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Rick's List
Toyota's Troubles Deepen; New Survivor Found in Haiti?
Aired February 09, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Also, this for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): Making news right now on your national conversation.
SEAN KANE, SAFETY RESEARCH AND STRATEGIES: Toyota's explanations do not account for the share of unintended acceleration complaints that we have examined.
LEMON: So, what does account for all those complaints? A CNN special investigation.
Senator Richard Shelby says he wanted to get the White House's attention by blocking dozens of president nominations.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Surely, we can set aside partisanship and do what has traditionally been done to confirm these nominations.
LEMON: Looks like Shelby got their attention. We drill down and ask, what changed?
LEMON: What is this man's story?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Twenty-eight days that we're hearing that he was buried. It's kind of hard to believe.
DR. MIKE CONNELLY, PROJECT MEDISHARE, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: Well, he was emaciated. It was obvious that he hadn't had anything really to drink or eat in quite some time.
LEMON: Dr. Gupta with the unbelievable rescue that unfolded on this program.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to get out of here.
LEMON: Yes, you do. A gas station explodes.
The lists you need to know about. Who's "Today's Most Intriguing Person"? Who's on "The List You Don't Want To Be On"? You will find out as our national conversation on Twitter and on the air for Tuesday, February 9, continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: Toyota, it's not getting better. It is actually getting worse, worse -- safety concerns now prompting the company to recall every single 2010 Prius already sold. That's hundreds of thousands of cars in addition to the millions of non-hybrid cars and SUVs Toyota says need work before they are completely safe.
So, Drew Griffin is with our Special Investigations Unit. He has been talking more about this problem.
Drew, so, here's the thing. So, you know, you would think there wouldn't be much more to investigate. They say they have a problem. You have a solution and then you fix it.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: And they have a solution.
LEMON: Yes, they have a solution.
GRIFFIN: Right.
LEMON: But it gets much deeper. It goes on. Could there be more problems, I understand, with this? Is that fair to say?
GRIFFIN: Well, we're talking about the acceleration problems...
LEMON: OK.
GRIFFIN: ... which Toyota says is floor mats and a sticky gas pedal.
LEMON: All right.
GRIFFIN: We went all across the world to find these experts in this, who say some floor mats, some gas pedals, but all these unexplained.
So, what they're saying is, Toyota is trying to solve a crisis before they actually solve the problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a hastily called news conference, an apology at 9:00 Friday night near Tokyo, the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, saying he's sorry for the global recall, but declaring, "Believe me, Toyota's cars are safe."
On the company's Web site, a clear explanation for the sudden acceleration problems, stuck floor mats, sticky gas pedals, and a fix. It's all mechanical, the company says, and it's solved.
But is it?
SEAN KANE, SAFETY RESEARCH AND STRATEGIES: I would say, unequivocally, that Toyota's explanations do not account for the share of unintended acceleration complaints that we have examined.
GRIFFIN: CNN talked with four leading experts in the field of sudden acceleration, car safety and automotive recalls. Despite Toyota's statements, these experts independently conclude something very difficult: Toyota does not know what is causing the sudden acceleration in its cars, and, therefore, doesn't really know how to fix them.
ANTONY ANDERSON, ELECTRONICS CONSULTANT: From what people have told me about their sudden acceleration incidents, most of them have got nothing to do with a sticking pedal at all.
GRIFFIN: Why? Sean Kane with Safety Research and Strategies, an automotive safety consulting firm that had tracked the sudden acceleration complaints literally for years now, says follow the data, 2,200 incidents, 815 crashes, 18 deaths. Some, yes, are floor mats. Some, yes, he says, may be a stuck gas pedal. But that's the problem. The records show just some of the problems explained.
KANE: We're seeing thousands of complaints from consumers that report very consistent types of problems across a number of years, makes and models. We're seeing these long duration on highway events. We're seeing short duration in parking lot events. There's a series of patterns that are emerging that cannot be explained.
GRIFFIN: Kane says electronics are the likely culprit, interference with the car computer's systems. From his home in England, Dr. Antony Anderson he has looked at the same U.S. government data.
ANDERSON: Sudden accelerations really can't be explained by drivers pressing their foot down on the accelerator, pedal, can't be explained by floor mats, loose floor mats, nor by sticky pedals, because the characteristic of these things is that they, the vehicles tend to take off by themselves, with no input from the driver.
GRIFFIN: Toyota insists, that's just not true. In a statement to CNN, the company says, "After many years of exhaustive testing by us and by other organizations, we have found no evidence of an electronic problem in our electronic throttle control systems that could have led to unwanted acceleration."
Clarence Ditlow with the Center For Auto Safety says he obtained a copy of one of those U.S. government tests on a Lexus and found it amateurish.
CLARENCE DITLOW, CENTER FOR AUTO SAFETY: They didn't do any real testing. For all I know, they just took, you know, a garage door opener and pointed it at the engine compartment and snapped it. And that's electrical interference to see whether or not anything happened. They closed the hood and off they went. No problem.
GRIFFIN: He points to the test by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, NHTSA, for proof, a test track where a floor mat is jammed on the accelerator. The test driver punches every button, shift gears, does anything he can to try to stop the car with no results. The conclusion? It's the floor mat. Ditlow's conclusion, it's not the way to test.
DITLOW: If you're going to investigate whether or not the electronic controls are faulty, you have to do a scientific laboratory test, and they didn't do it.
GRIFFIN: Inside the Electronics Lab at the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering, Professor Mike Pecht specializes in laboratory-controlled interference testing. He says with today's continually changing car components, parts suppliers, and reliance on heavy electronics, the testing in noisy labs like his must be complete and continuous.
DR. MICHAEL PECHT, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: They need to continuously be testing these products. You just can't test one day and say, oh, there's the product, unless they can make sure that there's been no other changes, and that's very difficult today.
GRIFFIN: And that, he says, may be the heart of Toyota's problem.
(on camera): Professor, I realize you're trying to be careful and may be reluctant to say some things, but the floor mats don't seem to be the problem. A mechanical fix in the gas pedal doesn't seem to be the problem. In fact, the problem seems to be that Toyota at this point in time does not know the problem, and, therefore, does not know how to fix it.
PECHT: I think that -- I think that the evidence is pointing that way. I think the evidence is pointing that way, absolutely.
GRIFFIN: So, any fix is not a fix?
PECHT: So, they're a little bit of a quandary. If they announce that the electronics is a problem, they're going to probably be in a lot of trouble, because nobody is going to want to drive the car. So, I think, at this stage, they don't want to announce that there's an electronics problem.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): In its statement to us, a Toyota spokesperson said -- quote -- "It's very easily to look from outside in and say, no, there is no problem with the pedal. But this is the problem, and we are fixing it."
In fact, Toyota says, two days ago, NHTSA said it will take a fresh look into the general issue of electromagnetic interference into the auto industry as a whole, not just related to Toyota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: So, Toyota keeping the door open for this electrical interference, but saying, again, it's not -- in fact, Don, I just pulled this off their Web site to make sure I'm accurate on the latest.
Is there actually a problem with the vehicle's electronic control unit? It's a question to Toyota. The answer: "Toyota has never found an incident of unintended acceleration caused by the vehicle's computer electronic control unit." They're not ruling out the problem. They're just saying they didn't find it. But these experts say that's where you need to look. LEMON: How do you know what to believe, though? Because they're getting criticized for taking a long time at even figuring that part out, the floor mat, or the sticky pedal, or whatever.
GRIFFIN: Right.
LEMON: And then they were not going to recall Priuses. And, then, all of a sudden, they are recalling. So, I mean, even if they say, I mean, how do you know?
GRIFFIN: Credibility is a huge issue here.
You know, I'm not the first to say that this is a crisis management situation that's going to be analyzed for years and years to come. You know, and I think that's part of the problem, that they're not looking long term here, is what the experts are saying.
And one of them even said to me, look it, they're going to regret this decision.
LEMON: Yes.
GRIFFIN: They're going to regret saying this problem is solved.
LEMON: Yes.
And, you know, you have been doing this a long time. So, you know, if someone -- if you screw up, or if something happens, you make a mistake, you get it quick, you apologize, do the right thing, and move on, and then people are more likely to forgive you.
GRIFFIN: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Yes.
GRIFFIN: And, in the car industry, where reputation is -- you know, you dare to say reputation and the quality-control standards...
LEMON: It's everything.
GRIFFIN: ... is everything. Look what it did to the car industry in the United States for decades.
LEMON: Yes.
All right. Drew Griffin with our Special Investigations Unit, good work. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
Hey, Drew, you never worked on or lived in New Orleans, but you're down there a lot.
GRIFFIN: Oh, I love New Orleans.
(CROSSTALK) LEMON: How would you like to be there right now?
GRIFFIN: I would like to be there right now. Definitely would not want to be at the White House.
LEMON: I know. Look at that weather, right?
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: So, look at -- what do you call it, the dichotomy, the polar opposite? You can call this one polar, right, considering the snow.
(LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: Yes, that is the polar opposite.
LEMON: Folks out there in their New Orleans jerseys, their black and gold. They're enjoying it. And guess what? We're going to carry it for you live here on CNN, so you can see it.
Look, vendors, there you go, making some money, right, after Hurricane Katrina, making a little cash.
GRIFFIN: Who dat?
LEMON: Who dat? You got it, Drew Griffin.
So, we're going to follow up on that, show you some more live pictures of New Orleans. The parade starts 6:00 p.m. Eastern, carry it live for you, and, again, a snowy White House. They got feet of snow this weekend, and they're going to get some more. What in the world is going on?
And there's Central Park. Now, it's nice. This may be good for that kind of weather, a little ice-skating, but that's about it, unless you want to ski. Who wants to ski down Fifth Avenue, right?
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. Listen, we have some developing news that we're checking on here. I'm being told that there's a press conference in New York City held by governor there, David Paterson. It was supposed to be addressing the impending weather, the city's plans, and that sort of thing.
There have been some rumors and some buzz about a possible scandal involving the governor coming to light. Someone asked him a question about it right at the top of this press conference, and he answered. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. DAVID PATERSON (D), NEW YORK: You know, actually the more frustrated I get, the more I know I am going to be running. And let me let you know this. The only way I'm not going to be governor next year is at the ballot box. And the only way that I will be leaving office before is in a box. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Governor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. So, he was supposed to address the weather there and the impending plans, whatever they're supposed to do when this bad weather comes.
There had been some talk that he might resign because of these supposed -- this supposed scandal, but the governor says not doing it, and he is going to run again.
Our Mary Snow is digging on that. She will have more for you later on CNN.
Want to talk about this now, a monster storm that the governor was addressing headed to New York, heading into the Northeast. Expect big snow and big winds. And you're looking at the White House on the right. You see, it looks beautiful. Wouldn't want to be there. And Central Park on the left, might want to be ice-skating. That's not bad.
New York City could get 18 inches -- 18 inches -- the Boston area also in its path. And, of course, D.C. might get some light snow, maybe five inches, maybe less, but any bit on top of this, even a half-inch, a little bit, is going to be bad.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
CONNELLY: He was emaciated. It was obvious that he hadn't had anything really to drink or eat in quite some time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I don't know. You can describe this as miraculous, amazing, story of survival that we're still trying to wrap our heads around here. A man pulled from the rubble in Haiti four weeks after the earthquake? That's just ahead.
And coming up next, the most intriguing person to make our list today. Here's a hint. She oversees a lot of your money and gets to tell big banks what to do or not to do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Hi, Rick. This is Ed from New York.
You know, I'm listening to -- about these old football players, and talking about like, you know, they're not being taken care of. They're just like the rest of us. They picked a career that has a short run. With their education, they should have had something to fall back on. I'm talking, how many elderly people out in the regular society that don't even have anything to fall back on to -- you know? They had their glory days and had their good times. Thanks a lot.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
LEMON: Thank you, sir. What a great call. That caller -- his is Ed -- is from New York.
Again, thank you, Ed.
He's referring to Rick's interview yesterday with retired NFL players Conrad Dobler and Mercury Morris. And, if you missed it, make sure you check it out on CNN.com/ricksanchez -- CNN.com/ricksanchez.
So, let's go to -- you want to go to New Orleans first, before we do this next thing? There they are. I want to be there, but guess what? You're going to be there as well, because we're going to carry it for you live here on CNN.
And, as they are preparing for this parade, of course, the players are preparing just to ride along and enjoy and soak it in. And they should be.
And we're getting tweets from the Saints players here. This one is from Lance Moore. It's Lance Moore 16. "Getting ready for this parade. Heard it's going to be pretty crazy."
Lance, yes, it is.
And you're going to see it on CNN -- not Lance, but the rest of you guys will. Maybe he will watch later. His family members will probably see it.
So, you know what? We have been talking a lot about the bank bailouts. A lot of people are hot and bothered about that. With all the banks bailouts and the big bonuses on Wall Street, a lot of people wish they could rip into the rich and powerful, tell them to wake up, stop stomping on the little guy, and fix what's wrong.
This woman, she gets to do it. Time for our most intriguing.
Growing up in Oklahoma, she was a state champion debater. Now she's a Harvard law professor and a student of the struggles of the middle class. She's also overseeing a big chunk of your money. One of the most intriguing people of the day, it is revealed, Elizabeth Warren, a top watchdog of the $700 billion bank bailout.
She takes bankers and the feds to task in today's "Wall Street Journal." I want you to listen to what she had to say in "The Wall Street Journal."
She said, "Federal regulators played the role of lookout at a bank robbery, holding back anyone who tried to stop the massive looting from middle-class families." When it comes to bankers and brokers, Warren says, "When they weren't selling deceptive mortgages, Wall Street invented new credit card tricks and clever overdraft fees."
That's from bailout oversight chair Elizabeth Warren, one of days's most intriguing.
I will tell you what's intriguing today. It's New Orleans. There we go. Do you hear that?
(HORNS BLARING)
SANCHEZ: That sounds like the beginning of something, the beginning of partying just starting down in the French Quarter.
Our Ed Lavandera is live. We're going to take you to the streets in New Orleans for the big Saints victory parade just moments away.
Also, we're keeping an eye on the weather. This is Ohio. Look at that, snow blowers, snow shovels, everybody out in force. Go buy your bread and milk and toilet paper. That's what you do. That's what everyone does. This is courtesy of our affiliate WDTN. Boy, oh, boy, another round of snow.
Live now, Washington, D.C., do you see that? Hey, that say, that flag is -- is that half-staff? Is that for John Murtha? I would imagine, half-staff flags in Washington, D.C., today for the death of John Murtha.
And they're getting ready to be hit again, and it's snowing. It's snowing already. They say they're going to get maybe about five inches, not a lot, but, still, even a flake doesn't help in this instance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. I'm not trying to ignore Ed Lavandera. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. I'm mad at him, because I want to be right where he is. He's down in the middle of all those folks that you see in New Orleans. That's because the Saints, 31-17, they beat those Colts, beat them up. Everybody's saying, oh, the Saints are underdogs. They're not going to win. Oh.
And now Ed Lavandera, look at us -- look at you, down in the middle of it all.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just basking in the excitement here, Don, that's all...
(LAUGHTER)
LAVANDERA: That's all we're doing. That's all we're doing.
The parade about an hour-and-a-half away from...
(CROSSTALK)
LAVANDERA: Absolutely, having a lot of fun, actually.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
LAVANDERA: Here they are. This is the reason why the Saints -- are you guys excited to be here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Indeed, indeed.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
LAVANDERA: So, Don, the parade's about to start in an hour-and-a- half, police here putting up the barricades along the side of the road, tens of thousands people already lining their way up into downtown here.
Businesses have shut down. Schools have let out early, and everyone fighting for a place here along the parade route. We're at the beginning stages of the parade. So, in about an hour-and-a-half-hour here, you will start seeing all of the Mardi Gras floats which have been put on loan here to this Super Bowl parade, so the team can float by these folks here that are ready for this parade to get started -- Don.
LEMON: Yes, listen, so, you're talking about all the floats that are put on loan. These are from -- these are from the Mardi Gras parades. The floats are courtesy of nine different Mardi Gras krewes, from Caesar to Zulu, which is great, to Rex, which is one of the huge ones.
And then there's a muse that they have every year. The high heel is, of course, reserved for none other than the team's kicker that they're going to give to that -- it's going to be the float. Nine different floats, 12 if you count the four parts of the Orpheus train that they have there.
So, all the players are going to be -- what, I think it's like 200, 300 players that are going to be there today. And they're going to be probably, they said up to 60,000. It could be more now that they actually won. Some of these estimates, Ed, were before the Saints actually won.
Hey, listen, Chase Daniel from the Saints -- Ed, don't go away, because I'm going to come back to you -- is tweeting. Here's what he's saying.
"The Super Bowl parade is about to begin. Every krewe brought out their very best float for us. It never happened in the history of Mardi Gras."
Hey, listen, I have been saying for -- since this happened, that this was going to be huge, Ed Lavandera, as they say in New York. They had a big mayoral election now. They want a change in New Orleans. They have got been a Super Bowl win, and they're right in the middle of Mardi Gras.
Ed Lavandera, quickly, say a word, and then we will run.
LAVANDERA: I'm sorry, Don? I didn't catch that.
LEMON: I said, quickly, say a word. Wrap us out of there, and then we're going to run.
LAVANDERA: Oh, my goodness, put me on the spot here like that.
All right, I don't know how to tell you, everyone here incredibly anxious for this thing to get started. And just a little -- you were talking about the floats there.
The Benson family, the owners of the Saints, will be on that lead float, and then it will be Drew Brees and Sean Payton on the second float. So, that's what -- and then the rest of the team will fall in behind that, but those will be the two main players on the first two floats coming by.
LEMON: Thank you, sir. I can't catch you off-guard, see? Great job.
Thanks, Ed Lavandera in New Orleans.
(LAUGHTER)
LAVANDERA: All right.
LEMON: Senator Richard Shelby lifts his hold on several presidential nominees. Why the turnaround? And the president's response today, we will show you that. We're drilling down on that just ahead here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So you saw the developing news just a little bit earlier here on CNN. We're talking about Governor David Paterson holding a press conference to talk about the impending snow coming to New York City, and then got knocked off the mark a little bit.
He did answer and our Mary Snow is following the story for us.
Mary, tell us what's going on.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don. Just to set the scene for you. This has been such a bizarre story. What has been happening is that Governor Paterson, as you just mentioned, was holding a news conference and addressed rumors that had been swirling around for the past few days.
We don't really even know quite the specifics, but there had been a rumor that perhaps, say, a bombshell was to be dropped and it was to the extent that his press person even came out the other day saying that he was not going to be resigning. That's how -- that's how much these rumors had been circulating.
Now just a few minutes ago he addressed the press. Again, he was supposed to be talking about the snowstorm coming, but inevitably these questions take up. Take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. DAVID PATERSON (D), NEW YORK: The reality is that I have written a -- a letter to the public editor of the "Times" stating that what would happen if a government agency took some kind of an action that in some way slandered a citizen, would this be the kind of answer they'd be expecting me to give if some action that the government took was misrepresenting an individual in this fashion?
They don't seem to be interested in addressing it or doing anything about it, and I think it's appalling. I think that this doesn't do anything but give credence and to give oxygen to those who would injure the reputations and lives if they could of public officials or anyone else by circulating completely fabricated information about them and their families.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: And just to be clear, Don, what Governor Paterson just said was that he had an interview with the "New York Times", that the "New York Times" had been working on a profile piece about him. The "New York Times" has never reported on any story suggesting that Paterson was going to resign.
These were just purely rumors that had been circulating, and causing this reaction, the governor saying he is not resigning. He called these outright lies, these rumors that had been going around and saying -- this was a quote, "The only way I leave office next year is at the ballot box. The only way I leave office before then is if I'm in a box."
So shooting down all these rumors. And Don, if you remember he's considered the accidental governor. He was not elected governor.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: After Eliot Spitzer, right?
SNOW: He took over for Eliot Spitzer.
LEMON: Yes. Yes.
SNOW: Yes.
LEMON: You know, we played this soundbite of what you said a little bit earlier. So he's saying the "New York Times" has never reported anything, they're doing a profile. Then do we know how these rumors got started? Like where they came from?
SNOW: No, and he was asked about that as well. But there had been, you know, some blog posts that had discussed speculation, and then it just spread like wildfire.
I talked to people who'd been in politics a long time today, and they said they hadn't ever quite seen anything quite like this in terms of the levels that these rumors had reached.
LEMON: You know what? That's very interesting because it used to just be word of mouth, you'd whisper in someone's ear and they tell someone else and they tell someone one. Now instantaneously it's all over the world, and it's there to stay and people believe it.
The Internet does some very good things, but it also does some very bad things when it comes to situations like this.
Mary Snow, we appreciate it. Thank you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MIKE CONNELLY, PROJECT MEDISHARE: He was emaciated. It was obvious that he hadn't had anything to eat or drink for quite sometime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: More than 14 -- I should say, excuse me, more than four weeks after the earthquake in Haiti, and more than two weeks after the rescue mission turned into a recovery mission. A man pulled from the rubble alive?
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us live with more on that amazing story. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. This is just amazing. We've been telling you about the man pulled from the rubble, right? Miraculously. I mean --
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Seriously, I mean --
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I know, I know.
LEMON: When I know this -- when it came across, you know, we get the news on our BlackBerry.
BALDWIN: Right. Right.
LEMON: We get an alert, and I looked up, yesterday I was off, and I went, no way, you've got to be kidding me. You've got to be kidding me. You were here yesterday reporting this.
BALDWIN: Right. It was this --
LEMON: What happened?
BALDWIN: It was this time yesterday I was sitting on set with Rick, and Sanjay Gupta calls in and he calls in essentially with word that this young man has possibly survived under the rubble after the January 12th earthquake in Haiti.
Take a look at this young man. We've got pictures in from Port-au- Prince. He's 28 years old. His name is Evan Muncy, and possibly, possibly, he's the longest survivor since this earthquake hit.
Now when they found him, he was suffering from extreme dehydration and malnourishment, yet he had no significant crushing injuries. We talked to his mother. His mother said he hadn't -- she had not seen him since the first day, since the earthquake hit, and he had worked in this marketplace, he was selling rice.
And that is where he was subsequently found. And that general location of this marketplace.
LEMON: In the marketplace, so he may have had some food or something, and probably because he had no injuries, who -- I'll let you go. Sorry.
BALDWIN: Who knows? We're talking to Sanjay --
LEMON: It's just a great story.
BALDWIN: I know. I know. I know.
LEMON: I know. Go ahead. Go ahead.
BALDWIN: But the question is, like the question we were talking about earlier, you know, is it possible, is it humanly possible to survive under the wreckage for 28 days?
Here is his doctor talking to our doctor, Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONNELLY: He was emaciated. It was obvious that he hadn't had anything to eat or drink for quite sometime. He had open wounds that were festering on both of his feet.
GUPTA (on camera): But you believe it? I mean you believe it to be true, this would be -- this would be the longest survivor so far of this earthquake?
CONNELLY: Yes. Yes, I mean, there is no reason for me to doubt it. That's what the bystanders related to us. And the patient was so incredibly weak and frail when he came in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And now I want to go live to Sanjay Gupta, who is live right now in Port-au-Prince in Haiti, and Sanjay, what a story. Bring us up to speed. What's his condition like now?
GUPTA: Yes. It's extraordinary no matter how you look at it. He's doing well. You know it's interesting, because a day after something like this happens, it's almost a more critical day than the day of the rescue.
How exactly is his body going to tolerate all this? Is he going to be able to be rehydrated and replace all the fluids that he no doubt lost over those periods of weeks that he was trapped?
As you alluded to, it's almost impossible to completely verify all the details of the story, but as you said, the doctors believe this, they have no reason not to believe it. They say today he is stable, he is talking more, although he's still a little bit confused.
And you remember yesterday he had mentioned that someone in a white coat had brought him water periodically throughout the time that he was trapped. When he was talking yesterday, he said he thought he was still trapped and didn't realize he had been rescued.
He's starting to eat food now as well. A very good sign. He specifically was asking for chocolate. The nurses were giving him chocolate, getting those sugar levels, I guess, his calories back up. But you know, they say that he -- they think he may have lost up to 30 pounds during that time period, so it's a slow process to sort of bring him back up to speed.
BALDWIN: Sanjay, have the doctors at all alluded to or possibly explained how in the world he doesn't have any crushing injuries? Might he have been trapped in a little -- in a niche perhaps?
LEMON: A pocket.
BALDWIN: In a pocket? Yes.
GUPTA: Yes, that's exactly right. That's what they think happened here. So many people had rubble fall on them and that obviously greatly changes the dynamic and the likelihood of survival, frankly.
They think he was trapped in a place that, you know, had air, possibly, maybe have some access to water, they can't say that for sure. Possibly even some food. But he wasn't pinned down or crushed. And that may have been, you know, at least one of the factors in this remarkable story.
LEMON: Let me tell you, guys, what people are really talking about with this story, because, Sanjay, Brooke and I are talking about it. When you reported yesterday about the guy or someone in a white coat, Sanjay, coming around, you know, my mom follows you, she loves you.
Right away she called me and she said, Don, that was God serving that man. And I've been on the Internet.
BALDWIN: People have said angel.
LEMON: People are saying -- I've heard on the radio, God or angels, and that's really what people are talking about with this story, besides the fact that he survived so long.
GUPTA: People in the hospital were saying the same thing. I mean, you know, it's one of those that make you talk about your faith. I think in ways -- obviously we'd love to explain everything away scientifically. And maybe he had access to water and was hallucinating as a result of being so dehydrated and so malnourished.
But he -- but, you know, he conjured up that story or said that, and you know what it meant, what exactly happened. Again, we may never know the answer to that, but I could say this, I think pretty definitely as a doctor, there's no way he could have survived without water. You know we don't know the capabilities of a human body are, but it's a few days, not a few weeks. And somehow he got water. And exactly how that happened, you know, no one knows right now.
BALDWIN: Sanjay, amazing. I think you made a great point. Perhaps if he was in this marketplace area.
LEMON: Yes.
BALDWIN: Perhaps he had access in some --
LEMON: Who knows?
BALDWIN: In some way to water, to food. Can you believe it, though?
LEMON: Yes, yes.
BALDWIN: A lot of people -- we got a lot of tweets on that.
LEMON: Thank you, Sanjay. We appreciate it.
BALDWIN: Sanjay Gupta.
LEMON: Yes, very good stuff.
BALDWIN: Yes.
LEMON: Regardless of what it was, we can still say it was a miracle, right?
BALDWIN: It was. It was.
LEMON: If he was hallucinating or not. Sanjay, appreciate it. We'll be watching your work time through our prime, and also "AC 360" as well. They have a special in this case.
BALDWIN: All week.
LEMON: It's happening this week. Thank you. Appreciate it.
BALDWIN: You're welcome.
LEMON: Good seeing you as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One senator, as you all are aware, had put a hold on every single nominee that we had put forward due to a dispute over a couple of earmarks in his state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Strong words from President Obama aimed at Richard Shelby for stalling several of his nominations. What's behind the senator's move and his reversal? We'll drill down, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. If you think the government's broken, think about this one. Did you know that a single U.S. senator can keep a president from staffing crucial jobs like heads of federal agencies? Did you know that?
That's all it takes, one single senator. Stay with me here.
Reports surfaced late last week that Republican Richard Shelby was blocking confirmation of most every single nominee sent for the Senate approval by President Barack Obama.
Multiple points that Shelby put a blanket hold on Obama nominees, something Shelby's office denies. And the reports say the hold was a way of trying to force the federal government to cough up billions of dollars for Shelby's home state of Alabama.
Shelby, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative, wanted action on two specific projects, an FBI lab in Huntsville, a project valued at $45 million, and the refueling jet tanker project being eyed at Mobil at a cost to taxpayers of $40 billion.
So, no projects for Alabama, no Senate confirmations -- at least that's how it sounds on the surface. So to make it crystal clear, we're going to bring in our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.
Dana, good to see you. So the news today is that Shelby has apparently agreed to remove this hold on all but just a handful of the president's nominees? Is that true?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. The senator's office released a statement last night actually saying that he got the White House's attention which, of course, is an understatement. He got everybody's attention here in Washington.
And for that reason he is lifting the hold that he put on most of the president's nominees except for three nominees that really have a direct relationship with the beef that he has specifically with the Air Force -- Don.
LEMON: OK, so listen, Shelby's office, right, released a statement announcing that it isn't for -- that it's national security that they're concerned about, but a lot of people will point to the fact that these projects he's defending are in his home state, right?
BASH: Absolutely. Let's drill down on what we're talking about. You mentioned those two issues. Let's start with the Air Force. Number one, Shelby -- Senator Shelby is very unhappy with the process that the Air Force is using, the bidding process, to build a new tanker fleet.
Specifically he thinks that it's really slanted towards Boeing getting it, and guess what? Northrop Grumman, they have a pretty big presence in his home state of Alabama. And he wants that to come to his own state of Alabama. That's not an earmark per se but there's no question he's got a parochial interest. He's trying to help the folks back home there.
The second is, as you mentioned, a FBI facility in his home state. That is something that his office says is not a specific earmark, but I talked to somebody at the Center for Responsive Politics, they're a watchdog group. They say look, it walks like an earmark, it talk like earmark, it's an earmark because it is something that the senator actually put into an appropriations bill for the purpose of coming home to his state.
And it is something that the administration says, well, you know, maybe we have a better use for this money somewhere else at another FBI facility, and he says, no, I want it to be in my state.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Therein lies the disconnect.
LEMON: Yes. So here's the question then. Then why the turnaround? Was it hurting him politically? Why did he all of a sudden change?
BASH: You know, it's very interesting. You know he said that he wanted to get the administration's attention. He did get the administration's attention. And look, I talked to some people who are close to him. It seems as though I don't think he expected to get that much attention as much as he got.
Whether it hurt him politically, I mean who knows. Look the fact is that it's the people of Alabama who elect him, and his sole goal here, if you listen to him, is to help people back home, in particular, get them jobs. But now I talked to a Democrat who's known him for quite some time and he actually said that they were surprised that Shelby did this, that this is not necessarily how historically he has operated.
Look, this is the prerogative of any senator. Any senator can put a hold --
LEMON: That's what I was going to ask you.
BASH: -- on a nominee for their parochial interest. And it happens all the time.
LEMON: Yes. They'd used this hole, so then what's the difference here? Did he, like, go overboard in some way? Is that what happened?
BASH: Yes.
LEMON: Calling attention to himself.
BASH: Put it on -- exactly. Putting it on a slew of nominees that added up to about 70, we think. Yes, that was something that was pretty explosive. And look, the White House jumped on it. They used it as what the White House press secretary called a poster child for everything that's wrong with Washington.
And it came at a time when the White House was really trying to make the point that Republicans' answer to everything was no, no, no. And this was a great example for the White House to use.
Having said that, look, I mean I'll just give you one example of some other -- another illustration. Last week there was the head of the GAO, she was confirmed ultimately by, I believe, 94 or 96 to zero. She was held up for more than nine months. Why? Because Republican senator Kid Bond -- he wanted a government building to be built in his home state of Missouri.
And he said well, I'm not going to let this nominee go until I get this facility built in my state. So this happens quite frequently, it's just the expanse --
LEMON: Yes.
BASH: -- of more than about 70 nominees that Shelby included in this. That's why it got so much attention. And by the way, Democrats -- they haven't done necessarily this blanket hold, but they do holds like this to get things for their home states all the time.
LEMON: This is why it's significant, though. Fiscal conservatives, everybody talking about, you know, the spending in Washington being bloated, and then all of a sudden it looks like you're trying to steer federal dollars back home, but you're concerned about all the spending.
So thank you, Dana. We're going to have to leave it there. We got to move it. We appreciate it.
Our senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash doing a great job on Capitol Hill today.
Hey, want to show you real quickly, Mark Preston, who is CNN's political editor, joins us for -- joins us for presidential politics here all the time. "President Obama threatens to bypass Congress and make recess appointments." Mark Preston, political editor.
Alrighty, so we're going to go live down to the big easy. There you go. New Orleans getting ready to celebrate for a lot -- lots of reasons. Some of them political, some of them had to do with sports, image, uplifting world being, a lot of stuff. We're going to talk about it.
There you go, everybody is happy. We'll take you there live coming up on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Time now to check in with my friend Wolf Blitzer, "SITUATION ROOM," coming up at the top of the hour.
Wolf, let's talk some politics. You heard me talking to Dana about Richard Shelby. You may have heard some of the conversation really on him and so -- on several nominees. So what's going on here? What do you make of this?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the president, obviously, you know, he made it clear, if the -- if this holds, he's going to use the recess to get these recess appointments through, which he can do for a limited amount of time, but it goes around the normal Senate confirmation process, and that would really -- that would be a serious step, but it's something he's ready to do.
He's trying to put a lot of pressure on these Republicans to stop this, especially Senator Shelby, who's holding up a lot of nominations in order to get some benefits for him home state of Alabama.
LEMON: And here's the thing. You cover this every day. You know that the Republicans have been -- or conservatives have been really criticizing the spending in Washington. You know, of course, the buck stops with the president. And then you hear that Richard Shelby is a fiscal conservative, but then it appears he's trying to steer money back into his own state.
What gives here?
BLITZER: Well, it's normal. It's a pork barrel spending, it's essential, it's critical if it's in your backyard. If it's in your congressional district or if it's your state. Then it's not port barrel spending, it's not earmarks or whatever it is.
It's critical national security -- it's critical spending. When it's in somebody else's backyard, not so important. That's just been the way Washington has been going on forever. And I assume it's going to go on a little bit longer like that.
LEMON: Hey, Wolf, we have a short time here, because I know you're going to be following this. This can actually happen during your hour. So we're going to go to New Orleans, Wolf, just to show you a little bit of live shot down there.
Very exciting. I'm sure you've been talking about this. They have a new mayor, and it shows that a lot of people voted for him, that New Orleans is really ready for a change. So we'll be looking at you, Wolf, for this big parade to guide us through it and to talk to some politics on New Orleans as well. Could be a new beginning, we hope, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, it's going to be exciting and we're going to have great guests to help us better appreciate what this means not only for New Orleans but the entire Gulf Coast.
LEMON: Wolf Blitzer, top of the hour, "THE SITUATION ROOM," always a great program. Thank you, sir.
And we told you Charlie Sheen made the list at number two. Coming up, the number one person making today's "List You Don't Want to be On." Here's a hint. He's a student who caused some huge travel problems for many of us over the holidays. The answer next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. Ready to reveal the top of our "List You Don't Want to be On." Three Dubious achievers today. So let's recap, number 3, Michael McManus, wore a real army officer's uniform out in public with real medals on his chest, lots of them. You're not allowed to do that. Federal crime, by the way. He is in trouble.
Next up, Charlie Sheen, formally charged with assaulting his wife. Both Sheen's lawyer and his wife's lawyer say the couple want to work it out. He was arrested for alleged domestic violence on Christmas day.
But the number one spot on the "List You Don't Want to be On" goes to, here we go, reveal it. Haison Jiang, 28-years-old. The grad student at Rutgers. What do you do to make this list? Well, let me refresh your memory.
Roger, roll this tape.
Remember that video? Breaking news, I remember, it was a Sunday night. That was January 3rd, Newark Airport, Haison Jiang past the security station. Remember everybody is coming back from the holidays around this time, right? And then he planted a big smooch on his girlfriend who is getting on a flight.
Well, that's a big problem. That triggered a security alert that shut down the airport, stranded 16,000 travelers, and it threw a wrench into flight schedules all around the world. You know everybody touched this. It's all domino effect.
And a few days later, arrested, charged with defiant trespassing. It is a misdemeanor, Jiang could get a few hundred dollar fine and some jail time if he gets the maximum penalty.
Look, that is Haison Jiang today. Just a short time ago at the municipal courthouse in Newark, New Jersey. He pleaded not guilty to the trespassing charges. His side of the story is that he wanted a couple more minutes with his girlfriend. Officials apparently believe him.
The TSA, the Transportation Safety Administration, disciplined the guard who turned his back on the secure area, but they say Jiang shouldn't have ignored a "do not enter" sign.
A few New Jersey lawmakers are pushing for tougher penalties for breaching airport security.
Haison Jiang, one kiss started the dominos falling, the holiday air travel nightmare of 2010. And that's worth the top spot on the "List You Don't Want to be On."
Listen, if you want to be on the list of people -- we are watching the New Orleans Saints as they get ready for a big parade down in New Orleans --guess what, you're going to see it live right here on CNN, and guess who's going to show it to you? My friend in Washington, in "THE SITUATION ROOM," Mr. Wolf Blitzer. Take it away, sir.
