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Donald Trump Comments on Abortion Criticized; New Poll has Donald Trump Trailing Ted Cruz in Wisconsin Primary; Sanders Defends Criticism of Hillary Clinton's Campaign Taking Donations from Fossil Fuel Industry; John Kasich Communications Director Interviewed; ISIS Takeover of Mosul University and Access to Chemicals Weapons Materials Examined; North Carolina Passes Controversial Law Regarding Transgender People. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired April 2, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:10] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and so grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. It's 10:00 here on the east coast. And in just a few hours, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be holding a town hall in Racine, Wisconsin. He's also attending rallies in Wausau and Eau-Claire ahead of Tuesday's primary there. This is all in the hope of picking up last minute votes after the latest FOX business polls. And you look at this, Ted Cruz is leading Trump by 10 points.

PAUL: Donald Trump has had what some are characterizing as a rough week regarding comments on abortion and now saying that abortion laws should remain unchanged. But earlier this week he said women who get abortions should be punished.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DICKERSON, HOST, CBS "FACE THE NATION": You told Bloomberg in January you believed abortions should be banned at some point in pregnancy.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, I would have liked to have seen this be a states right. I would have preferred that. I think it would be better if it were up to the states. But right now the laws are set. And that's the way the laws are.

DICKERSON: But you have a feeling they should change? There are a lot of laws you want to change. You've talked about them, everything from libel to torture.

TRUMP: As of this moment the laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN is covering the story from every angle. We have CNN's national correspondent Jason Carroll in Wisconsin, CNN White House producer Kristen Holmes in Washington, and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joining from Los Angeles.

PAUL: Kristen, we'd like to start with you if we could, please. Trump's latest mixed messages, it seems, I think a lot of people are saying, wondering if there is a possibility that it will muddy the waters for some of his supporters.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: That's certainly what we're going to be looking out for today and in the coming days before what's become a crucial Wisconsin primary. Now, a spokesperson did issue a statement immediately after the clip was released last night saying that Mr. Trump was simply stating the facts, that that is the law now. But that going forward once he's president he will change the law through judicial appointment.

But this is not the first flip-flop he's had. As you mentioned earlier in the week he said that women should be punished if they had abortions. Immediately after that the campaign issued a statement saying actually he meant doctors should be punished.

This is a very hot button issue for social conservatives. This is going to lead to his opponents re-asking that question of authenticity. Is Donald Trump a true conservative? I'm sure that we're going to see more comments by Ted Cruz and John Kasich as they also crisscross Wisconsin trying to get those votes before Tuesday, saying that maybe Donald Trump doesn't know as much about the issues, things that they have also said in the past.

But whether or not, again, this is going to affect his favorability remains unclear. I think we'll have a better understanding of that after Tuesday's primary because, as we have seen in the past, Donald Trump supporters have given him leeway on certain issues.

PAUL: Kristen Holmes, good to have you here. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Again, Trump is holding a town hall and two rallies in Wisconsin today. This is the first time he's out on the campaign trail since his comments an abortion laws. Jason Carroll is in Racine, Wisconsin. Jason, this is a town hall starting so he will likely have to answer the question again. He'll get another shot at it.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We'll see. Certainly at previous town halls, as you know, Trump has the opportunity to get up and he speaks. And then at a certain point they allow questions from some people who come out to see him. So we'll see if he'll have an opportunity if someone gets up and asks him a question about the controversy surrounding his stance on abortion, or will we hear about foreign policy?

In all likelihood I would imagine that the Trump camp wants to move away from the issue of what happened with that misstep earlier this week on his stance on abortion. I think in all likelihood we will hear him say something about President Obama. In the past we have heard him criticize President Obama's foreign policy. So given what the president has said about Trump not knowing anything about foreign policy, look to hear Trump speak on that issue at this town hall later on today.

But in terms of what we have heard from Trump, as you know, he likes to tweet. He took to Twitter, not speaking about foreign policy, not speaking about abortion, but talking about jobs in the state. That's important to the people here in Wisconsin. And he said the following. He said "Wisconsin has suffered a great loss of jobs and trade. But if I win, all of the bad things happening in the U.S. will be rapidly reversed, all of the bad things in the U.S." That's certainly a tall order. Looking forward to hear what Trump has to say when he speaks here later today. George?

BLACKWELL: It's Victor, I'll take it. Jason Carroll there for us in Racine.

CARROLL: Oh, Victor.

BLACKWELL: It's OK. It's all right, Jason. Thanks so much.

Let's bring in senior political analyst for CNN Ron Brownstein.

[10:05:00] Ron, I want to get to you first. Good morning to you. Few candidates for president could have survived a week like Donald Trump had. But people on television sitting in this chair and your chair and many other chairs across the country said the same thing for months now. But is this different on the issue of abortion?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I think the Trump phenomenon has actually been pretty consistent. He has a deep hold on his piece of the party but he has had trouble expanding beyond that. He is a plurality, not a majority frontrunner. If you go back and you look at the past people who collected this data can show pretty clearly candidates who won the kind of states that he's won, if you're looking at earlier races, they were ascending toward 50 percent of the vote and you were seeing elected officials in the party consolidate around them.

Donald Trump is stuck in almost states somewhere between 35 and 40 percent. He's looking at what could be a very tough night Tuesday in Wisconsin in a state, Victor, that was 57 percent non-college in 2012, so should have been a good place for him. And I think Trump in this situation where he has a bigger piece of the party than anyone else, but it is going to be a close call as to whether it is big enough to get him over that ballot majority. And that I think is the real meaning of these stumbles on issues like abortion or NATO or nuclear weapons in Asia, deepening the doubts among the party leaders that he can be an effective general election nominee because he is likely, there is a very reasonable chance that he's going to need some unbound delegates if he's going to get over the top on that first ballot.

BLACKWELL: They are fighting for delegates today in Tennessee. Let me read from your piece this week in "The Atlantic." Trump's March madness, you talk about the Trump treadmill. Let's put it up. The Trump treadmill, "The faster he runs to solidify his hold on supporters the harder it becomes to gain any ground with other voters. For all of this furious activity he's largely running in place with any gains among other groups most receptive to him offset or exceeded by losses among those most skeptical, and a group that's very skeptical -- women."

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: When we look at the latest CNN poll, nearly three quarters of women polled have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. And that's going to be an argument made on that second ballot if we get that far.

BROWNSTEIN: Those are unprecedented numbers. Donald Trump is looking at unprecedented general election unfavorable numbers among groups at the core of the modern Democratic coalition, not only women but African-Americans, Hispanics, and millennials.

And you look at those groups, particularly college educated white women, minorities, all of them are growing as a share of the electorate. And that I what raises some of these concerns about him as a general election candidate. Even more immediately, though, before we have to worry about November he's got to get there. And he has had a gender gap through this race. He's won about 42 percent of men through the first 20 primaries with exit polls, only about 32 percent of women. What's significant is we're seeing, he's been able to survive that distribution. In the Wisconsin polling his support among women is falling into the low 20s from those low 30s, and his support among college graduates similarly is falling from the low 30s into the low 20s. If those patterns persist he could face trouble in these coastal states that have a lot of college educated and more moderate voters that are coming up. One problem for his rivals, normally you say Connecticut, New Jersey, and to some extend New York would be states that he would have trouble in, but he could have a big home court advantage there.

BLACKWELL: So I wonder as we look toward Wisconsin on Tuesday and the latest polls showing him about ten points behind. That was the reporting a couple of weeks ago that that would be the start of this organized never Trump movement, that they could stop him in Wisconsin, they could stop him moving forward. Is Wisconsin out of reach, now, do you think, for Donald Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: You never know because the turnouts have been so large. Maybe he can change the composition of the electorate. But when you look at the polling, clearly the groups that have been skeptical of him are moving even further away. Just as strikingly in that Marquette Wisconsin poll he was only evenly with Ted Cruz among his core group, which are the blue collar whites. It looks like a very tough state for him now.

And to really underscore this, as I said, it's a state where he should have done well. Majority non-college voters, only about 35, 37 percent evangelical voters, the kind of place where Cruz has struggled before. If Trump is soundly defeated here it is a sign I think of the ground shifting underneath him. But, as I say, he's got an opportunity for a comeback right away in New York on April 19.

BLACKWELL: All right, Ron Brownstein, always good to have you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you. PAUL: Next, Hillary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders, both calling each

other liars. Sanders now demanding an apology from Clinton. We'll talk about it.

BLACKWELL: Plus a new clue in the search for MH-370, a piece of maybe debris, no one is sure yet, that investigators will start to look at, maybe a closer step towards solving the mystery behind that plane's disappearance.

[10:10:00] PAUL: And new information on the police takedown of protestors in Brussels. Here is the video we're getting in this morning. What demonstrators are fighting for just weeks after the terror attacks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: It's 13 minutes past the hour right now. And Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders taking their campaigns to Wisconsin today. We're just a couple hours away from the doors opening at Bernie Sanders' rally in Eau-Claire. Sanders is likely going to renew his demand for an apology from Secretary Clinton after she claimed the Sanders campaign was lying about her donations from the oil and gas industry. Let's take a look here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: According to an analysis done by Greenpeace, Hillary Clinton's campaign and her super PAC have received more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry.

(BOOS)

SANDERS: In fact, 57 oil, gas, and coal industry lobbyists have directly contributed to her campaign, with 43 of them contributing the maximum allowed for the primary. And these are not just workers in the fossil fuel industry. They are paid, registered lobbyists. Secretary Clinton you owe our campaign an apology. We were telling the truth.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Democratic representative from Wisconsin and Hillary Clinton supporter Gwen Moore with us now. Thank you so much, representative, for being with us. We appreciate it. Sanders obviously wants that apology. I'm not sure he's going to get it. But I'm wondering what is it about this issue in particular that made her so frustrated this week when we saw the exchange between her and the activists?

REP. GWEN MOORE, (D) WISCONSIN (via telephone): Well, you know, what I think is really frustrating, and it's really unfortunate that Bernie is taking this tact. Of course he wants an apology because he wants to extend the fallacious argument that someone takes a donation from someone and so therefore they become an empty vessel of that person's will.

[10:15:13] It is absolutely outrageous to suggest that she is bought and paid for by the gas and oil industry. And I think that that is what she was reacting to. In fact, if we were to sort of extrapolate from that argument, we could say the same of Bernie with the NRA, who has voted, you know, for protections for manufacturers of guns against lawsuits. And of course we don't believe he's bought and paid for by the NRA, the most powerful lobbyist on the Hill. And I think that's why you saw that outrage. It is outrageous.

I, for example, have taken donations from the banking industry which Bernie likes to elucidate. But, in fact, I helped preside over the strongest Wall Street controls that have been seen in a decade with the Dodd-Frank legislation. So it's an absurd and outrageous allegation. And I'm sorry Mr. Sanders has gone this route.

PAUL: You mentioned guns. Earlier we had one of the parents from the Aurora shooters who came out supporting Hillary Clinton. Is guns going to be one of the topics that you believe will help her push forward ahead of Bernie Sanders? And can she do it in Wisconsin based on the polls we are seeing thus far?

MOORE: I can tell you that moms of the movement here in Milwaukee are passionate about supporting Hillary Clinton because they recognize her passion around this issue. We had one mom say, in fact, Bernie Sanders may be for free college, but you can't go to college if you are not alive. And gun violence is pandemic right here in the district where I represent and where both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will visit.

We have gun loopholes that allow gun shops to continue to operate even after they have been found guilty of being that one percent of gun shops throughout the country that wield the most crime guns, including guns that shoot cops. So this is a real, real issue here in this area.

PAUL: Representative Moore, when we talk about your area and you talk about the moms having these conversations there in Wisconsin, we actually had early in our show this morning a former Clinton campaign manager who said she's preparing for a loss in Wisconsin. What is it about Hillary Clinton that even her former campaign manager is saying she can't win there?

MOORE: Well, let me say this. You know, we don't have a winner-take- all situation. And so at the end of the day, I think both Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders will walk away with about the same amount of delegates out of Wisconsin. It is a hard-fought battle. But Wisconsinites have been battered and bruised by the right. I mean, you saw what happened with Scott Walker eviscerating the rights of workers, devastating school funding, eviscerating women's right to birth control and good health care. And so there is a lot of progressive and left activity in Wisconsin that have come up on the heels of this bruising right wing leadership we have had here. So it doesn't surprise me that we see a strong left flank here.

PAUL: I see. I understand. Representative Gwen Moore, thank you for your time this morning. We appreciate it.

MOORE: Thank you.

PAUL: Of course.

And a programming note for you. Do stay with CNN for full coverage of the Wisconsin presidential primaries for both Republicans and Democrats. All day coverage begins this Tuesday right here on CNN.

And still to come, protesters calling for peace, arrested in Brussels where a temporary memorial has been set up for the victims of terror attacks there. We'll tell you why they are being detained.

Also, later, Donald Trump trailing Ted Cruz in Wisconsin in the polls there. Will his rallies this weekend, also that town hall that starts in a couple of hours, make a difference in time for Tuesday's primary?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: New this morning, Brussels airport will be partially reopened for passenger flights starting tomorrow. For the first time since the deadly terror attacks three flights -- yes, three -- have been scheduled. But security is being ramped up and only cars and taxis will be allowed to drop off passengers at the airport.

BLACKWELL: Also in Brussels, at least 24 people from Brussels have been arrested after they gathered at the temporary public memorial for the victims of the terror attack. They were calling for peace, singing songs there. The detainments come after the city officials banned all public gatherings this weekend. CNN's Alexandra Field is on the phone from Molenbeek. Alexandra, what do we know about what happened?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hey there, Victor. Let me bring you up to speed on what we're seeing out here in Molenbeek. City officials had called off any demonstrations, any protests, large gatherings in the city for the weekend. And that was prompted by plans from a right wing anti-immigrant group that wanted to bring their march to Molenbeek, a neighborhood that's largely inhabited by immigrants. Police had told them, officials had told them they could not come here with their demonstrations. They could not gather here.

What we did see when we arrived at Molenbeek, a crowd of people not affiliated with that planned right wing demonstration but a crowd of people who live in this neighborhood. They had gathered waiting for the possibility that the march would descend on their community. In the last hour or so we've seen some of that crowd dispersed. But a large group of people took off running at one point. And that's when we saw police move into the neighborhood.

We are watching now. They have the riot gear on. They are pushing back the crowds. At this point you have just got a line of police in position right here. They have brought a crowd control vehicle into the neighborhood. Not too many altercations at the moment between the people who gathered here and the officers. But there is that feeling of tension, and there is need for officials here to try and maintain control over crowds that have been popping up in the city through the weekend.

It's the same sort of response we saw a couple of hours ago. That's the area where that memorial has been growing for victims for more than a week now.

[10:25:03] And earlier today we did see a group of people gathered there, a group calling for peace, calling for unity, for a multicultural Brussels, but police didn't want them gathering there. So they moved in and they pushed that group out, making some two dozen or so arrests, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Alexandra Field for us joining us from Molenbeek. Alexandra, thanks so as much.

PAUL: We've been talking this morning about Donald Trump trailing Ted Cruz in the Wisconsin polls. The question today is can Trump's rallies this weekend reinvigorate his numbers? And what will he say after what a lot of people are calling a real tough week for him?

Also ISIS has taken over Mosul University in Iraq. Why they specifically targeted this university and what the U.S. is doing about it.

But first, if you are planning a vacation or business travel to Miami, one of the best places to see the city it is from the water, of course. This week's "Off the Clock" shows you an exciting way to take in all of those sites.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you are in Miami, you definitely want to check out the views from the water and experience it like a local. Really set up as a semiprivate VIP experience. It's customized to be the ultimate tour in the city.

We start in downtown Miami. We show bay side, different landmarks. We go from Star Island which a lot people refer to as millionaires row, see the celebrity homes.

And then we actually make our way from one island to the next, which is nice. We have a fast boat to be able to cover a lot of ground. That's when the fun kicks in. When we drop the hammer and kick it in gear we want to be off. People take it for granted but it's about the flash and the glamour. But there is really a lot of history for the city. It's been through a lot of ups and downs besides just the sheer beauty of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:50] BLACKWELL: In fewer than three hours Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be holding a town hall in Racine, Wisconsin. He's also attending rallies in Wausau and Eau- Claire ahead of Tuesday's primary there and he's hoping of course to pick up some last minute votes. Bernie Sanders says Hillary Clinton owes him an apology for accusing

his campaign of lying about her. Clinton became, as you see here, pretty angry when asked about donations from the fossil fuel oil and gas industry here by an activist. She responded as saying the Sanders campaign was lying about her. Sanders told a rally in Wisconsin we were not lying. We were telling the truth.

PAUL: And it's been a rough week for Donald Trump after misspeaking on his abortion and foreign policy as some would say. Could this be an opportunity for Ted Cruz or John Kasich to gain some momentum in the race? Let's talk to Trent Duffy, communications adviser for the Kasich campaign. Mr. Duffy, good to see you again this week. Thank you.

TRENT DUFFY, KASICH NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER AND SPOKESMAN: Hi, Christi, how you doing?

PAUL: Good, thank you. Let's listen here together to how your candidate reacted to what Trump initially said about punishing women for having abortion ifs abortion was illegal. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, the prolife and the prochoice movement have said that that's where you look at clinics or whatever. But you don't blame this on women. It's a tough enough situation for them. End of story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So we know that there have been a lot of complaint that is the media has been focusing on Trump. But is what's happening this week giving now an opening for your candidate to get out there more and possibly gain some support from more women?

DUFFY: Yes. I think that's absolutely happening, Christi. And what you also saw the governor do earlier this week is not only talk about this gap that happened after his speech but some of the really bizarre positions that he took in terms of foreign policy, saying that NATO needed to be rethought and that we need more nuclear weapons in the world, not fewer.

So it does provide an opening for Governor Kasich because it's showing that Donald Trump is unfit to be the president of the United States. It's not just this horrible gaffe that he had. His campaign manager was arrested on a battery charge. You cannot make this stuff up. And I think that as his unfavorables especially amongst women, as you just mentioned, Christi, continue to go up, the recent polls show three of four women hold him in highly negative territory for a host of reasons. It offers an opening for John Kasich to make his case.

PAUL: The one thing about Donald Trump that I think perked up a lot of ears this week too is what he said about a possible third party run. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Are you ruling out running as an independent third party candidate? Are you ruling that out? It's a simple question.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, it's not that simple. I'm by far the frontrunner as a Republican. I want to run as a Republican. I will beat Hillary Clinton.

WALLACE: but if you don't get the nomination?

TRUMP: We'll have to see how I was treated. I'm going to see how I was treated. Very simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So the believed strategy for your candidate, Governor Kasich, is that he's staying in the race until you get to a contested convention, and then perhaps he can clinch the nomination there. But if he does so, let's say that he does that and Donald Trump goes ahead and runs third party. What does that do to your candidate's chances at that point?

DUFFY: I think three way races only help the Democrats. That's been the case in terms of Ross Perot and other third party races that happened.

But I think that's not going to happen. I think as this goes on, this is by far and away one of the worst weeks Donald Trump has had from a political perspective. And if just goes to show that we have three months to go in the primary, Christi, before we get to Cleveland.

What the polls continue to show is as we look forward towards the general election, it's only John Kasich that can win against Hillary Clinton. One poll has us up by 11 points. And it's where John Kasich does well against Hillary Clinton, in those swing states that decide elections, like Ohio, like Pennsylvania, like New Hampshire and North Carolina. And that's what I think people are going to be able to see and really focus on when we get to Cleveland as Donald Trump's support continues to erode.

[10:35:08] He will continue to have a strong base of support, no question about that. But you are starting to see 70 plus percent of the Republican Party have a very dim view of him and his candidacy and I think that's going to start to grow.

PAUL: The numbers are what they are. This has been an unconventional campaign to say the least. And there's no telling really I think where it is going to go. One thing that has been noticeable as well the last few days is the tension seems to be escalating a bit between Governor Kasich and Senator Cruz. Let's listen here to a new super PAC supporting him, an ad that they're running in Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president heaped praise on the Republican governor. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have to give your

governor a little bit credit. John Kasich along with a lot of state legislators here today, they expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: BFF of Barack Obama, the governor of the buckeye state John Kasich. The president cited Medicaid expansion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All righty. And in Hershey, Pennsylvania, we know that he told the crowd "The problem with Senator Cruz is he has no record. His record is shutting down the government and making everybody he works with upset." Governor Kasich has run on this "I'm staying above the fray" pledge. Are we starting to see that erode?

DUFFY: No. It's one thing to talk about a candidate's record. It is another thing to get into the mudslinging and the name calling which I think has been done by Senator Cruz and before that Senator Rubio and certainly Donald Trump.

You haven't seen John Kasich engage in that kind of name-calling. It's perfectly fair to point out someone's record. John Kasich fortunately has a very long history of a very strong record in terms of job creation, balancing federal budgets, reforming government, streamlining and improving education not just in Washington but also in Ohio. He really has been an anti-establishment type in terms of what he's been able to do.

The fact of the matter is Senator Cruz has been in Washington a few years. He doesn't have much of a record. He hasn't been able to deliver on the promises. He's very good at describing problems. But John Kasich is the one candidate left who has dealt with problems over the course of his career. So I think he's going to continue to talk about that record and offer it as a contrast. It is about choices and who has the best record and who is best able to be president of the United States.

PAUL: Electability is definitely taking a front row seat. Trent Duffy, grateful to have you here. Thank you.

DUFFY: Thank you, Christi.

BLACKWELL: Consider this. ISIS has taken over Mosul University in Iraq. Why? Access to fully stocked chemistry labs where they can make bombs. We'll show you how the U.S. is trying to eliminate that threat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:29] BLACKWELL: We're following new developments in Iraq where a university in ISIS held territory is being used by the terror group to manufacture weapons and train foreign fighters in the science of bomb making. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports on what led a U.S. coalition there to try to shut it down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: New images of U.S. warplanes bombing Mosul University. There have been more than a dozen strikes in recent weeks taking out ISIS installations across the campus. One critical target, ISIS's chemistry lab, getting rid of ISIS's chemical weapons capability, a top priority.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ISIL has already used chemical weapons including mustard gas in Syria and Iraq. There is no doubt if these mad men ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material they most certainly would use it to kill as many innocent people as possible.

STARR: A senior Iraqi explosives officer told CNN some of the chemicals being worked on include those similar to what was used in the Brussels attack, though U.S. officials could not confirm that. ISIS has brought in foreign fighters to teach them how to build bombs, fighters who could possibly return to the west.

CHRISTOPHER HARMER, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: What they needed help with was some top end research and development engineering. How do you compound chemicals so they aren't as detectable?

STARR: All of that sharpening the U.S. focus on taking out ISIS's advance weapons.

BRETT MCGURK, SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY: It's something that we are focused on every single day, particularly around Mosul where we know they have had a chemical weapons network trying to produce chemical weapons.

STARR: With the university long shut down, U.S. intelligence believes most of the chemical weapons there centers around chlorine and sulfur mustard, chemical materials that could be put into bombs earmarked for the west. As U.S. war planes bomb overhead, the U.S. having detained ISIS's chemical weapons chief also stepping up intelligence gathering efforts.

MCGURK: The more we operate, the more information we get, the more our special operators are out there, the more we learn about the networks and the more we are able to unravel them.

STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: CNN military analyst General Mark Hertling joining us now. And in case you did not now, he has been on the campus of Mosul University. He knows it well. And I'm wondering, how valuable is this space they have acquired? And why is it so hard for the U.S. to get them out of that space?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It is a very large university, Christi. When it is very active, it has about 30,000 students and about 4,000 professors with various schools, one of which is the chemistry school. So what you are talking about is now only the capability for some of

the previous instructors to be potentially forced into helping to make chemical weapons, but you also have the fear -- and this was part of the president's meetings yesterday, the potential for what's called a radiological dispersal device. Taking nuclear capabilities, radiological equipment like cesium, plutonium or uranium, and focusing it around an explosive device that would spread that radioactivity.

So what you have at this university is the potential to build both chemical weapons and maybe even dirty bombs or what some call a nuclear weapon, although it is not atomic bomb. It just disperses radioactivity.

[10:45:02] PAUL: So how confident are you that the coalition can keep that kind of things out of the hands of ISIS?

HERTLING: Mosul been -- I'm sorry, ISIS has been on the university campus for over a year now. They got there in 2014 as they took over the university as part of the takeover of the city. So what you are talking about is the destruction of facilities.

But I think what you will probably understand, too, is the coalition forces have also garnered intelligence reports from those who have been there, perhaps those that are there now that are feeding intelligence in terms of what's going on. So the strikes can be more consistent with the right kind of targets.

You don't just want to arbitrarily bomb a campus with all kinds of buildings and the potential to teach that many students. But you do want to strike the right facilities to take away this capability. As far as my confidence that ISIS can build both chemical and perhaps these radiological dispersal devices, I think it's very high. They have wanted to do it for the last 10 years. And it's something very difficult to stop.

PAUL: Do you think the U.S. and the coalition forces have enough support from the Arab world?

HERTLING: I have never thought that. I think we have to see more of the religious Arab world condemning ISIS as an organization, an extreme organization, Islamist. And they haven't done that across the board. There are some beginning to do that but not at the level that many believe they should.

And additionally I think because of the other factors that are affecting the Arab world, the Shia versus Sunni governments in various nations throughout the Middle East, they want to get involved in this fight. They would prefer to have the people on the ground, the Iraqi forces, the Peshmerga forces, the Syrian freedom fighters and the U.S. and the coalition partners to do this without having multiple nations involved. It's a very tricky situation, very complex.

PAUL: We only have a couple seconds left, but real quickly, what would destroying that chemistry lab do? How would it impact ISIS at this point? And do we know how much they are still using it if they have been there for a year and coalition forces have known it and there have been strikes there?

HERTLING: It depends on how much of an effect you could have by destroying it. You don't know whether or not the chemicals and the radiological materials have been taken out of the labs and transported elsewhere. Indicators are some of that has occurred. But you want to stop the use of many of the facilities and the type of equipment they have in those kinds of labs that were not moved.

And I think ISIS has certainly turned this into a chemical and nuclear at least research facility if not bomb making capability. But I think all of that is coming through the intelligence channels to the coalition targeters. And that's why you are seeing an extensive targeting of this, of several buildings on the campus.

PAUL: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, always good to have your voice here. Thank you.

HERTLING: Thank you, Christi.

PAUL: Absolutely. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Ahead on CNN, the Obama administration is reviewing the possibility of cutting federal funding for the state of North Carolina over a controversial new law. That's according to a "New York Times" report. Next you'll hear from an attorney who is defending that bill. He says he would step in and defend it on behalf of the state for free.

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[10:52:17] BLACKWELL: That state of North Carolina possibly, it's a slight chance, but possibly could lose billions of dollars in federal funding if they don't repeal a law that critics say limit protections against transgender people.

According to a "New York Times" report several branches of the federal government -- we're talking housing, education, transportation -- may consider pulling funding for North Carolina if this law is not repealed.

The law stops cities from passing their own anti-discrimination ordinances to protect gay and transgender people and also requires people to use public restrooms that correspond with the birth certificate, the gender that's on their birth certificate.

Earlier this morning I spoke with an attorney, Mat Staver. You may remember that name. He defended Kim Davis during her standoff over Kentucky marriage certificates. Staver said there was no chance of the state losing funding and he called it common sense law in North Carolina. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAT STAVER, FOUNDER, LIBERTY COUNSEL: If you have gone through surgical procedures or if you've had some mistake on your birth certificate, you can change that and you can use the other restroom if in fact that's what your birth certificate says.

BLACKWELL: Why is that --

STAVER: What we have now is back to common sense. And that is a man who is biologically a man and that's what it says on their birth certificate, they can't go into a woman's locker room or shower.

BLACKWELL: Why is that the state's business if a person goes through a procedure to change genitalia, why is it the state's business?

STAVER: You know, just within a week we had a 51-year-old cross- dressing male who went into a women's restroom and exposed himself. And now he's being charged in that situation. A few weeks ago we had a 15-year-old boy go into a girls' locker room in Minnesota. Five girls were in a state of undress preparing for basketball. That's the problem we have.

BLACKWELL: Is that not regardless of gender. If a man walked into a restroom and exposed himself to another man would that still not be a crime? It has nothing to do with one's gender.

STAVER: No, no. If a man goes into a woman's restroom, it makes women and girls certainly feel that their privacy has been invaded and it certainly puts them at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Staver went on to say similar laws have been passed all over the country. He has also volunteered to defend that law in North Carolina for free. That's after the state's attorney general said that he would not defend it in court.

PAUL: Still ahead, the city of Flint, Michigan, taking a dramatic step forward in battling its ongoing water crisis. Details on the lawsuit the city is filing against the state government now.

[10:55:00] And new debris washed ashore on a remote island could be a piece of the missing MH-370 flight. Details on the new clue in that airliner's mysterious disappearance.

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BLACKWELL: The city of Flint, Michigan is preparing to sue that state of Michigan.

PAUL: The city says it needs help fixing its damaged water system and defending itself against lawsuits. Flint's water supply was tainted by led after the state switched water sources to save money. Since January, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed against the city.

And New York state has joined the ranks of states seeking to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Governor Cuomo expected to sign legislation that passed yesterday. The pay hike would be phased in over several years. California, by the way, passed similar legislation that will be signed into law on Monday. BLACKWELL: Classes were canceled in Chicago yesterday after nearly

30,000 teachers walked off the jobs. Their protesting stalled contract negotiations in the city. They also say that trying to stop school closures and state funding cuts. The Illinois governor and Chicago mayor have condemned the walkout, saying they are only hurting students.

Also, more debris has washed up on a remote island in the Indian Ocean that may be from Malaysia Airlines flight 370. The piece was found Thursday off the coast of Rodrigues Island in Mauritius. It was also taken to a hotel for safekeeping but then turned over to local police.

[11:00:03] Malaysian authorities are expected to take the lead in investigating whether this is from that missing 777 that disappeared two years ago.