g, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. good morning. i'm chris jansing. the one-year anniversary of the death of osama bin laden has turned into an unexpected and unexpectedly pointed campaign battle. team obama has been touting the mission's success and pointing out in the past mitt romney suggested he would not have gone after bin laden. romney responded to those charges formally this morning. >> and i think them taking credit for the right decision is entirely appropriate. i think trying to attack me on that basis is disappointing. of course i would have taken the exact same decision. the idea to political size this and say, oh, president obama would have done it one way, mitt romney would have done it another is really disappointing.

there are plenty of differences between president obama and myself, but let's not make up ones. >> i want to bring in "washington post" deputy national political director ann co cornbluth and michael sheer from "the caucus." good morning. >> good morning. >> i don't know if you saw the interview but at least three times mitt romney said of course i would have taken the same action. we should say and he almost never does network interviews, but most of this conversation was about that. why, do you think? >> well, i mean, i think because it's the one-year anniversary so it's on everyone's minds. as the romney campaign is complaining about, the obama campaign has taken note of the president's success on that. i think it's natural that this conversation will go on. i suspect it will go on all week. i don't know it will be a defining part of the election. the economy is probably still more important to most people. it's interesting because in the past traditionally republicans have been able to run on national security. we've certainly seen the republicans in the last two or three elections and certainly

since 9/11 stand accused of themselves politicizing 9/11. for the tables to be turned now for the democratic president pob the one whose numbers are quite frankly better on national security than mitt romney's is a turning of the tables that i think is surprising and interesting. it's something that the republican team is having a hard time grappling with. >> not coincidental given those numbers that the president and team obama are emphasizing this. what mitt romney had to say this morning was arguably a bit less snarky than on the campaign trail yesterday. let me give that to you. >> would you have given the order, governor romney? >> even jimmy carter would have given that order. >> did it sound, i don't know, kind of like a low blow or unnecessarily snarky? >> well, you know, jimmy carter has the this reputation especially among conservatives and republicans that it is sort of a failed president, so i guess that's what he was getting at. the irony is jimmy carter did

give the order for what ended up being a failed rescue attempt during the iran hostage situation. i mean, the interesting thing here is there's two issues, right? the issue of does the president have the right to brag about what he did, does he have the right to make it a big deal and say -- and make that an issue? and then the question of, you know, do you go one step further and attack mitt romney, criticize mitt romney as sort of somebody who wouldn't have done the same thing? that's really where i think the romney campaign got particularly upset yesterday and particularly needed to push back on this notion that somehow he'd be weak, which as ann says is an irony given kind of where the republican democratic parties have been over the last couple of decades. >> and the president we should say also weighed in on this. let me play that for you. >> i said that i'd go after bin laden if we had a clear shot at him. and i did. if there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they do something else, then i'd

go ahead and let them explain it. >> he obviously was referencing the point at which, you know, mitt romney was questioning this focus that the united states seemed to have on osama bin laden, and obviously that obama had on osama bin laden. are they just trying to say, hey, barack obama is the better decisionmaker here, he was decisive, made the right decisi decision, and look at the result? >> absolutely. that's probably fair game. it's going to be tricky for romney to back away from past statements but he did say them. in subsequent weeks at the time he said that in 2008 and what romney did say is it was a problem that was bigger than just one person, just one man, that he would go after the whole apparatus. but he down played the importance of bin laden at that time. he did make those remarks and later said, of course, he, too, would go after bin laden. but it seems to me he said those comments. they're obviously fair game. in the moment, you have to remember president bush had spent at that point seven years himself trying to go after bin

laden and failed to do so. and by that time, president bush was saying, yes, it's bigger than any one person himself. so i think now, again, it's something that romney is going to have to deal with. i think it will be tricky because they were his own words. >> and not just the candidates are weighing in. quite a few members of congress are talking about it, including john mccain. let me play that for you. >> to now take credit for something that any president would do is indicative of the kind of campaign we're under -- we're seeing. i've had the great honor of is serving in the company of heroes. the thing about heroes, they don't brag. >> is there a fine line, michael, about these two things, bragging rights but also criticizing mitt romney? is there a fine line between, you know, bragging and legitimate ti talking about your accomplishments? >> i do think there's a fine line. senator mccain has his own heroic past that his campaign

was not shy about talking about and featuring. they had plenty of ads during the 2008 campaign that sort of highlighted the things he had done in his career. i think it's interesting senator mccain's comments, this were much tougher, in a statement he put out a come l days ago. you know, he has a particular thing of, you know -- with barack obama. he ran against barack obama, lost to him. so i think it probably particularly galls him to hear on an issue of national security, on the very thing that senator mccain himself had thought he would be much better on, that that was the thing, you know, that president obama gets so much credit for. >> michael and ann, stand by. i want to bring in a democratic congressman. good morning. >> good morning. >> what do you think about the criticism from the republicans and the rom mee campaign that president obama is going too far, touting the success of the mission that got bin laden? >> first of all, the mission that got osama bin laden was an extraordinary mission, carried

out nearly flawlessly, and it was president obama, our commander this chief, who gave the order to go in and take out osama bin laden. and the mission was a great success. because of that victory, because of that success, the extraordinary work of seal team six, that we are much safer than we ever have been. >> let me ask you about -- >> al qaeda is still out there and we have to be up there. >> the "washington post" has this fascinating in-depth look at bin laden and, you know, they talk about some of the documents that were gotten in the raid. you know, how he was very hands on from that compound in pakistan, he was writing memos, he had personal orders for his deputies, he was in communication with operatives around the world. do you think that it was possible he would have struck again? >> oh, i think it's very possible. given the opportunity and given the right weapons, certainly if he were able to get his hands on

weapons of mass destruction or any member of al qaeda or affiliate of al qaeda, if they were able to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, whether it be chemical, biological, or nuclear, clearly they would have used them. thankfully, we haven't seen the worst actors get their hands on the worst weapons, but it s a member of the house armed services committee and the house intelligence committee. if osama bin laden could have directed that kind of attack on the united states, without a doubt he would have. he was one of the few people who could have rallied al qaeda around a single mission. because of president obama and his team and the extraordinary work of seal team six, that threat has been eliminated. of course al qaeda still exists. one thing i'm concerned about still is although we're more secure we condition let our guard down. an area we're not seeing enough focus and attention on, most national security experts and leaders including secretary of defense panetta and the director of fbi talking about the threat

of cybersecurity, something i've spent a lot of time on. what clearly could have been done, attacks through the use of kinetic weapons could now be carried out using a few strokes on a keyboard with someone with the right skill set. that's something we have to pay more attention to and i'm concerned about. >> congressman james langevin, thank you so much. let me bring michael and ann both in. i think what he says is something that, you know, we've heard from everybody. there's no doubt from pretty much every analyst that i've interviewed that we're safer than we were, certainly getting rid of osama bin laden was an important move not just obviously from a pr, political standpoint, but we're now seeing in some of the papers that were left behind from a strategic standpoint he was still very active from that compound in pakistan. but to the political point of it, you know, mitt romney saying that bin laden, frankly, shouldn't be a political issue, michael, he's scheduled an

appearance with rudy giuliani at a firehouse later this afternoon. is there a little bit of hypocrisy potentially in that? >> well, look, i mean, again, i think it goes to sort of what, you know, the political tactics and what both of the campaigns are going to try to, you know, make use of it and how they best make use of it. there's probably an argument to wonder about whether if the obama administration has stuck to -- if the obama campaign had stuck to the first half of it, simply touting what the president had done as the anniversary today approached as the -- you know, as everybody was going to be talking about this inevitably and had saved the attack and saved the criticism of mr. romney for sometime down the road, you know, perhaps they would have avoided some of the back and forth. but, you know, on the other hand, the campaign probably thinks anytime we're talking about this decision and not maybe the economy and some of the other things that mitt romney's got some advantages on, that's probably a good day for them. >> yeah. and actually in the interview we

were showing earlier in from this morning, mitt romney tried to make exactly that turn. let me play that little clip for you. >> i actually think that the american people are going to vote for someone who they think can make their life better. people are hurting in this country right now, and they want someone who can get things right again. >> you know, sort of i think rejecting not just this whole flap about bin laden, ann, but also talking about the whole issue of who has the better personality, who would you rather have a beer with kind of question. in the end, though, do you think that voters will care whether or not the president, even in their mind, politicizes this issue? >> potentially not. i think we hear from voters -- this is true with negative ads, as well -- that they complain about the negative campaigning, complain about the partisanship and at the end of the day most people report that it also works and retreat to the partisan trenches. it may seem unpleasant in the moment. but i think at the end of the day, the big picture and woun r one i would expect to see the white house and the campaign return to, is that the president

succeeded in ordering this mission, the mission itself succeeded, and a lot of this may be forgotten once the anniversary has passed us and it gets back to one of many issues in the campaign. >> good to see both of you. thank you. >> a big blow to rupert murdoch's global media empire. they say he's not only unfit to lead news international but also exhibited willful blindness towards the wrongdoing in his company. the report says he misled parliament about the scale of the phone hacking scandal at "the news of the world." nd. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8.

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i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions.

federal agents have busted up an anarchist plot in cleveland. five were arrested accused of trying to blow up a bridge. pete williams is looking into this story. what have you found out?

>> the first thing to point out is federal agents insist that although they're announcing this today, this plot has nothing to do with the anniversary of bin laden's death and it's not strictly speaking a terror plot because the men, according to the court documents i have here, are not charged with a terror plot. what the fbi says is that it got aware of these men back in october of last year when there were some anarchists attending a protest event. an fbi undercover agent then watched them. this became an undercover operation and throughout these intervening months the fbi has closely monitored these men. they initially planned to basically carry out sort of high-level mischief to knock over signs on tops of banks and other big high-rise buildings in cleveland. but then it evolved into something more drastic. they plotted apparently to use explosives and eventually focused on a bridge, something called the brexfield northfield bridge that crosses the cuyahoga national park.

that's one they focused on. they got what they thought was explosive material. they were going to put it on the bridge and the fbi finally arrested them when they were taking their final act. according to court documents they planned to do this yesterday, april 30th, and that's when the fbi moved in. >> nbc's pete williams. thank you. back to politics, and mitt romney is in new york marking the anniversary of the assault on osama bin laden. but is he also auditioning a possible vp? he will be in new york with former mayor rudy giuliani. i'm joined by mark gearin, al gore's 1992 campaign manager, and steve elmendorf is a former campaign director for john kerry. good morning. >> good morning. >> nice to see you, chris. >> do you think rudy giuliani is being considered as a vp candidate? >> i have no idea, but certainly

we know that the process is under way. governor romney has named a top aide to beginning this vetting process which will be extensionive with accountants and lawyers and reviewing statements, all that goes into a modern-day vice presidential vet process. you do see with these visits in new hampshire and elsewhere an opportunity for the presumptive nominee to somewhat test-drive some of the possible partners on the ticket. >> kind of an audition. "usa today" calls romney's search for a vp america's newest reality show. let me play what mitt romney had to say, not much, when asked about the vp search this morning. >> i have a person who i've worked with for a number of years, beth myers, and she's managing the process. as to how the process is proceeding, if i do this right, no one's going to hear anything about it until he we make an announcement, and i can't even tell you when that will be. >> rudy giuliani follows a parade of public appearances

with possible contenders, yesterday new hampshire with a senator, been with marco rubio, chris christie, nikki haley. are these auditions? >> i think he probably wants to pick someone he's personally comfortable with and he's probably learned the lesson from 2004 years ago when john mccain made a mistake of picking someone he had no relationship with and it didn't turn out well. i think mitt romney is probably a bit more careful and realizes it's a personal choice and somebody you have to be comfortable with. >> as part of this reality show, and we're all guilty of it, we kind of parse the words of these candidates when they're asked the question, new jersey governor chris christie had long denied any interest, and then yesterday he kind of seemed to switch gears and leave the door open maybe a little bit. let me play that for you. >> because you owe the party that level of respect. he might be able to convince pe.

>> he might be able to convince me, mark. does that sound to you like the governor might have had a change of heart? >> i don't know folks who have turned down a vice presidential offer because it's an opportunity role and an opportunity. seven out of the last 11 vice presidential nominees have gone on to be the party's standard-bearer. an opportunity for any elected official. >> i thought it was fascinating what former mississippi governor haley barbour said, he laid out three paths to choosing a vp, the hippocratic path, the do no harm candidate, one is a vp candidate that gives you a big state you might not otherwise win. the third is to choose a game changer. if you're advising romney, what would you do, steve? >> i would do no harm. i think the most important thing is to find someone you think is qualified to be president and find someone you're comfortable with. i think this is going to be a

very close election and there's no reason to throw a long ball. again, we saw four years ago throwing a long ball is not a good option. >> yeah, because in the end, mark, is it true do you think that vice presidential nominees have a tendency to at best-case scenario not hurt the ticket, do no harm, but worst-case scenario is that they really hurt you, they seldom ever really win an election for you, if ever. >> that's a fair observation. it is a window into the presumptive nominee, in this case governor romney, in the process, their first candidate and in many ways the first presidential decision. and as steve said you have to be comfortable with it. you can change cabinet, staff, generals, but the vice president is elected with you and so that comfort factor, having someone who will be at one's side during the good and dark days of an administration, is a critical window into this case governor

romney's thinking. >> as a political strategic calculation, do you think rob portman can help you in ohio? can marco rubio help you win florida? >> i think most vice presidential picks are overrated in terms of their ability to win individual states. at the end of the day, i think voters make a choice between two different visions for america and mitt romney and barack obama will have very different visions, and i don't think the vice presidential pick will have all that much to do with people's vote at the end of the day. >> steve, mark, thank you, gentlemen. good to see you. the secretary of state hillary clinton will be arriving in beijing, china, this evening for talks on a number of issues. human rights will be front and center as the secretary of state addresses the situation of dissident chen gaung chang. he's believing to be hiding at the embassy or the diplomatic residence of the u.s. he is accused of legal act virgin islands on behalf of women's rights and family planning. tomorrow, kerry kennedy will be here co-talk about chen's

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and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. to politics now where a new attack ad from the obama campaign goes after mitt romney's record on jobs. >> what about mitt romney? as a corporate ceo, he shipped american jobs to places like mexico and china. as governor, he outsourced state jobs to a call center in india. it's just what you'd expect from a guy who had a swiss bank account. >> in just about two hours, new jersey's governor chris christie hits the rally circuit with wisconsin governor scott walker. walker is facing a recall after a showdown with unions over collective bargaining rights. the primary is next week. the general election recall will be on june 5th. congressman spencer bachus says he's been cleared of

insider trading allegations. he's the top republican on the house financial services committee. if you read one thing this morning, this is for anyone of any age who's had a senior moment. from msnbc.com, the top five things that cause brain bloopers. on our facebook page. you walk into a room and you're, like, what did i come in here for? this will make you feel better. , there's definitely a temptations for you. unless you're one of those people who doesn't like delicious stuff. temptations. it's the first jell-o that's just for adults. but do you really? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. can your makeup remover do that? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira.

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and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard."

then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. the 99% are on the move, a day of protest scheduled around the country as occupy wall street comes out of winter hibernation. msnbc's richard liu is here. i go on local papers all around the country and all had big headlines, traffic delays, protests. how is it looking? >> they expect 100 worldwide not only in new york city. if they get their way, manhattan will be incapacitated. 99 picket lines are planned for

manhattan alone, plus what they're calling a radical after party. may day is the day that celebrates the worker. over 150,000 workers in russian streets, not seen in years. there's a russian leader right there president-elect vladimir put putin, who marched with them. peace, labor, may. indonesia workers protested jobs outsourcing from their country. thousands of police were on hand for the over 100,000-large crowd in jakarta. marches this large have not been seen since before winter, as you noted. this shot from occupy movement shows protests and demonstrations scheduled around the world. we look at those. but i want to show you this from the occupy directory that looks at the protests around the world. now, despite the movement's surge, though, when you look at where we're at, u.s. worker

strikes of more than a thousand or more have all but disappeared. in recent months the number of active encampments have also been shrinking. but flyers being circulated on social media show 59 encampments nationally are mobilizing just today. this list runs from east to west. it keeps on going here, chris. today's events started two hours ago and include race against the machine and a thousand-guitar march later. that should be interesting. they'll be hitting union square and wall street later today. we've been watching the reports according to the headlines you were alluding to, so far no major disruptions. >> although it's pouring outside. >> that's right. >> thank you, richard. making nudes this morning, as well, george zimmerman's defense team is using social media to raise money and push his innocence. gz legal case is on facebook and twitter. there's even a blog. zimmerman is out on bail

awaiting second-degree murder charges in the shooting death of trayvon martin. he says it was self-defense. a new york city jumg ruled that a civil lawsuit against domeniqinique strauss-kahn can forward. a hotel maid is suing him accusing him of trying to rape her in a suite last may. new guidelines today on getting mammograms. a pair of studies show women who have a family history or risk factorses should have a mammogram every other year starting at 40, a mammogram that affects about 1 out of 5 american women. the study says it outweighs the risk of false alarms and unnecessary work-ups. for the first time now we are getting details of military operations that have typically been treated as classified. how drones were used to target terrorists. white house counterterrorism adviser john brenan outlining the use of drones also argued it's legal and it reduced the ability of al qaeda to attack the u.s. i am joined now by nbc news

investigate proif deucer rob bringham and yogi drazen, national security correspondent for "the "national journal."" good morning. >> good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> big picture, bob. in the ongoing fight against terror, how big a piece of the puzzle are these drone strikes? >> they have become an increasingly bigger piece of the drone strikes. if you look at the statistics prepared by the new american foundation, which probably has the best list, they talked about 50 or less than 50 attacks during the bush administration. since president obama has come into office, there's been more than 250, including about 12 this year. it's also expanded to somalia, yemen, et cetera. the u.s. believes that going after these gatherings of al qaeda or taliban or al qaeda or taliban leaders is very effecti effective. the question is whether the civilian death count, which is very uncertain, is worth the effort. >> and beyond the al qaeda or

taliban leaders, do we know generally who is being targeted here, yogi? brennan didn't want to go into detail, but what do we know about those kill lists? >> it's a good question. to go back briefly to bob's point, it's not that the number of drone strikes have decreased but the rules about them havelessened and loosened considerably. you had john brenan yesterday talk about one of the more controversial aspects of this, which is the president's decision to order the deaths of american citizens abroad. there was an al qaeda propagandist who was killed in a drone strike. >> and his son, as well. >> exactly, and his son as well. and neither soft those were discussed in any way. there was no allusion to killing u.s. citizens but there was no discussion about killing a propagandist and his son who was in control of these types of terror attacks. >> u.s. officials have said they're very careful.

about 10% of the drone strikes kill unintended targets, i.e., civilians. again, beyond those leaders, do we know anything about who they're targeting, who are on the kill list? >> what i was told a few years ago is they had moved from targeting individual leaders to gatherings of people who they believed suspicious. the most recent drone attack in afghanistan, for example -- or excuse me, in pakistan, for example, was of a group that had holed up in an abandoned madrassa, according to u.s. officials, and were putting together bombs. the other more recent one, which is a few days ago, was of a leader, a former bin laden bodyguard in yemen believed to be a leader of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. you have a combination of leaders but also gatherings of people that they believe suspicious or have intelligence on. >> and yogi, what about intelligence? are we essentially tracking down these latest targets the same way we track down bin laden?

>> no, we're not. some of these are people being in a camp or a country. you'll hear about signature strikes. that means we may not know the identity, the name or the mission of a specific person but all the same we'll order a drone strike that kills them. you're seeing this in yemen, may see it in somalia. the drones are the biggest open secret in washington, and there are two huge questions left after the speech yesterday. one was what countries are these taking place in and, two, what exactly are the criteria? if we don't know the person's name, identity, or what they're doing, it's hard to say these are people only targeted because they're actively plotting terror attacks. >> yochi dreazen and bob windrem, thanks to both of you. let me bring in congressman michael turner, ohio republican on the house armed services committee. good to see you. >> good morning. good to see you. >> we've been talking about -- >> my pleasure. thanks. >> -- the fact that john brenan

acknowledged for the first time yesterday the use of these strikes in targeted assassinations, and he says that it is legal, that it has made us safer. do you believe it has? >> one thing we can all agree on is that in looking at these terrorist groups, al qaeda terrorist organizations, that intend to harm the united states, that targeting their leadership, targeting those who wish to harm us has been important in being able to achieve greater national security and of course the safety for our country. i think that's something we've seen both in iraq and afghanistan and certainly we're seeing now. i think, you know, everyone can agree that when you have someone who has in effect declared war on the united states and you have a war-type scenario, that, you know, taking the battle to them, especially in a way that does not involve deploying troops, does not involve the riskiness of bringing american soldiers to them, does have its benefits. it certainly goes down to the issue of intelligence or intelligence has improved.

but one thing we have to also be concerned with is what we're seeing on the campaign trail and the -- >> let me ask you about that. >> -- the politicization of what the president is saying act his efforts to fight al qaeda terrorism and of course the ultimate killing of bin laden. >> well, let's talk about the killing of bin laden. this is the one-year anniversary. it's natural it would come up. the information that is coming out now is fascinating, what happened in the situation room to the fact that we're now getting some of the documents that bin laden had that showed that although he was isolated he was certainly somebody who was in touch with deputies not just throughout pakistan and that part of the world but literally all over the world. is there something wrong with the president remembering this success by the united states? >> the president's not remembering the success. i think certainly americans, you know, are, you know, wanting the fact that justice was brought to osama bin laden to be an important part of the narrative

of our war on terror and a war against al qaeda. but the president is politicizing this. not only is he taking a victory lap. he did a specific attack on his opponent saying i would have done it better, i would have done it better, that he wouldn't have perhaps, you know, ordered the killing of osama bin laden. that's deplorable. it is absolutely politicizing certainly what the american people believe is justice that was brought to osama bin laden. i think it also detracts from what we need to be talking about, which is jobs -- >> wanted to take a shot at jimmy carter, mitt romney. >> the important aspect here is discussing what we're going to do in the future, not the president complaining somehow he's a better john wayne than mitt romney is. it's deplorable to politicize this, absolutely. what we need to talk about is the economy, the fact that this president d s not moving this economy forward, what this campaign holds for us, i think, is two really clear different visions of what the future of our country is going to be, not this i'm a bigger john wayne

than mitt romney debate that the president has started and unleashed with his campaign ad. >> congressman michael turner, good of you to come on. thank you so much. >> thank you. speaking of the economy, at least your personal economy, your 401(k) retirement accounts are off to a pretty good start this year. cnbc's courtney regan is here with what's moving your money. how did we do? >> good morning, chris. fidelity investments, the country's largest 401(k) administrator, so they have 12 million account holders, according to them, 401(k) accounts gained nearly 8%. that's last quarter so we're a little past that at this point. for an average balance of $76,600. that increase is more, certainly, than what you would have earned if you'd invested in government bonds, but it's actually less than what the benchmark s&p 500 grew over that same period of time. it grew about 12% from january 1st to march 30th. but the other good news is the average employee contribution has remained pretty steady at around 8% over the last three years. and savings rates are beginning to tick upward.

you can sort of account all this uncertainty in the market for some of that. >> courtney, good to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you. one more note we want to make act the economy. microsoft has bought a $300 million stake in barnes & noble's nook ereader. analysts say that's a relatively small price to pay for the software giant to make this late entry into the ex-book business. microsoft will have access to a huge library of books and to barnes & noble's university bookstores. experts say a nook running windows may not be far off. ♪ surf's up everybody get your boards and your wetsuits ♪ free-credit-score-dot-com's gonna direct you ♪ ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪

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reluctant participant in the cover-up of john edwards' affair with rielle hunter. joining me now is steve freedland, a law professor who has been in the courtroom for this trial. good to see you, steven. good morning. >> good morning. >> describe what it was like in there yesterday. and do you think that sherry was an effective witness for the prosecution? >> sherry young showed that there's another family involved here, the young family. and when she broke down, that showed a new dimension to this human element drama. she showed that the young family was very much affected by what happened. >> but is the young family -- and if p they were affected or unaffected relevant to the legal questions here? >> one thing the prosecution has to worry about is focusing the jury on the federal election violations and not simply make this a tawdry reality show. however, if the jury believes sherry and believes her husband, that goes a long way towards

disbelieving the story by the defense. >> so what specific points did she make, one or two, that you thought were key, that if the jury believes them could really help the prosecution? >> that she spoke to john edwards directly and he acknowledged or told her that this was legal. the real issue here is what john edwards knew and what he did about it. so she can provide some direct echd of his knowledge in this matter. >> having said that, she was she's expected to face very tough questioning today. the defense said she spent about 80% of the money that was supposedly raised for this cover-up on the $1.5 million home that she and andrew young were building. and defense attorneys pretty much vetted her husband's credibility. are you expecting her to take a beating on the stand today? >> she started the cross-examination, and she actually is claiming that much of this money we basically did it for the cover-up. they're going to start on cross

taking her through this stem by step to continue what happened with andrew showing they did it for themselves and not to help john edwards. >> also from her testimony, it's clear, and you know bert, i'm just working off reports, you were there, but what i read repeatedly was it was clear that cheri young hates john edwards and rielle hunter, that she resented john edwards, that rielle hunter with her demands was absolutely driving her crazy, that she felt what she was being asked to do was unreasonable. given that, do you think that hurts her credibility, that she essentially has an axe to grind? >> well, it could. if this case started as a he said-he said between john edwards and her husband, andrew young. when she testified it started turning into a she said-she said between reyield hunter and herself. we'll see if that distracts the jury from the real issues here. it could. >> and the real issues really have been the source of a lot of commentary by legal experts.

i think the majority of them, at least that i've heard and read, have suggested that at best this is a very tough case to prove. in the meantime, it's obviously costing taxpayers a lot of money. are you surprised prosecutors brought the case? >> i can't say i'm surprised. it is on the periphery, though. it is fairly novel as to how this violates the federal election laws. this will be addressed later. >> do you have a sense at this point of what this trial will turn on ultimately? >> it's going to turn on how each side packages the real issues for the jury. right now it's a very tawdry case with a lot of issues arising. each side has to package it, and we don't know the agendas of the jury. the jury is paying attention. that we do know. and what they find to be the most important thing will determine who wins this case. >> anyone who's ever sat through a trial knows there's usually a lot of boredom.

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good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. new revelations revealing osama bin laden's wish list of people to asass nate, including president barack obama. meanwhile, mitt romney and the right firing back after president obama questions whether mitt romney would be able to give the go to take bin laden out. this while romney campaigns with america's mayor, rudy julgiulia in new york. is that playing politics with 9/11? and the damning state by british lawmakers about rupert

murdoch being unfit to run a major immediate media company. chris? >> thank you. let's go down to the wire. just weeks after going on welfare, october mom nadya suleman has filed for personal bankruptcy. she's up to a million dollars in debt. she says she needs to do what's best for her children, and that is a fresh start. a $200,000 lamborghini stolen from celebrity chef guy fee yary has been found. police found it in a 17-year-old's storage unit in northern california. the car had been missing more than a year. how about this for a mode of transportation? check out the bed races in louisville. more than 40 teams all in costume took to the track to compete for the fastest time, best decorated, most entertaining, and people's choice. this is a leadtown the weekend's kentucky derby. a wild scene out of texas pap storm-chasing crew from our

sister station the weather channel got stuck in a hailstorm. hail the size of golf balls smashing their windshield but frankly other than dents in their rigs everybody's okay. that wraps up this hour of "jansing & co." i'm chris jansing. join me tomorrow when my special guest will be new york cardinal timothy dolan, a man some call america's pope. exclusively tomorrow. thomas roberts is up next. no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart ways to sweeten. same great taste. splenda® essentials™. of single mile credit cards. battle speech right? may i? [ horse neighs ] for too long, people have settled for single miles. with the capital one venture card, you'll earn double miles on every purchase, every day! [ visigoths cheer ]

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like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. the secrets of bin laden's lair. coming up on the first anniversary of osama bin laden's death, new details about what was seized from the pakistani compound and the terror leader's wish list for assassination targets. today mitt romney steps out on the campaign trail with america's mayor, rudy giuliani in new york city, this as bin laden's death becomes a political football. who is playing offense here, president obama or mitt romney?

breaking news about an alleged cleveland plot not related to this anniversary. five men reportedly wanted to blow up a bridge. are they homegrown terrorists? and rupert murdoch blasted. british lawmakers investigating the hacking scandal saying he's not fit to run news corp. will he lose control of his media empire? and the controversial north carolina constitutional amendment to make marriage between one man and one woman the only legal domestic union. why one african-american minister has broke within many of his fellow pastors to preach tolerance one week before north carolina voters go to the polls. hi, everybody. great to have you with me. i'm thomas roberts. we start with the anniversary of osama bin laden's death. may 1st marking one year since the al qaeda chief was killed by u.s. special forces inside a fortified pakistani compound. the successful operation was the culmination of years of painstaking intelligence work. president am