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capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. bottom of the hour now. welcome back everyone. i'm randi kaye. here are some of the stories we are watching now. isaac is now weaker but dumping a lot of rain. ? a strange twist, it's what the midwest needs. as we speak, isaac is moving through the u.s. crippled by drought this summer. not before leaving hundreds of thousands in the dark along the gulf coast and killing at least four people. the scene, certainly one of heart break. mitt romney may have beat him to the scene, but president obama heads to louisiana monday to see the damage for himself. louisiana was one of the stops for romney as he tries to build on the momentum from the republican convention. jim acosta has more.

>> reporter: randi, instead of visiting three battleground states, romney made a surprise visit to new orleans to see the storm damage after tropical storm isaac. in this two month sprint to the finish, there will be twists and turns along the way. >> mitt romney! >> reporter: just before take off from florida, romney picked up where he left off returning to a sales pitch to independent voters who chose the president four years ago. >> he laid out what he would do. he was unable to do it. it's time to give someone new a chance. hold us accountable. >> reporter: joining the gop, the star of the convention, ann romney. >> give this man a chance and he will not fail. >> reporter: his running mate, paul ryan, tried to set the terms for the debate to come. >> this is the chance where we have a choice. do we want the failed leadership, the stagnant economy, the debt crisis, the welfare state or do we want the

opportunity society that american idea where american can define happiness for themselves? >> reporter: romney was showing off a newly wrapped campaign. he dropped a planned trip to virginia to survey the damage left by isaac in louisiana. >> i have a lot of questions for you. i'm here to learn and draw attention to what's going on here so people around the country know the folks here need help. >> reporter: there was cleaning up to do after the convention that had nothing to do with all those balloons. >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. >> reporter: clint eastwood's script with an empty chair that was supposed to be president obama had some cheering. the romney family was not laughing. >> we appreciated clint's support. he's a unique guy and did a

unique thing. >> reporter: the campaign defended the actor saying judging an american icon like clint eastwood through a political lens doesn't work. the ad libbing was a break and the crowd enjoyed it. the president's twitter account took notice sending out this tweet at eastwood and romney saying this seat is taken. >> not a word about his record in massachusetts where job growth was 47th out of 50. >> reporter: signs of the tough fight to come, the obama campaign countered romney's speech and biden offered a rebuttal of his own in ohio. >> we do not think you grow the economy from the millionaires down. you build it from the middle class out. >> reporter: they are down playing a post convention bump in the polls. they did one up the president in one category, getting to louisiana first. president obama arrives here on monday. randi?

>> jim, thank you. now to central afghanistan where 12 people are dead, 57 others wounded following a series of explosions. afghan explosions say two suicide bombers targeted a joint u.s. military base. mostf the casualties are civilians, four afghan police officers died. no u.s. troops were killed. a warning now. what you are about to see is very hard to watch. a disturbing case of apparent military hazing caught on tape. it happened in april in ft. bragg, north carolina. it shows a sergeant struck hard in the chest with a wooden mallet. after a few seconds, he bends over, then he eventually falls to the ground. his father is an eight year army veteran and is furious about what happened to his son. >> i would like to see him charged with assault. that's assault. he could have killed my son. you sign kids up to go into the

military and know their lives are in danger. but you don't expect to have a phone call that says -- he's got seizures because someone hit him with a wooden mallet. >> they say it wauz clear incident of hazing. three soldiers are in court accused of plotting to kill president obama. we'll tell you why chaos erupted in the courtroom in the middle of their trial. [ bleep ]

. it reads like a tom clancy

novel but it is real. now two people are dead. three soldiers from ft. stuart in georgia are accused of plotting to kill the president, overthrow a military be and charged with killing a fellow soldier and his girlfriend to keep their plan secret. joining me to talk about is it nick. nick, good morning. >> morning. >> this is bizarre. really troubling. how far along were the plans? >> that's the question. w legitimate were the plans in the first place? federal prosecutors are saying something different than other prosecutors. they think they were close to overthrowing the government and assassinating president obama. >> this is a strange case. we showed a clip of it there before the break. when the stepfather lunged at the defendant, what happened? >> there was apparently, the emotions got the best of him.

he saw an opportunity to get toward the defendant. there's obviously a lot of emotions in this case. there's different opinions between prosecutors. we know two people were killed. this happened in december. a former soldier and his girlfriend taken into the woods under the assumption they are going to target practice. they were shot and killed. federal investigators got involved in the probe. state investigators alleging they planned to overthrow the ft. stewart, poison apple ar chards in washington. very bizarre stuff. >> it sounds bizarre. are they looking for the death penalty in this case? >> they are. there are four men facing charges. one pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges to not face the death penalty. prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the other three. the master mind in this holds

the lowest rank in the army. he's never seen combat before. he had a bankroll of money that the others in the group were following behind him. >> it doesn't end here, right? one of the soldiers is investigated for murdering his wife? >> bizarre circumstances throughout the story, randi. very nuanced here. what happened with his wife, we don't know. it's being investigated. prosecutors are saying highly suspicious. his wife was five months pregnant at the time the baby was lost. highly suspicious circumstances into her death. we don't know how closely involved he was in this. >> yeah. there was insurance money, possibly? >> $500,000. that's what is funding the project prosecutors say. >> all right nick, strange one for sure. thank you. clint eastwood and his conversation with an empty chair. it is one of the most talked about events from this week's republican national convention.

opinions are all over the map. bill santiago cant wait to share his thoughts. here he is, ready go. first, veterans returning from wars in iraq and afghanistan often come home to fight another battle to find a job. one army vet tried to use what he learned in the military to start a business. here is this week's, how we got started. in 2003, i was deployed with the 101st airborne division as part of operation iraqi freedom. when i came home, i didn't have a plan. i decided to do something i was good at. when i was a leader in the army, you are asked to weed soldiers into combat situations that are stressful. being trained for that allowed me to have the courage and the confidence to be able to do what i did in the army on the civilian side. >> reporter: in 2008, he started empower in middleton,

connecticut. it's an outdoor facility that teaches. >> get them a step out of the comfort zone and push themselves more. they are going to learn and grow from that. >> reporter: he used different networking to help it succeed. >> using chamber of commerce and organizations that are willing to help veterans. good posture. >> reporter: the company has been profitable since 2009. he has employees and the business is growing. >> all the adventure activities the army uses to train officers and leaders i thought would be a good concept to bring to the general public. the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you.

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welcome back. the tweets head scratching and of course jokes keep pouring in about clint eastwood's rnc speech. we have more on the appearance that stole the republican convention spotlight. michelle? >> there was a lot of mixed reaction over clint eastwood's speech thursdays night but the best way to describe it is borrow the game from "the good, p dad and the ugly." >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy.

>> this set the twitter verse on fire. i want to give you an idea what was being talked about. star jones tweeted, i can't believe i just watched clint eastwood turn into somebody's drunk uncle harry. he humiliated himself. "saturday night live" star got a kick out of it. he tweeted, that was so awesome. the obama administration couldn't resist. after the speech, they posted the following photo on the president's twitter page. it shows president obama sitting in a chair with the caption, this seat is taken. now, as far as the gop is concerned, they don't seem too concerned with it. they seem pleased with the address. judging an american icon like clint eastwood doesn't work. his ad libbing was a break from the political speeches. the crowd enjoyed it.

he pointed out that 23 million americans out of work or unemployed is a national disgrace and it's time for a change. they believe clint made their day. but, let's face it. you know, it is very hard to ignore all of those awkward moments. back to you. >> thank you very much. i want to go straight to our resident comedian, bill santiago. good morning, bill. >> good morning, randy. >> loving the pink on you. >> thank you. >> everyone is talking about eastwood's speech more than romney's speech. this can't be good for the candidate, can it? >> it's supposed to be romney's night and he was up staged by eastwood's keynote embarrassment of the evening. i love the guy. i love his movies, but hen he makes a movie, there's a script. this was live, improv from a man not taking his vitamins.

he was off his meds. you end up with the longest, most painfully senior moment. it reminded me a lot of reagan. that was also another option. they could have gone with the reagan hologram. but the hologram might have gotten nominated instead of mitt. you end up with a talking chair. >> it was bizarre. >> yeah. the whole convention was geared to humanize romney, right? everything was about making him seem more per son like. that was a tough sell. they had to dehumanize obama. >> some people were offended by this empty chair. do you think it was an overreaction? >> no, if you think about it, the first thing that came to my mind was the novel invisible man, a 1940s novel by ralph

ellison about an african-american who felt perceived as invisible by society because of his race at the time and now here comes eastwood with the updated message saying, look, even if you are the black, you're still invisible. we should be thankful he didn't throw peanuts at the chair. he went over his time. if he had stuck to it, jan brewer would have come out and wagged her finger at the chair. >> they needed the music to get him off the stage. lots of fun. thank you. >> lots of fun. >> have a good day. >> thank you. bye-bye. >> clint eastwood wasn't the only one that seemed off the mark. a couple of other claims that made us take notice. true or false? we will set the record straight right here saturday morning.

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the republicans wrapped up their convention this week in tampa, florida. it was a big party with lots of

stars and lots of speeches, although everyone really just remembers one. the clint eastwood empty chair speech. this was a chance for republicans to make their case to the american people. largely they hit their marks. we wanted to take a closer look at a few of the bigger claims so we had our tom foreman check the facts. >> hey, randi, let's take a look at fave of fast five checks from tampa. gop roared with a claim that president obama is trying to turn america into a welfare state. take it away rick santorum. >> this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waving the work requirement for wealthy? >> really? not really. the white house eased some regulations for some states trying to find out better ways to get people on welfare working. on the wall of their convention the republicans had a giant display showing the soaring national debt.

no one is more sore about it than kentucky senator rand paul. >> president obama's administration will add nearly $6 trillion to our national debt in just one term, and i'm hoping it's just one term. >> that's massive. can it be right? in january 2009 when barack obama took the oath, the national debt stood at $10.6 trillion. now it's at $15.9 trillion. so by next january, yeah, could be in the ballpark. though certainly that reflects an awful lot of spending commitments that predate the obama presidency. still the numbers say the claim is true. vice presidential contender paul ryan said candidate barack obama visit add gm plant in 2008 and said with government support it could stay open another 100 years. >> well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another ye. it is locked up and empty to

this day. >> most of the plant closed before the president even took office in january 2009. the last 57 jobs went when the rest of it was shut down in april of that year. so while the exact statement is true, the implication is based on wildly incomplete information implying that mr. obama broke a promise to that plant, which is not the case. the big man mitt romney sounds ready to fight over the president's plans to the military. >> his trillion dollar cuts to the military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and also put our security at greater risk. >> a trillion dollars is roughly accurate but mr. obama doesn't own all of that. much of it is a result of a deal congress reached last year for automatic cuts when lawmakers could not agree on a budget deal and their impact on national security is debated. finally ohio governor john kasich made a crack about joe biden saying the republican vice president claims to be a good

golfer. horrors. they ranked 150 golfers in washington and joe biden came in 29th with a 6.3 handicap. he's an excellent golfer. in in who says otherwise has shanked the truth off into the rough. >> that's the republican convention. of course the democrats have their this week in charlotte. tom foreman will back with us next weekend to check their facts. in writing the book, he may have broken the law. next hour we'll talk about s.e.a.l. team six who has the bngz crying foul.

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