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Tornadoes Strike Colorado; Texas Court Rules in Favor of Polygamist Families; House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Karl Rove; McCain Rejects Hagee Endorsement
Aired May 22, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM, where we are following severe weather, a tornado on the ground in Colorado.
I'm Don Lemon.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Brianna Keilar. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: All right, we want to take you now to Colorado and show you some of this amazing video that just came in to the CNN NEWSROOM moments ago.
As we were on the air, a tornado touched down in Weld County, Colorado, and two -- we believe two towns in that area were hit by this tornado. This tornado brought with it, of course, some severe winds and damage as well. And you can see hail on the ground, hail as big as softballs in some instances we are told here.
The damage, we don't know exactly how extensive it is. But we are getting live reports in. Now, this is video in just moments ago of big rigs on the interstate there, at least two of them turned over because of the intensity of this wind. And then also we saw homes that were damaged, roof damage, damage to the ground as well, as this the tornado just swept through.
According to our Chad Myers, not exactly sure of the intensity of the tornado, but possibly an F-3 or an F-4 tornado. This is videotape -- this is videotape that we rarely see of a tornado as it is happening, as it is spinning there. And you can see the tornado pulling everything into its path, anything that is not tied down or does not have some weight to it.
We want to get now to our affiliates on the ground.
KUSA reporter Adam Chodak filed this report just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAM CHODAK, KUSA REPORTER: Traffic in this area is at a standstill in this parking lot. We have an eyewitness to the storm right here.
Thank you so much for joining us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You bet. When the tornado came through, what was it like?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was in that field. It formed in that field. It looked like it was about a half-mile wide and started coming this way. I called -- I'm in that office building over there. And I saw what looked like a tornado to me. So, I called the guys from the other side.
And we had time basically to run into the bank vault with the bank employees. And then we felt pressure changes and heard glass breaking. And it hit -- it was obviously a direct hit right here and right here. And it was wide enough to hit both of these at the same time.
CHODAK: Wow. You look dirty. Are you OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. All the kids from the day care are in the bank right now. They're fine. There's a little broken glass in there.
But from what I could tell, there's only one person that got cut from the entire day care building. And there's over 130 kids in there. So, it's a miracle the kids are fine. I don't know what the situation is over there. Everybody is worried about their kids, and, you know, just trying to help out.
CHODAK: Well, it's exceptionally good news. Thank you so much for coming over.
Just so we know, what is that building behind me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a series of office buildings. And I think a lot of them are vacant. I don't -- there's only two or three cars outside. So, I don't know what the situation is over there. I'm just glad the day care was fine actually. That's -- for this area, that's the biggest concern.
CHODAK: All right. Well, thank you so much.
Again, a lot of devastation in this Windsor area. We're not sure at this point if anybody is hurt. We're hearing about gas explosions on the scanners. We're also seeing water main breaks, and, as I said, a lot of splintered wood around this area, Windsor definitely receiving the bulk of this storm.
Just behind the camera, you're not going to be able to see it, but it looks as though the tornado had enough strength to actually flip over a rail car. I can't even imagine how much that weighed. But that really shows you the force of this tornado that we saw only a quarter-of-a-mile away from us, when we were west of Greeley on 34.
Again, we don't know if anybody has been injured here in Windsor. But we're going to hopefully talk to some emergency crews soon to find out more.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: Adam Chodak of our affiliate KUSA.
Live pictures now. We're looking at the damage on the ground. We have seen several roofs that are blown off, structures there, some homes. This is obviously a barn. Not exactly sure what this structure was. It looks like -- it looks to be a barn, and the roof appears to have blown off of that as well.
But just before we came to you here, we saw some homes in this area that had some severe damage in all of this. We have been talking possible F-3, possible F-4 tornado here.
Chad Myers joins us to give us the details on this.
Chad, talk to us.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, just really numbers, unless you put something to them. Like, with an F-3, you will lose the roof, not only shingles. You will lose the plywood. You will lose the boards of the roof and probably even a couple of walls.
And, at 4, EF-4, you are probably going to lose most of the walls. But the inside part of your house still there. That's why they say get inside the innermost storm window and innermost closet, anything inside, because at least the inside is going to be -- now, there we go. Now, this is exactly what I was describe as EF-3. This is the roof gone.
The structure is still intact, although the rest of the storm has -- pretty much has taken that roof off and thrown it somewhere else. And you can also begin to see the trees. The trees I know did have leaves on them. Those leaves are gone. When you get to the F-4 stage and F-5 stage, you actually can strip the bark right off of a tree.
LEMON: Yes.
MYERS: And that's when the amazing story of a cornstalk through a telephone pole, that's when that happens at above certainly 220, 230 miles per hour. And I'm not saying that that is -- this looks like about 140 to 150 miles per hour, but certainly a very strong storm.
What the Weather Service men and women will do is, you have to take every structure strength into account. You can't say that -- you will never be able to tell that an F-5 tornado hit a mobile home, because an F-3 tornado will destroy the mobile home. And so you can't say, oh, that was an F-5 because that mobile home is gone. Well, yes, but it could have been an F-2 or F-3, because that would have done the same damage. It would have been thrown a little bit father.
And this is the kind of damage we're going to see here. And this helicopter is just guessing closer and closer to the town that I know did get hit. And that is Windsor.
LEMON: Yes.
MYERS: I don't know if it was east side or west side. We have been making phone calls. We have talked to the police. They said they had so many calls out there, they didn't even know how many people were there.
But as we saw the zoom-out of this, you could actually see the scratching almost, I will call it, of the tornado along the ground where the fields were scratched by pieces of metal that were going along the ground being blown around in that circle. And that's something you see. It goes around and around and around. And if you shoot the camera down the path, it's almost ridiculous to see how these pieces of shingle and roof and storm and trees and cars just scour. It's almost like a scouring pad all the way down the land, because this was pretty much wide-open land.
This is wide-open territory until it got to the town of Windsor. And that's when a town got in the way.
LEMON: It's amazing here, because you're talking about that scouring thing, but also it's just a clear, clean cut, almost like in some instances where the roof, like a scalpel or a knife sheered just it right off. It's amazing to see.
And our viewers are looking at this damage, Chad, as we are seeing it here as well, just getting it in, never before seen. And it's live all unfolding right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
MYERS: When you get the wind to go to at least a certain wind speed, a roof, with -- if the wind is blowing the correct direction or the incorrect direction, will actually become a wing. And the wind will blow over the roof, up and over the top of a roof, just like it blows over the top of an airplane wing, and that roof literally just peels off the top.
LEMON: Wow.
Chad, I hate to stop looking at these pictures, because it's really just amazing here. But the good news, as you have said here, is that the storm has dissipated and no imminent danger now.
MYERS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: No. There's one tornado way, way out east out near the town of Akron, Colorado. And that's way out there in the high plains. Here's that -- this is this day care, where just a couple kids were injured, but over 100 children were in this day care, if we can take that picture.
But we will -- there it is right there.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: The reporter said -- just a little bit -- that they rushed them into a bank, I think they said, into a safe to get them to safety.
MYERS: If that happened, that's pretty good thinking.
LEMON: That's pretty good thinking.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: OK, Chad Myers, we're going to continue to follow this. Chad is going to get new pictures, new information on this.
MYERS: Absolutely.
LEMON: And we're following other stuff as well, Brianna.
KEILAR: Yes, other weather concerns, an aggressive wildfire that is burning in Northern California. These pictures coming to us from our affiliate KTVU. This is Santa Clara County. This is the Santa Cruz Mountains.
You can see a structure there very close to the fire line definitely being threatened. And this is the case with dozens of buildings. This is being called the Summit wildfire. Again, it's considered very aggressive. It's already burnt about 10 buildings. It has grown to 2,000 acres. It has grown pretty quickly as well.
It started this morning at 5:00 a.m. local time there, so 8:00 Eastern. And it's being fanned by high winds, fueled there by dry brush and trees as well. We, at this point, do not have any reports of injuries, but, as you can see, this building here being threatened. There's at least 50 homes in total that are being threatened.
Let's bring in Chad Myers.
Chad, let's talk about the conditions here, high winds, and things are very dry.
MYERS: They are.
They haven't had rain in this area for quite some time. And I'm just getting one of my computers up here to get some wind speed readings, San Jose, 23 miles per hour, Modesto 25 miles per hour, out just to the west of Stockton 24 miles per hour.
Now they have got the flame retardant out with the airplanes, because this is getting so out of control, so out of hand. The fire line is now getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And so it's harder to fight because now you have miles of area on fire.
And then square miles, yes, we always talk about acres, but you have to think about the firefighters' view. You have the fire line. And if the fire is only a block wide, well, you have got four blocks of fire line, because there's one block, one block, one block. Once you get a mile in each direction, then all of the sudden you have exponentially increased your firefighting necessity.
And this is just completely out of control. They are not going to get a handle on this today, I'm afraid. Obviously they have got air support and that's going to help. As long as you have air support, you can really get to save the buildings. Now, they will let the trees burn. But when it gets inside of an area, maybe in a neighborhood, that's where they are going to start to really attack it, so that it doesn't get into a neighborhood. And I don't know what the neighborhoods look like right now around this area.
KEILAR: And those pictures were just coming to us from our affiliate KRON. These coming to us from our affiliate KTVU there in the Bay Area.
You could see before in some of those other pictures what appeared to be some large houses. I know there's many multimillion- dollar homes in this area. It appears to be remote, but obviously a lot of people there have very nice homes, Chad.
MYERS: Yes.
That's when people start and they want to live in nature, and they have the money and the means to put something out by themselves in around 40 acres or something like that. And that's when basically nature meets people and sometimes Mother Nature wins.
KEILAR: All right. We will keep following this, as well as that tornado in Colorado, checking in with you in a little bit here, Chad.
LEMON: Yes. Our Chad Myers is going to be very busy.
Hey, Chad, before you go, there's just one tornado, right? That's all we know, not a series?
MYERS: Two, actually. There's two.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: There was one that did hit the area that we were showing you, the pictures up, and then one near Longmont. But I don't have any information of anything on the ground. Well, it was on the ground, but any damage from when it was on the ground, because it was a really rural area.
LEMON: All right, Chad, thanks for the explanation, two tornadoes touching down. And we saw some severe damage in Colorado. Pictures are just coming in, as well as an assessment of the damage. We will update you on that.
Also, more in a moment on the stunning news out of Texas, where a court has slapped state welfare officials for removing hundreds of kids from the Yearning For Zion ranch.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, breaking weather news right here today in the CNN NEWSROOM.
You have been looking at some amazing pictures coming out of Windsor. And this is Weld County, Colorado. Most of the damage happening, though, in Windsor. And you can see it there. That is an actual video of the tornado as that hail and rain are pushed -- or pulled, I should say, right into this tornado.
Our Chad Myers has been talking about this, talking about the possibility of even up to an F-4 tornado.
Just a short while ago, we had Adam Chodak on from KUSA, which is our affiliate there. And he's talking to us about the damage on the ground and also about children who were in a day care center. And they heard all of this coming. They rushed these children out to safety. He caught up with some of the mothers.
Imagine being at work, and you hear all this going on, and you know your child is at day care and you're wondering, is my child safe or not? These women, these parents showed up just moments after this tornado.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And as we went home, the storm was getting worse. We had no idea.
CHODAK: So what happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I was at home trying to -- I also work for Poudre Valley Hospital, and I was trying to help them decide what level of weather emergency to go into.
So, I was trying to listen for any kind of news. I was calling -- I had to call the radio station here just to get a news update. And then I'm running around the house looking for my emergency radio. And John (ph) says, what's the number for Windmill? And I'm like, oh, my gosh, because we had heard...
(CROSSTALK)
CHODAK: And that's the day care, Windmill?
CHODAK: This is Windmill day care. I heard through my EMS crews at work that this area of Windsor had been hit. And it just struck us. We just -- we both -- we took off in different directions. He's got a heavy-duty truck. He took the chain saw. And I got here first. And now I'm having a hard time getting ahold of him.
But they had the kids over at the bank in the vault when I got here. They were just bringing them out of the vault, so...
CHODAK: So what did you think when you saw your kids?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I -- when -- well, when I saw her, we're all crying in here. And we're just like -- I just told them how much I loved them. And you never expect anything like this. I deal with emergency crisis at work, not constantly, but a lot.
And I prepare them for this type of situation. And I found myself unprepared today. And my husband said, well, don't you have that radio in your emergency kit downstairs? And I was like, you're right, the emergency kit that I haven't finished. So, we had no lines of communication. Our cell phones weren't working, no power. Power went out in Severance. Power went out in Windsor. And then everybody uses these digital phones. And you can't get ahold of family members. I have a family member that is a half a mile south here. We can't get ahold of her, but I think it's because her phones are out.
CHODAK: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I will put it in four-wheel drive and go check on her next. But the kids are safe. They're a little banged up, if you want to look at this. She's got bruises and stuff.
Jess (ph), show them your bruise.
She's got bruises on her knees and on her elbows. And I assume it's just because they had to get them out so quick. And I can't say enough about the Windmill staff. This is what we prepare for. I looked at so many day cares, wanting to know that the security was going to be good and that the emergency preparedness was good.
And they just performed. I don't know what else to say. But I'm so glad everybody is safe. So...
CHODAK: All right. Well, thank you so much for speaking with us. And good luck getting ahold of your husband.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. I appreciate it.
CHODAK: A lot of -- a lot of people in Windsor right now with the same story, trying to find their kids, trying to get in touch with their loved ones. Cell phone service extremely spotty out here.
In fact, I can't even hear through my IFB right now. Hopefully, you can still see me. We're unsure at this point how many people were injured, if any. But we do hear sirens. You can -- you may be able to hear them in the background right now. We heard reports of gas explosions. We see water main breaks. We will hopefully get in touch with police and also emergency crews pretty soon to figure out what happened.
As you can see again behind me, a lot of devastation, Windsor taking the brunt of this funnel -- Kyle, Gary, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, Adam Chodak from our affiliate KUSA, live pictures of KUSA's chopper over some of the damage there in Weld County.
And much of the damage that we have been reporting here, Windsor and Greeley, Windsor and Greeley, the towns of Windsor and Greeley in Colorado. We're looking at a picture now. That's Adam getting ready to do a live shot there. He's provided a lot of information and a lot of color on the ground there, as you -- as he was talking about the children who were injured when the tornado went right through the area, when they were in day care.
Our Chad Myers is waving at us over there in the Severe Weather Center. It appears that Chad has new some information for us.
Chad, go for it.
MYERS: Yes. The same storm, it died after it got over Windsor and then to the east of Fort Collins. And now it's reformed itself. And now we have tornado warnings for Laramie in Wyoming. And I know you think, Wyoming, how can that happen? Well, it does. It happens all the time, not as much as it happens in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and the like.
But there is the storm. And it is rotating and it is heading right to Laramie. I'm going to do something that I don't normally do on TV. I'm going to show you the real color radar. This is the Doppler-indicated winds. And when we look at winds on this storm, we always look for greens and reds when they come together.
Red means the wind is blowing away, kind of like blowing -- going away when you can see the taillights of a car. The taillights are red, so that wind is red. The green is where the wind is actually coming in. So, there is spin right there, and this storm is not that far, less than 10 miles from Laramie, Wyoming, the same storm that produced that very large and dangerous tornado a little bit ago.
There is the actual reflectivity, big-time hail in there, probably, all moving up toward Laramie, Wyoming. We will keep you advised -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Chad Myers, thank you.
KEILAR: And we will also have more here in a moment on the stunning news out of Texas, where a court has slapped state welfare officials for removing hundreds of kids from the Yearning For Zion ranch.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Last hour, two tornadoes were on the ground in Colorado north of Denver. There is tornado damage at this hour in at least two towns in Weld County, one Windsor and the other one Greeley.
Let's bring in now Shane Scofield. He is the deputy sheriff of Weld County.
You are in Greeley, I believe, right, sir?
SHANE SCOFIELD, WELD COUNTY DEPUTY SHERIFF: Yes, ma'am. That's correct. I'm at our emergency operations center now.
KEILAR: What have you heard of reports of damage?
SCOFIELD: I was actually in a local town that's in our county named Windsor at the time this occurred.
And there's a lot of damage to physical structures, homes and businesses. Some are completely demolished and unrecognizable, just masses of timber, cars, including semis, completely overturned, crushed together, large hail, a lot of hail damage to cars that did survive. And we have at this time reports of one confirmed fatality. And I'm not sure if that was from the Windsor storm or not.
KEILAR: Tell us about reports of injuries.
SCOFIELD: Other than the fatality, I don't have any specific reports of injuries right now. The emergency operations center is starting to staff up with representatives from all local jurisdictions here that were involved. And I don't have any other information given to me at this time.
KEILAR: Sir, can you tell us exactly where you were when this tornado came over, what the experience was like, what you heard, if you -- what you saw, if you could see anything from where you were?
SCOFIELD: I was actually over at a golf tournament at one of the golf courses in Windsor. And the storm came right over us. And it just developed very quickly.
It was a hailstorm. Initially, it started off with light rains and very quickly within a few minutes turned into heavy rains, large hail, over-golf-ball-sized hail.
KEILAR: And were you on the golf course?
SCOFIELD: We had just finished up and we were in a covered area on the ground that was being set up for food and refreshments.
KEILAR: What is the response at this point? What's the emergency response?
SCOFIELD: It's all being coordinated pretty much through our dispatch center and also through the emergency operations center here. There's multiple jurisdictions that are helping each other out and responding through mutual aid agreements.
KEILAR: And is it too early really to tell exactly what the damage is and what the injuries are?
SCOFIELD: It is at this point just because I don't have that information right now. I have launched our emergency operations center Web page at weldsheriff.com. And there will be updates posted on there, including photos and closures and anything else that we need to release.
KEILAR: Now, it seems strange to us, because it seems like, especially when we look at how big this tornado was, judging by what our meteorologist Chad Myers said looking at it, that it appeared to be a very large tornado. It seems unusual for that area. Is that how you feel about this? SCOFIELD: From what I'm accustomed to watching just on TV and other outlets of storms, they seem to cover localized areas. And to have multiple towns in our county -- our county is 4,000 square miles. So, to have multiple towns that were specifically affected by this storm, it sure seems different. That's for sure.
KEILAR: All right, sir, thank you so much for talking to us. I know you must be very busy. So, we're going to let you get back to your work dealing with this emergency there on the ground, Shane Scofield, deputy sheriff of Weld County, Colorado.
LEMON: Lots more to report on this breaking weather news.
But we also have some other news to tell you about here. It is developing news as well. And it's coming to us from San Angelo, Texas. Those children that were taken away from that polygamist ranch, a state appeals court has ruled that the state had no right to take those children.
Joining us now on the ground from KXAN is our reporter Jenny Hoff from our affiliate there.
Jenny, what are you hearing on the ground?
JENNY HOFF, KXAN REPORTER: Don, just a few minutes ago, we had representatives with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. And they are the ones that filed this mandamus on behalf of 38 women from the FLDS sect.
And they said -- the first thing they said out here is this is a great day for Texas families. That's because they were a little shocked to find out that the court ruled so quickly on this case. And what the court said essentially is what was written in this mandamus. And that is, CPS had no evidence and had no right to hurriedly take more than 460 children off that Yearning For Zion ranch.
So, obviously, those women that were represented in that mandamus were very happy out here today.
Meanwhile, I just got word from inside that the hearings -- the status hearings that were scheduled today, tomorrow and the next two weeks for these children have been canceled, at least until the end of this week. I guess, right now, the judges and Companies, they are talking together to decide what they're going to do next.
I just spoke with Marleigh Meisner, who is the spokeswoman for the CPS, and she told me on the phone they just got this information. They're now assessing to see how this information would apply to their investigation. And they're going to decide in a timely manner if they're going to appeal this.
And if they do appeal this, it would go to the Texas Supreme Court.
LEMON: OK, Jenny Hoff from our affiliate there on the ground in San Angelo, Texas.
Jenny, we appreciate your reporting on this. Thank you very much for that.
We also want to tell our jurors that Larry King tonight, Larry interviewing two parents. It's an exclusive with the YFZ ranch. They're talking about getting their children back. And that was an exclusive interview that he had planned for tonight. And now, with this new ruling, it changes everything in this interview. You don't want to miss that, "LARRY KING" tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, on here on CNN.
KEILAR: And joining us now from Phoenix, former polygamist sect member Flora Jessop. She was raised as member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Thanks so much for being with us, Flora.
FLORA JESSOP, FORMER FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS MEMBER: Thank you.
KEILAR: And I'm wondering, what is your reaction to this court's decision today?
JESSOP: Well, my initial reaction was anger at the -- that, once again, the system was going to fail these children.
But I have got to keep an open mind. I have got to keep hope alive that the system will prevail and protect these children from the long-term and systemic abuses that they have been suffering for 100 years.
One of the things that I want the American people to understand is inside the FLDS right now, with these storms, the tornadoes and all of that that's occurring, they are claiming that God is punishing the wicked outsiders for taking their children away, by sending these horrible storms and the destructions are happening. And, so, they're very much playing with the ideology that the prophet controls the weather and is punishing all of us wicked outsiders.
KEILAR: Well, Flora, you -- you were talking about systematic child abuse that these kids are suffering, systematic child abuse. But this court said that there's really no proof of that, that really all there may have been -- that no proof was even supplied, or that just to say that they were at risk of being abused isn't enough of an accusation, I guess.
Do you feel that these kids and these parents are hiding any abuse?
JESSOP: Well, of course they are.
They are taught -- we were taught in the FLDS that we had to suffer in this life in order to reach heaven in the next. And they -- it's interesting to me because the dynamics of the abuses in the FLDS, they don't beat their children with a belt and whip them with a belt, they encourage them with a belt to obey.
They don't -- if you don't have the best table manners, they don't send you away from the table. They take you and starve you and encourage you by starving you to have good table manners.
KEILAR: You deal with child abuse cases through your foundation, reaching out to kids who are in communities like this who have suffered abuse.
What would you have needed to remove these kids? Do you feel that perhaps Texas Child Services didn't go about this the right way?
JESSOP: Absolutely not.
I think Texas authorities, the child protection authorities, went about this absolutely the right way. And they do it every day. And it's fascinating to me that the appellate court has ruled so swiftly in this. Whenever have you ever heard of the appellate court ruling in a case so fast?
And I would like really seriously to see the evidence presented to the appellate court on this, in fact -- who testified and what the testimony was, because there have been long-term systemic abuses that have been documented that come out of this group: the underage marriages, the sexual abuse of the boys and the girls.
KEILAR: Well in this case, Flora, then why do you feel as though the court thinks that there wasn't any proof found?
JESSOP: Well, and that's my question, too -- what evidence did the court base its ruling on? Was it just the testimony of the mothers? Or -- because I don't have enough information on the appellate hearing to understand that.
KEILAR: Well let me ask you this, Flora, because there have been many custody hearings just over recent days especially. And time after time it seems there has been indications, social workers saying that they have not found evidence of abuse.
JESSOP: You have to keep in mind that you have almost 500 children in custody. How many of these children have actually been seen by a child psychologist or a forensic therapist? I would bet that a lot of these children haven't been.
KEILAR: Flora -- and Flora, I am -- thank you so much for joining us. Sorry for interrupting you. We've got a report of a tornado on the ground. We'll let you go and toss it over to Don Lemon.
LEMON: Yes, we're going to take you to Chad Myers who is going to take you to Laramie, Wyoming -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Laramie, you are really in the gun right now, right under this tornado warning here. Just 22 minutes ago, a tornado on the ground there near the interstate, that's I-80. And -- I'm going over the interstate now, but that's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about the tornado as it moves into Laramie proper.
You've got the University of Wyoming there. You have an awful lot of things along -- I know you've heard of Cheyenne, but Laramie a bigger town. Coming up now -- I-80 at mile-marker 323 on the ground moving northwest at 40. You have no time. You need to take cover right now, Laramie, Wyoming -- Don.
LEMON: All right. Chad Myers with the very latest on this weather system that is sweeping across the middle part of the country here. A tornado has left a trail of destruction in Colorado, including one death. We're going to update you on that after the break. But you see that is that tornado there, video of it, as it happened in Weld County, Colorado.
KEILAR: Karl Rove has a date with the House Judiciary Committee to talk about alleged White House meddling at the Justice Department. After months of negotiations aimed at persuading Rove to appear voluntarily, the panel served a subpoena on the former top White House adviser.
This hearing scheduled for July 10. The committee is looking into the White House role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, as well as the prosecution of Alabama's Democratic governor, Don Siegelman.
LEMON: Hillary Clinton has been clamoring for Florida's primary delegates to get counted. Today, the controversy arrived in a federal court. We'll go to Miami for a live update on the intraparty dispute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dee Ball is combining fitness with fun. He's trying out the Wii Fit, the latest offering for Nintendo's wildly popular Wii gaming console. We took Wii Fit to an Atlanta athletic club to see how it compares to a conventional workout.
DEE BALL, CORPORATE SPORTS UNLIMITED: They got me on that one.
JERAS: The $90 game includes a pressure sensitive balance board which, along with Wii's motion-sensing controller, tracks progress in aerobics, strength training, yoga and balance. The board also measures weight and body mass index.
BALL: Actually I did a body mass index test manually this week, and I just did it here with the Wii Fit, and it was very accurate.
SCOTT STEINBERG, PUBLISHER, DIGITALTRENDS.COM: Wii Fit actually represents the next generation of virtual interactive fitness products. There's a range of activities here. It's part game. It's part interactive fitness trainer. And I think this is going to make it extremely appealing for a broad range of people.
JERAS: Most of our testers liked it.
SEQUITA BUCHANAN, ATHLETIC CLUB MEMBER: It's pretty accurate. I was hitting a few yoga classes before and I know that I'm shaky in certain areas. And it -- the machine pretty much pinpointed exactly what the instructor had told me before.
BENSON MANICA, ATHLETIC CLUB MEMBER: I think it could be good for people who don't workout otherwise to have some fun with but for people who come to the gym a lot, I'm not sure it's helpful.
JERAS: But Dee, who was skeptical before trying it out, is a Wii Fit convert.
BALL: No, it's not just a game. I got a workout in it.
JERAS: Jacqui Jeras, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: The House Judiciary Committee wants to talk to Karl Rove, former top aid to President Bush.
Let's get more now from our CNN justice correspondent, Kelly Arena. She's in Washington.
What's going on here -- Kelli?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the House Judiciary Committee wants to question Karl Rove about the White House's role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys back in 2006. Democrats in Congress charge that the Bush administration tried to politicize the Justice Department and that Karl Rove was one of the architects behind that.
Brianna, you remember those firings are just what led to the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. And the Judiciary Committee is also interested in talking to Rove about the conviction of former Alabama governor and Democrat Don Siegelman. He was convicted on bribery charges. Democrats want to know whether that the prosecution was politically motivated.
Now, the House Judiciary chairman, John Conyers, says he's been negotiating with Rove's attorney for more than a year, but that Rove refused to go before the Committee voluntarily. So in a letter to Conyers, Rove's lawyer cites executive privilege as one reason that his client cannot talk about these issues. He also denies that Rove did anything improper.
The subpoena that's issued today orders Rove to testify on July 10. But we'll see what happens.
KEILAR: You know, what are his options here, Kelli?
ARENA: Well, you know, he can show up and cooperate. He can show up and say I can't answer these questions, citing executive privilege. Or he can be a no show, like former White House Counsel Harriet Miers.
Now, if that happens, Brianna, he could face possible contempt of Congress charges. But so far, you know, the Justice Department has said they don't think they have the power to ask a grand jury to prosecute that issue. So it could very well be that he just doesn't show up.
KEILAR: All right. We will wait and see, I guess.
Kelli Arena for us in Washington -- thanks.
ARENA: You're welcome.
LEMON: Time now for today's Political Ticker.
More signs Barack Obama is turning his attention to November. A veteran Democratic activist tells CNN that Obama has asked long time party operative Jim Johnson to screen potential running mates.
Johnson did the same for Democratic nominees John Kerry and Walter Mondale. Outside the Capitol today, Obama is said to soon talk about his number two. We'll talk about that a little bit later on.
Meantime, John McCain also has running mates on his mind -- unofficially, of course. He's taking time off this weekend. But the guest list at his Arizona home reads like a who's who of potential V.P.s -- Florida Governor Charlie Chris, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. We're told Mike Huckabee also was invited, but he had vacation plans. The campaign describes the gathering as a social weekend.
Meanwhile, the Democratic hopefuls were back at their day jobs in Washington -- at least for part of the day. Hillary Clinton spoke on the Senate floor this morning and cast a vote on an Iraq War funding bill. Barack Obama also took care of some Senate business. This afternoon, he's headed back to Florida for a town hall in Boca Raton.
And Hillary Clinton wants Florida's Democratic delegates to be seated at the August convention. And now the courts may have a say in the matter, as well. A top Florida Democrat has filed a lawsuit to force the party to seat the delegates.
CNN's John Zarrella has more on this from Miami -- OK, John, now it's turning into a legal battle.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, you know, it really wouldn't be the first time in Florida that we've had a legal battle over votes, now would it?
And, you know, Hillary Clinton has been saying right along that she wants the Florida vote to count, for obvious reasons. In the January 29th primary, she won the primary 60-40 over Barack Obama. There are 210 Florida delegates. She would have gotten a substantial number of those. But, of course, the Florida vote didn't count because Florida violated the Democratic Party rules, moved up its primary in violation of those rules, and the DNC said sorry, you're not going to count.
Well, now State Senator Steve Geller, a Florida state senator, very powerful in the Florida state senate, has gone to federal court and he is asking the federal court to force the Democratic National Committee to count Florida's 1.75 million Democrats who voted and to seat the Florida delegation. He wants all of the votes to count.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN GELLER (D), FLORIDA STATE SENATE: They were saying make sure in Florida that every vote counts. Today, they seem to be saying make sure in Florida that no votes count. Or perhaps, if there's a compromise on May 31, they'll be saying make sure that every vote counts, but only for half of a vote. That's not what we said in November -- that's not what we said in 2000. That's not what we're saying here today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: Now Geller made reference to May 31. And that's when the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee, the Democratic Party Rules and Bylaws Committee, will meet. It is expected that some decision will be arrived at on Florida and Michigan, as to how to count the votes, how to count the delegates.
And Geller is trying to do a preemptive strike here. He wants to have a decision by the court that would seat everybody so that no deal is brokered on May 31, which would maybe allow only half of the Florida delegates to be seated, count only half the vote. And the Democratic National Committee this afternoon told us look, they said this is not the first lawsuit. There have already been two lawsuits filed. And the courts have upheld "the Democratic National Committee's rights to enforce its own rules."
Don, it's not over yet here in Florida.
LEMON: No, it is over yet. And it feels like it's been going on for quite a while here.
All right, thanks for that, John Zarrella.
Also some other information. We are getting confirmation from our political team on this. And it involves the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. And it is about Reverend Hagee, his endorsement here.
And I'm reading this straight from the computer here. It says, John McCain: "I obviously find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible talking about Reverend Hagee's remarks and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement and I feel I must reject his endorsement, as well. I've said I do not believe Barack Obama shares Reverend Wright's extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual adviser and I do not attend his church. I did not attend his church for 20 years. I have denounced statements he made immediately upon learning of them, as I do again today."
And it is signed John McCain.
Hagee is the head of the Global Evangelism Television in Texas and he has endorsed John McCain. John McCain saying now that he rejects that endorsement.
And our Brian Todd is working this story, as well as our other political team members.
We'll have an update for you, of course, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN in "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer -- Brianna.
KEILAR: The price of taking off -- well, you know, it's taking off -- why you may want to pack light for your next flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, live pictures now. Breaking news into the CNN NEWSROOM. A tornado has left a trail of destruction in Weld County, Colorado and it's killed at least one person. You're looking at live pictures now from our affiliate KUSA of the damage that people are now starting to assess on the ground there.
Just a short time ago, we were following this and our Chad Myers told us that this was possibly as high as an F4 tornado to strike this area. But these are live pictures from the -- from the chopper of KUSA.
And you can see just how this damage stretches across a wide swath of this neighborhood. Just a little bit earlier, we were looking at a closer shot of the damage there. This new video -- there you go -- to see just how intense and, in some areas, just how concentrated this storm -- this tornado was.
Look at that. That's just turned over there, whatever it was. Construction sheds or big rigs there that were parked on the ground. And we saw -- there you go, as we push in to that. It is just a mass of rubble and destruction, all happening very quickly.
The bad news in all of this, one person so far confirmed dead. The good news, there was -- there were some kids there in a day care center. It looks like that was the area where the reporter was doing a live shot. It was very similar to that area. Children there at a day care center whisked away to safety when all of this was happening. They got some bumps and some bruises. None of them lost their lives.
We spoke to -- at least our affiliate did on the ground -- spoke to some of the parents there, who rushed to this day care center to pick their children up.
Look at this. You're seeing this video just as I am seeing this video and some of the live pictures that are coming in -- Scotty (ph), let's go back to the live pictures that we're looking at. Those are some of the emergency responders, no doubt, and also residents in the area obviously trying to go in to see what's left of their home, how much of it is damaged and also, probably, to put some tarps on the roofs to save what they have left.
We'll continue to update this breaking story and get our Chad Myers back in just a little bit to tell you what's going on -- Brianna. KEILAR: Well, the price of taking off is taking off -- why you may want to pack light for your next flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hey, let's talk to Wolf Blitzer.
KEILAR: Yes. He's standing by in "THE SITUATION ROOM". He's going to tell us what's coming up the top of the hour -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna and Don, thanks very much.
We're following the breaking news we have, the CNN exclusive -- John McCain now formally rejecting the endorsement of a prominent pastor.
Just ahead, what made Senator McCain step aside from Pastor John Hagee?
We've got the details.
Plus, Barack Obama appealing to Jewish voters, crucial for a win in the general election. We're going to take you live to Florida, as he's getting ready to address a synagogue.
And engaging the enemy with deadly weapons operated from miles and miles away -- military technology on remote control. The images -- we have them. You're going to see them only here.
All that, guys, and a lot more coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- back to you.
KEILAR: Thanks, Wolf. See you in a few minutes.
LEMON: Well, no word yet whether any other airline will follow the lead of American Airlines and start charging for every piece of checked baggage. Most airlines charge for the second checked bag. But American now says it will charge $15 for the first one. Now, at the airport in Dallas, some passengers feel nickeled and dimed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to factor into everything. You know, it's going to factor into where people stay, rental cars, everything. Everyone is going to be looking at every penny, dollar, wherever they go and whatever they're doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Carry-on bags are still free -- at least for now. Airlines have been hemorrhaging money because of fuel prices and many are also cutting flights to compensate for that.
KEILAR: Well, with crude oil and gasoline both hitting record prices again, oil company executives were back on Capitol Hill. CNN's senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff, has been watching this for us -- Allan, the last time we checked in with you, you said they had really gotten a lot of softball questions from some members of Congress who seemed to be sympathetic to oil executives, some of them from Texas.
Did these oil executives end up in the hot seat a little later here, though?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, that hot seat certainly did heat up a little bit after we spoke last time, earlier this afternoon. In fact, let's just talk about what Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said. She is one of the soccer moms in Congress and said, hey, I paid $68 to fill up my minivan last weekend. She said to the oil executives, prove to me that you're not manipulating the price of oil.
The senior vice president of Exxon Mobil, who you just saw a minute ago, he said we are not manipulating. He said, as a matter of fact, we're doing everything we can to lower prices. A few jaws dropped in the hearing room. Then he added, the industry has been building the equivalent of one new refinery a year and he said that's quite a bit. And he also said that Exxon Mobil is suffering with oil prices rising. He said we only earned four cents a gallon at the pump and when oil prices rise, we have to pay more for oil.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE SIMON, SENIOR V.P. EXXONMOBIL: I recognize it's a big impact on consumers. But, again, when you look at the -- what's driving that, it's not the profitability on that, that's driving the higher price. It is the cost of the raw material that we have to buy in order to produce those products. You know, we buy 90 percent of the raw materials that we use to produce those products on the open market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: The conflict intensified when Congresswoman Maxine Waters said she didn't buy any of the explanations from the oil executives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: You earned $40.6 billion, but you continue to raise prices at the pump.
Why is it necessary, when you have that kind of profit, that you increase the price at the pump to our constituents and to your customers?
SIMON: OK. Well, let's come back and talk about that, which is what I was trying to do initially. When you look at...
WATERS: No, I don't -- I know what you did. I don't want you to tell me about the pennies. SIMON: I'm going to, Congresswoman.
WATERS: No, you're not. I'm going to yield back my time because this is an exercise in futility and our constituents are angry. And they are knowing now that we're not going to get any new information out of these presenters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: The oil executives say the way to lower prices -- let us do more oil drilling, open up more of Alaska to oil drilling -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Hmmm, tension, indeed.
Allan Chernoff for us in New York.
Thank you so much.
And the closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street.
LEMON: Susan Lisovicz standing by for a final look at the trading day.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: See you guys tomorrow.
LEMON: Thanks, Susan.
KEILAR: Let's head now to "THE SITUATION ROOM" and Wolf Blitzer.
