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Rick's List
Pastor's Alleged Victim Speaks Out; New Terror Fears; Reality Show in Australia Announces Wrong Person as Winner Live on Air; Americans are Marrying Less Since Recession Started; Doctor Claims Many Eating Habits Comes From Environmental Cues; Chris Christie Calls for Republicans to Cut Government Spending
Aired September 29, 2010 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, HOST: Gosh, it's great to see you down here in Atlanta with us, Ali. Welcome home, my friend.
All right. Topping the LIST right now, the story we've been telling you about this pastor and the allegations of sex with teenage boys -- four of them up to now. After a week of hearing from the lawyers and the spokespersons, today, we're going to be hearing from one of these young men -- get ready -- from one of these young men who says that this megachurch pastor coerced him into having sex when he was just a teenager.
Atlanta television station WAGA tracked down Jamal Parris at a Colorado store parking lot. They questioned him. Parris did not want to talk. We want to be clear about that. But, after a while, he finally turned, after being, well, as it's described to me by some of the lawyers -- after being -- after being badgered, in fact, by the reporter, after being needled by the reporter. Finally, he turns and answers the reporter's questions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMAL PARRIS, ACCUSES GEORGIA PASTOR OF SEXUAL COERCION: That man cannot look me in my eye and tell me we did not live this pain. While you can sit in front of the church and tell them that you categorically deny it, you can't say that to our face.
And you know this. You are not a man. You are a monster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Parris is one of four young men who have filed a lawsuit against Pastor Long. Remember, long is an outspoken opponent of homosexuality, so there are a lot of questions here about the irony, if not the downright hypocrisy, that's involved.
In separate lawsuits, the men say that Long gave them expensive gifts, took them on trips, and then coerced them into sexual relationships when they were just teenagers, teenage boys. Here's more of what this alleged victim has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PARRIS: I cannot get the sound of his voice out of my head. And I cannot forget the smell of his cologne. And I cannot forget the way that he made me cry many nights when I drove in his cars on the way home, not able to take enough showers to wipe the smell of him off of my body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Remember, he was just a boy when Long allegedly used his power and his money to seduce him and have sex with him.
Pastor Long has not given any interviews up to now. His spokesperson and lawyer are saying that Long just -- quote -- "categorically denies any and all of these accusations."
But Long did talk about the lawsuits when he gave his sermon last night at a church. I want you to listen to this -- this piece of his sermon where he calls the accusations and the accusers spiritual warfare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BISHOP EDDIE LONG, NEW BIRTH MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: I'm speaking in the spirit.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
LONG: And I'm not speaking about individuals and all of that. This is spiritual warfare.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
LONG: And I pray for mercy for all who are involved and forgiveness and all of these things, even me. But -- I want you to know this. Search for somebody, and say, this is warfare.
CONGREGATION: This is warfare.
LONG: And -- and -- and I don't care how bad it look looks. Something good is being birthed. No, something amazing is being birthed.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So, now bring on the lawyers. The lawyer for the four men, B.J. Bernstein, says that she is not happy about that Colorado interview. She says that her client was ambushed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
B.J. BERNSTEIN, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING PLAINTIFFS: Jamal was in the grocery store in the middle of the night.
He wasn't expecting a reporter to be there. You can see by his face he's kind of shocked. And the reporter, first, he said no. And then the reporter kept asking him questions. And this is very raw for him. And there was just this one question, and it opened a floodgate in him. It opened a floodgate of what is happening to him, his feelings. And those are very real.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The lawyer, by the way, for Pastor Long is also lashing out tonight, claiming that the accusers and their lawyer are unfairly trying this story in the media.
Listen to this statement now. This is from one of the attorneys. His name is Craig Gillen. This is attorney for the pastor, Pastor Long, right?
"The approximate place to try the lawsuits is in the courtroom. There are rules on how civil litigation is to take place and how counsel should conduct themselves. We intend to follow those rules."
But lawyer Bernstein says she's trying to keep her clients out of the media storm; she had nothing to do with this interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNSTEIN: CNN has not chased them. No other network has chased them up until this point in this way.
Obviously, there are phone calls made. But I have been clear every single time from day one. Go back and play my press conference. I said these boys are not available for interviews.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: All right, back to that young man in Colorado now. His lawsuit says he left Long's church disillusioned and angry. Here's one more thing I want you to listen to now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: While the media and the press and the rest of the people around the city or around the country look at us like, how can a grown man let another man touch him, what you have to understand is, this man manipulated us from childhood. This was our father, and we loved him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That's an important point.
OK. Remember, the conservative activist -- there's another story we're turning to now. And I want to bring your attention to this. Watch this. The conservative activist who posed as a pimp to go undercover and fabricate a story about ACORN, well, he just tried to embarrass a CNN correspondent. Yes, they're at it again.
Guess what? This time, it did not work. That story is coming up.
Also, terror scare across Europe, it sounds like officials got a tip about some -- this is the words that they used -- a Mumbai-style attack. What was it? What do we know about it? I'm going to be sharing this with you. You're on RICK'S LIST.
This is your national conversation. And we're going to be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Hey, welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. Here we go with RICK'S LIST.
A lot of new information I want to share with you on this day. We are learning this afternoon that the same guy who confessed to trying to set off a bomb in Times Square -- you remember that story -- well, we're learning he was planning a second attack.
I want to bring in Deb Feyerick now. She's in New York. She's been following this story for us.
What -- what have you learned, Deb?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we're reading through the sentencing memo. He's scheduled to be sentenced early next week, Faisal Shahzad.
And, really, it paints a clear picture of what was going on in his mind as he was carrying out or attempting to carry out this terror attack. Now, he's already pleaded guilty to multiple terror charges. What he did is, he went to the Internet when he was planning this attack, trying to figure out ways to maximize the amount of destruction.
He was actually taking in real-time feeds at Times Square to see where he could place the bomb to maximize the number of deaths. He estimates, he believes, according to this memo, that, in fact, he could have killed as many as 40 people. And he was really aiming for the pedestrians, because he knew that placing the bomb there, it would -- that's where it would have the greater repercussions.
Now, he parked the car. He lit the fuse. Two to five minutes was the amount of time he gave himself. He actually, as he walking away from it, paused to see whether in fact it would detonate. He says he had not -- had he not been arrested, he was planning on doing something similar about two weeks later.
SANCHEZ: Hmm.
FEYERICK: Now, the joint terrorism task force, basically, Rick -- this is so interesting -- they actually recreated the bomb that he tried to build and they did what they call a controlled detonation.
And, in their words, the effects would have been devastating to the surrounding area. So, this was really serious. Really, one could argue, but for the grace of God, this thing didn't go off.
SANCHEZ: Hmm.
FEYERICK: He has no plea agreement, Faisal Shahzad. Prosecutors are trying to get a maximum life sentence for him.
SANCHEZ: But for the grace of God.
Deb Feyerick reporting for us on that, we appreciate it.
By the way, there's another story involving this now that I want to share with you, heightened security across parts of Europe making the LIST today in the wake of an apparent terror plot that has been stopped in its tracks. More armed guards are patrolling the grounds of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and parts of Britain and Germany as well and U.S.
Why? Well, there's been an uptick in drone strikes against suspected militant strongholds in Pakistan, right? And now, apparently, there's a potential backlash. It all began to unravel with the capture of Ahmed Sidiqi in Kabul in July. He had allegedly joined a terror training camp in the Afghan-Pakistan tribal border region.
Sidiqi is a German citizen of Afghan descent. He started talking to counterterrorism agents, revealing details of a plot that was to be staged in Great Britain and Germany and France against these so-called soft targets. What's a soft target? It's a bank. It's a financial institution. It's stock exchanges.
Sidiqi, by the way, attended mosques in Hamburg, Germany, as 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and was part of Atta's circle. That mosque was shut down this year not long after Sidiqi was captured.
Intelligence agents believe that Osama bin Laden signed off on this plot. And former Homeland Security Adviser and CNN national security contributor Frances Townsend has a theory why this plot involved soft targets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: When I was talking last evening to several counterterrorism officials, they said to me, as we have been able to better harden some of the traditional al Qaeda-like targets, embassies and those sorts of installations around the world, they were bound to shift.
And so this represents a target of opportunity. And, after all, if they can create chaos, they can instill fear, it doesn't really matter if it's a big government building that they attack. They can achieve their aims and get the publicity for recruitment and fund- raising that they need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: With all of these developments, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano isn't saying if there were any known threats against the U.S. in this latest intelligence break.
OK. One father, right, he allegedly has 23 kids, 14 women that he had those children with. Zero child support is what he's paid for them. That, friends, is how you make the list you don't want to be on. And I'm going to share today's with you. And, yes, you can look forward to that. The story of a judge's outrage involves that as well.
And this: Does one candidate have the Florida Senate race all wrapped up five weeks ahead of Election Day? Jessica Yellin has got the latest on that for us.
That's next right here on the LIST.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Hey, welcome back. This is RICK'S LIST.
Let's do politics now. Another interesting turn for California GOP gubernatorial candidate or nominee Meg Whitman. There are -- you ready for this? There are accusations flying out there from a former housekeeper.
This is the kind of story that makes the news before elections. And guess what? It's doing it again. It's happened in the past. And it's happening now in California.
And Jessica Yellin is joining us now to try and break this down for us as best she can.
All right, what's going on here, Jessica?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my gosh, Rick, everything is happening in this race.
So, this is a governor's race in which immigration issues already loom large.
SANCHEZ: Mm-hmm.
YELLIN: And now there's news that, for nine years, Meg Whitman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, employed an illegal immigrant from Mexico as her housekeeper.
This is coming to light just now, as Gloria Allred, the celebrity attorney out there, held a press conference with this former housekeeper, claiming that this housekeeper, Nicky Diaz Santillan, was -- quote -- "exploited, disrespected, humiliated and emotionally and financially abused" by Meg Whitman.
She says she was then fired what appear to be political reasons before Whitman ran for governor. OK, that's part one.
Well, Whitman claims the charges are without merit. She never abused her. And on immigration stuff, she says, Santillan actually lied to her and provided false documents suggesting that she was legal. She says -- quote -- "Once we learned she was an illegal worker, I immediately terminated her employment."
She says, "It was one of the hardest things I have ever done" and she considered Nicky a friend. Again, she was her housekeeper for five years.
Finally, Rick, Santillan, the housekeeper, well, she spoke to. Her version, she says that when she told Whitman last year that she was illegal -- after all those nine years, she came clean -- she said, the candidate didn't seem to care and that she turned to her husband after she had learned the news, saying: "Nicky is here to tell us she is an illegal alien and needs us to help her. But it was our fault, because we never asked her for anything."
That's what she says Whitman tells -- said at the time. The Whitman campaign disputes that, says Whitman asked for documentation up front.
What a mess.
SANCHEZ: Well, so it sounds like, I mean, both sides agree that, while she was working for Whitman, Whitman did not know that she was in the country illegally, right? She's got cover, at least for those nine years.
YELLIN: The Whitman -- the -- the -- Gloria Allred and the housekeeper aren't explicitly saying that. They will not say -- when asked point-blank, did you provide false documentation to Meg Whitman suggesting that you were -- that you were here legally, when in fact you weren't, they said, we're not prepared to discuss that at this time.
The housekeeper says that she suggested to Whitman that it was clear she couldn't go back to Mexico and so Whitman should have known that meant she was here illegally.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
YELLIN: That's the accusation.
SANCHEZ: Now, you know, whenever you have something like this pop up just before an election, not just, I mean, as reporters, obviously, we start going, you know, this smells. And I think -- and I think voters do, too.
YELLIN: Right.
SANCHEZ: And they want to make sure, you know, that this isn't just a ploy, a political trick that's being used.
What -- what do you know --
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: I know it's a tough question, but do your best to answer it. What do you know about the politics behind these allegations? Or is it just a coincidence that the lawyer, Gloria Allred, is bringing it out now?
YELLIN: No, it's not a coincidence, of course.
But it's part of how politics works today. And the one reason this is something that I think Whitman will have to address is because, as a Republican, she has taken a tough stand on employers who hire illegal immigrants.
SANCHEZ: Hmm.
YELLIN: It's her position that they should face fines and suspension of their business licenses.
So, it does raise the question, how realistic is her substantive immigration policy, when it's clearly easy to fake immigration papers even in her own home?
SANCHEZ: Hmm.
YELLIN: So, that's a legitimate question that can come of this whole debate.
SANCHEZ: Well, yes. And -- and it will have people talking. And it will probably have an effect one way or another. I'm not even going to dare to ask you what the effect is, because I know you're not one of the voters. You're just reporting on it.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: So, Jessica Yellin, bringing us up to date on this new scandal out of California, let us know if you learn anything else, Jess.
YELLIN: Will do.
SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, who is protecting our food supply, making sure the risk of things like E. coli and salmonella remains low?
And you know what? The heck with E. coli and salmonella. How -- how about just making sure that the FDA is looking out for us and for our children in general, making sure that they're not allowing themselves to be influenced by industry as far as what we eat. These are the questions I'm going to be asking the former head of the administration. He's made some eye-opening revelations in a new book that he has got out. And I'm going to -- I'm going to ask him about it.
Also, former President Jimmy Carter spent the night in a hospital. He's still there this hour, as a matter of fact. What's wrong? When is he expected to be discharged? That's also ahead right here on the LIST.
Stay with us. We're coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right, welcome back.
I just want to catch you up on some of the things that we're going to be bringing you in a moment which we think is significant. Listen to this. The host of a reality show announces the wrong winner on TV live.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: You're going to see what happens. Now, obviously, this has a dire effect on the person who thought they had won and the person who actually won.
Also, wait until you hear who her father is, the announcer, a pretty famous guy, very wealthy, too.
And there it goes, a water tower, and it's collapsing. Now, how did this happen? And how does it end? What does it look like in full. We have got it. It's the ending of "Fotos." And somebody should yell timber.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I want to welcome you all back to RICK'S LIST.
I'm getting many of your e-mails saying that you're excited to be here and you like what we're doing so far. So glad.
All right, let's do this.
Kids ask their parents for things all the time, right, clothes, candy, that hot new toy. So if my kids ever ask if they can get a tattoo, I have got a little video to show them that I think might convince them. It's time for "Fotos."
ANNOUNCER: Aye dios mio.
SANCHEZ: So, if you have ever wondered what it's really like to get ink scrawled under your skin, all right, gather your children. I want them to watch this with you, parents. Here we go. Hit it, (Dee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ow! Wait, wait, wait!
(SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ow! Ow! Ow! Wait, wait, wait!
I can't take it.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Yes, this woman's unpleasant experience goes viral. People all over the country are now watching this. And, by the way, it goes on and on and on. The artist eventually lectures her and tries to talk her out of it. She starts screaming at him. She hates him. He hates her. And she goes on to scream before the needle even touches her skin.
Yes, you -- you got to catch this. We will have it on our blog, by the way, for you. And it's CNN.com/ricksanchez. It -- it's bone- chilling.
All right, look at this. There it goes, the water tower in Michigan getting up close and personal with the ground. Crews sliced each leg of the tower one by one. It stood in the sky for 43 years. Timber!
Next, say cheese -- no, seriously. Foul ball at a Red Sox/White Sox game hits a fan straight in the nachos, cheese all over the place.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Not my nacho. Your nacho. But at least he didn't drop his beer. And that's wise.
That's "Fotos." And you can see them for yourself on my blog at CNN.com/ricksanchez.
ANNOUNCER: Ay, dios mio.
SANCHEZ: All right.
Remember the conservative activist who has made a career of trying to embarrass people and groups he opposes by setting them up, like the time he pranked ACORN dressed as a pimp? Well, this time, he went after a CNN correspondent.
Abbie Boudreau is going to be joining me in just a little bit. You have got to see this story that everyone in the media is talking about.
Also, talk about embarrassing. You are named the winner of a hit reality show, right? And you're all excited. "Yay, I won!"
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Well, you didn't win. It was a mistake.
Brooke Baldwin is coming in. She's going to take us through this story.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
SANCHEZ: And you're not -- and -- and -- and the -- part of the story --
BALDWIN: I feel for this woman, who was saying -- well, I'm not -- just wait.
SANCHEZ: Well, and the periphery -- the peripheral part of this story is that the person who made the mistake is a very famous name.
BALDWIN: Daughter-in-law of a famous person, yes.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes.
BALDWIN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: This will be good.
BALDWIN: We will go there.
SANCHEZ: I'm looking forward to it.
BALDWIN: I love that tattoo video. I'm going to go home and loop it.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: It will be auto-tuned soon enough.
SANCHEZ: We will -- we will --
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: We will be right back.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Stay with us.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right, so losing is hard enough.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we don't like to lose around here.
SANCHEZ: But losing when you really won, that gets weird. And winning and then being told you really lost, that's even more weird.
BALDWIN: It gets really weird. So any major beauty contest, think about this, Miss USA, Miss Universe, in this case Top Model. It's really a nail-biter. It's the climax. You have the women all standing there. There's a lot at stake oftentimes, sometimes modeling contracts, the big purse, tens of thousands of dollars.
So what happens when the host of the show comes forward and says, the winner is --
SANCHEZ: The wrong person.
BALDWIN: Awkward.
(LAUGHTER)
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's you, Kelsey.
(APPLAUSE)
Oh, my god. I don't know what to say right now. I'm feeling a bit sick about this. This is not -- this was a complete accident. I'm so sorry. It's Amanda. I'm so sorry. It was read to me wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: "It was read to me wrong." So imagine -- she's got her hand -- she obviously feels awful. This was an accident. This is Australia's next top model contest. The host is Sarah Murdoch. She got it wrong.
Show officials have come forward. They say there was a "miscommunication," that's the word they're using, between the broadcast truck where you have the producers and the stage, thus the host. So this is live TV. Things happen.
SANCHEZ: By the way -- wait, wait, wait. Can I make an announcement? Get me on a tight shot. This is really important. I want you guys to know that every mistake I've ever made on the air -- the one Jon Stewart and these guys love to make fun of -- it's my producer's fault, every single one. I've never done anything wrong.
BALDWIN: Never your fault.
SANCHEZ: My producers have always given me the information wrong.
BALDWIN: Can I get a close-up? Can I get a close-up?
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Go ahead.
BALDWIN: Don't buy a word of it.
Anyway, so the show then ultimately apologized to the winner and did give her -- they said you can get the trip to New York and $25,000. But I would feel awful.
SANCHEZ: Wow! So she's a Murdoch. Would that be any relationship to Rupert Murdoch?
BALDWIN: Daughter-in-law. Married his oldest son.
SANCHEZ: So she's doing television. BALDWIN: So she's hosting this --
SANCHEZ: It doesn't sound like she's really that good at it.
BALDWIN: We don't know if it was her or the producer, Sanchez.
SANCHEZ: OK.
BALDWIN: Moving on to story number two. This is the first time in more than 100 years this has happened. There are more Americans who are saying I don't instead of I do. According to the new numbers there are more unmarried Americans than married.
So we made this little graph for you. Let me walk you through this. This is the numbers just this month from the U.S. census bureau. You see the lines crisscross. The gray line is the married. The yellow line is never married.
And do you see right above where it says 2009, that's where they crisscross and the never married is now higher than the married. The group that took a closer look at these numbers, they said that the reason is the economy. We learned I think it was two weeks ago the recession remember it finally officially ended. It was June of '09, and that's when the numbers changed.
They said people lost jobs and were unsure of their savings, and so they're putting marriage on the backburner. I tweeted you guys and some of you responded. Let's swing over the Twitter board. I asked did this affect you. One person told me "Not me but my very good friend has opted out of a traditional wedding for a justice of the peace wedding and barbecue."
SANCHEZ: Nothing wrong with that, absolutely. Spend your money on a house, a down payment.
BALDWIN: Another one said, "No, but me and my wife have put off having children." And then this third one is just for fun since I am engaged. He says "Maybe you should postpone yours as well."
I did start wondering since fewer people are getting married -- it's expensive as I'm starting to learn. Those are your tweets. Thank you very much.
Since I love the tattoo video, let's roll it again just because we can. Dee, roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ow! Ow!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
That is the video that any parent should show their child if they're thinking at all about getting a tattoo, right? SANCHEZ: Can we listen to some more? Keep going, Dee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't move anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ow! A little bit at a time. Ow! Ow!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The ending is really good, by the way. Anyway, so we love that. Stop.
BALDWIN: We wanted to play it again. Maybe we should make it my ring tone when you call me.
SANCHEZ: I like that. You can do that these days. You can customize. We're going to show the back half of that later on. Can we do that? Tonight at 8:00. Let's show the part when they get into a big fight. That's the best part.
BALDWIN: Because she wants him to keep going. He's trying to talk her out of it.
SANCHEZ: She says I don't want you to do it, I want somebody else to do it. So he says I'm the boss. That guy you're talking to doesn't know how to do it. It's like a sitcom.
BALDWIN: I can't wait.
SANCHEZ: Tattoo art with Brooke Baldwin. We'll see you a little bit later.
We've all said if we could just manage our appetite we could eat better and lose weight. Is there a way to put an end to overeating? This guy you're about to see right here, can we put him up, there he is. He's been on our show before. He has a new book out.
This is what makes David Kessler so interesting. He used to be head of the FDA. So he can break this down for us from a not just eat this, don't eat that, but here's why much of what we eat is not good for us institutionally. That's what we'll zero in on. David Kessler joins us in just a little bit. He's next on "The List."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right. You are seeing in just a moment a live picture that we're going to put up from the House floor. Let's see if we can get, because this story I'm about to share with you will make more sense once I take you through that.
Right now lawmakers are voting on a bill sparking vigorous debate and inflaming some passions for nine years now. This is the second House vote on the Health and Compensation Act which would provide billions in free health care to emergency workers who were the first on the scene during the 9/11 attacks. These folks, guys, can I tell you something -- I was there that day. I was one of the first reporters on the scene at 9/11. I watched that second Twin Tower come crashing down. I can tell you these guys who went there, the ones who lost their lives and the ones who didn't, the ones who survived, they're heroes. As genuine as it comes, they risked their lives.
The bill then failed to pass. That was back in July, remember, amid Republican opposition and a heated procedural debate. That made one specific Democrat just crazy angry. It was New York Representative Anthony Wiener. Remember this? Play it, Dee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ANTHONY WIENER, (D) NEW YORK: You vote yes if you have believe yes. You vote in favor if you believe it's the right thing. If you believe it's the wrong thing, you vote no. We are following a procedure -- I will not yield to the gentleman, and the gentleman will observe regular order. The gentleman will observe regular order
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Well, guess what. After all of that, there's been a development in the story. Our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is joining us now by phone. What are you learning, Dana? What do you know?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This bill has now passed the House, Rick, and you have it on the screen 268 to 160 by a very comfortable margin this passed because it was this particular time Democrats were able to get this through without needing two-thirds majority, which is why this failed back in July.
Democratic leaders -- I spoke to some of them on the -- just outside the House chamber in the Capitol just shortly ago, said, look, we understand and believe that this is absolutely critical for the reasons that you were just laying out, because they said these are the people who were brave. They didn't worry about their own well-being, didn't think about it when they went in initially. They had hoped to rescue people on 9/11.
Of course the recovery took place for weeks and months afterwards. So what this is is $7.4 billion, $7.4 billion that would go to take care of the health care expenses for the thousands of first responders who won't in to clean up and also the residents around that area after the 9/11 attacks.
SANCHEZ: It's seen as good news, news of a compromise there, and certainly something that a lot of folks especially in the northeast have followed for a long time.
BASH: One quick thing. There's a little bit of a reality check, though. It's not passed the United States Senate yet. We just spoke to a Democratic aide in the Senate who say they hope to put it on a very long list of things to get done during the so-called lame duck session after the election, but these guys are getting out of here likely today, probably tonight. The Senate will not do this before they leave.
SANCHEZ: Good reporting as usual, Dana. We appreciate with you reaching out with that.
By the way, Charlie Rangel is tweeting about this. Charlie Rangel, who as you know, has had his own peccadilloes to deal with these days. But he was happy enough about this to get the word out. Here it is -- 9/11 health bill passes in the House, and he gives us the score -- 268-160.
Coming up, a judge says a father owes $500,000 in child support. Can you imagine? How many kids does he have to have? How many women did he have to be with? You will hear the numbers. We'll quantify this for you when I come back. This is "RICK'S LIST." Stay right there.
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SANCHEZ: Welcome back. Tips to get you eating healthier making "The List" today. We're doing this thing here at CNN. I think you've heard of it, right? We call it "Eatocracy -- Mind, Body, and Wallet." And it's really our commitment to making sure -- because we all think about it a lot. I think it about it for myself. I tend to pig out way, way too often, as you can sometimes tell by looking at me.
I worry about my kids. I worry about my mom and my dad. We think about these things. We get so much information that comes in like different directions. Coffee is good, coffee is bad. Fat is good, fat is bad. It's really crazy confusing.
So we decided -- because we know if I have these questions you probably have them too -- to bring in somebody who can help us out. His name is Dr. David Kessler. He's in San Francisco. Here's why this guy matters. He's the former commissioner with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and he's written a new book. It's called "The End of Overeating," and it's got a really delicious piece of carrot cake on it which made me hungry yesterday all the way home after I was given this book and given an assignment to take it home and read it.
By the time I got home, I overate just looking at the carrot cake. By the way, why is that? I and we have a propensity to see these foods that are so filled with fat and so filled with sugars and we just want to devour them. I know I do. Have we been programmed that way, doctor?
DR. DAVID KESSLER, AUTHOR, "THE END OF OVEREATING": If you look at the cover of the book, there's two images. And if you understand that cover, you understand the neuro-biology of eating. What grabs your attention?
SANCHEZ: The carrot cake.
KESSLER: The carrot cake, not the carrots.
SANCHEZ: Right. KESSLER: So your attention gets focused on that carrot cake. You're not even eating the carrot cake. That's a picture. It's a cue. It could be the sight or the smell or the time of day. Every time I land in San Francisco airport, I start thinking about these dumplings. The plane just landing on the runway is a cue.
What does a cue do? It arouses certain neural circuits and focuses our attention and activates the emotional core of the brain and stimulates thoughts of wanting. We eat the food. We have a momentary pleasure. The next time we're cued we do it again and strengthen the neural circuits.
So in some ways for many people, especially people that have a hard time controlling their weight, this is really the result of our neural circuits being hijacked. What do we do in the United States? We put fat, sugar and salt on every corner and made it available 24/7.
SANCHEZ: Who, who, who, who, who does that? Because I'm not doing it. There's somebody else out there my kids are and I am seeing that all the time. Who's doing that to us?
KESSLER: Well, the question you're asking, right, is obviously aimed at the food industry.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
KESSLER: Does the food industry understand the inputs? Absolutely. They understand that fat and sugar, fat and salt, fat, sugar, and salt stimulate our brains. They understand if they do that, if they load it and layer it in to our food, we come back for more.
But just because our brains are being hijacked, just because you can't walk down the street for ten feet without having your brain being cued, without having the neural circuits, doesn't mean we can't take responsibility.
But up until now, we really haven't understood the neural science. People thought it was their fault. They thought they were lazy. They thought they were just weak. We now know there's a biological reason why it's so hard to control our eating.
SANCHEZ: Let me put you on the spot. I hope you don't mind, but I have a reputation for asking tough questions, so I'm going to ask you tough questions.
Why the hell is it that the FDA allows itself in many cases to be manipulated by the food industry which I know, just from my own research, gets influenced by these agencies or these industries that pour tons of money into the system, into the politicians who then have access to the FDA to get them to either look the other way or do what it takes to allow it to continue to happen to our children in this country.
KESSLER: Rick, I had the privilege of bi being FDA commissioner for several years. I love the people who work there. I know government gets a bad rap these days, but there is dedicated as they come.
You know there's been 85 recalls, food recalls in the last year? I mean, in some ways, FDA is always chasing the horse after it's out of the barn on these food safety issues.
There's a bill that's been stalled in the Congress for the last 13 months. It has unanimous support from the food industry, from FDA, from everybody. And we can't get FDA to get the basic powers. We need to give it tools. We have to make sure that everyone understands it's the purveyor who has the responsibility for ensuring the safety of food.
FDA can do its job, but we all have responsibilities, especially the food industry.
SANCHEZ: Would you deny that there's a monetary influence used by the food industry to make sure that they get what they want in Washington? And I'm not saying anyone's doing it on purpose. I'm just saying, the atmosphere is created in such a way so that things happen, for example, that make us eat things that maybe we should be eating less of.
KESSLER: Absolutely. There's no question. But understand how that affects us in our daily lives. You know, when I was growing up, we used to eat three meals. Look at our environment, look at how our environment has changed. You can't walk down the street for 15 feet without having some kind of food stimulus, some kind of food cue.
That activates the brain -- it causes the neural circuits, it causes that increase preoccupation, the thoughts of wanting. So we're being -- our brains are literally being hijacked. There are ways, and that's why I wrote the book, to be able to cool down that stimulus.
But understand, this is not a disease. We're all wired to focus on the most salient stimuli. If a bear walked in to the studio right now, you would focus on that bear. Some people, it could be alcohol, it could be tobacco, it could be illegal drugs, it could sex, gambling.
What's the most salient stimuli that's socially acceptable? It's food. What has the food industry done? It's put us -- living in a food carnival.
SANCHEZ: We're being manipulated. And who better to write about that message and that problem that we have to come to grips with than Dr. David Kessler. The book is called "The End of Overeating." Doc, appreciate you taking the time to join us being square with us about this very important issue for all of us, especially those of us who have kids. Thanks so much.
The young man's attorney says the interview should never have happened. So what's going on here? Suddenly, one of the kids whose -- was a kid, now he's an adult -- accusing the pastor in Atlanta of coercing him in to sex as a teen has spoken. We weren't expecting this. But we've got it. I'm going to be sharing it with you. Also, Wolf Blitzer has been tracking the day's top political stories on the CNNpolicies.com desk -- politics.com desk. Oh, I misspoke. Must have been my producer's fault. That's next on "the list." I kid because I love my producers.
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SANCHEZ: Let's check with the man. Let's check in with Wolf Blitzer at the CNNpolitics.com desk. He's with "The Best Political Team on Television." He's joining us now. Wolf, what's crossing?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, there's a lot of good stuff at CNNpolitics.com. Let's talk about some of them.
Chris Christie, as you know, he's now the governor of New Jersey. He's beaten John Corzine. He's doing a lot in New Jersey and folks there seem to like him. Republicans across the country like him. He came to Washington to meet with a whole bunch of other Republicans.
And he was blunt in his comments. He said it's now time for the GOP candidates to put up or shut up. He said it's not going to be easy making the budget cuts that he's proposing. It hasn't been easy in New Jersey. But it's now time for the Republicans not only to talk the talk but to walk the walk.
Chris Christie is already being touted potentially for bigger office down the road. We're watching Chris Christie closely.
Another story we're watching involves the first lady Michelle Obama. Her plan -- her hope for a new child nutrition law has hit a snag in the House of Representatives. She wants $2.2 billion or so to help young kids get better food. The problem is some of her fellow Democrats don't want to use money that's currently part of the food stamps program to pay for the additional $2.2 billion or so.
They're not going to vote on it in the House of Representatives. That's a serious disappointment for the first lady. One of the Democratic lawmakers, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, saying we're not going to tolerate robbing the poor to pay for every piece of legislation. As much as they like the child nutrition law, they want to find another way to pay for it, if you will.
Finally, we're getting ready, Rick. You'll be interested in this. In "THE SITUATION ROOM" later today, we've got four state polls, poll numbers that are going to be released. CNN, "TIME" magazine, as you know, every Wednesday, we collaborate. We do some new polls.
We've got results on Senate and governor's races in Illinois, California, Florida, and Alaska. And I can already tell you and our viewers, you're going to be surprised by some of these numbers. I can't release them until 5:00 in "THE SITUATION ROOM," but they're going to be interesting. Viewers are going to take notice if they like politics and they're interested in the Senate races particularly, in particular, these four key battlegrounds.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Can I tell you a little secret, Wolf?
BLITZER: Yes.
SANCHEZ: I peeked at them.
BLITZER: But you're not allowed to say them and the viewers are going to have to wait.
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SANCHEZ: I'm not going to say anything, I swear. I told Gary Donner, you got the numbers? He said, yes, we're sitting her, scrutinizing looking over the numbers. And you're absolutely right. There are some real surprises here, some things that I'm sure you had the same reaction, some states where it's not what we expected at this point.
BLITZER: Yes, my reaction was simply three letters, W.O.W. I said, wow. Wow.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes.
BLITZER: And it shows you that, even in these final five weeks, anything can still happen. It's a very fluid situation. It's a lifetime for some of these politicians.
So, as much as some people think everything is set in concrete right now, it isn't. Things can change. I have seen elections change in the last two weeks. In the last week, somebody can come from behind. So that's why we love covering politics. That's why this is so exciting.
SANCHEZ: And I love talking to you every day, Wolf. You're a good guy. Appreciate it.
BLITZER: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: We will be catching up in just a little bit.
Next hour, another political update. You can always get the latest political news on CNNPolitics.com or on Twitter @PoliticalTicker. There we go.
