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Suicide Truck Bombing in Baghdad; Deadly Florida Storms; President Bush Visits House Democrats
Aired February 03, 2007 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the good lord had his way. And we will -- we will survive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A survival story you're hearing right there.
Welcome back, everybody. We're coming to you this morning from Lady Lake, Florida, central Florida.
And T.J., the pictures that you're looking at, what we're seeing on the ground here, is absolutely devastating. We're going to update you on just how bad it is and what they're doing today in the aftermath coming up -- T.J.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad. Thank you so much.
I'm here, of course, at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Of course, Soledad is all over that big story there in Florida.
But we've got another bit story that we're chasing this morning. That's President Bush, who is pretty much walking into the lion's den, scheduled to speak at the Democratic House conference this hour in Williamsburg. No doubt, he is going to get an earful.
We are all over those two stories. But first, another big story, breaking news from Baghdad.
A suicide truck driver launches an attack on a crowded market in central Baghdad. Forty-five people were killed, 90 others injured.
We want to get to CNN's Arwa Damon, who's joining us now live in Baghdad.
Arwa, what can you tell us about this attack?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., this blast was absolutely devastating. Hospital officials are greatly concerned that that death toll is only going to rise. At least 45 killed now, over 90 wounded when a suicide truck bomber exploded in the middle of a busy marketplace.
The blast happened at about 4:45 local time. This is just before it begins to get dark and everyone begins to go home. Shoppers out at this time, making the marketplace incredibly busy, trying to get in that last-minute shopping before night falls here.
We are told that this is a marketplace that is one of Baghdad's older marketplaces, very traditional. You can pretty much buy everything there. It is called the Sadria (ph) marketplace.
It's a actually a mixed area. Sunni, Shia and Kurds are there. But we have seen this rather concerning increase in suicide bombings over the last few weeks. In fact, if you just remember two days ago, there was that devastating double suicide bombing that happened in the southern city of Hilla -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Arwa Damon following that story for us.
A devastating blast, 45 killed, and expected to go higher, as you say there. Thank you so much, Arwa.
Meanwhile, of course, we are covering that other big story here in the U.S., Florida and those devastating storms. Want to head back to our Soledad O'Brien, who's been covering that for us this morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, T.J. Thanks.
You know, we've had a little bit of thunderstorms here. And you saw some lightning a little bit earlier, so we put our hats on. We're going to try to make our way -- the rain stopped, thankfully.
I want to show you a little bit of damage up close.
And John, if you come this way, here's the biggest problem at this point.
Look at these nails. And I'm going do my best to avoid them. But this is a real problem now.
People are in there, they're working on trying to do some cleaning up and picking through, but all over the place are nails this in structures, still, or sometimes they're just loose. It's really damaging.
And if you take a look at -- John, can we have a shot of this tree right here, where you can see the roots straight ahead there?
Look at that. I mean, imagine the force of a wind that can uproot a tree of that size and literally pull it right out of the ground. It's pretty remarkable here. And in the aftermath, I think folks today are kind of just walking around and getting a sense of just how bad the damage is.
Not very far from where we are right now, there's Griffin View Drive, and you can see the trees. It's almost like a cliche, T.J., I know, but like matchsticks. I mean, just broken off, one after hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trees. That's right where this mobile park is where two people we know now are reported to have died in the storms. And in the mobile home what you see are just sheet metal just shredded. I mean, "shredded" is the only word you can use because it's kind of just lying in the trees. It's all over the place.
A massive slew, just a mess as this point. And it's sort of like this, but on a much bigger scale.
The guy who lives here, Mr. Suggs, Gene Suggs, was able to pull his wife out to safety. And this is all that remains of his house. The good new for Mr. Suggs -- watch the nails, John -- and for other people, too -- I'm going to get this out of the way -- is that the insurance adjusters are already on site. That's great news.
We've seen the guys who come down and cut down the trees. They're working really hard. A bunch of them are out as well.
And so there's movement. There's a little progress here. And the sun is out, too, which is some good news. We had a little bit of rainstorms.
I want to bring you over now to the sheriff, Gary Borders. He is the Lake County sheriff. And we've asked him to update you a little bit.
Sir, thank you for talking with us. I certainly appreciate your time.
SHERIFF GARY BORDERS, LAKE COUNTY, FLORIDA: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you.
I know that at one point this turned from being a search and rescue to a recovery. Do you feel like the number 20, which is the number of deceased in this county, is what it is, it's not going to go higher?
BORDERS: Well, we're hoping it doesn't go higher. We are still doing some searches, but we feel like the number 20 is probably where we're going to be.
O'BRIEN: Probably pretty realistic. The damage that we have seen is just -- I mean, I guess I'm always amazed by the power of a tornado.
You've been here a while. What do you make of this?
BORDERS: Well, it's the worst that I've seen in the 18 years that I've been with this agency. And it's just total destruction. It just looks like an explosion.
O'BRIEN: It really does. I know yesterday I ran into some of your men and women who were protecting some of the most damaged sites, because I guess the homeowners were gone, but there was some concerns about looting and really protecting the citizens, too, so that they wouldn't come back into their homes.
Did you have any reports of looting? Do you feel good about the security of Lake County right now? BORDERS: Well, I do. The residents have been so cooperative. And we really haven't had a problem. But we're going to keep an increased presence of patrol in these areas just to make sure.
O'BRIEN: When you look at some of this damage -- and it's about to -- both sunny and raining. I guess that's a Florida thing -- you know, you look at these trees that are just snapped off, and you've been down here for a while. It must be mind-boggling to you.
BORDERS: It really is. It makes you respect Mother Nature. The tornadoes, they really are very destructive. And, you know, now we're just into a support role trying to help the residents and provide -- provide them some needs and water and stuff.
We've got work crews out here trying to help them get some trees out of the way. And we're just trying to be here for them right now.
O'BRIEN: Yes. We can hear the noise of them trying to cut down some of those trees, which is noisy, but great -- a great sound, really, because it's a sound of progress, I guess.
BORDERS: It is. It is. We're just here -- yes, we're just trying to clear some debris to help them try to locate some of their stuff.
O'BRIEN: Sheriff Borders, thank you so much. I appreciate you now standing out in the -- what is quite a rainstorm here. Not helpful to anybody. But you know what's interesting? Nobody's moving. Everybody continues to do their work.
We appreciate it, Sheriff. Thank you.
BORDERS: All right. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: And T.J., we'll throw it right back to you.
HOLMES: All right. We were --- we were afraid that was going to happen. But it sounds like it is coming down on you there.
O'BRIEN: It's Florida.
HOLMES: All right, Soledad. Thank you so much.
And she's been showing us those pictures this morning. Pretty amazing as you look at them, the ones we saw yesterday, the pictures we're seeing from her today, that you realize that most people actually made it out alive, many of them crawling literally from the rubble.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is your room?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We grabbed her from there with our little Chihuahua. We ran, and as we were running, the stuff was coming -- the whole walls were coming down around us all the way through.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What were you thinking? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't. I was freaking out. All I could think of was, God, please let us make it through this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wind just picked me up and bounced me down about four times, and each time it bounced me down I got another bang and a bruise. So I'm -- I'm all right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were blown up. The home was blown. I think they found them down near the lake, dead, a lady and a man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've got a skylight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have one now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard -- I said, "That's a tornado. We have got to get someplace." We got in the closet, and there we stood, and he was over me in the closet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My grand baby, my niece, my nephew. Wonderful, wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The good lord had his way. And he will -- we will survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And we do expect to hear more from Florida's governor about the deadly storms. We expect to hear that next hour, Governor Charlie Crist.
Also FEMA director David Paulison, he'll lead a news conference at 11:00 Eastern. When that happens, we will bring that to you live. And CNN's coverage of the storm destruction in Florida will resume in just a moment, but we need to turn to politics.
An important political story unfolding in just a few minutes, actually. President Bush expected to speak to House Democrats, a lot of them, just about all of them, actually, who are gathered this weekend in Williamsburg, Virginia.
White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano and senior political analyst Bill Schneider join us now to put this unusual meeting into context.
Good morning to you both.
Elaine, I will start with you.
They extended an invitation, and he actually said yes. What is going on?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, T.J. -- good morning to you. He has done this before, but really it's been six years. When he first came into office, he did this six years ago. But now, of course, is an interesting time.
Aides say that the president obviously is going to try to strike a buy partisan tone, reaching out to Democrats to try to find some common ground, much like he tried to do in the State of the Union Address, focusing really on his domestic agenda, areas where there are perhaps agreements between the White House and Democrats, issues like education, energy, healthcare, and immigration among them.
But, of course, it is the president's foreign policy that has so angered many Democrats, and that's going to perhaps be reflected, T.J., in the way things are going to unfold. We're going to hear the president make some on-camera remarks before the Democrats there, and then there will be a closed question-and-answer session, and you can be sure these House Democrats are going to really try to express their concerns, their reservations, their anger over the way the president has handled the Iraq war.
After that closed question-and-answer session, though, interestingly, the president is going to be appearing with the House Democratic leadership. We don't know -- we're not sure if there are going to be questions taken at that point, but he'll be appearing for this joint statement, as the White House is calling it.
But this, of course, this visit here, is coming on the heels of that blistering national intelligence estimate on Iraq, an estimate that, in fact, even administration officials concede paint a very stark picture of the situation on the ground in Iraq, of the continuing violence, the sectarian violence that is occurring there. And it's also coming as the president is trying to convince skeptical lawmakers that his new Iraq plan can work. That plan, of course, to send some 21,000-plus additional U.S. troops to bolster Iraqi forces and try to quell the violence in Baghdad and the Al Anbar Province.
So, T.J., it's going to be what's interesting to see what's going to play out publicly here, and interesting as well afterwards to hear what took place in those private moments -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Elaine, you talk about how that might play out.
Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst, let's bring you in here.
What could that tone possibly be like when these two -- these two sides, the president and the Democrats, who pretty much booted the president's party out of Congress -- out of power, at least, in Congress, what kind of tone can we expect to see publicly and behind closed doors, even?
Are Democrats just going to go after him?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I thing publicly they're going to be respectful. He's the president of the United States. Reasonably polite. But once those doors get closed and the press leaves, I think you're going to find some very tough questions. Respectful, but very tough questions, primarily about the war in Iraq, but perhaps also about some other issues the president is talking about.
How's this for a hostile audience? We looked at our last poll taken a couple of weeks ago in January, and looked at how Democrats around the country, Democratic voters, feel about President Bush. Among Democrats, his job approval rating is 8. Single digits -- 8.
Ninety-one percent of Democratic voters disapprove of the way President Bush is doing his job. That's what you call an extremely hostile audience.
HOLMES: Reasonably polite. I like how you put that.
Also, we're standing by here -- we want to update our viewers as well. We're keeping an eye on that truck bombing that we saw in Baghdad, that breaking news out of Baghdad today, a suicide truck bomber. Well, the death toll has now gone up to 55 who have been killed in that truck -- suicide truck bombing.
A truck driver launching that attack on a crowded market. We heard from our Arwa Damon that we actually expected that toll to go up. So, indeed, it has, to 55 -- 125 also have been injured in that.
So I don't know if those numbers will be final numbers, but certainly expect that possibly that that number could go up.
Meanwhile, still, we're standing by to hear the president's address, the Democratic House conference. Yes, the Democrats, the House.
Again, we're checking in with our Elaine Quijano, who's at the White House, senior political analyst Bill Schneider. They are both -- just heard from them, and they're standing by to tell us what this all means.
We're going to chitchat with them as we see the president, hear his remarks, see what he has to say. They're standing by for us.
Meanwhile, we're also keeping an eye on what's happening in Florida. Lady Lake Church of God, built to withstand 155-mile-per-hour winds. You can see what the storm, however, did to that building. Thirty minutes from now we'll talk with the pastor as the cleanup there begins.
Also, weather moving through Florida right now. Bonnie Schneider in the weather center keeping an eye on that for us.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: We're going to take a quick break here, continue to update you on the breaking news out of Baghdad. Also, keeping an eye on President Bush addressing Democrats today, and, of course, the situation in Florida.
Stay right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We want to update you again on the breaking news out of Baghdad. These numbers continue to change literally by the minute.
A suicide truck driver, truck bombing in a crowded market. The death toll now stands at 80, and 150 hurt.
Again, this was a bombing at a crowded market in central Baghdad that happened on this Saturday. This destroyed stores, cars.
We heard from our Arwa Damon, live in Baghdad. Expected the toll could possibly go up, and that, indeed, is what has happened. Again, this was in a crowded market, a mixed area of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
We're keeping an eye on this breaking news story out of Baghdad. Again, 80 dead, 150 hurt in a suicide truck bombing at a crowded Baghdad market.
Also back here in the U.S., in Williamsburg, Virginia, keeping an eye on an important and maybe a bit unusual political story here. That podium expecting the president of the United States to address a crowd like he doesn't usually address. It's a crowd full of Democrats, House Democrats, at their retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia.
They invited the president to speak. He has shown up. He will make remarks to that group of House Democrats who are there actually to celebrate privately their victory in the election back in November. But he will address them and then have a closed question-and-answer session with the Democrats there at the resort there -- at their retreat there in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Stay with us. We're covering all these stores for you right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Again, we're keeping an eye on this podium here in Williamsburg, Virginia, where President Bush is expected to at any moment address House Democrats who are there for a conference and a retreat. They invited the president to speak. He will speak to him, and then he will take a private question-and-answer period.
We're standing by and monitoring that. When we do see the president step up for his remarks, we will bring those to you live.
Meanwhile, we will head to Baghdad and breaking news out of Baghdad, in Iraq, where dozens are dead following a suicide truck bombing attack. This happened just a short time ago in a crowded market in central Baghdad. The death toll we have been keeping an eye on. It has been rising by the minute, literally.
Right now it's at 80-some, 150 others are wounded. The explosions destroyed stores and cares.
CNN's Arwa Damon is in Baghdad. She'll have live updates throughout the day for us.
(NEWSBREAK)
HOLMES: Again, we've been keeping an eye on the severe weather, of course, that hit Florida. Also, still a little weather, not so severe, but still something worth keeping an eye on moving through there right now.
Bonnie Schneider keeping an eye on that for us in the weather center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: We do want to head now to the president of the United States in Williamsburg, Virginia, speaking to House Democrats at this Democrat conference there.
We'll listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I appreciate you all supporting this fine woman into a really important leadership role.
(APPLAUSE)
On our way in, we spent a little time talking about Florida, and I talked to the governor yesterday. The speaker was concerned, as am I, to make sure that the folks get the help that they need down there.
And Madame Speaker, you and I and every member here shares concerns for those whose lives were turned upside down by that storm, and as I told you earlier and told the governor, whatever response is needed, we will make it quick and sure.
And so thank you for your concerns.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm glad to be here with Steny Hoyer.
Good to see you. Thank you, Steny.
He's a down-to-earth no-nonsense guy.
I'm looking forward to working with you.
(APPLAUSE)
James Clyburn and Rahm Emanuel and John Larson, and all the leadership, I'm -- I'm looking forward to working with you. I know you probably heard that, and you doubt whether it's true. It's true.
We can do some big things together. And in order to do big things, we're going to have to do it together. So I'd like to share some of the thoughts about the big things I'd like to see us try to accomplish.
First, balancing the budget. That's a big thing.
(APPLAUSE)
Rob Portman is going to submit a budget tomorrow. Some of it you'll like, some of it you won't like, but it achieves the goal that we have set, which is to balance the budget. And we will show you how do so in five years.
You will have your own ideas. And we can work together hopefully to achieve that big goal.
Inherit in the budget issue is whether or not -- is unfunded liabilities as a part of entitlement programs. This is a difficult issue for members of both parties. I fully understand it's hard to come to the table to address Social Security or Medicare, the unfunded liabilities inherent in those programs.
I've asked members of my party to come to the table with ideas. I will bring ideas. I asked members of the Democratic Party to come to the table as well. I believe we have an obligation to work to solve the problem.
(APPLAUSE)
Is it going be hard work? You bet it's hard work.
You know, a lot of times people say, "Well, why don't we just wait for the crisis to come upon us?" Well, I think the crisis is here. That's why I've included reforms of entitlement in every State of the Union Address. And I'm going to keep talk about it.
Well, I've got one more left. I'll keep talking about it for the next time as well. Hopefully I won't have to if we're able to sit and come together.
But I'm under no illusions of how hard it's going to be. The only thing I want to share with you is my desire to see if we can't work together to get it done.
Secondly, I'm -- there's a great goal to make sure that every child has got the foundation necessary to be able to enjoy the great opportunities our country affords. As you know, I am a big believer in the No Child Left Behind Act. I think has worked.
I fully recognize that some have got concerns about it. And I'm willing to work with both Republicans and Democrats to address those concerns. My only admonition is, let us don't water down the accountability inherent in this good law that enables us to detect problems early so we can solve the problem before it's too late.
Secondly, I know we can work together on passing the American Competitiveness Initiative aimed at making sure that math and science is more prevalent amongst our youngsters, and doubling the amount of basic research at the federal level which will enable our country to remain the most innovative country in the world.
(APPLAUSE)
Thirdly, we've got to make sure people have got health insurance. I mentioned this in the State of the Union. I believe the role of the federal government is to help to poor, the disabled, and the elderly, and we will work with you to make sure that's happened. But I also think it's very important to figure out why health insurance is less affordable and less available for more of our citizens. I believe part of the reason is because the tax code discourages private individuals from being able to purchase health care. I ask you to carefully consider the idea that we have put out.
I've already heard from some members who thought it was a lousy idea. I understand that, but please look at it in depth as a way to address an issue that concerns us all and that is not enough people having health insurance. Secondly, I strongly believe the states are the proper laboratories for change. And I think it makes sense to encourage innovation at the state level in terms of helping people on Medicaid get health insurance, helping the poor get health insurance, making sure that we develop risk pools to enable those who cannot afford insurance because of health reasons have coverage. Anyway, it's a comprehensive approach that addresses a common goal of ours.
Thirdly, let's set a goal to reduce our gasoline use by 20 percent over the next 10 years. And I thank you very much for receiving the idea that the country has advanced enough technologically to be able to have a mandatory fuel standard that encourages the use of renewables and alternatives up to 37 billion gallons by 2017. We have spent a lot of money on developing new technologies. I look forward to working with you to continue to do so.
There's some concern, I know, among some of the farm state congressmen that when you use a lot of corn for ethanol, it's going to rise -- it's going to cause the feed for hogs and cattle to rise. I've heard loud and clear those complaints. And to a certain extent they're right. As a matter of fact, that is why we need to spend money on cellulostic (ph) ethanol to make sure that we've got substitute raw material that we'll be able to replace corn as the main raw material for the ethanol in order to achieve a great goal. And I'm looking forward to working with you on it. It's an area where we can show the American people, the Republican party, the Democratic party has got the capability of enabling us to be able to say to the people, by being less dependent on oil, we've enhanced our national security. We've helped our economic security and we've done something positive on the environment.
I believe a great goal is a comprehensive energy -- immigration bill. Now, this too is a difficult issue. In order to get is done, it's going to require members in the House and the Senate, Republican members, Democratic members finding common ground and the White House wants to help. I believe strongly in this issue. I know that in order to enforce our border which all of us wants -- all of here want to do, that we must have a comprehensive plan to be able to do so. I believe it's in the nation's interests to have a temporary worker program. It's in the interests of small business owners and farmers to be able to have folks that are willing to do work Americans are not doing on a temporary basis.
I know that in order to enforce this border, we'd better have a plan that doesn't cause people to sneak in. We want our border patrol agents guarding the border from criminals and drug dealers and terrorists, not from folks that are coming to do jobs that Americans aren't doing. And so this is an important issue. And I repeat, I want to work with you on it. You know, I went to the oval office to address it because I believe strongly that we can achieve an objective. I'm under no illusions as to how hard it's going to be, but it will be a lot easier when Republicans and Democrats work together to achieve this important objective.
We share a common goal, and that is to keep America safe. You know, I welcome debate in a time of war. And I hope you know that. Nor do I consider anybody's -- nor do I consider a belief that if you don't happen to agree with me, you don't share the same sense of patriotism I do. You can get that thought out of your mind, if that's what some believe.
These are tough times. And yet there's no doubt in my mind that you want to secure this homeland just as much as I do. You remember the lessons of September 11th just like I do and you understand a fundamental obligation of government is to do everything in our power to protect people here. And I'm looking forward to working with you on that to make sure our intelligence agencies have what they need to be able to detect problems before they come, to continue to secure the homeland. I believe we can work together in Afghanistan to make sure that former safe haven is able to grow as a democracy.
I put out a plan that has caused a lot of debate on Iraq. I took a lot of time thinking about how best to achieve an objective of a country governing and sustaining and defending itself, a country that will be an ally on this war on terror. I listened to many members here. I listened to members of my own party. I listened to the military and came up with a plan that I generally believe has the best chance of succeeding. I do know we agree on some things and that is that the Maliki government is going to have to show strong leadership.
I appreciate the fact that the speaker and many of the distinguished chairmen came and briefed me on their trip. She said loud and clear, Mr. President, you've got to make it clear to the Iraqi people that their government has got to perform and I understand that. I agree with madam speaker. There's got to be success not only on the military front, in other words, the Iraqis have got to be taking a lead in Baghdad to secure its capital. But there's also got to be success on the political front. They've got to pass an oil law. They got to amend their constitution so that all segments of that society feel that the government is for them.
They've got to spend their money on reconstruction projects that help unite the country. They got to have local elections so people feel involved in the provincial governments. In other words, there's benchmarks that they have got to achieve. And I had made that clear to the Iraqi government just like I made it clear to the American people. Our commitment is not open-ended. We've got other equities in foreign policies that I know we can work together on. I cannot thank you enough for supporting the HIV/AIDS initiative on the continent of Africa.
It's a pleasure to be able to stand up in front of the American people and say your tax dollars have made a significant difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And this plan would not have been funded without the able leadership and support of many people here in this building and I appreciate that. We set another great goal and that's to reduce malaria in countries on the continent of Africa and I'm convinced we can work together with a strategy that will work. I mean it's -- I promised -- promised people in my state of the union that we will continue to pursue freedom in places like Cuba or Bailarous (ph) or Burma and that we'll continue to rally the world to stay focused on Darfur.
And so this is a bold agenda for all of us and I agree, madam speaker, there's a chance to show people that we can get beyond the politics of Washington, DC, that we're able to treat each other with civility and at the same time accomplish big goals. And so I've come at your kind invitation to assure the members that I look forward to working with you and doing the best we possibly can do for the good of all American citizens. Thank you for having me.
HOLMES: All right. There you have the president wrapping up, speaking to a group he doesn't usually get to speak in front of like this -- Democrats -- Democrat House conference happening in Williamsburg, Virginia. They invited him. He accepted. This session here, the speech, was open to reporters, open to the press. He will go into another closed session where he will do a Q and A. We'll certainly expect a lot of issues to come up. But certainly Iraq will be one of those big issues. I want to bring back in our White House correspondent Elaine Quijano and also senior political analyst Bill Schneider who've been listening in. Elaine Quijano, what stood out to you listening to the president?
QUIJANO: Hello again to you T.J.. A couple of things actually. We heard the president lay out as we expected some of the same themes that he talked about in his state of the union address. But interesting to note he got, of course, applause when he talked about immigration in particular. This has been a difficult issue for the GOP. In fact, it is House Republicans who so staunchly oppose the president's ideas on immigration, particularly the idea of the temporary worker program.
But you heard the president there getting some warm applause from the Democrats in the audience when he talked about his desire to see a comprehensive immigration bill. There are many within the Republican Party who would very much like to move past the immigration issue. It is deeply divisive and one that has certainly again pitted House Republicans against this White House.
But the president as well talking about the general political tone, interesting to note obviously reaching out as we had expected to Democrats, essentially saying, look, let's sort of set aside the acrimony in the past, but this is the same president who in the heat of the mid term election of the battle the season, the president calling Democrats the party of cut and run. But the president not staying away, T.J., from the issue that, of course, is in many ways the elephant in the room, Iraq. That is the issue that has so deeply angered Democrats. The president getting some applause there when talking about the need to press Prime Minister Maliki, the president basically trying to send the message T.J.. He understands that the U.S. wants very much to see pressure from this administration brought to bear on Prime Minister Maliki to come through so Iraqis can take over security for their country.
HOLMES: All right. Elaine, thank you. Bill Schneider, bring you in, why can't we see more of this? They seem to -- everybody get along and everybody's in a room. They're giving him some applause and a reason to be polite as you phrased it earlier, but then we've seen it happen before, then they all go to their respective press conferences and start lobbing bombs at each other.
SCHNEIDER: He started talking about the broad goals, which both parties share and he dwelt only on the things generally that they agree on, these broad goals, not about the specifics of most of these policies, particularly on Iraq. He didn't talk about the true buildup that he's called for and he didn't talk about specifically the money that it's going to cost. Those are areas of intense disagreement.
The reason why there was so much amity in that room is he talked about things the Democrats can generally support him on, like pressuring the Maliki government to make concessions and to find a political settlement in Iraq. Democrat after Democrat has said over and over again there has to be a political resolution to this conflict. It can't simply be done by military means. He talked about the fact that the commitment of the United States in Iraq is not open ended. That bound to get cheers and applause from a Democratic audience. As for things they disagree on, the president just didn't talk about them very much. It took him about 15 minutes before he even brought up Iraq. He spent most of the time talking about domestic issues where there are some goals that both parties share like health insurance for all. The question is, how do you get there?
HOLMES: How do you get there? Maybe they'll be constructive in the Q and A that's closed to the press where the Democrats are going to get a chance to ask him some very frank questions. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider, thank you, also White House correspondent Elaine Quijano, thank you for chiming in as well.
And folks, stay with us. We're following news on several fronts including a breaking story out of Baghdad where there's been a suicide truck bombing that has killed, the death toll up around 100 now. We'll bring you the latest on that. Also of course, we're keeping an eye on Florida and the devastation there as people wake up to an absolute nightmare trying to get through some of the rubble. The death toll there from those storms, deadly storms, at least one tornado is now is at 20. Stay here. We'll be back after a quick break.
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HOLMES: If you are just joining us, we want to continue to update this breaking story out of Baghdad whether there's been a suicide truck bombing at a busy market in Baghdad where the death toll continues to rise and it's now at 102 that have been killed in this bombing and some 200 injured. We are getting our first pictures of the devastation. We want to warn you we're just getting this video. Some of it is unedited, so some of it may by disturbing of some of the injured. But these are some of the first pictures we are now getting. You can see here the hospital -- people trying to be treated, coming in with all kinds of injuries. Again, some 204 is the number this we're getting -- or 215 now is the update of the suicide truck bombing. This happened today in Baghdad, a central market, a central Baghdad market. The area of Sabria (ph), which is a mixed area. We see so much violence, sectarian violence, targeting Sunnis, targeting Shiites. This area was a mixed area of Sunni, Shiite and Kurds, a busy market.
What's happened, a suicide truck driver actually launched this attack in this crowded market in central Baghdad. The death toll as we got it a little earlier which changed, really, within the past hour went from 25 to 38 to a 55 to 82 to 92. Now we're up to 102 people that have been killed according to officials there and hospital officials in Baghdad. Again, these are some of the first pictures we're getting of the scene of the devastation, at least of the aftermath here at the hospital, everything (ph) of course to possibly get more pictures of the actual scene, but again, this was a market in central Baghdad where this violence has occurred on this day.
We're continuing to follow this story -- continuing to follow the latest and still not outside the realm of possibilities that the death toll could continue to rise from where it is right now and it has really in the past hour gone really from literally from 25 is the first word we got up to 102 now and some 215 who have been hurt in this suicide truck bombing. We're continuing watch this story as well as our reporters who are for us in Baghdad. Stay here. We'll continue to bring you the latest.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was total devastation. I've never seen anything like it in my life, very scary.
REPORTER: How thankful were you to find her OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you God, a total miracle, total miracle.
REPORTER: Ma'am, how did you get through it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know, really, very frightening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Very frightening for a lot of folks, that path of destruction along a 70-mile stretch of central Florida. We're continuing our extended coverage of the deadly storm that tore through the region on Friday. If you are just joining us here this morning, here is the latest for you now.
Emergency officials say the death toll from the storms has risen now to 20. All of the deaths were in the same county, Lake County. A state of emergency is in effect in four counties there. Search and rescue crews back at work this morning. They have been going house to house looking for survivors who may still be trapped in some of that rubble. Florida Governor Charlie Crist toured the devastation. He's been touring this morning as well. We've heard from him earlier. He's asking President Bush to declare a major disaster in Florida because of this catastrophic damage. So amazing, really, how people have made it through, made it out of some of the stuff we're seeing right there, literally. Some of that same rubble people are crawling out alive. We're going to move east now from where we were in Lake County to (INAUDIBLE) Florida. That's where CNN's Susan Roesgen is standing by for us. Hello to you, Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, T.J.. You talk about people getting out alive. Believe it or not, a guy was in a house behind me, a two-story house flatten and he got out alive. This is a 135-year-old home built from pine trees in this area, 135 years ago. I want you to meet the owner of the home. This is Beth Thomas. She's over here with her church. They're helping her get the debris out of this area. Beth, I've just told our CNN viewers about your son escaping from this house last night. How did he get out?
BETH THOMAS, STORM SURVIVOR: The house kind of tented over him and we were very fortunate. We got him out the back and there was a big enough hole for him to crawl out. But he got out with just the clothes he had on basically.
ROESGEN: By tented you mean there was an area that was like this.
THOMAS: He fell on some furniture and so he could go underneath where the furniture was holding the wall up.
ROESGEN: Tell us what we're looking at here now. This has got to be your porch.
THOMAS: This is the porch and it was two stories and I don't know where the other part of the porch is. I mean I can't tell. This is a two-story porch.
ROESGEN: You are a remarkably cheerful woman for what's just happened to you and to your great, great grandfather's house.
THOMAS: Right, he built it, yes, 135 years ago.
ROESGEN: You grew up here.
THOMAS: Yes, I did. My mother was actually born in the upstairs bedroom.
ROESGEN: What do you plan to do now?
THOMAS: We're going o to have to clear it. We were just talking to some of the men about how to clear it and I have no idea what to do then because I just don't know.
ROESGEN: What did your son tell you about what it was like when he was inside? What did he hear? What did he see?
THOMAS: He was terrified. At first he thought it was just a storm and he was in bed and there was just a lot of rattling. Then all of a sudden it was just real fast. It wasn't slow, just very fast. The house just went over. There didn't seem to be any warning of any kind. There wasn't a lot of -- no big tornadoes. We didn't know a tornado was coming.
ROESGEN: And he just crawled out.
THOMAS: He just crawled out.
ROESGEN: I know you've been able to save some items. There's one thing that you should have seen just a moment ago, T.J.. Beth said I can't believe that I've got it, a cry went out. Show us what you got from your house. We'll come over here and get it out of the back of your car. You can imagine with so much destruction you're looking for little things, little pieces of your life. Earlier Beth found the Nintendo that her son owned. This is really something special. Tell us about this.
THOMAS: This is our family bible and all my ancestors have their names in there, including mine of course and so this is at least 150 years old. This we can't replace. You can't replace everything else, but you can't replace this. So this was kind of really, really exciting to get.
ROESGEN: All right, Beth. Thank you very much for letting us come out here. Good luck to you. T.J., we'll go back to you at once again the Presbyterian church group here, Beth's church tries to take out what they can and then she really hasn't decided what she'll do next.
HOLMES: You know, you said she was remarkably cheerful. My goodness, finding that family book there, that bible, that's huge to find in all that rubble. So certainly that was something to celebrate, Susan. Thank you so much for bringing that to us.
We now want to head from that big story we're following here in the U.S. to Baghdad where we're following a huge, huge bombing that's killed some 102 folks. CNN's Arwa Damon is standing by for us live in Baghdad with the very latest on this bombing. Arwa.
DAMON: T.J., that death toll is really rising at a horrifying rate as you just mentioned, now standing at least 102 Iraqis killed in a single explosion alone. The attack took place at about 4:45 local time. A suicide bomber drove a dump truck into a crowded marketplace at the time when it would be at its busiest as Iraqi were out to do their last-minute errands before nightfall. Now the authorities do fear that that death toll may rise because we are hearing reports that some more individuals may be trapped underneath the rubble. The explosion taking place, again, at a central Baghdad market place.
This was a fairly mixed area, Sunni, Shia and Kurdish. And apparently, at this time, again as we have been mentioning, the marketplace increasingly busy. Just to put the magnitude of this blast into perspective, if you remember back to November 23 when we had those six bombings in Sadr City, they killed 200 people but that was six bombings. Here we're talking about a single attack, a suicide bomber driver again driving a dump truck killing at least 102 Iraqis. We have been seeing this increasingly disturbing trend of an increase in suicide bombings especially in the capital of Baghdad over the last few weeks as U.S. and Iraqi troops gear up for this new Baghdad security plan, T.J..
HOLMES: All right, Arwa Damon, thank you so much for that update from Baghdad on that horrific bombing, some 102 dead. Thank you. We'll continue to follow that. We're also continuing to follow major story, developing story here in the U.S., Florida and those devastating storms. Our Soledad O'Brien has been in Florida keeping an eye on the devastation, talking to folks over there. Hello to you again, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Hey T.J.. Good morning to you once again. I want to show you some pictures now, a little bit of progress. You can see inmates from the Marion County jail. About 55 of them have actually come and they're helping some of the people here, really just to get rid of the debris, things that are just not salvageable. They've been pulling them out. Not only this house which is Mr. Suggs's (ph) house. We've spent a lot of our morning focusing on this house, but also behind him as well. There's just lots of debris and they've been doing -- cutting down trees and trying to clean up a little bit and so having these 55 guys come in has been super helpful for some of the home owners here.
I want to take you back down this way where you can see really, look at this --this tree that's just sheared, just split. That is a really good indication of the force of this storm. Now they haven't come up with an official number yet, the wind speed here in Lake County, Florida. They've got National Weather Service investigators and other investigators from FEMA and local, too here, trying to figure out the details, the specifics of this storm.
But knocked down trees, I mean this sight right here where this tree is knocked down and continues back there and back there and back there and back there, too, that's typical. I was talking to a woman, Yvonne Miller, who told me about her boys were in their bedroom when the storm hit. Three little boys between the ages of 8 and 14 and a big tree fell right through their bedroom landed right on the bunk bed. That's where the littlest one slept but he wasn't in the bed. He'd actually gotten down from the bunk bed to get a glass of water and missed being hit by the tree or the debris from the ceiling and everything falling in. So stories like that, people who feel so lucky because they've had a very, very close call, we keep hearing that over and over again, certainly right in this neighborhood.
I'm going to give you a quick last shot here if we can of the tree line straight down there. Take a look at that. That's debris from this home. And we were told, in fact, that a brick from this home where I am right here was found way down there. That's probably -- I'm going to guess -- about a mile or so distance. Again, an indication of just how fierce the winds were out here. T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Soledad, thank you so much for giving us the perspective in those stories from Florida this morning.
Meanwhile, folks, of course a busy day in Florida and a deadly day in Iraq, in Baghdad specifically. First we are just minutes away from a live news conference out of Florida. Expected to speak, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and director of FEMA, David Paulison.
And then of course, the other big story of the morning we've been following here the past hour or so, a massive bombing in Baghdad. The death toll rising by the minute. Right now it stands at 102, 102. We'll have a live update from Baghdad when CNN continues in just minutes.
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