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tv   The Ed Show  MSNBC  February 20, 2015 2:00pm-3:01pm PST

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will be scaleable. >> you all are much braver than i. thank you and in the words of dr. spock, live long and prosper. good evening americans, and welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. let's get to work. walmart gets an "a" for effort, but walmart's pay raise won't roll back income inequality. >> this company as you probably know has always been a people business. >> the move comes after years of protests. >> it is likely walmart and other companies are increasing wages because they have to. later, ron imanemmanuel faces tough head winds in the chicago mayor race. >> everybody knows he is
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passionate and tough. >> he is short of the votes he needs for a runoff. >> i stand up for the people who this administration leaves behind. >> the needle has not moved on rom emmanuel's behalf. plus, the gulf today five years after the spill, a breaking development. >> personally i think bp is taking as much time as they can, retaining as much capital as they can. >> everything is dead. barnacles, sea grasses, all dead. >> you're living on a hope and a prayer. that's all i've got at this point. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. we're going to start with what we hope is growing trend to raise wages. it is great news for american workers in the economy. walmart announced they would be raising their hourly minimum wage to $9 an hour.
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let's hear it for walmart. they are not alone. aetna, ikea and gap, they're all raising free wages. is this the free market at work or is this time to stop the embarrassment. >> over the past five years, the longest stretch of private sector job creation in american history, businesses adding nearly 12 million new jobs and in perhaps the single most hopeful sign for middle-class families in a very long time wages are beginning to rise again. america is coming back. >> don't you get a feeling the democrats are like the most modest people on the face of the earth. what would republicans, if they had the power, be doing if they were behind these numbers? look at wall street. today the dow closed 154 points up at 18,140.
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it is the dow's first record close. another record close, but the first record close of 2015. economy is on a roll. rising wages are proof that activism and protests work. we have had a big discussion about income inequality in this country. minimum wage protests have taken ahold. retail stores have been under enormous pressure. hey, let's give these folks a raise. i think walmart can do better. $9, okay. but wait a minute. look at their profits. 9 bucks an hour is just over $18,7230 $18,720 a year. the poverty line for a family of three is that amount. we're still in territory that isn't great. $9 an hour isn't going to cut it. workers are protesting for $15 an hour and they deserve it.
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bernie sanders is working hard this hour in iowa. the walton family which owns walmart, is the wealthiest family in america. it is absurd that thousands of their low wage workers are forced to use food stamps medicaid, and subsidized housing. while this is a step forward in a response to grass roots activism this is nowhere near enough. i agree. walmart, good for them. i hold no animosity toward them. they posted a $16.4 billion profit just last year. what do you do with that kind of money? what are they doing with 16.4 billion? i hope they have more coming for the employees. income gap in america still growing by the day. this chart tells us the story.
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this is our new vulture chart. this chart shows growth of household income from 1967 to 2012. since 1967 the top 5% grew an income by 88%. middle-income households have grown under 20%. in 2012 the top 20% took in more than half of all income in the united states. there's your gap. it's numbers like this that force walmart, and i say force walmart to say out of the news and stop the protesting out in their front door -- hey, we have to do something. it is good for business. to the executives at walmart, they have to be thinking well i guess this is the cost of doing business. we have to do it. the pressure got to them. 40% of americans don't shop at walmart. now maybe they'll pick up more business because of this. they can't lose. at that kind of profit at $16.4 billion a year where's the
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downside? they know walmart felt guilty and the pr move on them was not good. conservatives, they're going to tell you this is the free market at work. why in the world do we need minimum wage and unions are bad? don't let walmart fool you. they can afford to pay these workers a heck of a lot more than $9 an hour. it was almost an admission of guilt all along they can do better. executives say it was in the works for a year. what are you going to do next year? get your cell phones out. tonight's question, do you think minimum wage protests made a difference? text "a" for yes. text "b" for no. we'll bring you the results later on in the show.
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for more let me bring in anthony rodriguez of our walmart, who is a walmart employee and john nichols. gentlemen, great to have you with us. anthony, you first. how does this news fall on your shoulders? how are the employees reacting to this news and where do you make of it? >> i think it is a great beginning. the pressure is really getting to walmart now. it is great start, don't get me wrong. i think it would change a lot more if they started giving us $15 and full-time. >> are you full-time and are a lot of your associates full time? >> no i'm actually part-time. a lot of the associates are part-time as well. they do have to fight for hours. >> what do you mean? >> well, recently they've cut back on a lot of associates' hours. they've tried to give them more hours in a remodelling project
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we have. so they cut back their hours right after december going into january. they cut all their hours, made them ask and beg for hours, and then all of a sudden got this big idea to make the remodelling crew. had people sign up to get 40 hours a week. >> what does this sound like john nichols? great to have you with us. >> it sounds like the struggle of workers in retail across this country. the jobs with justice movement has been promoting a retail workers bill of rights. wage increases are vital. $9, $10 an hour in much of america does not get you near where you need to be to get by. >> we just heard a walmart employee tell us they're cutting hours, so somebody's doing the math here. it might not be that much off the bottom line to operate these stores.
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i don't know. i'm just speculating. >> this is the significant part. if we're talking about really improving the condition of workers and making sure they can get above the poverty line yes, they need a good hourly wage but they also need a lot of other protections. the guarantee that they can bid for and get full-time work. the guarantee their hours will be clearly stated so they're not called in at the last-minute. the fact of the matter is this is a start. >> is this the cost of doing good business? is it better to do this instead of having all these protests and other companies are doing this too? >> this is a result of collective action. the fact of the matter is if workers like the young man we have on the show with us today and others had not gone out and courageously said they just can't make it on these low wages, that they can't make it with these conditions, it wouldn't be happening. it may be the cost of business,
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but it was a cost that was increased by the courage and the commitment of workers to go out and demand better conditions. >> do you think your activism had anything to do with this? >> i think our walmart had a lot to do with us. us pushing forward, i think it had a lot to do with it. walmart is feeling the pressure now, so they did something about it. we're going to keep giving them the pressure to we can get $15 and hour and full-time. >> what does $9 an hour mean to you? you're just over 18 grand if you work 40 hours a week. >> i have a 2-years-old-old son and a fiancee. that's not cutting it at all. >> are the protests going to continue? >> the protests are going to continue to get $15 and full-time. we're not going to settle for
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anything less than that. >> the union busting is well documented by these companies. does that slow that down a little bit. >> >> >> not necessarily. this is an acknowledgment that these companies have a problem. that america recognizes we have a big wage gap and a income inequality issue. with a booming economy, you need to share the prosperity. doing these wage increases definitely is a way of trying to ease the pressure but workers ought to recognize if a company is willing to do this, to make the big announcement there's a lot more concern behind that. this is not the time to back off. this is precisely time to push forward. >> it sounds like you got them to move and you can get them to move and you have proven you can get them to move. now is the time to double down on your efforts. how do you see it?
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>> i think that's a great idea. we're going to keep going forward. it seems like it is working now. like i said it is a great start. we're not going to quit now. >> gentlemen, i want to switch gears. john nichols, stay with us. i want to play a clip of scott walker distancing himself from rudy giuliani's comments. >> you were at a dinner last night where rudy giuliani was. i said i do not believe the president loves america. what do you think about these comments because they are creating a stir this morning? >> the mayor can speak for himself. i'm not going to comment on what the president thinks. he can speak for himself.
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>> walker is very well defined, anti-union, against workers. this guy has no problem finding inging himself on some issues, but he couldn't find himself on this one. what do you make of that? >> scott walker published a book a year ago called "unintimidated." that's how he's selling himself. on the simplest of issues look i believe my president loves our country. he couldn't do it. you really have to ask yourself where's the there there with this guy if he is so intimidated by donors and powerful players. how do you expect him to lead as a president? >> it's almost it's been like he's been ordered don't you say a damn word that's worth anything about our president. you have to get this country to hate his policies. it sounds like he's been
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coached. do we not, john have one of the most complete and one of the most highly vetted processes in this country when it comes to picking a president? >> we sure do. look, here's the bottom line. i have known scott walker for a long time. i don't believe that scott walker thinks president obama doesn't love this country. i really find it troubling that he's so managed now that he can't say that simple statement. >> gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight. i wanted to get that in. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. like us on facebook. coming up two candidates. they're going to join us live. it is quite a race in chicago. later, developments on the b.p. court case. we're going to take you back out on the gulf.
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i have confidence as a voter and as resident of chicago that he's going to continue to do a great job. i'm glad he's my mayor. >> so how do you beat that endorsement? welcome back to "the ed show." we're talking to two of the mayor candidates trying to
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derail rahm emanuel's reelection efforts. mayor emanuel neateds to hit 50% in order to avoid a runoff election. the latest poll shows emanuel with 45%. 18% of the voters say they are still undecided in the last leg of the race. among black residents, emanuel sits at $4242%. emanuel angered voters with his decision to close 50 public schools in the city, most in minority neighborhoods. some residents felt he was picking and choosing neighborhoods. a couple of candidates with me here tonight is bob fioretti and
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dock walls. dock, you first. describe rahm emanuel's time as mayor. what has he done wrong? why are you challenging him? >> rahm has not taken care of those voters who need help most including our homeless our senior citizens young black men who are unemployed in the city of chicago. those voters who are living check to check, the disabled. rahm has not done anything to make life better for any of them. >> bob, you have called rahm imanemanuel emanuel, quote, the most destructive mayor the city has ever seen. explain that. >> first of all, this city is headed in the wrong direction. thanks, ed. that is a quote that i have used and it's true. he has declared war essentially on communities of color. he's all but declared war. when he presided over the cha, he oversaw the destruction of
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housing units in this city. we keep leading the charge for $15 an hour here in this city. it is important. yes, he did a $13 an hour increase but it doesn't take effect until before the next mayoral election in 2019. rahm emanuel stands for the things -- he tried to wipe out the progressive caucus when he was in congress. he has tried to extinguish progressive voices in the city council by establishing pacs that are aimed to destroy them. rahm emanuel is in the pockets of big wall street bankers and wall street buddies over there. he's not for the average person. we need to build the middle class based on solid foundations. >> dock what about the $30 million war chest he's got? how can you compete going against numbers like that?
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>> i have a million dollar message. my opponents have millions of dollars, but they're not resonating with the voters. rob eimanemanuel, bob fioretti they're all millionaires. rahm imanemanuel's $30 million is not enough given the damage he has done to his reputation. he is disinfected and alienated a whole lot of voters. those police officers who serve in the streets of chicago don't get the support from rahm emanuel emanuel. >> yesterday president obama designated the pullman historic district a national monument. i understand you were not invited to the event despite your work with this historic pullman foundation. what was your role and why weren't you invited? do you think you should have been invited? >> obviously, i should have been
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invite invited, but i know how petty rahm imanemanuel is. we had a ribbon-cutting for it and everybody turned out. >> what was your role? >> i was president of the historical pullman foundation when the fire occurred? i was an active voice in making sure we were building tourism down there. that should have been the place for the obama library. >> do you think rahm emanuel iced you out of it on purpose because of this election? >> my name was definitely submitted to the white house. i don't think rahm emanuel wants to appear on stage with any of us. he doesn't want to debate. he hasn't been to any of the community forums. he doesn't want to deal with the issues that affect day-to-day people in this city. >> what does the black vote mean
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in chicago considering the fact there were 50 public schools closed in the economically disadvantaged neighborhoods? >> they're going in the other direction. you see the candidates appealing to the black community because it is the black community that will decide this election. it is black history month and people are taking this seriously. this is the most exciting election in recent history. rahm emanuel has lost the black vote. he can't get it back. the others are seeking the black vote but i'm the one person who has been connected to the black community and speaks to the issues of the black, white, latino, and asian community on a regular basis. people know i have been out here fighting for them for a long time. >> mr. teefioretti do you think the black community will decide this race? >> i hope that people will come out. we're at an all-time low. i hope we get beyond 30% of the people. people in this city have one foot out.
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they want to leave this city. they don't feel comfortable. the quality of life hasn't improved. police and fire are planning their retirement elsewhere and not here in the city. >> great to have both of you gentlemen with us tonight. thanks so much. >> thank you, ed approximate. >> thank you. still ahead, we continue our series "the gulf today, five years after the spill." plus we'll take another look at stories making headlines around the country. stay with us. we're right back. natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil. because hydraulic fracturing technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. supporting millions of new jobs. billions in tax revenue... and a new century of american energy security. the new energy superpower? it's red, white and blue. log on to learn more. how do crest 3d white whitestrips compare to a whitening toothpaste? let's see.
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so,as my personal financial psychic, i'm sure you know what this meeting is about.
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yes, a raise. i'm letting you go. i knew that. you see, this is my amerivest managed... balances. no. portfolio. and if doesn't perform well for two consecutive gold. quarters. quarters...yup. then amerivest gives me back their advisory... stocks. fees. fees. fees for those quarters. yeah. so, i'm confident i'm in good hands. for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this. welcome back to "the ed show." the white house announced that 8,000 customers who signed up for health care online were given the wrong tax information. they'll send out corrected tax forms by the first week in march, but the mistake could delay refunds for some customers. they are asking people who have already filed for their refund to contact the treasure
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department. to virginia where the former first lady maureen mcdonnell was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. mcdonnell and her husband were both convicted of corruption back in september. governor mcdonnell was sentenced to two years in prison. their lawyers are appealing both verdicts. and i want to recap what has been an awful week for the north american oil industry. we have seen multiple oil disasters cover in the last seven days. over the weekend, a train carrying crude derailed and caught fire. another crude oil train went off the tracks and exploded in west virginia. on wednesday, an oil refinery in california went up in flames. three oil spills this week that are being blamed on, quote, suspicionsus suspicious activity. we're told those spills may have affected wetlands. a note tonight about my
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social media. until today we have been operating two twitter accounts. the we got ed twitter account has been my personal account. that's history. managing two accounts was not fruitful in some ways. i invite all of you who followed me at we got ed to follow me at ed show. i will establish which tweets are directly from me. thanks for the follow. stay with us. we're right back. i'm hampton pearson with your cnbc market wrap. stocks end the week with a rally. the dow closed at 154 points, the s&p adds 12 the nasdaq added 29. investors cheered news that greece reached a deal with creditors to extend the country's bailout for another
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and we are back. this week we have chronicled the lasting effects the deep water horizon disaster has had on the gulf region. a new court ruling means bp could be on the hook for $13.7 billion in fines. on thursday u.s. district court judge carl barberry rejected bp's attempt to reduce the fine. bp argued the law capped the fine at $3,000 per barrel spilled. the judge rejected the claim and
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agreed the federal government's maximum medical treatment. this leaves bp liable to pay up to $13.7 billion based on the judge's ruling. a bp spokesman says the company disagrees with the decision and is considering their legal options. the judge has not yet decided how much the company will pay. back on the gulf coast, many business owners have already paid a price because of the spill's economic and environmental impact. >> we really had high goals for this restaurant. it was doing 2 million a year. it was a great mom and pop operation, but it was my son and i. we were having a wonderful time. everything looked good and then all of a sudden. >> five years after the oil
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disaster businesses have been lost and lives have changed forever. >> the spill took place, sales dropped 45 50%, couldn't make payments to the bank and the bank after three or four months took the property back in december 2010. >> i'm more upset in my heart that they did what they did to the gulf. what i put down on the bottom i could leave there for generations to fish on. >> people who depended on the gulf said they are left with nothing but debt stress and lost dreams. rocco was a commercial fisherman and a steward of the gulf. over the years he is constructed what's known as living wrecks to support fishing. that's all gone. >> here's the deep water horizon. >> that's correct. >> 54 55 miles from where we
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are now. where were you operating? >> i was operating right here in this area. tampa, clearwater is here. i concentrated my wrecks in this area. all these xs are where my wrecks are. i concentrated them over here because the oil platforms -- you're not allowed to drill in florida waters so the oil platforms stop at the florida border. i concentrated my stuff over here to build structure for the fish. >> are there other guys that do what you do that are out of business? >> yeah, a lot of them. a lot of them. just out of the clearwater area four captains just packed it in and said that's it. sold the boat, packed eded the business up. >> you created habitat that drew the fish in. >> exactly. exactly. >> that's all gone. >> yeah. it's all -- the hull is still there, but all the resources
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that were on it the little fish everything that was there is gone. barnacles, sea grasses, urchins clams, oysters, gone. >> it's almost hard to find the words when at no fault of your own you have lost everything and are left with just memories. >> it's everywhere. >> what it did to the gulf coast and our community is that it put a lot of people in a standard of living that was far below what they were accustomed to. and like us, have had a very difficult time trying to recover. people are doing things that they would have never done had their livelihood not been affected by that bp spill. >> what are you doing now? >> i retired. i got out of the business. i moved up to atlanta.
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>> you didn't want to retire. >> oh no. i love the ocean. i have pictures of myself at 2-months-old on long island sound. 1985, i get out. i was here in august of 1986 in clearwater, and i've been here ever since. >> do you think bp has a clue who you are? >> nope. they don't care. it's not that they don't know. they don't care. >> so you're living on a hope and a prayer? >> yes, sir, most definitely. that's all i've got at this point. >> and five years ago, you had no idea this was where you were going to be. >> not at all. >> and when that oil spill took place within hours, did you know what the future held for you? >> no, sir, i didn't. i thought that they would get it contained and cleaned up and
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life would go on for us but it seemed to go on and go on and go on and the oil kept coming and it got worse and worse. >> this wharf in florida was a thriving business. then the oil spill took place and almost instantly lives were destroyed, things changed, and future dreams just erased. these folks just think life has played a dirty trick on them. >> my wife is 75 and still working because our income was affected. i'm 71 and still working because our incomes were affected. our retirement goals are affected because bp hasn't come to the plate and fixed things. >> you look at rusty's place here. they built this blood, sweat, tears. 15 of their lives went into it. after the spill, their lives were taken away. the heart and soul of everything
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they built was taken away from them. >> what hope do you think that this is all going to be corrected? >> very little. >> very little? >> this is never going to be properly corrected. >> what has life been like the past five years? >> it's like starting over with a mountain of debt so that you can't start over and being in limbo and waiting for bp to do the right thing and make us whole, so to speak, so that we can start over. over the last five years, it's been difficult. very difficult because before that occurred the oil spill, you know, we had owned this place for 13 years. it's been open since 1976 so it had a great name and did a great business here in the area. >> life was good. >> life was good. >> they lost the wharf they
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operated for 13 years in florida. the oil came to their dock and the rest is history. >> how immediate was the damage to your business? >> a week right afterwards. the fears of contaminated seafood. you could smell the oil in the air if you were out here on the deck. it was a very strong toxic oil smell. the guests stopped eating seafood because of the worries of the dispersements in the oil contaminating the seafood. >> so you have moved on in your career but you have this bank note just hanging over your head? >> yes, sir. i've moved on as a restaurant manager, but certainly making a
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lot, lot less. and the dream of being your own boss is gone at this point. >> whatever money they lost from the spill is much greater than their true loss because they lose their livelihood. they have lost their business. >> what is left is irreversible personal damage? what were you thinking when you saw those pictures on tv? >> right at the well head? >> yeah. >> i was almost in tears. i could say i was almost in tears because that's -- that's where i lived. it's not like i only worked out there. okay? when i'm offshore for ten days that's where i'm living so i don't throw anything over the side. everything goes in the trash can. my friends are all around me. they're all fishermen. somebody gets in trouble. you need something, you need a hamburger? sure. come over. within the first two minutes, they have dumped more oil in the gulf than i have ever in my
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lifetime put down there. all i want to do is keep it going so my kids can have something in their later life. coming up on monday, our biggest story in the series and our final story. restitution, where's the money. we have invited representatives from bp on this show all week. they have thus far declined our offer, but the invitation remains open any time. they have directed us to their website, the stateofthegulf.com. stay with us. we're right back. i know i have a 786 fico score, thanks to all the tools and help on experian.com. so how are we going to sweeten this deal? floor mats... clear coats... >>you're getting warmer... leather seats... >>and this... my wife bought me that. get your credit swagger on. become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. fico scores are used in 90% of credit decisions.
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ideas come into this world ugly and messy. they are the natural born enemy of the way things are. yes, ideas are scary and messy and fragile. but under the proper care, they become something beautiful. coming up on monday on "the ed show," the series continues. we're examining the deep water horizon settlement program.
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many businesses saw catastrophic economic loss and the majority are still waiting for payment. >> no one down there where i was fishing at has got any restitution. >> have you gone through the process? >> uh-huh. i'm still going through the process. been lied to been told we're going to get you this on this date. nothing. okay. we got to wait a little bit. we need more information. we need more of this. we need this. i don't know how much more information i can give you gentlemen. behold the biscuit. nutrients packed in a dense bundle of farm-grown grain and capped with pure deliciousness. fiber-dense fuel. morning reward. tomorrow, you can have it all. ♪sun'll come out, tomorrow♪ ready yourself with kellogg's frosted mini-wheats. see you at breakfast™.
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welcome back to "the ed show." addressing the toxicity of oil is strictly business. after oil disasters like the bp deepwater horizon spill, it's a challenge to learn the full scope of impacts on human health and the environment. bp has pointed us to numerous studies that showed no correlation between health impact and the spill. other studies and some doctors and environmental scientists tell us a different story. researchers from noaa studied the effects of oil on bluefin and yellow fin tuna the tuna exposed to contamination showed heart bp abnormalities. the studies were discounted because they were in a lab. many of the studies that activists push are far removed from the reality of the resilient gulf environment. a different study by researchers at lsu and uc davis concluded lab research on oil spills can
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work. their studied shows the genes of killy fish had developmental abnormalities, heart defects, dna and other changes. the lab results corresponded with real world outcomes. we've invited bp to join us all week to discuss all of these issues surrounding the spill but they, of course, have declined. bp did direct us to their blog at state of the gulf.com. the blog refutes the uc davis study and points to an october 2014 study that found no minimal long-term impact on killifish. joining me today is dr. andrew whitehead, a professor at the environmental toxicology department at uc davis. also a physician from south louisiana who has treated over 100 patients who were exposed to the products of the spill. gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight.
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dr. whitehead, you first. what's your reaction to bp's senior vice president geoff morrell saying that many of the studies that activists push are far removed from the reality of the resilient of the gulf environment? what's your reaction to that? >> it's important to note that science is an interevident enterprise, that we build evidence over many studies over many years. a lot of people are studying what's going on in the gulf. our first study was criticized by bp because it was a field study. and that it wasn't based in sort of controlled conditions in the lab. now bp is criticizing other studies because they're lab studies and not field studies. this is a strategy by responsible parties to try to cloud the issue. but all of the work that is done so far, both field studies and laboratory-based studies have clearly shown that the effects of the oil spill are correlated and causative for the kinds of
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developmental defects that we're seeing in killifish, cardiovascular, their hearts aren't formed properly and that doesn't bode well for a fish's health. >> would you say that this is rock solid? >> no science is rock solid. and this is the language of science that sometimes opens the door to the spread of misinformation by parties that have other self-interests. scientists never say this is it for sure. but the weight of evidence is very clear that there's a very strong correlation causatively, we know oil causes these kinds of effects. we know we saw these effects in the field in the lab coincident with the arrival and timing of oil, the effects we see in killifish and the noaa folks saw in their fish were at the kinds of doses that we saw all over the gulf with the spill.
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so the evidence is very strong. but no scientist ever tell you it is slam shut dunk. >> you referred to the testimony that you gave about the sick patients in court. you said you were ignored. our our segment brk p contacted us reiterating the district judge discounted your evidence. what's your response to that? >> well i didn't actually make a presentation in court. i presented information to them previously in what was called a declaration. what was really interesting about that meeting in the courthouse was that the plaintiff's steering committee which represented the victims of the spill and was apintpointed by the federal judge had their consultant a very distinguished doctor, i might add, was a -- had never seen a patient, had never seen a single patient with problems down here but he made
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his presentation based upon information he had gotten from doctors down here and he believed that they were telling the truth. on the other hand, i had seen over a hundred people that i put through a detox program and the program itself is immaterial but i'd seen a hundred patients at least 25 days in a row. so i had 2500 patient days of experience with this. and my experiences were ignored whereas this absentee physician and scientist was given sway over my position with this. so it was rather humorous if it weren't so sad. the thing i want to emphasize, we have some extraordinarily sick people that are still sick from this problem. >> dr. whitehead, bp's geoff morrell also said advocacy groups that are pushing a narrow one-sided perspective, many cherry pick facts and paint an incomplete and inaccurate picture and they continue to
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blame pb for any and all problems afflicting the gulf. what's your reaction to that? >> of course bp isn't responsibility for any and all the afflictions affecting the gulf. that's an overstatement of the issue. bp is also responsible for cherry picking criticisms of studies. they're just as guilty as anyone of cherry picking data. i'd like to reiterate scientists aren't advocates here. this is pretty much straight out af a playbook that's been around for decades. the playbook basically says that when it comes to things like big tobacco and smoking, when it comes to fossil fuels and climate change all that big business has to do is throw some dust in the air to confuse the issue, and that's what we're seeing here. we see a lot of illegitimate criticism of science that together across multiple studies
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is forming a picture of what's going on in the gulf. >> dr. andrew whitehead. also with us tonight dr. mike robicheaux. that's it for "the ed show." good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed. thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead silence from the gop today. the startling response from republicans to rudy giuliani's ugly smear that president obama doesn't love america. a deafening no comment. and the pressure is building after giuliani stood by his insult. >> mr. mayor, do you want to apologize for your comment? >> not at all. i want to repeat it. the reality is from all i've seen of the president, all i've heard of him, he apologizing for