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Fund raising for hurricane relief. Roberts nominated Chief Justice.

Aired September 05, 2005 - 12:30   ET

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

KAGAN: Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush are in Houston, Texas. They are kicking off a fund raising campaign for hurricane disaster relief and medical services. The two men spearheaded a similar money raising effort for victims of last year's tsunami. Mr. Clinton took the opportunity to express his strong feelings about how FEMA should be organized and operated. He suggested that there might be a Katrina Commission just a there was a 9/11 Commission.
That is only the beginning of what is taking place in Houston today, where thousands of people from New Orleans have taken refuge. And our Keith Oppenheim joins us now from Houston, Texas. Keith?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. And the former presidents described what they call the Bush Katrina - Bush Clinton Katrina Fund as a way to fill in the gaps and to divert the money they get from this fund to three other funds for the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama respectively.

And they are raising some pretty big bucks from some major contributors. Wal-Mart and the Wal-Mart Family Foundation has contributed $20 million, which they are receiving now. Also some contributions coming from some big players such as Nike, and Microsoft, The Trump Group.

And the presidents, of course, were asked by the press as to how they are perceiving the criticism that the federal government has been getting in terms of the response. Here's what former President Bill Clinton had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: I think there should be an analysis of what happened. And I have some strong feelings about how I think FEMA ought to be organized and operated.

But the time to do that, in my opinion, is after some time passes. Right now, you still have people -- we're still finding bodies there. And there still may be some people alive there. And you know, we had a 9/11 Commission. We had -- we may have a Katrina Commission. We may have these things.

But I think the first thing we've got to do is to remember that these people are -- what they're going through. And now it seems that, you know, we're all on harness and we're all working on it. I think it's an appropriate thing to look into, but not at this time. (END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: When former President Bush was asked the similar question, he said the president can take it. That got some laughs from the press. But then he said quite seriously, as a father, I don't like it. And he hopes that the criticism will wane. Instead there will be more of a focus on the future.

Kind of a tricky political situation for former President Clinton, because he didn't want to bash the Bush administration with the father of the current president standing right next to him.

But he said as you heard in part there that while he has strong opinions as to how FEMA should be organized or perhaps reorganized, he really thinks that the focus needs to be on corporations providing jobs to those evacuees. And Wal-mart, for example, he said is reemploying some of its displaced employees here in Texas. And he says that's the kind of thing that's critical for survival at this point. Back to you.

KAGAN: Yes. They're saying wherever -- if you're a Wal-mart employee, wherever you end up, get a job at that local Wal-mart. Thank you, Keith.

We're looking at live pictures as we go back to Baton Rouge. This is the Emergency Operation Center.

Marine One, President Bush onboard landing there. It's just part of his day long visit to the region. He landed in Baton Rouge earlier. He'll be here. He'll be taking an aerial trip of Mississippi as well.

A big day for President Bush also making a decision to take Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and make him a nominee for the chief justice position vacated when the Chief Justice William Rehnquist passed away over the weekend. We'll have more on that with our Joe Johns just ahead. Right now a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I want to show you these live pictures from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. President Bush about to get out of Marine One. He is on a day long tour. His second visit to the Gulf Coast area in the last three days. He is right now in Baton Rouge. Live pictures so hold on, as we watch the live pictures come in.

While we watch these pictures, let's bring in our Deborah Feyerick. Deb, do we know what the president will be doing there at the Emergency Operation Center?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's here. This is where all the command center operations are being run out if. It's the command center. FEMA's here, everybody's here, the National Guard, the Army, the Navy. We've seen Airforce pilots. We have seen the Coast Guard. We have seen virtually every federal agency that you can imagine here on site now. This is where the efforts are being coordinated for this entire effort. Lieutenant General Honore was here earlier this morning. We don't know whether he's still on the premises or not. We saw him probably, I don't know, 45 minutes ago or something.

But again, this is where all the workers are. And the governor's been here holding press conferences regularly, a couple of times a day in some cases.

So this is where everybody who knows anything is. And that's probably why he's here, just to meet a couple of the folks who are mounting this relief effort. Being seeing them amongst everybody, as they try to coordinate this massive effort, Daryn.

KAGAN: Deborah, I can tell you this. Between landing at the airport at Baton Rouge and landing here, he went to a place called Bethany World Prayer Center. And there, President Bush talked about still having a lot of work to do. And just some pictures we're seeing from that visit.

As long as there are lives in danger, there's work to do. As long as we can still save lives, there's a lot of work to do. People can be helped by getting food and water. And in a place like this with his faith base, by giving love.

He also thanked the bishop T.D. Jakes for forming an army of compassion. And T.D. Jakes actually alongside the president today for this visit. This is just a day long visit, Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a very quick visit. It's a very quick visit. He's in, he's out. As a matter of fact, the governor didn't even realize he was going to be here or wasn't officially notified until very early this morning about 6:00 when her office called the White House and was told that, in fact, yes, he would be coming back to visit.

So we believe now that she was with him. She was there at the airport to greet him this morning. She was supposed to go to a shelter in Houston, where a number of people have been displaced. But in fact, she changed her plans. And of course, as a courtesy, was here to greet him when he arrived.

And we can tell you one thing that we were told yesterday by the NAACP. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to move some of these people out of the shelters, especially out of those huge domes. Even though people are being pretty well taken care of at those shelters, from what we understand, they want to try to get them into maybe churches and have these folks kind of adopted and become part of the community. Give them more of a sense that things are normal, especially at a time when there's nothing that is normal.

So we know that that's going to be happening. Again, the president just touched down a little while ago to our right. And we don't know whether he's going to come in the front door of the command center.

KAGAN: Well, let me just jump in here, Deborah...

FEYERICK: Or another entrance.

KAGAN: Deb, let me just jump in here because I can see things that I think perhaps you can't with the camera angle. Some of the faces that we see -- we also see Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. We see Mrs. Bush, the First Lady, Michael Chertoff, the homeland defense secretary, and also Russell Honore, the lieutenant general who is in charge of the National Guard response to what's taking place there and who has been -- become an immediately visible face in the effort to try to get things under control, especially in New Orleans.

FEYERICK: Well, that's - and so you must -- I don't know where Lieutenant General Honore met up with him. But again, maybe we'd seen him maybe about 45 minutes ago. So he may have even met up with him at that shelter at the relief center.

But again, we're not 100 percent sure how quick the visit is going to be, how long the visit is going to be. We were told that he might even address the cameras at about 12:00 today. Actually, that's 12:00 local time. That's 1:00 Eastern Standard Time. So we don't know when that's going to take place. But of course, we'll be there for it.

KAGAN: And you'll see is live here on CNN. The picture there, Michael Chertoff, Homeland Defense Secretary and President Bush and Lieutenant General Russel Honore as they walk toward the Emergency Operation Center.

Thank you, Deb Feyerick, live in Baton Rouge.

The other big news of the day concerns the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, creating a second vacancy on the Supreme Court. Also, an opportunity for a former Rehnquist clerk, who has now been nominated as his replacement.

Yes, Judge John Roberts, who was nominated to take Sandra Day O'Connor's seat, has now been moved up to be Chief Justice nominee.

Here is CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken. He's at the White House. We also have our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. We will start with Bob with the nuggets and the news. And we'll analysis from Jeff. Bob?

BOB FRANKEN: And this is not particularly a surprise since John Roberts had become in the last few months a known quantity in the United States. And in the center where you'll need to be confirmed because of his record, the display of his record accompanying his nomination to replace Sandra Day O'Connor.

They met last night about 5:30 Eastern. Had about a 45-minute conversation, some of it alone. The president offered Roberts the switch of nominations. Roberts readily accepted, we were told by White House officials this morning.

In addition, we were told the White House had already contemplated that even if he had been confirmed as an associate justice, he had been elevated once Rehnquist left the court, which of course, happened earlier. The president saying that with the court coming up with its term on October 3rd, time was of the essence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is in the interest of the court and the country to have a chief justice on the bench on the first full day of the fall term. The Senate is well along in the process of considering Judge Roberts' qualifications.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And with the White House acquiescence, the Senate Judiciary Committee has put off its planned hearing tomorrow, to nobody's surprise, if for no other reason than the memorial services that will begin for the deceased Judge - Chief Judge Rehnquist.

There will be either hearings starting on Thursday or more likely on Monday for a new nomination. This one of John Roberts to be the chief justice.

As for Justice O'Connor, the president called her, Daryn, from Air Force One. She had not heard the news until the call. No word at all about her response to the president.

KAGAN: All right, Bob Franken at the White House, thank you.

Let's bring in our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joining us now. Jeff, first of all, surprised that the president makes a choice from outside to fill the role of chief justice?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: You know, not really Daryn. If you look at the history, there have only been 16 chief justices of the United States. And roughly half have come from inside the court and half have come from outside.

If you look at the last three since the last - since the 1950s, you have Chief Justice Rehnquist, who came from an associate justice position. But the previous two, Warren Berger had been on the D.C. Circuit like John Roberts is on the D.C. Circuit. And Earl Warren been governor of California.

So there is no established pattern. And John Roberts certainly seems well on his way to being confirmed at this point.

KAGAN: All right, so as we move things around or as President Bush moves things around, now you have an O'Connor vacancy yet again. Some of the names that you might expect to come up for this vacancy this time around?

TOOBIN: Well, the interesting thing is, you know, the short list for the last vacancy became very public. So it's hard to think that President Bush looking at the exact same vacancy would want to look at some other people because, you know, this was only five weeks ago. And people's qualifications haven't changed in that period. You have the two Edith judges from the South. You have Edith Clement, who's from New Orleans, which is obviously potentially a plus in her favor. You have Edith Jones, a much better known judge, but also more politically polarizing, more conservative.

Michael Ludig, a very conservative judge from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Harvey Wilkinson, another judge from the Fourth Circuit, somewhat older - 62-years old.

It's very much expected that President Bush will want to name someone like John Roberts in their 50s or mid 50s at the oldest, because you know, he wants a stamp on this court for a lot of years to come.

KAGAN: Now some Democrats are calling in saying, now we've already had a slight delay in the confirmation hearing mainly because of logistics with the funeral and such. But some are saying well wait, we don't even want to address the Roberts confirmation until we know what the whole package is. We want to know who you're also going to nominate for the O'Connor seat, but that's not how the rules work. President Bush does not have to do that.

TOOBIN: Not at all. And Supreme Court nominees are always considered on their individual merits. They don't go in as a team. They don't vote as a team. No two justices vote together all the time. And so, I think that's a suggestion that's likely to go nowhere.

And also, you know, there is the question of time. You know, the Supreme Court can function with as few as six justices. It's not considered desirable, but -- and certainly it's often decides cases with eight justices because a justice is sick or a justice recuses him or herself.

But it's important to have people on - you know, a full complement of justices on the bench. So any sort of delay is likely to be looked on with great disfavor by Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, who's the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And he's the person who's really running show the here.

KAGAN: All right, Jeffrey Toobin live from New York City. Thank you for that.

TOOBIN: OK, Daryn, see you.

KAGAN: We're going to be checking with our relief desk to see efforts to get people back together, reunions, and also how your help is reaching those in need. That's still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We're getting a chance now to show you some before and after pictures. This is the before. This was the huge fire that we saw burning out of control in a warehouse along the Mississippi River in New Orleans. This was on Friday. Well, that fire long out. And now people having a chance to get to the warehouse, the burnt out warehouse today, just getting the pictures in of what that gutted and destroyed warehouse looks like today, an aerial view of that same place where that fire was burning on Friday.

There's going to be many depressing images like that coming in from New Orleans, as folks get a better chance to get in and see what's left. But they're also -- these are live pictures as well from New Orleans.

Also some encouraging stories that we're getting, though, of reunions and of relief getting to people who need it. And our Fredericka Whitfield has that - Fredericka?

FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Daryn. Well, at the CNN Victims and Relief Desk, we continue to receive e-mails from people looking for loved ones.

Let's get right to them, at least portions of them. Currently missing Alexander Vincent Hillsman. He is 22-years old and stands 5'7" tall. Hillsman was last heard from on August 29th in New Orleans saying over the phone that water was rising at his home.

Also missing from New Orleans, Jennifer Dingwall. The family of the 23-year-old requests anyone with information on her whereabouts contact them immediately.

And this e-mail inquiring about Loveless Dupuy. The 77-year-old was supposedly evacuated to St. Bernard High, but this has not been confirmed. Dupuy stands 5'6" and weighs roughly 170 pounds.

Well, many of those looking for loved ones are in various shelters scattered around the country. And they haven't even connected with the people they were separated from during and after the storm.

But relatives are being able to connect in large part through the efforts of volunteers like Teresa White. She has been working at a shelter in Shreveport. She joins us on the telephone.

And Teresa, your story is quite remarkable. You really have gone the extra mile. You noticed that there were two kids, 19-year-old Wilson and 15-year-old Beatrice, who had been separated from their mom during some chopper airlift rescues. You went the extra mile to try to find their mother. How did you go about that?

TERESA WHITE, SHELTER VOLUNTEER: Well, there's a Red Cross website, family links.icrc.org/katrina that you can put your name and where your location is. And I had registered the children. And I just kept looking every two or three hours to see if I could find their mother. And she -- her name showed up this morning at a shelter in Athens, Texas.

WHITFIELD: And that's remarkable. That was after two days of searching. An initiative you took on your own by checking your own home computer when you told the kids that you'd located their mom, it was about two hours away from Shreveport. What was their reaction?

WHITE: They were thrilled. They were excited.

WHITFIELD: And now you're on the road. About how far away are you now from the city in Texas?

WHITE: We're in Tyler, which is about 45 minutes out of Athens.

WHITFIELD: And does the mother know that she is going to be soon reunited with her two kids?

WHITE: I've spoken with a pastor at the church and also a volunteer worker there. And they promised that they would get word to her that the children were safe and they were on their way. So I'm assuming that she does know. We have not spoken with her yet, but they did she was there and was concerned about the kids and with their whereabouts.

WHITFIELD: And you had volunteered at the shelter like so many others who had been primarily distributing food, clothing and water. What was it about this particular case that made you want to go take it a bit further to try to reunify these family members?

WHITE: I think that any volunteer at the shelter in Shreveport would have taken these children to where their mother was. I'm not special. I think everyone would have.

WHITFIELD: Teresa White, thanks so much. And I know the family is thanking you, too, to reunite young Wilson and Beatrice with their mom.

WHITE: OK.

WHITFIELD: And here at CNN, you can e-mail us at hurricanevictims@cnn.com. We have tremendous resources available to you, as well as a safe list that you can register. It's all online at cnn.com/help center. Daryn?

KAGAN: Thank you, Fredericka.

President Bush in the region along the Gulf Coast today. A new tape coming in of his visit to a prayer center in Baton Rouge. And we'll show that to you just ahead. Right now a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Just seeing some new tape coming into us here at CNN. Shot of President Bush, who's in Baton Rouge right now at Bethany World Prayer Center. This shot within the last hour. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The good people of this region know there's a lot of work to be done. And we'll continue working with the local and state people to get it done. The first mission, of course, is to save lives. And so long as any life is in danger, we've got work to do. And we're going to continue to save lives whether it be in New Orleans, or the surrounding parishes, or up and down the coast of Mississippi.

Secondly, we can help save lives once a person fines a shelter such as this. And that means getting people food and water and medicine and help and a place like this, love.

I want to thank the pastor for having us. I want to thank my friend T.D. Jakes for rallying the armies of compassion to help somebody like the mayor. The response of this country has been amazing.

T.D. tells me about the church family members of his who have adopted 20 people out of -- from New Orleans. The pastor here has his gymnasiums full of families and volunteers are now responding to help the families.

I want to thank every family member who's helping somebody who's been displaced. I want to thank every church member who's helping people who have been displaced. America can be proud of the efforts of the churches and synagogues and mosques and community organizations.

We will help these people. And this is a long-term project to help these people. And this country is going to be committed to doing what it takes to help people get back on their feet. And that's why I've come back to this state. And that's why I'm going to Mississippi.

Again, I want to thank the pastor. The response of this church is indicative of the response of many around this nation. And I mean cities big and cities small. Families with, you know, who've got a lot of money, families with little money are all opening their arms to a brother and sister in need.

And I want to thank you, T.D., for helping to call people to action. And I want to thank the mayor. Thank the folks of Louisiana. We've got a lot of work to do. And that's why I'm here to tell people we'll get it done. Thank you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: That was President Bush earlier today at the Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He goes on to fly over Mississippi later today.

That's going to wrap up our coverage for the hour, but our coverage continues with Kyra Phillips at the top of the hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. I'll see you tomorrow morning.

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