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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Mapping Out A Potential Path To 270; CNN Poll Finds Clinton Would Beat Trump In November; DOJ Says North Carolina's LGBT Bathroom Law Illegal; President Obama Drinks Filtered Flint Water; Moore To Obama: "Your Visit Is Too Little Too Late"; Friends And Family Remember Devoted Service Member; Lawyer: Doctor Sent Son On Life- Saving Mission. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired May 04, 2016 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:02]

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If she could turn that out, maybe with the president's help, the dream in the Clinton campaign is perhaps you could turn Georgia. In that scenario, Clinton wins.

Now, none of this is real. We're having a conversation in May. This will play out in November. But both campaigns think this will be a very competitive race. Donald Trump will start by trying to change the map up here.

Hillary Clinton will defend it, but just in case she needs opportunity, she's going to look down here. Both campaigns, Jake, think this will be tough, this will be nasty and they think the math at the end could be quite competitive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is a loose canon, and loose cannons tend to misfire.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She can't put it away. That's like a football team they can't get the ball over the line. I put it away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And it is on.

If you thought primaries were tough, just wait until general election time. And Clinton and Trump increasingly are turning their sights upon one another. And we're getting our first real taste of how ugly things will likely get.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): So here are the cards the nation has dealt itself, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. A new CNN/ORC poll shows these two would be the least popular nominees

in modern history. So in a matchup between the nation's first female nominee and perhaps the most unpredictable candidate ever, the deck would be stacked with wild cards as well.

TRUMP: I haven't even started on her yet.

TAPPER: Wild card number one, Donald Trump has given fair warning that his attacks on Clinton will only intensify.

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary and wonderful Donald.

TAPPER: After all, she's now his biggest competition. CNN's newest poll shows Trump lagging behind 41 percent to Clinton's 54 percent in a hypothetical matchup.

TRUMP: She is the worst secretary of state in the history of this country.

TAPPER: But will the kinds of attacks that have worked so effectively for Trump in the Republican primaries...

TRUMP: The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.

TAPPER: ... work in a general election?

TRUMP: She called me sexist and I hit her with the husband.

TAPPER: When Hillary Clinton called him sexist a few months ago, Donald Trump doubled down, calling out Bill Clinton's infidelity, and Hillary did not put up much of a fight. What will her strategy be now?

CLINTON: I'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me. He can say whatever he wants to say about me. I could really care less.

TAPPER: Wild card number two, Trump says he will redraw the electoral map by appealing to working-class voters. Trump will likely try to outflank Clinton on the left on trade.

Can industrial states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin turn the election? Romney lost those states in 2012, and so went the race.

Wild card number three, Trump has made many comments that folks have found offensive, but the remarks that have offended women and Latinos might be the most consequential electorally. Just to focus on Latinos, the question is, will this gin up minority turnout in swing states such as Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Florida?

TRUMP: We're going to build a wall.

TAPPER: And then there's wild card number four, the Justice Department.

CLINTON: I never sent or received any material marked classified.

TAPPER: What will the FBI investigation into Clinton's e-mail server turn up? A former State Department staffer has been given immunity and is cooperating, and Clinton will soon be interviewed by the FBI. It's a question terrifying many Democrats.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Coming up, toxic reception. The governor of Michigan was booed in Flint today over the lead-poisoned water. We will ask Flint native Michael Moore what justice looks like for his hometown.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:04]

TAPPER: Welcome back to the lead.

We have this just into CNN. The Justice Department just notified North Carolina's governor that a controversial law in and lightning rod for criticism for the LGBT community is illegal. HB-2, which bars cities and counties from passing their own anti-discrimination laws, laws that would protect the rights of transgender individuals to use whatever restroom they choose, and has provoked boycotts from musicians and companies, they declared that it violates the Civil Rights Act, the Justice Department.

We will have more on this as information comes in.

For the first time since this horrific water crisis, President Obama is visiting Flint, Michigan, today. He's addressing a crowd at Northwestern High School in Flint right now. Earlier, the president marked the occasion of his visit by taking a sip out of a glass filled with Flint's drinking water, filtered drinking water, to be more specific.

I want to bring in CNN correspondent Sara Ganim, who is in Flint, Michigan.

Sara, this will be the first time for the president to see but close and personal what it's like to be exposed to this poisonous water day in and in day out.

SARA GANIM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What it's like to have to use bottled and filtered water for everything.

You mentioned that the president even took several sips of that filtered water today, trying to restore some of the trust, trying to assure people here that it is safe to drink the water while government at the federal, state and local levels work together to try and replace those lead pipes that are in the ground here that are causing that problem.

The president reiterating today, Jake, that it wasn't about the blame game and who caused this problem today, but more about the recovery efforts. He spent the day alongside the Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, the Democratic mayor here, and even brought along the EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, who was brought before Congress in March and criticized very heavily for her role in not responding to this crisis quickly enough.

Now, that said, the people here, they want to see accountability. When their Republican governor took the stage here before the president, they booed him, Jake, a very different response, of course, when the president took the stage. They're hoping to hear that message of hope and accountability moving forward from him -- Jake.

[16:40:14]

TAPPER: All right, Sara Ganim, with the president in Flint, Michigan, thank you so much.

To talk more about President Obama's visit to Flint and the ongoing water crisis, let's bring in documentary filmmaker, activist and Flint favorite son Michael Moore.

Michael, good to see you again. Thanks for joining me.

MICHAEL MOORE, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER: Thanks for having me on, Jake.

TAPPER: So, you listened to some of the president's speech. Here is a clip from the speech I want to get your reaction to.

Are we playing that clip?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're working hard to make sure that Flint is whole again, to make sure that this proud city bounces back, not just to where it was, but stronger than ever. And I want all of you to know I am confident that Flint will come back.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think, Michael?

MOORE: You know, I love President Obama, and I voted for him twice.

And I'm very disappointed in this. I have been listening to the speech. It's still going on right now at Northwestern High School. And he is just trying to reassure people that everything is OK.

To drink from a glass of water, of Flint water, when a number of experts are still saying that this water is not safe, it's still going through the same corroded lead pipes, it was such a disappointing thing to see, because your clip you just showed about he hopes that Flint can get back to where it was, where was that?

You mean before the water crisis two years ago? After we had lost 75,000 General Motors jobs? Back then? Or are we talking about back to 20 or 30 years ago?

Flint, this -- Flint is a city that has really been destroyed, first by General Motors, then by Wall Street, and now by this Republican governor who, in order to give a billion-dollar tax cut to the rich in Michigan, had to cut back on services. And one of the services he decided to cut back on is drinking water to a poor city like Flint.

And so they were hooked up to the Flint River, instead of the freshwater from the Great Lakes, to save money and to give these rich their big tax break. It just -- it's just -- he says he doesn't want to play the blame game, he doesn't want -- I mean, his attorney general needs to arrest this governor for committing this crime, for poisoning the people of Flint.

Every single child has been lead-poisoned through this water, every child.

TAPPER: Yes.

MOORE: And, you know, the anecdotal stories he just told in the speech, I mean, you haven't -- people watching CNN haven't seen it, but I was watching it on your feed.

I mean, of -- there is a kid in Virginia who raised $15,000 for hand sanitizer for Flint. There's inmates in Indiana that raised $2,500 to send bottled water to Flint. Every human being in America needs about 200 gallons of water a day to drink, cook, bathe, do their basic things.

That's, for 100,000 people in Flint, about 20 million bottles of water.

TAPPER: Michael, let me...

MOORE: There's no amount of water that could be sent to Flint.

The pipes need to be replaced. He needed to come today with the Army Corps of Engineers and start that job. And he hasn't made a single statement today saying that he's going to actually do these things that need to get done.

TAPPER: Let me play a clip. You talked about Governor Snyder.

Earlier, he -- Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, made a speech, but he was constantly interrupted by angry Flint residents. Let's take a quick look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SNYDER (R), MICHIGAN: I understand why you're angry and frustrated.

(BOOING)

SNYDER: I want to come here today to apologize, to say I'm sorry, and I will fix this. Today is an opportunity for us to focus in on understanding that we

need to work together. We have a short-term water crisis...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, Michael, I guess the question, as you...

MOORE: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: What do the people of Flint want? What do they need right now?

MOORE: I think most people would have loved it when he -- when Governor Snyder was there at the bottom of the stairs of Air Force One today, when President Obama came down, it would have been nice to see the president clock him.

You know, that would have made everybody feel really good.

TAPPER: OK, well, that's -- that wouldn't have happened, though.

(LAUGHTER)

MOORE: That probably -- well, I don't know. We live in a strange election year, so, you know, I...

(LAUGHTER)

MOORE: Right now, I think anything can happen.

But -- no, but, seriously, I think the people of Flint -- this man knew. Governor Snyder knew. Once he knew -- he didn't plan to poison the people of Flint.

But once he knew they were being poisoned, and let it go another nine months without telling anybody, just let the poisoning go -- if I saw somebody putting arsenic in your coffee right now, and I didn't say anything, am I culpable if you drank that coffee and were poisoned by it?

TAPPER: Yes.

MOORE: He did that.

[16:45:00] TAPPER: Yes.

MOORE: That's what he did and he has to -- he has to be arrested and face charges for what he did. But in the meantime most importantly the people of Flint have got to be drinking clean water and that's not happening.

Nothing that was said today is going to make that happen tomorrow or next week or next month and after that -- if we do get this fixed, how much are the value -- how much is the value of a house in flint right now.

Do you know what it is? Zero. Anybody out there listening to me right now want to go buy a house in Flint? Anybody want to bring their business to Flint and create jobs there?

The city has been destroyed by this, by the efforts of this governor, the efforts he wanted to make sure the rich to get a tax break and then took away from the poor so he could provide that tax break.

And we need President Obama to step up and do something right now. Not just tell us how he's got our back and he feels bad for us and, look, I'll drink a little sip of water here. That's not what we need.

We need the Army Corps of Engineers in there. We need to be replacing these pipes. We need people to be given temporary housing if they don't want their children drinking this water there any longer until things are fixed.

The big things need to be done. That isn't what happened today and I'm sorry to have to be critical of President Obama, I love the guy.

You know, he walked out there, blue collar, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, looked good, sounded good. Tomorrow morning the children of Flint are drinking the same poisoned water.

TAPPER: Michael Moore, we always appreciate your passion and you're visiting us. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

MOORE: Thank you. I'm sorry I'm so upset about this. Thank you for letting me have this time.

TAPPER: No, we appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Coming up, the Pentagon has named the Navy SEAL killed in Iraq and now we're learning more than his name about this hero who lost his own life saving others from the terrorists of ISIS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:05]

TAPPER: Welcome back. Let's turn to our World Lead. The Pentagon has identified the U.S. Navy SEAL who was killed in combat in Iraq yesterday. The 31-year-old Charles Keating IV from Mesa, Arizona, was killed when 100 ISIS fighters breached the defense lines at a base near Mosul, Iraq and launched the coordinated attack on Kurdish forces with whom Keating was embedded.

Keating hailed from a prominent family with a rich tradition of service to country. Friends say he joined the SEALs because it was the hardest thing to do. CNN's Barbara Starr has more on this extraordinary hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An American voice is heard yelling in the middle of the battle. The U.S. military has seen this video exclusively obtained "The Guardian." There are U.S. special operations forces here with their faces blurred.

It's believed to be the fire fight that would kill Navy SEAL Charles Keating. U.S. air strikes here on amateur video hitting ISIS targets, trying to push back ISIS fighters during the intense battle. Defense Secretary Ash Carter highlighting the danger for U.S. troops.

ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It was a surprise ISIL attack which in addition to being tragic shows us this is risky -- this is a risky campaign.

STARR: Keating was part of a force called in to rescue Navy SEALs advising Peshmerga forces fighting north of Mosul. More than 100 ISIS fighters broke through Peshmerga lines moving nearly two miles in a few minutes to the camp where the U.S. advisors were.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this case the enemy was able to covertly assemble enough force which included the several truck bombs, some bulldozers and of course, their infantry.

STARR: Fighter jets and drones rolled in, dropping more than 30 bombs, Keating took a direct hit, small arms fire also hit the helicopter Medevac'ing him off the line of fire, attempts to save his life failed. The 31-year-old SEAL was the star of his high school track team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a tremendous athlete, a tremendous person. Joyful kid, fun to be around all the time, I'm devastated.

STARR: Keating the third American service member killed in combat against ISIS. Some 5,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq and Syria training, advising, assisting local fighters, and trying to kill or capture ISIS leaders. All of this aimed at liberating not just Mosul, but also Raqqah in Syria from ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would take away one of their key pillars and that is their ability to control terrain, which ultimately gives them the ability to govern and gives them the ability to control populations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: How much additional risk may be at hand, another 450 U.S. troops are slated to go to the war zone -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Barbara Starr, thanks.

New reports about Prince and his drug use, what we're now learning from his half-brother's attorney.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:58:15]

TAPPER: We're back with our Pop Culture Lead today. Two stunning developments into the investigation into the death of Prince, first, a last ditch effort to try to save the singer, an opioid addiction specialist had been called for help the day before Prince died.

Second revelation today claims that Prince used the painkiller, Percocet, decades ago. CNN's Stephanie Elam joins me now live in Minneapolis. Stephanie, what do we know about this appointment with the specialist?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. To break it down for you, Jake, what was going to happen here, people from Prince's camp reached out to this doctor in California the evening of the 20th.

The doctor was not able to fly there on Thursday so he sent his son to explain how Prince how the treatment would work. He took a Red Eye flight, the son did, he got to Paisley Park Thursday morning with two of Prince's associates when he got there that's when he was found unresponsive in the elevator and it was actually the son who called 911.

This all coming from the attorney representing the son and the doctor. Prince was also scheduled to meet with a local doctor Thursday morning, but that never happened. So we're learning more about that timeline.

Separately CNN has also learned from an attorney who used to represent one of Prince's half-siblings, Duane Nelson, that he said Duane Nelson told him decades ago Prince would use Percocet to come down after performances and sometimes he would procure that.

Duane Nelson has passed away but we do know that he used to work at Paisley Park for Prince, but was fired and then ended up suing his half-brother so a new development there -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Stephanie Elam in Minneapolis, thank you so much.

That is it for THE LEAD today. I am Jake Tapper. You can follow me @jaketapper on Twitter or @theleadcnn or you can turn to our Facebook page, jaketappercnn. I turn you over now to Wolf Blitzer. He is in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thanks for watching.