0 the east, i'm chris cuomo. >> i'm kate bolduan along with michaela pereira. developing at this hour did the four star general once the number two man in the military leak classified information about covert actions against iran? the justice department is investigating. a critical day in the trial of george zimmerman. trayvon martin's friend on the stand and again fireworks. >> trayvon got hit. >> you don't know that, do you? >> no. >> he cut him, he had to. >> you don't know trayvon didn't take his fist and drive it into that man's face, do you? >> no, sir. >> that is the big question, who started the fight. another question, did day four bring us closer to knowing, we're going to break it down with our star team of analysts, sunny hostin, vinnie politan and danny cevales. a new twist with aaron hernandez, was he involved in a double murder last year and who is this alleged accomplice police are searching for now? president obama departs in minutes for a trip to south africa. it has taken on new urgency as nelson mandela is on life support. he may get to visit his personal hero in what is clearly set to be an emotional journey for the first couple. robyn curnow is live in pretoria. >> reporter: good morning. south africans continue to gather outside this hospital where nelson mandela is struggling in the icu. he remains in a critical condition and is stable and still on life support needing help to breathe and south africans very anxious, all their focus on president mandela's health, it's overshadowing president obama's trip, expected to land in the next few hours, his plane about to take off from senegal and it's a focus of south africans to look here and not to obama but of course if anybody were to understand that, it would be the president himself. take a listen to this. president obama travels to south africa today, a final pilgrimage to a personal hero. inside this hospital, nelson mandela rests, his condition listed as critical but stable but to those who have gathered outside -- ♪ >> reporter: a sense that this may be the time to say their good-byes. for president obama, today is a chance for him to say his. >> he is a personal hero, but i don't think i'm unique in that regard. i think he's a hero for the world, and if and when he passes from this place, one thing i think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages. >> reporter: a legacy michelle obama urged children in senegal not to forget. >> surely you can honor his legacy by leaving a proud legacy of your own. that's how i've tried to live my own life. >> reporter: there's no confirmed visit for the obamas with mandela. they've made it known they'll come if the family wants them to. on thursday they visited goree island. >> for an african-american, an african-american president to be able to visit this site, i think gives me even greater motivation in terms of defense of human rights around the world. >> reporter: but today may be their most emotional visit yet. president obama will visit robin island where president mandela spent more than 20 years in prison. a former top military adviser to president obama is under investigation. retired u.s. general james cartwright is being questioned about leaking classified information to a reporter, it concerns a computer virus that targeted iran's nuclear facilities. barbara starr joins us with the details. can this be happening again? >> good morning, chris. even for the pentagon this is jaw-dropping. source tells me overnight that yes, general cartwright retired is under investigation by the justice department for material in the book by the "new york times" journalist david sanger his book "confront and conceal" talking in detail, many revelations about iran's nuclear program. nbc news reported this first, saying this is about the leak, did general cartwright leak information about stux inenetst of the most classified crowned jewel of the intelligence, a virus that infected iran's nuclear program in 2010, by u.s. and israeli intel jents to slow iran's nuclear program down. general cartwright is not charged at this point with anything, is under investigation. i have to tell you, jaw-dropping because james cartwright long acknowledged as one of the most brilliant minds in the u.s. military, an expert in nuclear weapons and cyber warfare. >> thank you very much. later on in the show we'll unpack this more and figure out what's going on here and why it may have happened. we turn our focus to congress, an overwhelming victory for immigration reform. the overhaul bill passed the senate by a vote of 68-32, it calls for stronger border security and creates a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants but there are serious doubts about whether it can pass the rc republican-led house. dana bash is live in washington. it was a big vote yesterday, dana, but still all eyes turn to the house. >> reporter: that's right and one house republican leader called it a "pipe dream" that the senate bill can pass the house. others simply say it's dead on arrival. supporters in the senate were hoping this big bipartisan vote would give immigration reform momentum going into the republican-led house but that's hardly what we're hearing. the speaker of the house presides over the next step for immigration reform. he was noncommittal at best. >> we're going to go home for the recess next week and listen to our constituents and when we get back we're going to have a conference on july the 10th to have a discussion about the way forward. >> reporter: immigration politics is tricky business for house republicans prone to pressure from conservative constituents to oppose any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. john mccain gets it. he almost lost the 2008 gop presidential nomination for supporting immigration reform. >> to our friends in the house, we ask for your consideration and we stand ready to sit down and negotiate with you. >> reporter: supporter marco rubio may be a future white house republican hopeful. >> i support this reform. not just because i believe in immigrants but i believe in america even more. >> reporter: he humanized the issue, talking about his own immigrant parents. >> well before they ever became citizens in their hearts they had already become americans. >> reporter: but the republican split was on display, opponents saying they just don't believe supporters who promise the border would be secured before illegal immigrants can earn legal status. >> we need a bill that puts security before legalization, not the other way around. >> reporter: despite the divide, senators agreed the vote was a big moment. they took the rare step of voting formally from their desks. >> mr. donnelly? >> aye. >> and the vice president presided. >> the yeas of this bill are 68, the nays are 32. the bill as amended is passed. >> reporter: republican senator lindsey graham joked the fact they got 68 votes is a big deal in a body that can't even agree sunday is a day off. he made a serious point he hopes the republican party is now beyond the issue of what he called self-deportation and kate that is a big thing driving this and it's what drove 14 republicans to join all democrats in supporting this, because of very deep concern that their party is simply turning latino voters off. >> and getting 14 republicans to join democrats is a big statement but still it sounds like the momentum is not there in the house quite yet. dana great to see you. tensions are running high in the second-degree murder trial of george zimmerman. the defense went after the state's reluctant star witness for a second straight day. two flash points raising questions about what the prosecution witness knows for sure. also the defense arguing race was a motivation here but not for george zimmerman. george haul is in sanford, florida, with much more. good morning, george. >> reporter: chris, good morning. she admitted to lying about why she didn't go to the funeral. she told jurors certain words that many consider to be racial slurs she didn't, but when challenged with this possibility that it was her friend, trayvon martin, who started the fight, jeantel fought back. day four in the trial against george zimmerman started as rachel jeantel take two, a key witness for the state who appeared wednesday to be emotional one moment, combative the next. what a difference a day makes. >> are you okay this morning? >> yes. >> you seem so different than yesterday. i'm just checking. did someone talk with you last night about your demeanor in court yesterday? >> no, i went to sleep. >> reporter: a more subdued jeantel endured more than three hours of meticulous questioning from defense attorney don west who challenged the 19-year-old's account of what she heard when she was on the cell phone with trayvon martin a little more than a minute before the fatal shooting. >> trayvon got hit. >> you don't know that, do you? >> no, sir. >> you don't know that trayvon got hit. >> he had to. >> you don't know that trayvon didn't at that moment take his fist and drive it into george zimmerman's face? >> please lower your voice? >> no, sir. >> reporter: later the teen held firm to her account of who attacked who. >> i thought in fact you said it could have been for all you know trayvon martin smashing george zimmerman in the face is what you actually heard. >> what? >> yeah, just earlier today. >> no. >> by you. >> you didn't get that from me. >> reporter: the next witness, jenna lauer, the woman whose 911 call captured the exact moment trayvon martin was shot and killed. defense attorney mark o'mara about who she thought was screaming on the tape. >> do you think he's yelling help? >> yes. >> did it seem that the screams of somebody who was getting beat up? >> they were being hurt somehow, yes. >> maybe somebody who was having this done to them? >> it's possible. >> reporter: the final testimony of the day came from a witness who says she heard the gunshot and saw two people on the ground, selma maura testified with a spanish translator she remembered the man on top wearing a red and black jacket the same jacket george zimmerman was wearing. >> there was a person crouching down over another person? >> translator: correct. >> reporter: chris at 9:00 a.m. court is set to resume with more witnesses. we could hear from neighbors and investigators about what they saw, what they heard the night of this shooting. >> couldn't be more important at this point in the trial. george, thank you very much. we bring in cnn legal analyst sunny hostin she's been in the courtroom this week. sunny, good to have you with us as always. we have to know two things beyond a reasonable doubt for george zimmerman to be found guilty that we know he started the fight and what his motivation was going into it and it was evil. let's break those two down. after what you've heard so far, what is the best case for who started the fight? >> the best case comes from this star witness, rachel jeantel. she was very, very firm in saying that what she heard because she's an ear witness, she incumbent' an eyewitness, she didn't see anything, but what she heard on the phone was george zimmerman following trayvon martin, pursuing trayvon martin and approaching trayvon martin. she says then trayvon martin as george zimmerman got close to him said "why are you following me?" in response, george zimmerman said one of two things, he either said, "what are you doing around here?" or "what are you talking about?" either way she placesment george zimmerman as the pursuer and as you know, chris, self-defense requires that you don't be the first aggressor. if george zimmerman was the first aggressor, was the person to pursue and approach trayvon martin, in my view, self-defense is off the table for this defense. >> but legally is it off the table or is the burden just higher? >> the prosecution of course has the burden of proof in this case beyond a reasonable doubt and has the ability to rebut the defense. practically you have six women that are jurors. they were watching rachel jeantel intently. i was in the courtroom for a lot of her testimony and i got to tell you, i think practically, if these jurors believe her and they believe that george zimmerman started this fight, i just can't imagine that they'll believe that he shot in self-defense. >> sunny, how hurtful was it for rachel jeantel to admit on the stand she didn't know whether or not it was trayvon martin who was the one who was beating up zimmerman at that time? those are her words. what do you think they'll mean? >> i'm not sure what they'll mean, chris, but again, we saw a very different rachel jeantel on the witness stand. thursday she was so very combative, seemed to be uncomfortable on the witness stand. we saw a different person yesterday. she was comfortable, she was confident and she was firm, although, yes, the defense did i think a pretty good job at cross-examining her, finding some inconsistencies. she wasn't inconsistent when it came to her view that george zimmerman was the one that approached and followed trayvon martin. >> right, but approaching and following is different than starting the fight, and she did say, "i don't know whether or not it was trayvon beating him up" so interesting for the jury. one other thing before we let you go, sunny, race. up until this point in the trial had been about all zimmerman sees is black people in his neighborhood and it seems to make him crazy so obviously that's the best case for the prosecution to say in his mind he had evil thoughts about his people as he set off that night against trayvon martin but yesterday the defense counsel made race an issue for trayvon martin and kept using the words, the insensitive words about white people. do you think that had an impact that trayvon martin was using that language? does that change anything? >> you know, it was interesting that the defense tried so very hard at the beginning of this case to keep race out because they didn't want the prosecution to talk about racial profiling and they won that victory, right, the prosecution was only able in opening statement to say profiling, however, yes, the defense seemed to take what was the elephant in the room, put it right in front of the courtroom, paint it bright pink, talk so much about race and put it on trayvon martin but these were trayvon martin's words. he said some very derogatory terms describing george zimmerman, but i don't know. i think it sort of made rachel's testimony a bit more credible. she didn't try to sugar coat what trayvon told her. she also said he not only used this derogatory term about white people, he also called george zimmerman the "n" word, in her word the description wasn't a racial term, it was a descriptive term. you may or may not agree with that, but again i don't know that the defense scored so many points by trying to make trayvon martin out to be a racist. it did make a lot of sense in the courtroom. >> at the end of the day trayvon martin not on trial here. he is the victim. sunny hostin, thank you very much. appreciate the analysis. >> exactly. >> thanks, chris. there is a lot of news developing at this hour, straight to michaela for the list. >> good morning to you at home. making news, police back at the home of former new england patriot now murder suspect aaron hernandez. law enforcement is investigating him with regard to an unsolved double homicide in boston. second suspect connected to the case was arrested in connecticut and police are looking for a third person. boston marathon bombing suspect joke dzhokhar tsarnaev indicted. he was inspired by al qaeda and left a written confession in the boat, he reportedly wrote "i don't like killing people" but he couldn't let the killing of innocent muslims overseas go unpunished. we are learning more about the accused aurora shooting theater james holmes citing the violent nature of his crimes, holmes will wear a hidden harness that will anchor him to the floor. 5,000 people will be in the jury pool, that is the biggest in colorado history. the judge also ruled the jurors will not be sequestered and may use cell phones and computers inside the courtroom. that trial set to begin february 3rd. more big brands dropping paula deen over her racial slur scandal. nordisc has suspended her as a spokeswoman and qvc has decided to "take a pause" from selling her products. deen hired crisis manager judy smith who inspired abc's hit show "scandal." a mother in phoenix forced to make a desperate decision her second floor apartment was burning, she was trapped, running out of time and options when a neighbor and his cousin came to the rescue. >> i felt trapped. i trusted people to catch my babies. >> there was a brave guy was like throw them down, i'll catch them. i had to throw them down. i had -- i mean, please catch my babies, you know? they're everything i have. >> she threw her babies to complete strangers, their arms waiting hopefully below and they caught them. bianca also able to escape. having to make the horrible decision she said she simply did what she had to do, in mama mode. >> we keep seeing the babies getting dropped and what it takes to remember them. remember the chinese man who hurt his arm? there are good people who want to put themselves there. the mother made the decision and the babies were okay. boy, oh, boy, how about that. >> no kidding. coming up on "new day" the heated abortion battle in texas getting personal now. we'll tell you about the war of words between governor rick perry and the now famous filibustering lawmaker who is not backing down. plus alec baldwin has a major twitter meltdown. we'll tell you what sparked his latest bad boy behavior. i want to make things more secure. 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