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Trump blasts Russia talk as probe enters new stage; GOP aims to unveil tax reform bill Wednesday; Trump attacks Clinton as Mueller's charges loom; Puerto Rico wants to cancel $300 million Whitefish contract; Ahead of indictment, Trump to Republicans: Do something; Families devastated by opioid crisis; USB drive with queen's secret travel data found on street. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 29, 2017 - 17:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

[17:00:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: ... targets in the Russia investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, maybe in custody as early as tomorrow.

Right now, we do not know the name or names of those accused or specific charges. Those are under seal by orders from the federal judge but a former Trump campaign ally says Mueller's targets should be worried. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I think anybody who has been advised by the special counsel's office that they are a target in the investigation which I'm sure he has done to those people who are should be concerned.

I think for us to have confidence in this process, we have to make sure that the grand jury process remains confidential, remains secret so that Special Counsel can work effectively to be able to get to the bottom of all that he's looking into.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: The person indictment looms, President Trump is venting, via social media, on Twitter. The president unleashing a series of blistering Twitter attacks this morning, taking shots at Hillary Clinton, Democrats and really the entire Russia probe.

Here's one and I quote, all of this Russia talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic tax cuts and reform. Is this coincidental? Not.

CNN broke the story that a federal grand jury approved the first charges from Mueller's investigation. Let's get right to crime and justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz, who broke the story, along with Pamela Brown and Evan Perez, Shimon, give us the very latest you are hearing for your sources.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right, so the very latest is basically that we do expect some action tomorrow, law enforcement action and perhaps a court appearance sometime tomorrow from whoever it may be that was indicted.

We still don't know who was indicted and who at least in these early stages is going to be charge tomorrow. You know, my colleagues, Evan Perez and Pamela Brown have spent some time today making phone calls, checking with some of the lawyers who are representing some of the folks whose names have come up as being under investigation by the Special Counsel.

And so far we have not been able to verify that anyone has been contacted by the FBI, by the Special Counsel's office to surrender tomorrow. So it's still up in the air as far as we're concerned as to exactly who is going to appear in court and going to surrender and be arrested.

CABRERA: Now, Mueller, we know did not start from scratch in this investigation. He inherited investigations by the FBI counterintelligence divisions, the DOJ, FBI, IRS investigation that was ongoing on Paul Manafort for example, former Trump campaign manager. Is that significant here?

PROKUPECZ: Well, it's significant in the sense that this -- we know this investigation has been going on for well over a year with the FBI and the Department of Justice.

It was -- it was first revealed when the former FBI director testified before Congress and essentially said that they had launched an investigation in July against the Trump campaign. And so from that point on, the FBI has been investigating, since now well over a year.

So they have spent time gathering all sorts of information that they then presented to the Special Counsel's office. Now some of the other key players here, like Paul Manafort have been under investigation for a lot longer.

What we first reported on Paul Manafort, he was involved in investigations that have to deal with his foreign transactions and foreign business dealings with the Ukraine, so all of that was under investigation already by the FBI and the national security division of the Department of Justice.

So all of this information has been sitting with the Special Counsel team since they were appointed in May and they may have just gone back and reviewed some of it and maybe some of that information was presented to a grand jury.

We just don't know and really we don't know what these charges are about yet, so it's hard to say whether or not this previous investigation -- all of that has already occurred has played a role in what we may see tomorrow.

CABRERA: All right, Shimon Prokupecz, thank you. Meantime, president Trump is gearing up for his first trip to Asia since taking office. He leaves Washington later this week. The big focus, economic, the president's trip will include stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and Philippines.

Also happening this week, the GOP races against the clock to meet a self-imposed Wednesday deadline, a chance to unveil the details of their bill on tax reform, something Republicans have been pushing now for years.

And I want to bring in CNN's Boris Sanchez at the White House. Boris, if you look at the president's Twitter feed today, he seems more preoccupied with Hillary Clinton than overhauling the nation's tax system.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. You would think it was a year ago just days before the election the way that Donald Trump is going after Hillary Clinton and not some ten months into his presidency.

Regardless the president was fired up on Twitter this morning, talking about what he perceives as a lack of investigations into Hillary Clinton. He specifically cites that now infamous dossier that was put together by fusion GPS.

[17:05:00] The company that was eventually one point hired by the Clinton camp to gather negative information about then candidate Trump. He also tweeted about the uranium deal. Again, alluding to this idea that Hillary Clinton took bribes from Russian's in exchange for a favorable uranium mining deal.

And he mentions her e-mails and what he comes the Comey fix, this idea that former FBI Director James Comey didn't press charges against Hillary Clinton during the investigation into her use of a private e- mail server to carry favor with her.

And then very revealing portion he kind of puts it all into context. He writes quote, instead of these investigations, they look at Trump- Russia collusion which doesn't exist. We get a chance to ask White House attorney Ty Cobb about these tweets.

And whether or not the president was meaning to address the news coming out of the Special Counsel's probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, here's his response.

He writes quote, contrary to what many have suggested, the president's comments today are unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel with whom he continues to cooperate despite that denial, Ana.

If you look at the president's own words, it's clear that he's unhappy there are multiple investigations into these allegations about collusion with Russia.

And the fact that he's bringing this up now, these attacks on Hillary Clinton with as you said, a full week of things on the agenda ahead, the timing of course is curious, Ana, and it leads to a lot of speculation that he's doing this to distract from negative headlines.

CABRERA: Boris Sanchez at the White House, thank you. Let's bring in our panel, joining us, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin.

Michael was Robert Mueller's special assistant at the Justice Department and also with us, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He is the senior editor for the Atlantic. Michael, what do you think we'll see tomorrow?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, assuming there's been an indictment, what we will have is an arrest or voluntary surrender. Then we'll have a presentation of the individual before magistrate judge in the federal district court.

The magistrate judge will advise the individual of the charges against him and the rights through her -- and that rights that they have under the constitution.

And then they will set the case down for an arraignment for the person to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty and then the case will move forward.

That's the -- that's the black letter of the way these things work. What we'll see in terms of what charges and who is being charged, that's another whole matter which as, Shimon, said we just don't know.

You know, so some money says because Manafort and Flynn were the earliest to be under investigation, even before Mueller started. They are the logical ones to be charged first, but that's just speculation, we just don't know.

CABRERA: Real quick, are you surprised to hear from Shimon's reporting that it sounds like perhaps nobody, their legal representatives have been contacted yet?

ZELDIN: Well, we have a sealed indictment and sealed indictments tend to be because they are fearful that an individual may flee or they don't know the exact whereabouts of an individual, and so if they are fearful of flight, and they might not notify counsel ahead of time for the very reason that their client may flee.

So it's not illogical that they wouldn't notify counsel at this point. They could notify them tomorrow and say we want you to bring in your client in this voluntary surrender or they could just go knock on the indicted individual's door and arrest them and not tell counsel until after the fact.

CABRERA: We will see what happens there. Ron, the president again, spending a lot of time this weekend calling this whole situation a witch hunt, pointing fingers at Hillary Clinton and Democrats.

This was a week that was supposed to be about tax reform. What is the -- what is the risk here of the fallout from whatever comes tomorrow beyond impacting president's agenda.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, the flurry of tweets reinforce my belief that increasingly, the president is existing on a separate plane from policy making. Whether in his own executive branch, most of you heard it, on many think that President Obama did regulatory fund or in Congress.

I mean, it almost feels as though the president has a wheel 3in the office in the morning and he spins it, and he decides which are they rotating series of pretty familiar by now targets. He will go after and attack on Twitter through this unending series of kind of personal confrontations and feuds, that he uses to gene up the portion of the electorate is still with him.

CABRERA: That worked -- that worked in the campaign.

BROWNSTEIN: But he has not shown is the ability to drive a message in a way that moves public opinion behind an agenda. You know, you look -- you look it by the end of the health care debate, something like 20 percent or 25 percent of the public said they supported the Republican healthcare bill.

The tax bill now is under water in terms of public opinion. The president's own approval rating has reached record low in the NBC Wall Street Journal poll out today.

[17:10:00] And also in Gallup -- Gallup had to meet at 35 percent, one of their lowest ever. He has shown he can dominate the news cycle but he hasn't shown is his ability to change public opinion around a policy agenda.

And that is really the most important thing a president can do for Congress, in many ways it feels like he's not even really trying. Because as you say, he is kind of, you know, recapturing or resurfacing these disputes that are longstanding with Hillary Clinton about uranium.

CABRERA: In that way, this feels like deja vu.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CABRERA: Meantime, that's the politics of this. But, Michael, should the president be sending out these tweets that come anywhere close to the Russia investigation in Clinton -- Mueller use anything he says against him?

ZELDIN: Well, so two things about that. One, yesterday when the White House comment was no comment, I thought to myself, oh thank god. You know, finally they are doing what they should do, which is keeping quiet and letting the case proceed.

And let the evidence take it where it takes us. Today of course is a different day. With respect to, can the president do something that hurts his legal standing, yes, he could do stuff. He could obstruct justice or obstruct the investigation. He could for example, pardon people preemptively.

He could say to people, if keep quiet, I will pardon you later. Both of those things could be seen as obstructive behavior or impeachable behavior. We haven't seen that from him but, you know, with this president so far, you can never take anything for granted. CABRERA: Right now, one of his tweets is suggesting there should be

another investigation all together and say, that's where the focus should be.

The president often encourages people to watch Fox News. He's close with a number of anchors there, including Judge Jeanine Pirro and listen to what she was pushing on her show last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JEANINE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It's time folks. It's time to shut it down, turn the tables and lock her up. That's what I said, I actually said it. Lock her up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So you had a president that is increasingly unpopular as you mentioned, that poll -- that approval rating, 38 percent in the Wall Street Journal-NBC poll. There's another number in there that's standing out to me at least and that has to do with his base. Let's show it.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

CABRERA: It shows that he is losing support among whites without college degree who approve of the job he is doing now, 51 percent. Last month that was at 58 percent approval there.

Are the president and supporters like what we just showed there with Judge Jeanine Pirro, are they now trying to shift the momentum by rallying around uniting Republicans around a common foe?

BROWNSTEIN: I think so. Look, I think with the strategy of the president, I think has been since really the health care debate, because it was during the healthcare debate that you saw the numbers among those blue collar whites who were the core of his coalition in the election begin to decline.

Because he was taking away health care from many of them in the Republican bills and what they have done since then is really amp up the cultural and partisan confrontation with as I said, a familiar cast of targets hoping to bring those voters back.

And I think if you look at the way the president has responded to today, it's just very much of a piece where you're essentially leaving aside this policy debate and there's going to be a big debate whether this tax plan really does anything for those blue collar Republicans.

And in fact, raising taxes on many on the upper middle class while giving it's biggest tax break to people at the top, I think they are counting on these kind of cultural and partisan confrontations against these familiar targets to energize and hold those voters.

And interesting kind of side bar to this is that in a week from Tuesday, we're going to see in the Virginia governor's election, where you've had Ed Gillespie, who was a candidate -- who was not an easy fit with the Trump constituency of blue collar.

And not ever might, really turn to Trump like themes on immigration and crime trying to energize them at the price of potentially alienating more of the white collar voters in the Virginia suburbs.

CABRERA: Going back to the polling. It looks like Republicans are more behind Trump than the Republicans in Congress. So hence like you say, there's...

BROWNSTEIN: If you look at the broader coalition and look -- you know, just look only at Republicans, that's a third of the country or 35 percent or 38 percent.

You can't win elections just by holding Republicans. You have to perform well among Republican leaning independent voters as well. You know, he got to 46 percent of the vote.

He's now approval rating somewhere between 35 percent and 38 percent of the vote. That's a very big difference. It's a big difference for him potentially in 2020. It's a big difference for Republicans in 2018.

CABRERA: Ron Brownstein and Michael Zeldin, thank you both for joining us. Coming up, it has been over a month since Puerto Rico was ravaged by hurricane Maria.

And a controversial deal with an electric company is under major scrutiny. What it means for the recovery efforts, now we're learning that contract will be canceled. That's next live in the CNN Newsroom.

[17:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We're following breaking news out of the Puerto Rico this evening. The island's electric power authority says it wants to cancel its largest contract with an energy company working to restore power in the wake of hurricane Maria, 70 percent of the U.S. territory is still without electricity.

A whole month after Maria made landfall in the island. Now the controversial $300 million contract was awarded to Whitefish Energy, a 2-year-old Montana based firm that only had a couple of employees before the storm hit Puerto Rico last month.

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell was among those calling for investigations into how Whitefish Energy got this contract and she's joining us live now from Seattle.

Senator, thanks for being with us. You asked the government accountability office to review this Whitefish contract. What is the reaction to news that Puerto Rico's power authority now plans to cancel this deal?

SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D), WASHINGTON: Well, it should be canceled. What we keep getting are bits and pieces of information but what we can glean now from what's transpired is that this company is charging the U.S. taxpayer maybe as much as 30 percent or 40 percent more. [17:20:00] Than what would go as normal rates to do repairs in this

kind of disaster recovery. So we should cancel it. We should get a fair deal for U.S. citizens and U.S. taxpayers. Every dollar that we spend in Puerto Rico is going to be dear so we shouldn't be overpaying.

CABRERA: Now the governor there today sad he wants to make the process when it comes to giving these contracts as transparent as possible. Is that the issue for you as well, transparency and how this contract was awarded?

CANTWELL: Well, we definitely want to continue to investigate how the Whitefish organization got this contract, the language in the contract and why we would ever expect to pay 30 percent to 40 percent more than the going rate in this kind of situation.

So that will be a question, but what needs to happen into disaster like this and a lot of utilities have relationships which are called mutual aid.

They already sign up in advance to help sistering state or region of the country and they know when a disaster happens they are going to need to go and get the repairs done quickly. They don't go in and gouge.

It looks like Whitefish gouged that maybe they said well, we won't require you to pay up front but they then gleaned a higher return and thereby is costing the U.S. taxpayer more money than we need to pay in such a disastrous situation.

CABRERA: Of course officials on the ground had said in part one of the reasons was because they didn't require some kind of fee up front and of course, immediacy is crucial there when you look at the numbers, 70 percent of the island is still without power. But now if this contract is canceled, what does that mean for restoring power?

CANTWELL: Well, we need to go back to those mutual aid agreements. I guarantee you practically every state in the union has offered to help Puerto Rico.

I'm sure that every utility who has manpower would happily send workforce there to help and my guess is what will happen is we'll make more progress now.

The fact that they know that they can do this kind of reciprocity and that they will get paid and that issue has been flattened, we'll see a more expeditious plan to get this done and not as expensive as what we've been charged by Whitefish.

CABRERA: Will the federal inquires into the Whitefish contract continue?

CANTWELL: Oh, yes, yes, there are issues here in how this contract came about. There are issues in the contract itself and the question as we all would want is, we would hate to see in any disaster, anywhere in the United States of America, someone coming in. And having the ability to make a lot more money off of the disaster than is necessary for the recovery, and I think what we want to make sure is that we learn from this situation and never let it happen again.

CABRERA: Senator Maria Cantwell, thank you so much for your time.

CANTWELL: Thank you.

CABRERA: Still ahead, the president calls the Russia investigation a witch hunt and calls on fellow Republicans to do something. But what is that something? I'll ask a Republican congresswoman next.

[17:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We could know as early as tomorrow who has been charged as part of the Russia investigation. President Trump hasn't responded directly to the looming indictment but he is trying to shift attention to a familiar foe, Hillary Clinton.

He went on a Twitter terror earlier saying he has never seen such Republican anger and unity about an investigation that isn't happening, citing the Clinton campaign's involvement in the funding of that now infamous Trump dossier.

He ended his Twitter spree today with this order, do something. I want to bring in one of the Republican lawmakers the president is presumably talking to, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney who represents New York and on the financial services committee.

Congresswoman, thank you for spending part of your weekend with us. What does the president want you and other Republicans to do exactly?

CONG. CLAUDIA TENNEY (R), NEW YORK: Well, I guess he wants us to -- I'm not on the Oversight and Reform Committee. As you said, I'm on financial services and also an attorney.

So I do think he wants us to weigh in on the fact that somehow grand jury testimony was leaked. That is actually a violation of federal law as far as I know. So I think he probably wants us to act on that.

I would assume he's directing that to the Oversight Committee on trying to hold maybe a hearing or committee meeting investigating that. I'm certain that they want to look into whether or not Mueller is really doing the job that he needs to do and whether he's, you know, fair and impartial.

And I think that's what's maybe coming to light here. I can only speculate because I don't have access to the type of information that that committee has access to because I'm not on it. But certainly would be following the news and our Chairman Trey Gowdy is certainly very capable...

CABRERA: Right.

TENNEY: ... and competent prosecutor. So I'm sure he's... CABRERA: In fact, today Trey Gowdy as you mentioned, he weighed in and said he's one of the few Republicans who thinks special counsel Robert Mueller should not resign and he believes he is apolitical as he says and he's impartial.

Where do you stand on how Mueller is doing in terms of the job in this investigation into whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, and whether there may have been any obstruction of justice?

[17:30:00] TENNEY: Well, it's hard to comment on that when all I see are news accounts. Again, I'm not in the committee meeting itself, finding out the information that holding the hearings and we don't really get access to that other than news.

But look, this has become a very exciting issue. Again, I emphasize I'm concerned that there's been a leak from the grand jury. You know, that's the sacred place where people go to make determinations about indictments.

And the fact it's been leaked to the media, it sounds like it -- I don't know if it's deliberate or accidental but that's been an issue that been going on in government for quite a while this year, something that's really come to light.

So I think Trey Gowdy is probably very interested in getting to the bottom of why there's been a leak on something so important as sacred as grand jury testimony about the nature of an indictment. Of course we don't know who's going to be indicted and we shouldn't until that's been released. So...

CABRERA: Do you have confidence in Robert Mueller's investigation?

TENNEY: I don't know him personally, I'm a freshman member of Congress so I don't really know all of the parties in government here but I don't really have any evidence to show that something is good or bad about the investigation.

I would certainly love to see the issues as they come out. I think a lot has been -- a lot of light has been shed though on just who is really in collusion with the Russians and I think that that's going to be really interesting to find out as Oversight Committee under Trey Gowdy's leadership continues to pursue it.

CABRERA: There have been a number of Republicans this week who have claimed that the investigation is taking too long and the FBI investigation we know into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server lasted approximately a year, Mueller's investigation has only been open for five months or so. Is it a good move politically for Republicans to say it's time to wrap this thing up?

TENNEY: I don't know about wrapping it up. We want to get to the truth of the matter. I think that's the issue and whether the truth takes two months or four months or a year, I don't think that really matters. I think what matter is we have a truthful and thorough investigation

to get to the bottom of these issues so the American people have the facts and it's transparent. And I think that's really the issue. It's not how fast you do it, it's how thorough and how truth, the investigation is going to be.

CABRERA: What would you do if President Trump tried to fire Mueller?

TENNEY: I don't think I have a say in whether the president like -- would like to fire Mueller. I would like to find the reason why, if it was in fact Mueller who is the one that was responsible for the leak with the grand jury, then he should be removed.

If it's not him and there was, you know, something that was innocently leaked out or it's obviously, it's not innocent when it gets leaked but it was through no fault of Mr. Mueller and his key people, then we have to get to the bottom of who that person was who's the leaker.

This has been a perpetual problem in government. I've been a strong government reform person in my years in the state assembly, which was in New York and also now government. I'm not on that committee and would love to be on the committee.

But I think that nonetheless, we are going to be weighing in on government issues whether around the committee or not and I think that there's something that's awry in leaks coming from anywhere, whether it's a committee or White House, I think the American people have the right to know.

CABRERA: Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, thank you for your time.

TENNE: Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

CABRERA: Now, let's hear from the other side. Joining me now, California Congressman, Ro Khanna and Democratic congressman, the president spending a lot of time today attacking your party and Hillary Clinton as the first arrest looms in the Mueller-Russia investigation, do you feel there's a valid concern here that requires further action regarding Hillary Clinton?

CONG. RO KHANNA (D), CALIFORNIA: This is a total distraction. If you look at the facts on Ukraine, it was approved by committee of nine people, Hillary Clinton wasn't even on that committee and it's distraction because the president knows that arrests or charges are a very serious matter.

I mean when Jaworski did that in Watergate and had charges close to the president, it was serious. When Walsh did that in Iran contract was serious. He knows that this is a very explosive issue and he wants to distract from it.

CABRERA: There's the dossier, Clinton's campaign and the DNC, we learned this week helped fund the opposition research that ended upturning into that so-called dossier. Now, Clinton and other top Democrats insist they were unaware of this dossier before it was made public. Congressman, do you believe that? KHANNA: Well, I think the investigation will show the effects but

again, that's a distraction. Right now, we have an independent prosecutor Bob Mueller who's integrity is unquestioned who is systemically looking at things and what we should be doing is not speculating but letting him do his job.

And what Congress should be doing is upholding his independence. Congress can make it clear that we will not tolerate President Trump trying to fire him or remove him.

And we should not be distracted by President Trump just making accusations against Hillary Clinton who by the way isn't even in the arena right now. I mean is trying to relitigate an election to distract from the under lying facts.

[17:35:00] CABRERA: Take a listen to what Senator Susan Collins, member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said about Clinton's former camping chairman, John Podesta, and ex-DNC leader, Debbie Wasserman Schultz who testified already or at least had interviews with these investigations on that Congressional Committee, watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: They absolutely need to be recalled. It's difficult to imagine that a campaign chairman, that the head of the DNC would not know of an expenditure of this magnitude and significance, but perhaps there's something more going on here. But certainly it's worth additional questioning of those two witnesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So congressman, does it hurt to ask more questions of them?

KHANNA: Of course not. And I'm sure they will answer honestly, but right now, Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Hillary Clinton isn't elected to anything. And the Congress' job is to hold the president accountable.

Mueller's investigation in scope is about collusion of the Russians in our election and looking at the Trump administration and what took place.

So to try to relitigate a past election of someone who has lost and not making any decisions in the current environment just seems a total diversion.

What we should be focused on is the fact that there's going to be an indictment and people who will possibly be arrested who are possibly close to the president. That is a very serious matter.

CABRERA: What if the indictment the charges and person don't seem to have a direct tie to the election itself or to Russia. Perhaps it's a financial crime from a decade ago for example.

KHANNA: Well, that's a possibility. And you know, the only person who really knows who it's going to be is Robert Mueller. Because he's conducted an investigation where there have been few leaks.

And I heard the person before talking about leaks but it's very possible the leak came from the defense attorney and my view is we should not speculate. We should let Bob Mueller do his job.

We should wait until his report comes out and we should in Congress basically support the independence of this investigation and not allow for people to distract from the investigation by casting aspersions on people without any evidence.

CABRERA: Representative Ro Khanna, thank you.

KHANNA: Thank you.

CABRERA: Coming up...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA MANNING, MOTHER OF DUSTIN MANNING: I touched him and he was cold.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Families across the U.S. torn apart by the opioid epidemic, we'll hear the story of two teenagers who grew up in the same neighborhood both killed by drugs on the same day.

[17:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The opioid epidemic in the U.S. now has Washington's attention. President Trump declaring a public health emergency this week but nothing paints a picture of the scale of the opioid epidemic like this next report.

Two Georgia teenagers found dead on the same morning within an hour of each other in the same neighborhood. CNN's Lynda Kinkade sits down with their parents who are still trying to come to terms with what happened as they work to fight this epidemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHI ABRAHAM, MOTHER OF JOE ABRAHAM: We wanted to have two children because we wanted them to have each other and now Matthew is an only child. Never be the person I was.

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eighteen-year-old Dustin Manning and 19-year-old Joseph Abraham had so much potential.

L. MANNING: Those are his football trophies up there.

GREG MANNING, FATHER OF DUSTIN MANNING: He is in a great place.

K. ABRAHAM: Joe was a very sensitive young man. He was funny. He had a big heart.

KINKADE: It was may 26, a Friday morning, paramedics were called to this house at 6:09 a.m., Dustin Manning was dead. Less than an hour later, half a mile that way, the same situation.

DAVE ABRAHAM, FATHER OF JOE ABRAHAM: Started yelling, and yelling, and yelling, Joe, Joe, wake up, man. Go up, man.

K. ABRAHAM: As I walked through that door, it was just almost surreal. He was on 911 on the phone call. I just came back and I said, we can't fix this.

G. MANNING: When I opened the door, he was crouched over on his bed. It looked like he was tying his shoes almost.

L. MANNING: I went over to him -- and I touched him, and he was cold.

KINKADE: Dave and Kathi Abraham and Greg and Lisa Manning share the same thing, their families torn apart. Their sons teammates in little league, boast started dabbling in drugs in middle school. What drove him do you think to the drugs?

L. MANNING: He told us that the drug was what gave him the out. It made him not feel whatever the depression was making him feel.

D. ABRAHAM: Giving these opiates to kids getting wisdom teeth out and before they know that they are addicted.

KINKADE: Both sets of parents got their sons into treatment centers. The night before they died, Dustin was in a treatment meeting while Joe was at the friend's place.

So just to be clear, the boys weren't out together the night before but it appears that they may have bought these drugs by the same dealer?

D. ABRAHAM: Exactly.

K. ABRAHAM: Yes.

KINKADE: so it looked like the same pill, essentially same wrapping.

D. ABRAHAM: Yes.

KINKADE: Toxicology reports found both teens ingested a toxic mix of heroin and Fentanyl, which can be lethal in small doses. You know how much Fentanyl it took to kill him.

[17:45:00] Just explain it for us.

G. MANNING: Well, according to the coroners, the amount that was in his system was about three grains of salt.

KINKADE: That's it?

G. MANNING: The equivalent of that.

KINKADE: And it happened pretty quickly.

L. MANNING: In about 20 to 30 seconds after he sniffed it, he was gone.

K. ABRAHAM: This is happening to middle class America. I never thought I would never get to see him grow old. You know, it's just -- it's not the natural order of things and that's been a real hard pill to swallow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: These grieving parents welcomed President Trump's declaration of a public health emergency. Kathi Abraham told me she was in tears when she heard the president talk about a problem that shattered her family.

But they agree that it didn't go far enough because it doesn't release additional funds to deal with the crisis, a crisis that last year, Ana, claimed 64,000 American lives.

CABRERA: What a heartbreaking story. Childhood friends dying an hour apart and this happened not that long ago, right?

KINKADE: Yes, that's right, Ana. It happened just five months ago. The pain is still so raw. There wasn't a dry eye in the room as they told about finding their teenage sons on the floor. As a new mom it struck a chord, because I can't imagine a child being prescribed a drug that they become addicted to and watch it so quickly spiral out of control.

CABRERA: And that happened. Thank you, Lynda Kinkade, for sharing that heartbreaking story with us. Still ahead, investigators want to know how a memory stick with high level security data ended up discarded on the streets of London filled with top secret information, including the queen's travel routes through the city. You're live and you'll go live to London next.

[17:50:00] (COMMECIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: An investigation is under way after a computer memory stick containing sensitive airport security information was allegedly found lying in a London street.

The data found by a member of the public reportedly included the queen's route to Heathrow Airport, as well as CCTV locations, guard timetables and other security details.

CNN's technology and business correspondent, Samuel Burke is joining us from London. Samuel, tensions are already high, we know after last month's terror attack at that underground station. Has the security been compromised and has the queen's safety been put at risk with this?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, it is absolutely stunning to think that one of the busiest airports in the entire world has some of its most confidential information on a thumb drive found 13 miles from the airport.

The information didn't have encryption. It wasn't even password protected. Now Heathrow launching an internal investigation right now, though they say the airport is secure. Routes for foreign dignitary.

SO if the president is coming to visit, what the route he would take and Heathrow was on that USB drive, maps of security cameras, if someone -- if they has an inferiors ideas, who know how to evade those if they got their hands on it.

And locations of secret tunnels and escape shafts were revealed in this kind of underground network we have at Heathrow Airport. You mentioned the queen earlier, she doesn't use the same gates that the rest of us use when we go in and out of Heathrow. She uses the royal suite.

Many intimate and security details were on that USB drive. But, Ana, I have been speaking to cyber security experts. And they tell me, Heathrow right now, won't just be looking at who may have been behind this.

But they'll be checking the dark web to see if, god forbid, some of this information wasn't just on the USB drive and got out to where terrorists could see it. That would of course be the worst case scenario.

CABRERA: Right, because you talk about the fact that this was all on a memory device. It could suggest or does it suggest that the security details could be in multiple hands if not on the dark web.

BURKE: These USB drives cause huge headaches for security folks. You and I talk about the internet a lot, but a lot of companies and government organizations have the internet. That means the computers are connected to each other internally.

But they aren't connected to the internet. So the only way to get information in and out many of the times is on a memory stick. So if one person was able to get it out, they may have been able to copy it.

I mean these USB sticks have been involved in so many cyber incidents that we have seen. You may remember Stuxnet. That was the virus that got into the Iranian nuclear program. Many cyber security researches believe that Israel and the United States was behind that.

And those researchers believe maybe a USB drive with just some information on it, the virus on it was set in a parking lot, somebody picked it up, said hey, free USB drive, brought it in and that's how that virus is able to get in.

So you see, the types of huge possibilities that can be open with just a USB drive and what should be a secure network whether it's Heathrow or other locations, very alarming.

CABRERA: No doubt about it, Samuel Burke in London, thanks. And the last time, Anthony Bourdain was in Sri Lanka. There was a Civil War going on. In this week's Parts Unknown, he returns to see how the culture of food has changed.

(BEGIN VIDETAPE)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST: It's been eight or nine years since I have been to this beautiful country filled with lovely people, incredible food, Sri Lanka.

Last time I was here, let's put it this way, we couldn't see too much of the place. We are here in the middle of one of the most vicious.

[17:55:00] Unrestrained conflicts you could have imagined. Well, the war is over. What is Sri Lanka like now?

(END VIDETAPE)

CABRERA: Make sure you tune into Parts Unknown, tonight at 9:00 right here on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Hello on this Sunday. You are in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Glad to have you with us. The story that attacked Washington on edge for month could make an even more serious turn.

As early as tomorrow, we may see the first arrest in the Russia investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.