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Racially Torn City Goes to Polls Tuesday; Family's Horrifying Vacation Illness; Team Obama Making Big Pitch to Congress on Iran Nuclear Deal; Congress May Try to Block Iran Nuclear Deal with Sanctions Bill; Good Samaritans Rescue Family; Final Four Action Tips Off Today; Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene Married? Aired 1-2p ET

Aired April 04, 2015 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[13:00:42] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, incredible stories of survival emerging from the students who survived a bloody college campus assault in Kenya.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the gunmen came in, she hid on top of a cupboard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: One woman drank lotion, in fact, to stay alive for hydration, and another covered herself in her friend's blood.

And then with just days to go before the city council election in Ferguson, Missouri, we're getting a new look at racist e-mails sent by Ferguson police officers, including pictures of Ronald Reagan holding a baby monkey and the story behind that.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your car off of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The race to save a family trapped in the back of an RV as it goes up in flames in Florida.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Hello, again, and thanks so much for joining me, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Today al-Shabaab is threatening more bloodshed in Kenya, and the country's president is calling for three days of mourning for the 147 victims of Thursday's terrorist massacre at a college campus there. At the same time, we're learning of two remarkable tales of survival.

Helen Titus stayed alive by lying on the floor, smearing her dead friend's blood on her own face, and then playing dead herself. She said, quote, "I just soaked myself with that blood and they skipped me."

For more than two days, another young woman hid in a closet, buried in clothes to avoid the terrorists.

Christian Purefoye has more.

PUREFOY: Fred, it's at times of absolute horror like this that you try to look for some sort of hope. And that's what happened with 19- year-old Cynthia, who's found in the top of a cupboard about 9:00 this morning after hiding for over 48 hours since the attack first began. She's told us all sorts of stories about how she survived. Perhaps the most remarkable one is that she had to drink body lotion to try and rehydrate herself. But here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA CHEROLICH, SURVIVED AL-SHABAAB COLLEGE ATTACK: And then me, I decided to go to the -- the wardrobe. In the wardrobe, we have a small room. Small rooms. And then I entered into that place and then I covered myself with the -- with the clothes. Then these people entered in our room. And then they told my other roommates who had hidden themselves in the under bed, they told them to -- to go out and when they were outside, they told them if you don't know how to read in the Muslim word, whatever, and then you lie down. And then if you know, you go to the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PUREFOY: Now Cynthia described to us how she kept her eyes closed but she could still hear what was going on. How her friends were being made to lie face down on the ground. Now she didn't know what happened next but we spoke to one medic who went in with the military after the attackers were killed, and he said that he saw students on the ground face-down with bullet shots to the back of the head.

Cynthia was still in shock when we met her, but when the military found her, they had to call the principal of the university to come back to the crime scene, and tell her that these people were not going to hurt her -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Christian Purefoy reporting from Kenya.

Back here on U.S. soil, three American women are now in federal custody, facing terror charges, including one who is accused of trying to join ISIS. According to court documents, 30-year-old Keonna Thomas posted statements on Twitter that led officials to believe that she was trying to support the terrorist organization. She also allegedly conducted online research into various indirect travel routes into Syria. If convicted, she could face 15 years in prison.

I want to bring in Jonathan Gilliam, a former FBI agent and Navy SEAL.

[13:05:00] So we're talking about someone in the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia area. We're also talking about the other two women in New York who are now facing charges of conspiring, about trying to build a bomb, inspired by the Boston marathon bombing.

So what does this say about the profiling of potential terrorists? We're looking at women and we're talking about not teenage girls who were, you know, looking for another life, but now talking about grown women.

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER FBI AGENT: Right. You know, Fred, we have to start looking at the reality of who could potentially be used as an attacker. You know, in Kenya, for instance, they use Kenyans to do a majority of the attacks, because it's easier for somebody who is a native of that area to blend in.

WHITFIELD: And they believe many of them Kenyan because many of the witnesses say they heard the Swahili being spoken.

GILLIAM: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Of the Kenyan dialect.

GILLIAM: And it's much easier to use somebody of that nature there. Here, you know, female -- using females, using children, eventually could potentially happen. I've seen in Iraq where during voting they have used somebody who had down syndrome and they wheeled him up in a wheelchair, and they -- you know, they blew that person up.

These are the ways that we have to start forward thinking. And I applaud the fact that they caught these people. But here's something that has to be pointed out. The Muslim community, they're the front line of the defense on this, truly. They have to start identifying these people themselves. And if they don't, and this comes out that there are people in these mosques, those mosques should be looked at heavily, heavily by law enforcement.

WHITFIELD: So now this really is speaking to the terror at the root of terrorism.

GILLIAM: Sure.

WHITFIELD: This means that everybody, no matter what your, you know, political, your religious persuasion, you're now being conditioned to think that everyone is suspect or has the potential to carry out something to bring harm to you and your family in any place, whether you're in a public park.

GILLIAM: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Whether you're on the subway. So this is the most difficult thing in which to defeat for law enforcement or for counterterrorism, because now it also means you're acting for people, general populist, to be active participants.

GILLIAM: Right.

WHITFIELD: But then that could also go the other way.

GILLIAM: So here's how you defeat that. Anywhere you go, it doesn't matter what color of person is, whether they're male or female, young or old, they're going to act a certain way when they're in a certain environment. When people are coming out of a baseball game, they act a certain way. You know, we're a lot like cattle. We move with the herd. But if somebody is acting differently, you can identify that behavior because it just doesn't fit in. And that's where the majority of people can really make the difference.

You know what's normal. You come to work here every day. If you see something that's not normal, you report that. And you let law enforcement handle it. But if you just ignore it, which, you know, I live in New York, in a big city. You tend to just look the other way. It's time now to stop looking the other way.

WHITFIELD: So back to your other point that you were just making about, you know, it really is put to the onus in large part on Muslim community leaders because that seems to be a common thread of some of these most recent arrests in particular.

GILLIAM: Sure.

WHITFIELD: That they are alleging that it's their religious commitment to the Muslim faith, the Islamic faith as to why they are doing these things. But then when you have mainstream Muslim leaders who say, we are conveying that message, but we aren't worried about the faithful. We're worrying about those who are being convinced to perhaps either misconstrue the followings of Islam or are showing other vulnerabilities as to why they are roped in.

So who do you turn to? What do you do?

GILLIAM: Good question. So here's what my recommendation is for the Muslim community. Take religion out of it. If somebody is there and they're acting inappropriately, because there is an appropriate way to -- to act when you're in a mosque. When you're a Muslim in the United States, there is an appropriate way to act. Talking about killing and bombing people is not appropriate. And --

WHITFIELD: Is that a conversation that's right out in the open?

GILLIAM: It's inside -- no, it's not out in the open. It's in the mosque. And a mosque is a closed community. Islam is a closed community. So is Judaism. So -- there's other religions and other aspects of everyday life that are closed. When something is not normal, it's up to that mosque to make sure that they either take care of it or tell the authorities. But if --

WHITFIELD: And then I guess you have to really learn -- is that the conversation that's really happening in mosques?

GILLIAM: Well, I can tell you from my past experience on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, that there are pockets of things that happen in mosques, and the mosques know about it, or -- but they just don't want to do anything or say anything, because of the heat that will come on them. But I'm telling you the day now has come where the heat is going to come on them if they don't take care of it themselves. You know, I have some Muslim friends, and we all agree that it's time

for the Muslim community to step up and start forward thinking this themselves, and be an integral part in the solution, not just trying to avoid the problem.

[13:10:04] WHITFIELD: All right. Jonathan Gilliam, thank you so much. We're going to talk again because your expertise really is so widespread as a former Navy SEAL, former Marshal. I mean, the list goes on.

GILLIAM: I get bored easy.

WHITFIELD: I'd like to say that's the Navy SEAL, right? That's the Navy SEAL pin right there?

GILLIAM: Yes.

WHITFIELD: You've got your hands, you know, on all of it. But we'll talk again about another topic coming up.

GILLIAM: OK.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Jonathan.

GILLIAM: You got. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still to come, a roadside inferno and a family desperate to escape.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a foot sticking out the back window.

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WHITFIELD: All right. You're going to hear from a good Samaritan who ignored the flames and then saved the rest of the people inside.

And with the backdrop of the shooting of Michael Brown, voters go to the polls in Ferguson, Missouri, Tuesday. We will talk about the potential change of city leadership and how it could potentially make a difference.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Tuesday is Election Day in Ferguson, Missouri. Voters will be asked to elect a new city council. And for a city that has been struggling with racial tension following the shooting of Michael Brown, it is hoped that a new city council will help bring some change.

But we're also learning details about the extent of the racially charged atmosphere in Ferguson, even before Michael Brown. E-mails are now being released from the DOJ investigation into wrongdoing by the police department. And they are ugly and offensive and help substantiate the DOJ conclusion that there was an atmosphere and culture of racial bias.

These e-mails were sent between the city's top court clerk and two police supervisors, all of whom have been fired or resigned as a part of the Department of Justice investigation.

CNN's Ryan Young got a look at some of these e-mails.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This first photo shows Ronald Reagan holding a monkey and the caption says, "Rare photo of Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama in early 1962." You can feel the offensive nature by just looking at the photo.

[13:15:05] It moves on to show you more photos. They even target the first lady. You can see a group of women. We blurred the top of the photo and it says, "This was a high school reunion for the first lady."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk more about this. Joining me now is CNN political commentator, LZ Granderson.

LZ, good to see you. So I do not take pleasure in helping these hateful e-mails to get on an even bigger platform. But now that they have been publicized as a result of the DOJ investigation, in large part, do you feel like publicizing this kind of hate also inspires people to perhaps go to the polls who may otherwise not find themselves going to the polls to vote on Tuesday?

LZ GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR: You know, that's going to be really difficult to figure out. It's going to be a wait and see in my perspective. You know, when I was down there covering Ferguson, one of the questions I asked repeatedly was, why don't you vote, why don't you vote. And there was just large sense of disenfranchisement and there was obviously a lot of focus on trying to get people to register to vote during the protesting that was happening there in the months that follow Michael Brown's passing.

But then the midterm elections came about, and those numbers were still poor. So even after all that was going on, the midterm election comes through and voters did not come out to vote. Twelve percent showed in April of 2014. I don't know, you know, if we can expect a large turnout or not.

WHITFIELD: And -- well, that really is disconcerting, too, because that's another potential setback because you heard, especially after the Michael Brown shooting and the unrest, the racial strife in the city, there were many people who said if only we could take better control of those who are in positions of authority that perhaps that would help create a different atmosphere. And if you don't go to the polls, if you don't vote, people in or out, then perhaps you can't really make an impact.

GRANDERSON: You know, we know from the statistics that the majority of the people that did indeed vote voted Democrat. And former congressman, Barney Frank, said something that I'll always remember. And that is, when the right gets upset, they march to the polls. And when the left gets upset, they march in the streets. Well, hopefully that changes. And people can finally feel empowered to go to the polls and make that change as necessary.

But I also want to caution, just because you've got black people in the city council doesn't mean things are going to change. The community itself still needs to roll up its sleeves and get things done for itself. It can't just say well, now we have a city council with three black people on it, so that means there will be justice. That's not the way it's going to be done?

WHITFIELD: But city council also plays a large role in the makeup of your police department, your police chief. The hiring of officers as a result of the police chief or even sheriffs that are put into place, right?

GRANDERSON: Yes, absolutely. And I'm not trying to say that won't help in the process. But at the end of the day, the community itself needs to rally around each other, educate each other, make -- encourage each other, make sure each other is getting registered to vote and then stay on top of the issues at hand. So they aren't just voting for people based upon skin color or party, but they're based upon actual facts that they have researched themselves.

WHITFIELD: Right. So that's the argument that has to be made. But then the question is, who in that area is influential enough to help make that argument to help engage people to see that when you do go to the polls, there is a difference that is made because there is a sense of complacency by many as you just -- you know, underscore by the people that you talked to that felt powerless that their vote doesn't matter.

GRANDERSON: Well, historically in the African-American community, the black church has been the epicenter of us, both in terms of socialism and as well as in terms of political activism. And when I was down there, many, many people who were in front of the microphones, in front of crowds, helping to keep the peace as well as inspire and motivate, were from that cloth, that cloth in terms of religion, in terms of pastors, in terms of people working in the clergy.

So hopefully, what has long been a strong tradition of black community and of course the church being active politically will continue to inspire people to go to the polls and as I said before, make sure that they are informed, so that they aren't just voting based on knee jerk reaction, but they've actually done the work themselves so the people that represents them actually will be working for them.

WHITFIELD: All right. LZ Granderson, thank you so much. Good to see you from New York.

All right. Still ahead, the most horrifying thing in the world. That's a quote. That is how a lawyer is describing a Delaware family's dream vacation. He says they were apparently exposed to a pesticide in a nearby villa. Why he likens that pesticide to sarin nerve gas.

[13:19:44]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The most horrifying thing in the world. That's how a lawyer describes a Delaware family's dream vacation. This after apparent exposure to a strong pesticide in the Virgin Islands last month. They were found in their luxury villa next to another villa that had been treated with pesticides. The father is now in a coma. The mother and two teenage boys were at the time having seizures. The two boys are still in critical condition, and one with brain damage. And now the U.S. Justice Department is launching a criminal probe.

CNN's Sara Gamin joins me with more on this.

So as far as we know how are those family members doing right now?

SARA GAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, a little while ago I talked to that family attorney, and thankfully the parents, Theresa Divine and Steve Esmond, the father, they're doing a little bit better. But the teenage boy, Sean, who's just 16, and Ryan, who was 14, are still in critical condition in a coma at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Their attorney told me that they are in, quote, "rough shape."

He said the whole family was airlifted here after falling ill after a fumigation of a villa beneath the one where they were staying at the Sirenusa Resort on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is very scary, Fred. The little boy -- the older boy, I'm sorry, he had blood in his lungs. He had -- was near heart failure, the attorney told me. His heart was failing. And one of the boys now has brain damage.

Now, of course, they're both recovering at the hospital, but the parents' conditions are improving slightly. The attorney told me that the father has woken up from his coma. He's conscious, but he can't talk. And the mother was released earlier this week from the hospital to occupational therapy because she had been exposed to a lesser degree of this chemical.

[13:25:13] Now the attorney also told me that this is a long recovery, because this chemical, methyl bromide, it is like sarin gas. Like it attacks the nervous system and the Environmental Protection -- I'm sorry, yes, the EPA says that traces of methyl bromide were found indoors, in this villa, even though it's not legal to use it inside in the U.S., because of its acute toxicity.

Now, the resort, which is owned by Sea Glass vacations, told us that the pest control company, Terminix, fumigated the villa beneath theirs on March 18th, and that was right in the middle of the family's nine- day vacation. Now the EPA clearly states, like I said, the methyl bromide is restricted because it is odorless and it causes injury to the lung and nervous system and can be fatal when it's inhaled -- Fred. WHITFIELD: My gosh. And so now we're talking about the punishment.

You know, the culpability. Who is to blame here and how this resort is going to endure that? Are we talking about Department of Justice looking at criminal investigation, which leads to fines? Or what would happen?

GANIM: The U.S. Criminal Justice Department -- U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation. They're looking into it. So is the EPA. EPA was actually sent down there by a U.S. senator and they call it justice and there is an open investigation.

Now Terminix told CNN in an e-mail that it is, quote, "looking into this matter internally and cooperating with authorities." They said, "We're thinking about the family and we join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery."

A spokeswoman for the EPA told us that they are actively working to determine how this happened and how to make sure they -- they take steps to make sure it doesn't happen to others at these vacation apartments or anywhere else.

WHITFIELD: Anywhere.

GANIM: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Gosh. All right. It's unbelievable.

Sara, thank you so much.

All right. Straight ahead, we've got so much more in the NEWSROOM. The Iran nuclear deal is signed and sealed. Well, not really. It's going to be signed and sealed, eventually, if there are no new renovations made to it by June 30th. But what happens in the meantime? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Mortgage rates slightly down for the week. Have a look at the numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:10] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to the NEWSROOM.

Now that President Obama has a framework of a nuclear deal with Iran, the White House has unleashed practically all of the top lieutenants to sell this agreement to U.S. Congress.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is at the White House.

So this is unprecedented if you talk to a whole lot of people who say they never remember a deal like this being offered to get Iran to come to the table like this. So what is the sell to U.S. Congress? What are they working on?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a big sell, Fred. And this has been an aggressive full-court press by the White House to sell this deal, especially to Congress. They know that many members of Congress are skeptical. So President Obama is reaching out directly himself. He's on the phone, calling members of Congress, reaching out to the top four congressional leaders. Even bringing this big sales pitch to his weekly address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This framework is a result of tough principal diplomacy. It's a good deal. A deal that meets our core objectives, including strict limitations on Iran's program and cutting off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And the big argument the White House is making to members of Congress is that they want members to look at what the alternatives to this deal would mean. They say that it would be a greater risk for war and even less accountability for Iran. Now some on Congress don't buy that argument, including Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: This deal still may not be consummated by June. But the alternatives to this deal is a better deal, with continued pressure through the credible threat of military force and more sanctions. And if necessary, having to take military action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And there are a series of bills just lined up, waiting to go, ready for when Congress gets back from recess in two weeks. These bills are going to challenge the president on the details of this bill -- of this deal that's being worked out with Iran. And the White House has issued at least one veto threat here on one of the bills, most notably like Senator Bob Corker, and he's getting a lot of Democrats, Fred, though, to sign up on that bill.

There are many Democrats who say they want more say in the final contours of the deal that gets worked out through Iran. So this is going to be a messy fight ahead -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it does seem messy and it's two to three months in the making of it, right?

Sunlen Serfaty, thanks so much at the White House. Appreciate it.

Let's talk more about this. So the White House is going on the offensive to get Congress on board with this framework for a nuclear deal with Iran.

Let's bring in Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Good to see you.

And Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and editorial director of the "National Journal." Good to see you.

OK. So, Larry, you first. So is this, you know, usually the order of business? How customary is this that the secretary of state would carry through this kind of diplomacy at the request of the White House, a framework with five other nations would be developed, and then now U.S. Congress could vote on a bill as it pertains to sanctions before this multinational June 30th deadline could come to fruition?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UVA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, this is unusual procedure in a number of ways. But remember, Fred, the White House has defined this eventual agreement as just an outline right now. The agreement, if reached, would occur in June. This is an executive agreement, meaning the president can implement it unilaterally as opposed to a treaty, which would require a vote of the U.S. Senate and two-thirds of the senators present voting, voting to affirm the treaty.

Now the question really is whether Congress is going to take action in the interim between now and June to make the situation more complex. Everybody agrees that Congress is going to have to take a vote at some point about the sanctions issue. They levied sanctions against Iran, and they're going to have to remove them at some point.

(CROSSTALK)

[13:35:11] WHITFIELD: Well, that's -- can I stop you right there?

SABATO: Although the president does have the right to lift them for two years.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Can I stop you right there?

SABATO: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Is it really removing sanctions or is it relieving sanctions? Because we see, you know, some congressional leaders are using the language saying removing or lifting sanctions, but the White House is saying relieving sanctions. Is this a battle of semantics? Is it different or is it really the same? Larry?

SABATO: No, I think it's much more than semantics. You know, fundamentally, you have Republicans, but also a lot of Democrats who simply don't support the Iran deal. But remember, the president has the veto pen. And it's still going to be difficult, although it's possible, to get two-thirds votes in both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto, which has never happened during the Obama administration.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, Ron, take it from here. Because there are some members of Congress who are arguing that this is not going to be an issue of veto power for the president.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I think that from an institutional, as well as ideological perspective, Congress is going to get a say on this. I think the administration is coming to recognition that Congress -- members of Congress are going to want to vote, and are probably going to give themselves the ability to, you know, render a verdict on this.

Now the question will be whether that is done in a way that has the ability to overturn the agreement. And I think that Democrats who would be required to reach that two-thirds majority to overturn any veto are going to be very reluctant to do anything between now and June that would be seen as scuttling the talks, particularly because a number of voices have viewed the preliminary agreement as stronger on many fronts than we're expected.

So I do think from an institutional purgative point of view, Congress is going to have some say on this. It is very much an open question, though, whether Democrats, even though many are skeptical, as Larry said, are going to be willing to provide the votes to ultimately derail the negotiations.

WHITFIELD: And all of this is very complex, but perhaps making it more complex now, so you've got, you know, Senator Bob Menendez whose name is on both of those congressional bills, that speak to sanctions as it pertains to any kind of Iran deal. And now he's facing, you know, a dozen charges, bribery charges among them. So one has to wonder how much his fate or his legal battle in any way as a distraction or impacts what Congress can or cannot do as it pertains to this Iran deal or these bills -- these proposals that are at hand, Larry.

SABATO: Well, Menendez was a problem for the administration. And he was a strong opponent, apparently, of the Iran deal. But, of course, now that he's been indicted, even though he's remaining in the Senate, even though he retains his floor privileges, he is no longer the ranking member -- ranking Democratic member on Foreign Relations. So in a sense, that's a break for the administration.

Also, I agree with Ron that once this is passed, I think the Corker bill will be passed. It will be sent to the White House. The president is going to veto it. And at that point, the president and the White House will be able to convince enough Democrats, particularly in the Senate, not to derail these negotiations, and to sustain the veto. So we're just going to delay this until the end of June or July of the summer. Eventually, Congress is going to have to do something about the sanctions, although the president does have the right to lift the sanctions for up to two years.

WHITFIELD: All right. And Ron, last word on that. Ten seconds or less.

BROWNSTEIN: Real quick. I think -- I think Fred, in many ways, the debate may be less about the specifics of this deal than about whether to deal with Iran at all. I mean, the argument from Prime Minister Netanyahu has been echoed by a lot of the Republican critics, which is do we want to make a deal with Iran at all while they are in so many other ways pushing against our interests in the Middle East?

And I think that threshold question is going to be hard to argue that you could get a much better deal than Iran would sign absent military force, which as you saw tom cotton open the door to.

WHITFIELD: Yes, he sure did.

BROWNSTEIN: But short of that, I think the key is going to be whether you want to deal with them at all. And that's going to be a threshold the president has to cross.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And the president hopes to have the last word. And he says it's not an issue of politics but it's one of war and peace and he is deferring to peace. We'll see what happens.

Larry Sabato, Rob Brownstein, thanks so much.

An we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A terrifying scene on a Florida highway. An RV engulfed in flames with a mother and daughter trapped inside. A good Samaritan explains the rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSS THOMPSON, GOOD SAMARITAN: Get your car off of it.

GAIL PASCHALL-BROWN, WESH REPORTER (voice-over): Ross Thompson who happens to run a business called the RV Doctor and his son were coming down U.S. 27 in Lake County when they saw this motor home on fire.

THOMPSON: I looked over and I saw that there was still a car attached to it, and I was concerned. I saw one man running around the outside so I did not think there was anybody else there because it was so engulfed. I figure they were outside.

PASCHALL-BROWN: But they weren't. He went to help them while his son caught it all on his cell phone. Another man driving an 18-wheeler also stopped and helped.

THOMPSON: I noticed when I was yelling there was a foot sticking out the back window. So I stopped, we ran across, right away we ran up to the back window and rescued their mom and their daughter and got them out, because they couldn't get out. They were trapped. The whole front end was engulfed. There was no way they were going through the front door.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow. And with the quick action of those good Samaritans, everyone was able to walk away from that inferno with no injuries.

All right. A look at our top stories now.

Record rainfall in Kentucky led to widespread flooding in Louisville and dozens of water rescues for fire and police teams. Officials say they know of at least one fatality. A woman who drowned, trapped in her car, caught in high water. And an escaped inmate is now back in custody following a statewide

manhunt across Illinois. Convicted murderer Kamron Taylor was captured this morning when someone alerted police to a suspicious person who turned out to be the wanted criminal. Taylor broke out of jail two days ago after assaulting a prison guard.

And now video you just have to watch. This is Round Rock, Texas, where police gave chase -- when a buffalo known as Big Boy jumped his barbed wire fence and made a run for it. It's the sixth time that he has escaped this week. So Big Boy's owner says he's looking for a new home, where the buffalo can roam.

[13:45:09] All right. College basketball's biggest weekend is here. The NCAA men's basketball tournament begins just hours from now, and the NCAA was also in the news this week for its strong influence on the 62 Indiana's controversial religious freedom law.

CNN Sports anchor Rachel Nichols is live for us right now in Indianapolis.

So let's talk about this confluence of events. You have the law that was impactful, but at the same time, you had some in the NCAA who made an impact on that law.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Absolutely. Remember, the NCAA is headquartered here in Indianapolis. They are a major employer, about 500 people. Plus much more importantly, they bring business events like the Final Four to Indianapolis pretty often. And these four days are expected to bring half a billion dollars to this community. That is a big foot to be able to put down. And that really speaks to the power of sports in this country.

We love sports. It is a place we put a lot of our money. So when sporting organizations want to make a push with social change, they are a big economic engine to do so. The NCAA president got involved, actually met with the governor here and senior Republican lawmakers, and told them that this is not an environment that they would feel comfortable doing business in, in the future if they didn't make an amendment to this law. So some very serious threats here by the NCAA.

I sat down with Kentucky coach John Calipari to talk about the impact of the organization at large and why it was so important for them all to get involved. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CALIPARI, HEAD COACH, KENTUCKY WILDCATS: Look, I'm in a seat, and I say this all the time. That if I just watch game tape, I'm cheating the position. You're in a position to do good. To move people in the right direction or in the wrong direction. And I think what we're doing as coaches, all of us, to say this is where we stand on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: All four coaches involved here in the Final Four came out against the initial law, asking for an amendment. The NCAA, as I said, got very involved, trying to help broker behind the scenes that amendment. And they have issued a statement since saying they are very pleased with the direction things have gone here in Indianapolis.

WHITFIELD: Wow, very influential. All right, Rachel Nichols, thanks so much.

And of course you can see more of Rachel and her team about 45 minutes from now. She's going to be with Steve Smith, Clark Kellogg, with her special "ALL ACCESS AT THE FINAL FOUR," starting 2:30 Eastern Time.

All right. Still to come, the mystery of Mary Magdalene and the persistent questions of whether she was the wife of Jesus.

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[13:51:36] WHITFIELD: All right, a reminder tonight's NCAA games are on TBS. And if you're a fan of one of the teams, you can listen to the local broadcasters on TruTV and TNT. Enjoy the Final Four.

All right. Some biblical scholars say Mary Magdalene could have played a much bigger role in Jesus' life than many Christians realized, that of lover and wife.

The season finale of "FINDING JESUS" takes a deeper look at the relationship of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and the speculation that the two may have been married and may have been parents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another lost gospel, that of Philip, suggests a different reason for Peter and the other disciples apparent dislike of Mary.

NICOLA DENZEY LEWIS, PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES, BROWN UNIVERSITY: So all those tantalizing theories about Jesus and Mary Magdalene being lovers really jump from this one passage, right? This is the juiciest stuff that we've got, this is ground zero for those conspiracy theories that there was some sort of relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the early Christian communities, for the most part the missionaries were missionary couples. So it makes sense that Jesus himself could have been part of a missionary couple.

RABBI DR. JOSHUA GARROWAY, HEBREW UNION COLLEGE: As a first century Jewish man, it would have been incredibly likely that Jesus would have been married during his lifetime.

PROF. CANDIDA MOSS, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: This is high stakes stuff, so if Jesus, the son of God, was married, maybe he had children. If he had that kind of intimate relationship, people want to know, and if he had children, that means that there might be people wondering around today with sort of holy blood in them.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Oh, my. All right. Joining us right from New York, one of the religious scholars that you just saw in that clip, Nicola Denzey Lewis.

And you seemed very excited about the notion of these two being together, and not just being together, but maybe being married and possibly being parents. So make the more convincing argument as to why people should be on board with that.

LEWIS: The more convincing argument for why they should be on board? Well, here's one part of the argument. That is that as Josh Garroway said on "FINDING JESUS" in that clip that you saw --

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEWIS: -- it would be very unusual for Jesus, as a Jewish man, around the age of 30, not to have been married, and you also have all these suggestive references in New Testament text and also in other texts that don't make it into the New Testament that say that there is some sort of a partnership there. So what we've been trying to do in this show in particular, and what I've tried to do in my work, is to get kind of more deeply into this issue and figure out, is there any truth behind this idea that's been perpetuated in places like "The Da Vinci Code." That there was a real partnership there.

WHITFIELD: So what is the evidence or what more evidence is there that viewers of this finale can feel enlighten by?

LEWIS: Evidence is a really tricky thing when you're dealing with texts that are this old. And there's so much that we don't know unfortunately. That -- for me, that's part of the mystery of doing this work.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEWIS: That's part of what makes it exciting is trying to really tease out what we've got. There isn't any evidence. I'll just kind of lay it out there. That there's absolutely evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. Now a couple of years ago a text came out, a little piece of papyrus that was introduced by my colleague Karen King at Harvard and it refers to Jesus speaking about his wife.

[13:55:07] He doesn't say his wife as Mary Magdalene, but it's just sort of Jesus says, my wife, dot, dot, dot, and then the fragment breaks off. So we don't have any other information. So that's kind of the first time that we have an ancient text where Jesus refers to his wife. What we don't know whether that was a forged text or not. So that's something that we've been working on a lot, and there's been some carbon dating, some attempts to really kind of figure it out.

Now what we do in "FINDING JESUS" is we look at some other texts that we've had for a little while that talk about the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The words they used is not wife. They do say that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' companion. They do say that he loved her more than all the other disciples, which is interesting. Right? So he puts her in with the disciples. And there is evidence for at least one of the disciples, Peter not

being very cool with that, where Peter is saying, how come you love her more than you love us? To which his answer is more or less like, well, duh, why do I love her more than I love you? Now is that evidence --

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: I'm sure he said it just like that, too.

LEWIS: Right. Exactly, just like that, that's how Jesus spoke in the first century, but there isn't any other direct evidence. There's also sort of evidence that's kind of from absence in a way that when Mary Magdalene is spoken of in the New Testament, she's Mary of Magdala. She's associated with a place.

Now usually when women are being spoken about in ancient text, they're always associated with a man, right? So it's the wife of so and so or the mother of so and so, and Mary Magdalene just gets associated with a city. So that's a very interesting thing. And so, again, it doesn't say that they are married.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEWIS: But what it does say is that maybe she was not married, but she was still associated with him in other ways.

WHITFIELD: All right. All fascinating stuff, and we of course will be watching it.

Nicola Denzey Lewis, thank you so much.

LEWIS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Be sure to tune into the season finale of "FINDING JESUS," that's tomorrow night 9:00 right here on CNN.

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