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Campbell Brown
The Tea Party Movement; Bill Clinton Back in Haiti
Aired February 05, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everybody.
A monster storm expected to bring whiteout conditions begins its march up the East Coast. Forecasters are warning of life-threatening conditions in some places. And that tops the "Mash-Up" tonight. We're watching it all so you don't have to.
Winter storm warnings stretch from southern Indiana to New York City and all the way down to North Carolina. Delta and Southwest Airlines have canceled flights in and out of Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, and the storm is just getting started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Many people are being told to simply stay inside, stay off the roads, as a significant snowstorm blows into the Washington, D.C., area, indeed the entire Mid-Atlantic region.
SARAH LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is really the packable stuff that kids can make snowmen with and you can throw it as a snowball. But when the roads freeze over tonight, that is just going to make driving a lot more treacherous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Washington, which normally get just 16 inches all year, the store shelves have been stripped bare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just like Thunderdome out there, like anybody is grabbing at anything they can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In D.C. and the surrounding suburbs, this massive storm has already earned a TV nickname. They're calling it "Snowpocalypse."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some forecasters were saying this could be the storm in Washington, up to 30 inches, breaking the all-time record.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Major historic storm for us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a whopper of a system. This is a massive system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe some historic snow moving through here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: A blizzard warning in the D.C. area in effect until 10:00 tomorrow night.
Toyota's CEO apologized today for accelerator problems that have forced the company to recall more than eight million cars, small consolation to worried drivers, especially owners of Prius hybrids, who have been reporting brake problems. Their cars have yet to be recalled and they still don't know exactly what's wrong with their brakes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Friday evening news conference in Japan, not exactly the peak of the news cycle for a titan of industry to apologize for his product.
AKIO TOYODA, PRESIDENT & CEO, TOYOTA (through translator): The current problem is a huge problem and it is a critical situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Toyota admits to a flaw in the Prius computer- controlled brakes. Critics say, with 30 to 100 computer microprocessors on board, a fault could affect brakes, acceleration, lights, or entire dashboards, technology so high-tech, say the critics, it leaves government investigators in the dust.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Toyota CEO was also asked about allegations from one of his former top U.S. lawyers, who alleges the company hid and destroyed evidence of safety problems on orders from Japan.
TOYODA: It may be a little bit complicated, so let me speak in Japanese.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "We are going to try to cooperate 100 percent," he said.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, HOST, "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS": The company also announced it would take the unusual step of bringing in outside experts to review the quality-control process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Toyota says the brake problems will cost the company $2 billion in repairs and lost sales, and that doesn't even include the Prius problems.
The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent last month. That is the lowest level since August. But if it doesn't feel to you like things are getting much better, here may be why. In that same report, the Labor Department says another 20,000 people just lost their jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: President Obama is welcoming an unexpected dip in the unemployment rate. It fell to 9.7 percent in January, the first time it's been below 10 percent since this past summer.
KATIE COURIC, HOST, "CBS EVENING NEWS": But a separate report found that 20,000 more jobs were lost in January. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we lost even more jobs than first thought. Revised numbers now show the great recession claimed 8.4 million jobs.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, these numbers, while positive, are a cause for hope, but not celebration, because far too many of our neighbors and friends and family are still out of work. We can't be satisfied when another 20,000 have joined the ranks and millions more Americans are underemployed, picking up what work they can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And not only are 20,000 more Americans out of work. It is taking a lot longer than ever to find a job, an average of 211 days right now.
An exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton today. She says the greatest threat to this country is not from Iran or North Korea. It is from Islamic extremists. The secretary of state sat down with CNN's Candy Crowley, and she said there is one thing that could make groups like al Qaeda even more dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you were to say to the American people, this country is the most dangerous to Americans and to the U.S., where is that country?
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You know, Candy, in terms of a country, obviously, a nuclear-armed country like North Korea or Iran pose both a real or potential threat.
But I think that most of us believe the greater threats are the transnational non-state networks, primarily the extremists, the fundamentalists, Islamic extremists who are connected, al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula. And the biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Candy's interview with Clinton airs this Sunday on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
In political news, who could forget South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, the man who made the term hiking the Appalachian Trail a euphemism for having an affair? Well, now his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Jenny, is speaking out. And she has written a book called "Staying True." And she told ABC's Barbara Walters how she felt about the governor's infamous press conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MARK SANFORD (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I have been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship which started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina. It began very innocently, as I suspect many of these things do, in just a casual e-mail back and forth in advice on one's life there and advice here. But, here recently, over this last year, it developed into something much more than that.
BARBARA WALTERS, ABC NEWS: After his press conference, your husband called you.
JENNY SANFORD, WIFE OF SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR MARK SANFORD: Right away, right, for, how did I do? Right.
WALTERS: What did you say?
J. SANFORD: I think I said, how did you do? Are you kidding? You talked about days crying for her or with her, and you hardly said anything about the boys or I. It was just -- the whole thing was surreal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: To say the least. Later in the hour, we're going to talk to a South Carolina journalist who interviewed Jenny Sanford also today. She has a lot to tell us.
And that brings us to the "Punchline," courtesy of David Letterman. And as you can imagine, he's not quite done yet making fun of one-time "Cosmo" centerfold and new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": It turns out that the guy they elected, Scott Brown, his background, he's a former go-go boy and nude model.
(LAUGHTER)
LETTERMAN: And he has been sworn in as the senator from Massachusetts and today was his first vote. It's a big day for any senator, but today Scott Brown's first vote down in Washington. We have some videotape. Take a look.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ms. Boxer of California. Ms. Boxer votes yes. Mr. Brown of Massachusetts. Mr. Brown votes no.
Mr. Brown, would you kindly put your pants back on?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Schumer of New York. Mr. Schumer votes yes.
Mr. Schumer, would you kindly put your pants back on?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: David Letterman, everybody. And that is the "Mash-Up." Coming up, President Bill Clinton back in Haiti today. Can he do anything for the Americans accused of kidnapping 33 -- kidnapping those Haitian children? We're going to hear from him coming up shortly.
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BROWN: Tonight, the 10 American missionaries who have been charged with kidnapping Haitian children have been split up, we have learned. Five men were sent to one prison, five women to another. One of those women, the leader of the group, spoke to CBS News today, proclaiming their innocence. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA SILSBY, DETAINED IN HAITI: We in no way wanted to disrespect the Haitian government. We have just tried our best to comply with all that they have asked us to do. We have faced a very challenging, confusing legal process here. We have not in any way trafficked or kidnapped children.
We came here out of love in our hearts for these children. Our hearts are heavy because we know we have not done what is being charged against us, and we just want the truth to be revealed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Former President Bill Clinton also back in Haiti tonight. It is his second visit since the earthquake, and the big question tonight is, will he or his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, step in to try to help the missionaries?
Joe Johns spoke with former President Clinton today, and he's joining me from Port-au-Prince.
And, Joe, give us the very latest, if you will. Start with the jailed Americans. And specifically I know you have some information on what the State Department is saying right now.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Campbell.
The State Department pretty much giving these jailed Americans the standard treatment. The press secretary -- actually, it was the secretary of state herself who said this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system, saying the U.S. will provide support to the American citizens, but, ultimately, ultimately, this is a sovereign nation, which is what people have been saying all along.
As you said, I did speak today with former President Bill Clinton, who is the special envoy, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti. Here's what he told me when I asked him about the situation involving the jailed Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: First, the president and the prime minister have both said they don't want this to become a distraction to the larger effort.
I think that, on the other hand, the Haitians are determined that Haiti won't become a ground where children can be trafficked or sold or anything like that. That is a noble goal.
It may be that the Idaho missionaries, that their explanation is absolutely accurate and they are 100 percent innocent. And I think what is important now is for the government of Haiti and the government of the United States to get together and work through this, because the government of Haiti understands that they are not looking for some big fight here . They just want to protect their children, and they also want to make sure they have a good inventory so they don't send children away that maybe have an aunt and uncle that have an income that want to keep them or something like that.
So, and they are used to dealing with this. Keep in mind this country had 380,000 orphans in a country of only 9.5 million people before the earthquake. So, that is why they have worked through very strong laws that they are very insistent on being honored. But I think they will find a way to diffuse the crisis and work through this. It is not my area of responsibility.
And I don't know enough about it to make any more comments But the only thing I ask is that both sides try to work through it as quickly as possible. I think they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Interesting, he also said that he wasn't the governor of Haiti when I asked him, you know, exactly what is your role going to be? So he's trying to make it clear that the United States and the United Nations are not trying to take over this country. They're leaving it up to them to determine how they want to go on this.
BROWN: Right, but certainly they need all the help they can get.
Joe Johns -- appreciate it, Joe.
We're going to be back in just a minute. When we come back, the wife of South Carolina's cheating governor speaking out tonight. We're going to talk to the reporter who sat down earlier today for a very lengthy interview with Jenny Sanford.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The Tea Party Convention down in Nashville getting a lot of attention right now. We wanted to take a closer look, so we sent our intrepid associate producer Graham Flanagan there with a video cameras and his press credentials, and this is what he heard. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what we're here for? A little bit of R&R, for revival and revolt.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know when someone is lying to us, and if this man is for real, if his administration is for real, we will be behind him. He will have a bloc that he never counted on.
They're blowing our money. They're ripping it apart, like we can just spend, spend, spend. They need to stop that spending because we have tightened our belts and they're going to tighten their belts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you all start listening to us. We pray for the media. They will listen to us. We're not nuts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want people now to go in who are citizen legislators. We want the homeschool moms. We want the ex-military people. We want the doctors, and we want the lawyers, people who know how to balance a checkbook. And we want the permanent political class thrown out.
We're going to kick their butts in 2010, 2012, and we're going to keep it alive. And I say that as a pastor of a church with all love.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't look at him, because I just see evil. I say he's a force of evil. He's on the opposite -- he's on Satan's side. Everything he says and does is totally against what the word of God says. He doesn't speak the truth. He doesn't know the truth. And the truth shall set you free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not everybody thinks Obama is Satan or is doing (INAUDIBLE) And not everybody is religious, actually. I'm not religious. And yet very involved with my Tea Party movement. In fact, I'm an atheist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And Graham Flanagan is joining me right now.
And, Graham, you had a chance to talk to a lot of the folks down there. Just give me your take. Is there one thing that really jumped out at you?
GRAHAM FLANAGAN, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, the one thing that really jumps out at me is the spiritual aspect of this Tea Party movement.
You heard a couple people talking about it in that last sound bite there. Last night, one of the later events was essentially a sermon with an extended prayer. And I really, for a few moments, forgot that I was at a political event and felt like I was at a church service.
So, you heard in that sound bite that there are some -- there are two ends of the spectrum, and some believe that spirituality and religion should play a major part in this Tea Party movement. But there are some that -- the more fiscally minded people that think that it shouldn't.
So I think that it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work for these two ends of the spectrum to come together and for the Tea Party movement to play any kind of significant role in the political landscape.
BROWN: As they still try to define themselves, absolutely. Graham, thanks for doing that for us. Appreciate it.
And I want to turn now to Lori Christenson, who is also at the convention. And she leads a Tea Party group out of Colorado.
Hi, Lori.
I know you weren't really involved in the politics, frankly, except for really voting, until last year, and then something changed. What was that for you?
LORI CHRISTENSON, POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Well, we saw the spending going out of control even more so than the last past four years. And the stimulus package, the out-of-control spending, it was scary.
BROWN: Who are the Tea Partiers? We just heard this sort of a broad swathe of opinion about various issues from all the people who are there. How do you define the group?
CHRISTENSON: I don't think the group has a specific definition, Campbell. It's so different for so many different people.
I'm hearing people say -- the person before me say how spiritual it was. In Colorado, that's not necessarily who we are. But we all have the message of being fiscally conservative.
BROWN: And that -- you know, because I think far too often you're being defined as a group by what you're against rather than what you're for. If you can, try to put it in those words for me. What does the Tea Party really stand for?
CHRISTENSON: I would say that we are for fiscal responsibility. We would like to see our congresspeople live within the budget, live within the budget that they have.
We would like to see smaller government, and we would like to see the free markets sustained, and along with keeping with the Constitution, following the Constitution. That's what we stand for.
BROWN: I mentioned it sort of seeming to be a movement of various perspectives, but there is no denying this very strong anti-Obama sentiment.
You heard or you may have heard a moment ago one of the attendees told our producer that the president is working, in her view, on behalf of Satan. Does that kind of rhetoric detract from what you want to try to accomplish?
CHRISTENSON: Well, it's certainly not the rhetoric that we are saying in Colorado. We are not necessarily anti-Obama. We are anti-big government, out-of-control government spending. That's what we're anti. We're not anti -- in Colorado, we're not anti-Obama.
BROWN: All right. Well, Lori, we appreciate you sharing your perspective with us. We thank you for taking the time to talk.
We're going to take a quick break. We're going to have more from the Tea Party Convention when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Among those poking their heads into the meeting rooms at the Tea Party Convention, Erick Erickson, editor in chief for RedState.com, and John Avlon, senior political columnist for TheDailyBeast.com.
Hey, guys.
John, let me start with you. I have been listening to a lot of these people sort of describe what this movement is about. I think some people see them and see themselves as true independents, but certainly not everybody. Give us your sense, having chatted with a lot of people, of who they are.
ERICK ERICKSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF, REDSTATE.COM: I think overall there is a big difference between most Tea Party movement folks and independent voters in general.
I think most Tea Partiers are conservative populists. I think they're trying to move the Republican Party to the right. They have got a lot of anger, for example, at centrist Republicans who they sometimes attack as RINOs, whereas a lot of independent voters really are angry at the polarization between the two parties.
I think a lot of Tea Partiers would like to see more polarizations. And that's all part of the big dynamic here. You saw today even one of the organizers of this event said specifically their goal is not to form a third party. They want to aid conservative candidates in the Republican Party.
BROWN: And, Eric, in that same vein, we heard some pretty extreme rhetoric from folks like Tom Tancredo today, former congressman, who called President Obama a committed socialist ideologue. Is that representative of the people there, in your view, or is that not fair either?
ERICKSON: You know, I actually think that probably is a fairly indicative view of what a lot of people think.
They may not say it in those terms, but they definitely think that Barack Obama leans more towards European-style socialism than what the Democratic Party has traditionally represented in the country. Whether that's fair or not is probably for the voters to decide, but a lot of us do think that.
I wouldn't say Tom Tancredo, however, is indicative of the greater Tea Party movement. These guys generally, they're mad at both the Republicans and the Democrats, and they're mad about the spinning in Washington. The Republicans have betrayed that idea. The Democrats have betrayed that idea as well.
BROWN: But, again, we get like the anger. We get they're mad.
But I go back to sort of, what are they for? Rather, when you sort of get beyond just yelling about the president, what -- and beyond we want social -- or fiscal conservative, social conservative principles, be specific. What is the defining thing for them that you think they're really for?
ERICKSON: Well, it's not social conservative, although most of these people, I would say, probably are socially conservative.
BROWN: More libertarian, frankly.
ERICKSON: It's the spending in Washington.
Yes. I would think so. They were very, very upset with George Bush at the end of his administration, conservatives and a lot of independents. By the time they really got organized and active, though, Barack Obama was the president, not George Bush.
Had George Bush still been president, they would be doing this against him, not Barack Obama. And you can see that ringing true by a lot of these Tea Party activists going to places like Utah, taking on Bob Bennett, who is in the most conservative state of the nation, Utah, and he's the eighth most liberal Republican in the Senate, according to the American Conservative Union. They're after him in the primary. They're after Charlie Crist, Florida's very popular Republican governor, in a primary.
These guys are really angry at both parties. Their natural home may be the Republicans, but they want to clean the house.
BROWN: And, John, where does Sarah Palin fit into this? We know she's the keynote speaker tomorrow night. Are they looking for a leader, and what's her role?
JOHN AVLON, AUTHOR, "WINGNUTS: HOW THE LUNATIC FRINGE IS HIJACKING AMERICA": No, I think most of these folks are very comfortable with the fact that the Tea Party movement up to now has been a leaderless movement.
They take pride in that. I think with Sarah Palin what you have got is she's sort of queen of the conservative populists. She is seen as being outside the Washington establishment, and I think a lot of folks here identify with that.
But it does raise a larger question of, beyond the broad slogans, what specific policies are they for? It's ironic. When McCain/Palin were running, I don't think the conservative movement was, A, this energized, B, not nearly this using of technology to sort of develop grassroots activism.
So, a lot of this activism that has erupted is so in opposition to Obama. It's such absolutely anti-Obama that that does tend to cloud out the other common ground of the movement that is going on, which is fiscal conservatism.
So, the real challenge, I think, going forward is whether they can pivot to a positive policy agenda, or whether they it will be -- primarily focus their anger on the Obama administration.
BROWN: And let me ask you both this. John, you start. Do you guys think that this momentum they do seem to have, having had some success, can -- is sustainable through November?
AVLON: Well, I think that what's interesting -- what you're seeing already is that there is a lot of this populist anger, but look at the big win in Massachusetts, Scott Brown, a pro-choice Republican supported by a lot of Tea Partiers, but primarily by independents in that state.
Already, some folks on the conservative extremes are saying he's a RINO because he's pro-choice. Look at the race for Biden's seat and Obama's seat in Delaware and Illinois. You know, Mark -- Mike Castle and Mark Kirk have both been called RINOs in the past by conservative activists. But now they have a real edge of capturing those seats precisely because their centrist Republicans. So I think a lot of the -- a lot of the divisions were inside the conservative movement. You know, you've got to wonder and look towards November, maybe folks might realize that it's smart to support centrist Republicans and not indulge in this party purity test.
BROWN: Erik, last word.
ERICKSON: I would say if you look around the country, yes, you know, there's been a lot of division, particularly, for example, in Illinois where it the tea party movement was split among candidates. But in Utah they're very united against Bob Bennet around Mike Lee. In Florida, they're very united against Marco Rubio. They're not going after centrist Republicans who tend to compromise towards bigger government. They're really focused on Republicans who want to cut the size of government and Democrats who don't want large government programs.
For example, Heath Shuler in North Carolina. If he comes out against health care, you'll probably see tea party activists rally around him. There is a pragmatic practical side of the tea party movement where they will rally around a guy like Scott Brown in Massachusetts.
BROWN: Right.
ERICKSON: Because he very clearly was opposed to larger government.
BROWN: All right. Erik Erikson for us tonight, and John Avlon. Guys, thank you. Appreciate it.
ERICKSON: Thank you.
BROWN: Tonight, the reporter who broke the story of South Carolina's cheating governor, Mark Sanford, is here. She's going to tell us about her interview today with first lady Jenny Sanford.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford's new book hit the stores today. It, of course, tells the inside story of her marriage and her husband's affair with an Argentinean woman. Here she is talking to ABC's Barbara Walters about the day her husband, the governor, came clean.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOVERNOR MARK SANFORD (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: So oddly enough, I spent the last five days of my life crying in Argentina.
JENNY SANFORD, MARK SANFORD'S WIFE: It was awful for me to watch. My husband pined about his soul mate and the day he spent crying in Argentina. It was awful to watch the implosion of his career that really began right there at that press conference.
M. SANFORD: I'm going to resign as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
J. SANFORD: It was awful to think that the world now was watching this about us and our marriage. It was awful from the political standpoint because he really should have stopped talking at a certain point. I mean, it was awful on so many levels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Political reporter Gina Smith writes for "The State" newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, and she actually broke the story of the Sanford affair.
And welcome to you, Gina. I know you spent an hour and a half with Jenny Sanford today. What jumped out at you most in your time with her, talking to her? What struck you the most?
GINA SMITH, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE STATE": You know, it was really nice for the first lady to have me down to her home at Sullivan's (ph) Island here in South Carolina. And I think the thing that really stood out to me is I think the first lady -- and I'm not a psychiatrist, but I think the first lady is in a place that a lot of women are when they're going through a difficult divorce. On the one hand, she talks sometimes in very unflattering terms about the governor. There are some stories in the book that certainly paint him as less than an ideal husband, but at the same time she still defends him.
She talks very much about how they had a really nice marriage and they had a lot of fun times together, and she told me she doesn't regret marrying him at all. So I think she's still in that place where she's angry, she's hurt and mad, but also still loving him to a certain degree.
BROWN: You know, let me go through some of the details in her book. It is very detailed, and I know you say a lot of the stories will surprise people. For example, at their wedding, he wanted to leave out the vow to be faithful. SMITH: Yes, and he actually -- they did leave that vow out. And I talked to the first lady about that today, and she explained that she knows it sounds a little shocking at first, but if you read her book, she spent several pages explaining that she just figured he had cold feet, a classic case of cold feet. And she said, you know, you are going to be faithful, and he's like, of course, I'm going to be faithful. You know, I understand that that's a basic principle of marriage.
BROWN: He just couldn't actually say the word.
SMITH: Right, right. She said that she had no doubt that he was going to be faithful, and she had, you know, all the confidence in the world, and she didn't mind if they didn't say the words during the ceremony. She just wanted to make sure that he was faithful during the marriage, and she felt he would be.
BROWN: Yes. Maybe a not so subtle heads-up there as to what was to come. She also writes repeatedly about his frugality and how that affected her. What did she say to you about that?
SMITH: Yes, the governor is well-known throughout South Carolina for being incredibly frugal, and the first lady has a little bit of fun with that in the book. One of the more interesting stories that she talks about how he's never really given her nice gifts over the years. As a matter of fact, one year he forgot her birthday altogether, but she says there's this one year it was a great exception, he was in Congress, and he had a staffer go out and pick out a diamond necklace for her. And of course, he paid for it. She got the gift, she loved it. He came home from the weekend from D.C. She's wearing the diamond necklace because they're going out to dinner with friends, and he sees the diamond necklace for the first time and says, I paid all that money for that? And he returned the gift. He made her take it off and he took the diamond necklace that she loved.
BROWN: Are you serious? Unbelievable.
SMITH: Yes. And she said today -- she said today he promised he would find a replacement gift that she said he just never got around to it. But again, like we were talking about earlier, after telling this story that you're like -- then she explains, well, it turned out that it was for the best. Because if she had kept the diamond necklace, she knows that every time he looked at it, he would be thinking, what a waste of money, so she wouldn't have been able to enjoy wearing the diamond necklace because she would know what he was thinking. So in the long run, it was OK that she didn't get to keep the necklace.
BROWN: Wow. You know, she writes about the affair, specifically, and I know she told you that when she first found out, she wanted to keep it a secret and she was even willing to sign a contract to that effect. Tell us about that.
SMITH: She did. I was asking the first lady. She's known as a very private person, not one who opens up easily with the media. And I was asking her, you know, some of these stories are really personal in this book, and I was curious about what it was like to tell those stories. And she said, you know, I wanted total privacy. I didn't want to tell any of these stories, but the governor was the one who really started it when he came back from Argentina and he was willing to dish all about the other woman in that press conference where he talked about the other woman before she -- he talked about her and the boys.
She said after she found out about the affair, she went to her attorney and had a contract drawn up where she basically said, I will never mention this affair if you recommit to this marriage, you know, if you don't see her again and you recommit to the marriage. And he refused to sign the contract, so that didn't work out.
BROWN: And even after she found out, I mean, she writes that the governor would beg her and even begged their friends for permission to go back and visit his mistress.
SMITH: Yes, this was not a new piece of the story. We've heard a little about this in recent months, but yes, basically, he really wanted to go see the other woman, and he basically pestered the first lady about how he needed to go for closure, he needed to go and see if that's where his heart really was. She writes how incredibly painful it was to hear this man say this.
There's one quote in the book where he says, you know, Jenny, would you want to turn 80 one day and possibly miss out on this one heart connection? And she said she was so surprised because she said, I thought we had a heart connection. You know? So he just kept after her, kept after her, and she said, no, it's one thing for me to, you know, forgive infidelity. It's a very different thing for me to condone it by letting you go to visit her.
So when the first lady wouldn't give in, she writes that he started calling and talking to friends and making his case to them that he should be allowed to go. I think, you know -- and they said the same thing. They said if you want to save your marriage, this is not a good idea. Of course, we know what ended up happening long term is he did, indeed, secretly go see the other woman.
BROWN: And, Gina, I've got to ask you, you know, she and the governor have four sons.
SMITH: They do.
BROWN: Is she worried about the impact that the stories in the book are going to have on them?
SMITH: You know, that's an interesting question. I asked her, as you were writing this book, who did you have in mind? And she first said women, and certainly she has attracted a large following of women, not just here in South Carolina around the nation who feels that she has been so strong, she's been so inspirational. She did not stand by her man during that press conference. She's not worried about his political career anymore. She's made it abundantly clear that her focus is her four boys. And women have really, really, you know, loved that. Today I was in a bookstore talking to primarily women who bought the book and said what an incredible inspiration this lady is to them. And the second group she said she wrote the book for were her four boys, that she wanted them to see her side of the story, that she wanted them whenever they're ready to read it, you know, she's not forcing the boys to read it right now. But she says she wanted to tell them, you know, where she was, how she made the decisions that she made, and that above all else, she wanted to show them that she has always put family, friends and faith above everything else. So you'll have to read the book and see if you agree.
BROWN: All right, Gina Smith. Appreciate your time, your insights, who had this interview who broke the story. Gina, great to have you here. Thanks so much.
And coming up, Toyota's CEO says he's sorry. That's not good enough for Congress. Hearings now on the massive recalls are set. Did Toyota move fast enough? More on that story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The head of Toyota today apologized for the worldwide recall of more than eight million cars. The problem with sticking gas pedals has rocked the country to its very core. Congress is going to be holding hearings next week to look into whether Toyota and U.S. transportation officials acted quickly enough on this issue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
And Joan Claybrook is the former head of the government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. She's joining us right now.
And, Joan, you've been very critical of the way the government has been handling this so far. What exactly do you think they're doing wrong?
JOAN CLAYBROOK, FMR. ADMINISTRATOR NHTSA: Well, I think until Secretary LaHood got involved in this last fall, it had been treated as a routine matter. And six investigations were open based on consumer complaints. Toyota talked the government into closing them. What they ignored is the enormous danger of this type of a defect. And it requires the full bore of an investigator's effort and authority to make sure that they figure out what the problem is and require the company to do the recall. And I think --
BROWN: So what happened, though, along the way that -- I mean, was this just sort of laziness? Was it the bureaucracy? What was behind this problem?
CLAYBROOK: I think that there's not an enforcement mentality in the last administration. There was no administrator for a year and a half who could take the heat of this because it was going to be a hot issue. And so the investigators did their routine thing, the engineers, and they didn't exactly know what the problem was, and so they closed the investigations. And I think it was just -- you might say bureaucracy was a good piece of it. BROWN: But this isn't partisanship. Just to clarify, it is bureaucratic. This isn't, you know, one administration over another given that --
CLAYBROOK: Oh, I disagree. I disagree. I think that the Bush administration kowtowed to the auto industry and they were very cautious and they didn't want to issue strong fuel economy standards. They didn't want to issue strong safety standards.
BROWN: All right.
CLAYBROOK: And they certainly didn't want to that.
BROWN: But that's a much broader issue. I kind of want to keep it focused, if we can, on what we're trying to address here with regards to this recall and how this got to the point where it is right now. What could have been done? What changes specifically would you suggest would you have them do to ensure that this doesn't happen again?
CLAYBROOK: Well, it's leadership. It's a matter of leadership and you can't control that, but there are other authorities that I think that this agency needs. One of them is higher civil penalties so that it deters the companies from behaving as Toyota has during this whole investigation by avoiding and not giving enough information and so on. And also criminal penalties. If there were criminal penalties that would allow the executives to be put in jail if they covered up an issue, then I think you would see a very different outcome in many of these investigations.
BROWN: But let me also ask you, if I read this to be true, that the last time regulations relating to accelerators were updated, was -- which was, of course, the source of this eight million recall, vehicle recall we're talking about. The last time they were updated was more than 30 years ago?
CLAYBROOK: Right. 1973 that standard was issued. And it doesn't even deal with electronic issues.
BROWN: So how is that possible, and, again, why does that happen? Is that just the bureaucracy? Is that just, you know -- who dropped the ball so that 30 years go by before we're looking at these things?
CLAYBROOK: Well, electronics have come into accelerators at Toyota in 2002. For other companies a little bit earlier in some cases, but it's a fairly recent phenomenon. And this agency has been way behind on many safety standards, including rollover safety standards and child protection safety standards and bus safety standards. So it doesn't have enough money to do everything. I'm not making excuses for it, but I do think that it needs a vast increase in resources and personnel in order to cover the whole range of issues. And they don't even have an electronics engineer. So they need to update themselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And, again, that was Joan Claybrook. When we come back, for much of the nation, this is not the weekend you want to plan going very far from home. A major storm blasting the country from Indiana all the way to the east coast. We're going to show you where it is headed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The snowstorm bearing down on the eastern U.S. has already claimed two lives, and it is just getting started. Blizzard warnings are in effect right now. Some places could get three feet of snow. Hundreds of flights and trains have been canceled. The nation's capitol effectively shut down so that government workers could get home to their families.
Meteorologist Chad Myers is in the CNN's severe weather center. Chad, how bad is it going to get?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know what? Bad enough now that the metro in D.C. is closing down all above-ground operations as of 11:00 tonight, so plan on getting home before that.
Look at Romney, West Virginia already a foot of snow. Martinsburg, West Virginia at 10 1/2 inches of snow and it's really coming out, even Wolf Trap now at about eight inches. And it's snow all the way across Pennsylvania. There's going to be a rain snow right south of D.C. South of there it's going to be all rain until it changes over to snow at the end. You're going to get a little bit snow. But the big snowstorm, the big event is up to the north. Baltimore on up into the counties there of western Maryland and also into Virginia.
One more thing, Hollywood, Florida, you may be hearing the tornado's sirens going off right now. There is a cell circulating there. If you're in Hollywood all the way to the beach there to the northeast, take cover, stay away from the windows if you can. I know most of you don't have basements, but stay away from the windows because that's the most dangerous part of that storm.
This is the cold part. That storm down there in parts of Florida, that was the warm part. The warm part colliding with the cold will make all of this snow. Snow all the way from Atlantic City with 15 inches, Baltimore could get 25.
I don't believe downtown D.C. gets any more than 18. I know I've heard numbers like 30. I don't believe that inside the beltway, because two reasons, it's too wet. It's going to be a packed-down snow, and also there's going to be a dry piece of moisture, a dry air mass come in tomorrow and the snow will be shut off.
You can already see where the rain is shutting off here west of Charlotte. That's going to cut off the snow for D.C. like that, but not before a foot and a half.
BROWN: All right. Very quickly, we're out of time. Selfishly, though, New York is getting what? Three, four, five inches?
MYERS: Two to four.
BROWN: All right.
MYERS: The Amboys could get six.
BROWN: OK, I can deal with that. Chad, thank you.
MYERS: All right.
BROWN: Before we look at the Super Bowl, we do have some other must- see news happening right now. Mike Galanos hosts of Prime News on HLN, here with tonight's "Download."
Hey, Mike.
MIKE GALANOS, HLN PRIME NEWS: Hey, Campbell. First off, Michael Jackson's doctor was ready to surrender today, but Los Angeles prosecutors decided not to file charges until Monday.
Dr. Conrad Murray's attorneys say they expect him to face involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly injecting Jackson with lethal amounts of the anesthetic Propofol. Dr. Murray maintains he gave nothing to the pop star that could have caused his death.
A car-sized piece of a cargo plane broke off just as it started its descent into Miami International Airport, falling into a shopping mall's parking lot. Thankfully no injuries, no property damage. The plane, an Atlas Air 747 from Santiago, Chile, landed safely and the FAA is investigating that.
Well, NASA says space shuttle "Endeavour" is a go for lift-off Sunday morning. Six astronauts will be on a two-week mission to deliver materials to the International Space Station. There are only five flights left before NASA retires its shuttle fleet. That will happen later this year.
And two U.S.-born pandas have a new home back in China. The 3-year- old female, 4-year-old male pandas arrived today to much local fanfare. They want everybody to know they're in fine health after this 14-year-hour journey. The pandas are headed to a research base for panda breeding.
Campbell, last night we had bats coming out of a house. Tonight...
BROWN: Yes.
GALANOS: ... a little cuter with the pandas for you.
BROWN: Yes, thank you. I appreciate that.
GALANOS: You're welcome.
BROWN: Mike Galanos for us tonight.
We have an important update tonight on a story we've been following. Apparently, I've just learned Dave's job is saved. Dave is, of course, the Australian banker in the background of this television interview. The camera caught him checking out some racy pictures. Somebody e-mailed to his work computer. Oops.
Well, today the bank announced that after an internal investigation and a campaign, a worldwide campaign, Dave can continue working. He will keep his job. We just wanted to share that with you.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes. And when we come back, who dat (ph)? Why the Saints are going to win this weekend. Sorry, Colts fans.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: I am not a huge football fan. Sometimes I don't even watch the Super Bowl. But this year is different. I'm a Louisiana girl. This has been a long-time coming. Joe Carter right now from CNN Sports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOAN SERPAS, CHARLIE'S: We kind of got excited November 1st, '66 when we were awarded a franchise. We weren't sure we would get a football team here, so that was exciting in itself, never dreaming the bond with that team would grow over the years as it has grown.
TOM JONES, CHARLIE'S SAINTS MARCHING CLUB: When I just turned 20 and we got the franchise -- well, I really thought, it might be 10 years or so we get our first Super Bowl. You know? So 10 years passed, we didn't get the championship. Another 10 years passed. Well, here I am, 63 years old, it's like a dream come true.
JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS (voice-over): After Hurricane Katrina ripped through the city, the Saints were forced to play the entire 2005 season away from home. But much like many residents of New Orleans, the team returned and rebuilt.
SERPAS: I think to a lot of people it symbolized hope. That there's hope that, you know, we'll still have a football team to cheer for. There were people at games on Sundays that didn't even have a house to live in.
CHARLES LUNDA, CHARLIE'S SAINTS MARCHING CLUB: It's not about the economic value so that people will fill those seats every week and sit in front of their TVs. It's about a dream that's about to come true.
SERPAS: For those three hours, 3.5 hours, you forgot about all the badness, and you just focused on happiness and good times, and that's what the Saints did for the city.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Who dat? Have a great weekend.
"LARRY KING LIVE" right now.
