>> i don't know what that means but we'll talk to the champion of the scripps spelling bee. vanderbilt's head football coach in hot water after he says he's only going to hire assistants with hot wives. it's friday, june 1st and "starting point" begins right "starting point" begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com our starting point this morning, john edwards, what is next for him? he was acquitted an one count of campaign finance fraud. prosecutors had accused edwards of using nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions to try to keep his pregnant mistress under wraps during his presidential run.

here's what john edwards had to say after the trial. >> i want to make sure that everyone hears from me and from my voice that while i do not believe i did anything illegal or ever thought i was ever doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. >> the federal government still has the option of a retrial, that doesn't seem very likely at this point. joining me to talk about all of that, senior legal analyst jeff toobin and david peril managing ed tord of radaronline.com and former editor-in-chief of "the national enquirer" which first broke the john edwards pregnancy scandal. jeff, are you surprised by this verdict? >> not at all. this was a weak, weak case, but john edwards was a deeply unappealing person to the jury, so you can see how the jury was pushed in different directions and i think in a way, a mostly

hung jury is sort of appropriate resolution of this case because you wouldn't want to see john edwards given how he lived his life walking out of there completely vindicated, but this was not a person who deserved to be in prison for this set of activities. i thought his lawyer, abbey lowell, did a terrific job, had it just right when he said john edwards committed sins but not crimes and we don't put people in prison for sins in this country. >> after the verdict in his remarks john edwards went on to say there's no one else responsible. let me just say it, it's clearly me. i'm going to play a little bit of that and we'll talk on the other side. >> and if i want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins, honestly, i don't have to go any further than the mirror. it's me. it is me, and me alone. >> what did you think of that press conference afterwards? it sounded to me like there was just such the weight of a guilty

conscience and he just wanted to sort of tick through all the things that he had done wrong for so many months and years. what did you think? >> one thing i found about john edwards over the years, chasing him through this scandal is that john edwards admits the truth when he has to admit the truth and usually only the part of the truth that he has to, like when he first confessed to the affair on abc after "the enquirer" broke the story, he still denied paternity of the child. when shown a picture he said i take pictures with lots of babies, i don't know who that baby is so the weight on him certainly for his actions but in terms of ability to tell the truth through the years, not proven. >> jeff toobin, apparently they could retry him, correct? >> they certainly could. >> do you think that's likely? >> no. >> why? >> i think this case is over. this was a very marginal, unusual prosecution. no one had ever been prosecuted under campaign finance laws for these kind of charges.

is' be he's been acquitted on one account and those charges can't be brought again. campaign finance law has been changed in such a profound way that bringing a criminal charge today is a very different thing than it used to be and i don't think, and basically the united states supreme court is in the process of deregulating american campaign finance, basically saying the first amendment allows people to give money under more and more conditions, and i think bringing another criminal case after this very expensive case failed in dramatic fashion, would be irresponsible by the justice department and i don't think they're going to do it. >> i thought it was interesting and again in the comments that john edwards had, after the trial, when he talked about his family and sort of named each kid separately and he talked about cate, who we saw every day going into the courtroom and coming out of the courtroom,

really next to her dad all the time. here's what he said about cate. >> cate, who most all of you have seen has been here every single day. she has been here no matter what, no matter how awful and painful a lot of the evidence was for her, evidence about her dad, evidence about her mom, who she loves so, so dearly, but she never once flinched. she said, "dad, i love you, i'll be there for you no matter what," even i'm so proud to have had her with me throughout this process. >> he goes on to talk about baby quinn which i thought was a little unusual, sort of given what the trial was ultimately all about, right? david? >> yeah, it was a little unusual but that is his daughter and it's time that he recognized her, and the fact is that, after

denying paternity, he does see the child on a regular basis. >> he ended that press conference and i'll ask this question for both of you, saying that i don't think god's done with me and i still have a future. do you think, jeff, that he has a political future and, david, i want to you weigh in on what is the future? >> i was really struck by the end of his news conference. i thought it was appropriate what he said about his own personal responsibility, very appropriate talking about all his children, but i thought it was just weird at the end when he was talking about god is not finished with me yet. he seems to think he has a public career, and in short, i don't. i think he should do something in private life that does not involve the public eye, but people who are in the public eye like to stay there and that comment he made about god is not finished with me yet and started talking about his work with children, it really started to sound like a stump speech and i was thinking, are you kidding? i just thought it was weird.

>> started strong in the coming out of the courtroom and then it sort of started going a little bit in a strange direction. what did you think, david, at the end? god is not done with me yet and i want to go work with the poor children i think is pretty much what he said. >> well i thought the compact same thing, almost thought like i was listening to a speech where he's getting ready to resume public career, assume public office again or run for public office. i thought can he possibly think after all this that anybody would vote for him? but one of the things that got lost in the entire mess is the message of poverty in america that he espoused when he was running for office. that's unfortunate because of all the people he betrayed he betrayed a very important message so he made a complete mess out of everything and for him to sit there and think he's going to resume public life in terms of a political career, not going to happen. do some good, go work on your message, do some public service. i think everybody would be fine

with that. >> i think everybody would agree with you on the big mess of everything. david perel and also jeff toobin, who will stick around and join us at the table in a moment. >> absolutely. >> appreciate it. christine romans is updating the top stories for us. in the first few months after he was elected, president obama secretly ordered sophisticated cyber attacks on the computers that run iran's main nuclear facilities, according to a new report in the "new york times," it says president obama decided to significantly expand an operation called "olympic games" a program started by the bush administration by unleashing a worm called stucksnet. at one point it reportedly took out nearly 1,000 centrifuges iran had operating at the time in order to purify uranium. we're hearing from the two american tourists kidnapped at gunpoint in egypt, both from houston, told cnn affiliate kprc that they feared their captors would kill them.

>> all the windows had bars on them and they nailed the door shut and then they were outside shooting their assault rifles the whole night and all the way through the morning. they were all very loud and aggressive and speaking in arabic, and i mean, we had no idea, no clue what their intentions were. >> the americans were freed in a trade for a relative of their captors, a relative who had been arrested this week on drug charges. minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures are down sharply ahead of the big jobs report. economists expect 150,000 jobs added to the economy that last month and the unemployment rate they think stayed unchanged at 8.1%. the report comes out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. we'll get you the news as soon as it's released. a federal appeals court in boston ruling the federal defense of marriage act unconstitutional. judges agree with prosecutors it was discriminatory because federal benefits like social security were being denied to gay couples in states where

same-sex marriage is legal. the indiana teenager who was stuck in mexico because of a visa technicality is back in the u.s. this morning, and will graduate with her class as scheduled tomorrow. elizabeth olivas born in mexico was trying to follow the law when she returned to apply for a visa 180 days before her 18th birthday. because of a miscalculation elizabeth was one day late and had to stay in mexico as a result. >> i just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible but i had to continue to wait, but it was worth it, because in the end, i'm good and i can continue to pursue my dreams. george w. bush making a rare return to washington. the former president and wife laura welcomed back by president obama for the official unveiling of their portraits. obama thanked his predecessor for his extraordinary service to the country, among other things >> your kind words of encouragement, plus you also left me a really good tv sports

packa package. >> when you're wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you'll now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, what would george do? >> yesterday was just the second time the two have met since president bush left office, soledad. >> that was funny. thanks, christine. appreciate the update. still ahead on "starting point," politics getting kind of personal. we'll tell you how the former governor mitt romney and president barack obama are digging deep into each other's pasts for some dirt, and sending hecklers even to oppositions' rallies. plus a get real to the head football coach at vanderbilt after he told a radio station he'll only hire assistants who have got cute wives. play that louder, that's martin sapp, come on, pastor sapp, "power." we're back after this short break.

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a little more than five months to election day and both sides are getting personal, each taking to the other's home turf to try to plead their case, first it was a former governor, mitt romney, making a surprise visit to the shuddered solar panel solyndra, bankrupt after two years after receiving $535 million in stimulus money from the obama administration. governor romney was there trying to focus attention on what he called a symbol of the obama administration's failed economic policies as well as its use of cronyism. >> this building, this half a billion-dollar taxpayer investment represents a serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team.

it's also a symbol of how the president thinks about free enterprise. free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers, giving it freely to his friends. >> the obama administration took to the steps of the massachusetts state house, senior adviser david axelrod appearing alongside former and current state officials blasting governor romney's record as the state's former governor. romney supporters held a prebuttal news conference, among them house minority leader brad jones, nice to see you sir. thank you for talking with me. >> my pleasure. thank you for having me on. >> there was so much secrecy in the getting of the people to the shuddered solyndra plant. why was that? >> well, i was focused on boston yesterday, so i'm assuming it was an opportunity to highlight the failed economic policies of president obama. >> which obviously that was the message but i know that sort of the strategy was to cart people

off in buses not really tell them where they were going and sort of a lot of the drama around it. we know there was heckling certainly when it came to the press conference where david axelrod was trying to talk about governor romney's policies and i'm curious to know if you feel like to some degree some of this is beginning to feel not very presidential. >> well, i think it's disappointing that a number of my colleagues and president obama's chief campaign adviser feels the need to come and trash massachusetts which is currently governed by one of their leading spokespeople who yesterday was on your show and saying some positive things about governor romney's record here. >> forgive me for interrupting. did you feel he was trashing massachusetts, they've been trashing massachusetts in what ways? >> i certainly think there axelrod was and some of my democratic colleagues were out there. you have to understand we have an overwhelmingly democratic legislature when governor romney

was here, it was north of 85% democratic legislature so for governor romney to have achieved the things that he did in terms of a $3 billion deficit to a $2 billion rainy day fund to reducing the unemployment rate to increasing the number of jobs, net job growth in massachusetts, facing a huge head wind, contrasted with president obama, who came in with a democratic senate, democratic house, and yet has added to the debt, has added to job losses, you know, i mean in the end, i think we can fairly say that the at the end of four years, governor romney left massachusetts a far better place than he found it when he took the oath of office in 2003, and i think that's a happy contrast that the romney campaign is willing to make with president obama because the country is certainly far worse off than when president obama took the oath of office in 2009. >> that's a little bit different than what governor patrick devalue was telling us yesterday on the show. i'll play you a little bit of what he said.

>> okay. >> i didn't say he didn't add any jobs. i said that in a good economy we were growing third from the bottom compared to other states around the country. that's no longer true. when he said that, for example, he was going to make government smaller, it is a fact that he added more people to the workforce. he said he was going to show us fiscal discipline. it's a fact that he left a $1.1 billion deficit. these aren't attack points. they're just facts. >> that's governor deval patrick as i flipped his name, he'd kill me if he heard me say that. i hope he didn't. the long list where the former governor was weak that now governor patrick has right now. >> as someone who was here, governor romney made a certain series of cuts before he left office to be sure we were on sound fiscal footing. governor patrick restored every single one of the cuts. unfortunately he attributes that level of spending to governor romney when in fairness and fact

it was governor patrick's decision to do that so again, governor patrick is obviously entitled to his opinion but not entitled to his own facts. >> there have been republican colleagues and really i think many people predicted this from the primary battle that was very, very nasty that people would be cherry-picking sound bites and putting them into political ads and that's exactly what happened. we'll play you a little bit and ask you a question on the other side. >> if mitt romney is an economic heavyweight we're in trouble because he was 47th out of 50 in job creation in the state of massachusetts when he was governor. >> he ended up third from the bottom in job creation. >> we created more jobs in the last three months in texas than he created in four years in massachuset massachusetts. >> do you think it's damaging to have his republican colleagues quoted and put into ads? >> clearly the contrast is in president obama, that was the point the obama team was trying to make. i think not well yesterday, and

the fact is that, from the time governor romney took office to the time he left office there was net job growth in the commonwealth of massachusetts. that's a fact. i don't think anybody is disputing that fact. when president obama took office to the present there's been net job loss, so i mean, i think that's a happy contrast and i think if president obama had anything positive to say about his record, as you said five months out from the election he'd be talking about that. as an incumbent president you'd think you want to talk about the things you've accomplished, look what i've done and here's what else i want to do and give me that opportunity. he doesn't have that record to run on. it's a dismal record, the debt issue, the downgrade in the bond rating for the united states, the first time any president's presided over that. that's not something you're going to run on. >> certainly you're not going to blame that on the president, that was a congress arguing as you well know so that might be debatable in the future. we're out of time -- >> i will not dispute there's

plenty of blame to go around in washington, d.c., absolutely but i think again, governor romney's record both in the private sector at the olympics and as governor of massachusetts is being able to come in and work with quite a disparity of personalities and people to move the agenda forward and accomplish good things, either in the private sector, at the olympics, in the commonwealth of massachusetts and hopefully as president of the united states. >> brad jones is the massachusetts house minority leader, nice to see you. thanks for talking with us this morning. appreciate it. >> thank you. still ahead on "starting point," vanderbilt's head football coach in a little bit of hot water after he tells a radio station he's not going to hire an assistant unless his wife is hot. "starting point" team, jeff toobin back with us, abby huntsman and will cain. this is abby's play list "dancing on my own." we're back after a short break. hi guys, good morning. >> good morning. d@ [ female announcer ] introducing coffee-mate natural bliss.

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♪ oh, i love starting my money with kenny chess know. >> do you? >> not really. i like him, it's just kind of lulls you back to sleep a little. >> he has more upbeat songs. >> here it s hang on, wait for t wait for it, wait for it. there it is. >> we'll be waiting all day. ♪ >> that's it, see? you would have missed it, abby, if i hadn't had you wait. that's will cain's choice, he's a columnist for theblaze.com, abby huntsman, political come tate nor, jeff toobin, cnn's senior legal analyst. >> good morning. >> we start with our "get real."

the vanderbilt university head football coach, james franklin is being interviewed on a nashville radio station and they ask him about the criteria he uses to hire his assistant coaches. and basically it turns out he does not check their resumes, he does not necessarily check out their references, he checks out their wives. this is not a joke. he says that he only will hire someone if their wife is hot. here's what he said courtesy of the radio station which is 104.5, the wave in nashville. listen. >> i will not hire an distant coach until i've seen her wife -- until i've seen his wife and if his wife, if she looks the part and she's a d1 recruit, then you got a chance to get hired. >> wow. >> i mean that's part of the deal. there's a very strong correlation between having the confidence and going up and talking to a woman and being quick on your feet and having some personality and confidence and being fun and articulate than it is walking into a high school and recruiting a kid and

selling him. >> makes a lot of sense. makes a lot of sense. >> really? carry on. >> i've got the field, i've got the mike. >> no, really. >> first of all we don't know how much of this was joking. >> said he was joking. >> i've listened to sports radio and sarcasm and humor are pretty deeply engrained. >> he apologized said it was all in fun, making a reference to the movie "moneyball" which has a similar point. >> i actually think perhaps his joking explanation carries some weight. if you have the confidence to go up to the woman of your dreams an convince her, recruit her to commit to you for the rest of your life, then it might show and translate into recruit iing recruit to your college to play for you. >> what is d.i.? >> d1, division one. >> is it all about looks? >> i left that part out. i mean i think that we are trying to logically analyze this

moronic comment is really testament to -- no. the guy, look, he was trying to be funny and then, see the thing was if he was just trying to be funny but then he tries to like explain it logically which was a mistake. >> and in his apology he said he had two daughters and he thought, i mean really, is that how you want your daughters judged at some point. really? >> i think he's judging the assistant coaches. >> says he doesn't want to be taken seriously. he was trying to be funny. maybe you shouldn't be a comedian full time. >> ding, ding, i hear that. bill clinton who has been campaigning for president obama says governor mitt romney's record as businessman was sterling. hmm. is that going against the talking point? plus new york city's mayor trying to ban the sugary sodas, a controversial move. this morning we'll talk to the folks from coca-cola. and the scripps spelling bee champion will join us live. you're watching "starting point." ♪ [ piano chords ]

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welcome back, everybody. we start with christine romans for the top stories. new mexico fighting the biggest wildfire in state history and getting bigger. already nearly 200,000 acres are destroyed with a dozen homes burned to the ground. the fire is only 5% contained at this hour. it started in the gila national forest two weeks ago but the flames have spread in all directions. firefighters say the rugged terrain is making it difficult to gain ground. two murder suspects are behind bars this morning. quincy stewart and cortez hooper were captured. they used a hack saw to remove the bars on their cell. their mother and brother have been arrested for helping them escape. the investigation into huge losses at jpmorgan chase

widening. "the wall street journal" reporting the enforcement commission is issuing subpoenas and requests e-mails and other internal documents from the financial giant. the fraud probe focusing on jpmorgan traders and what they told supervisors and staff about their wrong-way bets when the bets began to go south. >> a ray of hope for people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. scientists in sweden successfully used electrical stimulation of the brain to train paralyzed rats to walk again and even run. ten rats all had nerve connections to their hind legs surgically severed. scientists stopped short of completely severing their spinal cords. they began to stimulate the motor area of the brain and the spinal cord below the injury and within three weeks, the rats began regaining use of their paralyzed hind legs. researchers are now working on a plan for a human fan. a hockey fan wants penguins punished for excessive texting.

he signed up for updates from the team, and was promised he'd receive no more than three texts a week. he says he got five texts in the first seven days, seeking unspecified damages claiming the penguins violated the telephone consumer protection act. something special happened during a field day at colonial hills elementary school in worthington, ohio. 11-year-old matt woodrum ran the 400 meter race, even though he had cerebral palsy. he was enurge canned across the finish line. ♪ let's go, matt, let's go >> he's an inspiration, every activity he gets involved in, it's the same experience. so it's a blast, and he's very inspirational to the whole school. >> matt said he was, it was hard for him to do that run but he

was determined to do it and kids just encouraged him the whole way. >> i love that story. >> isn't it great? >> of course it was hard but having a whole entire class of people cheering you on. >> he was pretty popular after they wanted autographs. >> i heard that. his mom bought a new camera to try it out and managed to capture that. i love that story. we were talking about this yesterday, sugary drinks and sodas, mayor bloomberg declaring war on sugary drinks that are bigger than 16 ounces this morning. the fallout, new york city health commissioner dr. thomas farley was talking on "early start" to get more specific about the ban. >> there are a number of studies done over the last few years that demonstrate people are influenced by the portion sizes given to them. if you give people twice as much they'll consume more and won't notice and feel any different about it.

if you give people a 16 ounce cup they'll probably consume less. the studies suggest this would have a big impact. >> mayor bloomberg downplayed the impact on msnbc, here is what he said there. >> we're not taking away your right to buy a soda in a supermarket, you can buy a 32-ounce can of full sugared drinks or bottle but in a restaurant they can't serve more than 16 ounces in any one cup. >> the other side comes from dr. rona applebaum, vice president of science and regulatory affairs for coca-cola. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. the mayor's point it sounds like, this is a policy that's intended to make people stop and think, not necessarily go with the big one if they want the big one or the equivalent of the big one they'd have to buy multiple sugary drinks or sodas. why are you against this policy as proposed? >> well first and foremost it's going to be an ineffective policy, so we hope we don't even have to deal with it. and in terms of the focus on

keeping people mindful, what we would like to see is people being mindful about those foods that are adding most to their caloric intake. when you look at what soft drinks and sugar sweetened beverages across the board contribute to the total daily intake it's between 7% and 10% and if you look at the added contribution from soft drinks it has been declining and between 1999 and 200028 declined by 39% while obesity was increasing. >> sorry, explain that to me. you're saying what declined 39%? >> the added sugars or basically the calories contributed to the diet by soft drinks has decreased by 39% between 1999 and 2008, during that same time, obesity rates were increasing. so the point being is focus on what's going to make a difference, that's the contribution of all calories to the total diet and focus in on

those that are contributing most. in addition, of course, to physical activity which also decreased in the united states so we have to look at healthy energy balance. >> so you don't think soda in any way contributes to obesity and the obesity problem in this country? >> let me be perfectly clear, all calorie its count, including the calories contributed by sugar sweetened beverages, first and foremost but at the end of the day you need to make sure you're focusing on the interventions that are going to make a difference. if less than 7% to 8% of our calories are coming from sugar sweetened beverages we need to help the consumer look at the diet in total to help him and her and their families be able to choose a sensible, balanced diet, combined with physical activity. those two together are what's going to make a difference. not cup sizes. so we don't understand why the focus on cup sizes and why the unhealthy obsession on sugared sweetened beverages in terms of this administration in new york city. >> i'm glad soledad introduced

you as the head of regulatory affairs for coca-cola. i'm holding up what could possibly soon be an elicit substance, 20 ounces of coca-cola and i can't wrap my head around where you will and will not be able to buy this. from my understanding, i could buy this at cvs but not the local bodega at new york city or yes at hotdog stand, no with the hotdog stand but yes at the newspaper stand? where can and can i not buy this? >> well you know, i can't sort it out because it's such a convoluted proposal in terms of what new york city health department is trying to do, it makes no sense. the bottom line is taking consumer choice away is not the way to change consumer behavior, and using this example as a means of trying to make an impact in terms of the obesity rates is just going down a rabbit hole, so you have every right to be confused.

>> dr. applebaum, is coca-cola in the business of making money or of making people healthy? i mean if you make money you don't care how fat people get, do you? >> that's absolutely incorrect. because the health of our business is dependent upon the health of our communities. we absolutely need to make sure that our communities and our consumers and the public at large, excuse me, are as active and healthy as they can be, because that's what's going to make a difference and that's what's going to ensure for the next -- >> why? if people don't die, they'll keep buying soda so what do you care if they're healthy or not? isn't it the government's responsibility to look into people being healthy? >> it's everyone's responsibility. the government cannot do it by themselves, because the government doesn't have the all-inclusive experience that is needed in terms of coming up with solutions that are going to make a difference. we need to look at this --

>> the coca-cola company knows better than the public health officials about what will make people healthy? >> no, what i'm saying is that we all have to look at this problem together. it is a complex problem, a simple solution is not going to fix and lord knows, reducing cup sizes is not going to get us out of this obesity problem. >> is it part of a solution, though? to me when i hear mayor bloomberg talking it sounds like he's not saying that this is the be all, end all solution to solving obesity in the city, and certainly not in the country. it sounds like he's saying this is part of a solution. do you agree with the research that people are influenced by portion size, bigger portion, they just eat more? >> but one of the things and again i'll repeat the data, 7% of consumers' calories are coming from sugar sweetened beverages. 7%. 93% is coming from something else so if you're going to focus on portion control, focus in on what is contributing most to the diet and combine it with

physical activity which has decreased in this country to make a difference. >> you have your ph.d. in nutrition and i do not but i do know certain calories also have certain nutritional values and many people look at sugar and say there's no nutritional value so 8% of your diet coming from something has a net nutritional value of zero, right, is different than say eating a steak which will have some calories and also some nutritional value to it as well, so other people could sort of fudge with the numbers a bit. do you think people at the end of the day are influenced by portion size and by doing this it's one step to say, we're going to give them, you know, smaller cups so that because they're influenced by portion size, they will choose the portion that ultimately could make them healthier? are they influenced? >> the bottom line is, we need to make sure the consumer understands what the choices are and what they need to select to have that sensible balanced diet. >> is that a yes or no? i don't want to press you,

forgive me, do you think people are influenced by portion size so when only given a small portion they have to pick a healthier option, fewer calories in a sugary drink? >> not when you have a plethora of foods and beverages out there. they have to understand it's about the diet. it's not about a single food or a beverage, especially in our case, which sugar sweetened beverages that are not contributing significantly to the diet the data demonstrate, 7% of total caloric contribution is coming from soft drinks. all calories count, absolutely. look at it in terms of the dietary advice we have to give consumers to make the choices they need for their life styles, for themselves and their family and physical activity has to be part of this and it's a disgrace that hasn't been emphasized. >> i would agree with you on that. i think that also has to be emphasized as well. rona applebaum, nice to talk to you. thanks for being with us this

morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> got to talk a short break. still ahead this morning, president bill clinton going a little bit off script praising governor romney's sterling record at bain capital. he's campaigning for president obama, so that might be a little tricky for him. you're watching "starting point." we're going to talk about that on the other side of the break. >> wow, wow mayor bloomberg, wow! i love this idea you have of banning sodas larger than 16 ounces. it combines the dra yoenian government overreach people love with the probable lack of results they expect.

bill clinton veering off script a little bit, praised mitt romney, he talked about governor romney's time at bain capital on piers morgan last night and praised romney's career there. take a listen. >> so i don't think that we ought to get in the position where we say this is bad work. this is good work. there's no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and you know, basically performing the essential functions of the

office, a man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold. >> that could be problematic. >> the third surrogate now in the last two weeks. >> it's so many. >> i agree. >> it should send a message. i think he's right when he says let's acknowledge, most americans would say mitt romney is a good businessman, not because he's invested in companies that have failed but because he's had a lot of success in the businesses that he's invested in. >> is it really at issue is that politicians take money from places like bain, so they cannot go out, all of them on the left, on the right, you don't think that's it? >> what is at issue is the truth. this campaign is head-long into the truth. you cannot expect bill clinton, deval patrick, ed rendell, steve ratner to continue to tell untruth that bain was bad, mitt romney was bad, it did not have a productive use in the economy. you can't expect them to lie.

>> i think what obama personality said is he's not saying it's a bad thing. he's saying that is not a qualification to be president. i think that's a tough, rather subtle argument to make and running into trouble politic politically. >> we're going to talk about that morning on "starting point," "starting point." thank you for setting that up for me. coming up, we'll talk to the spelling bee champion. how do you spell success. there she is right there. she nodded and smiled when she saw that you got that right. we'll be talking with her up next. you're watching "starting point." back in a moment. and this is what inspires us to create new technology. ♪ technology that connects us to everything the world has to offer and vice versa. ♪ technology that makes lightweight stronger, safer,

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last night 14-year-old snigdha nandipati was the last one standing at the 85th national spelling bee. it came down to a word that you probably never heard of and definitely don't know the definition of. here it is. guetapens, g-u-e-t-a-p-e-n-s. >> good morning to you. congratulations. how are you feeling this morning? >> good morning. i'm really excited. it still just clicked in this morning that i actually won the national spelling bee. >> congratulations. we were so excited for you. did you know that word? had you seen it before and practiced it before? >> yeah. i've seen guetapens before.

i just wanted to ask everything before i started to spell. >> what were you thinking when you got a word you knew you probably could spell. that's it. i won. i got this. i'm done. i got it done. >> i was just taking it one word at a time. i just wanted to get each word right. i didn't really think about winning even. i didn't expect to win. there was some very competitors this year. >> it was a tough year. it must have been fabulous. when all of the confetti starting raining down on you. >> that's when i realized i actually won. >> now, i read that you study something like six hours a day, is that right? >> yeah. on the weekdays i study about six hours and then the weekends from 10 to 12 hours. >> so now that you are the winner, you get to take a break? cut back to 30 minutes?

>> yeah. yeah. well, actually i don't have to do spelling anymore because there are no more spelling bees in the high school. >> you've aged out now. >> yeah. >> before i let you go, last final question, you win $30,000 in cash along with other things. i assume that's going to go right into a college fund for you, is that right? >> yeah. i'm going to save it all for college. >> what do you want to be when you grow up? >> a neurosurgeon or a psychiatrist. >> nice. those are good jobs and lofty goals. nice to have you. congratulations on your big win. looked like it was a really fun day. still ahead on "starting point," we're just about 30 mississippi aw minutes away from the monthly jobs report. what will it mean for the economy? we'll break it down. another day at a bar changes when a pickup truck comes through the wall. we'll hear from a man who helped pull those folks out.

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our "starting point" this morning, jobs. what will the report tell us about the economy and about the election? off the hook for now. john edwards walks after a chaotic end to his trial. >> while i do not believe i did anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. >> will the former senator face a judge again? plus marilyn monroe like you have never seen her before. bestselling author shares some rare pictures and intimate stories. torture me elmo. pentagon confirming what we suspected for years. muppets are getting suspected terrorist crack apparently. it's friday, june 1st. "starting point" begins right now. ♪

>> if it's the dixie chicks, it must be will cain. love it or leave it. >> you can only buy little sodas in new york city. >> you can buy big sodas in lubbock. will cain is with us and abby huntsman and jeff toobin, cnn senior legal analyst joining us this morning. we're talking about john edwards. a likely off the legal hook after the jury acquitted him on one count of campaign finance fraud. they were hopelessly deadlocked on the five other counts and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges. prosecutors had accused edwards of using nearly a million dollars in illegal campaign contributions to keep his pregnant mistress under wraps during his presidential run. edwards addressed those

allegations himself yesterday on his way out of court after the verdict was read. >> while i do not believe i did anything illegal or ever thought i was doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. and there is no one else responsible for my sins. >> the charges against edwards carried a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and $1.5 million fine. prosecutors could still decide to retry the case. joining us now, the finance director for the 2004 kerr kerry-edwards presidential campaign. were you surprised this went to trial? >> a year ago the federal commission said they weren't contributions. didn't require them to report them. you would have thought the justice department would have taken their word for it. they're the organization that covers it. >> what do you think the message

of the hung jury on the five other charges is? >> this was a very difficult case. a difficult case for the prosecution because this kind of conduct did not seem like a violation of the campaign finance laws but a difficult case for the defense because edwards' behavior was so reprehensible. i think in a way this is a fitting conclusion to the trial. not a complete vindication but not something that will end with him being a convicted felon or in federal prison. >> how likely that he'll be back to trial? >> extremely unlikely. the justice department learned its lesson. the citizens united decision which came out after these charges has made it that much harder to bring criminal cases based on campaign finance. it's time for everybody to go home. >> it's done. >> why did it go to trial in the first place? it would be unclear if it's illegal now. fcc said they didn't think it was at the time. why did this go to trial in the

first place? >> i think people were hungry to convict john edwards of something. i mean, he admitted it yesterday. he said it. he's guilty of a lot of things. i think people wanted to see him held accountable for something they saw him on the public stage, they saw him as a presidential candidate and wanted to get him on something. >> he also had a republican u.s. attorney leading this investigation for quite a few years and then the obama administration comes in and frankly i think it's politically paralyzed not wanting to seem to be helping a prominent democrat so they deferred to the republican who brought these charges initially and i think it's a case that really shouldn't have been brought in the first place. >> as he was finishing up his remarks, john edwards said this about god's vision for him. listen. >> i don't think god's through with me. i really believe he thinks there's still some good things i can do. and whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward, what

i'm hopeful about is all those kids that i've seen in the poorest parts of this country and in some of the poorest places in the world, that i can help them. >> sounded to me like he was almost winding up for a little bit of a campaign speech. >> it's like the cliff-hanger of a good sitcom. left us at the season finale with this. >> what do you think he's talking about? >> i would be shocked if he had a political future. if he was going to go back into the political ring. i think it sounds like he's setting himself up to do some kind of public service and we hope that's something in the nonprofit world and going back to doing good. i think it will be hard for him to start talking about poverty again especially. >> you work for the campaign. how do you feel about john edwards now? >> it's disappointing. i'm a campaign worker at heart.

it's traumatizing to future campaigns and politics you work on. as a campaign worker we spend lives 24 hours a day working on the belief that government works, that politics works, that these people are really going to make a change and to have this happen, it really hurts politics across the board. >> at the end putting your faith in individuals in a man and i would assume that's what's being shook here that you are questioning your own judgment on who is a good man to throw your weight behind. >> let me ask you a question. they wrote a little bit about in the book "game change" writing about 2004. the same years that you were working there. you have good insight into this. they say john edwards changed. they said there was this transformation where he went from being this idealistic is not the way to sum it up but that's what they were saying to this. suddenly the real transformation occurred in 2004. edwards reveled of being inside

the bubble. the secret service, the chartered jet, the press pack, the swarm catering to his every whim. and the crowds. the ovations. t theed the adoration. >> many saw this amazing change which happens. you are going from a senator in a southern state to secret service and flying from foreclosure meetings to $25,000 dinners per person dinners. definitely i think there was a change. i don't think he started out that way. >> now that you've been through this experience, i know you probably really believed in him because personally being part of a campaign when my dad ran for president, people that worked for him believe in him and they trust that he's a good guy and is going to do the right thing for the country. it must have been a hard thing to go through to realize that the guy that you put all that

work behind wasn't the guy you thought. >> he was lying to you. >> absolutely. it's a hard thing to do. it's a hard thing to do. it's a hard thing to get back into campaigns and it's a hard thing to work again 24 hours a day and believe in that. i do. i think there are great politicians out there. i think there are still people who can really make a change and unfortunately it wasn't him. >> how would he have to redeem himself? what do you think john edwards has to do? >> on a public stage? >> in america. we love a comeback. what do you think? is that possible at all? >> irredeemable on the public stage. >> i agree. do private, good works. there's nothing wrong with doing private good works. there's much right with it. if he's sincere that he really cares about kids and what not, do it privately and i think he would have the admiration of everyone. you don't have to be in the public eye. not everyone does. >> stay out of the political world. >> i agree. stay out of the political world. >> nice to see you. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. christine romans has an

update on the day's top stories. >> good morning, soledad. watching your money this morning, u.s. stock futures down sharply ahead of the big jobs report due out at 8:30. economists surveyed by cnn money expect 150,000 jobs were added to the economy last month. they think the unemployment rate likely stayed steady at 8.1%. we'll give you numbers as soon as they are released. mortgage rates just keep dropping. the 15-year fixed rate mortgage is down below 3%. that's a popular refinancing tool. it's a new record low for the 30-year fixed rate mortgage. 3.75%. mortgage rates could keep going down. many people who have already refinanced are talking about doing it again. these mortgage rates have never been this low. nancy reagan is backing mitt romney for president. the former first lady had the romneys over for cookies and lemonade yesterday and put out a written statement saying her late husband "ronnie would have

liked governor romney's business background and his strong principles and i have to say i do too. i look forward to seeing him elected president in november." scary statistics. a new study says cancer cases are set to explode worldwide shooting up 75% by the year 2030. take a look at these numbers. in 2008, there were 12.7 million people in the world diagnosed with cancer. scientists expect that number to jump to 22.2 million by the year 2030. most new cases are expected to come from poor countries that don't have proper infrastructure to deal with rising cancer rates. this incredible surveillance video has gone viral. a woman lost control of her truck and barreled into gordy's place bar in minnesota. earlier this morning we asked the bartender to relive the moment when he was inches from being crushed. >> i just moved to that spot like a minute before. i was trying to hear what chuck, the customer at the end, was saying. as i walked over and leaned over the bar, i noticed a telephone

pole going through the parking lot. i heard a bang and then the truck came through. >> six people were hurt but everyone is expected to recover. the bar owner tells us that he plans to reopen as soon as possible. soledad? >> we'll see. that looks like a lot of work they got to do on that place. that's a mess. all right. thank you. bombshell revelation. a new book exposing president obama's secret cyberwar on iran. did he release a weapon that could one day be used against the united states. >> apparently t is for torture. "sesame street" songs used to break down terror suspects at gitmo. we'll take a look. oh, we call it the bundler.

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a bombshell revelation. the first few months after he was elected, president obama ordered ramped up cyberattacks on computer that run iran's main nuclear facilities according to a report in "the new york times." it says that president obama decided to significantly expand an operation called olympic games. it was a program that was started by the bush administration by unleashing a worm. it was developed by the united states and israel jointly and at one point it reportedly took out nearly 1,000 units.

what do we know about these programs? i know the united states has acknowledged developing this kind of cyberwarfare but has not actually said that it is using it, correct? >> nobody has acknowledged it publicly. whether it is any of these computer worms or viruses this is some of the most classified secretive stuff going around the pentagon, the white house and the cia these days. this is cyberwar. as you said it was aimed for many years at going after specifically iran's centerfuges. if you could wreck the computer system that ran them, you could make those break down and stop iran's nuclear development. under president obama by all accounts, and "the new york times" laying it out, this type of warfare was significantly stepped up against iran. the question now is how

successful has it been? has it stopped iran from going ahead with its nuclear programs? if you can do this kind of thing with a computer, you don't need to send b-52s over a country to drop bombs. this is going to be the new leading edge way of doing business if they can. >> this is will. i want to impress upon that point you are making. apparently the big jump that was made here is cyberattack actually resulted in a physical attack, is that right? the worm led to the physical speed up of the spinning resulting in their destruction? >> that's what "the new york times" is reporting. that's pretty much been what's acknowledged. if you could make this worm get inside the system that ran it, they would spin out of control. they would not spin with high tech precision needed to purify

theu the uranium. iran can't get nuclear fuel or you'll slow them down. many will tell you iran repaired some of this and moved ahead and trying to get it together. certainly by all accounts it slowed them down for a long time. it took them a while to figure out what was really going on inside their own plants. >> barbara, this is abby huntsman here, should we worry about retaliation from the iranians? do we know about their cyber capabilities? >> when you talk to people in the pentagon in intelligence circles, they'll tell you that when we talk about this being the leading edge of new war, what happens when somebody does it to the united states? what happens if iran or another so-called enemy country perfects their computer technology and they come after the u.s. banking system? the water and power system of a major american city.

and if you that cyberattack was coming against the united states, that's an act of war according to defense secretary leon panetta and would you take preemptive military action to stop that kind of attack against the united states? this goes far beyond the dr. strange love stuff. this now gets serious. if you're going to have war into cyberspace, there are huge ramifications that perhaps nobody is quite dealing with just yet. a real area of concern for the u.s. military. >> how much of it can be controlled? we know the worm got loose. the worm ended up replicating itself on the internet. there was a problem with the worm and coding. >> that's exactly right. technology can outpace reality these days pretty fast. if you unleash all of this technology, if iran or north korea or some country, china, is huge in cyberwar, if they were

hypothetically to come after the u.s. and that got into u.s. computer systems, where would it go? it's one of the reasons that u.s. business and industry today is so concerned about cybersecurity and protecting their computer systems because they know this is now an international grid. we're not isolated in the united states. our computer systems are vulnerable to attack virtually from anywhere in the world. the next time you open up your laptop and you see an e-mail you're not sure where it came from, don't open it. >> barbara starr, we should mention the article in "the new york times" is written by david singer to be released on tuesday. still ahead this morning on "starting point," marilyn monroe like you've never seen her before. bestselling author lawrence schill schiller shares pictures and stories about the private

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♪ rubber ducky you're the one ♪ you make bathtime lots of fun ♪ >> i like that song. i do. i have sung this very song a million times. ernie singing the rubber ducky song. is it enough to make you confess if someone played it a thousand times? what about cookie monster? >> or elmo's whiney voice. >> not whining. teaching. music from "sesame street" blaring on a loop for an entire day at guantanamo bay forcing prisoners to listen to music from the kids' shows. 24 hours straight in an effort

to break them. officials insist it wasn't torture and interrogators did not abuse detainees. >> the obvious joke for three of us that have children on this panel and i can say that elmo does feel like torture often. are we really to accept this is abuse of prisoners? does anyone feel like this is torture? >> i think your playlist would be a lot worse. >> ow. i love you, abby, but ow. >> i don't think this is torture. i think it's weird. i think it's probably not likely to be successful. i don't think it violates the geneva convention as i understand them. >> they say they weren't trying to torture the prisoners but what is the goal? you put on a loop for 24 hours. you're trying to unhinge people. annoy them. >> it's the same -- >> set them up. >> same as shining a light in a suspect's face while you interrogate them. it's to make them uncomfortable.

take them out of that comfort zone and force truth out of them. i'm not a cia operative obviously. i can't speak to whether or not it works. i can't see any morality judgment where you say this is torture. >> i would agree on that. i don't find those songs tort e torturo torturous. >> that we disagree on. >> maybe because my children are no longer currently listening to it. >> 24 straight hours -- >> there is many a moment i relied on that purple dinosaur. you sit in front of this tv. mommy has to do something. my daughter would be happy to lay it all out for you. she's 11 now. she'll tell you the ways. still ahead on "starting point," we're just minutes away from the release of the crucial may jobs report. christine is going to come back and break it down for us and reaction from the vice chairman of the financial services committee. and marilyn monroe unfiltered. the photographer who spent days with the pinup girl dishes on what he says was her magic and also some of her insecurities.

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welcome back. we're waiting for the big jobs report number for the month of may. some people have predicted something like 150,000. other people saying it may not make that. obviously critical because it has economic implications and maybe even more importantly political implications as well. >> we cover the presidential campaign every day and frankly i think -- >> i hadn't noticed. >> we cover a lot of noise of just stuff people talk about and doesn't matter. this matters. this is actually important in terms of the result of the campaign.

who is going to win? >> you think it hinges on this number? >> it's not the only thing. i think it's a very significant thing. >> this threatens to be noise if not put in the proper context and context is what does the trend look like over several months and what's workforce participation and how many people are looking for jobs. >> christine romans as soon as the numbers come in will break that down for us and give us context. >> the unemployment number, the monthly unemployment numbers and job claims are one piece of evidence in how this economy is doing and not overestimate that. >> it will be clearly evidence if you use that word loosely when it comes to political ads. whatever happens, we're going to see that tomorrow morning being released as a new political ad talking about economic trends. >> that's why the trend is so important. that sets the narrative for both campaigns depending on what the numbers are today. that will play out throughout the coming months. i think obama and his team if the numbers aren't what they are hoping -- they are in a very difficult position. i mean, you can't argue that.

it's really hard to say, you know, after the last four years are the american people's lives going to be better the next four years. >> hard to put your hope on a graph and wait to see how that will come in. christine knows how that graph will look. >> 69,000 jobs created in the month. 69,000 and forecast was 150,000. you did not -- not good. 8.2% unemployment. so unemployment rate went up and you had 69,000 jobs created. you lost 13,000 jobs in government. that means the private sector created 82,000 jobs. that's not enough to keep up with growth and working age population. it confirms this slowdown that we've seen over the past couple of months. what's worse, april we thought it was 115,000 jobs. it was really 77,000. so april was worse than expected. and march, 11,000 fewer jobs in march created only 143,000 there.

so you have three months of less job creation than you thought. government jobs continue to shed. we've been watching the private sector. you want to see more private sector job creation than that. this is the overall picture. every month i bring this to you. this is that horrible jobs drought that we're still feeling the aftereffects of. this is the slow crawl out of it. and now we know really that you've seen three months -- it feels like last spring. it feels like the momentum flagged last spring as well in the labor market and picked up speed in the fall. it's what it feels like again here. you had a couple of good months. now this is the worst job creation in six months or so. i mean, you guys can discuss politics of it. i'll tell you the numbers of it. 69,000 jobs just is disappointing. it confirms what we saw last month which was that it is lackluster jobs recovery. >> just so i'm clear. this is way below expectations. 150,000 by some estimates.

130,000 by other estimates. i heard no one talk about a number like this. >> i wasn't hearing double digits. triple digits. economists were saying that if anything was going to be below -- if it was below 150 they would find that disappointing. you want to see numbers bigger than this to show the economy. a trend for a few years are big companies are creating jo but they are creating more jobs overseas than they are here. the job creation that we've been seeing that's been more consistent is small and mid sized companies that see demand come back and they can't go another second without getting -- i have the report in front of me. they have to add jobs overall. i'm looking quickly to see what the demographic makeup. basically little change in the unemployment rates overall. 8.2%. even though it went up a bit is still staunchanged. 8.2%. the long-term unemployed those

are people who are out of work for 27 weeks or longer rose a little bit here. they're now 42.8% of the people out of work for six months or longer. that's a real structural problem for the economy too. i'll dig into numbers more for you and you can hash out politics. >> lots and lots and lots of bad news for us this morning. thank you. we do appreciate the update. let's bring in the congressman from the great state of texas. >> the great one. >> chairman of the house republican conference. the vice chairman of financial services committee. nice to see you. thank you for talking to us. 69,000. there's no way to spin that as a good number certainly. >> well, absolutely not. it's very disappointing. it's just another confirmation that after 3 1/2 years the president's policies are still failing. after 3 1/2 years, we still have millions of americans either unemployed or underemployed. 40 months now of 8% plus unemployment when the president told us if we passed his

stimulus plan it would never rise above 8%. if the president is going to threaten single largest tax increase in the history of america, provide us with serial trillion dollar deficits and double the amount of regulations on small business and entrepreneurs and then go out and vilify success in the free enterprise system this is what you get. it's disappointing but the president's policies continue to fail. unfortunately many of them aren't working. >> christine broke down the government jobs and private sector job. 82,000 private sector jobs gained. how much of this is a problem of these s&p 500 companies that have moved overseas because when you look at their numbers of job growth, they are doing much better than we're doing here in the united states for those companies overseas. >> the question would be why is anybody wanting to move jobs

overseas? and that is because the presidents's policies have failed and are helping send capital and sending jobs overseas. i mean, the bigger story is just to have a tread the water economy you need 150,000 jobs to keep pace with newe entry. if you look at the labor force participation rate that this monthly unemployment number is based upon, we have had millions just give up and leave the labor force. >> christine was mentioning that a moment ago. when you talk about why are jobs moving overseas and you say because this president. jobs have been moving overseas for decades now. this is not in the last three years suddenly jobs started picking up from s&p 500 companies and moving overseas. it has been 20 plus years of jobs moving overseas because of better opportunities certainly

overseas. >> well, again, i'm not saying that the president created the problem. what i'm saying is he made it worse. it's less inviting for small business people and entrepreneurs to go out and create jobs when the president is again threatening a tax increase 40% of which will fall on small business income when he doubled the number of regulations on our small businesses and entrepreneurs. those policies help send jobs overseas. we need fundamental -- >> one of the striking things about this jobs report and several of the recent months has been that governments have been laying people off. the government hiring is -- just states and localities don't have money to hire people. one of the things you want to do is cut taxes and cut spending. why do you want to see more layoffs of government employees when employment is going down in every -- when employment is such

a problem? >> number one, we have seen a huge buildup particularly of the federal workforce. what we need is to promote economic growth, fundamental tax reform and then frankly this couldn't necessarily have to be any layoffs but you're not going to get fundamental -- you won't get economic growth with this president's policies. what we saw for a long time under the obama administration and under his stimulus program which obviously is clearly failed, we saw private sector jobs lose out while he was increasing federal payrolls whether they needed to be increased or not. the main challenge is how do we get economic growth and americans back to work and we won't get it when the president is threatening to increase taxes on small businesses, when he doubles the regulatory burden. you can't borrow and bailout our way to economic prosperity and this whole politics of division and envy where the president fundamentally attacks free

enterprise system, it's no wonder that businesses aren't going up and investing capital and creating new jobs. that has to change. the president's policies have failed. that's why he turned to politics of division and envy. american people have suffered but we can do better. we know what we need to do. >> congressman jeb hensarling joining us from texas. thank you. we appreciate it. still ahead on "starting point" -- before we go to that. 69,000 jobs being created which was way low. christine and i were talking about this before the show started. she thought 150 sounded hide to her. that's what many estimates were. 69,000. devastating numbers. >> 8.2 unemployment. the big problem here is overall confidence of our country. i think that's the biggest issue that we're dealing with. >> the psychological impact behind the numbers. you're right. add that to the political implications and then the psychological implication is the three legs of the stool there.

absolutely. ahead, we'll talk about some pictures never seen before of marilyn monroe and talk to the photographer behind those iconic prints. he'll join us next right here on "starting point." stay with us. we asked the furlow family to bring in their favorite dvds cause we want to show them something new. you ready? let's go. walmart can now convert your favorite dvds from disc to digital. no way. if hulk smash disc... it's no big deal. now you'll never break them, scratch them or lose them. we can use that. you'll never break them. so what do you guys think? we love it. it's only two bucks per disc. that's cool. that's the walmart entertainment disc to digital service. bring in your favorite dvds to your local walmart photo center to get started. don't go in there. don't go in there. they don't listen. mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere.

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♪ ♪ i want to be loved by you >> marilyn monroe would be 86 years old today if she had survived the drug overdose that took her life. you took iconic swimming pool shots. there they are right there. in honor of the anniversary, he's opening up his archives including never before seen photos of the actress on display

at an exhibit in new york and two new books called "marilyn and me." lawrence schiller joins us this morning. tell me the story behind the pool shots. they are unbelievable. the story is heartbreaking. >> i had met her originally in 1960 when i was 23. photographed her but then the french magazine asked me to photograph her in 1962. i have can be business. what i didn't realize is that she was fighting so many demons in her life. >> she was on the set of "something's got to give." >> she was late every day. she couldn't sleep at night and costing the studio millions of dollars. she decided to use a weapon against the studio. and that was to show she could garnish more publicity than

elizabeth taylor could who was working for the same studio being paid a million dollars. she was only getting 100,000. she resorted the only weapon she had left which was her body. one day she said what would happen if i jumped in the swimming pool with the bathing suit on but come out with nothing on? her press agent said you're kidding. what is this all about? i think i might just do it. that's what she did seven days later. >> how would you describe -- what was the cause of her insecurity? when i look at her photos, i see her sex appeal. she's confident. she's beautiful. she's everything that a woman should be in these photos. what caused that insecurity that ultimately led her to take her life? >> i wasn't with her in her private moments. i didn't walk the beach with her. i wasn't with her at 2:00 in the morning when she wakes up. i can't say. to speculate, i think that as she became more and more desired by the studios, more and more a profit maker for motion pictures, she became very

insecure. it was easier for her to pose for still pictures where she didn't have to talk and she didn't have to walk. i think if she had to walk and talk at the same time, inside she became very confused. >> you and i were talking during the break, she died in 1962. her fame began in the '40s. she had an 18-year run of fame. is there a modern day parallel example we can give of how famous was marilyn monroe? >> we don't remember jean harlow the same way to died at a younger age than marilyn monroe. the great, great actresses of those periods you don't remember. why do we remember marilyn monroe 50 years later? i believe it's because she never offended a woman. i believe that young girls, they don't mind if their boyfriends or husbands look at the pictures. they themselves see this innocence and this insecurity and many people say to themselves, if i was there, i

could have saved marilyn monroe. i would have helped her. >> i was reading your book. what was the story with robert kennedy? >> well, i wasn't in the bedroom with them. i was at the house one day bringing some pictures for her to approve. i had stopped by a little earlier than i should have. i'm in the backyard waiting for her and all of a sudden i see through the window ed walk in first and a minute later bobby kennedy walks in. >> ed was an aide to robert kennedy. >> he was an aide when bobby was in the justice department and pulitzer prize winning writer as you know. later on i would work with ed photographing bobby kennedy's campaign. they walked out in the backyard waiting for marilyn. i'm on the other side of the pool. i just kind of walked up and introduced myself. i had not met bobby kennedy before. and he was in a polo shirt and she comes out on the other side of the pool in a bathing suit, jumps in the water. kennedy's face kind of lights

up. he starts swimming toward this side of the pool. of course in my mind ten days earlier i photographed her coming out of the pool with nothing on. so i wondered if that's what we would have. she came out with her bathing suit. i saw them together. i don't know how deep that relationship was. >> you wrote a lot about how she wasn't the marilyn that you knew was not the marilyn that people talk about. she was sort of all of the bad stories, the drugs, the loneline loneliness, you saw something different. who was marilyn you knew? >> i saw a tremendously insecure woman who at one point when i was talking to her, my first wife and judy were going to have our second child and she went almost inside of herself saying i want to have a baby but i can't have a baby. my mother was in a mental hospital. i think she said something about her father attempting suicide. and she got so much emotional

and then she said my body rejects the baby but i want the baby. then she snapped out of it. just like a light switch. i saw those moments, which were -- i also saw the very strong business calculating woman who said when you accomplipublish these pictures, i don't want to see elizabeth taylor inside of those magazines. that was a condition of sale. >> the book is "marilyn and me." a beautiful book. you can find it this size but also the expensive version. we can get a shot of this. look at this. this is the $1,000 copy table book. wow. it's amazing. >> this is a picture my daughter says this picture says everything but shows nothing. >> very true. nice to have you. thank you for being with us this morning. >> my pal, larry. good to see you. we covered the o.j. case together. and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning.. you can feel.

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welcome back. a familiar story line. super heros joining forces to tackle a crisis. today we catch up with a team doing just that to help aids orphans in africa. ♪ >> marie was a nanny in the u.s. when she started a school for aids orphans in her native malawi. honored in 2008, she's joined forces two other honorees. one was recognized in 2010 for

his work feeding schoolchildren around the globe. >> he started the organization in malawi. i just asked him to consider us. >> i was struck by her. i felt we were people who could work together. >> this is the stove. >> today the organization provides free porridge daily to all of marie's students. >> am i giving them too much? >> his support means the children will always have something to eat. he is a saint to me. >> 2010 honoree makes solar lanterns for rural african communities. evans visited marie's school and his team taught students to build their own lamps. >> for the family, it cuts the cost and for the children it is helping them to study. motivated our kids to be inventors. they have come up with their own little models. >> now marie's students will supply lamps to their community. with creativity and compassion, these cnn heroes are helping

each other to change even more lives. >> cnn heroes coming together to work together. it's a family. how sweet is that? >> to nominate someone that you know who is making a difference, go to cnnheroes.com. end point is up next. stay with us. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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a minute for end point. who wants to start? >> i'll start. we had a nice conversation earlier this morning about whether or not coke is bad for you and that amount of sugar intake is good for your health or bad for your health. we talked about regulation that mayor bloomberg is proposing will work. we neglected to talk about two other angles. unintended consequences of every law, will it produce more plastic if you buy two bottles versus one although they are smaller and we need to focus on morality of interfering in the concept of freedom even when you think someone is doing something better for themselves than th