tv CNN Newsroom With Carol Costello CNN March 18, 2015 6:00am-7:01am PDT
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standing for one another. isn't that a good thing? >> love that. that is so great. i love those boys. and desiree. >> me too. >> thanks so much. time for newsroom for brianna keilar in for carol costello. >> what a sweet story. i love that you guys. >> thank you. >> you guys have a wonderful day. "newsroom" starts now. this is cnn breaking news. good morning, i'm brianna keilar in for carol costello. we begin with breaking news. new death threats against caroline kennedy. japanese police investigating. according to the associated press, the threatening phone calls are not only targeting kennedy who is the u.s. ambassador to japan, another american envoy also facing threats and the news arrives at an unsettling time. first lady michelle obama arrived this morning in tokyo. and the u.s. ambassador to south korea still nursing wounds from a knife attack just a couple weeks ago. we want to cover all of the angles and we have michelle kaczynski. she's at the white house for us.
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we have cnn's anna coren in hong kong and we have tom fuentes. how seriously is the white house treating these threats, michelle? >> reporter: we know they're treating it seriously as they have any threats concerning ambassadors over the last few months with the other incidents we've seen most recently the attack of the u.s. ambassador to south korea earlier this month, but on this case i mean it's interesting because these death threats happened by phone from an english-speaking man to the embassy in tokyo happened last month allegedly. we're only now hearing about this starting in the asian press. so the white house is not confirming these threats. neither is the national security council. neither is the u.s. embassy although we are expecting to hear something soon from the u.s. state department. these threats by this man allegedly were threatening the life of carolyn kennedy as well as a u.s. consul general also in
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japan although based in okinawa. we don't expect the threats to affect the travel of the first lady who will spend the next two days in japan, brianna. >> tom, when you look at this and you're hearing about threats, it's coming out through the media, is this something that with your law enforcement background that you would treat very seriously? >> yes, they'll treat it extremely seriously even though it was a month ago and doesn't seem to be related in any way to the visit of the first lady you know in terms of the timing. the japanese police were working on this and u.s. embassy personnel would, of course be working on it. the officers from diplomatic security regional security office and the fbi office in tokyo so the fact that this was actually leaked by apparently a japanese police official to a japanese newspaper and that that's how this got out. i should add that these kind of
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threats are very common all the time all over the world and it's just the world that we live in now that a number of these phone threats come in and i think this one, the fact that it got into the media heightens the alert for it and because of the attack in south korea last month. >> you know anna you're covering sort of the region right now. you have michelle obama right now. not just michelle obama but american officials, caroline kennedy, the u.s. ambassador to south korea, how overall are they seen in the region? do you think that we should say there may be some sort of trend or dissatisfaction with american figures or is this really not something that we should read into? >> reporter: brianna, i think it's fair to say that everyone very much on heightened alert because of what happened to the u.s. ambassador to south korea. that attack on him earlier this
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month where he was slashed by a south korean man sustaining 80 stitches to his face and arm really rattled everybody in the region and now to learn that caroline kennedy, 57-year-old woman who's been in the job for 16 months as u.s. ambassador to japan has received these death threats, i think it is a concern to officials in the region. so understandably this is being taken very seriously. our staff in tokyo obviously working the phones their contacts there, to try and gather more information. details very scarce. understand tokyo police refusing to comment. as michelle mentioned, the u.s. embassy refusing to confirm or deny the claims due to security reasons, but we are hearing that the u.s. state department will issue a statement about this. but, yeah certainly, everyone
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very much concerned about what is going on. >> we'll be waiting for that statement. tom, as you look at the threats in the region concern for u.s. ambassadors? some wondered in the case of the ambassador to south korea if perhaps he should have been better kept away or the man who ended up slashing him and appeared to have certainly a history of his beliefs, that he should have been better protected. do you think it's time to reassess the security of u.s. ambassadors abroad and specifically in this region? >> i think state department and diplomatic security are assessing those threats and, you know the interesting thing here is that it's other regions where the threats are probably much higher than here. the embassies in the middle east the embassies in north africa and some of the other places where, you know we have very active terrorist organizations operating. you know the attack in south korea was a south korean with
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you know a desire to support north korea so it was more of a local political matter. and who the person is in tokyo or japan making these threats, you know we don't know yet so we'll have to see what that's about. but threats against u.s. -- you know the ambassadors in these countries symbolize u.s. good bad, otherwise around the world. they're going to be you know receiving these threats on a regular basis. >> do you think, tom, that this at all impacts security on the first lady's trip or is this just another thing that the secret service deals with? >> well i think both. i think they would have intense security either way, but certainly it heightens the alert. the worry now isn't just whoever this person was that was making the threats, but now because this is out in the media, that the -- you know the effort of copy cats let's say. somebody else might think -- who may not have even known the
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first lady was coming to japan, who might not have nobody anything about this might think an good idea. they attempted to kill george w. bush in georgia. >> i remember that. years ago but an important example. anna michelle thanks to you. we appreciate it. now to a new security threat that's at the white house. a piece of mail apparently hiding in an envelope laced with the poison cyanide. the package was received monday at a mail sorting facility and it's worth noting that facility is not located on the grounds of the white house. it's a secret facility. and the first tests were negative for biological threats like anthrax but later chemical testing showed it was positive for cyanide. now there are even more tests underway. according to the website intercept the return address is
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tied to a man who has sent many packages to the white house since 1995. they include one package that was covered in urine and feces and another package containing miniature bottles of alcohol. we're also monitoring a breaking situation in tunisia. we're getting reports that eight people are dead after an attack near the parliament building. they confirm to cnn that a hostage situation is underway calling the attackers islamists. let's get to cnn's atika shubert. she is live from london. catch us up atika. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's brianna. we've just confirmed they're saying it is a hostage situation ongoing. eight people have been killed in the bardo national museum. that is believed to be a number of foreign tourists possibly also some locals among them. it appears that the bardo national museum may have been targeted in part because it's right next to tunisia's
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parliament building in tunis. the two buildings are connected by a hallway and courtyard. it's not clear exactly where the gunmen -- the shootings started. a number of parliamentarians were immediately evacuated from the area. at some point it does seem as though the gunman entere the national museum and appear now to still have hostages. what we understand from the local reports from the interior minister as well is that there are believed to be two gunmen both armed with ak-47s. there are reports of an explosion heard earlier in the day so it's all very fluid at the moment. the situation is still ongoing. but it looks like there are at least eight people killed in the attack and also a number of people wounded, evacuated to the nearby hospital brianna. >> still an ongoing hostage situation. we'll continue to follow this with you. atika shubert, thank you. against all odds that's how
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the israeli prime minister is describing his victory in yesterday's tight election. despite appearing to lag in the poles they show prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the likud party taking the seats. the dye owezionist alliance fell short. let's go to elise labatt live. this was a close one. it's not completely wrapped up yet, elise. >> reporter: it's not completely wrapped up but last night the prime minister was facing this election thinking he was going to lose his job. the last several days he was down in the polls. over the last 48 hours he had done a real media blitz bending towards the right. by the time the polls closed it was neck in neck too close to call. today the prime minister really seems to have a resounding victory with as many as 29 possibly 30 seats and that really gives him a lot of
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options in terms of forming a coalition. his challenger zionist camp leader isaac herzog said this morning he called prime minister netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory. take a listen. >> translator: a few minutes ago i spoke with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and congratulated him on his achievement and wished him luck but now i would like to make it clear to the israeli people the challenges are the same challenges. the problems are the same problems. nothing has changed, therefore, zippy and i will continue leading the zionist union with a force and pride and as an alternative in each and every aspect. >> well brianna, it's got to be a very bitter pill to swallow for isaac herzog. there was a real momentum that was with him. he thought maybe he would be the next leader of israel but now
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prime minister netanyahu looks like he's going to be forming a government. the problem is after this real media blitz and trying to energize the right wing base to come in and vote now he has to build a right wing coalition. that could be very difficult for him. he has to deliver on some of the extreme pledges he made to this right wing base brianna. >> key pledges there at the last minute. thank you so much for reporting from jerusalem. still to come a penn state fraternity suspended for a secret facebook page. posts allegedly showing hazing drug use, highly inappropriate pictures. so why no charges? ♪ is it the insightful strategies and analytical capabilities that make edward jones one of the biggest financial services firms in the country? or is it 13,000 financial advisors who take the time to say thank you? 'night jim.
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new reports exposing shocking behavior at universities. university of houston has suspended sigma chai. they've suspended five members of the frat and they may seek to expel any student responsible for hazing. vanderbilt university in tennessee the university is investigating swatsstikas. at penn state university the kappa delta ro fraternity could be facing criminal charges. a facebook page features pictures of women, some naked, some apparently passed out as well as incidents of hazing and drug use. the fraternity has already been suspended by this investigation is far from over. let's bring in cnn's sara ganim
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who is following this story. these are the details we're learning sara. they're terrible. women very much victimized at the university. >> reporter: that's right, brianna. more than the bad behavior we've been hearing about. this could actually be criminal. police are investigating the penn state chapter of kappa delta ro after a former member of that fraternity tipped them off that there was a secret invitation only facebook page where members were posting photos of women who were nude and appeared to be passed out but they did not know that these pictures were being posted of them. i want to show you some of these pictures. of course we have blurred them out but just so that you have an idea of what they look like. some of them in the photos they appear to be posing like this one, but in this one here you see someone who is clearly passed out. there are several photos where women are naked, appear to be asleep or passed out and these pictures of them were posted with derogatory comments from
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the fraternity members who were members of this group posted below. there's also photos police tell us of elicit drug sales. hazing-related photos where you see the bare behinds of fraternity brothers. police are trying to identify the people who were members of this group. facebook has taken down this page but police now want to know who these 144 people are and they're also asking the women who think that they might have been victimized to come forward. now something interesting here brianna. this is actually the second version of this page. a woman had found herself on this page and threatened the fraternity in the past. this is what police tell me. they took down their original page and then started over and one of the alumn thought this was too much. the fraternity was swiftly suspended for a year by penn state university. i want to tell you what penn state had to say when they were
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suspended. they issued a statement here this action is being taken in response to the chapter allegedly hosting a facebook page where highly inappropriate photos were posted of activiies that are in direct contrast to the rules of penn state. it's appalling, offensive and inconsistent with the university community's values and expectations. brianna. >> so this facebook page sara was the 2.0 they called it. >> right. >> you mentioned the first facebook page that a woman complained about because she found out there were photos on there. did she take it up with the fraternity? she didn't report it to any school official or law enforcement? >> that's right. she took it up to the fraternity. she threatened them. she said take this page down and they did. really it took one of their own. police would never have been able to see it or get into itthis
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tipster. they were a former member and were able to take screen grabs of the facebook page and then bring them to police. so now the challenge for police -- the reason i think that you don't see criminal charges at this point, a couple of things. they haven't identified the people. the police told me that some of the names on facebook the user names were actually nicknames. so they haven't identified the perpetrators. but also they're working with facebook to retrieve the evidence and save it because they only have what was grabbed in these screen shots. so they're still investigating. the reason we know about it is because of a search warrant. police issued a search warrant so they can gather all of this evidence. of course yesterday made a plea to the public and to the women who think they might be photographed and victimized by this page to come forward so that they can start to build a case and see if this really was criminal. brianna. >> sara ganim, thank you so much for giving us all the latest details on that. we want to dig deeper. i'm bringing in sam janis to
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come in. he's the editor in chief of penn state's paper. your paper's ed board wrote an opinion about the incident. this is what it said quote, sexual assault, racism hazing these behaviors aren't just limited to from fern knit tis. whenever a situation like this occurs in greek life we are quick to say it isn't solely a fraternity problem. the fact that they continue to occur in greek life in organizations that are supposed to build better men and women says something and it calls for action. so what type of action are we talking about here sam? >> i think that's kind of the question at this point. i mean you've seen these kind of greek organization incidents happen almost every semester at penn state and nationwide. i think this time it's necessary almost for the administration to come and make a stance or look further into it in some way.
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we've seen them take a step for other incidents including sexual assault where they completed a task force recommendation that took six months. maybe something like that is necessary for those kind of incidents. >> i don't want to compare apples to oranges here because it isn't the same. most recently we've seen the sae fraternity at the university of oklahoma in the news for that racist chant. this is obviously a different kind of incident here but in the case of oklahoma we saw groups protesting. we saw students speaking out. what are you hearing students saying and are you seeing any real vocal protest of this? >> i don't think we've seen any vocal protests in the same way as those other places at this point. i think people are talking about it. i think that initial shock is still in place. people are just extremely disgusted by the alleged actions of this fraternity and i think at this point most people are
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waiting to see what these investigations will come out with. >> yeah. we're really just partway through this. guys thanks so much. thanks to both of you. still to come the race for the white house is taking shape. we know that hillary clinton is the democratic front-runner but a new poll reveals who has the best chance of challenging her from the gop.
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the u.s. this is the first stop for them in the four-day trip. the couple visiting the lincoln memorial. just in about half an hour. after that let the whirlwind tour begin. stops today at the beautiful mlk memorial as well as mount vernon outside of washington d.c. they've got the magna carta, the shakespeare theater. you know what that is all before afternoon tea. royal correspondent max foster is in london. they're staying pretty busy max. >> reporter: yeah afternoon tea. you have time for that wherever in the world you are. it is a busy trip. the highlight will be tomorrow when they meet president obama and joe biden at the white house. that ought to be interesting and always a highlight of these tours. what they're trying to do is emphasize these ties between the u.k. and u.s. going along and seeing the magna carta is part of that and really just sort of emphasizing that there are these great ties. prince charles is telling the media the other thing he wants
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to encourage whilst he's over there is sustainability. knowing where your food comes from. he is a genuine pioneer in organic farming on his estate. he wants to take that message to the u.s. and talk a bit about formation. working on behalf of the government to boost ties. >> yeah boosting that very special relationship as it's called. max foster you'll be watching every move. thanks max. president obama on tour today but his is a little bit more of a business trip. he's heading to cleveland to talk about middle class economics. we'll have a live report next. without lifting a finger... you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. muddle no more™.
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good morning and thanks so much for joining me. i'm brianna keilar. despite the ongoing controversy over her e-mails, hillary clinton still has a sizeable lead over possible democratic contenders at the white house. according to a new cnn orc poll out this morning democrats overwhelmingly pick clinton as their nominee. she's got nearly a 50% lead over vice president joe biden. senator elizabeth warren a distant third with 10%. it's much tighter though when you start looking at republicans who may get in this race. you have jeb bush on the top of the pack. 16%. close behind wisconsin governor
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scott walker. you have kentucky senator rand paul as well as former arkansas governor mike huckabee. today president obama travels to cleveland, ohio where he will deliver a speech on middle class economics. his visit comes one day after house republicans unveiled a new budget proposal. they aim to cut $5 trillion in government spending. they would try to balance the budget within the next decade. but according to the president, the republican strategy would hurt middle class americans. this is what he told reporters on tuesday. he said it's not a budget that reflects the future. it's not a budget that reflects growth. it's not a budget that is going to help ensure that middle class families are able to maintain security and stability and that people who are trying to get into the middle class are going to have the rungs on the ladder to get into the middle class. let's bring in now dan northrup the ceo of the city club where the president will be speaking
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in a few hours. dan, thank you so much for joining us. tell us what you're hoping to hear from the president today. >> brianna, it's great to see you. thank you so much for your interest and for inviting us. we are hoping to basically -- i mean here's the thing, he's the president and we want to hear what's on his mind. the city club of cleveland has welcomed presidents reagan and we had george h.w. bush in several times but when he was a vice president and presidential candidate and we've had clinton and george w. bush. we have a tradition of really strong engagement. and so you know whatever is on the president's mind that's what our community and our audience and our membership wants to hear about and wants to talk to him about. but the best part of the city club program for me personally is the q and a. there's always a q and a, live unscripted q and a with the audience. it's really not about what i want to hear from the president about what our members want to ask him.
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and that's going to be a very exciting part in the second half of the program. >> what do you think is on the mind of folks there in cleveland? what do you think in that q and a session they'll be asking the president? >> we have a highly engaged audience who really -- they pay a lot of attention and boy have they been paying attention over the last four or five days since we announced this on friday. and, you know i think that the economy is huge here. it's a really big issue. cleveland was out of the recession slower than most other regions and cleveland was in the recession. you know there was a recession back in 2001 that cleveland really never came out of. where the president is speaking today is the same -- virtually the same location that he spoke in 2008 just before he was elected on that sunday evening. and in the intervening years there's a brand-new convention
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center and that's somewhat symbolic of the economic growth that our city has undergone and the transformation of the city. there are cranes in the sky now where there weren't for five six, seven years so people really care deeply about the economy. they're going to be asking i'm sure about jobs about manufacturing. we're still a very strong manufacturing town. they're going to be asking about i'm sure the things that come up all the time at the city club have to do with education and the articulation of work force development needs all the way through the p 16 continuum. those are the sorts of things we talk about a lot in cleveland and in ohio. i'm sure they're likely to come up here. >> i am sure they are as well dan. he has talked about the house republican plan what he sees as a failure too invest invest in education, infrastructure research. no doubt he'll be bringing that message to cleveland.
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looking forward to seeing the q and a. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you so much brianna. have a great day. >> you, too. a once ridinges rising star in the republican party is stepping down. illinois congressman aaron schock is stepping down amid a growing scandal of questionable spending. among the accusations against schock using taxpayer money to fund lavish trips, travel that he regular documents on his instagram account. he came under fire that he decorated his office like "downton abbey." that's right, the tv show. the cost was $40,000 which he says he paid back. the biggest spending issue, it has to do with mileage reimbursements for a car that was paid for by his campaign account, namely that he received reimbursements for tens of thousands of miles that it appears he didn't drive.
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the congressman is also accused of improperly benefitting from a real estate deal with a political donor. despite huge hurdles, officials say progress has been made in the iran nuclear talks. john kerry and iran's foreign minister resuming talks in switzerland today in an effort to reach a deal. officials say negotiations over technical positions are improving but one of the biggest sticking points continues to be sanctions. the deadline for an agreement is march 31st. and still to come a close friend of dzhokhar tsarnaev tells jurors the boston bombing defendant was one of the, quote, realest people he ever met but why did he lend his gun to him? we have that next. in new york state, we're reinventing how we do business so businesses can reinvent the world. from pharmaceuticals to 3d prototyping, biotech to clean energy. whether your business is moving, expanding or just getting started... only new york offers you zero taxes
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. you're looking at live pictures that we want to bring you. let's bring those up. this is of the tunisian parliament in a museum complex there that has been evacuated. what this is according to reports eight people have been killed. we understand that from tunisian officials that two men wearing military garb opened fire in a museum near the parliament. this is the bardo national museum where these shots were fired where we understand that a hostage situation is still ongoing. you can just see the chaos here and really the concern is these people are running away from danger in the capital of tunis. so at this point this hostage situation is ongoing and we are going to certainly continue to follow this but bottom line here eight people killed. these are early reports coming in from tunisian officials and these are brand-new pictures coming in of people shocked by
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this situation. tunisia key in the region. this is the nation where the arab spring started. it's been dealing with islamist threats and we understand from tunisian officials, they say they believe that the attackers are islamists. we'll continue to follow this story and bring you details as we get them. the prosecution in the boston marathon bombing trial may rest its case against defendant dzhokhar tsarnaev as soon as next week. testimony will focus on key evidence in the fierce gun fight between the tsarnaev brothers and the police that happened three days after the marathon attack. prosecutors say the gun that was used was given to dzhokhar by this man steven silva. he took the stand for the prosecution yesterday. joining me now, we have cnn commentator mel robbins, we have hln legal analyst and criminal defense attorney joey jackson. so let's start with you, joey. yesterday the jury heard from steven silva.
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this was someone who was a very close friend of tsarnaev. he's actually in prison on drug and weapons charges. he is cooperating with prosecutors. what did jurors do you think -- how did they look at the testimony he gave? >> well in evaluating that obviously he testified in beige prison garb. you could look at that and say as skeptical minds might that you have an incentive to lie. they might say that in light of the fact that he has a plea agreement with the government for leniency. to the extent that he testifies truthfully he will get leniency on his sentence. at the same time you can make the argument that birds of a feather block together. he's a criminal. he has some intimate knowledge as to the defendant in this case. they grew up together. they went to high school together. who better to know what that defendant was thinking what was on his mind and the type of person he was than the individual who grew up with him. so you know depending on how you flip the argument brianna, you could certainly make the
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case that he's a credible witness, knows the defendant and has something compelling to tell the jury. >> this is another interesting point from this mel. silva testified that dzhokhar's brother tamerlan was very strict very opinionated. is this testimony that helps the defense's case that dzhokhar was manipulated by his older brother or do you think that the jury might simultaneously say, this is dzhokhar's friend and he's still trying to look out for him? >> you know brianna you zeroed in on the exact thing that i was thinking which is during cross examination, so you've got this friend from high school who's serving a federal sentence on heroin distribution and gun charges testify for the prosecution, but on cross examination the defense attorneys were able to get a very key piece of information out. they got this guy to admit, i would consider tsarnaev one of my best friends.
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he then went on to say that tsarnaev told him, you don't want to meet my brother. he's very strict. he's very opinionated and you're not muslim so he's going to give you grief about it. he also went on to testify that he and tsarnaev were quote, typical teenagers. well i don't think typical teenagers are serving federal sentences, but he went on to say that when they were growing up tsarnaev was a quiet kid. he was not a violent kid. that they did typical things like jumping off cliffs into the charles river and so those are key elements that you're going to see the defense hammer home later on during the sentencing phase of this case brianna. >> just something to add to that brianna, and that's this. the reality is the prosecution is going to flip that in the following way. because someone holds opinions or may be opinionated doesn't mean that that opinion should be controlling you. number two, simply because it was someone else's idea the criminal law, mel will will agree, doesn't excuse two people
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acting in concert because it was his idea not mine. finally, coercion could be used as a defense but that's not this case. there was no gun held to you know tsarnaev's head at the time that he was committing this. in fact we've all seen the video that he seems to be acting alone. >> in fact to the prosecution's side brianna and joey they're going to say, hey, several months before this happened here you've got tsarnaev asking his friend to loan him a gun with an obliterated serial number and that's the gun they used to kill shaun collier, the m.i.t. police officer. that testimony goes towards the prosecution saying he was planning this. he was getting a gun. >> guys sorry to scoot out of this. we have some breaking news. we're going to find out, i think, what the defense is going to say as we do expect this to really move on when the prosecutors may rest their case as soon as next week. mel, joey thanks to both of you. really appreciate it. we want to update you on the
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breaking news out of tunisia. we're getting reports that eight people are dead after an attack near the country's parliament building. i want to bring in cnn's atika shubert. atika, we have certainly some new pictures in. we're getting a little better sense of what the scene there is like. >> reporter: that's right. you can see in that video that's actually been coming in the panic as tourists are brought into the museum to safety. the museum surrounded now by security forces. it does appear to be an ongoing hostage situation inside although reports that some hostages have just been released in the last few minutes. what we understand is that there are two gunmen at least two gunmen armed with automatic weapons, ak-47s inside the museum complex. the museum is also attached to parliament so it's possible they came in through parliament ended up in the museum. we know from the interior ministry that at least eight people have been killed a number of them believed to be foreign tourists.
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we're trying to get the nationalities of those tourists at the moment. what we do know from the italian foreign ministry is that there were a number of italian tourists inside and some italian tourists have been injured in this attack. now in terms of who is responsible for this attack the spokesperson for the interior ministry said that the people carrying out the attack were quote, islamists. now we don't know exactly which group. we're still trying to follow the lines of investigation on that. there is however, an interesting note that the group that's an extremist group in tunisia is one of the main contributors to foreign fighters in syria and iraq. they have the most fighters fighting for isis and syria. so it's something definitely to keep watch of as this situation continues to unfold, brianna. >> you can just see in these pictures what look to be tourists who were there in this museum which, correct me if i'm wrong, is attached to parliament
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and many of them are just winded and so fearful as they're running away from the threat. so tell me atika, we believe these are pictures of the folks coming into the do you know exactly where they are and can you give a sense of where they might be running from? >> sure. the entire complex is actually a national museum where you see those pictures. it's connected to tunisia's parliament by a hallway and a courtyard. we're not quite clear yet where the shooting started. at some point when the gunfire erupting a number of tourists who were outside were ushered into the museum for safety. those are pictures you are seeing now. we know as the situation unfolded, the gunmen ended up in the museum killing at least eight people and taking a number of hostages. so right now the focus of the attack seems to be the museum.
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tunisian security has surrounded the area but particularly the museum to try to secure the safety of the hostages inside. it is still ongoing. it's still very fluid. this could move. the focus of the attack appears to be that complex between parliament and the bardo museum. >> this is a jewel there in the capital of this is a main museum in a big city. if we were to see a beautiful museum in washington, d.c. that's what we're talking about. it makes you wonder if maybe the fact that we understand from tunisian officials that these gunmen were wearing military garb if perhaps that was really key to them getting in here right? >> that's right. the reports are that they were wearing camouflage. some say they were disguised as soldiers. we don't know yet. they were wearing a camouflage uniform when they came in. we don't know if they were specifically targeting parliament or the museum. you are right.
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the museum is filled with archaeological finds. this is a part of the world that has tremendous archaeological treasures. you can see the museum there. it's a magnet for tourists. this is a particularly shocking and sad development because tunisia was considered to be a stable part of this part of north africa. it was considered to be a success story of the arab spring. it has a revolution that overthrew its autocratic leader and had a successful peaceful election. at the same time when all of that was lifted up there was this developing strain of political radical islam. it's feared that members of that extremist group might have carried out the attack. that's what's been said by the interior minister. we're waiting to see if anyone claims responsibility for this. >> and so that's one of the
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issues right? there has been tunisian playing the key role in the 2010 arab spring is really the igniter of it. the beginning of the arab spring. and tunisia has been dealing with islamist threat but it tends to be more right outside of tunis, outside of the capital. this is very much ongoing. we believe this is an ongoing hostage situation at this point. in the days and weeks to come won't the key be trying to figure out if this is a one off attack or if this is part of the broader islamist threat that tunisia is facing? >> that's exactly what investigators will be looking at. they'll be looking to see who the gunmen are attached to. are they for example, related to al qaeda and islamic group, which is a threat across the region or are they related to foreign fighters returning from syria and iraq. i don't think you can underestimate the influence of
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isis in the region. in fact there have been a number of propaganda videos put out by isis featuring tunisian fighters. this could, for example, be in response to one of those calls for action from isis. we don't know at this point. this is what investigators will be looking at. >> ongoing hostage situation there in tunis. atika shubert, thank you. we'll continue to follow this and we'll be right back. let's pin 'em to the wall. kick 'em around. kick 'em around, see what happens. bring us your need-it-done-yesterdays. your impracticals, your how-do-we-do-thats, impossibles, your what-do-we-do-nows, downright inaccessibles. bring us those things you're not sure how to pull off - and you're even less sure who to ask. because we're in the pushing- what's-possible business. the how-do-i-get-this-startup- off-the-ground business.
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woman: it's been a journey to get where i am. and i didn't get here alone. there were people who listened along the way. people who gave me options. kept me on track. and through it all my retirement never got left behind. so today, i'm prepared for anything we may want tomorrow to be. every someday needs a plan. let's talk about your old 401(k) today.
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>> my first job in 1980 it was out of a little cessna 182. i was in the plane. there was an older gentleman in front of me. he opened the door and he climbed out to hold on. as he led go i was in mass panic. i was so scared. i thought this was the stupidest thing in the world. i was holding on with a death grip. he was, like go go go. i let go and closed my eyes and a big parachute opened up and then i looked down and i was, like wow. this is pretty cool. my name is rich.
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i'm a retired firefighter from ontario, california. now i jump out of airplanes. as you get older and running into burning buildings starts getting a little more painful so i started thinking about changing gears and retiring from the fire department and starting a full-time sky diving center. most fire departments have a retirement system. when i turned age 50 after 31 years, i received a pension. it allowed us to pursue our dreams. pursue my dream. not my wife's dream. during my fireman career i was sky diving as a hobby. i realized that maybe i could turn this crazy hobby into a full-time business. and then when i retired in 2010 we started a full-time sky diving center for first timers and experienced sky divers in oceanside, california. and then we do these once a year
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exotic sky dive trips somewhere cool in the world. it just kind of snow balled. it's one of those things i just kind of -- no pun intended -- fell into. we're here in costa rica. this is one of our yearly trips. i'm way too young to be this old. i'm not going to move into some senior citizen gated community. i want to be out there jumping out of airplanes as long as i can and having fun. so it's a pretty good retirement gig. good morning. i'm brianna keilar sitting in for carol costello. thank you for joining me. we begin with breaking news. new video out of tunisia where a hostage situation is under way. at least eight people are dead. the country's interior minister called the attackers here
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