michelle, i'm amazed to see this video. thanks so much. that does it for us. we'll see you again at 11:00 tonight. "cnn tonight" starts now. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. every picture tells a story but what story do these pictures tell? a haggard man in traditional taliban clothes surrounded by armed taliban fighter,s, a black hawk helicopter lands and he's given a quick pat-down and then wis beinged away. was he near death? had he become disillusioned with the army? our team of experts separate fact from fiction. plus, if you were writing the hollywood version of this story, is this the way you would write it? who better to ask than the executive producer of

"homeland." gideon joins me exclusively. use the #askdon. first, the controversy over the release of sergeant bowe bergdahl. bergdahl pale, gaunt, squinting, possibly to adjust his eyes to the daylight. the picture of five years in captivity. the video obviously meant to be propaganda, a propaganda tool for bergdahl's captures will hopefully shift to a soldier's life saved. it got me to thinking about brothers in arms, about how the greatest generation conducted themselves on the battlefield but, more importantly, what they did once they returned home, if they were lucky enough to return home. there's been a lot said about sergeant bergdahl, even from some of the men who served alongside them. as i said last night, they had every right to speak out. in fact, they fought for it and maybe they are right.

but the official evidence doesn't show that just yet. and bowe bergdahl can't yet speak for himself. his father says he's having trouble speaking english. the greatest generation created the no man left behind mantra but to them it wasn't just a mantra. they lived by those words. it made me wonder what they think of criticizing a fellow soldier before he even had time to explain himself before the official evidence is in. you should know, one of the men who helped coordinate interviews with the soldiers is here. we'll ask him why it appears that he and others are choosing to politicize the release of a u.s. military member. let's get to the taliban tape and what it tells us about bowe bergdahl. tom foreman has that. >> don, the video is only minutes but it is packed with information. many more details, frankly, than we've had from the white house. for starters, you see taliban

spread across the hillside here in an area identified as eastern afghanistan, the coast province. their faces have been covered as they wait for the black hawk helicopter. bergdahl is sitting in a truck, his head shaved, uniform long gone and despite concerns about his health, there are no visible signs of injuries here. he blinks over and over again and at one time he smiles briefly. it seems as if he's not used to bright lights or maybe, maybe he's just under a lot of stress or nervous. that would make sense because one of his captors here says, don't come back. you won't get out alive again. the exchange is remarkable. for one thing, we see the american troops used for this type of thing undoubtedly special forces, folks who we never see in action. they shake hands with their sworn enemy. one of them over here, you'll notice, briefly puts his hand to a chest in a sign of respect but then they quickly move to get

bergdahl to the helicopter here. look at this. he touches him in the middle of the back here to guide him and check for explosives hidden there and then away they go while keeping a very close eye on the taliban. at the helicopter, a much more thorough frisking happens here. bergdahl was carrying a plastic bag which he's forced to drop and then quickly on to the helicopter all the while keeping an eye on the taliban. this happens fast and then away they go. there is so much detail in here that you have to wonder, why would the taliban give this over so it could be studied by intelligence analysts here? because it shows their followers that they are on equal terms with the american military and suggests, even at the end of this long war, they can force the americans to strike a deal on the field of battle. that is a power position and they clearly like it. don? >> tom foreman, thank you very much. joining me is brad thor, author of "act of war" and also the

undersecretary of the army, josh porter served with bowe bergdahl and former jag attorney jeffrey corn. i'm glad to have all of you here tonight and for members of the military, thank you for your service. josh, i want to begin with you. you say you're speaking on your own accord and not as part of any political opposition but you were there with bowe bergdahl the night he went missing. how does he look to you on this tape and what jumped out to you? >> well, i mean, yes, you guys did mention that he looked pale, which is a little bit counter of what i was thinking he might be getting regular sunlight. but -- however, hits amount of malnourishment is not that much dissimilar from any soldier coming back from combat. he was being taken care of and wasn't bruised and battered and didn't have any scars on his

face or anything like that. >> all we can see is on his face. we don't know what is under there but presumably from everyone that has examined this, he's in good shape. do you remember having these ticks or blinking light before? >> i'm not exactly sure. i mean, he always seemed to be a pretty -- a normal guy as far as his gestures and the way he was looking. so maybe it was the bright sunlight. in a way, though, he looked sad to me. and maybe he smiled because there was some kind of sar relationship tissue shous thing that one of the people was telling him. >> so lieutenant colonel jeffrey corn, let's breakdown this video even more. first, obviously, it is daylight. are you surprised that this operation was conducted in daylight? >> first, let me say i'm a former military lawyer. i don't hold myself out as an expert on prisoner exchanges or special operations. but it seems to me -- and i have

background as an intelligence officer. if you're going to do a parlay with your enemy, you want to do it in a situation that minimizes anxiety and minutizes the risk that somebody might get nervous and make a mistake that leads to a confrontation and obviously doing it in daylight reduces the risk of uncertainty and makes things more transparent for both sides. so, no, i'm not surprised they did it in daylight. >> and it was quick. they got out of their fast. we saw handshakes and one american soldier touched his chest as a sign of respect. what would their support have been? >> don, i think, you know, i was in the 82nd. i think any of my troopers could have done that. we probably would have used special ops folks to handle

that. the mission is to get out of there without any ceremony or excitement and it looks like that is what happened. >> brad thor to you now, it's unusual to stee the taliban and u.s. soldiers together in any capacity. but isn't it just the fact that if you're going to negotiate a prisoner exchange, you're not going to be dealing with your friends and, as i said, you're going to get out of their fast and you're not going to try to talk for a long time? >> right. and so first off, the reason he was blinking is because he had a bag on his head until they got him to the spot and decided to roll the video camera. that's easy. he was blinking because he had a bag on his head. they didn't want him to see where he was and maybe screw things up. last minute, bag comes off the head. >> that is my assessment, that they had a blindfold on him so he would not know where he was to give the information to the u.s. continue on. >> and when you see the man doing this across his chest, this is something that you see all the time in afghanistan. this is an experienced operator

who has dealt with afghan people before and this is solom. not that he's saying i want peace but it's a normal greeting. it's more of a reflex. that's likely what you saw with that. >> geoffrey corn, do you see the paint on the side of the helicopter, is it a random number or what is the significance? >> i don't know. it could be a normal marking. it could be that it's part of the negotiation with the taliban. there was an agreement that the aircraft that would be coming to collect the prisoner would have a designated marking and that was the number that was decided upon. i don't know that we know why that number was on there. but that's certainly a plausible explanation. >> uh-huh. anyone here in the panel now why that number is there? that's a no. so josh, listen, is there any danger? most people thought they probably would never see the

release of sergeant bergdahl. is there a danger to u.s. troops to release a tape like this? >> i don't see why there would be a danger to u.s. troops. maybe they can use it as some type of a propaganda tape so as to say, hey, we stood with the americans on equal footing but other than using it as a propaganda tape, i don't see how it poses any danger at all. >> josh, in my commentary i talked about some of the young men who have every right, they fought for the right to speak on this subject. why did you come forward to speak? >> well, what i saw on tv, you know, bergdahl's parents standing next to the president and i just thought about my battle buddies whose families did not get there, you know, soldiers back to them and i know for a fact that, you know, he

walked away of his own fruition. why not speak out? why not be angry that he was getting that kind of recognition? i'm going to wait until further developments, maybe until there's a trial or something like that. >> gentlemen, thank you. stay with me. when we come back, i want to talk about what happened to bowe bergdahl in captivity. and i want to know what you think the taliban got the better deal, better part of this deal, if they did. also, if you think this whole thing seems like the plot of "homeland," you're absolutely right. i'm going to talk exclusively to one of the show's executive producers and the not at all smart thing that vladimir putin said about hillary clinton. mr. putin, you might want to watch your words. we'll be right back.

the defense secretary chuck hagel said today it's unfair to sergeant bergdahl to make any presumptions about why he left his base five years ago until a comprehensive review is conducted. back wie keep talking about the taliban in afghanistan but it's really, you say, who? >> it's the haqqani network. the haqqanis have always had

them. afghan taliban is one thing but the haqqani network is another. it's about 80% soprano and 20% al qaeda. the afghan taliban got these detain ees back but what did the haqqani get? they gave up bowe bergdahl. the white house has not told us what the haqqanis got and that's important. >> josh, part of your mission was -- go ahead, josh. >> my theory on that is, i had read some stuff while i was in afghanistan the last time i did some intelligence work and it seemed like the taliban and the other groups, there's many different terrorist groups over there. afghanistan has always been a warlord state. there may have been some kind of an arrangement where now the haqqanis are going to get a bigger piece of afghanistan when they take it back over when the americans leave, if that's what

their plan is. >> i understand you've been speaking to some of your sources. what did they tell you about bergdahl and how he disappeared? >> there are all of these stories going around. washington post has a story out right now that i covered for "the blaze" that when he got picked up by the haqqanis that he was inebriated. that's back to villagers that they interviewed. he was under the influence, stumbled around out there. the only intelligence reports that i know of about his health is where he went through dysentery stomach stuff that people go through when it's a complete shift in diet and maybe it's cold and damp and that sort of thing where he's being kept. i saw a guy that got off a helicopter and, granted, it's springtime. i didn't see a guy who looked too terribly bad. so they've had him for four days now. i want to hear what the

preliminary physician's reports are. what is so sick about this guy that we had to get him now. >> i think there's a whole lot that we've got, that was going to unfold here with regard to his health. i think there's an awful lot of speculation pouring out. hey don, it says, don come back. i don't know if that's you or what or if it's a misspelling, don't come back. there's a lot of interesting stuff here. but i don't think you're going to see the army in operation. you're going to see how they handle folks that have to answer the music. i'm very concerned about some of the comments we hear sergeant kordel is a firsthand witness and i'm concerned about the behavior but i think it's very important that we don't prejudge at this stage and let the army work its way through when bowe

gets back to good health. >> geoffrey, this is a quote from newt gingrich today. he said, "the release of five taliban leaders declared a great victory. the taliban got everything it asked for. the swab was a surrender not a negotiation." we know this was opposed by many officials, including hillary clinton. why is it so important to build trust with the taliban? is that misguided? >> well, first off, i think newt gingrich is entitled to his opinion. the constitution vests the president with the responsibility of being what the founding fathers call the top general and, in war, commanders make very difficult, strategic and operational decisions and a decision to conduct a prisoner exchange is certainly one of those decisions. it's not historically unprecedented and you're never going to get everything you want. we don't know what the

background intelligence was. we don't know the information that the chairman of the joint chiefs was receiving and feeding to the president through the national security council and. >> you're concerned about a rush to judgment, right? >> i think that's a major concern. and listen, this is an opportunity for us to let the army allow the investigatory, the intelligence and military justice system to work its proper function. i had -- >> that's two different things, though. you've got to admit, a prisoner exchange, it's not even over over there. the guy is it a hostage and we didn't even get a cease fire over this. >> prisoner exchanges have happened since the american revolution. there's nothing unprecedented about them. i'm not saying that everyone has to agree that the balance was the right balance but this is the responsibility of the commander in chief acting with the advice of his senior military and intelligence advisers. >> but that's not what we've heard. we've heard that he was shoving

military and intelligence people out of the circle and putting yes men around them and trying to isolate people to bring them to one decision which is to shut up and salute. i think the president deserves criticism on this. >> that's fine. it may turn out that he does deserve criticism. i personally doubt that the military leadership, the integrity and quality of our leaders would allow themselves to be marginalized to that extent. if that comes out, that's an issue that the people need to know. >> i want to get josh and joe in there. you said at this point we need to let the military process play out and to see what happens once they question him. josh -- joe first. i want to get what you think because brad said we've heard that he put yes people. but what is the evidence? >> i don't know who brad is listening to but he's listening to other people than i have listened to. i have a lot of respect for

marty dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and chief staff of the army. and they are not going to stand by on a decision like that. this is the last prisoner, don, in a campaign where we're going to shut down and we've been doing this. the israelis swapped a thousand palestinians for one israeli soldier and i think our soldier is worth every bit five taliban. >> i so disagree. >> i understand that. but we don't have that much time and i want to get josh in on this. josh, you know. you've been there. and the secretary of defense, chuck hagel, called bergdahl's parents and told them that the department of defense's focus is going to be on their son's health. how would you like to see this handled from this point on? what would you like to see done? >> well, i completely agree about not making a rush to judgment. that's why i came to speak out because the rush to judgment was

this american hero is returning back to the people and i think that in the same way we shouldn't go in and judge and condemn him, the same way we shouldn't go in and put him on a pedestal. an investigation needs to be conducted and if -- i never said punish him but i did say if a punishment is put forth, that he needs to accept it like a man and take it. >> i think that's very well put. i know that you guys disagree but i'm sorry i don't have all of the time in the world. we only have an hour here. thank you, brad thor, joe reeder, josh korder and geoffrey corn. next, the facts and the fiction about what is being said about joe bergdahl. i'll speak with one of the executive producers who served in the israeli army. well, there is. owho served in the israeli army. fwho served in the israeli army. who served in the israeli army. "who served in the israeli army. howh

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sergeant bowe bergdahl has been held captive for the last five years and most of what we learned about him today comes from an unlikely source. the taliban. but we still have a lot of unanswered questions. dan simon helps us separate fact from fiction. >> reporter: question number one, bowe bergdahl's health, serious decline or, worse, near death? defense secretary chuck hagel. >> we had information that his health could be deteriorating rapidly. there was a question about his safety. >> reporter: the truth, it's hard to say. he certainly had the strength to get on that black hawk

helicopter but appears sensitive to the light. he's undergoing treatment at a medical center in germany. he's said to be in stable condition. question number two, did he leave a note behind? "the new york times" says yes. citing a former senior military officer, bergdahl left a note saying that he had been disillusioned with the army, did not support the mission in afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. however, cnn has not been able to verify this. platoon members say they have never heard about such a note. question number three, did his disappearance cause loss of life? there has not been evidence to that but six soldiers were killed in the search for bergdahl. >> he just walked away. >> sergeant evan buetow says it may be difficult to prove but that his capture forced a

realignment of troops. >> when those soldiers were killed, they would not have been where they were at if bergdahl had not left. >> reporter: question number four, did the president break the law? congress, after all, is supposed to be notified before the release of any guantanamo prisoners. cnn legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. >> oh, i think he clearly broke the law. the law says, 30 days' notice. he didn't give 30 days' notice. >> it comes with some surprise and dismay that the transfers went ahead with no consultation, totally not following the law. >> reporter: the president, of course, disputes this. >> i am the father of captured u.s. soldier bowe robert bergdahl. >> reporter: and then there's bergdahl's father. which leads to question number five, did he send this tweet directed to a taliban spokesman,

"i am still working to free all guantanamo prisoners. god will repay for the death of every afghan child." the comment was deleted shortly after it was posted. cnn has no way of independently confirming the authenticity. >> it turns out, he's one of ours. >> reporter: it's a story with so many subplots that no wonder many are comparing bowe to brody on "homeland." >> i am an american. >> reporter: this drama, however, is far from over. dan simon, cnn, san francisco. >> appreciate that, dan simon. all of those unanswered questions have turned bowe bergdahl's story into a political football and my next guests know quite a lot about that. joining me is lanny davis, "crisis tales." and former white house special counsel for the clinton administration. brad chase is with me of capital media partners. he has been helping some soldiers who served with bergdahl to go public with their

criticism. gentlemen, thank you for joining me. brad, i'm going to begin with you. your firm is giving media assistance to seven members of bergdahl's platoon that have spoken out. there are some accusations out there that many of these critiques surrounding bergdahl and his reasons for leaving the base are part of a coordinated republican effort to attack the white house. is there any truth to that? >> there's absolutely no truth to that claim. it's almost bizarre. i've been branded as a gop strategist despite the fact that i've never been part of the republican party. it's easy to try and go after me. but i'll tell you, i have voted in the presidential tickets over the years for candidates from both sides. >> but here's the question, though, that your partner at your firm is a republican strategist, former aide to mitt romney. how is that not part of an agenda? >> he's not running this.

these guys were yelling out on twitter, begging for somebody to listen to their story. for five years, they have held this in. it's been haunting them. that man walked out of them five years ago but he's been in their lives every day. they reached out. rick was the first one to find it. he did facilitate to get this started but you can ask hundreds, thousands of -- i'm sorry, hundreds of reporters, i've been their primary contact. i'm the one that is helping these soldiers. >> this story has been reported especially about him being a potential deserter for years now by a number of different organi organizations. it's nothing new. but since he has been released, it's become an issue. are you saying that they reached specifically out to rick bronell? >> they were reaching out to a number of people. cody full, one of the soldiers who was brave enough to speak out after holding this in for so

long, was putting things all over twitter and reaching out to notable names. rick is a notable name and he's a republican but he was the first one that recognized that this is a story that needs to be told. he passed it over to me and said, brad, this looks like an interesting story. would you be interested in working with these guys. >> yeah. it does seem -- it is suspect, though, you have to admit, that they would reach out to a republican strategist and then, you know, your reply is that it's not part of a republican effort. >> so are you implying that i am a closet republican? >> no, i'm not talking about you. i'm not talking about you. i'm talking about your firm and i'm talking about rick grunell. >> i'm running this, though. >> you said they reached out to mr. grunell. >> they reached out to him. >> who is a republican strategist. >> he was listed as the best twitter feeds of the year along with people like bill clinton. he's a notable name. >> okay. >> he's very public.

>> lanny, what do you make of this? >> well, first of all, i don't quite care about the political motives or political affiliations. i care about a president who i support. not fully explaining this decision so as a crisis manager, there are three things that bother me with the handling of the decision and i need to disclose fully i'm a democrat who supports barack obama. i don't think the president addressed the major elephant in the room about the issue of desertion and evaluating whether it's true or not. i haven't passed judgment. the president should have addressed that up front. secondly, the president should have told us more about the conditions to restrain and keep away from civilized people these murderers that have been released and are now in qatar. what are the conditions of their detention? are they allowed to go back to afghan and kill more people? they are terrorists and

murderers. thirdly, he did not disclose why he did not talk about dianne feinstein. if he's afraid of a leak, is he going to tell dianne feinstein that? is he going to tell the american people that he couldn't tell congress because he was concerned about a leak? he hasn't explained himself very well as a matter of crisis management. that's just not good. >> and you didn't mention the ceremony in the rose guard den. they think it made bowe bergdahl out to be a hero when he possibly may not be one. lanny? >> i don't mind the rose garden to celebrate an american in battle and not leaving americans behind even if we have to trade for them. the israelis have traded for -- >> i understand that but part of that is the optics. >> the optics are not good.

>> if the president had said, listen, there's some question about this guy but we don't leave a man behind, so -- >> exactly. that's my point. and you're exactly right. i don't mind if he says that in the rose garden or anywhere else. but the three things that i just mentioned and i'm a supporter. >> the white house is clearly on the defensive. look at the commander in chief's workout video. this is interesting.

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on the surface it seems simple, a u.s. soldier held captive is brought home. but this hasn't exactly been a celebration. more like a political firestorm. i'm back with lanny davis and brad chase. earlier this evening i spoke to pam morris, the publisher of bowe bergdahl's local paper. i asked her about the local

controversy swirling about the circumstances of his release. here's what she told me. >> we've been aware at the newspaper for a long, long time that there was a subterrainian dpz drumbeat about the manner in which he was captured and the manner in which he left his base. we have no evidence. we are reporters. we are reporters like every other good journalist in this country and we wait until the facts are in. we do not believe that people should be tried by sound bite nor in the social media in which there is no accountability. this is a military matter. this is a matter for serious consideration and we believe all the facts should be gathered before we indulge in character assassination, very frankly. >> brad chase, you care to respond to that? >> and what do you propose as an alternative? the soldiers remain silent?

>> you'd have to ask her that question. >> i'm asking you. you've already insinuated that there's some sort of -- >> i was questioning your motivation and the motivation of someone you work with. listen, i think these soldiers have every right to speak out. but what i've been saying here is everyone involved, including the white house, should not rush to judgment and should not politicize it. when i spoke to lanny about the presentation in the rose garden, to me, that was poll liticizinge situation by the white house. and when i hear about you and rick grenell coordinating some sort of effort, i'm not questioning the guys. i'm questioning your motivation. >> well, my personal belief is that it's being politicized on both sides. i think both sides are guilty. there are extremists and left

wings to justify. >> and on the right? >> i said both. >> on the ride they are going after obama without having gotten a full explanation. >> so lanny, here's what senator kelly ayotte wrote in a may 22nd release that the department of defense should do. all it can do is to find bowe bergdahl and bring him home safely. on june 2nd she said, sets a precedent that could encourage or enemies to capture more americans in order to gain concessions from our government. so why all of this criticism now, do you think? >> well, again, i hate to question motives. i can only tell you that senator ayotte's been consistently wrong on the facts regarding benghazi and she's rushing to judgment here. and this reporter said it

exactly right. i don't understand why my colleague didn't just immediately say, that reporter has it right. we all have to wait for the facts to come in. my suggestion to the president is you could have done a better job of saying, these issues must be addressed by our military. this was not an easy decision because there are questions that need to be answered and then let the facts come home and speak for themselves. not only about the circumstances of his departure but the conditions about the people going to qatar. nothing has been told to me by the president that i support that i should be safe knowing that they qataris will keep these people away from american soldiers. these are our terrorists, our murderers, our thugs, yet the president hasn't reassured me that the conditions in qatar are going to be to keep them constrained, if not away from the battlefield. so i think she's got it right. we can't rush to judgment.

>> i've got to go. thank you, lanny davis, thank you brad chase. when we come back, the executive producer of "homeland" and what he thinks of bowe bergdahl's release. ♪ ben! well, that was close! you ain't lying! let quicken loans help you save your money. [ male announcer ] out here, answers should always outweigh excuses.

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bowe bergdahl's idaho hometown has canceled a celebration of his return. they say they just couldn't support such a large event. contrast that with the return of fictional brody in "homeland." gideon raff is joining me exclusively via skype. thank you for joining me. people have talked about the similarities here. do you see the similarities between bowe bergdahl and your fictional character brody in "homeland"? >> the reaction to him, a broken man coming back home and whether he's going to get a hero's welcome or court-martialed and the question whether he's turned or not, of course, is on the news every day. so i do think people see similarities, yes. >> you also created israel's

prisoners of war release. were you surprised about that and the release of bowe bergdahl? were you surprised by the similarities? >> not so much. i've done extensive research on prisoners of war. there's about 1500 former prisoners of war who lived in israel and i've talked to many of them and their wives and their families and i've watched their coming home and these men always come back very broken, squinting from the sunlight because they are usually kept in dark rooms or cells or holes in the ground. their physical and mental condition is not very good. so bowe -- the way he was looking in that video didn't surprise me at all. >> yeah. because you have to do -- whether people realize it or

not, you have to do a lot of research when you do a show like "homeland." doctors are so worried about bergdahl's mental and physical health that they told his family not to even contact him to say welcome back. how hard is re-entry? >> well, re-entry is the hardest thing and for some of them it's harder than captivity itself. you know, the captivity is so horrific and some people mistakingly compare it to a jail sentence but when you're a prisoner you have a sentence. you know when this is going to end. you know a very firm end and schedule. you wake up at 6:00, there's going to be light until 8:00 p.m. when you're a prisoner of war you're shoved into a hole in the ground and you don't know if someone is ever going to come get you again. you have no idea if you'll see your family again or if you're

going to eat again. you have complete lack of control of your life. and so coming back home is extremely traumatic to these people and unlike the happy ending that we all want it to be, it's the beginning of a very hard journey of recovery. i've spoken to many prisoners of war who have spent long months and some of them long years in captivity. some 40 years ago and it's still a very traumatic event. >> i want to ask you this because you acknowledge beyond just research, you served for three years as a paratrooper in the israeli army. does it make a difference to you if he was a deserter or not? >> well, i think the whole question of deserter should, of course, be investigated by the army and not by the media and once they know all of the details they can come to a conclusion but i think as an

18-year-old kid in the army, sent to the most horrific places by your country, you want to know that the country will do everything possible to get you back if you fall captive. anything. >> we've been talking about the release of the israeli army traded for 1,000 palestinian prisoners. do you think that these deals are worth doing? >> you know, i think israel is such a small country and a tight community and we all go to the army so it's a little different than the states. we all campaign for the return of our kids the minute it happens and on the other hand, there is always protests of people who have suffered from terror attacks, people who have lost their kids and their parents and families in terror attacks and then suddenly their are return of the prisoners of war. i always think that you have to do everything to bring back the boys and, if anything, there's

no right answer here but i think first you get the boys back and then you do everything possible to make sure that the people that are released don't go back to terrorism. >> gideon raff, thank you. "homeland" is available on hulu. "tyrant" starts on june 24th on fx. you're a very, very busy man. up next here on cnn, president obama pumps iron at a gym in poland and the video goes viral. that is next. cnn's original series "the sixties" return. >> it will be needed to move this country through the 1960s. >> seven minutes past 1:00 this

morning, a man went around the world. the spaceship was built in russia. >> if you can put a man in space, you can put nuclear warheads in space. there was palpable fear in the united states and in the soviet union that the two sides were going to get into a nuclear war. >> i do not shrink from this responsibility. >> 25 russian ships are en route to cuba on a collision course. >> the next 48 hours will be divisive. >> should we bomb, should we invade? back and forth. >> humanity will destroy itself. >> who is going to blink first? >> "the sixties," thursday night at 9:00 on cnn. ♪ here's to the man who truly is the best of us. (crowd cheers)

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time now for "cnn tonight" tomorrow. vladimir putin takes aim over hillary clinton. he said, quote, it's better not to argue with women. well, he went on to call clinton weak saying that's not the worst quality for a woman. word of advice, do not underestimate hilla underestimate hillary clinton. in the meantime, president obama was caught on a videotape working out. the president was warming up ahead of the important g-7

meeting. and here at home, the end of the donald sterling saga. he says he'll sell the clippers to steve ballmer for $2 billion. he now says the lawsuit will be withdrawn. i'm don lemon. thank you so much for joining us. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. there is breaking news tonight on the bergdahl controversy, including revelations from a closed-door meeting on capitol hill. it showed videos on his declining health. it did not put out the political firestorm. as always, our focus first is on the facts and there are plenty of new facts we have learned tonight. new information about the kind of soldier bowe bergdahl was before he vanished. there is also this. for the first time, we have the rarest of video of two