man" went on sale but even then it was pulling in half a million bucks every week and ten years later, it's on amazon's top dvd comedy list and for the next two months it will all be about ron burgundy. stay class sigh, san diego. erin, thanks. tonight only on 360 robert f. kennedy jr. will talk about tonight's reaction to tonight's breaking news, the possible release of his cousin skak l. he was sentenced 20 years to life and his murder sentence was set aside today and he could be free perhaps as early as tomorrow a. judge ruling his defense attorney provided ineffective counsel years ago in the 1975 killing of martha

moxley. in a moment, bobby kennedy jr. who has long maintained his cousin's innocence but first debra and how this begun. >> reporter: the last time martha moxley was found alive was the night before halloween 1975. she went to a party with friends and seen flitting with 17-year-old thomas skakel. she never returned home. the next day her body was found in her yard in connecticut stabbed to death but a broken golf club found near her body. that club was traced back to the skakel home but in prints found. >> they hit her so hard the golf club broke and took the shaft and stabbed her six or seven times. >> reporter: suspicion immediately fell on thomas skakel. next the tutor that moved in the with the family the day of the

murder but police didn't charge either of them siting a lack of evidence. for two decades the case languished and a series of books renewed interest and led to new tips and a new suspect in january of 2000, 40-year-old michael skakel, thomas skakel's little brother. michael was also 15 at the time of the crime, which meant 25 years later, he would be charged as a juvenile. he turned himself into police after an arrest warrant was issued, all the while proclaiming innocence. >> to my knowledge, this is no physical evidence, dna evidence, scientific evidence, anything that links him to the crime. >> reporter: a number of witnesses placed him at the crime scene the night. two witnesses heard skakel boosting he could get away with it because he was a kennedy. it was said he killed her in a jealous rage. the defense ruled he should be

charged as an adult. >> everyone assumes he's been guilty. he's been arrested. he's a kennedy cousin. there is books, movies, disinformation and no one really knows the story. the jury trial will expose the evidence to the public. >> reporter: the trial began in 2002, skakel was found guilty and sentenced 20 years to life for moxley's murder. >> i can't give up. martha was very special. i had two children, and to lose one was a major, major thing and i'm just not going to give up. >> as we said earlier, robert f. kennedy jr. maintained his cousin's evidence and joins us with jeffrey toobin. welcome to both of you. mr. kennedy, thanks for joining us. you've long maintained your cousin's innocence, and i know you do want to get to some specifics why you say he's innocent, but he me start off by asking about you reaction to tonight's news. >> well, i think everybody who

knows michael is over joyed with it. we actually, my family, prays every night for michael skakel and has done so for 12 years that he gets justice, and so this is a -- this is really a -- it's -- it's a -- it's a blessed event for us. >> have you been in touch with michael? i mean, when is the last time you talked to him? how is he doing? >> well, he wasn't doing too well, but he was -- you know, he was in jail for 12 years for a crime that he didn't commit, and the jail that he was in was not like a country club jail. it was a very, very tough place, and he was -- he had a tough time there. >> now your mother -- >> lucky -- go ahead. >> your mother is ethal kennedy. she's obviously also michael's aunt. i'm wondering if you had a chance to speak to your mother

about this, and what her reaction has been. >> no, i haven't but i know that she'll be over joyed. she knows, also, that michael is innocent. anybody who looks at the evidence to this case, you know, michael was 11 miles away with five eyewitnesss at the time that murder was committed. he has an airtight alibi, but unfortunately, he had -- he was very poorly represented, and the lawyer in the case did not call those witnesses. one witness who said that michael confessed who died of a heroin overdose, gregory coleman, prior to the trial and his testimony had to be read at the trial admitted previously that during his testimony of the grand jury he was high on heroin. during his testimony at the evidence hearing he was on

heroin and many testified he was a pathological liar and the only reason he appeared was to collect the reward money. >> i want to bring in my colleague and cnn legal analyst jeffrey toobin. i know you two know each other well. jeffrey, you covered this case. you said you were stunned. >> stunned, amazed and stunned at the reasoning of the judge. >> i want to get into some specifics. just to bring people up to speed. this happened in 1975. the trial was in 2002. what is happening now, 11 years later in 2013. >> he has exhausted every appeal. he directly appealed the conviction. filed for rid of habeas corpus alleging that his lawyer micki herman was incompetent. he received ineffective assistance of counsel, a claim that is made all the time in our courts and almost never succeeds. it is simply astonishing it succeeds. >> so he had a bad lawyer. >> he had a bad lawyer. there is lots of bad lawyers out

there. why michael skakel gets out because of that is a mystery. >> do you think he gets out? >> i think he'll be out within the week. i think he is now -- his conviction is set aside and he is a good bail risk. he's not a danger to the community. he is not going to flee. i think he is going to get out on bail. >> i want you to address points mr. kennedy is making, as well, but let me go back to you mr. kennedy for a second. you say you know -- you know who actually committed the murder of martha moxley and do authorities, people investigating this, do they have the same information you have? >> the police -- well the police officer investigated this was a police who was really responsible -- it was a group of people who were responsible for orchestrating the conviction of michael skakel. one was mark firman, dominic dunn, both writers and the third was frank gar who was what i

would call a crooked police officer who was just dog in his determination to put one of the skakel's in jail and dug up evidence from people who were absolutely incredible. since i published an article i think in 2003 in the "atlantic monthly" about the case after the trial, and after that i was contacted by one of the people by a man named toby bryant, who is a cousin of the basketball player kobe bryant and toby bryant told me he was there the night of the murder and the men that murdered martha moxley, that pry yr to the murder they were going to, they would take her cave man style. two kids from new york city. very big man 6'3", 250 pounds who now lives in bridge port,

connecticut, one lives in portland, oregon. i've spoken to both of them. one of them is black. when martha moxley's body was found, it was covered with hairs from a black person -- >> wait a second, robert -- let me interrupt for one second. >> is this jeffrey toobin? >> yes. your article in the atlantic -- >> you should disclose that from the beginning you have absolutely been dogging long before michael was convicted that michael is guilty and that was your bias from the beginning -- >> no my bias. [ overlapping speakers ] >> my bias was watching the trial and the evidence and i like the jury thought he was guilty but i read in today's opinion was that the judge completely rejected the whole kobe bryant thing, toby bryant thing and objected the argument micki sherman made and your

argument in the "atlantic" article the real killer was tim littleton -- >> no -- >> what the judge said -- >> you're up to it again. you're twisting the facts here. the judge in this trial said that micki was unaware -- that he would not fault micki for not having found kobe bryant -- i mean tony bryant and those -- and the gentlemen with tony bryant. so he didn't reject that theory of the case, he didn't fault micki for not finding them -- >> this is the key point, is that the judge said the evidence all points to your other cousin, thomas skakel. he says the failure -- >> do you know what? >> do you -- >> this is what you did -- >> that the what the judge said. >> this is what you did with michael. you're trying to convict somebody before they have a trial. thomas skakel has never been on

trial for this, and i never said that kenny littleton did this murder and i wouldn't do that because i wouldn't convict somebody before they went on trial like you do, jeffrey. what i said is the stronger -- >> thomas -- >> i said -- >> what i said was stronger evidence against many other people than michael skakel and what his attorney failed to do, which any attorney their first year criminal attorney would do studying criminal law is you bring in that evidence because that goes to reasonable doubt. if you can point to somebody else and say, this person is more likely to have committed this crime than the person whose on trial, why that is the basis for reasonable doubt. and that's what -- >> now he's got a point. >> the judge was not saying that tommy skakel was guilty and you should apologize to tommy skakel for besmerging his name like you did for a year on cnn against my

cousin michael skakel who was innocent of this crime and 11 miles away with five eyewitnesss and micki sherman failed to turn up and were right in front of him and that's why the judge said that he was reversing this because those people said he was not there. >> but -- >> he's right about that. >> so jeffrey, let me ask, so that evidence sounds pretty compelling. what he's essentially saying is michael skakel was 11 miles away and there were eyewitnesss. is this incompetence of his lawyer again? >> it is. robert kennedy and i disagree about a lot of this but he's certainly right the failure here was to raise other avenues of defense. when micki sherman did in that trial is bet everything on the defense, ken littleton the tutor did it which i thought from day one was a very inplausible

theory. certainly tommy skakel was a suspect but what micki did not do was point the finger at home and that's the core of the judge's opinion and he's now -- >> you know what, i can tell, jeffrey -- >> i'm trying to agree with you. >> the first 20 pages -- >> i know. you read the first 20 pages of the decision. you didn't read the sections about higgins and coleman and the other witnesses. >> i certainly did. >> he talks about tommy skakel during the first part of the opinion but it's 136-page opinion and i can see -- i mean, he just released it. don't blame you for not having read the whole thing, but, you know, for you to settle on tommy skakel and say on national tv that tommy skakel did this -- >> i didn't say that. >> that's unethical and you shouldn't do it and it's the same thing you did to michael skakel did it for a year. >> i said it -- >> you said it again and again, jeffrey. again and again, jechry. >> there is no question a long history here. let me read a statement,

quickly, if i can. a statement from micki sherman that says i've always believed in michael's innocence. i'm happy for his release. that was obtained by sunny hostin and his attorney back in 2002. look, we'll have to leave it at that, and we -- we'll see what happens tomorrow, if he actually is out of prison. robert f. kennedy jr., jeffrey to be. martha moxle yy's mother wi speak to piers morgan next hour. one calling for people responsible to lose their jobs. and later, tragedy strikes another school as one more community mourns a fallen teacher. well, there's hannah, maddie, jen, sara m., sara b., sa -- whoa, whoa. hold on. (under his breath) here it comes... we can't forget about your older sister! thank you, thank you, thank you! seriously? what? i get 2x the thankyou points on each ticket.

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total your car and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? in raw politics, the health care mess drawing critics not just from the accordable care act but those who want to preserve it. once saying heads should roll and also today, president obama brief congressional democrats and health care executives at the white house. spokesman jay carney has now promised daily briefings from health and human services on all of these website problems. in the meantime, house

republicans prepared for hearings tomorrow and as we mentioned, a number of democrats began voicing concern and criticism. dana bash joins us now with all this and dana, these democrats are making their displeasure known, i think more than we've seen before. what can you tell us? >> that's right, they are. it is mostly democrats in the senate who are up for reelection next year because they realize politically they need to get in a place where they are aggressive and making constituents know they are as frustrated as they are and a senator from new hampshire one of the 2014 democrats as we call them sent a letter to the president saying she thinks the enrollment deadline, which is now march 31st, should be delay add couple months because of the problems that people have getting on the federal website and she was joined by the end of the day by mark baggage, democrat from alaska, mark prior from arkansas all up for reelection next year and in

fact, sanjay, i was told by a democratic strategist you would probably expect to see most of those targeted, those who are the most vulnerable saying the same thing or going further by the day's end because they are being encouraged by democratic political strategist to not wait, not in the words of one be listless and not be quiet and accept these problems. >> what is the white -- i mean, the white house, are they hearing this or do you see any action or what are you hearing from them? >> certainly, they are hearing it. they understand the politics, even the democrats have to face with regard to these problems. but one thing that they are also going to have to face is legislation. joe mansion, another democrat not up for reelection but from a very conservative state, west virginia will release legislation next week, sanjay, to say that he wants to delay the penalty that people will have to pay if they don't get health insurance for a year because he is saying why should people pay if they aren't actually able to get on the

website? it's a fairness issue. >> if it's too hard to actually sign up. >> correct. >> these are democrats, again. dana, thanks so much for that. i want to get more with chief political analyst gloria boringer and democratic strategist paul and welcome to all of you. lots to talk about. paul, you are no stranger to damage control. damage control in the white house. were you surprised? i mean, i talked to the secretary sebelius last night and she told me the president was not aware, made aware of the problems before the launch, and there were some significant problems out there. i mean, first of all, does that make sense to you, and why would that possibly be? >> it makes sense. it's a big mistake, but it makes sense. nobody likes to carry bad news to the president of the united states. after all, he's got his finger on the nuclear button. you don't want to make him mad. frankly the more loyal thing to do would be come to him and sir

i got real problems here and clearly there are problems and the winning message in obama care has been for a year or more, end it don't end it. it went up. four polls in the last week show more support, not because people like computer glitches, it's because they don't want to do away but fix it and you see the smart democrats running say well adjust the deadline here or there, mend it don't end i want that will win in the polls. >> let me just follow up quickly, paul on that point, though. the white house really has been driving the development of this website all along, not secretary sebelius. yet, whenever the white house is asked about it, they say talk to hhs, talk to the secretary. i mean, it seems like a lot of this. that's what people are seeing. no one is taking responsibility or accountability. is that what it seems to you, as well? >> as i understand it, it website was put together by health and human services and cms, which is the center for medicaid and medicare services.

it runs medicaid and medicare, and those are the folks who are supposed to have have been coming up with this and ultimately, the secretary is responsible for that. nobody thinks that the white house, which actually, as a federal agaency is a small one, when i worked there was 1200 people would put together these exchanges covering 35 states. what you're seeing is computer glitches, but what the white house needs to do and is doing is explaining to people, 85% of us get the benefits of obama care without ever having to go online. i've got a college kid that just turned 21 a few weeks ago, hey, i get to cover him. my mom gets mamma grams and my dad has a donut hole with prescription drugs that don't bankrupt him. those are the messages the white house is putting out. >> that's what the president led with with the speech in the rose garden.

chloe, one thing, the chapping the entire website and starting from scratch, that's not the focus now specifically, but how big a political liability is that for the president? >> you know -- >> ask some other democrats? >> i don't think there is any indication, sanjay, that they would scrap this and start over again. what they are trying to do is change a flat tire where they are going 50 miles an hour and it's really hard and a huge poll lit kit liability for them right now. they are probably longing for the good old days of the shutdown, because during the shutdown, the popularity of obama care went up. the popularity of government itself went up and we spent the last two weeks talking how the republicans were stepping on their own message about health care reform. well now the president's message that paul stated is being stepped on by his own team, whether it was hhs or whoever you want to point the finger at. now they are finding that they

have to explain and answer republicans who are now saying look, if you want the government to run your health care, look at how well they were running this website. so do you trust them? so you give that whole line of thought another -- another life and as you -- as dana pointed out earlier, democrats are running scared who are running for reelection in red states. >> let's talk more about how significant this website is. alice, let me bring you in. john boehner advising republicans not to focus on the website. assuming that's eventually going to be fixed, he's counseling them to focus on gloria saying what this problem with the website might represent overall. is that a wise approach, do you think? >> well, that's certainly one approach and i think the key is is that this is more than a glitch. this is a systematic failure with the rollout of obama care and it's based on the fact that the website was not set up properly and one of the key

things is that in your interview with secretary sebelius last night, one of the key questions you asked is administration open to delaying the fine? she said no, that's not really the question it's wornlt we can continue to make this thing work. the key is this does not work and the problems with the rollout are similar mat tick of the overall illness of obama care and the fact that now that -- after all this time republicans asked to delay the implantation, we have key house democrats or senate democrats asking for it and being very hypocrite kill for the president to delay at this point but he absolutely needs to and to paul's point, nobody likes to deliver bad news this was not ready to be rolled out. when you isolate the person at the top and don't deliver the important news, it shows an overall systematic failure in leadership that he does not want to receive the information and those under him don't feel the responsibility to provide it and that's where we are where we are today. >> we'll talk about this for days and weeks to come i have a

feeling but tonight, we'll have to leave it there. thanks so much. thanks for joining us. coming up, my somewhat remarkable conversation, i would say with dick cheney. his heart problems, how he's doing now and a bombshell how far he went to protect his heart from get this, a potential terrorist attack. also, another school shooting. people mourning another fallen teacher that made a difference in so many lives. ♪ dial up my n ♪ weaving it through the wire ♪ switch me on ♪ i want to touch you ♪ you're just made for love ♪ i need ooh la la la la la it guides you to a number that will change

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teacher at a nevada middle school and another beloved teacher is being mourned today. 24-year-old colleen was found dead in the woods s 20 miles noh of boston. blood was found in the bathroom where she taught math and a 14-year-old student at the school is in custody charged with murder. don lemon has the latest. >> reporter: colleen ritzer just graduated college in 2011, a knew teacher, just 24 years. >> to be take son tragically is awful. >> reporter: a young teacher whose ideas and passions for her teachers spilled on facebook, twitter. >> a wonderful lady. she was always the teacher to go the extra mile for students. >> reporter: so why would 14-year-old phillip chishi kill her. he beat her to death, tossed her body behind the school she

loved. >> the defendant before the court is 14. >> the fact that he's arraigned in the adult court -- >> reporter: investigators allege he incriminated himself in interviews with police and there was evidence on video cameras, blood in a second floor bathroom. >> he's quiet. kept to himself. new to society, didn't seem bad. just a quiet normal kid. >> reporter: the discovery of her body was a surprise ending to what started tuesday as a hunt for missing student phillip chisim. he was new to the community. had recently moved there from tennessee. facebook lit up with the search for the high school soccer player. phillip is my neighbor said one post. he's a polite and friendly boy. i play for his safe return. then a twist, his family contacted police to say she was missing. >> as a result of that report, the police initiate add search for the teacher and discovered blood in the second floor

bathroom at the high school sglp the beating did kill and murder such person. >> reporter: the teen was found in a nearby town, the teacher's body sometime later. >> you couldn't find a more precious girl than colleen, yeah. very special. you don't expect that to happen, you know, if you had a kid that might have been on drugs or hanging around the wrong group of people, but she was perfect. >> reporter: they will ask a grand jury to indict him as an adult. >> in this case the defendant wishes to have services to evaluate him. i think the case speaks for itself. >> reporter: the case doesn't speak to the mystery surrounding his possible motives as the community gathers to grieve the loss. >> and don lemon joins me now live. don, do we know anything about a possible motive here and also the relationship between this victim and suspect? >> reporter: still no motives.

the only thing they would say is that he incriminated -- according to sources incriminated himself when police were speaking with him. so no motive there. but the only relationship that anyone knows about is that he was indeed her student. that's according to the prosecutor's office. that just came out on just a short time ago, sanjay and i just have to say there is a memorial here at the school that's just letting out and hard. we've been standing here watching the faces of the people leaving this memorial, and it's really just heart breaking. >> covered too many tragedies like this, don, you and i this past year. thanks for bringing the story. just ahead, my interview with dick cheney who is just now revealing how close to death he came before the heart transplant and how his survival chance setted with 9/11 and other crucial moments in this nation's history. mmmhmmm...everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller?

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you know, for the first time we're learning details about dick cheney's fight for survival. he has a book called "heart." as a doctor was wondered how cheney was being advised by his doctors. in an interview that first aired on 60 minutes we talked about how close he came to death and the surprising details was the unprecedented action he took just 67 days after becoming visit president. >> basically what i did was i

resigned the vice presidency effective march 28th of 2001. >> so nearly for your entire time as vice president there was a letter of resignation. >> pending. >> reporter: he discovered there was no provision in the constitution to replace a president who was alive but incapacitat incapacitated. >> in accordance on section 20 of title 3 of the united states coat i richard b. cheney here by resign the office of vice president of the united states. >> how did president bush react when you told him? >> he was a little surprised, but he thought it was a good idea. >> reporter: it was just three years ago cheney says that people gasped when they saw how frail he had become. today, just 20 months after the heart transplant, chaney's weight is back to normal, the color returned to his skin and he has no shortness of breath. >> how are you feeling? >> fantastic. now i'm to the point where i

literally, you know, feel like i have a new heart, a lot more energy than i had previously. there aren't real physical limits on what i did. i fish, i hunt, and i don't ski but that's because of my knee, not my heart, so it's been a miracle. >> reporter: dick cheney is a product of modern medicine at its best. he has suffered five heart attacks, undergone open heart surgery, multiple catheters and angie owe plasties and a pump attached directly to his heart, all of that before the transplant at age 71. each time he reached the point of death, a breakthrough in medical technology extended his life. bad hearts run in dick cheney's family and early on he did little to take care of himself. he had the first cigarette at age 12 and by the time he was president ford's chief of staff at age 34, his daily staples

included fatty food, beer and up to three packs a day. >> all the cigarette companies donated cigarettes in a white box with gold trim around item bossed with the presidential seal. it was kind of a -- if you're a cocktail party or meeting in washington and you whipped out your presidential cigarettes and lit it up with a pack of matches from air force one, that was sort of a status symbol. >> reporter: after the first white house stint cheney returned to wyoming to run for congress. at just 37 his genetics and his lifestyle caught up with him. he suffered his first heart attack and doctors thought he should quit the race, but he didn't want to hear it. >> you were pretty persuasive because they said it would be wise to drop out of this at the present time. >> they said that in the medical records. >> they didn't tell you that? >> well, i don't recall. what i took away from the conversations is that hard work never killed anybody. >> patients like to hear what they want to hear.

>> that might have been the case here, as well, too, but they also emphasized stress comes from doing something you don't want to do. >> he won that election and five more after that but his heard disease was steadily progressing. by the time he took over as president bushest secretary of defense in 1999 he under went quadruple by pass surgery. it was a time on global upheaval and dick cheney was in the center of ate ait all. the first gulf war. >> army, snavy and marines prepare for one of the largest land assaults of all times. >> looking back, do you think the stress affected your health and heart disease? >> i don't buy the notion that it contributed to my heart disease. it was, in fact, that getting back to work, getting back to that job, whatever that job might be was important enough

that i -- in fact, kept them separate would be the way to think about it. >> i wonder as a doctor is that plausible? can you really keep such a significant medical history and such a significant job separate? >> i did. >> reporter: but when george w. bush asked cheney to be his running made in 200, there was enough concern that the bush campaign sought out the opinion of a well-known texas heart surgeon. after speaking with cheney's cardiologist, the doctor told the bush campaign that cheney was in good health with normal cardiac function. >> the normal cardiac function wasn't true. >> i'm not responsible for that. i don't know what took place between the doctors. >> this idea that you have this respected heart surgeon from texas who didn't see you, didn't examine you and then write something saying you have normal cardiac function, that just wasn't true mr. vice president. >> go ask denton cooly about

that -- >> you saw it -- >> listen to me. i apted the task of being vice president and there is no question, i think, based upon the fact that i did it for eight years that they were right. >> how were they able to say that you were able to do the job? >> the way i look at it sanjay, i didn't seek the job. the president came to me and asked me to be the vice president. the party nominated me. the doctors that consummited on it reached a common conclusion and people elected me. now, what basis do you want to over ride that decision making process? do you want to have an offshoot here where we come check with sanjay gupta and say gee, is he up to the task? that's not the way it works. >> reporter: despite his insists he was fit for office, cheney suffered another heart attack,

his fourth. >> it was there. chest discomfort. sufficient so i thought i ought to check it out. >> reporter: this time it came while the country was embroiled in the 2000 presidential recount. cheney needed a stint to property open a clogged artery. >> are you ready to take the oath? >> i am. >> reporter: yet again, modern medicine helped dick cheney dodge a bullet, but it was just nine months later when cheney confronted what he considers one of the biggest challenges of his life, 9/11. with president bush in florida, cheney was in a bunker under the white house helping make decisions, even given afor thut by the president to shootdown passenger aligners. >> as stress goes and as a doctor, with stress, how worried were you? s >> didn't occur to me. >> not at all?

>> what cheney didn't know is his cardiologist showing his pa tas yum levels were dangerously high. >> a concern, how big are we talking about? >> potassium 6.9 can kill you. >> this is a huge problem. >> i laid awake last night watching the replay of the towers come down and not think great, the president is going to die tonight. >> another blood test the next day showed cheney's potassium levels were normal but a reminder, he is no ordinary patient and caring for him often required extraordinary precautions. in 2007 when cheney needed the implanted defibrillator in place, the doctor ordered the manufacturer to disable the wireless feature fearing a terrorist could assassinate the president sending a signal to the device telling it to shock

his heart into cardiac arrest. >> it seemed to me to be a bad idea for the vice president of the united states to have a device that maybe somebody on a rope line or someone in the next hotel room or down stairs might be able to get into, hack into, and i worried that someone could kill you. >> reporter: it might sound farfetched but years later, this scene from the show time drama "homeland" showed just how it could be done to the fictional vice president. >> i'm killing you. >> reporter: what did you think when you watched that? >> well, i was aware that the danger, if you will, that existed but i found it credible because i knew from the experience we had had for adjusting my own device, that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible. >> reporter: the procar useness of his physical health raises

questions about his state of mind when he was helping make decisions, including those about war and peace. >> you were instrumental in many big decisions for the country, including going into afghanistan and iraq. >> and terror surveillance program and enhanced -- >> wiretapping, enhanced interrogation. you had four heart attacks, three catheterizations at this point, defibrillator, by pass surgery. >> right. >> did you worry about your physical health inpacting your judgment and cognition? >> no. >> not at all? >> no. >> were you the best that you could be? >> the answer to that question just ahead, plus cheney's reaction when i asked him about the research that shows how heart disease does often affect cognition. what his doctors told him about that.

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we're back with part two of my interview with dick cheney. before the break, you heard me ask cheney if he was the best that he could be while he was making these crucial decisions in the white house. and that's where we pick up. you had four heart attacks three catheterizations at this point, a defibrillator, bypass surgery. >> right. >> did you worry about your physical health impacting your judgment and cognition? >> no. >> not at all? >> no. >> were you the best that you could be?

>> well, i was as good as i could be, you know, given the fact that i was 60 some years old at that point and a heart patient. >> cheney didn't want to acknowledge numerous studies that show a significant connection between severe heard disease and memory loss, depression, a decline in decision-making abilities and impaired cognition or that he could be one of the many patients vulnerable to the side effects. >> did they talk at all about potential side effects again because of limited blood flow to the brain, cognition, judgment. >> no. >> was that something you heard about in any way? >> no. >> you didn't know about and it weren't worried about it? >> no. >> both -- >> i wasn't worried about it. >> did anyone counsel you at all on that? >> not that i recall. >> what about even things like depression? >> no. >> and that's all he wanted to say about that. but what dick cheney was eager to talk about was his transplant detailed in his new book "heart". >> when you emerge from that

gift of life itself, there is this tremendous feeling of emotion, but it's very positive. i think my first words when i came out from under the anesthesia and it worked was hot damn. they wanted to show us how dramatic the transformation was. this is his heart moments after it was removed. >> this is a rather large basin and here is your heart. >> the one i lived with for 70 years. >> a normal heart would basically be about the size of two fists clamped together like this maybe smaller. >> right. >> and you see this is about half a foot wide. >> old heart, now heart and it's one of those situations where bigger is not necessarily better. >> that's because a bigger heart can't effectively pump blood through the body. the x-ray on the left shows

cheney's enlarged heart twice the normal size and pushing on his organs. on the right, his new heart and then there is this comparison, again, on the left cheney's diseased heart weakened with narrowed arteries and his new heart with healthy vessels and no blockages. >> dramatically displays how sick i was. >> today cheney says he's taking good care of his new heart. he spends much of his time back in wyoming with family and playing radio hand to granddaughter gracie. >> you wake up every morning with a smile on your face because you got a new day. you never expected to have and there is a sense of wonderment. nothing short of magical. >> you know, magical, wonderment, your words, those aren't words you typically hear or expect to hear from you. >> darth vader?

no, that's -- that's -- those are the words i choose to describe it. >> one other note, as well. you saw mr. cheney's doctor on that report. you can see more of him tonight on "piers morgan live." we'll be right back. ld it stead. i know daddy. [ dad ] oh boy, fasten your seatbelts everybody. [ mixer whirring ] good thing we've got bounty. bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller powerful sheet, that acts like a big sheet. look! one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. [ humming ] [ dad ] use less with the small but powerful picker upper. bounty select-a-size. and try bounty napkins.

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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com into the future. tomorrow night cnn will air the television premiere of the fascinating documentary "black fish" that tells the story of a sea world trainer killed by tilikum. it raises questions whether killer whales should be kept in

capacity. they spoke to sea world trainers about their own dangerous experiences. >> 70 plus, maybe more just killer whale trainer accidents, maybe 30 of them happened to me actually being hired at sea world and i knew about none of them. >> i've seen animals come out at trainer trainers. >> something is wrong. >> i've seen people get slammed. >> the whales, if you're just playing or upset for a second. i want was just something that happened, you know. this culture of you get back on

the horse and you dive back in the water and if you're hurt, well then we got other people that will replace you and you came a long way, you sure you want that? >> tune in tomorrow, 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific and at 11:00 stick around for an anderson cooper report, inside "black fish killers in captivity." that does it for this edition of 360. see you an hour from now. "piers morgan live" starts now. this is "piers morgan live." welcome to the viewers in the united states and around the world. breaking news tonight on one of the most infamous and high-profile murder cases in modern history. kennedy cousin michael skakel is granted a stunning new trial for the 1975 killing of 15-year-old