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CNN Larry King Live

5.9 Aftershock Rattles Haiti; Republican Wins Senatorial Election in Massachusetts

Aired January 20, 2010 - 21:00   ET

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

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, a 5.9 after shock rattles Haiti, but it didn't stop a miracle. A five-year-old boy pulled alive from the house that collapsed on top of him eight days ago. His mother was killed. His father is missing and he survives. We've got the latest from Haiti.

And then Democrats are stunned, left scrambling on health care after an upset Republican wins Ted Kennedy's seat. What's the message from Massachusetts? Is the president listening? Next on LARRY KING LIVE.

Good evening. We begin first with John King, the anchor of CNN's "State of the Union" and he's CNN's chief national correspondent back in New York after his night last night in Boston. Listening to Scott Brown today, he sounded, John, much more like an independent than a Republican.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He hopes to keep that it way, Larry and that's one of the fascinating challenges. Here is this guy who campaigned on the theme of being the 41st vote, being the 41st Republican senator in Washington. But he knows to keep his political standing in Massachusetts, he needs to keep support among the independent voters, the very same independent voters who gave Barack Obama his big margin just 14 months ago, gave Scott Brown his improbable upset victory last night. And so he goes to Washington with that challenge. He will caucus with the White House. He says he opposes the president's health care plan as it now stands, opposes the big spending in Washington. But he also knows that he's from an independent minded state. And he can't be say a senator from South Carolina. South Carolina Republicans are different from Massachusetts Republicans. So he sounded very independent. It will be fascinating to watch his first trip to DC tomorrow. It'll be a few weeks of course Larry before he's officially the senator.

KING: The president said he doesn't want anything really concrete to happen until he is seated. Was the Brown camp surprised at that?

J. KING: A bit surprised, but they think the president is correctly reading the results last night, that independent voters don't like what they see in Washington and part of what independent voters are saying, remember Larry, for all he said on the economy and health care, Iraq, Afghanistan, President Obama as candidate Obama, his fundamental promise was I'm going to make Washington get along. We are not going to be so partisan. We're going to be grown-ups. We're going to reach out and talk to each other and get things done. Voters don't like what they see right now which is party politics. It's just the Democrats on health care, just the Obama and that Pelosi and Reid working on things. And so the calculation the president has made and the Brown campaign would say it's the right calculation is, if we try to do anything that voters view as partisan shenanigans right now, we will be punished for it.

KING: John do the Democrats, do they come out fighting? Do they come out united or do they come out dispirited.

J. KING: They are a bit dispirited right now. Obviously a long way between now and November, but Larry, there's a great mistrust of institutions in the country right now. People don't like big government. People don't like the big banks. Peoples also don't like the political parties. More and more Americans are leaving the Democratic party and the Republican party to become independents and so you have this unpredictable growing group in the middle and in Virginia, New Jersey and now Massachusetts this year, they have gone for the Republicans in a very big way. It was only in 2008 in November they went for Democrats in a big way. So the Democrats look at that. They look at big Senate races in places like New Hampshire, governors' races in places like Colorado, states where independent voters will make the difference. And on this morning after this big election in Massachusetts, now the evening after the election in Massachusetts, they are very nervous. And many Democrats are saying, we have to scale back our grand visions, move to the center, don't govern from such a liberal perspective and show the independents that we are willing to have a conversation with Republicans.

KING: Thanks John, John King reminding us that the only thing certain is uncertainty.

Let's to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Anderson Cooper, the anchor of CNN's "AC 360." The latest Anderson is what I'm told is an incredible survival story. What is this story?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Larry a little five- year-old boy found alive today. His name is Manley (ph). He was brought into general hospital where I just happened to be on another story, brought in by his uncle, not even professional searchers. His uncle was digging through the rubble of Manley's home looking for his parents we believe are dead, heard Manley saying, I'm here, I'm here. And with five other friends and a pick ax, dug into the hole, found him. This all according to the uncle brought him to the hospital. We were there when he got out of the vehicle. He was covered in dust, totally disoriented.

This little boy looked on the brink of death. Rushed into a room where a doctor and a nurse from the international medical corps immediately started tending to him, got IV fluids into him, started checking him for any broken bones, any internal injuries. He had none. He was severely dehydrated. If you pinched his skin which they did, if you pinched your skin Larry, it would bounce right back to normal. If you pinch the skin of somebody who's severely dehydrated, it actually stays in that sort of pinched position. That' the sign. So this little boy was severely dehydrated.

Gradually, as the fluid started pumping through his veins, you would see improvement in front of your eyes. He suddenly could cross his legs which before he couldn't. They were in a bent shape. He had been curled up in a ball according to his uncle when he was found in a void space underneath this rubble. He also had sort of an alcohol-y smell emanating from him according to the doctor. And she said that is typical among people who have not had any food or water and whose bodies are starting to consume, the body is consuming itself, basically eating the fat, the muscles and it gives that smell.

KING: Wow, got to believe in miracles. All right, a strong aftershock early today, really strong. Any word about injuries? How did it affect -- where were you when it happened?

COOPER: Actually I had just gotten up from my bed and it happened. The whole building we were in started to shake. Someone in this complex actually I think a reporter from Portugal or something I heard jumped out a window, he got so panicked. He injured his head. The park behind me, people just started screaming. There are hundreds of people as you know sleeping in the park and there have been since the earthquake. A lot of the people all over Port-au-Prince sleep in parks, started screaming, everyone running away from any building that they may have been near. I just stayed in my room. I looked at the ceiling. It didn't fall on me, so I just went back to bed. But at general hospital where I went, they actually had to evacuate the hospital and by the time I got there in the afternoon around 1:00 or 2:00, the courtyard was filled with patients, post operative patients, patients waiting for surgery. It was a scene of chaos. The doctors were very concerned. They were sitting under the sun. There is only a tent or two. They don't have enough supplies at this hospital. They said this aftershock set them back a day, maybe even two days in terms of the organization. They had to spend all day dealing with all of these patients, very critical patients outside in the sun.

KING: Anderson Cooper, who keeps on keeping on. We will check with you tomorrow. Thanks, Anderson. Anderson Cooper in Port-au- Prince. Usher's going to be here tomorrow night. He's helping raise money for Haiti with young people all over the world who'll tell us all about it. And we've got more politics next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: By the way a program note. Some of you expected to see our interview with Brittany Murphy's mother and Brittany's husband tonight about her untimely death last month. Due to the events in Haiti, we're postponing it and we will let you know when it's rescheduled. We pre-taped it already. And by the way, we'll be going back to Haiti shortly, but first more politics with an outstanding panel. In New York, David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst, in New Orleans, Mary Matlin, our Republican strategist, in New York, Donna Brazile, our Democratic strategist and in New York, John Avalon, the columnist for the Daily Beast and author of "Wingnuts, How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America." Gang, President Obama was asked about the election last night. And here's what he said to ABC's George Stephanopoulos. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry and they're frustrated.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC CORRESPONDENT: What is the strategy on health care going forward? A lot of people have talked about getting the House to pass the Senate bill.

OBAMA: Here is one thing I know. And I just want to make sure that this is off the table. The Senate certainly shouldn't try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated. The people of Massachusetts spoke. He's got to be a part of that process. I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: David Gergen? What's your reaction to that?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Larry, first of all, it's hard to go from that five-year-old child in Haiti back to politics isn't it? But I think the interpretation that's being placed on it by a number of people is right and that is that President Obama was signaling in that interview that he is prepared to accept some sort of scaled-down package on health care reform. He may try to get something through that's the big package. But he said essentially, let's make sure we have at least this, insurance reform, something for cost containment and something for small business. That frankly, was a retreat from the dream of Democrats for 70 years for achieving universal access. I think what we are hearing and seeing Larry is the fading of that dream yet once again.

KING: If true, Donna Brazile, do you agree with that by the way Donna?

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely. Look, we lost one vote and it was a very important vote. But the Democrats did not lose their core values of trying to get this economy to work for all Americans. And of course, they're trying to bring about health insurance reform that will help Americans lower their premiums, provide greater access for those without health care and of course give small businesses an opportunity to cover their employees. So I think the president is absolutely right, to look for ways to get the two bills into one package that can be put together quickly for the Congressional Budget Office to score and to take that to the American people and hopefully Mr. Brown will be on board to help pass real health care reform.

KING: Mary Matlin, John McCain today on the Senate floor called this a national victory. Do you agree?

MARY MATLIN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, it was national on the heels of or on top of the (INAUDIBLE) trifecta for Republicans for New Jersey, a true blue state and Virginia a almost new blue state. Yeah, it was a national compaign (INAUDIBLE) health care. There are a number of other issues that could be conventionally called conservative that Scott Brown ran unabashedly on -- cutting taxes, prosecuting the war on terror. But David Gergen is exactly right. This is a big walk back. And ironically what happened on health care (INAUDIBLE) was that people came to appreciate our health care system they want (INAUDIBLE) but they don't want the baby thrown out with the bath water.

KING: By the way Mary, where are you? What's behind you?

MATLIN: I am standing in front of and trying not to listen to -- though he has been spectacular. Rolan (ph) here is entertaining a massive crowd at Tulane. (INAUDIBLE) but he is better than us right now.

KING: He is fighting you. Let's go to John Avalon in New York, author of "Wingnuts, How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America." That wasn't the lunatic fringe yesterday, was it?

JOHN AVALON, COLUMNIST, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: No, it wasn't. Larry, I am an independent. Many of folks who are younger Americans are independents, 44 percent of voters born after 1977 are independents. What is happening is a very consistent message. But it should be a wake up call to both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats need to understand that they are overspending. And what's happened with unified control of government, this narrow play to the base approach that seems to have come out of Nancy Pelosi's Congress has alienated independents big time. But Republicans who want to interpret this as an endorsement for their whole agenda, they're in denial about what this is really about as well. You don't hear it a lot but Scott Brown is a pro-choice Republican. Independents swung towards him because he's consistent with generally what they believe, fiscal conservatism, socially liberal Libertarian. That's where independents are. That's where young voters are. That is the message that was being sent last night. Folks, got to get the message in Washington. The rare of play to the base politics is over.

KING: And we'll get David's response to that in 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back. David, is John Avalon right?

GERGEN: John Avalon has emerged as one of the leading voices of his generation. I respect that. But I do disagree about his analysis about Scott Brown. He was embraced by the social conservatives. He did not necessarily embrace their full agenda. He did say he was for Rowe v. Wade. But he put a lot of restrictions on the way abortions are done. He's very much against gay marriage. He's against a lot of other things. He was a right to life candidate in this election. I don't think it was the major theme that drove the election. I think he was also very much against deficit spending. He was very much against the health care bill. But to go back to the question you put to Mary Matlin, Scott Brown took off in December and in very large part when he began campaigning Larry to become the 41st senator, he nationalized the race. And when he did that, along with his sort of populism and his real authenticity, he reminds me a lot of Sarah Palin in some ways because he is real. He's authentic and he's sort of of the people. I don't think he's Sarah Palin in pants, but I do think he has some of that same charismatic quality. That combination of nationalizing the race and the personality really drove this and brought him a victory against a, as we all know now a not a very good candidate.

KING: Donna in speaking today, he mentioned, Scott Brown mentioned, how bipartisan he was in the Massachusetts legislature. Do you expect him to be that in the Senate?

BRAZILE: I hope so and I hope President Obama reaches out to him. Look, he ran a very aggressive grass root campaign. I spent time yesterday on the telephone reaching out to voters, urging them to go to the polls and many of them said, you're the first person to call and you're from Washington, DC. He really touched people. He went where they lived, where they ate, where they and played and where they prayed. It was a traditional old-style Democratic campaign, a bottom up campaign. But now that he has come to Washington, DC, I hope he is not the person who will veto health care reform, job creation or energy, climate change. We need to find Republicans who are willing to work with the president to find common sense solutions. That is what the American people want. I think ultimately that is the verdict of the 2008 election and this special election in Massachusetts. They want both parties to work together.

GERGEN: Here's the thing, Larry. And Donna, I think the Republican Senate and the Senate is mainly this. Barack Obama and his team seemed to have gotten their cart in a ditch and it's going to be up to them to get it out. They don't plan to give them any help doing that. They may help here in Afghanistan but I don't think on much else and this hope for a new era of bipartisanship I think is, I think we're a long way away from that. There may be (INAUDIBLE)

KING: Mary do you think the Republicans can get a little too cocky over this? Because it appears that no party is popular.

MATLIN: No, no. This is -- no there is no chest beating. If you watched what Senator-Elect Brown said last night, but the Democrats are going to misread again as they've misread their mandate and they misread throughout the year the response to that misread mandate by thinking that the Republicans are obstructing on because they just don't want to play well with Democrats. They object -- they object to this agenda. They do not believe in the kind of economic takeover that would be wrought with this energy plan. They don't believe in (INAUDIBLE) economy, 60 percent of the economy be taken over (INAUDIBLE) They don't believe in that kind of governance and he ran on that and (INAUDIBLE) and (INAUDIBLE) in Virginia ran on that. Yes they all ran good campaigns but a good campaign doesn't make up for a bad message. People are responding to that message and Democrats need to come and work with Republicans, not the other way around if we want to have any progress in Washington.

BRAZILE: But Mary, with all due respect, I don't think the Republicans should over interpret the results. Look, there is no evidence in the polling, the exits, the so-called exit poll that one firm conducted, that the voters up there want to return to the past. They really want the parties to come together to find jobs, restore our economy and to really bring this country back from the brink of a financial collapse. That's what they want. I don't think that requires us to have a Democratic solution or a Republican solution, but an American solution.

KING: We'll bring John Avalon right back into this. I got to get a break. I got to get a break and we'll bring John back. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: John Avalon, down to the nitty-gritty, is the president going to get a health care bill?

AVALON: That's the kind of crystal ball we all wish we could have. I think what you see is that he has the sense to say that jamming through a bill in a nonpartisan way is only going to compound the problems the Democrats have. It will lead to an even bigger backlash. I think there may be a way in the unlikely event the House were to vote for the Senate bill, that that might be the least lousy of all the options. The ideal thing would be to try to form a bipartisan coalition which is what he was elected to do. Independents voted for Barack Obama because he promised to transcend all of the old politics of left versus right, black versus white. Independents and angry because of the persistence of hyper partisanship in Washington. And liberal House leadership I think did misread the 2008 election as a liberal ideological mandate. But Republicans shouldn't get too far ahead of themselves either. If you look at the conservative populism that's out there to David's point earlier that's been fueling a lot of the tea party protests. You look at the heroes of conservative populism, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Huckabee. These are folks who independents don't like them. There is no connection. Scott Brown was able to win independents in a state that is 51 percent independent. That is what is happening. That's what Republicans and Democrats need to do to survive. The reality is independents are the largest and fasting growing segment of the electorate and both parties...

BRAZILE: John, as a liberal, I take personal offense at demonizing people.

AVALON: Don't take personal offense.

BRAZILE: I take personal offense because when you see the speaker of the House and the majority leader standing up to expand children's health insurance, you see them trying to help Americans who are burdened with credit card debt and reducing the cost of the interest payments. That is not a liberal agenda. That is trying to help ordinary working people in this country. So there is no such thing as...

AVALON: (INAUDIBLE) a liberal agenda.

BRAZILE: I understand the perception. We've done a lousy job with messaging. I agree with that. I don't take that personally. That is something the Democrats must do. Let's fight to try to bring people together, John.

KING: David what is puzzling to an observer is unless you're a whacko, everybody thinking we need health care reform. Since everybody thinks we need health care reform, why can't we get health care reform?

GERGEN: Well, that's a really good question. And there was a time when Republicans were much closer to Democrats in agreeing on what might be in it. Richard Nixon of all people proposed a national health insurance plan that Teddy Kennedy -- he and Teddy Kennedy were working pretty closely together. It fell apart at the last minute, might well have happened. But over the last 20years, there has been a real split between the two parties, both wanting health care reform. But the Republicans very much want a private sector kind of plan be very much based on private choice and the private industry. And there is a sense that the Democrats much prefer a system with the government heavily involved either regulating or actually running it. And one of the big differences on this, President Obama came down on the side of keeping the health insurance companies there. But he's been -- a lot of people are pulling to the left in his own party to have more government intervention and the conservatives just don't buy that. I think there is a fundamental ideological split on this.

KING: Mary, how do the Republicans feel that the poor will be involved. How do they get those who can't afford it to get health care?

MATLIN: The notion that you are not for big government take over of health care, that you're for the status quo, you're for no health care reform, is one of those straw men that the Democrats like to employ. Republicans have on the table and will come back to the table with a number of ways to reduce the cost of health care and health insurance, all of which were at various times in and out of the bill from pooling for small businesses, for consumer infusions, for market- based plans, for tort reform (INAUDIBLE), all the rest of these things that control the cost. This is not affording health care to everybody. By the way, everybody has access to health care today. That is another misnomer, but a tenet of Republican proposal is that there be universal care and the Republicans did contribute to passing champ (ph) and health care for children. So the notion that the Republicans are out there on some sort of (INAUDIBLE) where status quo is just another one of those bogeymen that people are not listening to on any level, in any of the races that have been run in the last year.

BRAZILE: But the health insurance bill passed under Pelosi and Reid's leadership.

KING: We're going to do a lot more of this, probably again tomorrow night. But right now we're going to go live to Haiti and the still-devastating conditions there. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: By the way, our fundraising efforts continue on behalf of the people of Haiti. We are helping to auction off the Michael Jackson opus on our Web site. Go to CNN.com/Larryking to bid. Last I looked it was up to $19,000.

Let's go to Port-au-Prince. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, a practicing neuro-surgeon. A lot of focus on aid from outside Haiti. I understand you have reported about a hospital being operated by a pair of Haitian twins.

What's that all about?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, I think there's an assumption that most of the aid is coming from outside. But in fact, the -- a lot of the Haitian doctors who were there beforehand, they stayed.

In fact they stayed open for business even as the earth -- just as soon as the earthquake ended. So this particular practice is run by two brothers, they are twins, they're both general surgeons. Very well trained, Larry.

They trained in France. They came back, decided to practice in Port-au-Prince. And over the first three days after the earthquake, they immediately went there and started taking care of patients. Seventy-five patients within that time period.

You know, it's interesting. I saw them driving around the streets when I first got here. I didn't know who they were but they were in their vehicle, literally picking up patients off the street, bringing them back to their clinic and taking care of them.

Now, Larry, they are dependent on aid as well because they lost a lot of their supplies in the earthquake. And that aid is starting to slowly come in. But, you know, they were very adamant with me that look, it's eight days now. We really, really need to get our clinic up and running to full capacity. Again, we're just not there. But remarkable guys who are really doing a lot for the community there.

KING: Are more people being cared for in better fashion day to day?

GUPTA: Absolutely. No question. As much as we talk about how desperate the situation is down here, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge that it was getting better.

Now, you know, getting better is a relative tomorrow, as you know, Larry, in part because of where Haiti started. You know 80 percent of people living in poverty translates to everything including the medical infrastructure. Hospitals just weren't that good in the first place.

There are hardly any ICUs. Not enough supplies. That's just a Haiti problem. And then when you add, you know, there's this problem of more patients and even fewer hospitals, it obviously gets worse but it is better.

It is better. I think you're starting to see some optimism among the doctors, even a little bit of time to come out and talk to us and explain what's going on before they get right back into it again. KING: The amazing Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Keeps on keeping on. Thanks, Sanjay.

Back to Port-au-Prince and Gary Tuchman, CNN's national correspondent. He covered a heart-breaking story today. Elderly patients at a municipal nursing home.

How heartbreaking, Gary? What was that about?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Larry, you're just talking to Sanjay about how things relatively have improved. But at this nursing home, they have not improved whatsoever.

It's a nursing home that was partially destroyed from the earthquake. Six of the seniors who lived there were killed. Seventy- four survived, but the 74 who survived are now living outdoors in squalor. They have no food, no water, no medicine.

One doctor for all 74 people. A Haitian doctor who just showed up today after a week and all he has with him is aspirin, bandages and a blood pressure gauge. These people are living in diapers. Some people have no clothes on whatsoever, and they have nothing to eat, nothing to drink.

It's an absolutely desperate situation. And the worst part, Larry, is there's no plans for them for the future. The director of the nursing home who was still there, to his credit, doesn't know what he's going to do with these people.

KING: Well, why can't they get food to them?

TUCHMAN: Well, what they're getting -- some people are coming by and giving them like little samples of the food. But there is absolutely no storage of food whatsoever. So basically, they asked us, please, CNN, go on LARRY KING, go on other CNN programs and tell us that the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home needs food and water.

So just before we left after we...

KING: OK.

TUCHMAN: ... did a couple of live reports, a British aid working came by and said that she is going to get some supplies by late tonight. So we hope that is the case.

KING: Gary, the U.N. estimates 1/3 of Haiti's population. That's three million people are still in need of food, water, shelter and medical assistance.

Do you see anything getting better?

TUCHMAN: As Sanjay was saying, things have gotten a little bit better. But it's such a relative term. I mean, when you see behind me right, there are still thousands of people living in this park right next to our CNN workspace with no homes. They've been there for eight nights.

And they don't have bathrooms. They don't have showers and they have very little food. So there's still a lot of hunger. There's still a lot of thirsty people. Every day people come up to us and ask us for food and water. And it breaks our heart that we can't bring boxes and boxes and give it to everyone who asks. We just can't do it.

So it's still very bad, Larry.

KING: Gary Tuchman, CNN's national correspondent.

We've got an amazing survival story for you right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Remember that incredible story we showed you yesterday of that lady being carried out of the rubble buried alive like five days? Well, there she is at the Boca Community Medical Center in Boca Raton. That's Mimi Dittmer, buried alive in the Caribbean market. Looking pretty good.

With her are her sons, Ricky Dittmer and Mike Dittmer. Ricky is, Mike isn't.

Mimi, how are you feeling?

MIMI DITTMER, BURIED IN QUAKE RUBBLE FOR FIVE DAYS: I'm feeling better. I'm getting better now. I'm feeling OK now.

KING: What kept you going for five days under rubble?

DITTMER: What kept me going? I can tell you -- I can tell you that in one word. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. I had no doubt that he would save me. The minute I saw myself buried, I knew my Lord Jesus Christ would take me out of there and I started praying from the minute then.

KING: Ricky, did you think you'd lost your mother?

RICKY DITTMER, MOM BURIED ALIVE, RESCUED: No, we never. Five days was quite awhile but we never lost hope. We just had to keep going, you know, hoping and praying that she would be all right.

KING: Well, the three men who got her out are with us. They're still in Port-au-Prince, of course.

Joseph Fernandez, the leader of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force II team. Dr. Mark Grossman, the -- also of Task Force II, and Eric Fijkis, he's South Urban as well. Paramedic for Pembroke Pines, Florida, the town where Mimi Dittmer is from.

Joseph, how do you explain this? How did she live?

JOSEPH FERNANDEZ, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: Well, I think by the grace of God, as Mimi said, and with some help from us. I -- when I first saw Mimi come out after hours of guiding the operations and all of these guys that were in the hole with her, and she started reciting all of her information down to her driver's license number in detail.

I really was anxious that when I was going to make the call, something might not be right. So we had a lot of the pensive pauses there between Ricky and I, and I said, is this a family member of Mimi Dittmer? And he answered yes.

And then my stomach kind of knotted up. And then I thought to myself, you know, what would I want to hear first if I was the person receiving the message. And I said, your mother is fine. And then there was huge pause. And then an exclamation from Ricky and then my heart just kind of sank there for a second there. And then just had a conversation.

KING: You have every right to feel great. Dr. Grossman, what medical treatment was immediately applied to Mimi?

DR. MARK GROSSMAN, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE: Well, really it's just trying to get her out of the hole. She was stuck in the hole obviously for five days. And even once she got out of the hole, the area that she was in was very contaminated.

We had been digging and drilling into the ceiling and there was dusts and dirt all over the place. And there was food that was rotting and, you know, other things going on. So just to get her out of the area as quickly as possible.

But really, she was awake and talking and, you know, relatively stable. She just needed some IV hydration and some reassurance. And she actually -- again, remarkably and almost miraculously was -- didn't need that much intervention.

She was intact, otherwise. You know, she didn't have any broken bones or anything very obvious.

KING: Eric...

(CROSSTALK)

GROSSMAN: Otherwise OK.

KING: Eric, how do you explain it?

IRENEUSZ "ERIC" FIJKIS, SOUTH FLORIDA URBAN SEARCH & RESCUE: Well, the minute I touched Mimi and when I finally made a contact with her, I knew that she would be safe.

And I decided to do at that point, just being there with -- by myself and another member from New York task force, Tom, he was just in the hole with me. But he was farther away, closer to the opening that we made.

I knew that she will be safe. My only concern was that there was a really small, narrow space that we had to get her through, which we were successful and it went very well so...

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Mimi, what would you like to say to these three men?

M. DITTMER: I would like to say that they were awesome. And I thank them so much for all the work, all the effort they have given to take me out of there. It was a lot of work. It took hours. I cannot tell how many hours. But these men are awesome.

I want to thank the rescue team of Turkey, the one from New York, and the one from -- and the one from South Florida. I want to thank them all. They worked as a team and they did what they had to do and they helped me and I am really thankful.

I want to also say that...

KING: You sound very strong, Mimi.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Go ahead.

M. DITTMER: And thank you. And I also want to say these men were sent my Lord Jesus Christ.

KING: Thank you. And congratulations all the way around.

M. DITTMER: Because I had that faith.

KING: Thank you. Mimi, God bless.

M. DITTMER: Thank you.

KING: We've been auctioning off -- our thanks, everybody. We've been auctioning off my suspenders this week. Proceeds benefit the peoples of Haiti. The ones I'm wearing tonight were bought outright by a corporate donor Ash City Worldwide paying $25,000.

They're challenging others to ante up the money. It'll be split between the American Red Cross and the United States Fund for UNICEF.

Go to our Web site, CNN.com/Larryking. Keep bidding. I've got a lot of suspenders. We'll give more away. These I'll take off at the end of the show. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: President and Mrs. Obama are a donating $15,000 for recovery efforts in Haiti. A spokesman says they were inspired by the millions of Americans who have contributed to this cause.

Joining us now at the Miami International Airport is Jill Wilkins, and in Haiti is Joe Wilkins, her husband.

A quick story is, they were in the process of adopting a little Haitian boy, Samuel. Suddenly all the records got lost in the rubble. They were in a dilemma. But I think they managed to work it out.

Jill is waiting at the airport. Joe, are you going to bring Samuel home?

JOE WILKINS, QUAKE STALLED ADOPTION OF SON: It looks that way, Larry. Everything is not final, of course, until the airplane gets off the ground, of course, and we're hoping that happens very soon.

KING: And I understand you're bringing back other orphans as well, being -- who are being adopted?

J. WILKINS: That is the case. Again if the flight gets off the ground, it looks like the babies that are adopted in the United States will be heading home, hopefully very soon.

KING: I understand the plane was donated by -- do you know who donated the plane that's going to take you back?

J. WILKINS: Jill might know that. I think she's been working really hard on that.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Jill, who donated the plane?

JILL WILKINS, QUAKE STALLED ADOPTION OF SON: So Larry, there's a couple of really key happenings today that are happening real time. That is one of them. So we had an incredible sponsorship from -- for both the charter flight and also actually this entire -- what we're calling a reunification mission on behalf of God's Littlest Angels and that was Messengerinternational.org.

It's a nonprofit organization based out of Colorado Springs. It was an incredible, incredible day to have that sponsorship.

KING: And now when do you expect Joe to come in with your new little son?

JILL WILKINS: Well, you know, Larry, we're hoping that this is going to happen in the next couple of days. There are so many balls up in the air and things change, every 10 minutes, we have some new information.

I think the biggest thing today that we've been working on is that, you know, number one, we're just normal people. I'm just an adoptive parent and this has just turned into just an incredible opportunity to make history.

There is really not a lot of precedent here that we have to go off of, so we are trying to work with key, influential -- you know, and people -- organizations and lawyers to figure out how we're going to process the kids, and Samuel being one of them.

And we're really struggling. We are meeting in fact right now, I had to step away from that meeting. KING: Well, we're going to devote a lot more time to this tomorrow night. We hope by then he's home. But if not, we'll get a lot more details. We're cramped for time tonight. But we really appreciate it.

Jill, I hope you stay there at the airport. Joe, I hope you're there tomorrow morning.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Jill Wilkins and Joe Wilkins. We'll stay right atop that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE, Enrique Iglesias. He's in Miami, the Grammy-winning recording artist. And here in Los Angeles is Mike Shinoda, musician, artist and lead vocalist for the two-time Grammy-winning rock band Linkin Park.

They are here because major names in the music business are joining forces to generate funds for the Haitian earthquake relief efforts. This is called "Download to Donate for Haiti."

Did you come up with this, Mike?

MIKE SHINODA, "DOWNLOAD TO DONATE FOR HAITI": The name I was a part of. The actual idea for the piece came from the band and our organization, Music for Relief.

KING: Enrique, how did you get involved?

ENRIQUE IGLESIAS, "DOWNLOAD TO DONATE FOR HAITI": Mike and his band, Linkin Park, we are both managed by the same management company and they asked me to do this. And you know, I grew up in Miami. And as you know, Miami has a huge Haitian population, and many of my friends growing up are -- I mean were Haitians.

And they've been very affected by what's going on in Haiti. A lot of them have lost family members in Haiti. So I was -- I was right on. I was ready to do it. And I had some music that I wanted to give to Music for Relief that nobody's heard yet.

KING: So how does it work, Mike? What happened?

SHINODA: Well, we're at a really special point in time, as far as a project like this goes. I don't think -- I mean, a few years ago, you wouldn't have been able to turn around a song in the matter of days.

KING: Right.

SHINODA: The way it's happened now. You wouldn't have the social -- the online communities that we've got now. You wouldn't have had Facebook and Twitter and all these great...

KING: So what happened? What do people do?

SHINODA: So what happened on our end, we got a song -- we reached out to artists, got exclusive songs, brand-new songs that nobody has heard of, and in some cases, like our case, we wrote a song specifically for this cause, a song called "Not Alone."

And then now fans can basically go to musicforrelief.org or anywhere -- their friends' site might actually have our widget on it. A lot of people are embedding them on their Facebook pages.

You click it, you can have the music for free, and you can donate to the cause and the money goes -- 100 percent of the money goes straight to the Haitian...

KING: So you donated a song, Enrique? Is that the way it works?

IGLESIAS: Yes, that's the way it works. And you know -- as you know, these great artists like Alanis Morrisette, Dave Matthews Band, All American Rejects, and there are songs that nobody -- none of the fans have heard before. They are -- you know, they previously have not been unreleased -- they've been unreleased. So it's cool for the fans and they can donate whatever amount they want.

KING: Wow, so you tell them, I want to donate $10, you get the music?

SHINODA: Yes, we didn't want to tell them -- you know, some people can donate $100. That's great. Please do. Some people done have that money to donate but the way that they can participate is actually grabbing the widget that -- the little window into this project and putting it on their Facebook page or putting it on their blog or whatever you got.

KING: So the simplest way to do it for the viewer now is to do what?

SHINODA: They should go to musicforrelief.org.

KING: Musicforrelief.org. And they will find out what the selections they can pick.

SHINODA: Yes. You can listen to all of the songs, you can download them for free and you can donate.

KING: All you got to do is go to musicforrelief.org and check it all out. One of the artists taking part in Download to Donate for Haiti is Grammy-winning recording artist and philanthropist Peter Gabriel. He's donating his cover of a classic David Bowie song "Heroes."

So here's Peter Gabriel with "Heroes" and then more powerful, painful images from Haiti.