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New Day Saturday

Trump To Hold Rally In Michigan During White House Correspondents' Dinner; Lawyer At Trump Tower Meeting Says She's Kremlin "Informant"; Pruitt Facing Ethics Probe Scrutiny; Pyongyang Calls Korean Summit "New Milestone"; Is Marijuana The Solution To The Opioid Crisis?; Americans Urged to Turn in Unused or Expired Drugs; Genealogy Web Site Helped Capture Golden State Killer. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired April 28, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:14]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in 2016 now admits that she has closer ties to the kremlin --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, she was a Russian spy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It certainly corroborates what we have seen of Veselnitskaya. That she was working to undermine the U.S. policy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that the leaders of North Korea and South Korea are talking and nuclear missile tests have stopped for now is a cause for optimism.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it's going to work out just fine. Let's see what happens, but I think it will be very good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did it take so long, 11 years to get to this historic moment?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We're not going to be played. We'll hopefully make a deal. If we don't, that's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. So, we have Merkel and Macron, a dictator to a doctor, a rapper to a Russian lawyer, and a lot of people saying it's been a heck of a week for President Trump, and maybe that's just the opening act.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Look at you with the literation. That was nice. Nice. The president returns to one of his favorite settings, the campaign trail, today. He has a re-election rally and is previewing a speech on Twitter. It's got the attacks on Russia, the investigation at least, Robert Mueller and Democrats.

CNN's Abby Phillip is live in Washington. We'll start there. Abby, we know how much the president really loves these rallies. But there are some major developments in the Russia investigation he'll have to address soon enough at least.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor. The president is having a little bit of a replay this year of what he did last year at around exactly this time. The White House Correspondents Dinner is usually the place where the president will show up and make fun of himself and perhaps the press corps and political scene.

But he skipped it last year. He's skipping it yet again this year. Instead, he's having a campaign rally in Michigan. It's something that his aides knew he really enjoyed in part because of the counter programming that it presented to the dinner, which is a very Washington affair often.

And also, because the president, as you just mentioned, likes to be on the trail road testing some of these lines, perhaps attacking his enemies. These rallies tend to be very much a free-wheeling affair. And the last couple of days, the president has been doing just that also on social media.

As you mentioned, previewing some of these messages. Last night, he sent a late-night tweet addressing the Russia probe saying the House Intelligence Committee rules that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

As I have been saying all along, it is all a big hoax by Democrats based on payments and lies. There should never have been a special counsel appointed, witch hunts. Now, he's referring to the House special counsel report on the Russia investigation, but that report was a partisan one.

It was written mostly by Republicans. Democrats dissented saying that the Republicans really didn't do the leg work to really inquire about some of these very clear ties that there has been the campaign between the president's associates and Russia.

And one of those ties, the famous meeting between the president's son, Don Jr., and a group of Russians including a lawyer who has now come out and said that she was an informant for the Russian government, she wasn't there simply to talk about Russian adoptions, that she was there as an -- essentially an agent of the Russian government.

So, that is a new development here that this White House is going to have to contend with. And frankly, this is -- this development is perhaps new to the public, but folks in the intelligence community have known for quite some time that her role with the Russians was clearly more advanced than she might have let on.

So, we will be watching to see what President Trump is going to say today throughout the day and into this rally in Michigan. But the objective here is going to be to put something else out there for the public to digest and also, perhaps, to go after some of the main themes he's been talking about on social media and in -- in a "Fox and Friends" interview in the last several days. He's been going after James Comey and the special counsel investigation at length -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: Yes, he has. Abby Phillip, thank you so much.

One of the big questions this morning, why is this Russian lawyer who previously denied any connection to the kremlin coming forward with this information now?

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen following all of these developments from Moscow.

[06:05:04] So, Fred, what exactly do we know, first of all, about the timing of this, and about her motives for essentially outing herself?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's not clear what exactly her motives are. Also, she doesn't essentially say that she was an agent of the Russians or is an agent of the Russians. She simply says that she is an informant which in itself is quite interesting.

Because, of course, before she'd always said she has no ties to any Russian government bodies. But now the thing that's really interesting here is her ties to Russia's general prosecutor, Yuri (inaudible). That's always been something where investigators in the United States have said they believe that the ties are much closer than she had let on.

Now she's come forward and said, yes, I have a relationship with the state prosecutor, a professional one, and I am also an informant. Let's listen in to what she said in an interview yesterday.

(VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, she's saying, yes, she is an informant. The question is why is she saying this now? And one of the reasons might be is because some of her emails between her and the state prosecutor of Russia have been leaked.

Fairly recently they'd gotten into the hands of an organization that's headed by a kremlin critic, the organization is called "Dossier." And in there, you see that the language between her and the state prosecutor is a lot more cordial and friendly than you might have thought.

And also, that there seems to be a lot more interaction than was previously let on. She also apparently had very close coordination with Yuri (inaudible) in the case where the Russian federation tried to thwart the Justice Department, which was going after a Russian businessman in the United States, and she apparently was representing this businessman.

At the same time, also worked together with the Russian authorities to try and thwart that investigation. So, there's a lot of new information that's coming out. And also we have to remember that when the infamous beating took place in 2016 there at Trump Tower, she was actually sold to the Trump team as a Russian government lawyer.

I want to read to you an excerpt from the e-mail that Rob Goldstone wrote to Donald Trump Jr. saying, (inaudible), a close business partner of Donald Trump, who also helped organize the Miss Universe pageant in 2013 saying, "Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and the Russian government attorney" -- obviously, this being Natalia Veselnitskaya -- who is flying over from Moscow this Thursday."

Obviously, that was the meeting where Donald Trump Jr. was apparently told that he would get, quote, "dirt on Hillary Clinton." He says that the meeting led to nothing, that she wanted to talk more about trying to repeal the Magnitsky Act.

But certainly, a lot more information coming out and also becoming more clear that her ties to the Russian government certainly seemed to be a lot closer than she has let on and also than she told U.S. authorities, as well -- guys.

PAUL: Very true. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for walking us through all of it.

BLACKWELL: All right. Joining us now, Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and anchor for Spectrum News, and Walter Shaub, CNN contributor and former director of the Office of Government Ethics. Gentlemen, good morning to you.

Errol, let's start with you. Your assessment of why Natalia Veselnitskaya is coming out with this assertion now that she is an informant.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, a news organization basically had her dead to rights. The dossier organization that got its hands-on e-mails led by insiders, who are very much in an opposition stance to the Putin regime, they -- they had the emails, they had the information, they passed it on to NBC News.

NBC News confronted her with the emails. So, it's fascinating to watch her on camera there. Sort of -- kind of size up the situation and say, well, yes, you know, you got me. I am an informant. When the president keeps talking in all caps about how this is a witch hunt, well, I think we have a witch here.

BLACKWELL: House Democrat, Walter, Eric Swalwell, says that, of course, she was an informant when she walked into the room at Trump Tower back in June of 2016 for that meeting. I want you to listen to what he's proposing now after this reporting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I have written legislation that is called a duty to report, which says that if you are contacted by an agent of a foreign power as a candidate or someone on the campaign team you have to tell the FBI. There's so many people who were approached by Russians with dirt on Hillary Clinton or who offered to connect Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, and they said nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: I imagine there are some people who once this came out in July of last year about the meeting at Trump Tower were surprised that that was not a requirement. In this environment, what do you think the viability is of that legislation getting through Congress and then getting a signature from the president?

[06:10:06] WALTER SHAUB, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't know if it will get through Congress. I mean, we've got a Congress that was responsible for this ridiculous intelligence committee report. That was nothing more than an attempt to confuse the issues and muddy the waters, but I think it's a very good idea in terms of legislation.

I'm glad he proposed it because this is another example of the norm in government. Anybody in the past, you know, however many elections back you want to go would have thought immediately to contact the FBI. This was the beginning of a series of departures from the norms of government by the Trump administration to not contact them.

You know, one thing that's interesting about this revolution about this attorney is that it's the product of leaks. I don't know if I missed it, but I haven't seen any clear indication of how it got leaked out.

I think we have to remember that Russia's goal here isn't to really to support one candidate or president or another but to create chaos over here. So, whether they're responsible for the leak or not, they're beneficiaries because this creates more chaos coming out around the same time as this House Intelligence Committee report because it shows it's ridiculous since they have no interest into looking into this matter.

BLACKWELL: So, one of the issue I want to hit because we're running short on time is EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Confirmation from the EPA Office of the Inspector General that there will be new reviews into some of the ethics questions, notably the $50-a-night condo setup that he had in Washington, D.C.

If we have it, maybe we can put this up, the list of organizations and agencies that are investigating Scott Pruitt. You have the Office of the Inspector General, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Government Accountability Office, White House Office of Management and Budget. Some vindications, some violations here, and some ongoing probes. Do these new reviews make him any more vulnerable?

LOUIS: I think other than the House, the others are statutorily required to look into the kind of allegations that have been finding their ways into the newspapers. So, this was going to happen. He is extremely vulnerable.

This is why these ethics bodies exist in the first place, to sort of let you know that if you start stepping wrong, there are people who were paid to wake up every day, reads the newspapers, listen to what's going on in the government, and launch probes about things that may be going wrong.

Especially some alleged retaliation where people were fired, demoted, or reassigned allegedly because they called attention to some of the spending habits of the secretary. So, he's in a world of trouble. A lot more than he really needed to be, and he could have avoided much of it by simply playing by the rules.

BLACKWELL: Is there a load capacity for a single member of the cabinet? I mean, we didn't see Tom Price when he was head of HHS get this far into some of the questions related to his expensive travel. Expensive travel is one of just, I guess, half dozen issues with Scott Pruitt. What do you think, Walter? Are we near that tipping point, or as long as he's getting the work done, he'll be fine?

SHAUB: Yes, I mean, the last time I counted, there were ten investigations and they may have added more as a result of the IG confirming yesterday that they were going to add additional issues. I don't see how he survives this in any other administration.

But right now, he's popular with the president and with some of the members on the committee who held a hearing this week actually defending him and writing off ethics issues as somehow a smokescreen for going after him on substance.

But the reality is I've never seen a government official at his level with so many ethics issues continuing in his job for as long as he has. So, he's either on death watch for his career in government, or we are entering an even more extreme era of this administration not caring about government ethics.

BLACKWELL: All right. Walter Shaub, Errol Louis, thank you both.

LOUIS: Thank you.

PAUL: Also new this morning, the National Rifle Association appears to be bracing for a possible investigation. CNN has learned the gun rights group has been setting aside years of documents related to its interactions with a kremlin-linked banker.

Now congressional investigators have been looking into the NRA's finances and its ties to Alexander Torshin. They're trying to discern whether Torshin funneled money through the group, NRA, to bolster President Trump's presidential campaign.

BLACKWELL: North Korean state media is calling the Korean summit a new milestone, although, President Trump plans to meet with Kim Jong- un, he says he will not get played.

[06:15:06] PAUL: Also, police spent 40 years trying to find the so- called golden state killer. How a genealogy website helped them do so.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: This morning, North Korean state media is calling the Korean summit a new milestone.

PAUL: It was a day of smiles. There were hugs. North Korea's Kim Jong-un and South Korea's Moon Jae-in agreeing to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Now there were not any specifics that have been discussed yet, as we understand.

BLACKWELL: President Trump called it the meeting historic, and U.S. officials say they are looking ahead to the president's meeting with Kim Jong-un. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The United States has been played beautifully, like a fiddle, because you had a different kind of leader. We're not going to be played, OK?

JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't have a crystal ball. I can tell you we are optimistic now that there's opportunity here that we have never enjoyed since 1950. So, we're going to have to see what they produce.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:06] BLACKWELL: CNN international correspondent, Paula Hancocks is live from Seoul, South Korea. Paula, good morning to you.

The North and South have done this before, right? There was the summit in 2000. The summit in 2007. But officials now are really trying to take this meeting, this summit, into the greater context and balance their optimism with a bit of skepticism.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Victor and Christi. And it's a sensible thing to do because, of course, they have been here before. They have had agreements which have not been held to, pledges which have not been fulfilled.

And what we've heard from the Blue House is the reason they think it hasn't worked in the past is because Washington wasn't behind it. Now President Moon has certainly brought President Trump along with him when it comes to this.

But what we saw on Friday was truly remarkable in an optics way. The fact that these two leaders who had never met before seemed to be getting on so well. That there was such congeniality between the leaders two of countries which are still effectively at war.

So, it's -- it was an interesting view for many South Koreans to see it. I think some I've spoken to said that it was quite tricky to reconcile the Kim Jong-un that they saw on Friday with the one that they had been reading and hearing about for many years.

Of course, it was just a matter of months ago that tensions were incredibly high on the peninsula. That there were threats of war, personal insults between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. So, I think there's a certain amount of relief here in South Korea, as well, that we are way beyond where we were at that point.

There have been small pockets of protests this Saturday. A group of hundreds of defectors saying that yesterday was a show, do not be taken in by it. So, not everybody is convinced.

BLACKWELL: All right. Paula Hancocks for us in Seoul. Thank you, Paula.

PAUL: Still to come, here's a question for you, could medical marijuana be the answers to the opioid crisis? Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes an in-depth look at that possibility with some groundbreaking new information in this documentary special. Stay close.

BLACKWELL: And today is national drug take-back day. President Trump is encouraging all Americans to hand back their unused medications. We'll ask a special agent in charge of the DEA if it's helping fight the opioid crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:14]

PAUL: Good morning, and welcome to Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be you with this morning. So, it's about five years ago, the CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, began reporting on medical marijuana in this award- winning series, "Weed."

Well, the newest edition of Sanjay's groundbreaking series launches Sunday night 8 p.m. Eastern and he's tackling a very timely and controversial subject, the country's opioids crisis.

PAUL: This particular installment explores whether the opioid crisis with annual deaths of 65,000, whether it could greatly reduce by wider use of medical marijuana those numbers. Now medical marijuana has no annual deaths caused by overdose when you look at the numbers. It surely will kick up a national conversation here. I want to show a clip along with our conversation that we had with Sanjay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We're going to work with the people who are so addicted, and we're going to try like hell to get them off that addiction.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A national epidemic. Trump campaigned to end it. As president he promised to fix it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: The scourge of drug addiction in America will stop. It will stop.

GUPTA: But one year later, it hasn't stopped. People are still dying. A 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. More than car accidents, breast cancer, or guns. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Literally everyone we know knows somebody who has died from an overdose.

GUPTA: And 2.5 million Americans are currently struggling with opioid addiction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suicide (inaudible) across their thoughts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meant to take some aspirin sometimes and top it out.

GUPTA: A solution some believe is this -- cannabis. It's controversial to many.

(on camera): Is cannabis a gateway drug?

(voice-over): A gateway to recovery for others.

(on camera): Did this help you get off of the opiates?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cannabis has given me a reason to live.

GUPTA (voice-over): Join us as we investigate, search for answers, and meet potential pioneers and outspoken critics. Whether you struggle with opioids or know one of the millions who do, decide for yourself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. Sanjay, good morning.

GUPTA: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here with this is the fourth installment of this "Weed" series and your reporting on this topic. Obviously, a lot has changed. What has changed as you've reported over the years?

[06:30:00] GUPTA: I think one of the big changes happening now is that five years ago we introduced you to patients who had this type of epilepsy that was not treatable with current medications. And then they got significant relief with what's called, "CBD," a component of cannabis. And these were, you know, young children.

Everyone thought very fringe at that point, parents had to move around the country to try and obtain it. It was really hard. Now the FDA is probably going to approve the first cannabis-based drug for epilepsy in this country. Five years. I mean, that's a blink of an eye when it comes to drug development in this country. So that's big one.

I think the other big thing that has changed is now the accumulating evidence of the role cannabis can have in the midst of this opioid epidemic. The worst self-inflicted epidemic we've had in the United States. So that's -- that's I think what's got a lot of people's attention right now. CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: But I think a lot of people watching saying

how does cannabis help me kick an opioid addiction?

GUPTA: Right. And I asked the same question and I didn't know the answer to that when we started doing this. I heard that it could, but what's the mechanism? Does it make sense?

PAUL: Yes.

GUPTA: There's three things really. One is that cannabis can treat pain. That's a consensus statement now by the National Academy of Science. People have known this sort of anecdotally for a while. Now there's lots of data to back it up. Another big one is that people when they're trying to stop opioids they often are withdrawing. They have these terrible symptoms, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, sweating, rapid heart rate, pain, lots of pain.

We know that cannabis can help with those withdrawal symptoms much as it does in a cancer patient who's getting chemotherapy. And finally I think the most interesting thing to me was this idea that if you're an addict, your brain is changed by opioids. I saw this firsthand in these specimens, these autopsy specimens that these researchers have been collecting.

When your brain is changed in this way, you no longer really have the ability to crave your desire for opioids. You no longer have the ability to just say no. It's not really within your power anymore. CBD, again, this component of cannabis, can help heal that part of the brain.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: You've written this letter to the Attorney General Jeff Sessions in which you offer the science in your reporting over the years. But you also write in the letter that, "I changed my mind, and I'm certain you can as well, Mr. Sessions. There's both medical and moral imperative to reschedule cannabis."

This sounds like, it reads like advocacy. Now you're a doctor but also a journalist. How did you walk that line? And those who question, is it appropriate for a journalist to lobby for policy change?

GUPTA: Yes. I think -- you know, I think that's -- what I've always heard as a journalist is that we speak truth to power. I mean, I think that's what we do. I think there's a lot of -- a lot of information out there right now about cannabis. So much of it is wrong. It's not based on truth and facts. It's also really hard for someone to get all that we know sort of aggregated into one place. You know, so you can read a document, you can click on the various links, and actually arrive at your own conclusions.

I did change my mind on this because I had -- I felt I was misinformed initially. I did not get the right data, the right knowledge initially. Now that I've seen what is actually out there, not just in the United States but around the world, I think that of this not only is some medicine that works for some people, sometimes it's the only medicine that works for some people. And I thought that was something that I should share.

We asked to sit down with the attorney general to talk to them about this. They did not agree to any interviews. So this is another way to basically get some of what we've learned directly into the hands of people who can do something about it.

PAUL: So when you say you would -- ideally your idea is to reschedule this drug, what would the parameters be around marijuana then at that point?

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: For you ideally.

GUPTA: Well, I -- first of all, I'll explain it as simply as this. Saying it's right now schedule 1 drug, which means that it's preordained as having no medicinal benefit. That's one of the criteria to be a schedule 1 drug. This has no medical benefit.

Nobody agrees with that. Even the National Academies of Science, who are, you know, in part funded by our federal government, the researchers, people who are actually doing this, they describe the medical benefits this can have. So it doesn't fit the criteria for a schedule 1 drug. If it's a schedule 2 drug which, by the way, cocaine is a schedule 2 drug because it's been shown to have some medicinal benefit, it opens up a lot of pathways.

It's no longer illegal federally. It opens up research dollars. There's $500 million in research dollars that are going towards this opioid epidemic. Some of that could be used to actually -- to study cannabis, to figure what works, how to make it safe, what's the right strain, what's the right dose, all those things that we need to know.

I think that's the big thing. Everyone wants the data. Every responsible person wants the data. The problem is they can't get it because this is still an illegal substance.

PAUL: So if it legalizes marijuana, though, a lot of people are going to say, great, let's go out, let's have it, let's, you know, have a party, whatever. You're a parent, you've got three children. How do you have these conversations with your kids?

GUPTA: I have no interest in the recreational part of this. Because we're journalists we see solutions emerge sometimes faster than anybody else. That's all this is.

[06:35:00] This is a potential solution. A potential medicine. I don't want to hurt anybody.

PAUL: Right.

GUPTA: I want to help them. I think everybody does.

PAUL: And this will help them.

BLACKWELL: Yes. GUPTA: I think so.

PAUL: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Sanjay.

PAUL: Thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. "WEED 4: POT VERSUS PILLS" airs tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And today is National Drug Take-Back Day. We'll ask special agent Robert Murphy what that that means and we'll get to some of the critics' questions of the effectiveness of the program. Stay with us.

PAUL: Also, you've seen the commercials. Use DNA to find out all about your ancestors. Well, police say that's what they did and it led them to an alleged serial killer. The one you're looking at right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:09] PAUL: So President Trump is asking Americans to participate in National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. I want to show you what he tweeted about this. He tweeted his support for the initiatives that encourages everyone to empty out their medicine cabinets, turn over unused or expired prescriptions. Last fall the DEA took in more than 900,000 pounds of drugs.

And with me now is special agent in charge of the DEA in the Atlanta division, Robert Murphy.

Robert, thank so very much for being with us.

ROBERT MURPHY, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF THE DEA, ATLANTA DIVISION: Well, thank you, Christi.

PAUL: 900,000 pounds of drugs.

MURPHY: Yes. This is our 15th time doing it. We do it twice a year and every time it keeps getting bigger. We're expecting over 500 tons today getting collected nationwide.

PAUL: So, first of all, what kind of drugs are we talking about? Opioids obviously.

MURPHY: That's our primary --

PAUL: Anything that you have left in your medicine cabinet?

MURPHY: Let's clean it out. We don't take the liquids. We don't take the syringes. But anything other than that, if it's expired, you don't need it anymore, it's unused, let's just clean it out. Get it out. Let's help prevent. It's a simple, very easy, effective way of helping us get this off the street.

PAUL: How effective is it at the end of the day? I mean, are there statistics, do you know? Have you been doing this long enough to know if it actually could put a dent in the opioid crisis that we're seeing thus far?

MURPHY: You know, it's -- how do you measure what you don't know? I mean, that's the thing. But our goal is, listen, obviously law enforcement works every day to try to keep this stuff off the street, try to attack the organization that's are responsible for putting this poison on the street. But this is a simple and effective way to help us get the supply off. Don't let the drug dealer get your kid or family member hooked on a -- medicine cabinet in your house. That's what we're saying.

It's simple. If you don't need it anymore, you're not using it, it's expired, clean it out. Spring cleaning. Get it out of the cabinet, and just -- we'll dispose of it. And then we don't have to worry about it getting into the children's hands or some -- neighbor or friend or somebody else. It's simple.

PAUL: People may be saying at home going, why do I have to take it to you? Why can't I flush it down the toilet? Why can't I throw it in the garbage?

MURPHY: Yes. We don't want you to do that.

PAUL: Because?

MURPHY: Just an -- it's environmental. We don't want it to get into the food supply or water supply. And so these are very potent chemicals. So there's a proper way to dispose of it. We do that. We incinerate it. So we'll be going around, you know, like I said, incinerating over 500 pounds after we collect it across the country.

PAUL: Do you hear stories from people at all when they come drop it off? What are your conversations like?

MURPHY: You know, they thank us. You know, we hear it all the time, not so much on these days, but we constantly hear it, I'm sure you've seen on the news events where, you know, their kid or their family member got hooked because it was just laying around, and, you know, the grandparents' leftover medicine or the parents had an operation. We all have done it. We don't use it all. We look in our cabinet, here we go, we've got 20 pill bottles that we didn't realize we accumulated. And that's where these kids, they know to go it. I mean, that's the number one start for some of these children. It's like going into the parents' medicine cabinets.

PAUL: Something that we've kept, that we --

(CROSSTALK)

MURPHY: Just -- yes. And these are very potent drugs. Especially when they're prescribed for an adult and then a teenager. You know, we talk all the time about baby-proofing our house or child-proofing our house. Now we've got to teen-proof our house. You know, we've got just -- it's just simple solution to get this stuff off the street.

PAUL: Being in your position, do you think the DEA is doing enough to try to combat the opioid crisis?

MURPHY: Absolutely. But we're not the only solution. This is a whole community approach. You know, we need the industry. We need the medical profession, all of these -- all of these parts together contribute to it. You know, the big thing that we're looking at that we see on the rise and we're dealing with is the synthetic problem. You know, the fake pills.

PAUL: The synthetics.

MURPHY: Yes. You know, just the counterfeit pills that are being, you know --

PAUL: And laced with something.

MURPHY: And laden with something.

PAUL: They're laced with something worse.

MURPHY: And that part we're going to have to deal with. But, you know, the part where the medical profession and the industry, the pharmaceutical industry would actually prescribe stuff, that's -- they can help us take that off our plate.

PAUL: Do you have -- do you feel confident in the relationship that you have with those other organizations?

MURPHY: Yes. I mean, obviously the news on a daily basis has made everybody take a step back and look at it and where can we do better. And their industry is constantly doing it. We're working with them. You know, sometimes we have -- there's a rogue doctor. By and far -- you know, by and large, most of them are doing the right things. And we'll deal with the ones that aren't. That's the way we've got to approach it.

PAUL: All right. Robert Murphy, we appreciate you being here.

MURPHY: Well, thanks for getting this message out.

PAUL: Absolutely. Thank you very much. Victor?

BLACKWELL: The -- DNA evidence, I should say, for the alleged Golden State Killer sat in storage for decades. That is until police had a breakthrough by checking his family tree. We'll have more on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:49:05] PAUL: The alleged Golden State Killer, a serial rapist, murderer, who kept Californians literally on edge for decades, is on suicide watch today. BLACKWELL: Joseph James DeAngelo, he was in court Friday, there in a

wheelchair. Police have linked the former officer to dozens of rapes and murders in the '70s and '80s using decades' old DNA samples. And this surprise, an online ancestry data base.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Entering the court while handcuffed to a wheelchair, Joseph DeAngelo spoke softly while addressing the judge. He did not enter a plea to murder charges stemming from a case from 40 years ago, where he allegedly killed a young married couple.

An attorney for DeAngelo says the 72-year old is depressed and fragile. Investigators allege he is the Golden State Killer, a brutal rapist and murderer who terrorized Californians during the 1970s and '80s.

[06:50:04] ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT, SACRAMENTO COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We all knew as part of this team that we were looking for a needle in a haystack. We found the needle in the haystack. And it was right here in Sacramento.

ELAM: Investigators were able to unlock the cold case with a DNA sample left by the killer in one of the attacks.

PAUL HOLES, CONTRA COSTA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY INVESTIGATOR: We ended up generating a DNA profile from the Golden State Killer evidence and then were able to take that profile, and upload it into an open source public genealogy database called GEDmatch. GEDmatch then is able to search that profile against the other public profiles that individuals have placed in there. Once we got the initial DNA match results and found very distant relatives, it took us four months.

ELAM: DeAngelo is a Navy veteran, who served aboard a missile cruiser during the Vietnam War. He was also a police officer in the towns of Exeter and Auburn, where officials say he was fired in 1979 for stealing a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a drug store. For 27 years, he worked as a mechanic at a Save Mart distribution center in nearby Roseville. He retired last year.

The 72-year old was taken into custody in Citrus Heights, a Sacramento suburb.

SCOTT JONES, SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF: When he came out of his residence, we had a team in place that was able to take him into custody. He was very surprised by that.

ELAM: For those who survived the Golden State Killer's attacks, like Jane Carson Sandler, relief mixed with shock as new details emerge.

JANE CARSON SANDLER, GOLDEN STATE KILLER VICTIM: I also lived in Citrus Heights at this time. So he very well could have been my neighbor, which is -- I just can't imagine. I often wonder how long he had stalked me, where he had first seen me.

ELAM: Carson Sandler clearly remembers the moment a masked man broke into her home.

CARSON SANDLER: When he ran down the -- you know, the hall and had that flashlight in my eyes and that big butcher knife facing my chest, he immediately said, with clenched teeth, "Shut up or I'll kill you."

ELAM: Law enforcement officials believe DeAngelo is responsible for 12 murders and more than 50 rapes in at least 10 counties. They say he also terrorized some of his victims by phone.

HOLES: The fact that he would call his victims years, in some cases, afterwards just to continuously torment them underscores the type of person he is.

ELAM (on camera): He was the type to not leave fingerprints. Police were unable to identify their suspect until recently. DeAngelo is expected next in court on May 14th.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Sacramento, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right. Our thanks to Stephanie.

The Thunder, it lost their game last night and then their star player, he just lost it. Andy Scholes is here.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor, Russell Westbrook had not one but two heated exchanges with Jazz fans. We're going to show you what happened coming up in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:16] BLACKWELL: Well, the season is over for the NBA's reigning MVP, but he went out with I guess you could call it a fight. Even argument there.

PAUL: Yes. Andy Scholes is here with this morning's "Bleacher Report."

SCHOLES: Hey, good morning, guys. Just a frustrating end to the season for Russell Westbrook and the Thunder. You know, when they added Carmelo Anthony and Paul Georges last offseason they were supposed to compete for an NBA championship. But it certainly didn't work out that way. Emotions just boiling over, too, for Westbrook in Salt Lake City last night.

Halftime, Westbrook snapping at this fan who was yelling in his face. Then after the emotional loss, Westbrook, as he was walking off the floor, slapped a cell phone a fan was holding in his face and then he confronted that fan. Westbrook saying afterwards that the fans in Utah, they're just very disrespectful and something needs to be done about it. Jazz are going to play the Rockets in the second round. That series starts tomorrow.

LeBron and the Cavs meanwhile heading to game seven with the Pacers tomorrow. LeBron taking a blow to the face in the first half of game six that left him bleeding from above his eye. It was a frustrating game for LeBron, especially with his ongoing battle with Lance Stevenson. LeBron shoving Stevenson to the ground near the end of the third quarter. The Pacers win this one in a blowout 121-87.

LeBron has never lost a first-round series. That streak is in jeopardy tomorrow.

All right. This last story, it's just incredible. In case you missed it, the number-one prospect in baseball Robert Acuna Jr. was called about a break earlier this week. He hit his first homerun Thursday and the ball was caught by Braves fan Joe Webster, and reaction going viral immediately. Joe and a buddy actually drove from Atlanta to Cincinnati in the wee hours of the morning to go to the game. Joe even studied Acuna's spray chart to see where he may hit his first homerun.

And I spoke with him about making one of the most improbable catches ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE WEBSTER, CAUGHT HOMERUN BALL: I almost misjudged it. I almost went down one row because I thought it was going to fall a little short. But it came off the bat, my first thought was, oh, my god, because it was coming right at me. And then that probably jumped -- probably said that about 50 or 60 times, running through the concourse. It was -- I mean, unbelievable.

SCHOLES: Catching that homerun, it's -- the odds are astronomical. More than a one in a million. It's like winning the lottery. Do you fully appreciate what just happened?

WEBSTER: I think I'm still trying to comprehend it all. I don't think it's all completely hit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes. Joe got to hand deliver that ball to Acuna himself, guys. And like I said, the odds of this happening, astronomical, going to a game to try to catch a homerun ball, and it happened. The guy's first homerun ever.

BLACKWELL: Phenomenal.

PAUL: Fantastic.

SCHOLES: Yes.

PAUL: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign --