p.m. on the east coast, keeping them honest tonight. here we go again, the president and the republicans drawing lines in the sand over the nation's deficit. it led to the nation's debt downgrade. lines that have approval ratings at record los. president obama unveiled his long awaited dead reduction plan. a roughly $3 trillion savings plan that would help pay for his jobs plan. the president is calling for cuts to medicare and medicaid but nothing to social security. republicans say the changes to entitlement programs do not go far enough. half of the money raised in the president's plan, about $1.5 trillion would come mainly from higher taxes on the wealthiest americans. the bill is being called the warren buffett rule, the reference to warren buffett, chairman and chief executive of berkshire hathaway investment company. a billionaire who famously lives modestly in omaha, nebraska. they argues the richest americans aren't being taxed enough. he says he pays a lower rate than his secretary. he wrote about it in an op-ed in "the new york times" called "stop coddling the rich." he plans to cut and veto any legislation that cuts medicaid and medicare that doesn't raise

taxes on the wealthy. >> i will not support any plan that butts the burden on ordinary americans. i will veto any bill that does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share. this is not class warfare. it's math. >> this is not class warfare, reference to the opposition he's getting from republicans who are saying it is just that, class warfare. they're calling the president's tax proposal a cheap political gimmick. pure political play, they say, hayes runs for re-election and works to get more support from middle class voters. here's what john boehner said today of the plan. >> the president wants to talk about increased taxes. listen, i am for increased revenue to the federal government. we need revenue. but i want to get new revenue

from putting americans back to work again and back on the tax rolls. >> republicans say no tax increases on the wealthy. the president is vowing a veto if certain conditions aren't met. keeping them honest, that doesn't jik with the message the president has been sprending since july. >> during the debt ceiling debate, i had hoped to negotiate a compromise. that's what the american people are looking for, is some compromise. maybe they'll get back to washington ready to compromise. but it does require everybody being willing to make a compromise. we need to reach a compromise. common sense and compromise. compromise. compromise. compromise. compromise. you've got to be willing to compromise. >> you got to be willing to compromise said the president over and over. clearly the white house doesn't feel that has been working, so today he tacked left most likely as an opening salvo to future negotiations with republicans. one thing is clear tonight, americans are fed up.

the latest approval rating for congress is just 12% in the cbs/"new york times" poll. 12%. last month after the white house and congress worked out a plan on the debt ceiling plan, a poll found americans think that they acted like spoiled children. when they downgraded the credit rating they took issue with the fighting in washington saying the political brinksmanship of the recent months highlights what we see as america's governance and policy making becoming less stable and less selective than what we previously believed. our opinion is that elected officials remain wary of tackling the structural issues required to effectively address the rising u.s. public debt burden. let's talk about it now. joining us are chief white house correspondent jessica yellin down at the united nations in new york where the president was earlier today. all that talk about compromise from the president, why the shift in position now? >> well, after the debt deal failed, anderson, the president and his aides became convinced

that the republicans are just determined to block him at every turn and deny him any victories. this is a switch of gears in an effort to define what the president stands for heading into campaign 2012, to effectively define him and the democrats as champions of the middle class against a republican party being defined as the protecter of the wealthy. it does outline a set of principles that they'd like the supercommittee to go after, but really what you have seen is the beginning of the contours of campaign 2012, anderson. >> so basically from the white house perspective, this works on two fronts. you set the terms of the debate that you hope to have and perhaps ultimately some sort of compromise, but it's basically setting your flag in the ground. and if that doesn't work, it makes the other side look as if they're not willing to compromise, not really willing to negotiate? >> that's right. and the truth is it also has the effect of, to some extent, curtailing what the

supercommittee can do. because a number of top republican sources i spoke with today said, look, the president's proposal is dead on arrival as far as we're concerned when it gets to congress. but because he issued this veto threat, it does limit what congress can do. think about it this way. if republicans wanted to do all entitlement cuts with no tax increases, they're going to have to think again now because the president has issued this veto threat. the other piece of this is think of all these democrats that are complaining that the president seems so weak during debt negotiations offering republicans just too much in the minds of democrats. this veto threat in the minds of many democrats makes the president have something of a backbone in their view. so it does, as you say, work on multiple levels for the president, anderson. >> jessica, thanks for that. now to the raw politics of all this. listen to what house speaker boehner had to say today. >> at a time when it's spending that's out of control, giving the federal government more

money would be like giving a cocaine addict, all right, more cocaine. we've got to get spending under control 37. >> like giving a cocaine addict more cocaine, he says. they agree spending must get under control. but here's what republicans don't acknowledge. poll after poll shows most americans approve of raising taxes on the wealthy as part of a package to lower the deficit. what's more, the latest poll shows the majority, 74% support tax increases alone or a mix of tax hikes on the wealthy and spending cuts to lower the deficit. only 21% want spending cuts alone. earlier i talked about the fight ahead with roland martin and ari fleisher, press secretary to george w. bush. you can follow him on twitter @arifleischer. ari, every single poll shows that americans overwhelmingly support increasing taxes on the wealthy. the latest cnn poll shows two out of three americans approve of it. "the new york times" poll, others.

are republicans on the wrong side of this debate? >> i don't think it's that simple, anderson. people always say make somebody else do it, i don't want to. but that's not how you build a strong nation, and that's not what presidents should do. i'll give him credit for putting something specific on the table. i think he'll find that to some degree enhances the leverage in his hand. but the problem is, it only really enhances it with the left of his party. i think you'll see in the senate where democrats who are vulnerable or up for re-election, they won't come anywhere close to supporting this proposal because it's radioactive down the center and that's a big problem. >> roland, there are a lot of folks like ari saying this plan like it is now has no chance of going anywhere. so is this just about politics? >> keep in mind, when the president sat there in the debt ceiling debate and proposed changes to medicare and social security, republicans shot that down. you had a president who was trying to offer a bipartisan approach. they said no. in a republican debate, they say if you could have ten cuts to every one revenue increase, the candidate still said no thanks. so the president had to be

aggressive with this action. it makes perfect sense. cnn's own polling shows more than 60% of the people agree with what he suggested. also, the same thing, they said when it came do the bush tax cuts, don't provide tax cuts to the rich, 65% still with it. i disagree with ari when he says it won't work in the center. the fact of the matter is those are not just democrats who are responding that way. it is also independents. >> ari, you're shaking your head when he said it appeals to independents. >> yeah. it certainly doesn't appeal to independents. that's why so many democrats in those tight races don't want to come close to supporting this. mark penn, hillary clinton's pollster in the last election, he said on the record today, that barack obama is careening down the wrong path to re-election. he should be working as president, not a candidate. he should be claiming the vital center, not abandoning it. >> mark penn, we saw how well he did in giving that advice to hillary clinton in her race. you have republicans in a position who constantly say no to everything. if you're going to achieve any

kind of compromise in washington, d.c., you cannot have a gop on one side saying no, we don't care, absolutely not. they're going to shut off all options. the president has made an effort, and he's been criticized by his own party for, yes, giving up too much as you alluded to in your opening question and they still said no. he needs to be aggressive with it. we can't keep sitting here thinking the republicans will say we want everything that we want and refuse to give up anything. they have to show some willingness to compromise. thus far they've shown none. >> i talked to the head of the rnc a short time ago. i want to play something i asked him about. >> the president is carefully charting a course for his re-election campaign in 2012. i think you know it. i think a lot of listeners know it. what he's doing is setting up our country for a classic game of class warfare. >> a lot of republicans are

using that term class warfare. how do you respond? >> poll driven word, that's a poll driven phrase, anderson. that's all it is. when you hear all of a sudden the president comes out, all of them are using the exact same phrase. that's exactly what it is. but you tell me this here. the census bureau dropped the report of the ten poorest states. guess what, none of those are red states. >> do you think this is class warfare by the president? because the republicans are waging class warfare, they're just on the side of the superrich. >> it is partially class warfare and i think it is also partly heartfelt democratic ideology as a way to solve problems. that's what this proposal really does. that's where it gets most of its deficit reduction or savings from. here are the numbers worth pointing out. the top 1% of this country makes $353,000 a year. they pay 19.4% -- they made 19.4% of all the income in this country and pay 28.1% of all the income taxes. the tax burden is increasingly shifting to a smaller and

smaller sliver of people who pay it. but 47% of the country pays zero income taxes at all. both parties are culpable in getting people off the hook so nobody has an obligation to pay income taxes in this country. >> if you're sitting at home right now and you're a family of four, making $35,000 a year and you're sitting here watching wall street execs getting record bonuses after those very same people bailed them out, the last thing you want to do is sit here and hear you talk abouts you're not paying taxes. they're paying sales tax, paying against a lien tax, they're paying numerous taxes every single day. >> the fundamental problem is it's a political proposal the president made today. you can see from how happy and excited roland is it will work on the liberal left. but the president has a problem with shoring up the center, independents. that's where this proposal will fall short both substantively and politically. >> we've got to leave it there. ari fleischer, roland martin. thank you both. let us know what you think, we're on facebook, follow me on twitter, @andersoncooper.

up next, a cnn reporter caught in the crossfire in libya. >> i've been shot! >> down, down, down. >> they drove to the hospital. what happened there is incredible. we'll show it to you. sea world versus federal investigators in court today. investigators say the park willfully put its whale trainers at risk. there was a hearing today. a judge will decide if that is true or not after the death of a sea world trainer in front of a horrified crowd. let's also check in with isha sesay. dramatic new video that shows the moments just before and after that deadly crash during an air race in nevada. it happened so fast there was no time to get out of the way. the death toll has risen. we'll have the latest. that's just ahead. [ male announcer ] this...is the network.

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be found, yet his loyalists are fighting to defend his name. the very measures of success. this story is not commanding the headlines in some places that it was a couple weeks ago but the fight is still on in a very big and sometimes terrifying way. people are still fighting, still dying. reporters continue to put themselves at risk. if you want to know what this fight looks like, take a look at this extraordinary report from cnn's phil black. >> reporter: revolutionary fighters advancing through sirte. a commander sees movement in the distance. he calls for one gunman to fire. the rest of the unit joins in shooting wildly. they come under fire.

an ambulance is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. they and we are caught in the open. [ gunfire ] >> one of them is taking a pot shot at something in the distance. the moment their fighters opened up, then they returned fire. [ gunfire ]

>> cnn producer ian lee was hit. >> i've been shot. >> down, down, down. get him down. that's good. >> everybody, quickly. >> go, go, go. >> watch the left -- now get down. right side of everything. >> reporter: we start to check ian's injury. it looks like there's still a piece of shrapnel inside. you can feel it? >> yeah, i can feel it when he was moving around, i could feel it inside. >> reporter: at nearby field hospital medics help ian. while dealing with their own grief.

a colleague of these men was killed in the same attack just minutes away from where the rpg, we think, hit the ambulance that was near us. >> he was a medic. >> reporter: what was his name? >> hamid. >> reporter: how old was he? >> 27, 28. >> reporter: tell me about him. >> today he woke up me in my bed in the hospital and said, we go to the front line. we are joking that ambulance is coming here. suddenly he came to us. he's died. >> reporter: this medic was there, too. he saw his friend die, but he must keep working.

casualties keep coming. on this day alone, more than 20 revolutionary fighters are killed in the chaotic battle for sirte. >> incredible video. phil black joins us now from tripoli. phil, we saw your producer ian lee injured with a piece of shrapnel. i assume he's doing okay now, yes? >> reporter: he is doing okay. we brought him back to tripoli. he was evacuated to france. doctors there were initially concerned because the piece of shrapnel was close to the bone, it was deep. they've gone in and taken it out and he's doing okay. >> it's amazing, this all began with one basically pot shot by a rebel fighter. what happened? i mean, how did this thing just suddenly flare up? >> reporter: it's an example, i guess, of how undisciplined these guys can be, but also the nature of the environment.

those pro-gadhafi forces, as you saw, they're not giving up. they're taking advantage of this urban environment. they're concealed within buildings, and so they fire quickly with devastating effect like that, often using rpgs to cause real problem for the revolutionaries who are not professional soldiers. so they're not moving through these cities taking ground and holding on to it. instead, they are rolling in in their convoys, blasting away like that, taking casualties, but at the end of each day, they pull back to the outskirts of the city only to have to go in again the following morning and fight for the same ground once more. it is a cycle that's been going on for a few days now. it's a costly tactic. it is not giving them the quick result. >> and sirte, is gadhafi thought to be there or farther south near the nigerian border? >> it is not believed that he himself is there but given the way that these pro-gadhafi

fighters are fighting, some intercepts of radio conversations by the rebels they believe there is a high profile former regime person within the city. they're not sure who it is. it could be one of his sons still fighting their way through to try to find out. >> phil black, please be careful. our best to your crew. there's a lot of other news we're following tonight. >> renewed hope for peace talks between israel and the palestinians. benjamin netanyahu today appealed for direct peace talks with mahmoud abbas. earlier in the day abbas told the u.n. secretary-general he still intends to submit a member application for the state of palestine to the u.n. security council. negotiations between the two sides broke down a year ago. authorities in yemen cracked down on protesters in the capital sana today. leaving more than two dozen dead. the united states and the united nations offer an end to the escalating violence which

amnesty international says has left 200 people dead since february. a victory for the obama administration, the 17-year sentence given to convicted terrorist jose padilla was too lenient. he and two others were convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to murder u.s. citizens and providing money to terror groups. authorities in georgia have not yet decided to grant a clemency request for troy davis. he was convicted of killing a police officer in 1989. if the state does not intervene, davis will be put to death by lethal injection by 7:00 p.m. wednesday. a mea culpa from netflix. it apologized for the way recent price hikes were communicated and said no more increases are in the pipeline. the video rental company is splitting up its dvd by mail service from its internet streaming service. we shall see if that appeases everyone. >> we shall see.

we're going to take a minute to tell you about a project we're very excited about. facebook and time warner incorporated our parent company have announced the start of the stop bullying app. it allows everyone to make a personal commitment to stop bullying. if you want to make the pledge, you can find it on our facebook page at facebook.com/ac360. a special episode on stopping bullying starts here october 9th. coming up tonight a hearing in florida over the death of the whale trainer who was pulled into the water, drowned by a killer whale. should sea world be charged with the death of dawn brancheau. a judge hears testimony today. a trial begins in a horrifying home invasion in connecticut that left a doctor's wife and two daughters dead. [ man ] natural gas vehicles are used somewhere...

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up close tonight, a hearing started in florida today over the death of a whale trainer at sea world orlando. you may remember this woman dawn brancheau was working on a platform next to the whale tank handling a whale named tilikum in front of a live audience when the wale pulled her into the tank and killed her. the occupational safety and health administration investigated the incident and cited sea world for three safety violations, including one that accuses them of exposing employees to hazardous conditions when working with

killer whales. sea world has dismissed the allegations as unfounded and is contesting them. both sides are duking it out at this hearing, which is expected to last a week. randi kaye has more on the incident tonight involving an animal that had killed before. >> reporter: you're looking at video of sea world trainer dawn brancheau. a tourist taped this. it was just moments before the 12,000 pound killer whale called tilikum took the veteran trainer into his mouth and dove under water. brancheau sways from side to side. he follows. she splashes him with buckets of water and feeds him fish. a reward for playing along. then suddenly his behavior seemed to change. the wife of the tourist who took this video described what happened on nbc. >> he grabbed her by the head in a very hard thrust she went down. and i screamed and she screamed. then i started yelling to the other trainer because he wasn't

looking. he just took her down, he took her down. >> reporter: look closely at this video. you can see brancheau's long ponytail swinging back and forth. but it may not have looked attractive to the six-ton killer wale until she got closer. the man who trained her said she made a fatal mistake. >> she made a mistake for allowing herself to be that close to his mouth and laying down. that's a pretty vulnerable position to be in with an animal like him. so i think even if dawn was sitting here with me right now, she would tell you that that was a mistake that she made. >> reporter: remember, tilikum had killed before. in 1991 he and two other whales had dragged a trainer who had fallen into their pool under water in a park in british columbia. thad says that's why sea world was more cautious with him. trainers were not allowed to swim with tilikum. >> he's not used to people being in the water. he was laying there looking at

her. she was rubbing him down. and all of a sudden the ponytail was there. >> reporter: on this video, you can see what he's talking about. the trainer is on a shelf that slides out into the pool, laying in about four inches of water. right next to the 22 foot long orca. >> the ponytail drifted there and he probably grabbed it and pulled her in. and then went whoa, i've got her in the water. >> reporter: he says he's convinced at least in the beginning that tilikum had no idea he was doing anything wrong or hurting his trainer many. he said brancheau understandably panicked and that trauma only got the killer whale even more excited. the medical examiner said dawn brancheau likely died from multiple traumatic injuries and drowning. >> i constantly remind trainers never get totally comfortable with the animals. >> reporter: he says there's a reason these whales are called killer whales. and what they may think is a game can be fatal.

randi kaye, cnn, washington. >> joining us now is author of "death at sea world." and carol ray. sea world is fighting that willful neglect violation that osha slapped them with. from everything you know, was there willful neglect? >> i think osha has a pretty strong case here. it will be interesting to see what sea world says this week. to allow dawn to get in the water, so close to the whale, as she did, i don't think it was her fault. sea world let her do it. let's face it, someone is at fault here, probably. you can't blame a killer whale for killing somebody. it was either dawn's fault or sea world's fault. i was in court all day today,

and kelly flaherty clark said that dawn followed protocol, that this was not dawn's fault. where does that leave us? >> carol, what do you make of it? whose fault was it? >> oh, gosh, that's a great question. i couldn't agree with david kirby more when he talks about the fact that dawn was doing something that trainers had been doing with tilikum for quite a while. she was not put in a position on that day that she hadn't been in several times before. and if there was an issue with that, it should have been brought to her attention. she was a star trainer at sea world. if it had been brought to her attention that she shouldn't be doing that, i'm sure she wouldn't be doing that. >> carol, should these animals, killer whales are so big in these tanks where they basically go around in circles. should they be in captivity like this? should they be used in these shows? >> gosh, i think the only thing we've learned -- or one of the most important things we've learned from having these animals in captivity is they're

not suitable to have in captivity. regardless, though, i think whichever way you go in terms of your thoughts on whether or not these animals should be used for exploitation and entertainment, the fact is, i don't think there's a safeway to have humans interacting in close proximity with these whales. >> david, do you agree with that? >> i'm coming to that conclusion as i'm doing research on this book over the last year. and i've been to see killer whales in the wild. i've been on three different trips to the northwest. i've been up close with killer whales in the wild. i spent yesterday at sea world. i've seen the shamu show twice. it's a nice show. but there's nothing to compare a captive killer whale with a wild killer whale. anybody who has seen the two i think would agree with me. i think that these whales are so smart, so attached to their families, so wide free ranging and so acoustically oriented that when they are kept contained and confined in the small concrete pool, it is

stressful for them and the scientists that i've interviewed have testified to that fact. i also want to say that the ponytail thing, i think that needs to be revisited. because even if you look at that video, anderson, it appears that tilikum already has dawn by the arm and is slowly moving her across the water. and of course, there were eyewitnesses who testified who said that tilikum grabbed dawn by the head. there were other eyewitnesses that said he grab heard by the arm or body. now, two of those eyewitnesss were supposed to show up in court today and they failed to appear. >> we got hold of internal documents from sea world describing each whale's history and his behavioral tendency. i want to show you part of tilikum's profile. all it says about the incident that the resulted in dawn's death is 12 words, grabbed ponytail, pulled in water, held trainer under water, carried/towed trainer.

it doesn't say anything about the fact that this animal killed her. >> it's not surprising. it's ridiculous, but not surprising. unfortunately those animal profiles that you see are sugarcoated. and given that information, that information is used to give to a trainer, to make a decision about what they're going to do in their interactions with a whale. and if that is all the information that they put in that document, how is a trainer to make an educated decision about what they want to do with a whale? >> this is a huge business for them. this is not just a question of, well, we believe these whales should be seen by the public so the public can learn about them. this is a huge moneymaker for them? >> absolutely, a multibillion dollar business. they say the killer whales bring in roughly 70% or are responsible for 70% of the take at the gate and the merchandise. that's why sea world's fighting so hard. they want the whales back in the water, and having seen shows with trainers in the water and out of the water, i can understand why.

i would also like to say, a woman has died. she was somebody's wife, she was somebody's sister and daughter. and we can argue all the legal arguments and everything, but i don't think that that should be forgotten. and it is a terrible tragedy. i can understand why they don't want to have this video released to the public. you mentioned what was in the trainer's report. if you read the autopsy or now some of the actual osha memo on the attack that have been released or leaked, it was a very brutal attack. it was purposeful. he continued to ram her after she was already lifeless. >> yeah. >> this was not rough housing. this was not just a game. in my opinion, this was a killing, a tragic one. >> and someone else had died before already. >> and preventable. >> we should say we invited sea world on to express their opinion. they chose not to. david kirby, carol ray, we'll continue to check in with you. another trial begins in that horrifying home invasion in

connecticut. remember the one that destroyed a family, left a doctor's wife and two daughters dead. the doctor managed to escape. crawled to a neighbor's house. one man is already convicted. now his alleged accomplice is on trial. another death from the plane death from the reno, nevada air race. we'll look at new video. ♪ hus ♪ don't you cry ♪ soon the sun ♪ is going to shine ♪ [ male announcer ] toyota presents the prius family. ♪ walk if i want, talk if i want ♪ [ male announcer ] there's the original one... the bigger one... the smaller one... and the one that plugs in. they're all a little different, just like us. why did you buy my husband a falcon? thanks for the falcon. i didn't buy anyone a falcon. sure, you did. you saved us a lot of money on auto insurance.

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crime and punishment in connecticut. the trial of a second defendant in a gruesome triple murder case

began today. the case is heartbreaking, as heartbreaking as it is horrifying. joshua komisarjevsky is accused of killing jennifer petit and her two daughters during a home invasion in 2007. you probably remember this crime. the suspect faces a possible death sentence. his co-defendant was sentenced to death last year. both men already had long criminal histories when their paths crossed. >> reporter: a hint of violence, a disturbing prediction of what might come buried in this letter from prison. >> i need someone like you who knows a little about my past to keep me grounded in the future when my criminal demons start to wander. >> reporter: joshua komisarjevsky who is accused of killing the petits was worried about his criminal demon. days after the attack we interviewed this woman who told us she was a close friend. she shared the letter she says he sent her from prison years before. >> prison was a hard pill for me to swallow.

there isn't a day that goes by that i don't get angry. there isn't a day that goes by that i don't feel the pain of being taken from my daughter. >> reporter: he writes about his dreams of becoming a real estate developer. >> my daughter needs me and i can't accomplish my goals when i'm locked up. >> reporter: but now komisarjevsky is back behind bars on charges including sexual assault and murder. police say komisarjevsky followed mrs. hawke-petit and one of her daughters home from the grocery store in july 2007 and chose them as his next victims. if that's true and these men did kill the three family members, it doesn't fit their m.o. neither suspect has ever been arrested for murder before. though they are hardly strangers to crime. in fact, between the two of them, they've been arrested nearly 50 times. on hayes' rap sheet 27 arrests including illegal possession of a firearm, burglary and forgery. komisarjevsky's past is just as ugly. 20 arrests for burglary and larceny.

police say he sometimes used night vision goggles. both have served time in prison. but it was here at the halfway house in hartford, connecticut, where they first met. they were roommates for four months. what might have driven them to sexually assault and strangle jennifer hawke-petit and leave her two beautiful daughters to die in a fire they had set? forensic psychiatrist helen morrison has studied cases like this. >> it appears that both of them were really consumed with rage at the unfairness of their lives, so to speak. >> reporter: komisarjevsky was adopted as an infant. his grandfather was a leading russian theatrical director and the son of a princess. his grandmother a well known modern dancer. his parents, born-again christians, had trouble controlling him. his friend told us that just five days before the murders, komisarjevsky was distraught over a breakup. >> he was really depressed.

>> reporter: she said if he did kill jennifer hawke-petit and her girls, something snapped. >> he put the terror into these poor girls' hearts. he was a person that they spent their last hours in fear for their lives. and he left them to burn. >> reporter: a senseless act, not even a history of crime can explain. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> such a horrific crime. sunny hostin, legal contributor for "in session" on trutv joins me now. you were inside the courtroom. what sort of state did komisarjevsky appear to be in? >> he looks very different from the mugshot photo that most people have seen. he's much heavier now. he sort of has a buzz cut. he was very well dressed. he had a suit, a tie. he was extremely engaged, looking at all the exhibits, speaking to his attorneys, looking at the jury. a very engaged joshua komisarjevsky, much different than we saw with steven hayes.

>> it's interesting, because hayes, his defense tried to lay the blame on komisarjevsky. now they're trying to blame hayes. any chance that will be more effective than it was the last time? >> you know, i have to tell you, i was very surprised in the courtroom when i saw the blame game being played out. you're right. they're saying that komisarjevsky was not the ring leader that, in fact, he had no intent to go in and murder these women. he only had the intent to go in and break in and steal. i will tell you the jury is certainly listening. the prosecution didn't give an opening statement, which is a bit unusual. the defense opening statement wasn't long, but it was pretty effective in painting joshua komisarjevsky as an almost sympathetic character in the sense that he had sole custody of his little girl. he was working at the time. and he was really only interested in stealing. he certainly wasn't interested in murder.

so very, very different picture of komisarjevsky than i thought we were going to see based on the evidence we saw come in during the hayes trial. >> we'll continue to follow this trial because the crime was so disturbing. it's important that we get justice for the victims. sunny, appreciate you being with us. thanks very much. just ahead, dramatic new video of the deadly crash during the air race in nevada. the moments before the vintage plane plunged into the crowd causing a lot of casualties and the chaos that followed. also tonight dominique strauss-kahn breaking his silence about the sexual assault charges that cost him his job. the road is not exactly ] a place of intelligence. ♪ across the nation over 100,000 miles of highways and bridges are in disrepair. add to that, countless distractions every mile... ♪

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back to anderson in a moment. first, a 360 bulletin. the moments just before a race turned deadly at a popular air show in nevada. in an instant, a vintage plane plunged into the crowd. turning it into a disaster scene. a tenth person has died from injuries. nearly 70 others were hurt. investigators say parts of the plane's tail found in the wreckage may contain clues to what went wrong. dominique strauss-kahn has broken his silence, saying he's guilty of "moral weakness." tomorrow, the don't ask don't tell policy will be repealed. members of the military were to stay quiet about their sexual orientation.

five years after school girl in japan dropped a message into a bottle in the ocean it surfaced in kauai, hawaii. the man who caused me to giggle uncontrollably. he's not on the "ridicu-list" but get ready to change your mind about gerard depp ar due next. [ male announcer ] this...is the network. a living, breathing intelligence that is helping business rethink how to do business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ in here, machines have a voice... ♪ [ male announcer ] in here, medical history follows you...

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time for the "ridicu-list." tonight we're adding all those naysayers who thought it was strange for gerard depardieu to pee on the plane. because when the story leaked that he relieved himself in the cabin in front of all those other passengers, i put him on the ridicu-list. i gave him a 21 pun salute, the 16th of of which is referred to as giggle gate. depardieu, i know you got it, but --

sorry. sorry. this has actually never happened to me. all right. anyway, i got to the bottom of the story once for a for all. on my new daytime talk show -- check your local listings -- i interviewed the academy award nominated urinator. why did you pee on the plane? >> you want to pee, you want to make a pee and you have some -- and i said, please, madam, can i go to the toilet. she blocked the door with her foot, and she said, no, go back to your place. it's hurt me, you know? i'm not sick, i'm not a terrorist. i just want to pee. and she said no.

and i have a friend who has a bottle, and i said, i'll take the bottle. so i took the bottle and i say, i have my bottle and i pee. and it was beautiful, you know. >> did it overflow? >> the bottle is way too small. way too small. >> i don't know if it's the accent or the self-deprecating sense of humor or what, but i kind of love this guy right now. i was more embarrassed by the giggling than he was by peeing in public. when you have to go you have to go, sometimes you don't have access to a bathroom. carpe peeum. in honor of gerard, and just in case, i gave everyone in the studio audience an empty bottle that day, watch what happened next. if you were ever able to come on this show, we'll have a water bottle for you. >> this is not enough. look at mine.

>> i've seriously become a big fan. which is what they probably used to air out the plane. he's one of france's most renowned actors and he's like, oh, well, say la vie. he sums it up like this. >> i'm not a monster. i'm just a man who wants to pee. >> put that on a t-shirt. i'm just a man who wants to pee. you keep doing that thing you depardieu. i'm now a believer. to all you nay-sprayers, if you should sprinkle while you tinkle, take a cue from depardieu and laugh it off or else you're in trouble on the ridiculist. that's it for 360. tonight, what happens when a shoot from the hip writer meets the biggest maverickf