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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  September 2, 2022 5:00pm-6:00pm PDT

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said. i was a sun worshipper. when i have a day off, i frequently go to my skin doctor and have things cut off my by a surgeon. in 2010 she had a noninvasive breast tumor removed. we are wishing her a speedy recovery. thanks to all of you for joining us tonight. i'm erica hill in for erin burnett. "ac 360" starts right now. file this one under w for where are the documents. john berman here in for anderson. the presence of 48 empty folders at mar-a-lago marked classified does not automatically imply 48 missing documents. however, that fact revealed in a more detailed inventory from the search at mar-a-lago certainly does raise questions. questions, for example, about how material marked classified was stored and kept track of at the former president's resort, if at all. questions about why the material
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marked classified that was found had been intermingled with press clippings, clothing and other nick knacks. questions about what the former president was doing with 11,000 documents that were recovered. the federal district court released the catalog while she makes a decision on whether to appointing a special master. william barr called it a waste of time and a red herring. he also said loud and clear that his old boss brought this on himself by taking what did not belong to him, refusing to give it back and he seemed to suggest perhaps obstructing justice with his legal team deceiving investigators. >> i think the driver on this from the beginning was, you know, loads of classified information sitting in mar-a-lago. people say this was unprecedented. it's also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, okay?
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and how long is the government going to try to get that back? they jawbone for a year. they were deceived on the voluntary actions taken. they then went and got a subpoena. they were deceived on that. they feel. and the facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around. and so how long -- you know, how long do they wait? >> the answer, as we now know, was more than a year before seeking a search warrant. the former attorney general had more to say on the subject. first, though, kara scannell joins us with more on what the judge revealed today. kara, this detailed inventory from the fbi's search at mar-a-lago, what does it show? >> well, what we really learned from this out of the gate is the volume of documents that the former president had at mar-a-lago. i mean you remember he had given 15 boxes to the national archives in january. this is now 37 containers or boxes. what we're learning is in them is a lot of information.
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some of it classified, some of it not classified. i'm just going to run through some of this because the 91s are really interesting. there were 54 documents marked secret, 18 marked top secret, 31 marked confidential, and then these empty folders. there's a total of 90 of them. 48 that were marked classified, 42 that were marked return to staff secretary or military aide. and more than 11,000 government documents that were not marked classified but were -- they belonged to the government, they don't belong to the former president. so all of that is the big picture of it. then what we also learn is all of this was co-mingled in these boxes. look at number number two, the second box. this was found in the former president's office. fl within that there are 99 newspaper and magazine clippings dated from 2017 to 2018.
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there's confidential documents, secret documents, top secret documents, some classified but government documents. empty folders, 43 marked classified. and what we've seen in some of these other boxes because they're all detailed. there's clothing, there's gifts, there's books. it just shows that this was all just shoved together, not compartmentalized, these top secret /secret documents not kept how they were expected to be because of the sensitive within them. >> a lot of paper and knickknacks all jammed together. these folders, these empty folders marked classified, what do we know about them? >> we don't entirely know a lot about them. we know these folders exist and they have knthese markings on them. some of my colleagues have spoken to former and current intel officials. it's unclear if these folders were reused because they're a way they can transport a classified document or it's not clear if are these -- does this
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suggest that documents are missing? you know, could they have been taken out and this shell of the folder is what's left? but it's hard to really know based on just this description here. it's very possible they're just empty folders. >> so we were sitting next to each other at 6:00 a.m. this morning and i asked you this question. when is the judge going to rule on the special master? any sense of when that can happen? >> look, she said yesterday in court she would make her ruling in due course. is due course today? i think the clock is ticking on today. i think given that there's not precedent for this kind of decision of a special master, particularly involving a review of executive privilege, it's something that she's going to want to take her time on, i would suspect. she's had a lot of time to think about this and has had a lot of input from both sides. it's possible there could be an appeal here. we don't know what the terms are going to be, how both sides will react to it, so i'm sure there's going to be a lot of care being taken into this. but your guess is as good as
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mine. >> that same answer as 6:00 this morning. kara scannell, thank you for all your hard work all day long. staying on the theme, just in on what happened shortly after the mar-a-lago search, former white house chief of staff mark meadows began turning over items to the national archives. this is different, right? so let's get the reporting on this from cnn's kristen holmes. what have you learned? >> these are brand new details that show the level of interaction between meadows and the national archives as well as what exactly he submitted. sources tell our colleagues that within a week of that search at mar-a-lago, meadows submitted text messages and emails to the national archives. it was less than a dozen emails. now, this was actually part of an earlier request for all electronic correspondence that falls under the presidential records act. what's interesting here is the archives realized that it hadn't gotten everything from meadows when it saw what meadows had
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actually turned over to the january 6th committee. that's when they started putting in that earlier request. one thing to pay attention here is that meadows has actually been working with the archives on a different level as well. that's something we learned through this reporting. for about a year, because he is one of trump's designees to the archives. so he was called by another designee last summer, a year ago, to try to help get trump to give these records back to the national archives. so kind of a weird position for him to be in, turning it over and then also he was trying to help with the trump angle of this. >> and the timing of this. is this a coincidence? what do you know about that? >> well, that's obviously the big question here. now, we have one source familiar with the matter who says that this is totally a coincidence, that the search had nothing to do with meadows' decision to turn over these correspondence. but another source, who is also familiar, said it could be a coincidence but we did get far more after the search than we
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had ever gotten before with this request. >> all right. interesting. i'm sure there will be more reporting from you and your team on this very subject. kristen holmes, thank you very much. perspective now from senior analyst elie honig. also cnn legal and national security analyst carrie cordero, a former counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security. carrie, first, just your reaction to kristen's reporting on mark meadows' correspondence with the national archives. does that raise any red flags to you? >> well, it is -- the timing is interesting. you know, it's hard to draw too many conclusions from it. but the fact that a physical search was executed, that a warrant was issued from the judge to be able to search the former president's residence with respect to documents that needed to be returned to the archives most likely i would think got the attention of mark meadows and his lawyers. so even if they were in a process already engaging with the archives, i wouldn't be surprised if we learned down the
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road that that sped up their compliance with the archives' request. >> elie, back to the search at mar-a-lago specifically, you look at everything the fbi recovered, not only the top secret documents but the more than 11,000 non-classified government documents. as a prosecutor, what can you conclude from this? where does it lead you? >> john, it raises a lot of questions for me. my attention is drawn immediately to those empty file folders for classified information that you were just discussing with kara. i think there's a lot of questions you set out to answer. first of all, did they ever contain documents or did they ever contain documents while at mar-a-lago? not necessarily, but perhaps some of them did. so what documents? where were they? were they recovered where else at mar-a-lago or are they gone? that would be of course the most concerning outcome. and then finally, if you can ascertain, if you're thinking about charging somebody, you need to know who handled them, who mishandled them, what they did with them and can you show the relevant intent and
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knowledge. for that you'd have to talk to your witnesses, probably want to look at that surveillance tape that doj subpoenaed. you might want to send some of the documents for fingerprinting or dna. so i think there's a whole bunch more questions raised by the new filing. >> that's just the empty folders there. carrie, you look at all the paperwork, there's so much material there. there's just a lot of material. >> there's a lot of material, it's a lot of documents. and remember, these documents belong to the united states government. and that's really the basic premise that is underlying all of this. i do think that the fact that so much of this information was classified, including lots of information at top secret levels, compartmented programs, really highly classified programs, that would have lit the fire under the justice department to say we can't wait anymore. we've been engaged in a dialogue for as long as we could. we need to get these documents back and do the damage assessment led by the intelligence community to figure
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out where this information may have been viewed, gone, been seen by, or not. you know, that would be important too, for them to determine, you know what, these documents just sat in the offices and basements or locations within mar-a-lago and didn't get out. that would be important to know as well. but at some point i think the classification level of the documents and the volume of classified information is what is driving the intensity of this investigation, which clearly is ongoing. >> elie, the former attorney general, bill barr, said they jawboned for more than a year over this before they ultimately issued the search warrant there. i want to play a little bit more of what he said on fox news. >> i frankly am skeptical of this claim that i declassified everything. because frankly, i think it's highly improbable and, second, if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them and said i here by declassify
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everything in here, that would be such an abuse that -- and show such recklessness that it's almost worse than taking the documents. >> elie, you literally wrote the book on this guy. you wrote a book on the former attorney general william barr. does what he said surprise you? >> well, i'm going to say something i rarely say. i agree with bill barr on this. i think he hit the nail on the head on this. bill barr is the ultimate unitary executive guy. in his view the president has the ultimate power in the executive branch. i'm sure he is of the view the president has unlimited power to declassify. but he's saying even if the president has unlimited power to declassify, there is no evidence and plenty of counterevidence to this notion that he actually did it. you can have the power but if you didn't exercise it when you were president, you can't exercise it now in 2022. i agree with bill barr on that and i agree with him on the earlier clip that we played. he can understand as a former
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attorney general that basically doj got strung along over a year, jawboned to use his colorful expression. i think he's right when he concludes that doj had no choice but to go in and execute that search warrant. >> one other thing he said, bill barr, the whole idea of a special master is a red herring and a waste of time. part of his reasoning is the justice department has already gone through the documents. do you agree with that? >> he understands the way investigations work and the fact that the justice department had a team to review any possible attorney/client information, which really there was nothing about this search that would have raised the level of potential attorney/client information. so yes, he's right. a special master at this point is not needed in my judgment. it seems like in his judgment as well. really the longer that the judge goes on to consider it, the justice department just reviews more and more information. at this point they have even said in their pleadings that they have completed, completed their preliminary review.
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one other point real quick, john, on the point that former attorney general barr was making on the declassification. when documents were declassified, they actually change in their appearance. lines are drawn through the classification markings. i think what is shown so far through the photograph and other information is that there is literally no physical evidence that supports the assertion that any kind of declassification was actually done. >> no indication that we've seen. elie honig, carrie cordero, thank you for being with us. next, two of the former president's top white house attorneys go before the january 6th grand jury. what they potentially had to offer, as well as the intricacies of obtaining testimony from attorneys, attorneys who rworked in the white house. later, mexico, 43 students vanish under dark and highly suspicious circumstances. now nearly eight years later, the country's former attorney general is under arrest and the details surrounding it are just stunning.
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no shortage of other significant developments in the many investigations and court cases surrounding the former president. item 1, a federal judge objected to a new trial in bannon's case. the judge today ruled the testimony would not have been material and that the jury's instructions did not constitute a miscarriage of justice. now, the second item tonight probably overshadows the first. two of the former president's top white house lawyers going before the january 6th federal grand jury, but not without a little bit of a legal production. sara murray joins us now with the latest on pat cipollone and patrick philbin's road to the witness chair. sara, what can you tell us about these conversations that the pats had with the justice department leading up to their appearance at the grands jury? >> these are both former white house lawyers in the trump white
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house, they were there the final days of the trump administration and pushed back on efrforts to overturn the 2020 election so they're important witnesses in what led up to the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. they also spent weeks wrangling with the justice department over potential executive privilege issues, what questions they would be willing to answer, what questions they were not likely to answer and of course we don't know the answer to any of that, what they decided to answer before the grand jury because those proceedings are secret. >> so both cipollone and philbin did both previously testify to the house select committee where they did decline to answer some questions because of executive privilege as you said. what's different, though, speaking to a congressional committee versus testifying before a grand jury? >> what's different is that this is a criminal investigation and so there are just narrower opportunities to be able to assert privileges, including things like executive privilege. by the time you are subpoenaing people like pat cipollone, pat philbin, prosecutors have
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already been before a judge and said here is our probable cause that a crime was committed. we are investigating this potential crime, and so that ends up giving these prurosecuts more of a window to question these witnesses in a way we don't see in the congressional committees. >> sara murray, thank you as always. joining us now cnn contributor john dean, white house counsel during the nixon administration and star witness at the watergate hearings. both pat cipollone and pat philbin testified to the january 6th select committee and the hearing shows they pushed back on the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and opposed the attorney general to look into false claims of election fraud. how damning could their potential testimony be for the former president? >> well, they have a lot of knowledge. they certainly have knowledge of the scheme to replace the attorney general with a pliant lower level department of justice assistant attorney
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general. they have knowledge of the fake elector scheme. they have knowledge, i think, of the eastman memo that was used with pence. they have knowledge of the insur e insurrection and what the president was doing that day. they withheld their statements or conversations with trump before the january 6th committee. that may or may not be something they had to testify to in front of the grand jury. the grand jury can resolve these issues very quickly. the threat for the january 6th committee was having to litigate it. here it gets litigated before the grand jury. you go to the chief judge who opens his courtroom just for this hearing and he will resolve it right there. they didn't want to do that. so they're walking the line between attorney -- when it was attorney/client, when it was executive privilege and how much they could say in that line. that's what the negotiations
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obviously were with the department of justice that were preagreed to and that's -- apparently there was no effort to go to the chief judge to do to deal with any privileges. >> talk to me more about that, though. talk to me about why in a grand jury proceeding executive privilege specifically wouldn't be necessarily as protective if cipollone and philbin didn't want to talk? >> the reason is called u.s. versus nixon. richard nixon claimed executive privilege on his tapes, and the grand jury had issued a subpoena for the tapes, so it was a grand jury request for nixon's information. so he -- that's what obliterated for all practical purposes presidents using executive privilege for grand jury proceedings. the high court weighed it. they said the grand jury is more important than the president's privilege to confidentiality,
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and that was the end of the story. so that's long been the practice. that happened in the clinton administration and other places where there were investigations by grand juries. so the line that has not been fully resolved is the attorney/client privilege. here, were they giving the president advice not to commit criminal activity and trying to get him on the straight line? and that would be a protected privilege. so that's the area -- the gray area that i suspect they were working in. >> i saw the smirk on your face when you started to cite u.s. versus nixon. talking to you about that is like talking to homer about the odyssey, so thank you for illuminating the situation. former white house counsel pat cipollone, the highest ranking white house aide known to appear before the grand jury. does it sindicate more will soo be there? >> it could well. i think that this grand jury has been moving for many, many
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months. we didn't know how high it had gone until recently. but i think they're probably getting towards the peak right now and the question is who are going to be the targets and who are going to be the subjects and who are going to be the witnesses. >> john dean as always, thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you, john. we're just weeks away from the midterms and president biden is taking a new approach to say the least in his tone against the former president and his followers. the details ahead.
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after offering sharp criticisms of what he calls maga republicans during his primetime speech last night, president biden had this to say today. >> i don't consider any trump supporter to be a threat to the country. i do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it's used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been one, insists upon changing the way in which the rules you count votes, that is a threat to democracy. >> this comes after biden warned about the former president's influence on his supporters during yesterday's speech suggesting the future of u.s. democracy was at risk. his speech also highlighted a shift in his tone just weeks before the midterms. biden is amping up his criticism
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of the former president and his followers, but insists his primetime address was not political. with us, cnn political analyst and journalist carl bernstein. so, carl, the white house is pushing back on criticism that biden's speech was too political. what was your assessment of it all? >> first of all, the beginning of the speech had a deadly accuracy in terms of picturing trump and a good deal of his movement as outside of any mainstream tradition in our politics, a radical tradition at odds with democracy. it's a fact. it is a fact that many, if not most of the republicans in the senate agree with. they won't say it outloud, but it is a fact. but then i think he missed a great opportunity, and that was to say i want to see, we want to see even in our party a republican party of its traditional conservative values
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that contributes to the debate of where our democracy should go in this country. i think he really missed something there where, look, to win, the democrats need to bring over some republicans. and biden knows as well as anybody that there are a lot of traditional republicans who might respond to such a proposition. i just think he missed it. and then his speech went into a deeply partisan tone that was not there at the beginning when he was talking about the history of the country, the history of the presidency, the history of the congress of the united states. he went way off and then started patting his own administration on the back. i think he lost an opportunity there and a lot of people who might have gone, who are republicans and embraced what he was saying. >> part of what we heard last night is something that he's been building on over the last week or so in some of his
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appearances, at least two of them in pennsylvania so far. he seems to deliberately wanting to take on what he calls maga republicans. do you think or what do you think of that calculation heading into the midterms? >> i think that it's the right cal clculation calculation, but more than that i think morally and in terms of historical principle, it's the right thing to do. look, let us take a look at what donald trump has said aloud for the last six years since he began his campaign. it is so outside the mainstream of any republican candidate for president, of any president of the united states. this is a radical republican party today that has followed donald trump's lead. there has never been a capture of one of the two political parties by such radical forces as those who have followed trump blindly down the path. it's not to say that any
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republican, all republicans, including those in the senate and the house, go along with the awful, undemocratic, authoritarian aspects of what is so basic to trump and what he mouths. no. but again, i think biden is right to say here is what is at issue, the future of democracy in america. i think it's true. >> so both joe biden and donald trump are in and around pennsylvania this week. donald trump is heading there this weekend. do you think this is a precursor to a biden/trump 2024 rematch? >> well, i think that donald trump would like to make it that way. some of that will depend on the grand jury. some of that will depend on the justice department. some of that will depend on what the press does with the information that we now know about what trump did with these records, with these national security secrets, and we're
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going to learn more. and we're going to learn more about the january 6th insurrection and point toward the president of the united states embracing sedition. was he a seditious president? this is going to be up to the voters. and there's an awful lot of evidence that might convince a majority of voters and more than a majority, because you can even win the presidency without a majority of the voters, but trump has targeted and his people have targeted various states where they think they can win even without a majority and it is with these beliefs that biden called undemocratic. it could happen. so yes, is pennsylvania a precursor? if you look at who is running for the senate and what the message of dr. oz has been in pennsylvania, yeah, it is. and look at what's happened in
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the primary elections throughout the country. trump's people have prevailed in these elections. his message, his anti-democratic message, his message that the election was stolen, a lie, a demonstrable lie, has been embraced by so many republican candidates who are saying, yeah, i'll follow donald trump blindly down this path. >> carl bernstein, thank you so much for being with us this friday night. >> good to be with you. new details out of the investigation into the disappearance of 43 mexican students who went missing nearly eight years ago. cnn's david culver went to mexico where the families are still demanding justice after a recent high-profile arrest. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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after years of searching for answers, the parents of 43 mexican students who vanished nearly eight years ago are welcoming the arrest of mexico's former attorney general. the students had been visiting a town in southern mexico when local and federal authorities intercepted their buses. he led the investigation into the students' disappearance. his arrest came one day after a government report referred to the incident as a state crime based on thousands of documents, text messages, phone records and more. according to a statement from the families, his arrest is a significant step in helping them, quote, know the truth and obtain justice.
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but the fate of the students remains a mystery. cnn's david culver went to mexico where the parents are still fighting for answers. >> reporter: eight years since they have last seen their sons. parents of mexico's missing 43 students marched through the capital's streets, clinging tight to painful memories and demanding justice. a shocking government report released last month concluded their children were victims of a state-sponsored crime carried out and covered up in part, the report says, by some of mexico's most powerful. the parents' trip to mexico city started some 200 miles away. a nearly five-hour drive through winding, mountainous roads, deep into the mexican state of guerrero. heavily with corruption and violence. they warn u.s. citizens not to travel here.
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>> along this highway that cuts through the state capital, you can see the graffiti of activism. >> reporter: the 43 attended a teachers college near a small town. here they educate the mostly impoverished rural indigenous communities and inspire activism. these are among the last images recorded of the young men, seen learning farming skills, laughing, smiling, just days before the horrors that unfolded on september 26, 2014. while on their way to commemorate a deadly protest from decades earlier, the bus carrying the students was reportedly stopped by police. rare footage from one of the students only shows the start of the encounter. what happened next is shrouded in mystery and tragedy. police reportedly opened fire and 43 of the students gone. government officials initially concluded local police detained
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and handed the students over to members of a local cartel, who then murdered them and incinerated their bodies. their parents have never believed that. the authorities don't say anything, this father tells me. that's why we need to continue fighting. we will not back down until we know something. over the years, parents search for clues in guerrero's mountains, held monthly marches in the capital, took over toll plazas in protest, brought their pleas to top government officials. four years after the students' disappearance sparked international outcry, president andres lopez labrador took office and launched an investigation. just weeks ago that commission unveiled stunning revelations, stating an order was given to carry out the ambush. it didn't say who gave the order or why, but the report links federal, state and local
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authorities to the disappearance and execution of the students. the very next day, the former attorney general was arrested here in mexico city. shocking, given that he once led the investigation. just hours after that, a court issued more than 80 arrest warrants against military, police and cartel members. sheltered from the mountain rain, 43 classroom seats hold the missing. his son and two nephews. if we just let it go there won't be justice, he tells me. that is to say the same thing will happen again and again. that's why we're fighting and that's why every month dozens of parents weighed down by unresolved grief board buses and make the trek eerily similar to the one their sons attempted. once on the streets of the capital, emotions surface.
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this aging generation, exhausted, just relentless, now carrying the children's fight for justice. >> david culver joins me now. david, even with this new government report, there are still so many unanswered questions. do we know what the families of the missing students plan to do next? >> reporter: they want convictions here, john. it's been eight years. they have seen no one criminally punished in the disappearances of their sons and so that's what they're pushing forward with. part of that is because of the level of corruption we're talking about here in mexico as well as the influence of car tefls. we saw that firsthand when we were down there. we spoke with locals who said limit your time outside, this can get dangerous really quickly. just a few days before we got there, a local journalist was gunned down. the parents don't care, though. they are determined to move forward. they know the risk, they see the threats here, and they are advocating for some justice to
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come here and they will do so until they see as many people responsible behind bars for life, as they tell me, john. >> the truth and the facts can be dangerous there. david culver, terrific reporting. nice to see you this evening. serena williams playing tonight at the u.s. open hoping to take the next step to her 24th grand slam title before possible retirement. we have a live report from the open, next. (game chime) (silence) (♪ ♪) real luxury, real thrill. feel the rush of performance at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. (♪ ♪) new astepro allergy. now available without a prescription. astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allergy sprays take hours astepro starts working in0 minutes.
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unbeatable internet. made to do anything so you can do anything. serena williams is all the talk tonight and has been all week at the u.s. open here in new york. right now she's playing in a third round match up at arthur ashe stadium. the crowd is cheering on arguably the greatest women's tennis player of all time. she is on the path to her 24th grand slam title in what could be her last u.s. open as she looks toward possible retirement from the sport. joining us from outside the open is athena jones. where are we in this match so far? >> reporter: hi, john. it's super excited that the crowd is really sitting on the edge of their seats.
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serena williams lost the first match 7-5, but now she is up 5 games to 2 in the second match. and we're seeing a really different serena in the second match. you saw a few aces and big winners in the first match, but we're seeing a lot more now, a lot fewer mistakes, a lot more of that vintage serena tennis we've been hearing about so much. and it's so interesting, john, this crowd, i was standing in the crowd right outside the entrance to arthur ashe stadium. there were big screens, tons and tons of people waiting, moaning and groaning with every miss, cheering, huge cheers with every single point. so, the points are almost like winning a game, almost like winning the set itself. so, there's a lot of excitement, a lot of people really hanging on, watching to see if serena williams can win this match and win the whole thing. i talked to several fans who came from far and wide, as far away as maryland, upstate new york, saying they believe she'll not only win tonight but she
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certainly could go all the way. >> struggling to fight back in the second set. any further clarity on whether or not this will be her last tournament? >> reporter: you know, she's been vague. she says she's being vague on purpose. yes, she hinted very strongly that she's ready to evolve away from tennis in that "vogue" article that she wrote. since then in a few of the press conferences we've heard from her, she said, let's see what happens. i still have something in me. certainly if she were to win this whole thing, you have to think that it would make her think again about stepping away. but, you know, among the fans i spoke with who said, yes, we believe she can win it all, but i'm going to follow her lead, take it game by game, day by day, so no real clarity. but i believe a big win here would sort of mix up the calculation a little bit. >> whatever it is, it will be on her they remembers. athena jones, so glad you're there tonight. joining us now, william c.
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roden, former sports columnist for the "new york times." bill, it's an honor to meet you. i've been a fan of your work for years. what's your reaction to the match so far tonight? >> oh, man, this is so wonderful. i've got a house full of people. and it kind of reminds me of what my father used to talk about when they would crowd around the radio and listen to joe lewis fights. this is kind of what this is, you know? people on the edge of their streets. every volley, there's so much resting. so many people love her. so many people identify her. and even for me, as long as i've been doing this, venus and serena, for me, represent tennis. and i think that what we're seeing now, somebody said she's the greatest -- one of the greatest women's tennis players of all time. she's one of the greatest tennis players of all time, regardless of gender. we've just seen whether she wins, loses, draws, we've just seen one of the great careers,
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one of the great sports careers of all time play itself out. i mean, i think it's really remarkable to see what she's doing. >> she's one of the greatest athletes of all time, period, full stop. >> period, period, right. >> you wrote recently, look, she redefined the sport. and i love the idea that she and venus williams are tennis. they represent tennis now. she's also redefining what it means to retire. what do you mean by that? >> well, i think that, you know, the thing that resonated me was, you know, i'm terrified of the r word. i don't even use it. somebody says retire. i don't -- that's what she said earlier. she said she hates that word. and she used the word "evolve." and i like that because that's what we all do. we evolve from one thing to the other. so, she's just evolving to something else. but, i mean, the reality is that, particularly as an athlete, all of us can -- if you're a writer, artist, musician, we can do this
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probably until our 70s, 80s, or 90s. but the reality is at 40-something, she's pretty much reached the end of the line, whether you call it reinvolvement, retirement, i get it. so, she's got so much -- but i think that what we're seeing in the past week is just somebody who loves what she does. she's been doing this since she was eight. and i think what's so great about this, man, she's teaching these young -- all these young players that she's beating, they're all kind of after her. but she's saying, you know what? i'm not passing the torch to you. you're going to have to take it. and so far we've seen two young women kind of wilt because all of a sudden they look across the net and they see serena. not only is this serena williams, but this is serena at her best. and the crowd is for her. and you think what they see, what they've seen this last week, this is what she has been for 20 years. she's had that target on her
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back for 20 years. it's not like, you know, whoever wins the tournament, the women's tournament, this week is only really just -- they're just a one-time winner. but what she's teaching them is that there's something to be said for winning over and over and over and over and fighting on all corners. i think she's teaching, whether she wins or loses, she's teaching these young women who are coming after her a tremendous lesson. >> and she's taught generations of young women, young athletes, men and women that lesson. bill roden, like i said, an honor to get to speak with you tonight. thank you very much. >> pleasure is mine. a new fight for actress and activist jane fonda ahead. discover is accepted at 99% of places in the u.s. ["only wanna be with you" by hooootie & the blowfish]
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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com legendary actress jane fonda has been diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. quoting now from her instagram account, quote, this is a very treatable cancer. 80% of people survive, so i feel lucky. fonda said she is handling the treatments well and says she will not let this interfere with her climate activism, she adds, and i'm quoting again, cancer is a teacher, and i'm paying attention to lessons it holds to me. to which we might add our very best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. the news continues, to let's
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hand it over to laura coates and "cnn tonight." >> thank you so much. it's nice to see you, john. and i know people right now are watching -- this is "don lemon tonight." i'm laura coates and i'm in for don lemon. look, they said they wanted transparency, and boy did they get it. the judge today releasing a detailed inventory from the mar-a-lago search. 11 whole pages laying out exactly what investigators found at the former president's home. we're talking more than 11,000 non-classified government documents as well. but there's more. 18 documents marked top secret. 54 marked secret. and 31 marked confidential. that's -- what did they call it before -- an overdue library book? well, this certainly is not that. that's quite a massive haul of documents that are actually the property of the united states government, not of a former president. frankly, i mean,