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Blizzard on the Move; Paulson on Bailouts: "I Hated Them"; Crist vs. Rubio in Florida; What Did Toyota Know?
Aired February 10, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, let's keep this going. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, great job on the snowstorm. We're going to continue to cover it.
I'm Ali Velshi, and I'm with you for the next two hours, today and every Monday to Friday, helping you break down the things you need to understand to make you feel safer, to help you make decisions about voting and spending and to just let you know what's going out -- going on out there in specific detail.
And boy, do I have a lot of detail for you today. Here's what I've got on the rundown today. Snow as high as your head across much of the northeast. It's making travel, working, even basic tasks a lot more complicated than they normally are.
Plus, Toyota's troubles. What did that carmaker know and when did it know it? Is this just a matter of an oversight, or was Toyota actually holding information back about danger to its cars?
And, finally, disaster and disease. One always follows the other. There's no exception. And it's happening in Haiti. We're going to tell you about that.
But first, the biggest story going on in the country right now is this monster snowstorm. Blizzard warnings from Southern Appalachia all the way through New York and into Long Island.
Sixty-three thousand people don't have power from New York to D.C. Dulles and Reagan National are both closed. Hundreds of flights are canceled. It's so bad that -- that snow crews in D.C. have pulled over to the side of the road. Power crews, restoration crews in D.C. are telling -- are not repairing power right now because of the conditions.
And in Baltimore, non-official traffic has been barred from the roads. If you're not an emergency vehicle, you don't have to be on the road for some essential reason, you are barred from being on the road.
We've got full team coverage around the country on this. Allan Chernoff is in New York City right now. Rob Marciano is in D.C., and Chad is with me here in the severe weather center -- and this is severe weather -- giving us an update on what's going on with travel, with roads, and with the snowfall.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the snowfall obviously slowing down airplanes.
VELSHI: Wow.
MYERS: There should be 6,000 planes on this; there's only 4,500.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: Now, that doesn't mean 1,500 planes got canceled. That just means that planes aren't in the right places. You know, they didn't get through and out of D.C. there's not been a plane in or out of D.C. now for many hours, and there won't be for many, many, many more hours.
But the snow does stop in D.C. In fact, I think it probably stops by 5 p.m. tonight.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: With a total new accumulation of 6 to 12. Where we were yesterday, from 5 to 10.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: Philadelphia, still snowing, still going. New York City still going; lots more to go. Literally...
VELSHI: We still think these totals are...
MYERS: Those are all still valid. And you talked a couple things yesterday. I know you and I talked about the weight of the snow on the roof.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: And you hear the emergency managers say that they lost a brand-new fire truck in one of their buildings because one of their buildings literally collapsed on itself.
VELSHI: Right. Flat roofs are going to have a real problem.
MYERS: A fire engine that had no miles on it is destroyed by all of that.
VELSHI: Yes. Yes.
MYERS: Think about it if you can destroy a fire engine, what it's going to do you. If you hear cracking above you...
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: ... and you're in flat roof Baltimore, D.C., and all those old...
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: ... you call an expert, get out, do whatever you can. Go to a neighbor's, especially if water starts leaking through. You know something is going on up there.
VELSHI: You made a good point. Do not try and deal with this yourself.
MYERS: No.
VELSHI: Don't get on your roof.
MYERS: If you have 40 inches of snow or 35 inches of snow on your roof, that's like having 200 people having a party on your roof.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That's not good. I wouldn't put 200 people on my roof, even if they were, you know, completely sober, because it's -- you might crack some things.
Everywhere that you see blue -- New York, Philadelphia, all the way down to D.C. -- those are all blizzard warnings. And that's part of the problem now. We've been showing you pictures out of D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore. The snow is going sideways. Visibility is going down. You need to stay off the roads. And if you have to be on the roads, you need to have that survival kit at this point in time. I know you think you're in a city...
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: ... but you may need that survival kit.
VELSHI: The power could go out.
MYERS: The National Guard are going out to get firemen.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: They're being sent out in D.C. to get police and doctors, because those guys are stuck, too.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: So don't get in the way of the emergency people.
VELSHI: Don't be smart by putting your car out in the middle of the street because there's a snow bank. Stay out of the way, because emergency crews have to get through.
All right. We'll keep you posted. If you're in those cities or you're going to those cities, or you think you're going to those cities, we will -- we're working with -- our desks are calling fire officials, emergency officials, mayors. We're finding out what the conditions are in those cities. So, stay with us on this.
Let's go to New York City right now, where our Allan Chernoff is out there reporting on the conditions in that city.
Allan, how are things looking for you there?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can't hear him. Audio is down.
VELSHI: All right. I can see Allan. I'm not sure he can hear me. Allan, are you there? If not, we'll go to Reynolds.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Left channel.
VELSHI: All right. Let's Hold on to Allan for a second. Let's go on to, while we get the audio sorted out. Reynolds Wolf is in D.C., he's been there for a couple of days.
And it does not look particularly serious for you, Reynolds. The snow is blowing sideways in front of you right now.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It truly is. Anyone who happens to be tuning in, you know, you're going to see what appears to be these lines going across the screen.
The snow at times has been pretty rough, but the wind is really the kicker. You know, you guys have been talking about power outages. Ali, I think you mentioned that there were 63,000 people without power, but when you look off in the distance, you can see all these trees that are caked in both ice and snow, and you have the winds that continue to come in. Some of these winds, the gusts at least, tropical-storm-force.
There's a chance we can see more of these limbs break, and when they do, oftentimes they hit power lines, and they hit the power lines, that means, yes, more power outages.
And it's going to be really some time before everyone gets their power back on. Certainly, some rough things to deal with, not just in terms of power but also the roadways.
I'm right along -- this would be Third Street in Washington, D.C. We're on the Mall. And this probably is one of the better roads that we have in the area in terms of how the road's been treated.
So you still see a big line, a pile, of snow and muck right in the very middle, but some of the back streets here in the nation's capital, just treacherous.
Speaking of the Capitol itself, try to take a peek at it. You can hardly see. You might be able to make out the Grant statue, right there, General Grant on this, of course, the former president. But in the background behind that, you can't see the Rotunda. We saw it plain as day this morning, but as the wind picks up, visibility goes straight down.
And it has certainly been a rough thing to see, with the wind and the snow. Certainly. airports have had a rough time also. It looks like they won't be really back in commission until the bulk has passed. As Chad was talking, we had probably seen some of the heavy snow. It should begin to taper off into the afternoon and, of course, tomorrow it should be better altogether.
That is the latest that we have here from the nation's capital. We're going to get out of the way. We think there might be some traffic coming.
Let's send it back to you, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Reynolds, we just have new news right now. Newark Airport has now shut down. Dulles and Reagan National are shut down.
Look, you shouldn't be too surprised if there of not flights going into major northeast cities right now. The airlines have been canceling those flights. But this is new, the airport has actually shut down, which means there just isn't enough space on those runways, on those aprons and on the tarmac to accommodate planes moving back and forth. They've just got to plow it out of the way. No flights going in or out of Newark Airport right now.
We're going to take a quick break. Our coverage of this continues. We are checking in on centers around the northeast on safety issues, on what you do if you are at your home and you're watching us, because as Reynolds said, that weight of the snow on the trees is going to cause more power outages as those trees fall onto power lines.
We do know in Washington, D.C., because of the conditions involved in repairing those power lines, for the moment, no power restoration is going on in D.C. If your power is out, no one is working to get it fixed right now.
We'll check on that situation in every major city. We'll pop into -- to New York again, see how things are there. But Newark Airport has shut down.
Our coverage of this severe weather continues on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Covering severe weather across the northeast of this country. We just told you that Newark Airport is the latest airport -- it's not the first. It's the latest one to shut down operations.
Let's go to Gene Lasker. He's with New Jersey Emergency Management. He joins me on the phone right now with the update on Newark Airport and the situation around it.
Gene, what's happening now?
GENE LASKER, NEW JERSEY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): How are you, Ali?
VELSHI: Good. LASKER: Today is the day for you to stay home. We have emergency situations right now up and down the New Jersey Turnpike, all over the state of New Jersey. It's very dangerous to drive. We're trying to keep commercial vehicles off the road and get the salt trucks and the plow trucks down. Today is the day to just sit in your homes and contemplate Howard Stern on "American Idol."
VELSHI: No kidding. Listen, we know that a number of flights, most flights have been cancelled in and out of Newark Airport for the afternoon. What's the difference? What does it mean that the airport is shut down? Does that mean it's a bigger deal?
LASKER: You're a dumb ass. You don't know this is a prank call?
VELSHI: You got us, Gene. Very good. All right, Gene Lasker.
We are going to confirm that our information about New Jersey's Newark Airport being shut down is actually correct.
Allan Chernoff is in New York. He's covering the story, the situation in New York. We're expecting 10 to 18 inches of snow. Allan is there.
Can you hear us, Allan?
CHERNOFF: Ali, our technical problems are resolved.
VELSHI: Well, yours might be. Ours aren't.
CHERNOFF: We are getting some serious snow right now. That's right, Ali, you know, regarding the airports, whether or not they're open, that's pretty much not the essential issue right now, because most of the airlines have canceled the bulk of their flights.
VELSHI: Right, right.
CHERNOFF: And it is a good thing they've done that, because this is absolutely not the sort of weather where you want to be flying. It's not the type of weather to be driving either.
Here in New York City, you know, it's a little bit different than many other parts of the country. Towanda (ph), let's move over here and have a look at the road, because you can see right here in New York, they've got 1,600 plows in New York City. Add about 360 salt spreaders that also have plows. You can see, right here even, they've already plowed the road. So, it's pretty clear. You've got, of course, the slush from the constant traffic, the cabs out there.
But the fact is most people should not be out in this weather, and certainly in the outer boroughs, away from Manhattan, well, that's where the streets will really get nasty.
Ali, we are getting pounded right now. And only an hour ago, I was outside here, standing, and there was barely any snow. So, this is the second punch. They're talking about 10 to 16, maybe even 18 inches in the region. And a blizzard warning all the way to 6 a.m. Serious stuff.
And even here, we have the New York City Parks Department plowing the paths along Central Park. Ali, you know, we're serious about trying to clear away the snow.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHERNOFF: We've got the money here in New York City, as well. That $1 million for every inch of snow that falls. Why is it? Well, here in New York City, we've got more than 6,000 miles worth of streets and highways. That's how you get up to a million bucks for every inch that comes down, to clear out those roads, those highways, those little streets. Ali...
VELSHI: And the issue, Allan, is that most people who come into New York, the population of Manhattan doubles in the day because of people who come in, so they've got to keep those -- even those sidewalks clean and make those -- those subway entrances clear so that people can at least do that. You don't want people using the alternative, trying to get into a car, because public transit isn't working.
CHERNOFF: And -- and, Ali, you know, right there, that's the entrance to the Columbus Circle subway station, one of the entrances. You see people just coming in and out. The subways are running underground, under all this. In the outer boroughs, we do have some trains running on the outside. But for the most part, the subways don't have a problem. So, that's why New York City still runs.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHERNOFF: And by the way, New York City offices, they are remaining open during this snowstorm. Mayor Bloomberg, he's a tough boss, you know?
VELSHI: If I didn't -- if I didn't know better, I'd think that was a bit of a dig from Allan Chernoff, who's going to -- I guarantee you, will be out there until this storm is over, reporting on to us on what's going on.
I was going to say stay dry and stay warm, but I'm not even going to bother saying that, Allan. We'll come back and check in with you. Allan Chernoff in New York.
One of the things also about New York is the power lines are underground in New York, so power outages don't generally occur because of the weight of the snow.
But there are power outages across the northeast: 29,000, 30,000 in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia; about 15,000 in South Jersey; in the D.C. area, about seven and a half thousand; and as I told you, no more repairs being undertaken in D.C. until conditions improve. In the Baltimore area, seven and a half thousand; and in Philadelphia and southeast Pennsylvania, more than 4,000 people without power. We'll be speaking to the mayor of Philadelphia very shortly to get an update on that situation. Listen, when we come back, I want to talk to Christine Romans, my co-host, about things having to do with your money. She's standing by there, and she doesn't mind waiting a few minutes, because she was heading out of town, and her flight has also can canceled.
Stay with us Christine. I'll be right with you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. My colleague, Christine Romans, is staying put in New York. We thought she was just being nice and hanging out with me. She was off on a flight, and she can't get that flight out of Newark.
So, let's talk, Christine. Let's talk about another storm, one that was going on more than a year ago, in the financial world. A year and a half, two years ago. At the time one of the most familiar faces on TV was the then-secretary of the treasury of the United States, Henry Paulson.
And I would say prior to Paulson, the average American may not have thought of -- sort of had at the top of their mind who the treasury secretary was. But everybody knew Hank Paulson.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Because he became known as the architect of all these bailouts, right, Ali? I mean, he was the guy, the free-market guy who came in and suddenly had to be the architect of the biggest intervention in capital markets, government intervention, in history.
You know, I asked him about that. I sat down with him between snowstorms, actually, in Washington this week, and he said better than the father of the second Great Depression. I mean, he will bear that burden of being the architect of all these bailouts.
We also talked, Ali, a lot -- about a lot of things, but among them the idea that these global imbalances are still a problem. The reasons, the big, huge, long-term fundamental reasons this country got into trouble are still there.
Listen to this what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY PAULSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: We have a tax system that really discourages savings and investment and punishes them. And we have a tax system that really encourages consumption. We have housing policies, they penalize renters relative to homeowners.
And so -- and then when you look at it globally, we have nations in Asia, China, Japan, and others that don't have enough domestic consumption. They need to consume more, and they need to save less.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: And we need to save more and consume less. And it's these global imbalances, basically our trading partners, loaning us money so that we could live beyond our means. That's what this whole thing...
VELSHI: Right, and if...
ROMANS: ... a core problem that led to this whole thing that we haven't fixed yet.
VELSHI: If you wanted to understand it, it's the same as our own credit-card crisis, right? Banks, credit-card companies loaning us more so that we could run up more credit than we really could afford.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: And they knew we were beholden to them, and we were -- and they were beholden to us paying our bills on time, so we're in a catch-22. So if you want to see what can happen if we don't fix it, just look at the credit crisis that we've had here in the United States and multiply that by thousands of times.
ROMANS: That's right. You know, you can see this whole interview on CNNmoney.com. There's a lot of different things we talked about. You know, I asked him about Goldman Sachs, too, Ali...
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: ... about the -- the complaints and the charges that he has ties to Goldman Sachs. He used to run that company. That he was, during the entire bailout, thinking more about helping bankers more than Main Street.
He really takes issue with that. He says, "No, I was always looking out for the American people, because I knew a collapse of the financial system would hurt billions of people."
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: That's what it's about. And he -- he defends his ties to Wall Street and says without those ties, you couldn't have gotten -- couldn't have gotten this thing fixed, or at least stabilized. Because he knew the players. He knew how they thought. He knew what their motives were.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: And he know how to read the markets and that that, he said, was really helpful. It was helpful, those ties to Wall Street. Even his critics say that he and his successor, Tim Geithner, were too close to Wall Street.
VELSHI: Yes. Christine, this is the second time in a week that I have been stranded because of flight cancellations in the northeast. Same thing's happened to you. Walk outside the building and throw a snowball at Allan Chernoff for you, will you? He's just -- he's just downstairs.
ROMANS: I will.
VELSHI: Christine Romans, my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." You can watch every Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern and Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern.
We are going to continue our coverage of the weather stories across the northeast and travel updates across the northeast.
But first, let's get a check of the top stories.
And look, you don't have to be a scientist to know that our top story is the weather. If you're thinking of hopping on a flight, you may want to think again. That blizzard in the northeast is bringing travel to a near standstill. Two airports in Washington are shut down. Many across the country are experiencing slowdowns, because they can't get flights in and out of the northeast. And thousands of flights have been canceled across the region.
In Louisiana, a hurricane expert says he lost his job in the wake of Hurricane Katrina for criticizing the Army Corps of Engineers, and now he's suing Louisiana State University to get his job back. Ivor van Heerden led the investigation into the failure of the levy system, and he's suing LSU, or he's accusing LSU of putting bureaucratic interests ahead of health and safety. The university would not comment.
In Florida, a delay on the launch pad. NASA postponed the blastoff of the Atlas V rocket until tomorrow. The rocket is carrying a solar dynamics observatory which will study the sun in great detail.
When we come back, we are on the weather story. We're going to tell you what to do if you're one of the cities affected and you are -- and you are stranded at home, how to stay safe, how to be careful, to look out for roof collapses or power outages. Stay with us. We're on the story, and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. We've got bad weather, as you know. This isn't any surprise to anybody, particularly if you live in the mid- Atlantic or the northeast. And, in fact, it's quite a widespread of area that's being affected by the bad weather. But it's not just bad weather, Chad, it's blizzard.
MYERS: Yes. Blizzard begins with the word "wind."
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: You don't get a blizzard just because it's snowing.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: Right? OK. Blizzard means that the winds have to be greater than 35 miles an hour and heavy snow has to be coming down with it. And so that is beginning to really lose some visibility. VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: And when you lose visibility, then you lose the chance to fly out of airports.
This is still Newark.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: Newark, I believe, is still moving.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: There are ten planes in the sky. That one just took off, and there are seven planes headed into Newark right now. They are not being diverted away.
VELSHI: If the airport was being shut down, you would generally think those planes would be diverted, although they may be saying, "Let these seven come in and then..." We do not know that Newark has been closed.
MYERS: The farthest airplane away...
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: ... is over Colorado. It's a FedEx plane coming in.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: So, I will see whether they divert that somewhere else. It could go to Avoca, you know, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Could go someplace else. And then FedEx do whatever they do from there.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: D.C., your snow is just about over. Philadelphia, you're not even close to over. New York City, another 10 to 18 by the time it all stops, and this could all change, Ali, for one reason.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: I'm going to take you to our CNN.com/weather, and I recommend you going there. This is an awesome Web site. This is a very fast animation of about eight hours of snow.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: What you're going to notice, a couple things right through here.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: They call this the deformation zone. The moisture is the highest it can be, and the air is just cold enough to snow.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: That is your ground zero. That's your bull's-eye...
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: ... for heavy, heavy snow, and very well may sneak its way up to New York City later on today. And you have the wind off the ocean. That wind off the ocean is going to take and plow almost like lake-effect snow for Buffalo.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: But it is going to be ocean-effect snow for New York City. If you go onto CNN.com, you can even go through all the graphics that you see on our screen.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: You can make them closer to you.
VELSHI: Got it.
MYERS: Zoom into them. A great little Web site for you to see.
VELSHI: OK. So the important thing to think about here is that Washington, D.C., is hopefully over. They'll start to restore power once the conditions become safer for power crews to do so, but for now they're not.
MYERS: The wind isn't over.
VELSHI: I see.
MYERS: They don't have their buckets in the air because the wind is still blowing around.
VELSHI: Got it.
MYERS: Would you want to be up there in a bucket doing 35 an hour back and forth?
VELSHI: No.
MYERS: I don't care if you have those stabilizers...
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: ... or not. They are not going to put those men and women up there on the line.
VELSHI: And that also means that in places like Philly, we don't -- we haven't seen a lot of power outages, but we're still in danger of that happening as that snow continues to come down.
MYERS: And we have power outages as far south as Winston-Salem, North Carolina. VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Not because of snow.
VELSHI: Wind.
MYERS: But because of the wind...
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: ... actually blowing the power lines onto the ground and some making grassfires.
VELSHI: Which is also the issue at airports. It's not just snow; it's also airports.
Let's go to my good friend Steve Kastenbaum with CNN Radio who is on the ground at LaGuardia right now.
Steve, what's the situation at LaGuardia?
STEVE KASTENBAUM, CNN RADIO (via phone): Well, Ali, I can tell you within the last five to ten minutes or so, the snow has really picked up in intensity, and we were expecting this to happen here. They had forecast between one and three inches of snowfall an hour at this time of day here.
Now, the runway is actually open here at LaGuardia. All day long, I've been watching the big plows here making passes on the runway and on the tarmac. Keeping this airport open...
MYERS: Zero. Zero planes on the way to LaGuardia.
KASTENBAUM: But the problem now is that the airlines don't want to have any planes up in the air right now.
VELSHI: Right.
KASTENBAUM: The last plane that took off from here was an American Airlines regional jet. That happened at around 10:45 in the morning. Since then, we haven't seen any planes take off, other than a Spirit Airlines plane around the same time.
VELSHI: And Steve, Chad is just with me. He's telling me a few minutes ago he saw seven planes inbound to Newark. He's now saying nothing.
MYERS: Nothing into LaGuardia.
VELSHI: Nothing into LaGuardia. LaGuardia has no planes headed towards you, Steve, so clearly they've decided this doesn't make sense for any planes to try and head in while they're trying to either clear it up or deal with this wind situation -- Steve.
KASTENBAUM: And you know, Ali, the other thing is I was on the phone with -- with all the major airlines this morning, and every single one of them told me they just weren't going to chance it until this evening at the earliest.
And believe it or not, it will be early next week before they're able to return to a normal schedule, to fully recover from the impact of this storm and this past weekend's snowstorm. So even though they'll resume flights, hopefully, tomorrow morning, it's going to be a long time before everybody's getting to where they were supposed to go to today.
VELSHI: All right. Steve, we'll check in with you to see what the situation is there. We've got Allan in New York. We've got -- we've got Reynolds in D.C.
We're going to check in on Philadelphia next. As Chad said, the snow's not even nearly over in Philadelphia. Mayor Michael Nutter is on the phone. We'll check in with him on the other side of this break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right, keeping a check of a lot of airports across the Northeast for you. Take a look at this picture from our affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia. You would not know what that is. There's a bus rolling along the ground here. That is theoretically, we're told, the airport. It looks like a big, white mass. Even Chad Myers couldn't tell us what it is by looking at it.
Let's go to Philadelphia now where Mayor Michael Nutter is on the phone with us. Mayor, are you there?
MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA (via telephone): I'm right here, Ali.
VELSHI: What's it looking like in Philly? Where are you and how are things moving?
NUTTER: Well, right now I'm in City Hall, I'm about to go over to our emergency operations center. Things are -- it's pretty rough and as you know, we got 28.5 inches just over the weekend. Our forces were still fighting that storm when we got hit last night, into today. So, they're doing just an incredible job out there. But it is a -- it's a horrendous kind of operation. We've had ice. We've had sleet. We've had more snow, freezing temperatures. And wind gusts now starting to pick up creating just unbelievable conditions here.
VELSHI: That's what Chad was just saying that when we think of the blizzard, it's not just the quantity of snow, it's the wind.
NUTTER: Absolutely.
VELSHI: What's happening in terms of your plowing efforts in keeping streets clean, keeping emergency vehicles moving, are you OK so far?
NUTTER: Yeah, we've got our forces out there. They've been out since last night, we have something called a brine solution that we put down before the weather event even starts. That helps us with freezing on the ground. Then we go with salt, plowing, and the salting going on simultaneously. Just trying to move the stuff out of the way. About over 450 pieces of equipment, 600 personnel, all throughout the city, and they've been doing a great job.
VELSHI: All right. We have reports of a little more than 4,000 power outages in the Philly, South Jersey area. We don't know how much of that is in Philadelphia or not.
NUTTER: Yeah.
VELSHI: What's your evaluation of what's happening with people losing power?
NUTTER: We have some. But it's a rather small percentage of that bigger number that you mentioned. That is the challenge with -- with ice laying on the lines and then the weight of this snow -- this snow is much heavier than what we just saw over the past weekend. That was kind of a lighter, fluffier kind of snow, if you will. This is the heavy stuff, a lot of moisture in it. It weighs down on the lines, snaps them, and then you get these massive power outages. There's a lot of moisture in the air, and that just causes trouble for our electric company.
VELSHI: Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, hold on the line for a second. I also want to bring in someone else who I think you know is on the phone from New Orleans -- actually, we've got him here on TV. General Russel Honore is joining us now from New York City. General Honore we know that -- I'm sorry he's in New Orleans. General Honore, we have heard that National Guard troops are trying to clear paths in Washington, D.C. Two issues, really, one is emergency vehicles not being able to get through, and the second one is people with -- with power problems. We're not hearing that in Philly yet, as the mayor's telling us. It hasn't reached those proportions, and hopefully it won't. What's the role for the National Guard in helping out cities right now?
GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE (RET.) CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, both in D.C., Maryland, and the state of Virginia, National Guard is decisively conducting hundreds of missions to help police and emergency teams get to patients that need to be moved to hospitals. Particularly in the D.C. area, the National Guard has 14 humvees working 24/7 to get critical workers for the D.C. metropolitan area to locations so they can run the critical infrastructure.
The D.C. National Guard is also helping the police and emergency vehicles get to patients that need to be evacuated. Over in Maryland, the D.C. Guard yesterday even delivered a baby. They've gone in, atypical mission for the guard, in these type of situations.
VELSHI: Mayor Nutter, you're more used to those kind of situations in Philadelphia, where there's snow. You're certainly more used to it than they are in D.C. Are you -- have you got issues with emergency vehicles getting to people, ambulances, fire trucks and things like that?
NUTTER: Well, just to be clear, I've never delivered a baby, so I don't have much experience in that. But, no, we're in pretty good shape. Governor Rendell did for the state declare a state of emergency, and I know the Guard has been activated in other places, but not in Philadelphia.
We get a little more than this than our friends to the South do, so we've been geared up for this for a while. We have a particular concern about dialysis patients, but we're working through Philadelphia Police Department and fire department and our SEPTA connections, relationships, to make sure that folks can get to those services.
All hospitals up and running, and performing their duties. So, we've been on this for a while. But what it takes, as the general laid out, it takes a fully coordinated effort. And all of us, especially in cities, appreciate the help and support that we can get from our various stakeholder partners and certainly our respective state authorities as well.
VELSHI: All right, Mayor Nutter, you'll keep us posted to see where things are developing, if there's any important developments that we need to let our viewers you know about in Philadelphia, we'll continue to stay in touch with you.
NUTTER: Absolutely, thank you.
VELSHI: General Honore, you are watching this situation. You have certainly got as much experience, if not more, than anyone in this country in dealing with urban emergencies. What do you sense in the response from the federal government and the National Guard and the cities right now? Do you think everybody's on top of things?
HONORE: Yes, the state is using all their resources. I talked to General Bob Newman, the Virginia National Guard, he has 10,000 National Guard troops available. He's committed 700 to this mission in Northern Virginia. And he's responded to requests that come to the governor, that come directly to the Guard. Their number one concern is that if people need help, they are to call their local 911 and help will be on the way through a collaborative effort of local and state assets, with the great capability of the National Guard to help save people. And one note on that, Ali --
VELSHI: Yeah.
HONORE: -- is that people need to check on their elderly neighbors as well as the disabled people in their community to make sure if they need help or if they know anyone on dialysis or have diabetes issues, that they reach out to them, because, remember, the first line of response is neighbors helping neighbors.
VELSHI: All right. And that's good advice for people to follow. The danger most people are in right now, other than those immediate health care issues, General, as Chad Myers was saying, a roof collapsing or your power going out or a tree branch falling on your house. Those are the most immediate dangers. Otherwise stay home and just try and wait it out?
HONORE: Yes, sir. That's the best thing people can do at this time and check on their neighbors.
VELSHI: All right, General Honore, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thanks very much for being with us.
We're going to take a break right now. When we come back, I want to tell you about the hug, one year later. You might remember this, President Obama's embrace of Florida's Republican Governor Charlie Crist, happened a year ago today, and it might be hurting Governor Crist now in his Senate primary battle. Look at it, there it is, that's the hug. Candy Crowley breaks it down for us when we come back.
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VELSHI: All right. Take a look. On the left, I think you know what that looks like, with that marine outside, that is the White House. And that snow is coming down. He does not look affected by that at all.
And on the right, from WPVI, our affiliate in Philadelphia, that is Philadelphia International Airport and there is nothing going on there at all.
By the way, Newark Airport, the latest information that we have is that the airport is not officially closed. That is probably of little relevance as Allan Chernoff pointed out earlier to most people, because you're really not getting anywhere in or out of there. But it does believe that the airport -- we do believe that the airport is not closed at Newark, as Dulles is and Reagan National are.
OK, we've showed you that hug, the famous hug between President Obama and Governor Crist of Florida. It was one year ago today, and now he is running in a primary to be -- against the House Speaker, Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, to be the Senate candidate for that state, the Republican Senate candidate for that state. Is that affecting him? Let's talk to two people who would know about this, Candy Crowley in D.C., the host of "State of the Union," and Adam Smith in St. Petersburg, Florida. Adam is a journalist in Florida.
Let's talk about this, Candy. In the year since that has happened, the stimulus bill has become public enemy number one for many Republicans and certainly for many Tea Party supporters and both of those core groups are supporting Rubio now. Is this really hurting Crist?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's -- it's among the things that are hurting Governor Crist. And they would tell you that in his camp, that there are some problems here, that Rubio has made enormous inroads. He barely registered in the polls, now we have polls that show Rubio ahead in the Republican primary. And certainly the stimulus hug, and honestly, I know what hugs are, and that was one of those kind of man hugs as you move --
VELSHI: It wasn't really a big bear hug.
CROWLEY: Exactly. It's sort of one of the things politicians do. But nonetheless, it becomes symbolic for Charlie Crist is too liberal. He's a liberal Republican. He was for the stimulus bill. We should point out that Rubio actually said sort of contemporaneously that he would have accepted the stimulus money for Florida if it wouldn't hurt Florida.
But nonetheless, this is a picture. It always is still worth a thousand words whether it's politics or something else. But I think that there's also another problem that Crist has, and that is, it's such an anti-incumbent year, that while they would like to run on experience and his leadership as a governor, it makes him look like the incumbent and incumbents aren't all that popular right now.
VELSHI: It pays to feel like more of an outsider. Although, Adam, he's not an incumbent in the particular job he's running in and Rubio is a politician, too.
ADAM SMITH, POLITICAL EDITOR, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES: Yes, Rubio is sort of cast as this outsider, anti-establishment person, but he was speaker of the Florida House. He is very much of an establishment person. But he's lucky right now, he's not in office. Charlie Crist is the leader of a state where the economy is in shambles and he's very much paying a price for that.
VELSHI: And tell me how much of a price you think he is paying. It does seem like the very conservative elements of the Republican Party and the libertarian elements particularly the Tea Partiers are rallying behind Rubio. Is that really the case?
SMITH: It is the case, but it's really even broader than that. I think part of that is a function of the economy. When that hug -- when that man hug took place, Charlie Crist seemed unbeatable. He was astronomical approval ratings and it just shows how the political climate has changed so dramatically in the last year, because today conventional wisdom more and more looks like Charlie is going to have a hard time winning the race.
VELSHI: Candy, is this the kind of thing, I mean, are political types watching this very closely to see whether it's a tipping point for the Republican Party? Whether it's a splitting point for the Republican Party or maybe a testing ground for the strength of the Tea Party movement?
CROWLEY: Certainly it's being cast that way, that this is one of those races, the primary race, within the Republican Party and that it typifies the struggle the GOP is having. Do you go more moderate? And that would be embodied in Charlie Crist, in the governor, as someone who has worked across the aisle, someone who does have more moderate views. He backed John McCain, who has always been a little bit suspect among conservatives. Or do you go with a Rubio, a young, very conservative guy. And so yes, it's seen as that struggle within the Republican Party. Which way do you want to go? Do you want the big tent, or do you want to have a party that strictly adheres to its most conservative principles? I would add, however, that it's very interesting to me around the Rubio campaign that they've pushed back when you suggest that he's a Tea Party phenomenon.
VELSHI: Ah.
CROWLEY: That he is the creation of the Tea Party. They say, wait a minute, he was there, and they jumped on his bandwagon, not vice versa, so they are pretty sensitive about that, because the Tea Party can kind of go both ways particularly if you move into a general.
VELSHI: It can work with you or against you. Adam, do you agree with that, that it might be better for Rubio if he weren't thought of as the Tea party guy?
SMITH: Well, I think he's trying to actually have it both ways to some extent and try to keep his distance a little bit from the Tea Party, but he's certainly shown up to quite a few of the rallies and is embracing that anger at the establishment, it's helping him.
VELSHI: Very interesting discussion. Adam Smith and Candy Crowley, thanks very much for joining us. We'll cover that race very closely between Marco Rubio, the House speaker, former House speaker, and Charlie Crist, the governor of California (sic) -- governor of Florida, both running for the right to be the Republican Senatorial candidate.
All right, we're going to continue with our coverage of the weather in the Northeast, the blizzard. This isn't just weather, this is a blizzard. Chad was very specific about the fact that that's wind and that's snow. When we come back, we'll talk more to Chad about what you can expect for the next few hours.
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VELSHI: All right, I just got an e-mail from Steve Kastenbaum from CNN Radio who is at LaGuardia Airport. He said the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which operates all three of the major airports there, says that the airports are open, the runways remain open at the three New York City airports. They are continuing to make passes with their snow-clearing equipment to keep the runways open. If an airline wants to send in any aircraft, we have heard from Continental, 900 system wide cancellations, from U.S. Airways, 473 system wide cancellations, 198 on their expresses. And both those airlines are saying no flights going in or coming out of the New York area right now. Just waiting to hear back from Delta. Actually, this is Delta right here. Let's see what Delta is talking about. They're going to check and tell me to be sure whether everything is canceled.
But as Allan Chernoff points out, this is kind of an academic discussion whether airports are officially open or not.
MYERS: Correct and Continental uses Newark as its main hub, so that's why that number on Continental is so high.
VELSHI: Right, that's a cancellation of a higher proportion of their flights.
MYERS: If you want to go from Albany to Denver, you fly through Newark. You can fly through Houston, you can fly through Cleveland, but most of the time you fly to Newark and then you go from there. So that's why.
VELSHI: So it's affecting them system wide.
MYERS: Exactly. Take a look at this. This looks like a shot from last night.
VELSHI: That's the entrance to Columbus Circle.
MYERS: Exactly. But that shot looked like it was from the evening because the lights on Broadway were brighter than the sun or the sky. I mean, the kids are having fun. Go to the park and have some fun at it.
Here is the number though, here are the numbers from Parkton, Maryland, the winter so far, 19 inches. Dulles at 8.5, Reagan National, 8.5 and BWI, the latest numbers at 1:00, 11.9 inches of snow, and obviously, the snow continues. It is going to continue on.
VELSHI: It is remarkable the speed with which this thing is moving along.
MYERS: It is. It's a very good -- it's a good storm, because the storm is not what's called cutoff. Oh, man, you just threw me a softball, my man. Let me show you what happens. If you have a jet stream that moves like this and the storm continues to track along the low, and it continues like this --
VELSHI: But I actually know what the problem is. Your problem is if you have a storm that goes this way, and does something like that, right, loops back a little bit.
MYERS: Correct.
VELSHI: I learn well from you, my friend.
MYERS: We'll start over here with a little dip in the jet that does something like this, and that allows this jet, this low pressure to do this. And think of the time it's in contact with this area here, because this is where the snow going to be. That allows you, when that turns, that allows the snow to continue for a longer, longer, longer amount of time and that is what we are going to see in Philadelphia and New York. D.C., you are just about out of it.
VELSHI: Nice.
MYERS: The dry air is just sliding up here from about Fredericksburg into D.C. at this point in time. So D.C. snow ends this afternoon from south to north, and eventually, it gets a whole lot better. But you know, better compared to what? I mean, you know, we say D.C. wasn't that bad this time, but I will tell you what. Eight inches of snow in D.C. paralyzes D.C. Now the fact that they were already paralyzed is another matter, but there is a lot of snow coming down.
VELSHI: The bigger issue right now if you're out there and you don't live in one of these places and you're wondering what the commotion is, the commotion is as General Honore said, as Mayor Michael Nutter from Philadelphia said, the issue is safety for people who need to get to hospitals, who need to get dialysis treatment, who lose their power in their homes, who don't have contact or a phone, people whose roofs might collapse, that is the issue.
MYERS: Yes, and if you went to work this morning with two inches of snow on the ground thinking I'll be OK, I'll make it home, and by the time 5:00 rolls around, there is going to be 10 inches of snow in Manhattan and you can't get back home, now is the time to book a hotel room somewhere so that you can sleep and not on your desk at work.
VELSHI: That's right. All right, Chad, we're going to continue to check in with you. One of the things we're going to check into is the Toyota recall, by the way. Be extra careful on the roads no matter what you're driving right now, but we want to know some interesting developments. There are some allegations out there that maybe Toyota knew more than it's letting on and didn't do anything about it. We're going to talk to a reporter who is covering the story about what Toyota knew and when they knew it, when we come back.
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VELSHI: OK, we've been following for the last couple of weeks the whole situation with the Toyota recalls, three of them, more than 8 million cars involved. The main issue, of course is this brake pedal. In some cases, it was getting stuck -- I'm sorry, not the brake pedal, the gas pedal. The brake pedal was recall number three. Gas pedal initially getting stuck on some floor mats and then gas pedals just getting stuck in the accelerator position without floor mats involved.
Kate Linebaugh is a reporter with the "Wall Street Journal." She's in Southfield, Michigan, and Kate, you have been talking about how this may not have just been some sort of a thing that Toyota missed or didn't get on to very early. They may have had a lot of notice and a lot of information about this that they deliberately didn't act on. Tell me about this?
KATE LINEBAUGH, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, what we have found from our reporting and talking to sources, is that there was a communications breakdown within Toyota where there was information kept in the Japan headquarters that was not passed along to their U.S. colleagues who are the main interface with safety regulators in Washington.
So while they were working on an investigation in Europe into the sticky pedal situation, that information didn't get passed over to their U.S. colleague where the same pedals are used. Now it is important to remember that the sticky pedal situation has not caused any accidents. It is not part of the sudden unintended acceleration cases that have gotten a lot of press.
VELSHI: Right.
LINEBAUGH: But it is -- does sort of -- was a culmination of the breakdown in communication between the Japan office and the U.S. office and then also between -- with U.S. investigators and the Toyota-Washington office.
VELSHI: What is the implication here? A breakdown in communication at one of -- a company that many people think is one of the best-run companies in the world. They have systems named after them that other companies adopt. So that is sort of not the same as a breakdown of communication with your average company.
LINEBAUGH: Yes, I think -- I mean, Toyota, you know, is quite proud of its reputation as a quality leader, and here we are starting to see that it is not as forthcoming across all the different silos in its company of providing that information, and that is why consumers are very concerned at this moment.
VELSHI: So in other words, this sort of takes it a little further. If you just think, all right, Toyota, was late to come in clean with this thing and fixing it and it's probably a bad P.R. move, your reporting indicates that there might be a deeper problem and doesn't necessarily mean intentional wrongdoing, but it suggests that there may be a deeper -- is it a cultural issue that needs to be dealt with within their corporate culture? What is it?
LINEBAUGH: Yes, and I think a lot of former Toyota executives and current ones would recognize that is the case, and in fact, Toyota's chief executive Akio Toyota has came out with a new quality initiative that involves setting up a quality center in the U.S. So Toyota's attitude now is to acknowledge the problem and try to address it, and that's one of -- you know, you talked about the systems named after Toyota. That's part of what they try to do, continuous improvement, and they say that that's what they are trying to do now in this quality crisis.
VELSHI: All right, so the outcome here could be some Toyota executives in trouble or a better Toyota. We will have to wait and see how that happens. But thank you for some great reporting on that. Kate Linebaugh is a "Wall Street Journal" reporter joining us from Southfield, Michigan, that has done some great reporting on this particular story.
When we come back, we are going to continue to update you on the development of the blizzard in the Northeast. What's closed, what's open, what's moving, what's not. There he is, Chad Myers, he's tracking everything, snowfall. He's tracking airlines coming in -- airplanes coming in. Reynolds Wolf is in Washington, D.C. Allan Chernoff is in New York and we've got people all over the country covering this. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
