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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  November 18, 2022 8:00pm-9:00pm PST

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with autism in the '80s and '90s was very, very challenging. the support groups i found i was the only black woman there. there was a color barrier, economic barrier, all types of barriers. good morning. everything we provide is a blueprint of what i was missing as a parent. so we have a support group. kids go to their classes. we are a family, and i'm very adamant about educating the community because people are afraid of what they don't understand. we want to make sure that first responders are trained in how to deal with our children. >> how long has your mom been doing this kind of stuff? >> because he's smiling, it makes itt ieasier but what if y get ahold of someone not smiling and running around and biting themselves. advocacy is what i'm good at. >> just an amazing story. go to cnn heros.com to vote for
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debra for cnn hero of the year or any of your favorite top ten heroes. thank you for watching. our coverage continues. three days after the president said he would run again, there are two separate on going federal probes that could complicate his path back to the white house to say the least. one into the former president's role surrounding january 6th the other investigation into the documents marked classified taken to mar-a-lago in a possible obstruction of that investigation to boot. i'm john berman in for anderson. attorney general merrick garland si s cited the extraordinary circumstances of the situation. >> based on recent developments including the former president's announce announcement he's a candidate for president in the next election and the seated president stating intention to
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be a candidate as well. i've concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. >> the former president today acted furious about the news telling conservative media the move is not acceptable, unfair political and he said quote, i'm not going to partake in this. not that he has much of a choice in the matter. the new special counsel jack smith is a former acting u.s. attorney who said the investigations would not pause or flag under his watch. we'll have more on him in a moment. let's get right to cnn senior legal affairs correspondent paula reid. what else, paula, did attorney general mark garland say about appointing this special counsel? >> reporter: john, we knew this was under consideration within the justice department and during the speech, he pointed to the extraordinary nature of these cases and said in p protect the independence he had to make the move. he'll not oversee the day to day operations of the special
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counsel. under the regulations f there a are any charges, those are subject to the approval of the attorney general. it interesting he will establish this is an independent entity operating separate from the justice department except for the particular instances where they may be required to check in attorney general but questionable if this will satisfy critics, the former president's spokesman said today this is quote a political stunt. >> they would -- i would expect nothing less. tell us more about jack smith, all of a sudden the world's most interesting man. >> reporter: when i was making calls to sources today on the former president's legal team, i got a lot of who and sent the biography, i haven't gotten too many reactions yet but it's interesting to look at the biographer. he's worked for justices department across the country and led the division of the justice department that focuses
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and specializes in prosecuting public officials who are accused of corruption. he was most recently chief prosecutor at the court. we know from sources they considered many different people for this potential assignment. they were looking for someone they thought could with stand partisan critiques and john, we know those are coming. >> what else did you learn about the special counsel's team and base of operations? >> so we know they're not going to be operating within the justice department. we saw that with special counsel robert mueller. he had separate offices that of course, cnn was staking out and also john durham. they don't operate inside main justice or inside buildings with other justice department officials doing their work. he will, though, be overseeing many of the same people that are working on this investigation. this is something underway for quite sometime. now, they will also have their own budget. there is really no limit on that. that is, though, interestingly, that is one of the few things they have to go through congress
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for. otherwise, congress is not allowed to get the details of the special counsel's work so interestingly, this really does insulate the justice department and garland from congressional oversight on these two highly controversial probes. >> that is a very significant change between yesterday and today. and also, potentially pertinent given republican control of the house. thank you so much for your reporting. >> more now on the reaction by the former president, i'm joined by christian holmes. what is the former president saying about all of this. >> john, no surprise the former president is lashing out and we learned president trump was angry before the appointment of a special counsel and the prospect of it was couwas daunt him and reminded him of robert mueller and thought it would draw out investigations and he was angry in an interview after the announcement. he said i've been proven innocent on six years from fake impeachments to mueller who
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found no collusion and now i have to do it more. it is not acceptable. it is so unfair. the worst polarization of justice. the republican party has to stand up and fight and the last line i want to point to because this is at a time we know there are a number of republicans who have said it's time to move on from trump, many says he has too much baggage and these legal battles are what they're talking about and in the past, some of them -- some of these incidents have galvanized republicans but it's unclear if that will happen this time around. >> we'll talk more about that in a little bit. i understand that the former president is planning to talk more about this maybe tonight. what have you learned about that? >> that's right. he took to truth social and said he would make a statement at mar-a-lago at 8:30 and i made a number of calls to members- of his inner circle surprised to learn from me he would make a last-minute statement. many advisors telling him not to make this announcement, not to
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have any kind of statement here. they did not think it was thought through give than it came hours before he put it on truth social and there was no plan there for that and one source in particular familiar with his thinking saying that it was likely to be more of a rant. >> thank you. we'll keep an eye and let you know if it makes actual news. perspective from cnn senior law enforcement analyst andrew mccabe former director of the fbi. you have pretty unique experience in these types of matters. how necessary here was the appointment of a special counsel to address even the appearance of a conflict of interest? >> yeah, so to be clear, john, i know what that feels like.
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i've been in this kchair. it's a very close call. i think the department did the right thing leaning in towards the direction of trying to do everything they can to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. now, you could argue while this could cause excessive delay on the prosecution, slow things down and make it harder to make that indictment or no indictment decision later on. but i think they're doing the right thing to put the investigation on the strongest possible footing early on. >> what does it tell you about where investigators are? nearly done or is this the beginning of a new phase? >> it's hard to -- it's hard to say with specificity, but i will say, you know, you don't typically consider and go through the -- go through the stress and the notoriety of appointing a special counsel over an investigation that you think is not going anywhere. i think you can safely assume that the department believes that they are coming up to an
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indict or no indict decision. there's no question certainly the mar-a-lago investigation and certainly the january 6th investigation is heading to that very controversial point, and you can assume also that the attorney general thinks it's beneficial to have an independent special counsel make a recommendation as to that decision. of course the final decision is in the a.g.'s hands. >> what's your take on jack smith's résumé, the kind of person you want heading up an investigation like this? >> you know i like the fact we don't know much about jack smith. he's a guy that seems tuesday have pursued his career and his prosecutions in a very quiet, lawyerly professional way. there doesn't appear to be any obvious lean-in one political direction or another. i think that's much to his credit, so he seems like an entirely legit candidate for this role. i will say that that reputation
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of independence and apolitical nature is not going to insulate him from a withering series of partisan attacks. you know, those are coming. the days when you can put in a special counsel to avoid all that are far behind us. the one advantage here is that he'll be on the receiving end of those attacks, less so the department and the fbi. and that's a good thing for those institutions long-term. >> so the doj investigation it seemed to have gone quiet at least as far as we could tell or at least we were hearing up to the mid-terms. there was the expectation they might amp up again now that the mid-terms are over. what kind of deliberations do you think are happening behind the scenes that maybe led to this special counsel appointment? >> there's absolutely no question that those investigators and prosecutors
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were working hard during that entire quiet period. you know, it actually gives them an opportunity to step back from any of the more visible overt actions that they would normally be pursuing and really go deep on the evidence that they have, making connections, identifying other potential witnesses, getting their subpoenas in -- you know, all their ducks in a row to unleash new subpoenas, bring in new witnesses and bring new folks into the grand jury. it seems like they've done that as they've issued new subpoenas just this week. so you can assure -- you know, be assured they haven't lost any ground even though we haven't seen what they've been doing. >> as i said if anyone knows what it's like to be in this kind of moment it's you. appreciate you being with us tonight. >> thanks, john. >> joining me now is conservative attorney and "the washington post" contributing columnist george conway. so what does the appointment of a official counsel tell you about the former president's legal situation in regards to these two cases? >> well, he has a right to remain silent. he probably should exercise that
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right tonight but he won't. i think he's in substantial peril. i thought he's been in substantial peril for quite a long time, but i think the fact that attorney general garland has avoided a special counsel kind of puts a highlight on that, as mr. mccabe said it's not really something you do if you think there is a case somewhere there that might be made. i think they probably -- i think what's driving this as much as anything is the fact they have a very, very strong case in mar-a-lago documents investigation, one that is i have to say i mean from the public evidence -- we don't know all the evidence but the public evidence looks like he doesn't have the defense to an espionage charge or obstruction charges or even a potential perjury charge for at least supporting it. so he's in substantial trouble, and there's no question that this is not going to help him because it's going to put -- as andrew said it's going to insulate the justice department from some degree of political attacks because this guy looks
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like he has no political availance whatsoever. he's a political prosecutor, all he's done for 30 years and he kept his nose clean. i'm sure they vetted him as well as anybody, and i think they're going to let him do his thing and to make a reasonable decision based on the evidence and the law. >> you say decision, i find that to be interesting so to this point how much more investigating do you really think needs to go on? is this a special counsel investigation or more of a special counsel deliberation about whether to press charges? >> well, at least in the mar-a-lago documents case i don't know, you know, maybe there's some line of investigation that we don't know about, that's always possible, but it seems to be a very, very simple case. the documents were stolen, the documents were found in the defendant's possession.
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the defendant tried to mislead the government about the location of the documents and what the contents of the documents. so it's a pretty simple case, i mean a lot simpler than frankly -- i not a criminal lawyer. i did civil litigation for 30 years but it's a heck of a lot -- this criminal case is a heck of a lot more simple than the civil cases i ever saw. >> what do you make of the timing like three day after the former president announced he's running again? >> the timing, there's no good time for it, right? i think you could make an argument as i did in january 2021 in "the washington post" that they should have appointed a special counsel then. but i don't think they -- they didn't foresee what they were going to have two years later with the fake electors and the mar-a-lago documents. i think if they'd done it in the days leading up to the election, for example, the mid-term election, they would have been criticized for affecting the mid-term election. if they had done it immediately after the election they would have been accused of trying to get in front of former president
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trump's announcement. then they were going to get criticized any which way, and i just think they did it when they felt like it was the right time to do it. >> trump said he won't partake in the special counsel investigation. how do you think jack smith is going to interpret that statement? do you think it matters to him anyway? >> i think he's the kind of guy not going to pay attention to that. certainly can't imagine what trump is going to do if and when it gets to the point and has pleading he's not going to be able to say i don't partake. it just isn't in the criminal rules. >> i don't think that's one of the options you have if it comes to that point. thank you very much. we're going to continue this conversation with a look at
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political fallout from the former president who also said today that, quote, i hope republicans have the courage to fight this. also tonight new information from police about those murders of four college students in idaho. a new map and time line of the events. plus a forensic scientist joins us to help us piece together the evidence uncovered so far. so just a short time ago a dental tool is round for a reason. so is an oral-b. round cleans better by surrounding each tooth. so clean, you'll feel like you just left the dentist. oral-b. brush like a pro. ♪
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on every smartphone. so just a short time ago bill barr who served as attorney general under former president donald trump spoke about the federal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents. it is one of the two investigations now under the purview of the special prosecutor named today by the justice department. now, this interview with barr was recorded before the special counsel was named but it does air on pbs tonight, and it is interesting. this is what barr said. >> i personally think they probably have the basis for legitimately indicting the president. i don't know, i'm speculating. but given what's gone on i think they probably have the evidence that would check the box, they have the case. >> and if they have have it,
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should they? >> that's a decision for -- >> if you were a.g., would you? >> i'm not going to get into that. >> do you think they will? >> i think it's becoming increasingly more likely. >> that was bill barr with our friend margaret hoover on pbs. joining me now to gauge the political fallout of the situation for the newly declared presidential candidate david eisen and gloria borger. we're talking about what this might change for the former president legally. how about politically, gloria? >> well, first of all obviously it'll be the case because he'll continue calling himself the victim which always works for him. and then he's going to talk about weaponizing the justice department against republican, and that's something he's also been doing and other republicans have been doing it. what will be interesting to see
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is whether those republicans who have been saying that justice department is weaponized but don't want donald trump to be the leader anymore or don't want to support him for president, how they're going to work that one. are they going to follow the leader in this particular case but then distance themselves on his presidential bid? they've already committed in one sense that they don't like the way the justice department is behaving, but they don't like the way donald trump is behaving either. so it's going to be a choice for the party. >> so what about that? gloria brings up a great point which is things have changed over the past two weeks and there have more and more people who have come out being very critical of him at least politically. will these same people be less likely to defend him here? >> so, john, gloria does make a good point on the three-dimensional chest going to need be to played with this announcement here. look, i think that -- you asked a question earlier, john, what's left to investigate, what's left for this special prosecutor to look at? i mean we've been at this now 18
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months in january 6th. we've had all these hearings and you think there'd be enough and i'm assuming the department of justice is running their investigation concurrent with the january 6th hearings and i'd be shocked and then with these documents it seems to be pretty clear case that documents are there, they're not supposed to be there so what else is left to do, so it's curious to me why the attorney general didn't do this himself, interestingly the special prosecutor reports back to the attorney general, so i'm not sure what it accomplishes at the end of the day except adding another layer. >> maybe it is time for the decision, and he doesn't want to make the decision because of the appearance of conflict of interest maybe so you have a special prosecutor do it, that doesn't answer the question -- hang on, i am curious. i really am curious if you think that the same amount of republicans who were defending the president before will do it now or it might be different given the fact frankly there are some who seem a little sick of it. >> i think those are still two distinct paths here, right? i think people could still be
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outraged by, you know, the raid on mar-a-lago and overreach by the department of justice in their views, and they can still be tied to donald trump. i don't think they're two mutually exclusive ideas. and, john, i do believe what i heard the attorney general say is at the end of the day the special prosecutor reports back to him and he makes the ultimate decision whether to prosecute or not not the special counsel. again, i'm not quite sure how it insulates in any way. >> can i just add to that, which is that, you know, these days people don't believe an independent counsel is independent anymore. go back to the days of kent star and bill clinton, go back to bob mueller. republicans didn't trust bob mueller. >> those are independent under the statute. >> right, but people say special counsel, independent prosecutor, someone who's appointed in order to avoid a conflict. people now particularly if
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you're a donald trump supporter believe there is no way to avoid a conflict, that it's all corrupt, that the justice department is corrupt. so merrick garland was going to be damned one way or another. and so we had a choice to make, and he decided to kind of say, look, you know, one president to be, want be has announced and the other one has the intention to announce, so what am i supposed to do? i want to make it look optically as clean as i possibly can. that's why i did it. >> ron desantis says what? >> you'd have to ask him. i don't speak for the governor of florida. >> but what do you think someone who wants to run against donald trump, i'm not saying he does but hypothetically another
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republican candidate who wants to run for president says what? >> i think there's going to be outreach of justice on many fronts and i don't think that's going to let up one bit. >> thank you both for being with us tonight. i appreciate it. >> thanks. >> sure. coming up we have new information on the hours leading up to the murders of four university of idaho students plus new details from the victims' autopsies revealing what possibly happened during the attack. but thanks to the right plan promise from unitedhealthcare she got a medicare plan expert to help guide her with the right care team behind her. the right plan promise only from unitedhealthcare. did you know, some ordinary cold medicines can raise your blood pressure? try new vicks nyquil high blood pressure for fast, powerful cold relief without ingredients that may raise your blood pressure. try vicks nyquil high blood pressure. the coughing, aching, fever, cold and flu, for people with high blood pressure, medicine. it takes a village to support society and businesses have a responsibility to support that village. ♪ ♪ i am peter akwaboah,
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tonight we have new information on the investigation into the murders of four university of idaho students who were killed in an off-campus home. investigators have finally released a time line and map starting the students movements on the night they were killed. also a father of one of the victims said today the door of the home was opened with a number code. police previously said there was no sign of forced entry. tonight authorities are still searching for a suspect while a community gripped by fear remembers the victims. the university of idaho plans to hold a vigil for the students on november 30th, and cnn obtained this tiktok video from last month showing some of the lighter moments and friendship of three of the victims. >> got to go, jake is calling. jake is calling. >> get out of here. you seriously got to get out of here. >> joining me now someone who's been covering the story closely
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university of idaho graduate -- thank you for joining us. walk us through what you're learning of the investigation so far. >> hey, thanks for having me, mr. berman. i appreciate it. yeah, some of the notable things we found out today, actually in the last hour from police is that two of the roommates who were at home at the time of the attack are not believed to be suspects as well as the autopsies were completed this week and the results of those were stabbings. the coroner noted the victims suffered multiple stab wounds. some had defensive wounds, and it sounds like they were found dead in their beds. >> but no suspect, also no murder weapon, correct? >> no murder weapon has been found. they did put out a -- the moscow
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police department put out a facebook post saying they've contacted local businesses to determine if a fixed blade knife had been recently purchased. >> police released a map and time line of what happened and asked the community for possible tips. how might that help investigators with finding a potential subject or suspect? >> i talked to an idaho state police spokesperson yesterday, and they are working on leads, but he -- he said that they strongly encourage anyone who has surveillance cameras or were there at -- at the notable scenes where the victims were hours before their deaths to contact the police tip line or the e-mail tip line. >> yeah, sounds like they're asking for anything they can get at this point. as we mention you're a graduate of the university of idaho and
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say it's almost impossible for people in such a small college town to think of something like this ever happening there. just how shaken are students tonight? >> i think you said it perfectly this is a small college town, a very friendly town where i don't think this is something that people would imagine in their nightmares happening here. i know -- i didn't know the victims, of course, but i -- i'm deeply saddened and was impacted in a way i didn't think i would be, and i have other alumni friends and acquaintances that i've seen on social media they're heartbroken about it. i think everyone is just absolutely shocked at this senseless violence. >> i'm sure they are. garret, mr. cabezza, you're doing terrific work. >> thank you, sir. >> joining us now a forensic scientist. professor, thank you so much for being with us and i do want to
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warn people there are some gruesome details what we're talking about here. but the county coroner told cnn there was a lot of blood at the scene, so how might that help investigators as well as on the other hand possibly complicate the collection of evidence? >> well, this is a very complex scene. it's a real challenge for the evidence collection team because they have to collect the evidence that might be very, very important to solving the case while not taking everything at the scene and bringing it back to the lab making it impossible for the lab to do much work. but blood is very important because this spatter pattern can reveal information as to the position of the victim during the attack. and there's a lot you can tell. for example, if an artery was severed, you have a spurting phenomenon and you can see that
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in the pattern of bloodstains. so bloodstain is very, very crucial in this case. the blood itself is dna. and, you know, in cases like this we often see mixtures. there were four separate victims, but it's possible that the person who committed this terrible, heinous crime cut himself during the attack. very common in stabbings where that happens. so some of the blood could be mixtures of victim and perpetrator. and that is very, very important because there are very few things that will allow us to identify a perpetrator. there's fingerprints and there's dna, primarily. and so there are techniques that we have now for taking mixtures, separating the mixtures into components. so if the perpetrator was caught, if he left his blood -- i say him. we don't know if if it's a male or female. but if he or she left their blood at the scene, that can
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come out with dna testing. the fact that there's no murder weapon is pretty important, obviously. but during the autopsy the coroner or the medical examiner should be able to tell whether the knife was a suerated knife or a straight edge knife. you should be able to tell the width of the blade, maybe not the length of the blade because the skin is elastic. but there's certain things you can tell about that knife even though you don't have the weapon. so there are other experts, fingerprint experts, trace evidence experts. a lot of people have to come together and go through this horrendous scene on two floors, the second and third floors of this house. and it's a very bloody scene. we've all scene photos of blood coming down the back of the apartment. you can see the bloodstain on the outside of the building. very complicated, very difficult, no perpetrator.
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>> again, i did warn people and i want to warn people again this is a tough discussion. these are gruesome details. the county coroner told cnn tonight there appears to be possible defensive wounds at least on one of the victims. first of all, how can investigators figure out what's a defensive wound and how does that help with the investigation? >> well, to be honest with you it doesn't really help tremendously, because when somebody is being attacked with a knife you're going to put your hands up to try to get in the way, stop the knife or get away -- move the hand away from your body, and that's how defensive wounds occur. they're usually on the hands, on the arms. does it really help the investigation, not really. but still an important factor. these people were sleeping.
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they were in their beds sleeping at the time of the attack, and whoever did this went from room to room to room very rapidly and committing these heinous crimes. i'm guessing that the cause of death was -- and perhaps the heart was punctured or lung was punctured and they died. >> of course police there are asking for any and all assistance that they can get. so woo have a s e have a sm fortunate news after sunday's mass shooting at the university of virginia. the wounded survivors are healing, but the struggle and the heartache, they remain. we're going to speak to the mother of one survivor next.
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the nfl's washington commanders will honor the victim oz of the deadly university of virginia shootings during sunday's game. three of the school's football players were killed in the attack as their bus returned to campus from a field trip. on twitter the commanders revealed decals with uva football team numbers that will appear on the commanders helmets. those numbers belong to lavel davis jr., devin chandler, and desean perry.
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two other students survived the shooting, one is out of the hospital but another remains. his mother brenda hallins spoke with me just before tonight's program. i can't imagine how difficult this past week has been for you and your family. i know your son mike has gone through two surgeries, he was intubated and since taken off a ventilator. how's he doing now? >> mike is good. yesterday was a great day. today was kind of rough, but, you know, i'm just thankful that he's still here with me, so we'll take that. one day at a time. >> i hope for more days like yesterday, more great days ahead. when the shooting happened i understand mike and a few other classmates originally ran off the bus but then realized they weren't being followed by everyone else, so he turned around and went back to the bus to help, and that's when he was
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shot. has mike been able to describe that moment? >> he has. he's described it -- i'm so sorry. he says that he ran off the bus and he was yelling at two of his classmates to run, and they ran, and he noticed no one else was coming out of the bus so he said he was going to, you know, try and get them to come out. he was going to try and beat on the windows, he was just going to go into the bus and yell. and so what he did was he tried to take that first step back onto the bus, and he met the shooter. >> what's it like to hear that as a parent, that your son, he
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went back, he risked his life to help? >> mike going back is something that mike would do, still doesn't feel good or sound good. i'm thankful that he's able to tell the story. and i -- i'm sorry today's just been a rough day and -- it's just been a rough day. >> you have nothing to apologize for, brenda. i can only imagine how overwhelming this all is and the mixture of emotions you have, the pride in your son, being proud he wanted to be there and
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to help but also the fear that he did put himself back in harms way. i can't imagine what that's like for you. you have nothing to apologize for. i know it's been hard. i know that you've had to be careful with how you talk to him over the last several days. one of the victims who was killed d'sean perry was a friend of your son, mike, and doctors told you initially not to tell your son he had been killed. what did happen when you had to tell him? >> he was waiting. he was waiting to hear what happened to d'sean, well, what happened to all three of the boys. but as soon as they took -- took him off of the ventilator he asked where's d'sean, and no one said anything.
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and my daughter, she shook her head and she told him he didn't make it, and he just broke down. he broke down, and, you know, it's just something that -- anytime your child cries you want to comfort them. and this was a time that i couldn't comfort him. and it just -- as a parent, as a mother, it just -- it just -- that just doesn't seem like that -- kids always run to their mother, always. and he wasn't able to run to me.
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and i wasn't able to embrace him. >> i'm sure he knows you're there. i am sure that he is leaning on you to get through this. and i know faith has been a big part of helping mike and your family get through this. what has his recovery look like not just physically but emotionally? >> mike has a long road ahead of him. he has a long road ahead of him. i'm thankful, though. i'm thankful because i could be one of the other boys' parents, and they're making preparations
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to receive their sons' bodies. i couldn't imagine. i couldn't imagine. so i try to look at in that aspect because today i was just -- i saw him yesterday and that day yesterday was just, he was up, he was walking, he was laughing. i mean we had a good time. and then today he's hurting, back in bed. and i know it's going to be up and down. and i'm grateful for that because with the pain he's here, he's with me, he's with us. >> brenda, you are there for him and you have so many people, so many people behind you tonight. know that. and you're strong, and we can all see it. and i am sure mike is going to need you in the coming days and weeks. and you'll be there for him.
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thank you so much. >> i will. >> thank you so much for being with us tonight. we're all thinking about you and thinking about mike. and we hope there are more ups than downs in the days ahead. >> thank you. coming up, chef and humanitarian jose andres joins us from ukraine days after the russians left. that's next.
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so hope is rolling down the tracks in ukraine. take a look at this. >> all right. there is cheering there, and that cheering comes from that train station in kyiv. the first train heading to the recently liberated city of kherson pulled out today with 200 passengers aboard. an official with president zelenskyy's office said on social media, quote, this is our train of victory. like this train, we will return to kherson, everything for normal life. of course nothing is normal in ukraine right now, including in kherson, despite the russian retreat from the city last week.
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chef jose andres and his humanitarian team at world central kitchen are seeing that for themselves. and chef andres joins us tonight from nikolaev. it's always such an honor to speak with you. i know you've been to kherson several times this week. tell us what you've seen there. >> well, kherson obviously has a very amazing vibe because people are really happy to be liberated. they're celebrating. children are walking the street with ukrainian flags. you can see the pride of every person in kherson. but the reality, as the day goes on and the night falls upon the people of kherson, they're going to go home without electricity.
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when the temperatures are already becoming really, really cold. with every store closed, with no food, with no water, barely is one gas station open two days ago. this is the reality. they're proud. they're happy. their army is liberating them. but at the same time, this is going to be a very hard winter, a very long winter. and that's why we are there next to the people of kherson, making sure that somehow -- we cannot solve every problem, but the very least, we can make sure that food and water is not another issue they have to be working for. >> how many people have you been feeding? >> well, the situation is very difficult because the access to kherson is still controlled obviously by the military for different reasons. some of the main roads, they've been shelled.
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they are destroyed. it's been raining, so the way to access kherson in one of the quickest main roads is very muddy. so, it makes the entire process very, very slow. we've been there the day after the liberation. so, we've been going there for six, seven days, every single day. and we've been bringing what we call our food bags, 30-pound food bags. the vast majority of ingredients are ukrainian ingredients. so, everything we try to do is keeping the money we invest in the local ukrainian economy. and we've been delivering anywhere between 2,000 and 6,000 of these 20- and 30-pound bags. you can understand we are doing anywhere between 20,000, 60,000, 80,000 meals a day. tomorrow, we are going with 6,000 bags. we already have more than nine places ready for water
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distribution. >> where is your team even preparing these meals? and how are you getting the food in? >> the meals, we produce them, we have a very big kitchen, for example, in mykolaiv. can do up to 100,000 meals a day, helped by local chefs. but also we've been using restaurants. what better way to use local ukrainian chefs and local restaurants that we can help them obviously supporting them with money to cook food bought from local farmers that allow us to very quickly be cooking and feeding locally with local chefs and restaurants. remember one thing. ukraine feeds more than 500 million people in the world. if they are exporter of food, why we need to feed them? because they have 50 million people that have been displaced or there are refugees in countries and around the world.
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the entire infrastructure is broken. so, what we're doing is covering infrastructure and the logistics until things go back to normal. >> chef, thank you so much for your time. coming up, we do have breaking news. how the former president is responding tonight to the naming of a special counsel in two federal criminal investigations. what attorney general merrick garland's announcement today could mean personally and politically for trump, as we continue. into the no-too-distant future of lincoln. ♪ ♪ it's what sanctuary could look like... feel like... sound like... even smell like. more on that soon. ♪ ♪ the best part? the prequel is pretty sweet too. ♪ ♪
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