the suspected pentagon leaker in court just moments ago, what investigators found inside his bedroom that convinced them that his release from jail would be a grave threat, they say, to national security. they argued in court today jack teixeira was a, quote, one stop

shop for people who wanted access to things that they shouldn't have. no one should be in those conditions, wnba star brittney griner speaking out about those ten months she spent in a russian prison. it's her first press conference since returning to professional basketball. hear what she says about the other americans still wrongfully detained. plus, after four hours on the stand, the woman accusing donald trump of rape now in cross examination. what we expect to hear from the former president's attorneys. we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn "news central." ♪ just moments ago we heard from the judge in the hearing from the air national guardsman accused of leaking highly classified intelligence documents. he said he will not yet rule if jack teixeira will remain in custody ahead of his trial.

prosecutors claim that if the 21-year-old is let out before then, he will either try to flee or further obstruct the investigation. this comes after a late night court filing, which prosecutors allege teixeira may still have access to hundreds of classified documents, and that his online searches appear to be a, quote, deliberate effort to disseminate this country's secrets. they also warned that teixeira is a major flight risk as well as an attractive candidate to foreign governments. cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez is here. he's been following this story. they lay out a whole host of threats, current threats, what he might do if he were we released but also there's the severity of what he's exposed and still has access to. >> right. the idea is that jack teixeira did a lot of searches for things that he had nothing really to do with his job, and they say they still don't know whether he has possession of additional documents, additional materials that could harm the national security of the united states.

some of the pictures you see that they -- that entered into the record as part of this hearing today, you know, they talked about some of his searches that he did including looking up ruby ridge, las vegas shooting, uvalde, his collection of firearms. again, looking in his bedroom, he had an arsenal really, and he was obsessed with mass shootings. he talked with some of his friends about how to possibly carry out a mass shooting from the back of a automobile. again, these are things that were very concerning to the agents that were doing the search there at his home. they also found, jim, they also found lelectronics clearly tryig to hide his tracks. according to the fbi he smashed these electronics and dumped them in a dumpster behind the home, and that's one of the things that they say shows he was trying to cover his tracks. he told others to lie about him, and he wanted to make sure that he was not caught. >> so that's after he knew they were on to him in effect, but

then what we're learning as you look back further is that it's amazing, it seems, that he got a security clearance at this level given past comments and experiences. >> it really is. and unone of the things you hea early on, the fbi knew there were going to be red flags that turned up, and exactly that is what they found. one of the things they found is back in high school he had made some comments that may have raised concerns that he might be trying to plan a mass shooting. and so he was suspended from school. this prevented him from getting a gun i.d., a firearms i.d. in the state of massachusetts. he was denied in 2018. in 2019. in 2020, however, he writes a letter to the state police there trying to get, again, his license to buy a gun, and this is what he says. he is now a member of the air force, and he says i was very concerned that my decisions i made at 16 would haunt my future serving my country in the

military, and i'm glad they did not. he was able to get that firearms i.d. because the air force had given him a top secret security clearance. obviously if the government -- if the military is entrusting him with some of the nation's biggest secrets, he should be able to buy a gun. >> it raises questions again, about oversight, how these clearances are awarded and how red flags, it seems, are missed. >> just like millions of dollars spent to try to prevent things like this. >> exactly, and past expertise is no question. thanks so much. >> let's expand the conversation. we have with us former assistant homeland security secretary juliet, a cnn national security analyst, and josh rogen with us, a columnist at "the washington post." let's start with the point that jim and evan were just making. violent racist remarks in his history, he was suspended at one point, and yet, he gets top security clearance. >> i'm not excusing him, but there are lots of things people do when they're 16 that later on

in life the military is going to have to assess whether that's the same person. so through this process, it's clear that he's trying to explain away what the 16-year-old him did. it is also clear that that's a lie, right? that he continues to harbor some of those thoughts. he's on these websites and platforms that at least are flirting with these ideas, and so how did -- how did he fool them? but the more important thing is how did they not get this in the present day, right? so it's one thing to do something when you're 16. that's a hint, why aren't they continuing to assess it? why aren't they seeing the kind of activities that are going on online, that he's really at some stages not trying to hide. remember, months ago he's on a much larger platform doing the same thing. >> and josh, you've written extensively about the actual content of the material that was leaked. prosecutors are saying that the information he allegedly took far exceeds what's been reported. i'm wondering what you think the extent of the harm might be here? >> right, the bottom line is we

don't know. "the washington post," for example, has acquired 300 documents, and that could just be the tip of the iceberg, and you know, i think what we both know is that hundreds of thousands of people have these clearances. they're literally given out, you know, hundreds of times each day, and amongst those hundreds of thousands of people, there are going to be some problematic people. there are going to be some people with problems and people who are just -- shouldn't have them. it's really more about deciding what those people get and closing down the spigot of information because, you know, the fact that someone at the maryland air national guard could have access to the nation's top secrets in the first place seenms a little bit ridiculous in retrospect. should they have caught him, yes, in the end we're going to have to have a different system that tightens up control of this information. >> i think that has become glaringly obvious. the defense here is arguing that the government in prosecuting the case is being hyperbolic about the level of risk that he presents to national security.

do you agree with that? >> one, we have to see all the materials. the government's in a funny position because they also want to allege that it was -- that it didn't cause grave harm because our allies are watching. it's clear our enemies are watching. he had access to something that probably did not need access to, and then he's disclosing it for some period of time, a couple of months, and we don't catch it. the government's in a funny position of wanting to minimize the harm so others have confidence in our classification system, but as well keep this person in jail without bail. we can't know the graveness of it. i will say there is a difference in what he released. it was present time intelligence. it wasn't like the pentagon papers or stuff from the past. it was what was russia thinking at the moment, and what was the united states trying to do at the moment of the invasion of ukraine. it's that current events aspect to it that makes it different than some of these debates that we've had about other major leaks. >> the current location of troops in ukraine, and that sort of thing. josh, we had james clapper, the

former director of national intelligence on earlier in the afternoon, and he said that this leak was a failure of personal trust. he warned that the background check process relies on subjective judgments, and that means we will see this sort of thing happen again. what can be done to prevent that? >> right, 19 years of national security reporting, i've met many, many people who had top security clearances who should never have had them in the first place. i know personal friends with top, top clearances who just hid some dirt that they did or they never found out or they found out is and they just didn't care. so yeah, it's pretty subjective. i've been interviewed when my friends have gotten clearances, and the interviews are not really that good. so it's kind of obvious, i think, to everyone inside the system that, you know, there's a huge, huge problem with these background clearances. but again, if you can't fix the background clearances, why not just protect the top secret stuff better. you know what i mean? you could either have a better system to see who gets what or

you could just not give the top secret stuff to everybody because that's -- you're never going to be able to plug all those holes. >> really important points, a significant conversation as we think about the delicate time that the world is in. juliet kayyem, josh rogen, thank you both so much. a welcome return to the phoenix mercury for brittney griner today. here she is being greeted with applause at her first press conference since her ten-month detainment in russia, and understandably it got emotional. >> i'm no stranger to hard times so you cry, then you made me cry. just digging deep, honestly, you know. you're going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. this was a pretty big one, but i just kind of relied on my hard

work, getting through it. i know this sounds so small, but you know, practice and just hard workouts, you find a way to just grind it out. just put your head down and just keep going, just keep moving forward. you know, you can never standstill, and that was my thing, just never -- you can never be still. you can never get too focused on the now and just, you know, looking forward to, you know, what's to come. >> cnn's stephanie elam is in phoenix. she was at the press conference, actually, steph, it was one question that you posed to fw griner that i thought elicited one of the most interesting answers, and she gave many today. tell us what else she said. >> reporter: yeah, i felt like she was very open. and i have to tell you, i was struck by how there was a lightness about her, and if you think about what she's been through, what this last year was like for her, plus over a year, you could see that she could still be very angry. that's not how she came across.

she was also joking about things a little bit here or there despite that little moment where she got emotional right away. and it changed the energy in the room immediately. everyone could feel that emotion in that moment. but the question that i asked her was about whether or not playing overseas is a need or a want for the players in the wnba. this is what she had to say. >> well, i can say for me i'm never going overseas to play again unless i'm representing my country at the olympics, you know, if i make that team, that would be the only time i would leave the u.s. soil, and that's just to represent the usa. i'll say this, you know, the whole reason a lot of us go over, you know, is the pay gap. you know, a lot of us go over there to make an income to support our families, to support ourselves. so i don't knock any player that wants to go overseas, and you know, make a little bit extra

money. >> reporter: and she also made it clear that she hopes that that is something that changes. and just to put this into perspective, if you look at the top basketball contracts here in the u.s., the best players in the wnba make just over 200,000 a year, whereas you look at some of these -- in their contracts, i should say, and if you look at some of the contracts for the men, they're upwards of $40 million. it's a very big difference, and so she's saying this is why we need to have more people turning out. she's saying she appreciates the media covering her today and her plight to get home, but she hopes they cover the games too and they get more people there to support their games. as far as her fitness, is she where she wants to be? no, but she's on the path back. she says she also feels like she turned a corner as far as her mental health since the first month that she was back and to where she is now. she also spoke a bit about transgender rights and seeing what's going on in the country. she said that she's going to speak out about that, and that no one should be banned from play because they're living out

and being who they authentically feel they are. on top of that, she said as far as people who are detained, it is very lonely, and she said getting letters from people who you don't even know was still comforting because you know someone out there is thinking about you as well as the ones from her family and looking at images of her family helped get her through that. as far as people detained around the world who should not be, they unveiled this mural here today outside of where the mercury plays, and you can see she's front and center, but those are other americans who are also detained around the concerned. she says all season long she'll be talking about that. >> really amazing to see her bringing awareness to that and the plight of other people. thank you so much for sharing that press conference with us. jim. coming up this hour on "cnn news central" e. jean carroll, the woman accusing former president donald trump of raping her is now under cross examination. we're live at the courthouse. plus, as a slew of states try to ban transgender care,

we're going to look at the numbers. how many people are being impacted? also, what's the possible risk? and former president obama is going back to work, so what exactly is he doing now? >> announcer: cnn news central brought to you by a place for mom, the place for senior living advice. talk to an expert adviser today at no cost to your family.

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♪ the old way of working is deader than me. ♪ ♪ we'll scale up, and we'll scale down ♪ ♪ before you're six feet underground. ♪ ♪ yes, this is how, this is how we work now. ♪ across the country, fierce legal battles are playing out over republican-backed state policies restricting certain medical procedures that transgender youth can receive. in tennessee, a bill prohibiting gender affirming care for minors is set to take effect on july 1st. now, the justice department is asking a court to block it. in montana, state lawmakers banned transgender representative zooey zephyr from the house floor for the remainder of the session saying that she violated decorum with her speech criticizing a bill

that prohibits care for transgender minors. and in missouri, hours before new limits on gender affirming care for minors and adults was set to take effect, a state judge paused that rule. cnn's kyung lah is following that legal fight from kansas city. kyung, you spoke to some young transgender americans who are receiving gender affirming care in missouri. what are they saying about all of this? >> reporter: for them they say that this is not a choice, that for them is vital care. now, what we are seeing here in the state of missouri at clinics like the planned parenthood clinic behind me that is offering this care is this mad scramble ahead of monday. monday evening is the new deadline, when the judge says that she will have a decision on whether or not this emergency rule should go into effect. she is going to decide amid legal challenges whether it should be an 18-month rule that comes from the attorney general, written by the attorney general the state of missouri.

advocates and the legal challenges facing this say that this would be, if it goes into effect, some of the most restrictive rules in the entire country for children and for adults. so we've spent a good bit of time inside these clinics talking to people. we met two young people, adults, but they say this is not something that just comes as a whim. they've been thinking about this for years since they were teenagers. i want you to take a listen. >> we are terrified. i've been afraid since i was like 15. the world is terrifying. talk with us. sit there and listen to what we're saying. we're not trying to indoctrinate anyone. >> it's a constant disconnect are from my own body, my own being. i look in the mirror, i feel like an imposter, a stranger. i always have. i'm going through a personal journey now and hopefully can start to feel comfortable in my own skin and maybe feel like i recognize the person in the

mirror. >> kari is 19, andy is 20. patients just like them are trying to now get these appointments before monday evening, brianna, they believe if they can establish care with a physician, then they can continue that care whether or not this emergency rule goes into effect here in missouri. >> yeah, this rush to be grandfathered in. kyung, thank you so much for that report from kansas city. we do appreciate it. jim. this is a truly difficult issue, certainly charged rhetoric around transgender rights, transgender affirming care particularly when it involves young people, minors. we to want to take a moment here to look at medical research behind these procedures, what is involved in them, what do doctors say. cnn's jacqueline howard, she joins me now. so jacqueline, first, walk us through -- because folks might hear gender affirming care, not know exactly what it is -- what

is it, and what age groups are actually available to undergo it at this stage? >> yeah, well, jim, when we talk about gender affirming care from a medical perspective, we're talking about any intervention, medical, psychological, that supports or affirms a patient's gender identity. so that can include hormonal treatment, for instance, or a surgery, but also mental health counseling and social support for that patient. and we have seen many major medical groups supporting gender affirming care. for instance, just last year, the american academy of pediatrics, the president at that time, she said that she is proud to stand alongside pediatricians providing gender affirming care. that's from the past president. now, also with gender affirming care, jim, it can include patients medical provider, like their physician working alongside their psychologist, so it's also a group of providers that might develop a patient's

care plan as well, jim. >> we should acknowledge, ask folks i'm sure watching are aware that there's great debate around this issue, particularly when it comes to age. you have competing points of view here because you have some folks who say if minors don't undergo this treatment now, then it will be too late after puberty. you have others who say, minors are too young to make decisions now, particularly decisions that are irreversible, right? so how do doctors approach this? how do medical associations approach that question? >> right, what we're hearing from doctors -- and again, most medical associations, they say that they support gender affirming care because if a patient doesn't get that care they need, it can come with mental health risks. so one example of that, a study that was published last year in the journal of gm network open, this is a study looking at 104 patients who received gender affirming care. the researchers found that those

patients showed a 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression. receiving care was also associated with a 73% lower odds of suicidality. so that's one example of the research out there that medical groups have pointed to showing the mental health benefits of this, jim. and i do think that's one part of the debates, the conversation that is an important one, jim. >> no question, jacqueline howard, thanks so much. he's never one to shy away from attention, so why does donald trump plan to skip an rnc presidential debate? plus, an important update on that search for three inmates who escaped from a mississippi jail. we have the latest on a multistate manhunt. - representative! - sorry, i didn't get that.

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. just in, a big update in a hunt for four inmates who escaped a jail in mississippi over the weekend. let's get straight to cnn's amara walker who's been following this story from the beginning. what's the update? >> reporter: boris, we just learned that jerry reins, one of the four escapees are from the raymond detention center out of jackson, mississippi, has been found. he's been traaken into custody spring valley, texas, just outside of houston.

we don't know exact play what he was doing, where he was when he was captured just a few moments ago, but we know that he had been on the run for five days, and we do have images that were just tweeted out from the hines county sheriff. these are the photos of jerry rains as he was taken into custody just moments ago. now the focus remains on the two other escaped detainees. the search for them continues. the belief is that they are still somewhere in central mississippi, and as you also know, a fourth detainee, he was killed in a police shootout yesterday. so the hunt continues for the two other escapees, boris. >> we know you'll keep us up to date with the latest details. amara walker, thanks so much. so former president donald trump who prides himself on his pugnacious verbal attacks may be backing away from republican primary debates, which are set to begin later this summer. trump sites his standing in the polls, his feuds with the

mainstream media, and his dissatisfaction with gop leadership as the driving reasons. joining us now to discuss is abby phillip, cnn senior political correspondent and the anchor of "inside politics sunday." abby, what kind of impact could this have in the republican primary? >> hey, guys, well, it would be chaos which i think would be the point. the whole idea here with trump -- and this has been going all the way back to even 2016 -- he's been threatening to not be a part of debates for a very long time, and some of it is about injecting this idea that he's not going to put himself on that platform to be scrutinized, frankly. and a lot of times he does end up -- he did end up doing them, although there were probably historically in the last two cycles fewer debates than we would normally see between general election candidates. but trump ultimately decides to do them in part because he knows he needs the platform too. it's one of the few times in american politics when you have pretty much the entire country's

undivided attention. no one likes attention more than trump, and i think he also understands the power of that attention more than most people, so these threats are designed to kind of keep people a little bit on their toes. but i doubt that at the end of the day, he won't at all participate. >> maybe he's got a point, right? he's running away with the nomination as it is right now. desan tis is his closest competitor but falling. the other candidates are single-digits. does he have more to gain? he can get himself a prime time interview on hannity i would assume. >> a prime time interview on handy is not the same thing as a presidential debate. and we're sitting here in april, so much can happen between now and the fall. i don't think we know whether or not the dynamics between trump and desantis, who is still not a declared candidate is really going to hold up. so he can say pretty much anything he wants right now, but in that moment, more often than

not there will be benefit to whoever is leading to being on that stage because you're not talking about an audience of a few million people on a weeknight on fox news. you're talking about so much of the country tuning in for the very first time on politics. that's very hard for most people to walk away from. >> he also gets fomo. i will tell you that. i interviewed him the night when he skipped the debate in iowa on his plane, and i could tell he had fomo that he's not there for the debate with all the other republicans. so he knows. he remembers. >> he does. >> so speaking of nikki haley, she's now throwing some punches at ron desantis over these legal challenges against disney. let's listen to that. >> south carolina was a very anti-woke state. it still is, and if disney would like to move their hundreds of thousands of jobs to south carolina and bring the billions of dollars with them, i'll let them know i'll be happy to meet them in south carolina and introduce them to the governor and the legislature that would

welcome it. >> how do you see this strategy here? >> i mean, here's what it tells me. it tells me that nikki haley -- and a lot of other republicans, by the way, chrisical christie, hutchinson and others, basically see this fight that desantis has picked with disney as a huge loser, a political loser a public relations loser, so they're eager to really just get on the other side of it. never mind as far as conservative principles go, it's hard to square what desantis is doing with that, which is the point a lot of these other conservatives are making. as a political point, she sees it as a way to just undercut him. he seems to be on the losing end of this battle with disney now firing back at him with a lawsuit, even actually kevin mccarthy not that long ago, a few minutes ago, said something very similar, that desantis probably shouldn't be threatening to put a prison near disney world. he should just sit down with disney and sort it out. i think that tells you where a lot of o'reprepublicans are com

down on this. >> i think people kind of like going to disney. >> disney is very popular. they bring a lot of money to florida. it's a tough -- >> my kids ask me about it a lot. thanks so much. right now in a new york courthouse, donald trump's lawyers are cross examining his rape accuser, e. jean carroll. we're going to take you there live next. later, she barely left her bedroom for the first year of her life, why this little girl infected with a rare disease now has a glimmer of hope. we're covering these stories and more ahead on "cnn news central." next on behind the series... let me tell you about the greatest roster ever assembled. the monster, the outlaw... and you cat forget about the boss. sometimes- you just want toat your heroes. e subway series. the greatest menu of all time. -okay, and one more. -i think we got it. -yeah, let's focus on the rv. -rv?

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the woman accusing donald trump of rape acknowledges that parts of her story are, quote, difficult to conceive of. writer e. jean carroll back on the stabnd for a second day of testimony. she is being cross-examined by trump's legal team in this defamation and battery trial against the former president. carroll alleges that trump assaulted her in a dressing room in a department store in the 1990s. he denies the allegation. he calls it a hoax and a con job. cnn's kara scannell is live for us outside of the courthouse in new york. kara, can you tell us what else e. jean carroll has csaid today? >> reporter: well, there was just just a fairly tense exchange between trump's attorney joe taco tacopina and e. jean carroll. he was focusing in on bergdorf

goodman, having e. jean carroll going through the attack again and asking questions at every step of the way. one area that he really focused on is he asked her if when she was being attacked why she didn't every scream out for help. i'm going to read you a little bit of the back and forth between them. at one point taco pina, if she was being attacked, wouldn't she scream. she said you can't beat me up for not screaming. he said i'm not beating you up. i'm asking questions ms. carroll. then they continued to go back and forth over whether she was screaming or should have screamed, and she said i'm telling you he raped me whether i screamed or not. at that point her voice was cracking. she also said that, you know, the reason why many women don't come forward is because they get criticized for not screaming. this back and forth continued where he then asked her, so you didn't scream while you were getting violently raped because you didn't want to make a scene?

and carroll said, that's right. that's probably why i didn't scream. he then continued to go on and press her about the struggle inside of the dressing room. he said -- he pointed out to her, you were wearing 4 inch heels during this whole struggle. and she said i can dance backwards and forwards in 4 inch heels. he pointed out her tights. she was wearing tights that trump had pulled down before he raped her, and he pointed out to her that her tights never ripped, and carroll said, no, they never ripped. he said they were flexible tights and he also asked her about a purse, and she said that she was hold agoing a purse in hand during the attack, which she estimated lasted about three minutes, and he said to her you never dropped your purse, he's really focusing in on every step of this alleged attack trying to find any weaknesses in her testimony or at least raise questions among the jurors' mind about what happened. you know, but this was a fairly intense exchange. they took a short break, they'll

be back in about five or ten minutes from now, she'll be back on the stand answering more questions. there's about another hour left in the court testimony this afternoon. >> kara, thank you so much for that. we do appreciate it. the biden administration is imposing new sanctions on russia today for the wrongful detainment of u.s. citizens. the move stems from several high profile cases of americans spending months, if not years, behind russian bars. one of them is wall street journal reporting evan gershkovich. next hour, cnn's bianna golodryga is going to speak with a close friend and colleague of evan's. bianna joins us for a preview. give us an idea of what the conversation is going to be like? >> well, boris, it's been now four weeks since evan gershkovich was wrongfully detained in moscow. i'll be speaking with his close friend and federal journalist at the financial times about what this has been like for him. she has been spearheading and

launching a campaign to get people to write letters to evan. they actually have been translating them into russia because unfortunately these are journalists that know the system very well. they've covered this prison. they've covered the russian legal system, and they know how this works, and that includes evan gershkovich himself so what they are allowed to receive in prison are some of these letters that his friends have been translating, and he's been receiving them, we know, and he's been writing back as well. it's been four weeks now, and we got news that the russian foreign ministry is denying a consular visit for him in moscow. this is a retaliation for foreign minister lavrov's visit to new york this week where they are accusing the united states of not allowing russian journalists to get their visas to accompany him. needless to say, there is still not one shred of evidence that they have presented in evan's case, the united states has deemed him wrongfully detained, and we're going to talk to his good friend about how he's doing right now.

>> we look forward to that conversation. thank you so much for that. "the lead" starts at the top of the hour. coming up, the incredible story of a girl who had no immune system, why episodes, if you could believe it of gray's anatomy ended up being a key part of her fight to survive. e . and this is their playground. anatomy ended up being a key part of her fight to survive. there's a a story in every piece of land, run with us on a johnhn deere tractor and start telling yours.s.

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any parent of a young child can tell you how often they, and you, deal with ear infections, stomach bugs, the common cold. the answer is constantly, but their little bodies can handle it. but those ailments put this 5-year-old at constant risk of

catching something that could end her life. until now. we explain the treatment that will save her. >> what are you going to be this year for halloween? >> i don't know. i'm going to be a cheerleader. >> reporter: this 5-year-old loves costumes, but she doesn't go trick or treating like other children. any germ, even a common cold, can kill her, because she was born with "bubble boy disease," made famous by the 1976 "boy in the plastic bubble." she was fwborn in hawaii. when she was 6 days old, she was airlifted to children's hospital where she spent two months. >> for the first year of her life, she never left her bedroom. >> reporter: her first christmas gifts wiped clean and brought to her room. >> she's getting six to serve shots a month, or needles in her legs. >> reporter: and she could go

outside. but still, not near anyone except her immediate family. then dr. donald cohen, who runs this lab in ucla, had some good news. he said it looked like in the not too distant future, she would be able to get a treatment called gene therapy. he's worked on it for nearly 40 years. >> we can replace the gene that's missing and it's exciting. >> reporter: a study showed the therapy had stunning, near perfect results. >> all the children we treated in the past are doing well. we barely hear from them anymore. >> reporter: then the company that owned the gene therapy decided not to pursue fda approval, instead investing money in treatments for more common diseases. that left her and more than two dozen other families waiting to get the treatment. >> the longer we waited, the higher chance of infection or her medication not working, or something happening outside of our control to make her severely sick. >> reporter: promising gene therapies for rare diseases have

x sometimes had trouble getting to market, because the potential profits might be small. thursday, the fda is holding a meeting on gene therapy, one of a series of meetings, intended to help the development of these treatments. last week, the agency's leader testified to a senate committee. >> we agree this is an area we have to move along more quickly. >> reporter: as for seersha -- >> sam got it for me. >> reporter: next month, she will bring her unicorn suitcase to the hospital to get the gene therapy. she had a preparatory viz isit earlier this month. >> she wants to go to a dodger game, and she's inviting everybody to disney world for her. >> reporter: after years of waiting, she her family are thrilled for the day that she can get out into the world. >> goodness. well, i'm rooting for her.

i'm sure you are. elizabeth, i'm curious, is she aware that she's not like other 5-year-olds, that she has this issue now? >> jim, i asked her that question. she said in many ways this is all she knows. she thinks this is just life. but as she has gotten older, she said why can't i play softball like my sister or do jujitsu like my brother? she's such a sweet heart, but she's just starting to get kind of frustrated that she can't do what her big brother and sister do. jim? >> goodness. i remember that movie, too, "the boy in the bubble." elizabeth, thank you so much. we wish her the best. up next, cnn's exclusive interview with arnold schwarzenegger. why the terminator says his father was among millions sucked into a hate system. we'll be right back. love entwined.

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in a cnn exclusive with arnold schwarzenegger, the actor and former california governor opens up about his father, who was a nazi, and why he feels it is imperative today to speak out against hate. >> my father was, and so many other millions of men, were sucked into a hate system through lies and deceits. so we have seen where that leads. i've seen it firsthand how broken these men were, the kind of atrocities that happened, how

many millions of people had to die, and then they ended up losers. >> it seems like that was not purely backward looking, right? he was giving advice for people today. >> yeah, he often speaks out about his experience with his father, who got wrapped up in naziism and all of that, and it clearly impacted him. i read a lot about arnold schwarzenegger's life, and that difficult relationship with his dad. he didn't go to his father's fawn ral, and he attributes that difficult relationship to his success, because he used it as motivation to move forward. >> yeah, but being sucked into something, that's not a new phenomenon. >> and we haven't gotten rid of it, sadly. >> that does it for cnn news central. "the lead" starts right now. how did this guy get a