you are hearing jim acosta's reporting and da michelle bachman's concerns and dana baschuck and it stems from what it means to be a 501(c)(4). who goes for this keen of status. how many on either side of the this equation may have come up against road blocks from the irs. so far we are hearing a lot from conservative groups. with rehearing more of the progressive liberal groups as well. do we all need to take a big step back and wait for the numbers before the accusation continue to fly so fast? >> right. i think, you know, this is a washingtonbug washington phenomenon at the moment. the notion this is some earth shaking scandal and that responsible people should be talking about impeachment seems, frankly, ridiculous, at this point. remember, no one is entitled to be a 501(c)(4) organization. you have to be involved in a

jim acosta who you just stlau was in the room asking questions and he's "outfront" tonight. that was an intense press briefing. we don't usually see them like that. >> that's right, erin. and i think that's because of what the white house said back in november when jay carney went to the white house press briefing and told reporters that only a single adjustment had been made and then when you go through the e-mails, you discover very quickly, erin, that several adjustments were made and that they were not stylistic as the white house said repeatedly. they were content based. they had to do with victoria newlyn indicated in one e-mail that there was a concern about even mentioning this group that was linked to al qaeda because that might lead members of congress to beat the state department for not heeding cia warnings. and you heard jay carney repeatedly throughout that briefing to day say it was the cia that was drafting these talking points. but the reality is, erin, is that, yes, the cia was drafting the talking points but it was an interagency process. there were a lot

jim acosta, cnn, washington. >> 11 minutes fast hour. a lot of buzz about the personal nature of president obama's commencement address yesterday at moorehouse college. the president focusing on the subject of race and responsibility at this all male historically black alma mater of dr. ma in the luther king. >> whatever success i have achieved, whatever position of leadership i have held have depended less on ivy league degrees or s.a.t. scores but due to that sense of connection and empathy, special obligation i felt as a black man like you to help those who need it most, people who didn't have the opportunities that i had because there but for the grace of god go i. i might have been in their shoes. i might have been in prison. i might have been unemployed. i might not have been able to support a family. and that motivates me. >> powerful for those young men. the president called on the moorehouse graduates to be responsible family men. >>> president obama's speech wasn't the only special moment at sunday's graduation ceremonies. the

iej jim acosta in "the situation room." news continues next on cnn. >>> straight ahead on this hour of the cnn news room, did a top nra executive suggest that people in boston would have been safer two weeks ago if they had more guns? we're going to go live to the nra convention and ask. >>> hands on with google glass. we've got them in the studio. are they worth the hype. >>> i go one oun one with the top chef. all orb is the big wiper at the soggy kentucky derby. we're going to go live to church hill downs just

jim acosta, thanks. as jim said we'll have a lot more on what is going on, more developments in our next hour right here in "the situation room." >>> up next, she is an american mother of seven. she is a mormon. she's in jail in mexico accused of smuggling drugs. her very, very anxious family is speaking out and now the mom is speaking out exclusively to cnn as well. plus senator john mccain talking exclusively also to cnn's anderson cooper about his secret trip inside syria. just by talking to a helmet. it grabbed the patient's record before we even picked him up. it found out the doctor we needed was at st. anne's. wiggle your toes. [ driver ] and it got his okay on treatment from miles away. it even pulled strings with the stoplights. my ambulance talks with smoke alarms and pilots and stadiums. but, of course, it's a good listener too. [ female announcer ] today cisco is connecting the internet of everything. so everything works like never before. the healthcare law gives us powerful tools to fight i

jim acosta, cnn, mt. pleasant, south carolina. >>> 18 minutes after the hour right now. stories, delaware has joined the growing list of states approving same-sex marriage. the democratic governor signed the measure into law after the state senate approved it in a 12-9 vote. gay rights activists hailed the law's passage saying it shows momentum for marriage equality laws across the nation. >>> as things heat up in michael jackson's wrongful death trial, a stunning new court filing. allegations of child sex abuse from a dancer choreographer who defended jackson during a 2005 child molestation trial. wayne robson, now 25, is asking for permission to file a late claim against the dead singer's estate. details of the allegation are sealed. >>> the judge in the trial of james holmes says holmes must show good cause to change his not guilty plea. yesterday defense attorneys notified the court of plans to change the plea do not guilty by reason of insanity. they will make their case before the judge next monday. >>> coming up, a record day on wall street. the dow closes above 1

cnn white house correspondent jim acosta is at the white house. jim? >> reporter: white house and state department officials are trying to make the case that they made the adjustments to those talking points in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation into the benghazi attack. that does not answer all of the questions about what the white house has said in the past about those talking points. three days after the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, obama administration officials were firing e-mails back and forth to each other, discussing just how to explain to congress what happened. according to a congressional source who viewed the e-mail exchange, those administration officials agreed to a key cia assessme assessment. a version of those talking points made their way to u.n. ambassador susan rice, who went on five sunday talk shows and said protesters on an anti-islamic video in benghazi as well as a separate siege in the u.s. embassy in cairo. >> our current assessment is what happened in benghazi is, in fact, a spontaneous

jim acosta, thanks. >> i want to bring in john king, our chief national correspondent. let's go through some of the points here when jim is talking about the e-mails here. tell us about what is important. the white house is saying these are stylistic changes. they've come forward in the past saying some of this has to do with national security and don't want to upset an ongoing investigation. you and i know it's not uncommon for state department, for the administration to be all talking amongst each other before you put out the official talking points. so when you take a look at this, is there something that goes to intention, why it is that they took out -- allegedly took out some of those words like islamic terrorist or words like al qaeda? >> i think there's a lot of partisanship in these investigations on capitol hill. but also, suzanne and michael, a long list of legitimate questions. among the long list is who did exactly what and why to change these talking points? if you go online you can find this interim progress report from the five republican committees that

i'm jim acosta. you're in "the situation room." >>> we begin with a new discovery in the boston terror investigation. authorities now appear to have evidence that the bombs were made at tamerlan tsarnaev's apartment where he lived with his wife and young child. hi, deb. >> reporter: one of the reasons they believe that is because according to a source in the investigation, forensic experts did find explosive residue on the kitchen table, the sink and bathtub of the home where tamerlan tsarnaev lived with his wife and young daughter and catherine russell has been speaking to investigators all day. clearly if she was in the apartment, they want to know what she knows and whether she saw any of this activity that was going on, jim. >> and deb, what is the latest on what will happen to the dead body of tamerlan tsarnaev? >> reporter: well, the body was removed from the medical examine's office yesterday at 5:00 in the afternoon. it was taken to one funeral home, then to another in worster, massachusetts.

want to bring in jim acosta now who is at the white house. on't know if you've been able to get any reaction yet. >> not here yet at the white house. white house officials are not commenting on all of this, but we can tell you a little bit what you were just talking about a few moments ago. a letter addressed to president obama was intercepted at an offsite mail sorting facility for the white house. earlier today a law enforcement official we spoke to here at cnn does believe this letter is connected to the letters that were sent to mayor bloomberg and the mayors against illegal guns group that is connected to mayor bloomberg. a couple of things we can tell you about these letters. as is the case with the letters to bloomberg and mayors against illegal guns, the letter to president obama was also postmarked from the shreveport area. law enforcement official that we talked to does not believe at this point that this case is related to that case that happened in mississippi last month where a man in mississippi was charged with sending ricin-tai

brian todd looking at the charges against the justice department and jim acosta has been working his. i want to go to you, brian. the ap is calling this massive and unprecedented. it seems to be that way. you can't do this and take all these records without getting permission to do so. what was the department of justice doing? >> erin, this goes back to a story a year ago this month. ap and other news organizations reported on a foiled terror plot, reports came out in may of 2012. they reported there was a mole recruited by the saudis who infiltrated al qaeda in the arabian enpins lpeninsula and g bomb to saudi officials and reported details of the plot. now ap says u.s. government officials have said in public testimony that the u.s. obtained in the a.p. story. u.s. director of national intelligence james clapper even ordered a polygraph of some personnel in part because of the leak of that information about that story. so if the justice department was doing this, if they obtained these records as a.p. says they did, they likely were monitoring who called a.p. reporters, when they c

and now i want to go to jim acosta on the irs targeting scandal.w you have some new information about just who knew what when and who it was within the irs, jim. >> three years ago, just as the tea party was taking off as a political force in the u.s., conservative groups within the movement were being targeted by the internal revenue service. >> it's quite remarkable how long this was under and how long the practice went on. and the question is how far up did somebody know. >> president obama vowed to take action. >> i will not tolerate it and we'll make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this. >> according to an inspector general's report on the matter obtained by cnn, an irs unit in cincinnati issued a "be on the lookout" for tea party groups in 2010. groups that focused on government spending or making america a better place or even criticizing how the country is being run. but just last year, the irs commissioner at the time flatly told congress none of that was going on. >> as you know, we pride ourselves on being a nonpolitical,

jim acosta joins me. he's been following this story intently. just got the letter that the treasury secretary wrote to steven miller, clearly this administration trying to show they are angry about this scandal. what else does the letter say? >> erin, i mean, this is a letter you don't see released very often in washington and to the public. i'll show it to you right here, this is it. this say letter from the treasury secretary jack lu to acting irs commissioner stephen miller and it says "while i very much appreciate your many years of loyal service at the irs, i find it necessary at this time to request your resignation." short and to the point. and another sign that the president is starting to get serious about this scandal. with a growing chorus of criticism that president only offered a weak response to political targeting at the irs, mr. obama seized the moment to get tough. >> today secretary lu took the first step by requesting and cepting the resignation of the acting commissioner of the irs because given the controversy surrounding th

jim acosta reporting live from capitol hill. the irs mess could be growing, too.h republican representatives of loochlt. i asked him if the acting commissioner's resignation was a good first step. >> this is not enough. we have to get to the bottom of this we expect the acting commissioner who was just fired to appear before our committee tomorrow. it's important he appear, come forward truthfully, openly, give us the real answers to the extent that he knows, because up until now the irs has been very evasive, not very forthcoming. in fact, they have been misleading. i would say that any tax payer who is misleading or lies to the irs on their tax returns, they're going to be very stiff penalties. well, it has to go both wies. >> you said there is a culture of rot at the irs. the house speaker jed said someone ought to go to jail for this. do you agree? >> well, i think we have to find out where federal law was broken. if, indeed, so, yes. i do agree with the speaker. but we have to walk through this and find out what exactly happened. i think there is a combinatio

jim acosta, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> our thanks to jim. 47 minutes past the hour." controversy over a high school tradition where the boys vote on who they think is the sexiest girl. why the school can't seem to shut this down. oh, hi there bill. hey! are you in town for another meeting? yup, i brought my a-team. business trips add up to family time. this is my family. this is joe. hi joe! hi there! earn a ton of extra hhonors points with the daily grand promotion and feel the hamptonality. (announcer) scottrade knows our and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. voted "best investment services company." >>> it's an online tournament called may madness that pits female high school classmates against each other to determine who is sexiest. girls are en

cnn national political correspondent jim acosta has more on this. walk us through this.an get complex. >> reporter: that's right, kate. the white house and the state department are trying to make the case that they made these adjustments to the talking points in order to preserve what they called the integrity of the investigation into benghazi, but that does not answer all of the questions about what the white house has said in the past about these talking points. three days after the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, obama administration officials were firing e-mails back and forth to each other discussing just how to explain to congress what happened. according to e-mails from the exchange viewed by congressional sources, those administration officials apparently agreed to remove a key cia assessment about who was involved in the incident from government talking points. a version of the talking points made their way to u.n. ambassador susan rice who went on five sunday talk shows and said protesters enraged over an antiislamic video were suspected in bo

>> absolutely he does, yes. >> jim acosta reporting. the question, can eric holder survive this?rney general should have been fired a long time ago. so does jonathan turley, you heard him in that story and dare say, are you a liberal. >> well, you know, it's not the first time civil libertarians found strange bedfellows in cocoon to versies this is not the first such complaint against eric hold every, he has led a justice department that has rolled back on a number of civil liberties, but did cross the rubicon here. it's difficult to overstate how dangerous this type of investigation is to our system. he is the chief legal officer of the united states. takes an oath to protect the constitution. but here he is the threat to the constitution. he did a direct assault on the free press. which is critically important to the protection of liberty. why the framers put it in the first amendment. >> president obama is a constitutional lawyer, right? why does he stand so strongly by eric holder? >> quite frankly, because these are his sins as well. what eric holder did, is part of years of

cnn national correspondent jim acosta live at the white house this morning. good morning, jim. >> reporter: good morning. the white house has a sliver of good news with the new cnn/orc poll showing president's approval numbers holding up despite this triple trouble for the obama administration. but it depends on how this drags on. as president obama escaped the white house to delive a commencement speech in a steady rain at moorehouse college in atlanta, republicans were still pouring it on. >> there's a culture of intimidation throughout the administration. >> reporter: top gop leaders fanned out on the sunday talk shows. >> who knew, when did they know, why did they do this. >> they want to drag washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expedition. >> reporter: dan pfeiffer was asked time and again when did the president find out about it? >> when it came out on the news a week ago friday. here's why. because, here's the cardinal rule in situations like these. not just for this white house but all white houses. is you don't interfere in an independent inve

jim acosta is in new york for us. jim, what's the latest?as said he just wants a second chance from voters. judging by the latest polls for mayor in the big apple, he may get one. to the political pundits writing off anthony weiner in the race for new york city mayor, don't say forget about it just yet. >> you can have a safe classroom where teachers can teach and students can learn. >> reporter: he resigned in disgrace after posting lewd photos online, received a warm welcome at the first candidate's debate and getting a serious look from the voters. latest mayor's poll shows he is gaining fast, five points behind the front runner, christine quinn. 53% say he deserves a second chance, and 39% say he lacks character to be mayor. >> are you getting a second chance, is that what this means? >> i said for the moment i got in the race, i honor the right people have questions for me. for the most part, questions people have been asking are things that effect their families. >> reporter: quinn dropped out of the event, organizers insist she helped

national political correspondent jim acosta live from our washington bureau this morning. is a long time friend and early supporter of this president and a very successful businesswoman. but she is going to face scrutiny. >> later this morning, we'll find out if this is a controversial nominee, when the hearing gets under way for commerce secretary. a corporate executive and key obama supporter, pritzker is worth $1.85 billion. much of her wealth comes from her family, which founded the hyatt hotel. charles grassley raised questions about her finances and whether she moved the money offshore to reduce the amount she owed in taxes. the obama campaign hammered mitt romney for doing the same thing and grassley said in a recent statement, here it is. this is the second nominee in a row, jack lew, treasury secretary the first, associated with this kind of tax avoidance activity. it is hypocritical to overlook tax avoidance when it's convenient. president obama hinted that pritzker's nomination could be bumpy when he announced the nomination on her birthday a few days ago. >> to

jim acosta in charleston, south carolina this morning. bottom of the hour we're going to hear from congressman-elect mark sanford. we will speak to the congressman-elect live. other news now, overnight a southwest airlines flight diverted because of several unruly passengers on board. the flight took off from orlando and was headed to providence, rhode island. but late last night it diverted to charleston international airport. three passengers, we are told, were disruptive, unruly and failed to follow instructions from the flight crew. we're told they are now in 23ib custody. >>> amanda knox, labeled a seductress, ice queen, killer, insists she did not murder her roommate meredith kercher during their year abroad in italy. knox talks about what she's been through in her new book and during last night's cnn special amanda knox the unanswered questions our chris cuomo asked about kercher's loved ones and their need for justice? >> but if the bottom line is, if they want a retrial what does it mean about how they feel about you? >> it means

cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta in charleston, south carolina and he didn't win bye bit, but by a lot. >> that's right. you might say the voters have forgiven mark sanford. a long and winning trail for the former south carolina governor, but he does appear to be out of woods. no longer that former governor of the appalachian trail. is he congressman elect mark sanford. >> some guy came up to me the other day and says you look a lot like lazarus. >> reporter: once left for dead in the political wilderness, mark sanford blazed a comeback trail that will take him all wait to washington. >> i want to acknowledge a good of second chances but third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, challenges, because that's the reality of shared humanity. >> reporter: he captured a vacant south carolina congressional seat by decided margin. he an extramarital affair from a mistress from argentina that he once claimed was a hike on the appalachian trail may be behind him. is this redemption? >> i think we're always on the route to redemption. we'll see where things go from here. it'

cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta has the story for us. jim, what happened?porter: wolf president obama said he is determined to stop sexual assaults in the armed services labeling them crimes that he says threaten what he called the greatest military on earth. for the president it was an opportunity to address yet another controversy facing his administration and perhaps to start putting away a string of damaging distractions. >> hello, midshipmen! >> reporter: with a sea of graduates from the u.s. naval academy looking on, president obama warned of the ripple effects of sexual assaults and misconduct in the military on what he dubbed the most trusted institution in america. >> those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime. they threaten the trust and discipline that makes our military strong. >> the commander in chief's tough talk comes as the military's top brass and congressional leaders vow to root out a problem on the rise. a recent pentagon study estimated 26,000 members of the armed services were sexually assaulted last year. to hamm

national political correspondent jim acosta is with us this morning.f the polls are rate, the latest polls are right, new yorkers seem to be in a forgiving mood when it comes to anthony weiner. >> they are. we have seen this movie before. just not here in new york city. anthony weiner said he wants new york city voters to give him a second chance and judging by the latest polls in the race for mayor of the big apple it looks like he may be getting one. to the political pundits writing off anthony weiner in the race for new york city mayor, don't say forget about it just yet. >> you can have a safe classroom where teachers can teach and students can learn. >> reporter: the former congressman who resigned in disgrace after posting lewd photos online received a warm welcome at his first candidate's debate. and he's getting a serious look from the voters. the latest marist poll shows he's gaining fast, just five points behind the front-runner in the race for the democratic nomination christine quinn. what's more 53% of voters say weiner deserves a second c

thanks very much, jim acosta.ing out there tomorrow as well. >>> just ahead, syria says israeli air strikes on missile storage sites near damascus amount to a declaration of war and that anything is now possible. we'll have the latest. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." we are outta here! finding you the perfect place. hotels.com. details on a senate vote just minutes from now that could affect the price you pay. >>> and the pop star beyonce responding to critics who slammed her for her recent trip to communist cuba. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> israel may be keeping mum. but an american source confirms the explosions that rocked areas near the syrian capital over the past couple of days did in fact come from israeli air strikes. the target said to be storage sites for missiles. syria's not keeping quiet at all. officials there saying the action amounts to what they call a declaration of war. let's go live to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. she's been on top of this s

cnn national political correspondent jim acosta live from charleston, south carolina, this morning. ning, jim. we'll see how long the memory south carolinians have. >> that is the key question in this race, christine. good morning that's right. voting locations are open in the first congressional district of south carolina. and if you believe the polls, mack sanford just might pull off what was widely considered an unthinkable political comeback for the former south carolina governor. he hopes this trail leads to washington. >> i really appreciate it. >> reporter: mark sanford has been to political hell and back after his extramarital affair became synonymous with the appalachian trail, the former south carolina governor knows redemption is in sight. >> i don't know if i win or lose, but i'm at peace with where i am, you go out, try the best you can and then the final verdict is in the good lord and the voter's hands. >> reporter: locked in a tight race for an open congressional seat, he argues voters are more interested in solutions than the salacious details of his argentinean mist

>> jim acosta with that report, thank you. >>> coming up, a shocking new twist in this week's spy scandalstation chief? >>> taking off from a u.s. aircraft carrier and it's about to take drone warfare to a whole new level. we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ [ slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums ...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. >>> remotely piloted drones already devastating weapons in the fight against terrorism. now america's taking a

i'm jim acosta.." >>> we begin with a new discovery in the boston terror investigation. authorities now appear to have evidence that the bombs were made at tamerlan tsarnaev's apartment where he lived with his

iej jim acosta in "the situation room." the news continues next on cnn. >>> straight ahead on this hour of the cnn news room, did a top nra executive suggest that people in boston would have been safer two weeks ago if they had more guns? we're going to go live to the nra convention and ask. >>> hands on with google glass. we've got them in the studio. are they worth the hype. >>> i go one oun one with the top chef. all orb is the big wiper at the soggy kentucky derby. we're going to go live to church hill downs just ahead. i'm don lemon. >>> we begin this hour in houston where thousands are meeting for the nra convention. the executive vice president wayne lapierre for the first time links the boston bombings to gun control. listen. >> imagine waking up to a phone call from the police at 3:a.m. in the morning warning that a terrorists event is occurring outside and oring you to stay inside your home. i'm talking of course about boston where residents were in prison behind the locked doors of their own homes. a terrorist wi

i want to bring in our jim acosta, he's covering the story from the white house. we've got deborah feyerick who is in new york. jim, let's start with you. what do we know about the suspicious letter sent to the president? >> well, we know that this letter was intercepted within the last 24 hours, suzanne. it was intercepted at an offsite mail sorting facility where letters that go to the white house are typically screened for this sort of thing. and i can tell you from talking to a law enforcement official in the last hour that because of this heightened sense of awareness that is related to the bloomberg letter that was received, i guess in the last several days, in addition to that letter that was also sent to the mayors against illegal guns group, that because of that heightened sense of awareness, officials were able to spot this additional letter that was mailed to president obama. and at this point it is too early to say according to these officials whether or not ricin was found in the letters sent to the president. that letter is going to be screened for an

jim acosta, thank you. some disturbing images in our next story. a grieving father displaying pictures of his dead son killed while being questioned about his ties to the boston bombing suspects. the family is speaking out and they are demanding what they call justice. they want an fbi agent and two massachusetts police officers to be charged and tried. we have details on the very latest. what's going on? >> wolf, the father has plans to come to the u.s. to pick up his son's body. so far he has only seen pictures of it and he says those pictures raise serious questions. holding photos of his son's body he had harsh words for the fbi. >> translator: at the moment, i want justice and i want there to be an investigation. so that these people are tried under american law. these are not fbi agents but bandits. i cannot call them anything else and they must be tried. >> reporter: it's been more than a week since ibragim todashev was shot and killed in his orlando home while being questioned about his relationship with dead boston marathon bomber tamerlan

jim acosta, good report. >>> on a day when a suicide car bombing in kabul, afghanistan, killed at least2 people including six americans, there's simmering anger on capitol hill over several aspects of u.s. policy towards afghanistan, especially one involving the cash relationship with the afghan government. >>> and senator bob corker of tennessee is joining us right now, the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. thanks very much for coming in. >> wolf, always good to be with you. >> the last time you and i spoke, you were pretty outraged about these reports that the cia over the years have been providing bundles, bags full of hamid karzai the afghan leader so he could distribute that money, do with it what he wants. you wanted an explanation from the president. you wrote to him. you got no explanation. on tuesday you wrote another let center saying these secret payments lack any kind of accountability, encourage the kind of corruption we're trying to prevent in afghanistan and further undermine u.s. taxpayers' confidence in our government. since my original letter pr

jim acosta, thanks very much. when we come back, most of oklahoma right now under what the national weather service is calling a particularly dangerous tornado watch at least until midnight. we're on the ground there tracking the storms. we'll bring you the latest. our own chad myers is in norman, oklahoma. also a small plane plunges right through an apartment roof here in suburban washington, d.c. we'll tell you how it happens. stay with us. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek 100. 100% greek. 100% mmm... wow, that is mmm... it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. yoplait greek 100. it is so good. >>> all right. look at this. look at these pictures from independence, kansas right now. look at how ominous those clouds look. it's 4:25 p.m. central time in independence, kansas. and it looks pretty gruesome. we know there's a particularly dangerous weather watch that we're watching in oklahoma, kansas, missouri. samantha mohr is joining us from the cnn weather center right now. these pictures in kan

our own jim acosta caught up with colbert bush earlier.. >> yes or no would you have voted yes or no to manchin toomey? on the background checks? >> my goodness. >> reporter: aamendment for the background checks. >> okay. i am a defender of the second amendment but we should expand background checks. >> that is how we talk in washington. yes or no on manchin toomey? and we know what that means. manchin and toomey are senators. they offered a bill. she obviously didn't have the answer right there. she wasn't exactly sure. rookie mistake? look. i don't think -- at this late date anybody is going to give her a hard time. this is a great race because you have two underdogs. if you like underdogs and i think everybody likes underdogs in politics, you have two underdogs going against each other. this late date i don't think anybody cares about that little slip. i think she is slipping in the polls somewhat because she has disappointed her democratic base by trying to reach out and seem a little more conservative right at the end. i don't think a

more from cnn's jim acosta. >> reporter: to the political pundits writing off weiner for new york city about it yet. the former congressman who resigned in disgrace after posting lewd photos online is getting a serious look from the voters, latest marist poll is gaining fast. five points behind the front-runner, new york city council speaker christine quinn. what's more, 53% of voters say weiner deserves a second chance and 39% say he lacks the character to be mayor. are you getting a second chance, is that what this means? >> from the moment i got in this race, i honor the idea people will have questions of me. for the most part, the questions people are asking have been about the things that affect families. >> reporter: citing a sedlichedg conference, quinn dropped out of a debate at the last minute, saying that she had a scheduling conflict, even though she helped set the debate. >> i can't speak about any other candidate. >> reporter: the subject of tabloid punchlines talks about the lessons he's learned the hard way. almost the same approach that mark sanford used. at the debate,