check out our page at cnn.com/the lead for videos blogs extras. that's it for us turning you over into the able hands mr. wolf blitzer in a room of some sort we like to call "the situation room." happening now -- reply all. hillary clinton fires back at her critics saying she used her own e-mail account for convenience during her time as secretary of state. the state department will decide what to make public or what happens to thousands of her private messages. breaking the law? did republican senators cross a legal line by writing a letter to iran's leader? i'll speak to one of the few republican senators who refused to sign that letter. and bin laden's secrets. documents seized from al qaeda show how the terror group feared u.s. drone strikes and struggled to launch attacks of its own. was osama bin laden working on a change in strategy when he was killed? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we're following two major breaking news stories. hilarylary clinton breaks her silence on the use of a personal e-mail account while she was secretary ever state saying she went for very long. she says there were no security lapses and she's turning over all documents that could be viewed as connected to her work. but she won't make her private documents public. and republican lawmakers say clinton is creating more questions than answers. they plan on grilling her about the e-mails. but republicans are also taking heat today over a letter to iran's leadership signed by 47 gop senators. they're accused of breaking a longstanding if not ignored u.s. law. standing by, republican senator jeff blake and james rish along with our correspondents and analysts. let's begin with the clintden

e-mails and our senior political correspondent brianna keilar who has the very latest. >> hi wolf. secretary clinton saying today that her use of only personal e-mail while secretary of state was for an innocuous reason. she said it was simply because she didn't want to carry two devices. but she also revealed that she deleted all of the e-mails, personal e-mails, she said that she did not turn over to the state department last year which is raising questions about just how transparent she's being. >> i want it all out there. >> hillary clinton addressing a week of controversy over the revelation she used her personal e-mail for all official business while secretary of state. >> i opted for convenience to use my personal e-mail account, which was allowed by the state department, because i thought it would be easier to carry just one device. >> adding that in retrospect using official e-mail would have been smarter. >> looking back it would have

been better had i simply used a second e-mail account and carried a second phone. >> following a long-planned speech to the united nations on gender equality tuesday, clinton assured reporters the e-mail server she used was safe. >> the system we used was set up for president clinton's office. it had numerous safeguards. it was on property guarded by the secret service, and there were no security breaches. i did not e-mail any classified materials to anyone on my el e-mail. there have no classified material. >> as the state department announced, clinton's e-mails would be posted on a public web site aft a several month review, clinton said her e-mail system broke no rules. >> i fully complied with every rule i was governed by. >> and said there should be no doubt any work-related e-mails might have been missed.

>> my direction to conduct the thorough investigation was to err on the side of providing anything that could be possibly viewed as work related. >> but clinton said that her public server will remain private, wolf. that's very important to note. she resisted suggestions, including some made by her supporters, some of her supporters, that she open up her server so that an independent third party could verify what she said which is she turned over everything she was supposed to to the state department. >> she says that server will remain private. brianna, thank you very much. while a battle is brewing over hillary clinton's e-mails another fight is raging over the letter by 47 republican senators to iran's leaders warning that congress would have to approve a nuclear deal. clinton says that letter was meant to either benefit iran or

hurt the president and the obama administration is also venting on the issue. let's go to michelle kosinski. >> some say it's a letter just an open letter. but what this is most of the republicans in the senate writing to iran during sensitive negotiations over its nuclear program with the view of stopping that process. so is that criminal? is it treason, as some have suggested? analysts say unlikely. but what this has set off is an ugly war of words and the white house isn't staying out of it. >> the white house today let loose on senate republicans' open letter to iran as reckless irresponsible misguided, a blatant flagrant partisan attempt to interfere. vice president biden penned a lengthy angry statement of his own calling the senate letter beneath the dignity of an institution i revere. just as the senators tried to

school iran on their role in foreign policy biden schools them on the myriad agreements signed through the centuries that did not require congress' vote, like removing chemical weapons from syria, facing troops in afghanistan. he said the letter sent a message that is as false as it is dangerous. the decision to undercut our president and circumvent our constitutional system offends me. hillary clinton weighed in. >> either these senators were trying to be hellpful to the iranians or harmful to the commander in chief. >> while the white house has refused to say whether they believe the letter hurts negotiations with iran, today the state department did. >> we believe it's harmful to america's national security for anyone to insert themselves into the middle of a sensitive negotiation. >> republicans who signed it stand by it. but some didn't sign including bob corker. >> i didn't view the letter as

helping achieve an outcome that i'd like to see. >> he still wants congress to have an input. he just believes giving an up or down vote would be better. some others feel the same. >> i did not think it was appropriate for us to write to the ayatollah and try to explain to him our constitutional system of government. but i doubt very much that the ayatollah cares what a group of senators think. >> another big question swirling out there, does this letter violate a very old law called the logan act? it prohibits citizens from kmujing with a foreign government and trying to influence things during a dispute or controversy with the u.s.? we're or trying to go against the u.s. during that process? analysts we talked to said it was unlikely to stand up to our modern breadth of the first amendment, free speech right. also federal law enforcement won't pursue anything like that at this point. they say it's political, not

legal. another question, though, is it hypocritical of democrats to be so upset over this letter when in the past we've seen lawmakers go overseas and try to talk to foreign governments, a democratic lawmakers went to iraq before the war. remember nancy pelosi famously sat down in syria with bashar al assad when the government of george w. bush was not speaking to him. wolf? >> michelle kosinski thank you. as michelle noted, 47 republican senators signed that open letter to iran's leaders, 7 did not sign, including my next guest, senator jeff flake of arizona. he serves on the foreign release relations committee. senate, why did you decide not to sign that letter? >> well i just didn't think it was productive during this time when there are very tough negotiations going on. they're tough enough without introducing this element. >> you heard the former secretary of state hillary clinton say that those republican senators who signed it were either trying to help the iranians or hurt the president. what do you think of what she

said? >> i don't buy that. help the iranians not a chance. i agree with susan collins saying that i don't think the iranians are that concerned about what 47 senators think. but i was more concerned about our allies. iran is at the table because these sanctions have bitten pretty hard, these multilateral sanctions. we've got to keep this coalition together. >> so you don't think they were trying to help the iranians or hurt president obama? is that what you're say something something? >> well, i know there are a lot of people who don't think this agreement is going to be a good one. i think we all have our doubts whether this is going to be an agreement worth pursuing. but my own view i can only speak for myself is that we ought to take every opportunity to have a negotiated agreement rather than the alternative. the alternative isn't good. >> you basically want to see what secretary kerry, president

obama can come up with over the next few weeks then make a decision. is that what i'm hearing? >> you bet. congress will weigh in. when the president has said -- you know when the president says, hey, i'm going to veto whatever you do he doesn't foster much cooperation. of course congress is going to be involved. the sanctions were imposed by congress on iran and they'll have to be lifted permanently by congress. so congress will have a say. it's just i think at the appropriate time. i don't think right now is. >> take us a little bit behind the scenes if you can, senator. senator tom cotton, a freshman republican from arkansas circulates this letter, mitch mcconnell the republican majority leader signs it. a total of 47 republican senators signed it, 7 do not. do they squeeze you, pressure you, try to convince you to sign it? do you go back and say, this is a bad idea let's not do this? give us a little flavor of what goes on in the process of a letter like this. >> well, i don't want to talk

about what goes on in private republican meetings, but i can just speak for hiself. i saw the letter. i didn't think that it was productive to the ends we're trying to achieve. and i declined to sign it. so i don't know what other pressures came to bear but not on me. >> did you urge them not to circulate this letter? >> no. it was circulated before i saw it. i had already sent my own letter to the president, to president obama saying, you know what are we doing to inform and to make sure that people know that congress will have a role here with regard to the sanctions moving ahead? so i had already done that and i thought that that was a more appropriate way to go about it. >> i don't know if you saw the front page of the "new york daily news" blasting republican senators who signed it. you see it there. the "new york daily news" calling them traitors. some indeed are questioning whether this violates an old law, the logan act, if you will, which prevents private

governments. what do you make of that? do you think anyone broke the law here? >> i don't make much of it. if they did, then many people over a long period of time have done the same. no i don't believe it rises to that at all. like i said i didn't think it was appropriate for me to do it but i'm not going to criticize those who did. >> the last time somebody was indicted by the way in connection with the logan act was 1803. that person was not convicted. in fact no one has ever been convicted apparently we've done research of violating the logan act. but it's possible there could be a first time down the road. quick question hillary clinton, has she put her e-mail controversy to rest? >> i can't speak to that. i didn't see the news conference. been busy with other things. >> but is this an issue that still worries you? >> i don't follow it closely, no. >> senator flake thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. the breaking news we're following, hillary clinton slamming that open letter to iran by senate republicans

saying it was meant to either help iran or harm the commander in chief. we just heard from senator jeff flake, one of only seven republicans who did not sign that open letter. when we come back we'll get another senator's perspective, senator james rish. he's walking into "the situation room." we'll get his perspective on what's going on. senator thanks very much. >> thank you. your eyes really are unique. in fact, they depend on a unique set of nutrients. that's why there's ocuvite to help protect your eye health. as you age your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is a vitamin made just for your eyes from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. your eyes are unique so help protect your eye health

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hillary clinton slams that open letter to iran's leaders by senate republicans saying it was meant to either help iran or

harm the commander in chief. we just heard from one republican senator, jeff flake one of only seven who did not sign that open letter to iran. joining us now one of the 47 who did sign the letter senator james risch of idaho, a key member of the intelligence and foreign relations committees. why did you decide to sign that letter, knowing it would be controversial, as you obviously did? >> sure. i think first of all i want to say i agree with everything jeff flake said. i just reached a different conclusion, and that is it is important to have a record made of what the president was actually doing. he continues to pursue this imperialism using the second branch of government as being the branch of government that controls everything. they don't. constitution is very clear that congress has a duty to prove or disprove any treaties. >> the president says this is not a treaty. >> you've heard me say it before. you can call a cat a dog, but it doesn't make the cat a dog. an agreement with another country is a treaty. the constitution is very clear.

>> but there are a lot of agreements with other 0 countries that are not formal treaties, don't need to be approved by the united states senate. if you read the vice president's letter, he refers to a lot of them. >> there are agreements made from one leader to another leader. those are just that. but the congress of the united states can override those either using its constitutional powers or the power of the purse. and they frequently do. >> hillary clinton says you as a signaturory to this letter were either trying to help iran or undermine, hurt the president of the united states. you reply to her? >> first of all, we've obviously hit a tender nerve for them to be reaching like that. it's nonsense to say that any u.s. senator is a friend of iran. iran has no friends in the united states senate. and to allege otherwise she knows better than that. she's heard all of us criticizing the madmen that run that country overand over and over again. >> do you think you could support any deal that's worked out by the obama administration

and other members of the security council in germany together with iran? could any deal satisfy you? >> absolutely. and we have met this i'm on intelligence and foreign relations, we've met with people who are negotiating. we've urged them over and over again the kinds of things that we need to see in such an agreement in order for it to be in the best interest of the american people. everybody keeps mixing the politics of this. look, this is an issue that is not a republican/democrat issue. this is an agreement that first of all the very existence of the state of israel, our best ally in the region, their very existence depends on this. secondly, our children and grandchildren could very easily face a nuclear middle east if indeed iran is able to complete a bomb. >> so what's your reaction when you see the front page of the "new york daily news" calling you and your 47 republican colleagues -- there you see it -- traitors and others saying

maybe you violated federal law, the logan act, by communicating directly with a foreign government in the midst of these negotiations? >> wolf i've been in this business for a lodge time. i've been called a lot worse than that. that doesn't bother me. we're doing what we believe is in the best interest of the american people. as far as the logan act, that has never been enforced. no one's ever been convicted under it. it's a violation of the first amendment. indeed it's our duty to engage in these things under the constitution of the united states that gives us the very specific things we have to do in foreign policy. >> but in hindsight, couldn't you have written that letter, you circulate letters all the time, without necessarily addressing it to the leadership of iran but an open letter to the american people to the white house, whatever? >> to whom it might concern. >> would that have been more appropriate? >> no. we dogo out frequently there isn't a weekend that both house

and senate republicans and democrats sometimes traveling together, go and visit foreign nations, meet with the head of those foreign nations and talk about the things, these kinds things that are important to foreign policy to the american people. >> you understand why senator flake or senator corker the chairman of the foreign releases committee refused to sign susan collins, these other republican senators. you understand why they were reluctant to sign on. >> absolutely. and i think one of the arguments they're making and that is that this has been a pretty bipartisan issue, this moves it a way from that. i think there's probably some legitimacy to that. the problem is we can't move the white house to get where they need to be and understand that we the united states congress, the united states senate, has a role to play in this. and the president says even if you try to do something with it i'm going to veto it. >> what the white house says and ben rhodes says the senate's

role will be clear, if at some point down the road in implementing an agreement the u.s. is going to ease some of the congressionally man dated sanctions against iran you'll be able to do that. >> well perhaps. it depends on what agreement that they make and how they arrange for this. jeff flake is right, congress is going to weigh in on this. there is absolutely no question about it. and the sooner the iranians get that picture, the better off everybody is going to be. >> you're on the intelligence committee. final question on hillary clinton and her e-mails. she spoke for 22 minutes d. she satisfy with you? >> i don't -- if there's one thing you can predict about a hillary clinton issue, it will go on for a long time whitewater did, benghazi did. >> did she satisfy you though? >> not really. she talked about convenience. all of us carry at least two cell phones at least two communication devices. that really isn't much of an excuse. >> what do you think she was trying to do? >> i have no idea.

who knows if you'll ever see the e-mails. >> senator risch, thank you so much. >> thank you, wolf. coming up, osama bin laden's secret strategy. we have newly revealed documents from his hideout showing him considering some of the tactics being used around the world right now. up next hillary clinton says she followed all the rules but intends to keep some of her e-mails private. is that enough to put this entire controversy behind her? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ great rates for great rides. geico motorcycle see how much you could save. nobody told us to expect it... intercourse that's painful due to menopausal changes it's not likely to go away on its own. so let's do something about it.

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have more than met the request from the state department. the server contains personal communications from my husband

and me and i believe i have met all of my responsibilities and the server will remain private. >> that's the former secretary of state hillary clinton just a few hours ago. so will that answer put to rest the controversy over her e-mails or will congress insist on seeing more? joining us now, glor whyia borger, mike rodgers, and cnn's senior washington correspondent jeff zell. he was at secretary clinton aeps news joining us from the u.n. jeff, you were there. has she put the crisis to rest or is it continuing? >> reporter: i mean, wolf the short answer is, no she has not put this crisis to rest. this crisis has been building for eight days it has so much history behind it as well. impossible one news conference could put that to rest. she did answer a lot of

questions, almost 10 or 11 questions i believe. more than some of us thought, including me. there's no question she left a lot of openings for her critics. we heard just after the speech the chairman on benghazi says he will call her to testify before his committee at least twice. so that mean thz is gos this will be part of her presidential campaign. >> i'm sure she didn't think it would necessarily go away. gloria, what do you think? of i think she was unapologetic though she said in hindsight maybe she should have done things differently. but she was very firm about the fact she didn't break any laws and it was a matter of convenience. now, lots of people also believe it was a matter of protection. i don't think she would deny that if she had been asked that directly. but i don't think it's going to go away. i think people who, like hillary clinton, are going to say, fine, she handled this just fine.

we understand why she wants her privacy on a private e-mail. and people who don't like hillary clinton are going to think she didn't do the right thing and there's a done spirscyconspiracy here. jeff mentioned the chairman of the benghazi committee will call her up. the speaker of the house credited the benghazi committee for bringing this question of e-mails to our attention. people will ask about the security, who authorized it why can't the committee have access to the server itself? so this will continue. >> what do you think, congressman? you had to deal with the whole issue of privacy, government business. did you have one or two e-mail accounts? >> i had two e-mail accounts. >> personal and government. >> i did. >> how did she do? >> this is a little different because she's a senior federal employee. >> do you have a server? >> i don't have a server at my house. state department has a rule if you have that personal address those e-mails have to be set aside by the state department.

now that rule she didn't follow. here's the problem. she could have put this to bed by saying i will give a third party access to my server. done deal. but she didn't do it. think thisful continue to pick at her over time. you know that those letters went out saying that you can't touch that server because there will be -- >> do you have a reason to believe -- she said no classified information was on her private e-mail. do you have any reason to believe national security was undermined? >> you know there is information that is sensitive but unclassified in every conversation. that information was on a server that was not protected by u.s. government cyber protections, if you will. so when she says there was no breach of that server, i'm not sure that she would know that, number one. number two, that's why you don't have sensitive conversations over e-mail. in order to put this to bed, she needs to make available that server. >> she said it's remaining private. >> i'm not sure if she'll have that choice. i think that will be the subject of probably a subpoena in the very near future. and i think that's good for her.

i would think she would want to have a third party review that server and put that to bed. >> i think there's a question here between what is sensitive and classified and what is embarrassing. we all have things in our private e-mails that are embarrassing that you wouldn't want out. she clearly hired a council. the council said, okay this is official business, and this is personal. but the council was hired by hillary clinton. not by the committee. >> all of this is under the control of hillary clinton. i think that's what people are worried about. >> i want everybody to stand by. this conversation is not going away. this controversy apparently is not going away either. coming up other news we're following as well including osama bin laden's secrets newly revealed documents from his hideout paint a dramatic picture of al qaeda knocked back on its heels as the terrorist leaders offer suggestions for a comeback strategy.

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pamela? >> wolf the documents revealed in court including letters to and from osama bin laden in the year or so before his may 2011 death paint a picture of an embattled leader on the run from america's drone strikes. the new documents provide a stunning inside look at the terrorist organization and its leader osama bin laden, suffering under america's relentless drone strikes. in one letter sent to bin laden, a member of al qaeda wrote, drones are still soishg of circling our skies every day. the strikes have become so devastating bin laden later suggested he was willing to move al qaeda to other countries. >> one of the aspects that he talks about is need to relocate parts of the organization in order to fend against the drone pramt. if you look at al qaeda today it actually has done some of that relocation. >> the documents which were seized by s.e.a.l. team 6 became public as evidence in the brooklyn trial of alleged

al qaeda operative. among the items, letters written by bin laden that despite its public bluster, al qaeda was struggling to get operations off the ground after 9/11. and in one document an al qaeda official wrote a plot to attack the u.s. embassy in russia has fizzled and the plots to hit several in the uk also failed. one area where al qaeda apparently did have success, collecting kidnapping ransom money. in one letter an al qaeda leader told bin laden, i have good news. god blessed us with a good amount of money this month. the afghan ambassador our prisoner for two years was exchanged for $5 million. >> european countries, unlike the united states have been very willing to pay ransoms to get their citizens out of the clutches of al qaeda. it's important to know the sources of financing, and those aspects of their funding, that al qaeda considered to be particularly important.

they continue to ransom people to this day. >> the documents paint a picture of an organization fearful for its leaderary life. a deputy urged bin laden to quote, make the period between contacts longer and further apart apart. take excessive caution and care especially this year. that warning wasn't enough to save the terror leader. >> the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. >> just a few weeks after it was sent, the cia trablged bin laden to his compound in pakistan and may 1, 2011 navy s.e.a.l.s shot him in the head. another stunning revelation, the papers showed al qaeda tried to cut a deal with pakistan's intelligence service known as isi. apparently cease-fire discussions fell through. as you know the packkistani government maintains they had no idea bin laden was hiding in its country. >> in abbottabad. thanks very much for that. let's get some analysis. joining us our cnn national security analyst peter bergen

mike rogers is still with us former chairman of the intelligence committee and bob baer, former cia operative. peter, this piece you've written on cnn.com outlining all of this amazing new information, what jumped out at you the most? >> i think the "times" piece covered the high points but i think the overall tone was that this was a group that well understood it was under tremendous pressure. they were thinking of moving to afghanistan moving to iran. bin laden was advised he wanted his sons to go to qatar because of the pressure of the drone strikes. you really have a sense of an embattled organization that knew it wasn't doing well, that it hadn't got a tax on the west organized, that it kept falling through. you know the only bright spot was these ransom payments they were getting from kidnapping diplomats in pakistan. >> amazing how you got access to these documents. you went through them and i guess a lot of this stuff sort of jumped out at you. must have surprised you.

>> they align -- we had a release you may recall about one year after the anniversary of bin laden's death, 17 indictments released then. i think these documents align with what we saw in those documents particularly on the drone strikes. >> let me ask you, congressman, about those drone strikes. did you realize how apparently important they really were? >> oh, absolutely. i was an advocate early on for the one disruptive activity we knew was really slowing down al qaeda and its operations. so the first batch of that information came, and we were briefed as members of the intelligence committee. what they did and i think why this took so long to get some of these documents out was they had to go through, translate them and then make sure there was no immediate threats in that information. is there some active intelligence that they could act on out of that information to stop any other attacks? that took a while probably longer than all of us wanted. they're still going through i think second and third degrees of value of that information, but i will tell you one thing.

one thing we learned early on in this campaign is that frequency, tempo mattered. the more tempo we had at disrupting their leadership with air strikes, the more that they scrambled and the more that they talked amongst themselves bh what trouble this was causing. >> bob, there's a new account today from an isis defector who calls himself saleh. he sat down with sky news and in the interview he talks about how isis functions from the inside. he says that he was there when that so-called jihadi john beheaded the japanese hostage. he claims jihadi john is a senior figure in isis describes him as the man in charge of killing western hostages. listen to this. >> is he in charge? is he the boss of the killing? >> maybe. >> explain. >> maybe. the big boss with them.

turkish man but they change place. but -- >> what do you think, bob, that jihadi john the big boss does that track with what you've been hearing? >> well, i think, wolf, what we're seeing here in the islamic state is not a hierarchy like we're used to in al qaeda where there was a clear leader and they had a spiritual leader and the rest of it. it was fairly a strict organization. what we're seeing is al qaeda turning into something else a more diffuse movement. and the fact that foreigners were put in charge i mean non-arabs were put in charge of the hostages tells me that this is a new form of organization. and gentlemen haddi john doesn't really surprise me he was in charge of them. accounts of hostages coming out say he was indeed in charge.

you know we clearly defeated al qaeda. we can look at these documents that peter has coxme out with but what we have is a new entity that is going to be much more difficult and we have to change tactics. it will take us years before we learn how to beat this one. >> i want all of you to stand by. we're going to continue to monitor what's going on. there's other news we're monitoring as well. we're on the ground in madison, wisconsin. very different story. there's real anger there. it's simmering after the police killing of an unarmed teenager.

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we're keeping a close watch on the situation in madison, wisconsin where there's widespread anger at police after the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager. brian todd is joining us from madison for the very latest. brian? >> reporter: wolf that anger showing itself on the streets of madison yet again. this protest just started this, rally with this large banner with the popular refrain black lives matter. these protesters are protesting against the possibility of building a new jail here in madison. you see the crowd behind us starting to gather. we're justin shadow of the state capitol as well. this is the fourth consecutive day of protests after the killing of tony robinson an event that has really changed the dynamic of madison, wisconsin.

palpable tension on the streets and at the state capitol. the police in madison now apologizing for the shooting death of unarmed teenager tony robinson. african-american activists are still venting their anger. >> frustrated hurt distrustful are words i would describe how our communities is feeling. >> reporter: randy has been sparring with madison police since before the robinson shooting. they are simply too aggressive she said. >> in our neighborhoods are proactive, constantly in our neighborhood looking for people harassing for people waiting for something to happen. in white neighborhoods they don't have to deal with that. >> reporter: police officials reject that characterization. >> my department has been doing unconscious bias training for the past possibly six or seven years and for some that's a case of first impression. i would like to believe that we're on the cutting-edge of best practices in that regard.

>> reporter: still police officials say they won't submit to demands for police to get out of african-american neighborhoods and come only when they called. their system has worked to cut crimes. >> they do a great job working with kids in our schools. isolated incidents in this community? absolutely. this police department is not the police department of ferguson, missouri. >> reporter: the wisconsin department of justice is investigating the shooting. wise police officer matt kenny responding to dispatch calls that robinson was being aggressive and had attacked others went inside a home shot and killed robinson after kenny says robinson assaulted him. robinson's family says they are not anti-police, they are calling for peaceful protests but what mayor is worried about how this city's climate has

changed. >> young people of color, there is a fear as to whether or not they are in danger from our police department. which they are not. but we do have to address that and we have to deal with it. >> reporter: and these protesters say they are going to take this protest inside city hall here again the idea of building a new jail something they are very much against as they are also protesting the death of tony robinson. city officials are under siege in other ways. they were the victims of a significant cyber attack that took place in the past 24 hours. that cyber attack impacted computers inside police cars and they had to suspend some accounting operation. group anonymous claimed responsibility. >> we'll check back with you. thank you. coming up republican senators are accused of sabotaging

nuclear talks with iran. did they break any law by writing a letter to iran's leaders. hillary clinton breaks her silence on the use of personal e-mail during her time as secretary of state. did she do anything wrong? can she make things right? i'll speak about that and more with the state department spokeswoman.

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. happening now, nuclear fallout with negotiations offer iran's nuclear program down the wire. some are asking if 47 republican senators actually broke the law going behind president obama's back writing directly to iran's

supreme leader. keeping emails private. hillary clinton firing back at her critics who say she broke her own rules as secretary of state. has she put the controversy to rest? expelled. two fraternity members being expelled and their house mother using a slur. went to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room". we're following breaking news. hillary clinton breaking her silence on the controversy over use of a personal e-mail account while she was serving as secretary of state. the likely democratic presidential candidate explaining why she ditd it and revealing new details. she's weighing in on the controversial letter from senator republicans to iran

about nuclear negotiations the white house outraged officials calling it irresponsible and dangerous. we're covering all angles of the breaking news. marie hart is standing by along with our correspondents and our guests. let's begin with our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. she has much more on that letter from senate republicans to iran. what's the latest? >> reporter: republicans today now passing around details of what they say is their regular contact with foreign governments. the message being nothing to see here. it's all normal it's all routine. but this time with this situation in iran what they are talking about is sending a message that they could revoke a presidential agreement. blistering language from all sides after first term senator tom cotton and 46 republicans signed a letter warning iran not to agree to any white house nuclear deal. >> if congress does not approve

an agreement the agreement will not necessarily have lasting effect. future congresses or for that matter future presidents can change them. >> reporter: vice president joe biden a 36 year senate veteran and former chairman of the foreign relations committee firing back saying it's all beneath the dignity of the senate adding the republican letter is expressly designed to under cut a sitting a president. biden goes on to say i cannot recall another instance in which senators wrote directly to advice another country much less a foreign adversary. former secretary of state hillary clinton scathingly critical of congress calling it -- >> out of step with the best tras traditions of american leadership. either they were being helpful

to the iranians or harmful to the commander-in-chief. >> reporter: iran undeterred. >> translator: this is a propaganda ploy. >> reporter: senators like john mccain often travel overseas and offer their views to foreign leaders. but here the political question is this senate letter challenging the political ability of any commander-in-chief to deliver on u.s. commitment? >> presumably it means any agreement that the next president makes, president hillary clinton, president jeb bush president scott walker whoever your favorite candidate is is it not binding on his or her successor. >> reporter: instead of writing letters to other countries some say use the power of the purse, deny funding to agreements you don't like. >> the president can do anything he wants to essentially in foreign policy that does not rise to the level of treaty but he has to have money to do it. >> reporter: power of the purse

has been used in fact. remember on the situation on guantanamo bay the prison facility congress has not allowed the u.s. any funding to transfer prisoners from gitmo to the united states effectively blunting a major obama foreign policy initiative to shut gitmo down. power of the purse is always out there. wolf? >> constitution gave that forethe u.s. congress. thanks very much. the white house is furious over this letter and some republicans are raising serious concerns about it. let's go to our white house correspondent, michelle kosinski. has the president reached out to any of those senators as far as we know who signed this letter? >> reporter: no. we've reached out directly. they haven't responded to that particular question. when you look at how this came out it seemed to take everybody by surprise. it was written obviously not in consultation with the white house. so the white house clearly seems to think what good would it be

to talk to some of these signatories now. the damage has been done. if not in the actual iran negotiations in at least in the airing of america's political squabbling and dirty laundry around the world. this is interesting because this is the first time in a long time that we've seen the white house respond so strenuously that republicans have done or working on. the white house saw fit to come out swinging verbally during the wrangling over funding homeland security where republicans were trying to tie that to defunding the president's executive action on immigration. for a while the white house was pretty quiet about all that but not in this case wolf. >> white house did get a vote of confidence from hillary clinton. they are helping them. are they helping her on the other issue she's facing those emails. >> reporter: they tried to stay out of it pretty much putting all of the responsibility on the state department and on hillary clinton. but they are also careful not to try to you know detract from

what she was doing as secretary of state or to imply that she was doing anything wrong. what they keep saying it appears she has not violated any law and that as far as they were concerned she was in full compliance. >> thank you. michelle kosinski at the white house. let's get some more on all of this. joining us marie hart. thanks very much for coming in. >> happy to be here. >> so, you were boss secretary of state john kerry believe this letter signed by 47 republican senators will actually have any real impact on the delicate negotiations and they are at the tail end these negotiations between the u.s. and other members of the security council, germany and iran? >> well i don't think we think it will have a big impact inside the room but any distraction like this is sort of just common sense. plays a part here in this bigger conversation we're all having about whether or not we can get to an agreement. i think we all agree that it was reckless it was irresponsible,

it was unprecedented. i don't think, many of us feel the signatories on that letter were actually trying to make diplomacy better or give us more tools for diplomacy they were trying to under mine it. >> you don't think it will have much of an impact. >> the deadline is the end of march. we're very focused on that. we're focused inside the room whether we can get to the bottom line. can we cut off iran's pathway to a nuclear weapon. the iranians are on the other side of the table. we're all united. we're focused on what's happening inside the room and not on partisan politics. >> if today what are the chances of success? >> president has said 50-50. i'm right there with him. we're very committed to seeing if we can get a good agreement. we'll not take anything less but we know, wolf the alternatives are much worse. they aren't as durable. they don't give us the kind of transparency we want. that's why it's disturbing to see this kind of partisan politics being played with

something so serious that's been designed to under mine these negotiations. >> you are not surprised. you know these republicans, 47 of them have serious doubts what you're trying to do will do away eliminate the nuclear potential of iran. >> wolf i was surprised about this. we know their concerns. we tried to address them. we said if we get to an agreement it's one we can defend. meets our bottom line. gets win in the a year break out. i think you see from our response that a lot of us were surprised by how partisan this was, how unpreaccidented edunprecedented this was. >> do you think the iranian supreme leader even if the negotiators and the others the more moderate iranian, do you think the supreme leader will go along with what they might be willing to do? >> i won't do an analysis of internal iranian decision-making but we do know the iranian team is at the table having very serious, very detailed discussions, working to see if

we can get to an agreement. i don't know if we will. we know they are at the table trying to do that. >> the "new york daily news" had a front page cover calling these 47 republicans there it is right there, traitors suggesting that maybe it violates the federal law, logan act that prevents correspond with foreign governments. do you believe and you're the deputy spokeswoman for the u.s. state department that these republicans may have violated federal law? >> that's really a legal question. i'm not a lawyer or expert on those issues. i haven't heard anybody inside the administration talk in those terms. i do think beyond sort of that question which i understand is an amusing one there's a bigger question here about the executive branch and the president. under both administration under both parties has the power to conduct foreign policy. we have one commander-in-chief at a time. i would hate to see what the republicans would think if there was a republican president and the situation were reversed. >> has the secretary of state, your boss john kerry, demanded from the iranians as part of any

deal they stop funding international terrorists organizations because the state department still considers iran an official state sponsor of terror. has the secretary of state also demanded as part of any such deal they stop calling for elimination of israel? >> these are separate issues. i know there's been a lot of talk about this lately. we're trying to negotiate an agreement so they can't get a nuclear weapon. that's important enough issue. we need to do that independent of our disagreement on other issues. we sang them for they're support on terror human rights record. ballistic missiles and other things like that as well. we'll continue to put pressure on them in those areas. we need to hand tell nuclear issue. if we can do that through this agreement that would be very helpful to israel's security to our security and keep putting pressure on them. >> if they were to do that that would go a long way in reassuring the skeptics whether in the united states congress or

israeli, saudi arabia or the united arab emrates it would go a long way if they stopped supporting international terrorists and acknowledge israel exists. >> we want them to stop doing things like stop supporting terrorists. >> why not raise it? >> these are negotiations about the nuclear issue. that's a complicated enough issue when you have to deal with number of centrifuges. all of these issues. stockpile. authors complicated enough. it is going to be difficult enough to get that done without these other issues in there. the nuclear issue because they are such aggressive actors in the region because they have been threatening that's why we need to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. >> marie hart stand by. we have more to discuss including hillary clinton emails. she's given 55,000 pages of emails to the state department. much more with marie hart when

we come back.

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. we're back with breaking news. hillary clinton now speak publicly for the first time about the controversy over her use of a private e-mail account while she was serving as secretary of state. the state department deputy spokeswoman marie hart is here in the situation room. stand by we'll get back to her

in a few moments. but first our senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny is over at the united nations where secretary clinton took reporters questions today on this whole e-mail controversy. jeff tell our viewers what she said. >> reporter: good evening, wolf. she vigorously defended her use of that private e-mail address but it's too soon to figure out if she cleared up that controversy or provided more fodder for questions. hillary clinton breaking her silence over the e-mail controversy that consumed her campaign in waiting. >> lacking back it would have been better for me to use two separate phones and two e-mail accounts. i thought using one device was simpler and obviously it hasn't worked out that way. >> reporter: she acknowledged she may have made a mistake but insists it was an innocent one. >> even if i had two devices, you would still have to put the responsibility where it belongs which is on the official.

so i did it for convenience. and i now looking back think that it might have been smarter to have those two device from the very beginning. >> reporter: at the united nations today mrs. clinton took questions 30 minutes. those two words came up again and again. >> looking back looking back. >> reporter: these looking ahead to a second presidential campaign and finds herself another political firestorm with republicans smelling new blood. mrs. clinton said she turned over work related e nibl are a-mail to be archived by the state department. >> we asked any e-mail to be identified and preserved that could be potentially federal records and that's what we did and we went beyond that and the process produced over 30,000 you know work emails and i

think that we have more than met the request from the state department. >> reporter: this doesn't necessarily put the questions to rest. she acknowledged she was policing herself, making her own determination which emails should be turned over from her time as secretary of state. she said she deleted all personal e-mail and she said she had no plans of turning over the private e-mail server for an independent review. >> i believe i have met all of my responsibilities and the server will remain private and i think that the state department will be able over time to release all of the records that were provided. >> reporter: the session today did little to quiet her republican critics. the head of the congressional committee investigating the benghazi attacks released a statement that said because secretary clinton has created more questions than answers the select committee has left with no choice but to call theory appear at least twice. calling her to testify will

certainly embolden her republican critics but enrage her democratic supporters. wolf it means one thing. all of this will carry on throughout her presidential campaign which i'm told by top democrats is only a few weeks away. >> everybody expects she will make some sort of an announcement in april. jeff zeleny at the u.n. for us. thank you. let's bring back the state department deputy spokeswoman, marie hart. when will the state department release these 55,000 pages that hillary clinton has already given the state department of her e-mail? >> we're going to under take a review of them as we would with any foia release standards. freedom of information act. we expect that to take several months given how large this document set is. we'll release them the end of that. separately we'll first review for public release 300 emailing we've already provide to the benghazi select committee. we'll go back over those for public release and release those first because we understand

there's so much public interest in them. >> you're going to give all these documents related to benghazi to the select committee that is now investigating. >> we've given the select committee a little under 300 of her emails from that trunk she provided to us that were responsive to a request. we provided the select committee with those. we're reviewing them first for public release and review the rest of the 55,000 pages. >> do you have any problem with the fact that she decided, she and her team decided what was government related, the 30,000 emails that she said we delivered to the state department but another 30,000 were private she said and she indicated pretty strongly those have already been deleted if you will they are not available. that a problem >> she said she provided anything that could be an official record and it is incumbent under federal regulation for each individual each official to give back or to make sure the government has

anything that's an official record so as she said it's incumbent on each official to do that. me her, anyone else. today with secretary kerry we automatically journal all his emails. we have those. this is an evolving process. she said she provided them. >> a lot of her critics they don't trust her. they don't believe she did it accurately honestly. they want a full review. you can appreciate that? >> look i understand there's going to be a lot of discussion around the topic given the political season and environment, we at the state department are focused on fact she gave us 55,000 pages of her emails that what she said might be an official record. we're going through that. we know it's in the public interest to see what can be released publicly. that process is ongoing. >> she said nothing was classified. she used the word classified as far as those 55,000 pages. as you know there could have been sensitive information on her personal e-mail account as well and potentially if you look

at all that personal sensitive information that sensitive information could have been thoefl adversaries of the u.s. if they would have hacked into that. >> i don't want to pre-judge what's in the emails. we haven't done a review. she can speak what's in them given they were hers. at the end we'll put out publicly what under foia standards can be put out. >> does the state department she believes she did anything wrong >> we've all been clear there was no federal regulation prohibiting an official then or now from using a personal e-mail for official business as long as they were cataloged properly and made part of the official record. she's done that now. she claims this is everything she has. look she spoke today as jeff zeleny just said to what she would have done look back. she can speak to that. what we're focused on now we that have documents, we're going through them. >> so as far as the state department is concerned, you obviously speak for the state department it's over.

she's met her responsibilities and we can move on. is that a fair assessment from the state department perspective? >> it's not over. year under going a huge review of the documents. this is an ongoing process for us. i think we'll leave the partisan politics and analysis to people who do that on a daily basis. we don't do that at the state department. that's why we're focused on these documents. >> as a former secretary of state has hillary clinton met all of her responsibilities to the federal government. >> she said she turned over everything. that's her responsibility. she says she has. i think she can speak best to that. we're looking at the documents and get them ready for release. >> i know that's what she says. does the state department accept what she says? >> i have no reason to doubt anything she says. she's the one who can speak to that. she had the records. she and her team said they gave everything they possibly could.

this covers the breadth of her time in the state department. >> marie harf thanks very much for coming in. just ahead oklahoma university expells two students over this racist chant. and the scandal grows as another shocking video emerges as the fraternity's house mother. ncer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence

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. we got more on the breaking news. hillary clinton breaking her silence on the uproar over mother-in-law e-mail that she used while she was secretary of state. clinton said it was morven to use one account but wished she used multiple accounts. she acted within the rules. never sent classified information turned over all appropriate communication to the state department. let's get some more with jeff zeleny who was at that news conference at the united nations. he's still there. our chief political analyst, glarro borger and mike rogers the former republican congressman who served as chairman of the house intelligence community and our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. gloria how did she do? did she put this to sfleft >> totally to rest we'll never talk about it again. oh no she did not put to it rest. nor did anybody work for her to

expect that this would put it to rest. if you're inclined to believe hillary clinton give her the benefit of the doubt you will. if you're inclined not to you won't. that's why you heard the chairman of the committee investigating benghazi say look we'll subpoena her at least twice once to deal with emails and once to deal with benghazi. the big thing that's left on the table shack remains the decider here. she's the one and her lawyer who determine what e-mail are personal and then they go away or what emails are actually business and that doesn't sit well with a lot of people particularly those that don't trust her. >> jeff zeleny you've been getting a lot of reaction. first how did she do and what's happening now? >> reporter: well wolf being in the room with her, it struck me that we just haven't heard from her for so long. certainly not in a setting like this. she's not held a press conference of any kind in so long. for one it was clear she was trying to go on offense.

she's actually pretty good when going on offense she was answering a lot of questions. of course every question she would answer she raised some other questions certainly for her republican critics. one thing after this was over the clinton campaign put out a statement trying to clear up some other thing and finally put some numbers to these specific emails. we heard about 55,000 pages. they actually said there were some 60,000 emails. she turned over only half of those. half of the e-mail she sent she deemed personal. gloria is right. the big question here is she's policing herself on this and some people won't trust her to do that. >> mike rogers she was specific as she was asked about the national security ramifications of using a personal account for official state department government business and she said she never inclued any classified information on any of those e mailings. that good enough? >> no. here's where she got herself in a little bit of trouble. we know on that server there were government oriented emails

because she turned some of them over to the state department. >> 30,000 of them. >> that's a huge problem for her. now she's blishd and again if you're the committee offering a subpoena now you have all the basis for that subpoena to get that server because she admitted there were government emails. >> jeffrey, let me ask you. 30,000 emails she handed over 55,000 pages that she printed them out as she's required to do in boxes. now there are suggestions republicans in the house they want to subpoena that server which she says will remain private. can they do that? will they get that severe? >> reporter: they can try. it would probably go to court. and, you know if that's how we want to spend the next year and a half we can. look we should pause over the phoney outrage that somebody is using a g-mail account or private account for government business. >> i'm shocked. >> every government official i've ever dealt with has two accounts and uses them both for

government. now maybe that's a bad thing. the idea that hillary clinton is the only one who did it is kind of -- >> let me ask mike rogers. when you were the chairman of the house intelligence committee you had two accounts you had a government e-mail account and a private e-mail account did you use the private e-mail account for government business? >> never. i'll tell you why. the house is very clear on their rules that say your private account must be used for political activity. you can't use your government account for political activity. you can't raise money. you can't have political conversations. you can't say i'm going to this political event to raise money for you or someone else. so the house rules are pretty clear. the state department also has rules that those documents have to be housed at the state department. they were not. or at least turned over to the state department. >> and the rulesing changed. >> there's no audit provision. >> the rules changed. >> if she wanted this behind her she should have said i'll gladly have a third-party review the personal or what's on that severe to determine if it was

personal or not. i think this thing would go away. >> i don't think it would go away but i also think she made it clear she doesn't want to be treated differently than any other government or federal official. she and her staff, i was going to say campaign but her staff cites the federal records act and says it's the obligation of the government official not the agency in which she serves to police those emails and hand them over. so she says it's my responsibility to determine what's personal. the government gives me that responsibility. that's what the federal records act says and i'm not going beyond a step of that. >> some of the tough questions about the laws whether she broke any laws there were some pretty serious questions there. how did she handle those tough questions from the reporters? was she cool? did she lose her cool? he was supposedly going to be a little rusty because she hadn't had a press conference in a long

time. >> reporter: wolf i didn't think she was very rusty at all. like i said earlier we've not seen her in this setting for quite a while. she's been boning up giving speeches she was well prepared for this. you say she should be. this is the eighth day of this controversy. one of the reasons that they waited. i asked a top democrat close to her why didn't you do this soon center they said she was trying to get her facts in order. she wanted to have this type of presentation. so she certainly left open a lot more questions people will seize on them. but in the moment she was not flustered. she was smooth in answering people's questions. her press secretary was calling on reporters, but i wouldn't take that as much of a criticism. it was pretty chaotic. there were dozens and dozens of reporters, camera people. one of the reasons they had it here at the u.n. was to keep some control over this so it wouldn't become even more of a circus. i thought sheehanled herself pretty well. >> all right, guys.

good discussion. we'll have much more because this story won't go away. just ahead one of the oklahoma students leading that racist chant that was caught on camera has now been identified and expelled along with another student. and the scandal gross with shocking new video of the fraternity's house mother.

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. breaking now, two students expeld from the university of oklahoma over that now infamous video of a shocking racist chant by members of the school's fraternity. now one of them has been identified by friends and by his

high school as 19-year-old freshman parker rice. he has not responded to cnn's multiple requests for comment. cnn miguel marquez is working the story for us. he's in nor ma'am, oklahoma now. what's the lateest you're hearing? >> reporter: look we have been to parker rice's home in dallas. he has left here in norman oklahoma we went to dallas and he's gone under ground. all the pbs of the fraternity are being silent today out of the public eye after that very public video went worldwide. this as the investigation here by the school is continuing. there's possible more disciplinary actions down the road and possibly even more ex expulsions. it's the racist song sparking outrage nationwide. >> it's sad. it's hurtful. >> disgusting. >> disgraceful.

>> reporter: two students expelled university of oklahoma president's is employing zero tolerance singling out two who took a leadership role in the video saying they created a racist hostile and exclusionary environment. this as all sae members are vacating their house. today even the stigma epsilon letters gone. and this house mother's video is seen repeating the n-word. she has now responded to the video saying i am heartbroken by the portrayal i'm racist the video is being taken out of context and innocently singing along to the trinidad gold song. before the video featuring went

viral she told cbs news her fraternity family was not racist and she was shocked to hear them use the n-word. >> i heard the words. unbelievable. this is not -- this is not sae. >> reporter: howard dixon who worked as a cook at the sae house for 15 years is today out of a job. >> had so much fun on game day, football season. now it's all gone. >> reporter: contributions of more than $50,000 has already been raised online to help him out. william james who says he's the last african-american member of sae here is in disbelief. >> i walked those halls. i lived in those rooms. my picture hangs on the wall. i held offices in that house. they were talking about me. >> reporter: students here in full protest mode. the storied football team

linking arms in a powerful show of support. but there is fall out, one star recruit who had signed to play for ou says no more. >> i wouldn't my son or my child to go there and i wouldn't want my brothers to go there. it was very disturbing to me. i don't like it. >> reporter: now, i think the university here is really grappling with everything that this video has brought up. the investigation continuing certainly. as students are coming together. not quite protesting this but coming together to rally to show support and to try to figure out how they can talk about race going forward. wolf? >> miguel thanks very much for that report. let's dig deeper joining us sunny hostin president of national urban league and our cnn anchor don lemon. sunny what's your reaction to the expulsion of these two students seen leading these awful chants? >> the president made this very

strong statement there would be zero tolerance policy and i think the nation is reeling from having seen the video and he's showing great leadership. i also believe, though there will be a constitutional challenge to it because it sort of one of the first things you learn in law school wolf when you talk about free speech is that you may disapprove of what someone says but still defend their right to say to it the death. there's the arguments that these students were students and that at our educational systems we want people to have maybe a heightened level of freedom of speech but this president of this university made it very clear that he was basing his decision on the fact that this created a hostile learning environment and because this video went viral it certainly affected the entire campus community. we're going to see that legal challenge, i think. but i think that this feels right. right? i think this feels strong and it

feels like it's the first step to healing this community. >> let me ask mark what's your reaction? >> he was swift. he was decisive. he didn't say let me -- let an investigation play out. he made a strong judgment and in doing so he's demonstrated the kind of leadership we would expect from the leaders of the nation's higher education institutions. the language was coarse. it was unacceptable. it was reprehensible. and the expulsion of those studio audience and i think the expulsion of the fraternity from the campus is the exact right things to do. it demonstrates why this nation needs a conversation. this nation needs to heal. this is another example of why this sort of element of racism and division has to be brought

out in the open and two, dealt with by all of us as a nation. >> don lemon, we're hearing from a friend of one of the students seen leading that racist chant, a graduate of the jesuit prep school. >> parker rice is a charismatic person with a good soul. but i feel truly did not believe in or did not truly understand what he was saying. and i feel like that is due to the facilitation of not just him but the influence of the fraternity system and the traditions that had been embedded since pre-civil war times when the fraternity was made which wasn't the most tolerant times. >> don what's your take of the outing the political shaming of this student seen on that racist video, chanting. could the reaction help prevent racist behavior like this down

the sflood the road? >> there has to be consequences for someone's actions. i attended louisiana state university. mark knows the greek system at louisiana state university and other universities in the south and especially in louisiana and this type of thing happens all the time. and so i am glad that light has been brought to it. i'm sorry that this student has to be expelled but i'm glad this is going light and that's the punishment for this type of behavior. again, it happens all the time. we will be speaking to a friend of patrick rice this evening on my program as well. >> at 10:00, later tonight. mark quickly you agree with don that this is going on not just in oklahoma but in louisiana, other places as well? >> i wouldn't want to specifically say, but i think what don is really saying is

that in this fraternity this chant, obviously, must have some history and some tradition. these members of this chapter didn't make that nity fraternity. they were pledges. >> there fraternity needs to do some soul searching and purge its process and its culture of this sort of racist and obnoxios obnoxious pledge standard. it needs to be expunged and edd edd and expelled from the fraternity. i think the fraternity's leader was swift in his denunciation of

the chapter. the larger question is what's been going on and what they have been teaching their pledges for over 100 years. >> i want all of you to stand by. we'll talk about that house fraternity mom. she was caught on video tape using the n word a year before this most recent incident. much more after this. [ alex ] transamerica helped provide a lifetime of retirement income. so i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis.

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mom about a year or so ago before this latest incident singing some sort of rap song using the n-word. it's causing more controversy

over at that university. we're back with our legal analyst, sonni hostin and don lemon. it's bad enough to hear the young guys the fraternity brothers saying the awful things and now the fraternity house mom. i don't know if she thought she was having fun. they were singing a song that used the n-word but it's pretty awful. >> it is really. as i said yesterday, i was surprised to hear the young people saying this. you think that as we go through our society, the pendulum swings and our millenials should do better because they clearly should know better. when i saw this it showed me if the house mother is doing this this is so prevasive in the culture of that fraternity that it now is very clear that this

is an institutional problem. it's maddening that we're still talking about these issues. >> she's singing a song. >> she's singing a song that those words are in the song. >> we should never use the n-word. no one should use it. >> no one should use that word. i know people who are her age who are my color who say that word when they're saying a rap song. >> it should be retired. >> it should be retired. i don't know if that makes her racist because she sang it in a song or some kids had her singing a rap song. i don't know if that makes her racist. >> i also question her common sense. she appeared -- >> i agree with that. >> she appeared in an interview and expressing shock, surprise and disappointment. then it's revealed that she used the word and she was -- >> don't you think it's out of

context. she's using it in context to sing a song. i'm not saying it's right. is she really racist? >> come on don. it's clear she's so dupilcitous. >> she's singing a song. what's the song we say, these [ bleep ] ain't loyal. am i really calling women that word? >> you're appearing apples and elephants. it's completely different. >> i'm not saying it's right. i'm saying there's context to everything. >> there are consequences to what you say. if you want to sing it maybe you have a right to sing it but if you lose your job or position over it you should be responsible and know. i think people should understand these words are offensive. they should not be used. responsible adults don't use

them. just because rap artists are using it and making money off of it doesn't mean that one needs to repeat it or show up and pretend that they can sing it too. >> especially not someone in a leadership position because that woman was the house mother. she was a guidance counselor. >> if you're at party and singing those lyric, i'm not going to think you're racist. >> i don't sing those. you'll never hear it. ever ever. >> if you're doing this in a public venue then i would question your judgment. i do question her judgment because she's the adult in the room but she's at party and she's got these young kids. i'm not so sure about that. >> it shows how pervasive the culture is. she's singing a rap song. >> it's indefensible. >> we have to leave it there. good conversation. important conversation. thanks to all you have for joining us. an important note.

don will be become later tonight, 10:00 p.m. eastern. much more on this. all the day's important news. 10:00 p.m. eastern. stick around for that. that's it for me. thanks very much prfor watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. tonight, breaking news. hillary clinton releases new details about the personal e-mail that she used for official business. the former secretary of state admitting for the first time today that she should have done things differently. plus did 47 republican senators break the law? why they're letter to iran is under new scrutiny tonight. in the wake of that racist fraternity chant, the university expels two students and shuts down the frat house. does that go far enough? let's go outfront.