Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
What Does GOP Senate Win Mean For Health Care Reform?; New Aftershock Rocks Haiti
Aired January 20, 2010 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. We are live in Port-au-Prince for the next two hours.
What a day in Haiti, a major earthquake this morning, developments, significant developments, all day long to tell you about here in Haiti.
And back home, the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the Senate leaving Democrats and the White House seemingly dazed and confused about what to do next about health care reform, big implications, so big, Wolf Blitzer has two panels of the best political team on TV to break it down for us, also John King on how people voted, especially independents making their voices heard. Also, Dana Bash on President Obama's apparent decision to go slower on the health bill, a whole lot of conflicting statements from Democratic lawmakers today.
Also joining the panel, a lot of folks. We have got two panels, Roland Martin, Mary Matalin, a whole host both in Washington, New York and all over the place.
Here in Haiti, the second wave of death, tens of thousands of injured victims dying of infections and gangrene, totally preventable deaths. One doctor's group is saying that as many as 20,000 people a day may be dying unnecessarily because of a lack of supplies. We are going to take you to ground zero of that and show you some doctors who are very upset about the lack of supplies. We are going to show what you go through just to get basic supplies to treat their patients.
On top of that, a massive new aftershock today and completely heart-wrenching new view of the quake as it happened. This is video we are seeing for the first time ever. A man captured it all from his balcony. This is the moment of the earthquake overlooking the city of Port-au-Prince.
That is his view of the quake, far away from the buildings of Port-au-Prince. You could just see off in the distance that huge plume of flame going up, a lot of smoke. Eight days ago now, it's been, eight days.
And just this morning, a nearly 6.0 aftershock stunned the city, new damage, new casualties, and a whole lot more fear tonight.
Also today, another remarkable survival story. A 5-year-old boy named Monley pulled from the rubble, not by international search-and- rescue teams, but by his uncle. His uncle says he pulled him from the rubble with several friends, survival against all odds. We were there when he was brought to the hospital. We are going to show you that in a moment.
The U.N.'s emergency aid corner says the situation is slowly improving, but three million Haitians still need help. And, as you just heard, people are dying, thousands of them, unnecessarily. Secretary of State Clinton says she is still not satisfied with the pace of relief. The USS -- the U.S. hospital ship the Comfort is now offshore, a 1,000-bed floating hospital. They're expecting to handle 100 patients a day. That could not open soon enough.
Meantime, the scramble to get out of Port-au-Prince, homeless people on small boats, small craft trying to make their way to a ferry that supposedly was going to take them somewhere else on the island. Ivan Watson caught it all. It is an accident waiting to happen.
But, first up tonight, the good news: the rescue of a 5-year-old boy. He has got a rough life ahead of him. There's no doubt about it, but, improbably and happily, he is alive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Outside General Hospital, a little boy is brought through the crowd. He is covered in dust, limp and weak. He appears barely alive.
His name is Monley Alise (ph), 5 years old. He appears to do what many thought impossible. He survived in the rubble for nearly eight days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He feel good.
COOPER: Nurse Gabriela McAdoo, Dr. Colleen Buono, and their interpreter, Ronald Joseph (ph), are volunteers with the International Medical Corps. They set up an I.V. and check for any internal bleeding or broken bones.
GABRIELA MCADOO, REGISTERED NURSE, INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: We are giving fluids because he is dehydrated.
COOPER (on camera): And that is it?
MCADOO: And that's it. And he is hungry, so -- which is a very good sign.
COOPER: Does he have broken bones?
MCADOO: No broken bones, no -- no apparent injuries whatsoever.
COOPER: What is he saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He want to drink some juice. He want to drink some juice.
DR. COLLEEN BUONO, INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: He's in something called starvation ketosis, so you have to be very, very careful as you start rehydrating them before you feed them again. So, I'm sure he would love some food right now, but we can't give to them.
COOPER: So, there's something -- what is it called, starvation...
BUONO: Starvation ketosis. It's when your body starts using alternative fuels, basically, when you don't have access to food.
COOPER: And that's what happening with him?
BUONO: You can smell it on him. But, if you start feeding them too early, they will get sick. They will vomit. And they can become quite ill.
COOPER: You can actually smell it on him? What do you mean?
BUONO: Yes. It smells a little bit like alcohol.
COOPER: That's the body eating itself?
BUONO: Basically. It is using alternative energy, which includes muscle and fat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can tell that he is very dehydrated by his skin.
COOPER: Because his skin doesn't bounce back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it doesn't bounce back.
COOPER (voice-over): Three days is the average someone can survive without water, but, clearly, there's nothing average about this little boy.
"Incredible," he says. "It is a phenomenon. He is destined."
(on camera): How is this possible?
MCADOO: I don't know. He is a survivor. He really is. The kids are very capable of surviving the worst.
COOPER (voice-over): His uncle says he found him while searching with five friends through the rubble of Monley's home. He doesn't think he had any food or water. The boy's father and mother are believed dead.
(on camera): Can you show me the position he was in when you found him?
(voice-over): He says, "They shined the light, and the little man said, they have given me light."
BUONO: He is already looking better since he's gotten here. He might have some complications, but he has got a very good chance of survival. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Five years old, a very strong, very brave little man, indeed.
We will continue to follow his progress.
Want to update you on the progress of a woman we introduced you to last night, Ena Zizi. She was the woman in her 70s pulled yesterday from the rubble near the massive cathedral here. She's being treated aboard the USS Bataan. She's reported to be in stable condition and resting comfortably.
Again, we will continue to follow her condition as well. Not everyone, of course, so lucky. So many people are dying now who still don't have to. And we are eight days into this thing.
I went out to General Hospital today . There is a group there, Partners in Health. And one of the men from Partners in Health today estimated that 20,000 people are dying a day because they are not getting lifesaving surgery that they need, amputations that will stop simple infections from spreading through their body and killing them.
Now, the U.N. says, look there is no way 20,000 are dying a day, but they said that was way too high. But they didn't put a number on it. But it is guaranteed, even if it is a couple thousand, still, people do not need to be dying eight days into this thing of infections because supplies are bottlenecked up at the airport.
The death toll after the quake may actually exceed the death toll from the immediate disaster. Supplies are flowing better, look, there's no doubt about it, but it is still far from enough. We saw it firsthand today at General Hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GRISWELL, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL CENTER: We have been here now several days working, and all these medical supplies and other equipment are sitting there at the tarmac at the airport, and they are not moving out. No one's fed these patients now in four days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: They have no food for their patients. Doctors and nurses are actually giving their own food to the patients to keep them alive.
And because of the aftershock today, they were all out in -- the dozens of patients, more than 60 patients had to be moved out of the buildings, were all just out in the sun because they didn't have any tents. They only had two tents that the Red Cross had -- bringing them. Anyway, we're going to bring that you story later on in the program.
We want to show you now the repercussions today and the implications for all the months to come of the Democratic defeat in Massachusetts, their loss of a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.
For that, let's go to Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, thanks very much.
Washington is a very different place tonight, in fact, night-and- day different, now that a Republican has been elected to the United States Senate from the very blue state of Massachusetts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR-ELECT: People and the pundits, and I will let them determine, you know, what this means in terms of the national race. But I think it's important to know that the main thing that they want is good government back and to be part of the process. And I think they sent a very, very powerful message that business as usual is not going to be the way we do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Senator-elect Scott Brown today. He defeated Democrat Martha Coakley by 5 percentage points, or about 100,000 votes.
John King is over here at the magic wall.
John, it was a very impressive victory. And there was very nice turnout for a special election.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very nice turnout, and everybody, Wolf, the Democrats, the Republicans, looking at this race, trying to learn what happened in Massachusetts and what might it mean for elections later this year.
Let's take a closer look at some of the key turning points and then the results. And let's flash this over. One thing was, the Democratic candidate ran against Scott Brown, saying he was a Republican like Bush and Cheney. He would take America back, was the theme of her ad.
One thing Scott Brown did that his campaign think made a big difference was, he said, no, if he wanted to go back to anything, it was this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SCOTT BROWN CAMPAIGN AD)
JOHN F. KENNEDY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The billions of dollars this bill will place in the hands of the consumer and our businessmen will have both immediate and permanent benefits to our economy.
SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR-ELECT: Every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create a new job and a new salary. And these new jobs and new salaries can create other jobs and other salaries.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: That's one thing, Wolf, the Republicans say was very successful in this campaign, appealing to conservative Democrats and independents by saying, I'm not like Bush and Cheney. I'm like Jack Kennedy, a Democrat you supported many years ago.
Another key point, they say, was the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack on the United States. Scott Brown turned to Martha Coakley, his Democratic opponent, and said, you would put this man on trial in the federal courts. You would give him a court-appointed lawyer. He stressed that campaign, suggesting she was too soft on terrorism, and he continued the attacks in the end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Would Martha Mirandize him and then bring him to New York, too?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Saying here that, if Osama bin Laden was captured, would his Democratic opponent bring him to trial?
And, so, what happened in the end? They say the spending appeal, the taxes appeal, the terrorism appeal, running against the Obama health care plan and the stimulus plan caused a huge difference.
Here are the statewide results. Look at this, 52 percent for a Republican in a state that Barack Obama carried by 26 points just 14 months ago. Those are the statewide results.
In the city of Boston, this is a Democratic area, only about 38 percent of the voters in Suffolk County, where Boston is, are registered as independents. Martha Coakley wins big there among Democratic voters, 66-33.
But, Wolf, remember this number here. Across Massachusetts, this is more typical. More than half the state is now registered as unenrolled or independent. This is Norfolk County, Scott Brown, 56, Martha Coakley, 44. Outside of the urban areas, in places where more voters are registered as independents or unenrolled, Scott Brown ran up huge numbers.
Translation: The very independents that gave Barack Obama that big margin of victory in Massachusetts and in many other places just 14 months ago have tired of what they see as a too-partisan Washington, too -- spending in Washington, like Virginia last year, like New Jersey last year, independents and voters in Massachusetts made a huge difference here. That is being closely studied by both parties tonight.
BLITZER: And just to give some perspective on the state of Massachusetts, not only both senators were Democrats for many years, I believe the entire congressional delegation, all the members of the House of Representatives, are Democrats as well.
KING: Exactly right. And Scott Brown is going to make his first trip to Washington tomorrow as a senator-elect. He will see the interim Democratic Senator Paul Kirk, the longtime Democratic Senator John Kerry, every member of the House delegation, Democratic.
Scott Brown said -- and you played a little bit of the question earlier today, the answer earlier today -- he says he hopes now he is going to bring something a little different.
BLITZER: We will be watching. Don't go away. We have got a lot more to digest, a lot coming up.
Up next: the fallout for health care reform and the rest of President Obama's agenda. Also, we're covering all of the angles with the best political team on television.
And, later, we will head back to Anderson with more late developments, dramatic, heart-wrenching developments today in Haiti.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: When the aftershock hit early this morning in Port-au- Prince, biggest aftershock we have seen now in the last eight days since the initial earthquake, the hundreds of people who were sleeping in the park behind me just started screaming, running away from any building that they might be nearby.
And that happens after just about every aftershock, but, I mean, it is the last thing people of Port-au-Prince needed eight days on, as they are trying to -- trying to continue on with their lives, trying to pick themselves up, to have something like that, a big setback for an awful lot of people. We will have more on that and what we saw down on the shore, people jumping into rowboats, trying to get out to a ferry that they were hoping and kind of thinking might take them somewhere else in Haiti.
Ivan Watson was there. We will talk to him.
Let's go back to Wolf Blitzer, though, in New York -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, thanks, Anderson.
The election of Scott Brown eliminates the Democrats' 60-vote Senate supermajority they have been counting on to pass health care reform and a lot more. And even though the Senate already passed a version which the House could now approve, ending the drama, House members show few unified signs of wanting to take that step.
And, today, President Obama ruled out any rush job on compromise legislation before senator-elect Brown arrives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ABC NEWS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, here's one thing I know, and I just want to make sure that this is off the table. The Senate certainly shouldn't try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated. The people of Massachusetts spoke. He's got to be part of that process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Let's talk about the strategy now with our panel.
There's a lot to discuss.
David Gergen, there is some suggestion now that the president's best option -- and none of these are very good -- is to scale back his desires and reach out to Republicans and say, let's pass something that we could all agree on.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Wolf, briefly, it is important we do talk about health care, but 20,000 people dying every day in Haiti, it's hard to believe he and others are not acting more effectively to prevent these deaths. I just don't understand it.
But coming back to where we are, listen, in his interview with George Stephanopoulos today, seemed to send a clear signal that he is prepared now to accept a scaled-back health care bill that would go to the essentials on insurance reform, go a little cost containment and something on small business.
Now, the Republicans have been saying that all along: Go back to the drawing board and come up with something like this. He, I think, has a better shot at getting it done. But I cannot emphasize how much of a retreat that is from what he and other Democrats wanted to do. It is a very different approach to health care.
BLITZER: Is that something that you think is going to happen, that the president and the Democrats would simply say, all right, to Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, let's work together, and accept something that we can all agree on?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It would be -- it's very difficult, Wolf. I mean, they are trying to figure that out in the White House now.
First of all, they have problem within the Democratic Party, because there are lots of liberals in the Democratic Party who say, wait a minute, we don't want to do this right now. He's giving up too much. And you have to ask, from a Republican point of view -- and we can ask our Republicans here -- what's in it for them to help Barack Obama succeed right now?
Yes, the public said they do want you to work together, they do want bipartisanship. And maybe that can push Republicans and the president to come together on some kind of scaled-down version of health care reform, but the goal of universal, gone.
BLITZER: But it's clear that the White House wants something. Anything is better than nothing.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes -- well, or so it seems, but there is also that issue of process. How you do it is almost as important as what you do, because now America is actually looking at process.
And if is there a question of transparency, is there is a question of being honest with the American public and showing them what is going on, that's important, too, now, because America is now questioning whether the Democrats have too much power and are exercising it perhaps in some of the wrong ways.
BLITZER: Ed Rollins, is it likely that, if the president were to reach out to the Republican leadership in the House and Senate and say, you know what, at this late moment, let's come up with something we can all agree on, they would respond?
ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: They let them in the room and they let them draw half the bill, which they are not going to do. It is not going to happen.
We are -- we're enthused. Our success has shown last night...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: When you say, "We are enthused," you're referring to the Republicans?
ROLLINS: I am a Republican.
(LAUGHTER)
ROLLINS: Even though they may not always want me, I'm a Republican.
(LAUGHTER)
BORGER: We want you.
ROLLINS: At the end of the day, I think that they would feel that they were -- they were paying a price. And I think what they have now is an enthusiasm to recruit candidates to raise money.
And I think, to a certain extent, they feel the Democrats are -- sort of got themselves in their own box.
BLITZER: Paul Begala?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What would the Republican base do? They would be apoplectic. There's an entire network, I'm told -- and I think it is a comedy channel, because it is really silly -- but devoted to hating Barack Obama and to those who share that hatred.
It's a minority of Americans, but they seem to dominate the Republican Party. They didn't allow the Republican -- there's a lot of reasonable Republicans, the truth is. But that base, that fanatical fridge, didn't allow them to work with Barack Obama when he was at 70 percent and everybody wanted him to succeed.
Now that he is at 50, are they going to sit down with him? No. I think the president has got to take his best shot. The Constitution says, if the Senate passes a bill, and then the House passes the same bill, and the president signs it, it is a law.
I think -- I think they are going to make one more run out of taking that bill the Senate passed, seeing if they can pass it through the House. It's an inside straight. It is tough. But, if they do that, they have got a massive accomplishment out of -- the phoenix rises out of these ashes.
BLITZER: So, you don't think that -- I heard what the president said today. He seemed to be reaching out to Republicans and saying, you know what, let's work together.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, he has to, because there's no longer one-party rule in Washington.
But what the president needs to do is put health care in the back seat and let the economy drive. And, you know, what Republicans are going to do, they're going to say, hey, we have got a plan to stimulate the economy.
Democrats are talking about, you know, punishing this industry, health care and the insurance industry. But they don't have a plan to grow the economy. Republicans are going to say, let's stimulate the economy with more spending, but let the American people do it. We're going to cut their taxes, let them grow the economy bottom-up and organically.
Democrats would need to sign on to that.
BLITZER: Which of these two options is more realistic, Donna, the reaching out to the Republicans, coming up with a bare-bones health care reform package, or getting the Senate version through the House of Representatives with 218 votes?
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right now, health care is one-sixth of our economy, so the notion that we can put this on the back burner for some other day is a huge mistake.
The Democrats are going to coalesce, find the best approach to coalesce these two bills, get CBO to score it, wait for Scott Brown to raise his right hand, and see if Mr. Brown will join us in an effort to lower costs of health insurance for most Americans.
CASTELLANOS: If they do that, Democrats will go over the cliff like Thelma and Louise.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: All right, guys, stand by on that note.
BRAZILE: But we will save a lot of people in the process.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: We have a lot more to discuss. (LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: Stand by.
We are going to New Orleans as well. We will check in with Mary Matalin and Roland Martin. They are standing by.
And, later, Anderson, he's at a hospital in Port-au-Prince slammed by a sea of patients and battered today by aftershocks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're back with our panel, talking strategy, as Washington, the White House, the Democrats around the country, they're trying to come to grips with yesterday's Democratic loss in Ted Kennedy country.
Let's bring in Roland Martin and Mary Matalin. They're standing by in New Orleans. We have got the best political team on television here.
Roland, what do you think the president is going to do now?
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, did the sky fall or something?
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Don't the Democrats still have an 18-vote margin in the Senate? I mean, it is not like this is 51-49 or there's a tie going on here. And so the Democrats still have options here.
There's no doubt the president has to recalibrate and then also step back. I think he has to personally go back and look at the loss that he had to Congressman Bobby Rush in 2000 to say, wait a minute. What did I sit here and do wrong? The Republicans were effective at defining change for him. Hope and change when you're running for an office is different than when you begin to govern.
They basically turned change on a dime. The president and his administration, they spent nine months complaining about the bonuses for Wall Street, but he only last week began to drop the hammer. The American people were saying, man, you should have dropped the hammer in April.
And, so, I think they have to ask themselves, we missed some serious opportunities.
They also, frankly, have to be honest about that look, they left the stimulus program in the hands of the Congress, when people hate Congress. They let health care be run by Congress. And so, at some point, they have to say, wait a minute, what our core principles as an administration?
The Republicans were very smart and effective in terms of playing on the angst. The Democrats allowed the kind of, frankly, large poll numbers the president had to go by the wayside and get locked into this whole Washington notion and focused on health care. They missed the anger that people still had. And the anger only increased when they were out of jobs.
BLITZER: It was the first year of a popular new president, Mary. And if he couldn't get it done in the first year, now an election year, you have got a lot of nervous Democrats in the House and Senate up for reelection, what can he do this year?
MARY MATALIN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, he's in a really unique political catch-22.
Yesterday, the administration was talking about doubling down. You are not going to hear anything about the era of big government has ended. I know Paul likes to talk about the radical fringe.
(LAUGHTER)
MATALIN: But it is the radical independents, and it is the radical soft Democrats, and it is the radical voter drop-off of the constituencies that gave Barack Obama his margin of victory, specifically African-Americans and young voters, who are not turning out. So...
MARTIN: Right.
MATALIN: ... if he goes to the double-down to save the progressives, then he continues to be off-putting to these other constituencies. But, if he goes to what he did today, if he backtracks, then he loses what got him there.
So, he's in a political catch-22. They just got to make up their mind and go for it. And they can't -- this is not the time for anybody to triangulate. And he is not -- does not have the talent to triangulate like Paul Begala's boss...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Well, let me bring Paul Begala...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Hold on, Roland. Hold on.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Roland, I want Paul Begala, who is friends with Mary Matalin, believe it or not, to respond to Mary.
BEGALA: I love Mary Matalin.
I don't know. I do think too many of us do this for a living think that most Americans are like us. I'm weird, OK? I live in a left-right world.
MATALIN: Yes. BEGALA: But most people don't.
(LAUGHTER)
MATALIN: Everybody thinks that.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: It is true. Most people don't live in a left-right world. They live -- and these independents, especially, live in an up-down world, OK? They don't like big government. They also don't like big banks, big insurance companies. You know, they don't like these concentrations of power.
Sometimes, they take it out on government. Sometimes, they take it out on big business. And they live in an inside/outside world. Scott Brown, I think, won -- and he said so -- mostly because he was an outsider criticizing the establishment.
And Democrats are just as capable of doing that.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: All right.
BEGALA: Barack Obama, I mean, my goodness, if ever there was an outsider in this world, it's Barack Obama who is credible on that issue.
BLITZER: Very quickly, Roland.
MARTIN: Yes, the point that Mary made, look, when I have spoken to college campuses, like here at Tulane, whenever you used to talk about President Barack Obama last year, folks would erupt, they would cheer.
His constituency, they're pretty much like, OK, things are OK, but they are not as excited. Democrats, they are down across the country, Republicans, independents up. If you don't deal with the enthusiasm gap, you lose.
And, so, the Obama movement -- and the White House hates when I say this -- the Obama movement, frankly, is looking like an Obama moment. He has to recapture the movement and get them engaged again. Otherwise, they are in trouble.
BLITZER: All right, stand by. Everybody, stand by...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: ... because all of this is setting the stage for the State of the Union address one week from tonight, the 27th of January. Our coverage will begin at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
We will get back to our panel shortly. But Anderson is standing by to join us. Let's go back to Anderson right now, because there are huge developments unfolding, very sad ones, a few happy ones, but a lot of sad ones, in Haiti right now -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, Wolf, fascinating discussion with the panel. We will get back to you guys shortly.
Again, today, a powerful aftershock, a lot of people very scared, I mean, literally heard sort of waves of people just screaming throughout the city, but especially in this area, where -- where several hundred people are sleeping every single night. It also led to the evacuation of the General Hospital, patients sitting out in the sun all day long, and the doctors really getting to the boiling point about the lack of supplies.
And where are those supplies? A lot of them, doctors saying they are stuck at the airport. We will have that story ahead tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) * COOPER: Eight days since the quake. The seven days we've been here, there have been multiple aftershocks. The strongest one, though, hit early this morning, sometime around 6 a.m. Bleary-eyed, just woken up. It was magnitude 5.9. You could hear people just screaming all in this area, Haitians who have been sleeping out in the parks.
Everybody in the building I was in kind of -- some people just ran outside. One guy jumped out the window, basically just stood in a doorway, and kind of watched the ceiling, waiting for it could collapse and then finally just went back to bed.
But it led to the evacuation of General Hospital. The patients who have been moved into the building finally were all evacuated, and had to be moved out of the courtyard. They were left there for hours in the sweltering sun. The doctors, the nurses, the EMTs. I mean, it was a very chaotic situation.
And doctors came us to and said, "Look, we are waiting for supplies." They couldn't have -- they couldn't do surgery this morning at that hospital because they didn't have surgical gloves. That's what it has come down to. Eight days after the earthquake they didn't have surgical gloves in a hospital to do life-saving surgery.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): In the courtyard of General Hospital, the sick, the injured, sit in the sun and wait. After the earthquake this morning, the patients were brought here. The hospital building is fine, but it will be hours before they can be moved back in.
It's hot. It's humid. The patients are quickly getting dehydrated. (on camera) In terms of supplies, what do you need?
DR. E. BENJAMIN, DOCTOR: We need everything we need for amputation, for sleeping pills, for post-op patient following infected surgery, medication to put people to sleep, resuscitate them.
COOPER (voice-over): Haitian-American doctors, nurses and EMTs from the New York area arrived here on Monday. They are stunned by the lack of supplies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since I've been here that I've been looking for the last two hours. I finally found this back there, and I can't even find either a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) reader or a canula, and that woman is dying for lack of oxygen.
DR. MARNELL MOORE, PODIATRIST FROM NEW JERSEY: We don't have enough supply. Just have are a below-the-knee amputation. You know what we're giving the patient for pain medication? Motrin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Motrin.
MOORE: Motrin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With bilateral amputation.
COOPER (on camera): Wait. So somebody who just had an amputation, the only thing you're able to give them is Motrin?
MOORE: We should give them Dilaudid or (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COOPER: But all you have is Motrin?
(voice-over) The hours are long, and the patients keep coming. Medical teams are under great stress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had enough, OK? I've had -- I've had enough.
COOPER: There are people here from all over the world trying to help, but with supplies so low, they feel they can't do their jobs.
DR. DAVID GRISWELL, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL CENTER: We've been here now several days working, and all these medical supplies and the other equipment are sitting there at the tarmac at the airport. And they're not moving out.
No one has fed these patients now in four days. Some of these people have not eaten in four days. I just went up to the O.R. They're working five cases in the same room. There's no electricity there. I don't know why somebody can't hook up a power generator so they can start giving anesthesia to these people.
EMANUELLE ALEXIS, REGISTERED NURSE FROM NEW JERSEY: That patient, you know, they're going to die regardless. That's what is killing me. I think a long way to come here to help, so whatever I'm doing is going to be like, you know, nothing, because when I leave, they're going to be on the street. They don't have no place to go, and they're going to die. They're going to be sepsis, and they're going to die.
COOPER: People are dying who don't really have to. People are dying, and it's been more than a week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now.
You were at a hospital days ago. You've seen it first hand. They're doing a great job pulling things together, but there's really -- they had a big setback with these aftershock today.
What do you think? Partners in Health put out a statement today saying they think 20,000 people are dying every day because they can't get the life-saving surgery they need. The U.N. says, look, the numbers aren't that high. The U.N. didn't put forward a number. So even if it's thousands, still, I mean, people are dying.
GUPTA: And people who are getting operations are subsequently dying, because there's nothing after that. There's no infrastructure for them to go to. There's no post-operative care. There's no ICU. They don't even have a home.
COOPER: And it's also like with amputation, I understand, you need a lot of follow-on care. You need to follow-on surgery team.
GUPTA: Many of these operations performed, they were performed back at my hospital. For example, Atlanta they'd probably be in an ICU. They'd be getting IV drips. They'll be getting medications to stabilize their heart. They're not getting any of that.
So it's one of those things where you don't want to not try, because that would -- you know, just -- that's the instinct, to try to jump in and help. But I think these doctors are fully cognizant, without the follow-up care, without any kind of resources to stabilize these patients afterward, it's a little bit fruitless. And I think it's an extremely frustrating thing.
Your piece now, I mean, not having oxygen canulas for patients who are having low oxygen levels. Not having Motrin, things like that.
COOPER: He was literally -- that EMT was literally going around rummaging. He found an oxygen bottle, like, buried somewhere in the old hospital. And they're giving Motrin to people who've had their limbs taken off.
GUPTA: And they keep saying international aid is here, but these doctors keep saying, "We don't see it."
COOPER: All right.
GUPTA: We don't see it. I mean... COOPER: At that hospital, the 82nd Airborne is there now, providing security. But the scene outside, I mean, there are just hundreds of people waiting to get in, the needs are so great.
GUPTA: At that hospital, and lots of other hospitals, and first- aid clinics right around here, I mean, it's certainly -- certainly happening. I just still don't understand this one.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: I just simply can't understand.
COOPER: They say -- they say there are supplies at the airport, but now like all convoys need a security detail, which I got to say, this whole thing about security, I think, is overblown. I mean, and a lot of the doctors I talked to thought it was overblown, that, you know, some of these doctors who have been here for years and years are living in neighborhoods, some of the Partners in Health guys live in neighborhoods in people's homes. They don't have security. They go around freely.
Ninety-nine point nine percent of the people in Port-au-Prince are happy to see you once you're there. There's no threat -- I've never felt threatened at all. Even in the looting riot I was in the middle of, I felt, you know, other people's lives were in danger, a little boy's life was in danger. I didn't feel personally threatened.
GUPTA: I saw these lines, people waiting for water -- I mean, you've seen the weather here: sweltering heat -- patiently waiting, no pushing, no shoving, no armed guards, waiting for water. I didn't see the violence that has...
COOPER: And I think the idea that everybody has to have a huge security detail just to hand out food and water, I think it's a little overstated, and I think it's slowing things down, my opinion.
We're going to have a lot more with Sanjay here in Port-au-Prince and all our correspondents. A lot happening today, some very dramatic developments, though. We're also going to have a lot more on the political front in the United States.
Today, Ivan Watson here saw people cramming into small boats, risking their lives to board a ferry to somewhere. A lot of people didn't even know where. They just wanted to get out. We will have their story ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We were driving down the street today to get to one story, and we came across this group of people who were sleeping on the street, had no place else to go. And they were just -- they were just singing amongst themselves and playing music and singing religious songs, expressions of faith. And it was extraordinarily moving.
We stopped our vehicle. We just got out, obviously took these pictures. We just spent some time with them. Just a sign of how resilient people are, that no matter what has happened here -- and so much has happened to every single person. I mean, every single person knows somebody who is gone, that has lost somebody in one capacity or another.
And yet, there these people who were out today, expressing something from their heart and giving to others and wanting others to join in. It was a really remarkable moment. We wanted to share it with you.
You know, a third of Haiti's population, 3 million people, are in need of food, water, shelter, medical assistance. At the city's port today, there was a scene that Ivan Watson told me about. Just extraordinary: thousands of family gathered, hoping to escape on a ferry, families literally rowing out to sea in small, overcrowded boats to try to reach this ferry. Some of them didn't know where it was going, just going somewhere, anywhere but being here.
Ivan Watson was there. Here's his report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chaotic crowds in the ports of Port-au-Prince. Thousands of Haiti's new hoards of homeless have been gathering here, within sight of American ships anchored far offshore.
Nearly all these people have seen their houses destroyed. Some lost loved ones. They have all been sleeping for days on this filthy, quake-damaged wharf, waiting for a ship to take them out of the city.
This is where we meet Annette Clement (ph) and her daughter, Anniaka (ph). And they spent several days sleeping out here. They say they moved up to this Hill after this morning's aftershocks, because it was so terrifying. And they're just sitting here waiting, desperate for a ship to take them to another part of Haiti.
(on camera) (SPEAKING FRENCH)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FRENCH)
WATSON (voice-over): When a rusting blue ferry finally does pull into sight, families jump on wooden row boats. An Armada of dangerously-overloaded dinghies sets out for the ferry, launching a chaotic scramble aboard the ship. Parents passing babies up a floating assembly line.
The Haitian government gave away fuel to provide free transport to the port of Jereme (ph), but officials left out one crucial detail.
(on camera) Has anybody offered you had any help with crowd control of these thousands of desperate people?
ROGER ROUZIER, SHIP OWNER: No. We are -- no, no crowd control whatsoever. We are trying ourself to control the crowd, but it's impossible. WATSON (voice-over): The ferry is licensed to carry 600 passengers, but on board, there must be thousands. With few lifeboats this could be another disaster waiting to happen, but it's here that we spot a familiar face.
(on camera) A nice little surprise here. We came across little Anniaka (ph) and her mother, who made it on board.
(SPEAKING FRENCH)
(voice-over) Against all odds they can got on board and plan to travel to an aunt's house in a safer part of the country. Amid this anarchy, a moment of joy and relief: a little girl and her mother are about to escape their shattered city.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Ivan Watson joins me now. You always read sometimes in the paper there's a little mention like a ferry sunk and hundreds and hundreds of people were killed. I mean, I had that thought looking at that. That is, as you said, just an accident waiting to happen.
WATSON: Yes. And that's what my initial reaction was, as well. It's just such madness down at that port. And then as people were spilling onto this ship with no life vests, nothing like that. And yet, at the same time, I had to feel great for that family, because they were getting out.
COOPER: Sure.
And the Haitian government has encouraged people who have relatives elsewhere in the country, in areas that aren't damaged, to go there and just get out of the city?
WATSON: Absolutely. And this was a -- this was free transit for these people. Normally, they would pay the equivalent of about $12 to make this trip to this port that's about 100 miles west of here. It's going to take these people on this ship about 12 hours.
But there was a big question. They were all loading up on the ship, and it hadn't even been refueled yet, the ferry. I don't know if that succeed in happening today. Maybe they have to spend the night on the boat waiting for it to be refueled and leaving tomorrow.
And also the port is so badly damaged, they can't easily refuel anywhere right now, and the aftershocks this morning only further damaged that already devastated port.
COOPER: What's your sense of the city? I mean, just driving around, you know, we all drive around all day. And that's basically how we find these stories. There's no real, you know, organization. We just drive out, and we come across what we come across.
I've noticed little signs of, you know, life finding a way, of street sweepers, of bulldozers clearing streets. I mean, I'm starting to see there is some, you know, there are tangible changes on the streets.
WATSON: Yes. Tomorrow will be better than today.
COOPER: Right.
WATSON: But then we had a pretty serious aftershock today.
COOPER: Right.
WATSON: And don't really know the extent of what could have happened as a result of that. I heard about more walls falling down and people getting injured. And we had a pretty serious head wound, gaping head wound just in this hotel here, where somebody panicked and jumped out a second-floor window.
COOPER: Yes.
WATSON: That was pretty -- there's a way to wake up.
COOPER: Yes. There's a lot of fear, a lot of fear and, certainly, these aftershocks don't help. Ivan, appreciate it.
An important program note, Friday night at 8 Eastern, Sanjay Gupta and I are going to take part in "Hope for Haiti Now," a global telethon hosted by Wyclef Jean and George Clooney. Sanjay and I are going to have live reports from Haiti. The telethon is going to air live on CNN, and we hope you join us for that Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern, all the way to 10 p.m. And then, of course, 360 right at 10.
We're going to have more from Haiti ahead. We're also going to check back with Wolf in New York for the latest on politics. Our panel digs deeper on what is ahead for the health-care overhaul. Is that doomed now that Democrats lost their super majority? The panel weighs in on that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We have much more from Haiti, eight days after the quake. Some new stories you haven't seen before. First, let's check back with Wolf Blitzer in New York for the fallout from yesterday's congressional election in Massachusetts. It's the big political story tonight -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Huge fallout, Anderson. Thanks very much.
As we reported, President Obama told Democrats today not to jam a health-care Bill through Congress in the wake of Scott Brown's election in Massachusetts. He said Congress should wait until Brown is sworn into office before moving forward.
Brown, of course, campaigned against the proposed overhaul of health care, so why is the president now urging Democrats to sit tight? Dana Bash is joining us.
Dana, it must have been quite a free-for-all up on the Hill today.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was quite a scene. I can't even describe the tension here in the halls of Congress, and there were a frenzy of meetings, as you can imagine, among Democrats, trying to figure out what the fallout from Massachusetts is.
And the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, he came out of one of those meetings this morning. And he said we all just have to catch our breath. Let's just hold on. I think we heard that all day from Democratic leaders especially. And one of the reasons is political. They're trying to squash the idea that they'll try to jam through health care before Scott Brown is seated.
But the other is just the reality. They need to buy time, Wolf, because they don't have a clue the way -- how they can get health care through, given the fact this they have lost this Senate seat.
BLITZER: I'm sure, Dana, the Democrats must have spent the majority of the day discussing their options. Which one seems to be the front-runner?
BASH: You know, you and I discussed last night the fact that rank-and-file Democrats were telling us that the idea was just to throw away what they were working on and scale back the health-care Bill. That did seem to gain traction today.
The president talked about it publicly. Privately, I'm told, the White House is feeling out House and Senate Democrats to see if that can fly.
The idea is to try to try to push through the most politically- popular ideas, like cracking down on insurance companies, making sure that pre-existing conditions, that people weren't discriminated against for those.
But you know, talking to several Democrats, many Democrats, really, in the halls of Congress today, they say the problem is once do you that you're going to have to mandate coverage, from their perspective. Once you mandate coverage, you're going to have to give people government subsidies to pay for it. And then that makes a smaller package even bigger immediately.
And that's just one of the many problems. Several options that they're talking about here on Capitol Hill.
BLITZER: All right, Dana, stand by. Let's bring in John King right now.
John, what was the big mistake for the White House, letting Congress take the lead, write this legislation, because it's been going on and on and on?
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, that's being argued both ways.
You know, you have Paul Begala, who worked through this with the Clinton team back in 1994. They thought the mistake was they were too invested. Their fingers were too on the Bill. Then-first-lady Hillary Clinton wrote the Bill. It became very unpopular.
Now Bill Clinton says the lesson now for Democrats is you must pass something. But as Dana just noted, a lot of nervous Democrats are saying, "Well, it better be right, whatever we pass, because voters clearly angry about this."
So, there's a lot of criticism in Washington: "Why did you let the House and the Senate handle this?" Just like the president did on the stimulus Bill. And the stimulus Bill has also caused them some trouble in this election year.
So there is going to be a reassessment not only of the politics of the moment but of the approach of this administration.
And what everybody agrees, Wolf, whether they think the president should have written his own legislation or left it to the Congress, is that it's taken too long and become too confusing. And many people think it's a closed, all-Democratic process. And it has created the impression outside of Washington, that it's just the Democrats doing this behind closed doors. It's thousands of pages. Nobody understands it. Politics as usual. You can't sell politics as usual in this environment.
BLITZER: David Gergen, I've been getting some e-mails and comments from viewers. Three state-wide contest the last few months, Virginia, New Jersey, now Massachusetts. Three straight losses for the Democrats. Will heads roll?
DAVID GERGEN, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: That's an interesting question. Some heads rolled. Martha Coakley's head rolled. So there may be some...
BLITZER: Jon Corzine of New Jersey, but I'm talking about some of the political operatives over at the White House or the DNC?
GERGEN: Look, the political operatives around the president are so close in, I don't think he's going to give up on anybody there. I think he's going to keep his team, try to figure out how to dig out from under.
I would -- I would imagine he would not do that, because that's not -- I don't think it's his style. And frankly, I don't think that's the way you recover anyway. I think you work your way out of it as Bill Clinton did, as Ronald Reagan did and others have done.
But I'll tell you this. As they say, take a breath. If they don't decide pretty soon what we're doing and they allow us to sit around here, speculating this way, there's -- consensus is going to set in. They've been working at this for a year. Now they've got a mess on their hands. Can these guys govern? Can these guys -- are they up to the job of running the country?
BLITZER: We're going to continue this discussion, but you remember, you worked for Bill Clinton. You came in. Heads were rolling. That's why they brought David Gergen in, early on, as you remember, when things got tough for Bill Clinton.
Back in '93, they had a new chief of staff, a new White House chief of staff who came in, Leon Panetta, at that time, as well.
All right. We've got a lot more to discuss with our panel.
Plus, much more from Haiti, where doctors say -- get this -- as many as 20,000 earthquake survivors may be dying each day, simply waiting for the medical care they need.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Anderson is going to join us again from Haiti in just a few moments. He'll have a lot more coming up on the reports that people are still dying, maybe 20,000 a day needlessly, simply because they don't have enough medical attention.
But right now, we're back with our political panel to talk about the fallout from yesterday's special election in Massachusetts. Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat, cost the Democrats their super majority. That's the story in a nutshell, but there's a lot more to it than that.
Donna, as you look at this, give us some perspective, historic perspective. How big of a setback is this for the Democrats right now in the scheme of things?
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, if you go become to the days of the Civil War, and Ed probably knows what I'm about to say...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fought in the Civil War.
BRAZILE: You know...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First job was Lincoln.
BRAZILE: Thank you. He freed me. I love you for that.
But, look, the problem is, is that, you know, for incumbents, especially for Democratic incumbents, this is going to be a very tough political season. And I think Democrats are prepared to face the strong headwinds that clearly is coming from voters who are frustrated. They're worried about the economy. They're worried about their jobs. They're worried about health care.
The most important thing the president can do right now is to lead, lead the country, lead the country by working with Republicans who are willing to work with him and, of course, get the Democrats to also coalesce around some real good ideas.
BLITZER: Could the president simply say, "You know what? W e tried health care, didn't work. I'm now going to focus like a laser beam on creating jobs"?
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the president has to do something that dramatic that demonstrates change. Voters have said, "Look, don't keep following the same path deeper into the woods. If the president doesn't do something to demonstrate change, it's going to be the Democratic Party thumbing their nose at a populist revolt. That would be a disaster for the president.
BLITZER: He's sounding more and more populist by the hour.
CASTELLANOS: Not enough for me. But he's getting there. This is not a populist guy. This is a very cerebral guy. He's not a warm and cuddly, bottom-up guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of smart people who are populist.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think what we're doing is overplaying the role that health care played in the election and underplaying the role that reform played.
Scott Brown was asked directly, on election day is this about health care? He said no. What is this about? He said business as usual.
So Democrats say, Democrats -- and this is where Barack Obama is an authentic populist, in taking on what he sees as a corrupt establishment in Washington. Let's see if the Democrats stand up and call the Republicans' bluff: take on the big corporate lobbyists, take on the big Wall Street banks, where the president has got to put his toe in the water on that with a fee for banks. It's look like the Republicans are going to oppose that.
When he proposed the financial reform, just December 8, a few weeks ago. The Republicans met in private with 100 Wall Street lobbyists. That was their response. Talking about business as usual, that's extraordinary.
So I think this president can find his populist voice in those reform issues, where he's very comfortable. And he's authentic about it.
BLITZER: I know everybody wants to weigh in. I'm going to get back to everybody, but stand by for a moment, because we are hearing a lot more populist rhetoric.
I heard some White House advisers today speaking about the need to stop exporting jobs going against the free trade that the president has always supported.
Let's get caught up a little bit more on some of the other important stories. Tom Foreman is joining with us a "360 News and Business Bulletin" -- Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf.
The White House-picked head of the Transportation Security Administration no longer wants the job. Errol Southers is withdrawing his name from consideration. Senate confirmation for the former FBI agent had been blocked by a Republican who feared he would let TSA workers form a union.
About 1.5 million Graco strollers ARE being recalled because children can get their fingertips cut or amputated. Graco reports seven injuries. The strollers were sold from October 2004 to December 2009.
And the couple who crashed the White House state dinner last November refused to answer questions about the event before the House Homeland Security Committee today, even though they were invited there. Tareq and Michaela Salahi repeatedly invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. One congressman called the hearing charade -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Tom, thanks very much. We're going to get back to Anderson Cooper in Haiti right now.
COOPER: Wolf, thanks very much.
Coming up at the top of the hour, the rescues that, amazing, and thankfully are still happening. A 5-year-old boy, we saw him rescued today. We're also going to take you to a town that has received very little attention. It's a story you really should see. Stick around. A lot of new stories from Haiti in the next hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
