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Girl Disappears From Own Bedroom; Edwards Accused of Covering Up Affair; Rockin Through The Years; Jennifer Hudson Takes The Stand; Jennifer Hudson Takes The Stand; Rubio Campaigns With Romney; Booby Traps Set To Impale; Commander In Chief Trophy Presentation; Sanford Police Chief Resigning
Aired April 23, 2012 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Suzanne. Thank you so much. And hello to all of you, I'm Brooke Baldwin. A lot happening during the show. We begin, as always, with "Rapid Fire." Roll it.
First up here, John Edwards. From Oval Office contender, now to defendant. The former North Carolina senator inside a courtroom right now, charged with using campaign cash to hide his mistress. And the details, they ignited a scandal. CNN is inside. We're going to take you there coming up in just a couple of minutes.
Also, the big story in the northeast, yikes, snow. Huge snow. Wind, rainstorm barreling through. In fact, a couple of spots could see as much as 16 inches of snow. Obviously, check your calendar. This is kind of odd, folks, considering it is end of April and we are coming off the warmest March on record. Snow advisories are in effect for western Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia, New York, Maryland. The silver lining here? The snow won't last long. Temperatures are expected to hit balmy 40s and 50s later this week.
Also today, George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is now released from jail on bail. Still, the big question, where is he now? As for Trayvon Martin's parents, their attorney says, quote, "it's tough for them to see their son's killer walk free again," end quote. Meantime, CNN confirms the police chief in the town of Sanford is resigning. Bill Lee stepped down temporary last month over his handling of this particular case.
And just into us here at CNN, happening right now in Chicago. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is on the witness stand in her ex- brother-in-law's murder trial. Prosecutors say a jealous rage led to the killings of Hudson's mother, brother and nephew. That was back in 2008. They say William Balfour was upset at the thought of his wife seeing someone else.
And on this Holocaust remembrance day, President Obama shines a spotlight on mass atrocities in Syria and the hunt for Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army. Speaking there at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., earlier, the president said his recently established Atrocities Prevention Board will meet today at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these kinds of atrocities. Because national sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Three weeks now after that horrific shooting spree killed seven people, Oakland, California, Oikos University is open yet again. Students began reporting for regular classes today. Former nursing student One Goh faces murder and attempted murder charges in that shooting rampage. Police say he returned to the school to set some sort of score over a tuition refund dispute.
And a warning to U.S. citizens who are or perhaps thinking of visiting Kenya. The U.S. embassy says it has received credible information about possible attacks involving hotels in Nairobi and Kenyan government building. Embassy officials say they don't know when these attacks might happen, but they say they believe they're in the final stages of planning now.
Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio. There they are together on the campaign trail. The Republicans today are in Pennsylvania holding a town hall at a trucking business. And just a short time ago they addressed any kind of speculation that Rubio could be on the short list for vice president. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think I have any comments on qualifications for individuals to serve in various positions in government at this stage. That's something that we're going to be considering down the road as we consider various potential vice presidential nominees.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Also today, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorsing Romney. You remember, those two, they squared off back in 2008.
And thousands of people packed the waterfront in downtown Louisville for Thunder over Louisville. This year's theme was a Star- spangled Blast. Look at this. Beautiful. The allure here, the burst of color, captivating thousands. Earlier in the day, the ground was a little wet, but that didn't stop quite a number of people from gathering. One guy there said it's -- and I'm quoting him, "it's pretty freaking cool."
We've got a lot more for you in the next two hours. Watch this.
Two Cuban actors arrive in America to promote their own movie, but suddenly they disappear. Nowhere to be found. Are they hiding or are they in serious trouble? I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
Sex, cash, politics, betrayal. Once a candidate for president. Today, John Edwards is inside a courtroom fighting for his freedom.
Building an empire behind bars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Letters being sent in, sent out from the streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Prisoners using secret codes in an ancient language to call the shots.
Plus, booby traps found on a hiking trail. Traps so dangerous they could have killed. Now police say they know who's responsible.
And she's sassy, she's sweet, she is the one and only Dolly Parton. And the entertainment legend sits down with me on this "Music Monday."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOLLY PARTON, MUSICIAN: Boy, you're getting down girl.
BALDWIN: You pull it off.
PARTON: I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A young girl disappears from her own bedroom, sparking this intense search right now in Arizona. There is also talk today of a new piece of evidence. I'm talking Tucson specifically. Police there are looking for six year old Isabel Mercedes Celis. Her parents say they put her to bed right around 11:00 Friday night. When they came in her room the very next morning, she was gone. Law enforcement and volunteers, they have been combing the neighborhood, but still no sign of little Isabel.
I want to bring in investigative reporter Michelle Sigona. I know she's been making calls, digging into this case, as we know she's very, very good at.
And, Michelle, I just want to start with the how. What is it specifically that these authorities are finding in the bedroom that's a little out of the ordinary.
MICHELLE SIGONA, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Investigators are looking at the entry point, Brooke, as to where possibly Isabel could have escaped from the house or been taken from her house. At this point they aren't saying whether she walked away or if she was abducted, but they are looking at a couple of key points, a couple key things inside of the house, based on the searches, based on -- from their interviews and things that they're doing with family members to be able to move forward to say that this is, in fact, a suspicious missing person, or a missing child case.
BALDWIN: I want to play just a little bit of the sound. This is the Tucson police chief speaking earlier just about the plan for finding this little girl today. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT VILLASENOR, TUCSON POLICE CHIEF: When you have this extensive investigation, you want new eyes looking things over several times. We're not adverse to saying, hey, did you think about this? Did you think about that? And sometimes a new perspective, a fresh set of detectives eyes, will help in doing that. And so we revaluate what we've done. We talk about it. We debrief. We say, could we have done something more, something different? And, if so, we go and do that. So we're just making sure we're covering all bases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Because he's saying, you know, fresh set of eyes. That's always invaluable in cases like this, especially so early on.
SIGONA: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: And in terms of leads, what do you know about leads and, also, why is it so important not to rule anything out just yet?
SIGONA: There are leads coming in, definitely, and that's why investigators are going out, they're scouring the area, they're tracking down those leads, they're confirming them, they're seeing whether there -- they can rule them in, rule them out, put them into their timeline or take them out. There's a couple of key points in this case, a couple of things to keep in mind.
First, the family did call 911 on Saturday morning at 8:14 a.m. when they went into her bedroom and found that she was missing. They put her to bed, mom and dad say, around 11:00 a.m. Friday night.
Moving forward from that point, a search was, obviously, taken place right away. Investigators marked off the house. They did a couple of search inside of the home. They even marked off the neighborhood, which sometimes you don't really see a lot in these types of cases. But I did speak with a neighborhood earlier today. She lives about a block away. And she told me she is able to access her house, but there's a lot of activity going on out there right now.
Instantly when this case popped up, I said, my goodness, this feels like another baby Lisa case. Another Ayla Reynolds case, another Hailey Dunn case.
BALDWIN: I thought the same thing, with the window, right.
SIGONA: It's, you know, here we go again. Another child is gone from their bedroom in the middle of the night and I just don't want this to keep dragging on like their cases. Another case that popped into my mind was the Danielle Van Dam case that happened more than 10 years ago in San Diego. I was inside of that home. And that little girl, she was taken out of her house and her neighbor took her out of her home and was convicted of that. So it's just --
BALDWIN: I can't -- no, I just can't even begin to think about, you know, what these two parents are going through.
SIGONA: Sure.
BALDWIN: You said they -- at 8:14 in the morning, you know, called 911. What do we know about the parents, Michelle? I understand they were questioned separately. Why is that so important?
SIGONA: Absolutely. It's very important because when a child goes missing, the first place you look is to the parents or the last people that have, you know, that saw the child. So to be able to get them both separately, to spend a lot of hours with them and a lot of time with them, making sure their stories match up perfectly. And then they'll be asked to take a polygraph. They want to be ruled out very quickly so investigators can move on to the next portions of this, to figure out what, you know, are -- was there, you know, other sex offenders in the area, which there are registered sex offenders. Seventeen, if I'm not mistaken. So I'm sure investigators have already knocked on their doors and have questioned them, you know, and start sort of working their way back on their time line to say, who got in this house, how did they get in, where is this child now and what can we do to find her? I also spoke with their church community as well.
BALDWIN: Why no Amber Alert? 30 seconds. Why not yet?
SIGONA: No Amber Alert because, for Amber Alert, you have to meet certain criteria's. You have to have a vehicle, tag information, know for certain that an abduction took place. If they put out an Amber Alert now, there really isn't a lot to go on. But what they can do is to keep pushing it forward through the national media, through your show and through many others with a missing person poster to be able to say, please come forward. Tucson Police, FBI, U.S. Marshals, everyone's on this case and they need your help.
BALDWIN: And find Isabel safe and sound.
Michelle Sigona, we'll stay on it. And we appreciate you staying on it as well. Thank you.
SIGONA: Have a good day.
BALDWIN: A man who wanted to be president now facing federal charges for this alleged cover-up involving campaign money, a mistress. John Edwards in court as we speak. We're going to take you there.
Plus this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It ain't me. It ain't me. I ain't no --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Coming up, a long-time deejay talks about the music that moved a generation. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Johnny Reid Edwards, he's going on trial. Let's take a look at Johnny Reid Edwards. That is -- there he is arriving today in federal court. This is Greensboro, North Carolina. Of course you and I know him as John. As in John Edwards, former United States senator from North Carolina, former nominee for vice president, former pursuer of the Democratic nod for the White House. John Edwards allegedly conspired with two wealthy donors to cover up an illicit affair and, yes, his mistress's presidency. All of this while Edwards was running for president with the backing of his late wife Elizabeth. CNN's Joe Johns is just outside federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Joe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A blustery, rainy day here in Greensboro, North Carolina, for opening statements and the end of jury selection in the trial of former United States Senator And Presidential Candidate Jonathan Edwards. This jury is truly a jury of his peers. Nine men and seven women from all walks of life. They heard arguments from the lawyers today focusing in on the single question, as whether John Edwards knowingly and willfully broke campaign finance law by allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy donors and using that money, again allegedly, to cover up an affair and a child he eventually had with his mistress, Rielle Hunter.
The main witness, the first witness of the day, expected to be called is Andrew Young, a former North Carolina advance man for Edwards, who worked in the state with him and also allegedly helped him cover up that affair.
Joe Johns, CNN, Greensboro, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Joe Johns, thank you.
It is April but a winter storm is causing travel delays. Maybe you're sitting at an airport thinking, yep, this is affecting me. Traffic headaches as well. This is the northeast. The heavy snow is also causing power outages. We're going to check in next with Chad Myers, see when this is going away for you.
And then later the legendary Dolly Parton talks about her songs, your music, and, oh, yes, those fingernails. She is our "Music Monday" guest later in the hour. Don't miss this one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: OK, the last time I checked, the calendar, it's April 23rd, folks. We're almost to May. And I see we're still talking about snow. More than a foot of snow in parts of the northeast.
Chad Myers, what?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know.
BALDWIN: Right? I mean we were talking about March being so warm and then what happened?
MYERS: One big -- literally it's a nor'easter, but we can't call it that because it didn't work out that way. It's a big coastal low pressure center that ran up the East Coast.
BALDWIN: OK.
MYERS: Give it two months before, we'd have 30 inches of snow in New York City right now.
BALDWIN: They've had nothing.
MYERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: I was in New England very recently. It's so mild.
MYERS: Yes. Exactly. Well, they had three inches of rain. You multiply that by 10, you would have had 30 inches of snow 60 days ago. So let's be thankful what actually did happen --
BALDWIN: All right. All right.
MYERS: Even though we got some Rain, we got some snow, we got some wind. It was the power lines down. This whole storm would have been a completely different story. This would have been a paralyzing snow event just about 35 or 45 days go.
It's snowing in Buffalo, down toward Catteraugus, Chautauqua Counties, down the spine of the Alleghenies. Down just to the east of Pittsburgh. Then it's changed over to rain in Pittsburgh. All your advisories in Pittsburgh now are gone.
But if you get just to the east, into Summerset County, Laurel Summit (ph), 13.6 inches of snow. Newfield, New York, at 10. And it is still snowing in some spots and it's still going to snow for a couple of hours yet before it's over.
Take a look at Cleveland, Ohio. You are seeing the wind. This is Lake Erie.
BALDWIN: Oh, wow.
MYERS: This is the lake front. I mean this is marginal road right here. There is a walkway that if someone was walking on it --
BALDWIN: Look at that.
MYERS: Would have just been washed away. This walkway goes all the way along here and then turns along the highway. Lake Burk (ph) lake front is behind me here. The old power plant is off there to the right. And the waves have been coming in here and -- there's a car right here. So that's 20 times higher than the car.
BALDWIN: Free car wash.
MYERS: I guess so. And good thing it's not salt water or those cars would have rusted away by now.
Airports are slow a little bit as well. Newark now, about an hour or so delayed. Some planes aren't even being allowed to take off to Newark. You're king of standing there on the tarmac waiting for some volume to clear.
Philadelphia, Boston, and also Toronto between 15 minutes and an hour delayed. But I thought with the wind like this, I thought some of these airports could be delayed two to three hours. That tells me some flights are being kind of canceled or really pushed back and we're not even seeing some of these delays. If you are traveling today, be thankful if you get on your real airplane, the one that you're scheduled for, because it could be a long night for some.
BALDWIN: I'm always mindful because I'm in many an airport thinking of those people watching us and saying, yep, that's me right now. Thank you, Chad Myers.
MYERS: You're welcome.
BALDWIN: We appreciate it.
MYERS: You're welcome.
BALDWIN: So this week we are taking an in depth look at the baby boomers. And as they age, many are trying to, you know, stay a little younger. One man who has kept them rocking through the years is deejay Cousin Brucie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE, "COUSIN BRUCIE" MORROW, RADIO LEGEND, HOST 60'S ON 6 SIRIUSXM RADIO: It ain't me, it ain't me. I ain't no senator's son. It ain't me, it ain't me. I ain't no fortunate one.
This song was talking about, well, he doesn't want to go to war and he's not a fortunate son of a rich man, so he has to go. He had the animals. Got to get out of this place.
To this day it's become a theme of people over in fox holes in foreign countries. We don't belong here. They don't want us here. Let's please leave. It really became the anthem of our Vietnam vets.
Gather around the radio. Welcome to your Cousin Brucie's yoke (ph).
I'm feeding the baby boomers. I'm feeding them the best foot in the world. Music be the food of love. That's what I do.
Listen, you're going to get a message. You listen to music. And I want you to dance and get the message and just enjoy yourself. The music that we had in the 60s that we still play is an awareness called, wake up, everybody, we're in trouble. Trouble deep.
By 1965, the music was getting more angry. We had Vietnam. So we started having protest songs.
You're old enough to kill, but not for voting. You hear lyrics like that, that's so blatant and so -- it's crying. It's saying, please, help us. That's what this music is. Help us. Help us end all this.
Are you a baby boomer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, sir, I am.
MORROW: Me, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1950.
MORROW: Me too. We're baby boomers.
All right, so I want people to have a good time when they listening to me, but music also has an absolute message.
You have this song. What does "Born to Be Wild" mean to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It means freedom and getting on my motorcycle and going.
MORROW: Almost every song I play, if you listen carefully to the lyrics, you'll hear something that will say, hey, wake up. What is that saying? I can't believe what I just heard.
Now we want freedom. We want to just open up the road and we want to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Born to be wild.
MORROW: In those days we had hippies and yippies and flower children. They became lawyers and doctors and stock marketers. That generation that started the title wave, they retained a lot of the liberal feelings and the social feelings and they were able to pass it along to their children and now their grandchildren.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Coming up next, the senator from Florida campaigns with Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania. Hmm. Could Marco Rubio be auditioning for a slot alongside Romney. Gloria Borger, she's got some thoughts, next.
Also just into us. Jennifer Hudson takes the stand in the trial of her family's murder. CNN's Ted Rowlands has just stepped outside from sitting the courthouse there. We'll find out what happened, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Just into us here. We want to take you to Chicago. WE just learned Jennifer Hudson was just on the witness stand in this murder trial involving William Balfour. He's on trial for murdering allegedly Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew. Let's go straight to Ted Rowlands there for us in Chicago.
And, Ted, talk about bringing out your star witness here. Witness number one. How did she appear? What did she say?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, she appeared very emotional, because she was very emotional, Brooke. She was, as you say, the first witness out of the gate. Both sides gave their opening and then called their first witnesses, and there it was, Jennifer Hudson, took the stand. She was wearing black. And she first talked about her relationship with her mother and sort of her start in singing. She was doing fairly well and then she started to talk about losing her sister, her brother and her sister's son, Julian. She broke down on the stand several times. It was very emotional.
They're in an oversized courtroom. You could hear a pin drop. Everybody, the jury, every single person in that courtroom was absolutely fixated on Jennifer Hudson. They asked her about William Balfour, the man accused of these murders.
And when asked her what they thought of William Balfour marrying her sister, she said, quote, "None of us wanted her to marry him." She said, I told her over and over not to marry William.
And then the prosecutor asked why and she said, we did not like how he treated her. And her voice trembled and she started to cry. It was very emotional. They showed some photos as well with her on the stand, a very, very effective witness.
After she was done, and she was only on the stand for about 45 minutes to an hour, she took a seat in the courtroom, meaning she will likely be a fixture in this trial, which is expected to last three to four weeks.
BALDWIN: And, you know, Ted, I remember there was a little bit of concern. The last time you and I talked about this, there was a concern because we knew, of course, this is her family.
Jennifer Hudson would be in the courtroom. She would potentially take the stand. I'm curious how the courtroom and also members of the jury reacted to her presence?
ROWLANDS: Well, they were fixated on her obviously. In the openings on both sides, they addressed the fact that Jennifer Hudson was a celebrity. It's interesting.
This is a huge part of the prosecution's case, not only to have a family member of a victim, but to have Jennifer Hudson in there because quite frankly, there isn't a lot of physical evidence in this case.
In fact, in the opening, that was the theme. The prosecution talked about threat after threat that William Balfour had made saying that he was going to kill his wife's family, Julia Hudson's family.
And then the defense got up and in their open, they hammered the way at the fact that the state has very little physical evidence. And that will you be basically the theme of this trial.
Family members and others talking about William Balfour's threats and the lack of fingerprints and DNA found at the crime scene and on the murder weapon.
BALDWIN: So ted I'm assuming there's a break and that's why we're talking here. Do we know what's next?
ROWLANDS: Yes, we have an hour break here and we assume that we will hear from Julia Hudson who, of course, lost not only her mother, but also her 7-year-old son and her brother. We expect that Jennifer Hudson's sister, Julia, will be next on the stand.
BALDWIN: Ted Rowlands for us in Chicago. Ted, thank you.
And now to this, in case you haven't heard of Marco Rubio, here's the deal. Freshman senator from Florida, thought to be a rising star in the Republican Party, been asked time and time again, would he accept a vice presidential bid to which he's always answered, no, it won't be me.
At least that was his answer until last week when he started saying, you know, I'm going to respect the process. Next thing you know, Marco Rubio is campaigning today with, there you go, Mitt Romney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: There's only one person who's running for president that understands that. There's only one person who's running for president that's ever helped do that.
There's only one choice running for president that will help us reclaim and recapture the things that make this nation of ours different from all the other countries on the earth and he happens to be here today. His name is Mitt Romney, the next president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Let's turn to Gloria Borjer. She is our chief political analyst. What do you make of this twosome in Pennsylvania today? You laugh. Is this an audition?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, yes, you use that word. I think it could be seen as an audition, sure, why not? I think you're going to see Mitt Romney you've already seen him with Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Now you've seen him with Marco Rubio. You're probably going to see him with a bunch of people because, of course, chemistry is very important.
But also what Marco Rubio represents is an important Hispanic player in the Republican Party. And Mitt Romney is at least 40 points behind in some poles with Hispanic voters.
And President Obama won with Hispanics in 2008 with 67 percent of the Hispanic vote. So Marco Rubio next to Mitt Romney is a really good picture for the campaign.
BALDWIN: Right, you have Marco Rubio, Hispanic heritage, obviously that can help Mitt Romney as you point. How important -- I feel like we've been talking so much about the women vote. How about the Latino votes come this November?
BORGER: Well, I think you can make the case very easily that the Latino vote is the most important swing vote right now in the country, particularly in some battleground states like Marco Rubio's home state of Florida, but also in New Mexico, Colorado, for example, and Nevada.
And this is a vote that is going to be very important if the Republican wants to win the White House. And again, Mitt Romney's problem with Hispanics is that he moved so far to the right during the campaign, calling, for example, for self-deportation of illegal immigrants who have been here for quite some time.
Taking on Rick Perry on Texas' version of allowing in-state tuition, for the children of illegal immigrants so I think that now he's going to find himself trying to kind of move back to the center in order to attract --
BALDWIN: Can he do that? Can he do that because time and time again, during those CNN debates, he talked about his belief in, you know, self-deportation. Can he move a little bit away from that stance?
BORGER: Right. And the Arizona -- a very tough Arizona immigration law, look, I think it's very difficult. Today, when he was with Marco Rubio, he said he was going to take a look at Rubio's own version of the Dream Act, which does not provide for citizenship, but provides for visas for the children of illegal immigrants who have graduated college who were in the military, for example.
So he said now he's going to take a look at that. But when you talk to people in the Romney campaign, here's what they say. They say that Hispanic voters are not a monolith. They don't vote as a bloc, just like women don't vote as a bloc. And as you point out, we've been talking about the gender gap.
That they are economic voters and they point out the very tough economic statistics for Hispanic voters, that Hispanic voters are 20 percent of those who are unemployed in this country. So they say if you want to get the economy back on the right track, if you're Hispanic, guess who you want to vote for, Mitt Romney.
BALDWIN: Let me just ask you this, I'm just curious, perhaps from a Marco Rubio perspective. You either have -- maybe he could become the vice president if, you know, Mitt Romney is, in fact, elected or do you think, I want to hang back for a moment and go for a top spot come 2016 strategically. How does that shake out?
BORGER: I think he would have a lot competition in 2016 most notably from Paul Ryan, maybe even a Jeb Bush, who knows? I think the interesting thing about Marco Rubio to me is that he's a new senator.
If you're running against President Obama saying he didn't have enough experience to be president. If you put somebody that inexperienced on the ticket and he's got to be ready from day one as Mitt Romney says --
BALDWIN: Look at Barack Obama.
BORGER: Well, but they're running against Barack Obama. It just goes to show you, he didn't have the experience to be president. So that's a bit of a hurdle for him.
BALDWIN: Interesting. Gloria Borger, thank you.
BORGER: Sure.
BALDWIN: Now to booby traps. Yes, booby traps like this one, found at a popular hiking shelter potentially deadly ones. Look how sharp those sticks are. Now police say they know who is responsible and of course, Facebook is involved in this one.
And still to come, Dolly Parton shares what inspired her to hit the road.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We've been reading so much of this next story and one headline called this next story. The real life, quote, "Hunger Games" about a death game in the woods.
Take a look at this map here. These two men in Utah allegedly set up reel-life bobby traps on a forest trail in Provo Canyon. You can see I'm not talking holes in the ground. Look at these spikes here on these sticks that they, I guess, carved out.
You have the Utah County Sheriff's Office. They say the men crafted the wooden spikes meant to impale someone. Also a trip wire here would have set it all off. Those are just some of the devices. A forest service officer, James Chafler, came across just a day after these traps were put up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK HAMMERSTAD, HIKER: That could have been us, you know? We could have gotten hurt for no reason.
EMILY HAMMERSTAD, HIKER: That could kill people, easily, easily kill people. It's just awful and sickening that people would do that kind of thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Sergeant Spencer Cannon is with the Utah County Sheriff's Office. We're going to talk here about these suspects in a minute. But first, Sergeant, these traps, here are more images that your department has sent out.
You have these sharp sticks, rocks, obviously could do some serious damage. Have you ever seen anything like this?
SGT. SPENCER CANNON, UTAH COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: No, not in this kind of situation. This is an area where people go to recreate. Families go there. College students go there. People camp there. They hike there.
We do occasionally run into illegal drug activity, but by and large, people go there to just enjoy nature. And this kind of thing, you might think of as being connected with marijuana grows, but we've never had anything like this in this area. So to have something like this is very unusual and very dangerous.
BALDWIN: So tell me how well they were hidden. How well they were set?
CANNON: You know, they weren't hidden really well. If somebody went there at night, they really wouldn't have much of a chance of seeing them. If they came during the day, they're noticeable enough that if they're watching at all, they might see them.
But in reality, when people go up there, you know, they may be looking at the shelter itself or something else are distracted by something else and it would be very easy to not see them and then fall victim to the devices.
BALDWIN: And again, you guys discovered them because of this, what, U.S. law enforcement officer had some experience in the military, kind of knew what he was looking at and thought my goodness?
CANNON: Yes, he did. He's got extensive experience in identifying these kinds of devices. Probably more connected to explosives, but certainly, the risk that's presented by these could be as just deadly. He saw something that looked unusual and investigated further. It turned out to be something that had some real deadly potential.
BALDWIN: And you think who in the world would want to do this. I want to show these pictures here. We're going to look at the men you've arrested. Kai Christensen who was 21 and Benjamin Rutkowski, he's 19.
So they're pretty young. I know the charge here is reckless endangerment. They were caught somehow because of Facebook someone speaking up. Have they confessed?
CANNON: Yes, they did. The way we were able to identify them. They are couple of people -- there's been some chatter about this on Facebook. One of them called us and he was pretty upset that there might get a reputation of everybody that goes up there and does this kind of thing.
And this isn't true in his experience or in ours and so he gave us a couple of names of people he thought it might be. We made contact with them and interviewed them and at length, they did confess and admit to their involvement in putting the devices there.
BALDWIN: So final question, why? Why did they say they did this?
CANNON: Well, they wanted us to believe and told us that their intended targets were just wildlife in the area. While it might be true that wildlife might wander through the shelter there.
People go there. It's built by people. It's frequented probably mostly by people. And those would have been the targets and the victims had the devices gone off as they had intended.
BALDWIN: Just one of those stories, you see the pictures and you hear what happened and you think about what? Sergeant Spencer Cannon from Utah, thank you, sir. We appreciate it.
He now to the center of the Trayvon Martin case, George Zimmerman. Now the police chief is resigning. We're taking you live to Sanford, Florida for the latest developments there.
Also robotic legs, this is amazing. This is not science fiction anymore. Learn how this innovation is hitting the retail market next.
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BALDWIN: All right, we have some fun live pictures we want to show you here, live pictures at the White House. Last week is was roll tie. This week is the Air Force Academy. You can see there presenting the president who's kind of checking it out.
This is the Air Force Academy football team. Today, they are getting the Commander-In-Chief Trophy, big applause. So here's a little background.
So this trophy is awarded to the military service academy. It's awarded to the football team with the best regular season record against the two other teams.
Of course, those being Army and Navy, you know, they all play one another during the season. The winner gets the trophy and a bit of history for you. The trophy was actually first awarded in 1972 by President Richard Nixon.
So there's the Heisman. I was going so see if we could eves drop just a little bit and see what was going in there. So there you have it. Congratulations to the Air Force Academy football team.
CNN confirms the police chief of Sanford, Florida, will resign by midnight tonight. Bill Lee came under heavy, heavy scrutiny for the investigation of Trayvon Martin's death.
Under his leadership, detectives opted not to charge George Zimmerman when he shot and killed a 17-year-old back on February 26. Then on April 11, the special prosecutor charged Zimmerman with second degree murder.
Zimmerman was released. There are the pictures here, as he's walking out over night on that $150,000 bond. And David Mattingly is live for us in Sanford.
David, first just talk to me about this police chief. Why now? Why resign?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was just about a month ago that Police Chief Bill Lee did step down temporarily from his position.
This was at a time when there were very strong protests about the police handling of the investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin. He stepped down as a possibly as an effort to instil some calm in the community.
In that time, we haven't seen or heard from him at all. And now today, the city confirming that in just a little over an hour, they're going to hold a meeting where they will accept his resignation as police chief of this city.
Again, this is a big turn of events. Just earlier this morning, we were talking to the city manager who said that any personnel changes would be pending the result of any investigation findings from the Justice Department.
But that was going to be much down the road. Again, this is a resignation by the police chief. He's not being fired. This is a resignation and the council will be meeting a little over an hour from now to accept that resignation, which will take effect tonight at midnight -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: OK, since I have you and we have those pictures, let's run those pictures again. George Zimmerman walking out of the Seminole County jail right around midnight, released on this $150,000 bond.
Remind me of the conditions of this bail and no one really knows other than obviously, you know, those close to him where exactly he's going.
MATTINGLY: That's right. And it was discussed in court that he may go back out of skate where he was prior to the time when he turned himself in on these charges. He's got a GPS ankle bracelet where they're able to track him at anytime.
He's going to have to check in periodically with the sheriff's department about his locations. He's got a curfew. He's going to have to be indoors and back at his established residence wherever that might be every night for a certain number of hours.
He's on a very short leads regardless of where he might be. They're going to be keeping very close tabs on him. But again, there's so much concern about his security that he was given some leeway of possibly going back out of state in order to maintain his security here.
BALDWIN: OK, David Mattingly, thank you, live for us in Sanford.
And now to someone you certainly know. She has been singing for decades and truly enjoys her life and her career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you want to do something, it goes to show you, you can learn to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: What a pinch me moment, getting to sit with her. Dolly Parton's candid conversation. "Music Monday" next.
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BALDWIN: Dolly Parton, she is already an icon, a legend. She's still pushing the envelope after all these years. Just going to lift the veil for a second because a couple of months ago, we had her live on this show.
And I know a lot of you saw that and she heard about this little thing we call "Music Mondays." So what did she do? She invited me to Nashville. So I sat down with the superstar who is out promoting her double album, "An Evening With Dolly Live in Concert."
And she gave me a t-shirt as well. Check it out. Here you go, Dolly. You know, there's really nothing Dolly Parton hasn't done or can't do, from the movies to books to business.
But it's her music that not only lasted decades, it is touching a new generation and she's succeeded by sticking to her roots.
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BALDWIN: So first, let's just talk about the album with the DVD and the music, "An Evening with Dolly." Tell me about it.
DOLLY PARTON, SINGER: Well, we had a wonderful time on tour recently and we decided we should film it and record it for a DVD and CD. There you are on the show, and you have your magic between your fans.
BALDWIN: What is it in you that said I'm going to be a star? Because you knew at an early age, didn't you?
PARTON: Well, I wanted to be something.
BALDWIN: Something. PARTON: I wanted to sing. I wanted to travel. I wanted to be loved. I wanted to make money. You know, I want to get out there and do stuff. I just wanted to do more. I didn't know what was out there, but I knew I couldn't be any poorer than we were at home.
So I wasn't going to be starving to death. I could find a boy to take me to Burger King to buy me a cheeseburger. But I wanted more than a boy and a cheeseburger. I wanted to own the restaurant.
BALDWIN: So was it aspiring to something greet, something bigger than what you knew at the time, or was it music that really thrust you to Nashville?
PARTON: Music. Everything ultimately winds back around to music. Music is everything. That's what I grew from.
BALDWIN: How many instruments do you play?
PARTON: I don't play anything great, but I play just about everything. I'm an entertainer. Of course, if you play one guitar, you can play any of them.
BALDWIN: How do you do that with your nails? You pull it off. How do you do that?
PARTON: I have an open tuning that I use -- I tune it in open g or d and then I can use clamps to move it down, but this works great.
BALDWIN: How are you doing that?
PARTON: It's finger picking. You have to kind of know how to do it. If you want to do something, it goes to show you. You can learn to do it.
BALDWIN: It's such a testament when you see people who cover your music. Do you have a favorite cover of your song that someone does?
PARTON: Well, the Whitney thing would have to be my number one. But as a writer, you appreciate the way anybody interprets your songs. I love hearing how other people hear my music.
BALDWIN: The White Stripes. You like that?
PARTON: Yes, I love it, don't you?
BALDWIN: I love it. Would you sing a couple bars of another one of your big hits?
PARTON: I can hear people saying, Lord. Not like Whitney Houston.
BALDWIN: I'll take yours, thank you very much. Thank you, Dolly.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: Thank you, Dolly Parton. What a privilege. Folks, if you want to see all of our "Music Monday" interviews including that one with Dolly, just go to my blog cnn.com/brooke.
All right, rolling on hour two, welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The trial of John Edwards has begun today. We're going to take you to Greensboro, North Carolina. Here he is, John Edwards arriving this morning in federal court. He is charged with misuse of campaign donations to cover up an illicit --
