0 >> the former president also had a gift for leno. take a look. it is a painting he did himself of the comedian. former president has taken up painting since leaving the white house. i'm brooke baldwin. such a pleasure bringing you the news today from the nation's capitol. now we go to jake tapper, "the lead" starts right now. are we as a society prepared to accept, sorry, there's no room at the end, from mental health facilities? i'm jake tapper, this is "the lead." the national lead, a virginia newspaper says he was turned away after a mental health evaluation on monday. and by tuesday, he was dead. and police say the nearly took his politician father along with him. were all the possibilities really explored to get gus deeds help? and what does it mean to you? the politics lead. a congressman busted with cocaine. he says he's sorry and getting help. wait until you hear how he got caught. and also in national news, a lot of us were surprised to learn that former president bush is a painter, including his own family. but his latest portrait shows he's definitely putting the practice in. are we witnessing the artistic flowering of our 34rd president? good afternoon, everyone. welcome to "the leader." i'm jake tapper. we'll begin with the national lead. we've been saying too long that the mental health system in america is not working and there's a body count result. victims in aurora, newtown, and at l.a.x. and it's happened again. virginia's former democratic candidate for governor and current state senator creigh deeds is now listed in good condition after he was stabbed repeatedly on tuesday in the head and torso. his son, however, 24-year-old austin "gus" deeds is dead from a gunshot wound. as the reports came in, it was hard not to get that sinking feeling, which police later backed up with their own theory that gus deeds likely stabbed his own father and then shot himself. on monday, they gave gus deeds a mental health evaluation under an emergency custody order, but he was turned away because no psychiatric bed was available for him. today, however, "the washington post" says three hospitals had room within an hour's drive from where gus deeds was evaluated. two of those hospitals told the paper they were never called. a third wasn't sure. the treatment advocacy center says the number of psychiatric beds decreased by 14% nationwide between 2005 and 2010. in virginia, there are nearly 18 psychiatric beds for every 100,000 people. and that's actually above average, according to theed a vocati advocacy center. i want to bring in republican tim murphy, a psychologist who's calling to reforms from the national health care system. congressman, thanks so much for being here. you took to the house floor, and why you didn't mention gus deeds by name, you seemed to allude him in your remarks. who is to blame for him not getting the help he needs? this all seems like it could have been avoided. >> we have a long list of blame here, it goes to the federal, state, and local level. on the federal level, there's been a bush from some agencies who have actually reduced the number of hospital beds. >> reduced? >> reduceded the number of hospital beds and reduced a mandatory outpatient treatment as well. federal dollars paying agencies to advocate to reduce that. >> why, to save money? >> back in the '50s, we had half a million hospital beds and now we have 40,000. and even though you listed virginia as having around 20, 22, that is still listed in the serious area, because we need about 50 beds per 100,000 population. when medications came out in the 1950s, we found a lot of people in hospitals really didn't need to be there. they could be successful outside in the community. that was fine. but what happened was, there was such a push to reduce them that now we've gone too far. states have also cut their budgets for the mentally ill and local communities just have drastic shortnesses. they can't deal with this. so what happens is, when someone has a mental illness and they're a danger to themselves or someone else, that very important criteria, they can be tamed a little bit in a hospital, but then a judge or a magistrate needs to say, you need care, if a bed is available in virginia and some other states will have that same type of caveat as well. >> and there's no requirement that they call around -- because it seems to me the most difficult part of this whole process is getting somebody in the hospital, because he or she is a threat to himself or herself or others. that is the toughest part. once you're in there, i would think that it would be -- it should at least be okay, now he's here, we have him under surveillance, we're watching him, paying attention to him, we can put him in the hospital. but you're saying that's actually not necessarily the only hurdle. >> a very, very important point, that is, what hospital personnel in any sense safe? remember the story of aaron alexis, and they took him to a involvement hospital and the police saw him? the question in any one of these cases, you can go through the 60 plus major shootings there have been by someone who's majorly or mentally ill, when they were brought to the hospital, did someone see them as a threat to themselves or other people? we've heard many people where a parent has to go to the hpital and lie. that is, they have to lie and say, my child tried to kill me or my child threatened to kill me. without that danger, there's no reason the hospital personnel or magistrate will hold them. they'll say, look, he hasn't threatened anybody. i don't see evidence here of harm. you have to let minimum go. and parents, many times, can't even talk to the hospital. another federal law, the hipaa laws will say, doctors can't communicate with parents if the child is over 18 in most states, or in pennsylvania, over 14. >> so you're suggesting we've bent over too much in the name of civil liberties and not enough in the name of care and preserving a safe society? >> that's right. we've gone so far, we've forgot compassion to help those who are ill. keep this in mind. of the severely mentally ill, about half of them have something where they don't even recognize they have a problem. patients that i see now in my work, that i do in the navy, some of them are not even aware of their hallucinations or their psychosis or the fact that they have a serious problem, or ptsd, which i know you're deeply concerned about too. so therefore, that patient is not necessarily going to sign themselves into a hospital. but what happens also is you can have a student who's out of school, look at the virginia tech shooter and others, where the school may say, gee, we recognize this young man or woman has a serious problem. they're not allowed to talk with the parent. so the parent, who if they knew that could say, we've put these pieces together with other things, we could get that person in care. but what we don't know is what were the other pieces that were left out? >> and i know you're introducing legislation about this in a few weeks, we'll have you back and talk about the legislation. thank you so much, congressman murphy of pennsylvania. appreciate it. in politics, it was a sting operation set up by the fbi and the drug enforcement agency and the target was a united states congressman. 34-year-old trey radel was busted for buying 3 1/2 grams of cocaine from an undercover officer three weeks ago. he pleaded guilty to the charges and us with sentenced today to a year of probation. in a statement, the freshman lawmaker apologized to his family and constituents and admitted he has a problem. he writes, quote, i struggle with the disease of alcoholism and this led to an extremely irresponsible choice, as the father of a young son and a husband to a loving wife, i need to get help, so i can be a better man for both of them. let's bring in cnn justice reporter who has some new details on how this operation went down. evan, what have you learned about this sting investigation? >> this is an investigation that began several months ago. the d.a. -- >> just of this congressman? >> no, this was a d.a. and fbi investigation several months ago into a cocaine ring that apparently was supplying the d.c. area. and in the course of the investigation, they talked to a dealer who, in trying to make -- trying to figure out how to get a leniency from the agents or from the investigators, said, well, i have a congressman who's a, who is one of my customers. so they decided to set up a sting operation, which went down on october 29th in dupont circle, at this restaurant, well-known restaurant called e circa. and at this restaurant, he meets with the dealer and an undercover person from the investigation, who then take him to a car and sell him 3.5 grams of cocaine, which is known as an eight-ball. >> that's a good amount. this was a few weeks ago, how come we only learned about it yesterday? >> the investigation was ongoing. apparently they took him back to his house, they confronted him. in between that time, they've been discussing this with the u.s. attorney's office to try to figure out a way to a deal. the attorney general, eric holder, we're told by a source, was briefed on the case, but he didn't do anything to interrupt it or anything like that, which is a very normal course in justice department investigations. >> and the congressman blames his bad choices on alcoholism. how long had he had this relationship with this dealer who sold him the eight-ball? >> well, according to the d.a. and according to the u.s. attorney's office, this has been going on for a while. these are people who he knew and he's been seen by these people to be using cocaine. >> so not just one bad choice one day. >> no, he was buying it and sharing it. >> i guess that's what one does with an eight-ball, or so i've read. evan perez, appreciate it. when we come back, did the warren commission ignore a trip that lee harvey oswald took a trip to mexico weeks before the kennedy assassination. you do not have to be an x-files fan to think the truth is out there. what's this about a special present he gave to the president? i will ask him. he'll be our guest, up ahead. my mantra? family first.