Hillary Clinton Sticking to the Campaign
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In California, trappers with fish and game have been trying track down coyotes in populated areas. So far they killed at least five of the critters. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Man, that will make you take pause. All right. Good morning again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.</s>TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the run-down. New tornado warnings go up for coastal North Carolina last hour. Daylight reveals considerable destruction from a possible twister.</s>WHITFIELD: The U.N. pulls the plug on aid operations for Myanmar. Food meant for cyclone survivors seized by the military government.</s>HARRIS: Superdelegate switch. Barack Obama wins over another one from Hillary Clinton today. Friday, May 9th. You are in the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. WHITFIELD: Shocked in the southeast. More than 20 reported tornadoes touching down in six states. Many of them hitting last night in the dark. Take a look at this latest video from Greensboro, North Carolina. Homes and businesses there damaged. Cars were tossed around and trees and power lines toppled. Officials say at least one person was killed when his truck flipped over in a storm. At least three other people were hurt. Four confirmed tornado touchdowns in Mississippi. One was extremely fierce. Slamming in the city of Tupelo with 140-mile-an- hour winds. A shopping area was destroyed as well. Several homes damaged. And hundreds of trees also came down. There are also damage reports coming out of Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama. Very widespread.</s>HARRIS: Rob Marciano and his severe weather team working a little overtime for us yesterday and today. Rob with the latest on any new tornado warnings. Good morning, Rob.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Yes, those tornado warnings, two of them, were in effect a little while ago. They have been allowed to expire. But we still have a tornado watch not depicted on this map. Because such a special situation that, you know, that the conditions were right where the tornado watch was in effect until 9:00. It was allowed to expire but there still was some mixed instability. There was still some juice in the atmosphere for the local office to say you know what, we're going to have one of our own. And that would include places like Dare Counties and Tyrrell Counties and eastern parts of North Carolina. But just another hour and we're going to be done. This stuff is all heading to the outer banks. And it will be rolling eastward fairly rapidly. As far as what's going to happen later on today, we got some action that is moving across the northeast. Flooding is definitely an issue. And there are flood watches and warnings posted. Now for southern Connecticut and parts of Long Island, this is the cell that rolled through just north of Elizabeth City, causing some problems earlier. This one had some hail with that marker. But that's weakening as it heads across Pimlico Sound. And here is where the rain is now, across parts of New York, into Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven. The threat for today, still across eastern North Carolina just for the next hour or so. Then we recharge the atmosphere here in parts of Memphis, Tennessee, Nashville. You get into Tupelo. We saw that rough weather yesterday. They could see more weather like that today. And then interesting things happen overnight tonight. A couple of jet streams. They come together over the plains. We get a little something going. We tap some moisture from the gulf. And if everything times out, we got some cold air coming in aloft. I think tomorrow could be a big for more severe weather. The storm prediction center has put out a moderate risk. That's a higher level than what we've seen today and yesterday. We are seeing tornadoes. Little Rock, east towards, again, Memphis, Tupelo, and through parts of Huntsville, Alabama. Those are going to be the areas to watch. We could see several tornadoes, I think, dropping if not this -- later on this afternoon, then tomorrow afternoon, an even better shot this time of year. So, it's the time of year, guys, you know, you just got to get through it and hope for the best here.</s>HARRIS: Yes, that says it. All right. Rob, appreciate it. Thank you.</s>MARCIANO: Thank you.</s>HARRIS: Homes and lives in shambles in the southeast this morning. The morning after. Tornadoes tearing through the region. One state taking a deadly hit.</s>HARRIS (voice-over): Nature's fury on the March. Overnight in North Carolina, an apparent tornado killed at least one person near the airport in Greensboro. And injured three more. The storms cause havoc on the roads. Flipping cars and tractor trailers. Interstate 40 had to be closed for a while. People working nearby ran for cover.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard the ceiling coming off. Water started coming from the roof. We heard a big boom. That's when it all took place. The lights went out. So, we just went for better safety. We went into the main building there. I see all of this stuff was out here in the parking lot. It was crazy, man.</s>HARRIS: The craziness started earlier on Thursday in Mississippi. Severe storms in an apparent tornado, damaging buildings, splintering homes, and fraying nerves.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We ran. I just -- we ran to try to get to safety.</s>HARRIS: From Mississippi to Alabama. There too, trees toppled, homes turned inside out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said it's here. She screamed. She said there is a tree in the house.</s>HARRIS: Marching on, through Georgia, the Carolinas. Into Virginia and Maryland. Weather not fit for man or beast.</s>HARRIS: The things we end up say when severe weather rolls through your neighborhood. Honey, there's a tree in the house.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes, that's remarkable.</s>HARRIS: There's a car in the tree. We get those i-reports.</s>WHITFIELD: It's real, very real.</s>HARRIS: Which is -- a point to remind you here. When severe weather becomes the news, we need your help in telling that story. Send us your i-report. Just go to cnn.com and click on ireport.com or you can type ireport@CNN.com into your cell phone. Send us those pictures and a description of what you are seeing. But it's always to remind to stay safe.</s>WHITFIELD: Another superdelegates. Defection from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. An Obama campaign aide confirms the switch. Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey is the third person to leave Clinton for Obama for the past 72 hours. Obama is campaigning in Oregon today ahead of the May 20th primary there. And Clinton has campaign stops in Oregon and Kentucky today. She is urging supporters to ignore the calls for her to quit. She promises to keep going. Clinton is counting on a win in Tuesday's West Virginia primary. And on the Republican side, yes, that's John McCain making pizza deliveries. Well, today he's going to be holding a press conference in New Jersey. Yesterday, that was him in New York making that delivery to a fire station. He heads to South Carolina. Then later on today.</s>HARRIS: She vows to fight on but even some of Hillary Clinton's staunchest supporters are talking about how and when her presidential bid may end. On CNN's AMERICAN MORNING, a contributor to the "Huffington Post" told us what he has heard about Clinton's plans.</s>LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, CONTRIBUTOR, "HUFFINGTON POST": Hillary Clinton does have an exit strategy, the target date, the final date, June 15th. What the senior campaign official has told me is that they will go through the final votes on June 3rd. And remember, Hillary is going to win maybe three of these elections. And Obama is going to win maybe three of these elections coming out of it. So, it's not going to look like some crazy, hopeless campaign for Hillary Clinton as she is winning elections. But they will take no more than a week to make their case to the superdelegates. And as you know, the superdelegates have absolutely no chance of moving over to Hillary Clinton in a week. And so for the Clinton's campaign to say we will only make the case for a week and then by June 15th, we will have a nominee. That is to say she will drop out. As of Wednesday, after Tuesday night's election, it's been a completely different tone to the Clinton campaign. 100 percent positive. She says nothing negative about Barack Obama. The point is to ramp down her own supporters. To let them spend a couple of weeks coming to grips with the reality that this campaign is over. Her supporters are very intense. Some of them would be very bitter about her dropping out right now. She's actually doing a huge favor to Obama as the eventual nominee, to very gradually let her supporters now how this is going to end.</s>HARRIS: Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe has said the race will be soon after the last Democratic primary on June 3rd. For more on the candidates, just go to cnnpolitics.com. Cnnpolitics.com is your source for everything political.</s>WHITFIELD: Dramatic developments in Lebanon. Hezbollah militants seize control of western Beirut after a bloody battle. Our own Cal Perry, well, he was reporting live for us yesterday from the center of that street fight. He joins us again live now. A lot quieter. So, what has the past 24 hours been like?</s>CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, I mentioned just about an hour ago, Future Television, which is owned privately by the Hariri family, it is a pro-government television station. Let me get out of the way to show you what happened to this TV station. It has been burned down. It was burned down just a few hours ago by Hezbollah militants. We're here really in the center of west Beirut which is what we have been talking about all day. Hezbollah came over this morning and really took over this area. You can see on the walls, there's a portrait of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister. Of course, he was assassinated. You could argue the fact that this country has been in political crisis since then. I want to bring in here young Hassam. He lives in this neighborhood. He is 12 years old and he witnessed what happened here. I want to ask him, Hassam, what did you see today when this building was burned down?</s>HASSAM: I saw people holding guns and jeeps full of weapons. We are not allowed to take pictures. And we are not allowed to pass, come here, because there were people standing and they didn't allow us - until we told them that we live here and then they allowed us.</s>PERRY: And you were telling me Hezbollah arrived here at the building and they made everybody leave and then they set it on fire. Is that right?</s>HASSAM: Yes. Here and then (inaudible) in the glass. They also at 4:00 came here and told them to go - to get out of the building and then they gave it to the Army.</s>PERRY: What do you think about what's happening here? How has life changed for you? And what do you think will happen?</s>HASSAM: I think that this is the beginning of a civil war. The parliament. It started between the Parliament people. They started fighting (inaudible) then came to the streets, with weapons and now this what you see.</s>PERRY: Has it been difficult traveling? It took us forever with the checkpoints. Have you had the same problem?</s>HASSAM: Somehow.</s>PERRY: So, Fredricka, I mean, you can really feel it here on the streets when you talk about whether or not there will be a compromise. Optimism is not running high when they're still burning down buildings.</s>WHITFIELD: And to hear from a 12-year-old, you know, that he see this as a start of a civil war, that really is very telling.</s>PERRY: Absolutely. And you hear that up and down this street. People think it could get worse. It will get worse. As Hassam just said it started as a war of words and now there are guns involved. Even a 12-year-old can draw those differences, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: Right. It is so sad. All right. Cal Perry, thank you so much. From Beirut.</s>HARRIS: And this story. Outrage, desperation and a shocking development in Myanmar. The United Nations suspending aid shipments to the cyclone ravaged country. The reason, it says the military government has seized desperately needed relief supplies. The U.N. says that aid could have fed 95,000 people for one day.</s>TONY BANBURY, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: I am furious. It is unacceptable. You know, for a relief worker, for a World Food Program staff member, the worst thing in the world that can happen is for disaster like this to strike. The second worst thing in the world to happen is not to be able do anything about it. And that's what's happening now.</s>HARRIS: The needs are staggering. The death toll could top 100,000. Safe food and water are scarce. And as many as a million people are homeless. Exact numbers are impossible because Myanmar's regime has blocked international aid workers and journalists. Aid suspended. Fred's exclusive interview with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon about the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. That's ahead.</s>WHITFIELD: A bumpy night whipped up by a possible tornado.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It actually came out of nowhere. All of a sudden, we've seen the lightning and we just thought it was a regular storm. And it just hit at one time out of nowhere.</s>WHITFIELD: Dangerous southern storms forecast again for today. Be alert. Stay informed in the NEWSROOM.