i am brianna keilar, as you heard suzanne say.oment you will hear those instructions so i want to bring in our expert legal panel now. sunny hostin, cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. she was in the courtroom today in sanford, florida. faith jenkins, a prosecutor. trent copeland, a criminal defense attorney. of course, don lemon also joining us from florida. you know, sunny, i want to ask you first. because you were theren

i'm brianna keilar in for brooke baldwin. thank you for joining me.mmerman let the judge know there is still a chance he could testify in his defense in his trial. interesting exchange. let's listen to this between judge deborah nelson and the florida man charged with second-degree murder. >>> have you made a decision, sir, as to whether or not you want to testify -- >> i object to that question. >> overruled. have you made a decision as to whether or not you want to testify in the case? >> i object to that question. i think that's -- >> overruled. the court is entitled to enquire of mr. zimmerman's determination as to whether or not he wants to testify. mr. zimmerman, have you made a decision as to whether or not you want to testify in this case? >> no. not at this time, your hono

white house correspondent brianna keilar has more for you. >> reporter: in houston late sunday, someense moments as trayvon martin supporters marched close by a group backing george zimmerman and stand your ground laws. earlier, emotional rallies in some 100 cities across the country echoing president obama extraordinary personal comments, trying to explain the pain african-americans are feeling. >> trayvon martin could have been me. 35 years ago. >> reporter: protesters demanding federal civil rights charges and supporting the president's call for states to reconsider stand your ground laws. >> if trayvon martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? and do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting mr. zimmerman who followed him in a car because he felt threatened? >> reporter: republican john mccain says stand your ground laws need to be rethought. >> i'm confident that the members of the arizona legislature will and because it is very controversial legislation. >> reporter: beyawn say and jay-z came out to stand with trayvon ma

i am brianna keilar, as you heard suzanne say. any moment you will hear those instructions so i want to bring in our expert legal panel now. sunny hostin, cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. she was in the courtroom today in sanford, florida. faith jenkins, a prosecutor. trent copeland, a criminal defense attorney. of course, don lemon also joining us from florida. you know, sunny, i want to ask you first. because you were there in the courtroom. and tell us a little bit about what we're expecting to hear from judge nelson. and if there might be any surprises. or is this pretty -- sort of what we're going to expect. the different instructions that we heard both sides arguing, sometimes very vociferously about yesterday. >> yeah. i mean, the instructions have been agreed upon by both sides. the judge has made her final determination. we even have a copy of those final jury instructions because they've been finalized. in a sense, we're not going to hear any surprises. but this is all going to be a surprise to the jury.

brianna keilar is at the white house. be something more than just ham sandwiches at this lunch. >> reporter: i completely agree with you, carol, and i think it's fair to say that. the white house is being very mum on exactly why this lunch is taking place. but you look back at some of the other meetings that we've seen president obama and hillary clinton have and it's pretty clear that part of this is keeping her in the limelight in the administration since the new year. back in january president obama did an extremely rare interview with cbs "60 minutes" with then sort of hillary clinton thanking her publicly as she left his administration, something that you haven't seen him do with other members of his cabinet. thanking her and trying to make it very clear that they have a strong relationship personally and professionally and that she's been a confidant to him. he met with her and former president clinton so she's kept the ties since she left the administration. >> what about joe biden? he's talking about running for p

brianna keilar is at the white house following this for us.ur times in a year. what did you pick up on this speech that was new? >> reporter: that's one of the big issues, chris, what is new? i think you're trying toss president obama try to get momentum with him message. the problem for him is he's well into his second term, the iron is no longer hot, and he's struggling to get the upper hand, as he has some battled ahead with congressional republicans. >> it's good to be home in illinois. >> reporter: it's the political equivalent of hitting the reset button, leaving a steamy washington and with it his administration's troubles, controversies, surveillance leaks, a stalled immigration overhaul, and turmoil in the middle east, taking his economic message on the road and taking credit as well. >> we've been able to clear away the rubble of the financial crisis. we're starting to lay a new for understandings for more durable economic growth. >> reporter: his case, unemployment following the financial crisis hit 10%. now it's 7.6%, acknowledging

brianna keilar live at the white house and reza syah. night, brianna. >> a big first step, this is, i will say, just the beginning. as far as the obama administration is concerned and observers of the peace process attempts and failures, they feel more encouraged than they have in years at this point. that's because israeli leaders agreed to release 104 palestinian prisoners. some of whom were convicted of killing israelis. we heard from prime minister netanyahu he called it painful for the entire nation but this is a key demand of palestinians. it is seen as a sign of good will, certainly from israel. secretary of state john kerry shepherding this process set to begin tonight here in washington. it's expected to last nine months. huge outstanding issues here, still, just to point out. that includes that israel has not agreed, as palestinians want them to, to stop building settlements in contested areas like the west bank. also the issue of where you start when you're talking about borders. what is the starting point. that is also not agr

brianna keilar is taking it from here live from washington. y much. i am in for brooke baldwin today. let's get right back to the zimmerman trial where lead detective chris serino is on the stand. >> -- as well, testimony under oath. we had -- the conversation with your last testimony that talked about the ongoing investigation that you were in charge of regarding this case. you were the chief investigating officer, correct? >> yes, sir. >> did there come a time that you met with tracy martin and his girlfriend, brandy green, in your office? >> yes, sir, there was. >> do you recall about how many days after the event of the shooting that was? >> it was either the day after or the day after the -- i think it was the 28th. >> okay. what was the purpose of you bringing mr. martin and miss green to your office? >> to bring them up to speed as far as the progress of the investigation, where we were at that point. >> okay. they had some concerns, did they not, as to whether or not mr. zimmerman at that point had been arrested? >> yes, sir. >> were yo

brianna keilar joins us from the white house.s the white house reaction to all of this, this request now to leave? >> reporter: well, a couple of things, suzanne. first off, they're not happy, as you can imagine, but one of the things that we heard from jay carney is they want clarification from the russian government on exactly what the status of edward snowden is, and we also heard from the spokesperson for the state department that, as far as we know, the highest level communication -- and this is pretty high -- is that secretary of state john kerry has called his counterpart, russian foreign minister sergei lavrov, and he's communicated to him, not only wanting to know the status but also if snowden does leave the moscow airport, the u.s. would find this very disappointing. i know to the average person this sounds pretty mild, but once you put that through the diplo speak filter, it sort of says the u.s. will be very upset if he is able to go beyond the moscow airport. >> got to translate the diplo speak a little there, brian

i'm brianna keilar. thanks for watching. "the lead" starts now. >> we are now on george zimmerman verdict watch. people jake tapper. this is "the lead." the national lead, after three weeks of dramatic and emotional testimony, six female jurors are now deciding the fate of george zimmerman and deciding whether it was murder or self-defense. george zimmerman's attorney made one final pitch to the jury today hammering home the notion of reasonable doubt saying there's too many could have beens to convict. we'll hear from him, the man who orchestrated the closing arguments, attorney mark o'mara. >> and our world lead, catch me if you can. we're getting our first look at snowden. is he now planning to stay in russia? we'll talk to someone who was face to face with him in the room today. good afternoon, everyone. i'm jake tapper. we'll begin with the national lead and our continuous coverage of the george zimmerman trial, which has brought renewed folk to us issues of race, racial profiling and self-defense. oh, to be a fly on th

let's bring in brianna keilar joining us from washington this morning.n right now and do we believe they're going to get this done? >> it is a tentative agreement, chris, that is what we're hearing from sources on both sides of the aisle on capitol hill. if the white house has anything to do with it, they want senate democrats to certainly accept this and to kind of just move along. initially what you had were senate democrats like tom harkin, who has really been leading the charge here for them, who didn't, they wanted a fixed rate on these loans, these federally subsidized stafford loans and then realizing they weren't going to get that, they wanted a cap and make sure that you didn't see deficit reduction, as they would put it, on the backs of students trying to get, trying to make college affordable. i think, ultimately, the white house sort of forced senate democrats to finally go along here with the deal that the white house felt they'd be able to get through a divided congress. >> what am i missing? why do we need a deal? why aren't college studen

. >>> i'm brianna keilar. you are watching special coverage of the george zimmerman murder trial. the court right now is taking a break. the lead prosecutor in the case bernie de la rionda has been giving his closing argument in the case. as soon as he comes back, we're expecting that to be in about 10 to 15 minutes, the court will resume. the jury will come back in. we will bring that to you. but in the meantime, let's see how things are going. we'll talk to cnn legal -- pardon me. cnn senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin joining us from new york. the question at this point, jeffrey, how do you think bernie de la rionda is doing? >> i think he's doing a good job. it's an aggressive job. there have been problems in this prosecution's case. i think everyone recognized that. but he is not backing off from the murder charge. that is, the top charge in this case. he is making the case that george zimmerman's conduct that is relevant here is not just the night of the murder. it's his building anger about finding people in the neighborhood who don't belong there. these punks. these peopl

my friend brianna keilar. what's coming up. >> coming up we will talk to christine quinn.new york city. we wanted her to react to this news of ant knhony weiner. we asked her if we thought a woman could get away with this. >> no one should have behaved this year. his gender isn't an issue for me. the issue is he clearly has a disconnect from the ability to tell the truth and a pattern of inappropriate behavior. >> i can't wait to see the interview on "the lead" in ten minutes. meantime, coming up next, strombo! we'll talk to george. stay tuned. i like the factg, i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. >>> move over kojak and csi. will this be the final time of showtime's primetime serial killer "dexter"? >> i'm going to tell you something i've never told anyone before. >> okay. >> i'm a serial killer. >> oh, god! oh, that feels so amazing to say out loud. >> well, you must

. >> i'm brianna keilar in for wolf blitzer. we're continuing our coverage of the george zimmerman case. let's go to our legal analysts sunny hostin. we just heard the defense call its first two witnesses, that being the mother of george zimmerman, as well as the uncle right there, jorge meza, of george zimmerman. sunny and mark, first, let's start with the uncle. what did you think of his testimony there? did you think that the jury will find him believable that he thought this was george's voice screaming on this 911 tape? >> well, i thought he was a very credible witness in the sense that he's a law enforcement officer, he spoke clearly with conviction, although i do think that the circumstances surrounding what he is testifying to just seem a bit odd that you would be watching, you know, on your computer and you hear a scream somewhere in your home and you identify that scream immediately as that of not even your son but your nephew. i'm not sure if that -- those circumstances are believable but i thought that his testimony

brianna keilar is live in wash wash with the latest. >> reporter: this is a strange story and we're tolds spokesperson says that he took the word of this young woman's mother with whom he was involved around the time she was conceived. stunned and dismayed. that's how a spokesman for tennessee congressman steve cohen says he feels about learning this young woman is not his daughter. as "new day" reported exclusively on thursday. >> by boosting graduation rates -- >> reporter: after the president's state of the union address in february, washington was buzzing about what appeared to be its latest scandal, who was the attractive blond cohen was tweeting "ily" for i love you as the president addressed congress and the nation. he claimed to be a father to model victoria brink. >> i went back to when we were involved. >> reporter: another bizarre twist as cnn was present for the results of a definitive maternity test. >> it shows steve cohen is not my father. >> reporter: congressman cohen believed victoria brink was his daughter because in 2010 victoria's mother told him so. in 2009 she told

let's get straight to brianna keilar here to break it down for us.talk about the developing situation in egypt. we know the president, we've seen the pictures, talking with his national security team, probably not surprisingly. what do you know about the acts the white house is taking, what they're considering and what they might do in response to the developing situation there? >> reporter: i think at this point, kate, it's actually a bit of a wait and see, as they try to kind of see how things are developing because they obviously are moving very quickly on the ground there in egypt. what's sort of fascinating to me as a white house reporter is we give white house press secretary jay carney a hard time because the last person he's talking to, i'm not going to read out every conversation, the white house seem to be reading out, as they call it telling us of the conversations that white house officials, state department officials, are having with counterparts in egypt and in the middle east, trying to really show they're involved here. but it's threa

cnn's brianna keilar is at the white house with that this morning. morning, brianna. >> reporter: good morning, chris. many americans who were upset with the not guilty verdict in the george zimmerman case are now looking toward washington, specifically the obama administration, to pursue federal charges against george zimmerman. in houston late sunday, some tense moments as trayvon martin supporters marched close by a group backing george zimmerman and stand your ground laws. earlier, emotional rallies in some 100 cities across the country. echoing president obama's extraordinary personal comments, trying to explain the pain african-americans are feeling. >> trayvon martin could have been me. 35 years ago. >> reporter: protesters demanding federal civil rights charges and supporting the president's call for states to reconsider stand your ground laws. >> if trayvon martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? and do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting mr. zimmerman who had followed him in

brianna keilar is live from the white house with more. what are we learning about that lunch?ot a whole lot. i sure wish we knew what they talked about. that's what everyone is buzzinging about. but it certainly feels like 2016 is upon us this morning here in washington. between that lunch yesterday and the fact that hillary clinton is sitting down with vice president joe biden this morning for breakfast at his residence next hour, the naval observatory. they're the rock stars of the democrat being party. hillary clinton and barack obama together again. they tidined on the patio just steps from the oval office. on the menu, salad, chicken, pasta and politics. >> they have different brands on the other hand they really fit together nicely in terms of their appeal to constituency, whether african americans, hispanic, women. >> reporter: it's been a complicated relationship to say the least. from obama's cut throat competitor -- >> he's very likeable. i agree with that. >> you're likeable enough. >> reporter: to his top dip will he matt. >> i think hillary will go down as one of