Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Education Secretary Arne Duncan Criticizes "White Suburban Moms"; Late Season Tornadoes Strike Midwest, Killing Six; Toronto Council Conflict with Crack-Smoking Mayor Continues

Aired November 18, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We're going to get back to Brooke in just a moment.

Have you heard what Arne Duncan is saying? Fascinating, says Education Secretary Arne Duncan. This is a quote.

"These white suburban moms -- these white suburban moms," says Duncan, all of a sudden, well, their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were." Ouch.

Pretty strong language, as it does, coming from members of the president's cabinet, as Arne Duncan is, also friends with the president. They're basketball buddies. That's Duncan.

Well, that's the quote right there, but Duncan is -- plays the president's guard sometimes in basketball games. There he is, guarding the president right there. The president guarding him.

And now we have Arne Duncan calling out white suburban moms. Why? Because some are expressing shock at seeing their children's standardized test scores plummet under the tougher guidelines Duncan's been pushing on states.

Our Kelly Wallace is here. She's our digital correspondent and editor- at-large of CNN Digital.

We're going to talk about, you know, what the words, specifically, "white suburban moms," what he meant.

But what was he -- explain to us. What was he talking about in test scores here?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: You have new standards in 45 states and the District of Columbia. They call for better thinkers, better problem solvers.

For months, school boards have been warning that guess what? With the new standards mean tougher tests. That means scores will come down.

LEMON: And they're coming down, right?

WALLACE: Yes, and in Arkansas, the Department of Education warned parents they require a higher level of mastery of concepts and information, and that as they get them, the scores will come up.

In New York state, the largest state to go ahead with the new tests, scores went way down, 30 percent of a drop across the board.

That's a big drop and that has clearly kind of freaked out really parents, students, and administrators themselves.

LEMIB: They may be tough words, but when you step back, obviously, I'm not a white suburban mom, right? I kind of get what he's saying.

Because as you and I were talking here, many people, it's a good thing, you decide where you're going to live because of the schools and because of the extracurricular activities and the parks, and all of those things, and then all of a sudden you find out, well, my kid's not -- this isn't what I thought it was. You might be ticked off, too.

WALLACE: It appears that's possibly what he was trying to do, that some of these white suburban moms have been some of the biggest critics of these so-called Common Core state standards.

And he was trying again perhaps to sort of indicate he understands where that's coming from. He has even reportedly said he did not speak perfectly.

And you know what, Don? The bigger issue is the larger group of parents. My kids are in New York City public schools.

This is a common source of conversation, because most parents aren't sure what the standards mean, how they're being implementing, how they're impacting how teacher is teaching the students, what the scores will mean in the end in terms of the testing.

And so I think the larger message he's trying to get out is, look, we're a global world now. We have to compete globally, not just worry about how we're doing in our neck of the woods. It's not working, though, clearly.

LEMON: Does he think that's his audience, though, white suburban moms, and maybe they're the only ones who are really paying attention to him?

WALLACE: Well, I mean, I wonder if he is knowing that the big criticism, the biggest voice, is maybe some of these white suburban moms.

But, again, the larger group are parents who don't know really know as much about it.

They might want to try and mount a bigger campaign to really educate those parents about what they are and why they're important, and I don't think that message has gotten through to too many parents yet.

LEMON: Yikes. Started a firestorm, huh?

WALLACE: Oh, yes. I do not think he expected that.

LEMON: It's not the end of it. You will be reporting on this story for days to come.

Thank you, Kelly.

WALLACE: My pleasure.

LEMON: Appreciate it.

Next, a miraculous story of survival as a tornado bears down on a family's home. CNN's Brian Todd spoke to the family and is live for us in Brookport, Illinois.

Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, this town, much of this was completely wiped out in the tornado.

As you mentioned, I'll have the emotional story from one of the survivors, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We're here live in Washington, Illinois. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And just about 50 miles from where I stand is a town called Brookport, Illinois. It took the deadliest hit of all these tornadoes and storms that hit the area this past weekend.

I can tell you that half of the six people killed in the severe weather died there. The mayor of the city of about 900 spoke this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOHN KLAFFER, BROOKPORT, ILLINOIS: It's been a tough 24 hours to report, suffered a devastating blow.

I would like to first of all offer my sympathies to the victims and their families.

I also want to reassure the citizens of Brookport we are doing everything we can as fast as we can to get things in a more stable position.

That's just taking us some time. It's not going as fast as we would like, but these things usually don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me take you straight to Brookport to my colleague, Brian Todd.

And, Brian, it looks like you're standing in front of a scene quite similar to mine here. It's absolutely devastating to look at. I feel like sometimes there just aren't any words.

But I know you have been talking to people who live in that small community. What are they telling you?

TODD: They're telling us that they're totally shocked by this, Brooke, still trying to absorb just everything that has happened to them since this tornado hit.

This is what's left of a storage company here in town. You can see the window frame, it's made out of concrete and metal, was just twisted and tossed all over the place. Here's a piece of the gutter that was thrown hundreds of feet away.

But this speaks to the unpredictable devastation of these tornadoes. You see devastation on this block, and then look over here, these houses, a little bit of damage, but really not much.

Look at that tiny house right there. Some of the homes back there left pretty much intact. That's the fickle nature of these tornadoes.

We did speak to some survivors earlier, including one young lady named Chastity Tabor. She was just trying to sift through the wreckage of her mobile home.

And we caught up to her just as she was trying to express what she had lost.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHASTITY TABOR, SURVIVOR: There's nothing here.

TODD: How did it feel when it came through?

TABOR: Unreal. Just terrifying. You just don't think that things like this will happen.

You don't think, you know -- all day I said, it's just doing to rain, you know. It's going to be fine. And it's not. It hit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: I asked Chastity if she wants to come back here and maybe start over again.

She said no, she's too terrified. She can't even sleep at night.

As you mentioned, Brooke, this town, this tiny town of only about a thousand people did suffer the greatest loss of life of any single town in these tornadoes.

Three people here died, two people in their 50s, one woman in her 60s, all living in mobile homes not too far from here. All died from blunt force trauma, Brooke.

BALDWIN: It's awful to hear stories like that. Brian Todd, our hearts absolutely go out to everyone here, obviously, those who have perished, loved ones, family members and those who have survived. Coming up here in just a couple minutes, I'm going to talk live to a family who grabbed some pillows, hopped in a closet, just to survive the storm. They're standing by and they will share their stories with me.

Also today, another feisty hearing in Toronto, as the city council is discussing what to do about the embattled mayor.

Plus, did you know? His new TV show debuts tonight. We have a sneak peek.

Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Back to Brooke and our live storm coverage in just a moment, but first, Toronto's crack-smoking, vulgarity-dropping mayor has a big night tonight. His reality show "Ford Nation" debuts.

The Sun News Network has released a clip in which Ford challenges the 44 members of the city council to take drug tests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I'll do a drug test and alcohol test right now, because -- why -- and I put a motion forward that every councilor do it, too.

I know people party on the side. I know lawyers, doctors, everybody has a good time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who else on council do you know who's done it? Anybody else that you know?

FORD: I'm not going to name names. That's not --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not? Your name is out there. Why not?

FORD: Let them vote on it and see who comes forward and who doesn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The show airs in Canada, but U.S. viewers can see Rob Ford tonight in a one-on-one interview with CNN's Bill Weir.

He tells Bill he never lied about smoking crack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: No, no, I didn't say that. No, I didn't say that. You're wrong. You're absolutely wrong, what you said.

They said, do you smoke crack, and are you a crack addict? No, I don't smoke crack, and I'm not a crack addict. Have I? Yes, I have.

So that's what -- I didn't lie. I don't smoke crack. I haven't smoked crack in over a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. So as we look at live pictures now of that council meeting and there is his brother there, speaking in front of the council, Ford's big night follows another demoralizing day.

Today, Toronto city council, as you are looking at now live, is to vote on whether to strip even more of his powers as a leader of North America's fourth largest city. And things got out of hand.

I want you to listen to what it sounded like during the recess when council wasn't even in session.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That's only just the beginning, folks.

A speaker had to clear the public from the council room. Council members intend to assign some of the mayor's duties to the deputy mayor, leaving very little left of the mayor's responsibilities, and they are plentiful as the mayor pointed out in his defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: In one year I received 3,000 letters through the mail, 46,000 CMS messages, 138,000 e-mails, 123,000 phone calls between my home number and my OnStar number in my car, I received 20,000 numbers. Are you aware of that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You can see Bill Weir's full interview with Mayor Rob Ford on "AC 360" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. You do not want to miss that.

Up next, you're going to hear from two people who live in Washington, Illinois. They grabbed some pillows and jumped in a closet to survive the storm.

Brooke is live with their stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): It was defeated. Sorry. It was defeated. It was not the right motion, because we should not be deferring this --

BALDWIN: I don't know what I'm hearing in my ear, but I'm just going to pull that out. Forgive me for that.

I'm Brooke Baldwin here in Washington, Illinois, standing next to my two newest friends here. This is Phil and Ella Bolam. They live in Washington. They lost their home here in Washington.

I'm so sorry that we're talking under the circumstances, but let's begin with yesterday morning. The two of you, married for 20 years, coming home from breakfast yesterday and what happened?

ELLA BOLAM, SURVIVED TORNADO IN WASHINGTON: We had been to church, went to breakfast with our friends, and the sirens began to go off and we could see in the west that it was very black.

So we all decided we had probably better go home. So we did. We headed home and my husband and I pulled in the driveway, opened the garage door, pulled the car in.

I turned around and I saw this black cloud, and I said, tell me that's a freight train I hear.

At the same time, my brain's processing the size of the cloud and I knew it wasn't a freight train.

BALDWIN: An actual freight train, because everyone says tornadoes sound like freight trains.

PHIL BOLAM, SURVIVED TORNADO ION WASHINGTON: They really do.

BALDWIN: They really do.

P. BOLAM: Yes, they do.

E. BOLAM: They actually do.

BALDWIN: So you see it coming at you and what do you do next?

P. BOLAM: Tried to close the garage door. The power was out. And we ran immediately to the closet in the master bedroom. And you continue, honey.

BALDWIN: Continue, honey, he says.

E. BOLAM: We have no basement in our home, so the disaster preparedness plan in my brain has always been the interior closet in our bedroom.

BALDWIN: Go to the closet in case.

E. BOLAM: Go to the closet and grab the pillows because I have heard that. So we did.

And I said, honey, grab pillows off the bed and he did, and we went in there, shut the door.

And from the time we hit our driveway to the time we got into the closet was probably less than five minutes.

BALDWIN: What did it feel like? Did it feel like an eternity?

E. BOLAM: No, actually we were in the closet. For me, it was -- the tornado probably lasted less than a minute and our house was coming down around us.

And we were hanging on to each other and had the pillows over our heads, and all I could think about was the house is going.

And I do have to say that there was a presence in the closet with us, and we were being protected and we were being watched over.

God has been very gracious and merciful, and I am thanking Him every moment I'm here.

BALDWIN: You are thankful, even though your home -

E. BOLAM: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: I haven't been to your home, but I imagine it looks a heck of a lot like what's behind us.

E. BOLAM: It's completely gone. Our cars are gone. My husband's chollo which he loves dearly is gone. Our Harley Davidson motorcycle which we both loved dearly is gone.

BALDWIN: The things are gone, but the two of you have each other, 20 years of marriage. It is so lovely to meet both of you.

E. BOLAM: God was taking care of us.

BALDWIN: Phil and Ella, thank you very much.

P. BOLAM: Thank you.

BALDWIN: It's just -- it's stunning to hear the stories, just the perspective and again, just looking at this, I feel like, talking to people here on CNN, it's one thing to see it on television, the pictures, right?

But it's quite another to stand in front of it, and then to experience it personally. I wish the best of luck to both of you. Thank you so much.

E. BOLAM: We'll be fine. God will take care of us.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much.

And that is it for me here. I am live in Washington, Illinois. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

I want to thank you so much for tuning in, and also for my colleague, Don Lemon, in New York. Thank you so much for watching.

We will be here for the next couple of hours and potentially days here, covering the stories as these dozens of storms and tornadoes absolutely wreaked havoc on the midsection of this country.

But the one word we hear time and time again, it is resilience. It is resilience here in Washington, Illinois.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much.

"THE LEAD" the Jake Tapper starts right now.