could be smuggled in undetected. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." it's one of the more mundane documents americans have to deal with, but for president obama, the tax return is politically charged in this, an election year. the white house released his 2011 files today along with that of the vice president, joe biden and there are some surprises in both documents. as lisa sylvester has been carefully going after these tax returns, what do you see? >> first off, the obamas, like the romneys, gave generously to charities. the president's income, which was $1.7 million in 2010 was down significantly as sales of his book dropped off, but the focus was on taxes and more specifically, rates. there are some surprises there. who was taxed at a higher rate? the president, mitt romney or the president's secretary? it might surprise you, but it's actually the president's secretary. she makes $95,000 a year. the obama administration confirms her rate is is higher than the president's 20.5. the rate he paid on the $789,674 he made last year. romney's projected rate was even lower. about 14%, yet romney's projected salary was more than $20 million last year. democratic strategist liz satterdon says the gap is an argument hurting romney. >> doesn't look good to people four years after a terrible recession where most people in this country are strugglinging to make ends meet. in my business, we call that an optics problem. >> president obama has been driving the point home with calls for congress to pass the so-called buffett rule that would increase taxes on people whose earnings top $1 million. mr. obama, who made less than that, wouldn't be included based on his 2011 return, neither would joe biden, who last year, made about $379,000, but the romney campaign is firing back. spokeswoman sandra stahl saying quote, it's no surprise with the worst job creation record in modern history that president obama would try to distract american frs the real issues with a series of side shows. romney pays a lower rate on taxes because most of his income comes from interest from investment on savings as opposed to earned income from a paycheck. steven moore says romney has to do a better job explaining why personal success shouldn't be penalized. >> i think mitt romney has to make the point, look, my money was investment. we need more of that if we're going to have a growing economy and to raise taxes, the investment people put into businesses is not a way to create jobs. >> romney is also under pressure to release his final 2011 returns, which the campaign says he will do. democrats wabt more. they want him to release tax returns going back into the last decade. now, the tax returns show generous donations from the obamas. 172,000 last year and the majority of that was donations from his childrens book to the fisher house foundation that helps military families receiving medical treatment. about 22% of their income. now, the romneys had a projected $7 million in charitable giving. about 16% of their income. joe biden and his wife posted $5500 in donations to charity. about 1.4% of their income. >> because he made almost $400,000 and only contributed $5,000. is there an explanation? why so little of his income goes to charity? >> there isn't at this point, but i think as we go forward, a lot of people are going to be looking at that and saying why not when you have 14%, 22%, when you have some of these other candidates and other members of the administration certainly donating a bit more. >> thanks very much. and just a little while ago, ann romney took center stage and zrased t addressed the national rifle association. she found herself at the center of a political fire storm when hilary rosen said ann romney, who raised five sons had quote, never worked a day in her life. hilary rosen has since apologized including here in "the situation room" yesterday, but let's take a closer listen to what mrs. romney had to say today before the nra. >> let me give a shout out to all moms that are working. and by the way, to all dads r that are working. we love all of you. you know, i often think that you're only as a parent as happy as your saddest child and you never, ever stop being a parent. our boys are grown now. they have children of their own. but it is such a wonderful opportunity for me to think about the heritage that we're leaving those children and i love the fact that when my kids were growing up, that we lived a stone's throw away from lexington green and pretty soon, on april 19th, they'll be celebrating something again in lexington, massachusetts. the shot heard around the world and how grateful we were for those patriots that had the ability to fight tyranny and how grateful we are to all of you here today. you know, i've heard recently something how women were being referred to as a special interest group. and i thought to myself, really only washington could do that. there's only one part of that phrase that's correct. women are special. we love this country. we love the people of this country. we've had an extraordinary experience going across and meeting tens of thousands of wonderful americans that are so concerned about the future of this county tru. we recognize that we are heading in in a direction that is per perilous and also, women are talking about the economy and jobs and about the legacy of debt that we're going to leave our children and we are mad about it and we're going to do something about it november with your help, we need to make sure that we keep this country strong and fighting for the right reasons. >> ann romney, the wife of mitt romney, speaking just a little while ago, introducing her husband for the nra convention. let's get reaction from the obama campaign. join i joining us from chicago, stephany cutter. thanks very much for coming in. let's get your reaction cht you want to react to what ann romney just had to say? >> sure. with one exception. there's nothing this president disagrees with. the one exception would be the perilous direction of this country. the president has put this economy, this country back on track and turned the coroner of the policies that mitt romney actually wants to go back to. but what we do agree with what ann romney said, we do respect working moms, dads, people's own choices in this economy. we do agree that women do want to talk about the economy. i guess we're just wondering when mitt romney is going to talk about women's prospects this this economy and what he's going to specifically do to increase their security. now, mitt, i mean wolf, i don't have have to remind you, because two days ago they couldn't answer the question of whether myth romney supported the lilly ledbetter act, which is a ha hallmark law across this country. it's paying equity. that if we work hard, if we do the same jobs as men, we should get the same paycheck as men. so if mitt romney can't answer the question of whether he supports lilly ledbetter, then what is he going to do for women in this economy? >> he also says that since president obama took office, of all the jobs lost, 92%, according to mitt romney, 92% of all the jobs lost since president obama took office were jobs lost by women not men. you've had a chance to review that. >> i have. as have dozens of independent fact checkers who have all said that that's not true. and that he is distorting the facts. and here's why. most of those jobs lost were when the president was just taking office before he had a chance to even implement his policies. let me tell you why those women lost their jobs cht because of policies that mitt romney wants to go back to. where wall street could write up their own rules, that hard work didn't pay and middle class was left behind. the wealthy, millionaires and billionair billionaires, were given tax cuts that were supposed to trickle down and never did. as opposed to mitt romney, the president has been working to put women back to work. in the last 25 montss, a million women have been put back to work an found jobs to help secure their family. now, there's a big difference between someone who's actually working in the economy, rebuilding it, building an economy meant to last and someone using pure rhetoric, distorted rhetoric, talking about the economy and not what he's going to go specifically to help women. >> let's talk about women. hilary rosen, a woman you know well, a cnn political strategist, a democratic strategist here, she was in "the situation room" yesterday. you were quick and other obama campaign officials, white house officials, the president, vice president themselves, you tweeted this shortly after hilary rosen said what she said about ann romney never having worked a day in her life. families must be off limits on campaigns, you tweeted, and i personally believe stay at home moms work harder than most of us do. here's the question. why were all of you so quick to throw hilary rosen under the bus? >> let me first say that she is a friend. she's apologized for that remark, but i tweeted that because i disagreed. i believe that family has to be off limits. as someone who worked for the first lady in the last campaign, i think it's very dangerous to start going after families. and i also believe that i know a lot of moms out there and a lot of moms who stay home to raise their kids. oftentim oftentimes, i i believe they work harder than i do. so those are my beliefs, but i think that the entire debate distorted the real issues in this campaign. this was sort of a faux argument yesterday. the real issue is what are we going to do to help secure women in this economy? that's what mitt romney doesn't want to talk about. they had a conference call yesterday with surrogates to hit back on this faux debate. and they had two surrogates on that conference call who voted against lilly ledbetter, so what is their strategy to put women back to work? we're waiting. the president's been clear. something else that ann romney said that women are not a special interest group. the other person who said that last week was president obama and he has done everything to ensure that women aren't a special interest group. helping them get into math and science jobs. competing with men. ensuring they have college affordability and can pay their student loans and have the things like child care and all the things that help them balance work and raising their families. that's what women need, not some faux debate. >> that debate's going to continue and i'll leave it for this, the romney campaign quickly issued a fund raising appeal, if you're a stay at home mom, the democrats have a message for you. you've never worked a day in your life. so they're going to use this as you well know and this debate will continue. stephanie cutter at twitter, thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. celebrations in north korea despite a spectacular rocket launch failure. stan grant is in the capital for us. also, for the first time, we're hearing from the brother of trayvon martin, he's speaking out about the deadly shooting. he says something doesn't sound right. and we're watching amazing live pictures coming from oklahoma. look at this. we're keeping an eye on severe weather. chad myers will be joining us next. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? 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has failed, but they are still saying they are a strong, prosperous, powerful country. what this country runs on is the personality cult and they must be able to show their people that they are invincible. that they can withstand any attacks from the outside world. just listen to this noise here. the fireworks starting to fade down now. of course, there has still been no real response to the rocket failure itself. the news agency here did respond saying they're now investigating it, but this is where we've been brought by governored here. they don't want to hear about the rocket. they want to show addlation to the leaders past and present. this just in. tornado watches in effect for the oklahoma city area. check out these amazing pictures, chad myers is at the cnn center with more of what's going on. i understand it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. >> it sure is, wolf. this is going to be a violent weekend. today, probably a few tornados, but tomorrow, there may be ten, 20, maybe 100 on the ground with a tornado outbreak. tomorrow, many of these tornados will be on the ground after d dark, so you won't be able to see them. there won't be as many spotters trying to find them either. here's the storm we're worried about now. here's oklahoma city right there. this would be edmond on up that way. here's blue castle, midwest city. very large storm right there over pocsket. the tornado, if there would be a tornado, would be back here to the northwest of chickashay. this is northwest of chickashay. this is kwtv. you can see the cloud level and the area in between the ground, we would look for the funnel to be right like that and then obviously attached to the cloud there, doing the damage on the ground. we have not seen a tornado. there are no warnings right now. there a which means some storms may rotate. a watch has five letters. the word warning has more than that. the word warning has seven letters. more letters, more important. there are not tornado warnings right now, there are watches and that is for the entire area from oklahoma city down to almost i would say ardmore and lawton. it will move in oklahoma city proper. if you are in mustang, piedmont, all the way up toward the village, you could see two to three-inch hail even if quou don't see the tornado with this, this is a very tall storm. almost 50,000 feet tall. do the math. yes, that's nine miles tall with this storm. an amazing series of events going to happen today, more severe tomorrow and there will be big tornados on the ground tomorrow. >> there are a lot of folks in oklahoma and the region watching us right now. briefly, give us one of two of the most important life saving pieces of advice. >> with the tornados that we're going to have this weekend, they may be moving 70 miles per hour. you can not outrun it. if you see it coming, get out of the car. if there's a building to get into, that's the most important thing. stay on the lowest level. most homes don't have basements. up toward nebraska, you do have basements, but in oklahoma, the ground is just literally a rock. they pour a slab, put the house on that slab. go inside of your house. most of the time, the kitchen, the bathroom in the middle of the house, still standing even after a tornado hits. that's what we want to be. that's where you want to be if you see a tornado coming to you or hear of a tornado warning for your town, today's the day to buy that noaa weather radio. >> i agree. thanks very much. we'll stay in close touch with you. a monster storm heading that way. trayvon martin's brother is speaking out to cnn cht how he felt when he learned of the shooting. and democrats as -- congressman is not trying to profit from his controversial words. all right, let's decide what to do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen... 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[ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation on medicare and social security out from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. the man who shot trayvon martin could get out of joil as early as next friday. that's when the bond hearing will be held for george zimmerman, who's facing a second degree murder charge and now, trayvon martin's brother is speaking out. sunny, what did he tell you? >> he gave me really some insight into who trayvon martin was. and to his relationship with his brother into sort of the dynamics of this family. this is a very close knit family. a family that vacationed together and two brothers who shared a room together and were really very, very close and who shared the same temperment, so it gave me and i think it will give our viewers a lot of insight into who trayvon martin was. >> and i think we have a clip, sunny, of the interview, that you did with the brother. let's play it right now. >> when you found out what happened, the details of what happened, how did you feel? >> confused. everything i heard was coming from -- perspective and it didn't sound like my brother at all. you know, my brother attacked him and did all this stuff. didn't sound like him at all. >> and how did this brother, who's obviously older than trayvon, how did he appear to you and what did he say about the whole family in the aftermath of george zimmerman being charged with second degree murder? >> he's very thoughtful, insightful yoiinsight ful young man. he is in college. the family is very sad. i did ask how his family is doing, especially his mother. it's clear the brothers were very close to their mother and javarus is very close to his mother. they're coping. there isn't a hatred there. just a profound sense of sadness. >> seems like a really nice young man and we of course send our condolences to him and his entire family. they're going through a lot, a lot of grief. sunny, thanks very much for doing that. just an important note to our viewers. the full interview with trayvon martin's brother will