jennifer crumbley saying her son never asked for help with his mental health issues? >> reporter: here are the facts. the jury saw journey entries says i need help. why won't someone help me? here's how she responded. >> did you believe your son needed mental health treatment, therapy, counseling, anything? >> no. i mean, there's a couple times where ethan expressed anxiety over taking tests, anxiety about what he was going to do after high school, whether it was college, military. so he expressed tohose concerns to me, but not to a level where i felt he needed to see a psychiatrist or mental health professional right away, no. >> reporter: this is interesting

because once he was arrested, ethan was given a psychiatrist, a psychologist. he told them he lied in those texts. he hadn't asked his parents for help. that did not come before the jury because they're privileged medical records of ethan crumbley. >> how did the mother describe the meeting with school officials that happened as people might remember, the morning before the school shooting happened? >> reporter: remember, that morning she had been sent a math sheet where he had bullets and blood and my life is worthless and the world is dead. she was asked to go to the school immediately. she texted her husband, emergency, we have to go to the school. i'll let her describe what the meeting was like. >> it was pretty nonchalant, pretty brief. he told us that he didn't ffeel

d my son was a risk and gave him the option if he wanted to stay at school or go home. my son wanted to stay at home. we all discussed that. >> reporter: so he did say he wanted mental health treatment for their child and she said that he -- his testimony is she said, i got to get back to work, but would do it within 48 hours. his testimony reflected he didn't want to pull him out of school. it was their decision. ethan wanted to go back to class. he was given his backpack and went back to class. then a couple hours later the backpack had the gun. >> about that gun, did she testify how it was or was not locked away? >> reporter: well, she said she wasn't there when it was purchased the day after thanksgiving. she wasn't into gun. she was into horses. her husband hid the gun. she didn't know where it was. we do know that on the day of

the shooting husband went home afterwards. there was the gun case open on their bed in the master bedroom and the gun was missing and that's when he called the police and turned in his son. >> all right, jean casarez, thank you so much. appreciate it. let's bring in attorney and legal commentator ariva martin. did jennifer crumbley's testimony hurt or help her? >> her attorney said she would take the stand and testify. she did that today. she had a lot to explain. many of the text messages we've learned about in this trial, many were troubling. the text message about him hallucinating and believing that people were in his home and the text messages about him asking his parents for help with some kind of mental health counselor and his mom laughing at him. jennifer spent the morning

explaining, one, how she didn't know her son needed mental health and that hallucinating, they had a game they played. it was a 100-year-old house and they joked about their being ghosts in their home. a lot of what she said helped her, but big gapping holes. >> was there any part of her testimony that might be vulnerable? >> with respect to the time she spent with horses. one of the big issues is she was a negligent mom that didn't pay attention to her son and that she was grossly negligent. her son was crying out for help and rather than give him help she was spending time with her horses and what we learned earlier was with a boyfriend she was having an extra marital affair with. the prosecutors are going to try to establish she was ignoring her son who was lonely and had

mental health issues, but she was too busy spending time at a stable and taking care of horses and because of that, she didn't notice what was happening with her son. >> obviously this trial is being watched by individuals who want to hold parents accountable when there's negligence for crimes, especially mass shootings, committed by their children. how important is this trial for that cause? >> this is an historic trial, jake. in this country in our juris prudence system parents aren't held criminally responsible for the acts of their children. if there's a conviction of jennifer or her husband, it's going to be a precedent-setting case. i think folks want to hold a lot of people responsible for these mass shootings, not just parents, but school districts and gun manufacturers and others because there's a belief that there are too many guns in this

society and kids have access to them in a way that's creating dangerous situations for schools. >> thanks so much. let's bring in steven gatowski founder of "the reload." what do you make of jennifer crumbley being on trial for involuntary manslaughter because of the deadly mass shooting her son committed? >> it's certainly a novel case. i don't think we've seen anything quite like this where a parent is on trial for murders that their child committed based on not doing enough to intervene. although the facts of this case are also very unique, especially that meeting they had the morning of the shooting and then the dire warnings that were brought across during that. >> yeah. not to mention the gun and how he got it. do you think this trial will be a catalyst for other parents

being held legally accountable for mass shootings committed by their children? >> it could be if the circumstances are this severe, you know where there was this much negligence. i mean, it's certainly a hard thing to hold a parent responsible for the deliberate criminal acts of their children in this way and, you know, being irresponsible with how you store a gun is certainly something that's very bad and i think most responsible gun owners would be outraged by the situation here, especially this idea that she didn't have any responsibility, it was the husband's responsibility. it might be a common view, but it's not a good one when you have a gun in the home and children have access to it. i think commonly the view is that safe storage laws are trying to hold somebody responsible for horrible acts

like this after the fact. it won't work necessarily. people who are responsible are going to be responsible. it's not clear that those in this mind frame will have their minds changed by something like this. >> obviously the nra and other second amendment lobbying organizations have been against child safety locks and safe storage laws for years and years. how are second amendment advocates viewing this case and might advocacy for safe storage laws help the gun lobby in a way? >> you know, i think that generally you see opposition to laws about safe storage or laws about how you're specifically meant to store your guns often because they require owners to keep their firearms and ammunition separate and obviously if you're keeping a gun for home defense, that makes

it much harder to actually use the firearm in an emergency situation. so you see people often opposed to that idea and obviously the earlier concept of -- if your child getting ahold of your gun and harming themselves is not an incentive for you to store your gun safely, it's not clear that adding a misdemeanor charge or a serious charge after the fact is going to snap you into reality. >> steve, thank you, sir. a first of its kind opoid settlement. it's not just drug makers that prosecutors went after. we'll tell you who else agreed to a huge pay day for states. plus, the apology from the secretary of defense lloyd austin after failing to tell the white house he was battling prostate cancer. another big interview here, that's right, elmo. i'll ask him that simple question he asked so many of us online and so many people

responded to. stay with us.

breaking news. two major settlements in the deadly opoid crisis, including

the first ever settlement against an advertising or marketing company, one that pushed false claims that the drug was safe. the new york attorney general's office announced the $350 million settlement against publicist health. letitia james said this caused the devastation nationwide. that settlement reached on behalf of 50 states. joining us now is colorado attorney general phil wiser. what's your reaction to this settlement with publicist? >> first, it was an important partnership with colorado, new york, other states and it's bipartisan. you have every state working together. we see a lot of dysfunction. this is about collaborative problem solving. on the opoid crisis, $50 billion

has been brought by state ag action to states like colorado. colorado has over $750 million to deal with the crisis that so many people are suffering from. we've had more deaths the past two years from the opoid crisis than ever before. it's about accountability. companies did things that at the time they thought they were making money. purdue pharma the most notable offender. they were telling people with publicist's help oxycontin was safe. it wasn't safe. >> today's settlement marks a shift by going after an advertising company for marketing opiods, not just the companies that distributed opiods. why is that significant? why was this advertising firm particularly on the hook? did they know what they were saying was a lie and could kill people? >> i want to put this into context. we also went after mckenzie for

$600 million. they were consulting with purdue pharma, developing the basic strategy. publicists worked hand in glove with purdue pharma. the message they got out that oxycontin is totally safe, people can use it without fear of addiction, that was just wrong. it caused massive harm to generations. this started in the 1990s. it's continuing through today. we need to make sure that anyone who was part of this steps up to the plate to help solve it. $350 million is publicists contribution. it's the first way to make amends. we appreciate them cooperating with us. we'll make sure that money's spent well in colorado. >> quickly, if you could, the other settlement today was $150 million hickma pharmaceuticals. what was their role in the crisis? >> they produced opiods.

they manufactured an incredibly indicative drug and failed to monitor what was happening. it's not an uncommon story. i mentioned purdue pharma. hickma contributed to the crisis by producing opiods and not monitoring what was happening. if you go back to purdue pharma and mckenzie, they knew bad things were happening and didn't act. that's the story with hickma too. >> publicist said, today's settlement recognizes publicist's good faith and is in no way an admission of wrongdoing. ahead, the new executive order from president biden laying a marker on israel's war against hamas. stay with us.

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join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. back with our world lead. president biden just imposed new sanctions against four violent israeli settlers in the west bank. the state department says one attacked palestinians with stones and clubs and another incited a riot and set buildings on fire. it's just four people in decades of conflict. the executive order marks one of biden's most critical critiques against israel. nick robertson is tracking all of this for us. nick, what has been happening in the west bank as the major focus

has remained on gaza? >> reporter: if you look at october 7th and mark that date, right after that settler violence ramped up, jumped three fold in the month of october. now the u.n. group of humanitarian affairs that monitors this they keep statistics. they said settler violence since october 7th to the middle of january resulted in 430 acts of settler violence. one involved death. they involve damaged property. this is settlers trying to intimidate palestinians to leave. a lot of people look at those four people that president biden put on the executive order and said, they were punished under the law in israel, they didn't get strong sentences.

part of that is because they feel that the government has sort of a political blessing on it. >> i mean, it's no surprise -- we've covered on this show before anti-arab, racist bigot, the finance minister of israel who runs the west bank. he says the idea of violent israeli settlers is an anti-semitic lie spread by israel's enemies. obviously that's not true. >> reporter: it isn't, but he used the language, why is president biden doing this to us right now while our blood is being spilled in gaza? he points to some of the settlers having some of their family members as hostages in gaza right now. the prime minister put it this way, he's said that, you know, we prosecute people who break the law in the west bank. it's a clear signal from the

biden administration to prime minister netanyahu, if you want a political future that involves the united states supporting you, then you're associating with the wrong people in your government. not clear if he'll read that message. >> we covered this before. netanyahu has already made that choice. nick robertson in israel, thank you. meanwhile, at the pentagon an apology today from defense secretary lloyd austin in his first press conference since his hospitalization. he said this about why he kept it a secret. >> it was a gut punch. frankly my first instinct was to keep it private. i don't think it's news that i'm a pretty private guy. i never liked burdening others with my problems. it's just not my way. i've learned from this

experience. i want to be crystal clear, we did not handle this right and i did not handle this right. >> let's get right to oren lieberman at the pentagon. he also apologized directly to president biden who was also kept in the dark. >> reporter: he did. he said he keeps his conversations with joe biden private and secret. in this case he talked about that conversation and told biden he was deeply sorry for how this played out and for his decision to hide the diagnosis of prostate cancer instead of notifying biden immediately. it's the first chance we've had to see austin since he returned to the pentagon. he came into the briefing room. the room was packed with reporters. you can see he's moving fairly slowly with a visible limp as he made his way to the podium. he took full responsibility for this in his opening statement. he was repeatedly asked if there was any order given by him or

any staff members to keep this secret or hidden. he insisted there was no such order, not from him or his staff to try to hide this or fail to notify the administration, the president, the public and the press. he was asked about the drone attack on sunday that killed three u.s. service members. he said those militias have capabilities. he said, i have more. he said it's time to take away more of those capabilities. he too hinting that the u.s. response that everyone is expecting here. >> oren, thank you. now on to gaza. you're looking at video from gaza now. the journalist who recorded this says entire neighborhood has been levelled. people are attempting to return to what's left of their homes. in central gaza a 6-year-old girl has been trapped in a car since monday after she and her

family came under israeli fire. jeremiah samacheer reports now. warning, some of this content you might find disturbing. [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> reporter: a didesperate call from help from this 6-year-old, terrified, trapped in a car. everyone around her is dead. she was in the car with her uncle trying to flee fighting from gaza. this call from help recorded by the palestinian red crescent. [ speaking in a non-english language ] [ gunfire ]

[ screaming ] >> hello? hello? >> reporter: relatives received a call from the family saying they've come under israeli military fire. [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> translator: she said, uncle, my dad and mum and brother and sister were killed. i'm bleeding. help me. i'm dying. i told her tie herself with anything. at 4:00 p.m. she died. the only one left what the little girl hind. she said, i'm little. i'm injured. i peed myself. [ speaking in a non-english language ] >> translator: what time is it? it's getting dark. she said, i'm afraid of the dark. >> reporter: they had to keep her on the phone as they scrambled to get a team to her. [ speaking in a non-english language ]

>> translator: as the team was finally dispatched a psychologist was on the phone with hind. >> reporter: days later they're still waiting. the red crescent lost all contact with hind and its volunteers dispatched to find her. cnn gave the israeli military details about the incident including coordinates provided by the red crescent. the idf said, quote, we're unfamiliar with the incident described. >> we're extremely worried. we need to know what happened. did they save hind? did they survive? we have need answers. >> reporter: no one more desperate for answers than hind's distraught mother. >> translator: if my daughter didn't die from the bullets, she'll die from the cold. my daughter said, mama, i'm hungry. she said, mama, i'm thirsty. i'm cold.

i call on the world to bring back my daughter. i want anyone to call the army. we want our innocent little girl. hind is too young to be going through this. she's too young. >> reporter: so many so young gone in this war. one family holds on to the hope it's not too late to save little hind. president biden is in michigan right now, a state he flipped in 2020. how much his visit could signal how much he's worried about this battleground state in 2024? i'll ask a senator traveling with him next.

turning to our politics lead, republican presidential candidate nikki haley said she's staying in the race for the long

haul. that seemed to be a way to say she's staying through super tuesday. this is despite a new poll showing her trailing donald trump by two to one in her home state of south carolina. haley pointed to cnn reporting that two of trump's political action committees spent nearly $50 million on trump's legal fees. >> it's unconscionable to me that a candidate would spend $50 million in legal fees. it explains why he's not doing many rallies. he doesn't have the money. it explains why he doesn't want to get on the debate stage. it explains why he had a temper tantrum the night of new hampshire. he wants me out of the race and to be the presumptive nominee so all that cash goes to him. >> kylie atwood covers the haley campaign for us and joins us from hilton head, south

carolina. what's the mood in the haley camp, kylie, and how has turnout been on her campaign stops? >> reporter: well, listen, these campaign stops have been full, jake. a few hundred people is respectable in terms of the number of folks coming out. there's no other candidate campaigning in south carolina. trump isn't here. she's the only one who is the alternative to him. it's hard to compare it to anything else. when you talk to folks on her campaign, they're enthusiastic. they're determined. they recognize the stakes are high for them here in south carolina. as she said to you earlier today, she is determined to close the gap in terms of polls that show her trailing behind former president trump significantly. she's also determined to get in front of south carolinans and

remind them what she did here. she's really trying to get out on the campaign trail as much as she can to remind them what she did here, as well as seeing donors at events in new york and florida in recent days, and headed next week to california and florida. >> also in south carolina, establishment republicans who support donald trump held a news conference to bash governor haley over any number of issues including immigration. take a listen. >> donald trump knows what the american people want. he's driving the trump train of sensible immigration policy. nikki haley and others have recently jumped on that train, but they're just passengers. >> do you think the trump train in south carolina is running on cruise control right now? >> reporter: jake, the last time trump was in south carolina for

a campaign event was last november when he was hear for the clemson/university of north carolina game. they have all those elected lawmakers in south carolina out on his behalf. they're bashing haley so he doesn't have to. it's important to look at the poll from the "washington post," 73% of respondents who are trump supporters said they're extremely enthusiastic about voting in the primary. only 45% of haley supporters enthusiastic. nikki haley has to make up some ground there when it comes to getting folks to the polls. >> kylie atwood in hilton head, south carolina, thank you. in michigan president biden attended an auto workers event. the visit shows as a remind or

of biden's lagging support especially amid arab americans who are critical of his response to the israel/hamas war. michigan has over 500,000 arab voters. that state, michigan, narrowly went to donald trump in 2016 by 155,000 votes. let's get to the michigan start who was just with president biden. senator, the president's visit comes on the heels of his announcement today that he's sanctioning violent israeli settlers in the west bank. now we hear there are senior biden administration officials floating a two-state solution. senior biden administration officials are also heading to michigan to shore up support. how worried are you about biden's chances in michigan come

november, especially the eroding support among arab american and muslim voters? >> well, jake, first of all, let me say broadly in terms of michigan, this is certainly not the president's first visit. he's been here a lot. people in michigan know that we've got manufacturing jobs coming back home, coming here because of him and wages up and the middle class growing. that's all very real. we're down prescription drug costs, $35 a month insulin and so on that people are feeling. being with the president today, we stopped at a restaurant on the way in to the regional union hall. it was supposed to be 20 minutes, ended up being an hour because he takes selfies with everyone in the room. he was extremely well received. he met with black pastors and black leaders, and extremely

well received. we have talked. we talked about the horrible situation, the horrible loss of life that has happened. hamas, who was barbaric in their attacks and the thousands of innocent palestinians who have loss their lives. it's a horrible situation. i believe that he is laser focussed more than anybody else on how we stop this loss of life, how we bring hostages home, how we hold people accountable, whether it's what's been happening in the west bank, whether it's hamas, holding them accountable in the long run, and i believe we'll begin to see now the work that he has been doing and his team trying to refocus on a two-state solution. get a coalition to support in the long run palestinians to be able to rebuild. the whole thing is horrible and

it's been a horrible loss of life. the president understands that. he feels that. >> today -- earlier today a group of palestinian americans refused to meet with secretary of state antony blinken to discuss the situation in gaza. obviously you hear from the arab american community, muslim american community what they the president is doing, even with the announcement you're talking about, it's not enough. >> well, when you're losing family members -- i mean, i understand this. there's loss of life in your family when you see what's happening, of course, for anyone it's not going to feel enough. for the families of the hostages, they don't feel it's enough. i i understand all of that. i can tell you as president of the united states he's laser focussed in every way he can on being able to stop the loss of

life and bring hostages home and hold people accountable. i'll also say in michigan we see -- anyway you turn, whether here in detroit, detroit roaring back and all the rebuilding and support efforts going on here on jobs or whether it's any part of michigan, you see the hand print of what this president has done. rejecting trickle down economics and focusing right on american jobs. that's why we were with the uaw today. they're enthusiastically supportive of him because they understand -- it was donald trump who said -- i remember this because i was there in the middle of helping to lead the auto rescue -- who said let them go bankrupt. it was president obama at the time and vice president biden and now president biden who moved forward and said we need

manufacturing in an auto industry and we need well-paid workers. >> it was trump that said that or mitt romney? >> there's a big story to tell in michigan. it's complicated. i'm sorry? say it again. >> it was trump that said let them go bankrupt or mitt romney that said let them go bankrupt? >> no. trump said -- i don't know if mitt said that too. trump back when we were doing all of this said they should. then, when they were organizing, he said that, you know, you should not give them higher wages. you should just make -- go to the south. move all your jobs to the south. he told the auto companies, move the jobs to the south. less wages and bring them back later and the uaw will be begging them for jobs. a lot of things that he has said. i have will just say it's complicated. michigan's important and i'm so

glad he's here. >> all right, good to see you, senator, democrat from michigan. thank you so much. we'll be right back.

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in our health lead, the "sesame street" word of the day is trauma dump. okay, that's two word, but elmo learned all about trauma dumps on monday after he asked a seemingly simple question on x formerly known as twitter, elmo is just checking in. how is everybody doing? turns out everybody is not okay, and by everybody, i mean seemingly everybody. elmo was flooded with responses, one reply reads, elmo, i'm depressed and broke. another says every morning i cannot wait to go back to sleep. i can't wait to for friday to come every single day every single week for life and heard from companies including oreo

cookies, ran out of milk. do the math. he heard from the detroit free press after the lions on sunday blew that huge game writing, quote, we've been better, elmo. look, times are tough out there. every single person is fighting their own battles big and small. as for elmo himself he followed up with this post, wow, elmo is glad he asked. elmo learned it is important to ask a friend. elmo will check in again soon. elmo loves you. the one and only elmo joins us now along with his friend samantha, chief marketing and brand officer of "sesame street" workshop. thank you both for venturing outside of "sesame street" to talk to us today. elmo, it was very thoughtful of you to ask all of us how we're doing so after all you've been through this week, let me begin by asking you both, how are you doing, elmo? >> thank you for asking.

that's an important thing to ask people and monsters too. elmo is doing really well. you know, elmo is glad he was able to talk to a lot of friends about how they're feeling. >> it has certainly been a whirlwind over 180 million people have seen elmo's question, how are you, and we've been spending time developing resources and videos and activities that parents can do together with their children to help them understand how to talk about their emotions. everything from belly breathing, elmo, which you can teach our friends at home how to do to sometimes more traumatic issues they're dealing with. >> elmo, were you surprised by all of the responses, and why do you think this simple question coming from you, elmo, resonated with so many human beings, and adults? >> well, you mow, elmo is not sure.

elmo was surprised because elmo didn't realize when you ask how they're doing you have to be ready because maybe somebody is not doing well or maybe somebody is. it's an important question to ask and elmo has learned a lot about that. >> i think this just speaks to the special relationship that elmo has with our friends, with our audience, and that really "sesame street" has that so many have grown up with "sesame street" or are watching it today with their children. >> i'm one of those kids that grew up watching "sesame street." i was born in 1969. i think that's when you guys were founded and although elmo, you hadn't yet moved to "sesame street." >> yeah, elmo wasn't born yet but elmo knows when "sesame street" was started to be around. >> yeah, well, elmo, when you're feeling down, what helps you feel a little brighter? >> you know, one of the things that you were just talking about was belly breathing, which is really important strategy --

that is i abig word elmo just learned. a strategy and it's belly breathing. what you do is put your hands on your belly and breathe in through your nose like this and then you breathe out through your mouth slowly like this. ah. and that really helps to make you feel calm and sort of get centered and relaxed. >> i feel better, do you? >> yeah, yeah. well, it's -- i feel better just talking to elmo. elmo, i understand you have a birthday coming up this saturday. happy birthday. how are you going to celebrate? a cookie cake with cookie monster if he would let you have any. >> oh, of course he would. cookie monster does love cookies but he's good at sharing, yes, he's invited. anybody is invited. you could come too it's on saturday. >> that's so sweet. >> we have a big birthday celebration planned for elmo. we're very excited about it and we'll be releasing some new

resources for people who really need them next week as well so elmo will help us do that. is there that sounds wonderful, elmo and samantha, thank you so much. give my best to ernie and bert and kermit and grover and cookie monster and big bird and snufflepagus and the count and guy smiley. >> yeah. >> the whole gang. >> will do. anybody says hello especially guy smiley and he would like a job at cnn. >> okay. >> jake, if we could just remind everyone to check out those important resources at sesame.org. you can learn about our emotional well-being, and you can learn about how the great work sesame is doing for communities and how you can help support that. >> and you can see guy smiley's resume on the website too. >> sounds good, elmo. samantha, thanks to both of you. >> bye. have a good day. >> and we'll be right back.

breaking right now, sources say allen weisselberg of the trump organization is in discussions to possibly plead guilty to a perjury charge. this is related to the new york civil fraud investigation into the real estate company finances, specifically testimony that weisselberg gave in an interview with the new york attorney general's office and at the fraud trial last year. we're going to have more on this story coming up next in "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. until tomorrow, you can follow me on facebook, instagram threads, x formerly known as twitter, on the tiktok @jaketapper and follow on x at "the lead," cnn. our coverage continues with alex marquardt in wolf blitzer's situation room. see you tomorrow. happening now, breaking news, cnn's exclusive new poll shows donald trump maintaining a na