tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN May 17, 2012 10:00pm-11:00pm PDT
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♪ we have breaking news in the trayvon martin case. we have more information, brand new pieces in the puzzle of what happened on february 26, the day george zimmerman killed 17-year-old trayvon martin. now, the state of florida has released a mountain of evidence in the case, witness statement, medical record, pictures and video released this evening. we are still going through the evidence. here's what we found so far. video of trayvon martin's last moments live. this is surveillance video from the convenience store where martin bought candy and a drink just before he was shot to death by zimmerman. iced tea.
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the newly released autopsy says he died from a gunshot wound to the chest. toxicology tests found thc in martin's system, indicating marijuana use. the autopsy report lists the manner of death as homicide. zimmerman's charge was second-degree murder. he says he shot martin in self-defense telling police that martin assaulted him and his head was hit on the pavement. tonight, new photos of zimmerman from after the incident and a fire department report said he had abrasions to the forehead. he had bleeding and tenderness to the nose. and he was treated at the scene. also just released a sanford police report called a capias, a request for charges to be filed. the encounter between george zimmerman and trayvon martin was ultimately avoidable by zimmerman if he had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement or if he identified himself to martin as a concerned citizen and
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initiated dialogue in an effort to dispel each party's concern. there's no indication that trayvon martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter. also in this newly released evidence, and again, this was just released from the last couple of hours a report from the fbi which analyzed that call that zimmerman made to 911. now, there are questions about whether zimmerman used a racial slur in that call. the fbi could not determine according to the documents what the word in question was because if recording quality wasn't good enough. so there's a lot to talk about time tonight. martin savidge joins us live. what jumps out to you? >> you were talking to the 911 calls. remember, the fbi, from the federal point of view is trying to determine if there was an indkagtsd of a hate crime here. this goes back to what was the term that george zimmerman used when he was on the phone to police that night? of course, much has been made about f'ing coon which is what many people thought, that would
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taint the impression that maybe george zimmerman was acting beyond the capacity and on more than just a neighborhood watch person. the fbi analyzed that, went over and over it and basically, as you say, they came out and said they couldn't determine what was said due to the poor quality and the nature of the recording and because of other interference that was heard on the telephone. moving on. then the next part of the 911 call, these are the calls coming in from people in the complex reporting there was an altercation. remember, that huge controversy about someone was heard quite clearly, pleading for help. who was that person? well, trayvon martin's family says it was their son. george zimmerman's family says, no, it was george zimmerman. again, the fbi tried to listen. there were many voices on the tape at that time. there was a caller on the phone overlapping the background noise. again, due to poor quality and other issues they couldn't determine. they point out that stress levels play into it. both voices cob overstressed and they can't tell who it was.
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>> what else jumped out at you? >> i think what was very interesting in the capis as there. there was an issue that zimmerman was working an acting appropriately. we want to show you the pictures here of george zimmerman's hands because much has been made of a fight. trayvon martin's hands -- left hand, fourth finger did have a cut. these are george zimmerman's hands. totally clean. no appearance of that he was duking it out with anyone. so, you know, you've got the autopsy report that shows something on trayvon martin. you have this that shows george zimmerman and then you have the sanford police department that said this could have been avoided if george zimmerman had stayed in his car. you can bet the prosecution will make much of that. >> martin savidge, thank you. joining me is mark geragos and sunny hostin and larry kobe alinsky. sunny, as a former prosecutor from all of the evidence that
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you have seen, what really jumps out at you? >> you know, i don't think what the evidence is inconsistent at all, anderson, with the prosecutor's affidavit. the prosecutor made it clear that the theory of this case is that george zimmerman pursued trayvon martin, confronted trayvon martin and some sort of confrontation ensued. so i still think that the -- that all of these other issues that are being talked about today, like the marijuana in trayvon martin's blood, those are nonissues. the real issue here is still who started this confrontation? if you look at what the sanford police department wrote, they believed that this could have been avoided had george zimmerman not gotten out of his car and set this -- >> is that a big deal to you, the fact that the police report said the encounter could have been avoided if zimmerman had stayed in his car? >> no. in fact, that's probably never going to come into evidence. that's an argument, that isn't evidence. the problem with everything that
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was just released today is that it seems to undercut much of what was in that affidavit -- that probable cause affidavit who was thin to begin with. this document dump and obviously i haven't been through it, you haven't been through it yet, but what's been reported so far certainly does not help the prosecution. >> what about pot found in trayvon martin's system? do you think that will enter into the trial? >> no, i don't think that's going of the of any great moment. even though it's in the ether so to speak, most judges wouldn't let that in. it's not like it's methamphetamine or some other kind of a drug or pcp or something like that. thc in a -- they have so much trouble determining what -- at what levels you're under the influence to begin with that i don't think that that's of any great moment. i think what is of significance here are the injuries or lack of injuries on both parties, and where those injuries are. and those things are going to be telling and this idea that somehow some cop wrote that this
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all could have been avoided if somebody sat in the car that is not evidence. that's a cop opining on something and frankly, most judges would not let that into evidence. >> larry, let's talk about forensics because this is first time we're starting to look and see some actual forensic evidence and bullet trajectory and the distance. according to the report, martin was shot from an intermediate range and it passed through the right ventricle of his heart. and passed through the lobe. what does that tell us? >> it tells us that it was horizontal, straight front to back. it's very consistent with the positioning of the gun and there was one entrance wound. no exit wound. the bullet ended up in the sac surrounding the heart. >> does it surprise you there wasn't an exit wound? >> no, not really. sometimes shots will pierce through the tissue.
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the jacket of the bullet did fragment, ended up in the lung cavity no surprise here. >> intermediate range, what does that mean to you? >> several possibilities. there's a contact wound where the muzzle is right up against the target. there's a close-in distance from zero to six inches. then there's the intermediate distance which is about six inches to roughly a foot and a half that's what the pathologist is talking about. the ballistics people said it was clothing, but it us a inconsistent. >> also the level of thc in his system, mark said it's a difficult thing. may not get into court. >> i have to agree with mark. the level is very low. it's at a level where if somebody were using marijuana let's say four or five days earlier, they might find that level. >> so it could have been days before? >> it probably would have no effect on his behavior. >> anderson, i would like to say what's important about the intermediate range evidence is that the prosecution's theory is
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that george zimmerman was the first aggressor. if that is truth, he had a duty to retreat or get away. if you had this pretty close range of six inches that tells me as a prosecutor he wasn't trying to get away. >> but wait a minute. intermediate range is not six inches. >> it's six inches to a foot and a half. >> that seems -- >> the only thing closer than that is to put it up against a contact. this was apparently not contact. larry is right there's some indication that it was. but remember, you're talking six inches while people are struggling. that's -- >> that tells me he wasn't trying to get away. that tells me he wasn't trying to get away. >> no, you can't read anything into that. >> i think you can. i think you can. i mean, if you're trying to get away from someone, then -- >> somebody could be sitting on you and you could shoot them and that could be six inches. >> right. somebody could be pulling back
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-- somebody could be pulling back to hit you and that's six inches. >> it's not consistent that he was the first aggressor and he had a duty to retreat and he didn't do that. >> the fact that the fbi voice analysis couldn't determine two important things in this case, whether or not there was a racial slur used and who is screaming for help, how significant -- how significant do you think that is? >> it's very significant because i think what the defense will do is the defense is going to move to exclude any kind of relative on either side saying that they can identify the voices there. you've got expert testimony that it's inconclusive. they may let in the layperson's testimony, but certainly there's going to be some kind of a cautionary instruction or there should be a cautionary instruction so that is significant. >> but there is eyewitness testimony that it was zimmerman who was yelling help. so that is part of the package that was released today. so that is actually part of the totality of evidence that we've got to look at and analyze. >> right. and that's different.
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eyewitness testimony -- >> -- voice as well. >> but the difference is they believe it, they didn't actually see who was yelling. those witnesses' accounts. >> they heard it. they're ear witnesses. >> they for your expertise. we're on facebook, google plus, we're talking about it on twitter @andersoncooper. how does trayvon martin's family feel about the release of this material? we'll talk to one of their relatives next. ce. ce. there are a million reasons why. but your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach,
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breaking news coverage. the release of evidence in the shooting death of trayvon martin. the family of trayvon martin said they support the public release and selective leak gave a distorted view of the evidence in the case. darrell parks is an attorney for the martin family. he joins us now. thank you for being with us. what else does trayvon martin's family have to say about the release of the evidence? are they concerned about the
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release of the evidence of marijuana in his system may affect peoples' opinion one way or another it may affect the jury if it ever gets to that point? >> this actually is not new evidence to us. as you know, there was an issue with the trace that was found in his backpack from school. so that issue was an issue that we knew was already out there and not of a major issue to us. and with respect to the great deal of evidence that was released today, we believe that we still have a very strong case against george zimmerman for the death of trayvon in this case. >> the photos of his head and we see the gash on the back of his head, the cut on his nose, things we hadn't seen clearly in the police video. does this change the narrative of what happened that night? >> no, not at all. it's always been rather clear that trayvon was followed by george zimmerman unprovoked. he finally caught up with him. they exchanged words and there was an altercation. at the end of the day, we know trayvon was not armed.
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george zimmerman was armed. and trayvon had to fight the gentleman. so yes, trayvon had to fight a guy who was armed. so the level of injuries we see in this particular case, yes, he has some injuries, but they are not life-threatening injuries. >> you're saying he had to fight him. what are you basing that on specifically? >> if you have someone that's following you, right, and they confront you for whatever reason, right, and you don't know him and that person is armed, he is not the person who is initiating the action in this case. >> the fbi, the voice analysis, they could not, according to reports, could not determine if zimmerman was using a racial slur or who was screaming for help. trayvon's mom said that was her child screaming for help. does she still say, for a fact, that that was him? >> yes. she certainly says that with him. but also the other part of this
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case that comes into play with that particular audio aspect of it are the earshot witnesses who were around who have now come forward. i certainly believe once you take into perspective the earshot witnesses who will testify in the case along with the young girlfriend from miami that certainly it all comes topgtd. >> darrell parks, thank you. we are following a number of stories. isha is back with the 360 bulletin. >> investigators in mississippi are questioning a man in connection with the shooting deaths of two drivers killed last week. the shooting happened miles apart on different days and have been linked by ballistic tests. the man questioned is suspected of impersonating a police officer. another victory for haley barbour. the state supreme court today refused to reconsider its decision upholding his right to issue controversial pardons as he was leaving office in january. jurors are set to begin
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deliberating the case against john edwards. closing arguments were completed today. the former presidential candidate is accused of using campaign contributions to hide his affair with rielle hunter during the 2008 race. supreme court justice stephen breyer was the victim of a robbery again. his washington home was burgled this month back in february and an armed man broke into his caribbean vacation home and robbed him and others of $1,000. anderson? thanks very much. in the course of our investigation into one group that claims to raise money for disabled veterans, we have been reporting on it -- well, drew griffin has been reporting on it for two years and we have uncovered yet another charity that asks you to help veterans by opening your wallets. a lot of people have donated your money. but then they use only a small percentage of that money to actually help veterans. ♪ we were skipping stones and letting go ♪
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gop strategists come up with a proposal to link president obama once go into comments by his former pastor, jeremiah wright. reaction has been swift. that's coming up. >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today.
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keeping them honest, with a report that will very likely make you very angry, and it should. especially if you care about veterans and their well-being. we have done a number of reports on this program about one charity that has raised tens of millions of dollars for disabled veterans, but they haven't given the money to disabled veterans. hard to believe. tonight we have learned about another charity that claims to be raising money for veterans, but only spends a small amount of the money raised on helping veterans. the charity we told you about is called the disabled veterans national foundation. that's their seal, the dvnf. according to their own tax filings, they raised $56 million in the past three years. a huge amount of money. of that $56 million, we haven't been able to find even one dime that's gone directly to help disabled veterans. instead, the foundation sends tons of stuff, stuff they got for free to veterans groups. the stuff hasn't been requested
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by the groups. it's often not even stuff the groups can use. they said one group we found thousands of bags of coconut m&ms. the stuff that the dvnf gets for free sits in boxes until the veterans groups can figure out what to do with them. what do you do with 11,000 bags of m&ms? hundreds of pairs of navy dress shoes this organization sent to a veterans group. the group that got the shoes tried to sell them at a yard sale to raise money for the things they do need. drew griffin tracked down the president of the dvnf group to get some answers. here's how that went. >> reporter: meet precilla wilkewitz, the president of of the disabled veterans national foundation. he found her at a small vfw office in baton rouge, louisiana. >> we have agreed to talk to you. >> nobody has agreed.
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here's the question. raised over three years. none of the money has gone to veterans. >> i hate when people said they agreed to talk to us. and they really haven't. in the course of covering the dvnf, we uncovered another charity that asks you to help veterans and then uses a small percentage of money to help veterans. this is a completely different group called the national veterans foundation, but there is a connection to the dvnf. turns out they both use the same fund-raising company. in both cases, that's where the trail of your money seems to lead. drew griffin is on the trail. >> reporter: the 27-year-old national veterans foundation would like you to believe it takes your money and puts it right back into its unique program. a national hotline to help veterans with anything. but cnn's investigation has found something the nvf doesn't likely want you to know. most of your contributions went to pay the private fund-raisers
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they hired. charity watch gives the national charity foundation a "f" grade. it's costing them $91 to raise $100. >> reporter: this man runs a charity watchdog group that grades the charities based on their own tax filings. that shows over the past three year, the nvf has taken over $22.3 million in donations and paid out $18.2 million to its fund-raisers brickmill and the parent company, quadriga art. but the filings show a common tactic used by charities. part of the money paid brickmill and quadriga art was designated in tax filings to pay for educational awareness promotional materials. those solicitations for donations, that tell you all about the struggles of the vets have and why you should donate, that's the educational awareness and promotion material.
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>> the accounting is somewhat confusing to the public and so they can get tricked if they look at these tax forms, or look at these superficial reviews of charities on the internet because what they're doing is they're calling that solicitation that makes you aware of the injured veteran a charitable program. be that's not what -- but that's not what people want to pay for. people want to pay for substantial aid or assistance to injured veterans. >> reporter: the national veterans foundation hotline is run out of a fourth floor office in this building near los angeles's international airport. the group told us they wouldn't speak on camera. we decided to go and see them anyway. hey, rich. >> hello, you're drew? >> reporter: yeah. just wanted to ask you one more time if we could chat. >> as we said, we have told you we have made our statements we have given you and we won't be doing any on camera. >> so you won't tell me what you
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told me on the phone on camera, that you're disappointed in this brickmill and quadriga? >> i believe if you read our statements, it will cover everything that i have said and anything that -- any questions that you have. >> reporter: well, it didn't. that's why i'm here. can we take some -- >> i would prefer not on this subject. >> reporter: rich ruddnick is the director and over the phone said that they hired brickmill and quadriga art to start a new campaign. we were told it would be very expensive for two years and then going to in the black. that never happened. we were told that over the phone. but in person, neither ruddnick or the president, a man paid $121,000 a year would tell us anything. >> can we take some photos of the guys who answer the phone? this is where the toll free line? >> yeah this is the toll free line and they're busy and we'd prefer not on this trip. >> all right. chad is not here?
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>> he's never here in the mornings. >> we received this statement, knowing what nvf knows now, it would not have entered into a six-year contract with quadriga art and brickmill. the national veterans foundation says it's now trying to terminate that contract which doesn't end for another two years. what did quadriga art say? they increased the donor base by 700,000 people but even quadriga art admitted the fund-raising efforts did not prove as financially viable as the client had hoped. quadriga art says it too now wants to end the contract. and despite brickmill and the parent company quadriga art getting paid more than $18 million, quadriga said it lost money. >> we have to ask why is this going on, who's benefiting here other than the fund-raising company.
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>> drew griffin joins me now and the president of the charity watchdog group. i find this unbelievable. drew, i mean, i applaud your reporting on this because this is outrageous. if people knew these organizations, first of all, that first organization has not sent any money directly to disabled veterans and this one how much did that guy say, 81 cents on the dollar goes to the fund-raising organization? >> that's absolutely right. and that's what is heart breaking here because behind all these donations are americans who really want to help these veterans. that's why this is so disheartening. they're opening up their wallets thinking they are doing good. and putting money directly into the hands of for profit companies and making a killing off them. >> and they have an american flag there, and a p.o.w./mia flag. if they cared about veterans they should shut the ordinary -- organization down. if they're not happy with the
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contract that they signed, they should shut it down. how do they sleep at night? the kinds of contracts, drew, signed by nvf and the other instance disabled national veterans organization, they're long and seems hard to break. why did they go down that road? is it simply to expand their mailing list? >> here's what we have found out in our reporting. some of quadriga art and brickmill's contracts with really big charitable organizations are specifically detailed with money amounts included, all kind of contract obligations that both sides have to meet. very specific. these contracts with these two groups that we're talking about, they're rather loose. not too much specific. it seems like quadriga art is driving the legal paperwork here. and these charities are simply -- i don't want to put words in
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their mouth, but they look to me like they've been duped. >> ken, you monitor the charities. do you agree that these are folks who have been duped or do you advise that charities sign these contracts with a marketing firm like quadriga art? >> we say avoid them like the plague. we see this happening over and over again. >> this is not a surprise to you? >> no. in fact, we have zero rated groups, police, firefighters, people who risk their lives in this country and the charities associated with them, we saw a preponderance of this in the groups. what it's consciously or whether they're ignorant and they're made up of volunteers that are well intentioned and they figure if it's 99 cents to raise a dollar, it's still a penny. >> even if someone is naive -- i question how well intentioned anyone can be if they're spending 99 cents to raise $1. i mean, that's outrageous. >> it's horrific. there's no excuse for it.
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and that's why our advice is to avoid these kind of arrangements like the plague and if your a donor you should run with fear. >> how much -- if their charity has a marketing firm how much should they be paying out of a dollar that they raise? >> we generally say ten cents on the dollar is a reasonable amount. whether it's internal or through an external source, ten cents on the dollar is what we see as the highest performer. >> drew, can the irs or somebody get involved and remove the charitable exemption from some of the charities? because these are all allegedly nonprofits but that guy who is running it is making more than $100,000? >> you know, the irs has rules that they all follow, they all file these tax filings. these kinds of organizations have been protected in the courts. part of this is under the free speech amendment. i don't see really where the irs can get in and do much of anything here. i do see where there's a lot of value in donor beware.
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look up these groups, figure out where exactly the money is going and find out am i really giving money to fund-raisers or am i giving it to people? >> for them to claim that part of what they're doing is educating people about the needs of veterans and what that education is is their own commercials which is just about fund-raising, i mean, that's just -- >> sleight of hand. >> your charity, charity navigator, which monitors these things, the dvnf, you didn't rate them. you gave the other one a three-star rating. based on what you now know, would you want to look at that. >> oh, yeah, we'll check it out. we have a negative rating for the fund-raising. and its finances in general are below standard. but we're definitely going to have a second look. >> what should people -- i mean, look, there's so in good hearted family. the fact that dvnf made $56
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million over donations shows you how good hearted people are and what should people look for before giving money? >> in situations, well, generally or in specific with veterans groups? >> generally. >> well, first thing is to make sure that the group is transparent. i mean, one of things right away we say is if you contact a group, if you call a group and they refuse to talk to you in any regard, whether it's the media or an individual, be aware. >> you have been trying to talk to dvnf for two years now? >> yeah. two years. they have just stone walled us all the way. >> if you get a call, if you're solicited on the street, our general advice is to walk away. >> so if you get a cold call from somebody at home saying they're from the veterans group or whatever, walk away. >> because you don't know what you're running into it. you could be running into a disaster, 9 9 cents could be going to the telemarketers. >> it makes people suspicious of other groups. like the fisher house, they do
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good work. the fear is that people give money to the group that doesn't give out any money, they won't give it to a reputable group. >> it not only hurts this group, but the whole sector because it damages the public trust. because they wonder in is going on here, how can i trust? the message that people need to know is do some research. and you can avoid a lot of this because there are some tremendous groups out there that really need your support and fisher house foundation is one of them. >> yeah. i want to -- anybody out there who wants to give money should go to charity navigator and really just you'll get a sense of what other good groups there are out there that help vets or police or firefighters or any other charity. i appreciate the work you're doing. we'll keep on this. it's unbelievable. mind-boggling to me. again, if you're looking for reputable veterans charities, go to our website. go to ac360.com or charity navigator.
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remember, president obama's former pastor, jeremiah wright? well, his opponents tried to link him to the controversial race-related comments back in 2008 and now four years later a group of high profile republicans is trying to reig nate the issue. is it going to pop up somewhere else? raw politics ahead. we began with the rx. ] [ tires squeal ] then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the all-new rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. see your lexus dealer. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there.
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in raw politics the power of super pacs. reported in "the new york times" about a racially tinged campaign, and it was pitched by republican strategist working with a billionaire named joe ricketts who runs the ending spending action fund. the ad describes itling -- as described it links president obama to incendiary comments to
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jeremiah wright. the same reverend wright whose race related comments made him an issue in the 2008 campaign. john mccain did not try to capitalize on it back then. >> i've made my position very clear on this issue. and that i do not believe that senator obama shares reverend wright's extremist statements or views. >> well, at the time some republicans criticized mccain for not focusing more on the issue. four years later, it's resurrected. ricketts passed on the proposal and the super pac's president said in a statement not only was this a proposal, one of several submitted to the ending spending action fund but it reflects an approach to politics that mr. ricketts rejects and was never a plan to be accepted but only a suggestion for a direction to take. mitt romney disavowed the proposal today. >> i want to make it very clear,
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i repudiate that effort. i think it's the wrong course for a pac or a campaign. i hope that our campaigns can respectfully be about the future and about issues and about a vision for america. >> it's still early days in the campaign. this is already making for some raw politics. earlier i talked to an obama pollster, cornell belcher. even if this ad campaign never happen, do you expect spots like this by some, you know, super pac out there, and do you think they could be effective? >> well, two things. one is i think the last thing republicans want is for some millionaire nut job, you know, spending millions and millions of dollars taking the nominee off message. i mean, if you're the republican nominee, it's just basic politics. you want to sort of be talking about the economy and jobs and trying to contrast yourself with the president on that. to get into these issues, you know, to spend millions of
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dollars and have the nominee move off track and talk about issues that quite frankly don't create a job, doesn't keep anyone in their house, doesn't help, you know, with unemployment or mortgage payment, whatsoever, that's a nightmare for republicans. >> clearly someone on the republican side thinks this is a good idea. they came up with the idea though it's been rejected an parentally by the romney campaign. why do you think these ideas are still floating out there or this idea is still floating out there? >> well, it's not a sufficiently good idea apparently that they have any money. why? because i think there are people on both ends of the political spectrum, perhaps some rich and not particularly capable folks who have an idea that they feel is unexpressed. as long as there are people with money there are people out there willing to take it. and run a campaign like this. you know, this was litigated in the last campaign. actually it turned out to be one of president obama's better moments responding to the reverend wright situation.
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if i recall correctly, he was elected after this. so, you know, the problem i think is electricity. if you let some political people near electricity, they make dumb commercials and blow up their campaigns. so we have to do something about electricity. >> cornell, your team turned around and said that romney hadn't done enough to condemn character assassination from his supporters. i mean, do you think that's true? do you believe that somehow mitt romney bears responsibility for this at all? because he had nothing to do with it apparently. >> i don't speak for the campaign, i can barely speak for myself. i think some of the comments came out early before mitt romney came out and sort of -- a couple of different times now and has backed off of. look, i think this sort of ugly politics on both sides we can be bipartisan on this. on both sides i think we should call for a stand down on this sort of thing. >> alex, mitt romney and his team have both been accusing the president's campaign of character assassination over th
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bain ads. and they did it again today. mitt romney has been running on his business experience saying it's about job creation. how does that amount to character assassination? >> it's what you do with it. it's one thing to say that someone is incapable or, you know, may not be up to the job. it's another thing to say that mitt romney is an evil man who hates people and is out to destroy jobs and same kind of attacks that we see even from the president who says on the one hand we shouldn't question anybody's patriotism, but republicans are putting politics ahead of their country. you know, it's all over politics now. there's a lot of demonizing someone's character as opposed to just talking about the issues and the choice the country needs to make. anderson, it's a little like vietnam. america got sick of vietnam. not just the tragic loss of life, but it brought out the worst in us. it put one american against
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another. and we're almost at that point now. it's the thing we hate about washington. everybody is at each other's throats and this campaign i think particularly the obama campaign is asking us to be at each other's throat. rich against poor, employee against employer, men against women. obama ran a better campaign last time for hope and change and not division. >> you don't hear them questioning his patriotism or whether he's an american or where he's born? >> you know, i do and it's -- and just like this commercial we were just talking about, anderson, it's not productive when we do it. >> cornell? >> you know, alex is conveniently nice guy now because alex, the media consultant, he was one of the most vicious ads you'd ever see in your life. >> i'm kinder and gentler now. >> you are. because you're in florida. look, the bottom line is -- you
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know, spin aside, look, he's making his business experience sort of the centerpiece about creating jobs. alex, you know very well if you were on the other side you would -- in fact, look at his business experience and find out what in fact his business experience says about him and his business experience says about him that he's in a lot of cutting salaries, laying people off, maximizing profit for himself. and that's fine, but the question we have to ask is is that what we want in the white house or do we want someone in the white house who spent their life cutting jobs and maximizing their profit at this time? that's fair. >> all right. cornell belcher, alex, thanks. well, donna summer has died and we'll remember her life in music when we continue.
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isha is back with a 360 news and business bulletin. donna summer, the queen of discoe has died at the age of 63. ♪ summer's hits included hot stuff and she worked hard for the money. her publicist says summer had cancer. an autopsy report shows mary kennedy, the estranged wife of robert f. kennedy, jr., died in an apparent suicide. the cause of her death, asphyxiation due to hanging. she was found on the property of their bedford home. and a second person who has
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accused john travolta of sexual battery has dropped his lawyer. the massage therapist claimed he dproeped him in january. mortgage rates have hit record lows yet again. the 30-year fixed rate is now 3.79% while the 15-year fixed is now 3.04%. and a biologist is one lucky man. while attempting to capture an alligator, sitting in a ditch near some homes, the animal as you see there it attacked and bit him on the arm. he managed to get away from the gator and thankfully, the bite was not serious. but it's really scary to watch. >> yikes. >> yikes is right. >> all right. isha, thanks. tonight i'm taking it upon myself to defend pale people everywhere. the ridiculist is next. patients that i see that complain about dry mouth,
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they feel like they have to drink a lot of water. medications seem to be the number 1 cause for dry mouth. dry mouth can cause increased cavities, bad breath, oral irritations. i like to recommend biotene. biotene has a full array of products. it's composed of some enzymes that you would normally find in your saliva, and it replenishes the moisture in your mouth. biotene definitely works. it makes patients so much happier.
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but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today.
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time for the ridiculist and we're adding a portion of society i like to talk about paleness haters. i know you're laughing and rubbing coconut oil on each other. maybe if there wasn't so much snickering about pale folks this wouldn't be going on. >> i'm so pale. >> you're on it. >> today snow is crippling much of the washington low lands. >> all right.
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she got caught on an open mic. no big deal. she totally picked up, moved on with the weather forecast. besides it happens to the best of us. if my microphone was open during commercials you'd hear me talking about how pale i am and me yelling the crew. they keep looking at me in the eyes, i don't line that. i don't like it. being pale -- shh. they always laugh. sure i might be a translucent national treasure with piercing blue eyes but the reality is i'm never going to have the rich leathery glow of george hamilton. that's my new head shot. pale is beautiful. if you disagree you can take it up on tilda swinson. he doesn't have time for it. and mr. gary busey. is he stable? without a doubt. speaking of stable, it's not just gary busey who knows what it's like to be on the pale side. it's also the horse that looks
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like gary busey. remember him? ride on, my pale friend. and then the poor cat, you know the cat i mean. yep. let me tell you, that cat doesn't worry about being pale. the only thing -- [ laughter ] let me tell you that cat doesn't worry about being pale. the only thing that cat worries about is being too good looking. i'm reminded of something. if we could, i'd like to pause a moment and check in with larry king. [ laughter ] hey, larry, always good to check in with him from time to time. i love larry. look, back to being pale. i don't know that larry king there -- rather tangential. i get how it's maybe not the best devirable appearance. i get that a healthy base tan is something sometimes optimal. i'll admit it's a stunning look. i mean, it's not anything could
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