the path. from ohio to new york this morning and airlines are playing catch up after 900 flights were canceled. another severe storm watch in effect today. let's get the very latest from meteorologist rob marciano live in olympic park in atlanta. rough night for us up here. >> reporter: it was. not just for new york city, it was a massive storm system, christine. yesterday morning at this time we said the atmosphere was primed to explode and mother nature certainly took the cue yesterday afternoon. take a look at the radar from yesterday, i mean this damaging line of storms stretched from hartford all the way back through the ohio valley in through northern texas. 1700 miles of damaging storms over 300 wind reports that caused damage and one report of a tornado up there in elmira, new york, we don't expect to see that sort of action today but some folks will. leftover storms from last night across the delmarva and mid-atlantic and today that's where the main threat will be for severe storms. also across the ohio river valley, you'll seal a threat for is heing severe storms. basically we've knocked down the heat that's been building for weeks christine. although we'll see storms today, they shouldn't be as widespread or damaging as they were yesterday thankfully. christine? >> thanks, rob. to politics now where mitt romney is doing damage control this morning. the gop presidential candidate stepping on toes his first two days in london, questioning the city's passion for the olympics and calling security for the games disconcerting. u.k. newspaper headlines ranging from mitt the twit who who invited partypopper mitt romney. and mitt falls at the first hurdle. in the united states, more of the same tone, rather than the slam dunk trip he was hoping for. joining me now, norm paulman, good morning. >> good morning, christine. >> when candidate obama went to berlin on his big international trip he was treated as a rock star. fast forward today to candidate romney, getting a different reception, headlines like mitt the twit, not a really good reception at all. team romney must be disappointed by the performance the first day out. >> the measure of mitt's visit to the olympics is not going to be about the headlines in british to brit british headlines or crowds. piers asked a question that really goes to the heart of where this is valuable to romney and the american people. he asked about his experience at the olympics and what relevance that has to running a country. and the governor's response was pretty clear. it was about the ability he had to bring a team together to turn things around. and look at the contrast between romney and obama. what team has he brought together? has it been the economy? stopping iran from getting nuclear weapon? has it been resetting russia? you've got a guy -- to the american people, not for british tabloids and crowds in europe, but the american people, will they reflect upon what mitt romney did in the olympics and somebody to turn this around -- >> and clearly that is the message that the romney campaign would like to continue to push because that is a weakness for the president, the economy. at the same time, your candidate also has to be a statesman on the global stage it seems like david cameron and boris johnson were pretty critical. >> the mayor is kind of a character and everyone will say that. but the bottom line, it's not about british tabloids -- >> hold -- >> it's about american people and the american people looking for leadership and mitt romney being at the olympics is a reminder. >> you're talking about the tabloids but the prime minister of america's most important ally, please listen. >> we're holding an olympic games in one of the busiest most bustling cities anywhere in the world. of course it's easier if you hold an olympic games in the middle of nowhere. >> i appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of mi 6 -- >> i hear there's a guy called mitt romney, who wants to know whether we're ready. he wants to know whether we're ready. are we ready? are we ready? yes, we are. >> so you hear the three pieces of sound that everyone is talking about and you heard the candidate himself talking about meeting with the head of mi 6. he criticized this white house for intelligence leaks and at the same time there are those talking about -- >> christine, please, do not attempt to put on the same level leaks about specific information about american tactics and what we did and how we did it with the conversation about meeting someone with an organization that everybody knows exists. it's not on the same parallel whatsoever. the bottom line is the brits got fired up and god bless them, they should. i have british heritage and the governor did. i don't think he knew he was more british than piers until piers told him last night. britain is a strong ally, this governor is about strengthening america's relationship with allies not undercutting them and clearly has been the problem with this president. the governor will be in poland. they had the rug pulled out from them on the missile defense. i think this trip is a good thing. he's not going to talk about foreign policy when he's across the pond. but americans reflect upon leadership and relationships with allies and reflect upon whether america has gotten stronger in the world or not and clearly iran moves forward, the russian reset is a failure and this economy is still in big trouble. >> how does he flip the script here? the british press, the british prime minister, how does he flip the script and show that statesmanship on the world stage? >> i don't think there's any script that has to be flipped. the focus will be on the athletes and great feeling there will be in britain, which they should have, tremendous feeling. mitt romney understanding that -- i think the glow and warmth from the athletes and opening ceremonies and everything, will put whatever happened in terms of headlines and british tabloids, put that aside. as the governor moves to israel, clearly there's no -- obama's ratings in israel are in single dits. the presence there will show america has to be a stronger friend. >> president obama has not been there as a president but has been as a candidate. i want to talk about governor romney has talked about in terms of success. piers asked him about this battle against successor perceived battle against success in america. e trying to attack success and trying to attack our success. that's not going to be successful. when you attack success, you have less of it. and that's what we've seen in our economy over the last three years. dividing america on who has money and who doesn't, that is not the american way. >> does he recognize the wealth divide, the wealth gap in america? is he dismissing that or the fact the middle class has been struggling? >> not at all. even asking the question does that undermine the importance of this? you didn't show his -- the governor reflecting a comment that marco rubio made when he was growing up a poor kid in miami and look at the big mansions, his parents wouldn't say take that away. they would say, maybe we can achieve that some day. that's what america -- america offers that opportunity and we should offer it for each and every kid regardless of where they come from. we should offer that to every kid and that's what romney is about. success is a good thing. i believe this president has torn that down. class warfare battle is a losing battle with the american public. you don't dismiss somebody because you've made it. if anything, you've giving them to opportunity to say this is what makes america great, every kid to be that great. let's no tear this country apart. it shouldn't be 99% against 1%, it should be 100% american. >> nice to see, norm coleman, talk to you soon again i hope. thanks. our own piers morgan will join us from london with more on his interview with mitt and an romney in case you missed it. let's get straight to zoraida sambolin. attorneys for one of jerry sandusky's victims have released two voicemail recordings they say the predator left on their client's answering machine. they have verified the authenticity of the recordings however the attorneys claiming the calls were made less than two months before the assistant coach was arrested in 2011 on child sex abuse charges. listen. >> i was just calling to see i don't know whether you had any interest in going to the penn state game this saturday. . if you could get back to me and let me know, i'd appreciate it and when you get this message, give me a call. and i'll hope to talk to you later. thanks. i love you. >> attorneys for victim number two say they intend to file a civil suit against penn state. a spokesman for the university would not comment on the voice mails but did say the school is taking the case very seriously. people in colorado are slowly beginning to piece their lives together one week after the massacre. reverend jesse jackson was comforting mourners and calls last week's tragedy an act of domestic terrorism and says we need a ban on assault weapons. yesterday crowds packed the new hope baptist church to remember micayla medek, one of 12 killed in the shooting rampage. >> i see so much grieving, it is evident we are all hurting because micayla's physical presence is no longer with us. she has filled our hearts with nothing but love. although we can not see her, she resides within each of us. >> police have taken down the crime scene tape at the apartment complex where james holmes lived. the residents are finally being allowed to move back in. police in maryland say this may be the guy who bound and kidnapped the mother of hall of fame orioles shortstop cal ripken. take a look, police say an armed gunman showed up at violet ripken's maryland home then forced her into her car and took off. the 74-year-old woman was found in the back seat of her own car with her hands tied but she was not harmed. conrad murray, the doctor convicted in michael jackson's death says he wants katherine jackson to visit him in jail. through his lawyers, he offered up that invitation to miss jackson to quote, answer any questions she might have. murray said he would be happy to meet with the mother of who he calls a very dear departed friend. twitter apologizing to users for air worldwide outage that left the site inaccessible for nearly an hour. user joked they couldn't complain on twitter that twitter was down. david smith writing, when twitter goes down, you would think i would get more done. turns out you keep checking it. >> i got so much done, i couldn't believe so much i got done. i'm taking a twitter break today, it was great. >> we can tweet about it later, thanks. all in the family, justice officials using their clout to get kids jobs. it's our get real this morning. flame on, a beatle, james bond, so much buzz around the official start of the olympic games. we're live in the host city next. it's viewer request music friday, it is free off of larry blackwell's playlist, "starting point" back in a moment. male spirit present.trong it's the priceline negotiator. >>what? >>sorry. he wants you to know about priceline's new express deals. it's a faster way to get a great hotel deal without bidding. pick one with a pool, a gym, a great guest rating. >>and save big. >>thanks negotiator. wherever you are. ya, no. he's over here. >>in the refrigerator? an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? s different but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you. let's the games begin. the stadium is ready and athletes are ready and in a few hours the 2012 summer games will officially begin. the royal family greeted the torch on the way to the stadium for opening ceremonies, a billion people around the world are expected to watch. we have coverage all over london. dan rivers covering security concerns. but start with zain covering the pomp and circumstances and a lot of hype this morning. >> reporter: hi, there, christine, so much hype. it is finally here, the suits are going to come off and the lycra is going to come on. behind me is the olympic stadium where the opening ceremonies are going to take place. 60,000 spectators will be in there. 10,000 athletes, and we're also hearing numbers as far as 4 billion people tuning in to watch this incredible epic spectacle that's been planned around the world. let me give you an idea of some of the things we're hearing. the whole theme is going to be based around shakespeare's play called the tempest, it is going to be kind of fantastical, hearing of peter pan, alice in wonder land, a showdown between harry potter and lord voldemort and daniel craig the rumor is going off to meet the queen to dispatch him on a special mission to open the olympic games, we think a man with parachute down. paul mccartney is going to be here, rocket man will be sung too and apparently christine, a few men with jets will be flying through the stadium as that song plays. a lot of hype as to what it's going to be like. very cool, you have to tune in and london has something like 5.3 million visitors just for the olympic games. all of the complaining and ticket fiascos and transport moaning, everything is being put aside because the focus is the games today and the athletes. >> is the focus the games or on british pop culture. i'm not sure. >> reporter: that too, yes. >> all right, zain, thanks. you have a front row seat. to dan, where there's still some concerns over security, dan. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely, a huge security operation. they've got twice the number of troops deployed as britain has deployed in afghanistan. talk of this being the biggest east time organization since the world war. we're giving you a slightly different perspective, this is white hall, you might see big pen down in the distance. although there are a lot of police and soldiers on the street. so far it's going very smoothly. the traffic is moving, the transport is moving. you can see down there soldiers filling in for the private security guards who were unable to make it. some of the major roads are shut. on this bus we can get through a lot of roads that are shut to normal motorists. so far the message is they are hoping and feel they've gone everything to make sure this is a safe and secure games. >> all right, dan rivers, thanks so much, dan. >> ahead on "starting point," relatives for hire. that's right, did employees at the justice department give each other's kids high level jobs and lie about it? that's in our get real. our "starting point" team heading in to talk about that, roland martin, will cane -- >> no roland martin. here's the ramones, good morning, guys. mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs g of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. welcome back. a few quick headlines for you. online attacks against the u.s. are on rise and the man in charge of cyber defense says we are unprepared to stop them. keith alexander says on a scale of 1 to 10 for cyber attack preparedness, the u.s. gets a three. a major crackdown on the synthetic drug industry. 90 people were arrested and seized 5 million packs of fake pot and 167,000 packages of bath salt and $36 million in cash. one of two new jersey state troopers, face disciplinary action resigned. the cara van was spotted at speeds topping $100. sergeant first class stepping down. >> our team this morning the starting point team for friday, ron brownstein and roland martin and will cain from theblaze.com. >> we're going to get real because it's all in the family in the halls of justice. a new report from the inspector general of the justice department says eight officials at the department of justice violated nepotism rules and tried to get children and other relatives jobs. in at least one case the inspector general found two senior officials co-loouded with each other. officials broke rules like this, a spokesman says the attorney general made it clear that breaking ethics rules like this won't be tolerated. the inspector general said it was egregious. >> it is but it is the way the world works in many ways. there's a lot of ways in which class reproduces itself and one of which is the network of contacts available to young people. i did a study talking about even the requirement for unpaid internships has an enormous class bias, you have young people from low are incomes can't afford to spend the summer working for free. >> my parents said you cannot have an unpaid ininterpretship. >> at the end it is call the hookup, whether in government or business, it's in hook-up. how many times at the family reunion or whatever can you -- hook my student up. >> bright young people around here. >> they are right, it's not shocking by any measure, we know this exists but it's particularly unseenly when it's done in the publicsphere because it's done with our tax dollars and even more unseemly it was done to the justice department, the place we suppose that justice -- this is the tool of enacting justice. >> the bigger question is education is spoesed to be a ladder of social mobility. the way it works now, reinforcing the existing structure rather than -- >> you think they should or shouldn't be allowed? >> you should be allowed to do it. whether it's public or private sector, this is the reality of business. every single one of us can tell a story of somebody coming to us trying to stay, can you get my church member, get my friend, get my family member a job where you work. >> the difference this it sounds like -- bureau stuff. >> there's a widespread common practice of hiring friends and relatives of employees for paid summer clerkships and internships keeping it all in the family. >> that's the reality of business in america, unfortunately. >> i guess justice department, business, everywhere else, journ journalism. >> yes. >> the chick-fil-a clash turning into a national brawl after the fast food chain's president spoke out against gay marriage. speaking of political fights -- >> the attacks that come by people trying to knock down my business career or my olympic experience or our success, those attacks are not going to be successful. >> mitt romney defending his business success and personal wealth. piers morgan, live from london with more on iz interview with mitt and ann romney. you're watching "starting point." 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