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Edwards Defense Rests; Obama Pushes To-Do List On Economy; "Butcher of Bosnia" on Trial; Romney Jabs At Obama-Clinton Ties; New Medical Reports in Trayvon Martin Case; One Woman's Battle against Flesh-Eating Bacteria; Landmines on the Syrian/Turkish Border

Aired May 16, 2012 - 11:59   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Suzanne Malveaux. It is May 16th, noon Eastern, 9:00 on the west coast.

Here is what we're watching in the CNN NEWSROOM. First of all, breaking news on the John Edwards corruption trial. The defense rested. Attorneys wrapped up their case without calling Edwards or his daughter, Kate, or his former mistress, Rielle Hunter to the stand. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin tomorrow. A jury is set to begin deliberations on Friday. Edwards is accused of illegally using almost $1 million in donor's money to hide his affair with Hunter and the baby they had together.

I want to bring in our Joe Johns who has been following this case very closely.

So how did it end, Joe? What was the takeaway here from the defense?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, honestly, Suzanne, I think probably the first thing you have to say is the defense was threatening just less than 24 hours ago to end this case with a big bang, and it certainly just goes out with a complete whimper.

I mean, Suzanne, you listed the details right there. There was a lot of expectation that at least Cate Edwards, the daughter of John Edwards, would actually take the stand to try to humanize him a bit and tell whatever she knows. That didn't happen.

There were also some suggestions Rielle Hunter, John Edwards himself might take the stand, and the defense in the end opted to do none of that. Of course, the question is why, and you talk to attorneys behind the scenes, they'll say there's one of two things probably going on here. Either the suggestion that all these people were going to take the stand was just a ploy by the defense to keep the government guessing or in the alternative some type of disagreement between the people in the defense and perhaps John Edwards himself over the direction they should go in the last days.

I did, in fact, see a lot of back-and-forth between the attorneys, particularly between John Edwards and the one female attorney on his team, Alison Van Laningham, had a lot of discussion going back and forth between them, very animated while the jury was out. But when the jury came in, big smile from John Edwards and no sign of stress at all certainly on his face.

So, at the end of the day, obviously, the defense, the one thing they're thinking about is what's in the best interest of the client and have we established reasonable doubt. Apparently, they think they've done so in both counts, and they've decided to rest the defense at this point, closing arguments tomorrow, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: When you took a look at the jurors, did they seem kind of surprised that they were not going to hear from Edwards himself or from any of the major players here?

JOHNS: I didn't see a lot of surprise, but, you know, you wonder if there's always that expectation that you'll at least hear from John Edwards. I think though people watch television shows that have trials on them, "Law and Order," and what-have-you, and they understand that in the United States, a defendant has a right not to testify.

I didn't see a lot of surprise because the other thing I think you have to know is the talk about scheduling in the courtroom almost always goes on outside of earshot of the jury. The jury doesn't hear when the attorneys are saying, these are the people we think we're going to put on the stand or when. So they were never given an expectation in court that these people were going to testify, and they're also always warned not to watch television, not to read news accounts of the trial.

So, if they were following those rules by the judge, they may very well not have had an expectation that these folks are going to testify, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Just us in the media having expectations thinking well maybe they will take the stand and it will be really interesting here.

Give us a sense of the Edwards family, John Edwards and when they left. What was their demeanor and where are they now? Do we know?

JOHNS: Yes. Well, his mother and father were in court today, and I watched them for a while. His father looked very sad, in fact, and very tired.

And there was a moment right before trial started where Abbe Lowell, the chief defense attorney, actually sat down next to John Edwards' father, and they had some type of private discussion that went on for a few minutes before Abbe got up and went back over in the well and started doing whatever she was doing. So there looked to be a lot of stress and sort of exhaustion among the parents.

Cate Edwards, interestingly enough, who has been here all along -- this was the one day I did not se her in court at all, at least this morning.

So -- I mean, that's about it with the family. Those are the only family members I saw inside. John Edwards himself, as I told you, seems stressed quite a bit. When the jury was outside, but when the jury came in, he turned on the charm.

MALVEAUX: OK. All right. Joe Johns, the defense rests today and they'll do more obviously. Thank you, Joe.

President Obama and congressional leaders are doing lunch. The president pushing for action on his to-do list. But the big question is whether or not anything is really going to get done.

The president is meeting with leaders from both parties. It remains to be seen whether or not they can actually find some common ground when you got election year politics in full swing.

Dan Lothian is at the White House, and you're looking at the president's to-do list here. Dana Bash is on the Hill, the push back from the Republicans.

I want to start off with you here, Dan.

Economy front and center at the meeting between President Obama and the congressional leaders -- what does the president want Congress to accomplish here? What are the top items on this to-do list?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the president is putting pressure on Congress to help struggling homeowners, to provide tax credits for small businesses, things that he says could really help millions of Americans. And not only pushing this to Congress, directly face to face.

But this morning he went to a local business, a small business in the D.C. area. It is an Italian deli. They have four different locations here in D.C.

And that's where he sort of spelled out his to-do list and talked about what Congress needs to do. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy is recovering, but we've still got a long way to go. Too many folks are still out of work. We've got some headwinds, the situation in Europe and still a difficult housing market. And so, we want to sustain momentum, and one of the ways that we can sustain momentum is for Congress to take some actions right now, even though it's election season, even though there's gridlock, even though there's partisanship, take some actions right now that would really make a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Just to flesh out some of the things on the president's five-point to-do list. First of all, he's calling on Congress to give small businesses 10 percent tax credit for creating new jobs or raising the wages of their current employees -- the president believing that small businesses really are the engine of the economic recovery.

In addition, the president wants some assistance for homeowners who are struggling with those underwater mortgages, to cut through some of the red tape that would allow them to refinance at lower rates.

And then finally in-sourcing -- which is a word the White House has been using. The president wants Congress to offer businesses a 20 percent tax credit for bringing those jobs that they sent overseas back here to the United States. Of course, he believes that that would create more jobs here domestically.

In addition, the president wants to make sure that those veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq can get jobs and that also there will be a greater investment in clean energy.

But I can tell you, there's a lot of skepticism that in this political climate, anything can get done. And one sign of that, this morning the chairman of the RNC, in a statement said in part, quote, "Instead of assigning homework to Congress, Professor Obama should take a look at his own list of broken promises to cut the deficit in half, lower health care costs, solve our energy crisis."

So while the president is pushing his to-do list, Republicans are pushing their, quote, "not done list" -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dan, thanks.

We want to go to the Hill. That's where Dana is.

And, Dana, you know, Dan brings up a really good point here, the expectations are not much is going to get done. He has a to-do list here. We've already seeing the budget is an issue, the benefits for same-sex couples, another very contentious issue among members of Congress.

What are the Republicans getting out of this meeting?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is going to be such a good question to see what they say coming out. I can tell you what they said going in, and that is the speaker of the House himself, John Boehner, suggested that that to-do list Dan just laid out is nothing more than gimmickry and he said it was small ball.

Listen to more of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Where is the president's plan to tackle our looming debt crisis? Where is the president's plan to stop the largest tax increase in American history from occurring on January the 1st? Where is the president's plan to replace these indiscriminate cuts to our military which will devastate their ability to keep America secure?

It's time for us to deal with the big issues that are affecting our country and our society. We spent enough time playing small ball.

(END VDIEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, here is the reality check for viewers watching wondering what is going to get done here before the election. Not much. But what happens after the election is going to be very, very big and very difficult for Washington to deal with.

And yesterday, the speaker laid out a line in the sand very similar, almost like a cut and paste, Suzanne, from what we saw him do last year, saying that when Congress needs to deal with that raising of the debt ceiling before the end of the year, he is going to demand spending cuts and you also have a very, very large issue looming, and that is the so-called Bush tax cuts will be expiring. That's about $2 trillion in tax increases unless Congress and the White House deals with it.

MALVEAUX: Yes, Dana. A lot of people are paying attention to what happens there on the Hill because, you know, this affects everybody when you talk about tax cuts, when you talk about the budget.

I want our viewers to take a listen to this. This is what happened on the Senate floor today. It proves again how difficult it is to get these two sides together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: If you're looking for a simple three-word description of the Democratic approach to the problems we face, it's this, "duck and cover." Duck and cover. They don't have a budget of their own.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: Their leader, my friend from Kentucky, has said number one issue is defeat President Obama. So they don't mind wasting a day of the Senate's time on useless political show votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Dana, if you will, cut through some of this rhetoric from both sides. I mean, you've got a lot of name-calling here, but this is pretty important stuff when you talk about how we are spending our money and whether or not people are going to be benefiting from it.

BASH: It is very important stuff. There's really very little that's more important at this point when you look at the economy right now. But what's happening on the Senate floor today, Suzanne, is six hours of debate followed by five votes on budgets that everybody knows going into today, they're going to go nowhere.

It's President Obama's budget, which we expect will actually get zero votes, that Republicans want to use as a club against Democrats, and then we have various forms of Republicans budgets.

Republicans are forcing this issue because politically they are trying to make the point that Democrats have not offered a budget in three years, even though they promised to balance the budget coming into this. And Democrats are trying to make the point that, as you heard, that this is just gimmickry, and that Republicans, what they are offering is to extreme.

But what this means big picture for the American people is that the Congress that they already see not a lot of -- they're not very pleased it's fair to say with Congress, this is not giving them reason to be more pleased, watching what's happening today.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dana Bash on the Hill, and Dan Lothian at the White House -- the Dans and the Danas, I like that. Good team work.

All right. Here is a look at what we've got this hour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): The worst massacre in Europe since World War II. The ruthless man on trial for genocide is taunting survivors from the stand.

Then two black eyes, a bloody nose, and cuts on the back of his head. Could new details from George Zimmerman's doctor tell a different story about what happened the night Trayvon Martin was killed?

And she's young, smart, beautiful. And she's fighting for her life against a rare bacteria that's eating her alive. Now, the community and the country are rallying around her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A man blamed for murdering more than 8,000 people went on trial today.

This Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic almost 20 years ago and now how he looks today in custody at the war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands. The charges against him are the most horrific crimes against humanity imaginable. We are talking about mass murder, systematic rape, ethnic cleansing. He was leader of Bosnian troops during a war that tore apart Yugoslavia.

The things he is accused of gave him the nicknamed the "Butcher of Bosnia".

Michael Holmes is joining us to talk about this.

And, Michael, I was -- I covered this war at the time I was in the Pentagon. We did the overnight shift. We used to have those live feeds of the video, and you would see the carnage, the body parts. I would say 80 percent of it we couldn't even put on the air, it was that horrific.

Remind people who we are talking about here.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Ratko Mladic, he is one of the most infamous figures in recent history, as you say, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia". He was one of those who basically coined the term ethnic cleansing. This is a man that wanted a purely Serbian state and drove out everyone, hundreds of thousands of people who were Bosnian Muslims, also Croatians, to create this pure state.

Now, among the things he's accused of doing was the siege of Sarajevo. He was the architect of that bombardment that went on for years, 12,000 people were killed. Perhaps even more brutal was what happened in Srebrenica, where 7,500 Bosnian Muslim, men and boys, age from 12 to 77, were rounded up and murdered, dumped into mass graves. They were shooting groups of ten, machine gunned, absolute, purely innocent civilians in this case.

These are people who are meant to be under U.N. protection at the time.

MALVEAUX: He's now facing trial. What did he do in the courtroom that really kind of displays his personality, the cruelty, if you will?

HOLMES: Absolutely. He's being defensive and argumentative all the way through the process. What he did today was he walked into the court, he looked over at relatives of the victims, and he made that sign.

This is a man who absolutely thinks he is innocent, that he did the right thing. He said he was protecting Serbs. He actually made the quote, "I am General Ratko Mladic. I defended my people and my country. Now, I am defending myself."

This is a guy -- by the way, why is he on trial now? Sixteen years evaded arrest, he was 16 years living in the countryside and keeping away from authorities.

MALVEAUX: What does he face potentially?

HOLMES: The rest of his life in jail obviously. This is part of like -- if you think of a troika of people from that war.

Slovak Milosevic, who was the president of Yugoslavia, he was taken to The Hague to be put on trial. Went through several years on trial, died before the verdict was handed down. And Karadzic, too, who was on trial as well. And he was sort of the political side of this.

Now, Karadzic has been on trial since 2009.

MALVEAUX: Why does it take so long? Why are we just seeing this happen today?

HOLMES: Well, the trial -- in Mladic's case, it's because he was able to be on the run for so long, only caught him last year. In terms of what we're about to see, this could go on for years.

And as I say, you know, Karadzic has been on trial since 2009, and they're halfway through the trial. It's very detailed. There's a lot of evidence got to be collected, and then the presentation of that evidence, getting witnesses in. These things take years which to the outside observer it's like why?

In fact, they cut the list of charges from 15 to 11 just to try to speed it up a bit. But it's going to be months, perhaps years before --

MALVEAUX: Perhaps we'll see justice done at some point. Yes, very important.

HOLMES: Yes. Horrible, unspeakable things happening. I remember some of those things you're talking about, the marketplace shelling where dozens of civilians were cut into pieces.

MALVEAUX: Michael Holmes, thank you very much. Appreciate it, as always.

Remember when folks were complaining about gas guzzling SUVs? Well, SUVs, they are selling better now than ever and there's good reason.

Don't forget, you can watch CNN live on your computer while you're at work. Head to CNN.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Despite having to pay $4 a gallon for gas, a lot of people are still buying SUVs these days and more than ever.

Alison Kosik is joining us. She's at the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, my mom has an SUV. It's great. You know, you see the road. Everything in front of you, but, yes, it does cost a lot to fill the tank.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It does, but that's not keeping people away from buying SUVs. You look at the numbers now, did you know that one in three vehicles sold right is actually an SUV?

MALVEAUX: Wow.

KOSIK: And that is surprising because gas prices, they are still high. And you look at what happened during the recession. We couldn't run fast enough away from those gas guzzlers to buy those small fuel efficient cars.

But you know? The difference between now and then is that the SUVs of today, they're really far different than the models that were sold more than a decade ago. You look at the 1990s -- they were big, they were gas guzzlers, they were truck-like. Well, now, they're basically roomy cars, and these are smaller SUVs that are bill on these car frames and they get good gas mileage.

Those are really the SUVs that are selling well, the smaller ones. The Chevy Equinoxes, The Ford Escapes, the Honda CRVs. That's what you're seeing people go out and buy -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes. And it's big enough you can put your bike in the back and, you know, keep on going.

KOSIK: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: Is it one of the reasons that the car industry is doing better these days do we think?

KOSIK: It is. And that's a good point. It really is a big part of it.

You know, J.D. Power came out and said the Ford Explorer sales tripled when it changed the way that the vehicle is from a truck base to a car base.

Mazda said, you know what? We're pretty much sold out of the CX-5. That's a smaller SUV. What's happening is that automakers are just getting better at building the cars and the SUVs that people want.

You know, it's really a lesson that was learned from the recession. A wake up call to pay more attention to what the customer wants and needs.

If you want to read more about this, you can go to CNN Money. It's got more on this SUV craze -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Alison, how are the stocks doing?

KOSIK: Stocks are looking pretty good. We're keeping our eye on shares of JPMorgan, they're up a fraction of a percent. You know, the FBI, we learned has opened up an investigation into that JPMorgan $2 billion trading loss. You know, even after Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, came out and said, you know what? We made stupid mistakes, the FBI is looking into it.

You know, there are questions were there illegal mistakes made and the FBI is definitely looking into it because of the size of the loss and the bank that's involved. You have to remember, JPMorgan Chase is the biggest bank in the U.S. by assets.

As to the broader market, though, looking to be -- stocks are in the green, on a positive report on the housing sector -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Alison, thank you.

So how do you put a price on a human life? A mother gets a payout after her son dies from a police beating.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The mother of a mentally ill homeless man will get a million dollar settlement for the beating death of her son, Kelly Thomas. The city of Fullerton, California, approved this payment a week after two of its police officers were ordered to stand trial for the beating.

Surveillance video shows and it is difficult to watch here, these officers hitting Thomas with a baton, their fists. They also tasered him repeatedly. Thomas died five days later.

The wife of former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine announced just last hour that she is suing ESPN and two of its reporters. Laurie Fine says they destroyed her reputation. This comes months after her husband was fired from Syracuse amid allegations that he sexually molested two former ball boys.

Fine denies wrongdoing and has not been charged. His wife was dragged into the scandal after ESPN aired a recorded phone call with one of the accusers that suggested she knew about the alleged sexual abuse.

ESPN has issued a statement, quote, "We haven't had an opportunity to review the complaint. We stand by our reporting."

So he hasn't run for office in years. Why President Bill Clinton playing such a big role in the fight for the White House. We're going to ask our political panel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey there. Here on the help desk today, we're talking about investing. Two great people with me. Ryan Mack is the president of Optimum Capital Management. Stacy Francis is a financial adviser and president of Francis Financial.

Lots of folks looking at their tax return right now, got a nice chunk of change back. And there's one anxious investor in Michigan that e-mailed us.

Here's what she wrote in and she said, "I've got $3,000 in extra cash. Where is the best place to invest it?"

STACY FRANCIS, FINANCIAL ADVISER: I have to say congratulations. The first thing you want to do is put it towards your emergency fund. That's three to six months of your living expenses put away.

HARLOW: Right.

FRANCIS: Then try to put it in your 401(k) and especially if you get a match. You can put in $17,000 if you're under age 50 even more over then the rest can go in your IRA up to $5,000, $6,000 if you're age 50.

HARLOW: I think one of the big things is if you do have extra cash and you have debt, the first thing you should be doing is paying down your debt even if you see some very attractive investments.

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Just mathematically seneschal looking at paying 14 percent on debt and then hoping you can get that in the market is not necessarily the best bet.

Certain things, putting a budget together, making sure you have an allocated amount toward your surplus. Make sure investing is sustainable over a long period of time. Get a budget, get an estate plan together, all of these things are around.

HARLOW: All right, guys, thank you. Appreciate it. If you have got a question, e-mail us your question anytime to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com. Back to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney taking aim at President Obama over the economy today. He also took a jab at the president over his relationship with President Bill Clinton hinting about bad blood between Obama and the Clintons during the 2008 campaign.

Joining us to talk about it, Democratic strategist, Robert Zimmerman and Republican strategist, Lenny McAllister. Good to see both of you guys here.

Let's talk about this first topic here. A campaign stop in Iowa, Romney talks about the fact that you had President Obama rejecting Clinton's stand against big government. I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Obama tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas along with transparency and bipartisanship. It's enough to make you wonder if maybe it was a personal beef with the Clintons, but probably it runs much deeper than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Ouch. I want to start off with you -- well, we've just lost Lenny, so I will start off with Robert. Robert, 2008, South Carolina, the Congressional Black Caucus debate, they were going at it, Obama and Hillary Clinton of course.

There was bad blood, and in the weeks prior to that, Bill Clinton was coming out and saying some pretty harsh things about Obama. Do you think that this actually works for Romney in any way to remind people that, look, it wasn't all rosy back then?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, Governor Romney's comments are the kind of snide gossip that would impress tmz.com or for that matter Perez Hilton's web site.

But it really has no place in any intelligent discussion of the issues because for people with real lives, they're not going to focus on that kind of nonsense. They want to focus on what Governor Romney's budget represents for them.

After all, independent sources like the Center for the Responsible Federal Budget pointed out that the Romney budget increases the national deficit more than it presently exists.

MALVEAUX: To be fair obviously they have put a lot of the bad blood behind them. There was quite a debate between them, but they work well together now and now he's on his ticket.

Do you think that it helps Romney in terms of making the case that this is going to be more big government when you see these two together?

ZIMMERMAN: When you see -- I'm sorry? Governor Romney's making a case it's going to be big government?

MALVEAUX: When you see Bill Clinton and President Obama together, when you see those two together, do you think it helps Romney in any way to make the case this is going to be more about big government and big spending?

ZIMMERMAN: I think it's really Governor Romney trying to avoid discussing his economic record and his own program. For that matter, the Clinton/Gore presidency was a historically successful presidency and it brought us record economic growth.

I think obviously President Obama being with President Clinton works to his advantage and also very frankly we all know President Clinton is so effective at communicating the issues and how they affect peoples' lives directly.

So we've seen President Clinton being probably President Obama's best surrogate in the country and being probably most effect in his behalf. I think the real issue is trying to shift the folks and trying to shift the debate because obviously, Democrats want to make an issue of Governor Romney's budget. He wants to try to make the focus on President Obama.

MALVEAUX: And, Robert, we would have you play the Republican side since Lenny isn't here, but that's OK. You know, I want to show you something --

ZIMMERMAN: I can never measure up to Lenny, but I can try it give his perspective.

MALVEAUX: We'll try to get Lenny back. But in the meantime, I want to show you this because this is really got everybody's attention here.

This is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and of course, the Mayor of Newark Cory Booker, a lot of people's favorite folks because he tweets all the time.

This is a little parody that they did and I want you to take a look at the two of them and the VP buzz that's surrounding Christie and how he deals with this. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to get going. I think we might have a flat tire here. All right, I'll hang up first. Goodbye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gov, Gov, sit tight, I got this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, stand back!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got this, I got this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Booker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney, Governor Romney, yes, yes that was me running into the fire. Yes, I do shovel snow as well. Yes, you're very persuasive, but I'm not a number two guy, I'm not a background singer. Mitt, sir, with all due respect, I know you need a big --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me, Mayor. I got this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I love this. I mean, everybody has been watching this whole thing because there's all this speculation about Christie whether he's going to get that invitation to be the number two guy. And Cory Booker, who seems to always be playing the hero here, Lenny, we have you back, Lenny, right? We have you, Lenny?

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes. No thanks to Robert pulling the plug on the end over here in Chicago. Thanks, Robert. Good job as a Democrat. The Democrat machine back in effect in Chicago.

MALVEAUX: What do you think, is this a good lesson here? These two guys getting along, showing you can be, you know, on the opposite ends and still be friends and make a point.

MCALLISTER: It's great to see, but we have to understand two things. Number one, Cory Booker is a mayor. Governor Christie is the governor of his state.

Number two, let's see what happens if they run against each other when Governor Christie is up for re-election. That's when you start to see, does this good tone go over to a great campaign where they're tussling with each other where there's above the board fighting or do we go back into the politics we've been used to seeing over the last ten years?

Hopefully, this type of tone can permeate throughout the nation where people can laugh at each other, disagree as people on opposite ends of the political spectrum and be able to be on CNN without Robert Zimmerman pulling the plug on me. ZIMMERMAN: Lenny, I got to tell you. I think you'd agree with me, every member of Congress, every Democrat should team up with a Republican and do a video like that.

I think it would be a great, as we say, educational moment, a great learning moment. Everyone should go on cnn.com and watch it. It's not only funny, it's very instructive. I think it really is just -- it's a great, great message about what should be happening in terms of dialogue.

MALVEAUX: Robert, to Lenny's point there, can this happen in a campaign or is this just something where two guys who are not competing with each other right now can get away with? Can you bring some of that spirit? Do we need some of that? Can that actually happen when the stakes are so much higher?

ZIMMERMAN: You know something? We have to have more of that spirit for the future of our democracy, and I think it's worth noting that many -- we always hear and the media focuses on the tough biting comments in the campaign, but many of them are issue oriented.

Certainly the Clinton/Obama campaign was a very, very tough competition. But it really stayed focus on issues and you saw how well the Democratic Party unified at the end of that process.

MALVEAUX: All right, we're running out of time. Lenny, you got a last word here since we lost you before?

MCALLISTER: Well, you know what? Last word would be I think Robert is right. If we can get some bipartisanship on how we're going to be statesmen moving forward, we can fix this country and elevate it to the standard we're used to having in the 21st Century. But it boils down to who wants to be statesmen and who wants to be politicians.

ZIMMERMAN: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: All right, well said. A little bit of bipartisanship here.

ZIMMERMAN: I'm glad he got his sound back.

MALVEAUX: We're not going to do that to you anymore, Lenny, we promise.

This is a serious issue. The shooter had two black eyes, a busted nose, a bloody head. A report from George Zimmerman's doctor shakes up the Trayvon Martin case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: There's new evidence in the Trayvon Martin case that some say could help the defense. The medical report by George Zimmerman's family doctor provides some new details about Zimmerman's injuries one day after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin. If you look closely at the surveillance video from the police station where Zimmerman was taken shortly after the shooting, you can see marks visible on the back of his head. We knew that he had a broken nose. What does the medical report reveal that is new?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is different about this is that we had heard all those accounts before from family members or from his attorney. This time we're hearing it from his own doctor, his personal physician, which he went to one day after this attack took place. We also know in addition to the head injuries he had two black eyes, he had the broken nose, and he had an injury to his back. So, all of that is kind of more specific detail that we're getting.

MALVEAUX: And it's significant because the defense believes that they can build a case around the fact that he was injured in some way.

SAVIDGE: Right. This, they say, goes to their argument that it proves that George Zimmerman was in a fight, and the defense maintains it was Trayvon Martin who began that fight by punching him in the nose and hence the broken nose.

MALVEAUX: His parents, Trayvon Martin's parents, how are they responding to this?

SAVIDGE: You know what? They do not see this as clear-cut, which quite naturally they wouldn't, being on an opposite side. They say, look, had the injuries really been serious to George Zimmerman, he would have got attention right away. In fact, here is what their attorney said last night on Anderson Cooper.

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BEN CRUMP, MARTIN FAMILY ATTORNEY: The family has very strong positions about this family physician's report that was done the next day. What we do know, is on February 26 the ER personnel didn't believe his injuries were significant enough for him to go to the hospital. They didn't even put a Band-Aid on his head. We all saw the video 30 minutes after he had shot and killed Trayvon Martin. So we saw where his injuries were with our own eyes. That's important. He didn't have a concussion.

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SAVIDGE: And that's a big point that Ben Crump points out, there. He says, look, he did not have a concussion. And remember, he was saying that Trayvon was beating his head against the ground.

MALVEAUX: Do we have more information about Trayvon Martin, his own situation, his own medical status.

SAVIDGE: We do. This is information from the autopsy. And what it indicates is that he had bruises, he had marks on his hands in keeping with what some would say was fighting. However, again, Ben Crump, the attorney, says, look, he was fighting. He was fighting to defend himself from George Zimmerman. In other words, this isn't the sort of smoking fist, so to say, that this was proof that Trayvon actually punched George Zimmerman being the first aggressor.

MALVEAUX: Is there anything in the medical report about Zimmerman's mental state?

SAVIDGE: Not specifically, other than it talks about some medications he was on. In fact, those medications were Adderall and Tepazepam, which apparently, can cause agitation and mood swings in a very small percentage of people. These were prescriptions he was on before the altercation.

MALVEAUX: All right. Martin Savidge, thank you very much.

SAVIDGE: You're welcome.

MALVEAUX: She fell off a zip line. It changed her life forever. Now a graduate student is fighting for her life and her limbs against an infection that's now eating her alive.

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MALVEAUX: The family of a Georgia woman fighting a deadly flesh- eating bacteria says her progress is miraculous. 24-year-old Amy Copeland is now mouthing words, she is smiling. Her father says the doctors thought she had little chance of surviving when she was admitted to the hospital about ten days ago. She contracted the infection after falling from a zip line into a river, cutting her leg. Copeland's father updated her condition last night on CNN.

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ANDY COPELAND, AMY COPELAND'S FATHER: She appears to be remembering day to day different conversations that we've had. We actually referred to some conversations she had yesterday, so her memory is -- short-term memory appears to be coming back which is a very encouraging sign.

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MALVEAUX: Andy Copeland, he is urging folks to continue to donate blood for his daughter's recovery. There are several blood drives held here yesterday in Georgia. Another planned for June 1st.

Want to bring in Elizabeth Cohen from Washington. Elizabeth, first of all, explain to us about this flesh-eating bacteria. Just how rare this is, how dangerous this is. It just sounds so bizarre.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really a very, very dangerous situation, Suzanne. Flesh-eating bacteria infections, or necrotizing fasciitis is the real name, these infections are very, very rare. There aren't great numbers on it, but they are really quite rare.

What happens is your skin is a great defense against bacteria, but if you have a combination of two things you can really be in trouble. One, if you have an open wound on your skin and, two, you're in the presence of one of these bacteria that can cause this illness, that can become a recipe for trouble. Again, for most people, this will never happen to you. But this does sometimes happen. It can especially happen with a really big open wound which is what it sounds like Amy had.

MALVEAUX: Where does this bacteria live? Do we know?

COHEN: There are lots of different kinds of bacteria that can cause flesh - that can cause necrotizing fasciitis. Sometimes it's strep A, sometimes it's other things. In this case, it was a bacteria that actually lives in the water. This is actually a pretty common bacteria in the water. You and I have probably been in water with this bacteria, but again, we didn't have this open wound where a lot of this bacteria could get in. Once it gets into your body, it really thrives and it thrives on, well, you know, eating your muscle and it can eat away at it very, very deep inside your body.

MALVEAUX: Wow. It just sounds so awful. How do people, you know, we get these skin infections all the time. How do we know if there's like flesh-eating bacteria that we are dealing with and it's not just some, you know, ordinary infection?

COHEN: Right, OK. Let's run through the list because I know that's what makes everyone nervous. How will I know if this is me, because, of course, getting treatment quickly is really crucial. So first of all, disproportionate pain. So what I mean by that is that you've got a cut, you expect a cut to sort of hurt, but I mean it really hurts. And not necessarily just where the cut itself is, but in that whole region of the body sometimes. So way more pain than you would expect just for a cut in the skin. Also fever and weakness can be signs of necrotizing fasciitis, also a lot of swelling, and sometimes even black marks around that area. F you want to learn more, you can go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient.

MALVEAUX: All right, Elizabeth, thank you so much. I'm glad she's doing better. It's just really quite amazing when you hear what she's been through. Thank you.

COHEN: That is reassuring. Thanks.

MALVEAUX: They are trying to get out of Syria with their lives but their own government is putting land mines in their way.

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MALVEAUX: In Syria, Arab spring has lasted longer than a year. The U.N. Believes more than 9,000 people were killed in the fighting, another 15 were reportedly killed just today. Desperate people who escape to Turkey, they have to cross the border that the Syrian army has covered now with land mines. CNN's Ivan Watson is there.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Agony in the emergency room. 25-year-old Mazen Hajisa just stepped on a land mine planted along the Syrian/Turkish border. Doctors later amputated his mangled left foot as well as the foot of another victim of a Syrian minefield. In all, six Syrian men took several bloody wrong steps early Saturday morning. Mazen Hajisa was one of the luckier ones. The blast left him with only minor shrapnel wounds and burns.

"I was holding the border fence open, so the guys could get through, when suddenly I heard the blast," he says. "I saw my cousin Marad (ph) lying next to me screaming, and then there was a second explosion and I said, nobody move. There are land mines."

WATSON: Something like this was bound to happen. We first met Mazen Hajisa last March, when he showed us some of the more than 300 land mines he and his friends pulled out of the ground along the border.

(on camera): Nobody taught you how to pull this kind of mine out of the ground, right?

MAZEN HAJISA, SYRIAN LANDMINE VICTIM: No, no.

WATSON (voice-over): In this amateur video, Hajisa demonstrates how he digs up anti-personnel mines buried by Syrian soldiers along the border fence. He's got no protective armor and uses a kabob skewer to probe for the lethal devices. Hajisa applies that same instinct for improvisation when treating his own wounds.

(on camera): Mazen, your bandage is a napkin and some tape. This isn't a professional bandage at all.

(voice-over): The 800-kilometer-long border between Turkey and Syria is riddled with smuggler's paths. They became an essential escape route for tens of thousands of refugees fleeing a deadly Syrian government crackdown. And the poorest frontier has since become a vital lifeline for rebels and activists smuggling in supplies, fighters, and weapons to the opposition. Turkish authorities say Syrian troops began mining the border last winter.

Back in March, Hajisa told us it was his duty to keep the smuggling routes open and he swears when his wounds heal, he'll go right back to work digging up land mines.

(on camera): You almost got killed. Why would you go back and do this again?

(voice-over): "We have refugees, women and children, coming through this border," he says. "They must have a way to escape."

Ivan Watson, CNN, Hatay, Turkey.

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