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American Morning
Congress to Question Toyota About Recall; Midwest Hit With Snow and Ice; Tony Blair Testifies on Iraq War; I'll Carry the Burden Forever; Waiting for the Lights to Come On
Aired January 29, 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 morning to you, and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning, on this Friday, the 29th of January. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have some big stories we're telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
We start with Toyota's troubles, and they are mounting this morning. The automaker trying to find a way to fix millions of recalled cars and fix its reputation at the same time. Congress now getting involved calling for a hearing on Capitol Hill next month. A House committee wants to know what Toyota knew about its sticking gas pedal problem and when they knew it.
ROBERTS: It's a snowy icy mess in Oklahoma and Texas this morning. Thousands of people are waking up today without power. There's a foot of snow on the ground in parts of Texas where treacherous driving conditions forced a major highway to shut down completely. We'll take you to the nation's frozen midsection this morning and tell you where that winter storm is headed next.
ROBERTS: And we're also tracking your stimulus money. More than 50 million of it going to relocate tracks for the Napa Valley Wine Train. Two powerful senators are furious about it but locals say, wait a minute, you got your facts wrong. So we're going to talk about who's right and who's wrong in this instance.
ROBERTS: All right. Let's get you caught up this morning with our top story. Toyota's public relations nightmare threatening to spin out of control this morning with millions of customers driving recalled cars that cannot be repaired.
The world's largest automaker has been summoned to a hearing on Capitol Hill next month. Congress wants to find out more about Toyota's handling or mishandling of a serious safety issue with sticking gas pedals. And the competition is wasting no time capitalizing on the company's misfortune. GM and Ford swooping in with sweet offers to Toyota owners who decide to make the switch. And the blame game has begun. The company that makes the defective gas pedals says it's all Toyota's fault. They claim they were just following the automaker's orders.
CHETRY: So Toyota is in a bit of a tailspin right now. Its image is eroding fast.
Our Deborah Feyerick joins us this morning. And so Toyota's new branding message moving forward. But right now, the company seems to really be at a grinding halt.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely. What's so interesting is that when you call to get answers you're really kind of getting the bounce around. Toyota says they're being open, they're being honest. But in effect, what they're trying to do is they're trying to answer questions without necessarily getting the information because they just don't have it to give.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): As soon as he got word of the recall from Toyota headquarters, Maryland Toyota dealer Ben Messier and his sales team went into high gear, figuring out which cars might have the faulty gas pedal.
BEN MESSIER, TOYOTA DEALER: The CTS pedals which are the effective pedals will have one inch by one inch silver tab on the top left hand side of the accelerator arm. Look all the way down on top of the accelerator arm, right here is a little silver plaque. That little silver plaque right there says CTS on it.
FEYERICK: CTS disputes any problem with its accelerators saying they were built to Toyota's design specifications. Messier, meantime, says the message from above was clear, protect Toyota's reputation.
MESSIER: Toyota mentioned to me right now our first concern is safeguarding the brand, making sure Toyota gets in front of this, takes care of their customers. We'll worry about selling cars tomorrow.
FEYERICK: But now with millions of cars affected, dealers in New York and New Jersey appear to have closed rank.
(on camera): We called more than a dozen Toyota dealerships, even went to visit several in person. All of them told us they were not authorized to speak about Toyota's problems, and instead referred us to a central information number out of California.
(voice-over): When we called a Toyota spokesman who handles quality design described the latest recall as a "customer satisfaction problem" telling CNN, Toyota's strategy has been to be transparent and truthful about an accelerator problem they don't yet know how to fix but which they say is caused by an environmental condition. But Toyota has not been as open as they claim, says marketing specialist Richard Laermer.
RICHARD LAERMER, BRANDING EXPERT: Well, one of the real problems of crisis communication is that if you don't act fast in clearing up the mess, the mess just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And with this, they knew something was going on and they didn't handle it as rapidly as they could have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: A Toyota spokesman says that the company is close to having a new pedal design. In the meantime, American car dealers have pounced on Toyota's misfortunes. GM is offering incentive of free financing and a $1,000 if you trade in your Toyota. So one person's misfortune is another person's opportunity.
ROBERTS: It's a jungle out there. But what do people do if they've got one of these cars? They don't know whether they should drive it.
FEYERICK: You know, that's the issue. Nobody knows which cars are going to be affected. Toyota is very clear to say well, it's not all cars but because it's happening to some cars but nobody knows how many cars. What they're telling you is if it happens to you, you just simply have to know how to break. And frankly, you should probably practice it. You floor the pedal as fast as you can and then you jump on the brace with two feet and then slide the car into neutral and then turn it off. That's the way to protect yourself. That's the way to stop the car. That's what you have to know.
CHETRY: That's expecting a lot, you know, in an accident waiting to happen if you're accelerating on a highway or something.
FEYERICK: Well, that's exactly right because you've got to get the car to the side of the road. You've got at least be looking to see who's behind you, who's in the back of you. And what's interesting is that we did it with an expert, he gunned that car. I was driving really slowly, and I'm like, oh, I'm just going to floor this a little bit. When he did it, the feeling was so much different that it really caught us by surprise.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
FEYERICK: And we just went flying forward.
ROBERTS: Did they have a brake override, or you just have to put so much pressure on the brakes?
FEYERICK: You have to put so much pressure on the brakes.
ROBERTS: Wow.
FEYERICK: And do not pump those brakes. You just have to keep it on there so that there's no sort of vacuum, and so it will keep you safe.
ROBERTS: As Kiran said, that's a lot to ask of the driver.
FEYERICK: It is. It happens in a split second, though.
ROBERTS: Yes. All right.
FEYERICK: You've got to be thinking.
ROBERTS: Deb, great report this morning. Thanks. With many Toyota showrooms quiet these days and so many Toyota drivers angry and confused, how big of a hit could this be for the world's biggest car company? We're going to talk with two PR damage control experts, Jerry Della Femina and David Margulies, coming up at the bottom of the hour.
CHETRY: Also developing this morning, a potential blow to the Obama administration. "The New York Times" reporting this morning that the White House appears to be changing course on holding the trial of the 9/11 terror suspects just blocks from Ground Zero after losing its biggest supporter of that.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reportedly called Attorney General called Eric Holder saying that he hoped the trial would be held elsewhere because of concerns about costs and also security. And New York Governor David Paterson told ABC's "The View", pretty much the same thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. DAVID PATERSON (D), NEW YORK: It's going to cost an immense amount of money. It's going to tie up traffic. It's going to destroy the economic development that's been recovered in Lower Manhattan. Every time there's a loud noise during the two years of those trials, it's going to frighten people. And I think New Yorkers have been through enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: One New York Republican Congressional Peter King also introduced legislation to block funds for a 9/11 trial in Lower Manhattan.
ROBERTS: Well, this morning, parts of Oklahoma and Texas are battered and bruised after getting hit by a major snow and ice storm. The weather radar shows the storm system moving into Missouri now and Arkansas, then up into the Carolinas. A foot of snow fell across the Texas panhandle. But in Adeline, the problem is rain and folks there are dealing with street flooding.
In Oklahoma, meantime, heavy ice accumulations brought down tree limbs and power lines leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark. Reporter Emily Wood with CNN affiliate KWTV has more for us this morning from Oklahoma City.
EMILY WOOD, KWTV REPORTER: It is still drizzling this morning and I've got to tell you, we are freezing cold here. Conditions are only expected to grow worse today. We're just off Interstate 44, one of the main thoroughfares here in town.
I want to show you just what kind of road conditions morning commuters are dealing with today. It is solid packed ice, and that's not to say city workers aren't trying. They are out here. They're working on the roadways but with conditions like this, there's not a whole lot they can do. We're actually on the side of the road in a parking lot here, and I am basically ice skating. Even though I have snow boots on, that's how slippery it is. You really can't walk. You just sort of move around the best you can and hope you don't fall down. But again, not great conditions this morning and of course, here in Oklahoma City, we're asking that if people don't have to be out that they just stay home.
Emily Wood for CNN, now back to John and Kiran.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Emily.
CHETRY: Yes, and so now it's seven minutes past the hour. What can we expect today in terms of this extreme weather? Let's check in with Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center this morning.
A lot of folks looking toward the weekend and wondering if they're going to stay like this.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, they're going to improve in terms of not getting anymore freezing rain in places like Oklahoma and Texas but the temperatures are going to stay below freezing for the most part. So unfortunately, that ice is going to stick around and blustery conditions today could help bring more power lines down.
Now we are seeing this wind down across western and central parts of Oklahoma. But the I-40 corridor here is going to continue to be a big focus of freezing rain. So we'll watch this as it moves into Little Rock right now with freezing rain.
Memphis, you're not getting it yet but it's just right around the corner and Nashville will be seeing freezing rain, sleet and snow. And the heaviest accumulations right along of those state lines, southern Kentucky into Virginia, into North Carolina and the northern parts of Tennessee could see anywhere between six and 12 inches of snowfall. As we head through the weekend, the storm is not really going to wind down until we head into our Sunday. The rest of the country today looking at rather tranquil conditions for the most part. But we still have a lot of wind in the northeastern corridor, and that's why we're expecting to see some significant airport delays there.
John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Jacqui. We'll check back with you a little bit later on this morning.
Eight minutes after the hour. Also new this morning, the Obama administration is moving quickly on the president's promise to end the nearly 17-year ban on gays serving openly in the military. CNN has learned that during Senate hearings next week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen will announce steps that the Pentagon will have to take before Congress and the White House repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. CHETRY: Also, President Obama reportedly scrubbing NASA's next mission to the moon. Reports say that when President Obama releases his budget next week, there will be no money to fund the program aimed at returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. But NASA will be getting more money. In fact, an additional nearly $6 billion over the next five years. Some of that will go toward developing rockets that will take astronauts into orbit after the aging shuttle fleet is finally retired.
ROBERTS: A lot of people will be disappointed.
CHETRY: About the moon?
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: About the mission to the moon?
ROBERTS: Oh, well.
Still ahead in the Most News in the Morning, what did he know and when did he know it? Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair set to answer some tough questions about the Iraq war and whether he knew Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twelve minutes past the hour right now. We get a check of some other stories new this morning.
After another flare-up on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea's president told the BBC he's ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il if it helps promote peace. The two sides have been exchanging artillery shots near their disputed maritime border.
ROBERTS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying that it is necessary to engage with enemies in order to bring peace to Afghanistan. Our Jill Dougherty caught up with the secretary in London to get her thoughts about the Afghan government's plan to invite the Taliban to reconciliation talks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: You don't make peace with your friends. You make peace with your enemies. There are very clear conditions. You must renounce violence. You must lay down your arms. You must renounce Al Qaeda, and you must be willing to live by the laws and the constitution of Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Secretary Clinton is in London along with representatives from 60 other countries for crucial talks on Afghanistan.
CHETRY: London is now center stage for Britain's Iraq war inquiry. Taking the lead today is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. His highly anticipated testimony may explain why and when he committed British troops to the Iraq war.
CNN's Phil Black is live in London. And, Phil, Blair's appearance was expected to be met with massive protest, those who oppose British involvement. What's happened so far?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there have been some vocal protests so far but not particularly large in number. Around 100 or so gathered here early in the morning in order to meet Tony Blair as he arrived for this inquiry. He snuck in the back through a side entrance, though, so he didn't have to confront a waiting army, really, if you combine the total protesters, media presence and the police who are guarding this inquiry with some force today.
This is a highly anticipated climax of the public hearings of this inquiry so far. It's been going for a few months now, and it has a big scope, going all the way back to around 2001 to look at the decisions Britain made and its thinking back then, looking at just why it decided to go to war with the United States in Iraq.
In some of the early questioning, we heard Tony Blair talking about the importance of the role that September 11th played in shifting the international environment, each international thinking, particularly when it comes to tolerating potential threats like Iraq. Let's hear a little bit from Tony Blair on that now.
He was -- sorry, we don't have sound there. But he was also spoken this morning and being questioned at length on a key meeting with President George Bush, April 2002, at the Crawford -- Bush Crawford Ranch in Texas. At that meeting, it has long been speculated that was where Tony Blair, in fact, committed Britain to war secretly in discussions there with Bush.
He says, as he said at the time publicly that that was absolutely not the case. They agreed that Saddam Hussein and Iraq was a threat but that they would pursue a diplomatic option through the United Nations and only use force if necessary, though committed with dealing with Iraq but not by going to war, Kiran.
CHETRY: Phil Black for us this morning in London. Thank you.
ROBERTS: And coming up on the Most News in the Morning, Christine Romans goes one on one with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about the bailout of AIG, why he says there was just no other choice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Eighteen minutes after the hour now on this Friday morning. That means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
There will be a second term for the Federal Reserve chairman, the Senate confirming Ben Bernanke by a 70 to 30 margin yesterday. President Obama lobbied hard to keep the chairman in office. Even so, several Democrats and Republicans did vote against confirmation, blaming Bernanke and the Federal Reserve for the faltering economy.
CHETRY: The president thinks that and $8 billion high-speed rail system will help get the economy back on track and create jobs at the same time.
He spent yesterday pitching the idea in Tampa Florida. There'd be 13 corridors corridors across the country that are being targeted for so-called bullet trains, and that includes a line running from Tampa to Orlando. The White House calls it the largest investment in America's infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System was created.
ROBERTS: And all this week, CNN is following the money trail as part of our Stimulus Project. Is Uncle Sam spending your dollars wisely? And speaking of the president's high-speed rail plan.
A brand-new CNN/Research Corporation poll shows most people seem to approve of how Washington is spending the money, at least when it comes to mass transit. Sixty-two percent of those asked approve of spending stimulus dollars on mass transit, only 36 percent disapprove.
CHETRY: All right. Well, Treasury secretary Tim Geithner defending the bailout, trying to set the record straight about the stimulus as well.
Our Christine Romans is here, "Minding Your Business". She had a chance to sit down exclusively with Tim Geithner yesterday. How was it?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, he kept trying to push forward to jobs, you know, really trying to get on the president's message. But this is a -- this the Treasury secretary.
In the press he's called embattled, "the weakened Timothy Geithner", but this was a -- a very solid, solid performance by the Treasury secretary, trying to show that he is confident and that he -- that he's proud of many of the decisions he made.
I asked him many times how can he be an effective steward of the president's policies and the president's agenda with so many still second guessing his moves during the bailouts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: I will carry for my life the burdens of decisions we made in that context.
But as I said yesterday and I've said consistently, and I think the record will show this, we looked at all alternatives, and there was no alternative except default and collapse, much greater cost and expense to the taxpayer than the one we chose. And we think we did what was in the best interest of the public and the taxpayer and have an outcome today which is much less damaging because of what we did there.
ROMANS: So much anger still about AIG. I mean, there's so much anger about this.
GEITHNER: Again, for -- for I think most people it is the hardest thing to understand. It's the basic symbol of unfairness, and people are outraged by it, and I said yesterday, they should be outraged by it. You know, it is just outrageous that this country let a bunch of institutions run without any basic checks and balances, built some (ph) provision, brought the economy to the edge of collapse and left the government with no tools to unwind them safely.
You know, it's an outrageous thing and people should be outraged and they should ask their leaders to make sure we reform the system.
ROMANS: How do you move forward? Move forward as -- you know as a good steward of the president's policies while all of this hammering about AIG still swirls around?
GEITHNER: Well, again, it's the necessary thing to do. People need to understand as well as they can what -- what we did, why it was necessary, what were the alternatives. And -- but, you know, our job now is to make sure we're creating jobs, growing businesses, growing the economy, growing exports, fixing the things that are broken in this country.
Now, we just didn't have a worse financial crisis in generations, we had a long period where the government -- where Washington was not doing what it needed to do, and businesses need, you know, better outcomes from our education system. They need more certainty in rules of the game. They need more help expanding exports. They need more clarity on what is going to happen to health care reform.
Those are things businesses need.
ROMANS: A lot of people are saying, you know, that the American people just got a raw deal. They got a raw deal. You're saying the American people, they (INAUDIBLE)...
GEITHNER: The American people -- (INAUDIBLE) in the crisis got a very raw deal.
ROMANS: Right.
GEITHNER: OK? But their deal would have been much worse if the government had stepped back and let that firm fail or tried to default selectively in a time when the financial system was literally falling apart, the rivets were coming off the submarine. People were saying I do not have confidence in anything, and when that happens, if you let that go on, it is perilous and it causes grave danger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: I asked him about how he's holding up under the political heat, what this political heat feels light after -- like after two -- more than two years of -- of very hard work by many people at the Treasury, you know, the Fed trying to, you know, stabilize the system and he said, look, I could take this. I could take this political heat. So we're in a very angry moment right now in America. We're in the second or third or fourth wave of anger about the bailouts, justifiable anger, he said, but he can take this political heat because nothing -- nothing will ever compare with what we faced in September of 2008, and he's just so glad that there's stability now.
We're talking about growth and not talking about a system falling off the cliff.
CHETRY: Did he address you in a way that you felt confident about -- that -- that he understands and the leaders in charge of our financial system understand why we got to that point and know what to do to prevent it?
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: And when he talks about the wheels coming off the submarines, on and on, do they know how to make sure that doesn't happen again?
ROMANS: That's what he's using this example, this AIG bailout outrage. He's saying let's channel that into reforms. Let's channel that into making sure the government has the tools to prevent this from happening, being able to unwind or see these systemically important institutions.
He keeps trying to push it forward, but of course everyone keeps saying, you know, Timothy Geithner, how -- his reputation was damaged. How is he going to be able to shake off the AIG questions? You know, how can he move forward when he has become sort of the face of the AIG bailout, like it or not?
ROBERTS: Great -- well, great interview and we've got part two of that coming up in the next hour.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: And perhaps we could also talk about your experience flying out there where you paid extra for a -- an aisle seat was it?
ROMANS: The fee -- I got -- I got charged a fee -- I didn't even know you could get charged a fee just to have an aisle seat, $20.
ROBERTS: Wow! It's come to that?
ROMANS: Can I expense that?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Now that you said it on the air, yes.
All right. Thanks, Christine. We'll see you next hour.
Coming up in the Most News in the Morning, the challenges repair crews are facing as they try to restore electricity in Haiti. There were problems to begin with, now you can imagine what's going on there.
Twenty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 28 minutes after the hour right now.
It's 17 days since the deadly earthquake in Haiti and desperation on the ground is growing. Aid is still terribly slow getting into the capital and so some have turned to looting. In fact, scenes like this have been playing out for days and security forces say they simply don't have the manpower to keep the peace.
ROBERTS: But our CNN crews have also seen the spirit of the Haitian people coming together in these extremely tough times.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(PEOPLE SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Dozens of Haitians flooded the streets outside the hotel where our staff is staying in downtown Port-au-Prince, singing, clapping and dancing.
CHETRY: Well, in Port-au-Prince, crews are also still working around the clock to turn the city's electric grid back on.
As our Ivan Watson tells us, until that happens, each night Haitians are forced to sit in the dark and wait.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been two weeks since the lights went out in Port-au-Prince. Pastor Jean de Peau (ph) is looking for a candle.
PASTOR JEAN DE PEAU (ph), QUAKE SURVIVOR: Look! We found one somewhere. OK.
WATSON: Night after night, this is what families face in a city that has no power.
DE PEAU (ph): This is the way we live now in Haiti.
WATSON: After sunset, it's pitch black. In the darkness, residents get ready to sleep out in the street, often with little more than the glow of a cell phone to light their way.
The moment the earthquake hit, Safeguard shut down the city's electric power grid. Now teams from the state electric company are trying to repair the damage.
Engineer Quinav Iqsama (ph) says the earthquake destroyed 30 percent of the infrastructure at this distribution station.
WATSON (on camera): All of Port-au-Prince gets electricity from here.
QUINAV IQSAMA (ph), HAITIAN ENGINEER: All -- all Port-au-Prince.
WATSON (voice-over): His team is trying to salvage some equipment. He hopes within a week the station may start working again.
But no one seems to know when the diesel generators will go back on at this electric power station. The workers here don't even know if the generators have been damaged, and frequent aftershocks seem to be causing more problems.
WATSON (on camera): So this is new damage they're just pointing out. They didn't have this last night, a -- a ruptured water pipe here in the basement of an electric power station.
(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FRENCH).
WATSON: He says it's not good.
WATSON (voice-over): Experts say even before the disaster, Haiti's poorly-run electricity grid only supplied a fraction of the power needed to light the city.
WATSON (on camera): Before the earthquake, Jean Claude (ph) is telling me that these neighboring communities only got about eight hours of electricity every 24 hours.
WATSON (voice-over): By 6:00 PM, the sun sets and Port-au-Prince is once again shrouded in darkness. The pastor lights his candle. Fortunately nature lends a helping hand. There's a full moon tonight, shining over this shattered city.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Port-au-Prince.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Just as well (ph).
CHETRY: Well, coming up on the half hour right now. It means it's time for other top stories this morning, and we're tracking your tax dollars.
The Napa Valley wine train now caught in the middle of a stimulus fight. Republican critics say that a new bridge for tracks is a waste of more than $50 million. Locals say Washington doesn't understand, so we did some digging.
We found the project is more about protecting wine country than the wine train. We'll explain in a moment. Also, snow and ice making life pretty miserable for people in Texas, Oklahoma, and other states. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses are still without power after a major winter storm hit a southern plain state. A foot of snow is falling across parts of Texas. Storm watchers and warnings -- storm watches and warnings are now up from the panhandle of Florida all the way to the Carolinas now.
Our Jacqui Jeras is tracking the extreme weather. We're going to be checking in with her in just a moment.
Also, Congress has some questions for Toyota of the 5.3 million recalled cars that can't be repaired right now. Executives from the world's largest car company have been asked to attend a House committee hearing February 25th. Toyota critics claim the company knew long ago there was a safety problem with sticking accelerator pedals and failed to take action -- John.
ROBERTS: There are millions of Toyota owners who don't know whether it's safe to get in their cars and the world's biggest carmaker could have a major confidence problem on its hands.
Here to talk about the recall and implications for Toyota and for consumer, Jerry Della Femina. He is the chairman of Della Femina Rothschild Jeary & Partners Advertising. And in Dallas with us this morning: David Margulies. He's a crisis prevention and management and president of the Margulies Communications Group.
Great to see both of you.
DAVID MARGULIES, PRESIDENT, MARGULIES COMMS. GROUP: Good morning.
ROBERTS: Gerry, you know, so many, when something like this happen, people point to 1982, the Tylenol scare, and Tylenol's response to it is sort of a text book way of how you deal with a crisis like this. How is this similar to Tylenol? How is it different?
JERRY DELLA FEMINA, CHAIRMAN, DELLA FEMINA ROTHSCHILD JEARY & PARTNERS ADVERTISING: Well, it's a crisis just as Tylenol was. But it's different because you -- Tylenol was the only product you could get of that type. So, when you had to do without it, you wanted to get it back. There are a lot of cars out there. There are a lot of places to go.
So, I think it's different in that I think Toyota has a different problem. Tylenol was a one product -- one category product by itself. And everybody wanted it to come back. Toyota will come back but it's going to be a lot tougher than with Tylenol.
ROBERTS: David, unlike Tylenol as well. Tylenol was the act of a malicious individual who had poisoned some bottles of Tylenol. This is the company's own doing. This was one of their parts manufacturers on their specifications. So, does it impact the company a little bit more?
MARGULIES: Well, it's the same. The point that I made it was the same is that Tylenol recalled the product and reintroduced it. And the recall was important. What I'm disturbed about is that I don't see anybody here from Toyota. Tylenol made a big push, went on television and talked about the issue.
I heard your reporter this morning being very frustrated about not being able to talk to Toyota dealers, not getting good information from the company. That seems to be their big problem right now. Even if they don't have an answer, they need to be out there talking to the media, not frustrating the media getting answers. Even if the answer is: we don't know but this is how we're going to find out.
ROBERTS: Did you agree, Jerry, that Toyota executives need to more fully describe what's going on here, more fully explain it?
DELLA FEMINA: Absolutely. They have to first stop all advertising and go out and -- you know, I see the commercial where the head of Toyota looks into the camera and says, "We voluntary recalled these cars, you know, we're doing this, it will be OK."
I want to hear -- and I agree with the gentleman -- I want to hear that someone from that company is looking into a camera and telling me, I'm going to be safe. Otherwise, I'm going to go to Honda, I'm going to go another car.
So, he has a tough job. But I think it's a good product, I know it's a good product. So, I think they can get it done. But they have to really get it done by finally talking to the consumer.
ROBERTS: David, an article in CNNMoney.com points to Toyota's desire to reduce the cost of parts as part of the problem for this. They went to cheaper suppliers. And I remember reading an article some years back about Continental Airlines, back when it was really having some trouble, that they got caught in what was -- what the guy called a death spiral, because they were focused so much on cost cutting, they created a product that nobody wanted to buy.
Does Toyota run of risk of doing that here by cheapening its parts supply?
MARGULIES: Well, that was the argument with the Ford Pinto. That they knew how much they would save and they knew they would pay less in death benefits than they would save by making the gas tank less safe. That's an issue that's going to come up.
But what I think Toyota needs to do is what I call the NTSB solution, which is: if you don't know the answer, you explain how you're going to get there. I'm also very concerned that they are arguing with the parts supplier, that was the Firestone/Ford issue with the Explorer.
They shouldn't be arguing with each other. The dealers should be able to talk to the public and to the media, even if they have a script. And they just need to get out in front of it and be honest with people. If you read their Web site, it's not that serious a problem. It can be in rare instances, but their Web site explains it fairly well.
They just need to be out there talking about it. They will be criticized for the part was too cheap, you should have done it sooner. That's all the kinds of things you'll hear from Congress and plaintiff's lawyers. But if the public is convinced they're really trying to do a good job, I think they'll be OK.
ROBERTS: And, Jerry, I guess, one of interesting things we talked about this morning in regard to all of this, it is concerning as well, is that the instructions that Toyota is giving out is, if your accelerator starts to run out of control, jump on the brake with both feet. Put the car in neutral and try to turn it off. Is that an adequate explanation?
DELLA FEMINA: That's not an explanation. I mean, right now, I would be afraid to get to the dealer to get my car fixed because it's going to be like that. You know, they have to understand that if the car is out of control, the company had better be in control. And the fact is that there's a chance -- it's not, you know, it's not that good a chance, but there's a chance that it might happen, someone may be killed.
So, I think they did the right thing. Announcing it -- but now they've got to take the next step. They've got to tell the public exactly what they are going to do and why they are going to do it and forget about advertising for a while.
ROBERTS: And, David, on this point, if a fix. You know, one of the -- one of the most eloquent things about the way that Tylenol handled the scare back in 1982 was it pulled everything off of the market and within weeks had developed this tamper-proof packaging that sometimes frustrates many of us, but they gave a guarantee to people that the product was reasonably safe. Toyota is having a problem coming up with a fix for this.
MARGULIES: Right. They are. But again, I don't think it's as likely to happen as is being portrayed in the media. I've had a car where the accelerator stuck and it was not that difficult to overcome. I think if they explain more carefully that you would feel the accelerator start to malfunction first, it's not an instant thing, if there was more communication and they focused on how they're going to resolve the problem, what are the chances of it really happening, I think they'd be in better shape than what they're doing now, which is limited communications.
It's a scary problem, but I don't think, in the end, you're going to see that there are that many cases where it's actually the accelerator that stuck. They need to be communicating more. And I agree, the way they've said jam both feet on the brakes, I think it's more important you put the car in neutral and turn it off. I think if they communicated more and explain how they're going to make sure they really fix it, they'd be in better shape.
Remember, you don't want to announce a fix and then come back two weeks later and say, well, that didn't quite get it. So, I think they're doing what they need to do. They need better communications.
ROBERTS: An acquaintance of mine is involved in crisis management and said, you know, when you look at the spectrum, Tylenol to Tiger Woods, Toyota is more Tiger Woods than Tylenol.
David Margulies and Jerry Della Femina, great to see you this morning. Thanks for coming in.
MARGULIES: Thank you very much.
DELLA FAMINE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: All right. Appreciate that -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, next on the Most News in the Morning, there's a big fight brewing over a popular Napa Valley, California, tourist attraction. Now, some are asking: is stimulus money being doled out and going down the wrong track? We're digging deeper on Republican claim that's your tax dollars are being wasted.
It's 38 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The stimulus program was designed to help jumpstart the economy with your tax dollars. Recently, a train where California's wine country has become a centerpiece of Republican criticism for wasteful spending. But locals insist this is no gravy train. So, who's right?
Randi Kaye went to Napa Valley to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Our search for stimulus money leads to, of all places, the Napa Valley and the wine train.
It's lunchtime. Chef Kelly McDonald (ph) is hustling, 30 minutes to whip up about 120 meals.
Passengers pay about $100 for a four-course meal and choose from 100 different wines.
It is a three-hour journey, winding through the beautiful Napa Valley. But we climbed aboard because the wine train has a prominent place on a list of stimulus projects -- labeled as wasteful or silly, leading some to call it the "stimulus waste express."
MELODIE HILTON, NAPA VALLEY WINE TRAIN: Who said that?
KAYE: Melodie Hilton handles P.R. for the wine train and can thank Republican Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn for the negative publicity. In their stimulus checkup report from December, the senators question 100 projects. The Napa Wine Train ranks number 11.
(on camera): So, when the report came out putting your wine train on the list, how did you feel?
HILTON: Oh, it's never fun to wake up and find that you're an object of national scorn. I mean, it was -- it was shocking.
KAYE: It's easy to see why this may look as though precious stimulus dollars are being spent on wealthy tourists. After all, lunch on the wine train is a pretty fancy. Here's a steak with a Brazilian lobster cake on top, a glass of cabernet and a glass of sparkling.
But in fact, not a single stimulus dollar is being spent on the wine train.
(voice-over): In fact, the stimulus money is really for a massive flood control project for the valleys. The wine train's tracks happen to be in the way. So, they have to elevate the tracks and move them 33 feet. It's that simple but not cheap. $54 million stimulus dollars are being used.
We called the senators to ask them why this project made their list. Senator Coburn's spokesman told us the whole project is a, quote, "misplaced priority."
Barry Martin is with the Napa River Flood Control Project.
(on camera): Is this a waste of stimulus dollars?
BARRY MARTIN, NAPA RIVER FLOOD CONTROL PROJECT: Absolutely not. This is perfectly fitting into what stimulus was intended to do. As you can see in here, people are on the job working today who might not be otherwise.
KAYE: Here in Napa, supporters say the stimulus funds will create at least 600 jobs and those jobs are expected to last two to three years until the project is done.
(voice-over): But that's for the whole flood project. The contractor expects the track work will employ some 200 people. Once complete, it should mean Napa won't flood every few years. In 1986, flood damage caused $100 million; a 2005 flood, $115 million.
HILTON: You all look pretty good (INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGHTER)
KAYE: Back on the train, Melodie tells us no one from the Napa Valley Wine Train ever received a call for the senators' offices asking for information.
HILTON: They cannot explain this (ph) and I'm not sure that we would have been on that list.
KAYE: And maybe then nobody would be whining about how Napa Valley is wasting your money.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Napa Valley.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, there you. So, recapping this project, the Napa Valley Flood Project and Train Recollection Project cost $54 million and the total number of jobs created, 200.
ROBERTS: Now, in clarification to a report that our stimulus desk brought you earlier this week, we told you about a research project in the Bay Area of northern California that used a half a million dollars in stimulus money to study binge drinking patterns that lead to risky decision making. In our report, we said that the workers were being paid to go into the clubs and observe the people drinking there.
Now, soon after that report aired, the principal investigator of the study wrote to CNN, telling us that the researchers will not actually be going into the clubs themselves, they will be interviewing patrons outside the clubs as they enter or leave. But they still will be following binge drinking patterns and reporting on that.
For the full report in the correction, please go to our blog, CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Tonight at 8:00, Campbell Brown investigates how funding students' tuition with stimulus dollars is working.
At 10:00, "AC 360" returns to the site of the very first stimulus project, $8.5 billion bridge in Missouri. Did that project make a difference and bring jobs to the local economy? We'll check it out in "AC 360" tonight.
ROBERTS: Forty-five minutes after the hour. It is all sorts of all over the place when it comes to the weather. Jacqui Jeras is going to have this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
CHETRY: And coming up in 10 minutes, the State of the Union has been picked apart by now, but our Jeanne Moos has some of the best odd ball moments that you may have missed coming up. Forty-five minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Forty- eight minutes after the hour. That means it's time for your AM House Call this Friday morning, stories about your health, and following in the NFL's footsteps, at least a half dozen states are considering new laws to tighten restrictions on young athletes returning to the field after head injuries. Washington State passed a law last year preventing players with concussion symptoms from taking the field again without approval from a licensed health care provider.
CHETRY: And right now, we get a check of the morning's weather headlines. We have a lot to talk about this morning with our Jacqui Jeras in the Extreme Weather Center this morning. Tough going in parts of Oklahoma, Texas the and Southern Plains. Does it get any better today? JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not so much really, and you know, part of that reason is that the temperatures are going to stay below freezing, so it's not going to allow anything to melt off at all, and some of you that have been seeing the freezing rain, for example in Oklahoma City, are now going to start to see that change over to some snow, so you're going to see that on top of that along with some very gusty conditions, so still a rough go along I-40 as you head on off towards the east.
Little Rock now reporting that freezing rain and that's going to be moving into Memphis and Nashville, and we'll see those wintry mixes then and then snow to come on top of that, and as we take a look at the forecast snowfall totals over the next 48 hours, you can see the real heaviest stuff right along here along the state line into the Tennessee Valley, and keep in mind that what you're seeing over here in the Carolinas towards the Richmond Area, 6 to 12 inches can be expected and that's going to start probably tomorrow and continue into your Sunday.
So, the big picture for today looks like this. This is really the only game in town for the most part. We'll be watching that storm all weekend long. High pressure in effect across the north keeping some pretty tranquil and nice conditions, but we still have kind of a tight pressure gradient across the northeast so that means that the winds are going to be a bit on the strong side.
If you're traveling, those winds could cause some delays, Boston, New York City metros, as well as Philadelphia; Atlanta some low clouds expected, but that probably won't cause any delays until the afternoon hours; Memphis, the wind and the snow; and Houston will see some thunderstorms. We could see some more flooding rain side out of the system in South Texas all the way over to the Florida panhandle.
ROBERTS: Good deal. Jacqui, thanks so much for that. We really appreciate it.
This morning's top stories are just minutes away now including Toyota, trying to find a way to fix millions of recalled cars and its reputation at the same time, and Congress wants some answers from the world's biggest car company. Plus, what happens if you have a Camry sitting in your driveway right now?
CHETRY: Also, terror trial backlash. There's ruling out where lawmakers in New York over bringing the 9/11 suspects to trial near ground zero. One congressman says it's quote, "one of worst decisions ever made by any President." Reports this morning say the White House could be reversing course.
ROBERTS: Plus, he was once Wall Street's top cop, Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is here this morning to talk about the $862 billion stimulus plan. Is your money being well spent or wasted? Those stories and more still ahead on Most News in the Morning. It's nine minutes now to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Don't blame Jay, the once and now future host of "The Tonight Show" telling Oprah Winfrey that he's been unfairly cast as the villain in NBC's late night fiasco.
ROBERTS: Leno says what happened to Conan O'Brien certainly wasn't fair, but it's about ratings the bottom line. He also revealed that the two have not spoken since the tonight's show story blew up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: Will you have him on your show?
JAY LENO, HOST: I would love to. I don't know whether he would do it or not. I think he will have a successful show on Fox or somewhere else...
WINFREY: Wherever he goes.
LENO: And then we will all compete again and may the best man win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Leno was scheduled to return to "The Tonight Show" on March the 1st.
CHETRY: All right. Now, it's 55 minutes past the hour. Time for the "Moost" News in the Morning meaning Jeanne Moos. There was a lot going on during President Obama's first State of the Union Address.
ROBERTS: There was the usual clapping, of course, but also some yawning, a little napping, supreme court scowling. Jeanne Moos now has some of the odd ball moments of the State of the Union.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you're salivating for screw ups the State of the Union got off to a promising start, a deer in the headlights moment with the official introducers at a loss to know when to start.
UNKNOWN MALE: They're supposed to give us a tap.
MOOS: A tap of the gavel...
UNKNOWN MALE: Madam speaker...
UNKNOWN MALE: The President of the United States.
MOOS: We're off. To be a fly on the wall at the State of the Union or an eagle on the ceiling. Of course, everyone's favorite State of the Union game is watching who claps when, all rise. Please be seated. Some suffered from PA, premature applause.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People get a government that matches their decency that embodies their strength.
MOOS: Enthusiastic clappers contrasted with stoney faced Republicans after a presidential dig at the opposition. Someone yelled oh, snap.
OBAMA: The problem is that's what we did for eight years.
MOOS: And at one point, one of the most avid clappers, California Democrat, Barbara Lee, physically nudged a colleague seemingly to get her not to clap.
OBAMA: Democrats and Republicans, you've trend some of the spending.
MOOS: Then there was the joint chiefs don't ask, don't tell, don't applaud moment.
OBAMA: To finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love, because of who they are.
MOOS: There was so much clapping from Michelle Obama. She gestured for everyone to sit.
OBAMA: She gets embarrassed.
MOOS: So did a Fox news correspondent, Major Garrett, who tried to tweet a link to State of the Union excerpts and accidentally gave out a soft porn site. Sorry. Jimmy Kimmel imagined how the President should have described the State of the Union.
Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, got the most attention for apparently mouthing not true when the President dissed a Supreme Court decision.
OBAMA: Including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections.
MOOS: Not quite as exciting as the last time the President was challenged.
Maybe Senator Harry Reid needed to lie down but not Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano, here she is putting the nap in Napolitano mock one right wing website (ph), but the AFP photographer who took the picture says she wasn't asleep, not unless she was sleep clapping.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Some of the best part is just you listen to the speech, but you also get to see what's going on. There's always something happening in the background.
ROBERTS: I had the opportunity actually to be in the chamber for one, and it really is an extraordinary experience just to look at the reaction from all the different people.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Yes, a lot of fun.
Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
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