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Possible Deal Over Iranian Nuclear Program May be Reached; Senate Democrats Use Nuclear Option for Presidential Nominees; "Hunger Games" Sequel Opening; Investigation Continues into Death of Georgia High School Student; Cleanup Continues in Philippines in Wake of Typhoon Haiyan

Aired November 23, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Storm front's a-comin'. We're headed into the busiest travel week of the year, and along with typical delays and traffic, a massive weather system is threatening to make your Thanksgiving travel even worse, I'm sorry to say.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning: Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Geneva to try and hammer out an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Sources say there are some encouraging signs, but will that be enough to cement an historic deal?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You haven't hurt people, Katniss, you've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Yes, Katniss, they have to be brave enough to take it.

Plus, "Catching Fire," I shouldn't make fun because so many people love this movie, lighting up the box office, pulling in big numbers for its first showing, and its opening weekend could be one for the Hollywood history books.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: You weren't making fun. You were acting. You were acting!

BLACKWELL: Yes, that was part of the plot, part of the energy.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Well, we are not acting when we say, welcome to NEW DAY. We're so glad to have your company, 10:00. I guess it's Newsroom.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it's Newsroom now. But it is a new day for a lot of people who slept in this morning.

PAUL: There you go. Thank you for saving me. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: And I'm Victor Blackwell. It's not 10:00 here on the east coast, 7:00 out west. You are in the CNN Newsroom. And 43 million people are expected to travel this holiday weekend, or this Thanksgiving week. I'm one of them. You're not. You're staying at home.

PAUL: You have fun with that.

BLACKWELL: I will.

PAUL: You have fun with that.

BLACKWELL: Here's the problem. Severe weather could hamper the travel plans.

PAUL: Snow is already causing headaches for drivers in Colorado. Look what they're dealing with here. More could be on the way, too, just in time for the holidays. Several states we know are already under a winter storm warning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Already the west has been hammered by severe weather, from icy road conditions in Oklahoma City to flooding in Arizona and California and snow in Nevada. Now, the weather out west has been difficult and dangerous. In California alone, strong winds downed trees and power lines in the San Francisco bay area. High winds are also being blamed for stoking the wildfire in Napa County. And a man had to be pulled from the fast-moving water of the Santa Ana River after a massive downpour in the San Bernardino Valley.

Plus, the system is expected to move east just in time for peak Thanksgiving travel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: So if you live in the northeast, you're going to want to get out the winter clothes, too. We're talking about bitter-cold temperatures that are sweeping across the U.S.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's bring in meteorologist Karen Maginnis. Karen, what can we expect as we head into this week?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is going to be blustery. We're still watching the timing of the winter storm system that looks to be gaining some strength across the south central U.S. Let's take a look now at what's going on in Dallas. You may see those overcast skies for right now, but those temperatures very cold, not going to be warming up very much. Those low clouds later on today could produce some sleet, freezing rain, maybe some minor ice accumulation, but western suburbs, watch out, those roads could be treacherous.

Also, Chicago, a live tower cam coming from there, as well. And you're looking at not bad sky conditions, but those temperatures bitterly cold, only into the 20s. Right now, 27 degrees, wind chill factor feels like minus 1. Tonight, temperatures are going to feel below zero. And for tomorrow, you're looking at blustery conditions. Then for Denver, mostly cloudy skies and about a 10 percent to 20 percent chance of snow showers expected there, some gusty winds. But we could see that icing situation move steadily across the southeast. So just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

PAUL: Whew.

MAGINNIS: Yes.

PAUL: All righty, Karen Maginnis, thank you for the heads-up.

Now we want to talk about the stunning meeting as the world's top diplomats try to secure a deal curbing Iran's nuclear activity.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Secretary of State John Kerry sat down with Iran's foreign minister. This happened just a short time ago. Mr. Kerry flew to Geneva earlier today as talks on Iran's controversial nuclear program appeared to be near a breakthrough.

PAUL: Iran's foreign minister has said a deal is 90 percent of the way there.

BLACKWELL: Yes, just 90 percent, still, a lot of progress, but still a little way to go. CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto is in Geneva, as well. Jim, tell us more about the meeting between Secretary Kerry and Iran's foreign minister.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a key meeting, perhaps the most key meeting so far here at these talks. You've had a lot of preparation for this in the previous days -- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday -- the working levels, the political directors from each country talking. Then you had all of the foreign ministers fly in, including the secretary of state. They've been meeting individually.

But to get the U.S. and Iran at the same table, and the EU foreign minister was there, as well, that's an important one. You're really going to get down to whatever the remaining 10 percent that is standing between now and a deal. Now, it's possible that that remaining 10 percent is difficult to get over. It is possible they leave here without an agreement. But the momentum certainly has been strong, and a good amount of optimism in the days leading up to this. We'll just have to see. These next few hours, I would say, are very key.

BLACKWELL: Jim Sciutto in Geneva, thank you.

A phone call and a car crash set off chaos at Los Angeles International Airport. Now, for a moment, just a moment, police feared another shooting was underway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone on the ground! Everybody get down!

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAUL: OK, that was not the case, though, thank goodness. CNN's Paul Vercammen is at LAX today. Good morning, Paul. How's it look there?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christi and Victor, it looks rather calm, but you can imagine last night some just panicked moments and chaos all over again. A lot of people here at LAX almost had the feeling of "Oh, no, here we go again." Don't forget, three weeks ago to the day there was a fatal shooting of a TSA officer and others injured here at LAX.

What happened was an improbable chain of events. It started with a false report and a traffic accident that sounded to some people like gunfire. Let's hear what the chief here at LAX had to say about the response to this incident last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF PATRICK GANNON, LAX POLICE: I think that anytime we have any incident that involves the potential for gunfire or a gun or anything that's at this airport, we treat it exactly the same way we would treat it before. The response of the officers was quick and decisive. And I think what occurred here was a hypersensitivity to what occurred on the first -- that caused people to react in the way that -- in the way that they did. I don't want to -- I'm not -- I don't have a problem with that. It just -- there's consequences to it. And I would rather be on the safe side than not take the appropriate actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And again, that hypersensitivity a result of a woman in a minivan who lost control of her vehicle due to a medical condition. There were several loud bangs as she collided with cars and part of a parking structure. And then a false report here from someone who said that there was a man with a gun inside another terminal. In all, two terminals were evacuated, some people had to go through TSA twice, and they said 4,600 people either delayed or had problems with their arrivals, Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All right, Paul, real quickly. One, is that woman OK who was in the accident? And, two, what are you hearing about security there this week, especially in light of the holiday and heavy travel?

VERCAMMEN: Well, first off, we understand the woman was taken to a nearby hospital, and that she is OK. And you hit the nail on the head here, Christi, because LAX is perhaps -- according to Orbitz and others, the busiest airport during Thanksgiving, 2 million passengers expected through in this period. And security, of course, is high, as it has been. But there are no major adjustments. I mean, if you look behind me, things are moving rather smoothly. It's just a rather brisk Saturday morning here at LAX as people prepare for that busy Thanksgiving travel season. Back to you now.

PAUL: All righty, CNN's Paul Vercammen at Los Angeles International Airport. Thank you so much, Paul for the update.

BLACKWELL: We speak to a lot of politicians here in Newsroom.

PAUL: And a lot of politicians speak to us.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And they like to talk.

PAUL: Yes. The Senate is putting limits, though, on the talks.

BLACKWELL: Yes, they're limiting the filibusters. Is it a good thing, though? We'll ask our political experts.

PAUL: You know retailers are revving up to get your dollars as the holiday shopping season gets ready to kick off. We'll talk about that. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back in to the Newsroom. Senate Democrats slapped new limits on the filibuster this week. And Republicans call this the "nuclear option" because it blows up the way the Senate operates.

PAUL: Yes. And the change is going to make it easier to get President Obama's nominees approved basically, though it does not apply, we should point out, to Supreme Court nominees nor to legislation. Previously, though, remember, it took 60 votes to move a presidential nominee forward. Now, nominees can advance on a simple majority vote of 51.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY REID, (D-NV) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: This is not just about Republicans versus Democrats. This is about doing what is right for this institution to evolve and remain responsible for the needs our country has. And we have not been doing that.

MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It only reinforces the narrative of a party that's willing to do and say just about anything to get its way. My friends on the other side of the aisle, you'll regret this, and you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Two of our CNN political commentators join us now, Ben Ferguson, a conservative radio host in Dallas, and Hilary Rosen, a political consultant in Washington. Good to have both of you. And I want to start with Hilary. Hilary, what does this mean for the future of the Senate? Now that the 60-vote threshold is gone, what have Democrats done with this vote?

HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL CONSULTANT: That's a great question. You know, it's been called the nuclear option. For me, it feels just more like a bonfire, because, you know, all this really does is say that the president that we elected to actually run the government gets to run the government. And, you know, President Obama's appointees have been stopped by filibuster in the Senate, you know, more than -- more than seven times all the last presidents combined. Now, when you have those kinds of numbers, 185 nominees just sitting there waiting for over half a year for confirmation, you just can't get stuff done. The courts are backlogged, agencies are operating with fewer staff than they need to, and it just makes no sense.

So I think all this really does is allow that kind of judicial and administrative efficiency. But as Christi pointed out, it doesn't change whether or not Democrats are going to be able to ram new policy through, that won't happen. They won't be able to ram new Supreme Court justices through. So in some respect I feel this is being made into more of a big deal than it needs to be by Republicans who, you know, just are looking for issues to pick on the Democrats about.

PAUL: OK. But Ben, let me ask you, I mean, what does this do to Republicans in 2014? Because if we look back, we know that even President Obama, when he was a senator --

BLACKWELL: Yes, in 2005.

PAUL: -- he was against this idea.

BEN FERGUSON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Yes, absolutely. I would look -- I would look right now at Carl Levin, for example. I mean, Carl Levin said this is a catastrophic, terrible decision, and Democrats should not be a part of this. He's one of the most senior Democrats in the Senate. He gets the precedent that this is. It changes the entire rules of the Senate.

And the one thing that I kind of laugh at is how the president of the United States of America comes out and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and they're acting, like, this isn't a big deal, this is just making government work. They're the ones that warned against this when George Bush was president, and they said you have to understand the constitution. You have to understand how our government works. You have to understand that there is a need for checks and balances. So the president doesn't get to run the government. He's supposed to consult with the Congress --

BLACKWELL: Let me jump in here, because Mitch McConnell made the opposite argument in 2005 that he made this week. So while you may call out the Democrats for hypocrisy, Mitch McConnell argued the exact opposite of his argument.

ROSEN: And here's the issue --

FERGUSON: But did they change the rules?

ROSEN: But here is the most important point, which is both sides in the past have said that this would be a mistake, because the Senate is an institution that depends on history, that works on comity, and all of those things. But what's happened over the last couple of years, as I just said, is that appointees have been historically overwhelmingly blocked by this new Senate in these last two years.

President Obama is hampered in what he's doing in the executive branch. Judicial nominees, there used to be processes for even when Republicans and Democrats disagreed with appointments. There would be a process to move those controversial appointments through.

And we're not just talking about controversial judges. We're talking about overly qualified, you know, corporate lawyers who are, you know, happy and -- for both sides. And what we need to have is a process that works. And finally Harry Reid and the Democrats are using what authority they have to say let's at least get the government working for the next two years, and then, you know what, if the Republicans take over in 2014, fine. We're taking that risk.

FERGUSON: Well, I think that's the biggest issue here is you're acting as if somehow these are nonpolitical appointees. There's a reason why there's such a fight, and there's a reason why the minority is supposed to have a say-so in judges, because judges outlive presidents in many of these situations. Once you're there, you're there for years far beyond any eight-year term if a president wins reelection. This is incredibly important who gets on the courts.

And if you have Democrats who just have a 51, and they throw every person with their ideological viewpoint on the court, that is a very scary precedent for the American people, who are actually having to go to the courts to have such a political ideology of one-leaning side, when they go in to have their grievances aired in front of a judge.

ROSEN: It's not even possible. It's not even possible. The reality is -- well, there's one quick point. The courts today, the federal courts today, have an overwhelmingly large number of Republican appointees on them. Even with all of these appointees, there won't even be close to the level of Democrat quality on the courts. It's just a fact.

PAUL: All right, we'll talk more about this on the other side of the break. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. We're continuing our conversation about what's be called the nuclear option with conservative radio show host Ben Ferguson and Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen.

PAUL: Thanks so much for sticking with us. I want to talk real quickly about the new CNN/ORC poll numbers for the president, his approval rating at an all-time low of 41 percent in the CNN survey. And the other thing that really jumped out at people was the fact that half of those polled in this survey say Republicans in Congress will have more influence next year than the president. Hilary, how do you react to that?

ROSEN: It's depressing. I think that, you know, it's been a hard -- it's been a hard several months for the president, not just with the Obamacare rollout, but also with things feeling stalled between immigration and health care.

But, you know, I do think we've got three years left on this presidency. This is going to shake out. This is going to get better. We may take a beating in the midterms in people's perception now, but my instinct is that by June, when things start to harden in and people start to focus on it, I think we're going to be in better shape.

We've seen an unheralded amount of on obstinacy from the Republicans in the House, that they don't want to do things that the American people overwhelmingly support. And I think that health care will be much smoother by then and we'll be able to focus back on the budget, with immigration, building and investing in our infrastructure, with a whole series of other things, and the Republicans will be responsible for that.

BLACKWELL: Ben, let me get you in on this first. And I want a response from Hilary, as well. What's the strongest single issue for either of your respective parties going into 2014?

FERGUSON: I think, first, the Republicans no doubt is going to now be the trust issue. They're saying you cannot trust the president of the United States of America. He looked at you and told you that you could keep your plan, and he lied to you, and he knew he was lying to you. And I think that's going to be the core issue for many, is to say, look at the prices, look at the exchange, look at your options, and are you better off now than you were five years ago when Barack Obama started his campaign on health care? And the majority of Americans now are saying, we don't trust the president of the United States of America.

So I think it's going to be really a trust issue here. And I also think the other issue is national security, I mean, you see this the last -- here to get some sort of deal done, maybe today with Iran, if that doesn't pan out, I think there's also a trust issue there with the national security on those issues, as well, and people pay attention to it.

BLACKWELL: Hilary, very quickly, the Democrats' strongest issue into 2014?

ROSEN: I think health care is going to be available to 25 million people who did not have it before. The idea that the Republicans are going to run on the fact that they are preventing people from taking care of their families is going to backfire.

BLACKWELL: All right, Ben Ferguson --

FERGUSON: The exchange is up.

BLACKWELL: Ben Ferguson, Hilary Rosen, we thank you both.

PAUL: All right, we'll talk more right after the break. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Bottom of the hour for you right now. Hope everything is going well this morning. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Let's start with five stories we're watching this morning.

Number one, just hours after John Kerry arrived in Geneva, the secretary of state met face to face with Iran's foreign minister. Now, there's increasing hope today that world powers can hash out a long-sought deal with Iran to curb its nuclear program. And the west wants to make sure Tehran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. Iran wants tough economic sanctions loosened.

PAUL: Number two, new grisly details about the murder of Massachusetts teacher Colleen Ritzer. According to a police affidavit, 14-year-old student Phillip Chism left a note next to her body that read, quote, "I hate you all." Court documents also show police believed Chism raped his teacher and killed her in a high school bathroom. Prosecutors do plan to try him as an adult.

BLACKWELL: Princeton University is trying to figure out if a dangerous strain of meningitis-b is spreading at the school. Well, now, an eighth student has fallen sick with this bacterial disease. Princeton officials say they hope to provide students with a vaccine. Here's the problem. It's been approved in Europe, but not yet in the U.S.

PAUL: Number four, the federal government is extending the sign-up period for Obamacare, so you now have until December 23rd to enroll for coverage that starts January 1st. The original deadline was a week earlier. No mystery as to why -- trouble with healthcare.gov website is the culprit.

BLACKWELL: Number five, if you're gearing up for travel for Thanksgiving, maybe you want to stay in. Skype is an option. You can just Skype dinner. Several states are under a winter storm warning. And this is Colorado. Now, the northeast, freezing temperatures are expected to move in this weekend. Severe weather is expected to cause major delays at airports and, of course, you see here on the roads.

PAUL: If you have one of the families that gets really dicey with each other, then you can just turn Skype off when you're done, which you can't really do when you're setting at the table.

BLACKWELL: It's much worse when you have travelled through sleet, snow, rain, just to argue.

PAUL: Which many of you sadly will most likely will have to do.

BLACKWELL: Yes, enjoy that.

PAUL: That won't keep everybody from "Hunger Games."

BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean, snow, heat, sleet, whatever, the fans for "Hunger Games" are going to the theaters this weekend.

PAUL: My goodness, the "Catching Fire" sequel could set a box office record for November. The estimates say it could top $150 million this weekend, and fans are so happy to contribute to that haul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

PAUL: From screaming fans at the Los Angeles premier to long lines at your local cinema.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the 75th year of the Hunger Games.

PAUL: The second installment of the "Hunger Games" trilogy "Catching Fire" is out, and it's the hot ticket of the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am very cold and tired. But I'm excited for the movie.

PAUL: It's also a franchise that's now in line to shatter records. The first film grossed nearly $700 million worldwide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I volunteer! I volunteer!

PAUL: More than $150 million in its opening weekend, the third- highest gross of all time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've worked very hard on the games, Ms. Everdeen. But they are games.

PAUL: The sci-fi adventure series centers around citizens who are forced to fight in annual televised battles for survival, with Jennifer Lawrence returning as the heroine Katniss Everdeen.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTOR: It's a wonderful story. The trilogy itself is full of that, because there's so many different levels, and the cruelty of the capital, as well, intensifies on this second one.

PAUL: In "Catching Fire," Katniss has been, a lightning rod symbol of the people's rebellion. But she's still the super warrior girl next door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't have expected anything in that whole movie. I mean, and I've read the books, I've read all three of them, and that movie was amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: You can read plenty more at CNN.com.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead in the CNN Newsroom, his parents believed his death was the result of foul play. Authorities say it was just an accident. They're hoping to get answers from hundreds of hours of surveillance video. An exclusive analysis on those hundreds of hours of video, what's in the video, and what isn't, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: For six months, we've been investigating the death of Kendrick Johnson. The south Georgia high school student dies in January. Now, investigators claimed he suffocated after falling head- first into a rolled-up gym mat. A local sheriff says his death was an accident, but his parents believe he was murdered.

Four cameras in the gym, more than four dozen other cameras across the campus captured hundreds of hours of surveillance footage. Johnson's parents say somebody tampered with some of the images. So CNN had a certified forensic video analyst look at them and get us some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUELYN JOHNSON, KENDRICK'S MOTHER: That's my child, and we're going to fight until it's all over, until we get the truth. That's all we ever asked for was the truth about what happened to Kendrick Johnson.

BLACKWELL: Jacqueline Johnson and her husband Kenneth hope to find that truth in the hundreds of hours of surveillance video recorded the day sheriff's investigators say the 17-year-old died. Look carefully. There he is in the white t-shirt and jeans carrying a yellow folder. The Johnsons now have this video as the result of a lawsuit. CNN filed its own motion to get access to all of the video.

Investigators in Lowndes County, Georgia, told the Johnsons and their attorneys Johnson climbed into this gym mat reaching for this shoe and that his death was an accident.

BEN CRUMP, JOHNSON'S ATTORNEY: They know their child did not climb into a wrestling mat, get stuck, and die. Where is that video?

BLACKWELL: The sheriff's office says that moment was not recorded.

The Johnsons also question moments in the surveillance video like this one. Kendrick is seen running in the gym and then another image appears showing other students. It jumps from one moment to another. The Johnsons' attorney say they can't tell from the surveillance video what happened to Kendrick and when the other students entered.

CHEVENE KING, JOHNSON'S ATTORNEY: We don't have any time code with which to synchronize the events that are shown in the video.

CRUMP: Either the camera did something on their own, or a human being interacted to make this camera do these things.

BLACKWELL: An attorney for Lowndes County Schools tells CNN "What we produced to the sheriff was a raw feed with no edits." The attorney for Lowndes County sheriff's office tells CNN, "My client has confirmed the video was not altered or edited by anyone within the Lowndes County sheriff's office."

CRUMP: We believe that somebody corrupted this video, because it just does not make sense to us.

BLACKWELL: So who's right? To find out, we took our copy of the video provided to CNN by the attorney for the sheriff's office to an expert. We've brought the hard drive more than 2,300 miles here to Spokane, Washington, to deliver to the leading expert in forensic video analysis, Grant Fredericks. He's a former police officer, a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice, and a contract instructor at the FBI Academy in Quantico. We are here to get an answer. Has this surveillance footage been altered?

GRANT FREDERICKS, CERTIFIED FORENSIC VIDEO ANALYST: Those files are not original files. They're not something that an investigator should rely on for the truth of the video.

BLACKWELL: CNN hired Fredericks' company, Forensic Video Solutions, to analyze the surveillance video.

The first thing that the attorneys and the family were concerned about, they didn't see a time stamp, but you found one.

FREDERICKS: Yes.

BLACKWELL: How?

FREDERICKS: Well, the timestamp is in another stream of video, so you have to be able to access it using special codex. So you have to know where to find it. But it's there. Once the timestamp is located, you can then begin to make sense of it and begin to track people.

BLACKWELL: By piecing together the time codes, Fredericks' team found 18 minutes of surveillance showing Kendrick on January 10th, starting at 7:31 a.m. as he entered school, ending the last time he was seen alive, at 1:09 p.m. in the gym.

FREDERICKS: The motion video that we're looking at here, and the fact that we skip time periods when there's no motion is very common. So I'm not really concerned about that part of it.

BLACKWELL: But what about the blurred image, the only angle that shows the corner where Kendrick Johnson was found dead?

The Johnsons and their attorneys believe this was intentionally blurred to hide something. What is your expertise tell you?

FREDERICKS: Yes, this has not been intentionally blurred. This is likely -- the camera itself has probably been hit, and the lens has been pushed out of focus for some reason. If you look very closely, you can see the defined lines there inherent in digital video. Those lines are still intact. So they have not been blurred. Therefore, it was actually the lens that's blurred. The blurriness actually has the defined lines. So this is clearly just a blurred lens.

BLACKWELL: Clarity about the blur, the timestamp revealed, and an explanation for the jumpy video, which made the Johnsons and their attorneys suspicious the video had been edited. But Fredericks has a bigger concern.

FREDERICKS: This video is not the best evidence. It's been changed and altered so that we are missing information, and what we have been provided is not the best quality.

BLACKWELL: Altered by copying, but also raising questions about whether everything was copied.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: In just a moment, part two of my report on the death of Kendrick Johnson, what Grant Fredericks says is highly suspicious.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: More now on CNN's exclusive investigation into the death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson. The Georgia teen was found dead inside a rolled gym mat at his high school back in January. Authorities initially ruled his death an accident, but his parents believe he was murdered.

Well, CNN obtained hundreds of hours of surveillance video from around Johnson's school, including some images that shows the moments leading up to the teen's death. Now, we had an expert scour hundreds and hundreds of hours of the recording. He's not concerned about what the video shows. Instead, he's concerned about what it doesn't.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: CNN has hired Grant Fredericks and his team at Forensic Video Solutions to analyze the hundreds of hours of surveillance from Lowndes High School. Although he does not believe the jumpy video is the result of editing, he says there are other major problems.

FREDERICKS: Those files are not original files. They're not something an investigator should rely on for the truth of the video. They've been altered in a number of ways, primarily in the image quality, and likely in dropped information, information lost. There are also a number of files corrupted because they've not been processed correctly and they're not playable. So I can't say why they were done that way, but they were not done correctly and they were not done thoroughly. So we're missing information.

BLACKWELL: Fredericks says that's likely due to how investigators acquired the surveillance video.

FREDERICKS: Right now what they've done is they have left it up to the school district to define what it is they want to provide to police, and I think that probably is a mistake.

BLACKWELL: According to Lowndes County sheriff's office incident reports, a detective watched a portion of the surveillance video the day Kendrick Johnson was found, then he asked the school board's information technology worker for a copy of the surveillance video for the entire wing of the school with the old gym for the last 48 hours. Five days later, that I.T. worker provided a hard drive, and according to the incident report, the detective verified it contained the requested surveillance video.

FREDERICKS: The investigator's responsibility is to acquire the entire digital video recording system, and then have their staff define what they want to obtain. You don't want somebody who might be party to the responsibility to make the decision as to what they provide the police.

BLACKWELL: And after hours of analysis, Fredericks questions whether Lowndes County school provided all of the surveillance video from the old gym to investigators.

FREDERICKS: There is a hole of time where none of the cameras provide any record that I've been provided.

BLACKWELL: Fredericks has all the camera angles and all the video released by the Lowndes sheriff's office.

FREDERICKS: There are four cameras in the gym that records motion from when the lights turn on in the morning until when the lights are turned off at night, except for the area of interest.

BLACKWELL: The moments before Kendrick Johnson enters the gym, look at what happens to the recordings from these four cameras in the gym. The time is recorded with the video. The first camera captures images from the start of the day until 12:04 p.m., then, nothing. It picks up again at 1:09 p.m. There's consistent surveillance from the second camera until 11:05 a.m., and then it stops and picks up again more than two hours later at 1:15 p.m. The third camera also drops at 11:05 a.m. It picks up again at 1:16 p.m. And from the final camera, there's surveillance until 12:04 p.m., no recording for more than an hour, and then it picks up again at 1:09 p.m.

FREDERICKS: I would absolutely expect there to be some record of that activity, and we don't have it here.

BLACKWELL: Here's why Fredericks would have expected the motion- activated system to record during that time. During that hour and five minutes, several students are seen walking into and out of the old gym from just outside the gym door. We count seven male students, and three of them walk into the gym within three minutes prior to Kendrick Johnson walking in.

FREDERICKS: I can't tell you whether there was no information recorded in the digital video system, or whether somebody made an error and didn't capture it, or whether somebody just didn't provide it.

BLACKWELL: When surveillance in the gym resumes at 1:09, we see just these few frames of Kendrick Johnson running in the gym. Here's the moment from all of the cameras in the gym, although a record for only two, and the camera just outside the door. Notice the hall camera timestamp appears to be 10 minutes behind, and there's no confirmation either time matches the exact time of day. It is the last time his image is captured on video. For the next hour, there are multiple gaps in the video surveillance in the gym.

And that is crucial. It's really an important time.

FREDERICKS: Well, it really is the only option to answer the question, really what happened.

BLACKWELL: And there's no video showing the initial discovery of a body in the gym. The next time we see Kendrick Johnson is the following day when he's being wheeled out of the gym in a body bag.

Do you believe it's a coincidence that that time period in the gym is missing?

FREDERICKS: Oh, boy. Investigators are always suspicious and should be suspicious. And it's suspicious that that time period is not there. So, yes, I would be suspicious. And until I have the digital video system in my hand, until I can say or an investigator can say everything is intact, this was what's recorded, I would still be highly suspicious of this.

BLACKWELL: So after fighting for months on a city street corner and in the county courthouse to get the surveillance video, Kendrick Johnson's parents still do not know who was in the gym before Kendrick ran in, nor who, if anyone, was there or what happened in those moments after.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: More than a week ago, we sent lists of questions to the attorney for the Lowndes County sheriff's office and the attorney for Lowndes County schools. The attorney for the sheriff's office has not yet answered those questions, but we have received a response from the attorney for the school district, two words -- "No comment." However, the school's attorney has offered to make the original hard drive available to the court. No, the Johnsons want an expert to make sure everything the school had in its possession was then given to the sheriff's office, and then everything they had was then given to the Johnson family.

PAUL: Well, I just have to say kudos for you for staying on this, because this would not be, you know, known for what it is had you not been able to stick with this story and bring it to us. But I'm still perplexed by the whole no video on the hard drive.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: What can they do with that?

BLACKWELL: Here's the question. Is the video still on the school's hard drive?

PAUL: Right.

BLACKWELL: So the school has made an offer to submit this to the court. But Kendrick Johnson died on the 10th of January. His body was found on the 11th of January. A request from the Johnsons' attorney to preserve that hard drive, pull it from rotation, wasn't sent until February 26th.

Now, Grant Fredericks explains that the way the systems are set up, that it's -- it records over old information. So if it is set at a seven-day rotation or a 30-day cycle or even 45-day cycle, then the information, the recordings from the 10th and 11th of January could be gone. But we'll have to see what is on that hard drive when it's submitted.

PAUL: All right, well, a great job, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

PAUL: We'll keep watching to see what happens with that. Let's talk about this. A kid, an usher, and a basketball dance-off -- some great video you don't want to miss. It's right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The death toll from typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines continues to rise. It's now at 5,235.

PAUL: More than 1,600 people are still missing. More than 23,000 have been hurt. And, of course, those numbers have all ticked up in recent days and officials say they continue to believe that they will.

The Philippines is also the location for the current season of CBS's "Survivor."

And host Jeff Probst has shot four seasons there. He talks about how typhoon Haiyan is truly impacting his world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF PROBST, HOST, "SURVIVOR": I spent the last two years eight months in the Philippines. And while we didn't shoot in that exact area, there is such a sense of community in that country, because it's an island -- it's an island community. They don't have much to begin with.

It was not uncommon when we would go through the villages to see people in a tin shack with wood on the side and maybe a fire burning inside and a clothesline with a few shirts on it. That was their daily life. And you wouldn't know anything was not OK, because everybody had this joy in their heart.

But when you take that very little bit they have away, and you combine it with all of this disaster, now you have just a major catastrophe, and rebuilding that's going to be enormous.

"Survivor" has always been connected to the communities we go. So we even have our own internal stuff that we're doing with the doctors we've worked with there, who are on, you know, on the ground, and we're helping support them. You can't help but feel simultaneously helpless, and, on the other hand, grateful that you're safe, because this could hit us, it could hit anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Probst, by the way, made a public service announcement that directs people to the red cross to help survivors of typhoon Haiyan. So if you want to help, go to CNN.com/impact.

I dare you -- dare you, too --

BLACKWELL: What?

PAUL: -- not to smile watching this.

BLACKWELL: I'm smiling already. Check out what happened when a young basketball fan took on an usher in this epic and impromptu dance battle. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: That is awesome. I could not believe that was impromptu. How does the camera happen to be trained on someone that can desk? It was maybe edited.

BLACKWELL: I love it.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I love, it. Cute.

PAUL: It was good. We wanted to leave you with a smile, Fred.

WHITFIELD: I like it. You all always make me smile.

PAUL: We try.

BLACKWELL: All right, Fred, it's all yours.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much. Good to see you guys. Have a great day.