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John Kasich Hold Rally in San Jose, California; Prince's Death and Its Possible Relation to Painkillers Examined; Russian Aircraft Performs Dangerous Maneuver Near U.S. Air Force Plane over Baltic Sea. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 30, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, thanks for joining me. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredricka Whitfield. Take a live look now from San Jose, call, where Ohio Governor John Kasich is set to hold a town hall here just about any minute. We will take you there as soon as it begins.

When you can do the math you can see that Kasich with one win so far in his home state of Ohio really has no chance of getting the Republican party's nomination before the convention this summer. But he is vowing to stay in the race hoping to prevent Trump from collecting enough delegates and force a contested convention this summer.

Last night Kasich spoke about his controversial alliance with Ted Cruz, and his strategy for winning the nomination on CNN's "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R_OH) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is all about resources. You allocate your resources based on where you think you can do bets. And I have been outspent in this campaign by 50 to one by virtually everybody, and we're still standing.

And I think we did the right thing for ourselves. And today I'm in California, yesterday I was in Oregon. And I think we are most likely headed to an open convention, and when we get there, the day Donald Trump gets there will be his best day, and then from there he is going to decline because he can't win in the fall.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Now, he of course today has noted he crossed a key threshold, right. He's got more than 1,000 delegates, 1,002 to be exact at this moment. He says this race is over if he wins Indiana, and certainly when it gets to either getting to that magic number or so darn close to it that it is hard for anybody else to make a strong case, he has a point. Is he right, if he wins Indiana, it is over?

KASICH: No, I don't think it's over if he wins Indiana. The fact is that he better come at exactly the right number, because if he doesn't, I believe that in the second ballot he will decline.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SAVIDGE: We want to go now to CNN's Jason Carroll. He is in California where John Kasich and Ted Cruz are stumping for votes. This odd alliance, do you think it's going to be impactful in trying to defeat Donald Trump?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that certainly there are a number of people who are thinking no one at this point can beat Donald Trump. And Trump has made it very clear, he made it very clear here yesterday, Martin, to the crowd who showed up here at the state GOP convention, he does not believe there is going to a second ballot. He intends to win on the first ballot come this summer.

You know, also in terms of the reaching out to the crowd here, you know, he did try to talk about unity. He talked about friendship and solidarity. He knows that he needs to win over some who are going to be in this room later on today. Ted Cruz for his part, this is friendly territory. A number of GOP insiders attend this type of state convention. So this is friendly territory for him, expect a warm reception for Ted Cruz when he shows up later on.

In terms of what he has to do, and there's a lot, he has got to have a strong showing in Indiana, and by strong showing I mean he has got to win. If he does not win Indiana and Trump takes Indiana, that just gives him even more momentum heading into the June 7, the primary here. As you know, he is leading not only in the polls here in California, leading in the polls in Indiana as well.

So even though you have folks like John Kasich who got up here today and spoke earlier on CNN and talked about the fact that he believes that Donald Trump is not someone who can unite the party, somebody who is dividing the party, evidence of that is what we saw outside, he says, with those protesters demonstrating outside.

Even with all of that, Trump once again leading in the polls in Indiana, leading the polls here in California, Trump telling his supporters in Indiana, if we can win there, this race is basically over, Martin.

SAVIDGE: And I would say he is probably very accurate in that portrayal because clearly California does not seem like a Ted Cruz state.

CARROLL: No. You know, it does not. Remember, also in some ways when you are talking about a statewide election that Ted Cruz is very conservative. But I will tell you what, when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration, a divisive issue, a sensitive issue here, there are a number of people, and once again we saw evidence of that with some of the demonstrators outside, a number of people here who have strong anti-Trump feelings especially on the issue of the illegal immigration.

But having said that, there are just as many people who support Donald Trump for his strong stance on illegal immigration and believe that Donald Trump more than Ted Cruz, more than John Kasich, is the person who can beat Hillary Clinton in a general election.

SAVIDGE: Jason Carroll, we appreciate the insights greatly. Thank you.

We are going to talk more about the Kasich-Cruz alliance and their hopes for a contested convention. Joining me now Julian Zelizer, and he is a CNN contributor and historian and a professor at Princeton University. And Julian, let me start off by asking is this alliance between Cruz and Kasich, as strange as it may seem, a winning idea or just a desperate gamble?

[14:05:00] JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: I think it's a gamble. We'll see how desperate it is. One of the things we have seen is that it undercuts the support for each candidate in certain ways, meaning by allying with Ted Cruz, Kasich looks like he is not as moderate as he is arguing. And similarly for Ted Cruz, he seems to be tied in with the ultimate establishment figure. So I am not sure this will have the effect they are hoping for. And I think it is true that Donald Trump keeps getting closer to the number he needs to lock this up.

SAVIDGE: And if you don't stop him, and I mean the stop Trump group, if the they don't stop him in Indiana, that is essentially it as far as any other state to try to prove really blocking him?

ZELIZER: Yes. I mean, the only reason that you don't want to predict finality with the Donald Trump candidacy is because you never know what is going to be happening next. So I think everybody is uneasy. But given the poll numbers in California and the kind of state it is, it is very hard for Cruz to do well even with this alliance. So if he can't turn this around in Indiana and somehow set the conditions for the brokered convention, I think it is going to be very hard for Cruz in the remaining primaries to make a viable challenge.

SAVIDGE: So I like what you said it's unpredictable. Clearly this is why Americans are finding this political season so remarkable and fascinating. What else do you think could happen with Donald Trump? You sort of implied something more spectacular than what we have already seen.

ZELIZER: Well, I just mean you never know what he is going to say. We have had many rallies which take on images that certainly make people uncomfortable with violence and more incidents like that that might undermine support. But at the point, it is still hard to image.

Look, this is part of why Kasich stays in this and Cruz as well. That level of unpredictability in their minds creates possibility for a brokered convention or for things to turn very dramatically over the course of a month.

SAVIDGE: All right, let me interrupt you, Julian, just because we want to go to John Kasich who has begun speaking. Let's listen for a moment.

KASICH: How about rich?

(LAUGHTER)

KASICH: Would you settle for that? Thank you all for coming. Just a little bit about me, and then I'd

like to go to the questions, and then I am going to be flying home to Ohio today. And so, anyway, I grew up in a little town outside of Pittsburgh. I stayed in San Jose a bunch of times. I used to come out here for nine or ten years, and used to fly into the airport when it was really great. And now you think it is great, and I think it is not what it used to be, which was so easy, right? It was so much fun to come here. You walked off of the plane and you have -- and I have not flown in here for a while, do they have the jet bridges now? Because remember, you used to walk off of the plane, it is so great. Why did you screw this thing up and spend all of that money?

But anyway, I think San Jose from what I can tell is sort of like a town where I grew up. You know, good neighborhoods, is that right, people kind of hanging together and all that. So my father was a mailman, and carried mail on his back. My grandfather was a coal miner, a very tough life, and in fact it was really tough. He'd go down in the mine and he'd come up, and they would not pay him for what he thought he was supposed to get. And he had eight kids. And my father, of course, was one of them. And he died of black lung. And as he was dying he was losing the eyesight, and probably didn't get a lot of justice --

SAVIDGE: We are listening live to Ohio Governor John Kasich there as he begins to speak to a crowd there in California. As he usually does, he starts telling his personal life story there growing up. Julian, you still with me, or have we lost you?

ZELIZER: Yes, I'm here.

SAVIDGE: I was just wondering, do you think this kind of talk connects with that kind of California crowd?

ZELIZER: It does. To some extent his story is the heart of his candidacy and he tries to present himself as someone who you could be sympathetic with. The problem is he is not winning. So he is the most electable candidate, he says, and yet he has only won in Ohio. So the talk might resonate, but it's not drawing votes at this point. And I think that is the reality that his campaign needs to face.

SAVIDGE: Yes, Trump definitely would like him to fact that reality, too. Julian Zelizer, thank you very much for joining us.

Up next, dozens of 911 logs are released, and there are some powerful new insight as to whether prescription pills played into the death of Prince. After the break, the latest in the investigation with Dr. Drew.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:13:24] SAVIDGE: Police have released dozens of 911 calls made from Prince's Paisley Park estate over the past five years. They include everything from suspicious activity to harassing phone calls. But four were for medical issues, including the one made the day Prince was found dead. We're also learning powerful prescription painkillers were found on

Prince's body and in his home. But investigators have not been able to find a valid prescription for the drugs, which sets up our next conversation. Let's bring in Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is an addiction specialist. Andrew, thank you very for joining us. At this time, officials are not saying, and I need to stress it, not saying that Prince was an addict or releasing the cause of death, just that the drugs were found. So can you give us an idea of, first of all, what kind of effect pain killers have on the body?

DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST, HLN'S "DR. DREW": Well, none actually. One of the great advances in medical science was the advent of the opioid and the opioids. For the first time in medical history pain could be controlled without any adverse effect on the body. Unfortunately, it can trigger a disease we know as addiction and a little talked about phenomenon called hyperalgesia, whereby the pain can actually be intensified you're trying to treat when people are on opiates. But the opioids and opiates themselves do not hurt the body. They have ancillary complications.

Now, you mentioned that these are powerful opiates. Yes, they are, but 90 percent of the opiates prescribed on earth are prescribed in this country. The medicine that's being talked about, Percocet, between 1991 and 2013, 81 percent of the Percocet prescribed on the planet, prescribed in this country. We are woefully, woefully sort of cavalier with how we prescribe these medications.

[14:15:13] And the real problem, Martin, it is not the opiate, itself, though it does cause all kinds of difficulties. And again, you mentioned Prince not being an addict. I completely agree with that. I see no evidence of the long-term behavioral struggles associated with addiction. We see a recent crisis. What I was getting to is the real problem with the opiate and opioid is when you add a Benzodiazepine, or a sleeping medication, that combination is quickly and readily lethal.

SAVIDGE: So you're not saying, or do you know if something like that happen potentially in this case?

PINSKY: Well, let's think about it. We hear that there was ongoing use of opiate and opioids. We hear there was more pain, again the hyperalgesia probably. Maybe he was taking more over time. We also heard that he had not slept for 154 hours and worked during that whole time. When you hear that with somebody on opiates, you think, wow, they're probably trying to come off of the medication. That's why they don't sleep. But then doctors sometimes will add in a sleeping medication. The patient takes more opiate, that is what I'm fearful might have happened here.

I get more of the sense that there is sort of -- my clinical hunch after 30 years of working with this, is that there is some sort of underlying medical issue that caused him to interact frequently with the medical system. The pain issue came late. My fear is the meds and the prescription are what took him. If a young healthy adult dies in the United States, that is what they are most likely to die of. SAVIDGE: Let me ask you this, because the CDC, and I was floored by

this figure, says that 2014 was the highest year on record for drug overdoses in this country. I'm wondering --

PINSKY: Yes.

SAVIDGE: -- this is clearly a problem that many Americans don't recognize or understand.

PINSKY: I have been chanting about this for almost, well, certainly five years on the HLN on my program there. By the way, we're at a new time at 7:00, so please check us out. We are talking about the Prince story all of the time. But I have been chanting about this. And it takes tragedies like this I guess to get people's attention.

That's right. And everyone keeps thinking when you hear drug overdose is, a, illicit drug. No. It's prescription drugs the vast majority of times. And, b, it is with a valid prescription often taken as prescribed. So it is a very profound health problem in this country.

SAVIDGE: Do you think it is an issue received as much attention as it should?

PINSKY: No.

SAVIDGE: DO you think we clearly in the dark about this?

PINSKY: Well, look at any celebrity that has died in the last seven years. It's prescription medication always. They are just reflecting what is going on in America. The young person dies, that is what they died of. If an addict dies, a full-blown addict, somebody who has been struggling for years with this condition, guess what? They die when they get their hands on a prescription med. These are dangerous combinations and we are utterly too cavalier with how we prescribe them.

SAVIDGE: And probably in just about everybody's medicine cabinet right now.

PINSKY: And your kids see that and your kids see that you treat it vey casually, and the doctors treat it very casually. And it's as prescribed. Again, I cannot stress enough, why is it the case that 90 percent of the painkillers prescribed on the globe are prescribed in this country. Do we have more pain? Are we more enlightened with how we approach pain? No. We have got to change the culture.

SAVIDGE: Dr. Drew Pinsky, thank you very much for joining us. We are back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:22:23] SAVIDGE: Russia is responding to accusations that one of the fighter jets barrel rolled over a U.S. warplane. The Russian defense ministry claims its jet only responded over the Baltic Sea after the U.S. plane turned off its transponder. However, U.S. defense officials say its plane posed no threat and was flying over international waters. CNN's Barbara Starr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Another dangerous military maneuver by the Russians. It happened Friday over the Baltic when an Ari Force RC-135 aircraft, a reconnaissance aircraft, was flying in international airspace over to 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 Russian flew very close to U.S. warship in that region. The question now is what are the Russians really up to? Is all of this happening under direct orders from Moscow or is it happening because the Russian pilots are out there hot-dogging? For the U.S. it does not really matter, the Pentagon is making clear that it wants the Russian military to stop these unsafe, dangerous maneuvers.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: In other news, ISIS is claiming responsibility for a deadly suicide attack at a busy marketplace near Baghdad. Police say the bomb went off in a car that was parked earlier today, targeting a group of Shias that were shopping for meat and produce. At least 24 people were killed in that bombing, 38 others were injured.

Monday marks five years since Usama bin Laden was killed. In an exclusive interview with CNN's Peter Bergen, the president speaks from the Situation Room about the operation that led to the death of Usama bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After the discussions with the principals, it was clear to me that this is 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 it might be years before he resurfaced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Watch the "Anderson Cooper 360" special "We Got Him, President Obama, Bin Laden, and the Future of the War on Terror." That will be Monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:29:05] SAVIDGE: It is one of Washington's most celebrated events of the year, and it is just a few hours away from beginning right here on CNN. We are talking about the annual White House Correspondents dinner, kind of a celebrity roast only D.C. style. And this year Larry Wilmore is at the helm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY WILMORE, COMEDIAN: There is a couple of ways you have to prepare. You have to prepare something that you think is funny and entertaining, right. But you also have to realize that you are following a very funny president who has got jokes, too. And so you have to be aware that I want to make sure that I'm not going to do something he might do. So there is a double thing going on there, very challenging.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will be president Obama's last White House Correspondents Association dinner. Are you planning on taking him on at all, are you nervous at all about making fun of him?

WILMORE: No. There is no time to sic the IRS on me, man. We are past tax day, Mr. President. You don't think that he is watching this, do you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:30:01] SAVIDGE: CNN's coverage of the White House Correspondents dinner begins tonight at 7:00. That is red carpet music.