Oprah Opens Up About Weight Gain
CHETRY: Well now that Oprah has very publicly admitted her weight gain, the world is watching, so now what? Alina Cho joins us with more. Hi, Alina.</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran.</s>CHETRY: She did talk about it publicly, and you know just came out and said I've fallen off the wagon basically.</s>CHO: Yes, she did. And you may recall, Kiran, about a month ago, Oprah very publicly admitted in "O" magazine that she had tipped the scale at 200 pounds, the dreaded 2-0-0, she calls it. Now, in her most candid comments yet, Oprah is speaking out on her own show saying all the money, fame and attention in the world and none of it matters if you can't control your weight.</s>OPRAH WINFREY, HOST: Please welcome Tina Turner.</s>CHO (voice-over): Oprah says she hit bottom a year ago when she had to go on stage with Tina Turner and Cher.</s>WINFREY: I was embarrassed and I wanted to be anyplace other than there. I want' going to do it. I wasn't going to do it.</s>CHO: And so she says she tried to keep it a secret.</s>WINFREY: Here I am one of the most visible people in the world, trying not to be seen.</s>CHO: She says photo shoots for her magazine became embarrassing, with stylists trying to help her conceal the weight. But after months of hiding it, Oprah is putting it all out there, posing next to a smaller version of herself and once again opening up about a very painful and personal subject.</s>WINFREY: I am mad at myself. I am embarrassed. I can't believe I'm still talking about weight.</s>CHO: It's been a public struggle for decades. Remember this? That was 20 years ago, skinny, size 10 Calvin Kleins, pulling 67 pounds of fat in a wagon. Just four years later, the pounds were back on, and Oprah tipped the scales at more than 230 pounds. She eventually got down to 160 pounds, but says she started feeling sick.</s>WINFREY: The moment I heard I have a thyroid problem I just thought well, I don't even know how you fight this. I felt completely defeated and I think OK, that's it. I give. I give.</s>CHO: Then it got worse. Oprah says she was put on medication that literally sucked the life out of her.</s>DR. MEHMET OZ, OPRAH'S MEDICAL ADVISER: Her obesity became an excuse that she could hide behind. Oprah took it one step deeper. She hid behind her hormones.</s>CHO: It got so bad her long time trainer asked if she was depressed.</s>WINFREY: What? Me? Depressed? I can't be depressed. I know what depression is. I'm not depressed.</s>CHO: Now, Oprah says that conversation with her trainer and long time friend, Bob Green, was a turning point. She says 2009 will be the year that hope won. That it's about finding balance, about putting yourself back on your own priority list, she says. And, Oprah, by the way, says she doesn't want to be thin anymore, Kiran. She wants to be healthy, strong and fit. And finding balance really is the key for a lot of people including Oprah. You know and Bob Green says, she's just like everybody else when you're talking about battling your weight. You know, Oprah may be the queen of talk. She may be one of the most famous women in the world, but she has a lot of the same struggles that many of us have.</s>CHETRY: And she, you mentioned, goes for it. She said she told Larry she run five miles that morning.</s>CHO: She is nothing if not honest. I think a lot of people credit her for being brave, for being so candid about talking about her weight and, you know, talking about her road to recovery.</s>CHETRY: Thanks a lot, Alina.</s>CHO: You bet.</s>ROBERTS: Thirty minutes after the hour now and here are this morning's top stories. Al Qaeda bashing Obama in an audio message said to be from Al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al Zawahiri, vows revenge for Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza. He also calls the Jewish state's action against Hamas militants a gift from President-elect Barack Obama. Al Zawahiri who is a native Egyptian also calls Egyptian President Hozni Mubarak a traitor for not opening the border between Egypt and Gaza. Barack Obama continues to assemble his White House leadership team. The "New York Times" reporting that Obama will pick Nancy Killefer as his chief performance officer. The newly-created position is designed to help reform the federal government. Killefer was assistant treasury secretary in the Clinton White House. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed an $18 billion package pitched by Democrats as a major down payment toward the state's budget deficit. California, the nation's biggest economy is in danger of running out of cash and facing a $40 billion budget gap by next year. Well, troops returning from war with post traumatic stress disorder will not get a Purple Heart solely for that affliction. The decision just made public by the Pentagon. A statement released by the Pentagon says PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event, not a wound intentionally caused by the enemy. The military says the decision could be reversed in the future. Well, with less than two weeks before the inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama is facing a harsh reality. His economic recovery plan could saddle the nation with a mountain of new debt, and he is warning that the deficit could run over - get this - over $1 trillion and for years to come. So what if his recovery plan does not jump-start the economy? Does Obama have a plan b? CNN's Jim Acosta is live in Washington for us this morning. And Jim, when you think of those figures, $1 trillion a year for multiple years, it just boggles the mind.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing, John, and Barack Obama is warning about the dangers of the deficit while at the same time talking about expanding it. You know, a different Illinois senator, Everett Dirksen was once quoted as saying "a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money." Not in the Obama stimulus plan. Try trillion.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got everybody?</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Get ready for the "t" word. By most estimates, Barack Obama's stimulus plan, once it passes through the Congress, could approach the $1 trillion mark, that's $1 trillion, a one followed by 12 zeros, 1,000 billions, a million millions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.</s>ACOSTA: As "The Wall Street Journal" points out in today's dollars, that's more than what this country spent on the new deal.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.</s>ACOSTA: The race to the moon. And the atomic bomb. Only World War II cost more than $1 trillion.</s>ALICE RIVLIN, FMR. BUDGET DIRECTOR: A $1 trillion is a lot of money, but the economy's in deep trouble, and I think they really need to do something big.</s>ACOSTA: Clinton administration budget director Alice Rivlin says the Obama plans investments in infrastructure and tax breaks should get the economy moving, emphasis on the word "should."</s>RIVLIN: It's possible that the stimulus plan will not turn around the economy quickly. In fact, it's very probable that that is true.</s>OBAMA: You know, I don't want to get into particular budget numbers.</s>ACOSTA: While the President-elect has yet to give his plan a price tag, he insists it will be pork-free, no congressional pet projects.</s>OBAMA: We're not having earmarks in the recovery package, period.</s>ACOSTA: Some liberal economists worry Mr. Obama is being too cautious and say the stimulus package should be bigger, even if some of it is wasteful.</s>DEAN BAKER, CENTER FOR ECONOMIC POLICY RESEARCH: My big concern is that it's not as large as we really wanted. If we need to spend money we'd like it to be spent as well as possible, it's better that some of it be wasted than we be sitting there with higher unemployment rate.</s>ACOSTA: Conservatives would rather see more tax cuts and ask where does the spending end?</s>PAT TOOMEY, PRESIDENT, CLUB FOR GROWTH: You can't keep spending $1 trillion a pop and say well let's just try again, then what do they do next? Maybe then they'll get around to looking at the tax side of the equation.</s>ACOSTA: Then there's the other trillion-dollar question of the day, the new administration's budget director says that's the expected size of the federal deficit when Barack Obama is sworn into office, John, and that's just at the very beginning of his administration.</s>ROBERTS: It's kind of a frightening thing to think about, Jim, how much money we're going to be leaving our children and grandchildren to pay off. Pretty incredible.</s>ACOSTA: Absolutely, yes.</s>ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks so much.</s>ACOSTA: You got it.</s>CHETRY: You know, it really is a huge challenge facing Barack Obama as he prepares to take office in just under two weeks. So joining us now to discuss the political fallout of the massive deficit and the huge stimulus, Tara Wall, CNN contributor and deputy editorial page editor of the "Washington Times" as well as Melissa Harris- Lacewell, the associate professor of politics in African-American studies in Princeton University. Good morning to both of you. Thanks for being with us.</s>MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Good morning.</s>CHETRY: Melissa, let me start with you. So President-elect Obama is talking about this huge stimulus plan to the tune of $800 billion or more, included in that this huge tax cut proposal as well. What does he need to do to ensure the public and also the financial markets that this record spending will help get us out of these tough times?</s>HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well I think part of what we may have to cope with as a nation is the reality that in these kinds of situations. Sometimes it's true that the government is better than private industry or individual households in moving us out of such a big hole. Most importantly, because the government can take on enormous projects like the rebuilding of our crumbling infrastructure, the movement of our energy plan into a more green energy economy, these kinds of things are actually best undertaken by massive projects. We could put easily a million people to work just in rebuilding transportation infrastructure and that's everything from white collar jobs like architects to blue collar jobs like the people actually out there pouring that cement for you. So in this case, we are going to have to spend money from the perspective of the government, in order to lift the entire economy out. I think he's just going to have to be brave enough to do it.</s>CHETRY: And Tara, it's interesting because Melissa said that you know in some ways the government can do better and certainly the anti- conservative message. A lot of Republicans expressing concern the stimulus is too big, however they do admit that Barack Obama included as part of this proposal a massive tax cut in part to bring Republicans on board, so will he perhaps get bipartisan support for this?</s>TARA WALL, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'd have to respectfully disagree with Melissa who I know. I don't think the government is the answer to solve these problems. I think certainly private entities do a much better job in communities and dealing with day-to-day issues of real communities. There is a role for government to play, yes and certainly in the economic situation we're in, there has to be some type of government intervention. But I think what Republicans want to see, Republicans are encouraged about tax cuts of course, tax cuts have been a Republican mantra and it was something that President Bush was roundly criticized about when he tried to institute them early on and was successful. And that's why I think the economy did move forward early on. But at the same time what Republicans are concerned about, what conservatives are concerned about is not giving tax cuts to those who don't pay into the income tax system which would essentially be more of what would be considered government welfare in some cases and also making sure that we're stimulating the economy in a way that's also beneficial to small businesses. Government doesn't create jobs. Government is there to create an atmosphere that reinforces job growth -</s>CHETRY: Right.</s>WALL: And encourages job growth through small business, through private enterprise and those are the types of things that I think Republicans want to see.</s>CHETRY: In this proposal it would be a little bit of both, the tax cuts plus the plan for the infrastructure.</s>WALL: And it's good there's not going to be any pork. I think that's good that we hold him to the issue of no earmarks, no pork.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, Melissa, let me ask you about this. The drama continues in the senate. Let's listen to a little bit of Roland Burris. He is the embattled appointee from Illinois describing his rejection from the capitol.</s>ROLAND BURRIS (D), FMR. ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL: My name is Roland Burris, the junior senator from the state of Illinois. I presented my credentials to the secretary of the senate, and advised that my credentials were not in order and I would not be accepted and I will not be seated and I will not be permitted on the floor.</s>CHETRY: You know, Melissa, yesterday this turned into almost a circus-like atmosphere with Burris trying to get seated, being followed around by the media. A key ally now, Diane Feinstein saying you know, maybe he should be seated. And law experts say that Democrats may not have a constitutional ground to block him. So is this one fight the Democrats should just give up right now?</s>HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well this is very painful and difficult. I lived almost ten years in Chicago, and one thing that I know a Chicagoan like Roland Burris should know is that you don't ever want to break a strike and that's basically what he's done here. The politicos in Illinois needed to come together with a solid sort of strike against Blagojevich. They need to get Governor Blagojevich out of office and one of the major pressure points of doing that was saying look, he can't appoint a senator, if he can't appropriately appoint a senator, then the people of Illinois are without their full representation in the U.S. government, in the Senate, and therefore, let's get Blagojevich out and get a senator in. By accepting Blagojevich's nomination, Roland Burris, although a perfectly nice man and himself doesn't appear to have any ethics violations has put himself in a situation where he actually blocks the ability of the people of Illinois to have real representation in the Senate. So yes, will Feinstein and the Democrats quite likely have to appoint him because there's no other way? Yes, but the point here is that the choices that Burris is making are bad for the people of the state that he claims to want to represent.</s>CHETRY: All right. Tara, quickly, because we've got to go.</s>WALL: I happen to absolutely agree with Melissa. Well there is one thing that can be done, the honorable thing that can be done, and that is Roland Burris can step down and not accept the appointment altogether. It may not be his right thing but it may not necessarily be the right thing for him to do.</s>CHETRY: And right now, he's fighting on. All right. Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Tara Wall, great to talk to both of you. Thanks.</s>HARRIS-LACEWELL: Thank you.</s>ROBERTS: Here are the critical issue in any potential mideast ceasefire, underground and inside the tunnels, a closer look at the Middle East world where everything from guns to potato chips are smuggled underneath the earth and away from border checkpoints. And Barack Obama warning of trillion-dollar deficits for years to come. That's like nails on a chalk board to a guy like Ron Paul. The former presidential candidate joins us live, what he would do to cure America's sick economy. Coming up.