Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

'Explosive' Storms in the South; Southwest Airlines CEO: 1950s System Wastes Fuel; Fed Chief's First News Conference; Flames & Smoke Near Kennedy Space Center

Aired April 27, 2011 - 13:58   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: And of course, a new hour brings new threats of a violent, potentially deadly storms across thousands of square miles in the south.

For a second straight day, the National Weather Service has put out a high-risk tornado alert and for the second straight day the risk is realized there. There's wind damage, hail damage, flood damage, apparent tornado damage in some combination from Kentucky on the left to Georgia in the middle to Texas on the right.

Worst of all, 11 people have been killed in the storms in the past 24 hours. Alabama saw four of those deaths, and is still in the danger zone. Last hour, the governor declared a statewide state of emergency.

In Van Zandt County, Texas, southeast of Dallas, hundreds of homes damage and thousands of residents relieved just to be alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY KING, TORNADO VICTIM: The windows started popping in, so all I did is cover all the women and kids up, sat there and watch it. Nothing you could do really.

DESSIE NEIL, TORNADO VICTIM: I went into my bedroom and I crawled under that bed as far as I could get and I laid there and prayed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: CNN's Chad Meyers watching all of the storms for us minute-by-minute, and if you are living south of the Ohio River, what is going top ha there?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, let's draw it in there for you right through there. All of the sudden, we have storms now firing. These are a little bit earlier than yesterday. A lot of the storms yesterday didn't fire until 7:00 or 8:00 at night, and that was the bad news, because they occurred when people were sleeping. That is why we talked about the NOAA radio.

Today, these storms are firing during the day. That is bad because they are firing in the heat of the day, which makes them more severe. So now we have the potential for tornadoes here. That's a new tornado watch box. That's for northern Virginia. Right there, that would be Richmond, and almost to about Williamsburg, and all the way down south, even into Raleigh, which was hit so hard just a couple of weeks ago.

Then we'll focus in on the major area, which would be to highest- risk area across the nation. All those red boxes are tornado watch boxes. They are already posted.

Some storms are spinning. Some storms in fact actually have had tornadoes on the ground already, not that far north of Huntsville, and then also up here. And this would be Chattanooga. There's a cell right there that's spinning quite hard. That could be on the ground at any time.

Literally, these storms could just drop tornadoes out of the sky all day long, and especially even to the all-night-long time. It's one of those days where we're going to talk about "likely," or the "high-risk" day.

We talked about this yesterday. There's about four to five days -- maybe three to five days -- across the year that we would get something like this from their weather service that says that it's likely you're going to get tornadoes here, it's likely you're going to get wind damage here. And it's likely today.

So if you are in the Deep South, you are talking all the way here from Huntsville, as that storm has now pushed through -- this here, that's right there. That's part of Georgia. And then we'll push a little bit farther off to the west. And there are more tornado warnings back off to the west here.

This would be Memphis here, to the south of there, around Webb in Mississippi. A tornado has been reported coming to the ground, a funnel approaching the ground. And this is only the cool part of the day.

Wait until it heats up. Wait until 3:00 or 4:00 or 5:00, when the ground really gets hot. The tornadoes are going to be scattered about.

KAYE: And they just keep coming.

MYERS: One after the other. And they stay in the same zones.

KAYE: How long is this going to go on, do we think?

MYERS: We finally have a jet stream that is progressing from west to east. It's going to get a little bit -- it's going to get bigger here today, and then through Memphis, and then eventually, as we pull through this here, we're going to talk about Atlanta. We're going to talk about North Carolina. We're going to talk about South Carolina. And eventually all of this will run on up the East Coast for tomorrow, and then off the coast for Friday.

KAYE: All right, Chad. Appreciate it. MYERS: And it's over.

KAYE: Thank you.

MYERS: And it's been a long week.

KAYE: It certainly has for a lot of people.

MYERS: But not for the people here. Bad stuff here.

KAYE: Yes. Yes. Certainly. All right. Thank you.

MYERS: You bet.

KAYE: Our "Sound Effect" was no doubt meant to be the last word on the baseless controversy over President Obama's birthplace. Unless you just woke up, well, you probably heard the president today released his original long-form birth certificate which shows what was known and proven long ago, he was born August 4th, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

You may also have heard Donald Trump pronounce the documents released, a huge personal achievement for Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR: Today, I'm very proud of myself, because I have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. I was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate.

I'd want to look at it, but I hope it's true so that we can get on to much more important matters, so the press can stop asking me questions. He should have done it a long time ago. Why he didn't do it when the Clintons asked for it, why he didn't do it when everybody else was asking for it, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And while Trump was sounding off in New Hampshire, the president lamented near-constant distractions from -- and I quote -- "sideshows and carnival barkers."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press.

We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We have got better stuff to do. I have got better stuff to do. We've got big problems to solve, and I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them, not on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KAYE: I told you these weren't the last words. Our own John King will have an interview with Donald Trump on "JOHN KING USA." That's at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

The birth certificate issue has been blowing up on social media today. And we want to know what you think about it.

Should the president have released his birth certificate? Should Donald Trump have pressed the issue, even? Should Trump release his own birth certificate and financial records?

Join the conversation on our blog, CNN.com/Ali. And you can also post on either Ali's or my Facebook and Twitter pages. Tell us what you think.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

The airline industry is going through some tough times right now. It seems like we are hearing reports daily about sleeping air traffic controllers and problems with planes in general.

As we continue our in-depth look at some of the problems in the skies, CNN Money's Poppy Harlow joins us now live from New York.

And Poppy, you spoke with the CEO of Southwest Airlines about some of the challenges that his industry is facing. What did he tell you?

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes. Well, one of the biggest ones, clearly Randi -- and we're paying for it in our ticket prices -- is the cost of fuel. What he said -- and this is him right here -- we had a long chat -- is that since the beginning of this year, the price of jet fuel has risen 74 cents a gallon, and he says every penny increase costs the entire airline industry $175 million. And again, we are paying for it with those fuel surcharges.

What he is also saying is that if we just upgraded our air traffic controller system, that would be a big fix to this problem. Right now, you have got the airline industry and the FAA pushing to upgrade our air traffic controller system with something they are calling NextGen. That's basically satellite-based tracking air traffic tracking like we use GPS in our cars.

It's going to cost a lot, $15 billion to $22 billion. That's what the FAA projects. It's not really scheduled to be completed until 2025, but the theory behind it is that if you use this satellite technology to track planes wherever they are around the world, they can fly much more direct routes. That's going to be safer, it's going to save time, and it's going to save fuel.

Take a listen to what the head of Southwest Airlines told us about why he thinks, Randi, it's so important. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY KELLY, CHAIRMAN & CEO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: Airplanes don't fly from origin to destination as the crow flies. They fly very inefficiently based on these ground radar stations. So we're dealing with 1950s technology. It's wasting a lot of energy and it's creating a lot of unnecessary greenhouse gasses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And he wrote an op-ed also for us at CNN Money, and he is really pushing the Department of Transportation and the entire airline industry to really get on it, to step up the funding and that implementation of NextGen, of this new system. And he says it's going to make a huge difference when it comes to fuel costs.

In terms of what it could save, Randi, looking at the numbers conservatively, it would cut costs by six percent, and he says it would reduce the industry's use by 1.16 billion gallons by 2018, which would cut out 24 billion pounds of pollution from the air.

KAYE: And Poppy, who is going to pay for the upgrades if the airlines are losing money and the FAA is facing potential budget cuts? Who loses there?

HARLOW: Well, it's a great question, because the FAA is asking for more funding, and they asked for in the 2012 budget more funding for this. The likelihood is that it won't get everything that it is asking for.

We had Congress approve a budget in the end of March that basically cut the FAA's funding by $4 billion. And it sounds like a lot of money, but it takes them down to the 2008 levels. But a lot of the folks in the industry, including Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines, says we need a budget to more quickly allow us to revamp this air traffic controller system, Randi, which is astonishing, that it is the same pretty much technology that was used in the 1950s.

But bottom line, though, look at Washington, look at the state budgets, the federal budget. It's hard to get extra money, especially when you're talking about in the billions. But he is advocating for this, pushing very hard, saying the planes at Southwest have this, we need the government to install this system, they are the ones that oversee air traffic control -- Randi.

KAYE: All right, Poppy. It sounds like you had a very interesting conversation with him. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, the plan is for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to see the space shuttle launch this Friday. As you know, her husband is the commander. We have some brand new video of the injured congresswoman, and that's coming up right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Any minute now, we are waiting on this press conference from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. And there he is, actually, just taking a seat. This is the first-ever press conference where he is going to be taking questions from the media.

So let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: -- policy decision. I'll then turn next to the Federal Open Market Committee's quarterly economic projections also being released today. And I will place today's policy decision in the context of the committee's projections and the Federal Reserve's statutory mandate to foster maximum employment and price stability.

I'll then be glad to take your questions.

Throughout today's briefing, my goal will be to reflect the consensus of the committee, while taking note of the diversity of views as appropriate. Of course, my remarks and interpretations are my own responsibility.

In its policy statement released earlier today, the committee announced first that it is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principle payments from its security holdings. And second, that it will complete its planned purchases of $600 billion of longer-term treasury securities by the end of the current quarter.

Of course, going forward, the committee will regularly review the size and composition of its security holdings in light of incoming information, and is prepared to adjust those holdings as needed to meet the Federal Reserve's mandate. The committee made no change today in the target range of the federal funds rate, which remains at zero to one-fourth percent. The committee continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period.

In conjunction with today's meetings, FOMC participants submitted projections for economic growth, the unemployment rate, and the inflation rate for the years 2011 to 2013, and over the longer run. These projections are conditional on each participant's individual assessment of the appropriate path of monetary policy needed to best promote the committee's objectives.

A table showing the projections has been distributed. I'm going to focus today on the central tendency projections which exclude the three highest and the three lowest projections for each variable in each year.

I call your attention first to the committee's longer-run projections which represent participants' assessments of the rates to which economic growth, unemployment and inflation will converge over time, under appropriate monetary policy, and assuming no further shocks to the economy. As the table shows -- KAYE: All right. You have been listening there to Ben Bernanke.

We want to get you to our Christine Romans in New York.

Christine, if you were a reporter sitting in that room right now, what would you want to ask Mr. Bernanke today?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Wow. There's a lot of things I want to ask him. But what he is telling you right off of the top are, first, that the Fed owns a whole bunch of mortgage- backed securities, a lot of securities that it has been buying to try to boost the economy. It's going to continue to reinvest its profits from those securities into the economy. That's one thing that is sort of keeping the economy going.

He is explaining what their expectations are for economic growth, and what he is saying is -- he's talking about the projections, the projections of the Fed for its outlook, really, for the economy going forward from here. That is what people are really interested to see, if he is downgrading expectations for the economic recovery here.

He's laying out in Fed-speak, really, but in plain economics, he is laying out where the economy is right now and the challenges to the economy, and where they see things going, and what the Fed is doing, what kind of levers it is pushing and pulling inside of the economy to keep things moving so that there is oxygen for economic growth, for businesses and consumers and the like. But after this, when reporters are able to ask questions, certainly they will be asking about inflation, they will be asking about oil prices, they will be asking all sorts of questions about the Fed's outlook for employment as well.

He said that the mandate of the Fed is maximum employment and price stability. What that means is that everything that the Fed does is supposed to keep people to work and keep inflation from getting out of control so that the economy can grow and people can prosper with jobs.

What is the Fed's expectation for when people will get back to work, and how much inflation we are going to see and for how long? Those are the two key questions for me.

KAYE: And Christine, we have made such a big deal about the fact that he is holding this first-ever press conference where he is going to take reporters' questions. For those of us who don't follow the Fed as closely as you do, help us understand a little bit about just how much power Ben Bernanke has and what his role here is.

ROMANS: He has a great deal of power. And, you know, throughout the economic crisis, we had reminded viewers many times that there were all this argument in Washington over an $800 billion stimulus plan, all of this political mudslinging about how to get the economy growing, and should we be spending this money, deficit spending money, to get the economy going?

At the same time, quietly -- not so quietly, really -- the Fed was pumping trillions of dollars into the economy through a variety of programs and plans to keep things going. So the Fed has been doing its own stimulus, much, much bigger, bigger than anything that the Congress and the White House have been doing.

And, so, for the people who follow the bond markets and the dollar and the international markets and the way the global economy works, it is really the Fed, the Fed that has been central to the U.S. response to the financial crisis. And now the question is, how is the Fed going to unwind all of that, and when will it unwind it, and when it will not be an emergency anymore, that the Fed will have to start raising interest rates?

It doesn't sound like the Fed is going to be raising interest rates anytime soon, keeping rates very, very low, and doing these other things to try to keep the economy going.

KAYE: All right. Christine Romans, thank you. Good to see you, as always.

ROMANS: Sure. You too.

KAYE: We want to take you now quickly -- we have on the line with us Dorn Whitmore, because we are talking about a fire, apparently, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Dorn is with the Fire Information Meritt Island National Refuge.

Dorn, can you tell us -- this has a lot of people concerned. What is the situation, of course, for the Endeavour? And how bad is this fire?

DORN WHITMORE, FIRE INFO. OFFICER, MERRITT ISLAND NATIONAL REFUGE: Well, at this point it's a relatively small fire. It's only about 50 acres in size.

We discovered it about noon. And we have our fire units that are on there. We have fire engines and brush trucks, bulldozers and the like.

It's burning about one-and-a-half miles from the Kennedy Space Center press site, although the winds are coming out of the south and blowing smoke in that direction. We don't see that as any immediate threat to any facilities or the shuttle launch at this point.

KAYE: And can you describe for us what you are seeing there? Does it seem to be getting larger? And who is fighting this?

WHITMORE: The firefighters are employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that are stationed here at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is an overlay of the Kennedy Space Center, so we manage -- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages all those unused portions of the Kennedy Space Center as a national wildlife refuge.

The fire, as I said, is about 50 acres in size, and at this point, it is growing. We are in the process of putting a fire line around the fire with some bulldozers and some plows to help to contain the fire, but at this point, it is only about 15 percent contained.

KAYE: And which way is it moving? Is it moving towards the Endeavour and the facilities there?

WHITMORE: It's moving -- it's not moving towards the Endeavour. It's moving towards the vehicle assembly building in the press site. So it would be, oh, five or six miles, perhaps, as the crow flies away from the Endeavour.

KAYE: OK. And just quickly, do we have any idea what caused this? It's not every day we hear about a fire near the Kennedy Space Center.

WHITMORE: Well, the area is prone to lightning strikes. We have, on average, nine lightning strikes per square mile during the summer rainy season. So we do get a lot of lightning strikes in this particular area. And we did have some thunderstorms that came through yesterday. We think that it's probably lightning, but we have not determined a cause at this point.

KAYE: All right. Dorn Whitmore, thank you for getting on the line with us at the Merritt Island National Refuge. Appreciate the update from you.

Moving on now, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be there to watch her husband launch into space this Friday. Today, she took a trip of her own. She flew to Florida from Houston to prepare to watch the launch.

Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us live from outside the Houston rehab facility where Representative Giffords has been receiving her care.

Elizabeth, first of all, if you can, walk us through her schedule a bit.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Her schedule is that she left here this morning, Randi, and she is now in Florida. And they expect her back in a brief period of time.

They didn't give me an exact time, but they would like her back relatively quickly. This is a leave of absence from the hospital. She has not actually been discharged.

KAYE: And how is she doing? How is her recovery going?

COHEN: Doctors say that she is doing great, that she is walking just a little bit, mostly. She mostly needs help. That she is talking. According to an article in "The Arizona Republic," she's saying things like, "I love you" and "That's awesome."

And interestingly, she has gone from being a righty to being a lefty. And, in fact, they have to work a lot to get that strength up on her right-hand side -- Randi.

KAYE: All right. Elizabeth Cohen in Houston.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

All right. So here is the reality right now when it comes to jobs.

According to the Labor Department, nearly 119,000 workers were laid off last month alone. The unemployment rate in March still hovers just below 9 percent.

While these numbers are an improvement, millions of American are still being forced to reshape and rethink their future.

In today's "Building up America," Tom Foreman finds one man who took control and is cruising towards success.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When John Ryland was laid off after almost a dozen years at the same advertising company, he went straight home and right to work. He'd been developing a budding interest in custom motorcycle design, and he thought just maybe, this was the right time to take it to the next level.

(on camera): Did you really know how to go about starting a business?

JOHN RYLAND, CLASSIFIED MOTO: No. I had no idea.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But he did know that even from Richmond, his advertising skills could help him reach the world. He quickly set up a Web site featuring his designs -- sleek, sharp images of junkyard castoffs that he was remaking into cool road warriors.

(on camera): Wow. Almost a quarter-million views on this page. How about that?

RYLAND: If I don't get 600 visits from 30 countries a day, then I'm bummed. I am thinking, what am I doing wrong?

FOREMAN (voice-over): Along with his wife, Betsy (ph), he posts regular updates on his work, handles a steady stream of calls from fans, and stays flexible. For example, one day, on a whim, he made a lamp from motorcycle parts.

(on camera): You put the first lamp on the site and it sold like that?

RYLAND: Yes, instantaneously.

FOREMAN (voice-over): They have sold more than 100 since, and it's now a major part of their business.

John still freelances in advertising, but his future is here. RYLAND: People probably think, yes, right, getting laid off is a blessing? But for me, it really is, because I know this is going to work and it's picking up steam.

FOREMAN: Just like he came home from work and hasn't stopped working yet.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Richmond, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And we want to show you right now -- take a look here very closely -- these are live pictures from London.

As you know, the royal wedding is just a couple of days away, Friday morning here on the East Coast. And these are live pictures, as I said, outside Westminster Abbey. And we are expecting possibly at this wedding rehearsal a possible sighting of Will and Kate, the bride and the groom.

Max Foster is on the ground there.

And Max, if you can hear me, can you help set the scene just a little bit for us?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a bit of a disappointment, wasn't it? We have been waiting for some time for them to arrive.

KAYE: Was that them?

FOSTER: And they drove -- I can't confirm it, but it has to be. We had a tip-off that they were coming for rehearsal today, and the road was closed, and it wouldn't happen for anyone else.

But they have gone around the back of the building, so we're not going to be able to see right in the car. There was a rumor that it would just be Catherine and Harry would be standing in for William. But we can't confirm any of that.

I think -- pretty sure that there is some sort of rehearsal going on. There was someone who works at the abbey coming in and saying he has come for the rehearsal, so I think we can guarantee that it's happening, but we couldn't see anything.

KAYE: And there's a lot of people there, obviously. What were they telling you, they came there just to get a glimpse of them? Were they tipped off, too?

FOSTER: No, everyone is camping here already. You can't quite see it, but all on this side of the road everyone is campaign. And then you saw some commotion as people started gathering around.

I know that the abbey was closed yesterday, and they have been working on the flowers all day. So, Catherine decided what flowers would be going into the abbey, and I'm sure that she wants to just come and see how it's all looking right now. She has been involved in every part of this wedding.

But, also, a big rehearsal, of course. There's a very long aisle going through the abbey. She's going to want to practice. I'm sure William has come as well. But hopefully on their way out, we will be able to see inside the car.

We have got a camera down there, so we will wait to see if we have got any image right inside the car as they went in.

KAYE: All right.

Max Foster for us there.

If you get another sighting, and you can have any confirmation that it was them, let us know. OK? Thank you.

FOSTER: Will do.

KAYE: All right.

We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We want to take you straight now with some breaking news to Florida near the Kennedy Space Center. These are some pictures that we told you just minutes ago there was a fire near the space center. These pictures are being provided to us by SpaceFlightNow.com. We don't have any control over the pictures. The camera is actually rotating. It's also switching between some NASA pictures as well.

But what we are seeing if you can see there and you can make out some pretty heavy smoke. It looks like the fire started apparently around 12:15 p.m., and it is near the press site, actually near the countdown clock which we have seen in some other pictures and we have seen the hazy smoke around the countdown clock. Apparently, even though we have mentioned that the fire is at the Kennedy Space Center, there is no threat to the shuttle Endeavour.

We spoke with Dorn Whitmore just a few minutes ago here on CNN. He's the fire information spokesman for the Merritt Island National Refuge. He told us that it's a 50-acre fire, that the firefighters are battling right now. It is growing, which isn't good news. You can certainly see the thick smoke there. And that smoke continues to move.

The good news is though is that he did tell us that it was not moving toward Endeavour and the facilities. In fact, he said it was moving more toward the press area where people, no doubt, people will be gathering for the shuttle launch, the expected shuttle launch on Friday.

So, once again, we have this fire at the Kennedy Space Center. No threat to the shuttle Endeavour, moving closer to the press site, and with the countdown clock you can also see the haze and the smoke there.

In terms of the cause, Mr. Whitmore told us there were storms that rolled through the area yesterday. They're thinking this might have been caused by lightning that may have struck some of the dry brush there. But certainly a lot of concern as we are getting ready for this shuttle launch Friday. The astronauts are already there in place ready to go. And it would be such a shame certainly to have this fire put an end to that.

But the good news, like I said, is that it is moving away from those facilities, so we will certainly keep an eye on that and bring you the very latest on that fire near the Kennedy Space Center.

Meanwhile, with two days to go until the royal wedding, our thoughts keep going back to one important person who will not be there. How prince William is making sure that his mom does not miss out on his big day. Their unbreakable bond is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: As Prince William gets closer to marrying Kate, we can't help but think about the past. William's mom, Princess Diana. Her wedding day to Prince Charles, and William as a little boy. Diana's absence from his wedding will undoubtedly make his big day bittersweet.

But her influence over him is lasting. And when you look at him, you can't help but see a part of his mother, Diana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: June 1982 on the steps of London's St. Mary's hospital. Princess Diana and Prince Charles introduced the world to their first born. Prince William, the boy who one day would be king, grew up before our eyes. There were picnics, photo shoots in the garden, the first day of kindergarten and more.

Through it all, Diana was at his side. Nick Davies knew Princess Diana and has written books about her. She says that she and William were especially close.

NICK DAVIES, AUTHOR: He hated, hated to see his mother crying. He would get tissues and push them under the door for her so that she had something to cry into, because she didn't want to be seen in front of the lads crying at the row she was having with Charles.

KAYE: Davies says Diana found great comfort in William and later, in his younger brother Harry, too.

DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES: My first priority will continue be our children, William and Harry, who deserve as much love and care and attention as I am able to give.

DAVIES: What she didn't want to do was to bring them up as little princes, sort of sitting on silk and cushions and never getting their hands dirty or never playing in the mud. KAYE: But on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana's dream of witnessing William be crowned king ended in a fiery car crash in Paris. The princess died at the hospital after being chased by paparazzi. Harry was just 12. William was 15. Old enough to understand the gravity of the loss.

DAVIES: To have her taken away from him in a car crash, so dramatically like that, I think it rocked him back very, very severely. Very severely.

PRINCE WILLIAM OF WALES: Losing a close family member is one of the hardest experiences that can ever endure. Never being able to say the word mommy again in your life sounds like a small thing. However for many, including me, it is not just a word, but a memory evoking many memories.

KAYE: Still, in the short time william had with his mother, her influence is clear. She instilled in this handsome, polo playing, rescue helicopter flying prince a sense of compassion for those less fortunate: through her work with AIDS victims, the homeless and those disfigured by weapons of war.

In 2009, William slept in a cardboard box on the streets of London to call attention to homelessness.

DAVIES: He solidly approves of charity work. Hethinks it is the duty of the royal family, as Diana did, and he wants to emulate his mother to remember her.

KAYE: Also like his mother, William is bound to duties as a royal but determined to live a normal life. He reportedly drives his own car, a Volkswagen, and at university asked that nobody call him Prince or sir. He and Kate Middleton apparently do their own grocery shopping, too.

William also learned a tough lesson from his mother, too, how to deal with media scrutiny.

After their engagement, he and his fiancee seemed in control of the media frenzy as they showed off Kate's engagement ring, which once belonged to Diana.

PRINCE WILLIAM: Of course, it is very special to me as is Kate. And putting the two together is my way of making sure that my mother did not miss out today and the excitement and the fact that we are going to spend the rest of our lives together.

KAYE: William and Kate will be married at Westminster Abbey where nearly 14 years ago, Princess Diana's funeral was held. Coincidence or William's way of allowing his mother to witness his marriage?

Whatever you believe, Princess Diana remains firmly in William's heart.

(END VIDEOTAPE) And we will up bright and early on Friday to cover William and Kate's royal wedding, starting at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time. Anderson Cooper, Piers Morgan, Richard Quest, Kiran Chetry and Cat Deeley will be live from Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. So join us for CNN's royal wedding experience. We promise you it will be a great experience. You can watch it, you can DVR it, but be sure to participate in it with us.

Well, we've been telling you that President Obama released his original, long-form birth certificate today. But will this be enough to quiet a very vocal minority? And why didn't he release it sooner? I'll tackle these topics with today's "Stream Team." That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: President Obama released his original long-form birth certificate, which shows what was known and proven long ago. He was born August 4th, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The administration seems to be trying to put the so-called birther issue to rest once and for all.

It's been pushed heavily in recent weeks by Donald Trump. The president says the country has important issues to deal with. He says, quote, "We do not have time for this kind of silliness."

So, the topic for the "Stream Team" today is the president's birth certificate. Douglas Brinkley is a president historian. Pete Dominick is the host of "Stand Up With Pete Dominick" on Sirius XM. And Erick Erickson is the editor-in-chief of RedState.com.

Let me start off, you guys, by showing you a poll. All right? Take a look. This poll shows that 43 percent of Republicans think that President Obama was definitely or probably not born in the United States. So, Eric, I want to ask you, is this an embarrassing problem for the Republicans?

ERICK ERICKSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, REDSTATE.COM: You know, I don't think it is any more of an embarrassing problem for the Republicans than it is a poll that came out a while back that showed more than half of Democrats think that George Bush was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

You know, people believe crazy things, and unfortunately the president dragged this out for a long time. Actually using it as the punch line of jokes for the last two years. Finally today bringing it out. They should have done this a while back when it first started actually being picked up in polling with majority of African-Americans questioning the religion and 40-some percent of Republicans questioning where he was born. They should not have let this drag out this long.

KAYE: And Douglas, you are a presidential historian. Have any of the presidents faced anything like this in the past?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, you have -- there are squabbles in the 19th century, whether Chester Arthur was really an American citizen and was his father a British citizen from Canada. That created a little controversy. There are a couple of states that claim that Andrew Jackson was born there, but nothing like this.

We are now in the age of the electronic journalism, the World Wide Web, and this has become a ghastly scenario over the last month. And let's put the blame on this birther thing as a the mainstream media phenomenon, Donald Trump. And I think -- you don't have to blame the Republican party. They've been quite (ph) responsible Republican National Committee. We don't have to blame the media for dealing with this issue.

We have to blame NBC Entertainment. They need to dump Trump from his prime time news show. He is a poison toad on the airwaves. What corporate sponsor is going to be buying ad time for Donald Trump's show? Any company that goes into Trump and is willing to pay is going to get fined -- a consumer boycott like never before.

If you going to do what Trump did and go after the president of the United States in such a grotesque and disingenuous way, then you better have coughed up the goods. Today, the Obama administration has show what a charlatan Donald Trump really is.

KAYE: And Pete, I want you to weigh in here. I mean, at its roots, a lot of people are wondering, where did this come from and why did it have legs?

PETE DOMINICK, HOST, "STAND UP WITH PETE DOMINICK": Well, it had legs because President Obama does not look like anybody on U.S. American currency. That's why it's got legs. People think he is not American. And I would just say that I think the birthers make 9/11 truthers look like Rhodes scholars.

This has always been stupid. As a comedian it has been kind of fun, but it has really, really obviously has its roots in racism. It is a sad day. It's a really sad day in a way for America when the president has to come out and make these comments. And I am glad that he did.

What Americans are worried about, the nine Americans who lost their lives in Afghanistan. They're worried about the cost of a gallon of gas and their jobs. Americans don't care about this. They shouldn't, and next thing you know, they are going to be asked to be see the presidential's - the president's college records. They're just going to more the goal post. They want to see his grades in college. Like anybody cares about that. I can't wait for that debate question. How did you do in calculus?

KAYE: Well, in fact, Donald Trump was asking about his school records. Wondering how he got into Harvard. He raised that today. Erick, what do you have to say about that?

ERICKSON: Well, you know, actually it is funny Pete said that because there are a lot of Republicans who have lamented all of the time that they made George Bush cough up his college transcripts and Sarah Palin cough up hers where Barack Obama's -- more of the double standard issue than actually wanting to see them.

But you know, ultimately, I want to know what is going to happen to the investigators that Donald Trump sent to Hawaii. They may join O.J. and continue looking for the real killer now.

KAYE: Douglas, I have to ask you, though, before we let you all go, because is this - first of all, what do you think about the fact that the president did come out and release this? And is this going to be the new precedent where a president has to do this, has to release his personal documents and was really bullied into this, some people have said?

BRINKLEY: Well, it might be very much just about Obama. The fact that Hawaii is far away, the fact that he is some people call him our first global president with the backgrounds of places like Kenya and Indonesia. It may not continue with a different president.

But the White House definitely had to do this at this point. But again, I think we have to look at the network television. This -- NBC used to be one of the big three, and they are the ones who are fueling. Donald Trump can say -- we have the First Amendment. He can say what he wants. But to be giving him a showcase, primetime show when he is selling on - what is the lowest denominator you can do if you love this country is to say that you are not an American. And the fact that Trump is having corporate sponsorship on NBC, that is a sad day. It's a broadcast - it's a sad day for NBC, and their entertainment division has to immediately, in my mind, dump Donald Trump for the damage he has done. The rest of us can get on to the real issues.

KAYE: Pete, do you believe that the president should have released this sooner?

DOMINICK: No. I think it is humiliating. It is humiliating for him, it's humiliating for his family. We all knew that the president was an American citizen in 2007. You know, I knew he was an American citizen when he ran for state Senate. There was never any question.

I happened to be on a NBC reality show myself one time. They found a ticket from ten years ago that I didn't pay. I think that we know that a U.S. senator is an American citizen. It is sad that he had to release it at all, but let's move on.

KAYE: Erick, will we be able to move on? I mean, is this going to be the end for the die-hard birthers?

ERICKSON: No, it is never going to be the end. It's like the people who are still convinced that Bush flew the planes through the World Trade Center. No matter what you show these people, they will not --

KAYE: Well, there has never been any evidence of that --

ERICKSON: Yes, I know. And there has never been any evidence that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. I mean, at Red State, we had to ban the birthers from Red State years ago. And nothing is going to solve it. I'm already getting e-mails from people calling me a fool for buying into propaganda, that oh my God, you open it in Photoshop, it has layers. Nothing will resolve these people.

On the other hand, some of them may have more time on their hands to go see where the Knights Templar lived.

KAYE: All right. Erick, Pete, Douglas, really appreciate you all. Very interesting discussion. And hopefully, one day soon, this will be the end of this and we won't be talking about this anymore. Thank you all.

So, whose decision was it to release the birth certificate? Gloria Borger has that for you in just a couple of minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We have some breaking news. Chad Myers is standing by. Chad a tornado on the ground in Tennessee?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It's been in Alabama, almost got into that northwestern part of Georgia and now into Tennessee. Very close to Chattanooga. If you are not hearing the sirens in Chattanooga, you need to take cover anyway. This a big-time storm, it has all of the rotation that you would take to have a very large tornado on the ground. Weather service is warning that it is extreme rotation here just to the south and southwest of Chattanooga and it will be moving right up into Chattanooga itself, and then into Cleveland, into Tennessee as well.

This is all part of this same storm system that rolled through the Midwest with now, I think, we're down to nine fatalities, maybe two were double-counted last night, but whatever -- the number of potential damaging storms today may be 200 to 300. Almost every county across Mississippi, Alabama and even into parts of Georgia may be affected tonight by a very high likelihood -- a likelihood, not just possibility, but a probability -- of severe weather for Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas, from Atlanta back to Birmingham and even as far south as maybe even New Orleans if it gets all the way that far south. It is very well may.

We have tornado watches across the east, and into northern Virginia, into Richmond -- and I suspect that we will get a watch for the tidewater. Which means that somewhere --- and also for the areas there into the east of, let's say, Elizabeth into North Carolina, this is a storm that will -- all of the storms will rotate today and all of them potential for tornadoes here, all across the Carolinas and into Atlanta, for Birmingham and into Huntsville as well.

KAYE: I feel like all we have been talking about are tornadoes here, Chad. Are we setting a record here? Have we set a record?

MYERS: We are close. We will not confirm a record here yet, because the Weather Service, all of the men and women of the weather service have been so busy day after day trying to put out warnings they haven't yet been able to go out to take a look to confirm tornado damage. It has been amazing. They can't even get out to survey, because there are going to be more tornadoes in the area today where they should have been out looking at the tornado damage. They can't confirm it.

We are certainly there or maybe after today there, but there is no official word n that per se. I've heard other places say that we have broken the record, but it is not confirmed just yet by the Weather Service.

KAYE: All right. But in the meantime, we will keep an eye on that one near Chattanooga and take cover there as well. All right, Chad, thank you.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right after this break with Brooke Baldwin.