good political battle. they are flying as the fact checkers work overtime. and a top united nations official now says syria is in a full-scale civil war, even as a u.n. report accuses the damascus regime of torturing children and using them as human shields. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." you don't often see a cabinet member subjected to such a harsh grilling. the attorney general eric holder on the hot seat facing republicans furious over a litany of complaints. he held his ground against calls for his resignation. dana watched it all unfold. >> a botched gun-running designation known as fast and furious to a republican call for an independent investigation into leaks -- classified leaks, i should say, eric holder knew this wasn't just going to be a regular oversight hearing. he knows he's in congress' cross hairs. but what happened was a political food fight. most republicans were tough on the attorney general, but nothing compared to this. >> there has been zero accountability at the department of justice. you won't appoint a special prosecutor in the face of a potential conflict of interest, you won't tell the truth about what you know and when you knew it on fast and furious. you won't cooperate with the legitimate congressional investigation. jon cornyn long been one of his top critics, but this five-minute litany of accusations against holder was remarkably harsh and personal. >> in short you've violated the public trust in my point of view and failing to perform the duties of your office. you leave me no alternative but to join those that call upon you to resign your office. >> with all due respect, senator, there is so much factually wrong with the premises that you started your statement with. it's almost breathtaking. i don't have any intention of resigning. >> he isn't just a senator from texas, he also has a big political job, getting republicans elected to the senate. a fact not lost on holder. >> the desire here is not for an accommodation but for a political point making. >> republicans may have fed that point by simultaneously pummelling holder here and introducing a legislation on the senate floor calling for somewhat independent of the obama administration to investigate a series of classified leaks, which john mccain insists were political moves, maybe by the white house to make the president look good. >> i think that mr. holder for his own benefit would seek the appointment of a special council. >> back in the hearing holder argued against a special council, repeatedly insisting two u.s. attorneys he'd tapped to investigate the leaks both unanimously confirmed by the senate are scrupulous and apolitical. >> senator, i think you're missing something here. >> i think you're missing something here. i think you're missing the fact that this is a very big deal. and a way that creates suspicions where they should not be. i don't know these people from -- >> i do know these people. and they are good lawyers. >> holder tried to beat back gop charges he has a conflict of interest by revealing he has already been interviewed. >> i can tell you that that interview was not some kind of pro forma take it easy interview. i mean, these were serious interview -- it was done by some serious fbi agents. the same thing happened to the director of the fbi as well. >> now, this whole question about whether there needs to be an independent council has become a real partisan issue despite the fact these leaks caused national security damage. that has been a very bipartisan issue. meanwhile, wolf, another big issue looms for holder. and that is next week the house republicans and key committee they're going to vote to hold him in contempt for that fast and furious program, not giving congress documents in this hearing holder offered to sit down with republican leaders, work out a compromise and avoid what he called a constitutional crisis. that was quickly rejected by republican leaders in the house. >> given the lopsided republican majority in the house of respectives, i assume if they have a former role call vote on holding holder in contempt, it will pass. >> it's hard to imagine it won't. at least in the first step. and that is going to be in the house oversight committee next week. they're going to have a markup meeting. they're going to sit down and discuss and write up this contempt resolution in this hearing. at the end they will have a vote because of the fact you said, easy thing for the speaker to agree to to give the green light to and he resisted for quite some time. now he said okay. he's in it. he's all in it. >> well, if he supports it, i assume it will fly through the house at a lower level than of course the full house if it gets there. thanks very much, dana bash. that harsh showdown on capitol hill comes in the context of an increasingly harsh presidential campaign. but the campaign itself isn't being taken out of context with little regard -- it is being taken out of context i should say with little regard sometimes for accuracy. jim acosta taking a closer look at the facts and some of the non-facts. >> that's right, wolf. there are so many claims flying around night now. honestly it's getting hard to keep up. the nation's most respected fact checkers are finding they're happening nearly every day in the race for the white house. and both campaigns are guilty of it. >> i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> welcome to the out of context campaign. take this ad from the president. >> when mitt romney was governor, massachusetts was number one. number one in state debt. $18 billion in debt. more debt per person than any other state in the country. >> the spot leaves out some important facts. yes, massachusetts was $18 billion in debt, but it was already at $16 billion when romney came into office. the ad doesn't mention that. the spot comes just one day after the white house complained the president was being taken out of context on the economy. >> the private sector's doing fine. >> but declined to take a no out of context pledge. >> can you assure us that the white house and people who speak for president obama will not take someone -- out of context? >> that's a rather remarkable question. if you're asking me if we're for good reporting filled with context, the answer is yes. >> this is a campaign that specialized in taking words out of context. it was the slurred du jour of the primary season. >> kathleen hall jamson says the out of context campaign is so out of control, her office launched factcheck.org that monitors ads that distort the truth. from the laughter during a debate to the age of the actors in spots dealing with medicare reform. >> the danger is that people hear the sound bite repeated in ads, see it repeated in news and lose track of the original context. it becomes the reality. in the process there's a serious de. >> romney has complained he's been taken out of context. this comment from last friday. >> he says we need more firemen, more policeman, more teachers -- >> was not meant to advocate the firing of public workers. he's getting little sympathy from the obama campaign, which often points out the first romney ad of the cycle used this quote from the president without mentioning mr. obama was quoting john mccain. >> if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose. >> campaigning in florida, romney resurrected a claim repeatedly challenged by fact-checkers. >> this president is the one that cut $500 billion out of medicare. my plan is to protect and save medicare, to make sure it's there not just for current seniors, but for future seniors. >> i need a pacemaker. >> as factcheck.org points out, this ad that $500 million comes out of future medicare spending. the obama campaign defends its ad on the debt in massachusetts during romney's time as governor noting it increased by 16%, although that fact is not mentioned in that ad. but that 16% number is smaller than the 50% increase in the national debt under president obama's watch. just some context to put this out of context campaign in focus. >> the problem -- i love the fact checkers and i love trying to keep them honest, all of these candidates. the fact of the matter is a lot more people will see those attack ads on television than will ever see the actual fact checking results reported. >> that's right. sometimes the fact check is only reported once, whereas an ad will mention that sound bite from president obama, the private sector's doing fine over and over again. not just on tv. but on twitter. somebody will click on that link at 10:00 tonight and never saw the fact check that occurred earlier in the day by some news outlet. this is happening so much and it's happening so often that the fact checkers themselves are saying they're having a tough time keeping up. i talked to a gentleman with the politifact and he said it's amazing how in the last week nearly all of the claims from all the campaigns have been half truths. not full truths. >> maybe they'll create some jobs at those fact checking organizations. we'll try to do it here as well. jim acosta, thank you. let's go to jack cafferty. right now he's got the cafferty file check. >> if president obama were to go to a fortune teller this week, he might ask for his money back. in his "washington post" comment this morning titled pileup at the white house, how commerce secretary weekend car crashes and possible felony hit-and-run charge are just the latest in a spring of bad news for the president. the list is long. stalled job growth, the wisconsin re-call defeat, attorney general eric holder facing a possible contempt of congress for refusing to cooperate fully in the fast and furious gun running investigation, bill clinton publicly commenting, congress squawking about national security leaks they say are coming from the white house, and the president himself stupidly saying that "the private sector is doing fine." really? millbank writes all of this adds up to one of the worst stretches in mr. obama's president. there's a creeping sense that the bottom has fallen out and that there may be no second term. he says top officials in the obama administration privately say they are no long expecting much economic improvement before the election. plus, there could be more bad news for the president just around the bend. the supreme court's expected to rule any day now on the fate of obama care as well as arizona's controversial immigration law. the president has a big stake in both of those decisions. with less than five months to go before the election, there's no doubt the president could use some good news. working in his favor is the fact that polls show voters like him and he has high favorability ratings. but that might not be enough to prevent him from his own car wreck come november 6th. here's the question, how much trouble is president obama in? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog or go to "the situation room" facebook page. if it wasn't for bad luck, wouldn't have any luck at all. >> both of these candidates have enormous amount of work over the next nearly five months. it could still go either way. very, very close in my opinion. thanks very much, jack, for that. a cuban dissis dent risks his life to tell u.s. lawmakers about the murder of a fellow activist. chilling details of what happened to him inside a cuban jail. but first look at this. [ gunfire ] serious conflict now deemed a top -- by a top united nations official to be a full-scale civil war as we get word of yet more atrocities. and the secretary of state drops a bomb shell. she says russia is now getting ready to send attack helicopters capable of slaughtering civilians to the syrian regime. ♪ how are things on the west coast? ♪ ♪ i hear you... ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible. oh, yeah? [ chris ] you can call us 24-7, get quotes online, start a claim with our smartphone app. you name it, we're here, anytime, anywhere, any way you want it. that's the way i need it. any way you want it. 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[ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. syria's gone to full fledged civil war. that word coming from the united nations peace keeping chief who says bashar al-assad trying to retake cities. listen to this. [ gunfire ] the conflict has greatly intensified in recent days including the bombarding of civilian areas. opposition activists say government troops are shelling cities across the entire country. they report at least 45 people killed today. many of them women and children. a u.n. report says the syrian regime has used children as human shields and has actually tortured young kids whose parents are suspected dissidents. cites beatings, whippings and cigarette burns. u.s. officials are voicing deep concern about the syrian government's use of helicopters against its own people calling that intolerable and unacceptable. raising fresh questions about the source of these weapons and future weapons. let's go to the pentagon. barbara, a lot of focus including from the secretary of state on russia and its military role in providing weapons to the syrian regime. >> and for good reason, wolf. russia is perhaps the main supplier of weaponry to the regime. the helicopter gunships causing havoc across the area for syrian opposition and syrian civilians. a furious secretary of state hillary clinton talked about that today and what she sees coming down the road. >> we have confronted the russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to syria. they have from time to time said that we shouldn't worry, everything they're shipping is unrelated to their actions internally. that's patently untrue. and we are concerned about the latest information that we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from russia to syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically. >> the secretary of state saying more russian helicopter gunships on their way to the regime forces. now, what are these helicopter gunships? wolf, they fire rockets and other munitions. they provide a vicious advantage to the syrian forces. they can fly over areas very quickly. they can stay up for a long period of time over a particular target and keep firing their rockets round after round after round indiscriminantly killing civilians and children on the ground. there is great growing concern about all of this. and it's posting a very awkward problem here at the pentagon because through a defense department contract, guess what, the u.s. also buys -- the u.s. military and state department purchase russian helicopters for afghan security forces. that is of course unrelated to the syria regime. but it's the optics of the u.s. also purchasing these russian helicopters in supporting the russian arms industry that is becoming a very awkward issue here at the pentagon as they try to explain it's the only source of helicopters they can provide to the afghan forces. unrelated, but all of this really becoming a very burning question here today both political and military utility. wolf. >> i was at that luncheon when hillary clinton was speaking. she was very, very hang ri at the russians on this front. we have a lot more on this story coming up in our next hour including my interview with the jordanian foreign minister meeting with the secretary of state here in washington. there's also growing concern about a cuban dissident who disappeared after telling u.s. lawmakers about the death of a fellow activist. brian todd's been working the story. it's a painful story as well. what's the latest? >> it's very chilling. just a few days ago a cuban dissident testified from havana about human rights abuses there. i was in the audience on capitol hill along with other journalists and citizens. but among us were also cuban operatives. and now top u.s. senators are enraged at what happened right after that man testified. by any measure it was a bold move, jorge garcia, stepped into the u.s. intersection in havana. he knew the risks of what he was about to do, but still stepped in front of a camera and testified live in front of a u.s. committee in washington. he told the senators he'd recently seen another dissident being killed by cuban authorities. >> translator: i witnessed the death of antonio ruiz in the city of santa clara where a group of peaceful activists, myself included, were gathered to talk about liberty, freedom, justice and human rights. >> that testimony was last thursday. the next day cuban authorities surrounded his house. that's according to his wife who we spoke to by phone from cuba. she tells cnn the day after that her husband was arrested. when she went to check on him -- >> translator: i was beaten and taken to a cell. my husband was taken by state security officers. in the cell he was in they began to beat all the people that were there. the authorities came into a cell and sprayed pepper spray inside his mouth, which caused him to lose consciousness. >> then he was taken away, she says. for two days she didn't know where he was. she's just been told he's in a jail in a city of santa clara, but she's not able to see him. she fears her husband will be imprisoned for a long time. >> this is the brutality of the castro regime at work. >> senator me nen dez attended. he fears something will happen to the dissident and he and his staff took care not to disclose in advance who was testifying from havana. we only knew other dissidents would speak when they popped up on screen. but in that u.s. senate chamber next to us. >> there were members of the castro regime at our hearing who were in the audience from the intrasection here. and i noticed that they were there. i've seen them around before and they were taking notes. >> he points out he said openly at that hearing that he knew castro's operatives were there. he warned them that the senate would react strongly if any of the witnesses were retaliated against, but within 48 hours jorge luz garcia perez was taken. from the counts of the dissident's wife, we've gotten no response. >> there are cuban diplomats based in washington that works out of the suisse embassy. i take it these diplomats, these cuban diplomats often go up to capitol hill kp monitor hearings. >> they do. they're allowed to. he knows they're there, he recognizes their faces. there's nothing he can do. the u.s. congress is an open place. anybody can go there and testify. but the diplomats they're talking about are also in effect spies for the cuban regime and that's what they do. >> he's an interesting senator. cuban-american from new jersey very supportive of the obama administration. but he hates the fact that the obama administration last we