it." alisyn in the band. >> more cow bell, please. >> does she qualify with the cow bell? >> all she has to do is stand on stage and look pretty. friday with a fox news alert because she is finally free. an arizona mom's harrowing ordeal is now over. this was the scene late last night after spending more than a week in a mexican jail on drug smuggling charges. that's where we start. i'm bill hemmer. welcome to america's newsroom. >> what a night for them, right? good morning everybody, i'm martha maccallum. her name is yanira maldonado. there she is walking out of a jail, a happy woman, into her husband's waiting arms. everybody's very excited for that moment. she was arrested across the border in mexico. it started when 12 pounds of marijuana was found packed under her bus seat. she and her family never

waivered. they said she was innocent from the first moment of this and it was a huge mistake. bill: she is back on u.s. soil after a mexican judge freed the mother after looking at surveillance video. she walked on the bus with only a purse, a couple water bottles and a few blankets. dominic di-natale in arizona. how emotional was the reunion in early morning hours? >> reporter: very, bill. her husband gary was there and a crowd of supporters gathered and shouting and cheering and applauding after she left the prison. they closed the prison doors behind her. it was finalizing moment she was free at that particular moment. very shortly afterwards she spoke to the media. one the first questions she asked how do you feel about the people responsible for her being locked up nine days. this is how she responded. >> to repent, i don't know. just to work on honest and

find a job and a decent job where they can make a living, not putting innocent people through this nightmare like they did to me and my family. >> reporter: extraordinary, extraordinarily forgiving woman there. actually, yanira has an awful lot of spirituality. she is a devout mormon and spirituality of prayers kept her going. that is the spirit how she was able to endure it, bill. bill: dominic, at what point did mexican authorities realize they did not have the case they thought against her? >> reporter: yesterday was a very pivotal moment because they showed video evidence in court. it was a moment that the couple boarded the bus and all they were carrying two bottles of water, two light, fleece blankets which they passed between each other. the district attorney studying the video could see in the moments there was no way you could hide 12 pound of marijuana amongst what they were carrying.

gary the husband was saying, look, you can see on the faces on video there was nothing they could prosecute them with. from that moment the authorities realized they would have to release her, bill. bill: this is at least the second american we know of held in mexico all later released. is there a explanation why this keeps happening? >> reporter: well, mexico struggles with corruption when it comes to the authorities, particularly with the police. in this case it was the military. you might remember the case last year of john hammer, the u.s. veteran who was arrested for attempting to illegally take weapons into mexico even though he declared them at a border post. ended up being chained to his bed like a dog in the jail for four months. he wasn't able to deal with the authorities. a lot of authorities are always demanding bribes of americans in these circumstances. until the mexico authorities can do something to tackle the corruption it appears many americans may face a similar fate in the future. bill: dominic did i dinatale

in arizona. martha: you can bet her family is overjoid to have her home. who wouldn't be. her daughter will be here in "america's newsroom." we'll speak to her. and reaction of all that happened to her family this week. bill: now to the irs controversial targeting of conservative groups and other groups. house investigators will interview four irs employees from the cincinnati office hoping that will help congress better understand how the scandal first started in the first place. republicans questioned if there was any political motivation behind the office's targeting of these groups. the irs pushed back against that notion. we hear the interviews will be conducted over the next two weeks. so we're certain to hear more about this, martha. martha: that's right. there is growing scrutiny right now on the head of the, former head i should say of the irs, the gentleman you see in the video from the hearing last week. we're learning more about the number of times he visited the white house.

157 visits he made to the white house. that is more than any other cabinet member. just as benchmark, hillary clinton was there 43 times. geithner less than 50 times times. details on former commissioner doug shulman are coming to light on congressional hearings why he had visited the white house so many times. >> what would be some of the reasons you might be at the white house? >> easter egg roll with my kids. questions about the administerability of tax policy they were thinking of. >> all right. >> our budget. martha: that did not go over well, the easter egg chat there at the end of that. jonah goldberg joins me now. he is editor-at-large for "national review" and a fox news contributor. jonah, this surfaced obviously during the hearing that he was there 157 times but it has really sunk in to the sort of kind of bloodstream on this story.

and when you look at it, you see how many fewer times people who were much higher up and much closer to the president visited the white house. what comes next in terms of learning what husband business was there on all of those trips? >> no, look, it doesn't pass the smell test. the white house is constantly saying this is an independent agency. it is not under any political direction. solely about collecting revenue. then you find out the head of the irs visited the white house more than the secretary of state, more than secretary of treasury. when you ask the head of the irs why he was there 157 times, all he can think of is the easter egg roll. like asking someone why you were at hooters 100 times last year. because they have great chicken wings. it doesn't pass the smell test. martha: isn't that why people go to hooters? >> totally. martha: talk to me about the procedure from here. we need to know who he was

meeting with, what the business of most meetings was, that clearly should be the business of the american people. this is a presidency expected to be extremely transparent why people were in what is called the people's house, right? >> that's right. and, look, even if you didn't have these scandals, even if you didn't have not just the targeting of conservative groups with conservative names words in their names and all of these increasingly disturbing anecdotes about groups like true the vote and the planned, pro-life group in iowa that were really put through the ringer, even if you have none of that, you still have the question why was the irs involved at a policy, in policy-making meetings in the white house if it is an independent agency? martha: we know there was likely a lot of discussion about health care that was going on there. all of this brings into question whether or not they should have the relationship that they're designated to

have carrying out the president's health care law in light of all this very interesting exchange last night between bill o'reilly, and mark everson a former commissioner of the irs. let take a look at that and get your thoughts on it. >> how many times did you go to the white house? >> you know i don't have a precise number. my wife at the time i was married she worked on al gonzales's staff. sometimes i would -- >> on official irs business, how many times? >> oh, i testified last year before issa's committee that i only went over there to my recollection once on a policy matter, inneragency policy matter, if you will. >> all right. >> that was to talk about immigration reform. martha: even given the fact that there is a lot of overlap between irs and health care, that is something that some conservatives would like to see changed what earthly reason can you imagine why he would have been there all these times if there wasn't some connection to politics? >> right. and it is important to keep in mind.

it is not like the commissioner of the irs or any other government official goes to the white house when he or she wants to. they go to the white house when the president wants them there which at the very minute mum --. martha: or somebody he works for him. >> fair enough. but people are called to the white house. people very rarely show up on their own accord. so he was involved at some very fundamental level with, in the sort of a policy making arm of white house decision making and i think that deserves to be outed. i think darrell issa is doing this almost exactly right. he is trying to build a factual record. showing deference where he can. i don't think this should go to a special prosecutor. i think that would be a bad idea. martha: jonah, to jump in and i've got to go, should they bring shulman back and put him under oath as bill o'reilly suggest last night and make him document all the reasons for the visits, who he met with, what they talked about?

>> i absolutely that should be freedom of information request. shulman should explain it this is supposed to be a transparent white house and that is sacrosanct and should be transparent what he was doing at the white house. martha: thanks, jonah. bill: the targeting started about three years ago early in 2010 when the irs began inappropriately screening conservative groups primarily. nearly 500 groups fell into that net and were subjected to unfair and overly burdensome scrutiny and questions. some of the groups are tea party or patriot waited more than three years to have their tax-exempt applications processed. while they waited two election cycles came and then went. martha: look at the numbers. we asked the voters what they think about the administration involvement in the irs scandal. 37% say they think the administration knew about it. that they didn't initiate it. and that 29%, excuse me think they were behind it.

24% say the administration was not involved at all. so very split. a lot of questions out there about what was going on. bill: we're getting new reaction from new york congressman michael grim and the attorney general and apparent history with other scandals. have a >> i think it goes beyond the details at this point. look, there's a pattern. a pattern has emerged going back to fas and fouch just. "fast & furious" as we all know, a border patrol agent lost his life and no one was held accountable. what is interesting there a lot of people don't know, the fbi was supposed to investigate that as far as what role did the attorney general play and the fbi was told to stand down, leave the room. that the attorney general said that the department of justice will handle it internally. bill: there is more on this too. we'll talk to house judiciary committee member bob goodlatte on whether the attorney general perjured himself under oath that he said he did not know about his department's

surveillance of journalists. that is coming up in the hour. martha: there is a new effort to save a dying girl who does not qualify for a lung transplant due to age limitations. is this rule valid? we're going to ask the president of the lung transplant foundation. bill: also a fair and balanced debate this morning on attorney general eric holder under attack after the justice department spies on reporters. he is apparently reviewing his department's guidelines in dealing with the media. is that too little too late? we debate. martha: chris wallace will join us later on. the irs targeting of conservative groups. we'll take a look where this investigation and the lawsuits stand and the potential fallout in washington. big show coming up. we'll see you after the break. >> i feel personally that the irs is too big, too bureaucratic. it is the poster-child now for everything the tea party is against. the irs basically needs to have a wrecking ball taken to it ♪ if loving you is wrong

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martha: new developments in the ricin case. according to reports fbi agents are now questioning a man from texas whose wife called authorities after she noted strange material in her refrigerator and computer searches on the family computer for ricin. that is not a good day when you see those kind of things at home. the letters believed to be laced with the poison were sent to several public officials including the president at the white house and a washington office connected to new york city mayor michael bloomberg. bill: search history online, don't you. that will come back to get you. there must have been plenty of refreshments left over. attorney general eric holder not getting many takers from his invitation to journalists for the off the record sit-down. a few news outlets showed up and holder is pledging to change guidelines on reporter investigations is this too little to late? let's debate it. julie roginsky former advisor to senator frank lautenberg and brad

blakeman. former advisor to president george w. bush. >> good morning. bill: so the audience understands, discussions of freedom of the press were held behind closed doors. the stuff about dealing with reporters is off the record. brad, make sense of this. >> this is tantamount eric holder taking the fifth with the press. he calls you in. he doesn't want to talk about what happened before the transgressions by him and his staff. he wants to talk about going forward. what are the guidelines going forward? the horse is already out of the barn. he has a lot of explaining to do on the record as to what he did, what he knew, what he instructed those subordinates under him to do with regard to snooping on the press. it is not only james rosen at fox news. it is ap, cbs, a whole host of organizations and he has an obligation to answer these questions to the american people directly. remember, bill, it was the president who announced that holder would be meeting with the press. the president didn't say it would be a closed-door, off the record meeting. so the president who

promised to be the open and transparent president is anything but that. bill: got it, brad. julie, do you have issue with the off the record stuff? >> i do. is bizarro friday i agree with everything brad said. i'm completely appalled this is off the record. if my fellow democrats were honest with themselves if it was the bush administration doing they would be up in arms. no excuse for us not being up in arms. eric holder is doing this. first of all i'm incredibly appalled what is going on with ap and james rosen going back. going forward i'm glad they're taking a look at it, but brad is absolutely right. bill: julie, why do you think he did it? >> i don't know. bill: softening up the beachhead for something? kissing up to reporters or what? did they think everybody would show up hat in hand? >> i suspect. i don't know whose decision it was, but i suspect we'll have off the record sort of a schmooze fest. i worked in congress you do with reporters who may be upset with you. brood is right, the american people really do deseven to

hear why this happened. this can't be off the record. i would like to know why. bill: to that point, you both agree on this, do you think we will ever know, brood the answer? >> i do. bill: you do? >> the truth always comes out, bill. the question is when. the president can hope this will pass. this is the same strategy they used with benghazi. same strategy they hoped would pass them through the irs but it is scandal after scandal. we're seeing now it is systemic within the administration. it is state department, it is treasury. it is justice. the truth in washington always comes out and the scandal is always worse than the crime except in benghazi because here we have americans that are dead and they're dead because of the actions taken by the administration. bill: i want to share this -- >> i'm fully confident that the truth will come out. bill: i want to share with viewers, approval number for eric holder look at the middle nine. 27% that middle line in may 2010. it jumped up 40%. i don't know what kind of

impact has on people in america. maybe goes to the trust in government. ann romney was talking about the breach in trust and perhaps that is what it tells us more than anything. >> i tell you this as democrat and liberal i disapprove. i disapprove from a very liberal perspective. i fully believe that the press needs as much freedom as possible. if in fact the press was doing something jeopardized national security you need to find who the source was, go to a judge, go to the judge and subpoena the reporter. go through the channels. bill: well a parently they contacted news corporation regarding james rosen and our attorney at news corporation said they have no record of it. >> i don't know what happened at news corporation but you should contact, you should. should i contact the reporter. the reporter won't turn over his source then you go before a judge and make your case before an independent judge but you don't arbitrarily make the decision to. >> on somebody. this is abhorrent and antithetical what we democrats should stand for. bill: we'll see whether or not the behavior changes going forward.

julie, thank you. brad, thanks to you as well. have a good weekend. >> bye. martha: this is getting our attention this morning as well. there are new allegations of private donations and monies being raised to cover obamacare costs. who is behind this effort and is it against the law? bill: also oklahoma can not catch a break, folks. new tornadoes ripping through neighborhoods and the threat there is not over. >> it is coming down. >> yeah. there it is. the great outdoors...

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bill: so let's hear it for the boys, right? for the first time since 2008 a young gentleman won the scripps national spelling bee. he is 13 years old and from new york. he beat out 300 others with this word. >> k, n, a, i, d, e, l.

knaidel. >> you are the champion. [cheers and applause] bill: we knew that, right? martha: of course. bill: yiddish german word for dumpling. he get as trophy and 30 grand in cash. a savings bond that returns about .012 percent and a encyclopedia and visit on "fox & friends.". >> when i heard i won, i wasn't sure i won. it was 11:30 p.m. at that time it didn't really seem real to me. bill: because he was probably sleeping. martha: i was asleep and tired and didn't realize i won. he is so cute. bill: he will enjoy his retirement from the spelling bee and study physics. good man. martha: all right. quantum is physics. that is what i studied. speaking of that, and moving right along, another massive

storm system hitting america's heartland. boy, every day we're watching these situations. this system spawned at least five tornadoes in arkansas and oklahoma including this one caught by a storm chaser in a tulsa suburb of broken arrow, oklahoma. watch this. >> there are indications with this storm. >> there it is right beside us. tornado on the ground. it is a stovepipe. >> you can see the power flashes. martha: wow at least nine people were injured in this one. and we are expecting more storms today, you know, in those mid to late afternoon hours when we see these things happening. meteorologist maria molina is live in the fox extreme weather center. boy, what can they look for and what do they need to be prepared for today, maria? >> hi, martha. it looks like the same exact threat and similar conditions we saw yesterday and pretty much over the past several days and affecting same states and afternoon hours and late

evening hours. oklahoma you have been pretty much for about three days now under a moderate risk for severe storms. you can see the video, the storm system ripping through parts of oklahoma. so again that area shaded in red. that's where we have the greatest concern for tornadoes. that chance for the longer tracks and also more violent tornadoeses of ef 3 and 4 strength are possible again today and including oklahoma city. over the last three days we received over 800 reports of severe weather including damaging wind in excess of 60 miles an hour and large hail and wind and the tornadoes came out of the state of oklahoma. this is an area that has been affected badly over the past month by tornadic activity and again expecting it today. severe weather is expected anywhere from parts of texas all the way up to the sections of the great lakes. the problem with the storm system because it is such a slow-mover. storms are moving over the same area producing a lot of heavy rain. the ground is saturated in

states like illinois and states like missouri and parts of arkansas. flash flooding is a huge concern. we have a number of watches out here. into the weekend this storm system will continue to move slowly. martha, another two, three, even four inches of rain are still expected. flooding concerns, another big story in addition to the severe weather threat. martha: all right, maria, we'll be watching it closely, thank you, with your help, boy. bill: they want this spring good-bye, don't they? martha: horrible. bill: there is not a lot of time left to get a 10-year-old girl the lung transplant that might save her life. the one simple thing her family and advocates for that matter could cut through the bureaucratic red tape as we hear from the girl's mother. >> she is not aware of this debate over lungs and she is being treated unfairly. she is not aware of that part. she is aware she is sick. she is getting sicker and she is worried that she's dying.

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bill: 9:2 in new york. republican lawmakers calling for an investigation into kathleen sebelius. she is the health and human services secretary, asking if she broke the law seeking private donations to promote the president's health care law. what is this all about? elizabeth prann is in washington. what do lawmakers want to know, elizabeth? >> reporter: good morning bill. prominent republicans joining ranks calling for a probe whether health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius violated

any rules while seeking donations from private companies to promote the affordable care act. with letters from orrin hatch, lamar alexander and tom coburn are investigating for whether she was asking donations for groups in enroll america, a nonprofit group gearing up to promote and sell obamacare to the public. bill. bill: elizabeth, there were similar requests coming from the house side as well, is that right? what were they about? >> reporter: well that's right. the senators letters really coming days after house republicans called for a government accountability office investigation of sebelius's actions. listen. >> more recently however is the secretary's brazen fund-raising push despite federal ethics regulations forbidding any department official from fund raising in a professional capacity. >> the secretary must stop using unethical if maybe not illegal, we don't know yet, methods to fund the law's implementation.

>> reporter: health and human services up assisting the secretary did not directly solicit funds from anyone regulated by the department. of course the administration say sebelius's actions were authorized by law. this is while the implementation keeps on growing the congressional budget office estimate it is will cost more than $5 billion to implement obamacare and democrats appropriated one billion dollars for implementation. bill, back to you. bill: elizabeth, thank you, live in washington on that. martha: meanwhile two lawmakers now also asking the health and human services secretary to help approve a lung transplant for a dying 10-year-old little girl. her name is sarah and she has cystic fibrosis. her parents have been told she may now have only weeks to live but because of her age she can only receive a donor lung after all the adult candidates on the list have first had the opportunity to take advantage of that available lung. i spoke to her mom earlier this week. here's a piece of that.

>> any parent on the listing thinks that this is, must be a fair and equitable list. so you don't really think that your child will be discriminated against. i felt like we got on. we got on well in advance, as soon as she qualified for organ transplant. we knew there would be a wait and we got on the list. martha: jeffrey goldstein is the president of the lung transplant foundation. he is also a double lung trant plant recipient -- transplant recipient. that is amazing. great to see you, jeff. their for being with us today. >> thank you, my pleasure. martha: what is your reaction when you hear sarah's mom say that? >> it is gut-wrenching. it is a very difficult experience. i've been through it myself. i can recall at one point through my process i was concerned i might not get my lungs but the real issue, why is there a waiting list at all? there are not enough organs

and not enough organ donors to adequately provide for transplantation. that's the real issue here. martha: well that is a great point and it is something for every one of us to think about in terms of checking off that box and doing what you can to help people who desperately need these organs. we certainly, you know, recommend that anybody who can do that, absolutely should. what about this issue of adult versus child? i want to pull up a full screen quote that we have lear from the association that oversees this. lung allocation policy differs for these groups of candidates and it is designed to suit their unique needs. he is talking about children under the age of 12. there is a big discussion about whether or not it is discriminatory. should the lung go to the person, whatever their age, who is most in need, jeff? >> well, i'm not a scientist so i can't argue with a

scientist the process but perhaps there is a opportunity to look at the system. i personally believe that i personally believe that there is a, should be based system, there is a need based system. the problem for example, in this case those statistics indicate that there was only two lung donors in her age range, six to 10, between january and february of this year. and only one of those set of lungs was transplanted. and that --. martha: they're arguing she should be eligible for an adult lung, a adult not in as dire imminent need should not be on the list above her. that it is age discriminatory to even have that cuttoff for under 12. >> i understand that and that's a legitimate question to ask. i agree with that. but the allocation system has been very effective since it was revised in 2005 and in fact, more people have been transplanted under

the new system. it is need-based and it is just unfortunate, terribly, terribly unfortunate she is in that position. the other issue is the medical issue is, can you transplant a adult lung into a child or a young adult? and those are issues that the doctors have it answer. and along with that is, can it be done successfully? the transplant is a significant part of the process but getting through it and living, i can tell you is the rest of it. martha: yeah. and you know that more than obviously any of the rest of us in terms of compatibility and, you know, how your body responds to that lung. the doctors have told us in the course of doing this story that they can do that, that they can take a partial lobe from an adult lung and successfully transplant it into little sarah, that is what her family is

desperately fighting for now. they want kathleen sebelius to change the rule with regards to age. what are your thoughts on that? >> well i understand that's what they're requesting. i don't know about the feasibility of that. martha: yeah. >> i think, i think the family has done everything they can. they should be, in my opinion, they should be seeking out other transplant centers. you are allowed to list at two different centers, outside of the range of the primary center. martha: good to know. >> pardon me? martha: i said, that's good to know. >> right. is my understanding that as well she can be listed as an adult in some of these centers. the, i think the issue then again is, where she comes up on the list. martha: all right. jeff goldstein, thank you so much for sharing your perso- and your thoughts on this case. good to speak with you, sir. take care. >> my pleasure. thank you. best to the family. bill: cute little girl and our best to the family as well. thank you, sir. she knew her mother was

innocent from the beginning. the daughter of the arizona mom just freed from a mexican jail will join us live this morning about her family's ordeal and how her mom is doing today. martha: plus wednesday is the deadline for the attorney general to ounce the house judiciary's questions on his role in the search warrant on fox's james rosen. the chair of that committee, congressman bob goodlatte, joins us live here in "america's newsroom." coming up next. you don't want to miss it [ male announcer ] it's the memorial day sale from adt.

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martha: well ohio state's president is now apologizing for some questionable remarks he made about notre dame university. during a speech to the university's athletic council gordon gee said notre dame wasn't invited to join the big 10 because catholics can't be trusted? saying that the school's priest are holy on sunday and holy hell the rest of the week? he questioned academic integrity of other schools. he has since apologized. how about that? bill: apparently there was recording of that. martha: we would like to hear that. bill: if that goes public, i mean he has been fiery in the past too. that is his history. did attorney general eric holder lie under oath? house republicans say holder may have perjured himself when he testified before the committee hearing when he said the following under oath. >> with regard to the disclosure of the press -- prosecution of the press regarding disclosure of

material that is something i never heard of or would think a wise policy. my view is the opposite. bill: congressman bob goodlatte out of virginia, house judiciary committee filed a number of points with that letter asking vir rao's information from the department of justice. sir, good morning to you. roanoke, virginia, good to have you back on the program. the question for you is the search warrants and the fox e-mails that directly pertain to james rosen and the sworn testimony, part of which we just heard. did he perjure himself under oath, sir? >> well, we have sent the attorney general as you noted a lengthy, extensive letter point out the contradiction between his statement to the committee, made under oath and the warrant which is sworn out usually by an assistant united states attorney, also under oath, that was used to obtain a search warrant against james rosen, and in that search warrant, rosen was named as, i think the language is something like,

at least an ader, abet tore or could conspirator and it clearly implicated him on a criminal basis. as a result of that, that clearly contradicted his testimony that he never heard of, thought of such a thing. we'll wait until we receive the attorney yep's reply to our letter, and we've set a deadline of next wednesday for that, on before passing judgment whether that constitutes perjury. obviously it is very inconsistent, these two statements that he had to approve the warrant and the justice department is now saying that because mr. rosen was not indicted, that he was not being untruthful in his testimony. however, that raises an additional very alarming concern and that is, is the justice department putting false information in their

warrants to get the information they want because they could not have received a warrant with regard to mr. rosen unless they accused him of a crime. so this is a very serious conflict. bill: it is and it brings up a range of questions. i want to tick through a couple here, okay? in your letter part of what you said is the following, the justice department ish issued a statement from the search warrant for mr. rosen's e-mails was approved at the highest level of the department. did this include you? would that be a smoking gun? >> well, it certainly is an important question because the process with regard to subpoenas, search warrants, et cetera, with regard to thehe attorney general the you will recall that the testimony in the committee was related to the associated press issue, with the subpoena, the broad subpoena issued there with regard to 20 reporters and over a two month period of time. in that case the attorney general testified that he recused himself and turned

it over to the deputy attorney general. so we have a lot of questions which we've addressed to the deputy attorney general in that case. two weeks ago we sent a letter to deputy attorney general cole asking a series of questions about that. so we want to know what the attorney general's involvement was in the issue of the search warrant. bill: understood. >> for mr. rosen and we're going to follow this until we get the answers. bill: here's another pointed question. how can you claim to have never been involved in the potential prosecution of a member of the media but you were admittedly involved in discussions regarding mr. rosen's e-mails? those discussions is that where he tripped up? >> that raidses the very question that goes to the heart of our letter and the question regarding the truthfulness of his testimony before the committee. it also goes to the heart of the concern that many of us in the congress have regarding the attorney general's overall willingness to take

responsibility for his department. bill: just to be clear, sir, i apologize about the interruption but when talked the discussions is that where he tripped up? >> well, certainly he has acknowledged in that that he has been involved in discussions with regard to the rosen matter and if he in his testimony before the committee said that he had never heard of the idea of possible prosecutions of reporters involved in investigating news leaks, and obviously appropriate for the department to investigate leaks out of various government agencies. but because of the importance of the first amendment and protecting free press it's also important that they follow very clearly delineated procedures when involving the press. it's clear they did not do that in this days, or, the attorney general is not being truthful. bill: answers by wednesday.

we'll see you then. bob goodlatte, thank you, out of virginia with us today. thank you, sir. martha: both of those very different avenues and they will continue to be looked at for eric holder. how about this investigation into the irs scandal? that one is also far from over. the next round of congressional hearings begins on monday morning. we'll tell how will be on the hot seat on monday. of course we'll be covering it for you live in "america's newsroom.". bill: some of the biggest names in angela merkel showings love for the victims of the boston bombings. listen. ♪ g it doesn't. that's crazy. we're all totally different.

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the blisters were oozing, and painful to touch. i woke up to a blistering on my shoulder. i spent 23 years as a deputy united states marshal and i've been pretty well banged up but the worst pain i've experienced was when i had shingles. when i went to the clinic, the nurse told me that it was a result of having had chickenpox. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

bill: we have new developments now in the frightening attack at disneyland. police arrested a suspect after a pair of dry ice bombings in the tune town section of the park on tuesday. 22-year-old christian barnes pleading not guilty to charges of possession of a destructive device. his grandmother says he would not hurt anyone. >> he is a wonderful kid, never did anything wrong. bill: police say barnes is cooperating. his next court appearance is the 9th of june. martha: well, a massachusetts congressman is now saying better information-sharing between the united states and russian intelligence might have actually prevented the deadly boston marathon bombings last month. democrat william keating, made these comments in moscow after a series of meetings with the russian security service. getting a lot of attention. molly line is on it live in boston. we also hear, played a

little bit of it heading out to the break. there was a big benefit concert last night. it looked like a great night to raise money for some of the victims of the marathon bombings. hello, molly, what can you tell us? >> reporter: hello. good morning, martha. i can tell you it was a star-studded event. a lot of big names not only paid homage to the city of boston and to this area but they were actually from this area. the big cap-off of the night was a song, you may be familiar with this one, dirty water. the whole crowd jumped on the stage, gave everyone there, in that, in that area in the td north garden, this big arena, a real treat. people that were there last night, all of the artists, aerosmith, drop-kick murphy is, the band boston, new kids on the block dressing in boss ton bruin injurieses, james taylor. and joined by comedians and doug flutie and former

patriots player tedy bruschi, creating a night of come rod dry. the one snafu there was trouble steaming things over the internet. not sure how that affected dollars raised. for the most part, a beautiful night, a great show and a lot of money raised. martha: sounds like a great show. how much do you think they raised? >> reporter: they're still digging into all the numbers. the tickets were $35 to $285. the venue seats more than 17,000 people. they're still crunching numbers figuring out how much was sent. there is still time to donate to the one fund, go to one fund boston.org to contribute. >> molly we'll leave right right there. ? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you.

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martha: well, it was a happy ending to a horrifying ordeal. after an arizona mother of seven was held for a week on drug smuggling charges and she was released late last night from a mexican jail. welcome, everybody, brand new hour starts now in "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning again. yanira maldonado, that as her name, walked out of the jail last night into the arms of her husband after court officials reviewed security footage showed the couple boarding the bus with blankets, bottles of water and maldonado's purse. said to be a devout mormon accused of hiding 12 pounds of pot under a bus seat. >> someone did this but they

have to do it through like that to get, to get where they want to, to, you know, the staff but they should be more honest and and do things right. martha: encouraging drug smugglers to find a better line of work and something more honest and i'm now joined by brenda pedrasa who is maldonado's daughter. she joins us via skype. thanks for being with us. it must be a extremely, happy, happy, day for your family. >> it is extremely a blessing to hear last night she was being recessed. -- released. it is like a bittersweet, it's, it is wonderful to have my mom back to the united states. it is just something we were hoping and praying on and we're just so happy she's back with us. martha: yeah. we've been hearing about your family, seven children.

and that's a combination, right of gary's children and your mom's kids. >> right. martha: all together now as one family. they just marry ad year ago, is that right? >> yes, ma'am. they just had their anniversary actually but they were separated because of what happened. she was in prison, so they were separated on their first year anniversary. martha: hopefully they will get a chance to properly celebrate their anniversary now that she is back. let's go back to what happened here. what did gary and your mom explain to you about the circumstances? i read something, this marijuana was lodged with metal hooks underneath a seat, packed quite professionally under that seat and that the two of them were sort of straddling the seat it was under and that, they were checked out by police at the check point. what have you heard about the details of what happened? >> well, exactly, you know. they were, at a check point. so everyone had to get off the bus. and the military officials

got on the bus, checked for any illegal drugs and they found under my mom's seat. and it was all bunge corded up under the seat. and, well, at first they had said it was under gary's seat and they would let my mom get back on the bus and come home to the united states. but my mom decided to stay there because gary doesn't speak any spanl niche or hardly understands spanish. they switched the story and said it was under her seat. she ended up going to prison and being separated from gary for a whole week. martha: so he, they wanted to arrest him and then she said, as you point out that she could translate because he didn't speak spanish very well. >> right. martha: they ended up arresting her and letting him go. a very strange course of events, isn't it? >> right, exactly. i don't know why they did that. i can't really say why but it was everything was so

sketched. that is definitely --. martha: was it your understanding that if she hadn't been released by today that she would have been moved to a more longer term prison situation? >> yes. if the judge would have, you know, felt like she was guilty, she would have been sentenced to federal prison she would have been there for about six months. and then actually, they would have to wait for an actual case, an actual trial. martha: now they were there, what was the reason they were in mexico again? >> for a funeral. my aunt passed away and my aunt is like a mother to my, to my mom. martha: so then, after that they decided to get on a bus. i understand it was because they felt like that's a safer way to travel in mexico? >> yeah. you know, it is better to travel through a bus than to take your own vehicle. so sometimes they can stop your vehicle and, you know, take away your own vehicle.

martha: just one last question. what did she say about the jail she was in and her persons experience and how she was treated? >> well, you know, she was very unhappy. it was very miserable for her. the last, the few nights she was there, she didn't have a bed to sleep on. she was sleeping on the floor. they don't even have the basic necessities in that jail. so, it was horrible. martha: yeah. >> and you know, i believe the last two nights they were being, you know, nice to her, i think just because the whole media was involved. martha: whole thing was getting a lot of attention and they knew the eyes of the world were upon them. >> exactly. martha: brenda, thank you, i hope you all have a wonderful weekend back together and they get to celebrate their anniversary in a nicer way than they did last week. thank you, brenda. >> thank you so much. martha: you bet. bill: a very nice daughter. martha: very nice. bill: welcome home. a lot of people can also go home again. called off in southern california. about a thousand people free to return to the green

valley which we understand is still green but thick smoke still clouding the skies. a wildfire burned about a thousand acres nearby in angeles national forest. the danger has passed with cool and light winds giving the firefighters the upper hand. martha: less than an hour from now, the financial report about the status of social security and medicare will be released that is something you always look to, of course. the latest assessment when the fund will run out as the national debt closes in on $17 trillion. how do we continue to fund all these programs for the future and for our children and our grandchildren? last year the report projected that medicare's trust fund would dry up in 2024 and social security's trust fund would be exhausted in 2033. with 10,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every single day, those dates could start to creep a little closer to that report. that's coming up.

bill: what was going on in cincinnati, ohio, and what did washington know about it? four irs workers are about to face some tough questioning. congressional investigators getting set to grill the employees who work in the office in the middle of the scandal involving the tax agency's targeting of conservative groups leading up to the 2012 election. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel on this out of washington. good morning to you. the latest on this now is what about the investigation? >> reporter: congressional sources say two interviews were to take place this week and the second pair are expected to be conducted next week. these are transcripted interviews with people there in the cincinnati irs office during targeting of conservative groups. today is deadline set by senators max baucus and orrin hatch, the leaders of the senate finance committee. they sent a six-page letter to the irs asking more than 40 questions. they want'ses to the questions and demanding irs documentation be turned over by today, bill. bill: mike, we'll get into some hearings next week. i think there's one on monday. there's one on tuesday.

there is a deadline come wednesday. what are they looking for then? >> well the two more hearings, first one monday afternoon in front of the house appropriations committee featuring testimony from daniel werfel, the guy who was sent in to clean up the irs mess and j russell george the investigator who investigated the tax collection agency. tuesday, house ways and means chairman dave camp will hold a hearing and invite tea party groups that were applications were delayed and asked inappropriate questions about their party affiliations and more. one tea party leader says much of his focus is now on irs reform. >> the irs basically needs to have a wrecking ball taken to it. it needs to be completely altered and go to consumer based tax system, fair tax or what have you. >> reporter: that hearing will look at the practical impact of the irs giving extra scrutiny to these organizations, delaying their applications for tax-exempt status. bill? bill: we'll see what light it sheds then. mike emanuel live in washington. thank you, sir.

martha: syria's big ally is standing by its side. russia now says it plans to sell at least 10 advanced fighter jets to the regime as the civil war continues to drag on with no end in sight. these are scenes from violence happening every day in syria. not clear when the planes from russia will arrive to help the effort there of the syrian leadership. russia is also plan toggle syria sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles. these are known as the f-300. that is scheduled to happen over the next several months. israel is very unhappy about that development. they view those as a direct threat and say they will not allow those to become operational. watch for that to become an increasingly tense situation. bill: there is from syria, a michigan woman who converted to islam was killed in syria while fighting for opposition forces against the government there. nicole mansfield, 33 years old. her aunt says the fbi informed her family of the death on thursday but did

not have in i details how she died. a syrian media outlet reported that the single mother had rifles and the flag of a group related to al qaeda on her when she died. martha: back here at home, the white house is on defense right now. they have got a slew of scandals that have engulfed the attention of the administration right now and "fox news sunday" anchor chris wallace will be with us moments away with a look at what always of this could mean for the president's second term. bill: also this small plane going down right into the living room of that apartment building. the breaking details this morning on that coming up in three minutes. martha: the hot seat gets a bit hotter today under attorney general eric holder. how far will the nation's to cop go to hold onto his position? >> it is scandalous while going after this low level guy over a korean leak which appears reasonably innocuous and calling rosen a

co-conspirator, basically a criminal over that and just completely ignoring the torrent of leaks that made obama look good. the great outdoors, and a great deal. grrrr ahhh let's leave the deals to hotels.com. perfect! yep, and no angry bears. up to 30% off. only at hotels.com.

bill: a small plane crashing through the roof of an apartment building in virginia. look at that. the plane smashing afew feet away from the apartment build's gas line. they're lucky there, huh? investigators say the plane ran out of fuel en route to an airport near philadelphia. two people inside were hurt and the pilot suffered minor injuries. the building was evacuated and the plane was now taken away. martha: the white house is working hard to defend itself from multiple scandals that have really dominated president obama's second term thus far. the irs is now getting sued over the targeting scandal. the u.s. attorney general eric holder investigated over whether he lied under oath during his testimony on the secret monitoring of journalists and also benghazi in the picture here

as well. joined by "fox news sunday" anchor chris wallace who has a packed weekend on his show on sunday. chris, good morning to you. good to have you here. >> thank you. it will be, business is good in the sunday talk show realm these days. martha: that is for sure. that is for sure. seems to me that the question starting to surround these things more than ever is why? it raise as question about eric holder in terms of the perjury issue around whether or not he lied under oath when he said that he had no, no knowledge of investigating or prosecuting journalists. that was something he wouldn't stand byroh or stand for. he says he was in discussions about the james rosen situation. it just goes back to the question, chris, which i know you will be asking, why? why? >> and we'll be asking one. key players in this because we'll be talking on sunday to the chairman of the house judiciary committee bob goodlatte and goodlatte and another republican on the committee, james

sensenbrenner have sent a very harsh letter to the attorney general and they want answers by wednesday. basically how do you square what you said to our committee on may 15th, not only wouldn't i do it i have never heard such a thing. how do you square that it came out a few days later that you signed off on the fbi affidavit requesting a search warrant for the e-mails of james rosen in the james rosen national security leak case which you called rose an ader, abetor, criminal liability. you talked about potential liability of the 1979 espionage act and how do you square what you said with what you did? martha: we played a sound bite a little while ago from charles krauthamer about leaks after the bin laden raid and pushed reporters, that was supposed to be classified information or closely held information and

the question why in this situation would they so be interested in this story in north korea with regards to james rosen and whether or not there was any ulterior motives. >> one thing i would say, martha, we don't know whether they did exactly the case of the "new york times." that hasn't come out yet. that is question a lot of people want to know. if i had eric holder did it stop at ap and fox news or did you do it to "new york times" and bunch of other organizations? martha: there is a suggestion that there may have been other times. obviously that is the big question on everyone's mind. if they have the opportunity with eric holder and we'll hear about it sunday from bob goodlatte as you point out. in terms of irs, mr. shulman, 157 visits to the white house. that is an eye-popping number compared to other cabinet members and their visits. hillary clinton was there 43 times i guess. the question is why, what were the nature of their business there, what were they talking about? this is the nature of things

that american people have right to know, correct? >> particularly bill o'reilly interviewed mark everson a former irs commissioner. martha: right. >> i think he said, and i know you have run it this morning whether he went once or not at all. in other words it wasn't standard procedure that the irs commissioner trotted down to the white house. it raises questions, an extraordinary number 150 times. now of course doug shulman, the former irs commissioner in what was really an arrogant answer said, well i went to the easter egg roll. martha: that went over well. >> there weren't 150 easter egg rolls. martha: there weren't 150 easter egg roles. we may see many him coming back. >> i think he will come back. martha: to go into detail about the nature of those visits. a lot to talk about chris and we look forward to it as always. see you on sunday. >> thank you, martha. martha: as he said he has bob goodlatte coming up chairman of house judiciary committee who has a lot of questions for eric holder.

also congressman chris van hollen will be on the program this sunday and rnc chairman reince priebus talking about the future of the republican party. bill: will be a good show. martha: a lot on the plate. bill: easter egg roll and the white house christmas party and you had the pardon, thanksgiving day turkey. so there are three. martha: that is three potential innocuous events. bill: keep going. brought the family and kids. maybe colleagues and friends. martha: do you see anybody, 157 times except me and maybe your family? i mean who do you see 157 times a year? nobody, right? bill: got to be an answer there. we'll see on sunday with chris. president obama, set to talk about, look, we're live from the white house. talking about student loan. student loan debt is close to a trillion dollars nationwide. interest rates might double by july 1st. liz claman tells us about the young americans trying to climb that mountain of debt. martha: very nice. look forward to that. we're getting new details about the night of the benghazi terror attack.

what u.s. officials instructed the hospital to do with ambassador chris stevens's body. a timeline and a breakdown coming right up. quite interesting.

bill: quick check what is happening now how serious the student loan problem is in america. as of this year, total student loan balances reached nearly a trillion dollars. recent grads, on average, $26,000 each. for about 1.2 million americans, their student loan bill is over $100,000. liz claman, host of "countdown to the closing bell", fox business network. good morning to you. thanks for coming back. we're waiting on the white house an event there. i was 10 grand in the hole. i thought that was a big mountain to climb back then. i can't imagine what some kids are going through. there are political ideas

being battled now. house republicans said hey, we already gave you a solution. the white house is saying july 1st if we don't do something, rates double. where do we stand? july 1st levs extraordinarily worrisome. right now people are paying 3.4% in rates. that was signed years ago but it was also signed years ago by the first president bush, that at this point, we would see a doubling of rates because you can't keep it this low for that long. bill: so would go from 3.4 to 6.8? >> 6.8. that would stun the 38 million people already you know water in their loans right now. this crisis is way bigger when you look at it. you compile auto loans, credit card loans, student loans are bigger than that. i bet you so many of you watching right now have student loan debt and that is what becomes the issue. there are dueling plans. you have the republican-controlled house which passed a bill. of course the senate doesn't want it but they passed a bill --. bill: what was their idea, liz? >> their idea was to fix it

floating to the 10-year treasury yield plus another 2.5%. so right now the 10 year yield is at 2.1%. you're looking at more than -- here comes the president and he will be speaking in just a moment on this and his plan. but with the republicans they put in a cap, highest would be 2.85%. bill: 2.85%. so that is a max. >> right. bill: the white house says we're cool with that or not? >> the white house has another plan. they want to fix it to the 10-year, stafford loans, fancy way of saying federal student loans, but it would be .93% or 2.93%, depending what kind of loan you have. i don't want to throw too many numbers at people. that on the surface looks lower than what the republicans have offered. however with the president's plan, no cap. right now, we don't have a growing economy but we hope certainly at some point we will and when it does you start to see interest rates on the 10 year climb rather dramatically. what happens then? so we have to figure something out. the president will be meeting with both sides, bill, on this and try and

figure out a plan before july 1st. bill: here is the double-whammy for young americans the unememployment picture is still not great. if you go to college and you're fortunate enough to get a education like that and come out with mountains of debt like this you're really in a hole. >> low paying job you can't pay it back. r president wants to forgive billions of dollars in student loans you are a mother. is that a good idea? >> as a mother i would never, i'm very anti-debt. i mean i can't stand any debt whatsoever. so i would try and figure out a way. that is what i think more parents are doing, finding a less expensive college. at this point, you have got to look at this, bill, and say what responsibility do the universities have? tuition has skyrocketed well beyond the rate of inflation. bill: building a lot of buildings on campus too. >> and they're not. the teachers are not that much better. facilities are not that much better. why are you paying 85% more over the past several years? because kids get the loans and these schools know they are desperate for an

education and, in a way also the universities who are preying on students. bill: we'll see how they resolve this. they have about 30 days. so they will have to pick their poison. >> crisis governing once again. bill: check you out what time? >> 3:00 p.m. eastern on fox business. bill: bye-bye, liz. >> thank you. martha: there are some big surprises at an upcoming political conference that will be hosted by governor mitt romney. we'll tell how he has invited to weigh in. quite interesting. bill: also, martha, there is pressure growing on eric holder to step aside. will he do that? we'll ask a former justice department whistle-blower if these latest allegations of spying on a journalist will cost him his job. >> he believes the attorney general is doing a goodj÷ and the president has confidence in the attorney general. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but

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bill: the calls growing louder for eric holder to step aside. can he survey the latest scandal. jay christian adams blew the whistle on what he said was racial by as within the department dealing with voter intimidation cases with me out you have washington. sir, good morning to you and welcome to our program. >> good morning, bill. bill: you worked withhold hold righwith withhold r-r, with eric holder, what was he like. >> this was a justice department that i saw over a transition

from bush to obama where you have the culture developing of abusive power and dishonesty. sadly to say eric's tenure at justice will be remembered for scandal after scandal whether it's the new black panthers, fast and furious, now the press subpoenas where they abuse power and don't tell the truth to the american people and to congress. bill: well, you could make a case, i think, that eric holder and the presidency the world in a similar frame, and i just wonder what your feeling is as to whether or not this is a man that would step aside or maybe more importantly whether the president would accept a resignation nation. do you see that happening? >> no, i don't think eric hold tkerl or the administration thinks he did anything wrong. these people will come up with a thousand excuses, a thousand and one ways to parse language to excuse their behavior. you can expect the letter that chairman goodlet sent to him you

can expect a response next wednesday, if they get one that will be cleverley crafted like this administration has done from the beginning every time they are in trouble. bill: you would not expect even those answers to advance the story then you're saying. >> no, no, they are going to parse words, they dead it in every single scandal. if they even tell the throughout and that was the problem in fast and furious, the letters to congress didn't tell the truth, so you can't expect anything from this administration at this point that is either honest or forthright. bill: back to the point, i mean you worked within the department of justice. i mean it would be -- it's got to be a pretty high bar for the president to accept a resignation from eric holder, that's just the impression i have. when people say he'll be out in 30 days i'm not so sure about it. >> you're exactly right. he's not going anywhere because he is part of an ideological flexing of power whether it is the crazy fast and furious program, whether it's attacking voters integrity measures like south carolina voter id, all of these very ideological policies

are going through eric holder and president obama has come to rely on him and this is lieutenant r-res such as tom perez. he has visited the white house 83 times. these are people that have a close administration and this president,. bill: eric holder 62 times. the attorney general always takes heat nor the white house. they almost act like a shield. you think about gonzalez, you think about reno, that is part of what comes with the job, does it not? >> it does. the justice department has so much power, but they cannot abuse it like this justice department is doing with james rosen subpoenas, with all of the other outrageous behavior leading up to the 2012 election, blocking election integrity and voter id around the country. they have enormous power, they need to respect it, and the

previous administration did. that was the big difference. i saw both sides. under bush they viewed the law as a rule, under holder it's a mere suggestion. bill: you saw that? >> absolutely. it was a complete contrast in culture between the bush administration of justice and eric holder's justice department. bill: why is that, christian? >> because they like power, they don't see government as something that should be restrained, it's supposed to be active. and when he came to justice he turned that department into an activist ey ideological department that implemented a range of things the american public would not agree with if they new about it. bill: you mention ez james rosen i think wha think that was a story involving north korea that barely made the headlines. the stutsnex. we show directors of the hollywood film met with people

at the white house to get more details on the raid. >> they selectively leak. there was a justice department spokeswoman named tracy smaler who was notorious for yelling at reporters who was leaking all the time information. it's a question of who leaks. these people go after them when there is fox news leaking, obtaining leaks, but whenever it's the defendant's friends who publish favorable reports it's not quite as important to attack them. bill: j. christian adams out of washington. thanks for coming in. >> thanks. bill: 24 minutes before the hour. martha: mitt romney is back in the public eye. the governor and his wife ann hosting a big bi-partisan conference focusing on new ideas they say with a diversed and distinguished group of tests. carl cameron is live in washington on this. so, carl, good to see you. is romney getting back to the political arena here? >> reporter: not exactly but he's certainly making a platform for people to do this.

this is more of a retreat than a conference. he's been doing interviews and talk shows but rarely. the romney's have been planning this for several months, a private gathering at a utah resort next week. no press. mostly republicans and business leaders. there will be big-named democrats on hand too. romney and wife ann are going to host it. he will be giving a speech on the challenges he sees facing the country as well as around the world, and there will be a couple hundred people on hand or so. at least three potential 2016 g.o.p. candidates will address the group including new jersey governor chris christie. big supporter of romney's in 2012 and he has sky high approval ratings right now. kentucky senator rand paul will make a speech. he has been campaigning over the three early primary and caucus states. new hampshire, eye wra* and south carolina. and paul ryan, the romney's family sentimental favorite, because he was the nominee for vp last time he has a bit of a leg up against the others. there will be others there too, martha.

martha: if you lose a presidential election you have to carve owl your role and what you want to do to have an impact on the future and that seems to be how it's developing for the romney's so far with this get together. you said there are democrats part of this as well, right? >> reporter: yeah, it's not supposed to be overly partisan. democrat erskine bowles along with his republican part tear alan simpson. their commission recommends were summarily ignored in washington. a big spies is going to be among others former campaign adviser david axelrod. he will be giving a speech to what is likely to be majority republican. it's supposed to be about bipartisan ideas. he will be there. along with the governor of colorado, john hickenlooper not a big commute nor him to go to utah and he's known mitt romney for a longtime. there is going to be fun too, people who want to go golfing can do so with paul ryan, if you're into horseback riding ann and mitt will be taking people

out on the trail as well. martha: sound like a good time. carl, thank you very much. bill: still waiting for the invite. some protestors in turkey learning a tough lesson don't taunt the person running the water cannon. the cannon wins, istanbul hundreds of protestors trying to -- woe that will take off some skin. trying to block the removal of trees. it was the fourth day of a sit in there when police made a move. the water cannon wins. martha: that must hurt, right. bill: that will leave a mark. martha: we've got brand-new details coming up here in "america's newsroom" on the benghazi terror attack, why u.s. officials instructed a libyan hospital to list u.s. ambassador chris stevens as a john doe as he lie in the hospital in the hours after his death. bill: also a massive astroid on course to zip by planet earth. astronomers say the old space rock is very different from the others. martha: and they may look cute,

right? at least one u.n. official says that they are perhaps -- looks like a nice little guy, right? a scary movie inside that little robot. [ stewart ] this is the kind of food i love to cook. i'm very excited about making the shrimp and lobster pot pie. we've never cooked anything like this before. [ male announcer ] introducing red lobster's seaside mimatch. combine any 2 of 7 exciting choices on one plate for just $12.99! like new cheddar bay shrimp lobster pot pie, and new parmesan crunch shrimp. plus salad and unlimited cheddabay biscuits. combine any 2 for just $12.99. [ stewart ] for the seaside mix & match, we're really mixing it up. there's just so many combinations to try. i'm stewart harrington, red lobster line cook,

and i sea food differently.

bill: if you can name that theme music. martha: i'm going to go with "the terminator." bill: circle gets the square. a warning from the united nations that killer robots could soon become a reality and we need to act to stop them now. top human rights officials want a freeze on building robots designed for war because they could make deadly decisions on their own they claim. >> this is 0 not a discussion about the nature of the weapon it's a discussion about the identity of the warrior and about the implications of the new technology for the human rights to life and dignity. bill: he went onto say the killer robots will make it easier for nations to go to war

because of the detachment between people and the decision to kill. martha: very interesting. all right. we've got new details that are revealing a little bit more about the tick-tock of the events during the benghazi terror attack. according to this new report u.s. officials instructed a benghazi hospital to list u.s. ambassador chris stevens as a john doe after being murdered that night. there is some discrepancy and discussion about exactly when chris stevens died during these evening hours. that remains to be figured out. mike baker joins me now, former cia covert operations officers and president of diligence llc a global intelligence and security firm. good to have you here. >> thank you. martha: it is important to figure out exactly what happened during the course of this evening, to know what happened and also to prevent it from happening in the future if at all possible. what do you make of the fact that, you know, over the course

of those hours, according to this recent worth they knew that shaun smith had died. they say of smoke inhalation around 11:00 that night at the consulate. but they say they couldn't find the body of ambassador stevens. there were a few hours over the course of that night when they didn't know where ambassador stevens was, they then found his body according to this new report around 1:15 in the morning, roughly 6:00 something like that eastern time back here in washington d.c. and new york. then they labeled his body as a john doe at the hospital there. what does all that tell you? >> well, i mean obviously there was a great deal of confusion. during the course of this they were fending off the whose styles. it was a coordinated attack that was being carried out all this time. the fact that there was confusion, a smoke-filled consulate, they had retrieved the body of shaun smith tke didn't know where the ambassador was. all of that is fine. the problem is we are getting the details over eight months

after the attack. and the administration continues to just not stand up and say, look this is what took place. these are the details we have. this is the decision-making process we went through that night. now they are saying okay fine, they finally got a call on the ambassador's cellphone, it was a pre programmed number, and they got a call in tripoli at the embassy there saying we have a body here, i think you need to comrie traoe come come retrieve it. they were concerned it might be a at the time set up, an ambush. clearly they had to be concerned because they now the hospital facility was under partial control of hostile elements. they used john doe as an alias, they wanted to get the body removed from the hospital, that's fine use an alias. the problem is the dereliction of duty alternate the very beginning of this entire sad story, the fact that we still

don't understand why didn't the president stand up and say we are going to try, i don't know that lives could have been saved they probably couldn't have but you try. martha: you're right. i think that goes back to this issue of where the president was. i know the white house doesn't want to -- they want people to get off of this topic but 4 you look back at september 11th the original september 11th as an example the press wanted to know the details of every single moment of president bush's activities that day, right? how long he sat and read to the children, exactly where he was in the skao*eus ove skies over the united states during the events. it's an interesting parallel. i am struck by the fact you have an ambassador alive or dead, there is some question about that, whether he died initially of the smoke inhalation and was rushed to the hospital or whether he died during that process, it's so sad as you point out, they found a cellphone on his body and they hit the speed dial number, hello, we have ambassador chris stevens here, this phone is ringing back to benghazi, can

you help us, can you tell us what we should do with this body? during the course of that we haven't lost an ambassador in this way in over 30 years in the united states. what is going on back at the white house? it's a very srapl eu valid question is it not? >> its the core of this. the problem has been, i think the reason why the white house has been hoping the story goes away, they have been obfuscating all this time. they are happy to have the bits and pieces here because it takes away from the only point that is important. and if we simplified it so much, the only way this actually becomes an issue from the white house perspective is if the public really gets behind it. if the polls show that this is an issue of earn can. to do that you have to simplify it and say the only part of this that matters again is the dereliction of duty. the commander and chief has an obligation to protect american lives overseas, they didn't make the call. they couldn't probably have saved those lives but they would

have had the access up in the air. and that's would have removed this story. we would -pt be talking about benghazi if they had simply done their job and tried. martha: mike baker, thank you very much. bill: an astroid going to buzz by planet earth. this is not your ordinary fly by no it is not. we will tell you why.

>> the justice defendant investigation into journalists is raising serious questions about the future of america's attorney general. ef called a meeting with leading press people to discuss, so who

showed up and did anything come of it? an astroid bigger than nine cruise ships sailing toward earth today. don't worry we will see tomorrow but it raises serious question about our preparedness for the next one as some say we need a new, better astroid fly by plan. one student's essay about his teacher has him in hot water. was his assignment just too hot to handle or is it political correct news run amuck? why didn't he just give her an apple? it's coming up on "happening now." bill. bill: thank you, jon. see you at the top of the hour. an exexciting discovery as an astroid is on course for a near earth fly by. phil keating is live in miami on that. the astroid fly by has been yielding a new discovery, phil, what is that? >> reporter: it turns out the giant astroid is actually two flying objects. california's observatory discovered for the first time ever that this as ta tried

1998qe2 has its own satellite rock orbiting it represented by the little white dot on the screen. it comes closes to earth today at 4 odds 59 eastern time when it will be 3.6 million miles away. qe2 is one-of-ten thousand known astroids flying close to us, all those green dots on the screen with up to a million we have not yet dent find. all the focus of nasa's near earth objects program. >> it's not coming very unusually close to the earth but it's going to be about 15 times the distance from the earth to the moon, but the interesting part about it is that it's so large for a near earth astroid it's huge. >> reporter: astronomers say an astroid a mile and a half wide basically the same size of this one would have world-wide consequences if it actually hit us. bill: what is the plan for the day when one comes a little too close for comfort? because you know it's happening. >> reporter: a lot is being

done, both publicly and privately. monies right now are tight. a group is raising $400 million privately right now, its plan is to launch a orbiting satellite in 2015. there are three rules with dealing with an incoming astroid threat. advance warning, advance warning, advance warning. bill: better get on it. phil keating in miami. martha: new reaction from the justice department over accusations against eric holder. we'll be right back.

he. bill: i want to thank you for carrying the load this week, because man it was not easy. martha: never, never, you're doing great. thank you everybody for being with us. have a great weekend. happy friday. "happening now" starts right now. we'll be back on monday. bye, everybody. jon: a friday morning, we begin with brand-new stories and breaking news. jenna: new information on a string of scandals swirling around the white house from the ouses. targeting conservative snooping on reporters. karl rove and pair bear and what we now know. graphic photos released for the very first time showing the bloody scene where olympian oscar miss tore just shot his girlfriend to death. the latest information on that. an astroid heading towards earth, how close could it come? we'll tell you,