Tom Tancredo Drops Out of Presidential Race; Controversy Erupts Over Destruction of New Orleans Housing
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Nobody likes public housing in New Orleans, so, why all the pushback over plans to tear it down and rebuild? Push comes to shove at the City Hall gates. And we have got it live. What's ailing Rudy Giuliani? We have been waiting to hear all day from the hospital Giuliani was expected to walk out of hours ago. We're live in Saint Louis with the latest. Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Don Lemon is off, and you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Well, this hour, we hope to hear more on the condition of presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. He is hospitalized in Saint Louis right now, where he checked in complaining of flu-like symptoms yesterday. And a spokeswoman says the Republican presidential candidate didn't feel well enough to continue on a flight to New York, but doctors found nothing alarming and cleared Giuliani to fly home today. We hope to bring you more information this hour if and when developments warrant. And this looks like the end of the faltering presidential campaign of Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo. A campaign official tells CNN that Tancredo is pulling out and will make the announcement anytime now. Tancredo's nationwide poll numbers barely register. We are going to bring his comments when we see him step up to the mike. Live pictures right now from where it's going to happen -- we will take it live when he does make his announcement. And a setback today, minor, we hope, for a California family that was stranded for three days in a snowstorm. Fifteen-year-old Lexi Dominguez is back in a hospital after complaining of pain in her feet. She suffered frostbite in her toes when she, her father, and two brothers got lost while looking for a Christmas tree. Hope was fading fast, but today they're celebrating their almost unbelievable rescue by the California Highway Patrol.</s>CHRISTOPHER DOMINGUEZ, SURVIVED THREE DAYS IN CALIFORNIA WOODS: We all heard the helicopter. I -- we were all yelling -- or we were all sitting down at the time. We all had each other's feet and tried -- inside each other's jackets, trying to keep our feet warm, because they were all frozen, and just trying to keep our feet warm. And we heard the helicopter. And I told my dad, the helicopter, the helicopter. Josh saw the helicopter. My dad, he just ran out there and started waving his arms, screaming, help, help. And that's when they started circling and going down and going down. And we were all just happy, happy to be rescued.</s>ALEXIS DOMINGUEZ, SURVIVED THREE DAYS IN CALIFORNIA WOODS: It was really, really scary. Like, I remember going under the tree and just -- we were all trying to like be next to each other. The shelter wasn't very big. So, Chris and my dad weren't like really in the shelter. It was really just me and Josh in the shelter. And, so, it was just really, really scary, the most scariest thing that could happen.</s>FREDERICK DOMINGUEZ, SURVIVED THREE DAYS IN CALIFORNIA WOODS: My youngest boy is like, dad, are we going to make it? Are you sure we're going to make it? I said, son, I would tell you what I bought you for Christmas if I thought we weren't going to make it.</s>PHILLIPS: We will get back to that story, but we want to take you live to Tom Tancredo, about to announce he's pulling out of the presidential race. Let's listen in.</s>REP. TOM TANCREDO (R), COLORADO: Thanks for coming. This is great. And -- but I guess we shall also proceed to the business at hand. You know, for the past 10 years I have dedicated my public life to warning the nation of the perilous consequences of massive uncontrolled illegal immigration. And while the people across this great country have come to understand the real and present danger that our open borders (OFF- MIKE) creates for us, this message, unfortunately, has fallen on deaf ears in the highest office of the land. And without a president who is committed to securing the nation, we will always, of course, remain jeopardy. And so, in spite of what we knew at the time were incredibly long odds, I made the decision to become a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. And as I admit, it is -- it was certainly then -- and we have always known the odds were enormous against that happening, but nonetheless I felt committed to pursue that particular agenda. But nonetheless, I felt committed to pursue that particular agenda. And I am happy to say I am ecstatic about the fact that we can say we have made remarkable progress along those lines. And I have to thank every single person who has worked on this campaign from day one, through all the miles that we have travelled together throughout Iowa and New Hampshire and states in between, it's really been my pleasure -- my deep and abiding pleasure and it's something I will always treasure; the fact that so many good folks have worked so hard in this endeavor. And we have made, as I say, great progress. In fact, according to Newsweek, the Tancredo campaign has already won. And just this month, The Economist, The New Yorkers, The Wall Street Journal, and even The New York Times have grudgingly accredited our campaign with forcing the issue of immigration to the forefront of the national debate and, more importantly, with forcing nearly every Republican presidential candidate to commit themselves to an immigration plan that calls for securing our borders.</s>PHILLIPS: So, now, with Tom Tancredo out, his followers, few that they were, will have to redirect their support elsewhere. So, where? Let's bring in CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider to talk about that. Bill, I think the first problem was, no one could say his name right, Tancredo, Tancredo. We even had a problem here at CNN trying to hammer that out.</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I believe it's Tancredo, although I'm not certain of that. But he was a presence in the race because he brought the issue of illegal immigration, a very tough line on that, into the debate. And in the CNN/YouTube debate in Saint Petersburg, Florida, last month, you may recall that he said to other candidates, in some amazement, all I have heard here is people trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo. Now, that's exactly right. Almost all -- in fact, I would say all of the other Republican candidates, including John McCain, who was a champion of immigration reform, adopted some parts of Tancredo's tough line on illegal immigration. Now, what happens when you out-Tancredo Tancredo? You don't need Tancredo anymore. And that's why he's getting out.</s>PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider, thanks for putting it in perspective for us. You saw it right there, the live pictures from that announcement taking place right now, Tom Tancredo pulling himself out of the presidential race. Well, the other story that we have been following all afternoon have been those protests in New Orleans, Louisiana, just outside of the gates there at City Hall. Now, protesters saying they don't want certain housing developments abolished. Yet, the mayor, those involved with Housing and Urban Development, HUD, saying, look, they're dilapidated, crime-infested. There's murders taking place, drug-running going on. Let's tear them down. Let's put up new ones. We will take care of everybody living there, give them these vouchers while we rebuild. They can come back in and have better conditions. It's still a controversy. Some are for it. A lot of people are against it, as you can see by the protests here going on outside of City Hall. Reverend Marshall Truehill, public housing advocate, joins us on the phone. Reverend, we have gotten the perspective from HUD. We talked to a former law enforcement official that talked about the crime in those housing developments. But are in supporter of these protesters? Do you think that some of these developments or all of these developments that are still there should stand?</s>REVEREND MARSHALL TRUEHILL, PUBLIC HOUSING ADVOCATE: Well, let me set the record straight. Pre-Katrina, every housing development in New Orleans was at the table. Those resident leaders and group of residents was in negotiation with the HANO, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and HUD, working on a phased demolition plan, with redevelopment, mixed-income neighborhoods. And they enjoyed resident collaboration, participation and cooperation. There was no dissension at all. No one's saying for the demolition to be halted entirely. They're saying to halt the demolition temporarily until we can understand where's the plan to rebuild and where's the money to rebuild. Part of the problem in New Orleans is that people do not trust the Housing Authority or HUD, because their track record has been to demolish without rebuilding. We have about a 20-acre site that was demolished 15 years ago. That site is still vacant land today. We have about 33 acres at the C.J. Peete Housing Development that was demolished 10 years ago. It's still vacant today.</s>PHILLIPS: Reverend, what about Saint Thomas? That was in pretty bad shape when I lived there. That was rebuilt.</s>TRUEHILL: You know, when people say bad shape, first of all, we're talking about buildings that were structurally sound and had great architectural value. We have warehouses in New Orleans that are much, much older than any public housing structure in New Orleans that was renovated and turned into high-end condominiums. These buildings could have been gutted, if that was necessary. The configuration of the apartments could have made differently. They could be used as viable housing today. The question is not the buildings. The question is the people who live in those buildings. And there's always been stereotypical thinking and myths circulating about the people and their community.</s>TRUEHILL: ... back in the mid-1990s got rid of welfare; 86 percent of the residents in public housing were working at the time of Katrina. The other 14 percent were children, elderly, the infirm, and a few people who didn't have jobs. So, there are a lot of myths circulating.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Reverend Truehill, but it's definitely not a myth that some of these -- a number of these housing developments dealt with the drug running and the crime.</s>PHILLIPS: I remember being a reporter there and going to the murders that happened at least four times a week at some of these developments. So, how do you find the happy medium?</s>TRUEHILL: A lot of the murders that occurred didn't always occur in the development. The news media reported murders that happened near. And sometimes near was as far as three blocks away.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, how do you find the happy medium, Reverend? Obviously, there's money coming in, so how do you make housing development living better? And, obviously, you're pointing out that some of these buildings have been around for a while, some of the architecture. They have got a lot of history to them, a lot of culture to them. How do you find that happy medium of working on the ones...</s>TRUEHILL: You find the happy medium by people in power sitting down with the people who are affected, and talking about things and working things out. As I said when I began, that was happening pre-Katrina. The residents were sitting at the table. There was no contention about the whether to demolish buildings or whether to create mixed-income neighborhoods. There was no dissension. There was only cooperation and collaboration. The Housing Authority of New Orleans took advantage of a natural disaster and a forced evacuation of the city to shut off the housing development, block out the innocent, law-abiding people who were working and had a right and legal lease to live there. They did not go about it in the proper way. You cannot just violate people's human rights in the United States of America.</s>PHILLIPS: Now, HUD is saying they're given vouchers to these residents, so they will have a place to live, and have a place to basically carry on as they have been in these housing developments as they are rebuilt. Are you seeing that? Do you trust that system?</s>TRUEHILL: No. No, we don't see it and we don't trust it. First of all, as I said, there's about 200 acres of vacant land that's been vacant for a long time that if HUD were going to build any viable housing, they could have done it. Why destroy everything at once, when you could be rebuilding right now? We have 12,000 homeless people on the streets of New Orleans, and possibly another 30,000 to 40,000 more homeless people all the way back as FEMA evicts people from travel trailers. Those people are not going to be homeless in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and all those places. They got to come home to be homeless, where they know the city, they know the people. There's possibly a support network. They're going to come back here. They're exacerbating an already serious problem for the city administration and for the citizens and the social service infrastructure of New Orleans.</s>PHILLIPS: Reverend Marshall Truehill...</s>TRUEHILL: We don't think it's prudent to do that.</s>PHILLIPS: ... public housing advocate, Reverend, sure appreciate your time. We have had a chance to talk to you, also a representative from HUD, and also we have been covering the protests all morning and throughout the afternoon. We will stay on top of the vote, see what happens with the housing developments there in New Orleans. Reverend, thank you.</s>TRUEHILL: You're welcome.</s>PHILLIPS: Appreciate it.</s>PHILLIPS: Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has been in the hospital, and when he's released at the bottom of the hour, you are going to hear about it right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. He tugged at your heartstrings and you reached out to help him. Months and several operations later, find out how little Youssif is doing.