tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN September 21, 2010 1:00am-2:00am EDT
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>> larry: you' an amazing guy. >> thank you for letting me come. >> larry: and you're a regular viewer. >> i am and i have been for a long time. >> larry: president jimmy carter. the book "white house diary" a major best seller. barbara walters will be here tomorrow night. right now "ac 360" and anderson cooper. anderson? thanks, larry. thanks for watching. tonight, will christine o'donnell answer the tough questions about her financial history? she didn't this weekend and tonight, gary tuckman tries again. we'll show you what happened and what he uncovered about his spending history. and president obama facing dissolution democrats and challenging the tea party. we'll show you what he said today and talk with our panelists. elliot spitzer, and joe johns. and later, what if you got sick or your child got sick and no doctor knew why? what would you do? 360 md sanjay gupta introduces us to the "the disease
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detectives," trying to solve med zin's toughest mysteries. this is part one of a week-long series. we begin "keeping them honest" with christine o'donnell and how she spent money. last week after searching, we learned that the nominee from u.s. senator from delaware had checks and expense records that didn't seem to add up, apparently spending campaign money on personal expenses after the campaign was over which would be a violation of federal election law. for instance, take a look. this check for $475, mrs. o'donnell labeled it for mileage reimbursement but written three months after her last campaign ended. or $600 for her utility bill, paid to delmarva power. again, the campaign was over. tonight, more checks have surfaced. including campaign money paying for her home and money going to the her former boyfriend who bought the home when she couldn't make the payments. ms. o'donnell said she has done nothing unethical. she's not talking. you'll see what happened when
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gary tuckman tried to talk to her. this weekend she cancelled appearances and her campaign said there were scheduling conflicts and they told fox news she was exhausted. she cancelled soon after this video surfaced friday night on bill maher's show. >> dabbled into a script. >> you were a witch? >> i didn't join -- >> that's right. >> you used to be a witch? >> i dabbled in witchcraft and hung around people who were doing these things. i'm not making this stuff up. i know what they told me they too do. >> what -- >> one of my dates -- >> whoa, i want to hear this. >> one of my first dates with the witch was on a satanic altar and i didn't know it. there was blood there -- >> you're first date was a satanic altar? >> yeah, we went to a movie and
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there was an altar. >> that was from bill mahr. given her strategy of not talking to the media it seems likely that she won't be back but yesterday she tried to explain all of this. >> the witchcraft comment on bill maher, i was in high school. how many of you didn't hang out with questionable folks in high school? but, no. there's been no witchcraft since. if there was, karl rove would be a supporter now. >> well, karl rove, who was on fox news sunday without o'donnell said although she was smart to cancel at some point she's got to talk. >> in southern delaware where there are a lot of church-going people they'll probably want to know what it was about. my view is she can't ignore it. she has to explain it. but she can't simply say, these are unfactual and not true and ignore them.
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go to my website and ignore them. i don't think people of delaware have or are accepting that as a reasonable explanation. >> we're not, again, focusing on the witchcraft. we're focusing on her finances. rove there advocating she talked to people in delaware not inside the beltway. sarah palin, no surprise, agrees. shortly after the sunday morning programs aired, palin reported this. see o'donnell strategy. time is limited. use it to connect with local voters who you are serving versus appeasing national media seeking your destruction. this is no longer fresh advice. other candidates are doing likewise. arizona's governor jan brewer after tough questions from reports, she simply walked away. >> please answer the question about the headless bodies. why won't you recant that? do you still believe that? come on, governor. >> thank you, all. >> she's also vowed not to debate her opponents anymore. nevada's sharon engel has a history of walking and sometimes
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running away from questions. gary tuckman has been digging to see if he could get some questions answers by the candidate a few moments ago. tonight he joins us from middletown delaware. gary, did she talk? >> reporter: anderson, she talked a little bit. i'll tell you about that in a second. to set up the scene, the candidate's forum in the building here. she was one of the candidates here and after it ended we wanted to ask her a specific question. not about witchcraft or anything like that, but about these financial allegations. it's important to ask her that because today a washington watchdog group that investigates politicians, investigating charlie rangel said christine o'donnell is clearly a criminal and she should be prosecuted because of her spending so i asked her, can i ask you one question, and she said, if you are polite and shake hands, i will answer but then she wouldn't take my question. she just made a general statement. >> we've been ethical. we have not -- i have personally
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not misused the campaign funds. we have our lawyer, a great attorney answering those charges if it ever goes anywhere. >> well, we felt we had an obligation to still ask her a very specific question and not get a general statement or ask a general question because she hadn't given specific answers so when she walked out a few moments ago i tried one more time. ms. o'donnell, i ask the one question you promised you'd answer. >> i did answer it. >> reporter: no, about the rentals last year. why were you paying rent money with campaign money. >> not happening. >> reporter: that was the run question. >> i answered it. >> rob: >> reporter: no, you didn't answer it. >> so gary, the question, by the way, you were not rude. you were respectful, the -- as always. you were trying to ask her about the apartment. what's the allegation? what's the question? >> reporter: we have a lot more records today. federal election commission records.
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and some show -- we have one check she wrote in march of 2009 for $750 to a guy by the name of brent vasher for rental of a house. the reason why this is very relevant is because in 2009 she was running for nothing. she had finished her election of 2008 where she lost to joe biden. she had a huge debt and she hadn't declared it in 2010 and she wrote a check for $750 for the rental of her home from campaign money. the reason it's murkier is that brent vasher is her former boyfriend and is the person she sold the house to when it was about to be fore closed on. she currently pays campaign money for her apartment but it doubles as campaign headquarters. you can't say that in 2009 there was no campaign going on. on these forms you're supposed to say what it's for so it should say "rental." it says "fundraising expense, expense reimbursement." that's what it said. a month later, $750 to the same guy and this time the check didn't say expense reimbursement, it said reimbursement for services. so she was changing the things the check was written for. the watchdog group said this was an effort to confuse these people who may look at the files some day.
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but there are more for small amounts. don't be fooled. we're told by some republican that don't want to go on camera and the watchdog group, it clirly shows she is using the money for personal purposes. in 2009 when she was running for nothing, a $22 check to lone star steakhouse. that is obviously for one meal, not for a party or anything like that. $30, on march 2nd, also not running for anything, to cumberland farms. she calls it a travel expense. what people are saying, what the watchdog group is saying, this was her personal piggy bank. she was using her campaign funding like you use your credit card in a restaurant. in december of 2009, four months before she declared it, $360 charge, a check written to herself. reimbursement, houston trip. what does that mean? when you use campaign money you're supposed to have receipts. no receipts can we see exist. the watchdog group says a close
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friend of hers that works on her campaign. so they're the theory is she went there to visit. and in july of 2010, she was running, a $3,000 check to her mother, carol o'donnell. you're allowed to hire family members to do things. she was apparently hired as a financial consultant. but the reason that is noted is because many people have quit. over the year, saying they weren't paid. she paid $3,000 to her mother for financial consulting and by many the financial consulting wasn't so good. so what we point out is what the watchdog groups are saying and republicans are saying, if you gave money to ms. o'donnell, there's a good chance you're helping to subsidize the lifestyle of a woman who hasn't had a regular job for at least five years. >> we'll see how long she can go without basically, answering any of these questions directly. but it's important we keep asking. appreciate it. here's melanie sloan. her group doing most of the legwork on this story. today filed complaints with the fec and u.s. attorney's office
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in delaware. you say in this report that she is a criminal. how can you say that? shouldn't she be innocent until proven guilty? >> of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. if you look at the facts in this case and literally the facts, you look at campaign finance reports, christine o'donnell filed. look at what her former campaign staffers said and two former staffers, david keegan and kristen murray said she basically treated the campaign coffers like her piggy bank and she routinely was spending campaign money for her personal lifestyle. this is the stuff that crimes are made of. this is embezzlement. this is no different than any other employee who steals from their job. >> christine o'donnell said we in the media shouldn't listen to your organization. she says basically you're a liberal group and the implication is you have partisan reasons for getting after her. plenty of her supporters will say -- i don't want to use the term "witch hunt" but basically,
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you have an agenda and you're going after her. >> our track record is clear. we're a nonpartisan organization and we take folks on all sides of the aisle. democrat, republican, conservative, liberal. it doesn't matter. we've come down just as heard on nathan deal of georgia running for governor, as greg meeks a congressman in new york, democrat. rangel, waters. enson, another republican. two other democrats we targeted. so we're looking for politicians to be honest with integrity and christine o'donnell doesn't exemplify those values. >> isn't it possible -- okay, if she wasn't having an active campaign at the time she wrote some of the checks, allegedly, but maybe in her home she was doing work, cleaning up stuff from the last campaign or work that was related to stuff that happened during the last campaign. would it then be appropriate for her to make these charges? >> sure. if those were the charges she was making some would be legitimate. that's not what she did. some of the expenses that we
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know, for example, the two checks that she wrote to brent vasher were for rent and we know this because brent's uncle, david keegan, her former campaign staffer told us what the checks were for and we know christine o'donnell lied on her fec reports. it's interesting that christine o'donnell has gone through many campaign treasurers. they quit repeatedly so she was the only one responsible for signing and submitting those fec reports. she had no oversight over her spending which is sometimes what keeps people in check. >> the timeline, you're saying that there should be an investigation. none of this would occur, even if the u.s. attorney took this up, there would be no end result of this until well -- years from now, correct? >> not necessarily years from now. but extremely unlikely anything could happen before the election. certainly we're not going to know the extent of her wrongdoing before then. it's going to take awhile for investigators to unravel all of her spending.
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they have to audit and demand reseats and ask questions. now that she's brought in over a million dollars this week she has the money to pay the lawyers that she'll need. >> to the point that this is some sort of vendetta against her if she hadn't won, do you think you would be investigating her like this? >> i think that's what she counted on. she never expected to be here. no, groups like mine wouldn't have had time or inclination to comb through her campaign finance reports. but it was the fact that her former campaign aides started talking about the problem. it wasn't us that investigated her. it was kristen murray who used to be a campaign manager started a robocall saying christine o'donnell had been spending campaign money on personal items while leaving campaign staffers unpaid. it was really that that instigated us to looking into the matter. >> let us know what you think at ac360.com. eliot spitzer joins us with joe johns and dana lash.
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they are going to weigh in. and also, on president obama's town hall meeting. people hurting from the recession throwing sharp questions at him. one democratic woman saying she's tired of the defending him. and his challenge for the tea party. and later, "the disease detective" the doctors you call when your child is ill and no other doctors know what's wrong. >> i was told that i was being -- i was looking for things that were -- not there. it's just really hard. i don't know. >> we actually spent a lot of time videotaping her, when we saw the little things that started happening because no one believed us. when i had my heart attack, i couldn't believe it.
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spending history of christine o'donnell who has a lot of tea party support across the nation. today, president obama leveled a challenge at the tea party. listen. >> the challenge, i think, for the tea party movement is to identify specifically what would you do. it's not enough just to say -- get control of spending. i think it's important for you to say, you know, i'm willing to cut veterans' benefits or i'm willing to cut medicare of social security benefits. or i'm willing to see these taxes go up. >> joining us now, eliot spitzer, and also joe johns and dana lash, a st. louis radio show host and national tea party organizer. eliot, is it smarter for the president to directly address the tea party? >> absolutely. he needs to push back somehow
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saying and repeating what he has done clearly is not working as a political matter. he needs to say -- it's one thing to lob a tax at us. something different to have a strategy for governor. i think he needs to change the debate and put the burden back on the tea party and say, what would you do? and give two options for the public to choose between. >> dana, is that a fair criticism of the tea party which you're a member of? that it's about criticism but not actually concrete things about what they would do? >> i would disagree with that. i think the movement has been incredibly clear as to not only what they would do but what they'd like to see from congress. everything from the economy to health care and foreign policy. they've been clear they want more fiscal accountability, especially when it comes to the health care debate. it was written on the sign. people can understand it. they've been very clear. >> you're right. the signs say "repeal health care." but that's not a health care agenda. that is not either a solution to 30 million or 40 million uninsured or escalating health
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care cost ors the reality of the quality of the health care in this nation is declining. so repeal is a policy, but i don't think it's a policy that most americans would say, that's where we want to go. i think the president is saying, what is the affirmative agenda? >> one thing i'd like to add is, number one, this isn't new because colin powell said it over the weekend. number two, i'm being told here in washington, that people in the tea party and associated individuals are not interested in being pinned down to specifics because they know once they get pinned down, they're no longer a moving target and it makes it easier for democrats and their opponents to shoot at them. so they want to remain as general as possible, as long as possible. because they can bring more people into their tent. >> dana? >> i think that means for the amounts of issues, perhaps. you get into social issues but for things like health care, the movement has been incredibly clear. some of the things they put out are, let's be able to buy insurance across state lines. have health insurance companies compete. we've taken on everything from
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health care, education, to foreign policy and not just general. we isolated specific issues within the realm of each of these topics and we've gone at it. when you talk about people being general, where we've seen that is from the congress in washington, d.c. we've seen broad generalizations on a number of different policies. we would like to see congressional democrats be a little more precise with things. >> i'm always looking for points of agreement. i agree with you about the ability to purchase across state lines, and competition across state lines. those perspectives have been taken primarily by the liberal king of the democratic party and opposed by the republican party. >> they came out in the patient's choice act. >> you can't say no. >> facts are facts. >> the fact is the republicans came out with a patient's choice act. >> and talking over somebody won't change the acts. it won't change the facts. >> well i had to point it out. >> the interstate competition
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has come from the republican party and that remains to be the case. >> no. that's an error. that's a factual error. the patient's choice act. a number of congressional republicans came out and that was one of the main talking points. >> talking points always. >> i want to play a clip of president obama and one of the questions he got at the town hall meeting today. >> i'm exhausted of defending you and defending your administration and defending the mantra of change i voted for and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. i've been told that i voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. i'm one of those people and i'm waiting, sir. i'm waiting. i don't feel it yet. >> joe, a lot of democrats probably would agree with that woman? >> yeah. that's a very powerful interaction because you have an african-american woman who clearly seems to have been a real obama supporter. what a lot of america out there, the democrats, i think, are talking about who are dissatisfied, they're talking about employment, they're
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talking about jobs. they thought we would be much further along by the time we got to mid-term elections than we actually are. and they look at the president of the united states and say, you promised chance. where's the change? where's the jobs? this is something this administration can't get around and they're not going to be able to get around by talking about other things including their own successes until that unemployment rate goes down. >> we only have a few minutes left. i want to get to christine o'donnell. dana, i'm interested to hear your perspective. "a," do you think it's unfair that this is there focus on her past spending? that these questions have been raised? and do you think it's fair for the media to be focusing on it? and do you think it's right for her not to be talking to the national media but simply kind of avoiding questions and only kind of staying locally? >> do i think it's fair? absolutely. you're a candidate and you agree to enter public life and you have to be prepared for what the media throws at you. do i think she should speak to the media? absolutely.
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she's a candidate. she ought to be speaking to the media. she has the advantage of having an unreal amount of media attention on her and she needs to use it to her advantage. do i think there's an agenda behind these criticisms? i do. i spent the better part of the afternoon researching all the people involved with crew. while the organization claims to be a nonpartisan group, they're not. i've yet to find a titled officer within this group that has republican/conservative connections. one of them, in fact, used to in some capacity used to work with joe biden. if we're talking about closing stuff in the context of the debate needs to be brought to the forefront. so, of course, i think she should be answering these questions and she should be talking about it. i think crew should pay attention to eleanor holmes norton. which is also a violation of the fec low. >> if you look at their list of the ten most -- i'm not sure of the term -- for ethically challenged individuals in congress, i think it's pretty balanced between democrats and republicans and we've had
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melanie sloan on before when we focused on bernice johnson with the scholarship scandal in texas. i think we're -- us and the "dallas morning news" are the only ones interested in it. but cruz is interested in it. you don't think they target as many republicans as democrats or are you just concerned with the personnel? >> i think on the list it was the 10 or 11 most corrupt politicians -- or candidates, rather, they had on the list. and they had two missouri candidates. roy blunt and ed martin. i thought it was interesting while they had ed martin on they didn't have his opponent whose brother received $90 million in stimulus cash, stimulus that they voted for and his brother received $90 million of that for a wind farm. it's not even in the state of missouri. his district. they didn't make the list. >> you say the questions being raised about o'donnell are fair game? >> yeah, sure. i think they are fair game. her campaign director said that
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he's confident these will be dismissed as frivolous and if so, let's answer some questions. i have to problem with that. i think all candidates need to be help from the same standards and no candidate should run away wean reporter asks a question. unless it's something like boxers or briefs. like we saw in the '90s. >> it doesn't seem frivolous. unless she answers candidly, but i would say if you made these mistakes, say to the public, i wasn't schooled in this stuff, here's what i did. the magnitude is x thousands of dollars. i'll pay it back. i'll pay it back out of my pocket. the reason i'm running is because i'm different from the folks that knew how to play by the rules. she could maybe then resuscitate i campaign. >> she is also very person able and does well on television and she seems like a nice person.
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>> her strategy is completely backwards on this. and i think her candidacy disappears and becomes -- is mocked if she doesn't answer the questions quickly. >> eliot spitzer and joe johns, dana lash, good to have you on. thank you. just ahead, the advertising wor to see which of either is telling the ruth. and later, the series introducing us to fellow doctors. disease detectives, the last home hope for people with medical mysteries. >> you have to tell a lot of people "no." >> we do, yes. >> isn't that hard? >> it is hard. it's very hard and i have to take some solace in the fact that even though we're turning down a lot of people, we're still helping a chosen few. don't worry about that. i switched to sprint's $69.99 plan,
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being smeared. >> will they attack us? yes. will they smear our backgrounds and distort our records? undoubtedly. >> well, that was o'donnell on friday night at the value voter summary before the whole witchcraft story from 11 years blew up. a lot of money is now pouring in the delaware race. and new campaign commercials are being put out. as always, we're "keeping them honest" checking the commercials against the facts. that's our job. tom foreman joins us in tonight's installment of "political theater." tom? >> reporter: anderson, from the moment christine o'donnell won, delaware has become the front line for the those that say the tea party train can be stopped and those that say it can't. so look at the latest attack ad from the democratic senatorial campaign committee. >> o'donnell spends money she doesn't have. hired employees she didn't pay. stiffed businesses. didn't pay her taxes. one of christine o'donnell's former employees summed it up. we were constantly trying to hold her back from spending. she was financially completely
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irresponsible. >> reporter: so we checked it out, and as cnn's gary tuchman reported earlier, according to the former campaign finance consultant, david keegan, o'donnell did use campaign funds from earlier races for things like meals, gas and to pay for bowling one time. so used campaign funds check. the watchdog group we mentioned earlier, crew, said that she did so for some things that she didn't behave properly as a candidate. she did this while she was no longer candidate. therefore it was illegal. beyond that, we could find no independent verification that she stiffed businesses or did not pay employees. there's disputes over wages but we couldn't find independent proof she did this in some way that would have excited attention here. her current campaign staff, while not flatly denying all those charges says they are frivolous. but o'donnell was audited in 2008 and owed almost $12,000 to the irs.
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she appealed, thought there was some kind of error. there wasn't and she ended up paying just this past spring. so the bottom line as we move forward from all these different charges that we have here is that when we put it on our scale, this commercial is pretty close as it vacillates between our scale of big fat lie, tall tale, it's a stretch, to right on, to falling somewhere between it's a stretch and right on. >> that commercial by democrats doesn't even mention the democratic candidate. it's all about just christine o'donnell. that's clearly where their focus is right now. how are republicans responding in terms of commercials? >> the tea party express spent about $250,000 to help o'donnell win the primary and now they say they have all kinds of tv ads and radio spots in the works. in the meantime, senator jim demint of south carolina who
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backed o'donnell from the get-go released this ad going after her democratic opponent. take a look. >> what do we need in washington? harry reid calls chris coons his pet. delaware doesn't need a washington career politician's pet. >> reporter: reid didn't really call him his pet, did he? yes, he did and i bet he regrets its. on september 11th, senate majority leader harry reid says, i'll be very honest with you. chris coons, he's my pet. he's my favorite candidate. so this ad is also, when we throw it on our big scale, pretty much right on. and i think the rumble in delaware can just continue to roll on and we'll see a lot more of it based on your panels tonight. >> it's interesting, christine o'donnell tonight references that pet remark. obviously we'll be hearing a lot of that from her in the days and weeks ahead. tom, thanks. randi kaye joins us with the 360 news and business bulletin. what's going on? >> hi, there. confirmation from the group that tracks recessions that the
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latest one ended last summer spanning 18 months. it was the worst economic downturn since the great depression. stocks rallied on the news. all three indexes reached four-month highs. the dow surged 146. the nasdaq climbed 40 and the s&p added 17 points. first lady of france denies her u.s. counterpart, michelle obama, ever told her life in the white house was, quote, hell. the claim was made in an unauthorized biography of bruni that was published just last week. and in portland, maine, lady gaga takes the stage, not to sing. instead, to rally for an appeal of the u.s. military's "don't ask don't tell" policy. the singer called on republican u.s. centers to repeal the ban on openly gay and lesbian service members. she drew cheers when she proposed a new law called "if you don't like it go home." anderson? thanks.
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>> the vote is tomorrow. we will check that out. up next, a little girl with a mysterious illness. doctors completely stumped. tonight dr. sanjay gupta introduces us to the disease detectives. the last line of hope for the parents of this little girl's mom. >> at this point i don't know if we're supposed to -- i didn't know if i should plan for her to go to kindergarten or plan her funeral. >> ahead how these doctors try to solve the medical mysteries no one else can solve. plus in the wake of the california explosion, pg&e releases its list of potentially dangerous pipelines. is the section that blew up on the list? you might be surprised, ahead.
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imagine if you're seriously sick and getting sicker and no one in your life can figure out what's wrong with you. you've seen dozens of doctors and they're stumped and your life is literally on the line. what do you do? tonight we begin a remarkable series of reports about a entirely new approach to diagnosing undiagnosed diseases. dr. sanjay guptas ha has been working on this story for months. this is really fascinating. >> reporter: we've been visiting a place very few have heard about mitt. a place where the best doctors and medical researchers in the world do work in teams to solve cases no one else has been able
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to crack. these are true medical mysteries. it's happening outside the nation's capital other the national institutes of health, nih for short. over the next few nights we'll introduce you to some patients who have been through the ringer and turned to these doctor detectives as a last resort. the question we're asking, are they going to get the diagnosis they've been waiting so long for? bethesda, maryland. deep inside the sprawling nih complex, dr. william gahl leads an elite team of doctors, specialists and researchers and they are the best in the world. together, they focus their vast expertise to try to save patients' lives. they are detectives in search of clues to solve mysteries no other doctors could solve. you're talking about patients who have been seen by some of the best in the country here. they're very good clinicians and diagnostic doctors everywhere. so you're taking the hardest of the most challenging cases of all? >> we expect a failure. we expect a high failure rate. we expect a success rate of 10% or 15%.
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>> reporter: but 10 or 15% is a bright ray of hope for some patients. >> how much more you can do physically really speaks volumes? >> yeah. >> reporter: sally had all but given up. take a look at her back. it was as if muscle mass was consuming her body. sally was transforming into the incredible hulk. >> this is the mri of the brain. it's pretty incredible. >> even the muscles that govern the movement of the eye which are really small muscles are huge. the radiologist saw that and went wild. they are four or five times bigger. >> reporter: they had probably never seen anything like this before? >> right. there's no way to make these muscles big like by moving your eyes a lot.
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why would they be that big? >> reporter: it was a mystery. no doctors, no specialists or no one could diagnose what was happening to sally. which is why she was selected to come here. it's called the udp, the undiagnosed diseases program. it's a medical mystery ward. kylee mcpeak is 6. and selected to come to the udp. >> she knows she's different but it doesn't seem to faze her. she kind of seems like she's -- like a normal kid. >> reporter: how serious is kylee? >> well, she's i would say, real serious. i think that she has a disorder that will threaten her life. it's essentially the issue here. sort of racing against time. >> reporter: the undiagnosed two years ago at nih and accepts only the rarest of medical cases. and it's not only about saving lives. here, they are also hoping to discover new diseases and create new science. >> it's really sort of the inspiration that we all have as clinical researchers.
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>> reporter: in two years, the udp has had more than 3,000 inquiries. more than 1,000 applications actually made it to dr. gahl's desk. >> this is an acceptance letter. >> reporter: they have accepted only a little over 300 patients? you have to tell a lot of people no? >> we do, yes. >> reporter: it seems that could be hard. >> it is hard. it's very hard. i have to take some solace in the fact that even though we're turning down a lot of people we're still helping a chosen few. >> reporter: the few with mysterious conditions no one can diagnose. kylee dawn mcpeak was born in may of 2004. the picture of a perfect baby girl. she developed like a precocious healthy toddler. >> she was above average on everything. i mean, she could say her abcs when she was like 18 months old.
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>> reporter: then at 3 1/2, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. shortly after that, her mom and dad, gina and steven, noticed something wasn't right. it began with a voice tremor. >> i have to eat. i have to do shots. >> reporter: shen then she had a seizure and when she turned 4 her face started to twitch. the first time you realized something wasn't right with her, because she was a precocious child and zooming past the milestones, because you're a parnlt parent and trying to figure out, is it just me being overly sensitive? >> i was told that. i was looking for things that were not there. it's just really hard. i don't know. >> we actually spent a lot of time videotaping her when we saw the little things that started happening because no one believed us. >> do you know when your
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birthday is? good girl. >> reporter: the twitching soon spread down the entire right side of her body. her head began to tilt to the right, eating became a struggle. by then, all of the doctors agreed something was wrong, but what was it? the little girl was deteriorating. >> at this point i didn't know if i should plan for her to go to kindergarten or plan a funeral? >> reporter: sally's mystery did not begin until later in life. she was in her late 40s when her muscles began growing out of control. do you remember seeing her chart for the first time? >> i do. she was referred by a doctor at duke. and the doctor said, in my 38 years, i've never seen a case like this. something like that. that's sort of impressive. what does that mean? when you see a picture, then, that's pretty impressive. >> reporter: like all the patients selected for the undiagnosed diseases program,
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sally and her husband and kylee and her mom and dad, would come to nih for a week of complex and exhaustive tests. >> she's had a spinal tap before? >> yes. >> reporter: where a medical strikeforce was setting up to solve a mystery and to save their lives. >> i went in there in hopes of them finding an answer. >> this is our last hope but at the same time it's what we finally made it to the people that are going to find out what's wrong. >> i mean, unbelievable, sanjay, to hear the mom saying she didn't know if she should plan a birthday or her funeral. i mean, to not know what is going wrong with your child or with your body is just incredible. >> reporter: it really is. keep in mind, these patients, they have been everywhere and they've heard the same thing over and over again. we don't know what this is. we really can't help you. this becomes a place of last resort. what i found, anderson, obviously the doctors here are good.
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they're very smart. they do a couple of things differently. instead of looking for the obvious things which is what medicine -- what we are trained to do. they're looking on the fringes. looking on the edges to see what's not obvious. what's an anomaly and try to make sense of that. as you heard dr. gahl mention, anderson, they can accept failure. doctors usually with good at -- are not good at accepting failure but they know sometimes they can't find the answer but no those cases they have to move on and try to advance science so it's a totally different way of looking at things. >> this is the first of four parts we're airing this week. what about tomorrow? >> reporter: sally and kylee are part of the chosen few as was mentioned. one of a few hundred patients. now they've been accepted to the program. we'll give you a look at the process and take a peek behind the curtain and get a sense of what happens at a place like this. here's a little glimpse. kylee will undergo a week-long series of complex tests and evaluations by top medical
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specialists at nih. it's physically draining for everyone. and for her mom and dad, emotionally wrenching. the week is intense. >> i don't think anybody has seen anything quite like kylee. this is a very complex case and could be difficult to solve. >> wow! we'll be learning along with the doctors, or try to learn, at least, what's gone on. look forward it to, thanks. >> thank you, anderson. >> tough case. still ahead, a new twist in the acid attack hoax. the woman that threw acid on her own face faces criminal charges but not for what you may think. and why lindsay lohan could be headed back to jail, coming up.
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randi kaye joins us with a 360 bulletin. anderson, we'll start on the west coast. the section of natural gas pipeline that exploded south of san francisco in san bruno is not on the list of the 100 riskiest pipelines. the gas company released the list today after pressure from the state regulators. the blast killed four people and destroyed dozens of homes. word that the imam behind the proposed mosque near ground zero is avoiding new york city because of security concerns. the reverend james parks and a friend, says the imam is receiving protection from the new york police department. no comment from the nypd. meantime, former president, bill clinton, weighed in on the controversy. >> a lot of the objections that have been raised against it would just wipe away. they said, we're dedicating this
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muslim -- this islamic center to the memory of the people who were killed on 9/11, who share our faith. and they can give you the names and tell you how many there were and i think it would surprise most americans. i think most americans may still not know that there was a substantial number of muslims killed on 9/11. a vancouver woman who lied about being attacked with acid has been charged with three counts of second degree theft. the charges are related to donations bethany accepted from the public after claiming last month that an african-american woman threw acid on her face. she later admitted her injuries were self-inflicted. a warrant has been issued. for her arrest. and judge today revoked lindsay lohan's probation and ordered her to appear in court. she failed a drug test and her
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probation for a 2007 drunken driving conviction requires frequent drug tests. really sorry to see her back in trouble with that, anderson. >> so sad and ridiculous and just really feel bad for her family. thanks very much. a from the serious to the ridiculous, we have a parrot dance show down. check it out. ♪ what is love don't hurt me no more ♪ ♪ don't hurt me no more ♪ >> isn't youtube great? this is what we spend look in the office looking at. the song is "what is love" doing a spoof of the "saturday night
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live" skit. >> i never saw that. >> we have more of the top of the hour including christine o'donnell. we are investigating. stay tuned. welcome to the world of lovaza, where nature meets science. if you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, you may also have very high triglycerides -- too much fat in the blood. it's a serious medical condition. lovaza, along with diet, effectively lowers very high triglycerides in adults but has not been shown to prevent heart attacks or strokes. lovaza starts with omega-3 fish oil that's then purified and concentrated. it's the only omega-3 medication that's fda-approved. you can't get it at a health food store. lovaza isn't right for everyone. tell your doctor if you're allergic to fish, have other medical conditions and about any medications you're taking, especially those that may increase risk of bleeding. blood tests are needed before and during treatment.
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in some, ldl or bad cholesterol may increase. possible side effects include burping, infection, flu-like symptoms, upset stomach, and change in sense of taste. ask your doctor about lovaza, the prescription that starts in the sea. announcer: there's an easier way. create your own business site with intuit websites. just choose a style, then customize, publish and get found. sweet. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com.
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