MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Joining us now from Washington, D.C. is Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Governor, thanks very much for joining us. It"s good to have you on the show.

GOV. ED RENDELL (D-PA): Good evening, Rachel.

MADDOW: Can you explain how you got involved with this group of Haitian orphans and can you tell us how they"re doing now?

RENDELL: Sure. These are two Pittsburgh natives. They"re sisters, not religious sisters, but blood sisters, who have been workers in that orphanage for a long time. In fact, most of the kids consider them their mom and their dad.

They called for help after the earthquake. Two of the three buildings in the orphanage were destroyed. The kids were living outside with no sanitation, very little water and food. The sisters called for help to the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Great folks there.

They got in touch with me. I got in touch with the State Department, with DHS and immigration. And by the way, al of the U.S. government agencies were terrific in getting this done. We arranged to get a plane. A private donor paid for a plane with Republic Airlines.

We flew down with 25 medical personnel and 2 ½ tons of medical supplies for a hospital in rural Haiti. And those supplies, by the way, have gotten to the hospital, subsequently. And we got there and we had been told we could take the orphans out.

And in the next 6 ½ hours, all hell broke lose. At first, we were told no. Then I got on the phone with Sec. Clinton"s chief of staff and we got that order temporarily to extend. The embassy said we could only have 28 of the 54 kids even though 47 already had adoptive families in the U.S. and Canada.

The two girls dug their heels in and said, "We"re not leaving unless everybody goes. We"re one family." We get back on the phone and the National Security Council adviser down there, with the help of Congressman Jason Altmire who was with us. He called from Emanuel"s office. They got back to the NSC chief.

Finally, he tells us, "Everyone can go - all 54. Well, that was good news, except our plane had to leave without us, because you"re only allowed a limited time on the tarmac because so many planes are trying to get in. We had no plane.

I went to a young major by the name of Miller down there and I said, "Major, what are we going to do?" He said, "Don"t worry, governor. I"ll get you a plane." And in an hour and three quarters withes, 53 - we thought it was 54. Fifty-three young Haitians, half of whom are below three years of age, 25 medical workers, myself and a few others. We were strapped into a C-17.

And you know how big that is. These kids had never been on an airplane before. The C-17 made an incredible amount of noise. None of these kids cried. None of them got upset, and we were winging our way. It was only as we were about to takeoff, we did one last count and found that Emma wasn"t there.

And we told everyone, let"s go. The sisters wouldn"t leave without Emma. One sister, Jamie, decided to stay behind and look for Emma. The other sister, Allie(ph), wanted to, but I persuaded her we would need her at immigration in the U.S. and we sure as heck did.

Jamie goes and we go off to - we land in Orlando Sanford airport, get an E-mail. They found Emma. Emma didn"t wander away. She fell asleep on the bus and she didn"t make it in to the airport. But Jamie found her on the bus. We arranged for Jamie to fly home. U.S. Air gave them free air traffic home.

She"s back home in Pittsburgh with 53 other incredible kids. It was a great story. We were on the ground for 6 ½ hours. It seemed like 6 ½ days. But boy, was it worth it. It"s the best single day I"ve spent as governor.

And let me tell you, these Haitian kids were terrific. They were singing. They were full of optimism. And Rachel, you should have seen them, when we got off the plane in Pittsburgh. It was snowing and not one of them had ever seen snow. Not one of them.

Listen, be proud of being an American citizen and be proud of your government. With all the hurdles, we"re doing great. I was on the tarmac for 6 ½ hours and I saw the United States military do incredible things in getting planes in and out and getting relief efforts.

And I know some people aren"t getting aid, but our 2 ½ tons of medical supplies made it to this hospital in La Rue that had been partially destroyed. They made it there. We"re doing the best we can, and no one but the American military could be doing the job we"re doing.

So it"s a good time to be proud of being an American citizen and proud of the American people, because our people have responded in incredible ways. We do our best as Americans in times of crisis.

MADDOW: It"s also an incredible story of you pulling more strings than any other one person in any one story ever. Governor Rendell, it would be political TV show malpractice for me to have you here and to not ask you a couple of politics questions about what just happened in the United States last night. Can you hold on for a second and we can come back and talk about that?

RENDELL: Sure. Sure. Absolutely. Love to.

MADDOW: All right. The interview continues with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, just back from his whirlwind trip to pick up more than 50 orphans in Haiti. Gov. Rendell is our guest again when we come back. Stay with us.

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