ing here every week. on most occasions it's fun. >> see where you can take it. >> after we bring art into their lives they become more confident. the changes are quite remarkable. >> vote for the cnn hero of the year at cnn here rows.com. i'm poppy harlow. thanks so much for being with me. smerconish is next. i'm michael smerconish. welcome to the program. he was one of the most powerful men in washington and now explosive new allegations against former house speaker deny's hastert. cnn is told he was paying a will former male student in order to keep quiet about allegations of sexual misconduct when hastert was a teacher and a wrestling coach in illinois. the student was underage at the time and now hastert is facing felony charges for allegedly lying to the fbi about the more than $3 million that he paid the man in apparent hush money. there are so many questions about this case.

i want to bring in cnn senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. jeffrey i don't know how surprised you are by the latest developments because when we read closely that seven-page indictment, the telltale signs were there as too what this seemingly was all about. >> yes. well let's just step back. i'm surprised by this whole thing. i mean this whole thing is an astonishing surprise to me. i mean the fact that denny hastert is being accused of this crime particularly the kind of crime. but once you read the indictment yesterday, it almost couldn't be anything except an accusation of sexual abuse that would prompt someone to pay $3.5 million decades later. >> let me put on the screen the very first line of the indictment. i think this is what you're referring to. it says, from approximately from 1965 to 1981 defendant john dennis hastert was a high school teacher and coach in yorkville, illinois. that is the first thing the feds

wanted you to know in the indictment and then further along, i'll put something else on the screen. individual "a" has been a resident of yorkville, illinois and has known defendant john dennis hastert for most of individual "a's" life. the implication, i think, he was young at the time of whatever the misconduct was when it took place. >> exactly. and, you know, anyone who has lived in the real world who read those documents had to assume that this was some sort of sexual misconduct in an earlier chapter of hastert's life. but it's only the day after the indictment that our reporting and other people's reporting have confirmed that it is an accusation and only an accusation of sexual misconduct at a time that hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach. >> yet, jeffrey, that's not what the legal case is about. i mean, those are the salacious allegations, implications of this case. but the man is being prosecuted

for so-called structuring -- and i know you're onan expert in that regard -- and lying to the feds. it has a watergate element where the cover-up is that which will potentially bring him down. >> right. that's what makes this one of the many things that make this case so bizarre. the core accusations are two. one is that hastert engaged in what's known as structuring, which is putting his cash withdrawals from his bank in a way to avoid the obligation that banks have to report all large cash transactions to the treasury department. those cases, people may not be very familiar with them, but they are very common because banks -- congress passed a law where they said, in essence, you know we are suspicious of people who are engaging in large cash transactions so we want to put this law in effect that says you have to report them and bad guys tend to avoid reporting

them. and then there is the very straightforward crime of lying to the fbi where he's alleged to have made up really what seems like an absurd story about why he was withdrawing over a million dollars. >> jeffrey, i can't imagine that individual "a" would have had a cognizable legal claim 40, 50 years after what took place. if i am right in that regard, there was no potential legal claim that he had, doesn't this have the makings of extortion? because presumably it's hastert paying so that this individual doesn't embarrass him. >> you know, that is certainly a major issue in the background of this case, is was the request for money from individual "a" a genuine request for compensation for a terrible thing that was done to him many years ago? or was it simply extortion in the way that david letterman was extorted not too long ago for a

related but certainly not identical kind of claim of misconduct? i can certainly understand why the fbi, if they believe that this person was a victim of sexual abuse, didn't want to prosecute him. victims of sexual abuse are not very appealing defendants. but, certainly, if denny hastert takes this case to trial, extortion will be his defense. his lawyers will say, look, he is a law-abiding, honorable citizen who was confronted with this horrible accusation, and to spare his family embarrassment he paid this person off. but that is not -- he would certainly not admit that he engaged in the terrible underlying act. >> $10,000 withdrawals, that's what triggers the reportage to the feds. in this case, he allegedly made

15 $50,000 withdrawals. had he written a check instead of going back and forth to the bank, would you and i be having this conversation? >> absolutely not. if he had written a check for $3.5 million at the very beginning of this process, no illegality, certainly no bank currency issue, no false statement to the fbi, no investigation at all. and i think this whole matter would never have been disclosed. why he decided to do this in cash why he did it this way perhaps we'll never know. but you're right. if he'd simply written a check, no harm, no foul. >> and when the feds came knocking, apparently he told them hey, i was worried about the stability of the banks. >> you know, i mean, respectfully to a former speaker of the house, have you ever heard anything so dumb? the idea that the banks are somehow going to -- he was worried that the banks were going to go out of business. that's why he was taking his cash out.

that's going to be a tough one to defend at trial, if this case goes to trial. and, by the way, a 73-year-old man facing a trial that, if he's convicted after trial, might well having him sent to prison, i think this case will end in a plea bargain that does not send him to prison. >> thank you, jeffrey. >> all right. coming up, the republican presidential field continues to grow week to week. they all want a place on that debate stage. to get there, they'll have to change their campaign strategy. is that a good or a bad thing? plus, those five taliban prisoners released for bowe bergdahl could be returned to the battlefield. i'll explain why. evidence released in the colorado theater shooting. details behind james holmes' deadly rampage.

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or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of serious side effects. i'm down with crestor! make your move. ask your doctor about crestor. welcome back. this week jurors in the colorado theater shooting trial got a glimpse inside the mind of james holmes. prosecutors introduced a critical piece of evidence, the diary of a mass murderer. it was filled with disturbing details which showed he meticulously planned out his

deadly attack and depicts his thought process for choosetion a movie theater as well as his plans for a police response. jurors heard from holmes during a videotaped psychiatrist after the shooting spree. >> what brings tears to your eyes? >> just regrets. >> regrets. can you tell me a little more? >> usually it's before i go to sleep. >> regrets about? >> about the shooting. >> i want to discuss this with psychiatrist dr. gail saltz. to the uninitiated, to a lay person, you look at that notebook and you see him writing why countless times. and then you also see him planning meticulously the attack inside the theater and you say, you know, this guy is off his rocker. but, of course, that's not the legal standard. >> well, it's not the legal standard and it's actually also not even the psychiatric standard. the psychiatric standard are

very specific diagnostic criteria, which he may meet in fact even for, say, schizophrenia if he had psychotic thinking repettively and he has certain other symptoms that would go with schizophrenia. but even if he does have that diagnosis, it doesn't mean that he's legally insane. the legally insane would require him to have not just psychotic thoughts at that time but psychotic thoughts that specifically altered his ability to know that what he was doing was wrong. >> psychotic thoughts when? psychotic thoughts when he walked into the theater? psychotic thoughts three weeks in advance? i mean, it occurs to me that this could be something not necessarily on a continuum. >> that is true. but even if he had psychotic thoughts three weeks in advance and during the crime, if those thoughts did not impinge on his ability to understand what he was doing and that what he was doing was wrong, then it's not

legally insane. so, for example, the case of andrea yates who drowned her children. she was deemed legally insane ultimately because her psychotic thoughts were auditory hallucinations that told her that if she didn't drown her children that she would be sending their souls to hell and therefore it was the right thing to do. so her psychotic thinking impinged her thought of what she was doing was wrong and she thought it was right. but if mr. holmes believed what he was doing was wrong and he trying to hide what he was doing because he knew it was wrong, even if he had other thoughts like, for instance, that he was the joker, that he had other psychotic thinking at the same time it still does not meet the official criteria for legally insane. >> we in the media love talking about cases where the insanity defense is raised. usually they are high-profile cases with a lot of casualties.

but they're rarely successful. why is that the xais?case? >> exactly because of this criteria. you know we look at someone who would kill many people and we say, wow they must be insane. or if they have ramblings that had other psychotic thoughts attached to them we think, they must be insane and therefore not guilty by reasons of insanity. but because the law, and i think there, you can really understand how this would be. it's possible that somebody who is very mentally ill can still commit a terrible, terrible crime due to sociopathic desires, like, i just feel like killing people and, therefore, be committing murder. and you can't blame it on their mental illness. >> dr. saltz, finally, isn't that notebook the ultimate test? you can read into it that he was insane in a legal sense at the time that he was planning these attacks? you can also look at it and say well wait a minute he was so meticulous, that's the product of a sane mind? >> you know it's certainly more insight than one often has into these crimes as to what was

going on before and during. but it's not really the gold standard because the gold standard was what was actually inside his mind and what he wrote down was what he chose to write down. >> right. >> so therein lies the problem somewhat, and that's why there will be this court case and back-and-forth about what do we really have evidence for what was going on in his mind at that time. >> dr. gail saultsz thank you so much. >> my pleasure. coming up, five taliban leaders exchanged from gitmo for bowe bergdahl could soon be free. clock is ticking on their release from qatar. what it means for the obama administration. rick sanatorium announcing a second run for the white house this week. some are already calling his campaign doomed. this guy won 11 states in 2012. doesn't he deserve more respect?

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welcome back. tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the transfer of the five taliban leaders in

exchange for bowe bergdahl. the one-year agreement for qatar to house and monitor them is now up. so what could happen next? could they soon return to the battlefield? let's bring in cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr. barbara, i don't know if you remember butch cassidy and the sundance kid, but here's my question. who are these guys. >> there's the question michael. and what is going to happen to them? well look, these are a number of top-level taliban operatives. of course they had been held at guantanamo bay until they were traded for that release last year for bowe bergdahl to get him back into u.s. hands. now, the titles that these guys have is things like chief of intelligence intelligence, minister of interior, top taliban official in communications. these are the kind of titles, if you will, that they are associated with. look clearly, they were top taliban operatives. the u.s. took them off the battlefield. a lot of the controversy about that. but people will tell you that they were going to be due for

transfer out of guantanamo bay anyhow. these are not the top, top tier. these are not, you know, the top guys responsible for the 9/11 attacks. these are the kinds of people that the u.s. is planning to transfer out anyhow so they did it in return for bowe bergdahl. very controversial. at the are not insignificant players. but sooner or later the chances are they were going to get transferred out of guantanamo bay. >> so what are the options the u.s. government and qatar are now considering? >> well, it's actually sort of a three-way potential situation. and the negotiations, the discussions have been going along very quietly for months now we know. there's a couple of things that are on the table. some or tall of the taliban five could remain in qatar. they could remain in the very strict monitoring that the qataris have promised to give them and indeed have given them over the last year.

one or all could remain in qatar and sort of join up if you will with an existing taliban quasi-governmental type organization the taliban are running out of qatar, still under some sort of control, some sort of man touring by the qataris. or they could be sent completely free sent back to their families in afghanistan or sent back to afghanistan and the welcoming committee could be the afghan government who could decide to take them into custody for their taliban activities. lots of things in play here and of course, as you remember, michael, one of the five got himself into trouble because he was caught trying to communicate from qatar to taliban associates. that is something that was forbidden. >> is that the one that you exclusively reported had returned to violent activity snz. >> well i will say that we here at cnn on the pentagon team yes, we did report it. did he ever return to violent activities? that perhaps is an open

question. the intelligence community never really said that. we had multiple sources that told us he had been in communication phone, e-mail, with known taliban associates. that was forbidden under the transfer agreement. you're not supposed to get back with those people. you can call your family members. you can complain. you can complain about how you were treated. you can complain about the united states. but you can't call people up and engage in conversations that could lead to plotting or planning. there was a clear indication the intelligence community thought that's what was going on. >> barbara starr, thank you. let's get more now from the chair of the house foreign affairs committee congressman ed royce. congressman, barbara starr just made the observation that these five guys were to have been released anyway. maybe we should be grateful that we were able to get bergdahl back in exchange for them. >> michael, the difficulty was the premise that we should have released the individuals who were what, the deputy minister of intelligence, the deputy

minister of defense for the taliban, a third individual that was very close to osama bin laden, a fourth who was involved in crimes against humanity, and the fifth who likewise had been involved in killing many innocent people who were not taliban. four of the five, by the way, are tied into al qaeda. it's not just taliban here. i think what's driving it is this impetus. they've got a special envoy now in charge of closing guantanamo from their standpoint, from the administration administration's standpoint, they're all going to be transferred out because they want to release all of them. but whether that's prudent, especially under conditions where now they've already been in contact or at least one has, you know with the terrorist networks, we're going to see these guys on the battlefield again. >> would you have left bergdahl behind? >> well i think it -- you know we should do what we can do to try to negotiate the release of

our service members overseas. but the reality is you're looking at five individuals, four much whom were high ranking in al qaeda not just the taliban and we've got the experience that now 30% have shown up back on the battlefield to try to kill americans. so i don't think that was a good trade-off. >> is your view of this transaction skewed by the fact that you believed then and believe now that bergdahl was a deserter? >> my view of this is skewed or is patterned by my knowledge of what's been done to release not just these five but another six to uruguay who from the documents i've seen had ties to terrorism and the rationalization on the part of the administration. i think deep down that the only thing driving this is the impetus to close guantanamo bay and fulfill a campaign pledge.

and i just don't think in the face of the reality of what these individuals have done and will likely do again. in the case of uruguay, we've had 40 cases of them in proximity now to our embassy down there. in the case of these five that we talk about here in qatar, we've got ample evidence that at least part of that element intend to return to the fight. and so, given the reality we're dealing with here and the fact that they've killed between them thousands and thousands of human beings, i don't think it's wise to release them. >> mr. chairman, in the aftermath of september 11, i was of the "throw away the key" mindset. and, as the years have passed, the attorney in me has become increasingly troubled by the fact that we are holding individuals there who have not been given the benefit of a trial. are you similarly concerned? >> well, i think in these cases where you have individuals with

ties to al qaeda, in an abundance of caution, while this struggle is going on with al qaeda and they can continue to try to bomb us here in the united states and carry out ongoing attacks against our allies, it is rather foolish to take personnel -- let's take four of the five -- when you know they've had those ties and to release them, especially given the background. here you have individuals, deputy -- one is a commander. another one is minister of defense for taliban. another is deputy intelligence chief for the taliban. and between them have killed thousands of human beings and you release them. i think we know what's going to happen. it's going to cost american lives and the lives of our allies. >> okay. but the alternative then i guess what i'm saying is look this conflict is not ending. i hope you live to be 150 and that i'm there to see it. but i don't think this conflict is ending in either of our

lives. so what then are we saying, we're going to keep you or people like you in gitmo and you're never going to get a trial? >> this is a difficult situation. but in the past when we were involved with foreign combatants in a situation of war, whether it was the second world war or the first, they were held in captivity until after hostility ceased. why? because they had an allegiance. they had an allegiance to a foreign enemy that was at war with us. four of these five have an allegiance to al qaeda. the fifth has an allegiance, you know, to the taliban. the taliban has not laid down their arms. now, if we manage to negotiate that and they do, then there's something to talk about in terms of perhaps releasing them or at least releasing them under conditions in which they are observed on an ongoing basis. but to release them with a one-year period after which they're going to go free to do

what they want to do and travel where they want to travel while al qaeda is still carrying out a war with us and the taliban is still making war on the united states, that is throwing caution to the wind and taking enormous risks with our personnel and with our allies in the region. >> quick final question, if i might. >> yes. >> is there any congressional plan on this issue? anything you as a member of congress can do, the chair of your committee, your powerful committee? >> we are seeking documents right now in order to delve further into the release of some of these individuals who, obviously, have turned out to be an ongoing threat. and at the same time, another step that we're trying to take is to block the closure of guantanamo because we think that's driving the release, the immediate release, of these individuals who have a pattern of carrying out terrorist attacks against civilians and against u.s. military. >> chairman royce, thank you for your time. >> thank you very much, michael. coming up, three more

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welcome back. the ever growing gop 2016 presidential field has added two more names, rick sanatorium and former new york governor george pa tack ki. and today democrat martin o'malley announces his plans to run. lots to tackle on the political front. let's get right to it. joining me now nationally syndicated columnist and cnn political commentator s.e. cupp. also here liberal commentator ellis hen acan. s.e. rick santorum the rodney dangerfield of the republican field right? here's a guy who won 11 states. he was the runner-up to mitt romney. and you'd never know it from the way the media treats the field. >> yeah. he gets no respect, which i think is where you were going with that. and it really is kind of surprising when you consider that the last time, not only was

he the runner-up, but of the last three guys standing, two were social conservatives, him and newt gingrich. and the guy that ended up winning never really captured the excitement of the base. so if you're rick santorum, you have to think, okay, this time around there is also room for a social conservative and now we've got to compete with mike huckabee, ted cruz and he knows there is probably room for someone like him. he's just got to sort of clear the field and get through. so i think it's bizarre to dismiss last year's runner-up as so many liberals and conservatives do. i think it's a mistake. >> ellis, chris christie seems to be checking all those boxes. he ditched common core this week. he spoke out against the president vis-a-vis israel and said obama has not been -- i'm paraphrasing here -- the friend israel needs. what i'm thinking is that you check all those boxes and that

is great you appeal to the gop base and hem help yourself for the nomination. but in the end you put yourself in a worse spot for a general election. >> you're absolutely right. it may not be the most fertile territory for chris christie. i go back to the rule of fractions that i learned at holy name of jesus, that when you have so many people in this race it doesn't take a very big slice to have the largest slice. so you can find that a lot of different places. the odd thing at the moment is that the super conservative side of the equation is pretty crowded and that middle zone where chris christie would have normally played is not so crowded. so frankly i'm not so sure it's smart for him to outkov r conservative the conservatives. >> isn't the oxygen in the middle so jeb is the one who stands to gain from all of this? >> i think cristhristie has a clear strategy as we're learning it. that is to take on the

opposition and his party and he can take on common core and that is a slap at jeb bush without saying his name. he can take on the president and israel and that's really actually a subtle slap at rand paul without having to say his name. so while the other gop contenders are really out there talking about hillary, chris christie is actually managing to talk about issues and the other contenders in i think a way that is attempting to sort of clear the field and bring him back. >> ellis, with regard to rand paul as he's gotten into this race i have said he's looking less and less like his father. that is, until this week because this week rand paul blamed the gop hawks for the creation of isis. and i'm wondering which rand paul are we really going to see as the race heats up? the libertarian champion or someone who feels obliged to tack amore conservative traditional tone to the base? >> you traced the back and forth exactly right. we were expecting rand and we got ron.

i like the ron version. getting back to my fractions there is nobody on that side of the equation. now, it's true the base isn't really there either. we don't really know how much of that kind of foreign policy audience there is in the gop. but, i mean, you've got to do something to stand out so why not that? >> ellis, i mean, the 88% of republican voters say terrorism is a big priority for their next president. so he might get like 5% of the ron paul newsletter subscribers. but this is really not -- this is not smart. it's galling for anyone to suggest that an american party created isis. it's really galling for a republican running for president to say it. >> s.e., does the debate issue that is now lurking for the gop what to do with all these candidates, an issue being faced by cnn, an issue that will be faced by fox in that first debate, does that pose a threat to retail politicking in new hampshire and in iowa?

and by that, i mean, we really allow those two states to vet our presidents, but it doesn't make sense if you're rick santorum to put on the sweater vest and shake all those hands. you have to get on national tv and boost your numbers or you're not getting in the debate. >> yeah. i mean the debate is all about name i.d. so the theory there is to get out, make news, give interviews and at least boost your name i.d. however, because there are so many in the field, the other side of the coin is you kind of want to do no harm until you absolutely have to because you know because of past experience when it's a crowded field like it was in 2012 some of these guys are going to crash and burn early. i mean, just look at rick perry. everybody really thought he was going to go far, and he poofed out pretty early. so they have to walk a fine line between getting headlines and boosting name i.d. but not burning themselves too soon. >> ellis, on the republican side of the aisle, who is the last man or carly fee reiny as a woman last people i'll say

standing. give me two or three names. >> john kasich is one i've been paying attention to. he's kind of like jeb without the bush baggage. i think he's someone who actually mazz some reasonable growth potential. marco rubio has a good story, an attractive guy. the generation is right. maybe he'll peel off a few latino voters. those are kind of the two i'm looking at right now. >> you're not saying jeb bush. s.e. who are the last individuals standing on the the republican side of the aisle? >> i think we're going to have if i had to call it today, a walker/rubio ticker. >> really? >> i was with scott walker a couple of weeks ago and i posed this idea to him. i thought it was very novel. he sort of chuckled and said i've heard that from a lot of people. so not very novel apparently a popular idea. but that's where i see this ending up. >> finally, have either of you read bernie sanders' bizarre essay written when he was 30 years old? when he heard and read it i thought if he were 14 or 15, okay. but he was 30 years old when he wrote it. no republican could get away

with it. have either of you read it? >> i'll make you a deal michael. i won't make fun of bernie's essay and you please don't read any of my early columns. >> although none were about that topic. >> s.e. you haven't read it i take it. >> vi read it. i have no desire to delve into the dark mind of kberny sanders from that or any decade, thank you very much. >> maybe na's what socialism is. s.e. s.e.cupp, he is thank you. coming up the pope is coming to america. he isn't running for president, but he may as well be. i'll tell you yo he could frame the debate for the presidential candidates. plus, isis terrorists, deadly path of destruction through iraq highlights a deeper problem in the country. will the war ever really end there? we'll talk about it. ...from a list of top rated providers. visit angieslist.com today. i'm angela and i quit smoking with chantix. my children always wanted me to quit smoking

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welcome back. defense secretary ashton carter spoke candidly recently about the weak state of iraq's military, the country's deep rooted turmoil that had efforts to build a military leaving it in utter disarray. this despite u.s. efforts to train iraqi forces to better prepare themselves for the war against isis. much of the discord lies in the fact that the country does not exist as a unified state due in large part to a deep sectarian divide. let's get more on this from congressman adam kissinger. he served in the air force in iraq and afghanistan and was among the first members of congress to call for air strikes against congress. congressman, i'm starting to have a humpty dumpty view of iraq. if you remember all the kijs horses and all the king's men

couldn't put humty back together again. is the answer partition? >> i don't think it is. a lot of problems with partition. number one, oil wealth is not spread uniformally through sunni and shia areas as well as kurdish areas. you know, there's a lot of differences. you have obviously some shia in sunni areas, some sunni in shia areas. i think partition is probably an overly simple way to fix a problem that really would only make it worse. plus you think about the fact that other countries being held together that have different populations, what's that going to do any sectarian movements within those country snz so i actually think the problem could end up being a lot worse. this is a lot like '05 and '06 when we were saying in iraq there was no way to fix this problem, this was just going to be a mess. we just need to roll up the carpet and go home. well at the end of the day, we did see some success. when we added 20,000 troops yes, but it was mostly the engagement of the sun sunni population, the disaffected sunni population. i think there's still a way to

salvage it. but every day that goes by everybody who commits violence it just makes that divide greater. >> isn't one of the differences between '05-'06 and where we are now, you have isis taking credit for bombings outside of iraq. you have isis seemingly trying to govern. they have become the caliphate they wish to be. no? >> yes. they're doing in essence what al qaeda did but now it's projected as you mentioned outside of iraq. we're talking arabia, potentially jordan is looking at concern, lebanon. this is a very big problem. that's why i think the answer to this is not -- i mean, there's a lot of thing we need to do in iraq, but i think we have to deal a devastating blow to isis somewhere. because what's happening right now is, you know, kids who are in their parents' basement getting radicalized on the internet, they want to join a cause. they see guys shooting ak-47s and they want to do that for islam. if we show them that joining ice

is isn't fight forge a cause, there's a chance you'll die, people don't typically join causes to be martyrs. they may be willing to martyr themselves, but if they see the chance of mare ir.com very very high they are less likely to join. >> how personally difficult is it for you having fought over there to see the isis gains of territory that americans once fought to control? >> you know it's devastating and frankly heartbreaking. just the iraqi people are really good people actually. and they're folks that just are like our families, just want to raise kids and kids have dreams and hopes of becoming something when they grow up. it's the same in iraq. to see this happening is devastating. to know so many thousands of soldiers who gave their lives. i did just a small part of flying an airplane in iraq and doing what i could dl. but it's devastating to me and devastating frankly to the families who gave up loved ones to bring this kind of freedom to iraq that unfortunately seems to be falling through their hands. >> did you see a lack of will on the part of the iraqis when you

were there? >> i really didn't. it took a while to organize the iraqi military. i think we all understand we made aid mistake in the disbanding of the military right after the invasion. but it seems like we put good leaders in place, we had sunni and shia leaders in place and soldiers follow good leaders. i think that's the untold story here. people say there's not a will of the iraqi military to fight. maybe that's true by and large. buff the iraqi ground soldiers are actually out fighting. awlat lf times they run out of ammunition or they see their leaders run away. even the united states military if we saw our leaders run away it would be hard to stay together and fight. luckily we have great officers and leaders. >> congressman kinzinger thank you so much. >> see you soon. with pope fran is' approval rating at an all-time high among catholics in america, he could have a major impact on the outcome of the presidential race. i'll explain.

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he's pro-life concerned about climate change against same sex marriage, and an advocate for the poor. no, he's not running for president but this individual just might frame the debates for those who are. pope francis, the combination of his upcoming trip to america, his approval rating and passion for certain issues is sure to have an impact ontd candidate. after he visits latin america and cuba the pontiff comes to the united states in september he'll visit washington meet with president obama. he'll address a joint meeting of congress. in new york city he'll visit the september 11th memorial

finally in philadelphia he'll celebrate at an outdoor mass where the crowds could reach more than a million. get ready for wahl to wall coverage not only in the cities he visits but also around the world. and these events will unfold just as the summer has wound down and the presidential campaigns kick into high gear. the pope will arrive soon after the first debate. the candidates will listen to the pontiff, knowing he's almost as popular now as st. john paul ii, who in the middle of his pape ascy was favored by 93% of american catholics. pope francis currently enjoys a 90% faivlt rating among his flock. he's viewed favorably by 70% of all americans. even the vast majority of the nones, 68%, they like him. no wonder that earlier this month hillary clinton, a methodist tweeted at the pope in support of his call for equal pay for wip.omen. amen to this headline she wrote. hope to hear more voices

speaking out. among those who may have been especially attentive to his holy word are the presidential candidates who are catholic. while the pope remains steadfastly pro-life and opposed to same sex marriage the vatican by the way called ireland's vote for gay marriage a defeat for humanity, the vatican is expected to release an insick la kill by july where he will address climate change and the poor. a former chemist before entering the seminary, has publicly endorsed the idea that human activity has addressed climate change and has addressed capitalism's need to quote, devour everything that stands in the way of increased profits. michael lee, an associate professor at fordham university who has studied liberation theology sees the pope as a potential game-changer. this week he told me on radio -- >> you can no longer box the catholic vote in a u.s.

conservative box. you know here's a pope who is going to release and encyclical on climate change and the poor this is a guy who's staunchly opposed to abortion. this a guy who's not ceded ground on same sex unions. so you know francis is just kind of breaking up this right/left box that we have. but i think especially in his emphasis on social issues like poverty like climate change, yeah there's going to be some rethinking about what the catholic vote is going to look like. >> because of their non-monolithic nature catholics will be an important constituency in 2016. one-quarter of 2012 voters were catholic. according to pough research center, barack obama received 54% of the catholic vote in 2008 falling to 50% in 2012. however hispanic damagehisspanics backed obama in droves. so how interested that nir

leader, while known for doctrine, is not himself doctrine air. thank you so much for joining me. don't forget you can follow me on twitter if you can spell smerconish. i'll see you next week. >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. i dedicate the will cable news network. >> good evening, i'm david walker. >> and i'm lois harp. now here's the news. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> approximately four shots were fired at the president. >> massacre of hundreds of thousands of moderates. >> president reagan has endorsed german reunification. >> for 35 years, we've been everywhere. >> cnn, beijing. >> the skies over baghdad have been illuminated. >> this is one pocket of ter moil in the egyptian capital. >> on every