Skip to main content

tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  January 17, 2012 10:00pm-11:00pm PST

10:00 pm
adulthood without her. i think she would be bursting. >> i wish she could have met my children. that's the biggest regret of my life. >> it's been to my massive surprise, a real pleasure. >> i know, when i didn't crawl across the desk. i'm het row now. do that again. >> never too late. brilliant rosie o'donnell. tomorrow, i'll sit down for an extraordinary anniversary week with jimmy carter's wife rose ln. ac 360 starts right now. we begin tonight keeping them honest with growing questions for the italian cruise ship captain who ran and life and got off the wreck while he passengers were still onboard fighting for their lives. engineers today blew holes in the side of the costa concordia. they did it to get access point for the divers. five people were found today, bringing the death toll to 11, nearly two dozen still missing.
10:01 pm
the captain schettino was in court today where a judge ordered him held under arrest. the captain's story, people say, is not holding up well. he claims he and his crew were the last to abandon ship, and the navigationsistent didn't show the rocks. those don't stand up to the fact we already know. for instance, passengers and crew were scrambling down the side of the ship, and this is the infrared cameras where you see them, that trail is people scrambling down the side of the ship in the middle of the night, trying to board life boats. captain schettino, at this point, he was safely away. on the phone, on the phone with the coast guard commander at that time. in tapes released today, he tells them that he and his officers are on a life boat. he mentions he thinks there are still about 100 passengers on board, the coast guard commander
10:02 pm
is stunned. he's flabbergasted. first, he tells the captain to get his man back on board the ship to take care of the remaining people. then, after a number of excuses from the captain, he goes ballistic. >> the captain schettino was not on the last life boat. his own taped conversation confirmed that. he left passengers and crew behind and knew he left them behind. and the rocks, he should have never been near them. this was the line that the con
10:03 pm
cord yeah was on. the yellow line is the line they should have taken, the pink line takes them to giglio. the rock was not indicted on his chart. we don't know precisely which rock he hit, but map that all mariners use, you can see there are many rocks in the area. the little dots surrounding the island, giglio, and the numbers indicate shallow water, no place for a cruse ship that size. why was it there? it had been close to there before. an earlier visit from the concord yeah. this time, reports that captain schettino took the ship past giglio so his captain could wave to his family. islanders witnesses the tragedy and viewed the deaths. we're going to take you underwater to show you up close what the italian rescue divers
10:04 pm
are facing. it's extraordinariably difficult work. and we show the panic, with no crew or captains to be seen. we're going to look at contradictions in the own story. >> the call comes hours after the evacuation of the concord yeah has begun. from the start, captain gregore yeah de falco is displayed by what he's hearing from captain schettino. >> 100 people still onboard according to the captain himself.
10:05 pm
but listen to what schettino told italian television after he was safely ashore. the phone calls, de falco tells a different story. captain schettino is ordered at least ten times to go back onboard and oversee the evacuation. he refused. >> schettino seems to contradict himself again. by then, saying he did not abandon the ship.
10:06 pm
>> what's clear is that schettino had lost control of the situation and was unaware of what was happening onboard his own ship.
10:07 pm
>> that one has now grown to more than ten dead, and there are still nearly two dozen missing. schettino has never been involved in an accident before and his lawyer said his actions after the crash saved the lives of many of the passengers and crew members. so all eyes are now on the recovery of the ship's data recorders to see if they might prove that schettino was a hero or a captain who abandoned his ship and its thousands of passengers. dan, the italian coast guard said they located a second black box. do we know when they're going to retrieve that and when we might get answers on what happened the night of the crash, maybe? >> at the moment, they're still saying that they're concentrating on the hunt for the missing and the unaccounted for, but i would guess in the next day or so, they might be able to get to the second black box which they have located.
10:08 pm
and if they can, then that may give them more information, onboard cameras and videos during the incident to back up some of those radio communications that we have been listening to, to give us a fuller picture of what happened because schettino's lawyer is trying to put this in a very different light, saying, actually, he's a hero. after they hit the rocks, he deliberately put it onto the shore to give the passengers a better chance of getting out and he got off the ship and got into a life bp boat because that was the best place to coordinate from. there are two conflicted accounts of what happened. one is of a captain, as you say, completely lost a grip on the situation. another, according to his lawyer, a captain, while he drove the boat on the rocks, then reacted in the right way to get people off safely. >> the notion that he could organize better fran a lifeboat, that's an interesting concept that his lawyer is floating there.
10:09 pm
i appreciate the report. i want to get deeper into what a ship's captain is supposed to do in an event of something like this and what he's supposed to do with the tools on the bridge to stay off the rocks in the first place. joining us is captain staples, also, alex beach who was on the concordia. alex, thank you for talking with us. i can only imagine what the last several days have been like for you. how do you view the captain of the cruise ship and his actions as you know them right now? alex, can you hear me? we're having trouble getting in with alex. let's go to captain staple. as you hear that recording between the ship's captain and the coast guard, what do you make of what we know what the captain did so far? >> well, from what i have seen
10:10 pm
and heard, i was totally amazed at his actions. it baffled me how the man could abandon the ship with people onboard. not the typical type of thing you would expect from somebody who takes responsibility of preserving life when you're at sea. >> the argument that his lawyer appears to be making that he could better organize things from a lifeboat, does that make any sense to you? sdm no, that makes absolutely no sense to me. it was dark and you have very poor visibility in a lifeboat. you're close to the water. you have no idea of how many people are onboard the ship. he should have stayed onboard the ship and coordinated the rescue attempts from the vessel. >> the captain has said he wasn't aware of the rock that he hit. does it make sense? the whole notion of how far they were off course, does that surprise you? is there any reason other than some sort of personal reason of wanting to wave to people on shore that they would have made that course?
10:11 pm
>> no, i was very surprised that he would do something like that, to deviate from his original voyage plan. it makes absolutely no sense to risk the vessel bringing it into shallow waters and a rocky coast. it makes no sense at all to do something like that. and that's the part that i have -- i find hard to understand. why somebody would take that risk, especially at nighttime when visible is very poor anyways. you can't see what is out there, and bring it in that close. he even said he was 300 meters off the beach. that's not even the turning diameter of the vessel. he leaves himself no outs for any type of an emergency which we saw. and a very, very poor judgmental error. >> alex beach is now joining us on the phone, survived the wreck. i can't imagine what the last couple days were like for you. when you hear the recording between the ship captain and the coast guard and them tepping him to get bag on the ship, what do you think of the captain?
10:12 pm
>> anderson, hearing the news feed, i am absolutely shocked. shocked at his behavior. i have heard other reports that he had abandoned ship and all, but this sounds like they have a lot of proof of where he was. and what his mindset was, and it is shocking as a passenger that was relying on him and the rest of his upper officers to steer this ship. it's quite alarming. >> you saw a lot of -- and you made a point of mentioning lower level crew members, you saw trying to help people as best they could, correct? >> i certainly did. and i'm talking about the cabin stewards, the people that were booking excursions, the wait staff. they came to our aid, and they were doing the very best they could. there was no upper level
10:13 pm
direction. we had not had a muster station check. my husband and i got in on barcelona, had been on the ship five days and never had a drill where we put on our life vests and went to our muster stations. so that being said, when the alarm went off to abandon ship, people just ran for the deck and were trying to jump on any life boat they could. >> did you know where to go? i mean, did you know what to do? you said you hadn't had a practice. >> no, the announcement that was made told us to go to deck four. we were on deck ten. so we went down in the dark six flights of stairs because the electricity was out, and when we got to the deck four, i mean, there were hundreds of people there. and there was a crew member
10:14 pm
there that looked at my vest and my vest had an a on it, and so he said, that meant, he pointed to the a side of the boat. if your vest had a b, you went to the b side of the boat. we were fortunate because the a side of the boat was the one going into the water, and you could still get on life boats. those on the b side of the boat, the boat was so high on that side that the life boats, you couldn't get in there. there was no way they could be dropped down to the water. >> were people calm. we have seen video of people moaning and pushing, tales of people taking life jackets. what did you see? >> i certainly saw chaos and there was a lot of screaming and pushing and yelling. and it became a situation of every man for themself. and everyone was trying to get in life boats, and there were just not enough for the
10:15 pm
passengers that were on the boat. my husband and i were so fortunate, we did after five tries, get in a life boat. we got two of the last nine seats, but i talked to other passengers once we were on the pier that had had to jump in and swim. and it wasn't a long distance, but it was night and the water was cold, and it was frightening. >> terrifying to have to jump off a boat into darkness in the water. i mean, it's terrifying. captain, if a boat has turned over like this and only one side has life boats that can get in the water, what are all the other people who are supposed to get in life boats on the other side, they can't launch the boats, right, because they can't get them over the side now? >> that's correct. usually when a ship lists about 15 to 20 degrees, the gravity, which is how close they are, is unreleasable. you can't release them. that's why they would have to go to life rafts where you can
10:16 pm
throw the life raft off the ship and launch it that way. >> did they have life rafts? >> they do have life rafts onboard. you can see them in some of the pictures, the life raft hanging on the port side, the side that is exposed. you can see the life rafts are hung up. they tried to launch them on the high side where they should have launched them on the low side, but they could have launched them. >> they tried to launch it off the high side? >> that's what it looks like. some are hung up and some of them may have been caught up in the hole. but these life rafts are generally made that you can pick then up and throw them over the side and they have a cord that when the line extends, it bursts open and the life raft inflates. >> what is your advice for anybody caught in a situation like this. what is your advice? >> it certainly is everyone's worse nightmare. in the future, i would look at
10:17 pm
the cruise line you're taking and look at their safety record. we have found out since that this was not the first accident that costa cruise line had had, and we were certainly unaware of that. that would be the first step. and then the second is, know that in the first hour you get on the ship, you should have your muster drill and pay very close attention. >> good advise. >> too aunch, we miss that and say, that will never happen. but when it happen said, you know you needed to have paid attention. >> alex beach, i'm so glad you and your husband are okay. thank you very much for talking with us. captain staple, thanks. let us know what you think, google, facebook, add us on twitter. up next, butch handric takes up deep undersea inside a ship wreck to show us what the italian divers are dealing with in their search for survivors and victims. >> and later, fireworks in the
10:18 pm
republican debate. mitt romney making a new claim on his job on job creation. keeping them honest. >> and we both fly a lot. imagine this. you're onboard a jumbo jet when a voice comes over the p.a. system telling you that everyone onboard might only have a few minutes left to live. no need to imagine that, it actually happened. the panic stirred on the plane and the anger it sparks when we continue. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief?
10:19 pm
try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. test how fast it works for you. love it, or get your money back.
10:20 pm
premier of the packed bag. you know organization is key... and so is having a trusted assistant. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above
10:21 pm
and still pay the mid-size price. here we are... [ male announcer ] and there you go, business pro. there you go. go national. go like a pro. a glimmer of hope. that's all an italian official can offer families still missing from the concordia. divers are doing what they can in a really hostile environment. they're making their way through the equivalent of a toppled skyscraper in shifting dark and deadly waters. visualize that. we talked to butch hendrick of life guard systems tells us the process of rescue and recovery could take weeks. tonight, he will show us why. >> we start tieing a line off on the outside of the vessel. then that will be run, with me, attached to me, into the first compartment we are going to enter. every time i make a turn, i'm going to do a tie off, so what
10:22 pm
ends up happening, at no point do i have compromised my safety line that will take me back out. right now, what we've done, if you will, is that i came in straight in from the tie-off point outside. i will now make a complete 90 degree left turn. i will go further up into the wreck. to do that, i can't just let my line, my tracer, i can't allow it to make turns around pillars where it could get caught. so what we've done, we've gone directly interior, straight, tied off, and now i make a perfect right angle -- sorry, left angle turn, at 90, to go straight into the next compartment. looking at the most recent pictures from cnn on tv, the visibility right now inside the ship in italy is really quite nice. we've got good visibility until we get deeper in where they lose all their light. i'm sure, as the real commercial crews get there in, they'll start setting this.
10:23 pm
anybody going into a compartment or companion ways they cannot see outside the ship, we've silted this out on purpose to give you an opportunity to see how fast one second everything is clear, in a matter of seconds, with a physical motion, the whole place is silting out. the depth the cruise ship is in, some of that is done in 15, 20 feet of water. if they take their time and relax, they could easily be in there an hour or so or on surface supply, they could be in there two or three hours. in those depths. it might be, i have to go into the bathroom section, the bedroom section, a sitting room section. usually you think coming in right, working right, coming out. >> butch hendrick and crew at a wreck site off the atlantic coast of florida. he joins us now. it's fascinating to see how labor-intensive this is. you can't just go through room
10:24 pm
to room. you've seen the latest pictures of divers going through the wreckage. what really jumps out at you from it? >> i'm sorry. >> what sticks out, as you see those pictures? what do you think the toughest thing for them is right now? >> i think the toughest, one, is getting yourself to separate from the tragedy. they have to realize it's time to go to work. next is the degree and things that are going to be in front of them. it's very difficult to pre-plan, all kinds of debris around them. >> i hadn't actually thought of that. in all the rooms the stuff is floating around and obscuring their vision. how long do you think this could take? you were saying if they use surface air, they can stay under the water longer. divers are still limited in the amount of time they can stay under water each day, aren't they? >> they will be limited but they're not diving deep at the moment and because of the depth,
10:25 pm
they can spend hours working and it's really how long can they keep them warm and how much debris do they have to move out of the way to keep the process going forward. >> you were diving in a wreck basically standing up. the costa concordia is a cruise ship on its side. the idea of visualizing it as a skyscraper half submerged in water kind of helps me understand how complex this is. it's a warren of rooms and floors that they've got to go through room by room. >> that's correct, anderson. what will happen, they have to constantly reorient their brain to the position of the walls now are floors and so forth. otherwise, they start to get a little complacent, you start working and all of a sudden, you forget the door is no longer in a position it needs to be on a normal day and realize the way the debris is set up, how you will move it. some of these items like tables, beds, they're bolted down.
10:26 pm
what will happen there, they're sticking out from the side, not just going to be sitting in a normal position. >> ultimately, do you know what they will do with a ship like this? i know is the not your area of expertise. what do you do with a ship this size once it's been cleared? >> you have smith, the company from rodderdam coming in and they're probably the best in the world. they're going to try to figure out how to patch it in certain portions and they'll start pumping the water out faster than it can get in and they're remove it. >> realistically at this point, is there a chance people are still alive? >> i'm sorry to say this, i don't believe there are. i'm sorry, anderson. >> just given the amount of time, the temperature of the water, the difficulty. >> i think you have to look at several issues. one of is just the hypothermia. if a compartment is flooded, even if there was air, at this point, most of them would have succumbed to the hypothermic problem of the water
10:27 pm
temperature. second, what is the air supply in a closed area if you can't continue to get refreshed air, they will be running out of oxygen and refreshing it with their own co2. >> nearly two dozen people still missing, unaccounted for. butch hendrick, thanks. butch of life guard systems, thanks. another major challenge butch mentioned is cleaning up the records of the cruise ship. it had 2,000 tons of fuel on board at the time of the wreck. so far, they say there's no evidence that is leaking into the sea, another possible disaster. we'll continue to follow that. also tonight, republican candidates facing off at a debate in south carolina and jobs taking center stage with fuzzy math when it comes to the facts.
10:28 pm
10:29 pm
10:30 pm
10:31 pm
could be days or weeks before divers locate the last of the victims aboard the costa concordia. it's teetering on a ledge in the sea, thousands of tons of diesel on the hull, water and impact damage and by now, a total loss. you may have seen where vessels are taken to be broken down. as remarkable as this looks, nowhere close to that with concordia and knowing whether it can be refloated. tom looked into the dangers and joins me now. >> first, you have to get past the human tragedy. once that happens, the first thing that happens with naval architects, divers, the whole salvage team, they come in here and want to see how much damage was done and if this ship is seaworthy. they must assess the danger of
10:32 pm
working this close to shore and potentially heavy surf and decide if they can tow it out of these shallow waters and if they can get it afloat again. ant importantly, is it worth it? this is something you have to consider. this is a ship that has enormous fancy rooms in it, casino, restaurants, fancy staterooms, all going on, on board the ship all of which makes it a question as to whether or not they want to salvage the ship afterwards because it would be hugely expensive, anderson. >> and operating in what's potentially a crime scene. >> that's what makes it complex. they have to be mindful of that and environmental concerns, too, so that's their second task, danger removal. work boats have to pump out thousands of gallons of fuel on board as you mentioned moments ago. i want to show you this. this is a picture where they put oil booms to protect the town and coast in case there is a leak there. this is a big, big job, and while they're doing this, i want
10:33 pm
to point out, they have to watch out for the stabilization of the ship itself. when you take that fuel out, it will begin shifting and change and it may make it roll a different way, and if they're going to refloat it, they have to repair the gigantic holes in the side of it. >> these sound like huge jobs especially with a ship more than twice as big as the titanic. do we know how long it could take? >> the first two steps, once we get past the investigation part, the first two steps alone take a month or two, depending on the weather. then comes the really really difficult third part of all of this. they have to reclaim all these flotation chambers down underneath the ship, pumping out all the sea water in here as butch mentioned a minute ago and replacing it with air. they will probably do it one at a time, working toward this dangerous moment when this whole massive tonnage if it works, will lift up and float free
10:34 pm
again. in all likelihood, this step will involve doing this, bringing in great big powerful barges out here and attaching cables to the top of the ship to pull away from the shore and to make sure that it actually rights itself instead of having the air turn it the other way. this is a huge, huge dangerous job. if they can get it done, then it can be towed to a port for repair or even cut up depending what they want it to do if it can't go back into service. i should mention, however, if they can do none of that, if you simply cannot get this thing to move from this position, it's too dangerous, too close to shore, all of this, the salvage experts i talked to said everything above the water would be cut away and then they would use immense wire saws to cut down the hull like a loaf of bread and each slice would be hauled away. that could take a year, maybe more, anderson. >> fascinating.
10:35 pm
let's get the latest on other stories we're following. isha is back. >> an opposition group in syria said 28 more people were killed across the country today, including four defecting soldiers. meanwhile, a defector from the syrian parliament warns that bashar al assad will stop at nothing at efforts to get him to stop down. and a man outside the white house has been indicted on seven charges. he has been in jail since november, when he allegedly fired at the white house. no one was injured and the president was out of town. lindsay lohan has received another good progress report on her probation. the judge said her community service work at the l.a. county morgue and visits to a psychiatrist are right on track and she could be off probation by the end of march. celebrity chef, paula deen, has confirmed she has type 2 diabetes. she said she was diagnosed three years ago but wanted to keep it private a while. deen is now working as a paid
10:36 pm
spokes person for a pharmaceutical company that makes a drug to treat diabetes. she says she will continue her show and live with diabetes now. >> just ahead, the climbs and counter claims flying at last night's republican debate, how do they hold up to the facts. and then the stunning admission of a murder of a 7-year-old girl in georgia. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks.
10:37 pm
all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion.
10:38 pm
10:39 pm
"keeping them honest" report. last night in south carolina, just five candidates dropped out of the race after jon huntsman dropped out and endorsed mitt romney. some fell short of the facts. the economy was front and center last night.
10:40 pm
here's what front-runner mitt romney said about president obama's record on jobs. >> we've got a president in office three years and he does not have a jobs plan yet. >> "keeping them honest," that's not true. like them or not, president obama has in fact proposed plans to create jobs. the stimulus package included direct funding for new jobs, more recently in september he introduced the latest jobs plan in a speech to a joint session of congress. >> i am sending this congress a plan that you should pass right away. it's called the american jobs act. there should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. >> none of that plan, almost none of that plan has been passed into law. president obama stumped extensively to build support for. it you can like what it's in it or not. you can't deny his plan at least exists. in the meantime, romney supersized a claim about his own record as a jobs creator. here's what he said about his time as a corporate byout specialist for bain capital.
10:41 pm
>> i had a chance to start a business of my own, and four of the businesses we invested in ended up having some 120,000 jobs. >> wrong, they went on to say 120,000 wasn't a net number. some businesses they invested in failed and jobs lost as a result. he said the record of all those jobs lost or gained is available for anyone to look at. keeping them honest, there's no hard evidence to back up his claim. a lot of people have been crunching numbers on this including us and still haven't seen hard proof. it may not be possible to figure out the actual number. romney has been all over the map on it. here's what he said six days ago. >> people here in the state know in the work i had we started a number of businesses, invested in many others, and overall, created tens of thousands of jobs, so i'm pretty proud of the record. >> earlier, his claim was much bigger. take a look. >> i'm very happy in my former life we helped create over
10:42 pm
100,000 new jobs. >> that was on january 3rd, over 100,000. in a new ad romney's camp released last friday, that claim got scaled back. >> mitt romney helped create and invested in helping struggling business, grew new ones and rebuilt old ones, creating thousands of jobs. those are the facts. >> now saying 120,000 jobs. his new number and biggest and most precise claim yet. no direct evidence to back it up. a lot of big claims made last night, and not just by mitt romney. let's dig into the raw figures with political contributor and president bush white house press secretaryiry fleisher and from the 2012 campaign. what a lot of people paid attention to, in exchange newt gingrich had with the moderator juan williams. i want to listen to part of it. >> i got to tell you, my e-mail account, my twitter account has been inundated with people all races who are asking if your
10:43 pm
comments are not intended to belittle the poor and racial minorities. you saw some of this reaction during your visit to a black church in south carolina. you saw some of this during your visit to a black church in south carolina, where a woman asked you why you referred to president obama as the food stamp president. it sounds as if you're seeking to belittle people. >> well, first of all, juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. [ applause ] now, i know among the politically correct, you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable. so here's my point. i believe every american of every background has been
10:44 pm
endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness and if that makes liberals unhappy, i'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job. >> when you saw that, cornell, what did you think? >> i thought it was dog-whistle politics at its worst. let's be clear. we know exactly what newt gingrich is talking about when he goes in places in the deep south and talks about food stamps and black people wanting -- should demand checks not handouts. for african americans to be lectured on work ethic who spent more of their tears and blood laboring in this country for free for -- without profit than any other group in this country, for us to be getting lectured about a work ethic from newt gingrich is a little over the top. >> you're saying dog-whistle politics, you're saying this was code words? >> absolutely, it's code words.
10:45 pm
we like to have these polite conversations like we all don't know exactly what newt gingrich is -- it's the same sort of language and welfare queen, same sort of racially coded language that speaks to the racially adverse in our electorate. it's strategic and knows exactly what he's doing and trying to win an election in a very cynical way? >> ari, was it intended? was it dog-whistle politics? what do you make of it? >> let me make points and calm things down and it's a sensitive issue, and it should be any time you talk about how to help people who suffer and need help the most, it's going to enter into these areas. this is the second time i've been on the show with cornell and said herman cain was a racist. now he uses these terms, as he put it. what i hear, anderson, is actually the opposite. oversensitivity that starts to accuse republicans who are saying the solutions to the most intractable poverty problems are found in the private sector and the government needs to do more to put people in private sector
10:46 pm
program, less reliance on federal programs that have turned out to be a trap and not a safety net. that's a conversation america needs to have. i do think newt could do it in a less polarizing fashion. the history of newt gingrich has been to polarize people although his ideas are so sound when it comes to this. both sides need to listen to each other, not attack the motives of one another if we're really going to help people suffering and in poverty. questioning people's motives trying to help is only going to divide people. there's too great a sensitivity about people, who just say republicans are evil, republicans are racist, republicans are wrong. that's hurtful and that's just as wrong. >> cornell. >> well, you know, i agree with my friend, ari. i wish i had the confidence. by the way, i never called herman cain a racist. >> you sure did. >> i said his language was bigoted. i never called him a racist. i understand the difference.
10:47 pm
i never called him racist, i did call him bigoted. i do understand the difference between raisem and bigotry. you are right on that. so many of us understand the history in this country this sort of language has been used without question to divide whites from black. i hope we're at a point we can get beyond that but some of us are suspect when we hear this language over and over again, especially in places with south carolina with audiences that the history says we have to be suspicious of this sort of language in that context. >> was there something about the tenor of the exchange or the words used in the exchange that particularly caught your attention? >> there's so much of it. one other thing, for republicans to be criticizing democrats for class warfare, what's class warfare when you start talking about a food stamp president, quite frankly? what's class warfare when you attack entitlement programs that help the poor and elderly?
10:48 pm
some people pointed out how he used juan's first name, how he exaggerated juan's first name and played to the crowd there. i don't know if it's true or not. i do know when you start talking about black people looking for handouts and welfare queens and food stamp presidents, that triggers a very very coded time old thing in politics in america, especially in the south where we have to be suspicious of. when you get this sort of reaction from that crowd there, i think we have a right to be suspicious of it. >> ari, do you believe code words are used by politicians in this sense? >> not in the context talked about tonight. i don't think there was anything cody about it. newt gingrich is making a very important point how to help people in poverty. the way to get those people help is as newt talked about through private sector programs and reliance on the private sector. the problem is there's such a
10:49 pm
overreliance, particularly in the democratic party, that the solution to more government spending and more federal programs and that's created the trap that led to intergenerational poverty and hurt people more than lifting people up. that's a good debate to have. when you hear rick santorum talk about family breakdown is lending itself to poverty throughout all races, this is an important debate for america to have because we can lift people up and get destructive behaviors stopped, particularly when men walk out on women who have babies and make them raise those babies in such a difficult situation, white, black, it doesn't matter, it makes it so much harder for children to be successful. there's not a government program or spending program that's a solution to that. republicans are talking about those issues and talking about them because they care about people who are poor and don't think the government has helped them. the government has trapped them. that's an important debate to have. i'm proud to be on newt's side and the republican's side on that issue. i do think it's important to use
10:50 pm
the words that invite people in, though, to solve this, not to push people apart. i think newt has sometimes used words that push people apart. cornell often uses words that push people apart. that's not how you solve the problem. >> ari, i don't know what words i've used to push people apart. actually, i'm a little offended by that. >> saying newt's using code words. calling herman cain racist. >> i never called herman cain a racist. i did say he was bigoted. we'll come back and show the tape i didn't call him a racist. if you look at what he said and history behind that, we can't ignore that history. if newt gingrich had simply said poor people, he didn't say poor people, he pointed to black people and said black people. he was doing that on purpose. if he had said poor people, i had no problem with it. >> i think the issue here was he referred to the president as food stamp president and that sparked the sensitivity. >> he called black people out for wanting demanding not
10:51 pm
welfare checks but jobs, so there's a whole line of things right here we can call him into question about. i'm not the one calling names, i'm pointing out what he's saying. >> newt's remarks last night were about the poor. that's how newt said it. >> cornell, i don't think you heard that right. >> i think we can look back from his statements earlier about black people and work and about welfare. there's a pattern here. >> you're saying there's a history to it, not just what he said last night. cornell, i appreciate it, ari fleischer as well, continue the conversation. british airways apologizing for telling passengers they were going to make an emergency landing in the atlantic ocean. details ahead. ♪
10:52 pm
♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪ but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust.
10:53 pm
take away the singing animals, and the charming outfits. take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.
10:54 pm
10:55 pm
more from anderson ahead. first a news and business bulletin. top security measures are in place at the white house while the secret service investigates a smoking object that was tossed over a fence onto the property. this comes as a large group of protesters gathered on the north side of the building. the group is believed to be from the occupy movement. at one point, the group grew to about 1,000 people, but dwindled to less than 100 in an hour. >> the suspect and kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old georgia girl has pleaded guilty
10:56 pm
and faces life in prison without parole. maintenance worker admitted he lured the girl into an empty apartment and killed her. her mangled body was found in a trash compacter three days after she disappeared. the owner of pink berry yogurt was arrested and accused of beating a homeless man in los angeles with a tire iron. the alleged attack happened in june. they have released a statement saying li no longer has any ties with the company and hasn't in nearly two years. british airways is apologizing to passengers after mistakingly playing a frightening message during a flight from miami to london friday night. passengers were told they would be making an emergency landing on water, causing panic. anderson in. >> thanks. coming up, soledad o'brien explores all of infacts about mitt romney and his taxes.
10:57 pm
7:00 to 9:00 a.m. eastern. we'll be right back. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy?
10:58 pm
10:59 pm
there is a platform built for the purpose of driving innovation. one that's transforming how companies from every industry-- and of every size-- are doing business. a platform built for now. and for what's next. this...is the cisco intelligent network. cisco. and during the four course feast, there's so much to choose from. [ male announcer ] the four course seafood feast is back at red lobster. still just $15. get soup, salad, unlimited cheddar bay biscuits, dessert, and your choice of 7 entrées, like new honey bbq shrimp skewers or shrimp and scallops alfredo. all four courses, just $15. [ jody ] it's really good value. all my guests love it. i'm jody gonzalez, red lobster general manager.