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CNN NEWSROOM

Scandal Could Jeopardize Former Speaker's Legacy; Martin O'Malley Running for President; Man Fighting for Terror Group Trained in the U.S.; FAA: Airliner Avoids Potentially Deadly Drone Crash; Taliban Five Travel Ban Set to Expire; Josh Duggar "Sorry" About His Past Actions; Decisions Pending on TLC's "19 Kids and Counting". Aired 12-1p ET

Aired May 30, 2015 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


RANDI KAYE, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, he was two heartbeats away from the White House. Today, new details on Dennis Hastert's multi-million dollar secret.

Plus deadly flooding --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not know if there's anybody in it or not, so we will need to check it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: A terrifying rescue as a police officer is plucked from his car to safety. Rising waters threatening more homes and more rain is on the way.

And Martin O'Malley officially jumps into the presidential race. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Randi Kaye in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with a simmering Washington scandal. The story centers on former house speaker, Dennis Hastert, now under indictment for lying to the FBI about huge sums of crash that he withdrew allegedly for hush money to cover up sexual abuse with one of his former students.

This dates back to his early years as a teacher and a wrestling coach long before his political career ever started. So far, he is not saying anything.

Let's get to Sunlen Serfaty in Washington for us. Sunlen, isn't he eventually going to have to face reporters?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's very likely, Randi. As you know, he hasn't said anything yet. His lawyers still haven't said anything yet, and there are still are so many questions about this. Now here's what we know. According to sources, Hastert was paying a former male student to keep quiet over these allegations of sexual abuse. This was, as you note, from the time that he was a wrestling coach in Illinois before he even came to Washington to start his political career.

He was indicted Thursday by the Department of Justice for lying to the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay this undisclosed person. But he only ended up paying $1.7 million of that before the indictment came through.

Now, Hastert is known for being squeaky-clean here in Washington so a lot of surprise over this indictment. Here's the White House press secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think I can speak pretty faithfully for everybody here at the White House, that even though Speaker Hastert served as the speaker of the House in the other party, there's nobody here who takes -- who drives any pleasure from reading about the former speaker's legal troubles at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: CNN spoke to a friend of Hastert who has known him since 1970s. He spoke with him the day that the Department of Justice indictment came through and he tells CNN, quote, "he perceived himself as the one being wronged" and he made no comment, though, Randi, about the allegations.

KAYE: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you very much for the update from Washington. Much more to the Hastert story, of course, the "L.A. Times" is reporting a top law enforcement official says investigators also spoke to a second man, who accused Hastert of similar allegations.

"L.A. Times" reporter, Tim Phelps, spoke to CNN's Wolf Blitzer about the second man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY PHELPS, "LOS ANGELES TIMES" (via telephone): There were payments going on between Hastert and the second official we are reporting.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": This occurred when Hastert was a teacher and a wrestling coach at that high school?

PHELPS: Well, we believe that's the case. We don't have a lot of details on this second victim, but in general, the charge is made clear that it goes back before the time that Hastert was in office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And the school where Hastert taught during the alleged sexual abuse said it had no knowledge whatsoever of these accusations. Let's bring in CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein and CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan to talk more about this. Ron, to you first, done this threaten to destroy Hastert's legacy?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. I mean, this is just an extraordinary story, especially when you consider the way that Hastert was introduced to the country. I mean, really was for House Republicans a return to normalcy.

I mean, he became speaker after Newt Gingrich stepped aside following the Republican losses in 1998 and the backlash against the impeachment of Bill Clinton and then when the designated successor, Bob Livingston, was forced to step aside because of his own allegations of sexual misconduct.

So Hastert seemed to be kind of, you know, smoothing the waters, and for the story to end, for his story to end with these revelations is just an extraordinarily reversal of fate.

KAYE: Ron, let me just follow up with you here because Hastert was instrumental, instrumental, in passing the Patriot Act and it was the provision of that act that actually tightened the restrictions on the cash withdrawals which, in the end, really helped the feds build the case against him. How ironic is that?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, that's just adding more irony. I mean, you know, we think of Hastert as very much of a low-key speaker. Initially, he was thought as just the public face and the real power was Tom Delay, who later ran into legal troubles of his own that were subsequently reversed.

[12:05:09] But Hastert turned out to be a forceful voice particularly on these national security issues and he is still a name used all the time in Washington because of the Hastert rule, which was something informal that really became formal under him.

Where he said he would not bring a bill to the floor unless it has majority of support not only from the House overall, but a majority of the majority and that really has contributed to polarization in Congress.

We still talk about the Hastert rule, but I think it's going to have obviously some different connotations depending on how this case plays out.

KAYE: Yes, absolutely. Paul, let me ask you about the statute of limitations. What do we know about that?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we know that the state of Illinois changed the statute of limitations in certain kinds of sexual abuse cases in 2005 and they extended it and made it longer. Presumably what's being alleged in the background stuff here predated 2005 when there was a shorter statute of limitation.

So my bet is the statute of limitations had run on sexual misconduct of a criminal nature and the only thing, the law enforcement authorities were left with were these sort of, you know, exotic charges like currency transaction charges, which is the first count in the indictment, and of course, the old standby, lying to the FBI.

KAYE: So then, Paul, what kind of punishment could Hastert face if he's ultimately convicted if the statute of limitations is out?

CALLAN: He's facing very serious time on these two charges. Both of these charges, each of them call for a five-year or $250,000 fine as sentenced and the underlying facts of the sexual misconduct would come out at the trial because, remember, he's being accused of lying to the FBI about why he was taking all of this money out of the bank.

So presumably the prosecutor would be able to explain the real reason that he was taking it out of the bank was to -- it was hush money. So, in a way they're going to use this as a mechanism to try the underlying case and that will give them leverage, of course, to get a plea of guilty ultimately in the case, which is probably how this case will resolve.

And one other thing, he's presumed innocent at this point, and I'm only speculating about how it could play out in the future.

KAYE: Right. And, Ron, are you surprised, I mean, this is Washington, after all, and if true, are you surprised that this scandal has been hidden for so long?

BROWNSTEIN: Somewhat. You know, but, look, I mean, the greatest book ever in American politics was "All of The King's Men" by Robert Warren and in it one character says to another, there is always something.

You know the reality is that most of people in their lives -- not necessarily this serious -- understand that many people have something they would not want to read on the front page of newspaper and this just kind of goes with the scent that there are a lot of rocks that can be overturned in a strange way.

And again, I'm not equating this with other behavior if the underlying charges are true, as Paul said, this goes to why Americans have become somewhat inured to scandal and why it does not disqualify politicians quickly.

Because they realized that many people have flaws in their background, again not necessarily this serious if underlying charges are true.

KAYE: Right, we'll have to see how this all unfolds. Ron Brownstein, Paul Callan, thank you both very much.

The Democratic field for president just got larger. Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor and one-time Baltimore mayor made it official this morning that he is running for president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is why today, to you and to all who can hear my voice, I declare that I am a candidate for president of the United States, and I am running for you! God bless you. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America! Thank you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Let me bring in CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who is in Baltimore. So Jeff, O'Malley aims to be a progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton. Won't he have to also battle with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for that title as well?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No doubt. He and Bernie Sanders are both competing for anyone but Hillary Clinton votes, those Democrats who are looking for something else. But Martin O'Malley is a former two-term governor of Maryland.

He's presenting himself as an experienced, new leader, kind of pointing out, you know, he has been a governor and a mayor, not just serving time in the Senate. But his speech was very interesting today, particularly when he took a not so subtle jab at Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'MALLEY: Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest repeat investment banks in America. Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he'd be just fine with either Bush or Clinton. I bet he would!

Well, I've got news for the bullies of Wall Street. The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families.

[12:10:06] It is a sacred trust, to be earned from the American people and exercise on behalf of the people of these United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Between two royal families, of course, talking about Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush there. So, the theme of his speech was built right around that, really trying to say that the economy needs to be improved.

He's going to be fighting for Main Street, tying it to Wall Street. He said that's one of the reasons that Baltimore has had all of the problems, even though he served as mayor of the city.

He said that economic regrowth needs to happen across the country. He went head-on into that. But certainly did not shy away from taking at least a subtle shot at Hillary Clinton.

KAYE: And you know, you mentioned some of the problems that Baltimore has been having. One of them is certainly the conflict now between police and the community. And he's being blamed for that because of his zero tolerance policy. How do you think that's going to play out?

ZELENY: Sure, he's being blamed for some of it. In fact a few protesters, a handful of protesters, tried to interrupt his speech. One was saying, black lives matter, of course, the anthem of the rallies that we've been seeing in Baltimore for so long. But look, he certainly can't be blamed for all of the problems in Baltimore, but is it part of his record. He has been campaigning on saying that he reduced crime in Baltimore because of his policy.

So at some point he will have to, you know, give more of a fulsome answer on this. But I'm not so sure that this presidential campaign is going to be guided by what happened here in Baltimore.

It certainly something that is not helpful to him, but it is part of his record. He's trying to focus more on his time as governor when he was a progressive and very liberal governor here in Maryland.

KAYE: Absolutely. Jeff Zeleny in Baltimore, Jeff, thank you very much.

Federal aid will now be on its way to Texas, which has been hammered by severe weather. The White House made that announcement late yesterday. At least 22 people in Texas died this week from either tornadoes or flooding.

The same storms have claimed lives in Oklahoma and Northern Mexico. Our Dan Simon is in Highlands, Texas, which was hit pretty hard again yesterday. Dan, are things any better there today?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Things are looking a little better, Randi. The waters have receded where I am. This is Highlands, Texas, as you said. This is an area called the Banana Bin. I should tell you that most of the homes in this area are on stilts, so they're not going to flood.

But, you know, you go into some of these other areas that are under evacuation orders and there still is concern, particularly with forecast, more rain is expected to come this afternoon, and if that happens you could see a whole other round of flooding in Texas.

That's certainly not what they need, but you can see that this street, this is a residential street entirely flooded. So, some of these residential areas where I am here at Highlands really the only way you can get around is by boat -- Randi.

KAYE: All right, Dan Simon, in Highlands, Texas for us. Dan, thank you very much.

Up next, a man now fighting for ISIS trained on U.S. soil, surprising claims and government reaction when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: CNN has learned disturbing information about an ISIS fighter, who had extensive counterterrorism training right here in the U.S. and now he is also making dangerous threats.

CNN's Brian Todd has more on what the former commander may know and how it could be used against Americans and our allies on the battlefield -- Brian. BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Randi, we've got new information about an ISIS fighter named Gulmurod Khalimov. He is a former colonel with the counterterror police of Tajikistan. We have learned that this man was trusted enough to be allowed inside the United States for extensive counterterror training.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Donned in ISIS black he confidently carries a long sniper rifle, a bandolier of ammunition, he picks off a tomato to show off his skill. This is an ISIS video, and CNN has just learned this man trained on American soil, the fighter says he is Gulmurod Khalimov, a former commander in a special police counter terror unit in Tajikistan, a key U.S. ally.

GULMUROD KHALIMOV, ISIS FIGHTER (through translator): From 2003 to 2008 I received specialized training in America on the military base of Black Water.

TODD: Black Water, a controversial U.S. contracting company, which sent private security personnel to Iraq and trained other country's fighters at this compound in North Carolina.

Contacted by CNN, Academy, the company that purchased Black Water's training facility, was unable to confirm that Khalimov was there. The State Department tells CNN, Khalimov participated in five counterterrorism courses in the U.S. and Tajikistan between 2003 and last year.

We spoke with former Army sniper, Paul Scharre about what he might have learned.

(on camera): What skills that he would have learned do you think might hurt allied forces on the battlefield?

PAUL SCHARRE, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY: So there are types of training that he is likely to have received would have been basic tactics and maneuvers, ability to say, move through building, move through urban area in a tactical way, basic marksmanship.

TODD: Scharre says U.S. contractors wouldn't have trained Khalimov to be a killing machine like Rambo, but if Khalimov was a top commander in Tajikistan's counter terror forces, there's another worry.

MICHAEL BREEN, "THE TRUMAN PROJECT": The real problem is he knows how to plan counter terrorism operations so he knows how the people who protect a high-value target will be thinking. He knows how the people who protect an embassy will be thinking and so that puts him a position to, as we would say in the military, the "red team mat," to think very intelligently on how to disrupt those plans. That's a dangerous capability.

TODD: Another ominous signal, Khalimov's threat against what he called American pigs.

KHALIMOV (through translator): God willing, we will come to your cities and to your homes and we will kill you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: The State Department says, all appropriate vetting was done for Khalimov before he came to the United States. Tajik officials have so far not commented on this man or the video. Khalimov has a skill, a very dangerous one, that goes beyond what he can do with sniper rifle.

In the video, he speaks Russian. Analysts say that's a marketing decision by ISIS to use him as a tool to recruit other fighters from Central Asia -- Randi.

KAYE: Certainly alarming. Brian Todd, thank you very much.

Just ahead, a U.S. passenger jet forced to make a sudden maneuver as it prepares for landing at New York's LaGuardia airport. We'll tell you why the threat it faced could have ended in disaster.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:23:22]

KAYE: Checking some top stories now, a boat captain in Hawaii has died after getting impaled by a sword fish. Officials say the 47- year-old Randy Yaniz had jumped into the waters off the Hawaiian coast holding a spear gun in an attempt to catch the fish.

It was during his time in the water that somehow he got punctured by the fish in his torso and died. Police and state conservation officers are investigating.

The Pentagon now confirming U.S. Army sent a suspected shipment of anthrax to Australia. The Pentagon says live samples of the potentially dangerous pathogen are believed to have been shipped back in 2008 or 2009.

A total of 24 laboratories in 11 states and two foreign countries are now believed to have received suspect samples. The Defense Department is contacting a thorough review of its anthrax protocols. The CDC is also investigating, but officials say they do not suspect any risks to the public.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants China to quit its territorial expansion into the South China Sea. This comes just one week after U.S. surveillance plane carrying a CNN crew swooped over these islands triggering warnings from the Chinese Navy to back off.

U.S. officials say they are concerned about China's militarization of some of the islands and are considering flying surveillance missions closer than it has before over these islands.

The Federal Aviation Administration is on the hunt for a drone pilot who could have caused a catastrophe. A passenger jet coming in for a landing at LaGuardia airport had to move quickly to avoide a drone on Friday morning. The jet had to climb 200 feet. The drone was flying at about 2,700 feet, way too high, and way too close to an airport. Right now, the FAA is trying to figure out who is responsible.

[12:25:05] So let's bring in CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem, who is in Boston. Juliet is a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

Juliet, let me ask you, officials say that a drone getting sucked into a jet engines could have catastrophic consequences. What do you make of that?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think that's absolutely right, just the number of drones and people have this image of what a drone is. They think it's a going off in Afghanistan.

Drone just simply means an unmanned aerial instrument so anyone can get one of them. A drone in an engine hitting the wrong part of an airplane, whether a large commercial plane or a small one would cause significant damage and these are sort of terrifying incidences because they are so avoidable.

People who have drones have to abide by the rules that regulate where and when drones can be utilized.

KAYE: Also joining our conversation from Denver, we have CNN safety analyst, David Soucie, who is also a former FAA safety inspector. David, what can an encounter with a drone actually do to pilots and especially during this critical time in a flight?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, there are a couple of things, really, if you look at it from a pilot's perspective, just the distraction, you know, it wasn't long ago we talked about the distraction to train engineer by having a brick hit the front of the windshield.

Now we are talking about a drone that diverts attentions, making a basic maneuver, it can take you off of your flight path and into the flight path of another aircraft so just the evasive maneuver is one.

The second thing is if it's ingested into an engine, we are not talking about a bird strike. These engines are designed to take bird strikes. We are talking about mechanical parts that can get in and block specific passage ways of the air flow within the engine.

So it's not only about it hitting the fan blade, which is turning at 30,000 RPMs and then gets hit. Those are titanium blades, those are pretty strong, but what happens is those parts of that get into the parts of the engine and cause the fuel controls to fail and that is catastrophic.

KAYE: And actually the drone is not even the only instance to affect airlines this week. Five passenger jets around New York reported being hit by lasers, which can temporarily blind the pilot. David, is there anything, anything at all that can be done to protect aircrafts or pilots from something like that? SOUCIE: Well, there are a lot of parallels between the drone and these lasers. The FAA needs to realize that a regulation does not mitigate risk. It's just the same as a gun law. You know, you put a gun law in place and don't use guns in the wrong way. Those are regulations and rules that rely on people to adhere to those rules.

They have to go beyond this and it's way beyond their skill set. This needs to be higher level, the Congress needs to step in and give them empowerment to control these kinds of things there has to be register the lasers that are capable of doing this or start taking criminal action against the people that are doing it.

It's far beyond just someone with the laser out there. This is now something that needs to be dealt with and dealt with right away.

KAYE: And Juliette, what do you think, I mean, is it time for the government to rethink the way that it's protecting the airlines? I mean, what do you make of that?

KAYYEM: And I agree with David, this wholeheartedly. It's registration. It's required training. It's licensing, and then it is prosecuting. We need to get some high-profile cases of these guys who are, whether fooling around, making accidents, or actually dangerous.

That they're purposefully doing this, there has to be very strong prosecutions to get the word out to the drone community or whatever community it is that these are dangerous instruments and that there has to be just a stronger federal oversight of what's going on because a very small thing can cause catastrophic damage.

KAYE: Absolutely. Juliette Kayyem, David Soucie, nice to see you both. Thank you.

KAYYEM: Thanks.

KAYE: Still ahead, he was mayor of Baltimore, governor of Maryland, but can Martin O'Malley capture the White House? He's officially started his journey. Our political panel weighs in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:32:31]

KAYE: Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Randi Kaye in for Fredricka Whitfield.

The race for president just gotten more crowded, Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland and former mayor of Baltimore just announced that he is in the race for 2016.

During his kick-off speech, he addressed the current divide in Baltimore in the weeks of unrest over the death of Freddie Gray.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Last month, television sets around the world were filled with the anger and the rage and the flames of some of the humblest and hardest hit neighborhoods in Baltimore.

For all of us who have given so much of our energies to making our city a safer, fairer, and more prosperous place, that was a heartbreaking night for all of us.

For us, Baltimore is our country. For what took place here was not only about race, not only about policing in America, it was about everything it is supposed to mean to be an American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: All right. Let's talk about this some more. Joining me now, Republican strategist, Brian Morgenstern and Ellis Henican, a columnist at "Newsday," who once was a Republican but now a Democrat.

Brian, to you first on this, how much does this whole Baltimore divide impact O'Malley on day one of his campaign?

BRIAN MORGENSTERN, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Well, it damages his credibility tremendously because, obviously, he's running on his experience as governor of Maryland and before that mayor of Baltimore. As I mentioned last hour, what do the voters have to show for his leadership?

It's high crime, high poverty, racial tension, higher taxes and regulation, and a poor business climate. He doesn't have a good record to run on. Of course, it really makes him stumble right out of the gate.

I want to touch on his policing policy because that seems to be at the root of this. People are conflating what was happening in Baltimore under Mayor O'Malley with what is happening in New York and other cities with the so-called broken windows and things like that.

You know, this kind of policing, the -- it's supposed to be about policing with a scalpel. What was happening under Mayor O'Malley seemed to be policing with a shrimping net, where he'd arrest entire neighborhoods.

And let people out when they'd sign a waiver to not sue the city so no wonder people are angry and not really reacting to his candidacy. He's got a pretty flawed track record.

KAYE: Ellis, let me let you weigh in here and you've written that O'Malley is better than Hillary Clinton. Why do you say that? I mean, he did endorse her back in the 2008 campaign.

[12:35:03] ELLIS HENICAN, COLUMNIST, "NEWSDAY": Well, listen, he has a tough road. I don't think we can pretend this has been a smooth launch. The fact that he's speaking about police unrest in Baltimore is frankly not the theme that he ought to be launching on you've got to say Bernie Sanders had a much better launch this week.

The passion in the Democratic Party is in the progressive wing. It's people who are to the left, clearly to the left, of Hillary and O'Malley's record is more mixed on that front.

I mean, I don't buy Brian's view, he's a pretty good governor and mayor, but as a political matter, he's nearly begun. Let's put it like that.

KAYE: Brian, weigh on what you think about O'Malley in terms of his strength against Hillary Clinton as a candidate.

MORGENSTERN: Well, you know, another poll that I mentioned earlier, Maryland Democrats were asked who they would prefer, Hillary Clinton or Governor O'Malley, and it was 63-3 in favor of Hillary Clinton.

There's an Article on 538, not a right-wing publication, it's Nate Silver's web site and they talked about why would Americans like O'Malley if Marylanders don't even like O'Malley.

So I think, again, he's -- he doesn't have a favorable track record, and he's not a real popular governor, and that's why his lieutenant governor was trounced in November's election.

So I think, as Ellis said, I will agree that he's got a tough road ahead. I think it's nearly insurmountable, though.

KAYE: Ellis, very quickly final word?

HENICAN: Hillary Clinton. I mean, that's the road ahead. It's going to be tough for any of these people to beat her. Let's be honest, she's at 50 percent in the polls, he's at 1. Yes, it's a very tough road ahead, guys.

KAYE: All right that was two words, by the way, just for the record, Hillary Clinton.

HENICAN: I should have just said Hillary.

KAYE: Brian Morgenstern, Ellis Henican, thank you both very much. Appreciate it.

The deal reached in a high-level Taliban prison swap is about to expire. Just ahead, what could happen to the five Gitmo detainees, who were traded for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:43]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't get to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soldiers overseas, I respect your organizer service but I'm a veteran and you're endangering our fellow soldiers!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Protesters and counter-protesters faced off at a rally outside a Phoenix mosque that was holding a draw Muhammad cartoon contest. Police separated the groups afraid of violence. A similar event in Garland, Texas, earlier this month ended in gunfire. There, police shot dead two armed ISIS sympathizers who tried to attack that gathering.

A decision is expected Monday on the fate of those five high-level Taliban detainees swapped in a prisoner exchange with the U.S. The Taliban members were traded for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl last year.

The agreement between U.S. and Qatar imposed a one-year travel ban, which officially ends at the end of the month. Global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott now on what could happen next.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, under the agreement the five Taliban detainees have been monitored by the Qatari government for one year and banned from traveling outside the country.

Now, the State Department is leading separate negotiations with both the governments of Qatar and Afghanistan about what happens next. U.S. officials say there are a few options in play.

Now the U.S. prefers they stay in Qatar where they will be monitored. The five have brought their families there and now total amounts 70 among them. The other options could see the five returning to Afghanistan either be released or monitored by the Afghan government.

Now, the Qatari say they will not expand the restrictions on the five, nor will they send them home to Afghanistan, if they don't want to leave Qatar. So, none of these are great options. These are five pretty high-ranking Taliban officials.

At least one has tried to communicate with Taliban militants back home since arriving in Qatar raising questions about whether the lives of Afghans, Americans, and U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan would be at risk.

Republican lawmakers were upset with a deal in the first place and now they are calling on the Obama administration to make sure the five are not set free. Elise Labott, CNN, Washington.

KAYE: Still on the way, it is nine days and counting since the Duggars' world was upended by a sex scandal. Next, the possible fate of the family's hit reality show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:19]

KAYE: TLC still deciding what to do about the Duggars, reruns of the hit show "19 Kids and Counting" were pulled after a sex scandal involving oldest son, Josh, was revealed last week. Now critics are getting more and more vocal about what they call the family's brazen hypocrisy. Kyung Lah has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pounding piety in their home, the Duggars, a reality clan preaching their beliefs beyond TLC, powering into the political field.

Matriarch of the family, Michelle, last August recorded this robo-call asking Fayetteville, Arkansas residents to protest anti-discrimination ordinance, which would protect transgender rights.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I doubt that Fayetteville parent would stand for a law that would endanger their daughters or allow them to be traumatized by a man joining them in their private space.

LAH (on camera): She left out what was happening in her family's own private space. According to this police report obtained by "In Touch" magazine, the family did not take Josh Duggar to the authorities in 2002 when the family first learned about an alleged sexual assault. Four years later, the family's TV fame growing, a tip prompts an official police investigation.

(voice-over): The allegations not becoming public until last week. Only then, Josh Duggar saying he is extremely sorry and as parents, we are not a perfect family.

The eldest in a cast of many on TLC's "19 Kids and Counting" Josh Duggar was jockeying to be a prime political and cultural player, speaking about Christian and family values.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had parents that loved each other, loved the Lord. That stood up for what was right.

LAH: A potent symbol to Republican presidential candidates courting the Evangelical base, all have been silent in the wake of the scandal except for Candidate Mike Huckabee, standing by the family on Facebook. Josh's actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, inexcusable, but that doesn't mean unforgivable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad they got what was coming to them. I think karma's a bitch.

LAH: Longtime Hollywood crisis manager, Howard Bragman, says the repugnant part of the reality TV tale unraveling isn't just the alleged sex crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had the hut spa or nerve to be judging all these other people when you know you have this in your past, it just doesn't make any sense, and it really, in the end, they are responsible for the death of their own brand.

LAH: A brand and a family waiting to see if TLC decides to bring it back. Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:50:06] KAYE: Let's discuss this further now. Joining me is CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter. Brian, good to see you. So what do you think is going on behind the scenes now at TLC? BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I think the least bad option for TLC right now is to do what they are doing, which is to not do anything. You know, they pulled the episodes from the schedule last week, but they are stopping short of canceling the show.

What canceling would really mean in this case is never resuming production. You know, right now there's no camera crews following the Duggars around so there's nothing to really cancel. But the show is a huge hit for TLC.

They would like to order more seasons. They would like to resume production. In this situation they probably cannot resume productions so at some point, they will have to make that decision.

But right now by avoiding the issue, by staying silent, they're probably doing the least bad thing, because they're letting this hopefully, you know, it's not going to blow over, but they are hopefully letting the intensity and the interest die down.

I have to say, though, we learned in the last hour, we're going to hear from the family for the first time. The parents, the Duggar parents, giving an interview to Fox New's Megyn Kelly that will air next week.

In the statement the parents say they're going to be speaking from the heart, sharing our hearts with you about the pain that we walk through as a family 12 years ago, tears we all shed, and forgiveness that was given.

The subtext of the statement, Randi, is that they're preparing to tell their side of the story, their side of this awful story for the first time.

KAYE: What about -- that is certainly surprising. I'm sure a lot of folks are anxious to hear about what they have to say about it, but the streaming sit, Hulu, has also dropped all the episodes after consulting with TLC apparently. Do you know which side initiated that?

STELTER: Yes, this is another example of how this family crisis has deepened for the Duggars and that's I think the point we were hearing Howard Bragman make in the story just now.

Hulu took the shows off the website a few days ago. The CEO told me they did it in consultation with TLC. They said it wasn't about advertiser pressure. It was about reflecting what TLC was doing, which was also taking the show off the channel schedule.

But that means it's been wiped away off the internet and off of television, again, just making it harder to bring it back in the future, but one of most logical outcomes here is a spin-off.

Maybe that's why the parents think they need to do a television interview, they need to tell their side of the story and make it more possible to have a spin-off TV show in the future.

KAYE: Yes, what about the brand? Depending what the parents say, of course, what will happen to the Duggar brand?

STELTER: You know, this might be the rare sort of reality TV scandal that doesn't actually help a show. You know we've seen with "Duck Dynasty" and other reality TV controversies that it results in higher ratings and more interest in the subjects of the show.

This might be one of the rare stories where that's not the case because we're talking molestation including of family members. That's why the questions for the parents are going to be so crucial here. We have to hear from them about what exactly they did and didn't do when they learned about Josh Duggar's offenses here.

We have to also hear about the victims in the story, we've heard from almost nothing from them or about them. The word by the way about the interview we will not be hearing from the children, only from the parents.

But obviously them coming forward and speaking will be a first step where they hope they can start to repair some of the damage publicity wise that's been done to their family.

KAYE: Absolutely, so many questions for this family. Brian Stelter, thank you very much.

STELTER: Thanks.

KAYE: He was sentenced to life in an Egyptian prison, but now a jailed American is coming home. The story, next.

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[12:57:19]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This precious wooden instrument is an unusual toy for a teenager. But this 13-year-old carries it with pride.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: What most like about playing the violin is the song, the texture of the music, the thickness, you know, of classical music.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The beautiful string ensemble from South Africa, it's called "basket" string ensemble. They are from underprivileged background, but music lighten up their hope and future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The basket string ensemble is made up of 28 young musicians born and lived in South Africa's most populous black township, Soweto.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of our parents grew up listening to sort of Motown or African jazz, you know, classical music isn't really something that a lot of people listen to. I think it's quite extraordinary that a lot of black kids are going the classical route.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Checking top stories now, U.S. citizen who had been sentenced to life in an Egyptian prison will soon be reunited with his family in the U.S. The U.S. embassy confirms Mohammad Sultan has left Egypt. He had been jailed since 2013 for his role in demonstrations in support of ousted former President Mohammed Morsi. He had been on a hunger strike for 14 months and the State Department had called for his release on humanitarian grounds.

U.S. lawmakers return to the Senate floor in a rare session Sunday in a looming stalemate over provisions of the Patriot Act, unless Congress moves the measures expire at midnight tomorrow. One of the main provisions, the NSA's metadata collection collect program, which allow the government to collect millions of Americans' phone data.

The FBI is facing what it calls an extraordinarily difficult challenge, keeping up with possible terror suspects in the U.S. The agency is asking for help from local police departments. The NYPD wants to add 450 officers to its counterterrorism unit, partly to counter the threat from ISIS sympathizers.

We have much more just ahead in NEWSROOM and it all starts right now.