or evacuate. it could almost triple the death toll. hurricane katrina could skew the results. what is wrong with you people? you're going by the names of -- anyway, that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. i turn you over to wolf blitzer. >> jake, thank you very much. bracing for the worst. people in the severe weather zone, parts of the midwest under watches for dangerous tornadoes and destructive winds. innocent until proven guilty. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff responding to growing backlash against sergeant bowe bergdahl's release and others say the former p.o.w. is a deserter whose selfish acts caused deaths.

and flight 370 and a mysterious noise. audio will be released in a few hours from now. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." all of that coming up but let's begin with the breaking news just coming into "the situation room." we're just learning about a very dangerous near collision between a u.s. military aircraft and a russian fighter jet. let's bring in our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. what happened ? >> u.s. officials tell me this is one of the most dangerous passes that took place on april 23rd in international waters off the eastern coast of russia. a u.s. air force plane used surveillance aircraft on a routine mission intercepted by a single russian flanker aircraft. the su-27 crossed the nose of the u.s. aircraft within just 100 feet, making a maneuver, i'm

told, straight out of the movies, so close that the american jet was caught in the jet wash of the russian fighter. the fly by, i'm told, put the lives in the jeopardy and raised it to the highest level with general dempsey and discussed it with the russian chief of defense and an incident like this has not happened again. >> was this incident directly related to the crisis in ukraine? has there been an uptick between these kinds of situations. >> this was just after russian troops annexed ukraine and a little more than a week after another russian jet buzzed the destroyer, the "uss donald cook" and came within 1,000 yards of the ship. there's no clear pattern of

increased fly byes since the start of the ukraine crisis. however, the pentagon has noticed an uptick in the last few years, particularly along the alaskan coast. though, those have been in general professional in nature, this most recent fly by, a much more recent event. these kinds of things happen. it's part of a game of cat and mouse as you have u.s. surveillance warplanes traveling around china and russia. they tend to be under a set of rules. you only come so close. this one came very much outside of the bounds of that, put the crew's lives in danger. >> these kinds of things occurred all the time during the cold war but we assumed it was over, that cold war, and it's certainly a remnant of that. >> the most serious in decades. we're talking in the last 30, 40 years. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. significant new details coming into "the situation room" from the pentagon about sergeant bowe bergdahl's mysterious 2009 disappearance and how they could

be planning to address the lingering questions that it's raising. this is as they are reaching out to veteran soldiers to reassure them that they will get to the bottom of what is happening. cnn is covering this from every angle. our correspondent barbara starr has new information. barbara? >> wolf, no one is exactly talking about punishment yet but the pentagon made clear there will be an investigation. 9 arthe army announced a comprehensive coordinated review of bowe bergdahl's disappearance and captivity. the army will also ask bergdahl about reports he may have tried to escape but was recaptured but they are not asking him anything just yet. >> we obviously have not been interrogating sergeant bergdahl. he's recovering from five years of captivity with the taliban. >> reporter: today, president

obama defended the decision to get bergdahl back. >> regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an american soldier back if he's held in captivity, period, full stop, we don't condition that. >> reporter: it comes as allegations continue to swirl that bergdahl deserted his unit. >> bergdahl left his equipment and walked out on his platoon and his oath to the united states so he definitely isn't a hero. he definitely is a deserter. >> matthew is represented by a republican strategist. the political controversy drove the nation's highest-ranking officer, general martin dempsey, chairman of the joints chief of staff, to respond on his facebook page saying, like any

american, he's innocent until proven gill he too. our army's leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred. an article detailed a disillusioned bergdahl and a unit in trouble, saying from the start, everything seemed to go wrong. when a lieutenant was removed from duty, it was, quote, quickly followed by a collapse in unit moral and an almost complete breakdown of authority. but bergdahl's former team leader insists allegations the men weren't doing their jobs correctly were not true. >> i believe that was incredibly blown out of proportion and there was no discipline issues in our platoon. >> u.s. officials tell cnn, during the time bergdahl was in captivity, that five-year period, there were, in fact, a couple of instances where they had intelligence indicating where he might be being held. but they did not stage a rescue mission because it was deemed too risky to sergeant bergdahl,

that they felt that the captors would kill him if the u.s. tried to rescue him. wolf? >> barbara, thank you. on capitol hill, there is growing outrage from both sides of the aisle about the decision to make this couldn't verse yell swap. joe johns is joining us now. what is going on? what's the latest there, joe? >> wolf, this is just in to cnn. the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee is not holding back and is clearly not happy about the administration's handling of the bowe bergdahl's situation and the prisoner exchange. to tony blinken called to apologize but it's pretty clear that senator feinstein is not satisfied with what the administration said to her. she talked about this a few minutes ago at the capital. >> it comes with some surprise and dismay that the transfers went ahead with no consultation, totally not following the law

and in an issue of this kind of concern to a committee that bears the oversight responsibility, i think you can see that we're very dismayed about it. >> there has not even been the weakest case, in my opinion, made that he was suffering from a health standpoint to the degree to which a decision had to be made immediately. >> you also saw senator saxby chambliss, the top republican, he's pretty steamed, too. he had harsh words for the administration when i asked him about it earlier today. >> senator, the white house says that you all were kept in the loop on this. were you? >> the white house is wrong about that. i haven't had a conversation with the white house on this in a year and a half. if that's in the loop, this administration is more arrogant

than i thought they were. >> he wants to declassify information about the five taliban leaders who were released in exchange for bowe bergdahl. not everyone on the hill is blind sided by this news. senator harry reid told me he heard about it on friday, the day before it happened. wolf? >> thanks very much. coming up at the top of the hour, i'll speak with that republican, the top republican on the senate intelligence committee, saxby chambliss. he'll join us live in the next hour. let's talk about all of this. joining us right now, eli lake, the senior international correspondent for "the daily beast." also joining us, national security analyst, the former cia officer, bob baer. eli, you've done major reporting. the former cia chief, leon panetta, they thought this was a bad idea. what has changed? >> well, what's changed this time, is that --

>> james clapper? >> yes, james clapper. there are guarantees that these guys are going to be monitored and they felt that those guarantees mitigated the risks and concerns that he had before. second of all, what i've heard is that the view is that these guys, while very senior taliban members and, of course, very important to the network do not have the human networks that they did a few years ago and finally, there are going to be fewer americans in afghanistan within a year that they are allowed to travel back to afghanistan. >> there is supposed to be almost 10,000 after 2015. let's talk about next year, 2015. let's talk a little bit about that, bob baer, because senator john mccain is clear on this point. let me pay a clip for you. >> there are taliban and al qaeda. don't you understand that? you -- like you said, you're an

old man. they officially invaded afghanistan to separate these people from al qaeda, it's just damn foolishness. >> how dangerous do you think these five detainees are, bob? >> i don't think they are particularly dangerous. you know, it's been said that they are out of date and haven't been there in ten years in afghanistan. our main enemy, the haqqani network that is in place, even if they were to return to afghanistan, it doesn't change the fortune on the battlefield. they are senior, yes. i think qatar will hold them for a year. i think it's a tempus in a tea pot, really. >> eli, one of those five taliban leaders, mull mullah mohammad fazl, he's

accused of massacring thousands of shiites in the 1990s. has the u.s. ever released someone for u.s. war crimes? >> i can't remember that. there's also an extraordinary point here that the taliban is considered by john mccain to be a terrorist organization but by considering this to be an exchange of prisoners of war, it's like conferring a new status on the taliban which i think is an important point. >> the people that held sergeant bergdahl -- the people that held sergeant bergdahl, they were the haqqani network in pakistan, remnants of the taliban, if you will, back in 2012 hillary clinton declared the haqqani network to be a terrorist organization. he was being held by what the

u.s. declared to be a terrorist organization. >> that's true. but i would just point out -- and at this point i haven't done anything to say that these two are connected but there hasn't been a drone strike in pakistan for almost six months, since december 25th, 2013. i think this is a way for the obama administration to create the atmosphere for an arrangement for when the u.s. forces leave. >> what do you make, bob, of the life that the detainees are going to have in qatar? from what we're hearing, they will be able to drive around and talk to folks. the obama thing they won't be able to do is to get out of qatar or go back to pakistan or afghanistan and will be monitored by the qatari government. what do you make of that? >> i think they will be raising money for the taliban and the rest of it but it will be at a

political level than in armed resistance. but i'd like to go back to eli's point. the war is wounding down. the drone strikes are taking off. we're looking for a settlement in afghanistan that we can live with and it will, i guarantee you, it will include part of the taliban and i'd be very happy if we can get rid of the most radical ones and let them stay in pakistan. >> you believe this deal, eli, is not just a deal to free sergeant bergdahl but also a deal to designed to try to improve relations with the taliban. is that what you're saying? >> it was always the understanding that this would set the tone for reconciliation but the first reports would be that this would have no effect on peace process. finally, does it make any difference if he was a deserter, wasn't a deserter and the price that the u.s. had to pay to get

this guy out? >> this guy had psychological problems. to take a compass and bottle of water and wander off in the afghan territory, he had psychological problems. >> eli lake and bob baer, thank you. chilling new videos of an interrogation of suspected u.s. informants just hours before their execution. and a major activity on the ocean floor. could it hold the clue to flight 370. did you know, your eyes can lose vital nutrients as you age? [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. ocuvite. help protect your eye health.

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getting word of serious problems about to hit omaha, nebraska. you can see the radar there. we're monitoring this situation. chad myers, endra peterson, they are monitoring the situation for us. endra will be joining us from nebraska. we'll get there shortly. but get ready, folks out there, this could be very, very severe, what is about to happen there. other news we're following, an american man allegedly planning to murder u.s. troops. this is coming from yemen. mohammed jamjoom is here. what have learned?

>> it's as strong as it has ever been and it's very much in the news today. on the same day that an american yemeni man in rochester, new york, has been charged with, among other things, plotting to kill u.s. troops, we're reminded, yet again, of just how resurgent, emboldened the strongest threat towards americans worldwide still remains. >> the men seen here being interviewed by al qaeda allegedly planting bombs in vehicles like this which they say was hit by u.s. drones. aqap say the men confessed and were executed. the drone strikes came shortly after cnn's barbara starr first obtained this video showing a large gathering of aqap meeting

openly. since then, the u.s. and yemeni government have stepped up their efforts. >> from the looks of it, the air strikes, yemen air force along with u.s. assets certainly stirred up the hornet's nest. >> reporter: they are taking the fight to the streets. >> al qaeda in the arainian peninsula have gone all in. they have done attacks itself. >> reporter: the u.s. capital has been shut down for nearly a month with no plans to reopen it. meanwhile, this yemeni-american man is accused of plotting to

kill u.s. military members in new york. he has not yet entered a plea and tonight, while it's unclear if he belonged to aqap, his arrest throws yet another spotlight on yemen and the al qaeda threat there. >> yemeni officials are telling me that they will need a lot more support from their american and saudi allies if they are going to win this fight. they say the military is stretched way too thin there. we're also hearing from u.s. officials and other western official there is in yemen. they say they are very worried about their diplomats and other foreigners there in the capital. >> and now the capital of yemen remains closed? >> it does remain closed. this is one of the longest closures that it has seen yet and goes to show how concerned they are about the threat level. >> mohammed, thanks very much. this note to our viewers, whether you lived through it or learned about it, one of the most terrifying situations in

history was when the u.s. salt on the brink of nuclear war. the cold war had virtually every american on edge. here's a preview. >> early on in the '60s, you had a backdrop of tension and capitalism versus communism and it was palatable fear that the two sides were going to get into a nuclear war. >> architect of the crisis. >> as they headed the soviet union, khrushchev was very ideological. he believed that the future belonged to communism. he said, america needs to be contained and the only way to do it is to create crises all around the american empire.

>> don't miss "the sixties" only here on cnn. coming up, we're monitoring a very dangerous weather situation. take a look at the ominous pictures coming in from omaha, nebraska, as it is about to get slammed. ♪ [ male announcer ] momentum has a way of quietly exploding onto the scene. ♪ the new ram 1500 ecodiesel. with 28 highway miles per gallon,

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this is a storm that is putting down baseball-size hail near blair and bennington and probably irvington. i spent about 13 years of my life there. there are a lot of people that are going to be affected by 80 to 90-mile-an-hour winds and the weather service has already said, you cannot be outside. your pets, your animals cannot be outside when you have hail this size coming into the town and also wind at about 80 miles per hour as well. let me take you to the map and show you what is going on. the storm fired up about an hour ago. it moved into omaha and that's where it is right now moving into the northwestern suburbs of omaha proper. here's missouri proper. this is 680. the interstate is just to the northwest of most of the population of omaha. here is miller. you're about to get it.

elk horn, almost every area right through here has softball size hail or baseball-size hail with it. let me show you a three-dimensional picture of the cell right now. the hail is coming all the way to the ground. the storm itself, wolf, is 51,000 feet tall. almost ten miles high. and for the bottom six miles it is full of hail and that hail is hitting the ground now in omaha and points to the north. here is the picture that we're getting from ketv. they keep opening the iris a little bit for us. see all of this green? guess what that is? it's the hail. you look at the top of a coke bottle. it's green. it's the refraction and reflection of the coke bottle making the top of the bottle green. but the green here and here and here all indicates tremendous amounts of hail.

this is being looking to the northwest at about 72nd and center. i guess it's right about there. this is the old bluecross-blue shield building. you need to take cover just as though this were a tornado heading to your city. it's that big of a deal. i know it's a severe thunderstorm warning but this is the most big severe thunderstorm i have seen, the biggest severe storm i have seen moving into a city in a very long time, wolf. >> so how potentially dangerous is this, especially for the folks on the highway there in their cars? because it's getting darker, darker and more ominous. what is that? light le lightning? >> that's lightning in the sky. we would expect to see lightning flashes. this storm is not really going to put down a tornado but the damage will be much more widespread. these baseball-size hailstones will go through the roof of your car.

dent the entire thing where you almost can't tell what type of car it is. you need to be out of your car and in a building. get out of that car, drive into a mall, drive into a strip mall and get inside somehow. even the roof will get damage of your home of these baseball-size hail falling at 100 miles per hour will be hitting the tops of the roofs and certainly damaging the shingles and certainly the mobile home roof, which is really only made of metal, they could be compromised. it's a very dangerous situation for omaha, irvington, over to council bluffs. this is going to go through the ec eppley air field. they will pounded. the aluminum skin of an airplane do not go together very well. those planes will be demolished,

wolf. >> we're not talking about a rural area. this is a city, omaha, nebraska, a major city out there. we're looking at live pictures from downtown and you can see a lot of cars on the road over there. this is a potentially dangerous situation. how likely are winds going to get? >> we have winds in excess of 08 miles per hour. we've had 2.75 inch hailstones falling from the sky to the northwest of the city. the storm is coming from the northwest to the southeast into the city proper. so it's going to go across 680 and across the old area where the sunset speedway used to be and then down south towards crossroads. those were all malls in the omaha area. all of those areas are going to be hit by this tremendous hail event. there are going to be so many demolished cars but i'm not so worried about the cars but the people in them. if you're still driving and the hail starts to hit, the glass will break.

the windshield will shatter, even though it's obviously a panel, a plate, a glass, a film and a glass, it's tempered glass and it will still shatter in your car. you need to be out of your car before that baseball-size hailstones hit it. there will be glass shards inside of those cars, wolf. >> it's now 4:35 p.m. central time in omaha, nebraska. listen to what our affiliate of ketv, the reporters there are saying. >> moving at a very slow pace from south to north to meet up with the storm system that is moving northwest. that's not a good sign. but the storm doesn't seem to be moving too fast over downtown. you heard the sirens three or four minutes ago. we're seeing it directly to the north here from 27th and douglas and it's that green and a lot of

lightning. we're not getting any rain here and we don't feel any wind or at least not any wind that would seem to be damaging at this point but that looked like a pretty massive lightning strike there just over i-480 to hamilton street. that's the other thing going on from our vantage point. a lot of people rushing to get home right now. we're seeing more traffic than we normally see heading east right now on douglas and a huge backup on i-480 southbound. it looks like some people may be trying to go east there at the split. and now the wind is picking up. that just happened. right now we're starting to feel that wind and seeing trees move down here. you may be able to hear it in the microphone. no rain yet. a lot of lightning and the wind is starting to pick up as the storm moves in here into the downtown omaha area. so we'll stay on top of this and see what comes and if the area should take shelter right now.

>> let's get back to chad. this is a precursor. what do we anticipate, given the indications that you're getting? >> well, you can see the lightning now on the screen. it would be amazing to continue to watch this storm as it moves right over the camera, because it will. it's moving at about 20 or 30 miles per hour coming in -- i know think that i'm losing the visibility on the edge of the camera and that means the rain shield, the pale shield is right there getting closer and closer to us, probably only three or four miles from the camera but what really concerns me is all of the cars that you see on the road. i'm looking at cars. they are not moving at all. they are completely stopped. i'm assuming this is 72nd and center. this is the old medical center. but look at all of these cars, all of those headlights not even moving and this green, the green is showing up again on the screen right through here. that's the hail falling from the

sky and 2.75-inch hail. we do have a tornado warning in nebraska but, trust me, because i've driven it many, many times, it's a big state. the tornado warning is way out west right now but this may not be the last storm for omaha tonight. there will certainly be weather for lincoln and back out towards grand island and north platte and valentine and cherry county. big storms out there now and they are all moving to the east. this is something we talked about and it's turning into a storm for tonight. it's called a derecho. it's a big wide of storms, a meso complex of storms that charges ahead very quickly and pushes out a tremendous amount of wind. we had a derecho a couple of years ago and it made its way all the way to washington, d.c., and did damage. so this storm will continue to blow through the area across council bluffs and 70,

80-mile-per-hour winds if you were in columbus, kentucky with that storm in west virginia. trees were falling down. this derecho lasted for almost 24 hours. it's expected to be a similar type event coming up tonight as these storms as they cluster together, they all act as one and move to the east. and it's knocking down things for hundreds or sometimes thousands of miles, wolf. >> i remember when that derecho hit the washington, d.c., area a few years ago. it was back in 2012. it was awful. it seemed to never end. it can go on for quite a while. chad, i want you to stand by. we'll take a quick break and resume our special coverage right after this. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last.

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switch to comcast business internet and get two wifi networks included. comcast business built for business. once again we're following the breaking news, a tornado reported on the ground right now in central nebraska, 35 million people potentially in what is being described as a severe weather zone. let's go to chad myers. he's got the breaking details. these are our pictures coming in from our affiliate ketv in omaha. you're pointing out that it could be a derecho. explain to our viewers what that is. >> when we say severe thunderstorm warning and we mean it because this looks like a tornado and it is not. this is an 80-mile-per-hour

straight line wind event. it has debris in the sky. the trees are falling apart. the hail is falling from the sky. there will be places north of omaha, probably irvington up towards the mormon bridge that they will have to get the snowplows out to move it, wolf. this is the kind of storm that we're seeing right now. so a tornado will go in a straight line for a very long time and it can act like a bulldozer to the air in front of it and the air in front of it gets pushed forward and this is what we're seeing. this is the air getting pushed forward. the leaves falling from the sky. it's hard to see whether there is hail coming down but there's a likelihood that there is hail. we've already had the 2.75 inch hail being reported north of omaha and it's moving into the city proper right now. it's over metro omaha.

missing millard a little bit but moving to the southeast eventually over to the southeast towards the zoo and across the bridge into council bluffs. a major area. i know we think of it as omaha and iowa and unpopulated but i will tell you that there are more than a million people getting pounded with the hail right now. cars, people, pets being injured, obviously cars getting damaged. it's not a tornado on the ground but a lot of damage occurring right now in the omaha/nebraska area. >> these are live pictures coming in courtesy of our affiliate ketv. >> correct. >> this is from council bluffs. it's very, very ominous. what is a derecho? >> it used to be a meso scale con vehicle tif complex. they've changed the names a

little bit because i haven't been to school in 25 years but it's a bunch of storms that cluster together. and then the two collide and make another storm just ahead of it and will charge ahead in a large line almost again and it's said up for now with parts of iowa, st. louis, you can't let your guard down now. you should have everything inside, including your pets, because this could come. it may take a long time, maybe five or six hours but it could get there to st. louis and across into columbia and jefferson city. a line of weather, storm here, here, here and will storm ahead as a big snowplow. i can tell that that ground was covered in hail. that ground was absolutely white from that picture that we just

had before the meteorologist showed up there on the camera. let me show you what else i can find for you. here's douglas, harris and the storm right here in omaha proper moving across the river itself. here's irvington and bennington and it's sliding ralston's way and then eventually all the way down, this is the i-80 corridor coming across here. this would be bluff's run, the racetrack across there and through omaha. there is the storm. it moved so very quickly. it's moving at 60 and pushing wind ahead of it. when that happens, you get that tremendous amount of surge of wind and with the storm, obviously, the hail is coming down as well. there probably will be areas that lost not only all of the windows in the house, at least on one side, but all of the siding will get knocked off as well, wolf. >> this is council bluffs, live

pictures coming in from ketv. >> is that still live? >> yes. it's ten miles from omaha. there is it a population of 500,000 proper but if you add up the suburban areas, that's close to a million people potentially impacted by this severe weather and, as we say, there's a tornado right now on the ground in central nebraska. we're going to speak with one of the storm chasers right in the middle of all of this. we'll take a quick break, chad. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] out here, answers should always outweigh excuses. ♪ and there's no excuse why a gas-powered heavy-duty truck can't do everything you ask of it. no excuse at all. the new 6.4-liter hemi-powered ram heavy duty.

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by with more. these are images, these are not live pictures, but they came in a little while ago outside of omaha, a city of nearly half a million people, and council bluffs. you can see what's going on over there, chad. >> yeah, council bluffs, right over the river, it's the sister city to omaha itself. we were just trying to get ahold of the people at eppley airfield, the omaha international airport, and they said they couldn't talk right now, hail was so large that they were going to try to get back to us. we're going to try to get them on the phone, because right now the hail core is right over carter lake, right over into council bluffs and also into the eppley airfield. what you see, the leaves coming down, although that looks like a tornado blowing it around, those leaves are being knocked off the trees by the hail hitting the tree limbs, hitting the leaves, and the leaves just start to fly and fly around. this area will be at least some of it will be denewted of its

vegetation. the trees will be stripped. anywhere from about the mormon bridge westward towards irvington, this is where most of the hail fell, but right now the biggest hail core has just shifted, this line right there, the omaha, council bluffs line, into iowa, into council bluffs, up and along i-80. a lot of traffic along i-80, i-29, was clearly damaged by this hail. we hope that there were no fatalities from this, because this storm, although not a tornado, certainly as dangerous and as damaging as any that i've seen. >> these people, a lot of people, are stuck on the highways right now. they've got to get out of their cars, they've got to go inside to avert the damages. these are live pictures coming in from our affiliate katv in omaha. we'll stay on top of this story, more of breaking news right after this. ♪

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this is cnn breaking news. >> i'm wolf blitzer in the "the situation room." we're following the breaking news, severe weather roaring across parts of the midwest right now, with a tornado now reported on the ground in nebraska. we're also getting reports of baseball-sized hail and the potential for hurricane-force winds. let's go straight to our severe weather expert, our meteorologist chad myers. so what do our viewers need to know right now, chad? >> if you're in nebraska, iowa, or missouri, these storms are going to continue to fire and get bigger as the night goes on. there's even tornado warnings to the west of omaha that would be moving toward omaha in the next few hours, so certainly not

over. a storm out in western nebraska, also a storm in central nebraska, and the storm that just moved through omaha, into council bluffs, now a brand new tornado warning. as it rolled across omaha, it hailed for sure and the tornado warning just to the east of where the storm was there. here's what the storm looks like now on radar, and i'm going to show you the three-dimensional part of this. there's the storm moving across omaha, but 50,000 feet tall, wolf, i made a cross section of it, cut it right in half, and about 20,000 feet in the sky, there were baseball-sized hailstones flying up and down and many of them got to the ground, especially in the northern half of omaha proper. probably dodge or center north on up toward irvington and on up toward carter lake. trying to get ahold of people at eppley airfield, because we know there was a lot of damage out there. if those planes were still on the ground, there's million dollars worth of damage to those airplanes for sure.

some of them may not be flyable for a very long time with this big baseball-sized hail hitting the aluminum skin of an airplane, that doesn't go well. >> we just saw a picture on twitter of some of that baseball-sized hail. take a look at this, you see what's going down right now, that could cause an enormous amount of damage. >> well, it's coming down basically terminal velocity, 100, 115 miles per hour, that's like you getting hit by a nolan ryan fastball right in the middle of the head or the back. you need to be inside, pets need to be inside. a lot of damage still possible tonight. the storms are far from done, they are just getting going. many more storms to come. >> all right, chad, stand by. we'll continue to watch the breaking news, the severe weather, the tornados in the midwest right now, but there's another major story we're also following this evening. the president of the united states, he's overseas, he's on the defensive, though, as criticism grows of the deal that freed an american p.o.w.

some lawmakers say the white house is now privately apologizing to them for failing to give them legally required notice of the prisoner swap involving five guantanamo detainees, but the exchange itself is highly controversial and president obama is now being forced to defend it. senator saxby chambliss is standing by. he's the ranking republican on the senate intelligence committee. he's got new information, but first i want to go to our white house correspondent, michelle ka kins ki. she's traveling with the president in warsaw, poland right now. tell us what the president is saying. >> reporter: they had this urgent opportunity. the administration framing it as something as a life or death situation for bergdahl and they seized that chance. now, though, there's a strong political fallout over this and that in itself might not sound like a huge surprise, but tonight it's growing stronger and it's bipartisan. republicans insist tonight it wasn't a matter of days, but years, since they were consulted

about any deal for bergdahl. >> we were at a meeting where they were talking about releasing some taliban as confidence measures to move negotiations forward as long as two years ago. >> reporter: despite the president himself today stating congress was kept in the loop. >> we have consulted with congress for quite some time about the possibility. >> reporter: the bad feeling among high ranking members of congress tonight is bipartisan. it comes with some surprise and dismay that the transfers went ahead with no consultation, totally not following the law. >> reporter: she says deputy national security adviser even called her last night and apologized for the move, but now the national security team characterizes that not as an apology for moving quickly, which it spelled out it needed to do to save bergdahl's life, but expressing regrets these members of congress weren't called saturday when the deal was going down. keep in mind, despite mccain's strong words today on the release of the gitmo five --

>> they are taliban and al qaeda. don't you understand that? you might remember that in 2001, al qaeda found a haven with the taliban. that's why we initially invaded afghanistan, to somehow separate these people from al qaeda, it's just damn foolishness. >> reporter: back in february he told anderson cooper he would support a swap. >> i would be inclined to support such a thing, depending on details. >> reporter: those details, saying when those discussions did happen some two years ago, there was some bipartisan opposition to a taliban trade. the president, though, today unapologetic. >> the united states is always had a pretty sacred rule, and that is, we don't leave our men or women in uniform behind. >> reporter: one of the toughest things for some to accept about this is the lack of clarity

about what exactly happens to the released after this year of what's been characterized as monitoring and a travel ban. the administration hasn't been wanting to give away too much detail. that's not good enough, wolf, for some of these members of congress. >> certainly isn't. thanks very much, michelle kosinski traveling with the president in poland. republican senator saxby chambliss is among the sharpest critics of the deal, joining us live from capitol hill. you were just briefed, you asked for details on these five detainees. here's the question, were any of these five involved in killing americans? >> well, there's suspicion that at least two and maybe three of these individuals were at the prison where johnny michael span was killed back in 2001. they've not been charged with that, but there's been accusations to that effect, and

it's not been proven one way or the other. here's what we do know, though, wolf, these individuals were involved at a very high level, a planning level, in both al qaeda, as well as the taliban. and we know that they were engaged in the planning for the implementation of i.e.d.s that ultimately killed many americans, wounded many americans. we know that they were involved in the financing of operations, maybe even some of the more public terrorist attacks that we know about now, but these five guys are not low level terrorists, wolf. they are high level individuals, two of whom had very close ties to osama bin laden. the other three have very close ties to mullah omar. there's a lot of celebrating going on in the mullah omar household tonight, i assure you that. >> mullah omar, leader of the

taliban, still on the loose some place. we know that tony blinken, the deputy national security adviser to the president called the chair of your committee, dianne feinstein, to apologize. that's what she says. did he apologize, did anyone from the administration apologize to you as the ranking republican, ranking member of that committee? >> i got a call from a different very high level white house individual that i worked closely with on intel matters, and they did issue an apology that they didn't let us know, not 30 days in advance, but at the same time that the release was taking place, so, yes, they have apologized. >> what was their explanation, were they afraid you or somebody on their staff would leak the information, was that their concern? >> no, the statement was this individual said they just were unaware until yesterday that i had not been called, and that's

just extremely unusual, wolf. there's a list down there of a very few of us that do receive these advanced phone calls, and it's hard for me to believe that both diane and i, both of whom had objected vigorously in writing as far back as three years ago to the president, as well as to secretary clinton, about the release of these prisoners, that we were the two that failed to get the phone call. kind of interesting. >> we're being told that for whatever reason, sergeant bowe bergdahl left that base in afghanistan five years ago on his own. have you been briefed on the circumstances surrounding his disappearance? >> i have, and i've actually reviewed the file and the problem with it is, wolf, that not many people have had a lot to say about what happened, that up until the last day or two, and the information coming out of the members of his platoon is

very interesting. and it's something that is not contained in any of the files relative to the disappearance of sergeant bergdahl. we will have additional briefings on that issue, and i expect the d.o.d. will interrogate sergeant bergdahl to the point to where they think they've got sufficient information to hopefully figure out exactly what happened, and they may or may not pursue it further than that, but as of right now, it's speculation on my part to say that he did anything other than walk off, and i don't know the circumstances under which he walked off. >> have you been told, senator, that american troops were killed as a result of searching for sergeant bergdahl? >> yes. yes, that's the truly unfortunate part about it. i think that's been pretty well confirmed now, that at least four, maybe six individuals were killed during the process of

searching for him. >> so, if you had been making the decision, what would you have done with him, just left him there, or would you have made this trade? >> well, these negotiations have been going on for a long time, and the five individuals, wolf, that they asked for came directly from the taliban leadership. that's who the negotiations were with up until the last, apparently, the last few weeks, when according to the administration, and i'm just passing on what they have said, the negotiations were with the government of qatar, and, therefore, they weren't negotiating with terrorists. i don't know how stupid this administration thinks the american people are, but we're not that stupid. these were negotiations with the taliban, and the extent of those negotiations had been ongoing for a long time, and there were other options available to exchange for this prisoner. i agree with the president. i'm happy that he is coming home. we should have brought him home,

but there were a lot of other options at guantanamo outside of these five individuals, who the taliban leadership has been insisting on being released for the whole time that i'm familiar with these negotiations taking place. >> so what would you have done? >> well, i would have offered them at least somebody at a lower level, because, wolf, these guys are bad guys. one of them is suspected, two of them actually, suspected of being involved in maybe mass murdering thousands of individuals. maybe even some americans included in that. we don't know for sure. as i said earlier, two of them had direct ties with osama bin laden. very, very close personal ties. these are not the type of individuals that we need to return to the battle, and i assure you, they will be mullah omar's board of directors to carry out additional long-term terrorist attacks against america and americans. those are not the types of

individuals that you ought to bargain for. >> one final question, senator, did the president break the law? >> well, what the president did was he certainly violated the law. now, his position is that the 30-day requirement that was contained not just in one law that we passed, but three laws that we passed, the 2012 intelligence authorization bill, the 2012 defense authorization bill, and the 2014 defense authorization bill, all contained a provision that required, and it was a very lengthy and detailed provision, that the president must give congress 30 days' notice before transferring any prisoner. he violated that. there's no question about it. secretary clinton and her letter responding to senator feinstein and i acknowledged the fact that they had to give us 30 days' notice, and yet the president certainly failed to do that, and, yes, he violated the law by doing that. >> senator chambliss, thanks

very much for joining us. >> sure, glad to be with you, wolf. we're going to be continue to follow this story, including a major test for the tea party tonight after a string of some losses. could it take down one of the most senior republicans in the u.s. senate? voters are deciding that right now. plus, we have new details about the attack against donald sterling's former girlfriend, v. stiviano, as another woman now slaps sterling with a sexual harassment lawsuit. ♪

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primary elections are being held today in eight states. mississippi, where the tea party is facing one of its biggest tests, trying to unseat six-term

republican senator thad cochran. his challenger, mcdaniel, who says cochran's 36 years in the united states senate are enough. the candidates' arguments boil down to this. >> with the republican majority, we will make sure mississippi has a voice to bring more economic opportunity and growth to our state. >> senator cochran has not been the conservative we've asked him to be. mississippi is a conservative state, just doesn't fit any longer. i say all the time he went there in 1973, richard nixon was president. different times, different worries. >> how tight is this race right now, dana? >> reporter: it appears to be incredibly tight. cochran campaign source said going into today, their internal polling had the senator up by three points, but they are just

not sure that means anything, because voter turnout an deck dote tally has been late. even cochran sources admit that's not good for him, because the fervor is with the challenger, chris mcdaniels, so it's really unclear the name of the game if cochran does pull out, to get above 50%, because if neither does, there's a third party challenger that could put a wrinkle in it. neither of them does, there could be a runoff. >> remind us why the race has gotten so snanasty. >> reporter: because the stakes are so high. wolf, we have been covering the republican primaries up to this point in kentucky, in idaho, in texas, and all of them, the tea party candidate who wanted to topple the establishment republican failed to do so. this is the last chance the tea party movement has nationwide to get rid of a long-time senator. you mentioned thad cochran has been there in the senate for 36 years, more than 40 years in congress in general, and that's

why the tea party movement has poured millions and millions of dollars into this race in ads and otherwise to try to actually, you know, put their hat somewhere, hang their hat somewhere this election year, because if not here, that might be the end of it. they might have a string of losses this campaign year, but it's really fascinating to watch. thad cochran is in line to be maybe the chair of the appropriations committee and he's not backing down from the concept of seniority being a plus. he's really pushing it and it's working at least with some, ironically, democrats, who are crossing over. we saw it ourselves to vote for thad cochran, that's another strategy the cochran campaign has. but the polls close in two hours and it's really nail biting. >> we'll stay in close touch with you, get the results. dana, thanks very much. just ahead, donald sterling's former girlfriend tries to identify the man who attacked her and new trouble for

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new developments in the drama surrounding donald sterling. brian todd is tracking them for us. what's the latest, brian? >> wolf, new allegations tonight against sterling. they allege harassment, racial insult toward a woman he had a

long-time relationship with. sterling's side is coming back hard saying this is just an opportunistic lawsuit. donald sterling faces yet another set of accusations from yet another alleged former girlfriend. in a new lawsuit, this woman says she was suggest to sexual harassment and racial taunts from sterling. king says she worked for sterling twice. the first time, she says, she had a romantic relationship with him that lasted for about six years. in the suit, sterling is quoted talking about king's former husband, who's african-american, how could you be married to a black man, sterling's accused of saying. why would you bring black people out of the world? i want to take you out of the black world and put you into the white world. >> when she protested the racial remarks and sexual harassment, we allege that's when she was terminated. >> the lawsuit says, despite those allegations, king came back to work for sterling's foundation for a second time, saying she at the time believed v. stiviano, the woman now at the center of the clippers'

controversy, was sterling's girlfriend. because of that, she felt comfortable he wouldn't pursue another relationship with her. that's when she says the harassment began, saying sterling dangled money only if she would have sex with him and get angry with her when he would not become aroused. sterling's attorney denied the allegations, saying it's baseless and ridiculous, she was never employed by donald sterling. her claim was obviously prompted by opportunistic motives. >> he's a guy who demands what he wants and has a way to pressure people to provide exactly what he's looking for, and the suggestion that he would leave her alone because he had somebody else he was also having sex with, i think a jury would find hard to buy. >> cnn is learning new details, a new york police official familiar with the investigation tells cnn the incident started sunday night when a group sitting near stiviano at a manhattan restaurant called her a prostitute, when one of them put a cell phone in her face and tried to take a picture,

stiviano knocked it out of his hands. sources say the group followed stiviano out on to the street, with one man punching her in the face and another spitting on her. two witnesses nearby broke up the fight, according to our source, who says new york police have one suspect in custody and are looking for a second. we have these new pictures just into cnn, you saw them a moment ago, v. stiviano at a new york police station this afternoon, wolf? >> brian todd, thanks very much. finally tonight, very, very different story, some very exciting news. we want to welcome the newest member of our cnn family, our good friend and colleague suzanne malveaux is a new mom. there she is. that's her with her newly adopted daughter, who was born one week ago today, weighing in at five pounds, 13 ounces. we want to wish her only, only the very, very best. what a beautiful baby. please be sure to join us again tomorrow.

every week day in "the situation room." you can certainly watch us live, you can dvr the show so you won't miss a moment. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." now let's step into the "crossfire" with van jones and s.e. cupp. >> good to see you, wolf. look, president obama made a decision to get this soldier home and it's turned the republicans nuts. they have the attack machine going overtime. >> i don't know, since when did asking legitimate questions become an attack machine? the debate starts right now. tonight on "crossfire" -- president obama answers tough questions about his trade with the taliban. >> we still get an american soldier back if he's held in captivity, period, full stop. >> is bowe bergdahl a hero or a desserter? >> he walked away, he walked away. >> on the left, van jones. on the right, s.e. cupp. in the "crossfire," larry corp., who