you should look forward to life, and i think we're just ready to kind of reach the finish line. it's -- what kind of life is it here? >> when you say, "the finish line," what do you mean? >> i mean i want to see her again. i want to be with her again. it sounds horrible to wait. we're just waiting. >> by the finish line, it sounds like death. >> i mean, yes. i think that's what everybody wants, to just be with their kids again. i think that's normal.

the gloves are truly off tonight in the republican race for president. john king in for anderson tonight. thank you for your time. even if you're just paying a little attention to the republican race, it is hard to notice ron desantis and the former president openly throwing haymakers. never mind the old 11'd commandment. donald trump, of course, has never bought into that, and now it seems his fellow floridian doesn't either. over the last 48 hours, governor desantis has gone straight after the gop front-runner, most recently today on this conservative talk show. >> he's been attacking me by moving left, so this is a different guy than 2015/2016. 2 million illegal aliens he wanted to amnesty. we both faced covid-19, and we both responded in the way we did. he responded by elevating

anthony fauci and really turning over the reins to dr. fauci. under the trump administration, he enacted a bill, basically a jailbreak bill. >> as for mr. trump, there's this, and, yes, listen closely, he's deliberately calling the governor rob, not ron. >> rob desanctimonious and his poll numbers are dropping like a rock. i would almost be inclined to say, these are record falls. the question is, is rob just young, inexperienced, and naive, or more troubling, is he a fool that has no idea what the hell he's doing? >> the former president there once again giving the word add homonym a real workout. he's also calling for party unity, as long as it's behind him. using language some would consider divisive, invoking foreign born jewish billionaire somehow pulling the strings of

the united states government. >> biden's puppet masters, like george soros, are hoping for a long, drawn out republican primary. they want to divide us so they can quietly buy the white house for crooked joe. >> so, let's talk about all this. joining us tonight, two of our favorite cnn commentators, former congresswoman mia love, ella stuart is with us as well. and "the new york times" campaign reporter who covers ron desantis. nick, let me start with you. this is a big shift for the governor. he was much more nuanced, much more gentle when it came to donald trump. why have they decided he's soft on spending, he's soft on on covid, he's soft on crime. why? >> he -- i mean, soft on trump. he had barely mentioned former president trump by name until he got into the race, so this is very much seeing governor desantis unleashed. i think it surprised a few people. he -- you know, he's in this position where, with

mr. desantis, where he needs to stay on the good side of a lot of mr. trump's base, while at the same time winning them sofer, so clearly, he's seeing a need to differentiate himself starkly from the former president, and we're really seeing that unfold today. >> so, mia love, congresswoman, the question is, does he have the skills to pull it off? we all remember 2016 when established politicians tried to go after donald trump saying he wasn't a real republican, and wasn't a real conservative, and they failed. you served with ron desantis in the house. does he have the skill set to walk that tightrope, to tell trump voters, i know you love him, but he's not conservative enough. i know you love him, but he can't win. >> i need to say that desantis has a bigger hill to climb than he thinks. the thing that people, republicans, really liked about ron desantis earlier is that he was seemingly a fighter. he was choosing battles that were big, and they liked that

about him, and when trump went after him with no response, trump went after him over and over and over again, he lost that fighter appeal, so he had to. he had to do something to go back and position himself as a fighter again. you know, likely the floor is high because there are so many people that like certain qualities about ron desantis, and he has quite a bit of funding, and people, big funders behind him to help make it all the way through the primary. he has to be a fighter. he has to show that he can stand up to donald trump, or else, i mean, the gop won't give him a second look. he had to do that. he had to start standing up. >> we'll see if it works out. listen here, this is governor desantis talking on "news max" about what he says a limit, a ceiling, he says, to the former president's support.

listen. >> i do believe that there's a limit to the number of voters that would consider the former president at this point. i mean, we've seen it in, you know, florida. we've seen it in places like georgia. i think there are some people that don't like biden, but they would like another option. so, i think my ceiling is higher in a general election. >> is that, alice stewart, you lived through 2016, you lived through 2012 as well. you understand republican primaries well. is that a winning message, that guy can't win a general election? >> it is for republicans who actually want to win the general election. look, donald trump probably has a ceiling in the primary, as well, but with a fractured field, it's in his favor. look, in a general election, a candidate like desantis or any of the other republicans we have, in my view, are more favorable general election candidates, but i think desantis is doing the smart thing. he kept his powder dry before getting in the race. now he is in. the powder is in the gun, and he is firing shots at trump. it would be political

malpractice not to fully attack donald trump. you have to go through him to get to president biden, and, look, he is smart by, in the primary, showing that he is just as conservative or republican or right as donald trump or maybe even more to the right as donald trump because we're in a primary, but the reality is, big picture, there are probably a lot more alike on policy than they are different, and desantis has one big difference that donald trump doesn't have, and that is he won re-election, and if he can focus on the fact that he has won re-election, donald trump is the culture of losing, that is a good winning message and a reminder to rational republicans that it's time to put someone in the primary position that has won and focuses on their future and not the candidate's past grievances. i think that's a winning message for him and other candidates in the race. >> you've covered the governor extensively, governor desantis. he had a rough launch to the campaign. he had a rough couple months before that.

by rough launch to the campaign, i mean the twitter glitch. he still raised a boatload of money, and he thinks it will not hurt him in the end. that always planned, or was it because the last couple of months have been tough for him? and you know his skill set better than most. donald trump has been on his case for days and weeks. now he's on his case in a trumpy constantly by the hour kind of way. does he have the skill set to handle that? >> i mean, governor desantis, you know, like any politician, i think, does not like being attacked and having to sit on his hands. i'm sure that was very frustrating for the last few months, and now he really sees an opportunity to differentiate himself from president trump on policy, and i do think -- we got some internal audiotape from the governor's donor meeting yesterday where his top campaign staffers were very much saying that they are going to run to the right of mr. trump, and

paint desantis as the real conservative in the race, and, yes, i do think that requires the governor to make that comparison himself. >> it's going to be fascinating to watch. congresswoman love, back to your experience. republicans passed criminal justice reform under donald trump. it was a bipartisan bill. you were part of that effort. they passed it because they thought it was good policy, but also, let's be honest about the politics, they thought it would help the republican party in the african american community to develop a bigger tent across america where it's been a problem. ron desantis today criticizing that bill, calling it a jailbreak bill. is it a jailbreak bill? >> i found that really interesting because from the moment i stepped on the floor in congress, i worked with the congressional black caucus on criminal justice reform. we had think tanks all the way from the right all the way to the left coming together on criminal justice reform. if he's going to attack donald trump on something, this is not it.

ron desantis was there, and i believe he voted for it. i'm not sure. if he didn't, shame on him because it was -- it was quite significant. it was a great bill to pass that we worked on, a bipartisan bill. it was great for america. >> alice, help us wrap the conversation. if you're in the desantis war room, you hear him. he says, i might even pardon trump. i'll think about pardoning january 6th offenders. so, he's trying to have affinity with the trump base. talk about the things they love most, even as he attacks their hero. how do you pull that off? >> it's a very, very delicate balance to do so, because in order to win this primary, you have to keep trump's base to the degree that you can, but broaden the electorate, and the wording that he's using is important, but i happen to think that they're much better off by focusing on what he has done as the governor of florida. he has a very successful economy. his handling of covid was very strong, and it's a state that has low crime, and if he can focus on what he has been able to accomplish in florida and

convey that to the primary voters, that's a winning message, but the key right now is to -- in the republican primary, you're going after republican voters. many of them, very conservative. he's going to have to win them over, and then as we get closer to the general election, you know how it works. you get the etch a sketch and shake it up at that point. but right now he is going all in to the right to get over these republican voters for the primary. >> all in to the right, a crackling beginning still seven, eight months before anybody votes. we're off to a crackling start. mia love, alice stewart, thank you so much. next for us, what president biden just said about the debt ceiling talks and what his treasury secretary just did that bought negotiators more time. and later my conversation with one of boston's most popular people these days, especially with these u mass students, and not just for his connection with the celtics. we're reinventing our network. ♪

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♪ one thing leads to another ♪ how to grow delicious herbs: step one: use miracle-gro potting mix. that's it. miracle-gro. all you need to know to grow. with the federal government just days now away from running out of money, president biden was upbeat late today about talks with house republicans to raise the debt ceiling and head off a potential economic disaster. >> with regard to the debt limit, things are looking good. i'm very optimistic. i hope we'll have some clearer evidence tonight before the clock strikes 12:00 that we have a deal, but it's very close,

and i'm optimistic. negotiations going on. i'm hopeful we'll know by tonight whether we are going to be able to have a deal. >> the president speaking just a short time after his treasury secretary, janet yellen, very much revised her estimate for when the default could happen from the 1st of june to the 5th of june. that gives everyone a bit more breathing room. that said, very close, as the president put it, can mean almost there. this is washington, it can mean not quite. for the progress on the sticking points, manu raju is there for us. manu, the president says maybe before the clock strikes midnight tonight. possible? what are you learning? >> reporter: well, there is new optimism that a deal can be reached on both sides of the aisle. this is a sharp shift in tone from earlier in the day. the two sides were squabbling over the key sticking points. i just talked to patrick mchenry who is one of the key negotiators who told me he concurs with president biden's assessment that they are very close to a deal. but there are sticking points they have been fighting over. one of them is whether or not to impose work requirements on beneficiaries of the food stamp

program. republicans have been pushing for that. democrats say that is an attack on the poor. republicans i spoke to including garrett graves, one of the chief negotiators, insisted that would be part of the final deal. >> if you're really going to fall on the sword for that versus actually negotiating something that changes the trajectory of the country for spending, it's crazy we're even having this debate. >> are you willing to drop that work requirement? >> hell no. hell no. not a chance. >> there are tough things that remain. >> so a deal is still not within reach at this point? >> the deal is within reach. it just has to be agreed to, and we're waiting for the white house to understand the current set of terms we're dealing with. that means that we're in the window by which we meet the june 5th deadline. it's not over. we're not done, but we're within the window of being able to

perform this. >> so, manu, you hear the optimism there, and, again, the republicans sharing the president's optimism. that's a big deal, but -- there's still a but here -- even if the speaker and the president cut a deal, what is your reporting tell you about whether it can pass the house and senate given all the grumbling? >> there is going to be a serious effort, jon, to try to lock down the votes, because there is plenty of grumbling, particularly among democrats who have been shut out of the talks. kevin mccarthy does not appear to have given a whole lot other than allowing for the debt ceiling to be increased through the 2024 elections, but the issue of work requirements is one that many of them said he simply will vote against if this is included in the final plan. it appears that it very well could, and on the right, a number of conservatives say this has been watered down from the republican bill that passed last month. it had far more spending cuts, more requirements, went after joe biden's student loan program, for instance. they say they're going to vote

against this. this would require a coalition of democrats, republicans to get this together, get this to the finish line. then you have to worry about the united states senate. that takes time to pass, jon. they don't have much time, despite those additional few days, june 5th is right around the corner. >> right around the corner. manu raju tracking the very latest. appreciate it very much, manu. joining us now is someone who will be weighing how to vote on what those negotiators come up with. congressman, grateful for your time tonight. so, in a normal negotiation, contract negotiation, business negotiation, it would be a good thing to get more time. what do you make of the breathing room janet yellen was just able to give the white house and the congressional negotiators? is three or four more days a good thing or in washington does it leave it on the line for everybody to criticize? >> there's a risk. but the speaker has agreed to 72 hours to review the bill in detail. and, of course, what he really has to do is sell it to the extremists in his caucus. remember, he counted on the

votes of people like matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene, some of the most extreme politicians america has ever seen, in order to get elected speaker. those are the types of people he's got to sell this deal to, and he may need extra days to do it. >> in your party, republicans say red line is they will have work requirements on food stamps benefits. a lot of democrats, especially progressive democrats, say no way, if that's in there, they will not vote for it. would you vote for that if the white house negotiated that? >> jon, look, it depends on what's really at stake here. there's a lot of studies out there that show that work requirements just put onerous burdens on people and don't actually do what the republicans say they will do. let's look at these numbers, jon. $1 billion would be saved with work requirements. if the republicans do what they intend to do and reinstate the trump tax cuts or extend the trump tax cuts, we're talking

about adding $3.5 trillion to the deficit. that's $1 saved versus $3,500 saved if the republicans would stop with these trump tax cuts that just went to the wealthy and the biggest corporations in the world. they're not being honest here. they're not even looking at the facts or the math. we need to do a lot better. >> i know democrats think the burden here should be on republicans because raising the debt ceiling, the country should pay its bills. it's been done mostly in the past. everybody agrees to do that, and you fight over these spending things in the budget. with a president up for re-election who does not want turmoil in the american economy, does the president have enough juice, enough loyalty among democrats, if he picks up the phone and says, i need you to vote for this, would you do it? >> the president has a lot of loyolaty in his party. i'm always going to vote on what i think is right. that's my principle. but there are an awful lot of democrats who are just going to do whatever the president says, and that may be enough to get it

across the finish line. >> i want to shift subjects here. you're a marine corp. veteran, four tours in iraq. the first time i met you was when you were in iraq working for general petraeus way back in the day. i want to ask you about the holdup. you're among those who wrote to the president recommending charles q. brown as the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. he agreed with you. he nominated general brown for that job. alabama republican senator tommy tuberville already holding up more than 200 general and flag officer promotions now says general brown can also get in that line, because he will use his power because he's mad. the pentagon said if a service member lives in a state where abortion is banned, it will give them travel benefits to go out of state if necessary. what is your message to senator tuberville tonight? i know you serve in the house and not the senate. is there anything the democrats can do about this? >> look, my message to senator tuberville is, we need the military to move faster. general brown famously said a few years ago that we need to

either modernize more quickly, or we will lose. we need to move faster. we need to modernize. senator tuberville, the 68-year-old white man from alabama wants to take us backwards, take us back to the 1950s. there are 80,000 women who serve in the military. they don't get to choose where they get stationed, and they don't need some 68-year-old white guy from alabama telling them what to do with their bodies and what health care decisions they need to make. >> congressman seth moulton, appreciate your time tonight, sir. thank you very much. >> good to see you, john. up next for us, who reportedly helped move boxes at former president trump's mar-a-lago resort one day before a doj official came through with the task of retrieving classified documents. this person now talking to federal prosecutors. we'll explore what we know and the legal implications next. ing, things are about to heat up. darn it, kyle! and if you don't have the right home insurance coverage, you could end up paying for this yourself. so get allstate.

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as federal prosecutors dig and dig and dig into how former president trump handled classified documents as he left office, there's a new development that could be important to the case. the headline, "mar-a-lago worker provided prosecutors new details in the trump documents case." "the times" reports a maintenance worker for the former president recounted helping move boxes into a storage room a day before a justice department official came. seeking the return of classified material. now according to "the times," this maintenance worker

doesn't know what was in the boxes, but the worker did share what he knows and what he saw with prosecutors. these details coming out after "the washington post" reporting, the two people working for the former president moved boxes of papers on that day. "the post" did not have details on the two people. a lot to discuss with defense attorney and former federal prosecutor shan wu. with watergate, we had john dean. how significant could a mar-a-lago maintenance worker be here to the special counsel's case? >> i think they're pretty significant in terms of the timing, john. obviously the day before the justice department is coming about these documents, the fact that there's corroboration that they're moving boxes into that very storage unit, which later they show to the justice department and say, hey, look, this is where we're storing things, it naturally brings to one's mind, where were the boxes before then? so, that timing is really critical, and it's all part of the investigation.

it's a very methodical step-by-step effort to establish who did what when to really try and gain insight into what trump was thinking at that time. >> as our reporters keep hearing, the special counsel is closer and closer to decision time. according to "the washington post," they gathered evidence indicating trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and at times showed them to others. if true, how problematic is that for the former president? >> it's quite problematic. it's obviously mishandling of that type of highly sensitive material that we've since learned just how sensitive it is, and i think for a prosecutor looking at this and from a defense standpoint, it's not enough to just have two kind of disassociated issues going on like they're trying to cover up something and maybe he mishandled documents. it's putting them together that's really critical here, and that's what this investigation seems to be doing. they've got pretty good evidence

that careless mishandling, whatever, and they've now got evidence that there was trying to be a cover-up, and going back to your watergate reference, when you put those two together, then you have a case. >> and to that point, you have a lot of prosecutors who would say, you know, i have a clear case of obstruction, but if you can't prove the other crime, the jury might say obstruction of what? you believe from reporting, especially in recent days about the documents, that they have a threshold, mishandling of classified records and then obstruction of justice in terms of the government's effort to get them back. >> i think that's right. there's been some reporting of a sealed memorandum, and it seems like the prosecutors certainly amassed evidence enough to persuade her that she even used the word that it was willful on the former president's part. difference of convincing a judge of that in a motion versus convincing a jury, but it seems like they're on the right track. >> shan wu, appreciate

the insight, sir. thanks very much. an attack in ukraine after russian forces blasted through a medical facility. we'll talk to sam who was in the city. and later, a bit of upbeat news as you end. a billionaire's sweet gift to college grads in my hometown, boston. we'll tell you about his surprise just ahead.

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in ukraine today, at least two people were killed, dozens more wounded after a russian attack on a medical facility. cnn geolocated those strikes to a hospital and a veterinary clinic in dnipro. of those hurt, two were children, eight were doctors. sam kiley is there and has more. sam, what's the latest on the recovery in the aftermath of these strikes? >> reporter: well, the ukrainians move extremely fast. i mean, while the building was still burning, not just smoldering, but burning, john, they were firing water against it, emergency services were, and at the same time dismantling the building, having conducted their investigations into what exactly was behind this blast, in other words, what kind of a missile. now, we know that they -- the local authorities say that 31 people were injured. eight of them were doctors. they're also saying that they think it was nothing short of in their words a miracle, john, that more people weren't injured

or killed, and that is because the medical staff were on a shift change. one batch had left work, and the others were beginning to work, and therefore there were fewer patients on site to fall victim to this latest missile attack inside dnipro, which left a massive hole in the medical facility and burned the building next door. the world health organization remarkably saying that this is nearly the 1,000th attack on the health facilities in ukraine in the last year by russia. >> that number speaks volumes to the horrific brutality of the russian targeting, obviously. ukrainian authorities often bullish about their defense capabilities, but what are they saying about their ability to defend against these waves of missile attacks we're seeing? >> reporter: this latest wave, they were less successful in shooting down the incoming missiles than they have been in the past. about 80% or more, just over 80%, rather, were shot down in this wave.

often they do better than that, sometimes shooting down 100%. they also know they have a finite capability and so do to the russians, and it's really a race between the two sides as to whether or not the russians can overwhelm the ukrainians or whether the ukrainians can continue to shoot down so many missiles that the russians run out of them. one of the russian techniques is to use these cheap drones produced in iran, which are cheap to make, very primitive, but they can be sent up in huge quantities, and every one of them has to be shot down, john, and this is all ahead, of course, of an anticipated summer offensive, and clearly from the russian perspective, they want to weaken the air defenses as much as possible before that gets underway. >> as we wait for that to get underway, we saw reports and images of a drone attack on the russian side of the border. what do we know about that strike?

pretty close to the border and relatively close to the fighting, right? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, it was hit, the russians claim, by two uavs or what we're calling drones. the ukrainians have said nothing about that, but we have seen an increasing number of mysterious or semimysterious events inside russia. >> sam kiley in ukraine, thank you very much. joining me now is retired brigadier army general, peter shwac, author of "a u.s. army's experience in pre-putin russia." he served as a defense cachet back in 2014. the general just returned from a trip to ukraine. grateful for your time tonight. let's focus on your recent trip right there. from your perspective, what you saw, what you heard, the briefings you received. is ukraine from a military standpoint and i guess a morale and psychological standpoint ready for this

counteroffensive? >> john, good to see you. the trip was very, very enlightening. we were part of an ngo called renewed democracy initiative. a group of nine of us were in kyiv, and we got out to the areas around kyiv, including tragic bucha. very illuminating. my main point to take away, john and your viewers, is that the -- how the ukrainian people, it's the ukrainian society. it's a societywide fight against the russian aggression, and everywhere from government seniors to people out there in the countryside, this is a societywide fight that the russians never imagined in their arrogance and disdain toward the

ukrainians back in february last year when they launched -- they never imagined it, so they hit with -- they tried to hit with a baseball bat a nest of hornets, and they're living it now. so, the ukrainians are all in. 80% at least, and the other point, and then i'll stop, is that how the ukrainians don't talk about surviving anymore, don't really use the word "win." they're using the term "after the victory." they're using the word "victory" in regard to defeating the russians, which i think is actually very important to listen to. >> when we get to this counteroffensive, we've seen some softening activities. we know it's coming relatively soon. is president zelenskyy's goal the same as, say, president biden, or the nato countries helping ukraine with weapons? what would you view as a quote, unquote success for ukraine?

>> first of all, ukrainians and i think -- i respect them for this -- are setting the conditions for the however the counteroffensive -- already small counterattacks, but they're picking their time and place, and we have to be mindful that they're under a lot of pressure in this counteroffensive, not just domestically, but to the international community and their support base, but they are clearly ramping up. nobody knows exactly where or how, but it's coming, and i think the russians are already spooked along the front line, as we're hearing, and i think that success will be something -- first of all, success will be -- you will see the success when you see it. i don't exactly know what the end state will be, if they take major chunks of land, if they're able to push down towards, you

know, mariupol, you know, ideal thing if they could seal off crimea, if they can really, really push back. i don't think anybody is thinking about taking right now of the whole country back, but major gains, and a key point of this is getting the russian -- which is pretty shaky in a lot of places. do they melt down in the face of ukrainian determination and attacks as they did outside kyiv and they did outside kherson. so, that psychological piece is huge. >> general zwack, appreciate your perspective, sir. thank you. last month, we learned the federal reserve chairman jerome powell was tricked by a fake call from russian pranksters. powell discussed global politics and the economy with someone he thought was the ukrainian president zelenskyy. turns out they were russian supporters of putin who previously pranked other influential officials.

cnn's matthew chance had a chance to speak with the pranksters and investigate the motive behind their tricks. take a look. >> they're notorious pro-kremlin pranksters. the ukraine war has given them a new focus and new victims to deceive. >> look who's there, mr. president. >> like george w. bush, who thought he was speaking with the ukrainian president, who had supposedly called to discuss the western military alliance. >> you always wanted to take ukraine into nato, not russia, but ukraine, always, as i remember. >> that's right. you see, i felt ukraine needed to be in the eu and in nato. [ speaking non-english ] >> reporter: a russian official later told the pranksters it revealed the truth about long-time u.s. ambitions to

distance russia from ukraine. >> i'm glad you're not prank calling me now. >> reporter: in getting to the truth, what would otherwise be left unspoken is what the pranksters told me they are all about. [ speaking non-english ] >> translator: first, it's about what this person is really like, how a president of a country behaves in an informal conversation. we're interested in getting more honest answers than we would in an ordinary public interview. >> one of the criticisms that is leveled against you is that you're always, you know, sympathetic to the kremlin point of view. let me ask you directly, are you working at the behest of the kremlin to expose foreign officials or opponents of the russian authorities? >> translator: in general, it's wrong to say that we are pro-kremlin. we're more pro-russian pranksters, since this is our country that we love and worry about. you say that we only call those who are against the kremlin, but the issue is that russia simply doesn't have many friends now. >> reporter: ukraine, on

the other hand, has many, especially in washington, and posing as volodymyr zelenskyy, the ukrainian president, has gotten the russian pranksters results. >> just say it's a great honor to speak to you. >> reporter: with influential figures like the chair of the u.s. federal reserve, who thought it was the real president zelenskyy quizzing him on the global economy and suggesting the fed let ukraine print its own u.s. dollars to fund the war with russia. >> if you could present me printing press, i would be really happy. >> we have one of those, but we keep it in the basement. >> oh, okay. >> again, i know you're going to be dependent on a lot of help from the west and from the united states. ♪ >> reporter: it's not just u.s. officials being pranked. >> we would like to continue the nuclear program in order to protect ourselves from russia. >> reporter: britain's defense

minister was taken aback when who he thought was ukraine's prime minister floated the idea of nuclear weapons. >> i think more than being neutral, russia would really hate that. >> for sure. we know this. >> reporter: the british government condemned the prank as straight from the kremlin playbook. >> why haven't you prank called prominent people in russia, like vladimir putin, like the head of the chechen republic, like prigozhin, the head of wagner? why aren't you crank calling those people to expose the truth about them? >> make a disaster in our country because such calls could make damage in our current situation. >> but you're not worried about the danger and the risks of doing what you do in other societies?

>> that could hurt our society, of course. >> reporter: but the truth is, really powerful russians would never tolerate being pranked in this way. they would simply be unable to get away with duping a kremlin that's cracked down hard on dissent, whereas russia's enemies in the west, especially in the u.s., are considered fair game. >> okay. yeah. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> good talking to you. >> thank you. [ speaking non-english ] >> reporter: matthew chance, cnn, london. just ahead, we'll tell you what caused this reaction. look at the happiness at a college commencement ceremony in boston. [ cheers and applause ] that moi, and smooths dry skin. with 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins, you can pay more but you can't get more. gold bond. champion your skin.

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graduates at the university of massachusetts boston were in for a big surprise at their commencement ceremony. >> for us the greatest joys we have had in our life have been the gift of giving. so each of you is getting $1,000 cash right now. the first 500 is for you. it is a celebration of all you have done to be here today. your leaders. celebrate. the second 500 is a gift for you to give to somebody or somebody else or another organization who could use it more than you. >> that generous man was billionaire rob hale the founder and ceo of granite telecommunications and owns a minority stake in the boston celtics. mr. hale, thanks for joining us tonight. this is the third year you've given this kind of gift to a graduating class. you did it in 2021 at quincy college and last year at roxbury

college. where did the idea come from and why? >> i'd say the first one, the quincy community college was 2020 -- 2021, and the kids were on the heels of the pandemic and so it seemed like they'd been through so much adversity that we should give them a reason to celebrate. secondly, quincy, roxbury, and umass boston are high percentage first generation college graduate, high percentage minority population. these are kids who, and honestly many adults as well who have worked their tails off to get here and to work through, work two jobs to get through. they needed a little celebration >> i grew up a couple miles from the umass boston campus so i am guessing that the reaction, i know john king of my college age it would be a big deal to get a thousand dollars. you segue this with 500 for you, 500 for an organization or a person who needs help even more than you. let's start with the reactions.

when people come through the line and you hand them those envelopes what is the interesting, unique, funny thing someone has said to you? >> the most emotional is many of them say how they intend to use the $500 not for themselves. very few people say that. many people say i intend to give this to the following organization. one woman said to me, i have five children. i'm going to give $100 to each of my children and they need it. and then she hugged me and we both got kind of misty to be honest. it was pretty special. >> you're hoping to plant a seed obviously. you talk about how successful you have become and how philanthropy is so important for you to give back. you can't guarantee this. you don't know what they do with the second envelope but your hope i assume is to plant a seed that they give that money away this time and then as they do better in life even if they don't reach billionaire status they think here's 500 bucks, a thousand bucks, maybe a few thousand dollars i can do to help and this is the beginning of something, right?

>> that is a hundred percent the objective. karen and i are very, very fortunate and to be honest many of the most joyous moments in our lives have been culminations of gifts and seeing the by product. and so we hope that the graduates take the money, give it to an individual or organization and feel that joy. i'm telling you it is intoxicating and they'll want to keep that joy and do it more frequently. i believe, i really believe if they put the money to good use it will become a trait that carries on the rest of their lives. >> as you know you've started doing this at this unprecedented time where there is a lot of stress, the covid stress, and then can i find a job stress and everything like that. in terms of the seeds you're trying to plant have you heard from any of the students say two years ago saying thank you, you were so important to me then this is what i'm doing now? >> ironically, quincy community college is a two-year school,

becoming a four-year school by the way. it was a two-year school when we did it. one of the young ladies we gave the gift to, a thousand dollars to at quincy community college came through this year at umass boston and told us, you gave me a thousand dollars before and i gave it back to quincy college because they helped me. thank you for my second gift. i said, thank you for your second graduation. >> that is pretty cool. i'm guessing just about every college and university in the country has asked you to be their commencement speaker next year, right? >> after this show they will. >> let's hope. you choose wisely. i'm a dorchester kid. i would be remiss. you are a co-owner of the boston celtics. who have after three games that made me quite miserable played two games that have me kind of hopeful. how are you feeling for tomorrow night? can we get two in a row? >> i think you hit the nail on the head. hopeful is the right word. i'm with you. i believe we have a gifted team

fan they play defense and run the floor quickly i like our chances. >> whoever figured out what to change in the pregame buffet or throw the heart button, give that person a raise. >> will do. and i'll tell them it's from you. >> rob hale, appreciate your time and generosity. thank you, sir. >> thank you, john. see you at the erie pub. >> amen. the news continues. right after a quick break. ♪ (vo) adventure on a deeper level. the subaru forester wilderness. dog tested. dog approved. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru.

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