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Student Kidnapped in Tennessee; Bad Behavior at Airports; Police Continue To Search For Serial Killer In Long Island; Moammar Gadhafi's Daughter Gives Speech In Tripoli; Britain Prepares For Upcoming Royal Wedding; House Passes Ryan Budget Plan
Aired April 15, 2011 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Happening right now, a lot with regard to whether, a string of violent and deadly and violent storms rocking large sections of the country. Take a look at the map. You see all the colors? That could be bad for some of you. Folks across parts of the Deep South getting hit with tornadoes this hour. The powerful storms already hit America's midsection and the destruction is tragic. Look at this picture.
Coming up in mere minutes, you will see this incredible video of these funnel clouds, including this twister. This in Mississippi. And we will tell you where the storms, along with Chad Myers, where they're heading next.
But, first, I want to begin with this story. It's a tough story. It's a frightening mystery really out of Tennessee. A young nursing student snatched from her home by a large man wearing camouflage. I am talking about 20-year-old Holly Bobo. She was last seen being dragged across the carport of her home in the small town of Darden, Tennessee, and into the woods.
That was 7:30 Wednesday morning as Holly was leaving for school. Holly Bobo's parents, as you can imagine, they are desperate, they are pleading for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BOBO, FATHER: What I would like to do is to ask for any help if anybody can help us try to locate, find and bring home our daughter.
Be strong.
KAREN BOBO, MOTHER: Holly, I love you so much. Please, please try to get home to us. And if anybody knows anything about her, please, please help us find her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Obviously, this is heartbreaking for the family, but this case is tearing at everyone's hearts. Want you to listen to some sound you will hear from the sheriff of this county, Decatur County. He is referencing Holly's family. Watch with me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY WYATT, DECATUR COUNTY SHERIFF: We can only imagine what they go through. They need your help. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The search has brought out hundreds of volunteers, some of them on horseback, others on all-terrain vehicles, but so far there are very few clues about who took Holly Bobo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. BOBO: The way it looks to me, myself, it might have been somebody close, somebody that kind of knew a routine or when I left, when she left and when my daughter left to go to school, is what I have got in my mind. But I don't know that for sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now, there is one ominous discovery we have learned about today, the only sign of this 20-year-old nursing student and it was her white lunch box. They found her lunch box near a creek some eight miles away.
Want to bring in Michael Smith. He's the mayor of Decatur County, Tennessee, joins me by phone.
And, Mr. Mayor, I know this is a tough time for your community. If you can because I know you gave a briefing just a little while ago bring me up to speed. If there is anything, any new information on this search today. Do you have anything?
MICHAEL SMITH, MAYOR OF DECATUR, TENNESSEE: Thank you, Brooke.
We have located some new articles that we believe are of interest. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has asked that we return all of our teams to the area near the found lunch box. And they are doing a grid search of about four square miles.
And they have turned up several new items. We haven't removed any of them. We have flagged them. TBI has got their forensics team on the ground at this point in time and they are looking at those new items.
BALDWIN: I don't want to by any means compromise this investigation, but is there any way you can be more specific? What kind of items are we talking? We talking clothing?
SMITH: At this time, Brooke, I really cannot. While the forensics team is out there, it is not, at this point something I can divulge.
BALDWIN: You got it. We won't go there. I want to ask you about Holly's parents, Karen and Dana Bobo. I understand you know them. You have known them for a long, long time. You know Holly.
Obviously we heard from both the parents. They are devastated. How are they holding up today?
SMITH: The family is holding up obviously under a great deal of stress, but doing as well as I think any of us would under those circumstances.
Their plea is still for anyone who has any information to come forward and that we are just, we really covet the entire country's prayers for Holly at this point.
BALDWIN: What is Holly like? I read she is a little gal, 5'3'', 110 pounds. Is she tough?
SMITH: Absolutely. Absolutely, she is.
And, you know, she has the inner strength to hold out until we can make the opportunity to find where she is at and get to her and bring this I hope to a happy end.
BALDWIN: We all hope that. We have heard from the sheriff a number of times. He said everyone in the community has been interviewed and we do not have a suspect at this time. So that tells me if everyone in your community has been interviewed, it is a pretty small town. Is that correct?
SMITH: It is. The county itself is about 12,000 people in it, a very close-knit community obviously and it's -- most everyone is known to each other. And the entire community has turned out in just continual shifts on the ground to search for any and any -- any kind of all clues we can possibly come up with.
BALDWIN: Part of the community is Holly's cousin. She is a young woman by the name of Whitney Duncan. She is a country music singer. Some folks may recognize her name from the Nashville Star competition. She is tweeting today. And I want to show the tweet her.
She's tweeting and she says: "Two days later" -- this is what she treated just this afternoon -- ""Two days later, trying to keep the faith. I can't thank you all enough for all the efforts to find Holly. Keep it up until she is home with us."
Four hundred volunteers, sir, out yesterday helping the search. How is the search coming together today?
SMITH: The search is coming together even better today. The community has held out. We have those same volunteers on the ground doing that grid search. Obviously the inclement weather is going to impair that just a little bit.
BALDWIN: Has that impaired it today?
SMITH: It has not up to this point. We will pull those teams in, in just a little while went that storm line comes through. And then they are prepared to immediately go back into the field as soon as possible.
BALDWIN: We heard from Mr. Bobo a moment ago. He says he believes whoever did this -- I'm just reading my notes -- someone close, someone who knew Holly's routine.
You're the mayor. You know these people. What does your gut tell you, sir?
SMITH: I honestly can't see someone from inside of our community even participating in anything like that. It is the kind of community that's obviously anyone would want to live in and raise a family in. And it's a very unique situation to us. And I just can't fathom someone from our community being involved.
BALDWIN: Do me a favor, sir. If you do get any new information within the next two hours, will you call back in?
SMITH: Certainly, Brooke. We will keep you updated.
BALDWIN: OK. Mayor Smith, my thanks to you. Best of luck in the search.
Also, we talked about some inclement weather there in Tennessee. Tornado warnings now in effect in parts of Mississippi and Alabama. And we are just now getting some new video of storm damage in Tennessee -- excuse me -- Mississippi. Chad Myers is all over, is going to join me right after the break.
Also, do you ever get annoyed or angry when you are going through airport security? Well, guess what? If you do, you could be considered a threat. We have an exclusive look at what TSA agents are told to watch out for. Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
BALDWIN: And President Obama has now responded to all those people, including Donald Trump, who keep questioning whether he was born in the United States. Hear what he has to say about that. That is next.
Also, it is a highly secretive list and guess what? CNN got our hands on this, the behaviors TSA agents are told to look out for when you go through airport security. It may change the way you go through the airport next time. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Rest assured when you fly or you are about to fly, I should say, there are plenty of eyes wide open. They are watching you, whether you actually realize it or not. And CNN has exclusively obtained a list of about 70 indicators that TSA agents, these behavior detection officers use to spot people who could pose an aviation threat. But because of the sensitive nature of course of this information, this list, we are only going to reveal one. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you get upset at airport security, you might want to watch how you show it, because behavior detection officers deployed at the nation's airports to ferret out security threats are on the lookout for among other things anyone who displays arrogance and verbally expresses contempt for the screening process, according to information obtained by CNN.
Civil liberties groups say it is absurd that the exercise of free speech should be considered suspicious.
MICHAEL GERMAN, ACLU: If you complain about the government, that's justification for the government doing more intensive scrutiny of your behavior. I mean, it seems, you know, just so anti-American.
MESERVE: Terrorism experts also question whether it is useful. They say terrorists usually try to blend in, keep a low profile because they don't want to draw attention to their activities. Challenging airport security would have precisely the opposite effect.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: This idea that a terrorist would be very arrogant, express content for airport procedures, that doesn't make any sense to me from a commonsense point of view and also from the record of what is known about behaviors of al Qaeda terrorists.
MESERVE: But the immigration agent who stopped the so-called 20th hijacker from entering the U.S. did arrogant to describe Mohammed al-Qahtani.
JOSE MELENDEZ-PEREZ, IMMIGRATION OFFICER: Upon establishing eye contact, he exhibited body language that appeared arrogant.
MESERVE: The TSA used that interaction and others to design its program.
When new, more intimate pat-down procedures were instituted last year, checkpoint protests became something of an art form.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they want to try and see what I have got hidden in my bikini, they are welcome to.
MESERVE: But TSA says no single behavior on its list would by itself ever be enough to draw increased security scrutiny. A behavior detection officer would only select a passenger for closer examination if they showed several indicators of stress, fear or deception.
(on camera): Civil liberties groups have worried that behavior detection officers are racially profiling. We can tell that on the list we saw, none of the indicators used by BDOs refers to or even suggests race, ethnicity or religion. The ACLU still isn't satisfied. Although it has not seen the list, it believes some of the behaviors on it are so common, they could be used to single out people of certain backgrounds.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Jeanne, thank you.
And now to gas prices. Yes, they will not stop going up. We will tell you though how you can find the cheapest gas near you.
And you probably know him as that NBA star who went after a fan in the stands. You remember? The fan had just tossed a drink at him? Well, Ron Artest says he is a changed man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, when people watch the videos of you, like they will forever, when you were angry, it is a very different Ron Artest today.
RON ARTEST, NBA PLAYER: Yes, oh, definitely, definitely, just having the confidence to let people know, yes, I had a problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So what exactly is that problem or maybe was that problem? Sanjay Gupta's interview with former Lakers forward Ron Artest coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: One day after Congress approved a last-minute deal averting a government shutdown, the House has now just passed a Republican-backed budget plan for next year.
The GOP-sponsored proposal drafted by Congressman Paul Ryan calls for $4 trillion in cuts over the course of the next 10 years, but critics say it would essentially eliminate Medicare and Medicaid.
President Obama bitterly opposes the plan, which virtually has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.
And if you have filled up your car any time in the past week, you know that paying for gas is eating up a bigger chunk of your budget. Right now, AAA says the average price per gallon for regular unleaded is $3.82, but when summer travel season rolls in, you know it is going to get even higher than.
And that is just a couple of weeks away.
CNN's Casey Wian looks at the ways you can ease the pain at the pump by finding the cheapest gas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pain at the pump is real for paint store deliveryman Mark Murillo.
MARK MURILLO, DELIVERYMAN: It hurts because of the high prices, but I have to do it to support myself and my family.
WIAN: There are ways to ease the pain.
(on camera): What's the best way for motorists to make sure that they're getting the best deal on the gas they buy?
JEFFREY SPRING, AAA: Well, you don't want to be going way out of your way and spending gasoline money trying to find the cheapest gasoline. You want to try to plan your route to where the cheapest gasoline is in your area.
WIAN (voice-over): A growing number of Web sites and smartphone apps can help.
(on camera): I'm at a gas station in Hollywood, where regular gasoline is selling for $4. 39 a gallon. And I think that may be too expensive. So I can go on my iPhone and check an application to find if there's anything in the neighborhood that's cheaper.
(voice-over): And there is less than half a mile away.
(on camera): Here we are just down the street, and gas is selling for $4. 15 a gallon, 24 cents a gallon less. That could be a savings of $3, $4, $5, depending how big your gas tank is. The only catch is, to get the savings here, you've got to pay cash.
(voice-over): Or pay a 45-cent ATM fee. Either way, it's a big savings.
Another tip, look for gas at or near wholesale clubs which use low gas prices to attract shoppers. Location is key says Jason Toews, co-founder of cheap gas finder Gas Buddy.
JASON TOEWS, GASBUDDY. COM: Wholesale clubs tend to compete very aggressively on price. And, of course, there's all the other competition nearby who lower their price, too. So, you want to look for an area where either it's a bedroom community, has a lot of gas stations, and you'll find some cheap prices right there.
WIAN: Stations to avoid include those near tourist destinations and ritzy residential neighborhoods.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Casey Wian live for me in L.A.
Casey, I know the prices are very, very high where you are. So you are good man reducing your carbon footprint with your hybrid that you drive, but isn't there some Web site that we can all go to, to try to find the cheapest gas? WIAN: Absolutely there is. There are several different Web sites. As we referred to in the piece, there's gasbuddy.com, cheapgas, several others.
No one, whether you are driving a fuel-efficient car or not, wants to pay gas prices as high as these, $4.25 a gallon at this station, and just across the street, you can see $4.21. The average price of gas in Los Angeles about $4.20 a gallon right now.
One of the other things that I'm doing and that other people do is you can pay cash for your gasoline. And that -- some stations offer you a price break if you are actually willing to pay cash, but it is also surprising how much more conscious you are when you are actually paying cash, hard cash out, for your gas, instead of putting it on a credit card. You are a lot more aware of how much you are spending and your driving habits actually change. At least mine have, Brooke.
BALDWIN: That is actually an excellent point. I might try doing that next time, because it is so easy to just swipe that credit card and not think about it, but cash is the way to go there.
Casey Wian, thank you so much live for us in L.A.
And I want to take you to New York coming up, because we are just getting some new information in from Long Island in that possible serial killer case and this new information involves this phone call, maybe phone calls, to one of the victims' family members. This is chilling information. We will get you the latest from one of our correspondents there. That is next. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right. A new development in the search for what may be a serial killer on New York's Long Island. You have probably heard about these taunting phone calls the suspected killer made to a sister of one of his alleged victims. We now have new details about what was said.
Let's hear some of the sound from this family member that Susan Candiotti spoke with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNN BARTHELEMY, MOTHER OF MURDER VICTIM: He was taunting her. He was basically torturing her. She -- you know, she kept asking where her sister was. And he just wouldn't tell her.
She would ask if she was alive. He wouldn't answer. I mean, we always had hope until that last call, when he told Amanda that he killed her. I can't go any further into detail of the calls.
None of the calls that Amanda received were over three minutes. And the last call that she received when he said that he had killed her was on August 26.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Of 2009?
BARTHELEMY: Correct.
CANDIOTTI: I understand it was only about 40 seconds long. Is that accurate?
BARTHELEMY: Maybe a little longer. I mean, all the calls just seemed to take forever. And with news like that everything that was going on, it was so scary, and it just seems to go on forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Again, that was Susan Candiotti with the interview there.
And obviously the news nugget is the fact that this killer admitted to killing this young woman in the call. We had heard that he had been taunting this family member, but he admits to killing her.
So, so far, police have uncovered the remains of at least eight bodies in one of these small areas, this long stretch along Long Island. And they're searching still for what could be more victims.
So, if a serial killer is at work here, who could it be?
I want to bring in criminologist Casey Jordan from our -- "In Session," our sister network truTV.
And, Casey, first, I just want to bring up what you just heard from some of those family members. I mean, we had heard about these potentially taunting phone calls. And now we heard that this -- this individual has said to this family member, yes, I killed her.
Why do that? Why make the phone calls? Is this a big game for this person?
CASEY JORDAN, FORMER CRIMINAL PROFILER: These phone calls are the best insight we have into the motivation and the psyche of the person responsible for the four unidentified women who were discovered in December. And the fact that he did taunt this young teenaged girl, 15 years old, the younger sister of one of the victims, psychologically terrorizing her and insulting her sister, calling her a, quote, "whore" and calling back and taunting the sister that says a lot about how exploitative and incredibly sadistic this person would be.
And then that final phone call announcing that she's dead, my intuition, is that she probably have been dead all along, but his fantasy was fed by the process of terrorizing the younger sister.
BALDWIN: But why do that? Besides being sadistic, and if it is the killer, what does that individual gain from that kind of phone call?
JORDAN: Well, it's all part of his psyche. We have always assumed that the killings were probably sexual in nature because of the fact that the killer found these women on craigslist we assume they were all sex workers who advertised for craigslist.
But you cannot jump to that conclusion, and the phone calls seem to confirm that. Many of the serial killers with hedonistic lust are wrapped up in fantasy. And it is the drawing out of the fantasy. And then after the death, once the fantasy is concluded, that drives them to find another victim.
To actually contact the younger sister of one of the victims is to use her as a substitution for the fantasy. And this is the first really great information that we have gotten about, again, the psychological motivation of this particular perpetrator.
Casey, standby for me, because I have several other questions here, but I want to bring in Susan Candiotti who is also with us. Susan, I mean, it is striking to hear from that family member not just that this poor family has been taunted, but hearing the words I killed her, unbelievable.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, it does not get any creepier than this, a suspected killer, using his victims, alleged victim's own cell phone to make the taunting phone calls to the family, and then saying this.
Now I have the exact words according to lawyer, this is what the suspected killer said to the daughter or in other words the sister of the victim. He said, "Do you think that you will ever see her again? You won't. I killed her." That is the alleged phone call in which he confessed to killing Melissa Barthelemy back in August of 2009.
The family is still haunted by this, and by the way, yesterday would have been the victim's 26th birthday.
BALDWIN: So sad, so chilling. Susan Candiotti, thank you for sharing that.
And Casey, back to you, and I know that in talking to folks this past week of reports of four young women who were found in the craigslist, the prostitutes found back in December died of asphyxiation. So back to the psyche of the see serial killer here potentially, that he wanted to not stab or shoot, but he strangled?
JORDAN: And strangled and possibly smothered, but the point is not shot, not beaten to death, not stabbed to death, and this does say quite a bit. It shows that there is a major power control component.
We usually see serial killers who strangle manually, and there was no indication it was done with a rope or ligature, but it shows that it wasn't really that premeditated. Now the seed of the idea is there, especially if he has I don't before, but he doesn't usually pick up these women with the intent to kill her.
I suspect he has met many women on craigslist that he has had encounters but didn't kill, but for some reason whether they argue with him or question his virility and that gives him a rush and sense of omnipotence over his victim. BALDWIN: One thing you told the producer is that he is street smart and not book smart. What does that mean? What clues lead you to say that?
JORDAN: Well, the police have conjectured it is a person with a law enforcement background. And if that is so, I would say this is a person who likes to read the true crime books and watch the popular crime shows on television and knows as much as the general public, which is actually quite a lot, about the police procedure, because don't forget that real police officers consult on the shows and they tend to be very accurate about police tactics.
So with the phone calls being less than three minutes, the idea that they were made from crowded locations in New York City, this was a person who knew to leave the bodies in a place where they would decompose quickly and not be found, and yet the triangulation of the cell phone signals and the craigslist computer prints will be how the police narrow in and discover who the subject is.
So this is a person who thinks he is smart who he is. And he is certainly not stupid, but he is not as organized as a person who truly plans the crimes and tries to leave contra indicators or red herrings to throw the police off.
BALDWIN: Well, Casey Jordan, criminologist, thank you for coming on to share your perspective.
JORDAN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: And now this time each week we like to take a look at people who have achieved extraordinary things with overcoming obstacles. With the NBA playoffs coming up, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks with Ron Artest who is probably best known for the brawl in 1994.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON ARTEST, NBA PLAYER: We visited a school in Englewood, and a clinic in south central, and so I move around a lot to try to stay involved.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: After practice, this is what L.A. Lakers' forward Ron Artest does in the free time. He is raising awareness about mental illness. But this is not exactly what most people would expect of a man who made the cover of "Sports Illustrated" for storming the stands in Detroit after a fan threw a drink at him. That was back in 2004.
GUPTA (on camera): So this is a very different Ron Artest today?
ARTEST: Yes, with the confidence to say I have a problem, and did see a psychologist, and in fact before game seven.
GUPTA (voice-over): In fact, after the Lakers won the NBA championships last year, Artest's first shout out went to his psychologist. ARTEST: I want to thank my doctor.
GUPTA: Essentially telling the world he was seeking help because he need it. Then he raffled off the championship ring for more than $500,000 which went to his charity which helps high-risk kids.
GUPTA (on camera): Do you have a particularly diagnosed mental illness.
ARTEST: No, but at age of six I had anger management problems and a lot of frustration and tension in my household and I was like, man, I'm always mad for some reason.
GUPTA: Do you have anger management issues anymore?
ARTEST: Not as bad as I used to.
GUPTA (voice-over): But he says there has been a lot of mental issues in his family, and he knows that counseling has helped with these issues and you have to have access to therapy.
ARTEST: I am still not perfect. I tell people, I'm an example and no longer a statistic and example and solution and not a role model yet, but one day, I will be.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: In Libya, do you know who one woman is -- we are about to show you a woman who is Moammar Gadhafi's daughter. Here she is. This is the same one who you remember was Saddam Hussein's defense lawyer and now rallying in the Libyan city of Tripoli. We will tell you what she is saying about her father next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I want to take you to Libya now and a rare move by western leaders to put heightened pressure on Moammar Gadhafi. You have President Sarkozy and President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron putting pressure on Gadhafi. They say it is unthinkable that someone who is trying to massacre his own people will try to take over his own government.
But despite the shelling, Gadhafi appears more defiant as ever. There he is hanging out of a sunroof on the streets of Tripoli pumping the fists in the air there. Meantime, Gadhafi's only daughter also makes a public appearance. She addressed a crowd in Tripoli today from the second floor balcony of a compound that a couple of days prior was targeted by NATO airstrikes.
I want to bring in Reza Sayah who is in the rebel strong hold of Benghazi. And can you tell us what was Gadhafi's daughter's message, and why did she choose today to make this public appearance?
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, these defiant high octane speeches apparently are in the family. We have heard colonel Gadhafi deliver plenty of arousing speeches, but after midnight, it was his daughter's turn, delivering a speech on the 25th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of a Gadhafi compound, and that bombing coming in 1986 several days after Libyan agents were accused of bombing a berlin nightclub.
Ayesha telling the energized crowd that the Gadhafi regime is not going anywhere and they are going to stay put, and she condemned the air strikes taking place and saying it is the Italy and the U.S. killing civilians and not the regime.
And she tried to link the NATO airstrikes with the bombing in 1986 when she said she was a terrified nine-year-old, and another member of the Gadhafi family here, Brooke, trying to send a message to the opposition and the world that they are staying put and not going anywhere.
BALDWIN: That's Tripoli, and because you are in Benghazi I want to ask you about this op-ed piece. The rebels are enthused about the international support. What are you seeing? Any demonstration there in Benghazi as a result?
SAYAH: Well, there was a demonstration today, and with a stalemate on the battlefield, they could use any boost they could get. They liked what they heard, but you get the sense at the demonstration today that they are growing impatient, and frustrated with the international community.
It's been four weeks since the international community get involved in this conflict in Libya, and the opposition calling for the world to help protect civilians, but all along the rebels here have asked for the ouster of the regime and that has not happened, and colonel Gadhafi is still in power and that is why the rebels are growing frustrated with this message Mr. Obama, Mr. Sarkozy, and Mr. Cameron signaled they would do more, but it is unclear how it will fit in with the mandate from the U.N. which mentions nothing about regime change, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Reza, thank you.
And now with the royal wedding two weeks away officially, one question is will the bride to be with wearing white? We will talk about why she probably will not.
And we have new details released by the royal family. Royal biographer Mark Saunders is here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Tons of new details today on the royal wedding. We're exactly two weeks away from Prince William and Kate Middleton's "I dos." Everything is timed right down to the minute. Mark Saunders, royal biographer, is live for me in London. I want to run through some of this, because those of us on this side of the pothole are going to have to get up very, very early, to watch it on Friday morning. It started at 8:15 in London, 3:15 in the morning here on the east coast. Here's a look at some of the timing for the major arrivals, 3:15, 5:15, and then 5:38 and then 5:40 a.m.
And the schedule is timed to the minute. 10:10 in the morning, they leave for Westminster Abby. They will arrive at 10:15. So they have five minutes to get there, a couple more than that. And then next tweet here is 10:48, bridesmaids pages leaves. Bottom line, Mark, there's no breathing room here.
MARK SAUNDERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No. There isn't. But you've got to remember, all of the roads are closed. You wouldn't make the trip on a normal day, not in four minutes. But I'm most interested on the people that have to arrive at 8:15.
BALDWIN: Two hours. What are they doing?
SAUNDERS: There is no entertainment. They won't be doing anything. They will just be sitting there and waiting. Interesting that Carol Middleton, Katherine's mother, comes before the foreign royals and also before the queen's children. I didn't think she was in a very good position by her arrival.
But, remember, for you guys on that side of the pond, you need to be there at 10 past 10:00.
BALDWIN: So we can hit snooze up until then. Kate Middleton is going to stay at the hotel and leaving for Westminster abbey at 10:15 London time. The world will get a glimpse of that wedding gown before we see her a little later.
SAUNDERS: Yes. The taxi turns around at the hotel so she's got to leave the hotel and get into the car. So everybody here is now believing that we're going to see the dress before she gets to the abbey.
BALDWIN: So what is this, Mark, about the white? Because, as you say, archbishop of Canterbury had his say, and that is a no-no. Why?
SAUNDERS: Well, OK. The Lambert Palace has expressed concern about Katherine marrying in white. She has been -- it's a symbolic color when it comes to a wedding. Katherine has been living with William for some years now.
I hasten to add, Prince Charles has expressed sympathy with what Lambert Palace are saying. The Church of England is a very liberal church. It's a polite way of saying that you don't really believe. But having said that, the people at the top, there are rules and regulations that they have to follow. I think there will be a compromise. It will be my sources, anyway, saying that it will be cream or ivory.
BALDWIN: Cream or ivory. And we know you saw Katherine on Monday. How did she look? Where did you see her? She's looking a little thin.
SAUNDERS: Yes. This was up in the north of England. As you know, they have done a pre-wedding tour of all four countries. Monday was England's turn. A lot of people said that she was looking very thin. Whether they've already got the dress size ready and she's going to work her way down to it, I don't know, whether it's nerves.
She was looking very beautiful. In fact, one person did say to me, that is a beauty fit for a king. But there was some concerns about the weight loss. Of course, we all remember the way Princess Diana suffered with an eating disorder prior to her wedding. We don't want to see any repeats of that.
BALDWIN: No. I remember that. Perhaps she will be happy and married and eating as much as she ever wants because she's just gorgeous. Once Prince William is all locked up and a married man, that makes Prince Harry the most eligible bachelor, does it not?
SAUNDERS: And we are seeing many young ladies on the streets of London looking for the world's most affluent bachelor. I must admit, I always thought Harry was the runt of the litter. But he's got that naughty, cheeky look about him that girls just seem to love, especially Americans, by the look of things.
BALDWIN: Yes, American ladies do tend to like him. And seeing those pictures in the Arctic Circle, he's a tough guy as well. Mark Saunders, what a fun assignment you have. Of course, we will all be up early two Fridays from now watching the coverage of the royal wedding. Friday, April 29th, starts bright and early at 4:00 a.m. eastern time.
They are accused of killing thousands of people right along our border. So here's the question, should Mexican drug gangs be considered terrorists? One congressman says yes. In fact, he's demanding it. That is ahead.
Also, Wolf Blitzer is standing by with news from the world of politics on this Friday. That is next.
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BALDWIN: CNN Equals Politics. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer live in Washington with the latest news hot off the Political Ticker including the vote in the House, Wolf, passing that 2012 budget.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": It was not a surprise. The Republicans have a decisive almost all of the Republicans voted for Paul Ryan's legislation. He's the chairman of the budget committee. Not one Democrat voted for it. I thought maybe there might have been one or two conservative Democrats who were at least thinking about it. But in the end, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader and House of Representatives got all of the Democrats to oppose it, almost all of the Republicans for it, clearly along party lines.
So Paul Ryan's proposals to deal with long-term debt, Medicare, Medicaid, all of the other issues obviously there is a lot of support in the public controlled House of Representatives.
The president of the United States, as you know, he is already out on the campaign trail. He announced his campaign almost -- more than a week ago.
But now is he formally really getting involved, in Chicago last night, three formal campaigns. He got a line, a tremendous amount of applause in Chicago when he said at one point, "I was born in Hawaii."
Now, normally, you would think what is the big deal, whether you're born in Hawaii, or New York, or Georgia, or any place else. But they gave him a long, long round of applause because of all of the commotion surrounding the so-called birther issue, and Donald Trump, who is thinking about running as a Republican candidate, he's been given a lot of publicity lately.
And so the president when he said, I was born in Hawaii, then after the applause died down, it must have been 30 or 40 seconds, he said, then he got another applause line, and he said, but I became a man here in Chicago.
So I suspect we're going to be hear interesting more of that line. It worked well in Chicago with the Democratic base at that fund-raiser. I'm sure it will work at other places. He's going out, by the way. Next week, he will be doing three town hall meetings across the country. So you can see this campaign mode is really beginning to gel for the president right now.
One final note. Pete Hoekstra, the former Republican congressman from Michigan, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he is not going to run against Debbie Stabenow for the Senate in Michigan, Debbie Stabenow, who is the incumbent Democratic senator from Michigan. Pete Hoekstra saying he's not going to run for that seat.
He will, though, be a best of mine in "THE SITUATION ROOM" later today. He's the former chairman as I said of the House Intelligence Committee. He met several times over the years with Moammar Gadhafi. He has got some strong views about what is going on.
I think, Brooke, you will be interested in that interview. You will also be interested in the other interview we're doing with Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian blogger who is here in Washington right now. He's got some strong views about what is going on in Egypt, high expectations after Mubarak stepped down only a few weeks ago. Is he still optimistic? You will hear his answer. That's coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM" 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
BALDWIN: I look forward to hearing that. And next hour, we will talk to you, got a little surprise for you because you have been nagging me about something. So we're going to make your day next hour. I invite everyone to watch for that.
Mr. Blitzer, see you next hour.