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American Morning
Uprising in Egypt; Millions Snowed In; The "Official Beer for You"; Egypt Rounding up Journalist?; America's Deficit Hawks
Aired February 03, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
Shocking new video we are just getting in showing the scene in Cairo. A police van, you see it coming towards the screen now, plowing through the protesters and it keeps going.
The chaos ensues today. Bullets are flying once again. Tempers are boiling over. Will Egypt once again erupt on this AMERICAN MORNING?
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: And hello to you all on this Thursday, February 3rd. I'm T.J. Holmes.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
It's stunning to see the pictures, the new pictures in as well. There was fear that violence would renew again today and it appears to be happening after a stunning night of violence and steady gunfire being heard. Egypt's army has now moved into die Cairo's Tahrir Square, trying to separate pro and anti-government protesters. But as we saw there, it was just a van plowing through people, trying to run out of the way.
HOLMES: The army is moving in today, but a lot of people were asking, why don't they move in yesterday?
Our Frederik Pleitgen is live for us now. Frederik, do the efforts of the army appear to be working today?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not really very much. I mean, there still are very few military vehicles that are at least this side of the Tahrir Square that I'm looking at right now and where these melees are occurring. As you said, they've been firing into the air to try and keep these sides from charging at each other. What's been going on, T.J., is that the anti-Mubarak crowd has been charging towards the pro-Mubarak crowd to try to gain grounds.
Actually, right now, it looks like the sides are talking to each other in some places. However, the military really hasn't been able to do too very much to keep them apart. When they fire into the air, that sort of stops it for a little while, but then it erupts in other places.
And certainly, these battles where people are pelting stones at each other are still continuing. And, right now, it's really a far more messy situation than it was an hour or an hour and a half ago where this large crowd of anti-Mubarak protesters have just charged forward. And the pro-Mubarak side just seems to be in somewhat of a disarray, if you will, and trying to reorganize themselves -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Frederik Pleitgen, keep a close eye on things for us there. We'll keep a close eye here. Thank you so much as always. We'll continue to check in.
Egyptian television reporting that at least five people were killed in the chaos yesterday and another 836 were wounded. As you've been hearing about this place now, Tahrir Square, it is littered with wounded people. It turned into a triage at points yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO C LIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hosni Mubarak, that's what you do! (INAUDIBLE) fight us for our democracy! We will die for our freedom!
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're a journalist, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who do you work with?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A newspaper.
(INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: A lot of people had wounds. A lot of people were bandaged. A lot of people left the fighting to get bandaged up and reportedly went right back.
But you hear some people -- they are blaming the Mubarak administration, Mubarak himself for sending what some called a rent-a- mob to send out thugs to cause some of this chaos and blaming him for it directly. And many people were treated down at that Egyptian museum which sits right there on the square.
CHETRY: We're getting some reporting that some of the army were trying to move some of the pro-Mubarak supporters out of the way, or move them back. Again, it's clear though that no street is safe right now in the area where this is happening in Cairo.
And journalists should have been a target in many cases, attacked by pro-government demonstrators in Cairo yesterday. Among them, CNN's Hala Gorani who nearly got trampled in the mayhem. Here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Out of the way there. This is just a completely surreal experience. OK, OK, OK, OK. I'm not -- OK, I'm being told walk, walk, don't stay. OK. OK. This is a little chaotic. I have someone helping me out here. This is the scene.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. That's one of our CNN International anchors, Hala Gorani. Go ahead.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, eventually, she was pulled to safety. She said for a time she was actually pinned up against a barricade or a fence and was taken to safety by a protester who helped get her out of there.
HOLMES: Yes, it's really disheartening to see friends and colleagues of ours being down there, certainly wanting to be there, wanting to tell the story and to be in danger like that.
Our Anderson Cooper was down there as well. Take a look what happened to he and his crew as they were trying to make it through, and trying to do their reporting down from the square.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I was shooting this video on my flip camera so as not to attract too much attention. Suddenly, a man jumped out of the crowd and tried to grab Neil's camera. That's when all hell broke loose. We only had about a block left to go when another guy came up and punched me in the head.
(on camera): I've been hit now like 10 times! Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going.
COOPER: The Egyptian soldiers -- the Egyptian soldiers are doing nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Anderson Cooper and crew will be back tonight, as always, 10:00 Eastern Time for "A.C.360" once again reporting on the Egypt uprising.
CHETRY: Well, Europeans nations now saying that President Hosni Mubarak must go as well. "Reuters" news agency is reporting that the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain issued a joint statement. In it writing that they were worried about the situation in Egypt and called for a rapid transition of power.
The White House, in the meantime, is condemning the violence in Egypt, calling it deplorable and outrageous. President Obama has already demanded a speedy transfer of power in Cairo.
But in the wake of the latest chaos, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was ramping up the urgency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The time for a transition has come and that time is now. The Egyptian people need to see change. We know that meaningful transition must include opposition voices and parties being involved in this process as we move toward free and fair elections. But that process -- that process must begin now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And, again, the administration is pressing for an immediate transfer of power in Egypt to a transitional government.
HOLMES: We want take you to Washington, .D.C. right now, something getting under way, the National Prayer Breakfast. It's an annual tradition there in Washington. A live look now. It happens every first Thursday of February and President Obama is expected to be there and to speak.
CHETRY: And also, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be in attendance. Captain Mark Kelly is going to be delivering the closing prayer on his wife's behalf. And there are some other special guests there as well, including Chilean miner Jose Henriquez.
HOLMES: And we have been watching demonstrations throughout the Middle East and a lot of people talked about this domino effect in the region. Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and now, Yemen. We'll take you there.
CHETRY: Plus, King Tut caught in the crisis. How Egypt's historical treasures, the priceless artifacts of its early civilization, are in jeopardy.
HOLMES: And many of the people you're seeing as part of the demonstrations in Egypt are a lot of the youth of Egypt. "TIME" magazine's Bobby Ghosh will be along to talk about the youth revolt. He's here next, live.
Seven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour here now.
We have been showing you these violent images play out in Liberation Square, Tahrir Square, you've been hearing. A lot of people have their eye on a particular building in that square. It's the Egyptian museum. There are some priceless artifacts.
One Egyptologist told us this morning it's essentially their Smithsonian that's right there under siege. Thousands of years old many artifacts, many have now been damaged or stolen by looters. The sculptures of King Tut smashed. At least 70 other ancient objects damaged as well.
Dr. Bobby Brier, that Egyptologist I was just mentioning, says these treasures cannot be replaced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BOB BRIER, EGYPTOLOGIST: The two Tutankhamen objects, they were preserved for 3,000 years in the tomb. They were safe in the museum and then they're smashed. That's a tragedy and it's going to be very difficult to put that back together again.
I think the mummies are even worse. You know, mummies were damaged and that's much more difficult to repair. It's a human body. How do you do it? You can't just glue it back together and put paint on it.
So, this is a real tragedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Also, the reports out there of historic dig sites also being looted.
CHETRY: Well, after 30 years of rule, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is suddenly clinging to power, the target of extraordinary uprising, and it's being fueled by a generation of young Egyptians who see no future with him in power.
Bobby Ghosh is the deputy international editor for "TIME" magazine. He has a great piece in the latest issue of "TIME," looking at who these pro-democracy protesters are, the so-called youth movement, and how these demonstrations started.
Bobby, welcome. Great to have you with us today.
You were noting just as we were looking at some of the video how you think it's so extraordinary that these protesters were able to organize this and just how much they have actually accomplished right now in terms of the geopolitics of the situation.
BOBBY GHOSH, DEPUTY INTERNATIONAL EDITOR, "TIME": Indeed. In one week and until yesterday, it was entirely peaceful. If in one week of peaceful demonstrations, they are brought Hosni Mubarak to his knees. They have frightened regimes all over the region and to giving their people more concessions. The king of Jordan has fired his government. The president of Yemen has promised that he will step down.
And they -- and they have finally gotten the West to break its dependence on Hosni Mubarak, the president of United States in quite and subtle way has distanced himself from one of America's oldest and staunchest allies in that region. And all of this has been accomplished by a group of people who until a week ago had never participated in a protest in their lives, didn't know how. So, it really is historic and it's extraordinary what they pulled off here.
HOLMES: Where do they get the idea? It is not known what they have known all of their lives. It's not necessarily a leader of it. Where do they get this idea that, hey, this is what we decided we want now?
GHOSH: Well, in one word, Tunisia. Tunisia, I think, was the inspiration for the Egyptians and both in metaphorically as well as literally. I mean, a lot of Tunisians who brought down their government earlier this month were helping Egyptians by using social networking sites to help them organize, to help them understand how to protest.
There was advice that was coming from Tunisia over Facebook, like how to use Coca-Cola or Pepsi, to splash your eyes with them, to get rid of tear gas.
So, people saw what happened in Tunisia on live television and they thought to themselves, wait a minute, if they can do it, we can do it.
And then there was a core group of activists who I would say be in their late 20s, early 30s, who spent a lot of past decade trying to get something going and haven't really gotten the momentum, haven't really been able to bring people out on the street. Suddenly, they are out there. They are taking advantage of the images they are seeing on TV. They're sending texts out to their friends.
CHETRY: They have Facebook sites and Twitter.
GHOSH: They're sending Facebook messages and Twitter messages saying, let's do this. Let's come out on the 25th of January, the first day of the protest, and let's see what we -- let's see if we can't shake things up.
And then I think they were themselves caught unaware by the scale of this. We have organizers in our story saying, you know, we expected 4,000, 5,000 people -- 10,000 people show up and then they say, well, then we can try again tomorrow. And we can try in some other cities.
And this thing then becomes organic. It's no longer a small group of people who are controlling it. It is ordinary Egyptians who withstood 30 years of this snapping.
CHETRY: But then you see the unfortunate downside of what is going on. I mean, we just got in some new pictures, these devastating pictures, watching a police van just plowing through this crowd. Some people, unfortunately, are getting hit. Nearly a thousand people injured and five confirmed fatalities.
I mean, how does this end? Where does it go from here?
GHOSH: Well, this is the last gasp of a dying regime. And I guess it was expected that they would not go quietly into the night. There are some reasons for hope today. The military seems to be much more willing to put itself between the two groups. That is something to take comfort from.
But the people in the square, the pro-Democracy protesters are not going away. And though, it's possible that the battles will keep being fought over the next few days. The war has been won. Mubarak is going, whether he goes tomorrow, a week from now, as international pressures mount, or whether he goes in September, this man who has ruled this country with an iron fist for 30 years, has been essentially kicked out by a bunch of kids.
HOLMES: You said the war is over, essentially, but why still the fighting? What could get them to get anyone to stop and just say, OK, we've won? We will wait you out until September?
GHOSH: Well, some of these people are in the phase (ph). These are regime thugs. These are people who the regime has used many times over the years to protect its interests. They're seeing their way of life disappear. They know that when the regime goes, there are people in their neighborhoods and in their streets who can identify them and then justice will come for them. So, they're trying to cling desperately to an old way.
I saw this in Iraq when Saddam Hussein went down. But in the end, the vast majority of Saddam's bath party came to terms with the new administration and a new way of being in Iraq. And I think the vast majority of Mubarak's people will eventually come to that sort of understanding as well. There will be a core group of people who will try to fight till the very end, but they're being outnumbered.
And if, they say, the military continues to protect the protesters, I think they will recognize that this is the end of their kind of world and their kind of regime.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we are going to have to see how it plays out, but you're very optimistic about what you've seen so far. Bobby Ghosh, deputy international editor for "Time" magazine, the new article out today, cover story. Thank you.
GHOSH: Thanks.
HOLMES: Well, we are covering the weather. It's continuing to be a big story, and we have more amazing pictures to show you out of the Midwest. Some people struggling, as you see, to try to get around. Rob Marciano live for us in Chicago next.
CHETRY: And let's take a look at O'Hare, one of the country's busiest airports. It's empty. Thousands of flights canceled, and we're trying to figure out how they're going to get all of these people back to where they were trying to go. Seventeen minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Twenty minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. A live picture of Boston. Just one of many cities still trying to dig out after a record-breaking storm that hit so many people in this country. Expecting, what, 21 degrees or so today in Boston. Take a look here. This is still affecting many parts of the country. The snow is moving out. A lot of cold, though, is moving in. Got wind chill advisories in a dozen states, at least. In Wisconsin, they're expecting to get wind chills that around 25 below.
CHETRY: The weather was so strange yesterday. So, we're in the middle of an ice storm. You literally can't walk on the sidewalks without feeling you're going to slip. And then just three hours down in Delaware, it's 60 degrees. So, I don't get it.
HOLMES: Go figure.
CHETRY: I don't get what's going on. Maybe, the groundhog will tell us.
Check out this incredible video, by the way. The roof of this building outside of Boston buckling under tons of soggy, heavy snow. The building has been evacuated just in time. They got everybody out because they were worried about that happening. Massachusetts is one of 30 states covered in historic amounts of snow, sleet, and ice.
HOLMES: And at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, they recorded a record 20 plus inches of snow. What you're seeing here is the famous lakeshore drive in Chicago. Still a mess right now, even though, we're told it has reopened. That was just a short time ago, but it was a virtual parking lot. Many people just gave up in try to drive anymore, left their vehicles on the side of the road.
CHETRY: And many air travelers spent uncomfortable night Chicago's major airports. Airlines nation had to cancel more than 6,000 flights yesterday, ended up cancelling about 14,000 for the week. Rob Marciano is live for us at O'Hare International Airport right now. So, are they up and running again, yet?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, they're up and running. The question is, are there planes to take people to where they need to be? Because with only, you know, less than a hundred flights going in and out of here yesterday, there's not a lot of equipment, as they say, to get people where they need to go. And you know, just getting the pilots here is a struggle. I talked to one American pilot who actually jumped on a FedEx plane last night just to get here, so that he can catch his flight and drive this plane to San Antonio later on this afternoon.
Hey, you want security line? There you go, baby. Smooth sailing. You can cruise right through here at O'Hare, you know? Thirty seconds, in and out. Not a problem. Just don't forget to take your laptop out of your bag and all of the metal off your body. Of course, you need a plane to get to where you're going. So, that's going to be the problem. This morning, most everything is canceled, but once we start getting arrivals in this afternoon, get those planes out, and we'll start to open up the airways just a little bit.
2,200 flights canceled yesterday in one of the world's busiest airports, so it's been a problem, no doubt about that. The other issue is the cold air that moved in behind this record snowfall. Schools closed for a second day in a row because it's so bitterly cold out there. And this is going pose some problems, not only for Chicago, but all the way down across parts of the Deep South. It is currently zero in Chicago. One of the reasons we requested this indoor live shot.
Wind chills are in the minus 10 to minus 15 category. The actual temperature in Dallas is 17. The actual temperature in Houston is 29, and we have moisture that's moving out of the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf Coast and because of that, icing situations from Alabama, Mississippi, all the way back down to Brownsville! This air mass is cold enough to support snow deep into the heart of Mexico
One to three inches of snow and sleet possible in Houston beginning this afternoon and lasting through tomorrow morning. So, everybody getting a taste of the winter 2011 which is shaping up to be quite a doozie. Guys, back over to you. If you're flying out of O'Hare, if you have a plane to catch, security is a breeze, baby. Come on down.
CHETRY: Yes. Hop on one of the FedEx planes and make it home. If only was that easy.
MARCIANO: There you go.
CHETRY: Rob, thanks.
HOLMES: Thanks Rob.
CHETRY: So, when we show you this next picture, you're going to wonder is this a car or is this an igloo? Just how icy is it in parts of the country right now? Well, here's a good look. One News 12 New Jersey reporter had to channel his inner karate kid to show us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go. Grant experiment here inside my car. I'm going to see if I can roll down the window. There you go. A shell of ice. Here we go. Grand experiment here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That's how it looks on our steps, however, it's about three times as thick. I don't think -- we're going to have to start chipping away at it today.
HOLMES: I said folks were slipping and sliding all over the city yesterday. Literally, you couldn't tell it was even ice if you were walking on a sheet of ice.
CHETRY: The subway -- I mean, the grates, too, all the grates all over the city because they don't -- the salt doesn't really work on them. It just sort of falls through. So, just be careful. It's a mess.
HOLMES: Also, coming up a little later this morning, as we know, Super Bowl is a few days away. A lot of emphasis is going to be put on a lot of Super Bowl ads, but there's one guy and one ad you won't see, but you'll see him with us here in just a minute. Stay with us.
CHETRY: Also, Christine Romans is going to come down and join us in a couple of minutes to talk about the crisis in Egypt and how it can affect us at home, financially, from the grocery store to the mall. Twenty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, it is 27 minutes past the hour right now. Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business." We've been seeing these pictures in Egypt. We've been seeing the protests and hearing about the instability. Does it affect what you and I pay for or buy here at home?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It might. You know, I talked to (INAUDIBLE), he's a big oil industry expert, and he said that there's going to be annoying factor of Egypt to the oil markets. You know, when you're looking at this big area, the Suez Canal. Egypt controls the Suez Control and has control of the Suez Control, nothing has been stopped yet. There's no big impact, but there's just this uncertainty in the marketplace.
CHETRY: And we also, I mean, some our aid goes to getting priority to get on things in and out, right?
ROMANS: That's right. So, we've already seen oil prices rising. You're seeing them up above $91 a barrel again. So, you could see the impact in your wallet from the pictures that you're seeing on the streets in Tahrir Square. As you could see, gases prices continue to rise or already above $3 a gallon in many places. You could rising gas prices. You could see food prices go up.
I mean, look, inflation there, food inflation is something like 20 percent. In a chicken and the egg kind of scenario, some say what you're seeing there is because of high food prices and rising inflation there. You could continue to see commodity prices moving higher and clothing prices. You know the cotton is at the highest price already in about 100, maybe 125 years depending on what gauge you use? Cotton exporter a big one is Egypt.
And also, heating oil prices. If you have crude oil prices moving higher, you have prices of everything else related to oil moving higher including heating oil, and that means what you're putting in your home. Michael Lewis last hour, I think, really said -- echoed at something that I often say that the market is always in for a reason to blame movement sometimes, and investors looking for a reason to put money or take money out of certain different categories of the market. There's no question about that.
CHETRY: Yes. He said if this wasn't here, they would blame China or something else.
ROMANS: Two weeks ago, I was sitting here telling you about how demand from China, India, Brazil, Russia, was driving all these things up. You got droughts in Brazil or rains -- drought in Russia and rains in Brazil that are changing, you know, the weather patterns for the soybean market and all this. But bottom line is, there's a lot of movement happening in these commodities that we rely on every day. Egypt just layers on to the uncertainty about that.
: And a final point. When with I look at these pictures of people on the streets, 40 percent of their budget goes to feed their families. When you have that much of your money going out the door just to survive, that makes things ripe for protests and here it's about 11 percent. Think of that. People are literally hungry basically.
And that is something that planners and government officials are always looking at when you have people who don't have a lot of time or money to invest in your future when you're paying so much for food. Food prices have been going up there.
HOLMES: Christine, good point to make there.
We're at the bottom of the hour now. What is happening in Egypt, soldiers and tanks have moved in and working now to separate pro and anti-government demonstrators. We are seeing more rock-throwing. We are seeing sporadic gunfire.
New video we're getting in here now, a police van, you'll see it coming toward your screen here, but it plows through a crowd of people. You see some people clearly get hit by this van, and the van keeps going. But it is just chaos right now. But, so far, we're not seeing the levels of violence today that we saw yesterday.
CHETRY: This is interesting. The State Department, we are getting a tweet from state department spokesperson who just tweeted out "There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting. We condemn their actions."
Meantime, Americans are being told if they would like to evacuate, there will be charter flights made available today for people that would like to get out. They were waiting for the curfew to be lifted and they say if you are -- now that it is, go to the Cairo airport. More than 1,900 U.S. citizens and their families have left and a thousand more indicated they want to leave and are just waiting for a flight.
HOLMES: Also this morning, the national prayer breakfast is under way in Washington, D.C. right now. President Obama and the first lady there taking part. The president expected to speak shortly. Also to date the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is expected to deliver the closing prayer on his wife's behalf.
CHETRY: And the ripple of unrest spreading across the Arab world today. If you take a look what is going on in Yemen, tens of thousands of protesters there in a so-called day of rage. It has been, according to our reporters, mostly peaceful, but a separate pro- government rally taking place there as well. Mohammed Jamjoom is live there with more what is going on in Yemen.
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I want to set the scene a little bit about what we saw earlier, especially with the anti-government demonstration. Really striking and emotional pleas by a lot of younger Yemenis there saying they wanted to see more economic opportunity given to them by the government, a lot of them demanding that president Ali Abdullah Saleh step down.
Even though the rally was peaceful but people got emotional. What struck me I saw children holding up pieces of bread saying that they don't have enough money to buy that bread, and they want the government to work harder to make sure that their families can feed them.
On the opposite side of it, about two kilometers down the road in another part of the capital here in Sana'a, there was a pro-government rally. There were thousands there. I didn't see as many at the pro- government rally as I had seen at the anti-government rally but nonetheless, thousands as well demonstrating in support of President Saleh.
And that crowd was largely cheerful and talking how much they loved the president and how much they supported him, many of them expressing sadness over the fact that the president yesterday announced he would be stepping aside after 2013. Many I spoke with said they blame the opposition for this and thought the opposition would be stabilizing the country through their demand and they wanted to see the president continue in power. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, a picture of what is going on in neighboring Yemen this morning from Mohammed Jamjoon. Thanks so much.
HOLMES: We have seen unrest in Egypt and Tunisia. To more places to put on the list now -- Syria is bracing for their own "day of rage" tomorrow, and then Jordan, large demonstrations expected there as well. King Abdullah II is trying to stave off this unrest by firing his government. He has promised some reforms, but opposition leaders demanding that Jordanians be allowed to elect their own prime minister.
CHETRY: Still ahead, he has certainly been quite controversial figure. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, could he up for a Nobel Peace prize?
HOLMES: Also, you know the Super Bowl is just days away. We'll be talking to that guy. You know his face but might not know the name. That Wendell Middlebrooks, the delivery guy from the Miller High Life commercials. We will tell you what they are up to for the Super Bowl.
It's 34 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Live pictures right now we want to show you from an affiliate in Dallas of an apartment fire, a condo complex that is burning right now, a three-alarm blaze. We are not sure of the cause or what progress they have made. It appears there are firefighters on the scene. You can see them with some ladders out there spraying water on it, but it looks like it's pretty well engulfed.
We don't know yet if they managed to get everybody out before that fire really took off. Again, we're going to continue to follow it but, some very scary pictures of a massive blaze said to be at a condo complex in Dallas, Texas.
HOLMES: In other news this morning, some people want him in jail. Others want to give him one of the most prestigious prizes you could ever give. We're talking about Julian Assange has been formally nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. He is the one who founded WikiLeaks. Now, a Norwegian lawmaker made this nomination and says WikiLeaks promotes world peace and free speech by holding governments accountable for actions.
Cyclone Yasi bringing heavy rains and high winds as it moves inland. It came in Australia as a category five storm. This once giant cyclone did a lot of damage bringing down trees and power lines and leaving thousands homeless.
We checked in with one of our reporters in Queensland because of the advanced warning people were able to get to shelters. No deaths have been reported but right now a lot of concerns and anxiety about whether or not there are homes to return to in many of the hardest hit areas.
HOLMES: And happy New Year. Right now, China and many parts of Asia welcoming in the year of the rabbit. This is happening in Hong Kong marking the start of the lunar new year. Rabbit symbolizes reproductive health and abundance.
CHETRY: No way!
HOLMES: Of course, it does. And a lot of people in China are running out now and buying little pet bunnies for good fortune.
CHETRY: Make sure you plan ahead. Bunnies are not an easy pet.
Maybe we're not alone in the universe after all. There is always new information, and now there are five new possible planets about size of earth where life could theoretically exist. The planets are orbiting their suns at a distance where they are warm enough that liquid water could be present.
As we have talked about before, whenever they do discover new things out there, liquid water being a key ingredient for life to form.
HOLMES: Just let me know when you find ET.
HOLMES: He'll call.
(WEATHER BREAK)
HOLMES: Coming up, Super Bowl commercials. One guy that will be absent from them is Wendell Middlebrooks. There is a very good reason why. He is cold Dallas in a good mood this morning. My man from the Miller High Life commercials is coming up right after the break.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Forty-four minutes past the hour.
Did you know that a 30-second Super Bowl commercial costs about $3 million? Well, one company says we're not going to pay $30 million for on 30 seconds. Instead, we're going to make a one-second ad. You heard me right. One second. That would be about $100,000. I'm going to show it to you and you'll remember it but I need you to watch very closely right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINDELL MIDDLEBROOKS, MILLER HIGH LIFE'S "DELIVERY GUY": High life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And that is it. Well, that was Miller "High Life". That was back in 2009 during the Super Bowl. They brought you that one-second ad. Then last year, they sponsored four small business owners in this country, gave them the air time.
Now, during the Super Bowl this year, you're going to see the likes of Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Ozzie Osborne, Diddy, Faith Hill and big celebrities like that endorsing products.
But now Miller High Life, they don't want celebrities to endorse them. They actually want you to do so.
Joining us now from Dallas is none other than my man, Windell Middlebrooks. You know him as the delivery guy from Miller High Life commercials. A new campaign, I know you're cold out there in Dallas this morning but thanks for being here.
Tell me, first of all, people are very familiar with you all's campaign. Tell me, who is Miller High Life? Who do you all want drinking your beer? What kind of person? What kind of consumer?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Well, good morning, T.J. And yes, it is cold. I've been doing the "High Life" shuffle out here trying to keep warm. But first, let me tell you, first of all, we want the everyday hard working people who live the high life day in and day out that's who we want to sponsor.
So that's why we are doing the official beer of you. Yes, if you live the high life all the time, we want to sponsor you. We want people to go to MillerHighLife.com and sign up and they can download the sponsorship kit, sign their contract and become -- and get sponsored by the High Life.
(CROSS TALK)
HOLMES: Now --
MIDDLEBROOKS: Now, what does that mean?
HOLMES: Yes.
MIDDLEBROOKS: Well, go ahead. We'll send you a $1 check in the mail. Or we'll send you a $1 coupon of a High Life, or you can donate your $1 check to the IAVA which is Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America so that when they come home they can live the high life. That's how we want to sponsor people this year.
HOLMES: Now, is that really something more so what you're getting at? Because people here $1 check or $1 coupon. Of course, that's not much. Really what you're hoping to do here is get people to donate that $1 and you get so many of those $1 and then that goes to -- to our veterans?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Yes. That will go to our veterans. You know, what it is, we're just trying to make a point. When people sponsor something, we want it to be about what the brand represents. Well, the High Life, we want to represent the hard working people. That's what this brand was built on and that's what we do.
So we don't want a celebrity or an overpaid athlete. We want you. We want the people.
HOLMES: And we're going to give people a preview now. Let's listen together here to just kind of give the idea of this current campaign. And we're going to show it to our viewers and I'll ask you about it on other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIDDLEBROOKS: The High Life is tired of a bunch of super fly overpaid athletes getting all the sponsorships so we're sponsoring real folks at stake. Hey Angelo and Billy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Miller High Life wants to be the official beer of you. Here is your contract.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh that's cool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, now you all have been doing this for years now. This everyday man and you certainly have -- have made great strides. Around the Super Bowl to make the point, we're not paying $3 million for -- for some ad. Not to say you all are taking advantage, of course, of the economic times, but have the tough economic times over the past couple of years really allowed the company and you to drive your point home?
MIDDLEBROOKS: Yes. What it is, T.J., is we needed a change. Do you know what I mean? We've got -- the times have made us drive our point home and we wanted to do something. Let's get away from what everybody else is doing and let's do what we can do for the people.
You know and sometimes you have to go against the grain to get people on this common sense movement that we started, so we're going to spread common sense by starting it first. We don't want to wait for somebody to do it with us or to tell us. We'll start it and we hope everybody else will follow.
HOLMES: Now, you -- you don't have a problem with the -- with the Clydesdales, though? I mean, everybody loves to wait for the Clydesdale commercials around the Super Bowl time.
MIDDLEBROOKS: Yes. But at least I will have a point. You know, ours is for the people. It's not just something pretty to look at.
HOLMES: All right. Well, Windell, you said you've been trying to keep warm by doing the High Life shuffle out there, so I'm going to let you go.
(CROSS TALK)
MIDDLEBROOKS: I've been doing the High Life shuffle, yes, sir.
HOLMES: But by showing us the high -- High Life shuffle and we'll get on out of here.
MIDDLEBROOKS: All right, thank you so much, T.J. It's always a pleasure, buddy.
HOLMES: All right, we'll talk to you soon, Windell. Thanks so much.
And Kiran, I hand this thing back over to you.
MIDDLEBROOKS: Bye, bye.
CHETRY: It's nice to get in a few laughs though, this morning, because boy, we've been following the situation unfolding in Egypt. We have some new information right now about reports that the Egyptian military is, quote, "Rounding up foreign journalists".
We've been getting reports of this. We're going to dig deeper into this and find out exactly what may be going on as people from around the world try to get the Egyptian story out there for the world to see.
Its fifty minutes past the hour. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we're getting close to the top of the hour here.
I want to take you back the live pictures we're keeping an eye on, of course, out of Egypt, out of the Cairo in particular. Where we are -- are seeing more outbreaks of violence. Not to the level so far, according to our correspondents on the ground of what we saw yesterday, but you still have pro and anti-government forces there in Tahrir Square which has become really the epicenter for this violence and really a focal point on all of these demonstrations.
But they are continuing to clash there. The army has stepped in trying to keep the two sides apart but for the most part, they haven't been able to tamp down on all of the violence.
Also, we are hearing from the State Department, the U.S. State Department where the concern now that there is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting. Some several reports out there that, in fact, some journalists are being rounded up to keep them from reporting maybe, or maybe for their own safety as well.
Our crews have come under fire if you will as well; several reports -- of several crews but ours in particular. We tell you about Anderson Cooper and his crew. You're seeing some of this video here of them trying to make their way, trying to do their reporting down in the Square and getting roughed up. Also other correspondents of ours, including Hala Gorani also having some pretty tense moments down there.
Some reports yes of the -- of some Egyptians coming to their aid and coming to their rescue meanwhile many others attacking our crews and other international journalists.
CHETRY: Which is interesting because it comes at the same time that the new prime minister is -- Ahmed Shafiq seems to be apologizing. Saying that the violence -- he's sorry that the protesters were attacked and saying that -- that they want to protect their sons and that it's necessary to apologize and to say the matter will not be repeated.
So again, that's the official word coming in from the new prime minister. Yet, at the same time, people on the ground are saying, no, they are being -- reporters are being rounded up and as we said, it's still unclear if it is to stop the story from getting out or for the protection of the reporters.
We'll keep you posted on that.
In the meantime, the House always wins in the end, right? That's what they say, Las Vegas police tell us that they've arrested the man who knocked over the Bellagio Casino, remember -- do you remember this? It had people thinking of "Oceans 11" when it happens. A guy just rolls in on a motorcycle, takes a bunch of -- I think, they were $25,000 chips and runs out; got away with $1.5 mill in chips, from the craps table no less.
Well, the "Las Vegas Review" journal says that the suspect was arrested by undercover officers after he tried to sell the chips taken in the heist. Now we knew that was going to happen.
HOLMES: Yes. Chips are very specific and some of them even have technology in them that allows them to track the chips so there's no chance he was going to get away with this.
CHETRY: Right. And I think Bellagio also, they discontinued that type of chip for a while waiting to see who was going to cash it in and boom, you're busted.
HOLMES: Only a matter of time. We're five minutes to the top of the hour folks. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, we hear politicians talk and argue all the time about how to tackle the deficit. A new study reveals just how American voters would deal with it.
HOLMES: Let's bring in our Tom Foreman now, he has the results for us. So what exactly Americans think, Tom? Good morning. Do tell.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. How are you? You know the fact is this new survey has some startling results and we're the first to have it here. What it shows is that American voters all across the country, even here in the hardest hit state of Nevada are much more willing to engage and deal with the hard choices of handling the deficit than politicians might think.
This was done by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland and it worked like this. These people signed in to computers where they could move around parts of the budget. They could raise taxes. They could do whatever they wanted to balance the budget. Kind of like a great, big budget Rubik's cube. And they took on things with a real, real strength.
Look at what they did on the cutting side. The majority looks at cutting and they said we need to cut the spending on defense, intelligence, and federal highways.
But they also supported the idea of spending more, too. A lot of them did. They wanted to spend more on job, education; more on job training and more on education in general, and they wanted to spend some more on the idea of energy conservation.
CHETRY: Not all spending, though. What did they do on the revenue side as a way to try to help us get more money?
FOREMAN: Yes. Comes to taxes, doesn't it? As you'd expect, they went after the rich in many ways. They want more taxes on the highest earners. They want more corporate taxes. But not everybody is off the hook. They also want more taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks.
HOLMES: All right. Bottom line, though, where are we?
FOREMAN: Bottom line is if you took -- if this group were actually in charge of balancing the budget in this country, getting the deficit under control, they came up collectively with ways to reduce the budget deficit by 2015 by about 70 percent. That's pretty big.
But I will tell you this, they weren't all equal. Now it's just a survey. It doesn't really tell you whatever you want to do, but the truth is, Republicans reduced it pretty big who were in the survey. Democrats in the survey reduced it by even more. But independents did it the best.
CHETRY: There you go. All right Tom Foreman. Interesting look at that for us this morning from Nevada. Appreciate it. Thanks so much.
HOLMES: The "NEWSROOM" continues or starts right now, I should say, with Kyra Phillips who is in Atlanta for us. Good morning to you Kyra.
CHETRY: Hi, Kyra.