Mitch Albom on being rescued from Haiti by Cory Mills

So, we've been hearing over the last few days the collapse of the Haitian government. We hear the resignation of the Prime Minister. We know that gangs have basically taken over the country. There is no government that we can speak of and just about a thousand cops. What if you're on the ground and you're American? What if you use your time and money to form a foundation and an orphanage to help save kids?

Well, you're stuck. And that's what happened to Mitch Albom, who was swooped and saved along with others thanks to Corey Mills and some quick-thinking congressional leaders. With us right now is the best-selling author, talk show host, and philanthropist. And he's the founder of this foundation, Mitch Albom. Mitch, glad you're okay.

What have the last few days been like for you? I mean, crazier than even normal stuff in Haiti, Brian. I brought down eight other people along with my wife and myself on this trip. I go to our orphanage to have faith, Haiti orphanage since for the last 14 years, as you know, we've talked about it out there every month. We've got 60 kids.

We've got 40 staff members. And I brought down eight volunteers with me on this trip. And as soon as we got down there, the gangs started breaking into prisons and releasing all the prisoners. And next thing you know, the airports were shut, the ports were shut, the roads were shut, the borders were shut, and there was no way out.

And they were very scared, obviously, as I would imagine they would be, you know, I've been there a little longer, I'm kind of used to it. But we began to try to figure a way that we could get out what it looked like they weren't going to be opening that airport anytime soon. And in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I don't even know what today is.

Today's Wednesday. So I guess yesterday morning, we were able to evacuate at three o'clock in the morning, thanks to the efforts of Corey Mills, Lisa McClain, and some some people who worked independently. You know, you mentioned their Congress people, but they worked independently to do this effort.

Because we know that they they choppered out most of the embassy staff. But there's a lot of civilians on the ground. I mean, how big how big was the group you were with? And how concerned are you with the the kids left behind?

Well, our group was 10. And we raced into this helicopter in the dead of night because the gangs will shoot at helicopters. And you have to go at night because someone will film a helicopter and say, oh, the helicopter was coming there. And that's Ariel Henry, the prime prime minister is trying to get into the country. And next thing you know, it's all over the internet in Haiti. And people are rushing to that site. And, you know, gangs and angry citizens and all that.

So it has to be done. You know, when nobody can see when you can get out fast, and the 10 of us were shoved into this helicopter that had four seats in it. And so we were basically just a ball of people.

It was right out of one of those movies, you know, go, go, go, go, and you're in and you're up and you're, you're flying out. But I'm extraordinarily concerned, and mostly concerned for the children we left behind. And it broke my heart to leave. And my wife and I really didn't want to go.

But we were responsible for those eight other people too. And I couldn't really say, well, go ahead, just get on this helicopter. I don't know where it's going.

But go ahead. We want to get back there immediately. And we spent the eight days that we were kind of captive there, stocking up on food and on water, trying to get black market fuel. Because it's quite possible that, you know, with the government gone, everything can fall into chaos there.

And then you can't get anything. And so we stocked up with, you know, hopefully a month's worth of supplies. We asked people to help us on the internet, which they did, and we continue to need. And I'm extraordinarily concerned for our kids. And the minute I can get back in there, I will. It's called the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage.

And Mitch, the one thing I asked you last time when you were on your book tour is, you know, when you go back there with security like, you go, well, I have to come in, I have to come in with my own security. So you don't, the government's not going to help you and there's anarchy in the streets. Ever since, really, the prime minister got assassinated and we find out the first lady, I guess his wife, was in on it. And next thing you know, the other prime minister just resigned after going to Kenya and disappearing. Kenya is supposed to help out. Now they can't get their own congressional approval to help out. We have promised $200 million. I don't know where the $200 million is going to.

Who would get it? Well, everything's kind of on hold because of that. It was the president who was assassinated. Then the prime minister took over. He did nothing. The gangs ran rampant.

He went to Kenya to try to get help. And they basically locked them out of the country. The gangs just said, well, now we own the airports. You can't come in. We own the ports.

You can't come in. What they're really protecting against, Brian, is that force from Kenya coming in because they know if they come, they're coming to kill them. And so that's what worries me now is, you know, everyone thinks, well, they got Ariel Henry to resign.

Yay, yay. Well, that was, you know, kind of part of the argument that these gangs wanted. But what they really want is control and they don't want to get killed. And so I don't see that they're going to be opening the airport anytime soon if a delegation from Kenya is going to be coming to hunt them down. And meanwhile, you know, our leaders and the Caribbean leaders got together and said, okay, well, here's the new transition plan for Haiti. Let's get seven people from Haiti, different factions together, and then they'll pick a prime minister. Well, not surprisingly, they met yesterday and all they did was argue. And last I heard, they couldn't settle on anybody. And so you really have a government, Brian, that there's nobody in charge. I mean, heaven forbid if something happened to our president, the vice president is sworn in and boom, you have leadership.

Imagine there's nobody in charge. And so gangs can run rampant. Police are totally demoralized. They burned down the police stations. When we were there this past time, I mean, every night the gunfire was, it wasn't just a straight bullet here and there. It was, you know, assault rifles and things going off. They're burning police stations, burning government buildings. The organization that oversees orphanages, they have a building. It was destroyed by regular people who were desperate to find a place to hide because they were chased out of their homes. And so all the records of our orphanage and all the other orphanage and everything were all destroyed and they keep everything on paper there.

And so I don't even know if, you know, once we get back there, all the licenses and all that, you have to start all over again. So it's, it's madness. It's something that we can't imagine. And, and what we went through not being able to leave, you know, being in a country where you can't get out is something that no American has ever gone through. But, you know, you go through it once and you realize that's how Haitians live all the time.

And that's, that's just shouldn't be tolerated. Mitch Albemarle, our guest who was able to get, thanks to Corey Mills and Congresswoman Lisa MacLean and others, is able to get out of Haiti last night, choppered out along with others in his group. So when you, you knew to call the Congresswoman, did you just say that? That's my local Congresswoman Michigan.

I'm going to give her a call. How did you know to do that? Because she immediately called Corey Mills.

Yeah, I didn't. What happened was some, some local Detroit stations knew that I was down there and with our contingent was down there. I did an interview with them saying, you know, nobody's coming for us.

You know, I mean when we called the embassy, they said, well, there's nothing we can do. And so that story got out to Lisa MacLean, who I don't know, I've never met her before. And she got a hold of me and said, you know, we're going to put something together privately to get you out.

Then next thing I know, I'm hearing from Corey Mills. We had several failed attempts, Brian, to get out before that, you know, with different people who said that they could organize something. One time our group at six o'clock in the morning was standing on a hill where a helicopter was supposed to come, you know, naked in the sunshine there going, come on, come on, come on, come on.

And it never came. And we had to turn around and get back into cars and race armored cars and get back to our orphanage. But Corey Mills, I guess, has some experience doing this kind of thing.

I don't know him either before this, but I got to know him really well. And he was in the helicopter, you know, when we, when we got in, I don't know. I guess that's what Congress people do when they're not, not in Congress. They just fly in helicopters.

I think he used special forces too. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so a couple of things, you know, more than anyone, that's revenue.

Mitch Albom would get a lot of money and your group would get a lot of money if you're an American hostage and that's what they use for revenue. Did that, was that in the back of your mind? Oh yeah. You mean being kidnapped?

Yes. Oh, constantly. I mean, that's why we're, not just this week, it's just why we only travel in armored cars and we don't tell people when we're there and we never go out. I mean, I go every month and we, we go from the airport to the orphanage and that's it. And then we go from the orphanage to the airport back.

But it's no, it's not a way to live, you know, in fear. And Brian, they're not looking to just kidnap me. They're more looking to kidnap regular Haitians who don't have a dollar to their name and they get their cell phone and they start going through the numbers in it and calling to say, we're going to kill this person unless you give us, you know, a hundred thousand dollars. The person says, I don't have a hundred thousand dollars. Give us 50,000.

We'll give us 5,000. It gives you a refrigerator, you know, and, and that's the level of the kidnapping that goes on there. So we constantly live in fear of that.

But I mean, if I, if I didn't go because of that, I'd never go. That's been going on for years, which is why these gangs need to be dealt with. And, and you know, they need outside intervention. And I know nobody has an appetite for American intervention in foreign places, but this is right off of our shores. And if that country falls, the neighboring Caribbean countries are in danger. That's what happens, you know, when there's an unrest in a region. And you know, we did, we did occupy Haiti in the early 1900s for 15 years. You're a student of history very well.

You know this. We wrote their constitution. We have an obligation to take care of that country and, and it's precious children, especially the ones that we see every day. We asked for volunteers to help and Kenya stepped up and they don't seem to be able to quite pull it off. Does it blow you away that the embassy wasn't there for you and that the US has really let it get this bad? Well I don't, I'm not political that way and I don't want to besmirch the embassy other than to say yes, in our case they did not help us. I don't know what they could do.

I mean, I've been in trouble down there. Many other times we were there when the president was assassinated and the country shut down. The embassy wasn't helping us then either. I've just assumed that there's very little that they can do. I will say that, you know, we were in touch with them and they said, just stay there and we'll keep you updated if there's anything to stay there.

You know, we're having discussions, just stay there. And then they flew out. You know, we read, we read the next morning that they evacuated in the middle of the night.

But I don't know what they were supposed to do. I just do know that America as a country could do more for the country of Haiti. Not me and not, you know, not us, but for the country of Haiti, I wish they would do more than just give money because we have, we're the biggest power in the, in the region.

You know, Kenya is not next to Haiti or anywhere near Haiti. I'm amazed that Kenya continues to want to get involved in this. But they're not coming until there's a government and I don't blame them. I mean, they say, wait, do you want, do you want us to send a thousand of our policemen and soldiers and, and there's nobody in charge. We need a government to tell us what to do. And right now there's no government.

Right. And by the way, if you want to help out the have faith Haiti orphanage, you have a website, right, where people can help out because you guys are definitely need some resources. Oh, we, we need it every day. Have faith, haiti.org, have faith, haiti.org.

Thank you for that. And so do you have a next step, Mitch? Well, my next step is when can I get back in there? You know, that it's, when will they open up some avenues so we can get back and be with our kids? We have contingency plans to evacuate our kids, but you know, I hope that doesn't happen. We have, you know, we don't have school, so we have to have our, our nannies and our staff basically act as teachers because we don't want the kids to, you know, just live in fear every day.

And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm in touch with our staff, you know, 10 times a day every day while I'm here. But you know, my thoughts are with our kids and, and the other Americans who are down there, Brian, there's plenty of other people. I read a report where somebody said that, oh, they got all the Americans out.

They didn't. There are so many Americans down there who volunteer with orphanages, organizations, water projects. There are Canadians down there, several thousand of them that we know of. There are other foreign nationals that are not able to get out and, and I'm sure living in fear of what's going to happen next. And so we can't forget about them.

This is not, this doesn't end because our group was able to get out. So does your kid, do your kids have security at all? We have 24 security guards. That's where our money goes, you know, rimming the place.

But you know, it's not enough if you get attacked by a gang because the guns that one group has are different than what one of the other ones have, you know, and it's, we live in fear of that all the time. Mitch, it's great what you're doing. Glad you got out and glad you got to help out and we'll look to stay on top of this because America can't look the other way. We have no choice. Thanks so much, Mitch Albom. Thank you very much.