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Man with Explosive Vets at Local Baltimore TV Station; Comparing Trump, Clinton Foreign Policy; Anderson Cooper's Documentary on the Vanderbilts. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 28, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Don't know a lot out of Baltimore but police responded to a call that a man walked inside one of the local tv station there is in Baltimore. They're not quite sure if the vest he's wearing could be strapped with explosives or not. But I can tell you that Brian Seltzer just arrived on the scene. We'll find out more on the other side of this commercial break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: All right. Breaking news out of the Baltimore right now. Let me fill you in on what we know. Not a lot. A call came in to police in Baltimore, apparently from staff from local TV station there in Baltimore, saying a man is inside the TV station's lobby and the person apparently claimed he had a bomb strapped to him. That's what we know.

Our senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, happens to be in this part of the country. He's now rushed to just outside of the station for us. So he's on the phone. I also have law enforcement analyst, Art Roderick, with me, as well.

Brian Stelter, to you first, what do you know?

[14:35:25] BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES (voice-over): Strange scene out here, Brooke. With employees of the station all evacuated. They're on the street trying the find out wt's going on inside get on the air. They're periscoping. There's a police helicopter overhead and the cordon is expanding. I have seen some bomb squad technicians here and part of Baltimore TV Hill, where many of the local stations are. There's a man who entered this vestibule area of the lobby. Apparently still inside there right now and we can almost see inside the door but not quite.

There's also a car in the parking lot. Strangely enough, lit on fire. Right now, the hood and trunk is open and safe to assume it was related. Not clear what happened first and second.

Right now, though, a lot of police officers here and a lot of employees waiting to find out what will happen.

BALDWIN: I want to let you go, Brian, and gather a bit more information and then we'll get you back on TV and try to explain whether what's happening as FOX 45 employees evacuated. We'll come back to this.

I want to move on and talk about how we got a glimpse of how Donald Trump might handle foreign policy if he's the next president of the United States. And it makes for interesting comparisons with Hillary Clinton. In what he billed as a major speech in Washington, the Republican front runner again called for a bigger military and also said the U.S. should be less involved on the world stage. Compare that to what the former secretary of state has said, who has a history of being more interventionist.

Donald Trump says the focus needs to change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: We're rebuilding other countries while weakening our own. We're getting out of the nation building business and, instead, focusing on creating stability in the world. Our moments of greatest strength came when politics ended at the water's edge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Meanwhile, Secretary Clinton has supported rebuilding efforts of Libya and Iraq.

Let's bring in "The New York Times" White House correspondent, Mark Landler, author of the book "Alter Egos," on President Obama and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy relationship. Also wrote a huge piece this past weekend in "The Times" magazine.

To you, sir, first, you watched the speech yesterday. Let's begin there. Your initial impression was what?

MARK LANDLER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, aside from the obvious one, which was his attempt to be serious and sober and delivered in the classic Washington setting, but he was I think trying to take a lot of the ideas he's thrown out in this kind of helter-skelter way and put them into a kind of a coherent framework. But it was a framework filled with contradictions. He talked about doing back to a foreign policy that was as coherent as what we had in the Cold War but tat the same time basically he supports dismantling a lot of Cold War alliances in Europe or Asia. He talks about being more predictable with the allies but at the same time, in the battle against ISIS, he says we should be unpredictable and not tell anyone what we plan to do. So it was a speech with a lot of paradoxes and it kind of as you said earlier sets up an interesting contract with Hillary Clinton --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let's get to that.

LANDLER: -- should she emerge with him.

BALDWIN: Let's get to that.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: On the hawkishness, how would they compare?

LANDLER: Well, I would argue that if you get past the rhetoric, and Donald Trump has very hot rhetoric, but if you look at what he said in that speech, he'd be fairly cautious and fairly reluctant to commit the American military. Hillary Clinton is, you know, I think, more ready to do that. I don't want to suggest that she doesn't want to use diplomacy first and that the military's a last resort for her, but look at the role she took in the Obama years, whether the debate is over Libya, arming the rebels in Syria, deploying troops in Afghanistan. She's tended consistently toward the hawkish end of the spectrum. And you might see a really interesting role reversal where you have a hawkish Democrat facing off against a reluctant Republican.

BALDWIN: How unusual is that, Mark?

LANDLER: Well, I mean, the general model in American elections is that the Republican runs as a hard-line national security figure trying to paint the Democrat as a hawk. That's certainly the way Mitt Romney ran against President Obama in the last election and the way John McCain ran against Barack Obama eight years ago. Hillary Clinton comes from a traditional interventionist background, and not the first Democrat to espouse the views she does. What's unusual about this year is, whether it's Donald Trump or even, frankly, Ted Cruz, who we haven't talked about, these are Republicans that are well outside the Republican national security mainstream.

[14:40:27] BALDWIN: OK. Mark Landler, thank you so much. "New York Times" --

LANDLER: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: -- wrote the book, "Alter Ego."

Thank you.

I want to get back to Baltimore.

LANDLER: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: More on our breaking news.

Thank you.

Police responding to a call from a local TV station there that a man with what he claimed was a bomb, an explosive vest, walked in to the local TV station, sitting in the lobby. We know the staff has been evacuated. Brian Stelter on the scene. We have more from Baltimore after this quick commercial break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:05] BALDWIN: CNN's Anderson Cooper has been investigating the legendary American family whose history, whispered about, barely revealed. Spoiler alert. It's his own family, the Vanderbilts, specifically his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, the only heiress to a railroad dynasty. She was once the center of a custody battle called "The Trial of the Century." She became known for the fortune, her beauty, romances with stars like Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra. And later, tragedy. Her husband, Anderson's father, died in 1978. And then Carter, her son, committed suicide. And now her story is told like never before. A fascinating, candid documentary airing here on CNN, tomorrow night, 9:00 eastern, titled "Nothing Left Unsaid." Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: And this is what he looked like when you first went in?

GLORIA VANDERBILT, HEIRESS & MOTHER OF ANDERSON COOPER: Well, it's a terrible photograph of him. But he was 63 when I first met him and married him.

COOPER: And was there something, as soon as you saw him, and thought --

VANDERBILT: Instant.

COOPER: Really?

VANDERBILT: I knew him for a week and we married three weeks later.

COOPER: Really?

VANDERBILT: Yes.

COOPER: I didn't know that.

VANDERBILT: Yes.

COOPER: How old were you?

VANDERBILT: 20.

COOPER: You were 20?

VANDERBILT: Yeah.

COOPER: And he was 63?

VANDERBILT: Yeah.

COOPER: Wow.

Did any of your friends think it was weird?

VANDERBILT: I don't know.

(LAUGHTER) VANDERBILT: Didn't matter to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And Anderson's here with us.

Congratulations on this incredible story.

COOPER: Thanks.

BALDWIN: We see you, we know you as a journalist, and tell other people's stories, not often our own.

COOPER: Right.

BALDWIN: Why did you want to do this?

COOPER: I think my mom is a fascinating character. She is somebody when's been really famous longer than just anybody else alive today. She is 92. She was the center of a custody dispute. Most closely followed trial of the century, until really the O.J. trial probably. And, you know, she just -- the person she actually is so different than the public perception of her or when people hear her name and they think her life must be like.

BALDWIN: I have heard you tell stories of characters coming in your home as a child.

COOPER: Right.

BALDWIN: But I'm curious knowing your mom and knowing her story pre- Anderson.

COOPER: Right.

BALDWIN: Is there a time or era or year or experience that you wish you could almost sort of time travel and relive?

COOPER: She lived so many -- she has lived so many different lives.

BALDWIN: It seems like.

COOPER: She's been an actress and artist and writer and designer. And, you know, and so, the person I see in some of the photographs I don't have much sense of, and so it was really through this that I discovered who she is. And I kind of now know who she is and what her life was like. And the same thing with writing this book, "The Rainbow Comes and Goes," like I discovered a new person. And I hope the film and book encouraged people to do the same with their parents before it's too late.

BALDWIN: Can you tell us a story of something she shared with you that --

(CROSSTALK) COOPER: I've been going through -- sort of what the basis of the film -- is going through the boxes of hers in storage for years and going through them for years and years, more than a decade. Open one up, a chandelier, and another, it's a box of Corn Flakes from 1953 packed away. And you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Corn flakes?

COOPER: Another is a box of letters from Marlon Brando or Howard Hughes or Frank Sinatra, people she was involved with. I had no idea about any of that. Just to sort of discover your parent and discover this whole, you know, these multiple lives that they have had is fascinating.

BALDWIN: When in your life do you pick up the phone and something happens good, bad, sad, and your mom is the first person you call?

COOPER: Rarely.

BALDWIN: Really?

COOPER: Yeah. -- we don't -- we communicate on e-mail now a lot and wrote this --

BALDWIN: She's 92 and e-mails?

COOPER: Oh yeah. In fact, we wrote it on e-mail. It's an e-mail conversation. That's what it is. But she's not the kind of person -- she's not -- she rarely calls me. She watches me on TV every night and sometimes I call --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Does she text you while you're on TV? My mom does on occasion.

COOPER: I've called her and be like, do you want me to come over? I haven't seen you in two months. She says, no, I'm good.

BALDWIN: I see you every day.

COOPER: I see you every night. That's the benefit of being on TV. The parent feels like they see you.

BALDWIN: We don't feel the same way.

COOPER: Yeah.

BALDWIN: What's the one way you wish you were more like your mom?

COOPER: I wish I had her optimism. She's 92. She still believes the next great love is right around the corner. She is the most youthful and modern person I know. And even the title of the book, "The Rainbow Comes and Goes," is from a Wordsworth poem, we both interpret it entirely differently. She believes the rainbow will always return. You have to wait for it. And happy days are right around the corner. The phone can rings and your life can change. I think the phone can ring and your whole life can change and not for the better, and sure the rainbow may come back but how do you know you're there where it comes back? It might be coming back over in Atlanta and we're in New York. I want to prepare for the dark times ahead. I'm like, from the "Game of Thrones," winter is coming in my world. But I wish I had her optimism.

[14:50:26] BALDWIN: I love that. 92 and still looking for love.

COOPER: I said, you believe there's a guy waiting off the coast of south of France for you in a boat? She was like, a boat? A yacht. You know? I was like --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Good luck, mom.

COOPER: Yes.

BALDWIN: You never know. I remember reading dispatches from the edge before I met you and working somewhere else, and you talk about just reading about your brother.

COOPER: Right.

BALDWIN: And this -- the whole piece in this documentary and your mom talks about she hadn't cried since --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Yeah. My mom witnessed his suicide. She was there trying to stop him. And she -- you know, when it happened.

BALDWIN: How old were you?

COOPER: I was 21. He was 23. My mom says, in the film, she sort of basically went to bed for three weeks and cried, and that she really hasn't cried since.

BALDWIN: How does that impact her still?

COOPER: You know, it is there every day. It never goes away, for both of us. That's the thing of suicide. A, so few people talk about it that there's this sort of strange silence about it. And a stigma still, unfortunately, about it in many people's minds. But for those who have lost a loved one to it, it never goes away. It often changes -- you end up thinking about how they ended their life as opposed to lived their life and that's a horrible thing to try to remember how somebody lived their life and not just how it ended.

BALDWIN: I have heard you say before people talk about closure and that's not --

(CROSSTALK) COOPER: I think closure is just a TV word.

BALDWIN: I agree with you.

COOPER: Every time I hear a TV reporter says, does it bring you closure. I think the wounds heal, heal over, but they remain. The scars remain, whether or not people see them.

BALDWIN: Mother's Day is around the corner.

COOPER: Yes.

BALDWIN: You can e-mail and text as much as you want. What's -- do you have plans with her?

COOPER: On the actual holidays, I'll --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Brunch action in the city?

COOPER: No. I'll go over to her house. She paints every day. Usually, just hang out at the house. And what I wanted the film to be like, the way I know my mom, which is, you go to her house, she's not wearing any makeup, barefoot.

BALDWIN: Gold shoes.

COOPER: Maybe gold shoes. But barefoot on a couch and telling you incredible stories and that's what I think people will see in the film in a way never before.

BALDWIN: What a way you open up and she opens up.

Thank you.

COOPER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I appreciate it.

Make sure to tune in, "Nothing Left Unsaid," the name on CNN tomorrow night, 9:00 eastern.

Thank you very much.

Next, we have more on our breaking news. We take you back to Baltimore. A situation there. A call came in to police, essentially, according to station employees who have evacuated, that a man walked in strapped with explosives. We have a reporter on the scene. We'll take you there after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:23] BALDWIN: A pediatric neurosurgeon cannot allow her disability get in the way of her dream of becoming a doctor. Her work ethic and positive attitude inspires many of her students, including our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Here's a very personal "Turning Points."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 25 years after I first met her during my residency at the University of Michigan, Dr. Karin is teaching me about the wonders of the brain.

DR. KARIN MURASZKO, WOMAN CHAIR OF NEUROSURGERY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Our job is to recapitulate what should have happened in nature.

GUPTA: She's operating on the brain of a 2-year-old boy. She's training the next generation of neurosurgeons. And if that weren't impressive enough, she's dong it all from a wheelchair. Born with spina bifida, expectations for Karin were set low, to put it gently.

MURASZKO: My grandmother would say to my mother, oh, don't push her so much. A handicapped girl, the most she'll do is sell pencils on a corner. My mom would say, no, no, you never know what kids can do.

BALDWIN: Her own mother couldn't predict just how high Karin would set the bar.

MURASZKO: Often I think people choose careers and jobs because they want to pattern themselves after someone. I didn't know anybody that was quite like me. As a result, I kind of chose my own path and in some ways that's extremely liberating.

GUPTA: Karin didn't just break the mold, she shattered it. In 2005, became the first woman chair of neurosurgery in the country.

MURASZKO: Next time you see someone that doesn't fit the mold of what you think someone should be, think outside the box.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

I love you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. BALDWIN: We begin this hour with breaking news. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We're watching a potentially dangerous situation right now in Baltimore. This TV news station, local TV station, FOX 45. I can tell you just a couple of things. The staff has been evacuated. As this man apparently sitting, claiming he has a bomb strapped to him.

So, we have Brian Stelter, in the midst of the evacuated employees outside of the TV station, and I have CNN law enforcement analyst, Art Roderick, with me.

Brian Stelter, to you first.

Everyone's still evacuated and I understand the only person still inside the TV station is this guy sitting in the lobby. Correct?

[14:59:43] STELTER (voice-over): That's right. Even the people in master control, who would be making sure the show gets on the air at 3:00 p.m., they're not there. I won't describe police movements but we've been moved farther back. It's hard to see the scene. There's employees and bystanders watching to see what happens.

What's so strange about the situation is this man apparently drove up in a car, parked and the car lit on fire in some manner, in some form. It wasn't a big fire but it was significant that firefighters had to put out that fire. Then he went into the lobby --