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Toxic Air Delays Mine Rescue; Internal Documents Raise New Questions about Toyota Recall; Could Recession Have Been Prevented?
Aired April 08, 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: It is time to take you to the next level. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.
ALI VELSHI, HOST: Why do you have to hand it off to me? Why can't we just hang out together sometimes on TV?
HARRIS: We need to.
VELSHI: Tony, thank you. Have a great afternoon.
As he said, I'm Ali Velshi. I'm be with you for the next two hours and for this two hours every weekday. I'm going to take every important topic we cover -- we have so many of them -- I'm going to break it down for you. I'll try and give you a level of detail that's going to help you make important decisions about your safety, your money, your travel, the world around you.
Let's get started. A new hour. I've got a new rundown.
A major new development and a major setback in the search for four missing West Virginia miners. Toxic air has forced rescuers out of the mine. We'll take you straight to the scene in just a moment and get an update.
Plus, they're questions we've been asking about Toyota executives all along. What did they know about the safety problems? When did they know it? When were they warned? Well, today we have a troubling new answer.
Also, Virginia's governor still says there should be a Confederate History Month. He's apologizing for leaving out any reference to slavery in his original proclamation. That is not soothing his critics. People on both sides are up in arms over this issue. They're blogging about it like mad.
We're going to step back. We're going to take a deep breath and have an honest discussion about the Confederacy and what role it plays in American history. Should there be a Confederate History Month? If you haven't chimed in, go to Facebook and do it now on my Facebook page.
All right. As I said, let's go right back to West Virginia and follow up on what is going on. Brooke Baldwin is in Naoma, West Virginia. Rescue workers have had a serious setback in their attempts to reach those four miners that remain trapped. Brooke, what's the update?
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The update is, best case scenario, Ali, these rescue crew members should be going back inside the Upper Big Branch Mine right around 3:30 or 4:30 p.m. That is Eastern.
The issue right now is that the air down there, just quite frankly, isn't great. And that's the precise reason why these guys had to turn around this morning. The mixture, it was a fatal mix of methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen. So right now they are drilling down into that second drill hole to try to help the ventilation process. And hopefully, we'll have an update five or six hours. Hopefully, they'll make some progress there.
VELSHI: So Brooke, the issue here -- somebody asked me about this. Why can't they just put masks on and go down in tanks? It's not just that the air is not good to breathe. It's combustible. A fire could break out with the dust and the methane.
BALDWIN: Absolutely. That's precisely what -- we're all assuming has happened in this mine on Monday. And that precise idea could be recreated when these 32 rescue members go back in.
So here's the thing. They have three scenarios. This is what was outlined this morning. I'll just re-outline it, because it's pertinent once they re-enter the mine.
Option No. 1, these guys go in. The air quality is great. They're able to move through and get to this rescue chamber.
Option No. 2, they get just about to the rescue chamber, the air is not great so they have some nitrogen. They can put up sort of these temporary curtains, if you will, fill the air with the nitrogen, make the air a little bit clearer for them and continue through.
Option three, which is unfortunately what happened today, is the worst option. And that's when they just can't make it at all far enough in because that air quality is so combustible, as you mentioned. They have to turn around.
But given all of this, you know that Mr. Manchin, the governor, and the MSHA folks have been updating the families, who in their words, they say have been very understanding that these rescue crews, quite frankly, just had to turn around.
VELSHI: All right. And you -- we've got some -- some of what Governor Manchin had to say. Let's play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOE MANCHIN, WEST VIRGINIA: They understand that, if we have any hope of survival, and they're in a rescue chamber, they're still OK. That's -- I mean, that's the sliver of hope we have. It's a long shot -- everyone has been up front about that -- because this was a horrible blast. But if they're there, they're OK. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK. He says if they're there, they're OK. Tell me what we know about this rescue chamber. And frankly, there are numerous rescue chambers, but we're only focused on one in this case.
BALDWIN: We're actually focused on two. There are two rescue chambers, but they seem to be honing in really on one where they're thinking, based upon where these miners had been working, they're thinking they may be in this particular one.
And it's kind of interesting to think about just actually what is a rescue chamber. I didn't know what one was until you listen to this, and they're actually now existing in these mines because of incidents like Sago, because of the Miner Act.
So imagine, if you will, kind of a temporary room. It's 20 feet by 20 feet. At most, 15 miners can hole up in there, in these rescue efforts. So the good news, if I can go that far, is since we're talking about four missing miners, there is enough air, water, food to last four days. Since we're just talking four miners, hopefully that will last a little bit longer.
And final note, and this is also interesting. When you get inside one of these rescue chambers, apparently, it's kind of like a balloon. Like think about when you're sitting on an airplane and they do the emergency video --
VELSHI: Brooke, I'm going to interrupt you. Governor -- Brooke, hang on a second. Governor Manchin has just called an emergency press conference. Let's go right to it right now. Stand by, Brooke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And specifically --
MANCHIN: Keep waiting and at 2:30, the 2:30 time frame we said we just went down and briefed the families so we felt we could brief you all now and do that because there's not --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, give me just one moment.
MANCHIN: Sure. OK. We'll wait. It's a primo spot.
VELSHI: Assembling their mikes. Governor Manchin has just walked in this room. This was a press conference that was slated for later this afternoon, but he got up there and he said, "We've spoken to the families, so we feel we can speak to you now." He didn't say anything more about what he's going to say.
But because this wasn't expected, Brooke, reporters are now putting their cameras into place and getting in there. What do you think we were going to hear at 2:30? What was the update going to be about?
BALDWIN: Wow, I mean, to be honest, Ali, I'm completely surprised. We thought we wouldn't be spoken to for another five or six hours, which was their guesstimate as to when they would know they could go back in. So I can't even begin to speculate as to what in the world Mr. Manchin would be telling us.
But that school is just that way. And I'd love to just jump in there and get a couple of questions in myself. I don't know.
VELSHI: All right. Let's wait until he's there because we can explain a couple of things that's going on -- that are going on and then perhaps we can have you go over there and find out what's going on.
BALDWIN: Yes.
VELSHI: Brooke, when we were going to hear in five or six hours, we were going to hear that, in the best case scenario, rescuers would be able to go into the mine. They've had to pull out.
BALDWIN: Right.
VELSHI: And what was going to happen in five or six hours? More drilling, more testing, the air quality improving?
BALDWIN: What's happening in five or six hours, no, they're drilling. They're testing right now. In five or six hours, if the drilling and the testing go well, then in five or six hours these rescuers would go back in the mine, hope that they would get a little bit further.
They were just about 1,000 feet shy of that rescue chamber that we were talking about, where if these four missing miners had survived, that's where they would be. And so let's see. Let me check my watch. It's 1 p.m. in the afternoon. We just heard from him right around 10 Eastern. This is very premature in terms of this news conference. I have no idea what they may have found.
VELSHI: OK. Stand by where you are. We're going to take a quick break. By the time we get back, Governor Manchin should be ready to speak. We'll pick up on the story where we are. Brooke Baldwin in West Virginia. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin just calling an emergency press conference. Reporters are getting their equipment ready. We'll bring you right back to this as soon as it starts. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Let's go back to West Virginia. This is West Virginia governor Joe Manchin. He has just called an emergency press conference, and reporters are assembling. Let's listen in to whether -- I think he has started yet. But he should be ready to start any moment.
MANCHIN: Just tell me when you think it's OK that we can get started.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, Governor.
MANCHIN: OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MANCHIN: Let me just say that we wanted to go ahead and tell you exactly what we know right now, and the decisions are being made. And Chris is here from the company and MSHA and everybody is being -- they're making all these decisions.
But basically the timetables is what I think you need to know. What to expect and about what timetable to expect things, so the people that are watching and praying with anticipation that they will have a timetable that they can expect, too, without thinking the next two hour or three hours something will happen.
With that, I'll turn it over to Chris. He can explain to you, show you on the map what they've done. Things we tried to brief you on earlier. And then also what timetable before something new would be started or the rescue and recovery efforts would start -- Chris.
CHRIS ADKINS, COO, MASSEY ENERGY: We sent our mine rescue teams in. Had teams from Massey went in, came from the state, federal, and from companies around the area, have sent teams in here to help us and ICGS and others.
So we had teams. We took four teams inside the mine. Each team is comprised of six people. And you have state and federal that goes in, so each team gets ramped up to about eight people total that's in there. So you have 32 people that's inside the mine that was sent in when we thought that our air readings were at a level where it would not pose a danger to the rescue workers themselves.
They were able to ride in on rail to the same point that we were able to get to the other night. And once they got to that point, they're required to -- because of the debris that's on the track, they have to dismount, and they have to walk about a mile and a half up to get to the points to where we had gotten to the other night.
Our hopes was to establish a fresh air base up at the -- what we call the mule train station, basically the center and the computer system of the longwall, where we would leave two teams there as backup teams. We would have a team that would cross the longwall face and try and locate the individual that is missing on the longwall.
The other team would advance to the north part, go to a shelter that is known to be in that area, check that shelter out. Then by that time, the team that went across the longwall would be complete, would be able to move up to where the other team was. And we were hoping to be able to advance up to where the miner section was, which was in this area here.
Our teams were at this point when we found that we -- had barometer, had a storm, as you guys see out here. The barometer dropped, and we started to see the methane pick up in our bore hole that we've got drilled down that we're using to detect what we have inside the mine. We took one sample, and we wasn't, you know, really concerned about it. We thought that it could have been just a outline sample. But the next three samples also escalated, as well, to the point where we started getting concerned. As soon as the atmosphere returned to where our samples show that we were in explosive mixture, we immediately called underground and had our miner rescue teams withdraw. So 32 people were basically brought out of the mines and to the main drips (ph) and outside.
They were able to leave what material they had -- everything has to be hand carried up there. They were able to leave that material up there. So when we are able to go back in it won't be nearly as strenuous as what it was when we first initially went in there.
What happened now is a second bore hole was within 100 feet of penetrating into the mine. If that -- we talked about the other day, we have to go through an old mine works, and then you have to go into that mine. It's 1,100 feet deep. So there's an opportunity for it to deviate and actually miss the mine. But we think we're within 100 feet of that mine. And after we withdrew the mine rescue team, we started that drill hole back down into the area to where the first drill hole was at behind the rescue chamber area.
You don't want to drill into that area while you have a miner rescue team underground, in case you hit into an explosive mixture and cause more problems than what you knew. So that hole is being drilled down. That will take about an hour from the time we done this, it's been about an hour. So it should be drilling through now. We will know if we hit or miss. And if we hit it, it will us about an hour and a half to withdraw that drill still out of the hole.
It will take us about an hour to set a small fan on the hole that's already sitting there, but we'll have to plummet it into that hole. At that point in time we anticipate it will take us three hours to four hours to pump from that hole to get the atmosphere back down to a level that would allow us to take our mine rescue teams in.
What we've done is taken our mine rescue teams, got them off their feet, and got them in a position where they would be ready to go back underground in the 7 to 8 p.m. range. We will not ask for a plan to go back underground until after the 6 p.m. hour. So basically, what we've told the families is, is now is a good time if you need downtime, you need to go get a shower, if you need time to sleep. Now's the time to do that, because nothing will happen between now and 6 p.m. that we'll report back on. And basically that's what we wanted to explain to you guys so you would know, as well.
We anticipate probably sometime after 6 p.m. that we would submit a plan if the atmosphere continues to drop, as we anticipate it will, with the second drill hole. And then we would be able to get our mine rescue teams back underground.
We've also found out when they came out they found a route where we think we can take a permissible ride, which is basically like a small four-wheeler. If you guys understand, it's permissible, which means that it can go in better and not cause problems. We think we found a route that would get us up there quicker and will take the wear and tear off our guys having to walk two miles up there and two miles back. So that's the hope we've got. We're also drilling a hole outbound, and we've got nitrogen generators that are on their way here, that if this fails, that you've got another fallback, that we can start putting nitrogen down at the mouth of the panel, draw it up through the panel and out these holes, and render this atmosphere down to where it's non-explosive. We've got our own generator coming. Nafa (ph) National Resources has been kind enough to offer a generator that they have to loan to us, and other companies have done so, as well. So --
VELSHI: We're going to take a quick break from this. We're going to continue to monitor this. This is a mine official in -- in West Virginia saying that, because of the air quality, they've got to come up with a new plan.
The air quality, we keep talking about air quality. He's saying it is explosive. And that's the danger. So they pulled the 32 rescuers out. They will not be going in before 6 p.m. again. That was the nature of this emergency announcement.
Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia standing right here. This is an official from Massey Energy. We'll get right back to that and to Brooke Baldwin, who's standing by there. We'll also monitor this.
But first, I want to go over to Chad Myers, because we've got a tornado warning.
Chad, what have you got?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. For a town that's had a history of tornadoes, which would be Enterprise, Alabama. Off to the west and especially just a little bit northwest of Enterprise, we have a tornado reported by Doppler radar. Not necessarily on the ground, but the storm is spinning enough that a warning has been issued. And it will continue for the next few minutes.
If you are in Enterprise or anywhere near northwest of Enterprise, Alabama, take cover now.
VELSHI: All right. We'll keep an eye on that, as well. Chad is watching that. Brooke is watching the situation in West Virginia.
We're watching Toyota. The troubles at that country have accelerated again. New documents are raising out -- eyebrows and accusations. It looks like, some people think, we may actually have a smoking gun on Toyota's problems. Coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: I want to bring you up to speed with what's going on at Toyota.
A lot of people have been wondering whether Toyota knew that it had a problem and was deliberately keeping that from the public, or whether they just didn't realize how serious this problem was with their -- their accelerators. Well, some new internal documents show that Toyota knew about its unintended acceleration problem and some causes years before it warned the public via recall. This information was submitted to the National Highway Traffic -- Highway Transportation Safety Administration, NHTSA as we know it.
Then there's this e-mail from a U.S. Toyota executive, who has since retired, who was urging more transparency, just as his bosses were headed to Washington to talk to government officials.
In January, on January 16, Irv Miller, who is a former group vice president for Toyota, sent an e-mail to say, "We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over. We need to come clean."
Toyota's been keeping pretty quiet on this one but in a statement admitted it did a poor job of communicating. That's actually not a poor job of communicating. The issue here is whether or not they knew something and were lying. And you can be sure that we'll be on top of that. And so is everybody else who's following this very, very closely.
All right. The other thing we need to think about is this financial meltdown that caused the recession that we are hopefully exiting or have exited right now. Could it have been prevented? That's the question that will be lingering over our heads, no matter how much we recover. It's a question we're going to get into with Christine Romans straight ahead. She's standing by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Some hearings going on in Washington right now. They are designed to determine how we got into the mess that we got into, the financial crisis. And they have to look back in order to do that, to see what we have to prevent from happening again in the future.
It's a special panel that is looking into it. The whole point of these hearings is what can we do differently? What should we regulate? What should we change?
And one of the major lenders, one of the major banks involved in the subprime crisis, which you will remember led to the recession, was Citigroup. You'll remember that. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission got a lot of apologies, really, from the former heads of Citigroup, Charles Prince and Robert Rubin. Rubin, you will recall, was the treasury secretary under -- under President Clinton. They both said they were not sorry -- they were sorry for not seeing that the crisis was on its way.
Let's listen to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT RUBIN, FORMER CITI EXECUTIVE/FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY: Almost all of us, including me, who were involved in the financial system -- that is to say financial firms, regulators, rating agencies, analysts and commentators -- missed the powerful combination of factors that led to this crisis and the serious possibility of a massive crisis. We all bear responsibility for not recognizing this, and I deeply regret that.
CHARLES PRINCE, FORMER CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CITIGROUP: I'm sorry for the millions of people, average Americans, who have lost their homes. And I'm sorry that our management team, starting with me, like so many others, could not see the unprecedented market collapse that lay before us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Let's bring in my co-host from "YOUR $$$$$." Christine Romans is standing by. She's been following these hearings very closely.
Christine, what are we learning from this, if anything? Is this just a look back into the past? Or is there something useful that can actually come from these discussions?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, sometimes you have to look back in the past to figure out what mistakes were made and what you needed to know and what you needed to do differently to make sure it doesn't happen again.
And remember, the rules in place, the regulations in place when all of this happened and blew up and are the reason why 6 million people are late on their mortgages today, those same reasons -- those same rules are in effect right now.
One thing that Phil Angelides, who's a commissioner on here running this -- running this show today said, he pointed right at Robert Rubin, and he said, "I'm not interested in assigning blame."
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: "I'm not interested in knowing -- in what exactly you think your mistakes were. I'm interested in finding out why you didn't know more and why you didn't see this coming."
And it's interesting because Chuck Prince also -- he basically said, look, back then a few years ago, it was -- you know, no one was really worried about subprime. Subprime was not a bad thing. So what's all this about, you know, trying to blame and find a place to blame for writing subprime loans? And listen to what one of the commissioners said in response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMM. PETER WALLISON, FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION: Most people were very proud of the fact, especially here in this building, and elsewhere in Washington were very proud of the fact that subprime loans were being made. Now when it turns out that these mortgages failed and caused, I believe -- at least there are indications that they caused -- the financial crisis, everyone is running away from it and trying to point fingers at who made these loans. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It's something interesting. Robert then talked about a big convergence of powerful forces that caused this problem. And some of the members of this commission kept going back to the very beginning and saying, "Look, Washington was pushing for record homeownership. Washington was pushing for more loans to be made. Washington and the banks and the real-estate industry, everyone was pushing for lower standards for lending. And so let's talk about -- let's talk about how -- how that blame should be assigned."
VELSHI: You know, but let's turn this-- this coin on its head for a second. Sure, maybe everybody -- you take them at their word that maybe everybody wasn't concerned about subprime.
I would say it's the other way around. It's not that they weren't concerned about it. Subprime mortgages, lending money to people who were high risk at a much higher interest rate, is possibly the most profitable thing the world has ever done. So I don't think it's "we're not worried about it."
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: We might be worried about it, but, boy, this is -- this is juicy for the bottom line.
ROMANS: That's absolutely right. I mean, they made a fortune on this stuff. And then derivatives of subprime mortgages --
VELSHI: Sure. Packaging them and selling them.
ROMANS: -- and derivatives of derivatives. And then insurance against subprime mortgages if they would happen to go wrong.
Now, look, Alan Greenspan testified yesterday, and he said something, Ali. This is a look backward, but this group -- this is basically the 9/11 Commission of the financial crisis. On December 15 they're going to -- they're going to say who's to blame, what went wrong, how to fix it so it never happens again.
And they were grilling Alan Greenspan yesterday, and he was basically asked, "OK, admit, what were the mistakes that you made in your assumptions over those years that led up to this bubble and this collapse?" And this is what Alan Greenspan said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN GREENSPAN, FORMER HEAD, FEDERAL RESERVE: I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time. And there were an awful lot of mistakes in 21 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He wouldn't specify exactly what those mistakes were.
VELSHI: Right. ROMANS: But of course, that's what this commission is trying to find out, what were those mistakes? And, you know, when Robert Rubin was hailed as this genius in the Clinton administration who helped with the deregulation of Wall Street --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- when -- when Alan Greenspan was called the maestro, could do no wrong, he would talk and, you know, everything just seemed to be going up, up, up, up, up. These people were revered. And now it really has caused some consternation, legacies that are tarnished, for sure. And the other question is, how do we know what we're doing right now is right.
VELSHI: Yes, it's a good point.
ROMANS: If the people who were in charge then were so sure, so sure that --
VELSHI: Yes. Rearview mirrors are a -- remarkable things. All right. Christine, thanks for very much.
I want to go back to Chad Myers. That -- we do have a tornado on the ground now. Chad, tell us about it.
MYERS: Eight miles west of Ft. Rucker here in Alabama. Very close to Enterprise. It's the same storm that we talked about literally ten minutes ago.
Law enforcement now is saying a tornado is on the ground. We're watching it on the ground. No reports of damage yet. But obviously, if a tornado's on the ground, it's going to be doing something.
It's going to be headed toward the town of Ozark, as well. And Ali, there are other cells in lines here, also even into Georgia that are rotating at this hour. We've been talking about the potential for tornadoes for three days now --
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: -- but there just hasn't been must have humidity in the air to do it. Well, you get close to the Gulf Coast, there's always going to be humidity.
VELSHI: Yes. And to be clear, that area to our left is one type of a pressure zone. The area to the right is another. And that's the middle. And that's where you said those tornadoes are going to be?
MYERS: Absolutely. Right in the clash.
VELSHI: All right. We'll -- you keep your eye on that. But anybody who's in those areas, let others know to get those radios on. There is a tornado on the ground, and there's an atmosphere for more to be created.
All right. When we come back, we're going to see what is up with these airlines this week. One of them charging you money to actually carry a carry-on bag onto the plane. I'll talk about that, but more importantly, I'm going to talk about what is happening to airfare when you have to make your summer travel plans. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I want to go back to Chad. We got a tornado on the ground. And Chad has been talking about this for a few days. He'd been explaining how two different pressure systems in the country are creating an environment that is perfect for tornadoes. And that we got a tornado warning in Enterprise, Alabama, and then we got a tornado on the ground.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Correct. We had the warning first, and then it was spotted by law enforcement officials on the ground west of Ft. Rucker, close to Enterprise. I don't know what part of town, but it appeared to me the rotation was northwest of the city of Enterprise. And so therefore rolled just to the northern side of Enterprise, Alabama.
Here's the weather. In fact, we're going to see weather into Augusta, Georgia, today as well. It's over Macon now. And then all the way back down into southern Alabama. There's Montgomery. Here's the Gulf of Mexico. And the Gulf of Mexico is the key to the storms -- the Gulf of Mexico is allowing the humidity to be thick enough to get the storms to be big enough to get the rotation that we didn't have for the last couple of days.
We've been barking up the wrong tree saying, hey, potential for tornadoes all week, but didn't happen because all we got was hail. There wasn't enough humidity in the air. It's a little bit too early in the season. But down here the season is all season. It's every day when you have the Gulf of Mexico being very warm. There is the circulation of the storm. North of Enterprise, Alabama, heading to Ozark. There are other cells, Ali, back out here to the west that are rotating as well that may travel either right near Enterprise or to the south of Enterprise. And so this is going to be a busy day.
The key here, if you're in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and you see a big storm to your west that is headed your way, just get inside. Get the kids inside. Don't wait. These will be brief storms. They rotate for about 15 minutes and they go away. So you won't have a lot of time between when the storms start to rotate and when it could put down a tornado, and then when it dies, it's going to be just a quick hitter, here it comes, there it goes. And a small, quick hitting tornado is still a big deal if it hits your house.
VELSHI: That's right.
MYERS: Right? I mean, so watch that.
VELSHI: You've been on that. We're going to stay on that. We're going to stay on these tornado warnings and any others that touchdown with Chad Myers.
Thank you for that. Listen, the Republicans, plotting a course for 2012. Today in New Orleans, one of their most outspoken members is back home in Minnesota fighting for re-election. We're going to talk with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann who said she is leading the charge to repeal health care reform. We're going to talk to her about the direction of this country and the direction of conservatism in this country when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota, you probably seen her face. Ever since she was elected she's been a stalwart of conservatism within the Republican Party. But these days, she seems to be even more than that. She's been campaigning for re- election in the midterm elections, yesterday campaigning with Sarah Palin. A very hot ticket. Somebody who real conservatives would like coming into their constituents and rallying the troops.
Michele Bachmann joins me now.
Good to see you, congresswoman. Thank you for being with us.
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: Good to see you again, Ali. Thank you.
VELSHI: You have had lots of things to take shots at recently. There are a lot of things that this administration is doing that you're not happy with. But, really, one of the things that seem to be the hottest for you is health care. You are very clear that you're going to be one of those people moving ahead on repealing this health care bill if things change after the midterm elections.
BACHMANN: That's right. I introduced the bill 4903. I was the first member of Congress down on the floor the next morning after the health care bill passed to file my bill, which is only 40 words long, that's a straight out repeal of Obamacare. I have a number of members of Congress that have already signed on to my bill. This is a winning issue across the country. And I think that we're going to see huge majorities gained in the House and in the Senate just based on this issue alone. Two-thirds of the American people are opposed to Obamacare, and it doesn't seem to be shifting in the other direction.
VELSHI: But, will this still be as hot an issue in October and November? Now that it's passed and some parts of it will be implemented, is there some sense that this might lose steam by the time you get to October and November?
BACHMANN: You know, I don't think that it will, Ali, because of all of the massive tax increases that have to go into place. We just saw this week Paul Volcker from the administration coming out calling for a new tax of value added tax and also a carbon tax to be able to pay for all of these entitlements. The value added tax in Europe adds about a 20 percent sales tax on to items. That's something that the American people would roundly reject right now. An additional 20 percent national sales tax in a down economy. And then if you add on that, an energy tax -- in Minnesota, an energy tax could effectively double our monthly utility bills. That would have really hurt a lot of Americans right now. And I don't think that that's going to be popular going into November.
VELSHI: You and I, you recall, were up in Alaska looking at the north slope and oil drilling some years ago. You've always been a proponent of drilling for more oil, and you think that government regulation is the problem when it comes to energy in this country. Tell me a bit more about this.
BACHMANN: Well, I think the federal government has made so much of our answer, which is American energy independence, illegal and off limits. We have so many forms of energy, whether it's wind, solar, biomass or whether it's through the tides or through hydropower or through oil or natural gas or clean coal. We have so many resources that literally energy could be one of the cheapest components of American industrial production rather than being one of the most expensive. So I think that what we should do is release the greatness that's contained here in United States and have American energy be not only a component of a better way of life, but also a job creator, a very high-paying jobs in the United States.
VELSHI: I want to ask you about something that you and Sarah Palin both touched on in this rally. And that was the idea of a new conservative movement. You both sort of paid homage to the tea party. Who survives this? Because a strong tea party and a strong conservative party are going to sort of be up against each other in the midterm elections.
As a conservative party, do Republicans become tea partiers? Do tea partiers become Republicans? How does this evolve?
BACHMANN: That's an excellent question. It's really merging into one single solitary unit. The tea parties were in Minnesota today, and they have unified a number of tea party groups around the country were coming together unifying under the umbrella of economic fiscal conservatism because Americans, quite simply, feel like they're taxed enough already. That's what the "T" stands for, taxed enough already. And I think that's a widely held view. And that is going to be the energy boost going forward. And I think conservative candidates are going to benefit greatly by latching on to the theme of stopping the spending, stopping the deficits and getting our financial house in order.
VELSHI: All right, let me ask you, who is going to lead the Republicans into the next presidential election. You called for someone who is a very, very strong conservative to do that. In fact, your descriptions of who you think is going to lead the party could actually be you.
Are you thinking of running for president?
BACHMANN: No, I'm thinking of running for United States Congress for re-election this fall. And I'll have a very difficult race on my hands, and so that's where my focus is set. I don't know that we've even necessarily seen who our candidate will be yet for president. And it will be the individual who articulates the case going forward for how we can become energy independent in the United States, fiscally responsible and deal with national security in a realistic that keeps the American people safe. Those will be the three key issues getting the spending and deficit under control as well, and also job creation. That's what the American people want to look for, are answers that will put us back in a good, sound financial footing in the United States.
VELSHI: Representative Michele Bachmann, thanks for being on the show.
We always enjoy seeing you.
BACHMANN: Good to see you again, Ali.
VELSHI: All right.
Hey, listen, when we come back, Tiger Woods gets advice from his dead father in a new Nike commercial. He's got advice about something that's just happened since after his father's being dead. You've got to see this one to believe it.
Stay with us.
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VELSHI: Tiger, we believe, has just tee'd off at the Augusta National. But there's another development in this very, very interesting saga. Nike, as you know, sponsor of Tiger Woods, has come out with a controversial ad. It features Tiger Woods standing there silent, getting advice, being asked questions, from his dead father, who is dead.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: The viewer in me finds that just a little creepy. The business guy in me thinks I don't know how many ads Nike paid for because I think this thing is being replayed on TV over and over and over again, and everybody is actually talking about it. The ad came out last night. Today, the Masters Tournament started in Augusta, Georgia. Tiger, as I said, just teeing off this very minute. So let's talk about this ad. We've had a number of comments on Facebook which I'll get to in a second.
This features the voice of Tiger's late father Earl Woods. It is the first ad. Now Tiger's father's voice has been in ads before, but this is the first ad with Tiger since his sex scandal surfaced late last year. Mr. Woods has been featured in a Nike ad before. A month after he died in 2006, a Nike commercial showed family photos and home movies on and off the golf course. And his big news conference on Monday, Tiger Woods said his father's inspiration played a role in his recent rehab. But now some people are wondering why since there have been reports that Mr. Woods allegedly cheated on Tiger's mother.
There's a whole lot of layers to this thing that are confusing. I want to bring in Barbara Lippert. She's an ad critic from "Ad Week."
Barbara, thank you for being with us.
First of all, am I alone in thinking this is just a little weird -- the voice, the fact that it really is his voice and he's asking a question, but he's asking extensively about something that happened long after he died? The whole things seems a little weird to me.
BARBARA LIPPERT, ADVERTISING CRITIC, ADWEEK: Well, it is really, really mega creepy, kind of, you know. And I never particularly like bringing dead people back in ads. I've always find it kind of grotesque. Remember that -- well, Christopher Reeve was walking in one. And he wasn't dead but that was creepy. And then they also brought Orville Redenbacher back.
VELSHI: Now here -- let me just -- I got all sorts of comments on this on Facebook. Let me start with this one from Jessica. It says, "He is making money off his dead father's voice. He's making money off his family's pain. So is Nike. It's shameful."
So on one side, as I said, the business guy in me thinks it's fascinating that Nike has got everybody talking about their ad. Is there danger that Nike is seen not only to be making money off of Tiger and Tiger's scandal, but off of somebody who is dead -- his father?
LIPPERT: Well, first of all, as you mentioned, Ali, the reality is that for Nike, Tiger is like Citibank. He is too big to fail. They cannot let him go down. They have 16 years in him. He is Nike golf. If he doesn't come back, they have huge problems. So they have to do anything to bail him out and prop him up. This was one way to show that he's contemplative, that he is thinking, that he is a changed man, without him having to answer a question or get any sweat on his brow or listen to the pesky press over again. It allowed him complete -- it's as if Nike is the church of the holy swoosh, and they are absolutely allowing him forgiveness. They are exonerating him.
He's standing there, you know, somewhere between heaven and hell and purgatory looking as upset as hell. But 30 seconds of purgatory will get him on to the next thing and on to the links.
VELSHI: But let me tell you a few more, because there are a couple of other comments that might lead us into this discussion a little further. Shelly says, "It's a good commercial, but when it comes down to it it's all about the Benjamins. He is doing damage control."
Now listen to this one from David who says, "I am grateful for him doing this commercial because it puts him back in touch with the one person he respected." And I'm guessing that Nike is hoping that more people see this the way David does.
LIPPERT: Well, it's a very polarizing commercial which makes for, you know, a bigger media storm. As you said, it's been replayed all day. In all of my years of reviewing ads, I've never seen an ad talked about this much.
So just by glimpse of that, it's successful. But the whole thing with his father is so loaded, because on the one hand, Nike can't be his parent. They have to show his parent scolding him. Nike is his new daddy, though. Nike needs the money from him just as much as Earl got money from him. So that's a loaded situation.
The other thing is, as you mentioned, we know that allegedly Earl, you know, was not a paragon of marital fidelity himself. So when he says to Tiger, what were you thinking? Tiger could say, well, I learned it from you.
VELSHI: What an interesting layered ad. And as you're right, Barbara, we're talking about it a lot. So Nike is getting something out of this.
Barbara, great to talk to you. Come back and join us again.
LIPPERT: Thank you.
VELSHI: Barbara Lippert is an ad critic from "Ad Week" joining us from New York.
All right, an opposition group seizes its government headquarters. The president acknowledges there's been a coup, but he's staying put. This is happening right now in a country that is a main launching point for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.
We'll tell you what's happening, and why you need to care when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: A story we're following here is what is going on in the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Matthew Chance is in Moscow with the latest on the situation.
The government appears to have been overthrown there. Do we know that actually, Matthew?
Has the opposition taken over?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it seems to have, Ali. It seems to have, but, you know, kind of seized control over all the government ministries, and it's giving press conferences, it's running state television now.
The president of the country has fled the capital, which is called Bishkek. He's still in the country, in the south of the country where he gets much of his support, and he's appeared on various media outlets saying that he's not going to resign. And that sort of raised concerns about what he intends to do. Is he going to try to negotiate with his interim government and eventually accept defeat? Or is he going to, you know, come trying to muster enough forces, enough support, to try and retake Bishkek and to reassert his authority? It could make a difference in this very volatile, small, strategic country between peace and even more bloodshed than we've seen already, Ali.
VELSHI: Matthew, you're closer to this than we are. We are looking at pictures here which show fairly extensive damage, some fires. This has all happened in the last 48 hours or so.
Just for our viewers who are not following this, and I suspect there are a lot of people in America who are not understanding what Kyrgyzstan is about and why this is happening.
Give us some sense. First of all, is it as serious as it looks on TV? And why is this happening?
CHANCE: Yes, well, it started off as just, you know, a few thousand people protesting against corruption in the country. Against, you know, kind of rising fuel prices and things like that. But it quickly turned into what has become a revolution.
The security forces of the government opened fire on the crowd over the course of the past 48 hours, killing according to the latest figures 75 people. About 1,000 people were injured as well. So a very serious protests there with big human rights implications for the government of the day. That government is now essentially been toppled. The president has fled the capital as I mentioned.
It's all important. It's all being watched very closely by the United States, because, as you mentioned, this is that tiny country in central Asia which has immense strategic importance for Washington at the moment. It's got the main supply airbase there that they use to ferry in supplies to re-supply the troops on the ground in Afghanistan. It's just a two-hour flight from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan to Kabul, the Afghan capital. And so the U.S. very much wants stability there. Very concerned that this new interim government may want to kick the Americans out and, you know, move closer perhaps towards the Russians, who have also been very edgy about this permanent U.S. presence in this country.
VELSHI: All right, Matthew, thanks for clearing that up and following this for us. We'll check in with you as things develop in Kyrgyzstan.
That's Matthew Chance for us in Moscow.
Now, where is Kyrgyzstan? It's OK. I'm sure a lot of people do know about it, and I'm sure a lot of you have not heard this before. Let's find out where Kyrgyzstan is, where it fits into the global scheme of things. Josh Levs is joining me now for this. He's over at the map. And I am quite sure that Kyrgyzstan is no where here, because this is the United States. Tell us about it.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I always like to start off here and zoom east because it puts things in context for you. And we're going to capitalize on what --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Matthew was just telling us --
LEVS: Right. What we want to do here is talk about Kyrgyzstan, because before we zoom in, I want you to know a big picture. More than 5 million people here, three-quarters are the Muslims. So this is a friendly Muslim nation to the United States. All the Muslim nation friends that we get in the United States. So that in and of itself, this government does not want instability in Kyrgyzstan.
Now let's zoom in. I want you to see the base that Matthew was talking about. This is very interesting. This base was just created after 9/11. Two months after 9/11 happened, the United States went to this Manas -- it was once an airport set up by the Soviet Union once upon a time, and the U.S. turned this into an airbase for U.S. troops.
VELSHI: And they still don't call it an airbase, because they don't want the politics of having U.S. operating airbase.
LEVS: The official name is not that, but everyone refers to it as Manas Airbase.
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: And this is so important. In fact, 50,000 U.S. troops went trough there just last month alone.
VELSHI: And this is on the way to Afghanistan. They use it as a supply base.
LEVS: It is the major supply base that's right there in that region for Afghanistan. Fuels are brought in. Supplies are brought in. Let's zoom back out. I'll show you how close it is to Afghanistan, and why that's so important. Right here is Kyrgyzstan, right here is Afghanistan. All they pretty much have to do is go across, as you can see in there.
VELSHI: Right. And this is a mountain range in here so they basically fly over.
LEVS: They fly right over 50,000 troops in March alone. This is why it is so important. And by the way, there's so many "stans", it's really easy to get confused. We've highlighted them all for you right here. These are the seven nations that have "stan" in them on that region.
VELSHI: Right. But in the other supply bases are over that side, in Turkey, so that, I guess will makes this interesting. This is close. It's convenient.
LEVS: Yes. And people say, you know, would the United States be absolutely nothing without it? No. But it will be more expensive, it will be a lot harder.
And right now, the speed with which the United States is able to get in fuel and troops and supplies can't be beat when you have that place inside Kyrgyzstan. A year ago they were talking about maybe dropping that base. This government fought it hard. They really want to keep that major interest for the U.S. in Kyrgyzstan right there.
VELSHI: Very good. Thank you, Josh. We appreciate that breakdown.
All right, we just heard from mine officials in West Virginia this hour. They have delayed the re-entry of mine workers into those -- that mine because the air quality, the mix is too combustible.
We're going to bring you the most up-to-date information on that as soon as we come back. Stay with us.
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