Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Ted Cruz, The Political Outsider?; Russian Fighter Jet Accused of Barrel-Rolling Over U.S. Warplane; AC360 Special "We Got Him" Airs Monday; Will Ferrell Reportedly Backing Out of Reagan Movie; Obama's Last White House Correspondents Dinner; Trump Looking For Clean Sweep In Indiana; American Sentenced To Hard Labor For Spying; North Korea Launches Two Midrange Missiles, Both Tests Fail; Four 911 Calls Made From Paisley Park Since 2013. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired April 30, 2016 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, boy, felt like I was crossing the border actually. You know. It's true. I was crossing the border, but I got here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Let's bring in CNN's Jason Carroll who was at that chaotic event and is where Ted Cruz will be speaking later today. Jason, good to see you.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Martin. Not only Ted Cruz will be speaking but Carly Fiorina, as well. You know, Trump not only had harsh words for the protesters who gathered outside the hotel here yesterday but also harsh words for his opponents.
Yesterday comparing John Kasich to a spoiled child for not getting out of the race when he says mathematically he has no chance of winning, also calling out Ted Cruz basically saying that this is a man who is using underhanded methods in order to secure delegates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He has no path to victory. It's impossible for him to win with the votes. The only way he can possibly win is if things go terribly wrong and he goes through the back door and he bought all of these delegates and I will never use the word bribe. I would never use a word like bribe. So if he bribed the delegates, I don't call it bribe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: You have to remember here at this state convention, Martin, that a number of people who attend or party insiders, the very same people that Trump has been so critical of in the past, having said that Trump did make an attempt to talk about unity. He talked about friendship and solidarity and need to bring the party together. But also saying at one point if I cannot do that, do I still have a chance of winning and he left the door open basically saying, yes, I think I can --Martin.
SAVIDGE: Jason Carroll, thank you very much for that.
Well, California is the big delegate prize. Indiana's primary is up next and it could make or break the state when it comes for Ted Cruz.
So let's talk about this suddenly important state with Larry Sabato who is the director at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
And I'm wondering, Larry, first of all, thanks for joining us. If Cruz wants to stop Trump from clinching the nomination he has to win Indiana on Tuesday. And the question is can he do it?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UVA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, he's got a competitive campaign in Indiana which obviously he didn't have in any of the northeastern states since he was clobbered in all of them.
But in this case, he has the tepid support of the governor, Mike Pence, he has the announcement of his new running mate, which I think gave him a little bit of a media bubble, it may have helped him a little bit in Indiana.
And he has the strong support of most of the elements of the stop Trump campaign, they recognize that if Trump manages to win Indiana, it's all but over. There's no way really to stop Trump at that point. Trump may win anyway even if he loses Indiana, but there's no way to stop him if he actually wins it.
SAVIDGE: I was up in Wisconsin covering the primary up there and that seems to be the last place where the stop Trump campaign was effective. But I got to say, Wisconsin was much more organized. Indiana is not as well, at least against Trump.
SABATO: That's correct and, remember, the governor in Wisconsin, Scott Walker, who is a strong governor with a big, deep organization on the Republican side went all in for Ted Cruz to stop Donald Trump and it worked. You need those kinds of elements to come together to make something like this happen.
And part of the Wisconsin process as it worked for Cruz in Indiana but not the whole shebang, so I think it's going to be a close contest, but it's not going to be the kind of situation we saw in Wisconsin.
SAVIDGE: Cruz is speaking at the Republican convention in California today and Trump is hoping that California clinches the nomination. So can Cruz really compete with Trump there?
SABATO: He can compete in certain congressional districts, the congressional setup of the delegate allocation process in California lends itself to a Cruz competition with Trump at least in some areas. You know, every congressional district in California, even if it's 95 percent Democratic gets three delegates to the Republican convention, so Cruz is smartly going into some of those less Republican populated districts.
And he may be able to win them but, you know, even if he is able to win several dozen of those districts, Trump still has between June 7th and July 18th the gaveling to order of the Republican convention to find the remaining delegates that he needs to hit the majority of 1,237. You know, at this point you really do have to call Trump a substantial favorite.
[12:05:06]SAVIDGE: I think you do. Although, he was late in the game when it came to figuring out the whole delegate thing.
SABATO: Well, I think he had either planned to continue sweeping so that he didn't need to worry bit or maybe in the beginning he didn't think he'd actually win. So, the combination of the motives has managed to wash out and he has gotten better organized. I think it's going to be close, but still you'd have to give the edge to Trump.
SAVIDGE: Yes, well, he will have the last laugh it appears. Larry Sabato, thanks for joining us. Appreciate your insights.
CNN will have much more with Senator Ted Cruz on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper. Jake will talk with Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. What a morning, tomorrow morning beginning at 9:00 Eastern Time.
New signs of aggression from North Korea. The secretive regime sentencing an American to ten years of hard labor. All the while it is putting the world on edge through aeries of new missile tests. America's response just ahead.
Plus, new details surrounding the death of Prince. Turns out first responders were no stranger to his home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: In what appears to be a sign that North Korea is growing increasingly more erratic and aggressive, the isolated country has sentenced yet another American to hard labor. Kim Dong Chul is the second American to be tried and convicted in the last two months and while the U.S. is staying mum about his sentencing, it does call it troubling. CNN's Brian Todd reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His trial lasted one day. In Pyongyang that was enough to land American citizen, Kim Dong Chul, a ten-year sentence of hard labor. His alleged crime, spying for South Korea. He'd confessed to staying pictures of North Korean military secrets.
[12:10:02]UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I've fallen victim to South Korea and committed a terrible and indelible crime. TODD: South Korea's intelligence service denies involvement. It's unclear whether Kim's confession was made under duress. In court he wiped away tears just like another American Otto Warmbier did recently.
OTTO FREDERICK WARMBIER, AMERICAN DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA: Please save this poor innocent scapegoat.
TODD: Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for allegedly pulling down a political banner in a Pyongyang hotel. What signals is Kim Jong-Un sending to the west by holding these two Americans?
KATHARINE MOON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: One that they have a legal system that needs to be respected by foreigners. Two that they have the power to detain. It's possible that he's reaching for some way to reach the United States. But if that's the case, that is a weak signal because the U.S. is not necessarily going to respond in kind.
TODD: State Department officials call Kim Dong Chul's sentence troubling. They tell CNN they're taking this seriously but are otherwise being very tight-lipped about it. Analysts say Kim Dong Chul, Otto Warmbier and other westerners are given three meals a day, are held in much better conditions than North Korean prisoners and are kept entirely separate. Why?
MOON: These Americans could leave and come home to the United States and describe the horrific conditions in the North Korean prisons and the North Korean regime does not want to have North Korean prisoners deal with, interact with Americans or westerners because they could get contaminated by the west.
TODD: This comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain at a boil. Activists in South Korea have just floated balloons into North Korea full of propaganda against Kim Jong-Un. Kim's nuclear and missile testing and his bloody purges of top officials have been relentless.
BALBINA HWANG, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Fear and terror are the instruments by which he can come into power and k,*p his power. He must pit all the elites against each other, make them feel insecure. Essentially make them fearful of their lives in order to keep them in line.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: And Kim is likely getting ready for purges as he gears up for a massive show of his power. The Workers Party Congress in Pyongyang on May 6th. Analysts say at this event he'll likely continue his campaign of shifting more power away from the North Korean military and over to the communist party. North Korea's top generals are likely very nervous right now. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
SAVIDGE: All right, let's talk about all this with international security analyst, Jim Walsh. Jim, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good to be with you, Martin.
SAVIDGE: So what do we do now about Kim Dong Chul's case?
WALSH: Unfortunately, this isn't the first time it's happened and had all sorts of people detained often through no fault of their own, sometimes because they did something stupid.
And I think this is unfortunately going to be a difficult process of it's going to take time, eventually everyone -- almost everyone gets released.
A bargain is made or the North Koreans are in the mood to make a gesture but often this takes time and so I think it's going to be tough for the families and worst of all for the people being held prisoner.
But I assure you this is at the top level of concern for U.S. policymakers and always has been and always will be when an American is being held in a prison like in North Korea.
SAVIDGE: Which is part of the reason why North Korea does this. They want to be front and center in the tension.
WALSH: Sure.
SAVIDGE: The Pentagon says tensions in Asia as a result of what we've been watching here have become unprecedented. Not just North Korea, there are other factors but how concerned he U.S. be?
WALSH: Well, I agree with that analysis. I mean, if you look at the arc of events over the last year, six month, the number of tests, the rhetoric, all sorts of different things have happened.
You know, even in talking with North Korean officials, I sense that this May party congress is a big deal. It has me on pins and needles. Probably going to have some sort of fireworks probably means a nuclear test or something that coincides with this meeting next week.
Remember, they haven't had a party congress meeting in over 30 years. So the fact that they're having one, it mines something to them and I think as was indicated in your last report it's part about the political transition taking power from the military and building up the party.
But, you know, I think there are some surprises here that are left to unfold so I'm going to be on pins and needles watching this week's events very carefully.
SAVIDGE: You know, often in American media North Korea has been depicted humorously almost as a joke but clearly there is no laughing anymore especially when you look at how aggressively they're going after a missile program.
[12:15:02]We've watched launch after launch after launch. Clearly this is something that could be used against the United States. WALSH: Well, they've been developing a whole range of different missiles, you know, shot-range, submarine launch missile, medium range, trying to have a test for a long-range missile motor.
They've been successful at some. Less successful at others. You know, I think it's going to be some years before they can build a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the U.S. homeland.
Before they do that and I think it's in the distant future they can certainly threaten U.S. forces in South Korea and threaten them in Japan so that day has already arrived whether they have a missile that can, you know, make it halfway across the planet or not.
They are nuclear capable and they can threaten us and our allies there in East Asia so we have to be dealing with this right now.
SAVIDGE: Do you think that the North Koreans watch the political situation going on, we're in an election year, Donald Trump has come out and said the United States has to I guess be less predictable. What's your take on that kind of strategy?
WALSH: Being less predictable, you know, I don't know. Does that mean unpredictability squared where you take two -- I don't know. That as a security studies guy, that doesn't sound good to me.
I understand you have to keep your adversary off balance. We have to have a sense of who's sort of big and who's small here and the North Koreans don't want to hear this but the U.S. is the powerful country and there are some dangers here.
We have friends that we have to protect. And a war on the peninsula or use of nuclear weapons in the region would be devastating, it would be devastating for China and it would be devastating for us.
So I think we have to be -- continue to be the steady, mature adult in the room, apply pressure where we can but also leave own the door to dialogue.
At the end of the day, unfortunately North Korea is a sovereign state so the only way to resolve these things short of war is some kind of political arrangement and have to keep our ear open as we try to minimize the damage they do with provocations.
SAVIDGE: I've spent time at the DMZ. Any part of conflict that that part of the world would make the recent ones seem like child's play.
WALSH: Not that it would happen on purpose but would happen by accident, by air or by something that sort of suddenly slips out of control and again, we are dealing with a country we don't understand very well.
SAVIDGE: Jim Walsh, thank you very much.
WALSH: Thank you. SAVIDGE: The call alerting authorities of Prince's unresponsive body wasn't the first cry for help from his Paisley Park estate. Turns out there is a history of emergency calls from his Minnesota compound. We'll document it all coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:21:27]
SAVIDGE: Police have released the logs of dozens of emergency calls made from Prince's Paisley Park studios as they work to try to piece together what happened to the singer.
We're also learning powerful prescription painkillers were found on his body and in his home and now the DEA is on the case. CNN's Sara Sidner joins us live from Paisley Park with more. Hello, Sara.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Martin. Yes, the Drug Enforcement Administration likely on the case because of what sources have been telling us, that prescription pain medication was found on Prince's body when he was in that elevator dead and also inside his home.
Namely opioid-based painkiller, very strong painkillers that a prescription is required for and what we have learned from our sources is that they have so far not been able to find any valid prescription for those painkillers that they say were found on his body and in his home.
And as far as those calls, we looked over a log of five years, calls made from Paisley Park, service calls to law enforcement and over that time there were 47 calls including the call that let everyone know that Prince had died.
Four of those calls had to do with medical either emergencies or medical service being requested. We know that three of those calls, we're not sure exactly what it is that the medical services were called for, one of those calls was the call that came in saying that Prince had died in an elevator.
We can also tell you that for days now since his death, this memorial at Paisley Park is just growing and growing and growing. It's more than a block now. It goes clear around me all the way around the corner and down the highway.
It is an amazing scene out here, people truly care about his musical genius and the person that he was, but investigators really want to know ultimately what ended up killing him.
Those results, the toxicology, results aren't expected back for several weeks now and the world is waiting to find out exactly what killed this musical genius.
SAVIDGE: Many would be worried somehow someone else could be involved. Sara Sidner, thank you very much. Still ahead, John Boehner isn't the only high-profile Republican that's trashing Ted Cruz. One of Cruz's colleagues in Congress now says calling him Lucifer in the flesh isn't fair to the devil.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:27:02]
SAVIDGE: Hello, thanks for joining me. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredricka Whitfield.
Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz is facing I think it's safe to say an uphill battle to try to unite his party and stop Donald Trump. If it weren't harsh enough that the former House Speaker John Boehner called Cruz, quote, "Lucifer in the flesh," now another Republican lawmaker is going further.
Congressman Charlie Dent says that is not fair to Lucifer. Is the Republican Party taking a shift from the stop Trump movement to the never Cruz movement?
Our Manu Raju has a look at what Republicans in Washington are saying about the Texas senator.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former House Speaker John Boehner did not hold back his true feelings about Ted Cruz.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about Ted Cruz?
JOHN BOEHNER, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Lucifer in the flesh. I get along with almost everybody. But I have never worked with a miserable son of a (inaudible) --
RAJU: Many Republicans on Capitol Hill are piling on.
REPRESENTATIVE CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Then you got the former speaker, you know, basically calling him a miserable sob. That was pretty harsh. I wouldn't have called him miserable but -- then you had the other issue too where he said he's like -- called Lucifer in the flesh. I mean somebody better contact Lucifer for comment because he's probably very upset about this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name comparing to Ted Cruz?
RAJU: After two years of bitter in-fighting there is no love lost between members of Congress and Ted Cruz. Battles over raising the debt ceiling, leading the charge to defund Obamacare, which caused a 16-day government shut down and calling Mitch McConnell a liar.
SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I cannot believe he would tell a flat out lie.
RAJU (on camera): Do you think he should apologize for those remarks calling Mitch McConnell a liar on the floor?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stood up and said he should. Yes, I think that was the wrong thing to do. It was contrary to the rules.
RAJU: On the campaign trail, Cruz hasn't held back. Calling his Republican colleagues part of a corrupt Washington cartel. Cruz's allies say he's the only one who will stand up for conservatives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this helps Ted Cruz because it says what's wrong with Washington.
RAJU: Privately Cruz has done some damage control. Enlisting former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, a longtime Washington insider to help build relationships with the House and Senate leadership. Yet, even some of his allies think he should do more.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think Ted would be well served to reach out to his colleagues. I know he is to some at the end of the day the more support he gets from across the spectrum of the Republican Party the more viable alternative he becomes to Trump.
RAJU: Unpopularity has been something Cruz has struggled with. Even before his Washington days. In his book "A Time For Truth" Cruz writes that as a kid he had enough of being the unpopular nerd. Many Republicans now say, Cruz's tactics are the reason for his unpopularity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were called capitulators, surrenderers. We were told that we were (inaudible), we didn't measure up. We weren't sufficiently resolute. It's not way to make friends --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[12:30:04] RAJU: Even before his washington days. In his book "a time for truth" cruz writes that as a kid he had enough of being the unpopular nerd. Many Republicans now say, Cruz's tactics are the reason for his unpopularity.
REP. CHARLIE DENT (R) PENNSYLVANIA: We were called capitulators, surrenderers. We were told we were inferior or we didn't measure up, we were insufficiently resolute. That's not a way to make friends.
RAJU: Manu Raju, CNN Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: There's so much here to talk about it. And to do that now, we are joined with about Harlem College political science professor Jason Johnson. And the University of Virginia's Director of the Center for Politic, Larry Sabato. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining me. Larry, let me start with you. You know, Cruz continues to say that he is, you know, an outsider, a political outsider even though he's not really. But, I'm wondering if he gets elected how will he get anything done when it appears almost everyone in congress doesn't really like him?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UVA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, they'll all have to learn to work together. I guess that's the only thing you can say. You know, Martin, last year when you asked elected Republican leaders, people in higher office which candidates they did not want to be nominated, the two that led the list were Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Isn't it ironic that these are the two finalists in the Republican party? And it tells you what a tremendous distance there is ...
SAVIDGE: I'm not sure that's ironic. I think what that suggests is that the public has finally realized something that apparently those on Washington -- they don't like those of Washington. So maybe that's the lesson here. Jason, let me ask you this real quick, the whole :"Lucifer" comment from Boehner, that doesn't seem to square with other times he's been asked about Ted Cruz. Here's an example on him of on "Jay Leno" about two years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOEHNER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Ted Cruz used tome be my attorney a long time ago.
JAY LENO, FORMER HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Oh, is that right.
BOEHNER: But, he was a good guy.
LENO: Yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: So what do you think of this? Which is the Cruz here we're supposed to believe in, Jason?
JASON JOHNSON, PROFESSOROF POLITICAL SCIENCE, HIRAM COLLEGES: Martin, the most honest man in the world is a guy who's left. This is the real John Boehner. He can't stand Ted Cruz but he's not the only one, we've got Lindsey Graham. We've got people from the top to the bottom who said Ted Cruz is generally an awful guy that no one wants to work with. It's made it difficult for him to be seen in the campaign. It will make it difficult if he were to trick his way into being president of the United States. And shows once and for all is if we need a reminder personality matters when you running for president because you got to work with people and can't just be a dictator
SAVIDGE: I can't help but see how the Trump effect is impacting here. But, you know, Donald Trump has gotten away with rather loose comments. And that what appears that other Republicans have decided they can, as well.
Larry, let me ask you this, turning to Indiana, the primary three days from now, conservative talk radio hosts in Indiana are saying that they aren't going to give Ted Cruz any air time. How's that going to hurt him because you know, you remember how that worked out in Wisconsin. There the talk shows were right behind it.
SABATO: Yes, there really is another major difference between Wisconsin and Indiana. You don't have that unified talk radio contingent for Ted Cruz. And he depended on that in Wisconsin among other things. So, it's another reason why the Indiana battle is closer and why Trump is still in that race and may win it.
SAVIDGE: Jason, Ted Cruz has I guess looking to court female voters believing he will take advantage of Trump's controversies with women and the polling that has demonstrated he doesn't do well with women. Do you think that is a strategy that will help him win Indiana because that's, of course, what he has to do.
JOHNSON: No, I thought that picking Carly Fiorina when you're nowhere close to the nomination is ridiculous. I was waiting for Ted Cruz to say, and, yes, I'll be in the NFL draft too. You don't pick a V.P candidate when you're not even close to being the nominee and it looks like a stunt. And if there's one thing that midwestern voters don't like, voters in general don't like, stunts. Either win or die like a hero but don't fool people. Between Carly Fiorina and working with John Kasich this week I think Cruz has really hurt his integrity in the race.
SAVIDGE: Larry, do you think that as far as choosing Carley was brilliant or just desperation?
SABATO: Well, it was desperate. It was a hail Carly pass instead of a hail Mary pass, maybe it helps him a little bit because it did create some media attention and buzz but, you know, I don't think she has any deep roots in Indiana. Actually, she doesn't even help him in California where she ran for U.S. Senator and lost badly.
SAVIDGE: Hold on there, Larry. Because I want to -- what we're going to do now is now is sort of pivot to the general election and Hillary Clinton talking about Trump. Here's what she had to say to CNN's Jake tapper in this exclusive interview about how she'll deal with trump in the general election. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDTATE: I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak. I'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to provoke me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Treat him like a kid. That seems to be the way that Hillary is looking at Donald Trump. Is that a good strategy, Larry?
[12:35:04] SABATO: Well, she'll attempt to do it that way and, of course, people are interpreting that statement broadly. She has had that experience even at home. I don't think it'll work in a general election. It's not enough and she'll have to deal with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. SAVIDGE: Right, you can't just sort of downplay him and ignore him.
Jason, Indiana governor Mike Pence gave his endorsement to Ted Cruz. What do you think? Is that going to really help Ted Cruz in indiana?
JOHNSON: It was a fairly tepid endorsement or the sort of like, if you put a gun to the head and tie me to railroad tracks, So I like him but he also then praised Donald Trump for talking about the anger of working class voters. I don't think anything is going to help Ted Cruz in Indiana outside of just blood, sweat and tears. Get out there, use his organization and he's got to rally the other rally, the anti-Trump forces to say, look, Indiana is our last stop. If we don't win this state, Donald Trump is definitely going to be the nominee on the first ballot.
SAVIDGE: And Jason, real quick how about the endorsement of Bobby Knight? Do you think that helped Donald Trump? Is that far more important to an Indiana crowd?
JOHNSON: I think, you know, I don't think Indiana crowds are going to be that enthusiastic. Either they like Donald Trump or they don't. I certainly think that liberals will love the idea of Bobby Knight and his chair-throwing me being out there every single time they talk about Trump heading into the poll.
SAVIDGE: Could be a vice presidential candidate there, I smell. Larry Sabato. Jason Jonhnson, thanks for joining us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks Martin.
SAVIDGE: Russia putting the United States on edge again. These after a dangerous maneuver just feet above a U.S. Warship and another warplane, Pentagon's response to this provocative barrel roll in the sky. That will come up in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:40:28] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A mattress on a bike. That's how sleep star up Casper at Roll.
NEIL PARIKH, CO FOUNDER, CASPER: Our mission is to help the world sleep better. When you sleep better, you're life is better.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A The business sells only one type of mattress.
PARIKH: There are not many differences reason when you go to a mattress store you should be looking at 50 different options. They're not very many differences between them. The mattresses are made of memory foam and latex. Memory foam is incredibly supportive but tends to sleep really hot and feel like you're getting stuck in it. Adding latex keeps it hyper breathable but provides a fancy layer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ordering online and the bed arrive in a golf bag- sized box. Even by bike if you live in New York city.
PARIKH: Basically compress the mattress down, so it means ship the out via U.P.s.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Costumers can try the bed risk free for 100 days.
PARIKH: In two minutes in a mattress store you're never going to know if this is the product you want to spend your next ten years of your life on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The biggest obstacle the five Casper (01:25) state when they launched two years ago, keeping up with demands.
PARIKH: We sold about a million dollars worth of product in our first 28 days, that's what we projected we'd do in the first two years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now Casper also sells one style of pillows and sheets.
PARICK: It doesn't matter if you're 90 or 25, everybody has to sleep and everybody wants to sleep well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Russia is responding to accusations that one of its fighter jets barrel rolled over U.S. warplane.
The Russian defense ministry claims its jet only responded over the Baltic sea after the U.S. plane, it turns off it's off its transponder. However, U.S. Defense officials say its plane posed no threat and was flying over international waters when the Russian jet performed the dangerous maneuver.
The incident is just the latest in a series of provocations that have been threatening to escalate tensions between the U.S. and Russia. Barbara Starr reports.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Another dangerous military maneuver by the Russians. It happened Friday over the Baltic when an air force RC135 aircraft, a reconnaissance aircraft was flying in international airspace over the Baltic. Suddenly a Russian SU-27 fighter came up alongside within 25 feet of the American aircraft and did a barrel roll maneuver. That means it came up over the side, inverted, flew over the top of the American aircraft, came back down the other side at close range at high speed.
This is one of the most dangerous unsafe maneuvers that can happen according to the Pentagon and actually it was the second barrel roll, this month by the Russians. There was also another incident when the Russians flew very close to a U.S.warship in in that region. The question now is what are the Russians really up to? Is this happening under direct orders from Moscow or happening because Russian pilots are out hot dogging.
For the U.S., it doesn't really matter. The Pentagon making very clear it wants the Russian military to stop these unsafe dangerous maneuvers.
Barbara Starr, CNN, The Pentagon. SAVIDGE: Thank you, Barbara.
Monday if you didn't know this marks five years since President Barack Obama gave the order to kill the most wanted man in the world and for the first time in an exclusive interview with CNN's National Security Analyst, Peter Bergen, the president speaks from the situation room about the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. The mastermind behind the September 11th attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: After the discussions with the principals, it was clear to me that this was going to be our best chance to get bin Laden. That if, in fact, we did not take the action that he might slip away and might be years before he resurfaced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: You don't want to miss the Anderson Cooper 360 special "WE GOT HIM," President Obama, bin Laden and the future of the war on terror. It airs right here on CNN that would Monday night 8:00 Eastern Time.
Comedian Will Ferrell now is reportedly backing out of plans to play Ronald Reagan in a movie. The former president's daughter said it made fun of her father's Alzheimer's. We'll have the details just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: I'm in excellent health. Other people may drop like flies in this administration. But I'm going to be around for a long time.
On the job, making the tough decisions, 24/7, that's 24 hours a week, seven months a year. You can count on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: That's Will Ferrell's SNL impersonation of former president George W. Bush back in 2001. But a lot people weren't laughing at the comedian's plans to portray another president in an upcoming comedy.
And now he's reportedly doing a 180 on the project. Ferrell was set to play Ronald Reagan suffering from dementia during his second term in office.
The plot revolved around the White House intern tasked with convincing Reagan that he's an actor playing the president in a film.
Reagan's children weren't amused. His daughter Patty Davis posed an open letter to Ferrell on a website saying in part "Alzheimer's doesn't care if you are president of the United States or a dockworker. It steals what is most precious to a human being." And his son Michael Reagan tweeted, "Alzheimer's is not a comedy to the 5 million people who are suffering with the disease. It first robs you of your mind and then it kills you."
[12:50:02] Frank Pallotta is a media reporter for CNN Money and he's been covering the story.
And first of all, Frank, tell us, you know, what you're learning about Ferrell's decision not to do this movie.
FRANK PALLOTTA, CNN MONEY MEDIA REPORTER: Well on Friday reports came out that Will Ferrell had had a bit of a change of heart when it came to claim the role. This followed that all that backlash that you just mentioned.
And this is led to a rep and Ferrell's people coming forward and saying that this was just one of many scripts that Will Ferrell comes attached to that he comes across and that it was not ever meant to be a comedy that would mock this terrible disease.
And since then the actor has kind of continually just stepped away from it.
SAVIDGE: You know, I can't imagine that anybody thought this really was a good idea or would be funny to the many millions of families who suffer and I'm wondering just who presented this? Do we know and how seriously was it considered even though, as you say, you know, Ferrell's now downplaying it.
PALLOTTA: Right, it was a script that has circulated in Hollywood for a long time. It's known as a blacklist script which comes with a negative connotation but it's actually a positive one.
It's one of the scripts that Hollywood finds to be very interesting and that has been not put into production. It actually had some live readings that were done in the city. And so people have presented the script and eventually got to Ferrell who got it via his production company Gary Sanchez Productions and that when the news came that he was possibly going to be attached and produce the script into a movie.
SAVIDGE: Well, if Ferrell doesn't do it does that mean the script still exists, there weren't somebody else could do it?
PALLOTTA: Potentially the script is still out there. It doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be done, obviously not by Ferrell. But doesn't mean the script disappears. The other thing that must be realized here, is this wasn't a film yet. It wasn't in production, it was a script that he took up via his production company and that he was attached to.
So no one really knows what happens. But it's very hard at least in my opinion to see this becoming something that this ultimately becomes a film after the huge, huge backlash over it.
SAVIDGE: Yeah. And I think deservedly so. All right, Frank Pallotta, thank you very much for joining us this morning. PALLOTTA: Thank you.
SAVIDGE: We are now just hours away from the White House correspondents' dinner. Will President Obama turn his comedic guns on Donald Trump again? Or will he have a new target?
What we know about tonight's so-called nerd prom. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:56:10] SAVIDGE: We are just a few hours away from one of Washington's most celebrated events of the year, the Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, the night when Hollywood meets politics.
Will Smith, Kerry Washington and Kendall Jenner are just a few of the celebrities who have reportedly scored a ticket but all eyes are sure to be on the president because it is his last time to be comedian-in- chief. And as this next clip shows, he's done a pretty good job through the years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I want to thank our host for the evening, the Chicago girl, the incredibly talented Cecily Strong. On "Saturday Night Live" Cecily impersonates CNN Anchor Brooke Baldwin which is surprising because usually the only people impersonating journalists on CNN are journalists on CNN.
About it we got elected officials throwing snowballs in the senate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, OK, I think they got it bro.
OBAMA: It is crazy. What about our kids? What kind of stupid short- sighted irresponsible ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa, whoa. whoa.
OBAMA: I am determined to make the most of every moment I have left.
My advisers asked me, Mr. President, do you have a bucket list? And I said, well, I have something that rhymes with bucket list.
Take executive action on immigration, bucket.
And my new attitude is paying off. Look at my Cuba policy. The Castro brothers are here tonight. Welcome to America, amigos.
Soon the first presidential contest will take place and I for one cannot wait to see who the Koch brothers pick. It's exciting.
Ted Cruz said that denying the existence of climate change made him like Galileo. Now, that's not really an apt comparison. Galileo believed the earth revolves around the sun. Ted Cruz believes the earth revolves around Ted Cruz and Donald Trump is here. Still.
It's almost insulting to the candidates. The Kock brothers think they need to spend a billion dollars to get folks to like one of these people. It's got to hurt their feelings a little bit. And, look, I know, I raised a lot of money too but in all fairness my middle name is Hussein.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: I sense another career after the White House.
So how will this year stack up? It's only one way to find out. You have to watch tonight's coverage of the White House president-- Correspondents' rather dinner right here on CNN. That will start at 7:00 eastern time.
And we have much more just ahead in the NEWSROOM and of course it all starts now.
Hello everyone. Thanks for joining me. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredricka Whitfield.
Donald Trump is en route to Indiana after responding to the angry protests that greeted him yesterday in California. In a tweet today he said, "The protesters in California were thugs and criminals. Many are professionals. They should be dealt with strongly by law enforcement."
That angry throng of protesters outside of the GOP State Convention got so bad that Trump's motorcade had to park on a nearby road and he was forced to sneak in via the back entrance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, boy, I felt like I was crossing the border actually, you know, it's true. I was crossing the border. But I got here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[13:00:07] SAVIDGE: CNN's Jason Carroll was at that location at the Trump protest. And he joins us now. Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you Martin.
