Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Millions Facing Tornado Threat; Well-Coordinated Afghan Attacks; Bill Cosby on President Barack Obama; Bill Cosby on Gun Control; Obama at Summit of Americas; U.S. Dominates Bourbon Production

Aired April 15, 2012 - 19:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Don Lemon here at top of the hour. Thanks for joining us.

Tonight much of the Midwest bracing once again for an onslaught of dangerous weather less than 24 hours after a deadly series of tornadoes ripped through the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a second, the whole house was gone. We were looking up at blue sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Terror from the skies. We've gotten so many iReports from you out there. Please stay safe tonight. We want you to be safe. This is the -- this is the exact same weather system that could hammer millions more people as the darkness begins to fall, so stay tuned, we're going to keep you updated.

The threat of tornadoes through much of the Central Time Zone and for many, the damage is already done. 122 reports of possible tornado touchdowns yesterday and overnight; most of them hit Kansas, but parts of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa are in rubble today, too.

The most impacted communities had to be -- impacted community has to be Woodward, Oklahoma. Five deaths are blamed on the storm outbreak, all of them in Woodward. They include a father and his two young children who died inside their mobile home. Two others died in a car. Woodward's mayor says the storms knocked out part of the emergency siren system.

Jacqui Jeras joins me now. Jacqui, we're not out of the woods yet. Where is the threat right now?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're focusing on Minnesota especially just outside of Minneapolis, St. Paul. We've got a tornado watch in effect here that includes the Twin City down towards Mancado (ph), into Rochester, Mason City, Iowa and over towards La Crosse, Wisconsin. That means conditions are favorable for tornadoes to develop.

Now we do have a report of a wall cloud. Now a wall cloud is that low-hanging kind of wedge from the big parent storm and that's where a tornado would drop out of. So no funnel has been sighted but the wall cloud is there and this is in Lester Prairie, so Carver, McCloud and Wright Counties are under a tornado warning and this storm is moving in a northerly direction.

It's this entire line here around St. Cloud and Westward that we're going to be watching. And this should be moving into the Twin cities likely within an hour, so you need to be on high alert that these thunderstorms are just to your west and some of them are rotating.

So that is certainly a concern at this hour. There is also a threat of tornadoes farther south, St. Louis down into Little Rock, Arkansas. These storms have been more linear, as we call them. They're just kind of lined up. And when we see that, we tend to see more straight line wind damage than tornadoes, but there is enough rotation in the atmosphere and unstable conditions that isolated spinners, so to speak, could be popping up.

So another severe weather situation unfolding, this is going to continue into tonight, Don and even tomorrow parts of the northeast will see severe weather and temperatures are going to be soaring. We're talking 80s, maybe even 90 in places like Boston and New York City.

LEMON: Oh Jacqui.

JERAS: A lot of energy.

LEMON: Yes thank you very much.

We want to go back now to Woodward, Oklahoma, the town where all five death to blame when the storm systems happened. That where we find our Rob Marciano. Rob, damage there just incredible, isn't it in?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIS: It is. Luckily it's a narrow swath, but that narrow swath in this town got hit incredibly hard. We're in this neighborhood where there are several, several homes and especially on this block, that are completely destroyed and unliveable. We're at the Lord household where they just managed to bring in some heavy equipment and they're trying to get this one car that's well, somewhat drivable out.

But this is a home of almost 3,000 square feet, four bedrooms; I think two or three baths completely blown away by this.

Last hour you heard the story of Paul Lord, the patriarch of the household here. I want to introduce you to his son. And Chad, your dad was telling us how you were holding onto his hand, the tornado sucked him out of the house and you found him lying there with a big gash in his head. Tell us how that went down.

CHAD LORD, TORNADO DESTROYED HOME: Well the sirens started going off. We got everybody up we are going across the street so that we could get in to shelter. Paul got to about the middle of the street and I was in the middle of the yard and I looked over my shoulder and, of course, if you look right over here, the debris was right there and the storm was already here.

So I told my mom, my sister, her husband and my kids to get into the -- into the bathroom. You know, it's too late, it's here. And dad started coming in and you know I grabbed him to start pulling him into the front door and we were approximately about right there where the bricks meet and the storm took him away from me.

And I got thrown into the house, it threw me down the hallway and when I hit the end of the hallway, I reached over I finally made it to the bathroom door. I opened the bathroom door and there was nothing on the other side of the door. And something knocked me down. And all of this took place in 10, 15 seconds. I mean, it was -- it was super quick.

MARCIANO: And his -- his grandson is your son, I assume?

LORD: Yes, I've got two sons.

(CROSSTALK)

MARCIANO: -- buried under appliances?

LORD: Yes.

MARCIANO: I mean, this is an incredible story. Now, the whole community coming together including more in the way of heavy equipment. What's going through your head right now? I mean, you've got to be in shock a bit.

LORD: Yes a little bit of shock. It hasn't quite upsetting, you had exactly what all -- what all is gone. You know we were searching through the rubble and my mom had found a teacup that was her mother's and that slowed her down for about 10 minutes. She just sat down. The whole house is gone and her mom's teacup absolutely harm -- harm free. And there's nothing wrong with it.

MARCIANO: Well, we're so pleased that everybody made it out alive. And -- you have yourself and your father made that point several times.

LORD: Yes.

MARCIANO: And I know he was looking to move, anyway, but you've got some, you've got a lot of workload ahead of you and we wish you the very best. Thank you very much for sharing your story.

LORD: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Rob Marciano, thank you very much.

At one point, all 300 people who lived in Thurman, Iowa had to evacuate. We have learned that the tornado that touched down there was an EF-2. It was half-a-mile wide with winds up to 135 miles per hour. It left a path of destruction 10 miles long, destroying or damaging three-fourths of the homes in Thurman. And some watched as their houses were obliterated in just a matter of seconds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HILL, LOST HOME IN TORNADO: That piece of iron had to come from a building. It was -- you know it was no straight wind it was just a regular twister; the wind just blasting out and out and out. We were in the bathroom, like they always say and while we got here the roof went here.

The good Lord was with us. He sure was. It's a -- it's about more than you can bear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also very scary moments in the small town of Creston, Iowa. This is what the people who lived there are dealing with this evening. A hospital is among the buildings that a tornado hit in Creston. The sheer force blew out windows and damaged the roof. Emergency crews rushed to the scene but thankfully, there were no major injuries reported. Patients were relocated to other hospitals.

The twisters mainly struck rural areas except for the city of Wichita, Kansas. One tornado slammed into a mobile home park there. About a quarter of the 100 homes were destroyed, half of them damaged. But as bad as this looks the worst report of injury was a broken leg.

Some of the most striking images came from Salina, Kansas, about 90 miles north of Wichita. The Emergency Management Director for this county says three tornadoes touched down in the span of about an hour and a half.

A Taliban prison raid -- prison raid allows hundreds of inmates to escape.

And three Brazilians are arrested for cannibalism. We'll tell you what the flesh eaters did next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well-coordinated attacks struck Kabul and three other Afghan provinces today. Insurgents targeted embassies and an air base used by the U.S. military.

Government forces hit back. In all, they killed 19 of the 20 insurgents and suicide bombers nearly all before they could detonate their vests. As one commander put it, they got nothing. But our Mohammed Jamjoom says he heard more explosions in Kabul tonight.

Troops battled insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. Two -- only two civilians died; 15 Afghan police officers were wounded.

And we've got another developing story in neighboring Pakistan to tell you about. It is a nationwide manhunt for 384 prison inmates who escaped early today. Actually heavily armed Taliban militants used rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons to overpower the guards and break them out; 21 high -- or high-profile militants who will likely return to the fight. The attack lasted two hours.

In Syria, you might as well ask what ceasefire? Government helicopters and artillery shell the city of Homs again today three days into what's supposed to be a U.N.-order halt to the fighting. Opposition groups say at least 23 people were killed across the country today. The government blames armed terrorists for breaking the peace.

For the first time ever, the new leader of North Korea has addressed his people. Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un's televised remarks today came during a massive military celebration. He said his country has the fire power to prevail in any war; this, just days after country's failed launch of a long-range rocket. The massive celebration marked 100 years since the birth of the country's founder, Kim's grandfather, Kim Il-Sung.

President Barack Obama and other leaders from across the Americas wrapped up a two day summit today in Columbia. Here they are lining up for the traditional class photo and they hashed out issues like poverty, technology and the U.S. war on drugs.

And just a short time ago the President and the Colombian President spoke from Cartagena. Mr. Obama, saying he hasn't caved to pressure to let Cuba attend the next gathering. Earlier the President expressed some frustration about that pressure over Cuba.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Why hasn't the United States done more to promote democracy in the region because you don't allow them a the Arab spring but it seems as if you're not dealing with some of the problems here in Latin America. The next questioner said why are you being so hard on Cuba and promoting democracy all the time?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: News from the summit was overshadowed by a scandal involving U.S. Secret Service members accused of bringing prostitutes back to their hotel.

A disturbing story out of northeast Brazil -- investigators have arrested three people who have confessed to charges of murder and cannibalism. Police say the trio, a man who is a black belt in karate, his wife and his mistress are members of a cult who killed and ate their victims in order to, quote, quoting here, "purify their souls".

Along with the remains of the victims, police found a five-year-old child of one of the victims living at the home. The child is now is out with authorities I should say and it gets worse. Ok, police say the suspects cooked and sold parts of human remains as fillings in meat pie. Police believe the number of victims could be 10 or more.

Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Next: comedian Bill Cosby's serious thoughts on today's issues including why he supports President Obama. Plus this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL COSBY, COMEDIAN: This and what is he doing with it and who taught him and told him how to behave with this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Bill Cosby on George Zimmerman and what's really to blame for Trayvon Martin's death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Bill Cosby is speaking out, and when he does, people listen. And he's talking Trayvon Martin, gun control, even President Obama and his critics.

So let's talk about that now with Goldie Taylor -- you know her well -- political analyst, social critic, managing editor of GoldieTaylorproject.com and the Goldie Taylor Project, right?

GOLDIE TAYLOR, MANAGING EDITOR, GOLDIETAYLORPROJECT.COM: Yes.

LEMON: So I want to show you, Goldie, what Bill Cosby had to say to our Candy Crowley today on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION". Candy asked him about the President's supporters who are disappointed he hasn't accomplished more since taking office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL COSBY, COMEDIAN: I'm disappointed that people who don't look at the woes and the trouble given to this man. People blatantly speaking out against his color, wasting time, starting up new stories about whether or not he was born here, saying things that they can't prove this may -- I feel sometimes, not all the time, that it's like watching -- his job, people want to make it as difficult as the one Sisyphus had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's Bill Cosby. Is he right? Could the President have done more? And talking about Sisyphus, I mean --

TAYLOR: I think if we parse this out, then Mr. Cosby makes some great points about the level of hyper-partisanship that we've seen over the last three years. You haven't seen this kind of divide, at least politically, you know, for several administrations.

So people have begun to wonder, what is the root of that? Is it the President's race? Is it simply that we had a rise of populism in the country where working class people felt overtaxed and overburdened by big government and this is the administration in charge? There are probably a myriad of reasons.

But I think that Mr. Cosby makes the point that this President and this Congress couldn't work together in a meaningful way to really push forward, you know, a good agenda.

LEMON: I sat there and I watched him -- drew instances from something about Greek -- Greek mythology and, you know, someone who is troubled. I wondered, Bill Cosby, who has been in the public spotlight for a long time and has been very vocal, and does he at this point, is he in a position to make those sort of grandiose statements?

And is that -- he can say what he wants to --

TAYLOR: Sure.

LEMON: -- but is that sort of simplistic about the President? Because I'm sure there is some truth to what he's saying, but it's also probably a matter of timing as well when it comes to the economy and what people are facing, and so people are struggling and therefore frustrated and take their frustrations out at the person who is at the helm.

TAYLOR: That is absolutely true. You and I both grew up with Bill Cosby.

LEMON: "Hey, hey, hey."

TAYLOR: "Hey, hey, hey". "Electric Company", and "The Cosby Show" and "Yellow Pudding" -- now, who could forget all of that stuff? So I have great regard for his enormous contribution to us as a society, entertainment-wise and then on the civil rights front because he's always spoken up and spoken out about issues that are important.

But it seems to me that over the years there have been sometimes when I've had some challenge with what he's had to say, specifically about the African-American community; some of the sort of things that he would term were "tough love", I think, were more damaging than anything else. And so does he have the right to his platform?

LEMON: Absolutely.

TAYLOR: Absolutely. He has earned our hearing out. He is iconic worldwide. But to also think that that means we can't disagree with him --

LEMON: Yes.

TAYLOR: -- I think that's unfortunate.

LEMON: Yes, it is. You should be able to agree or disagree with anyone and listen.

I do think that he has a point when he says -- if you can't clean up your own house --

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

LEMON: -- then you can't talk about cleaning up the person's house next door.

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: Well, I always say, you know, don't start -- don't get out there and mow the lawn if you haven't cleaned your house.

LEMON: Stand by because he's talking Trayvon Martin and gun control -- part of the conversation that we had last night on the air. We didn't get it finish because of the breaking news and we're going to talk more. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. We're talking about Bill Cosby and the big issues with Goldie Taylor here, of course, political analyst and managing editor of the new Goldie Taylor Project blog and goldietaylor.com.

Goldie, Bill Cosby -- we've been talking -- is saying things that cause people to sit up and listen, of course, even though they may not agree with him or maybe they don't even want to hear him, some people do.

He spoke on the Trayvon Martin case and he really emphasized the gunning. Here's what he said on today's "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSBY: I'm a person who believes that that gun, the gun, all around this United States, when a person has a gun, sometimes their mind clicks that this thing will win arguments and straighten people out, and then in the wrong hands and the wrong mind, it's death. It's wounding people. People who don't have money to buy a decent meal for themselves yet someone will put an illegal gun in their hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. We talked about the right to bear arms. No one is debating that. That is a right.

Listen, I have to say I agree with him. I think a gun emboldens some people. It gives some people a sense of false bravado, or just a bravado like, "I've got a gun". And I've seen it time after time. I've seen it.

TAYLOR: Absolutely. I've seen guns waved around, you know, in my own family when I've been out and about on the town waved around --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: -- in the hands of the wrong person.

TAYLOR: -- in the hands of the wrong people. He makes an incredible point about that. I think, you know, Mr. Cosby has had violence strike his own family, his son was murdered.

LEMON: Right. TAYLOR: I've had the same kind of tragedy strike my family, so I understand his resistance about it. But it isn't -- and I'll say this, you know, forever -- it isn't the presence of a gun, it is the condition of our humanity, our humanity towards ourselves and to our fellow man. I think that is where the real crux of the matter is.

LEMON: But what about the access to them? If you make it tougher -- and I'm just playing devil's advocate -- if you make it tougher for everyone to get guns -- not make it impossible -- but doesn't that -- would that help the wrong people getting guns?

TAYLOR: We have had a number of laws hit the books in this country over the last 20 years, including the Brady Bill and other things. Not a single one of them has dried up the source and supply of illegal guns on our street. In fact, they have increased.

My brother was murdered with an illegal gun. Three years later that same gun was used to kill someone in Texas. And so -- they're not signing up for permits --

LEMON: Right.

TAYLOR: -- you know, they're not going down to the police department and giving up fingerprints. They're selling .22s for $100.

LEMON: So then do you think that, I guess, the sort of animation to have things done about guns is on the wrong end? Where fighting it from the -- it should be with illegal guns rather than with people getting legal permits to carry?

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: It should be -- the focus ought to be on illegal guns because to focus on people with legal guns really just runs afoul of the constitution. I guess, we can't --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Right.

TAYLOR: -- but we need to make the focus on illegal guns, but more than that, as we said last night, the number one predictor of gun violence is persistent poverty. So until we begin to really put our arms around these communities, put in the rights supports, like quality basic education, someone who has hope for themselves and a positive economic outlook because they're educated, they're less likely -- much less likely to involve themselves in gun violence or be the victims of gun violence.

LEMON: Myself personally, I grew up and my dad carried guns, right. And I picked up one of them as a kid -- right. And that was the last time I ever did that --

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

LEMON: -- because I got the "you-know-what" of a lifetime. So I've always been afraid of guns, and the only time I've ever really picked up a gun was to do a story about guns.

TAYLOR: Sure.

LEMON: So guns are not a part of my life. Any time I see someone with a gun -- can I talk about you?

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

LEMON: You have a license carry, right?

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

LEMON: I'm afraid of them. If I were with you, I would not want to be in a car with you with a gun.

TAYLOR: I grew up with them. I have an Uncle Ross who -- you know we were all sitting in the family room late one night -- we grew up in East St. Louis -- an incredibly violent town; lots of poverty all around. And man walked into our back door to hold our family at gunpoint. My uncle raised up with his gun and the man turned around --

LEMON: Turned around and walked out.

TAYLOR: -- and left. My mother had a permit to carry, I have had one since I left the Marine Corps many, many years ago.

LEMON: Well, that's different. You were in the Marine Corps -- that's different. I understand what you're saying, but if someone walked into my house, God forbid -- or anyone, and I'd say you can have anything in here you want. You want me to help you get it? Just don't kill me.

TAYLOR: Yes. I think the biggest issue for me was I was a single mother raising very young children alone in a house.

LEMON: Right, right.

TAYLOR: So having a weapon that if someone came into our house, you know, they were going to have to deal with mama bear. And I have kept that permit and that gun all that time.

LEMON: Good for you. I have my grandma's cane knife.

TAYLOR: A friend of mine has a bat behind his bed.

LEMON: Some people call it a machete. It's a little bit different. It's a cane -- it's a sugar cane knife from the old days. Don't mess with me, I have that cane knife.

TAYLOR: Don't mess with me.

LEMON: Thank you Goldie. I forget we're on TV when we're --

TAYLOR: You know, every once in a while.

LEMON: I appreciate it.

Other news now -- government waste and abuse. A new scandal rocks Washington spending agency, the GSA. That report is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. It is coming up on half past the hour - as a matter of fact, it is half past the hour. Let's look at the headlines.

Well-coordinated attacks hit as many as seven sites in Kabul, Afghanistan today. They targeted Afghan safe zone which includes the U.S. and other embassies. Also targeted, an air base in eastern Afghanistan where U.S. troops are housed. NATO forces counterattacked with helicopters. In all, at least 19 insurgents were killed.

Forget the cease fire in Syria. Government helicopters and artillery shelled the city of Homs again today, three days into what is supposed to be a U.N.-ordered halt to the fighting. A U.N. monitoring team is on the way. Opposition groups say at least 23 people were killed across the country. The government run news agency blames armed terrorists for breaking the peace.

President Barack Obama and other leaders from across the Americas have wrapped up a weekend summit in Colombia. They hashed out issues like poverty, technology and the U.S. war on drugs. Earlier, the president spoke from Cartagena saying he hasn't caved to intense pressure to let Cuba attend their next gathering. News from the summit was overshadowed by a scandal involving U.S. Secret Service members accused of bringing prostitutes back to their hotel.

The midwest is bracing for another potentially dangerous night of storms from the same system that left five people dead in Oklahoma. Look at these pictures. There are 122 reports of possible tornado touchdowns yesterday and overnight. Most of them hit Kansas but parts of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Iowa are in rubble today, as you can see. We're monitoring the skies for you all night long here on CNN.

This week in Washington, the spotlight refocuses on what's become a controversial and, to some, a very confusing topic, taxes and revenues. Millionaires and secretaries. The so-called Buffett Rule is a big ticket item for President Obama in the name of tax fairness for the middle class. But opponents say the president is playing politics and trying to distract from the big picture. Here's Athena Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, Don, simply put, the Buffett Law would impose a minimum effective tax rate of 30 percent for people making a million dollars or more. It takes its name from billionaire investor Warren Buffett who as the story goes discovered not long ago that his secretary pays a higher percentage of her income in taxes than he does. Buffett doesn't think that's fair and neither does the White House, and so this a big issue that they're going to be pushing this election year. Now the question of how many people this rule will affect if this goes into effect, which is a big if, is an interesting question because there are millions of millionaires in America but a lot of them already pay 30 percent or more. Warren Buffett in interviews estimated that this rule would affect 50 to or 60,000, and the White House in releasing a fact sheet last week on the issue pointed to 77,000 households that in 2009 paid less than 30 percent of their income in taxes.

And so we're really looking at thousands of people being affected and not millions. Which brings us to the question of just how much revenue this would bring in if only a few people were affected. Well, the Joint Committee on Taxation has studied this. That's a non- partisan committee in Congress that uses PhD, economists and lawyers and accountants to study this issue for members of Congress. They estimate the rule would bring in just $5.1 billion next year and $47 billion over the next 10 years. And so if you look at those figures, that represents just a tiny, tiny fraction of the deficits we expect to see in the coming years.

And so on the budgetary side, it wouldn't have much impact. But certainly on the political side, the Obama White House certainly thinks that it does have an impact. So even though we don't expect this legislation to make it pass the procedural hurdle its facing this week in the Senate, don't expect the White House to drop this. They think this whole issue of tax fairness is something the middle class can really, really relate to, so we should expect to see them continuing to push this idea this election year. Don?

LEMON: All right, Athena, thank you very much.

Government waste and abuse and videos by that agency that oversees Washington's spending. A CNN exclusive with the head of the committee that is looking into the embarrassment. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A normally obscure federal agency has exploded into the headlines with tales of a lavish conference in Las Vegas featuring training exercises, skits and even mind readers. Revelations surrounding the GSA has put a spotlight on wasteful spending and congressional Republicans are launching hearings tomorrow.

Our Dana Bash working hard. She got an exclusive, an inside look at how the committee chairman is preparing for tomorrow's hearing. Dana, great work. Thanks for doing this. What did he tell you?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, we're talking, of course, about the government oversight chairman, and as you said, they invited us to Capitol Hill today, a Sunday, and what he did was he gave us a sneak peek behind the curtain, so to speak, where they're going through documents, and planning strategy to grill the now former GSA administrator Martha Johnson and other now top former officials there who were responsible for that lavish conference back in 2010 in Las Vegas that included that over the top talent show, with videos mocking waste and excess and of course it was to the tune of 840,000 taxpayer dollars.

Now, Don, one of the issues that has come up is the inspector general investigating this conference actually informed the GSA administrator 11 months ago about the nuts and bolts of the findings. So one of the questioned that I had for Chairman Issa was whether he thinks the White House knew about it and covered it up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: We do not have, if you will, the specifics of who told who in the White House something. That's to be discovered. But again -

BASH: And that's probably what you're going to be asking Martha Johnson.

ISSA: It's partly what we're going to be asking, but lets remember that when you're a political appointee, you're there for two reasons. One is you have the confidence of the president to execute and the second is you're the eyes and ears of the president through the process. The chief of staff and other individuals, we want to know where that process failed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now we've heard about so much of this excess spending, Don, but Issa showed me two things I haven't seen before, and one of his investigators had in his office a coin that the GSA made just to commemorate this conference that cost taxpayers $6,500 and a souvenir book that cost us $8,000.

LEMON: Where does this end? That video - this video is unbelievable just in itself. Every time something else comes out like this commemorative coin, it's outrageous. Look at that. I got to ask - there's the clown. This conference took place during the Obama administration, which has admitted, Dana, that they messed up and lots of heads have rolled. But over-the-top spending on this particular conference - it didn't start with this White House. Will the GOP chair look into GSA spending during other administrations, during the Bush years?

BASH: Right. Well, tomorrow it's just going to be officials involved in the 2010 conference, during the Obama years. That includes (INAUDIBLE), by the way, who maybe under criminal investigation for (INAUDIBLE) wrongdoing, taking government property and even more. Now I pressed the GOP chairman Issa on why not invite a Bush official? Nothing else to make clear that this isn't political but he says he intends to, but tomorrow is just about President Obama, and specifically he said it's Obama's promise to stop excess spending and why that didn't happen.

Now, Don, I also pressed Chairman Issa about his role, because when he and other republicans took over the House in 2010, they promised to hold the executive branch accountable specifically spending, but this was almost entirely uncovered by the inspector general and not Congress. So I asked if he was asleep at the switch. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (on camera): I've heard from conservatives to liberals say, you know, it's wonderful that Chairman Issa and other committee chairmen here on the hill are now looking into this, but where were you all before?

ISSA: It's a great question. This is an unusual situation in which we weren't given a heads up 11 months ago by the IG, but understand, Dana, we have 120 people between the majority and minority on this committee. The IG is 12,000 people. By definition, we rely on a vast majority of the information to come from inspector generals, in some cases from the 3,000 people at the GAO. That's part of our process is we leverage those people, and often there is no hearing because the matter is taken care of at that level, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, one of the things that Issa suggested he would zero in on tomorrow at the hearing is the problem we see government wide. That is awarding contracts without bidding. It costs taxpayers money and its not supposed to happened. The fact, Don, that it happened at the GSA whose sole purpose is to stave taxpayers' money is we can objectively say is troubling.

LEMON: Dana Bash with yet another exclusive. I'm going to add that to your name. It's going to be Dana Bash Exclusive. Thank you. Appreciate it.

BASH: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Allrighty.

Facebook drops $1 billion to buy a start-up company, Instagram. Katie Linendoll takes a look at what start-up company just might be the next billion-dollar baby? By the way, I've been using my Instagram but we'll talk about that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. Time to take a look at the latest in the tech world. Katie Linendoll, technical (INAUDIBLE) she is back. All right. So this week Facebook bought Instagram, the photo-sharing service, for $1 billion. I have to say - I've had Instagram for a long time but I started reusing it again because I just did. It had nothing to do with Facebook thing. But business insider put out 11 start-ups that they think, Katie, might be the next billion-dollar baby and you have picked three from the list. All right. Give us the first one.

KATIE LINENDOLL, TECH EXPERT: All right. The first one you're going to love because I know you're a huge Angry Birds fan. This is kind of the obvious one. Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds. If you thought this game was played out, not so much. I want to break down Angry Bird's by the numbers because they are on the up and up trajectory. 700 plus million downloads to date, Don. 6.5 million of those were on Christmas day. Also, Angry Birds Space came out a few weeks ago, 10 million downloads on Angry Birds Space in just three days. Two hundred licensees. You can't walk into a store now without seeing toys and plush. There is an Angry Birds theme park opening in Finland. There is a cartoon series coming out. There's even an Angry Birds movie on its way and people are so obsessed with Angry Birds, still. They were actually one of the top 10 obsessions on Yahoo alongside the Raptor and Game of Thrones last year.

And it was reported that $2.25 billion acquisition from Zynga did not go through last year, so talk about a billion dollars, this is going for at least three billion if it ever does sell.

LEMON: Sorry. I was playing Angry Birds. OK. So I'm so goofy. Sorry. Pick number two.

LINENDOLL: All right. so that just got awkward, and notice THAT there is a delay. All I hear is Angry Birds and I'm sitting here for like 15 seconds. Let me get to my second one and keep this progressing, AB&B, Air Bed and Breakfast. This is a web site that connects people that if you have an apartment and you have some extra space or you have a room available or you have a home that you want to rent it out, it connects people. They are looking for places when they travel to give you availability.

Now what's awesome about this, I actually used this web site. I'm out in San Francisco a lot. It's a nice little option that takes the creepy out of Craigslist, but also it's a nice way for you to find cool unique places to stay there are not a hotel. You can actually rent out an island, you can rent out a castle, you can rent out a villa. Pretty neat little options for renting out places, Don. And what's interesting about this, too, it had a lot of funding to date but it's in 19,000 cities. They've booked over five million night stays and it's in 192 countries. I don't know if I'm going to recover from that whole Angry Birds thing. I could just nail it in at this point.

LEMON: No, you were good. All right. Let's move on now. Number three.

LINENDOLL: Last one, so let's talk about Zocdoc. Zocdoc is a free app in web site and this is big in the world of healthcare. Here's the deal - it typically takes about two three weeks to book a doctor's appointment. With Zocdoc, you can actually go online or use your app in your phone's GPS and it will tell you where doctors are by location, by specialty and you can also search by reviews. You can book most appointments within 24 to 48 hours. Which makes the big difference between using your own doctor. They've also received a lot of funding. And they started in 2007. But they're now in 16 major markets. I don't think this is going to go for $1 billion tomorrow. But down the road I think it's one of those companies we should keep an eye on.

LEMON: Do you hear that? It's my Angry Birds app. Anyway, thank you, Katie.

LINENDOLL: Bye, guys. I'll see you soon. LEMON: Bye. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was adopted, and I felt that I wanted to adopt a kid that needs a home. My son was in foster care for four years. I was his 12th home. But from the minute Michael and I met, I knew right away that we were going to be a family. I thought everything was going great. But after a month Michael was removed from my house. I was instantly cut off from him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Finding that family for that child, it's nothing short of a miracle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. We need to get ready for the horses.

And sometimes families are faced with barriers because of a myth or a misunderstanding causing the kids to stay in the foster care system longer. Being that gay or lesbian individual or couple makes it much harder.

My name is David Wing Kovarik. I adopted from the foster system. Now I help other gay and lesbian individuals realize their dream of becoming parents. We're working together with you on that. I want to make sure that you've got that family to family kind of support.

I've worked hundreds of cases side by side social workers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We covered a lot of information last week.

KOVARIK: I've trained thousands of foster parents. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight and we do it for free.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He figured out how to get us over that finish line. Our family wouldn't have adopted each other if it hadn't been for David.

KOVARIK: I'm fighting for the right of that child to have that family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy, is tonight movie night?

KOVARIK: It's why I keep doing it every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The Middle East has the oil. Africa, diamonds. But no one can touch the United States when it comes to bourbon production. Kentucky produces 95 percent of it. And in a struggling economy, that's something to brag about. Just think of all those jobs that will never be outsourced.

Here's CNN's Poppy Harlow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN MONEY (voice-over): It's almost as old as this country.

FRED NOE, MASTER DISTILLER, JIM BEAM: Nectars of the gods.

HARLOW: Bourbon and perhaps not since prohibition had this many people wanted to drink it.

(on camera): What has happened just in the past few years to bourbon?

NOE: We're going through the renaissance. You know, the development of super premium bourbons. I've got people looking at bourbon. You know, exporting bourbon around the world. You know, people from Australia and Germany and the U.K. and the far east, they're discovering bourbon and liking it.

HARLOW (voice-over): The great grandson of Jim Beam took us on a tour of their distillery on Kentucky's bourbon trail.

(on camera): This is bourbon country.

NOE: Yes, ma'am. Right where we're standing within 65 miles of where we are 95 percent of the world's bourbon is produced.

HARLOW: There are more barrels of bourbon in Kentucky right now than there are people. 4.7 million barrels aging in the bluegrass state.

NOE: We have almost two million barrels of bourbon aging here at our facility.

HARLOW (voice-over): But why the surge in popularity now?

MATT SHATTOCK, CEO, BEAM INC.: Because it's got a story to tell. It's America's native spirit. It has heritage. It has craftsmanship. It has authenticity, and people want to hear those stories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why I got in.

HARLOW: Or maybe it's the "Mad Men" effect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing my best here.

NOE: Bourbon was kind of considered your dad's drink or your granddad's drink. Nobody fooled with it much. We're starting to see the growth. It's going leaps and bounds.

HARLOW: Or maybe it's the women.

NOE: We're learning that, hey, the female market is a big market there, and for years everybody neglected the women because they never thought they would drink bourbon.

HARLOW (on camera): The growing middle class in China, in India, how much does that play into premium brand selling better overseas? Is that a big driver up there? SHATTOCK: Yes, it is. It's a very important driver. So as the consumers in markets like India and China emerge and as their income grows, they will convert from their local spirits to international spirits.

HARLOW (voice-over): But a wobbly global economy could jeopardize that.

(on camera): Last year alone almost $1.4 billion of liquor was exported from America. Almost 70 percent of that was whiskey, and a big portion, bourbon. Why? Because you can't make it just anywhere.

(voice-over): In 1964 Congress decreed bourbon a distinct product of the United States. Just like scotch only comes from Scotland. That's what's keeping these jobs in Kentucky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is America's native spirit. This is as American as it gets.

HARLOW: And America still sells.

(on camera): Is this the busiest year you've had yet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

HARLOW: No question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No question. We're proud its homemade, handmade, craft and product right here. Yes.

HARLOW: Working in this industry, how do you feel?

STACEY BEABEN, MAKER'S MARK EMPLOYEE: I feel secure, you know. I know I can come to work because I know there is demand right now and I hope it stays there.

HARLOW (voice-over): Maker's Mark shipped out more than 12 million bottles of bourbon last year. Jim Beam turns out 180 bottles a minute, and the Kentucky bourbon trail gets 450,000 visits a year.

(on camera): This is one thing you can never outsource no matter what.

NOE: No, ma'am. This is something we do right here in Kentucky. We've been doing it for over 200 years, and we'll be doing it for 200 years in the future.

HARLOW (voice-over): In Claremont, Kentucky, Poppy Harlow, CNN Money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Cheers. Drink responsibly.

Coming up tonight at 10:00 p.m., the right speaks out. The conservatives. They call me and this network liberal. A show for democrats in the White House. That's the nice stuff they have said. I'm going to ask them why. Join me again tonight 10:00 p.m. Eastern to hear the fireworks.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. See you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN PRESENTS begins in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)