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Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien
Zimmerman Has $200,000 in Donations; Interview With Madeleine Albright; Interview with UFC Champion Georges St. Pierre; Cyber- Bullying Victim Sues School; Your Vote Matters; From Buster to Bodyman
Aired April 27, 2012 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARK O'MARA, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S ATTORNEY: --that had come in to date. I don't think Judge Lester is going to believe I misled them. I told them what I knew at the time which is exactly what I was aware of.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "A.C. 360": Would that have made a difference had the judge known that he had $200,000 in PayPal accounts?
O'MARA: It might have. I'm certainly going to disclose it to the court tomorrow. Coincidentally, we have a hearing. Certainly, we acknowledge he did not have funds available to him and these were. I'm not certain that he thought in some sense they were available to him because even after the bond was granted, it was the family who was trying to come up with enough money for the bond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Brings us right to Martin Savidge. He's live for us in Atlanta this morning.
The hearing as we just heard is going to be in front of that same judge. What do you think happens?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we thought this was going to be another routine hearing, and routine's gone out the window as a result of this $200,000 kind of bombshell. There are three things the judge can do. And that is either revoke bond for George Zimmerman, increase bond for George Zimmerman or just leave things the way they are.
I don't presume to know what the judge is going to do but I bet the prosecution is certainly going to make a big deal on this because just remember, a week ago, they had three family members under oath say they didn't know anything about how much money had been raised by the Web site and it appears somebody knew and there was a lot of money.
O'BRIEN: So, the family is calling for the bond to revoke. I should say, the attorneys for the Trayvon Martin family have said that the family would like to se bond revoked. It was many people thought a low bond. Mostly because or maybe correlated to the fact that they didn't think he would get out if they put the figure higher.
Are there expectations that in fact that could happen, Martin?
SAVIDGE: Well, I don't think anybody believes bond will be revoked, but certainly, the lawyers for Trayvon Martin's family believe this points to a flaw in the entire case, and that is you can't always trust what George Zimmerman says. This is attorney Ben Crump as he spoke on that issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN CRUMP, MARTIN FAMILY ATTORNEY: He knew whether he communicated that to his attorney, whether his attorney solicited that information from him or not. He knew what the crux of the matter was at that bond hearing and he, like his apology, was insincere in his silence, as well as what he said to the court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: I think most people legally would say they doubt bond is going to be revoked here, but we've also seen in this case, you never really know what could happen next.
O'BRIEN: And one has to imagine that might put the judge in a very annoyed position to discover something like this on TV versus a hearing in his courtroom the first time around.
Martin Savidge for us -- thanks, Martin. Appreciate it.
SAVIDGE: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Let's get right to Christine Romans. She's got a look at the other headlines making news this morning.
Hey, Christine.
ROMANS: Good morning again, Soledad.
We're following that breaking news. An entire airport terminal evacuated at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. This is a live look at the airport where officials say a security screener checking for explosives flagged a piece of luggage. A bomb squad has been called to terminal two and all flights are grounded.
All roads leading up to the airport are closed and passengers are being held at their flight gates. Travelers who had not yet been screened have been evacuated from the airport. Terminal one is not affected. That's Minneapolis-St. Paul this hour.
House Republicans are busy drafting a contempt of Congress citation against attorney General Eric Holder, claiming he's obstructing their investigation into the Fast and Furious gun tracking operation. That ATF plan allowed illegal gun purchases in order to track weapons going to Mexican drug cartel leaders. Instead, hundreds of guns vanished and many turned up at crime scenes, including the murder of law enforcement.
A very rough day on the witness stand for John Edwards' former aide and close confidant. Andrew Young testifying yesterday for a fourth consecutive day, admitting he, Andrew Young, used much of nearly $1 million in campaign supporters money to build his dream house in North Carolina and not to cover up an affair Edwards was having with his mistress, Rielle Hunter.
Joe Biden using a line from Teddy Roosevelt to tear into Mitt Romney. The vice president and chief White House attack dog delivered a campaign speech on foreign policy at NYU University yesterday. Listen to how he's positioning the president and framing the debate for the six-month battle ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Speak softly and carry a big stick. I promise you, the president has a big stick.
Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. We can't say for certain what Governor Romney would have done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Biden is expected to continue that theme. Polls show Americans believe President Obama is stronger than Romney on national security and foreign policy issues by a double digit margin.
The Obama re-election machine is ramping up. You're looking at the president's new campaign web video. Bill Clinton is the narrator, talking up President Obama's cool under fire during the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: And that's what you hire a president to do. You hire the president to make the calls when no one else can do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The web video debuted online this morning -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Christine. Sorry, I'm sitting here coughing. Appreciate that.
All right. Still ahead this morning, we're going to talk about these tweets that I guess is coming from -- OK. I'm going to go with my notes here.
Apology from the Boston Bruins. This is a story about those racial tweets by some of the fans, I guess. It started after Washington Senators player Joel Ward scored the winning goal in overtime to win the playoff game. That win after that there was something like 40 or at least 40 tweets that used the N-word, that's because Joel Ward is black and, of course, we're not really going to repeat them but I have to give you a sense of how awful they were. So, I'll sort of give you a bit of a sample.
"The N-word scores again we riot." "We lost to a hockey playing N-word." And, "N-word beat us in overtime. Are you kidding me?"
And it kind of goes on and on and those aren't even the worse ones honestly.
JOHN FUGELSANG, POLITICAL COMEDIAN: It is worth pointing out we can't ascertain whether all of these ignorant racists were based on Boston. They could have been non-Boston fans.
O'BRIEN: That's correct.
So, I think I said it's Washington Capitals is who Joel plays for.
Anyway, so, former Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson is with us this morning.
Nice to see you.
I'm sort of one of thee stories like this I got to tell you, Jamal, I don't even really know where to begin. So, I guess I'll just start with -- when you heard this about these tweets, at least 40 of them, what was your reaction?
JAMAL ANDERSON, FORMER ATLANTA FALCONS RB: It was -- first it was shocking. And then it was sad. Obviously, you know, they associated most of the tweets to Boston Bruins fans and that was certainly unfortunate given the history of Boston, but also the storied history of Boston not just the sports, but the social issues that have taken place there.
Tough. Tim Thomas was a hero for the Boston Bruins. He gives up a goal to Joel Ward, a guy who is not necessarily known as a big- time scorer in the NHL, but an African-American player. And then the floodgates opened up unfortunately and you got a chance to se a fraction of the awful tweets that people sent.
It's just sad for hockey. Sad for the NHL, a sport that's trying to crossover, and become a more diverse sport, and become a more assessable sport to all minorities. And obviously, this is not a sport that has a tremendous amount of diversity in it as it is now.
So, it was tough to see. It was really, really unfortunate particularly this day in age with this hockey team -- a team who won the NHL last year.
O'BRIEN: So, here's why Joel Ward is my new hero of the day. He said this, he told "USA Today," it doesn't faze me at all. There's no lying about it. I'm definitely the one black guy in a room with 20 white guys. There are definitely some cultural differences such as taste in music, but I've never heard anything derogatory."
You know, you have a son, I believe, who plays hockey.
ANDERSON: Right. My oldest son Dexter pays. He's played since he was 6 years old. We --
O'BRIEN: Yes. And so, what's your experience been with him?
ANDERSON: Well, you know, Soledad, I was talking before, we have had a really positive experience. We got featured on NHL.com and Dexter has played for a number of years started in Salt Lake City and played out here in Atlanta, now back in Utah.
But it's been a positive experience for us, but most of the time when I get there, it doesn't take long for most of the fans to realize who I am and not just the parent of Dexter Anderson but Jamal Anderson, the football player. So, I don't really get the same reaction I would think that most people would get or where it would be a cold shoulder or anything because we kind of -- in the beginning we essentially looked for it understanding the sport we're coming to. And most of the time people are like, the dirty bird son's plays hockey. Yes, he does play hockey.
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey, Jamal, this is Will. I got to tell you, I'm little surprised that you're surprised. Now, you played before the age of Twitter essentially.
ANDERSON: Right.
CAIN: This seems to be a little bit of a social media story to me. I'm never surprised any more how many Twitter tough guys there are -- people willing to say whatever they want under the condition of anonymity.
I can only imagine what Marc and Soledad, you guys see from time to time. I'm called a racist on a daily basis.
So, why are we so surprised?
O'BRIEN: My Twitter followers always love me. I don't know what he's talking about. Will Cain must be confused.
No, you're right about that. At the same time as soon as the story became national you'll notice, a lot of people started quickly deleting their accounts because they realized, well, someone is going to trace this back to me and I'm going to be outed as using the N-word against a guy who is done a great job winning a game.
ANDERSON: The thing is, Will, I think why I'm surprised is because it's Boston. This is a team who won it all last year. And, you know, obviously there's been some issues and some history with Boston. We can't act like this is not occurred.
But there are also African-American iconic sports athletes in Boston. 2012 and then al of a sudden he's one guy who makes the goal. I mean, you know, to see that kind of stuff, yes, Soledad, a ton of people did delete their accounts, but it was really, really unfortunate to read given the situation.
O'BRIEN: I'm always amazed at how easily the N-word rolls of --
FUGELSANG: Anonymous coward and bigots on Twitter.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I guess I'm amazed by that and disappointed. I am.
OK, I want to move on because we got a lot to cover. I want to talk about the New Orleans Saints. The G.M., Mickey Loomis, said absolutely no there was no eavesdropping on opposing teams. I want to play a clip of what he said at his presser.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICKEY LOOMIS, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS' GENERAL MANAGER: I have never listened to an opposing team's communications. I have never asked for the capability to listen to an opposing team's communications. I have never inquired as to the possibility of listening in on an opposing team's communications. And I have never been aware of any capability to listen in on an opposing team's communications at the Superdome or at any NFL stadium.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: So, he sounds pretty definitive that no, no, and no, it never happened.
MARC LAMONT HILL: He sounds like Bill Clinton saying I did not have sex with that woman.
O'BRIEN: No, he does not. He does not.
HILL: I do not believe him for a minute.
O'BRIEN: Jamal, what do you think?
ANDERSON: You know, it's tough. When it first came out, Soledad, my first reaction was you talk about the off-season and a team having a terrible off-season, how much worse can it get for the New Orleans Saints when the report first came out. Then I was interested. I said if this is true, because obviously it's been a report and you have to verify these things, I wanted to see what Mickey Loomis had to say.
And he emphatically denied the report. So, I don't know where we're going to go from here. But I know how strong the other network feels about their credibility and putting a report out there. So, we'll see. We'll see.
But what -- I mean, Saints, New Orleans Saints build up this good credit, won a Super Bowl. You get the city back and one thing after another.
O'BRIEN: And then this. Come on, New Orleans, we love you.
All right. I want to talk about the draft pick and you know this is how much I know about football. What I do know --
CAIN: I'm here.
O'BRIEN: I got kill Cain back me up.
FUGELSANG: He's a Cowboys fan.
O'BRIEN: Here's my question, everyone makes this giant deal about the first and second round draft pick, right? And then sometimes they disappear like there's not necessarily a correlation between all of the focus on the first round draft pick or second round draft pick, and actually who does well out of college and playing in the pros, right?
CAIN: We'll watch this. Jamal, when were you drafted?
ANDERSON: Seventh round, pick number 201.
CAIN: There it is.
O'BRIEN: What he said?
CAIN: Seventh round, the final round.
O'BRIEN: OK.
HILL: But I think the first and second around is probably the most foolproof round in any sport. If you look at basketball, first round draft picks, all -- 50 percent at best, right? Other sports, 50 percent at best.
I think in football you have a better chance of getting a solid player in first round than any other sport. I think that's why it's high stakes.
ANDERSON: Well, I mean, there's so much that goes into it now. Obviously, the workouts, personal workouts, you have the combine, you have the wonder league testers, so many different ways that at the test these guys. poke them and prod them to figure out what's the best player and what the mentality is like.
But it is absolutely a crapshoot. Tom Brady, Terrell Davis (ph), Michael Strahan, Jamal Anderson, there are tons of players, really, really good players who led teams and went to championships who were drafted in the later rounds.
So, the draft in and of itself is something that every team and every fan of football focuses on because, yes, it's great to get those Lamborghinis in the first rounds and have commissioner hugging those guys, but you want to see what happens in the second and third and fourth, how do you improve your team with young talent that you never know who's going to show up. Pick number 201 for seventh round.
O'BRIEN: And I told my husband -- I know nothing about football. I told my husband that. It's a crapshoot if you ask me.
Thank you, Jamal, for proving me right. I appreciate that.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Who am I going to believe? You or Jamal?
FUGELSANG: This is like the best new artist Grammy, OK? A lot of people buying Lamborghinis after that and there's possibility of (INAUDIBLE) two years later.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Oh, yes.
HILL: I'm just saying, Jamal, who do you think was the steal of the draft so far in first round?
ANDERSON: I don't know that you necessarily say a steal. Trent Richardson going high. Right now, the whole mentality of the NFL and it is a quarterback driven-league and it's very important to have a quarterback so you saw for sixth or seventh time in the history, two quarterbacks go one and two.
But Trent Richardson, the running back from Alabama going to Cleveland Browns and number three was pretty big because the whole perception that the position is changing and importance of the position is changing and, hey, you never know.
You saw a safety also go in the first round in top ten picks and they talk about and a linebacker as well. So, you had three different players -- linebacker, running back and safety.
Right now, the game is sort of changing where you see quarterbacks, wide receivers, and cornerbacks being drafted in those high positions and those three players got taken in their tough 10 picks last night, because they're talented players, and they could be game changing players for those teams. So --
O'BRIEN: Yes. And I'm just sitting around talking sports with Jamal Anderson. Me and Jamal chatting about sports. I hope my husband is watching this. Honey, I'm just chatting about sports with Jamal. Talking about the draft with Jamal. Always nice to catch up with you.
So, you, guys, know I've been out sick for a couple days. Again, no flowers, no notes, not even a phone call. It's OK. I'm not bitter.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: So, you guys have not had a chance to see me on "The Daily Show." It happened on Tuesday night. We're going to show it to you, and then, I'll take you behind the scenes of how it went. It was actually a lot of fun.
And then, up next, former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, will join us. Got a big honor for the president. Plus, we'll talk about her special relationship with Hillary Clinton. You're watching STARTING POINT, and we're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. She served as United States ambassador to the United Nations and became the first ever female secretary of state, and now, she can add Medal of Freedom recipient to her impressive resume.
The White House announced yesterday that Madeleine Albright is going to receive the nation's highest civilian honor, also has a new book out, her fifth. It's called "Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War 1937 To 1948." Madame Secretary, it's nice to see you. Congratulations. Which is a bigger honor, the book or the medal?
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, first of all, Soledad, it's great to be with you. They kind of go together, I have to say. But I am so honored to have gotten the Medal of Freedom, and it makes me feel very proud to be an American, and that's the story that goes together.
O'BRIEN: You write at the very start of your book about sort of your self-discovery that happened really after age 59, which is kind of unusual in and of itself.
And you wrote this, "I was 59 when I began serving as U.S. secretary of state. I thought by then that I knew all there was to know about my past, who my people were, and the history of my native land. Only I didn't. I have no idea that my family's heritage was Jewish or that more than 20 of my relatives had died in the holocaust."
Why did you even begin sort of investigating who you were at that sort of late age in life?
ALBRIGHT: Well, the thing that happened, as you mentioned, I was ambassador at the United Nations, and I began to get letters from people that explain something about my background, but I thought, none of the facts made any sense. The dates were wrong. The names were wrong.
And then, in November 1996, I got a letter from somebody who had all the names right and said I know -- we knew your family, and they were fine Jewish families. And it was just about the time that I was getting vetted to be secretary of state. And, then, when I actually got named, Michael Dobbs from "The Washington Post," wanted to do a profile, and he found a lot of things that I did not know.
That, in fact, my family not only was Jewish, but that many members of it had died during the holocaust. And I began to write about this in my memoirs, but I, obviously, didn't have time to really explore it, and I wanted to do that because I do think that one needs to honor those who died by remembering them.
O'BRIEN: How has that knowing that, exploring your history, played a role in the jobs that you've held and what you have become in your professional life, do you think? ALBRIGHT: Well, the truth is that I always believed that one needed to stand up to evil which is what I saw going on in the former Yugoslavia before I knew it. I was a child of War World II. I understood to a great extent how that all began with an appeasement of Hitler. And so, I knew that even before I knew about my background.
But what it has done is kind of add a complexity and richness to what I know about myself and hope very much that the story that I tell will explain to people, not only the importance of knowing your roots, but also of understanding motivations, credibility, and the importance of being resilient.
O'BRIEN: As secretary of state, you were first as a woman. Hillary Clinton now is second. Do you give her advice? Did you give her -- right. Third, of course, after Condy Rice. Do you give her advice because, of course, the first is a trailblazer. Did you give Condy Rice advice about what to expect in that kind of position?
ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, let me say my youngest granddaughter, when she turned seven a couple of years ago, said, so what's the big deal about Grandma Maddie being secretary of state. Only girls are secretary of state.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Yay! I like her.
(LAUGHTER)
ALBRIGHT: Yes. But, I had gotten to know Condy -- you will not believe this, but she was a student of my father's. And I learned that when my father died in 1977. So, we knew about each other and got to know each other. And yes, what did happen was during the transition period from the time that the Clinton administration left and the Bush administration came in.
Dr. Rice was about to become the national security adviser. So, we did talk about what it was like to be a woman in high level national security posts. And Secretary Clinton and I really are very good friends. She was somebody that was instrumental in many parts of my life in becoming secretary.
And, we did a lot of things together when she was first lady and I was secretary. She was terrific then in terms of representing our country.
O'BRIEN: Well, congratulations on the Medal of Freedom, and also, congratulations on the book, as well. It's called "Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War 1937 To 1948." Madame secretary, nice to have you. Thanks for talking with us.
ALBRIGHT: Great. Very good to see you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
Still ahead this morning on STARTING POINT, excited about our next guest. No, not the guy in front, although, we do love our senior writer -- being chokier by the ultimate fighting champion, superstar, Georges St. Pierre, is going to join us next. Don't hurt the man. I need him. We need him. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: You might know our next guest as GSP Rush. He's Georges St. Pierre, a mixed martial artist and world welterweight champion at the full contact combat sports, hundreds of thousands of fans. Some people say it's a barred blood sport. I think here in the city of New York, in fact, it's not a legal to have this kind of fighting. And you don't deny it, do you?
Georges, nice to have you. thanks for joining us this morning.
GEORGES ST. PIERRE, CHAMPION MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: So, I read that you were bullied. I cannot believe it when you were a kid.
ST. PIERRE: I did.
O'BRIEN: Really?
ST. PIERRE: Yes. I was. That's a long time ago. I was in school growing up, and that's why I started doing martial art to defend myself.
O'BRIEN: Really? Your dad taught you?
ST. PIERRE: My dad taught me in the beginning, then I went in a school and I start from there.
O'BRIEN: Right. And so, now, you go back and you're, like, OK, hello person who bullied me.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: I would like to revisit fifth grade.
ST. PIERRE: Well, I wish I could do that sometimes, but no, I can be sued. So --
(LAUGHTER)
ST. PIERRE: I can't take my revenge on these guys, but you know?
O'BRIEN: It is such a violent sport. Is it as violent as it looks because it looks crazy?
ST. PIERRE: It is a violent sport. It's a full contact sport, but it's not a form of entertainment that is made for everyone. It's not free violence. I see the other day, someone used a hockey stick and slash someone in the head, that hockey. This is free violence. What we do is violent, but it's not free violence.
(CROSSTALK)
MARC LAMONT HILL, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: It's like measured, right?
ST. PIERRE: We're trained for that. So --
HILL: Can you show us on Will?
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Come on, Will. Volunteer yourself. Show us the choke hold.
FUGELSANG: -- sport if ultimate fighting is violent?
O'BRIEN: Well, I mean really violent. Like some of the stuff looks like it's, not necessarily in ultimate fighting, but looks like it's fake. I mean, if you go to, you know, wrestling, sometimes --
(CROSSTALK)
FUGELSANG: Well, it's profoundly different. We were talking during the break about a lot of the misconceptions, I think, among non-fans of UFC is that it is staged like wrestling, but I think that is people who don't understand that there is a lot of, let's say, wrestling theatricality attached to this very real sport.
ST. PIERRE: My revenue are -- I have a fight burst and so (Inaudible). So, the more people watch my fight, the more money I will make. So, a lot of people that use stuff to promote their fight --
O'BRIEN: Like drama?
ST. PIERRE: Exactly. But I don't want to see two guys fighting who like each other, you know? It's better if they have some sort of animosity.
FUGELSANG: Muhammad Ali invented this now institutional.
ST. PIERRE: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Trash talking. All right. Let me ask you a question. Do you brought some of these towels and you said that you've sort of had this thing you're promoting, I think, along with Serena Williams, as well, for athletes in the heat of the summer to cool them down. Can I see one of those?
ST. PIERRE: They don't want to see two guys fighting who like each other. It's better if they have animosity.
O'BRIEN: Trash talking. Let me ask you a question. You brought these towels and you said that you've had this thing you're promoting along with Serena Williams for athletes in the heat of the summer to cool them down. Can I see one of those?
ST. PIERRE: Of course. This is a new product. The reason why I believe --
O'BRIEN: It looks like a shammy.
ST. PIERRE: Why they are better than before is because of technology. This is a good example of it.
O'BRIEN: What's the technology in it?
ST. PIERRE: When you sweat, when I train I feel like I'm in a sauna, I'm sweating. I use a towel to dry myself. And you don't need to put a lot of water, it could be sweat and you go like this three times and it cools down up to -- like this one, we just made it -- this was this one, 65 degrees.
O'BRIEN: That's cold. Wow.
FUGELSANG: I'm a red blooded heterosexual male who sits next to Soledad O'Brien. If it gets hot for me can I snap this three times?
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: It's really cold.
ST. PIERRE: In a split second.
O'BRIEN: Instant cooling towel. May I keep this?
ST. PIERRE: It's remarkable.
O'BRIEN: If I decide to start working out, I might need this. Nice to have you join us. If you want to do a choke hold on Will Cain to stay loose and warmed up.
ST. PIERRE: I don't want to be sued.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: He doesn't look so tough.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: We have to take a short break. Ahead on STARTING POINT, many college football fans have been pleading for a playoff system. This morning some new developments that could make that a reality. We'll explain.
And bullies who now get to hide behind their computers. A teenager tormented on Facebook is suing as you say, suing her classmates. We're going to talk to her live straight ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. We start with breaking news. We are monitoring a security disturbance that is happening in London. Police there have shut down two blocks of a major shopping area. They are negotiating right now with a man they say is throwing things out of a fifth floor window. Police have not confirmed whether there are hostages involved at this point. We'll keep you updated on this story as we get more details. It's sketchy right now, but apparently it's happening on the fifth floor of a building.
Let's get to other headlines this morning. Christine has that for us.
ROMANS: The GDP in the U.S. grew at 2.2 percent in the first quarter. That is less than economists expected. It's also slower growth than we saw in the last quarter of last year. The economy was growing three percent then. We want to see this number growing and not going down. Many had expected that you would see a little slower growth in the first quarter.
Watching your money now, the White House is saying middle class jobs are coming back. The Obama administration playing offense in the fight for the middle class vote. White house economic adviser Alan Krueger making the White House case. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOSTON KRUEGER, CHAIRMAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: We can now see a path toward reversing the decade's long slide in middle class jobs for the first time in a while.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Krueger said a stronger economy means more workers can move up in middle class as well. He says a big part of strengthening the middle class will include bringing jobs back from overseas. He referred to it as "re-shoring." It's also called in-shoring.
Later today a vote in the house on whether to raise interest rates on federal student loans if the house doesn't act to keep loans low, rates will rise to 6.8 percent July 1st amounting to about $5,000 more for borrowers they have to repay on loans if they are taking out the maximum amount.
Space shuttle Enterprise makes its final trip to its new home in New York. It takes off from Dulles airport in Virginia in an hour. Do you know the story of how nerds named the shuttle Enterprise? According to Space.com Enterprise was originally going to be named Constitution but star trek fans urged the White House to name it after the starship Enterprise and president ford agreed. Check out the NASA photo of the original "Star Trek" cast on hand in 1976 when the Enterprise was rolled off the assembly line.
The BCS is recommending a postseason playoff begin in 2014. They're presenting it in July. There are several different formats on the table. The NCAA oversight committee would have to approve a final plan. Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Christine, thank you. Schoolyard bullies still exist but here's a word that didn't exist a decade ago, "cyber-bullying." And it might be even more dangerous. And six percent of students report that they have been cyber-bullied. Unlike the old fashioned bullying, schools can't always intervene. That was the case for a 14-year-old student in Georgia. Her name is Alex Boston. She was a victim of a fraudulent Facebook page that was set up by two classmates. They distorted her photo, you can see there, and they would make hurtful comments about other students under her name.
The school said hands are tied because the page was created off campus. Alex decided to get a lawyer and take matters into her own hands and is suing the bullies for libel. Alex and her parents and their lawyer join me this morning. Good to see all of you. Alex, let's start with you. How did you figure out that someone had created this fake Facebook page under your name?
ALEX BOSTON, 14-YEAR-OLD CYBER-BULLYING VICTIM: It was my friends. It was field day. My friends were saying why did you say this about me on Facebook? Why did you say that?
O'BRIEN: So all of a sudden it dawned on you that somebody was saying something and attributing it to you. When did you figure out there was a fake page and what did you think when you first saw it?
BOSTON: I figured it out through one of my friend's pages through the post. And then I just kind of -- my god.
O'BRIEN: It's OK. Take a breath. Slow down. Come on. You're doing OK. It's all right. It must be very upsetting.
BOSTON: Yes, it was. It was very upsetting when I figured it out.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet it was. I bet you went and told your mom and dad. I'm going to ask them to jump into this part of the story. I assume, Chris and Amy, you went to school officials and said let's stop this. What happened?
AMY BOSTON, MOTHER OF ALEX BOSTON: Well, the morning after we saw the Facebook page we went to talk to the principal and say, hey, what can we do? This is what's going on? Can you help us try to find who did this? And she goes, we will do everything we can to help you out, but, unfortunately, you know, our hands are tied as far as what we can and cannot do. Then I told Chris, I said, OK, what should we do?
CHRIS BOSTON, FATHER OF ALEX BOSTON: At that point we went to the local police to see if there was anything they could do. We filed a report with them. Unfortunately at that time they told us that there was nothing that they could do to pursue it.
O'BRIEN: I was going to cut you off for a minute because I know that Alex is a bit of a sleuth herself was able to track down the two students who were behind it even though the school wouldn't release their names. I want to get Natalie to comment. What made you think that this would be a case that you should bring this to court and you should in fact sue these students for libel opposed to saying nothing I can do, which is what the school was saying?
NATALIE WOODWARD, ATTORNEY FOR ALEX BOSTON: We were seeing this happen again and again with students across the country and very similar circumstances where Facebook was being used as a weapon, as a tool to lash out against other children for no reason other than just hatefulness and mean-spiritedness. We felt we had an opportunity to bring attention to the issue and potentially change the way the issue is handled in schools and to change the way the issue is handled by the police and the state of Georgia. We wanted to take that opportunity.
O'BRIEN: We're going to watch how this case goes. Alex, I know this has been a tough thing for you. You're back at your school. I Am rooting for you. When you win this case and you go on to become an attorney yourself, we're going to talk.
(LAUGHTER)
ALEX BOSTON: Thank you.
WOODWARD: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you for being with us. Good luck to you. Appreciate it.
Still ahead this morning on STARTING POINT, swing state voters are a big focus obviously during election season, but voters in other states, not so much. Comedy central's "Daily Show" decided to change that and invited am he to help out.
And one of the stars of "Arrested Development," I'll ask Tony Hale if Buster comes out if his new show which is called "Veep." You're watching STARTING POINT.
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O'BRIEN: Some primary voters get all the luck living in swing states with the media watching their every single move but what if you live in a state that's considered less important? This week "The Daily Show" decided to give those voters a voice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's time for "The Daily Show's" New York primary day fantasy Wish-a-torium dream machine thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: So wish-a-torium dream machine thing. I got to join in Jason Jones took that lucky voter gave him a day in the spotlight. Look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey they are the media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were going to make Kevin feel like a voter that actually matters. First stop his own cable news panel. We got him a redneck, a Muslim, a soccer mom, a nonthreatening black couple and even Soledad O'Brien.
O'BRIEN: Which candidate do you think best represents a pro-life voice and why and let's hear from Kevin on this.
KEVIN: Mitt Romney says one thing today, he said another thing a few years back. That's why again I -- I favor a guy like Santorum. He's been consistent on the issue.
O'BRIEN: How about our nonthreatening black couple?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could make two points, number a, great point, Kevin. Great point. And letter b, I agree with whatever Kevin says.
O'BRIEN: Soccer mom?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I agree with Kevin. The children are our children.
O'BRIEN: Okay. Let's move to a hot button issue. Gay marriage, which candidate would you say speaks to your concerns about gay marriage the best. And I think we all want to hear from Kevin on this one. Kevin.
KEVIN: Well, Soledad, I'm pro-traditional marriage. And again, that's where I gravitate back to a guy like Rick Santorum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes I'm anti-homo just like Kevin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, whoa, that's a good place to leave it. He doesn't reflect your opinion, does he?
KEVIN: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Although he does takes it to its next logical conclusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was so funny to do. Oh my goodness. That was hilarious.
FUGELSANG: That's a great stuff. It's nice to know that you'll go and spend time with your "Daily Show" friends but abandon us in the whole week.
O'BRIEN: Okay, so you know we taped that ahead of time. I was in bed for the last several days.
CAIN: Okay, darling, we know where you are. O'BRIEN: Oh my gosh that was so much fun to do. And you know, I really like (inaudible) acting. I'm like -- that's actually what I do. Those are actually -- Kevin was not acting.
CAIN: Yes he was not acting.
O'BRIEN: A super great guy. I chatted with Kevin. And he was you know -- he -- Kevin and I were the only non-actors. Yes Kevin and Kevin was annoyed. He's a voter who wanted to be counted. So they made his wish come true. What happened?
FUGELSANG: For a guy in New York who still supports Santorum.
O'BRIEN: That's correct. That is correct.
FUGELSANG: That's affirmative action by the way.
O'BRIEN: Still ahead on STARTING POINT, we're going to be joined by actor Tony Hale, one of the breakout stars from "Arrested Development." He talks about his new show called "Veep". It's getting great reviews, he's so really, really good. He's going to tell us how he think it could make us a kinder, gentler nation.
Here is Tony's playlist. You need to breath "Washed by the Water." You're watching STARTING POINT.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was at that exact moment that Buster did forget he lost his hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh no stop it, stop it, stop it. You caught my tendon in your claw.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh I am a monster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: He was a breakout star on "Arrested Development" and now Buster is on another hit show but it's a very different role. Tony Hale plays Gary on HBO's new comedy "Veep" he's the body man for the Vice President who's played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am here is your coffee. It's really hot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could you put it down right there. Oh Gary, oh -- oh my God, what was I just going to say. I don't know. Went out of my head. It will come to me later.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Tony Hale joins us now. Nice to see you. Good morning. Thanks for being with us.
This show is getting great reviews. Why did you want to -- why did you want to take part in this?
TONY HALE, ACTOR: Oh why did I want to take part in it?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HALE: You know I -- first of all Julia Louis-Dreyfus is in it and she plays the Vice President and she's amazing. She's been a comic inspiration for me for so long. And then Armando Iannucci directed it and he is just fantastic. But I really liked the aspect that especially in this election year you know all we're hearing is kind of perfect sound bites and planned speeches.
And I loved that this kind of takes you behind the scenes and shows that these people have meltdowns. They have freak outs. They scream at their staff and it kind of humanizes the political scene a little bit.
O'BRIEN: Did you do research where you know whenever I interview actors and you know if they are a stripper.
HALE: Yes.
O'BRIEN: They are like oh I hung out at strip clubs. And if they are a doctor, they hung out in the ER, if that's what they're playing I mean, what -- who did you hang out and research?
HALE: Well they actually gave us kind of a behind the scenes tour of -- of D.C. and I got to meet some body men that worked to politicians. And I just got to see these people were 24/7 their people. They pretty much had no social life. That was their life. And with my character, Gary, I worship Selena, who is played by Julia. I just worship her.
So if I were to ever to lose my -- I should have left this job in my 20s but I stayed around because she's pretty much my identity.
FUGELSANG: Good morning Tony. Congratulations on the show. It's really funny and smartly written.
HALE: Oh thanks.
FUGELSANG: And the performances are all so consistent. It's really interesting watching you play "Gary" because a lot of us don't know too much about the political body men. And what's the most fun about your character is watching how he's the guy at the fundraiser who was constantly whispering in her ear the factoids she needs to know about all the people that come before her to shake her hand.
HALE: Yes. Yes.
FUGELSANG: Is this real, is this how it really is for these guys? Are you constantly having to be an encyclopedia of knowledge to keep your elected official from looking really silly? HALE: Oh yes, yes. I'm kind of -- I'm kind of a walking Wikipedia. Where -- I don't really -- my character doesn't really know a lot about politics. He doesn't really know a lot about passing bills or what -- whatever but when it comes to random facts about people, he knows it. He knows that somebody --
FUGELSANG: Is that how it really is for the professional body man?
HALE: Yes I think you have to definitely -- whatever information you hear, you just have to constantly remember because like if she's talking to somebody I can whisper in her ear, you know by the way he's a triathlete. By the way she just had triplets. You know just kind of things that she can then have a conversation piece about.
I can be like you know, he's got a -- you know he's got a brother in rage against the machine so she can talk about it.
O'BRIEN: I want to play a -- I want to play a clip and then we're going to have -- will ask you a question on the other side.
HALE: Yes sure.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen. Tell Dan to start working on the yogurt story, ok. Wait a minute. Gary, this is way too much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want me to do? What?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ok. Let's not do that again, all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAIN: Hey Tony, it's Will. We should say that the show is on HBO. I got to imagine as an actor when you get a script or a part that's offered to you and you see that it's on HBO, you have to be kind of excited not just because your free from the censors but also because you're free from ratings. You guys can really pursue what you think is funny.
HALE: That's very, very true. And you know, having done network television, you really are kind dependent on the ratings and numbers. And HBO has given us a tremendous amount of freedom and Armando a tremendous amount of freedom in this process. They just gave us a lot of time to kind of organically find these relationships and the comedy and hopefully it shows. But HBO has been fantastic. They really have been.
O'BRIEN: It's gotten some great reviews. Tony Hale co- starring in HBO's "Veep". Nice to have you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
HALE: Thanks for having me.
O'BRIEN: You bet. "End Point" is up next with the panel. We're back in a moment.
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O'BRIEN: "End Point" on a Friday. John Fugelsang, I'm going to let you start us off.
FUGELSANG: Well, it's still a shocking story that the Secret Service may have been secretly serviced. There's a lot of mitigating circumstances here and that is 49 years with no dead president. Let's give them a little credit for this folks.
Maybe they'll have to hire more female Secret Service agents. But the funniest thing -- (inaudible). Congressmen investigating whether anybody use prostitutes is like Gargamel investigating Smurf abuse.
O'BRIEN: All right.
HILL: I'm going with George Zimmerman. I've just had enough of this guy, man. He's consistently been dishonest and this $204,000 fund-raising thing is more evidence of the fact that he's not honest.
He also said when he gives his melodramatic apology to Trayvon's family, he says, you know, I thought he was close to my age. When he makes a phone call he says this guy is a teenager. He's been consistently dishonest. Let's put this guy in jail where he belongs.
CAIN: I'm going to stick with strip clubs since it's Friday. And I will say --
O'BRIEN: Wait. Wait, wait, wait.
CAIN: -- that we should focus on two things.
O'BRIEN: Hey, I'm sorry.
(CROSSTALK)
CAIN: I think we should focus on things on the Secret Service thing. Were they off duty? And did they jeopardize the President's safety? Otherwise they are blowing off steam.
O'BRIEN: And that's what we end on this morning. I disagree. We'll talk about that Monday. See you then.
"CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello begins right now.
I'll see everybody back here Monday at 7:00 a.m. Hey Carol, good morning.
