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Russian Jet Pulls "Top Gun" Moves On U.S. Assets In The Baltic Sea; Boston Bombing Survivor Joins The City's Marathon; Trump Says He Wants More Flash During This Year's GOP Convention. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 18, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The constitution gives the president prosecutorial discretion to manage immigration issues and so the administration argues that's what it's doing here with these programs. What could happen, one possible scenario, Brooke, is this could be a 4-4 split with the death of Antonin Scalia. That would mean the lower court's ruling would stand and that's bad news for the Obama administration because the programs would not go forward. Another scenario is the case is tossed out on standing. That means the programs could go through. We expected a decision on this later this term in June or July, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We will. I'm sure be it all over it when that happens.

Pamela Brown, thank you so much. As you pointed out, millions of people affected.

Coming up next, a Russian jet pulls some Top Gun moves on the U.S. assets in the Baltic Sea during a barrel roll within 50 feet of an American plane. We will take you live to Moscow to hear how Russia is explaining itself.

Plus, a 22-year-old driving this aircraft carrier. That's right. I got exclusive access on board the carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman in the Persian Gulf to show you and tell you these sailors' stories and in particular the women that I met. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:36] BALDWIN: In my entire 17-year career here I don't think I have had a more rewarding experience or assignment than the one that just took me thousands of miles away to a place where the fight against ISIS begins.

The U.S. Navy invited me to the front lines in the Persian Gulf. And four flights later, I landed on the "USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier which fortunate to be given a front row seat to the f-18s carrying bombs to strike ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq. But most importantly, I was fortunate to get a first-hand look at the men and women who sacrifice everything, leaving homes and families behind, to serve this country. And in this first exclusive piece, I want to share with you right now, and put the focus on the women and their stories. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): This is the U.S. Navy's front line on the war on terror in the Persian Gulf. Lieutenant commander Kate Batten deployed two weeks after the Paris terror attacks and her resolve only deepened after the recent bloodshed in Brussels.

LT. COMDR. KATE BATTEN, U.S. NAVY: That is exactly why we are out here. If anything, it gives us that much more purpose and resolve to ensure that we are doing things the right way and that we leave this region better than we found it.

BALDWIN: When you put on your flight gear, what does that feel like?

BATTEN: It's interesting because it's a routine now. It's something I do every day. So a lot of times I don't think about it. But when I sit back and think, you know, what does this really mean, it's -- I don't know. I still get goose bumps every time I take a catapult off.

BATTEN: Operation inherent resolve by no means a man's mission. That is the senior female aviator on whole king aircraft carrier, the "USS Harry S. Truman" full of fighter jets ready to strike ISIS.

This right here is a bomb. It's not live. Until just before the f-18 takes off and often times these pilots don't know the specific ISIS target is until they are already in the air.

Batten flies an E-2, protecting those jets. Her aircraft one of the most essentially for carrier operations. Acts like air traffic control in the skies above Iraq.

For those pilots who are getting the coordinates to drop the bomb, how serious do they take their job?

BATTEN: We do meticulous planning every day for whatever mission this we are performing. And I know they don't take the responsibility lightly.

BALDWIN: Orchestrating, coordinating terrorist attacks in the west, is that frustrating to you, discouraging given everything happening out here in the gulf?

REAR ADMIRAL BRET BATCHELDER, U.S. NAVY: Yes. I would say it's disappointing. It is disappointing that we have human beings that would do that to other human beings. On the other hand, motivating and is assuring that the mission that we're on is very righteous.

BALDWIN: What does ultimately success or victory look like?

BATCHELDER: Yes. I think it looks like violent extremism being eradicated. And I don't know that we achieve that on this deployment.

BALDWIN: Here on USS Harry S. Truman, this is called a cat shot. Here about 90 sorties of this f-18 per day and when you feel this after burn of these jets, let me tell you, it makes your teeth rattle. These sailors not only work together, they eat, exercise and

reelection together. Fifty three hundred sailors call the USS Truman home, average age, 27 years old. So far, the deployment is supposed to last seven months. But ask any of these sailors and they'll tell you semper Gumby, unofficial motto meaning you have to be flexible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very well.

BALDWIN: At the helm, this 22-year-old from Massachusetts. Do the math. She just got her driver's license six years ago. And now she's steering this nearly 104,000-ton vessel.

By the way it is making me a little nervous when you take your hands off the wheel.

[15:40:05] PETTY OFFICE JESSICA WALKER, U.S. NAVY: I'm sorry.

BALDWIN: Petty officer Jessica Walker joined the Navy to pay for school. Her dream is to become a nurse.

What do you miss most about home?

WALKER: I miss being home. I miss my family, my husband, my husband the most and just got married November 7th.

BALDWIN: Just what a week before you headed out sneer.

WALKER: A week before heading out here, we got married. And yes. I mean, I wouldn't have any other way though. I wish I was home so I could be with him but -- I have to serve my country.

LT. PRECIOUS MCQUAID, U.S. NAVY: This is my daughter.

BALDWIN: Lieutenant Precious McQuaid is one of two women stationed on the strike group's nearby missile defense cruiser the USS Anzio. McQuaid leads the ship's tactical department with 36 men and one woman answering to her. Last November, this naval academy grad made a gut wrenching decision, leave her year and a half-year-old at home with her husband because duty called.

MCQUAID: That's us after our wedding.

Being a mother, not that it's different than being a father, but some of the sacrifices I have made feel different to methane I think they would for a man. As much as I want to be home, I'm happy that I'm serving my country. And I'm showing that, you know, women can do this. Be married, have kids, have a family and still be just as successful both home front and here in my professional side of life.

BALDWIN: Gentlemen, respect. I mean, that she is doing this.

These are the sacrifices these sailors are willing to make. Like Batten, being away from her coast guard husband so the rest of us are safe. BATCHELDER: We're over here doing a job that's kind of bigger than

both of us. And at the end of the day we can when we get to finally live together, we'll feel good about what we did.

BALDWIN: When you finally get to live with your husband?

BATTEN: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Can you imagine that? I talked to so many people over the course of two days, this is just one piece of my time in the Persian Gulf with the U.S. Navy. Tomorrow, we will share stories of these four sailors that I sat down with deployed on the nearby missile cruiser the USS Anzio. We talks about everything from why they make the sacrifice, shy they want to join the Navy? How they eat? How they sleep. When they have free time and let me tell the election back here at home. I'll be up at them 6:00 in the morning on "NEW DAY."

Meantime, it may have been an amusing prank in the movie "Top Gun," but U.S. officials are not laughing over what they call another dangerous and provocative run-in with a Russian military jet in the Baltic Sea. First, the Russian jet buzz the USS Donald Cook as it was sailing an international waters in a Baltic and now an aerial close call in the skies over the Baltic Sea. A U.S. air force reconnaissance plane was barrel rolled by a Russian jet midair. The U.S. says that Russian jet came within 50 feet of the aircraft's tip.

CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance joins me now from Moscow.

Matthew, I understand President Obama and the Russian president spoke today by phone. Did not discuss this. How is Moscow responding?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They discussed Syria, they discussed Ukraine but they didn't discuss these incredibly aggressive tactics being used apparently by the Russian air force when it comes to NATO ships and planes and in particular American ships and planes. You saw that dramatic footage from the Baltic Sea with USS Donald Cook being buzzed by a Russian war plane.

Saturday, there was another incident in the skies in the same area. The U.S. reconnaissance plane coming in very close contact to a Russian aircraft, as well. What the Russians are saying is that, look, our pilots have done nothing wrong. No laws were broken. They say that they simply in the case of reconnaissance aircraft saw a fast-moving target coming toward the Russian borders. They sent some scramble that interceptors, on say, made visual contact. The U.S. plane they said changed course and moved away from the direction of Russia. But they say they're not acknowledging any of these aggressive tactics that have been described by U.S. officials when it comes to that contact that was made in the skies.

BALDWIN: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you so much. Coming up next, gold escalators, helicopter, Trump force one? You

might say Donald Trump does know how to makes an entrance. So what exactly would a Trump convention lock like if we were to clinch the Republican nomination? It says he wants some showbiz in Cleveland. Well, we will talk to an award winning Broadway producer joins me live to talk about what he would do.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:49:03] CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR: So, Mr. President, how do you handle -- how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election and how do you handle it? I mean, what do you say to people? Do you just -- you know, I know people --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Who could forget that moment? Listen. We love Clint Eastwood, but that was Clint Eastwood, the legend, talking to an empty chair at the 2012 Republican national convention. Awkward, bizarre, fill in the blank yourself. Donald Trump, he called it is boring. He says wants this year's convention to quote-unquote "add some showbiz." Does he mean showbiz like this?

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

BALDWIN: OK. I don't know if my next guest will agree with me. Mr. Trump definitely says he wants to give people something that won't put them to sleep. So how exactly they do make that happen? So we went straight to Broadway here, one of the best in the business, Ken Davenport, Tony award-winning Broadway producer has produced more than a dozen Broadway shows including Kinky Boots which we just saw.

So nice to meet you and to have you here. We've got to get creative today. And so, essentially what we were thinking is, if you had like the heads of the RNC come to you and say, we want you to produce the hell out of the best, biggest political party we've ever seen in Cleveland.

[15:50:33] KEN DAVENPORT, TONY AWARD-WINNING BROADWAY PRODUCER: Cleveland. Well, the location is a challenge right there. But one of the first things you have to know is your audience when you're a Broadway producer. So Democrats versus Republicans. Republicans are a very different group of people. I'm thinking a little more super bowl-type convention here.

BALDWIN: OK.

DAVENPORT: And then it's about spectacle. Some of the biggest problems we have had, wicked, phantom of the opera, and Lion King, big spectacles. So I would add a lot of scenery for sure and the entrance for these candidates is all going to be about that. For someone like Trump, I would probably take a queue from the big show we had a few years ago called "Spiderman," maybe fly him in.

BALDWIN: Fly him in.

DAVENPORT: Yes, for sure.

BALDWIN: Fly in Donald Trump into sort of the stage, hover, maybe, drop him down?

DAVENPORT: Yes. He definitely would swing throughout the whole auditorium, for sure. He would go back and forth.

BALDWIN: Over the audience?

DAVENPORT: Over the audience.

BALDWIN: Everyone looking up like this.

DAVENPORT: Breathing a little fire everyone once in a while.

BALDWIN: Pyrotechnics.

DAVENPORT: Sure. A little magic, maybe, making some superdelegates disappear.

BALDWIN: He wishes.

What about if he's talking about maybe bringing in celebrities? Who would you bring in?

DAVENPORT: Well, that's a very good question because they pulled out a celebrity at the last convention. We all know how that went. You know, it is -- I would probably go the rock star route if I could. Again, I think a good halftime show in the convention is something that is sadly needed. I would darken all the lights, we put out a big rock star again and light the super bowl and blow the roof off in terms of some big rock anthem in the middle of it.

BALDWIN: So you would rock out. So we have Trump flying above, you rock out some band in the midst of it. Would you have whatever celebrity you would choose, would they stop and give speeches?

DAVENPORT: Well, we would try to add a little more fun, I think, to the convention. You know, it has been very serious, very traumatic. Well, you have got to inject some fun. Even the most serious of all dramas, take a look at a classic "Les Mis," right? Everyone know like all about half way through act one and they pull out (INAUDIBLE) and they do master of the house, right.

BALDWIN: Of course.

DAVENPORT: Very good. So we definitely want to inject some fun halfway through amidst the speeches.

BALDWIN: Would you involve alcohol?

DAVENPORT: Well, that's the thing. Yes, without a doubt. One of the most successful things that the Broadway industry has done over the last ten years is let our patrons bring booze to their seats in little Sippy cups. So I think, and you know, he branded himself too. They would be Trump Sippy cups, right? So I think Sippy cups let them drink whatever they want in the Republican Party.

BALDWIN: Apparently, that was the issue the last go-around, there were these drunk delegates running all around and Kissinger was chasing them down and it was quite a melee.

DAVENPORT: Yes. I figure that's what happens in Congress that we don't know anyway.

BALDWIN: So put it out for everyone to see?

DAVENPORT: That's right.

BALDWIN: Bottom line, do you think because Trump I think it is maybe that perhaps, he is thinks he is the front runner, he should be able to do this, maybe ultimately he would pay for it. Would you attend a convention in Cleveland if Trump was pulling the strings and making a --

DAVENPORT: Well, just like the debates, I guarantee if he gets his way and he's able to sculpt this, produce like he want that it would be the most heavily attended convention in history.

BALDWIN: Ken Davenport, Tony award-winning, Broadway producer, thanks for playing along. Appreciate it.

DAVENPORT: My pleasure.

BALDWIN: Next. Now to this one. A woman who lost her leg three years ago in the Boston marathon bombing, she is running all 26.2 miles today using a prosthetic. Her inspiring story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:18] BALDWIN: Two words for you this afternoon, Boston strong. If anyone dares to doubt the strength of that city and its people, just watch the Boston marathon today. It has been three years ago since the terror attacks killed three people and injured hundreds right along Boylston Street there. One of them, Adrianne Haslet- Davis. She is a dancer who lost her leg in the bombing. Adrianne was never a runner. But right now, I can tell you she's on that course at the Boston marathon using her prosthetic leg. And I talked to her recently to her training and she told me the running wasn't the hardest part.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS, BOMBING SURVIVOR: The mental challenge is the most difficult. You know, mentally for me personally, putting on my leg every day, waking up in the middle of the night to walk to the bathroom and then getting angry that I have to put on the leg and then staying up all night angry. It's a daily challenge. And that mental game played with that is really tough. BALDWIN: Not only did you FOX trot across the finish line with your

prosthetic leg, you crossed the finish line with your brothers in 2014, you will be running the 26.2 mile course in just a couple of weeks. And from what I read, you said once upon a time you didn't even like running. So my hat is off to you, sister.

HASLET-DAVIS: Thanks so much. Thank you. You know, it's the least that any of us could do as survivors to say a giant thank you for everyone who has ever reached out or said or relishes or wraps their around someone on the street. And it's a giant thank you to Boston.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She's been updating us. If you are following our twitter, she had issues with her prosthetic but she did say Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady cheering her on. He posted on Facebook today, thank you for being my inspiration.

Thank you, Adrianne Haslet-Davis. And thank you for being with me. See you back n "NEW DAY" 6:00 a.m.

Jim Sciutto is up next with "THE LEAD."