today on getting answers. two brothers encounter a mountain lion in el dorado county and one brother is killed. how can you best protect yourself if you come face to face with the big

cat and excitement over the eclipse? in 12 days, the moon will block the sun completely. in a rare celestial event, your best viewing tips for the bay area but first, independent presidential candidate robert f kennedy jr names his running mate. he does so in the bay area and picking a woman who has a high profile in silicon valley. you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us this afternoon. robert f kennedy jr, son of robert f kennedy, nephew of president john f kennedy, environmental lawyer, and more recently anti-vaccine crusader, held a rally in oakland. the democrat turned independent introduced his new running mate, 38 year old bay area tech lawyer nicole shanahan. >> the very failure of both parties to do their job to protect their founding values has contributed to the decline of this country. in my lifetime. maybe that's why i see so many republicans disillusioned with

their party. as i become disillusioned with mine. if you are one of those disillusioned republicans, i welcome you to join me. a disillusioned democrat in this movement to unify and heal america. the >> a disillusioned democrat, we should also say a big donor to democratic candidates in the past, joining us live now to talk about this ticket and all things presidential politics. abc news political director rick klein. hey, rick. >> hey, great to see you. >> great to see you. all right. this is interesting. i think if you're really into politics, you know, nicole shanahan, if you know silicon valley, you know, nicole shanahan, but the general public really doesn't. so tell us a little bit about her and why you think rfk jr picked her the only 38 years old, as you said, a lawyer for a tech companies married to one of the previously married to one of the google co-founders, which has made her fabulously wealthy. >> i think maybe one of the main reasons is her age, the fact

that she is of a different generation is something that that kennedy referenced in particular. her wealth is a big factor because the opportunity that that presents to help this campaign get on the ballot right now, they're only on the ballot in one state, confirmed. they say they have the signatures in seven states, but they're going to have to spend many, many tens of millions of dollars to get elsewhere. and then i think, yeah, the, the, the, the profile that she cuts as a younger woman, former democrat with the deep ties in silicon valley and in the tech world can tap into some of the kind of libertarian streaks there. some of the anti anti-vaccine streaks that we've seen in skepticism around science. all of those things can be kind of rolled into this package that presents itself to the public. but a lot of kennedy's core supporters were surprised by this wasn't one of the names that was talked about back when we were talking about aaron rodgers or jesse ventura. but the public is going to learn a lot about her because she certainly has the resources to help get the word out. >> yeah, i mean, she's a newcomer as a candidate. but you know what? i went back and looked at where she's appeared.

and i guess in 2019, she was one of the co-hosts for a big fundraiser for pete buttigieg back in his campaign for president. and, you know, other co-hosts were big names in silicon valley, like netflix co-founder reed hastings, so does that silicon valley connection really tap into something, and could that bring them both tremendous money? but also, you know, a lot of interest, right. >> yeah, i think it's a i think it's a critical nexus. and i think understanding that that kind of strain in politics is important because a lot of the, a lot of the people that they are associated with normally or considered themselves democrats, but maybe a little bit disillusioned to her point and feel like the democratic party has lost some of its original bearings. now, where it maybe loses some of that appeal is when you start to dig into the things that both kennedy and shanahan have done that are frankly, anti-science and, and potentially very dangerous. there's also just kind of questions, legally, about the fact that they're both california residents under the constitution, any elector from california can't actually vote for both of them. so that's an issue that they're going to have to square. and i wonder if it's

something they even looked at on the front end. and one of them has to change residency, which is possible. and again, the ballot access question is going to be a real one too, because this is not enough to just have this campaign and run it nationally. you have to actually be on the ballot places. but you know, it's telling to me that that both democrats and republicans are attacking this election and attacking the kennedy shanahan ticket because they are they are not really sure where the votes come from, and they're not sure what kind of impact this is going to have on the race. >> yeah. talk about how much time they have left to get their ticket on the ballot. i mean, seven states, that's not a great start, but how many do you really need? >> well, you have to need enough to get 270 electoral votes if you actually want to win. if the point is just to be a spoiler, it could be any number of states that that you go for. but right now they don't have a path to do that. now, every state is different. there's some filing deadlines that are still months and months away, especially because they don't have to worry about primaries when you're running for an independent. kennedy started out running as a democrat, but he abandoned that pretty early on when he realized

it wasn't going to be possible to beat joe biden in the primaries. that's why he started doing this. but he hasn't had even though he's very wealthy himself, the kind of well-financed mechanism to put himself on the ballot. that famous ad that we saw during the super bowl was actually funded by shanahan, who was, playing along with the super pac. that raises some novel legal issues as well, to have a candidate who has been funding a super pac to support a candidacy that she's now part of. so all of these things are going to get sorted out, but there's plenty of time to, to, to get it done if you have the right resources. but again, to me, the bar is you actually have a path to 270 electoral votes. otherwise you're almost the definition of a potential spoiler. >> yeah. and we're seeing next to you video from that super bowl ad, which you got to think that was expensive. it ran during the super bowl. and shanahan did support that financially. but after that, i know his family came out and really criticize him and said, really, we're not behind him. in fact, his sister, kerry kennedy, also tweeted a picture of the whole family. the kennedy clan, with president biden on saint patrick's day clearly supporting him. what a wei place for robert f kennedy jr to be in. >> truly there are numerous members of the kennedy family

that are fraly horrified by this. they feel like, their brother or their uncle or their cousin has, has not just strayed from the family legacy, but in some ways, they think straight from being in touch with realities and i think that was a striking portrait. and i think every time the member of the kennedy family is interviewed about it, you can see there's a sense of kind of sadness that they're that they're engaging in it, but they don't consider, robert f kennedy jr to be one of them politically, despite his very famous name, which gives him you know, entree to a lot of conversations around politics. >> right. okay. so other being other than being anti-vaccine and really spreading a lot of misinformation, and that's what he's been kind of known for recently. what is his platform about? >> well, i think he's running against, government debt. he's running in favor of more environmental regulations, which is part of his, part of his history. but look, he's going to have to flesh that out, and he's going to have to answer questions about what he'd actually do to govern, having no experience. i think the campaign right now is about celebrity, and it's about trying to get attention for some more fringe

causes, and those will get elevated. but i can't sit here today and tell you what his platform is, because i don't think kennedy himself has. >> yeah. okay. so is his presence in the race going to impact biden more or trump more? what's the thinking? and you talked about possibly playing spoiler. who is he going to affect more? >> well, look, i think his name and the fact that he and shanahan are former democrats would suggest biden and i think trump supporters being more dug in on trump, than than than biden's are for biden would suggest that there's more softness there. but the flip side is with some of the policy positions that we're just talking about, including the vaccine skepticism. that's more on the libertarian or even conservative republican maga side. so i tell you that in conversations with with both camps, the biden camp and the trump camp, they're not sure, they they think that that he is a potential threat and it doesn't take many votes in many places to be a spoiler. there were states last time that were settled by as few as 10 or 11,000 votes. very easy to see that kennedy gets that kind of a margin in a wisconsin or a michigan or an arizona, and if he's on the ballot, that

representing more votes than the difference between the two candidates. >> yeah. all right. speaking of trump, he is pretty much locked up the republican nomination. but he's facing possible lock up himself. the criminal trial related to hush money payments to stormy daniels is set to start next month. what's the latest with his various cases? >> well, that's the one that's going to come to trial first, he got a bit of a financial reprieve yesterday because it's the judge was allowed to slash the amount of money that he puts into a bond to cover, a civil a civil judgment against him. but beyond that, we don't have dates for the other trials. we were. you know, originally the january 6th related trial, the special counsel trial was supposed to start a couple of weeks ago. it's delayed until the supreme court can hear his kind of sweeping claims around the presidential immunity. that's the end of april. so that's that's probably months away from starting. we know the case in georgia, has been delayed by the arguments about whether whether fani willis can can oversee that and that she's been, left in place there and, down in florida, the classified

documents case, there is no trial date scheduled. the judge there was appointed by donald trump. doesn't appear to be moving very quickly. so the first trial dates will be in the middle of april and we'll consume many weeks. and trump's been complaining about how it keeps him off the campaign trail. but the flip side of that is he's been choosing to be in court many times. he recognizes that it's a powerful campaign statement to be inside a courtroom. >> yeah, and it allows him to play the victim to some people, right, to his followers. so it keeps him in the news, too. speaking of being in the news, his social media company or the trump media and technology group went public today and is it surprising to people how insanely well it did? >> yeah. i mean, look, i think social media companies are always a little unpredictable when they go on the market. and, there are financial people that, that, that, that look at this and think, well, there may be an easy dollar to be made. as much as truth social has failed to catch on with the general public, they do have an audience that is a powerful one. and it may be that people think that the value there is in having these dedicated, core users, you can sell that information to a lot of different companies to

see the billions that it's worth, despite the fact that it's a company that's been bleeding money. it's a story that's old in the tech world, but it's new in this political world. and it may be people to that are kind of buying and selling based on the expectation that donald trump could win or that there's a quick buck to be made, but it is a wild day, one success that i think, you know, surprised a lot of people in the political world who think of truth social as kind of a kind of a failure today. yeah. >> i know, well, it's, you know, raises money and that's what he needs right now. look, we only have about 30s. but i want to ask you real quickly, seeing some new polls that suggest biden is gaining steam, especially in battleground states. >> yeah, i think they're at the margins in the very small numbers, you know, well, within the margin of error, i don't think anyone should read so much into it. but i think the heartening thing for biden, and if you're rooting for biden to win, you say, well, he's reached rock bottom because it seems like things are bouncing back, but certainly it's not, you know , an unalloyed good news for him. there's lots of the quirks in these polls. and, and, you know, we're just talking about movement of a point or two in any direction. all right. >> rick klein, abc news political director. thank you so much.

>> you bet. thanks for having me . >> a deadly mountain lion attack on two brothers who appear to have done everything right. what makes this attack so rare? and what can we do to try to stay safe in mountain lion country next?

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mountain lion attack deputies in el dorado county say a mountain lion attacked two brothers saturday while they were gathering antlers. one brother was killed, the other was injured. trappers killed the male cougar. hours later, the family of the two brothers says they did everything they were supposed to, but this tragedy has generated a lot of conversation about how to stay safe around these big cats. joining us live now is josh rosenow, director of policy and advocacy with the mountain lion foundation. josh, thanks for your time. hi >> thanks for having me. >> so two questions here. how common are human mountain lion encounters and then how common are rare or rare, i should say are those fatal encounters. >> so this is the first fatal encounter in california in 20 years. so that that gives a sense of how how infrequent this is. and in across all of north america, over the last 100 years, there have been 27, 28. it's just really, really

uncommon. and i think even even in the midst of a tragedy like this and even as as scary as it can be, it's just worth bearing in mind that that mountain lions are as interested in staying away from us as we really are, of staying away from them. >> i definitely want to explore that a little bit more. right? it's not like they're just waiting for humans to come along so they can be predators and attack us. but where do these encounters tend to occur when we enter their habitat, like in this case, or when they enter our habitat? >> i think it's again, it's so, so rare that it's almost hard to draw broad conclusions earns a lot of the time, we are definitely increasingly getting into their habitat and that's, you know, less less a matter of hiking and biking and other outdoor recreation. but we're, we're pushing into the forests where they live with, with housing and with roads. and every, every week in california, a couple of mountain lions get hit by cars. it's that's one of

the big sources of mortality for mountain lions statewide. even in a state where where hunting was outlawed, decades ago, humans are still the largest cause of mountain lion deaths. >> i see, i see, look, in this case, the brothers were in the woods looking for shed antlers. and when they encountered this particular cougar, the family says they stopped. says they raised their hands, yelled, and even threw a backpack that is textbook, right. that is everything right in an encounter, isn't it? >> absolutely. i mean, it's if when people ask me what to do when i've had friends and coworkers at the mountain lion foundation who, hiked the pacific crest trail, going out solo, hiking other, other outdoor activities, and that's the advice that i give people is if you, for the most part, mountain lions are fraidy cats. they don't want to be near people. and they don't want to be near near someone who's who's fighting them. if they're if they're interested in getting

close to something, it's pretty much a deer. so can i ask you then if we don't look like a deer, they won't get close to us. >> yeah. this mountain lion. do you think it just behaved in a very, very unusual way that this was a anomaly of a mountain lion? what would trigger kind of an unusually aggressive. i'm going to keep coming at you behavior instead of running away. yeah. >> it's really hard to say and i we may never really understand what what happened here all the. it is it was a young lion. so less experienced, less less knowledge about the world, less familiar with people, perhaps, you know, it's i, it's possible to imagine a lot of scenarios where if people are carrying antlers or if they're looking, it doesn't sound like they were looking around under bushes. but you definitely have situations where someone is in an unusual body position for a human and a mountain lion. maybe is less likely to recognize what they are, mistakes them for something else, not clear that that's what

happened here. and again, these are something like this that happens every every couple decades. it's. draw conclusions about about generalities. it's every individual. they're they're basically big house cats. they all behave in their own unique weird ways. >> so then what could people do then? right. in addition to what these guys did to try to be loud, try to be big and scary and try to scare the mountain lion away, should people, when they go into the woods, for example, carry bear spray? would that have helped? or any other weapons might be good to have bear spray definitely can be effective with mountain lions and with bears, and with a lot of the other critters that someone might encounter out there on the trail, and you know, i would not i don't do anything differently when i'm out hiking. if i'm in an area that has mountain lions, then if it has other wildlife that i want to keep at a reasonable distance. so yes, bear spray can be effective. a whistle can can work well. an air horn, oftentimes when we're talking

with ranchers or people who have backyard goats or things, we might suggest that they that they carry that with them, especially if they're out late at night, which is more often when you when you do have a closer encounter with a mountain lion, when they're more active, and when people are less likely to notice that they're getting that close. this happened during the day. there it's there's no there's no absolute rules here. but for the most part, it's standard outdoor safety. keep your pets on a leash. keep your kids close at hand so that you, you know, if they if they trip over something, you can pick them up. if they get too close to a skunk or a rattlesnake that you can that you can help them out. i wouldn't do anything specifically for mountain lions because again, it's so, so rare. you're more likely to get into a car crash driving to the trailhead than you are to even light on the important perspective. >> look, we only have 20s, but real quickly is more hunting an answer? because some folks say, look, you know, limits on hunting them has caused too much population. >> now, california has has

outlawed hunting since 1971, and these incidents are incredibly rare now. they were incredibly rare before. there's no no reason to think that there's any that there would be any improvement. and there's some reason to think that hunting would actually can actually increase the rates of conflict. >> josh rosenow, director of policy and advocacy with the mountain lion foundation, thanks for coming on to share some valuable information with us. >> appreciate it. thanks for having me, i appreciate it. >> on april 8th, you may be among those staring up into the sky. an extraordinary celestial event will cross north america. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has tips on how to get the best viewing of the total solar eclipse.

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phenomenon here in the bay area. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has an article out describing exactly what we can expect in offering viewing tips. joining us live now is astra kane, senior editor at the standard. hey, astrid. yeah. hey. so without making you an astronomer or a physicist, explain to us what is happening in the skies on april 8th. >> well, i'm actually more of an astrologer. on april 8th, we will be treated to a total solar eclipse. the last one for about 20 years. >> okay. that's so funny. okay, i'm not going to ask you to be my son or tell me you know how things are looking for libras, but okay, but the difference between total eclipse, as i understand right, is when the moon completely covers the sun and an annular eclipse, in which the moon doesn't cover the outer ring. so this time, if you're in the right place, you can get the total effect. but let's show the path of the one that this is going to travel and tell us which cities in the us are in the path. i don't think it's us here in the bay area or

california. sadly we know we're only going to be about 44% covered. >> i think if you go to san diego or extreme southern california, you'll get about 62. but if you want full totality and let me tell you, you definitely do. you either have to go to texas or from an arc going from southwest to northeast. that goes over a lot of the midwest into buffalo, new york, and then like extreme northern new england. >> okay. so they'll get, i guess, for i don't know how many minutes did you research this, how many minutes of like almost total darkness where like, day turns into night and then back into daylight again? >> oh, you know, i did. it's about 4.5 minutes, which is actually on the long end. the eclipse in 2017 was about two minutes. and 40s at its maximum. so this is way bigger. okay. >> so let's say you're in the bay area because you can't afford to fly to one of those places and do one of those tour packages. right. for this whole total eclipse, what can we do here to maximize our experience? what time should we get out there? what equipment should we have, what can we expect? >> yeah. so the eclipse happens at 10:14 a.m. precisely. so you

want to get out there a little before that? there's a couple of really good places to watch it. one is the chabot science center in the oakland hills. one is uc berkeley's lab. and then right here in san francisco, we have the good old exploratorium. so >> so what can you see with like, is it just telescopes and. right. and if we don't go there, i guess, what do we use? like should we get those, you know, spunky looking eclipse glasses. >> you definitely want your glasses. they're really easy to get actually, and yeah. so if you wherever you are, you can put them on, look at the sun and you'll see about half of it will be, you know, covered up. yeah. if you don't have them on and you're looking down at the ground, you'll see this weird kind of like colander effect, like the sunlight is being like through a sieve. it's really kind of unsettling. >> okay, you know, around here, you always have to worry. what about the clouds? i mean, could that ruin the whole thing for us? if it's really cloudy, it will truly ruin the whole thing. >> yeah, i know clouds. clouds are no good. you definitely want

to hope and pray for sun. >> okay, well, i mean, i'm going to go talk to spencer, okay? and see if he can clear things up for us, okay. so if we miss this one, when's the next one? because i think that always gets people out there when you say, oh, you got to wait another 20 years or. yeah you're going to wait another 20 years. >> i think the next one is in 2045. so hopefully we're all around to see that one too, okay. well thank you very much. i don't want to wait another 20 years. so i will try to make it out there. astrid kane, thanks so much. >> thank you. always a pleasure. >> all right. read my horoscope. next time you can check out more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting. and of course, astrid's story on their website, sf standard.com and abc7 will continue to bring you more segments featuring the standards, city focused journalism twice a week right here on getting answers at 3 p.m. and remember, abc seven is streaming 24 over seven. get the abc7 bay area app and join us whenever you want. wherever you are, we'll take a short break and be rig

answering questions with experts from around the bay area. world news tonight with david muir is next. i'll see you back here at four. tonight, the horrific bridge collapse here in baltimore. the search for victims, the investigation tonight. how could this happen? the stunning new images showing the moment a massive container ship crash into the francis scott key bridge here in baltimore, plunging the bridge into the river. authoritieshe