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Protests Against Trump Outside Jimmy Kimmel Studio; State Department IG on Clinton's E-mails; Trump on a General Election Warpath; One Killed, Three Wounded at Rapper T.I.'s Concert Venue; Calls for Mitt Romney's Third-Party Run; Obama in Japan for G7 Summit. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 26, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:09] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is "CNN NEWSROOM," live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour:

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton in a heap of email hurt; more scuffles at a Donald Trump rally; and, a legendary pot-smoker on why he's voting for Bernie Sanders

VAUSE: Daring rescue. An Italian ship rescues 550 migrants after their boat capsized.

SESAY: Plus, a CNN exclusive: how ISIS is using migrant passage routes to infiltrate Europe with sleeper cells.

VAUSE: Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us; I'm John Vause.

SESYA: And I'm Isha Sesay; "CNN NEWSROOM" starts right now.

VAUSE: Hillary Clinton's e-mails and Donald Trump's immigration plans are dogging their campaigns for the U.S. presidency.

SESAY: A crowd of protesters stood outside the Hollywood studio of late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel. They held signs calling the Republican Presidential Candidate a Nazi and chanted "dump Trump," but the demonstration was peaceful.

VAUSE: At the end of the day, police arrested a handful of protesters near a Trump rally in Anaheim. The demonstrators are accused of throwing rocks at officers. A large number of police were deployed, but there were just a few minor clashes.

SESAY: Meantime, a new report is slamming Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.

VAUSE: A department watchdog says Clinton broke Federal recordkeeping rules and Donald Trump is pouncing on that news; here's Sunlen Serfaty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN D.C. CORRESPONDENT: Tonight Hillary Clinton is back on the defensive. In a scathing 83-page report, the State Department's own Inspector General determined that Clinton violated federal rules. It scolds the former Secretary of State for setting up and using her private email server to conduct State Department business. The report reads in part, "at a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service."

Clinton has pushed back on questions over her emails many times in the past, telling CNN's Brianna Keilar last July -

HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The truth is everything I did was permitted and I went above and beyond what anybody could have expected, in making sure that if the State Department didn't capture something I made a real effort to get it to them.

SERATY: But the report says that, "Sending emails from a personal account to other employees at their Department accounts is not an appropriate method of preserving any such emails."

Clinton has also maintained that she had permission to use personal email.

CLINTION: I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it with be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two.

SERFATY: But not so, says the report. The Inspector General's Office found no evidence that Clinton or her staff consulted anyone at State before she decided to use her private server. The Clinton campaign today trying to down play the significance. Clinton Spokesman Brian Fallon saying in a statement, "the Inspector General documents just how consistent her email practices were with those of other Secretaries and senior officials at the State Department who also used personal email."

The report does call out past secretaries of state for their use of email but specifically notes the rules were updated the year Clinton took office.

DONALD TRUMP (R) REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, the emails, that's bad judgment.

SERFATY: The email controversy has been a constant target for Donald Trump.

TRUMP: She had a little bad news today, as you know, from some reports came down, weren't so good, but -- not so good. Inspector General's report, not good.

SERFATY: And the new findings are likely to hand him even more ammunition to bring to the general election fight ahead.

TRUMP: For her to be able to continue to run is an absolute disgrace, in my opinion, to this country.

Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Cathedral City, California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, joining us here in L.A., Democratic Strategist Matthew Littman.

VAUSE: And in San Diego, Conservative Radio Host Mike Slater. Okay, so let's get the Clinton email scandal out of the way: a quick yes or no answer from both of you right off the top. Matt Littman, to you, if are you a democrat, nothing new in this report, move on, yes or no?

MATT LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Not only would I move on, not a scandal.

VAUSE: Okay, good. Mike Slater, the report shows a clear violation of the Federal Records Act. Hillary Clinton may have endangered national security, yes or no?

MIKE SLATER, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST, SAN DIEGO: Of course, and you never let her live it down.

VAUSE: Okay, great. Now that we've got that out of the way, Mike, to you, do you, Mike Slater, do you think the vast majority of American voters have even the shallowest idea of what this email scandal is all about? What the inquiry is all about? It's all about Republicans trying to paint a picture [00:05:01] that Hillary Clinton is somehow untrustworthy?

SLATER: Wow, really good question; way to frame that as the majority of American people. Like, the people watching CNN right now have a very different opinion than the other 95-percent of people who just vaguely hear about this. So, to answer that specific question, I think it's bad enough, because Trump has planted this anchor in people's brain of her being crooked. So any drip, drip, drip of something that sounds a little shady is see enough to reinforce that new anchor and nickname. So I think it's bad and it's going to continue to get worse for her on this.

SESAY: Matt, I'm going to ask you, as you hear what Mike is saying there, that Trump is going to capitalize on it, some say that the Clinton campaign showed a lack of political savvy here, in that they knew this was coming and yet failed to get out in front of it, to neutralize a Trump attack.

LITTMAN: Well, I actually think it's fairly neutralized based on the report today. I don't think the report today was bad. I think Trump's nicknames haven't worked for a long time. But I don't think today's report was really bad for Hillary. I think that whole thing is kind of silly, but I don't think that today's report was really bad for Hillary. There's nothing terrible in that report. I think as far as the Clinton campaign goes, now they can put this behind them for a while, until we get the next report.

SESAY: You say that, but she didn't - she wasn't interviewed for it, which some people are questioning why she didn't. They are saying it was very clear that she violated rules in terms of bookkeeping, if you will, of the emails. I mean, they were indictments of her in this report.

LITTMAN: Nothing strong. This is the same thing Colin Powell did; right? He used a private email.

VAUSE: No.

LITTMAN: He did use a private email.

SESAY: He did use a private email.

VAUSE: -- his own server, this is the difference.

LITTMAN: There's no -

VAUSE: And the rules were rewritten -

SESAY: Yes, exactly.

VAUSE: -- when Hillary --

LITTMAN: There's no hacking of the server which was a big concern for people; right? And the other thing is, I worked on Capitol Hill. I'm not sure if our guest did, worked on Capitol Hill; but can I tell you something? A lot of people on Capitol Hill use private emails for business. They probably shouldn't, but they do and that's been going on for a long, time. So if the idea is now don't use your personal email for business, which is true in the business world, too then don't use your private emails. That's a mistake; but is it comparable to -

SLATER: Matt, I've got to jump in. A lot -

LITTMAN: Trump feeling that South Korea and Japan should be armed with nuclear weapons? Of course not.

SESAY: Jump in.

VAUSE: Let's get there - okay, Mike?

SLATER: A lot of people on Capitol Hill aren't running for president of the United States, to become commander-in-chief and a lot of people on Capitol Hill aren't sending classified and top-secret information on your personal emails, Matt. So nice try on that, brother.

You can send an email about where you're go being to meet for lunch on a business trip. Hillary is sending top secret, classified information that needs to be taken off a secure server, willfully, and put on a private server. This is intentional deceitfulness, very different than what you've ever done.

LITTMAN: So this is - this is going back to these conspiracy theories and these scandals. She did have some interesting emails about Gefilte fish that were really exciting; but, of course, in retrospect, to classify some of the emails that weren't classified at the time.

VAUSE: Sure. LITTMAN: That's basically a non-story. So you could pretend to get excited about it like you could pretend to get excited about Vince Foster and all these other things, but really it's nothing compared to what Trump has going.

VAUSE: Okay; the House Minority Leader, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, came out today voicing support for the embattle Chairwoman of the Party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: -- a statement yesterday that said that Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz has the respect for her colleagues for her efforts and her leadership to unify the party and to win the election in November.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

PELOSI: That was my statement, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, Matt, given that overwhelming vote of confidence, how long before Wasserman Schultz is dumped?

LITTMAN: Well I actually don't think she's going to be dumped anytime soon. I think if they dump her, it becomes a bigger and bigger story, and I don't think it's necessary. I mean, the Sanders' campaign may have some issues, but, remember, the Sanders campaign's biggest issue is that they're losing. That's the big issue. They're kind of taking this out on Debbie Wasserman Schultz; they shouldn't.

SESAY: But bigger issue, does it not speak to the potency of Bernie Sanders and how he can create this ripple effect, does that concern you, going forward to a convention?

LITTMAN: Doesn't concern me because I think some of the stuff that Sanders is doing is pretty good. So I'm not concerned.

VAUSE: Okay, very quickly, Mike, a reply on all this, just to wrap this part up because we're going to come back in the next block and talk about Donald Trump, but, right now, just wrap it up on Clinton.

SLATER: On Debbie Wasserman Schultz, I don't have the numbers, exactly, in front of me but the Democrats have lost a ton of governor seats, House seats and Senate seats under her leadership in the Democratic Party. So she objectively has not done a good job at her job. So she should definitely go. If I was a democrat, I'd be calling for someone better to take her position.

VAUSE: Okay; so, we'll get both of you to stay with us. We'll stick with Donald Trump now, with you guys after the break. Donald Trump isn't just taking aim at Hillary Clinton. He's also slamming Democratic Senator and a prominent Republican governor. Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump is on a general election warpath, unleashing his arsenal of one-liners in every direction. On Hillary Clinton --

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary, she's as crooked as they come.

ACOSTA: Trump is tangling with his likely Democratic opponent over his comments on how he was looking to make money buying cheap real estate during the housing crisis.

[00:10:01] TRUMP: She goes, and Donald Trump is a terrible person! And he wanted to buy housing when it was at a low point! Who the hell doesn't?

ACOSTA: Clinton ripped into that.

CLINTON: He bragged about what he did. He said profiting off working people losing their homes would be a "good result." So a good result in Donald Trump's world is he gets his and you get hurt.

ACOSTA: Presumptive GOP nominee is also firing off his patented zingers at Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who's emerging as the

Democrats' Trump-troller in chief. He's hitting her past claims of her Native American heritage.

TRUMP: Pocahontas, that's Elizabeth Warren. I call her goofy.

ACOSTA: But when Trump tweets, "Goofy Elizabeth Warren is all talk no action," she seems to enjoy the fight, responding, "Fling as much mud as you want. Your words and actions disqualify you from being president and I won't stop saying it."

After violent protests, both inside and outside his rally in Albuquerque, Trump is also mixing it up with New Mexico's Republican Governor Susana Martinez, a GOP rising star who still hasn't endorsed his campaign and skipped his event.

TRUMP: She's not doing the job. Hey, maybe I'll run for governor of New Mexico. I'll get this place going.

ACOSTA: A Martinez spokesman wasn't amused, saying, in a statement, Trumps "pot shots weren't about policy, they were about politics and the Governor will not be bullied into supporting a candidate until she's convinced that candidate will fight for New Mexicans."

A Trump advisor said the real estate tycoon was only responding to a snub.

SAM CLOVIS, ADVISOR, DONALD TRUMP: Like most campaigns, elbows get up under the baskets, we saw a lot of that last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Jim Acosta joins us now from the L.A. news room. So, Jim, for a candidate who has a problem with Hispanics, problem with women, problem with the Republican establishment, why would Donald Trump go after the Governor of New Mexico, a woman who's Hispanic and Chair of the Republican Governor's Association?

ACOSTA: Yes, it seems to sum up all of Donald Trump's problems right now inside the Republican Party. I talked to a Republican operative earlier today who said what is he doing, in response to his criticism of Susana Martinez; and, you know, if you look at that statement coming from her spokesman, the Press Secretary for the Governor of New Mexico, they are not happy.

She was telling reporters earlier this week that while she was busy, she didn't have time to go to Donald Trump's rally. Then afterward Donald Trump said for the Press Secretary to come out and say that she's not going to be bullied into endorsing any candidate at this stage in the campaign, I don't think Donald Trump should expect that endorsement anytime soon.

VAUSE: Absolutely. Governor Martinez is seen as a rising star in the Republican Party. So will this outburst by Donald Trump, will that add to the challenges that he already has trying to unite the party right now?

ACOSTA: Well, he has that problem, and he also has this issue with House Speaker Paul Ryan. There were sources inside the Trump campaign reaching out to reporters in the last 24 hours saying that this Ryan endorsement was coming soon. As you know, he said a few weeks ago he's not ready to come out and support Donald Trump, throw everything behind him; and the people

who were speaking on behalf of Paul Ryan on the political side of things were saying, you know what, that announcement is not coming. We don't know

where this is coming from.

I talked to an aide close to the Speaker who said we just don't know why the Trump campaign was saying this. Now they do have a phone call tonight to talk about how they could perhaps get to yes but there's no indication as to how soon that might be. I talked to a source inside the Trump campaign who said we understand this might take time. We're going to give Paul Ryan all the space he needs. It's a different tone than what we heard 24 hours ago when the campaign was pretty confident that this endorsement was coming.

VAUSE: I wonder what happened? Of course that endorsement will be crucial for Donald Trump, to bring the establishment and his supporters all together as they move towards the general election.

ACOSTA: Absolutely.

VAUSE: Jim Acosta, thanks so much for being with us; appreciate it.

ACOSTA: All right; you bet.

VAUSER: Well, a short break here. When we come back, the calls are growing for Mitt Romney to take on Donald Trump, run as an independent. We'll look at the glowing endorsement he is getting from a prominent conservative magazine.

SESAY: Plus, it wasn't the chaos we saw 24 hours ago, but we did see a few clashes near a Donald Trump rally right here in southern California. We'll tell you what our Kyung Lah saw from the ground, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:18:28] SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Some breaking news to bring you from New York. One person has been killed at a shooting at a concert venue where rapper T.I. was scheduled to perform.

VAUSE: Police say four people were shot in all, three men and one woman. It happened back stage in the VIP area, in the last hour or so. We're told fans rushed off the dance floor when the shots rang out. We'll update you with any new developments.

SESAY: All right; back to politics now. Police in Anaheim, California say good planning helped keep things relatively calm outside the Donald Trump rally, but there were still some clashes.

VAUSE: Anti-Trump protesters faced off with his supporters in shouting matches over immigration. Kyung Lah was there when the officers began making arrests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Isha, what you're looking at here are police officers in the city of Anaheim still trying to clear the streets after some protesters broke-off from the main protest site outside the Donald Trump rally in Anaheim, and shut down some streets; and for about 30 to 40 minutes, what we saw were a number of arrests.

We could see police officers picking out protesters in the crowd, the people who appear to be leading the protesters, or the most, -- the loudest protesters, grabbing them, arresting them and taking them out of the crowd. it's an attempt to try to disburse the crowd. The chopper overhead had made the announcement multiple times that they wanted the streets cleared. They wanted to al how for peaceful assembly but at the same time make sure that [00:20:02] people in this city could drive through their streets.

So, again, what you're seeing here are officers in riot gear. You can see that they are fully prepared to arrest anyone who might be causing any problems. What we have seen so far, five people, at least, arrested. The city of Anaheim says that they are still in the process of making sure that these streets are once again drivable to the people who live here. John, Isha?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Our thanks to Kyung Lah for that. Now, by the end of it all, people arrested eight people there in Anaheim. VAUSE: Let's bring back our Democratic Strategist, Matthew Littman, and Conservative Radio Host, Mike Slater, in San Diego. Okay, so we had another day of anti-Trump protests, even in the past few hours; even here in Hollywood, a few hours ago, where Trump was due to make an appearance on a late night talk show. Protesters showed up there, calling him a Nazi, that kind of stuff.

Trump, --Mike Slater, to you. Trump was meant to speak with the House Speaker, Paul Ryan this evening. He's still hoping for Ryan's endorsement. Are these type of demonstrations something which might give the Speaker pause?

SLATER: Oh, let me speak, generally, about these demonstrations. I think they're going to hand Donald Trump this election more than anything else. No one's going to watch violent, angry, full-of-rage protesters and say, well, they're making really good points. I'm going to agree with them. They're going to give Donald Trump this election because no one wants to be associated with that. If I was a Democrat, I'd be telling these protesters to cut it out, because they're not helping their cause at all, especially by waving Mexican flags. Who's that for?

SESAY: Matt?

LITTMAN: As opposed to the violence inside Donald Trump rallies, which I'm sure really is great for --

SLATER: You can't compare that. You can't compare that at all. We're talking -

LITTMAN: Why can't I compare?

SLATER: -- violent -

LITTMAN: I didn't hear about anybody getting punched in the face last night. You actually can compare it, and Donald Trump is asking for it.

SLATER: I was at the Costa Mesa rally, where people were violently attacked; all right? I witnessed violent attacks; right? I witnessed way more dangerous rhetoric outside of these rallies than anything Donald Trump is saying from the stage; I guarantee you that.

LITTMAN: Really? How about keeping 11 million Muslims out of the United States? Is that not dangerous? How about nuclear weapons for South Korea and Japan, is that not dangerous? How about the potential of not ruling out nuking Europe, is that not dangerous?

SLATER: My suggestion is, if you're trying to win hearts and minds, getting around a police car and smashing it and getting around cars with people inside of it and banging them up and down and smashing on the windows, is not the way to win hearts and minds for your cause, Matt. You should be the one angry at the protestors, not me.

LITTMAN: By the way, you're actually -- I agree. Banging on the police cars and violence at a Trump speech doesn't do anybody any good and I agree it actually does a disservice, when we should be talking about Donald Trump's actual plans, which are horrible. So let's talk about that.

VAUSE: Okay.

SESAY: And to that point, of Donald Trump's actual plans, you know, short on the details, again, Mike when he was on the campaign trail yesterday and today, but I specifically want to pick up on the fact that he took on New Mexico's Governor Susana Martinez. Many people wondering why you would do that? Many wondering whether he really does care about GOP unity? Forget whether he gets Paul Ryan's endorsement or not. I mean, what do you say about that?

SLATER: It's a really good question. So, listen, anything Don -- first of all, I'm no Donald Trump defender here; I just want to be clear about that.

[Laughter]

SLATER: But any -

VAUSE: He's your nominee.

[Laughter]

SLATER: Yes, but - yes; anything Donald Trump does is to get attention and press coverage. That's it. That's the answer to everything. That's the answer to all the conspiracy theories that he throws out there; that's the answer to attacking Paul Ryan and the Governor. It's just so he gets his name in the headlines. All "Art of The Deal" is about is how to get your name in the headlines. It's the same thing P.T. Barnum did 150 years ago. Keep the spotlight on you at all times, that's the key to his victory. He needs to win the media cycle every day for six months.

VAUSE: Okay; just want to get to this very quickly because if we're going to have party unity, "National Review", the conservative magazine, holding out hope for none other than Mitt Romney. This is what the conservative magazine wrote, "Mitt Romney is the only man who combines the integrity, financial resources, name recognition and broad public support to make a realistic independent run at the presidency. He's conservative. He's got an enviable record in business and government and he's demonstrated a unique capacity for turning around failing enterprises." He just doesn't run well for president, that's the problem.

Matt, I mean, you look at this, you hear this -

SESAY: You're saying run, Mitt, run?

VAUSE: Yes, run, Mitt, run?

LITTMAN: Look, I think Hillary's going to beat Donald Trump. Mitt Romney's not running for president. If that was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago. A third-party person isn't going to win, so it would be just to beat Trump. So I think what's point of this? Mitt Romney lost last time; he lost the time before that. So it might make the "National Review" happy, but Mitt Romney has shown no indication that he's planning on getting in there. I think Hillary's fine against Donald Trump.

VAUSE: Okay, Mike, last word? Run, Mitt, run?

[00:25:02] SLATER: No, way. So I was a Cruz delegate, and my advice to other Cruz supporters is jump on the Trump train, not because you agree with it, not because you agree with it, but because you think you can positively influence it for the better and make it something good. If you disagree with it now -

SESAY: And you think you can do that?

VAUSE: Let's finish on an upbeat, positive note. That's good, end it there. That's a nice, good, positive, happy, inclusive message.

SLATER: That's all I'm looking for. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. Nice to have you smile.

VAUSE: You're a genius. We're all geniuses; fabulous.

SESAY: Thank you, gentlemen.

VAUSE: A short break. Bernie Sanders, his sights are set on California's crucial primary next month. Coming up, a look at the democrat's latest rally in the Golden State.

SESAY: Plus, one of Sanders biggest supporters, actor and marijuana advocate, Tommy Chong joins us to explain why he's feeling the Bern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody; you're watching "CNN NEWSROOM" live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay; the headlines this hour: in a few hours London Mayor, Sadiq Khan will make his pitch for keeping the U.K. in the European Union. The U.K. Government is warning British citizens that a so-called Brexit could lead to the loss of almost 1 million jobs.

VAUSE: The Afghan Taliban's new leader is rejecting a return to peace talks. A Taliban source also says Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada intends to pursue the group's founding principles, "including terror on enemies." A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan killed Taliban's previous leader on Saturday.

SESAY: A U.S. State Department report is scolding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for breaking federal recordkeeping rules.

[00:30:00] It says the use of a private e-mail server for official business was not authorized, as she has claimed. It notes that previous Secretaries used private email as well, but recordkeeping rules were updated in 2009 when Clinton took office. VAUSE: A few dozen protesters clashed with police and Donald Trump supporters near Los Angeles on Wednesday. Some demonstrators threw rocks at police and eight people were arrested. Just the night before, a chaotic scene at a Trump event in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Protesters lit fires, smashed a door and threw rocks, many criticizing his immigration policies.

Crowds were calmer at Bernie Sanders' campaign event in Lancaster, California. The Democratic Presidential Candidate wrapped up an event there just a short time ago. California's primary is on June 7.

SESAY: One of Sanders' biggest supporters in the state, actor and comedian, Tommy Chong, says he supports the Democrat's position on some big issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Sanders Campaign Ad Plays]

VAUSE: And Tommy Chong joins us here in the studio in Los Angeles. Tommy, thank you so much for coming in.

SESAY: Welcome. Welcome.

VAUSE: It's great to have you here, to get a different perspective on this. In the video you put out, you say Bernie Sanders, you compare

him to the very best weed you can get. He's also the only candidate out there supporting legalizing marijuana. Is that the only reason why you're feeling the Bern?

TOMMY CHONG, COMEDIAN AND BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: That's the main reason.

VAUSE: Yes, I can tell by your hat.

CHONG: Feel the Bern, yes. No, because I really, sincerely believe that cannabis is going to save the world.

VAUSE: How so?

CHONG: In every which way. Medically, you know, it's good for epilepsy. It's good for MS. It's good for Alzheimer's. You name it, cancer.

I'm a cancer survivor, and part of my treatment was marijuana, or cannabis, so I really think that it's, that is a very important issue.

SESAY: All right; let's look at the support for Bernie. It's still going strong, as you well know.

CHONG: Yes.

SESAY: When we look at the data, it's almost mathematically impossible that he can win this nomination.

CHONG: Nothing's impossible. SESAY: Exactly; so tell me why the feeling is still so strong for Bernie among his supporters?

CHONG: It's like a good movie, you know. It doesn't look like the guy's going to win. In fact, it looks like he's going to lose -- oh, my god, he's going to lose; but at the last minute he comes in, and he wins.

SESAY: That's wishful thinking if you look at the math, though, Mr. Chong.

CHONG: Look at our past. Look what we've gone through. Look at the Nixon years. Look at the Bush years, you know. Bush had me put in jail for selling bongs.

VAUSE: Yes, you did like nine months in jail.

CHONG: Yes, I did nine months in jail thanks to the Republican -

VAUSE: So tough drug laws, basically.

CHONG: So when you get a guy like Bernie talking not only the truth, but he's talking the future, you know, he's talking about climate change. It's very important, you know. We've got a candidate that doesn't believe in climate change. I mean, this is after, you know, the icecaps have been melting.

VAUSE: You're 78; and happy birthday, by the way.

CHONG: Thank you.

SESAY: Yes, happy birthday.

VAUSE: Are you still battling cancer right now? This is your second time around?

CHONG: No, I am cancer free. I mean, as far as the chemo doctors and that goes. I have to go in for an MRI, but -

SESAY: Congratulations.

VAUSE: But why not, at this point in your life, sit back and relax, just take it easy? Why do this?

CHONG: Well, I can't sit back, because I had an operation. So I have to stand a lot.

VAUSE: Right.

CHONG: And not only that, but working and a beautiful wife will keep you young.

VAUSE: Right. CHONG: And I've got both. I've got the job, we're still in demand. We're still out there, Cheech and I, and my wife Shelby; and we're doing real good.

SESAY: That's great stuff. So, tell me, back to the political race, will you support Hillary? Will you -

CHONG: Absolutely.

SESAY: You will?

CHONG: Oh, absolutely. I mean, we need a mum in the White House for sure, you know. And Bernie's a good mum, by the way. Bernie's -- he's like a Jewish mom, you know, and Hillary would be great, because we need someone who cares about people, you know. We don't need a businessman that only cares about his own personal health.

VAUSE: But do you worried, though, that a lot of people are saying Bernie Sanders staying in the race is actually hurting Hillary's chances against Donald Trump come the election?

CHONG: Not at all. It's not hurting anything. I mean, look at the [00:35:01] differences between Hillary and Bernie are nothing. They're, -- no differences, really.

SESAY: But his other supporters don't feel that way. They feel the differences are quite, quite stark.

CHONG: CNN has a knack of finding the people that say things like that, you know, but, if you look at really intelligent people, they will see through all that, you know. Because, yeah, you can get, you know, very passionate about a candidate, like Barack Obama for instance, you know. I mean, when him and Hillary were going at it, it was the same thing, you know, only it was kind of reverse. Hillary was trying to be the doing the Bernie thing.

VAUSE: Very quickly, there have been some angry protests outside Donald Trump rallies. Bernie Sanders supporters are quite angry. Anything out there which might take the edge off this election a little, help people chill out a bit?

CHONG: Oh, absolutely. In fact, I've got a new strain out, we've got a strain, you know, Chong's Choice. This is my company, we distribute, and I've got a new strain for Donald Trump. It's called Donald, the Donald. What happens, you take a toke and start lying.

VAUSE: We'll leave it at that. Thank you so much.

[Laughter]

SESAY: Thank you so much.

CHONG: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, it was a good chat.

SESAY: It was. Time for a quick break now. They are desperate to find better lives, but for some, the journey ends in death. As more migrants make dangerous attempts to reach Europe, our own Arwa Damon joins us here to talk about the crisis.

VAUSE: And those migrants are facing a threat from ISIS militants. We'll have an exclusive report as well.

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VAUSE: Six Iraqi security officers are dead after an attack by ISIS suicide bombers near Fallujah. Iraqi forces are advancing on the city in a fierce fight to retake the Fallujah from the militants.

SESAY: Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric is echoing U.N. concerns about a [00:40:01] humanitarian crisis there. He urged the government and allied militias to spare the thousands of civilians trapped in Fallujah.

VAUSE: New images show the ongoing horror of the European migrant crisis. A boat crammed full of people capsized off the coast of Libya, as an Italian Navy ship approached to handout lifejackets.

SESAY: It happened when passengers rushed to the portside, throwing the boat off balance. The Navy says about 562 migrants were rescued, but five people died.

VAUSE: That voyage is part of a recent spike in migrant attempts trying to reach Europe, now that the seas are calmer and it's starting to get warmer.

SESAY: But there is something new and ominous going on. Libyan officials tell CNN ISIS militants are infiltrating the migrant groups so they can establish sleeper-cells in Europe. Nick Paton Walsh has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the moment when desperate dreams come to an end. We're with the Libyan Immigration Police inside a warehouse of migrant hopefuls they just raided, right on the Tripoli beachfront. As Turkey and Greece close their shores, the Libyan route to Europe has exploded again. Here, among the squalor that a lifetime savings buys, is where fantasies of a future in Europe fall apart.

Where are you from? Nigeria. Eugene fled ISIS-loyal Boko Haram in Nigeria, whose bombs killed his father and brother, and he survived the desert trek until here.

EUGENE, NIGERIAN REFUGEE: Today, bomb blast. Tomorrow, bomb blast. We are not safe. After the death of my father and my brother let me go out, let me travel out. Every time I talk about them, I feel sad. I feel sad. WALSH: We leave quickly, as this is the smugglers neighborhood, but there is a new threat here. Smugglers and police telling us that ISIS have hidden fighters among other groups of migrants bound for Europe.

This trade in human souls is awful enough until you think that perhaps ISIS are using this passage of human life into Europe to try and infiltrate the continent with sleeper cells.

Police tell us off-camera they've caught different other migrants with ISIS links, and a top Libyan intelligence official warns us the threat is real.

ISMAIL AL-SHUKRI, POLICE COMMANDER, MISRATA, LIBYA via translator: ISIS can be among the illegal immigrants on the boats. They travel with their families, without weapons, as normal, illegal immigrants. They will wear American dress and have English language papers so they cause no suspicion.

WALSH: It is a huge and unpatrollable coastline where smugglers rule. We talked to one, disguised for his safety, who says that in the past two months, ferrying ISIS has become part of the trade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, via translator: A about two weeks ago, a boat left the ISIS stronghold, Sirte; among them were about 40 ISIS. They were heading to Europe but bad weather turned them back. Ten days later they tried again; I don't know if they got there. About a month ago I got a call from a devout guy I knew was ISIS. He wanted a small boat for 25 people and was willing to pay about $40,000. I didn't take the deal.

WALSH: Do you and other smugglers feel comfortable moving people who you know may be ISIS towards Europe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Smugglers are only interested in smuggling. ISIS, anyone, they don't care, melon or watermelon. Only money matters.

WALSH: The Libyan state is torn apart by infighting, it's coast guard struggling to even find boats.

Fighting the migrant trade across this, the whole coastline of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, are just six boats like this, some of which are not in particularly good service. You simply can't imagine how under-resourced things are here, so close to Europe.

These are the desperate scenes as they tried to rescue some African migrants whose dinghy collapsed late last year. Smugglers now prefer these dinghy, vulnerable to the slightest weather change. A trade borne of human misery, some fleeing ISIS themselves, only to find ISIS now seek to hijack their deadly journey to spread more suffering.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Tripoli.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, let's get more perspective on ISIS and the destruction they bring to communities. CNN Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon joins us here in L.A. Arwa, welcome.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

VAUSE: Nice to have you here.

SESAY: Really nice to have you here. Listen, Arwa, we're all closely following the situation in Fallujah, where, you know, tens of thousands of people stand to be displaced, as we look at the situation in Europe and migrants trying to find safer ground. What are you hearing about the [00:45:01] situation now as we fear a humanitarian crisis there?

DAMON: The problem with Fallujah is that if people were to be displaced from the city, that would actually be the best-case scenario. We have heard repeated reports about how ISIS uses the civilian population as human shields. We saw some examples of this when we were covering what happened in some of these villages outside of Mosul.

In Fallujah, there are tens of thousands of families potentially trapped there. The government says it has humanitarian corridors, but you can't access these humanitarian corridors to even begin to get out. So, if ISIS does not allow the civilians to flee, and if the government continues pushing forward in this offensive, the potential cost could possibly be unlike any we have seen during any other battle between ISIS and the Iraqi government forces.

VAUSE: What is the situation with ISIS, which is a Sunni group. You've got Fallujah, which is a Sunni town. You have the Shi'ite militias on the outskirt. You've got about 600 ISIS fighters inside Fallujah, 50,000 civilians. How much support does ISIS actually have inside Fallujah because those Sunni families are terrified over what the Shi'ite militias will do to them?

DAMON: They are stuck in an impossible situation.

VAUSE: Yes.

DAMON: Because, yes, they are afraid of that, and they don't know what is going to be happening, if and when these militias, along with the government forces do manage to move in. It could very well be that the government ends up negotiating an agreement with the militias like they did in Tikrit, for example.

VAUSE: To stay on the outskirts?

DAMON: To stay on the outskirts, and then they move in. But, at the same time, this is, yes, a city that has been under ISIS control for over two years now, even before ISIS was even ISIS, when it was just the Islamic State of Iraq, it still had control and presence in Fallujah and this is a city that has years and years of history with various different ISIS-linked insurgencies throughout the course of Iraq's history. So it's an impossible situation for the civilian population.

SESAY: So let me ask you about the government's handling here, and Hadier al-Abadi, who is in a very tight political squeeze right now. How much does he need this win in Fallujah, which would influence how he handles this offensive?

DAMON: They need the win on multiple fronts. They need the win, first and foremost, militarily, to be able to begin moving on and actually squeezing in on Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. Politically speaking, if, and that's a huge if, they can go in and successfully retake Fallujah, without causing a civilian bloodbath, which is going to be next to possibly impossible, they then need to prove and use Fallujah as an example where they prove to the Sunni population that when the government forces do come in, because at the end of the day it still is a Shi'a-led government, they and the Shi'as are not going to indiscriminately target the Sunni population. This cannot be viewed as yet another maneuver by a sectarian government. The government has to counter that narrative.

VAUSE: We want to very quickly move on to the migrant crisis. You saw Nick Paton Walsh's report, also, that rescue by the Italian Navy, or Coast Guard. I want to share some pieces of your reporting from last year. It was your report. It was on the border with Hungary and Serbia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: Along the road he keeps telling his daddy, I want to go home. All Fouad (ps) can respond is "God is good. The day will come when we will go back home." His only memento from Syria? Tightly-wrapped plastic to protect it during the sea crossing, his barber kit. A trade he could no longer practice in Syria under ISIS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Actually, I was just going to ask you, do you remember these people; and, I guess the other question is, you covered so much of this, do you think people actually get it, how desperate it is for so many people? I mean, people around the world in their comfortable homes.

DAMON: I don't think they do.

VAUSE: They don't?

DAMON: I think the issue is, when you watch this, you just need to think for yourself about everything you take for granted and then imagine that that has been taken away from you. Imagine that you're a parent trying to

protect your children. You can't do that one thing that's meant to be your fundamental job, protect and care for your child.

Plus, a lot of these refugees, the ones that are fleeing from Syria and Iraq, I'm focusing on that right now, they're not the lower class. The lower class are the people that can't afford the journey, because it's so expensive. These are people who, like that man, had a successful business. These are the middle-class, that are just trying to get away from what they see as a no-end situation for themselves and for their children. They are acknowledging the tough reality, that their countries are not places that they can call home anymore.

VAUSE: Arwa, good to have you here, and thank you for your reporting.

SESAY: You do such great work.

DAMON: Thank you.

VAUSE: Yes.

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: A short break here. When we come back, President Obama is in Japan, but not before a little beat boxing in Vietnam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Why don't you give me a little rap, let me see what you've got? Come on. Do you need like a little beat?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do, actually.

OBAMA: Go ahead; come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ("WORLD SPORT" HEADLINES)

[00:53:07] SESAY: Major world leaders are kicking off the G7 Summit right now in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed President Obama, Francois Hollande and others in Shima a couple of hours ago.

VAUSE: The group is expected to discuss terrorism, the global economy and the disputed South China Sea. On Friday, Mr. Obama will head to Hiroshima. He's the first sitting U.S. President to visit the site where the U.S. dropped the first two atomic bombs in World War II.

SESAY: Well, CNN Athena Jones is following all the latest from nearby Toba. Athena, good to have you with us. Before we get to the issue of the G7 itself, President Obama's trip to Japan off to something of a rocky start, after a public scolding from the Japanese Prime Minister?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Hi; that's right. The Japanese Prime Minister expressed his deep resentment about the alleged murder of a Japanese woman, a young Japanese woman, by a former U.S. marine on Okinawa, which is, of course, where many U.S. troops are based. The President responding to that at a press conference, a brief press conference last night, held with the Prime Minister after a meeting they had.

The President expressed the fact that the U.S. is appalled by any violent crime that may have been committed by U.S. personnel or a U.S. contractor and that he called it inexcusable and said they are committed, the U.S. is "committed to doing anything we can to prevent any crimes like this from taking place, and that includes reviewing procedures." So they want to see this person brought to justice, and that is something the President had to address, you're right, pretty much as soon as he arrived here in Japan. So that was a big topic last night. John, Isha?

VAUSE: And, Athena, the visit tomorrow to Hiroshima, the administration's made clear, this is not an apology tour, but there is some criticism of the President that that is exactly what it is?

JONES: Well, you know, the President has been criticized quite a bit by folks on the other side of the aisle, Republicans, who say that the President [00:55:01] has gone around the world making what they call "an apology tour." They cite, for instance, the speech he gave in Cairo, several years ago, at the beginning of his administration, trying to reset relations with the Middle East, for instance.

Now, the White House has said over and over again, this is not an apology, this is not going to be a backwards-looking trip or event. This is a chance for the President to acknowledge what happened in World War II, the innocent lives lost; but they want to use this trip to Hiroshima, this first trip by a sitting U.S. President. It's historic. It's symbolic. They want to use this to highlight one of the President's chief foreign policy goals. This has been high on his foreign policy agenda since he first took office, and that is to eventually have a world that's free of nuclear weapons.

The White House feels that since the U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in a war, the U.S. should be leading this effort to eliminate nuclear weapons, and this is one of the things we expect the President to highlight on his visit there to Hiroshima; but he's not going to be revisiting the decision to bomb Hiroshima or Nagasaki back in August of 1945.

We will be watching because it will very interesting to hear what he has to say.

VAUSE: Absolutely; Athena, thank you.

SESAY: Thank you, Athena. All right; well, after taking questions about climate change and his own youth from young people in Vietnam, the U.S. President made some international music.

VAUSE: Barack Obama dropped a brief beat for the country's queen of hip hop, who then rapped for him in Vietnamese.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Why don't you give me a little rap, let me see what you've got? Come on. Do you need like a little beat?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do, actually.

OBAMA: Go ahead; come on.

[Rapping in Vietnamese]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: She's good.

VAUSE: You don't get to rap for the President every day.

SESAY: No, you don't; and you don't hear the President beatbox every day.

VAUSE: That's true.

SESAY: Thank you for watching "CNN NEWSROOM," live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. We'll be back with another hour of news from all around the world. You're watching CNN.

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