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Switching Parties: Former Democrats Now Republicans; Prince's Autopsy Completed: News Conference Soon; Seven Killed "Execution Style," Another Body Found. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 22, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: -- just since January 1, and we put about a dozen of them in a room and wanted to find out, well, what exactly drew you to the GOP so that you could vote on Tuesday? I think we have a clip of it that we can play.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We do. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SMERCONISH: So all but Joe voted for Barack Obama at least once. At least once. At least once.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a middle class mechanic all my life. I've been a Democrat for over 25 years now and the last eight years I just feel that -- I don't know. I just feel that President Obama sits at his desk all day with is and everything. I just -- I wanted to switch. I just felt like, you know, I need to switch parties.

SMERCONISH: Let me ask this. How many of you -- I'm not saying to lock in but how many of you would consider voting for Hillary Clinton?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would consider?

SMERCONISH: Would consider. Would consider voting for Hillary Clinton. To the rest, five hands, the rest of you no way? She's dead to you politically?

How many of you would consider voting for Bernie Sanders? One more hand. Now, Joe, interestingly, you'd consider voting for Bernie but not for Hillary. How come?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary in my opinion is out for Hillary. She's been planning this for eight years. She has everything nailed. She has the experts you can buy. She's got the pledge delegates. What Donald Trump has done has disrupted the entire system.

SMERCONISH: Clark, what are you sitting there thinking?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think Donald Trump wants to be president to govern the nation. I think he wants to run for president. I think that we're going to learn at the end it's a $1 bet between him and another rich guy. Just like trading places.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: Oh my gosh, I love this. Tell me more.

SMERCONISH: OK. I'm going to give away the ending. They hate me on my own show. Here's the bottom line. They all joined the Republican Party because of Donald Trump. Some to vote for him and some to vote against him. Tuesday in Pennsylvania, the most important of the Mid- Atlantic states is a referendum on Trump.

BALDWIN: No kidding. So quickly, as you pointed out last Friday the beauty contest. No matter how they vote, the delegates most of them are unbound.

SMERCONISH: The 54 of the 71, Brooke, who will represent Pennsylvania are untethered so it is the largest un-affiliated group of delegates in the country. If Trump is close, but he is not at 1,237 all eyes will be on those 54 from Pennsylvania.

BALDWIN: Wow. I cannot wait to see more of your discussion.

SMERCONISH: Thank you for that.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much. Don't miss his show, "SMERCONISH" tomorrow at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Thank you, my friend.

Coming up next, we are back talking about the loss of musical legend like Prince. Not lost on Broadway. Have you seen this? The cast of "Hamilton" rocked out to "Let's Go Crazy" after last night's. We will talk to one of the cast members about Prince's legacy and the recent visit to see that show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:28]

(VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Goose bumps! Whoa. That was the cast of Broadway musical "The Color Purple." Jennifer Hudson honoring the legend Prince in one of the best possible ways. Prince's death sending shockwaves all around the world touching everyone including the cast of Broadway's "Hamilton," who celebrated the big thing called Prince's life.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That is just so awesome. Gregory Haney, thank you so much for joining me, member of the "Hamilton" cast performing the character of Jim McReynolds tonight. First, just congratulations on the show. I saw it before it hit Broadway. Thank you for that gift.

But I understand the news of Prince's passing hit you all hard in the middle of rehearsals. How did you find out?

GREGORY HANEY, "HAMILTON" CAST MEMBER: Well, we were, like you said, we were in rehearsals for a dance cleanup with Andy in and Lin stopped rehearsal and said he had something to tell us. He didn't want us to find out via the phones or social media. He wanted to tell us because we're all a family there. So he gave us the news and we took a second and had to continue on. But it was really hard. You could hear -- you could see it hit everybody individually.

BALDWIN: I'm sure. The "Let's Go Crazy," you know, how did that come to be? Was that something, an impromptu thing or did you work on that through the day?

HANEY: No. It was our musical director and Lin decided to play tribute and so as soon as they found out it -- they went off without hitch. We want to celebrate him, Prince.

[15:40:08]BALDWIN: What was the audience doing? We're they on their feet?

HANEY: On their feet, definitely on their feet. Singing, dancing, celebrating.

BALDWIN: Yes. I know that you all have many mega guests who come try to sneak a peek of "Hamilton." Prince was there, what, last month? He tweeted about the show, "The best history class ever." Were you nervous knowing Prince was in the audience? What was that like?

HANEY: I mean, you live -- being a professional actor, you know that there are going to be people in the audience you don't know and doing the show and telling the story is the foundation of it. So I think we all as actors on stage were focused on that and telling the best story we know how so --

WHITFIELD: And just for you, when you were, you know, younger, I understand there was singing involving a broom?

HANEY: Yes. There was.

BALDWIN: Tell me about that.

HANEY: I can remember vividly doing chores and sweeping the porch and having my own imaginary dance and singing "Diamonds and Pearls" and one of my other first memories of "When Doves Cry." Prince was a very big influence in my life.

BALDWIN: I believe you, I believe you. You are not alone, my friend. Gregory Haney, thank you so much. Break a leg tonight. Thank you.

HANEY: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Thank you. Over the past 24 hours, dozens of stars coming on CNN to share tributes to Prince. We'll share some of the most touching members and joined by a member of Boyz II Men saying Boyz II Men would never have existed without Prince.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:07]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't want anyone to mourn. Knowing him, he wants everyone to celebrate. Celebrate him and celebrate his life. Celebrate all of the things he had done for all of us because he did it for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wasn't bound by time or race or gender or space. So he could rock out in the Madison Square Garden, the same experience. It was big and full and fearless.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: He recognized kindred spirits. I think musically as well as anyone I've ever known and respect and value the gift of other people.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR/FRIEND OF PRINCE: Anybody struggling, anywhere in the world, he was sending checks, he was making phone calls and he didn't want us to say it. I'm going to say it because the world needs to know it wasn't just the music. The music was one way he tried to help the world, but he was helping every single day of his life.

LATOYA JACKSON, SINGER (via telephone): Had to say I called my mother when I first heard the news and she said, I know what you're going to say. She started crying and she said, he was like my son. It reminds me of Michael. I said, I know, Mother.

STEVE WONDER, SINGER, SONGWRITER: To do what he did without fear was a wonderful thing. It is always great when we don't allow fear to put our dreams to sleep and he didn't. You know, he was incredible and I'm just glad that I was able to say to him, I love you, the last time I saw him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: All of those voices, let me bring in another one, Nathan Morris, a member of the Grammy Award winning singing group, Boyz II Men. Nate, welcome.

NATHAN MORRIS, FOUNDING MEMBER, BOYZ II MEN: How are you?

BALDWIN: I'm doing all right. I'm sad just like everyone else. And I understand that you have said there would never have been a Boys II Men if there was no Prince. How do you mean?

MORRIS: Well, without a doubt. I mean, a lot of people think about him for just song writing and, you know, playing guitars and things like that. We actually dug a little deeper and listened to a lot of his vocal structure even to the point where there are parts that we took out of his songs to put them out in the biggest records.

He was all we knew in high school, musically. When you look at -- when you say artist and look in the dictionary, he covers it all, poetry, music, whether it's expression. He's that guy.

BALDWIN: Give me an example. I mean, I'm very familiar with Boyz II Men. What song? What specifically did he influence? MORRIS: One of our biggest records, one of our records we did on the second album, "II" and the song was called "Thank You" and the second verse of the song, there is a vocal pan and we do a lot of different oohs and took from his song "Seven." It's literally the same chord structure, same movement, everything. If you listen really closely, you will hear it without a doubt at this point.

BALDWIN: Totally going home and doing that myself. You met Prince. What was that like?

MORRIS: It was funny because when we first met him, you know, we never met him before and the guys -- Prince is a mysterious guy. We had kind of a mysterious experience where, you know, we would talk and he's going to fall out of a puff of clouds.

[15:50:01]So we met him at this event at Paisley Park, and he was sitting in a green with curtains and whatnot. He said, I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves. It was him. It was funny. We turned around and, poof, he was gone. It was amazing.

BALDWIN: Total mystery.

MORRIS: Well, that's how he lived his life. He was, again, you've got to celebrate the fact that you were ever able to listen to one of his records because it's an experience in itself.

BALDWIN: Nate, what's the one song -- we're all going home and whether it's vinyl, CDs, tapes that you're pulling out, listening to Prince. What's the song you've been listening to on repeat?

MORRIS: I've got quite a few between "Pink Cashmere" and "Diamonds And Pearls," that's just the song for me right now.

BALDWIN: Nate Morris, thank you so much. I am such a fan of yours. Make sure -- we'll come out to Vegas and come find you, Boyz II Men in Vegas. Thank you.

MORRIS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Minutes from now, we will be hearing from the sheriff. Live pictures there in Minneapolis on the investigation into Prince's death. The news conference they will finally be holding that. He is expected to take questions. We'll bring it to you live.

And here is the song that Nate just mentioned.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I want to take a moment to introduce you to this week's CNN Hero, an 86-year-old farmer in North Carolina who is anything but retired. For 20 years, Harry Slimmer has introduced hundreds of kids with disabilities to the healing power of horses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Horses are very special animals. People just don't realize it. What do you say now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Walk on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my girl. We had a child on a horse that had a seizure and the horse dropped dead in its tracks. When nobody else noticed, the horse caught it first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:06]BALDWIN: Harry Slimmer is this week's CNN Hero. You can watch his full story. We hope you do and more of his video, "Healing Horses" at cnnheroes.com. While you're at cnnheroes.com, please take a moment, nominate someone who you think deserves to be a 2016 CNN Hero.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We've got some breaking news for you out of Ohio. This is a horrible story. It's a terrifying scene. At least eight people, two of them juveniles are dead in what appears to be execution-style killings.

Nick Valencia is here with us. This appears to have happened at four different locations?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It all happened earlier this morning about 8:00 in Pike County, which is about an hour and a half east of Cincinnati, Ohio. According to local police, five adults and two juveniles are among the victims.

Within the last hour, Brooke, local attorney general's office telling me that the body of an eighth person was discovered. They don't know whether it's an adult or a juvenile. All of the victims are family members. All of them shot execution-style.

I spoke to a local pastor who identified one of the victims as a Dana Roden and earlier he spoke to me about the person that she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASTOR PHIL FULTON, KNEW VICTIMS (via telephone): Dana was a hard- working young lady, worked all of her life, was a mom, friendly, outgoing and that's -- I mean, just hardworking girl that was trying to provide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Ohio Bureau of Investigation is the lead on this. So far, no arrests. They say that this is not an active shooting situation but the attorney general telling local media that someone could still be on the loose. We're expecting a press conference any minute now and our crew is on the way out there work on the details.

BALDWIN: Nick Valencia, we'll stay on that. Thank you very much. Again, we are watching and waiting for that news conference and another to take place in Minneapolis as we've been covering for the better part of two days. The death of the legend, music pioneer, artist, singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, Prince.

This is the very first news conference that will happen in the wake of his death. He was found alone and unresponsive in his elevator in his Paisley Park Studios. Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me today. I'm going turn it over to my colleague, Jake Tapper, on "THE LEAD" -- Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We will start with breaking in our Pop Culture Lead. A news conference with the local sheriff is expected any minute. It could answer the mystery about the death of entertainment icon, Prince at the age of 57.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Olson is my name and sheriff of Carver County. This is Jason Kamerud and I'll let him spell his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief deputy of the Carver County Sheriff's Office, Jason Kamerud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is mayor of Danny (inaudible), the mayor of Chanhassen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the mayor, Danny Laufenburger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is Martha Weaver from the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon, everyone. Martha Weaver --