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U.S. Navy Helps in Recovery of Downed Airliner; The Search for EgyptAir's Black Boxes; Trump Address NRA Convention on Guns. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 20, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] LT. COMM. BRIAN BLASHKE, MISSION COMMANDER, SIXTH FLEET, U.S. NAVY (voice-over): The P-3 Orion is one of the Navy's long range maritime patrol aircraft. It has sensors that allow us to be effective a search-and-rescue. We deploy the sensors on the aircraft such as radar and high definition cameras as well as visual observers to search the ocean for indications of a crash site or anything associated with a missing aircraft.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So you were part of the first flight. Tell me how it went. What did you see, if anything?

BLASHKE: Well, we launched out of naval air station in the middle of the afternoon. Hours to transit out to begin our search in the middle Mediterranean. And we observed a good search conditions out there with decent visibility and fairly calm seas. We spent just under six hours out in the area searching working with the Hellenic armed forces who were coordinating the rescue efforts when we were out our search did not turn up anything associated with the missing aircraft.

BALDWIN: How -- explain to me how it is that you all are imagine just playing a role and then communicating to whoever may be, you know, on the water, on the sea once you do spot something. Explain that process to me.

BLASHKE: OK. I think your question is, if we did something, how would that play out?

BALDWIN: Correct. Yes, sir.

BLASHKE: OK. In our case, we are cutting the aerial search. Our first aircraft -- and we have aircraft out there currently. The Hellenic armed forces there is a joint rescue operation center operating out of Greece, we were working through them. In the event we would have discovered something or perhaps noticed something that required further investigation we would have passed that report through the Hellenic armed forces that g the efforts and then they would have used appropriate resources to make a further investigation of that object.

BALDWIN: You know, I was talking to an oceanographer commander on my show yesterday. She is saying there is a lot of debris in this part of the sea. In general, there is a lot of traffic. How are you supposed to know what could be a piece this particular airplane versus something totally unrelated? BLASHKE: Well, that's true. There's -- having spent several years

flying over the ocean, and there is debris throughout the ocean, right from passing surface ships and things like that. You have to just rely on some good judgment and common sense, and you have to kind of understand what you are looking for. In this case, something that could have been associated with a missing aircraft. We're all familiar with components that make up an airplane or the things carried inside of an airplane. So if we identify something that is worth looking at we can use some of our sensors on board to look a little closer and make an informed decision and go from there.

BALDWIN: Hopefully, you are able to see something and help, you know, the search effort, and ultimately help some of these families find answers.

Lieutenant Commander Brian Blashke, from the Sixth Fleet from the U.S. Navy. The Navy has been so good to our show. I truly appreciate you hopping on the phone, sir.

Thank you so much.

BLASHKE: It's my pleasure.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

We will get you back to, of course, this live breaking news coverage of the EgyptAir flight.

Also, we're watching and waiting to hear from the presumed Republican nominee in the race here to become the next president of the United States. Watching for Donald Trump to stand behind that podium in Louisville, Kentucky at the NRA conference.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:38:01] BALDWIN: We're told the weather was clear when EgyptAir flight 804 lunged into the Mediterranean Sea. Now painstaking efforts are being put into finding the wreckage and the black boxes. It's said it disappeared 180 miles north of Alexandria.

Tom Foreman joins us now with a visual look at the plane's trajectory and the obstacles searchers are facing -- Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, the flight path was pretty clear. We seem to know what happen along the way. The challenge is how you find it. The Mediterranean Sea is largely enclosed. It doesn't behave quite like oceans but it still brings challenges. The debris was found about 180 miles north of Alexandria. The Mediterranean Sea overall afternoons out to be a little bit less than a mile deep in many places. That's a challenging environment.

Look at what we are talking about here. The actual sea depth in this case, over here you are going to be a little bit less than a mile in the average sea depth. Over here, though, where we are looking is much, much deeper. And this is a big area we are talking about as well. Right now they are talking about a circle with a 40 mile radius for about 5,000 square miles to search out there. That's a pretty big area. And they are trying to limit where they are -- or grid off where they are finding these various pieces. As I mentioned, some body parts, some parts of the plane, some seats.

And of course, one of the things they really want to find are big parts of the plane that might contain the flight data recorder and the voice recorder. For that, we have people out there from the French, from the Greeks, and the Egyptians and the United States.

The United States has sent in several of these submarine hunter planes that are good at targeting things under the water. Again, this is very far down here. Even if you have things to guide you for example, the oil slick they think is out here. This is 20 miles from the last known position. You get an idea; there is a lot of water out there, even with clues -- Brooke?

[14:40:09] BALDWIN: Tom Foreman, thank you so much.

Perfectly teed up my next conversation.

Let me bring in two guests, Tim Taylor, a sea operations and submersibles specialist, president and CEO of Tiburon Subsea; and also with us, Paul Ginsberg, a forensic audio expert and a specialist in forensic evidence.

Gentlemen, Tom Foreman hit on a couple of issues.

Paul, let me begin with you.

I know we talked about this before, sadly in other incidents. When we talk about the flight data recorder and the voice recorder, what are those? What can be heard when they find them?

PAUL GINSBERG, AUDIO EXPERT & FORENSIC EVIDENCE EXPERT: These are two devices that are meant to store and record all the voice that happens in the cockpit. The pilot, the copilot, the two-way radio, and also there is a cockpit area mic that picks up any sounds in the cockpit, including alerts, alarms, engine sounds from outside, anything that would alert us to a problem. And the other one is flight data recorder that records hundreds of different parts of the plane. That is different subsystems, pressures, voltages, pneumatics, everything. Just to be able to put together the puzzle and tell us exactly what happened at the very final stage where it ended.

BALDWIN: Let me just hit pause on this conversation.

We've just learned that the NRA has now officially endorsed Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. Here he is. Obviously, front and center in Louisville, Kentucky, on the stage here at this NRA conference, giving the thumbs-up. Let's listen in.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Thank you very much. This is amazing. I did not know that. I knew I was doing well. But I did not know that. And I've been a member for a long time. And my boys are members. And they are much better am. I tell you, they know more about guns -- there might be two or three people in this room, but believe it or not, not many. To get the endorsement, believe me s a fantastic honor.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I just said to Wayne, and I just said to Chris, I will not let you down. Remember that. I will not let you down.

And you know, I wrote a few remarks and I'm actually going to read them because we go into a little detail. Hat you Hillary Clinton -- you know I call her Crooked Hillary because all you have to do is read any newspaper you want. But Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment. We are not talking about change it. She wants to abolish the Second Amendment. We're not going to let that happen. I can tell you. That we're going to preserve it. We're going to cherish it. We're going to take care of it. OK? They keep chipping away. They talk about the magazines, they talk about the bullets. We're going to take care of it.

I give you some more detailed remarks. I feel really happy with what's going on. You know, the FOX poll came out three days ago. In the FOX poll I'm leading Hillary 41-44.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: And last night, Rasmussen, which is a highly respected poll, came out. Trump, 42. Crooked Hillary Clinton, 37.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: So we're doing well. Now with all that, we have a long way to go. But if you get every one of your friends to go vote -- because there is a big difference. You know, in a lot of things there is a difference. Some are subtle. Some are big.

By the way, we're in Kentucky. We're going to put the miners to work. Before I forget about that.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: We are going to put the miners -- we just left. And I also won Kentucky. So I love Kentucky. I used to work in Cincinnati. For two summers, I worked in Cincinnati doing a job with my father. And I loved -- I loved Cincinnati. And I'd come over the line and I would he be in Kentucky. You wouldn't -- you would be surprised how much I know about Kentucky. But it's an amazing place.

But I said when I won New York -- because we won New York in a landslide, and then Pennsylvania and Maryland. And we won everything. We are winning everything. We won Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island. And then we went to West Virginia. And boy, did I win. Did we do well in West Virginia? Wow!

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But all land slides. We won -- in all of the states I mentioned and more, every single county, in every single state. That called a victory. And we won by massive percentages, in the 60s, and some in the 70s. Then of course, we went to Indiana.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: As you know, that was going to be the fire wall for the other side and it turn out to be a massive victory for us again.

It didn't hurt that Bobby Knight came out and said I want Trump to win. That didn't hurt.

(CHEERING)

[14:45:04] TRUMP: If you are in Indiana, and Bobby Knight endorses you, I guess that's about as good as it gets.

So I just want to say that of I've been watching what's going on. And I've been looking at airplanes getting blown up in the air, and lots of bad things happening. It's just not the same. And we're going to bring it back. And we're going to bring it back to a real place, where we don't have to be so frightened, where we don't have to be afraid. And you know what's happening in the schools, and you know what's happening everywhere. We're going to bring it back. And you folks are going to be so happy. And you are going to be so proud of your country again. Just remember.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Bernie Sanders, who I'm sure you all love, he did say one thing that was very interesting. He said that Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be the president of the United States.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And he said that -- and it's just -- you know, one of those things, he said she suffers from bad judgment. And see does. You look at so many of her decisions have been bad. So I think we're going to do really, really well. And I look forward to it.

I actually look very forward to the debates. I have loved the debates. I don't know. I have never debated before. All of a sudden, I have all these debates. That was a big question mark in my mind. How will I do in debates? I'm debating people that were on their national debating teams, and all of these top debaters. But they never had people interrupting them every other word that say, you are a liar, you are a liar. They're trying to speak and they can't speak. You would have done the same. I know a lot of the audience. You would have done the same.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: So I just want to give this -- it's so important to me. I wrote it down. Again, my sons have been member of the NRA for many, many years. And they are incredible. They have so many rifles and so many guns, sometimes I even get a little bit concerned. I say that's a lot. OK? But I will tell you, they are -- they know so much about it. Really, they are surrogates. They go around and speak. And every time they speak to a gun organization or a club, people call me and they say, your boys are great boys and, boy, do they know their business. So it's one of those things he way we want it.

And I mention so often we talk about Paris or we talk about San Bernardino. And nobody had guns. You know, Paris probably is probably in the world the toughest place to have a gun. The toughest. France, generally, but Paris in particular. When these thugs walked in -- thugs -- the press used to call them master mind. I said that's why people are joining, they are coming in. Not mastermind. Thugs. In fact, I call him the man with the filthy cap. Remember, the white cap and it was filthy. This was the mastermind.

And actually, the press has stopped using that term. They are among the most dishonest I've ever met. But they stopped using the term mastermind. They use that term and then wonder why our youth is going and fighting for ISIS. They don't even know what they're fighting for. But I think it's gotten better from that standpoint.

If you look at Paris, 130 people killed, hundreds of people still in the hospital. Just horribly wounded, can never be the same. Horribly wounded. And these guys came in, boom, boom. You, over here, boom. And they just stood there and just shot everybody. No guns on the other side, folk. If you would have had guns on the other side -- if I took a couple of these folks in here, some especially wearing the red caps, make America great again --

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: -- I promise there wouldn't have been 130 people killed and hundreds of people lying in the hospital to this day. It might not have happened. Because if they knew there were guns in the room, it might not have happened. But if it did, you would have had bullets going in the opposite direction. And believe me, the carnage would not have been the same by any stretch of the imagination.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I tell -- thank you. I tell the same story on San Bernardino. Here's two people. I guess she radicalized him. Who knows? It's a mess. We're in a mess, folks, a mess. Radical Islamic terrorism. We have a president doesn't mention the words. Doesn't want to talk about it. If you don't want to talk about it, you are never going to solve a very big problem. And we're talking a worldwide problem. We're not talking here. We're not talking Kentucky. We're talking all over the world this is a problem, and we have a president doesn't want to mention the name. You have San Bernardino. 14 people. They worked with these two. They worked with them. They gave them a baby shower. They had a baby. The people they worked with gave them a baby shower. They walked in, no guns on the other side. They had the guns. And they killed 14 people. Many wounded. Many in the hospital to this day. But they wounded many. But they killed 14 of their coworkers. And the coworkers thought they were friends. So there is something going on.

[14:50:09] Now, I tell you, again, same story, if we had guns on the other side, it wouldn't have been that way. I would have -- boom. If we had guns on the other side, it wouldn't have been that way.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And then you have the gun-free zones, the gun-free zones. That's real. We had a case -- you know about a year and a half ago, it was the first I really heard of this. And where you had the five military people -- great people. One was a master marksman, a master with anything he touched having to do with guns, weapons. Anything he touched. And they were told, this is -- this is on a military base. On a military base. You have got to put your guns away. Put your guns -- these are soldiers, people representing us. These are top of the line. These were five great brave incredible soldiers. Put your guns away. So their guns are locked up, put in a different area of the place. And this whack-job walks in and starts shooting and killed all five of them. Gun-free zones. We are getting rid of gun-free zones. OK? I can tell you.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We're getting rid of them.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. That wasn't part of my speech. I must be honest with you. I don't know. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't read you what I have here. But in fact, if I would have known teleprompters, I would have used them. I have started to use them a little bit. They are not bad. You never get yourself in trouble when you use them.

(LAUGHTER)

The problem is it's too easy. We have a president who uses teleprompters. It's too easy. We should have non-teleprompter speeches only when you are running for president. You find out about people. The other way, you don't find out about anybody.

So, the Second Amendment is under a threat like never before. Crooked Hillary Clinton is the most anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment candidate ever to run for office. And as I said before, she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She wants to take your guns away. She wants to abolish it. Just remember that.

The NRA, and the late hero, he was a great guy, Charleston Heston, who many of you knew.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: I met him a few times. He was an incredible guy. Did battle with the Clintons to protect our Second Amendment. The NRA has led the fight time and time again to protect our fundamental freedoms. This is an amazing group.

I tell you, Chris and Wayne, and all of the people -- and I've gotten to know a lot of -- these are incredible people. And they really believe. This isn't like a job. They really, really believe. And we're all lucky to have people like that. I will tell you. Really lucky.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Of course, if they didn't endorse me, maybe I wouldn't say that. I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

I would.

Hillary Clinton wants to reverse the Supreme Court decision, D.C. versus Heller, upholding the right to keep and bear arms. Hillary said, the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment. That's bad. That's like what she said about the miners. We're going to put the miners and the mines out of business. Then she goes -- right? Then she goes -- oh, boy, I tell you, West Virginia, how were they? I hate to say I won Kentucky, but I won West Virginia by even more. I really -- of course, she made that statement after I had already won Kentucky. We're going to win them all. We're going to win them all.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: If Hillary gets to appoint her judges -- and this is really important. Look, defense is number one. We have to protect our country. Economy is important -- everything is important, but without defense we don't have a country. Our military, it's being decapitated. What they are doing to our military is incredible. I saw over the weekend a documentary on our -- you know, on our great airmen. And these are people that are flying our jets. And they are running out of parts for our fighter jets. And these are fighter pilots. These are incredible men. They are going to junk yards -- plane grave yards where the planes are, grave yards for the old planes, and they are taking parts off -- they are cannibalizing. They are taking parts off the planes and putting them onto the jets. And I'm saying, is this the United States? Why don't we have new equipment? A man got up, great guy, and he looked as good or better than Tom

Cruise. You know what I'm talking about, because that was a great movie.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: He said, I've been in this for 20 years. It used to be so incredible. Now it's like a different world. The equipment, the way it's maintained, everything. It's like a different world.

[14:55:17] And I just have to say, just to interrupt what I'm going to be talking about, I have to say, we're going to make our military bigger and better and stronger than ever before. And nobody -- nobody is going to push us around. Nobody.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Nobody.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you. And by the way, as part of that, we are going to take care of our great veterans. And I have to tell you, the proper way. The proper way.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

If Hillary gets to appoint her judges -- you know, one of the biggest and most important reasons to win this time -- it's very unusual. Sometimes you get no judges to appoint. Sometimes you go for years and there is no judges. Probably, there will be a minimum -- you have Scalia, who was one of the greats, well, his position is up. He was one of the great. You have Scalia. There's one before you start. Assuming, and I'm sure that Mitch and the guys are going to be able to hold out. And I have no doubt about it because we don't want anybody taking that slot. But you have Scalia, and you will probably have three, it could be four, and it can even be five judges. So I think in terms of -- and we're talking about a four-year period. And of course, we intend to be there for eight years. But we'll make it so good in four, you will probably say you don't need to do it any longer, Mr. President.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But I can't stress in any stronger fashion, whoever the next president is, is going to appoint from three to five judges. And if it's Hillary or whoever -- assuming she is allowed to run. You know what? What she did with her e-mail is so criminal, is so dishonest, is so shocking that she shouldn't be it looks like they are going to let her run. And that's OK with me, because really, I do want to run against her. I have to be honest with you.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: So, if she gets to appoint her judges, she will, as part of it, abolish the Second Amendment. And I have to say, that would be, in my opinion, that's what she's going to go for. And it's a little like she did with the coal miners. She said about -- you know, she is going to put the coal miners, put the mines out of business. She went to West Virginia, and she said, well, I tried to retract it. She tried to retract it. It didn't work well. She got beaten badly.

Hillary wants to disarm vulnerable citizens in high-crime neighborhoods. Whether it is a young single mom in Florida or a grandmother in Ohio, Hillary wants them to be defenseless, wants to take away any chance they have of survival.

And by the way, you have men and you have women sitting in an apartment. And outside is tremendous crime. Tremendous crimes of all kinds. And they need to be protected. And you know, the only way they are going to be able to protect then selves. If you take that gun away from them, it's going to be a very unfair situation. And that's why we're going to call her Heartless Hillary. We can do without that.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Somehow, I like Crooked Hillary better.

(LAUGHTER)

I put forth -- and you probably saw it a few days ago. I put forth a list of judges who will protect and defend all of our freedoms, including the Second Amendment. The judges will follow the Constitution. And these where all highly vetted. The Federalist Society, Heritage, some great references from Jeff Sessions, a fantastic man, from Mitch, and from a whole group of people. And we put down 11. I'll be adding some additional names over the period of the next month or so, sometime prior to the convention. Hope you can all go to the convention. Hope you can all come. And we're going to be putting in some additional names. I think you'll be very happy with them. But it's been reviewed incredibly well. People love these people. And I thought I'd do that because I think it really brings the party together. It really is going to -- I mean, the affect it has had is incredible. Because they weren't sure, will Trump appoint this one, that one. How will the judges be such an important thing? So I put together the list with some incredibly important organizations and highly respected. And everybody is really happy. You've seen we've gotten A-plus reviews on that.

Now, I'd like to call for Hillary Clinton to put together a list also. OK?

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Let her put together a list.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Because I would like to see what that list consists of. And you will see it's day and night, OK? Day and night. And it will not be good for the people in this room. And it won't be good, by the way, for the people of --