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CNN Saturday Morning News

Tornados Devastate Parts of Midwest and South; Some States Prepare for GOP Caucuses and Primaries; Rush Limbaugh Draws Controversy for Statements about Female Contraception; Political Analysts Assess GOP Presidential Race

Aired March 03, 2012 - 10:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: From CNN's world headquarters bringing you news and analysts from across the nation and across the globe, live from Studio Seven, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center, this is CNN Saturday morning. It's March 3th. Good morning. I'm David Mattingly.

Destroyed buildings and lives marked yesterday's deadly tornado outbreak. These are pictures coming to us this morning from the Atlanta area. We will have the latest on the search for survivors and victims.

And on the campaign trail, today it's Washington state's turn to weigh in on the Republican candidates who want to be president.

We are watching all the angle of this developing story of the severe weather that just continues to move across our country. Susan Candiotti is in Henryville right now where daylight has brought a stunning new look at the damage there. Our Bonnie Schneider is standing by in our Severe Weather Center, keeping an eye on the new watches and warnings that are in effect right now.

But before we get to them, I want to show you an amazing piece of video. It comes from West Liberty, Kentucky. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take it away from us, lord. Take it, lord, take it, lord. Take it away from us, Jesus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: What we're watching is this funnel cloud is swirling, getting ready to hit the earth. You hear a woman praying to god to have the storm move away. While her prayers were answered, her home was spared but the town that was hit, West Liberty was hit very hard. At least three people died there.

Now, let's get you to Indiana where we've seen some of the worst damage in all these storms. People are counting their blessings, as strange as that may sound because by the looks of the town, things could have been so much worse as far as the loss of life goes. Susan Candiotti is live in Henryville, Indiana, this morning. Susan, the bad news keeps on coming as we see these pictures. Is this town getting back on its feet today?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I think it's far too soon to say that, but they certainly are trying their best. Joining us right now is the governor of the great state of Indiana, Mitch Daniels. Governor, thank you for joining us live on CNN. You just got through with a tour. Tell us some of the things you saw and your assessment.

GOV. MITCH DANIELS, (R) INDIANA: We're not unfamiliar with the wrath of Mother Nature in Indiana, but this is about as worse as we've seen in the years since I've been in this job. I will say that it proves that preparation and better warning systems do matter and undoubtedly saved a lot of lives. And I'm very impressed with the work of our people who responded. We're getting better at that every time it happens.

CANDIOTTI: We had a chance to see some of this on television yesterday as it was unfolding. Now you got to see it in person. What was your gut telling you as you got to see it flying overhead?

DANIELS: Lucky that it wasn't worse. It's heartbreaking, of course. We're continuing to up the track of this storm. This is a long storm. Somebody later will tell us whether there were multiple tornadoes or not. There may have been because it's 15 miles from here to Chelsea and we lost lives at each point along the way.

CANDIOTTI: What are the latest numbers you have, governor?

DANIELS: We had 14 confirmed. I hope that's as far as it will go. The folks doing the rescue here believe they have everyone accounted for, but there's always the risk someone hasn't been found yet. But let's pray that that's all it is. It's pretty awful.

CANDIOTTI: Do you know any of the personal stories of those that were lost, of any of them?

DANIELS: I'm learning as I go stopping in talking to people, a man named Wayne Hunter, I guess it is, was lost here, Unbelievably here in Henryville, just one town. He was really outside of town, but he was apparently a much loved figure here. I talked to some folks who lost their pizza business. But you know what their first question was? We've got some frozen food. We'd like to donate it. Where can we help someone else? That's the kind of people we have in this state.

CANDIOTTI: Very generous spirit. Do you know anything about the little baby, the 21-month-old who was found in the field and taken to a hospital in nearby Louisville?

DANIELS: No, not yet.

CANDIOTTI: Governor, what's it going to take to pull things together? For example, when you saw Henryville high school with school buses tossed around like toys -- in fact, if you look right over your shoulder here, this bus started off other there. DANIELS: I know. I know. What you're going to find out is we're pretty resilient people in this state. People have come in from everywhere and from our neighboring state of Kentucky to help each other. You watch how quick we put things back. We can't restore the horrible loss for families who have suffered fatalities, but we know how to rebuild and we know how to help each other, and everybody will see that in the next month or so.

CANDIOTTI: Any early word on the federal government helping out?

DANIELS: I'm sure they will. We always view that as step two. We try not to get distracted by anything, not even you guys, Susan, while the real work of rescue and relief and recovery takes place. But there's no question this will qualify for the help of our fellow tax pairs in other states and we'll make application at the right time.

CANDIOTTI: Very kind of you to join us. Thank you very much.

DANIELS: Sure.

CANDIOTTI: Good luck. Thank you.

He has obviously another several hours ahead of him as he continues to survey the damage in his state, David. It's a mess out here. You can see these power lines at my eye level just five feet above the ground. There's a diner with the kids looking through. Below that is a basement where seven people took cover. I talked to one of the women who survived, left her house thinking she'd be safer here. In fact, her house came out just fine. But she went through the scariest night of her life when that tornado hit.

MATTINGLY: I can absolutely imagine.

CANDIOTTI: She came outside. It was very bad. But clearly as you heard the governor say, they're a bounce-back group here, and they plan to do just, that David.

MATTINGLY: That's right. What you're talking about, that building behind you, it's a small building, you have people taking refuge from a storm and there's a huge school bus that crashed into it right there behind you.

CANDIOTTI: Thanks. I'm glad we also have time to talk about that. So when she came up and saw this, couldn't believe that. And then a hailstorm started with softball-sized hail. This bus is actually -- I think we can -- if we have a moment -- so this bus is jackknifed from across the street into this diner, but it came -- sheared off the chassis here coming around the side here. Look, this is the chassis of the school bus. Here's the gas tank here, the opening to the gas tank. This had 11 school kids in it, but not when this happened. It just got through dropping them off across the street here at Henryville high school, just dropped off the kids because they knew they couldn't make it home, and so they sought shelter there in the offices of that building, hunkered down.

Again, no reports of any serious injuries among the remaining staff and 50, 60, 70 or so students from both the grade school and the high school that are right across the street. Another amazing story of survival.

MATTINGLY: Right. You just cannot imagine how amazing it is that there are these stories of survival through that terrible devastation. You're showing right there these people are huddled for their leaves in that little building and a school bus is smashing through it, just one indication --

CANDIOTTI: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: Just one indication of what was going on there.

CANDIOTTI: You know what they say, David. We did know about it. That's right. They said we did know about it, we were getting the warnings as you take a look at this across the street. If we move forward a little bit here, you know, you've got the brick front on the building. You can see the insulation blowing in the breeze there. Beyond that you can see a girder where part of that huge school complex used to be.

And they said, yes, we knew about it, and they got out of school with maybe an hour before the storm hit. Kids for the most part had time to get home. But then you have to take shelter, and they said, I mean, what can you do? That's why they're taught, listen to the radio, watch television, get those warnings, have a safe place to hide. And so that's what they did, went to the interior of the school in safe places they had mapped out. In this case it worked, the office. They were safe there. But there were other spots in the school where they also might have taken cover that were blown to smithereens.

MATTINGLY: You know what? So, so happy right now.

CANDIOTTI: As you heard the governor say and everyone else, they were lucky.

MATTINGLY: So happy that the kids were doing exactly what they were told exactly when they needed to do it. Susan Candiotti, thank you very much, there in Indiana.

Now on to Tennessee, another state pummeled by the storms. Our Rob Marciano is there standing by in the community outside Chattanooga. We're going to go to Rob later.

Right now, some areas of the south are still not out of the danger zone. This is some video from the Atlanta area that we have to show you. Police say at least two schools, a local airport, and a number of homes were heavily damaged in Paulding County. That's outside Atlanta. Let's get right to meteorologist Bonnie Schneider who's keeping up with the latest on the watches and warnings. These things are not going away.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. It's interesting. That video you were showing was north of Atlanta. Now I have tornado warnings far south of Atlanta. Let's zoom in. I want to show you these tornado warnings. Here's one right now that covers, as I mentioned, two states. We're looking at a tornado warning that encompasses areas like Greensboro, and Havana, Liberty County and Decatur County in southwest Georgia.

And if that's not enough, we have a second tornado warning right now impacting west green and Broxton, and this one is in central coffee county in southeast Georgia, so two tornado warnings.

Now as of now, we don't have a tornado spotted on the ground but we do have Doppler radar indicated rotation in the thunderstorms. When there's rotation in the thunderstorms, we can see a funnel cloud form, and if a funnel cloud touches down on anything, whether it's a building or ground, it's a tornado. That's why you want to take cover now.

You saw in Susan's report, the children practiced. They knew what to do. It's so important to have practice plan in place. You want to go to the basement if you have one or the interior room of your home. Put as many walls between you and the tornado as possible. It could be a bathroom or a closet.

We have a tornado watch. That means conditions are favorable for tornados to develop today until 2:00. It goes from Panama City all the way through South Carolina and Florida and Georgia. This is a big area we're monitoring. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more on CNN Saturday Morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: All these amazing pictures we keep looking at today of all the damage from across the country from the severe storms. Our iReporters are also giving us a crucial look at the deadly storm, giving us eyes in places we otherwise wouldn't normally have. And Josh Levs has been going through all of those incredible pictures this morning. He's got some to show us. Josh, the iReports that we're getting in are pretty telling about what was going on out there.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely. They're incredible. I'll tell you, folks, we've got new images coming in of the aftermath, including behind me, from CNN.com. But I want to show you one of the most dramatic videos showing an actual tornado, one of the tornadoes. Today we're looking at aftermath. But it was yesterday afternoon, Friday afternoon that one of our iReporters as you can see right there was in Gordon, Indiana, Chad Hinton. They were sent home from work.

He was going home and set up his camera. This house was just east -- just west of Henryville. So he believes he was just a couple of miles from the tornado. And we've been showing you the devastation in Henryville today. Well, here is a shot. Look at that huge tornado. Look at that. He's not too far away, just a couple of miles.

I'm going to mention this again. He did not go into danger. He was sent home. He set up his camera. We don't want you to put yourself in any danger. But this gives you a sense of how absolutely huge this tornado was, just one of many examples of what people are going through throughout the country. We'll bring you over to the screen behind me because I also want you to see before.

I got here some of what we've gone on CNN.com today. This is one example. You can tell this used to be a house. This was a bedroom right here. Everything else is gone. The more you flip through some of these pictures the more you can see devastation in numerous states throughout the stricken areas, absolutely stunning. We'll also be showing you later this hour some parts of this country that were struck by such extreme hail that it's something like you may never have heard. All of that is coming out.

Also we'll tell how you can help out people that were stricken. Obviously we know a lot of people are thinking about all the people. We have information to help them.

MATTINGLY: OK, thanks, Josh.

Voters in Washington state have their say today. It's the next contest in the Republican presidential race. But are the stakes as high as they were earlier in the week?

Also ahead, Rush Limbaugh back in the headlines with some controversial comments. But this time he's even drawing fire from conservatives. We'll tell you what he said next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: To politics now. We are just three days away from Super Tuesday, but there's actually another important contest that takes place today. It's the Washington Republican caucus. CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser joins us now. Paul, what's the difference of -- or what's the importance of today's vote in Washington?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It is actually very important. For the first time in a while, David, Washington state is a power player in presidential primary presidential politics. There are 40 states delegates eventually at stake in the caucuses out there. But much more than that, it's about momentum. That's why all four candidates have been there. This is the last contest before Super Tuesday in three days.

And all these candidates are hoping if they do well in Washington state maybe that will carry over to Super Tuesday. Take a listen to what Santorum and Romney say about Washington state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I encourage you to make a big difference. You have the opportunity. Everybody's focused in on Super Tuesday. But you are the voice. You are the voice that's going to speak very loudly before Super Tuesday and put this race on whole different plain.

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are going to be a bunch of states that are going to make their mind up in the next couple of days, but you guys are first. And so your voice is going to be heard. (APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: You know, all four of the major Republican candidates did campaign there. In fact, guess what, Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas, is still there today as the caucuses take place. The other three, they've gone to Ohio, Blue Ash, Ohio. This is Rick Santorum talking at a rally this morning. Both he, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich will be campaigning across Ohio today. It's one of the 10 states that votes on Super Tuesday. I think it's arguably, you can say, the most important of all of them. David?

MATTINGLY: Thanks, Paul.

Speaking of momentum, the contraception issue in Washington gained even more steam this week thanks to popular radio host Rush Limbaugh. As CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash reports, Limbaugh's inflammatory comments have galvanized support on both sides of the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Explosive comments even for Rush Limbaugh.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke who goes before a Congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It means you're a slut, right? Makes her a prostitute? She wants to be paid to have sex.

BASH: Sandra Fluke is a Georgetown University law student who appeared at a Democratic event last week arguing the Obama administration rule requiring free contraception is critical for women's health. We played Limbaugh's comments for Fluke.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To hear someone like Rush Limbaugh with millions of viewers call you a slut?

SANDRA FLUKE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I think I probably felt the way many women do when they're called those types of names, initially hurt and then very quickly upset and just outraged because someone is trying to silence you.

BASH: Politically Limbaugh played right into the Democrats' playbook, called GOP opposition to free contraception a war on women.

REP. JACKIE SPEIER, (D) CALIFORNIA: I rise this morning to say to Rush Limbaugh, shame on you.

BASH: The house Democrats' campaign tried to raise money on the issue and Democrats circulated a letter demanding GOP leaders repudiate Rush Limbaugh. Friday morning House Speaker John Boehner did just that, a rare slap at a powerful Republican mouthpiece, with a dig at Democrats too. A spokesman saying the speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation. But Limbaugh is hardly backing down.

LIMBAUGH: The woman comes forth with this, frankly, hilarious claim that she's having so much sex and her buddies, literally, that she can't afford it. And not one person said, well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have? Did you ever think maybe it's your responsibility for your own birth control, not everybody else's?

FLUKE: Well, I would say that I don't think that the women of America find it hilarious.

BASH: It's in the Democrats' political interest to keep this story going. Fluke even got a call from President Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you surprised to get a call from the president of the United States?

FLUKE: Yes. It certainly wasn't on my calendar for the day, but I was happy to add that to the schedule. He thanked me for speaking out and being willing to do this and for helping to magnify the voices of women around the country.

BASH: On the presidential campaign trail, Mitt Romney wouldn't answer a question about Limbaugh, but Rick Santorum, who vehemently condemns the president's policy on contraception as an intrusion on religious freedom, he told Wolf Blitzer, Limbaugh is, quote, "being absurd."

Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: As you heard from Dana, Mitt Romney really didn't want to talk about Limbaugh's comments. All he would say is that it wasn't the language he would have used in that situation.

Now, a different kind of car -- one man has taken his planting underwater in an effort to beautify the deep. We're going to meet him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Saving the beauty of the ocean. One veteran diver has seen a major change underwater so he's trying to fix the problem. And that's what's made him this week's CNN Hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEN NEDIMYER, CNN HERO: I grew up diving in the Florida Keys and it was just the most magical place. The coral reefs were so pretty and I deseeded that's what I wanted to do is dive on coral reefs. In an area where there's live coral there's always more fish. Reefs provide protection for our coastal areas and places for recreational opportunities for millions of people.

I was diving over 40 years and over time I saw the coral reefs start to die. Coral reefs are on the decline. If they die completely, coastal communities would be bankrupt. Tourism would be virtually gone. A billion people in the world would be impacted. I started thinking, how can we fix this problem.

My name is Ken Nedimyer and we're protecting and replanting coral reefs. We take it out, and after about a year or two, it becomes this big. And then we cut the branches off and we do it again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ken's coral nursery is one of the largest in the Caribbean. It's ten times larger than the others in existence.

NEDIMYER: It's 2003. We originally planted six corals here and now there's over 3,000 growing in this area alone.

Before I felt helpless watching it die. Now I think there's hope. It's not too late. Everybody can help. I see all the corals and al this fish. It's like the whole reef is coming back to life, and making a difference is exciting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: What a great story. Now, remember, all of our CNN heroes come from your suggestions. So be sure to go to CNNheroes.com to see how you can nominate someone.

But for now, our CNN crews are spread out across the Midwest and the south. The latest on the killer tornadoes that have left behind widespread destruction, that just ahead.

And with just three days to go until Super Tuesday, will the Republican rollercoaster soon end? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: It's not 30 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. I'm David Mattingly. Thanks for starting your day with us. And what day it has been looking at the damage left behind by the severe storms. At least 32 people are dead from devastating tornadoes that have crisscrossed the country. But many communities are still searching for survivors and victims. We'll have a report from Tennessee in just a moment. It's one of the many communities outside Chattanooga that were slammed by the storms.

But first we want to check in with our Bonnie Schneider who's keeping up with the latest watches and warnings. Bonnie?

SCHNEIDER: David, we have two tornado warnings right now. They're stretching over two states, Georgia as well as Florida. Take a look. The first one is covering a portion of Florida and Georgia right along the border. Let's zoom in and I'll show you where it is. It's really -- we receive a lot of strong storms to the east of Tallahassee. Let's zoom in. It looks like another one pops up in advance of this one, affecting cities like Havana, Quincy. Right now it's affecting Liberty and Decatur County in southwest Georgia. This tornado warning continuing until 10:45 eastern time, and it all began around 9:54. Right now the movement of this storm system is at 35 miles an hour. You can see the original tornado warning just to the west of it. Now we head to southern Georgia. This is southeast Georgia. I have good news to report as we speak. This was a tornado warning, but luckily it's expired. And now judging by the orange box you see here, it is now a severe thunderstorm warning not to be taken lightly as well because we'll be seeing damaging winds and light hail at present now. Also we're looking at some very heavy rain working its way across Georgia at this time. This storm system is part of a big tornado watch. This goes until 2:00 today.

So we're looking at the risk area much further south and east than what we saw yesterday. Cities like Panama City, Tallahassee are all under this watch as well as Albany, Georgia, Valdosta, and straight into South Carolina. And that means we could see a tornado touch down, possibly a tornado warning exists later on throughout the day. Just to let you know, storms impacting Louisiana and Alabama have diminished in intensity, but we could still see more. Is it's going to be a volatile day but not as bad as what we saw yesterday. David?

MATTINGLY: Thanks, Bonnie. The word is to stay vigilant until all of these have passed out of the area. Now we go to meteorologist Rob Marciano. He's been covered the devastation outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, a clean-up effort back underway. The sun is up and people are getting back out. They had to stop with all clean-up efforts for a time yesterday because they got hit with back-to-back storms after the twister came through a few hours later. Another round came through later including hail and a tornado twister, and another cell after that that had circulation down to our south.

So you see they're bringing in all sorts of heavy equipment, large and small, manpower as well. The buzz saws are humming also. They're being strict with who they let in and out of these places because the power companies are trying to get the lanes back up. Obviously if your home is destroyed, there's nothing to hook up to. But they want to get things lined up.

This is the lake I'm talking about. I wouldn't mind retiring here. This would be a nice place to retire, the entire neighborhood literally blown to pieces, a number of injuries coming out of that neighborhood. I was talking with a gentleman. He was not here, he was having lunch. His wife was not either, thankfully so. Look how the ding room was cleaned off its foundation, this home completely demolished, one of 20 completely destroyed. Well over a hundred in eastern Tennessee or the Chattanooga area to the point where they're unlivable.

A lot of folks would come by, bag up some of their valuables, important papers because they knew the storm was coming. They're going to come back and try to go through as what's memorable. There are some homes that can be fixed and will be livable once again, but not any time soon. Obviously the power still out, over 7,000 people without power, hundreds of thousands without a home right now. And it's going to be a long road before they're up and going here in eastern Tennessee. MATTINGLY: Now onto politics. It's been a rollercoaster ride for the Republicans hoping to be the next president. They've been up and they've been down in the polls. But is the GOP ready to settle on Mitt Romney? Joining me now to talk about the campaign, CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and Republican analyst Lenny McAllister.

Lenny, you first. Mitt Romney seems to be gaining strength in the polls again. Does that mean the Republican voters are giving up on finding an alternative to Romney?

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN ANALYST: We'll find out after Tuesday. I think where we are at this point in time is everybody's had a chance to be over Mitt Romney in the polls, and unfortunately for those ruling for the anybody-but-Romney candidate, you have seen that candidate continuously make mistakes that have brought him down. Everybody from Herman Cain to Rick Perry now to Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, they have not taken advantage of being at the top of the poll, not been in a position to take advantage of being a front-runner in a situation where they could have done it. Newt Gingrich coming out of South Carolina and Rick Santorum coming off some of his victories was not in that status. And I think that everybody is finally saying enough is enough. We're not going to have another candidate jump in. Romney's going to be our guy.

MATTINGLY: Everybody is focusing on Washington caucuses. Coming out of that they want to claim the mow men tell. But, Maria, I'm curious. On Super Tuesday what states are you going to be watching?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it's going to be interesting going into Super Tuesday especially for Romney, because Super Tuesday is not fertile territory for him right now. So like a Washington win and the fact that he won in Arizona and in Michigan do help him going into Super Tuesday in terms of momentum.

I'm going to be watching Georgia. I'm going to be watching Tennessee. I'm going to be watching Oklahoma because these are states where clearly the southern conservative vote is still up for grabs. It is a block of voters that Mitt Romney has had tremendous trouble in terms of making the sale. And while I agree with Lenny we all think Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee, he's still incredibly flawed. The others candidates have made flubs, but it seems every time Mitt Romney opens his mouth he puts his foot in it. So it has been unfortunate that no one else has been able to take advantage of that, but when you have the kind of money that Mitt Romney has, it's going to be difficult to overcome that. I think it's going to be interesting to look at Georgia, though, in terms of Newt Gingrich and what he is going to be doing there, and if he wins, what does that mean for his candidacy.

MATTINGLY: Rush Limbaugh is not a candidate, but we need to talk about him today. He has taken the controversy over contraception to a new level. Here's what he said this week about a Georgia University student who told Congress that it should be held at religious institutions. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke who goes before a Congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It means you're a slut, right? Makes her a prostitute? She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: House Democrats call on Speaker John Boehner to repudiate Limbaugh. Now listen, here's what Boehner's spokesman says. I'll read it for you. "The speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as in trying to raise money off the situation. So a little bit of political barbs going both ways on this. I mean, the contraception issue has been an issue on the campaign trail. It could have an impact. Are we over-politicizing it at the moment. Lenny, first from you.

MCALLISTER: We're trying to make a "thought leader," quote/unquote, in the conservative base out to be a political leader. And we see this on both sides. We see the demonization on both sides. To be quite fair, we don't see either side trying to ratchet it down, whether it's uncle Rush or going back to what happened a decade ago calling Condoleezza Rice and the uncle tom comments coming from the left toward the right time to time. Whether it's uncle tom or uncle Rush, as long as we keep going back and forth with this and allowing these sensationalized comments to be the political rhetoric of the day, it's not going to do Uncle Sam any good at all.

The other issue is here's a conservative mouthpiece, spokesperson if you will taking the wrong approach to this issue. This issue is not about women's health. It's about pro-choice. If it were about women's health we'd be talking about giving away free medicine for heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure and strokes. Those are the things that kill women, not the ability to have free birth control pills. But instead of taking that approach which would be more resonating in the conversation, we go back to polarizing types of terminology and issues that get us to this point in time. It's extremely frustrating because America doesn't move forward through this kind of stuff.

MATTINGLY: OK, Maria. Should a person be using comments from a person who's not a candidate to raise money?

CARDONA: I think it's absolutely appropriate, because what he has done is hurled a horrendous personal insult -- a slut, a prostitute -- to a college student who is simply speaking her mind and speak up for women's rights everywhere. It is completely inappropriate, and I think that there have been no profiles in courage from the Republican candidates coming out to disassociate themselves from Rush Limbaugh's comments.

And that's a problem for the Republican Party because what we're seeing is not only is Mitt Romney and the party bleeding independents, but independent women are fleeing the Republican Party because they're looking at this as an attack on women. And they have done nothing to convince women that they will stand up for them. And this underscores that, and that's not a good place to be for the Republican Party with 53 percent of the electorate going into the general election.

MATTINGLY: Maria and Lenny, thank you very much.

MCALLISTER: Wait, wait.

MATTINGLY: We're going to have to go, Lenny. She's going have to have the last word on that. We will come back to this someday, I'm sure, in the very near future. Thank you very much for being here.

MCALLISTER: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Be sure to tune into CNN tonight for special coverage of the Washington state caucuses. We'll have the results and analysis for you starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

Still to come, many of you found yourself in the path of those severe storms. Josh Levs joins me with some of the best images we've seen in this coverage, and they're coming from our iReporters. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: If you've been watching for any length of time this morning you've been seeing this heartbreaking video of town after town that's been hit by the devastating storms. But we're getting an even clearer picture of this enormous outbreak of tornadoes and the scope of the devastation actually from you. Some of the most powerful images and vivid accounts are coming from CNN iReports, and Josh Levs is in the studio keeping his eye on all that's come in. Josh, what are you seeing?

LEVS: Really powerful images from the past several days. Earlier this hour we were looking at video of one of the tornadoes that had touched down. A lot of people out there were also impacted by hail. I want to show you this new video now. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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LEVS: This is one of many examples of what folks are seeing here. This was from an iReporter shot in Nashville, Tennessee's violent hail falling. He's a student at Vanderbilt and he tells us he h was captured the worst part of the storm for Nashville.

Let's stay on this. This is what many people underwent. People were driving through hail in parts of the south as big as golf balls. In some places substantially larger. Afterward you see that. This is just some of the images that have been coming in to us. Let's go to the screen here. Going back all the way to the middle of the week, we have some images like this which came to us from Harrisburg. Look at that, an American flag that got knocked down there. Hundreds and hundreds of pictures. I promised earlier this hour I would let you know seeing these images you might want to reach out and help people who are struggling in the wake of these storms. We have a section for you right here on CNN.com called "Impact your World." it's called CNN.com/impact. It hooks you up with ways to help those hit be storms. I've put lots of links out for you. I'm on Facebook and Twitter and my blog, CNN.com/Josh. I'll be back the next hour were many videos coming in from the devastation of the tornadoes and other storms that have worked their way through so much of the country.

MATTINGLY: Josh, thank you very much. Keep it coming.

LEVS: You got it.

MATTINGLY: Gone in an instant -- tornados tear through America's heartland, obliterating entire neighborhoods. Now the search for survivors is underway.

Plus, a happier ending to yesterday's storm for one man and his four- legged best friend. The details are next.

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MATTINGLY: Let's take a look now at some amazing video that came into CNN this morning. You've got to see this. It comes from West Liberty, Kentucky shot just as the tornado was forming over the town. Listen to the desperate prayers from one woman as she pleads for her safety. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God, by all powers in your son's name, take this storm away from our home as you did for Elijah.

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MATTINGLY: That swirling cloud -- her prayers must have been answered because her house was spared. Other homes in West Liberty, however, didn't get spared. The tornado did touch down and cause a great deal of damage. Scenes of devastation throughout the Midwest and the south, but among the destruction a little girl is found alive. Her story is coming up. Stay with us.

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MATTINGLY: You know, it's really hard to understate the scope of the damage to the storm system that continues go across the country. Damage is literally across half the United States right now. But southern Indiana was particularly hard hit by yesterday's deadly tornadoes, including the town of Henryville.

Storm chaser Jeff Piatrowski (ph) was there when the second tornado hit the town. He was able to get the help and help some kids get out of the school before the tornado pretty much leveled the building, and he spoke to us earlier. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tornado actually hit Henryville and as the tornado went through there about three to four minutes after the tornado. And the second storm was rapidly approaching. As we made our way into town everything was leveled. We realized there was a school. We drove over by the school and took shelter from the storm. Baseball sized hail. I saw people running up to the school and I asked is there somebody in the school and people said kids are in there. We found that kids were trapped in part of the building. They were there as part of an after-school program. It took about 45 minutes to get the kids out of school as the second storm passed with baseball hail, and took us to shelter north of it.

MATTINGLY: Now, so many times when you're out there and your job as a chaser is to actually be able to put out information to help people get out of harm's way. These people were already in harm's way. How often is it you have to pull over and intervene like this to help people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than you realize. Especially yesterday, these tornadoes were moving, you know, 60, 70 miles an hour, very fast and large tornadoes.

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MATTINGLY: Coming up now, the rescue and the rebuilding efforts begin for residents across the Midwest and the south in the wake of the devastating storms. Stay with us.

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MATTINGLY: Checking stories now across country.

We'll start in Indiana where rescuers found a 20-month old girl alone in a field after yesterday's tornado outbreak. Nobody knew who she was at the time. She was flown to two local hospitals before being identified by relatives. A hospital spokesman says the girl is in critical condition with a tube in her throat to help her breathe.

Also in Indiana, a rescue of the four-legged variety.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Trigger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that one's Tyson.

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MATTINGLY: Trigger and Tyson were found hiding in the rubble of their owner's home in Henryville. And one official says there is, quote, "Total devastation in parts of the surrounding county." Fifteen deaths have been reported so far across the state.