supplying chemicals and parts. some of the parts fell into the ocean and traced parts like ball bearings and pressure valves right back to chinese companies. >> that's it for me. erin burnett starts right now. >> next breaking news, the mother of all bombs. the u.s. dropping its biggest conventional bomb ever. who authorized the attack? and more breaking news. new sbrejs intelligence on trump associates and russia. the first republican congress to call for trump to fire sean spicer. he is my guest tonight. let's go "out front." good evening i'm erin burnett. out front front the mother of all bombs, the u.s. military dropping a bomb on forces in afghanistan. just think about that for a

second. it's an unprecedented show of force and the president is very proud of it. here he is this afternoon in the white house. >> we are so proud of our military and it was another successful event. >> did you authorize it? >> everybody knows exactly what happened, so what i do is i authorize my military. we have the greatest nilt the world and they've done their job as usual. we have given them total authorization. >> that answer is raising a lot of questions because he didn't answer the question. a trump administration official refused to answer the question. it's the biggest bomb weighing about 22,000 poungds. it is so massive that it has to be dropped offthe back of a cargo plane.

it's then guided to a target by a gps. it can be dropped from about three miles in the air. when the explosion happens it looks like much like a nuclear explosion. his campaign promise was bomb the hell out of isis. it was in nangarhar province. barbara starr is "out front" tonight at the pentagon. barbara, what new details are you learning? >> reporter: what we are learning, erin, is that this strike had been planned by the military over the last couple of weeks as they saw isis move into this area in eastern afghanistan, quite close to the pakistan border. they began to plan the strike to go after this isis tunnel and cave complex. they decided to use this weapon because they thought it was the right weapon for the target. it has a punch that allows it to

destroy targets over a widespread area and that's what they were dealing with here. they also felt it was such a remote area that they would not run the risk of civilian casualties. that said, u.s. aircraft will be doing that post bomb damage assessment. they will be flying overhead looking to see how much damage was caused and whether it really met the expectations and to make sure that there were no civilian casualties. because it was the first time it was used in a combat environment after years of being tested, they want to make sure that it worked as planned and see what they can learn from it. this has been a bomb in the u.s. inventory for over a decade. they had never used it before because of -- in places like iraq about civilian casualties in populated areas. they wanted to use it and this wassage unpopulated areas. it's one of president trump's

stated priorities and that's to go after isis. erin? >> thank you very much. it's the first time it's been used. george wmpltd bush and barack obama didn't use it. how does it work? tom dpoerman is out front front with that. >> reporter: the powerful bomb, moab went often more than an hour after sunset in eastern afghanistan in the nangarhar province, an isis strong hold where u.s. special forces soldier was killed less than a week ago. that was the target for the big bomb which was being used in combat for the first time. an isis camp in a remote area not frar from the border with pakistan. >> we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier to target u.s. forces in the area. >> reporter: the region is home

to isis k fwhiltd part by recruiting fighters from the taliban. the purpose of the moab, take out the enemy in one swoop. collapse tunnels and hit the terrorists even if they were hiding in caves. >> it's a concussive blast. everybody's either obliterated, ears are bleeding or they're completely destroyed. >> if i had a bomb here right now it would be some 30 feet long, about 22,000 sounds. this is dropped out of the back of a krnks-130 transport plane, pulled out by a parachute and released to fall to the ground being guided by gps on the way down to its target. a short distance before it hits the earth, that's when about nine tons of explosives go often. what are the immediate effects? first of all, shrapnel.

it can penetrate reinforced concrete and dig deep into the ground. second, the blast wave. this would skoush and scorch the earth for thousands of feet in all directions as it shot out. and then as it is sucked back into the vacuum, it does it again, obliterating almost everything. lastly, many military leaders talk about the shock and awe of this whole thing. for anybody who's not close enough to be hurt by it, if they witness it, a tremendous effect on how they see the capabilities of the u.s. now one of the mission ss to get in to where this bomb was dropped to see if it lived up to expectations. erin? >> thank you very much, tom. of course, exactly who was killed, were there civilian causal yults. lieutenant colonel rick

francona. dan rather who hash to afghanistan 16 times. all of you know so much about this, the context we all need so much tonight. general heart ling, it is a massive bomb. we heard about it. we know this was targeted at a remote area. that were the point. if it were dropped on a city, to give us a sense of how big this is, what would it do? >> well, to a city, erin, and that's why it hasn't been used in the wars in iraq and afghanistan is a lot of combat has been in the cities. it was use against the position, a very good combat commander in afghanistan said i can destroy cave complex in a defensive area but most importantly he can also get after the i.e.d.s because the overpressure of this bomb. it doesn't penetrate a cave wall but it provides overpressure to

knock things down and provide the i.e.d.s with a means of exploding. you can clear an entire area of about 15 to 20 football fields in radius. so it will be significantin terms of the area of the blast and the concussive device. >> the city you would be talking about a huge part of the city being leveled. massive in terms of casualties. >> yeah. depending on the construction of the buildings, yeah, it could definitely devastate a city, knock buildings and walls down. it would kill anybody in the city. in this case was in the middle of the countryside providing the overpressure to get rid of the i.e.d.s when general mickelson is concerned about. >> what was it like when you saw a smaller bomb? >> that was in the hunt for osama bin laden in tora bora. the bush examination launched what's called a daisy cutter.

we were about two miles back from the front and even if that distance you got smacked in the chest, got the wind knocked out of you and it looked like a giant nuclear mushroom cloud going off. so the next day when we went back up the mountainside, we could see that many of the caves stms had collapsed and lot of the top of the mountain was sort of crispy from the effects. so it is a massively scary and effective bomb. my conversations with officials in kabul they've told me that general nicholson -- this bomb during did obama administration for use in the afghan fighting system because he knew what he would be up against, that isis and other groups had gotten riddled in these cave systems in remote areas and were building bombings. >> dan, as kim said, he ordered it. it was delivered to the afghan location this year. >> right. >> we've had it since with 2003.

it was not used under bush of obama. the president is proud of it, says it's successful. he was asked specifically whether he authorized it. i want to play that part. >> go ahead. >> everybody knows exactly what happened, so -- and what i do is i authorize my military. we have the greatest military in the world and they've done a job as usual. so we have given them total authorization. >> dan, we know the demanding general on the ground made the decision to trike, general nicholson. they came to the president and said this is a big bomb. you would think that they told him about it before that he could have stopped it if he wanted to. he did not. >> as you say, we don't know whether he signed off or not but it's certainly would be strange if as commander in chief you're going to use this weapon, the decision makes it way up the chain of command. it's hard to imagine that a. of the united states would not have been informed before the

bomb was dropped but given the circumstances, they havenwhile haven't said whether he authorized it or not, that's an open question. one, what president trump said after the bomb dropped told you that the old teddy roosevelt line of walk softly but carry a big stick. st bomb was a big stick but there's no walking softly with this president. as was did case with did crystalscruise missiles in syria, no dropping bomgsz, putting missiles out is a presidential decision. but that's the easy part. the tough part comes as to what objective? one of the puzzles about afghanistan through the burke and obama administration and now is what is the strategy? what is the strategy and the same way with syria. shoot the cruise missiles, tomahawk missiles off but what is the strategy?

it's unclear whether president trump actually has a strategy in place and number two, if he does, what is it? for example, let me conclude by saying that the commander in afghanistan has been begging for additional on the ground troops for some long time. >> yeah. >> you can certainly damage guerilla warfare of the type that's been carried on in afghanistan with bombs but you cannot dweelt this kind of guerilla force with bombs from the air. >> colonel francona, the center of the war on isis, as we hear again and again, right? iraq, syria, mosul. the biggest bomb is dropped on afghanistan to fight isis. what does that tell you? >> exactly. well, it tells me that was the right weapon for that target. if you look at raqqah and mosul. there is no way you would drop this in a city. the civilian casualty toll would be enormous. this bomb was zienlt for one

purpose. it collapses tunnels and penetrates -- the blast wave penetrates in the caves through the cave system. it's meant for that purpose. you'd never use this against either a hardened target or anywhere you have a civilian population or anywhere you have a lot of building. that's not what it's for. the use of the weapon doesn't represent any change in strategy. this was just a tactical decision made by the commander on the ground nor that purpose. >> although, i have to ask, once you do something, psychologically its becomes easier to do it again, right? this hack around as you pointed out since 2003. it was knots used before. i'm sure there's a lot of reasons for that. now that's changed. the sale has been broken. isn't that a change? >> well, its hasn't been used before. multiple officials from tampa to the pentagon to kabul have all said that the general nicholson had the authority to use this

before. but general nicholson isn't just a good tactician and strategist, he's also a good politician, and i think he calculated that with this administration, should there be any blowback, that they would be much less likely to be upset about the use of this bomb and they'd be more likely to embrace it. >> thank you all. coming back with us in a moment. the multi-of all bombs today, 60 cruise missiles launched on syria days ago. an ahmarda as the president calls it coming to north korea. is this america first? plus another north korean nightmare. could kim jong un have missiles loaded with sarin, the same that bashar yalg asads just used on his own people? and on the united flight debacle. the airline says that flight wasn't overbookds. isn't that even worse? 6 his own people?

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. breaking news, president trump touting the success of today's unprecedented bomb. the mother of all bombs is the biggest conventional bomb in the u.s. arsenal. it comes snumplt's unpress dwenlted attacks across the world. athena jones is at the white house tonight. acheena, one of the stunning things about what we're seeing is that this is something president trump is clearly behind, he is proud of and it is a will complete about-face from the man who ran from president. >> reporter: hi, erin. it absolutely is. trump ran on an america first platform, the idea that america would no longer be the policemen of the world.

his supporters were tired of years of wars. even before running for president, trump was against further action in afghanistan. you look back to a 2012 tweet, he says we are building roads and schools for people that hate us. it is not in our national interest. in 2013, we have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in afghanistan. let's get out. with this latest action, singing a different tune. of course, we heard this just last week. it was a week ago today that he ordered the launch and strikes against that air base in syria. so it's very clear that in reality, the reality of trump as president is shaping up to be very, very different from the campaign rhetoric we heard for a year and a half on the campaign trail. erin. >> thank you.

steve israel of new york joins us along with rick santorum, dan russia is back. by the way, i can give you a lot more where that came from, as you're well aware. i was very selective. this is a complete and utter change. this is a guy who just struck syria, 2kr07d the mother of all bombs in afghanistan. what do you make of this complete 180? >> i don't see either of those as a 180. donald trump has been very, very clear that he wants to defeat isis. if there's anything he was clear about that he will be aggressive is -- in taking on isis and defeating isis. and he's deferred to his military commanders who said this is the weapon of choice to actually degrade isis and their capabilities and he gave them the go ahead. i think that's completely consistent. on the other -- and syria, that's a little -- i think it's a little harder to make the case

that that's consistent. let me give it a try. i think there was a little bit of a change in donald trump when he came into the presidency and he saw that the united states, as he'd talked about, was no longer the leader on the world stage. we were leading from behind. he was sort of ok with that but he wants america to be a leader, he wants america to be strong. i think his advisors came to him and said this isn't about syria. this is about the united states standing up for the world community where no one else will and saying we are not going to allow the use of these types of unconventional weapons. not because of syria or assad per se or trying to change the regime but standing behind this red line. >> tazz senator is speaking, dan rather, you're chuckling. >> i didn't mean to chuckle. >> not at him. >> first i have great respect for his position. he himself acknowledges it's

hard to make the case about syria. viewed from 30,000 feet, donald trump has reversed himself. he said the u.s. military was a disaster. now he's praising it. said during the campaign that the chinese were tremendous ma lich lators of currency. now he says, well, not so much. he lambasted the head of the federal reserve. now he's changed directions so many times. now, unpredictability is good for leadership but to appear to be dysfunctional in terms of policies is not. now, what this raises is people overseas are going to begin to think wrongly, this guy is flaky as well-baked pie crust. he reverses himself every other day. this is not the tone, much less the substance of a definite steady leadership.

as president trump goes on, it may get better. but i'll say again, in syria, by the way, that's not a place where he's reversed himself as the senator acknowledged, are we for or against assad. syria is very complicated. if isis is in syria, isis is opposed to assad. this is a complicated situation. >> congressman, the president said today that he has had to act because the world dramatically changed in the last eight weeks. here's what he said. >> if you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that to really what's happened over the last eight years, you'll see there's a tremendous difference, tremendous difference. so we have inl credible leaders in the military and we have incredible military and we are very proud of them. this was another very, very successful mission. >> of course, the mission he's referring to is the massive -- the mother of all bombs. that's what he's specifically referring to. congressman do you agree with

him, the world has changed dramatically? tremendously? sorry. >> there are a lot of changes. i disagree that the world changed the minute he was sworn in. things are changing. the enemies have changed. the fronts have changed. the weapons technologies have changed, as we saw with the -- >> do you support what he's done? >> the only thing that's the same, we are expanding our military footprint under the original use of force resolution passioned by congress -- >> in 2001. >> -- after 9/11 in 2011. that was before there was such a thing as isis. that was before we were bombing airfields in syria, that was before we were involved and engaged in libya. congress has engaged in a dereliction of its duty by not passing a new force.

donald trump is giving his military leaders on the ground more flexibility. that should not come with a blank check from the united states congress. >> all right. thank you all very much. next, the leader of north korea summons cnn's reporter to a secret event. he wasn't allowed to take his phone or anything else. what happened? who did he see? we're going to show you all that next for the first time. and the first republican to call for the resignation of sean spicer. whether it's connecting one of the world's most innovative campuses. or bringing wifi to 65,000 fans. businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink.

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. breaking news. the world on edge as north korea appears to be "primed and ready for nuclear tests." new evidence on the ground is making final preparations being made at one of pyongyang's key nuclear testing sites. president trump warning tonight that north korea is a problem and that it will be taken care of, in his words. will rippley is "out front" in pyongyang. >> reporter: with the looming threat of a nuclear showdown, new images of kim june unguiding a special forces operation.

north korean commanders jumping out of planes, their leader all smielgs. japanese prime minister shinzo abe said north korea may already have the ability to deploy missiles loaded with sarin gas. president trump praising chinese president xi jinping for carrying away cole kaeshers away. >> president xi wants to do the right thing. i think he wants to help us with north korea. >> reporter: but chinese customs officials say overall trade between china and north korea jumped by nearly 40% in the first quarter of this year. >> we got the call before 5:00 a.m. we were told to dress up and leave our phones behind. we went through a couple hours of security. this street is completely closed off.

tens of thousands of people are moving in here. raising questions about how far china is willing to go to reign in its unpredictable neighbor. we saw north korean leader making a rare appearance in pyongyang. not military event but a ribbon cutting of a new high rise apartment complex, an attempt by the regime to show economic growth despite heavy sanctions over their nuclear program. the message from the north koreans seems to be they want to move forward with their military programs but they also want to grow their economy peacefully. the they say if they are provoked, they are not afraid to go to war. north korean officials tell cnn it's a touch and go situation that could es congratulate into an all-out conflict. new satellite images show north korea's nuclear site primed and ready for north korea's sixth nuclear test. just days before north korea's

most important hollywood of the year. hollywoods are a time when pyongyang has been known to project power through military force. with tensions on if korean peninsula at their highest in years, no one knows what kim jong un's next move will be. you can probably hear the ominous music playing on loud speakers behind me. that happens several times a day here in pyongyang. adding to the tension, this news out of afghanistan that the u.s. dropped the mother of all bombs on isis tunnels, is this a veiled threat from north korea and the big unknown tonight, how will korean leader kim young unrespond? >> live from pyongyang, the only american journalist live there. the music when it comes on is always very eerie.

a member of thousands services committee is here with us. congressman i appreciate your time. i want to start with the north korean issue. we have this anniversary, this birthday coming up in the next day. how confident are you that north korea will carry out a nuclear test in the coming days? >> there's certainly a tradition in north korea of doing sock aggressive act. you know, on this anniversary. and so i think it's important for the united states to show its resolve in terms of countering that and putting pressure on china, who hoelz really all the cards on this. >> when you say show our resolve in terms of countering, i want to show our viewers some new satellite images we have tonight. >> right. >> this is a nuclear site. this is showing increased activity over the past about month, six weeks, at a key north korean testing site. spergts say there's been a surge of activity and new equipment arriving. if the united states has

intelligence that north korea is about to carry outs its sixth nuclear test, should the united states launch a prejemt yemtive strike? >> no, not at this time. what i think we could do, i mean, this is a test. we know it's a test. the test is important because it shows they're moving the nuclear program forward, could be a threat to the united states, to be a threat to the region. where china's the largest -- china's probably the only ally that north korea has, the only real ally that north korea has. it is the economic lifeline for north korea. they certainly have the capability of putting pressure on the north korean government to cease this program. what president trump needs to do and i believe what he will do is put pressure on china to end this relationship and put pressure on north korea to stop this. and to end this nightmare. >> are you concerned -- we've

just seen the mother of all bombs used in afghanistan. the other bomb equivalent, about, is the massive ordnance protocol bomb which is used to destroy bunkers, bunker busters undergrourchltd it was designed to destroy nuclear sites in iron, possibly in north korea. is that something that should be on the table? >> well, i think -- no. not right now. but i think it was important first of all, i any it did come up through the chain of command. i can't imagine that the president would not have signed off on it. it is appropriate for a hardened target like that. but it also sends a message, many of these fighters in that position were certainly where isis were are former taliban. we need to send a message, this war is at stalemate and the only way out is a negotiated

settlement with the taliban and this sends a clear message to the taliban that this new administration is serious. >> you held a town hall yesterday. you were asked about the white house secretary sean spicer and his comments about comparing bashar al assad to adolf hitler and saying hitler was better. here's the exchange with one of your constituents. >> i have a picture of my grantd grandparents who were killed at auschwitz. what is your thoughts at this time of a president who has anti-semitic people in his cabinet? >> spicer made a terrible mistake yesterday and he admitted it. if you're not fam with what he did -- he needs to go. >> you said he needs to go. you heard the room erupting in cheers. that was a big moment. you're the first republican lawmaker to call for the

resignation of sean spicer. do you stand by what you said yesterday? he needs to go. >> i really do. i don't think he's serving this president very well. i think when you have a spokesman or secretary that he himself becomes the story more than once and deflects from what that job is about in terms of representing the white house, i think it is time for him to go. i think he's -- i just don't believe he's capable of doing the job at the level that it needs to be done. again, he's not serving this president well. >> all right. thank you very much. loud and clear and standing by your words. congressman kofman, thank you. >> thank you. >> next, british intelligence internetting trump associates communicating with russianings. details on this next. critics say the president is not keeping his promises. i'm going to ask a trump associate and advisor. anthony scare muchy is my guest. think again.

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. breaking news. trump associates captured communicating with russian officials.

british and other european intelligence officials, we are learning, interneted the conversations over certainly months and shared them with u.s. counter parts. jim sciutto is "out front." >> reporter: tonight u.s. has learned that british and others intercepted trump officials and other russian officials and shared those communications with their u.s. counterparts. these sources stress that at no point did western intelligence, including britain's gchq, responsible for uk surveillance, target these associates. instead their communications were picked up as incidental selection during surveillance of known russian targets. it's part of five eyes, including canada, use australia

and britain. carter page provides a confusing, even conflicting story acts his contacts with russian intelligence. >> it's just such a joke that it's beyond words. >> reporter: he told jake tapper he never discussed easing sanctions on russia related to the seizing of crimea. >> did you talk to anybody about he would be willing to get rid of the sanctions? >> never any conversations such as that. i mean, look -- >> what do you mean direct -- i don't know what that means. direct conversations. >> i'm saying no that was never said, no. >> but interviewed on abc news this morning, page could not provide a clear answer. >> something may have come up in a con -- i have no recollection and there's nothing specifically that i would have done that would have given people that impression. >> you can't say without

equivocation that you didn't discuss the easing of sanctions? >> someone may have brought it up. i have no recollection. if it was, it was knots something ifrls aurg or that someone was asking for. >> jim is with me now. jim, this is possibly very significant. when trump came out and said that the british were spying on him, they completely scoffed on it. now we're finding out it was incidental collection but they did have surveillance. >> it is not what trump claimed which is that president obama had the british spy on him. not true. the british like many intelligence agencies are regularly monitoring russians and officials from other adversary countries and sometimes when you do that, just as u.s. sbjs has done, americans are either mentioned or on the other end of the line. what happened is that british intelligence saw that and they saw it with some frequency over

a period of time and they then shared that with their u.s. ally. not what trump contended but it shows you -- and this is key -- that multiple intelligence agencies were catching, in effect, trump associates speaking with some frequency with russian officials and other russians known to u.s. intelligence. >> jim sciutto, thank you very much. next, donald trump's flip-flops. are they alienating -- there are many of them -- his base. that's next. from victim to folk hero. how lawyers for the man who was drug from united flight, believe has changsds forever. you know who likes to be in control? this guy.

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transition team, former economic adviser of the campaign, anthony, good to have you with me. >> i want to defend sean for 30 seconds, i know the congressman had to go. it is one of the hardest jobs, you and i have been in the media before, you have these lights on you, he misspoke. it does happen, he is a terrific guy, one of the hardest working people i know, i don't think he should go. >> he said he is not serving the president well, not the first time. >> i think that it's early in the administration, i think he is a super hard working person. and from my experience with the president he is very supportive of his people that are super loyal to him. my guess is that sean has his support. at least i hope he does, because sean is a good guy. >> so let me ask you about donald trump and his flip-flops, because in many of these cases it is very clear. so let's just start here with the chairman of the federal reserve. this is a crucial position in the united states.

the most important economic power in this country and the most powerful economy in the world. janet yellen," the wall street journal" did the interview, saying he is toast, trump said no, she is not. >> she is not a republican, when her time is up i would most likely replace her because of the fact i think it would be appropriate. we have a fed that is doing political things. this janet yellen of the fed, the fed is doing political, by keeping the interest rates at this level. >> she is keeping them artificially low to get obama retired. to a certain extent she should be ashamed of herself. >> she is political, she should be replaced. now she is not toast, he respects her. >> well, i said during that campaign and during the debate actually that if the president

got to know chairwoman yellen, i think he would like her, and get a viewpoint that may be a little different than when you're a candidate. john kennedy once said about the candidacy he thought there was a missile gap. and when he campaigned on the missile gap, and when he got more information he realized we were way ahead of the missiles. so when you're transitioning, and you are in the most powerful position in the world, you have to change your point of view. we both know that smart people do that. >> so you're saying that it's a good thing he is flip-flopping. >> see, you want to call it a flip-flop, and i understand why. i call it more of an intellectual evolvement based on new facts and circumstances -- >> how about a meeting -- >> they asked him about fbi

director comey, and he said let me get a meeting with him. when he got the meeting with him he decided he was a man of integrity and decided to keep him. i said six months ago chairman yellen, would be doing a great job, and once he met her he would like her. he is running for office, he has enough information but not all the information he has now as president. here is something you guys are missing in the media, i mean no offense, you're obviously a very good journalist. but what people are missing is that his core base voted for him because of his judgment and his temperament. and you guys may not like that but i love it. i'll tell you why i love it. because when facts and circumstances present themselves this is a very strong and decisive leader. this is a person who will look at the facts and circumstances, and say okay, we are morally outraged at chemical weapons being used on children.

and that is a red line. >> i hear you on your point, they voted for him on his temperament and leadership but he also voted for him anthony on his promises. i don't think you can deny it. >> janet yellen, to me i think he wants a stable currency and wants a growing economy and if she is the best person to help him get there my guess is he will keep her. >> i think it's ironic he said she is keeping interest rates low because of obama, but now he is flip-flopping, i see your point. i think china matters. when he promised to his core base i will take on china and bring jobs back. one of the core things he said was i am going to label china currency manipulator, most of you thought it was not a good idea to say such things, but he said it many times, here it is. >> if i'm going to instruct my treasury secretary to label china currency manipulator,

which should have been done years ago. >> he had it on his contract with his voters first 100 days he was going to do exactly that. meets with president xi jinping, tells" the wall street journal," china not a manipulator. >> okay, context to be introduced. when china was in the trade organization in 2000, they were in fact manipulating their currency. they were growing at 10 or 11%, linked their currency to the u.s. dollar, the dollar was depreciating at a time when it was pegged. that was currency manipulation along the lines of what the president was suggesting while he was a candidate. i think the facts and circumstances on the table now after meeting with president xi, looking at the whole array of things he needs to do in the bilateral relationship, whether

it is china or korea, china has thr allowed the currency to float a little more. he is a phenomenal negotiator, sent out a tweet and i read it a couple of times. this is exactly how i see the president. he basically said very warm greeting, friendship getting started with president xi, we'll see how things go on trade. i don't think there is any break in a promise there. i think if anything, there is a big message to its core base that china needs to even up and play fairly in the international trade. >> all right, thank you very much. next, united airlines changing their story again about why dr. dao was dragged from their plane. finding time to get things done isn't easy.

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tonight, united airlines has a new explanation about why dr. dao was dragged off his plane, not enough seats. here is jeanne moos. >> reporter: the high-powered personal injury attorney shared the screen with his client being drag. how should dr. dao be treated? >> i hope he becomes a poster child for all of us. >> reporter: a hero for the huddled masses of travellers. >> he is the guy to stand up for travellers, us against them. >> reporter: among the us, one of his daughters. >> completely horrible. >> reporter: in the words of one person, dr. dao will be what i yell out when i get bad service

at the airport, the attorney said it will not be a class action suit but maybe it will scare airlines into classier service. >> are we going to just continue to be treated like cattle? >> reporter: some noted the doctor will likely be treated at a payout. dr. dao looking at his future, a golden future, the skies are likely to become a lot friendlier for dr. dao, his attorney said he had no idea yet how much a lawsuit may be worth. and with what appeared to be a slight roll of the eyes, the attorney brought up a guy who never has to fly coach. >> i mean, even our president last night said that was horrible. >> reporter: the law even made a reference to the comedy, planes, trains and automobiles, in which steve martin goes through travel hell. >> i want a [ bleep ] car right [ bleep ] now. >> may i see your rental agreement? >> i threw it away.

>> you are [ bleep ]. >> reporter: the moral of the story? >> and it should be service with a smile. >> reporter: instead of service that left dr. dao with his smile missing two teeth. cnn, new york. thank you for joining us, anderson is next. good evening, thank you for joining us tonight, american forces dropping the largest non-nuclear bomb in their arsenal in the largest target in afghanistan, and the president leaving it unclear if he authorized it. whether it did, we have had these significant weapons, this has never been used in combat. why now? how does this massive bomb actually work and what is the use of it in afghanistan, after nearly 16 years when americans went to war there. cnn's barbara starr has more. >> good evening,