Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Trump Outlines "America First" Foreign Policy; Clinton Moves Closer To Democratic Nomination; Russians Love Trump; Prince's Health Scare Likely Reaction to Painkillers; Embattled Brazilian President Talks Olympics; Venezuelan Economic Crisis Affects Government Workers; Facebook Booms as Apple, Twitter Not Doing as Well. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 28, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:11] ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Isha Sesay.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM L.A starts now.
When it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump says two words would guide his presidency, America first.
SESAY: Trump outlined his vision during a speech in Washington on Wednesday. CNN's Sara Murray has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): Donald Trump unleashing a blistering criticism of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy, a preview of fault lines that could shape the general election.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I challenge anyone to explain the strategic policy vision of Obama/Clinton. It has been a complete and total disaster.
MURRAY: In his formal speech in Washington, Trump called for an America first approach to foreign policy.
TRUMP: My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else. Has to be first.
MURRAY: Trump pledging that intervention won't be his first instinct and saying he will seek to improve relationships with countries like Russia.
TRUMP: We desire to live peacefully and in friendship with Russia and China. MURRAY: Rather than delve deep into specifics, Trump said it's time to stop to broadcasting America's every move.
TRUMP: We must as a nation be more unpredictable. We are totally predictable.
MURRAY: After his five-state sweep on Tuesday, Trump is feeling more secure than ever in his frontrunner status.
TRUMP: I consider myself the presumptive nominee.
MURRAY: To clinch the nomination he needs roughly 49 percent of the remaining delegates to hit the magic 1,237. To date he's won about 50.2 percent of the delegates. If he keeps up his current pace, the nomination should be within his grasp. For Trump, it's a sign that the strategy that got him this far is working.
TRUMP: If you have a football team and you are winning, and then you get to the Super Bowl, you don't change your quarterback, right? So I'm not changing.
MURRAY: And that general election fight could be brutal, as Trump tries out an even sharper tone against Clinton, questioning whether she has any credentials beyond her gender.
TRUMP: Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.
MURRAY: Trump's not the only one with his eye on the general. Today Ted Cruz making the unconventional decision to tap Carly Fiorina as his VP if he can win the nomination at a contested convention.
SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Carly is a vice presidential nominee who I believe is superbly skilled, superbly gifted at helping unite this party, bring us together so we stand united as one.
MURRAY (on camera): Now, Donald Trump weighed in on the Cruz-Carly Fiorina ticket here in Indianapolis. Sort of openly mocking the move, saying Ted Cruz is a guy who is mathematically eliminated from winning on the first ballot. What is he even doing announcing a VP? Sara Murray, CNN, Indianapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us here in Los Angeles, James Lacy, the author of "Taxifornia" and a Donald Trump supporter, and Michael Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the "Los Angeles Times. Round two.
So to you, Michael, before the speech Donald Trump's foreign policy adviser said there would be no details in the speech. Would you say it was pretty much as advertised?
MICHAEL HILTZIK, COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": I think the first thing you said, about Donald Trump's foreign policy advisers, it's hard to find that there is a foreign policy adviser. This is basically the same sort of fact-free policy-free talk that we hear from the podium when Trump is at a rally.
There's no policy here. There's no consistency. It's on and on about how Obama has weakened the military, the fact of the matter is that our military budget is $600 billion this year. It's going to be larger next year.
It's more than enough. You do not hear the chiefs of staff saying they need more money. We don't need more money. There's nothing -- there's no fact that states that the military has gotten any weaker under Obama at all.
[01:05:13]So this is basically just blustering. It's playing to the peanut gallery. And it's -- it shows a deep ignorance of foreign policy, of military policy, and of the facts on the ground and the world.
VAUSE: James, you've sat there quiet long enough. Please.
JAMES LACY, AUTHOR, "TAXIFORNIA"/TRUMP SUPPORTER: I mean, ignorance? I just don't think so. And those chiefs of staff that you're referring to have been put in place for seven years by the Obama administration. They get fired if they ask for more money.
HILTZIK: Who's asking for more money?
LACY: Well, to speak, Europe was skeptical of Ronald Reagan when he became president in 1980. They had this vision of him as being some sort of a cowboy, sort of the rooster cog burn of the Republican Party that was going to be wielding nuclear weapons and threatening the Soviet Union.
But that's not what happened. As a matter of fact, there were very few conflicts when Ronald Reagan was president. And at the end of the day his foreign policy resulted in the fall of the Berlin wall. I think Trump's foreign policy will be like that.
He's the only candidate that's speaking toward building up the military in this way. We have B-52 bombers that could be the grandfathers of the pilots that are flying them. We really need to do something about making our Navy first class. We really need to build up our Air Force.
I think that this speech will stand out as making Donald Trump both -- and this is where I disagree with this whole thing about how there's conflicts. You know, the Republican Party has a history of non- interventionism.
You are a student of history. You know all about Robert Taft, who was a senator from Ohio, who promoted non-interventionism. This Trump speech reflects Robert Taft and Ronald Reagan. The philosophy of non- interventionism but real strong military in order to keep the peace.
HILTZIK: I think what we're hearing here, first of all, is a misinterpretation of Reagan's policies and his behavior. And we're forgetting that Ronald Reagan, for all his cowboy rhetoric, surrounded himself with some of the leading experts on foreign policy and defense policy that there were.
Donald Trump has surrounded himself frankly with a bunch of right-wing crack pots who have nothing to add and nothing to say. The fact of the matter is that when you talk about the state of the American military right now, you're calling for a return to a military that fought not merely the last war but the war before that and the war before that.
The world is very different now. You do not want a military that looks like the military we had even under Clinton much less George H.W. Bush or Ronald Reagan. We need a military that can fight the next war or the wars that we're facing now that's not the cold war and it's not a European war.
It's something very different. And to put the sort of money that Trump is talking about into these old style arsenals is insane.
SESAY: James, also, this is a show that -- viewers from around the world are watching. What do you say to those who say, you know, the fundamental message that is being beamed out to America's allies is one of inconsistency, and that is dangerous for America's standing? You talk about making America safe again and make America strong again.
LACY: And who's been inconsistent? It's been the Obama administration. Look, this guy doesn't get any respect. He landed his plane in Cuba and there was no one to greet him when he got there.
He's created through his policies in Iraq and the Middle East ISIS. He's created the circumstances by removing the troops and by not taking advantage of the surge that had occurred during the Bush administration. The world is a much, much more dangerous place.
VAUSE: I just want to very quickly -- if Donald Trump has the magical solution to end ISIS, isn't there a moral and ethical responsibility for him to tell the president right now? John McCain was pilloried for this in 2008 when he said I know how to defeat al Qaeda but only if you elect me. Isn't it the same thing?
LACY: I don't think there's a super mystery about what Trump is saying because what Trump is saying is to take ISIS on directly. We have a president right now who has a policy that will only try and drop bombs, that won't engage in the broad spectrum of things that need to be done to close off ISIS out of concern for offending the Saudi Arabians and out of concern for offending some of the oil-rich states that pro up this radical Wahabiism type of Islam.
Trump is going to get past that. We have to start thinking in terms -- this mischaracterization of America first. You know, what America first means is to look after the best interests of American security.
[01:10:10]What we need to do is protect the United States and not go out and nation building. We're way beyond the time when we should be the policeman of the world. It's just way too complicated right now and we have to think about protecting people at home. And this is what his foreign policy would do.
SESAY: OK. We're going to pause there on the issue of Trump and his foreign policy prescriptions or lack thereof, some would say. And turn to the day's other big story, which is Ted Cruz choosing Carly Fiorina as running mate.
VAUSE: Clearly trying to capitalize on her immense popularity with the electorate.
SESAY: Indeed. We've got to ask you, Michael, let's start with you. To help me try -- I mean, people try to decipher this. Give it your best shot.
HILTZIK: Well, frankly, you've given me a very hard job because I don't think anybody has been able to decipher this. I think the best thing we can say is that Cruz was trying to seize the attention of news viewers by doing something extreme or outlandish.
He had a hard time doing that because this is the same day as we know that Donald Trump was making his so-called foreign policy pronouncements. What's odd about this is that normally if you have somebody whose personality is so -- said to be so repellent as Ted Cruz is.
A candidate like that really should go out and find a running mate who softens that. Instead he went out and found a running mate who has shown that she is deeply unpopular and every bit as grating to much of the electorate as he is.
VAUSE: Do you think she tried to soften that image today? Because there was that very odd moment on the stage when she actually broke out into song. Let's listen to this. Show our viewers exactly what happened. They may have missed it.
(VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: A stunning moment.
HILTZIK: This is the Carly Fiorina we've come to know. That every time she tries to soften her own image it's a hideous misfire. During her presidential campaign she was filmed in a TV commercial with a group of puppies and one of the comments that I heard was she looked like Cruella De Vil measuring them up for their pelts.
She at one point was giving a campaign appearance and she dragooned a bunch of kindergartners into sitting with her while their parents and teachers were dumfounded that she would enlist them in a campaign appearance.
Every time she does this it just blows up in her face. To see her singing to Ted Cruz's daughters, I don't know what we're supposed to make of this. But she really does not have a maternal image and that didn't help.
SESAY: James, we're going to give you a chance --
LACY: As a Trump supporter I'm not going to comment on anything you that just said. But I will say this. There is historical precedent for what Cruz is doing with Carly Fiorina. Forty years ago, before the Republican convention, the last contested Republican convention in 1976, Ronald Reagan announced that he would pick Richard Swiker, a senator from Pennsylvania, to be his running mate.
And he did this to throw a cloud of confusion just before the convention and to try and sway a group of uncommitted Pennsylvania delegates. We've been hearing a lot in the news about uncommitted Pennsylvania delegates. They existed 40 years ago to try and get the nomination for himself.
What this thing is, though, with Fiorina, it's Cruz's play to try and win congressional districts in California. And there's a complete miscalculation that does relate to what Michael said.
I've done the polling too. Carly Fiorina is not popular in California. She's not really going to have the effect of swaying any congressional districts at all. That's going to come down to Cruz.
And I that with the recent CBS poll showing Trump, what, 27 points ahead in this state that Fiorina will end up being a dud of a decision.
VAUSE: And we'll leave it there. But Ted Cruz right now, to quote Dan Rather, his back is to the wall, his shirttails are on fire, and the bill collector is at the door. So desperate times, desperate measures. Thank you both for coming in.
SESAY: It was such a pleasure. Thank you.
HILTZIK: Nice to be here.
SESAY: Thank you.
VAUSE: OK, we go to the Democrats now. The Bernie Sanders campaign is downsizing, laying off hundreds of staff after a disappointing result on Tuesday.
SESAY: It also comes as rival Hillary Clinton gets even closer to securing her party's nomination. Senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[01:15:05]HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With your help we're going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton riding high after winning four of Tuesday night's five primaries. Now only 215 delegates from clinching the nomination.
CLINTON: I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of our politics and giving greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality. And I know together we will get that done.
KEILAR: Clinton extended an olive branch to Sanders supporters.
CLINTON: Because whether you support Senator Sanders or you support me, there's much more that unites us than divides us.
KEILAR: But Sanders isn't backing down.
BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are in this campaign to win and become the Democratic nominee.
KEILAR: Though he is acknowledging the math leaves him an almost insurmountable challenge.
SANDERS: I am very good in arithmetic, and I can count delegates and we are behind today. But you know what? Unusual things happen in politics.
KEILAR: The Vermont senator now laying the groundwork for a campaign that is focused on influencing the party's platform.
SANDERS: Our job, whether we win or whether we do not win, is to transform not only our country but the Democratic Party.
KEILAR: Meanwhile, Clinton is shifting her focus to a potential general election battle with the Republican frontrunner.
CLINTON: The other day Mr. Trump accused me of playing the, quote, "woman card."
KEILAR: Trump repeated the charge Tuesday night after sweeping five primaries.
TRUMP: If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.
KEILAR: Hillary Clinton fighting back on Twitter "caught your speech Donald Trump about that woman's card. And sharing a video of her Tuesday remarks.
CLINTON: If fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And big news coming out of Bernie Sanders' campaign tonight. His campaign is dramatically downsizing from about 1,000 staffers at its peak earlier this year all the way down, I'm told by the campaign manager, to about 325 or 350 staffers.
Jeff Weaver, the campaign manager, told me this is the natural evolution of any campaign because there are fewer states left. But many observers are looking at this as a sign that the writing is on the wall and that if a campaign saw a way to get to the general election they wouldn't be doing this. Brianna Keilar, CNN, Bloomington, Indiana.
SESAY: Donald Trump's popularity is soaring in Russia. We will see what's behind that phenomenon just ahead.
VAUSE: Also, many Venezuelans are getting a shorter work week, but apparently it's no cause for celebration.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:29]
KATE RILEY, CNN SPORTS: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sport headlines. The first leg of a champion's league semifinal between Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich resulted in a 1-0 win for the Spanish side. Atletico scored the only goal of the game after just 10 minutes and it was a sublime solo effort.
Bayern came back into it in the second half with David Alba hitting the bar from 35 yards. The second leg takes place in Germany next Tuesday.
A day on from the historic Hillsborough verdict, crowds paid tribute to the disaster's 96 victims at a candlelit vigil in Liverpool's City Center. More than 20,000 people descended on the site for a special commemoration.
Kenny Dalglish, who was the Liverpool manager at the time, performed a poetry reading. Andy Burnham, the politician who was heavily involved in bringing about the most recent inquest, read the names of the 96 people who died.
Elsewhere, Wednesday marked just 100 days to go until the Summer Olympics get under way in Rio. The Olympic torch was officially handed over to Rio organizers in Athens in a ceremony witnessed by thousands of spectators. The flame was used to light a cauldron at the stadium in Athens.
It was then presented to Carlos Newman, who is the Rio Olympics organizer committee. Now the flame will be taken to Geneva, home of the IOC, before being carried to Brazil. That's a look at your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Hello, everyone. Donald Trump's America first policy speech is drawing comparison for the isolationist movement of the 1940s when the U.S. hesitated to get involved in World War II.
VAUSE: CNN's chief U.S. security correspondent, Jim Sciutto has a closer look at Trump's plans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: Our foreign policy is a complete and total disaster. JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Delivering what his campaign called a major foreign policy speech in Washington, Donald Trump immediately took aim at President Obama.
TRUMP: If President Obama's goal had been to weaken America, he could not have done a better job.
SCIUTTO: In fact, perhaps telegraphing his general election message, Trump equated the president and his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
CLINTON: Thank you so much.
SCIUTTO: Uttering "Obama-Clinton" no fewer than three times.
TRUMP: The Obama-Clinton interventions -- with President Obama and Secretary Clinton -- of Obama-Clinton.
SCIUTTO: And declaring their foreign policy a shared failure.
TRUMP: The legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions will be weakness, confusion, and disarray.
SCIUTTO: Trump was more scripted and less bombastic than at campaign rallies but his speech included several campaign-tested positions, though few with specifics. He said that he and only he would defeat is.
TRUMP: Their days are numbered. I won't tell them where, and I won't tell them how.
SCIUTTO: For Russia, a country seen increasingly as a threat by the current administration and the U.S. military, Trump offered an olive branch.
TRUMP: Some say the Russians won't be reasonable. I intend to find out. If we can't make a deal under my administration, a deal that's great, then we will quickly walk from the table.
TRUMP: For U.S. allies he accused President Obama of abandoning them, but at the same time repeated his campaign promise to make allies pay their way.
TRUMP: The countries we're defending must pay for the cost of this defense. And if not the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.
SCIUTTO: Critics were quick to accuse Trump of broad contradictions.
FAREEZ ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": It was sort of rambling to the point of being incoherent. I mean, he contradicted himself several times, it struck me. He said we're going to get out of nation-building, but we're going to create stability. Well, how do you do that? You got out of nation-building in Iraq. You got more instability. SCIUTTO: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham tweeting "not sure who is advising Trump on foreign policy, but I can understand why he's not revealing their names." And in a flub that gave his critics ammunition --
[01:25:02]TRUMP: Tanzania --
SCIUTTO: Trump mispronounces the name of the east African nation, Tanzania. The White House quickly pouncing on the mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apparently the phonetics are not included on the teleprompter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: As brashly as they were delivered, some of Trump's positions are very much in line with the mainstream Republican Party. Criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, for instance. The question now is can he bring them together in a cohesive foreign policy message that appeals beyond his base of support? Jim Sciutto, CNN, New York.
VAUSE: For more on this story we go live to Tokyo and Will Ripley. So will on the threat from North Korea, Donald Trump said he would use American economic leverage over China to get Beijing to do more about Pyongyang.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have the leverage. We have the power over China. Economic power and people don't understand it. And with that economic power, we can rein in and we can get them to do what they have to do with North Korea, which is totally out of control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So Will, you just got back from Pyongyang. How much leverage would you say Beijing has right now over the North koreans, especially with Kim Jong-Un calling the shots?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a lot of analysts who are saying that the relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang is perhaps the worst it's been, or at least the worst it's been in many years, considering the fact that Chinese President Xi Jinping sent one of his highest officials to Pyongyang in October to send a letter, to deliver it personally to the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
Only to be embarrassed in January when North Korea surprised the world including China, which was caught off guard just like everybody else, with that purported h-bomb test. Then there was the satellite launch.
There have been missile and rocket launches and indications that more activity, more military activity is on the way. So the leverage that China holds over North Korea, yes, there is still a trade relationship that's crucial to keeping the North Korean economy afloat.
And yes, China says they will enforce a new round of sanctions that could hurt Pyongyang, could certainly sting, but China's not going to allow the North Korean economy to collapse, given the significant U.S. military presence in South Korea.
Strategically they want to keep the North Korean economy afloat. They also don't want refugees flooding across their border. So therefore, the leverage is perhaps being overstated. At least that's what a lot of people here are saying.
VAUSE: It was, is, and will be a complicated situation to deal with, North Koreans. Will, thank you. Will Ripley live this hour in Tokyo.
SESAY: Now, Trump's popularity seems to be soaring in Russia. Senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen takes a look at why so many Russians seem to be on Team Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's no secret that Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin seem to feel a certain admiration for each other.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He is a brilliant and talented person, without a doubt.
TRUMP: And I like him because he called me a genius. He said Trump is the new real leader, Trump should be the leader and he's a total genius.
PLEITGEN: And many ordinary Russians are Trump fans as well.
The key thing about him is his willingness for a breakthrough in relations with Russia, this man says maybe they won't get closer but at least there will be dialogue.
And this man add, "First of all, Trump is a positive guy and he spoke about Putin in a good way. He wants positive change in America."
In a recent Ugov poll conducted in the G20 nations those surveyed in every country said they would take Hillary Clinton over Trump except in Russia. Where the Donald leads by a landslide.
While relations between Russia and the Obama administration have soured over Moscow's policy in Ukraine and Syria, Trump in his foreign policy speech says he thinks he can work with Russia.
TRUMP: I believe an easing of tensions, improved relations with Russia, from a position of strength only, is possible.
PLEITGEN (on camera): Many Russians believe if Donald Trump were to become president that the U.S. would have a more isolationist foreign policy. They think that would lead to fewer disagreements then U.S. and Russia and ultimately to better relations.
(voice-over): A recent Trump campaign video seemingly lumping Putin in with ISIS as a challenge to America did lead to some anger in the kremlin. But Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, said Vladimir Putin still appreciates Trump's style.
FYODOR LUKYANOV, COUNCIL ON RUSSIAN FOREIGN AND DEFENSE POLICY: He basically likes those who are frank, open, and disregard political correctness. And this is exactly the case of Mr. Trump.
PLEITGEN: It's a style that propelled Vladimir Putin to several terms as Russian prime minister and president. While some believe Trump's frankness could carry him all the way into the White House, he still has a long way to go. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A short break. When we come back, authorities investigating Prince's death are focusing on the role prescription painkillers may have played in his final days. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:00] VAUSE: A short break. When we come back, authorities investigating Prince's death are focusing on the role prescription painkillers may have played in his final days. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay.
The headlines this hour --
(HEADLINES)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Authorities say they found prescription medication on Prince at the time of his death. Investigators believe a health scare a week before his death was likely caused by a reaction to the painkillers.
VAUSE: They're still waiting for the results from the autopsy and the toxicology tests. The music star was 57 years old when he died last week at home.
[01:34:47] VAUSE: Well, let's bring in Dr. Drew Pinsky. He's the host of HLN's "Dr. Drew" and is an addiction medicine specialist. He joins us by phone from right here in L.A.
Dr. Drew, thanks so much for joining us.
When you hear that authorities found these prescription drugs on Prince's person and in his home, what goes through your mind? DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST, DR. DREW (voice-over): Well, a couple of
thoughts. We've been hearing rumors he was taking the medication Percocet, which is precisely one of these opioid pain medications. It makes me wonder whether or not this is a medical misadventure. Perhaps a doctor gave him something called a benzodiazepine, an anxiety valium-like medication or a sleeping medication. We heard these rumors he hadn't slept for 154 hours. If someone added a sleeping medication to a modest dose of opiate, like Percocet, whatever the name is, they're all pretty much the same, that is a potentially lethal combination. That does not mean Prince was an addict. We don't see the typical behaviors of somebody struggling with long-term addiction, progression, all the things we're used to seeing celebrities struggling with the disease. Never have we had a hint of Prince manifesting those sorts of phenomenon and behavior. And yet, all of a sudden, here at the end, things go back quickly. I'm suspicious. My clinical hunch is that he has some sort of underlying medical problem. Of course, we've been hearing about the hip pain. But something more, something more substantial, and that the pain medication got involved and they were on top of some problem, but may, my fear is, they are the things that really took a genius from all of us.
SESAY: Doctor, is it possible, though, that one could have an addiction to these kind of drugs and it not be known by those around you, those closest to you?
PINSKY: It's possible. But think of the celebrities that have died of addiction in recent years. You knew something was up and you knew things were progressing and you knew things were getting worse. There were stories of people struggling and trying to help them and get them -- sometimes you would shake your head and wonder what was going on. You wouldn't be clear it was addiction. But you would hear stories of a struggle and a progression. That's addiction. In this case you can become dependent. The real story behind all this is the fact that 90 percent of the pain medication prescribed on earth are prescribed in America. That's ridiculous. We are way too aggressive with these medications. And when they themselves are -- it's very difficult to overdose on oral opiates. You can but it's difficult. But when you add in the benzodiazepine and the sleeping medication it's very easy to accidentally overdose.
SESAY: Let me ask you this. The autopsy results, the toxicology, all that detail won't be known for a while yet. But can that process, can those tests definitively determine whether or not he had a long-term dependency on these medications?
PINSKY: They can give a hint. If there's nothing else going on that explains the cause of death and somebody stops breathing and there are moderate to high doses of an opiate and Benzodiazepine it's pretty much a smoking gun. There's other bits of evidence that tells us somebody simply stopped breathing. But again, I don't think it's going to be that simple. I really don't. It may be. It's possible. But I just don't think so. It just doesn't sound like that. But it is a reminder of how -- listen, if you were going to die of a substance ingestion today, it's going to be an opioid pain medication and a benzodiazepine prescribed by a doctor often taken, quote, "as directed." So, please, people who have chronic pain, these are not good and are potentially dangerous treatment. Be very cautious and very circumspect, especially if somebody provides you with you a benzodiazepine medication on top of that. It is exquisitely dangerous.
SESAY: Dr. Drew, a good word of warning there. So appreciate the fact you could join us this evening.
PINSKY: You bet.
SESAY: Thank you, Dr. Drew.
PINSKY: You bet. Thanks, Isha.
VAUSE: Millionaire real estate heir, Robert Durst, is headed here to Los Angeles to face murder charges. That's after a judge in the state of Louisiana sentenced him to seven years in prison on an unrelated gun charge. Durst will be transferred to California, where he says he'll plead not guilty in the death of a friend 16 years ago.
SESAY: In an HBO documentary released last year, Durst appeared to confess to murder accusations when's he was apparently unaware his microphone was still on.
VAUSE: When we come back, an unusual situation to Venezuela's energy crisis. Government workers are only being allowed to work two days a week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:42:40] SESAY: Hello, everyone. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is fighting for her political life. She faces impeachment and could be suspended from running the government as early as next month.
VAUSE: Ms. Rousseff spoke exclusively with Christiane Amanpour about her political battles and the upcoming Olympic Games.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And finally, Brazil under your administration has secured the Olympic Games. You're getting ready for the Olympic Games. How will it make you feel if you're not able to host them, if you're sitting out the impeachment process for the next six months?
DILMA ROUSSEFF, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): You know, there's one thing I wish to tell you. If that happens, I will be very sad indeed. Because we have -- I think it is fair to say we have undertaken a very good effort. I would very much like to take part in the Olympic process because I helped build the effort from day one, ever since we accepted the responsibility matrix as we call it. I was there attending the session as head of the -- or chief of staff at the time. But I'm actually sad. A little more sad for another reason. Because I think the worst thing for any human being is to be the victim of injustice and I am the victim of the current impeachment process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, you can see more of CNN's exclusive interview with President Rousseff coming up later on "Amanpour." It starts at 7:00 p.m. in London, only here on CNN.
Now, Venezuela's President is shortening the work week for many in his country.
VAUSE: But as Rafael Romo reports, this move may not be a reason to celebrate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN-AMERICA EDITOR: The president made the announcement during a cabinet meeting broadcast nationally. Government employees, he said, will now work only two days a week. The drastic measure doesn't have anything to do with festive reasons. It's a desperate decision to address a deep energy crisis.
MADURA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
[01:44:48] ROMO: The president is calling the next few weeks critical and extreme. Water levels at the dam that provides 75 percent of Venezuela's electricity are at record low levels due to a drought caused by the weather pattern known as El Nino.
The president had already ordered government workers to take Fridays off and asked all Venezuelans to limit the use of non-essential appliances like blow dryers.
He also decreed four-hour rolling blackouts for the next 40 days, a measure residents in the Charayabe (ph) district outside Caracas say is making their lives miserable.
"We've had rolling blackouts since last month," Gustavo Diaz says. "We used to lose power two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. But now it's four hours straight."
About the only thing the Diaz family can depend on at home is the gas stove. But the food in the fridge is spoiling and the microwave oven sits unused. The TV set is dark and the stereo system silent.
When CNN visited the home in the Charayabe (ph) district outside Caracas, the Venezuelan capitol, the temperature was 34 degrees Celsius, or 93 Fahrenheit. With no power, turning the air on is not an option.
(on camera): The capitol district in Caracas and some adjacent municipalities are exempt from the rolling blackouts because that's where the federal government headquarters are located. Two states that heavily depend on tourism will not be affected either. (voice-over): Back at the Charayaba (ph) district outside Caracas,
just about every business displays the same sign. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), it says. "There's no power."
Rafael Romo, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Looking a bit grim there in Venezuela.
SESAY: Hot.
VAUSE: Very hot.
SESAY: Taking a quick break. While many tech companies are struggling, Facebook is booming. We'll talk to a tech writer about the company's earnings and why Apple and Twitter, they aren't faring as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:50:41] SESAY: Hello, everyone. The private aerospace company SpaceX is setting its sight really, really high. The company announced plans to land an unmanned spacecraft on Mars as early as 2018.
VAUSE: It would be called the Red Dragon. And the company says it will unveil its Mars rocket before the end of the year. Founder Elon Musk has said he hopes SpaceX will fly people to the red planet by 2025.
Do you want to go? You could go.
SESAY: Are you trying to get rid of me?
(LAUGHTER)
I'm staying right here.
VAUSE: It's OK. You can come back. I'm assuming it's a round-trip.
SESAY: Let's stay in the tech world. U.S. tech earnings have been disappointing as of late. But Facebook just delivered some -- I guess you can call it relief.
VAUSE: Big numbers, yeah.
SESAY: The company reported quarterly sales of $5.4 billion. That's up 52 percent from last year. And that beat analysts' expectations.
VAUSE: Stock for Facebook at an all-time high. More than $118 a share. More than 1.5 billion people now use Facebook each month. That's a lot.
SESAY: But things, they do not look as good for Apple after the company announced its worst quarter in more than a decade. IPhone sales sank for the first time in history by 16 percent.
VAUSE: That's a problem because sales of the Smartphones make up more than two-thirds of Apple's revenue. Shares plunged 6 percent on Wednesday after the disappointing news.
SESAY: Fitz Tepper is a writer at TechCrunch, and he joins us now.
Fitz, those are extraordinary numbers from Facebook. And I just can't get my head around the fact that this company shows no signs of slowing down.
FITZ TEPPER, WRITER, TECHCRUNCH: It's insane. They are adding users. They are adding revenue. They have developed, you know, the best ad product in the history of, you know, technology. They know what to do with ads and it's working. The average user spends now 50 minutes a day on Facebook in the United States.
SESAY: Really?
TEPPER: How insane is that?
VAUSE: That's nuts.
And this is the ninth time in the last 10 quarters that Facebook has outperformed the expectations by all the analysts. Is it mostly the success they're having with mobile?
TEPPER: So it's -- that they transitioned ads to mobile successfully. Five years ago, Facebook didn't do ads on mobile. Zero. And they brought in some ad people and now on Facebook they're making over $10 per user per quarter just on mobile ads. It's insane. Videos, they've totally figured out how to monetize the mobile experience.
SESAY: Where does it go from here? I mean, where do you see them branching out? They're making lots of acquisitions. I mean, when do they start making money from them?
TEPPER: Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a 10-year plan recently. A lot of that stuff is things like virtual reality and autonomous -- A.I., stuff that's not making revenue for the company right now. But his dream is that will make revenue in the near future. But in the near term, they have this Instagram acquisition. Instagram is now making more money each year than they bought it for. What's App is on a tear. Messenger, they expanded to all these different apps, and they're killing it.
VAUSE: The thing is the number of new users for Facebook has actually slowed, but it's still growing. And that's sort of in stark contrast to Twitter.
TEPPER: Facebook added 213 million users this quarter. Twitter added eight million users. And fun fact, Facebook added more users in the United States than Twitter added worldwide.
SESAY: Oh, dear.
Why is Twitter unable to break out? I don't quite understand. They brought back Jack Dorsey. He re-imagined it. They made all these tweaks. And still yet not quite -- it's not moving the needle.
TEPPER: There's two sides of it. There's a product experience side where Twitter has not been able to convince new users to join and stay on Twitter. There's no reason for the average user to join Twitter. Maybe this NFL deal will help here in the fall but right now there's nothing. On the revenue side, Twitter can't develop its ad product. And they have this, you know, model student Facebook to copy. They can't even copy --
(CROSSTALK)
SESAY: Can't they steal Facebook's --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: One thing people may not realize about Twitter, it has yet to actually make a profit.
TEPPER: No. They lose money every quarter.
VAUSE: They lose a lot of money. The question, how long can you continue going?
SESAY: Yeah.
VAUSE: Before you make money?
TEPPER: Jack Dorsey, they'll probably give him another year or two. Twitter is his baby. It's his brainchild.
SESAY: You think he'll have that long?
TEPPER: Probably. If anyone is going to have that long, it's going to be Jack Dorsey. He knows the product inside and out. He built it from the ground up. And Facebook actually has a great head of ads in place. But maybe it's going to take time. Video is where they're really hoping to develop their ads product. We'll see how it works.
VAUSE: Apple not exactly on the bread line at the moment but struggling a little bit and feeling the pinch. One of the big reasons for this is in China the shine has gone off Apple products in China a little bit.
[01:55:14] TEPPER: Yeah, so revenue in China is down 26 percent year over year, which is awful, down from $17 billion to $12.5 billion in China. And the reason is there are all these Smartphone manufacturers that are Chinese exclusive manufacturers. Wawei, Xiomi is one. They are killing it. People in America don't know what these companies are but they are making devices that the average middle-class Chinese consumer wants and can afford. A main difference is these Chinese phone manufacturers are putting
every feature into the phone. And that's what the Chinese middle class wants. Compared to Apple, which picks and chooses which features they have.
SESAY: Analysts say this is a true test for Apple, a true test of innovation now in the time of Mr. Cook being at the helm.
TEPPER: Well, excluding the Apple watch, Apple hasn't released a new product category since 2010, when they came out with the iPad. And to continue this crazy growth, they need new product lines. The iPhone is seven years old. The iPad is seven years old. They need new products.
VAUSE: Apple's just really boring right now.
TEPPER: It is.
SESAY: From the man who camped out nine years straight to get an Apple product.
TEPPER: Well, I wouldn't camp out this year. And that's saying something.
VAUSE: Fitz, thank you.
SESAY: Fitz, appreciate it. Thank you.
And thank you. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause.
Stay with us. Rosemary Church is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
