delaware, how we're going to get our economy back on track, how we're going to protect our senior citizens and safeguard social security. these are the issues delawareans are concerned. wolf, you can attest i have not welcomed this media attention. yif been a you've been asking for an interview for a long time pap my priority getting back to delaware voters, going to as many community forums as possible to counter these things. my opponent has said the statements that we made in our 20s should be off the table, and after he made that statement, days later, he started running ads, in his own campaign materials, he's going back on his word using those statements to misrepresent my character. so, again, i thank you for the opportunity for the delaware voters to get to know who i am and what i'm all about because what i can assure them is, while i made statements, my faith has matured over the years but regardless of my personal faith,

when i go down to washington, d.c., it is the constitution that i will defend and it is by the constitution that i will make all of my decisions, and that will be the standard bearer for every piece of legislation that i will vote on. >> mr. coons, you have a one-minute rebuttal. >> i was surprises to see in the newspaper an interview profile of both of us, miss o'donnell's statement, pretty similar to what you hear from her that she would not have her faith be a central driver of her decisions if elected. and i'm interested if we can explore further your suggestion that the constitution would be your guide. i'm interested in hearing whether it's the constitution passes by the founders, the constitution of 1920, 1930, the contigs contigs of 1975, the constitution of today. protect the woman's right to choose, making sure that we've got on the record miss o'donnell's views on things like prayer, abortion, evolution, is important. these aren't just random statements on some late-night tv

show. these are relevant to her service in the united states senate, what sort of judges she would confirm, what sort of issues she'd take up. i'm someone who stands behind the constitution as it stands today. i respect stare decisis, the case law that governs the u.s. >> go to the issue of faith and politics, because you are a student pastor at yale, you said in an interview once that you thought you would end up a preacher, a professor or politician. you've occasionally been a guest speaker at some churches in the community, baptist, presbyterian. how much of an influence does this faith in your life have on your politics? >> faith is a central part of how my wife and i are raising our three children, why we decide to do the community service and the outreach that we do but ours is a faith that we thinks a general motivation, towards public service, towards trying to create a community that's more tolerant, inclusive, and just, and towards sort of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation that we think is the central message of our

faith. but i also think, as someone who has been elects ten years, i've learned to reach a balance where my private faith, the aspects of my faith that are religious doctrine, don't influence decisions that i've made for the public in my ten years in county office. >> let's give you a chance to respond to some of the things she said because in a television appearance back in 1998 on bill mahr's show you said evolution is a myth. do you believe evolution is a myth? >> i believe that the local -- i was talking about what a local school taught and that should be taught -- that should be decide on the local community. but please let me respond to what he just said. >> we'll let you respond. answer the question. do you believe evolution is a myth? >> local schools should make that decision. i made that remark based on -- >> what do you believe? >> what i believe is zblirts ir? >> what i support in washington, d.c. is the ability for the

local school system to decide what is taught in their classrooms and what i was talking about on that show was a classroom that was not allowed to teach creationism as an equal theory as evolution. that is against their constitutional rights and that is an overreaching arm of the government. but, please allow me at least the full minute to respond to what he said because he said these statements that we made should be taken into consideration when casting your vote. so then i would be remiss not to bring up the fact that my opponent has recently said that it was studying under a marxist professor that made him become a democrat. so when you look at his position on things like raising taxes, was one of the tenants of marxism, not supporting eliminating death tax, which is a ten an of marxism, i would argue there are more people who support my catholic faith than his markist beliefs.

>> we're going to clarify that. >> a lot of people remember, because they've learned in last few week you did describe yourself when in college a long time ago as a beers marxist. >> i hope folks will read the article, an article i wrote as a senior the day of our commencement speech and the title and content of that clearly makes it obvious that it was a joke. there was a group of folks who i had shared a room with, roommates junior year, who are in the young republican club and thought when i return from kenya and registered as a democrat that doing so was proof that i had gone all the way over to the far left end so they jokingly called me a bearded marxist. take five minutes and read the article, it's clear on the face of it, it was a joke. despite that, my opponent and lots of folks in right wing media have endlessly spun this. i'm not now, nor have i ever been, anything but a clean-shaven capitalist. >> well, i would -- i would stand to disagree because, first

of all, if you're saying what i said on a comedy show is relevant to this election, then absolutely you writing an article, forget the beardist markist comment, you writing an article saying that you learned your beliefs from an articulate, intelligent marxist professor and that's what made you become a democrat, that should send chills up the spine of every delaware voter because then if you compare that statement to your policies -- >> if it were true, i'd agree. but it's not accurate. it's not true. >> you said that on msnbc a few weeks ago. >> let's go to an issue that you brought up be schools and this goes to you first, mr. coons. this is the issue of education in our country. and in many public school districts across america, as they're trying to get in accountability in the classroom, it is very difficult to dismiss an underperforming teacher because of the stringent contracts that have been negotiated with the individual school districts and teacher unions. do you feel teacher unions are too powerful

. >> . >> one of the things i've complemented is their remarkable progress under the rates to the top program. one of the best parts of the obathe obama/biden, they set a high bar, offers a federal pot of money available or for those states willing to make significant changes and delaware and tennessee two states made that progress. delaware's teachers union, dsea, came to the table and with the leadership of the governor made significant changes things a lot of folks predicts they wouldn't do to embrace charters and to make it possible for schools underperforming to be shut down or restructured and to change a system so that teacher compensation could be tied to improvement by students in the classroom. i think our teachers deserve our support and i think our teachers have a long tradition of contributing significantly, not just to educating our children but building a stronger and better community.

my own mother and grandmother were school teachers and i respect the hard work in they do. earlier today i was at eisenburg school, the work that our teacher do, the work that's done in early education from head start to full day kindergarten through k through 12 education, work done here and great public universities around the state and country, is critical to laying the groundwork for our future. and i have no problem with recognizing that the folks who do the hard work, the teachers, and the paraprofessionals are entitled to a good standard of live, entitled to live a life where they have health care, a pension, job security. i do think there are issues we have to tackle and race to the top is significant progress in them in making sure schools are performing as best they can. >> you have a minute to respond. >> he didn'tance answer the question as to whether or not he thought the teacher unions were too powerful, and that's probably because he got their endorsement. in delaware, we spend so much money on education, it ends up

going to the six-figure salaries of bureaucrats and superintendents, not to the teachers in the classroom. it's appalling in a state where we spend so much federal and state dollars on education, good teachers who want to get extra materials have to do so out of their pocket. i have met many teachers. i've sat down with them and talked with them about they're concerns with race to the top and whether democrat or republican a lot express we are not spending our education dollars appropriately. we're not helping the classroom, and what ms going 's going to h the zris up? we have a high dropout rate. throwing more money on a broken system is not going to work. instead, what we need to do is sit down and have conversations with teachers not the unions about what they need us to do to help them in their classroom. >> a number of conservatives have proposed eliminating the department of education in washington. do you support eliminating the department of education? >> i don't think that we need to

go to that drastic of a step, but as i said, senator coburn has released a report that shows where millions of dollars in department of education money has been abused. that's the kind of stuff we have to stop. we also have to make sure that the money we are putting in to education does go to the classroom and make them more effective. that's something that we're ignoring. every time that there's a problem, we just throw more money in it to appease special interest groups. we're not getting to root of the problem. that's what we need to do, getting to the root of the problem which means talking to teachers and not only that putting power back to the parents over whether they send their children to school. >> in a reason survey of 30 industrializes countries the united states ranked 25th in math, 21st in science, finland was first in math, south korea was first in science. specifically what would you do to make the united states number

one, once again, in math and science? >> great question. and as someone who spent 20 years working with a nonprofit foundation, the i have a dream foundation, that raises money from private individuals and helps provide scholarships for students, for teachers, and for a college education, i've been hands-on and engaged with some of the toughest schools in america and teachers who are significantly undersupports by their districts and who needed additional resources deliver on a prom is of effective education. i think there's a significant role for the federal government in providing financial support and encouragement, scholarships for those teachers in science and technology, engineering and math. we need a new generation of teachers who are fully prepared, fully qualified to engage their students in the classroom, to use the latest teaching tools in media, to teach to the stand ards that no child left behind establishes and need to be modernizes and made more flexible and responsive and we frankly need to use

collaborative techniques. >> we're time keeping here. >> a quick chance to respond. what would you do specifically to make the united states number one? >> again, what i would say to improve our education, we have to empower the teachers to do what they need to do to be more effective. they're the ones on the first line of defense. they're the ones who have the most influence over our students. but we also have to empower the parents. so i support charter schools and i support student vouchers or school vouchers so that it gives parents regardless of income, regardless of status, an opportunity for their students to have a shot at a great education and until our public schools do improve. >> let's switch gears and talk about health care which is such an important issue to millions of americans right now. under the new health care law signed into law by the president children now can stay on their parents' insurance policies until the age of 26. people can no longer be denied

coverage for preexisting conditions. insures, the big insurance companies, are prohibited from rescinding coverage if a customer becomes sick and they can't impose lifetime limits on essential benefits like hospital stays or expensive treatments. you say you want to repeal all of that? >> well, first of all, no one's disputing our health care system before obama care didn't need reform. those are very important things that are part of insurance reform, not health care reform. in the course of the public debate observe health care reform, wea've begun to confuse coverage with care. our goal should be to make health care more affordable. with obama care, our most vulnerable in delaware are still left uninsures and still left without access to quality health care. when we passes obama care, we were promises that it would make more people insures. recent cbo reports say that it's not. it's actually causing businesses

to drop their policies because compliance standards are so high. our laws, especially when it comes to health care, should not force businesses to break our laws. second of all, we were promised that more people, that health care costs would be lowered. it hasn't. it has increased health care costs, according to recent reports. so what i want to do is to fight to fully repeal that so we can begin to enact real reform and that would include allowing policy portability when you change jobs, allowing delawareans to get policies across state lines. we only have three options. that's not right. i would also fight for some sort of tort reform that allowed doctors to not have to worry and practice medicine to prepare for the courtroom as opposed to the examination room, but at the same time this tort reform has to protect those patients who have rick tvictims of medical

malpractice. >> so much to say. i support the implementation of the affordable care ability. i think it made significant advances. there's additional investments in the goil make sure there's a breadth of coverage to rurlg areas, recruiting and training a new generation nurses and improving efficiency of our health care system. it makes a landmark investment of $350 million over a decade to fight waste fraud and abuse and increase savings and there were strategic investments in electronic medical systems that would allow electronic medical records to reduce injuries to patients, mistake diagnoses and mistaken treatments. all of niethese in combination argue for perfect and implementing this landmark bill. it's not perfect. but i think rather than turning it become and repealing and going for another year or two of endless par san bickering.

eye would stand for it andisment it responsibly. >> we're into part of the discussion on it. the issue was brought up about malpractice reform, and democrats are often accused of being too close to trial lawyers and republicans say that's why there has not been the opportunity for reform in this area, why it was not included in the health care bill. if you were elected, would you work to amend that bill to include malpractice reform? >> i think it is critical that folks in this country be able to stand up to and take on powerful interests and where individuals are harmed, they're able to go into court and seek redress, whether harmed by someone who misled them in a securities investment, a product that they purchased that hurt them because it wasn't designed or delivered right or a medical procedure that went horribly wrong. i don't support putting caps on liability because i think in our current system it is only the threat of a significant recovery that allows protection for consumers, for patients, for investors. i, frankly, think that's an important part of the american

legal system. i do think, as i just mentions there are significant advances in the bill to allow us to make health care safer, strong, more transparent. if i've got a major concern about this bill we'll reduce costs without squelching innovation. >> it is discussion. >> it is discussion. that's what i was trying -- okay. first, you say you're concerns about reducing costs but reports have shown that this health care bill caused costs to skyrocket. second of all -- >> i don't know what reports you're reading. >> but one out of four democrats have on. >> on record saying that they oppose obama care, they've realized that we made a bad mistake and what this bill does is it gives a -- >> three out of four democrats strongly support it. it does not give massive control to uncle sam over health care. >> -- in the examination room. >> give concrete example -- that's a great slogan. you toss it around everywhere you go. how does this bill actually put uncle sam in the examination

room between doctors and patients and if so, why did the organization that fights for and represents america's nurses, seniors, hospitals, doctors, all endorse and support this bill? >> many branches on the state level, including here in delaware, have said we don't support what the national office has done. it gives the government the ability to say what kind of treatment a doctor can and can't do, what kind it will fund it forces businesses to have to comply to these standards where many businesses, especially near delaware, have said they can't afford to it and it's cheaper to pay the noncompliance and it's also cut -- this health care bill has cut medicare. >> let's get the point out because we're down into the last 30 seconds of the discussion. >> the state chamber of congress hosted a debate today. sorry you chose not to join us. it would have been great to hear the response of the physicians and nurses and hospital administrators to your suggesting they didn't support a bill they lobbies for.

>> i want to be precise on the specific health care-related issue. you oppose the government mandating everyone must purchase health insurance, right? >> yes, because we're confusing coverage with care. our goal needs to be to make health care affordable. >> here's the question. say someone decides not to purchase health insurance, makes that conscientious decision though the person can afford but decides they don't want to. the person is critically ill, rushes to an emergency room. should we, people who pay for health insurance provide him or her with that kind of treatment or should we kick them out of the emergency room said, you made a decision, you're not going to get this treatment? >> if we do the things that i said, that will help to address that i'm proposing, that will help to address the issue of health care, then that person can afford to buy a catastrophic only policy from across state lines. >> what if the person doesn't want to buy it? >> well then we have to address

that. >> who should take care of that person? >> we have to address it. >> would all of taxpayers? >> anything they do when they have another bill they can't pay, hole them accountable for that. >> before or after they get care? >> right now -- that's up to the hospital. but right now we're forcing them to. we're forcing them that they have to give care to illegal aliens. so this is something that we're already doing. what i'm proposing, you're also talking about a very small hypotheticals using scare tactics to make people support this health care bill. what i'm proposing, and the health care reforms that i'm proposing will help address those situations and help alleviate those situations. >> it's not a small number. >> it's not a small hypothetical. >> nobody should be forced to pay for anyone else's health care and that's what obama care is doing. >> that's what's happening today. before the health care reforming bill passed all of us who have health insurance who have health coverage have been bearing the costs paying the freight for those who don't have insurance and who don't have coverage. they're getting health care through emergency rooms now. that's partly why small

businesses and employers like new castle county face double digit increiases year after yea because that's how we provide care now. it's inefficient. it's not effective. >> we have to park this issue for now and move on to our next one. >> let's move on to immigration right now. and this question will be for mr. coons. a pathway to citizenship -- >> good evening, i'm eliot spitz. >> and kim kathleen parker. joins by cnn's chief political correspondent candy crowley. >> the department will continue on cnn.com and air in its entirety on cnn tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern time. now, breaking news from the mine rescue in chile. we've catched this drama. close to the end of 69-day odd si. the 32nd miner about to reach safety moments away from the

surface, 29-year-old air yalg a aerial, daughter named spanish for hope. right to gary tuchman in copiapo, chile. tell us what's going on right now. >> reporter: eliot, there's great joy in the desert in northern chile and throughout the universe because this valiant effort to save the lives of 33 miners appears to have succeeded. 31 of the miners are back on earth, back on terra firma with their families. one miner's being brought up now. there's this wheel behind me, when the wheel turns that means the capsule's on its way up. within seven minutes we expect miner number 32 to be up here. and then shortly after that, the

final miner 33 inaudible. he's significant. he knew there was men trapped under ground. for 17 days no one knew he men were alive. the assumption among many all of these men were dead. 17 days after the collapse a probe was lower ed. they were fine, all 33. they heard the voices. he says, we are fine. we are hoping the men -- >> okay, we're having technical difficulties. so we're going to go to the telephone and talk to a former assistant secretary for mine safety unpresident clinton and the lead investigator of the

sago mine investigation. what are we seeing in chile right now? >> a remarkable, unprecedented event where we have recovers 32 of 33 miners who have been down longer than any time in the history of the world that i know and down deeper than any time that we've ever been able to bring miners back. it suggests a new world, it suggests an ability to bring people back and an ability to go into the ground and get people who are trapped in these circumstances. it's phenomenal. i'm -- i'm overjoyed with the fact with the 32nd victim on his way out. we hope we get to the about 3rd victim in a minute. >> this is eliot spitzer. this is one of the joyous stories amid the bad stories in the world.

you've been involved in mine safety, explorations, recoveri s recoveries. in the past what was the deepest we had gone? how does this compare? it this five times deep, twice as deep? >> well, we have gone down 800, 900 feet everybody 1,000 feet, that's typical but we're 2500 feet. the more important thing we've done a large number of people 33 people, and we've done it over a significant, long period of time. but what this event suggests is that we can -- if key can get to them, we can -- if they can -- if they can survive the initial event, and we get to them, we can keep them alive, and then figure out ways to get them. this is a remarkable turn of events in terms of mining that we have been able to -- we, i don't mean us but the chileans have been able to marshall all of the technology in the world, many of it, much of it coming

from the united states, and bring they'll out with technology that's apply for. this suggests to us we need to be adapting this kind of thing to the mining issues around the world. >> can i ask a question here? one of the amazing things, to me, we actually were able to figure out where they were. how was it given when you look at diagrams of the mine and the back and forth, how did we even know where to begin to drill? how were those first communications set up that was a remarkable thing. >> i mean, we -- it was the eighth or ninth drill-down that we hit them, that we found them. we need to do a better job of being able to locate people, and that is the part of the sago disaster and the disaster today. the experience today. is that we really must have an ability to loeblts people underground.

we must push technology to the frontier and we must say we've got to get these people down so that we can location them. once we can locate them, obviously from this experience, we can get to them. we have the ability and a willingness, i mean, this -- the fact that we've made this recovery in a short period of time as compared to the december event suggests we're able to get there very quickly. >> davitt, thank you so much. the word that the 32nd miner's about to come through the surface. one of the amazing moment when you see the fenix emerge and everybody screams for joy. are we going to patrick now? we're going to listen to what's happen in copiapo. it's an amazing sight. let's take a listen.

>> that is the wife of the 32nd miner who is about to come up, that is ariel ticona. and you can see the excitement, the expectations in her eyes, unbelievable. >> that is a narrow opening. look at that. it's hard to imagine being in that tube coming up that shaft all this time. >> we had a discussion about this, 21 1/2 inches in diameter. i was trying to figure out what that circumference is. >> you'd have to be a small person to fit there. >> here we go. >> awesome. >> she gave birth september 14th to their first daughter.

>> a happy face. >> tears of joy. notice is he wearing sunglasses? looks like he's wearing the sunglasses to shield their eyes from the sun or i guess it's nighttime, still -- >> still the lights have got to be bright and shocking, after being underground for 69 days. >> only one left. i guess one miner left, luis, coming up in a bit. he volunteered to be last. >> right. he was the foreman. the shift foreman. this lady, when she gave birth, they decided to change the name of the baby. they already agreed on a name and decided to change it to

espironza. >> i guess went they're asking. >> chi-le! chi-chi-chi-! le-le-le! los mineros de chile! >> elizabeth, the wife, is waiting there. nice inmate moment the whole world watching. almost feel sorry for them. they know everybody in the world is watching this personal embrace. >> i don't feel sorry for them. major books, contracts, television series coming up. >> amazing. she can remove the hard hat right now. pure joy. >> what's amazing, this is in contrast to so many other zaftsers we've seen with mining. this is remarkable, as we heard a few minutes agoing a remarkable feat of technology.

>> he looks pretty darn good for having been down there all this tile, done he? did these guys all shave before they came up? >> a couple days in the hospital here. >> you expect a beard or something, wouldn't you? >> chilean president, who has been there throughout, i saw him, i guess we all saw him last night, when the first miner came up and he's been there throughout the exercise. a moment of great national pride and joy. >> almost 24 hours at this point. i'm assuming he has some place to go. >> adrenaline pumping through their systems is powerful. >> you don't get many moments like this as a poll significance, do you? >> you don't get many moments like this in any life. >> 32nd miner is out. >> pure, unmitigated joy. now, in addition, we should let everybody know, in addition to the 33rd miner down there, there

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their first child, first child. unbelievable moment, moment of skroi and national unity for chile. just can't imagine this. >> what's been interesting, what's gripped people internationally, has been everybody's got a little story, every time a miner comes up, it's oh, his wife gave birth and they named her hope. the shift foreman, coming last of the miners, there's five folks down there that were sent down there to -- the recovery crew. and this is a man, he was the first one they talked to when they finally reached them and he said, we are well and hoping that you will rescue us. >> he's credited with everyone's survival, those first 17 days when they had no contact with the world. >> we are all suckers for these kind of great stories. >> and that is the picture of the foreman who will be the last up. he volunteered for that, kind of like the captain of the ship saying i'm the last one off when the ship is floundering. that's an act of not only heroism, valor, you admire in

folks, if anybody's not going make it, it will be i. at every level a story of great heroism, technology, like captain sully, candy, thank you for bringing that to mind in the great famous landing on the hudson river where people step up and at the right moment things happen the right way. wonderful to see. >> not to mention the buoyancy of the human spirit. >> right. >> think about the guys down there for all of that time, having to keep each other up and motivated to stay live. >> that's right. >> that's a remarkable experience that not man r. people can relate to. >> in a sea of darkness a ray of optimism here with everything out there which is great news. >> back to gary tuchman now. he's on the ground in clooil. tell us what's going on now. >> reporter: kathleen, we're 30 minutes away, i would estimate from an incredibly happy ending to this amazing story. 32 miners, safe and sound, with families, one miner on his way up, going to be tremendous when he arrives here about 17 or 18

minutes from now, i estimate. we're able to estimate that accurately because we've been here pretty much for all 33 miners' arrival. it started 12:0 10 local time. chile is four hours from pacific time. 12:10, on october 13th, the first miner came up. there was so much tension here, we all knew they checked this out that this capsule was reliable, but they never tested it with a human being before. they sent it up and down the 2,300 foot chute without a human being in it and it works fine. yesterday when they sent the mine safety expert down the tunnel, we were watching carefully and quietly. they were allowing us journalists to be on a perch where we're the closest civilians. the safety experts are down there. the closest civilians to the site. we don't see it as well as you do because we don't have the monitors to see close-up shots. it's like being at a football game. you get the atmosphere, the

aura, it's incredible being here, witnessing this human drama. there was a lot of tension. everybody started clapping when he successfully arrived. we waited and waited. we were told it would take between 15 and 17 minutes and it seemed like two hours. after 15 minutes we saw the capsule pop up, he came out. his greatful family was there, and we knew it would work with a human being. and then number two. and number three. a problem with the capsule, they had to take the wheels off. there was a problem with the door. there was a problem with the oxygen canisters. but nothing endangered any of the miners. as the day wore on, now we're at 21 1/2 hours we started forgetting about the tension, it seemed to work very well. we knew what we weren't going to forget about, what we weren't going to get tired of is the emotion. they say i can't see enough of this. every story's a little different, as you were talking about before. the families came up, they

hugged, kissed, cried. you see the wife standing there as the capsule comes up. we have been told the capsule's at the bottom of the mine. that's remarkable. none of the news media was told that. the chilean government made a live decision to take live pictures and live audio from the bottom of the mine, never done before. a half a mile below. only minutes away from all of the miners being safe and sound. back to you. >> thank you, gary. we're told, we're about to see on the screen here and everybody at home can see it the fenix, the capsule, is about to enter the cast which is where the miners have been for 69 days. so everybody understands, there's only one miner left, the other folks you're seeing are the rescue workers who came down notice capsule to assist and, of course, they will head back up as soon as the 33rd miner is on the way. kind of like science fiction movie but it's real. >> i still can't get over the capsule. i'm fixated on it.

the fact when they go up the open together surface of the earth, you know, it's not just a straight shot. in fact, these fellows had to take a special diet to keep them from getting sick, as the capsule rotates 10 to 12 times on its way up, and you're in this thing that's, what, 21 feet, 21 feet tall -- not 21 feet. what was the maevment? 13 feet tall, 21 inches in diameter. >> not a lot of space. >> imagine being captured in that space. i'm claustrophobiclaustrophobic. i'm sure it's a small inconvenience. >> there it is. >> we saw -- there it is coming down. right in the middle of the screen. hard to mes. we saw them celebrating when they were down there anticipating, shaking hands and sort of fist pumping. >> you know, it strikes me, i was young to remember when it was happening but the movie's powerful "apollo 13" when we had

a similar crisis with our astronauts circling the moon and of course we couldn't -- didn't know if we'd be able to recover them, and when everybody did come back safely, unbelievable moment of national unity. >> here goes the last miner now climbing into the fenix. luis urzua. 54 years old, the shift foreman. again, he was the first voice heard after verbal contact was made with the miners and his words were "we are well, and hoping that you will rescue us." >> it seems the rides up and down have been going faster. >> they're getting better at it, i guess. >> 33rd time, it gets quicker. >> also comfort that the 14 minutes one way is what we're being told. you know, to go -- somebody better at numbers than i will figure out how many miles an

hour it is. incredible journey. >> this foreman, just to tell you about him, leadership credit for the miners' survival when they were closed off from the outside world. after the collapse the organizes rationing of the little bit of food they had and used his topography skills. >> everybody should remember boy scout things we learn as kids about having to draw -- >> absolutely. >> like "jumpfully to tourney t of the earth." >> how did they see the map? >> when they lowers things back and forth. >> we have to wait for the movie to figure that out. >> watching -- this is just an incredible -- we've been able to see so much through pictures. i'm reminded of not as happy occasion the bp oil spill when everybody went down scuba diving and you could see live pictures. and now these are live pictures

of this guy getting into what looks like a time capsule. >> everything is in real-time from the war, to the bp oil spill. cameras everywhere transmitted to the world. >> there he goes. >> inside the capsule, the fenix, as it is called, a great name. the phoenix always rises. >> there is an i love luis urzua facebook page? >> there certainly should be. maybe he and captain sully will get together. the two leaders of the -- of those who went down and survived. >> these fellows are going to not only be welcomed by families but being welcomed by some fairly lucrative television interview offers. >> well deserved. >> i read a comment one said maybe we won't ever have to work again, never back to the mine. >> you know that will be one of the more interesting questions, whether they want to. >> i think they want to. >> there's been a lot of

conversation among the psychological sort of those who study these things whether they'd be willing to. applause we're hearing, i gather from down in the cavity itself. >> i hear you. we're going to go to the hospital soon and talk to reporter patrick utman standing by at the hospital. let's have a chat with him. hi, patrick. >> reporter: we're experiencing -- >> tell us what's going on there, please. >> reporter: good evening. experiencing amazing moment on top of so many amazing moments here. you have 17 of these rescued miners in the hospital here behind us, in the hometown of many of these miners, and as rescues have been playing out over the last hours we started hearing cheers that cry, go miners of chile, up on the second floor, many miners are watching coverage. you have to expect these men

wouldn't take it easy, even though they're in the hospital on bed rest, many familiarlies in the lobby, watching this. over the last few minutes as luis urzua started to get into the capsule, things got very, very quiet. you'll hear an explosion, as we've heard over the last hour or two, with every successful rescue, an explosion of chanting, of happiness, of joy, and 17 miners have been brought here by army helicopter to this hospital where they will be kept several days. getting every imaginable test -- >> you can see. >> there it goes. it doesn't look real, does it? >> no. >> i don't know if you can see, it's candy crowley, i don't know if you can see it, literally the fenix lifted up going up through the mountainside, disappearing from our view headed up, that, of course, being last miner down there.

we're seeing rescue workers. let me ask you about those that are in the hospital. what sort of problems are the doctors seeing? >> they're dental problems, the men will have to have dental surgeries. they have eye problems. some have to have eye surgeries over the next few days. but it's really small things. the health minister said amazingly none of the men have significant problems. several of them, candy, will be released tomorrow. walking out of this hospital. released to their families. really given a clean bill of health. you have to remember, during the long days and months in the mine, they have been clearing tons of rubble that have fallen down where the drilling, some of the men jogging for mental well-being and to lose weight. several of the men lost up to 20 pounds to fit into the rescue

capsule. any reason to go on a diet, these men did. we've seen all of them now, luis urzua, rising to the surface, able to fit into the rescue capsule. i'm sure when he is free, we'll be hearing from his colleagues here over my shoulder who have been watching this coverage very intently, i'm told p. every patient in the hospital watching the coverage, celebrating with each success, each rescue taking place. >> we're going back to gary tuckman. the speed which the canister, the evfenix is accelerating. we'll have the scene of this remarkable conclusion. gary, give us the update. you can see the cable flying through the pulley, foot by foot, getting the fenix closer to the surface. what is going on? >> reporter: by my estimate, based upon being here for the entire day is 55 minutes after the hour we will see that rocket-looking device up, up, and the 33rd and final miner,

and these miners are world-record holders, no one ever survived this long underground, 68, 69 days depending on the order they came out, no one's ever been underground for ten weeks but these men were. we'll come to an incredibly happy conclusion. you'll hear applause, celebration, not only here in the desert in chile but all over the world. incredible how people all over the world have been watching that not just cnn television ratings but here in chile, in south america, absolutely incredible because it's very rare that we have a hard news, breaking story that's also a good news story. yes, we do good news stories. they're usually feature stories and i hear it from a lot of people, how come you don't do more good news? we're doing it now. over the last 23 hours, this is the ultimate good news story. there was a lot of tension, people were scares. families here in camp espiranza,

camp hope, many vowed they would not leave here until loves ones came out. one mother said she will never leave here until she sees her son. >> how are they able to go so much more rap isly now? experience confidence in the -- >> reporter: yeah. >> looks like quite a party there. do you have any sense of how many people are there? >> reporter: well, first of all, i can tell you about this device, it can go four times faster than originally started but they purposely went slow in the beginning. they didn't want to sacrifice safety. the 15-minute trip is now a 10-minute trip and that's why, there's no compromise. they can go faster in case of an emergency or in case they wanted to. as far as the people here, usually there's no one here. there is is a barren desert. workers have to drive 45 minutes to the nearest city. there are more than 2,000 people, family members,

immediatia, security officials. they're going to close up that hole, that will eternally be empty where they lived for the last ten week and the tent city will pack up and no more. it will all be for a good cause because all miners survives. the 33rd miner, the shift supervisor. this is still a risky ride. we don't want to forget them. they've done a great job making sure everything is organized, making sure everyone is packed properly. this has work out really well and become an inspaenspir racia story. >> we're seeing a needle. do you flow what that is? feet below, meters below the surface? >> reporter: those arrows show you how close they are to the capsule reaching the top. when that red arrow gets in between the two lines that they have on there, that's when it

poe pokes to the top. it's an indication of how far away the capsule is from getting to the earth. >> gary, thank you for that coverage, answering our questions. we'll get back to you in a couple of minutes when the fenix is about to come through. one happy president. a lot of happy miners. and deservedly so. let's listen in to the celebration. ♪ ♪

>> chi-le! chi-chi-chi-! le-le-le! los mineros de chile! any minute now we'll see the 33rd miner coming up the rescue shaft. he's got a crowd of about 2,000 people waiting for him. it's going to be quite a reception. i feel like there should be, you know, like a times square

countdown here. >> they're all looking down. can't quite believe it. >> i can't quite believe it. it's pretty amazing. >> you know we haven't seen, the most amazing thing, when you look at the diagram of the mine it several, it went back and forth, and this was not an easy mine to navigate. it was just, you know, covered a huge swath of territory down there. that's why drilling down over and over was hit and miss. >> it's also, in the end, it wasn't just about getting down there. it was preparing these men for what they would go through, it was having the hospital.

nothing was left to chance on this, other than the elements, which you have no control over. >> here we go.

[ cheers and applause ]

[ speaking foreign language ] [ applause ] >> i'm couldn't catch all of what he said but i caught the last couple of words, he was saying, you know we prevailed over imperfect conditions. that was the president of chile addressing the 33rd miner, luis

urzua who just came out of the mine shaft in the fenix capsule. there he is. 54-year-old luis urzua. >> the foreman. >> the foreman. the boss. >> acting as if -- >> last man out. >> as candy observed, look a sporting event. carrying the national flagging a hero, deservedly so. >> the men are cheering, the women are weeping. >> a sport eeg ving event with stakes. >> exactly. >> watching somewhere else in cnn, larry king, we're calling out to you. we know you're going to join us in a minute or two, for the continuation of the saga. >> we did a lot of this last night, eliot. never been anything like it. >> happy story. everybody can see larry.

larry faded out. there he was on the screen. always good to see larry on the screen with the chilean president. larry has been talking to us for last night and as he has for so many years and all of the great stories. larry, can you remember a story like this that was so happy? >> we didn't have live television for the landing on the moon. there's never been, as i said last night, eliot and kathleen to my knowledge, candy, never been a story like this ever. and to think this came from a mine half a mile below the earth by satellite to us, unbelievable. >> larry, thanks so much. sitting around thinking, if there was anything like it, the only thing we could come up with "apollo 13" a similar -- we lost larry. he'll be back in 30 seconds. >> they'll find him quickly. >> we never lose larry. >> but this is -- it