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tv   Laura Coates Live  CNN  December 8, 2023 8:00pm-9:00pm PST

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to receive $1000 off your kohler walk-in bath. and take advantage of our low monthly payment financing. >> a day i of noition and a historic sentencing for families that are wait for justice. tonight on laura coates live. you know it's been two years of grief for those who were impacted by the 2021 oxford high school shooting in michigan and that pain will never go away but
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today they got the chance to at least be heard. ethan crumbling who is 15 years old when he killed four people and injured seven others was sentenced to life in prison without parole. the state doesn't have the death penalty, this is harshest penalty possible. sentence, family member after family member, virtually after victim recounted bring the court how their lives would be irreparably shattered on that day. it was their words directed directly at ethan. madison, a 17-year-old senior who didn't live to graduate high school. >> i don't wish that upon you. that would be too easy. i hope that thoughts consume you and they replay over and over in your head. the thoughts won't stop. i'm sure you heard that paraphrase before.
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i hope the screams keep you up at night. >> and the words from tate meyers dad who spoke of heartache after heartache since the lost of his just 16-year-old son. >> for the past two years our family has been outdating our way through complete hell. what you stole from us is not replaceable. but what we won't let you steal from us is a life of normalcy. and we'll find a way to get there through forgiveness and putting good in the world. >> and those from the father of 17-year-old just ting schilling who says he -- justin schilling who says he struggles most often to just get out of in bed. >> do not in any way warrant a sick chance. my son didn't get a second chance and neither should he. >> and from the father of 14-year-old hannah, who is
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mourning the memories that will never be. >> this age place you apart. this potential is irrelevant. there is clearly nothing that he could ever do to contribute to society to make up for the lives he so ruthlessly taken. >> it will be all those words words of ethan who did address the court today, who was minutes from finding out he would spend the rest of her years behind bars. >> i am the terrible person. i have lied, did not trust worthy, have hurt many people. and that's what i've done and i'm not denying it. but that's not who i plan to do. whatever sentence it is i do plan to be better than i am.
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>> i want to bring in megan and chad gregory. they are the parents of oxford high school shooting survivor keegan gregory. thank you all for being here. what an emotionally charged day i'm sure for everyone in the community. it happens to be nationwide as well as we were all tuning in to see this sentencing today. if i can begin with you megan. eethan crumbly now has become te first person to receive live without the possibility of parole. i'm wondering does this sentence bring you closure, do you have a reaction to what this feels like tonight? >> i don't think closure would be a right word. i'm not sure closure will ever happen especially for the poor families. for our second, it gives us a
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little bit of a sigh of relief. but i'm not sure that we could ever feel completely -- complete closure until our kids were safe, and i don't know how you even explain it. if if our kids were, what's the right word? >> whole again. >> whole again. be the same. we're is changed. all of the kids in the community are forever changed. i think it's a hard thing to swallow for most people people. most people can't even understand it until you go through it. it is a sigh of relief that we won't have to face him anywhere ever again. >> i'm so glad you said that boat of you. because even though your child is a survivor, i feel uncomfortable as a mother, describing your child that way
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because it diminishes people to understand the depth of emotion, to understand the ongoing journey that the community is facing. the idea that what comes next, i will mention one thing he said, i was really chad leading in to what ethan crumbbly could have said, at the sentencing. and i want to play for you his message to the parents of the victims. listen to this. >> any sentence that they ask for, i ask that we do impose it on me because i want them to be happy. and i want them to feel secure. and safe. i do not want them to worry another day. so i really am sorry what i've done, i've taken it on, i cannot give it back but i can try my best in the future to help other people and that is what i will do. >> so chad obviously there are more than the four victims who
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lost their livers. the community forever touched. there are some feeling a deep loss of safety. there are those that cannot sleep. there are those who are still battling with what they saw and the trauma of all of it. in addition to these four shooting victims what do you say in response to the message that he conveyed today? >> i think first thing is, it's too soon for many of us to forgive. although some made the message of, they will seek forgiveness for themselves but not for the shooter. i think the no is that trauma does not respect time. and so it doesn't matter that we were in this place two years later and he decides now he's going to say i'm sorry. the trauma is very real. and it takes you back to that single day, and we don't get out of it just because he goes to life in prison without parole.
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so i feel for what he did say. but i think it falls on deaf ears at this point. and it's a means to an end to get him processed through the system. and now it's on to the parents and the school district. this isn't our end. >> to that point, absolutely. it's the beginning in some respects of the next process here, and then that does include as chad pointed out, it does include the criminal prosecution of this person's parents. there is an ongoing litigation in the appeal process about the school district as well. you representing some of the families, and survivors, trying to hold the school district and some of the employees accountable for failing to act when the signs appear to be clear that this student then student, was violent, was dangerous, where does all of that stand now in terms of litigation? >> well as always you're spot-on.
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you know exactly. we have appeal in the state court action for the michigan court of appeals. we have an appeal in the federal portion of the lawsuit, our lawsuits, plural, many, in the sixth circuit court of appeals on various rulings, fighting governmental immunity, sovereign immunity, basically saying government you can't sue me. but what i was, the overwhelming comments, not only the defense but the the prosecutor, they all agree on one thing, even the judge, we all know the school made multiple mistakes for the purposes of today, but so for the service of the civil case yes lets do one thing at a time, the sentencing in the critical case of the -- criminal case, the shooter, and two cases, we have a long row to go, but everybody today, defense prosecutor and judge all mentioned, the school district
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admittedly accord to them, being responsible, just like their own internal investigation show they're responsible yet they are still going through with their appeals and not coming forward and saying we give up, we're sorry, our own investigation showed we screwed up, nothing. >> what was your reaction that the parents were criminally charged? >> we believe there needs to be accountability there. what we're not trying to do is look inside the home and judge on what happened or didn't happen. the fact is they bought their child a weapon. did not put it in a secure, safe storage environment. he had access. the fact is, parents need to be held accountable if they do not keep their firearms safe. >> megan and chad gregory, van johnson, thank you all for your words tonight, so telling, thank you all so much. >> thank you.
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>> join me now senior crime justified shimon corporez. of course, so many driem scenes particularly, uvalde. life without the possibility of parole, what is that like for a community to try to grapple with this? >> it's tough. look, i was in that community in the days after this shooting. and it's a small community. and everyone there, everyone there was so affected by what happened there. and the other thing what made it so difficult was that there was warning signs. there were things that could have been done to prevent this. and no one took action. so that is what also frustrated so many there. but i think for the community and any community when you are able to come into a courthouse
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and do those victim impact statements, it's very powerful. it's a very important part of our justice system for the victims to come in and tell a judge how they feel, how they were terrorized by what happened to -- and so in that sense i think it does give them some closure, that they can come in there and speak about how they feel. but, you know, as you heard the family there say, they will never be whole again and they still have a long road ahead. because you have the parents and then obviously you have the fight for justice and accountability on the part of the school. >> it's so true in thinking about the people w we just spoke to, their child survived but those who did not, those who are speaking today were not the victims of those who passed, but the victims impacted by the actions and conduct of this particular defendant, now convicted defendant.
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it is something we need to focus on and also before the judge. before the sentencing the judge was unforgiving at best when he recounted the horrific acts that took place, how he planned, how he prepared for this rampage. listen to this. >> the court apologies to the victim for bluntness. but just the chilling at point blank range after having him get down on his knees in front of another student. >> i mean when you hear this -- ah. >> i was kind of surprised and you know hearing a judge go into such graphic detail. but i think given the age of this defendant, 17, 15 account, and the fact that he -- 15 at the time, and the fact that he was going to be sentencing him to life in prison, he needed to set the record and needed to explain why he was doing something that has never been done before.
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think about this. this was a 15-year-old kid at the time, 17 now who will never see the light of day again, will spend the rest of his life behind bars. and so i think that's probably why the judge did it with the understanding that it was potentially going to ef affect these victims. this is something they will live with forever. the sights, the smells, the noises, the sounds of gun fire, seeing their friends dying. this is something this community will live with forever. so for the judge to do that, i mean he was trying to be sensitive. but, you know, i was taken a little aback by that but it was necessary perhaps given what he was about to do. >> well there is the expectation we are talking about a minor that some level of leniency that was always be afforded and extended. i think he wanted to impress bon that courtroom, that defendant, that that leniency, would not be
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shown to the victims who had been killed that day. shimon, this novelty for the first time of this sentence, shimon thank you so much. >> thanks for having me laura. >> this just in. the supreme court of the state of texas trailer blocking a woman's emergency abortion. kate cox is 20 weeks pregnant and she says her unborn baby has a g genetic conditioning, has a little chance of surviving. the medical information procedured by her own -- provided by her own doctor. the state attorney general threatened legal consequences and the texas supreme court to intervene in this matter. now her future and her ability to obtain her medically
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important as she says emergency abortion is up in the air. we're going to stay on this story and bring you the very latest. up next, trump is going to testify, expected to testify i should say in court on monday. never know what could happen or will even go off the rails. a former trump attorney joins me next to weigh in.
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>> so we're like two days away right after the weekend of the former president possibly taking the stand again in his new york civil fraud trial. he has turned his trips to the courthouse as you know into well campaign stops. he has been blasting the new york attorney general. will it be different on monday,
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what can we expect? we'll speak to the former trump attorney, tim prolatore. do you think it's a good idea for him to testify on monday? it's in his case, the defense case. >> the case has evolved into such a circus at this point i don't know that it's going to make much difference. summary judgment has been decided. it is a bench damages trial too. so really at this point i think the lawyers are more working on building points for an appeal than expecting anything to actually happen. >> because of course if you don't raise it at the trial level you cannot raise it on appeal. you don't get to have a first bite at the apple on appeal. but you know when you think about it, as you just said, the judge has already decided that the fraud has occurred.
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now, the custodian of the trump empire in new york, his attorneys have been saying he will do so against their advice. i was surprised about that statement weren't you? >> i was. look as lawyers we sometimes disagree with our clients but we don't go out and tell the whole world that i advised my client of something and he disagreed. >> that's not about about the -- >> that's about the ethical rules. you can't talk about privileged communications, when you provide advice to the client that is between you and the client not between you and the cameras that's insane. >> we talk about a trial of showmanship, if they're a jury they would go hold on, this is a bench trial that's already been pretty at odds with them. how will it impact the ultimate decision here? >> not at all. it's not going to make any
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difference to the judge at trial. it could have impact positive or negative on appeal. yes he could build more points for the appeal but he could also end up hurting himself for the appeal. >> and the other cases around him, right? you can imagine all the prosecutors in other jurisdictions who will be salivating of any crack of the door opening, please talk more about what i can bring in because it will come in possibly in their own trials right? >> sure. i think in this case because it is so untethered as in the other cases there is not going to be as much for that there but if there's any testimony he's going to do in these other cases it's going to have to look vast reply different than this. >> i hope it will stay on track or be derailed, tim proletore, thank you for your insight. it is friday again and it has been wowed all the across the country. and things only to get wilder
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333 days that's election day who's counting so who stood out in this amazing week, joining me is comedian matt friend, matt trump gave us a little bit of a preview -- >> yes he did. ask the question, go ahead and do it honey, please do, ask the question. >> oh my god, the question i guess, for mr. president is the whole dictator for the day plan, you unveiled for just a day how is that going to work with the law? >> i will tell you what, i will be a dictator for one day, i knew mews mussolini for he was a great guy. el capone, based on me, the bran dough part, based on mow, america needs it, thank you, very much, china.
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>> the fact that it comes on that soon. i closed my eyes nor a second and squinted, i'm maybe talking to him. chris christie i had quite a battle with vivek ramaswamy, who won that battle? >> chris christie used the exact tactic in marco rubio in 2020, point out your america can we all just take a shot every time ron desantis tells us, let me tell you buckle up, there's going to be a new sheriff in town, i think you all know it. ron desantis won't even admit that his heels don't fit, also laura what's up with republicans holding up signs in the middle of debates?
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>> on a white legal pad? >> desantis holds up the poop map of san francisco and this time, nikki haley bad site, i don't know what's bad now. >> it is receipt throw is in. this is called handwriting young voters, use this to do this. maybe a yellow legal pad, little bit of color in the world, matt i don't know why you do this every week, but my hands hurt at the end of the conversation. >> kevin if you are looking for any advice just book a cameo from george santos, i'm sure he will give you a lot of input. >> matt friend, make a couple of enemies and make us laugh in the process, thank you so much. >> thank you so much, cnn, good night everybody, i appreciate that, thank you. >> there's something wrong with you. coming up: cnn's presentation of hb ofort's overtime with bill
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maura. maher.
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>> now let's turn it over to our trends at hbo because every try after real time with bill maher, bill and his friends answer questions, here is overtie with bill maher. >> okay, we're here on cnn with the co-author of the book, greg luchenna, senior political analyst and special correspondent for cbs news hour,
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you are off the cnn panel right? this is not new to you. what does the panel think of choosing taylor swift as "time" magazine person of the year? >> 100% for it. she totally deserves it. i'm not kidding! [applause] >> no, i mine yes yes, who can argue? >> but the cat should get credit. >> it's a phenomenal year. i mean we have not seen a year like that in show business, maybe ever. what are the panel's thoughts on hunter biden being indicted? [ laughter ] >> it does show quag equal justice under law exists. the president's son is going to get busted for evading taxes, a moment of grief. he has to owe gay the law, no
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matter whose son he is. [applause] >> it does really point out that one side does consider the law a little more seriously than the other. and the fact that they kind of compare it to trump like hunter biden is not our hero. (laughing). >> okay. what kind of interference can we expect from russia as the 2024 election heats up? >> none needed. [ laughter ] [applause] >> but actually, there's a story that just came out yesterday in the u.k. that u.s. was involved as well that russia was doing cyber hacking with the goal of disrupting their election but eroding democracy it itself. that's the stakes, you've discussed that, now you have seen trump losing no opportunity
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to praise xi, the man loves dictators, only because people are going to want those autoaccuratelyic dictators, putten us on the path to decline. >> flattering ourselves as opposed to sitting back to watch. there was of course the misinformation campaign on fox and twitter making us getting outraged under rowe and fight but that feels like it's taken on an gang organic life of itsef now. rise up against their leaders and everybody say it's a conspiracy. russia would like to interfere. >> they are. >> but i wonder these days whether they need to. this election isn't looking too tight. >> in cancelling we talk about what experts have done to undermine their own creativity
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in the world as well, in russia they complement themselves in the worst way. >> what did the panel think of vivek ramaswamy's performance at the debate this week? >> i had to watch that? did you watch that? >> i did. >> it's not on the test, right? you didn't see it. >> in one answer he managed to connect every conspiracy theory from the 21st century. from 9/11 -- >> that's true. >> it was sort of a dog whistle for the folks from the right, 9/11 was an inside job, saying there was a democratic party platform and to say and to repeat 2020 election lies which are now a litmus test within the party. that symbolizes everything, disqualifying, pandering, he's done. [applause] >> i think. >> also -- >> i think it also though really
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speaks to a level of december ration. you have to be pretty -- desperation. you have to be linking more and more conspiracy theories together. there has to be a limit. once you have too many then you really look like you're losing. >> a working pizza gate. >> right. >> well he did with the chris christie joke. >> he did? >> he worked in pizza. didn't he say something? [applause] >> he made a fat joke of chris christie. i tried to like this guy. had him on my podcast, had him on miss show, he is a personable guy. youth shows itself. he kept saying it is time for a new generation which they all say when the young guy comes on. this shows it's not. this generation -- >> not that guy. >> not that guy. because it just showed, you know, come back, my advice to
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him, stop. just stop it. go away. [applause] >> come back. he's 38 years old. come back in ten or 20 years and say oh yeah, you know what, i can't believe i did what i did when i was 38 because we can all relate to that! [applause] >> run for office, not just straight for president because you want to get famous because your idiocy is showing. >> it is so performative, i get it. the republican party likes dicks, it does but with trump it's authentic. >> now you're kind of complimenting him. he's not really a dick but he's trying to be playing one. >> he is playing one. exactly it is worse. it is almost worse. trump can't help being a dick. this guy is playing one. [applause] >> and so i must say, a number of indian americans of mine i
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know who are friends, they say dick please say he's not representing us, but there's nikki hea haley, could i agree h everything she says, can oi live under her, i don't know. [applause] >> what's going to happen between iowa and new hampshire, i don't know. someone who has not tried to overturn our democracy. [applause] >> okay, jane, dublin is your home town? >> well, new york city. i come from northern ireland, just north of the border. >> oh northern ireland. >> it's complex. >> oh i know. the rights in dublin a sign that extremist politics are gaining a foothold in ireland. i read it but you have to explain better than that.
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>> it's pretty wild. ireland, i had to reread the story several times. >> it was about musk wasn't it? >> it's a fomenting of a sort of very, very tiny minority that is very loud and very violent that it basically is antiimmigration and it's all the usual populace kind of conversation. >> wasn't it something on twitter, i refuse to call it x. [applause] >> a lot of it comes down to like rumors and miss information. and -- but it's grounded and so twitter's a big part of that there. in this case. but -- >> twitter is better, isn't it? i feel like it's so much better twitter i refuse to call it x, rather than x formerly twitter. >> seems to be like a drug, that's what people used to -- >> i'm also going to call kanye, kanye. >> but the issue thing though,
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the thing that concerns me is that whenever you start having a pretty sort of violent tremendously right wing riot in ierbled, i mean this is -- ireland, this is unprecedented. >> we've had this here. >> never in ireland. it is so antithet call to everything we know about. it's ireland by popular vote legalized gay marriage. >> kind of late in the game though. when -- what year was that? >> that was 15 years ago, then years ago. >> that's kind of lately in the game. >> raise a glass to shane mcgowan, by the way. speaking of ireland. he tended to ban hate speech in ireland that got they can't seem to understand that they pass these antisemitism laws and somehow antisemitism got worse.
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you told the antisemites that they could only talk to antisellites. >> when students are not talking to each other, they can't have civil discourse, they go away. especially students on campus. make them sit down and talk, make them debate. >> this is one of the most important things that your show is doing right now is which is defining, the odds, liberalism on the left as well as the right. there is a group of common sense democrats, liberal patriots, radicals that need to start taking the conversation back. >> thanks everybody. we'll see you next week for our season finale. [cheering and applause] >> you can watch real time with bill maher on friday nights on hbo at 10 p.m. and then watch
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overtime. next. next, anderson cooper talks about his podcast where he sat down with president bibiden onon emototional convnversation a abt grgrove and loloss. grieief f and d loss
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>> hunter biden facing nine criminal charges and a new federal case against him. a proposed plea deal to resolve the case dramatically fell apart back in july and it's raising lot of questions about what it could mean for his father's reelection campaign. anderson cooper recently sat down for his podcast all there is where the president talks about the loss much his wife and daughter impacted his relationship with his sons. >> i remember riding, we were in the car, hunter was i guess five years old. six years old. and we're riding along and the top was down. in those days you could put a kid in your lap. i remember my lap -- >> i remember those days, it's crazy. >> and we stopped in at a stop
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sign and we were in the country and he looked up looked out all these cows around grazing and he said daddy, i love you more than the whole sky, the whole sky. and, you know, i get home and they could tell, too, when i was down. and they just be there. >> in your book, your last book on the back page, there is a beautiful photo of when he was eight or nine. and he's turning and he's waving to the camera and you said, somewhere, that that's the age you always see him in your mind's eye and i'm wondering is that still threw? true? >> yeah, it is. he had a smile on his face and he's waves and walking into the garden. and look, bo and hunt, to finish these other sentences, they are the closest they could possibly
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be and i think the loss of bo was a profound, profound, impact on hunter. >> cnn's anderson cooper joins me now. anderson just hearing it you can't help but sort of clutch your heart when you hear this exchange. and in the voice of president biden, the love, the loss, when he talks about his son bo and of course talking about his love for hunter as well, he shared so much with you in this podcast and i wonder, what did you take away from the story about his resilience, about his grief, and what he's going through? >> yeah, i think, you know, what really comes across in this interview is the extent to which it is his son, his daughter, his grandchildren, which have gotten him through the grief that he has experienced. i mean are from when his wife and 13 month old daughter naomi were killed in a car crash, hunter and bo were very little as well. they were badly injured.
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but his concern for them and being there for them is what pulled him through those early months of grief. and now, in the wake of the death of his son bo it's his relationship with his family members, with hunter, with his auditor ashley and the grandchildren that have become the bedrock of his life. >> it's so important thinking about the ties that bind and this connective tissue that your podcast really explores is just so heartwarming in some respects, it makes people feel less alone in what they're going through it to have the if the speak about it, to have you speak about it, to have so many people talk about the process of all of this, it's just so important. and really i think i'm already on the verge of are tears and on sunday i'm going to be co-hosting my first time heroes with you, my first time. and i think the heartfelt
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emotion that goes behind the work that they're doing, makes the world better. i hope you bring some tissues with you. what am i to expect? >> these are people who don't actually have money or resources or access to power but they saw needs in their community and like many of us think i wish i could do something about x y or z. they sometimes open up their home or whatever it is, they just go in and they start doing stuff. and sometimes they start off really small. and this is an opportunity to really have -- give them global recognition and get them resources and for everybody to be inspired by their work. >> hey thanks anderson and be sure to tune in this sunday at 8 p.m. for heros an all star tribute. here is a sneak peek of what you can expect. >> sunday on cnn. >> we provide bilingual education for migrant and refugee children at the u.s. mexico border.
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>> see the extraordinary persons world. >> in the florida keys. >> i'm going to assure that people to ghana have access to health care. >> if i see a pet need and a person who cares for them dearly. >> trauma can be a pathway for growth. >> we install child friendly reading space in the barber shop. >> we all are connected, because of the shared experience of having an incarcerated parent. >> there should be no homeless vets, period, none. i don't want to be defined as a victim of my circumstances. >> i do want to make sure that they get all the attention and love that they deserve. >> cnn heros an all-star tri tribute. on at 8 p.m, on cnn.
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>> i want to talk to you about a different kind of superhero. his name is peter park. not peter parker, just peter park. he's not old enough to vote or have a drink but he is officially holding up a law as a practicing district attorney in california. the 17-year-old, yes 17 is now the youngest person to pass impar in history. he started high school at the age of 13, completed college proficiency exam. mark says it was not easy but it was worth it. that's one way to put it.
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