Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trapped Miners' Rescue Continues; Preview of the O'Donnell/Coons Debate at the University of Delaware; 18th Miner Out; Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton on the Campaign Trial for Dems

Aired October 13, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, I think there are two kinds of people in the world. There are people like me who have been glued to their TVs, watching almost every frame since the first of those 33 miners was rescued late last night.

If you're like me, there's not much I can tell you. These pictures speak for themselves. The pictures you've seen all night and all morning speak for themselves.

But some of you were asleep or dealing with your busy life and you've not been able to follow this incredible, unfolding story. Thirty-three miners have been trapped below the earth since August the 5th.

They were down there for 17 days before anyone even realized that they were alive. The miners, who had been eating their lunch in a 50 square-foot shelter when a cave-in occurred, attached a note to a search and rescue drill bit that had penetrated the roof of their shelter. The note said, "We are fine in the shelter. The 33 of us."

Last night, the end of their ordeal began. The extraction has been under way for 14 hours now. We are now past the halfway point in what will go down as one of the most spectacular rescues in history. Seventeen miners have been rescued, all safe. They are apparently healthy. They're still being checked out. Sixteen more to go.

Never before have men who had been trapped so deep for so long been rescued alive. Nothing about this story has a parallel in history. Right now, miner number 18 is being pulled up 2,300 feet from their living room-sized quarters.

And let me tell you about this new miner, Esteban Rojas. He is 44 years old. He's a carrier pigeon handler. They still use carrier pigeons in mines. In late August, he asked his wife of 25 years to renew their vows with him, this time in a traditional church ceremony. He did this in -- from underneath the ground. He sent that message up to his wife.

His wife had always wanted a traditional Catholic wedding. He had never thought that was important. Now, he says, "I want to marry you in a church."

The story cannot but move you. May have seen some of these pictures, but there are probably pictures you haven't seen, like this one, brand-new video.

Look at this. This is the camera on top of that Phoenix capsule as the miners get pulled out of it. This is the view that they see. It's incredible. It's dark. It's narrow, 28 inches. They only have 22 inches in that Phoenix capsule, called Phoenix because Phoenix rose from its own ashes. This capsule rises from the ground.

Check out these live pictures from deep underground from where the men were trapped for 69 days. I think we've got those to show you. We are still showing you the tunnel. We may have more pictures to show you. There we go. That's the tunnel.

That is -- these are not live pictures, these are pictures from earlier. We keep getting these -- the Chilean government is controlling the feed. But this is the area in which they were trapped. This is the capsule. Each man goes into that capsule, it goes up. You can even see from this picture, it's not a straight ride to the top, it's at an angle.

You'll also note that the men all wear sunglasses as they emerge as they're pulled out of the ground. They put the sunglasses on when they're in that capsule. As they come out, they keep those sunglasses on, because they have been in the dark for more than two months.

Some of the most emotional moments have come from the miners themselves. I don't know what I expected. Maybe I expected them to be more subdued. But they cheer, they cry, greeting their families, even their rescuers, hugging everyone to be seen, including the president of Chile. One even handed out what appeared to be rocks to officials and rescue workers.

And keep hearing what you may have thought was Chile's national soccer chant, chi, chi, chi, le, le, le. But it's modified a little bit to honor the miners. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Chile's President Sebastian Pinera has been on hand all night. And all day, greeting the rescued miner. It's taking about 45 minutes per miner to get to the top. He's hoping tonight will be a huge celebration around the world once all the miners are out.

Can you imagine what it's going to feel like when the last miner gets out?

Listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. SEBASTIAN PINERA, CHILE (through translator): And I hope that tonight is going to be an explosion of happiness and joy. I know that tonight, there are going to be tears of happiness in all Chilean homes. And I also know, as I have been able to see with my own eyes, that the whole world is going to share this joy of these 33 miners, and the 33 million Chileans. We're going to have an unforgettable night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: President Obama is watching the Chilean miners' rescue, as well. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs asked the president what he was thinking when he was watching. The president said, it was, quote, "a tremendously inspirational story."

OK, we're at the site. CNN has had teams there since we first discovered those men were underground. Karl Penhaul, one of our team members at the site. He's got the latest right now. Let's go right to him.

Karl, what's the latest that we are hearing? We are on rescue 18, we understand.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rescue 18 and we have now been in this rescue mission 14 hours and four minutes. That means the rescuers are a little bit ahead of schedule. Initially, the mines minister calculated that it would take a total of one hour to extract each miner. So, we're a little bit ahead.

But still, with the rate that they're going, it still looks like we're going well into tonight, possibly until the wee small hours of tomorrow morning with this rescue.

But let me tell you about miner 18, Esteban Rojas. He is the man who is going to be coming up next. And you said it a little bit before.

But while he has been underground, he, like many of the other miners, had a lot of time to think. And he has been with his partner, Jessica Yanez, for many years -- 25 years, I believe. She told me.

And in one of the first letters that he sent back up to the surface, he said, "I've been rethinking this." He said, "We've been together for so long, let's do this properly. Let's have a full Catholic Church wedding."

And that's a great story in itself, of course. But there's another element to that story. And it's just an example of how the story of the 33 miners has touched people around the world independent of their religion or their race or even of their language.

A lady in Texas, her name is Donna. I won't give you her surname, because I'm not sure how public she wanted to make this. It was just a gesture of solidarity. She said that I feel helpless, 33 men trapped underground, 33 family up on top suffering for the love of their loved ones. And she said I can do nothing really practical, she said, but what I do want to do is make a beautiful wedding dress for Jessica Yanez.

And over the last few weeks, she and Jessica have been corresponding by e-mail. And Donna is making the most beautiful wedding dress. It's going to be in a champagne color, I understand. It's going to have sequins and beads on an outer layer, a champagne -- sheer champagne layer underneath a lace jacket.

It is going to be a beautiful affair. But beyond the dress itself, that's not what matters. What matters is that this story has touched so many people that an American lady in Texas feels touched by a Chilean miner and his bride-to-be that she wants to do something.

Not only is she doing that, but every night, Donna tells me, she has made the priest at a local church absolutely sick, I think, that every night she goes down there and bangs on the church door that is shut at that time, and insists the priest lights 33 candles, one for each of the miners. She has been doing that for more than two months.

I've been telling Jessica Yanez and some of the other women here, and they're so grateful to think that their story has touched other people's hearts, but also, they feel that with that kind of solidarity, people are just doing what they can to help out. And really, the families here have appreciated that. That kind of solidarity has helped them get through this ordeal, Ali.

VELSHI: Hey, Karl, let's just -- I'm going to talk in a few minutes about how this all changed, because initially when you first went down there -- obviously, everybody was surprised these miners were alive. But we were talking about Christmastime as a time they would come out. And there were some thought that it might be mid- December and then early December.

Boy, you talked about how 14 hours in, we've got 17 miners out and that's moving much faster. This whole operation has moved very quickly. Have there been any glitches since this operation started late last night?

PENHAUL: Really, no. And that is somewhat testimony to the meticulous way that the Chilean authorities have planned this operation. In fact, all through the dealing and rescue operation, they have tended to under-promise and over-deliver.

And that is why they didn't want to raise expectations. They gave us the worst-case scenario and above all gave the miners the worst-case scenario when they were found alive, that it could take until Christmas to drill down to them.

And then, they put a plan together, not only one plan, a plan B, but then they put two alternative plans together to see if they could get down there further. And it was the plan B drill, a drill normally used for boring water holes that made it down to the miners first. And then as well, the whole time line of the rescue itself has been telescoped.

And last night we saw them tinkering with the rescue capsule, we thought there may be a glitch there, they were just making sure that the wheels were running smoothly on the capsule. And since then, there hasn't been a hitch. They haven't suffered any damage to the Phoenix rescue capsule. Everything is running fine. Everything is running ahead of schedule, Ali.

VELSHI: OK. Karl, we'll continue to check in with you, it's a good description of what's going on. Karl is there with our team, and in the bottom right of your screen, you can see the Chilean mining minister who's giving an update. He's doing that in Spanish.

We, of course, are monitoring everything that comes through and we will bring you any new information as it develops. We are getting new information. We're waiting for miner number 18 to be extracted. I'll give you some details on him in a few minutes.

But this rescue, as Karl just said, happened much faster than we expected it to happen. The original time frame called for a late December rescue. What happened? Karl just told us. Plan B is what happened; it came from a Houston-based drilling company.

You're going to meet the man behind that plan on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: What we are looking at there, and you'll see a picture of this in a second. That is the Chilean mining minister. He is giving an update.

And what he said is right now, there are five rescuers who are down in the shelter. They went down with the capsule and other men came up. He said within the next couple hours, they're going to send a sixth rescuer in. And he said he's going to replace some of them.

I don't know whether that means that one is coming up or more than one rescuer is coming up. But he's going to send a sixth person down there within the next couple of hours.

Right now, what we are waiting for, though, is the rescue of the 18th miner. Seventeen have been rescued out of 33. The 18th one is expected. He is Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo. He is 44 years old. He was the carrier pigeon handler.

As you know, carrier pigeons are used in mines to -- because they are more sensitive to air quality than humans. So they're a leading indicator, if you will, of things that might be going wrong if the air quality is deteriorating. There are also more modern ways of doing this. Many carrier pigeons have been replaced by electronic methods of doing this.

In late August, this is the guy I told you about. He's the one who asked his wife of 25 years to renew their marriage vows, because they had not had a traditional Catholic wedding. His wife had always wanted one. He had not thought that important. He sent a message up from underground to say he wants to renew his vows and get married in a church with all the bells and whistles.

You just heard Karl Penhaul talking about that story, how a woman in Texas wanting to do something, has said that she is going to make the wedding dress for Esteban Rojas' wife. So, we're waiting for Esteban Rojas to come out.

These rescues are taking anywhere from, you know, 45 minutes to a little bit longer in each case. To send that Phoenix capsule down and get the guys all rigged up at the bottom, bring them and we will stay on top of that for you.

Now, we talked about plan B. There was a plan A, a plan B and a plan C. Initially, plan A called for these miners to be rescued around Christmastime, late December.

Plan B came about because Greg Hall is the owner of Drillers Supply International located in Houston. He's right there. One of his rigs with his men were already working in the area and he thought that he could come up with a better plan than plan A. So, he presented it to the officials down there, and they thought that sounded like a good idea. And wisely, they pursued a few different plans.

Greg's crew was specializing in drilling hard rock quickly, usually for water wells, and they felt they had the equipment and ability to do that. Greg joins me now.

Greg, tell me how this all unfolded because you and your company are a big part of the equation, getting these guys out of this mine fully two months earlier than some of us thought we were going to see them.

GREG HALL, OWNER, DRILLERS SUPPLY INTERNATIONAL: Well, when the collapse first happened, there was a number of the mineral exploration rigs around the site who immediately mobilized and started to try to drill to find the miners. The problem was, is their normal component of equipment was only good down to about 420 meters. So, they called us. I have a company north of Chile, (INAUDIBLE), we manufacturer all of the equipment they use.

And we were able to send out truckloads of equipment to allow all five of the rigs to be able to drill down to the 80-meter depth. We got lucky in the sense my guys were out there on the Terraservice rig that actually punched through a void that I got a call into Houston about 7:00 Sunday morning from my guy on-site who said, "Greg, we think we hear some noises, some beating on the pipe."

At that time, we really thought that the drillers had not survived, because it had been 17 days. They pulled up the pipe, and on the end of our hammer was that famous note that the president showed, saying all 33 of us are alive in the refuge.

VELSHI: Let me just ask you about this. You talk about the depth of that hole being a challenge. We all wonder why now we have a 28-inch hole, roughly with a capsule that only fit somebody who, you know, whose shoulders are 22 inches wide, which obviously is working for all of them. What's the issue there? Why couldn't you have drilled a 35-inch hole?

HALL: The problem we had is I had to look at, when looking at this plan, what resources that we have available in-country, and what resources could I pull quickly from other places? Is the T130 rig that we're using was really the biggest drill rig of this type available in Chile. The 7-inch pipe that we're using that I manufacture was the biggest pipe that we had. That limited us for as far as how big of a diameter we could go.

You get in problem with torques and twisting, the last thing we wanted was drill 300 or 400 meters and have the pipe break and twist and we would lose a hole and had to start over. So, we were kind of -- we were limited by some of the equipment that we were able to get on-site.

VELSHI: Greg, you're on record as saying that hole fought us to the last meter. What do you mean?

HALL: Well, it was a tremendously difficult hole. Talking to my peers, in my opinion, it was the hardest hole we have been and I've been on in my life. And I've been told by people I respect that it was an impossible hole to drill. But it fought us to the last meter.

If you go back and look at the videos, you'll see that as we were coming down, we were in constant contact with the miners, we actually got hung up in the roof bolts, the hardened roof bolts that were at the top of the roof as we were going in. And then we actually got hung up and got stuck. And many people started clapping thinking we had finished. But we hadn't finished. And we were actually stuck.

And then the last thing is, right before we finished, there was a loud explosion from the side of the rig. I thought that the air hose had blown. Had the air hose blown, we would have lost the hole, and had to start over from square one.

I don't know to this day exactly what that explosion was, but we were all looking at the gauges. We think now that it was some electrical connection for some of the video feed. But it fought us to the very last moment.

VELSHI: And I'm going to talk when we come back about how you got through to that hole in the end and the role that those fantastic miners had in doing that.

What you're seeing on the screen right now, by the way, are pictures from the hospital. So what happens is these miners come out, they get transported to a clinic, which is on-site, and then they get flown by helicopter about 15 minutes to a hospital nearby that's fully equipped to deal with them.

These are the miners. You can see them in their green overalls and the sunglasses that they are keeping on because their eyes have not adjusted to the light. There was some fear they would stop the rescues during the daylight because it might be too hard on their eyes. Thankfully, they have not done that.

Those are Chilean TV pictures from the hospital. We've lots of new images coming in, and we're going to have one that's going to make you very happy, that is miner number 18 coming out of the hole. We will keep on covering this for you. We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me bring you up to speed with some of the other top stories that we are following here at CNN.

A federal judge in California has ordered the U.S. military to put a permanent worldwide halt to its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, effectively ending the ban on openly gay troops in the military. The Justice Department has 60 days to appeal the ruling. No word on whether it plans to do that.

In Mexico, the lead investigator in the Falcon Lake case has been killed. Officials are telling CNN that his head was delivered to a Mexican army garrison after he failed to report home last night. Members of a drug cartel are suspected. This case began when the wife of American tourist David Michael Hartley said her husband was shot by pirates on the Mexican side of the lake on September 30th.

In southern Afghanistan, four NATO-led troops have been killed in a bombing attack today. Two others died in separate incidents. It is the first time in more than a month that so many international troops have been killed in hostile incidents in Afghanistan in a single day. The nationalities of the dead have not been released.

We'll get back to the mine rescues in Chile in just a moment with one of the best moments so far. A guy named Super Mario or at least that's what we started to call him, and his souvenirs. I'll bring that to you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Mexican mining minister still delivering some comments. He has said just moments ago that they are going to send a sixth rescuer down. There are five rescuers in the mine right now. He's going to send a sixth one down to replace some of them. I don't know what he means by some of them.

Keep in mind, we have 17 -- we're looking for number 18 to come out. Seventeen miners have been rescued. We're looking for number 18. This could happen any moment now, and then the rest of them.

But there are five others down there, as well. So, that's going to extend the time it takes.

I've been talking to Greg Hall, who is the owner of Drillers Supply International. They are drillers. He was in Chile with equipment -- his team was in Chile with equipment. They came up with plan B, which has resulted in getting these miners out almost two months earlier than initially predicted.

Greg has been telling us about how this came to happen.

Greg, the minors had a role in opening that hole on their side of things. Explain to me how that happens. Explain to me how they knew where it was that they were supposed to open up the hole and make it bigger.

HALL: Certainly. I mean, again, I want to make clear to everybody, this was a team effort. This was my company and Geotech's rig and Center Rock and their cluster hammers and the miners. We had video feed with them.

One of the wonderful things about this is when you're drilling a hole like this, it's very important to try to ascertain the speeds that you're drilling at. If you're drilling this hard rock too fast, then you get big chunks, which can cause major problems. If you drill to slow, then you actually get little grindings, and you regrind your bits, and you really wear the metal out quicker.

In this case, though, we were sending the cuttings down the hole, so we could actually call the drillers and have them take the cuttings and walk over to the video feed and show them to us. And that was a tremendous advantage to us. But it also helped them be helping in their own rescue.

VELSHI: Hey, what's the takeaway from this? What have we learned? I mean, obviously, there must be some lessons about the cave-in. I don't know if we know about the cave-in just yet.

Are there some things that we have learned from this rescue that may mean that miners in the future who can find themselves in a shelter can be rescued after this much time underground?

HALL: One, I think, the lesson that the miners showed and I think that we showed is don't ever give up, because if get -- if you don't give up, you don't lose.

The other thing is that Brandon Fischer, the owner of Center Rock, and myself would like to work to get some rapid response teams set up where we could have the right equipment, the right drillers and the right tooling, maybe on-site a little bit quicker. Because, you know, the next time it may be that those few hours that we can save may save the miners.

VELSHI: That is a great idea. That would be a great take-away from this whole thing.

Greg Hall, thank you for the role that you and your team have played in this miraculous rescue that we are watching today. Greg Hall is the owner of Drillers Supply International in Houston. He came up with plan B in conjunction with others to get these miners out today, not in December.

All right. Twenty days until the midterm elections. It is debate day in Delaware. You're going to want to watch this one. It's between Democrat Chris Coons and Tea Party favorite, Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell. We're going to take you live to Delaware for a preview when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Take you right to that mine. Take a look at that picture. That's a live shot in the shelter 2,500 feet, half a mile underground. The capsule has arrived.

This is what happens, it goes down, it goes up. They are now preparing, we assume, to put the 18th miner into that capsule for recovery. Seventeen of them have been taken to the surface. There were 33 in total. There are also five rescuers underground.

So hard to make out exactly whether anybody's getting in there just yet. But they are going to put the 18th person in there. His name is Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo. He is 44-years-old. His responsibility was to be the carrier pigeon handler to determine air quality under the ground. This is the man we knew about because on August 25th, he asked his -- in August, he asked his wife of 25 years to renew their vows when he got out, in a traditional Catholic ceremony, something his wife had always wanted. He had never agreed to. And he is going to remarry his wife at some point, once they get to the surface. Beautiful story Karl Penhaul just told us about a woman in Texas who has offered to make the wedding dress for his wife.

So we are waiting for the rescue of Esteban Rojas. He will be number 18. We are now past the halfway point in this rescue. What a remarkable thing. By the way, number 19, the next guy who comes out after him, Pablo Rojas, 45-years-old, also a carrier pigeon handler, is his cousin. So two cousins will be rescued back-to-back. That's an exciting day for me to watch this, because we've been involved in this for as long as we've known about it.

Hey, another reason it's exciting to me is that I first started at CNN -- the first time -- I was away for a little while. I started here with my first job in the industry. I was an intern back in 1992, at the Washington Bureau of CNN. And my boss was a driven young man named Sam Feist. He has been with the company since then. I rejoined him many years later. But Sam is now our political director at CNN and he is a part of our daily lives because CNN has so much to do with politics. And there he is.

In all of my time knowing Sam, I have never had the honor of being on TV with him and interviewing him. Sam is talking about the remarkable contest that we're going to have, this debate that we're going to have in Newark, Delaware.

Sam, good to see you.

SAM FEIST, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Ali, nice to see you. And you pronounced it right. Newark, Delware. Don't say Newark around here.

VELSHI: What's the story? This is not just a local Delaware issue for Delaware voters. This debate -- this race in Delaware has taken on national proportions for a number of reasons.

FEIST: Yes, I mean the debate tonight is between Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate and Chris Coons, the Democratic candidate. And she has become the most talked about candidate for office in this midterm election, without a doubt. She is the one who came up with the surprising victory last month in the Republican nomination fight here in Delaware. And this will be their first and only debate in this election.

They're going to meet tonight here at the University of Delaware. It will be broadcast live at 7:30 on CNN. And it's going to be a great debate. It's going to be interesting. Wolf Blitzer is working right now on what questions he's going to ask the candidates. And it ought to be fascinating. She is a fascinating woman. Not your typical politician, and certainly not your typical candidate for Senate in any state.

VELSHI: Sam, in so many of the congressional races across the country, the participants, the candidates, are trying to make it local. In some cases, Republicans are trying to make it about the Obama administration and Democrats are trying to keep it local.

In this particular case, is there going to be a lot of discussion about Delaware in this debate, or is this all going to be about national politics, about how people feel about this administration and this government?

FEIST: I think it's going to be a little bit of both. Probably more about national politics as this election year or referendum on the presidency of Barack Obama. Of course, it's about the economy, which is struggling here in Delaware, just as it is nationally. Although local issues and the backgrounds of the candidates is going to matter.

Chris Coons is a county executive here in Delaware and I am pretty certain that Christine O'Donnell is going to point out that he raised taxes several times as county executive. So that's an issue. But I think for the most part, it will be more of a national conversation, a national debate about national issues, whether it's foreign policy, whether it's about domestic policy. And, of course, here in Delaware, the backgrounds of these two candidates is going to be a --

VELSHI: Well, this is the thing. So Christine O'Donnell may talk about Coons and raising taxes. Is Chris Coons going to talk about comments that Christine O'Donnell has made that led her to start her most recent commercial off with the words "I am not a witch."

FEIST: It's interesting. He has actually avoided the witchcraft comment as much as possible. He has tried to keep this on issues, and let the media for the most part talk about witchcraft. It will come up, I'm quite certain. She may point out, if not, maybe one of the questioners will point out that in college Chris Coons wrote a paper and referred to himself as a "bearded Marxist." He says that the media has taken that out of context. So their backgrounds will come up. I'm not sure if the candidates will bring it up or the questioners will bring it up, but it's certainly a big part of the campaign.

VELSHI: How tight is the race in Delaware right now, Sam? FEIST: The latest polls that came out last week showed that he is ahead in double digits. CNN has a new poll that will be released this afternoon at 5:00 with "TIME" magazine and we'll see what new numbers say.

So it looks as if he is ahead, although she has surprised people. There aren't that many people who expected Christine O'Donnell to win the Republican primary last month. She was behind in the polls for a long time. So anything can happen. But right now, it looks like he's ahead in the polls, at least the ones that came out last week.

VELSHI: Sam Feist, you look as good as you did 19 years ago. You look fantastic.

FEIST: Ali, you look -- you don't have as much hair as 19 years ago, Ali, otherwise about the same.

VELSHI: Good to see you, my friend. Thanks very much.

Sam Feist, one of the most important guys here at CNN, our political director. Sam, we'll be sure to tune into the Delaware debate tonight. Coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. Eastern with the Best Political Team on Television. Wolf Blitzer moderating that debate. It is going to be very interesting.

The health conditions of the trapped miners, that has been a major concern throughout this ordeal, but especially now that they're being brought to the surface. We're going to have a live report from the hospital that they are being taken to. Up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Want to bring you a couple of live pictures right now. The one on the right, of course, is Chile. That is the mining minister, along with families of what we expect is the next person, the 18th person, to be rescued from that mine. Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo, 44-year-old miner.

On the left, we are waiting for the President of the United States to make some comments very shortly. He has another announcement to make, but we understand he has been watching, like most of us in the world have been watching, this mining rescue in Chile. And he will have some comments about that at the top. We will bring the president to you as soon as he starts speaking.

Now, the miners, as they are rescued, each one of them, 17 have been rescued so far. We are waiting for the 18th. The only way we can tell what's going on if we don't see the capsule either on the bottom or top, is to look at the winch wheel on the top of that rig to see which way it's turning. If it's rotating clockwise, it means the capsule is coming up. If it's counterclockwise it's going down.

We saw pictures moments ago -- live pictures of the 18th miner, Esteban Rojas, being loaded into the capsule, the Phoenix, and we assume he's being raised to the top now. So it should be within minutes that we would assume those are his family members sitting there waiting for him. His wife, they've been married for 25 years. They didn't have a Catholic ceremony. He sent a message from the mine to say he would like to marry her, renew his vows with her in a traditional ceremony when he gets to the top.

After the miners get there, they are moved to a nearby clinic, given some initial evaluation and then taken by helicopter on a 15- minute ride to a nearby hospital, Copiapo Regional Hospital in Chile. Let's go right there, right now.

Our Patrick Oppmann is there with the latest. We've been seeing pictures, live pictures, Patrick, of those miners arriving at the hospital. Many of them look to be very, very healthy.

What's happening at the hospital?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And you know, as we've seen these miners come in, as they've been brought in by helicopter, not surprisingly, Ali, they are in good shape.

You know, they have, of course, been helping out with their rescue. They have been moving tons of fallen-down earth as it fell down in the mine shaft while there was drilling going on. And you know, so they've been very active. Still, though, officials want to make absolutely sure that they're being taken care of, that they have no health problems, that all is going well here. So they're going to keep them here a couple days at this Copiapo Regional Hospital, here behind me, living on the second and fourth floors.

A number of reasons they want to keep them here. One is just the barrage of medical tests. They've been talking with them every day, looking at them every day through the video conference system, but they've never actually been able to sit down and give them a proper example. So they need to do that, Ali. They're concerned about their eyes, concerned about possible exposure to any germs because they have been in this isolation. And this is also a way to keep them together for a few more days before they're released into families. And frankly, keep them away from the crush of the media.

We've seen family members leaving here throughout the day. Of course, they get swarmed by the media. But so far what we're hearing anecdotally is that the miners are doing very well. They're happy to be here, they're very comfortable and they're in great spirits and great health.

There will be a briefing in about two-and-a-half hours from officials here to give us the official word on how these miners are doing. But so far from what we're hearing here, everyone doing very, very well, happy to have some new surroundings around them, as you can guess, Ali.

VELSHI: I imagine some of them, if they're not suffering from anything particular, are going to want to get back to their families as soon as possible.

What's the earliest we will see people discharged? Is it an individual thing, a case by case thing? Are there some who are possibly ready to walk out today?

OPPMANN: That's -- we probably won't see them today. Of course, if they insisted and said, I don't want to be in the hospital, that's all right, they could walk out today. But I think those miners understand that in talking to doctors their situation is such a unique situation that they want to be looked over very, very carefully.

You know, we have heard from some of the doctors here that again NASA has been in touch with, their doctors, their team of doctors, because there's just so much information to be gained from these men in terms of isolation, in terms of their diet and how that affected them; all the things they went through. And you know, just data that you probably never would be able to get from any other source.

You know, as well, Ali, it's not just the physical health. It's the post traumatic, it's the mental health. And I talked with one of their doctors or one of the team of doctors last week and he said, you know, we expect some of them to suffer from post traumatic stress. They went through an ordeal here.

And you know, as you know, post traumatic stress means you relive these events again and again. So for some of these men, they may be free from the mine, but it will be a long time before they're free of that mine, Ali.

VELSHI: Patrick, I did hear somebody say something interesting this morning. We obviously been talking to every expert we could find who may have something to say about the condition of these miners and I heard somebody say, you know what, if you survive underground for 68 or 69 days and you come out OK, maybe there is a less stress. Maybe there is a real sense of overconfidence. Maybe there is a sense that, you know what, nothing can touch me now, I did that, I went through more than most humans will ever go through.

I wonder if some will come out better off than before?

OPPMANN: Oh, absolutely. And Victor Zamora who just came up a few hours ago, he wrote these long poetic letters in language his family said they weren't used to at all. That he wasn't this kind of eloquent writer.

And one of the things he said again and again, Ali, is that he is not being rescued, he's being reborn. He comes up above as a new man. And certainly some of the other miners I'm sure share that sentiment of Victor Zamora.

VELSHI: Patrick, thank you very much.

And what you're looking at on the right of the screen, by the way, is the top of the hole from which we are going to see that capsule, that Phoenix capsule emerge any second now, any minute now, we hope, with Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo on it. He's a 44-year-old carrier pigeon handler. We'll show you, we'll stay on that and we will show you as soon as he comes out.

In the meantime, Leroy Chiao is a name you will know if you see this show a lot. He is a former NASA astronaut who flew in space in four missions. He's in Houston right now. Leroy -- oh, he's not. You're in China?

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Yep, I'm in China.

VELSHI: That's not anywhere near Houston. But Leroy, being in China is not even the biggest deal for you. You have been in space, and you kind of have been in a similar situation where you have been in space without the control to get back to Earth, knowing the people were looking for you and trying to find you. You've had something akin to this experience. We can't find another human on Earth who has been stuck a half mile below ground, but you've had it the other way around.

Tell us your story.

CHIAO: Well, you know, I mean, I can't say that I've been through exactly what these folks have been, because they're obviously in the survival situation, you know, ever since their ordeal started, whereas I was in comfortable surroundings in the International Space Station.

Nevertheless, you're right, the similarity is that we were up there for six and a half months, months at a time where we couldn't just come back if we wanted to. We could have, of course, if there was some kind of an emergency. But, you know, in a sense, it was the same thing.

We were out there, we were certainly at risk. I mean, there could have been a situation where we would have gotten into a survival situation. But fortunately for us, the mission didn't turn out that way.

Still, there are parallels to be drawn, and I am just overjoyed to be seeing this rescue operation underway, and to seeing about half of the miners now freed from their ordeal.

VELSHI: Leroy, we're looking at pictures right now of what appear to be the workers gathering around that hole. Certainly, had had the impression moments ago that that meant that the capsule was coming up. They have removed the rig that sits at the top of that hole that sort of monitors the line. So I think what we're going to see there momentarily -- we're not controlling these pictures, by the way, which is why they change.

That's the picture from the rig. That is the picture from the Phoenix, as it emerges with the 18th miner in it. You're going to see that break the surface at any moment now. You're watching the rescue of the 18th miner, Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo. He is 44 years old.

You are going to see the top of the Phoenix rig. There it is. You are seeing a camera. There we go. There he is, 44-year-old Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo, the 18th miner to be rescued. He is 44 years old. He has been the carrier pigeon handler, one of the carrier pigeon handlers testing the air quality in the mine. At this point, by the way, once they're trapped, there wasn't a whole lot he could do with that information. We don't know whatever happened to the carrier pigeons, but this is the man who we know asked his wife to marry him.

Let's listen for a second. Let's just listen in to what we're hearing.

(APPLAUSE & CHEERING)

VELSHI: Esteban Rojas, you saw -- let's listen in to the president.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- not only in Chile, but also from the United States around the world who are lending a hand in this rescue effort, from the NASA team that helped design the escape vehicle to American companies that manufactured and delivered parts of the rescue drill to the American engineer who flew in from Afghanistan to operate the drill.

Last night, the whole world watched the scene at Camp Esperanza as the first miner was lifted out from under more than 2,000 feet of rock and then embraced by his young son and family. And the tears they shed after so much time apart expressed not only their own relief, not only their own joy, but the joy of people everywhere.

So it was a thrilling moment and we're hopeful that those celebrations duplicate themselves throughout the rest of today.

Behind me, I've got the Moon (ph) family, Edward (ph), Kathleen (ph) and Sarah (ph). Raise your hands. There we go --

VELSHI: OK, the president is making some other comments about an unrelated matter. We will cover that, we will listen in to that.

Let's get back to Esteban Rojas, 44 years old. The story here and why you heard that extended clapping -- first of all, he got out, he offered prayers. Then you saw his wife. This is the wife he asked to marry him again in a traditional Catholic ceremony.

This is what happens every time one of these miners come out. They greet their family, a limited number of family members are allowed present, and then they are put on to the stretcher and they are transported to a nearby medical center. This is -- I don't know the exact distance. I think it's about 500 feet away. It's not far at all. They go through an initial evaluation there.

You'll notice those sunglasses stay on them because their eyes are just not used to the light.

They're then evaluated and flown by helicopter 15 minutes away to a hospital where we were just talking to Patrick Oppmann and they are evaluated further there. No one has been released from that hospital yet. It may be some days before they do that.

So they're separated from their family. You can see that his wife, who has waited 69 days to see him, is not going to spend any more time with him for a little while. They'll be reunited a little bit later.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm going to go back to my conversation with Leroy Chiao about what it's like to be trapped somewhere where you have no control over your situation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, we are looking at live pictures now. That is the capsule. We are -- they're getting ready, we assume, to send it back down to get the 19th person who by the way is the cousin of the guy who just got rescued, Esteban Rojas. I don't know if we've got the pictures to show you of Esteban Rojas as he came out, he just emerged.

They're putting that back down, by the way. They're sending it back down to get the next person. That's how they fit it back in and then the winch just lowers it until it gets to the bottom of the mine. About 20 minutes it's taking roughly to get it down there. Let's just watch while they put that in.

(APPLAUSE)

You see a round of applause. It's going down to get another guy, the 19th miner. Fifteen more to go, we'll be on top of that for you every time it happens. This is one of the best things I have ever had the privilege of covering.

It is now 20 days until the critical midterm elections. We want to get you updated on the latest news from the campaign trail. CNN senior political editor Mark Preston and CNN deputy political editor Paul Steinhauser are both part of "The Best Political Team on Television" But I don't see them on TV, I just see me. There they are. They there are. Much better looking than looking at me. They are here with a CNN political update.

Gentlemen, good to see you.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Ali, how are you?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, Ali, great seeing you, too.

Ali, let's start with Michelle Obama. We have some live pictures if you could take those in Atlanta. This is great stuff.

Michelle Obama today, where is the first lady? Wisconsin right now. She's campaigning, helping out Russ Feingold who is running for reelection, the senator out there facing a pretty tough reelection.

Listen, the first lady starts today like a seven or eight-state swing over the next week where she'll be helping out Democratic candidates who are fighting in the midterm elections.

And check these numbers out, Ali, it's brand new and it's very interesting from CNN Opinion Research Corporation. We asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of how Michelle Obama is handling her duties as first lady?" And according to our numbers, 65 percent, they're giving her a thumbs up, that's nearly two out of three; only one out of four disapprove of the job she's doing. That's a pretty high approval. Higher than her husband by a lot.

Go to the next board as well and you can see right here Democrats obviously giving Michelle Obama a thumbs up, but even Independents, according to our numbers, more than six out of ten Independents giving her a thumbs up. That is interesting and that's probably one of the reasons they want to use -- they being the Democrats -- want to get Michelle Obama out there to help Democratic candidates.

That's one of the things we've got. Let's go over to Mark right now.

PRESTON: Ali, better late than never, at least that's probably some supporters of Carl Paladino are saying today. Our viewers remember, just a couple of days ago, Carl Paladino, who is running for governor as the Republican nominee up in New York, came out with a very controversial statement. Let me just read it very quickly. He said he didn't want children to be brainwashed into thinking homosexual is an equally valid or successful option.

Well, after a couple of days of trying to explain that remark, he has come out, he has apologized. He says now that he sincerely apologizes for any comment that may have offended the gay and lesbian community. He went on to say that any reference to branding an entire community based on a small representation of them is wrong. He said if he's elected governor, of course, he will do his best to fight for all New Yorkers.

I should say that this race up in New York, he is down double digits to the Democrat Andrew Cuomo, but it looks like Mr. Paladino, Ali, is trying to get this behind him -- Paul.

STEINHAUSER: One more thing real quick, Ali. You know, we always talk about former President Bill Clinton being a man in demand, the rock star for Democrats on the campaign trail. So where is he today? He's going home back to Arkansas.

And once again, he's going to be trying to help out Senator Blanche Lincoln up for reelection and she faces a very tough battle against the Congressman John Bozeman. But the former president once again going home to try to help out a fellow Democrat.

That's what we got, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Paul, Mark, good to talk to you. We'll check in with you later.

You're next political update is just an hour away. We'll get back to those incredible mine rescues going on in Chile in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)