Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

California Wildfires; Interview With Senator Joe Biden; 'Surviving the Game'

Aired June 23, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's half past the hour on AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, large fires burning in two western states this morning.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question, of course, is just how long before they're able to get it under control? And how bad is the fire season going to be? We've got an update on those questions ahead this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's check the headlines. Carol Costello is here.

Good morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News."

We begin in Baghdad this morning with at least 15 people killed in the span of 15 minutes. Iraqi police say three separate car bombs exploded one right after the other. At least 50 people were wounded. On Wednesday, five other car bombs rocked Baghdad, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens of others.

Just hours from now, former Ku Klux Klan member Edgar Ray Killen will learn his fate. Killen was convicted Tuesday of manslaughter in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. He faces 3 to 60 years in prison.

A proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning is going back to the Senate. On Wednesday, the House approved the measure. It is the sixth time since 1995 that such a ban was approved by the House but has yet to get through the Senate.

Two leading Democrats are blasting a new Republican proposal for Social Security, calling it a bait and switch plan. The measure would use leftover money from Social Security to create individual accounts and invest in U.S. treasury bonds. The proposal differs from President Bush's plan, which relies on investing in the stock market with tax dollars. We'll hear more from the president this morning on the topic of Social Security.

Hermes is apologizing to Oprah Winfrey for not letting her in. The posh store says it was closed when the talk show host stopped by its Paris location last week. The "New York Post" had originally reported Winfrey was turned away because the store was -- quote -- "Having a problem with North Africans." A Harper Production spokeswoman says Winfrey does plan to discuss what happened to her on her show in September. I can't wait to see that one.

And remember, you can view more CNN reports online. Just visit cnn.com, click on to "watch," and check out the most popular stories.

M. O'BRIEN: Now wait a minute. So she makes an allegation, and she says I'll explain it in September?

S. O'BRIEN: That would be the tease.

COSTELLO: The tease.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: That's what they call it.

COSTELLO: Exactly. But I bet people will be watching, because she called it her "crash" moment. So, you know what she's going to...

S. O'BRIEN: From the movie, "Crash."

COSTELLO: Exactly. She's going to be talking about it.

S. O'BRIEN: Racism in America, I'm guessing.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

S. O'BRIEN: And overseas, of course, because it happened in Paris.

COSTELLO: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. I wonder what she's going to say. Thanks, Carol.

M. O'BRIEN: Set the TiVo now.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get to those wildfires out West now. Firefighters near Palm Springs, California, have been working through night near the town of Morongo Valley. At least seven homes have been destroyed. About a thousand residents have been forced out. Some 4,500 acres are charred.

Morongo Valley is located 20 miles northwest of Palm Springs. It's about a hundred miles east of Los Angeles.

Matt Streck is the spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.

Matt, good morning. Nice to talk to you. Thanks for being with us this morning. Give me an update on how things look at this point. MATT STRECK, CALIFORNIA FORESTRY & FIRE PREVENTION: Well, good morning. We're up to 5,500 acres. Overnight, the winds didn't really die down until very late in the evening, early morning hours, and that pushed the fire even further than we hoped it would go.

S. O'BRIEN: So, any estimation on when they're going to be able to bring this fire under control?

STRECK: I think today is going to be a pivotal day. Yesterday, one of the issues that was causing us problems was very strong winds. This area on a daily basis gets winds. Combined with that, we had very low humidity. It was very dry out. Hopefully today we don't get quite as strong a wind.

At first light today, we'll have some aircraft up, and we'll be able to try and figure out how much bigger the fire got overnight.

The other thing that makes it a little bit harder to fight this fire is it's steep, rugged terrain. Fortunately, when the fire initially started, it went up onto the hills surrounding Morongo Valley. It hasn't completely encircled Morongo Valley, but what it did was it left the flat areas where the houses are at. So right now it's kind of burning around the town, and we're hoping to keep it from getting down into the valley floor where the houses are.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet you are. Let's talk a bit about the evacuations with all of those folks down in that valley. A thousand, I think, is the number that we last updated on how many people have had to leave their homes. Is that number still accurate?

STRECK: Well, it sounds about accurate. This area was relatively easy to evacuate. There were some people that didn't want to immediately leave their homes. But I think once they saw the flames and the smoke bearing down on them, that changed a few minds.

S. O'BRIEN: There were reports that all of this started with one house fire, and then, of course, it just spread. Is that accurate? And how did that original house fire begin?

STRECK: The cause and origin of the original structure fire is still under investigation. But what happened was, when you get a structure fire like that, embers take off into the air. And with the strong winds at that end of the valley, the embers rain down into the very dry vegetation. And it was off to the races trying to catch up to the flames.

S. O'BRIEN: Outside of the weather, which you mentioned, and also the steep terrain, what are some of the biggest challenges that the firefighters are dealing with this morning?

STRECK: A lot of vegetation out here. Morongo Valley is in a very unique situation. It has a significantly larger amount of vegetation than you would normally have in a desert area. We're at the base of the mountains where Big Bear Lake water drains down and settles underneath Morongo Valley. So, in a normal desert area you wouldn't have vegetation like we have here. In some areas it's 10 to 15 feet high on the valley floor, and that's our biggest concern is that it gets down into that vegetation.

S. O'BRIEN: So the rains over the winter really, you're feeling that effect then now because of all of that vegetation. Is this fire fast moving or slow moving?

STRECK: You know, I came up from San Diego to help fight this fire. When I left San Diego -- it takes me about two, two-and-a-half hours to get here -- the fire was 300 acres. When I got here it was 4,500 acres. So, in the course of several hours it really moved fast. That's some pretty impressive fire behavior. That's what wind can do to a wildfire. Any time there's wind blowing on a vegetation fire like that, it can just rapidly grow.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, hopefully, as you mentioned, the weather stays on your side today. Matt Streck is the spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. Thanks for talking with us -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: As we have been telling you, insurgents are upping the number of car bomb attacks in Iraq. As many as eight just since Wednesday. More than 30 killed. Three of those attacks just today and within just 15 minutes. This increasing violence comes as lawmakers in Washington question the U.S. ongoing role in Iraq.

Senator Joe Biden is the top ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He's recently back from Iraq.

Senator Biden, good to have you with us.

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Nice to be with you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You talk about the administration having a credibility gap on Iraq. What do you mean by that?

BIDEN: Well, the reality on the ground is much different than what the administration says is on the ground in Iraq. You have the vice president saying the insurgency is in its last throes. I didn't meet one military person in Iraq who thinks that's the case. The insurgency is getting stronger, not weaker.

And I think it's time that if we're going to keep the American people in on this deal, which we have to -- it's important in order to win -- we need at least another year over there. The president is going to have to level with them and tell them the hard part is coming. We can still do this. He's going to make some changes. Here is what they are, and this is how we're going to do it. But he can't continue this stuff about we're doing great. The American people are smarter than that. We're not doing that well.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, is the administration truly being disingenuous about it? I mean, the administration is -- currently the president is saying we're making progress toward the goal, which is, on the one hand, a political process moving forward in Iraq. On the other hand, Iraqis capable of defending themselves. That statement seems like it's defendable. BIDEN: That is defendable, if you explain it. We've trained 2,500 Iraqis, fully trained them so they could take over for American forces. The vice president keeps saying we've trained 159,000 Iraqis, who are capable of defending themselves in Iraq. That's not true.

My folks back home, Miles, say, look, if we have 130,000 or 140,000 of our people there, why do we need them if they've already trained 159,000 Iraqis? And it's because we haven't trained that many people.

So, the president should say we are making some progress. The hard part is coming up now. They've got to write a constitution and have a vote, bring Sunnis into the process, get some ability to defend themselves and be able to guard their borders so these jihadists don't keep coming across. Car bombings are up significantly. Deaths are up. So that's what the American people know and see. They want the truth.

M. O'BRIEN: The spokesperson at the Republican National Committee called you the pessimist-in-chief on Iraq. Just the other day, Kofi Annan, who is no supporter of the situation in Iraq, had an op-ed in "The Washington Post." The headline, there's progress in Iraq. And he said among other things: "There will be no doubt frustrating delays and difficult setbacks. But let us not lose sight of the fact that all over Iraq today, Iraqis are debating nearly every aspect of their political future."

Are you looking at it half-empty?

BIDEN: No, I think that's absolutely true. Miles, I've been on your program. I've been a supporter of this president. I've been the one who has been over there five times. I've been the one who has voted for the $87 billion and more money for Iraq. I've been the one that says we need more troops over there. So, I am not a pessimist at all.

But I can tell you what, look at the polling numbers. The American people are beginning to think that this is not doable, because there is a gap between the reality of what's happening over there and the rhetoric they hear here. And this cannot go on.

The president should go on national television, tell the American people what the progress is, tell them why we have to stay there and finish, tell them why we can't bring the troops home now, tell them they're going to stay there for a year, and how we're going to win, and get the American people's support. But we're losing it.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. We're going to turn the corner on you and let's talk a little bit about politics. You've expressed some interest in the presidency this time. Twenty years ago in 1988, you were in the thick of it. One of the issues was flag burning. And it appears that issue is back with us. First of all, I want to get you on record on that issue.

BIDEN: I do not think we need a constitutional amendment to protect the flag. I think that is overkill. I think that the greatest worry we have is not flag burning out there; it's respect for the values that this country has. I think we should be focusing on those things, not on constitutional amendments to ban flag burning. There are more constitutional amendments on most anything.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Senator Joe Biden, thank you very much for your time.

BIDEN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: This afternoon on CNN, Vice President Dick Cheney goes on the record with Wolf Blitzer. That's at 5:00 Eastern on "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

S. O'BRIEN: Have you seen the moon this week?

M. O'BRIEN: I haven't had a chance.

S. O'BRIEN: Really?

M. O'BRIEN: I'm in New York City going to bed at about 8:00.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh.

M. O'BRIEN: It's still daylight.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, if you stayed up later you would see the moon.

M. O'BRIEN: You, however, have seen it, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. And it is gigantic. It is amazing.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh, look at that.

S. O'BRIEN: In fact, astronomers are calling it the moon illusion. In the summer months the moon kind of hangs low.

M. O'BRIEN: That looks fake. That looks like some kind of photo shot deal.

S. O'BRIEN: It does. Well, you know, what happens is it's this phenomenon, and the cameras can't actually pick it up, but your eyes can pick it up. They say that the week's full moon is lower, too. And that makes it seem so big. But it's an illusion. The moon is actually not any bigger.

M. O'BRIEN: Look at that. That is spectacular.

S. O'BRIEN: It has been so amazing. And this is the moon.

M. O'BRIEN: Moon over Russia.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

S. O'BRIEN: That's interesting. M. O'BRIEN: And there's Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Same moon.

S. O'BRIEN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: We all live under the same moon, people. Let's join hands and sing kumbaya (ph), shall we?

S. O'BRIEN: It's pretty neat to see, though.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: After all of these years the scientists still don't know why this phenomenon happens.

M. O'BRIEN: Isn't the moon a little closer? Is that it? Doesn't it come a little closer?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, I think it's hanging -- it does hang lower in the sky in the summer months. But besides that...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... they don't understand it.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll have to do a little more research on this.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, you're the science guy. Get on that, man. Come on.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm trying to get some sleep whenever I can.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, let's get to Chad this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, was the drug maker, Merck, trying to fix Vioxx, even as the company was downplaying the drug's risks? We'll take a look at that this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, that series we've been -- a really fascinating series from Kelly Wallace, "Surviving the Game." Kids in sports is the issue. Today, we'll do the half-full thing. Good things about sports. We've been talking about all of the pitfalls. Stay with us for that on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All this week we have been focusing on what can go wrong in youth sports. It makes you want to just take the kids off the ballpark. But today, we have the redeeming piece, the danumong (ph) of our series, "Surviving the Game." We're going to look at what's good with the world. Kelly Wallace is here to tell us about the good things in sports.

And there must be a few.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There must be. We've been talking a lot about the bad things, though, right?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

WALLACE: Win at all costs, coaching, pressure from parents.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

WALLACE: I'm not necessarily pointing the finger at you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: No, but you did.

WALLACE: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: Not necessarily, but you did.

WALLACE: No, no, I'm just teasing you. But also the issue of kids getting burned out and dropping out of sports by the age of 12. So, what Wednesday wanted today is go back to all of the families we got to know in our series and get their take on the good of the game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice over): Sports idols behaving badly. Some accused of a crime. Others on the defensive on the subject of steroids.

MARK MCGUIRE, FORMER MLB PLAYER: My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family, and myself.

WALLACE: While on the sidelines, parents and coaches sometimes take it too far. The bad often getting the attention instead of the good, and there is a lot of good. Just listen to the kids and parents we met in our series, like 14-year-old Brittany Perri, who hopes to play softball in college someday.

BRITTANY PERRI, 14-YEAR-OLD SOFTBALL PLAYER: It makes you a stronger person, and you think, look, I can do this, I can do this. And then you go out on the field and you think, I can do this. And then you relate that to other aspects of your life.

WALLACE: Twelve-year-old Tyler Welence, who excels at lacrosse baseball and basketball.

TYLER WELENCE, 12-YEAR-OLD ATHLETE: You learn that everything isn't always fair. Like, if there's a call that could go either way at in a baseball game or a lacrosse game and it doesn't go your way, you have to live with it. And they're not going to change the call.

WALLACE: And Richard Dresser, coach of his son's baseball team and author the play on the Little League experience called "Rounding Third."

RICHARD DRESSER, COACH, PARENT: You learn how to deal with both winning and losing. I mean, that's what life is. You deal with a lot of disappointment. Things don't work out the way you want them to work out. And your life will be a lot better if you know how to deal with that.

WALLACE: Sports experts and child psychologists say organized sports, if run properly, can help build character, boost confidence and teach a child about leadership and team work.

DR. AL PETITPAS, DIR., NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION: It gives young people an opportunity to learn about themselves. There's -- I don't think there is another form where kids have an opportunity to get immediate feedback on what they do in a regular basis.

WALLACE: Good coaching, of course, is vital. Take it from 9- year-old Riley Welence, who pitches on his baseball team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Riley, that was real good, buddy.

RILEY WELENCE, 9-YEAR-OLD ATHLETE: Because our coaches always tell us to not get upset with ourselves, so we just -- I just have to live through it.

WALLACE: Learning how to live through failure, perhaps that's the biggest benefit for kids in sports. Sarah Welence recalls how 10 minutes after Riley's team lost a tournament, the players were eating ice cream and having fun.

SARAH WELENCE, PARENT: They had a great time. It was a great experience. And you know what? They're going to be playing baseball next week. So, I think that they learn a lot from sports, and it kind of like teaches them not to take life as like too seriously, you know, because then you lose again. There's always another one.

WALLACE (on camera): These are the parents, right?

S. WELENCE: Right. The parents can learn from their kids. They really could.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: OK. Well, each day we pass along a couple of tips. And here are a few of them, again, to help your kids have a positive experience in sports.

Take cues from your child. We've talked about this. Find out what they want to do, not what you want them to do.

Try, as tough as it might be, to forget about wins and losses when your kids are young.

And do your homework. This one is key as well. Get to know the coaches. Find out their philosophy, because they can play a big role. Do your kids enjoy the game, or do they decide they want to drop out? M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, this goes for so many things, though. You tend to give your kids teachers and coaches and so forth. You don't pay much attention to it. It's a bad idea, because you just don't know what they're saying to them.

WALLACE: Absolutely. And they have a big role in influencing your kids.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly Wallace, thank you very much.

WALLACE: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You can watch Kelly's series again, if you'd like, because we know you were here every day this week watching.

WALLACE: Again and again.

M. O'BRIEN: Great attention. And you can learn more about youth sports as well by going to our Web site. Cnn.com/am is the place -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, did the makers of Vioxx try to reformulate the drug before they pulled it off the market? Andy Serwer has got that as he minds your business, up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

There is some new evidence that Merck knew about the dangers associated with its drug Vioxx years before pulling it off the market. Andy Serwer has got that as he minds your business this morning.

Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

More bad news for Merck, Soledad. A report out this morning that the company did know about problems with Vioxx right around 2000 when that study came out and showed that it increased risks of heart attacks. And, in fact, researchers at the drug giant considered mixing the medicine with another agent to reduce that risk; this, at the same time the company was insisting the medicine was safe, according to a memorandum provided to lawyers in these investigations and litigation.

Another medical story of a different nature. How about a vending machine, Soledad, for prescription drugs? It's here. In Virginia and California...

S. O'BRIEN: It sounds convenient, but with a lot of problems, potentially.

SERWER: Right. Well, we'll talk about it. First of all, what it is not. It is not a situation where you press C-1 and little tablets of Prozac come trickling out. This is how it works. You register at a pharmacy in one of those two states. And then when you want to get a refill, you would go online or call up and say you'd like a refill of one of your medicines. The pharmacist then puts the medicine in the package in the machine, and it's like an ATM. And you would register and swipe a credit card. And the medicine would come out.

Now, this is convenient, because you don't have to wait in line, and you can use the machine when the pharmacy is closed.

S. O'BRIEN: That would make a big difference.

SERWER: I think it's really something that's going to be...

S. O'BRIEN: So all drugs, or would they sort of restrict certain drugs?

SERWER: No, I think that my understanding is that it would be for all drugs. And other states are examining this very closely, and a lot of pharmacies apparently are looking to put these in their stores.

Quickly, we want to talk about the markets yesterday. Another mixed session on Wall Street. You can see here, the Dow was down. The Nasdaq up just a little bit. And this morning futures are off again.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Andy, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, billionaire Richard Branson drops by our studio. He's going to talk to us about an online contest that he is backing to try to find the next great business idea. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.