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Tornadoes in the Midwest; Prostitution Scandal Rocks Secret Service
Aired April 14, 2012 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon. Wait until you see what we are working on tonight. CNN after dark, where most shows dare not go. Ready, aim, fire!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not my cold dead hands.
LEMON: No one, not even the president, is taking your guns away. Is that really a good thing?
BILL COSBY, COMEDIAN: What is solved by saying he's a racist?
LEMON: Bill Cosby on black people, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. Enough said.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you like women so well?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability.
LEMON: Women, the rage this week. Outrage, too. How are men reacting?
Silent, as usual. Yes, dear. It's splitsville for Mike and Ike. Wait, who knew our favorite candies were even gay? What in the Bert and Ernie is going on?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. The stories you're talking about in just a moment.
But first the news you need to know right now. And as we go on the air tonight, we have some breaking news. I want you to take a look at what's happening in the Midwest.
There is a major tornado outbreak going on. So far it's affecting mostly rural areas, but it's headed for some big cities like Wichita and Kansas city. We have confirmed reports that a possible tornado has hit a hospital in Creston, Iowa. The sheriff's department says a search and rescue operation is under way. A hospital spokesman says they are triaging and moving patients. Dozens of tornadoes have been reported and more than five million people live in the at-risk area.
We are not going to be far away from the story. Our Jacqui Jeras is monitoring the story minute by minute, and we'll be checking in with her throughout this hour here on CNN.
Another big story at the top of the hour, a prostitution scandal rocking the secret service tonight. Eleven agents were for placed on administrative lead today for allegedly bringing hookers to a hotel in Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama's visit. They were doing security prep before the president arrived for the summit of the Americas.
And now, on to the stories you're talking about. Guns kill people, people kill people. It's an age-old adage. So it stands to reason, people with guns kill people. And one of them did in Stanford, Florida, claiming he fired the single shot from his nine millimeter handgun to keep an unarmed teenager from killing him. And because of the controversial self-defense law in Florida, the killer wasn't arrested for more than a month.
And can you imagine this? After a month of outrage, protests and debates over gun control and another highly covered killing spree in Oklahoma where three people died, imagine running for president and being slated to speak at the annual convention of the National Rifle Association, the NRA. How do you spin that, Mitt Romney? You do it, well, like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know we need a president who will enforce current laws, not create new ones that only serve the burden lawful gun owners. President Obama has not. I will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: He also said it was a kickoff of his general election. Romney steered clear of the Florida and Oklahoma cases. But no conservative would make waves when it comes to the NRA, no conservative.
And why would they? Democrats have all but given up reforming gun laws. The president rarely talks about it and the NRA is sensing victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAYNE LAPIERRE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: And mark my words, when the sun goes down on Election Day, Barack Obama will have us to thank for his defeat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Not only has President Obama not come to quote, "take your guns," as many gun owners claimed four years ago, he really hasn't mounted any substantial -- substantial effort to tighten or close loopholes in existing laws. So, with no clear effort under way from the White House, on down to tighten gun laws, it would appear Americans are happy with the way things are. Or is the NRA just too powerful?
We are going to be talking about that tonight. I know a few people who can't wait to get in on this topic. Some of them are going to say no, but you're wrong, that's not true.
Beside me is political analyst, Goldie Taylor. She is a cultural critic, as well. And, Georgia democratic Congressman Hank Johnson. Thanks to both of you.
And then to the right of your screen, author Steve Santagati, I knew I was going to get that wrong, editor of "News Busters," Noel Sheppard is there, and then joining me is comedian Dean Obeidallah. There he is.
Also, joining me is our CNN contributor, Dana Loesch. Hello Dana.
And then Arthur Hayhoe, director of the Florida coalition to stop gun violence and Sherri Schneider, who is co-author of "the rules." We will hear from them throughout the show tonight. We are going to do that after a break. But first this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: This and what is he doing with it, and who taught him and told him how to behave with this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Bill Cosby on George Zimmerman, and what's really to blame for Trayvon Martin's death.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: We need a president who will stand up for the rights of hunters and sportsman and those who seek to protect their homes and family. President Obama has not. I will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, thanks for joining us. Let's get into this.
We gave you the big buildup. So, beside me now is political analyst and cultural critic Goldie Taylor and Georgia congressman Hank Johnson. And to the right of your screen now is author, Steve Santagati. He is the editor - and the editor of "News Busters" is going to be Noel Sheppard and then Dean Obeidallah as well. Our CNN contributor, Dana Loesch is going to joining us and Arthur Hayhoe, is the director of "40 Coalition."
Let's talk about gun violence. And you saw Mitt Romney at the NRA having to speak there last week. Very interesting, it comes on the heels. We've been talking about Oklahoma. We have been talking about some other gun issues around the country. We've been talking about Trayvon Martin around the country.
And as we were doing this, as I was reading this, I said Democrats haven't done anything sufficient about gun control. It hasn't been part of this debate since this happen. I saw you looking at me like, wait a minute, that's not true, Congressman. Do you not believe it is true, because we couldn't find any substantial work done by Democrats on this issue?
REP. HANK JOHNSON (D), GEORGIA: Certainly, there are issues that have taken more priority for our Republican legislators who are now in control, and they want to deal with things like abortion, contraception, the war on women, and meanwhile, any legislative effort by Democrats takes a u-turn and goes backward, hits a blank wall and is not dealt with.
LEMON: But you said hits a blank wall because they want to talk about those issue, but you can't blame that not talking about these issues or not having any substantial legislation. How can you blame that on Republicans? If this is an issue that is important, especially after Gabby Giffords, then you have Trayvon Martin, how can you blame this on the Republicans?
JOHNSON: They are under the influence of the corporate lobby. And what I'm talking about is basically the NRA, Wal-Mart. They give campaign contributions. They work through to ELEC (ph), propose legislation. And those are the views that are being heard now since they are the ones that are in power.
LEMON: So the gun lobby, are you saying the gun lobby is to powerful for the Democrats to go against?
JOHNSON: Well, unfortunately, there are not many Democrats who are willing to stand up to the NRA and there are not many Republicans -- there are not any Republicans that I know of willing to do that.
LEMON: Why no Democrats? Why do you think many Democrats would?
JOHNSON: Well, I don't think that they want that special interest super PAC money coming at them during their primaries. And they don't want to be challenged by the tea partiers, who will be there to oppose them.
LEMON: All right. Goldie?
GOLDIE TAYLOR, POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, with all due respect to the congressman, and my mother lived in the district and I really think she voted for you.
JOHNSON: Tell her thank you.
LEMON: And Arthur, jump in here any time, if you want. Go ahead. TAYLOR: But I think the real issue here is that, you know, Democrats by and large have attacked the problem have the wrong perspective. You know. The vast majority of people in this country who own guns own them legally. It is their constitutional right, whether it is for sport, whether it's for self, you know, defense. You know, they have the right to own them. And so to impede on the second amendment of the constitution, I'm never going to be for.
But what I am for is this, that we attack the problem from a different perspective. The number one predictor of gun violence is persistent poverty. And when you attack it from a public health perspective, when you attack it from that direction, then you find real solutions. If you look at a place like Kennesaw, Georgia, that every household is required to have a gun and they've had no murders. And it's not because people are afraid that you are going to walk with person with no gun. It's because poverty is almost nonexistent.
LEMON: Yes. But that's what I mean. Kennesaw is not New York city. Kennesaw is not Chicago. Kennesaw is not Atlanta.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Yes. But the crime rate -- let's say in most cities, the crime rate is here -- the gun murder rate is here --
TAYLOR: Walk throughout rather Georgia. And if you look at the difference in wealth indicators in both areas, the number one --
LEMON: I understand what you're saying. But if you take a place where crime is already low and say, it decreased because of this and it got lower, I mean, is that a fair statement? And that - if that whole Kennesaw thing, it's not really imposed. Nobody is going from house to house to house to make sure you have a gun.
TAYLOR: You know why the law is on the books for people in Kennesaw to own guns?
LEMON: Why?
TAYLOR: For the bears.
LEMON: Arthur, go ahead.
Arthur, listen. I want to say this. And listen again. Just playing devil's advocates, if you look at it and this is 2010. This is according to the home office, this is for Britain. There were 619 murders in Britain in 2010. In the United States, there were 12,996. Britain has a much more stricter -- much stricter gun laws than the U.S. Of the 12,000, only 13,000, 8,000 almost 9,000 were caused by firearms in the United States.
Arthur, are those numbers damning for us in this gun culture?
ARTHUR HAYHOE, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE: Well, they are, and we've got a problem in Florida that other places don't have. The Democrats in our organization have introduced laws, but they don't go any place because all the committee chairman are Republicans and they refuse to allow these bills to be read.
So we've got a problem here in Florida and it is getting worse because the NRA has introduced a new law, it's called a firearm pre- emption law that cancels all of our local gun control laws and made it illegal to ever create new ones, plus, you know, preventing people from posting anything about guns. No guns. You can't post a sign any place in Florida, and you want to talk to the people that are mad, talk to the people that raise cattle and horses and they can tell you what kind of a problem that is. That is going to reverberate all the way to the next legislative session or maybe it's something gone - done about it.
LEMON: I think the consensus, I would think, from this entire panel, is that the Democrats are weak when it comes to gun laws and gun control and gun issues.
JOHNSON: You're not going to find many Democrats who would oppose people being able to possess a firearm. We recognize the second amendment. It gives the right to Americans to hold a firearm. But the question is, which Americans? Should it be convicted felons? Should it be child molesters? Can they be restricted? Can domestic violence perpetrators be restricted in their ability to possess a firearm? What are reasonable regulations? And the thing is the NRA opposes any and all legislation, including assault weapons.
LEMON: I understand what you're saying. But it should be talked about, whether the loopholes should be tightened whatever that it should be stricter or not. Whatever it is --
TAYLOR: Law abiding citizens are able -- law abiding citizens are able to purchase guns in this country, generally speaking.
LEMON: Right.
TAYLOR: But there is no law on the books today or that you could put on the books to keep the black market of guns off the streets of our cities in this country. Not a one.
JOHNSON: If you don't have any that restrict or make it illegal for people who should not have firearms to have them, then, you know, it's just open season.
LEMON: All right. All right. We're going to have to end it there. But that's where you come in. That's where lawmakers come in to try to figure this thing out. And I think that what we are trying to get into something since it gear on whether or not that should be happen. And regardless of what side of the fence you're on, we've seen a lot of gun violence and we're trying to figure out why hasn't that been part of the debate? It's all been about profiling, in the past couple of months, profiling, race, right, and "Stand Your Ground."
That's it. We're going to have to mop against the break.
Coming up, the right speaks out. They call me and this network liberal and a show for Democrats in the White House. And that's the nice stuff. I'm going to ask them why. But first this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies, do you understand the mindset of a man? You are never going to win in the game of love.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Act like a lady.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But think like a man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Think like the man? Ladies, what the hell does that mean? We asked, is it sexist?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What do you say to the women who have got an attitude?
KEVIN HART, ACTOR: I would say those women are lonely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's Kevin Hart, one of the actors in the new movie "Think Like a Man" on the red carpet.
Comedian Steve Harvey has some advice for women. See if you agree with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies, do you understand the mindset of a game? You are never going to win in the game of love.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Act like a lady.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But think like a man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. So the movie "Think Like a Man" is based on a book by comedian Steve Harvey. I guest some call him author as well. And even though it comes out next week, it's already got people arguing whether this is valid. Should women think like a man?
Comedian Dean Obeidallah is here also joining me and Steve Santagati is the author of "the manual." It is built as a guide for women to see how men think, and Sherri Schneider. Hello Sherry. Welcome to the lion's den.
SHERRI SCHNEIDER, CO-AUTHOR, ALL THE RULES: Thank you.
LEMON: She co-authored "all the rules," which is a compilation of "the rules one and two secrets for capturing the heard of Mr. Right."
OK. I'll throw it out there like a grenade and I will jump back. Some women, I don't know, should they think like a man, Sherri?
SCHNEIDER: They should think like a man. They should not act like a man. They should not ask man out. They should not talk to men first. We're all about playing hard to get because men love a challenge. My husband just called me to say that Bubba Watson, who just won the masters, his wife blew him off. Men love a challenge. They want the girl they don't think they can get. That's why we believe in playing hard to get.
LEMON: But is that all based on when you're sitting and talking about what men -- there was a movie called "what women want." I remember that with Mel Gibson when you can actually read them on those limits.
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
LEMON: So - but, you're basing everything your thought process on whether or not you can get a man, how you can tease a man. Do you think, in some way, that is -- I don't know, it sounds a bit condescending to women, to me, and a bit sexist?
Goldie? Goldie Taylor, what do you think?
TAYLOR: You know, I think that women ought to be women, that when we decide that we're going to be the aggressors, when we decide we're going to get inside the head of our man, you know, I think that women ought to really embrace the very -- the mistakes of being a woman.
LEMON: but why are you basing that - yes on -- why are you basing that on a man? Why are you basing that on a man, what women should think? Why should women think like a man?
I rarely hear, Dean, anybody saying, hey, you should think like a woman, Don.
DEAN OBEIDALLAH, CO-FOUNDER, NEW YORK ARAB-AMERICAN COMEDY FESTIVAL: No, I don't think any woman should think like me. You don't want to think the thoughts I think. I'm going to be honest. It is not going to help you. Your life is going to clutter your life up. There are a lot of things in there that are scary and dark.
Look. I mean, I'm going to be brutally honest. If there's a woman or man that you like, if they're interested in you, you can do almost anything, they're going to do anything to pursue you. If they're not interested in you for whatever reason, it's not fault of your own -- I've had women I've liked a lot and not been in to me, and have dumped me. I - you know, me not calling back for three days is not going to make them, that Dean is a real catch. It's not. It's about timing in life but people meshing and that what really what it comes down to. I think timing in life is the biggest issue at all. You know, these are little things some people back and not - I think it's bold, to be honest. LEMON: Steve, this whole conversation has become about what men and women should do for the opposite sex. And it hasn't become about what is best for me to do as a man, what is best for me to do as a woman. It's all based on someone else besides ourselves.
STEVE SANTAGATI, AUTHOR, THE MANUAL: Don, the real issue is not so much thinking like a guy, but its understanding men by male sensibilities. The same way any smart man is going to understand a woman by female sensibilities. Meaning, when I talk to a woman and she responds to me, I put that through my filter so I can understand what she's thinking. I'm not thinking like her, but I'm thinking by her sensibilities. You understand what I mean.
See? Because we all know more about televisions and celebrities and reality shows than we do about the opposite sex. And the people that don't take the time to learn about the opposite sex will suffer in relationships.
LEMON: Sheri, why are you moving that book in the screen? Sherri, what are you doing? Is that a shameless plug?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I just want them to know that this is the answer to getting a guy.
LEMON: It is a shameless plug.
TAYLOR: I read it. I read it. It's a fantastic book and I saw it online and I had to get it and it was something that I talk to my daughters, my girlfriends have talked about it.
SANTAGATI: Don.
LEMON: Go ahead.
SANTAGATI: The rules are there are no rules.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTAGATI: Can I ask you one question? Are any of you actually out there in the dating world right now or are you all in relationships? I happen to be out there in the dating world and I can tell you, because of technology, things have changed dramatically. Women are more independent, they're getting married later. There's a new book out right now about going solo, by living by yourself. There's more people that are single than ever.
So the fact of the matter is the rules have changed. The rules are there are no rules. Yes, you should still stay to the basis of humanity.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: And there's nothing wrong with that. OK, stand by. We're not done yet. We are going to talk more on this subject. Now the subject is coming up. But also, it's time to talk to the conservatives, and I'm not talking about the democratic approved ones, or as they would say, the democrat approved one. Can we all just get along, can we?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Last week on this program, we stirred up some s -- you know what. I won't say it because I don't want one word to become such a big deal like it did during our racism free zone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: When I said that word, let me say it again, the n word, I just wish - I hate saying the n word. I think it takes the value out of what that word really means, especially when we're reporting it. And I don't care what color the reporter is. I think someone should say that person called someone nigger instead of saying the n word because I think it sanitizes it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Why did I say that, because everybody and their momma jumped on the n word band wagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is African-American which is the point of distinction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, no. It's not -- he's a reporter, no, he's a reporter. As what reporters do is they report the news. And every time you make it the n word, it's cute. It's like the n word. But see I feel very strong about the word. Do not eliminate it. It's part of our history. But every time people try to sort of make it sound better on more acceptable, let's call it what it is.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: There's a CNN anchor, guy's name is Don Lemon. I don't know if I want to air the sound bite - I really - you are making the case that it's inappropriate to say quote "n" word, just go ahead and use the n word.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don Lemon said. He said he supports it in like music or use casually, but if you report it in terms of reporting what someone said. So those are two different things. I think you have a point there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That was just on television. Should have heard on the radio and what people were writing about, even some conservative bloggers wrote about it. One of them is here tonight. And we have quite an interesting exchange on twitter. Can't we all just get along?
Noel Sheppard is the assistant editor or "News Busters." Boy, do I have some questions for you. And so does Goldie Taylor, and so does Dean Obeidallah. We got some questions for you.
Well, Dana Loesch, we know you, because you're a CNN contributor and the editor of the late Andrew Breitbart's Web site, bigjournalism.com.
So, more on the n word later guys, I just want to thank you all for joining us because I just want to talk to the conservatives. I want to just talk to the - you know, have this faith balance thing from the Democrat and then from the conservatives. This has pop to the conservatives tonight. And as I said, I don't mean the democratically approved ones or the Democrat approved one, like you guys said.
OK. So listen, there's always a spin from both sides.
So Noel, I want to ask you this, this is -- this is right up "News Busters" alley. So, how is this so-called liberal media doing telling this story, are they getting it right so far?
NOEL SHEPPARD, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, FOX FORUM: What you said and what Suzanne said or --?
LEMON: No, I'm talking about hooker gate. Let's talk about the secret service. And so, I was saying the secret service, this is right up your alley. So, in your assessment, watching the media so far report this since it broke today, the so-called liberal media, how are they doing? Are they getting it right so far?
SHEPPARD: got to tell you, Don, I'm actually not prepared to discuss that. I really didn't pay a lot of attention to the story today. I was writing about other things.
LEMON: All right. Interesting Dana, because are conservatives going to capitalize on this, or is this something that doesn't make a difference as a reflect - at any reflection on the White House at all?
DANA LOESCH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think the thing that scares me the most is you have secret service men who are assigned to protect the president of the United States, and then down -- going down to Colombia, he's not -- I mean, he's not being protected. You have them - they were supposed to be one of the part of the advance team. I think I read a little early today. I've been in Wisconsin here for a fantastic rally with Americans for prosperity, and the Wisconsin tea party up here.
So I came in, I was eating my dinner. I was looking at the story. And my first thought, Don, seriously was, wait a minute, now, I get we disagree with the president on policy. We disagree with Democrats. But I have a problem with the people who are assigned to protect the president not being there protecting him. So that was my first thought. And that's what I was looking into first.
Now, in terms of, you know what the media has written or what they haven't written about it, or any sort of spin, I haven't seen anything yet. Because I still think that people are trying to get the facts out there. But long story short that was my first concern. And I hope that was everybody else's first concern, too.
LEMON: Yes. I think what people were saying is that, OK, this is an election year, and if it was something that happened during a Republican administration, the Democrats would certainly try to spin it. And it's something that happened during a democratic administration, while the Republicans are going to try to spin it. And so, that was my question. That was the impetus to my question, is this going to be used in an election year in the political process?
LOESCH: Well, I don't know. Because I - some of the - I read an interview that an individual gave earlier today. Again, I've been out rallying all day. I read an interview that someone gave today who worked with the secret service. And they were saying that this is kind of a problem with the secret service that's been sort of happening for a while, and then they mentioned, was this a White House party that occurred about what a year and a half ago, two years ago, where you had the Salahis I believe, her last name was that crashed this party --
LEMON: Salahis. Salahis, yes.
LOESCH: Yes, Salahis. They crashed this party. And they were able to get there. They were able to do their photo-ops. That's something that should have never happened. So from seeing that and just seeing the reports on it, this seems to be a problem that's been festering for a while. I think we need to get all the facts of the matter before we can try to play politics with it.
LEMON: Wow. That was really - I can't believe there is some consensus on that.
SHEPPARD: Yes, I mean. Don, I would say that as well. As I think this is kind a new story, so let's see how this plays out the next couple of days or week. Then we can get a sense how to how the media will play this.
LEMON: OK. All right. All right. So Noel and Dana, you might have missed this moment this week. I'm joking, but any way, I just want to make sure you see it before we talk about it. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: His wife has never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school and how do we worry and why do we worry about their future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, conservatives. Dana, is this a real conflict or is this a political or media driven story? I haven't heard, I have to be honest to you. And this is just me. This is unscientific survey here. Most of the women in my life who I have spoken to are not talking about the story and they have no idea who Hilary Rosen even is. And the only people who are talking about it are people in politics and politics in the media.
LOESCH: I think everybody is talking about it. Within 24 hours, you had David Axelrod make a statement on it. You have --
LEMON: I'm talking women. I'm talking women. And people outside of the political process.
LOESCH: As did the first lady. So Don, where are you at?
LEMON: No, no, I said. No, no, no, listen to my question. I said people outside of politics and outside of the media.
LOESCH: OK. I think it is a problem. I ran into a lot of women today who aren't in the media, and I had lunch with some women earlier this afternoon who actually didn't go out to the rally, and they were saying, yes, you know, we heard about this. It's a little bit unsettling, because, you know, we're mothers. We've raised children. It's kind of a problem. I think Democrats are realizing that they sort of have an optic problem when it comes to reaching out to some women voters.
I mean, it's great to talk about the Lily Ledbetter act, which actually the labor secretary is the least that did not have any impact at all whatsoever. I think there's a problem with optics right now.
You can't reach out to a voting bloc, which is going to drive the election, let's be frank. Women, mothers especially, drive every election. They do. You can't reach out to a voting bloc while at the same time your party going out there and saying there's a war on women, and then actually saying things like this about women.
And it's not just, you know, Hilary Rosen. We're talking about there's a democrat down in Florida representative Randolph who went off on a tirade against mothers on his twitter page and on facebook just in the fast several days. The democratic senatorial committee has been using the war on women for a long time. Move on has been using this phrase for a long time.
LEMON: Dana?
LOESCH: Yes.
LEMON: You have to let the men get in on this.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Noel is just sitting there patiently, waiting to get in. We're being gentlemen here. We are letting the women have their say but, my God, let him say a word. I just - Noel, you can --
SHEPPARD: Don?
LEMON: Go ahead.
SHEPPARD: Don, this proves there is no Republican war on women. I'm letting her say whatever she wants. So this should completely dispel this notion that Republicans have a war on women.
The reality here, this was a big misstep for the Obama administration and for the Obama campaign. They've been talking about this phony war on women since early January, and it's been very, very much assisting the president in the polling numbers where suddenly he's beating Romney by 18, 19 points, and all of a sudden someone that nobody outside of the beltway has ever heard of makes this really stupid remark about Mitt Romney's wife, and this is going to be an issue and the president had to immediately talk about it, Axelrod had to talk about it. And I think that this little rally that Obama has had with regard to women, I think that rally has faded and now the question is, how far is this going to plummet? How much of his 18, 19-point lead --
LEMON: OK, OK. Noel, I don't have a blog like you. I have time issues. I have to say, Dana, you are a big girl. You can handle it. Someone just e-mailed and said, I will be honest, this woman is lying. I have yet to hear one person outside of CNN talk about the Ann Romney story and that's from a woman. That's all I'm saying.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: But hang on, listen. I'm going to talk to you --
SHEPPARD: That settles it.
LEMON: I'm going to talk to you in a bit, because Noel, you wrote something about me and we'll talk about the n word and the Trayvon Martin story. You talked about me in "News Busters." You talked about the n word now being used on CNN, saying, if it dramatizes racism, Lemon certainly thinks so. I'm going to ask you about that.
Dana, your site wrote something about me and filmmaker Spike Lee as it relates to the Trayvon Martin story. I want to talk about that.
All right. We'll talk about that. So, stand by, guys. More of the stories that you are talking about in just a moment. We will be back right after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: As we told you at the beginning of the news cast, we're monitoring some breaking news, severe weather, that's happening in the mid-part of the country. Wichita, we are told in that area, Jacqui, a confirmed tornado and a warning, as well.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. The tornado is still to the southwest of Wichita. But Wichita is under the warning as we speak which may -- you need to immediately go to your safe place, get down to the lowest level of your home, away from doors and windows because there is a confirmed tornado just a few miles away.
This is the storm we're talking about. This thing has been on the ground on and off for more than 100 miles now. And there's a confirmed tornado which is located near Argonia. It is moving northeast around 30 to 40 miles per hour. So places in the path of the storm include downtown Wichita, Clearwater, (INAUDIBLE), Wichita mid-continental until airport, south Wichita, west Wichita, McConnell air force base, all included in this warning.
This is the storm we've been tracking for a long time. Here's another perspective I want to show you on this. This is what we call velocity mode. This is how you see the winds and Doppler radar and red and green shows wind moving in the opposite direction. So that indicates rotation and the tornadoes. So, let's put this in perspective for you here.
This is Wichita proper and let's stops this and advance this to current time. There we go. And this is the area where we're seeing that rotation. This is where the tornado is right now. So, if it continues on this exact track, it is going to be moving in or near downtown Wichita. This could be in as much as 15 minutes. The speed of this could change a little bit, the timing and the backlog patient changing a little bit. But this gives you a bit of a window of opportunity to get out of your mobile home, get to a safe shelter. You need to get underground.
Now, we've been trying to get this on video for you, the number of storm chasers have been out spotting throughout the night. However, unfortunately, it's dark out there now and many of these storms have been rain wrapped. We do have a tower cam that we want to show you out of Wichita and there you can see a lot of shaking.
Now, the winds -- this is not necessarily from that tornado directly while the winds are so strong, but wow, look at those lightning flashes. Amazing. So, this storm is coming in, you're going to start to feel the rain. You might even get the hail out of this. These storms have been producing incredibly large hail because they even reports in Nebraska with softball size hail. So, they all think it softball in this early with this storm, but that can cause a lot of damage and be very dangerous, as well.
So, the winds are very strong in advance of these storms. They could be reaching 50 miles per hour shortly. And in fact, conveyer belt of warmth and moisture coming up from the Gulf of Mexico clashing with the drier, cooler air from the south and west and all of these ingredients are coming together right now.
So, that's a live picture, KSNW TV, our affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. The storm is to your southwest right now. And this is a confirmed large, extremely dangerous tornado.
Now, when we see lightning flashes like that, that's when we get our chances to get a glimpse of the possible tornado and storm chasers have reported at times that they see a stovepipe tornado on the ground.
So, you know, use your imagination on what a stovepipe looks like. So, that kind of a straight column about the same width all the way up and down meaning, that it is not a weak tornado. This is a large tornado, likely maybe a quarter of a mile in diameter. So that's a very large path that it can continue to move on through. LEMON: Jacqui, we were earlier -- when we started this, this was just hitting rural areas, but as it gets closer to Wichita, Kansas, and in that area, these are highly populated areas.
JERAS: Yes.
LEMON: And I was -- my question to you was going to be, as you look at the winds, if you look at all these lightning strikes what that tells you, that's not a good sign when you see this many lightning strikes in this sort of time.
JERAS: Yes, you know, obviously, you don't want to see a lot of lightning. Lightning itself can be deadly. In fact, we've had a couple of fires and some damage reports today just from lightning cause, not even the actual thunderstorm or winds from the tornado.
LEMON: I want you to help me out with this interview, Jacqui. Sharon Watson is with the Kansas emergency management agency. She joins us earlier. She's on the phone now.
Sharon, thanks again. Don Lemon here. Jacqui Jeras here. What are you seeing?
SHARON WATSON, KANSA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (via telephone): We're watching the storm system. The situation in Wichita is looking very concerning right now, so we're keeping a close eye on that and we're in contact with the weather service and county emergency managers throughout the day today trying to get the latest information so that the public knows what to do. And we just want them to heed warnings right now to know this is a serious situation and they need to take precautions as we've been saying all along.
LEMON: OK. And so, precautions all along and damage and those sorts of reports?
WATSON: We've received several damage reports throughout the state. There are scattered reports of homes being destroyed in certain areas. These are one or two homes in a particular area and the same thing in a different county. Some reports of other types of facilities being damaged. But no large facilities like hospitals or anything like we've seen in some other states. But this time the scattered reports of damage, as well as power outages and trees down, that type of thing.
JERAS: Sharon, this is Jacqui. What are you hearing in places like Waynoka, as well as Cherokee? This is the same storm that moved to those areas. Can you give us specifics on damage in those locations?
WATSON: We don't have a good picture yet on those areas. We're trying to get more information on that at this time. So, we're still collecting more information from all that counties as to the extent of the damage. Of course, as you mentioned with it becoming night, it makes it more difficult to get a better picture of exactly what's happened throughout the county, because this has been so widespread throughout the state. JERAS: Right. There's another tornado that we have a report up on the ground. That's near St. John at this time, which is north and west of this Wichita storm, any details on that one?
WATSON: Not at this point. We're still watching every aspect of these storms with various radar systems and looking at it as everyone else is to make sure we know exactly what is going on. We'll be communicating with those communities as quickly as possible to get damage assessments. But at this point, we don't have a good assessment on that particular one.
JERAS: Imagine you guys are going to be up all night and busy. What kind of advice do you have for people to get through the night?
WATSON: We just ask everyone stay close to information sources so that they are aware of what's going on. As it becomes night, it becomes much more dangerous, because people tend to go to sleep, turn off all those sources of information. We would ask that they stay with us through the night and make sure that they have the information they need to make the right choices, because it could get more difficult as the right goes on.
JERAS: Right. Great information. Thanks, Sharon Watson.
LEMON: Yes. Sharon Watson with the Kansas Emergency Management.
Jacqui Jeras. Jacqui, man, look at that, as we look at those live pictures and see it on radar.
Jacqui, don't go anywhere. We are going to --
JERAS: Yes. One more thing, I was just told to me by the producer, is that tornado warning in Wichita now has been upgraded so it will be called tornado emergency. And that's an extremely rare thing that has issued only when there's a large destructive tornado on the ground that would be moving into a populated area. This is something that's pretty new, Don, and there have been some new strong warnings issued with these warnings just this week and that's something the national weather service has been implementing for their storm-ready.
You know, 2011 was such a deadly tornado season. And so, they're making changes and they are doing them this week just in time, as you can see, to help people understand the difference between tornado warnings, you know. Because sometimes we'll get a tornado, it will be indicated by Doppler radar. We're not so sure, you know, scientifically why some storms produce tornadoes and why some don't. You know, they can rotate but that funnel never gets to the ground. So when you issue a tornado emergency, that tells you that life and property could be gone, unfortunately the situation.
So here's the latest on that storm, tornado emergency in Wichita, and there you can see this is the area we're talking about down here where the rotation is going to be. So we still have some time where this people need to get underground. LEMON: And Jacqui, we have to get to a break. We are going to continue on the other side of the break. Jacqui, stand by because there are reports of a hospital hit by a possible tornado this evening in Iowa.
We are back in two minutes. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Welcome back, everyone.
We're following breaking news on CNN. The left side of your screen, you're looking at - that is radar from Wichita, Kansas. This is a tornado emergency and if you look on the right side of your screen, Salina, Kansas, that's what was on the ground today. We're following this. We have been following it all day here on CNN.
This warning for this tornado outbreak came more than 24 hours in advance because of new warning systems. And also tonight in Iowa, in Creston, Iowa, there are reports of a tornado. But what's believed to be a tornado hitting a hospital.
Jacqui Jeras is our meteorologist. She is following all this for us.
Jacqui, what do we know about this hospital in Creston, Iowa?
JERAS: Well, still not a lot because communication is out in a lot of areas and power is pretty much out in Creston, Iowa. We have a radar picture to show you. This was a couple of hours ago. This is in southwestern parts of the state. We know that the hospital was hit. We know that multiple windows were blown out. We know that there were some injuries, but we don't believe any of those injuries at this time are serious, OK?
There you can see Creston. It's on the bottom left hand part of your screen right there. And look at what's happening right now in Cedar rapid down towards Totowa (ph), OK. That's part of the same system that moved through here. This is what we call a duration (ph), all right?
So, this is what's happening now is not likely a tornado. This is winds that are going to be in excess of 60, maybe as much as 80 miles per hour and at times they can cause as much if not more damage than a tornado.
So, we know the hospital was hit a few hours ago. We know they're under a triage type condition. They're on backup generators trying to get power restored and they've been under a search and rescue operation over the last few hours to try and find out the rest of the information.
So we'll crack - track that story, excuse me, as closely as possible as we get new information and we'll bring it along to you, but hopefully not a catastrophic situation there, but a lot of damage. And it would take a while to clean up. LEMON: And Jacqui, our meteorologist Rob Marciano has been chasing storms today for us. He is out in the field. We are going to talk to him right after a quick break.
Wait until you see the photograph we have of Rob. You won't believe what he experienced today. We are back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. Breaking news. We are reporting a tornado emergency, an outbreak in the Midwest. Wichita, Kansas, man, that's where we saw the most amazing pictures coming from today in Salina, Kansas. And then, you're looking at now radar on the left of the screen. That's how the Wichita area where our Jacqui Jeras says there's a tornado warning and a tornado that has been confirmed, right?
JERAS: Yes, it's confirmed. That's in Conway spring right now, actually just to the north and east of there, somewhere between a quarter of a mile to half a mile wide. So that would just devour anything in its path. That's a very large and destructive tornado.
So, here's Wichita proper. Here is Conway springs down here and its right in this area where you see that hook. So, the tornado is somewhere in this location. We can put a distance around here and get people who live in Wichita a better idea and people of love ones maybe who live there, when it's going to be arriving. We're estimating maybe 17 miles from the current location and maybe 34 minutes away from here.
All right, just being handed new information on this tornado, confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado just south of Clearwater, and moving northeast at Clearwater, which could be hit. This is from the Sedgwick county area. So that's a second tornado we're talking about as just opposed to the Wichita one.
So, we have a couple large ones that are going on as we speak.
All right, let me show you this real quick. This is very interesting. Here is our storm, there's our Clearwater. This is the area that we are talking about. OK. So, this is the same storm, my apologies. It's just in between the two of those.
So, this is the area where we're seeing rotation. And you see some of this brightness especially right in here? When we see things like that, that indicates that there's a very large something in the air that's being reflected back to radar. So that's likely what we would call a debris ball. So, that would tell me that maybe there's debris in the air that this is currently producing damage and moving through an area that, you know, could be somewhat populated. So looking at this heading into Clearwater now and then here you can see Wichita. So, we are talking about maybe 35 minutes for you yet to be in your state place. So you need to be underground and stay underground.
These storms have been on the ground on and off for a couple of hours already. This storm in particular, and look at all the lightning on that. We're putting on the lightning display, as well. Let's take a look at the tower cam, because it's --
LEMON: Jacqui, I want to get -- I don't want you to go anywhere, but I want Susan Candiotti to weigh in, because she's in Wichita in a hotel.
And Susan Candiotti - Susan, have you heard any sirens?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone) You know, Don, we have not heard any sirens yet, but I was watching one of the local anchor people here and one of the CNN affiliated stations, and they did hear sirens where they are.
Now, we are in Wichita, and the sky is just lighting up with lightning. We're hearing a lot of thunder. It is starting to rain heavily now. Incredibly, I'm still seeing cars right off the expressway, and trucks going up and down the highway.
However, in the hotel where we are taking shelter, all the guests that were upstairs, a small place to re-building and all been told to come down to the first floor and that's where everyone is huddled, both in the lobby and the ballroom areas. And they are being told to stay inside, stay on that lower floor. That's always the best thing to do, to be as safe as they can be.
LEMON: And Susan, you mentioned --
CANDIOTTI: There are reports of dozens of tornadoes being spotted throughout the evening here.
LEMON: Yes, Susan. Jacqui Jeras has been talking about that. But I want to show our viewers what Susan is seeing, that tower cam, from our affiliate -- we don't have it anymore? OK. Sorry, getting a little information in my ear here. We're following this developing story.
Susan, stand by because I don't want you to go anywhere. We want to talk to you in a bit. I just want to tell our viewers what's going on here. As when we went on the air tonight, we said we were monitoring a situation happening in the Midwest and there were no reports of any serious injuries. It's a tornado emergency that's happening, that we have been telling you about for the last 24 hours, an early warning of a tornado outbreak happening in the middle part of our country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
LEMON: Hello everyone. I'm Don Lemon. This is the top of the hour. You are watching breaking news right here on CNN.
