decent timing and kimmel pretty good as well. s john fugelsang with us, political comedian, with the professional opinion and will cain, columnist of theblaze.com. >> good morning. >> our starting point this morning, pretty shocking and daring escape that could have an impact on the u.s. relationship with china, a blind chinese discy dent evaded layers of guards after 18 months under house arrest, he made his trek 370 miles north to beijing. secretary secretary tim gigter in are expected to be in the country for the long planned strategic talks. neither governments are confirming of chen's whereabouts are at the embassy but a former senior china analysts at the cia says this, "this is the greatest test in bihall relations in years," 1989, when tiananmen square was unfolding. joining us is gordon chang, nice to see you. thank you for being with us. the greatest test, do you think that's an overstatement of what's happening right now? >> i think so. any time there's an incident we worry in public about ruining relation answer the chinese see this and say oh my gosh if we throw a tantrum we can get something from the americans so you would think after 40 years of relations with china we'd understand this dynamic but then again apparently nobody in the state department has ever raised a 3-year-old. >> apparently not. so the assistant secretary of state kirk campbell already made his way into beijing, earlier than planned, he's there to negotiate all of this. what exactly is at stake? could conversations be derailed? >> conversations could become derailed. on june 5, a man went there after the massacre and that put u.s. relations relations on hold, he lived there with his wife for a year. the same thing could happen again, probably won't but it could put relations on hold for aly while. it might not be a bad thing. >> by all indication mrs. chen does not want to leave china. so how does that affect the possibility of a solution in does that make it easier to find a solution? >> that makes it much more difficult because the one thing the chinese would love is for him to leave. once he leaves he becomes marginalized. most dissents who left were not the force they were when inside so chen doesn't want to leave and i can ernl understand that. >> what happens with his family? his wife, mother and daughter all are still back in his hometown, roughly 300 some-odd miles from beijing. >> this bxz eye much more complicated issue because they're not dealing with a man and his wife. we're dealing with a whole family andsidents are part of the conversation, too. that makes things much more difficult to resolve. >> john, i can see you want to hop in, i want to throw some things on the table and the conversationser this' looking to negotiate, china holds more than $1 trillion and f-16 fighters. >> not important. >> iber crime issues. >> everything, you know, everything and the question is, can the chinese be a constructive force in the international system and they haven't opinion. as a matter of fact we've been going in the wrong direction for the last several years. we need to change our approach. >> looking at the embarrassment, from the tiananmen square to not keeping a blind guy from walking out of his house? >> as the civilians have been feuding, going into this historic leadership transition the civilians have been running to the military. guy who was in trouble went to the 14th group army in quanming. when hu jintao decided his fate they did it at the headquarters of the central military commission. >> it is fair to say it's powerful, more powerful than the government? >> they have a policy with evident coordination from the civilians, hu jintao, premiere leader of china, reminding they are subordinate to the communist party. >> do the people feel safer with their military than their government? >> i don't think people really thought too much about that. i would think that it's supposed to be the people's army and this has been a major issue. the people did trust the army before tiananmen. >> does this now dissident now at the embassy we believe make an impact, we're now going to be watching the talks carefully to see the wording. >> i think they probably are going to make things much more difficult. those issues weren't going to solve the ones you talked about anyway because china wasn't really helping on them and we've had these strategic die logs for a look time going back into the bush administration and things are going sideways, so you know, i think we should probably talk less and probably would accomplish more. >> that changes diplomacy, thank you gordon. christine romans has the other headlines. >> good morning, soledad. the coast guard suspending its search for a missing sailor after a racing accident that left three crew members dead. it collided with perhaps a tanker in the coronado islands, authorities found three bodies and the boat's wreckage, the first deaths in the race's 65-year history. a terrible crash at new york's bronx zoo taking the lives of three generations of a local family. the suv was carrying seven people, including three general when it glipd over a guardrail, plunging 60 feet to the ground. it landed in an area close to the park's zoo. investigators are trying to figure out what caused that crash. they think the suv may have been speeding. police are looking for a second gunman after a lockdown at the university of south alabama. that lockdown has now been lifted following an armed robbery at a college dorm yesterday. the thief stole $1. aand a cell phone. one expect is already in custody. a new gloog will keblog wil updated on george zimmerman's defense. attorney mark o'mara it said it is to keep other toernds and his supports up to date. the waterboarding of terror suspects, jose rodriguez was in charge of the services from 2004 to 2007, he says harsh intertechniques have saved american supplies. he describes the water board of khalid sheikh mohammed saying she was the toughest detainee they had. >> he'd use his fingers because in all hikelikelihood, everythi else that was done eventually got to him. >> rodriguez saysity krices of waterboarding are hingering the fight against center. the one world trade tower will become the tallest building in manhattan if the weather cooperates. it would raise the tower 1,271 feet, 21 feet higher than the tallest building, the empire state building. when the construction is completed, world tried will stand 1,776 feet high, making it the tallest hemisphere in the western sphere. >> people are all creeped out about it post-9/11. >> i live there a few blocks from it and it's beautiful. >> i agree. president obama was actually funny, no topic off limit at the white house correspondent dinner in washington, d.c. take a look. >> what's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? a pit bull is delicious. because my stepfather always told me it's a boy eat dog world out there. it's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent hilton ballroom or what mitt romney would call a ail fixer-upper. four years ago, i looked like this. today i look like this. and four years from now, i will look like this. >> his delivery there -- >> busting out by the catering table in the back. >> three big categories of jokes, dog jokes, secret service jokes and secret service behaving like dog jokes. that was it. the president had terrific time, wasn't quite as memorable while he was filleting donald trump he had sent the team in but didn't know the atmpt to kill well billion. an extraordinary evening. >> i thought he was better than jimmy kimmel. listen. >> mr. president i know you won't be able to laugh at any of my jokes about the secret service, so cover your ears, if that's physically possible. last week we learned the president's two favorite steaks are rib eye and seeing eye. and it doesn't matter if you're black, like president obama or white like president obama, or red like president obama's agenda. you remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. there's a term for guys like president obama, probably not two terms, but there is. >> he was funny, too. >> he was tough. in the hall it felt like shrapnel being sprayed at different targets. >> are these people who rushed to you? >> i thought jimmy kimmel rushed through the second part of the set, a few jokes i wish he had done brief. i think he does better science on his show. >> the president has great comedic timic. i got to go last year, by this year my star was dimmed. the president really does have the creativity. >> it's timing more than anything else. rat-a-tat-tat, take it down and that's how it felt from home watching it. >> he was the sharpest set i've seen since colbert did the bush. still ahead on "starting point," a new update on the story that's sparked outrage. teacher says she wasn't even there that day. also the olympics goes high schools. there are plans to put surface-to-air missiles op. the roof of one apartment building. check out the rest of our show at cnn.com/startingpoint or on witter @ startingptcnn. ♪ ♪ [ man ] when i went to get my first new car, my dad said to get a subaru because they last. ♪ he drives a legacy, but i'm nothing like him. i got the new impreza. maybe i should have picked a different color... [ male announcer ] the all-new subaru impreza. experience love that lasts. ♪ welcome back, everybody. one of the teachers accused of being caught on audiotape bullying that 10-year-old boy with autism is now on paid leave, but kelly altonberg's attorney says his client wasn't even there at work that day. listen. >> those words were not hers, the voice was not hers, those comments were not made in her presence, she didn't condone those boards, didn't instruct them to act that way. >> stuart chaffetz sent his son to school wearing a recording device. >> oh, boy, knock it off. keep going. [ screaming ]. >> go ahead and scream, because guess what? you're going to get nothing until your mouth is shut. >> you'll get nothing until your mouth is shut. you can hear that said on the tape. many special needs advocates say this is a wake-up call for school districts across the nation. cnn education contributor steve perry is in chicago. nice to see you. good morning. are you surprised that this recording sticking a recording device in his 10-year-old son's pocket managed to capture clips like this that we played? >> not at all. i'm not surprised, it's just like the rodney king beating. i'm only surprised somebody finally caught it on day. teachers are people, come from all life and walks and ways of making decisions, these decisions were disgusting and reprehensible and if anyone tries to make light or make it make sense is also part of the coverup that we've seen so many times. what happens, sole bad, when there are people in our ranks who are allowed to stay in our ranches who do things like this, it makes all of us look bad. 4 million people logged onto youtube and looked at the video, heard stories of teachers doing something they found bad but the kids always seem to be lying. this is a parent -- >> i should interject it says unidentified voice, the teacher's attorney says that's why they had a substitute she was not there. the superintendent said "while we acknowledge there's always room for improvement in anything we do, we believe this regrettable incident is an anomaly and we wholeheartedly support the work our teachers and educational aides do every day." this was the one time he popped a recorder in his son's pocket. >> i don't think it's an aanomaly. that's the point. because of rumors of teachers doing this, when i say to a parent your child did something they're automatically on the defensive, well how do you know? what did the other kid do and my credible and the credibility of the rest of us who did things the right way is called into question because we as educators don't spend enough time policing ourselves. we need to make sure our schools are scrubbed clean of individuals who will do anything to harm children, completely clean. >> steve, this is will. what do you think about parents policing you guys, do you like the idea of parents sitting a recorder in his child's pocket and sending him off to cool school? >> absolutely. we don't have a private social club you have to be invieded into. we are in charge of the public's future. you have every right to open our doors and look and see what we're doing. we have your children, we have the money, you have every right to ask us. >> hey steve it's john. how do you feel having classes on the internet for parents to watch? >> i think it's a great idea. one of the things that happens is one of our teachers we had a staff member had to videotape a kid doing something bad, he was pulling his pants down and he's 6 but the point is that times you don't see what we see. a lot of times parents say it wouldn't be my kid, and sometimes it is your kid. we are watching the courtrooms, watching so many other places, i don't understand why they can't be warning what he's doing. >> the father said on cnn saturday the reason that he did this was to support his son and send an anti-bullying message. listen. >> one of its reasons why i went forward was to one day show him that people care, that what they did to him was wrong in addition to hopefully reaching out and showing with an emdemmic bul ep bullying is. >> one of the biggest issues is this, one bad teacher can mess you up bad. there are grown company walking around remembering a snide remark a teacher made in the fourth grade, eighth grade or 12th grade. one bad teacher can mess you up badly. that's how we have to work hard asset indicators to root our community of all of the individuals who would harm children because one of them messes up a kid -- >> especially a kid who can't defense himself 100%, he's not only 10 years old, he's awe tuck. >> soledad we could rip you up. we know how to vote vain and mess up a kid. those powers can make life not cool for a very young person. good luck in chicago this morning. hundreds of people in london are saying get real after saying there's a notice a pont to puss south fas to missiles. >> neighbors are allowed. >> are' watching st"starting point." great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco. ifif y youou'r're e lolookokinio geget t totogegethther, yoyou u cacameme t to o ththe. bebecacaususe e heherere a at, wewe'r're e ononlyly a abob. fifindndining g yoyou u ththe e isis a allll w we e do. wewelclcomome e toto h hot. and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. 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[ male announcer ] get 1-2-3 percent cash back. apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪ ♪ if it's dwight yoakam it must be will cain's choice, that's "guitars, cat lacks." surface-to-air defense missiles being potentially put on top of a residential apartment building. sounds like something out of an action movie. it's an official proposal to help fight terrorism in the aolympics this summer, this is in the bow section of london, two miles from the sight of the olympic stadium because that would be a good way for anybody flying in people planes they could man them and take them out. >> causing massive debris to be falling all over the streets. >> as opposed to the streets. >> when has a terrorist attacked on athletic event. >> that's a big question. >> al qaeda goes after strategic targets, world trade center, military outlet. it's a great effort to give the community safety. how can they be safe? they're trained people so okay not shave, anybody shooting a surface-to-air missile at anything. >>. >> this is the no the the first time. this seems like a big show. >> it's part of the value is the show being made of it. >> so that someone thinking about doing something will think twice. >> there are surface-to-air missiles on the buildings so whatever you're thinking about, think better. >> hear the story of the 13-year-old boy banned from playing on an all girl's field hockey team. look at him and how much smaller he is than some of these 13-year-old girls on the team, there he with is the bond team. he says it's a lie he's too good. we'll talk about that and the politics of bin laden as we work the anniversary of osama bin laden's death, is the separation fair game for the presidential game? why republicans are crying foul over that this morning. you're watching "starting point." we're back in a moment. ♪ wake up, maggie, i think i got something to say to you ♪ that's a great song. >> top tenner i think. >> rod stewart "maggie may" coming to us from richard miniter's playlist. we'll talk about whether president obama is playing politics as the anniversary of osama bin laden's death approaches. playing politics in the political year, ham. first headlines christine a look at those for us. good morning. >> good morning, the second week of the john edwards trial is trying to get off today, with cheri young on the witness stand. she testified her husband did everything for the disgraced former senator, even yard work and buying christmas presents for his kids. edwards is charged with six counts of campaign violations, he faces 30 years behind bars if convicteded. octo mom nadia suleman reveal she and her 14 children are about to lose their home. the house will be auctioned off later today. she's trying to set the record straight and sending a message to her detractors. >> the house has been in foreclosure for several months, so yeah i was unable to, how many people can stop identifying that, stop judging, just listen, many people are losing their homes, many, so i'm not the only one. >> she responded to reports her children are living in squal lorre, despite of holes in the walls on graffiti her kids are well provided for and growing up healthy. a big full body jolt, what a pregnant ohio woman says it feels like to be struck by lightning. >> it was a huge flash, and just this big boom, and i felt it shoeld up my arm and out my left arm and out my toes. the rubber sold shoes, url ushl on my work i would have heels on and i was going to throw them away and i didn't and put them on today and first thing they said when i checked in they probably saved my life. >> doctors say kelly's baby is perfectly healthy. we get a quick check of the weather. >> wet weather across the midwest and plains states, throughout much of the day, if you're traveling. let's look at the big picture. heavy rain from oklahoma city into st. louis and a lot of that rain will be working further to the east as we go through much of the morning so if you're flying that may impact you. heavy rain could cause flooding up to six inches in swet mama. we're looking at wet weather and threat of florida. it's been raining three five inches for storm totals, rain pushing into miami and the keys, areas further south of miami are getting hard hit. current temperatures are cooler than they have over the past few days. 33 degrees in scranton, 45 in new york city and interior new england issing looing at freeze advisories, temperatures in the teens and 20s into upstate new york and western pennsylvania. overall for today the threat for severe storms in the central and southern plains through parts of the midwest, more met w coming into the northwest. sunshine for the southwest and hot temperatures along the gulf coast. for those of you who went to bed you missed one of the most improbable comebacks yet, the clippers coming from 27 points down to beat the memories grizzlies, finally score 99-98. the clippers finished with a 28-3 run, giving them a 1-0 lead in the playoff series and that bad if you iced it, that was awesome. >> i was asleep, that's what it looks like. >> that's what i'm going to be. >> it might have been a slightly larger group is pointing that out as well. >> i got tickets to go see the knicks and the heat thursday and i can't go. >> i can take them off your hands. >> would you like to? >> for you i'll do that. >> get in fast on that series. >> exactly. tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the death of osama bin laden, but this morning, there is a debate over whether the raid that killed the al qaeda. >> osama bin laden no longer walks on this planet because of the brave decisions and actions by the brave men and women in our military and mitt romney said it was a foolish thing to do a few years ago and look there's' difference in the roles they would play as commander in chief and i think that's fair game. >> took something that was a unifying event for all americans an event that governor romney congratulated him and the intelligence in terms of completing the mission for killing osama bin laden and managed to turn it into a divisive partisan political attack i think most americans will see it as a sign of a desperate campaign. >> we'll see how most will see it. investigative journalist richard minitir, author of "mastermind: the many faces of the 9/11 mastermind, khalid sheikh mohammed." are you surprised by these conversations at all? >> not surprised at all. if the operation had gone badly, u.s. and navy s.e.a.l.s died or found the wrong men, everybody would be yelling at president obama. everything is fair. the operation went flawlessly. we lost a new helicopters but no civils were armed. no s.e.a.l.s were harmed. president owe about ma i i had deserves the credit. it might deter future presidents from taking action if a romney campaign spokesman do we want to seem like it's politicizing. >> i disagree. if you're worried about what the other side's spokesperson is going to say in the next election cycle as president, you're out of your mind. you really are not going to be figuring -- >> a lot of calculations go into it social and it's not helpful for them in a national security matter to be politicizing it and at the same time complaining about politic yung ho. >> most agree it's a positive for president obama. he'll talk about it being a 50/50 decision. the question is to make an action between plr mr. you look at what republicans said in 2008 going unilaterally into pakistan, do you think there say legitimate policy betweenoma ma handled this and how republicans feel about that mission? >> i don't see a policy difference. president bush had a number of attempts to get bin laden a number of times. the intelligence group is the same today as it was then except for retirements. the capabilities hasn't changed, the the desire hasn't changed. the real question is whether we've moved away from capturing terrorists or switch to a policy of just killing people which might be effective in terms of creating the organization but not effective in the finding of future plots, if there's going to be a policy debate here that's where it should go. >> interesting point you bring up, ron, is that mitt romney talked about this back in 2007 it was, april of 2007 and he said this, it's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars are trying to catch one person and then he chang changes position in an nbc debate. play a little clip of that. >> of course we get osama bin laden and track him wherever he has to go and mike sure he pays for the outbreak. >> move heaven and earth. >> we will move thechb and earth. what do you think is the impact? governor romney hats a weak issue, the flip-flopping issue. >> i think it's clearly a positive for the president with the public that he made this call. this was not a simple call. people may you might not have had a search evidence. >> it is sufficienter to say mitt romney might not have done the same thing. >> i'm with you 100%. ann richards, president obama can claim all sorts of credit for killing barack obama but taken it one step farther. i'm not sure the public will appreciate it. >> richard, before i let you go they recovered ten hard drives, five compute irs, 100 storage devices and much, much more. what is the most important you think has been recovered from the osama bin laden of the osama bin laden assassination? this. >> they found a tremendous amount of financial information, new ways in which al qaeda was able to move and send money, turning off some of the other financing sorpss. lot of it was operatives we killed or captured some time ago then there are new needs in that area and interesting look into al qaeda in the far east and north africa. this information is stig being analyzed and look at at the intelligence committee. who remembers who was president when gentlemen ron me was killed? >> how about something a little closer for us time wise. >> with a slightly more sympathetic figure. >> richard mini st ir author of "mastermi "mastermind" great book. >> thanks. u.s. forces on a mission deep in the jungles of central africa, maybe it's the elephant or the crocodiles to be their biggest information. a 13-year-old boy has been banned from a girl's hockey team because they he's too gd. you're watching "early start" in a moment. of (female announcer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com. they sound awesome tonight. and when i do find it, i share it with the world. you landed the u.s. tour ? done. this is fantastic ! music is my life and i want to make the most of it without missing a beat. fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? 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[ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. er is different [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you. a 13-year-old boy who has been banned from playing on the girl's hockey team because they say he's too good. keeling pilaro plays at southampton high school and the school's athletic department saying he is "having a significant adverse effect on some of his opposing female players." we talked to him and his mom and he said he's not particularly better than the girls. >> there are definitely girls that are better than that and faster. almost every single girl is faster and stronger than me. >> we have a lot of support from his teammates, from opposing players, from opposing coaches and we found a lot of support in the southampton community that it's been the pleasant part of all of this. >> apparent he will apparently he learned to play in ireland. he hasn't wrapped up all the awards, other players that are better, may not play attack. >> we did the reverse story in january of a little league team wouldn't allow a girl to play. how rare this has become, after title ix we've offered up opportunities for boys and girls. the fact that he wants to play is a sign of success about how we've created lanes for everybody. >> before you say something, play video of keeling when he works out with the team. when i first read the story i thought he was 6'2", 650 pounds and bigger overpowering the girls and then you see him, look most of the girls are a head taller than he is. >> i think it's good we're shining a light on what oppression goes on in southampton. >> if that's your kid and he's spent a bunch of years learning how to play field hockey because he grew up in ireland, yes. >> it's a girls field hockey team and he happens to have a "q" chromosome. >> there are boys teams that have to allow girls on if there is not a team already existing, that is the law. >> you want to go goat ways that's fine. >> i curse you, will cain. >> we've gone from chinese oppression to field hockey. >> unisex bathrooms. >> i played girls hockey in college just for the locker room. >> oh, stop! all right, we should mention the family is appealing the ruling because tsk doing your rounds -- >> fight the power. >> -- on cable outlets is the first step before you go to court. >> i'm going to the girl's bathroom after this. >> it's weird but you may. u.s. troops are in africa for joseph kony. we'll explain what's happening straight ahead on "starting point." [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network... a living breathing intelligence bringing people together to bring new ideas to life. look. it's so simple. [ male announcer ] in here, the right minds from inside and outside the company come together to work on an idea. adding to it from the road, improving it in the cloud all in real time. good idea. ♪ it's the at&t network -- providing new ways to work together, so business works better. ♪ american troops are now involved in the hunt for a violent african ward lord who became known to the world after a viral video campaign. a small contingent of special american forces working with the african military. they are trying to capture joseph kony. his group was terrorized africa most fornmore than a deck idea. >> he's on the run and on decline and in survival mode but he is dangerous and still dangerous until they are eliminated. >> spider marks is the former commander general. nice to see you and thanks for talking with us. >> thank you. >> to what degree did this viral video sort of instigate this hunt for joseph kony? is it making the operation happen or making a happening operation go public? >> soledad, i can't speak to and i don't have any inside information as to how a video like this, some type of media campaign, if you will, that then motivates the state department and defense department that do work. generally that's no, sir the case. clearly, it's an input and it contributed but what you have right now is the african command is very much focused in on it. they have got limited resources down there. i would suspect there are other resources that are involved primarily in intelligence collection arena to try to focus and narrow where that search takes place. >> before we talk about how challenging that search is, i want to read to you a little bit of what was quoted in "the new york times" from sort of an american official. let's be honest there was some constitent pressure here. this person would say there was. talk about the area and the danger. the size of california. i read that crocodile infested rivers to the point where one of the ugandan soldiers was eaten by one of the crocs. how bad is it? >> this is a horrible place in the world. in terms of the environment, there are very few places that are as difficult to operate in. number one, you have an environment that is infested with -- waters infested as you've indicated with deadly types of crocodiles and pythons nearby. this is a tough place to operate. you with routinely focused not only on the environment as a threat but also your primary mission which is to try to track down the lord's resistance army and their network of support. it's a very difficult place to be and clearly as a part of that effort, there's a very large and very capable medical contingent to take care of all of those soldiers and certainly local villagers as necessary. >> good morning, sir. i have a question about the whole kony that we saw a few months ago when this was a hot topic. is there a risk that the movement in america to raise awareness has made it more about a man than about the culture of putting boys in the army? i mean, if they get kony, nothing is going to change in terms of putting young boys on the front lines to fight these battles, correct? >> we have seen -- yeah, i would absolutely agree with you that we have seen in history where any means of employing a resource is going to be used by those that have a different standard coming from a different culture from us. so clearly there is a link between what we are seeing the ability of the interpret and the media to transform a message and have that be accepted and then acted upon. clearly that takes place around the globe. how that affects our state department and our defense department is what i'm interested in and i can't tell you specifically that those were considerations. i would imagine that they are. and they work their way through our constituents and into the discussion but clearly this guy has been around for over two decades and has been wreaking havoc and clearly the united states has responded and the african command is involved deeply. the commander has stated this is increasingly high priority mission for him and his folks on the ground. it must get accomplished. >> james "spider" marks is a retired army general. thank you. >> appreciate it. still ahead, secret service prostitution scandals triggering tough new guidelines for agents. we will talk about those guidelines and cnn will name the agent at the center of that scandal and we have developing details on that story. president obama uses the white house correspondents dinner to go after governor mitt romney. we got the highlights and low lights as well. we're back in a moment. made with only milk... cream... a touch of sugar... and pure natural flavors. coffee-mate natural bliss. from nestle. add your flavor naturally. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ er is differentxt great idea could be yours. but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you. [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering. imax now showing on the big board. welcome back, everybody. our "starting point" this morning no more heavy boozing and no more friendly visits in hotel rooms. the secret service is force to do play by new rules. we will talk to the man who broke the secret service scandal story. the other kennedy conspiracy. an eyewitness who says there was a second shooter the night that rfk was killed and we will talk to her this morning. back on top one year after osama bin laden was killed, the new world trade center is reaching a milestone today. we will tell you what it is. plus he creamed his way through the 1980s. now there is a new movie out that is he directing and the main character is screaming about reality tv, bad morning zoo radio and everything else that is wrong with america. it's called "god bless america." he will join us live later. it's monday, april 30th. "starting point" begins right now. ♪ this is how it looks this morning in new orleans. that's congo square. new orleans is celebrating international jazz day. they are raising awareness of the first jazz as an occasionally tool, of course, for peace and unity. that location is a sunrise concert in new orleans. that is the birth place of jazz. the event is going to feature a bunch of folks like herbie hancock and pretty much anybody who is a big name in jazz is at this concert this morning. pretty cool. >> bruce springsteen. >> and some people who are not. >> right. >> amazing. let's get to our panel. ron brownstein is with us and wasn't sure he was going to make it in ralph the white house correspondents dinner. >> i had 24 hours to recover. >> tie it on, did you, ron? >> it gets pretty wild there. >> you can give us the inside scoop later. john fugelsang is with us and weigh in on whether the jokes at that dinner were good. so-so, funny. and will cain is joining us. >> good morning to you. >> first, today's top stories with christine. the obama administration trying to diffuse a diplomatic crisis developing this morning with china. chen is at the center of all the drama after making his escape sfr an 18-month house arrest. he angered the chinese government first by accusing them of conducting late term abortions and sterilizations as part of their one child policy and has been at odds with the governments since the '90s and believe he is in the protection of the u.s. embassy in beijing. officials from both countries refusing to comment this morning and while secretary of state hillary clinton prepares to visit china for talks beginning on thursday. coast guard officials say a yacht involved in a racing accident looks like it went through a blender. three crew members were killed. a fourth sailor is miss. their boat was taking part in the newport to race. the coast guard called off the search for the missing crewman. new clues in the search for missing isabel celis who vanished nine days ago from her home in tucson, arizona. police have released surveillance video taken outside her home the night she disappeared. investigators say they have interviewed three of the five people captured in this video. fbi and u.s. marshals are aassisting in the investigation. the fbi says it has received more than 350 tips. cnn has learned newt gingrich will be ending his bid for the presidency on wednesday. the former house speaker is expected to announce his support for mitt romney. mitt romney making a campaign stop in new hampshire today. and we may be getting a sneak peek at his potential running mate in november. senator kelly is getting quite a bit of buzz as romney's potential number two and they will be appearing together at a fishing peer in portsman. everything was fair game this weekend's white house correspondents dinner. >> what is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? a pit bull is delicious. my stepfather always told me, it's a boy/dog world out there. it's great to be here this evening in the vast magnificent hilton ballroom, or what mitt romney would call a little fixer-upper. four years ago, i looked like this. today, i look like this. and four years from now, i will look like this. >> soledad, last year on the monday after, we didn't get a chance to dissect the jokes bin laden was killed. seth mier was the comedian last year. >> he mouthed congratulations to leon panetta. everybody was like what is that about? the next morning, we were parsing that. christine, thank you. new information to talk about this morning. we know who allegedly refused to pay in the secret service scandal in colombia. arthur huntington has left the service. unclear, though, under what circumstances exactly. also today we are hearing news about new guidelines that secret service members must follow. nonreputable establishments are off limits while on the road just to clarify, that means no more going to visit prostitutes. >> wow. >> i want to spell that out in case that's unclear. foreigners banned from hotel rooms unless it's for official business and agents must imply with u.s. laws even in another country. no heavy drinking even off duty. a supervisor is going to accompany those advanced teams or the jump teams. of course jump team is the one that is associated with this prostitution scandal. journalists and author ronald kessler is the author of "in the president's secret service." the one who broke the story about the agents being sent home. nice to see you and thanks for being with us. i read some of the guidelines. that's not the whole list. do you think those guidelines are enough to change the behavior and basically, you know, nip all of these potential scandal in the bud? >> well, it certainly will help. this kind of behavior really is an anomaly even though it's an incredible scandal. the larger picture is that the management has been cutting corners and has been lax in much more serious ways. i see this episode in colombia as a symptom of that, as well as the fact that agents from the uniform division let the party crashers into the white house knowing they were not on the guest list. why would they all do that? because of this corner-cutting at the highest levels of the secret service. for example, they will condone letting people into events for the president or the vice president without putting them through metal detectors or magnetometers and that is like letting people into an airplane without magnetometer screening. that is an incredible scandal and much bigger than what happened in colombia. >> are those links? sounds like you're saying the whole thing has gotten sloppy. are you saying this scandal is symptomatic of a bigger problem of sloppiness at the bureau? >> sure. that's the way organizations work. if the people at the top set a cultural tone that condones this corner cutting and winking and nodding and condones the honesty in some cases. they ask agent to fill out their own test scores on physical fitness tests, everyone says we can do whatever we want. if they are idiots which is what we saw in colombia. >> we had a number of guests who were familiar with the secret service and they would say, listen, this is absolutely not the culture of the secret service. this is a onetime thing. this is before we started hearing about el salvador and whether it pans out bigger than what it is known to be at the time. do you think the issue this is a one time thing or this is the one time they got caught in a very obvious way? >> i'm quite sure that this particular behavior is an anomaly and the press reports have been mixing up parties and going to bars with this really egregious behavior. after the president leaves, they will go to parties and go to bars and nothing is wrong with that. when it comes to these rules, it's as if these agents are kindergarten kids. the fbi has no rules like that. their duties are as demanding. i think that if they don't have the judgment to stay away from prostitutes and not get drunk then they should certainly not be agents. >> ron, this is will cain. if this is an an nolly, how is it evidence of corner cutting and deeper problems of the secret service? that is not really when an anomaly is. >> if, in any organization, if your bosseswinking and nodding and violating procedures then you may be more likely to say, hey, i can do whatever i want. you know? it's a very simple equation. certainly doesn't work all the time but that is the way organizations disintegrate and that really is what is happening at the secret service. the agents themselves are very brave and dedicated. they will take a bullet for the president. i know the fbi admires secret service agents more than any other law enforcement. but the management has been allowing this agency that once had high standards to disintegrate into a shambles. >> so you're saying the leader of the secret service, mr. sullivan, should go? >> it's interesting. the more the secret service screws up, the more people come out to praise the director mr. sullivan. it's quite a phenomenon. >> at the end of the day when you look at this scandal, the people who visit the prostitutes are being sanctioned or fired. but when the american people look at this, what do they see? 49 years with no dead presidents. is it really going to be that big of a deal in the history of the secret service or is this just a blip? >> i think this will remain one of the biggest -- in fact, the biggest scandal in the history of the secret service. the fact that there was not an assassination. we should not allow any kind of corner cutting such as letting people in without magnetometer. somehow, people's eyes glaze over when i say that, but one terrorist could come in and take you on the president. >> ronald kessler, his cook is "in the president's secret service." nice to see you, sir. thank you. >> thank you. >> still ahead, a few hours away from a major milestone. the new world trade center. we will take you there live straight ahead. carving up apple. how they avoid paying billions of dollars a year in taxes. we will spell it out for you. this is ron's play list. >> a great song! [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan was designed with near-perfect weight balance from front to back... and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. only hertz gives you a carfirmation. hey, this is challenger. i'll be waiting for you in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us. ♪ come up for the rising come on up lay your hands in my ♪ >> who is that? >> that is chris steen's playlist, bruce springsteen. >> we are talking about what is happening downtown in the world trade center, about to become home to the big apple's tallest building. in one hour world trade center will surpass the empire state building in height and when workers install a beam this afternoon that will stretch the tower to 1,271 and make it 21 feet taller than the empire state building. construction is completed, which they are expecting in 2013 or maybe early in 2014. it will be the tallest structure in the western hemisphere. poppy harlow is in downtown manhattan. this comes on the one-year anniversary of osama bin laden aebl 's death. >> reporter: it means a lot more security and a lot more attention. this very important day for new york and this country comes one day before the one-year anniversary of the death and killing of osama bin laden. president obama's counterterrorism adviser john brennan saying on the sunday morning shows that the u.s. remains especially vigilant. he noted that al qaeda has been their impact and their ability to harm u.s. citizens has been degraded significantly. the fbi late last week came out with a report saying there is no credible information that al qaeda is plotting an attack on the u.s. to coincide with this anniversary. a lot of attention given the timing. that said, the focus here in new york is very much a celebration. a milestone. what this means for new yorkers in this country and who better to share that with us than a man who built the original world trade center, watched it fall, and came back to build it again. mike minela, come join us. we had a chance to talk and spend a day together in august doing a story. we went up to the 76th floor of one world trade center. i was terrified. you took me up there. we talked a lot about this. what does this day mean for you, mike? >> today is a day we can look back and say the milestones we have surpassed and overcome on significant than the ones ahead of us. we certainly have challenges going forward but the building is in a position now where we can see it coming to the top and he we can see it being finished off in a very, very significant way. it's also big in the region. i mean, seeing this building from all over the region. long island, new jersey, new york, it's just a statement for the region that we've reached a new milestone. >> seven and a half years it has taken to get to this point. majestic behind us. the 100th floor is where that steel beam will be placed around 2:00 this afternoon. when you watched the towers fall, mike, watched the towers thaw built fall, you came the next day, september 12th, 2001. did you ever think that these towers would not be rebuilt and you would not be doing it or did you always know you would be a part of this? >> i was quite surprised that i would be able to be a part of it. i was delighted to be a part of it. knowing that they would be rebuilt, i sort of had confidence that they had to be rebuilt and i knew going forward, the city would really go forward and replace the towers. >> this also closes a chapter in a lot of people's minds, doesn't it? or we're getting there. is that the sense have you? >> we are getting there. i think as people look at the building from afar and they realize the site that it sits on, the memorial that it adjoins and what the site was about and what it lost here and what is now being put back together and how people will go forward from this moment, it's an exciting time. >> it's an exciting story to see through your eyes. i'm so glad i got to be up there myself this summer, mike. thank you so much. a neat day down here. a beautiful, sunny, perfect morning for this to happen. soledad? yes, it is. poppy, thank you. coming up next on "starting point," a billionaire's plan to build the "titanic 2." he went there and said it's unsinkable but said it will sink if you put a hole in it. a lady says she is certain there is was a second shooter on that fateful day that robert f. kennedy was assassinated. back moment. i'm walt gale, i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. ♪ feeling good again yes, i am. thanks for asking. i was sick last week. that is robert earl keen jr. "feelin' good again." >> one of my favorite songs of the morning brave billionaire announcing plans to film eye tie taken -- "titanic 2" who has hired a state chinese state owned company to build the ship. he said this "titanic" unlike the original will truly be unsinkable. he said, of course, it will sink if you put a hole in. then he went on to say you never know what happens if you're superstitious. he said it's going to be luxurious and state-of-the-art 21st century technology and gyms and swimming pool and much more. >> the original navigational equipment on this ship. >> what about kate winslet? does she come with it? >> the original titanic was built by the irish. this is chinese. >> how the luxury liner of its time and how it would be compared today. it's like sparse. yeah. not number two here. >> sailing it only in warm water in australia? >> no, apparently doing a trip that goes from england to the united states. i know. otherwise, you don't get the pr value, right, of that. although, you know, maybe we should pitch the hindenburg. >> talking in jersey. >> yes, too soon for that. when is that ready? >> 2016. >> we will be covering that when that happens. >> in time for the hillary clinton presidential race. >> elizabeth warren race. >> yes. still ahead, this man was supposed to be giving an anti-bullying speech to high schoolers. big controversy this morning. i meant dan savage. dan savage. the speech turned very anti-bible very quickly and created a bit of a hot mess. we will talk about that straight ahead. plus she was an eyewitness to a tragic chapter in american history. we will talk to the woman who claims there was a second shooter in the assassination of bobby kennedy. [ female announcer ] introducing coffee-mate natural bliss. made with only milk... cream... a touch of sugar... and pure natural flavors. coffee-mate natural bliss. from nestle. add your flavor naturally. welcome back. let's get right to headlines. christine romans has a look at that. john edwards trial this morning, week two of that trial set to begin shortly. much the way week one ended with young on the witness stand, the wife of former edwards aide andrew young. she told the court friday her husband did everything for the disgraced former senator, including yard work and buying christmas gifts for his kids. she testified it almost destroyed her marriage, his devotion to edwards. edwards faces six counts of campaign finance violations accused of using campaign money for hush money and could get 30 years behind bars if he is convicted. a new blog will keep you updated on george zimmerman's defense. attorney said he set up the website to keep people updated. zimmerman is out on bail. he raised $200,000 of supporters donate to go his cause. anti-bullying activist dan savage calling high schoolers expletives because they walked out of his lecture. savage is best known for his "it gets better" campaign to combat anti-gay bullying but about a dozen teens walked out his speech when he slammed parts of the bible using a word we can't repeat. >> we can learn to ignore the [ bleep ] in the bible about gay people. it's funny that someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the bible. how [ bleep ] some people react when you push back. >> savage later said, quote, i apologize if i hurt anyone's feelings but i have a right to defend myself. today apple is an innovator of tablets and phones. "the new york times" investigation finds apple is avoiding taxes. according to the report apple keeps its tax bill down 9.86% last year in part of having offices in low tax states in countries. it hurts california where apple is headquartered but it's a common and legal corporate tax strategy. according to "the times" apple invented the double irish with a dutch sandwich and routing profits from the netherlands and then to the caribbean to avoid tax and hundreds of other companies now mimic it. apple's stock is not expected to take a hit. shares on friday clolsed at $603 a share and up 74%. the s&p 500, by contrast, up 3.5% from last year. one of the biggest questions in personal finance these days, should you buy shares of apple? the answer is yes. a year ago. if you owned mutual funds, though, you probably already have apple. according to a recent morning star lsh "usa today" analysis, 788 mutual funds have apple as one of their top ten holdings and largest portion in 465 of those funds. apple is in the nasdaq fund and is apple a good buy for investors on its own? according to analysts, the answer is an overwhelming guess, soledad. almost all of them have big buys on apple whether you can afford to get in is another issue. >> that is no. no, you cannot afford to get in. should you win powerball go back to yes. yes, you should buy apple right away. >> you will pay more taxes on your gains in apple than apple. >> you will. if you ever felt like you were racially profiled by the tsa, there is an app for that. yes, a new app is launched being called fly rights and allow air travelers to report alleged racial profiling to the tsa. they will hold a news conference today to unveil it. organizations representing several minority groups, there is the seek coalition. another group are calling it a novel marriage between technology and civil rights activism. >> so many things we have been talking about this morning. the way technology is giving ordinary people the capacity to talk back to big institutions that simply did not exist whether it was joseph kony before or this or the father that sent -- >> and in real-time. >> i love -- changing the power dynamics in so many different spheres of our lives. >> the tsa does every rap to avoid racial profiling including patting down 4-year-olds and grandmothers. >> i think if gandhi had this technology he could have gotten the british out of india two years sooner. this is little brother and little brother is watching. >> but little brother is not paying any taxes, though. >> back to our apple story! >> separate issue. >> that is true, yes. >> apple executives could racially profile and their stocks would still go up. >> the iconic product in the 21st century in so many ways. a friend wrote a report. the consumer base to buy it because he paid his workers $5 a day and apple a lot of great jobs on the top and retail jobs on the bottom, nothing in the middle. nothing in the middle. >> breaking news. corporations do everything they can to find low tax environments. >> can i get back to my racial profiling app? hello? before we were derailed. how is this -- can you upload your video? >> you can upload your video. >> why wouldn't you upload your video to youtube? >> here is a place they can all go together. the app will raise awareness of the product. >> a new segment. welcome to "starting point" racial profiling of the day and makes my job so much easier. >> top racial profiling video of the app of the week! >> trending on our racial profiling story. >> so many things will an isolated incident be taken as the mean, the norm? it is a very different world when a bunch of voices. things in the conversation very fast and sometimes it's great and leads you off in strange directions. >> i think it opens up conversations. >> absolutely. >> just like the rodney king or anything else where they are videotaped. >> where are the ghost videos? where are all of the ufo videos? >> i agree. for every time you've seen a -- mistaken for a muslim. this brings that equality out and will show and also show tsa agents doing their job completely and falsely accused. >> but you ken won't see that. >> i don't mind being patted down. i get it! hey! i want to be safe! check for weapons. >> if you see the one example -- >> no. >> but it will be proven to show the tsa was working within their guidelines. >> it has been a theme today. >> i agree, i agree. we are on the same page. >> so many men in tsa, andy dickens is jealous. >> i didn't say felt up. i said i've been screened appropriately. patted down. >> patted down. gosh! ahead on "starting point," we will talk this morning about the other kennedy conspiracy. an eyewitness says there was a second shooter the night rfk was killed and she will join us next and talk about that. plus take a dark comedy and add social commentary and you have bobcat goldthwait live. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. man who assassinated robert f. kennedy may get a new trial soon. a federal court could rule any day to a challenge of sirhan sirhan conviction based partially on a theory there was another shooter. you can see her circled there on the left with rfk. she was at the ambassador hotel the night he was gunned down in 1968 and says she not only heard shots from two different directions, but she says she heard more than eight shots. sirhan gun could only hold eight bullets and why that little fact is relevant. nina joins us from british columbia and joins us from skype. nice to see you. thank you for joining us. walk me back and take me back to that day at the ambassador hotel. what did you see? what did you hear? >> well, i was basically waiting for the senator to come down after he gave his spech to bring him as i was requested to do to the sallinger press room which was to my right and the senator's left as he descended. suddenly, i saw this man in a tuxedo, tall blond man, taking the senator in a completely opposite direction and i shouted after saying, no, no, no, you've impon in the wrong direction, it's this way. nevertheless i wasn't heard. and i ran after them and as i ran after them towards the kitchen, i saw the senator stop and chat with some people in the kitchen and -- quickly and then he moved on. he was then -- i saw his left profile talking to someone and then he moved on in the direction he was originally headed and i was between, i would say, sirhan sirhan was to my left and senator kennedy was to my right and i was in the middle. as i ran towards him, i started to hear shots. and i turned right to sirhan sirhan who was standing on a metal steam table and johnson and rosey grier ran to subdue him but there were still shots coming from my right in back of the senator. i was about six to seven feet in back of him. and it sounded like between 10 and 14 -- well, 12 and 14 shots. >> as i mentioned, they are going to use your testimony which i know you had given originally. you said then it was tweaked. it was changed over time. even though you've consistently said the same thing. do you think sirhan sirhan shouldn't have been convicted for shooting rfk? >> no, no, no. that's not -- that's not my decision. i do know that he was there with a gun. i know that. and i know that he was -- he was -- he was there for a purpose. and i don't know what that purpose is, so i don't want my words to be a conviction or freedom, because i did know he was there with a gun and i did hear some shots that emanated from where he was. >> hang on. i'm sorry. forgive me for interrupting you there. >> no, no, no. >> a this lasts four seconds and it captures the gunshots so let's play that first and everyone can listen to it. >> yes. thank you. >> then you hear the shrieking at the end of that. when you play it over and over it sounds like six gunshots. what they do, they have a graphic of sort of the -- they have graphed out those shots and on that graph which we can throw up on the air now, you'll see that actually there are -- it looks like there's something more than maybe 11 or even 13 gunshots. there is an expert whose name is ben prague. i forget his first name. peter -- phillip van prague who talks about his analysis of this recording. let's listen. >> there were 13 shot sounds that i found on that recording up to the point where the screams just totally overrode all of the other audio and that would have been impossible to recover any shot sounds beyond that point. the second discovery was the presence of two double shot instances and that is two shots that occur so closely together as to preclude the possibility of having come from a single weapon. >> other experts as well who said they they heard someone between 9 and 11 shots when they did a further analysis of that. so you originally said that you had heard more than eight shots. what happened to your story? >> well, the fbi came to my home when i was living in los angeles and interviewed me, and i told them that there were between 12 and 14 shots and i told them i wanted to be a witness. then they left. i got a phone call about 10, 11 years ago. i was never called, i was never questioned. i was very frustrated about the conclusion that there was only one shooter. and philip melancon at dartmouth, a professor, called me 10 or 11 years ago and interviewed me saying he would like to revive the case. and he then sent me a copy of the fbi report, which was devastating. it was 14 different statements that they misconstrued, misrepresented what i said. i promise you i said between 12 and 14 shots. and they put down that i said eight. >> has this been frustrating you all of these years? >> for means an end to the case. >> good morning. ron brownstein here from the national journal. are you aware of any other witnesses who there that night that have a similar view to what occurred to what you do? >> yes, yes. paul shrade was one. right now, i can't come up exactly with all of the names, but afterwards, we -- in the kennedy we knew there were more shots than that. >> are there other people -- do you expect other people to come forward now that you have to make a similar argument? >> i would pray that they do. if there is anyone out there that can corroborate what i am saying, it would be wonderful, because there should be a just conclusion and the conclusion that was come to was not just, in my opinion, because i know i can hear the rhythm of the gunshots in my head and i know it was -- at first, i thought it was flashbulbs. it was pop, pop, then pop, pop, pop, very rapid fire to my right in back of senator kennedy. >> nina rhodes-hughes joining us by skype this morning, a witness to rfk's assassination. nice to talk to you and thank you very much. be interesting to see if they push to get the case dropped or push to get him released or push for a new trial as well. if her testimony is used this time around. got to take a break. ahead, who says a bobcat can't change his spots? there he is right there. the off-pitch comedian making a name for himself off the camera and take a look at his new film which is called "god bless america." this is your play consist list, the kinks. we're back in a moment. you're watching "starting point." ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies. i am every parents' dream! hi. is your daughter home? >> fun we can make you laugh with your trademark. >> i'm a serious guy. >> that was for anybody who was still sleeping. >> yes. we have woken them up your voice. that was back in the 1980s. now you're behind the camera. >> yes, i am. i can understand why now! >> i was going to say comedy but it's really black comedy and it's called "god bless america" and out in theaters next week. you're known for starring in "police academy" and this is totally different. >> i've been directing. my movies are very small and they are very personalable. no, i said personal, not personable. i know people don't think of me as directing but i've been directing a while now. i used to direct the jimmy kimmel show but they didn't promote that over at abc. you know the guy who set "the tonight show" on fire? he is our director. >> i want to tell a story about a guy who is does not go anywhere describing how ignored, furious frank is. tell me about frank. >> well, yeah. he's diagnosed with a brain tumor -- no, wait, it gets funnier. and then the jokes write themselves. and then he is diagnosed with a brain tumor. he is pushed through events, you know? he gets fired from his job for sexual harassment when he sent someone flowers and all of this stuff piles on. and he sees that his daughter is probably going to turn into a horrible kid and he is watching just as he is about to commit suicide, he is watching my super sweet 16 or i should say a super sweet 16 show. i don't know if i'd bother changing it. instead of committing suicide, he drives 400 miles and he shoots that girl in the head that is on my sweet super 16. >> this is like a hard-core story! i know. as i said, it's black comedy. let's roll a clip from it and talk on the other side. >> i mean, next time you want to remember something, instead of taking out your cell phone, why don't you take a picture of it with your brain camera? i mean, when i was your age, nobody tweeted. we managed to have experiences. you know? a phone was attached to a wall back at the house and it didn't have a camera. >> what are you? jex foxworthy is in the cell phone was the phone you called your papi on to get you out of jail! >> that's roxie, his partner as they go on the lamb. what is the message of this film? sometimes it seems like the message america is a terrible mean place and people are awful to each other. >> and then you die. >> kind of. or you get killed. >> i'd say this is a very violent movie about kindness is how i like to describe it. i don't know if it's a satire. it is a comedy. in that clip there, it does sound like it's written by a grumpy 50-year-old guy saying, "get off my yard!" we are nasty and it's just people reacting. a line frank says in the movie, he says a shocking comet has more weight than the truth. so i got fed up and i wrote this movie. >> is that why you left hollywood, too? i know you kind of moved sort -- >> i live in los angeles but i retired from acting at the same time they stopped hiring me. so it really worked out well. i didn't finally said, i had enough. i'm leaving! >> your last film, "world greatest dad" to me is one of the best comedies of the last decade. >> thank you. >> the best thing robin williams has done in a couple of decades. i love that film so much. it's so uncompromising. do you think americans have a hard time distinguishing parody from satire? >> yeah. >> i think students studying it have a hard time distinguishing it. >> sometimes -- >> i found it to be a very moral film. >> it is. that one and, yeah, the one before it. this one what i'm trying to get at this one, without sounding too pretenseus, where are we going as people? the big theme here what does is it say about us with our huge appetite for all of this stuff. i understand why name-calling and celebrity bashing and all of that stuff. a bar is never empty because they say two guys are getting along in the parking lot, let's go watch! but it's a call for common sense, hopefully, and kindness. like i said it's violent. >> you say that as i'm looking at the picture of the film says "god bless america." and two people holding weapons and pointing them at each other. nice to have you joining us this morning. we're out of time. we could continue. >> can i just say something? there is stuff floating in my water! does that happen to you guys too? >> you can have my coffee. >> you know what? 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