cnn's coverage continues. i'm jim sciutto. "the source" with kaitlan collins starts now. i'm kaitlyn collins, and

this is "the source." we start with breaking news. as the u.s. retaliation for the deaths of three american soldiers is underway tonight. the u.s. hitting more than 85 targets in iraq and syria against iranian-backed militias. b1 bombers flying nonstop from an air force base in texas ultimately striking 7 facilities in a mission the white house says was successful but also not over yet. it is without a doubt a sharp escalation of the war in the middle east. those bombers in the air today as president biden was attending the dignified transfer for those three soldiers at dover air force base. we start with team coverage tonight. oren leiberman at the pentagon, retired air force colonel cedric leighton in washington, and nic robinson in tel aviv. the pentagon confirming these strikes and laying out their

rationale. what's the latest you're learning tonight? >> the u.s. carrying out strikes in iraq and syria. going after not specifically iran. the u.s. didn't strike directly in iran in this case, but going back iran arian militias and the quds force, the elite part of the irgc, not only trying to send a message to iran but these militias attacks on u.s. forces in the region have gone way too far especially that attack that killed three u.s. service members and wounded scores more in jordan on sunday. the response now beginning to play out coming through five days later as the u.s. carries out strikes on 85 targets including not only weapons and the u.s. saying there were secondary explosions at some of these facilities indicating weapons were hit, but also command and control centers, intelligence centers, and much, much more. this is at least an order of magnitude largen than the strikes we've seen the u.s. take in iraq and syria over the

course of the past few months. it's also i should note the first time we have seen the u.s. strike both countries at the same time with very much the possibility of more expected perhaps in the coming days. president joe biden strongly suggested this was just the beginning, and defense secretary lloyd austin put it even more bluntly. in a statement after the strikes he said this is is the start of our response. the president has directed additional actions to hold the irgc and affiliated militias accountable for their attacks on u.s. and coalition forces. these will unfold at times and places of our choosing. austin very much saying there will be more here, and we will wait to see how that looks, how that unfolds. but this is very strong first message not only in the target and the amount of strikes here but also in the platforms used. b1 heavy bombers much more significant in terms of the payload and the bombs they're able to carry, the missiles as well. the fighter jets the u.s.

normally uses to carry out these sorts of strikes. following that in a briefing the u.s. says they're confident in the targets they hit and the effect that the strikes have had. they say there are likely members of the militia who were killed here, and for that we'll need a battle damage assessment which could start to come together once it's daytime in the middle east, kate. >> and we'll standby for that. oren leiberman at the pentagon, thank you. up next to nic robertson live in tel aviv tonight. nic, notably iran said after the three u.s. soldiers were killed on sunday they did not want war. the u.s. was clearly trying to send a message to iran with this, so what do we know about how they're responding? >> well, we don't have any indication from the iranians per se yet, however, i think it's worth noting as well the president of iran also said in that same statement that they would do with bullies authoritatively and with strength. so i think the indication is that the iranians will choose to

hit back through their proxies. undoubtedly indeed one of those proxies this evening just minutes before the strikes took place in iraq saying they were waiting for orders. clearly the implication seems to be they're waiting for orders from iran. they're an iran-backed proxy, so that would be a reasonable conclusion. we don't have anything from iranian officials about this yet. it's very clear that there have been strikes on some of these targets previously. not as devastating as the ones we've witnessed tonight. what we have seen is these militias have plenty of people. they'll get more weapons. they believe that they're in a fight with the united states. iran may not be, but the, but they are through their proxies. and their proxies believe they're engaged in that fight with the united states, so they will continue. and i don't think there's any doubt about that. when they will restart, with what kind of force, what they

will target, we don't know. >> and that's the big question even the white house is waiting to see is how these deter, if they slow them down. nic robertson in tel aviv, we'll continue to check in with you. for more on how this retaliation went down i want to bring in retired air force colonel cedric leighton. and obviously the pentagon here as you heard from oren in his report talking about what they hit, command and control ops, intelligence centers, supply chain facilities, other key locations. but what can you tell us about where they struck and just how active the militias are in these areas? >> absolutely, kaitlan. so one of the key things to think about here is where this actually happened. and this is the euphrates river right here. it's in this area most of the attacks occurred. between iraq and syria is also a place where the attacks occurred and then the river continues

into here. all these areas are basically places where these militias operate. and athauls operate in western iraq right here and some in the north west, other parts of the country of iraq. because they're doing all of this, these areas become so important from a military standpoint because what they're doing is they're taking out all of these different nodes like you mentioned and oren mentioned in his report the command and control nodes, the logistics areas, all of that because this is the main supply route for these militias to get the stuff they need to do their work from iran. and that's why these areas are so important from a military perspective. >> b1 bombers that flew all the way from texas, i should note, seems to be a kind of show of force from the u.s. because obviously there's carriers in the region but they used these b1 bombers. it's a 6,000-mile, nonstop flight. can you just walk us through how the u.s. carried this out? >> yes, the b1 bomber is an

aircraft capable of flying nonstop with refueling. and it can do that to any point in the globe. so that makes it an important, really strategic asset for the united states. and these bombers have done missions like this before. the first time the beb1 flew in combat was actually in 1998 for operation desert fox which was also done here in the middle east. but the key thing for this particular operation is they were able to fly nonstop from the air force base in abilene, texas, all the way to syria and iraq. and they were able to do this because they had the capabilities, and of course, they also have the weapons onboard to do the kinds of things that they need to do in order to really go after those 85 targets that were hit today. >> colonel cedric leighton, glad to always have you here but especially on a night like tonight. also joining me here the former head of u.s. central command. and it's great to have you here as well, admiral.

because when we look at this response obviously it's sent as a message from the white house they say is just the beginning. do you think the first round sends a strong enough message in your view? >> kaitlan, i think you've hit the nail on the head. it's the first round. this is the opening salvo in what i expect is going to go on for some time. and that's the message has already come out of the white house. in my view there are at least three different levels of activity and intention here. first, is the strikes today retaliation, to strike back at the perpetrators that caused the death of our soldiers and other activities. the second thing is to attempt to deter further attacks. third thing and i think most important is to send a message to iran because they're behind all this activity, they

coordinate it, they fund it, they arm it, and they encourage it. at the end of the day the real objective in my mind is to get a message to iran we've had enough of it, and it's got to stop. >> on your second point about deterring the attacks, that's really the main question. does it stop the attacks on u.s. forces? >> we'll see. my sense is that it's going to be really hard. so these -- first of all, the iran-u.s. dynamic has been one of mutual distrust and enimty for four decades. iran is well-entrenched all over this region. they've got proxies doing their bidding for quite a long time. we're going to have to figure out how to get that message to iran they've got to stop. so i view this activity today as chasing rats in the sewers. by the way, remember this is a 1,500 mile piece of territory

from the mediterranean all the way down to yemen. i know there were strikes in yemen today as well. it's a large territory. you've got these rats, if you will, these proxies that are coming up and nipping at us here and there. iran has been slowly but surely escalating this, so we're going to have to not only take care of the rats but we're going to have to get back to the source of this, and that's iran. >> what does that look like? what if this doesn't deter them? >> i think we have to look in a broader sense. and i would hope that's going on right now. so we have the military escalation that's under way. how long, how far, how much remains to be seen. i think there's some other things we might want to take a look at in iran. that is take a real hard look at the sanctions we have and see if we're actually enforcing them or not. i get the feeling we're maybe not being as tough as we say we are with that.

and i note that iran, for example, continues to export oil. they're cranking out 4.5 million barrels a day and most of it's going to china, around 90% of it. this whole business is connected and the u.s. is in the middle of it, and we're now standing up. and we have to be prepared, and hopefully we thought through some of the follow on steps we can get these folks in tehran to understand we're not going to continue to tolerate it. >> you said two things that really stood out to me. one, you talk about how long this could go on for. how long do you think this could go on for? >> you have no idea they have these initial strikes planned. i would suspect they have a number of days and nights, and they're going to assess and see what we've done, what our folks have been able to accomplish. and then i'm sure they have a list. back in my day we'd have a list

of things we'd want to accomplish. we'd check if off see how we're doing, if we're not there we'll have to finish the list. then we're going to have to stand back and see if this is actually having an affect. >> when you look at that part of the options and some of what lawmakers were calling for, some of them at least were striking actually inside iran. is that something you think would need to be on the table if they're not deterred by this? >> well, i think whether it's on the table in fact or in messaging, i think the message needs to be there that if iran doesn't stop this stuff, that we are likely to continue to escalate in ways that make sense. we're not looking for another war in the middle east by any means. but the message has to get there. and by the way, there are a lot of iranian stuff, if you would, and without calling things out specifically, there are things i think we could do that might get -- help get that message across. but i suspect it's not going to be easy, not going to have

happen overnight. this isn't going to be a one-time shot. it's going to take a while. and hopefully we've got a plan with the administration to see how we do. and if it's not getting there to get it. >> what are the things, though, you think would be effective? >> so, again, if we go back and look -- the military strikes will do what they do. it appears right now we're -- the initial strikes just in the three countries you mentioned i doubt we would go and strike iran directly. but there are other things we might be able to do that could get to iran that might help them get the message. and, again, back -- i think we need to relook at some of the things we said we're doing and see if we're really being effective in those in the way of sanctions and other activities. >> admiral, it was great to have you tonight. and as we do see what the aftermath of this looks like, we'll be sure to have you back. thanks for being here on "the source." >> you bet, my pleasure.

and coming up tonight we also have a former cia officer who spent 20 years in this region on what he thinks could be next. and one of donald trump's federal trials with a big date open on his and a lot of everybody's calender.

back to our breaking story

tonight. as president biden is delivering on his vow from earlier this week to forcefully respond to iran-backed militia groups responsible for the deaths of three u.s. soldiers in that deadly drone attack in jordan, a short time ago the u.s. carried out a series of military strikes at seven sites in iraq and in syria. the white house says this is just the beginning of their response. we have cnn's alex marquardt in washington tracking all of it. given officials do believe they were successful, how exactly are they gauging success? >> really in two different ways, kaitlan. the first is they say they hit what they intended to. the director of the joint chiefs said the targets they laid out, that those were hit, seven facilities in iraq and syria. not just iran-backed groups but facilities connected to iran's irgc and the quds force. the pentagon said the targets they laid out they had an

expectation there would be casualties. the pentagon hasn't confirmed yet there are casualties, but we know from syrian state media that there were deaths reported in syria. of course this is in response to that strike on sunday that left three american service members dead. the second way they think this is success is they think they sent a very strong message. you have 85 different targets that were hit not with jets from the middle east, they were based with their f-15s, f-16s. this was as you just spoke with colonel leighton about done with b1 bombers flown over the united states. the real test if this is a success is if iran is deterred in the end. will they be after tonight? almost certainly not, but we know this isn't going to be the end of it. there's an expectation there'll be more strikes like this in eastern syria, in western iraq perhaps against logistics lines coming from iran into iraq.

the u.s. could step up their strikes in the red sea against the houthis. we could see cyber attacks. so there is an expectation that this will continue, and the big question is will iran, will those groups be deterred? this is far from over, kaitlan. >> yeah, that is the main question. alex marquardt, great reporting. also joining us now is he spent 21 years in the middle east, wrote the book "the devil we know dealing with the iranian super power." bob, just few people have your level of knowledge on the region, the militias operating like you do. do you think the first round of strikes and obviously that could change as morning comes and we learn a little bit more, do yowl think it's enough to deter these groups? >> no, i don't think it's a decisive attack. i think it was very accurate, the b1 bombers, cruise missiles very, very accurate. they get what they were shooting at. the problem is the last couple

days these forces had been dispersing personnel and ammunition, weapons, the rest of it, so they were preparing for this attack. i think mainly this attack will serve as a message to tehran is that we are willing to escalate if they keep attacking our forces in the middle east, and we have forces in iraq, jordan, and everywhere else. so, yes, i think it's a strong message. and let's see what the iranians do, but what i'm afraid of, kaitlan, is this is going to escalate the war across the middle east. the iranians are determined to project power from yemen to lebanon to syria to iraq right across what we call the shia crescent. >> how does the u.s. hurt iran and thread that needle? i mean is it cyber attacks like just mentioned, or is it direct strikes on some in iran? how do you hurt iran? >> well, we could hurt iran.

it has a relatively weak army, which we could oo easily beat. but attacking iran, they have asymmetrical warfare capabilities. in particular they cake out the gulf oil facilities, we're talking about 30% of the world's reserves. they could close it down in 24 hours with missiles. they hit a saudi facility in 2015. it was a very accurate attack, very damaging. so if we get into an escalation, this is going to get really ugly. >> it kind of feels like we're in that escalation. i mean, this is obviously an escalation in and of itself, but how do we know, as the u.s. is inching closer, how do we know when that's happened? >> well, one thing is the iraqi -- some of the positions we hit the iraqis describing almost as their national guard positions. so are the iraqis going to throw us out of iraq?

i don't know that they are, but they're certainly complaining a lot. there's nothing the syrian government can do, and the iranians are continuing to -- to supply hezbollah and encouraging it to attack northern israel. i think what the escalation would look like was if lebanon was drawn into this war very seriously. >> and you believe all this goes back to what we're watching happening in gaza? >> oh, absolutely. the iranians are allied with hamas. hamas could exist without the iranians, but the iranians are definitely behind them. and i think the iranians look at this as a great opportunity to spread their influence across the middle east, the gulf, yemen, everywhere else. and right now they are looking like as i wrote in my book, a super power at least in the middle east. >> bob beyer, i have a feeling we're going to be talking a lot. thanks for coming on tonight and joining us. and on a solemn note, just

hours before these strikes happened, the remains of those three army reservists who were killed in the deadly drone strike in jordan were returned to the united states. under a somber gray sky president biden, the first lady, top pentagon leaders, stood silently in the receiving line for the dignified transfer at dover air force base. with their hands over their hearts or raised in salute, they stood as those flag draped cases were sceremony moved. for president biden this now marks the second dignified transfer of his presidency.

tonight donald trump has succeeded in pushing back his federal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election at least for now. right now it will no longer begin a month from now as it was slated to on march 4th. that's because we're still waiting for that appeals court to rule on his claim that he had absolute immunity as president. meaning that right now it remains unclear when that trial will begin. i'm joined tonight by an attorney who knows what it's like to defend donald trump in a federal criminal case, jim trusty who's no longer on the legal team i should note for our viewers who haven't seen you here before. i wonder it seems exactly what trump's legal team wanted, a delay. >> well, it is. but you have to really go back and recognize that the march trial date, the super monday trial date was really a kind of

arbitrary creation. jack smith pushing for what he called a speedy trial, right, which makes almost no sense. it's a defendant's right. and the trial judge accommodating that and saying that she had no interest in hearing about conflicting schedules. so when the case went to the d.c. circuit court of appeals on the immunity issue, jack couldn't even wait for that. he asked the supreme court to jump in on an expedited basis. and i think it played out by too clever by a half. now they're stuck with the fact the supreme court is going to rule on this eventually, but it won't be on a speedy base. >> we don't know about the supreme court because right now we're waiting to hear from the appeals court on that argument about immunity. i should note it's not just jack smith because you're right the judge, judge chutkan, is the one who agreed and set that march date. on the appeals court why do you think it's taking so long for them to issue a ruling on the immunity claim? >> look, like most lawyers i'd

go four or five bet on their timing. oral argument was not that long ago and these are thorny issues. i think it's a pretty hot bench for president trump's lawyers, so i don't expect full immunity is going to get a whole lot of love from the panel, but i'm sure they're taking a time sheet out, writing a reasoned opinion and recognizing as i do the odds are very strong it goes right up to the supreme court. >> once they -- a technical issue that can be actually important is once they do rule, which you think will be against him based on what we heard, do you believe judge chutkan will then try to actually move forward with this, you know, set a trial date, have motions being filed again, request out for jurors, start what would be happening right now? >> yeah, that's a great question and a hard one to answer. i mean, for the moment she just entered a minute order, which means there wasn't some sort of hearing, and she just announced all scheduling was suspended

because of the current appeal. i think most likely it's going to stay that way until the supreme court either assessments or denies cert. obviously if they deny certiorari and say we're not going to hear the case, which i can't see happening with something this important then she can bring the parties on and try to have the case go to trial in the summer or fall. but, again, realistically with the first bite at the supreme court landing with such a thud in terms of expedition, i think they're going to be on their regular briefing schedule. we're months away, and i think it would be fairly foolish a trial date knowing that they're taking the case. >> as of today do you think it's more or less likely that none of his federal cases go to trial before the election? >> well, i think it's certainly less likely because the one that was shaping up as a definite, you know, or at least close to a definite was january 6th because of the insistence of the trial court, you know, we're going get this done. i think that the approach in

florida, which a lot of people try to say is partisan, somehow she's favoring president trump, it's actually much more typical for federal practice, she's taking a much more incremental approach, and it's complicated by the delays that happen with classified information. there's a whole long procedure that usually adds a year to any case just to sift through how classified materials are going to be used at trial. she's basically said let's come back in march and see where discovery is, see where the classified stuff is going and then we'll talk about setting a trial date, and we'll consider the calenders of the attorneys, which in my experience is much more typical than just announcing here's the date, clear your books and be there when i tell you to. so i think that the florida case is probably drifting towards after the election, but not surprisingly based on the cipa, the classified information component, that really dictates a slow process. >> i should note it's not just people, you know, who are complaining saying she's partisan, she also had bungled some things up front that nonpartisan lawyers had said

she'd made mistakes on. i do want to ask you just overall trump's legal team we just found out he spent $50 million on legal expenses just last year alone. you know, he had the $83.3 million verdict from that jury on friday. he's had a lot of verdicts going against him. do you think that he's getting his money's worth or i guess i should say his donors since i guess that's where the money's coming from? >> that was a great roundabout way to get me to comment on the attorneys. >> i thought it was pretty direct, actually. >> well, took a while, but i figured out where you were going. look, the bottom line is, you know, these are unprecedented times. i think it's a very bad sign and a common one between all these types of cases even some of the civil ones, that there's a measure of creativity in the charging here or in the civil complaint. and, you know, when we're talking about a former president no matter what you think of him

and a presidential candidate who's leading the administration, when you take all that we should have very thoughtful, transparent, predictable behavior by prosecutors and by plaintiffs. meaning they should -- they shouldn't have a political cal clas. they should be saying this is about justice, we're going to be transparent, we're going to be patient. and that's not what we're seeing with jack smith. we're seeing all sorts of irregularities out of georgia and with the michael cohen case with alvin bragg -- >> jack smith in florida, the documents case, and this case. and these cases were started long before trump was running for office again and before he was the republican front-runner. the reporting was he actually declared he was running in part because of his legal trouble. >> well, look, you can also say it's just going after a former president. you strip away the impact on a current election. i would want prosecutors and i was a prosecutor for 27 years. i would want them to be very circumspect, thoughtful, fair,

transparent when it comes to going after somebody who was a president of the united states whether or not they run. i think there's a lot of open questions jack smith insisting on a trial the day before super tuesday, attorneys accused of essentially blackmailing defense attorneys in the mar-a-lago case. there's a lot of stuff to sift through that history may not be real kind to. >> yeah, we've talked about your blackmailing claim here before, and that march date was one the judge set. jim trusty, thanks for joining us tonight. and i'm joined by a former prosecutor. i wonder what you make, he said it's looking less likely any of these cases happen now before the election. >> in terms of the federal cases i do still hold out hope the d.c. case happens before the next election, the classified documents case i don't think so. and not just necessarily judge cannon is biased, she's a relatively new judge.

she's relatively inexperiencedch i'm not sure she wants all the juteany of a trial particular before the election. in the federal case in d.c. i do still hold out hope that could happen. i think what you're seeing in the appeals court it's a three judge panel. you have one of those judges, judge henderson, who was actually against expediting the appeal. and she has the most seniority. she can decide she wants to write the opinion, and she can take her sweet time drafting it. and the oral arguments suggested there were some questions. you know, what is the legal standard? it's not going to be absolute immunity. i don't think any of them agreed with that. but will it be something short of that? outer duties or something narrower? it seemed like they were wrestling with what the legal standard would be. >> and now we're waiting to see of course not just that, mentioned georgia. we're waiting to see what happens there as we just got that first formal response from willis today. we'll see what the judge

decides. up next a story about a fit of rage with the former president in that case. we'll be talking about the 8$833 million verdict, apparently throwing papers across the table, storming off during a lunch. the other side of that table was e. jean carroll's attorney who's now speaking out.

two leading candidates for senate. two very different visions for california. steve garvey, the leading republican, is too conservative for california. he voted for trump twice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat, defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. not just any whiteboard...

...katie porter's whiteboard is one way she's: [news anchor] ...often seen grilling top executives of banks, big pharma, even top administration officials. katie porter. never taken corporate pac money - never will. leading the fight to ban congressional stock trading. and the only democrat who opposed wasteful “earmarks” that fund politicians' pet projects. katie porter. focused on your challenges - from lowering housing costs to fighting climate change. shake up the senate - with democrat katie porter. i'm katie porter and i approve this message. the attorney who just defeated donald trump to the tune of $83.3 million is now

speaking out about what happened behind the scenes including a moment that sent the former president into a fit of rage. roberta kaplan was representing e. jean carroll in her defamation trial that ended last friday. and during the lead up to that trial trump sat with her legal team for a deposition at mar-a-lago. i'll let kaplan explain what happened when it came time for lunch. >> and you could kind of see the -- the wheels spinning in his brain. you could really almost see it. and he said, well, you're here at mar-a-lago. what do you think you're going to do for lunch? where are you going to go get lunch? and i said to him, well, i raised this question with your attorneys yesterday, sir, and they graciously offered to provide us with lunch. at which point there was a huge pile of documents, exhibits sitting in front of him and he took the pile and he just threw it across the table. >> that was on the podcast.

george conway explains it all. and i'm joined now by george conway, so please, explain it all for us. >> well, i can't really explain it because i've never heard of anything like that before. it is a very common practice when you are hosting a deposition, your counsel provides lunch for everyone else and they provide lunch usually in a separate conference room so both sides can have confidential conversations. and in this particular instance the deposition was held at mar-a-lago for donald trump's convenience. so it would have been perfectly understandable and was perfectly understandable that alina habba and the team of lawyers representing trump ordered lunch for their adversaries. and the same courtesy would be extended if the shoe were on the other foot, and he went bananas because of that. and he started screaming as robbie kaplan describes, screaming at alina habba. tough client there. >> there was this other moment

there as i was listening to this whole conversation, and it's obviously not just getting my attention but also everyone else's. i want people to just listen to that. >> we come in the room and i say i'm done asking questions, and immediately i hear from the other side off-the-record, off-the-record, off-the-record. so they must have planned it. and he looks at me from across the table and he says see you next tuesday. you could tell it was like -- it was kind of a joke, again, like tee teenage boys would come up with. >> that was a teenage boy level joke. >> okay, george, this is cable. >> i'm not going to spell it out. >> but what did you think when you were sitting there listening to that? >> i mean it's just appalling. he's a pig. and the fact he was president of the united states makes all the more distressing. it was misogynistic, to call a woman that to her face and trying to be cute about it.

i mean, it was just disgraceful and the kind of indecent conduct that you wouldn't expect in any adult. i mean it was just -- i wouldn't even say it was teenage boy level conduct. it was just utterly, utterly childish. and it's not that surprising that trump does this. i mean, we know -- we've seen him there do all sorts of crude things over time, and it brought to mind this incident that occurred in the roosevelt room i think it was in the fall of 2019 where donald trump was congratulating a pair of female astronauts who had conducted a space walk outside the space shuttle, and it was the first all female eva. and trump made a mistake. he said, oh, this is the first time a woman's ever been outside the space shuttle, and then the astronaut, the female astronaut gently corrected him, and he clearly was taken aback. it was a very gentle, very

respectful correction, and he starts to touch his forehead as if to scratch it, but he used his middle finger. and there was this huge controversy, was he really giving the finger to these astronauts, and people gave him the benefit of the doubt. but i find it hard to give him the benefit of the doubt after seeing all this conduct. >> george conway, it was a fascinating conversation. and to hear from her behind the scenes, thank you for coming on. again, you are now a source regular. thanks for coming on tonight. >> happy to be here. also tonight we're following another court case. this is the fate of jennifer crumbly. she's the mother of that michigan school shooter. tonight her fate is in the hands of a jury after a rather bizarre day of closing arguments. you've really got to hear what her attorney was saying. that's next. .

>> a historic case has now reached its final phase as the jury is going to start dlib rating in the manslaughter trial of jennifer crumbley using a gun

his parents had given him for christmas. she's the first parent standing trial over her kids school shooting n. the closing arguments today her defense attorney acknowledged a guilty verdict would set a dangerous precedent for parents and also told the jury that she is human and flawed just like her client. >> i will openly admit that i'm a lawyer who messes up. i'm lucky if i'm fit for human contact. i'm lucky if you've taken a true shower and didn't just grab wipes and scrub off best i can running out the door. actually i have an oops baby my fourth one. i did not want one in four years. i have a large butcher block on my count weather big knives when

i cook and i enjoy cooking and at the end of the day my kids could just as easily grab a knife without me knowing it. here tonight attorney and legal affairs analyst ariva martin. i wonder what you made of that closing argument. >> yeah kaitlyn it did not resonate with me and i would be surprised if it resonated with jurors and i understood she was trying to say look, this could be any one of you. we are all human. we make mistakes there. are no perfect parents. don't find her guilty because she is a mother that has made mistakes. but what was missing from this argument are the gakts of this case. this is not a case of someone that has to use wipes because they can't shower. this is a mother that had clear opportunity to prevent her son from committing these murders. she had the warning signs.

thick red warning signs and ignored them and i think jurors are going to be smart enough to diminnish between a busy working lawyer that has four kids and a mother of one child where the evidence has shown that she has spent more time with a boyfriend or trying to find one on an on line app than taking care of her child and so i got what the motivation was behind this kind of argument but i think it fell short. >> what did you make of the cross-examination that started this morning in they were trying to make a point she wasn't responding to her son's texts or answering his calls saying please call me back. what did you make of how effective that was? >> i think the prosecutor made? good points. i was surprised the cross-examination was so short. i think there were missed opportunities. he could have delved more into the meeting of the office.

i think parents are going to find what jennifer did at that school meet vg -- meeting troubling. she's there 12 minutes doesn't engage with her son and i think if a school shows you this disturbing picture your son has drawn you don't say to the school there's a gun we purchased as a gift for christmas. there's a gun that i don't personally know where the key is i don't know where the gun is according to her and even to say to her son, son this is troubling. do you need help? even though she's tried to argue the school told her he was okay and could return to class i think jurors will have a hard time with that and the prosecution did a good job juxtaposing her statement about hyper village land involved mom and what she actual did i that day. >> what's your prediction how long it would take a jury to reach a verdict?

>> you know it's always difficult to know kaitlyn how long jurors will take. this isn't a case with a ton of evidence. this was supposed to be a 2-3 week trial. it was much faster than anyone expected there. were no witnesses called by the defense other than jennifer herself, so it could be two hours. it could be a couple of days. >> we'll wait to see ariva martin thank you. >> thanks kaitlyn. >> ahead, remembering the beloved actor carl weathers, the star of four rocky films and so much more.

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plus, get the new samsung galaxy s24 on us. >> he took it! damn it! come on. what's the matter with you? there is no tomorrow. >> the legendary actor, carl weathers, has died at the age of 76. he passed away peacefully at home thursday according to his manager. he came to fame as apollo creed fast talking hard hitting nemesis turned ally in the rocky

movies, costar sylvester stallone shared this tribute to his long-time friend. >> he was magic and i was so fortunate to be part of his life. so apollo, keep punching. >> i should note, he found plenty of comic relief in his career in happy gilmore, adam sandler polled this message on instagram. that he certainly will. also tonight, as we were at break the story we started out with brand new video come from the pentagon tonight of those b-1 bombers taking off from texas for the strike tonight in the