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Toyoda Testifies Today; Update on the Economy

Aired February 24, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check our top stories now.

What you can do for me? Well, that's what we want to know. That's what lawmakers will be asking Ben Bernanke, the Fed chair, giving a state of the economy talk on Capitol Hill in just a few minutes. Also, expect questions about how the fed can help create jobs and keep the recovery going.

How will your taxes be spent? Timothy Geithner has one answer. He's testifying shortly before the House Budget Committee on the president's spending plan for next year. Geithner laid out the plan on the Senate side earlier this month.

Private contractors behaving badly and the Military that hardly holds them accountable: the two big bullet points being fired by top gun senator Carl Levin this hour as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee grills Blackwater's owners for employee conduct in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

The recalls, the repairs and the contrite commercials; we'd even heard the horror stories. Today some answers. Mr. Toyoda himself, out of his lofty comfort zone in Japan, and into Washington's hot seat. His name, his company on the line.

Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill where the grilling happens next hour, but you won't see it live in Japan -- TV blackout. They can't bear to watch it. Why? Because Mr. Toyoda may as well be Mr. Japan. Kyung Lah live in Tokyo.

And not cutting Toyota any slack. Safety expert Joan Claybrook says it didn't take a crystal ball to see this coming. Does Uncle Sam also bear some blame? Deb Feyerick with another symptom of broken government.

And after a near-death experience in this mangled Prius, you'll meet a customer turned crusader.

It's a big hour here and we're all over this story. The big star today on the hill, Akio Toyoda. We've heard him talk about his company's mistakes during press conferences in Japan, but this is a different playing field now. The U.S. Congress, where talk is cheap and where tough talk gets you the headlines.

CNN congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar on the Hill now as we all await to hear what kind of questions will be asked and what kind of answers we're going to get. Brianna. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we're inside the hearing room for the House oversight committee. This is where this is going to take place. This here is, you know, what we call colloquially call the hot seat. This is where Akio Toyoda will address these members of Congress, where he's going to answer certainly some tough questions.

First up, though, it's going to be the secretary of transportation, Ray Lahood. Both of them are going to have some pretty tough questions. If you look up here, this is where the chairman, Ed Towns of this committee is going to start these proceedings. We've actually gotten some of his opening remarks.

He says NHTSA, which is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration failed the taxpayers and Toyota failed their customers. If the Camry and the Prius were airplanes, they would be grounded. So you're going to get some tough talk from lawmakers but you're also going to see that lawmakers, they want answers and they want some promises.

Listen to what Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on this committee said he wants to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR (on camera): what do you want to hear from Akio Toyoda?

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: I want to hear, one, a commitment to change, a commitment that Toyotas way, that allows the production lines to make excellent automobiles will be just as aggressive in dealing with potential safety problem that occur after delivery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: So there are going to be some substantive questions here. What did Toyota know, when did it know it and are these cars safe above all. That is what these lawmakers want to know. But, Kyra, you've seen and I've seen it. These congressional hearings are almost like a contact sport. There are going to be pointed questions, some that certainly might offend Mr. Toyoda, might really offend sort of, I guess, the Japanese sensibility where they just don't face these kinds of questions and really just this direct type of questioning, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. We'll be tracking it, Brianna. You let us know as soon as things get started, please.

So who is Akio Toyoda. Well, the 53-year-old Toyoda was groomed to lead the empire that his grandfather founded. In fact in his younger years Toyoda was once dubbed the prince. In 1982, he received his MBA from Babson College in Massachusetts. Then it was on to California where he served as vice president of a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors.

One newspaper says that the goal was to learn the family business while studying the American mind. Yet Toyoda speaks only limited English. He will have a translator by his side at today's hearing.

Is it rare but not unheard of for a top Japanese executive to testify before U.S. lawmakers? The last time around was on September 6, 2000. Then Bridgestone-Firestone CEO Masatoshi Ono apologized for bad tires blamed for more than 100 U.S. deaths. Remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASATOSHI ONO, BRIDGESTONE-FIRESTONE CEO: The chief executive officers, I come before you. I apologize to you and the American peoples. Also came to accept full and personal responsibility on behalf of Bridgestone-Firestone for the event that led to this hearing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: From king of the castle to pounded peasant. That may be how Akio Toyoda feels after a day with Congress. So how do his loyal subjects back home feel about the big bad wolf talking down Toyoda's door?

CNN's Kyung Lah joining live in Tokyo. And Kyung, from what I understand, those in Japan are extremely concerned about the way Mr. Toyoda is going to be treated here in the U.S..

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sorry, Kyra, we're having some trouble hearing you. So I'm just going to pick it up from here. What we can tell you is that the stakes are enormously high here in Japan. This is being read according to one of the major newspapers here as a make-or-break moment, not just for Toyota the company, but for the Made in Japan brand.

We've heard government officials saying that this could affect the GDP. They're going to monitor what the recall effect is going to have here on the economy, the world's second largest economy. So there is a lot of pressure on him, a lot of expectations. Where a number of lawmakers as well saying that Akio Toyoda must perform today in his testimony.

He must somehow win over U.S. lawmakers, win over U.S. consumers and convince them that Toyota does produce safe cars. So there is a lot of discussion that there's going to be a lot of political theater. Well, the political theater is going to have an impact here in Japan. Even though this is overnight hours, we understand from people inside Toyota that they will be watching here, the company concerned but also the highest levels of government as well.

And the man on the street frankly. There are a lot of people in Japan who are very concerned that this is somehow going to trickle down and affect the household as well. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Kyung Lah, are you able to hear me? Did we get our connection fixed? Al right. It doesn't look like it. We apologize for that. We were having to have some Q & A with Kyung Lah. We'll, try and get that fixed up. That's live television, folks.

Well, holding their feet to the flame. We're going to have more in a moment on the cozy relationship between NHTSA and car companies.

Also we're checking safety records. How does Toyota really stack up against other car makers.

And later, his wife nearly died behind the wheel of their Toyota. Now he's gone from customer to crusader.

Right now, on Capitol Hill, live pictures, a progress report on the economy. Federal reserve chief Ben Bernanke about to testify before the House committee on financial services. Lawmakers likely to focus on the job crisis and whether the nation's top banker can keep the economic recovery on track.

Investors will be listening closely to Bernanke's insights as well. A live picture of the big board. Dow industrials up 44 points. So how's this for improving schools. Fire the teachers, every single one of them, no pink slips left behind. Does that sound like a good plan to you?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We want to check in with cnn.com and the news pulse icon. If you go just to the top left of CNN.com and click on it, you see the stories that you're clicking onto. The most popular stories right now that possibly we might have missed when we were putting together our newscast. That's why we check in to our web site to see what you're looking at minute by minute.

Number one story right now, nearly 25 percent of all mortgages underwater. For those of you online, that's the most important story that you're clicking onto. The second most popular, a new poll is out, Americans place blame for partisanship, if you want to read more about that.

And then the third most popular story right now, the Texas police chase caught on video. We have had this in our program. You want a little thrill of the ride, click onto that. Every 15 minutes, this is updated. We keep checking it right here, cnn.com, it's the News Pulse page.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We know that Toyota president Akio Toyoda will apologize and take some lumps on Capitol Hill today. We also know that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is getting hammered for it's own failures, just like why didn't you step in sooner.

Joan Claybrook is actually a former NHTSA administrator. She is now president emeritus of Public Citizen, a watchdog group. She's also scheduled to testify at the Toyota hearing today.

Joan, what's the first thing that you're going to say?

JOAN CLAYBROOK, FMR. NHTSA ADMINISTRATOR: The first thing I'm going to say is Toyota motor company has lost the trust and confidence of the American public by the way that they have handled this matter, by trying to close down investigations of the Department of Transportation rather than recalling their defective vehicles.

And also, blaming the problem of sudden unintended acceleration on floor mats rather than really figuring out or revealing whether or not there are electronic issues involved with these accelerators because there have been a lot of crashes that have occurred with the accelerator slammed to the floor and no floor mat in the vehicle.

PHILLIPS: And Joan, you've talked to me a number of times way before this turned into what it is now, and you called it. You not only went after Toyota and how they kept many things under the table, shall we say, but you're pretty upset with our government too and NHTSA for not doing what it should have done a long time ago.

CLAYBROOK: That's correct. I believe that the agency was asleep at the wheel in this case or just didn't put any energy into it. It really wasn't -- didn't have a corporate mentality for pushing for enforcement against these corporations that have violated the law or have been withholding information about these safety defects. And I know the agency is very under funded and very understaffed in this area, but it has enormous authority to do this job.

And finally, with a new administrator who came in in January, they have sent a letter to Toyota, 53 pages, asking all the information they should have asked five, six, seven years ago. Unfortunately, a lot of people have now died and been injured while Toyota has swept this under the rug and while the Department of Transportation just hasn't been energized and done its job.

PHILLIPS: So Joan, Akio Toyoda, you know, he wasn't going to speak, now he's going to speak and now there's all this talk about lost in translation and how he's going to come across and his image and really he's just sort of a cultural icon, not really someone who makes big decisions within this company.

You know, what's your take on this? Is it important to hear from him? What do we need to hear from him? Will it really make a difference? Is this the person to grill?

CLAYBROOK: Well, I will say that the person that was grilled yesterday who represents Toyota in the United States, he didn't know the answers to any questions. When he was asked how come he didn't know the answers to any questions, well, he said I'm in charge of the sales operation, but all of the decisions are made in Japan.

So now we're going to have the CEO, who is in Japan, and I'm sure that there are going to be some translation problems, although he did go to school in the United States and does speak English. But, you know --

PHILLIPS: You bring up an interesting point. You're saying all the decisions are made in Japan, yet a number of people have been saying, no, these cars are made in the States. We should be hearing from Jim Lentz, the head of Toyota. You're saying he didn't even have answers yesterday. So really does the information that we need to hear, does that truly come from Akio Toyoda?

CLAYBROOK: It has to because this is their largest market in the world. And they have a huge problem here, although people do love their cars, their Toyota cars. Many people, they're scared to death now. He needs to assure the American public personally that -- not just apologize but assure them that these vehicles are going to be made safe. And there's certainly a very big nagging question about whether or not Toyota has been totally transparent about this and whether or not this is an electronic issue and not just a floor mat issue. Most people don't believe that it's just the floor mat.

PHILLIPS: Joan Claybrook, we definitely look forward to your testimony and always appreciate your candid testimony with us. Thanks, Joan.

CLAYBROOK: OK. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Rob Marciano tracking that big snowstorm about to pound parts of our country.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, getting a little appetizer across parts of New England and upstate New York. This is snow kind of left over from the system that came through yesterday. Rain south of the Massachusetts-Connecticut border and all snow up through Bennington, (INAUDIBLE) Ludlow, Burlington, Albany, seeing some snow as well as Manchester.

So this will begin to wind down later on today but we've got another system hot on its heels and it's in the form of a couple of things. One, a big area of low pressure. The upper level is kind of slowly spinning and (INAUDIBLE) that's driving off to the east.

Chicago, by the way, getting a little bit of snow today, but just a little bit, no major winter threat there. And then we're seeing some snow across parts of the south. Not a lot of this getting to the ground so the snow that does mix in the ground is not going to stick all that much because we have temperatures that are right around if not above the freezing mark in say Druid Hills in Atlanta, Georgia, Macon is well above freezing and then getting up into the Carolinas even higher than that.

But maybe parts of western North Carolina may get some accumulating snow from this particular system. It's all going to combine into another system that's going to ride out the eastern seaboard. But look at some of these temperatures. 46 for a high in D.C., 40 degrees in New York City and 40 in Boston. So with the next system that's coming in, and we're scheduled to do that tomorrow, it's going to bring in even warmer air, at least to start, off the ocean. But then as it intensifies and the upper low gets over it, it starts to cool, things will change over to snow.

How much snow are we going for across the northeast? Well, here's where the winter storm watches are posted. Mostly west of i-87 and i-95, but along the i-95 corridor we could see five to 10 inches of snow. Philly may very well get more snow than New York. And more wind as well. Wind is going to be the other issue with this.

We will see blizzard conditions in upstate New York and eastern Pennsylvania. Might get them all the way down into parts of Jersey. And we'll see in some cases up to hurricane-force gusts along the coastline. Upstate New York could see 10 to 20 inches of snow and in higher elevations across parts of the (INAUDIBLE) they may see more than that.

All right. Here's the latest on travel delays for today. Ground stop at La Guardia until 10:45. 45-minute delays at Newark and San Francisco, at Philadelphia, at JFK and also at Dallas. These delays I think, Kyra, tomorrow and then again on Friday will be even worse.

So if you're traveling, call ahead. Be proactive and try to get to where you're going before this next big one hits because it's going to be worse than the one coming through today.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: All right. You bet.

PHILLIPS: With the question on the minds of many people in the northeast, can the magic wall make a snow-filled forecast disappear? And how's this for improving schools. Fire the teachers, every single one of them. That's what a school in Central Falls, Rhode Island, did.

CNN's Randi Kaye goes beyond the outrage of the staff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Central Falls High School in Rhode Island where the poorest students in the state go to school. 75 percent of the district lives in poverty. A good education may be their only shot at a brighter future.

So to give these students a better chance, Central Falls superintendent this week did something so radical, so unheard of, it's captured the nation's attention. She cleaned house, fired dozens of teachers, because the district says they refuse to spend more time with students to improve test scores.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. FRAN GALLO, SUPERINTENDENT, CENTRAL FALLS HIGH SCHOOL: We have a serious problem. When you have the 48 percent graduation rate, we lose more children than we graduate.

KAYE (voice-over): Central Falls is one of the lowest performing schools in the state. Of the 800 students, 65 percent are Hispanic. For most, English is a second language. Half are failing every subject. Just 55 percent are skilled in reading. Only seven percent proficient in math.

(on camera): Meanwhile, the majority of their teachers are earning between $72,000 and $78,000 a year, well above the national average. And the district says the teachers wanted even more money, as much as $90 an hour more for the extra time spent with students.

(voice-over): This in a community where the latest census figures show the median income is $22,000. Based on federal guidelines, the superintendent proposed teachers work a longer school day, seven hours, tutor students weekly for one hour outside of school time, have lunch with students often, meet for 90 minutes every week to discuss education and set aside two weeks during summer break for paid professional development.

A spokesman for the school district told me the teachers union wanted to negotiate the changes. So the superintendent felt she had no choice but to fire all 88 teachers for the next school year.

KATHY MAY, CENTRAL FALLS HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: I'm disheartened. I feel like after 20 years I can see some progress beginning to be made and I'm sad that we're not going to be around to follow that through, to push that forward.

KAYE (on camera): A spokesman for the teachers union called the firings, ", drastic" and told me in the last two years reading scores have gone up 21 percent. Math scores he said have also gone up three percent. The spokesman said that the teachers had accepted most of the changes, but just wanted to work out the compensation for the extra hours of work.

(voice-over): Before the pink slips went out, the teachers made this video to show their commitment to the students and try and save their jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people who are in that building are there because they wanted to be, which makes a big difference.

KAYE (voice-over): The school district sure didn't see it that way and now dozens of teachers who have taught here for decades suddenly need a job.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We've been following this story very closely since the disturbing video surfaced. You remember this? Let me try and find my script here. There we go.

Expect a changing of the guard coming to the Seattle bus tunnel in the near future. The security company which employed the guards who stood by and watched a 15-year-old girl's beating. Well, he'll be relieved of duty, we're told. But according to the Metro transit officials, the guards say they were instructed to observe and report and to call police if need be, but not necessarily intervene when they witnessed a crime occurring. King County Transit officials hope hiring a different security company will help passengers feel more safe.

In Delaware, this is the talk wherever parents and families gather. A pediatrician now accused of molesting more than 100 children. Dr. Earl Bradley faces nearly 500 counts of sexual crimes. What's even more unsettling, prosecutors expect to add even more charges as the investigation deepens.

Private contractors behaving badly in the military that hardly holds them accountable. The two big bullet points being fired at top guns senator John Levine, this hour as the chairman of the Senate Armed serves committee grills Blackwater's owners for employee conduct in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

And we got this just in, former president Dick Cheney out of the hospital after suffering a mild heart attack. Cheney checked into a George Washington Hospital just a few days ago complaining of chest pains. His spokesperson says that he's feeling good this morning.

And good news about a certain fertility treatment, it can help you get pregnant. But if a study is correct, the bad news trumps the good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, if you're trying to get pregnant you'll probably want to hear this. A new study suggests that women who undergo certain fertility treatments are more likely to have a stillborn baby than those who get pregnant the natural way.

The study finds that the risk of stillbirths increases four fold but scientists aren't sure why. The research is published in the "Journal of Human Reproduction."

Pretty disappointing news about children and their teeth. An estimated 17 million children go without dental care. That's according to report from the Pew Center. The report says that Americans are expected to spend $106 billion on dental care in the coming year, and those costs could be avoided if people get adequate treatment early in life.

You think Uncle Sam might bear some blame in this whole Toyota fiasco? Some folks feel the government, the broken government and the automaker were way too cozy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And we're just about 30 minutes away from the live testimony on Capitol Hill. This was Akio Toyoda arriving there on the hill. He actually arrived early. More than an hour and a half ago, to get ready to take questions from members of the committee there about the recalls, the accidents, the safety hazards, why didn't Toyota speak sooner with regard to what was happening within the company. We're really looking forward to what he has to say and it will be interesting to see how heated this does get.

Toyota's troubles may not just be with the automaker itself, though. Some say it's just another example of broken government. Consumers raised red flags about the issue as far back as 2003, but a federal agency's investigation found no defects. Now a lawsuit is calling the relationship between Toyota and that agency just a little too cozy. Deborah Feyerick reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2003, Christopher Santucci did what most people do when they get a new job.

CHRISTOPHER SANTUCCI: I gave, I believe, two-week notice. Two or three-week notice.

FEYERICK: The new job was with Toyota in Washington, D.C., as a liaison to assist federal regulators in their investigations. Investigations run by the very agency Santucci was leaving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called NHTSA for short.

SANTUCCI: Not that I'm aware of.

JOAN CLAYBROOK, FORMER NHTSA ADMINISTRATOR: It raises questions of conflict of interest.

FEYERICK: Joan Claybrook was a long-time president of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and before that ran NHTSA for four years.

CLAYBROOK: There should not be a revolving door of people going from the government immediately to a company that's regulated by the agency.

FEYERICK: A year later when NHTSA decided to investigate complaints of sudden acceleration in some Toyota models, its officials sat across from Santucci, their former colleague, to discuss parameters. And 20 days later NHTSA issued a memo that would exclude certain reported incidents.

(on camera): Are you suggesting that, in fact, Toyota and a former NHTSA employee worked with the federal agency to basically narrow the scope of the investigation?

BEN BAILEY, LAWYER: That's how it appears to us.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Ben Bailey's law firm is suing Toyota over the alleged wrongful death of a Michigan woman whose 2005 Toyota Camry crashed after suddenly accelerating out of control. (on camera): Back in 2004 they were already talking about the throttle control system.

BAILEY: Right.

FEYERICK: So this isn't a new problem that Toyota is investigating suddenly.

BAILEY: No. Right.

FEYERICK: They knew about it.

BAILEY: Yes. FEYERICK (voice-over): So why didn't NHTSA look into it? Rather than review all possible the causes of sudden acceleration, Bailey says the agency decided to exclude two crucial areas.

BAILEY: They specifically say longer duration incidents involving uncontrollable acceleration where the brakes didn't work are not within the scope of this investigation.

FEYERICK: That decision was made after discussions with Santucci and another Toyota official who had also worked for NHTSA. Santucci was deposed in December.

SANTUCCI: We discussed the scope, NHTSA's concerns about the scope, and ultimately led to a decision by the agency to reduce that scope.

FEYERICK (on camera): Was Toyota effectively calling the shots? Were they telling the federal government what they should and should not be looking for?

BAILEY: I wish I knew the answer.

FEYERICK: Is that what you believe?

BAILEY: I don't know. And that's why we filed this lawsuit.

FEYERICK (voice-over): A Toyota spokesman in Santucci's office tells CNN any insinuation that he violated federal ethics laws or that he did not live up to the highest professional standards is totally without merit.

And NHTSA says, quote, "Our record reflects that safety is our singular priority." The agency says the scope of the investigation was appropriate because, quote, "longer duration incidents involve the possibility that the wrong pedal was used, which could mask a vehicle- based defect."

CLAYBROOK: That was ridiculous for the agency to agree to that.

FEYERICK: Joan Claybrook's consumer group successfully sued Toyota in 2007, forcing it to disclose which vehicles were involved in crashes.

CLAYBROOK: They should require more information to be submitted, not less. And they should require all the complaints so the agency itself can do an evaluation of what is a problem and what is not.

FEYERICK (on camera): As for the alleged conflict of interest, employees interviewing for jobs outside the government are not supposed to engage in any business between their current agency and their potential employer. Once they leave government, as long as they're not with the executive or legislative branches, that no longer applies.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: As for the alleged conflict of interest, under federal law, employees interviewing for jobs outside the government are not supposed to engage in any business between the current agency and the potential employer. Once that person leaves government, as long as they're not in the executive or legislative branches, that no longer applies.

The Toyota hearings have a lot of people asking just how safe is my car. Poppy Harlow is in New York to break it down for us. Poppy, how does Toyota compare to other car makers with regard to safety?

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's a great question. Everyone is looking at the safety of their own car right now, whether it's a Toyota or not.

The big focus here about the Toyotas and on Capitol Hill in the hearing today is the unintended acceleration. So, what we did is we dug through the numbers from edmunds.com that tracks all of these automakers to look at the complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA.

And this is what we found. A look at unintended acceleration complaints. There are 1,133 for Toyota over the last five years. That also includes after the recall, so a lot more people will file those complaints, we should be clear.

But Ford is the next one on the list. It is far fewer in terms of complaints of unintended acceleration at 387. It goes down from there. Nissan is at the bottom.

So, that gives you some perspective. But Kyra, it's also important to note overall how safe are Toyotas. So we looked again at NHTSA's information, and this is what we have. Toyota out of 20 competitors, 20 automakers, it ranked 17th in terms of complaints, meaning it got far fewer complaints in overall safety than a number of its competitors.

Chrysler and Ford were seventh and tenth respectively, Kyra, so that's important. Many more unintended acceleration complaints for Toyota. Overall, the complaints for Toyota far less than its competitors. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: But here's the biggest complaint right now is whether Toyota actually reported these problems soon enough. How does Toyota's recall stack up against others in that respect?

HARLOW: It's a great question. I can bet that lawmakers will be hammering home on this one, asking the Toyota president today all about it.

But let's go back to a recall that we all know about, the Ford Firestone recall. It was the tread on the tires, they separated, they caused explosions, rollovers, more than 100 deaths are linked.

Here's the timeline on that one. The Bridgestone-Firestone started getting a number of complaints back in 1996. That's according to NHTSA. The investigation wasn't opened until May of 2000. In August of that year, Bridgestone-Firestone recalled 14.4 million of their tires. The next year, 2001, you saw Ford recall 13 million of their vehicles. That's what happened. A four-year divide there, from the first complaint to the recall.

Let's take a look at Toyota because it's a different story here. Compared to Toyota, the first reports of unintended acceleration, as you know, you have to go all the way back to 2003. After that, NHTSA conducted seven investigations, dating all the way back to 2004, but most of them ended inconclusively. There were two small recalls, but it was not until after that major August 2009 crash in San Diego when you saw the big recalls from Toyota.

And you know, that is a much larger difference. That is much longer when you look from2003 until almost 2010, so almost seven years' difference there. What I can say is that after the Firestone recall, you had congressional hearings, just like we're seeing now. And they passed a law to set up a database to track the safety issues. It will be interesting to see if we see a new law concerning safety and recalls passed after these hearings concerning Toyota. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll definitely be talking about it if that does happen. Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Thanks. You got it.

PHILLIPS: Barack Obama's honeymoon is over in Washington and maybe even among the voters who helped put him into the White House. Is this change that they can't believe in?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: In Colorado, two teenagers expected to survive a shooting outside their middle school in Littleton. Yesterday's attack happened not far from Columbine, the site of the nation's deadliest high school shooting spree. Police say a teacher tackled the 32-year- old suspect as he tried to reload his rifle. Police say they don't have a motive for that attack.

Sometime today, the Senate expected to pass a new jobs bill. The $35 billion measure will encourage hiring with provisions such as tax breaks for employers. One economist predicts it will create about a quarter million jobs. Lawmakers in the House have already adopted a much larger bill. In fact, its price tag is five times bigger than the Senate version.

It was change they believed in, but it appears that young voters are now changing those beliefs. The same young voters who helped whisk Barack Obama into office are now falling out of love with the Democratic party. According to a study from the Pew Research Center, fewer 18 to 29-year-olds now identify themselves as Democrats. Sixty- two percent did in 2008. Today, the number has fallen to 54 percent.

That Northeast storm firing up, Rob Marciano.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Okay, we will, and then all the flights that are going to be canceled and the entire travel nightmare the next four days. All right, Rob, thanks.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You bet.

PHILLIPS: He was a loyal Toyota customer, but now he's a crusader. You're looking at what changed his life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Out of control. We've heard that a lot when talking about Toyota lately. More than eight million cars recalled for accelerator-related problems. But did they get all of the ones with the problems?

Not if you ask Ted James. This is where his wife's Prius ended up. She was seriously injured when the car shot up to nearly 100 miles an hour. Like we said, she was driving a 2005 Prius. It's not part of the accelerator recall, yet. He's taken his case to Toyota, to Congress and beyond. Moving way past consumer to crusader.

Ted James joins us live from Denver. I guess, Ted, first of all, I want to ask how's your wife doing?

TED JAMES, WIFE INJURED IN TOYOTA CAR: Well, she lives in constant back pain. She's up at Eagle right now teaching ESL students and she probably took four Advil this morning and laid on ice packs and is getting through the day.

PHILLIPS: Mm. So, what's been going through your mind? What's your thought process been like when you've seen case after case after case come before the public about these cars that should have been fixed and these accidents and these deaths that are being reported?

JAMES: Well, there's four words that can sum it up. Deliberate deception, dozens of deaths. There's a growing body of evidence that could be interpreted to support the hypothesis that there was deliberate deception on both the part of Toyota and NHTSA, and it's led to dozens of deaths.

PHILLIPS: And I know you've done your homework, and you've got the stacks and stacks of paperwork to prove it. Do you finally feel like somebody is going to hear your case now, and have you heard from anybody since this has all come about?

JAMES: Oh, yes, I've heard from a lot of people. But the bottom line is that Toyota needs to retrofit all drive-by-wire vehicles that they have sold since 2002. This is approximately 32 million vehicles, with the brake override system that they're talking about installing on all of their new vehicles. That was the oversight that they made when they went to this new technology of drive-by-wire instead of having mechanical parts that connected your gas pedal to your engine.

And they need to retrofit all of these. Until they do, we're going to continue to see these deaths from Toyota unintended acceleration. You know, if only one-tenth of 1 percent of the 32 million vehicles actually exhibit this malfunction, that's still 32,000 vehicles out on our roadways right now that could potentially kill someone.

Now, I've heard people on the news say that you're more likely to be struck by lightning or hit by a school bus than you are to have a runaway acceleration event in your Toyota. But the point is, if you end up killing other people in your Toyota, how are you going to live with yourself?

PHILLIPS: You have definitely done your homework. As you are listening to the hearings today, and I know you're paying close attention, what is it that you want to hear from Akio Toyoda? And could there be something said that would somehow give you justice, hope, encouragement, anything?

JAMES: Well, I'm not going to hold my breath. But what I want to hear him say is that Toyota is going to swallow the bitter pill and spend whatever it takes, and it could be as much as $100 billion to install this safety feature on all the vehicles that are out on the road. That's what needs to happen.

And I want him to understand that the reason he's testifying today is because his staff chose to ignore my warnings. Over three- and-a-half years ago, I made ten customer experience phone calls where I pleaded with the employees to try to go around the legal department and let executives higher up in the company know that their efforts were being sabotaged, that people were going to die and that the reputation of Toyota was going to be ruined. Three-and-a-half years ago I predicted what is unfolding today.

And in fact, on November 12th, I sent this fax to my U.S. House representative Jared Polis. I said, "I need Mr. Polis' help in identifying which congressional subcommittee has oversight responsibilities for NHTSA. I would like to initiate a congressional inquiry to investigate allegations that employees of NHTSA were in collusion with executives of Toyota USA to cover up defects regarding unintended acceleration."

So, folks, don't blame the government, you can blame me. I'm the customer and the consumer that initiated these hearings.

PHILLIPS: Ted James. We're very sorry to hear about what happened to your wife, and we will continue to follow your case as things develop with Toyota. Really appreciate your time.

JAMES: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Mr. Toyoda. His name, his heritage, his company, his nation's pride all on the line today in Washington. Foreign country, foreign culture, foreign language. I don't know, do you think he's a little bit nervous?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Live pictures now as we get ready for one of the hearings that we have been waiting for weeks, actually. In the hot seat, the head of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, coming in from chan -- or Japan, rather -- testifying before Congress. We're all waiting to see what kind of questions will be asked, his answers, his testimony, will he be believable and what kind of impact this is going to make on all the recalls, the safety hazards, the accidents and the testimony we've been hearing in the past couple of days from people who have been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

He's definitely not in Japan any more, that's for sure. Answering lawmaker questions to foreign Mr. Toyoda and to the Japanese on so many levels. The language, the body language, the culture could all make for a pretty awkward loss in translation moment. Japanese TV can't even bear to show it.

Paul Ferguson is supervising editor here at CNN, he actually lived in Japan. You understand the culture, you understand sort of the mentality here. And this quote caught my attention. You actually know the reporter for the AP that wrote this story, saying -- quoting a professor in Japan. "In a Japanese company, the top man isn't the one calling the shots. He's looked up to as a symbol, a bit like an emperor." So, people in Japan are horrified at how he's going to be treated.

PAUL FERGUSON, CNN SUPERVISING EDITOR: That's very much the case. There is -- to put someone in a situation where they have to respond spontaneously, off the cuff, the grilling -- there's no equivalent in Japan. He's never had anything like this happen. There's no such thing as a hearing like this in the Japanese diet or the parliament in Japan. This will be new territory for Mr. Toyoda.

PHILLIPS: And the culture is also very soft-spoken. You don't show a lot of emotion. And even when you translate in Japanese, you don't say things like "I" or "we." So, you might not hear an "I am sorry," or "We are trying to fix things," right?

FERGUSON: Yes, that's the case. This Japanese culture, it's much more difficult to assert yourself, to put yourself forward. Things tend to be a lot more neutral. When giving answers, people like to be very careful, very studied.

So, the typical thing ways work in Japan is you would do written questions, they would have a long time, go through a committee, they would study it, go over it carefully and respond a week later in an e- mail. This spontaneous back-and-forth is going to be very new.

PHILLIPS: What about the way he's treated? Should the U.S. -- is it proper -- here, I guess this is how I should put it. In a setting like this, the point is to ask tough questions and to grill the individual that is sort of in the center of the controversy.

So, will there be the proper bows? Will there be the proper protocol? Is that important in a scenario like this?

FERGUSON: You know, on some level when U.S. executives from, say, Boeing or someplace go to Japan, they have got to play by Japanese rules. For Toyoda to come here, really he's got to play by U.S. rules.

Now, to march up the Hill and to get grilled as many judicial nominees and all sorts have to go before Congress, that's a part of life here. People don't take it as a great, epic, solemn thing. In Japan, it is epic and solemn to be questioned like this. Let's hope he takes it well.

PHILLIPS: And Japan, they're not even going to be able to see the testimony live because Japanese television isn't going to cover it. If he doesn't come off well, if this doesn't go too smoothly here, would he be coming home to, you know, a non-emperor's welcome?

FERGUSON: This is very high profile in the Japanese media back in Japan. The foreign minister has weighed in on this, so people are looking at this as a very big thing. It may not be live on television tonight, but you can be sure it will be the lead on all the breakfast shows in Japan -- well, actually, because of the time difference, the evening shows.

PHILLIPS: There you go. We'll follow up and see what happens. We sure appreciate it. Thanks for the insight, Paul. It's great to have you here. I know you'll be listening so we'll follow up tomorrow, okay?

FERGUSON: All right. Great.

PHILLIPS: Thanks.

Tony Harris, everything starts in your hour, my friend.