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U.S. Navy Scours the Mediterranean Sea in Search For The EgyptAir Flight 804; Donald Trump Quickly Fired Off On Twitter Blaming Terrorism and Lack Of Security; Donald Trump Has Endorsement by the NRA. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 21, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:37] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto reporting live from Washington.

And we begin with breaking news on EgyptAir flight 804. As the U.S. Navy scours the Mediterranean Sea from the air, we are getting our first pictures from on board a ship as teams pull out of the water, human remains, plane debris, life jackets, aircraft seats and suitcases from the water. You can see them there.

We can also now play for you the first audio transmissions from inside the cockpit. The pilot speaking to air traffic controllers before his plane went down. Let's have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. Hello. Egypt Air 804 Flight level 276. Squawk number 7842 (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt Air 804 radar contact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt Air 804 contact Padova 1-2-0 decimal 7-2-5, good night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Padova Control Egypt sir 704, thank you so much. Good day. Good night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That was communication from the plane with a ground station in Zurich as the plane began its journey. The airbus A-320 bound for Cairo went down minutes after entering Egyptian airspace during what was otherwise a routine flight from Paris.

What we do now know is that moments before it plummeted from 37,000 feet, the plane sent automated warning messages indicating smoke was detected in the front part of the aircraft. Egyptians standing by their belief that this plane was likely brought down by an act of terrorism. But without those crucial black boxes, it's still impossible to know for sure whether someone inside the cockpit steered the plane into the sea or whether this plane was blown out of the sky by a bomb hidden somewhere on board. Or even if this was simply a catastrophic midair mechanical failure. All those open questions at this point.

Our CNN reporters are working their sources. And we have our teams fanned out across the world. CNN's Becky Anderson is live for in Cairo. Nic Robertson international diplomatic editor is reporting for us in Crete. And our pale of aviation and terror experts are also standing by.

I want to begin with Becky Anderson.

Becky, earlier in the day, you interviewed the Egyptian foreign minister. They were first out of the gate saying that this was likely terrorism. I wonder if today the foreign minister shares that view.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, they haven't ruled it out. But they are keeping an open mind and rightly so I think. We talked about a lot of issues, not least this ongoing search in the Mediterranean. He said it isn't clear how long that will take. But did say that Egypt was very grateful for the international effort and help that is being implemented there and name check, the U.S. amongst others who were involve. And he said that it is clearly incredibly important now they retrieve the black box and the data programming in order they can begin to provide some sort of picture of what happened and why. Not least the foreign minister told me to provide some sort of closure for the families of the victims. Less we forget there were 66 souls on board this flight.

We also talked about the claims of smoke in the cabin of the aircraft ahead of this crash. And he said he couldn't verify those claims, but he did say that it remain an element of what he described as a jigsaw puzzle that has to be compiled. We also talked about the importance of the investigation being a coordinated effort. This is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMEH SHOUKY, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We have to define where the plane has gone down and the depth, where it is, and of course, our collaboration with the various partners. All have offered. And all of the offers have been most gratefully accepted, the United States, the French, the British and others. Russians today in my conversation in separate with foreign Minister Lavrov, we are eager to cooperate with all of them. Not only to get to the bottom of it, but also in respect of closure for families of the deceased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:11] ANDERSON: And clearly, Jim, as important to the Egyptians as anybody else they get to the bottom of what happened and why, during that flight, EgyptAir 804 -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question. Becky Anderson in Cairo speaking with the Egyptian foreign minister there. I want to talk now with our panel of aviation experts. We have CNN

aviation safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector, David Soucie, former CIA operative Bob Baer, also a CNN intelligence analyst, Boeing 777 commercial airline pilot Les Abend, contributing editor of "Flying magazine" and aviation attorney and CNN aviation analyst Justin Green.

Gentlemen, great to have you on. Among you your collective experience, examining investigating prior airline mishaps, I want to draw on that if I can. The newest information we have from these planes are these ACARS transmissions, automatic electronic transmissions from the planes in the final minutes of flight which set a couple of things. One, smoke detected in a lavatory in the plane, in the avionics bay just below the cockpit over the course of minutes.

But perhaps, David, I could begin with you. What does that tell you? I know it's not conclusive, but when you see those messages over a series of minutes, does that make it more likely in your view it was a terrorist event or mechanical failure? What are you drawing from that information?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION SAFETY ANALYST: Well, the event that stated it, Jim, it's just difficult to speculate at all on that. But what we can do is follow what we do know, which is the fact that the anti-icing system in that sliding window is what first gave the alert. And that alert is telling us that something went wrong in that area, what it was that went wrong, we don't know. I do know that there has been a history of some problems with that type of window on various other types of aircraft as well so it's suspicious but again, it is inconclusive. But the way it propagated over a couple of minutes does give a lot of clues as far as the fact that it can rule out, the fact that there was a massive explosion or some kind of massive bomb that went off. That simply doesn't line up with these type of facts that we are getting now.

SCIUTTO: Interesting. So you say that that data over those minutes rules out an explosion, to be fair and this is always the case, it's an investigation that's early. We've spoken to other experts who said that it is possible all those signals could indicate a plane that was breaking up in the air after some catastrophic event including the possibility of an explosion.

I wonder Les, if you could pipe in here, and again for the sake of our viewers we know that this is speculation based on incomplete information. But is that a fair interpretation of this evidence in your view?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST. You know, I think anything is still on the table, Jim. But you know, I tend to lean with David a little bit on the technical side of it. We disagree about the window aspect of it. But I think it's very simple or more simple event where something occurred down in the electronic compartment that just set up all sorts of malfunctions that originated there, maybe an incendiary device, maybe just something that a sparked, particularly as fire smoke situation that just went everywhere into that airplane that the crew had to handle. And basically you have fly by wire airplane with that no longer simplifying it. It has the ability to control itself because you can't control an airplane electronically when it has no electronics.

But you go back to some accidents, EgyptAir back in July of 2011 had an oxygen system on the ground in Cairo blow up because of bad wiring situation or faulty wiring situation that created a fire. Everybody was safe and evacuated safely, including the crew. And then in 2013, there was A-320, Petra airlines, a Jordanian airline that had an oxygen cylinder blow up. It was a mishap was the way they labelled it. But this is also in the very close to an e-compartment, the electronic compartment. So you know, devices within the airplane it designed for the airplane could have also created that issue.

SCIUTTO: So, I mean, just, again, for the sake of our viewers, as oppose the only that is certain is that it leaves open multiple explanation as to what brought the plane down.

Justin, as Les was speaking there, we have been showing again these images of what debris, what limited debris has been discovered so far. You see pieces of airline seats, you see some clothing there. You see even a life jacket. Do you learn anything from what you're seeing there based on your experience, or is this just, you know, the lightest stuff, floats to the surface in any sort of air event like this?

JUSTIN GREEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes. I'm an attorney representing the families, and I first want to say how painful it must be for these families to see this. We are talking about ACARS. This is really, ACARS was the first kind of direct evidence in this case. There was speculation, a lot of speculation, probably too much from some people that should know better before there was any direct evidence. But the actual wreckage pieces, what they're collecting now also is direct evidence.

And the investigators, you know, people like David are going to go and test all of that wreckage for bomb residue. If there's bomb residue on it that's going to answer that big question. But right now as CNN reporters have all been very careful to point out, it's too soon to draw any firm conclusions.

[15:10:44] SCIUTTO: Bob, one piece of evidence that is missing so far is a claim of responsibility if this was a terror attack. In your experience, without one, does that mean it wasn't a terror attack, or does it decrease the chances? Do groups like this sometimes wait to make such a claim?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: I think it decreases the chances of terrorism. You know, if you took down an airplane like this it would be a great strike against the Egyptian government and the French government as well. On the other hand, there's always the possibility -- this has happened in the past where they're testing new bombs and this is total speculation. And what you would do with a bomb like this is make a very small, put it on the ground either Paris or Cairo or even Tunisia where it stopped before. Some sort of incendiary device in the avionics bay. And you wouldn't see a big flash, you wouldn't see the cracking of the frame, necessarily, but it would take out the avionics. And Special Forces are taught to bring airplanes down like this. So that just -- sheer speculation. But we can't rule it out. And of course, we wouldn't see on the baggage in the water or even the bodies signs of explosive residue. You really going to need to get the black box whether this speculation holds any water.

SCIUTTO: And that could take some time because the waters are so deep there in the eastern med.

Bob Baer, David Soucie, Les Abend, Justin Green, thanks very much for lending us your expertise today.

Coming up the crash of EgyptAir flight 804 brings a new focus of debate into the presidential race. Here in the U.S. with the leading candidates giving extremely different responses. So who looks more presidential?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Exactly how, of course, the investigation will have to determine.

TRUMP: What just happened about 12 hours ago? Plane got blown out of the sky. And if anything, if anybody thinks it wasn't blown out of the sky, you're 100 percent wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: I'll talk live with former presidential candidate and former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson after this break.

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[15:16:15] SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Since the announcement of his presidential run, Bernie Sanders' political revolution has focused its sights squarely at the top of the Democratic Party.

Anchor of CNN's "STATE ON THE UNION," Jake Tapper, he spoke with Sanders just moments ago.

Jake, what was his message to you today?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we asked him -- his campaign has been saying some very, very tough things about Congressman Debbie Wassermann Schultz who is the chair of the Democratic National Committee and the Sanders' campaign has suggested she hasn't been neutral, that she's been doing things to help secretary of state Hillary Clinton and to hurt Bernie Sanders. So we asked what that might mean practically when it came to the August 30th Democratic primary in Florida that Wassermann Schultz faces. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Your campaign and many of your supporters have argued that congressman Debbie Wassermann Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee has not been neutral in her position as chair. Your campaign manager Jeff Weaver in particular has been very critical. She is being challenged right now in a primary by Tim Cunova. He is a law professor who opposed the pacific trade deal that you opposed. He supports. He has already raised $1 million. You've been calling for a revolution in Florida. Are you with Wassermann Schultz or are you with her opponent?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, clearly, I favor her opponent. His views are much closer to mine than is Wassermann Schultz's. And let me also say this, in all due respect to the current chairperson. If elected president she would not be reappointed to be chair of the DNC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Now, Jim, as I don't need to tell you, this is some very tough talk for senator Sanders to say that he is going to support Wassermann Schultz's primary opponent. And that if he wins, he effectively will end her reign at the DNC. We should not that while senator Sanders is a obviously a political force and able to raise a lot of money, in the March presidential primary in Florida, he only got 30.5 percent in Wassermann Schultz's district as opposed to Clinton who got 68 percent. So how many people in her district are feeling the burn, is subject to debate, Jim.

SCIUTTO: And then he says the battle within the Democratic Party is or I supposed disappeared as well.

Jake Tapper, thanks very much. And you can Jake's full interview with Bernie Sanders on "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow, Sunday, 9:00 a.m. eastern, of course right here on CNN.

An event like the EgyptAir crash during the height of an election season can help voters better understand a candidate and how they would respond to tragedy and foreign policy challenges. Donald Trump quickly fired off on twitter blaming terrorism and the lack of security and saying, that he would fix it. While Hillary Clinton waited until after she was briefed to respond. She then came on CNN and said that terror was likely, but she still hedged.

So what could this mean for Election Day? Joining me now someone who is very well-qualified to talk about this, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Also, of course, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and also former presidential candidate. To be transparent for our viewers we should say that you have endorsed Hillary Clinton.

But at your view, from your view, looking at those two responses there. Donald Trump going right at the terrorism angle blaming Muslims, and he went on to reinforce his call for a temporary ban on Muslims coming to the U.S. Hillary Clinton giving a more measured response. What do you think the political ramifications of the comments are?

[15:20:01] BULL RICHARDSON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N: Well, The political ramifications are going to be that voters will see that Hillary Clinton has experience, can be commander in chief. And Donald Trump is unprepared. I mean, he is shooting from the hip. We don't know whether it's a terrorist act. We don't know who's responsible. He's kind of blaming France, it originated in France. He doesn't say anything about the deaths, condolences. It was a political statement where he's trying to get votes. He is trying to alarm voters. Trying to act tough. Well, you don't have all the facts. I mean, what if it was pilot error or malfunction of the plane. You don't know that. Possibly terrorism, but you wait until you have the all information before you shoot from the hip.

And foreign policy is not a reality show. Foreign policy decisions like this are life and death. They're not who is going to garner more political advantage. And that's what Trump tries to do on almost every issue.

SCIUTTO: But let me ask you this question, ambassador, of course this political season has surprised many people, including the enduring support for Donald Trump. And lo and behold he is now the presumptive Republican candidate. Is it possible that this could be to this favor? That there are voters who will say, well, listen everybody else is hedging. They are hemming and hawing. He tells it like it is. And that will not only fire his base, but get at some of those voters, many voters who are just frustrated with the way Washington works?

RICHARDSON: Well, there's no question it helps his base. But I don't see it expanding his base. I think Trump has a very large way to go in convincing women voters, in convincing moderate voters, in convincing elements in his party, much less Democrats. And certainly, when national security experts weigh in on Donald Trump and say this man is not prepared to be commander in chief because of his limited knowledge, his shooting from the hip, I don't believe it's going to help him.

Yes, there's a lot of frustrated angry voters. But they're angry about the economy, about income inequality, lower wages, because they're not getting a piece of the pie. National security, that's the most important job in a president. And right now, I believe Hillary Clinton has big advantages. She has been secretary of state. She has handled terrorism crisis. She has been somebody that knows world leaders but she is waiting for the latest information. She is acting like a president.

SCIUTTO: I understand the case you're making there. There's a new CNN/ORC poll that finds more than half of Americans think the fight against ISIS is going badly. Trump certainly aware of that. He tweeted this earlier today. While our wonderful president was out playing golf all day, TSA is falling apart just like our government. Airports are a total disaster.

I just wonder you're aware of this as well, whatever the progress on the ground, the American -- many American voters have the impression that the war against ISIS is not going well. Hillary Clinton, of course, served in the Obama administration as secretary of state, senior foreign policy role. Does that -- do those negative reviews of the fight against ISIS stick to her and damage her in the general election?

RICHARDSON: Well, I don't believe so because she was secretary of state, the president is commander in chief. I by the way, think the president handled the terrorism issue successfully. Yes, there is still huge problems with ISIS. It's growing. We need broader strategy of European support, of Arab support. But at the same time, I think Hillary Clinton has said, look, there are some areas where I would act differently. I would deal with a no fly zone in Syria. I would increase the number of Special Forces there. I mean, there are little issues where I think she has staked out her own position as she should. So I don't see this as damaging issue to Hillary Clinton. There's frustration out there. But at the same time, on foreign policy, Jim, you've got to be responsible. You've got to be prepared. You have to have preparatory work. You have to understand the military. You can't go out in a -- you know, you're fired like Trump says. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to talk to Kim Jong- Un.

I mean, this would be disaster rewarding bad behavior with the North Koreans without any preparatory work. Without saying to the North Koreans you've got to reduce your nuclear arsenal. That's what voters are going to be looking at, experience --

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about one of the primary, if I can, one of the primary disagreements between Trump and Clinton. Here on CNN just on Friday Secretary Clinton said that Trump's temporary ban on Muslims would make it harder to defeat terrorism. As you know that's not a position she is alone in. You had general David Petraeus make the same point in an op-ed last week. Now, Trump has responded to Clinton's comments, those kinds of criticisms, here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:25:19] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's one of the dumber statements I have ever heard. I mean, she is so ill equipped to be the president. In fact, if anything it's just the opposite. Because they are going to have to learn that we can't take this anymore. And they are going to have to turn in the people that are bombing the planes. They know who the people are. And we are not going to find the people by just continuing to be so nice and so soft. And I have many Muslim friends and they agree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Donald Trump is clearly lac latched on to terrorism and fear of terrorism AS potentially in his favor when the attacks happen, he jumps on them. Blames the administration. Is that a political risk for Clinton in this general election that those fears will feed Trump's supporters?

RICHARDSON: No. And I think voters are going to see you don't build walls to defeat terrorism. You don't ban Muslims to defeat terrorism. You cooperate with Muslim Americans in the United States to get information, to get intelligence. You build support with allies in the Arab world and Egyptians, so many others that are suffering from terrorism. You don't do that by insulting. You don't do that by making bombastic statements. All I heard him say is she's ill equipped. For what? What about the substance, Donald? What about the issues? You don't talk about them. It's all personal insults. It's all bombasts. It is all trying to rile your supporters into yelling more. That's not foreign policy. Yelling, accusing is not foreign policy.

SCIUTTO: Governor, Bill Richardson, thanks very much for taking the time today.

RICHARDSON: Thank you, Jim. Bye.

SCIUTTO: Coming up, inside the search for the EgyptAir jet. Rough weather conditions could soon make it harder to find the needle in the haystack those key flight data and voice recorders. We'll have more. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:55] SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

And we are back with the latest in the search for EgyptAir flight 804. This is our first look at debris gathered from the plane after it crashed into the eastern Mediterranean. This new video appearing to show mangled pieces of the planes and personal effects, shoes fabric from seats, even an unwrapped life jackets. All of these items pulled from the waters along with the grim finding sadly of human remains as well.

As to what brought down the plane that remains a mystery. But France is confirming that on board systems detected smoke in parts of the plane moments before it plunged into the water. And as searchers battle rough seas and a 40 mile radius search grid, conditions there are deteriorating fast.

CNN's Nic Robertson has the latest on the search from the Greek Island of Crete - Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There are several things we can learn from the debris so far. What the Greek air force is telling us is that they believe now that because some debris has been found that allows them to focus a little more tightly on the search and recovery effort. There are two c-130 military transport aircraft are on standby today. The visibility from the skies is not so good. But they say the radius of the circle of the area they are looking at now is about 40 miles. That's about 5,000 square miles to search.

But the conditions for searching today are much tougher, not just of visibility from the air but looking out at sea. The wind is up. The waves are up. There are white tops. And of course, the pieces of debris that have been found so far are relatively small. They are going to be much harder to spot when the water, when the sea is rough. And of course, the recovery effort is about 100 miles out to sea from here. This is relatively in shore waters. It's quite choppy here further out to sea much, much rougher. So this is going to make the recovery effort, looking for small debris, as they found so far much harder. And of course, the key is finding the debris, the concentration of it using tidal patterns to figure out where the black boxes are, the voice and data recorder.

Nic Robertson, CNN, the island of Crete, Greece.

SCIUTTO: Nic Robertson there not far from the search area.

Coming up, investigators interview the ground crew that worked on that EgyptAir jet just before takeoff. So just how many people had hands on access to the plane? The number will probably shock you.

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[15:35:19] SCIUTTO: The crash of EgyptAir flight 804 raises hard questions about airport security. While France's foreign minister says no theory has been ruled out. Egyptian authorities have said that terrorism is the most likely cause. However, no one has come forward to claim responsibility. And Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport is now under heavy scrutiny.

CNN's Max Foster is joining me now live from Paris.

Max, former head of the CIA has told CNN he has concerns about that airport. And one figured that certainly has stuck in my mind, and I'm sure would shock many of our viewers, some 85,000 workers at that airport alone have so-called red badges which allow them access to secure areas, including where this plane was. Right now, are investigators looking at everyone who had those badges?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the issue we have is that at the moment these French passengers are still just missing in official terms until a French victim has been found. You don't get the official investigation ramped up to a level where we get official updates. They're not calling it terror.

Today, a lot of the families of those passengers met with officials both government officials and aviation officials here in Paris. And they had so many questions. But those officials are tied really to what the Egyptian investigators are saying to them because the Egyptians are leading on this. Nevertheless, that didn't stop the many questions, particularly about security. And here is a representative of those passengers' families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The question of security at the airport was raised persistently two or three times and provoked an answer from authorities. The airport authority said that all airport personnel are subject to strict controls, but the families have a lot of questions and had very few answers today. The real issue is if it's terrorism it will raise concerns about security at Paris airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: What we got from our sources, saying that they are going through a verification process. So what they are doing is checking all that video footage and checking out anyone who could have had any contact with that plane as it sat on the tarmac here, Jim. SCIUTTO: Max Foster on the story there in Paris.

Coming up right after this break, a geologist, a photographer and a young man, just engaged the new details we're learning about the passengers on board that doomed EgyptAir flight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:44] SCIUTTO: Welcome back. We are learning more about the 66 people who were on board that EgyptAir flight 804. They come from 12 different countries. They are adults, children, two of them were infants. Some of them were mothers was like (INAUDIBLE), mother of three. But friends said she could heal anyone. Other ones, others like (INAUDIBLE) were flying to Egypt to visit family.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The crushing reality setting in. Their loved ones gone.

We were at a press conferee he says they said nothing. Some people just collapsed, then left.

At Cairo's (INAUDIBLE) mosque, a special Friday prayer for the victims of flight 804. A painful gathering of friends and family devastated, an uncle of the plane's co-pilot s (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was about to get married. He is in really ready in the relationship. And he just introduced me to his --

MARQUEZ: Ten crew members, 56 passengers, two of them infants, all looking forward to reunions and new adventures in a disoriented turn their loved ones in shock. Inconsolable.

(INAUDIBLE) was a Canadian living in Cairo, a mother of three. The school her kids attended posted this on Facebook. She was a devoted and loving mother. Always there to offer a helping hand with a pure smile.

Richard Osmond (ph), a geologist from Wales working on Egypt. The 40- year-old leaves behind two infant daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a very admirable person. I think a lot of people admired him for his strength and values.

MARQUEZ: Pascal Hess, an independent photographer from France, almost didn't make the flight. He lost his passport the week before the trip. He was 51 years old.

(INAUDIBLE) was head to the Egypt to visit his sick father, the 40- year-old director of a Procter and Gamble facility in France was said to be always smiling.

The family (INAUDIBLE), the head flight attendant on 804 says she was just starting a new life.

She was a newlywed who got married six or seven months ago, she says. I asked God for the flight to be hijack instead of what we have been told. We had hoped.

With debris from the plane being found, hope overtaken by grief.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:49:11] SCIUTTO: Donald Trump's endorsement by the NRA is giving voters a sneak peek into the potential showdown between him and Hillary Clinton. During his acceptance speech he went after the Democratic front runner telling the crowd she would do away with the second amendment and what put people living in unsafe neighborhoods at risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the second amendment, just remember that. We're not taking about changing it. She wants to abolish the second amendment. So we are not going to let that happen. I can tell you that right there. We are going to preserve it. We are going to cherish it. We are going to take care of it, OK. You know, they keep chipping away. They talk about the magazine. They talk about the bullets. We are going to take care of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Hillary Clinton quickly fired back with this tweet saying quote "you're wrong, Donald Trump. We can uphold second amendment rights while preventing senseless gun violence.

Joining me now is CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. He is a Hillary Clinton supporter. And Boris Epshteyn, he is a Republican strategist and Donald Trump supporter.

Boris, I wonder if I could begin with you. In his 2000 book, Donald Trump said, well, the book, "the America we deserve," he said that he supported a ban on assault weapons, and in that book, he argued in favor of a longer waiting period to purchase a gun, both positions the NRA, steadfastly opposes. Now he says that he would banish things like gun free zones and he has flipped on these positions. Which position of Donald Trump do you believe?

[15:00:46] BORIS EPSHTEYN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, 2000 was 16 years ago, right. So the NRA obviously endorsed on him based on his positions now. And small people of all positions that could happen to any politician.

SCIUTTO: That's not an evolution, though. That's a reversal.

EPSHTEYN: Well, whatever you want to call it. Donald Trump was very clear where are his positions are now, and those positions are, preserve the second amendment but also, very importantly, enforce the laws on the books and keep criminals off the streets, which is much more important about a discussion about came out in 1999 or 2000. SCIUTTO: Maria, if I can ask you, because this is actually on the

crime issue. This is something that Hillary Clinton is taking from both sides. You have Donald Trump saying she would be soft on crime. You have many in the African-American community who blame Bill Clinton's crime bill in 1994 for leading to mass incarceration. How does that issue help or hurt her? How is she going to walk that fine line in the general election?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, actually, I think she has walk that line quite successfully because one of the very first things she put out there when she started running for president was a very specific, well thought out proposal on criminal justice reform. She has spoken out against the 1994 legislation. She has the support of the majority of the African-American community as evidenced by the kinds of percentages of votes she's had throughout the primary within this community, and this is something she's going to continue to talk about.

Gun safety is a huge issue of incredible importance, not just to the African-American community, but to Americans in general. And you can see that Americans do want more restrictions that would focus on gun safety. And what is laughable -- well, not laughable because it is a serious issue.

EPSHTEYN: Not Americans --

CARDONA: It's actually kind of embarrassing when you have somebody like Donald Trump who is just completely outright lying about Hillary Clinton's position on the second amendment, but, clearly, this is somebody who lived in a fact-free zone for the past nine months versus Hillary Clinton who is putting out there very well thought out proposals that would actually keep our second amendment rights, but at the same time, focus on gun safety, which is what the majority of Americans want.

SCIUTTO: Boris, I want to give you a chance to respond. Maria says that Trump is outright lying on Hillary Clinton's position on guns.

EPSHTEYN: Hillary Clinton is very clear that she wants to dismantle the second amendment.

CARDONA: She has never said that, Boris. That's ridiculous.

EPSHTEYN: What Trump is saying is this. The key is not the guns. The key is the violent offenders. There's a program in (INAUDIBLE) Virginia called project exile which said that if anybody committed a felony with a gun, they have to go to jail for five years, and will trial to federal court, no early release, no parole.

Democrat Eric Holder said it was a pretty kind of program and it was bad. Well, that program diminished murders with guns by 60 percent. That's the kind of programs that Donald Trump and Republicans want to put into place when Donald Trump becomes president. So that's what we should be concentrating on.

Also, we need to fix the mental health system in America. The one key that is present in all mass murders in America is all the folks had severe mental health issues. We have to help these people before they commit terrible murders.

SCIUTTO: Maria --

EPSHTEYN: These are criminals. They are going to commit a crime anyway no matter what kind of gun laws that are in place. They are going to commit the crime. We have to get to them beforehand.

SCIUTTO: Maria, it is a mental health issue?

CARDONA: You know what? Mental health is a huge issue in this, absolutely. And you know what? If those were the kinds of things that would come out of Donald Trump's mouth, I think we would be having a different conversation. But here is the problem. He doesn't talk about those things in front on the IRA. And he certainly doesn't talk about his past positions because, clearly, he's flip-flopped --

EPSHTEYN: He's been very clear, very clear.

CARDONA: He has gone from supporting an assault weapons ban and additional wait times. And let's remember that after President Obama talked so eloquently about these challenge and what we need to do from a policy position, after the massacre at Newtown, Donald tweeted, I am with the president on this as is the rest of America. So again, it's ridiculous. They are hypocritical. He's a hypocrite, and he's outright lying.

[15:55:09] SCIUTTO: Unfortunately, we have to leave it there. I appreciate you diving right into this and we'll he you back. Thanks very much.

CARDONA: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Looking ahead, stormy skies and choppy seas, coming up, the challenges of searching for the wreckage of EgyptAir thousands of feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean. That's how deep the waters are there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:22] SCIUTTO: In Richmond, Virginia not far from here in the nation's capital, nearly 40 percent of children live in poverty. This week's CNN hero has become an unlikely father figure, teaching kids in Richmond's public housing communities about mountain bike racing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a lot of people can't see is that our kids have the equivalent of ten suitcases each of baggage that they are carrying on that bike. These kids can tell me to piss off at any time, but what can I do? There's connections being made. It's war to me. It's me against the circumstances the kids live in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:00:08] SCIUTTO: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto coming to you live today from Washington.