now there's a new attorney joining george zimmerman's case. >> about time. >> that's kind of interesting. he did have a representative at first buchlt now the two of them will jointly represent george zimmerman. his father also really sat down to talk about his son's version of events the night that trayvon martin was shot and killed. here is what he said. >> he was walking back to his vehicle. trayvon came from his left side, asked him, did he have -- did he have a problem? george said no. at that point, trayvon said, well, you do now. he punched him in the nose, knocked him to the concrete and started beating him. george was there, yelling for help for at least 40 seconds. it's clearly him on the tape. >> joining us this morning, lou palumbo, nassau county police officer and director -- i have trouble talking, one minute, 30 seconds into the show. nice to have you. we've spent a lot of time now talking about this particular case. we're now getting the version of events fleshd out not only by george zimmerman's father but also his attorney as well. what kind of things are you listening for and you want to know from their perspective? >> unfortunately i don't think there's much from their perspective that's going to influence me at this point. what i would be more inclined to do is review some of the crime scene investigations, forensics, autopsy reports. his son's actions don't really change the merit miechlt opinion remains to be that he used excessive force. he precipitated this. he volunteered that to us in a 911 tape where he indicated he was following him. >> the lawyer would say that's not correct, that when he was told to stop that he said, okay, or don't follow him, he said okay and that it wasn't a direct order. it was a guy in the dispatch. it was not official police order. the lawyer, who was talking to piers morgan last night, hal erwig. he said there is a reason trayvon martin is dead and it is this. listen. >> it is not because he was black or because he wore a hoodie or because he was walking in the rain. it's because that 6'3" young man made a terrible decision and a bad judgment and decided to smack somebody in the face and break their nose, jump on them and smack their head into the ground. in doing that, put him in reasonable fear for his safety. you're going to find that there was a dispute as to what happened with the gun. he was absolutely entitled to defend himself. and that's why trayvon martin is dead, not because of racial profiling. >> clearly setting up the case, right? you could see in addition to the narrative, he's also throwing in sort of the legal perspective. >> we're not questioning he had a legal right to defend himself. we're just discussing now to what extent. we're not saying you didn't have a right to fight back. clearly, you did. this is all about the use of deadly physical force and did it apply in this case? and is it justified? simply stated it isn't. i don't think trayvon was 6'3". to correct the record, i reviewed a police report that described him as six foot. let's get our facts accurate. how mysteriously did trayvon and mr. zimmerman end up in such proximity to each other if he wasn't being followed? maybe what trayvon did, when he realized he was being followed, as he articulated in the phone call to his girlfriend, was position himself in a manner that made him more comfortable. and alleging him to confront this person, who are you? why are you following me? the rest of this is just zimmerman's justification for what he did. >> an interesting point to focus. we focused in on who was the pursuer, that being the question. who was the aggressor in the actual confrontation? that's been a point of focus. you now have focused in on the use of deadly force. was it justified? i think that's a very legitimate question. that entire question will hinge on did george zimmerman really feel his life was in jeopardy? do his injuries support that feeling and on and on? >> the question i have is if i'm carrying a concealed weapon, 9 millimeter handgun and you're not and i feel like i'm in imminent fear for my life, what do you feel like? >> we agree then, these are the analysis that people will be going through, police, lawyers, this is what they'll be focusing on, whether or not it was reasonable to use deadly force. am i wrong? >> clearly, i've seen from the fath father's comments and also from the lawyer that there is going to be a conversation about a struggle for a weapon, right? >> certainly hinted at that. >> a narrative that at that point there was a struggle for the gun. ultimately, is it going to look at, i guess, forensic evidence to see if there was a struggle for the gun? one party in this, who would be able to answer that, is dead. >> if there ever is a trial. that's the real point here. most people that are protesting this aren't saying lock the guy up or give him the chair. they just want a trial and media and the people of america are already trying him. they're waiting for the justice system to catch up. >> we want to review the facts and the reality of the situation is that if, in fact, there are -- there is a palm print, for example, on this weapon and for your own edification, polymer framed weapon, which wouldn't necessarily give you that print you're looking for -- it's not that this is academic. if you came up to me -- i've taken guns off people in recent years. and i know you've got a weapon and i can tell you shouldn't have one, i take that weapon off you. i've done this numerous times. i have a whole different set of skills. i've had formal training, extensive experience. your whole mode of thinking when you see a weapon and you don't have one and you don't know who this person is that's following you and you're unsettled, you might want to disarm that person. part of the issue here is how concealed was that weapon in his wai waistband? i've carried a weapon responsibly for 39 years. in one instance i've had one law enforcement agent approach me with my jacket off to ask me whether or not i was legally carrying it it. you carry it concealed. you don't brandish the weapon. part of the responsibility in carrying a concealed weapon is to keep it concealed. >> all the issues they'll be talking about as they look through this case. thank you, lou. appreciate you joining us. more headlines to get to. christine has those. new and increased activity at a rocket launch pad in north korea revealed by a satellite. significant activity at a launch pad and a rocket assembly facility. vehicles and other objects are seen parked outside the launch tower. possible fuel containers appear uncovered, stacked behind a fuel system. the justice department, preparing to take america's toughest sheriff to court. administration officials say they'll sue arizona's joe arpaio after settlement talks broke off. the two sides were trying to settle allegations of racial discrimination. former penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky is due in court in less than two hours. sandusky faces 52 counts for sexually abusing ten boys over a 15-year period. his attorney, joe amandola, is asking the court to dismiss many of these charges, saying the accusations are vague and the statute of limitations has run out. the jetblue pilot who suffered an apparent breakdown during a flight may never face trial. he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he's competent enough to ntds these charges against him. a detention hearing set for today has been postponed until after doctors get a chance to examine him. the last word on the death of singer whitney houston. the l.a. coroner's office releasing its final autopsy report. it says houston drowned, face down, in a tub of hot water about a foot deep. investigators found white powder and a spoon with white residue in her hotel room. cnn's dr. drew pinsky says the full report casts doubt that houston had a heart condition as preliminary findings suggested. >> the fact is that this autopsy report shows she had nominal, nominal heart disease, not sufficient to explain what happened to her. you mentioned she was found face down in water. how do you have a heart attack or take too much medication and slip into the water and drowned and end up face down? the way that happens is seizure. and i add the entire score up and i get seizure here. >> dr. drew says the autopsy suggests houston may have been using can he contain just minutes before she died. a cloud of pepper spray ends a student demonstration in california. now the investigation begins. three santa monica college students were taken to the hospital. 30 others treated at the scene. 100 students were demonstrating against a pilot program to create a two-tiered tuition program. officials say the police acted with restraint. kayleigh wade will join us later, one of the students. >> have you been sprayed by pepper spray? >> no. >>l cain has. was it -- >> unpleasant. >> he was protesting. campus protester. we knew it. >> protesting for the rights of the 1%. >> at least it's something you believe in,l cain. >> that's right. >> christine, thank you. google has come one step closer to turning people into their smart phones. they've got this new thing called project glass. and they've got this new concept video right here that shows how these google glasses could work. it performs tasks that would be normally handled by your smart phone like scheduling your meetings, taking pictures, checking the weather, getting directions, placing a video call. you can do all of it by verbal commands. listen. >> hi. what's up? >> hey. >> hey. >> you want to see something cool? >> yeah, sure. is that a ukelele? >> yeah. here it goes. >> that's beautiful. >> that's beautiful. that's a concept video, right? that's actually not how it really works at this moment. they're trying to get people's input so that they can weigh in on what they would like the glasses to be able to do. i think that video is so odd. ukelele over a railing? like the coolest glasses ever? >> watch the entire video? how to play a ukelele. >>. still ahead on "starting point" federal judge spars with president obama over the president's remarks that he made in a press conference about the supreme court's upcoming decision on the health care law. we'll bring in jeff toobin, talk about what's really going on. jeff says actually this is kind of a -- and if you spent money for someone to tweet for you, it should be brilliant, aridite. we'll share that story with you. if you're about to head to work go to our live blog at cnn.com/startingpoint. get right to john's play list this morning. "roadrunner," jonathan richman. [ female announcer ] introducing coffee-mate natural bliss. ♪ made with only milk... cream... a touch of sugar... and pure natural flavors. ♪ who knew being natural could be so delicious? coffee-mate natural bliss. from nestle. add your flavor naturally. i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. ♪ >> that's jeff toobin's play list, "mystery dance" elvis c t costello. glad to have you here. >> nice to be here. >> a federal appointed judge, and those judges want answers in writing after the president made kind of a controversial remark about the supreme court's upcoming decision over his health care law. here is what he said. >> i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. >> so that was what the president said in a press conference. some people say the president was warning the justices not to overturn the law. it didn't sit very well with the three-judge panel hearing a different challenge to the same law. here is what one of those judges, his name is jerry smith, said in court. >> obamacare to what he termed a broad consensus of majorities in both houses of congress. that has troubled a number of people who have read it as somehow a challenge to the federal courts or to their authority, or to the appropriateness of the concept of judicial review. and that's not a small matter. >> hence, jeff toobin, cnn legal analyst. i said you call this a pissing match, but i got that wrong. you called this a hissy fit. >> it's a disgrace. what president obama said is entirely appropriate. nothing wrong, nothing controversial. he said i signed a law that was passed by the democratically elected congress and i think it's constitutional. the judges give the justice department a homework assignment, a three-page letter, single spaced, explaining what the president said. they don't have to explain what the president said. that was a perfectly appropriate comment by the president and it just shows how some of these republican judges are just deranged by hatred of the president. >> isn't the role of the supreme court to overturn stuff that's unconstitutional? >> if they find it. >> right. >> and there's nothing that obama said that was contrary to that. the president has no leverage over the supreme court. he can't threaten -- what's he going to threaten to do? if you rule this way, i won't -- if you rule this way, i'm not going to invite you to a state dinner. >> that's about it. >> that's his only leverage. >> this is where i must step n i totally agree with you, jeff. this is a very odd requirement. >> hissy fit. >> three-page letter, single spi spaced to explain the president's view. the president's statement, the prednisone kags for this i find that unprecedented as well. you find it completely normal. judicial review has been a 250-year-old concept that the nation has lived by. those all happened after court decisions. extraordinary and unprecedent before the supreme court made their decision. it's hard not to see this as warning, intimidation. >> to do what? >> rule in his favor. >> his administration wrote a brief asking them to rule in his favor. >> everyone knows they want the justices to rule in his favor. >> extraordinary exercised judicial power. he is putting a lot of language in here, jeff, to suggest it would be totally off base of the supreme court to apply judicial review to his favorite law. >> that's what his justice department said to the justices last week. there is no secret about the obama administration's position on this issue. i don't see why the president saying it, the attorney general saying it, the solicitor general saying it -- >> it calls into question the legitimacy of their decision. not the disagreement but the legitimacy to make their decision. >> he didn't say anything about the legitimacy. he said my interpretation of the law is the following. he is an american citizen and can express his opinion. >> bigger picture. what is really a political statement at a press conference becoming sort of a judicial statement? right? shouldn't the two of them really -- >> i think what i have devoted my career to attempting to prove is that the line between law and politics is essentially nonexistent. when you have cases like this, when you have cases like abortion, affirmative action, these are essentially political decisions being made by individuals who wear black robes, but they are, in essence, political decisions. and i think the more we recognize that and the more we eliminate this artificial line, this sort of idealistic, but meaningless line between law and politics, the better. i think that's the way the world works. >> i want to ask you a question about the trayvon martin case for a moment. have you been surprised, any of you been surprised there has not been a big named lawyer that's jumped in to represent george zimmerman? you know. we talked about a zillion cases over the last ten years or so where three days goes by and then some bold-faced name jumps in to start doing it because they use all the media as an event in a way. >> gloria allred would have jumped in already. a defense attorney's dream to represent -- >> have you been surprised by that, stedman? >> i have been pretty surprised by that. i think -- i've been surprised by a lot of things. >> in that particular case? >> in that particular case, yeah. i think we have to wait and see all the evidence and see how it works out. >> i don't know. i actually am less surprised. this case polarizes people along racial lines. >> highly risky for -- >> a high-profile person, that's the kind of thing you don't want to get involved in, unless you know -- unless you know the facts really well and no one knows the facts really well. >> there's plenty of caucasians and nonblack folks who are demanding an arrest and a trial. >> absolutely. >> you don't mean racial lines in terms of the potential lawyers, you just mean the case is about race? >> the case is about race. >> as we had talked about, kind of always an icky thing for people to tackle, and high risk actually. we have to get to commercial break for a second. jeff toobin, thank you very much. hissy fit is -- misquoted jeff toobin. he said hissy fit. >> that could be a title. >> train wreck and a hissy fit. still ahead on "starting point" your tax dollars at work. you know when we say that what follows will be unpleasant. councilman spending nearly $29,000 tweeting. better be good tweets, right? well, not so much. l cain has a playlist selection for us, "unchain my heart" joe crocker. >> that's right. [ monica ] i'm away on a movie shoot and it hasn't been going exactly as planned. [ director ] cut. cut! [ monica ] i thought we'd be on location for 3 days -- it's been 3 weeks. so i had to pick up some more things. good thing i've got the citi simplicity card. i don't get hit with a fee if i'm late with a payment... which is good because on this job, no! bigger! [ monica ] i may not be home for a while. [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. got to love a show that's playing nirvana off john's playlist "molly's lips." you can check out our playlist at cnn.com/starting dlts point. our "get real" this morning -- usually it's my favorite story of the day. today is no exception. started with a tweet back november 8th, election day. a local lawyer there, his name is jared klein, tweeted this. it's election day, people. get out there and vote for -- he listed a couple of people to vote for. >> so creative. >> yes. third guy is councilman jim k kenn kenney. jim kenney responded to the tweet with his own tweet. that is this. i'm not on the ballot today but thank you for the support and for supporting my friends. but he was on the ballot. it turns out, of course, it seems he was paying an outside media company called chatter blast nearly $30,000 a year to update, monitor and tweet for him. they have had tweets like this. it's april fools. someone tell me a joke. >> wow! >> and this. kind of looks like a snow globe outside. and this one. i'm giving up smiling for lent. so i thought i could get a new gig tweeting for the councilman instead of $29,000, i will do it for $25,000. my tweets are much more creative and i can probably get him some followers, too. >> i've got 50,000 followers. i will do it for $20,000. >> high stakes bidding here. >> they were also doing mr. kenney's facebook as well. i'm 53, out of touch and this is the way of the future. it's actually the way of the present. >> i have no clue how to tweet. i still don't understand the mechanics of it. it's a thing of the future. >> he wanted to do it to communicate with younger constituents. anthony weiner could have shown