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RNC Chair Responds to Trump; Tornadoes Kill More than 200 People in the South; Prince Harry the "Wild Child"; State of Emergency in Alabama

Aired April 28, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. in the west. I am Carol Costello, sitting in for Kyra Phillips.

The death toll is climbing from the violence storms that slashed across the south. More than 190 people are confirmed death. Alabama and Mississippi and Georgia are the hardest hit states.

A major political development in the Middle East as two rival groups join forces. Hamas and Fatah agree to form a unity government for the Palestinian territories. And that raises concerns for the United States which still lifts Hamas as a terror group.

The royal wedding now less than 24 hours away. Last night, Prince William and his bride-to-be, Kate Middleton took part in their final rehearsal at Westminster Abbey.

And now for these devastating storms. It seems that with every hour that passes today, the news out of the south just gets worse. The death toll higher, the powerful and plentiful tornadoes left at least 194 people dead, mostly in Alabama.

People are still missing. Hundreds are injured. Homes and businesses that were standing 24 hours ago, they are just gone. At least 160 reports of tornadoes have come in. One hit near the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Just terrifying. Alabama's governor says some students died in the storm. Tuscaloosa's mayor says the twister decimated the city's infrastructure. Some people in the Birmingham area still can't believe they made it out alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought I wasn't going to be living. I thought my life was over. I ran out of my bedroom. The next thing I knew, the front window blew out. And I just ran down to the basement. I have my life and I thank God for it. I just got to be a living testimony.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Let's check in with Reynolds Wolf. He's in Tuscaloosa.

I know you're an Alabama native, Reynolds, so this must be particularly -- I don't know, sad for you.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Devastating to see, absolutely.

Lived here, let's see. I am 41 years old and spent most of my life here. And part of it, earlier in my career as a meteorologist here for one of the local stations. And I have seen several tornado outbreaks but nothing that can compare to this, Carol.

On either side of me to my right and my left we've got two trees, two oak trees, each about 50 feet that -- at least were 50 feet high. This is what happens when they experience wind gusts topping 200 miles per hour sustained from this massive tornado that came through.

We believed to be an EF-4 at least. You see the devastation we have of one house, one of many structures across -- not only Tuscaloosa but across parts of the southeast devastated, 128 dead. Unfortunately we may have those numbers increased over the next several hours and possibly days.

Debris is everywhere. And when you have those strong winds and you have the debris, these small things like these splinters of wood become a projectile. This is deadly as any missile, as deadly as any bullet. And that is one of the big reasons why you have so many deaths.

And in a situation like this, storms that are this strong with winds so powerful, the only safe place you can really find would be underground. But unfortunately, many of the people who call this area home don't have basements, they don't have storm cellars, they don't have a significant shelter to hide from these winds.

And I'll tell you, even if you were in a strong building, you can see the result. They fall apart. Strong, big vehicles like these over here at this armory, the old armory, you can see right here, there is a truck, hard to believe a five-time truck that has been pushed over on its side and just a testament to how strong the winds have been.

What's even more, if you look at this fence line, the fence is virtually gone. The posts are there. They have been bit as the debris came across the roadway and pushed everything aside. You'll notice there is a little bit of that mesh from the fence itself and the chain link that is pushed up against the back of these deuce-and- a-half trucks.

And Jonathan, I don't know if you can see it. There at the very end, you'll notice there is a Humvee, a vehicle that is designed to take and withstand battle damage that has been ripped to shreds.

Devastating. A devastating scene that we have here. Unfortunately it is something that has been playing out all across much of the southeast for a good part of the storm season. And we're not done yet. Again 128 dead. We expect those numbers to rise in the coming days.

Back to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Reynolds Wolf, thank you.

I know a lot of people in Georgia were scared of the fierce winds last night, too. A lot of people spent the nights in their basement. At least 11 deaths are reported in the state of Georgia and most of them around the town of Ringgold, near the Tennessee border.

Rescuers were still looking for survivors this morning. The town reported widespread damage.

Mississippi reporting 32 people killed in the storms. Flooding has been a big problem near Oxford. Authorities have had to rescue people trapped inside their homes. The storms lived up to their deadly potential.

Let's head over to the severe weather center and Jacqui Jeras.

Is this the worst tornado season ever?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We don't know. But certainly one of the top, if not the top. We won't have those official numbers for a little bit yet, Carol.

We kind of compare everything. The worst outbreak in history, the super outbreak as we call it happened back in 1974. And this could be very close to that in terms of the number of tornadoes.

The number of fatalities we think and we hope will be less than that. But this appears it will likely be the deadliest tornado outbreak since that benchmark year.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Wow. That's just unbelievable. You mentioned bad weather, too, in the Virginia and Washington, D.C. area. The governor of the state of Virginia just declared a state of emergency. I think eight people died in the state of Virginia.

JERAS: Yes. It's been so widespread. It's just been incredible. I might want to mention, too, you know, today, this is a very populated area. Even though we won't see as many tornadoes there are a lot more people that are going to be in the lines of those storms today.

So we suggest, you know, you try and stay at home. Have that safety plan in place. The lowest level of your home away from doors and windows. That's the safe place to be. A lot of people are trying to travel by airways. We've got major problems at all the airports of the northeast. They just can't get around these ones.

COSTELLO: Jacqui Jeras, thank you.

Later today President Obama will formally announce the largest reshaping of his national security team since taking office. As we told you first yesterday, long-time Washington insider, Leon Panetta will be nominated as the nation's next defense secretary. He would succeed Robert Gates who is retiring later this year. General David Petraeus is the president's choice to replace Panetta as CIA director. If approved, Petraeus would remain in command of the war efforts in Afghanistan until September.

After dropping his birth certificate bombshell, President Obama turns the controversy into comedy. Hear some of his material next.

In the meantime a lot of Republicans are not laughing today. They are lashing out at the president and how he's handled this issue. The chairman of the Republican National Committee gives us his take straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: After the surprise decision to release his original birth certificate, President Obama stepped up to the podium to explain. He poked fun at the years' long birther controversy and then started poking the press for how it covered the issue. At some point he even got a little angry. But his mood was lighter -- lighter at a fundraiser in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My name is Barack Obama.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: I was born in Hawaii.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: The 50th state of the United States of America. No one checked my I.D. on the way in.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: But just in case.

(LAUGHTER)

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Well, Donald Trump breathed new life into the birther movement these last few months. It's -- has also had plenty of conservative support. Going back several years you had Newt Gingrich talking about the president's Kenyan, anti-colonialist world view. You had Sarah Palin saying Obama's citizenship was rightfully an issue and fair game.

Well, this morning I spoke with the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus. I started by asking Mr. Priebus his response to the president's release of his original birth certificate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I have said for a long time and we have been saying for months that this whole thing is just a complete distraction and to spend even more time talking about it while our country is about to walk off of a fiscal cliff -- we're borrowing $4.5 billion a day -- and this president is more worried about birth certificates, Oprah Winfrey and fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria in downtown Manhattan, while the rest of us are trying to figure out how we are going to get the economy back on track.

You know it is maddening and I just wish this president would engage in the real issues that are affecting America, which are $4 gas prices and an economy that needs help.

COSTELLO: I am sure the voters -- no voters would really disagree with you but there are those who would say that it's Republican candidates who've been pushing this birther stuff. And they've kept pushing it to undermine this president.

PRIEBUS: No, you know, I would disagree with you, Carol. I think the media is pushing this stuff and curiously the president is personally involved in the debate.

COSTELLO: The media is pushing this stuff? We had mainstream Republican candidates come out and intimate that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. I'm not talking about Mike Huckabee. I'm not talking about --

PRIEBUS: Carol, you invited me on to talk about the birth certificate issue again and in my mind, we've got the American people that want us to talk about how to get gas prices down and how to fix our economy and how to bring jobs to America. And we've got a president who's talking about the issue. We've got him going on to Oprah. We've got him going to the Jonas Brothers golfing, doing everything except --

COSTELLO: Well --

PRIEBUS: -- figuring out a way to save Medicare --

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you --

PRIEBUS: -- that's going to go bankrupt in nine years.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you this about Donald Trump. He's been talking about this birther issue for a lot. He's been the loudest voice. Have you ever called him and said, hey, Mr. Trump, cut it -- cut the rhetoric, this isn't helping the country?

PRIEBUS: Listen, if Donald Trump -- I mean, he can talk about whatever he wants. It's up to the primary voters to decide. And you know what, the primary voters will decide in Iowa, in New Hampshire and South Carolina and the rest of the country as to who they want to represent them on the Republican ticket. It's not my job to play police officer with the candidates. It's up to the voters to play police officer and go into the voting booth and check off who they want to vote for. COSTELLO: Even such talk is hurting the Republican Party?

PRIEBUS: But, it's up to this president to get our economy back on track.

COSTELLO: Even if such talk is hurting the Republican Party, it's not your job to call and say, hey, this might not be the way to attack the president?

PRIEBUS: I'll tell you what this is about. We have a battle for freedom in this country that we need to win. And when we are about to spend 42 cents on every dollar made in America in a few short years, that's an America that we don't want to pass on to our kids and our grandkids. Medicare is going to go broke in nine years and the president is giving speeches.

We need this president to lead and he is not. I would say Oprah Winfrey, Waldorf Astoria fundraisers, Jonas Brothers and golfing is not the leadership and that's not the hope that the American people are praying for right now. We need to save our country and get our economy back on track.

COSTELLO: I totally get what you're saying. I just want to go back to Donald Trump for a just a minute because he is the loudest voice and he is doing pretty well in the polls as far as Republican voters are concerned. So, what he says resonates, right?

So, his next thing is about the president releasing his college records. Do you think the president should do that?

PRIEBUS: I think this is all a big distraction, all of it. I have never said anything otherwise, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, why not call Donald Trump up and say, hey, stop it?

PRIEBUS: I mean, the point is -- because, listen, because Donald Trump can say what Donald Trump wants to say. We live in America. He has a right to say what he wants to say. And the media, I would say, enjoys picking up on a few of these lines and going to town with them.

Look at, we are still talking about this birth certificate issue. It's old news. Let's talk about the economy. Let's talk about how we are going to get our country back on track.

That's what the Republicans are doing. That's what Paul Ryan is doing. That's what Speaker Boehner is doing. In fact, we're the only ones talking about this.

COSTELLO: Let me read to you something that David Frum said, who is a Republican. He wrote an opinion piece. He's a former Bush speechwriter. And in this op-ed he says, "How did this poisonous and not very subtly racist birther allegation get such a grip on our conservative movement and our Republican Party?" He says that's the stain that this kind of talk has left on the Republican Party.

How do you respond to that? PRIEBUS: You know how much I hear about this issue from our grass roots, nothing. The only people that talk to me about this issue are people like you, Carol, and people in the media.

COSTELLO: Why do so many Republicans believe that the president might not be born in this country, more than 40 percent? I mean, isn't it the duty of the Republican Party to say, to kind of, like, make people believe what's true?

PRIEBUS: Carol, I believe and I have said that the president was born in Hawaii. I have never said anything other than that, as chairman of the Republican National Committee. Now, as chairman of the Republican National Committee, I hope and pray that the Democrats and this president get serious about getting our economy back on track, because if we don't do anything, we are going to go broke and we are going to pass on an America to our kids and grandkids that we don't want to pass on.

And I think it's time to get serious. And let's move on to more serious topics, that being jobs, the debt, the deficit, and saving Medicare and Social Security, which the Republicans are the only ones doing right now.

COSTELLO: Thank you so much for talking with us this morning. We appreciate it.

PRIEBUS: You bet, carol. Thank you.

COSTELLO: He was spirited, what can I say?

We want to bring in our senior political editor, Mark Preston, now.

And, Mark, politically -- I mean, how is this all playing out, do you think?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, you know -- look, Carol, for two people, let's just focus on President Obama and Donald Trump. You know, at his fundraisers last night, President Obama joked about it. You know, he said, "Look, I'm president -- I'm Barack Obama, I was born in Hawaii."

You know, I think that this pretty much definitively puts it to rest. We will still hear some people who will question where he was born but the fact of the matter is, he was born in the United States.

Now, for Donald Trump, I thought he did OK yesterday up in New Hampshire at his press conference except when he was being self- congratulatory, Carol. He talked about how proud he was of himself. That doesn't play well with primary voters.

And I will tell you, if you just look at the editorial in "The New Hampshire Union Leader" today, they kind of hit the nail on the head. If Donald Trump is serious about running for president, this is what they say, "Ditch the limo, the security detail and the chopper so you can interact with voters one-on-one." Voters in these primary states, particularly New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, they want to touch you, Carol. They want to feel you. They don't want a big security detail surrounding you.

But, you know, speaking of New Hampshire, CNN, and "The New Hampshire Union Leader" and WMUR have some more details regarding their presidential debate, our presidential debate in June. It's going to be on the 13th. The venue is going to be Saint Anselm College.

John King last night in his interview with Donald Trump asked Donald Trump if he'd be attending the debate. Donald Trump said, well, look, if I'm in, I'll be there.

So, it would be interesting to see him on a debate stage, Carol.

COSTELLO: Mark Preston, many thanks -- reporting live from Washington.

We will have your next political update in one hour. And a reminder for all the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com.

Also ahead, students stormed a room -- stormed a board room, I should say, and chained themselves to the chairs. They say they are fighting for education. Find out more about their complaints after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The death toll from the tornado outbreak is up to 202 people in six states. CNN just heard from the governor's office in Virginia, eight people reported from the storms that hit there.

Checking news across the country now:

In Arizona, dozens of students stormed a room and chained themselves to chairs at a board meeting of the Tucson unified school district. They were protesting a study that would take ethnic studies out of the curriculum and make them electives. Opponents fear this plan could eventually kill the whole program.

In Michigan, help arrives just in time for a dog stuck in the river clinging to a log. The pit bull mix affectionately called Nemo may have been in the water for more than a day before fire fighters arrived and pulled her to safety.

And check this out. This colorful mosaic called "A Surfing Madonna." It's attracting a lot of attention in California. It was mysteriously installed on an overpass wall in Encinitas just before Easter. The city calls it graffiti and says it must go. Art lovers say it must stay.

Gas prices are rising, and that's pushing up prices on almost everything we buy. Times are tough all over, right? Well, not quite. We'll tell you about an oil giant celebrating huge profits and bracing for public outrage, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking our top story now:

The death toll climbing from those violent storms that slashed across the South. More than 200 people confirmed dead now. Alabama, one of the hardest hit states -- a mild-wide tornado touched down in Tuscaloosa. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER ENGLAND, CRIMSON TIDE PRODUCTION (via telephone): My heart is racing, because you see, you know, things like that in movies and everything, but you never see anything like that, you know, in real life. And you could see that the tornado was sucking stuff up from the ground. I couldn't tell what it was, but I could see all kind of things floating around it. But then you could see just different colors being sucked up into the tornado. And you knew it was just ripping stuff up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, imagine looking out of your window and narrating like that, seeing a monster like that.

Michael Wood is a student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He shot this video of this deadly twister from his apartment.

Michael joins us now live. Welcome, Michael.

MICHAEL WOOD, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA STUDENT: Yes, ma'am. How are you doing?

COSTELLO: Can you hear me?

WOOD: Yes, ma'am.

COSTELLO: OK. Cool.

What floor were you on when you were shooting this tornado?

WOOD: I was on the fifth floor of my apartment building.

COSTELLO: So, why weren't you running for cover? Instead, you grabbed your camera.

WOOD: Well, I was watching the news channel. They had a good stream going, actually a tower cam from one of the downtown buildings. They had the radar going at the same time. I could tell it wasn't going to come quite where I was at. And so, I was near a stairwell in case it did make a turn, I could dive down in the stairwell and run down to the basement real quick. But --

COSTELLO: You're a lot braver.

WOOD: Fortunately for me, it stayed out.

COSTELLO: Yes. You're a lot braver than I would have been.

So, tell us, as you're looking at this thing again, what were you seeing?

WOOD: Just complete destruction. It was amazing and sad at the same time. Like I said, I just -- I got the video shot and you could see a lot of debris.

Actually, I saw the storm, what looked to be touch down initially to the west and just keep moving toward the east appearing to follow 15th Street.

COSTELLO: And you could actually see it like sucking up homes and cars and things into that wind tunnel.

WOOD: I couldn't actually see specific debris like you said, like cars or homes. But you could see what appeared to be plenty of shingles and insulation and that type of debris flying about through the air.

COSTELLO: We understand that 36 people are dead in Tuscaloosa. And we are hearing some students might have been injured. What are you hearing?

WOOD: I know there is a lot of deaths, sadly. I think the count is at 15 now, plenty of injuries admitted to the local hospital. As far as people that I know being injured, I know a few people have lost their homes and cars. Thankfully, no one that I know was injured. But just thoughts and prayers going out to the ones who were injured.

COSTELLO: Yes. And just a final question for you. Have you ever seen anything like that before? And has it changed you in some way?

WOOD: I'd say the only thing close to this was -- I'm from coastal Alabama, about 30 minutes from the beach and seeing the damage done by storms like Katrina, Ivan and Dennis when they moved through. The storm surge, the way it picked up cars and moved them around looked similar to the way the cars are tossed about here. But the damage here is a lot, lot worse.

COSTELLO: Michael wood, thank you for sharing your pictures and your story. We appreciate it and we're glad you are safe.

COSTELLO: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

COSTELLO: This morning, the oil giant, ExxonMobil, is announcing its first quarter profits and it's already bracing for public backlash. With gas prices inching toward record highs, the company just announced a jaw-dropping spike in profits. So, ExxonMobil is trying to tamp down any expected outrage.

One quote from its blog -- and yes, it has a blog site. On its blog it says this, "Less than three percent of ExxonMobil's earnings are from U.S. gasoline sales." And, the company says, quote, "We earned a little more than two cents per gallon. That's not a typo. Two cents." But that two cents surely adds up for you and me.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: President Obama says such huge profits show the oil industry no longer needs the big tax breaks it gets so he wants to eliminate some $4 billion worth of deductions. So here's a quick look at a couple of them.

The largest is this domestic manufacturing tax deduction. It is designed to keep factories here in the United States. Companies that manufacture here can deduct nine percent of their income from operations that are attributed to domestic production. Eliminating that deduction would save more than $1.7 billion.

Now, the second largest savings would come from killing off the percentage depletion allowance. This deduction essentially let's oil companies treat oil in the ground as capital equipment so some of its value can be deducted. That would save $1 billion per year.

I know it's complicated so joining us know is Steve Hargreaves, a writer for CNNmoney.com.

Steve, you wrote an excellent article about these deductions and the government would have a lot of extra money if it killed off these deductions.

How likely is that to happen?

STEVE HARGREAVES, STAFF WRITER, CNNMONEY.COM: Well, it's going to be pretty difficult. The Democrats have been trying to go after these tax breaks since at least 2008. You remember back in 2008, oil and gas prices were really high, as well. And they haven't been able to do it.

There's a lot of opposition to this. A lot of Republicans are against it. The oil industry is obviously against it. You know, they say that these tax breaks, that they encourage domestic production and they lessen the country's reliance on imported oil and they create a lot of good jobs right here in the U.S.

COSTELLO: Something in your article that surprised me. Oil companies apparently pay way more taxes than other companies.

Tell us about that.

HARGREAVES: Well, their tax rate is very high. They pay somewhere around 40 percent. You know, you hear a lot of companies that are able to, you know, really reduce their tax bill and pay hardly anything. That's not the case with oil companies. They pay -- their tax rate's about 40 percent. Just last year, Exxon made about $30 billion and they paid about $20 billion of that to various governments. So they're certainly paying a lot of money. I mean, it's just -- they're also making a lot of money. COSTELLO: Well, yes, I know. The first sentence of your article says, since 2000, the five big oil companies made $1 trillion. So obviously, they can afford it. I guess the question is, we live in a capitalistic society, right? You're supposed to make money when you operate a successful business and that's -- I mean, how can you beat that argument?

HARGREAVES: Right. I mean, it's a tough one to make. But the president and Democrats are saying, look, these tax subsidies that were put in price when oil prices were low, back when these companies really needed an incentive to drill here. That's not the case now. Oil prices are really high. These companies are probably going to drill, whether they have this tax break or not so it's time to get rid of it and put the money into alternative energy or conservation. That's at least the argument.

COSTELLO: Steve Hargreaves, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

HARGREAVES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Deadly tornadoes have left parts of Alabama unrecognizable. A statewide emergency there. Catastrophic damage. People still missing. We'll have more details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Here's a look ahead at some of the stories we're keeping our eyes on later today.

This morning at 11:00 Eastern, the First Lady hosts the take our daughters and sons to work today for the children of White House staffers.

Shortly after 3:00 Eastern Time, the president is set to announce changes to his national security team.

And later today at 5:00 Eastern, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in the Motor City, Detroit, talking jobs with the Detroit Economic Club.

Countdown to the royal wedding. The clock ticks closer, the crowds grow larger and CNN is breaking down all the latest royal developments. That's coming your way next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The royal wedding is less than 24 hours away and nowhere is the buzz word more deafening than among the loyal subjects camped outside of Westminster Abbey. Some have staked out their spots since Tuesday. An estimated one million people are expected to line the streets of London.

And this morning, we have a new image of the beaming couple. Take a look at this picture. This bill grace the official wedding program at tomorrow's ceremony. One hundred fifty-thousand copies of the program will be sold throughout London, all to raise money for charity. And it can also be viewed online. Every bride has faced the same worry about a rambunctious guest who threatens to steal the spotlight at the wedding reception. For the royal family, it may be another prince who is well-known for his mischievous ways.

CNN's Tom Foreman explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Perhaps not since Diana and Fergie, has anyone shaken the royal tree as hard as anyone as 26- year-old Prince Harry, who against the stiff upper lip propriety of the family has often been a wild-haired wanderer.

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Prince Harry's always been the kind of naughty boy of the royals. He was seen falling out of nightclubs with a string of lovely young ladies on his arm. And generally misbehaving in a way that was deemed unbecoming of an army boy and a royal.

FOREMAN: His older brother by two years, William, is first in line to the throne behind their father and has always seemed respectful, well behaved.

The spare prince has pursued a military career with the same vigor he brings to his favorite sports of polo, rugby and skiing. Trained as a tank commander, he famously insisted on going to the front line saying, there's no way I am going to sit on my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) back home while my boys are out fighting for their country.

He spent more than two months on the ground calling US air strikes on the Taliban before news reports of his whereabouts prompted a withdrawal for security reasons.

He was not happy.

PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: It's a shame. As I said, angry is probably the wrong word to use. No, but I am so disappointed. I thought I could stay it through to the end.

FOREMAN: He is now trained to fly attack helicopters just last year in New York hinted he may go back to war.

PRINCE HARRY: I have always going back to Afghan and you know when the chance arises or when I'm told to go, hopefully I'll be allowed to go.

FOREMAN: He has shown little inclination to ever retreat from anything.

MARLENE EILERS KOENIG, ROYAL EXPERT: He did dabble with some -- with drugs, he did dabble with a little bit of alcohol and got himself into trouble by dressing up as a Nazi and all sorts of things.

FOREMAN: The Nazi incident happened six years ago at a friend's costume birthday party. And amid the firestorm that followed Harry issued a written statement, "It was a poor choice and I apologize."

KOENIG: But he's never done really anything illegal and he's never, ever eschewed his duties.

FOREMAN: To the contrary, as he has matured, he has traveled much of the world. Last year, for example, visiting with cadet's at WestPoint he has established some respected charities and he's on again off again romance of several years with Chelsy Davy who works at a London law firm appears on again. It is widely reported that she will be his wedding guest.

PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": But to his great credit, he has recently I think become rather more responsible, almost grown up you might say.

FOREMAN: But lest anyone think the royal mischief maker has disappeared, there is this. Rampant rumors that the wildest post- wedding party might be the one hosted by Harry.

Tom Foreman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm looking forward to that one. It's history in the making. And you don't want to be the only one who missed it.

Naturally, CNN handles international stories better than anyone. So join us at 4:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow.

I know it's a little early but that's what your DVR is for.

Be part of our global viewing party with Anderson Cooper, Piers Morgan, Kiran Chetry, Richard Quest and Cat Deeley.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In what could be the worst tornado outbreak in history, Alabama, oh, took the worst beating. At least 130 people now dead, hundreds hurt, people still missing, and words like "surreal" and "sickening" and "catastrophic" used to describe the damage.

The governor has declared a statewide state of emergency. He's mobilized hundreds of National Guard to help the storm victims.

CNN's Martin Savidge is in Pleasant Grove, that's a suburb of Birmingham. Martin, what are you seeing?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's about 20 miles to the west of Birmingham, Carol. And I just had a conversation with Robert Knight he's the chief of police. We're at the staging area here, which is City Hall, one of the only few structures in this community that has not been obliterated as a result of the tornado.

He described it striking about 6:00 last night, coming a swath a half- mile wide as he said right through the middle of the city. He thinks that -- well, they know they have six people confirmed dead, however, he believes that the death toll is going to go considerably higher.

They've got nine teams right now, search and recovery teams that are out in the affected neighborhoods. They've got five more teams, I'm looking at them right now. Staging and getting ready to head out.

He does say that there are people still trapped in their homes, and that they are being freed all the time. And we have already witnessed that there are bodies still to be recovered out in the area that has been hardest-hit. But this is a town of about 10,000 people, so they're taking it extremely hard.

The damage is quite striking. I will have to say this. You know I have -- everybody here measures it back to the big storms they had in '98; that was an F-5 that came right near through this same neighborhood here.

And people say this one is even worse than that one, which is hard to imagine. Because I covered that back in '98 and that was pretty awful. And as you look in the neighborhoods now, this one is equally as bad.

Of course, the real judgment comes from the National Weather Service -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Does Alabama have enough help, Martin?

SAVIDGE: You know, help is coming in. Of course, with a tornado it's not like a hurricane in the sense that you've got massive areas. You've got intense areas of tremendous devastation, but it is limited. So that means that you have a lot of communities nearby that have begun -- well, even last night pouring in all sorts of people to assist. That the -- you know, the nearby fire departments, at the police departments.

We were out last night at 2:00 in the morning and we stumbled across U.S. Marshals, they have showed up and ATF has shown up. I mean, it's one of those disaster where it's all hands on deck and anybody who can render aid just automatically shows up and they continue to do so even now.

COSTELLO: Yes. Martin Savidge, many thanks reporting live from Alabama.

We're following a lot of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's check in first with meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. He's in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, right now the number of dead in Tuscaloosa now is at 36. But as the days and the hours move forward, we expect that number to rise. Today people are returning to their homes and trying to sift through some of the rubble and just trying to look ahead. We'll bring you the story coming up.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Zain Verjee in London. The royal wedding is just under 24 hours away, and someone got uninvited to it. We'll tell you who and why.

COSTELLO: And thanks to both of you.

Also ahead, we'll sift through some of the birther fallout now that the President has released his original certificate. Joining us live at the half hour is CNN political contributors James Carville and Dana Loesch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We're continuing our coverage of the storms that -- that have killed more than 200 people in six states now. We want to bring in the FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, to talk about his agency's response. Thanks for joining us this morning.

CRAIG FUGATE, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So can you give us a sense of the damage and the most recent death toll that you know.

FUGATE: Well, again, you know, we've been working with the states and Alabama seems to be the hardest hit. We had loss of life in Mississippi, had impacts in Georgia all the way up into Virginia. So they're comparing this outbreak to the 1974 super tornado outbreak. The amount of fatalities unfortunately is now being reported close to a little over 200, and search and rescue operations are still under way in Alabama and some of the other areas.

COSTELLO: Tell me about that. How many people has FEMA sent to Alabama, and what exactly are they doing?

FUGATE: Right now, last night the governor had requested assistance. President Obama declared an emergency declaration. That allows us to begin sending in direct federal assistance to the governor's team. But I'll tell you one thing that we recognize; as bad as this tornado is, a lot of the response is being done by local officials, mutual aid from surrounding communities as well as the governor has called out the national guard.

Our support has been to bring us more resources, and those numbers will go up. Part of what we'll be doing today is looking at the actual damages and looking at what recovery needs are going to be. But the governor is still focused right on the search and rescue, and he has a lot of resources in state to do those operations.

COSTELLO: Once we move to a recovery phase, what kind of equipment could you send to these states, Alabama and Georgia and Virginia?

FUGATE: Well, right now, again, with the folks on search and rescue, we're going to do the assessments, as they make determinations, are they going to need additional things such as emergency supplies, generators, those types of equipment. We have those things ready to go.

But I think what we're going to probably find is once we get through this life safety phase, a lot of what's going to be done is going to be debris clearance and that may be just more of us providing assistance to the state as far as getting debris picked up in these areas.

COSTELLO: Will there be money available for people who have lost their homes?

FUGATE: We're not sure about that yet. That's one of the things we're looking at. The governor has an additional request for the President, and that's part of the reason why the President has asked me to go down today is to meet with the governor and his team and take look at things so that we can move expeditiously on additional assistance if required.

COSTELLO: Can you believe this tornado season? It's just outrageous.

FUGATE: It's pointing out one of the things that you oftentimes think of Oklahoma as the central U.S. as the tornado alley. Forget that the southeast also has a tornado alley. And again, many people are comparing this to the outbreak in 1974 when over, I believe, over 300 people lost their lives.

So yes, when you get big tornadoes and they are in particularly in dense, urban areas, it's unfortunate that damages can be very significant and unfortunately in this event loss of life.

COSTELLO: Craig Fugate, FEMA administrator, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.

FUGATE: Thank you.