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Rivals Attack Trump After Controversial Comments on National Security, Abortion; Trump Disagrees with Obama on Japan, South Korean National Security; China Key to Enforcing Western Sanctions on North Korea; Indian Rescue Crews Search for Trapped Survivors in Overpass Collapse; CDC Summit on Zika Virus; Numbers Needed to Get Republican Nomination; Kasich Looks to Brokered Convention; U.S. Womens Soccer Players File Lawsuit; Severe Weather to Hit Southeastern U.S.; Innovative Female Architect Dies; Alabama Governor Refuses to Resign Amid Scandal. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired April 01, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:38] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm George Howell, from CNN world headquarters. NEWSROOM starts now.
And a good day to you.
Let's start with U.S. politics and Donald Trump, who is capping off what has been quite a controversial week, now trailing in two big polls ahead of Wisconsin's primary. Ted Cruz now has a 10-point lead over Donald Trump, 42 percent to 32 percent.
ALLEN: Only 19 percent of likely Republican Wisconsin voters support John Kasich. This is the second poll this week with Cruz on top.
All of this comes as Trump promises to bring the Republican Party together.
CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, has more on Trump's week of turmoil.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even with his campaign in turmoil, Donald Trump was all smiles. Crisscrossing Washington in his motorcade, Trump sat down with top RNC officials behind closed doors, vowing in a tweet that he will bring the party together, even as John Kasich and Ted Cruz furiously tried to block his road to the White House. JOHN KASICH, (R), OHIO GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have
to tell you, as commander-in-chief, and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. You need to be able to get it right the first time.
ACOSTA: Kasich and Cruz are now tag teaming Trump over his gaffe that women should be punished if they undergo an illegal abortion, a position he abandoned.
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no?
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.
ACOSTA: On a popular conservative Wisconsin radio show, Cruz attacked Trump as uninformed.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): I think it was just the latest confirmation that Donald has not thought seriously about the issues facing the country, and he's willing to say just about anything to try to get elected.
ACOSTA: While Team Trump was brushing off the abortion comments as merely a slip-up --
KRISTINA PIERSON, SPOKESPERSON, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: There was a misspeak here and you have a presidential candidate that clarified the record, not once, but twice.
KASICH: It takes restraint, it takes judgment, it takes experience. Not wild-eyed suggestions.
ACOSTA: Kasich blasted Trump for another jaw-dropping comment that he would not rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe.
TRUMP: I would never take any of my cards off the table.
KASICH: It is not the way a leader of the free world or the commander-in-chief of our country to be so casually talking about the use by the way of nuclear weapons. It just shows that he's really not prepared to be president of the United States.
ACOSTA: Looking to push back on that notion, the Trump campaign confirmed the real estate tycoon met with his recently announced foreign policy team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT WALKER, (R), WISCONSIN GOVERNOR: And that's why I'm supporting Ted Cruz for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: Back in Wisconsin, the next contest on the calendar,
Cruz appears to be widening his lead and running a new ad featuring the state's governor, Scott Walker.
Still fuming over his war of the words over the wives, Cruz cracked a joke on "Jimmy Kimmel," revealing the Texas Senator is not quite ready to forgive and forget.
CRUZ: If I were in my car and getting ready to reverse and saw Donald in the backup camera --
(LAUGHTER)
CRUZ: -- I'm not confident which pedal I'd push.
(LAUGHTER)
ACOSTA (on camera): As for the meeting with Trump at the RNC, a spokesperson called it, quote, "productive." They talked about the state of the race and the convention in July, but no word whether that GOP loyalty pledge will make a comeback.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Milwaukee.
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ALLEN: Donald Trump also met with his new national security team Thursday amid growing alarms over his policies.
HOWELL: Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, explains why critics are worried.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- our closest allies --
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama with Japanese and South Korean leaders, urging a unified front against nuclear North Korea.
OBAMA: We recognize that our security is linked, that we have to work together to meet this challenge.
STARR: Donald Trump has a different idea.
TRUMP: At some point, we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea.
STARR: Trump says Japan and South Korea should pay the U.S. for security protection or consider building their own nuclear weapons, which would be a major policy reversal for the U.S.
[02:05:11] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where Trump's comments are most potentially dangerous is, again, getting away from the assumption that once the genie leaks out of the bottle on nuclear proliferation that we can control where it goes.
STARR: Trump also saying he wouldn't take nuclear weapons against ISIS off the table.
TRUMP: Would there be a time when it could be used? Possibly.
STARR: The deputy commander fighting ISIS doesn't think nuclear weapons are a good idea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. That's right. That's a conversation I've never heard discussed amongst any of our coalition members at any stage.
STARR: Also raising eyebrows, Trump's belief troops are afraid of being held accountable under the international rules governing humanitarian treatment of the enemy in time of war, which enemies like ISIS don't obey.
TRUMP: The problem is, we have the Geneva Conventions, we have all sorts of rules and regulations, our soldiers are afraid to fight. They don't want to go to jail because they're killing the enemy, they were too tough. So we have all sorts of really restrictions and regulations. They have none.
STARR: It's not a new argument, but commanders say there is no direct evidence of that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never heard of soldiers afraid to fight because of Geneva Conventions in that regard. We regard it very much as a sense of basic principles which guide our behavior in battle and to live within those rules is good for the soldiers and the very population that we fight on behalf of.
STARR: And another military challenge from the top American officer to Trump's view that maybe NATO is obsolete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that is a question that might have been asked 15 years ago. But it's hard to think about that question today when you look at the challenges in Europe.
STARR (on camera): The military has been trying to stay out of the presidential campaign, but these national security questions keep coming, Trump keeps making news, and the Pentagon struggles to answer.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
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HOWELL: So when it comes to that very all-important issue of nuclear weapons, world leaders from more than 50 countries are meeting in Washington with the goal of achieving global nuclear peace. Friday is the second and last day of the nuclear summit.
ALLEN: And U.S. President Obama met Chinese President Xi Jinping. China, a key economic ally to North Korea, and Beijing has been criticized before for not doing enough to enforce Western sanctions against North Korea.
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OBAMA: Of great importance to both of us is North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, which threatens the security and stability of the region. And President Xi and I are both committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and full implementation of U.N. Sanctions. So we'll discuss how we can discourage actions like nuclear tests that escalate tensions and violate international obligations.
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ALLEN: Our Paula Hancocks joins us live from Seoul with more on the meetings, expectations from them, and certainly North Korea's intentions.
Paula, hello.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Natalie. Well, it was a crucial meeting between President Obama and between the Japanese and South Korean leaders. The Japanese and U.S. officials mentioned that Trump's comments were not dealt with in that meeting. But they did talk obviously about North Korea, and about what we have seen from North Korea this year, notably a nuclear test in January, and then, of course, that complete launch seen as a missile test in February, followed by many photos and pronouncements by North Korea that they have nuclearized a weapon. Certainly, that was the key to this meeting. We heard from Obama saying all three agreed that they had to restore a sense of stability and peace to the region. We heard from the South Korean president and she said it was important to make North Korea understand that it cannot survive without giving up its nuclear program. And obviously, the one focus as well was the U.N. Sanctions, whether or not they would be implemented fully. President Park did say that was vital, that it was implemented fully to try and have an impact on that nuclear program -- Natalie?
ALLEN: Any new ideas floated that we know about at the summit with dealing with North Korea and trying to figure out how to keep them from their continued provocative acts?
[02:09:50] HANCOCKS: I think it's tricky for them to be able to come up with anything new. Obviously, North Korea and its nuclear program is something that's concerned much of the international community for years. So something new would be unlikely. We did see what many called unprecedented sanctions by the United Nations Security Council, and I think the crucial thing is to see whether or not they're implemented fully. Some experts say it could be the end of this year before we know if they're being implemented fully. China is key to sharing that large board we are North Korea. Much of the trade goes through China. According to China's state run news agency, President Xi stressed all parties to strictly carry out the U.N. resolutions. They're reporting that China's president wants these sanctions to be implemented fully and of course, that's music to the ears of the rest of the international community, because they know it's crucial that China fully implements the sanctions. If they don't, there's little chance to making a difference at all.
ALLEN: China a critical player, that's for sure.
Thank you, Paula, live from Seoul for us.
HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, rescue crews are on an urgent mission in Calcutta, searching for dozens of people still missing after a highway overpass collapse. We'll take you live to the scene there.
ALLEN: Also ahead, health officials gather to plot a U.S. action plan against Zika, we get a look at the lab that pinpointed the virus and its devastating effects on pregnant women and their babies. That's coming up.
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[02:15:22] HOWELL: Welcome back. A police training exercise went horribly wrong in the U.S. state of Virginia when a man pulled a gun and fatally shot a state trooper. Trooper Chad Dermyer was part of the training at a bus station in Richmond. The 37-year-old was shot multiple times after he walked up and started talking to the suspect. Dermyer leaves behind a wife and two young children.
ALLEN: Police shot the suspect who died on his way to a hospital. They don't have a motive yet, and they haven't released the shooter's identity.
HOWELL: On to India now. At least 22 people are confirmed dead after a highway overpass collapsed on to a busy market place in Calcutta. Rescue teams are trying to find anyone trapped in the debris there. 75 people are injured, some critically. Dozens of others are still missing.
CNN's Ravi Agrawal is in Calcutta where the rescue efforts are taking place, and joins us this hour.
Ravi, I know you're in the heart of it all where things are happening. What are you seeing? What's happening around you now?
RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: Hi, George. It is almost noon here. I just want to give you a sense of what's behind me and where I am. Right behind me you obviously see the rubble that is being brought in, and that is rubble from the bridge that just collapsed behind me. If it was still there, you would have seen the bridge cutting across the open space. You see the old houses behind me. They were just feet away from the bridge when it did collapse. About 100 or more national disaster relief forces are here. They're working with the night. This is a state of which Calcutta is a part. They've been working through the night trying to rescue any bodies they can find. So far, they've rescued two bodies, but sadly both of them were dead. The bodies were mangled and bloody. They're beginning to lose hope that they may not be able to find any people who actually survived this collapse.
It really is a real tragedy for the city, which has seen a spurt in these kinds of overpasses or fly-overs. They've crisscrossed and snaked across many parts in the city in last seven or eight years as Calcutta has tried to come to grips with faster growth, to build safe connections to suburbs. This one here, though, is an overpass that has had many delays. It's been built over the course of five years, was still under construction when it collapsed.
HOWELL: The prime minister there tweeted he was, quote, "shocked and saddened by what happened." An executive for the company that built that fly-over is calling it, a quote, "act of God." But when it comes to how this happened and why it happened, Ravi, who's pointing the fingers at who?
AGRAWAL: Well, we don't really know why it happened yet. If it was an act of god, well, you could have maybe pointed to an earthquake or a storm or something like that. But none of those conditions were in place yesterday. So we can't stand up that claim from the people who built the bridge. On Sunday -- sorry -- yesterday, when the bridge did collapse, the chief minister of West Bengal was here within a few hours. She was trying to direct sort of the movement of traffic and trying to bring help to the people who needed it. But locals here and residents and eyewitnesses, they tell me it was many hours before sort of the rescue trucks, the tractors came in to try and clear the debris from this area. And so it was a delayed start in many senses. If you think about it, these roads are so narrow, it really isn't a surprise that it's hard to get here. And the bridge itself, it seems quite shoddy in the way it's constructed very near buildings. Quite dangerous. Many residents I've spoken to here, they really don't understand why it was built in the first place. They're not very happy with the construction. You can see behind me, I think it's one of the local M.P.s trying to assess the damage.
Really there is a larger political blame game that's beginning to play out. They're going to have assembly elections next week. Already on the Indian TV shows, there's a lot of finger-pointing going on.
The fact remains this is still a developing situation. There are still people trapped here, and clearly, you know, very tense, desperate rescue efforts still under way. That is the first priority for everyone I've been speaking to here -- George?
[02:20:04] ALLEN: Just before noon, there in Calcutta, where, as you say, the rescue effort is still under way to find other people who may be missing or trapped in that debris.
Ravi Agrawal, live for us. Thank you for your reporting.
Now on to this.
ALLEN: This is the latest in the string of deadly bridge failures across India. In 2009, 45 construction workers were killed when this partially built bridge gave way in northern India. In 2006, a 150-year-old bridge collapsed over this express train. At least 33 people were killed. And in 2005, more than 110 people died on a passenger train. A small railway bridge had been washed away by flooding, causing this express train to plunge into a river.
HOWELL: In the United States, there is a target for health officials. It is the Zika Virus. Very important here. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hosting a Zika action plan summit on Friday, and their aim is to come up with a coordinated response to deal with the growing threat.
ALLEN: The CDC says active Zika transmission has been identified now in 39 countries and territories worldwide. A health alert was issued after the first Brazilian Zika case was confirmed in May of last year. Since then, the virus has spread through much of the Americas.
HOWELL: When it comes to pinpointing an organism like Zika, it is a huge challenge.
ALLEN: CNN chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, visited the lab that first linked the Zika Virus to Microcephaly.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely sure that is Zika?
DR. SHERIF ZAKI, CHIEF FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE PATHOLOGY, CDC: 100 percent. Absolutely, no doubt.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sherif Zaki is the chief of infectious disease pathology at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
ZAKI: In December, when we got contacted by our colleagues in Brazil about looking at some cases about children who were born with small brains or Microcephaly to see if there was an association with the virus infection.
GUPTA: They received samples. All of the mothers to be had the mosquito borne virus while pregnant.
ZAKI: We got the first PCR results. I couldn't believe them at first. Four out of the four were positive for the virus. So that's the virus there in the brain.
GUPTA (on camera): That's in the brain?
ZAKI: That's in the brain. You can see another area with the virus.
GUPTA: This is the first sample you looked at a child who was born and died within 24 hours?
ZAKI: This was the first case that we actually saw it in the brain of one of the children.
GUPTA: This is really what made the case. ZAKI: Yes.
GUPTA: That Zika was associated with these problems.
(voice-over): And that's important because correlation does not equal causation as they say. In order to be sure, they're going to need more time, and unfortunately more people infected.
He says it's like piecing a puzzle together.
ZAKI: It's a huge team effort. We have 30 staff members, including pathologists, microbiologists, talking about cases, what do you think? Is this real? Is it not real? What kind of infection are you suspecting in a clinical case? We depend a lot on the clinical information. It's not just looking at the slides, but we have to put it all together. Nobody can be 100 percent sure. You always have to keep in mind, could it be something else that could explain this and explore those possibilities.
GUPTA: The first time they saw the virus there was dread in the room.
ZAKI: I want to say excited, but you also want to have to feel devastated about the -- we always look at the case and think of, you know, what we're seeing. There's always somebody behind that, and outcome is sometimes not good. So you have to think about that to see the pictures of these babies that are being born, and some videos that are just very heartbreaking.
GUPTA: None of this is unfamiliar to the doctor, who has been involved in almost every major infectious disease outbreak and discovery throughout his nearly three decades with the CDC.
ZIKA: We've had a lot of experience, you know, with the anthrax back in 2001 or hanta virus. So you're seeing it for the first time.
GUPTA: Even with all he's seen, he says it's not an infectious disease that keeps him up at night.
ZAKI: My worry is always about missing the diagnosis. That's what I wake up at night sometimes, did I do this wrong, did I make sure everything -- all the "I"s are dotted and the "T"s are crossed?
GUPTA (on camera): These pictures represent some of the diagnoses that were made here?
ZAKI: Yes. Over the years, actually these were -- this is a case of, you know, spotted fever. If not treated, it's fatal.
GUPTA: What about this one over here?
ZAKI: This is a fungus ball in the lung of a patient who was immunosuppressed.
GUPTA: You think you're going to have Zika Virus on the wall here sometime soon? ZAKI: Yes.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:25:01] ALLEN: A new global study shows more than one in eight adults are obese, and that number is only going to get worse. The study published in "The Lancet" says, by 2025, one in five adults will be obese.
HOWELL: Still, the authors say excessively low body weight is a serious concern in the world's poorest regions. They say the obesity epidemic shouldn't overshadow the problem of people not getting enough to eat.
ALLEN: There's been a lot of talk about a contested Republican convention in the U.S. presidential race.
HOWELL: We'll see.
ALLEN: Up next, we break down the numbers to see how likely it could be.
HOWELL: Plus, the toughest contest of their careers. Players from the U.S. women's soccer team stake their claim for the same pay as their male counterparts. We'll tell you why the math is on their side as NEWSROOM continues.
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ALLEN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell.
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[02:30:23] ALLEN: U.S. presidential candidate, Donald Trump, met Thursday with the head of the Republican National Committee.
HOWELL: A party source says they talked about delegates and they talked about convention rules and the state of the race.
Our Ryan Nobles takes a look at the numbers involved to get that Republican nomination.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump is currently in the best position to win the Republican nomination, but he may need every day of the primary process in order to seal the deal before the convention comes to Cleveland in July.
Trump currently stands at 739 delegates, and there are three types of states that have still yet to vote. You have winner-take-all states, hybrid states which award their delegates based on a combination of the results in Congressional districts and some other standards, and proportional states, which award their delegates based on the overall vote total. Let's assume Trump continues at the same pace as he has throughout this primary process, and we'll award him all of the winner take all states, 76 percent of the delegates in hybrid states, and 49 percent of the delegates in proportional states. Now, if we were to do that, Trump would be at 1,138 delegates before the last day of voting on June 7th.
But June 7th is a big day. There are some big states voting, including California and New Jersey. There are 303 delegates at stake. But if Trump were to perform at the same clip, as you can see, he would easily get over the 1,237 mark and win the Republican nomination. But this is an unpredictable election. A lot could happen. Let's say Trump doesn't do as well in those hybrid states and we drop his performance to only 50 percent of the available delegates. Watch how the number changes, and he comes dangerously close to that 1,237 mark. And let's say he loses some winner-take-all states like Montana and Nebraska. If that were to happen, he would actually fall below the 1,237 mark, and we could be headed to a contested convention.
So as you can see, a lot can happen over the next several weeks. But right now, the delegate math shows us that Donald Trump is in the best position to win the Republican nomination.
In Washington, I'm Ryan Nobles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Ryan, thanks.
When it comes to math, Ohio Governor John Kasich presently has no mathematical chance of winning the Republican delegate count outright, but he is staying in the race.
ALLEN: Yes. The governor says he thinks he's in a good position to come out in a brokered convention in which no candidate has the majority of delegates in the first round of voting.
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JOHN KASICH, (R), OHIO GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ted Cruz needs about 90 percent of the delegates going forward to win. That's just not going to happen. And Trump needs about 60 percent, and that's not going to happen either. Look, when delegates go to a convention -- and I've been at conventions -- they get to be very serious about two things. One, who can win in the fall? And I'm the only one that consistently beats Hillary Clinton. Secondly, delegates feel the weight of decision on their shoulders, and they begin to think about who actually could run the country. Who has the experience? Who has the vision? Who's had success in the past?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: We'll just have to keep watching to see what happens. But you can, of course, get your political fix anytime on our
website. We've got the latest polls, election results, and in-depth reporting. You can find it at CNN.com/politics.
ALLEN: Now to a fight for a level playing field in the world of soccer. Players on the U.S. women's team are calling for equal pay to their male counterparts, citing better results and stronger financial returns. They've been winning. The women filed a complaint Wednesday evening with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That's the U.S. agency that enforces equal pay law.
Goalkeeper Hope Solo explained the decision to NBC's "Today" program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOPE SOLO, U.S. WOMENS SOCCER PLAYER: We continue to be told we should be grateful just to have the opportunity to play professional soccer and to get paid for doing it. And in this day and age, you know, it's about equality. It's about equal rights. It's about equal pay. We're pushing for that, and we believe now the time is right because we believe it's our responsibility for women's sports and specifically for women's soccer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: And the numbers are on their side. Make for a strong argument here. Male players can earn more than $17,000 for an exhibition match against a top opponent according to the court document. And they get no less than $5,000 even if the team loses. But women are paid a maximum of less than $5,000 even if they win every game. The men's team earned $9 million in the 2014 World Cup for losing in the round of 16 while the women made just $2 million when they won the 2015 championship.
The game's U.S. governing body released a statement reading the following, quote, "U.S. soccer will continue to be an advocate on the global soccer stage to influence and develop the women's game and evolve FIFA's compensation model." Notably, it did not give any specifics on that compensation.
[02:35:35] ALLEN: Earlier I spoke with sports commentator, John Bacon. He's the author of "End Zone, The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football." But he also knows a lot about the round ball as well. I asked whether the women were making a valid case for equality in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN BACON, SPORTS COMMENTATOR (voice-over): It should be noted also that the women's team itself has generated more money by far, by $20 million last year in 2015, than the men's team did. So their case is not only based on how much they're getting paid and how much they're winning, but how much money they're generating for the U.S. Soccer Federation. By those three bases right there, pretty clearly they should be getting paid at least as much as the men, they might even argue more than the men.
ALLEN: Can I ask you, is the reason that they're generating more money, does that come down to they're generating more interest because they're a hot team?
BACON: Winning does sell, doesn't it? Is certainly does help. In the U.S., with Title 9, there are millions and millions of girls playing soccer who revere these girls, these women, as their heroes, of course. So they've got a natural base of fans, men and women watch the women's game. And the men's soccer goalie, Tim Howard, a former men's star, Donovan, have come out strongly in favor of this action. So they've got the support, I think, almost of the entire nation.
ALLEN: And you've got this marquee, if you will, lawsuit because looking at them now, these are the stars of the U.S. women's soccer team. So this case, John, could become a touch stone in the debate that we're hearing in the election cycle about the pay gap between men and women, couldn't it?
BACON: I dare say it will be. In fact, you have to say the women, their timing could not be better. They won the World Cup, of course, last year in Canada, 2015. They won three of those. They've made more money than men. It is an Olympic year, 2016, in Rio. Trust me, the U.S. Soccer Federation, even the IOC simply has to have the American women there in order to get TV ratings. Finally as you pointed out, it is one of the craziest election cycles of all time. One of the items on the docket is fair pay for women, of course. This feeds exactly into all those agendas, and I think their odds of winning are excellent.
ALLEN: I want to ask you this. If these women prevail and they likely should, what do you think we will hear as far as will we, the reasoning that it hasn't been fair?
BACON: Man, we are dealing with irrational behavior, you'll get irrational answers. They're going to claim it's less popular. It's not. They're going to claim they're not as good. That's not true. They're World Cup champions. Any logical reason you can give me that they're not to be paid the same breaks down quickly. You're going to hear all kinds of crazy stuff, but it will be crazy stuff. The women here have got in my opinion, a rock solid case.
ALLEN: We look forward to the outcome, and we look forward to seeing what you write about it.
John Bacon, joining us.
Thank you so much, John.
BACON: Natalie, thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Of course, when there is an outcome, you'll hear it here. Go, gals.
HOWELL: Absolutely.
ALLEN: They're winning.
HOWELL: Just ahead here on NEWSROOM, a severe storm system is hammering parts of Mississippi. We are tracking the violent weather across the southeastern United States for you.
ALLEN: Also ahead, the world loses one of its most innovative architects. The life and designs of Zaha Hadid, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:42:28] HOWELL: We're following an active weather situation in the southeastern U.S. here in the Atlanta area. Tornadoes, possible flooding, and even hail hitting this area.
ALLEN: Parts of the southeastern United States are under tornado watches and warnings.
Karen MaGinnis is here with more about it.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We have seen -- this is a multi-day event, and it's not over yet. We saw the violent weather across Alabama, but not just there. There were four tornado reports, unofficial. This is the preliminary reports that we've seen across the Deep South. Violent weather has erupted as spring has sprung across the southeast. Very typical for this time of year. You're looking at northern Alabama. Here's Huntsville. Here's Birmingham. Right here is Priceville. You might see that bright red cell that moved across the region. That was indicative of the cell that produced the tornado, at least preliminarily that's what they're saying. Some damage. We did see reports of hail and high winds and trees and power lines down. But no reports, amazingly, of any injuries.
Now, it looks like as we go into the next 12 to 24 hours, the heaviest rainfall just in the vicinity of Atlanta, Georgia. But from Augusta, Georgia, all the way over to Montgomery, Alabama, in the Deep South, we could see as much as 6 inches of rainfall. Most areas not expecting that much. Nonetheless because of these lingering systems, the ground is saturated. We could see some localized flooding. Here are some of those tornado reports we had earlier in the evening. It's still a very volatile situation across the deep south, but now we're starting to see an increased amount of lightning in south central sections of Georgia and still lingering in Alabama although it looks like it's calming down because you don't get the heat of the day, and with those cooler temperatures, you're not going to see those thunderstorms fire up quite a bit. But this area of low pressure, you can see this on the water vapor imagery. This will move across the great lakes. This is a clipper system. They call it a clipper because it moves so quickly. But then as we go towards the weekend and then into Monday, those temperatures are going to be remarkably cold. April is just one of those fickle months you can never count on it.
Back to you guys. ALLEN: Thanks, Karen.
One of the world's most innovative architects as died. Zaha Hadid is known for her unconventional designs, which can be seen all over the world.
[02:44:57] HOWELL: Hala Gorani has a look at the incredible mark she made on modern architecture.
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HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Zaha Hadid's work can be seen in cities around the world, from Manhattan to Miami, Morocco and Moscow. She was known for her curvy, dramatic, and contemporary designs.
Among her most famous buildings, the London Aquatic Center built for the 2012 Olympic Games, the Maxi Museum in Rome, this colossal cultural center, and Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, the design that jump-started her career and the first museum in the U.S. designed by a female architect.
Born in Baghdad, she knew since she was a child that she was destined to build great things.
ZAHA HADID, ARCHITECT: I always wanted to be an architect since I was maybe, I don't know, 7, 8, 9, I can't remember now. I think I saw a show in Baghdad which intrigued me.
GORANI: She grew up in Iraq, studied math in Beirut, and left for London in the early 1970s to pursue her dream. She graduated from London's School of Architecture and established her own firm in 1979. She went on to design boundary pushing structures all over the world. And not just buildings. She came up with furniture, even shoes.
Her critics described her as the Lady Gaga of architecture. And she won numerous awards worldwide for her work.
Most notably, in 2004, she became the first woman to be awarded architecture's highest honor.
HADID: It's the "wow" factor. It's a fantastic day for me. It's a great deal for me.
GORANI: Hadid also said, as a non-British woman in London, she felt like an outsider at times. But added this sometimes worked in her favor, helping her break ground in a male-dominated field.
HADID: I'm an architect. I'm not just a woman architect.
GORANI: Zaha Hadid, a dame commander of the British Empire, and one of "Time" magazine's most influence people. Her legacy lives on in many skylines around the world.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
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[02:51:04] HOWELL: Welcome back to NEWSROOM. South Africa's highest court has ordered President Jacob Zuma to pay back part of the $15 million that he used to renovate his private residence. After an investigation in 2014, the president was ordered to reimburse the government for upgrades not related to the security of the home, like the swimming pool and the amphitheater.
ALLEN: But Mr. Zuma never paid the money back. On Thursday, the court said his failure to do so violated the constitution.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the president was required to do was to comply. Arguably, he did but only -- the president thus failed to uphold, defend, and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land.
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ALLEN: President Zuma says he will now cooperate with the ruling.
HOWELL: In the U.S. state of Alabama, Governor Robert Bentley is refusing to resign in the face of a deepening scandal over an alleged extramarital affair.
ALLEN: His top aide, the other woman named in that alleged affair, has now resigned from her position in the governor's office.
Here's CNN's Alina Machado.
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ROBERT BENTLEY, (R), ALABAMA GOVERNOR: Today, I want to apologize to the people of the state of Alabama.
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alabama Governor Robert Bentley under fire but refusing to resign after being accused of an affair with one of his top aides, Rebekah Mason.
The allegations surfaced after sexually explicit recordings of him became public.
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BENTLEY: When I stand behind you and I put my arms around and I put my hands on your breasts and I put my hands and pull you close, I love that, too.
(END AUDIO FEED) MACHADO: The 73-year-old Republican is the only voice heard on
the tape, but he public apologized to Mason and her family. The governor, who doesn't deny the legitimacy of the recordings, says they were made two years ago. At the time the governor and Mason each were married.
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BENTLEY: If we're going to do what we did the other day, we're going to have to start locking the door.
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BENTLEY: It was a period of time in my life that I -- that I have made inappropriate comments.
MACHADO: Bentley and his wife have since divorced. He maintains --
BENTLEY: I have never had a physical affair with Mrs. Mason. I can assure the people of Alabama that, as their governor, I have never done anything illegal.
MACHADO: The governor has been under mounting pressure to resign since Spencer Collier, the governor's former law enforcement chief, held a news conference last week to accuse Bentley of having an affair and inappropriately using resources to cover up that relationship. The governor fired Collier the day before for, for alleged wrongdoing.
At least one Alabama state lawmaker, Ed Henry, says he intends to start the impeachment process next week.
Mason, meanwhile, resigned from her post Wednesday, saying in a statement, "My only plans are to focus my full attention on my precious children and my husband, who I love dearly. They are the most important people in my life. Thank you for your prayers for our family."
Alina Machado, CNN, Miami.
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HOWELL: All right, for all you parents who might be traveling with kids at some point, Virgin Australia is introducing a new concept in air travel, 100 percent adult-free Kids Class.
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ANNOUNCER: Takeoff doesn't need to be a bore. Stories galore. Take your choice and seat in style, with hop scotch running down the aisle. And when you thought things couldn't get slicker, we've gone and built seats just for the kicker.
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ALLEN: For the nervous traveler, Kids Class also includes a customized teddy bear service and story time with bubbles on demand. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?
But, you see, it turns out it is all an elaborate April fool's prank. Sorry, kids, you can't kick the seat in front of you.
[02:55:20] HOWELL: April fools. Sorry about that.
Late night comedian, Jimmy Kimmel, is getting in on April fools as well. He unveiled what he called a bombshell revelation about the presidential race. Take a look at this.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I had no idea it would go this far.
TRUMP VOICE: No matter how insane I got, millions of you showed up to support me. Me, the guy who hosted "The Apprentice."
Enough is enough. It has to be stopped. It has to be stopped now.
April fools, America.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP VOICE: I'm not really running for president. It was a joke. Now, go vote for my friend, Hillary Clinton, and make America great again.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP VOICE: I can't believe you bought this crappy hat.
(LAUGHTER)
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ALLEN: Good one.
More to come.
HOWELL: That was April fools as well.
ALLEN: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: I'm George Howell.
We'll be back with more after the break with more news. Stay with us.
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