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At This Hour

Saudi King Snubs White House Initiation; Tornados Hit Small Texas Town; Homeland Security Secretary: Lone Wolf Could Strike U.S; Michelle Obama Talks Race, Treatment During Campaigns. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired May 11, 2015 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You do begin to wonder if the highest level of official not coming to meet with the president, does it undermine the whole point of this summit at Camp David in the first place?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it seems to. You lay it out there. This is a big summit with huge issues on the table. The Iran nuclear deal is something that could affect the entire world. This is something that's been so worrisome to other countries in that region and trying to work through this relationship. This is a good time to build that relationship. Why would they not come here? Part of it is maybe they see things differently. In a couple of instances it is health reasons that are keeping these monarchs behind but it doesn't look good, right? They're not showing up. It seems like there must be some element of them maybe not exactly quite expecting to get what they want from the White House at this time.

BOLDUAN: All right. Michelle Kosinski at the White House for us.

Michelle, thanks so much.

Later, we'll continue this discussion. Fareed Zakaria will join us giving us. He'll give us his take on why the Saudi king may have backed out of these White House meetings and meetings at Camp David as well.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have breaking news out of Van, Texas. At least 10 people now believed to be missing in that town hit by a tornado overnight. You can see the damage done right there. We are awaiting a news conference. We expect to get new information on the people missing. Also the possibility of fatalities. That news conference coming any minute. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:02] BERMAN: Happening now. 10 people are missing after a tornado hit the town of Van, Texas, 60 miles east of Dallas. These pictures are from moments ago. You can see the devastation for yourself. These people clearly picking through the rubble. So many people right now searching in this one area. You do wonder if perhaps they are looking for someone there. We are awaiting a news conference from Van to get the latest information on those missing. We should also tell you there are reports from local affiliates that there are fatalities as well. We will wait for confirmation on that from this news conference coming any minute.

Joining us, Meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, as you look at these pictures and these aerial images of Van, Texas. What can you tell about the size and path of this storm?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm looking at what I think to be an EF-3 tornado there. Weather service will be out looking at the damage later on today to determine what it really was. Now, you can't tell what the damage or the strength of a tornado by looking at a car or by looking at a trailer or by looking at anything made of aluminum or a tin roof or aluminum shed. Those things come apart quickly. It's the sound, stick, brick homes that weather service will go out and see how many damage occurred there.

What I see there is a damage path of less than half a mile. That's good news. All the homes there although this one here flattened, a lot of them to the left of that picture still standing. And to the right of the picture still standing. So we don't know the length of the path but probably less than a quarter mile, more like two blocks or three blocks.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Chad, that house -- the roof of that house was intact. It was just sitting on the ground. The rest of the home completely flattened. When you see this amount of devastation, you just really can't get over it. No matter the strength of the storm is the threat of it passed as these folks have to pick up the pieces?

MYERS: The threat of this area, yes. The threat of south Texas, no. The threat around Detroit, Michigan, no. From Flint to Detroit to Cleveland all of the way down to Cincinnati, you could see some storms like this moving through that area today. It's not over. A trough in the West. The ridge in the east. It's springtime. When that happens, you get that type of weather. We had a lot of rainfall. Watch out after dark for flooding. There are areas that have had six inches of rainfall. Some spots over 10. You can't get one more inch otherwise it's going to flood more.

BERMAN: Chad, a hundred miles from where we are looking at now, in Denton County, Texas, huge amounts of rainfall. They had flooding, all kinds of rescues in that area as well. In terms of rainfall will that follow the tornado possibilities as the storm moves east?

MYERS: Yes. Heavy rain will be from Memphis maybe to Nashville down to Jackson, Mississippi, and all of the way south even down to the gulf coast. The gulf coast does drain better than hillier areas in Arkansas or hillier areas across parts of Kentucky. When you funnel that water down a hill and get it into the creek down below, that's when you begin to really get the trouble. Water goes up quick and one storm after another training over the same area is where you see heaviest stuff. I believe the worst weather today will be down here across south Texas, San Antonio, the hill country, all the way towards Del Rio.

BOLDUAN: My gosh, you just feel horrible when you see these pictures. Daybreak just happened and folks are now starting to get back in their home. The threat is over. Lights coming up. This is what they are coming home to. We'll cover this.

Chad, thank you so much.

Again, we're awaiting a news conference in Van, Texas, that could happen at any time to figure out when they get a better handle of what they're dealing with in that town. We'll bring that to you as soon as it comes. Pictures are horrible.

Also ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, the secretary of the Homeland Security says a lone wolf could strike in the U.S. at any moment. Hear why he says the United States is facing a new era now in the fight against ISIS.

BERMAN: And Michelle Obama talks about race and she talks about her treatment over the course of the last two presidential campaigns. Surprising introspective comments a lot of people are discussing today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:42] BOLDUAN: Is it a snub or just bad timing? Saudi Arabia's new king was supposed to attend a meeting of gulf leaders at Camp David along with a one-on-one meeting with President Obama.

BERMAN: Now King Salmon pulled out of those meetings. The Saudis saying he needs to oversees upcoming cease-fire with Yemen but is there more to it?

I want to bring in Fareed Zakaria, the host of "Fareed Zakaria, GPS."

Fareed, to me, it seemed odd that the Saudis as recently as last week said, sure, the king is coming. He'll go to that meeting and now today they are saying not so fast. You think I'm being too hard?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA, GPS: No, I think we may be misinterpreting it, overly misinterpreting in the sense that the Saudis are in many ways displeased with American foreign policy. They want us to fight their wars for them. But remember, this guy is 79 years old. He's had a stroke. There are rumors that his health is even worse. He's also the richest guy in the world. He runs an absolute monarchy. When is the last time the Saudi king came to the United States? The Crawford summit 10 years ago now was crown Prince Abdullah. The last time the Saudi king came to the United States. These guys are usually deputized crown prince. I was surprised they would announce he would come and suspicious it might not happen.

BOLDUAN: Does it undermine he's not going and there are other leaders of gulf nations that won't be going. Does it undermine the purpose of going to Camp David or do you think that it still matters? A meeting with President Obama and king Saudi Arabia said he would go but now not going, does it undermine the gathering at all? ZAKARIA: Well, the guy who is coming from Saudi Arabia is the second

most powerful person in the country, so you do have somebody --

BOLDUAN: The decision maker will be there.

ZAKARIA: Yeah, the decision maker. In the case of Bahrain, it's a small issue. This is a balancing act. The United States is trying to have a new relationship with Iran while at the same time not getting Iran's great foes highly upset. It's a difficult balancing act and at any given week it's going to look like one side is more upset than the other.

BERMAN: Let's talk about ISIS. They'll talk about it at this meeting. You have a big show on tonight, an hour special on the battle against ISIS, and Homeland Security Jeh Johnson talking about challenges in the battle against ISIS. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:45:] JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Because of the use of the Internet, we could have little or no notice in advance of an independent actor attempting to strike. That's why law enforcement at the local level needs to be every more vigilant and we're constant reminding them to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Is social media the big game changer that these officials make it sound like?

ZAKARIA: It is the big game changer. It's the place where ISIS innovated a lot. In the special, we have a whole segment on that. They figured out a way to get their message out to a broad number of people. They are well made. They are short. They are designed to go viral. They are so brutal and so shocking that they reach hundreds of millions and then they affect the few thousands moved by this in a positive way. It's weird but it's .1 percent of the people who watch. They understand the dynamic. It's almost a direct marketing approach. Brilliantly. That means that there are going to be people out there who were influenced by this and how you do and how you respond to that is tough to know. The good news is it means that you're not talking about large scale attacks. You are talking about entrepreneurial attacks that come out of the blue but not the ones that take major planning, money, time.

BERMAN: Harder to stop in some cases and still dangerous.

Fareed Zakaria --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: They have the affect of being a terrorist attack.

BERMAN: Sounds like a fascinating special. You can hear much more on the threat from ISIS from Fareed. The special is called, "Blind- sided," 9:00 p.m. eastern. How ISIS shook the world. Who are these people and what do they want? Fareed reports on that tonight CNN, 9:00 p.m. eastern.

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Fareed.

Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, Michelle Obama opening up about race and speaking candidly about race, politics and becoming first lady. We'll speak with someone who worked alongside her at the White House to get insight as she made a passionate speech over the weekend.

BERMAN: Plus, we're awaiting a news conference from Van, Texas. A third of that town severely damaged by a storm. A news conference coming up. We're expecting a status report on 10 people still missing. Our live coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:18] BERMAN: First Lady Michele Obama discussing the issue of race and the role that it played leading up to the president's first election. She was talking about this at a commencement address. She spoke to the graduating class at Tuskegee University on Saturday and said she believes during the 2008 campaign she was treated differently than the spouses of other candidates because of her race. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud or too angry or too emasculating?

(CHEERING)

OBAMA: Or was I too soft, too much of a mom? Not enough of a career woman?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That was just one of many things that she said. You really should take a look at the passionate speech by the first lady.

Joining us to discuss this now, from Washington, chief political analyst, Gloria Borger; and CNN contributor, Van Jones, also a form adviser to the Obama administration.

Van, I want to ask you, not only did she talk about what you heard there but she also talked about the controversial "New Yorker" cover. Everyone will remember this from 2008. During this commencement speech, the first lady said that this in and of itself knocked her back a bit. Being really candid about talking about the frustrations and the fact that she had many sleepless nights worrying about what people thought about her. What do you think about what she said?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: You know, I was really moved by her comments. I have a twin sister named Angela, she's tall, very dark skinned, very beautiful, you know, just like Michele Obama. When I saw that cover, and I saw here's this woman she's gone to Princeton, has a law degree, attorney, and being portrayed as a black panther throwback, some ways it was satire, "New Yorker today to make fun of the perceptions, can my sister or anybody who looks like my sister take the public stage highly educated and not somehow be seen in this negative light and there were many other things, the terrorist -- she gave a fist pump to her husband and FOX News said it was a terrorist fist jab. We were like wait a minute, that's not a terrorist anything. It was I think a tough moment for black women watching how she was being received by parts of the country in ways we were shocked by. I thought it was good she was speaking to that.

BERMAN: Gloria, this was controversial back in 2008. I mean this cover was controversial, it was discussed, a lot of the treatment of Michele Obama was controversial and it was discussed. Is what's different now that the first lady herself is opening up and discussing this in these very public forums as the administration begins to wind itself down in the final year or so?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: There's a certain liberation I think that comes when you realize you're no longer going to be in the public eye and your husband's not going to run for re- election. I don't know what political future holds for Michele Obama. She says she's not running for anything. There is that liberation which tends to lead to this kind of reflection. I think what was astonishing to me was how honest she was about it, not only running as an African-American woman, but also the difficulties, I looked at it, of running as the spouse of a presidential candidate because you are under a different kind of looking glass, no matter what your color, right, and you're finding your way. You're finding your issues, you're finding your balance, and remember, she had that big difficulty when she said for the first time in my life, I'm proud of my country because I see hope and then Cindy McCain came back and said, I've always been proud of my country. That created a firestorm for her. So I think she's kind of walking these students through not only what it was like to be black, and run for first lady, but also, what the spotlight can do to you if you're careful not to let it usurp your soul, right, and she said, you know, be who you are.

[11:55:39] BERMAN: And Gloria, that's one of the things --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I want to get your take Van, real quick. There have been calls for years from the African-American community, both Obamas should speak out more forcefully with regards to race and in the impact that -- and the impact they -- the impact they can have on the discussion of race. Why do you think they speak out now?

JONES: Well, I do think that they feel a little bit more free to do so because there's not another election. I want to say what's amazing is that Michele Obama went from being someone who was under so much suspicion and fire, she's now one of the most popular and beloved figures in the country. She was able to fight her way through, to work through, embrace veterans and do those things that have put her I think on a pedestal. Bill Clinton spoke much more forcefully about race, had a commission on race, talked about it all the time. I think that the African-American community felt at least in the first several years, that Obama could have done that and did not want to. So I do want to say, the good news here is that Michele Obama fought her way through all of that and is one of the most beloved figures in the country.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Gloria, we've ran out for this hour.

Gloria, great to see you. Thank so much. Van, thank you as well.

And thank you all for joining us AT THIS HOUR.

BERMAN: "Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield" starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[12:00:11] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to "Legal View."