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American Morning
Toyota Besieged With More Problems; Winter Storm on the Way in Mid-Atlantic; Tea Party Activists in Cruise for Liberty; State of the Job Market; Federal Air Marshals "Useless"?
Aired February 05, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Friday, it's the 5th of February. National Meteorologist Day, by the way, Rob told us. Go and get the weather map.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right.
CHETRY: Thanks for being with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. John Roberts is off this morning. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes this Friday morning.
More troubles for Toyota. There could be brake problems with their Lexus Hybrids. The same kind of problems plaguing the Prius.
Meanwhile, federal regulators have announced the carmaker is under investigation now, and we're about to hear from Toyota's top executives. They're holding a news conference in Japan in about an hour, and the president of the company is expected to be there.
CHETRY: Bracing for a nasty weekend. A massive winter storm is right now racing toward the mid-Atlantic states. More than a foot of snow expected from North Carolina all the way up to New Jersey. Several airlines already canceling flights, knowing that this thing is coming. We're live on the ground with what you can expect later today and throughout the weekend.
ROMANS: And the party is on in Nashville. Tea Party supporters pouring into the city for the first-ever national convention. CNN is putting the spotlight on the growing political movement with the best political team on television covering it from all angles this morning. Jim Acosta shows us how they tried to organize by cruising for conservatives in the final part of our special series, "Welcome to the Tea Party."
CHETRY: We begin with breaking news this morning from Toyota. The carmaker dealing with another public relations nightmare in a growing crisis of confidence for its customers. Here's the latest right now.
Toyota is now confirming they're taking a look, a close look at the upscale Lexus Hybrid HS 250. The vehicle may have the same brake problems plaguing the Prius. Now Toyota has been saying there's no need to recall the Prius, but several published reports in Japan and America indicate that a Prius recall could be coming.
Toyota is now under investigation as well. Federal safety regulators want to know what the carmaker knew about its safety problems, when did they know it, and why they kept it quiet. But breaking right now, we're hearing that a Toyota executive will hold a news conference that begins in an hour. This is the first time we've heard from him on this crisis.
Our Kyung Lah is headed there right now. She joins us on the phone with the latest developments.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): In just one hour, there is going to be the very first news conference held by the CEO of Toyota, head of this company, that's had so many issues, so many questions about quality. Akio Toyoda (ph) says he'll be answering questions about quality. The reason why there's so much news and hubbub, noise and hubbub around me right now is I'm actually on the bullet train heading there now. But we will get our very first chance to ask the head of Toyota about all these lingering questions about the world's number one automaker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm hoping they're being honest about the fix, and I'm going to give them an opportunity to prove themselves.
LAH (voice-over): Many loyal Toyota owners battered by headlines of recalls and run-arounds now wary of a company they've trusted for decades. And here's why.
Number one, accusations the auto giant failed to come clean with customers about serious safety issues. According to the folks at CNNmoney.com, Toyota knew and didn't tell you, at least not right away with the flaw in its braking system on the hot selling Prius hybrid. The automaker knew about the problem at least a month ago and claims it made repairs on the assembly line at the end of January. Little comfort for people who bought a Prius before this week.
Number two, the safety concerns keep mounting. Toyota confirming it's now checking for possible problems with the brakes on its upscale Lexus Hybrid HS 250h.
Number three, many Toyota service centers are swamped staying open 24 hours to begin fixing those sticking accelerator pedals that prompted last month's recall of millions of vehicles.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It causes you to be anxious. You know, you can't just jump in your car and expect it to do what it's supposed to do now.
LAH: But now many auto experts claim an electrical malfunction may be the problem, not those pedals. And the big picture, Toyota will almost certainly have a credibility problem long after all the repairs are complete. LAUREN FIX, CAR COACH: Every car manufacturer has issues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
FIX: And the secret is they do build a quality product. And I think it's going to cause a lot of customers to go elsewhere. And it's very hard and very expensive to earn their loyalty back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: That was Kyung Lah reporting and, of course, the story is developing this morning, as she said. We'll continue to follow the latest with Toyota.
ROMANS: And we're going to get word from the top person of this company, Akio Toyoda (ph). We've only heard very briefly at Davos. He's been under a lot of criticism for not coming out sooner and having some more visibility on this whole crisis. So we'll hear from that in just about an hour.
All right. A powerful winter storm making its way east right now. New York, Philadelphia, Washington, could get hit with up to or more than a foot of snow, making your evening commute downright dangerous. And there could be major delays at airports all weekend.
Our Reynolds Wolf is live in Alexandria, Virginia, and our Rob Marciano is live in the CNN weather center. Let's start with Rob, whose name I should get correct in the National Weatherman's Day or Meteorologist Day.
Hi there, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Everyone is busted on this holiday, especially when this storm that's happening, the second of the season. The first one coming the third week of December, a record breaker then. And this one could be another record breaker.
Let's go to the maps and show you how this thing is winding up. It's starting with heavy rain across the south, even some severe weather down across the gulf states. A lot of moisture with this. And just like the last time, it's heading into cold air north of the North Carolina/Virginia border. There you see it where it's turning into snow. At times it will switch over to sleet but for the most part it will stay all snow as we go on through the next 24 hours.
Look at all the watches, the warnings that are posted. Everything you see in red is a winter storm warning. The pink in Jersey and Delaware is a blizzard warning. We expect to see over 20 inches of snow in and around the Washington, D.C., area.
How much snow New York gets is still a question, probably in the likes of four to eight inches. But if the track of this thing shifts any further to the north, Kiran, New York could easily get over a foot as well. But it's a tough call for the Big Apple. D.C., not a tough call. It's going to be a paralyzing snowstorm for sure.
Back to you.
CHETRY: All right. Absolutely. Just looking at the thing and especially as you said that blizzard warning, all that pink on your radar.
Rob, thanks so much, and happy Meteorologist Day. Is that what it is?
MARCIANO: Thank you.
CHETRY: Yes.
MARCIANO: Close enough.
CHETRY: All right, thanks.
Well, to the south now, and folks stocking up on food, supplies, salt, shovels. Crews are treating the roads. A number of schools already deciding ahead of time they're going to close for the day.
Our Reynolds Wolf is live in Alexandria, Virginia. When you take a look at that radar, it's probably a smart move. I mean, they know it's coming at least in this area.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, absolutely. You know, as Rob was talking just a few moments ago, we're talking about the potential record setting snowfall, several feet, in fact, in this very area by tomorrow morning.
And how do you handle that? How do you improve the roadways? Well, to improve the roadways and try to keep a sense of normalcy, what do you have to have? A lot of trucks out here.
And here at the (INAUDIBLE) facility at the Virginia Department of Transportation, this is just a handful of the 60 trucks that we have out here. You see obviously you've got the snowplows on the front. The first thing they're going to be doing is putting some salt on the roadways.
Let's step around here, past these trucks. You can see this front end loader back over here. What it's been doing is going into these buildings, getting the sodium chloride and then it loads it up into those trucks. They're going to continue this procedure for a good part of the morning and into the midday hour.
Step one procedure is to put that base of salt on the roadways. Then as the snow begins to come down, that's when these plows come back into play. And this truck is about to move on in and when it does, it's going to fill up with that sodium chloride, that salt, and down the road it goes.
Hard to believe we're going to be seeing some snowfall, some heavy stuff again. They average about 16.6 inches of snowfall. They could easily more than double that in many places for this season. Hard to believe. Here comes the salt. Here comes the truck. And now we're sending it right back to you in the studio. We'll see you in a little bit.
CHETRY: Oh, wow. All right, Reynolds Wolf for us this morning out in Alexandria, Virginia. They're going to get it hard. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: Also new this morning, some stunning developments in the story of those 10 jailed American missionaries in Haiti. Haiti has now charged all of them with kidnapping. And what many people thought was a good-natured but maybe misguided attempt to rescue kids may have been calculated even criminal. Coming up 6:40 Eastern, Dan Simon has more on the legal problems the missionary leader may have been running from in the U.S.
CHETRY: Michael Jackson's former doctor is still a free man this morning. He was expected to give himself up to authorities in L.A. by now. But Beth Karas (ph) from our sister network TruTv (ph) reporting that negotiations for Dr. Murray's surrender actually broke down late last night. He's still expected to face charges maybe as early as next week. The doctor telling detectives that he gave Jackson the powerful anesthetic Propofol as well as other sedatives to get him to sleep in the hours before he died.
ROMANS: Another celebrity death has been ruled an accident. The L.A. County coroner's office says actress Brittany Murphy died from a combination of pneumonia and iron deficiency and multiple drug intoxication. The report did not list the drugs involved, but a spokesman says they were not illegal drugs and not the primary cause. Brittany Murphy was just 32 years old.
CHETRY: Still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, a Tea Party on the high seas. But when it comes to President Obama, this is no love boat. We'll explain still ahead.
It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. It's 10 minutes after the top of the hour. A quick check now of other stories new this morning.
Democrats are now stuck with a not so supermajority in the Senate and President Obama is telling lawmakers we should, quote, "take our time before finalizing a health care reform bill." The president says he wants to consider new ideas from both parties and health care experts as well on how to improve the system. He says letting time pass before calling for a vote will allow everyone to get that, quote, "real facts."
CHETRY: And the president was a prime target as the National Tea Party Convention kicked off in Nashville. Conservative Tom Tancredo, the former Colorado congressman and presidential candidate wasted no time drawing the battle lines between the grassroots movement and leadership in Washington. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM TANCREDO, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People who could not even spell the word "vote" or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. The name is Barack Hussein Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. The Nashville convention is a milestone for the grassroots political movement. CNN cutting through all the noise to take an in-depth look at the Tea Party goals with the best political team on television.
CHETRY: The groups are popping up all over the country. Tea Party organizers have even taken to the seas cruising for conservatives. Our Jim Acosta has more on that at the final installment of our special series "Welcome to the Tea Party."
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
CHETRY: Welcome this morning, Jim.
ACOSTA: Good morning. Yes, Tea Party on the Acapulco deck. You could say.
Now we know that the Tea Party movement is not a political party, but they are finding ways to organize. There are those Tea Party rallies we've seen so much. There are many Web sites out there that folks can surf. There's also the convention that's going on this weekend in Nashville. But there's one way that tea partiers are organizing that you may not have heard of as Christine and Kiran mentioned. You can pack your bags for a Tea Party cruise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): On board this cruise ship, easing into the U.S. Virgin Islands, among the thousands of passengers ready for some fun in the sun...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are just not ready for this mad charge to the left.
ACOSTA: Members of a rising American political movement are having a meeting of the minds. Led by former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, more than 100 conservative and Tea Party activists and their families rented out space on this ship for what was billed as the Cruise for Liberty.
MICHAEL O'FALLON, SOVEREIGN CRUISE PRESIDENT: We believe in free enterprise.
ACOSTA: Cruise organizer Michael O'Fallon markets the seven-day voyage as a chance to talk politics in paradise.
O'FALLON: Right now, people are wanting to be with other conservatives. Maybe they feel like they're a little bit out on an island someplace by themselves. And they're...
ACOSTA (on camera): So to speak.
O'FALLON: Yes, so to speak. Right, exactly.
ALAN KEYES, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Give everybody access to health care. And if you don't want it, we'll shove it down your throat.
ACOSTA (voice-over): At the pre-cruise kickoff at this Miami hotel, Keyes explained why he believes the Tea Party is gaining steam.
KEYES: I think it's quite obvious that this isn't about Republicans and Democrats. It may be about the failure of both parties and the whole party system.
ACOSTA: Conservative activist Alan Gottlieb sees a golden opportunity.
ALAN GOTTLIEB, SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION: A lot of people have never been involved in politics before. They know nothing about politics. They're extremely naive. They're angry and they're upset. And they're venting their frustration by attending these rallies.
ACOSTA (on camera): And so your job is to get them involved.
GOTTLIEB: Capitalizing, mobilizing.
FLOYD BROWN, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: We could easily slip back into slavery.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Cruise for Liberty speakers Floyd and Mary Beth Brown have a Web site calling for President Obama's impeachment.
MARY BETH BROWN, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: I know all of us need some encouragement in fighting this battle and -- against Obama who's trying to destroy America. And I know all of you love America and are fellow patriots.
ACOSTA (on camera): When it comes to President Obama, this is no love boat. Liberal critics of these conservative expeditions through the Caribbean say they're another picture-perfect example how the Tea Party movement can sometimes go overboard.
(voice-over): Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons worries the tone at some Tea Party events onshore and off is getting out of hand.
JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Are we just talking about voting differently or are we talking about something a little bit more edgy than that?
ACOSTA: Want edgy? Keyes refers to the president as "the present occupant of the Oval Office". He still questions Mr. Obama's citizenship, even though the White House and the Republican Governor of Hawaii, where the president was born, have produced evidence refuting the charge. ALAN KEYES, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't see how you impeach somebody who may not be president in the first place. So because -- and that's...
ACOSTA (on camera): That's your position (ph)?
KEYES: ... if, according to the Constitution, you are not eligible for the presidency and that does turn out to be the case, then Barack Obama was never president. You don't impeach somebody who never was...
ACOSTA: Oh, come on. How can that be? How can he...
KEYES: No. I'm sorry. You don't understand what constitutional government is all about.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Later this year, there'll be more Tea Parties in the Caribbean aboard the Liberty ship and the Newsmax Cruise, sponsored by the popular Conservative website. But the founders of one leading Tea Party group wonder whether this is the best use of the movement's time during an election year.
ACOSTA (on camera): Would you go on a Tea Party cruise?
JENNY BETH MARTIN, CO-FOUNDER, TEA PARTY PATRIOTS: I -- You know, right now we're working about 20 hours a day. I can't even imagine any cruise, much less a Tea Party cruise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We have no time for cruising.
ACOSTA (voice-over): But other Tea Partiers on these trips argue hitting the high seas is just a new way of cruising with a cause.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Cruising for the cause indeed.
Now, the folks over at Carnival Cruise Lines sent us a statement emphasizing that they do not agree with the politics of the private groups that rent out their cruise. They insist private groups went out their ships all the time. This is just one of them.
CHETRY: When you -- when you hear things like Tom Tancredo's, you know, speech and what Alan Keyes just said about Barack Obama never being president, I mean the...
ACOST: Right.
CHETRY: ... does some of that stuff undermine the -- the message of fiscal conservatism that some in the Tea Party are trying to get out there?
ACOSTA: Americans are going to have to make that choice. They're going to have to make up their minds on this, and there are lots of polls out right now, and CNN has one of them that's out just today, about the Tea Party Movement. A lot of folks don't know that much about the Tea Party Movement. When they hear some of these statements, coupled with the message of, you know, less government, less taxes, they're going to have to make up their minds, are they going to go along with these guys?
ROMANS: A lot of different elements in that movement, a very broad, different set of elements.
ACOSTA: Absolutely.
ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks .
CHETRY: Thanks, Jim.
ACOST: You bet.
ROMANS: All right, next on the Most News in the Morning, we're waiting for new employment figures coming out this morning and how will Wall Street react? What will it mean for your job and how soon you can get a job? Allan Chernoff "Minding Your Business" this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty minutes past the hour right now, and that means it's time for "Minding Your Business."
We have our Allan Chernoff with us this morning and all eyes are going to be on this jobs report out later today.
ROMANS: You bet.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we have some slightly encouraging news and some really bad news that we're anticipating.
First of all, let's start with the somewhat happy news. In a little while, we're going to be getting the monthly numbers on non- farm payrolls, the job report, and it is expected that there will have been a gain of 15,000 jobs during the last month.
OK. That's not bad. Look at that chart, only one month over the past year when we -- we've had a net gain in jobs, 4,000 in November. So we're certainly looking for at least some improvement over there in the jobs picture, but obviously it's been very grim.
How grim, though? Well, there's going to be a revision later today coming out from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Those number crunchers, they have recrunched those numbers and not very -- not very tasty. Job losses could rise by more than 800,000.
They're looking back at the numbers from April of '08 to March of '09 -- don't ask me why they take that exact period, but March of '09, remember, the recession was already deeply underway in late '08 and the beginning of '09. If that happens, if we have that rise of 824,000 jobless, that would mean the number of jobs lost in the recession, 8 million.
CHETRY: Staggering.
CHERNOFF: I don't think anybody would doubt it.
ROMANS: No. And it's -- what's so frustrating too is we hear about the jobs saved or created by the stimulus. I mean, you're talking about maybe 600,000 in the last -- and then this -- the revision clearly just wipes away a big chunk of progress that we thought we had made.
CHERNOFF: Well, you know, when we talked -- as we've reported, most of those jobs created or saved, they're saved.
ROMANS: Right.
CHERNOFF: The -- the stimulus has not -- has not created all that many jobs when you look in the big picture. Yes, you know, 20 here, 30 here, it adds up a little bit. But the vast majority of those numbers that we've been seeing, they're saved jobs.
Lots of money is going into the states, into the municipalities so they don't have to cut more jobs. So it hasn't -- it has prevented the recession from being worse.
CHETRY: So, bottom line today, what do they expect?
CHERNOFF: So we're looking -- we're looking for a job increase, at least during the last month, of 15,000. Let's focus on that good news.
ROMANS: Right. All right.
CHETRY: Yes. So let's -- let's look at that silver lining, Allan. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: Thanks.
CHETNOFF: It's going to get better.
ROMANS: Eventually, it will get better. You're right.
CHETNOFF: They will.
ROMANS: Next on the Most News in the Morning now, when it comes to your safety in the air, how much has changed since the Christmas Day bombing attempt? Two Federal Air Marshals we spoke to say, you know what? Not much.
A CNN exclusive, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Since the Christmas Day terror plot over Detroit, CNN has been working to figure out, are federal air marshals really keeping us safer when we fly?
CHETRY: We found experts who call the program "useless." Also, allegations from some marshals that your tax dollars are essentially being wasted.
In a CNN Special Investigations Unit exclusive, our Drew Griffin went looking for some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Christmas Day of last year, Umar Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a US-bound flight from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his underwear. There were no air marshals on board.
After this attack was foiled by passengers, the president called for...
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: More air marshals on flights.
GRIFFIN: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before Congress.
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We will strengthen the capacity of aviation law enforcement, including the Federal Air Marshal Service.
GRIFFIN: Has it happened? Not according to the Federal Air Marshals or FAMs, as they call themselves, who are supposed to be making those flights.
Several spoke to CNN on condition we protect their identities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since Christmas, most of my domestic flights, a few of them have involved what we considered RJ's or Embraer 71's, smaller aircraft. Plenty of international trips they could be covering aircraft, you know, inbound flights from the foreign countries, but they aren't doing it.
There's really no excuse for it.
GRIFFIN: But there is a reason for it, these air marshals claim. Lots of short-haul flights make the Marshal Service look more productive on paper, even though many of those flights are considered low security risks.
As CNN has reported for three years, the odds of you having an air marshal on your flight is so low that air marshals tell us managers use creative accounting to pad the numbers given to Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way they do it is Mickey Mouse. I mean they -- they even go to the extent of when you're flying personally, they count that as a mission if you're flying armed. If you're going on vacation with your family. That's how they help keep the numbers up. GRIFFIN: Though the actual number is classified, it's been widely reported that the number of air marshals covering 28,000 flights a day is fewer than 4,000. Do the math, like we did. Consider that any trip requires at least two marshals, large, international flights require even more, and, at best, without sick days, without vacations, the air marshals can cover only 5 percent of flights.
The Air Marshal Service tells CNN additionally high trained officers are being deployed aboard an increasing number of flights worldwide, they say, to keep air travel safe.
PROF. JOHN MUELLER, POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPT., OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: It's mostly money down the drain, as far as I can see.
GRIFFIN: Professor John Mueller has just completed a detailed cost benefit assessment of aviation security in the US. He found of the 20 layers of security used by the TSA to protect air travel, the air marshals have been worthless since 9/11.
MUELLER: We've seen with the Underwear Bomber, passengers are not going to sit around waiting for somebody else to do something. Their lives are at stake and they're going to jump in.
GRIFFIN: What should be done with the air marshals? Republican Congressman John Duncan of Tennessee says, get rid of them.
GRIFFIN (on camera): The solution seems to be we need to double, we need to triple -- we need to triple down on this, get many, many, many thousands more air marshals.
REP. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR. (R), TENNESSEE: Well, we may do that, but I sure would hate to see it because it's a -- it's just a total waste of money. I know that any time you create a federal bureaucracy it just grows and grows and the appropriations just go up and up and up.
But, as I said, look at the record. They haven't done anything.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Last week, President Obama asked for an additional $85 million to beef up the Federal Air Marshal Service.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Kiran, the air marshals themselves have told me their agency is, at best, dysfunctional. They say it is not protecting the public as it should. There are already calls in Congress to investigate the widespread allegations of discrimination and mismanagement at this agency, but now a growing chorus asking if this agency is needed at all -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Amazing reporting. Drew Griffin for us. Thanks.
And also, just how much is the TSA spending on the Air Marshal Program? Where are your tax dollars actually going? Drew is going to be joining us again in our next hour with part two of his exclusive report right here on the Most News in the Morning.
ROMANS: It's 30 minutes after the top of the hour. And that means time for this morning's top stories.
Toyota's president is holding a news conference in Japan in the next half hour. He hasn't made a public statement since millions of company's cars were recalled late last month. And there are new safety issues for Toyota customers this morning. Its Lexus hybrid HS 250 might have the same brake problems as the Prius.
And U.S. safety regulators have announced they're placing Toyota under investigation now.
A powerful winter storm is taking shape right now. Forecasters are warning of blizzard conditions along the east coast with some areas getting up to -- get this -- two feet of snow. Several major airlines have already canceled a lot of their flights to and from the east coast. We'll check in with Rob Marciano in about 15 minutes with more on how this may impact your weekend travel plans.
And welcome to the Tea Party -- with supporters from across the country gathering in Nashville for the first-ever convention. CNN is taking an in-depth look at the grassroots movement and efforts to harness its newfound political power. The delegates are eagerly awaiting the convention's keynote speaker, Sarah Palin, who addresses the crowd tomorrow night -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. And independent analyst John Avlon is going to be heading to the convention a little bit later today as well, and he joins us now.
Good to see you this morning.
JOHN AVLON, INDEPENDENT ANALYST: Good morning.
CHETRY: So, one of the interesting things that we want to talk about is who are some of the key players in the Tea Party movement. And you sort of put together a little list for us. So, let's go down and talk about some of the people.
AVLON: Right.
CHETRY: Five key players that we're going to talk about today. One, Judge Roy Moore, number five on your list. People may remember him because of the whole constitutional this -- the little tablet, the plaque outside the courthouse.
AVLON: That's exactly right. A 5,000-pound Ten Commandments statue, they placed on the Alabama courthouse grounds and then refused to remove when asked by federal authorities. So, lost his gig but not before becoming a far-right folk hero. And now, he's running for governor of Alabama, in addition to being Friday's lunch speaker at the Tea Party convention.
CHETRY: And, does he have a chance in that race?
AVLON: You know, it -- I'm not going to pass judgment on Alabama politics, but he certainly has a base of support among the conservatives.
CHETRY: Very interesting.
All right. Let's go to number four on your list. This is congressman and 2008 presidential candidate, we heard from him a little bit earlier, Tom Tancredo -- a huge anti-illegal immigrant activist. What role is he playing right now in the convention and in the Tea Party?
AVLON: Well, Tom Tancredo, you know, former congressman from Colorado, anti-illegal immigrant activist. What happened yesterday was something that -- you know, bigger question, he's been sort of out of the picture since he ran for president. Well, he erupted last night on stage last night with the kind of accusation that we've come to expect, even going a little more outer limits, calling the president of the United States, a committed socialist, ideologue, Barack Hussein Obama -- ugly stuff.
CHETRY: And then he said something about people not even -- who elected him not even being able to spell the word "vote," because they don't speak English.
AVLON: Yes. Not that there's any bad history with (INAUDIBLE) set in place. So, thanks, Tancredo. Stay classy.
CHETRY: Wow.
All right. So, on your list, WorldNetDaily.com founder Joseph Farah. What can you tell us about him and the impact he's having on the Tea Party movement?
AVLON: Joe Farah is a lifelong newspaper man. He first came to fame or infamy as part of the Clinton hater group in the 1990s. Well, he's really gone above and beyond the call of duty with WorldNetDaily this year -- part of the online Obama resistance, funding the billboards that say, "Where's the birth certificate?"
If you go on the site, it's really a prime news force for many of the folks I've spoken to out in the Tea Party movement. You can also buy lawn signs that say America was founded by right-wing extremist.
CHETRY: All right. OK. Let's go to number four here. The convention as we know is ending on Saturday, right? And the keynote speaker is former Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. This is the big-ticket speaker. People are paying, what, $350, in some cases $550...
AVLON: Five hundred.
CHETRY: ... for like the two-day pass. But they want to hear her.
AVLON: Yes. And she's getting $100,000 for the privilege. That's a lot of tea right there. She might be the only person emerging from this whole convention with a profit. But she's also the only person who might be running for president.
And she, really, I think needs to be understood. She's sort of the queen of the conservative populists. She is hugely popular among many of these folks. At the tea parties I've covered, you know, she's right up there with Reagan in terms of being invoked as somebody they really identify with God and country.
Now, of course, there have been the death panel tweets and other things since the election that have also made her suspect to some folks, but her keynote will be a main event. But I don't think she's the biggest factor in tonight's convention.
CHETRY: But you think of the biggest celebrities actually aren't the celebrity people that are out there, but the actual people who are supporting the Tea Party movement.
AVLON: That's exactly right, and that's really important. This isn't about -- the tea parties themselves are a leaderless movement. They are not about pushing forward celebrities. They say this as a grassroots movement that began as a fiscal conservative protest against big government spending.
Now, over the course of this summer, it got radicalized. And there are certainly some folks on the fringe. But I think it's important to understand this is a grassroots fiscal conservative movement, people who are angry, people rallying in Nashville trying to figure out what the next steps are. We'll see when we get there on the ground just what it looks like. Are they going to take next steps?
CHETRY: Right.
AVLON: Or, you know, is it -- is it a matter of progression or digressions?
CHETRY: And yet, the question is, when we talk about independent appeal, does the Tea Party, you know, appeal to independents? What do they think about -- I mean, you know, fiscal conservatism, understanding that, (INAUDIBLE) not passing our debts, you know, to the younger generations. But when you start getting into the birth thing, questioning whether President Obama can legitimately be president...
AVLON: Yes.
CHETRY: ... and some of the other talk, how does that play?
AVLON: Well, that is one of the things. I mean, extremists are always their own side's worst enemy. And for all of the folks who are just here as a fiscal conservative protest, there are those folks on the fringe. All this -- and we've been seeing this in the "Wingnut of the Week" segment, the fringe has been blurring with the base
And it becomes a real challenge for this group if they want to really affect American politics beyond the protests, that they've had so far -- they need to deal with the extremists in their own midst who are stirring up the crazy pot sometimes in ways that are fundamentally unhelpful, and really crossing the line from opposition to demonization of president of the United States and other figures in the U.S. government.
CHETRY: Very interesting stuff.
John Avlon, always great to have you with us. Thanks so much.
AVLON: Thank you.
CHETRY: By the way, John is -- as we said -- heading to the Tea Party today. And he's also going to be blogging about it. You can check it out on our Web site: CNN.com/amFIX.
Also coming up in the next hour, he is the son of Texas Congressman Ron Paul. He says he was born to lead the Tea Party movement. We're going to be speaking to Rand Paul live from Kentucky. He is running for Senate in that state. We talked to him several months back and he seemed like the dark horse. Now, the polling is telling quite the different story. Is it because of Tea Party supporters?
Thirty-six minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
There are new developments this morning involving the leader of a Baptist missionary group charged with kidnapping 33 Haitian children.
ROMANS: That's right. Lara Silsby didn't have experienced running an orphanage. She didn't have papers necessary to cross the border legally, and it appears most of the children she had weren't orphans at all. Was she in over her head?
Dan Simon is digging deeper from Idaho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's been described as the consummate go-getter, a single mother who started her own business and helped disadvantaged children around the world.
BRIAN JACK (ph), LAURA SILSBY'S EMPLOYEE: She has a way of kind of getting what she asks for.
SIMON: But Brian Jack, a manager at Laura Silsby's Idaho company says she also has another reputation with several employees.
JACK: Mainly comes down to promising a bill of goods that were never delivered.
SIMON: Silsby is facing deep financial problems. The bank foreclosed on her home and her business, an online retailer once thriving, has been the target of numerous lawsuits, which have alleged she's been delinquent with payments.
Employee Brian Jack filed suit just this week, complaining he'd been told repeatedly he'd be paid for back-wages but wasn't.
(on camera): Silsby's world was closing in as she left Idaho for Haiti. And that may help explain why the mission was so disorganized, many have wondered why for such an ambitious mission, she and the group failed to clear the most basic hurdles, such as paperwork to transport Haitian children and registration as an adoption agency.
JACK: In my heart, I think she probably went down there with good intentions to help people that were in trouble, but it's a lack of foresight and planning, once again. She did that in her business life, and it seems to follow her in her personal life.
SIMON (voice-over): This is what Silsby told CNN shortly after being taken into custody...
LAURA SILSBY, NEW LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE: We know that the truth ultimately is that we came here to help the children and we know that God will reveal truth. And we're just praying for that and trusting him because we came here knowing this was his mission, not ours...
SIMON: As the questions began to mount in recent days, her church pastor came to her defense. I asked whether he had any concerns about Silsby never running an orphanage.
(on camera): Is that problematic?
CLINT HENRY, PASTOR, CENTRAL VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH: Well, you know, we're talking about a mom, for one thing, and she's raised children. We're also talking about a woman who has been a businesswoman. So, the idea of knowing how to run a business, all of that was already in place.
SILSBY: It is such an honor to be here...
SIMON (voice-over): In 2006, Silsby won an award from a national women's business group. The committee made known of her charitable work, saying she's giving hope to countless families around the world. She is also a respected member of her church. And that's why several members jumped at the chance to join her in establishing an orphanage.
SEAN LANKFORD, WIFE AND DAUGHTER CHARGED: They actually were asked if they'd like to help. When they were asked, they both said, "Yes."
SIMON: Sean Lankford's wife and daughter volunteered to go with Silsby just a few days before leaving.
LANKFORD: I know their character. I know that they did not believe that they were doing anything that was illegal. I absolutely know that. I mean, I'd stake my life on that.
SIMON: Now, the question is whether their leader led them down an illegal path.
Dan Simon, CNN, Meridian, Idaho.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Coming up in the next hour, what's going to happen now to these American missionaries? The charges against them said to be so serious that they're being held without bail. Karl Penhaul will have the latest, live from Port-au-Prince.
ROMANS: It's 42 minutes past the hour. Rob is tracking extreme weather this morning. And we have a lot of extreme weather. A big storm is taking aim at the mid-Atlantic for the weekend. Rob will have all the latest information for you about how much snow to expect.
CHETRY: Yes. And the stuff in pink, that's a blizzard warning.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: So, a lot going on today.
In 10 minutes also, fired after he was caught --- remember this picture -- he's caught on the Internet looking at some bikini pics on the Internet. Was he set up? Jeanne Moos with new clues about Dave, the banker and a petition for him to get his job back.
Forty-three minutes past the hour.
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ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Time for your AM House Call now. A new breakdown of several studies shows no clear evidence that people who ate more saturated fat had more heart attacks or strokes, but researchers say this doesn't mean you can start eating fatty meat and butter.
CHETRY: What does it mean, then? Come on.
ROMANS: It still raises cholesterol, which can cause more heart problems.
CHETRY: I thought it was in the clear for a couple of sentences there.
ROMANS: No, no. They're not in the clear.
CHETRY: Forty-six minutes past the hour right now. Time to get a check of the morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano right now in the Extreme Weather Center. It's National Weather Person's Day, and you're earning it today because boy, you're tracking a big, big storm.
MARCIANO: Yes, none of us are taking today off for sure. You may be in the mood for some comfort food that has a lot of saturated fat today. Stay inside and try to get through it. Luckily for the D.C. area, Philadelphia area, it's happening at least towards the weekend. I'm sure in some spots they'll be canceling school or at least shortening the school day. A big storm system that's got a lot of moisture, a very similar scenario to what we saw the third week of December with that record breaking snowstorm that came through the mid-Atlantic, and we're seeing a similar happenings today.
We started off with a lot of moisture that's coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, deep, almost tropical moisture, even some strong thunderstorms that are rolling across the Florida panhandle. As that warm, moist air gets into the colder air, we've got it turning into snow. There are some spots in the D.C. area where temperatures are right around the freezing mark, so it may very well start as sleet or freezing rain in some spots, but generally speaking, it is cold enough, for the most part, for it to be all snow. So that's the good news there.
What does that mean? We've got a number of weather warnings that are posted. Everything you see in red is a winter storm warning. The pink as Kiran pointed out is a blizzard warning along the Jersey coastline and Delaware coastline as well. That means winds will be 35, 40 miles an hour sustained for a number of hours with low visibilities. How much snow do we expect? 16 to 24 inches in D.C., 12 to 18 inches in Philadelphia, and 4 to 8 inches in New York, so a wide range in a short amount of real estate.
New York, if this thing shifts any further to the north, you could easily get a foot or more, but right now, the bulk of the action looks once again to be around Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Kiran, Christine back up to you.
ROMANS: All right. Rob Marciano. Thanks, Rob. Talk to you again soon.
CHETRY: All right. There's no dampening the spirits of New Orleans fans are dearing up for their -- it's a first ever Superbowl Sunday.
ROMANS: I know. Everyone in a festive mood, even some of the neighborhoods that were really so depressed after hurricane Katrina. John Zarella brings us the sights and sounds from the big easy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You hear it in the music, in the tone of the song. The people of New Orleans are feeling good.
IRVIN MAYFIELD, JAZZ MUSICIAN: New Orleans is such a thoroughly authentic American city, and the American story is always triumph over tragedy.
ZARRELLA: Seems everyone is celebrating their saints, a flag flying, the cravings of a sweet tooth.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: What we've got are saints special party tray, which is of course you see I got lots of black and gold on there (INAUDIBLE). It's been a big pick-me-up all across the city. No matter who you talk to.
ZARELLA (on-camera): You've got the candy store right here where you can get all your saints game day chocolates and right across the street here on Magazine Street is dirty coast where you can get your saints T-shirts.
UNKNOWN MALE: It's really true. People on Sunday basically do treat going to the saints game as a religious experience.
ZARRELLA: This is the gin chilly (ph) neighborhood of New Orleans. The building behind me still boarded up, the grass overgrown, the house over here still completely gutted on the inside. It's a neighborhood that's been slow to come back, but city officials say, even here, the saints have had an impact.
So how much water was here?
MARLON DEFILLO, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, NOLA POLICE DEPT.: Eight feet, eight feet of water that came into this area.
ZARELLA (voice-over): New Orleans assistant police superintendent, Marlon Defillo has never seen anything quite like it.
DEFILLO: We're seeing a reduction in crime.
ZARRELLA: Really?
DEFILLO: We're seeing a reduction in violent crime. We're seeing a reduction in property crime, and...
ZARRELLA: Since the saints have been winning.
DEFILLO: Yes, yes.
ZARRELLA: The saints success has refocused attention on New Orleans, the pain it still feels, the pride it always had, the resolve to move forward. It feels good now, but what about after Sunday?
DR. HOWARD OSOFSKY, DEPT. OF PSYCHIATRY CHAIR, LSU: It's a very good thing for people to celebrate and know that they have had the strength, and they can have fun.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Yes!
ZARRELLA: Vendors selling black and gold on every corner.
ZARELLA (on-camera): They've thought of everything. Look at this, even a Saints Snuggie. Fits good, too.
MAYFIELD: It's not about win or lose. We've got to win. It's called the Superbowl for a reason. ZARELLA (voice-over): John Zarrella, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There you go. A little slice of life. A Saints Snuggie. Who knew?
(LAUGHING)
CHETRY: All right. Still ahead, our top stories minutes away, including Toyota's damage control. Very interesting. They're holding a surprise press conference today in the wake of yet another problem for the once-mighty automaker. This time with the Lexus Hybrids. We're going to hear about this directly from the president of Toyota we're expecting for the very first time.
ROMANS: A powerful storm about to bring deep snow and chilling winds to the east coast. Forecasters are warning of blizzard conditions. Watch out D.C., and this system is already grounding flights. We're live in the weather center with details.
CHETRY: Critics are crying foul over Superbowl ads that tackles one of the most controversial subject, abortion. We're going to take a look at the new pro-life movement that's happening into mainstream pop culture. Those stories and more at the top of the hour. Fifty- two minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: We didn't know there was always a party going on.
ROMANS: It's Friday, Kiran, this morning.
CHETRY: Yes, I guess so.
ROMANS: And it's Friday, and it's time for the Most News in the Morning.
Remember Dave? You know, he's one of the only bankers in the world people are rooting for. He's the Australian banker looking at some not suitable for work pictures on live TV. It was caught.
CHETRY: Yes, and then there was a lot of speculation that he was probably set up by someone in his office because his desk is right behind the live camera where another reporter was giving a report, but as our Jeanne Moos tells us, online fans have been rushing to defend Dave.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're calling it the Save Dave Campaign.
UNKNOWN MALE: I believe you should save Dave.
MOOS: Save Dave's job. UNKNOWN FEMALE: I don't think Dave should be fired.
MOOS: Dave Keely (ph) is the guy who got nabbed on an Australian news broadcast. During a live interview at the Macquarie bank. He was in the background opening photos of a nearly naked famous model, Miranda Kerr.
MOOS (on-camera): Now, the pictures he's looking at are from...
UNKNOWN MALE: Oh, my God.
UNKNOWN MALE: These are nude pictures of women. I mean, were we born with clothes on?
MOOS (voice-over): Take it off. Stripper music was played.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: The problem was, he did it during a live interview here on 7.
MOOS: As local anchors chortled over the story, but now the Save Dave Campaign has come to his rescue, started by a financial news web site in London.
VOICE OF VIC DANIELS, PUBLISHER, HERE IS THE CITY NEWS: I think the world is going politically correct mad.
MOOS: There's all kinds of speculation that Dave was set up, that this could have been a practical joke with the photos e-mailed to him so he'd unwittingly open them during the live broadcast.
DANIELS: The theory goes that as he opened the third attachment and scrolled down, there was a message at the end of the e-mail that said, turn around now.
MOOS: So that's everybody's favorite part, when he turns around. Now, he's got support groups on Facebook. Who hasn't done that, asked one fan? Post a photo of yourself check out Miranda Kerr to show your support.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Save Dave, definitely.
MOOS: The Australian reports Dave is waiting to hear his fate as the bank forensically examines his e-mails.
UNKNOWN MALE: Next time, Dave, be a little more careful and, company, don't fire him right off the spot.
MOOS: You're saying out. He's out.
UNKNOWN MALE: Out, yes.
MOOS: Out the door.
UNKNOWN MALE: Out the door. Can for out the door.
MOOS (on-camera): But what would Miranda think about some guy possibly getting sacked just for looking at her?
MOOS (voice-over): The Victoria's Secret model told the Melbourne Herald Sun, "I am told there's a petition to save his job, and of course I would sign it." While she signing things, might as well autograph one of her photos and send it to Dave, but not to his work e-mail.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Save him.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN.
UNKNOWN MALE: You should tell him to take those pictures home and leave them home.
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: And of course, you know, we have a breaking news update for you on Dave this morning. After our company inquiry, the Australian Herald Sun reports that Macquarie Bank is letting Dave keep his job. No word if the Save Dave Campaign helped tipped the scale in Dave's favor, but come on, guys, you know, rotting from a banker. We have no one's been rooting for a banker more than a year.
CHETRY: I know. We were rooting for the poor guy. He has been set up.
All right. It's 58 minutes past the hour. We have the top stories coming your way in just 90 seconds.
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