Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Snowstorm Hits Michigan; Mentally Disabled Women Used as Bombs in Baghdad; Supporters' View of Democratic Debate
Aired February 01, 2008 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning again, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, everybody.
I'm Betty Nguyen, in for Heidi today.
Developments, they just keep coming into the CNN NEWSROOM on the this Friday, the 1st of February.
Here's what's on the rundown.
The Democrats list for Super Tuesday votes following the CNN presidential debate. So, how did they do last night? We'll ask two of their supporters.
HARRIS: Terrorists strap bombs on mentally disabled people? Dozens die in Iraq. Live to Baghdad.
NGUYEN: Back here in the U.S., winter storms make a real mess out of travel, on the highway, and at the airport. Frozen in place, in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Pretty pictures but, my goodness, an ugly situation for millions of you getting hammered by fierce winter storms.
Let's go to Washington State now. Fifteen counties are under a state of emergency right now after storms buried major roads and interstates under mounds of snow. Avalanches also a real threat. One measured 400 feet long and 30 feet deep in spots.
Another brutal storm system in the Midwest, heavy snow blanketing several states. Hundreds of flights have been canceled, more than 600 alone at Chicago O'Hare airport.
If you're watching us from the airport, hang in there. At least four deaths blamed on this dangerous storm.
NGUYEN: It's definitely serious.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: We talked about those conditions in the Midwest. Braving those harsh conditions in Michigan Jim Kiertzner, from our affiliate WDIV, is live in Farmington Hills, outside of Detroit.
Jim, great to see you.
If you would, describe those conditions for us and how the weather is impacting greater Detroit.
JIM KIERTZNER, REPORTER, WDIV: Well, as you look at us right now, Tony, you can see it's the calm after the storm. Metro Detroit got hammered this morning.
We've been out since 4:30 watching the snow fall. As you can see right here where I'm walking in Farmington Hills -- this is north and west of Detroit -- probably about four to five inches. They were predicting as much as 10 inches.
It has tapered off. We might get another band of this yet this afternoon to get us closer to that 10 inches. But as you can see over here, the George family has been spending the morning digging out. You see the kids on the front porch.
We've had dozen of metro Detroit schools out today because of this snow. We haven't seen a snow like this in a month. Our last snowstorm here was on New Year's Day -- Tony.
HARRIS: Wow. Hey, Jim, any power outages or problems like that? And what's happening at your local airport?
KIERTZNER: Detroit Metro Airport has been running with some delays, but nothing too serious. And actually, no widespread power outages that we've had today.
HARRIS: That's good news.
KIERTZNER: We actually had that a couple of days ago. But if you take a look at some of our metro Detroit freeways from this morning, I can tell you the worst of this has been a lot of spinout accidents. Even those schools had been out of session for the day. A lot of people still have to work, so we had thousands of motorists on the freeways. And with the snow, it was just enough of a mix with them to cause a lot of spinout accidents -- Tony.
HARRIS: Wow. Jim Kiertzner for us from our affiliate WDIV. He's actually in Farmington Hills. That's just outside of Detroit.
Jim, appreciate it. Thank you.
We need to get some I-Reports going here, Betty.
Just another reminder. If you see some news happening where you are on a day like today, if you're in the Midwest, certainly weather, send us an I-report, maybe some video. Go to CNN.com, click on "I- Report," or type ireport@cnn.com into your cell phone. But, as always, we remind you to be safe.
NGUYEN: Let's talk about the presidential debate, the CNN presidential debate. Only two Democrats, seemingly one mission though. And that is to make nice.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama shelved the sharp attacks that heated up their latest face-offs. Instead, the mild-mannered candidates traded soft, cordial jabs on a few platform issues that included the Iraq war, health care and immigration. But as for heat, they celebrated one shared target -- the Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With all due respect, we have a president who basically ran as the CEO, MBA president, and look what we got. I am not too happy about the results.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think the Republicans are going to be in a real strong position to argue fiscal responsibility when they've added $4 trillion or $5 trillion worth of national debt.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, I am happy to have that argument.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Both also praised former rival John Edwards, who dropped out of the race earlier this week.
Get you a live look now. Going to take you to Los Angeles. We'll bring up that shot right there.
Nothing big happening at this very moment, but Barack Obama is going to be having a live event in that very room, speaking at those microphones. It's obviously one day after the Democratic debate, so interested to see what he has to say today.
Of course, they're getting that all set up. And when it happens, we will monitor it and bring you the latest. But if you want to watch it live, all you have to do is go to cnn.com/video.
HARRIS: So, have you been following the breaking news this morning? Microsoft's message to Yahoo! -- let's make a big deal, a really big deal, Betty. A really, really big deal.
It's a developing story this morning. Microsoft making an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo! for almost $45 billion. And if the deal goes through, it could actually reshape the Internet consumer services business.
Microsoft is trying to become more competitive with Google, the powerhouse search engine. The deal would pay Yahoo! shareholder $31 a share. That's a 62 percent premium over the stock's closing price yesterday.
We, of course, are watching developments throughout the day on this story, and you can get more information at cnnmoney.com.
NGUYEN: Well, it's been a bloody morning in Baghdad. Two mentally disabled women strapped with bombs and then detonated. More than 90 people killed.
Let's take you live to CNN's Arwa Damon in the Iraq capital.
And Arwa, when a lot of people hear this story they are simply shocked. What have you learned about these women?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is quite sickening, Betty.
Now, according to the spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, these two women were mentally disabled, and the explosives that they were carrying were detonated remotely. The U.S. military, however, is still calling them female suicide bombers. So some dispute there.
Now, the attacks happened in two pet marketplaces at the time when they would be at their busiest. It is Friday, which is the weekly Muslim holiday. Iraqis tend to flock to these markets in the morning.
The first attack happening at 10:30. That was the deadliest of the two. That attack killed some 69 people, with the death toll, as we've been seeing, continuing to rise. The second attack happened about a half an hour later.
Now, for a lot of Iraqis, especially in Baghdad, for the last few months, pretty much since September, they've been enjoying a period of relative calm. But after these attacks this morning, they've essentially shattered hopes amongst Iraqis that just maybe the worst of the violence was over -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Well, you know, when you look at this, it's one thing, and truly shocking to know that these very mentally disabled women. But the fact that they used women at all, I mean, that's something that is not commonplace, especially using women as suicide bombers.
DAMON: Yes, it's not common. However, it is a trend that we have been seeing more of in recent times. At the end of last year there were four female suicide bombers in Diyala Province, just north of Baghdad. And about a year ago there was a female suicide bomber that carried out her attack outside of a university.
Now, the U.S. military is blaming al Qaeda for this attack, and it is saying that terrorist groups are increasingly training up the female suicide bombers, they say, because of the recent combat operations that we've been seeing. That has effectively served to shrink the pool of male bombers that they are able to use for these types of attacks.
Additionally, if we look at this morning's events, these marketplaces are oftentimes walled off so that vehicles can not move into them. And there are body searches that do take place.
However, more often than not, women are not searched, quite simply because there aren't enough women within Iraq's security forces. I mean, this is just a clear-cut example of the insurgency's ability to try to adapt its tactics. And this is an insurgency that has been notorious for exploiting weaknesses within the security system here.
NGUYEN: Yes. It's definitely a way to get around the system in a very deadly way.
Arwa Damon joining us live from Iraq.
Thank you for that report.
HARRIS: You know, we want to get a little more guidance on what's happening in Los Angeles this morning with Barack Obama. We know there is an event out there.
Our Suzanne Malveaux joins us now.
And Suzanne, a little unclear. Is this a rally or is this a conversation with the traveling press this morning, or a bit of both?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's really just a chance to ask a few questions to the senator before he takes off. He's heading over to Mexico, as well as Idaho.
Obviously, this is a very big, important state for him. A lot of delegates are at stake. This is following the debate, the first one- on-one debate that we saw with Senator Hillary Clinton last night.
You may have noticed, Tony, it was very civil. Very much toned down since the last one in South Carolina last week.
Obviously, both of them realizing that they had to paint a picture here of unity, but also trying to make those distinctions over some of those issues -- their health care plans, their positions on the Iraq war and moving forward. But this is really all about a race to the finish line.
Four days to try to capture as many of those delegates on Super Tuesday. And he's not only going after the big states here like California, but he's also going after some of those smaller states that don't have as many delegates, because really the strategy here is that he is trying to reach out to the Independents, the Republicans. They believe that he has a better shot at doing that if he doesn't capture as many of the delegates, say, here in California or New York. That that is an area that he can actually add up those numbers.
HARRIS: Yes.
MALVEAUX: So that is what he's also going to be doing -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, I have to ask you a couple of things, Suzanne.
You know, we're hearing a lot of analysis, sort of Monday morning quarterbacking, if you will, that there were opportunities missed last night by Barack Obama. I suppose he'll be questioned on that today. What was the consensus of thought in the room out there in Los Angeles last night?
MALVEAUX: Well, you know, it was really interesting here, because the expectations were is that these two candidates were going to go after each other after we saw such a contentious and sometimes personal battle between the two in the last debate. But both of the camps and the campaigns realize that it really kind of, first of all, threw off the game of Barack Obama.
Obviously, he's been trying to move forward and push this very positive, populist message to the people. It was something that there was a backlash against Obama.
And the same thing with the Clinton camp as well. Especially the move from the former president, Bill Clinton, that this campaign has become too nasty, that it was divisive. And a lot of Democrats looked at these two and said we need to change the tone of the debate. And that's what you saw yesterday.
HARRIS: Yes. And Suzanne, one more quick one.
I've got to tell you, when I saw the bulletin yesterday, $32 million in the month of January, I'm screaming in the room because I didn't believe it. Was that true? Clearly that's some kind of a record. And that puts Barack Obama in great position, certainly to get through Super Tuesday, but beyond, doesn't it?
MALVEAUX: Oh, certainly. I mean, they're going continue to fundraise. And that is a very good point here, is that he's in a strong position to continue to move forward. And that is something that they said, look, this is not going to end Tuesday. This is going to continue at least through March 4th.
We've got more contests ahead. And it may go all of the way up to the convention. So obviously they're going to continue to raise money. They've done a very good job at it so far.
And they feel like a lot of the donors who have actually contributed have not contributed the maximum amount. So they still have a lot of resources they can tap into. And Tony, I think they're going to need it.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
Suzanne Malveaux traveling with Barack Obama, South Carolina, Los Angeles now, and beyond.
All right, Suzanne. Great to see you. Thanks.
NGUYEN: Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama -- we are going to dig deeper with their supporters.
That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: Let's talk about this, scoring the presidential debate. Political operatives need not apply. We want to hear from the heart of the campaigns, the supporters driven by passion. I'm not talking about paychecks here.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell is an Obama supporter, as well as an associate professor and author.
Melissa, great to see you.
MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL, OBAMA SUPPORTER: Thanks. Great to be here.
HARRIS: And on the Clinton side, we have Ellen Moran. She runs a political action committee.
Great to see you as well, Ellen.
ELLEN MORAN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thank you, Tony, for having me.
HARRIS: All right. Look, I developed a bit of a cavity last night, something of an abscess with all of the Saccharin.
Oh, we just love one another. There were -- there were hugs. There were -- look, posing for pictures together.
What happened, Ellen, to the fireworks? We were predicting fireworks. We were looking for fireworks.
Look, we're trying to get as many Wal-Mart commercials on the air as we can. What happened to the fireworks last night?
MORAN: Well, I think this is the first opportunity for Hillary Clinton to introduce herself to the next 22 states that are going to have their contests on Tuesday. And we're now in a moment where tens of millions of voters are going to be paying attention with really sustained focus for the first time.
It was a terrific night for Hillary Clinton. She really showed her...
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Oh, why do you say that? Why do you say that?
MORAN: Because it was. Even your own focus groups showed that. She really showed her command of the issues, her pragmatic approach, her real readiness and preparedness to tackle the things that are concerning the American people and Democratic primary voters.
HARRIS: Yes.
MORAN: They want real solutions, and Hillary Clinton really laid out for them in a thoughtful way how she's going to approach this job.
HARRIS: OK. OK. Well, Melissa, let me just see if I can create some fireworks here since we didn't get them in the debate last night.
You know what, Melissa? Your candidate can't run even, can't sit next to Hillary Clinton with all of the name recognition, for good or ill. Your candidate just can't sit there and just sort of run even with her.
There were opportunities missed by your candidate last night, and that ultimately is going to hurt him. If they're running even, she wins.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Absolutely not.
HARRIS: OK.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Actually, what my candidate did is exactly what my candidate has to do, which is he allowed Hillary Clinton to start talking. And when she started talking, she started saying some very, very strange things.
HARRIS: Like what?
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Giving this sort of narrative about the egomaniacal, meglomaniacal behavior of Osama bin Laden versus Saddam Hussein.
HARRIS: Oh, she was -- she was responding to the "60 Minutes" interview from the...
HARRIS-LACEWELL: No -- yes, but there's no -- there's no question that as Hillary Clinton introduces herself to voters, in each and every state where we have had an opportunity to campaign against Hillary Clinton, as voters get to know her better, her 25-point leads evaporate. Now, sometime we have enough time to actually over take her. Sometimes the primary comes before we have a chance to actually win it.
But every time that Barack and Hillary get a chance to actually introduce themselves to the voters, the voters recognize this is not just about the good of the party, this is a fight for the soul of the party. This is a fight for what kind of Democratic Party we're going to be.
HARRIS: That was -- that was -- Melissa, that was good.
Ellen, jump in here with something.
MORAN: Well, I think this contest is also about the voters and the troubles and the challenges that they're facing in their daily lives. And Hillary Clinton has really laid out very well, I think, what she is going to do to move this country forward after eight terrible years of George W. Bush in the White House and the mismanagement that we've seen.
And she has really succeeded. These debates have been a terrific venue for her. She really shines when she's able to speak directly...
HARRIS: But you know what? You know what? At some point last night, come on, your have to agree...
HARRIS-LACEWELL: No.
HARRIS: Oh, come on. You have to agree with me -- Melissa is shaking her head. You have to agree with me on this one. It was like some choreographed dance between the two of them.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes.
HARRIS: Oh, we're going to make nice. We're going to attack the Republicans. We're going to attack George Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well...
HARRIS: No, no, no. Hang on a second. Let's listen to a bit of that sound, that choreographed dance last night, and then I've got a question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: With all due respect, we have a president who basically ran as the CEO, MBA president, and look what we got. I am not too happy about the results.
OBAMA: Let me just also point out that Mitt Romney hasn't gotten a very good return on his investment during this presidential campaign. And so I'm happy to take a look at my management style during the course of this last year and his. I think they compare fairly well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: There you go.
And Melissa, my point is, they made some kind of calculated decision, didn't they, in some back, smoky room somewhere, that we are going to join forces together...
HARRIS-LACEWELL: No. You know, I have to say, if the...
HARRIS: ... attack the Republicans...
HARRIS-LACEWELL: If the Democratic Party...
HARRIS-LACEWELL: ... and the Democrats win because the energy is behind the Democrats this year?
HARRIS-LACEWELL: If the Democratic Party had some smoky back rooms, then they would be ceding the delegates from Michigan and Florida...
HARRIS: Wow.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: ... and we would have actually campaigned there.
HARRIS: Wow.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: So I've got to say, I'm pretty sure that the Democratic Party smoky back rooms don't exist anymore. This was a strategy on both of their parts.
Hillary Clinton does best when she goes full wonky. I absolutely believe Hillary Clinton when she says that she's going to get us health care records that are electronic. I completely believe her. She is definitely down the middle, going to tell us about every little bitty thing she's going to do.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, is telling us about how he as a president is going to change the way in which our government relates to other foreign nations and the way that our government relates to our citizens.
This is not choreographed. They are, in fact, both centrists, Democrats, interested in moving us past Bush.
HARRIS: So...
HARRIS-LACEWELL: But, what we saw here is a difference in style of leadership, what kind of president and, therefore, what kind of country you're going to have.
HARRIS: Melissa, don't get angry.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: That's what the surrogates are meant to do.
HARRIS: So, Ellen, your candidate is a wonk.
MORAN: Well, my candidate is very well prepared to tackle these very big, very daunting challenges that we face as a nation. And they were daunting to begin with. But after the last eight years, Democrats and the rest of this country really are ready for someone who is prepared to take these challenges on.
I would also agree with Melissa that those smoky back rooms don't really exist anymore. And in the old school tradition, neither of them would really be allowed in this back room.
HARRIS: Yes.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Exactly.
MORAN: So I think that in itself is something to celebrate.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Yes.
HARRIS: Well, OK, this was -- this was better than last night. OK. Let me -- let me be quiet with that.
Ellen, great to see you.
MORAN: Thank you.
HARRIS: Melissa, thanks for your time this morning.
HARRIS-LACEWELL: Thanks.
HARRIS: Ladies, have a great weekend.
MORAN: Thank you. You, too.
NGUYEN: Going to stir that pot, weren't you?
Speaking of stirring some pots here, double-dipping, is it really just like kissing? Well, you don't know where that chip's been. Eyes open at the Super Bowl party.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Bottom of the hour. Good Friday to you. Getaway day. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
NGUYEN: Yes. Hi there, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen, in for Heidi Collins today.
Well, check this out. Fresh off of the CNN debates last night. That is Barack Obama at a live event in Los Angeles, one day after sitting down with Hillary Clinton and debating the issues. We're going to be monitoring this and bring you the news as it happens. But if you do want to watch it live, all you have to go is go to CNN.com/video.
Well CNN did get a dozen undecided voters to watch last night's debate. And we gave them gadgets called "dial testers" to track their opinions. CNN's Erica Hill has the results.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi, Wolf. How are you.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If they came looking for fireworks, this wasn't the night for them. From the start, this debate was tough, but tough on policy issues, not on personal attacks. And our undecided Democrats responded.
CLINTON: The differences between Barack and I pale in comparison to the differences that we have with Republicans. And I want to say that first and foremost because it's really a stark difference. The Republicans were in California debating yesterday. They are more of the same. Neither of us, just by looking at us, you can tell, we are not more of the same. We will change our country.
HILL: Both candidates did well talking at health care. And Obama saw a good jump when he rejected the suggestion that immigrants make life harder for African-Americans.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think to suggest somehow that the problem that we're seeing in inner city unemployment, for example, is attributable to immigrants, I think is a case of scapegoating, that I do not believe it. I do not --
HILL: But the mutual love from our dial testers didn't last. Despite initial high marks for both on immigration, Clinton really scored big with this sideswipe.
CLINTON: I co-sponsored comprehensive immigration reform in 2004 before Barack came to the Senate. So, I have been on record on behalf of this for quite some time.
HILL: While Obama's accusations of Clinton's flip-flopping on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants fell flat.
OBAMA: Senator Clinton gave a number of different answers over the course of six weeks on this issue and --
HILL: Overall, our undecided voters responded best to criticism of President Bush and the Republicans. Like this one on why the country doesn't need a candidate with CEO experience.
CLINTON: All I can say is that the United States government is much more than a business.
HILL: And this, when Obama said he wasn't worried about being painted as a tax-and-spend liberal.
OBAMA: I don't think the Republicans are going to be in a real strong position to argue fiscal responsibility when they've added $4 or $5 trillion worth of national debt.
HILL (on-camera): So, who won the debate in the eyes of our undecided Democratic voters? Going in, they were equally split between the two candidates. But after tonight's debate, 60 percent of the folks in our group said they thought Senator Clinton performed the best and that they would give her their vote. The one difference here, they did feel that Senator Obama performed best when it came to the topic of Iraq.
Erica Hill, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: All right. Want to get a to a story that's breaking right now in the CNN NEWSROOM. It's out of Hamilton, Ohio. And when you think of Hamilton, Ohio, really think of the Cincinnati area. Hamilton is about 25 miles north of Cincinnati. And police say a prisoner escaped from a transport van this morning in downtown Hamilton.
You see some pictures now from the scene. The prisoner's name, James Bedinghaus, 34-years-old. And he got away, somehow, as he was being taken to the Hamilton Municipal Court. How he was able to get away, unclear at this time. Bedinghaus was arrested last week on charges of aggravated robbery and grand theft of a vehicle in a bank robbery. Now, why is there so much real concern about this man? During the commission of that crime he did show a handgun. Two elementary schools locked down in southwest Ohio right now as police try to find him. It is a story that we will continue to follow and bring you an update as soon as we have more information right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Trains rolling again in China. Easing the travel nightmare, a bit, for millions of travelers stranded after the country's worst snowstorm in half a century. Isha Sesay has more from our China desk.
And last hour, Isha, I've got to tell you, some amazing pictures. And maybe you can share some more of those pictures with the folks at home.
ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Tony.
Last hour we brought you those chaotic scenes from one train station in Guangzhou where thousands of people have been stranded due to those storms. Well our colleague, Dan Rivers, is there on the ground. And just a short time ago he sent us the very latest on the conditions. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well this is the cue behind me for just one of the railway stations in Guangzhou. It stretches for about a kilometer, almost a mile, towards the station. People have been waiting and some of them since the early hours, ten, 12 hours in the freezing cold here.
Let's just look over here as we go past, this is a police line that they've erected to try and keep the crowds at bay. And all the way down here is this constant stream of humanity as people try and get to this station. Word has got out that trains are running again from Guangzhou east.
There were chaotic scenes at the main central railway station here with people being cross, people fainting in the crowd, people having to be pulled out. And at times it looked like there was going to be a total breakdown of order.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: So Tony, as Dan was just saying, a total breakdown of order, that looked like that would be the danger. You know we also want to bring to our viewers' attention the fact that it was quite a challenge for Dan to just get that short report to us. Just before he was due to start filming, security officials moved him from his spot. He persevered, before he got on the train. He is now on the train out of Guangzhou. Before he did that he managed to shot that piece and send it to us via Internet using our DNG system.
HARRIS: Well Isha, part of the issue here and why there is so much frustration, it's called a forecast. The Officials there certainly knew the storm was coming. And there seems to have been an opportunity to pre-position some assets.
SESAY: Yes, I think you could say that, that they could have done a better job. But you know you have to remember the size, the scale of china. And you know, how some places are really out in the there hinterlands, it's very, very difficult.
It also has an infrastructure that might not necessarily compare favorably to other parts of the world, such as the U.S. So those big challenges -- and the Chinese government has actually apologized to the people. For maybe not necessarily being on the mark when it came to dealing with this situation -- Tony.
HARRIS: Bottom line is that people are frustrated and trying to get home for the holidays. All right. Isha Sesay from our China desk. Isha appreciate it -- thanks.
NGUYEN: Well, all-pro wide receiver Terrell Owens says he loves himself. And a lot of people already knew that, but the Dallas Cowboys star almost lost it all back in September of 2006. Here's that 9-1-1 call placed after a bizarre incident at his house.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he took too many pills. Please, now.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Owens was rushed to the hospital after what was first thought to be a suicide attempt. And police later called it an accidental overdose. Don Lemons sat down with Terrell Owens at his home in Miami.
And Don, I imagine that was a very interesting conversation.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It was. Say that again, he loves himself.
NGUYEN: He loves himself. I mean, but why is he talking now?
LEMON: It's very interesting. He's talking now, one, obviously he wants to set the record straight and I'm glad you said that because he hasn't done a sit-down interview with anyone in two -- two and a half years.
NGUYEN: Right.
LEMON: We've been calling him, saying, hey --
NGUYEN: (INAUDIBLE) press conferences, saying a lot of things, even crying at times.
LEMON: Yes. There you go. After the crying incident.
NGUYEN: Big loss.
LEMON: After the crying incident, Tony shaking his head.
HARRIS: The crying game.
LEMON: The crying game. We said, you know what, what makes this guy tick. Called him, I talked to his person. His person said you know what Terrell is a different person now. He says he's a different person than when all of these incidents happened. And that one incident that happened at his home just over a year ago, September of 2006, he said that incident in particular forced him to turn around, not that he was a bad person, but to try to take some of the stigma off of him that he says he's being mischaracterized by the media with.
He says it was a growing experience for him. He's no longer the person he was a year ago. We talked about that alleged, he says it's not, suicide incident, and much, much more. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRELL OWENS, DALLAS COWBOYS: Just a reaction, you know, to the medicine or the Vicodin that I was taking. And that's all I can really base it off of, is a reaction. And obviously, you know, I saw one minute it was labeled as a reaction, then the next, you know, five to ten minutes later, it was reported as an overdose. So other than that, it wasn't a big deal.
LEMON: You didn't try to take your own life?
OWENS: No.
LEMON: Not at all?
OWENS: I love me. Anybody that know me, I love myself. So why would I want to take myself away from the world? And I have my -- my parents, you know, my sister and brother, my family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: How could you not smile?
NGUYEN: I mean, the guy, he meant it, too.
LEMON: Come on, Tony. How could you not smile? He says I love me. And that's not a bad thing. It's good to love --
NGUYEN: No, but most people probably wouldn't come out in public and say that. But you know.
LEMON: But, I mean, it's sort of tells you about what's happening inside of his head. He's like, why would I do that because I have everything to live for. And we heard that comment from his publicist, Terrell has 25 million reasons to be alive, right?
NGUYEN: Well at the same time, though, Terrell Owens is such an outspoken guy. He is quick to send out criticism even with his own teammates. But when that criticism is turned against him it seems like he turns into a whole different guy.
LEMON: Well, yes and no. Now he says, for him, it's not just criticizing, he's being honest. He says his parents, his mother, his grandmother, especially, who helped raise him and who now has Alzheimer's, very near and dear to his heart. But he said, they told him to be honest always. So his criticism, he says, mischaracterized a lot, taken out of context. He's just being honest.
But, it hurts him when his family is brought into it. In particular, Tom Joyner, who we all know -- he is not happy with Tom Joyner because he says Tom Joyner makes fun of him, makes fun of his grandmother who has Alzheimer's, makes fun of his mother. And that really hurts, when his mom comes in, calls him and is crying.
Let's take a listen to this and then we'll get some reaction on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OWENS: You know and -- it hurt her, just to hear her -- hear him say some of those things about my grandmother who has Alzheimer's. To say she's dysfunctional and -- me to come from a dysfunctional family. And then just this -- couple weeks ago, after my post-game, I did show some emotions. And then my sister heard it on the radio, that they were making fun of that.
LEMON: Why does that hurt you so much?
OWENS: Because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mom. I wouldn't be able to do none of this stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: That's kind of understandable. Once the attacks turn on your family --
LEMON: It isn't fair.
NGUYEN: Again -- it's, I guess, debatable whether those are attacks. But anyway, you've got a lot more coming up on the show this afternoon? You sat down with him. Anything --
LEMON: Yes. We sat down. I don't even have time to throw balls with you, Betty. So I'm just going to let you spike it.
NGUYEN: You're afraid of my spiral. That's what it is.
HARRIS: Yes.
LEMON: Tony and I were having a little game earlier in the NEWSROOM. We had a good time.
HARRIS: And folks in the newsroom were not happy, right?
LEMON: Yes.
In the NEWSROOM today, 3:00 p.m., the Terrell Owens story. A 180, he says. So, we're going to see. He's a changed man.
NGUYEN: All right. Interesting stuff there. Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Thank you both.
HARRIS: Public figure makes outrageous statements, makes himself the story, is he really surprised that folks take some shots at him? That's -- just a question.
LEMON: Well, hey --
HARRIS: Popcorn.
NGUYEN: Just throwing it out there.
HARRIS: It's all about me. I love me. I'm T.O.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Let me tell you this, let me tell you this, he has a point that you never hear about him in trouble out in the clubs. His personal life has been kept very private, very personal. You don't hear about all those things and he says he doesn't like being lumped in the category with all those stars.
HARRIS: Football, ultimate team game. Not about -- no I in --
NGUYEN: Go long, go long, Don.
HARRIS: They're yelling at us now.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM this morning, locals, know snow but they've seen nothing like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Snow walls are great indicator up here at the summit, especially when the snow walls are high enough to cover almost all of summit lodge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Are you kidding me? A foot of snow a day in Snoqualmie pass? And it's still coming down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Take you to a live event right now. President Bush getting ready to speak in Kansas City at -- hallmark officials they'll be in attendance of this. And what he's talking about the economy and job losses. That report is out today. Some 17,000 jobs were lost in the month of January. Let's take a quick listen.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... to conduct myself for the upcoming wedding. I'm here in Kansas City for a couple reasons. One, I do want to spend a little time on the economy. I had breakfast this morning with entrepreneurs, small business owners, want to find out what's on their mind. I will tell you that there's a sense of optimism, I was pleased to hear. People are confident about the future, at least these business owners were. And they should be. Interest rates are low, inflation's low, productivity is high.
But there are certainly some troubling signs. There are serious signs that we -- that the economy is weakening and that we've got to do something about it. Today we've got such a sign when after 52 consecutive months of job creation, we lost 70,000 jobs. The unemployment rate went down but, nevertheless, a serious matter is that for the first time in 52 months that we didn't create jobs.
And so the question is what do we do about it? Does government have a responsibility and if so, what is it? I do think government has a responsibility. I think government can take decisive action to help us deal with this period of uncertainty.
One such action is to help people stay in their homes. We got some of our citizens purchased mortgages that they can't afford now. Hopefully, the reason -- hopefully they didn't get deceived. And if they did, the government has a responsibility to take care of that. We don't want people buying a mortgage and the person who sold them the mortgage didn't fully disclose the reset inherent in a subprime note.
But we can help people stay in their homes by connecting the borrower with the mortgage industry. What makes it difficult in this day and age is that when I bought a home, I sat down with the savings and loan officer and had I gotten in a financial bind, I'd have gone back to that same officer and said you own my note, help me refinance so I can stay in my home. Today, that financial institution probably doesn't own the note anymore. Somebody else owns the note and, therefore, we're trying to make sure we connect the borrower with somebody in the mortgage industry that will help them refinance.
That's why we started what's called the Hope Now Alliance. Secretary Paulson and Secretary Jackson are bringing people together from the private sector and they coupled that with an information campaign so that people who have a subprime loan know how to refinance and can find somebody to help them refinance. It's been a complicated matter. But nevertheless, we're very much engaged in helping people sort through what is definitely a difficult period in their life.
The government can help. The Federal Housing Administration has got the capacity to help refinance homes and they need to expand the authority of the FHA to do it and Congress needs to get that bill passed. I mean, this will be a positive step toward helping people stay in homes. That's what we want to do.
You see, you notice I'm not saying we're going to bail out the lenders. We're going to help the individual person be able to keep their home. It's in the interest of the country we do that. Secondly, there's bonding authorities, tax-exempt bonding authorities that are now used to help people buy new homes. State and local governments ought to be able to use that money to help people stay in the home they have. And that'll be helpful as well. And so, here are some constructive measures that we can take. There's a cyclicality when it comes to the housing interests -- housing industry, but in the meantime, during this down cycle, we want to help individual Americans. Secondly, a concern is whether or not our consumers will lose confidence in our economy. You don't want that to happen at Hallmark. You want the consumers to still buy your product on a regular basis.
And one way to address that issue is to have a temporary robust tax rebate. And that's what we're working on in Congress. You hear this discussion of a stimulus package. Well, a key component of that package is to -- is to give you some of your money back so you can spend it.
And the House of Representatives passed a good package. The administration worked with the House. It may surprise you that Republicans and Democrats can actually get something done in a constructive fashion, but it happened in this case for the good of the country. And now, the Senate's debating the bill. And it's very important for the Senate to finish their work quickly because the sooner we can get money into our consumers' hands, the more likely it is that this economy will get back -- recover from this period of uncertainty.
The fundamentals are strong. We're just in a rough patch, witnessed by the employment figures today. And I'm confident we can get through this rough patch. And one way to do it is for Congress and the administration to work collaboratively and get this deal done.
Now, a key component as well of the growth package is to encourage businesses to invest. Why would you do that? Well, if Hallmark buys new piece of equipment, somebody has to make that equipment. In other words, job creation happens when people make investments. And if you therefore stimulate businesses, both large and small, to make investments, this year as quickly as possible, it means somebody is more likely to keep work and the economy will continue to be strong.
So, the two key components of this package is, one, enhance consumerism by giving consumers money. It's not like a great gift, after all, it's your own money. We're just giving it back to you. And encouraging businesses to invest.
I believe we can get this package done. I know it has to be done quickly. I appreciate the fact that the Senate is trying to work through this as quickly as possible. I'm just urging them to get it done because the sooner this package makes it to my desk, that actually focuses on ways to stimulate growth, the better off our economy is going to be.
Finally, we need to be thinking about how to affect economic growth in the long term. There was a little deal with the short-term issue, but as we do so, we also need to be wise about the policy so that we can continue this period of growth that we've had.
A couple of points I want to make to you on that. One is it's important for Hallmark to be able to sell your cards overseas. I mean, more people ...
NGUYEN: We've been listening to President Bush at the Hallmark Cards Company there in Kansas City. He's been talking a lot about the economy, especially in light of today's job loss report. Also speaking on the issue of the mortgage meltdown and how the government can possibly help individuals. So, we'll be monitoring this and bring you developments as they happen.
HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues one hour from now.
NGUYEN: Coming up, a replay of last night's Democratic presidential debate with Wolf Blitzer.
I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxantshop.com
