joining me now is joe oliver, friend of george zimmerman. joe, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> first of all, how long have you known george zimmerman? >> i've known george about six years. i've known him ever since he started dating his wife. his mother-in-law is a close friend of the family. >> so you've only known him socially? >> yes, mostly socially. >> you've never been in the same workplace? >> you know, i'm sure that information is out there, but i know where he works. >> well, i've come across some information that indicates you both worked at the same place at the same time. is that -- can you confirm that? >> you know, if you've come across that information, then you have come across that information. you know, i'm -- i am not working right now as i'm trying to help george. >> and how are you paying your expenses if you're not working? is someone paying you to do this for george? >> no, no one is paying me to do this for george. i've been trying to contact george since shortly after this ha

who is joe oliver, and where is he getting this stuff? >> joe oliver has become sort of the person of the moment that has shifted the attention away from zimmerman. and so now he's taking fires. we've seen in the last 24 hours, he's taking fire from supporters of trayvon martin from all sides questioning his relationship with zimmerman, questioning what he knows about the case. one thing that was interesting when i was talking with trayvon martin's family lawyers today, with joe oliver talking with some specifickics of what he said happened in the case, it races the question of whether or not joe oliver will get a visit paid to him by cory's investigators. >> the court documents that have shown that george zimmerman had his problems with the law including an arrest for resisting an officer with violence. it was reduced when he attended an education program. and then force against his fiancÉ. are we getting a picture of who this man is as opposed to who trayvon martin. >> that's going to be inevitable that that will happen. trayvon martin'

joe oliver can say whatever he wants. dad can say whatever he wants. >> well, natalie jackson, it's certainly a fascinating case that's gripping america. i hope for the sake of your clients we get to some sense of truth and justice at the end of this. >> i want to talk with a man who is part of the trayvon martin case from the beginning. dan abrams. dan, it's a very complicated legal case. isn't it? because of the various laws that florida has relation to stand your ground and so on and concealed weapons and all the other facets to this make it complicated. from everything that you've seen and read that is factual so far, what is your overview about this case? should the police based on all we now know have arrested george zimmerman on that night? >> we still don't know about the most crucial question. that's exactly what happened that precipitated this event. we know a lot about all the circumstances surrounding it, but there are still some key questions. and look, i'm not in any rush here. i think that the authorities o

joe oliver joins me live in studio this morning. hi, everybody, i'm thomas roberts, we have a lot on the agenda today rt starting with that jetblue pilot. taking passengers and crew completely by surprise. well, today those passengers are speaking out about their terrifying ordeal. and the captain who was subdued by at least five passengers after trying to break into the cockpit was doing so while shouting that iraq, iran, and afghanistan were going to take that plane down. the flight on its way from new york to las vegas but diverted to texas for that emergency landing. >> just out of his mind. just screaming and saying to the passengers, say your prayers, say your prayers. >> it appears he was trying to open the side door. i wasn't going to let that happen. i said, you know what? i'm going to have to stop this from happening. >> i'm joined by aviation expert paul mccarthy. paul, that jetblue captain was taken to a medical facility to be treated. he has been a commercial pilot since 1989. what in your estimation would explain somet

how credible is joe oliver out there drawing conclusions. it just really plays into some kind of coordinated offensive that's being put out by zimmerman's camp to discredit the victim. >> that's all it is. i think this is just a rehearsal from mr. oliver to make mr. zimmerman look good. he's also making him look bad because there's nothing that mr. oliver can say in order to try to change what was on the 911 tapes or the evidence that should have been collected by the police department that night. >> give us the mood of the community there. a lot of intense media pressure, meetings, demonstrations, advocates speaking out. what's the mood of the community and tonight's meeting? >> well, the mood is they are very unhappy at the moment. there's a lot of unrest in the community. of course, we're trying to provide some type of way they can vent their frustration without taking it out on other folks in the community. this is our community. we have to live here. i understand that a lot of national figures will be coming in and revving the community

i didn't hear any struggle prior to the gunshot. >> joe oliver is george zimmerman's friend and joins. thanks for talking with us. we appreciate your time. joe, when did you last speak to george and what did he tell you about the night of the shooting? >> well i spoke with george yesterday as a matter of fact and was able to get some more details about what happened. the report that was released yesterday is what george told me, what happened, where the report stops he filled in the blanks for me as well, and unfortunately at this time i'm not able to discuss that but basically it fills in the gap between what happened when trayvon and george came face-to-face and by the time the gun went off. >> according to "the orlando sentinel" from a leaked report that george was following trayvon, lost him, they had an exchange of words, claiming trayvon hit him and smashed his head into the sidewalk numerous times. is that roughly what he's told you? >> yes. >> so did you want to add something? >> yes, sir, did mr. zimmerman explain to you why he did not choose to seek medical care until the ne

joe oliver, mr.friend, had this to say about what george zimmerman told him about that night. we'll discuss on the other side. >> it came down to a life or death struggle between the two. i can't go into details how the gun came into play, but it was not a part of this story until it was too late. >> so it seems as if he's intimating there was some fight over this gun and that trayvon martin didn't see the gun until he got into some altercation with george zimmerman. what do you make of this? >> oliver was not there. the people i take seriously were the women who were witnesses of this thing and saw the aftermath to this shooting. of course joe oliver as a friend will say these things. someone is rolled out there to try to back up the story. they had a month and a couple of days to get the story together. they are doing everything they can to piece together and argument. the 911 tapes show this man was the aggressor. the 911 operator said don't follow him. we know what happened. george zimmerman need

and joe oliver, did you bring him in to this case? did your client have a conversation with joe oliver on saturday that got him involved in this case, and did he have that conversation with joe oliver without you being a party to that conversation? did you actually allow your client to talk to joe oliver without you participating? and if you did participate in that conversation, that conversation, as you know is not protected by attorney-client privilege because with a third party there there is no privilege on that conversation and i could go on and i'm absolutely, obviously quite disappointed that craig sonner, the terrified cowardly lawyer representing george zimmerman has left the chair empty, run ott of our studio, refused to come on this show, just minutes ago when he decided this was going to be too tough for him. so, instead. joining me now is charles -- from the "new york times." charles, you really brought this story to a level of main stream media consumption it had not reached before. this was a lot of other media going on

now, joe oliver is going to take it to an absurd level next. >> i was surprised i mean that's the termhat i listened to over and over on there and to me, it's a matter of interpretation of whether he's saying coon or goon. there are a lot of parts of this country where people proudly call themselves coon asses virginia in particular. on the other hand, i'm a 53-year-old man and i don't know too many people who younger than 40 who use that term as a racial slur. >> really? interesting. we looked it up. >> doesn't sound very endearing or positive. why would you chase after somebody with a gun and give them an endearing term? it's absurd. one of the guys who came up with the defense of zimmerman was geraldo. >> i think the hoodie is as much responsible for trayvon martin's death at george zimmerman was. >> all right. everybody thought that was absurd. finally, thank god, one of those critics came up with an apology and says quote. i apologize to anyone offended by what one prominent black conservative called my potentially life saving campaign urging children not to go around wearing hood

i have a comment on joe oliver.thcare in mast. so thank you mitt. >> thank you, mitt, thanks for the mandate. joe oliver kind of makes my skin crawl. i think he's the first racist in history to actually produce said black friend. and then, to be used as a pawn. like i saw a interview where he like got choked up. he was talking about he has an 18-year-old black son. but it's like you're defending this man who killed someone else's 17-year-old black son what if that was your son laying in the streets? i don't think he would be so quick to defend his friend. if he's a real friend he's going to say you're a racist and you're wrong. >> every time the story -- there's something that smells bad. it's just -- let's go to, who is this, ken in florida on the trayvon case as well, hi, ken. >> it's jen from florida. >> yes, right. >> regarding the trayvon martin case, i think what's happen, because they work for cnn and possibly his father could have help. i wouldn't say help cover it up. but possibly helped him out a little bi

joe oliver doesn't really know this man that well.iew, it came about -- it's obvious, it's no lie, he even said that. on every other place, it's been said he say close friend. and i said, why are we saying he's a close friend of this man when he's admitted somewhere else he's not? >> i've seen it a number of places where he was nailed down on whether or not he was a close friend of george zimmerman's. he had to admit on air on a number of networks he, in fact, was not. so that's put to rest. >> leonard, did you want to comment on anything we've said so far? can i go on? >> no, go on. >> you're good, okay. you wrote a column on tuesday about this case. it's titled, privilege is about the color white. the very first sentence is, i'm here to explain why george zimmerman is white. why is that so important to write or to define george zimmerman as white when he is self-proclaimed on his voter i.d. he's hispanic? >> that was written in response to -- a large number of reader responses to an earlier column. they were upset i referred to him

with us now joe oliver who is zimmerman's friend and george's legal adviser, craig sonner. joe, let me start with you, you have spoken to george, how is he doing? >> better. after this first started, the reports that i got were that he couldn't stop crying. >> is he aware of the national outrage, all of the rallies? >> just now. >> the president getting involved. >> just now. that's why he's contacted craig. i spoke to him for the first time yesterday, briefly. and you know, he -- it's just starting to sink in. up until this point -- because he was there and he knows what happened, and because he's not in jail, he's been very confident that this will all blow over. because only half of the story has gone out, because the evidence won't be heard until the grand jury convenes. he has to go into hiding. now, he realizes how big this is. >> so, he's in hiding, is he scared for his life? >> wouldn't you be? with all of this. there's someone, a crazy man, who put $10,000 bounty out on his head. i want to know what makes that person any better than the person they think george is.

joe oliver friend of george zimmerman, the attorney for george zimmerman.o we have witness who is actually said anything that we know of that corroborate any part of george zimmerman's version of the story? >> no, and i was in sanford, florida, for a couple of days. i went around the community. i talked to a number of people. no one that i spoke to there could defend what george zimmerman had done. no one was in agreement with what he had done. the woman that you had seen, who admitted and came forth and talked to the media, they talked about what they saw. i talked to a little kid who had seen the end of it. but i talked to no one who witnessed the other part of this story that zimmerman is putting forward. it's very suspect and very convenient for it to come out now when zimmerman and the police department is taking such a beating. >> last point, it's really procedural, the grand jury is april 10th. any idea what sort of process there is going to be or how long that might take? >> it will take a while just talking to a lot of people in the area. they're s

also, zimmerman's character witness, joe oliver, just got dismantled. >> you said you were close with georgia, however, he never shared with you-- >> let's-- >> no, no-- >> he even admits he might not be even zimmerman's friend. that's devastating as well. then we move on to healthcare where the g.o.p. has a pretty effective ad against the president. >> what do you think of that idea? [coughing] >> and it did not go well in the supreme court again today. we'll give you the details. then does mitt romney have a porn problem? >> i didn't know we were talking about porn. >> we're not talking about porn. but you and i were talking about porn backstage. >> but in evaluate, mitt romney has made a lot of money off of porn. we'll tell you about that on tonight's program, too. it's go time. ♪ >> all right, welcome to the "the young turks." well, there is the supreme court again talking about the healthcare law, and it's the third day, and it's the third day of bad news. it seems all across the board the media was convinced it had not gone well for the president's proposal. >> it still looks li

well joe oliver says he wasn't saying "coon" is he was saying "goon."call themselves goons because they lifeke each other. then he told chris matthews last night, "and even if he said "freaking soon," that's okay because that's what people call each other in louisiana they call each other "soon ass" and it's a term of sxweerment. do you think for a second when georgeendearment. do you think for a second when george zimmerman said these f'ing coons always get away do you think that was a term of endearment? this is disgusting. do you think it's going to work? 866-55-press. first thing can i first thing kill him, then they are trying to destroy his reputation. it's sick. >> bill press meets television. now on current tv. >>this is outrageous! [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the rest of the media seems like, "ho-hum, no big deal." we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real. ♪ >> on your radio. on t.v. the bill press shoe, new on current tv. >> 24

her friend joe oliver spoke to me about the george zimmerman he knows. i understand you spoke with with george zimmerman this afternoon. how is he doing? >> this afternoon after speaking with george, i learned he's being treated for posttraumatic stress disorder. depression, insomnia, he has no hunger. i had a chance to fill in the blanks that have been left out in the report that was released today, and the information that's going to be coming out. once the grand jury convenes more to validate what i believe in, that george saved his own life. >> how do you mean? how can you say that? >> because of the account that he gave to me, and that's the evidence that's going to come out in the grand jury. >> so george told you his version events? >> yes, yes, he did. and i had him go through it. one of the reasons why we're at this point right now is that a lot of this information is just now being let out. i mean, i strongly believe that if from the very beginning with the characterizations of george being latino raermg than whites and with the information tha

joe oliver says he has talked with zimmerman since the shooting. george howell spoke with him this morning. he joins us from sanford. what did he say? >> reporter: carol, first off, i want to talk about one thing we learned just the other day from zimmerman's attorney, that he plans to use the stand your ground law here in florida as his defense if his client is arrested. initially, he planned to just argue self defense in that case. but now -- determined that's the appropriate route to take. now, as far as joe oliver, again, this is a friend who has known george zimmerman for a long time and still staunchly defends him. take a listen to what he had to say to me this morning. >> he's in hiding. he has changed his numbers. his mother-in-law has no idea or any way to get in touch with her own daughter. so, yeah, they're all concerned. they're all in fear. this was not a racial incident. this was an incident where someone who was just trying to do the right thing ended up in a very, very bad position. >> reporter: we also saw joe oliver talking with t

because joe oliver, again, a later clip from an interview, which i won't play you, but i can tell youd. he basically implied that george zimmerman didn't have a racist bone in his body. there certainly wouldn't have been any motive to done what he did. >> i almost certainly don't know zimmerman's character. i don't know his makeup. but what i do know is that my son was racially profiled. i know that. the whole world knows that. and as far as him being a racist, i really don't know him. i've never had an encounter with him so i can't speak on that matter. but i can speak on the facts and the facts are george zimmerman did racially profile trayvon martin. >> sybrina, do you believe if your son had been white and george zimmerman had been black, that he would have been arrested, george zimmerman? >> i absolutely believe that my son would have been arrested. it wouldn't have been an explanation that he could have given the sanford police department to ensure that he would not go to jail. they would not have listened to that. they would have arrested him and let them -- let him plead his c

. >> joe oliver, i appreciate having your voice on the program tonight. we're trying to learn as much as we can. and it's important to hear from you. so thank you. >> thank you. >> moments ago you heard from the martin family attorney benjamin crump. joining me now is another member of their legal team mr. parks. thanks for being with us. joe oliver believed that zimmerman saved his life. how do you respond to that? >> well, anderson, i think we have to go back to all the initial evidence of the 911 tapes that we are aware of. it's rather clear that mr. zimmerman thought that trayvon was suspicious. number two, the dispatcher told him are you following him? he says yes. she says you don't have to follow him. we can have confidence in that evidence that he was being the aggressor. i know that the gentleman is a good friend of his and that's fine. however, we have very, very clear evidence to the world of what this gentleman was doing. and so for him to try to turn the tide on trayvon right now when trayvon has lost his life, he's dead, it is almost -- it's

now, here is joe oliver taking it still one step further last night with piers morgan.at this. >> i've covered stories like this where white men have shot and killed a black teenager and claimed self defense. in this particular instance, i believe that when all of the evidence comes out, this will clearly show this was a case of life or death for either trackvon or george. and sadly for the martin family it was trackvonyvon that lost. he will never be the same man. he will never be the kind giving, caring human being we have always known and loved. >> we lost george zimmerman, too? kind? loving? caring? give me a freaking break. god, that pisses me off. i mean the idea that he thinks we would buy that b.s. i mean let's not forget. you know what we have got to do? let's just get back and keep reminding ourselves, i guess, without just getting too hangangry about it just keep coming back and reminding people about the facts in this case. okay? the facts in this case f again invite your calls at 866-55-press -- the facts in this case are that george zimmerman has a police