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ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
GOP Wins U.S. Senate Race; Crisis in Haiti; Fighting to Survive
Aired January 20, 2010 - 2300 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again from Port-au-Prince. Big new developments tonight here in Haiti and of course back home, the big political story, the election in Massachusetts, Scott Brown, Republican, to the Senate. Big implications, Wolf Blitzer is going to join us with the very latest on that stunning victory.
We'll also see what our political panel has to say about Brown's win and what it could mean for the president's plan on, well, on the health care system and a whole lot of other things as well.
Here in Haiti, people dying who simply don't have to; it is the grim reality. Every single day we are seeing this; tens of thousands of injured victims dying of infections, gangrene and lack of other medical necessities. Today, one doctors group said 20,000 people a day are dying preventable deaths. That according to one doctor's group.
The U.N. says, "No, no, no the numbers aren't that great." They didn't actually come up with a number of their own. But look, even if it's 1,000 people, even if it's 500 people dying a day, it could get to the point where more people could die after the earthquake than actually died directly during the earthquake.
Also, massive new aftershocks today, new video of the quake as it happened. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That is what it looked like eight days ago from one man's vantage point, far away from Port-au-Prince but overlooking the city. A nearly 6.0 aftershock today, there is new damage, new casualties that caused a whole lot of fear throughout the city.
And today again, another remarkable survival story, a 5-year-old boy this time, named Manly (ph), pulled from the rubble today by his uncle, who is searching for the bodies of the little boy's father and mother; survival against all odds.
Medical personnel say he has no broken bone but he is badly dehydrated, his mom was killed, his father missing, with the boy's uncle, as I said with four of his friends, picking through the rubble. They found Manly (ph), when they heard his cries, apparently he kept crying, "I'm here. I'm here." There was no international search and rescue team involved.
And last night there was another remarkable story, this woman on the gurney saved from a collapsed building, she appears to be ok. We were there when they pulled her out; she's getting treated on the "USS Batan."
A 3-week-old baby rescued from the rubbles just yesterday. A man who found the newborn girl cannot explain how she survived. He said the baby has been reunited with her mother. He said the mother never gave up hope.
A quick update on another survivor, Eni Zizi, we told you about her, she was in her 70s; she was pulled yesterday from the rubble. And as I mentioned she has been on the "Batan" being treated, in her 70s. She's apparently doing all right and in stable condition, resting comfortably. What kind of long-term damage to her kidneys from not having water for so long, it's hard to say at this point, but she is stable at least for now.
Not every story ends so well, however and we're about to tell you one that doesn't. Here is what we found when we visited the ruins of a school in a town about an hour from here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): There is no hope of rescue at St. Rose De Lima in Leogane, there was just rubble and dust and the dark stains of death.
(on camera): There were five nuns who have lived here and took care of the little girls in the school. They've perished in the earthquake. They believed there may be as many as 100 to 110 children who are still buried in the rubble. Those operators are just taking a brief break, searching.
But -- I mean, there's -- there are people all around here, objects. A bell; perhaps used to summon the children to a meal. Textbook, mathematics book, there was a child's shoe. There is a skull right here.
Whatever remains that they find - well, they put in a dump truck, the dump truck is right over here. They said they have put about 20 to 25 children in it so far. But if they fill it up a little bit more, they are going to drive it outside of town and bury it and the kids in a mass grave.
(voice-over): A handful of men are helping recover the children but many more have come to scavenge the site. They are looking for food or something to sell. They fight over who gets to steal what. No one seems sure how many students were here when the quake hit. No one knows how many survived.
(on camera): This is Sister Esther?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Sister Esther, she is the directress of the school.
COOPER: She's the directress of the school?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
COOPER: She runs the school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, she died in the school.
COOPER: Yes she died here.
(voice-over): We search for survivors in a makeshift encampment and find Clement Kristini (ph), she's 11-year-old. What happened at the school?
"The school fell," she says, "a lot of people weren't able to be saved. I was helped by another student and a man working there. They saved me."
Is your family ok?
"Well, my mom is dead," she says, "I haven't heard about my father. Someone told me my mom die but I don't know for sure."
You are very brave.
(voice-over): Only the brave can survive the sadness here, only the brave can do what has to be done.
Back at the school, Jean Claude Jean searches for the remains of his little daughter, Cynthia.
(on camera): Trying to find a picture of his child.
(voice-over): Jean Claude's wife and two other children are dead. They are trapped in the rubble of their home. He doesn't know what they'll do now.
In an empty class room, the last lesson is still there on the blackboard, January 12th, the day of the quake. The teacher had written a single sentence to copy, "May God receive us," it says "with open arms."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: May God receive them with open arms. Profile, Sanjay Gupta has been, you know, all over the medical aspect of what has been going on here and he had found the story of two doctors who are struggling to treat people in Haiti. They are surgeons, they are twins. They have very few supplies and they say they do not know why their patients have to suffer.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports right now. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARLON BITAR, HAITIAN SURGEON: I think it was the end of the world.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): He thought it was the end of the world.
JERRY BITAR, HAITIAN SURGEON: Yes.
GUPTA (voice-over): They are Haitian surgeons, Jerry and Marlon Bitar, yes, they are twins. And at this community, they are also heroes. When the earthquake hit, they stayed open for business.
(on camera): These are the two of the most renowned general surgeons in Port-au-Prince and trying to do everything they can obviously for patients. But the problem is what happens, even if they provide the best health care they can with the resources they have, there is no plan after that.
The international community say look, we are providing a lot of aid to Haiti, we're providing a lot of money, we're providing a lot of resources. What do you say to that?
J. BITAR, HAITIAN SURGEON: Honestly, I don't say they don't send, but I personally don't feel it.
GUPTA (voice-over): But today, they have far more pressing matters than worrying about when international aid will come. Hardly any food, minimal water and not enough pain medications, patients are literally screaming for help.
(on camera): The sounds that you overhear are sounds that you never want to hear again. They are children screaming, knowing that they are going to have so much pain as they try and dress these wounds. There is not much they can do for them. There's not much in the way of pain medications that they can give to them. And all of the patients waiting, knowing that they're next, knowing that they're going to endure that same sort of pain, so it's impossible to watch.
Oh, wow. Obviously a young boy with significant injuries; you can see his legs, he has got -- this is a severe scar and these -- this has a lot of crush injury here.
J. BITAR: Exactly.
GUPTA: This leg you have decided to save though?
MARLON BITAR, HAITIAN SURGEON: No.
J. BITAR: We save that but this, we can't save it.
GUPTA: So what do you do?
J. BITAR: I mean, we have a lot of patient waiting here they finish operating but doctor, I cannot go to the street because I don't have -- I don't have home. And I think -- I ask everybody who help to think about how to put -- how -- thinking about how -- they don't have a house.
M. BITAR: Yes, you can't live without house.
J. BITAR: Without a house.
J. BITAR: They are on the street and people, we give health care, they cannot go on the street. It's impossible.
GUPTA: And even near the end of the day this is basically what continues to happen; trucks coming in with patient, after patients, after patient. This hospital is already full to capacity, but these two doctors are going to continue to take care of as many as they can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That is just unbelievable. And I mean, as you -- watching that piece, you were saying, I mean it just continues. I mean, it's day after day. This is all around us. This is what we are seeing?
GUPTA: Yes it's really incredible. These two guys have been here for 14 years, so they've seen lots of cyclical changes here in Haiti and obviously, this the worst thing they have ever seen.
But the thing they are really trying to emphasize to me is that, this idea of that they're going to operate on these patients, they're going to take the best care that they can, but resource they need after that, people aren't even thinking about that.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: I mean, as you know, Anderson, there are still pain meds, gloves, we're talking about of it here earlier piece, water, but what about homes? A very, very serious operations. Where do you go after that to recover?
COOPER: And we all know what's going to happen, now a week or two weeks, or I mean, and hopefully not sooner than that but people are just going to lose interest in this as a story. They're going to stop watching it, it's going to be stuck, getting the coverage that it has been getting and the people here are going to remain here and their medical needs are going to be as great if not greater because they need to follow on -- and follow on surgeries and they are not going to get their needs met because no one will be paying attention.
GUPTA: There is a sort of venting of compassion.
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: I mean, people vent compassion now because they are seeing these images and stuff. I guess some part of it's up to you and to us to make sure they don't forget but you're absolutely right.
And I don't know how -- you know, I wrote this the other day on one of the blogs that I feel a little hopeless and I hate saying that. I just hate feeling that way. COOPER: Well, it's interesting, though, because I get e-mails from doctors and nurses saying, well, I'm thinking about coming or I want to come. But you know what I'm at the point now, where I sort of tell everyone, you know what if you can, if you can take time-off and come. I mean, if you're a doctor or you're a nurse, I mean, load up a suitcase with whatever you got and just come down, because no matter where you go, I mean there are public parks with people performing surgery...
GUPTA: Right.
COOPER: ...in public parks.
GUPTA: Yes.
COOPER: Eight days after this thing. I know they brought a big ship with 1,000 beds and you know and God bless them and let's open it up, but I mean, you can go into this park and save somebody's life.
GUPTA: And you can do it now, you can probably do it a week from now or a month from now.
COOPER: Yes.
GUPTA: I mean, if you can't come now, come in a few weeks.
COOPER: Right, yes.
GUPTA: And it's going to be ongoing.
COOPER: Right. Anyway, we'll talk more about this throughout this hour.
Wolf Blitzer is coming up next. He's following the "Raw Politics" of the U.S. senate vote in Massachusetts. That story and a lot more from Haiti after that.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, we're following big political news back in the United States, but we go to Wolf Blitzer for that -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "SITUATION ROOM": Thanks very much, Anderson.
Lots going on, very dramatic developments: Scott Brown's victory may end up drastically changing President Obama's agenda in this -- or just beginning the second year of his administration. It may also speak to what's going on in the rest of the country.
We have the "Raw Politics". Tom Foreman takes a closer look at the voters who propelled senator-elect Brown to his victory.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you are searching for the secret to Republican's Scott Brown's long-shot in Massachusetts, look no farther than Illinois, where not so long ago, a long-shot Democrat, Barack Obama, also celebrated victory.
In each case the decisive factor was voters, many of them independents, angry about the economy and politics as usual. More than half of Massachusetts voters are independent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want a change in Washington.
FOREMAN: Independent voters have been trending off for more than 30 years. In Richard Nixon's day, they were just 19 percent of the electorate nationwide, compared with 46 percent Democrat and 35 percent Republican.
(on camera): But now it appears they have reached the tipping point. Independents are now casting a third of all votes, some say even more. And this militant middle seems ready and willing to rip into either party if they feel ignored or taken for granted.
(voice-over): A case in point, while some Democrats try to rally around the Massachusetts race as a contest for the late Ted Kennedy's seat, analysts believe candidate Brown scored big when he said this.
SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, with all due respect it's not the Kennedy seat and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat.
FOREMAN: In his upcoming book, John Avalon argues that independents by their nature are not all the same but many want limited spending, generous social policies and most of all, government that listens to them; simple yet bedeviling ideas for both parties which constantly plays to their conservative and liberal bases.
JOHN AVALON, AUTHOR, "WINGNUTS": What's different now is that independents are stepping up and saying, stop, stop with the extremism. Stop with the hyper-partisanship, stop with the ideology, let's focus on solutions and not just build my party up, tear your party down approach to politics.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that is a wakeup call for everybody in this panel.
FOREMAN: In Massachusetts, they have already heard the alarm loud and clear. Senator-elect Brown says he'll work with Democrats and Republicans but who did he thank?
BROWN: Tonight, the independent majority has delivered a great victory.
FOREMAN: Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Angry voters and an anxious party in power, let's talk "Strategy" with our panel. Roland Martin is with us. Roland, is there a moment that you look back on where you see the Democrats had a pretty serious mistake?
ROLAND S. MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, the moment again was around March or April when the country was angry with Wall Street and the bailout and the bonuses and what you saw was the administration saying, you know, giving out statements that we don't agree with this. And we saw it in April, in May, in June, July, August, September, October, all the administration folks going on the air saying these bonuses are shameful, but there was no action behind it. In the foreclosure program, they did not mandate for banks to rework those loans.
That's why when the report came out showing that only four percent of the people who are in the program were affected by it. It wasn't working. They were offering stick and carrots when the American people were saying no. We need a sledgehammer because these people are messing over us.
And then when you saw all of a sudden the stock prices go up and all the money they were making, the American folks are saying, "Wait a minute we saved your butt, you couldn't have gotten a big bonus if we didn't give you $25 billion."
They sat here and they toyed with Wall Street and they tried to work with them and Wall Street ended up screwing them in the end. And the American people are saying if you didn't get tough with them, we're going to get tough with you. That was a mistake by this White House and by Democrats.
BLITZER: Let me bring Ed Rollins. And Ed is there a moderate Republican in the senate that could still save health care reform for the Democrats?
ED ROLLINS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I mean, obviously, Olympia Snowe or Mrs. Collins from Maine or Mike Castle in the House is going to run for the senate but in my sense it's not going to happen. I think the reality here is the Democrats have taken the ball this far. It's now up to them to carry across the line.
We're not going to do anything to help him because I don't think it's a bill that we are happy with. There's two parts to this bill that we don't like: one is $500 billion cut in Medicare and the other is the gigantic tax increase. And those aren't particularly good Republican issues.
BLITZER: Do you think the president is going to become increasingly more populist during the course of this year? But is he a populist? Does he really believe in that stuff?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you need to ask him. I don't speak for the president of the United States.
BLITZER: Well, what do you think?
BEGALA: Well, you know what, he grew up poor. His father abandoned the family. His mother was on welfare at one point. He was a scholarship kid at a rich man's school.
I think, he's certainly seen America from the bottom up and he's lived the American dream. And I think, his story is America's story in the best sort of sense of American populism, where we lift folks up, instead of just sort of reserving power for the moneyed elite. We reach out and lift up people like Barack Obama. And I think it's in the finest Democratic populist tradition. He can give voice to that.
BLITZER: Well, let me ask Gloria, because she has been doing some reporting on this.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think that we all, as we sit and we kind of look back at this we are going to ask the question whether Scott Brown is going to become a role model for the way Republicans win or whether he's just going to be this one-time wonder here. Because what he did which I think was very important, was he found the link between those establishment Republicans and those activists out there which when we were talking about how Republicans lost in upstate New York that Congressional seat, we were talking about how Republicans were divided, they were going to devour each other. The party was split.
And suddenly, we see this candidate out there who managed somehow, because he's a fiscal conservative, he somehow managed to get all those people behind him and tap into their frustrations. So, will this be a role model for Republicans? Will you continue to elect these kinds of Republicans or not?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And he ran against an establishment Democratic candidate, who surrounded herself with unpopular Democratic politicians in her state and then at the end, with the president nationally, who was personally popular in Massachusetts, but Wolf, people are mad. Can he be a populist? It's a great question.
I visited 50 states in the past year and you could you see a dramatic transformation. Democrats, progressives, who in their DNA believe government is supposed to do good, don't trust government right now. They don't think people will get it right, handle it straight. Whether its liberals saying where did my public option go or more moderate Democrats saying why can't you get along, they share this distrust, that the government they want to believe and can't get it right.
And guess what? It's a year after his inauguration. They think and a lot of independents especially tell you this, I understand George W. Bush might have started the bailout. Barack Obama is still spending the money.
He has been president for a year now, why is the unemployment rate going up? His foreclosure program doesn't seem to be working for me. Is all of that fair? Maybe not. But when you're the President of the United States, you get the blame.
BLITZER: All right, hold on, guys, we're going to continue this conversation... MARTIN: Hey, Wolf, Wolf the answer to your question...
BLITZER: Hold on, hold on, Roland. Stand by for a moment we've got a lot more to discuss. We'll be back with the panel later.
We'll go back to Anderson in Haiti and he's got a searing, but vital story to share with us: the senior citizens and what's happening to them in the quake's aftermaths.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: And we are back with our panel talking about the aftermath of Scott Brown's huge upset in Massachusetts last night, the Republican taking Ted Kennedy's seat.
Let's discuss what's going on. We were talking, Paul Begala, you remember when the Democrats lost the House and Senate in '94. What happened? There were a whole bunch of Democrats who quickly became Republicans.
BEGALA: They dwell the morning of my recollection, I could be off by a day or two but right after that election, Richard Shelby, a Democratic Senator from Alabama, announced that he was now going to be a Republican Senator from Alabama. By the way, he is still in the Senate...
BORGER: Right.
BEGALA: ... the people of Alabama love him.
ROLLINS: Still a Republican.
BEGALA: And still a Republican and quite a loyal one. This is the sort of thing that happens.
BLITZER: So is that going to happen now?
BEGALA: Well, here is thing, the dog that hasn't barked is -- so far, we haven't had any Democrats switch party, we haven't had any senior Democrat says they are going to retire. Let's watch for that. There's been a lot of Republican retirements last year.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: And now the Republican from Alabama.
BEGALA: Parker, but that was not because there was election. That's from the northern district in Alabama. And he may lose, by the way because it's a pretty Democratic district.
CASTELLANOS: Only have been 24 hours.
BEGALA: Right, so that's what I want watch. The first 72 hours, and let's watch and see and if the Obama administration and the White House can kind of hold hands...
ROLLINS: That's his side, from my side, we now have people who say, you know, I think I can beat Ron Widen in Oregon, I think I can win Patty Murray's (ph) seat in Washington. And I think maybe we ought to take a shot at Bayh (ph), if he can beat a Kennedy and get a Kennedy seat in Massachusetts.
So we're going to have people starting to run who wouldn't have run and raising money like crazy.
CASTELLANOS: And there is -- we are seeing a lot of young, new Republican candidates flood the zone all of a sudden, start knocking on the Congressional Committees and senate committee's door and that is something we haven't seen.
We've looked around and seen the older generation of Republican, they are starting to show up. You know, the last guy to show up in Washington after driving a pickup truck around the state was a fellow named Fred Thompson. He got to Washington and they picked him right away to give the response to the President's State of the Union. It will be interesting to see if the...
BORGER: Right.
CASTELLANOS: ...if the part of this new generation of Bob McDonnells, and now the Scott Brown. What if Republicans...
(CROSSTALK)
BLIZTER: Another state senator from another state, Illinois who wound up becoming, what President of the United States, only a few years later.
I want to bring Joe in, because you've covered Congress for a very, very long time. I'm not saying you're old. But you know Congress very well.
Is there a way that Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, can get himself re-elected in Nevada in the upcoming election?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, probably so. I mean, Harry Reid is a dogfighter. He is a guy who will go out there and do what it takes. And he has been in some other very tough races, as a matter of fact. So, it is not impossible, but this is a very interesting mood out there in the country. And it does kind of hark back to...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Because I haven't seen any evidence that Harry Reid is moderating his position given the fact that he's facing potentially the political fight of his life.
KING: He was trying to get the health care debate over with, because it's unpopular back home.
BORGER: Right. KING: So he was trying to get it over and done with and just so the president can focus on deficit reduction and jobs from here on out this year. Nevada is a great state to look at because that is the state that Barack Obama ran up the margins there after it had been very competitive between Al Gore and then John Kerry, George W. Bush years. They've gone back and forth by the narrowest of margins. I think one year it was 500 votes or something like that.
Well, New Mexico might have been 500 votes, Nevada was really close. The Latino populations have exploded there and it's helped the Democrats. But the more west you go the more independents you find.
And so you want to watch these states in this election and see if the Massachusetts message plays as you move through these states.
BLITZER: Very quickly.
BORGER: Actually, I was counting this. There are six states currently held by Democrats where the Republican senate candidate is actually ahead now, six states.
JOHNS: And Nevada's one.
BORGER: And Nevada is one of them, North Dakota, Colorado, Arkansas, Delaware, Pennsylvania. So, you know - that's tough.
BLITZER: The Democrats have a big, big fight.
A reminder, next Wednesday, one week from today the president delivers his "State of the Union" address. Our special prime time coverage will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
We'll have more with our panel in a moment but let's go back to Anderson in Haiti right now -- Anderson.
COOPER: Wolf thanks very much.
Here in Haiti, we have been covering the medical crisis tonight. Eight days after the quake, eight days and doctors still without badly needed supplies. How is this happening?
We're going to take you to one hospital, show you what's happening and we'll talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and others about it.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: There have been multiple aftershocks since the earthquake hit, the strongest one hit early this morning as you probably heard; a magnitude 5.9. At the time we thought -- heard initially it was a 6.1, but it was a 5.9. There was panic in the street; there was a lot -- this sort of a surreal wail goes up, people screaming, running away from buildings.
There's a lot of fear here in this city about, you know, what's going to be -- what's going to happen and is another big earthquake going to come? So today was a real shock for a lot of people.
At General Hospital which is not too far from where we are right now, close to the presidential palace, there was an evacuation. They actually got all the patients out, moved them out of the building, they were afraid the building might collapse. They then had the structural engineers coming to look at the building and it was okay. But all of the patients were out there for much of the day under the hot Haitian sun.
The Red Cross had put up two tents but they didn't have any more tents, just two, they couldn't fit all the patients under it. It was really a surreal scene. And doctors there wanted us to come and look at the supply situation and why they are having such -- so many supply problems.
This morning, in fact, they couldn't have surgeries because they didn't have any surgical gloves. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): In the courtyard of General Hospital, the sick, the injured sit in the sun and wait. After the earthquake this morning, the patients were brought here. The hospital building is fine but it will be hours before they can be moved back in. It is hot, it is humid, the patients are quickly getting dehydrated.
(on camera): In terms of supplies, what do you need?
DR. E. BENJAMIN, GENERAL HOSPITAL: We need everything needed for amputation, for sleeping pills, for post-op patient following infected-type of surgery, antibiotics, medication to put people to sleep, to resuscitate them and so on.
(voice-over): Haitian-American doctors and nurses and EMTs from the New York area arrived here Monday. They are stunned by the lack of supplies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have oxygen that I've been looking for the last two hours. I finally found this bag there and a gauge for my tank bag. I can't even find either a (INAUDIBLE) or a cannula and that woman is dying back there for oxygen.
DR. MARNELL MOORE, PODIATRIST, NEW JERSEY: We don't have enough supply. We tell you, you just have a below-the-knee amputation. You know what we are giving the patient for pain medication? Motrin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Motrin we're giving them, with bilateral amputation.
COOPER: Wait. So somebody who's just had an amputation, the only thing you are able to give them is Motrin?
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But all you have is Motrin?
(voice-over): The hours are long and the patients keep coming. Medical teams are under great stress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have had enough, okay? I have had enough.
COOPER: There are people here from all over the world trying to help but with supplies so low, they feel they can't do their jobs.
DR. DAVID GRISWELL, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL CENTER: We have been here now several days working and all these medical supplies and other equipment are sitting there at the tarmac at the airport and they are not moving out.
No one has fed these patients now in four days. Some of these people have not eaten in four days.
I just went up to the OR. They are working five cases in the same room. There's no electricity there. I don't know why somebody can't hook up a power generator so they can start giving anesthesia to these people.
EMANUELLE ALEXIS, REGISTERED NURSE, NEW JERSEY: That patient, they are going to die regardless. That is what is killing me. I take my whole week to come here to help, so whatever I'm doing is going to be like nothing, because when I leave, they are going to be on the streets. They don't have no place to go and they are going to die. They're going to be sepsis and they're going to die.
COOPER: People are dying who don't really have to. People are dying and it has been more than a week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Yes. And you know, one group said 20,000 people are dying a day because of preventable diseases, preventable injuries that they need surgery for, but because they are not getting the surgery, as many as 20,000 are dying. The U.N. says "Not true, not that many."
But again, if we're talking hundreds, even if we're talking a few thousand that is far too many for -- given the amount of international attention on this story, given the amount of people who are coming here, personnel who are coming here.
There are even tougher scenes though elsewhere in this city, people who are already among the most vulnerable before the quake.
Gary Tuchman was out telling this story. And I just want to warn you it is hard to watch, like a lot of things are hard to watch here, but it is very real and the people here want you to know what is happening.
Gary Tuchman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were people who escaped from this structure with their lives but what has become of their lives? (on camera): This building was a government-run senior citizen home in Port-au-Prince. There were 80 men and women who lived here. Six were killed in the earthquake. The other 74 survived. But now, watching how they survive is very difficult.
(voice-over): They are living outside, in the heat, on soiled mattresses; many in diapers that don't appear to have been changed, some not wearing any pants at all. They are here because the director of the nursing home says he doesn't know what to do with them. And then there's this disturbing fact.
JEAN EMMANUEL, NURSING HOME ADMINISTRATOR (through translator): They have no food. They have no drinking water. They have absolutely nothing.
TUCHMAN: This is 74-year-old Asi Sitigan (ph), she proudly shows us her wedding picture, her passport picture. She is one of the seniors without food, water and sufficient medical care.
The same with this man who lies motionless with an infestation of insects on his face. This woman, one of many here with dementia and this rightfully upset man. He tells us ...
"If conditions don't improve, these people will fall to the ground as cadavers."
There is only one doctor here, a Haitian, who only has aspirin and bandages with him. And when he showed up today, he was the first doctor to arrive since the quake.
TUCHMAN (on camera): It's impossible to overstate the sense of indignity here. These are the poorest people in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. They lived in a public old aged home for indigent people. It was very basic to begin with.
Now they are outside, there is absolutely no plan for what's going to be done with these people next.
(voice-over): Suffice it to say, no international aid has shown up here.
EMMANUEL: If they don't get any medical care, if they don't get any food it is absolutely certain they will die.
TUCHMAN: They weren't killed and most of these people weren't even hurt in the earthquake but they are most certainly victims too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And that is just unbelievable. That is just stunning. Where is this happening? If some aid group is watching this -- I mean no one's been to see them, where -- what is the name of this place?
TUCHMAN: It is called the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home. It's 20 minutes away from where we are standing.
COOPER: What, is it near the airport?
TUCHMAN: It was close to the airport but it was absolutely appalling. It was very hard for myself and my producer and my photographer to just watch this. It was very disturbing.
And there were actually -- I should tell our viewers, there were a lot of shots that we just didn't feel comfortable using because it would be so hard for so many of our viewers to watch.
I will tell you that while we were there, there was a British woman who worked for a group for the aging in Britain. She said she'd put in a call to a group that she works with in England. And she said they were going to send supplies, food, water and medicine to the nursing home, we are hoping that tomorrow they have some supplies.
COOPER: but I mean this is just incredible. Again, I've been getting -- we get e-mails now from people all the time saying I'm not sure I should come and it seems difficult.
You know what? You can cross over the Dominican Republic if you're a doctor, if you're a nurse, if you got any association with the humanitarian group, you can fill up -- I met guys at the hospital today who were just highly motivated young men, who'd been in the military or have been EMTs and just, you know what? They just flew to the Dominican Republic, met some people on the plane, gathered together, got a van, loaded up with supplies, medical supplies, drove it in and they're literally saving lives, these people in their early 20s.
TUCHMAN: I know you have been preaching it and we're preaching it, all of us. They need so much help here; they them need doctors. If you're a doctor and you can take some time off, you can fly to Santo Domingo and drive here.
COOPER: Helping those people in that old age home, yes, they're going to need medical personnel but they just need people there to help. I mean, there's no one around them.
TUCHMAN: That is the point of that story, one doctor with almost nothing. And he just showed up today; for seven days, those old people had absolutely zero medical care.
COOPER: The airport is where there's a lot of government officials -- Haitian government officials, if they are watching. You know, maybe they could stroll over there. Anyway, it's -- it is just remarkable, just incredible.
Gary, I appreciate your reporting.
A programming note, Friday night at 8:00, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and I are going to take part in this "Hope for Haiti Now". It's a global telethon; it's hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean.
Sanjay and I are going to have live news reports from Haiti throughout the telethon. It's going to air on CNN right here. We hope you join us for that Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Coming up, we're going to have a lot more from Haiti. Also go back to Wolf and the political team, trying to cover a lot of moving -- fast- moving stories. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We're going to have a lot more from Port-au-Prince tonight coming up throughout this hour, but let's go right now, back to the big political story at home and Wolf Blitzer in New York -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right Anderson. Almost exactly a year after taking office, President Obama is facing perhaps his greatest political challenge right now.
Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate special election has put the White House on the defensive, left Democrats around the country worried about the future.
We are back with our panel for our strategy session. Roland Martin, you know this president from his days in Chicago. How does he deal personally a crisis like this?
MARTIN: Well, know what, when he lost the Texas primary, at that particular -- I think it was Texas and Pennsylvania, on that day or Ohio, one of those two -- he called his staff in and they had a huge meeting and he was very deliberate. And it was interesting because he said, "I want to know why we are spending $20 million and we lost."
It was interesting, when it was over, he came in there, with his own notes on a note pad; they methodically went through what happened. He took charge at this point of the campaign. And when it was over and he said, "Guys I'm not upset with you, but I want it fixed."
He is going to maintain the same temperament but trust me I think he's going to dial it up with his aides to say, "Look, we have missed some things. We have dropped the ball. We have to tighten this ship," not only with the White House but also the Democratic National Committee because they missed some things in this Coakley/Brown election and say this cannot continue going forward.
I think it is -- expect to see a tightened ship, but publicly you will not see him -- he will remain unflappable -- you will not see him flash any kind of anger or whatever, because that is simply his temperament.
BLITZER: Because in the interview he did today with ABC News, Paul Begala, he suggested that he may have missed the big picture over the past year as he and -- what he called I think -- technocrats worked on policy minutia.
BEGALA: Yes, I think that is a valid criticism. He is a very smart guy and we like that about him, but he sometimes gets a little detached, I think, from ordinary folks.
But I want to raise one other thing -- it struck me when you said just a year ago, there was Barack Obama. Two years ago, the biggest issue in America by far, the Iraq war. It was unsolvable; it was the most divisive issue in America.
Today, both John McCain and Nancy Pelosi agreed with what President Obama's doing there. One year ago, Obama was dominant; Democrats rule forever. One year from today, I know this -- we are not going to be talking about what we are talking about now.
The problem with we pundits, people like me, is we tend to think tomorrow will be just like today only more so. I guarantee you one year from today will be completely different from this and I think that sort of dynamism is how we got a skinny state senator in the White House and that's how we got a naked state Senator in the Massachusetts Senate.
ROLLINS: Paul is right that John McCain and Nancy Pelosi may agree on the Iraq strategy, but right now, it's the Afghan strategy that Nancy Pelosi is leading the war against the President's interest and policy.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: This is so dynamic in our politics that we ought not to think it is static today.
ROLLINS: But this president still has to raise taxes. He's going to roll back the Bush taxes, he has gigantic tax increases of the (INAUDIBLE) health care. There is a whole lot of things up and they're going to be very uncomfortable for Democrats to vote for.
BORGER: They may not.
CASTELLANOS: But big things do change. Two years ago, the Republican party was the party of irresponsibility, we set the world on fire and spent ourselves to death. We de-branded ourselves that.
The Democrats have elected Barack Obama as the opposite of that, the candidate of responsibility. Guess what, he has now de-branded the Democratic Party as a party of economic responsibility. He is the guy creating uncertainty out there. That's a big change and the Democrats are going to have to repair this or suffer the consequences.
BLITZER: Just like there was a dramatic change this past year from January 20th of last year when he was inaugurated until now. Who knows what is going to happen over the course of this year.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTELLANOS: And that's what's creating the opportunity for independents.
BLITZER: All right. Stand by panel because we're going to continue this conversation.
Anderson is joining us in just a moment as well with another live update from Haiti.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: We're talking about Republican Scott Brown's Senate victory in Massachusetts; a very, very blue state. Senator Barbara Boxer of California, another blue state, says it means that every state is now in play.
Let's get some final thoughts from our panel. Does that mean that every state is now in play for the Democrats? To John.
KING: Every state is more in play for the Republicans than the Democrats at the moment given the change. We've debated tonight what are they going to do about the deficit. What are they going to do about health care in Washington?
Let me leave you with this thought. Two numbers that will not be decided in Washington, D.C. that will have a lot to do with the conversation we're having in November, the unemployment rate in this country and the foreclosure rate in this country. The housing market and the jobs market are fuelling the anxiety and the questions and the frustration of American voters right now. And they don't think Washington is acting fast enough.
BLITZER: People are nervous.
BORGER: People are nervous. And I think the question is whether they're going to believe Barack Obama when he says he's mad as hell and not going to take it any more either. You know, he accused -- during the campaign I remember, he accused Hillary Clinton after she supported the gas tax holiday of being a false populist.
The question is whether they're going to believe Barack Obama when he says he's mad at the banks and he's going to tax them. He really wants financial reform, which we know he does. But it's going to be part of it. And he wants a jobs package.
Are they going to believe him as the guy who can make their lives better?
BLITZER: All of that became legislatively much more difficult for him to enact.
JOHNS: Sure. Absolutely. And long term, short term, next few months, people are going to be looking at Barack Obama asking a pretty simple question -- that is, where's the change? The Democrats are going to have to figure out how they're going to answer that question. And if they don't have it, they might very well see a blood bath in November.
Roland Martin, let me bring him in. How big of a deal was it? Because the Republicans are making a huge deal that the president said C-Span cameras would be covering all the negotiations. Guess what, they didn't. How big of a deal was that?
MARTIN: first of all, every single politician lie when it comes to being transparent and open. We all know that's BS. So you know what, Republican or Democrat, both of you shut up because you keep lying about that. Look, from a presidential standpoint, his foreclosure program 4 percent in terms of people being helped; that's what he has to focus on. Black wealth they say -- 50 percent of black wealth will be wiped out because of foreclosure programs. That directly affects people. Democrats have to get back to basics.
But if you're Republicans, you ratchet it up and there's no benefit for Republicans right now to frankly work with the Democrats on anything. They're succeeding where they are. So you can't depend on them and this whole notion of bipartisanship.
BLITZER: Should the Republicans be nervous about anything right now and in terms of getting overconfident? Give them some caution.
ROLLINS: The bottom line is we won three statewide races the last three months. We should learn the lessons from those races, which are all those candidates made it local. They didn't make it national. And that's what we have to do. We have to win these things one at a time. National elections happen the last 30 days. You don't go set out to have a national election on which you're going to change all that.
BLITZER: All right guys. Stand by for a moment. We're going to go back to Haiti in a moment.
Anderson is working on some breaking news. He's done amazing reporting with Sanjay and our entire team over there, Ivan Watson. We're going to go back in just a moment. We want to thank them for what they're doing.
But let's check in with Tom Foreman. He's got a "360 News and Business Bulletin" for us -- Tom.
FOREMAN: Thanks, Wolf.
In Virginia, a 39-year-old suspect in 8 shooting deaths is being held without bond after surrendering to police. Seven bodies were found yesterday in and around the suspect's house. An eighth person was found badly wounded in the middle of a road and died later. Three teenagers and a 4-year-old were among the victims. Today police found several explosives at the home.
The White House pick to head the Transportation Security Administration no longer wants the job. Erroll Southers is withdrawing his name from consideration. Senate confirmation for the former FBI agent had been blocked by a Republican who feared that Southers would let TSA workers form a union.
And 1.5 million Greco strollers are being recalled because children could get their fingertips cut or amputated. Greco reports seven such injuries. Strollers were sold from October 2004 to December 2009.
Those are the latest headlines. Now we take you back to Haiti and Anderson Cooper -- Anderson.
COOPER: Tom thanks so much. We're getting breaking news in. We're going to tell you right after this break.
But you know, the last couple of days we've been talking a lot about flights being diverted, especially flights with medical aid. Doctors without Borders most notably had a number of their flights diverted.
We were raising questions about who is making these decisions about what flights get in. Why is heavy equipment getting in and food when emergency medical aid, which can save lives now, not long term are being diverted.
Some major news today we just learned about maybe some changes that are coming, some decisions that were made today. A senior administration official with knowledge of the operation gives us the information. We'll have that for you in a moment.
Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Breaking news out of Washington about our top story tonight: why badly needed supplies have been so slow in coming? Just moments ago, we heard this from a senior administration official who said and was involved in the operation. The official knowledge that medical supplies were not getting in fast enough and there is, quote, "great concern on the part of the U.S. about this problem".
The official says the problem is basically there's a pair of factors involved. Coordination -- some flights with medical teams, equipment and supplies were diverted and that the folks making those decisions didn't really know what was on board those things. And the right people weren't sitting there to help them decide which to prioritize.
They hope that's going to change. They made a decision that somebody with knowledge of what's on the planes is going to be sitting in the air traffic control. That's going to change within the next day, they say. Also in the next 24 hours, they're going to open up other airport facilities.
The other factor the official says is security. We've been talking about this security issue, which I think is just kind of completely overblown. Yes, there's looting in some places. But there's this U.N. rule that any convoy has to have security if it's working at night or anything like that. I don't know. We all go around all the time.
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can I point something out? Last night I was at a rescue operation. And there's some medics, British medics who had to get to a clinic about 250 yards away with about a two-minute walk that I would do with a flashlight by myself. They had to be escorted in pickup trucks by U.N. security to make that drive, which really did seem ridiculous.
COOPER: And that's -- that causes time, that causes delays, it doesn't let supplies leave the airport because they've got to round up some security people and there's clearly not enough to go around.
GUPTA: I saw this firsthand, obviously, doctors leaving -- being escorted.
COOPER: Right on Friday night.
GUPTA: By U.N. because of security concerns as well.
At some point someone made a decision that we're going to emphasize security and that's going to cost some of this medical and humanitarian relief. Here's the thing as you and I talked about this. If you give medical and humanitarian relief, you much dramatically decrease the need for security. You decrease desperation and desperation obviously could possibly lead to problems.
But they're not getting medical aid there. And that's going to cause a security problem.
COOPER: Frankly, I'm amazed at how receptive and after eight days patient and tolerant the Haitian people are in Port-au-Prince. I mean, desperate people, yes, but by and large getting along with one another; incredibly happy to see anybody trying to help them. And it's not as if we're in a bunker here and need constant around the clock, an army of people around us.
WATSON: I had the same experience the entire time here. This is my first assignment in Haiti. I knew it was a tough place. I have not felt physically threatened a single time. And let's face it, I don't blend here.
COOPER: I was in a looting melee, I didn't even feel threatened in the middle of that and people had weapons. We're going to have a lot more tomorrow from Port-au-Prince. We're committed to this stories.
Thanks for watching.
"LARRY KING" starts right now.
