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Massachusetts Loses Democratic Seat; Haiti: Who's in Charge?; White House Press Briefing
Aired January 20, 2010 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: OK. We're going to head to the White House now. Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent, standing by, as we all are, for the first White House briefing after last night's loss of a Democratic seat in Massachusetts.
Ed, this is going to be an interesting one.
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ali. I be you never thought you would be tossing to me with that kind of a lead-in, the idea that a Republican would win what was once Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.
It obviously took a lot of Democrats around the country by surprise. This White House knew for several days that Martha Coakley, the candidate, was in deep trouble.
In private, people close to this White House had been really firing a lot of missiles her way, saying that she was the problem here. But I think Robert Gibbs is going to get a lot of tough questions about the environment, the political environment around this president, around the country right now, and whether some of the anger he channeled just a year or so ago in the campaign -- let's remember, today is the first anniversary of his inaugural, where he talked so much about unity, bringing the country together, the hope, the change message he had in the campaign.
And he sort of channeled a lot of the anger and disenchantment that voters had with Washington. Some of the anger may now be turned on the party in power, which is Barack Obama's Democratic Party -- Ali.
VELSHI: Mark Preston, our political editor, is with us as well from Washington.
Mark, at this point, as Ed said, the White House knew this was coming, or at least had some sense of it in the last couple of days, that this could be coming. They now have to look at plan B and not just on health care, but on a lot of other fronts.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes, they have to. And when it comes to down to the 2010 midterm elections, there is a lot of discussions going on right now, Ali, between senior Democratic strategists.
How did this happen? How do we prevent it? What do we learn from this?
I will tell you two quick points.
Democrats realize they need to try to reach out to Independent voters again. They lost them last night in Massachusetts. They lost them in Virginia, in November. They lost them in New Jersey, in November.
So that is issue number one for them when it comes to politics, how do get the Independents back. At the same time, Democrats have to say themselves, how do we stop any more retirements from happening in the House of Representatives from Democrats who might be concerned, Ali, from what happened in Massachusetts, that they could lose November? Some Democrats might want to walk out on their own accord.
VELSHI: And so that's a two-pronged problem, Ed. You've got the White House, you've got the Democrats worried about appealing to Democrats who will be worried about becoming the next Martha Coakley and losing an election the next time they are up. And then you've got to find a way to reach out to Republicans.
Can they bring any Republicans over to their side on any of their major initiatives, and is that something we are expecting to hear in a few minutes?
HENRY: Well, I bet we're going to hear a lot about that, because Robert Gibbs has talked about it before now, but especially now that the Republicans have 41 Senate seats, as they wanted, I think this White House is going to talk a lot about Republicans have responsibility of governing as well. That they haven't really reached across the aisle to work with this president, in the estimation of Robert Gibbs and the other top aides here, and they're going to try to put the onus on the Republicans a little. But let's face it, the Democrats are running everything in Washington right now, and that's why the pressure is on them.
Here's what might be the good news for this White House, is the fact that this is happening in January and not in November. I mean, if this special election had not happened, they could have been coasting along for few more months, pushing the same health care bill, and not really seeing the signals from the American people. If they make some adjustments now, and do -- make some changes between now and November, they could avoid a tsunami that the Democrats and then- President Clinton faced in 1994 when they were sort of coasting along, made a lot of mistakes.
If this White House makes some adjustments now, they could be in a much stronger position in the fall.
VELSHI: Mark, what do you think? Do you think it's adjustments or you think this is a pivot point, that they are going to have to completely take a new approach to governing and getting their major legislation through for the rest of the year, and trying to save themselves in November?
PRESTON: No, I think it is adjustments. Ed has hit the nail right on the head.
They can't turn around and stop what they're doing. I mean, they have put so much effort in, so much political capital in to get where they are right now, they can't turn around and just abandon it.
But you know something? I was talking to a Democratic strategist after Brown was announced the winner last night. This person said, look, we need to define our opponents quicker. We need to try to take Republicans out earlier.
Scott Brown did that to Martha Coakley in the last two weeks. Democrats realize now, Ali, they have to do that back to the GOP.
VELSHI: All right.
Mark Preston, you stand by.
Ed Henry, senior White House correspondent at the White House, awaiting the White House daily briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. We're going to be taking that as soon as it happens.
We're also monitoring Democratic Senator Harry Reid, Senate majority leader from Nevada. He is coming out of the weekly policy lunch.
And we'll also be talking -- we'll keep an eye on all of the political developments today, because this isn't just about an election in Massachusetts. This is about a matter that affects every American, because the landscape of the political agenda has changed today. The power balance has changed in Washington.
We will be back live with both of these events.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We're standing by waiting for -- and you're looking at it now on the left -- is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's weekly policy lunch. He'll be coming out of there and making his regular statement.
Obviously, it won't be that regular, because he is now the Senate majority leader of 59 senators, Democratic senators, not 60, or at least after Scott Brown in Massachusetts is sworn in. It will be 59- 41.
On the right, that is the White House, and the first briefing after that devastating loss in Massachusetts last night. Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry is standing by there. Our political director, Mark Preston, is standing by to have the rest of the conversation with us.
We're going back to Haiti for a second.
Who is in charge in Haiti? A few minutes ago, you saw Gary Tuchman at a nursing home in Port-au-Prince. But before that, he was out looking for an answer to the question, where is the government and who is in charge?
Here's his report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ornate presidential palace, a symbol of the Haitian government for almost 90 years. A rundown police station: the temporary presidential palace as of this week. We went looking for the Haitian government and found the president in the hallways of the cramped police station. We also found the prime minister and the cabinet ministers.
There were 18 members of the cabinet before the earthquake. I asked the prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive...
(on camera): Are all the members of your cabinet alive?
JEAN-MAX BELLERIVE, PRIME MINISTER, HAITI: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Everyone survived?
BELLERIVE: Yes. All the members of the cabinet, but they lose people, minister of finance child. Minister of tourism lose his mother and his father.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But the leaders are all here and want Haiti and the world to know, they are on the case.
(on camera): Is the government still in control?
BELLERIVE: Yes. The government is working.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): President Rene Preval says he went on his motor bike after the quake to round up his ministers.
RENE PREVAL, PRESIDENT OF HAITI: It's a catastrophe, but we are working with the help of the international community to rebuild the country.
TUCHMAN: The prime minister gave us disturbing news, the first solid casualty numbers. BELLERIVE: Right now we collect more than 70,000.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Seventy, 7-0?
BELLERIVE: Seventy thousand dead -- cadavers. And I believe that it will be around the numbers that I gave you the first time.
TUCHMAN: Which is what?
BELLERIVE: One hundred thousand.
TUCHMAN: The president, the prime minister, and the cabinet will continue to run the government from this police station indefinitely. A more comfortable setting is low on the priority list as the president and his translator make clear.
PREVAL (through translator): On the day of the earthquake, what happened in one minute could be compared to a campaign of bombing during many days in times of war.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The Haitian people are looking for leadership. They can find it for good or for bad in a worn-down police station.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: And since then, the official tally, 72,000 dead, estimates of the dead ranging now as high as 200,000.
We'll continue to update you on that story.
We're following two press conferences right now. On the left of the screen, waiting for Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. The Senate majority leader having his weekly policy lunch. He will emerge.
He usually gives a statement and talks to reporters after that. This one, obviously, will be a little bit unusual because it is the first day after the election in Massachusetts which saw a Republican take the seat that Senator Ted Kennedy held for more than 46 years.
On the right, the White House, the daily press briefing about to get under way. Our Ed Henry is standing by there.
If you don't normally follow the White House press briefing, today will be a good day to start. It will be an interesting.
This is the White House dealing with the aftermath of the fact that they have lost or will be losing as soon as Scott Brown of Massachusetts is sworn in their filibuster-proof majority. And that is a White House that has a lot of policy matters to get passed in this year. That's going to affect them.
So, we are following both of those two stories -- Harry Reid on the left -- we're waiting for him to emerge from his weekly policy luncheon -- and the one on the right, the White House, where we are waiting for the daily press briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Now, we will get some analysis on that from Ed Henry, who's in the room, in the briefing room at the White House, plus our political editor, Mark Preston.
We're going to take a quick break, but we will be on both of these stories and, of course, Haiti.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Straight to the White House. That's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and the daily White House press briefing.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Go ahead.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: The president told ABC it looks like that he is suggesting that you guys coalesce around the things that people agree on in the health care bill, and he mentioned insurance reform, cost containment, and a couple of other things. Does that mean that the approach the White House is settled on in reaction to the election last night is to scale back the bill?
GIBBS: Well, Jennifer, what the president talked to ABC about in the -- to take a step back on health care -- doing health care wasn't -- he didn't do it just because it was a hobby. He did it because in traveling around the country during the election, he heard from families, he heard from small businesses, he heard from large businesses about how the current system was simply unsustainable.
It was a priority then and it's a priority now. We are working through the best way forward as the president continues his commitment to get health care reform done.
QUESTION: Well, he seemed to signal that you guys have settled or at least are getting closer to settling on a way forward.
GIBBS: Well, look, again, I think a lot of those conversations are ongoing. There are, as you mentioned, one path. We talked yesterday about other paths. And...
QUESTION: Well, I didn't mention it, the president did.
GIBBS: No, no, I'm saying -- well, right.
QUESTION: I mean, I did mention it, but...
(LAUGHTER)
GIBBS: Yes, you were channeling him. No, no, I didn't mean to imply that it was your question that was certainly based on something the president said.
There are a number of different ways to do this. Again, those conversations are ongoing.
QUESTION: Breaking the bill into pieces, is that ruled out or still on the table?
GIBBS: You know, again, I don't want to get into, I guess, delineating, except to say there are a lot of different paths forward. And I think we'll get an opportunity in the coming hours and days to know exactly what the path is. But, I think, you know, we mentioned yesterday, you know, health care continues to be a priority of the president. It was yesterday, it was a year ago, and it continues today.
QUESTION: Just one quick thing to follow up. Since obviously abandoning health care is not one of the options...
GIBBS: Right.
QUESTION: ... what are the immediate plans for recalibrating the message or intensifying the message to explain better to the American people what you're trying to do?
GIBBS: Well, first and foremost -- and again, this is something we touched on yesterday -- the president talks about this in his interview, and I think you heard some of us talk about this, this morning. The anger and frustration in this country about where we are economically is something that we heard and saw last night in Massachusetts.
The president heard and saw it last month when he traveled to Pennsylvania. He will hear it in Ohio. We have heard it for several years. The president, I think, in his interview, takes it back even farther than that. People were working...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... the health care bill and explaining the health care bill and why it's important.
GIBBS: Well, I'm saying -- I just want to -- I want to give a more fulsome answer. How about that?
Because, again -- I will say this, Jennifer -- I don't think, and I think it would be inaccurate, to just boil the results of yesterday down to one issue. Right?
QUESTION: But it is an issue.
GIBBS: I agree, but -- it is certainly an issue, but I think both the candidate who won last night has said it wasn't just one issue.
The anger and the frustration the American people have at the fact that a lot of work has been done and they don't necessarily feel like their economic lives have progressed in the past year is understandable. As I said yesterday, that's what brought candidate Barack Obama a year ago today to be inaugurated as President Obama.
We will continue to have him focus on the economy and jobs, continue to focus on dealing with the problems that he felt and talked about during the campaign that existed and have existed for quite some time that we haven't addressed. Inherent in a lot of that, again, is it's job growth. It's a foundation for economic growth going forward that's not predicated on consumer spending or housing prices.
All of those things that the president has worked on, he will continue to work on. Moving forward, I think the American people expect that of their president and their Congress, and that's certainly what they will get.
Yes, ma'am? QUESTION: To what extent do you read into the Massachusetts' results, a message on national politics? Is there a wakeup call, as some people have said?
GIBBS: Well, I think that everybody -- I think that there are a lot of people that bear responsibility for some aspect of what happened last night. Right?
QUESTION: Can you be a little more specific on that?
GIBBS: Yes. I mean, we talked yesterday about -- I said that the president was surprised and frustrated. I don't -- the president didn't expect -- I'd certainly put myself in that category -- not expecting to lose that Senate race.
There's no doubt we are frustrated by that. So, I think everybody bears some responsibility, certainly including the White House.
But, again, what I talked about yesterday, what I talked about here today is I think the anger that the president addressed more than a year ago to get elected, the anger that we have seen throughout this year, and the anger -- is very similar to the anger that we saw last night. I think that we have -- again, we have seen that for far longer than an election.
We have seen, as I said yesterday, people that are working longer, working harder, that are more productive, and they're watching their wages fall. They're watching their jobs move overseas. They're watching their families not having the same opportunities that they did, and they are feeling insecure about their own future. I think that is a wake-up call for everybody in this town.
QUESTION: But what does that mean for him as he is preparing for the State of the Union? Are you having meetings to discuss the themes? Are you looking at what you're doing in a different way as a result of this? Looking at anything in a different way?
GIBBS: You know, look, he will undoubtedly address the results and what they mean in the State of the Union. The agenda though that the president was going to focus on and is going to focus on in the coming year -- jobs, fiscal responsibility, many of the things that he's talked about over the last several weeks -- will be what he focuses on during the State of the Union and in the coming year. We still have a lot of work to do to get our economy back on track.
QUESTION: Is there added urgency to get a near-term jobs bill?
GIBBS: Well, again, I would simply reiterate what we've talked about before, which is everything -- we need to do everything possible to create an environment where the private sector is hiring again. We understand the depth of the recession, the more than seven million jobs that have been lost in a more than two-year period of time. So we've got a lot of work to do.
The president laid out some ideas in December, and believes those ideas are -- still should be taken up now. And he will talk about that in the State of the Union.
Jake?
JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS: Only about a third of the American people think that the president is doing enough on the economy. Two-thirds don't.
Are they wrong?
GIBBS: I wouldn't question that that's what they told your pollster and that they are right in telling them that. I would say this -- having coming here to work every day, the president works each and everyday on making our economy stronger and putting us in a position to where we are creating jobs, businesses are hiring again, we have that new foundation that is built on something like the clean energy jobs of the future. All of that takes up every -- a little bit of every part of his day.
Now, again, whether we have to do a better job making sure that people understand that, we certainly bear that responsibility. But I could certainly assure the American people that that is the chief focus of the president of the United States.
TAPPER: With the economy just now, and yesterday, when I asked you about health care reform, it seems like the White House thinks that the issue of disconnect that the American people have with the White House in terms of their disapproval of the president's handling of the economy and health care reform is not that you're doing anything wrong, but that you are not communicating effectively.
Am I understanding that correctly?
GIBBS: Well, no, no. I mean, look, do I think we have done -- I'm not saying that's the only thing by any means. I would certainly, again, take my share of the responsibility, as I am sure many of you would, in ensuring that people had a clearer idea of what the president is doing each day on that.
You know, look, we -- Jake, some of this is not dissimilar to when you go back to the last really deep recession and you look at the president's approval ratings for Ronald Reagan during '81 and '82. I mean, there is -- you know, it is not surprising to anybody here, and I doubt surprising to anybody in the country, that there's anger and frustration with 10 percent of the American people unemployed. And when you add in those that are unemployed, but have stopped looking because they have been unemployed for so long, that number only gets greater.
So, again, I think you'd hear the president say quite clearly that he is among those who are frustrated. We all want to see us get our economy back on track faster. The president believes that we have taken some necessary, if at times unpopular, steps to do so.
You don't get credit for taking those steps and pulling -- you don't get credit for what would have happened, which is fine, but I think the president, at the end of his interview, says he is more optimistic about our country and about our economy today than he was a year ago. Because, again, if you think about where we were a year ago, we were in meetings talking about, what if these series of banks go under? What are we going to do if -- I mean, these were eye- opening experiences.
We were -- and we all remember from the first jobs report. We were watching the economy shed jobs at a rate that had been previously unseen.
TAPPER: Just in terms of the politics of this, what does the president plan on doing? You have talked a lot about the anger out there and the frustration, and the president did, too, when he was in Boston Sunday. What do you plan on doing to convince these people who are angry...
GIBBS: Right.
TAPPER: ... that they need to trust the president and trust the Democratic Party? Because obviously many of them are turning away from the Democratic Party and the president.
GIBBS: Well, look, I think that's, in many ways, the result of that anger is now pointed at us because we are in charge. Rightly so.
Look, I think the president's focus on jobs and the economy is one. I think we will have -- clearly, financial reform is going to take and play a bigger role in what happens legislatively in the next several months, ensuring that we have honest rules of the road going forward, that we're not rewarding excessive risks, that we have an independent agency that protects and looks after consumers.
You saw the president discuss last week ensuring that taxpayers are paid back in full for what was lent to banks in order to stabilize that financial system. I think both of those will certainly, along with jobs, will be a big priority for this president upcoming.
HENRY: Robert, you said as part of that that the president, dating back to 2008, in his own campaign, heard the American people about economic pain, their falling wages, et cetera. Why then did he spend so much time in 2009 on health care, instead of even more time on jobs, more times on Wall Street reform, all the things that people worry about?
GIBBS: Well, again, we started Wall Street reform and we got that through the House, which is no small accomplishment.
Look, the president, again, as I said earlier, didn't take on health care reform because it was a hobby. He took on health care reform because when we are talking about wages, people were losing wages to health care.
People were watching their incomes decline because their premiums were increasing. Families were struggling with the loss of health care. So, their economic concerns brought the president to dealing with health care. So, I would not put and I know that the president would not put -- I don't want to silo issues, because I think if you're talking about the economy and jobs, you're talking about health care, you're talking about education, you're talking about a host of things that go to that security that the middle class clearly hasn't felt in many years.
HENRY: There's no doubt they're interconnected, but six, eight months ago, there were a lot of people in this country raising questions about whether he had too much on his plate and how he emphasizes things. And so, specifically, he could have, last summer, done a scaled-back bill like he's talking about today in this interview today. He could have done that last summer.
GIBBS: Well -- right. Well, the difference of what is true on this, Ed, is that the President would tell you if there were an easy solution, it would have A, been done, or B, clearly identified as not adequately addressing cost containment, deficit reduction, and all of the aspects currently in different bills that have passed the House and the Senate.
Insurance reforms -- a host of things that within health care are interconnected and have to be done as a broad package.
HENRY: How much as a factor does the President or the White House put in terms of the loss on Martha Coakley being a bad candidate? How much of a factor or percentage wise of the President a referendum on him or his leadership?
GIBBS: Look, I don't want to get into the blame game. I said earlier, that I think that we all bear some responsibility, but I won't do percentages as tempting as that might be.
But, look, again, we were -- again, there was a surprise and a frustration here. And I think that we all have some responsibility on that to bear.
HENRY: Last thing on that in terms of whether you call it referendum or not, Anthony Weiner, a democrat in the House is saying that partly to blame here is Presidential leadership. The President did not exert himself on health care and that he sat out for months and let it play out on the hill, and how do you respond to that?
GIBBS: Well, again, and we certainly talked about this before, I simply don't agree with the notion that we wouldn't be here were it not for the president wanting us even though it was hard, even though people said it couldn't be done, even though it looked undoable at times, I honestly don't believe and I don't belief many members of Congress would tell you that they would believe that we would be at this point were it not for his leadership.
QUESTION: Can I follow-up on that?
GIBBS: Let me get around. I have scheduled a lot of time today.
VELSHI: All right, we have a full team of people ready to breakdown what Robert Gibbs has just been saying, they are standing by, we will get back to that.
I want to go to Port-au-Prince, though. Anderson is there with some breaking news. Anderson Cooper, what have you got?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Ali, just a remarkable story. A little boy has been brought here to General Hospital, where I am. His name is Manli Alesay (ph), he is 5 years old, and his uncle says he just pulled him out of the rubble of the little boy's home where the boy's mother and father are believed to have also died. The fact that if it is true that a little 5-year-old boy can have survived this long, eight days, it is extraordinary that anybody could survive.
And also, I mean, I have just got in here talking to the nurses who are caring for the little boy, two American nurses from the International Medical Corps. They say they don't doubt his story. That the little boy is covered in dust, that the little boy looks clearly looks disoriented. He is saying he is thirsty, he is severely dehydrated. He has something called Cartosicoff (ph) Syndrome, and the nurses know it by the smell which is when the body essentially starts sort to consuming itself in order to fuel itself.
This little boy, the uncle says he doesn't think he had access to food or water, though he doesn't know for sure. He found him in a small void space as he was digging through the rubble of this little boy's home. It's just -- I mean, it is remarkable.
You know, yesterday we were stunned here that a 70-year-old -- a woman in her 70s was pulled out of the rubble alive, today a 5-year- old boy. His uncle says he pulled him out around 12:30 and brought him to the hospital. And he has been here now for about an hour, and he is being cared for very well by the doctors within International Medical Corps. And other than being severely dehydrated at this point, he has no broken bones, they see nothing else wrong with him, and they believe he will make it.
VELSHI: OK. Anderson, absolutely incredible. We are in the realm of miracles. You talk about the 70-year-old woman, we saw her yesterday being pulled from the rubble after all of these days and was uttering a prayer or something as she was pulled out, and then to see a 5-year-old boy, these are the people that we identify as the most vulnerable, the elderly and the children. And to think eight days after this people are still being pulled alive. Obviously from what you are seeing around you, this is not the norm now. We have moved into a different stage of this rescue where we're trying to get medical care where we are trying to get food and water to people, it is increasingly rare to see people pulled out alive.
COOPER: It is increasingly rare, it's incredibly rare. I mean, to have someone pulled out eight days after. I mean, he had a couple of things work in his favor. He didn't have broken bones, he was in a void space so he must have some sort of ventilation, and the fact that he is young increased the chances. So I mean, one of the nurses inside, and I said, how is it possible this little boy survived and she turned to me and said, "it is good to be young." It is hard to believe, and we were skeptical of the uncle's claims when he initially brought him in. I mean he looks clearly like someone just pulled out of the rubble, literally he's naked, he's covered in dust. But, you know, he is severely hydrated and if you pinch the skin as the nurses did, it does not bounce back which is a clear sign of dehydration. And then also, this smell that he has, the nurses described it as smelling a little bit like alcohol, and it is a smell that comes from the skin and comes from inside, and again, it is the body consuming itself.
But it is extraordinary. This little boy, he is so calm. He is sort of staring off into the distance, he does not quite look at you, his eyes are focused exactly on individuals. But he is -- he's just keeping repeating, I'm thirsty, I'm thirsty. At one point he even said he was hungry, which the nurses also took as a very good sign that he would have an appetite.
VELSHI: Let's hope they can save him. Anderson, thank you very much for bringing that to us, and we will of course come to you right with any news that you or the team in Haiti has. Anderson Cooper in Port-au-Prince.
We are coming back now to talk about Robert Gibbs and the White House press briefing, the first one since the defeat or since the victory of a republican senator-elect in Massachusetts. When we come back, we will speak to our senior political analyst Gloria Borger, Mark Preston our political editor, and our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry, who has been grilling Robert Gibbs in the White House press conference about what happened in Massachusetts yesterday and what it means for all Americans, not just residents of Massachusetts.
Stay with us, you are watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We are staying on all of the news today, but two major stories, Haiti and the election in Massachusetts. Every week the democrats and the republicans have a weekly policy luncheon, the senators. Senator Harry Reid, who is the democratic senator from Nevada and the Senate majority leader, just emerged from the policy luncheon. We've been monitoring what he said. He did make a comment to reporters after the luncheon. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: People out there are terribly angry at the banks, they're angry at Wall Street. Can you imagine at this time when people are trying to hang on to their homes and trying to find a job that Wall Street has decided that they are going to do about $120 billion in bonuses? So, health care is a problem, but it is certainly more than that. The election shows that American people want us to work together to solve problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right. That is Senator Harry Reid.
We were just listening before we went to Anderson to talk about a new rescue, a 5-year-old boy from the rubble in Haiti, we were watching Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at the White House in the first daily press briefing after the loss that the democrats suffered from Ted Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts.
Let's go to Gloria Borger, our senior political analyst, and Mark Preston our political editor in Washington. Both of them have been listening to press conference, including Ed Henry interacting with Robert Gibbs.
Senator Reid just sort of employed some misdirection techniques there talking about Wall Street and bonuses and that is something I'm sure that the democrats would like this to be about, but Gloria, first of all, what did you hear from the press conference, from the press secretary?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the most interesting thing I heard from Robert Gibbs was the sense that the anger that we tapped into, we meaning President Obama, tapped into the get elected is the same anger that came around and bit them, you know where. And it is exactly the point. And I believe that Ed Henry's question about, did you focus too much on health care and forget to communicate essentially with the American people about their problems, about their jobs and everything else, and were you too much focused on the policy? I think that is something that the White House will admit that they may have made real mistakes on. You can't stop communicating with the American people when you are president. You have the give them a clear direction and clear message, and that is what they are going to try to do now.
VELSHI: Now, I'm certainly no expert at knowing how these things typically go, but Mark, I want to ask you, Gloria, you, Ed, John King, Wolf Blitzer, we all talked about what the White House has to do, they were planning for this, and what they would have to do in order to fix this problem. What we didn't hear was clear direction from Robert Gibbs about what to do to fix the problem, but they do acknowledge what Gloria was talking about, but they didn't seem to have a solution.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: No, they didn't have a solution and I'm not sure they know what the solution is right now, because right now the White House not only has to sell their message and sell their American brand to the American people, Ali, they have to sell their message and brand to democrats on Capitol Hill. And not all of the democrats are made the same way on Capitol Hill. You have centrist conservative democrats, you have your progressive democrats. And I will tell you, in the coming days, coming weeks, these two factions are going to be fighting over the direction of the democratic party heading into the midterms.
VELSHI: Gloria, you said something yesterday when we talked and I heard you saying it through the evening, in fact I think you sort of put this thought out here that this is an opportunity. They were going to take... BORGER: Yep.
VELSHI: ... the democrats could take a situation bad or worse than bad and use it as a pivot point, use it as an opportunity to change tactic. Are they going down that road as far as you can tell?
BORGER: Well, we don't know yet. As Rahm Emanuel says, the White House chief of staff says, never let a crisis go the waste. It is always an opportunity for you. And so they could turn it into an opportunity. They could present, for example, a slimmed down version of health care reform. The question is how do you pay for it, and the question is, is it in the republican's self-interest right now to have Barack Obama have any kind of a success on anything? I think we're going to learn the answers to the questions from talking to the source, but also I think that they will save some of it for the President's State of the Union speech in a week. He has a ready-made audience right now. The country wants to know, particularly democratic party activists are going to want to know, what are you going to do? And he's going to have to tell folks in his own party, you don't like it, this is what I am going to do, I'm you're leader.
VELSHI: Who wins that battle? If it's going to become a pitched battle between liberals who want more change, that might have backfired and those moderates who say, let's hold out -- let's reach out to republicans, let's slow this down, this is a major battle. This is a party-splitting...
BORGER: Well, the republicans win that battle. The republicans win that battle, right? I mean, you know, from just a purely political point of view, they can sit back and do nothing and watch the democrats form a circular firing squad.
On the other hand, if one of the messages from the election was from independent voters we want you to work together, there are going to be some republicans saying, let's show that we were serious about health care, and let's give them a little bit that we can live with and in exchange, maybe we will get malpractice reform which is something that republicans want.
VELSHI: Mark, you follow the trends, you follow the polls. This is interesting, because it is what some senior republicans were saying about the last election that happened to republicans. That the democrats could sit back almost and watch the republicans attack each other. The shoe seems to have moved to the other foot.
PRESTON: Ali, if the three of us were sitting around a table a year ago the conversation would be totally different at this point. Look, right now it is a high point for the republican party and a low point for democratic party, but don't forget that the republicans have their own in-party fighting right now. There is a litmus test about who is more pure as a republican. Interestingly enough, it was a Massachusetts' republican of all people that seemed to have brought together the republican party. Going into November, the republicans have to stay together if they want to capitalize on this what appears to be at least for now an implosion by democrats. BORGER: All right. But two names, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. Both presidents had terrible midterm elections and managed to come out of it and do well. And the reason they did that is that they changed their strategies.
PRESTON: Right.
BORGER: And Ronald Reagan started to work with the democrats, and you hear his name around the White House a lot lately and I think that he is the role model right now.
VELSHI: All right. Thank you both very much, senior political analyst Gloria Borger and political analyst Mark Preston. You'll be with us a lot, I hope, on this show.
OK, we are following two major, major stories right now. We're talking about Haiti, we're talking about this election. And as part of this election in Massachusetts, we're talking about the one year anniversary of the president being inaugurated.
Back to Haiti, one of the questions that we're asking a lot about is how aid is getting to the people who need it. Getting help to parts of Haiti and people in Haiti has been slow going, and a lot of people want to know, what exactly is the holdup? So, today, we want to start to follow one particular aid package. One box, wherever it goes. We are starting with that box getting ready to be shipped to Haiti, and we are going to follow it until it gets to the recipients. We're going to tell you about that as soon as we come back.
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VELSHI: It has been eight days since the earthquake in Haiti. A lot of people are frustrated about the delay in getting help and aid to victims. So, take a look at this box we are showing you. It is labeled "P 7672." We should see the box in a moment. It is full of aid supplies heading to the quake zone. It's a shelter box, "P 7672." It is a particular number assigned to the box.
It is in Cornwall, England. This is a box of a shelter, I am going to find out what is in it in a moment from Morgan Neil, but it's in Cornwall, England. We are going to follow it every step of the way. Wherever that box goes, we're going to go.
It is headed from Cornwall, England, to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Morgan Neil is following the story.
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MORGAN NEIL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are here in the southwest of England to try and get an idea as to why it can be so difficult to get humanitarian aid from the stage of someone pledging their money, making a donation to a charitable organization and having the aid actually arrive to the doorstep of those in need.
Now, specifically, we are here at Newquay Airport in the southwest of England, because this is where we are going to see an aid flight take off. Now, it is going to be filled with boxes from an organization just about an hour's drive from here called Shelter Box. They are a disaster relief group that focuses on providing people with shelter. So, they put together boxes that they send to aft affected areas that contain a tent, a tool kit, water purifiers, mosquito nets, and blankets. Now, the exact mix will depend on just what kind of disaster has taken there.
As we were there, we could see the donations coming in quickly, both over the phone and in terms of letters being sent to the group. Actually, while we were there, we saw one man walk in and simply gave them 1,000 pounds. Didn't want to give his name or anything, simply wanted to help.
What we are trying to do specifically is to follow one box all of the way from this particular group to its final destination, a family in Haiti, to see what kind of obstacles it encounters along the way.
Clearly, we are at the initial stages here. Here at the airport they are loading that box on to a chartered flight, a flight chartered by Shelter Box. And that flight will try to make its way to haiti. At this point, it looks as though it is very up in the air if they can land in Port-au-Prince or may have to go to the Dominican Republic, and go over land, and that seems to be the idea that a lot of the obstacles they plan on encountering may well come once that plane lands.
Morgan Neil, CNN, Newquay, England.
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VELSHI: OK, we are going to the following that, P 7672.
Now you saw Ed Henry in the White House briefing. We're going to talk to Ed Henry. We've got a new segment coming up, it's going to be here every day, the Ed Henry Segment coming up after the break.
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VELSHI: All right, take a look at this. This is Politifact.com has looked at President Obama and his 502 campaign promises and where they are now. More than half are in the works, 91 of 502 fulfilled, 33 of 502 are partial successes, 87 of them are stalled -- I am thinking that health care might be one of those -- and 14 promises have been broken. This is where we are going to keep track of exactly how things are going with the president and his promises.
Now, we want to bring you a very special thing that starts today. It is the Ed Henry Segment. And of course, that is the segment with Ed Henry our senior White House correspondent. He is not just a journalist, he is a social media madman. He's out there talking to people all the time and doing his job, and he is going to come here and talk to us every day about the things we don't know. He has rushed out of the first press briefing by the White House since the defeat of the democrat in Massachusetts.
Ed, you were grilling the press secretary Robert Gibbs in there, trying to say if the president knew what was going on in the country and the feeling of the country, why isn't he focusing on those things, why did he put all of his eggs in the health care basket, and is that why the election got lost in Massachusetts last night?
HENRY: Yes, if you break it down as to what they're talking about right now in terms of a sort of scaled-back health plan. We are digging out some of the details behind the scenes, and what we are hearing from the democrats is that basically the president may put together, they haven't decided fully yet, but they may be putting together a plan where it is basic insurance reform ending preexisting conditions, for example, that currently prevent people from getting coverage, but then also expanding the Medicaid program so that more poor people who are not insured right now could be covered, and that could add millions of people to the rolls.
Now, how you pay for that is a big question they're going to have to wrestle with again. But what I was trying to ask Robert Gibbs is. you could have passed a bill like this last summer, last spring. There were republicans and even some conservative democrats saying why not do something small, focus on the economy, come back for a second bite of the apple down the road. That may be what they have to do now, but they could have saved themselves several months of debate.
VELSHI: Ed, tell me about this, we talked to the correspondents today, but the administration has other things on the plate other than health care. It's got the military activities in Afghanistan, it's got economic programs, particularly with jobs and banks and credit, it's got a whole bunch of other things. Are they all in jeopardy? What has to happen now?
HENRY: Well, I don't think they are all in jeopardy. I think in fairness to the president, what Robert Gibbs was trying to push back on is look he has been focused on the economy, but he also had to deal with Afghanistan, we had this terror incident on Christmas Day that popped up, and I just posted this story on CNN.com that sort of lays out all the challenges that he had in the first year -- the auto bailouts that landed on the desk. Not a lot of the things were planned for, but I think what I was trying to get at and others as they were pressing Robert Gibbs is that part of being president is setting priorities.
When Gloria was talking about Ronald Reagan, that was something he did very, very effectively, especially after that 1982 midterm election where the republicans did so poorly. And picking out the two or three things you're going to hit really hard rather than the nine or ten things you're going to hit really hard, because then you can give the American people a clearer message and frankly you can get more done on Capitol Hill.
VELSHI: All right, you can learn more about this. Ed, you wrote a great piece on this on CNN.com, you can also follow Ed at @edhenrycnn, but if you do that you have to follow me on Twitter @alivelshi. This is the...
HENRY: I think I've got more than you right now, Ali. VELSHI: We're going to fix that. We're going to fix that soon. The Ed Henry Segment, he's going to be with us every day that he can, talking to us and getting a little behind the scenes.
Ed, great work today, good to see you, and let's make it a regular habit.
HENRY: Congrats on the new show. By the way, I heard that when they picked the name Van Halen, there were three members of the band named Van Halen so they voted for it and one person voted for David Lee Roth cause he was in there. And I guess that's how we named the segment.
VELSHI: The Ed Henry Segment, yes that's what it's going to be. You're right, we don't have my name in the show, but we've got yours. Good to see you, buddy.
All right, if you are trying to get a mortgage from Uncle Sam, if you're trying to get a mortgage with less than 10 percent down on a house, it just got a little tougher for you. The FHA is tightening its rules. I'll break it down for you when we come back.
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VELSHI: All right. If you put very little money down on the house, you have to go through the FHA, that is the organization that insures the banks against people who have very little money down in case they can't pay the mortgages. That's why people can buy homes with very little money down, because the banks is insured against the risk. Until now, the FHA has charge ad 1.75 percent upfront premium, there are ongoing premiums for the life of the mortgage, but up front is 1.75. The issue here is that many, many people have been defaulting on those, so they are increasing the insurance rate to 2.25 percent amongst other changes including requiring borrows to have a higher credit score. So it's something you need to watch out for if you're planning to buy a house.
