whether bergdahl deserted his platoon. we have the very latest. breaking overnight, too close to call. key primaries across the united states. now a veteran republican senator on the ropes. did a tea party candidate knock him off? the situation's still unclear at this hour. we're following it all. >> your "new day" starts right now. good morning. welcome to "new day." it's wednesday, june 4th, 6:00 in the east. breaking news overnight. the moment sergeant bowe bergdahl was set free, caught on video. this clip just released by the taliban, shows bergdahl being turned over to the u.s., then being loaded into a waiting chopper. it's our first look at the soldier in years. >> this all comes as the army launches a new review to determine once and for all whether the last american p.o.w. in afghanistan was really a deserter. let's bring in barbara starr live from the pentagon. barbara, we have to start off with that extraordinary video.

bergdahl seen inside sitting in the back seat. bergdahl dressed all in white. he appears to be nervous, blinking, shaky. bergdahl seen talking with one of his alleged captors. at one point, the army sergeant even cracks what looks to be a

wipes flying overhead, a twin-engine plane approaching the meeting point. and then suddenly like a scene out of the movies the special forces blackhawk helicopter. two taliban immediately escort bergdahl towards the chopper, waving a white flag. three u.s. special operations commandos approach, shaking hands with the taliban militants. they pat down bergdahl's back and immediately begin escorting him to the helicopter. in bergdahl's left hand, the plastic bag. the contents. wave back to the militants as they run towards the chopper. they pat bergdahl down again, this time in a deliberate and thorough fashion, presumably a swipe for explosives right before loading him in. this face-to-face exchange lasting less than ten seconds before they were off. a message later emerging, don't

come back to afghanistan. ♪ another portion of the edited video shows the homecoming of the taliban prisoners in a separate location. a caravan of suvs pulls over alongside a busy stretch of road. the five guantanamo bay detainees exit, hugging their supporters. this video now detailing what is considered a highly controversial exchange. the obama administration facing steep criticism for what some say is a negotiation with terrorists in exchange for a u.s. soldier who some say is a possible deserter. now, behind the scenes what is so extraordinary about this video, besides the obvious, getting bergdahl back, who were the men that came to get him on that helicopter? all we are being told is special operations forces. but what that actually means is

they were either s.e.a.l. team 6, one of the units who have never publicly acknowledged who is never publicly seen. you never see these men in action and now we are seeing them, we are seeing how they do their business. kate? >> you're absolutely right. that is one of the many striking things about this video. and the big part of the story has become bowe bergdahl's health. i don't think we are able to gauge one way or the other his condition from this video. but what else strikes you of the video, what strikes you do you think they're going to be looking at? >> well, i think they will be looking at some of perhaps how the taliban arranged themselves. one of the things that really struck me, you look at that pickup truck, that silver pickup truck, i wonder if that was part of the prearrangement to make this transfer happen, that they wanted to see the hood of the car up so that they could be

sure there wasn't a car bomb under there. there was a lot of choreography, a lot of procedures, a lot of very specific hand gestures back and forth, signaling. it was noisy, windy on that little landing zone. so they had to arrange it. both sides were going to reassure each other that they weren't walking into a trap. what we do know is that the u.s. had plenty of backup firepower just over the horizon, not too far away. they also had planes overhead keeping an eye -- a drone overhead, keeping an eye on all of this. there were a lot of eyeballs on all of this. everybody watching everybody. >> thank you for that window into that extraordinary prisoner swap. barbara starr, thank you so much. chris? let's bring in matthew f farwell, writer for "the rolling stone" magazine and he served in the same area as sergeant bergdahl. he put a lot of time and effort

into a report that came out in 2012 on bergdahl, ran in "rolling stone." very insightful at the time. maybe even more so now. he joins us. pleasure to meet you. thank you for your service. >> appreciate it. >> now you're one of us. let's talk about what you learned report thong situation. when you see this video, what strikes you about this? let's look at what we are able to see here as we move the video forward. let's see. start playing here. here we go. barbara was just talking about the hood was up on the truck. could be it's in the desert and overheating, a prearranged sign. what strikes you? >> the intensity that's on bowe's face, you don't know what he's thinking, he doesn't know that the helicopter is coming in. remember, he's been in captivity for five years. >> a lot of assumptions about his health. one of the things he was saying is this was an urgent situation, his health was in great decline.

when you see him there, he doesn't seem to be -- he seems to be able to move under his own power. >> just psychologically, you know, coming back in that sort of situation, can you imagine the feelings that go through your head know that you're going back to the states, you're going to have to see guys in your old unit, you're going to have to reunite with your parents, with girlfriends you left behind. the strain on this kid is incredible. >> do you think me can in any way be aware of all the drama that is surrounding the circumstances of how he left and, you know, what's thought of him? >> i would imagine he had fairly good media access even out in the desert. >> the idea of how this exchange is done, is this what you would believe it would be? you know, or do you think there are special circumstances being used here? >> i mean, it seems pretty par for the course. actually seems really professionally done, like it went off without a hitch. sometimes these guys can be a little trigger happy. obviously they didn't. >> what do you make of the idea

of how they shake hands with the enemy? is that typical protocol? >> well, i've never participated in one of these, but as a sign of respect and that, you know, it's a good will thing, i think that's fine. >> them doing the search of bergdahl, also something you believe is standard procedure? >> remember, too, that this takes place in khost province where the cia failed to search a man coming on one of their bases and he blew up killing quite a few cia officers. >> it's not necessarily a sign of faith or bad faith in terms of bowe bergdahl. >> right. >> that's just what you do. >> just being professional. >> we understand that one of the things that they did have in that parlay together was, tell us about the condition of the prisoners or anything we have to know about, is there anything that's going on. what do you make of that? >> i mean, again, it seems like, you know, good brief between the two, opposing sides coming,

asking if there's any relevant information, and then getting on their way. >> should anything be made of the fact that he is in traditional tribal dress from that region or -- what do you think of that? >> no, if anything he's in pretty formal dress. they kind of dressed him up for the occasion. obviously they made this video for propaganda value. >> he's not changing when he gets there. they are. >> yeah. >> it's interesting at the end of this tape they say never come back to afghanistan but they don't seem hostile at all. they seem like they're reaching their hands out and trying to be as nice as possible, the taliban buys. >> it's national for actors in captive to have stockholm syndrome as verified psychological phenomenon. >> absolutely. and now what is driving a lot of the controversy here is, of course, the release of the five taliban guys. >> sure. >> when you see this, what do you think the value of this to them and what do you think it does to our relative leverage? >> you know, i don't -- i don't actually know.

i think the interesting thing about this deal is it could have been done two years ago, you know, this exact same deal. and because of pressures from congress and because the white house wasn't willing to pull the trigger, it wasn't. we left bowe to sit in captivity for another two years. >> when you say this deal could have been done, you believe an exchange could have been done with much lower level taliban guys. >> no. it was in our reporting it was these five guys. >> so it was always these guy onsz the table. >> right. >> this was the best deal we were able to cut in terms of what level guy snsz. >> the best deal would have been three days after he was captured when they wanted 15 low-level taliban prisoners released from within afghanistan and an undisclosed sum of money. but the army for whatever reason couldn't pull the trigger on that one. >> do you think that was a better deal for the u.s. than this one. >> obviously. >> because these are high-level guys. >> right. and the guy would have been in captivity for less than ten days. >> the central question here in

understanding bergdahl's disposition. do you believe he deserted? >> i believe he walked off the base. i think we made that clear in our reporting. desertion, obviously implies that he had some premeditation and that he intended to completely leave his unit and abandon his post. >> what do you think? >> i'm not sure. looking at the condition of the unit, sean smith of "the guardi guardian" had a good video when he embedded with him. what i saw from serving is an undisciplined unit that had a lack of effective leadership and really didn't seem to have very much control over their soldiers. and so it's difficult for me to try to get inside bowe's head. >> you you know the area. you know what it would take to leave the o.p. there. >> right. >> if he left with nothing as they say he did, does that suggest to you someone who is thinking about being gone for any specific period? >> it's just somebody who is probably not thinking right at

the time because the area he left from is about two miles north of a town which every time we patrolled through there we were, you know, amped up and ready to go. it was taliban central town. senior taliban commander lived right up the mountain valley. >> there would be hostilities. >> absolutely. >> last question. we are relying heavily on the interviews and thoughts of other guys who serve with him during that time. >> right. >> what qualifications would you put on what you're hearing out of them in terms of their certainty he desertered, certainty that information was given by him because they started to get much more precise in the attacks and that six of their own were killed in the search for him. >> so i've got to break that down just a little bit. first of all, i understand why all of these guys are coming out now and coming out very passionately. the pentagon putting a very restrictive undisclosure commitment on troops, 3500

people could not talk about their entire deployment for, you know, going on five years now. and so -- >> because there were a lot of politics. >> right. now the bubble has burst. and everyone's emotion is coming out. i've spoken with with numerous guys from the platoon, the unit, all of the way up the level of the chain of command. as far as placing the deaths of those six soldiers squarely on bowe's soldier, look, it's a bad area. you bring in that amount of american troops, they flooded the zone to search for him. you bring in that amount of americans to any ni bad hostile area, people are going to die. we had four guys dionne my tour in that area. so i, you know, completely respect that but i think it's unfair to put that right on bowe's shoulders. >> any idea that it could have been more precise? >> bowe was a private first class. i was a private fist clarst cla that time.

my knowledge at that ability basically consisted of keep anything weapons clean and keeping my truck running. >> you wouldn't know of anything of value? >> exactly. >> they did in 2012 is worth reading again now if you're following the story. thanks for being here. i'm sure we'll have you back. amid all the criticism over the deal to free sergeant bergdahl president obama is in warsaw, poland, today again speaking right now certainly the newburgh dall video that was just released will be hanging over the president's every move. now the pentagon is responding to the video's release. let's turn to jim acosta who is traveling with the president right now with much more. jim? >> kate, that's right. the president is speaking here in warsaw right now at the 25th anniversary of poland's solidarity movement trirm during the fall of the soviet union. we expect the president to draw parallels with poland's

experience during that time with the ukrainian's experience there with the russian forces. but getting back to bowe bergdahl and this video, this remarkable video released by the taliban, i can tell you that the pentagon is reviewing it. they don't doubt its authenticity. they are noting in the video that handover was peaceful and successful. and that really follows a conversation that i had with senior administration official yesterday about this exchange. and she was saying to me that this might be really a test case, the first test case for the u.s. and the taliban that they can really do business with one another when it comes to the mechanics of winding down the war in afghanistan. that this transfer of prisoners happened without a shot fired and that, yes, while the taliban, they killed a lot of americans, they were linked to al qaeda and osama bin laden, at some point the war has to end in the words of this administration official and feel like this prisoner exchange and the hand over of bergdahl over to u.s.

forces demonstrate that, yes, these two sides can work with one another when it comes to ending this war in afghanistan. the next chance will be in brussels tomorrow. he has a news conference with the british prime minister dave cameron and so perhaps he will be asked about it then. of course we will watch the president for the rest of the week to see whether or not he had that encounter with russian president vladimir putin as both of those leader also be add attending the d-day celebration anniversary on friday. bergdahl is only adding more controversy to this trip. >> the whole piece of the bergdahl conversation has nothing to do with afghanistan but what's going on in cuba and the expectations of the administration and military about what's going to happen with the men who are being held at gitmo in the not too distant future. thank you for the reporting. back here at home, another day of dangerous severe weather is in store for millions of people in the midwest. there have been nearly a dozen

reports of tornadoes across several states. nebraska is getting hit with some of the worst of 85-mile-an-hour wind gust going through there. hail the size of baseball. take a look. that's some of the smaller stuff. now in blair, nebraska, where hail severely damaged the auto dealership she's standing at, tell us about it, indra. >> incredible sight this morning. we're here in blair, nebraska, north of omaha. a fast moving system. moving at 55 miles per hour. hail, baseball size, and grapefruit size. that's about 4.25 inches. picture this. thousands of pieces of ice heavy falling out of the sky this big. maybe you want to look at the scars here at this dealership. huge, grapefruit size balls falling out of the sky cleearing all

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capitol hill. not just from republicans but also from democrats. >> kevin, have you guys been avoiding a little bit of the future reality of what happens with these guys in gitmo? i interviewed senator mccain yesterday, well, they're going to transferred to the united states prisons. i did homework last night, it is hard to see that that is a true statement. coming out people close to the situation, they say -- we have tried the people we can try. there's every expectation that when gitmo gets closed these people will be sent back into the country. is is that being ignored by your side in assessing the relative merits of this deal that at least you have strings

had not been informed, the person on the phone -- was not aware he had not been called. the white house has got to be better prepared than that. >> they have to be. we give them thermonuclear weapons. they've got to have their act together. the statue says they've got to tell them 30 days in advance. they're claiming maybe we'll know that. well, we'll certainly know that when the docs of sergeant bergdahl come out. this is not a republican/democratic problem. this is is a separation of powers problem because congress passed a law that said we want to know 30 dayses in advance. the white house did brief them about these talks for years, that they were ongoing. >> they're still unhappy they didn't know the details of this, this specific deal that was going to go through. they said they needed it. >> both on the hill and in the white house, as soon as you tell people anything, it winds up on cnn. >> even the intel? >> does that mean you can violate the law? they should have veto'd the law. >> not necessarily when you tell feinstein and chambliss. >> feinstein is a former client.

she would never reveal. >> six men died. there's a little bit of head in the sand here. kevin, how does it help you -- i wasn't crazy about the deal, i had real doubts about this deal. how does that help your cause? >> i don't know if it helps the cause. i mean, i think it's, if anything, it's a window into hillary clinton. i mean, 48 hours before she was sort of touting the administration line about this and now she is the ever conventional, ever calculating politician trying to drive a contrast with one of the most unpopular political leaders in the country right now with president barack obama whose approval ratings are in the 40s. if she's going to break away from this president of hillary clinton presidency is going to be a barack obama third term she's got to start criticizing the white house and finding her own space. if anything, it's a window into hillary clinton. >> quick button, paul, because -- >> this is the sort of thing i'm sure she would have said in private had she still been

within the administration. now she's a free actor. she should be saying what she really thinks instead of only touting the party. i will point out, as kevin knows very well, it was a senator of new york when this city was attacked. and it does make your blood boil. sergeant bergdahl liberated, it makes your blood boil to see five guys, some of them connected to that attack, walk free. >> paul b >>. let's take a break on "new day." when we come back, the 12-year-old girls in wisconsin, allegedly stabbing one of their own friends 19 times, leaving her for dead. there's now word of a motive. they were trying to impress. we'll look into it. themselves.eak for i'm sold! a "selling machine!" ready for you alert, only at lq.com.

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disturbing details in the near fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old wisconsin girl. police say two 12-year-old girls lured their friend into the woods. they stabbed her some 19 times and then left her for dead. all to impress a fictional online demon known as slenderman. who is he? miguel marquez is in waukesha, misckoco wisconsin. this fictional character, we don't know anything about him. >> he has been around for a while. we do know a fair amount about him. he is all over the internet and a lot of kids around the world are attracted to him. this one went clearly too far.

12-year-olds keep in mind, overnight. a little memorial popped up to the victim here. we do understand that she is doing better, able to sit up for the first time and talking to investigators. >> i've been here for over 24 years as a cop in the city of waukesha and i have not seen a crime of this nature, especially when you take into account 12-year-old girls. >> reporter: 12-year-old morgan geyser and anissa weier are accuse of the attempted murder of their 12-year-old friend when they lured her into the woods and stabbed her 19 times, leaving her for dead. actually happen blocks away from the park where all this began. the victim was able to get to this area here where the bu bicyclist found her nearly dead. >> she was within a millimeter of her life. a millimeter with one of the stab wounds striking a major artery along with the 18 other stab wounds.

>> reporter: geyser and weier plotted for months for the best way to kill her friend. duct tape her mouth and stab her in the neck and then changed their plans to lure her into the woods while playing a game of hide and seek. the motive, say police, to win the faye very of a fictional internet horror character. the girls found on the horrow fantasy website creepypasta.wiki.com. >> it was a fictional character created as part of a joke in 2009. most of his representations slenderman is a thin, tall, faceless character. the creepy part about the character is in most stories he kills children. >> slenderman character, as i started looking into it, he's everywhe everywhere. >> yes. >> is there a sense they were reading about him and studying him in various forms online, not just creepypasta? >> as far as all their internet sites, we're going the computer forensic evidence of computers and such. i would assume it will turn out

to be more than just creepypasta, but all sites have to be of concern to parents. >> now, this is one thing that police is saying is that they are looking thart computer hard drives. all of the children involved in this and figure out everything they had been looking at. the entire sort of global experience of what they were seeing. they are also trying to recreate everything that was going on in these young women's lives up until the time that this thing happened. trying to truly understand what is happening here. also the word to parents, be aware of what their kids are watching and looking at online and talk to them about it. very, very disturbing story. chris, kate, back to you. >> horrible story. absolutely re-enforcing that point. thank you very much. amazing. coming up next on "new day," powerful new video of the taliban setting bowe bergdahl free. the dramatic moments leading up to his release. let that phrase sit with you for a second.

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welcome back to "new day." breaking overnight, stunning new video released about the taliban showing video revealing a dazed looking bergdahl handed over to u.s. forces and flown away. what can we learn from these dramatic new images?

let's who to washington to bring in chief national security correspondent jim schuitto for much more. i mean, you can almost go frame by frame and try to analyze this, jim. it truly is extraordinary. but what do you gather, what's most striking to you, especially in seeing special forces in action. i know you know firsthand, you have first-hand experience with the special forces. >> yeah. listen, we don't normally see them at work. we very rarely see them at work like this. you see from that video that they do things differently. the men who walked up there, one of them wearing jeans. they're wearing a kafia, the middle eastern scarf. they have beards. so they're not in uniform. that's standard for them. they have much more relaxed rules as to how they can operate. that's one thing. you know, this is likely to have been -- i haven't been told this but a s.e.a.l. team 6 or delta force for this level of sensitivity. you just don't see those guys on camera. as we're looking now seeing bowe

bergdahl there himself, what was his health, what was his state of mind at that point? we knew from january when we broke the story that there had been a proof of life video that came from the taliban and one thing that concerned u.s. officials at that point was it appeared in that video that he was in declining health. that is one thing that increased the urgency from the administration's point of view in terms of getting him out. so that's another thing, is zero -- >> core question in this story, the status of his health because it was one of the reasons, as you say, that the white house needed to move so quickly because his health was so rapidly deteriorating. what do you make, at what point in the video do you see him blinking rapidly. it could be dust. it could be a number of things but it almost makes you wonder, his eyes are trying to adjust to natural light. >> right. is it that he's been confined away from sunlight?

that there's dust churned up by the helicopter, could be crying. it's an emotional moment. these are questions -- it looked like he cracked a smile. was that a smile or was he winsing. you know, these are things that experts will look at this tape and make a judgment, particularly now as they have him with military doctors to assess his health and mental state. you know, just back on this special forces, as well. i had an experience in eastern afghanistan when i caught special forces on camera. we just happened to see them. i remember one of them turned around riding an atv, came up to our camera, ripped the disk out of our camera and destroyed it in front of us and drove away. you know thanks don't like to be caught on camera unless it's arranged that way. so this is a rare glimpse of seeing them do what they do. they dress differently. they have their own helicopters, you know, special helicopters,

stealth helicopters kind of thing. the taliban, how do they operate? they have 12 guys there standing. they had a security perimeter of their own. you see someone with rpg standing up on the hill. you see them carrying a white flag there to show that they were weren't going to fire. of course -- but also a picture, why does the taliban release a video like this? >> exactly. >> because it's a propaganda victory. we stood up with americans with all of their hardware, money, all of their weapons, we held this guy for five years, they're advertising this as a win for them. >> yeah. and to that point, this is seen as a win for the taliban. matthew farwell served in that region before bergdahl went over there. he was a guest earlier in the show. in talking to chris he said it actually seemed more formal dress for that region which speaks to the fact that they see

this as a propaganda video for themselves. >> i think so. they want to show that they took care of him, returned him in health, right, in decent health. but under their control, right? on their terms. they got what they wanted. and that's -- that's something that they're going to advertise. of course, the second part of the tape, as we saw later, showed the handoff in qatar of the five taliban prisoners released from guantanamo. >> hopefully we'll get back to it in video as we're kind of showing it on the loop. at one point right when the special forces walk up they shake hands with the taliban that are bringing him and they go right to the back of bowe bergdahl, clearly rying to check if there's anything back there a as they approach the helicopter he gets a more extensive patdown. >> the concern could be, you know, not necessarily bergdahl intentions but was he used by the taliban, you know, as a weapon.

look at them there. you see him right now getting a full patdown. also a remarkable moment at the handoff there as you see, you saw one of the special forces soldiers bring his hand up to his right -- right hand up to his heart which is a gesture of respect. you'll see it there in a moment, a gesture of respect in afghan culture to say, you know, we thank you very much. we've completed our deal. they even wave as they walk away. you know, two sides in this brutal 13-year war meeting in a rare, peaceful circumstance. really a remarkable moment to see there. >> you can imagine the tension in that moment. special forces really not knowing what they are about to walk up to, despite the assurances, as barbara starr said, in the area if they needed it. for that critical moment when they walk up and come face to face with the tall lan to pull off this transfer there clearly must be a moment of great tension.

trying to gauge if it appears as if bergdahl is walking with some difficulty as they're heading towards the helicopter. can you gauge that at all? >> i saw that as well. as he walked away, particularly,

they are. we believe that you can't reveal their identity obviously for security reasons. we're going to take a quick break now on "new day." we have a lot more on this bergdahl video when we return. ♪ turn around

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like the scene out of the movies the actual bowe bergdahl swap. >> you do not have the luxury in a situation like this was absolutely the right thing to do. >> there is more to this story than just a soldier walking away. >> oh, my gosh. >> baseball size hail helting par parts of the midwest. torrential rain wreaking havoc. police say they lured her into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. >> she was within a millimeter of her life. good morning. welcome to "new day." we do have breaking news. this dramatic video released by

the taliban overnight. it is something you've probably never seen before. not just that it's bowe bergdahl being handed over. of course we haven't seen that before. but this is is special ops at work for the united states in an exchange that of course has everybody talking. you're seeing members of the taliban handing the sergeant back over to the americans. and what do we see in this sergeant there? he looks dazed. it's dusty, of course. how is he moving? he's patted down. he's put into a chopper. and then he, of course, get this flight to freedom. >> here at home, the united states, the u.s. army has announced a comprehensive new review to determine the motivation for bergdahl. is bergdahl a deserter, something that soldiers in his platoon have suggested. we have complete coverage this morning with barbara starr live at the pentagon and jim schuitto live in washington and senior international correspondent matthew chance live in germany where bergdahl is being treated. barbara? >> good morning, kate. this video is so extraordinary.

you are going to want to look at it frame by frame. breaking overnight. the first images of the actual bowe bergdahl swap emerging on taliban's website. chanting praise for their leader, 18 armed taliban militants seen standing in wait perched on grassy hills in the valley, guns and rocket launchers at the ready. the narration said this meeting took place at 4:00 in the afternoon in khostern afghanist. at the center of the action a silver pickup truck. bowe bergdahl seen inside, sitting in the backseat. bergdahl dressed all in white. appears to be nervous, blinking, shaky. bergdahl seen talking with one of his alleged captors. at one point the army sergeant even cracks what looks to be a smile while talking and then wipes his eyes.

seen flying overhead, a twin-engine plane approaching the meeting point. and then the special forces blackhawk helicopter descends. two taliban militants immediately escort bergdahl toward the chopper, waving a white flag. three u.s. special operations manned dos approach, shaking mands wi hands with the militants. they pat his back and immediately begin escorting the helicopter. in bergdahl's left hand, his contents. back to the militants as they run towards the chopper. they pat bergdahl down again. this time in a deliberate and thorough fashion. presumably a site for explosives right before loading. the exchange lasting less than ten seconds before they are off. a message later emerges, don't

come back to afghanistan. ♪ another portion of the edited video shows the homecoming of the taliban prisoners in a separate location. a caravan of suvs pulls over alongside a busy stretch of road. the five guantanamo bay detainees exit, hugging their supporters. this video now detailing what it considers an exchange. the obama administration facing steep criticism after what some say is a negotiation with terrorists, exchange for a u.s. soldier who some say is a possible deserter. so who were the men who came to get bowe bergdahl on that hillside? the pentagon will only say they are special operations forces. what does that mean? that means these guys were either s.e.a.l. team 6, delta force, task force 160, one of the most elite units that is

never publicly acknowledged, you never see them in action, you never see their faces. this is an extraordinary video. we are seeing them. we are seeing how they operate. one of the final shots on the video, you see a couple of the troops in the helicopter, doors open, their feet over the side. they were ready until the very last minute for anything to possibly go wrong. chris? >> obviously every need for caution there, barbara. you see them backing away still facing the hostile there's, the taliban. and to be clear, we don't believe you can see their faces, the special ops guys, in this video, either, which is why we didn't further blur it. barbara starr, thank you very much. let's bring in jim schuitto. he's in washington. and senior international correspondent matthew chance live at landstuhl medical center in germany. matth matthew, let me start with you here. obviously a big concern here is the health and welfare of the

sergeant. but also politically the administration saying a big reason we had to do this right now and not notify, according to the 30-day rule, was because we had word that he was in very failing health. what do you think this video does to help or hurt that suggestion? >> well, certainly looks frail on this video. his head shaven, he looks pale. one of the first questions on that video, according to the taliban narration that's overplayed on it is the special forces guy who took handover from him saying to him, what's the health condition of bergdahl, and tell us the truth if he's ill. and the taliban narrator indicated that there was nothing wrong with him and then they went off and took him on the helicopter and came here to this regional medical facility in landstuhl in southern germany where medical officials have been examining him saying that there are medical concerns they're looking at but he's in a stable condition. it's not a serious condition. he's got dietary and nutritional needs that have to be addressed

as a result of his nearly five years in captivity with the taliban, in the afghan, pakistan area. so those are the main issues. in addition to that there are concerns about his psychological position, analysis to help him re-integrate into society. it doesn't seem this is a matter of life or death according to the world we're getting from the landstuhl medical officials in germany. >> jim, there's every reason to believe that we have no word that the special opses guys were also videoing this but there's no coincidence this comes from the taliban even though they're carrying a white flag as they walk out towards the americans. this video is filled with bravado. what does it mean for them? >> this means that it's seen from their perspective as a victory. they released this priszer in, yes, but they got five of their own in return. very secure members of the taliban. and they did it on their terms. they held him for five years. they stood up, you know, this ragtag army of taliban stood up

to the best of the u.s. military here, face to face with them. now you're seeing the video there of their own prisoners being released. they got this in return. the taliban is very savvy about its public profile. they release videos when they want to. and they use them for recruiting purposes. they use them to talk up their successes. and i think that's what we're seeing here. they stood up to the u.s. they got what they wanted. >> barbara, the politicians may be saying we're ending the hostility nsz afghanistan but nobody believes the fight is going to end any time soon. for that reason this video will probably be very useful strategically for us. what kinds of things do you think will be analyzed? we know they're looking closely at it. we heard word from the government on that part. what do you think they're hoping to see? >> well, i think any time that u.s. forces can actually see how

the taliban operate close-up, that is useful to them. this was an intelligence gath gathering exercise on both sides obviously as jim pointed out. you know, the taliban wanted the propagan propaganda. the u.s. obviously getting bergdahl back on that helicopter as fast as possible and getting out of there. but they have this choreography worked out. they had all decided exactly how it was going to go so that trouble would not, in fact, break out. but this gave the special operations forces a very close-up look at these people and how they operate, how they establish their perimeter on that hillside, how they were armed. probably nothing they didn't already know, but any time you can put your eyeballs on it and see it close-up, it's useful. >> there's a lot of speculation obviously about the circumstances under which bergdahl left the post, how that happened, if he was captured or he walked off and subsequently captured. when you see how they treat him in this video, do you see

anything as a sign of anything other than ordinary suspicion and the patdown and everything else? >> listen, one thing, you notice a couple of things. he's obviously familiar with his captors. there's that moment there where they have a close-up of him where it looks like he might be cracking a smile of familiarity and of course that means they would have been speaking in the local dialect. after five years i'm sure he spoke it. probably a question of how good his english is now after so many years of just speaking that language. he knows them. he's speaking with them in their own language. he spent five years in close contact with them. that's one thing, you know. listen, you know, that -- is that a sign of disloyalty? no, not necessarily. you're a captive. some of this is just about survival, right? five years in close quarters. but clearly he knows them. then, of course, you're seeing him there with his eyes blinking. was he crying? was he wincing from the sun?

was dust being churned up by the helicopter or wind? it's a question. emotional moment for him regardless, after all that time. after all that time not knowing when he if he would be released and if he would survive. >> matthew, what do you think our best guess is as to how this video is going to impact the nature of bowe bergdahl's r integration. the more mfgs people are getting about how he is perceived, what's known about him? how do you think this plays into the efforts of getting him back? >> it's difficult to say, isn't it? certainly that reintegration process is going to be a lengthy one. the medical officials here at landstuhl are saying it's going to be slow and deliberate. and there's no predetermined timetable about how long it's going to take. very much be set by the pace of his healing and the pace of his recovery. aside from that, though, and talking to what jim was just saying, this is going to be the

first opportunity, remember, here at landstuhl, not just be able to assess him psychologically but possibly start the process of finding out exactly what happened back in 2009 when he fell into taliban hands, to get his side of the story as to what happened. there's been a u.s. investigation that determined that he apparently left his base deliberately of his own accord. what we don't know is why did that and how he fell into taliban hands. that gets some kind of indication of that. >> that's the point, is that i'm sure the u.s. officials are looking at this as much to see what they can glean about the taliban as they can about bowe bergdahl and his re-entsbi inauguration and getting him back into mainstream society. thank you for your take on this. we're going to discuss the video throughout the day. there's plenty there to unpack. kate? now to another big story back at home. among the major primaries last

night likely the most closely watched was in mississippi. tea party challenger chris mcdaniel has a slim lead over thad but still this morning it's not over yet. that's just one of last night's big races that could decide the future of the political landscape in washington. let's get to chief congressional correspondent dana bash live from jackson, mississippi. dana, after six terms republican senator thad cochran could be head for a runoff. what is going on? >> there was a serious punch to the gut last night at cochran headquarters where we were waiting and waiting and waiting to see if either of them would finally reach that 50% mark which would call this race and also avoid a runoff. it didn't happen. they are both at about 49%. nobody has a 50% area. so they're probably going to have a runoff. now, why is that? now, the key thing that cochran supporters and aides were most disappointed about was turnout among the areas that really have

supported cochran for so long long, primarily along the coast of mississippi, and people there will understand that because they knew that is where katrina hit. one of the things that cochran has been known for, i know that you're angry at washington but washington can help you, i helped you by bringing federal dollars here not coast, to help you with katrina. that didn't seem to really help there. the anti-washington wave was so strong. one of their interesting tidbit. the county that his republican challenger chris mcdaniel is from, jones county, that went overwhelmingly for mcdaniel. this is actually a candidate that has a history of serious independence. jones county after the south deseeded during the civil war, from the confederacy. that shows you all of the dynamics that thad cochran is up against here. >> i'm thinking back, you're in mississippi this morning. you were in kentucky just last month covering senator mitch mcconnell's race. what is different about this

race here? if you could talk about being similar dynamics, tea party versus establishment, what's different here than in kentucky because mitch mcconnell's son nority, that helped him. >> such a great question. absolutely. that's what thad cochran hoped would help him. not only has he been in the senate for 36 years. if republicans take control he would be the chairman of the appropriations committee which in laymen's terms means he's in charge of directing the federal dollars, which in a state like mississippi, i talked to a lot of people who said that's a big deal. we like that. but the difference where i think several things. number one, mitch mcconnell, kentucky was able to make his republican challenger really not credible. and they were not rabl able to that as successfully here for mcdaniel, a state senator, able to galvanize a lot of support. other thing is when it comes to outside money and outside forces, early on they thought

that thad cochran was going to be the most likely to topple in the republican establishment. you saw more money, more intensity coming in from all over the country. you name the tea party group. they were here to try to get rid of him. and i think that also played a serious role. >> money is often part of the game. that is for sure when it comes to these races. dana, thank you so much. as light come up in mississippi, that race is still not called. a runoff we could still see later this month. let's look at more of your headlines. as the controversial decision to release sergeant bowe bergdahl continues to follow him president obama is in warsaw today where just hours ago he met with ukraine's president elect. the president also gave a speech as part of event to mark the 25th anniversary of poland's first democratic elections. he will leave for brussels today for a meeting. ten new cases of long-term delays and secret waiting lists at facilities in kansas,

missouri, illinois, and indiana. cnn was first to report the existence of those delays. the white house reportedly has its sights set on clinics ceo toby cosgrove to become the next va secretary. drs. cosgrove is a decorated vietnam war vet and is seriously considering the job. more severe weather sweeping through the mid west. heavy, heavy rain. 85-mile-an-hour winds triggered flash flooding in some wares. there have also been reports of nearly dozens of tornadoes in several states. and baseball size hail damaged homes and cars in parts of iowa and nebraska. sadly, it is not over yet. cnn's indra petersons is watching it all for us live in blair, nebraska, one of the areas that saw that hail. >> you may be wondering what it looks like the day after baseball size hail. what about grapefruit size hail.

look at the welts here on this vehicles. talking about the back and front wield shields wiped out. 4300 cars here on the lot. even around town really completely blown out by all this hail. unfortunately they are not the only ones talking about severe weather. let's talk about right now. look at the radar. still rain and thunderstorms falling around iowa and in through illinois. talking about a severe weather threat from ohio back through tennessee. right in tornado alley. we'll be looking for that. that is as high as we saw yesterday but, none the less, it will be out there. talking about the timing. we know where it is right now. but again, overnight you're going to see it spread into the ohio valley. eventually overnight, evening, you can see it spread into the northeast. starting to see heavy rain two to four inches. let's hope we do not see more hail like this. we went on our kov fee rcoffee morning. down these streets, fully blown out windshields. i don't think they want to see

another day like this. >> absolutely. indra, thank you very much. coming up next on "new day," we're continuing to take a look, a close look at this brand new video of the moment bowe bergdahl was handed over to americans. the first look of the missing soldier seen in years. also, the moment those high-valued targets once held in gitmo set free. the analysis continues right after the break. quiet! mom has a headache! had a headache! but now, i& don't. excedrin is fast. in fact for some, relief starts in just 15 minutes.

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welcome back to "new day." extraordinary video released overnight by the taliban of the moment bowe bergdahl set free, handed over to the u.s. military. you can see sergeant bergdahl looking perhaps dazed and helped into the helicopter that then takes him away. this is a rare look at this special operation. really not seen before. joining us by phone cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes to talk more about this. tom, what is your first impressions of this video? what strikes you? >> well, what strikes me is he is able to walk from the truck to the helicopter pretty much own his own, you know, from what

we heard about the condition he was going to be in and trade had to happen so quickly because of his deteriorating health. it doesn't seem to be all that deteriorated. he wasn't carried on a stretcher from one vehicle to the helicopter. he walked over. he don't look in great physical shape but he doesn't look terrible, either. >> that is a big question. what you're getting to is one of the key questions in the reasoning the administration said they needed to move so quickly because of, in part at least, because of his deteriorating health. you don't think that you see him in such bad state. >> watch with our own eyes that he's walking under his own power from one vehicle to the other. so i think that, you know, you tend to think that he's not -- he's obviously not on his death bed. >> one thing we also see as we continue to look at this video, we can also put up the pentagon has released a statement saying

in part that they're aware of the video allegedly released by taliban. they say that they have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video but also say that they are reviewing it. what are they reviewing it for? what do you think they are trying to gather from this video? >> they might be trying to review it for, you know, if they can recognize any of the taliban members although that would be hard to do unless you can tell by which scarf each person is wearing, who is who, carrying ak-47 pa krks hfak-4 ak-47s. what they are showing to us in the video is not something they haven't shown us before when they're in combat with them in afghanistan. soic they can review it for that. i don't know how you could stage this. you know, with the taliban obtaining their own helicopter and a body double to film this or stage this. it has to seem to them that this is bergdahl and that's a u.s. helicopter and they came and picked him up.

>> and lalso you see later in te video, again, this is released by the taliban's media arm. you also see more video of the five taliban detainees as they're being released. the white house is saying that it has received assurances that while they are released, they are going to be under a watchful eye. they are going to be monitored by qatar. do you believe that? do you believe those assurances can be so sure? >> two things about that. the bush white house received similar assurances about eight or ten years ago and released people who ended up back on the battlefield, ended up back in combat against us. so depending on which country it is, if they are not in some kind of physical detention in a prison, i don't know how you guarantee they're going to keep an eye on them. certainly we have our own intelligence forces in the world, but, you know, i would have to i have the cia has better things to dothan to try to monitor five guys to see what

they're up to. you know, in the future, what they continue to do. and then another comment i would have is that at the end of the wars, when prisoners were released and kcombatants were turned over to their country you would expect there was no future battlefield. there was no battlefield for them to return to. you know, we could be fighting with or without the number of troops that we're going to have in afghanistan. the battle itself is going to go on probably for decades. and so the idea that all five of these guys are suddenly going to become, you know, model citizens and not pose a danger to us in the future, i don't know how anybody guarantees that. >> that is just one part of this story. i mean, really the controversy that is going to continue. you've got detainee issue. now you have this extraordinary video to see the moment when bowe bergdahl is released. tom fuentes, thank you so much. coming up on "new day,"

because the bowe bergdahl swap a lousy deal? that's a question many are asking. john mccain the senator seems to think so. is there reason to believe more will try to capture americans and swap? honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work! free hot breakfast options. hampton, enjoy our you did a great job. it looks good!

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half past hour here on your wednesday. let's look at your headlines. riveting new video released by the taliban where bergdahl was set free. the army sergeant looking dazed as he was handed over and helped into a chopper. here at home, comprehensive review of bergdahl's capture has been launched by the u.s. army trying to determine whether the prisoner of war swapped for five taliban detainees is actually a

desse deserter. torrential rains and 85-mile-an-hour winds causing flash flooding. nearly a dozen tornadoes have been reported in several states now. parts of iowa and nebraska heting pummeled by damaging hail. some the size of baseballs. intense fighting this morning in eastern ukraine where the border guard base tond outskirts of luhansk has been taken over by pro-russian separatists. the guard sat the troops at the base have been relocated now to a safe place. three men were wounded while six attackers were killed. celebrations in chiropracai tahrir square. the former army chief took 96% of the vote. critics are questioning legitimacy of the election following a relentless crack down on the opposition. al sisi led the military

overthrow of morsi last year. swearing in ceremony is scheduled for this week. those are your headlines. >> a lot of politics on the table today, especially with this new video showing bowe bergdahl being handed over. let's hand it over to mr. john king. >> good morning. back to you in a few minutes. a lot of ground to cover inside politics this morning. with me to share hair reportith reporting and insights. let's start with mississippi. we don't have wayne ewinner thi morning but cochran is facing mcdaniel, a state senator there. we can't call this one yet. mcdaniel slightly ahead but the law is you need 50% to win a primary. it looked like we're headed for a runoff. listen to chris mcdaniel saying last night, if he doesn't win in the final vote count he will win in the runoff. >> -- in this state's history.

and because of your hard work, because of your dedication, we sit here tonight leading a 42-year incumbent. but our fight is not over. remember, it is about the people. >> this would be and, again, the conditional would be the trophy the tea party wanted. they thought cochran was the most vulnerable. what happens is there is a runoff? in the runoff does the energy of the tea party blow out the establishment incumbent? >> you know, i mean, i think the key word you heard mcdaniel was was 42-year incumbent. that's how he's been able to be successful so far. obviously had a few mess stisst about the whole nursing home

fiasco. it's less important he is a tea party guy. more important that cochran has been in the senate for 42 years. hasn't had a challenger since 1996. and when you see him out there on the stump, it shows. >> he is rusty. that used to be a virtue in politics. i can bring home the bacon. in the senate he would be the chairman of the appropriations committee, the cash committee. both of these guys are about out of money. running out of fumes. is there a chance that the establishment could flood the zone with money. >> the establishment has the think to we want to fight a guy that could be our standard bearer. they usually lose. it's bad news for the republican party because now they have to spend another three weeks fighting each other. >> unlikely but not impossible a democrat could win this race. the republicans have to think about that, too. let's move on to two other

races. republican establishment got exactly what it wanted and yet look how different these people are. joni ernst, first ad was about castrating pigs as a child. second ad, shot the obamacare. she cracked the barrier in iowa. do you think they have a chance to pick up a democratic seat in iowa. then in california, this is not a primary, california system. the top two people in the primary, not the nominee officially but the top two people make it. he will challenge the incumbent governor there. i raise the point two very different people because neel kashkari was head of the bailout party. if he was running in iowa or mississippi or alabama he would be antichrist but yet he is viewed as the hope for california. >> shows you the difference between california politics and iowa politics. bottom line here is what's happening. each of these individual races.

they've won the -- they have turned the republican party far to the right. even establishment republican are now further to the right than they were two years ago. >> i don't think anyone in california thinks that neel kashkari has much of a chance but california republican reboot but they've been trying for the past decade to restart what used to be a viable republican party in the nation's largest state. is he the answer or at least stop the bleeding? >> probably not. condoleezza rice talked about this, too. she gave a speech a couple months ago are she walked about rebranding the party, being a party that's more welcoming, more open to immigration reform and things like that. but i think this race in california goes to show that republicans are being very practical this go around. they want to have as many contenders in as many states as possible to rebrand the party. and i think joni ernst in iowa, competitive race there. they've got a real chance in

that race. she has brought a lot of republicans together from the left side of the -- or from all spectrums of the party. >> if she wins she will be the first woman sent by iowa to congress. not just to senate but the congress, period. on the record, i want to say the president's approval rating is north star of an election year. brand new poll released yesterday. president's approval rating at 43%. disapproval at 55%. we went through 12 different issues and she didn't crack 50%. he could not crack 50% on any of those. also do want to note. abc/"washington post" poll who had the president at 46%. the president is trying to get closer to 50%. cnn has had him stuck in a rut at 43%. on those issues where he's under water he fairs well on the environment, okay on terrorism, on a lot of the other issues it's largely people don't think the economy has anything. >> we'll be talking about that in a few minutes the example of the white house hurting its

credibility. >> this idea whether or not he's a good manager and people seem to think that he increasingly is not. >> and i think weeks if not months driving this debate will be this political controversy now over the bowe bergdahl exchange, prisoner swap. listen to the president and he says when you have a chance to free a captive american, it's a no brainer. >> regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an american soldier back if he's held in captivity. period. full stop. we don't condition. >> period, full stop, we don't condition it. >> this is the first time i've discussed it in this fashion. i'm appalled to think that everything that the united states and its national

interests is submerged and lower priority at the release of one soldier. and not how natural security is addressed. my heart goes out to sergeant bergdahl, whether he is innocent or guilty. i'm glad he's home. but in exchange for that you cannot put american's lives in danger. >> where does this debate head? you not only have john mccain and a lot of republicans say the president paid way too high of a price here in freeing these five men blamed for killing americans and kill ing others. even hillary clinton through senior aides leaking word that she wanted a tough ever deal when she was in office. >> it looks like the house, they want hearings. perhaps the same thing will happen on the senate side. i think the question is whether or not this is the new benghazi, right, where there's going to be all sorts of conversation around this and attacks around this president all for his decision around this issue. >> both sides are playing

politics with this, treating it like a campaign, not a foreign policy issue. whether or not the swap is a good deal depends on a few things. battlefield, retirement, or in a grave. we shall wait and see what happens. >> this one is not going to go away. appreciate you coming. back to new york this morning, it is just dead clear. i think everybody is happy that bowe bergdahl is on his way home but serious questions about this including whether the president, if he couldn't notify all of congress, at least notify some key leaders so he's not getting the heat he's getting about they think he went around the law and around them to pull this off. because he knew it was going to be quite controversial. >> those key leaders are making that absolutely clear of their -- that they think they've been -- that he went around them. that's not sitting well with them. that's for sure. >> also the politics of it is also diffusing the issue at the root of it which is who makes these calls. if you look at the conversation

stuks, it's clear. but it's not clear. congress has given presidents a lot of power they weren't supposed to have. presidents in turn have done things they shouldn't have done in respect to congress. that really has to be -- otherwise you're going to keep having politics like this. coming up next on "new day," breaking down the dramatic new video we're talking about. the moment that sergeant bowe bergdahl was released by his taliban captors. the other half of the equation is this part, the five bad guys given up by the u.s. in return. there was a time we could have given up fewer, lower-level guys. why didn't we? we're going to tell you about the deal that was missed, straight ahead. [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts, ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes,

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good to have you back with us here on "new day." covering breaking news. the moment sergeant bowe bergdahl became a free man captured on video released overnight. it shows the former p.o.w. that video was filmed by the taliban. joining us now is retired u.s. air force colonel and former deputy director for traininged a

the nsa. colonel, a pleasure to have you here. i cannot tell you how compelling we feel this video is and i know you feel the same way. really a rare glimpse of a hostage exchange. i'm curious, to you, what stands out the most. >> well, michaela, it's one of those videos where you can see the operations at work. you look at the way in which the handoff took place. you look at the fact that the blackhawk helicopters came down and landing on the landing strip and they were looking very carefully at the surrounding area. so the taliban, of course, were raid with their weapons. even had shoulder fired missiles at the ready just in case things went wrong from their standpoint. it was a very tense, very dramatic moment. and it was one of those moments where the public has gotten a glimpse of these exchanges, these exchanges have happened throughout history. but this particular one is particularly poignant because it

occurs in an environment in which the taliban, which is not a country, has released somebody that, you know, of course, is a member of the u.s. armed forces. and it shows how these procedures have worked, at least on the outside. and it is very compelling to see how they've been able to do that and really all the work that went into releasing him comes out, to me at least. >> what's interesting, too, is all that we don't see. we know there were drones. there were other aircraft in the area monitoring the situation. what also struck me, colonel, is how matter of fact is. it is very much like transaction, very much like an everyday business affair. >> absolutely. and michaela, you're right. what it boiled down to us getting together with the taliban people that in theory we're not supposed to talk to. get somebody like bergdahl released. it was very matter of fact, very business like. it was interesting to note that

the taliban looked at this and they were -- it almost seemed disappointed in the fact that they didn't get to spend more time with the american soldiers who were coming to take sergeant bergdahl from captivity. it's almost as if they wanted to have a little bit more of a discussion about things. shake hands for a longer period, things like that. it was very interesting to note their commentary which was, hey, they're here, they took him, they left, and now they're gone. and so of course the taliban are looking at this as a great victory for them. and it's clear that they wanted to exploit this for propaganda purposes. but you can look through it and see, okay, here are the mechanics of the situation as well. >> they didn't waste any time. u.s. special operations force there's getting in and out. obviously they don't know the unpredictable nature of the people they're dealing with. do you think there's any security concerns that arise from this being made so public?

>> yes. because when you look at how these operations work and any time you're sitting in a situation like this or you find yourself in a situation like this you want to make sure that the security measures that you put in place can be used the next time something like this happens. >> sure. >> so, yeah, there are some concerns there that some techniques might be revealed. but by and large, you know, this is how these things work and you see a lot of coordination that went into this and real effort on the part of the intelligence community as well as special forces to make this happen. >> a lot of controversies swirling around this. could the potential release of this man that they are seeing as -- some are viewing as a deserter, potentially increase kidnappings or other hostage takings? i'm curious what your thought is on all of this. do you think this is a test case for future negotiations? >> i do. because this is the first time that we have publicly entered

into negotiations with a terrorist group to this extent. obviously we've done it before, you know, you have iran-contra and all the different things that are associated with getting varied prisoners, whether they were spy or military people, released, you know, all of the way back to the cold war. but when you look at this for the future i would say, michaela, the risk for the future is that there are, you know, certain temptations that groups like the taliban will now have that can probably, you know, exploit to their ends. i think the taliban themselves are going to be focused more on internal struggles within afghanistan so we may not see things from them but maybe from other groups. >> compelling video. a delight to be able to walk through it with you. pleasure to have you here with us on "new day." >> thank you so much, michaela. it's been a pleasure to be with you. >> kate? >> coming up next on "new day," california chrome will be racing for history in saturday's

belmont stakes looking to become the first triple crown winner since 1978. is he ready for the toughest test in racing? we're going to talk to his trainers about it next. ♪ and, uh, i just can't fight it anymore ♪ ♪ it's bundle time ♪ bundle ♪ mm, feel those savings, baby and that's how a home and auto bundle is made. better he learns it here than on the streets. the miracle of bundling -- now, that's progressive. honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ.

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>> got to let the boss sing it out, right? on saturday california chrome is hoping to become the boss, the first horse to take the triple crown in 40 years. affirmed was the last one to do it. for all the talk about the horse

and the jockey, the real truth is it's all about the trainers. the men behind this great colt, california chrome are trainers art and alan sherman who join us from belmont, new york, the site of the belmont stakes. isn't it true it's all about the trainers, guys? >> i hope so. >> it has a lot to do with the horse, too. >> i guess the horse has something to do with it. let me ask you an interesting question before we get into how he's feeling. sketchers hats. how does a horse get a deal with a shoe company? >> he just has to wear the apparel. >> i've never heard of that. have you ever heard of a deal like this? do you think we'll see nike deals with race horses? >> hopefully they'll get into it. >> who is that laughing in the background? >> that's me. >> so let's talk about the horse. is it true that building up to

big races you actually see it in the thoroughbreds, that their decision is different, their energy is different. do you sense that? >> very much so. i think he looks really great right now. he trained about a half hour ago, had a beautiful gallop, almost two miles. really looks good. >> the jockey, victor es es knows sa says the horse has a little more weight on him. was that intentional? >> no. he's just growing. they're 3 years old. he's getting stronger, eating great. it's amazing how he's bounced out of these races and keeps getting stronger. >> two main issues, the first one is the race itself. the big reason they say the triple crown isn't easy to achieve is obviously the margin between the different thoroughbreds is very small, but that three races is a lot and they're very different.

how does california chrome size up the belmont race and what makes it special? >> well, i think sizing up to the belmont it's an endurance race. being a former jockey as i was for 23 years, i think it's a jockey race to win or lose and you really have to realize that when you think you're at the 3-8 pole, you're at the 3.5. you have to be heads up when you ride a race for a mile and a half. >> more of an endurance race? you think that plays to california chrome's strength, alan? >> i don't think the distance will be a problem with him. he's got such a high cruising speed. he hasn't shown that distance will be a problem. obviously you never know until you run a mile and a half. i have no reason to think he won't. >> do you think he needs the

nasal strip? obviously there was some controversy about it. belmont had to consider the new york state requirements and wound up going with it. but do you really think he needs it? do you think he would be the same without it, art? >> well, i really think that we don't breeze him with a nasal strip. when we started putting it on him back in december when he won the first state pretty handily. you don't want to change anything. a lot of athletes increase the air passage. when you think of going a mile and a half, you might need a little extra air. i'm happy that new york racing association did give permission to wear that and everybody else that wants to wear it. i'm sure there will be a few trainers that run a nasal strip this weekend. >> so, guys, what do you think? where is the confidence going into the race this weekend? al and art, is your horse going

to do it? are we looking at a triple crown winner here, alan? >> i sure hope so. i don't want to get ahead of myself. i know he'll try hard. the jock will try hard and we're trying hard. i think e he'll do it, but so does everybody else with a horse in the race. >> art, what's your heart telling you? >> i feel more confident coming into this race than any race he's won. he's been on the six-race winning streak. i have good vibes about it. i think they better worry about california chrome instead of me worrying about anybody else. >> i hear that. certainly he's getting the most play coming into this. i've got my kid's college money on the line here. i'm counting on you. don't let that sketchers deal go to your heads. stay hungry. if you win this one -- you should be looking for the nasal strip deal, not the sneaker deal. i'm not going to buy sketchers because of the horse. he's not even wearing them.

art, alan sherman, the best to both of you. good luck. we'll be watching. thanks for joining us on "new day." >> thank you so much. >> the horse has got a shoe deal, kate. what's next? levi's? >> what am i? the hors gets a shoe deal. >> you're way better looking than that horse. >> well -- coming up next on "new day," bowe bergdahl walking freely to u.s. special forces in a helicopter taking off. in a new video released by the taliban, what the pentagon is saying about that video and what the investigation will say about whether bergdahl deserted his post. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com you know that dream...

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plus, med-care takes private policies, medicaid, even my medicare! now we have the time to do the things we love. med-care. we deliver a better life. good morning and welcome to "new day." it is wednesday, june 4, 8:00 in the east. breaking overnight, stunning new video of the moment sergeant bowe bergdahl was turned over to u.s. forces. take a look, this video shot by the taliban released by the taliban's media arm shows what can be described as a dazed bergdahl being turned over by his captors obviously to the u.s.

he then is led to a waiting helicopter, patted down and whisked away. let's bring in barbara starr live from the pentagon with much more on this. clearly everyone is going to be going through this video frame by frame, barbara. >> absolutely. good morning, kate. controversial, berg dan's release and the men who came to get him. breaking overnight, the first images of the actual bowe bergdahl swap emerging on the taliban's website, chanting praise for their leader, 18 armed taliban militants seen standing in wait, perched on grassy hills in a valley, guns and rocket launchers at the ready. the meeting took place at 4:00 in the afternoon in eastern afghanistan. at the center of the action, a

silver pickup truck, bowe bergdahl seen inside, sitting in the back seat. bergdahl dressed in white appears to be nervous, blinking, shaky. bergdahl seen talking with one of his alleged captors. at one point the army sergeant cracks what looks to be a smile while talking and then wipes his eyes. seen flying overhead, a twin engine plane approaching the meeting point. and then suddenly, like a scene out of the movies, the special forces black hawk helicopter descends. who taliban militants immediately escort bergdahl towards the chopper, waving a white flag. three u.s. special operations commandos approach shaking hands with the taliban militants. they pat down bergdahl's back and immediately begin escorting him to the helicopter. in bergdahl's left hand, a plastic bag, the contents not yet known. the commandos wave back to the

militants as they run towards the chopper. they pat bergdahl down again, this time in a deliberate and thorough fashion, presumably a swipe for explosives right before loading him in. this face-to-face exchange lasting less than ten seconds before they were off. a message later emerges, don't come back to afghanistan. ♪ another portion of the edited video shows the homecoming of the taliban prisoners in a separate location. a caravan of suvs pulled over along side a busy stretch of road. the five guantanamo bay detainees exit hugging their supporters. this video now detailing what is considered a highly controversial exchange. the obama administration facing steep criticism for what some say is a negotiation with terrorists in exchange for a u.s. soldier who some say is a

possible deserter. but what may be most fascinating in this video is a rare, close-up look at those u.s. special operations commandos. they are not saying what unit they are from, but operations, when you hear that word, it usually means s.e.a.l. team 6 or delta force. their faces are covered. this is a rare opportunity to see them in the field and to see them at work. chris? >> as usual, barbara, they got the job done. all right. let's break down this video here. there's a lot in it that's tactical and military and also for the moleations. we have senior national security xpt from "the daily beast" josh brogan. here is something that's very important. obviously the military will be looking at this, how did they do this? hostilities will continue. when you look at the man himself, bowe bergdahl, we haven't seen him. what do you think will be relevant here? >> one of the administration's main claims was this deal had to be done now because bowe

bergdahl's health was deteriorating and they received a proof-of-life video that the public has never seen, proving he was so near death that the pressure was on them to make the swap. >> do you see that here? >> i'm not an expert. i haven't seen the other videos. that will be something that they will look at to see if that holds up in the light of day and if bowe bergdahl was in the condition where we needed to make the deal right away. >> we have him here sitting in the pickup truck sz the sf guys get in here, the special ops guys get in here. seeing them dressed in their tra-garb, that bag, these will be items of interest. what could be in that bag? >> it's interesting that they shake hands and sometimes put their hands to the heart which is when islamic officials don't want to shake hands, that's something they do. it's interesting this was a three-second interaction. the choppers were surveying the land to make sure there was no

ambush, making sure there was nothing fishy going on. landed exactly for a minute and were off right away. they took no chances with the safety of the mission and no chances the taliban would take back their word and do something nefarious during this exchange. >> you say it was one minute in duration. during the video, the narration of it, they comment on that, the taliban guys. they thought they would stick around and have a chance to talk. what do you make of that? >> again, they wanted to mitigate the risk that something bad would happen. here is where we see the soldiers frisk bowe bergdahl. >> standard procedure. >> they could have hidden an explosive device. >> redid have somebody blow up before in an operation with the cia. it's something to be concerned about. >> exactly. this was a diplomatic interaction by any means. this was a mission to get this guy as quickly into safety as possible, take no risks and get the heck out of there. >> even though there did seem to be based on their own narration,

they said they had messages that they wanted to talk and the guys left left on them. >> these guys are not diplomats. these are special forces. isn't it interesting that the taliban is putting out this information where the obama administration is not. the taliban is shaping the narrative, showing a video of their guys. >> there's a good reason for that. >> both sides want to spin a victory for themselves. one side is succeeding. here we see the five taliban released in dohar, walking free, celebrating. when this deal was originally conceived, there were going to be strict assurances that these guys would be under house arrest. that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. >> that's the big question. when you see this video and you see them come out and then they leave, and the question is where are they now? do you believe we've had generals on the show saying this is what the intelligence community does is monitor people like that. do you believe with the conditions set up, we will know where these men are and what

they're doing? >> the conditions that have been set up are secret. what we reported is the idea was there would be surveillance, monitoring -- this was all done by the qataris, you'll have reassurances they'll stay for one year. >> is there a truth not being spoken yet, as upsetting as it is to show these are enemies of the u.s., these are the future. as gitmo gets closed, they're not coming to u.s. prisons. many man will be released back to qatar and other places. >> president obama has promised to close the prison. he's proven he can release high-risk detainees without notifying congress. we're releasing them basically into the wild.

if this is a precedent, that will be a worrying precedent for many people on capitol hill who are concerned anti this issue. the precedent has been set. if the president wants to release more prisoners from guantanamo, he can do it. nobody can really stop him. that isn't exactly what he has promised to do in his "state of the union" speech in general. >> the basis for criticism is legit. there is a little political theater going on here. everybody knew this was the deal. everybody knew this is who the guys were. there wasn't opposition to it all these years. >> when this did surface in 2012, dianne feinstein told me personally she was very opposed to the idea. she also revealed details of the deal that she had been briefed in a classified session. after that incident in 2012, the administration was very wary of going to congress with any of these details. just to be fair to them, congress leaks. did he break the law?

yes, by not notifying congress. they had reason to believe this was sensitive information that they had to keep in line. they also knew top democrats and republicans did not like the deal and would fight against it. yes, there are politics on all sides. in tend, they decided we want to get this done. we'll worry about taking the flak for it later. >> the administration would argue may have broken the law of the 30-day rule. the nsc saying we think this may have been a legitimate circumvention of it. josh, great to have you here on "new day." here is a look at more headlines at this hour. the republican senate primary race in mississippi looks to be headed for a runoff. tea party candidate chris mcdaniel has a slim lead over incumbent thad cochran. neither has the 50% needed to declare victory and avoid a runoff. in iowa, joanie ernest won the

gop nomination. straight out of a movie, that's how u.s. officials describing a dangerous close pass by a russian fighter jet. that aircraft coming within 100 feet of a u.s. air force plane. after buzzing the americans, the jet banked showing its belly loaded with missiles. this happened in april, the second close pass by the russians that month. u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel spoke privately with officials about those incidents. hall of fame quarterback dan marino backing out of a concussion lawsuit against the nfl. we told you about it "new day." the 52-year-old former dolphins star said he didn't realize his name would be attached to the suit. his announcement comes a day after it was revealed that marina and 14 other players were suing, claiming the league knew about a link between concussions and long-term health problems and he hit it from the players. that's quite a development from yesterday, kate. >> quite a turn-around.

up next on "new day," the new video of bowe bergdahl's release comes at a time when some in his own unit are growing more and more critical of him. we'll talk to bergdahl's former team leader about the night he vanished. hillary clinton opens up to "people" magazine about life after public office in a candid new interview just out today. what she says about that concussion and 2016 prospects. we'll talk with the editor coming up. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk... [ meows ]

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new this morning, a sign of hillary clinton many never see. the former secretary of state is bracing the upcoming cover of "people" magazine. there is the cover right now.

in a candid new interview she talks about her health, benghazi, monica lewinsky and, of course, the question everyone has been asking. will she run for president in 2016. cnn's brianna keilar is here with much more. a lot to look through in this interview. >> reporter: a lot. it's pretty interesting there are light topix and serious topics. she talks about plans for 2016. she talks about what kind of grandmother she wants to be which will happen before the end of the year. she says she wants to be emotionally supportive and set expectations and wants to baby-sit a lot. >> hillary clinton sitting down for an exclusive interview with "people" magazine at her washington home as her newest book "hard choices" hits sell vs next week. on her presidential aspiration clinton says i know i have a decision to make. we need to break down that highest hardest glass ceiling in

politics. i'll have to make my own decision about what i think is right for me. her book rollout is certainly starting to look like a campaign, a busy schedule of appearances, interviews and calculated releases of parts of her memoir about her time at the state department. just monday she dropped this hint, talking about the gruelling nature of apartmental race. she assured the crowd she has -- >> a lot of resilience and a lot of stamina. >> reporter: she always talks about her husband's health. he's had the tremor for years. it's nothing serious, just a nerve pinch. and monica lewinsky who recently resurfaced with an essay in ""vanity fair."" clinton tells people she hasn't read it saying she moved on. i think everybody needs to look to the future. clinton also reveals her indulgences since taking time off.

"dancing with the stars" -- >> it's all about location, location, location. >> reporter: and "house of cards" which she and bill, quote, totally binge-watched. i'm at an age where i can do what i want. here i am whether you like my hey or not. >> she jokes about her hair, but not her head. she addresses the question of whether there are lingering effects from the concussion and the blood clot she suffered in 2012. she says no, they're not. >> absolutely right. thanks so much. hillary clinton's exclusive interview with people is on stands friday. let's bring in kate, the executive editor of "people" magazine and also maggie haberman. as brianna was laying out, there was a lot to get through. >> really no topic was off limits including monica

lewinsky. she was willing to discuss anything we asked her from the mundane like questions about her hair to obviously the question everyone is asking right now. >> what was the impression -- what was the impression of the writer? what was the impression of "people" magazine. how is she? how did she come across? >> i think that people may be surprised to hear this. but obviously on the one hand she was incredibly poised, incredibly prepared. she rolled with every single question that went her way. she was also very, very warm, very colorful, talked about things that didn't make it into the story, like becoming a grandmother. her house is a riot of color with a red kitchen and a yellow dining room. she's somebody who seems to be feeling very at ease and at home with whom she has become. there really seems to be a sense that she's come into her own now. >> that's really interesting. one thing she does take on, we're hearing her address, the

concussion, her health. we've been on it, talking about when she'll address it and how. you said she came prepared. this part of the interview shows that. she says she has no lingering effects from that concussion. then she brings up paul ryan when talking about it. i want to right. at the inauguration for president obama in the second term i was standing with paul ryan. i said, congressman, i read you're a great athlete. have you ever had a concussion? oh, yeah, three at least. i said, were they serious? he said one was really serious. pretty politically astute being able to put in a paul ryan reference. >> you'll hear a lot of that kind of answer going forward. i don't know if she said anything else about the concussion. certainly this is an issue that has been whispered about a lot. it sounds like she took on a lot of different questions. one of them was bill clinton's health, that about the tremor he has had.

this is something you've heard whispered about from critics as well. >> pretty smooth way of addressing that concussion. it's sure to come up again and again. now we'll see her line of attack in return. >> another good line of attack, that paul ryan had concussions. you feel like a little bit was too smooth. i think it's a strong interview and hallmark of what makes "people" magazine great, you get people into areas that they don't usually go with us. do you think it could be too smooth, that everything comes out exactly the way she wanted to. she got a hit on the head, people worry about her age. she talks about paul ryan. do you think it's a little too smooth? >> you're talking about somebody who can do 250 push-ups saying, according to hillary, that he had a really bad concussion. it's less of an attack and more of a pivot. her ability to say, you want to come at me with this, i'm going to redirect your attention to something relevant. >> if you're going to bring up

this health issue of mine, bring up past issues -- >> and hold it upside by side. >> she answers a lot of questions. one topic she really did not want to really take on, to discuss any further is monica lewinsky. she says i have moved on. when the righter asked about that comment, did she call her a narcissistic looney tune. i'm not going to comment on what did or didn't happen. i think everybody needs to look to the future. >> she's done. this is a chapter in her life that she literally made a chapter about it in her previous memoir. she has written about this ordeal, this scandal. it was monica lewinsky's choice to write the article she did for "vanity fair." it was not hillary clinton's choice to re-enter this chapter of her life. she's just -- she's not going to go here. >> she's going to get asked about it over and over again. to your point of is it too smooth, i do think this is going to be something where, if she

can hold the no comment for a long time, it will be impressive. she has a slew of interviews coming up. this is going to go on and on and on. >> the media won't leave you alone about it when your friends and associates come out in droves to attack monica lewinsky. that's one of the games in politics that you guys at home don't always get to know. why do you media keep that dogging about this? because their people deny it behind the scenes so they can have plausible deniability. >> you talk about sexism and double standards in politics. also comes up, her hair strategy for 2016. there is the tough question. mitt romney isn't asked about his hair. >> i thought maybe he should have been. he had fantastic hair. >> a great point, kate. what do you think of her answer in taking on the double standard question? >> i think there was a very subtle pivot included in that in that she got the age question in there as well. some people have been doing the math about how old she will be

if she does take the white house. she managed to blend an answer about her hair into also a little comment about her age, which is that she is old enough that she does not have to care at all what people think about her hair. she has passed the point of needing that level of vanity. she has a very good way, almost what she seems to be trying to do with the lewinsky question, perhaps less successfully of making you feel a little silly for even wondering such a thing. >> she's past it. you should be, too. >> she's past it except if you look at the cover of this issue. it looks less like she did at the state department when she was letting it go long and not caring about it, much like she did when she was a senator. >> in defense of her, my hair changes every day on the show. >> mine changes every time i don't come in here and have it done. >> the scrunchy chronicle continues. >> they didn't talk about the pant suits.

>> i will defend any woman who wants to wear a pant suit. we need to put that one to bed. kate and maggie, great to see you guys. this issue of "people" magazine on stands friday. thanks. coming up on "new day," some of his brothers in arms say bowe bergdahl is know hero. reaction to the dramatic video from the member of bergdahl's own unit. does he think we traded prisoners to get back a deserter. we'll ask straight ahead. and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work!

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time for the five things you need to know for your new day. at number one, the taliban releasing new video of the moment sergeant bowe bergdahl was freed. this as the army launches a review to determine whether he deserted his post back in 2009. with the controversial release of sergeant bowe bergdahl following him, president obama is headed to brussels for a summit with the g-7 group. earlier today he was in poland and met with the ukrainian president elect. severe weather plummeting the midwest with nearly a dozen reports of tornadoes across several states. heavy winds, rain and even baseball-sized hail hitting parts of nebraska and iowa. an attorney for one of the 12-year-old girls accused of stabbing her friend 19 times says she should be tried in juvenile court so she can get

the help she needs. they say the two attacked the girl trying time press a fictional character called slender man. the race between incumbent thad cochran and challenger chris mcdaniel still too close to call. neither has the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. go to cnn.com for the latest. the new video of sergeant bowe bergdahl's transfer is a rare look. it comes as the army is launching a, quote, comprehensive review to figure out how bergdahl got into enemy hands in the first place. is he a deserter? would that matter? let's bring in matthew farr, a writer for "rolling stone" and a veteran who served in afghanistan. his article ran in "rolling stone" and is worth a read.

let's also bring in keith stansel, held hostage for 5 1/2 years by a colombian militant group. keith, you've had a chance to see this video, yes? >> yes, i have. >> we'll roll it for the people at home. when you look at him, what do you see in terms of condition and things that the rest of us may miss in terms of how someone feels in a moment like this? >> for me it's his eyes. his eyes to me look like he's in bad shape. many of us, when we came out, some of us were heavy, some of us were emaciated. the eyes tell ourl health at all times. there's many things underneath that you can't see that aren't apparent to the cameras. looking at him in the back of the truck at his eyes does not lood good. >> what do you attribute it to? do you think it was dust, he was blindfolded or it's a sign of stress? what's your take? >> i don't know. i'm not a doctor.

i can tell you my experience with us in the jungles, we'd call these marches we go on is death marches. it would be days with low food intake being marched around the jungle. our eyes would sink back and get dark around the edges. he's got to be under tremendous stress, also. we all react in different ways to stress. in the jungle i tended to lose a lot of weight. some people would gain. it's the eyes, he does not look good there. it's got to be the stress i would imagine. i'm not a doctor. that's an indicator for us when i was in captivity. >> seen carrying a bag. i wonder if they let him take personal effects with him. that would be interesting to find out what that is. >> the moment, keith, of being turned over, it would be easy to think, wow, he must be so overjoyed, this is so great. is it a mix of emotions? >> it's a mix of emotions. a mix of joy, a mix of fear. you can see he's nervous. like i said, you're going from where you don't make a decision for yourself and somebody says,

get up, walk, you're free, go, it's hard to take that step, hard to make that decision. somebody who hasn't been in captivity, it sounds foreign. he's been under control for five years, every movement has been monitored and dictated for him. for now for him to take those first couple steps free and i was watching how he seemed a little unstable, he's walking back and forth. it's a scary thought. almost like a young child for the first time getting to walk outside. it's a scary moment, although very happy, but scary. >> for us watching this video, it is the end of this. there he is being brought back. for him it's just the beginning. >> absolutely. >> keith, thank you for your take on this. matt, i want to turn to you now. there's a lot of speculation, politically but also just practically in terms of how did this all begin. many members of his particular tune, the guys he was with there are saying he walked off and deserted. you reported this as deeply as anybody. you believe there's proof of

that. >> as we reported in the article two years ago, it's clear he walked off the post. whether that means he deserted, that's a question of intent. >> you don't believe there's any chance in the reporting that he was taken from the base itself? >> no, i don't believe so. some of the initial reports that were coming out were contradictory saying he had been kidnapped out of latrine and lagged behind on patrol. those seem to be just fog of war-type issues and don't have any basis in reality. >> leaving his weapon, his pack, all of his supplies. what does that say to you? >> it was a bad area of afghanistan. i know the area intimately. i know that exact place that he was at. i wouldn't have wanted to walk around without a weapon. apparently from what we know he took a bottle of water, a knife, his kindle and that's about it, a notebook and a camera. >> the supporting proof that he

had been writing e-mails and saying i'm going to leave, i'm going to go, this is my good-bye note, do you believe any of that stands up? >> michael and i were the only ones that have seen those e-mails and read them. i don't think they deliberately said that he was going to leave, but they indicated that something was clearly troubling this soldier and clearly going wrong. >> he wouldn't be unique in that regard, would he? >> no, absolutely not. i served 16 months in that area and there were times i got fed up. you can see from the video reporting that shawn smith, the guardian, in that unit the months prior that the that unit seemed to have morale problems, discipline and leadership problems. >> the speculation that he was giving information to the taliban as evidence by more precise and more frequent hits thereafter, did that bear out in your report? >> we didn't really come across that too much in our reporting. i can't really speak to that, but i can say that he was a

private first class. he was a low-level grunt, which i was when i was there, too. i didn't know much beyond what i was going to do that day and how to keep my weapon clean and my humvee operating. >> we're going to have guys that will come on the show after the break and they served with him and they say they have really good reason to believe he deserted. you're saying exercise some caution. there's more that needs to be done. >> i would exercise a little restraint. with respect to those soldiers, they have had to bottle this up for five years. a brigade-side non-disclosure agreement to not talk about deployment, that's a huge failure in the military. you had admiral mullins, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff flying out two weeks after this happened to visit with members of the platoon. for me that indicates that they

wanted this hushed up and wanted it hushed up good. >> matt farwell, a piece of "rolling stone" from 2012, worth the read. thank you for joining us and thank you for your service. >> thank you. >> keith stansel, thank you very much. we'll need your help going forward during the reintegration process. thank you for being here. when we come back, we will have those fighting men who served with bow derg dal and their take on how he wound up being captured. sfx: car unlock beep.

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welcome back to "new day." we know now bowe bergdahl was released, in this breaking video we've been bringing to you. what we don't know the how he was captured in the first place. did he walk off the battlefield, walk into enemy hands? did he just desert? did this go wrong?

we need perspective and we'll get it right now from two men who may be best positioned. they are former team leader evan butow as well as retired first class jose baguette who served time at the same operating post. they were not part of the same particular tune, but part of the same community. gentlemen, thank you for joining us and thank you for your service. >> thank you for having me. >> thank you for having me. >> sergeant, let's start with you. give us your best sense of who bowe bergdahl was so we can kind of understand where he was coming from in this situation. >> what i know of bowe is he was a little bit of -- a little odd. being in the infantry, we have an incredibly tight brotherhood. we all hang out together, drink

togeth together, go out to dinner together, do everything together. he was somewhat of an out cast, not that we casted him out, he just stayed away -- he had no cell phone. he had no -- he didn't watch movies. he didn't watch tv. he just read books. he was studying several languages prior to deployment. he was just a little odd. he was quiet, very methodical in his thinking and the way he talked. however, he was a good soldier at the same time. he always wanted to learn more. he always wanted to be -- know everything we were doing, how all of our battle drills, he studied and studied and studied. he didn't just want to know how. he wanted to know how did we do these things? as a team leader, it was actually very refreshing to have a soldier who was that committed

to the job that we were about to go do in afghanistan. >> jose, you weren't on his team, but you mixed with him in different situations there at the post. what was his reputation? >> from what i've heard from him, i was in third platoon. he's a quiet guy. before we got deployed, never heard about him getting in trouble or anything. i heard people say comments like he was a sponge, and he liked to take inasmuch information as he could. never heard about him getting in trouble or anything like that. me being in a different platoon, he was definitely off my radar. >> let's get right to the matter. the idea of how he found his way off post, you believe he deserted. why? >> well, i want to paint a small picture here of where we were. it was a very small o.p., maybe two acres at the biggest.

no walls, no gate. we had some wire. some of the o.p. didn't even have wire that was surrounding it. we had a couple bunkers on a hilltop, and the rest of our guard was pulled out of our trucks that we would kind of fan out, so we had that 360-degree security. the morning he walked away, we got a call on the radio saying an op-2 which is the call sign for the bunker i happened to be in at the time, they said, op-2, is bergdahl up there? i said no, he's not here. it came out over the radio. they said has anyone at the op seen bergdahl? has anyone seen bergdahl? everyone kind of responded throughout saying no, we don't know where he's at, we don't know where he's at. it didn't take long to look through the whole base -- not base -- op we were at, it didn't take long to search it.

there wasn't very much area to check. we talked to the afghan national army who was also there with us. there was a small group of them with us. we talked to them. bergdahl spent a lot of time with the afghan national army soldiers who were there, talked to them and drank chai with them and hung out with them a lot. >> i know you think there was a lot of stream of suggestion from the afghan side that you guys could desert, that they could get you over to pakistan. i know you talked about that. do you believe that was something that motivated bergdahl? >> are you saying motivated bergdahl to get to pakistan? >> that there was suggestion, you can leave here if you want, if you're not happy. there was that kind of chatter. do you think he was susceptible. >> i don't know of any chatter that anyone would say it's okay if you just want to walk away. >> i know it's not okay. i'm saying what do you think was his state of mind is what i'm

saying? >> i believe that he wanted to walk away, and the evidence after him walking away, it proves he had somewhat of an agenda. in the days, the hours following when he left and the assets that we had on station, we picked up radio communications, and i was standing right there when it came out. there's an american in yaya call which was a village a couple miles away from where we were at, he was looking for someone who speaks english so he could talk to the taliban. i heard that over the radio, an interpreter interpreted what was said and i was standing right there when i heard it. at that point, yeah, he just walked away. apparently now he has an agenda. that's all we knew at that point and the search kind of evolved from there. >> jose, if it is true that that's how this came to happen, that bergdahl intentionally walked off, basically deserted, do you think that changes the

analysis of whether or not he should have been saved in this deal? >> well, of course he needs to be saved. he's an american soldier. we never leave anybody behind. the truth is that he did desert. it's not if he did or not, it's what happened. that's the truth. we're never going to leave anybody behind. with that being said, it's good to have one of our soldiers back, but he did leave on his own as well. >> sergeant, just to finish it, what do you want people to know about this situation when they're assessing whether or not this was a good deal or bad deal, what's your take? >> my take is, bottom line, bergdahl is not a hero. he is not an example. he did not serve with honor and he did not serve with dignity. the fact that we got him back, that's great. he is an american citizen, he is still at this time -- he's an american soldier and we do need to get him back. do i believe what we gave up is a little much for what we got

back? in my opinion, yes. we gave up a lot for what we got back. i'm not here to talk about any political agenda or anything like that. that's a totally different issue. they know way more than i do. we got an american back and that's a victory, a small victory. however, the truth is he deserted. he went to seek out the taliban and he's not a hero. people need to know that. people need to know he did not serve with hon o he did not serve with dignity. >> it's the people that died looking for him like lieutenant andrews and everybody that went searching for him that got hurt, those are the real heroes, people who did something influential. not people who deserted their company and platoon. >> thank you again for your service and thank you for talking with us and sharing your perspective on "new day." appreciate it. >> thank you for having us, chris. >> thank you. up next on "new day," officials are breaking down the

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you know, chin acne.ns number 1 of my 20 is for uh-huh. not to brag, but i have the chin of a teenager. here you go. dinges for everyone! when i get hangry anything within arm's reach could be part of my number 20. hm, this is potpourri. mmmm. the new amex everyday credit card, with no annual fee. it's not food. make 20 or more purchases in a monthly billing period, and earn 20% more rewards. and a coat. it's membership that rewards you for the things you already buy, everyday. what's your 20? welcome back. military officials are reviewing, breaking down this new video of sergeant bowe bergdahl's handover that was released this morning. what can be learned from these dramatic new images coming in. let's go to washington and bring

in chief national security correspondent jim sciutto. you have embedded with special forces before in iraq in 2003. you do not often see special forces in action like this. >> reporter: you don't. that was certainly a unique opportunity at the time. they were very sensitive about being put on film. i had another action in afghanistan where they took our tape away and destroyed it. that's the typical level of sensitivity. as you're looking at this tape now, you can glean some things from it that are indicative. look at the way they're dressed, the special forces soldiers. they're not in uniform. they've got a t-shirt on, wearing a middle eastern scarf. one of them you can see has a beard. they run by their own rules, have their own helicopters, stealth helicopters. they have their own way of doing things. i know they were not dependent, for instance, on mres. they would live off the land, locally supply food. that was part of their way of doing things.

they didn't need as much support as other troops, much more i understand dent. other things, lots of interaction with local fighters. the special forces do a lot of training with afghan forces. they connect with the tribal leaders, et cetera. they build relationships on the ground. that's again part of their standard operating procedure. they use that to their advantage. you saw there as they interacted with the taliban fighters, the enemy in this case, one of them was communicating in their language it appeared there. the other one, they shook hands, gave a sign of respect, one of them holding his right hand up to his heart as a sign of respect as they were making the exchange. all of this indicative of the way they do things, again, gives us and our viewers a very rare view of the most elite, most highly trained, the most secretive special forces at work here. >> absolutely. and also, as we're looking at the video right now, you get these rare glimpses of bowe

bergdahl, wiping his eye, blindinging rapidly. you're finally getting a look at this man who they've been searching for for five years. >> when we've seen him so far, we've seen him in these highly produced videos from the taliban in captivity, where he's either been reading statements, this kind of thing, probably statements provided to him. now you can see him in a very vulnerable moment. he may have an indication he's being handed over. but i'm sure there's fear, will it actually happen, are those tears? are his eyes irritated by dust kicked up by the helicopter, an extremely vulnerable moment for him. it's also our chance to see him in light of what we knew earlier this year that those proof of life videos that came out at the end of last year as we reported in january, showed u.s. military experts who are examining him that his health was in decline. now we see him, and we can get a sense. he appears thinner.

he was able to walk, but you need a military doctor to look at that and say, okay, what can we learn from that. for instance, we've heard that one of the issues for him has been nutritional issues. it's interesting to see him there. he does look different for sure for when he disappeared those five years ago. he does look functioning. he was able to walk under his own power. that's indicative as well. >> real quick, just a final note, when you look at the trance lakes of the narration over this video, at one point the narration says when they landed they were too afraid and worried that they should hands only with two people. it's important to point out that the taliban when they released this, they're also using this for serious propaganda. >> absolutely. you have the music over it. you have them interacting with america's most elite forces in getting five taliban fighters in return. they wouldn't release this video if they didn't think it was a victory. there was this message at the

end of the video up on screen saying don't return to afghanistan, a bold, angry threat. >> jim sciutto in washington. thank you very much. really, the coverage of this extraordinary video only beginning. the news continues now with carol costello. thanks a lot, kate. have a great day. breaking overnight, first video of the actual bowe bergdahl swap. >> pentagon is reviewing it. they don't doubt the authenticity. >> moment by moment, frame by frame, the former p.o.w. looking pale and weak. this morning new questions abound. >> who were the men that came to get them on that helicopter. >> where the video was shot and what the terrorists are chanting