U.S. Marines Come to Haiti; Interim Constitution Agreed to in Iraq; Will Kerry Sweep on Super Tuesday?
Aired March 1, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.There probably was a time when Haiti was a happy place but not in a long time. Ruled by despots and death jobs, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was supposed to be a force for change for the good. Somehow it all went back. Be it through corruption or incompetence or subversion from the outside or a little bit of all of those, the former priest never lived up to his billing as the man who would lead his country out of misery.Tonight, he's gone amid questions about how he went. What remains is a country caught in the misery of poverty for most, greed for a few and much hopelessness. Haiti tops the program and begins the whip.CNN's Lucia Newman starts us off. She's on the videophone from Port-au-Prince, Lucia a headline tonight.
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A feeling of deju vu in this country today as the U.S. Marines again come to Haiti and so do members of Haiti's disbanded army, including a prominent death squad leader -- Aaron.BROWN: Lucia, thank you. We'll get to you at the top.Next to Super Tuesday, the primaries and caucuses tomorrow, ten states, more than 1,000 delegates on the line and just one Candy Crowley to cover it. Candy joins us from Atlanta, a headline from you tonight.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, this is one of those stories you probably could tell just by looking at the pictures. It's a political story about two very different men who ended up this evening in the same state looking at tomorrow from a very different place.
BROWN: Candy, thank you.Nine years now since the bombing in Oklahoma City and another trial set to begin for one of the conspirators. CNN's Susan Candiotti is covering that, Susan a headline from you.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a second trial for the second man convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing and some still question whether there were more.BROWN: Susan, thank you.And finally closing arguments in the trial of Martha Stewart more work for CNN's Allan Chernoff, Allan a headline.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Government prosecutors wrap up their case against Martha Stewart and her stockbroker saying the two engaged in a cover up. The broker's defense attorney says the government hasn't proven anything beyond a reasonable doubt -- Aaron.
BROWN: Allan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.Also coming up on the program tonight an important preliminary hearing for Kobe Bryant in his rape case and arguments of just what questions can be asked of the alleged victim.Later in Segment 7, the case of an Eagle Scout and murder, could the perfect young man also have committed the perfect crime?As always, we end our evening with a look at your morning papers brought to you by who else, the rooster, all that and more in the hour ahead.We begin tonight with Haiti, which has a long troubled history of homegrown chaos and American intervention. Today, another chapter written, the president gone, U.S. Marines back taking up positions. We have two reports tonight, first, CNN's Lucia Newman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWMAN (voice-over): In Haiti, scenes from the past. A decade after coming into restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide the Marines are back to try and restore order without him.And then this the triumphant entrance into the capital of rebels led by leaders in Haiti's disbanded army. It was a victory celebration, thousands embracing the return of Guy Phillipe, the former police chief who came back from exile to force Aristide from power.(on camera): If there was ever a demonstration of how quickly political passions can sway it's this one. Some of the very same people who until recently were vowing to fight to the death for President Aristide are now welcoming back his arch enemies.(voice-over): At the general police headquarters, people hugged the deputy rebel chief, a notorious former paramilitary leader sentenced in absentia to life in prison for mass murder."Whatever the bad things from the past, 99 percent of the people here support us," said Louis Jodel Chamblain.Across the street, nervous U.S. Marines stood guard at the front door of the presidential palace.
COL. DAVID BERGER, U.S. MARINE CONTINGENT CHIEF: The U.S. forces are here to secure key sites in the Haitian capital around Port-au- Prince for the purpose of contributing to a more secure and stable environment and to help promote the constitutional political process.
NEWMAN: Next to morgue hearses lined up to take away bodies of more than a dozen people murdered overnight, many of them executed."We blame President Bush for allowing all this to happen. Getting rid of Aristide is not the solution" said this man, who told us supporters of the former president are terrified a well-founded fear in a country where calls for peace and reconciliation have so often been silenced by guns.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWMAN: Aaron, adding insult to injury, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's house, his villa here in Port-au-Prince was looted and trashed. At the same time, there was continued looting at the Port- au-Prince port for the third day running. The police and the U.S. Marines were nowhere to be seen -- Aaron.BROWN: Lucia, what does this mean, if anything, to Haitians, to just the people of Haiti? How do their lives change because of this?
NEWMAN: This means a lot of confusion for Haitians, although there's the hope that somehow normalcy can be returned, although this country really never has been normal, as you were saying at the beginning. It's the poorest country in the hemisphere.Basically, what most people say what we want to do is we want to eat. We want security. We want to live. We want our children to reach a ripe old age. That's what people really want and anybody who can give them that will be welcome.They had thought that President Aristide could achieve that for them but they're not so sure that necessarily the people who came to the town today will be able to do it either -- Aaron.
BROWN: Lucia, thank you very much, Lucia Newman in Port-au- Prince, many uncertainties clearly on the ground tonight.While it's clear that President Aristide is gone the details of his departure remain somewhat in dispute. The former Haitian leader says he did not go willingly. Is this is a case of resignation remorse or something more sinister?He describes it as in effect a kidnapping which the White House called utter nonsense, which is not to say of course that the U.S. had no role in the end game.Here's our National Security Correspondent David Ensor.
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DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a bitter phone call with CNN from exile in Africa, the former Haitian president claimed he was hustled out of his country as part of what he called a coup d'etat involving he said American officials who lied to him.
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE, FORMER HAITIAN PRESIDENT: They told me (unintelligible) that thousands of people will get killed once they start. So, I had to do my best to avoid that bloodshed. They used talk to push me out. That's why I call it again and again a coup d'etat, the modern way to have modern kidnapping.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The allegations that somehow we kidnapped former President Aristide are absolutely baseless, absurd.
ENSOR: In fact, a senior State Department official said Aristide has a history of "unusual and erratic statements" and officials say while he may be having second thoughts now he left Haiti with 15 bodyguards of his own free will after requesting U.S. help to leave. He even signed this letter of resignation, made available to CNN by a source, in which he says: "I am resigning in order to avoid a bloodbath."
POWELL: We did not force him onto the airplane. He went onto the airplane willingly and that's the truth.ENSOR: Aristide told CNN he and his wife were kept on a plane out of touch for nearly a full day and a night not told where they were going.
ARISTIDE: We spent 20 hours in that plane. We stopped knowing where we go. We stopped having the right to contact our people.
ENSOR: True said U.S. officials but that was because they could not officially find a country that would take him.
POWELL: We went through about an hour and a half of difficult negotiations with various countries and with friends of ours to find alternative locations that he might go to while the plane was in the air.
ENSOR: Some critics and other Caribbean governments charge even if the Bush administration did not kidnap Aristide it left him with no choice but to leave sending a disturbing message to other democratically elected leaders.
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: The fact of the matter is we said to President Aristide, look, you can stay and be killed or you can leave. You make the choice. That's hardly a voluntary departure.
ENSOR (on camera): The critics say by refusing to protect Aristide, the U.S. becomes at least partly responsible for what follows. It must now undertake nation building in Haiti they say and should be rightly condemned if it gives up too soon.David Ensor CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to Iraq, a line often followed by bad news but not tonight. Two items to report, first American casualties declined substantially last month; and second, Iraqis with American and international help have agreed to an interim constitution. It strikes a difficult and delicate balance between a good number of competing forces, which are now in play on the ground in Iraq, maintaining that balance will be the trick from now on, from Baghdad tonight CNN's Jane Arraf.
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JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): There was no doubt this was history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This document is historical because not only it reflects the agreement among the wider spectrum of Iraqi society but it also is inspirational.
ARRAF: Much of Iraq's proposed new constitution unprecedented in this region, including a target that women make up 25 percent of members of an elected national assembly."We worked diligently to give women their rights" said Dr. Raja Habib Khuzai, she a member of the governing council.The documents agreed upon unanimously just before dawn Monday after weeks of negotiations protects individual rights of all Iraqis and sets up democratic institutions like an independent justice system but it sets some tough questions aside, including exactly how much power the Kurds, who have governed their own territory since 1991 will retain.(on camera): In the streets of Baghdad, most people aren't sure what this document means. It hasn't been discussed with them or even explained to them. Many are skeptical.(voice-over): At Baghdad University, engineering student Omar Sami said Iraqis were more concerned about feeling secure.
OMAR SAMI, ENGINEERING STUDENT (through translator): What is more important now is that American forces put more stress on security and after that there should be general elections and then we can deal with the constitution.
ARRAF: One of the document's main aims is protecting religious freedom. In the Kasamia (ph) neighborhood of Baghdad, home to one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, followers practiced a ritual banned under the Ba'ath Party beating themselves to mark the killing of Imam Hussein 14 centuries ago. Hasan Mohammed Ali al-Yasin (ph) organizing a campaign for the faithful to give blood instead of making themselves bleed said Shias wanted that freedom for everyone."In the way we are now practicing our rituals freely the others have the same rights. There's no difference between Sunni, Shia, and even non-Muslims. We're all Iraqis," said (unintelligible).That's the intent behind the constitution. The hard work will be making all Iraqis feel that way.Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: By this time tomorrow night, if you believe the polls, Senator John Kerry will be within a whisker of sewing up the Democratic presidential nomination. Senator Kerry, for one, is acting like a believer. We can tell you that.His opponent, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is not, but despite adopting a tougher tone on the stump recently he doesn't seem to be gaining any traction, at least not enough to pull off major surprises tomorrow.Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): Two men with little that divides them on the political spectrum spent the eve of the biggest day of the primary season campaigning mostly in the same states. Their days could not have been more different. One may just be starting.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God, when November comes George Bush is going, we're coming, and don't let the door hit you on the way out folks.
CROWLEY: The other may be near the end.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I came here today to ask you to go to the polls tomorrow.
CROWLEY: One for 21, John Edwards faces the possibility of a shutout in Tuesday's ten state contests. He is running against time. He is working against odds.And now as John Kerry begins to gather the party faithful around him, John Edwards finds himself justifying why he stays in the race.
EDWARDS: As long as there's a serious substantive discussion going on among Democrats, which is what we've seen over the last few weeks between Senator Kerry and myself, we get a lot of attention from the American people and it's harder for George Bush to get attention and that's I think part of the reason that both myself and John Kerry are beating President Bush nationally in the polls.
CROWLEY: Mathematically, Kerry cannot win even if he sweeps Super Tuesday. Politically he can put it away. Strategically he has already moved on.
KERRY: This president has, in fact, created terrorists where they didn't exist and I believe -- I believe this president has run the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our country and we need to hold him accountable.
CROWLEY: Both men ended their day in Georgia. For both things will be different tomorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: John Edwards says he intends to stay in this race until he wins the nomination. John Kerry says he is still fighting for every vote but, as you know tonight, they can say little different -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, right. That's the easy thing is what you say out loud. The harder thing is what they're saying behind the scenes and so are you starting to hear rumblings that after tomorrow the pressure on Senator Edwards from the party and sometimes from his own staff will be more than he can handle?
CROWLEY: Interestingly, less from the party than from his own staff. Obviously, look, his staff has some specials on it. They are -- they're realists so they know that they can look at the polls and they see what's going on and what Edwards would have to do is almost super human, not to mention super candidate.But what, you know, what Edwards said is perfectly true that as long as he's in the race and it's still a race and people perceive it as still a race this keeps the Democrats on the front page. That is great for the Democratic Party because it drives down the president's numbers.The question is whether people still perceive that John Edwards is still in the race. If he loses ten tomorrow, we'll see.
BROWN: I'll let you get out of there before something hits you in the head.
CROWLEY: Exactly.
BROWN: Thank you.
CROWLEY: Just for you.
BROWN: Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow night, Candy.Still ahead on the program tonight, the latest on the Kobe Bryant case, Martha Stewart closing arguments.Up next, Terry Nichols goes on trial, this time state charges in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing amid charges the FBI held back important evidence.And later, tomorrow's big primary test not for Democratic candidates but for the electronic voting machines, a controversy that is just beginning.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It was nine years ago this April that a fertilizer bomb destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. One hundred sixty- eight people died that day, many of them children. It will be three years this June since the bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was executed.His accomplice, Terry Nichols, has been serving a sentence of life without parole since 1997 but he was back in court today for his second trial. This is a trial that gets underway despite new allegations that documents related to the original bombing investigation may have been withheld from the defense and destroyed.Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Under heavy guard, Terry Nichols arrived for his latest trial, now older and grayer after nine years behind bars since the Oklahoma City bombing. In court, his lawyers lost a bid to delay the trial but prosecutors got a stern warning. The judge said if it does turn out the FBI held back evidence that could help Nichols' case he promised to throw out all the state charges. Some victims' families welcome a new look at whether anyone else did help Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
BUD WELCH, VICTIM'S FATHER: I'd like to know everyone that was involved and I'm afraid we're not going to ever know that all.
CANDIOTTI: At issue whether the FBI fumbled its investigation of this gang of white supremacist bank robbers, a so-called Aryan army that made home movies about its heists. One of those robbers, Peter Langdon, now says he'll testify for the defense the gang may have had a link to McVeigh.Nichols is serving life in prison after his federal conviction in the bombing. McVeigh was put to death. Now the state of Oklahoma wants to execute Nichols. Jurors, whose faces cannot be shown, are being selected at a time when two-thirds of Oklahomans polled complain the trial is costing too much time and millions of dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's an absolute waste of money and taxpayers' money. They've already tried him once.
CANDIOTTI: Bud Welch lost his daughter Julie and opposes the death penalty.
WELCH: It's about retribution and vengeance and hate will not heal people.
CANDIOTTI: But for Kathleen Treanor, whose 4-year-old daughter Ashley was killed, as were her grandparents that day, death is about justice.
KATHLEEN TREANOR, VICTIM'S MOTHER: We get a second chance of making sure this man pays the ultimate price, just as McVeigh did, for his part in what happened here nearly ten years ago
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: In a recent pre-trial motion, Nichols told the court he was willing to plead no contest if the state would take that ultimate price, the death penalty, off the table. Prosecutors said no thanks -- Aaron
.BROWN: This may sound like a foolish question. I hope not. If he is convicted and if he is sentenced to death, what sentence does he serve first, the federal life without or the state death penalty?
CANDIOTTI: From what we understand it's likely he would be put to death. Of course, they would probably take about ten years or so on appeals but in this case it would seem that since he's already in the hands of the state, possession is 99 percent of the law
.BROWN: That's what they say. Thank you, Susan, Susan Candiotti in Oklahoma tonight.Before we go to break a few other stories that made news today around the country, in Mississippi three bodies believed to be those of a family missing since February 14th were found today hours after a relative was charged with kidnapping and killing them. Investigators believe jealousy over an inheritance may have been the motive.In Pennsylvania, a mother has found her daughter alive six years after the girl was thought to have died in a fire. This is an incredible story. This child was just ten days old. Her remains were never found in the ashes. This January, her mother went to a birthday party for a child of an acquaintance, was struck by the child's resemblance to herself. DNA tests found the child was, in fact, her daughter. Police now believe the fire was a ruse to kidnap the baby.Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, closing arguments from the prosecution in the Martha Stewart case and arguments from both sides during a preliminary hearing and an important one for Kobe Bryant; a break first.On CNN, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In Eagle, Colorado, a hearing is underway that will determine in many respects how basketball star Kobe Bryant defends himself against charges of rape. How much of the alleged victim's sexual history should the defense be allowed to explore? Is any of it relevant? Does it help jurors sort out the truth if they know the woman's sexual history even, or perhaps especially, if the history is within hours of the alleged rape?Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About 12 hours after he played in a basketball game in New Jersey, Kobe Bryant arrived at court in Colorado to begin a two-day pretrial hearing where he had expected to face his accuser in court for the first time.The woman allegedly sexually assaulted at a Colorado hotel had been scheduled to testify Tuesday about defense allegations she had "multiple acts of sex in the days prior to being with Bryant and more sex within 15 hours afterwards." But the judge has delayed the testimony until later this month saying he needs more time to decide what kind of questioning will be allowed.
CRAIG SILVERMAN, COLORADO ATTORNEY: The most damaging evidence against Kobe Bryant is this injury to the young lady's posterior (unintelligible). The prosecution is claiming Kobe Bryant caused that injury. Team Kobe is arguing, no, that was caused by somebody else prior or aggravated by somebody subsequent.
TUCHMAN: Judge Terry Ruckriegle will rule sometime following the woman's closed door testimony if details of her sexual history are relevant.
CYNTHIA STONE: Just because a judge lets it be in the courtroom or makes it admissible in the courtroom also does not mean it is true.
TUCHMAN: On Monday, Bryant's attorneys resumed his effort to get a secret police recording of the Laker guard thrown out because he wasn't read his Miranda rights. Prosecutors say the procedure was unnecessary because Bryant wasn't arrested or in custody. Bryant's attorneys say he felt like he was in custody. The judge could issue that decision any time.(on camera): The alleged victim is from here in Eagle but we've learned through court testimony she's temporarily moved out of state and that Kobe Bryant's attorneys are paying to fly her back home to testify.Gary Tuchman CNN, Eagle, Colorado
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to Lower Manhattan where sometime tomorrow Martha Stewart's lawyers expected to present closing arguments. It was the prosecution's turn today and, as one courtroom observer put it, they left Robert Morvillo with just one alternative. In this observer's opinion, the defense lawyer has to hit a homerun; reporting the story, CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Federal prosecutors argued Martha Stewart and her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic told a series of lies to conceal the truth about her sale of ImClone stock.In a three hour summation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Schacter maintained Stewart's explanation was "hatched," that there never had been an agreement to sell if the stock fell under $50, as Stewart has maintained.As evidence, the prosecutor pointed to testimony of Douglas Faneuil, the broker's former assistant. Faneuil testified he followed his boss' order to tell Stewart ImClone chief executive Sam Waksal was trying to dump all his shares, after which Ms. Stewart sold.
PROF JOHN COFFEE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I think the government has made a very credible case that there was a lie told.
CHERNOFF: Bacanovic defense attorney Richard Strassberg argued the liar was Faneuil, a witness who should not be trusted. "The government's evidence," Strassberg told the jury "is like a house of cards. It has no substance. It has no foundation."But prosecutor Schacter pointed to other evidence, Stewart's friend Mariana Pasternak who had testified Stewart told her Waksal had sold or was trying to sell and Stewart's assistant Ann Armstrong who told the jury Ms. Stewart had altered a key message about ImClone from her stockbroker on Ms. Armstrong's computer
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Martha Stewart's lawyer will present his closing argument tomorrow. The government will have an opportunity for rebuttal and, by Wednesday, the jury should have the case -- Aaron.
BROWN: Just as you review the weeks of all of this who was the witness?
CHERNOFF: No question about it, Douglas Faneuil, the key witness in fact. The prosecutor, Michael Schachter said, if you believe Douglas Faneuil, this case is over.
BROWN: Well, we'll see. We may know by the end of the week. We may not. You never know with a jury.A bit more business to do before we go to break, starting in a courtroom again, opening statements this time in the trial of John Rigas, the prosecution painting the founder of Adelphia Cable and his two sons as extraordinarily greedy, men who skimmed millions of dollars from the company for their own personal use, everything from a new golf course to 100 pair of bedroom slippers. Don't ask me. All perfectly legal, says the defense.
Mr. Rigas, you might recall, is charged with conspiracy and fraud. Adelphia, meantime, is bankrupt. United Parcel may be on the verge of pairing down a huge aircraft purchase from Airbus, this according to a report in "The Wall Street Journal." The report says UPS has told Airbus, the European company, it no longer wants 20 of the 90 air freighters on order. That's $1.5 billion worth of airplanes, not small change, that; 43 million Americans tuned into the Academy Awards last night, but, actually, only two were awake when it ended. No, that's not true -- 31 percent more people than last year and the largest audience since the 2000 Oscars. And on Wall Street today, March came in very much like a bull. The markets had a solid gain. I need to behave myself sometimes.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, the challenge in the voting booth. Will new electronic voting systems make the grade come Super Tuesday? Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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BROWN: This isn't a story about fraud or theft or even incompetence, at least not yet. It's a story about confidence, confidence that, when you cast your vote, it counts. It's bad enough that many Americans feel their individual vote doesn't count because it's overwhelmed by special interests or party politics, but what if it really isn't counted at all?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It wasn't supposed to happen again, the excruciating process of inspecting paper chads, hanging, dimpled or pregnant. And this year, it wasn't the same. It was worse. Once again, it happened in Florida, an election on a handful of votes, so close, the loser got an automatic recount, sort of.
ED DION, BROWARD COUNTY ATTORNEY: The results for the two main candidates were exactly the same as they were on Tuesday night.
BROWN: Most of the votes in this statehouse seat race had been cast on new electronic voting machines and only the totals were stored in the computer's memory.
AVI RUBIN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: The recount on a fully electronic machine is nothing more than the reprint. It will give you the exact same result that you had before. It's not going to tell you anything new.
BROWN: Something new was exactly what technology was supposed to provide when Congress voted billions of dollars to modernize the state electoral processes, increased accuracy, build voter confidence. Early public trials were a success.
LINDA LAMONE, ADMINISTRATOR, MARYLAND BOARD OF ELECTIONS: The voters who have seen the equipment out at the mock elections that we are doing as part of our voter outreach have -- 99 percent of them just adore the machines.
BROWN: And how could you not adore them? They're easy to use. They speak your language. They even enable the blind, for the first time ever, to cast a secret ballot. COMPUTER VOICE: To cast your ballot, press nine.
BROWN: Modern, computerized, paperless, and the target of a firestorm of complaints. The problem is that voters simply cannot be certain that the software inside the machines has accurately recorded their vote, a programming error, a hacker attack, or a dishonest technician could affect dozens, perhaps thousands of votes. And without a paper trail, the only way to check it -- you guessed it -- is to ask the computer.
RUBIN: One of things that I have noticed is that the more people know about computers and the deeper their knowledge and understanding of computer security, the more opposed they are to voting machines that don't have a voter-verifiable paper trail.
BROWN: This summer, the software for the Diebold voting machines that Maryland will use was found on the Internet and given to Rubin and other security experts. They found it filled with sloppy programming and security gaps. Maryland claims to have fixed those holes. And then the state went a step further, giving former NSA code cracker Michael Wertheimer and his team of security pros a chance to attack the entire system, not just the terminals, but the central computers as well.
MICHAEL WERTHEIMER, DIRECTOR, RABA TECHNOLOGIES: We were able to exploit many, many security flaws and completely change the election at the state level, which means changing the database, changing the votes, pretty much having full control of the election. BROWN: More security has since been added, but election officials and industry representatives say that keeping an election honest depends on more than software.
LAMONE: I have got a great staff and a great group of people out in the counties, all of whom are dedicated to making sure nothing like that happens. If it does, the person that does it is going to jail.
REP. RUSH HOLT (D), NEW JERSEY: Some elections officials have said to me, but we've been using these electronic machines for several years now and we have never had a problem, to which I say, how do you know?
BROWN: Congressman Holt is sponsoring a bill in Congress that would require more stringent standards. He says it's a question of trust, but trust is getting harder to find. And it didn't help that Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell, sent out a fund-raising letter, saying he was committed to deliver -- quote -- "electoral votes" to the president, nor that California officials found that uncertified software and unapproved machines had been widely used in the recall election for governor. Ironically, the worst that could happen might well be that nothing will happen.
WERTHEIMER: I'm worried that complacency is going to set in. And come November, the attackers will have done their reconnaissance. They will have a better idea. And if we don't continue to improve the security, change the software, make it a better system, we're asking for trouble.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A story just beginning. More now on Super Tuesday, not the horse race as such, but the pedigree, if you will, of the two leading candidates, where they're coming from, what makes them tick. Rob Christensen has been covering Edwards since the senator's days as a trial lawyer. He writes for "The Raleigh News and Observer" and joins us from Raleigh tonight. Thomas Oliphant first met John Kerry two weeks after Kerry returned from Vietnam. That's a long time. He writes politics and more for "The Boston Globe." And he joins us from Los Angeles.And we're pleased to have them both with us. Tom, Senator Kerry's principal strength?
TOM OLIPHANT, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": Senator Kennedy -- Kerry.
BROWN: There's a Freudian slip.
(LAUGHTER)
OLIPHANT: Kennedy, there's the key, isn't it? The key strength is determination. This is a guy to whom public life does not come naturally, never has. Often, he's stumbled out of the blocks, fallen on his face coming out of the blocks. What has fascinated me for 30 years is the way he gets up.
BROWN: Well, one more question on that. Did he -- was the campaign against Bill Weld, his last campaign, did it change him?
OLIPHANT: No, I don't think it changed him, but it's a classic illustration of how Kerry often starts poorly. And I think in ways that reflect the fact that he is the kind of natural at this that John Edwards, for example, is. But he learns and he listens. And he was told he was going to lose this thing in 1996 if he didn't change. So he changed. And I think you saw that trait reflected in his behavior in Iowa and New Hampshire after November.
BROWN: Yes.
OLIPHANT: He looked into the abyss and he changed. BROWN: Rob, let's talk about Senator Edwards here for a second. He's obviously an incredibly, incredibly engaging communicator. Beyond that, what is his strength?
ROB CHRISTENSEN, "THE NEWS AND OBSERVER": Well, he brings a lot of drive and determination. He is not just the -- despite the choir boy looks, he is a very tough, driven individual. What's interesting about him, Aaron, is that -- Tom talked about him being a natural, but he only got into politics in 1998. And before that, he was almost apolitical. He didn't run for high school senior class. He -- his old classmates in college claim not to remember whether he was for or against the Vietnam War or whether he was for Richard Nixon or George McGovern in the '72 race. He didn't -- wasn't involved in politics, except for occasionally giving a contributor to a judicial candidate as an adult. And he didn't even vote the half the time, prior to the election. So he really is a brand new face. And what he brings to this race are the -- some of the skills that are convertible from being a trial lawyer.
BROWN: Yes.
CHRISTENSEN: He's very good at talking to people without being condescending, but talking in language they understand. He learned that as a lawyer. He didn't talk in legalese to jurors. As a politician, he doesn't use Washington jargon in talking to voters.
BROWN: What do you think his weaknesses are?
CHRISTENSEN: Well, his weaknesses obviously are some of the things that are his strengths, the fact that he's a new and fresh face. The flip side of that, he is not very experienced. And that's been a very difficult sell, I think, in a post-9/11 environment. When you talk to voters over and over again all across the country, they, I really like John Edwards and I think he has a fine future, but is he quite ready for the big job?
BROWN: Tom, when asked earlier today what you thought Senator Kerry's weaknesses -- or weakness -- principal weaknesses was, it's actually, for a guy running for the presidency, a harsh response. What is it?
OLIPHANT: Well, it flows out of a strength, actually, Aaron. We've had a 30-plus year conversation about what Vietnam meant. And I remember one time he said to me late one evening years ago that Vietnam had made him a skeptic about the use of American power. And, on the one hand, there's an obvious plus there. But, on the other hand, it does suggest the possibility of a little too much brooding and indecisiveness.
BROWN: That's the word you used, indecisiveness
.OLIPHANT: And after all, they pay 400 grand a year for the White House job for you to make decisions. But, on the other hand, this skepticism has caused Senator Kerry to become in a way his own foreign policy expert. And you can almost see him around the table questioning his advisers, rather than being handled by them. And given the story of how we got into Iraq, that may prove to be an advantage. But, on the other hand, if you look at the difficulty he had for a while explaining his position a few weeks ago, I think it flows out of the effect of Vietnam on him, which was to make him, at least at first blush, skeptical about using American power.
(CROSSTALK)
OLIPHANT: And that makes him more reflective. And that's good on the one hand, but not necessarily. BROWN: Vietnam is the next subject we need to deal with where Senator Kerry is concerned. And we'll do that on a night shortly. Thank you both for joining us very much. Good to talk to you.Still ahead on the program tonight, the almost perfect crime. Did a star athlete, an Eagle Scout try to get away with murder in a small town in Wisconsin? We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York
.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Segment seven tonight is a murder mystery in a small Wisconsin town. At the center of the story, a teenager who, by all accounts, is an exceptional kid, a local star, the son parents dream of raising. The question town residents are now struggling with, could this young man who excelled at almost everything have killed just to see if he could get away with murder?Here's CNN's Martin Savidge.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the eyes of Weyauwega, Wisconsin, 18-year-old Gary Hirte was seemingly as perfect as a teen gets, a high school honor student, a 6'4'', 270-pound star athlete.
KEN HARDWICKE, EDITOR, "THE CHRONICLE": That's Gary Hirte when he ran track. And there he is when he was a wrestler.
SAVIDGE: And the small town's first Eagle Scout in 20 years.
HOWARD QUIMBY, MAYOR OF WEYAUWEGA: I didn't believe it. I really didn't. I couldn't see Gary doing anything like this.
CURT FIELD, WEYAUWEGA POLICE CHIEF: There are about 1,800 good, God-fearing, Upper Midwestern Christians up here. Something like this happening, it affects a community on every level.
SAVIDGE: Now the young man is charged with murder, a crime Hirte's attorney says he didn't do. In fact, he says Hirte was in no way involved with it. Last August, 37-year-old Glenn Kopitske was found dead in his home seven miles outside town. He had been shot in the head, stabbed twice in the back and once through the heart. If Hirte was considered among the area's strongest, Kopitske would be considered among its weakest, described as a fragile, lonely eccentric, who, according to his mother, lived down a dead end road, a man who dreamed of being an actor and a stand-up comedian and once declared he was running for president. And much like the teenager accused of it, the crime itself was nearly perfect.
FIELD: As I understand, it was either in the cold case file or it was darn close to being deemed as a cold case.
SAVIDGE: Then, on New Year's Day, a former girlfriend of Hirte's went to the police with an amazing story, saying the town's golden boy had admitted to her he was the killer. (on camera): Police later recorded a phone conversation between the girl and Hirte in which he described details of the crime that had not been made public. A search of the teen's home turned up the dead man's keys, as his parents looked on in disbelief.
QUIMBY: If there was any sign of it, I'm sure somebody would have done something.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Now local parents only wonder what might have gone wrong, what might have been missed. Is Gary Hirte too perfect to even be suspected of murder or is it, as prosecutors suggest, the teen believed he was so perfect, he could get away with it? Martin Savidge, CNN, Weyauwega, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world and we'll do a little bit of both today.
We lead with "The Philadelphia Inquirer" because, honestly, I'm not kidding you, I'd pay double for this newspaper today. It's that good. Up top, "For Saint Joseph's, An Appointment With Perfection." The Saint Joseph's basketball team are 26-0, I believe. They're surprising everybody. So that's a good local story for them. The Disney Company is meeting, having its annual meeting in Philadelphia. So they put Mickey on the front page. That's pretty cool. and this is absolutely the best story of the day. "Thought Dead in Fire, Girl Is Found." We told you this a little earlier. "Police believe a woman set fire to a Feltonville home in '97, abducted the baby, raised her as her own." That is fabulous front page for "The Philadelphia Inquirer." Good for them.
Not a bad front page for "The China Daily." I once misidentified this as the newspaper of Taiwan. And I take this opportunity to correct myself now. It's actually mainland China. Here's what I liked about it, OK? They put the Academy Awards on the front page. Isn't that cool? That's Peter Jackson, right, that's his name, the guy that did "Lord of the Rings." I think you go to the Oscar to win all those awards, you comb your hair. But, hey, who am I?
Now, here's "The Herald Sun," which is an Australia paper, led with the Oscars, too. But they didn't put on anybody you'd remember. This is a local guy, an Australian guy, who won for animation. Anyway, what's his name? Adam Elliot. Good for him, too, holding his Oscar. Nice lead.
"The Boston Herald." "Not So Fast." This is a story about church closings because of the scandal. Jimmy Buffett on the front page as well. That's "The Boston Herald.""The Oregonian" out in Portland, Oregon. "Cattle Tracking Faces a Maze." Good story idea, trying to explain to people why it's so hard to identify where cattle -- there's millions of cattle, I suppose in the country -- where they come from. But it's something that a lot of health advocates want done, so, if there is an outbreak of mad cow or anything else, we know where they came from. "
The Chicago Sun-Times" leads with Haiti. "Powell: U.S. Didn't Kidnap Aristide." And the weather tomorrow in Chicago.
(CHIMES)
BROWN: Thank you. "Hard to complain," 50 degrees in Chicago. It was beautiful here in New York, I guess in the East today. We'll wrap up the day, preview a kind of weird one for us tomorrow after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Before we go tonight, a quick recap of our top story. U.S. Marines have taken up positions at Haiti's International Airport in Port-au-Prince, as well as a key port and the presidential palace, this as rebel forces swept in as on the heels of Haiti's president, who left the country, he says, under duress. Tomorrow night on the program, a special Wednesday morning edition of NEWSNIGHT. Go figure. We're on after the results are in from the primary. We'll have news and analysis of that, 1:00 a.m. Eastern time. We will take attendance. Please show up. Before we go, here's Soledad O'Brien with a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron. Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," 10 states, tens of millions of voters. Is this it for Senator John Edwards as he tries to set the Democratic campaign onto a new course? East, West, North and South, it is the pivotal day in the presidential campaign. We're going to cover it from across the country.That's CNN tomorrow, 7:00 Eastern -- Aaron, back to you
.(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Thank you, Ms. O'Brien.We'll see you tomorrow at 1:00 a.m. If you really love us, you'll be here. Until then, good night for all of us.
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Will Kerry Sweep on Super Tuesday?
Aired March 1, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again everyone.There probably was a time when Haiti was a happy place but not in a long time. Ruled by despots and death jobs, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was supposed to be a force for change for the good. Somehow it all went back. Be it through corruption or incompetence or subversion from the outside or a little bit of all of those, the former priest never lived up to his billing as the man who would lead his country out of misery.Tonight, he's gone amid questions about how he went. What remains is a country caught in the misery of poverty for most, greed for a few and much hopelessness. Haiti tops the program and begins the whip.CNN's Lucia Newman starts us off. She's on the videophone from Port-au-Prince, Lucia a headline tonight.
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A feeling of deju vu in this country today as the U.S. Marines again come to Haiti and so do members of Haiti's disbanded army, including a prominent death squad leader -- Aaron.BROWN: Lucia, thank you. We'll get to you at the top.Next to Super Tuesday, the primaries and caucuses tomorrow, ten states, more than 1,000 delegates on the line and just one Candy Crowley to cover it. Candy joins us from Atlanta, a headline from you tonight.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, this is one of those stories you probably could tell just by looking at the pictures. It's a political story about two very different men who ended up this evening in the same state looking at tomorrow from a very different place.
BROWN: Candy, thank you.Nine years now since the bombing in Oklahoma City and another trial set to begin for one of the conspirators. CNN's Susan Candiotti is covering that, Susan a headline from you.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, a second trial for the second man convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing and some still question whether there were more.BROWN: Susan, thank you.And finally closing arguments in the trial of Martha Stewart more work for CNN's Allan Chernoff, Allan a headline.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Government prosecutors wrap up their case against Martha Stewart and her stockbroker saying the two engaged in a cover up. The broker's defense attorney says the government hasn't proven anything beyond a reasonable doubt -- Aaron.
BROWN: Allan, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.Also coming up on the program tonight an important preliminary hearing for Kobe Bryant in his rape case and arguments of just what questions can be asked of the alleged victim.Later in Segment 7, the case of an Eagle Scout and murder, could the perfect young man also have committed the perfect crime?As always, we end our evening with a look at your morning papers brought to you by who else, the rooster, all that and more in the hour ahead.We begin tonight with Haiti, which has a long troubled history of homegrown chaos and American intervention. Today, another chapter written, the president gone, U.S. Marines back taking up positions. We have two reports tonight, first, CNN's Lucia Newman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWMAN (voice-over): In Haiti, scenes from the past. A decade after coming into restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide the Marines are back to try and restore order without him.And then this the triumphant entrance into the capital of rebels led by leaders in Haiti's disbanded army. It was a victory celebration, thousands embracing the return of Guy Phillipe, the former police chief who came back from exile to force Aristide from power.(on camera): If there was ever a demonstration of how quickly political passions can sway it's this one. Some of the very same people who until recently were vowing to fight to the death for President Aristide are now welcoming back his arch enemies.(voice-over): At the general police headquarters, people hugged the deputy rebel chief, a notorious former paramilitary leader sentenced in absentia to life in prison for mass murder."Whatever the bad things from the past, 99 percent of the people here support us," said Louis Jodel Chamblain.Across the street, nervous U.S. Marines stood guard at the front door of the presidential palace.
COL. DAVID BERGER, U.S. MARINE CONTINGENT CHIEF: The U.S. forces are here to secure key sites in the Haitian capital around Port-au- Prince for the purpose of contributing to a more secure and stable environment and to help promote the constitutional political process.
NEWMAN: Next to morgue hearses lined up to take away bodies of more than a dozen people murdered overnight, many of them executed."We blame President Bush for allowing all this to happen. Getting rid of Aristide is not the solution" said this man, who told us supporters of the former president are terrified a well-founded fear in a country where calls for peace and reconciliation have so often been silenced by guns.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWMAN: Aaron, adding insult to injury, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's house, his villa here in Port-au-Prince was looted and trashed. At the same time, there was continued looting at the Port- au-Prince port for the third day running. The police and the U.S. Marines were nowhere to be seen -- Aaron.BROWN: Lucia, what does this mean, if anything, to Haitians, to just the people of Haiti? How do their lives change because of this?
NEWMAN: This means a lot of confusion for Haitians, although there's the hope that somehow normalcy can be returned, although this country really never has been normal, as you were saying at the beginning. It's the poorest country in the hemisphere.Basically, what most people say what we want to do is we want to eat. We want security. We want to live. We want our children to reach a ripe old age. That's what people really want and anybody who can give them that will be welcome.They had thought that President Aristide could achieve that for them but they're not so sure that necessarily the people who came to the town today will be able to do it either -- Aaron.
BROWN: Lucia, thank you very much, Lucia Newman in Port-au- Prince, many uncertainties clearly on the ground tonight.While it's clear that President Aristide is gone the details of his departure remain somewhat in dispute. The former Haitian leader says he did not go willingly. Is this is a case of resignation remorse or something more sinister?He describes it as in effect a kidnapping which the White House called utter nonsense, which is not to say of course that the U.S. had no role in the end game.Here's our National Security Correspondent David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a bitter phone call with CNN from exile in Africa, the former Haitian president claimed he was hustled out of his country as part of what he called a coup d'etat involving he said American officials who lied to him.
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE, FORMER HAITIAN PRESIDENT: They told me (unintelligible) that thousands of people will get killed once they start. So, I had to do my best to avoid that bloodshed. They used talk to push me out. That's why I call it again and again a coup d'etat, the modern way to have modern kidnapping.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The allegations that somehow we kidnapped former President Aristide are absolutely baseless, absurd.
ENSOR: In fact, a senior State Department official said Aristide has a history of "unusual and erratic statements" and officials say while he may be having second thoughts now he left Haiti with 15 bodyguards of his own free will after requesting U.S. help to leave. He even signed this letter of resignation, made available to CNN by a source, in which he says: "I am resigning in order to avoid a bloodbath."
POWELL: We did not force him onto the airplane. He went onto the airplane willingly and that's the truth.ENSOR: Aristide told CNN he and his wife were kept on a plane out of touch for nearly a full day and a night not told where they were going.
ARISTIDE: We spent 20 hours in that plane. We stopped knowing where we go. We stopped having the right to contact our people.
ENSOR: True said U.S. officials but that was because they could not officially find a country that would take him.
POWELL: We went through about an hour and a half of difficult negotiations with various countries and with friends of ours to find alternative locations that he might go to while the plane was in the air.
ENSOR: Some critics and other Caribbean governments charge even if the Bush administration did not kidnap Aristide it left him with no choice but to leave sending a disturbing message to other democratically elected leaders.
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: The fact of the matter is we said to President Aristide, look, you can stay and be killed or you can leave. You make the choice. That's hardly a voluntary departure.
ENSOR (on camera): The critics say by refusing to protect Aristide, the U.S. becomes at least partly responsible for what follows. It must now undertake nation building in Haiti they say and should be rightly condemned if it gives up too soon.David Ensor CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to Iraq, a line often followed by bad news but not tonight. Two items to report, first American casualties declined substantially last month; and second, Iraqis with American and international help have agreed to an interim constitution. It strikes a difficult and delicate balance between a good number of competing forces, which are now in play on the ground in Iraq, maintaining that balance will be the trick from now on, from Baghdad tonight CNN's Jane Arraf.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): There was no doubt this was history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This document is historical because not only it reflects the agreement among the wider spectrum of Iraqi society but it also is inspirational.
ARRAF: Much of Iraq's proposed new constitution unprecedented in this region, including a target that women make up 25 percent of members of an elected national assembly."We worked diligently to give women their rights" said Dr. Raja Habib Khuzai, she a member of the governing council.The documents agreed upon unanimously just before dawn Monday after weeks of negotiations protects individual rights of all Iraqis and sets up democratic institutions like an independent justice system but it sets some tough questions aside, including exactly how much power the Kurds, who have governed their own territory since 1991 will retain.(on camera): In the streets of Baghdad, most people aren't sure what this document means. It hasn't been discussed with them or even explained to them. Many are skeptical.(voice-over): At Baghdad University, engineering student Omar Sami said Iraqis were more concerned about feeling secure.
OMAR SAMI, ENGINEERING STUDENT (through translator): What is more important now is that American forces put more stress on security and after that there should be general elections and then we can deal with the constitution.
ARRAF: One of the document's main aims is protecting religious freedom. In the Kasamia (ph) neighborhood of Baghdad, home to one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, followers practiced a ritual banned under the Ba'ath Party beating themselves to mark the killing of Imam Hussein 14 centuries ago. Hasan Mohammed Ali al-Yasin (ph) organizing a campaign for the faithful to give blood instead of making themselves bleed said Shias wanted that freedom for everyone."In the way we are now practicing our rituals freely the others have the same rights. There's no difference between Sunni, Shia, and even non-Muslims. We're all Iraqis," said (unintelligible).That's the intent behind the constitution. The hard work will be making all Iraqis feel that way.Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: By this time tomorrow night, if you believe the polls, Senator John Kerry will be within a whisker of sewing up the Democratic presidential nomination. Senator Kerry, for one, is acting like a believer. We can tell you that.His opponent, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is not, but despite adopting a tougher tone on the stump recently he doesn't seem to be gaining any traction, at least not enough to pull off major surprises tomorrow.Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): Two men with little that divides them on the political spectrum spent the eve of the biggest day of the primary season campaigning mostly in the same states. Their days could not have been more different. One may just be starting.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God, when November comes George Bush is going, we're coming, and don't let the door hit you on the way out folks.
CROWLEY: The other may be near the end.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I came here today to ask you to go to the polls tomorrow.
CROWLEY: One for 21, John Edwards faces the possibility of a shutout in Tuesday's ten state contests. He is running against time. He is working against odds.And now as John Kerry begins to gather the party faithful around him, John Edwards finds himself justifying why he stays in the race.
EDWARDS: As long as there's a serious substantive discussion going on among Democrats, which is what we've seen over the last few weeks between Senator Kerry and myself, we get a lot of attention from the American people and it's harder for George Bush to get attention and that's I think part of the reason that both myself and John Kerry are beating President Bush nationally in the polls.
CROWLEY: Mathematically, Kerry cannot win even if he sweeps Super Tuesday. Politically he can put it away. Strategically he has already moved on.
KERRY: This president has, in fact, created terrorists where they didn't exist and I believe -- I believe this president has run the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our country and we need to hold him accountable.
CROWLEY: Both men ended their day in Georgia. For both things will be different tomorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: John Edwards says he intends to stay in this race until he wins the nomination. John Kerry says he is still fighting for every vote but, as you know tonight, they can say little different -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, right. That's the easy thing is what you say out loud. The harder thing is what they're saying behind the scenes and so are you starting to hear rumblings that after tomorrow the pressure on Senator Edwards from the party and sometimes from his own staff will be more than he can handle?
CROWLEY: Interestingly, less from the party than from his own staff. Obviously, look, his staff has some specials on it. They are -- they're realists so they know that they can look at the polls and they see what's going on and what Edwards would have to do is almost super human, not to mention super candidate.But what, you know, what Edwards said is perfectly true that as long as he's in the race and it's still a race and people perceive it as still a race this keeps the Democrats on the front page. That is great for the Democratic Party because it drives down the president's numbers.The question is whether people still perceive that John Edwards is still in the race. If he loses ten tomorrow, we'll see.
BROWN: I'll let you get out of there before something hits you in the head.
CROWLEY: Exactly.
BROWN: Thank you.
CROWLEY: Just for you.
BROWN: Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow night, Candy.Still ahead on the program tonight, the latest on the Kobe Bryant case, Martha Stewart closing arguments.Up next, Terry Nichols goes on trial, this time state charges in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing amid charges the FBI held back important evidence.And later, tomorrow's big primary test not for Democratic candidates but for the electronic voting machines, a controversy that is just beginning.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It was nine years ago this April that a fertilizer bomb destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. One hundred sixty- eight people died that day, many of them children. It will be three years this June since the bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was executed.His accomplice, Terry Nichols, has been serving a sentence of life without parole since 1997 but he was back in court today for his second trial. This is a trial that gets underway despite new allegations that documents related to the original bombing investigation may have been withheld from the defense and destroyed.Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Under heavy guard, Terry Nichols arrived for his latest trial, now older and grayer after nine years behind bars since the Oklahoma City bombing. In court, his lawyers lost a bid to delay the trial but prosecutors got a stern warning. The judge said if it does turn out the FBI held back evidence that could help Nichols' case he promised to throw out all the state charges. Some victims' families welcome a new look at whether anyone else did help Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
BUD WELCH, VICTIM'S FATHER: I'd like to know everyone that was involved and I'm afraid we're not going to ever know that all.
CANDIOTTI: At issue whether the FBI fumbled its investigation of this gang of white supremacist bank robbers, a so-called Aryan army that made home movies about its heists. One of those robbers, Peter Langdon, now says he'll testify for the defense the gang may have had a link to McVeigh.Nichols is serving life in prison after his federal conviction in the bombing. McVeigh was put to death. Now the state of Oklahoma wants to execute Nichols. Jurors, whose faces cannot be shown, are being selected at a time when two-thirds of Oklahomans polled complain the trial is costing too much time and millions of dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's an absolute waste of money and taxpayers' money. They've already tried him once.
CANDIOTTI: Bud Welch lost his daughter Julie and opposes the death penalty.
WELCH: It's about retribution and vengeance and hate will not heal people.
CANDIOTTI: But for Kathleen Treanor, whose 4-year-old daughter Ashley was killed, as were her grandparents that day, death is about justice.
KATHLEEN TREANOR, VICTIM'S MOTHER: We get a second chance of making sure this man pays the ultimate price, just as McVeigh did, for his part in what happened here nearly ten years ago
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: In a recent pre-trial motion, Nichols told the court he was willing to plead no contest if the state would take that ultimate price, the death penalty, off the table. Prosecutors said no thanks -- Aaron
.BROWN: This may sound like a foolish question. I hope not. If he is convicted and if he is sentenced to death, what sentence does he serve first, the federal life without or the state death penalty?
CANDIOTTI: From what we understand it's likely he would be put to death. Of course, they would probably take about ten years or so on appeals but in this case it would seem that since he's already in the hands of the state, possession is 99 percent of the law
.BROWN: That's what they say. Thank you, Susan, Susan Candiotti in Oklahoma tonight.Before we go to break a few other stories that made news today around the country, in Mississippi three bodies believed to be those of a family missing since February 14th were found today hours after a relative was charged with kidnapping and killing them. Investigators believe jealousy over an inheritance may have been the motive.In Pennsylvania, a mother has found her daughter alive six years after the girl was thought to have died in a fire. This is an incredible story. This child was just ten days old. Her remains were never found in the ashes. This January, her mother went to a birthday party for a child of an acquaintance, was struck by the child's resemblance to herself. DNA tests found the child was, in fact, her daughter. Police now believe the fire was a ruse to kidnap the baby.Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, closing arguments from the prosecution in the Martha Stewart case and arguments from both sides during a preliminary hearing and an important one for Kobe Bryant; a break first.On CNN, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In Eagle, Colorado, a hearing is underway that will determine in many respects how basketball star Kobe Bryant defends himself against charges of rape. How much of the alleged victim's sexual history should the defense be allowed to explore? Is any of it relevant? Does it help jurors sort out the truth if they know the woman's sexual history even, or perhaps especially, if the history is within hours of the alleged rape?Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About 12 hours after he played in a basketball game in New Jersey, Kobe Bryant arrived at court in Colorado to begin a two-day pretrial hearing where he had expected to face his accuser in court for the first time.The woman allegedly sexually assaulted at a Colorado hotel had been scheduled to testify Tuesday about defense allegations she had "multiple acts of sex in the days prior to being with Bryant and more sex within 15 hours afterwards." But the judge has delayed the testimony until later this month saying he needs more time to decide what kind of questioning will be allowed.
CRAIG SILVERMAN, COLORADO ATTORNEY: The most damaging evidence against Kobe Bryant is this injury to the young lady's posterior (unintelligible). The prosecution is claiming Kobe Bryant caused that injury. Team Kobe is arguing, no, that was caused by somebody else prior or aggravated by somebody subsequent.
TUCHMAN: Judge Terry Ruckriegle will rule sometime following the woman's closed door testimony if details of her sexual history are relevant.
CYNTHIA STONE: Just because a judge lets it be in the courtroom or makes it admissible in the courtroom also does not mean it is true.
TUCHMAN: On Monday, Bryant's attorneys resumed his effort to get a secret police recording of the Laker guard thrown out because he wasn't read his Miranda rights. Prosecutors say the procedure was unnecessary because Bryant wasn't arrested or in custody. Bryant's attorneys say he felt like he was in custody. The judge could issue that decision any time.(on camera): The alleged victim is from here in Eagle but we've learned through court testimony she's temporarily moved out of state and that Kobe Bryant's attorneys are paying to fly her back home to testify.Gary Tuchman CNN, Eagle, Colorado
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to Lower Manhattan where sometime tomorrow Martha Stewart's lawyers expected to present closing arguments. It was the prosecution's turn today and, as one courtroom observer put it, they left Robert Morvillo with just one alternative. In this observer's opinion, the defense lawyer has to hit a homerun; reporting the story, CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Federal prosecutors argued Martha Stewart and her stockbroker Peter Bacanovic told a series of lies to conceal the truth about her sale of ImClone stock.In a three hour summation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Schacter maintained Stewart's explanation was "hatched," that there never had been an agreement to sell if the stock fell under $50, as Stewart has maintained.As evidence, the prosecutor pointed to testimony of Douglas Faneuil, the broker's former assistant. Faneuil testified he followed his boss' order to tell Stewart ImClone chief executive Sam Waksal was trying to dump all his shares, after which Ms. Stewart sold.
PROF JOHN COFFEE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I think the government has made a very credible case that there was a lie told.
CHERNOFF: Bacanovic defense attorney Richard Strassberg argued the liar was Faneuil, a witness who should not be trusted. "The government's evidence," Strassberg told the jury "is like a house of cards. It has no substance. It has no foundation."But prosecutor Schacter pointed to other evidence, Stewart's friend Mariana Pasternak who had testified Stewart told her Waksal had sold or was trying to sell and Stewart's assistant Ann Armstrong who told the jury Ms. Stewart had altered a key message about ImClone from her stockbroker on Ms. Armstrong's computer
.(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Martha Stewart's lawyer will present his closing argument tomorrow. The government will have an opportunity for rebuttal and, by Wednesday, the jury should have the case -- Aaron.
BROWN: Just as you review the weeks of all of this who was the witness?
CHERNOFF: No question about it, Douglas Faneuil, the key witness in fact. The prosecutor, Michael Schachter said, if you believe Douglas Faneuil, this case is over.
BROWN: Well, we'll see. We may know by the end of the week. We may not. You never know with a jury.A bit more business to do before we go to break, starting in a courtroom again, opening statements this time in the trial of John Rigas, the prosecution painting the founder of Adelphia Cable and his two sons as extraordinarily greedy, men who skimmed millions of dollars from the company for their own personal use, everything from a new golf course to 100 pair of bedroom slippers. Don't ask me. All perfectly legal, says the defense.
Mr. Rigas, you might recall, is charged with conspiracy and fraud. Adelphia, meantime, is bankrupt. United Parcel may be on the verge of pairing down a huge aircraft purchase from Airbus, this according to a report in "The Wall Street Journal." The report says UPS has told Airbus, the European company, it no longer wants 20 of the 90 air freighters on order. That's $1.5 billion worth of airplanes, not small change, that; 43 million Americans tuned into the Academy Awards last night, but, actually, only two were awake when it ended. No, that's not true -- 31 percent more people than last year and the largest audience since the 2000 Oscars. And on Wall Street today, March came in very much like a bull. The markets had a solid gain. I need to behave myself sometimes.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT, the challenge in the voting booth. Will new electronic voting systems make the grade come Super Tuesday? Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: This isn't a story about fraud or theft or even incompetence, at least not yet. It's a story about confidence, confidence that, when you cast your vote, it counts. It's bad enough that many Americans feel their individual vote doesn't count because it's overwhelmed by special interests or party politics, but what if it really isn't counted at all?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): It wasn't supposed to happen again, the excruciating process of inspecting paper chads, hanging, dimpled or pregnant. And this year, it wasn't the same. It was worse. Once again, it happened in Florida, an election on a handful of votes, so close, the loser got an automatic recount, sort of.
ED DION, BROWARD COUNTY ATTORNEY: The results for the two main candidates were exactly the same as they were on Tuesday night.
BROWN: Most of the votes in this statehouse seat race had been cast on new electronic voting machines and only the totals were stored in the computer's memory.
AVI RUBIN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: The recount on a fully electronic machine is nothing more than the reprint. It will give you the exact same result that you had before. It's not going to tell you anything new.
BROWN: Something new was exactly what technology was supposed to provide when Congress voted billions of dollars to modernize the state electoral processes, increased accuracy, build voter confidence. Early public trials were a success.
LINDA LAMONE, ADMINISTRATOR, MARYLAND BOARD OF ELECTIONS: The voters who have seen the equipment out at the mock elections that we are doing as part of our voter outreach have -- 99 percent of them just adore the machines.
BROWN: And how could you not adore them? They're easy to use. They speak your language. They even enable the blind, for the first time ever, to cast a secret ballot. COMPUTER VOICE: To cast your ballot, press nine.
BROWN: Modern, computerized, paperless, and the target of a firestorm of complaints. The problem is that voters simply cannot be certain that the software inside the machines has accurately recorded their vote, a programming error, a hacker attack, or a dishonest technician could affect dozens, perhaps thousands of votes. And without a paper trail, the only way to check it -- you guessed it -- is to ask the computer.
RUBIN: One of things that I have noticed is that the more people know about computers and the deeper their knowledge and understanding of computer security, the more opposed they are to voting machines that don't have a voter-verifiable paper trail.
BROWN: This summer, the software for the Diebold voting machines that Maryland will use was found on the Internet and given to Rubin and other security experts. They found it filled with sloppy programming and security gaps. Maryland claims to have fixed those holes. And then the state went a step further, giving former NSA code cracker Michael Wertheimer and his team of security pros a chance to attack the entire system, not just the terminals, but the central computers as well.
MICHAEL WERTHEIMER, DIRECTOR, RABA TECHNOLOGIES: We were able to exploit many, many security flaws and completely change the election at the state level, which means changing the database, changing the votes, pretty much having full control of the election. BROWN: More security has since been added, but election officials and industry representatives say that keeping an election honest depends on more than software.
LAMONE: I have got a great staff and a great group of people out in the counties, all of whom are dedicated to making sure nothing like that happens. If it does, the person that does it is going to jail.
REP. RUSH HOLT (D), NEW JERSEY: Some elections officials have said to me, but we've been using these electronic machines for several years now and we have never had a problem, to which I say, how do you know?
BROWN: Congressman Holt is sponsoring a bill in Congress that would require more stringent standards. He says it's a question of trust, but trust is getting harder to find. And it didn't help that Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell, sent out a fund-raising letter, saying he was committed to deliver -- quote -- "electoral votes" to the president, nor that California officials found that uncertified software and unapproved machines had been widely used in the recall election for governor. Ironically, the worst that could happen might well be that nothing will happen.
WERTHEIMER: I'm worried that complacency is going to set in. And come November, the attackers will have done their reconnaissance. They will have a better idea. And if we don't continue to improve the security, change the software, make it a better system, we're asking for trouble.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A story just beginning. More now on Super Tuesday, not the horse race as such, but the pedigree, if you will, of the two leading candidates, where they're coming from, what makes them tick. Rob Christensen has been covering Edwards since the senator's days as a trial lawyer. He writes for "The Raleigh News and Observer" and joins us from Raleigh tonight. Thomas Oliphant first met John Kerry two weeks after Kerry returned from Vietnam. That's a long time. He writes politics and more for "The Boston Globe." And he joins us from Los Angeles.And we're pleased to have them both with us. Tom, Senator Kerry's principal strength?
TOM OLIPHANT, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": Senator Kennedy -- Kerry.
BROWN: There's a Freudian slip.
(LAUGHTER)
OLIPHANT: Kennedy, there's the key, isn't it? The key strength is determination. This is a guy to whom public life does not come naturally, never has. Often, he's stumbled out of the blocks, fallen on his face coming out of the blocks. What has fascinated me for 30 years is the way he gets up.
BROWN: Well, one more question on that. Did he -- was the campaign against Bill Weld, his last campaign, did it change him?
OLIPHANT: No, I don't think it changed him, but it's a classic illustration of how Kerry often starts poorly. And I think in ways that reflect the fact that he is the kind of natural at this that John Edwards, for example, is. But he learns and he listens. And he was told he was going to lose this thing in 1996 if he didn't change. So he changed. And I think you saw that trait reflected in his behavior in Iowa and New Hampshire after November.
BROWN: Yes.
OLIPHANT: He looked into the abyss and he changed. BROWN: Rob, let's talk about Senator Edwards here for a second. He's obviously an incredibly, incredibly engaging communicator. Beyond that, what is his strength?
ROB CHRISTENSEN, "THE NEWS AND OBSERVER": Well, he brings a lot of drive and determination. He is not just the -- despite the choir boy looks, he is a very tough, driven individual. What's interesting about him, Aaron, is that -- Tom talked about him being a natural, but he only got into politics in 1998. And before that, he was almost apolitical. He didn't run for high school senior class. He -- his old classmates in college claim not to remember whether he was for or against the Vietnam War or whether he was for Richard Nixon or George McGovern in the '72 race. He didn't -- wasn't involved in politics, except for occasionally giving a contributor to a judicial candidate as an adult. And he didn't even vote the half the time, prior to the election. So he really is a brand new face. And what he brings to this race are the -- some of the skills that are convertible from being a trial lawyer.
BROWN: Yes.
CHRISTENSEN: He's very good at talking to people without being condescending, but talking in language they understand. He learned that as a lawyer. He didn't talk in legalese to jurors. As a politician, he doesn't use Washington jargon in talking to voters.
BROWN: What do you think his weaknesses are?
CHRISTENSEN: Well, his weaknesses obviously are some of the things that are his strengths, the fact that he's a new and fresh face. The flip side of that, he is not very experienced. And that's been a very difficult sell, I think, in a post-9/11 environment. When you talk to voters over and over again all across the country, they, I really like John Edwards and I think he has a fine future, but is he quite ready for the big job?
BROWN: Tom, when asked earlier today what you thought Senator Kerry's weaknesses -- or weakness -- principal weaknesses was, it's actually, for a guy running for the presidency, a harsh response. What is it?
OLIPHANT: Well, it flows out of a strength, actually, Aaron. We've had a 30-plus year conversation about what Vietnam meant. And I remember one time he said to me late one evening years ago that Vietnam had made him a skeptic about the use of American power. And, on the one hand, there's an obvious plus there. But, on the other hand, it does suggest the possibility of a little too much brooding and indecisiveness.
BROWN: That's the word you used, indecisiveness
.OLIPHANT: And after all, they pay 400 grand a year for the White House job for you to make decisions. But, on the other hand, this skepticism has caused Senator Kerry to become in a way his own foreign policy expert. And you can almost see him around the table questioning his advisers, rather than being handled by them. And given the story of how we got into Iraq, that may prove to be an advantage. But, on the other hand, if you look at the difficulty he had for a while explaining his position a few weeks ago, I think it flows out of the effect of Vietnam on him, which was to make him, at least at first blush, skeptical about using American power.
(CROSSTALK)
OLIPHANT: And that makes him more reflective. And that's good on the one hand, but not necessarily. BROWN: Vietnam is the next subject we need to deal with where Senator Kerry is concerned. And we'll do that on a night shortly. Thank you both for joining us very much. Good to talk to you.Still ahead on the program tonight, the almost perfect crime. Did a star athlete, an Eagle Scout try to get away with murder in a small town in Wisconsin? We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York
.(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Segment seven tonight is a murder mystery in a small Wisconsin town. At the center of the story, a teenager who, by all accounts, is an exceptional kid, a local star, the son parents dream of raising. The question town residents are now struggling with, could this young man who excelled at almost everything have killed just to see if he could get away with murder?Here's CNN's Martin Savidge.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the eyes of Weyauwega, Wisconsin, 18-year-old Gary Hirte was seemingly as perfect as a teen gets, a high school honor student, a 6'4'', 270-pound star athlete.
KEN HARDWICKE, EDITOR, "THE CHRONICLE": That's Gary Hirte when he ran track. And there he is when he was a wrestler.
SAVIDGE: And the small town's first Eagle Scout in 20 years.
HOWARD QUIMBY, MAYOR OF WEYAUWEGA: I didn't believe it. I really didn't. I couldn't see Gary doing anything like this.
CURT FIELD, WEYAUWEGA POLICE CHIEF: There are about 1,800 good, God-fearing, Upper Midwestern Christians up here. Something like this happening, it affects a community on every level.
SAVIDGE: Now the young man is charged with murder, a crime Hirte's attorney says he didn't do. In fact, he says Hirte was in no way involved with it. Last August, 37-year-old Glenn Kopitske was found dead in his home seven miles outside town. He had been shot in the head, stabbed twice in the back and once through the heart. If Hirte was considered among the area's strongest, Kopitske would be considered among its weakest, described as a fragile, lonely eccentric, who, according to his mother, lived down a dead end road, a man who dreamed of being an actor and a stand-up comedian and once declared he was running for president. And much like the teenager accused of it, the crime itself was nearly perfect.
FIELD: As I understand, it was either in the cold case file or it was darn close to being deemed as a cold case.
SAVIDGE: Then, on New Year's Day, a former girlfriend of Hirte's went to the police with an amazing story, saying the town's golden boy had admitted to her he was the killer. (on camera): Police later recorded a phone conversation between the girl and Hirte in which he described details of the crime that had not been made public. A search of the teen's home turned up the dead man's keys, as his parents looked on in disbelief.
QUIMBY: If there was any sign of it, I'm sure somebody would have done something.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Now local parents only wonder what might have gone wrong, what might have been missed. Is Gary Hirte too perfect to even be suspected of murder or is it, as prosecutors suggest, the teen believed he was so perfect, he could get away with it? Martin Savidge, CNN, Weyauwega, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world and we'll do a little bit of both today.
We lead with "The Philadelphia Inquirer" because, honestly, I'm not kidding you, I'd pay double for this newspaper today. It's that good. Up top, "For Saint Joseph's, An Appointment With Perfection." The Saint Joseph's basketball team are 26-0, I believe. They're surprising everybody. So that's a good local story for them. The Disney Company is meeting, having its annual meeting in Philadelphia. So they put Mickey on the front page. That's pretty cool. and this is absolutely the best story of the day. "Thought Dead in Fire, Girl Is Found." We told you this a little earlier. "Police believe a woman set fire to a Feltonville home in '97, abducted the baby, raised her as her own." That is fabulous front page for "The Philadelphia Inquirer." Good for them.
Not a bad front page for "The China Daily." I once misidentified this as the newspaper of Taiwan. And I take this opportunity to correct myself now. It's actually mainland China. Here's what I liked about it, OK? They put the Academy Awards on the front page. Isn't that cool? That's Peter Jackson, right, that's his name, the guy that did "Lord of the Rings." I think you go to the Oscar to win all those awards, you comb your hair. But, hey, who am I?
Now, here's "The Herald Sun," which is an Australia paper, led with the Oscars, too. But they didn't put on anybody you'd remember. This is a local guy, an Australian guy, who won for animation. Anyway, what's his name? Adam Elliot. Good for him, too, holding his Oscar. Nice lead.
"The Boston Herald." "Not So Fast." This is a story about church closings because of the scandal. Jimmy Buffett on the front page as well. That's "The Boston Herald.""The Oregonian" out in Portland, Oregon. "Cattle Tracking Faces a Maze." Good story idea, trying to explain to people why it's so hard to identify where cattle -- there's millions of cattle, I suppose in the country -- where they come from. But it's something that a lot of health advocates want done, so, if there is an outbreak of mad cow or anything else, we know where they came from. "
The Chicago Sun-Times" leads with Haiti. "Powell: U.S. Didn't Kidnap Aristide." And the weather tomorrow in Chicago.
(CHIMES)
BROWN: Thank you. "Hard to complain," 50 degrees in Chicago. It was beautiful here in New York, I guess in the East today. We'll wrap up the day, preview a kind of weird one for us tomorrow after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Before we go tonight, a quick recap of our top story. U.S. Marines have taken up positions at Haiti's International Airport in Port-au-Prince, as well as a key port and the presidential palace, this as rebel forces swept in as on the heels of Haiti's president, who left the country, he says, under duress. Tomorrow night on the program, a special Wednesday morning edition of NEWSNIGHT. Go figure. We're on after the results are in from the primary. We'll have news and analysis of that, 1:00 a.m. Eastern time. We will take attendance. Please show up. Before we go, here's Soledad O'Brien with a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Aaron. Tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," 10 states, tens of millions of voters. Is this it for Senator John Edwards as he tries to set the Democratic campaign onto a new course? East, West, North and South, it is the pivotal day in the presidential campaign. We're going to cover it from across the country.That's CNN tomorrow, 7:00 Eastern -- Aaron, back to you
.(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Thank you, Ms. O'Brien.We'll see you tomorrow at 1:00 a.m. If you really love us, you'll be here. Until then, good night for all of us.
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Will Kerry Sweep on Super Tuesday?
