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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump Escalates War of Words with Khan Family; Health Crises Overshadow Rio Olympics; Three Days Until Rio Olympics; U.S. Begins Air Strike Campaign in Libya; New Theory on Malaysia Flight 370 Crash; Donald Trump Downplaying Relationship with Vladimir Putin; Miss Teen USA Facing Backlash for Series of Tweets, Pageant Facing Controversy over Who Isn't Participating. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired August 2, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Rough days for Donald Trump feuding with the family of a fallen Muslim American soldier and now responding to growing concerns about his grasp of tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

VAUSE: Blame it on Rio. Three days before the opening ceremony and concerns this could be the games of broken promises.

SIDNER: And a tropical storm has hit Hong Kong and has it on lockdown.

Hello, and welcome to our viewers from all around the world. I'm Sara Sidner in for Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Great to have you with us. Another hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.

A big boost in the polls for Hillary Clinton putting her back in front in the U.S. presidential race. A CNN-ORC poll shows a post-convention bounce, giving her nine points in front of her Republican rival Donald Trump.

SIDNER: You remember before that she was trailing Trump by 5 percent. In a four-way race with the Libertarian and Green Party candidates, post-convention numbers give her back the lead in that same four-way match-up. The convention also boosted the numbers of Americans who believe that Hillary Clinton would take the country in the right direction.

Donald Trump has once again fanned the flames in his feud with the Muslim parents of a fallen U.S. soldier. Khizr Khan and his wife appeared on CNN Monday and says they actually want to de-escalate the controversy.

VAUSE: But before the Khans even finished their interview, Donald Trump hit back at the family accusing them of a vicious attack. Here's what the Gold Star father had to say about that claim. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF FALLEN MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER: When I speak about Mr. Trump's disqualification as candidate for the presidency, he says, oh, I am being severely attacked, harshly attacked. Well, this is political season. You are candidate for an office. And I have same rights as you do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us now CNN's senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers.

OK. A couple of hours ago, Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, was on the stump here in Nevada at a rally and he was confronted by a mother of a soldier who asked him this. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time and time again, Trump has disrespected our nation's Armed Forces and veterans and his disrespect for Mr. Khan and his family is just an example of.

(CROWD BOOING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will there ever be --

(CROWD BOOING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will there ever be a point in time when you're able to look at Trump in the eye and tell him enough is enough? You have a son in the military.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you tolerate his disrespect?

PENCE: Well, I thank you for the question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What difference does it make?

PENCE: OK. It's all right. It's all right. Folks, that's what -- that's what freedom looks like and that's what freedom sounds like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, I guess I have to say Mike Pence handled this, you know, a lot differently than Donald Trump.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICAL REPORTER: Right.

VAUSE: The interesting, though, was, you know, this is a Republican rally and this is the mother of a serviceman, asking about, you know, the family of a fallen soldier. She's getting booed by the Republican crowd. BYERS: Yes, it's really interesting. And it goes back to you have

this core group of Trump supporters who don't want to tolerate any form of dissent. They certainly don't like the media asking questions, they don't like Democrats, but they also don't like anyone among the Republican rank-and-file questioning Donald Trump.

Now there are going to be more and more of those people at Trump rallies and especially ay Pence rallies because Pence is a little more tolerant of hearing them out. But when Trump proposed a Muslim ban in the beginning, that set off a debate among -- at least among the media about whether or not that was something that was un-American.

Once you start talking about the soldiers and servicemen, and you start talking about their families that is something that so many people in this country can identify with because they have kids in the armed services, because they have brothers and sisters in the armed services. So, you know, this is an issue that really brings it home for people. And I think that's why we're going to see more of it on the trail.

SIDNER: Can I ask you a little bit about Senator John McCain? Because you saw those comments very early on where he talked about him being a POW and that he preferred people who didn't get captured. And that set off a fury. But I don't remember Senator McCain responding as harshly as he has to these comments that Donald Trump has made against this family.

BYERS: No, I think that's right. And I think because at that time John McCain saw it as an attack on him and he didn't want to get into something with Trump. And remember that's back in the primary season in which there were many Republicans who never thought Donald Trump was going to become the nominee let alone win a single primary state. Now he is talking about the military.

[01:05:01] And I think for -- you know, I can't get inside Senator John McCain's head but my guess is that, look, he was the guy who back in 2008 when people started saying really derogatory things about Obama he grabbed the mic back.

VAUSE: Yes, it was an amazing moment. Yes.

SIDNER: That's right.

BYERS: He said, no, no.

SIDNER: Yes.

BYERS: McCain, you know, for all his faults in the 2008 election, he is an American, he is a veteran. He is someone who exists within the norm of American civility and Donald Trump is not that person, and I think John McCain saw something here. He saw an attack on his fellow serviceman and he stepped up.

VAUSE: You know what's interesting, is the Trump campaign put out this call for elected Republicans to come to his aid and no one is actually speaking up for him. But let's move on now to Hillary Clinton. She has problems her own

problems, all to do with her e-mails and her private server and, again, she's on the defensive because of what she said during a Sunday interview. This is what she -- this is what she's under attack for. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Director Comey said that my answers were truthful and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people. That there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the e-mails.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, under any normal week that would be the headline story, four Pinocchios from "The Washington Post," she refuses to tell the truth, on and on it goes. But instead Trump is dealing with a -- you know, a feud with a dead American soldier's family.

BYERS: Right. And as we've discussed, there are legitimate questions about Hillary Clinton. Look, there are a lot of illegitimate questions. There are a lot of things that she's -- you know, she stood there and she's defended herself and she's answered the questions. When it comes to the e-mails, when it comes to the servers she doesn't have a clean, clear concise answer for this. Whether she's lying or not, she gives the impression that she's lying. She gives the impression that she's misleading the American people, that she has something she doesn't want to say.

There is so much fodder for the Clinton campaign in attacking Donald Trump. If they could get rid of this one thing they'd be on much better footing. But this is -- this is the sort of thing that's going to continue to nag her. And you know Donald Trump is going to bring it up in all three of the presidential debates this fall.

SIDNER: I'm curious. You know, "The Washington Post" coming out with this and fact-checking her and it's funny, these four things, then saying OK, you get four Pinocchios. Does that stick more than having Donald Trump who obviously has something to gain saying Crooked Hillary and Liar Hillary?

BYERS: Absolutely.

SIDNER: OK.

BYERS: Because -- so this is an interesting dynamic that's been set up. Donald Trump constantly makes attacks and constantly says things that aren't true, but he is constantly attacking the media as being -- he attacks "The Washington Post" as being something you can't trust. Now the "Washington Post" in coming out and saying that Hillary Clinton is lying --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Now they must be telling the truth. Yes. BYERS: Listen to "Washington Post." Yes. So -- no, but I do think

it'll stick. As much as a beating as the American news media has taken and always takes during political cycles especially from Donald Trump, it still matters.

VAUSE: Yes.

BYERS: Four Pinocchios from the "Washington Post" matters and it will matter again come those debates.

VAUSE: OK. Also on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, Warren Buffett going after Donald Trump about his tax returns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN BUFFETT, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY CEO: I would be delighted to meet him any place any time between now and election. I'll bring my tax return, he could bring his tax return. Nobody is going to arrest us. There are no rules against showing your tax returns and just let people ask those questions about the items that are on there.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: How effective is having someone like Warren Buffett, billionaire, the oracle of Omaha, out on the stump for Clinton?

BYERS: It's very effective. Now I will say Warren Buffett is someone who's always going to be in Hillary Clinton's camp. I think other figures that we saw -- I think Michael Bloomberg is a little bit more effective. Now of course he's still sort of a New York -- you know, he's not a heartland conservative.

General John Allen coming out and speaking during the Democratic convention, that's very effective. The thing is that Donald Trump is so far out on the margins that Hillary Clinton is going to be able to bring in more of these people, businessmen like Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg, army generals, people that are really going to make the case to those independents. Because at this point really it's not about -- because if you're a Democrat and you're even thinking about voting for Donald Trump something is wrong with you.

The question is, what does she do to move those independents? And I do think there are independents out there who do look at Warren Buffett as a success story, as a businessman, and they wonder yes, you know, if Warren Buffett is calling him to release his tax returns maybe --

VAUSE: He's under audit as well and he's willing to do it.

BYERS: Exactly.

SIDNER: I'd love to see both of their tax returns. It really would be interesting to see. BYERS: Exactly. And you know you go back to this issue with the e-

mail. The e-mail issue for Hillary Clinton is a very foggy, murky issue. It's not going to go away. The tax return thing for Donald Trump, it's so clear. He could release these, he should release these. Every time he goes up against her and he says, why won't you tell us what was in those e-mails, she can just come back and say, why won't you release your tax returns?

VAUSE: We're out of time, we didn't even get to Melania Trump's naked pictures in the "New York Post."

(LAUGHTER)

BYERS: Very telling.

VAUSE: Right. Exactly.

BYERS: Very telling of how chaotic this news cycle is.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: There's more situations like this year. Dylan, thank you.

BYERS: Thank you. Thanks, guys.

[01:10:07] VAUSE: We're just three days away now from the start of the Rio Olympics but some big problems continue to overshadow these games.

SIDNER: Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look at the health concerns there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're looking at an image from just last month, body parts on Copacabana Beach. It was a scene that couldn't have been predicted seven years ago when Copacabana Beach erupted.

The games were to be a legacy for Rio. In its bid, Brazil promised to clean up at least 80 percent of the sewage that was flowing into the city's notoriously dirty water.

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, FORMER BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): This is a challenge for us. And you can be sure that we will not waste this chance at history.

GUPTA: In fact, some of the city's most dilapidated quarters have been turned into green spaces. Here, public art is being spray painted on walls. But the rest of the world is more concerned about this spraying.

(On camera): We know that Brazil is the epicenter of the Zika epidemic. And as the numbers continue to increase in Florida, experts are continuously looking here to try and find some answers. For example, we know that more than 1700 children have been born with Zika associated microcephaly, a birth defect. We also know that 150 public health experts called for the Olympics to either be delayed or moved because of concerns about Zika.

But I want to be clear about something, the weather is starting to cool here, even as it warms up in the United States. And as a result, the threat of infection is pretty low. According to the University of Cambridge study, out of the hundreds of thousands of tourists who are likely to visit the Olympics, there will probably be only one or two infections. But that still hasn't kept some of the athletes from dropping out of the games.

TEJAY VAN GARDEREN, U.S. CYCLIST: Honestly, if my wife wasn't pregnant right now, I would be going to Rio. I mean my biggest concern is for -- is for the baby on the way.

GUPTA (voice-over): Now, remember, even if he went and then didn't show any symptoms, Van Garderen could still be infected and potentially pass the virus onto his wife. After all, only 20 percent of those infected have any signs of the disease.

But when it comes to athlete health, the concerns here are not just about Zika. Those promises of clean water, not in Guanabara Bay, where sailors will be competing for gold and where trash and sewage continues to litter the surface.

HEIKO KROEGER, GERMAN PARALYMPIC SAILING: Every time you got some water in your face, it feels like there's some alien enemy entering your face. So I keep my nose and my lips closed.

GUPTA: His teammate, Erik Heil, believed the waters are the source of the multiple infections he contracted last year after racing in an Olympic qualifying event. Just last month, Brazilian scientists detected the super bug, CRE, in these waters.

MARTINE GRAEL, BRAZILIAN OLYMPIC SAILOR (Through Translator): Very little has been done. And the measures that were taken were not done the way we would have liked them.

GUPTA: Brazilian officials say the water have met international standards. But then just one month ago, the WHO said that athletes may become ill from this water. And U.S. Olympic doctors are prepping their teams for such a situation.

DR. CLIFTON PAGE, U.S. SAILING MEDICAL ADVISER: We have a number of medications that they can take prophylactically to avoid those illnesses and then also to take -- to treat the illnesses as well.

GUPTA: And doctors on the ground have another concern.

DR. NELSON NAHON, CREMERJ (Through Translator): If there were a big catastrophe, an attack or a brawl, we don't have the infrastructure to deal with it.

GUPTA: Political and economic crisis have burdened local hospitals. Even under normal circumstances, waits for emergency surgery can be as long as six days. But Rio's mayor says the games' legacy will not be a shadow on Rio.

EDUARDO PAES, MAYOR OF RIO DE JANEIRO: Don't come here expecting that everything will be, you know, perfect. We live in a country that has economic crisis, a country with lots of inequality. With all the problems that we've seen. But the city will be much better than it was when we got the games.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: And joining us now we've got CNN's Shasta Darlington who is live there in Rio.

VAUSE: Also NYU sports economics professors David Kahn. He has worked in professional sports management for years, live this hour in Portland, Oregon.

SIDNER: We are going to start with Shasta. You are there live in Rio waiting for the Olympic Games to begin. I know you've been following this story for a very long time. Let's start with we've seen the issues with the water. We just heard about the issues with disease and Zika. Can you tell us about security? Because that is a huge concern among the athletes and those who are going to be attending.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is, Sara. You know, because not only does Rio have to worry about what all Olympic cities have to worry about, which is really defending itself against a potential terror attack, but it's also got a very serious problem with violent crime here which means that just in the past few hours, for example, the police here in Rio announced they're going to beef up their security detail. T

[01:15:01] They're adding 3,000 officers. They'll largely be policing in the precarious neighborhoods here known as flavelas. They're going to be placed along the main highways coming from the airport where we've seen repeated armed robberies, even in recent days. People got stuck in traffic and armed robbers walk up and steal everything from wallets to phones.

They'll also be placed around Christ the Redeemer statue. That emblematic symbol of Rio de Janeiro, 24-hour security now, and more cameras and of course this is just part of the much bigger security picture where we're getting 85,000 soldiers, elite police units and firefighters coming from around the country to secure these games. That's more than double what we saw in London.

And you can really see them out in full force already on the street corners, navy boats off the coast. You can get the feeling that this is basically a city on lockdown -- Sara.

SIDNER: I do want to ask about the games themselves. The IOC is going to be making a decision on whether Russian athletes can take part in these Olympics. What are people talking about when it comes to that? I think the decision is coming tomorrow or in a day or two. DARLINGTON: Well, Sara, they basically have to come up with a

decision before Friday. That leaves it pretty open. But some of Russian officials are saying they expect it fairly soon. But the problem is, while more than 100 athletes have already been banned by their individual federations there are more than 200 here waiting for that final word from the IOC. They won't know for sure whether or not they get to compete until they hear that. So that's a lot of tension for them.

But there is also another element if for whatever reason the IOC decides they can't compete well that means other athletes are then brought in who weren't even preparing to compete in these Olympics. So it's certainly added a lot of -- a lot of doubt and uncertainty for the athletes but it's also -- it's also made it hard for anybody to focus on knowing who they're going to compete against, whether or not they're going to be involved, and really shined the light on how much this whole doping scandal is scarring the legacy of the Olympics here - Sara.

VAUSE: And, David, to you, given all the problems in Rio, given all the problems we often hear about before these games, is anyone considering the option now of maybe just one permanent Olympic city or maybe a roster of a couple of cities that can host these games without basically bankrupting the entire country like what happened in Brazil and also to a certain extent what happened in Athens?

DAVID KAHN, NYU TISCH INSTITUTE FOR SPORTS MANAGEMENT, MEDIA AND BUSINESS: I think everything has to be on the table right now. I think -- I call these the existential Olympics. I think this is the first time really in the lead-up to the games that many people in sports are asking themselves and others, do we really have to wonder now about the viability of these games on a going-forward basis at this size?

The security costs are rising much quicker than the revenue that's coming in from TV and tickets. It's becoming almost impossible for any city to be able to stage these games without really digging deep into taxpayer dollars to help fund them. And so yes, I think it has to be considered if you go to one place. The problem with that is, when you think about the Olympics and what they were founded upon and the idea of bringing all these continents and these athletes together, the idea of picking one place -- how do you pick the one place?

If it's in the United States can you imagine the reaction from Beijing? If it's in Europe can you imagine the reaction from the United States? In other words, the whole concept being that we'll move this round every four years, both winter and summer, and that will be part of the appeal, the romantic notion of the games is that they travel around.

And so it would be very sad I think to go to one spot and yet, as I said earlier, I think everything has to be on the table now because this has been by far the saddest, the most sorrowful run-up to any Olympics we've had in modern time.

VAUSE: Yes, David, just seems to me hosting the Olympics is a really bad deal for countries that have, you know, not a lot of control over government spending and there's not a lot of government transparency, and there's -- you know, this is sort of propensity for corruption, if you like.

KAHN: No question. If you think back in our own country, remember, Los Angeles is a candidate to host in 2024. But if you recall, John, Boston was actually first -- the first choice of the USOC, and when there became some political grumbling and it became a very hyped -- you know, hot button issue, the mayor actually said we can't support this without a public referendum and that was the end of Boston's bid. And so we've already seen it here.

One of the issues that keeps coming up is, you have to create all of these stadiums and arenas for all of these sports. And as we talked about earlier tonight, the proliferation of sports, more and more with each -- excuse me, successive games means more stadia that have to be built.

[01:20:06] But once the Olympics leaves, what are those stadias and arenas there to do? There isn't the kind of infrastructure on a day- to-day basis to support it. Yes, there's anomalies. For example in London in 2012, the Olympic stadium was given over to a Premier League soccer team. But there are also cases such as Athens in 2004, if you go to the Olympic stadia and arenas that were built in 2004 for those Olympic Games, they are the very definition of white elephants.

VAUSE: Yes.

KAHN: There is no return on the investment for those populations. So some very sad deals. And you mentioned earlier, this could be a case where the city of Rio is actually bankrupted by staging the games. Think about that. The bankruptcy of a city based on the decision to host the Olympics. It's incredible.

SIDNER: Yes. And they're struggling money wise.

David Kahn and Shasta Darlington, thank you both very much.

VAUSE: Thanks, guys.

KAHN: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, next here on NEWSROOM L.A. a soaking for Hong Kong. Now the rest of the region prepares for Nida as it weakens to a tropical storm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Hong Kong is getting back on its feet after typhoon Nida soaked the city. The storm made landfall early Tuesday with winds topping 145 kilometers an hour, 90 miles per hour. It has since weakened to a tropical storm and is moving into the mainland.

VAUSE: No major damage has been reported but many cities in the region are on red alert for flooding. Nearly 200 flights have been cancelled and bus trams and ferry routes have been suspended. SIDNER: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking the storm from the

CNN Weather Center there in Atlanta.

Give us an idea of where it's going and the major issues that people need to watch with this storm.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Pedram. We appreciate it.

And Russia is suffering a big loss in Syria.

VAUSE: After the break we'll tell you why skeptics say there is more to the story than Moscow is admitting.

SIDNER: Plus does a piece of debris from MH-370 offer new clues into what happened during that fateful flight?

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM L.A.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

SIDNER: And I'm Sara Sidner.

Five Russians are dead after their helicopter was shot down in Idlib Province, Syria.

VAUSE: Russian officials say they delivered to aid to the besieged city of Aleppo. This is the biggest single loss of life for Russia since it began airstrikes in Syria. So far, no one has claimed responsibility but the downing comes as Syrian rebels battle for control of the city of Aleppo.

[01:30:00] SIDNER: The U.S. is launching an air campaign against ISIS in Libya. The Pentagon says air strikes hit the city of Sirte, an ISIS stronghold. A spokesman says the Libya Government of National Support, or GNA, requested the air strikes. The CIA director recently said the ISIS branch in Libya is one of its most dangerous and could be plotting attacks in Europe.

VAUSE: CNN's military analyst, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, joins us.

We have a situation in Libya. How much of a threat is ISIS right now in Libya? How much of the country does it control?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They control that area around Sirte and trying to branch out from there. But the government has put pressure on them. The United States is committing air power and Special Forces on the ground to help with that air power. They don't control a lot of territory but as we are seeing from the CIA analysis we expect them to branch out. I think they know their time on the ground in Libya is numbered and they are looking for somewhere else to go. They may be moving over to Tunisia and North Africa.

VAUSE: When you look at size in Syria and Iraq and Libya, is there a way of comparing that? In Libya the government force does have ISIS on the back foot.

FRANCONA: Exactly. And it's the same thing we see in Syria and the same thing we see in Iraq. As ISIS loses territory, as the forces in Syria move up toward Raqqa and the forces in Iraq move up toward Mosul we see ISIS trying to find out what they're going to do after their lose their territory. I think everybody realizes at some point they're going to lose their state and geographic footprint. They're going to have to do something. We see them looking to move to other places. Now they are looking to move to Yemen, Tunisia, Somalia, some failed state that they need. I suspect what is going to happen is they are going to morph into more of an al Qaeda operation and conducting operations in Europe. That's concern that the FBI director warned about. As they lose territory we can expect to see more attacks in Europe and even in the United States.

VAUSE: The situation in Aleppo appears to be grim. We have the humanitarian corridors allowing the civilians to leave but none seem to be taking that opportunity. Is the bottom line whoever controls Aleppo wins the war?

FRANCONA: It's not that cut and dried. But if you look at the map of Syria, where are the rebels? They are in Aleppo and in the north province up in there. But without a geographic area they're going to lose. And it's only a matter of time before the government forces exert total control over Aleppo. They have put the city under siege. Only so much fire power they can bring. It's not just the Syrian army. They are backed up by Iranian revolutionary guard and the Russian air force. The Russian air force is putting so much air power into this. Just today we saw the rebels counter attack and try to open up the siege. They were a kilometer from that and the Russian air force put the situation back 24 hours to where it was. The handwriting is on the wall for the rebels in Aleppo. Pretty soon it will be totally controlled by the government.

VAUSE: Colonel, thank you. Colonel Rick Francona with analysis of what has been happening and likely to happen in Aleppo. Thank you, sir.

SIDNER: A world renowned air crash investigator says he thinks he knows why Malaysia Airlines flight 370 crashed. He contends it was flown into the ocean on purpose.

VAUSE: Larry Vance tells "60 Minutes," Australia, his theory has to be with the flaperon, which was found last year near Madagascar. He says the jagged edge of the debris suggests it was not broken but instead eroded away because of water pressure.

SIDNER: Vance says the flaperon had apparently been deployed for landing, indicating that someone was piloting that plane when it hit the water.

CNN safety analyst, David Soucie, is author of "Why Planes Crash" and his book is called "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370."

Thank you for being here and coming on.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Thank you.

SIDNER: I have to ask you, this new theory, and there have been theories before, but is this plausible what he is talking about? Can you make that assumption?

[01:35:08] SOUCIE: That is what it is, is an assumption. I'm surprised he would come out and make that conclusion with only that one piece of evidence but I understand his theory and it does make a lot of sense. If that flaperon had had that damage in the water it would have created that damage in the leading edge.

SIDNER: How much of the plane would need to be salvaged. We don't have the data and the audio recordings. But how much of the plane needs to be salvaged to come up with another solid evidence for investigators to have a definitive answer?

SOUCIE: Definitive is difficult until they found the body of the aircraft and the wings at the least. You can determine whether it was under power at the time it hit the water or if it was still drifting or floating or out of control. Determines the angle it went into the water will be paramount in terming what happened to this aircraft. No doubt about that.

SIDNER: Do you think there is any chance that investigators will get their hands on the voice and data recorders?

SOUCIE: It is looking grim at this point. It's been so long. Although the shining light in this is that those boxes are very well sealed. If you notice the Egypt Airlines the box was completely destroyed but they were able to recover the chips themselves and recover data from that. I'm not sure this box would survive this amount of time if it were broke into pieces if the box is whole and designed to stay in one piece when it hits the water it could still be recovered. Yes, there is still that possibility.

SIDNER: And the families to think about and that's why the investigators are still looking into what happened there.

David Soucie, thank you so much. Live from Colorado.

VAUSE: A short break. When we come back, Donald Trump downplaying claims of a bromance between himself and Vladimir Putin. Why he's trying to put distance between himself and the Russian president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:40:32] SIDNER: Donald Trump is hitting back at the critics who question his knowledge of the conflict in Ukraine.

SIDNER: He also says his comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin were misunderstood.

CNN's global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Putin is saying nice things about me.

They immediate say, oh, Trump likes Putin. Look, I don't like or dislike.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump once again backpedaling claims of a relationship with Vladimir Putin as his embrace of the Russian strongman, accused of hacking Democratic Party computers and meddling in the U.S. election, continue to dog his campaign.

TRUMP: I have any relationship with Putin. I don't think I'd ever met him. I never met him. I don't think I've ever met him.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: You would know if you did?

TRUMP: Yeah, I think so. So I don't think I've ever met him.

LABOTT: In 2007, Trump praised the Russian leader in an interview with CNN.

TRUMP: Look at Putin with what is going on over there. I mean, this guy has done -- whether you like him or don't like him, he is doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and rebuilding Russia, period. Forget about image.

LABOTT: And in 2013 Trump invited Putin to the Miss Universe pageant held in Moscow, wondering whether he would show, and if so, "whether will he become my new best friend." A year later, he bragged about his warm welcome by the Russians.

TRUMP: They treated me so great. Putin even sent me a present. A beautiful present with a beautiful note.

LABOTT: In those same remarks, Trump praised Putin's aggressive moves against Ukraine seizing the Crimea peninsula by force.

TRUMP: The day after Olympics, he starts with Ukraine, the day after Olympics. How smart.

He goes in and takes Crimea. He is taking the heart and soul because that's where all the money is.

LABOTT: But this weekend, in an interview with ABC News, Trump seemed confused.

TRUMP: He's not going into Ukraine. Just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine. You can mark it down, you can put it down, you can take it any way you want.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He is there already, isn't he? TRUMP: Well, I'm not there in a certain way but I'm not there yet.

Obama's there. And frankly, that part of the world is a mess under Obama. With all the strength you are talking about all the power of NATO and all of this, and in the meantime, he's going away and he takes Crimea.

LABOTT: Trump also suggested that Putin might have been welcomed into Crimea, doubling down on an earlier suggestion he might recognize the territory as Russian and lift U.S. sanctions if it would lead to better ties with Moscow.

TRUMP: But the people of Crimea would rather be with Russia than where they were.

LABOTT (voice-over): The Clinton campaign seized on Trump's comments about Ukraine to question his basic knowledge about the world. And they slammed his agreement with Putin that Russia was justified in seizing the sovereign territory of another country by force. More proof, they say, that Trump is not fit to serve as commander-in-chief.

Elise Labott, CNN, the State Department.

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VAUSE: Josh Rogan is a CNN political analyst and a columnist for "The Washington Post." He joins us now from D.C.

Donald Trump did clarify his remarks with a tweet. He said this, "When I said in an interview that Putin is not going into Ukraine, you can mark it down, I am saying if I am president. Already in Crimea." And to be fair, Trump has talked about Russia troops in the past. Maybe this was a gaffe. But the perhaps biggest story is when he talked about the people of Crimea wanting to be a part of Russia, and that seems to echo the Vladimir Putin/Russian propaganda.

JOSH ROGAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We should point out in his correction tweet he made another error. Russian troops are in Ukraine proper and have been there since 2014. It has been very well documented. So even though he is making an attempt to learn the facts, he still doesn't know them.

The greater issue is that he seems to be getting from his information from the Russia government. The idea that Crimeans wanted to be a part of Russia is a well-worn Russian propaganda line. The elections were not free and fair as evidence that the Crimeans wanted to join Russia. And regardless, it misses the point entirely which is that Russian little green men forces invaded sovereign Ukraine territory and took the area by force.

[01:45:13] VAUSE: Why is it so difficult for him to answer whether he has met Vladimir Putin hour has a relationship with the Russian president?

ROGAN: They are caught in this no-win situation. On the one hand they honestly believe that U.S. policy should be more oriented towards warmer relations, which is a fine position to have. It's not that far from what the Obama administration believes as well. But he knows it's politically unpopular to be close to Putin who happens to be a repressive pseudo-dictator autocrat, rolling back Democratic freedoms in Russia and exerting aggression on the world stage that we haven't seen since the Cold War. Trump's heart wants to go with Russia but his head knows it is not good politically. That's why he goes back and forth.

VAUSE: If you listen to conservatives, there is a lot of love for Vladimir Putin. He is a strong leader, a lot of praise for the Russian president.

ROGAN: There are some people in Washington and not far from what President Obama thinks that Vladimir Putin is a guy we can work with. John Kerry works with the Russians every day. The problem for Trump is it's outside where his party has been for several decades and the opposite of what the GOP and Republican leaders believe today.

VAUSE: Josh, we'll leave it there. Good to speak with you as always. Thank you so much.

ROGAN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Coming up next on NEWSROOM L.A., Miss Teen USA is facing major backlash for a series of tweets, but the pageant is facing controversy over who isn't participating.

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[01:50:57] SIDNER: It was a big weekend in the world of beauty pageants and the crowning of Miss Teen USA was not without scandal. Take a close look at the five finalists, all as individual. Sure, they're all blondes with blue eyes and may be hard to tell the difference between the winner, Miss Texas and the runners up, Miss North Carolina, Miss South Carolina, Miss Alabama and Miss Nevada

SIDNER: But as it turns out, it's Miss Texas who was apologizing for using racial slurs a few years ago, including the "N" word.

Let's go ahead and discus this with entertainment journalist, Segun Oduolowu.

We appreciate you coming here.

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST: I appreciate being here.

SIDNER: So --

ODUOLOWU: Love talking about these topics.

SIDNER: I'm sure you do. This has been handed to you on a silver platter with a crown. ODUOLOWU: With a beautiful tiara. I don't blame the Stepford teens.

The pageant is the one to blame. I mean that does not show diversity. That is five women I dare anyone who is not their parent remove the states, tell me which girl is which and from where. You cannot do it. Pageants are like Beta Max.

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SIDNER: Are we still doing pageants? Is it a big thing anymore?

ODUOLOWU: Obviously, yes.

SIDNER: I mean, people used to sit and watch Miss America. And now you don't hear about it until there is a controversy.

ODUOLOWU: Tell me who won Miss Teen last year. Don't worry, I'll wait. We have no idea. She could walk in right now with the sash and tiara and have no idea who she is. They need go the way of the dinosaur, especially with the teens. It's difficult to be a teen and you're going through puberty. You show five people that look thee same. If you have red hair or a brunette with freckles or black or Latino or Asian you don't matter.

VAUSE: Miss Texas, they went back to her twice, and she apologized. "Several years ago, I had many personal struggles and is not representative of who I am as a person. I admit that I used language publicly in the past that I'm not proud of. And there is no excuse for."

The pageant is standing by her, releasing this statement, "Carly learned many lessons through many struggles. We, as an organization, are committed to supporting her continued growth."

ODUOLOWU: It sounds like she was working in a coal mine. I was going through these dark struggles. How hard is it to put Vaseline on your teeth? I know the pageant tricks. Let's slow it down. It's ludicrous. If the pageant says these five women represent what teen America looks like you pick five people who look the same. And you picked a racist. Any way you slice it you just mess up. I have to go with what Miss Teen Oklahoma wrote, "It doesn't sound like an apology." It sounds like, I'm sorry I got caught. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. I'm not sorry I said these words. To me, it's not an apology. She is a teenager and maybe she grows out of it. I don't know how you grow out of bigotry, but --

SIDNER: What more should they have done? She is not being punished. The only way she is being punish is because there is shaming going on social media.

ODUOLOWU: She should be shamed, though.

VAUSE: They locked her Twitter account.

ODUOLOWU: Pardon me?

VAUSE: They locked her Twitter account. ODUOLOWU: Which is ridiculous? Let's not do that. She is a teenager. We shouldn't shame and all of this. She's a teenager. I'm a proponent for shaming when it is due. You wrote these words in an era where everything lives.

[01:55:04] VAUSE: What should be done? Let's go back in our time machine to 1984 when Vanessa Williams, first black woman to win the Miss America title, but naked photos of her appeared. We have naked photos of Melania Trump and no one cares. And Miss Teen USA is busted using the "N" word, and that is OK.

ODUOLOWU: And the pictures of Vanessa Williams' pictures were taken without her -- she was told they were something else and they were taken surreptitiously. And this is this own girl's own words. But she up and apologized. I don't like the word. I don't like the word coming out of her mouth. But own it. Own up to what you said and just apologize, I'm sorry I said it. That would be the end of it.

VAUSE: Naked photos bad, racial slurs --

(CROSSTALK)

ODUOLOWU: Racial slurs? Listen, we have an election going on right now where racial slurs are part of running the Republican Party. And did he use to run pageants?

VAUSE: And he still does.

ODUOLOWU: I'm not calling the pot calling the kettle black, but.

VAUSE: There is a connection.

ODUOLOWU: You saw the pun I did there, and the thing with the thing.

VAUSE: That was a good thing with the thing.

Thank you, Segun.

SIDNER: Thanks, Segun.

You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live, from Los Angeles. I'm Sara Sidner.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Sara and I will be back with another hour of news right after this. Stay with us.

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