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Donald Trump with More Mixed Messages On Gun Control; All-out Battle Coming for the ISIS Stronghold of Fallujah in Iraq; Security Ratched Up at Paris Airports; Sanders: Getting Rid Of Superdelegates "Not A Bad Idea"; Search For EgyptAir Spans Radius Of 40 Miles; Submarine Searching For EgyptAir Flight Recorders; Court Orders Mississippi School District To Desegregate. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired May 22, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[14:00:13] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Should the person with the most pledged delegates be the Democratic nominee?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRAITC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think if that was the only criteria, then you get rid of all of the superdelegates which may not be a bad idea.

WHITFIELD: Bernie Sanders calling out the Democratic Party for what he called an anointment of Hillary Clinton.

Plus, Donald Trump with a mixed message on guns, tweeting last night that Hillary is wrong when she says he wants guns brought into classrooms. Then, Trump saying this today.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms frankly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: NEWSROOM starts right now.

Hello everyone. And thanks so much for joining. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Donald Trump with more mixed messages today on gun control, the latest last night's tweet slamming Hillary Clinton's criticism on his position saying this. Crooked Hillary says that I want guns brought into school classroom, wrong. Then this morning in an interview on FOX and friends, Trump said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't want to have guns in classrooms although in some cases teachers should have guns in classrooms frankly because teachers are, you know, things that are going on in schools that are unbelievable. You look at some of our schools unbelievable what's going on. But I'm not advocating guns in classroom. But remember in some cases and a lot of people have made this case, teachers should be able to have guns, trained teachers should have able to have guns in classrooms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So this all comes on the heels of the NRA endorsement of Trump Friday and Hillary Clinton calling Donald Trump dangerous at a Trayvon Martin foundation dinner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Parents and teachers and schools should have the right to keep guns out of classrooms. Just like Donald Trump does at many of his hotels by the way. This is someone running to be president of the United States of America, a country facing a gun violence epidemic and he is talking about more guns in our schools. He is talking about more hatred and division in our streets, even about more nuclear weapons in the world. That's no way to keep us safe. If you want to imagine what Trump's America will look like, picture more kids at risk of violence and bigotry. Picture more anger and fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's bring in our CNN political panel right now. Political commentator and Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord. CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton's supporter Maria Cardona and CNN's senior political analyst David Gergen. Good to see all of you.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hello Fred.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, Fred. How are you?

WHITFIELD: Pretty good.

So Jeffrey, you first, is this at all concerning that the presumptive Republican nominee does seems to change his wording and his position and he has been doing so, at least as it pertains to guns, in a short amount of time?

LORD: I don't really think he has. I mean, when we use the phrase guns in classroom, my assumption was we're talking about students. He is talking about in selected cases of teachers. And we certainly have had enough incidents of violence, of gun violence in classrooms where it teachers or armed security guard -- take Newtown, for example, would have had a weapon, things would have not gotten out of hand.

You know, Hillary Clinton talks about how dangerous things would be with Donald Trump. Right this minute, I have checked for today, from January 1st of this year until today, 1,285 people have been shot in the city of Chicago run by former Clinton and Obama aid Rahm Emmanuel, President Obama's hometown and president Obama in the White House. There are no gunshots allowed in the city of Chicago and yet they have had over 1200, almost 1300 people shot. It doesn't really sound like their policies are working.

WHITFIELD: So is it fair to make those kind of correlations between as the city and the history of the city's violence too? The people you just mentioned to the president and Rahm Emmanuel and Hillary Clinton?

LORD: Well, they have been in charge. I mean, that's the point. Hillary Clinton is saying if Donald Trump is in charge, things will be dangerous. I'm saying her folks have been in charge and people are getting shot to the tune of almost 1300 people and it's only -- it's not even the end of the month here in May.

WHITFIELD: Maria?

CARDONA: No. That correlation is absolutely ridiculous. The reason why there is a lot of violence in these urban cities and I live in D.C. and same thing happens in D.C., D.C. has very strict gun laws but guess what, we're right next to Virginia. You can go to Virginia and anybody can easily get a gun at a gun show, at a gun shop, and they bring it over. That's exactly what's happening in Chicago.

To me that is absolute proof that what you actually need is more gun safety measures in all of the states so that criminals cannot easily cross state lines and then go and commit murders in place -- in other cities.

[14:05:26] WHITFIELD: So I wonder, David, is this really also about, as it pertain to the distinctions between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, it is the intention of words, it is the use of words, what's behind the meaning here when Donald Trump seems to change his language, Hillary Clinton who is trying to underscore that. They are doing it to each other, but Hillary Clinton is saying, this is a great risk and at great risk are you voting for Donald Trump. So who kinds of wins this war of words so to speak and the changing of positions?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, I do think Donald Trump has two often spoken off the cuff and had to come back and correct himself or qualify what he said which has given to the idea that he hasn't thought through of these issues that he has and he fresh to a lot of them. He doesn't have the experience so I think that's going to be a drag for him.

In this particular instance, I think what he has said is not -- I think it's personally reasonable to say exactly what Jeffrey thought he said, and that is, I don't want students carrying guns in the classrooms. And when attacked, he said, well, of course, it may be that in some instances teachers or security guards ought to have guns.

And I must say I come down on the side of leadership in the cities does make a difference on how many murders there are. And if you look at the city of New York, back in the early 1980s when Giuliani came into office, they were like some 23, 2400 murders a year on the streets of New York. That number last year was down to around 300 and you had Giuliani and Bloomberg mayoral team positioned back to back and it made a real difference. So policies do matter and how you do it does matter. And by the way,

yes, they had tougher gun laws in New York but they also as Bill Clinton wanted to do, and Bill Clinton back on the 1990s did, if you wanted to put 100,000 cops on the streets, additional cops. So there is something about law and order which also matters.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead, Jeffrey.

LORD: And stop and frisk in New York City as well which I believe they have now dispensed with but I mean that was --.

GERGEN: Narrowed it down a lot.

LORD: Yes. It saved a lot of lives, a lot of black lives I might add --

CARDONA: I think there will be people who would argue with that but that's for another discussion.

WHITFIELD: And the voters might argue that words do matter. They are paying attention to what words these candidates are using and on what occasions is it -- are these words representative of how they feel with what their positions might be on certain issues or are these words being used, you know, so as to make convenience have tried to get certain attention. You know, Donald Trump has gotten a lot of criticism lately on changing his language, making some contradictory statements, not just on guns but other matters as well. Take a listen to the presumptive Republican nominee on MSNBC just from last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Libya is a disaster. And you knocked at Libya. And you knocked out Gadhafi. And she thinks we did a great job and it's just more destabilization - and ISIS has the oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you have stayed out of Libya?

TRUMP: I would have stayed out of Libya, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: This is what Donald Trump said back in 2002.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I can't believe what our country is doing, Gadhafi in Libya is killing thousands of people, nobody knows how bad it is and we're sitting around. We have soldiers all over the Middle East and we are not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage. We should go in. We should stop this guy which would be very easy and very quick. We could do it surgically, stop him from doing it and save these lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And then there's this position Donald Trump had on the invasion of Iraq. This is during the CNN debate in Simi Valley just last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am the only person on this day, only person that fought very, very hard against us and I wasn't a sitting politician going into Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And then in 2002, speaking with Howard Stern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you from invading Iraq?

TRUMP: Yes, I guess so. You know, I wish it was -- I wish the first time it was done correctly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So David, help people understand when a candidate does this, when there's a track record of changing positions, does it make it more difficult for the candidate to try to enlist trust from voters because you look at the front page today of "New York Times" today, and it talks about traditional Republican donors who say they have a problem with trust as it pertains to Donald Trump and that's why they don't want to give as much. Now, how does it translate to voters?

[14:10:12] GERGEN: So far to everyone is surprised, the fact that Donald Trump has switched positions on any number of issues. I think his Libya position, by the way, I don't think that was much of a switch. But he has switched the position on any number of issues and yet the big, big move of the day politically is that he and Hillary Clinton are running dead even in the polls if you match them up for one against another. They were dead even. One cup of poll, you had Trump slightly ahead. We've got a horse race on our hands.

WHITFIELD: But then both have according to polling has unfavorably --

GERGEN: They both have -- more than half of the country doesn't look favorably upon either one. More than half of the country doesn't trust either one. But for all of the misstatements, here is Trump, you know, in a dead even race. So the question becomes if voters so far, a lot of them are obviously forgiving him and saying that doesn't matter to me so much. What I want is a change agent and I want to turn around. So, you know, I thing he's got to clean up his act. I think ultimately this could come back to haunt him. And what Hillary is trying to do by going after him is to drive up the sense that you can't put the government in the hands of somebody who can't make up his mind and who could act irresponsibly and impulsively. That's where she's going with her attacks.

WHITFIELD: But then Jeffrey, what's the incentive of cleaning up the act, so to speak, you know, by the words that they have been there if he is neck and neck right now with Hillary Clinton? If he seems to be gaining momentum as we near the convention, the general election. LORD: Right. And I notice that the last few days here I have seen

stories that her unfavorables have gone up and his have dropped. So, you know, I really do think when David talks about a change agent - I mean, let's remember that the qualification to be president in this country in the constitution is that you be 35 years old. That's it. You know, the professional political class is having a problem here and she is a representative of that and he is not.

WHITFIELD: So Maria, are her unfavorables going up because of what she even explained this morning on the Sunday talk shows where she said you know what, there's a lot of negative campaigning against her but she doesn't see the same kind of negative campaigning against Bernie Sanders.

CARDONA: Sure.

WHITFIELD: And that she is bearing the burden of that. So, is that in part why her unfavorability, you know, is going up?

CARDONA: No question. I think 30 years of being a target of Republican attacks and a whole cottage industry focused on bringing Hillary Clinton down, yes, that will do a lot to bring up your negatives. But I think more importantly, we are now in a general election. And what is happening I think in terms of comparison of the two candidates is that for Republicans, you know, as much as they are following or swallowing a bitter pill, they are starting to get behind Donald Trump. And that I think is what you're seeing in the polls whereas Hillary and Bernie are still in what some would say a contested primary though she will be the nominee. But there's still a primary going on. Once that --

WHITFIELD: But do you see potentially there's that same kind of unification that we might be seeing among Democrats?

CARDONA: I do. Yes, absolutely. After California and going into the convention, and this is exactly what happened in 2008.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know, Bernie Sanders said this morning he reiterated on CNN and again on CBS, and he said you know what, I'm in it all the way. He wants to be --

CARDONA: To the convention. That's what I'm saying. He will most likely take it to the convention as Hillary Clinton to get to the convention. But there is mathematically no way that he is going to get to the convention with more pledged delegates than she has. She will be the nominee. And when you are going to face a general election electorate it is very different. And it is not going to as forgiving as the primary for Republicans and Donald Trump.

WHITFIELD: David, what do you think?

GERGEN: Look. I think three months ago we all thought that the Republican convention, there is going to be a lot of fur flying (INAUDIBLE). And that one seems to be settling down. It now appears that the Democratic convention is still going to be contentious because Bernie Sanders is not going simply come and lay down his sword. He wants -- he has leverage and wants changes in the platform. He want to make sure that Hillary is committed to his kind of agenda which could put her at risk in a general election --.

WHITFIELD: Yes. He said the only way he is going to endorse her, and these aren't his exact words, but he said the only way he is going to support her is if she kind of comes to his side on certain issues. And until that were to happen --

(CROSSTALK)

GERGEN: Go ahead.

LORD: There is one other problem, Fred. And I really do think and I know from just listening from public comments from public Democrat that they are concerned about it. Dianne - Senator Feinstein said the other day, she is concerned about some sort of variation on the 1968 convention with violence. You look at these supporters and some of them are very ginned up.

[14:15:03] CARDONA: That is true. They are ginned up, but I'm hoping that Bernie Sanders will do the right thing and continue to underscore he doesn't condone violence going into this. But I think what's being missed here is, you know, Jeffrey Lord loves to focus on the problems for the Democrats when frankly the Republicans, you really can't compare the kind of debacle ha is going on in the Republican Party. And you still have a lot of Republicans who don't trust Donald Trump.

As you mentioned, Fred, and his words, it's giving people whiplash. They don't understand where he stands. And I think it is good for Hillary to underscore how dangerous and risky and just, you know, he is incompetent for this position. And his own words are going to essentially underscore that as we get into the general election.

WHITFIELD: And David, you get the last word.

GERGEN: It's going to be one hell of a horse race.

WHITFIELD: I like it, it is indeed.

LORD: That's right.

WHITFIELD: And it already is, isn't it?

CARDONA: That's right.

WHITFIELD: It's been very unpredictable --

CARDONA: Never dull moment.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I'm looking at my notes and listening to Bernie Sanders saying that, you know, he wants her to be on the same side as he is on climate change and he also --

CARDONA: She is.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And he wants to see her on his side as it pertains to greed and corporations. He kind of spelled out those things. And until then, he says is he going to through his support behind --

CARDONA: There's a lot more that unites them than what divides them, Fredericka. We will be fine.

WHITFIELD: We shall see. I kind of like the horse racing right now.

CARDONA: That it will be.

WHITFIELD: All right, David, Maria and Jeffrey, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

All right. We'll have much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:09] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back.

There's an all-out battle coming for the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah in Iraq. The city was an early victory for ISIS militants who controlled this since January of 2014. It's also a city that was the scene of some of the bloodiest battles for U.S. troops in the Iraq war. Some called it the heaviest urban fighting since the war in Vietnam. Eighty-two Americans soldiers were killed and another 600 wounded in a siege that lasted almost seven weeks before ending on Christmas Eve in 2004. Eventually, the city was handed over to the Iraqi government. But it fell to Al-Qaeda before long leaving many, including U.S. soldiers feeling like American blood was spilled for no reason.

Let's talk it over with CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton. He is a retired Air Force colonel and a former deputy director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Good to see you.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you too.

WHITFIELD: All right. So the Iraqis are telling civilians to get out of the city ahead of this battle. Does telegraphing it give ISIS a rather strategic advantage?

LEIGHTON: Potentially, at least it will give them a tactical advantage, Fredricka. And what they can do with that, of course, is they can insist that the civilians stay and there are indications they are actually doing that, that they are keeping civilians in the city. They are preventing them from leaving and thus creating a situation where it's really a greater risk for the Iraqi forces than the militia forces that are trying to get into Fallujah.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, how unsettling is this entire scenario for you?

LEIGHTON: Incredibly unsettling because, you know, as you said in the intro, this is a place where many American servicemen shed their blood. This is a place where it really was the biggest single area where we fought during the Iraq war. And it was also one of those areas where we really put a lot of our national prestige on the line. And for being that significant for us is, you know, just incredible. And the fact that the Iraqi government lost it to ISIS after all of that was spent is, you know, very hard for a lot of us to take.

WHITFIELD: And who would you blame in that case that Iraq would kind lose the ability or power to hold on to something that was fought for so hard?

LEIGHTON: Well, basically there are several players that can be blamed, but primarily it would be the Iraqi government, especially the previous government, you know, the current government I think is trying to make amends for what happened. But when you look at the previous regime, that regime had a significant part to play in creating an Iraqi army that really was not capable of holding its own of defending its territory and quite frankly, making the Iraqi state a viable country again.

WHITFIELD: General Joseph Votel, the head of the U.S. central command just wrapped up a secret trip of several hours to Syria and he is the highest ranking U.S. military person to visit since the war began in 2011. While he was there, he also talked about ISIS and why they are focusing attacks recently on Baghdad in particular. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JOSEPH VOTEL, HEAD, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: They are attempting to create chaos in the capital. They are attempting to divert attention away from other areas where they are -- where the coalition forces and the Iraqis are having success in their trying to get the Iraqi government to divert forces to address that particular, that particular situation in the capital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So ISIS is killing hundreds in these attacks. Are the Iraqi security forces up to task here?

LEIGHTON: Well, in part they are not. So the forces that they got deployed in trying to take Fallujah and eventually trying to take Mosul, those forces are pretty much their elite forces. And many of them at least are. Unfortunately, what that means is that the non- elite forces are often the once that are charged with urban security. So you are looking at basically the municipal police force, the federal police force, those forces will be the ones that will really bear the brunt of any attacks in an urban setting. And we are seeing that. The ISIS folks are basically looking at this as a weak point and they are going to exploit that. That's basically what they feel the, need to do and they are very effective tactics from a civilian influence perspective.

WHITFIELD: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much. Good to see you.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: And new developments in the search for EgyptAir. Atika Shubert is following the investigation - Atika. ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka. Security is being

ratcheted up at Paris airports but is it enough? We'll go through extra measures when we come back after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:38] WHITFIELD: Tighter security measures are going into effect at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport as the investigation as to what happened to EgyptAir flight 804 continues. The flight took off from Paris late Wednesday night before disappearing other the Mediterranean by Thursday morning. Since then, questions have pour about security measures at that airport and who may have had access to the plane before it took off. Egyptian investigators are focusing on the theory that a terror attack possibly brought down the plane but so far no one has claimed responsibility. And despite that, homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson said officials are not ruling anything out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Early in the investigation at this point, we do not rule out an act of terrorism but it's still early and there's a lot still unfolding. I think we'll know a lot more at some point in the next couple of days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Atika Shubert is live in Paris at Charles de Gaulle airport.

So Atika, what is the latest on the security measures there?

SHUBERT: Well, they are stepping up measures. Specifically, they are bringing in 30 extra intelligence agents that will be operating here very soon. That's on top of the 5,700 security officers that they already have here. And if you ever come through Charles de Gaulle airport, you will see them. You see armed officers patrolling inside the terminals, spot checks on passengers and that doesn't even count what's happening behind the scenes with personnel.

[14:30:02] have to go through the same stringent security checks we do when we board a flight checking for liquids and laptops and so forth.

All the personal items are checked. Their personal lockers are checked. So there is a lot of extra security. The big question being asked, is it enough especially with those personnel that have access to the plane -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Atika Shubert, thanks so much in Paris.

All right, still ahead here in the U.S., Bernie Sanders saying today that maybe the superdelegates should go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Clearly the current situation is undemocratic and it is ill- advised and it needs to change. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Bernie Sanders says getting rid of superdelegates may not be a bad idea. He's trailing Hillary Clinton in the superdelegate count 42 to her 522. And this morning he told our Jake Tapper the superdelegate process is undemocratic. However, he plans on trying to woo them away from Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": She has more votes than you and she has more pledged delegates -- she has more pledged delegate than you and the question is it's a simple yes or no. Should the candidate with the most pledged delegates at the end of the process, June 7th, after New Jersey and California, the last contests, should the person with the most pledged delegates be the Democratic nominee?

SANDERS: Well, I think if that was the only criteria, then you get rid of all of the superdelegates, which may not be a bad idea, but you do have superdelegates, you have 700 superdelegates and I'm not a great fan of superdelegates but their job is to take an objective look at reality. I think the reality is that we are the stronger candidate. So you will see what happens, Jake.

[14:35:07]TAPPER: So you actually -- you think it would be OK for the pledged delegates, the majority of Democratic voters to pick one candidate and then the superdelegates to actually go with a different candidate? You're not suggesting that?

SANDERS: Well, it's very funny that you asked me -- me that question when you had 400 pledged delegates come on board Clinton's campaign before anyone else was in the race. That's called an anointment process. That's called the establishment talking. That's called the big money -- this is who we want to be president. We are where we are right now -- and we are --

Jake, and where we are is we're fighting to win the pledged delegates. Before I can answer your question, let's see what's going to happen. If your argument is let's get rid of superdelegates, that may not be a bad idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is traveling with the Sanders campaign in (inaudible) California where he will be holding a rally later today. So Sunlen, Sanders had a lot to say this morning about the party rules and the leadership of the Democratic Party. That was just a small sample.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT: He sure did, Fred, exactly and he's really been taking on a much harsher tone towards the Democratic process and leadership where at large really underscored in that interview with Jake Tapper this morning. I did think it was very notable that he refused to outright answer

yes or no if the candidate at the end of all of all the contests with the most pledged delegates should get the nomination. So that was very notable.

It was also very striking in that interview really how he took on DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of course, there are feud between his campaign and her has really been escalating in recent days and weeks.

But today, he came out and outright endorsed her opponent in the Florida primary. The Democratic opponent running against her, he came out and endorsed Tim Canova (ph) so this is a huge affront to her and her leadership. Here's more of what he told Jake Tapper this morning of "STATE OF THE UNION."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Well, clearly I favor her opponent. His views are much closer to mine than is -- Wasserman Schultz's and let me also say this in all due respect to the current chair person, if elected president, she would not be reappointed to be chair of the DNC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: So absolutely no mincing of words there from Bernie Sanders, very strong words indeed for Debbie Wasserman Shultz, he has already sent out fundraising e-mails for Tim Canova (ph) this morning as well.

Now in response, Debbie Wasserman Schultz sent out an e-mail saying that she even though that he has endorsed her opponent, she will remain neutral in the Democratic primary. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, we'll be talking more about this next hour because Tim Canova (ph) himself will be joining at live 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. You'll hear what he has in mind if he were to become the new DNC chair.

All right, still ahead, as the search for EgyptAir goes under water now, we'll talk about the challenges that are ahead in the recovery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:41:47]

WHITFIELD: As investigators comb the Mediterranean for clues on what happened to EgyptAir Flight 804, French officials are tightening security at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris where the flight took off Wednesday.

There have been questions about the security measures there and who had access to the plane. Meanwhile, questions remain about the plane's communications system.

It sent several key signals that something was wrong before the plane stopped communicating all together with the grounds. The alert included messages about heat on the co-pilot's window and smoke near the cockpit and in the avionic bay.

For more on what all of this means and the search today, I'm also joined by CNN meteorologists, Karen Maginnis, and former NTSB medical officer, Mitch Garber. So Karen, let me begin with you and let's talk about the conditions for this ongoing search.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there will be a lot of challenges presented weatherwise. We are looking at the worst of the weather further to the north. But that doesn't mean it's not without its challenges.

This is kind of a depiction of all the marine traffic in the area, and just to give you an idea, we last had the location of the flight just about in this vicinity so there are numerous vessels across this region that are searching, still looking for debris pieces, also luggage, and parts of the airplane.

But let's go ahead and talk about the weather situation across the Mediterranean. This in the Eastern Mediterranean and we were looking at a weather system that was potentially going to usher in maybe some showers or isolated storms.

But now it looks like the main weather feature associated with this weather system is going to be a front that moves through area of low pressure that will track north. There will be a ridge of high pressure, much more to the west.

So as a result there's going to be what's referred to as a tight pressure gradient. So what does that mean? Well, essentially we could see some wind gusts as high as maybe 60 kilometers per hour or maybe 40 or 50 miles per hour across this area.

That's going to create a chop. It's going to produce maybe a heavier wave height, maybe on the order of 2 to 3 meters or maybe 6 to 9 feet is certainly possible. But that's going to be probably the biggest challenge that we see over the next several days.

It looks like this will continue as we go into about Tuesday or Wednesday before we see those winds begin to taper off just a little bit. But the weather system that we're talking about, that area of low pressure was located much further to the north.

That was problematic for the showers and thunderstorms. The frontal system draped the south and that's going to move away. High pressure starts to move in and we'll start to pick up those fairly brisk winds coming out of the northwest as we go into the next 48 and 72 hours.

WHITFIELD: All right, Karen Maginnis, thank you so much. All right, let's also talk with Mitch Garber formerly of the NTSB as a medical officer about what has been obtained so far and the challenges ahead.

We know now an Egyptian submarine is involved to help in the search. How would that assist? You know, what qualities would that sub have to try and come across larger parts of the plane or some missing pieces here?

[14:45:05]MITCH GARBER, SENIOR MANAGING CONSULTANT, ESI: Well, remember, when a plane hits the water like this one does, one of the things that will happen immediately is the underwater locater beacon is going to be activated, what we call the pinger sometimes.

And so that device is going to be sending out a message, a sonar message essentially to anything that can hear it to say here's where I am. A submarine which is going to be lower, deeper into the water is going to be able to hear that much more clearly.

And they have a pretty good idea right now of where they are supposed to be looking. So in fact, we'll see I think fairly rapid development of locations that the black boxes likely sitting in on.

WHITFIELD: I think people are recalling the search for the MH-370, most of the vessels were above water searching for the pingers. In this case, this seems very proactive and might cut back on search time since we are talking about is it still 30 days that pinger or that battery would likely survive?

GARBER: It's required to operate for 30 days so we're supposed to see that kind of thing where it's going for 30 days. It may be longer than that. I think here we've also got a very good idea where exactly it went down. We found debris already.

This is very quickly and different from some of the other accidents we've seen where we haven't found debris. Here we know exactly where that debris field is. We have a good idea of where we're looking for the pingers.

WHITFIELD: Is that the feeling because in the Mediterranean more of a swirling kind of rotation with the streams as opposed to say in the Indian Ocean, where there was the search before. It would be traveling away from the region. Is that why there's a feeling that where they located the debris is indicative of where the plane may have gone down?

GARBER: That's a big part of it, but the other part is how quickly they've located the debris. It didn't have time to move as far as we've seen other cases. We know exactly where we're looking. We have the underwater expertise to sort of find that and I think we'll see this one will be found much more quickly than the others that we have sort been talking about.

WHITFIELD: So what can you or are you willing to read or what do you suppose investigators are reading from the debris that has been located so far. We saw pictures yesterday that we revealed for first time.

We're talking about a vest outside of its casing and you see pieces of luggage. These are small pieces and don't appear to demonstrate large pieces of say the fuselage but instead small pieces. So what does that tell us at this juncture?

GARBER: Well, I don't know it tells us that much of anything. We're finding small bits of things that have been sort of floatable. They are the things going to necessarily see. We're not finding large chunks, which might indicate that there was less of a chance of a large inflight break-up that perhaps the airplane hit more or less intact.

But even that I think would be a little bit of a stretch right now with the data that we've got. What we do know is that this is likely the location given the time, and relatively short time that elapsed between the time we're finding this debris field and the time that we know that the aircraft was lost from radar. We are pretty sure we're probably looking in the right place.

WHITFIELD: Will it take finding debris that has burn marks something of that magnitude in which to make an early determination from the investigators' standpoint as to whether there was a bomb or mechanical or does it entail a lot more than just the type of debris that you locate?

GARBER: I think part of it, we're really -- I think everybody is sort of anxious to get the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, I think those are going to be the areas that will give us the information that we'll need to make a serious attempt at determining what happened here.

Usually those data and remember those are going to be hundreds of channels of data, lots of different things, it will tell us what the pilots were saying and doing and all of that will be rolled into it. We're not going to get so much of that from the initial wreckage that comes up. We're waiting on those data.

WHITFIELD: You feel like the chances are pretty good finding those boxes because the Mediterranean is more shallow than say the depth of the Indian Ocean.

GARBER: It's shallower and they are looking in the right place and they've got the equipment already on site that will be doing that. I don't think -- we don't have this enormous undefined search area we can't get our hands around.

We've got a really sort of tight area and people will be looking in. The pingers are almost certainly working and you'll hear those soon. I think shortly we'll finding the recorders and then the real question is how easies they will be to recover.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mitch Garber, good to see you, thank you so much.

GARBER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll be right back.

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[14:53:13]

WHITFIELD: It has been over 60 years since the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown versus Board of Education, which declared the segregation of schools unconstitutional. This year after a decade's long legal battle, a small Mississippi Delta community may be nearing the end of its desegregation fight with its government.

In Cleveland, Mississippi, one high school is 99 percent African- American while the school on the other side of the town's train tracks is seen as historically white. Nick Valencia reports from this town.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is uncomfortable for me.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At home in Cleveland, Mississippi, a father and son have a conversation that's been 50 years in the making.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're doing what we think is right, not just for black folks but white folks and for everybody.

VALENCIA: This week after a five-decade long legal battle, a federal judge ordered the Cleveland School District to integrate. The Reverend Edward Duvall advocated for the move and even testified in court. His son, Ed Junior, isn't so sure about the impending change.

ED DUVALL JR., EAST SIDE HIGH SOPHOMORE: Well, I think where the parent wants to go instead of where the child wants to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't expect you to agree with me, but understand I'm taking this for best interest of everybody.

VALENCIA (on camera): Population 12,000, Cleveland, Mississippi, has 11 public schools that are separated by train tracks that used to be right here. To the east, East Side High School, 99 percent black. To the west, Cleveland High School, which historically has been seen as a school for whites though enrollment there is pretty evenly split between the races, but still not representative of the population. The Department of Justice took exception with that and pushed to change it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought we were doing pretty well.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Attorney Jamie Jack represents the school district.

[14:55:01]For the last 50 years, she says, the district has complied with federal orders to integrate, but for a federal judge the process wasn't moving fast enough.

JAMIE JACK, SCHOOL DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The court said that it wasn't intensive enough and it wasn't effective enough. And we think that with the constitution and the law of the Supreme Court says you don't have to have a racial quota that is required in every school in every district. You have to have made a good faith effort and we think our district as a whole is desegregated.

VALENCIA: Since 2013, Cleveland School District has allowed open enrollment which gives the freedom of choice for a student, white, black or other to go wherever they want. Jack says that system of choice proves segregation does not exist.

No one we spoke to at East Side High's graduation seemed to disagree with that. In fact, most said they like the way things are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a choice for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of us go over there, some of them come over here. It shouldn't make a difference because we see each other every day.

VALENCIA: But Duvall wants to see change because it's good for the entire community he says because it provides equal opportunity for all.

REVEREND ED DUVALL SR., SCHOOL DESEGRATION ADVOCATE: We're trying to make our community better, not just for tomorrow but the next few years but for your child --

VALENCIA: Nick Valencia, CNN, Cleveland, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And the Cleveland Mississippi School Board will meet to decide if they will appeal the decision. If they choose not to, the 2016 class of East Side High may be the final class to graduate from that school.

All right, coming up in the NEWSROOM, Bernie Sanders has been at odds with the Democratic National Committee. Now he is supporting the congressional candidate running against DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. We'll talk with her primary opponent, Tim Canova live next.

Then Donald Trump with a mixed message on guns, tweeting last night that Hillary is wrong when she says he wants guns brought into classrooms. What he is saying straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Trump sending mix messages over guns first tweeting this, Hillary is wrong when she says he wants guns brought in to classrooms, then saying this.

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TRUMP (via telephone): But in some cases, teachers should have guns in classrooms frankly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Plus Hillary Clinton has a new message about --