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German Airport Security Scare; So Long, Super Majority: Brown Victory Imperils Obama Agenda; Medical Supplies Urgently Needed in Haiti; Erroll Southers Drops Out of TSA Running; Haiti's Elderly Suffering; Navy's USS Comfort Arrives off of Haiti's Shores

Aired January 20, 2010 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for watching. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Don, thank you very much.

Don said, I am Ali Velshi. And as you may have noticed, I'm the new guy on the job. This has not been the ideal week for lengthy or formal introductions because of all the news that we've had to cover from Haiti and Washington. But I'm going to be with you every day from now on, every weekday, Monday to Friday, 1 to 3 p.m.

And I'm going to do what I have been doing elsewhere at CNN for the last few years. I'm going to take every important topic we cover and break it down for you. We're going to try to get you a level of detail that will help you make important decisions about your voting, spending, your safety and security, or just to understand the world around you better. And I want to hear what you think about this new effort. More about that later, but first, the news.

And the news this week has been Haiti and the election in Massachusetts. We're covering both of those, but the election in Massachusetts is on a lot of people's minds today. It's a -- it's an election that affects all Americans, not just those who live in Massachusetts. The come-from-behind victory of Scott Brown, the Republican taking over the seat that Ted Kennedy held for 46 years.

Let's go straight to our political editor, Mark Preston, who's been following this very, very closely.

Mark, the story today is not actually about Scott Brown. It's about President Obama and his agenda and the Democrats. What do we know?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, we know this, Ali: we know that Scott Brown ran on the idea of being the 40 -- 41st senator in the United States Senate. That would give Republicans enough to stop President Obama's agenda, specifically health care.

Democrats had 60 votes going into last night, Ali. They needed 60 votes to get health care through. Once he gets sworn in, that's wrong.

VELSHI: Mark, let me ask you this. Why do they need 60 votes? Why do they not need 50 plus one? Why do they not need 51 votes? What is wrong with our politic that the Democrats actually have to have 60 to get this through? Is it because we have no partisanship in Washington anymore -- no bipartisanship?

PRESTON: Look, President Obama, Ali, came to town on this whole idea of hope and change. He said he was going to change the partisan politics here in Washington, D.C.

The fact of the matter is, though, we are a very divided nation, and we are very divided here in Washington, D.C. Democrats are not going to be able to get through a health-care bill that Republicans are going to say, "We absolutely agree with it." They have a lot of problems.

But also Democrats have problems within their own party, Ali, on how this health-care bill should look. Should it have an abortion clause in it that would prevent federal funds for abortion? How should we pay for it? Should there be exclusions for some states regarding paybacks on Medicare? There's a lot of problems with this bill.

VELSHI: Let's listen to John McCain and what he said after this election victory by Scott Brown last night. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Last night a shot was fired around this nation. A shot was fired saying, no more business as usual in Washington, D.C. Stop this unsavory, sausage-making process called health-care reform, where special favors are dispensed to special people for special reasons in order to purchase votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Mark, who's right? Is it those people who say this was a shot that was -- that was heard around the nation, or was this an election in Massachusetts by people who just didn't like the Democratic candidate?

PRESTON: You know, given the fact that it all comes down to health care, it is a shot heard around the nation. And the reason being is that this was President Obama's No. 1 domestic issue.

Putting aside all the bailout money, Ali, putting aside the fact that President Obama had a deal with the auto industry collapsing, with the housing industry collapsing, this was his No. 1 domestic issue. He's not going to see it delivered upon.

You have a lot of conservative Democrats right now, Ali, that are looking towards Massachusetts, saying, "If we can't hold on to Ted Kennedy's seat, how can they protect me in November?" So there's a lot of concern among Democrats in the Democratic Party.

VELSHI: Let's talk about what the options are going to be for health care. You touched on them, but the reality is -- and we're still trying to hear more and more. And we'll get a briefing that will be live here in just a little while from the White House. What are their options at this point? They can pass it before Brown is seated, but that could have some reverberations for them, as well.

PRESTON: You know, I don't think they have an answer. I mean, certainly there are things on a piece of paper we could talk about. Could you pass the Senate version of the bill in the House, as some people are talking? That way, it could be fast-tracked and right to the president's desk and signed in.

Could you -- you know, try to do some other legislative maneuvering to try to change some things, to try to fast-track it?

Bottom line is right now, though, there is concern in the Democratic Party to do such a thing. It would be seen in a very unseemly manner if they try to do this health-care bill before Scott Brown.

VELSHI: You know a lot -- you know a lot about the politicking, Mark. Let's go to bullet point No. 4 on our screen: court a Republican. And Olympia Snowe is what we have in brackets. But could that happen? Could the Democrats now hit hard, go after a Republican to bring them back up to 60 votes? And are they in danger of losing some Democrats who don't want to be like Martha Coakley, the Democrat who lost in Massachusetts?

PRESTON: You know, I think the latter is more realistic at this point. The fact is, you can court a Republican, and I'm sure they're thinking about it and trying to do that. But it -- why didn't they do that before? Why are they not successful in getting Senator Snowe to come on before? Clearly, she had some problems with this bill.

So I don't know if that is necessarily the answer. I think it's the latter. I think Democrats right now are looking at what happened up in Massachusetts. Certainly, Democrats represent states that tend to be a little bit more conservative, perhaps are Republican in nature. And they're saying to themselves, "You know something. I think I'm not going to vote for this bill this time."

VELSHI: Let me just bring in one -- one other piece of commentary that we got from Senator Mitch McConnell who again says this isn't just the shot heard around the nation; this isn't just about health care. It's about everything this administration is trying to do. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: There's a reason the nation was focused on this race. The American people have made it abundantly clear that they're more interested in shrinking unemployment than expanding government. They're tired of bailouts. They're tired of government spending, more than ever, at a time when most people are spending less. And they don't want the government taking over health care. They made that abundantly clear last night in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: Mark, if you want to object to that, if you're a Democrat who wants to say, Mitch McConnell, John McCain doesn't know what they're talking about; this wasn't a referendum on the White House, when is the White House or the Democrats' next opportunity to prove them wrong?

PRESTON: Well, I mean, look, there was a lot of criticism, Ali, of the White House for trying to do too much, too soon, using his first year to try to cram everything through Congress.

Well, this is why they did it. They realized that, in order to get anything done, they had the political capital; they had the political will of the American people behind them.

Regardless of what happened in Massachusetts last night, President Obama was going to have some difficulty getting other tough legislative items through the chamber heading into this midterm election year. He was going to have conservative Democrats peel off anyway. At this point health care seems in jeopardy. Another issue, cap and trade, could be in jeopardy.

VELSHI: All right. Mark, good to see you, as always. You're always a smart guy. You haven't been that much of a dresser, but if you're going to show up on this show, I like that tie. Try doing that more regularly.

Mark Preston, one of the smartest guys we've got. He's our political editor.

All right. The other big story we've been telling you that we've been covering is Haiti, and it is a continuing, continuing story. Treating Haiti's young quake victims is what we want to look at now. We've got a live report coming up from a hospital in Port-au-Prince, dealing with kids and what they're suffering through.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We're following the implications of the Massachusetts election and, of course, the continuing aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

As of last night, the Red Cross, through its text messages, had raised $24 million. A hundred and twenty-seven million is the total they've raised for Haiti so far. Twenty-four million of that has come -- so, about a fifth -- has come from texting 90999, people giving from their mobile phones.

Now, if you want to donate money to the Haiti effort, go to CNN.com/Impact. That will give you a sense of all of the agencies that are working in Haiti and where you can get -- donate your money. That's going to be an important thing for you to do. Check out where you're donating your money.

Now, I'm here at the international desk where we are continuing to cover incoming stories from Haiti, confirming information, speaking to our reporters, finding out what the situation on the ground is. And, of course, one situation that many of you woke up to the news of this morning, very disturbing, the last thing that Haiti needed, was another major aftershock. Now, there have been dozens of these aftershocks, but this one was pretty big. It was a 6.1 magnitude aftershock, and it hit Port-au-Prince today as these recovery efforts were under way.

People were screaming. We heard that they were praying as the ground started shaking around them. No clear word yet on casualties or damage. By comparison, last week's initial quake, the one that obviously is the one we're talking about, was a magnitude 7. As you know, these things increase disproportionately as they go up, but 6 is pretty good.

Let's go to Elizabeth Cohen who has been reporting to us about the situation on the ground as it pertains to medical personnel and supplies. She is in Port-au-Prince.

Elizabeth, what is the situation today?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the situation today, Ali, is that these doctors who have done such an amazing job are continuing to work hard. They are hoping to close down the hospital, which is pretty rudimentary and open up something much more sophisticated. Basically what they can do are amputations and basic care, they need specific supplies to turn this into a hospital to help people.

So they are looking for -- I'm going to put this out there -- respirators, surgical lights, x-ray machines. More antibiotics. They're really lacking in antibiotics. And EKG and heart monitors.

These doctors are unbelievable. I've watched them save lives left and right, these doctors led by the team from the University of Miami. They have done 50 -- more than 60, I'm sorry, more than 60 surgeries with no monitors, no machines, no oxygen, no blood, no surgical lights. They're operating on kitchen tables. More than 60 surgeries. They've had not one death from the surgeries -- Ali.

VELSHI: Tell me, again, Elizabeth, just say those things again, the list of things that they're putting out requests for.

COHEN: Sure. Absolutely. Respirators, surgical lights, X-ray machines, antibiotics, and EKG machines and cardiac monitors. That's what they need to do more than just the relatively simple things like amputations, which is basically what they've been doing for the past three days.

VELSHI: All right, Elizabeth, now there's -- we know about the kind of work that is required when you rescue somebody immediately, the sort of thing. They're coming out dehydrated. They've got wounds. They've got broken bones.

And now we're going to evolve into a situation where there are people who may not have been directly affected by the earthquake but, because of the inability to get supplies or water or things like that, people are getting sicker of things unrelated to the earthquake. Are you starting to see any shift in the type of patients that are coming in to this treatment center you're at?

COHEN: You know, I'll tell you, actually, Ali, they still are seeing effects, direct effects, from the earthquake. For example, people who had debris fall on their legs. Gangrene set in, they had to amputate. They're still dealing with that.

I mean, they've done the amputations, but those need to be kept clean. There's still a risk of infection. They're still worried about people going into septic shock here. So I have to say that they're still dealing with the primary effects here.

VELSHI: Elizabeth, were you there for the aftershock? Obviously, you were there for the aftershock. Did you feel it? What did it feel like, and what were you thinking when it happened?

COHEN: I certainly did. I felt it. I never felt an earthquake before. And my first thought was "I feel like I'm on a ship." It was like the ground was sort of doing this. And I thought, "This feels exactly like being at sea."

It was very short-lived. I looked up at the patients in the hospital, and they were putting their hands up in the air, very terrified. They asked Jesus to forgive them. And they asked Jesus to save them, and then it stopped.

VELSHI: Wow. All right, Elizabeth, thank you, again, for excellent reporting.

I just want to bring you up to speed. The official government death toll in Haiti, 72,000. That's what they're staying, 72,000 bodies recovered. That has upped the estimates of the number of people who could have been killed by this. The deaths -- the estimates of the number of people killed are now raising -- ranging up to as high as 200,000 people.

Listen, when we come back, we are going back to the story of the fact that this is the first anniversary of President Obama's being sworn in, his inauguration as president. How has your life changed in terms of the biggest issue that you faced in the last year, the economy?

We'll be back with my friend Christine Romans to talk about your money and how things have changed in the last year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We're going to take a step back into my old stomping ground for a second. Take a look in the bottom corner of your screen. The Dow is down more than 200 points. Let's go straight to the New York Stock Exchange. Susan Lisovicz is there.

Susan, just yesterday we were seeing a little bit of a rally associated with the fact that Scott Brown was going to possibly win in Massachusetts and upset the health-care reform plans. What's this all about?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the market predicted that upset victory accurately, yes. We saw a huge rally and, you know, stocks went to 15-month highs yesterday.

And this is the nature of the beast, Ali. I mean, the bar has been set higher. Recovery is not a smooth thing. It's not a consistent thing, and we're in the midst of getting a lot of information. The information that we're getting, among other things, from the housing market, from big banks.

What we're seeing there is that big banks are setting aside billions for future loan losses. Hey, it's a reality when you have an unemployment rate at 10 percent.

The housing market, we saw housing starts unexpectedly dip. Perhaps not such a surprise when you're in the midst of winter, when we still have some months to go before that -- that first-time homebuyers tax credit is put aside.

VELSHI: Yes.

LISOVICZ: Some concerns out of China. China is reining in its lending. Why is that a problem? Well, China is an economic powerhouse, and it affects a lot of things.

And so the end result, Ali, is that we're seeing the worst sell- off since October.

VELSHI: Yes, a year ago would have been no big deal to see a 200-point sell-off. Now we talk about it, Susan...

LISOVICZ: Yes. That would have been a walk in the park, Ali.

VELSHI: Seriously. Good to see you.

LISOVICZ: Bye-bye.

VELSHI: Susan Lisovicz, at the New York Stock Exchange. She'll be there, obviously, to keep us posted on how this develops over the course of the afternoon.

All right. Christine Romans is joining us now. Republican Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts has all of us recalculating the future of President Obama's major initiatives, not just health care. They affect every past of our lives: bank reform, taxes, deficits, immigration.

President Obama wanted change. It seems like he got it last night in Massachusetts. What does it mean for his big initiatives? Let's bring in Christine Romans. She joins me now from New York.

Christine, some big changes. We've been -- we've been focusing on health care, but there are a lot of things on the books that the Democrats and the White House want to do that they have to be rethinking today. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And depending on how you look at it, it's either complicated, interesting or just got a whole lot more painful for the agenda of this administration over the next year.

I mean, already, you've got people on both sides of the immigration debate saying that this was a rebuke of the president's -- maybe his goal this year to try to get some sort of immigration reform. People on the other side saying no, this shows that he is still -- that he will still be committed to it. We'll double down on it.

Banking regulation, housing policy, taxes, deficits, everything up for grabs here now, many people think.

And look at where we've gone in the past year, Ali. I mean, you talked about an incredible year for your money.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS; Just look at the unemployment situation. The president has said this is job one for him. The unemployment rate is still a politically painful 10 percent. A year ago, it was 7.7 percent. That's a direction that he needs to, and wants to desperately, try to reverse.

But when you look at it on the other side of the equation, it's the job losses. Job losses have slowed considerably, the Democrats say in part because...

VELSHI: A year ago was the last month -- the worst month we had.

ROMANS: That's right. That's right. A year ago, 741,000 jobs.

VELSHI: A year ago we lost 741,000 jobs. Yes.

ROMANS: And in December it was 85,000.

I want to talk about GDP quickly, because this has also been what constitutes in this economy good news for this president.

VELSHI: And GDP is...

ROMANS: And you now have economic growth.

VELSHI: GDP, it's -- it's the biggest measure of the economy that we have right now.

ROMANS: That's right.

VELSHI: It's everything we produce and sell and make.

ROMANS: Is the economy growing or is it shrinking? Now it is growing after shrinking horribly last year.

When he took office, whole swaths of this economy were shutting down: businesses disappearing, jobs disappearing, opportunity vanishing. These numbers are going in the right direction for the president.

But numbers that are going in the wrong direction for the president, deficits, Ali. You know as well as I, that this is also politically unsustainable. We're expecting him to talk about this at the State of the Union. What's he going to do to tackle what's been going -- look it, our deficit, our budget deficit is 11 percent now of the size of our economy.

VELSHI: That's incredible.

ROMANS: That's compared to only 3 percent when he took office.

VELSHI: Those numbers are incredible.

ROMANS: That's because -- it's because they say they have to spend big and dramatically to -- to, you know, to save the economy, to reverse this terrible crisis. At some point you got to start talking exit strategy, so these are the numbers over the past year. And economically and politically, they mean a lot for your money every day. They certainly do.

VELSHI: All right. Christine and I are going to talk about it a lot. And of course, Christine and I talk about all things to do with your money every weekend, Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Christine, good to see you. Thanks so much.

All right. We've got a developing story out of Germany which we're going to bring you in just a moment. An airport scare. This is interesting: possible explosives, a man on the run from the authorities at an airport in Germany. We're coming right back with that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. We're following a developing story out of an airport in Munich, Germany. Get this: a passenger flees from security officers after they test his laptop for explosives, and it apparently tests positive. Let's go straight to Frederik Pleitgen, who's following the story in Berlin.

Hi, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ali.

And what we know so far is that the suspected man is still at large. We just got off the phone with the authorities there in Munich. And they are telling us that basically what happened is that this man went to the security check at Terminal Two at the Munich airport.

What happened then was that he seemed to be suspected, and then they waved him through to an additional security check. And that is where specialized equipment there at the airport tested his laptop -- laptop case positive for explosives.

Now, what the authorities were going to do, then, is they were going to bring him for additional checks, and that is when the man took off.

Right now what's going on in Munich is that there's a manhunt under way to try and find the man, who is still at large. The authorities don't know where he is. They don't even know whether or not he is still inside the airport building, whether it's the secure area or the not-secured general area of that terminal building.

What we do right now, however, is that the terminal in question, which is part of Terminal Two at Munich Airport, is starting to reopen. What happened initially is that they evacuated that entire area. Even people who were already on their planes in that area had to be taken out of those planes. Everybody had to leave the area. Even the luggage was taken off the planes.

And right now they're saying they're slowly starting to get that terminal back up and running, Ali.

VELSHI: And that's what happened in Newark a few weeks ago. The same thing, a different story. Guy goes through security, walks the wrong way, doesn't get checked, and that's exactly what happened. Everybody had to get out. Planes that were landing couldn't empty their loads onto, you know -- couldn't get people deplaned. Those that had landed -- had not taken off, had people leaving the planes. It's a real mess for people traveling.

Frederik Pleitgen, thanks very much for keeping us to speed on this. Obviously, we'll want to this know how this one turns out.

All right. We can't say we weren't warned about this. Chad's been telling us all week about the rain and the flooding and the snow across the West Coast. And the fact that, because these are areas where there were burns, the vegetation's gone, that there are threats of mudslides. It's -- unfortunately, much of what Chad has talked about is coming to pass -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I would say now that the amount of rainfall we have, even areas that didn't burn might be in some jeopardy. So, don't just focus now on all of the rainfall underneath where the mudslides, where the fire-burned areas were, because now I'm really getting concerned at the volume of water now coming down the mountainsides, from mountainsides all the way from Napa all the way down even here into parts of central L.A. later today. There's a lot of rain back out to the west of you, L.A.

The first storm that went through, later -- earlier in the weekend, is now making severe weather across parts of Mississippi, lower Alabama, maybe even into the Florida Panhandle. That snow right there north of Hattiesburg, that thing right there is spinning at this point in time. I'm going to watch that cell for the potential for some severe weather damage on that. We already have severe thunderstorm warnings going on. The rain coming down across parts of the Pacific, 4 to 6 inches of rainfall here. It's coming down in buckets, and it's not going to stop. In the higher elevations there will be feet -- feet -- of snow.

Here's KGO. It's a wet day. There's the Embarcadero, Bay Bridge, very wet.

Hey, Ali, you remember this? You remember this aftershock we talked about this morning, 6.1?

VELSHI: Yes, yes. Yes. I was hoping you'd get to this, because you know this stuff.

MYERS: Pretty big -- pretty big shock.

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: It's a big-size earthquake. It's a 6.1. We call it an aftershock, because it was after a bigger quake.

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: But it was 27 times smaller than the 7.0.

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: That's how logarithmic this scale is.

VELSHI: Right.

MYERS: So it's a quake.

VELSHI: But it's a quake. It's a good point that you make. Just -- it's an aftershock because there was one that was before it, but that would be a big quake in and of itself.

MYERS: No question.

VELSHI: All right, Chad, we'll keep in checking in with you. We've got a new segment with you every day, coming up a little bit later. Chad Myers.

All right, he blames their bias. They blame his baggage. Either way, our security suffers. The guy the president wanted to head the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, flies off into the sunset.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. He was President Obama's choice to head up the TSA, the Transportation Safety Administration. You know them because they're the ones that check your luggage and pat you down when you go through the airports. But it's a much bigger job than that.

Erroll Southers' confirmation has been held up since September, by one senator, and now totally off the table. Southers has taken himself out of the running, just as the hearings on the Christmas Day bomb plot get under way on Capitol Hill. He says he will never be able to get off the ground because of some people's political agendas.

Let's bring in Clark Kent Ervin. He was the Department of Homeland Security's first inspector general.

Clark, good to see you. Thank you very much for joining us. We have a couple of things to discuss here, but let's first talk about Erroll Southers.

What is the story here? Why is he out?

CLARK KENT ERVIN, FORMER DHS INSPECTOR GENERAL: Well, Ali, I know Erroll Southers very well, and he really was supremely qualified for the job. He could walk the walk, and talk the talk. He is both a counterterrorism expert, as a matter of policy. And he's got years, decades of experience as a law enforcement officer. He is the Chief of Security at Los Angeles Airport, a top terror target, one of the major airports of the world. This is a really regrettable development.

VELSHI: You and I talked last on Christmas Day night, when the Delta flight, that Northwest flight came into Detroit with a potential -- with a terrorist attacker on it who fortunately did not succeed in his efforts. We discussed then the fact that some say that TSA, the Transportation Safety Administration, is in danger by not having someone in the top seat.

Is that the case?

ERVIN: It is, in fact, the case, Ali.

Now, of course, he alone could not have stopped this incident on December 25. But the kind of game-changing enhancements that need to be made in screening protocols, in screening technology, that needs to be done by somebody who is politically appointed and congressionally confirmed.

Only that person has the credibility, the heft, here in the United States, internationally, to get the job done. There are career professionals who can manage the agency on a day-to-day basis. But to move the agency forward, which is what needs to happen, we need a permanent leader, and it's really criminal that here we are literally one year into the administration and we still don't have a confirmed TSA administrator.

VELSHI: All right. We're going to have to find out what the answers are to this because the heat turned up on the administration both after Christmas Day, and, of course, after the elections in Massachusetts.

Let's take a break. We'll come back, we'll pick up the conversation with Clark Kent Ervin in just one minute. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: All right. Three weeks out from the Christmas Day bomb plot, four months after he was picked by the administration, by the President, Erroll Southers, says I am out. President Obama's choice for TSA Chief withdraws his name from consideration.

Let's pick back up with Clark Kent Ervin, first inspector general at DHS.

He was opposed, his nomination, Clark, was opposed by Senator Jim DeMint, partially because Southers supported the concept of unionization for TSA workers.

You have any view on whether TSA workers should or should not be unionized, and whether that would have any effect on the safety of travelers?

ERVIN: Right. Well, as a matter of fact, I absolutely agree with Senator DeMint's position on this. I don't think the TSA workers should be subjected to collective bargaining rights, that they should be unionized.

But the point is, this is not Erroll Southers' policy. It's the administration's policy. And he should not have been held to account for it. It's an extraneous issue, and this issue of his having checked the background of his ex-wife's boyfriend -- that was the other issue about which concerns have been raised.

VELSHI: Right. This was 20 years ago.

ERVIN: There's no reason to think that he would do anything -- or has done anything like that since.

You know, I think we're setting the bar too high for administration nominees. The sole criterion should be is the person qualified for the job and then that person ought to have the right to an up-or-down vote in the committee and then on the floor. And I think it's unfortunate that one senator has the power to hold up somebody in a critically important position like this.

VELSHI: Is there somebody obvious for this at this point? Because the hammer is going to come down pretty hard on the administration. It did after Christmas Day. And now the loss in the Massachusetts Senate race, everybody whose had something bad to say about this administration just got a little fuel into their argument.

What has to happen now to get the TSA -- get them a leader?

ERVIN: Well, we need a confirmed leader, yesterday. The problem, of course, Ali, is that this has just made it all the more difficult to find somebody to take what is already a thankless job.

You know, every day TSA screeners are hard at work on the job, most days we don't have an incident. And so their successes go unheralded, but the failures are conspicuous for all to see. It's a very, very difficult job. And because extraneous things can be used against a nominee, and because it always takes a long time to get through the vetting process, it's going to be even harder to get somebody to step up to the plate now that Mr. Southers has withdrawn.

VELSHI: Is there some sense that given the criticisms that the TSA has been under for its procedures, some of which have been thought of as extraneous now that we've seen another attempted plot. And they've streamlined some of their procedures.

In your measured opinion, are they better at their job than they were a year ago? Is the TSA a smoother, more efficient operation? Or, is it no better?

ERVIN: Well, I think it's fair to say that TSA is getting better as time goes by. But there continue to be problems as we all know.

They continue to fail the tests by the Inspector General, by GAO, by media investigations to sneak concealed guns and knives and explosives past. This incident that we are just hearing about in Germany, points up the need for expanded use of explosive detection technology.

And that's why I say we need someone who has the credibility to enhance procedures and to get these changes done immediately. And we're doing this today. We're talking about this today, against a backdrop, of course, of hearings. Secretary Napolitano and other security officials, are up on the Hill today --

VELSHI: Yes.

ERVIN: -- Answering Congressional questions about this Christmas Day incident. So it underscores how critically important it is that we get a leader in place at TSA.

VELSHI: You mentioned the Germany incident. We just talked to Fred Pleitgen. A man goes through security in Germany, they test his laptop. It apparently tests positive for explosives, which is not uncommon, they sometimes do that. And all of a sudden he runs from security. Reminiscent of what happened at Newark the other day.

Seems to me that people getting through security undetected or being able to get away is a problem they can solve fairly easily. You can gate the place up. You can have more armed guards around there.

ERVIN: That's right. It's a huge problem, Ali. And one of the things that this points up is, you know, in the wake of the Christmas Day incident, there's been a lot of talk about whole body imaging. And I think that that is part of the solution. But the keyword there is part.

You know, we have this tendency, after incidents like these, to fixate on only one particular solution as the silver bullet. We need a whole phalanx of technologies at the checkpoint, including more sophisticated explosive detection technology, explosive trace detection technology.

You know, the fact that this suspect fled after these trace explosives were found is very troubling indeed, as you suggested. There can be legitimate reasons for there to be minute traces of at least certain kinds of explosives. But to flee after the suspicions are raised, obviously suggests that something nefarious was planned here. So, I'll be very interested to see how this story develops during the course of the day.

VELSHI: Clark Kent Ervin, always a pleasure to talk to you. Clark Kent Ervin was the first Department of Homeland Security person in charge of this airport security.

The fate of Haiti's elderly is a big issue right now. We are going to go down back to Haiti, where -- and I just want to check with my producer -- are we going down to Gary Tuchman right now? OK, we're going to come back after a break. Gary is dealing with a situation outside a nursing home with residents there who are struggling to survive.

We'll be right back in a minute.

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VELSHI: Haiti's a country that was impoverished. Almost 70 percent unemployment, large proportion of the population lives on less than $2 a day. But there are some people in Haiti who are even more vulnerable than the general population. We've told you about some of them. We've told you about children. We've told you about orphans. But Haiti's elderly also suffer disproportionately. They are desperate for food and water and medical aid and they are having a tough time.

Gary Tuchman is at a nursing home. He's telling us about 64 surviving residents of a nursing home in Port-au-Prince.

Gary, what have you got?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I hope I'm able to convey, Ali, the sense of indignity and desperation here. We're amid the wreckage at the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home. Six people died in the nursing home and these are the remaining 64 people who live there.

For example, this woman right here, who isn't able to tell us her name, because a lot of people here have dementia also. But as we getting ready to go on the air with you live, I hope she doesn't mind, she put on this beautiful blue necklace right here because she knew he was going to be on TV.

What's the most important thing to tell you right now is that the people here have almost no food and no water and one doctor. One Haitian volunteer doctor who just showed up today after eight days. They haven't had any medical care whatsoever. There are many people here without limbs. There are people here with terminal diseases. A few cancer patients. There are people, many people, with diapers that haven't been changed. There are people who aren't wearing pants. There are naked people. And most of them are very quiet. They don't know what to do.

And the most important thing to tell you, Ali, is they have absolutely, absolutely no idea what they're going to do with these people. There are no plans. There's no international aid. And the people who are -- the volunteers who are here from Haiti, who worked in the nursing home, most of them are not here anymore, but some of them are still here, and the one doctor, are doing the best they can. But they think by tomorrow they'll have no water left.

They're rationing water. They're rationing food. The doctor only has ibuprofen, aspirin, blood pressure gauges, no other medication. So, you're probably watching this and saying to yourself, what do we do? The problem is there are a lot of places like this in Haiti. Not always old people, young people, regular people. People homeless without any care whatsoever.

If you're ready to blame the aid givers and the people who come here, don't necessarily blame them. Every block you go in Port-au-Prince, you see damage. The aid can't be everywhere. But the best we can do is tell you that we're at the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home where there is a truly desperate situation of people starving, people thirsty, people sick, old people living outside.

VELSHI: All right. We just talked to Elizabeth Cohen, who told us about the list of things they needed at the facility she's at. It may be of some use, Gary, as you know, because you identified a son to his parents. It may be of some use just to say where you are and what's going on.

One of the issues, Gary, is that these people may or may not know where their families are and whether they've been injured or killed in the earthquake.

Has everybody connected with their families, those 64 people?

TUCHMAN: No. I would say very few of these 64 people are able to even have conversations with us. It's not just dementia. It's injuries they suffered in the earthquake. It's the trauma and tumult they've gone through. They don't seem to have any family members.

We've asked some people if they know of someone they can call. Some people say yes, but the telephones aren't working. These people don't have cell phones. They don't have anything. This was a nursing home -- I neglected to mention this, this is an important point, though, Ali, for indigent people.

These are very poor people who live in very low standards to begin with, then lost the home they lived in and are now living on these amazingly dirty cots outdoors. We saw one man a short time ago, and I tell you this because it's the best description I can give you of what we're going through, and he must have had 50 flies on his face. And they're in his eyes, in his nostrils, in his ears, and in his mouth. And he's not waking up. He's alive, but he's not waking up.

We saw another man in a wheelchair not wearing pants and some kids came up to him and started punching him and he slipped out of his chair and was lying on the ground. And my producer, Justine Redman, talked to one of the volunteers -- and I'll tell you most of the volunteers -- and there's probably four or five volunteers who are doing the work here, are doing a very good job. But she did talk to the one guy who I don't think is doing a very good job, can you please pick up without the pants and put him back into his wheelchair? And he said, that's not my section.

So this is what we're dealing with. The indignity is tremendous. It's terribly sad. And like I said, the most important thing, the headline here is there are no plans. No one knows what's going to happen to these people. There's nowhere to bring them.

VELSHI: All right. Gary, well the best we can do, you can do is tell us the story. The Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home in Port- au-Prince. Gary's there. They're in desperate need of food and water. They'll run out of water, it seems, within the day.

Gary, thanks very much. We will check in with you again.

VELSHI: There is some help arriving in Haiti, now. The Navy's hospital ship "Comfort" arrives off the coast of Haiti. You know the "Comfort." That was the one that was in New York during 9/11. It's a very identifiable ship. It's bringing desperately needed medical treatment and supplies to the quake victims. We're going to tell you all about the "Comfort," what it's about, what it does, and how it can help.

Also, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, you've seen him throughout this series of reports on the earthquake for the last eight days. He joins us live in just a moment.

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VELSHI: I have to say this happens every time we talk to Gary Tuchman and Anderson and Sanjay. It's hard not to get emotional about the stories they are reporting.

Gary was at the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home with 64 people who are about to run out of food and water. And it does seem so hopeless when you see stories like that, but there is some hope. The Navy hospital ship USS Comfort has arrived off of the coast of Haiti. If you've not seen the ship -- I got a chance to see it when it was in New York, after 9/11 -- it is quite remarkable.

It's all white. It's as long as three football fields. It is equivalent to a 10-foot story in height. It has 250 hospital beds. It is state-of-the-art and can treat over 1,000 peoples. Over 500 medical staff, including trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons and nurses are onboard. It carries 300,000 gallons of drinking water. It was a tanker and that's why it's as big as it is. It was converted from a tanker in 1987. And this is its job. It goes to places where a hospital is needed, where advanced medical care is needed and equips the area for that. It is off of the coast of Haiti and getting into commission.

Now our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta was on the Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vincent. The Carl Vincent is not a medical ship, it's not a hospital ship. But it might have been because Sanjay was on that ship and he performed surgery on a young girl who had some concrete embedded in her head. Sanjay's got an update on that story, he joins us now from Port-au-Prince.

Sanjay, what have you got?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was interesting because when that story aired, Ali, apparently her cousin in Canada actually watched that story and was able to recognize this young girl. Her name is Kimberly, from watching the coverage.

Part of the reason it's so important is that it was unclear what had happened to the rest of Kimberly's family, if they were even still alive, or where Kimberly would go after her operation. Her cousin was able to actually clear up some things after watching that report. Was able to tell us that her father was alive and hopefully would be able to put them together at some point after Kimberly recovers.

But it's just a small example of situation where it worked, Ali. Obviously, a lot of people sort of displaced here. Very poor communication infrastructure. Very poor recording of things. People who are injured and in hospitals, for example. So, hard to connect people. In this case it worked because of Kimberly was being on television.

VELSHI: Which is why it is useful when we get these reports from you, or from any of the team there to put it on TV because we just don't know how it's going to turn out.

You spent time, Sanjay, with some twin Haitian doctors. Tell us about that.

GUPTA: Well, you know, as a lot of people have been focused can on the international aid -- when's it going to come, how long's it going to take, what's the impact going to be, you know, it's important to point out that part of the reason I spent some time with these -- they are twins. They're both general surgeons. They are Haitian. They never left. After the earthquake happened, they literally stayed open for business, Ali, and that's saying something.

Because after the earthquake, obviously, there was a lot of destruction, a lot of chaos. There was also a lot of aftershocks and people really concerned about their own safety. But despite that, they stayed open for business, took care of around 75 patients immediately. And they were going around in their own private vehicle picking up people and bringing them back to the hospital.

They are continuing to stay open for business and now getting some help, some international assistance at their clinics. But they perform so many operations, took care of so many people in the time period that it is again worth pointing out what the Haitian potential is here, the capabilities in the midst of this. These two brothers for me, at least, exemplified that.

VELSHI: Sanjay, you have been saying that this -- rescue is measured in minutes and hours and now we are eight days into this. We are miraculously still finding people or at least they found people yesterday who were alive.

What is the situation as you've been keeping an eye on it with respect to aid and medical supplies and doctors getting in and getting access to people?

GUPTA: Well, you know, what I was talking about specifically was that medical relief really is measured in minutes and hours. And, you know, when something like this unfolds, and I've covered lots of disasters around the world, including the earthquake in Pakistan, including the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina. Every natural disaster has its own personality in terms for what is necessary and when it is necessary.

With the nature of this particular disaster, a lot of people died, Ali, as we know. But there were a lot of people who lived and but had severe injuries and are now suffering preventable death. They need to get this aid within minutes and hours. I think a lot of emphasis has been placed on security initially, which is important and maybe not enough on medical aid. And that, I think we're seeing the ramifications of it now.

VELSHI: And we've heard that from a number of our reporters who've been talking to doctors and other rescue workers saying we need to get that.

Sanjay, stay safe. Continue the great work that you're doing out there.

Sanjay Gupta, in Haiti.

We did tell you about the USS Comfort, by the way. We are going to have a reporter heading to that U.S. Navy vessel very shortly. We'll let you know who that is and we'll bring you the first reports when we get there.

Now at the top of the hour, we're going to be going to the White House. This is the first White House briefing after yesterday's stunning defeat in Massachusetts. The loss of a seat that the Democrats had held in the Senate for 46 years. That was Ted Kennedy's seat, now going to Scott Brown, a Republican, changing the nature of politics in America right now because the Republicans will have broken through the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority.

We're going to go to the White House and see what they're saying about the situation. We'll bring that to you live.

VELSHI: All right. We are continuing our coverage both of Massachusetts, and of Haiti. Let's go the Haiti now, to Port-au- Prince.

Ivan Watson is there. He is watching the flow of people who are trying to get out of Port-au-Prince, to try and get to a better place with more food and more medical help.

Ivan, what have you got?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, dramatic images, dramatic scene down at the port of Port-au-Prince, where you have thousands of people who have been camped out for days in really filthy conditions right next to the sea, waiting desperately for any possibility to catch a boat out of Port-au-Prince to a safer part of the country to be with relatives.

A completely uncontrolled situation where thousands of people so desperate to catch this vessel, they were loading into a flotilla of little wooden rowboats, overflowing them, 20 people at a time with multiple children and their goods. And then swarming a ferryboat that came in that deliberately moored itself very far from the coastline to attempt to try to control the crowd.

And nonetheless, thousands of people swarmed on to the vessel so desperate, because the government did promised free ferry transport to Port of Jeremy, which has not been nearly as severely impacted by this earthquake. And just overwhelming to see people clamoring up the sides of this vessel, in some cases falling back into the water dropping their luggage (AUDIO GAP) license for 600 passengers. It last took on its last run some 3,000 displaced people. And I estimate there were thousands on board that ship. And nobody stopping the dozens of little rowboats overloaded with passengers from coming on and bringing more on every minute.

And I think it's just an indicator of how desperate people are to get out of this shattered city, Ali.

VELSHI: Even if they don't know where they're going or what life holds on the other side.

Ivan, we'll continue to follow this story with you. Thanks for bringing it to us.