, it looks big (ph). We have no -- the needles on our syringes are too long.

We have nothing for the kids. It's like the kids are forgotten almost.

COOPER: It's like the kids are forgotten.

TOUSSAINT: Yes. So, we're just doing the best we can. I mean, it's frustrating, I just -- I'm overwhelmed.

COOPER (voice-over): It is overwhelming for nurses and children. The injured keep coming. There's no space to be had.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: That just does nothing short of tearing your heart out.

CHETRY: You know, and it's still hard, you know, to -- we understand the logistical nightmares. We understand the lack of infrastructure. But 10 days out, still not having anything but hand sanitizer, you know, to try to care for these kids. One bright spot, of course, as Chris Lawrence said, is that they've managed to open up the port and they're able to bring supplies in there by sea. So, hopefully, we'll see this changing and quickly.

ROBERTS: You would think, though, that somebody would get there. And that the kid with multiple fractures in his leg, the other one's screaming for his mother. I mean, God. That's just a horrible...

CHETRY: It is.

ROBERTS: Although that is the situation on the ground, there is some promising news just offshore where the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort has increased its bed capacity to nearly 1,000. Perhaps, some of those beds might go to some of those kids in an orphanage.

Coming up, more operating rooms and beefing up medical staff on the Comfort. They really need to reach out to people.

CHETRY: Yes. And there's still a lot of people answering the international call to send aid.

And tonight at 8:00 Eastern Time, CNN's Anderson Cooper along with Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be live from Haiti as Wyclef Jean and also, George Clooney host the Hope for Haiti Now. It also features Bono, Sting, Shakira, Keith Urban, John Legend and lots of others. This is a global telethon and it airs right here at 8:00 Eastern tonight.

ROBERTS: Coming up at 44 minutes after the hour, Jeanne Moos normally takes a look at the lighter side of life here on the Most News in the Morning, but coming up: she shows us one small bright spot out of Haiti, the smile seen around the world. That's coming up in 10 minutes time.

CHETRY: And we are also following severe weather in several counties in the Los Angeles are. They're in for a really tough few days as they've been hit by now four storms, and unfortunately more rain in the forecast. Fear of mudslides as well as many other problems. Our Rob Marciano is there in California. We'll check in with him after the break.

It's 44 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Nice shot of the Big Apple this morning. Forty-seven minutes past the hour right now. It is 33 degrees, and a little bit later, we're going up to a high of 42 here in New York City. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's time now for your AM House Call, stories about your health.

And researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School say more babies are born weighing less than they used to be. A nationwide study of nearly 37 millions newborns found about a 2-ounce drop in weight from 1990 to 2005. The lead researcher says, though, that babies are still bigger than they were 30 years ago.

Looks like there is some proof that smokers with early forms of lung cancer could be twice as likely to live if they quit. A British study found survival rates improved from 33 percent in those who continued to smoke to as much as 70 percent in those who kicked the habit, and until now, there's been little proof that quitting smoking after developing lung cancer makes any difference to survival, but the studies author (ph) say the message is you should nerve give up on giving up smoking

And quitting another habit could save the lives of some 92,000 Americans every year, reducing your salt intake. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that cutting three grams a day from your diet could prevent nearly 100,000 heart attacks, thousands of strokes, and also $24 billion in health care costs. They also say that men use more salt than women in the U.S., and researchers also find the main culprit is processed foods. They say that we actually get about 80 percent of our daily recommended salt intake from processed food, so I guess eating fresh is a good way to cut your salt.

ROBERTS: Cutting salt out of your diet seems like such a simple thing, but it's really difficult because salt is in literally everything and lots more of it than you would ever believe.

Let's check in with our Rob Marciano now. He's in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains of California where they're seeing some of the worst flooding over the last few days, and more rain is on the way. Rob, what's it looking like there today? What's the risk of more mudslides that we've been seeing over the last couple of days?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The risk is be ongoing, especially through today and through the beginning part of tomorrow, and even once the dry weather sets in, the ground is so unstable. Geologists are really worried about the next week, if not, the rest of this winter. I'm standing on top of one of hundreds of minor slides across Southern California. This one about five feet tall.

We're on the side yard of a resident who's been evacuated, kind of built this makeshift chute to kind of funnel this debris that came pouring down this hillside during the storm yesterday, but for the most part, the precautions taken, mainly these K-rails that were actually put in place right after the fires five months ago in anticipation of this sort of event, and for the most part, they've done their jobs, at least protecting homes, but the roadways in many areas are completely washed away.

We tried to get up the big Tujunga Canyon Road where during the fires, we caught up with several people who were battling back the flames there. Lots of homes destroyed during the fires there. Well, that road completely impassable in many spots, and folks who did not evacuate are actually trapped up there and on their own. That scene echoed throughout much of Southern California.

All right. Let's go to the coastline. There are not one but two tornadoes along Ventura and Santa Barbara, also, you know, on top of that, the high surf, the coastal flooding. They brought out the heavy machinery at Seal Beach to try to beat back the waves. They did an okay job there, but further up the coastline in Pacifica where the waves continually pound the bluffs there, there is an apartment complex that is teetering on the edge, and they finally gave up and ordered everybody out of that complex. They do think that it's eventually going to be coming down.

A lot of this energy, most of the storm now in through Arizona, they just got hammered yesterday. Flagstaff getting three feet of snow, over ten inches of rainfall in some spots of Arizona. At one point, a blizzard warning backed up against a tornado watch in neighboring counties. Unbelievable weather there across parts of Arizona. State of emergency has been issued there, and here in California again, they're very worried. We still have more rain to get through today and through tonight, but so far, John and Kiran, geologists really amazed that more hillsides haven't come tumbling down.

I think the main reason there is we've gotten heavy rain, brief breaks, heavy rain, brief breaks for a week now, but it's those brief breaks I think that have been key to having -- not so bad a situation, quite honestly, as far as the destruction of homes go.

ROBERTS: You've got a lot more rain just off the coast, though, right, Rob? So if that comes in steady for a couple of days, what kind of situation could that present?

MARCIANO: If it comes in steady for even 12 hours, I think that's going to spell disaster for some folks. Hopefully, we will keep the luck going, but right now, officials and residents alike are very worried through at least the weekend.

ROBERTS: All right. Rob Marciano for us this morning. Rob, thanks so much.

This morning's top stories just minutes away, including the mounting frustration over people with treatable conditions dying in Haiti because medical supplies are not getting where they're needed. We're going to go live to Dr. Sanjay Gupta who went out looking for supplies yesterday.

CHETRY: Also democrats are trying to press forward on health care after losing their super majority, but what is the next move? We're going to talk to our senior political analyst, Ed Rollins, also Lanny Davis joining us, former White House counsel under President Clinton.

ROBERTS: And a happy homecoming that you don't want to miss. Our Soledad O'Brien travels with a group of Haitian orphans for now beginning a new life in America. Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifty-five minutes past the hour now, that means it's time we check in with Jeanne for the "Moost" News in the Morning. It's a story with a happy ending out of Haiti. A little boy rescued after a week and a day in the rubble.

ROBERTS: And he popped out of the hole with a smile that will live forever in a photo. Here's Jeanne.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We usually go for laughs, but with this story, we'll settle for a smile. What a smile.

MATTHEW MCDERMOTT, AMERICARES/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER: We were amazed. I mean, afterward, we just kind of almost sat there like, did that just happen? We had to go back and look at the back of our cameras to check.

MOOS: A 7-year-old kid named Kiki dug out alive and well after being buried for seven and a half days. The crew from NBC shot video of the rescue. They finally reached the boy, he was scared and wouldn't come out until rescuers brought a relative in the yellow tank top to coax him. His pants may be lost, but he was found.

MCDERMOTT: It was like rabbit out of a hat. He popped out. Arms went straight up in the air, and just turned, and smiled.

MOOS: A tattooed freelance photographer from New York City named Matthew McDermott captured the image while shooting for the humanitarian group AmeriCares.

MOOS (on-camera): Do you think, I mean, this is kind of craft, but do you think of things like Pulitzer Prize winning when you take a photo like that?

MCDERMOTT: No, no, not at all. That would be a little arrogant. We don't sit around and patting ourselves on the back. Around every corner, there's a photograph here that needs to be taken. MOOS (voice-over): The rescuers were from units based in New York City and Virginia.

UNKNOWN MALE: How are you feeling right now?

JOE DOWNEY, NEW YORK TASK FORCE ONE: Unbelievable. I just want to hug my compadre, Dario Gomez (ph). This is unbelievable feeling.

MOOS: They also rescued Kiki's older sister. The image McDermott's shot will likely be used by AmeriCares to inspire donations.

From photos in an earthquake to photos from another earth shaking event. Previously McDermott's most famous photos were from 9/11. After shooting so much death in Haiti --

Was that the biggest smile you ever saw on the littlest kid?

MCDERMOTT: It was amazing. I'm sorry. Lungs are a little messed up. I've been nine days of breathing death and dust.

MOOS: Which makes this a breath of fresh air. Touchdown!

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

CHETRY: It was such an amazing picture. We wanted to show it, you know, when we first got wind of it, and we didn't have the rights to show it at the time, but man, it's just -- it just says everything, just seeing it.

ROBERTS: I love the fact that he wouldn't come out because he was scared, until the relative came along, and then just instantaneously, the arms go wide, the smile comes out. It's a nice little moment from Haiti in a place where there haven't been a whole lot of moments like that.

CHETRY: Very true. We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories underway in just 90 seconds. It's 58 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)