tv Erin Burnett Out Front CNN March 2, 2012 8:00pm-9:00pm PST
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tayler's obsession, and it was so overpowering, and man next to me must have had shrimp scampi. >> i bet this idea is going to take off. have fun making facebook friends on planes. i'll be the guy with the noise cancelling head phones, newspaper, and ambien, dreaming about the good old days. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts now. breaking news, tornadoes sweeping across the midwest and had the southern united states. we begin with chad myers. chad? >> erin, it was a violent day across parts of the east and southeast from the ohio valley through the tennessee valley. storms firing in illinois and indiana and then ran across the ohio river into parts of kentucky. at times, i had 29 tornado warnings for 29 separate tornadoes on the ground or
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indicated by doppler radar. by about 10:00 at night, things calmed down. down to ten tornado warnings for ten separate storms. that seemed great because we were one third of where we were. when you look at t you see the ten tornadoes were still on the ground that late in the night. it typically happens that after sunset, the tornadoes start to calm down. the air is hot, the ground isn't hot because the sun is gone. the air doesn't want to rise anymore because it's not buoyant, hot at the surface, things start to calm down. the storms start to calm down. things are going to go up for a lot of the night, watches and warnings for the rest of the evening into the overnight hours. i don't see this being a big overnight storm system that keeps on going like the storm that did move through harrisburg into illinois three days ago. that hit at 5:00 in the morning. that's rare for that to happen. that's not saying storms won't continue, because they will, and you'll see rumbles of thunder
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and there may be a tornado, but they're not going to have the f-4 or f-5, the 200-mile-per-hour tornadoes. they're not going to happen at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. as you see it, the storms are moving to the northeast. they'll move to the carolinas and go down hill, as they do ino north carolina, south carolina, they'll lose some of their intensity as well. i'm concerned in the gulf coast where it's muggy, humid. that's what the gulf coast is almost all of the time, but it has the potential to keep the storms going for quite some time. i'm going to drag it down on the upper side of this system. we have snow coming down behind that banner. from michigan into wisconsin. and even into the higher elevations there of the u.p. it's kind of an ironic snow this late in the season when you have tornadoes. here is the cold air. here is the warm air, and when they clash, you get tornadoes.
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th that's what happened tonight, that's what is going to happen every time it happens from now on. it seems early in the season to get this worth, but we really didn't have a winter. maybe spring started earlier than it did, but it could mean that tornado season may stop earlier than it should. first time we have a tornado in nebraska in february. tornado season in nebraska is in the middle of may, but it hap n happened four days ago. accelerating the highs and lows and winter and spring may make a hot summer as well. we'll be here watching it for you. erin. >> thanks. we're going to go to gary tuchman in nashville, tennessee, where sfotorms were sweeping through, massive hail. gary? >> erin, this is one of those heavily populated areas. music city, nashville, tennessee. 700 thoin people live in the city. 1.7 million in a metropolitan area, and it was scary for a lot
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of people because that's when the winds came teari ing throug up to 80 miles per hour. we were standing outside a hotel up the street and people were being yelled at to get out of the lobby, to go down to the basement. the glass didn't break, the damage appears to be limited, and right now, the worst appears to be over. 30 miles south, there are still serious problems. as you were saying, five people have guyed, at least five people in the southeastern united states. and 50 counties with tornado warnings. it's a much different animal when you have a tornado warning in a city like nashville. we had it a few years ago in atlanta, georgia. there's still damage today from that tornado a few years ago. it appears they have escaped damage in nashville. we see a lot in the springtime. we're still three weeks away from spring. it's been a bad cup days in the united states, the midwest and southeast. >> it's amazing looking at the track. we have two screens and one has
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the storms as they continue to move east. and as you noticed a little earlier than has been expected but with incredible violence. tell me more about what it was like when the winds came through. for some people who aren't from the midwest, it's hard to understand what it's like to have winds come through at 80, 90 miles per hour. >> this was a verypeculiar situation because we had a lot of hurricanes. for much of the day, it felt like hurricanes were coming because there were 40, 50, 60-mile-per-hour windses before the tornado came in. and then the hail was coming down heavily. the hail was up to my ankles. you saw that. the size of marbles. it was frozen hail. and people, you're not used to seeing that in cities. people were panicked for a while. sirens in the city of nashville. there was an official tornado warning. a tornado was spotted to the west, coming in this direction, but it appears here in the city
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of nashville, music city, usa, to be relatively light. >> you said the hail was up to your ankles, gary? >> yeah, for a time. what is amazing about hail is that it melts so quickly. you saw it piling up. it looked like a snow storm. five minutes later t was gone except for a couple hail balls. for lots of people who live in the city, they have never seen anything like that. people were quite scared, the sirens were going off. people were in the basements, but it's calmed down and at least for now, the city of nashville looks over. 30 miles to the south, the bad weather is going through there. that's what is amazing about the situation. you have so many tornado warningess in 50 counties and so many states. such an unusual occurrence, particularly it's still winter time, but it's a difficult time for a lot of people throughout the united states. >> pretty unbelievable. thank you very much. >> kentucky on that map, as you can see, is also affected and it's been an enormous outbreak
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of tornadoes. we on the phone have the governor, and thank you very much. we appreciate your taking the time. how bad is it in kentucky tonight? >> well, the storm system hasn't cleared kentucky yet, but we obviously already have reports of some heavy damage in several areas of the state. i just declared a state-wide emergency to allow local officials immediate access to state resources to assist in public safety and recovery efforts. this will allow them to have the national guard out and everything else we need without delay. >> and governor, is this something that is worse than you expect, worse than is normally is? >> last year, we heard about joplin. now this incredible surge in activity. is it unusual or not? >> kentucky gets some tornado activity. not nearly as much as the tornado alley out west of us. but on wednesday, we had a storm
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system come through, and we were very fortunate then. we had some damage, but we didn't have any loss of life. i'm very concerned that we already have some unconfirmed reports of some fatalities and some pretty hard-hit areas. so this one will be more difficult, i think, on all of us. but we were as prepared as you can be for these things. and then you've got to respond as quickly as possible, and that's what we're doing. >> governor, good luck. i hope that some of those missing do not end up fatalities. let's go to rob marciano. as we said, in the midst of tough weather. we have our shot back. hamilton, tennessee, one of the worst hit states. on the phone because of the possible tornado action there. tell us what's happening. >> we just had an intense thunderstorm move through. hail up to an inch in diameter and a rotation with a reported tornado about two to four miles directly to our south.
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thankfully, the rotation missed us and the area devastated by a tornado around 1:00. we're just a few miles northeast of cat chattanooga in a nice suburb of the city. we had a strong tornado come through here around 1:00, tore through a number of subdivisions. people are seeking shelter tonight. they had to do so quickly, clear the roads quickly because they knew another round of storms was coming, and we experienced that in the last 45 minutes. zero fatalities but a number of serious injuries, up to ten hospitalized. 15 or so treated at the scene, and we hope the zero fatality number remains. search and rescue operations have halted for the storm to pass. and now that it has, they'll be at it again until the entire system makes its way through tonight. >> we have been looking at the
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video, from your location, this was taped a few moments ago because your video wasn't able to come through because of the weather you're in. for the viewers, this is everything you have seen the past few minutes as rob was speaking, is about where he is. did you see the actual twisters, how they form or how it happened as they moved through today? >> on radar, but this -- we were in the hail core when this came through, it was down to our south, and the rain and hail was coming down so vuroeschsly there was no way to see more than a tenth of a mile or so in front of us. i saw rotation of the clouds. beyond that, between the rain and hail and now it's getting dark, a whole other ball game now with nightfall on and the storms rolling through across the eastern half of america. it's going to be a scary next few hours. >> rob, thank you very much. we appreciate it. reporting from tennessee tonight. >> still "outfront" israel's leader threw down the gauntlet today. >> and there lover of the
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there, steven harper. he had some really tough things to say. this is important. he said negotiating with iran is a waste of time. he said all iran will do is, quote, deceive and delay when it comes to its nuclear ambitions. he said that red line that we tried so hard to define last night, the one that u.s. says says iran can't cross or else, well, netanyahu is not so interested in talking to president obama about that either. >> translator: i have no intention of establishing red lines with the united states. we would like to maintain the freedom of action of the state of israel against threats to eliminate us from the map. >> the iranians have actually threatened to do just that. just last week iranian defense minister reiterated it saying, quote, irans warriors are ready and willing to wipe israel off
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the map. now as much as phrases like wiping off the map make you shake your head and ask whether this is all just playground taunts, we could be near a very serious tipping point. would israel really strike iran unilaterally? today president obama in advance of this crucial visit with mr. netanyahu upped his rhetoric telling jeffrey goldberg, quote, as president of the united states, i don't bluff. when the united states says it is unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say. israeli deputy foreign minister danny ialon used surprisingly similar language saying to sky news the one who is bluffing is iran, which is trying to play with cards they don't have. so who is bluffing? the united states? israel? iran? frankly all three. even if they're all talking tough, tough, and tougher every day, in order to ever prevent actually having to have a conflict, does ratcheting up the
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rhetoric help or hurt? rudy giuliani believes it helps. >> instead what he should be doing is convincing the iranians that he's serious, that if he had to, he'd bomb the hell out of them. they should believe this. in fact, the best way he's going to avoid bombing them is convincing them in their heads that he's capable of doing it. >> physically capable of doing it is not in question. but after 11 years and over $1 trillion spent on two wars, one based on heated rhetoric on weapons of mass destruction that didn't end up being there, the u.s. appetite for conflict is unsurprisingly low, and iran knows it. what will the u.s. really do? we'll get to that in a moment. first to tehran where today was the first election since the 2009 disputed presidential election. cnn's ivan watson is there. i spoke to him right before the program and asked him what turnout was like. >> reporter: well, what's pretty incredible is watching the state media here.
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it is just wall to wall coverage, patriotic music, video of lines of people voting and government officials celebrating this calling this everything short of a divine victory. the interior minister, he came out and said that the massive turnout infuriated and disappointed iran's enemies and their anti-iran propaganda failed. so there's a fair amount of celebration going right now in establishment circles. now i went to polling stations, a few, and there i spoke with voters, some of whom were very enthusiastic. they said, yes, it's my patriotic duty to vote. outside one i talked to two old men. one said, no, i'm not voting, i voted for ahmadinejad a few years ago and i'm disappointed how he did. so we got a split as we walked around.
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different opinions. you'd expect that in an election. >> what was your sense of how free the election was and also, i guess, as part of that, how free was social media around the election time? >> reporter: well, if you consider that the candidates ran in the 2009 presidential election, the two leading opposition candidates under house arrest and a lot of their party leaders and campaign activists had to flee into exile to escape jail and allegations of torture as well, maybe not the most free election. >> i want to ask you, ivan, with prime minister netanyahu of israel coming to washington to meet with president obama, here as you're well aware the iranian nuclear issue is a topic of conversation across the united states. it's in every single newspaper. it's going to be a big issue of discussion. is it in iran? >> reporter: of course it's an issue that comes up in the iranian media all the time. the iranian government is standing by what it says is its right to develop peaceful
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nuclear technology. within the last two weeks, in fact, the supreme leader here, he came out and said it's a sin against islam to develop a nuclear bomb. pretty much uniformly across the board iranians said we should have a right to develop nuclear technology. if israel, for instance, in the region has nuclear bombs and is not a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and we are, why shouldn't we be allowed to have peaceful nuclear technology? >> all right. ivan watson, thank you very much. reporting from tehran tonight. joining me now, jamie rubin, former assistant secretary of state for public affairs, and michael, former pentagon official for george w. bush. great to see both of you. jamie, let me start with you. today prime minister netanyahu saying time to negotiate with iran is over. all they will do is deceive and delay and run up the clock and that they don't even want to define the red line with the united states.
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they want freedom of action. are they hinting at a preemptive strike without the united states? >> i do think both the israelis and the united states are talking up the military option because to the extent as mayor giuliani said to you i guess last night, the iranians believe that's a possibility. it increases the pressure on iran in combination with sanctions and maybe, just maybe this diplomacy will work that's going to take place perhaps in the coming weeks. i think where the united states and the israelis really are taking a very different view now is on the question of whether it's worthwhile to have the international community, the united states, the european union sit down with iranian representatives under intense pressure of sanctions and the threat of possible military action to see whether constraints can be placed on their program to ensure that it remains peaceful and the israelis don't seem to think even those discussions are worth while.
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that is a big difference with the united states and the europeans. >> and i want to ask you in just a moment, jamie, what the united states obligations would be if israel did something unilaterally. michael, first to you. you worked for the bush administration which obviously had to sell striking iraq based on intelligence that turned out to be inaccurate and it became an unpopular war. now it's become an example. a lot of americans are very, very hesitant. is there a will in the united states to strike iran without 100% proof? >> well, i think you're right. there's clearly war weariness in the country, and we also have economic challenges. americans aren't eager for another military conflict, however, polls have consistently shown over the last couple of years that americans are supportive as using forces. as a last resort in iran. even a recent poll by pew showed the same thing.
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majority of americans, 60%. i think the important thing is for the president and other american leaders have to explain is that the issue here is we can't wish this away and that the choices between paying now or perhaps more pain later. of course we don't want a military conflict and we have to do everything we can to resolve this peacefully of course. >> jamie, let me ask you this question though. the president continued in his interview with jeffrey goldberg from the atlantic which came out this morning, quote, i think we in the united states instinctively sympathize with israel and political support is bipartisan. and powerful. if israel acts militarily and goes and tries to do a strike, does the united states have an option? would the united states say, sorry, israel, we're not going to help you? >> i think it depends on the circumstances. i think if the israelis were to strike iranian military targets, were to destroy those targets, and the iranian response was limited, i don't think it would be necessary for the united
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states to enter this war militarily. i do think the administration has sent signals that it will try to stay on the sidelines. we have no obligation. legally there is no treaty with israel to that effect, however, over the years at various times when israel has faced military crises the united states has been supportive. not every time, but on many occasions. >> right. >> i think it depends on what iran does. if iran were to respond with an attack, for example, in trying to attack shipping in the persian gulf and close down the straits of hormuz, i think that would trigger american naval involvement and potentially air attacks to support that naval involvement. i think if iran responded with terrorist attacks on american interests or american troops or something to that effect, again, i think the united states would respond. so i think it will depend on how a scenario unfolds, but i think we should keep in mind that most
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of these scenarios very quickly deteriorate into a really substantial regional military confrontation that nobody, as you said, would like to see. >> that's right. michael, jamie, thank you very much, both of you. of course, this weekend will be a big one. on monday when president obama meets with mr. netanyahu. the man who had a sexual encounter with tyler clementi took the stand today. in the case against dharun ravi. now known only as m.b. to protect his identity, the 32-year-old told the jury that he met clementi in his dorm room three times in september 2010. he testified that he felt uncomfortable after one encounter when he noticed a web cam pointed at the bed. clementi committed suicide just days after learning that others had been watching these encounters. ravi is accused of spying on him and intimidating him because he's gay. you can see ravi right there.
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he's following the case for us. well, today's witness is obviously the man, he was at that point just 30 years old, significantly older than tyler clementi, testified. no one was allowed to hear him or see him in the court. is that unusual? >> it's very unusual. something really interesting happens every day of this trial, and this is a very important trial with respect to privacy rights, surveillance issues. now we have this individual, m.b. the judge wouldn't allow his name to be publicly revealed, wouldn't allow audio of his testimony or video of his testimony to be broadcast by the press. very, very unusual. the only time you really see that happen is when an undercover police officer testifies sometimes in an organized crime case you might see it because somebody's life is in danger or occasionally a rape victim is protected but never, ever in a situation like this. after all, m.b. supposedly voluntarily had sex with tyler
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clementi so why would you be protecting his identity? >> right. he said they purposely met for this purpose so it was certainly consensual. i wanted to show you a picture of the dorm room. obviously mr. ravi's defense is he was an older man. i didn't know he was. he was in my room and i thought he'd steal my stuff. that's part of his defense. i'm not homophobic, not antigay. i want to show you the positioning of the web cam. tyler clementi's bed on the left. ravi's desk is on the right. we can show you where the web cam is. how important is the positioning of the web cam? >> the positioning is very, very important because this defense that i was afraid he was stealing my stuff so that's why i was taping him, obviously you wouldn't want to be taping the bed if that was the case. you'd be concerned about other areas. >> it would be on your desk, your closet. >> exactly. so i think, erin, that that defense is not going to fly. and i understand why the judge tried to protect m.b.'s identity.
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the thought is you don't want to punish him by publicly outing him at this point in time. but there's a certain irony to all of this in that this law, this bias intimidation law is meant to protect gays and get americans to understand that gays are normal and they should be treated like every other american, and yet this trial we're having him testify without his name being revealed, are we stigmatizing him by treating him differently than we treat normal victims? i don't know. we'll have to see how it plays out ultimately. >> fascinating case. >> as a separate note, 30 is a lot older than these kids were. >> it's a lot older. some people wonder whether we're criminalizing adolescent stupidity at a time when a kid's in college and makes a dumb decision. jury has a really hard road to hoe here, they really do. >> paul callan, thank you. still "out front," syria turns back trucks carrying aid into the horrifically punished neighborhood of baba amr in homs.
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and the rush limbaugh slut controversy. our john avlon says the entire gop is at risk. he knows what they were saying behind closed doors today. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one.
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president benjamin netanyahu said negotiating with iran is a waste of time. president obama upped his read tore rick. telling the atlantic monthly, as president of the united states, i don't bluff. when the united states says it is unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say. former state department spokesperson jamie rubin says if israel were to pre-emptively strike iran, the united states is not bound by any treaty to back israel if it doesn't want to. number two, syrian officials today turned away a convoy of aid trucks destined for homs. this comes as syrian forces executed 14 civilians in homs according to activists. the government had agreed to allow the red cross to deliver medical and food supplies to the opposition neighborhood of baba amr. the red cross told "out front" it is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help. we will help them as soon as we possibly can. number three, students return to an ohio high school for the first time since a shooting left three dead. we're told the chardon high
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school cafeteria where the shooting happened on monday has been repainted, tables rearranged so that it won't look the same. the first funeral will be held tomorrow. the funerals for the other two victims will be next week. number four, general motors is halting production of the struggling volt. it came with such high hopes. during the five week stoppage 1300 workers will be temporarily laid off. we looked at the numbers and the sales of the volt, it's very kind to say they have not met expectations since it went on sale. last month gm sold 1,000 volts. however 602 volts were sold in january. it's been 211 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing it back? let's hope we don't end up like greece. this is what it could look like. another debt downgrade, greece's credit rating from moody's falling to the absolute lowest rating. tonight outrage over rush
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limbaugh's comments about a george' town student who testified on capitol hill about president obama's birth control policy. now this policy requires employers to provide free birth control coverage but exempts religious based institutions by making insurance companies pay instead. rush limbaugh has an issue with the free part. here's what he said. >> 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 makes her 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. >> that's not all. limbaugh went on to say this. >> so, miss fluke, and the rest
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of you feminazis, here's the deal. if we are going to pay for your contraceptives and pay for you to have sex we'll want something for it and i'll tell you what it is. we want you to post the videos online so we can all watch. >> sandra fluke who received a supportive call from president obama today is not backing down. >> i know that i felt probably the way many women do when they are called those types of names, initially hurt and then very quickly upset and just outraged because someone is trying to silence you. >> john avlon is here. ryan and tim, democratic strategists. great to have all three of you with us. john, rick santorum came out and said rush limbaugh is being absurd. mitt romney has not said anything. we know the president of the united states called this woman, sandra fluke. is mitt romney going to weigh in? should everybody be weighing in?
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>> absurd is a kind word for what rush limbaugh did, but responsible republicans tear their hair out when he starts defining the terms of the debate. at the end of the day rush limbaugh is an entertainer, a talented entertainer, an influential entertainer. the problem is he's treated as a political leader, one without any sense of responsibility. that's where republicans get in real trouble. this new front in the culture wars has erupted, contraception debate, that seems to many folks, independent women, that seems like it's coming from another decade. this is great news for the democrats in the short run. it's bad news for the republicans who have to bear the weight of being associated with rush limbaugh. >> this is a tough one. they're afraid of rush limbaugh. he's an incredibly powerful man in the republican party. that's a fact. >> there's a huge tension here because basically rush limbaugh does well when his audience is very angry, when they're very active, when they're very energetic. that's not when conservatives are winning. actually, the election of president obama is actually a
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huge boon for rush limbaugh as an entertainer in terms of building audience, in terms of also building influence in the republican party. when there's an actual republican leader, an actual republican president, that person will drown out any entertainer. when president reagan was in office you didn't hear about various talk radio hosts and what have you being huge influencers on the political right. as the right shrinks, the bigger a voice you have if you're the kind of person who gets into this smash mouth tactic. >> tim, i have to say this has got to be a dream come true for the president, for democrats. senator kristen jill abrand from new york send out a fund-raising e-mail today. this is handing it to them on a silver platter. >> it's very reflective of what's happened in the past several weeks. republicans have gone incredibly off message from talking about the separation of church and state, to whether or not you're a snob if you go to college. this whole republican nomination
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started off talking about jobs and the economy. now the economy's gotten better, santorum and gingrich have hung around the race. they're talking about whether or not we can engage in civil discourse and all of these issues that mainstream americans don't care about. they're in real trouble. it's also, you look at mitt romney today who can't even come out and say anything about this issue because he's so nervous about alienating the hard core republican base. it's a real problem for the republicans. >> it could be that he intends to talk about economic policy issues, right? this conversation is not something that is controlled by any party, it is something that emerges organically as people say incendiary things and then you have a response. on the right a lot of people felt, wait a second, president obama really overreached, including a lot of folks who are president obama supporters. then you have a response to that. people were very much on the margins of this conversation. you say they're the ones who represent everything. which is totally misleading.
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>> hold on. hold on. hold on. ryan, the problem here is that what we have in this polarized environment is the two sides do drive the debate. sometimes the legislative agenda. the problem is the republican party or the tea party has allowed libertarian rhetoric, individual freedom, not focusing on social issues. the problem is when the republicans got in one of the first things they tried to do was defund planned parenthood. that makes it looks like government just small enough to get in your bedroom. it offends folks and alienates folks, particularly women. >> look, there's a ton of push back there. there are a lot of opinions. the bedrock idea of small government conservatives are these are contentious issues and that's why they should be handled voluntarily, state and local governments, they should not be handled at the federal level. that's the core issue. >> thanks very much to all three of you. appreciate your talking the time. we have new video coming in from the tornadoes. literally, as the powerful storms are tiching down. we're going to go there live. one of our reporters able to get to a storm. we'll be back. we're america's natural gas
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well, we do have some new video that we want to show you just coming in from a cnn affiliate. this is a tornado, as you can see, gaining strength. you literally can see the twister there in the background of the shot. it's coming from a cnn affiliate. it then is gaining strength and heading into henryville, indiana. now population of henryville, indiana, is 2,000 people. the high school was completely demolished. this is part of the ongoing tornado outbreaks in the midwest. which have really accelerated tonight. the weather map is getting increasingly severe as they move west. even now some warnings in the greater atlanta area. we talked to the governor of kentucky. earlier on the program, steve beshear. he told outfront a few moments ago that there's no confirmed
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fatalities in kentucky, but there are people missing that he thinks will be confirmed dead. he has already declared a state of emergency in kentucky. we were live in nashville earlier in the hour. there have been 70, 80-mile-per-hour tornadoes that have touched down and hail that have come up to above people's ankles on the ground. we'll continue to follow this as they touch down. to be honest, we have trouble getting our reporter's shots up because they get disrupted by the violence of these storms. it's caused difficulties for our reporters. we'll take a break. we'll talk about a very big weekend here, "the lorax." what does that have to do with a man who is about to serve 13 years in prison? >> and at the grammys, they were rock stars, rap stars, and one winner who felt right at home behind stocking the dairy shelves at the super market. his incredible story still to come. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it is meant to be seen.
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he's a regular guy who just realized a huge dream. his idea to produce an album aimed at helping kids who don't fit in. all about bullies big and small, won best children's album of the year at the grammy awards. but when he's not attending glamorous awards ceremonies, you can find him at the shop-rite at the dairy counter where he worked for the past 15 years. he came outfront to tell us ubhis ideas. >> as a teen, we thought it was the best subject we can tackle because it's so important today because so many kids are dying. there's a cure for that, and it's just education. >> and you were bullied. a personal issue for you. >> i was bullied. one of the producer was bullied as a kid, gloria is being bullied right now as an adult, and she's in her 50s. and she was very lucky to make it to the grammys. >> and you are going to get your grammy soon. what you're wearing now is the
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nomination medal. >> this is the medallion you get when you're nominated. you go to the grammy preparty, you get this. it's pretty cool, pretty heavy. >> what does it feel like? i know this is a personal passion with you and your fetea when you do this. all of a sudden, you win a grammy. thets a really big deal. >> it was awesome, really, real a was awesome. just being out there with -- you know, you're on a different plain. it's the best reward. we don't receive any money for this project. all money is being donated to pacer, bullying for kids. >> for the cause. >> we work for free. >> how much time do you and your team -- >> hours and hours and hours and hours. >> so what's a regular day like when you're working on the album, shop-rite in the morning? >> go to shop-rite, work 8 to 10 hoirs, go home, work a couple more hours on the computer. sometimes the guys, steve and james, would be actually in the
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studio. i really have to fit in all of the producers, steve, james, gloria, and pat robinson. you know, it's not just about me. it's about a whole group of people putting this together. i'm just one piece of the puzzle. all together, we have this wonderful team of ours. >> and tell me about your day job at shop-rite. is that something you love or are you saying, now i won a grammy. i'm a grammy-award-winning producer. i'm doing to be a big music producer. >> it's something i enjoy. it pays the bills. i have great benefits. the music business isn't what it used to be. i'm quite content being there. if someone offered me a million dollars, let's talk.
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>> but you are someone, though, a lot of us look and say, they do something like you do, and you're saying, i spent hours working on this, and you achieved your dream. what would you say inside you made you able to do it? >> anybody can do it. anybody can do it. if you put your heart to something, anybody can do it. >> pretty inspiring words there. up next, dr. seuss's birthday. it's today. and so happens to be the lorax movie premier. that's tonight's number. ♪
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[ kareem ] i was fascinated by balsa wood airplanes since i was a kid. [ mike ] i always wondered how did an airplane get in the air. at ge aviation, we build jet engines. we lift people up off the ground to 35 thousand feet. these engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. [ mike ] it's gonna fly people around the world. safely and better than it's ever done before. it would be a real treat to hear this monster fire up. [ jaronda ] i think a lot of people, when they look at a jet engine, they see a big hunk of metal. but when i look at it, i see seth, mark, tom, and people like that who work on engines every day. [ tom ] i would love to see this thing fly. [ kareem ] it's a dream, honestly. there it is.
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108 years old today. and one of his classics, "the lorax" premieres tonight as a 3-d movie. buzz has launched the book to number 18 on the usa today best seller list. up 153 spots from two weeks ago, where it languished at 171. pretty amazeing for a book written in 1971. and as part of the huge marketing push, there was a junket outside the cnn building in columbus circle. these are trees that the lorax protects from the onceler who is set on getting a profit from chopping them down. the marketing is working. they predict the lorax will pull in $47 million in the opening
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weekend. which brings us to tonight pfsh number. 13. that's how many years a university of alabama fan is facing. his crime, poisoning and possibly killing a 130-year-old landmark group of trees on arch rival auburn university's camp. to put this in perspective, former governor of illinois, rod blue goy vch was found gate of 18 counts of corruption, and he got just about the same sentence. 13 years for killing trees. the lesson, you don't mess with trees. this is not a political statement. it's a warning because people are really passionate about trees. joyce kilmer said, i think that i never shall see a poem as lovely as a tree. we all climbed trees as a kid, we had tree houses, trees are kikted to us. family trees, christmas trees, tree
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