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Tornado Aftermath; Former Palin Adviser Spills Secrets; Inside Palin's Inner Circle; Casey Anthony Trial Shocker; Tornado on Ground in Oklahoma; Obama's Guestbook Gaffe; Secret Service Limo Gets Stuck

Aired May 24, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It is now the single deadliest tornado in recent U.S. history, and, at this hour, folks in Joplin and elsewhere across the United States are bracing for even more.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still in search-and-rescue mode. People's lives are at stake.

BALDWIN (voice-over): Rescue crews working fast, as another round of severe weather move in, but the fears grow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tornado comes through, you have no place to go. There is no place to hide now.

BALDWIN: We will show you the rescue efforts in the middle of the ruin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a wife and two kids, 14 months old. We lost everything in the tornado.

BALDWIN: Plus, once a member of Sarah Palin's inner circle, today, Frank Bailey is spilling secrets. Palin's former aide is revealing e- mails, talking about being the first dude and what really happened while Sarah Palin held the highest office in Alaska.

And travelers, beware. A volcanic ash cloud is on the move, many airlines already canceling flights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Want to begin with Joplin, Missouri. It is in really the severe weather crosshairs yet again, and there can not be a worse time. The people of Joplin, they are still reeling from the deadliest tornado to strike in recent American history.

And it wasn't even 48 hours ago, fresh images here. We have just turned around some new aerial images here of the wreckage and what is left there on the ground in Joplin. Let's -- let's just watch this for a moment, really as far as the eye can see, devastation in large swathes of the city.

There is not a house with a roof. There are bare foundations and piles of rubble. Not a car or truck is upright. In the Joplin area alone, now confirmed 118 people are dead. And about 1,500 others, their whereabouts are unknown. They're unaccounted for.

I want to go straight to the ground to T.J. Holmes.

And, T.J., just tell me where you are, where are folks where you are with regard to the rescue effort now that really sort of the clock is ticking because we know more severe weather is headed your way.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, like you said, it's a couple clocks ticking.

But you asked about where people are. I'm going to show you an image. I'm going to let my photographer move over and this will tell you the story without me saying a word.

BALDWIN: Oh.

HOLMES: This is what is happening here. This is not staged. This -- I didn't ask her to sit there. I didn't ask her to hold on to her dog.

This woman has been here since essentially we have been here, all day today going through rubble. Her house there, you don't see it really because it's actually relocated to the other side of the street.

If you pan -- he's panning up there, Mad Dog, going over to -- to the other side. That's it across the street. That's what she was going through. The rubble is over there. Her address is over here. And she has been here all day. She was able -- her dog, as you see, is with her. But now she's just sitting in front of her house.

She didn't want to talk to us. She didn't want to do an interview or anything, but she said she didn't mind us showing her home. But she essentially said it was a beautiful home. She said it was gorgeous. And, you know, so much and around the neighborhood, there did like -- there were some beautiful homes in this area and all around.

But just to show you that image, and it is certainly striking to us as we see it, people holding on to the only thing they have left sometimes. And that might be the family pet in some -- you see some little items, some Pringles and things she's been able to pull out. She said she hasn't found a checkbook or passport, jewelry, things of any significance.

But she is holding on to what she does have right now. And she's in good spirits with the dog.

Now, to what you talked about a moment ago, kind of two clocks that have been ticking here, one, trying to get to people and get them out. You have only got a small window of time, you know, when there's a disaster like this if people are trapped in the rubble. And then that other clock right now, you can tell it's not as sunny as it was when we did some of the earlier live shots. Clouds are moving in. I haven't looked at a radar, but they are telling us that here, in about an hour, we start being under, in local time at least, at 4:00, under that window for severe weather. And it goes until midnight.

So, people hear that after what just happened, they are certainly taking that seriously. I'm sure people will clear out at the first sign of a thunderstorm or lightning or a little rain. But, right now, they are trying to get all they can -- all they can get done, done.

BALDWIN: Yes.

HOLMES: But, in some cases, like the lady behind me, Brooke, again, as I -- like I said, I don't have to say much for this picture here to tell the story. That story is being told house by house, block by block, in many neighborhoods here in Joplin.

BALDWIN: It's breathtaking, seeing that woman sitting there with her dog looking at once -- what once was.

I do want to ask you, because we have seen in these pieces of video, T.J., the -- that some of these crews are marking an X. And I know the X means that they have searched through the rubble, there are no survivors.

Have you seen anyone pulled out from any of these pieces of what was once a house? Have you seen any of that today?

HOLMES: Yes, not at all. We spent a good time -- a good deal of time last night -- actually, specifically, it was at my old apartment complex you and I talked about earlier.

BALDWIN: Yes.

HOLMES: That is just gone now. Had cadaver dogs there going through, and we stuck around as long as we could to see if maybe they were able to pull someone out.

Now, that -- that is good and bad, I suppose. Certainly, the good news, it's great that they didn't find anybody. Maybe that's -- there's no one under there. But, at the same time, you wonder if there are plenty of people out there they are not finding at this time and if they are running out of time to find them.

So, so far, not that many reports necessarily. At least, I haven't gotten -- you might have better information than I do from out here about the numbers of missing. We know there are some numbers -- but I haven't high numbers -- of that. That's a good thing.

BALDWIN: Fifteen hundred.

HOLMES: But -- 1,500.

BALDWIN: Fifteen hundred is the number we're hearing... (CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

HOLMES: And some of that -- as you know, some of that certainly is people just are not accounted for. We have to always make sure we know, hey, that doesn't mean someone is under rubble.

BALDWIN: No, that is exactly what it means.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: ... case where, you know, communication -- communication is shaky out here and people just can't find each other, can't link up right now.

So -- but, in neighborhood by neighborhood we're going, we're not seeing some of those desperate searchers saying, hey, this is the last person -- last time we saw them, they were under here somewhere. We are not seeing that in a lot of neighborhoods. But, like you said, some of those numbers -- that's a high number you just said. So, we really don't know for sure.

BALDWIN: We don't know yet.

T.J. Holmes, like you said, this was your first job out of college. And just looking at the images of what was your apartment -- and you can't even show the crew around town because you don't even recognize it.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I'm sure that's the case with so many people there from Joplin.

HOLMES: A lot of it.

BALDWIN: T.J. Holmes, my thanks to you.

Also this here -- I want to show you some more pictures. These are just amazing, heart-stopping pictures that we have just gotten here in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Again, this is from the city of Joplin. It is video shot by a man who jumped into his car, drove to Joplin to do whatever it was he could do to try to help after the storm.

And here's just a piece of what James Redmond saw. Again, this is video shot by one of our iReporters, James Redmond in Joplin, Missouri.

In fact, James is joining me now from his home in Rogers, Arkansas.

And, James, I don't even know where to begin. I know this video, we have all seen it here at CNN. It's about 14 minutes long. If you can, just what one image -- image that you shot, what one image just will forever be with you? JAMES REDMOND, CNN IREPORTER: It's probably just that big tank that was sitting in the road some -- by somebody's house, that you just go, where did that come from? And then second is just cars that -- a normal car just being compacted to very small. Those were unbelievable.

BALDWIN: From what I have read, you hopped in the car with some of your nurse friends. You went to one of these hospitals, the Freeman Health System Hospital, where you saw no one's electricity is really working, so people were having to sort of take notes, what, by hand at this hospital.

REDMOND: Yes. Like they were saying, there was a mass confusion there, but it was orderly.

The nurses were writing down people as they came in, and keeping track of it. And what I noticed that -- I said, why don't we put it on a laptop? So, I helped them start creating a database for that.

BALDWIN: You also said, I think, the most grim aspect of what you saw was seeing the looks on some of these rescue crews' faces, because a lot of us are thinking about the folks who have lost loved ones, folks who are unaccounted for.

But it's so important, also, remember, there are rescue crews out there trying to find these people, and they're living through this as well.

REDMOND: Yes. They are human beings. And you could see the sadness, the shock on their faces that they are having to dig through this rubble, this mess, and try to find people or bodies.

And we could tell that they just -- it just affected them deeply. And one of the nurses that I talked said that they -- you know, that they are going to have post-drama after the event because it was so overwhelming.

BALDWIN: Of course.

And just really a final question here, is there any one, I don't know, a positive sign that you saw? Because we keep looking at your video and it is just destruction upon destruction. Any one thing that provides you and others hope?

REDMOND: Well, it would just be incredible support of all kinds of people coming together, like from the state troopers, to the nurses, to the rescue team, like from Rogers and Fayetteville. They have said, we're going up there. We don't know what we're going into. We believe we're needed, but we're heading up there.

BALDWIN: It's amazing folks like that...

(CROSSTALK)

REDMOND: So, just...

BALDWIN: They are so compassionate. They are so compassionate. And people -- the need is very much so there.

James Redmond, thank you so much. Anyone can hop on our Web site and take a look at your video.

We thank all of our iReporters for sending in these -- these images that we're going to continue to play here on CNN.

Also want to remind all of you that we are monitoring severe weather threats. T.J. alluded to two clocks that are ticking, one of which -- live pictures, folks. These are the live pictures over the skies of Oklahoma. Chad Myers was just talking about this. He had mentioned tornado watches earlier. We will check in with Chad and talk about some storms that are popping up right now.

But coming up next: A former member of Sarah Palin's inner circle is about to spill some secrets. His name is Frank Bailey. He has written what he calls a tell-all book about his time with the former Alaska governor, including information about her family life, e-mails, many, many e-mails they exchanged, and why he felt misgivings about her after spending so many years by her side, just about four years by her side. Frank Bailey joins me live. Don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, I want to take you back to 2008, late August.

A big reveal was in the works for John McCain's presidential campaign. The senator would announce his running mate, a woman, a conservative from Alaska. And the rest, as they say, is history -- unless your name is Frank Bailey, then a member of Governor Sarah Palin's staff, her inner circle.

His career, reputation and life would forever be changed. In fact, he has written a new book about his years with Palin. It's called "Blind Allegiance." And he documents the time before an ugly breakup that has resulted in him being investigated by the Alaska attorney general.

And Frank Bailey joins me now.

And, Frank Bailey, I got -- I got this as a manuscript. I tell you what. I spent -- spent some hours reading this thing. And I do want to begin with this first question.

You know, you write in the very beginning about how you joined the Sarah Palin crusade for change -- those were your words -- in the early days of her gubernatorial candidacy back in November 2005. What was it that -- you sort of seem smitten, politically smitten by her? What drew you in?

FRANK BAILEY, AUTHOR, "BLIND ALLEGIANCE TO SARA PALIN": You know, myself along with many other volunteers fought so hard because of the principles that we believed Palin would fight for as well. I mean, the political climate in Alaska was good at that point, and we looked to Sarah to be that person that could come in, that breathe of fresh air and actually clean up politics in Alaska. And I am not the only one. There were many that just worked tirelessly to get her elected. BALDWIN: Again, and you describe how you flip open the white pages, and you cold caller her, and you e-mail her, and the rest is history. And I know that you kept, you know, some 50,000 different e-mails between Sarah Palin and yourself. As I mentioned a moment ago, the legality of publishing them has been questioned.

But I want to give example of one of these emails. This is a message -- this was sent by Sarah Palin to campaign staff, suggesting that they start a phony letter writing campaign to various newspaper editors. So, this is one example and this is what we've shortened.

She actually had written, "Dear editor, it's been a pleasure watching our life-long Alaskan gal, Sarah Palin, campaign for governor these past six months."

Here's another suggestion as part of this letter to an editor, "Sarah tells it like it is and is obviously not your typical politician" you know, fill in the blank here.

You said, you're right about how you, you know, felt compromised participating in that particular and several others after the fact letter campaign. In what way did you feel compromised?

BAILEY: You know, Brooke, I mean, the letter-writing piece was one of many pieces but, you know, I -- over time, the book is very much a confessional where I own things that I did wrong and that I participated in, that later on, you know, as time went on, I started to look back on and realize, what are you doing, Frank? And, you know, things that Sarah was obsessive about.

I mean, we talk about rigging the online polls and how important that was to her and she would tip us off every single time one of those polls would come up and we could do everything we could to try to vote, clear cookies, revote for her, getting eight, 10, 12 computers going at the same time.

Those were minor things. There are bigger things, things that I have to live with, you know, that bugged my conscience over a long period of time.

BALDWIN: But, Frank, as it bugged our conscience -- allow me to just press you for a moment, it bugged your conscience but, you know, you write and you just say, you know, you were an active participant in this. Even though the book is called "Blind Allegiance," you weren't so blind and it's tough as a reader to be very sympathetic.

BAILEY: You know, Brooke, that is absolutely fair and, you know, you go into something vesting so much. I mean, you look at this like a relationship, that maybe it isn't going so well. I'm such an optimist. I want to turn around -- I want to believe that the next day is going to be better.

And, you know, day after day after day, you do some things that are great and that you feel good about, you do other things that aren't so good. But you stick with it. You just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. BALDWIN: You stuck with it.

BAILEY: And there was a final straw moment. I did.

BALDWIN: Yes, you stayed with her for three years and nine months. Yes, and I do, though --

BAILEY: Yes, I did.

BALDWIN: -- I want to fast forward, though, to 2008, to, you know, when Palin is governor, you're working in her administration. But you develop some misgivings about here and I want to quote, and this is part of your book as well. Quoting, "Were Senator McCain's other choices so distasteful that Sarah's baggage was worth the price? Pawlenty, Romney, Bobby Jindal, Tom Ridge, and Joe Lieberman were worse candidates given what was going on in Sarah's life?": This is a question you have at that time.

So, Frank, you were on the inside. What was going on in Sarah Palin's life then?

BAILEY: You know, her style of leadership was absolutely chaotic. Brooke, you've got to understand that because I vested so much, when she got tapped for V.P., I had -- I was absolutely overjoyed and on one sense and in other sense, just absolutely terrified. What if this person did actually become vice president and president? She is not an organizer, I will say to put it politely.

BALDWIN: Frank, I want to ask about Todd, because there's been so many questions about the role he played. You know, he was husband, he was father, you quote saying he was an engaged father picking up family slack. What role did he play? Take me behind the curtain.

BAILEY: You know, Todd pushed the Palin brand a lot. He would tip us of to her mood driving into town, kind of giving us hint as to what sort of things we should spring on her for the day.

BALDWIN: He would send you e-mails?

BAILEY: You know -- he would. He would emails. I found myself -- the book, "Blind Allegiance," something we talk about how, you know, often Todd would be pushing me to do one thing, Sarah would be denying that I was doing it. Certainly, "Troopergate" is something that I got embroiled in in 2008 was full of those moments.

BALDWIN: You seem to talk a lot about how Todd is saying don't tell Sarah and Sarah is saying, don't tell Todd. I have more questions for you.

BAILEY: That's right.

BALDWIN: We have to take a commercial break in, because one other question I have was, you know, what was it like in the Palin camp after now famous, really infamous Katie Couric interview and what did Palin really think of her job in Alaska?

Frank Bailey, stay right there.

We're also going to get back to our live coverage of the severe weather bearing down on the United States. Keep in mind, tornado watches in both Kansas -- these are live pictures, ominous pictures of Oklahoma.

Back in one minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK. Here we go. Multiple pictures we're all keeping our eye own, and keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen. We're thinking maybe -- we think there may be a tornado forming. We're going to keep our eye on this particular picture and, of course, we got our guys in the weather center doing the same thing. We are monitoring the severe weather throughout large sections of the country, including the storm headed straight for Missouri.

Right now, though, I do want to take you back to Frank Bailey, once a member of Sarah Palin's inner circle. They call themselves the rag tag group, author of "Blind Allegiance."

And, Frank, my next question -- I mentioned this sort about infamous moment, one of the really defining moments for Sarah Palin was the Katie Couric interview when Palin, when she was asked several times, you know, what are you reading? She couldn't source, you know, a single newspaper that she reads or relies upon.

In fact, here's a Palin email. It's part of your book here. It's a Palin email sent several months after the election. Quoting Palin, quote, "She, Katie Couric, sucked in ratings before she stumbled on her little gig mocking me."

So, Frank Bailey, in your three years and nine months with former governor, how often did she play the victim?

BAILEY: She loved to play the victim. That is her M.O., and what's sad is people who believe like I do politically fall for that, repeatedly. And they don't ask those tough questions because those big bad folks on the media are just beating up on her. It's a sad thing.

I mean, watching that Couric interview was painful because Sarah Palin is not stupid. She reads. It's just -- I feel like she didn't want to paint herself as too Alaskan or too pro-Alaskan at that point, trying to maybe broaden her horizons. And it was very sad to watch that.

BALDWIN: Right. You do mention several different sources that she was reading specifically in Alaska, but she just didn't cite them.

BAILEY: Right.

BALDWIN: One more question: former Alaska governor -- she has not ruled out a presidential bid and I do want to pass along this Palin e- mail. This is one that was sent several months before, speaking of the her state before she quit, you know, more than halfway through her term as governor. She is quoting -- you quote her, quote, "I hate this damn job, this flippin' kangaroo joke of a job."

Why? Is that why she quit? Because that's not what she told the American people.

BAILEY: You know, I understand that. Very soon after the presidential election in 2008, I think she honestly just got tired of her time as governor. Some important things -- some important business with the state of Alaska got brushed aside. She went and traveled out where there's a very important attorney general nomination and many things like that where being Alaska governor, what Alaskans entrusted her to do was just second rate to her with this new found fame.

BALDWIN: We have been doing our due diligence here at CNN. We've been reaching out to the Palin's to get some of kind of response for your book. We've been making phone calls for a week.

And, Frank Bailey, we heard from them today. It's long, but I want to read it all for you, and for our viewers and then get your response. So, standby, just follow me here.

BAILEY: OK.

BALDWIN: They say, quote, "Frank Bailey was the only member of the Palin administration to be found to have acted unethically twice. He is currently under investigation again by the state attorney general. Then, as the administrator of certain e-mail accounts, he acted unethically by appropriating account information that he was entrusted to protect."

Stay with me. I goes on, "Governor Palin suspended Bailey and refused to hire Bailey when he sought a position on her vice presidential campaign staff and later with SarahPAC. Mr. Bailey has an ax to grind and abandoned truth in his book. The cover of the book tells the story, two completely photos twisted and PhotoShopped to create a fraudulent image. The book belongs on the fiction shelves."

Mr. Bailey, what do you make of that?

BAILEY: You know, there's a lot of stuff in that statement that is just factually false. And one thing the reader cannot miss when they read "Blind Allegiance" is that there are many owning moments in this book. I mean, there are things that I deeply regret that I did that I talk about in "Blind Allegiance." I hate to say it, but I think Palin in this case, or, you know, her spokesman that she's hiding behind, just is wanting to veer the discussion away from the factual things in this book -- like improperly coordinating with the Republican Governors Association and lying to the media, lying to the folks in Alaska.

BALDWIN: You are being investigated by the attorney general. Is this -- is their allegation that you PhotoShopped an image to create a fraudulent image, is that correct? BAILEY: The image that is up there on our book is a recreation of a very difficult moment in my life and, yes, it was put together by the wonderful folks at Howard Publishing.

BALDWIN: OK. Frank Bailey, thank you once again. Again, here's the cover of the book, "Blind Allegiance." Thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate it.

BAILEY: Brooke, thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, some breaking news on the severe weather threats across the U.S., specifically Oklahoma. Take a look at these different live pictures and also, of course, the radar on the upper right of your screen. Chad Myers, he's going to have the latest, join me in 70 seconds. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Before you take you back to Joplin, Missouri, I do want to talk with Chad Myers about Longdale, Oklahoma, there has been a tornado spotted.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Just to the southwest of the city, moving into the city of Longdale. Into town, it's about six blocks wide, six blocks long, but whatever. This tornado is half a mile wide on the ground right now, by spotters and also by helicopter pilots. We talked about this yesterday, though, wrapped in rain.

I can tell you there's a tornado on the ground and I can show you a picture from a helicopter and you cannot see the tornado.

BALDWIN: And that's the dangerous part because people think it's just rain, they don't see the tornado and they don't move.

MYERS: That's exactly right. The dark part of under the letters KOCO there, tornado is on the ground, doing damage, as we speak. We've seen power flashes. We've seen a lot of lighting with the storm. And it is headed right into the town of Longdale.

Now, this is kind of in the western parts of Oklahoma where there's a lot more wheat than there are people, right? But this town is in the path of a very large tornado.

If you are in Longdale now, you need to be in your safe place at this moment.

BALDWIN: Chad Myers, keep us posted and let us know what's happening there and how that whole thing evolves over the course of the next couple of hours.

MYERS: If we get better pictures that what we're seeing now.

BALDWIN: Hop right in, interrupt me.

MYERS: I would jump up and down certainly. BALDWIN: Jump up and down indeed. But I do want to get to Joplin, Missouri, where they are bracing, as you mentioned, for even more severe there tonight.

But high school graduation was supposed one of the happiest events in most kids' lives, right? It was a great memory for me. But it was for this year's graduating class of Joplin High School, it was right up until the tornado tore through their hometown and leveled their high school.

Kasey Grant is one of Joplin's brand-new graduates. One of the top graduates, I should add. Less than an hour before the tornado, she gave one of those uplifting commencement speeches. Full of memories, cherish your memories, gratitude of the past and of course, hope for the future.

Kasey is on the phone with me from Melbourne, Arkansas. And Kasey, I read bits and pieces of your speech and in part of the speech, you say, quote, "Life may lead you in any direction, but only you can decide who you will be in the future." Whew! Talk about the weight of those words today, Kasey.

KASEY GRANT, JOPLIN HIGH GRADUATE (on the phone): Well, obviously only we can decide who we are in the future, but a storm like this, it decides so much for us. This tornado completely swept out our town, and so many people don't have any place to live now. They can't do anything about that. However, they can decide how to feel about this, and they can keep hope in their life. They can still be hopeful about the situation.

BALDWIN: I love the optimism in your voice, Kasey. If I can ask just you in terms of the time line, help me understand. It's you and 455 of your classmates on Sunday. You're walking across the stage, flipping tassel to the other side and then the next thing, this tornado hits. How much time did you have in between to get out of there?

GRANT: Right when we were leaving is when the sirens started going off. My family had already left early. My mom was still there with me. All the graduates had to go back and get our actual diplomas after the graduation. So, we were leaving a little bit late.

The tornado sirens were already going off when we were leaving, and we had no idea where the tornado was. So, we were going to try to make it home. But on our way home, we got a phone call from my aunt and she told us she could see on the news, she saw the tornado on 7th Street, which was extremely close to where we were. So, she told us to get out of the car immediately, so we pulled into the mall, got out of the car, and went into the storm shelter in there and just waited it out for probably 30 to 40 minutes.

But when we left, everything was gone.

BALDWIN: You were in the storm shelter. Were seeing pictures of people being evacuated, likely taken to hospitals. But I want to ask you about your high school. Joplin High is gone. I read that it will take some $40 million to $50 million to rebuild it. And when you saw it, you've gone back and you've seen it.

GRANT: Yes.

BALDWIN: Were you teary eyed looking at this?

GRANT: Yes. I broke down in the car whenever we drove past the high school. The entire top floor of the high school is just gone. You can't even tell where you are when you're over on that part of town.

BALDWIN: One of your classmates, a young man by the name of Will Morton -- my colleague Anderson Cooper was on last night with his - I was watching, with his mother and sister. They are looking for him. You had a couple of classes with him. He was with his father there in the Hummer. He was ejected, popped out of the seat belt. Do you have any news you can provide of where he is? If he's OK?

GRANT: I have no idea. The only thing I've heard was that he was taken to a hospital, and he was alive in the hospital. And then they transferred him to another hospital. And I haven't heard where or anything else. That's all I know.

BALDWIN: Kasey, if you were to be standing on that stage today, 48 hours after the horrific storm would hit, what would your message be to your classmates?

GRANT: I would just tell them that you know, we're going to come out of this. This may seem like a really dark time, and it is a really dark time. But there is hope out there.

The community, the Joplin community, has done an outstanding job of coming together and, you know, providing -- donating and providing everything that people need from, like, tooth brushes to clothes to bottled water and everything.

And we're going to come out of this. It might take a while, but we can come out of this and rebuild the community.

BALDWIN: Listen to that. High school graduate, summa cum laude if I may brag about you for a moment. Best of luck to you, Kasey Grant. Best of luck.

GRANT: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

And as Chad mentioned, we're watching the skies over Oklahoma. A tornado has been spotted. We're going to keep our eyes very closely on the radar. Tape on the upper left-hand corner. It looks perhaps -- I don't want to say. We'll wait for Chad. Stay right here. More breaking severe weather next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. As if the Midwest needs any more severe weather, given what happened in Joplin, Missouri on Sunday, we now have confirmed reports, Chad Myers, of a tornado in Longdale, Oklahoma. CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it was southwest of the city by about two miles, moving that way. It probably brushed the northern side of the town. Literally the town is six blocks wide by seven blocks long.

BALDWIN: Look at these pictures. Very dark.

MYERS: And this is just the beginning, Brooke. We are not even in the heat of the day. It's literally only 2:37 God's time out there. You don't take into account the Daylight Saving time. You take into account that it's one - this is Central time. You subtract another hour, so you really -- your 2:37 sun time. And we have another at least two-and-a-half hours to go of heating before the really big tornadoes get on the ground. And that tornado that you're looking at is a half-mile wide and it just brushed Longdale, Oklahoma. Still moving to the north and to the northeast.

If I extrapolate that storm for another hour -- let's say it stays on the ground -- because storms have been staying on the ground a long time lately. That would be making its way up toward the Enid area. So, nobody is out of the woods yet in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, even up toward Nebraska and Texas.

BALDWIN: I know you've been talking so much about time is of the essence and especially in Missouri, people are still hoping to find - you know there are still 1,5 00 people still unaccounted for in Joplin. They need the daylight before the storms move in. How much more time do they have?

MYERS: I don't think Joplin is going to get anything from the first line until 8:00 to 10:00 tonight.

BALDWIN: 8:00 to 10:00 tonight.

MYERS: And although discrete cells can fire in the warm air -- Joplin's in the warm air right now. You can get thunderstorms or even showers to east of where the big weather is at any time. But the real tornadic weather gets there 8:00, 10:00, 12:00 tonight, probably after dark. That's going to be a big event for them.

BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: And I can't believe the 1,500. I need to get my hands around it and figure out where that comes from. Is that somebody from Alabama (sic) that can't get ahold of somebody else because they try to get them on the phone and that phone is not there? Or is that neighbor looking for neighbor? That's just a number that scares me.

BALDWIN: I do not know. I do not know if it was quoted from the mayor of Joplin. I just know it was in our CNN wire from an official. Chad Myers, thank you so much.

And from one weather story to another, the thick, gritty ash erupting from a volcano in Iceland is wreaking havoc across parts of central Europe today. Have you seen these pictures? Let me share them with you. This massive cloud of ash is straying towards the UK, and experts say it will likely blanket all British airspace by the end of the day. And you know what that means. That means hundreds of flight cancellations to and from London's Heathrow airport. That cloud.

Also, this. NASA releasing this image of the volcanic plume as scene from space. The thick ash causing some areas to turn pitch black in the middle of the day.

CNN's Adam Reiss is near the volcano in Iceland and joins me now. Adam, just tell me what you're seeing from your vantage. And where are you?

ADAM REISS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESOPNDENT (on the phone): Well, Brooke, first let me tell you that, we do have some news to report. We've just learned that they have closed the Reykjavik airport here and that's due to ash. It's old ash that continues to circulate in the air.

We are now in the town at the base of the volcano and the ash is everywhere. You can taste it. It's in your eyes. We're breathing it in. The good news is the biggest eruption of Brims Burton (ph) in 140 years is finally settling down today. Geologists are telling us it that it has peaked, it has diminished dramatically, it's about 1 percent of what it was three days ago. Yet there has been more ash in the first 36 hours of this volcano the entire month of last year's epic volcano that you remember caused so much disruption to travel worldwide.

Ash here, Brooke, is shooting up three miles into the air, and that's down from about a 13-mile high two days ago. That's 100 tons of ash. That's down from 10,000 tons of ash. And the good news here is that the officials are better prepared, both here and in Europe. They've got better models for aviation. They have better knowledge of the content of the ash, the ash composition and wind direction.

BALDWIN: But still, Adam Reiss, with hundreds of tons of ash, that cannot be good for your health, for your lungs. I mean, when you're inhaling the thick, black dust, what are some of the health concerns that people may have?

REISS: Well, they've cleared out a lot of the farmers' concerns about the families that are here. So, farmers and families and children are being cleared out. And there's concern for the sheep as well here.

BALDWIN: Adam Reiss in Iceland just reporting that Reykjavik Airport is now closed because of these clouds. Adam, thank you.

BALDWIN: Now, though, to a shocker in the Casey Anthony trial. First the prosecution delivers its opening statement this morning. And then the defense goes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDNETIFIED MALE: She never was missing. Caylee Anthony died on June 16, 2008, when she drowned in her family's swimming pool. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BADLWIN: It has been three years since little Caylee disappeared, and now we have never heard that before. On top of that bombshell, the defense lawyer makes disturbing accusations against her father, George Anthony.

Sunny Hostin is all over this case. She is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. A real shocker of a start to one of the most anticipated trials of the century so far. We're talking about the trial of Casey Anthony. She is the Florida mother charged with murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

The defense dropped a massive, massive bombshell during this morning's open statements. I want you to watch this. You're going to hear from Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE BAEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: How in a world can a mother wait 30 days before ever reporting her child missing? That's insane. That's bizarre. Something's just not right about that.

Well, the answer is actually relatively simple. She never was missing. Caylee Anthony died on June 16th, 2008, when she drowned in her family's swimming pool.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Sunny Hostin, that is just the headline. Drowning in the family's swimming pool. Walk me through this defense.

SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR, "IN SESSION" ON TRUTV: It really was a bombshell today in the courtroom, Brooke. The defense in this case is that Caylee was not murdered by her mother, Casey Anthony. She died in the family swimming pool June 16th, 2008, and Casey wasn't even there.

However, George Anthony, Casey's father, Caylee's grandfather was there, picked her up out of the pool and said to Casey Anthony, you're a bad mother. Look at what happened to Caylee. Interestingly enough, the way they respond to the 31 days missing, they say that George Anthony abused, sexually abused Casey Anthony from the age of 8, perhaps through the age of 13 or maybe longer.

And she just retreated into her shell and she started living a life of lies, the life that she had been used to living. They threw George Anthony sort of under the bus. They also say that Roy Kronk who is the gentleman who found Caylee's remains actually took Caylee's remains and planted them there. That is the defense in this case.

BALDWIN: If you're throwing those folks under the bus and throwing, you know, everything else against the wall hoping something will stick, can that work?

HOSTIN: You know, it can work and I've been asking myself that question all morning as I listened to these opening statements. The defense needs reasonable doubt. That is it. They only need, Brooke, one juror to believe that perhaps little Caylee drown.

Now, let's remember. This is in Florida. In Florida, drowning deaths are the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4. This defense may resonate with perhaps one juror. That's all the defense needs for a hung jury.

BALDWIN: Now, that's the defense. Let's go to the prosecution. They have a very different narrative and for the first time we heard about an alleged murder weapon. Let's listen to the prosecutor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA DRANE BURDICK, PROSECUTOR: Duct tape covered the nose and mouth area of that tiny human's skull. The cotton polyester backing of the duct tape was disintegrating in the harsh environment in which she lay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Sunny, we heard that and then her remains were inside several plastic bags, found in the swampy wooded area. Does it sound with something that you do with a body of a child, which according to the defense, accidently drowned in the swimming pool?

HOSTIN: Well, of course not. That's really what the tension is going to be in this case. Two completely different verges versions of what happened to little Caylee Anthony. One from the prosecution, one from the defense, which side will the jury believe?

We just don't know yet, but I will say this. On the witness stand right now, Brooke, George Anthony. First witness called by the prosecution. He has denied ever sexually abusing Casey Anthony. This trial is going to be two months. It's just starting.

BALDWIN: So he's on the stand. We're looking at live pictures of Casey Anthony. You know, as you've been watching sort of moment by moment, what strikes you about her demeanor there in the courtroom?

HOSTIN: She has been very upset this morning during the prosecution's case she was stoic but red-face. During the defense's opening statement we saw tears, she was crying, not inconsolable but very, very upset.

So we are seeing a very emotionally-affected Casey Anthony in the courtroom. As you mentioned, I've been watching it. We have coverage on "In Session." We have coverage on HLN. This is a two-month trial, Brooke. So I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell you in the coming weeks and months.

BALDWIN: What a trial. Some are saying it could be bigger than O.J. Simpson's trial. So Sunny Hostin, we'll be talking about it for a month. I have a feeling. Thank you so much.

I want to get you back, though, to the story that we've been watching here for you for the last two days. Severe weather threats across the U.S. continuing into this evening including right now storms are moving through large areas of the nation's midsection. A tornado is on the ground, folks, in Oklahoma. More breaking news next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Again, we've been watching some of these live pictures over Oklahoma, very ominous skies there. Chad Myers and I have been talking about the fact that there has been a tornado spotted there. It's moving across the Midwest.

So Wolf Blitzer is standing by. Wolf Blitzer, I know you will be talking to Chad at the top of your hour. It is just very frightening because in Joplin, Missouri, you know, the highest risk there is several hours later. The last time you wanted it at night.

WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM: And they are desperately searching for people right now. They're still searching. They think there maybe some people still alive under the rubble. So many heartbreaking stories and you've had a few of them during your show today, Brooke.

It's really painful to speak to some of these people who are looking for their loved ones. I'm going to be speaking with one mother whose 16-year-old called just before this tornado hit Joplin. The son said I'll be pulling into a parking lot. I'll get back to you. She's been looking desperately for her son ever since.

Earlier they told her maybe it's time for you to go to the morgue and check things out. She went to the morgue. Her son was not in the morgue. There are other bodies obviously in the morgue. We're going to talk to her. She is not giving up.

This is just one story. There are so many people still missing, 118 confirmed dead. Hundreds of others injured and so many of them seriously. What a tragic story. We're all watching. Brooke, we'll have a lot more coming up at the top of the hour.

BALDWIN: The death toll, 118. Obviously both you and I both well know that that could rise. I was just speaking with an 18-year-old high school graduate from Joplin High School and I just appreciated the optimism in her voice.

And it seems when you do talk to some of these folks, the optimism is pervasive, but it's tough given these images to hold on to those hopes. Wolf Blitzer, we'll look forward to those interviews here in a matter of minutes. Thank you, sir.

There have been a couple of called them "oops moments" during the president's trip overseas. There has just been one other mishap. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: OK. If you've been to Europe, you know the jet lag getting there is kind of tough, but let me just tell you this. Before tonight's state dinner, which we brought part of it live to you from Buckingham Palace, the Obama's visited Westminster Abbey and while they were there they signed the guest book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN (voice-over): But I want you to take a good long look at there in the Abbey. Take a look at the president's message. I know it's tiny, but get your eyes to the bottom right side of the screen.

So he writes, it is a great privilege to commemorate our common heritage and common sacrifice, signed Barack Obama, 24th of May. You see that? Are you squinting? 2008, folks.

As in the year he was elected not 2011. The year it is now. I mean, I know the president has a lot on his mind, but come on now.

OK, so did you see this? One of the spare secret limos for the president got stuck. Here it is. Boom. Stuck on a rim yesterday on the trip to Ireland. Forgive me for laughing.

These cars are heavily armored and built to withstand a ton of hazards, but not pavement?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joe Johns with the "Political Pop." Come on, Joe. Come on.

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: That's all you can do.

BALDWIN: It's kind of funny to watch.

JOHNS: Yes, it's pretty incredible. And, you know, again and again and again, I've been told today the president of the United States was not in the car. But the first thing you think is, well, he could have been.

We're fascinated by the secret service and when they have a little hiccup like this, the world is watching. This is a spare limousine and the presidential detail leaving the U.S. embassy in Dublin carrying just staff. We don't know who.

The secret service says, of course, that the president was not in the limousine. Got hung up. How do these things happen? Big cars, very heavy. They call it the beast and they call it the beast for a reason, armored plating, bullet-proof windows, communication equipment, all kinds of stuff. So that's a lot of stuff to lug around.

BALDWIN: Did the Secret Service send you any sort of statement, Joe?

JOHNS: Yes. Well, sure. I mean, they put out a statement, probably right shortly after this happened and they sort of stand by it. They say, the size of our vehicles is always an issue and taken into consideration during the advance process.

Advance meaning when people fly over early to check out how the trip is going to go, however, it only take as slight miss calculation for a problem like this to occur. Appropriate follow-up will be conducted. I take it to mean that they really, really, really don't want that to happen again.

BALDWIN: Someone cue the low rider song, Joe Johns.

JOHNS: I know.

BALDWIN: All right, thank you, sir, so much and that is it for me. Thanks for watching. Now to Wolf Blitzer in Washington, Wolf.