'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for August 13
Read the complete transcript to Friday's show
Updated: 9:32 a.m. ET Aug. 16, 2004
Guest: Amity Pierce Buxton, P.J. Crowley, Craig Crawford
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
A category four hurricane on Friday 13: Two million Floridians ask to get out of the way. Perhaps six and a half million in the path as hurricane Charley makes landfall at Charlotte Harbor.
Twelve days after the financial center‘s orange alert, five days after it claimed to have disrupted a pre-election plug, an anonymous administration official says nothing indicates any imminent terror plan to attack those buildings. That would be different.
The day after in New Jersey: Republicans call for Governor McGreevey to resign now, not later. People call for explanations about his life and about his wife. We‘ll get one about the wife from the director of the Straight Spouse Network.
And forever Amber: More tapes of more conversations between Miss Frey and Mr. Peterson. Where do we begin?
SCOTT PETERSON, ACCUSED OF MURDERING HIS WIFE: I guess I, I, I don‘t know what to say.
AMBER FREY, PETERSON‘S FORMER MISTRESS: I think an explanation would be a start.
OLBERMANN: All that and more now on COUNTDOWN.
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OLBERMANN: Good evening. No hurricane of this strength had touched this continent since the infamous hurricane Andrew in 1992. Nothing had approached the Florida coast with the wind potential of 145 miles an hour. Nothing had made landfall with actual measured ground gusts of 107 miles an hour, and unconfirmed reports of 130. Nothing had precipitated the evacuation of two million more people. Nothing had threatened to direct the impact more than one-third of all the residents of that state.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN, tonight: And then came Charley. Having found strength in the Gulf Coast, this storm leaped from category two status to category four, early today. There are only five categories. It crashed into Florida, 3:45 Eastern daylight time. The eye passing over the barrier islands between Fort Myers and Punta Gorda , about 110 miles southeast of the Tampa Bay area, setting on it a path inland that would largely skip Tampa and Saint Petersburg, but would pound Fort Myers and other cities like Orlando. Within an hour of that, President Bush had declared parts of the state a federal disaster area, and by that time, there were reports of 335,000 people without electricity. At least two people dead, killed while out driving when the storm hit. By that time, storm surge flooding. The early leader for the most devastating consequence of this disaster was prevalent, and measuring at 10 to 15, in some cases even 18 feet.
“This,” said the director of the Hurricane Center in Miami “is the nightmare scenario we‘ve been talking about for years.”
As we said, the nightmare largely missed Tampa Saint Pete which had expected the worst. This time last night, the expectation was Saint Petersburg might be temporarily cut off from the mainland and made temporarily into an island. Just because they didn‘t get it doesn‘t mean no one did. Our correspondent Don Teague is just north of where the storm charged ashore at North Redington Beach, Florida.
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DON TEAGUE, NBC CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. Already tonight, President Bush has declared storm affected counties in Florida, federal disaster areas. Here in the Tampa area, residents had expected a direct hit, instead they‘ve only had relatively light wind and rain, so far, as hurricane Charley took an unexpected turn.
(voice-over): Charley made good on its threat to become a major hurricane, brushing past the Florida Keys this morning, then gaining strength throughout the day. By early afternoon, Charley was a category four storm, packing 145-mile-per-hour winds, and taking a surprise turn toward Fort Myers and Fort Charlotte.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We‘re talking about an 18-foot storm surge.
TEAGUE: NBC‘s affiliate, “WBBH,” brought viewers the dramatic turn of events live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our message to you now is urgency and safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Fort Myers police department has ordered its officers to seek safe shelter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People need to start moving up which is exactly what we‘re going to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only way off the island is if you swim off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time is up, Sanibel and Captiva. Get into your safe room right now and hunker down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just to see the power of the wind that we are experiencing out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mandatory evacuation...
TEAGUE: For days, authorities had warned residents along Florida‘s west coast that Charley would be a dangerous storm. Boarding up their homes and businesses, and moving to higher ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can get off the island. Whether it be by boat or by car, we‘ll get off.
TEAGUE: In the Tampa area, which had expected a direct hit from the hurricane, 350,000 people fled low-lying coastal areas, but many, like the McKee family, decided to stay and ride out the storm.
JEFF MCKEE, REMINGTON BEACH, FL: They‘re staying worst thing we got to worry about, I guess, is the 10 to 13-foot storm surge and we—hopefully it‘s not going to get up high. If it does, there‘s really not much we can do, it‘s too late for us to get out of here.
TEAGUE: The McKee‘s and others along Tampa‘s coast were spared the major force of the storm, but there are reports of serious damage further south and east where Charley‘s turn across Florida took many by surprise.
TEAGUE (on camera): Charley‘s still a very dangerous storm as it races through central and eastern Florida, tonight. Here in the Tampa area, they are generally out of the woods. They‘ve opened up most of the areas that were evacuated and expecting some rain and some strong winds tonight, but nothing like they expected at this time of day earlier today. Again, Charley took that surprising turn, letting Tampa off the hook, but then taking a lot of the state by surprise.
Now back to you.
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OLBERMANN: Don Teague at North Redington Beach, Florida. Many thanks.
So Tampa and Saint Pete breathing a dry sigh of relief, but that‘s noting going to be the case in Orlando, Florida, that‘s probably next. And next we go to Orlando to Cape Canaveral, in fact, where Dan Billow of our NBC station “WESH” is standing by.
Dan, good evening.
DAN BILLOW, WESH: Good evening, Keith. Yeah, I‘m on the east coast, Cape Canaveral, about 40 miles from Orlando and we‘re waiting for that storm, here. Now, you‘ve got on—here in the Cape Canaveral area, about 150,000 people living on barrier islands, islands that are normally evacuated during a hurricane. Well, what happened to us today, is that, we here on the east coast and in the Orlando central Florida area, did not expect a direct hit, not a hard hit, from this hurricane, but first it became a category four, then it took a little bend to the east and north, heading right at Orlando, then upwards towards toward Daytona Beach. Daytona Beach is a little bit north of me.
What you normally do, you evacuate the barrier islands. Well, people got the word with about four hours to go that they should evacuate. You can‘t get 150,000 people off these islands in four hours and that—it didn‘t happen. People are riding it out. We‘re still hoping, and it looks like we will escape a serious hurricane force winds. Here on the east coast, in this spot, just within the past hour or so. The wind has really come up, some of the rain is hitting us really hard, so it‘s coming at us here, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Dan Billow of “WESH” in Orlando, good luck and thanks for the report.
And let‘s go back across the straight—the state. Charley presented the most unwelcome surprise for the residents of Fort Myers; they received the brunt of the storm‘s initial force. Jonathan Carlson is with “WBBH,” our affiliate there and he joins us now by phone.
Jonathan, good evening to you.
JONATHAN, CARLSON, “WBBH”: Good evening, Keith.
Keith, a big mess here. Governor Jeb Bush predicted this could be the big one and he was right. It was bigger than many of us ever anticipated. This is the biggest storm southwest Florida has seen in years, it was definitely an experience for those who just went through it, and as you know, Charley changed his course many times and it caught many here by surprise when it was determined Charley would be headed straight for Lee and Charlotte counties, that‘s south of Tampa.
Now, the hurricane was so close for comfort, we had to evacuate our newsroom and find a safe location inside the station; however, we never stopped providing coverage for the community. I did have a chance to go out and tour the damages. Charley was still barreling down on Fort Myers. As you can see from the video you guys have been showing, roofs came flying off; gigantic trees were uprooted, many falling into people‘s swimming pools. There were a number of people who did decide to stay and weather the storm; however, after the brunt of it moved on and we went out to survey the damage, this place was a ghost town. No power. No people. We are still without power and could be for quite sometime. However, people are starting to come out, starting to venture out and assess the damage. Governor Jeb Bush will be in town tomorrow to do that, as well. Keith, back to you.
OLBERMANN: Jonathan Carlson in Fort Myers, tonight. No power there.
Thank you much for that report.
CARLSON: Sure.
OLBERMANN: Now, to try to predict what has so far eluded the forecaster‘s best guesses—what‘s next? Meteorologist, Sean McLaughlin has been tracking Charley for us all day and joins us now from the weather center, miles away, fortunately, from Charley‘s reach.
Sean, good evening.
SEAN MCLAUGHLIN, METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, good evening to you, Keith. Here‘s the latest on hurricane Charley. You can see Orlando right in the bull‘s eye. We‘re expecting the eye wall, the north part of this eye wall, to be right on top of Orlando in the next hour and a half -- 9:30 Eastern time. Remember, four and a half hours ago, it made landfall the Fort Myers-Sanibel Island area. And then at 11:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight, we expect the eye of hurricane Charley to go off right through Daytona Beach and off into the Atlantic to make a second landfall tomorrow morning off the coast of the Carolinas. This is the predicted path, possibly 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Already mandatory evacuations are in place for the outer bank areas and the coastal inland areas of South Carolina and North Carolina. Hurricane warning in effect now as far north as Cape Lookout, North Carolina and it is not just Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, we‘re talking the eastern seaboard as far north, tomorrow now, as Washington, D.C.
And then Keith, when you add in Bonnie, the remnants of Bonnie, we‘re talking heavy rains, anywhere from four to eight inches of rain now, as far on Sunday as New York City. But once again, in less than an hour and a half, sustained winds right now, at about 115 miles an hour, so we‘re bringing it down to a category three, but this is still a very organized, major storm. We‘ll be here for the eye wall hitting Orlando in about the next hour and a half—Keith.
OLBERMANN: Sean, one question. Is there any minimum yet as to how long until this is going to—going to dissipate? How long we‘re going to have this thing intact at almost full force?
MCLAUGHLIN: Well, it‘s just so impressive, right now. It‘s right in the middle of a landmass, the state of Florida, even though Florida‘s not that wide, but right in the middle of the landmass. We would expect this to become a little bit more disorganized, spread out a little bit. Look at this tight eye wall, that tight circulation. That‘s why we think as soon as 11:00 p.m. Eastern, it‘s going to cruise right through Daytona Beach out into the Atlantic, and then become a bigger problem for the Carolinas. We think this is going to remain an organized storm through tonight, through tomorrow morning, and then again, make landfall in the Carolinas and then just produce a whole bunch of rain for the eastern seaboard.
OLBERMANN: Sean McLaughlin, keeping the eye on us—on it for us, thank you again.
Stay tuned to MSNBC for breaking developments on the hurricane, and at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, I‘ll be back with a full hour, assessing just the first part of what will be several days of damage along the Atlantic seaboard, as seen—as pointed out in Orlando and Daytona Beach, and then the Carolinas tomorrow, sitting in the path of Charley. “Hurricane Charley,” a special report following COUNTDOWN here on MSNBC.
We started with the storm. Up next, the metaphorical storm: The fallout from the resignation of the New Jersey governor. The latest on the threatened lawsuit and we‘ll explore how straight spouses cope when it turns out their husband or wife is gay.
And later, an anonymous White House official tells a dozen news organizations: Gee, whiz. About those orange level terror threats to the five financial centers, well it turns out there‘s no evidence that any attack is or was imminent. Surprise!
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OLBERMANN: Coming up: Some don‘t understand why he‘s resigning, some don‘t understand why he isn‘t resigning sooner, and one man says he‘s the victim here. The latest on the extraordinary situation in the governor‘s mansion in New Jersey, next here on COUNTDOWN.
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OLBERMANN: Even as New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey gave his singular resignation speech yesterday, it was evident that another shoe would drop somewhere, sometime soon. The only question was, how large?
Our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN: The aftermath of the McGreevey departure. Sociological, political, and legal. Political first:
Beginning late last night, New Jersey republicans blasted McGreevey‘s decision to make his departure effective November 15, not earlier, like now. If he were to leave office before September 15, there would be a special election for governor, this November 2. Now there will be no vote until next November. Republicans howled that when the incumbent Senator Robert Torricelli dropped out late in the 2002 campaign, democrats insisted they get right to substitute another candidate. They got that right; Frank Lautenberg got on the ballot and won the election.
As to the legal issue, the presumed sexual harassment lawsuit has yet to materialize. Golan Cipel, appointed by McGreevey as the state‘s Homeland Security director, was presumed to be the man with how McGreevey had what he described as a consensual affair. Cipel‘s lawyer did appear today, and said there was nothing consensual about it.
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ALLEN LOWY, ATTORNEY FOR GOLAN CIPEL: I was the victim of repeated sexual advances by him. Such conduct, and Mr. McGreevey‘s behavior, caused me such emotional distress and turmoil. I was the victim whose oppressor was one of the most powerful politicians who made sure to let me know my future was in his hands.
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OLBERMANN: Mr. Lowy reading the words of his client, Golan Cipel. For all the political and legal ramifications, the part of the dramatic events in New Jersey that seemed to resonate most, on a national basis, were McGreevey‘s own sexual identity and his wife‘s part in all this. This she stood by his side throughout that news conference, yesterday. Otherwise having experienced something like that, though not necessarily on television, one of them, Amity Pierce Buxton, wrote a book about it and became the executive director of a group dedicated to it—the Straight Spouse Network. She joins us tonight from Berkeley, California.
And thank you for your time this evening.
AMITY PIERCE BUXTON, AUTHOR “THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CLOSET”: You‘re welcome, Glad to be here.
OLBERMANN: Before we talk about the governor, I want to talk about Mrs. McGreevey. Can you put yourself in her shoes, yesterday? Can you give as you sense of, not only what she felt, but also why she was there?
BUXTON: Well, I think there are several things going on. One is she wants to support her husband, because I‘m sure like lots of us, we still love our husbands and want to support them in this struggle, but also she was there inside feeling torn, confused—you know, what role to take, but presenting the couple image.