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American Morning
Tucson Shooting Suspect Indicted; Rep. Giffords Set to Leave Hospital; Who's Who Guest List at State Dinner for Chinese President; China to Buy $45 Billion in U.S. Goods; What Happened to Civility?; Bank's Big Military Mistake; Interview with Rep. Judy Chu; Ready For Rehab
Aired January 20, 2011 - 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: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, doctors say that she's been able to stand on her own two feet, look out the window. And for 24 hours now, Congressman Gabrielle Giffords could be checking out of the hospital on her way to a rehab facility.
Meantime, shooting suspect Jared Loughner charged with three counts of attempted murder.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Also in Washington, D.C. last night, it was a who's who for President Hu. A big state dinner last night for the Chinese president visiting, tackling some tough issues and all this glitz and glamour having with the backdrop of one in five Americans considering China our greatest threat.
CHETRY: Also, we've all been there, stuck in traffic. You have places to go, got to be to work on time. Which U.S. cities have the worst traffic where drivers waste 70 hours of their lives every year just simply idling?
HOLMES: And another winter storm, another week, of course. Could be heading your way this morning.
CHETRY: Also, Super Bowl tickets for $200? Got to be too good to be true. It is. We'll explain on AMERICAN MORNING next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Good morning. The remarkable recovery continues. And Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is expected to leave the hospital soon.
CHETRY: And from A-list celebrities to Washington's elite, we'll show you who turned out for the state dinner for the president of China and which leaders chose to skip it.
HOLMES: Also, you think you've got a bad commute? We'll tell you the places where drivers spend the most time just wasting time behind the wheel on this AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: Good morning. Kiran Chetry here, along with T.J. Holmes. I love when they do these studies because regardless of where they rank it, if you're stuck in traffic you feel it's the worst possible place to be at that time.
HOLMES: It's cool. It's amazing how they calculate just how much time you sit in your car over the year. We'll tell you how bad your city might be this morning. But first, we want to give you an update about what's happening in Arizona, the Tucson shooting. First, we're going to give you the update about the suspect. And then we're going to tell you about this, the remarkable recovery for Gabrielle Giffords.
But the suspect, you're seeing him there, you've seen this picture by now, Jared Lee Loughner. He had now been officially indicted by a federal grand jury. Now three counts have been brought down against him but not the murder charges. These are attempted murder. One of them is for the congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, and then one count each he's been indicted on for injuring the aides, Ron Barber and Pam Simon. However, they are expecting more charges. They say this is just the beginning. More charges are expected. And he could be facing the death penalty. He will as well be back in court on Monday in Phoenix, expected to enter a plea there.
CHETRY: Well, astounding news as the recovery of Gabrielle Giffords continues to make unbelievable strides. She is able to stand with help. And her remarkable progress means that she is now set to fly to Texas where she's going to start her rehabilitation. If everything stays on schedule, Giffords will check into the TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston tomorrow. This facility is known for its work with brain-injured patients. Giffords' doctor say she's ready.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER RHEE, TRAUMA DOCTOR: Today, we were getting her out of bed again and we were able to stand with assistance on her. She's got the strength to stand on her own, lift her head up and these are -- I see improvements every single day. Then for a period of time, we were also able to get her into a chair, that's a mobile chair. And then we went to a window so she could see the mountains of Tucson, which there's no doubt in my mind really lifted up her spirits, I think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Amazing.
Top of the hour we're going to be joined by our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen to find out more about what Gabrielle Giffords is facing as she begins her rehabilitation.
HOLMES: And listen to this nice gesture they're making over at Giffords' office. As we know, she has received thousands of cards and letters as well as stuffed animals. People as you see here in this memorial that's been growing every single day since that shooting. But now the staff has decided they're going to donate those stuffed animals, maybe between 300 and 400 of them to a shelter for sick kids and also a shelter for battered children. So they're going to put it to good use.
CHETRY: It's been called the most important relationship right now, U.S. and China. And today, the leader of America's rising Asian rival heads to Capitol Hill. The reception may be a little bit chilly though compared to last night, because last night President Obama and the first lady hosted Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House for a state dinner. Two hundred guests spread out between the State Room, the Blue Room and the Red Room.
HOLMES: All right. As you can imagine, we had two presidents there but also stars always get invited to these big state dinners. So take a look here, one of them, Michelle Kwan, I recognize here, former U.S. figure skating champion. This is her. I don't think they had a red carpet last night, but they do this line. They parade these folks out in front of the cameras.
CHETRY: We saw a lot of that with the Salahis. Right? This is --
HOLMES: You'll remember that.
You know it, folks. A lot of you will remember that walk right there. You can tell this area at least.
Another star that was there, Jackie Chan. I haven't seen or heard about what he might have been wearing last night. Oh, he looks pretty good. He looks really good.
CHETRY: He looks great.
HOLMES: The superstar, movie star who is, of course, Chinese and does all his own stunts in his movies.
CHETRY: Also, singer Barbra Streisand and her husband, James Brolin there. She was joking about why she may have been invited. Meantime, clothing designer Vera Wang also making the walk on the not so red carpet.
HOLMES: Who was not there? The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. This guy decided to skip this one. But it had nothing to do with the comment he made a few days ago in which he said the Chinese president is a, quote, "dictator." He did at some point walk back from those comments just a bit. But Reid's office says that he was actually traveling back from his home state of Nevada and wasn't able to be there.
Well, coming up next half hour, we're going to talk to someone else who was there. And she is the first Chinese-American congresswoman. Judy Chu of California, she was there last night. She'll give us her impressions and also talk about this relationship between the U.S. and China.
CHETRY: Also at last night's dinner, President Obama gave a warm and fuzzy example of how the U.S. and China are working together literally. He announced that the Washington's national zoo's beloved pandas will be staying a bit longer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President, today we've shown that our governments can work together as well for our mutual benefit. And that includes this bit of news. Under a new agreement, our national zoo will continue to dazzle children and visitors with the beloved giant pandas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Christine Romans here with me now. Let me get this right. We have a $230 billion plus trade deficit. We'd like them to improve human rights violations. And we get pandas. That's all.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No. We also got $45 billion of trade deals announced yesterday.
HOLMES: A drop in the bucket, is it not?
ROMANS: It is a drop in the bucket, but this is how these things go. You have, you know, the days up until this big meeting. You've got a lot of people talking about the strains and the frictions on both sides. And then many in the business communities said that Hu would bring gifts. And he came bearing gifts to the tune of 70 different deals, 12 different states that the White House says will support -- support 235,000 jobs in this country. Everything from helicopters to airplanes to corn, wheat, soybeans, agricultural kind of things, ethanol plants, ethanol deals. Those are the kinds of deals this trade mission came up with.
I want to show you how that stacks up with the trade imbalance that we have. The United States from January to November last year exported $81 billion worth of goods to China. We imported $334 billion in goods from China. You can just see how dramatic that imbalance is. So throw those $45 billion onto the export pile and you can see, add it up, you still don't get really anywhere close.
HOLMES: You forgot the pandas. You should have thrown the pandas.
ROMANS: But pandas are priceless, T.J. You can't put a price tag on pandas.
CHETRY: I want to ask you, though, is it -- is the bar, I guess, in the perfect world it's supposed to be equal, supposed to be exactly even?
ROMANS: Oh, no, no.
CHETRY: I mean, so, $45 billion is nothing to sneeze at then?
ROMANS: If it really does support 235,000 jobs, yes. Now some of these were deals that they were already working on. You know, they try to wrap up deals that are already in progress to make it look like they come with the summit as well. Don't get me wrong. And I am being skeptical overall because one of my sources yesterday, he said, geez, let's have the Chinese president come every quarter and then we'll start to make some progress here. The big thing here, you can also flip it upside down. If $45 billion in exports supports 235,000 jobs, then how many jobs is that imbalance wiping away? That's the other way we can look at.
HOLMES: We have to let you go, but you have to explain to folks when they hear that. Supports? What is that supposed -- not creating anything?
ROMANS: The White House aide yesterday, very clear, did not say creates jobs, supports jobs. These are people who are working on the parts for these -- these are people who are employed by these industries who are going to be working because of these new contracts.
CHETRY: Right.
HOLMES: Christine --
ROMANS: There you go.
CHETRY: It's a start.
ROMANS: You know what, this is the way the diplomacy works. You know, a lot of big deals. Some of them are pretty high-tech deals, too. That's good.
HOLMES: And priceless pandas. We appreciate you.
ROMANS: Priceless pandas.
HOLMES: Christine, thank you. We'll talk to you again here shortly.
CHETRY: New evidence this morning linking alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to the execution of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl. A new report says that U.S. officials used a forensic technique called vein matching to tie him to Pearl's death. Mohammed has said that he killed Pearl but was never charged. Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in January 2002 in Pakistan. Video of his killing was later posted online and that's where they were able to look at the hands that were seen in some of the screen captures and compare them to other pictures of the hands of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
HOLMES: Also, we turn back to Brazil where the situation continues to be dire there. Take a look here. We've been seeing this for quite some time now, unfortunately, of the dramatic pictures of the flooding that's been taking place there. This is the video of the rushing water. This is through a levee in Rio de Janeiro that you're seeing and also the streets here. The death toll now we're being told could get up to a thousand. They have had a week of mudslides there.
And take a look at some of these other pictures we do have for you. Look at this here. What can only be described, if you will, here, a sinkhole. But there seems to be a home dangling precariously on the edge of it. But still, an ongoing situation for the folks there in Brazil.
CHETRY: Amazing pictures.
The FBI is asking for the public's help in finding who planted a bomb along the planned route of the Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington. Their investigating is an act of domestic terrorism. Officials say that the bomb was designed to kill but was found in a backpack before the event and disarmed.
HOLMES: Also, something that the FAA is becoming increasingly concerned about. Lasers. People pointing lasers at the cockpit of a plane you could be on and essentially blinding the pilot. There have been more than 2,800 incidents of these lasers being pointed at planes last year. That is double the year before. And it's the highest number that they've seen since they started keeping track of this in 2005.
Now, a lot of people wondering why in the world would someone do this? Well, these things are becoming more and more popular and powerful. They're easy to buy. A lot of stargazers use them as they point into the skies. But they don't understand why someone would be trying to point these at the cockpit of an airplane.
Now, if you fly out of these airports, these are the top five that reported the most incidents: LAX, O'Hare in Chicago, Sky Harbor out there in Phoenix, San Jose International, as well as the airports in Las Vegas. But again, people are trying to figure out, why would someone do this? It is a serious security threat.
CHETRY: Yes. It's plain idiotic. I mean, you want to bring down a plane? Hopefully, we'll get some better techniques in trying to figure out how to -- you know, who's doing it. It's probably hard.
HOLMES: A lot of incidents.
CHETRY: 2,800, that's ridiculous.
HOLMES: Yes, that's a lot.
CHETRY: Eleven minutes past the hour right now. Time for us to get a check of the weather headlines. Rob Marciano still working in Steamboat Springs, Colorado this morning, attending, of course, the big weather summit but also having a little bit of fun.
We're getting some snow it looks like again. Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you are. I don't think it's going to be a massive blizzard, but you will get enough snow come tomorrow to make it another headache for the rush hour. Still snowing here in Steamboat. The snow that we got yesterday, about 10 inches or so is moving into the plains and will be stretching towards the northeast as we go right through tomorrow and tomorrow night. And there are a number of winter storm watches, warnings and advisories. This stretches from the southern planes into the northeast.
Take a look at this map. They stretch all the way from the southern plains into the northeast and some of the southern plains getting hit pretty hard this morning as far as snowfall goes. The radar showing just that from Oklahoma stretching in through the middle Mississippi River Valley and into the Ohio River Valley. This storm is beginning to take shape and snowfall totals, or forecast totals, anywhere from two to five inches of snow in a swath from, say, St. Louis and Kansas City, stretching into the southern Ohio River Valley and then eventually getting into the northeast.
Your day one forecast map shows that for the most part the northeast will be dry today. But the cold air will be in place. And tomorrow, Kiran and T.J., looking anywhere from two to five, maybe six inches of snow in New York City, up to Boston as well. It's going to come right at rush hour. So we'll have that to look forward to tomorrow.
HOLMES: All right, Rob. We appreciate you. We'll be checking with Rob plenty throughout the morning.
Well, coming up, you remember there was supposed to be all this talk of a new tone in Washington. Well, that went right out the window or maybe he didn't get the memo. You're not going to believe what was said on the House floor.
CHETRY: And she was stolen from a hospital when she was just 19 days old, found after more than two decades. The incredible story of the kidnapped girl, her family who never gave up and what she looks like now.
HOLMES: Also, this morning's public service announcement comes to us by the woman by the name of Cathy Cruz Marrero. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CATHY CRUZ MARRERO, FELL IN FOUNTAIN WHILE TEXTING: I couldn't see anything that I can grab. So I just went forward. Next thing I know I'm just seeing pennies and coins in front of my face and I'm in the water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes, her embarrassing moment --
CHETRY: That's the woman.
HOLMES: That's our lady.
CHETRY: Who fell into the mall fountain.
HOLMES: Yes. But again, her embarrassing moment may be trying to save you from having the same moment.
It's 13 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Sixteen minutes past the hour right now.
House Republicans delivered on their campaign promise. They said they were going to repeal health care and they went ahead and did that -- at least in the House. The voted to scrap the health care reform law. That's really, though, probably the end of the line. The bill is not expected to come up for a vote in the Senate. And even if it did and passed, the president would veto it, obviously. HOLMES: And there has been a bit of a better tone to this debate. But one House Democrat apparently ignored some of those calls, though, to return to a more civil time.
CHETRY: Yes, this is Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen. He was on the House floor Tuesday night, and he was comparing the GOP attacks on health care to the work of a Nazi propagandist. He also used a phrase that got Sarah Palin in trouble. Here's a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STEVE COHEN (D), TENNESSEE: They say it's a govern takeover of health care. A lie. Just like Goebbels, you say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie and eventually people believe it. Like "blood libel," that's the same kind of thing. Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it, and you had the Holocaust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: There you go. Civility, House floor, talking about Nazis in these debates. We should point out, Cohen is Jewish. Now, he did answer some of the -- some of the comments and answer some of the criticism about his comments on "A.C. 360" last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: I guess they don't advance civility, per se. But I think telling lies is uncivil and I think somebody needs to stand up to the lies that are being told. And the fact is, they were similar to what Goebbels said -- keep it short, keep it simple, keep it over and over, and people will believe it. And that's what they've done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Well, amazing story to tell you about now. A baby who has been missing for the past 23 years has been found as a grown woman now.
Of course, you see on the left, that child was taken from a hospital in Harlem some 26 years ago. This was in 1987, taken by a woman dressed as a nurse -- was just 19 days old at the time. The case had been cold.
But, now, she was able to find her picture online of a missing child and she thought, wow, that kind of looks like my baby picture. She put it all together and called the woman up whose child was missing. And it turns out, yes, to be her mother. They were reunited as a family on Friday. And she has a brand new family and is fitting in fairly well, apparently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT CONWAY, CARLINA WHITE'S AUNT: Carlina was a missing link and we have gotten her back in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Can you imagine?
HOLMES: You can't imagine that.
CHETRY: They never gave -- they never gave up hope, the family. I mean, 23 years, they tried to do that, they age the child, you know, the photographs, keep sending out missing person. The police didn't think they'd ever solve this case.
HOLMES: It is solved now. Now, the other part of it: who exactly were the kidnappers? Was the family she's been living with for all these years? Of course, she was so young at the time she was taken. Some of that stuff she can't necessarily remember.
So, don't know about the kidnappers just yet, but they would be facing federal charges. But the important part right now is that she's back with her family.
CHETRY: Pretty amazing.
Alina Cho in the next hour is going to have much more on the emotional story and the reunion and the reaction -- more reaction from the family.
Well, President George H.W. Bush and members of his administration will be joined by the emir of Kuwait today in Texas where they're marking the 20th anniversary of the First Gulf War.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER ARNETT, CNN REPORTER: Well, we have an air raid alarm right now. But I can continue talking with you for a while. It usually takes about 10 minutes for the planes or missiles to get here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That was CNN's Peter Arnett, the lone reporter inside Iraq. The United States -- it just actually gave me goose bumps just to think back to that. And the first time people were actually watching a war as it was happening live because of the first of its kind reporting that CNN was doing back then. Well, they launched Operation: Desert Storm to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. It started with the massive and relentless air attack. And, again, the first war covered on live TV, put this network on the map, cable news on the map.
While the era of Saddam Hussein is part of history, the impact on his invasion, of course, still exists today.
HOLMES: Well, coming up here as well, a lot of you are going to be heading out for your morning commute. And no matter where you are, you probably think your city has it pretty bad. You might not be correct. We'll tell you the worst cities who are wasting time in traffic.
CHETRY: Bill Clinton, we showed you the pictures yesterday. He's stumping this week for mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. We're going to hear why one of Rahm's opponents called for President Clinton's visit and support of Rahm Emanuel a betrayal.
It's 21 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Twenty-four minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Take a look at the plane you did not want to be on last night. This was in Little Rock, Arkansas. This is a Delta flight coming in from Atlanta. You see the sparks flying there a bit.
Now, the folks onboard didn't necessarily see the sparks, but they felt a little bumping. It was about 80 of them who were onboard. It's Delta flight 1609, had some problems with their hydraulics, tried to get it worked out, circled for a while. In the end, they just had to go ahead and make the landing.
A lot of folks were giving the pilot credit for making sure they were updated and also giving him credit for landing that plane. Everybody is OK, but still, some scary moments last night.
CHETRY: Yes. Wow.
Well, how about this one? This was a big mess on Highway 101. This is near San Francisco. Yes, it's facing the wrong direction, huh? Upside down.
A dump truck hauling a trailer hit an overpass yesterday during the morning rush, so the trailer is separated from the truck and then get lodged vertically between the overpass and the road. You know, thank God for that truck driver. The highway had to be shut down.
HOLMES: Of course, it did.
Also, one more here, a bit of a traffic mess, and something near and dear to all of us here in the news business -- we get training all the time in local news about what to do and not to do with your live truck safety. Somebody blew it out here.
This is from our affiliate in Orlando, WESH -- a CBS affiliate, I should say -- in Orlando. You know those masts on top of the live trucks that allow you get the signal? Well, this wasn't down all the way when the driver took off, ran into an overpass on Interstate 4. The truck almost turned over, as you see there.
Apparently, the crew was OK. Reporter was in there as well, doing all right. But the driver is telling us and also telling his news director that he had no idea how the mast got into the up position.
CHETRY: However, on the bright side, you know they are live, local and late breaking -- thanks to the big signage on the side. And, you know, they play this all over the news, I'm sure. So, there's an upside to everything.
HOLMES: Whose helicopter I wonder was covering? They're covering their own accident.
CHETRY: Live copter 3 up in the air right now.
Also new this morning, the gridlock in Washington -- and we're not talking about Congress for once. We're talking about the roads.
D.C. is notorious for traffic problems, but along with Chicago, voted the worst in the country when it comes to traffic. In average -- the average driver in both cities spends 70 hours a year going nowhere. In L.A., they waste 63 hours. In Houston, they came in fourth, 58 hours. San Francisco Bay Area, 49 hours a year stuck in traffic.
HOLMES: I'm surprised not to see Atlanta on that list. We got our own problems.
I want to turn now to the public service announcement for the morning. A lady trying to help you out, making sure you don't get embarrassed like she did. Take you to this video we showed you earlier this week, I believe.
A lady walking through the mall and she's texting -- you see her at the bottom there. She doesn't look up, she falls right into the water. We'll rerack that and move that little bar at this bottom so you can see this a little better.
But you see her getting out. But, yes, she admits she was walking through the mall. She actually works there, looking down, trying to text and just falls right into the fountain, gets up and keeps going.
Now, she was kind of taking this in stride for the most part, that it was funny to some. But in another way, she was a little upset with mall security. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A friend of mine text me, a friend of mine from church text me and I just decided to text her back. I thought I had a long distance. I didn't.
My boot hit the edge of the fountain and I fell over. I couldn't see anything that I can grab, so I just went forward. The next thing I know, I'm just seeing pennies and coins in front of my face and I'm in the -- I'm in the water.
I get calls stating that I'm on YouTube. And I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" And my nephew is like, "No, you're on YouTube." And I was like, I can't believe this. And I started crying and I call my husband, I call him daddy, I said, "Daddy, they got me on YouTube."
When I went to work and saw how they laughed and the comments that they made, I didn't think that was funny. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That is true, though. I mean, they just put that video out there and, boy, did it go viral. So, she's suing the mall then? Is that what she's doing?
HOLMES: Well, there are some reports. Some folks heard some reports that she possibly was. But, yes, it was a light -- something that we laughed at as well. But this woman is all over the place, here online.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: And it was an ugly moment for her. And there was no reason for that video to get out. There was no reason for it.
CHETRY: Yes, exactly.
HOLMES: I just said she was going through something. You're still laughing at her.
CHETRY: No. I'm just thinking that --
HOLMES: I'm teasing.
CHETRY: I'm laughing that she said, I called my husband, I call him daddy. "Daddy, I can't believe I'm all over the place." I mean, she's -- she's a great character. She's funny. But she's not pleased with being a butt of the jokes.
HOLMES: The mall security, yes.
CHETRY: Exactly.
Well, the big mistake -- the banks overcharging military families, they're guaranteed a break on their mortgages, putting them through a ton, threatening foreclosures and worse, we're going to hear how they explain it and how they plan to make good..
HOLMES: Also, the first Chinese-American congresswoman will join us coming up. We'll ask her first who she was wearing and then we'll get to the substance.
It's 29 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirty-two minutes past the hour right now.
Keep getting caught up on our top stories.
Suspected gunman in the Tucson shooting indicted now officially by a federal gun jury, charged with three counts of attempted murder. And prosecutors say this is only the beginning. Jared Loughner will be facing more charges and possibly the death penalty. He'll be back in court for a plea hearing on Monday. HOLMES: They have voted to repeal the health care reform law. That's pretty much going to be the end of it. The GOP delivering on a campaign promise, overwhelmingly voted to repeal it. But it doesn't have a chance to go anywhere in the Senate and certainly, nobody expects the president to sign a repeal of his own health care reform law.
CHETRY: And Chinese President Hu Jintao's warm tour of Washington could get a little chilly today, though. In just a few hours, he's going to be heading to Capitol Hill and he's going to be meeting with lawmakers who have been critical of the Chinese government. President Hu was the guest of honor at last night's White House state dinner.
HOLMES: A story that has so many people outraged. One of this country's biggest banks admits to overcharging, of all people, military families on their mortgages.
CHETRY: Yes, it goes against the rules actually that were made to protect the very people who were fighting, putting their lives at risk protecting us.
Jason Carroll joins us now.
Pretty outrageous when you hear what was happening to some of these military families.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, imagine the stress of having to be deployed and then, on top of that, dealing with the stress of possibly losing your home. This is what these families had to deal with.
You know, the bank has already admitted to the costly mistake and tells CNN it is mailing refunds. The person who's largely responsible for this is coming to light is Julia Rowles. She called her family's experience with Chase a four-year nightmare -- began in 2006 when her husband went on active duty. They notified Chase because according to federal law, the bank should have adjusted their mortgage rate.
Under the Service Members Civil Relief Act, interest rates should be capped at 6 percent for those in active duty. But Chase continued to charge the family up to 9 percent, saying more than $10,000 was overdue. The couple got an attorney and discovered the bank may have overcharged 4,000 military families.
Listen to this, foreclosed on the homes of 14 service members.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA ROWLES, OVERCHARGED BY CHASE: Every time we talked to Chase, they were telling us we were in the wrong. It's amazing to me that we found out how big this is. This is our number one battle right now -- not for ourselves but for the other families that I'm speaking for them right now. And I'm hoping that they're watching right now and listening and can understand and answer this call that Chase needs to be held accountable for their actions. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John and Julia are absolute perfect clients, because they have kept all of their documents. They had every statement, every piece of correspondence, both from and to Chase. I was shocked that they had to endure two years of collection calls on a frequent basis that they did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Well, Chase has admitted to making some of the errors, saying, "We made mistakes here and we are fixing them. There is no finer group of people than the men and women in the armed services who fight to protect our country every day, and while any customer mistake is regrettable, we feel particularly badly about the mistakes we made here."
The bank says it's mailing $2 million in refunds to the service members overcharged. And it has resolved 13 of the 14 accidental foreclosures.
The Rowles believe they're still owed money. They are suing the bank for themselves and for the other service members in the military in a class-action lawsuit.
Absolutely incredible. You know, I just also want to point out, Chase disputes the fact or disputes the claim that the Rowles say they are still owed more money. And also, still no explanation from Chase in terms of how a mistake like this was made.
CHETRY: And also interesting because if they didn't obtain a lawyer -- they're the ones that found out for thousands of others that this was happening -- all of it might have just continued on.
CARROLL: These people would have -- would have lost their homes. No chance of getting the home back. If it had not been for this one particular couple that stuck with it and said, we know we're right here, we're going to push this issue.
CHETRY: Wow.
HOLMES: All right. Good, it's getting worked out. We'll see what happens with the lawsuit. But, at least, all those families are getting some kind of restitution.
We appreciate you this morning, Jason Carroll. We'll talk to you again this morning.
Also, in Chicago now. It appears that Bill Clinton is now welcomed there -- at least according to one mayoral candidate. The former president was there in Chicago, stumping for one of the mayoral candidates, Rahm Emanuel. But that didn't sit so well with one of Rahm Emanuel's opponents, Carol Moseley Braun, who actually said this is an outsider coming in to support another outsider, and called it a betrayal to minorities who she says were Clinton's most loyal supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, CHICAGO MAYORAL CANDIDATE: It's surprising to have an international figure like him come into Chicago in a local race, and particularly when, you know, he's -- there are so many friends here, people who cared about him, helped him through tough times. The African-American community, if you remember the polling when he had Monica Lewinsky problems, stuck by him -- and then to go and to not endorse any of the minority candidates and -- or support or stay out of it, you know? That would have been the best thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, the mayoral election is going to be on February the 22nd.
Now, Rahm Emanuel is running ahead of the other candidates on some of the polling by a pretty good clip. But if nobody gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two are going to have to go through a runoff in April.
CHETRY: All right. Well, A-list celebrities were there. The corporate bigwigs were there. All turning out for the state dinner last night for President Hu Jintao of China. Up next, we're going to be talking about some of the tensions between the two superpowers and what this meeting may accomplish. We're going to be joined by the nation's first Chinese-American congresswoman, Democrat from California, Judy Chu.
HOLMES: Also coming up, if someone offered you a ticket to the Super Bowl for $200, you might take that deal.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: That's not bad. But with that ticket, you don't even get into the game. We'll explain.
It's 37 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: Well, 40 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to this AMERICAN MORNING.
You've been hear a lot about what is arguably this country's most important, China. Kind of a high stakes summit has been going on for the past couple of days between President Obama and the Chinese President Hu. But last night, a little more festive. It was the time to celebrate, a lavish state dinner.
We'll show you some of the pictures here in a second. But also give you a unique perspective right now from someone who was there in the room with both of those presidents at n that state dinner. She is California Congresswoman Judy Chu. And she is the first Chinese- American woman elected to House.
She joins this morning after a hard night of partying.
Ma'am, we appreciate you're being here. So, just tell us, first of all, how was your night?
REP. JUDY CHU (D), CALIFORNIA: It was spectacular. The food was divine. The settings were beautiful. The entertainment was magical. It was incredible.
HOLMES: Now, help people understand, what did that get us? Not necessarily deals going to be signed at that dinner last night, but just how much does the Chinese president appreciate all of that?
CHU: I think it was extremely important. I think that he was -- he was looking for respect. And clearly, the kind of treatment that he got last night showed a great deal of respect.
HOLMES: Now, from your perspective, you're a Chinese-American. Does it bother you that sometimes -- and many Americans in some polling consider China sometimes either a threat or more so a rival than a partner?
CHU: I do think that some Americans are scared of China. But, in the end, Americans have much more to gain from cooperation with China than they do things to fear. Certainly, economically, we have things to gain, but also militarily. We want peace in the world. We certainly want peace in Asia.
HOLMES: Do you think -- for a lot of Americans, it either comes across as odd or hypocritical and they have a hard time reconciling how on one side of our mouths here in the U.S. we can talk about China and currency manipulation, talk about human rights violations, talk about the fact that they have a democracy, activist and a Nobel laureate locked up in prison right now, we can say that out of one side of our mouths, and then we give this lavish dinner last night to celebrate that same country.
CHU: These issues are things that we must work on, and it is important to be outspoken on them. Indeed, Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary Geithner had been outspoken on those issues. At the same time, how do you achieve change? I think it's better to achieve change with some modicum of respect rather than insults.
HOLMES: Respect, but to go that far -- like I said, for some Americans, they might have a tough time reconciling that.
CHU: Well, President Hu is a head of state, and there is much diplomacy involved when you're trying to achieve change. And, in fact, because of the state visit, there has been some change. There's been an increase in the currency and there have been some agreements economically.
HOLMES: One last thing I want to ask you about. I want to throw this in there because it has been in the news so much and it kind of ties into what we're talking about, China and U.S. kind of battling for supremacy, if you will, in some ways on the world stage. Amy Chua, who wrote about the supremacy of Chinese mothers, it kind of caused a stir, kind of saying American parents have something to learn from Chinese mothers. What did you make of that? CHU: I wouldn't be one to dictate any type of parenting to others. There certainly are styles of parenting you could choose that might produce results. But -- well, since we are talking about U.S./China relations --
HOLMES: Yes.
CHU: -- perhaps a blend of both types of parenting might be in order.
HOLMES: Well, that is -- I hope they have you in there in the room negotiating because that was a very diplomatic answer you just gave me there, Representative Chu. Ma'am, thank you so much for taking the time out to meet with us this morning. You enjoy the rest of the day. We'll talk to you again.
CHU: Thank you so much.
HOLMES: All right -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Still to come, snow causing problems in the Midwest. We're going to check in with Rob Marciano with travel forecast coming up.
Also, Ricky Gervais talking to Piers Morgan, his first TV interview since giving Hollywood a beating and getting some Golden Globe backlash. We're going to hear what he has to say about his performance.
Forty-five minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Oh, what a beautiful picture this morning. Looking at the Capitol. Sun's coming up. Nice pretty orange sky this morning. It's 34 degrees, going up to a high of 41. So, that will probably be the warmest we've seen in a while, at least. The past couple of weeks, it's been pretty chilly.
HOLMES: Super Bowl. You've been to one before?
CHETRY: I don't think so, no.
HOLMES: I haven't been to a Super Bowl either. We know Super Bowl tickets can be outrageous, coming up in a couple of weeks. Thousands of dollars you can pay. So, what about a $200 Super Bowl ticket?
CHETRY: Sounds great. That sounds like a deal.
HOLMES: Sounds great. You can get a $200 ticket to this year's game in Dallas. And you know what it gets you? It gets you standing on your two feet and not even getting into the stadium. Let me explain. The Cowboys are setting up something, or I should say Jerry Jones down there. He's setting up something that's never been done in NFL history, an outdoor plaza where you can get one of these tickets to stand and watch the game on a video screen.
Now, why would anyone want to do this is one question? The other question, why would he actually do this? He's trying to set the attendance record for a Super Bowl. He can only get about 90 plus thousand inside. He would need to sell another few tens of thousands outside, and then, it would still count as breaking the Super Bowl attendance record.
CHETRY: Really? Even if you're not actually in the stadium.
HOLMES: It absolutely counts. The NFL checked it out. It says yes, they would count. So, he's going after the record. And you have to buy four. You can't just buy one. They come in a pack of four.
CHETRY: Wow. You know what, there are some people who like to share in the whole atmosphere like a tailgate situation. You could have a Super Bowl party at your house or you could pay $800, right?
HOLMES: Maybe, it's not so bad.
CHETRY: So, there you go. Good luck. Good luck to you. Forty-nine minutes past the hour right now. And Rob Marciano is checking out the weather headlines for us this morning in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. What do you think, bright idea, charging 200 bucks to sit outside of the stadium with your buddies?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's a great idea to charge that. I don't know if it's a great idea to buy it. But, you know, there's nothing brings the community together, friends and loved ones like the Super Bowl. So, whether you're home or get ripped off, you know, either way you slice it, it's going to be a good game.
CHETRY: Exactly.
MARCIANO: Hey, guys. Good morning again from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where I'm attending the weather summit that we have here every year. A handful of meteorologists from around the country get together with the top scientists, and we get up to speed on the latest and greatest, and of course, climate changes is high atop the priority list, and we've just learned a bunch of stuff on that as far as where the computer models, what they're doing with climate change.
And you know, all the question marks that are still there. Every time we know more, we seem to need to know more, with more questions. All right. Let's show you this. No question about this. Snow in St. Louis. Still snowing there. Busch Stadium got about three, four, maybe five inches of snow there yesterday, and it's still coming down today. So, winter storm is brewing across the plains, and it's heading into the Ohio River Valley. And I think we'll see another three to five inches in some spots today.
Here's the forecast weather map for that. Anywhere from Kansas City back through St. Louis, getting up into, say, Cincinnati, south to Louisville. You're all in the swath of precip that's stretching off towards the northeast. The other big story with this system, it's going to bring in a true arctic air mass, and really, this is the coldest air of the season for folks who live in, say, Chicago and Green Bay. You're going to see overnight lows that will be near zero. Wind chills that will be well below that dangerously cold air driving south into this. Even though we've been in a cool pattern or cold pattern, this is still the coldest air of the season to come in. The radar showing the snow stretching off towards the north and east, this is going to get a chunk of the northeast come tomorrow. And as it does so, it will kind of wind itself up and bring New York City probably three to five inches of snow, right around morning rush and then stretching up towards Boston later on in the day.
And there's always a chance that it cranks up more than we think, but right now, it looks like it'll be kind of a nuisance snowstorm, really compared to what we've already seen this winter, guys, small potatoes. It was the snow that was here yesterday. We got about 10 inches of snow after the morning sessions. I did get about an hour to squeeze in some product sampling. It was quite tasty, champagne powder that's offered up here in Northern Colorado. T.J. -- and by the way, next hour, we're going to show you I got on a snowboard and was taught a few tricks. So, that will be interesting video you'll want to tune in for -- T.J.
CHETRY: We definitely want to see that. Predicting weather on a snowboard, I love it.
MARCIANO: Yes, not well.
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: Not well at all.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
HOLMES: I should have been a meteorologist.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour here, folks. Coming up, more on the incredible recovery of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. We'll tell you what she's doing now.
CHETRY: And Terrell Owens, trash talking wide receiver, using the offseason to work on a courageous cause. He's here to tell us about it, coming up.
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CHETRY: Ricky Gervais, he's gotten a lot of headlines lately. He hosted the Golden Globes for the second year in a row, and he proved that Hollywood can't laugh at itself at times. He gave his first TV interview since he host it on Sunday night. Talked to our own Piers Morgan, and he responded to the critics who said he was a bit too harsh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: Isn't a thing a like that every role for the (INAUDIBLE) you care about what they may be going through in their private lives?
RICKY GERVAIS, ACTOR: I don't know the half of it.
MORGAN: If you do, what it make a difference?
GERVAIS: Also, I'm not judging them for what they did.
MORGAN: You're mocking them.
GERVAIS: No, I'm not. I'm confronting the elephant in the room. They hired me. Like, I'm going to go out there and not talk about the issues in their industry. I'm an outsider there. I mustn't come out there as everyone's mate and schmooze. That's nauseating. I've got to come out there and I've got to roast them.
HOLMES: All right. Gervais on Piers Morgan. You can see that tonight at 9:00 eastern time. Hear more of what he had to say about that night that so many people are talking about and not in the best of terms. And also, you can have George Clooney on with our Piers Morgan. That's going to be at 9 o'clock as well, eastern time on Friday.
CHETRY: I'll be watching. Good old George.
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