Transcripts For CNN State Of The Union 20120415 : comparemel

Transcripts For CNN State Of The Union 20120415



we're following. a series of attacks across afghanistan and a deadly tornado outbreak here in the united states. we want to begin with those tornadoes that tore through the midwest and central plains overnight. authorities say at least a dozen twisters touched down across four states in the northern oklahoma town of woodward, five people including two children died from injuries related to a suspected tornado. twisters also decimated thurman, iowa where 75% of the homes were damaged or destroyed. in the nearby town, tornadoes forced the evacuation of a hospital that was damaged. dangerous as it is, there are some people who actually chase tornadoes, one of them is jeff who joins us on the phone from tulsa, oklahoma. jeff, i imagined you had a sleepless night following these tornadoes. tell us what you've seen. >> we started off yesterday early around noon in woodward, oklahoma and that's because of the collision of the draw line and the jet stream and we had, you know, high risk out for a tornado outbreak and extreme weather event has been publicized for a couple of days. we followed the storms from woodward into the 3:00, 4:00 time chased those storms to wichita. tracked them into the city of wichita where last night at 9:30 we saw a tornado. i think this is what we witnessed, 20rks 30 tornadoes over one storm. i talked to other chasers that witnessed literally 1020 large tornadoes in central and northern kansas. >> jeff, from your experience, put this on a scale for us both in terms of the numbers of tornadoes and in the force of those tornadoes. >> well, we don't have the damage assessments yet. definitely going to be on the upper scale. these are significant tornadoes. ef-3 to ef-5. do i think -- i don't think there was any ef-5s yesterday but quite a few ef-1s, 2s and 3s and we'll have to wait and see if there were any ef-4s or 5s. these storms were moving anywhere from 50 to 70 miles per hour at times with quarter to half mile watch. >> at 50 to 70 miles per hour, are these tornadoes still alive as we say? where are they headed? >> right now the storm system is now turning to what we call a squall line. you have a large squall line across a multi-state area. there's another risk from minnesota down to east texas ahead of the squall line there could be tornadoes along the squall line and damaging winds is a high probability with this system. very large scale, jet stream very powerful, a lot of strong winds. still could be tornadoes this afternoon from minnesota southward down to evident texas ahead of this cold front and squall line. >> sounds like we'll be talking to you again later in the day. thank you so much. >> thank you. now governor sam brownback of kansas. governor, i know you're in topeka getting ready to take a look at what has happened overnight in your state. but give me a thumb nail sketch of what you know now. >> 97 tornadoes touched down at various times throughout the state. about 40% of the state at one time or another had a tornado warning. the people heeded it. no fatalities that we know of as of now. there is quite a bit of damage. but god was merciful. it looks like we had made it through the initial look without a fatality. >> pretty remarkable, 97 tornadoes. to what do you attribute the fact that at the moment so far as we know there are no fatalities. some injuries, i under but no fatalities. >> i really think if people took the warnings and they took it very seriously, we had more notice on this system than you normally do. you normally are looking at a couple of hours notice. women this one had really almost had two days notice. remarkably accurate on the quality of the system as far as its ability to produce tornadoes. people took it very seriously. acted. prepared. and grace to god, really is just amazing to have that many tornadoes and hopefully looking like this right now, no fatalities. >> and when you're looking for, what are your weather forecasters telling you in terms of what's ahead or is it over? >> you know, the system still is around, the nature of it. most of it has passed through. this develops because you get a mixture of high energy and winds coming from directions that can produce the swirling. so you can get those indexes, but they do move through and this one by and large moved through. but, we're at the time of year where these systems can develop significantly and quickly and we're in tornado season. >> and what happens now as far as your concern? what's your next task? what's the task of the government? and what should people do who have perhaps had homes destroyed? >> we're doing damage assessments even now to get first light and people are flying and looking at that. we'll do damage assessments. we'll help people with debris removal. we'll see what all is needed for emergency shelters for individuals. and, you know, frankly too, just thanking, congratulate people for really acting prudently and preparing and showing that that's really the course to go when you get these tornado warnings. >> kansas governor sam brownback, a busy day ahead of you. thank so you much for taking some time. get fwux after you get your tour of state to see what happened. >> let's go now to cnn susan candiotti. she's in wichita, kansas. susan, i know it's hard to cover four states suffering from tornadoes from one spot. but tell us from your perspective what you know. >> reporter: thanks, candy. good morning. certainly the governor really made the point here, people here had much more time to prepare than they have in the past. so here in wichita, clearly this was the most populated area of all of the spots that were hit by those 97 tornadoes that ripped through this state. and i'm in the area here in wichita where probably they suffered the most damage. fortunate, again, no serious injuries. mobile home park is closed off to the public. 100 mobile homes back, there only six of them destroyed and, again, no serious injuries. nevertheless they are doing at this hour a third and a fourth check of that area to make sure that everyone is accounted for. they believe that everyone is safe back there. so now it's just a matter of making assessments now that the sun is coming up and to make sure that they find out how much damage there is throughout this particular area. we can tell you that they had a bit of a scare at the arena here in wichita last night where there was a concert for country singing star miranda lambert. they kept everybody inside. she tweeted about it this morning, wichita rocks. thanks for coming out and we all made it through the storm. back to you. >> sounds like there was some luck at least last night. susan candiotti in wichita for us. thank you. now to the other breaking news. the u.s. embassy in afghanistan in kabul is on lock down after a series of explosions in what appears to be a wave of coordinated attacks across the country. mohamed, tell us what you know. >> reporter: candy, this series of coordinated attacks began around 1:15 p.m. local. nato's assistant security force said facilities that have diplomats in it were targeted. they did provide assistance to afghan security forces initially. now they say they are happy with how afghan supreme court forces have handled these operations today. now, we also heard that the taliban has claimed responsibility for these attacks. the taliban in a text message to local journalists took responsibility for these attacks and other attacks in the eastern part of the country including a suicide attack targeting an airfield where u.s. members are based. taliban dispatched 10 of suicide bombers inside the capital today. they are claiming this as a success. nato said they don't know of any casualties. the spokesman for the u.s. embassy said u.s. embassy was put on lock down. they did hear gunfire and explosions in the area but that all u.s. embassy staff are accounted for at this hour. candy. >> thank you so much for that update. joining us now by phone from kabul is lieutenant colonel jimmy cumming, spokesman for the international assistant security force in afghanistan. thank you for joining us. what can you deed our information about what's going on there? >> there have been several attacks throughout okay but and a few of the places in afghanistan. our initial reports indicate that insurgents took up positions in unoccupied buildings outside of the green zone. the attacks as reported earlier, the u.s., german, british embassies and other afghan facilities took indirect and direct fire but, again, this is from outside the green zone. so they did not breach the green zone at all. the afghan security forces responded to the attack very quickly. we're getting unconfirmed reports they have captured a number of the attackers and possibly a planner of today's attack and actually one of the reports indicates that they captured two possible suicide bombers before they reached their targets. good news out of this today is how the afghan national security forces responded to today's attacks here in kabul. >> that was lieutenant colonel jimmy cummings. thank you so remember for being with us. we're on the phone with temple bassy, there u.s. embassy. we want to talk to ambassador kroerk. we'll have him coming up later in the hour to update us on the circumstances cane bull. monitor the breaking stories throughout this morning here on cnn. next up obama with romney with rnc chair. dry mouth is very common. a lot of people aren't really aware of it. water alone isn't a solution. dry mouth can have a profound effect. it can lead to bad breath, to tooth decay. it can lead to just general discomfort. i recommend biotene because it contains supplemental enzymes. biotene works really, really well. they make an oral rinse, a mouth spray, and toothpastes. biotene is specially formulated to make the mouth moist and to really make your mouth feel comfortable. we have patients who really love biotene and who swear by it, which to me is the best recommendation. i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. 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[ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. mitt romney still has primaries to go and a restless newt gingrich on his right but that's the least of it. he needs to preset for the fall and that means wooing those lukewarm conservatives who don't trust him emphasizing that part of his candidacy that will appeal to moderate swing voters by not going too far one way or the other. joining me now to discuss the presumptive nominee's spring and summer agenda is republican party chairman. i want to start out with something that will happen on the senate floor tomorrow and that is the so-called buffet rule that would have a minimum tax for millionaires. and i want to show you and our view ears gallop poll recently that said, talking about adults nationally, 60% favor the buffet rule, 37% are opposed. forget arguing, it doesn't help with us the debt, it doesn't do this. politically it appears that you're on the wrong side of this. >> i don't think so, candy. i think that people once they see what this is all about, and once they see what this whole strategy of barack obama is all about it's all about dividing and conquering. let's face it. listen, this is and we all know what this is. this is a shiny object that barack obama wants the country to look at which as you know if you added up every dollar of revenue that this little rule would put into place, if you took every dollar over a year, it would add up to paying for 11 hours of the federal government. so i think the bigger question is why is it that the president is using all of this time, 23 public appearances, air force one, bringing it on the floor of the senate when these same democrats haven't proposed or excuse me haven't passed a single budget in over 1100 days. i mean, come on. designee must be doing something right since 60% -- my point is of that politically you all seem to be losing this argument that there's a fairness issue here that people look back and say why shouldn't millionaires pay more in taxes? >> part of the problem here, candy, we're just not talking about millionaires, we're talking about small businesses pass through s corporations. we're talking about a president who promised that he would get the economy back on track. that he would lower unemployment below 8%. we've had 38 straight months of unemployment over 8%. the deficit he said he would cut in half. the point of this is here we are talking about one single tiny alteration of the tax code which he said he would reform completely that amounts to 11 hours. this is obama's strategy. look over here at this shiny object here. don't look at the big picture. an economy on the brink that i didn't do a thing about and made things worse. that's what this is about. >> let me just point out because democrats are very sensitive to this that the president did not himself say hey listen unemployment will stay under 8% it was his soon to be economic advisors that drew up a report. but i understand your point. >> said 6% by now. to tell truth. >> by now in that projection. >> we're talking about 11 hours of revenue. this is where we've shut down washington, d.c. to talk about 11 hours of revenue while millions of people are out of work. >> let me ask you about your presumptive candidate mitt romney, who said on friday listen i'm not going -- i need an extension on my tax returns due monday, the 17th of april. i just wonder if that's a good move for your nominee because you know the democrats are going to pound him. why not get this stuff done and put it out there. he's a wealthy man. we all pretty much know how much he'll pay in taxes and you saw how much he got hammered during the primary for not putting out his taxes. don't you think this is a bad mistake. >> talking about irony coming from the obama administration that won't talk about solyndra, will plead the fifth on the gsa debacle and now let's talk about tax returns for mitt romney. first of all, mitt romney released his 2010 tax returns. he released the estimate to the 2011 tax return. what we're talking about is an extension to file paper work. but the worse than the irony here is the tactic. the tactic of this president to talk about tax returns and a buffet rule when in reality we have bigger issues to talk about and this election won't come down to the timing of a tax return. this election will come down the state of this economy and how barack obama failed this country. >> given all the things that mitt romney has on his plate it seems to me this is an easy one. put the things out there. >> first of all, he did put out the estimate for the 2011 tax return. when you run for president, just so the viewers understand, you know this, but the type of the rigorous financial disclosure requirements when running for president are so expansive and vast that if you were to look at what john kerry, john mccain, all of these other presidential candidates -- mitt romney will do the same thing. >> let me ask you about the course of the campaign as it moves forward. we got this presumptive nominee but you have two other men still in this race, newt gingrich and ron paul. how much of a problem is this given that this season is pretty rushed now. you don't have time to sit around all summer and wait for the convention to make something official. and yet you do have folks still running against him. >> well, i mean we haven't officially declared a presumptive nominee. out of respect for ron paul and newt gingrich, obviously -- >> you haven't officially declared it but you're out there thinking it. >> sure. mitt romney a great month and he's clearly on a pathway to be presumptive nominee and we'll have a unified party when this is all said and done and the reason we'll have a unified party is no matter where unit in, republican, conservative, independent, this is not candy about the future of the republican party. i can promise you that. i think people around this country know this election is about the future of america, and we want to be able to tell people that you can work hard, you can play by the rules, and you can still live the american dream but we need to have a republican in the white house. >> republican party chairman, a busy man. come back and see us. >> thank you. >> gender politics and a sex scandal involving secret service agents up next. 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[ male announcer ] get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. joining me now is republican congresswoman kathy rogers of washington state and democratic congresswoman carolyn maloney. i want to start out with a topic i said at the end of the week enough and that's the whole, you know the mommy war, war on women. let me start with you. do you think that the republicans, we know the republicans in the form of mitt romney has a 20-point gap between women who support president obama and women who support mitt romney. what do you think is wrong that accounts for that 20-point gap? >> as the republicans are able to rally around our nominee, governor romney, i believe you're going to see that gap close. >> how? >> because the policies that governor romney is promoting. they are policies that will help women succeed in this country. and all people in this country succeed. president obama's policies are the ones that are failing, americans failing women. you saw in 2010 where the republicans won the women's vote. first time since reagan. in some ways you can say that it was american women that stood up and said president obama, we don't like your policies. and whether it's health care and the fact that women make 85% of the health care decisions, the economy, the debt, you have seen where women are really, they are rejecting the policies of president obama. >> congresswoman maloney, it's true the republicans made inroads in 2010 and what we've seen is since january where mitt romney trailed president obama among female voters by 5% it's

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