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Bill Cosby Sexual Harassment Lawsuit; Roseanne Reboot Show; American Dynasties, The Kennedy's; CNN Hero; Awards Aired 4-5p ET

Aired April 01, 2018 - 16:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mexico has got to help us at the border. If they are not going to help us at the border. It's a very sad thing between two countries. Mexico has got to help us at the border. And a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA. And we are going to have to really see. They had a great chance. The Democrats blew it. They had a great, great chance. But we will have to take a look. But Mexico has got to help us at the border. They flow right through Mexico. They sent to the United States. Can't happen that way anymore. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: All of this happening as a so-called refugee caravan is marching towards the Mexico-U.S. border. Right now more than 1,000 people are trying to seek asylum.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is with the President in West Palm Beach and Layla Santiago is in Mexico City where these migrants are marching and where that is all happening.

Layla, let's begin with you. What can you tell us about this refugee caravan? I believe we have gotten a response from the Mexican government on this?

LAYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. I want to point out that just in the last five or ten minutes, Mexico's foreign minister has actually tweet and this is a change. Because earlier today, they said they were not going to respond to President Trump's tweets. Now he tweets and I quote.

"Every day Mexico and the U.S. work together on migration throughout the region. Facts clearly reflect this. And inaccurate news report should not serve to question this strong cooperation upholding human dignity and rights is not at odds with the rule of law." And he adds Happy Easter.

That is coming from the foreign minister of Mexico in response to President Trump's tweets this morning.

Now, one of the things that he mentioned were the quote/unquote "caravan." And here in Mexico during holy week, when people talk about caravans, they are usually talking about (INAUDIBLE). These are sort of marches of religious marches that have become somewhat of a tradition here and it really become symbolic.

Most notable right now, there are a group -- there's a group with more than a thousand people right now who are not just marching for religious reasons but have really used this to be symbolic and make a statement about migration. Many of them come from Central America -- El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and they are basically say being they are using this as a way to make a statement on the conditions and realities in Central America.

Now, this group right now has more than a thousand. Right now, they are in Wanaka (ph) and they plan to make their way north and they tell us that some of those when they get to the border will seek asylum upon reaching the U.S. but not all -- Ryan.

NOBLES: All right. Layla, thank you for that update and providing that context.

Boris, let's go over to Boris who is with the President in West Palm Beach, Florida.

And Boris, the President had some tough words this morning. Are we finally giving any clarity from the White House as to exactly how the President was connecting this march through Mexico to DACA and some of these other big immigration issue size that he is confronting?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No confirmation yet from the White House, Ryan. But we can kind of surmise what was happening while the President was ascending these tweets.

Shortly before he sent them out there was a report on a cable news station about this caravan of immigrants marching through Central America into Mexico. Some of them headed for the United States to seek asylum or to enter the country illegally. So that is what you saw. The President essentially responding to a television report via twitter as he often does.

Kind of harking back to his language in the 2016 campaign going back to day one when he announced that he was running for President saying that Mexico was not sending their best in his words.

As you noted, the President also calling for Republicans in the Senate to exercise the nuclear option to go over the filibuster and pass a simple majority to get immigration reform done. Something that senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said that he simply would not do.

And then the President went further in a pair of tweets saying that Mexico is doing next to nothing to stop flow of drugs and immigrants from entering the United States, threatening to ends the North American free trade agreement saying the United States needs a wall.

But I want to point out, he didn't say something that he often did during the campaign trail that Mexico should pay for the wall. This comes on the heels of a report last week that the President had discussed the military, the department of defense funding the construction of the border wall with the secretary of defense James Mattis. The Pentagon confirming that just a few days ago. And perhaps the most questionable tweet of all, the President writing

that these migrants that are coming to the United States now are trying to get in on the act when it comes to DACA. It's unclear exactly what the President meant because none of these arrivals whether they are coming today or weeks ago or months ago are eligible for DACA. Not only because of the individual requirements within the program itself, but also because the President himself ended the program back in September of last year. Of course, since then, courts have weighed in and decided that Dreamers that are currently here have legal protection until courts decide what they are going to do. They can renew the legal status but no one coming into the country can take advantage the President is saying of DACA -- Ryan.

[16:05:34] NOBLES: All right. Boris Sanchez, thank you for that important point. We appreciate it live in West Palm Beach.

All right. Let's talk about this. Joining me now is CNN political analyst and a professor at Princeton University, Julian Zelizer and CNN national security analyst Samantha Vinograd.

Well, the President is NAFTA to threaten Mexico in to shoring up the border. We have seen the White House dangle these trade agreements as a negotiating tactic in the past.

Samantha, does Mexico play ball now? I mean, they haven't until this point.

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Ryan, I think that this is a prime example of why Trump should consult with his advisers before issuing tweets. I mean, you just have to ask, what's the point of this tweet other than to ostracize the Mexicans and to frankly upset all the dreamers that are waiting to see what's going to happen?

If President Trump didn't live in his own eco-chamber, he would have consulted with the National Security Council. He would have gotten up to speed on the fact that there's a Mexican Presidential election and campaign season under way.

There is zero chance that any of the Mexican Presidential candidates are going to express a willingness to pay for a border wall in the run-up to the Mexican election. There's politics at play in Mexico just like politics are at play in the United States. And that's just something that his advisers would have told him. Now whether he would have listened is a different story.

NOBLES: Right.

Well, Julian, the President also tweeting no more DACA deal as he was heading into church as well, says Republicans should go the nuclear option to pass tougher laws for the border. That's something that Senate Republicans have expressly said they are not interested in doing, getting rid of the filibuster requirement.

I mean, should the President be using the fate of 800,000 DACA recipients as a bargaining chip for these other items that he would like to see accomplished? JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, he shouldn't, but he has

already done it. I mean, by dismantling the program to begin with, that was the whole strategy. This became a bargaining chip rather than a program affecting all of these young people who are depending on the program to continue.

This is the President that we have. This is the way he conducts his business. And he is not listening to any advisers. I don't know his advisers are pushing him in a different direction, but what he is really doing right now is stirring up his supporters who have liked this message from day one. Going after trade and going after immigrants and it will make it that much harder to actually restore this program in the coming months.

NOBLES: Well, Julian talks about the advisers the President is hearing from. Sam, you are talking about this eco-chamber.

Well, this is who the President met with this weekend. He met with former advisor Corey Lewandowski, who is his former campaign chairman, met with David Bossi. He also had dinner with his longtime friend Don King. These are not necessarily moderating voices. These are people that usually push in to the President's kind of bully tactics.

Should he be receiving strategic policy advice from these people that aren't even a member of this administration? Does that raise any security alarm bells to you?

VINOGRAD: Well, it raises an alarm bell. I mean, I think the President should be allowed to have free time. These are not the friends that I choose to invite over - for dinner myself, but the President should have personal time.

I think the real issue is that when he is supposed to be working, he is not actually listening to anyone. I don't know how much time President Trump has actually spent for example in the situation room having National Security Council meetings. Those are long meetings. They can drag on for hours. Do we know if he is actually gone to the situation room and chaired national security council meetings.

And I think the issue here is that there are senior directors at the national security council. The President has a cabinet but they are just not getting through to him. And Ryan, to me, this comes back to John Kelly, chiefs of staff, part of their job is to manage the President's schedule to make sure that the President's schedule is filled with meetings that are beneficial to the President and beneficial to the country. And it looks like John Kelly has completely lost control of any ability to do that.

NOBLES: Right. And he has some advisers, these - same people haven't got away, telling him he doesn't need a chief of staff.

Julian, now, I want to ask you. Rex Tillerson is now gone from the state department. We know officially that the deputy secretary John Sullivan now serving as the acting secretary of state, the state department spokesperson tweeting that news today saying that quote "they will be in -- it will be in John Sullivan's steady hands as Mike Pompeo moves through the nomination process."

You know, there is only -- the problem here though, Julian, is that there's no confirmation hearings scheduled for Pompeo. I mean, this instability, not knowing who is going to be running the state department, could that cause trouble for this administration, specifically when there are so many big foreign policy issues at stake right now?

[16:10:03] ZELIZER: Well, this is part of a larger story that we have seen in the Trump presidency. The state department has been secondary even with Tillerson at the helm. Tillerson himself wasn't very aggressive in filling positions in the state department so it's been an institution that has been greatly weakened. And so, there is no strong diplomatic voice.

In the oval office, we don't have diplomats doing the work necessary to counter act the more militaristic voices in the White House. So I think this will be a problem especially with possible negotiations with North Korea. You need that expertise. You need that sensibility where these kinds of negotiations don't work.

NOBLES: And the White House saying at one point that that meeting could come as soon as May. We will have to see what it actually does occur.

Julian Zelizer and Samantha Vinograd, thank you so much for your expertise.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

NOBLES: Many schools in at least two states will be closed tomorrow as teachers fed up with low pay and lack of resources are planning to walk off the job. Why they say this is about much more than just money when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:12] NOBLES: The workweek is kicking off with a wave of teacher strikes and walkouts across the country. Teachers in Oklahoma are planning to walk off their jobs tomorrow even though lawmakers just gave them an average raise of $6100. Oklahoma educators argue it's not enough and they are planning to strike tomorrow.

On Friday, teachers in several Kentucky counties called out sick and protested at the state capital. Kentucky educators are upset about changes to their pension plan and thousands of those Kentucky teachers say they plan to rally at the state capitol tomorrow.

Joining me now to discuss this is Dee Anna Albright. She is a fifth grade teacher in Grayson, Kentucky.

Dee Anna, thank you so much for being here. I understand you are planning to protest at the state capitol tomorrow. Tell us why you and fellow educators are upset about these changes to your pension plan? DEE ANNA ALBRIGHT, FIFTH GRADE TEACHER IN GRAYSON, KENTUCKY: Well, no

one has really had a chance to thoroughly look at the pension plan, including the legislators and representatives that pass the bill Thursday night.

My understanding and what I watched on kut.org, which is archived, you can go back and watch ii, it made then a committee meeting and quickly passed to move it to the House to be voted on. And what this is, is that the Senate bill, 151, was -- or is a sewer water waste bill. And they ended up putting pension reform in that bill and no one knew it was going to be voted on that night. They met in urgency until about 10:00, passed it through the House and passed it through the Senate. And to my understanding, no public input was allowed and no one knew it was coming. So that's one of our biggest things. Teachers in Kentucky do not receive Social Security, so our pension is our teacher retirement is our pension -- so --

NOBLES: Right. Let me just ask you, Governor Bevin said that he supports this bill. He is basically the last line of defense before it gets signed into law. And he said that this bill is necessary to essentially protect your pension plan. Obviously, you disagree with that. I mean, do you have any hope that you can convince the governor to change his mind and veto the bill?

ALBRIGHT: I hope so. As far as retired and current teachers, so far what legislators are telling us is that it may not hurt us as bad as Senate bill one was initially planned on doing, which was Governor Bevin's intention to begin with and until we started protesting. So I do feel like that there has been some safeguarding maybe by us being vocal.

However, what it does protect is the future educators of Kentucky. Because starting -- I want to say July, 2018, new hires are going to go into what's called a hybrid cash value plan. And they will not have been any guarantee for pension. So in other words, it's going to be hard to retain due to quality future educators in the state of Kentucky and --

NOBLES: So how far, Dee Anna, are you willing to take this? I mean, are we -- I know you have one sick out planned. Will you do it more through the year? And what if this bill gets signed into law? I mean, how strong of a stand are you willing to take?

ALBRIGHT: I'm ready to do whatever we need to. Tomorrow night or tomorrow they are going to be passing the budget and for the two years and that budget is going to attack public schools. We are going to lose funding if all the cuts are made. We are going to lose a lot of funding and our schools are already under funded in my opinion. And if we lose the funding that is in in bill for public schools, then our kids are going to be impacted as far as losing personnel, losing things that are needed to run a classroom, transportation, extracurricular activities, humanities courses, there's a lot at stake here. Even our counseling could be cut because of these fundings.

And another thing is they are willing to use some of that funding to put into charter schools. And I don't know a lot about charter schools but I do know they are profitable business and I don't agree with public tax dollars going into a public business.

[16:20:17] NOBLES: OK.

ALBRIGHT: And if that the charter school closes because they start losing money, those students are thrown back into the public setting. And the way I understand charter schools, they pick and choose who goes to the schools --

NOBLES: All right. Well, Dee Anna, obviously, there's a lot of issues at stake there in Kentucky. We will have to see how this sick- out plays and how the governor responds to your calls for action.

Dee Anna Albright, teacher in Kentucky, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you.

ALBRIGHT: I would just like to encourage all Kentuckians to show up in Frankfurt tomorrow.

NOBLES: All right. Thank you, Dee Anna.

Happening now, President Trump heading back to Washington, D.C., spent the holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. There's a live picture of air force one taxing on the jet way there in West Palm Beach, Florida. We will have more NEWSROOM after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:25:39] NOBLES: Now to the escalating tensions in Sacramento.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what do we want?

CROWD: Justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we want?

CROWD: Justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Protesters marching for another night demanding justice for Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man shot and killed by police. Outrage now intensifying after a demonstrator was struck and injured by a sheriff's deputy car who then drove away. The whole thing caught on camera. Just a warning, some people may find this video disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No justice. No justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: CNN's Ryan Young joins us now live from Sacramento.

You were at the protest last night, Ryan. You are now at the intersection where this all took place. What more can you tell us?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Right.

This really did intensify last night. If you look behind me here, this is the intersection protesters were blocking the street. Traffic was backed up maybe for a mile down the road. But at some point, a sheriff's deputy vehicle was trying to move through protesters. That is what you saw in the video. And sheriff deputy though reporting that people starting rocking and kicking that vehicle. And that's why the acceleration happen.

But we talked to protesters, they say you can watch a woman sort of move out in front of the deputy's car and put her hand out and that's when the bump happened. You could hear the screams and people getting angry. She was taken to the hospital. We are told she is going to be OK. But then what happened out here over the next few hours, that got kind of scary.

And I can tell you so far we are about six miles from downtown Sacramento. There the police officers have played it very safe. They have stayed back from protesters. The sheriff's deputies were a lot closer. And at some point, we saw them down right here, walk down to the middle of this intersection as should decide to take it back. That seemed only to make protesters more angry.

And for first time we saw a little of that tipping point where you can hear people screaming profanities towards those officers. It seemed like it was going to get tense. Then using a helicopter high in the sky, they were yelling this is an unlawful protest. Please disburse, a lot of people decided not to heed that warning. So for several hours, you had the standoff. Luckily we didn't see any arrests here last night.

But the focus from protesters where the idea that they can't believe a woman who is protesting would have to go to the hospital after being hit by the sheriff's deputy's car. They wanted to know why the car didn't stop.

But when you think about this, this is all about Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old young man who was shot, several times by police, people wanted answers for that. So protesters not wanting to give up, eventually got back in the road and started marching back up the street. No planned protest today. It is Easter Sunday. Not sure if another will happen, because last night was sort of sporadic as well. We will have to wait and watch what happens next. But I can tell you, there were a lot of people angry about the way last night ended.

NOBLES: All right. Ryan Young is going to stay on the scene there and keep us updated. A lot of tension still in Sacramento.

Ryan, thank you for that report.

Still ahead, broadcasting company Sinclair taking heat for a mandated anchor promo that critics say attacks the media.

[16:30:01] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NEWSROOM, HOST: A mandated promo released by the Sinclair Broadcasting Company, which owns nearly 200 television stations across the country is getting a lot of criticism for what some say is a manipulative message which bashes the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that CBS 4 News produces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we're concerned about -- trying to be responsible one sided news stories plaguing our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Plaguing our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media, more alarming some media outlets publish these same fake stories without checking facts first.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More alarming some media outlets saying things untrue without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the media are using platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what the people think, and this is extremely dangerous to our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: It's important to note that that video compilation was put together by the website Deadspin. I want to discuss the impact of it. CNN Media Analyst Bill Carter is here to talk about it. Bill, just first of all, your overall impression what you just saw there.

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, you know, it's kind of scary to see something like that all put together at once. It is a propaganda- like message that's coming out, you know, across the country in a sort of a formalized way. I think that's why it's kind of disturbing to people. These individuals -- it's not their opinion, it's a corporation telling them what to say. So I think that's the reason people are really alarmed about it.

NOBLES: You know Bill, I was a local television anchor for close to 20 years. I know a lot of these people in this promo, they are good quality journalists. They're proud of their work. I mean is this a problem when you have a corporation coming down to the local level and telling these anchors what to say?

[16:35:00] That's not necessarily how the editorial process worked in the many different stations that I worked in when I was in local television. CARTER: No, what's interesting about this is it's the anchor is the

most prominent local faces and names are the people they are telling to say that this corporate message that they want to put out. It's not an editorialist for these individual channels. It's like this corporate message being put out by the anchors, as though they have no individual points of view.

They are giving the corporate point of view. I have to say the other thing that's sort of crazy and ironic about this, is that their message is that it's a one sided media out there. The most one sided media seems like this company. This company is sending the same message out across the country with the same sort you know impact, and not letting any individual think for themselves.

It's -- and saying it's biased and prejudice and they're fake news, all of that is a Trump message, and this is a company that we know made a deal with the Trump administration -- their campaign during the election to get special coverage. The whole thing is off putting. For people who really understand how media works, it's really a disturbing trend.

NOBLES: Doesn't it really put these local anchors in a very difficult position? These are not millionaires. They are getting paid a very small sum as it relates to some in journalism, and it's very difficult especially if you're coming up in the local news game to not touch Sinclair in some way, shape or form. Aren't these local anchors really between a rock and hard place in many ways?

CARTER: They certainly are. I mean they obviously could say I am not doing this. This isn't my position. It's not my point of view. I won't say this, but they can easily find someone else who will, and those people want to protect their livelihoods. What's even worse, of course, is that Sinclair is angling to buy Tribune Media, which will add vastly to their coverage and they'll have many, many of these more stations like this.

Their reach will be basically nationwide. They'll have 70 percent of the country covered by their local station. So they are going to have enormous impact, and these anchors really are not going to have that many places to go. A lot of the jobs are going to be swept up by Sinclair Media.

NOBLES: Right. And there is a lot of good reporting that has done in many of these stations. I can tell you that firsthand. Let's transition now and talk about Roseanne. She's obviously taken the broadcast media by storm with the reboot of her television show. But this is what she tweeted in the last 24 hours. "President Trump has freed so many children held in bondage to pimps all over the world, hundreds each month. These broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere, notice that. I disagree on some things but give him the benefit of doubt for now."

She actually deleted that tweet, Bill, but this raises a bigger question. We believe she's talking about this conspiracy theory called the Storm, which is kind of used in the dark corners of the far right of the internet. She's got a much bigger platform to have her voice heard now because of the success of the show. Is this something ABC should be worried about?

CARTER: They definitely should be worried about it. Because this is pretty outrageous conspiracy theory stuff that she is you know putting out there. She has an enormous platform now because she's now got this gigantic hit show back on the air. You know ABC wants to take advantage of that, but that isn't the only tweet she put out in the last 5 or 10 years that is completely outrageous.

She put out a tweet about Hillary Clinton that was so over the top offensive during the campaign, I mean, it's not a Disney brand kind of thing to be involved in this. I do think right now Disney is probably thinking this through and wondering maybe we should have checked this out before she got back on the air.

NOBLES: And already ordered a second season of it.

CARTER: Exactly.

NOBLES: I wonder, because if you actually watch the episode of Roseanne, at least that first episode, it seemed as though they dealt with the issue of support for Donald Trump in a much more nuanced way, which I think is how many Americans view the President, which could have been a healthy part of the discussion. Is this what she's tweeting on social media take away from what could be a positive conversation about politics?

CARTER: Well, I think it does. I think that's the point -- that was the point they were trying to raise. OK, this is a representative of middle-America and there are middle-Americans, many who support President Trump. So it's perfectly legitimate to have her on and discuss issues. They are going to get into stories like the opioid crisis and health care and all of that in the future episodes and handle it in an even handed way.

You know that the people who are writing these episodes are probably not Trump supporters. So it's going to be a more sophisticated presentation. But her own personal view, which she has expressed so outrageously online, is going to get mixed up in this now, and it's going to cause people to react and undoubtedly some people will say I won't watch the show because of what Roseanne is saying and will be back into that hole. Let's go into our corners and fight it out instead of having something that might worth discussing.

NOBLES: The difference between Roseanne, Connor, the character Roseanne Barr the person, very difficult to separate for most Americans.

[16:40:00] CARTER: Exactly.

NOBLES: All right. Bill Carter, thank you as always for your expertise on this topic. We appreciate it.

CARTER: Thank you, guys, too.

NOBLES: Actor and comedian Bill Cosby headed back to court. It's been less than a year since his first trial for aggravated indecent assault ended in a hung jury. The new legal showdown is happening during a new era. Women are speaking up about assault and people are beginning to listen. CNN's Jean Casarez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With the momentum of me too and public accusations against Hollywood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been silent for 10 years.

CASAREZ: Only one major celebrity has been charged with a felony sexual offense, America's dad, Bill Cosby, the comedian and TV legend's retrial beginning now with jury selection.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The atmosphere has shifted. It's not a very favorable time to be defending yourself against accusations of sexual assault.

CASAREZ: Charged with three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault, the 80-year-old Cosby could face a decade in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say in 2004, he assaulted this woman, Andrea Constand, at the time the director of women's basketball operations at Temple University in Philadelphia. Diana Parsons is her sister. And says it took a year before Constand said anything about what happened and went to police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said that she just knew she had to lie down, and she said that Bill Cosby helped her to the coach, said she really couldn't walk on her own.

CASAREZ: Constand told police Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Cosby denied the allegations. The district attorney at the time said the case was weak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did I think that I could prove beyond a reasonable doubt based on available, credible, and admissible evidence? No, I didn't.

CASAREZ: No criminal charges against Cosby. Constand then filed a civil suit. Cosby testified in a sworn deposition before they reached a confidential settlement. Fast forward to 2015, that deposition was unsealed, revealing Cosby had admitted giving drugs to women he wanted to have sex with. Prosecutors reopened the criminal investigation, and days before the statute of limitations ran out, Cosby was charged in criminal court.

Pennsylvania Defense Attorney Brian McMonagle represented Cosby from the beginning. He pleaded not guilty. A first trial last year ended in a hung jury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's entitled to a verdict in this case.

CASAREZ: Now, a new trial with some big differences, a new defense team for Cosby led by Tom Mesereau, who got an acquittal in 2005 for Michael Jackson in his child molestation trial. Before representing Cosby in 2015, Mesereau told CNN how he would question Constand.

TOM MESEREAU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR BILL COSBY: The first thing I would ask her would be, what's more important to you, money or principle? Did you take money and walk away confidentially or did you take this to a jury and do it publicly?

CASAREZ: In the last trial, one other woman who said Cosby drugged and assaulted her was allowed to testify for the prosecution, Kelly Johnson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember waking up in a bed with Mr. Cosby naked beneath his open robe.

CASAREZ: In this trial, the judge says five prior accusers can take the stand, one who has been subpoenaed, former super model Janice Dickinson. The defense for instance, wants a witness by the name of Margo Jackson to take the stand. She knew Andrea Constand and would testify, according to the defense, that Constand said she could fabricate everything that Bill Cosby drugged her and sexually assaulted her and then she could get a lot of money.

Prosecutors say that is blatantly false. With no forensic evidence, the case is all about credibility, Jean Casarez, CNN, Norristown, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBLES: Tonight, on an all new episode of the CNN original series, American Dynasties, the Kennedy's, we get an inside look at how President John F. Kennedy and his brother and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy handled the threat of nuclear Armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Cuban Missile Crisis was a great example of the trust that Jack and my father had between them and the importance of thinking five steps ahead. What would happen if you do this, because if you just let the generals decide, they would have gone to war?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bobby Kennedy would walk up and down the pool as JFK was swimming laps, talking to him, as he was swimming about their strategy to try to neutralize this move towards war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meanwhile, families across America prepare for the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jackie Kennedy herself was told that she and her family would be moved into a bunker, if anything did happen. And she refused. She said no, I want to be here, I want to stand on the south lawn with my husband and children if the end comes.

[16:50:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was a sounding board for him during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and she kept him level headed and they had a lot of discussions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't it amazing that someone who had to be so hurt personally by her husband would turn around and in his moment of greatest need, when he said he would send her away to the bunker outside of Washington, she said no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Joining us now to discuss this is CNN Presidential Historian Tim Naftali. Tim, remind me and our viewers what started the Cuban Missile Crisis in the first place and just how close the world came to nuclear war?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, Ryan historians debate it. My point of view, based on reading Russian materials, is that the Russians were worried about the correlation of forces in the world. The Soviets felt that they were being pushed around and they were having a hard time developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, so they decided to put nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba.

And the United States before that had said the President made clear, drawing a red line, and he said you don't ever put offensive weapons in Cuba. We won't accept that. So the Russians did it anyway, and when the Kennedy administration discovered those missiles in Cuba, the President was faced with a very difficult choice, how do you get the Soviets to remove nuclear weapons from Cuba without going to war?

NOBLES: So what was the key to the Kennedy strategy here that made them successful in avoiding that war?

NAFTALI: Well, Ryan, it's something that our best Presidents understand, which is you combine toughness with empathy. You give your opponent a way out, a way to save face because you understand that if you push them into a corner and you don't give them a chance to get out of the corner, they may choose war, even though they don't want it.

So John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, the two of them work very closely together as you will see in the show or as people will see in the show tonight. They recognized that even though the Soviets have pushed the United States, the Soviets lied to the United States, and these Soviets undertook a very dedicated deception operation, even so, avoiding nuclear war was the most important thing.

You had to put aside your anger (Inaudible) at the Soviet Union and you had to find a way out. And they did. And they did it by understanding the Soviets needed something in return, and what they gave the Soviets in return publicly was a promise not to invade Cuba and secretly they removed some missiles the United States had in Turkey on the Soviet border.

NOBLES: I can't help but draw parallels to what we're dealing with in the geopolitical landscape today. Obviously, not dealing with a Cuban Missile Crisis but we are dealing with a dictator in Kim Jong-Un in North Korea and a President here in the United States who is talking tough. Are there parallels to be drawn, by the way, did the Kennedys handled that situation and perhaps lessons that Donald Trump could learn in present day?

NAFTALI: Yeah, there are a number. First of all, one of the things that are hard for us Americans to understand is that we can act responsibly in the international system. We often do. But we're still viewed as the existential threat by other powers. We find that hard to understand. So some powers react to our power by puffing themselves up like puffer fish, by exaggerating their own objectives.

The Soviets did it throughout the Cold War. They were behind most of the Cold War. And I think to a certain extent, North Korea is doing that now. They are afraid of us. So it's understanding -- it's not a nice regime by the way. It's understanding that the North Korean fear of the United States and finding a way to get them to move away from the edge while still retaining some self-respect. So President Trump's challenge is to find a way to get Kim Jong-Un to accept a peaceful peninsula without forcing him to eat crow.

NOBLES: And that does not seem like an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

CASAREZ: Not at all. It was hard for Kennedy. It would be hard for Trump. But the best Presidents do it.

NOBLES: All right. Well, Tim Naftali, thank you very much. And we appreciate your perspective on this. And be sure to tune in for an all new episode of American Dynasties, the Kennedy's, that is tonight at 9:00 only on CNN.

Now to this week's CNN Hero, in the state of Texas, more than 40 percent of kids that go to jail once return within a year. This week's CNN Hero is trying to stop that revolving door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember consciously thinking that the system is rigged, based on choices made for him not by him. The color of his skin, the part of town that he was born into, the schools that he had access to, and I just thought it's not fair. He deserves every chance that I had. And I thought if you're not willing to do something yourself, then you're being a hypocrite, so either put up or shut up. That was it for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:55:00] NOBLES: To see just how Chad is helping design brighter futures for young people, go to CNNheroes.com. You could also nominate someone who you think should be a CNN Hero. And thanks so much for joining us on this Easter afternoon. I am Ryan Nobles in for Fredricka Whitfield. There is much more ahead in the next hour of the Newsroom with Anna Cabrera. It's coming up after this short break. Have a great day.

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